It's not uncommon to hear the Christmas story year after year, and because it's so familiar to us, begin to tune out the storyline. Rather than revel in the glorious details, sometimes we rush from the angels' announcement right to the manger without truly engaging in the miraculous moments of Christmas.
Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues his brand new miniseries prepared to help us savor every detail. He'll be teaching from Luke chapter 2, and Chuck titled this next message in the holiday series, Let's Hear God's Voice in a Baby's Cry. We're turning to a very familiar passage in Luke 2 as we read the words that often leave us with our lips moving because we know these verses by heart, at least some of them, as they speak of that first arrival of Jesus and in such a lowly, humble setting as we'll hear about in a few moments.
Here is this teenage couple all alone in a place they've never been before, and here she is without help bearing her firstborn child. Joseph a bit, no doubt, a bit bewildered with all of the that goes with that, helping as best he could. It's easy to let much of that human element pass over in our minds because of the familiarity of verses, but let's not do that. Let's pause long enough to picture the scene as we read of it in Luke 2, the first several verses. I'll be reading from the New Living Translation. You follow along as you have your Bible open.
We'll all stand together out of respect for the Word of God. I'll begin in verse 1 of Luke 2. At that 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, we would use the words county seat to register for this census, and because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem, Judea, David's ancient home.
He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. He took with him Mary, his fiance, who was now obviously pregnant. 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 in strips of cloth, 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 of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord, 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 in strips of cloth, lying in a manger. 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. When the angel 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 so in a very real sense, we return again today in our minds, imagining the scene, envisioning what it must have been like for this brand new baby to be born in this humble city. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Well, it's almost here. It's just about just a day or two, and it'll just be the joy of opening all those gifts and having fun with your family or friends, and it just can't help but bring back memories of the surprises in your past as well as maybe a few disappointments. I remember as a teenager, I was playing basketball out back and shooting baskets up against the garage. Remember, I used to do that, and my rubber basketball had about three patches and a couple of lines of glue on it, and I started about August hinting I'd really like to have a new rubber basketball for Christmas, and my folks did not have a clue about sports.
They were into education. They were serious, and here I was wanting to talk about a basketball, and I kept saying, oh, it'll be great. I'll be a better student if I can enjoy a little exercise out back and stay in better shape, you know, and about three or four days before Christmas, the box appeared under the tree. It was exactly the right size. I shook it. I smelled of it.
Nobody was around. I tried to take a peek in the wrapping. I couldn't get into it, but I'll tell you, on Christmas morning when it was time to open the gifts and my turn came, I tore into that thing like a banshee, and there it was, a brand new Rand McNally World Atlas, World Globe right there. Have you ever tried to dribble a world globe or shoot a jump shot with a world globe? My mother said, you're going to need that globe someday. I thought, yeah, right. Not right now.
I don't. Speaking of surprises, I read a cute story sometime back of three brothers who had grown up. Their dad had died rather early, so their mother had really endeared herself to them during their college and young adult years. They absolutely adored her, and interestingly, all three of them became successful in different realms.
The first one was a home builder, and the boys got their, or the men got their heads together one Christmas just before the day, and they said to each other, boy, we got plans for mom. The older brother said, I have in my home building, I built her a beautiful big new house, and Christmas day I'm going to drive her over to it and show it to her. Show it to her. She's going to love it.
And the second son, who had made his fortune in luxury car dealerships, he owned several, said, well, I picked out a Mercedes 600 SL. I'm going to give her, along with that, a driver for the rest of her life. She'll have wheels, she'll have a great vehicle, and she'll have this guy to drive her wherever she wants to go. Can't wait to give it to her.
The third one's smiling the whole time. He said, well, I'm going to give her a parrot, and they looked at him like he was from another planet, and he said, let me tell you, let me tell you. Several months ago, I had a priest tell me about this parrot that 20 of the priests in the church had been training to quote every verse in the Bible. You know how mama will send us a note and always put a verse on it?
We were growing up, she'd always add a verse to scriptures. All she's got to do is name the chapter and the verse, and that parrot will spit it out. I'm going to give her that parrot. She will love it.
And what do they call it? Well, I've got to give the church $100,000 for 10 years, but it's worth it. It's worth it because she will use this parrot and enjoy it for the rest of it.
Well, Christmas Day came and a day of reckoning. She finally wrote a thank you note to each of the boys, and she said to Melvin, the oldest, she said, Melvin, you were very, very thoughtful to give me this great big house, but it's too big. I only live in two or three rooms, and furthermore, it's a hassle to keep it clean. I got to hire two people now to keep it clean. I'm going to send you a bill for those two people every week that are going to come over to clean this big house, but I thank you. So she writes to Marvin, the middle son, says it's a beautiful car, but I don't drive and I don't drive and I don't travel, and all my groceries are delivered to me, and furthermore, the driver's got a bad attitude. I'm not crazy about the whole thing, but I thank you for the car. But she said, Mitchell, that parrot, it is so great. Thank you.
Love it. She said, it's wonderful, and I appreciate so much the gift. By the way, it was delicious. It was just delicious.
Mom. I got another cute story that I came across. Somebody sent it to me at Christmas time.
All kind of surprises happened. Orville Smith, a store manager for Best Buy in Augusta, Georgia, during this Christmas season, told the police that he observed a male customer who was on surveillance cameras putting a laptop computer under his jacket. When he was confronted, the man became irate, knocked down another employee, drew a knife, and ran for the door. Just outside on the sidewalk were four Marines collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program. Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one of the Marines, Corporal Philip Duggan, in the back. The injury didn't appear to be severe, but after the police and an ambulance arrived at the scene, Corporal Duggan was transported for treatment. And the subject was also transported to the local hospital with two broken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg, several missing teeth, possible broken ribs, multiple contusions, assorted lacerations, a broken nose, and a broken jaw. Injuries he sustained, they said, when he slipped off the curb after stabbing the Marine. God bless the Marine Corps.
