Luke 2:20

INTRODUCTION

[READING]

Luke 2:1–20 NASB95

1 Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

Concerning Luke 2:20, one commentator wrote, “Shepherds came. They saw what God told them to expect. They proclaimed their findings to all who would listen. They turned back toward their jobs, a new song of praise in their hearts. What God had said, God had done. They returned to the sheep, never to be heard of again, but never to be forgotten.”

[PRAYER]

[CONTEXT] Gabriel foretold Jesus. Mary gave birth to Jesus. The angels sang of Jesus. And the shepherds went to see Jesus as He lay in the manger.

Everything was just as they had been told.

And they told everything the angels said about Jesus.

“I bring you good news of great joy which will 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!”

“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased!”

[CIT] The shepherds went back to their sheep carrying belief and joy and in their hearts after they saw Jesus.

[INTER] What can we learn from these shepherds in Luke 2:20?

[PROP] We can learn to carry faith and joy with us wherever we go.

[TS] Notice how the shepherds RESPONDED to Jesus in v. 20…

MAJOR IDEAS

RESPONSE #1: The shepherds believed.

“The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.”

[EXP] What had they heard? What had they seen?

They heard something awesome - the angelic announcement of Jesus’ birth.

Luke 2:10–11 NASB95

10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

They saw something unique - the baby Jesus lying in a manger wrapped in cloths.

Luke 2:12 NASB95

12 “This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

These shepherds saw a real baby—a baby that got hungry, that cried, that wanted His mother.

But these shepherds saw in that real baby a Savior, who is Christ the Lord; they saw peace between God and man.

And they knew this was so because they saw Him lying in a manger, the feeding trough of a donkey, just as had been told them.

But why does it matter that it was all “just as had been told them”? It matters because what they saw was verification of what they had been told.

Sure, they had a degree of belief as they went to Bethlehem to see Jesus, but they had a much greater degree of belief after they saw Jesus just as had been told them.

The Swiss Reformer, Heinrich Bullinger, put it like this, “Lest the shepherds should doubt these new and wonderful tidings, the angel helps them out by giving them a sign, saying ‘Experience it yourselves, and the truth of the matter will prove to you that I have told nothing but the truth. Go on over to Bethlehem, and seek the newborn child whom I have proclaimed to be Christ the Lord. You will find him wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’”

The shepherds did just that, and they believed.

[ILLUS] A blind man once came to Jesus. Jesus spit on his eyes and laid His hands on him. Jesus asked him, “Do you see anything?”

The man said, “I see people, but I can’t see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around,” (Mk. 8:24).

Then Jesus touched the man’s eyes again, and his eyes were opened. His sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly (Mk. 8:25).

[APP] When Jesus comes again every eye will see Him clearly, but for now we see Him with eyes of faith. Even so, He is just as we have been told.

Charles Spurgeon asked, “Have you not found (Him) to be… just what the Bible said (He) would be? Jesus said He would give you rest—have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in Him? He said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in Him—have you not received all these? … Surely what we have ‘seen’ keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have ‘heard.’ Let us, then glorify and praise God for a Savior so precious and so satisfying.”

[TS] This brings us to the second RESPONSE of the shepherds…

RESPONSE #2: The shepherds rejoiced.

“The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.”

[EXP] Why did the shepherds glorify and praise God? Why did they rejoice like this? Because they had believed on Jesus; because although they had only seen Him as a babe in a manger, they experienced Him as good news of great joy for all people including lowly shepherds like them.

In Luke’s gospel, people often rejoice in response to God’s grace.

Zechariah rejoiced when his mouth was opened, and he was able to tell everyone about his son, John, who would be forerunner of the Messiah (Lk. 1:64).

Simeon rejoiced when he held Jesus in his arms when Mary and Joseph presented Him in the temple after his birth (Lk. 2:28).

The formerly paralyzed man rejoiced when he picked up the mat he had been lying on after Jesus healed him (Lk. 5:25-26).

The people rejoiced when Jesus healed the son of a widow from Nain (Lk. 7:16).

We could go on (Lk. 13:13; 17:15-18; 18:43; 19:37-40; 23:47; 24:52-53), but Luke consistently presents to us people rejoicing in response to God’s grace, and so we see these shepherds rejoicing—glorifying and praising God—in response to God’s grace in Jesus.

Shepherds were not members of high society.

They were thought of as uneducated and unskilled.

They were viewed as dishonest, unreliable, and unsavory.

They weren’t allowed to testify in court.

They were viewed as continual violators of God’s law and ceremonially unclean because they cared for sheep seven days a week.

