The Angel’s Song
Luke 2: 8 In
the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the
fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an
angel of the [f]Lord stood
before them, and the glory of the [g]Lord
shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 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. 11 For
today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who
is [h]Christ the
Lord. 12 And this will be the sign
for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a [i]manger.” 13 And
suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host
praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the
highest,
And on earth peace among men [j]with
whom He is pleased.” 15 And it happened that when the
angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying
to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has
happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So
they went in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying
in the [k]manger. 17 And
when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them
about this Child. 18 And all who heard it marveled
at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But
Mary was treasuring all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And
the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had
heard and seen, just as was told them.
We’ve been looking at Biblical Christmas songs over the last three weeks. Zechariah, Mary, this week the angels, next week Simeon. Often as I prepare for a sermon series, during the series, I will think of a different way that I should have presented it. I think, oh this thing fits into this outline really well. And that happened as I got ready for this week. When we are done next week, we will have considered four songs, and I noticed this week a progression from the first song to the last. I noticed that the songs really fit the stages of the Christian walk from conversion to glorification. Let me tell you what I mean.
Remember that the first song we looked at was Zechariah’s song, entitled Benedictus after the first Latin words in the song, “Blessed be the Lord.” I called Zechariah’s song the song of the New Covenant because it connected the coming of the Messiah to the Old Testament Covenants that God made to Abraham, David, and the New Covenant. And it made me think of how we all come to faith and our conversion is grounded in Scripture at the start.
The next week, we looked at Mary’s song. The Magnificat; My soul magnifies the Lord. And I talked about how her song was a very personal expression of worship. And here’s the progression. When we come to faith, we first grapple with Scripture, and all its claims, but then our faith becomes personal, it goes beyond just an intellectual exercise, or gaining new knowledge. We have to say with the publican, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. Conversion means we have to come to Christ, as Mary did, where we come to know Him as “my Savior.”
The progression continues. This week we are looking at the song from the angels to the shepherds. Gloria in Excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the Highest. It came to me this week that we have a marvelous example of what happens when we have a conversion encounter with God. We encounter Scripture; check. Our faith moves from our mind to our heart; check. But then once we come to faith, one of the first things a newly converted heart wants to do is bear witness. And the story we are looking at this week is a great example of how after being in the presence of the Lord, we’ve got to tell somebody. The angels left the presence of God and bore witness to the shepherds, the shepherds, having heard the message, and experiencing the reflected glory of God, went to see the Lord, then ended up bearing witness to any who would hear.
Lastly, next Sunday we will be looking at Simeon whose song starts, Nunc Dimitics.—now let your servant depart in peace. And I thought how fitting. When we are converted, we’ve assented to the truth of Scripture, we’ve personally called on the Lord as Our Savior, we’ve spent our lives bearing witness to Jesus. And now, when we get to the door of death, like Simeon, we are not afraid, we know that this is only a transition, we can depart in peace.
Well, I wish I would have started this series with that outline. But regardless, today we are going to talk about the third part of that conversion progression, bearing witness to Our Lord. And what better example can we find than the angels, who descended from heaven, and manifest the glory of God to lowly shepherds. This is one part of the Christmas story that has been repeated and studied, and sung about in every Christmas season. When you sit down and read the nativity story with your family in your home, you may leave out Zechariah, or Simeon, or even Joseph, but those angels and shepherds will be mentioned. And the same holds true for the hymns in our hymn book. We have more than one hymn that tells that story of the angels. One of my favorite Christmas hymns to sing is Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Hark! the Herald Angels Sing is one of those hymns that perfectly captures the moment we are focusing on today—the movement from personal faith to public witness. The words were originally written by Charles Wesley in 1739, a man who understood conversion deeply, not just as an intellectual agreement with truth, but as a life-altering encounter with Christ that demands proclamation. Wesley wrote thousands of hymns, many of them designed to teach doctrine through song, and Hark! the Herald Angels Sing is no exception. From its opening line, the hymn places us right into Luke 2, where heaven itself cannot stay silent. The angels do not quietly reflect on what God has done; they announce it. They herald it. They bear witness to the incarnation—“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
Let me share with you two verses that are not in our hymnal.
