Luke 2:15-20

Luke chapter 2, beginning with verse 15 and reading through verse 20. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven. The shepherd said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see the thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. and they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this morning. A minister was once attempting to demonstrate to his congregation the ignorance of many people with regard to the scriptures. and he said that someone once asked, what are the epistles, and the answer he received, they are the wives of the apostles. So the minister went on to say, this shows how little people know about the Bible. After the service, a woman came up to him and asked, Pastor, I don’t understand. If they weren’t the wives of the apostles, whose wives were they? Scripture relates that very few people were looking for Christ coming in the days of Joseph and Mary. And being born at a stable in Bethlehem was not where you would expect to find the Messiah. The spiritual ignorance which existed left almost everybody in the dark about Christ coming. But God will not leave the people in total ignorance. And so we find he sends an angel to announce the birth of Christ to the shepherds in the fields nearby Bethlehem. The shepherds investigate the divine message. And then they spread the news to many others about Christ’s birth. In this, in other ways, because we read about the Magi in the book of the Bible, in the book of of Matthew, we find that the coming of Christ becomes known, becomes more publicly recognized. But this morning I want to speak on the effect of the word of God from this passage of Scripture. Let me begin by saying this. You should promptly obey God’s Word. You’ll notice in verses 15 and 16, and it came to pass as the angels were gone away. from them into heaven. The shepherd said one to another, let us now go unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us, and they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. As we look at this passage of Scripture, the thing I think we should learn is this. You should immediately respond to God’s revealed word. After our Bible, brief consultation. The shepherds were resolved to go to Bethlehem. Now remember, in verse 12, they had been given a sign, as it says here, this shall be a sign unto you, shall find the bay wrapped in swatting clothes, lying in a manger, which indicates to us that the idea was that they should seek out the babe, the Christ, that was born. And so we see the response to the angel’s message is to immediately go forth, and the Bible tells us with haste they did it to find the coming Christ. They believed God’s word from the angels, from the angel here, and were determined to see this thing which has come to pass. And they didn’t hesitate. They didn’t delay till morning, but they proceeded immediately to the city of Bethlehem. Now, they were eventually able to locate Joseph and Mary and the Christ child, and they found everything exactly as the angel described it. They were convinced that they had beheld the Lord’s Christ. Their faith was fixed on the Savior, and this conveys, I think, an important message to us. Instead of allowing the Word of God to pass up, away quickly from your mind if you’ve heard it, apply it immediately. They acted on the message that they had received. It deserves your attention and your obedience. It is the word of God himself. And you should make haste to follow it. This truth has been revealed to you for a reason. You remember one day, the Lord gave Abraham a startling command. Take thy son, thine only son, you know the one you’ve been waiting for for all these years and you finally had, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Mariah and offer him there for a burnt sacrifice. This was puzzling. For Isaac was Abraham’s only heir, and God had miraculously provided him, as we have found in the previous story about Abraham. Now, what’s interesting here is Abraham does not debate with the Lord about the propriety of sacrificing his son. He doesn’t try to argue with the Lord about this. What you do read is that Abraham rose up early in the morning and proceeded immediately to carry out God’s revealed will. In this respect, he’s a good example for you and I, for he quickly applied the word of God that he received. Duke of Wellington once replied to an officer of his engineers who urged the impossibility of executing the commander’s order. Sir, I did not ask your opinion. I gave you my orders, and I expect them to be obeyed. God doesn’t ask for our opinion. He gives us his orders and he expects them to be obeyed. He’s made known to you the truth and we should act promptly upon the truth that has been made to you, made known to you and I. The duty is clear and the path is clear for us. We should obey it. You should immediately respond to God’s revealing. Now you should realize the danger of delay. in this regard. There are many people who hear God’s word, but it’s forgotten as soon as it, the sound dies from their ear, it seems. James warns about those upon hearing the word of God are forgetful hearers, and not doers of the word that they have heard. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have less that any time we should let them slip. Now, you’ve probably seen an unsecured boat slip away from the dock, and you’ve lost your boat. You may not perceive it immediately, but eventually it starts drifting off away. And that’s the idea. It drifts off from us. It slips away from us, the Word of God. Don’t be like those that with the word of, you know, with that, don’t be like that with regard to the word of God because you know Satan is eager to snatch away the seed of the word whenever it is sown and the and before it takes a root in your life, he’d like to just sort of scoop it up and get it out of the way. Don’t be like lot. Remember, when he was commanded by the angels, flee the city of Sodom, what do we read? He lingered. He lingered. So you should promptly obey God’s word. These shepherds were blessed. They promptly obeyed what God said, and they found the Savior. The second thing I suggest to you is this. You should enthusiastically proclaim God’s word. Notice verses 17 and 18. