The Announcement Of Jesus' Birth Series

The Announcement of Jesus’ Birth

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Luke 2:8-11

Every year as Advent begins, something awakens in the heart—lights go up, familiar music returns, and memories begin to warm the places in us that the rest of the year may leave cold. But Advent is more than nostalgia. It’s the holy season where we slow down and enter again into the Scriptures—into the real settings, the real people, the real sounds, smells, and textures of the night when God entered the world unnoticed by most, but unforgettable to a few.

A few weeks ago we were looking at this passage and we talked about the “suddenlies”—how God steps into human history with little warning, and how His next great sudden return is soon approaching. Today, we come back not for the suddenness, but for the nearness. For the small details, the quiet beauty, and brushstrokes that Luke gives us that reveal the heart of God in the birth of His Son.

If we listen carefully, this text glows with Christmas color.

1. THE SETTING: SHEPHERDS IN THE FIELDS (v. 8)

Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, (Luke 1:8)

A. Shepherds—The Unexpected Audience

We tend to romanticize shepherds—fluffy sheep, peaceful pastures. But in the first century, shepherds were near the bottom of society. They were:

• Considered ceremonially unclean

• Often suspected of being thieves

• Kept at a distance from polite religious life

And yet these are the first to hear the announcement. God bypasses Herod’s palace, the temple elite, and Rome’s power structures to come to the shepherds. The first Christmas sermon is preached to people who smell like sheep. But understand that this was not an oversight or happenstance. This was Divinely orchestrated to say to the world that Messiah was not coming for just the righteous, or the wealthy, or the elites of society. God’s arrival was for everyone, down to the outcasts of society.

This is a God who sees the overlooked. Reaching for analogous to help understand the incarnation, some have likened it a symphony, in all of its complexity and power - magnificence carried over a grand expanse. But when he became human, he became a humble fold tune, simple and shortened. In this he lost nothing of his Godhead, his eternal character, his attributes, absolute purity, and changeless excellence.

B. “In the Same Region” — Near Bethlehem

This phrase is easy to skip, but it matters. Bethlehem was the location of: Rachel’s death (Gen. 35). David’s childhood, and the prophesied birthplace of Messiah (Micah 5:2)

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5:2)

Many scholars note that the flocks near Bethlehem were likely temple flocks, raised specifically for sacrificial use in Jerusalem only five miles away. Bethlehem’s shepherds were known to care for the temple flock. These men may have also protected and cared for the lambs used in temple sacrifice. If so, then the shepherds caring for sacrificial lambs are the first to hear about the Lamb of God. God speaks to them because their entire life’s work pointed to Him.

C. “Keeping Watch… by Night”

Shepherds rotated in shifts. The phrase “keeping watch” implies alertness—eyes open in the dark, listening for predators.

Night in Scripture is never just the absence of sunlight—it is often the setting God chooses to do His deepest work. The night strips away distractions, quiets the noise of the world, and reveals the true condition of the heart. Over and over again, God meets His people in the dark: Abraham receives the covenant beneath a canopy of stars (Genesis 15:5–6); Jacob wrestles with the Angel of the Lord until the breaking of day (Genesis 32:24–30); young Samuel hears the voice of God for the first time while lying still in the night (1 Samuel 3:3–10);

David sings, “At night His song is with me” (Psalm 42:8); and Jesus Himself withdraws to lonely nighttime places to pray (Mark 1:35; Luke 6:12).

Even the Exodus happened under the cover of darkness (Exodus 12:29–31), and Paul and Silas lifted their hymns to heaven at midnight in a prison cell (Acts 16:25). And if we are honest, many of our most Spirit-led moments of prayer have not happened at noon but at 2:13 AM—those mysterious moments when you suddenly wake up with someone on your heart, aware that the Holy Spirit is nudging you to intercede. You may not know why, or for whom, or what danger is looming, but you pray—only to discover later that God used those nighttime prayers in ways you could have never orchestrated.