“THE ANGEL’S ANNOUNCEMENT” Luke 2:8-20
FBCF – 12/21/25
Jon Daniels
INTRO – We talk a lot about “Making Much of JESUS.” Why? B/c of what we just sang & proclaimed. Did you hear what we said as we sang, “Hark…”? We proclaimed that this Jesus:
- Amazingly reconciles us imperfect sinners to our perfect God when we trust Him as our Savior
- Adored as the everlasting Lord by every angel in the highest heaven
- The 2nd Person of the Trinity – “the incarnate Deity” – who, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2, was “in very nature God” but “did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges…& took the humble position of a slave & was born as a human being.” (NLT).
- He is Immanuel, which means He dwells w/ us right now
- He is the Prince of Peace who is ready to give light & light & salvation to anyone who desires to be born again right now.
- That this Jesus, the new born King of kings & Lord of lords - He ALONE is worthy of glory!
This Jesus: “He was conceived by the union of divine grace and human disgrace. He who breathed the breath of life into the first man is now Himself a man breathing His first breath. The King of kings now sleeping in a cow-pen. The Creator of oceans and seas and rivers afloat in the womb of His mother. God sucking His thumb…He who was once surrounded by the glorious stereophonic praise of adoring angels now hears the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the stammering of bewildering shepherds. He who spoke the universe into being now coos and cries. Omniscient Deity counting His toes… From the robes of eternal glory to the rags of swaddling clothes. The omnipresent Spirit, whose being fills the galaxies, confined to the womb of a peasant girl.” (https://gracequotes.org/?s=shepherds)
This is who the angels announced.
EXPLANATION – Luke 2:8-20 (857) I’m going to let someone else read the first part of this passage. VIDEO
3 groups of people in our story today:
SHEPHERDS – I love that the Lord in His sovereignty determined that these shepherds should be the first people to hear about the birth of Jesus. In that day, they were considered to be close to the bottom of the social ladder, just ahead of lepers. Their work w/ the animals kept them away from the temple & synagogue which meant they could not participate in corporate worship. Also made them ceremonially unclean which meant they could not interact w/ others. But most people wouldn’t have wanted to interact w/ them anyhow b/c they were known to be gruff, dishonest, ostracized dudes. We see them on Christmas cards & in Christmas pageants wearing clean robes & well-trimmed beards when they most likely were filthy, ragged renegades. THIS group of rowdy rogues is the group that the God of the universe turned to his angel & said, “Go tell them first.” Love it!
ANGELS – Heavenly beings – Created by God to serve Him according to His will – “The joy of angels lies only in obedience to God’s will” (E.M. Bounds). They worship & praise God, deliver messages from God, fight unseen spiritual battles, minister to us, serve & protect us, & will one day carry us into the presence of God when we die.
“ALL WHO HEARD” – v. 18a – Wonder who “all” were? Normal people – Common people – People just like you & me – People just going about their normal lives – People like Joseph & Mary, in Bethlehem for the census – Sinners in need of a Savior – Spiritually dead people who need to be made alive – Sick people – Single people – Married people – People w/ kids – Affluent people – Destitute people – Popular people – Unknown people – Don’t know much about them other than they were ordinary people who were hearing the most extraordinary thing they’ve ever heard in their lives. People like US hearing that God has come down to us as a baby born in Bethlehem.
APPLICATION – The angel’s announcement brings radical change to our lives.
We are changed…
FROM TERRIFIED TO TRANSFORMED – “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, & the glory of the Lord shone around them, & they were FILLED with GREAT fear” – “they were sore afraid” (KJV) – “great” – Gk – “mega” – “astronomic, colossal, enormous, gigantic, humongous, monumental, tremendous, whopping” – Not just startled, like I like to do to Vicki every time she comes in the house, but bone-deep, paralyzing fear.
Not all fear is the same – Natural fear – anxiety due to circumstances or uncertainties. Sometimes the fear is b/c of what we realized COULD have happened – Studying at Stone Ground Coffee Gluckstadt – went to buy cup of coffee – wallet not in pocket – checked backpack – went back to truck, opened door, not in there – realized I was standing on it! “Thank you, Lord!”
