I want to start this morning by asking you guys a series of questions, and I think I know the answers to each of the questions.
You don't have to say it out loud, but say it in your own heart.
But I think this will be instructive for us as a way to begin our service for today.
Here are the four questions.
Do you believe that God's Word is true?
Secondly, do you believe everything that's contained in God's Word?
Third, do you believe that miracles are not only possible, but they have happened many times in the past, and still happening today?
And last, do you believe that there is a spiritual realm beyond this physical world that we see?
If your answer to all four of those questions is yes, then you are ready to fully embrace this morning's message.
And to walk out of here, I hope, with greater joy this Christmas season.
God created you and I to inhabit a physical world.
We were designed that way, to see things and touch things and to be able to record things in time and space.
But despite how wonderfully we are made, we don't have the capacity to know that all that is going on in the invisible spiritual realm that God also created.
But if you believe God's Word, then you know that the spiritual realm is every bit as real as the material world that we live in today.
And that what happens in that invisible realm has an impact on the human affairs of this earth.
And we just have to acknowledge all of that because it's in the Bible before we get started this morning.
So grab your Bibles, and we're going to dive into Luke chapter 2.
Luke chapter 2, now we were there last Sunday as well, but we're going to cover some very specific verses this morning, verses 8 to 16.
And actually, let's back up to verse 1.
We'll read that whole first section and just read it in context.
So we'll read verses 1 to 16 together.
Very familiar story, right?
We see it on the Bible.
We see it on the Bible, and we'll read it from verse 1 to 16 together.
Very familiar story, right?
We see it on greeting cards every year.
We sometimes read it to our families on Christmas morning.
But listen for the details as we go through this.
Verse 1, now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of the inhabited earth.
This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.
He was to register for the census each to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David.
In order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child.
While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth, and she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths,
and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
All right, so the Christ child is born.
We covered all that last Sunday.
If you missed that sermon, go online, go to Spotify, YouTube, and listen to the details on all of that.
What happens next?
Verse 8, in the same region where there were shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night,
and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were
terribly frightened.
But the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David, there's been born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and laying in a manger.
And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.
When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another,
let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger.
Okay, so two Sundays ago, we started the Advent series by talking about the heavyweights of this story.
Remember, Caesar Augustus and Herod the Great, and we laid a historical foundation talking about
Augustus representing the world situation and Herod representing the situation in Israel.
And then last Sunday, we took a dramatic shift, right, from the heavyweights to the nobodies.
And we focused our attention on Mary and Joseph.
And it's interesting what we found was that, yeah, they're nobodies, you know, according to that time and place.
But Mary and Joseph were really quite extraordinary, weren't they?
Their strength and determination, their ability to adjust to changing circumstances, and most of all,
their trust in the plan that God had revealed to them, all of that was far greater than you would think
of an average couple of Galilean teenagers.
And today we're going to see something similar in the shepherds of Bethlehem, a group of very common
people chosen to receive a revelation from the Lord, and then we're going to see how they act on that in faith.
Now, God has always had a special place in his heart for shepherds.
We know that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, right?
But even before that, right, we think about all the biblical characters who at one time or another
actually cared for flocks.
All three patriarchs were shepherds, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job cared for flocks, Moses, Amos was a shepherd by trade,
and of course, David, before he became a king.
So you could make the case that at least in the Old Testament days, being a shepherd was a very noble profession.
But by the time we get to the New Testament era, the time of Christ, the idea of being a shepherd seems to have
fallen out of favor in terms of the Jewish tradition.
And if you think about it on a practical level, you can sort of understand why.
Shepherding is not what you would probably call a sophisticated profession.
Right?
We reserve that for people like academics and people who work in office buildings and things like that.
Not so much shepherds.
And listen, if you know this, if you have children and you've just gone to a petting zoo,
you know how dirty those places are, right? And the smell.
You all know the smell of a petting zoo, right?
With your kids or grandkids?
It's bad.
So being a shepherd was a grimy business.
Grazing your animals, watering your animals, milking them, shearing their coats, dealing with things like
parasites and constant hoof problems.
And of course, long nights out on the fields, watching over them, protecting them,
from predators. So the life of a shepherd was to be constantly outside, constantly dirty,
whether you were under the blazing sun of summer or in the cold of winter.
And so when you get to the first century in the rabbinical world of that day,
shepherds were considered unclean in a ceremonial sense.
And actually worse, if you read the Talmud, you read of the religious establishments,
absolute contentment of the shepherds.
You read of the religious establishments, absolute contempt for these people.
They were referred to in the Talmud as generally dishonest and prone to violating the Torah.
Most of them were illiterate, so the public viewed them as ignorant people,
irreligious people.
In the eyes of the law, they were seen as not trustworthy enough to come and bear witness in a court of law.
That's the way that they were seen.
