A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on June 9, 2024.
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “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. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
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.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them (Luke 2:8-20).[1]
By the decree of Caesar Augustus, Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem to be registered, and there Jesus was born. It was this imperial decree that God used to determine the place of our Savior’s birth, fulfilling Micah’s prophecy that from Bethlehem would come forth a “ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Mic. 5:2). Given the providential magnitude of Caesar’s decree, given his position of authority and place in history, we might assume that he would be the first to hear the heaven-sent proclamation of the birth of the King of kings. But as far as we know, he never knew. Likewise, we might assume that given the scholarly anticipation of the Christ, the wisemen’s astronomically-guide journey, and King Herod’s inquiry, that the leaders of Israel would hear first the heavenly herald. But they heard nothing, nor had ears to hear.
Luke tells us that it was neither leaders of church nor rulers of state who received the angelic announcement but shepherds in a field near Bethlehem, “keeping watch over their flock by night” (2:8). Who are these shepherds? What are their names? We do not know. They are remembered not for who they are but of whom they hear and who they will worship. Their identity is revealed only in the revelation of God to them of the incarnation of the Son of God.
This of course is not the way of the world, which regards fame and fortune, class and culture as confirmation of significance. Our media turns actors and actresses, performers and politicians into celebrities. When advice is needed the world directs us to the wealthy not the godly. But that is not the way of the Lord, who sent his Son to be born in an obscure village to a lowly virgin in an unknown stable. James asks wisely, “has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” (Jas. 2:5). Indeed, he has, for the Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6b-8). Let us then meditate on this counter-cultural truth:
God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom. from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Cor. 1:28-31).
In light of this, consider now our passage of Scripture and what these lowly shepherds hear and see: Is not the angel’s proclamation boasting in the Lord? Is not the heavenly host’s hymn boasting in the Lord? Is not the shepherds’ response boasting in the Lord? Luke records, “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (2:20). May the same be said of us, for we too have heard the “good news of great joy.” Let us then look intently at God’s Word today, and by his Holy Spirit let angels from heaven and shepherds from history inform our worship.
A Glorious Proclamation
Into what was surely another mundane day in the life of a lowly shepherd, an angel of the Lord appears in the radiance of God’s glory. Luke describes this glory as shining, a blazing illumination in the dark of night. Described elsewhere in Scripture as a cloud, or burning fire, or a bright light, here it shines through the Lord’s angelic messenger. Unaccustomed to spontaneous, supernatural appearances and the dazzling light of God’s glory, the shepherds are understandably afraid. But the angel knows and so says, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (2:10).
In the original Greek, “I bring you good news” is one word, a verb, but is more familiar to us as a noun: the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. Here, the shepherds hear the gospel in the form of a birth announcement, “that brings great joy to all the people” (2:10 NET). A birth announcement sent to whom? (“unto you”); when? (“this day”); where? (“the city of David”); what? (“a Savior”); who? (“Christ the Lord”). Consider the substance of this gospel proclamation: God’s promised presence fulfilled in his incarnation, the promised heir to the Davidic throne, salvation in the long-awaited Messiah, who is God incarnate. This is the greatest, joy-inspiring news in the whole world to the whole world!
Have you heard it? Have you believed it? Have you gotten over it? Or has its familiarity caused you to forget its grandeur and gravity? The message is simple: God sent his only Son to be born a son in the fullness of time (Gal. 2:4), in a place and to a people whom God promised, that he might live the righteous life we could not live, offer up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice we could not appease, to resurrect from death and conquer sin that held us captive. To call him Savior is not hyperbole, because who else could save us from our due penalty of death, judgment, and wrath, and give us life in his life, adoption into his family, an inheritance with him? In Christ, we have not only received what we don’t deserve but received what he deserved. Puritan John Flavel eloquently reminds us,
Christ Jesus set himself wholly apart for believers. We may say, “Lord, condemnation was yours, that justification might be mine; agony was yours, and victory mine; pain was yours, and ease is mine; the curse was yours and the blessing mine; a crown of thorns was yours, and eternal life mine!”[2]
This is a message so great that there’s no getting over it.
But we’re tempted to, as “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” (1 John 2:16) seek to distract us from it, distort our view of it, and draw our affections away from it. On the night of that angelic proclamation, nothing else mattered but Jesus. And for the Christian today, nothing else matters more than Jesus. The Father sent him for you; the Son gave himself for you; the Spirit gives him to you: forgiveness assured, reconciliation insured, eternal life secured, all by God’s grace through faith in Christ. Don’t ever get over this “good news of great joy”!
A Glorious Celebration
One of the curious characteristics of the angel’s announcement to the shepherds on the night of Jesus’ birth is the sudden appearance of “a multitude of the heavenly host praising God” (2:13), an army of angels breaking forth in praise. From the shepherds’ perspective, surely the appearance of one angel was enough. Surely the “good news of great joy” (2:10) was good enough. But as soon as the angel announces, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” as soon as the angel says, “you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger,” the sky is filled with “a multitude of the heavenly host” (2:11-13), a sudden explosion of angelic presence and praise. It is as if they were waiting with anticipation for the proclamation, awaiting the moment to appear and praise, not to merely show up and be seen but to say or sing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (2:14). Or as the KJV beautifully renders it, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” The expression describes God’s good pleasure with those to whom he shows mercy, with those upon whom he bestows his grace, those who deserve his wrath but through faith in his Son receive peace with God.
