The Announcement of Jesus' Birth, Part 1

Jesus came to save the world didn't come to be an example of nobility and morality and integrity didn't come to be an example of passive, but he didn't come to demonstrate patience and kindness and mercy and tenderness.

He did all of that became to be the Savior of the world itself. In 1910, said the Son of Man is come to seek and save that which was lost when the nation declares war it's the prime minister of the king of the president. The highest ranking leader for that nation who steps to the microphone. If there's important news to share. You can be sure the person reporting the news is also important and yet the most important headline of all time. The greatest piece of news ever was first reported by just about the lowliest people on the social ladder. John MacArthur introduces you to those first messengers today on grace to you in a study that's preparing you for this week's Christmas celebration. John calls a study the promise of Christmas turn to Luke chapter 2 and follow along as John begins the lesson. Let's open our Bibles to the second chapter of Luke's gospel start reading in Luke 28 and in the same region. There were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened and the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you.

You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger and suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the Lord is made known to us in the Cayman haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. When they had seen this. They made known, the statement which had been told them about this child and all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds but Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart. Shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen just as had been told them now as we noted last time looking at this tax. The key statement in the narrative is found in verse 11 in verse 11 it says there has been born for you a Savior. There has been born for you a Savior that is the high note of this entire passage, the shepherds and the Angels are bit players as it were, in the scenario in which the Savior who has been born is the main character.

There has been born for you a Savior.

This is the greatest news the world has ever heard.

This is the good news.

In fact, that's exactly what it says in verse 10, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people. This is the good news one has been born who will save sinners from their sins and from eternal hell the very beginning. The child born was not just any child. This was the long-awaited Savior of the world. This is the one who finally would save his people from their sins.

This is the one I would finally be the Lamb that would offer the one sacrifice that would perfect forever those that are sanctified.

This is the one who would come and pay the penalty for sin offer the final sacrifice with which the entire sacrificial system would finally go away. The endless literally millions of lambs that had been sacrificed had never been able to take away sin, but they had only pictured one who would people waited and waited and waited for that one to come.

Jesus himself in Luke 1910 said the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost in John 442. He is called the Savior of the world in first John chapter 4, maybe the most important statement of all those first John 414 says, and we have beheld, and bear witness that the father has sent the son to be the Savior of the world. Jesus came to save the world didn't come to be an example of nobility and morality and integrity didn't come to be an example of passive, but he didn't come to demonstrate patience and kindness and mercy and tenderness. He did all of that became to be the Savior of the world. The Jews had long waited for that to happen. They as I told you last time. New God is a saving God.

They knew the nature of God was to say because he delivered them from their enemies and it so often delivered them from the immediate consequence of the sin consequences which they deserved. He had rescued them from every imaginable kind of situation in spite of their sin so they knew God as a saving God the God of the Old Testament had revealed himself clearly as a Savior but there was also the fact that though God was a saving God there had never yet come one who had provided fully and finally that promised salvation so they long-awaited the Savior of the world. One would come and satisfy the justice of God we find in this passage the angelic announcement that the Savior has been born. The one of whom Luke writes in in the book of acts, Luke wrote acts as well. The one who would come and be the Savior to the degree that there is salvation and no other name but the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 412 long-awaited Savior had been born. The one who would not only be the son of David, and who would rescue Israel politically from their enemies, not only the one who would be the son of Abraham fulfilling Abraham a covenant and rescue Israel from its time of suffering. The promise of David would come to pass in Israel have a kingdom that's literally be a kingdom of peace, the Messiah would rule over Israel in peace, and not only over Israel. But over the whole world, and his kingdom would have no and it would be eternal, not only with the Messiah, and establish the fulfillment of Abraham's promise and that is the end of suffering in the fullness of righteousness and holiness and blessing on the nation but the Messiah would also come and save sinners. In fact, they wouldn't receive Davidic promise of the kingdom they would receive Abraham a promise of blessing until they had received new covenant salvation. They were looking for a Savior who would come and take away sin they were looking for the new covenant to be fulfilled Savior who would come and forgive them for their sin.