And having said all that, as you and I know by our own lives, God loves a good underdog story, doesn't he?
That's just the way he operates.
The Lord often uses unlikely vessels to accomplish his will.
He uses shepherds and he uses fishermen and he uses tax collectors.
Paul calls them the weak and the foolish things of this world.
These God uses to confound the wisdom of those who think they are so wise and so sophisticated
in their own eyes.
And in the case of the Christmas story, God ironically uses a class of people, get this now,
who are not allowed to bear witness in a court of law to bear witness to the birth of his son.
It's just dripping with irony, isn't it?
But the logic is consistent.
If Jesus came to save and deliver the meek and the despised of this world, why not announce it to those
who are meek and despised?
So think carefully about that.
God chose wisely, didn't he?
Now, let me address something that you may or may not have heard about.
I've heard about this from a scholarly perspective for probably the last 20 years.
A theory was put forth about 150 years ago by a Messianic Christian and a biblical scholar
by the name of Alfred Edersheim.
And he suggested the possibility that the sheep being kept in the fields of Bethlehem that night
were what we call temple lambs.
Temple lambs.
In other words, they were being raised specifically in the fields of Bethlehem.
They were being raised specifically to be sacrificed in the temple in Jerusalem.
And Edersheim put forth this theory that basically said that would mean two things.
Number one, these weren't just ordinary shepherds.
They have sort of a more open and receptive appreciation of the message of the angels.
But more importantly, number two, there would be all this different symbolism built into the story.
Get this.
The angels announcing the arrival of the Lamb of God to the very shepherds caring for the lambs
and go to the temple to be slaughtered for the forgiveness of sins.
If that's true, that's a ton of symbolism, isn't it?
Now, what did he build this theory on?
Well, Edersheim went deep into the Mishnah, which is the oral Torah, developed about 200 years
after the time of Christ, and he found a unique passage that talked about in the region between
Jerusalem and a very particular landmark called the Tower of the Flock, animals raised in that
zone, so to speak.
This is by the Mishnah, by the rabbis.
Those animals were qualified to be temple sacrifices.
The Tower of the Flock.
Now, that phrase is found in Genesis 35 in connection with the Tomb of Rachel.
And it's actually called, that's referred to the Tomb of Rachel is by the Tower of the Flock.
And modern archaeology has found that tomb and has located it right near present-day Bethlehem.
And then adding to the intrigue from Edersheim's perspective was this tower is found again in,
of all places, the prophecy of Micah.
And of course, Micah is the one who predicts that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem,
but Micah writes about where the kingdom of God will arrive.
And here's what he says, as for you, Tower of the Flock, to you it will come.
So here's the thing, Edersheim's theory is not embraced by all scholars.
And I don't think we can be sure about this, that somehow those shepherds and those lambs were
connected to the temple sacrifices.
But because of those like sort of breadcrumbs that we see in the historical record and the close
proximity of Bethlehem to Jerusalem, it's not beyond possibility either.
So I'd love to be able to stand up here and say, yep, this is what it was, but it's not
beyond possibility.
And what a thought it would be that the shepherds, the shepherds who take care of the temple lambs
would be the first ones to see the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Think about that.
It's amazing.
Okay, are there still shepherds in Israel today?
Yes.
Those of you who have been to Israel, it is one of the most amazing things to see.
In fact, if you go to Herodium outside of Bethlehem, you will still look on the hills
and see shepherds and sheep.
They are part of the larger Bedouin community.
I just I took this picture.
Bedouin shepherds that still still work in the fields and still take care of flocks.
And when you go to go to Israel, we always try to spend at least one day with a Bedouin
family.
And you you go into their tents and they're known for their kindness and known for their
hospitality.
They also like American dollars, by the way.
But but they're known for their hospitality.
They will serve you some wild Turkish coffee.
And I mean, it's and really some delicious food.
In fact, I got a picture from of our group in 2017 sitting around a table.
You might recognize some of those folks.
Oh, and then they always like to take you out for a camel ride.
Which is a blast.
And so I had to throw this picture up there.
Oh, hey, now.
Hey, now.
Meredith is shaking her head at me.
David Meredith on a camel.
Isn't that great?
So good.
I'll take that picture down in just a moment.
Don't worry about it.
Anyway, it's really, really neat to see these shepherds and to see the Bedouin community
still active in Israel today and to sort of enjoy their hospitality.
OK, let's look more carefully at the narrative in Luke two.
Let's go back to verse eight.
I will take it down in a second.
You guys look great.
Getting on those camels and getting off.
Not easy, by the way.
Man, those things are awkward.
Verse eight, in the same region, referring to the fact that the child was just born in
Bethlehem in that region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping
watch over their flocks by night.
So here's just an artist rendering of, I don't know, you know how I love images, right?
Just to help us understand the text.
