Transcription

Chris
Jeff. Yes. Complete this song. We wish you a merry Christmas. That’s what we’re talking about. Really. Luke chapter two.

Jeff
The birth of Jesus.

Chris
It’s it’s happening.

Jeff
This is going to be amazing. So he’s Chris and I’m Jeff and we’re the Bible guys.

Chris
All right, all right. Well, listen, I have to confess that, uh, this here is going to be interesting because I was just told. Well, I just read on our show sheet that I’m supposed to, uh, sing a portion of a song. Oh, and your job is going to be so nice. And your job. No, no, these are these are crazy songs. And your job is to, uh, guess which movie they’re from.

Jeff
Oh, so you’re going to sing a song from a movie? Yes. And I so I can just narrow it right down to any song that.

Chris
Yeah. Now, the first one is so easy. Okay. I’m going to try to start with the verse. Okay. Um, and by the way I so.

Jeff
You’re going to sing the song. I have to guess the movie.

Chris
Yeah. This, this is not going to be a great, uh, song, by the way. I’m not going to sing it very well today.

Jeff
No you’re amazing.

Chris
Singer. No not today. Okay, so this is how the verse starts. It goes. The snow glows white on the mountain tonight. Not a footprint to be seen. A kingdom of isolation. And it looks like I’m the queen.

Jeff
Is this frozen?

Chris
Yes.

Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
Okay, okay. Let it go. Let it go.

Jeff
No! You guys sing higher. We want. We all want to hear you. Let it really go.

Chris
Okay, okay I can’t. Okay, fine. Okay. Okay, fine. Uh. Sing higher. Yeah. This next one. I have to sing higher. Holy Christmas. I can’t believe you’re asking me to sing this. Frozen.

Jeff
I don’t know that I’ve seen all of frozen all the way through. Okay, I know that.

Chris
This is, like, the highest song in the universe.

Jeff
Okay.

Chris
Okay. Hang on. Let me see if I can remember how it goes. Um, I have the lyrics in front of me. Um. It’s been a long road without you, my friend. And I’ll tell you all about it when I see you again.

Jeff
Wasn’t that. Wasn’t that come along. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Hang on, hang on a second.

Chris
From where we began. And I tell.

Jeff
You fast and furious about.

Chris
It. When I see you again.

Jeff
That was the Fast and Furious, was it? What was it. Number seven or.

Chris
Something. Oh good gracious. That’s whenever. Whenever. What’s his name.

Jeff
When, when Paul was. Yeah. When he bit the dust.

Chris
Yeah. That’s so, so sad.

Jeff
Everybody cried. They should have ended the series at that. That movie, by the way.

Chris
Yeah. Probably. So. Yeah. Yeah. Although it makes money and that’s all they really care about. You know that’s the most making money series of Warner Brothers.

Jeff
Well when you make 300 of them, you only have to make $1 million a piece, right? Right.

Chris
Um, okay. This one is, um, uh, good gravy. Uh, I’ll just I’ll just I’ll just sing the chorus. Right. Okay. Let’s hear it for the boy and give the boy a hand.

Jeff
And I don’t know

Chris
What? Let’s hear it for my baby. Yeah. You know, you gotta understand.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah, I don’t know it.

Chris
Whoa. Maybe he’s no Romeo. He’s gonna sing some. He’s my lover. One man show. Uh. It’s footloose.

Jeff
Footloose. Okay, I don’t know.

Chris
Let’s hear it for the boy.

Jeff
I saw Footloose, remember?

Chris
Oh, yeah. That’s right. You did tell me that before.

Jeff
That’s right.

Chris
Okay. Oh, this is you. You’ll get this one. You’ll get this one.

Jeff
Okay.

Chris
Clap along if you feel like happiness.

Jeff
Yeah. This is, uh.

Chris
Because I’m happy. Clap along.

Jeff
This is a song with the minions. Gru.

Chris
This is to you?

Jeff
Yeah, it was Gru.

Chris
Hey, clap along if you feel.

Chris
What is it called? That’s.

