The Lord’s Day
Morning
February 8, 2009
Luke 2:8-20
“Pondering These Things in Our Hearts”
Dr. J. Ligon
Duncan III
We’ll be looking at verses 8-20 today — a passage very
familiar to us, especially at Christmastime. It’s been a tradition for many
years at First Presbyterian Church during the family Christmas Eve Carol Service
for the whole of Luke 2:1-20 to be read in the beautiful old King James or
Authorized Version, and so there’s no telling how many times many of you have
heard this passage. One of the real delights in studying it outside the context
of Christmastime is that perhaps its overly familiar text can get through to us
in ways that it might not when our hearts are filled with the sentiment of the
season.
Now throughout this passage that we’re going to read
today (verses 8-20), the focus of Luke is going to be on Jesus and on the
gospel, but the way that he focuses us on Jesus and the gospel is not so much by
putting the spotlight directly on Jesus. You’ll notice that in this passage
Jesus is mentioned almost in passing. He’s the child in the manger, and there’s
almost no further reference to Jesus in the passage. But the passage is all
about Jesus and it’s all about the gospel, and the way Luke draws our attention
to Jesus and the gospel is to paint three different pictures for us.
First, in verse 8, he shows us a group of shepherds
in the hillside around Bethlehem, around Judea, and that’s the first scene that
he uses to draw our attention to Jesus and the gospel. Then from verse 9 all the
way down to verse 14, he shows us another scene. The scene starts with one angel
and then expands to a sky full of angels announcing the gospel, and through that
scene of the one angel and then the sky full of angels announcing the gospel he
draws our attention to Jesus Christ and to the gospel. And then in verses 19-20,
again the scene changes. Now it’s Mary in the solitude of her own thoughts, and
the shepherds leaving the manger scene and heading back to the fields of their
labor praising God. And so you have a woman pondering and shepherds praising.
Those three scenes — first the shepherds in the countryside, then the angels in
the sky praising God, then Mary pondering and the shepherds praising. And
through those scenes, Luke draws our attention to Jesus Christ and to the
gospel.
So let’s look to God in prayer as we prepare to hear
His word.
Heavenly Father, this is Your word. Because it is
Your word, because it is breathed out from Your very lips and heart, grant that
by Your Spirit we would not treat it as if it were simply the words of men but
indeed take it for what it is: the very words of God. We know as well that Your
word is powerful and effective and sharper than any two-edged sword, and that it
was given to instruct us and to correct us, and to rebuke us, and to train us up
in righteousness, and to show us the way of salvation which is by faith in Jesus
Christ. So grant that we would hear Your word and respond to it in faith. In
Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is the word of God:
“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to
them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with
fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for
you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And
suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God
and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest,
And on each peace among those
With whom He is pleased!’
“When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one
another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing has happened, which the
Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph,
and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying
that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at
what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering
them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for
all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
Amen. And thus ends this reading of God’s holy, inspired,
and inerrant word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.
Let me ask you a set of three questions. You
don’t have to answer out loud, don’t have to raise your hand…just answer them in
your heart and mind and thoughts. What do you think of yourself? How do
you see yourself? When you assess yourself, what is your assessment? We come
from a land where everybody is “good people.” We’re all good folk. Is that how
you think about yourself — ‘I’m a good person’?
I’m not just asking a self-image question, by the
way. I’m not asking about your self-perception. There may well be some of you
here who have a hard time having a positive assessment of yourself because of
experiences you’ve had in your life. I’m asking a little bit different question.
Because even if we have a bad self-perception, it’s interesting that we have
still a tendency to justify ourselves. We still want to look good in the eyes of
others. We are very quick to defend ourselves when we sense that we’re being
falsely accused. So let me ask the question this way: As you think about
yourself, do you see yourself as a sinner? Is that part of how you assess who
you are?
I have a friend who very often (it’s not just a show
and it’s not just an excuse…he really means it) — he says of himself often, “I
am the worst sinner I know.” He doesn’t use that to excuse his sin, but he does
that to sincerely describe a state of mind and heart; that is, he has reckoned
with his own sin and he knows himself intimately and personally to be a sinner,
and therefore stands in need of the grace of God and ought to be one who shows
mercy to others.