A Savior who would come and wash them Savior who would come and take away the stony heart put a heart of flesh Savior who would come and give them his spirit Savior who would rescue them from judgment. The judgment of God and eternal hell. The great announcement of the passage. Here the great angelic announcement is in verse 11 there has been born for you a Savior. This is the high point of redemptive history. This is the greatest moment in the history of the world. Savior would come and he would take on the judgment of God for sinners, he would be punished in our place as symbolically the Lamb died in the place of the sinner in the Old Testament sacrificial system this land the perfect spotless pure Lamb of God would die for sinners and he would die such a perfect death and bear sin so perfectly that never would there be another sacrifice.

Jesus would be the Savior of the world by taking on the punishment for sinners, he would die under the execution of God's wrath. God would literally execute Jesus for your sins and my sins and since the penalty was fully paid God and be free to forgive us and take us to eternal heaven, not send us to hell to bear the punishment for our own sins because Christ had borne it for us 700 years before the baby was born 700 years before the Savior was born a prophet, a Hebrew prophet by the name of Micah had predicted that when he was born he would be born in a little village called Bethlehem house of bread.

A somewhat obscure village except for one fact it was the hometown of David, the great King. It was where his father Jesse lived.

That was very important because that played into the fulfillment of the prophecy prophet Micah said that when he is born he will be born in Bethlehem, though it would be a little place he would be born there. The great Messiah, the Savior of the world would be born there as it turned out, got it orchestrate all the events to make that happen. Caesar Augustus didn't know anything about Micah or the Old Testament or God and couldn't care less decree that a census would be taken. He decreed that sins would be taken in all the fullness of the Roman Empire that included Judea so the Jews had to comply with the census. They are resisted.

Apparently, for some time because the census was given an eight BC they didn't comply until 2 to 4 years later when they did comply Herod or somebody in Israel. Maybe the Sanhedrin may be Herod required that the Jews to register for the census census had to go back to their house of ancestry as were back to their origins and so that meant Joseph and Mary were both in the line of David had to go to Bethlehem which was the home of their ancestor David. And there they had to register and it just so happened that the timetable of the census required them to be there. Probably there was a deadline like April 15 that required them to be there at a certain time and so they had to make the 85 to 90 mile journey while she was in the last weeks of her pregnancy. Something you wouldn't normally do under those conditions, because it was really a distance. You had to walk be carried on a donkey, but they did it because they had to not put them there at the strategic time and the child was born exactly where the prophet said he would be born in the little village of Bethlehem when he was born there. He was born in obscurity of the Romans were there. The soldiers were there. Of course they were everywhere. Roman presence was Roman presence would've been heightened in Bethlehem at that time because the census would've been going on there, they would've had Roman officials were taking the census there they would've taken up every available room of people would be coming into town and staying with families and friends because they would be related to them going back to the house of their ancestry. By the time Joseph and Mary got there there wasn't a place for them to stay except in what was most likely shed a large lean to that was an overnight stopping place for travelers. Could've been a situation where he had four walls surrounding a courtyard. Those four walls would have little shanty type rooms and probably a loft so that you have some people below ground level and some people climb up a little ladder and stay above but all those places were taken even as primitive as they were, they would've been better than were Joseph and Mary ended up which was in the courtyard, which was occupied by all the animals of all the travelers, donkeys and goats and probably some sheep, and maybe some camels really an inappropriate place of dirty place terrible place for a semi private or quasipublic birth in a very obscure and very unlikely circumstance, but it was there that the Savior was born he was born in obscurity. Apparently nobody around their new none of the people knew none of the Romans knew none of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, or the visiting folks new just another baby being born as they heard the cry of Jesus when he came into the world. The cry was just another drive, another baby and it was so obscure we don't hear any announcement at all going on in Bethlehem just Joseph new and Mary knew but was long till we come to verse eight and an announcement is made in the greatest event in the saga of redemption has occurred and it's about to be announced and in unlikely announcement, it says in verse eight in the same region. There were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night of the Jews been looking for a Savior for a long time, and even the Romans were conscious of the Savior of the world. In fact, they gave that very title to Caesar Augustus, there is existing a Roman indication in some of the ruins that Caesar Augustus had the title Savior of the world. People are always looking for a great deliverer, always looking for a great Savior and well Caesar Augustus was in Rome celebrating himself as the Savior of the world. True Savior of the world was being born in Bethlehem in obscurity. There was only one true Savior who come to deliver his people from their sins and to bring them out of the judgment of God and us to rescue them from eternal hell and to bring them out of suffering and the blessing hasn't been promised to Abraham and out of subservience into royalty and raining as it been promised to David so he had come did come to bring the blessings of the new covenant.

