Scripture referenced 26 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Luke 2:8-9 shepherds staying in fields keeping watch, angel appearing and glory of the lord shining around them
8 There were shepherds in the same country staying in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock.
9 Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
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Luke 2:10-12
angel telling shepherds fear not, good news of great joy, savior born in city of David, sign of baby in manger
10 The angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.
11 For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.”
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Luke 2:13-14
multitude of heavenly host praising god, glory to god in the highest and on earth peace
13 Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.”
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Luke 1:26-27
angel Gabriel sent to Nazareth to a virgin named Mary engaged to Joseph
26 Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man whose name was Joseph, of David’s house. The virgin’s name was Mary.
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Luke 1:28-30
angel greeting Mary as favored one, Mary perplexed, angel saying do not be afraid you have found favor with god
28 Having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, you highly favored one! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women!”
29 But when she saw him, she was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be.
30 The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
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Luke 1:31-33
angel telling Mary she will conceive and bear a son named Jesus who will reign over house of Jacob forever
31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Jesus.’
32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David,
33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.”
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Luke 1:34-35
Mary asking how since she is a virgin, angel answering holy spirit will come upon her and child shall be called son of god
34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.
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Luke 1:36-37
angel telling Mary her relative Elizabeth has also conceived in old age for nothing will be impossible with god
36 Behold, Elizabeth, your relative, also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
37 For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”
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Matthew 1:18
birth of Jesus Christ, Mary betrothed to Joseph found to be with child by holy spirit
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
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Matthew 1:19
Joseph being a righteous man not wanting to disgrace Mary planned to send her away secretly
19 Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly.
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Matthew 1:20-21
angel appearing to Joseph in dream telling him not to be afraid to take Mary as wife, child conceived of holy spirit, shall call his name Jesus
20 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
21 She shall give birth to a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”
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Matthew 1:22-23
fulfillment of Isaiah, virgin shall bear a son called Emmanuel meaning god with us
22 Now all this has happened, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel”; which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”
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Luke 2:15-16
shepherds deciding to go to Bethlehem and finding Mary Joseph and baby in manger
15 When the angels went away from them into the sky, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 They came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in the feeding trough.
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Luke 2:17-18
shepherds making known what had been told them, all who heard were amazed
17 When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child.
18 All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds.
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Luke 2:19
Mary treasured all these things pondering them in her heart
19 But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart.
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Luke 2:20
shepherds returning glorifying and praising god for all they had heard and seen
20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told them.
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Luke 1:46-49
Mary's Magnificat, soul magnifies the lord, spirit rejoices in god my savior, mighty has done great things for me holy is his name
46 Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.
47 My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked at the humble state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.
49 For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name.
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Matthew 2:13
angel appearing to Joseph in dream telling him to flee to Egypt with child and mother because Herod would seek to destroy the child
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.”
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Matthew 2:14
Joseph getting up while still night and leaving for Egypt
14 He arose and took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt,
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Matthew 2:19-21
angel appearing to Joseph in Egypt telling him Herod is dead and to return to land of Israel
19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
20 “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child’s life are dead.”
21 He arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
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Matthew 2:22-23
Joseph settling in Nazareth fulfilling that he shall be called a Nazarene
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee,
23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
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Luke 11:27-28
woman calling blessed the womb that bore Jesus, Jesus responding blessed are those who hear the word of god and keep it
27 It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”
28 But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”
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Revelation 1:1-3
revelation given to bond servants, blessed is the one who reads and hears and keeps the words of prophecy for the time is near
1 This is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things which must happen soon, which he sent and made known by his angel to his servant, John,
2 who testified to God’s word, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, about everything that he saw.
3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it, for the time is at hand.
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Isaiah 61
Jesus citing his mission to share with the poor and freedom for the captive
1 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.
4 They will rebuild the old ruins. They will raise up the places long devastated. They will repair the ruined cities, that have been devastated for many generations.
5 Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards.
6 But you will be called Yahweh’s priests. Men will call you the servants of our God. You will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory.
