This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:01] I have good news for you guys this morning. Do you guys like good news? Right. Would that be mean if I told you I had good news and then I didn't tell you what the good news was? Let that be brutal, isn't it? Isn't not a problem sometimes like good news. It's like what? Somebody is going to have a baby. That's exciting news. You want that. You hear the good news that the baby's been born and you can hear they're going to the hospital. You know that that something's going to happen. And then you're just like stocking Facebook, waiting for that announcement. Anybody ever been there before? You're like checking your text. Like, why isn't my friend letting me know you're, like, starting to get concerned what could have happened? And then they let you know. Oh, yeah. The baby was born like five hours ago. I just didn't tell you.

[00:00:40] And you're like, come right. Because you want to hear the good news. So I got good news. Do you guys want to hear some good news here today? Now, I know it's some you guys are thinking.

[00:00:48] You're thinking. Oh, yeah. The good news that's in the Bible, that's the good news that you're going to tell us. Well, yeah, that's the good news, I'm gonna tell you. But then also I have other good news as well that I'm excited to share with you. So grab your Bible and go to Luke Chapter two with me.

[00:01:04] And let's remind ourselves, or maybe some of us learned for the first time what Christmas is all about. It is about good news of great joy, that is for all people. And when you've got good news, there's one thing you're supposed to do is you're supposed to share good news. You should never be silent when you've got something good to say. And so we want to see the announcement of this good news and we want to learn from this passage in Luke Chapter two. We're going to start in verse eight. You can just picture Linus up here with his blanket reading this. Maybe you've heard it before on Charlie Brown Christmas. But look at Luke chapter two, verse eight, if hopefully you could see your Bible there. Follow along with me as I read our text for it today. Says it in the same region.

[00:01:53] There were some shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them. And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not for behold. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

[00:02:31] And suddenly there was, with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Now we want to look at this story not just as the Christmas story, but as events that actually happened in history and God's story of the unfolding of the world.

[00:02:59] And the story here is that some shepherds were out just doing what they normally do in the field when all of a sudden an angel came to them. Now, I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear the word angel or you think about seeing an angel. But this is an amazing thing. It is. It is actually kind of even a terrifying thing to see an angel. Now, if we could read this passage in the Greek language, the original language that the Bible was written in here in the New Testament, in the gospel of Luke, we would see that the word angel and the word that it's going to give us for good news are almost the same word. The word angel is gonna be on gloss. That kind of. In English, the A and G. L, that's kind of the center of that word. And then the word for good news is you on Gallion. So it has the word angel in it. And so really, the main way you should think of as an angel is that they are a messenger. An angel is someone who brings news. And so we might think of fat, cute babies with arrows shooting them or or maybe I don't know exactly what you think of. We'll get back to what an angel might look like. But but turn with me to Luke, Chapter seven. You're Luke chapter. To anybody, maybe even the kids, if they've got a Bible open, can just flick a few pages over to Luke, Chapter seven. Let me just show you a couple other passages where the word angel is translated. And you'll notice a little bit of a difference here.

[00:04:37] If you look at Luke seven, verse twenty four. Look at that verse with me, Luke. Seven, verse twenty four. It says, When John's messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John. What did you go out into the wilderness to see a reed shaken by the wind.

[00:04:56] Now, you might read that verse and think there's no angel in there. There's no heavenly. Being coming down from God in there, radiating light.

[00:05:04] Well, when it says when John's messengers guess what word is there an angel, see an angel, the primary thing that you should think about an angel doing, we met. We naturally go to this heavenly being coming down from God to man. But really in the Greek language, a lot of times the word is just used as someone bringing a message. Look, one more passage. Chapter nine, verse 52, just a few more chapters over you. So the same word for Angel. It's clearly referring to a heavenly being in our passage. But sometimes it just refers to ordinary people bringing a message. And in Luke, chapter nine, verse 52, it reads like this. And Jesus now send messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. I don't think this is Jesus sending out angels ahead of him. He's just sending some people out ahead to spread the word that he is coming. So when you hear about an angel in the Bible, I want you to think two different things. One is, I want you to think if you're taking notes, you could write this down. An angel is a messenger and we sometimes might get distracted about the angel. And what does the angel look like in all the cool stuff going on there? But really, the emphasis is always, what does the angel say? In fact, if you read through the scripture, it never really physically even attempts to describe some of these angels, at least not here in the gospel of Luke.

[00:06:29] Go back to Chapter two. It doesn't give you a visual description of what an angel looks like, but I don't think an angel looks like what we normally expect. So one thing is an angel is a messenger and verse nine. It says an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shown around them. And they were filled with great fear. OK. Now, I was reading the Christmas story as a dad. I try to read the Bible with my kids. And this is a this is the kid's Bible we use at my house. I like this one. I've recommended it to the dads here at our church because this one's got over one thousand eight hundred pictures in it. All right. So do kids like pictures? Kids definitely do like pictures. And so I like it because it's got a bunch of pictures on the page. And so I sat down with my two year old son, Jack, and we started reading the Christmas story of Jesus being born. And I'm trying to help him get what Christmas is all about because I'm not sure he quite remembers it from last year, you know what I mean? And so I'm kind of reintroduce again to this whole concept of Christmas.