So, do you see yourself as a sinner? And do you
understand the implication of that? That’s my first question for you. How do you
think of yourself, and do you see yourself as a sinner?
Second set of questions: What do you think about
the gospel? What do you think about the gospel? Do you think about the
gospel? Are there times in the midst of talking about football and life, and
baseball and life, and basketball and life, and everything else and life, that
you think about the gospel? And when you do think about the gospel, what do
you think about? Are there aspects of the gospel that you find your heart
gripped by, and that you enjoy rehearsing to yourself? Or perhaps you enjoy
talking about them in conversation with your dearest Christian friends? What do
you think about the gospel?
Third set of questions, following on that second
one, what do you think about at all? What do you ponder? I love the question
that Derek often asks us: “What do you think about when you’re not thinking
about anything?” That’s a really good question! What do you think about when
you’re not thinking about anything…when you haven’t planned to think about
anything, when nothing is pressing upon you to think about at any given
particular time, in those sort of blank spaces that pop up once every seven and
a half months, what do you think about when those five seconds of quiet come?
What do you ponder? And while you’re thinking about what you ponder, ask
yourself this question: What is it that you get excited about? What do you
praise? What occupies your thoughts when you’re not thinking about other things,
and what deeply moves you in this life?
Well, I want to suggest to you that this passage has
a lot to say to us about each of those three groups of questions and issues. In
this passage, Luke is pointing us to Jesus the Messiah and to the gospel, but he
does it by showing us three scenes, and in those three scenes we’re confronted
with the content of those issues that I’ve already raised for you. So let’s walk
through the passage together and see how the first scene (in verse 8) speaks to
us as sinners; how the second scene (in verses 9-14) shows us the gospel and
five glorious aspects of the gospel that we ought to be pondering; and how the
third scene (verses 19-20) gives us a model for how we ought to be pondering and
praising God. So let’s look at each of these three things.
I. God is gracious to sinners.
First of all, in verse 8, we see something of how
gracious our God is to sinners. Now you may be looking at verse 8 right now,
and you may be saying to yourself, “Ah…Ligon…I’m missing this. I’m not sure how
verse 8 speaks to God being gracious to sinners.” Well, let’s look at verse 8:
“In the same region there were shepherds out in the field….”
Now that’s as far as you need to go, because you may
or may not know that shepherds were not held in the highest esteem in their
culture. Shepherds were not allowed to give testimony in courts of law in Israel
in this time because they were thought to be notorious liars. Shepherds were as
a class not trusted as particularly honest people with other people’s sheep.
Apparently shepherds had a reputation of having a difficulty in discerning the
difference between mine and thine, and they were apt to liberate yours and bring
it into theirs. I remember a professor of mine in college who talked about
Scottish shepherds on the north side of the border who would often look across
the border at those English sheep who had never had the privilege of grazing in
the lush pastures of Scotland. And they would often liberate those English
sheep, so that they might enjoy the experience of the Scottish countryside!
Well, apparently that is a time-honored problem amongst shepherds, and shepherds
in Palestine were known for swiping a sheep or two that didn’t belong to them.
Now let me hasten to say there is nothing in this
passage that indicates that these particular shepherds were anything other than
devout men. In fact, their response in this passage to the revelation that they
received from the angels is model. They do exactly what you would want any godly
person to do when the gospel is shared and when the glory of God’s good news is
announced, but they were from a class of people who were generally despised.
One of the reasons this class of people was generally
despised was that they weren’t very involved in the religious services of their
day. You see, shepherds because of their very profession came into contact with
unclean animals and with dead animals, and that often rendered them ceremonially
unclean and unable to participate in the services of the temple. Interestingly,
it’s very likely that this flock that was being shepherded by this group of
shepherds was designated for use in the temple sacrifices. If we are to believe
what the rabbis tell us from this time, flocks that were this close to Jerusalem
were all devoted for the sacrificial system, and yet these shepherds themselves,
though they were raising animals that were to be used in the sacrificial system,
because they were unclean because of coming into contact with unclean animals
and with dead animals, very probably infrequently would they ever be able to be
involved in a public service of worship.
