Christmas
2008: “The Angelic Announcement Made To
Shepherds – Luke 2:6-20”
By
Luke 2:6-20 (NASB95)
“6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped
Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in
the inn. 8 In the same region there
were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over
their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord
suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and
they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to
them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which
will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of
David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby
wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the
highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the
shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to
1.
Introduction:
I
have always been intrigued at the means which the Lord used to declare the
arrival of His only begotten Son on that first Christmas morning. The whole Nativity story to me is shocking
because of its lack of pomp and circumstance; it is so not what I would expect. Yet, this very fact itself lends credibility
to it. No one would have made up a story
such as this. Think about it, if one
person of the Almighty Trinity were to leave His Throne of Glory ruling over
every creature and all created things, to inhabit a woman’s body and then be
born as a manchild, what kind of an introduction would you expect creatures so
mighty as cherubs would make for this child?
The option that you would never expect is the very one our story tells
us.
2.
This passage
brings up many questions in my mind, including:
2.1.
The angels in our
story sing, but why would the angels not have prepared for a millennia an
entire symphony concert on this morning instead of a single chorus?
2.2.
Why did the Lord
not make this announcement and singing to occur in one of the great
amphitheatres of the day instead of it occurring out in the fields?
2.3.
Why would an
announcement that was to be for all people be made to just a few?
2.4.
Why would the
Lord make this angelic announcement to those of the class of shepherds,
considered to be the dregs of society in that day and included many
criminals?
2.5.
Why would the
angels state that this event was to bring peace on earth?
2.6.
Why was this
peace announced to shepherds when it was only for those whom the Lord was
pleased?
2.7.
It is great men
who are worshipped, why would a baby deserve such worship? What about baby Jesus deserved such worship?
2.8.
Why would such a
manchild who was inhabited by the King of the Universe have for His birthing a
manger, a cave or shack which was nothing more than a place where horses and
donkeys were fed and housed?
2.9.
Couldn’t the Lord
have thought ahead and made sure there would be an inn that had room to put
baby Jesus in after He was born?
2.10. Why didn’t the Lord choose to reveal His Son to the
religious leaders and experts of the Law of the very nation He had called to be
His people, instead of shepherds and Magi from a far away land?
3.
The answer to all
of these questions is enshrouded in the mystery of the incarnation, and the
purpose for why God would send His only begotten Son to earth to save mankind.
4.
Note that the
message that was declared by the angels to these shepherds was an “understandable”
message and contained concrete truth, a truth from God that was intended to be
communicated to all mankind. How
magnificent the song was which they sang, we can never on this earth
imagine. Spurgeon once preached about
this song that was sung and said the following:
“What is the instructive lesson
to be learned from this first syllable of the angels’ song? Why this, that
salvation is God’s highest glory. He is glorified in every dew drop that
twinkles to the morning sun. He is magnified in every wood flower that blossoms
in the copse, although it live to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness in the
forest air. God is glorified in every bird that warbles on the spray; in every
lamb that skips the mead. Do not the fishes in the sea praise him. From the
tiny minnow to the huge Leviathan, do not all creatures that swim the water
bless and praise his name? Do not all created things extol him? Is there aught
beneath the sky, save man, that doth not glorify God? Do not the stars exalt
him, when they write his name upon the azure of heaven in their golden letters?
Do not the lightnings adore him when they flash his brightness in arrows of
light piercing the midnight darkness? Do not thunders extol him when they roll
like drums in the march of the God of armies? Do not all things exalt him, from
the least even to the greatest? But sing, sing, oh universe, till thou hast
exhausted thyself, thou canst not afford a song so sweet as the song of
Incarnation. Though creation may be a majestic organ of praise, it cannot reach
the compass of the golden canticle — Incarnation! There is more in that than in
creation, more melody in Jesus in the manger, than there is in worlds on worlds
rolling their grandeur round the throne of the Most High.”
5.
If beings as
powerful as angels give and sing “Glory to God,” how much more should
less human creatures follow their lead!
And everything about Christ has and will give glory to God.
6.
When we consider
the angels of God, we know that the scriptures describe them as being mighty in
power. In the book of Revelation, there
are angels that actually hold back the winds (Rev. 7:1), have power over fire
(Rev. 14:8), have the key to the Abyss (Bottomless Pit), and have a great chain
with which they bind Satan for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-2). In fact, the angels had already been witness
to all of the incredible and vast creations that the Lord had made, such things
of which we at best understand but a miniscule amount. Yet, here we see that to the angels it was
the incredible sight of God incarnate in baby Jesus that caused them to declare
glory to God “in the highest.” No
greater expression of God’s glory had these angelic beings seen.