An artist, you know, rendering of what old Bethlehem might have looked like back in the
day.
And I want you to think now, and I know we sing about this every year in carols, but
think about the quiet of working out in that environment, the stillness of the night and
the quiet of the night.
If Bethlehem is about a mile away, the only sounds you would hear would be the animal
shuffling around in the occasional bleeding.
Now, Bethlehem today is a built up city.
This is what it actually looks like today.
In the far distance is Bethlehem.
It's a big, big city.
Now it's under Palestinian control, but you can see still sheep in the area of Bethlehem.
Really, really amazing.
Back to this picture because it's better.
And it says, verse nine, in the middle of the stillness and this quiet, an angel of
the Lord suddenly stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they
were understandably terribly frightened.
Imagine this.
I know we read this all the time, we read it every year, and we read right past this
and go, oh, that's cool.
Are you serious?
Can you imagine this experience?
It's just a regular night on the job.
I mean, you guys, we all have jobs, right?
It's just every, you go into your day, every day you think nothing new is going to happen
today, you just, just regular old day, not for these guys.
Regular night on the job.
There's a chill in the air, everything is still and dead quiet.
I don't know if they were sitting around a fire or whether they were standing and leaning
on their staffs and watching over their flocks, but think about this in an absolute instant,
this blinding light that just enveloped them and the shock to your system that would have
been.
Sensing this heavy presence and as their eyes adjust, there's this being standing before
them that their brains cannot even process.
Again, try to put yourself in those sandals.
And when the text says that he stood before them, that's actually what it means.
The Greek word there is used to describe somebody coming near or even confronting somebody,
attacking somebody.
So this angel, we often picture the angel hovering above like, whoa, you know, looking
down.
No, he gets up into their personal space.
So imagine how terrifying that would be.
I mean, first by the suddenness of it, but then I'm guessing by the size and the appearance
of this being, they're absolutely terrified.
My guess is their first thought was, I'm a dead man.
That's it.
This is the end of my life.
Again, the suddenness of it all.
I am a dead man.
And that's why the angel has to say very quickly, don't be afraid.
I'm here to give you good news, not destroy you.
Now, he doesn't actually say that, but that's basically what he implies.
I'm not going to hurt you.
I'm not going to destroy you.
I'm here with good news.
Now, we're going to come back to that good news in just a moment.
We're going to do a little theological side trail if we can, because we need to talk about
angels.
And we don't often do angelology here at Oak Hill, but now's a good time.
Now, we could do a whole five-week series on angels and demons.
But I'm going to talk about a few things today, because I'm going to talk about a few things
today, because it's important when we read these stories to understand what's really
going on.
More often than not today, how do we view angels in our mind's eye?
We see them as cutesy and human-like and sweet and gentle and benign.
They always have really big, pretty wings, and they're wearing beautiful, flowing white
robes.
And they have golden halos over their heads, all of these things.
By the way, I did it last night.
I did a Google image search for angels.
It's all ridiculous.
It's literally ridiculous.
In fact, I love to put images on the screen.
I will not put an angelic image on the screen.
I can't do it, because you can't capture it.
I wish we could.
I wish there was an artist out there that could truly capture what a biblically accurate
angel looks like, because they are imposing, and they are imposing.
Because they are imposing, and they are fearsome, and they're strange.
So think about this for a second.
So let's talk about a few facts about them.
First of all, they're incorporeal, meaning they're not physical.
They're spirit beings.
They don't have bodies.
But they can appear in various types of physical forms according to God's commands.
And as God's messengers, they often deliver news and share prophetic messages.
But here's what you have to understand.
They go beyond that.
Angels do far more than just speaking.
It's really important to understand that.
They're all described in scripture almost as soldiers who are commanded to go out by
God to serve believers.
In fact, in Hebrews chapter 1, they're called ministering spirits sent out to render service
to those who will inherit salvation.
That's in Hebrews 1.
Ministering spirits sent to render service to those who will inherit salvation.
And we see in scripture angels doing a whole number of really wild things.
For example, rescuing Lot and his family in Genesis 19 from certain death.
Opposing Balaam in Numbers 22.
Nearly destroying all of Jerusalem because of David's sin in 2 Samuel 24.
God stops him before he destroys Jerusalem.
Perhaps most dramatically, an angel slaughters 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night
in 2 Kings 19.
So they are clearly powerful beings.
And when you look at the book of Revelation, which we'll talk about a little bit later,
you find, yeah, they have a very distinct role to play in the end of days.
They will bring pestilence and destruction upon the earth, even killing a third of humankind
during the Great Tribulation.
Angels are not to be trifled with.
They're not cutesy little things.
And that's what the shepherds found out that night.
It was fearsome and it was scary and they were terribly frightened.
Now, back up for a second.
If we start at the beginning and talk about angels, we see various hints drop throughout
scripture that God made two distinct families of servants.
