You are invited to embrace the good news of great joy by accepting Jesus as your Savior today. Let go of the fear that keeps you from God's peace and step into the freedom of His love. This Christmas, choose to follow Him regardless of the cost, knowing He has prepared a better future for you.
Welcome to The Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Alright. So today, we're gonna be talking about Christmas. It's our Christmas service today and I'm excited about it. But before we do, I wanna pray. Let's pray together.
Father, thank you for who you are. *Lord*, thank you that you're here. Lord, thank you that we're here because you're here. Lord, we come to hear from you. Lord, and not to hear from a guy, but to hear you speak to us in a way that impacts our eternity, that impacts every aspect of our life, that impacts us today.
So father, we pray that we we hear your word. Just every distraction, we just say no. In Jesus' name, get out. And, father, just open our ears to hear what you have to say to us today. And, in Jesus' name.
Amen. So you see the title behind me, "good news of great joy". Before I get into the message, you can go on your phone to realchurch.us if you wanna follow along on the app. I got the the notes up today. So if you go to realchurch.us, click on this Sunday, and then click on view sermon notes.
All of the sermon notes will pop up. You can follow right along with us and see everything there. Now, Christmas. Christmas. It's the "reason for the season".
The reason for the season is Christ, the Messiah, the anointed 1, the fulfillment of the old covenant. The fulfillment of the law, the author of a new covenant. He was sent to this world for this very purpose. He was sent to the world in a very specific way. Every detail of how he came into the world, every detail of how he was born, every detail of of what happened matters and is important.
It matters for our lives today, matters for us to know how much God loves us and how we can know him day in and day out. How he was born in the manger, him being wrapped specifically in swaddling clothes, the shepherds coming to him in the way that they did, what the angels saying about him, it all matters. Every detail is significant. Significant once again to teach us who he is, what he has done so that we can know his love for us, so we can know his who we are in him, and so we can learn how to have victory in every aspect of our life as we follow him. Amen?
Watch this. Let's go to Luke-2. Matthew, Mark, Luke. In Luke-2, we see shepherds. Right?
The angels appeared to the shepherds. They're sitting on a field. They're watching their flocks. Let's start in verse 8. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. I think a lot of times in our lives when God appears in our life, God appears in some kind of way, it shocks us. And sometimes we're terrified to even listen, terrified to follow him. We don't have to be. When the glory of the Lord shows up in your life, a lot of times it's to lead you in a direction that he has for you that is good news and great joy, but it might seem shocking and it might terrify you at first.
Listen to the next words that he says, that the angel says. **Do not be afraid**. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Good news of great joy. This is the gospel.
The gospel is good news of great joy. Period. Like, there's a lot of people that say that they're preaching the gospel, but they're not preaching good news. They're wrong. The gospel is good news that brings great joy.
I can't stress it enough and if I just say that 1 sentence for the rest of the time for another 20 minutes, that is enough. Jesus brings good news that brings great joy so that we can walk and understand his joy in every aspect of our life. It's important There's a lot of people that preach Oh, he's just death, hell, and condemnation. Turn or burn. If you don't get it right, no.
It's not about you getting it right. It's about Jesus who got it right. It's it's about, it's not about you, it's about him. When we live our life that way, everything shifts. It's good news of great joy.
The angel said to him, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people, even you. So, what was the good news that will cause great joy? Verse 11, today in the town of David, the town of David is just the the town of Bethlehem. A savior has been born to you.
He is the Messiah, the lord. In order to experience the good news and the great joy that comes from a savior being born, we have to understand that we need a savior. We have to understand that we need to be saved. Saved from what? Saved from sin.
Same from ourselves. Period. A savior being bored is not good news unless you understand that you need a savior. Jesus said it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Immediately, the disciples say, man, well, well, who then can be saved?
Jesus turns them and says, well, with man, it might be impossible but with god, all things are possible. What's he talking about? Just is it he's saying only the the rich and money like it's hard for them to get it to get into heaven? No. The Bible says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
There's there's a lot of people who are rich in a lot of things, rich in wealth, rich in comfort, rich in, you know, they they think they have good looks or or or rich in in things, rich in family, rich in friends. They put their richness in those things but until you realize all of that means nothing without him. I need him And those things will not save me. My own goodness will not save me in the end. It's not about what I do.
It's about what he has done. Amen? Uh-oh. That could've been bad. So, the good news of great joy was today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you.