If you could, imagine how good church-going folk in
Israel might have thought about folks who weren’t so faithful in going to
church. They were looked down upon, they were held in suspicion, and for these
other reasons they were not highly esteemed. And yet, where does the
announcement of the angel come? Not to the king; not to his court; not to the
temple priests (the Sanhedrin and the Sadducees); not to the Pharisees, the very
rigorous Bible-believing elders that led the local synagogue movement. To none
of them does this announcement come. It comes to shepherds. And in that very
announcement of the angels coming to those who are not highly esteemed by their
contemporaries and those who are frankly considered amongst the sinners…to them
the announcement comes. And I believe that in that very fact, by considering the
people to whom this joyous announcement is first made, we learn something about
our gracious God. And it’s something that will be played out in the rest of the
gospel.
Do you remember? Three times in the Gospels — in
Matthew, Mark, and Luke (one time in Matthew 9:13, repeated in Mark and Luke),
Jesus says, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” In other words
Jesus is saying, ‘I didn’t come for people who think that they’re already
righteous. I came for people who are sinners.’ Now Jesus was not suggesting that
there is really a class of people who are not sinners. He’s just suggesting that
there’s a class of people who think that they’re not sinners. There is a class
of people who think that they don’t need the grace of God, and sadly, in
Israel’s time and our own, some of those people are people who are very
religious. And Jesus is saying, ‘I’ve come for sinners, like those shepherds
that so many of you despise and look down on. Those are the kinds of people that
I announce the good news to.’
And I want you to pause and think about this for a
second, friends, because it’s hugely important. Entitlement…entitlement…a
sense of our entitlement kills gratitude. If we think we are owed the
grace of God, if we think we deserve the mercy of God, then we will never ever
be grateful for it and we’ll never be ready to receive it. It’s only someone who
knows that she needs grace who is in a position to appreciate grace offered.
It’s only when a person knows that he needs the mercy of God that the mercy of
God is sweet. And that is so important for us to realize. If our understanding
of ourselves is that we’re pretty good people and that ‘Of course God will cut
us some slack; that’s His job, after all; He’s here to forgive us’…then we will
never ever adequately understand grace, and we may not understand the gospel at
all.
You know the new members before you today just
rehearsed those words that we are “sinners in the sight of God, justly deserving
His displeasure.” I want to remind you, friends, that that means that you can’t
be a member of First Presbyterian Church if you’re a good person. We don’t allow
good people to be members of First Presbyterian Church. The only people who can
be members of First Presbyterian Church are sinners–and sinners that not only
admit that they’re sinners, but sinners who say, ‘I justly deserve God’s
displeasure.’
You know there are lot of people in the world today
who think that God’s reputation is on the line if He is not gracious to them.
You know…‘If God’s not compassionate and gracious and forgiving towards me
that will ruin His reputation, because after all He owes me mercy and grace. And
if He doesn’t show me mercy and grace, well, then His mercy and grace may be
called into question.’ Well, the very first thing we say as members of this
church is that we deserve God’s just displeasure. We don’t deserve His mercy and
His grace. We do deserve His just displeasure. And so when He shows us His mercy
and grace, it’s the most surprising and overjoying thing in this world.
Until you realize that you’re a sinner, you’re not
ready to respond to the glorious, unexpected, lavish grace of God held out in
the gospel, and we learn that from the very announcement of the angels to these
shepherds who were looked down upon as sinners by their contemporaries. God came
to them in the angels with the gospel. God sent His Son to go to just those
kinds of people. If you look at the context of Jesus’ saying in Matthew 9:13,
it’s in the context of people who were very religious, saying, ‘Jesus, why are
You eating with those sinners?’ And Jesus’ response is, ‘Well, as a matter of
fact, I came for sinners. I came for people who know that they need forgiveness
of sins. I did not come for people who are self-justifying… self-righteous, not
needy.’
And my friends, I want to ask you this: Does that
reality that you’re a sinner, that you stand in need of grace, does that have a
radical impact on everything in your life? The way you look at God, the way you
look at yourself, the way you look at others? The way you treat others? Our God
is a gracious God and He reaches out to sinners, and we see it in verse 8.
II. Angels, who need no
forgiveness, love the gospel.
There’s a second thing I want you to see in this
passage. In verses 9-14, it becomes very apparent to us that the angels love the
gospel. Now, they’re not announcing every aspect of the gospel. You don’t get to
the truths of the gospel that the Apostle Paul encapsulates in
I Corinthians 15:1-4, but they do announce five really
important aspects of the gospel in their song. Listen to their language and look
at what they say.
