Messy Christmas Luke 2:8-20 “Good News of Great Joy”

Messy Christmas – Week 3 – “The Good News of Great Joy

Luke 2:8-20

⁸ In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.

⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:

¹¹ Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

¹² This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

¹⁴ Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

¹⁶ They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger.

¹⁷ After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child,

¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

¹⁹ But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them.

²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.

Intro:

• This is week 3 in our Series Messy Christmas
• Where we are looking at the True Christmas Story
• And seeing how it intersects with our messy lives
• We saw in the first week in Luke 1:26-38 the angel visiting Mary and proclaiming Grace over her
• And we also saw the natural messiness that surrounded her story
• That she and her fiancé Joseph were going to have a baby
• That came from God and would be God, and that all this was confirmed by a visit from an angel
• And last week, we saw how in Luke 2:1-8
• She is very pregnant and had to hop on a Donkey with Joseph
• Because of a government decree and travel close to 90 miles
• To the town of Bethlehem
• How God had a sovereign plan put in place over 1000 years
• Earlier, that was about to come to pass
• When we pick up their story today
• The Baby has been born and laid in a manger
• And now Mary and Joseph where about to have strangers show up at their door
• Just after giving birth without warning
• At least to them
• But as we continue to see
• There is more to the story
• This week, the story is about “The Goodnews of Great Jo.y”
• We will look at three aspects of this news
• To help us answer the question, “Why is this Goodnews so great?”
• First, we will look at The Context of the Good News
• Second, The Announcement of the Good News
• And Third, The Response to the Good News
• So, let’s start with the first one

1. The Context of the Good News (v. 8-9)

• The context of the Goodnews begins with an Ordinary Setting that has an extraordinary encounter
• (reread verse 8)

Luke 2:8

⁸ In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.

A. The Ordinary Setting (v. 8)

• What does this verse tell us?
• Shepherds were watching their flocks at night
• Why is that important?
• It is because of who they were and what they represented
• They represented ordinary, humble people.
• Shepherds were often considered lowly and unimportant in society,
• To be more precise, for over the last 1875 years up to this point
• Shepherds were considered detestable by both the Gentiles and the Jews
• Let me show you

Genesis 46:31-34

³¹ Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s family, “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

³² The men are shepherds; they also raise livestock. They have brought their flocks and herds and all that they have.’

³³ When Pharaoh addresses you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’

³⁴ you are to say, ‘Your servants, both we and our ancestors, have raised livestock from our youth until now.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to Egyptians.”

• Yet this is who God chose to receive His announcement.
• You may be here today, but think, who am I?
• Why would God use me?
• What can I really offer?
• What we don’t realize is God is not looking for what the world would label extraordinary.
• God is looking for you!
• He is looking for the everyday, ordinary
• Why? Because that is where you will find most of the lost world
• They are out there just like you and I
• Living their ordinary daily lives
• And because that is who we are…
• We have the greatest opportunity for our paths to cross in divine moments set up by God
• Just like He came to ordinary shepherds, God has come to you
• He wants to use you in your everyday ordinary lives
• Most Gospel moments are not going to happen because you march down to the street corner and start preaching at the cars as they sit at the stoplight
• No, it will come as you live out your faith in your ordinary daily lives
• And God causes someone to ask a question or notice your life
• But for that to happen these ordinary Shepheard’s had an extraordinary encounter

Luke 2:9

⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

B. The Extraordinary Encounter (v. 9)

• Their response was great fear,
• As shepherds, they were overwhelmed by the divine presence.
• Why? Maybe one of the reasons is that.
• History tells us that every time God showed up to a Shepherd, something significant happened
• In Exodus 3:1-3 Moses was a Shepheard who God called to lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt
• In 1 Samuel 16, David was a shepherd who God raised up to be king of his people
• What these shepherds were experiencing
• Is a God who meets us in the ordinary
• And then breaks through with His extraordinary grace.
• As we are about to see in the second aspect of the Goodnews

1. The Announcement of the Good News (v. 10-14)

• This message of Extraordinary Grace can be broken into three parts:

1. The Comfort of the Message (v. 10)

¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people:

• “Don’t be Afraid ”: The angel reassures them with a message of joy, not judgment.
• The good news is for ‘all the people,’ signifying its universal scope.

1. The Content of the Message (v. 11-12)

¹¹ Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

¹² This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.”

• The content of the message tells us two things:
• First,
• The Savior is born! Jesus is identified as the Messiah
• This is the one!
• The only one who could deal with our worst problem… sin!

1 Timothy 1:15

¹⁵ This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.

