Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I pray for your attention to Luke chapter 2 and reading from
our text, verses 10 to 14. However, it is really summed
up in the first words in verse 10. And the angel said unto them. What is on my spirit this morning
is the message the angels brought, the tidings that were brought
to the shepherds. And we read in these verses,
And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring
you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find these babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes 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 of earth
peace, good will toward men. Salute, chapter 2. verses 10
to 14, but specifically the angels sent unto them. The message,
the tidings here are the first ones that record the birth of
the Lord to men, and are set forth and recorded to us in the
Word of God. And it is angels that are used. We have the angels that are used
to bring this message. Now throughout scripture there
are many times where we have angels that are used. Sometimes
they are those created angels. Other times it is the Lord himself. We have the case with Abraham
when there appeared three men And to him, as he sat in the
tent door, it was three men. But we are told later on that
there came those two angels to Sodom, and the Lord stayed with
Abraham. And Abraham then pleaded for
Sodom, or pleaded for the righteous that were in Sodom. And we can
clearly see from that that one of those men, one of those angels
was the Lord, pre-incarnation time of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the other two created angels. Then we have as well the times
when the angel appeared to Abraham on Mount Moriah and stayed his
hand, pointed him to the land, the bushes. and a substitute
offering for his son. We have the time when Jacob there
wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Again,
another pre-incarnation appearance of our Lord. Sometimes it was
very clear to those that looked on that this was the Lord, this
was God himself. Other times it is not clear,
it was an angel, and the same in the inspired word as well.
Sometimes you might be uncertain, but the Lord is pleased to use
angels right through the world. In the New Testament, it was
the angels that told of the rising from the dead of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He is not here. The message of
those that were in the tomb, the empty tomb, We think it with
Cornelius that the important time when Peter should preach
first to the Gentiles, and there it is an angel that bids him
to go and call for Peter that he shall speak to you words. But here is a time that is before
the gospel is being proclaimed by men, by sinners that have
been chosen of God and partakers of what they preach in the New
Testament Kingdom, in the light of the Gospel, the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And here is a record of the way
God was pleased to convey this event, the birth of His beloved
Son, to convey it to men. and to convey it in the inspired
Word of God. May we remember that the words
of our text are the words chosen by God. They are recorded in
the inspired Word of God. It is the words given to that
heavenly host, the angels, to actually bring and to speak. And just choose to speak this
to the shepherds as they watch their flocks by night. And so
it is with this thought to look at these words as being so unique,
so special, so chosen of God. What words did God choose? What way did he describe the
event that had happened? What was being pointed to here? We often say, it is best to go
right back to where something is first mentioned in scripture.
Because very often those are the most important words which
then later on are opened up. We think of Genesis 1, the creation,
and how often that is referred to right through the scriptures.
And in fact those first three chapters in Genesis have the
foundations of so many truths of the Gospel. And so here we
come where we have the beginning of the Gospel and we have the
first mentioning, the first words speaking of the coming of the
Lord to this earth. So it's with that thought that
I want to, with the Lord's help, look at the words we may bring
them under seven headings this morning. and the words that the
angels spoke, and to think of what they actually cover. Now
before we even go forward further into any of the doctrines of
the New Testament, we have things here that we should remember
as an overall thing that applies to this Gospel of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Well, the first one that is mentioned
is a fear not. And throughout the whole Word
of God there are many fear nots. When God, the Eternal God, appears
and reveals himself to men, then they fear. It is a fearful thing
for mortal men. to have some insight and some
view of that which is heavenly and eternal. Wherever the Lord
was truly seen, within your Daniel, the Lord appearing to him, all
his strength went from him. He became so weak and prostrated
before the Lord. The appearances of the Lord to
his people If we rightly view that what is happening is that
eternal God is showing himself to mortal, sinful men, it should
have that effect. It would have that effect. It
did have that effect here. And we are reminded here that
even what it shall be like at the end of the world. If we can
picture these shepherds There was no prior warning to them.
