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Luke 2:10, 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…”
Charles Spurgeon loved Christmas. He said, “I like Christmas; I wish it came six times a year.” He even said he wished “there were ten or a dozen Christmas days in the year.” If that wasn’t enough, he even said he wished “there were twenty Christmas days in the year.” (Phillip Ort, The Spurgeon Center). Why did he love Christmas? Along with the good cheer and time off for workers, He loved Christmas mainly because it compelled people to think of the birth of Christ.
This morning we’re going to highlight this one phrase by the angel to the shepherds: “I bring you good news of great joy.” Christmas is a time of great joy, but for anyone who knows Christ, we should be living every day with that great joy. We don’t need cranky, irritable, whiny Christians when there’s a baby lying in that manger who is none other than the God Man promised by the angel to Mary. If He is that great One, the Son of God, destined for the throne of David, Ruler over Israel and the eternal king, then there is reason for great joy. A little later when the magi saw that star pointing the way to the newborn king, it says, “They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy!” The disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy after Christ’s ascension (Luke 24:52). Our hearts should always be aglow with this exceeding great joy!
FROM NAZARETH TO BETHLEHEM
Let’s quickly track the young couple from Nazareth. God’s invisible hand ordered everything. God moved Caesar to take a census and require everyone to register in their city of origin and that meant the couple had to take the trip down to Bethlehem, fulfilling Micah’s ancient prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. After days of travel, they arrived weary and tired, only to find out there are no rooms left in the city and so they settled for a warm place in a stable or cave. There young Mary delivered her baby with only Joseph and the barnyard animals attending her. She wrapped Him in strips of cloths and laid him in a manger for his bed. This manger was probably a stone feeding trough, doubtless with hay or straw to soften the crude bed.
LOWLY SHEPHERDS
Luke 2:8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.
Not too far outside of Bethlehem shepherds were guarding and caring for sheep. These shepherds were low on the social ladder, but they cared for special sheep, ones probably destined to be sacrificed in the temple in Jerusalem. These shepherds were night-shift workers. Ever work the night shift? I actually enjoyed working the night shift in a Boston hospital as a nurses’ assistant in the emergency ward. That’s when strange and weird people would come in. The world is run by night shift workers in part at least. Somebody must do it. And these night-shift guys out under the open sky had an important job: to protect the sheep from wolves or bears or any other threats in the night.
A SUDDEN APPEARANCE
Luke 2:9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
That’s when it happened. Suddenly an angel appeared and enveloped them in a cloud of bright glory, the glory of the Lord, probably the shekinah glory. And these shepherds were “sore afraid” says the King James. Sore afraid is how you feel when you hear a loud noise in the kitchen around 3:00 am and you send your wife out there to find out what it is. This was a first for all of them. They feared a great fear and I don’t blame them. They were surely tough guys, ready for anything, but never this.
GOOD NEWS – GREAT JOY
Luke 2:10-12 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.”
“Don’t be frightened, men.” That seems to be what angels always say when they suddenly appear to people like Zacharias and Mary and these shepherds. I love this next word, “behold.” It is used at least 1172 times in the Bible and means, “Listen up! I’ve got something you need to hear.” Then this angel unleashes some of the most beautiful words in the Bible: “I bring you good news.” That’s exactly what we need, not more bad news to make your life more miserable, but good news that’s going to bring you great joy. Not good news of great hope, or great peace, or great power, although all these come to believers in Christ. But what we really need is “great joy.” In a world of bad news of conflict and anger and hatred and depression and anxiety and people out of control throwing computers at people and whacking people over the head, and, as they keep saying on the news, “It’s going to get worse” (don’t you hate those words?), we need good news that brings great joy! We need people whose hearts are lit up with the joy and cheer of Christmas. And this good news and great joy is going to be for all the people. All the people, both Jews and Gentiles.
Now, what is this good news that promises such great joy? Pause. Are you living a life of great joy? You may live a fake or temporary joy when everything is going well worldly-wise. You’re making good money, your husband or wife is treating you nicely, you’ve got good health, you’re making good grades. However, worldly joy is often temporary and disappears like smoke, said Calvin. Kids, you may have great joy thinking about those gifts under the tree. But that’s not the great joy this angel is talking about. We’re about to find out its source.
What is this good news that promises great joy? One word at a time. “Today” means right now. Not tomorrow or a hundred years from now, but today. It may not have been December 25, but it was “today” in the city of David. They knew where that was – just over the fields a way, maybe a mile or two. “There has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” “Born” – a baby. “For you.” For specific people – you! We can say that for each of us. A Savior, not a philosopher. A Savior, not a legislator. A Savior, not a judge, at least not yet.
