Luke chapter 2 and we're reading
from verse 1. And it came to pass in those
days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all
the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made
when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed,
every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, unto Judea, unto the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and
lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife,
being great with child. And so it was that while they
were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for
them in the inn. And there were in the same country
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock
by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. 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 the 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 on earth
peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one
to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this
thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
unto us. And they came with haste, and
found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when
they had seen it, they made known abroad the seeing which was told
them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary
kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they
had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. And when days
were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called
Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived
in the womb. Amen, may the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Many years ago, the Lord God
made a promise to a man and his wife who had fallen into sin
and had, by that sin, bequeathed a legacy of pain and sadness
and willfulness upon their descendants forever. Someday, said God, A son would
be born to a woman who would destroy the devil and bring an
end to the works of the devil. A seed would be given whose heel
would be bruised, but who would bruise the serpent's head. And that promise was given to
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was a promise of hope
in the midst of despair. Adam and Eve never forgot it. They told their children and
their children's children and it was passed down through the
ages of the families and the generations. And over a long
period of time, the Lord sent prophets to expand upon this
promise, to enlarge its detail, to specify times and places and
circumstances, even names and titles. We've been thinking about
some of these over the past few weeks, these prophecies concerning
the coming Messiah. And these details built to an
expectation so that for hundreds of years, men and women who believed
God's promise looked forward in faith to the time when the
Messiah, the anointed one, would appear. as had been promised,
would appear to save and deliver his people. As the time of the fulfilment
of this promise approached, the Lord God put in place the final
preparations for the coming King. there was the birth of John the
Baptist. There was a guiding star placed
in the heavens and viewed from the east by a group of wise men. The Roman governor, Caesar Augustus,
established a poll tax which required people to return to
the city of their birth and their heritage. and an angelic visitation was
made to a young woman who was soon to be married. The time
of the promise was now. But there was a twist. There
was a twist because the expectation that the Jews had was that this
birth This son who would be given would be of royal lineage. True it was, but they had misinterpreted
and misunderstood what God was doing. They had the hope of a
resurgent nation of Israel. They looked at the Davidic kingdom
of their history as a parallel that would be followed. They
perceived a great earthly kingdom being established when the Messiah
came. But what they got was quite different. God was not coming to restore
a nation state, but to gather a spiritual kingdom and to bring
together a spiritual people to populate that kingdom. The Lord
Jesus Christ came not to restore David's kingdom, but to build
a worldwide kingdom of his own. that would stand the test of
time and that would glorify his name. We call that kingdom the
church, the church of Jesus Christ and the Bible tells us that the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew, in his gospel, tells
us of the birth of the Lord Jesus and how that Joseph, the adoptive
father, if you like, of the Lord Jesus, was by the angel reassured
of God's hand in this wonderful work of the pregnancy of Mary. We know little, very little,
concerning this man Joseph. Scripture says a few things,
but largely it doesn't mention him very much, as is indeed appropriate
in the circumstances. But it stands as an enduring
testimony that Joseph was a just man and he believed the word
of the Lord. When the angel spoke to him in
a dream, Matthew says he took unto him his wife and knew her
not till she had brought forth her firstborn son. Matthew's account also says,
behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a
son. He's quoting Isaiah in the Old
Testament. And they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which is being interpreted, or which being interpreted is
God with us. And it's this little phrase,
God with us, or the presence of the Lord in human form, and
his union with us in our human flesh, that will, I trust, hold
our attention for the next few minutes. The phrase, the presence
of the Lord, is well known in scripture. though it is most
often used in the context of God's knowledge of sin and his
power to judge sin in the sense of the presence of the Lord or
before the face of God or before the all-seeing eye of God. And so in this sense the presence
of the Lord was not necessarily something that would make an
individual be at ease. Indeed, it might be a fearful
thing to be in the presence of the Lord. So when the angel spoke
of Emmanuel, God with us, the presence of the Lord being here,
it wasn't always something that filled men with peace and joy. So that, for example, Adam and
Eve, of whom we spoke a few weeks ago in the context of this promise
that had been given, hid from the Lord amongst the trees of
the Garden of Eden. And we are told in Genesis chapter
3 verse 8, explicitly, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife
hid themselves from what? from the presence of the Lord
God. They hid themselves from the
presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Now
what does that tell us? Well, no doubt it tells us a
lot, but at the very least it tells us that there is in man
an inherent fear. and a deep-seated antipathy towards
God. We know God knows who and what
we are. We know God knows who and what
we are. And sinful men and women fear
the presence of the Lord because their deeds are evil and because
they know that God is holy. That is why there is this inbuilt,
this innate, this inherent antagonism and rebellion towards God. Because we know that by nature,
like Adam and Eve and all their posterity, we are under condemnation
and we rebel against God. Do you remember at the time when
God gave his law to the children of Israel, God appeared to Israel
at Horeb or Mount Sinai? And the people there, the children
of Israel, were so intimidated by the presence, the sense of
the awesomeness of the presence of God that they pleaded with
Moses for an intercessor, a go-between, a mediator. because they were
afraid of the presence of the Lord. They cried out to Moses
and said, speak thou with us, and we will hear, we'll listen
if you speak to us, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And we saw on a previous occasion
that Moses said at this time concerning one who would come,
indeed concerning the Messiah, as he's called in the Old Testament,
or Christ, as he's called in the New Testament. It's the same
word. It means the anointed one. Moses said that there would indeed
be a mediator, a Messiah. a go-between, who would be provided
by God. And in Deuteronomy 18 verse 15
he says, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet
from the midst of thee. Now the word prophet there means
one who speaks from God to the people. the word of God would come amongst
men. But what Moses told them was
that this prophet would come from amongst them of thy brethren,
like unto me, says Moses, and unto him ye shall hearken. And I want to draw just a couple
of points from this little point, this little reference here. Firstly,
this. For sinners, the prospect of
the presence of the Lord, or, to use the name, Emmanuel, God
with us, for sinners, that prospect is not one of peace and joy,
but one of fear and foreboding, because we know ourselves to
be guilty and worthy of His condemnation. And the second thing is this,
that that is why, with very few exceptions, the first thing the
Lord says to anyone to whom he speaks is, fear not. If you've got a concordance and
you want to look it up, you'll see what I'm saying is true.
