The Heavenly Anthem
Luke 2:8-20
Main Idea: Christmas is good news of great joy and an invitation to join heaven’s song.
I. A Humble Audience (1:8-12)
As the shepherds are keeping their flock by night, suddenly an angel of the Lord appears and the “glory of the Lord shone around them” (cf. Isa. 40:3-5) God’s radiant beauty and perfection produces a great (mega) fear within them, as they feel the weight of God’s holiness. At the bottom of all of our fears is the reality of our sin and guilt and their consequences (cf. Gen. 3:10; Isa. 6:1-5).
“It is our guilty consciences that make God terrifying. Santa Claus we can handle. We line up to take pictures with him at the mall. But God? If he were to make an appearance at the mall? No line would form. We would scatter. God is terrifying to guilty sinners, even though he is in himself gloriously beautiful.”
~ Ray Ortlund, “Good News of Great Joy”
In the midst of their fear, the angel assures them: “Fear not, for behold I bring you good news (‘gospel’) of great (‘mega’) joy.” Each word in this ‘gospel’ is loaded with significance:
Unto you: this good news was specifically for the shepherds, the outcasts and ceremonially unclean of society
Is born this day in the city of David: in the city of Bethlehem, God was raising up the promised royal King of David’s line to rule over God’s people forever
A Savior: one who will deliver us from our fears and our sins
Christ: he is the Messiah,’ the long-promised anointed one of God
The Lord: this baby is God himself, the eternal Word made flesh (cf. Isa. 9:6-7; Jn. 1:14)
This glorious good news comes with a surprising and ridiculous “sign:” the shepherds will find this baby not born in a setting fit for royalty, but in a manger (a feeding trough). The humility of this announcement and scene points to the greater realities to come in Jesus’ life, mission, and ministry.
“In the poignant music of his birth, we hear the sad melody of his death. And by that weak death he will defeat all the powers of evil, will be crowned as Messiah and Lord, and will be the strong Savior of all who will trust in him. This sign is precisely right. It is by his weakness that he is strong, by his vulnerability that he is the conqueror, and by his suffering that he will be the Savior. Marvel with the shepherds at this conquering baby, this meek Messiah, this despised Lord.”
~ Christopher Ash, Repeat the Sounding Joy
II. A Heavenly Anthem (1:13-14)
Suddenly, a multitude of the ‘heavenly host’ appears with the angel, proclaiming a battle-cry: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.”
Glory to God in the highest: of all the things this heavenly host had seen God do before, this moment of the incarnation of Christ evokes the response of glory “in the highest”
“If angels shouted before and when the world was made, their hallelujahs were more full, more strong, more magnificent, if not more hearty, when they saw Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary to be man’s redeemer—“Glory to God in the highest… Though creation may be a majestic organ of praise, it cannot reach the compass of the golden song of the incarnation! There is more in that than in creation, more melody in Jesus in the manger, than there is in worlds on worlds rolling their grandeur round the throne of the Most High. The whole of God is glorified in Christ; and though some part of the name of God is written in the universe, it is here best read—in Him who was the Son of Man, and, yet, the Son of God.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, “The First Christmas Carol”
Peace on earth: the coming of Christ brings peace and joy to those who have been stuck in the bondage of sin and fear. This peace is first and foremost with God and then it moves outward toward other people, as Jesus is “making peace by the blood of the cross” (Col. 1:20).
III. A Holy Adoration (1:15-20)
The Shepherds “with haste” went to both investigate and bear witness to this incredible good news (cf. Isa. 55:6). Though they were disqualified from serving as legal witnesses in Jerusalem, they were commissioned by God to spread the gospel.
We see three responses to this good news:
Wonder and Amazement (2:18)
Treasuring and Pondering (2:19)
Glorifying and Praising (2:20)
“The shepherds could not have known that this boy had come into the world in the same way he would leave it: out in the open, among the outcast, poor, and despised, but driven by one purpose – to ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile until the Son of God appears. When the shepherds arrived that night, looking to Mary and Joseph like men who had just encountered the angel of the Lord, they wanted to do more than see the baby. They wanted to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world… what they couldn’t have known at the time was that though he was rich, for their sake, he became poor, so that by his poverty they might become rich.”
~ Russ Ramsey, The Advent of the Lamb of God
