Well, this morning on this final Sunday of the year, I think it's good that we take a little bit of time to consider some of the implications of what we just celebrated five days ago and also what we've been preaching through the last several Sundays of this month from the first two chapters of Luke. And that is, of course, the incarnation of the son of God, the birth of Jesus Christ. And obviously, no matter what time of year we look at this, we are always looking at it in hindsight, being an event that took place some 2,000 plus years ago. But we especially sense that on a Sunday like this, coming right off of the heels of Christmas, and that's what makes this text especially fitting for this Sunday, because the passage that we come to brings us to a scene after the birth of Christ, and it draws our attention to what has taken place. Jesus was born. And what does that news of His birth then mean to us? And how should we be affected by it? That's what we want to consider this morning. When we look at the beginning of Luke's gospel, we find that he spends a great deal of time, a very, very long first chapter giving the background and setting the stage for the birth of Jesus. He explains in advance The significance of Christ's birth, and he does that particularly through three different scenes. Each of those we have looked at in the past weeks. First, through Gabriel's announcement to Mary concerning that child that would be born to her. And then through Mary's song of praise in response to the news that she was given. And then finally, through Zechariah's prophecy about Jesus, who he was, what he would do that he prophesied after the birth of his son, John. So all of this, all of these introductory narratives, they give us information about who this child is and what he would do. Likewise, after Jesus's birth, Luke goes on to drive home the significance of what just happened by retelling first what an angel and then angels Said what they announced to nearby shepherds. This is what we are looking at this morning and then after that Luke speaks of that and retells that prophecy that Simeon had when he saw Jesus in the temple at his dedication and So we have so much that comes before and so much that comes after the birth of Christ that explains the significance of who he is and what his birth meant. But it's interesting, I think, isn't it, that when it comes to the actual event of Christ's birth, Luke gives it to us very plainly and concisely and just eight short verses at the opening of chapter two, which we looked at last week. And that in itself, I think, is very instructive. Because what it shows us is that although this event, where the Son of God, the eternal Son of God took on flesh, this event is, from one point of view, the greatest event that ever took place, it would mean nothing to us if it were not explained. it would mean nothing to us if it were not explained. And that is why in the first two chapters of his Gospel, Luke spends so much more time explaining than he does telling. explaining that, yes, Jesus was born. But let me tell you what the significance of his birth means. What are the implications? So on this Sunday after Christmas, we are going to spend a little bit of time looking at these implications, what it means and what it means for us that Jesus Christ was born. And we're going to draw those implications, especially from how they were announced and communicated to the shepherds in Luke chapter two, verses eight through 20, and also in looking at how they then responded to that announcement. So let's begin first by reading this passage, starting in verse eight, says in the same region that is nearby Bethlehem, where Mary had just given birth to Jesus in that 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 into 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 that they had heard and seen as it had been told them. Now, God does not explain, does not have to explain to man everything that he in his wisdom sovereignly determines to do. There are things that God has done in your life and will do in your life that you will wonder at and question and never fully comprehend until the day you die, and perhaps even after you die. God does not owe us an explanation. And yet when it comes to his great redemptive acts in history, we find that although he is still under no obligation to explain those acts, he is supremely interested in doing just that. He is determined to explain for us His saving works so that we would not misunderstand them. And that is certainly the case here in the Incarnation, where on multiple occasions, both before and after Jesus' birth, God sent messengers. That's what an angel is. That's what angel, the word, means. A messenger. God sent messengers to men. to explain to them what he was doing and not only what he was doing, but just as importantly, to explain the significance it has for us and it had for them, the implications that it has. Now, I don't mean to suggest that there are some things that God says about his son that are less important than others. But at the same time, I think we have to recognize that if God could say just one thing, if God could say just one thing in the first public announcement of Jesus's birth, then whatever he chooses to say in that initial announcement must be worthy of tremendous consideration. How will he do it? What will He say? What is God going to send His messenger to declare to man? Because remember that the angels, they will say only what God has commanded them to say. The angels do not work and act on their own. They do not speak on their own. They do not just say whatever comes to mind. They are messengers. And so they will deliver only that message that they have been given by God to deliver. So what did God tell the angel to say? 