[00:07:36] And immediately, when we show the Christmas story, who does he point to right away? Who gets his attention? Well, there's this guy who looks ridiculously tanned with long, flowing golden hair. Right. I mean, that's who he refers to. He's like, who's that? That's that's what he says. Who's this guy? It's basically like Fabio just showed up is kind of what it looks like. Open any children's Bible and you'll realize, wow. Fabio's making a guest appearance in this kid's Bible.

[00:08:07] The long white robe kind of chiseled features, very tanned, like they've been tanned by the glory of God itself. This golden hair. And then them saying, I can't believe it's not. But, you know, I mean, that's basically what the angel it looks like. OK, so basically, next time you're in the kids Christmas story to your kid, you just need to correct with when you get to that picture, that's not what an angel looks like. Like angels do not equal. Fabio. Because when I see Fabio, I feel many things. But the main thing that I do not feel I do not feel is great fear. OK. I mean, if Fabio showed up right now, I might feel a little intimidated, but. But great fear. This picture, Jack's like, who dat? He's not like, whoa, that's scary, right? He's not like, whoa, bad guy. Whoa. Freaking me out. That's what happens every time somebody sees an angel in the Bible. So if one thing we want to think about an angel. Is there a messenger? Second thing we want to think is angels are scary. Maybe you could write that down if you're taking notes. Even the kids could probably write that down. Angels are scary. If we saw an angel, first way that we would respond is we would freak out. And it says that they were filled with great fear, which in the Greek is awesome because it says Megahed fear that that's that's literally what they got mega fear going on when they see this angel. And it's not just an angel. It might have been the Angel Gabriel who's already appeared to a couple of people in this gospel. Look back in Luke, Chapter one. So angels have been showing up all of a sudden. Remember, before we get to the New Testament, there's about 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the New Testament. So there wasn't a lot of revelation from God. There was an angel showing up. But now they're starting to look at Luke chapter one verse. Twelve are actually start with me, Universe 11, Luke one verse eleven. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And this guy Zacharias, who's there in the temple, was troubled. Zach Ariah, this old mature man, was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him.

[00:10:27] It seized him. Here here is Zach rise in the temple doing the Lord's work.

[00:10:32] And when he sees an angel, he is afraid. Scoot on over and your with your eyeballs here to verse twenty nine where Mary now sees an angel and the angel came and said to her greetings. Oh favorite one. The Lord is with you. What's Mary's response. Sounds like a good message. The Lord is with you. But look at how Mary responds. Verse twenty nine. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

[00:11:01] This is not one of those moments where Mary's just treasuring up everything in her heart. This is a moment where Mary is troubled.

[00:11:08] Whoa. Who is that? And why are they talking to me?

[00:11:12] See, we let the angels steal the show.

[00:11:16] This isn't about angels. Angels are representatives from God's presence. Go back to Luke, Chapter two. And it says that when the angel of the Lord appeared to them, here's even more important than that. The glory of the Lord shown around them. Now, this is an amazing thing. If you know that the glory of the Lord, that was something that was sometimes seen by God's people, maybe in the Tabernacle or the temple back in the Old Testament. But the glory of the Lord had departed from the temple long ago. The glory of the Lord had not been on planet Earth for some time. And now to a few shepherds out in the field, the glory of God Almighty shines upon them. They were barely noticing the angel was there. They were overwhelmed by the glory of God. We need to make sure that we have coming into Christmas time. A high view of God. Even the beans that he sends out to carry his messages would freak us out if we could see them. If we ever had a glimpse of the glory of God, we might say what Isaiah said in Isaiah six when he said, Woe is me, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. We might respond like the Apostle John does when he sees Jesus Christ and all of his glory and revelation. Chapter one, he falls down like a dead man.

[00:12:40] We need to make sure that we see that the good news comes from a very sacred and holy place, a place that none of us have ever been or ever seen. It comes straight from the glory of God himself. Let's get that down for point number one. Good news. The good news is a message from God. If you're taking notes, point number one, the good news is a message from God. Don't let the messenger distract you. Hopefully, like a bad pastor might get in the way of his own sermon when he should be preaching the word. He might make the sermon about himself. Well, we don't make this story about the angels that are showing up. They're just there to represent, to bring a message. And the message is straight from God himself.

[00:13:23] And that should strike a great fear into our hearts to think about a God who reigns in holiness, in heaven and the place that we've never been and quite honestly, where we don't belong. God is so much different than us. He is perfect. The splendor of his glory is more than we can handle. We don't belong in his presence. And that's what these shepherds are getting a glimpse of. That's why they have mega fear. And so we need to make sure as we think about Christmas, where we're going to see the beautiful picture of Jesus as a baby in a manger, that God would humble himself and become a man. We need to still see God for who he is. He would cause us all to be afraid if we could see him here today, just like these shepherds were when they had this great privilege to see God in all of his glory. And the angel then says to them, Here I behold, I bring you this good news of great joy that will be for all the people. But before we get to the good news, let's back it up. We've got these angels showing up visions. I mean, heavenly beings giving us a vision of God's glory, but they come to shepherds. I don't know if you've ever thought about that. Why do they come to shepherds? Shepherds are a common character in the Bible. Moses was a shepherd. David was a shepherd. Even God will refer to himself as the Good Shepherd. Both the both in the Old Testament and Jesus does in the New Testament. But shepherds aren't really anybody special. I mean, I think in our culture, this is kind of like saying and one night as they were cleaning up, an angel appeared to three Starbucks baristas. I mean, that's kind of what this is like. I mean, these are just ordinary people. Is the shepherds here that there's nobody special? I mean, I read something really cool this week where they were like, if the shepherds were in the same region, if the shepherds were in this area around Jerusalem, they might have actually been shepherding some some animals that might have been used for sacrifice in the temple. So they might be coming to shepherds who are watching like lambs and animals who are going to be sacrificed to as kind of a symbol of, hey, the real sacrifice is coming. I read that and I thought that was that could be really interesting. But these shepherds were just ordinary guys.