They were just going about their job, as it were, as a shepherd
at night. They hadn't been told that one
day you would be at work and there shall be a vision of angels. They hadn't been told that you
had been the one that had been chosen to receive the first message
of the birth of the Saviour. No, it just suddenly happened. And we think of Mary as well
when she was told that she should bring forth a sack and sieve
in her womb. No, no prior information as it
were. They knew that there would be
the seed of the woman. They knew that one day one would
bear the promised seed. But how suddenly, how quickly. and they are reminded in that
of what the Lord says, shall be at the end of the world. Men's
hearts frowning there with fear. Why? Because suddenly, the fearful
sight's in the heaven. Suddenly the Lord coming in the
clouds of heaven. Not enough time, the Lord says,
to come down from the rooftop, down into the house. The sign
shall be there, but so sudden, You know not the day nor the
hour. And this reminder with the shepherds
is a reminder of how real such a thing would happen. And
here, the word given to them immediately is fear not. And it was needed. This was not
in judgement. This was his blessing. They think
of the account when the angel appeared to Manoah and his wife
to tell them of the birth of Samson. Now, both Manoah and
his wife, they saw the same things. In fact, his wife saw more, and
first, the angel and the message, than her husband. But her husband,
he says, because we have seen God, then we shall die. He viewed
it as that which was against them, not for them. But his wife
said that if the Lord meant to kill us, then he would not have
shown us such things as these, nor told us such things at this
time. And that could be said here as
well, that if the Lord meant to kill shepherds, or meant evil
and harm to mankind, he would not have said those things at
this time. The Theodotes, in the time of
the Gospel, they are most blessed. But you know those at the end,
when the Lord shall come, the day of grace is over, then the
Lord has already said to his people, when they see these things
come to pass then look up for your redemption for all earth
and I. They are already told before
it comes to pass that they are not to fear, that they are to
expect this thing. In that way it is different than
the chaplains who no doubt were not expecting. But in a gospel
day we do expect the end of the world, we do. look forward to
the Lord's coming again. We do have a well-founded belief
and trust in what the Lord has said, that we shall have those
that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing to fear in that
day. The important thing is that we
know what follows in this message in the day of grace. There shall come to this earth
that shall come to each of us as we come to death. Those things
that shall cause fear and the only thing that shall alike is
the word of the Lord. And unlike here which is the
fear not given in the instant as it is unexpected, the fear
nots that are given in New Testament times are to believe us, that
when they come into these things that are foretold to happen,
then they are to not fear. They know the Lord is in control.
They know His salvation is sure. They know He will come and He
will take them to be with Himself. May we think upon those many
truths that are actually stored up against times, unexpected
times of trouble, affliction and sorrow, to take away our
fears. We won't always have, very seldom
have as it were, a fear not at that time break from the Lord,
that the Lord already laid up in store, that His people have
that. The time just after my dear mother
passed away from cancer, I had returned back to my own home. And the Lord blessed my soul
through the reading of a sermon. And then the following day, I
had a phone call to say that my father had been taken into
hospital with a heart attack. And my heart sank. And then I
remembered the blessing of the previous day. and sunk onto that. The fear not, as it were, was
already given. The comfort, the help was already
there. And the blessings of the Gospel
are laid up in store for the people of God to rest upon in
those unexpected times. So we heard the first word that
is spoken here by the angels chosen, appointed by God, a fear not to those that were
suddenly presented with fearful things. But secondly, the nature of the
tidings is the first thing that is conveyed. And this is given
as a reason for the fear not. Sometimes we might try to allay
the fears of our fellow mortals, but can give them no reason why
they should not fear. It is not so in the Word of God. God always gives the reason why
His people should not fear. And here we have fear not for,
behold I bring you good tidings of great joy. good tidings of great joy. We should always remember that
this is the first description of the Gospel, the first way