The blessings of the Abraham covenant blessings of the Davidic covenant had come to save sinners and then to give them all the promised blessing. Little wonder all heaven broke loose and the angel showed up and started praising God. Little wonder the shepherds when they left the end of this passage. Verse 20 were praising God as well.

This is the high point of all, redemptive history, the greatest moment in history the world this way. A little and consider what's going on here. You can't just whistle by this one now the message is good news, good news. Verse 10 good news of great joy and what so good news.

There has been born for you. I Savior the Savior has, will save his people from their sins and therefore from death and hell from the judgment of God and he will bring them into the promised blessings of the kingdom, indicating of blessing beyond description and imagination. Eternal glory all that good news, good news folks good news there is a Savior. There is forgiveness of sin. You can escape hell you can go to heaven forever.

You can be blessed by God. Now as we unfold.

This passage only give you a few points number one. The proclamation of good news. You know it's the most unlikely group of people to make this proclamation to. If you are orchestrating this if you were a PR agent and you were designing a campaign to announce the Savior of the world been born the last people you would go to was a bunch of shepherds I mean literally the last people you would go to you, you might say well you know we want to get this set will I get this thing out. We need to go to the people have the greatest influence we want to go to the influencers as they would be called today want to go to the movers and shakers want to go to the people of the year the world so first of all, we might consider going to the high priest of me he would be the religious leader of Israel and might be considering going to the chief priests and scribes. We were the teachers we might be going to the Sadducees who basically made up the Sanhedrin, which is the ruling body of Israel, a body of 70 elders of Israel. Basically responsible for the nation as a theocracy under God or you might say we go to the Pharisees because they had the great that they were the religious fundamentalists.

They were fastidious about prophecies and we might want to go to them because they search the Scriptures. They were looking for the Messiah. We might want to go to somebody who had some influence might even want to send a memo or press release to Caesar Augustus to let them know that the true Savior been born shepherds not on your life, that's exactly where the Lord sent the message in verse eight says in the same region that's the region around Bethlehem. Bethlehem is about 6 miles south directly south of the city of Jerusalem. It's just a small village, certainly not a city so down in that region. There were some shepherds there is no adjective for the shepherds, it's literally says there were shepherds in the Greek just shepherds then tells anything about them is really nothing to say about this is the most unlikely group to which God's angel proclaims the good news of the Savior. Nobody would've assumed this except for the fact that if you go back to Isaiah 61 and Isaiah 61 you have a prophecy that really has the Messiah speaking.

It has the pre-incarnate Christ speaking about about his coming as Messiah and he says the spirit of the Lord God is upon me.

It's the one he quotes in Luke four and says he fulfills but he says the Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor or to preach the good news that word in Hebrew can mean the lonely or the humble or as it's translated in NAS. The afflicted and he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners when the Messiah comes is not coming to the up and enters he's not coming to the influencers is coming to the poor, the lowly, the meet the afflicted, the broken heart of the captives the prisoners that's is the category of outcasts. When the Messiah comes, he's going to touch the outcast is going to touch the lowlifes in fact as Jesus went through his life. He attracted to himself that the outcasts of society. Tax collectors and absolute nobodies and prostitutes and sinners and drunkards and you know all of that because the Jewish Alethea aristocracy of religion and Israel criticized him for that and they said he hangs around drunkards and prostitutes. That's what messianic prophecy said the Messiah would come to the poor and listen he would come to the outcast he would come to the lowly and shepherds qualified for that Mary and her Magnificat praising the Lord when she was told she was gonna be the mother of Messiah and no Luke 152.

Praise God for exalting the humble exalting the lowly and if you go to first Corinthians chapter 1 you. You have the apostle Paul saying in verse 26 in the purposes of God's salvation. There were not many wise according to the flesh, not many of the human intellectuals are saved, not many mighty, not many noble, because God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the things are strong, the lowly or base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen then nobody can boast that begins at the very beginning, the first announcement of the birth of the Messiah is made to the lowliest communist of unskilled peasants in the Jewish social strata now doesn't mean to say that being a shepherd was a somehow illegitimate profession. Somehow, something that ought to be despised and for its own sake, not at all.