[00:15:41] And so we have an extraordinary message coming from a holy place, way beyond anything that we could see or imagine. But it comes down to the most ordinary people.

[00:15:51] I mean, just just the casual people that you would meet on the street. Your next door neighbor. That's who you should think these shepherds are.

[00:15:59] And why did the glory of God appear to these guys? Because these are the kind of people that that the good news comes to. It's the kind of news for all people, not just church people, not just religious people, not just rich people. Now, the good news is for people like you, for people like me, the good news is for everybody. And in fact, as the gospel of Luke is going to go on, it's going to make it very clear that what kind of person the good news is for. Turn over to Chapter four. Look at this with me, everybody. I'm trying to keep us turning here mostly in the gospel of Luke. So everybody can follow along. Look at Luke, chapter four, verse 17. This is a fast forward now to where Jesus is is a man and he's going to start teaching and he's at the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he's going to read some scripture. Look at Luke Fauver, 17, follow along. It says in the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him and he unrolled the scroll and he found the place where it was written.

[00:16:58] So he starts to read here, Isaiah 61 versus one, and then a little bit and diverse two.

[00:17:04] And it says, The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

[00:17:27] And then Jesus rolled up the scroll of Isaiah and he gave it back to the attended and he sat down and the eyes of everyone were fixed on him. What's he going to say? And he began to say to them today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing says here's here's to the good news. Notice that word there. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, anointed me. And I'm here to tell you the good news, the good news that starts with the birth of Jesus. And here's who it's for. He says it's for the poor. It's for the captives. It's for the blind. It's for the oppressed. That's who the good news is for.

[00:18:01] The good news is only gonna be good to you if you realize how much you need it.

[00:18:08] I tell a lot of people these days. Hey, I got good news for you. I'm one of those people that still says Merry Christmas. You know, those people we haven't given into happy holidays. We're still holding strong. And I don't have any more of those people here. I still want to talk about Jesus on Christmas. And so I tell people I got good news for you. Jesus Christ the Savior was born. And you know what? The average American the average Orange County person looks at me like.

[00:18:32] They look at me like, why do I need a savior? I mean, look at where we're at today. Dollar terror, you know what I mean? This is kind of a nice spot we live in, kind of a nice place.

[00:18:43] You want to go to the beach after this? Right. Want to stick around and see a movie?

[00:18:47] I mean, we're kind of a privileged people here in Orange County.

[00:18:51] And so I say, hey, good news there. There's a savior that's been born. People are looking at me like, why do I need saving?

[00:18:59] You don't have too many poor people around here. Too many people that are a plot pressed. Too many people that that think they're blind, that they're captives. Now, people think this is the land of the free. I'm seeing the world pretty clearly. I'm actually pretty rich.

[00:19:13] I actually kind of have everything I. I need. I'm not worried about where my next meal's coming from or where my my money this month is coming from. I'm doing OK. That's a lot of that attitude around here.

[00:19:24] And we've got to humble ourselves and realize the Jesus come to call the righteous people, the Jesus come to call those who can see. Now he came to call. What kind of people? Sinners. That's who we came for. Go to Luke Chapter 19. Go to Luke, Chapter 19.

[00:19:38] I want you to see how this continues to unfold throughout the gospel. It's good news. It's for all people. Well, actually, it's for people who are poor, blind, oppressed people, people who really need some help here. In fact, it's for guys like Zacchaeus.

[00:19:54] Anybody ever heard of Zacchaeus before? Maybe you've even sung a song about Zacchaeus. When I was a kid growing up going to church, we used to have a lot of cheese songs that we would sing. And one of them was Zacchia. Zacchaeus was a wee little man. Anybody know this song with me? Zacky singing with me. Zacchaeus was a wee little man. A wee little man, was he? Let's just stop right there.

[00:20:18] How mean is that?

[00:20:21] I have never met any dude, any man that wants to be called weak or little.

[00:20:30] And we teach this kind of bullying to children at church.

[00:20:35] You can see why we've stopped singing this song here. All right. I mean, this guy, this guy, he was a bad dude. Let's let's get an introduction to him here in Luke, chapter 19.

[00:20:45] Look at verse one with me here says that Jesus entered Jericho and he was passing through. And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. And he was a chief tax collector. And he was rich. OK. Equal. He was a terrible person. That's what that meant right there. I mean, if you first of all, tax collectors are not really anybody's favorite occupation.

[00:21:08] Right. Let's let's take a survey of the kindergartners through sixth grade. What you want to be when you grow up, kid. Nobody's saying IRS. That's me. So what I want to do right now, we might have some tax people here. And that's an important thing. You know, we got to we got to render to Caesar things that are Caesar's. Can I get Amen from anywhere but there? Nobody favorite. Favorite occupation.