Crazy. No, that's okay. You don't have to applaud. Now I want to tell you about the most surprising gift of all, and what a privilege it is to do it. This is my 56th Christmas message.
All right. And honestly, I'm as excited about this one as I was about the first one. First one, I was really nervous.
I'm not nervous now. I'm just excited to tell you about God's special gift to all of us. His love gift from heaven. He could have given us anything, and he gave us his best gift. John tells us, God so loved the world, put your name there. God so loved you, that he gave you God so loved you, that he gave you his only begotten son. That if you believe in him, you will never perish, but you will have everlasting life. God saved his very best gift, a sacrificial gift, and gave him to us. When Paul wrote about that gift years later, he used these words, thank God for his gift. Too wonderful for words.
Listen to the way others have paraphrased or translated 2 Corinthians 9.15. Thanks be to God, J.B. Phillips paraphrases, for his indescribable generosity. James Moffat, for his unspeakable gift. The Good News Bible, for his priceless gift. Chrysostom uses the rare term, ineffable. It's an old word, ineffable. This word prompted another man to write, when what God bestows is ineffable, what must the gift be himself? What must the gift be himself? I've noticed it's the tendency of artists to portray this gift, too wonderful for words, in an overstated manner.
By that I mean they will add to the little infant a halo, or they'll put an aura, a glowing aura about the child, and make him look angelic. It was none of that. In appearance, he just looked like any other Jewish baby. The truth is, talk about surprises, God, who came to earth to live among us, did not come as a raging whirlwind or in a devouring fire, commanding the world to bow down and worship.
No. What stands out is a term that no great king ever used. What stands out is the humility of it all, the obscurity of it.
Because most people will never go to Israel, you have to imagine a place like Bethlehem, or even a shelter behind a place of lodging, which they found where they would stay. One man writes, unimaginably, one man writes, unimaginably, the maker of all things shrank down, down, down, so small as to become an ovum, a single fertilized egg, barely visible to the naked eye, an egg that would divide and re-divide until a fetus took shape, enlarging cell by cell inside a nervous teenager. Another wrote, immensity cloistered in thy dear womb.
It's the way the poet John Donne put it. He made himself nothing. Oh, you remember Paul's words?
He humbled himself and became a servant. Presenting his third message in a brand new holiday series, you're listening to Insight for Living and the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll. He titled today's study in Luke chapter 2, Let's Hear God's Voice in a Baby's Cry. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org.
Well, Chuck is in the studio today prepared to share some personal comments just for our listening family. But first, I'd like to remind you that Insight for Living Ministries has set aside several books that will likely become treasured heirlooms among your family and the kind of Bible study tools you'll be referencing for years to come. For instance, when you visit our online store, you'll find the Swindoll Study Bible. This represents the culmination of Chuck's lifelong pursuit of biblical understanding, contained in one book and alongside the new living translation of the Bible. The Swindoll Study Bible comes in a variety of cover preferences. Plus, when you're online, you'll discover that Chuck has just completed the entire New Testament commentary series in 16 hardbound volumes.
In January, he'll begin an exhaustive study through the first gospel, Matthew. We recommend that you purchase Swindoll's Living Insights commentary for Matthew ahead of time. Because of its enormity, this commentary comes in two hardbound volumes. To place your order, call us.
If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or go to insight.org-slash-store. There's hardly a nation in the world that hasn't suffered from the complications of this coronavirus. The 2020 pandemic that spread like wildfire has become truly global. The insidious bug has crossed every border, broken every barrier humanity has placed in its way. In spiritual terms, COVID has spread like human sinful nature. Without prejudice, the disease has violated every continent on our globe, just as sin courses through the veins of every man, every woman, every child in this world.
Well, at Insight for Living Ministries, we're painfully aware of the collateral damage caused by the pandemic of man's sin, let alone the global suffering caused by the coronavirus. But in both cases, we know that God is neither surprised nor stymied. God is the answer.
He's not the problem. And our greatest calling is to point our suffering world to the One who is able to save us. Remarkably, while churches and much of our economy were obstructed through 2020, Insight for Living never missed one day of Bible teaching, not one.
In fact, our mission to reach all 195 countries of the world through Vision 195 moved ahead without hindrance. And if the compounding events of 2020 taught us anything, it's certainly true that our lives are fragile, our times are volatile, and our need for a Savior is urgent. So let me ask, won't you join me in giving generously to the mission of Insight for Living Ministries?
Think about that question. By teaching God's Word, we will serve as a calming voice of stability. You could have a part in that. As we point people to the Savior in every corner of the world, you can do that with us. So let's do this together. Let's do this now while there's still time and people are hurting so deeply.
Jesus said, we must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the One who sent us, for the night is coming when no one can work. Thanks for hearing me. I'm speaking today from my heart. I look forward to receiving your year-end gift, that generous gift you send and send to us soon. Perhaps you're in a position to give on behalf of others who've come to rely on Insight for Living, just as someone once did for you. Your generosity right now will arrive at just the right time.
So here's how to connect. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. That's 1-800-772-8888.
Or go online to give a year-end donation. You'll find us at Insight.org. Once again, Insight.org. And thank you for your generous support of Insight for Living Ministries. Tomorrow, Chuck Swindoll continues his message called, Let's Hear God's Voice in a Baby's Cry, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Let's Hear God's Voice in a Baby's Cry, was copyrighted in 2019 and 2020. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2020 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
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