NIV Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-- 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder…. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, {6 Or Wonderful, Counselor} Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Our world has not seen a lot of peace this year. Thousands of soldiers from Ft. Riley and around the nation have deployed to Iraq to try to help keep peace in a region that that knows little peace. We rightly pray that earthly peace will come, that good rulers will make just decisions, evil rulers will be brought down, and soldiers will be kept safe. But while we pray we also remember that our Lord Jesus warned us when he was here that we would always "hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom" (Matthew 24: 6-7). Because of the sinfulness of this world, we will never see true peace here. We are walking in a world still darkened with sin. Unfortunately, we here tonight still often contribute to that darkness ourselves, continuing to hurt ourselves and others through what we say and do.

But 700 years before Jesus was born, the Lord promised through the prophet Isaiah that the people walking in darkness will see a great Light. We stand here in darkness, but symbolically, the light from our Christ candle has spread from one to another to create the glow that overcomes our worldly darkness. But not completely yet. Christ came first to bring peace between God and man. Those who trust in Christ have that peace. Now we wait for Him to come again to fully remove all war, all hatred, all sin forever. Then we will stand in his glorious light forever. Colossians 1:13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.                 

What is this dominion of darkness that Christ has rescued us from? In our comfortable, blessed U.S. existence we don't often think about "dominions of darkness." I don't often mention new movies in my sermons, but "Lord of the Rings" will be an exception.   

I know several of you have seen at least one of the 3 installments, "Fellowship" or "Two Towers" or now "Return of the King". In these books and movies, JRR Tolkein shows us the "dominion of darkness" of Sauron.   

Most of you have probably seen at least glimpses of Sauron's kingdom Mordor in commercials or clips. It is a dark, treeless dominion dominated by a great volcano and an evil eye always probing the darkness for ways to eliminate the good. This story, written by a Christian, actually has many spiritual overtones.   

Sauron, the evil lord is a model of Satan. He is constantly looking to entrap humans and empower his evil army (orcs, trolls, evil wizards, etc.) to take over more dominions. Sauron's power seems invincible. But yet rescue does come.                 

Were it not for our Lord's intervention, we might very well live in a world that looks like Mordor, and be destined to live in a world of hell even worse. But rescue has come for us. In "Lord of the Rings" rescue comes through some rather improbable means: A young king who is not even sure he wants to be a king.   

A couple of tiny dwarflike characters called hobbits. Rescue comes through human means, man saving himself. But in the great Good News we are celebrating tonight, the rescue doesn't come through humans fighting off the dominions of darkness themselves. The rescue is not accomplished through strength of warriors or arms. Our rescue comes from the True King, the True Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to fulfill a destiny laid before Him by His Father. We were once enemies of God, deserving nothing but the threat of His Law. But God places Himself under His own threats by sending Jesus for the world's rescue and reconciliation. You personally stand before God "without blemish and free from accusation-- 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel." That is what we are doing here again tonight, and what we do in every Sunday worship, in every Bible Study, continuing in that faith, reestablishing and firming it in our hearts through hearing it again and again.

Micah 5: 2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."   3 Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.   4 He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.                 

Tell someone you're from Junction City or visiting someone in Junction City, and you're liable to get either "Where's that" or "Oh, Junction?" We who live here have found it to be a good place to live, to raise a family. We've found it a place to joyfully live out our vocations before our Lord. But you don't get a lot of outsiders who know us well. Jesus was born and raised in communities like ours, Bethlehem and Nazareth. They were small, not well known. Nazareth's reputation was questionable. But yet it was these towns that birthed and raised the Savior of the World. It was in towns like ours, unknown to most of the world, that God chose to bring the Good Shepherd, the continuation of the promises He had made to Abraham and Jacob and Moses and David. Not Jerusalem or Baghdad or New York or Los Angeles. Bethlehem and Nazareth. Now tonight we continue to tell the message of those towns, that "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1: 27), that God chose to fulfill his Gospel through a little baby in two backwater little towns. His greatness has "reached to the ends of the earth." Here in our little town we continue to spread the message of Jesus.

Philippians 2: 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:   6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Many people today think that there is not much difference between different world religions. They figure that as long as you believe in some form of religion, some teaching about "God", that is all that matters. They think that Mohammed or Buddha or Krisna or just a generic belief in any god who is the architect of the universe is basically as good as believing in Jesus. Tolerance is considered the highest virtue, and tolerance to some has come to mean that differences in teachings about God are really not that important. Those who believe all beliefs in God lead to heaven don't understand the Gospel of Christ we are contemplating here tonight. They don't understand the core and consistent message of God's Word in Scripture. We Christians are called upon not just to tolerate others, but to love them. We can show that love by confessing that Jesus is not just another human sent from heaven to tell us how to live better lives here. Christ Jesus is by very nature God himself, and by that nature came to be a servant, to give his life on the cross.

A little girl named Liz was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.   

The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. He hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away". Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her life. (story from Internet, author unknown)

The little boy was in error. He didn't have to give his entire life for his sister, just a portion of his blood. But our Lord Jesus came as a child, knowing that He would give all his life, all his blood for our rescue. No other human teaching reveals a Servant-God like that, only God's Holy Word.

NKJ Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.   2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.   3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.   4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,   5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.   6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke is the most detailed of the Gospel historians. In chapter 1 he addresses this Gospel to a man named Theophilus, giving this orderly account of Jesus' life, (1:3) "carefully investigat(ing) everything from the beginning," so that Theophilus (1:4) "may know the certainty of the things (he had) been taught." Luke has given us the most detailed story of Jesus' birth, not based in some fictional never-neverland, but located in specific, verifiable times and places in history. Because of Luke (and also Matthew and Mark and John and Paul, etc.) we have more direct information about Jesus than nearly any other historical figure from antiquity.                 

By our human nature we would think that if God was going to come to earth He would do so with a bit more fanfare, a bit more "panache." But God chose to come to our world as the poorest of the poor. Tonight after service we will all have warm comfortable homes and beds to go to. Let us thank God for them. But our Lord chose to come to us, God in human flesh – in a manger for there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2: 8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.10 Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"                 

Shepherds and angels, the ultimate irony. Shepherds were the dregs of society at that time. But they were the first, besides Mary and Joseph and family, to be given the honor of knowing God's Messiah, the Savior. They were the first to hear a multitude of heavenly host praising God. A new reality has spontaneously erupted into human history. Heaven and earth are joined together in peace. The Prince of Peace has come. The favor, the grace of God would now rest on and among mankind. Born to give us second birth! Glory to the newborn King!

Luke 2: 15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, "Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us." 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.   18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.   20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.                 

What kinds of things do you get excited about? What kinds of things do you tell your friends? Sports? Politics? Family news? Hobbies? Jesus? Jesus??                 

An important part of the reason we are here tonight is to renew our passion for Jesus, to hear again the story of the excited shepherds so that after hearing it, we too can marvel at those things which were told them. We come not just because it's a pleasant family tradition. We come not just because we like the tunes of Christmas hymns. We come not just to light candles. We come to give glory to God, just like the angels and shepherds did. We come to renew our excitement for telling others about Jesus, whether they be fellow believers or those who still have not bent their knees to the Savior. Our world would change Christmas into a commercial enterprise that will end after tomorrow. But we here tonight know what its true message is, that the Christ child has come so that we may live lives of joy and peace, both here now and there in eternity. May that message always stir us to excitement, telling others about Him, and looking forward to when He comes again.