He is the Messiah, the lord. Verse 12, Luke Luke-2 verse 12, this will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths. NIV says cloths. Other versions say swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
Now, the angels specifically said these words to the shepherds because they knew that the shepherds were on would understand exactly what they were saying to them. They knew that this was the right sign for the shepherds to believe that indeed a savior has been born that would save them from themselves, that would save them from their sins. Now we just look at that word. This will be a sign to you that you'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes swaddling clothes in a manger. We're like, okay.
That's just the Christmas line that we've heard all of our lives. But it has some very deep significance that's important and matters today. It mattered to those shepherds, the details. See, we think right now, we think that Jesus was born like, when we think of manger, we think of a stable, a lot of us. Right?
This wooden stable and stuff because there was no room in the inn. That's correct. There was no room in the inn but the the word for manger there was actually feeding trough. When it says manger, the original text, the word is actually a feeding trough. The baby, Jesus, once he was born, he was laid in an animal feeding trough.
K? And then the word for swaddling clothes in the original text is written in Greek. The word for swaddling clothes, like, I think of swaddling clothes, I think of you know, I have 3 kids when they were 6 months old or 1 month old when they were just born. I Courtney would give me this blanket. My job was to wrap the little baby up like a burrito, and I was good at it.
I was much better than my wife at wrapping it up like a burrito. That might have been the only thing I was good at, but I was good at that. That's actually that's what we think about. But see, in that day, Jesus, once again, we know where Jesus was born. Jesus was born in this cave in Bethlehem.
There there's a Church Of The Nativity that's that's erected on it. It was erected in like March or something like that. People 15 years even back to 15 years after Jesus died and rose again began visiting this cave just paying homage saying, wow, thank you Jesus. Thank you god for for for sending your son to be born in this manger, in this cave, right? And you can see the the the animal feeding trough that was right there in this cave.
Now, it's very significant once again. Swaddling clothes. What was that? This this would have been a cave possibly a cave where they would have kept the lambs getting ready ready for the sacrifice. And in that in that cave, there would have been what they would have called swaddling clothes or the word that they use for swaddling clothes.
It was actually these little strips of linen that when a new baby lamb was born, they would wrap these strips of linen around the legs of the lamb to keep the bugs from biting the lamb so that the lamb would grow up as a "spotless lamb". They wrapped the baby in the swaddling clothes signifying that hey, Jesus is gonna grow up as the spotless lamb. The angel said, the savior of the world Why is that significant? Well, we know in in Exodus when they were coming out of when they were coming out of Egypt, the final plague in Exodus-12:3. Let's go to Exodus-12:3.
There we go. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month, each man is to take a lamb for his family, 1 for each household. Go to verse 7. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides of the tops of the door frames of the houses where they eat the lambs where they're to eat the lambs. So they slaughtered the lamb and took the blood and placed it on the door frame.
Why? Go to the next 1. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.
The angel of death was about to take out the firstborn of all the land of Egypt and all of the animals but when they saw the blood of the sacrificial lamb over the home, the angel of death would pass over it. Jesus was the lamb that takes away the sin of the world. And when the shepherds heard that he was gonna be wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in an animal feeding trough right there in the cave. They knew where to look. It would be signifying to them, hey, we understand this.
You're speaking our language. We know what you're saying. Indeed, you what is being born is the sacrificial lamb that's gonna take away our sins so that we can know God. That's amazing. When you think about it, when John the Baptist saw Jesus, what did he say?
John the Baptist saw Jesus. He said, behold or look, the lamb of god that takes away the *sin* of the world. Jesus, the lamb of god that "takes away the sin" of the world. I think as Christians, because we've been brought up in the church or as Americans, we've heard it a lot. We we have no problem believing in Jesus.
A lot of us. A lot of us have very little problem even believing that he died for our sin. But I think a lot of time we have problem believing that he took away our sin. Behold, the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world. What does that mean?
I think if we understood that he takes away our sin in the in the gravity, the depth of what that means for us, then we'd live as if he took away our sin. We'd run into the father's arms instead of shrinking back in condemnation day in and day out. We'd walk in peace with our father because the son died to take away our sin. Good news of great joy for all people Let's go to Hebrews. Let's dive into that.
Why Jesus was sent? The author of the New Covenant. *Hebrews-9:15* says, for this reason reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Now that he has died as a ransom, remember the sacrificial lamb to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. So, you see 2 clear covenants right there.
You have the old covenant which was based on the law which was based on us following god, us being good enough as we said in the beginning, us getting it right. And then we have the new covenant. The old covenant was based on our actions but the new covenant. Here, let me let me explain. Let me define the new covenant.
It's got some pretty cool stuff in it. *Hebrews-8:10*. It says, this is the covenant. Just think of covenant as this promise that's that's full of legal language but yet very intimate. This is the covenant I will establish with the people Israel after that time, declares the Lord.
