Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary

spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin

and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, welcome back to the Daily Blade. We are going to do a deep dive this week into

Luke chapter two. And I know what you're probably thinking. Isn't Luke chapter two the preeminent

text on Christmas? And yes, it is. And you may be thinking, well, isn't Christmas over?

Well, no. I mean, I want you to think about Christmas Day from Mary and Joseph's perspective.

We're going to look at the perspective of the Shepherds. You see, the way they experienced Christmas

is Christmas was not the finish line. Christmas was the starting line. Listen, I'm pro-advent.

I think it's really cool that we would prepare our hearts to celebrate Christmas.

But a part of the shadow of Advent is that what we do, as American or Western Christians,

as we prepare and we prepare and we prepare for the incarnation of Christ,

and then on that Christmas Day, we do all the things.

We read Luke 2, we've seen all the movies, we've been to the Christmas Eve services,

we open the presents, and then we've been to the Christmas Eve services, we open the

presents, and then we just move on with our lives getting ready for the new year. Well, that is not

how it worked in the first Christmas in Luke 2. You see, especially the shepherds from their perspective,

they really had no idea that Christmas was coming, and they didn't just get ready for it,

celebrate it, and it was over, but it was that moment that changed everything.

So that is the perspective in which I want to look at Luke two as we move into the new year.

Luke chapter two, beginning of verse one, says this.

In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

...