boys and girls and of course
everyone gets to listen, that's the great thing about children's
addresses is that we all get to listen. But we've been thinking
about some of the interesting facts about the Lord Jesus Christ's
birth. I'm sure that you'll remember
we've seen how that the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was
foretold for thousands of years before he came. Before he came as that little
baby in the manger. And we've also seen how it is
that the scriptures tell us very clearly that the birth of the
Lord Jesus Christ was a supernatural event. So these two things are
in our minds already. It has been foretold. for thousands
of years that Jesus would come. And when he came, it was very
miraculous. The birth of our Saviour was
a miraculous birth. And today, I want to remind us
of some of the witnesses that were present at the time of the
Lord Jesus Christ's birth. Now, I don't think anybody is
going to be too surprised as to who these witnesses are. I don't know if some of the younger
people could tell me who they think I might be referring to
with the witnesses to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've
got three in mind particularly. Any guesses? Who was a witness to the birth
of Christ? Good. No. That wasn't one of
my three. You've got all three. Well done. I was thinking about the angels
and the shepherds and the wise men. Those were the three that
I wanted to draw our attention to this morning. But if you've
got other witnesses, then you can add them to this as well. First one I wanted to think about
with you was the angels. And first of all, there was one
angel, just one angel, it seems, appeared, who came and announced
the birth of Jesus Christ. Now, you might say, well, you
know, you could have put that under your heading of miraculous,
and that's right, because it's not every day that an angel comes
and tells us something. But this angel came, and he announced
the birth of Jesus Christ. Here's what he said. We find
this principally in the second chapter of Luke. He said, Fear
not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto
you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. So the first announcement
to the world in general was the coming of this angel to attest
and to witness the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think
it's appropriate that the angel said, fear not, because I suspect
that there was a lot of fear, a lot of being afraid as far
as these shepherds were concerned. But here he was, the long awaited,
the long prophesied Messiah had come. And the angel expressly
says that this one who was born was Christ the Lord. That's the name that the angel
gave to the baby, Christ the Lord. And I want you to notice
something as well. that the angel said he was already
a saviour when he came. Sometimes we think that the Lord
Jesus Christ became the saviour when he died on the cross. Well, not according to the angel.
The angel who came to announce the birth of Jesus said, this
day in the city of David, a saviour is born, which is Christ the
Lord. And suddenly in the presence
of the angel was a multitude of the heavenly host, praising
God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace,
goodwill towards men. These angels came from heaven
in order to witness or to declare the birth of the savior. the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that those angels
understood something very important that sometimes men and women
today still fail to understand. The thing that the angels declared
in the coming of the Saviour that was Christ the Lord was
this, glory to God in the highest. The highest possible glory went
to God for the coming of the Saviour. We need to remember
the true source and origin of all the blessings and the gifts
and the goodness of God. The fact that Jesus Christ came
as a Saviour is God's glory. The fact that we find the Lord
Jesus Christ to be our saviour is a glory to God. And the angels declared the glory
of God in the coming of this little child. The second group
that I have in mind is the shepherds. And I think it's very interesting
that the shepherds came to common people. I like that. I like that
the angels came and declared this revelation to these common,
ordinary men and perhaps women also. The gospel, the good news
of Christ's coming into the world, the good news of a saviour to
take away the sins of the world, the good news of the fact that
Christ the Lord is come, it came to poor people, poor sinners
who needed to know this message. The Lord Jesus Christ, we are
told in his own ministry, came to and for and amongst the poor. Did you ever think about the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the King of glory, who
walked in those wonderful places in heaven and in glory, did not
come to a palace when he was born, did not come to a mansion,
but he came to a stable. He came to a manger. He came
amongst the animals. He came amongst the dirt. And there he was born in a manger
amongst the poor. In Matthew 11, verse 5, one of
the first things that the Lord Jesus Christ says when he is
speaking to his disciples and speaking to John's disciples
is that the poor have the gospel preached to them. You know, we
need to be poor when we come before God. If we think we're
rich, if we think that we're clever, if we think that we're
worthy in any way, if we think that we've got anything to recommend
us to God, then that has to be taken away from us. And I tell
you this, that if we are the Lord's people, that will be taken
away from us. For we must come before God as
poor, needy sinners. We must come humbly before God. For ye know, says the Apostle
Paul, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty
might be made rich. And here we see the great substitution
of the Lord Jesus Christ coming and taking our poverty upon himself
that we might be made rich in the grace of God. What did the shepherds do when
the angels came and spoke to them? How did they become witnesses
They heard the good news from the angel who was a messenger
to them from God, and they went to see the baby that was spoken
of. They heard the good news and
they went to Jesus. There's a lovely picture there,
you know, of the gospel being preached to men and women and
boys and girls. It is as the gospel is preached,
it is as the word of truth is declared, it is as the witness
is given that men and women come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Boys
and girls are invited and encouraged to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when they had found the Lord
personally for themselves, they told others. You see, you can't
contain this message. this good message of Christ the
Lord, our Saviour. And when these men saw the Lord
Jesus Christ, they went to their neighbours, they went to their
friends, and they told others. They became witnesses themselves
of the Lord Jesus Christ to their families and to their friends.