In fact, Abraham functioned at some point in his life as a shepherd and Moses function you remember caring for the herds of his father-in-law in Midian as a shepherd and David was a shepherd. In fact, a thousand years before Jesus was born. David was watching sheep in this same area may be in the same field that it isn't that there was somehow shameful profession. There was just a lonely profession. It was the lowliest of tasks. Shepherds were insignificant. They were basically ignorant.

They were uneducated they were unskilled. They did the kind of work shepherding that was generally given to children to do because it was so simple to do.

Didn't take any particular talent or any skill. They were basically unskilled.

They had no trade they had no skilled. They were really the lowest paid and beyond that, beyond the fact that they would be the lowest people on the social ladder by virtue of the necessity of caring for sheep seven days a week. They lived in some level of violation or another of Mosaic law. They could maintain the Sabbath away the Sabbath should have been maintained because of their necessity to work.

They violated the Sabbath to some degree they they couldn't maintain the myriad of man-made regulations that have been added and piled in heaps on top of Sabbath law which con founded the people for the most part, because of their inability to keep these fastidious regulations developed by the Pharisees, but certainly shepherds couldn't abide by them so they would look not only us on not only is low.

Socially, but they were looked as living in general violation of religious law and therefore, to some degree or another.

They were outcast because they violated the ceremonies they really were the lowest of the low as time developed from the time of the New Testament on as the fast Eddie is legalism of the Pharisees began to capture more and more of the hearts of the people. Shepherds began to be more and more and more despised. If you read Jewish literature over the next hundred years or so, they were more and more and more despised. In fact, it wasn't long after this that they began to be seen as unreliable and trustworthy unsavory characters who were largely suspected of stealing sheep and in doing all kinds of the illegal things that they were there were not any anybody close to the higher echelons of society and maybe that's shock you, because all your life you grew up imagining the shepherds were some kind of special people while they were the least special of all people. Isn't that the point isn't that the point isn't that just like God to disdain the religious elite to disdain the quote unquote spiritual establishment to disdain the hypocrites who thought they were good enough to achieve relationships with God by their own self effort and to make the announcement. The greatest announcement ever been made in history the world to the lowest of the low, the humblest of the humble shepherds. By the way, lest you demean being a shepherd. Jesus himself was happy to call himself the good. What shepherd nothing wrong with the task in itself, but in society. They were the lowest and communist nobodies of Israel society and culture.

In fact, this is interesting.

Shepherds were not allowed to testify in court in that society for number of reasons. One, they were trusted into they were thought to be intelligent enough to put things together that such poor standing and poor reputation. Just perfect for God. If that's not a metaphor of God saving the lowly center. What is it possible that a grip on this Disney first Timothy 115 Jesus Christ came to the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Below are the center of the greater the glory to God who saves them right just perfect for God disdain the palace disdain the temple disdain the priests and go for the outcasts go for the lowliest of the low now. I would believe and I can't be dogmatic about this, but I would believe that the shepherds that the Lord picked for this announcement were probably shepherds who believed in the true and living God. They were probably devout. They may have been among those who in verse 25 are described as looking for the consolation of Israel, that is, they were looking for the Messiah.

They were looking for the redemption of Israel looking for the Redeemer. Because in verse 20 when they had gone and seen the child realize what happened. Verse 20 says they were glorifying and praising God for everything they heard and seen it must've been that they were living in anticipation of that very likely that though they were socially on the lowest level they may well spiritually been on the highest level they may may have been devout. They may have been the ones looking for the redemption of Israel whilst with the Lord. Tell them this and of course when they heard the message they were so filled with excitement. They went immediately to Bethlehem by the way, is a note or get to this next time we were never commanded to do that. Their response was not well it's nice. What we care response was to go immediately.

Bethlehem begin the search which would be easy. How do you find this baby among babies is likely that they were developed. If lowly shepherds and that's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University in seminary, bringing you face-to-face with the life-changing hope.

Giving promise of Christmas. That's the title of his study your own grace to you, the promise of Christmas will John Christmas and the new year both looming and something that many of our listeners may wonder in the coming days.

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