But the angels had appeared to them.

The angles announced the birth of the Savior to them.

And besides Mary and Joseph, they were the first to see the Savior in the flesh lying in a manger in Bethlehem.

They surely thought themselves undeserving of such magnificient grace, so they rejoiced!

We should think ourselves undeserving of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. If we do, we will rejoice.

[ILLUS] The Duke of Wellington, the British military leader who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, was not an easy man to serve under.

He was brilliant, demanding, and not one to shower his subordinates with compliments. Yet even the Duke realized that his methods left something to be desired.

In his old age a young lady asked him what, if anything, he would do differently if he had it to do over again. Wellington thought for a moment, then replied, “I’d give more praise.”

[APP] Will we say the same thing at the end of our lives? Will we say, “I wish I’d given more praise”? Not to our subordinates as the Duke of Wellington meant but to our God who has given us His Son?

Spurgeon wrote…

Morning and Evening Evening, January 28

If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harp strings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp.

In other words, if we have believed on Jesus as Savior; if we have experienced the grace of God in His life, death, and resurrection, then the instruments of our rejoicing ought to play loudly!

They ought to play loudly of Jesus’ worth, for that’s what it means to praise Him—to declare His worth!

They ought to play loudly of Jesus’ majesty, for that’s what it means to glorify Him—to declare His majesty!

But what if I have found no joy in Jesus, no reason to rejoice in Him?

Well then, we have not truly come to Him.

We haven’t beheld Him with the eyes of faith.

We have believed on Him as Christ, as Savior, and as Lord.

When we do believe, we will rejoice just as the shepherds did.

[TS] But notice a third and final RESPONSE from these shepherds in Luke 2:20…

They believed.

They rejoiced.

And, at the beginning of v. 20, you see that they returned.

RESPONSE #3: The shepherds returned.

“The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.”

[EXP] Sheep are prone to wander, so the shepherds had to get back to their flocks. It’s fitting that it would be careful shepherds to first visit Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God who takes away our sins.

The shepherds had been given an amazing privilege, but seeing Jesus in His manger did not make them prideful, and it did not make them idle.

One writer said, “This is all the gospel that some of them would hear on earth. They would die, probably, as they lived, tending their sheep, before the Good Shepherd openly appeared.”

Do you think they wanted to stay?

Surely there was nothing glorious about the stable, but there was everything glorious in Jesus, so I imagine they wanted to stay, wanted to watch Him grow, wanted to see all the things He would do.

But duty called, and they had to get back to their sheep, so they returned, but they returned with belief and joy.

They had a mountain-top experience, but they brought the belief and joy back with them to the valley

[ILLUS] Peter was once with Jesus on a mountain. He, along with James and John, saw Jesus in His glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. Added to that was the appearance of Moses and Elijah.

Peter wanted to stay there with Jesus in His glory, so he said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” (Mt. 17:4).

But Peter wasn’t allowed to stay on the mountain with Jesus.

Peter had to take the experience of the transfiguration of Jesus with him back down into the valley.

Jesus once healed a man who had been possessed by many demons. The man then begged Jesus to go with Him, but Jesus did not let Him.

Jesus said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you,” (Mk. 5:19).

The man had to take the experience of being healed by Jesus with him back to his hometown.

The shepherds had to take their belief and joy in Jesus with them back to the field.

[APP] You see, when we believe on Jesus for salvation and experience eternal joy in Jesus, our earthly circumstances may not change all that much.

We still have to go to work.

We still have to pay bills.

We still have to do everyday things.

We still have to do hard things.

But Jesus is not just for life up in Heaven; He is also for life here on earth.

He is for the ordinary as well as the extraordinary.

He’s for the bad times as well as the good times.

He’s for the trials.

He’s for the struggles.

He’s for the hardships.

He’s for the downs and not just the ups.

He’s no fare-weather Savior; He’s for the cold nights and the long winters as we tend our sheep in a lonely field.

Our faith in Him and our joy in Him will be our comfort.

He will see us through.

One brother said, “(Coming) to Jesus puts a doxology in the heart. The person honors God. Some think that they cannot do much praising and honoring of God unless they are singing or speaking in some vast cathedral. But that is not true, these shepherds praised God right on the job. They praised God right where they worked. (Oh) how we need to honor God where we are. (We) if (we) will go to Jesus.”

[TS]…

CONCLUSION

J. C. Ryle said, “The journey that begins in faith will generally end in praise.”

That was true for the shepherds.

And it will be true of us too if we go to Jesus.

[PRAYER]