[00:21:28] Especially not in this time, because in this time they were taking money from the Jews and they were giving money to the Romans.

[00:21:37] The people who were pressing them, the people who had taken them over, they were traitors. You read tax collector in the New Testament. Here's what you should be thinking. Traitor, turncoat. Somebody who's helping the enemy. Their take not only are they probably taking from the poor to give to the rich, but they're taking from the Jews to give to the Romans so they can keep on oppressing us. You're a tax collector in the Bible. That's like one of the worst insults you could give to somebody. And he was rich, which really means he probably took more than he was supposed to. He was ripping people off. He was a he was a crook. I see. I see. Zacchia says the wee little like mob boss with the big henchmen walking around making sure everybody gives him extra money. That's how I see it. He was making sure people were giving him more than what they really owed.

[00:22:28] And so you got to see that he's the bad guy. And verse three. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, Jack. He just wants to see this guy, Jesus. But on account of the crowd, he could not because he was small in stature. Now, let me just say, that's a really nice way to say it, not take example from the Bible here. Stop making fun of short people. Can I get a man from all the short people here in the room? All right. Here's a biblical way to refer to our people. Small in stature. Did you guys hear that all the way down there? OK, let's say that for the short big guy. I got one of those in there. All right. Yeah, take. Take an example from that. From the Bible here. Small. I like that. Is just so friendly and so loving. Small in stature. OK. Verse four. So he ran on ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree for the Lord. He wanted to see for that. He was about to pass that way. And now at this point, you think that Zacchaeus is coming to seek Jesus. But here's the plot twist. When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. We realize that Jesus is actually coming to look for Zacchaeus specifically and invite himself over to Zacchaeus, his house. Now, this is not a good move in the eyes of Pete, the people that are watching verse verse six. So he hurried and came down and Zacchaeus is pumped up. He received him joyfully.

[00:23:51] But when they saw the crowd, they all grumbled. Well, he has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner, who is the bad guy. Why is Jesus if he's the righteous one, why is he hanging out with a sinner?

[00:24:10] Well, here's here's the answer. Zachy has stood and said to the Lord.

[00:24:13] Behold. Look at this Lord. Half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it four fold.

[00:24:24] And Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house since. He also now is a son of Abraham. For the son of man. That's how Jesus referred to himself. For I basically came to seek and to save. What kind of people does it say they're the last? So you can't be found by Jesus Christ unless you're ready to admit that you are one of the lost people. Point number two, let's put it down like this. Good news is for sinners like us. The good news. Well, point number one, it's a message from God. Point number two, the good news is for sinners like us. And you got to see yourself in in Zacchaeus.

[00:25:05] He got to see that you are one of the sinners and you need Jesus to come to you in the repentance and repentance is when you turn from sin. Repentance is when you admit, you confess, you agree with God that what you have done is wrong before him, that he is holy in heaven. He is other than us, he is perfect and all of his splendor and glory. And we have fallen short. All of us are we little people compared to the glory of God. All of us have fallen short. We are all short people compared to the standard of the glory of God.

[00:25:40] None of us could ever live up to who God expects us to be.

[00:25:45] And so we have all fallen short. And when we own up to that, when we confess that, see, that's that's a confessing. Our saying. And what the Bible says is repent. You turn from your sin, you leave your sin behind and you start going in the other direction. Now you can start going we'll stop going away from God and you start to go towards God. And the repentance of Zacchaeus here is amazing. He's a rich man and he says, right now I'm going to give half of everything I have to the poor.

[00:26:12] I mean, that's crazy.

[00:26:14] I mean, the people that are out mocking him. Can you imagine what the people were saying to each other as the the wee little tax collector climbs up a tree and then, like, gets down off the tree? Ed, you've seen grown men climb in trees lately. They were making fun of this guy.

[00:26:31] And now he knows people don't like him.

[00:26:33] He knows he's nobody's friend. And now what is he saying? I'm going to give half of my riches to my enemies, to people who don't have anything. I'm going to go and give it away to them. And then he says, if I've wronged anyone, if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will restore a fourfold four times. So I charged you two hundred and fifty extra dollars on your taxes last year. Now I'm gonna show up at your house and admit that I wronged you and give you one thousand dollars back.

[00:27:06] This is repentance right here.

[00:27:08] This is a radical turnaround of someone who sees how they were falling short of the standard. He means that he is here. He knows how he was taking this money was wrong, and he turns from it in a powerful and dramatic way so that Jesus says this is what salvation looks like.

[00:27:26] It looks like a changed life.

[00:27:28] It looks like someone admitting that they are a sinner and coming into the presence of a holy God and then leaving a different person. That's what salvation looks like. In fact, Jesus uses this moment to announce to everybody, all of this crowd of people who were like, why is Jesus hanging out with that guy? He gives them the reason here. Here's the reason for the season. Here's why Jesus came to save those kind of people. That's why he came to save people like me and people like you. Ordinary people like shepherds say.

[00:28:02] And his Jesus Christ saved you. You really are you really going to celebrate Christmas this year comes around every December.

[00:28:08] But we've got people who have been alive for a long time and never once have you really celebrated Christmas.

[00:28:15] Here's what celebrating Christmas looks like, confessing your sin and becoming a new person in Jesus Christ. That's what it means to celebrate Christmas. You have to be one of the last people to be found and Jesus the idea here.