If you're like, well, wait a second. I'm not Israel. No. If you've if you believe in God, right? If you have faith in Jesus, then you're you're you're counted as a child of Abraham or you're counted as 1 of the children of Israel.
So, just this is for you. This is the covenant I will establish with the people Israel after that time declares the lord. What is the covenant? This is it. This is what you're in if you receive Jesus.
You ready? I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their god and they will be my people. See this closeness, this connection with God. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to 1 another, know the Lord because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest.
Verse 12. Here's the good part. This is the most important part. I dare say the most important part of the new covenant. So important for you to answer.
You ready? Verse 12. For I will forgive their wickedness. Another version says their unrighteousness. I will forgive their unrighteousness, and I will "remember their sins no more".
Why do I say that's the most important part? Think about Jesus when he took the cup. He said, this is the blood of the new covenant. It's poured out for the forgiveness of your sins, poured out for your sins. Jesus himself as he's talking about it.
He says, I will forgive their *unrighteousness* and remember it no more. The all knowing god is all powerful and powerful enough to make himself not know your past sin. He has remembered your, he's forgotten your past sins, period. Like, do you, can you get that? I have trouble getting that because my sins are brought in front of my face all the time.
Whether it's by someone else or by my own thoughts, remembering, oh my gosh, I can't believe that that I did that way back then or I can't believe that. I I just messed up like, no, no, no. Jesus, his blood paid for all my sins so much so and wiped them out so completely that god doesn't even remember them. So, why should we? That's amazing.
It's the accuser of the brethren who brings it back and sometimes the accuser of the brethren works through religious people. Ain't that right? The accuser of the brethren accusing you night and day before the god and before yourself. Hey, he did that. Hey, he did that.
Hey, he did that. You don't deserve to go to church. You don't deserve to have a good marriage. You don't deserve to have blessings. You don't deserve to have the future that you God doesn't even remember it.
Remind yourself that you're forgiven and you're washed clean. Watch this. This is this is the good news of great joy that we can have in relationship with our heavenly father. That's amazing. Watch this.
Let's see. *Hebrews-9:27*, just as people are destined to die once and after that, to face judgement, So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many. Remember, Jesus, this the sacrificial lamb who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus destined to die once to take away your sin, completely take it away. It doesn't get any deeper than that.
That's deep enough. And he will appear a second time not to bear sin but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Let's just drive this down. Let's keep reading. Hebrews-10.
You guys ready? Follow me along with this. This is awesome. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
So in the Old Testament, they would constantly sacrifice these sacrificial lambs, but it did nothing because it was just a lamb. Did nothing until that is the lamb of God came, Jesus Christ, who takes away the sin of the world. Watch this. Verse 2, Because if it did something otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? Why?
Why would they have stopped being offered? Check this out. This is good. You got you gotta get this. For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
That think about that. That's saying once you are cleansed, if you ever can get cleansed once and for all for your sins, then you no longer have to feel guilty anymore. Let me read again. For this reason, it can never by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, they would not have would they not have stopped being offered?
For the worshipers would have been *cleansed* once for all and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. What does that mean? Well, verse 10. No. No.
No. Verse 9 and 10. Hebrews-10:9 and 10. Then he said, here I am. This is Jesus talking.
Here I am. I've come to do your will. He set aside the first covenant to establish the second covenant and by that will, we have been made holy. Everybody say, we have been made holy. We have holy.
Through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Meaning, we don't even have to feel guilty anymore because god doesn't remember our sins anymore. It's completely washed from the from us as far as the "East is from the West". It's done. It's over completely forgiven.
I'll just keep reading day after day, the priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again, offering the same sacrifices which can never take away sins But when this priest, Jesus, had offered for all time, 1 sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of god and since that time waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, for by 1 sacrifice he made perfect forever those who are being made holy. So, because of Jesus, we're made perfect forever. Our sins are not remembered anymore which is good news of great joy and we don't even have to feel guilty for our sin because Jesus' goodness is credited to our account which is amazing. It's almost this good too good to be true news. It really is.
It's grace. It's getting what we don't deserve. We don't deserve to be counted as in right standing with god. We a lot of us when we hear this, we're like, oh my gosh. Wait a second.
Hold on. But no. No. It's that good. It's that amazing.
It's right there in scripture. We just read it. It's awesome. It's called grace. Getting what you don't deserve and you know what?
Paul preached the same thing. Paul preached this exact same thing and he was persecuted by the religious for it. He said, you could never preach that. Don't say that. Paul said, I am unashamed of the gospel.