First of all, look at verse 11. There they say,
“Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.” Now already they’re
talking about what? Jesus’ fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. What’s the city of
David? Bethlehem. Where in the Old Testament is it said that Messiah will be
born in Bethlehem? Micah. Micah tells us that the Messiah will be born in
Bethlehem, and so the angels are excited about the fact that in Jesus the Old
Testament prophecies of the Messiah are being fulfilled. It’s very interesting
that in it the preaching of the gospel in the book of Acts, it almost always
starts right there, with Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies about the
Messiah. And they’re excited about that! They’re singing about it!
Then, look again at verse 11. Who is this who has
been born? “The Savior, who is Christ.” Now, Christ is not just a last
name for Jesus…Jesus His first name, Christ the last name. It’s a
very important title. It means Messiah. What they’re saying is that the
Messiah, Jesus, has been born, and He is our Savior. He is the anointed one, the
Messiah that God had prophesied in the days of the Old Testament. And so the
gospel is announced that Jesus is not only fulfilling Old Testament prophecies,
but He is the Savior Messiah. And the angels are excited about this!
And then if you look again at verse 11, it doesn’t
stop there. “…a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Now again, that is not a
description that Jesus simply is our Master, though that is true. The word
Lord in the Old Testament very often is the name of God. Do you remember
when Moses encounters God at the burning bush and God is telling Moses that he
is to go to the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘God has sent me to deliver
you out of the hand of Pharaoh’? Do you remember that one of the excuses that
Moses gives is, ‘Lord, who am I going to say is sending me? What’s Your name? I
don’t know Your name.’ And God says, ‘You tell them that I Am that I Am
sent you. Tell them that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sent you, and His
name is I Am that I Am’…the short version of which is Lord. And so
when the angels announce that the Savior who is Messiah the Lord is born, they
are announcing the divinity of Jesus Christ is at the very heart of the gospel.
And then again, if you look at verse 12, they speak
of the condescension of Christ in the humiliation of the incarnation. Christ the
Lord, the Savior is born, but at the end of verse 12 where is He placed? In a
manger. Now how’s that for a juxtaposition? A Savior who is Messiah the Lord,
God in the flesh, is born; and He’s born in a manger. So they announce the
humiliation of Christ as part of the gospel, and they announce that Jesus has
come in order that we might enjoy the peace of God, the total favor and
well-being that only God can bestow.
Look at verse 14. What do they sing? “Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth peace on those on whom His favor rests.” So they
announce the peace of God, and it’s really striking, isn’t it, what happens
here? Who is it that announces peace? Look back in verse 13: “Suddenly there was
with [this one angel] a multitude of the heavenly hosts.” Now, you know
that in the Old Testament, heavenly hosts can refer to the stars — the
hosts of heaven, because there are a lot of them up there. But that can also
refer to whom? To the legions, the armies of God’s angels. That’s what it’s
referring to here. Suddenly with that one angel was a heavenly army.
Now you need to understand, my friends, that this
army of angels is far more powerful than a billion atom bombs. This army of
angels could have incinerated every human being on earth, should God have
appointed it to. This army of angels is far more powerful than anything that you
can possibly conceive, and this army of angels is here to announce what? Peace.
Normally we don’t send the army to announce peace! Normally we send the army to
kill people and break things. This army comes to announce peace. And I think in
the very announcement of peace by this army, we’re reminded that one day that
army will come again with Jesus and then it will be too late for sinners.
Now…now is the time to stretch out the hand and to receive a free, gracious,
peace offered. Then it will be too late.
But these angels, you understand, they’re excited
about the gospel! [Now you say, “Ligon, it’s their job! It’s their job to make
this announcement! It’s their job to sing praises to God!”] Understand, friends,
the angels never go through the motions. You and I may go through the motions,
okay? There may be days when we’re here singing, “Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound…” and our minds are a million miles away and we’re mad at one another, and
we’re going through the motions. The angels never do that. When the angels say,
“Glory to God in the highest,” they mean it and they are genuinely excited about
the gospel! And I want to tell you this, my friends: these angels ought not be
more excited about the gospel than you and me. Because these angels didn’t
need to be forgiven. They were without sin. These angels didn’t need Jesus
to die for them. They were without sin. These angels had never rebelled against
God. You and I have. We ought never let the angels outpraise [us] for the
gospel. These angels are excited about the gospel;
we ought to be more excited about the gospel.