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." You know, it is as though before sending him out, God pulled that supremely privileged, angelic messenger aside and said, listen, This is what I want you to say. This is what I want them to hear. Tell them that you have good news. Tell them that you bring good news from me. Good news. When we stop to think about it, isn't it amazing that mankind would hear good news from God. Why should we hear good news from God? You know, people take that for granted as if it is to be expected and not incredible that God would have something other than grave and dreadful news for man. But those shepherds, they didn't take it for granted, did they? When they saw that messenger from God, they didn't just stroll up to him and say to one another, oh, I wonder what kind of good news he has for us tonight. No, they were terrified. Why has God sent this awful and awesome messenger to us? What has he come to do? What has he come to say? What message from God is he going to deliver? But we should recognize, too, that it was not just the presence of God's representative that frightened them. It was the presence of God. the manifestation of God's glory. What does it say? An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. Not the angel's glory. The glory of the Lord shone around them. In the Old Testament Scriptures, the glory of the Lord always signified one thing. That is the presence of God himself. That is not to say that the shepherds saw him in his being, in his essence, but what they saw was a unique manifestation of the glorious presence of God. Something like that which filled Solomon's temple at its dedication or what we might think the high priest might see within the holy of holies. And they were terrified. They were terrified. And what we need to understand is that was a most proper and reasonable response. It was. It's like Isaiah's, woe is me. I am undone. They were not expecting to hear good news from God. They weren't. And how could they? How could any man, if he is holy and we are not, if he has made laws that we have broken, if he is righteous and we are sinners, then don't we and didn't they have every right and reason to be afraid? And so isn't it incredible then that the first words that God would send his messenger to deliver to men would be this. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. I bring you good news. How can it be? How can it be that God has good news gospel for people like us? And that gospel, as we see in this passage, is grounded in this event, this fact. Jesus is born. God has given man a savior and he has come. That savior is here. Now, there is something very significant about the way that this birth of Christ is announced that I don't want us to miss when the angel said to the shepherds, I bring you good news. What he says literally is I evangelize to you. I evangelize to you. This angel is an evangelist, isn't he? Now, we hear that term and we often hear it with religious connotations. Obviously, the New Testament writers took up that word as well to evangelize gospel and kind of used it in a technical way to refer specifically to the gospel of how God saves sinners through his son. But in those days, that wasn't strictly a religious term at all. It was used of any announcement or any proclamation of supremely good news. Something like you might hear at the announcement of a victory in battle, the herald would go out and he would evangelize. He would spread the word. Good news. We have won. So the term could be used in that context. Or most interestingly, as the case turned out to be used in conjunction with the birth of Rome's first emperor, Caesar Augustus. There is a inscription that was found in tablets in Asia Minor dating to 9 BC that is written about this Caesar Augustus and on it. It declares him and really declares his birth to be the beginning of the good news, literally the gospel for all the world. The birth of Caesar, the gospel, the good news for all the world, it says also that he is a savior. One who brings peace and ends war. And a very similar inscription was found on a government building dating to just three years after that in 6 BC. These were written just a few years before Christ's birth. and about 20 years into the reign of Augustus, as men were looking back over his 20 years of his reign and contemplating the stability, the power, the peace that he brought to the empire. Caesar Augustus's birth, they said, was gospel, good news for all the world. Our emperor, our Savior, our God. That is how they saw him. And now on this night, in pastures outside of Bethlehem, here comes an angel from the Lord announcing the birth of a baby boy, Jesus. And what does he say? I come declaring to you gospel. Good news that will be for all the people. Today, a Savior has been born. And the significance of that announcement from the angel, I don't think, could have been lost on anyone living under the Roman Empire, under Caesar Augustus. And one of the reasons I'm convinced that Luke makes sure to set Jesus's birth within the context of Augustus's reign, as he does in verse one. In the days of Caesar Augustus, the birth of a Savior. Good news. It is Jesus' birth, not Caesar's, that is gospel for the world. It is Jesus, not Caesar, who is Savior and King, and it is he who brings real and lasting peace. Because, notice, it is on the basis of this gospel This good news that the angel then says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. And here is why I have good news for you from God. And this is it unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior. Here and here only is the good news that dispels fear. and secures peace. Unto you is born a Savior. Unto you, the angel said, not unto us. The Savior is not for angels, but for men. Be amazed. The angels are. It says in First Peter, chapter one, verse 12, that this gospel that is announced God's plan of saving, redeeming men through Jesus Christ. It is something angels long to look into. They can't believe it. They are astonished, and it's not even for them. It's for us. Unto you is born a savior. Who could imagine everything that you were right to fear? Sin, judgment, the wrath of God, hell. This Savior, Jesus Christ, has come to deliver you from, to save you from. He has come to conquer and in his conquering bring peace. Which means what? It means peace with God. Reconciliation. the removal of enmity that our sin had put between us and him. This savior, he carries it away. He abolishes it. And in its place, he establishes peace. And at that wondrous news, a multitude of angels, which until now had remained quiet and unseen, they suddenly appear and the sky is now filled with these evangelists. These heralds of good news who, it seems, cannot contain their excitement. They proclaim with loud voices and bursts of praise, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. What are they saying? that this unbelievably good news of salvation for sinners through this Savior and King Jesus in heaven, it redounds to the glory of God. It magnifies his matchless grace. It draws forth praise from the lips of every angel, every chair of every serif, every living creature that surrounds his throne and on earth. it brings forth peace. Peace among those with whom he is pleased. Peace to those who have been graced by his unmerited favor, who have been reconciled to God through the gospel of his Son. The angels are in