The apostle Peter says that this good news of great joy to the shepherds and onward to us was the mission of the prophets and of primary interest to the angels (1 Pet. 1:12), but both were required to wait for “the fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4). In delivering this pastoral proclamation and praise, the angels appear in the moment not as omniscient celestial beings but as worshipers celebrating God’s redemptive revelation. And this is but the beginning of Christ’s incarnation; his righteous obedience, sacrificial death, victorious resurrection, and glorious ascension follow.
We read of Jesus’ birth, but we know the rest of the story. The wise sons of Issachar were complemented for their understanding of the days in which they lived (1 Chron. 12:32), but do we? Unlike the prophets, we live in the last days, not awaiting the full revelation of what the apostle Paul calls “the manifold wisdom of God,” but God “has spoken to us by his Son” (Heb. 1:2) and has revealed his redemptive purposes in his church. Unlike the angels before Jesus’ birth, we are not awaiting Christ’s first advent, but what God revealed to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10) he has revealed to us in the gospel of Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
We often think of the sudden, supernatural appearance of the heavenly host in relation to Jesus’ birth, and rightly so. But in a sense, their explosion of praise is but a commencement of our continued celebration. Think about it: We have assembled on this Lord’s Day, the day of Christ’s resurrection, based on the full revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, crying out, “Gloria in Excelsis Deo!” “Glory to God in the highest!” We were created worshipers and have been redeemed to rightly worship the only One worthy of our worship, worship that will continue for eternity.
A Glorious Response
As suddenly as the angel and the heavenly host appeared, so they “went away from them into heaven” (15). The shepherds remain, in the field, with their flock, in the dark of night. What would you think? What would you say? How would you respond to such a supernatural spectacle? How do they respond? They say to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us” (15). They have been given the good news, now they want to see Jesus.
They are shepherds wandering through the village looking for “a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (12), a baby who is none other than Christ the Lord. I would imagine he wasn’t hard to find: listen for that distinct newborn cry, look for a child born in a barn, learn from the sign the angel gave. And so they find him, just as they had been told, because that’s how God works: He gives his Word to us and through it we find our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As this is the case, consider what we see in the shepherd’s response. First, when the shepherds hear the good news, they go to see Jesus “with haste” (16). The gospel demands a response: You either believe or you reject it; there is no in between. Perhaps you would prefer a proclamation by heavenly host, but as Jesus’ parable of “Lazarus and the Rich Man” teaches (Luke 16:19-31), the miraculous will not dissuade unbelief, but the written Word of God is sufficient to save. The shepherds hear the gospel and go find Jesus, just as God revealed that they would. If you seek and would find Jesus, you must heed his Word.
Second, when the shepherds find him, “they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child” (17). They profess the gospel they have seen, and heard, and believed, concerning Mary’s son, the Savior, “who is Christ the Lord” (11). The gospel is good news worth repeating, and repeating, and repeating, until our Lord comes again. It is not a repetition of vanity but liberty, a life-giving message of freedom that only grows old for those who have forgotten the goodness of the gospel. But when you contemplate the grace of God in Christ, shown to sinners like you and me, you never get over the gospel.
Third, the shepherds share the good news with others, “And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them” (18). I’d want to tell everyone who would listen, wouldn’t you? And yet, as glorious as that angelic appearance and proclamation was, the gospel we have to share is all the more glorious. That “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” is such a glorious message that it’s worth sharing with the world, which is precisely what Christ commissioned us to do (Matt. 28:18-20).
Fourth, “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart” (19). The gospel is worthy of treasuring up and pondering upon. The gospel is not something you believe once and then forget, but something you believe, treasure, and meditate upon. The psalmist teaches us in Psalm 119 to meditate upon the Lord’s precepts, fix our eyes upon his ways, to delight in his statutes, to never forget his Word (Ps. 119:15-16). With the limited information Mary had, she treasured and pondered on what God had revealed. How much more should we who have a complete canon of Scripture?
Fifth, “the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (20). The gospel leads us to glorify and praise God, because the gospel is not about what we have done or will do but what God has done in Christ. Who else deserves to be glorified other than he who, “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:4)? Who else deserves to be praised other than he who by his grace has saved us, not by our works but by the faith he gives (Eph. 2:8-9)? We are then like lowly shepherds to whom God has shown the light of the gospel and given the special revelation of his gospel that we may believe and worship the Lord. J.C. Ryle says, “May we ever believe implicitly, act promptly, and wait for nothing, when the path of duty is clear! So doing, we shall have a reward like that of the shepherds. The journey that is begun in faith will generally end in praise.”[3] Hear that again: “The journey that is begun in faith will generally end in praise,” and so it will. Let all that is within us praise the Lord (Ps. 103:1)! Amen.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] John Flavel quoted in Rosaria Butterfield, Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age (Wheaton: Crossway, 2024), 103.
[3] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 46.
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