[00:28:30] He came to seek and save that word for save is the same word for savior that's given in our passage. Go back to Luke, chapter two. Turn back there with me because the good news. Let's finally get to it.

[00:28:42] The good news here is something that goes from mega fear to mega joy. That's how you know that you're really celebrating Christmas, because the mega fear of having your sin before a holy God and realizing that you fall short of his standard when you meet Jesus Christ. That mega fear is turned into mega joy when you know that you have been saved. And look at it here. When we finally get to the good news, the angel has to say, hey, stop freaking out, because that's what happens when an angel shows up and he says, look at this. Check this out. I bring you good news. Basically, I am doing what an angel does. I'm delivering the news. But this is good news of mega joy. It goes from mega fear to mega joy. And it's for all the people. People like Zacchaeus for Own to You is born this day in the city of David. First name, it's gonna give us three names and none of them say Jesus. But we know that's who it's talking about. And it's going to call them a savior. And it's gonna call him Christ and it's going to call him Lord. And let's just focus right now on savior, you know what it means.

[00:29:51] It means rescuer, what it means. It means deliver.

[00:29:55] It means that you were drowning. And he swam out there and got you out of that riptide. It means you were in the house that was burning down. And he ran in and pulled you out. It means you are going to be judged by a holy God for your sin. And he took the judgment for you.

[00:30:11] He rescued you. He saved you. That's what we're here to celebrate.

[00:30:17] That's what Christmas say. There's been born a savior. You know, an angel came to Joseph earlier and he said, hey, you're going to name him Jesus. Do you know what the name Jesus means? That you're going to name him Jesus because he's going to save people from their sins. Jesus the name means when you hear Jesus, what you should think is that means savior.

[00:30:36] That's who he is. That's what he did.

[00:30:38] He came on a search and rescue mission like you were lost out there. You were like a kid who couldn't find their parents in Costco. Can you imagine anything more terrifying than that, my friend? Costco right down the parking lot here. You want to talk about where America goes to worship on a Sunday? Check out Costco, my friend's right hand man. Can you imagine if you were one of the children here and you couldn't find your mom and dad? Could you imagine if you were mom and you couldn't find your kid in Costco? That would be terrifying. We'd have mega fear. Right. And you would go on a search and rescue mission. And when you found your kid, what would there be? Mega joy? See, that's what Jesus Christ did for you.

[00:31:20] You were lost. And he came to find you.

[00:31:22] And if you've experienced the fear of seeing that you fall short of God's standard, that God is actually somebody that's kind of terrifying. We saw that before with this guy, Zack Araya. He's going into the temple and he's trying to do something to worship God.

[00:31:36] But then he sees an angel and he's afraid. And the angel actually gives Zacharias some news. He says, you're going to be a dad. He gives him good news. Says you're gonna be a dad.

[00:31:46] And Zack Araya questions. And he says, Me, I'm pretty old. I'm not sure that I'm going to be a dad. But he says, no, you're gonna be the dad. You're actually gonna be the dad of John the Baptist, the guy who's gonna go be a messenger to prepare the way of the Lord Jesus. And because Araya doesn't believe the angel, he can't talk.

[00:32:04] It loses his ability to speak. And so he comes out of the temple and the guy can't speak and everybody's like, what happened? Right. And there were probably a little freaked out. What went on in there? We'll turn back to Luke, chapter one and look at actually, you know, I have to turn it's on the same page, right. Look at what eventually Zacharias says. Eventually, he says, when his son is born and he says his name is going to be John. And after he says that, he can speak again. In fact, look with them. With me at verse 64, Luke one, verse 64, says an immediately his mouth was open and his tongue loose and he spoke. And what does he immediately speak? Blessing God. What does that mean? Saying good things about God. See what started with mega fear and not being able to speak ends up with this praise, with this worship. That's how you can know you've met Jesus Christ. That's how you can know. You can. You're celebrating Christmas when you want to worship him, when you now have joy in him. And that's what you see here.

[00:33:09] Look, Zachariah goes on here and and everybody else freaks out because verse 65 fear came on all their neighbors. Well, now he's talking. This is kind of weird on. And people are talking about it all throughout the whole country of Judea. But look what Zacharias says. Start with me in verse 68.

[00:33:24] Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people. He has raised up a warren of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David. As he spoke by the hear the mouth of his holy prophets from of all day, they prophesied in the Old Testament about this good news that we should be safe from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.

[00:33:46] To show the mercy promise to our fathers to remember is holy covenant. The oath that he swore to our Father Abraham to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear. See, now the fear is gone. In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

[00:34:04] His mega fear goes to mega parades. I mean, you ups. Do you have a heart that wants to worship Jesus Christ? Do you see how you were lost in your sin? And then he came and you and you may be thought you were seeking out Jesus, but no, he actually wanted to invite himself over to your house. He was actually seeking out you. He came on and seek and save mission for your soul.

[00:34:26] And you go from being afraid about what's going to happen in your life, afraid of dying, afraid of maybe being judged some day by a holy God. And now what are you.

[00:34:34] You're rejoicing. You're worshiping.

[00:34:38] That's the story of Christmas. Same thing happens to Mary. Remember how Mary was was troubled when the angel came? Well, she had a little bit better response than Zach arrive. And though she was much younger. Mary. She's a great example to all young ladies everywhere. She says, I'm here to serve the Lord. She says right away. Well, the Lord. Whatever the Lord says, I'm ready to do.