of describing the coming, the birth of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. And whatever way we might receive
the Gospel, receive the Word of God, hear it preached, May
we never forget this first inspired word of the Lord through the
angels, that these tidings, that it doesn't change when the Lord
has suffered, bled and died and then sent forth his servants
to go forth to preach the gospel to every creature. What is the
gospel? Good tidings. I bring you good
tidings of great joy. A blessing that really every
minister of the Gospel will be able to preface or should be
able to preface his sermon with, I bring you tidings of great
joy. We should remember that. Yes,
we must warn. We must preach the judgment to
come. We must preach many things. but
we never lose sight of this, that what we bring is tidings,
good tidings of great joy. The third thing is to whom these
tidings of great joy shall come. Our text says, which shall be
to all people. Now I want to think in several
ways of this. Very important that we understand
what is being said here. It is not being said here that
these good tidings shall actually be of great joy to every single
upon this world. We know that for many, they hate
the Word of God, they hate the tidings, they reject it. It is not a great joy to them. The very realisation that is
in the Word shows us that this is not what is meant here. There shall be those that are
lost. shall be those that reject these
tidings, those that do not view them as good tidings at all,
tidings even that are necessary. What does it then mean that it
shall be to all people? One meaning is this, that it
is now instead of just to the Jews, it is to every nation,
kindred and tongue. We're told in the prophecies
that the light of the Lord shall shine to the Gentiles. And then
our Lord says in John 10, other sheep I have which are not of
this fold, them also I must bring. That is, not of the Jewish fold,
but of the Gentile fold. And the Lord said, there shall
be one fold of one shepherd. We know of the first giving of
the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles was when the angel Cornelius
called for Peter. And so we know this, that it
is to every nation, key fruit and tongue. There's not a person,
not a land, a tongue, that is able to look at this tidings
of this Gospel and say, this is not for me. It should be,
and it is set forth here, that it is to go, as the Lord commissioned
His servants, going into all the world, not just the Jews,
all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature, May we remember
that in the day of our Lord, the religious leaders of His
day, the Pharisees and the Scribes, they found fault with the Lord
that He was a friend of publicans and sinners. May we never rule
out any as to receiving the Word of God. May we think of the mad
Gadarene If we saw someone like that, would we say there was
any hope for them? Now we think of the Apostle Paul,
who was persecuting the people of God, who thought he was doing
God's service in killing the people of God. The Lord converted
him, but would we think, if we had someone today doing that,
that the Lord was able to convert them, or would we modify the
word that the angel said, and to say to all people but not
him, and not that people. I remember this, and never, as
it were, think and have the same attitude of the scribes and the
pharisees, that one had to have a show of religion before there
could be any hope that the message was to them. It is to sinners. It is to those that when they
first receive this message, it comes to them when they are in
their sin, when they are yet opposing, when they need this
message. And so, I want to bring another
aspect to this work, which shall be to all people In other words,
that there is a time when this shall come, which shall be. It is pointing to a future time. Now every one of God's children,
when they're born into this world, they're born in sin, shapen in
iniquity, but it could be said of every one of them that it
shall be a time of good tidings at some point in their life,
a point chosen by God. The time that these good tidings
of great joy shall be received and be as such to a people is
in God's time. But it is to be proclaimed And
it is by the Lord's grace and mercy no man can come unto me
except the Father which sent me to draw him, and I will raise
him up until the last day. It is a beautiful promise that
throughout this world there shall be a people that receive this
good tidings. In the day of Pentecost, when
the Holy Spirit was given, Peter preached, and he preached to
a people that had crucified the Lord of life and glory. They
had cried, crucify Him, crucify Him. And under his preaching,
they were pricked in the heart. They were convinced of their
sin. They fell under it. They said,
what shall we do? The message was to believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was that they should repent
and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins.