Then there is the fear of the Lord – a holy fear – a reverential awe – the response when a sinful person encounters the Holy God & sees God for who He truly is in comparison to who we really are. This is the kind of fear the shepherds were experiencing. They were encountering the glory of God – They were realizing that they were not in control of this situation at all. If a lion or a bear or a wolf had shown up, they may have felt a bit of fear initially, but they knew they could control the outcome of that encounter. But not this!
When we encounter the glory of God, we quickly realize that He is holy, we are unholy – He is righteous, we are morally bankrupt – He is mighty, we are puny – He is the King of glory, we are in desperate need of saving. It is the holy fear of the Lord that leads us to recognize our need for a Savior. And when we recognize our need, repent of our sins, & run to “the Savior, who is Christ the Lord,” we will be miraculously, dramatically, totally, & eternally transformed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 – “anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (NLT) Jesus came on a mission of transformation – to transform dark to light, distress to peace, despair to joy, death to life. As Linus said, “THAT’S what Christmas is all about.”
FROM SEEING THE SAVIOR TO SEEING OUR NEED TO BE SAVED – Everybody wants to see a newborn baby. Back when newborns were taken to the nursery in the hospital, people would be lined up w/ the noses pressed to the windows to see their child or grandchild. Social media explodes when a baby is born into a family. There’s just something about seeing a baby.
The angel told the shepherds that they would “find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes & lying in a manger.” And then the heavens exploded w/ a “multitude of the heavenly host” – a plethos – “plethora” – “overabundance” – Scripture doesn’t give an exact number, but I can guarantee that it would take your breath away to see 10,000 X 10,000 angels singing their hearts out to the glory of God!
“Let’s go see this thing that has happened” – A lot of people stop right there. This time of year, they want to see the “thing” that has happened. They want to “get in the Christmas spirit,” sing the old Christmas carols about Bethlehem, angels, & a baby, & acknowledge that there’s something different about this time of year.
But we must move from just seeing Jesus to trusting in Jesus – from seeing the Savior to seeing our need to be saved by this Savior. We can’t just show up week after week & think, “That’s a great message for my neighbor...that guy I work with…that girl who sits in my history class.” Apart from Christ, we are so messed up – we are so hopeless – we are so needy. And the “good news of great joy that will be for all people” is that this Savior has come to actually SAVE. But you’ve got to realize that YOU – not your neighbor, or the guy you work with, or the girl in your history class – but YOU need to be saved! Why? B/c Ephesians 2:1 says, “You were DEAD in your trespasses & sins” – DEAD! Not on life support, not OK, but just needing a little help, not just having a bad day or a bad week, month, or year – DEAD!
Then Paul said in v.5 – “BUT GOD” – what amazing words! Means something’s about to change! “But God, being rich in mercy, b/c of His great love for us, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!” Have you had that “BUT GOD” moment?
- Addicted – BUT GOD!
- In depression, BUT GOD!
- In bondage, BUT GOD!
- Lonely & isolated, BUT GOD!
- Confused & wandering, BUT GOD!
- A prodigal son or daughter, BUT GOD!
- Lost & headed to hell, BUT GOD!
If not, then have your BUT GOD moment today!
FROM OUTCAST TO OUTSPOKEN – One final brief point: B/c of the truth of what the angel announced & the life-changing experience they had, those dirty, nasty shepherds went from being outcast to outspoken. Their testimony not allowed in a courtroom, but their witness caused everyone who heard them to be in “wonder” – amazed & astonished. They had a story to tell & they were going to tell it!
AND WE DO, TOO! No matter who you are – no matter how dirty & nasty your life has been – no matter how you’ve been outcast, when you’ve been transformed b/c you’ve seen Jesus & seen you need to be saved & had your BUT GOD moment, be outspoken for Jesus now! YOU’VE GOT A STORY TO TELL! SO GO TELL IT – not just on the mountain like the Christmas carol says, but in the valley, in the country, in the city, in your home, in your school, in your workplace, in public, in Flora, in Madison, Yazoo, Hinds, Rankin counties, in MS, in the US, & to the ends of the earth! From outcast to outspoken – TELL THE WORLD ABOUT JESUS!
Do YOU need to have a "But God" moment today?
