#9 Lu. 2:8-14; THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE
BIRTH OF JESUS
In our previous text Jesus was born at
our text today an announcement is sent out
concerning his
birth.
This announcement was not sent out by Joseph and Mary.
The announcement was made by God in
Heaven. After all,
Joseph was not the father of this
child. The child was not
conceived by Joseph. This is God's Son and God is making the
announcement.
I.
The people to whom the announcement was given
V. 8, "And there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by
night." Now ordinarily at the birth of a child, the
announcement is not made to
everybody. The parents select
the names of a few family members and friends
and give the
news to them. they do not try to give the
news to everybody.
Even so it was with Jesus. God did not at the first make the
announcement of the birth of His Son to
all the world. He
did not even make the announcement to all
of the covenant
nation, the nation of
shepherds who were keeping their sheep in
a field near to the
city of
safe to say that God considered these men
His friends. They
were probably also His family
members. It is very probable
that all of these men were saved men and,
thus, were in the
family of God..
I think it worthy of note that God did not chose to give
the news to the Caesar, who sat upon the throne in the city
of
time.
That is, he ruled the world empire that included
almost every nation in the known world at
that time. In the
realm of the world's political scene it
would have been
unthinkable for one of the world's
dignitaries to bypass the
Roman Caesar and not announce to him the
birth of a child
which was expected to be of high rank in
the world. Yet God
completely bypassed the Roman Caesar in
preference for the
lowly shepherds. God loves all men, but God does not show a
preference for those who are in high
positions of the world.
Yet in a broader sense, God was making this announcement
to all the world....at least in
prospect. At least the news
was intended to eventually reach all the
world. God wants
all the world to know that Jesus is the
Christ. He want all
the world to know that Jesus is His
Son. He wants all the
world to know that Jesus is the only
person in all the world
who is Deity God dwelling in human flesh.
Jesus is the only human being in all the
history of the
world who can rightly claim to be Deity
God in human flesh.
Now He is certainly not the only man in
history who has
claimed to be God. Perhaps you will recall that in Daniels
day the Babylonian king issued an edict
that no man could
pray for thirty days except to
himself. Thus, he claimed to
be god in human flesh. Of course he did not claim to be the
only God.
He believed in the existence of many gods. But he
did claim to be one of the gods. The same was true of most
all of the Gentile kings of olden
times. Even in the days of
Christ the Roman Caesars claimed to be
god.
It may come as a surprise to you to know that there are
many today who claim that Jesus is not the
only god in human
flesh.
The whole Mormon religion is based on the idea that
all men have opportunity to become a
god. Of course, they
teach that the only way to become a god is
through Mormonism.
For a woman, childbearing, according to
them, is necessary to
become a god. That is why polygamy became so common among
them.
According to them, the more children a woman can have,
the better are her chances of becoming a
god. When the
Mormons speak of Jesus as being the Son of
God and hence
Deity God in human flesh, they are not
talking about Him
as being eternal God. According to them there was a time
when He was not God at all. They think He was just an
ordinary human being like any other
man. According to them
Jesus had to earn the right to become the
Son of God. They
will acknowledge that He is God, but they
do not consider Him
to be any more Deity God than was Joseph
Smith or any person
of rank in the Mormon religion. According to them, thousands
upon thousands of human beings have become
gods.
Another modern day religion which teaches that men other
than Jesus can become gods is the New Age
movement. Like the
Mormons, the whole basis of their religion
is the idea that
every human being can become a god. Unlike the Mormons they
do not view Jesus as being Deity God. They certainly do not
view Him as being eternal God who came to
dwell in human
flesh.
The New Agers have a lot to say about the
second coming
of Christ, but they do not believe that
Jesus is going to be
that Christ. To tell you the truth when they talk about
the
second coming of the Christ, they are
talking about the man
which the Bible calls "The
Anti-Christ."
But let it be understood that the Bible speaks of Jesus
Christ as being the Son of God. He is the Only Begotten Son
of God.
He is the only human being who is Deity God dwelling
in human flesh. This is what the announcement which God made
to the shepherds is all about.
II.