We read this, they that gladly received his word were baptized. Amongst that multitude that at
once had prayed for the death of the Lord, there were those
that gladly received these tidings. They were good tidings of great
They were good tidings of great joy to that people then. So this then is, to whom these
tidings are sent, which shall be to all people. May we be exercised to desire
that those tidings be to us. We may ask ourselves, have we
received the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as good
tidings and has it produced in us great joy. In the fourth place, the message
tells of the birth of a Saviour. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ, The emphasis is that the one that
is being born is a saviour. He's not a good man to just give
us an example. He's not one that has just come
that is to be a light and a guide and a shepherd, but one that
is to be a saviour, one that is to save his people. We read
of that in Matthew 1. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. The world today
seems to completely ignore this. They like to have one that will
give them a good example, or one to follow, give them good words, but they
forget this message of the Saviour, because it means that we are
sinners. Men do not like to be told that
they are sinners. They do not like to be told that
they need to be saved from their sins. They do not like to be
told that if the Lord Jesus Christ do not save us from our sins,
There is no other name given among men whereby we must be
saved. The way the Lord saves His people
and saves His people from their sins is His very coming in their
nature as God and man in one person, having a soul and body
like unto those that He is to redeem of the seed of Abraham. In that position then, he lived
a perfect life of obedience, obtaining a righteousness which
we cannot obtain for ourselves. Then as perfect and spotless
Lamb of God, he laid down his life of ransom for his people. That is absolutely vital. It
is a payment price. It is a settlement. We are under
the sentence of death. We have a debt we cannot pay.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to pay that debt, to settle that
debt. And then He rose again from the
dead and ascended up into heaven. We know that the Lord says again
in John 10, I lay down my life for the sheep, for his people. The evidence
of his sheep, my sheep, hear my voice and follow me. And there
are those that are not his sheep, those that were then in that
chapter, John 10, contradicting, blaspheming. The Lord says, ye
are not of my sheep because ye hear not my word. May we be of
those that hear the word of God and keep it. May we be of those
that hear these tidings and realise and know that we need the Saviour. May we never lose sight of this
which the world in great measure has lost sight of. That is because
we are lost and ruined sinners. We are hell-deserving sinners.
We are under condemnation. If we have the blessedness of
Romans 8 verse 1, then we must know the opposite, that where
it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. So we may say that all that walk
after the flesh and not after the Spirit, and all that are
not in Christ Jesus, are under condemnation. And so the word
here, the message from the angels is emphasizing the Saviour, the
same as it was in Matthew 1, the same as His last name signifies. He shall save His people from
their sins. Do we know, do we realise, that
we need a Saviour? That this is what we need. This
is the tidings that will bring us great joy, when we fear and
know ourselves as sinners, and view the Lord Jesus Christ as
the Saviour of sinners. Now there are three things that
the angels told the shepherds in connection to the birth of
a saviour. For unto you is born this day
the city of David, a saviour which is Christ the Lord. Now
I told when, when was this day? A day that the Saviour was born. We think of the first promises
of the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head.
Here is this day. What a remarkable day. What a fulfilling of that prophecy
of the coming of the Just One, in which Solomon said, The hand
of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that
I builded, but will God in very deed dwell upon the earth. And here is this day come. May we have this day in our lives,
the day of salvation, the day of blessing, the day of receiving
the word of God, the day of embracing the Savior born, that of which
our Lord said in John 3, He must be born again, that day come,
this day in our lives. The shepherds had that. It wasn't
wasted any time in saying, well, this happened two weeks ago.
No, for them, these tidings, it is this day. The second thing found out was
this, is where, where he was born. In the city of Dacre, that is
Bethlehem. This was a well-known prophecy
for Micah. And it was that which the Jews
stumbled at when our Lord began his ministry, because they said,
arise, look and see. No prophet arises out of Galilee,
but if they had known their scriptures, they would have known that the
prophecy was that it should be from Galilee as well. And so,
as time had gone on, those 30 years from the birth of our Lord
this time until the beginning of his ministry, there were many
that had lost sight. where he'd actually been born.