awe. They are in awe. Their evangelism is filled with wonder and amazement. And guess what? It rubs off, doesn't it? The shepherds catch it. They hear this good news concerning Jesus Christ and they say to themselves, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. We desire to know him. We must know him. We want to see him for ourselves and find and know this great king and savior that we've just been told about. See, they're not satisfied to merely hear about him. It's not enough. They want to see him. They desire a personal encounter with their Savior. And so it is with everyone who, like those shepherds, has been awakened with the gospel, awakened by this good news. They are not satisfied with only hearing of Him from those who happen to know Him. They want to know Him themselves. They want to see Him. They want to worship him. Their hearts are drawn to him. This wondrous news does not leave them unchanged. They don't hear it and then just go right on back to what they were doing. And nor did the shepherds. After the angels left, you don't hear them saying, OK, all right, everyone, as you were those on watch, go back to your post. The rest of us, we're going to go go to sleep. That would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? But it is no less ridiculous When people today, and perhaps some of you even here this morning, hear of who Jesus Christ is, what he has come to do, and then go on living as if it makes no difference. As if there were some good news that could be found outside of him. As if you could hope for peace with God apart from him. You can't. There isn't. God has no good news for men. God has no good news for men, apart from His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the one that we need to know. And like those shepherds, must make haste to find. So one characteristic of those who have been awakened by the gospel is that they are constrained to seek the Savior. They long to see him and know him. But there is another characteristic that we should expect to see in them, too, and that is a desire not just to know him, but to make him known. To proclaim him. to take the news that has been declared to them and declare it to others. You see, it was to an angel and then to angels that God gave that amazing privilege and responsibility of making that first public announcement of the good news that the Savior for mankind was born. But guess what? From that point onward, God took the privilege from angels and he handed it to men. In verse 15, we read that the angels went away from them. The angels went away from them not to proclaim the gospel again to others in some other region. The angels went away from them into heaven. And I can't get over the thought of just how amazing, what such great evangelists those angels were. Glorious, full of joy, full of wonder. And yet amazingly, God chose not to use them to spread the gospel to anyone else. Instead, he chose to use the shepherds. And they did exactly what you'd expect them to do. They, it says, made known. They made known all that was told them about this child and all who heard it. were amazed. Those shepherds who had received good news, they shared the good news. This was God's design. This is how God has determined for the gospel concerning His Son and His salvation to spread. For the good news of how peace with God can be made. How that would spread. Not on the lips of angels. But on the lips of men and women and even children, the evangelized become the evangelists. This good news has become ours to share. Now, I know that God's angels are without sin, but I wonder sometimes if they don't have a kind of holy envy of us. And of our privilege, this privilege that we have been given to declare to men the good news concerning Jesus Christ. This is a privilege that once was theirs. And now it's ours. It is ours. A privilege that they once embraced with joy. and wonder on the night of Christ's birth that privileges ours. God has given that to us. And there is a real sense in which we ought to be much better evangelists than even the most gifted angel. Because the good news that has been entrusted to us to share and proclaim is news that vitally concerns us in a way that does not concern them. We are the objects of God's amazing grace. We are the objects of his great and mighty salvation. We are not them. We are. The angels were amazed at the grace and glory of God, their creator, demonstrated in the gospel. And it wasn't even for them. They don't have an interest in it like we do. And yet their wonder and their joy are uncontained. Their song shames me because I think I ought to be able to sing so much more passionately than any one of them. Christ did not come for them. He came for us. God did not send His Savior to die for angels. He came to die for me. And if they marvel at God's grace, and they never cease to praise His name, and they hang on His every word so as to obey it, then why don't I How is it that mere observers of God's salvation could have more passion, more zeal, more wonder and awe than those of us who are being saved? It isn't right. I pray that God would give us ears that hear, eyes that see, hearts that feel. The wonder of his love. The grace that brought the sun from highest heaven into the depths and misery of a corrupted world. To take our sin. To taste our hell. To save us from both. and then deliver us into a relationship with himself that is marked by absolute and perfect peace. What amazing grace. What wonderfully good news. And may we never be ashamed to proclaim it. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of his grace, my gracious master and my God, assist me to proclaim. To spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name. Father, We thank you for this good news that we have no right to hear, that we do not deserve to hear. And to think that you would come and send this one, this angel to announce to the shepherds and announce to us that you have good news for men. You have given to us a Savior, the only Savior that we could ever hope for. The only one who can save your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I do pray that you would help us to understand how richly we are blessed, how amazing is your love and your grace, This gospel that angels long to look into, that they are amazed by. I pray that it would amaze us. That the world would see in our eyes, in the way we live, in the words we speak, that we are the most blessed. That we have the best news that anyone could be given. Sins removed. forgiven, atoned for, in peace with God, through Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.