Jeff
I don’t know. I told you characters down.

Chris
It’s this. It’s despicable me.

Jeff
Despicable me. There you go. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, I got I got the characters, I was close.

Chris
You talked about singing. Hi. They chose all these hi songs.

Jeff
Yeah. Did I get half a point on that one?

Chris
Uh, yeah. You said minions. I’ll give you a half a point. Okay. And then, uh, good gravy. I they literally chose the highest songs on the face of the planet.

Jeff
Well, cool singers sing high.

Chris
That’s right. Um, and, uh. I will always love you. Oh. Come on. What is it?

Jeff
Uh. The bodyguard. The bodyguard? Okay. Which I never saw either. You never saw.

Chris
Frozen. You got fast and furious. Uh, number seven. But you got it. You got, uh, half a point, and then you get the bodyguard. You got three and a half out of five.

Jeff
Three and a half. Okay, well, hey, that’s better than I expected on a movie thing.

Chris
Well, dude, I can’t believe they had me singing falsetto the entire time. That was terrible. That’s awesome. I know I’m gonna watch this back, and my wife’s going to cringe right now. She is doing her makeup about 630 in the morning, getting ready for work, and she is looking in the mirror and she’s going, oh, Chris.

Jeff
Well, Liz, thank you for letting Chris come out and play. It was good. Oh geez. Okay. Well, I think you did a nice job.

Chris
Thank you sir.

Jeff
So if the ministry doesn’t work out for you.

Chris
Well, you know, it is nine in the morning. It is nine in the morning, so. Yeah. There you go. If it was four in the afternoon, I’d be better.

Jeff
Okay. Well, uh, so we’ve already kind of laid the groundwork. The prophecy of the Messiah coming. Uh, Matthew and Luke lay out the the genealogies saying, hey, this is the this is proof that this is the guy. And then Luke chapter two says, at the time, the Roman Emperor Augustus decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. This was the first census taken when Quirinius was the governor of Syria. All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for the census, and because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home, and he traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant. And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly and strips of cloth and laid him in a manger. Because there was no lodging available for them that night, there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly an angel Lord appeared among them. The radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them, don’t be afraid, he said, I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior, yes, the Messiah. The Lord has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David. And you will recognize him. By this sign. You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger. And suddenly the angel was joined by a vast host of others, the armies of heaven, praising God and saying, Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.

Jeff
And when the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. And they hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby lying in the manger. After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened, what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds story were astonished. But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them. Often the shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them. Boom, there you go.

Chris
And Luke, chapter two is the, uh, most accurate version. It’s the most detailed version of The Birth of Jesus, and it gives incredible detail. Yeah. And you’ve been to Bethlehem, right? Yes.

Jeff
Yeah, yeah.

Chris
You have two, right? Yeah, I have two. Yeah. And, you know, it’s interesting when you go there now there’s sort of like Old Bethlehem and then New Bethlehem. Right. And the city of David, Bethlehem is sort of up on a hill and it’s it’s very small. Yeah. And, uh, you know, back then the population wasn’t very big, I suppose. And, um, and so, yeah, these, these tiny little towns and Nazareth, where they were from, where they were living at the time, uh, is on the north side of the state of Israel. And then, uh, I bet you by car it’s probably what I’m sure it’s in the notes here somewhere, but by car, it’s probably 70.

Jeff
Miles, about 70 miles. So it’s about an hour and 20 minutes something.

Chris
So 70 miles by freeway, by donkey.

Jeff
Oh, it would be days.

Chris
Yeah.

Jeff
Probably days. Yeah, a couple days. Yeah. Wasn’t it like a two and a half day or three day journey.

Chris
Yeah. And being nine months pregnant on a donkey. Yeah, yeah. Uh, have you ever ridden on a donkey? Yes. You have really? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow. I’ve been on a horse. On the.

Jeff
Donkey? Yeah, we used to have. I used to work on a farm for a while, and they had, uh, they had everything from donkeys to regular horses to Clydesdales. And we would just bareback them. We’d just lure them over with salt and snacks and jump on their backs. Yeah. So rode on donkey.