I often think of it in my life really, because for many people
I came from Australia, and I had their accent, some will say here
I still have, and they've been here 25 years. And those are
newbies spending those 31 years in Australia, unless they had known me very
well, they wouldn't have realised actually I was born over here
and born in Eastbourne. And so I can well understand
how it would have been quite hidden from many in Christ's
day when he began his ministry, as to where he'd actually been
born. Because unless I was to tell
someone there would be very, very few people who would actually
know where I was born. I always remember one incident,
coming back from Holland actually, and being roughly treated by
the incoming customs in England, and they'd obviously picked up
on my accent, and they thought we were going to give this chap
a real going over, Then they opened my passport, and suddenly
their whole attitude changed. They said, oh, born in Eastbourne,
that's fine. Close up your case, off you go.
And it made such a difference when they realized that, well,
actually, I was English. I wasn't the Australian. But what difference it made here
in being able to recognize later on that this was the Saviour. But here, for the shepherds,
they were told very specifically, they needed to know, that He
was in the city of David, in Bethlehem. Not only was they
told where He was born, but who He was, which is Christ the Lord,
Emmanuel, God with us. He is the Anointed One, the woman
at the well of Samaria, she said to our Lord, we know that when
Christ comes, they expected Him, Samaritans did, He shall tell
us all things. Our Lord had just told her about
her life, about her former husbands, an oppressive one, who wasn't
her husband. So she says, and she comes to
The Samaritans, those of her city, come see a man that told
me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? My Lord
had told her very clearly that he was, but what she fastened
on was that which the Lord was able
to tell her of her own life. The angels, they give the message
of the birth of the Saviour, when and where and who He was. Then we have in the fifth place
a sign that was given, a sign given to them. Verse 12, this
shall be a sign unto you. You might say, well, Are the
angels enough assigned? Isn't this message, isn't this
wonderful thing assigned? I said, no, this shall be assigned
unto you. You shall find the bag wrapped
in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. You think, what? The Lord has so used the fact
that there's no room in the inn. The Lord has used this providence,
which must have been distressing and difficult for Mary and Joseph
to be a sign. How many things in our lives
we might find distressing and difficult and yet the Lord is
using and using for a purpose. He used you for a sign. There's
something really to be noticed of with this sign. The shepherds
had to go and see the bay before they had the sign. And when Philip came to Nathanael,
and our Lord began his ministry, and said, We have found him,
of whom Moses and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael said, Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said, Come and see.
Nathanael hadn't come, if he hadn't been brought to the Lord,
he would not have had that sight in which the Lord said to him,
Behold, an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile. And he said,
Whence knowest thou me? The Lord said, Before that Philip
called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And
from that, the knowledge that the Lord saw him, when man could
not see him, that convinced Nathanael. And these shepherds, they had
to go, they had to see, then they would have the sign. How
we are so often reminded in the Word of God, it is the venturer,
it is the prayer, it is the seeker that shall find, it is those
as it were that are moved by the message. not those that just
sit and say, well let God give me a sign and then I'll seek
the Lord, then I'll read the Word of God, then I'll come to
the house of God, then I'll walk in the Lord's ways. The sign
that was given here was that they should actually, and they
did, they said when the angels were gone away into heaven, they
said one to another, let us now go, even though to Bethlehem.