Come,
Desire of nations, come, fix in us thy humble home;
rise,
the woman’s conquering Seed, bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Adam’s
likeness, Lord, efface; stamp thine image in its place.
Second
Adam from above, Reinstate us in thy love.
Hark!
the herald angels sing, “Glory to the new born King!”
Adam’s
likeness, Lord, efface, Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second
Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us
Thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to
all Thyself impart, Formed in each believing heart.
Hark!
the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King!”
Today, as we listen again to the angels’ song, this hymn invites us to join that long line of witnesses—adding our voices to heaven’s announcement that Christ has come, and that the good news is meant to be heard.
Prayer
Before we start on the words of the angel and angels lets establish the setting of the story.
I. The setting
8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.
Pretty simple start. But remember that just before this verse we are told that Mary gave birth to our Lord Jesus in Bethlehem, and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger because there was no room in the Inn. Then immediately after we are told that, the story shifts out of Bethlehem to the countryside outside of town; The place where shepherds took their sheep in this season, and stayed in the fields with them overnight. That was roughly from April to November. They didn’t take them out and stay in the fields during the rest of the year because of weather and the state of the fields. The fields were green at this time. In this season, the sheep could simply graze during the day, the shepherds moving them from field to field. At night they would move the sheep into an established pen. That’s what is happening here. It is nighttime. As darkness descended each night, the shepherds would divide the night into shifts, part of them resting while the watch would look out for predators or thieves. And it is in this dark night setting that the first witness to the birth of the Savior takes place.
Now let’s talk about the witnessing that took place; there are three witnesses to the Lord that we see in this story; the angels, the shepherds, and Mary. Because we are looking at the angels song, we will focus mainly on the angels.
II. The Angel’s Witness
A. Witness begins with Glory to God
9 And an angel of the [f]Lord stood before them, and the glory of the [g]Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
There are 3 things that we can learn from the angels witness here; Their Witness begins with Glory to God, Their Witness continues with the Good News, Their Witness concludes by conveying that this is God’s work. Glory to God, Good News, then Glory to God again. It’s like a Glory to God sandwich.
So, the story continues. One minute the watch are just looking over their sheep, settling in for the night, and then they turn to see somebody new standing there. And this wasn’t just like some stranger strolling over and startling them because they didn’t see him coming. This wasn’t just somebody. This was an angel. How did they know it was an angel? Well, it says that the glory of the Lord shone around them. This angel, was manifesting the Shekinah glowing, light glory of God, and it not only surrounded the angel, it lit up the area they were standing in as well. Why was the angel shining? This angel had been in the very presence of God just a moment before, and now he is reflecting God’s light, even as the moon reflects the sun, as Moses face shone after having been in God’s presence. We read in Scripture that angels occasionally came to deliver messages to people. And sometimes the people didn’t know they were angels, God had them appear as men.
But sometimes they came shining with the light of God. God is light.
Psalm 104:1–2 – “O LORD my God, you are very great… covering yourself with light as with a garment.”
Habakkuk 3:3–4 – “His splendor covered the heavens… His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand.”
The Bible tells us that often when God chose to manifest Himself to people, He did so as a bright light. The Bible in 1st John says that God is light and in Him is no darkness.
And this angel comes directly from God’s presence still bearing the shekinah glory of God, and comes among some shepherds, in the middle of the night, and completely lights up their landscape. I don’t know if any of the shepherds were sleeping before that, but you can be sure that after this they were all awake and freaked out. It says here that they were terribly frightened. Yeah, I can imagine.
But I find it interesting that this angel shows up all glowy and stuff. I mean his first words are, “Do not be afraid.” Well, sorry, you’re like a flood light over there. If God had wanted the first witness message for them to hear to be, “Don’t be afraid,” I think He would have sent the angels looking like ordinary men. But, that’s not the first witness they were to hear. The first message was,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And they are all saying, “Gloria in excelsis deo” Glory to God in the highest. That’s the first part of their witness. To call for glory to God means to ascribe to Him the meaning, power, and influence, and honor due Him. And not just any honor but honor “in the highest.” It should be to the highest degree possible. He is the highest, so His praise should be the greatest praise that it is possible to give.