I'll keep preaching it. I'm a unashamed of the good news. Watch what Paul said. Paul said the same thing. Acts-13, he's preaching.
He's preaching this whole message and I'm just gonna read a little sliver of the message. Acts-13:38 39, he says, therefore, my friends, I want you to know that though Jesus, that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him, everyone who believes, everybody say, everyone. Everyone who believes is set free from every sin. Are you struggling?
Believe. Believe what he's done. Believe that you're set free. Believe what he said. Believe that he has taken it away.
Believe that the sin is no longer counted against you. You know why that we continue to struggle with sin is because we allow guilt to make us feel unworthy from running into our father's arms and so because we feel unworthy, we cower in shame like Adam did in the Garden of Eden and we continue in our filth instead of running forward clean. Because he's made us clean He calls you righteous and holy and perfect in him and he doesn't even remember what you remember. That's amazing. Through him, Paul preaching once again, through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.
And they had a hissy fit as soon as he said that. But it's true. And it's amazing and it's good news. This is grace. This is the covenant of grace.
It's the good news of great joy. It's getting what we don't deserve. It's what Jesus was sent here for. People think, woah, wait, like when when when I preach this I know that there's people that say, hold on. Aren't people just gonna go send more?
I know that because when Paul preached it, the people said the same thing This is what Jesus came for. This is the good news of grace. It's amazing. Paul says, anyone who has died has been set free from sin. It's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.
I've died with Christ. So, if you've given your life to Jesus, you've died with Christ. You've been set free from sin. Jesus is taking it away 100%, which is amazing. So, how does this change a man's life?
How does this change someone from the inside out? How is it then that this actually works? Titus Paul's writing a letter to Titus and he's telling him the same thing. There was some Titus was 1 of the leaders in in the city called Ephesus and and they had a bunch of people that were coming against him and deserting the faith and all this stuff and Titus, Paul's writing Titus this letter to encourage him. He's saying, hey, stay strong, Titus.
But in Titus-2:11, he says, for the grace, everybody say grace. Grace. For the grace of god has appeared that offers salvation to all people. So, it's for the getting of what you don't deserve from Jesus that has appeared to all that offers salvation to all people. It's the I'm god forgetting all of my sin, 100, taking away all of my sin, and counting me as righteous and holy in him, telling me that I'm loved and I'm I'm with him and then coming to dwell in me so that in giving me the power to live for him so that as I follow him, I see his goodness flow out of me in every aspect of my life.
That's grace getting what we don't deserve. That has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It, verse 12, it, what, it, grace, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age. Seeing his goodness for you makes you wanna live for him more than ever before. That's grace.
It makes you wanna run after him, sprint with all your might. It makes you wanna give all you have to the people that god says to give it to to to the to this person, to your waiter, to whatever. It makes you want to work with everything that you have at your job. It was being so heavenly minded that you're earthly amazing, that your boss says, oh my gosh, why are you doing this? Why are you going over and above?
It's because, man, I I just know what god did for me and so, man, I just wanna serve with everything that I have to show everybody else that that the change that he's made in my heart. It's the grace that causes you to love people when they don't deserve to love they don't deserve to be loved. The person that cut in front of you in line, you let them go and then you buy the stuff for them and say, hey, man. I just believe god loves you. Can I pray for you?
Can I minister to you? It's his grace that causes you to change from the inside out so that other people see you and they see Jesus walk into a room. Other people hear you speak and they hear something different because it's his love flowing from your heart out of your mouth and changing them from the inside out because it's his grace. It's amazing. Let's go back to Luke-2.
So, after they announced it, this will be assigned to you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising god and saying, verse 14, glory to god in the highest heaven and on earth **peace to those** on whom his favor rests. You know, we we always grew up getting reading those Christmas cards. It says on earth, peace and goodwill to men, right?
That's what we've always heard. That's what the King James says, right? On earth, peace and goodwill to men. It makes it sound like because Jesus died on the cross and and rose again, there should be peace in the world. Peace and goodwill to all men, right?
It's what it sounds like in in the in the KJV but that's wait a second. Like, there's still wars. As a matter of fact, there's lots of wars. There's there's a lack of peace in in the world today. What's the deal?
Why is that happening? Why is there a lack of peace? Because the right translation, ESV, I think it's a right and I it's actually it actually is on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. Like Jesus said, I came, I don't think that I came to bring peace but a sword. When I preach this gospel of grace all over the world when before we came here, man, sometimes it causes it causes riots and revival.
The world the world either hates it or runs to it. For example, my father was preaching in, I think it was in Uganda, preaching the gospel. And there was this young boy and young girl in the crowd. The young boy gave his life to Jesus. The young girl saw her brother give his life to Jesus.