and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord
hath made known unto us. It would be a blessed thing if
we were able to say the Lord has made known unto us this thing,
and let us also go, not literally to Bethlehem, not literally to
the place, but to the scriptures, to the gospel, to the preaching
of the word, to the Lord's house, to the gathering of his people,
home to Hampshire, the gathering of the people be, and that there
shall be the signs, the blessings. How we could go to those in the
scriptures that had been so blessed, and we think of them when the
Lord rose from the dead, and Thomas, he wasn't there that
first time with the dear disciples, he had to wait a whole week before
he was able to see the Lord. only be found amongst the people
of God, that are in the Word of God, and to receive and to
see those signs, those blessings, that attend the preaching, the
reading, for the Word of God. So they went, they saw exactly
as the Lord had said, the sign given. Then we have, in the sixth place,
the glory to God. This was when there was suddenly
then with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising
God and saying, glory to God in the highest. That is the first
thing. Now remember this in the tidings
of the gospel. It is first and foremost to the
honor and glory of God. When we meet together in the
house of God, we meet for worship, we meet to give glory to God. Whatever we do, whatsoever you
do, do all to the honor and glory of God. The Lord says of His
people, this people, have I fall from myself, they shall show
forth my praise. A Christian, one that follows
Christ, is to be one that doesn't just follow Him for loaves and
fishes, what they can get out of the Lord, an insurance policy,
a good job, a wife, a family, or even eternal life, even the
blessing of sins forgiven. But their desire might be to
show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness,
and into His marvellous light. Now remember this first message
from the angels, that before ever it is spoken really of what
is for men, and yes we have covered it for men, but this angelic
host, the first thing that they mention is the glory to God in
the highest. Then in our seventh point, It
is the blessing on Earth. And on Earth, peace, goodwill
toward men. There's two aspects to this message
on Earth. On Earth, peace. And I know I
always mention this. It does not say, as actually
is in the Carol in the Hymn, peace on Earth. The Lord said, think not that
I come to give peace on earth. I come not to give peace, but
division. And wherever the word of God
comes, there will be a division, a separating. Why? God is bringing
men from the world to himself. He's separating them unto himself,
a holy people. The message is, I birth peace
on this earth. On this earth, this same earth
as to which the Lord came, there shall be peace. The peace of
God that passeth all understanding, known in a sinner's heart. So the martyrs in the midst of
the fire, as their bodies were being consumed, They had peace,
peace in their soul. They knew it was well with them. They knew that shortly they'd
be sitting with the Lord in His throne. It's a great blessing to know
that peace. The Lord says, in me you shall
have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. That
is the peace of this message in Christ and on earth peace. May we know personally that peace
in our souls from perhaps a tumult and trouble, affliction of sorrow
and condemnation under a broken law due to our sin. To know what
it is to have the peace of God that passeth all understanding.
to keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And then
the second aspect of the blessing of birth is good will toward
men. Good will toward men. The Son
of Man, our Lord says in John 3, came not to destroy man's
lives, but to save them. It is the message of good will. It's an amazing thing that there
are those, and I've encountered it in the schools, when I brought
the Bibles in the schools, that the children will latch onto
what is negative, not what is positive. They will say, well,
if I don't believe in the Lord, then I cannot be saved then.
There's no hope for me then. They don't match on to the fact
that if they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ they'll be saved. They say there's no hope. As if it's a hurdle that is too
great. It is too great for us that the
Lord Jesus Christ is exalted to give repentance and remission
of sins and it is that message that is bound up in the Gospel,
the good news of salvation. May the Lord not leave us to
rule ourselves out of the blessings of the Gospel, to say like Israel
of Holt, when the Lord would warn them to turn away from their
sin and to turn unto Him, and they said there is no hope. There
isn't any hope in ourself, and if we're relying on ourselves
to change our lives, and to change our hearts and change our minds,
there isn't hope. But here is the Lord as the Saviour. He is able to do what we cannot
do. And His message is goodwill toward
men. It is not to hold out a word
of scorn and say that that's not to you, it's to other people. It's to the elect or it is to
those that go to church or chapel as not to you, and to mock people
that hear these tidings, hear it suddenly, but you'll never
have it. God does not do that. To those that fear and know their
need of a saviour, a need of mercy, is goodwill toward men
who set before them as good news. Sinners, says the hymn writer,
can say, those that fear themselves as sinners can say, none but
they How precious is the Saviour. So may we think on this message,
this first message, divinely inspired and appointed message
and summary of points that are most important, summarised and
picked out of all the message of the Gospel later on, opened
up by our Lord and further opened up by the Apostles, here is this. from heaven right from the very
start, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Angel sent
unto them, and through them may the Lord speak unto us.