Chris
So? So a couple of days, nine months pregnant on a donkey is pretty rough. Not comfortable. Yeah, for.

Jeff
Sure. It’s better than walking.

Chris
Uh, yeah, I guess, I guess, I suppose. Yeah. But, um, but, you know, it’s interesting. I remember seeing a message one time by Andy Stanley. Actually, he did a whole series at Christmas, and it was called footnote. Have you ever heard this? Um. Well, think about this. He he he said at the time, Caesar Augustus would have been, um, uh, the name that everybody knew, right? Yes. And now he is nothing more than a footnote in the life and the story of Jesus. Isn’t that awesome?

Jeff
Just in passing?

Chris
Yeah, just in passing. And he said, well.

Jeff
He was a god.

Chris
Right? He was right. Right.

Jeff
They they viewed their emperors as gods.

Chris
And so the whole point of this, uh, Christmas theme that he had years ago was that, uh, that the only reason why you and I know Caesar Augustus name the way we do. Yeah. Is because he was at the time, he probably thought that Jesus was a footnote in his story. Right? Right. But he’s he’s a footnote. He probably didn’t.

Jeff
Even know the name. Jesus. Right? Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. How cool is that?

Chris
Isn’t it? Yeah. Isn’t that neat?

Jeff
Well, the Romans thought, you know, that they were in control of their destinies. And little did they know that God was orchestrating the entire story from behind the scenes.

Chris
Well, just that just that one incident shows you that God can use, uh, wicked rulers and rulers that aren’t great to still accomplish his purposes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so every time that we pray for our country and every time we’re not happy with, you know, the governing power or the administration, we can still pray because we can believe that God can still use people who aren’t necessarily his servants to accomplish his will. Right?

Jeff
So Luke was an interesting writer in that he was not a, uh, he was a Christian. He wasn’t a Jew. Right. So he was the only Gentile writer in the New Testament that we know of. And he writes the book of Luke and the book of Acts. They’re really like one big long story that he wrote in two halves, and the first half being about Jesus. He was a doctor. You can tell by his writings that he was very educated. He oftentimes would describe sicknesses and diseases and and maladies and those kinds of things in a way that the other authors don’t write about. And then he’s also the only author who really places the story of Jesus in time in history. He does the same thing with Paul when he’s naming the politics of the world and the politicians of the world and all the things that are happening. And so this is kind of neat, because it’s not just some generic thing that some follower of Jesus comes out and goes, yeah, and there’s a day Jesus was born, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah instead because he’s so precise. This is at this census, the first one, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, not the second one. Right. And it was during this time that we’re able to pinpoint, quite honestly, in history this person of Jesus when he was born. And then other ancient historians also pinpoint Jesus, Josephus and, uh, Tacitus. Herodotus, different people wrote about Jesus as a historical figure. So regardless of what you think about Christians and their belief about Jesus, uh, there’s really no doubt within history, both from ancient historian like Luke or to Josephus or whoever, that they were very, very clear on the fact that Jesus was an actual historical figure. It’s pretty cool that Luke is, you know, is that precise and that accurate, how he writes.

Chris
And that’s really super interesting, too, because, uh, you know, God, God used Luke on purpose, I think. Yes. You know, he chose Luke to to write that in detail because, um, you know, just there’s a big difference between, uh, you know, being super detailed and getting it right versus, for instance, how another gospel writer may just sort of reference it and which sort of reflects back on God. God knew what he was doing when he inspired the four people to write the four Gospels.