And this scene tells us so much about where bearing witness to our Lord should begin. Even before the angel spoke a word, the light on Him was bringing Glory to God. The multitude of angels who will appear in a moment began bearing witness to the Lord with words glorifying God. But before they ever spoke a word; they just shined forth the glory of God from having been in God’s presence. Think about that for a moment.
Have you ever known someone who could change the mood of a room just by entering it? The angels were just effusing glory to God by their presence, even before their words.
Oh, that our witness to the world would begin that way. Beginning first with people seeing the glory of God through our lives, words, actions and attitudes.
I struggle with this. I know that My life and attitude need to be a continual exaltation of the Lord. But instead sometimes I might be more known as a negative Nelly, a gossiping Gus, a shifty San-ji-a.
Richard Baxter (17th century) — A Puritan preacher
“A holy life is a continual sermon. Men will read what we are before they hear what we say.”
So, the first thing that we can learn about our witness, is that it begins by glorifying God. There’s a second lesson.
B. Witness continues with the Good News
10 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. 11 For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is [h]Christ the Lord.
Now this is good news. Not bad news, but good news. Speaking concerning myself, I can also sometimes be a poopy Paul. People talk about anything, and I come along and put my negative spin on whatever it is that we’re talking about. “It’s your birthday? Yeah, another year closer to death.” But the angel’s second message after glory to God in the highest was Good news.
1. Do not be afraid
Now, why did he start his message with that? Well, it would seem obvious that first, this angel broke up their midnight star gazing party. He comes to them and blinds them. It is startling enough if somebody unexpectedly shows up in the middle of a dark night, in the middle of a field, but this would showed up with his brights on. Which, if the shepherds were able to reason at this point could only mean one thing concerning the identity of this person. He had to be an angel of God. This was frightening because this didn’t happen. Angel sightings are non-existent. Of course, an angel appeared to Zechariah and to Mary, and in a dream to Joseph, but these shepherds didn’t know that. The last time an angel was recorded to have appeared to anyone was 500 plus years earlier to the prophet Zechariah and also one to Daniel. And not only was an angelic sighting rare but statistically speaking 65-75% of the time, if an angel shows up in the Old Testament, it is with bad news of judgment.
So, the glowing angel says, “Do not be afraid.” and by the way, “I’m a good news angel, not a bad news angel.”
2. Good News
I bring you good news of great joy that shall be for all the people. The word for good news here is evangelizomai. We get our word “evangelize” from it. It simply means to bring good news. And this good news is first qualified as good news because it will bring great joy. You won’t believe the news I have for you, it is going to tickle your toenails. Great joy, Charen megalen: not just ordinary joy but mega joy. Their Christmas witness, the first words that they speak are that they have good news of great joy. What is that good news?
11 For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is [h]Christ the Lord.
Now this is some good news. Today-this has just happened. In the city of David: that’s Bethlehem. That’s close to where they were. They were within walking distance to Bethlehem. It tells us at the start of this passage that they were in the same region as Bethlehem. Has been born a Savior. One who will save. What was He to save from?
Ezekiel 37:23 They also will no longer defile themselves with their idols or with their detestable things or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all their places of habitation in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.
Matthew 1:21 And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
This is the good news. A Savior has been born, just over those hills, just happened tonight, and He is the One that has been prophesied to be save from sin. Now we know that they would also have had an expectation that this Savior would save the Jewish people from enslavement to Rome, that He would usher in a worldwide kingdom of peace and prosperity. All of that will come with Jesus second coming. But the angels say; He;s here. good news: salvation from sin. And in the shepherds world and culture, not only would the idea of this world kingdom coming have brought them great joy, but salvation from sin would have as well. Because the current version of Jewish faith had relegated them to a place of condemnation before God. The Rabbis interpretation of Scripture had honed in on keeping the law as a requirement for averting the wrath of God. Keep the Sabbath day, be extra diligent to remain clean, study God’s law. But shepherds were among those who were least able to follow these strict requirements. First, shepherds were often the youngest, or least intellectually capable among the population. Shepherding was hard work, but it was simple. And second because they were often tending sheep 7 days a week, they couldn’t keep the sabbath laws. And third, because they dealt with animals, and scavengers, and the open countryside, they would have found themselves ceremonially unclean from unclean animals, or dead animals frequently. Because of their profession, it would be practically impossible to please God under the legalistic system of their day. So, they would look forward to the day.