What do you think about the gospel? Are you excited
about the gospel? Does your praise of God for His grace in the gospel rival the
praise of the angels? We have every reason to praise God more for the gospel
than the angels, because we are the beneficiaries of the gospel. And it ought
always be in our hearts — the gospel. We ought to be thinking about it. We ought
to be thinking about those five things, or one of those five things, or some
aspect of the gospel today. It ought to be a part of our life to ponder the
gospel.
III. The Good News of the
Gospel should cause us to ponder and praise.
One more thing. Look at verses 19-20. The good
news shared with Mary and with the shepherds sets Mary a’pondering, and the
shepherds a’praising. The good news shared with Mary through the shepherds, and
to the shepherds from the angels, sets Mary a’pondering and the shepherds
a’praising:
“Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen,
as it had been told them.”
My friends, the response of Mary and the shepherds,
different though they are…the response of Mary and the shepherds is a model of
believing response to revelation: pondering the good news, and praising God for
the good news.
Now for the men who were at the Men of the Covenant
meeting this week, one of the things that Dr. Elkin challenged us to do was to
memorize and meditate upon and reflect on the word of God. That’s exactly what
Mary’s doing here. She’s pondering the good news. She’s meditating on it. And I
want to tell you, if you’re meditating on the gospel there is no way that you
can feel entitled. And if you’re pondering and praising God for the gospel,
there is no way that you can do that from an ungrateful, dimly understanding
heart. Mary no doubt was overwhelmed by all the things that she saw and was at
the epicenter of, and she expresses her wonder in one way, and the shepherds
express their praise and wonder in another way. But they are an example for us.
John Owen, a long time ago, said,
“In the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows
where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim.”
Now, he means by that that there are some parts of
the Bible that the youngest Christian can understand, and some parts of the
Bible that the most mature, most knowing, most studied Christian cannot plumb
the depths of. But you know sometimes those points are actually the same points
in Scripture. The gospel is one of those points that the youngest Christian may
wade in the glory of the gospel, and the most mature Christian may swim in the
depths of the gospel and never ever touch the bottom of it. And I love that. I
love…there is nothing more encouraging to us than the joy of a young Christian
who has just seen his sins, and just seen the Savior, and just trusted in
Christ. The excitement, the exuberance, the relief, the joy — it’s encouraging.
It keeps my old tired heart trusting and young, at least in some spots, to see
young believers. I don’t care whether their description of what has happened to
them is particularly theologically astute. I just love the joy of seeing a
sinner forgiven, and who knows the grace of God in the gospel.
And at the same time, it is a joy to see older saints
who have been through many dangers, toils, and snares, who are still trusting in
the Savior; through sunshine and shadow, they’re still trusting in the Lord.
Those things encourage us, and in the gospel both young Christians and mature
Christians have matter for pondering and for praise. And so Mary and the
shepherds are an example to us. The good news ought to set us pondering and
praising. There ought to be nothing that we’d rather think about than God and
the gospel. It ought to be a part of our conversation with our dearest and best
friends. We ought to be able to talk about all sorts of things common to this
life and enjoy them to the fullest, but at least some part of our conversation
ought to be focused on the gospel.
Now back to that question again. When you’re not
thinking about anything else, what do you think about? Is the gospel ever there?
Ever a part of the deepest thoughts and desires of your heart? It was for Mary.
It was for the shepherds. Luke gives us much to think about in this passage, my
friends. We ought to be a gospel-saturated people, a people who realize that
we’re sinners and we didn’t deserve God to reach out to us in grace. But He did
anyway. And we ought not to be [hum…] bored by that. We ought to be
overjoyed by that. We ought to be surprised by that. And God in the gospel has
given us something that angels love to sing about. We ought to love to sing
about it more. And God in the gospel has given us something to ponder and to
praise, and we ought to ponder, and we ought to praise God for it.
So let’s go to the Lord in prayer and start doing
just that.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the gospel of Your
dear Son. Grant that we would know that we need it, and grant that we would
understand it. Grant that we would believe it. Grant that we would ponder it for
the rest of our lives and praise You for it, with both our lips and our lives.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.