Whether it was Abraham, or Isaac, or Jacob, or Hagar, or Moses,
or Joshua, or Gideon, in fact, pretty much all who were ever
addressed directly by God, or indeed visited by an angel, the
angel of the Lord, were addressed in the first instance
by the words, fear not. Why? Because the presence of
the Lord was a fearful thing. So we're not surprised to learn
that the first thing the angel said to Zacharias when he came
to announce the imminent birth of John the Baptist was, fear
not. And also to Mary, the mother
of Jesus. After paying respect to her,
as was appropriate, as the soon to be mother of the Christ child,
The angel said to her, fear not. And this all confirms that because
of sin, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. So it's with this little point
in mind that we turn to the words of the angel to the shepherds
here on this hillside on the night of the Lord's incarnation. Luke chapter 2 and verse 10 and
11 says this, 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. So that the first point that
I want, I've got three things that I want to say about this.
The first one is this, that the first thing the angel says is,
fear not. And here again, the angel of
the Lord purposefully allays the distress that the shepherds
felt with these words of comfort. What the angel was saying there
to these shepherds is this, I haven't come to judge you. I haven't
come to do you harm. I haven't come to slay you. I have brought good news. What's another word for good
news? I've brought the gospel. I have good tidings. We don't usually use the word
tidings these days. It tends to be an old fashioned
word, but the angel brought good tidings. He brought good news.
He brought the gospel. And his message was not an announcement
of judgment, but a mission of mercy. Now make no mistake, There
is coming a day when the Lord Jesus Christ will appear with
his holy angels to judge the world and its people in righteousness. But for the moment, the fear
of these men, though understandable, was unfounded because this angel
had come in peace. And this is important. In the
gospel, God comes in peace. And this is the gospel age. It is in this sense that the
coming of Christ is peace to all people. People sometimes say, why does
God just not judge sin if he's holy and righteous? Or it might
be phrased as, where is God when these terrible events happen,
when an atrocity is perpetrated? Why did God not stop that? Why
does God not judge that? Why does God not judge these
wicked people? Why does God not take away these
wicked men who are doing these terrible things? Because this is the gospel age.
Sin deserves prompt and severe retribution. In essence, it is though it causes
terrible hurt and sadness here in this world. In essence, it
is an offence against God. And yet God has announced in
the Gospel, in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, a way
of peace, of escape and of salvation. because here in the incarnation,
in the coming of Christ is a plan of redemption and reconciliation
by which the sins of men and women are paid for by a substitute
while the actual perpetrators are counted righteous and holy
and innocent and set free. And we cannot understand the
incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ apart from this dimension
of His work, apart from the cross. Nor shall we know the importance
of the coming of the Lord Jesus. His union with us in our flesh
and the promise of life that He brings until we see it in the context of God's grace
and God's plan for salvation of His people. By Christ's coming,
the Lord says, fear not. The second thing that the angel
said to these men was, unto you, unto you. And it's this that
I want to touch upon now as the second point. The angel's message
was directed to these men specifically. And we might just note in passing
that the angel did not say unto us is born this day. in the city of David, but unto
you is born this day. And there was reason for that.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to save angels, fallen or
good. He did not come to save angels. He came to save fallen men. Nor did he come to save all men. He came to save all the children
of the covenant. He came to save all the spiritual
seed of Abraham to whom the covenant promise had been made. He came
to save the elect, the chosen, men, women, boys and girls, chosen
in eternity, given to Christ under the terms of the covenant
of peace. He came for their sakes, on their
account, and it was for their good He assumed human flesh,
He assumed human nature, and ultimately went to the cross.