She ran home before the boy did. Told his, told her family, Muslim family. When the boy got home, the Muslim father was waiting with the machete. Luckily, the boy got away. Luckily, *blessed* because of Jesus.
The boy got away. The father chased the boy with a machete. Boy was faster than the father. Boy went back to the local church, lived there. I got a good friend of mine, close friend, really close friend.
Got married before he gave his life to Jesus. Husband and his wife, they both didn't know Jesus. He gave his life to Jesus. She didn't. As he grew in his relationship with Jesus, she despised him.
After 5 years, she left him. Couldn't handle it. He who loves his life will lose it. He who loses his life for my sake will find it. See, the peace that he's talking about is peace between God and man.
We walk in we we give our life to Jesus. We follow him. We believe what he's done for us. And we enter into relationship with the creator of the universe. That doesn't always work out to where everyone around us accepts us for this new change.
Sometimes the people of the world hate it. We just do. What are we gonna do? We're gonna love them regardless. It's what Jesus did.
Jesus said, father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. See, he who loves his life will lose it, but he loses it for my sake will find it. What it means is, father, I realize that you created me to know you. So father, I'm "laying my life down" for you. I'm laying my marriage down.
I'm laying my my jobs down. Lord, I'm laying my my friendships down. If you if you want my friendships, take them, God. Take every aspect because I know you have what for me what is best, father. I'm laying I'm gonna follow you even at the cost of my friendships.
I'm gonna follow you even at the cost of what I think my future should be. I'm gonna follow you even at the cost of those things because I trust that what you have for me is better, and I know walking in your plan for my life is peace and rest. And walking in my plan for my life, I need a savior. You're my savior. Amen?
Glory to God in the highest on earth. Peace to those on whom his favor rests. *John-3:36*. Sadly, some don't accept the "free gift". Sadly, some reject it.
Says whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Eternal life is knowing God, is walking with him, walking in peace, *sins* wiped away as far as the East is from the West, him not remembering our sins anymore, but calling us a son, pleased with us based on the fact that Jesus' goodness is credited to our account, loves us. But whoever rejects the son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him. We're either children of the promise or we're children of wrath. *1 John-3:10* puts it like this.
We're either children of Jesus or children of God or we're children of the devil. 1 or the other. What do we do as children of god? We we love the children of the devil until they become children of god. Praying for them day in and day out.
It's just real. It's what his word says. So, back to the good news of great joy. Which is God loves you and God cares for you. And he's paved the way for everyone to know him and to walk with him.
He's the sacrificial lamb that took away your sin so you could walk in his goodness. That's grace. Amen? Let's pray. Father, I just thank you for who you are.
I thank you that you love us. *Lord*, I thank you for your goodness. Father, I thank you that we're under the new covenant. Or will you remember our sin no more? Lord, so we can be your children.
We can receive your goodness. Thank you, father for that. Thank you, god. We praise you. *Lord*, thank you for sending your son to be born of a virgin as a sacrificial lamb for us.
Thank you, Jesus. If you guys would just keep your head bound and eyes closed. I'm gonna give you the opportunity. If there's anybody in here that has never received Jesus, you've never received that free gift, maybe you just never really believed that he paid the price to forgive you of all your sins so you could walk in freedom as we talked about. You've never believed that good news.
Is there anybody here? I'll count to 3. You can raise your hand high if that's you and you would like to receive that. We'd like to receive relationship with him. 1.
If you just raise your hand when I get to 3 23. Anybody like to receive Jesus? Praise the Lord. For the rest of you, for everybody here, I want you to "pray with me". I want you to pray this prayer because this is applicable for everybody.
Say this. Father, thank you. Everybody out loud say this. Father, thank you that I'm loved by you, that you have forgiven my sins. You remember them no more.
Teach me to not remember them either. Teach me to reject accusations and walk forward in freedom as your son or daughter. Thank you, Jesus. Teach me what it means to not be guilty but to live in righteousness. I receive you.
Amen. God is good. God loves you. God cares for you. And "Merry Christmas".
Thanks for listening to the Real Church podcast. If you have questions, comments, or would like to get to know us, be sure to check us out on social media by searching real church clearwater or visit us online at www.realchurch.us. If you'd like to play a part in what we're doing, you can do so right where you are. Your prayers are powerful and effective. You can also be a part through giving.
Go to realchurch.us and click the give button. Whether you're praying, giving, or serving with Real Church, you're playing a part in every life being changed. Thank you. Until our next podcast, be blessed. We'll see you next time.