Jeff
So then when you combine Luke chapter two with what we read in Matthew chapter one yesterday, where it literally says that Jesus is God with us, that that’s what that’s what the name Emmanuel means, right? It’s very significant that we have a precise place, Bethlehem, which was a really, let’s be honest, Israel in general at that time was a really out of the way kind of backwater place. It was a crossroads for the Roman Empire in that if you were going to do a land, uh, trip from, say, Northern Africa or whatever up into Syria, over to Damascus or into Turkey, what you had to go through, through Israel. But beyond that, it was a pretty insignificant backwater kind of place for the Roman Empire. It wasn’t like any elite place that everybody wanted to be. And so then when you take Israel and it’s insignificant, and then you choose Nazareth, which I’ve been to, Nazareth, the, the all of Nazareth would have been like maybe 6 or 700 people, or Bethlehem was like a thousand people, right? Right. Little tiny. Nothing there, there. Just over a village size there. Towns, but just barely. Towns at this point. And. To for for Luke to say, okay, Jesus was his family comes out of Bethlehem or out of Nazareth. He’s born in Bethlehem. Insignificant towns, insignificant people. But let me peg it to somebody that the whole world would know. Caesar Augustus, Quirinius was governor in Syria, and he drives it into a very specific time, a very specific place. And this is one of the things, you know, when we were on the tour of Israel a while back, I was trying to really convey that message that the faith that we have is not just a conceptual faith. What we believe. We believe in a real person and a real time rooted in history. And and these things can be checked out and verified whether it’s true or not. The claims of Jesus. Yeah.

Chris
And I also think it’s really interesting how, uh, the angels on purpose showed up to shepherds. Yes. The lowliest profession that existed. Yeah. So he didn’t he didn’t come in a royal carriage or, you know, announcing himself with a red carpet or trumpets or angelic beings. He was born in a backwater town, as you mentioned, right? Yeah. There was no room for them in the inn, uh, you know, so here’s Mary, uh, going with the with the animals, uh, and back then a stable, even though that we think a stable is like a wooden structure, a stable for them would be caves because there’s quite frankly. Yeah, hundreds of thousands of caves all the way throughout Israel. And that’s where they still keep animals in caves.

Jeff
Did you go in the cave in Shepherds Field? I did, yeah. Isn’t that neat? Yeah.

Chris
Very cool. And so, uh, and so Mary was in a cave, quite literally when she gave birth to Jesus. And so there was no room. She wasn’t even in a comfortable bed. He gets laid in a feeding trough, and then the angels show up to shepherds. And I’m thinking to myself, could could God have chosen circumstances that were any lower? Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, he chose about the lowest, most humiliating circumstances in which to come into the world. And, uh, anyway, we just, we themed our Christmas services around this idea, uh, just last Christmas. Well, lot of.

Jeff
Times, I think we find ourselves going, gee, I pray I have faith, I believe in God. I’m trying to live a good life. Why isn’t my life going better? It seems like things should be better for me. And I think that God includes stories like this. For us to be able to go back and go, hey, even Mary, Mary and Joseph were pretty, you know, high on God’s list. I don’t know if you knew that.

Chris
Right?

Jeff
Bible says.

Chris
And Jesus was even higher.

Jeff
Joseph was a good man. Mary was a woman esteemed above, above all women. And yet she’s riding a donkey 90 miles or 70 miles or whatever it is, down to to Bethlehem. Uh, there’s no place for her. She’s having a baby and a cave or some kind of animal holding area. Um, you know, but if we would just trust God that God is telling a story in us and through us that is going to, uh, if we will let him, is going to bring him glory, then maybe, you know, this story has lasted 2000 years because it captures our attention, right? God is otherwise, had he been born in a palace somewhere, it would have just said, And Jesus was born and we’d gone on. Right? Right. But instead, it catches our attention that this is a very human story and a very, uh, very unique thing and the humility of the people willing to be able to go through it. Uh, maybe it could be a lesson to us to be humble when we’re going through the tough times of life. Tough things happen. We go through the tough times of life. Just trust God. And, uh, you know, that’s when the angels showed up. That’s when the. And the Bible says, Mary, you know, the the the shepherds go and they tell everybody, but the Bible says, Mary just kind of kept these things in her heart. She thought about them often. The the events that God leads you through wind up being the things you think about later. Hey, my my faith is strong tomorrow only because he proved himself yesterday and today. Right?