He made angels in one realm, the spiritual realm, and he made men.
In the physical world.
And as early as Genesis 2, 1, at the completion of creation, we read that the angelic host
is present.
So the Lord had his two families, both were made for his glory, both were made designed
to love him and to serve him.
But then rebellions followed.
And we're familiar with this.
First of all, you had the fall of Satan and those who followed him.
Then you have the fall of man in the garden in Genesis, and then you have the fall of
Satan in the garden in Genesis 3.
And what's interesting is in his sovereignty, God chose to pass by the fallen angels.
He does not offer them a chance at redemption.
That's clear in scripture and Hebrews 2, it says, surely it's not angels that God helps,
but he helps the descendants of Abraham.
In first Timothy five, a phrase that might just you might just read right past.
Paul says to Timothy that there are chosen angels or elect angels, which implies the
opposite, right?
That some are rejected, but in his great mercy and kindness, the Lord chose to do otherwise
with fallen man.
And aren't you glad he didn't just pass us by?
He chose to offer us redemption.
He carried out an eternal plan in which his own son would become what?
A little lower than the angels for a time by taking out a human nature so that by his
death and resurrection, he might bring many sons to glory.
You find that in the book of Hebrews.
And yet here's the cool thing about angels far from envying the grace that God has shown
to us.
They rejoice whenever a human being repents, right?
They rejoice.
They long to look into God's plan of salvation because they don't have it hasn't been offered
to them.
They long to understand why God would redeem us, how he redeems us, and how we end up
repenting.
They long to look into it and they marvel at God's wisdom in taking hostile groups of
human beings and forming them into one body, the church by the blood of his cross.
Yeah, that's what angels do in the spiritual realm right now.
They are all of us.
And the work that God has done in our lives.
They long to look at it.
Now, contrary to popular belief, we don't become angels when we die.
Darn it.
No wings.
We don't get harps.
We don't sit on clouds.
The two families of God remain distinct.
Angels will forever be angels and we will forever be redeemed men and women.
But and what I thought this is, we will meet these spiritual beings in glory when all
things are united in Christ.
And according to Revelation seven, we will gather together with angels around the throne
someday to worship the father and to worship the lamb.
That's Revelation seven.
It would be good to read the book of Revelation this week.
It'll fill you in on a bunch of things.
Now, it's interesting to know just how many terms are used for these spiritual beings,
not just angel.
And actually, angel is more of a verb than it is a noun.
In both the Old and New Testaments, the terms malach in Hebrew and angelos in Greek mean
messenger or envoy.
And as we've noted already, they do far more than just speak.
They do far more than just go and deliver messages.
Sometimes they're called any one of these names, spirits, heavenly ones, holy ones,
mighty ones, sons of God, watchers, and even Elohim.
Little G God.
Little G Gods.
So, some of these heavenly beings are angels in the truest sense, meaning that is their
primary role, to be messengers, but others don't function that way.
And so it's actually not accurate to call all of them angels because they're not all
messengers.
So in terms of types of angels, there are, first of all, archangels.
And there's only one we're sure of, and that is who?
That is Michael.
We're told that he's an archangel, although in Daniel 10, he's called one of the chief
priests, or chief princes.
So we know that there are other archangels.
We just don't have their names.
Some scholars surmise that Gabriel might be an archangel, but we don't know for sure.
But those are the only two specific names were given in scripture of angels with their
personal names.
Now, Gabriel, we've already encountered in the Christmas story a couple of times, right?
And really, he stands out as the primary messenger of the biggest news that comes out of heaven
when it comes to the birth of Christ.
Remember, first of all, he appeared to Zacharias, the husband of Elizabeth, to announce what?
That Elizabeth, in her older age, will become pregnant and give birth to a son named John
the Baptist.
And what's interesting about that appearance is this is how Gabriel introduces himself.
He says that he stands in the presence of God when he's not delivering messages, which
may indicate that, yeah, he's an archangel as well.
He's right there at the throne of the Almighty.
Of course, we saw last week how Gabriel appeared to Mary, convincing her of her miraculous
conception.
And even though he wasn't named in Matthew 1, it's likely that it's Gabriel who appears
to Joseph as well and says, hey, Joseph, I know you're strong.
He says, hey, Joseph, I know you're stressed out right now, but go ahead and take Mary
as your wife.
So that's all likely the work of Gabriel.
But this is interesting.
Gabriel actually shows up in the Old Testament as well in a very fascinating way.
In Daniel chapter 8, Gabriel is sent from the throne room of God to Daniel.
Now, Daniel has just received a wild vision about the end of days, and Gabriel goes and
fronts him, comes and stands near to him to give him an explanation of that vision.
And again, what does it say?
Daniel was terribly frightened.