He’s a Savior born for you. God told Joseph to call him Jesus, for he shall save His people from their sins. The good news that brings you great joy is that right over there in Bethlehem lies a Savior who was born for you who will save you from your sin. This is the greatest joy you can know – that your sins are forgiven, that this Savior will take away your guilt and condemnation and give you eternal life and a home in heaven with God, in whose presence if fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore!
The traditional Jews were looking for a human messiah, a great military leader to conquer all her enemies and rule as King David, but he won’t be God. He’ll just be a Jewish man. But unlike what the traditional Jews looked for, your great joy comes from Christ, the true Messiah, the anointed Prophet who brings us words of eternal life, the anointed Priest who sacrificed His own life and shed His own blood for sinners so you might be forgiven, cleansed, and prepared for heaven. Your great joy comes from Christ, your anointed King who rules His people with His gentle and loving heart. And He is Christ the Lord, Emmanuel, God with us.
Where will they find Him? The angel gives them a sign. Again, a sign “for you.” How personal all this is. They’ll find him in David’s city wrapped in cloths and lying in that stone manger, maybe in a cave. How they found it we don’t know, but they’ll find it.
A HEAVENLY LIGHT AND SOUND SHOW
Luke 2:13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
Suddenly, as R. C. Sproul put it, you have the greatest light and sound show in all history right out there in the shepherds’ field in the middle of the night. You have a multitude of angels appearing, a multitude of the heavenly host. How many is that? Jesus told Peter that He could call twelve legions of angels to help Him. That’s over 80,000! We have no extra-biblical historical record of this vast murmuration of angels flooding the field and sky praising God. Oh, if just one of those night workers had a smart phone to capture this on video. But God tells about the event and the fact that the heavenly host of angels appears reveals their intense interested in what’s going on here on earth, especially as they watch God’s redemptive plan unfold. I think every angel in God’s heaven wanted to come down to those shepherds that night.
Let’s quote verse 14 together.
Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
What does this mean? God is glorified in bringing salvation to sinners. When you come to Christ, God gives you His peace that passes understanding. It is in Christ that you receive great joy and the peace of heart and mind we all want.
HURRYING SHEPHERDS
Luke 2:15-19 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.
As quickly as they came, this vast army of angels went up in a long spectacular train away from them and disappeared into heaven. Immediately the darkness of night enveloped them, and these stunned shepherds look at each other saying, “Let’s go right now and find this baby. Hurry, let’s lose no time.” And that’s exactly what they did. They knew this heavenly visitation was from God Almighty.
They hurried over the fields into the outskirts of Bethlehem looking for a place with a manger. A torch may have given light over this newborn baby wrapped up in cloths to keep him warm lying there in a stone feeding trough with Mary and Joseph looking into His wrinkled newly born face. Silently the shepherds gathered round with their ruddy, bearded faces and eyes full of wonder as they saw the very child as the angels had said. Did they know they were looking into the face of eternity, the face of saving love, the face of the Prince of Peace, the face of the coming King of Israel and Ruler of the world, the Shepherd of all of God’s sheep who would hear His voice and come to Him and be saved?
After seeing the baby, they returned to their flocks in wonder of what had happened. Then the next morning they weren’t shy but told everyone what had happened during the night – the angel’s message, the multitude of angels, and finding the baby. They must have sat around their fires for many nights repeating to one another and to their children and grandchildren what happened that one night, when they were keeping watch over their flock.
And Mary, dear, sweet, teenage mother Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart! Can you imagine her Christmas/New Year’s letter? “This has been quite a year. It all began when I was back in Nazareth preparing fig pudding and lamb chops when suddenly an angel appeared to me. You won’t believe what he told me.”
What a story! Thus began the life of Christ on earth, the One who came into the world save sinners. Jesus Christ, the One who came into the world to fill His people with His joy, great joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. Along with Spurgeon, we love Christmas most because it compels us to think about the birth of Christ, our Savior.
I hope you honestly believe this good news of great joy. Sadly, many people are trying to find joy in the trappings of Christmas and the passing pleasures of this world, but they don’t believe in Christ in a genuine way. For them it’s just a story told over and over each year. But the true believer says, “Jesus is the best news and the greatest joy of my life. He’s my Prophet, Priest, and King and I can’t imagine life without Him.” As Paul said in Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain!”