God’s Faithful Messengers
Luke 1:26-38, 2:8-14
Introduction:
"I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
Wow! How many times do we communicate like that? Far too often I imagine.
I’m currently doing premarital counseling for four couples and one of the topics that we spend quite a bit of time on is communication. There’s probably not much better use of our time than discussing how to make sure that when one spouse says something that the message sent equals message received.
That “formula” is important not only for spouses in a marriage but for each of us in all of our relationships. The best way to avoid miscommunication and the conflict that inevitably follows it? “Message sent = Message received.”
Here’s an interesting fact that a study revealed several years ago but I imagine still holds true today: 7% of the impact of a speaker’s message comes through his words, 38% springs from the speaker’s tone of voice, and 55% from non-verbals. If this is true, that only 7% of what we say is communicated through the actual words we use, then there is a lot of room for miscommunication!
God understands that. After all, he created communication. The Bible tells us he communicates to us in two primary ways: general revelation and specific revelation. General revelation refers to the way God reveals himself to us through creation itself. Psalm 19:1 says that
“The heavens declare the Glory of God. The skies proclaim the works of his hands.”
Specific revelation refers to God speaking to us through His Word, the Bible. And we believe that while all Scripture is not equally clear—there are some difficult passages and some mysteries—all that God intends for us to know in order for us to be saved is easily understood.
When God speaks his word is clear. And that is why he uses faithful messengers. We’re going to look at God’s faithful messengers, his angels, in Luke this morning and particularly the angels that appeared around the birth of our Savior.
We are going to do this because it is clear that God uses faithful messengers, through their presence and their message, to make sure the message sent of good news to those who need to hear it was received.
First, I want us to note…
I. The angels’ presence
A. The angels had such a great presence at Jesus’ birth because it was a great occasion in history.
There is no other event in history in which God’s messengers are so prevalent. Throughout the Old Testament we see angels of the Lord appear at various times to various individuals but never so many to one person and rarely in Scripture does a host appear
God used his messengers in significant ministry connected to the birth of Christ, in both its prediction and its announcement. The angel Gabriel, who told Zacharias that he would have a son, comes to predict the Savior’s birth and to inform Mary of her cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy in Luke 1:26-33. An angel of the Lord accompanied by a large host comes to announce Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:8-14.
B. They had a presence there because they were sent there
Psalm 103:20 describes angels as
“you mighty ones who does His bidding, who obey his word.”
Those angels were there because they were under direct orders to be there. They were sent by God as His emissaries, carrying His message, conveying His presence.
When we understand someone to be an ambassador representing a particular nation we understand that person to not only represent their home nation but to speak on behalf of the leader of that nation. In other words, they are the presence of that leader in that foreign land.
That is what angels, God’s messengers, God’s ambassadors are. They are God’s presence at the greatest event in human history.
And here is what is so key:
C. They were present to make the message clear.
What was that message? Well that brings us to the second point:
II. The angels’ message
What was the message the angels brought? The message was the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word in Luke 2:10 which reads ‘bearers of’ or ‘bringing good news’in the Greek is ‘euangellion.’ Our modern day derivative from that word is ‘evangelism’ and it bears the same meaning: ‘bringing good news.’
If you look right in the middle of that word ‘evangelism’—e-v-a-n-g-e-l-i-s-m—what word do you see? Angel! God’s faithful messengers!
Now I want to spend a little bit of time this morning looking with you at this message and the messengers because they have quite a significant history and because the two, message and messenger are intricately tied together. Where you have a message you have a messenger.
A. OT basar
The Greek word, ‘euangellion’ or ‘bearer of good news’ is really best understood in light of its Old Testament Hebrew equivalent, basar.
Basar is a word used throughout the Old Testament to indicate a messenger of good news. We find the Psalmist using it in Psalm 40:9 when he says,
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips,
As you know, O Lord.
In the New King James Version that verse begins,
I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly.
The writer of the Psalms uses it again in Psalm 68:11 when he says,
The Lord announced the word,
And great was the company of those who proclaim it:
And he goes on to describe how the Lord had victory over his enemies.
In Psalm 96:2 we read,
Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
And in verse 10,
“Say among the nations, The Lord reigns.”
All of these uses by the Psalmist fit with the overall use of the word. It is a proclamation of the good news about God. He is righteous and He is victorious and He reigns!