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Now, your knowledge of God, God’s good news is not something you should keep secret. The shepherds published widely the good news concerning Christ which had been known to them. They had seen the Messiah. God incarnate, if you would. And they couldn’t keep silent about it. They had to speak about it. Wherever, whoever they met outside that lowly stable, they said, hey, come and worship Christ, the promised newborn king. you who have come to know the Savior, have you not something to relate to those around you? Have you not a message that you have a relationship with Christ? You’ve seen the Christ. You have something worth spreading to all those you meet, and that is the good news concerning Christ. Notice that this message was not based on personal experience, but what the Lord had told them. Your gospel message comes from Christ himself or God himself. This revelation concerning Christ is what you were to proclaim. It is true that you know the Savior in a personal way, but it is what God has revealed by Christ that is the message of the gospel. In other words, and that’s what you tell others. Is the doctrinal truth that we are to tell others and not talk about some subjective experience as the basis of their faith. Notice the shepherds here were not theologically trained men, nor were they authorized by the religious leaders of the Jews to proclaim Christ. The shepherds didn’t have to wait for the scribes and the Pharisees to give them permission. They never published anything. Common people, having been granted a knowledge of the God’s way of salvation, can proclaim it. They can tell others about it. You don’t have to have a master of theology to tell others about the Savior, nor are you forced to remain silent because the church has authorized or ordained you to speak of Christ. You’re not preaching to a congregation. You’re witnessing to your neighbor. You remember the story of the woman at the Well, she meets Jesus, and she comes to realize this is the Messiah. And she believes on him. And what does she do? She goes back to town, and she says, come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ in many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman? She testified of Christ. And it was used of the Lord. You can be just like the shepherd. You can point people to the Savior. The shepherds were not skilled in oratory abilities or students of the law, so to speak, but they knew about Christ and they could speak about Christ and the truth they knew about it. Your knowledge of God’s good news must not be kept silent. You will find people wonder at the words spoken to them, but often fail to to embrace it. It’s interesting in verse 18. It says, and all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. The word wonder here means they marveled. They were astonished. The message concerning Christ told them by the shepherds surprised people. It was a startling account. What do you mean the Messiah? What do you mean he’s in a barn somewhere in a manger? How did these? unlearned and ignorant men become recipients of such a divine communication. That had to make people wonder. How is it that these shepherds saw the Christ? But the religious leaders were in the dark. That makes people wonder. So what the people initially marveled at soon gives place to a spirit of forgetfulness and apathy, it seems, because we don’t read any of them going to search out Christ. They didn’t come to worship the Savior. It’s interesting, if you look at John, Chapter 7, there’s a few statements here about Christ that I think are interesting in verses 14 to 16 in regard to this. It has to do with the Feast of the Tabernacles. He said, now, about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, how knoweth this man letters having never learned? and Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will do his will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God, whether I speak of myself. The Jews marveled when they heard Jesus’ teaching at the temple. Because he had no professional training. He knoweth, how knoweth this man letters? having never learned. Well, wasn’t it an undeniable evidence that Jesus was taught of God and filled with the Holy Spirit to be able to expound the scripture the way he did? Still, no matter how extraordinary the teaching, and how marveled the people were at it, it didn’t end up with faith in Christ did it, which is a sad account here. The plain teaching of God’s Word may cause people to marvel. There are things that are stated about Christ and the way of salvation that are surprising and how God brought it all about. But that doesn’t lead to salvation unless one is called by the Spirit of God. There is no salvation. It is an extraordinary message, though, that we proclaim. Sadly, it’s all soon forgotten. It does not have a lasting effect unless the spirit works and the people are brought to come and worship the Savior. So you should enthusiastically proclaim God’s word. The third thing I suggest you is this. You should make profitable use, profitable use of God’s word. Versus 19 and 20 here of our text. Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. and the shepherds return glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. Now, the first thing we should realize is you should carefully meditate upon the word. Mary here, when she takes this all in, and she hears what the angels have evidently related to the shepherds and so forth, and the shepherds coming and worshiping, she’s pondering all this. she didn’t merely wonder here she did more than that she ponders notice how she was spiritually exercised her memory she kept all these things she stored them up in her memory her affections she kept them in her heart these things were dear and precious to her and excuse me they were not just cold and hard facts her intellect intellect was exercised. She pondered them. She carefully weighed them. She meditated on these things. Can you imagine Mary holding Joseph and feeding him and she held him in her arm. She’s thinking this is my Lord and my Savior. This is the Redeemer of my soul. As she said earlier. Mary’s diligence in contemplation the works of God provides, I think, an example for you and I. There’s a basic difference between an explorer and a tourist. A tourist travels quickly, stopping here and there just to observe the highlights of the situation. Some publicized points of interest. Maybe he sees Pike’s Peak or maybe the Grand Canyon or the petrified forest or old faith or something like that. Whereas the explorer on the other hand, he’s going to take the time of search out all