They said, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing
which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto
us. And they came with haste and
found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when
they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told
them concerning this child. the angels and the shepherds,
and the third group of witnesses are the wise men. And these two
were witnesses of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, though
perhaps they came a little bit later than the shepherds. I know we sometimes see pictures
of the shepherds and the wise men all around the manger, and
I don't think, actually, that's the way that it happened. for
the sake of the picture and getting everyone in, I suppose you can
see why it's done like that. But these people came a little
bit later because it took them quite a long time to find Mary
and Jesus. Do you know that sometimes some
people are too clever for their own good? Do you know that? We like to be clever, we like
to be wise and smart, but sometimes we get too clever for our own
good. And sometimes people look for
Jesus in the wrong place. They look for salvation in the
wrong place. They look to please God in the
wrong place. Have you ever heard of looking
for Jesus in the wrong place? I think we all look for Jesus
in the wrong place. I think sometimes it can take
us a long, long time to truly find him. I think we look to
religion or to church membership or to our own efforts, or to
our own good works, or to a whole host of things. And we imagine
that in some way, if we do this or do that, or live like this
or live like that, that in some way we will find Jesus. Well,
these wise men went to the wrong place. So much for them being
wise. They went to see Herod, the king. The Lord Jesus Christ says, come
unto me, come unto me. And as men and women and as boys
and girls, that must be the way, except we all become as little
children. Come unto me, says the Lord. Well, these wise men did finally
find Jesus. but only after there had been
quite a detour for them. And in Matthew chapter two, verse
11, we read this. And when they were coming to
the house, see, that's the clue there. It wasn't the stable.
They had come to the house. This was sometime after the birth
of Christ. And when they were coming to
the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother,
and fell down and worshipped him. And when they had opened
their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold and frankincense
and myrrh. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ
and they saw Mary. There's no reference to there
being anyone else present. There was no Joseph, for example. And perhaps this was in the Lord's
good providence just to reveal to them that this child was indeed
very special. He was the Son of God. And they bowed down to Christ.
They bowed down on their faces. They bowed down on their knees. in front of this little baby
and they worshipped him as the king. That's an extraordinary
thing that these men did. They had quite an insight and
an understanding. And I guess that's where their
wisdom lay. They saw in this child one who
was worthy of their worship. And we must always remember that.
This is one area of the wise men's actions that it is good
for us to emulate and to copy. Let us remember that we come
into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with worship. and
he is the only one worthy of our worship, for he is God. They brought their gifts. They
brought gold, a gift fit for a king. They brought frankincense
and myrrh, which are kinds of incense or perfume and ointments. And I find it interesting that
myrrh has such a wide ranging presence in the life of the Lord
Jesus. Myrrh gives a sweet smell but
it has a bitter taste and it was present at the beginning
and it was present at the end of the Lord's life. Here it was
given as a gift to worship him. Later it was mixed with vinegar
and put onto a sponge and held up to his mouth as he hung on
the cross. And then it was brought by Nicodemus
as part of the embalming process that took place when they took
the Lord's body from the cross. Perhaps the reason for the presence
of myrrh in the experience of the Lord Jesus from the beginning
to the end of his life is to remind us that that which he
did was rich and sweet in its achievements, in the redemption
of his people, in the salvation of his church, And yet those
very deliverances came at a great cost. His own life's blood and
his own suffering and death. May the Lord God and God the
Holy Spirit help us to remember how the wonderful message of
peace and goodwill witnessed at the Lord's birth. leads ultimately
to the bitter cup which our Saviour drank to save us from our sins. Amen.