Chris
I remember reading one time, uh, in I think it was in a Strong’s Concordance or some sort of, you know, book reference. Yeah. Uh, that actually referred to when it says a host of Heavenly Angels appeared. It was, uh, the same word that they used to refer to a cluster of stars. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Isn’t that cool? Yeah. That’s cool. And so you think about, uh, have you ever. I’m sure you’ve been in a field where the sky is is vast. Oh, yeah. And you can see all the stars and.

Jeff
Yeah.

Chris
So here’s shepherds in the in the night field. It’s quiet as anything. Right. Here they are. You know, nobody even is paying attention to them. And they’re out there with animals and, you know, and all of a sudden this, you know, host of heavenly angels. Now, we read in revelation that angels aren’t necessarily, uh, you know, like, like soft, fluffy beings. Right, right, right. I mean, these are intimidating, uh, creatures.

Jeff
To see them as.

Chris
They are, to see them as they.

Jeff
Are in the Bible. They present themselves as human. Yeah. That’s right. But to see them in heaven as they are. That’s right. Pretty incredible. Yeah.

Chris
Like even at the resurrection, it says two men clothed in white, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, you’re right about that. Yeah, but but uh, but it didn’t, you know, it didn’t say that. So. Yeah. Who knows how they showed up. Who knows. Yeah. But they could have been as. They were. And I tell you what, man to see.

Jeff
One angel would be would be startling. To see a host of them like the stars of heaven would be. She would be shocking.

Chris
I just can’t even imagine. Right. And so then they just leave their animals and they flee and they go running. Well, no wonder why. Right?

Jeff
Right. So how do you tell the story? I saw a meme the other day and it said, uh, Bigfoot walked into my, uh, camp last night. Oh, no. Cracked open, uh, a drink, drank it, set it down, looked me right in the eye and said, you know, nobody’s going to believe this.

Chris
It’s so good.

Jeff
And it’s kind of the same way. How could it, if you’re these shepherds? So most shepherds were dodging the law or were kind of outside of society. They couldn’t get other jobs or didn’t have other jobs. Uh, there was a reason why they stayed outside of town instead of inside of town. All those kinds of things. Matter of fact, a lot of times shepherds had a hard time with regard to their believability, with regard to testimonies at the city gates, with the city leaders and things like that, because they were just kind of they were kind of the cowboys of of Israel. Right, right. That the cowhands of Israel, you just don’t know what kind of guys these were. Right? So these guys are out in the out in the field. And, you know, you know, that area is so steep. The hills are really steep. Yeah. Yeah. Right there. So the hills are close together but steep chasms in between. And uh, so they’re just sitting on the side of a hill. All of a sudden they claim these angels, they see these angels. Angels start singing. And the proof was that baby really was born. Really was wrapped in swaddling clothes, really was lying in a manger. Mary and Joseph were there. So they go around, they’re telling everybody. But it’s an unbelievable story. And, uh, God tends to do that, doesn’t he? He he does unbelievable things with what would be ordinary or maybe even secondary kind of people. Um, uh, God just delights in doing the extraordinary thing.

Chris
Yeah. And, uh, think about every great movement in history, every great, like, Christian movement, you know, think of, like the birth of the Red cross or, you know, think about, you know, uh, Salvation Army, whatever it is, or, you know, or even, goodness gracious, even, uh, Harriet Tubman. Do you ever see that movie Harriet Tubman? Yes. Where is she? You know, here she you know, she was a Christian woman, and and she and she led slaves out of, uh, captivity. Yeah. And she was, what, like five foot two? Yeah. You know.

Jeff
So. Woman. Yeah.

Chris
Yeah. You know, £105 soaking wet. Right. And so the idea is, is that regardless of how little you feel or insignificant you feel or overlooked or, you know, or untalented, uh, God has always used, you know, those kinds of people for great things. You know, think of Mother Teresa like she was. She was not necessarily impressive in any way.

Jeff
No, she was, but she was a little firecracker, wasn’t she?

Chris
Yes. Yeah. Other than the fact that she was just an unbelievable servant of Christ. Yeah. So which is really great. So I think that’s probably a great place to end. Uh, and so I pray that our people are encouraged and hopefully we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.