that he can find. He may stop and talk to people. Hey, where there are, there are? there in the area. Too many people I think rest through the Bible and only retain the highlights of it. And I’m a big proponent of reading through your Bible once a year. I think it’s a good idea to constantly be reading through the scriptures. But it’s also necessary. to stop and ponder the scriptures and think about what we’re reading, what has been revealed to us in his Word. And I find that sometimes that just meditating on it. I have found it helpful. Sometimes somebody will speak on a passage of scripture, maybe even read a passage of scripture and just thinking about it for a few minutes. Even they may not cover everything that I’ve thought of when I’m looking at it. Maybe they’re teaching or their preaching is covering other aspects of the text. But sometimes just going over it, something comes to your mind because you’re thinking about it. You’re pondering it. And that’s helpful to us to sort of explore the book a bit. To explore the word and the text and see what it says. You know, I said I was going to do a brief survey in the book of revelation and what my difficulty was is that once you get into it and I give even a smaller section and say, oh I can do this paragraph. And you’re like, wow, there’s a lot in here. You know, that might need a little explanation. So you end up seeing how deep, there are things that are deep in God’s word. Even this text this morning, you might look at this and read it over, but there are things here that we can pull out and see how much we could apply to ourselves. So we should take time, explore the Bible. Remember in Psalm 1, it says, Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law, doth he meditate day and night. He’s thinking about it constantly. Beloved, remember what you’ve heard of Christ, what he’s done for you. Ponder everything about the Savior. Let your memory treasure up everything about the Savior you’ve heard. or has been revealed to you. Your affections should hold him tight at all times. Let your intellect draw deductions and conclusions from God’s revelation concerning Christ. You know, when you read in the book of Revelation, you know, Christ has washed us from our sins in his own blood. You have to think about that. What does that mean to you? Later on, you know, Of course, you read about him as a lamb as he had been slain in chapter 5. And so we begin to say, well, he’s the sacrifice for our sins. Just as the atonement was made in the Old Testament with regard to sacrifice, he is the Lamb of God for us. And by his blood, we truly have our sins taken away. Before it was a picture of what Christ would do and the blood of bulls and goats can never really take away sin. But Christ’s blood. blood can. So those are the kinds of things when we come to a passage and God uses a particular phraseology and it we answer to what does he mean by this? How do we apply this situation? So you should carefully meditate upon the Word of God. And then you should joyfully praise God. Verse 20 tells us here the response of the shepherds. They return, glorify, and praising God for all the things they have heard. hurt and seeing. Well, they had to go back and take care of the sheep. That was their job. That was their duty. So they returned to work. But they go back as changed man. They’re glorifying and praising God. Yeah, you come to church on Sunday and then you got to go back. You got to go back to your regular routine of the week, but don’t leave everything here on Sunday. Take it with you. And praise the Lord. glorifying and praising God is not confined to Sabbath days and church services. You can praise God in anything you do. The task is really irrelevant if your heart is right. Whatever you’re doing, you can always be praising God. The way the shepherds honored God is worth noting. They praised Him. And we ought to think more of the sacred songs of Scripture in our day life. Psalm 92 says, I will be glad and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name. Psalm 105.2. Sing unto the Lord sing Psalms unto Him. Now singing is not necessarily to be confined then to our church service to the congregation meeting. I mean, there are times when we should be singing the Psalms on our own. I remind you that when Paul and Silas were thrown into the jail at Philippi, that they sang Psalms to the Lord. They didn’t have their Psalter with them. And they knew them by heart, which would be a blessing if we would be more knowledgeable of our own Psalms, that we’ve seen. We should cheer our labor with a song. Now sometimes we can’t sing it aloud, of course. Sometimes you might not be able to belt one out, you know, belt out a song while you’re doing something in public. But let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly is the idea, I think, of Scripture. And Paul and Silas certainly knew how to do that. And finally, they praised God for what. what they had heard. That’s a good reason to bless God for all that we hear taught us from the word of God. Doesn’t response of the shepherds here make us think at times of our own ingratitude. Are we this thankful when we hear God’s word? When we hear a message from God, we should praise God for what he has provided and revealing and is revealed to us in Christ. When we hear a message about Christ and about His work and his salvation, it ought to make us, praise the Lord. It ought to warm us spiritually. Haven’t you found the gospel to be according to all that was told unto you in Scripture? And didn’t Jesus say that he would give us grace and peace? Does he not give grace and peace when you come to him? Have you not had your sin burden lifted, as the Scripture say? Those who do not know the Lord can be assured that what they’ve heard from the Scripture about Christ is all true. go like the shepherds to Christ and see if it is not so with you. Don’t just sit there wondering at the amazing message, but go to the one who can save you from your sins. Well, some are so ignorant of Scripture as to think the epistles or the wives of the apostles. Well, God doesn’t want his people to be ignorant of this and to be in spiritual ignorance so he reveals his truth done to them. We see the example here of the shepherds. Let’s learn the lessons here that we can grasp here to promptly obey the Word of God, to enthusiastically proclaim God’s word and to profitably use God’s Word. Let us close with God.