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Let us see what the Lord has made known to us. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Sound familiar? We like signs. Signs tell us things. We expect them. We look for them. They're everywhere. They give us information that's important, and it's expected that they will give us some piece of information that we're lacking otherwise. How do you know when you're at Wendy's and not McDonald's? Well, just look at the sign out front, and you can't go wrong. You may not even have to read to understand the sign. After all, there's a clear difference between a girl with red braided hair and the golden arches. Signs are important. They give us direction. We expect the truth from them. We trust that whatever the sign says is correct. That's even more reason why we shouldn't be surprised if we get pulled over for driving over the speed limit. It's not like the wrong sign was posted alongside the road. Signs are meant to be recognized. Signs are not meant to be ambiguous. They're meant for us to know what the sign says. Signs are meant to tell us something. When it comes to God, you don't have to worry. With Him, there is no ambiguity. He doesn't play hide and go seek with your feelings. He doesn't play guessing games with your thoughts. The Lord's signs are definite. When the Lord wants you to have a sign, he will tell you where to find it. If he hasn't said, look up in the sky or down on the ground or into that tree over there, well then you will find no sign from God there. His word will always say it like it is. There's no need for concern. If the Lord wants you to know something, he will tell you like it is. This is how Scripture is written. If he gives you a sign, he will make the sign as clear as he did, as he spoke through his word to the shepherds by the angel that night. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. A baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. It's just a simple sign, really. Even with specific and clear attributes. The city of David, a baby, a manger, and some cloths. It doesn't get any more simple than that. There's nothing to, nothing miraculous to gaze upon here. It does not appear to be awe-inspiring. If nothing else, it looks mundane and poor and lowly. There is no show of power and glory there. Although the presence of the angel of the Lord was terrifying to the shepherds, his appearance before the shepherds was not the sign. If the angel of the Lord appeared before you, you too would be terrified. If an angel host surrounded you, you too would be in fear, until they told you, do not be afraid. But the sign that was given by God was not the angel's presence, nor the angelic host that followed. The sign that God gave came through the mouth of his messenger. It was the Lord's word that declared what the sign would be. The shepherds believed the word of God that he had made known to them. After it all, it was the Lord who had spoken it. And as a result, they were able to see with the eyes of faith. Not because the sign itself was amazing. Rather because it was exactly as the word of the Lord had declared it to them. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. When God gives signs, he will explain them. The proof wasn't found in their own hearts or their own minds. The proof is found in Scripture. God's word is full of them. Some signs are amazing, like the ten plagues in Egypt, for instance. Yet despite all the signs that God did before Pharaoh, he still refused to receive the word of the Lord and his command and promise. Remember, miraculous signs don't make believers. The word of God does. No different than there were many Jews throughout Galilee at the time our Lord walked among them. Jesus did many signs, healing the blind, the deaf, the lame, raising the dead, and yet there were many who still refused to believe and receive him. Miraculous signs don't make believers. Rather, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10. It's not surprising that so many people reject the signs from God's word, but look for them everywhere else. It's in our nature. But by rejecting God's word and sign, they do reject God Himself. If we reject a sign, we reject it because of the hardness of our heart. It does not matter whether it's the most miraculous of signs or even the simplest and mundane. If we receive a sign, it's because the Word of God declared it, and the Holy Spirit gave us eyes to see it, and hearts to acknowledge it. But most are quick to be dismissive of a sign, especially when the sign comes under the humblest of means. It's not because God's word isn't clear about it, beloved, but because many refuse that something so mundane, so insignificant and lowly, even when it just looks like bread and tastes like wine and feels like tap water. That really can't be the sign God's word declares it to be, right, Pastor? But God's word makes a thing what it is, doesn't it? And a sign from God is always explained, isn't it? Not unlike when Jesus tells the Israelites, no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish, so also the Son of Man will spend three days in the earth. But then he goes on to say, only an unbelieving generation asks for a sign. And why? Because only in unbelief do they ask for a sign. Because they refuse to believe the simple, the mundane, but most efficacious sign that Christ has already declared to them and placed right before their eyes. Dear friends in Christ, God's signs aren't guessing games for you to figure out. He will tell you what they mean and their purpose. Anything else is dreamt up out of our own imaginations. No doubt our great God comes under the humblest of means. He is incarnate, having taken on flesh as a man like you and me. God became flesh and blood. But if that weren't humble enough, he came in utter humility and was born in a stable. Not even a hospital like today. Not even in a bedroom like someone of that day, but instead in a place where animals sleep and their food is kept. Yep, there was a baby laid in a manger in a food trough. Not swaddled in a blanket like you would, but in cloths. If we saw somebody born in a barn today, we would think them to be homeless. And their parents too. But regardless of what the shepherd's eyes saw that night, or what our eyes see, therein still lies something amazing and great, despite how lowly and insignificant the sign might appear on the outside. God Himself, God Himself clothed himself entirely in humility for your sake and for mine. What better sign is that? It confounds the wise and appears foolish, but it makes the foolish wise unto salvation. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. By humbling himself to be born as a child, Christ gives the greatest glory to God in the highest. He glorifies God by becoming man and tabernacling with us in human flesh, so that he can glorify God by winning salvation for all mankind by dying on a cross. He offers himself as the propitiation for all your sins, dear beloved. And by doing so, he makes peace between us and God. This is why the angels give glory to God in the highest, because God does what no man can do except the God man, who is Jesus the Christ. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. St. Paul says it all. And it's going to be terrifying and awesome. More awesome and fearful than when the shepherds spoke with the angel and saw the angelic host that night. So then, beloved, dear children of God, let us rejoice as we remember the coming of Christ our Savior as the babe in the manger and look forward to his return as we celebrate the nativity of our Lord and the incarnation this very Christmas. And while we wait for our Lord to return in glory, let us see what the Lord has made known to us in the signs that he has given his holy church for the here and the now. In simple means, in water and word and bread and wine. Because in these our Lord still comes to us in humility. And there he delivers himself to us so that we might know that we have the forgiveness of all our sins. And then we're prepared for him to come in his glory. Merry Christmas. In the name of Jesus.