Jeremiah 31: 31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them,” declares Yahweh. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days,” declares Yahweh: “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 And they will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares Yahweh, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
So, this is good news that a Savior is born. One who would save from their sins. And notice that it didn’t just say. “A Savior” it said “there is born, for you, a Savior.” Second person singular. He wasn’t saying, “you all” He was directing his message to each individual shepherd there. They were not excluded because of their station in life.
12 And this will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a [i]manger.”
Up to this point in the angel's message, the shepherds may have thought, “that’s great, the Messiah is born, but He is a king, he is the king, we will not be welcome for this reception, or coronation, or whatever.” But that changes when the angels tell them, “this will be a sign, you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
What does this mean, swaddling clothes and lying in a manger? swaddling a baby was a typical way for both rich and poor parents to care for a newborn. They would take long strips of cloth, and wrap the baby’s legs, torso, and arms. The baby ended up in what looks like a little cocoon. This was done to provide warmth and was believed to prevent harm and encourage straight limbs. But he would also be laid in a manger. That is something that did not happen in all households. Mangers, or feeding troughs might be found in a stable, or even in the front room of a poor household when they brought animals into the house overnight. It was the receptacle for animal feed. It was not the cleanest thing. It was just the most convenient thing at the time. And I’m sure that Joseph did his best to make it clean and comfortable. But the very fact that this baby would be found in a manger placed this Messiah on the low end of the economic spectrum. And it told the shepherds that they would not be turned away from this birthday party because they showed up in their work clothes. It conveyed the message “Whosoever will may come.” That has been the message throughout the Christmas story. Jesus comes to the poor, lowly, humble. And that is good news.
In our witness, we need to be bearers of good news. The world has enough bad news.
The good news continues in the angels song; Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.
The peace that they are referring to here has a near and far fulfillment. There will be peace on earth during Christ’s millennial reign. But Jesus’ first coming wasn’t to bring peace between men on earth. In fact Jesus said,
Matthew 10: 34 “Do not think that I came to [b]bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s foes will be those of his own household.
The peace they refer to is peace with God. Forgiveness of sins, washing away judgment, condemnation, guilt, and enslavement to sin by the blood of the cross.
But also note that it says; Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests.
The peace mentioned here is often misunderstood, and the last phrase is often misunderstood. The King James just says, “Good will toward men.” That leaves you feeling this nice Christmasy feeling that the message of Christmas is “God sends good will to all men.”
It should read, “peace to men on whom His favor rests.” The difference in the message is this; the peace offered through Christ will fall on those who come to Him desiring salvation from sin. They come to God in repentance, not offering their righteousness, only asking for mercy. “Nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross I cling.”
The good news of the angels and the good news we bring has to be faithful to the gospel message. A Savior is born.
That word Savior really defines the message of good news. The good news is that there is a Savior. But we have to understand and witness to what that means. If there being a Savior is the good news, then there has to be something that Savior will save from. A man that is not drowning, standing on the deck of his yacht, doesn’t look at a life preserver as good news. But a man fallen overboard does. A woman in perfect health doesn’t think of some cancer treatment with joy and gratitude, but one diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer does.
So, in order for the reality of a Savior to be good news, there has to be an awareness of some bad news. The bad news is that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The bad news is that we need to be saved from the just condemnation to Hell for our sins. This is often where we err sharing the gospel today.
We were in Hobby Lobby the other day, and I saw one of those Adult Coloring books. Typical of Hobby Lobby, this one had a religious theme. Its title was “When God thinks of you, He smiles.” That annoyed me. Because all we get is the positive message today, and we are projecting to the general public that when it comes to God, He is just this benevolent Santa Claus figure who decides knows when we are naughty and nice and thinks about it for a minute and decides, “Ah, I’m just going to throw away the naughty list.”
We are to present the message of good news, but it is good news of the Savior who saves from our sin.
C. Their Witness conveyed that this is God’s work
Not my work.
13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men [j]with whom He is pleased.”