In fact, so much so that it says a few verses later that this confrontation with Gabriel
caused him to be sick for days.
He was so shaken by it.
Now, most fascinating of all, in that chapter, Daniel 10, God gives us just a smidgen of
information about spiritual battles that take place in the heavenly realms.
And based on what it says, it appears that Gabriel and Michael were engaged in a battle
with a series of demonic principalities, and they're given titles in Daniel 10.
One's called the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia, and another is called the Prince of
the Kingdom of Greece, and more on that in a second.
But there are spiritual battles taking place.
So I share that with you, again, not to get you obsessed about things that we can't see
or understand, but to know that there's always more going on in this world than we can even see.
So archangels, then there are cherubim, right?
Mentioned, and cherubim are mentioned all the 58 times in 13 books.
Cherubs are mentioned.
And their appearances are quite terrifying.
They are fearsome protectors.
That seems to be their job.
Guarding the Tree of Life in Genesis 3.
Cherubim, right?
Depicted on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, and on the curtain that separated the Holy of
Holies in the Tabernacle, the implication being that they're designed to protect areas where
some people are not allowed to go.
So they're divine protectors.
In Ezekiel 10, the cherubim are said to have wings that are as loud as the voice of God.
You can imagine their size and volume.
Their entire bodies are covered with eyes.
They have faces that, depending on how you shift around and look at from different angles,
they look like one of four things.
An ox, a man, a lion, and an eagle.
Again, try to picture what that might look like as you spun around this particular being
and saw one of those four faces.
And if the section in Ezekiel 28 is written about Satan, and most scholars believe it is,
that tells us that Satan was at one time one of the cherubim.
He was a guardian cherub in the throne room of God before he got prideful and rebelled against the
Lord.
So cherubim.
Then we have Seraphim.
Again, not messenger angels, but unique spiritual beings who are mentioned only one time,
and that is in Isaiah 6 in this great throne room vision that Isaiah gets of how God operates.
And they're described as fiery and described they have six wings, and their primary role is to
worship and exalt the holiness of God.
They're the ones who fly around the throne room of God and say, holy, holy, holy, in the name of
God, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And then there's this interesting parallel with them in the New Testament.
In Revelation 4 and 5, we're told of something called four living creatures that are in the
presence of God, who God sits on his throne, and these living creatures, they're full of eyes,
it says, in front and behind.
They also have six wings and four types of faces, and they too worship the Lord, but now
something is added in Revelation.
They worship the lamb before the throne, singing, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and who is and who is to come.
And then later, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing.
So although they're not called Seraphim in the New Testament, these living creatures
seem to function in the same way, almost like priestly worship leaders in the throne room
of God.
Man, it's wild, isn't it?
It's mysterious, and hopefully I get excited when I think about this.
Someday we'll lay eyes on this and see it for ourselves.
And friends, I think it's important for us to take note of this fact for the purpose of our
spiritual walks. The New Testament is not shy about describing the reality of these beings.
It's not shy about describing their activity.
And yes, both holy angels and fallen angels, they're active in our world.
There's a whole number of angelic encounters in the New Testament.
Many of them connected to Jesus himself.
Jesus talked often about them.
Even disciples like Peter had angelic encounters.
So we don't want to be obsessed over them.
But we should realize that they are actively present all around us.
And even though we can't see them, and even though we don't think about them much,
we should be aware and be encouraged by this.
God has at his disposal all of these servants that are ministering to believers like us.
So we can be encouraged by this.
Finally, the last category are fallen angels.
Oh boy.
This is where it really gets interesting.
This is where it really gets interesting, right?
Once holy and faithful, but then engaged in a rebellion against the Lord and driven out of
heaven. Some of them, by the way, Genesis 6, some of them actually put into spiritual dungeons for
all time. But most of them simply thrown down to the earth.
And that includes their leader, the one we know as Satan, who is the accuser.
Strictly speaking, that name is not a personal name.
It's an epithet.
It describes who he is.
And by the way, he's known by a whole number of names.
Revelation 12 describes him as the dragon or that ancient serpent,
making a connection to the serpent that tempted Eve in the garden.
In the Septuagint, in the New Testament, he's called in Greek, Diabolos, or the slanderer.
Transliterated in English as the devil.
And that's the one who tempted Jesus in the wilderness.
Paul calls him the little G, God of this world, responsible for blinding the minds of the unredeemed.
He's also called Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons, identified in Second Kings 1 with the
pagan God of the Philistine city, Ekron, Baalzebub from Baal.
So he's known by all they see.
Now that last one being identified with a king in Ekron is interesting.
This is important to understand.
Because the biblical writers, including Paul, by the way, in the New Testament,
they have a worldview that says, look, physical idols made of wood or stone are absolutely
nothing.
They're meaningless, right?
They're just wood or stone.
But there is a spiritual power behind them.