7.
What it was about
this baby that inspired the angels’ praise of God’s glory and worship of God,
was the Lord Himself. Even as a baby,
the Lord Jesus was what the book of Hebrews
declares Him to be, “the radiance of His glory and the exact
representation of His nature” in bodily form, (Heb. 1:3). There was nothing about Jesus Christ at any
age that was but a reflection of God’s glory and a representation of His
nature. The urge and impetus to worship
of these angels was even greater on this day than that which Isaiah described
in his book of his vision of heaven:
Isaiah 6:1-7, “1 In the year of King Uzziah’s
death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of
His robe filling the temple. 2
Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his
face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy,
Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at
the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because
I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts.” 6 Then one of the seraphim
flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar
with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with
it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is
taken away and your sin is forgiven.””
8.
There is more to
why the angels made this declaration. A
light is most bright and distinct when it shines in a dark place, and it was
the fact that the Lord of Glory was now dwelling in human form, the child born
to fallen and sinful humanity, 100% man and 100% God, that made His glory and
radiance all of the more bright and clear to these angelic beings. This further explains their declaration of “Glory
to God in the highest.”
9.
Not only did this
light shine most bright and distinct because of the dark place from which it
came (fallen humanity), the glory of God was seen in the Christ child by the
angels because of the fact that the humility of God was revealed in it. The God of the universe had humbled Himself
laying aside His power and glory in order to inhabit one of His own creations,
a human body originally created out of nothing but dirt. This is the amazement of the incarnation that
the apostle Paul wrote about in Philippians 2:5-8, “5 Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did
not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”
10.
The angelic
beings also recognized God’s glory in Christ the manchild because of the
purpose for which He had been born into the world. God’s glory is seen in that men deserved
judgment and justice for being born a sinful race descendent from the first
Adam, their federal head, and for having sinned over and over breaking God’s
law (“the wages of sin is death”-Rom. 6:23), but instead of holding
mankind responsible to the fullest extent of which God’s holiness and Law
demanded, instead this baby had been born so that he could one day have the
full extent of God’s justice and wrath deserved by sinful men, poured out upon
Him. The angel declared Him to be the “Savior”
of mankind. It was the glory of God in
the face of Christ, the one born to be man’s substitute that inspired the
angel’s praise and worship: 2
Corinthians 4:6, “6 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of
darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
11.
The history of
mankind has been a history of war and of hate and enmities among men. Further, because mankind is a sinful race and
all have sinned over and over again throughout their life and thus been at
enmity with God, thus the declaration concerning this child that He was come to
bring “Peace on earth,” is amazing.
The peace that is mentioned is the peace that comes from knowing Christ
as one’s Lord and Savior, of being washed in the blood of Christ, and having
been “justified” by Christ with the Lord declaring, “There is
therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
12.
The angels also
announced that they were declaring from the Lord through this manchild, “Good
will to man.” Christ was being given
not that the world should be judged but that He should be a savior to mankind
(John 3:17). Spurgeon once preached the
following about the good will of God towards mankind apparent in the
incarnation of Christ: “Philosophers have said that God has a
good will toward man; but I never knew any man who derived much comfort from
their philosophical assertion. Wise men have thought from what we have seen in
creation that God had much good will toward man, or else his works would never
have been so constructed for their comfort; but I never heard of any man who
could risk his soul’s peace upon such a faint hope as that. But I have not only
heard of thousands, but I know them who are quite sure that God has a good will
towards men; and if you ask their reason, they will give a full and perfect
answer. They say, he has good will toward man for he gave his Son. No greater
proof of kindness between the Creator and his subjects possibly be afforded
than when the Creator gives his only begotten and well beloved Son to die.
Though the first note is God-like, and though the second note is peaceful, this
third note melts my heart the most. Some think of God as if he were a morose
being who hated all mankind. Some picture him as if he were some abstract
subsistence taking no interest in our affairs. Hark ye God has “good
will toward men.” You know what good will means. Well all that it
means, and more, God has to you, ye sons and daughters of Adam. Swearer, you
have cursed God; he has not fulfilled his curse on you; he has good will
towards you, though you have no good will towards him. Infidel, you have sinned
high and hard against the Most High; he has said no hard things against you,
for he has good will towards men. Poor sinner, thou hast broken his laws; thou
art half afraid to come to the throne of his mercy lest he should spurn thee;
hear thou this, and be comforted — God has good will towards men, so good a
will that he has said, and said it with an oath too, “As I live, saith
the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, but had rather
that he should turn unto me and live;” so good a will moreover that he
has even condescended to say, “Come, now, let us reason together,
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool though they be red like
crimson, they shall be whiter than snow.” And if you say, “Lord,
how shall I know that thou hast this good will towards me,” he points
to yonder manger, and says, “Sinner, if I had not a good will towards
thee, would I have parted with my Son? if I had not good will towards the human
race, would I have given up my Son to become one of that race that he might by
so doing redeem them from death?””
