All accounts, the birth of Jesus was an extraordinary, dramatic event.

It involved miracles, there were angels, divine providence, all the makings of a fantastic

story.

So why is it Luke's description of the Nativity seems so light on the details?

Alistair Begg answers that question today.

We're in Luke chapter 2.

It is really fairly striking, at least from where I stand, that despite all the hoopla

that surrounds Christmas, both in terms of the things we do and the people we invite

and the crowds that come within very few days from Christmas's celebration being completed,

most of the crowds are gone.

They're all gone, apart from a lingering few.

One or two who are intrigued that stay on for a week or two and some who stay on for

good, caught up in the time.

And while we're grateful for the lingering few, we're concerned about the scattered throng,

at least I am.

And my concern is largely this, that while we think in terms of Christmas as a great opportunity

for people to come to faith, Christmas also is a unique time for men and women to affirm

themselves in their unbelief, for them to be reinforced in the confusion which grips

them.

So they're coming out of a year in which they've paid largely little attention to the

issues of the Bible or to Jesus at all because of the passage of time and because of the

events of the calendar, they find themselves swept in amongst the worshiping crowd.

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