But the OT use of basar is even clearer in the second portion of Isaiah. In these later chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy to the nation of Israel, Isaiah emphasizes the comfort God’s people will find as their God redeems them from captivity.
There is a verse in Isaiah 52:7 that is repeated again in Nahum 1:15 and that is quoted by Paul in Romans 10:15 That is representative of this idea of basar. It is a verse that is familiar to us because of the picture it presents and because of the song derived from it. It goes:
How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who proclaims peace,
who brings glad tidings of good things,
who proclaims salvation,
who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Nahum’s version and Paul’s quote in Romans 10 vary slightly but they all refer to the same thing. What they are referring to with the word basar is the herald who precedes the people on its return from Babylon to Zion. Imagine this scene:
All Jerusalem stand on the towers and walls expecting the train of returning exiles. Then they see the messenger, the basar, on the top of the hill. He cries to them, “Peace and salvation. God is King.” He proclaims the victory of God over the whole world. God is now returning to Zion to rule. The messenger publishes it and the new age begins.
He does not declare that the rule of God will soon commence; he proclaims it, he publishes it, and it comes into effect. Salvation comes the word of proclamation.
God puts His words on the lips of His messengers. He speaks through them. With His word he creates the world, he shapes history, he rules the world.
The watchers on the walls hear the word and repeat it with rejoicing. It rings though the city and messengers carry it through the land: “God is King.” The message of God’s acts of power now goes out to the whole world. Daily the glad tidings are to ring out among the lost around us.
The close connection between this whole circle of thought and the NT is evident.
B. NT euangellion
Again in the New Testament we have the word, ‘euangellion.’ The prefix ‘eu’ means good or well. The “euangellion” the Greek word for what we call ‘evangelism’ means ‘good news’ or even more specifically in the case of our text, ‘bringing good news.’
We find the prefix in many English derivatives such as “eulogy” from the Greek word ‘eulogeo’ meaning ‘good words;’ “eureka” from the Greek word ‘eurisko’ meaning ‘find;’ and “euphoria” from the Greek word ‘euphemos’ meaning ‘auspicious.’
So we’ve taken some time to talk about the messengers and their role but what was the specific message in Luke’s account of the Lord’s birth? It was Good News.
In Luke 1:26-33 we see the good news declared throughout.
· In verse 30 Mary is told that she has found favor with God. Isn’t that good news in itself?
· In verse 31 she is told she will have a son and that his name will be Jesus (Mt. 1:21 – ‘Savior’)
· In verses 32 and 33 we have the most clear presentation of the good news: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and his kingdom will never end.”
Could the good news be any more clear? Mary was going to give birth to the one who would reign on David’s throne forever. This would have been clearly understood by any Jewish person of the day to have been a direct statement about the Messiah. She would have a son and call him Jesus because he would save his people from their sin.
In Luke 2:8-14 we see the good news declared throughout again:
· In verse 10 the angel even announces to the shepherds that what he brings is good news of great joy that will be for all the people (sounds kind of like what a basar would have said)
· In Verse 11 the shepherds are told that a Savior—the Messiah—has been born in Bethlehem.
· Verses 13 and 14 show the host of the angels declaring the greatest good news to all men:
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
Conclusion:
Wow! What a great work God’s faithful messengers did! But the work isn’t done is it? The apostle Paul in quoting Isaiah 52:7 speaks of the ongoing work of the evangelists. Those who went on the hilltops and mountains shouting to the people that ‘God has delivered’ and ‘God reigns’ have become those who follow Christ.
We are to continue the work of heralding the great tidings of the coming of the Savior. There is a message that we are to send out to the nations and we are to do our best to make sure that “message sent = message received.’
You see, this message deals with the most important relationship of all—our relationship with God. And if the message is misunderstood or is not clear then the relationship either suffers or is non-existent.
God wants the message to be loud and clear: He sent his Son as the redeemer, the Savior, the Prince of Peace. We must receive the message by faith and in turn pass it on.
We are to do send the message out through our presence as God’s ambassadors and we are to do it through the message. You see the name ‘God’s faithful messengers’ applies to us today as much as it did to the basar in the Old Testament days and to the ‘euangellion’ of Jesus’ day.
We bear good tidings. We are messengers of hope and peace as we proclaim to the world around us that a Savior has been born. The redeemer has come.
Has he come to you? Have you been redeemed? Then bear the good tidings of Christmas. Jesus has been born.