The manner in which the announcement was given
In our modern times when parents announce the birth of a
child, the father usually makes the very
first announcements
by means of the telephone. He will phone certain family
members and friends and give the news
directly to them over
the phone.
Then after the mother gets home from the
hospital, she will write letters and send
cards to the
various family members and friends giving
them the good news.
In the case of the birth of Jesus Christ, There were no
telephones. Even if there had been, there were no phone
lines which ran out into the field where
the shepherds were
keeping their sheep. God could have written them a letter,
but if He had there was no mail
service. He would have had
to send a special messenger with the
letter or card.
Yet the lack of telephones and mail service did not
handicap God whatsoever. God had His own method of
special delivery. He sent an angel from Heaven to carry the
good news.
V. 9, "And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon
them..." The angel of the Lord would give the news to
the
shepherds that God's Son had been
born. He would give to
them good news. This is glad tidings. This is one of the
few times that God chose to use an angel
to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that angels would like to
have the privilege of preaching the gospel
all of the time.
But God has not chosen to promote the
gospel through angels.
God has given men the privilege of
preaching the gospel. I
think that particular angel on that
particular occasion must
have been overjoyed at the blessed
privilege he had of
telling the good news about the birth of
Jesus Christ, the
Savior of men.
(V. 9), "...and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them..." Now note this please. This was not the glory of
the angel that did shine about them. This was the glory of
God Himself. It was a glorious light, a brilliant light
which did shine down from heaven about the
shepherds there in
the field. Now the shepherds did not see
Jesus. Jesus was in
Bethlehem at the time. But they did see the glory of God the
Heavenly Father as He did shine round
about them there in the
field.
This light was no doubt brighter than the light of the
noon-day sun. When Peter and James and John saw the Lord
glorified on the Mt. of Transfiguration,
His face did shine
brighter than the sun. When Paul saw the Lord on the road to
Damascus, he saw a light that was brighter
than the sun.
When John the Revelator saw the Lord in
vision walking among
the candlesticks, he saw a light that was
brighter than the
sun.
You talk about our modern day Christmas lights! We
ain't
seen nothin'!
Those shepherds saw the light of the
glory of God shining to them and it was
far more beautiful
than any so-called Christmas lights that
man has ever made.
III.
Comfort for the shepherds
(V. 9), "...and they were sore afraid." The shepherds
were very much afraid. They knew that this was an angel of
God.
That is what frightened them. They knew that an angel
of the Lord had appeared to Balaam of old
with a drawn sword
and it almost cost Balaam his life. Angels rained down fire
and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. Not knowing just what
this angel had in mind, the shepherds were
terrified, and I
cannot say that I blame them.
V. 10, "And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for,
behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be
to all people." The angel himself spoke to them and sought
to calm their fears. He assured them that he had not come to
harm them and did not bring them bad
news. Rather he brought
good news.
He brought good news that should bring to them
exceedingly great joy. Just as the angel was overjoyed to
bring this news, even so they should be
overjoyed to hear it.
But the good news was not to them only.
It was given at
first only to them, but the good news was
not exclusively for
them.
It was intended that this news---this extremely good
news---was to be given to everybody. I was to all people.
It was good news to the shepherds. It was good news to the
whole nation of Israel. It was good news for all the people
of the world as the news of the birth of
Jesus spreads
throughout the world.
It is good news today to all. It
is still good news to
the modern day shepherd. There are still a goodly number of
shepherds in the world today even though
there are no many in
our own country. It is good news to them if they will only
believe it. It is good news for the carpenter. It is good
news for the banker. It is good news for the garbage man, or
the congressman, for the factory worker,
for the truck
driver, for the postman and for every
human being in the
world.
IV.
The message which the announcement contained
A birth announcement usually contains the name of the
parents, the place of birth, the name of
the child and other
pertinent information about him. Not the message which this
announcement gave about Jesus: V. 11,
"For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord." On that day, on that very day a child was
born. Thus
the date of His birth was given. The date of His birth was
not given in such a way that we can know
it. For instance,
it does not tell us whether He was born on
December the 25th
of not.
