SPEAKER_00 0:02

In the name of Jesus. Amen. Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. That might sound familiar to all of you. 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 were lacking otherwise. How do you know 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 braided hair, red, and the golden arches. Signs are important. They give us direction. We expect the truth from them. We trust that whatever a 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 on the side of the road. Signs are meant to be recognized. Signs are not meant to be ambiguous. They are 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 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 in that tree, well then you will find no sign from God there. His word will always say it like it is. There is 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 clear the sign, as he did through his words spoken to the shepherds by the angel that night. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 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 even more simple than that. There's nothing miraculous to gaze upon here. It does not appear awe-inspiring. If nothing else, it looks mundane and poor and lowly. There is no show of power or glory here. Although the presence of the angel of the Lord was terrifying for the shepherds, his appearance before the shepherds was not the sign. If the angel of the Lord were to appear before you, you too would be terrified. If the angel hosts surrounded you, you 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 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 was found in Scripture. God's word is full of them. Some signs are amazing, like the ten plagues in Egypt. Yet despite all the signs that God did before Pharaoh, he still refused to receive the Lord's word, command, and promise. Remember, miraculous signs don't make believers. The word of God does. No different were the 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. Yet there were still many who refused to believe and receive him. Miraculous signs don't make believers. Rather, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. It's not surprising that so many people reject the signs of God's word, but look for them everywhere else. But by rejecting God's word and sign, they reject God Himself. If we reject the sign, we reject it because of the hardness of our own heart. It does not matter whether it's the most miraculous sign or even the simplest. If we receive a sign, it's because the Word of God declared it, and the Holy Spirit gave us eyes to see and hearts to acknowledge it. But most are quick to be dismissive of a sign, especially when that sign comes under the humblest of means. It's not because God's word isn't clear about it, but because many refuse that something is so mundane, so insignificant and lowly, even when it looks just like bread and tastes like wine and feels like water. That really can't be a sign of God's word as he declares it, right, Pastor? But God's word makes a thing what it is, doesn't he? And a sign from God is always explained. 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, mundane, but efficacious sign that Christ has already declared to them and placed before their very eyes. God's signs aren't guessing games for you. He will tell you what they mean and their purpose. Anything else is dreamt up from our own imaginations. No doubt our great God still comes to us under the humblest of means. He is incarnate, having taken on the flesh of a man. God came in flesh and blood. But if that weren't humble enough, he came in utter humility and was born in a stable. Not in a hospital like today, not in a bedroom like someone of that day, but instead in a place where animals slept and kept their food. Yet there was a baby, a manger in a food trough, not swaddled in a blanket, but in cloths. If we were to see someone born in a barn today, chances are we would think him to be homeless, much less his parents. But regardless of what the shepherds' eyes saw, 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 clothed himself entirely in humility for your sake, dear beloved, and 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 peace among those with whom he is pleased. By humbling himself to be born as a child, Christ gives 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 his death on the cross. He offers himself as the propitiation for our sins. 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 could do except the God man Jesus, who is 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 for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. There in Bethlehem, the Lord came in humility. But Christ will come again and this time in glory. It will be terrifying and awesome. More awesome and fearful than when those shepherds spoke to the angels and the angel hosts. But then, beloved, children of God, let us rejoice and remember the coming of Christ our Savior as a babe in the manger and look forward to his return as we celebrate this nativity of our Lord and the incarnation of 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 to His Holy Church for the here and the now. In simple means of water, and word, and bread, and wine. Because in these our Lord still comes to us in humility. And there he delivers to himself to us so that we might know we have the forgiveness of all our sins and be prepared for his coming again in glory. Merry Christmas to all of you. In the name of Jesus. Please rise for the singing of the Magnificat, that is the Song of Mary.