[00:34:57] And she's a great example. And look what she says in verse 46 of Luke. Chapter one. Look at how her mega fear turns into this praise.

[00:35:05] She says, My soul magnifies the Lord. I just want to worship him. My spirit rejoices in God. My what in God, my savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant for behold. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for he who is mighty.

[00:35:24] He has done great things for me, and holy is his name. Yeah. He's this transcendent God, but he's also intimately concerned about me.

[00:35:33] Look, verse 50. His mercy is for those who fear him. You know what mercy means?

[00:35:38] Mercy means you don't get what you deserve.

[00:35:41] Mercy means you step into the presence of a holy God and you realize, oh, no, I don't belong here. But you don't get that judgment. You know, God doesn't treat you like that.

[00:35:51] He had mercy and Mary, she experiences that, and she not only experiences that, she says it's for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud and the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones. He's exalted those who are humble. He has filled the hungry with good things. The rich. He has sent away empty.

[00:36:13] He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his Mercian, and she goes on praising the Lord.

[00:36:19] So the good news, it comes from only God. It comes down to sinners like us. And then it takes us from this mega fear that we might have to this meg of joy that Jesus is my savior. And I want to worship in.

[00:36:34] And when we got good news right here, right now, Christmas isn't something that happened a long time ago. Christmas is something isn't there even something that happens on December 25th? Christmas is something that can happen right here in this room today. When you realize that you are a center, that you are lost and you call out right here for God to save you and you beg him for his mercy, would that be amazing if someone here today experienced the salvation of Jesus Christ? If someone lost was found right here? We got plenty of lost people in this theater right now.

[00:37:06] Today could be your day to experience the salvation that is in Jesus Christ. This is what he came for, to seek and to save you. He's coming after you this Christmas. Don't reject him. Don't push him away right now.

[00:37:22] If you know that God's up here and you've fallen short of his standard and you haven't gone to mega rejoicing, you haven't gone to worshiping Jesus. We sing the songs, but you're barely singing along. If you don't have a heart that wants to celebrate Jesus Christ.

[00:37:37] Today could be your day. How exciting is that? Today could be the day of salvation. That's why Jesus came. For you, for your soul. And if you know that, good news.

[00:37:52] There's been borne a savior. I mean, it's exciting when a baby's born and you want to get likes on Facebook.

[00:37:58] Throw up a picture of a baby. Get more. And have you seen that before? I mean, that thing's gonna blow up, right? I mean, everybody loves baby pictures. But one baby is different than all the rest. One baby is the one who came to save you from your sins. If you believe that, if you believe that he saved you. If you have that good news. We got to get that good news out there. We got to start spreading that good news. We're barely afraid to say Merry Christmas to people at the checkout aisle. We should be saying a little bit more than Merry Christmas.

[00:38:34] We should be saying the whole message. Hey, I got good news of great joy for you.

[00:38:38] There's been born a savior. His name's Jesus. And he came for you. You know, somebody who needs to. Who here knows somebody who needs to get saved this Christmas? Anybody know somebody who needs to get saved this Christmas? Well, let's go and tell him the good news that they can get saved this Christmas.

[00:38:57] I mean, I don't think any angels are showing up a Bell Atara this Christmas season.

[00:39:01] I mean, maybe some people in costumes, right. But I haven't seen anybody around here that's freaking everybody out. OK, maybe Fabio's rolling in, but I haven't seen any of the real kind of angels.

[00:39:13] No. You know who the messengers are now.

[00:39:15] You know who the people are who are supposed to spread the good news.

[00:39:20] Does.

[00:39:21] We're the ones that have been sent by God with the Christmas matches where the carolers say. We're the ones that are supposed to be so loud, the rejoicing.

[00:39:32] So busy praising Jesus that everyone has to get caught up in the Christmas cheer. Go to Romans, Chapter 10. This is one passage I want to turn everybody to Romans. Chapter 10. Look at this.

[00:39:44] And maybe some people are going to get the good news for the first time here today. Maybe people will get saved this morning. How awesome would that be? But some of us, we can remember the time in our life where we went from mega fear to Maggette joy.

[00:39:58] And now we should be spreading that good news. And it's time for us to remember how exciting it was to be saved. How exciting it was to see our life turn around and to love Jesus and to want to read the Bible and learn more about him. And you just want to keep singing worship songs. And so Romans 10, verse 14 says it like this follows the logic of these questions. It says, How will they the people out there in Huntington Beach, in the cities around here that we live in? How then will they call on him? Call on Jesus, the one who saves. You can see that in verse 13. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, how will they call on him? Jesus and whom they have not believed. And not going to call in as they have faith in him. And how are they to have faith in him? To believe in him of whom they've never heard? OK, and how are they going to hear without someone preaching? And how are they going to preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? How beautiful are those who bring the message? How beautiful is the messenger? Really beautiful. I mean, we're talking about ancient times here. They weren't smartphone in each other. They weren't even landline in each other. They weren't even Pony Express in each other. They weren't even telegram and each other. You wanted to get a message from one place to another place. You sent one bro run in.

[00:41:26] That's how you got the message, right?