The witness of the angels was a glory to God sandwich. One showed up manifesting God’s Shekinah glory, he offer praise and glory to God, gave God complete credit for the salvation message he was bringing. And then a multitude of angels appear, and they are shining with God’s glory and glorifying God.
Now, to complete this story, I have to comment on that multitude of angels. Let me say, if the shepherds were freaked out by one glowing angel, imagine what a multitude of them would have been like. They had barely had time to digest the message from one angel, and then it says “suddenly” they are surrounded by a multitude of them. How many is that? Well, my guess would be that it was all of heaven’s angels. Since this is the announcement of the birth of the Son of God, God in flesh, this is the apex event of all human history. I think every heavenly angel was there. Well, how many is that? We don’t know. The numbers used for angels are always meant to convey an uncountable number. Daniel says, “A thousand, thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand.” There’s a number. Now if I do my math right, a 1000 thousands is a minimum of 2 million, and 10,000 times 10,000 is 10 billion. So, at a minimum, the number of angels is 102 billion. But as I said, the numbers are simply meant to convey—there's a bunch. But just going with those numbers, can you imagine being a shepherd in the dark night. One shining angel shows up. You are struck with great fear. Then 102 billion show up. That’s a lot. Where do you put them all. They had to be standing on the ground for a mile around, hovering, 6, 12, 18, 24, 100, 200, 1000 feet up. I did the math. If the angels only occupied the space in a circle one mile in each direction around the shepherds, and then angels occupied space going upward into the sky in a cylindrical shape, with 102 billion angels, they would be stacked to the upper atmosphere, for 131,715 feet, or approximately 25 miles. But let’s say they are not in a cylindrical shape. Let’s say it’s more like an upside down cone, shepherds down at the bottom. Even then, 102 billion angels would be stacked 3 to 4 miles upward. To give you some perspective; Mt Everest is 5.5 miles high.
It says that suddenly there was a multitude of angels praising God and saying, “Gloria in excelsis deo” Glory to God in the highest.
The witness of the angels was perfect. It brought glory to God, humbled the shepherds, and brought them to faith. I told you at the start that there were 3 witnesses that were examples for our witness. I wish we had time to look more at the shepherds and Mary. But let me just summarize the example they give to us.
III. Shepherd’s Witness
A. Immediate excited response
15 And it happened that when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”
This passage shows that bearing witness to the Lord begins with a heart that responds immediately to God’s revelation. The shepherds do not delay or debate; stirred by what heaven has made known, they hurry to Bethlehem to seek and confirm what God has done.
B. Searching
16 So they went in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the [k]manger.
C. Immediate witness
17 And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it marveled at the things which were told them by the shepherds.
Having seen the Child, they speak at once, making known the message entrusted to them so that all who hear marvel at the grace of God revealed in Christ.
D. Pondering
19 But Mary was treasuring all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Alongside their public testimony stands Mary’s quieter witness—she does not speak widely, but she treasures and ponders these events in her heart, modeling a deep, reflective faith that receives God’s work with humility and awe.
You might think, well Mary isn’t said to have witnessed to anyone about her experience with the Lord, or her conversations with the shepherds. But let me ask you this, where did Luke get this story? At the start of his gospel Luke tells us that he investigated and spoke with eyewitnesses in order to write his gospel. When Luke wrote this gospel, probably 30 years after Jesus ascension, who could he talk to about Jesus’s birth? Most, if not all of the main actors are dead or gone after the sixty plus years since Jesus’ birth. But Mary, probably 13 or 14 at His birth, would now be in her early 70’s, easily able to sit down and recount all those things from the shepherds, wise men, Simeon, Anna, angels, Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Joseph, all the things she had cherished and pondered in her heart. And from her witness, Luke is able to record this story that has been recited every year for 2000 years. She was a great witness.
One final note:
E. Praise and back to work
20 And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as was told them.
The shepherds return to their ordinary work glorifying God they went back to work. I’m glad it ends that way, the shepherds went back to work. But, you can be sure that they retold this story over and over again. And I bet that some of those shepherds ended up as followers of the adult Jesus, and in the church after His death and ascension. That teaches us that bearing witness to Christ is not a one-time event but a life shaped by praise, reflection, and faithful response to what the Lord has revealed.
prayer