The fallen sons of God wield real power among the unbelieving nations and people of the world.
And that becomes the basis for the spiritual warfare that we see dotted throughout Scripture.
That's why there are princes in the kingdom of Persia, princes in the kingdom of Greece,
real principalities that wield power.
Now, where does that go back to?
Well, in the beginning, we're told that Yahweh assigned different heavenly beings, sons of
gods, and gave them real power over nations.
Moses himself says in Deuteronomy 32, he says this, when the Most High gave the nations their
inheritance, when he separated the sons of man, he set the boundaries of the peoples
according to the number of the sons of God.
And a lot of scholars believe that this is the basis for the whole prologue in the book of Job.
Have you read chapters one and two of Job?
It's this wild scene, right?
What happens in that particular chapter?
God calls the sons of God, the angels, to come to the throne room and to report to him.
He commands them to come up and give a report.
And who's included in that?
Satan.
The fallen angels are to report as well.
Why?
Because they have some jurisdiction over the nations of the world.
So the mysterious picture we're given in Scripture is that God sits on his throne
and he is surrounded by this angelic host.
And that's what Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter six, right?
That's what's described in the book of Revelation.
The Lord presides over this gathering of spiritual beings
acting as supreme monarch over the entire universe.
And in various places, that gathering of beings is called an assembly in some places.
It's called a council, a congregation, and a court.
And these spiritual beings interact with him and they carry out his will as he issues decrees
and as he dispatches angels to do his bidding.
It's quite a scene.
And we're not given a whole lot of detail, probably because we couldn't handle it
or we get just obsessed with it.
But the deeper you dig, the more you see how Scripture paints a royal portrait.
A royal portrait of the Lord operating in this unseen realm.
And guys, it expands our view of God's sovereignty, does it not?
Because we always think he's sovereign over the things of the earth,
but it's far more than that.
He is sovereign over the material world, but also the spiritual world.
Utterly sovereign.
And he instructs both of his families, both angels, holy angels,
and his redeemed to carry out his will.
So while we're doing that, while we are fulfilling the purposes of God
according to his sovereign reign, the angels are doing the same in the spiritual world.
It's really quite amazing.
Now the good news is there's a day coming when every rebellious being
who followed after Satan will be judged and their authority will be stripped away.
In fact, we're told in the Gospels that that process has already begun.
Paul says that at the cross and at the resurrection,
God disarmed the rulers and authorities, made a public display of them,
having triumphed over them through Christ.
That process has already begun and will someday be completed.
And all their power will be stripped away and they'll be judged forever.
So that was a really condensed angelology for you.
Let me just say this before we get back to the text.
Angels aren't the most important thing in the Bible for us to understand.
Otherwise, we'd be given more information.
But we shouldn't be purposely ignorant about them either.
Again, be encouraged that as a believer, the Lord has his servants at his disposal
that he can send them, dispatch them to render service to you and me.
And that's good news.
Okay, back to Luke 2.
Was that a good rabbit trail?
Send me questions.
No, actually, Adam at Oak Hill Bible.
He'll answer all the hard questions for me.
All right, look at verse 10.
Let's dissect what the angels told the shepherds that night.
Now you understand more about Gabriel, right?
Says, but the angel, and this could be Gabriel.
He's not identified, but it would make sense consistently that this might be Gabriel.
But the angel said to them, to the shepherds, do not be afraid, for behold,
I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people.
For today in the city of the Lord, the angels are going to be
going to be with you, for today in the city of David,
there's been born for you a savior who is Christ, the Lord.
So after communicating the most urgent news, relax, I'm not here to kill you.
The angel says to the shepherds, I have good news.
And yes, in the Greek, that is the exact word we use for the gospel.
The good news, right?
Ewan galizomai.
It's the exact same word.
And I've always marveled at this.
The teaching of the New Testament gospel came from an angel dispatched by God
to speak to man.
It's amazing, right?
And notice it's a simple message.
A savior is born for you today.
And the angel includes two details, and I just, I wonder, I wonder about this so much.
I have questions.
I know I say that every week.
I have questions when I get to heaven.
I want to meet these shepherds.
Like in that moment, when you were overwhelmed by the presence of the angels,
how much of the nuance of what they were saying did you pick up on?
But there's two important details here that must have caught their attention.
First, he dropped a name and a title that had great significance for every Jewish man in Israel.
King David.
Oh, David, we know that name.
We know all about David.
And then the title, a savior, the Christ, which means in Greek, the anointed one,
and the Hebrew transliteration means what?
It's Messiah.
That's what he was announcing.
And obviously that connection matter because every Jewish man in the first century understood
that when Messiah came, he would sit on the throne of his father, David.
So the connection there must, this was, this was not just good news of great joy.
This was the best news a Jewish man could hear.
That must have excited them.