[00:41:29] And in Jerusalem, it's a city on a hill. And you look out on the hill and you see this guy. And at first just barely anything. And then areas kicking up dust. And you see this guy running across the hill and he's still far away. But now the crowd begins to gather because here comes the messenger.

[00:41:46] And what kind of news does he have?

[00:41:49] Now, when this guy's been running from who knows where, uphills, over, down valleys or over over streams, through muddy parts. Right. Probably stepping in animal stuff. I mean, who knows?

[00:42:01] They've got guys feet aren't really looking beautiful at the end of this long trek. He's probably stinky and his feet are probably gross.

[00:42:08] All right. What do we mean here? What's beautiful is the message that he brings. What's beautiful is the good news. Do you have beautiful feet? Are you ready to bring the message of Jesus this Christmas to you?

[00:42:23] I mean, how are they going to hear about Jesus? How are they going to hear about Jesus if we don't go and tell them?

[00:42:31] I don't really see anybody else out there telling them about Jesus Christ. I don't see. I don't see it in the movies.

[00:42:37] I don't see it on TV.

[00:42:40] I'm not really seeing a lot of other groups out there are the only the only groups that I do see talking about Jesus are usually telling you a different version of Jesus than what the Bible says.

[00:42:49] Not a lot of people out there spreading this good news. We have to be those people.

[00:42:55] We got to look at it like there are people who can't celebrate Christmas because they don't know what it's really all about.

[00:43:02] And that should break our hearts.

[00:43:04] How many of your neighbors, coworkers, family members are going to completely miss Christmas this season? All they might have lights. They might have the tree. They might give gifts. They'll definitely take days off from work.

[00:43:17] But will they really celebrate salvation?

[00:43:20] Well, they know the one who came to rescue their soul. Well, they see a holy God who should be worshiped. Well, they see they've fallen short of the standard. How will they know unless you tell them?

[00:43:30] That's what it says right here. We need some people here with beautiful feet.

[00:43:34] And maybe when you first tell them about God and His Holiness and when you mentioned their sin and then you tell him that Jesus came to set save them. There might be some great fear before there's some great joy.

[00:43:45] But that's how the good news works. Who are you going to tell this Christmas season? But Jesus Christ came to save not just people, but then.

[00:43:57] Go back to Isaiah, where this this is a reference of the beautiful feet comes from. It comes from Isaiah 52, verse seven. We're gonna go to the Old Testament. Hopefully everybody can find the book of Isaiah. Everybody turn there with me to the Book of Isaiah. One passage I want to show you from the Old Testament. That's a quote from Isaiah 52 seven. But I actually want to take you to Isaiah, chapter 40, verse nine. Look at it with me. Isaiah, Chapter 40, verse nine.

[00:44:24] And this is the first time, at least in my recollection, in the book of Isaiah, where you get this idea of like a messenger on the mountain, somebody running with the good news, somebody who's got something to say. And the news they have is so big, it's so good, it's so exciting. They can't just kind of deliver it. And in a normal conversation, no one is talking about who God is here. And Isaiah, 40, it says this in verse nine, it says, here's how we got to talk about God. Here's how we got to spread the good news of Christmas. It says, go on up to a high mountain. This Isaiah 40, verse nine. Go on up to a high mountain. No Zion herald of good news. You want to be a messenger of good news and get on up on a high place is what it says. Lift up your voice with strength o Jerusalem Herald of good news. All you people who've got the good news lifted up. Don't be afraid of what people are going to think. Lift it up. Fear not say to the cities of Judah. Let the people know. Behold book your God. And if you're going to tell people about Jesus, here's how you do it. Get on up a high place where a lot of people can see you, lift up your voice. So a lot of people can hear you and say to people, look at Jesus Christ, the savior who came for you.

[00:45:40] This isn't a message you just whisper. You don't just, like, pull somebody aside and think about how you can kind of discreetly get it under the radar. Now you can out your microphone, see you get out your megaphone and you think to yourself, what's the biggest possible way I could let people know about Jesus this Christmas with the biggest splash I could make.

[00:46:00] What's the most noise I could make for Jesus Christ? That's the idea here.

[00:46:06] We got good news. Are you a messenger of the good news? Well, this is your prime season, Christmas. Where his name the Christ is in the day.

[00:46:15] How are you going to make the most of this opportunity to spread the good news? How many angels do we have here? How many messengers of the Lord are ready to go forth and represent this Christmas season? That's why we're having this Christmas Eve service a little bit early. You notice that December seven gives you some time. Gives you some days to figure out how you're going to make the biggest splash for Jesus Christ this Christmas, bigger than any other Christmas you've ever done.

[00:46:43] Point number three, this is what I'm trying to say is the good news is meant to be told. I mean, we could put in four point number three. The good news is Jesus the savior. I mean, that is the good news is is not a what? As much as it is a who. But we're gonna we're gonna save our full our full excitement of Luke to eight to 14 for Jesus Christ for Christmas Eve. We're gonna be right back here in this theater, Lord willing, on December 24th at 5:00 p.m., and we are going to preach Jesus Christ. And you could see we got some empty seats. We want to fill this auditorium and we want to have people in here ready to hear about Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve. Maybe you can bring some people with you. We got an empty row back there. We want to fill up with sinners who need to be saved by Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve. But the good news. Hopefully your feeling stirred up in your heart. It's kind of like what Jesus says it when he references Matthew. Chapter 10, verse 27. If you just want to write down the reference, Matthew, chapter 10, verse 27. He says, well, I tell you in the dark saying the light.

