Good News For All Creation! Series

Good News For All Creation

Jeffery Anselmi / General

The Characters of Christmas / Christmas / Luke 2:8–20

Big Idea: The birth of Jesus shows the cosmic scope of God’s salvation plan; even

heaven was excited about Jesus’s birth

INTRODUCTION

• Christmas is upon us!

• It seems like we just celebrated Christmas.

• Today, as we wrap up our series on the characters of Christmas, we’re going to go in a completely different direction, looking at the role of some of the characters who are rarely discussed yet are present in the story.

• Not only are these characters present, in fact, but they play a pivotal role, a role so important that numerous Christmas carols celebrate their presence. For example, carols such as “Angels from the Realms of Glory,” “Angels We Have Heard on High,” and “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” all celebrate the same thing: the angelic choir announcing the birth of Jesus.

• So the direction we’re going today is up as we look at the angels and their role in the Christmas story.

• If you have not noticed, the one constant character in the birth of Jesus (or Christmas) narrative is an angel or angels.

• In a text we did not look at, an angel appeared to Zechariah to tell him that his prayers had been heard (Luke 1:13); an angel told Mary she was going to give birth to God’s Son (Luke 1:30), and an angel told Joseph to stick with Mary when he was considering leaving her (Matthew 1:20).

• Finally, it was angels who appeared to the shepherds to announce that the Messiah had been born (Luke 2:9, 13).

• We see the angels in such a prominent role in our narrative because angels are the messengers of God in the heavenly court.

• The Greek word for angel, aggelos, means “a messenger.”

• (Strong’s Greek Lexicon [KJV], s.v. “G32, aggelos,” https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G32&t=KJV).

• So it makes sense that at such a momentous time in history, God would be sending his messengers all over to proclaim the good news of Jesus’s birth.

• Today, we will see that the birth of Jesus was good news for people and all creation!

› Big Idea: The birth of Jesus shows the cosmic scope of God’s salvation plan; even heaven was excited about Jesus’s birth.

• Let’s turn to Luke 2, verses 8-12.

Luke 2:8–12 (CSB)

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.”

SERMON

I. The presence of the angels shows the totality of God’s salvation plan.

• The presence of the angels is a significant part of the Christmas story.

• The presence of the angels throughout the Christmas story shows us the totality of God’s salvation plan—that is, it affects the poor, the powerful, the elderly, the young, and the marginalized, while using everyday moments, like daily prayer in the temple, to convey something big.

• The Christmas story is firmly rooted in this world.

• As we think about it, we can imagine a young couple, unexpectedly pregnant, wondering what life will be like for them; or a king worrying about his grip on power from a new, unseen threat.

• They are the heralds of God’s heavenly kingdom breaking into this world.

• They appear everywhere, directed by God’s hand—in the temple, to a young girl, in the dreams of her fiancé or the dreams of the wise men, in the night sky—and every time, their message is the same: God is entering this world.

• I love verse 11.

Luke 2:11 (CSB)

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

• We talked about the shepherds last week and how society had deemed them outcasts because the religious leaders deemed them so.

• God did not deem them as outcasts.

• Verse 11 reveals that God said that a savior was born for YOU!

• You the outcast, you the one people walk by on the street without giving you a thought.

• You who do not do the glorious jobs are but pieces of the background of life!

• YOU!

• In verse 11, Jesus is called out by three titles that make Him unique and makes Him special for YOU!