Personally, I do not believe that He was. But the
date was given in such a way that the
shepherds could know
the date.
It was on the very day that the angel appeared to
them.
It gives the place of the birth.
On that day in the
city of David, which is Bethlehem, a child
was born.
Bethlehem is the city of David. That is, it is the city
where David was born.
The announcement tells that Jesus is the Savior of men.
This is what would be good news to
all. It is good news that
a Savior is born. This was good news to those shepherds on
that day and it is good news to me and it
good news to you
today.
Listen, the Bible says that all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The Bible teaches that Hell is
real, hell is hot and that hell
everlasting. Let me tell you
that it is good news that God has sent a
Savior to this
world.
That Savior was born in Bethlehem of Judah and that
Savior has come to save all who will
repent of their sin and
trust in Him as Savior. The sad news is that a lot of people
will yet go to hell in spite of the birth
of a Savior, but
the good news is that nobody has to go to
hell. Everybody
can be saved.
Now if the hyper-Calvanists were correct the
birth of
Jesus would not be good news to
everybody. There would be an
awful lot of people who would have no
chance in the world of
being saved. But the hyper-Calvanists
are not correct. The
Bible says that it is good news to
everybody. Everybody has
the privilege of trusting in Jesus and
being saved.
V.
The invitation which the announcement contained
V. 12, "And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find
the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger."
What I want you to notice here is that
indirectly the
shepherds were given an invitation. They were given an
invitation to come to the city of
Bethlehem to see the new
baby.
This is in keeping with our modern times. When a new
baby is born, all of the friends and
family are invited to
come and see the little tyke. The angel does not directly
say, "God wants you to come and see
the Christ-child." But
he does make it clear that God wants them
to come. The
angel gave them directions how to find the
child. He had
already told them that the child had been
born in the city of
Bethlehem.
Therefore they could go to the city of Bethlehem
and expect to find Him there.
The angel additionally tells them that the child can be
found in a stable. He says that they will find the babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in
a manger. That
means that He is in a stable. They would
not find Him in one
of the rooms at the inn. They could find Him in a stable.
The angel did not tell them which stable
they could find Him
in.
But the natural starting place would be the stable at
the inn because that is where Joseph and
Mary would first
seek shelter.
Furthermore, by telling them that the babe would be
wrapped in swaddling clothes, he told them
that they were not
to seek the child among the rich. They were to look for a
poor family. Swaddling clothes, as I understand it, was a
garment of the poor.
Now this may not seem like much information to us, but
it was sufficient if they would seek
Him. If they would go
to Bethlehem, and go to the inn and
inquire about a poor
family in which a woman was expectant with
child, they would
surely not have much trouble in find the
Christ-child. They
would not have much trouble in finding the
Savior.
Now listen, God in reality is the One who is seeking
lost men, women, boys and girls that they
might be saved.
But there is also a sense in which God
wants the lost person
to seek the Savior. The fact of the matter is that anyone
who truly seeks the Savior will find
Him. Anyone who really
wants to be saved and who will follow the
simple instructions
that the Bible gives will find the Savior
and be saved. The
danger lies in waiting too late. The Bible says, "Seek ye
the Lord while He may be found." Do not wait too late to get
saved.
If you wait until you die, you have waited too late.
VI. A multitude of angels
V. 13-14, "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, good will
toward men." All of a sudden there appeared to the
shepherds
a great host of angels. No doubt, they had been there all
along.
But now they make themselves visible and they make
themselves heard. They burst forth in song. They sing
praises to God in heaven with a mighty
voice. In their song
the angels express two things. They express a desire that
God would be glorified or praised. That is, God is to be
praised because He has sent His Son to the
earth to redeem
sinful man. They also express a desire for peace and good
will toward men.
When Jesus returns to this earth He will establish peace
on earth.
But one should not wait until then to find peace
in his own heart toward God. One can find peace with God now
by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ as His
Savior. God has
shown His own good will toward men in
sending a Redeemer.
When a man turns to God repentance of his
sin and trusts in
Jesus Christ as his Savior, that man will
find peace with God
right then and there. He finds peace with God through Jesus
Christ.