[00:47:46] And when you hear Weisburd proclaim on the housetops and I'm whispering to you right now, I want you to get up on you're gonna get up on your house, maybe on a sketchy ladder and put up on some lights.

[00:47:57] How about getting up on the roof and shout now, hey, there's been born a savior and his name is Jesus Christ. What can you and I do to get the good news out there?

[00:48:07] There's a song I love that we sing this time of year and it goes like this. It's a great summary of our passage.

[00:48:14] It says, While shepherds kept there watching over silent flocks by night. Behold throughout the heavens, they're shown a holy light. And those shepherds, they feared and trembled when low. Look at this. Above the earth rang out the angels chorus that held the savior's birth down in a lonely manger. The humble Christ was born. And God, he sent you salvation.

[00:48:38] That blessed Christmas morn. So go. Tell it on the mountain. Over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain. Get up on a high place. Lift up your voice and let them know Jesus Christ. He's been born. He's been born to save the.

[00:48:56] We want to go tell it up on the mountain and God has done I said I got good news. Well, that's the good news that Jesus.

[00:49:01] I got more good news for our church to share with you today.

[00:49:04] Do you think about getting up on a high place, you think about getting up in and where some everybody can hear you will? What's the best way for a church? Just a new church like ours would be the best way for us to get in a place where the most people could possibly hear the message of Jesus Christ, like a place where we could bring a lot of people, maybe not just on Sunday morning, but a place we could bring people all week long. Like if we had a building, see, wouldn't that be exciting if our church had a place like that?

[00:49:32] Like, yeah, that sounds exciting.

[00:49:35] I got good news. We've got a building, my friends.

[00:49:39] We've got to build it.

[00:49:43] In fact, the ushers are going to come forward right now and they're going to give every one of you a flier with a picture of our beautiful new building and the address and some things that you can be brand kickstarting, a hopefully board willing. We will be moving into a building.

[00:49:59] January 11th, 2015, will be our first service in a new building. This building.

[00:50:07] Brace yourselves now is twenty eight thousand square feet. OK, it is massive. It's got room to grow. He could say four for a church our size. All right. That means we only have four more services at Marena High School, my friends. And then that gives us about a month not only to invite people to our Christmas Eve service here, but a month to invite people to our new church.

[00:50:35] Yeah. Very exciting time.

[00:50:39] So clearly, God wants us to do a lot of talking about Jesus Christ here in Huntington Beach for him to be so good, what God did to provide this building. It is amazing. And we will definitely use the first service on January 11th, but also many of the services we're hoping to have some of services, some open houses during the week.

[00:51:02] We're gonna have our first service on January 11th. We're hoping that that week, during some of those nights to have open houses where people can come and guess what we're going to talk about every night when people come, Jesus Christ, that's what we're going to talk about. And we're gonna get as many people to come check out this building as we can so that we can preach to them, hey, we're not building our church on a building. We're building on our church on a rock. And his name is Jesus Christ. And he's the one who came to save you from your sins.

[00:51:31] That's what we're gonna tell to anybody who will listen. And so this is a time for us to be excited.

[00:51:38] This is a time for us to let the world let the community around us know that we are here.

[00:51:43] We should be walking out of here today looking for people right here in Belet, Tara, that we can tell what Jesus is doing here in Huntington Beach because he could be saving people right now in this service. He's definitely is providing a place for our church to meet at this new building. So this is a good day for us here at CompassHB Bible Church, Huntington Beach. Like Shane said, maybe the best movie we've ever seen here that you won't think of a movie theater the same way again. And we got a story that's better than any movie playing right now, my friends. We got to get this good news that, Jesus Christ, he came to save us. So let me pray as we continue our time of worship. Please pray with me. God, we thank you so much for how good you are to us. God, you are so good. It's overwhelming to think about the good news of great joy. God, first of all, that you've given us in that you would send your one and only son because you love the world that you would send him to seek and to save sinners like us, to rescue us from all of the wrong things that we are doing to turn us around.

[00:52:55] And to give us a new life in Jesus Christ. To give us this great joy that we can experience.

[00:53:02] Well, we can now worship you, we can now come into the presence of a holy God and give you praise.

[00:53:10] And we do that here today, KCCA. Got stir up our hearts. You're clearly working God by providing a building. It's so big and such a powerful way that we could start so soon. That's already gotten auditorium ready to go. That can fit up to 500 people. We just praise you for that. We worship you. And we pray that this Christmas we will see you save many people for Jesus Christ. We pray that right now people who know they're short, that they are small in stature when it comes to you. That they have fallen short of your glory. Can we pray that they will cry out to you for salvation, that everyone who calls on the name of Jesus the Savior? And confesses their sin and turns from that they will be saved. Now we pray that that will happen right now, today. And got all of us who have been saved. Stir up our hearts, renew that, renew that first love that we have for you. Spark that light of flame within us again. And must go tell it on the mountain.

[00:54:15] Let us tell it on the main. Let us tell it here in Pelletreau. Let us tell it on our street.

[00:54:19] Let us tell it at our workplace, at the playground, the park down the street. But there has been borne a savior. God, let us spread that good news use. Send us out. God, we pray in Jesus name.

[00:54:31] A man.