But then the second personal thing about this is he says the savior is born for you.
And they must have thought for me?
Shepherds?
You got this wrong.
Jerusalem is, is about six miles that way.
And that's where you'll find the Sanhedrin.
But he says, no, it's, it's for you.
That's mind blowing, right?
These are men that lived on the fringes of culture, always on the outside looking in
dismissed by everybody.
But now they hear that this gift was being announced for them too.
For all people, it says, all the people, right?
That includes all kinds of people and people from all nations, Jew, Gentile, men, women, slave, free,
priest and shepherd alike.
That's good news.
And then the angel says something really cryptic in verse 12.
And this will be a sign for you.
You'll find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.
Lying in a manger, so I'm not going to give you the specific location, but here's a clue for you,
right?
Other than it's Bethlehem, the city of David, right?
And that's a town that they likely would have known very, very well.
But where?
How do I find this, this baby?
Here's the good news.
Shepherds would have understood mangers really well.
Where we're like, manger?
What's a manger?
What's a feeding trough?
And they must have thought, wait, you can see the math in their head.
Messiah, Savior, feeding trough.
That makes no sense.
But we know where all the feeding troughs are in Bethlehem.
So it became a great clue that they knew exactly where to look.
It makes sense.
Now, in hindsight, we look back at the story 2000 years later and we get the privilege
of studying the text and all the languages and finding all the parallels and all the
contrasts that are woven into the story.
So just listen, the son of God in the body of an infant.
What?
An eternally rich being becoming poor.
Leaving the heights of heaven to come all the way down to the basement of the earth.
A pure and spotless lamb lying in a dirty, smelly manger.
Born into the unclean world of unclean shepherds despised and rejected by his own.
What a story.
Human beings couldn't write this.
I'm telling you, it's too wild.
Okay, the glory scene isn't over.
Let's go to verse 13.
It gets more spectacular.
Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.
So what is a heavenly host?
You've probably used that phrase before.
What does it mean?
What does a heavenly host mean?
What we see in scripture in many places, the word host or hosts, saba in Hebrew and strata
in Greek and in both languages, it means the same thing.
It means an army.
So wherever you see the Lord of hosts in scripture, you can translate it as the Lord of heavenly
armies, which is so cool.
Right?
Right? God's a warrior, he says, and he has an army of spiritual beings.
And that's what these shepherds see.
Can you imagine this sight?
I mean, one was enough, right?
But then to see this, it's almost like an uncountable number of angels were hiding behind
some celestial door.
And then they heard the term Christ the Lord, and they burst through the door with such
great joy.
They just had to see it.
They heard the term Christ the Lord, and they burst through the door with such great joy.
They just had to be there in that spot to sing praises and to become visible to these
shepherds.
It's crazy.
And why wouldn't you rush to worship like that?
In the fullness of time, God had done something in Bethlehem that even the angels could not
have understood or foreseen.
That God the Son, who they knew in the spiritual realm, right?
They know God in the spiritual realm.
God the Son would take on flesh in order to ransom the souls of men.
They long to look into those types of things.
So they are as blown away by this story as anybody.
And so they rush in to worship.
And what do they sing?
We sang it this morning.
Gloria in excelsis Deo.
Glory to God in the highest.
This is the hymn of the angels.
And here's something I find interesting about this, and it hit me at like, I don't know,
one in the morning last night.
As every good thought hits me at 1 a.m.
There was another time when the heavenly host did this and came and sang at the dawn of
creation.
In fact, God himself tells Job about it in Job 38.
God says to Job, where were you, Job, when I laid the foundation of the earth, when the
morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Think about the parallels now.
So the same thing that took place at the first creation here in the fields of Bethlehem,
it's as if a whole new creation had dawned with the coming of Christ.
And so here's God once again, just as he had done at creation, showing forth his wisdom
and his power and his love.
And the angels cannot help themselves but sing glory.
It's beautiful.
Now there's controversy to the second half of what they say here in verse 14.
On earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased.
Some of you may have a translation that says, on whom his favor rests.
But if you grew up in the church way back in the day, you probably heard the more
traditional rendering of this, and it comes out of the old King James version.
And it goes like this, peace on earth and goodwill towards men.
Do we sing a song, Grant?
Yeah, we do.
And that usually gets printed on the greeting cards, peace on earth and goodwill towards men.
And as that translation has sunk in over the years, it's caused a lot of people to go, what?
And to sort of doubt that message, because look, you look at the world today, not a lot
of peace happening.
And that's unfortunate because that's not even close to the best translation of this particular
verse.
This was not a promise from the angel that there would be an absence of conflict or conflict
or war.
This was not a promise that somehow, because Jesus is born this day, human beings are going
to start getting along with each other.
That was not the promise.
The promise peace here is the peace enjoyed by men and women with whom he is well pleased.