• You see, We don’t just need a good leader in our life to Guide us
• We need a savior…We need to be saved from our worst problem
• You and I are sinners! We need a savior
• And second
• The sign: The baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger—
• This sign was not just so they could find him
• But so, they could see he came just like them
• To meet them where they were
• Shepherds wore tattered, lowly cloths
• And soon in front of them, they would see a savior that looked just like them

Philippians 2:5-7

… ⁵ Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.
⁷ Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity…”

• Jesus made himself available to them.
• It points to his humility and His accessibility.

1. The Celebration of the Message (v. 13-14)

¹³ Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

¹⁴ Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!

• A multitude of heavenly hosts praise God, proclaiming peace on earth and God’s favor upon humanity.
• You might recall that the word Favor means “Grace.”
• The emphasis on glory to God and peace underscores the purpose of Christ’s coming.
• Why does this matter?
• Because This message of Extraordinary Grace = The Gospel
• The birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
• Which would bring true joy, peace, and hope to all people, regardless of status.

Romans 10:13

¹³ For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

• Which brings us to our final aspect of the good news

1. The Response to the Good News (v. 15-20)

• There were 4 Responses
• That we should consider

A. Immediate Obedience (v. 15-16)

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”

¹⁶ They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the manger.

• The shepherds responded to the Goodnews (the Gospel)
• Without hesitation, With faith and Immediate Obedience.
• Demonstrating this by going to Bethlehem to find Mary, Joseph,
• And the baby just as the angel said, and thus confirming God’s word.
• How can you confirm all the benefits of the Gospel in your life
• By responding in obedient faith to him
• More specifically… Confessing him as Lord (daily)
• Our obedient response leads us then to the second response
• After confessing him as Lord

B. Public Proclamation (v. 17-18)

¹⁷ After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child,

¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

• They could not keep this good news to themselves
• They had to tell it
• That should be our response!
• Our response to share will produce results
• … all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
• What are you waiting for?
• Which brings us to our third response

C. Personal Reflection (v. 19)

¹⁹ But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them.

• Our response to the Gospel does not only demand a public response
• But we should find ourselves going back to it daily
• For our own personal reflection and growth

Which brings us to the final part of our response to the Goodnews of the Gospel

D. Joyful Worship (v. 20)

Luke 2: 20

²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.

• Why does this matter?
• Because of what these guys had lived under their whole lives
• Remember 1875 years of being despised
• Up to this point, they carried this negative “identity” with them wherever they went.
• Many of us of before Christ and even now in Christ
• Have an identity issue
• We live under the pretense of what others think of us or what we may think of ourselves
• Often, we live through the filter of what we do and how we are seen
• For example, if I asked you to write down on paper “who you are.”
• Would you right, husband, wife, mother, father, nurse, parent, worker of____.
• Those things are not bad things
• But The problem is that all those things describe what you do
• But they are not who you are
• Only in Christ is our Identity found

Ephesians 4:2-7

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,

⁵ made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!

⁶ He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,

⁷ so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

• Because Jesus Made us alive with him
• We are now Sons and Daughters of the King
• So, then, it is out of who I am a son or daughter of the king
• That I parent, love my wife, or work my Job
• I am seen first through his eyes
• And out of the love I know he has for me
• Then, I operate in these various roles
• The shepherds Had just had their Identities changed
• Their Job did not change ….The verse read

²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just as they had been told.

• They went back to being a Shepheard
• The difference was they now saw themselves the way He sees them
• They had a reason to praise
• Because now the savior of the world had come
• And shown Grace to them
• He wanted them
• He invited them to him
• And He does the same for us
• You and I have been invited in
• We have been given Good news that can lead to Great Joy
• For all those who come to him
• Today, you may be here, and you have invited Christ in already
• But you have been living under the wrong identity
• What kids or people say you are at school, work, or home
• Instead of what he has already said about you
• This is my Son…this is my Daughter in whom I am well pleased
• No matter what you do or don’t do…You can never change your status as a Child of God
• (My kids- Always my kids)
• The shepherds teach us that the proper response to the Good News is faith, proclamation, reflection, and worship.

Conclusion

• Luke 2:8-20
• Teaches that the gospel is for everyone—rich or poor, high or low.
• It invites us to respond with faith,
• To share the good news with others
• and to worship the God who brings peace and joy by giving us Our Identity through His Son, Jesus Christ.
• Ask yourself am I as quick to seek Christ as the shepherds were?
• Do I proclaim the good news to others?
• Do I treasure and reflect on Gospel Daily?
• Do I have an Identity problem?
• How will you respond to The good news of Christ’s birth?
• Will it be with Joy & Worship?