the blessings and the benefits, the grace and the goodness, the
joy and the peace of the incarnation flows to sinners, not according
to man's free will, but according to the will and purpose of God
as it is revealed in Scripture. And if we detach any aspect of
the Lord's coming, of His work or His victory on the cross,
from the whole of the revelation of Jesus Christ, then we'll never
grasp its meaning. People are celebrating Christmas
today and they're welcome to the pleasure and the enjoyment
that it brings for them. But it cannot be seen in isolation. The peace of the presence of
the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, in our flesh, is the peace we
have with God being forgiven of our sins. The joy of the Lord
in our hearts is the joy that comes by faith because we realize
and understand what Jesus Christ has done for us. Peace and joy
is God's gift to all for whom Christ came, all for whom Christ
lived, and all for whom Christ died. And the world can celebrate
Christ's incarnation with unbounded enthusiasm. But until by faith
we can identify personally with the you in the angel's announcement. The true saving purpose of Christ's
coming must forever elude us. Here's the third point that I
want to mention. The angel said, fear not, the
angel said unto you. And the angel expressly tells
the shepherds that the child born in Bethlehem that night
is a saviour that is Christ the Lord. And these three terms are
used to the shepherds with respect to the child that was born. Saviour,
Christ, Lord. And this is why we call the Son
of God Jesus Christ the Lord, or the Lord Jesus Christ, because
that's his name. That's what the angel said. Jesus means saviour or deliverer. The angel said to Mary and to
Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. Jesus means saviour. So that
in identifying this child as the saviour Christ the Lord,
the three names by which we most commonly address the Lord Jesus
Christ are given to us here in this term. You know, it would be 30 years
before the Lord Jesus Christ began his ministry. 30 years. I don't know how many
of those shepherds that were on the hillside that night would
still be alive when the Lord Jesus Christ began his ministry. But this child that was born
in the stable, placed in the manger, there in Bethlehem, was
still, was at that moment, Jesus Christ the Lord. He was the Saviour,
He was the anointed Messiah, and He was God with us. His ministry, when it came would
last only three years until he was crucified. And we might wonder
why this visitation to these shepherds was necessary at all. What was the purpose of the angels
appearing? Well, of course, the worship
of God, the honour of God, the glory of God, and the wonder
of God's ways are always worth remembering. But let us recognise that this
visitation didn't start a movement, or win converts in that sense,
or even gain much attention. at the time there in Israel. Perhaps there were a few faithful
individuals who took notice, who, as it were, scoured the
news to hear if there was anything that might fit into the hopes
that they had and the anticipation that they had for the imminent
arrival of the Christ child. But it was a few shepherds with
a strange story of a night-time vision. But what it did was this. It
recorded for all time that the saviour had come into the world. One person, one person at least,
was deeply interested and deeply affected by the shepherd's account. Mary's experience of that night
in which the Lord Jesus Christ was born was not attended, as
far as we know, with any supernatural evidence. There wasn't a strange light
in the stable, or attendant angels that sang to the praise of the
Christ child, or a constant procession of visitors bearing gifts. This was the natural birth of
a baby, probably performed by lamplight. Some people have suggested that
Jesus' birth was perhaps an easy labour, an easy delivery. It's where we get this idea in
the hymn of No Crying He Made. Some people suggest it was an
easy delivery because Mary was personally able to swaddle the
child and wrap the child up herself, that she physically wasn't under
such trauma that she was incapacitated. Be that as it may, everything
about that stable location implies worry. and anxiety and grime
and dirt and hardship. And as we've already noticed
in our little introduction, it likely is the evidence of the
couple's extreme poverty. And yet having found the baby,
the shepherds told their story to Mary, and we're told that
she kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. What a contrast that was. The
dirt and the grime of that stable. And the shepherd's tale of the
angel hosts singing in the sky. I think really that's the point.
This was the Child that had been promised long ago. This was the
Messiah. This was the Christ. This was
the Saviour Jesus who would save His people from their sins. This
was the Lord God with us. Emmanuel come down to earth to
be joined with our flesh to set us free from Satan's snare and
to redeem us from the curse of the law. And it is the meanness
and the poverty of Jesus' birth that is intentionally set as
a contrast with the elevated majesty of heaven's glory. that the Lord Jesus Christ had
left behind. And Paul explains it like this. Speaking to the Corinthians,
he says, ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through
his poverty might be rich. God joined himself to our nature,
took our flesh, humbled himself and became poor, that we by his
grace might be rich. Rich in mercy, rich in righteousness,
rich in life, rich in glory. May we too keep these things
in our heart and ponder them as did Mary. In the knowledge
of Christ, in the knowledge of Christ, our salvation is assured. All grace is received. Every hope is justified and vindicated. and all our troubles will be
eased. Up ahead lies glory and all the
riches of heavenly peace and joy because the Saviour, Christ
the Lord, humbled himself for us. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us. Amen.