13.
The fact that
that the announcement was made not in a finely architected amphitheatre, but
was made to none other than shepherds, and that the baby was born in a manger
(horse stall) because there was no room in the inn, all further reveals God’s
glory because God was at this time sending His son to every man. It was not the mighty or powerful among men,
not the rich who live in palaces and wear fine clothes and eat the best
gourmet, and not the religious elite who ruled over and guided the masses, to
whom the Christ child should be announced.
It was to the man in the field, the poor and homeless, the weak and
despised, the helpless and the hopeless, the ones who would truly understand,
receive and appreciate such a gift of the grace of God, to whom this Christ
child would be announced. It would be
among them that He would rule and establish His kingdom in their hearts. He came to call sinners to Himself. This is exactly what Paul wrote in 1
Corinthians 1:26-27, “26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there
were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world
to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the
things which are strong.”
14.
That shepherds
were chosen as the vehicles of this announcement has to do with the fact that
they weren’t pretentious and hypocritical as was the case of the religious
authorities and rulers in
15.
Look at this first statement that the angels make as they
begin their announcement: “Do not be
afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all
the people; for today in the
city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
15.1. This announcement was not to produce fear, for it was
not God’s will to make men fearful.
15.1.1.God was sending Jesus Christ to not to judge the world
but rather that the world might be saved, just as Jesus said in John 3:17.
15.2. The news was intended to be “good news of great joy.”
15.2.1.The Messianic promise first made to Abraham was that
of being a blessing to all mankind. Good
news means “gospel,” and the gospel is to bring “great joy” to
those who receive it. Mens’ sins were no
long to be counted against them because Jesus had born our sin and taken our
judgment. If men received Him they would
be forgiven and given the free gift of eternal life.
15.2.2.Issac Watts once remarked the following:
“Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less.”
15.2.3.This great joy comes from the wells of salvation and
is the river of water that Jesus said would flow from the innermost being of
those who believe in Him (John 7:37).
15.3. The news was not intended to be just for shepherds,
but rather it was intended “for all the people” on the earth.
15.3.1.Shepherds were receiving an announcement that would
eventually echo from one end of the earth to the other. It would be heralded not by angels by but
redeemed men acting as evangelists and stewards of the mysteries and oracles of
God.
15.4. The manchild’s purpose was to be “a Savior.”
15.4.1.Sinners cannot save themselves. The scriptures tell us that mankind is lost
in sin and thus could never be pleasing and accepted in God’s sight because of
their sin: “All have sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God,” Rom. 3:23.
15.5. He was to be their Savior, for as it says He is, “for
you.”
15.5.1.The angels made announcement to angels because a
Savior had been born for them. The offer
of salvation through Jesus Christ was being made to them, and to every man.
15.6. The appellation of this manchild is declared by the
angel to be “Christ the Lord.”
15.6.1.The “Messiah” and “Master” of all is
what the angel declared the baby is to be called.
16.
I never
want to leave Jesus Christ as a baby whenever I teach about the story of the
Nativity. The angelic announcement
reveals the glory, awe, and worship that is inspired by the manchild. But, Jesus grew up to be a man, and as a man
He accomplished salvation upon
The Maker of the universe,
As Man for man was made a curse.
The claims of Law which He had made,
Unto the uttermost He paid.
His holy fingers made the bough,
Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.
The nails that pierced His hands were mined
In secret places He designed.
He made the forest whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung.
He died upon a cross of wood,
Yet made the hill on which it stood.
The sky that darkened o'er His head,
By Him above the earth was spread.
The sun that hid from Him it's face
By His decree was poised in space.
The spear which spilled His precious blood
Was tempered in the fires of God.
The grave in which His form was laid
Was hewn in rocks His hands had made.
The throne on which He now appears
Was His for everlasting years.
But a new glory crowns His brow
And every knee to Him shall bow.
17.
Do you know Him
today? Do you know if you died today
that you would go to heaven?
The
scripture tells us that we can know now in this life that we have the free gift
of eternal: 1 John 5:11-13, “11 And the testimony is
this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not
have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in
the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
You
can learn how to come to know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and
thus have the assurance that you have eternal life at the site I have created
to shave this good news: http://www.calvarychapelgb.com/gospeltract.htm