Meaning, all those who've been reconciled to God through faith alone in the Savior that
was born that night in Bethlehem.
That's the peace, right?
He is our peace.
Jesus is our peace and he came as the Prince of peace.
But in this world, he said, you will have tribulation.
But in the midst of tribulation, in the midst of trials, those who know Christ, those on whom
his favor rests, we are at peace.
That's the peace they're talking about.
After all, remember, who's going to inherit the earth?
That's right.
Who's going to reign with Christ?
The meek, the humble, those who are persecuted for righteousness.
And all those who are washed in the blood of the lamb.
And if you fall into that category, guess what?
You have peace.
And that's what the angel was promising that night.
So let me close with this.
Just the importance of how the shepherds responded.
Verse 15.
Because look, this should be our response too.
The angels have gone away from them into heaven.
Now, stop for a second.
Come on now.
Now, I said it last week.
Luke gives us this really brief, simple account, and he does that because he's a facts-based
guy, and it lends credibility to the story.
But come on.
These shepherds, these guys who, whoop, they disappear up into the heavenly realms again.
You think these guys went, oh, that was nice.
They'd have gone, what is happening?
I mean, they had to have had a download conversation.
Did you see that? Did you hear that?
That was wild.
Did you see how big that thing was?
I mean, they would have had that whole conversation, right?
Okay, I think we can, yeah.
But then Luke just simply says, the shepherds began saying to one another, let's go straight
to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.
And they went in a hurry, and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby.
What an understatement.
Can you imagine saying, oh, I'm going to go to Bethlehem and see what's going on?
And Mary's just saying, that was a pretty cool show.
But look, we've got sheep to care for.
So let's just, the fire's nice.
Let's just stay here.
Of course not, right?
They rushed to Bethlehem because it's the Messiah.
Are you kidding me?
Again, Jewish sandals.
The Messiah has been born.
They rush over there, right?
And the biggest indicator that they went in a hurry was they had bailed on their sheep.
Shepherds never do that.
Shepherds never leave their sheep.
They're like, what sheep?
Boo!
And they run off to Bethlehem.
It's amazing.
And they find Mary and Joseph and the baby.
Now, think about how their arrival must have affected Mary and Joseph, right?
I mean, all of a sudden, you know, it's probably pretty quiet other than the animals, wherever
they are, and all of a sudden this rush of feet, and these guys come bursting in with
all this excitement, and they're probably surprised and taken back, who are these guys,
right?
But then you can picture them.
They sit down.
They go, let me tell you what just happened.
I would love to have been a fly on the wall, right?
Listen to what just happened.
And they talk about David, and they talk about a Savior and Messiah, and the voices and the
sight of this heavenly host.
And I think what was going on in that moment is Mary and Joseph are like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know.
Because they'd had their own angelic appearances.
They'd received their own promises about their child, and they're connecting the dots.
What a cool moment, right?
They must have been so encouraged by this.
In fact, my guess is it was the arrival of the shepherds and their report that finally
brought everything full circle for Mary and Joseph.
All the inconvenience and the pain and the dirtiness of all of it brought it all together,
and they said, ah, the sovereign hand of God.
And it all came together for them, and they must have been so joyful and encouraged in
that moment.
So next Sunday, we're going to celebrate Christmas on the 22nd, and we're going to look at the
prophets.
So we talked about the heavyweights, the nobodies, today the heralds.
Next Sunday, we'll talk about the prophets, both Old and New Testament, that see Christ
as the Messiah.
But for today, just want you to walk away with just a few things.
Again, first of all, recognize that the gospel has been given to the simple and the ordinary,
and the humble and the poor in spirit.
If it were any other way, guess what mankind would do?
Boast in themselves.
Right?
Oh, my own wisdom, my own insight, my own intellect.
Look how spiritual I am.
And they would congratulate themselves on how much greater they are than everybody else.
And so God said, that's not the way it's coming.
That's not the way it's going to go down.
And so Luke gives us the simple narrative delivered to a simple people, and the response
is a simple response.
Believe and go see.
Right?
Believe and go see.
That's the lesson of the shepherds.
First of all, they knew the promises of God, the Messiah.
They recognized it when the fulfillment came to them.
They ran off to see for themselves, and they came back, what?
Glorifying and praising God.
Simple message delivered to them.
Simple message delivered to simple people with a simple response.
And like those of us who sit here this morning as redeemed people of God through Christ our
Lord, the lives of these shepherds would never be the same.
And that should be true of us as well.
Amen?
I'm going to have you bow your heads.
So I hit you with a lot of information this morning, but I want you to process with the Lord.
I want you to take a few minutes here and just talk to the Lord about anything that you heard.
Thank him and praise his name for the fullness of the times that he would do this remarkable thing
and deliver the gospel through men like the shepherds.
Go ahead and pray for a few minutes.