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(older) The true light 

Luke 2.8-20 ‘Wake up!’


This sermon was first preached at the 15:00 service on Thursday 24 December 2020.

The text of the sermon is shown below, and can be downloaded as a PDF here.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpHkhH3RqNo

The Shepherds

When Jesus born almost everyone was asleep, because it was night-time.  The people in Bethlehem were asleep, even the sheep were asleep!  The shepherds looking after the sheep were doing their best to stay awake – but if you’ve ever tried to keep watch all night you’ll know how hard that is!

Then the angels appeared and spoke to them and sang and their light shone all around – they were definitely awake then.  They went to see if what the angel says was true – and when they saw it was, they started waking everyone up in Bethlehem to tell them...

Can you imagine if someone started banging on your front door and shouting in the middle of the night?  I think most of us would probably call the police!  But that’s exactly what the shepherds did – they wanted to wake everyone up because this was the best news.

A Special Baby

Now, it’s usually good news when a baby is born.  People can be a bit nervous before, so when it finally happens it’s a relief and everyone is super excited.  But I doubt many of us would run round the streets of Amington in the middle of the night, shouting and knocking on everyone’s doors to wake them up to tell them!

So what was special about this baby?

This baby, Mary’s son, was the rescuer God had been promising to send for a very long time, for hundreds and hundreds of years – even more years than the oldest person you know has been alive.  This baby was God’s Promise – and God always keeps his promises.

This baby, sleeping that night under the stars, was God’s own Son, the one who had made the stars.  He was the brightest star, the light of the whole world, the light that chases away the darkness, helping people to see, rescuing us from all the wrong things we do.

No wonder the shepherds were excited and wanted to wake everyone up to tell them!

Now, hopefully your eyes are open at the moment and you aren’t fast asleep or snoring.  Some of the people of Bethlehem were woken up by the shepherds and joined them in saying thank-you to God – but some of them stayed asleep.

I pray that this Christmas we can be like the ones who woke up, and said thank-you to God for sending us his Son Jesus, to rescue us and bring us home.