7 Instead of your shame you will have double. Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land, they will possess double. Everlasting joy will be to them.
8 “For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their offspring will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge them, that they are the offspring which Yahweh has blessed.”
10 I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up; so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
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Ephesians 4:11-13
god gave apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers for equipping saints until unity of the faith and fullness of Christ
11 He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;
12 for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
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Ephesians 4:14-16
no longer children tossed by waves of doctrine, speaking truth in love, whole body fitted together growing up into Christ
14 that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
15 but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;
16 from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message came from Pastor Mark on the Sunday before Christmas, looking at the responses of the shepherds, Mary, and Joseph when they each received a word from God through an angel. The central question he kept returning to was a simple one: when a message comes toward you, what do you do with it? He drew a line from those first-century responses all the way to how we receive and act on what God asks of us today.
What was said
Pastor Mark opened by acknowledging the weight of the season, noting that joy and grief sit right next to each other at Christmas. There had been an avalanche on the pass the day before, leaving a man on life support. The prior day had also marked the one-year anniversary of the death of a woman from the congregation. He asked for prayer as he carried that pastoral burden, and set the tone for a message that was not going to stay in the abstract.
He introduced the shepherds as people on the lowest rung of the social ladder, the kind of work that had to be done but earned no respect. The word used for "keeping watch" in the text, he pointed out, carries the sense of ongoing, careful guarding, as though the flock is something precious. He illustrated this with a memory of hiking in the High Atlas Mountains in Morocco with his wife and son, where they passed shepherds who had stacked flat rocks around ravines to protect their sheep from harm.
When the angel appeared to the shepherds, the first thing said was "fear not," and Pastor Mark noted that this is almost always the first thing angels say, because receiving a message you do not know what to do with is frightening. The angel told them a savior had been born "for you," and then "this will be a sign for you," both times making it personal. A multitude of the heavenly host then appeared, and the congregation heard both the New American Standard wording, "peace among people with whom he is pleased," and the King James wording, "peace and goodwill toward men." He said both are true, that the sovereign God extends his love outward and those who receive it are the ones on whom his favor rests, and that our finite minds struggle to hold both at once.
He walked through Mary's response and Joseph's response alongside the shepherds', showing them in parallel. Mary was perplexed but not paralyzed. Joseph, described as a righteous man who planned to send Mary away quietly rather than expose her, received his word in a dream and simply woke up and did what he was told. Joseph actually received three separate dreams with commands, and each time the text records that he got up and went. The pattern across all three of them was the same: a message came toward them, and they acted on it.
What struck Pastor Mark about the shepherds was not any long description of worship or adoration in the text. They went in a hurry, they found the baby exactly as described, and then they told Mary and Joseph what they had been told. They carried the message forward. He connected this to a missions slide shown earlier in the service, saying it moved him that a small gathering of people in Jackson can have an effect on the other side of the world simply by being faithful with the message.
He then brought in a passage from Luke where a woman calls out "blessed is the womb that bore you," and Jesus responds that more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. The word for "keep" there, Pastor Mark said, is the same word used for what the shepherds were doing with their flocks, guarding and observing carefully for the sake of well-being. He carried that through to Revelation, where a blessing is given to the one who reads, hears, and keeps what is written, and then to Ephesians, where apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers are all described as carriers of messages, given for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.
He closed by asking whether we sit ready each morning to receive what God has for us that day. He pointed back to Joseph, who was legally within his rights to treat Mary harshly but chose the way of love and forbearance, and said that love has to be the way we carry whatever message we are given. The call was not complicated: hear the word, guard it as something precious, and act on it.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Aaron talked about the joy of the Christmas season existing alongside real pain and grief. How have you experienced that tension personally, and how does it shape the way you receive the Christmas message?
- The shepherds were described as the lowest of the low, and yet the angel said the message was 'for you' twice. What does it mean to you personally that the announcement was framed that way, as something directed at you rather than just at everyone in general?
and 3 more questions in the guide
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