“The Case for Christ - God’s Witness by the Angels” 
                    (part 12)

Luke 2:8-14: ‘And there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them: ‘Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes 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 earth peace, good will toward men’.’ 

This passage concerning the birth of Christ has become so commonplace that we can almost recite it from memory.

Sometimes, it almost is regarded as a fairy tale, nice to recite once a year when we are carried away with a sort of sentimental, magical moment that men make of it most of the time!

Yet, how much of it have we really absorbed into our innermost beings where, each time we hear it or read it, our very insides are resounding with wonder and reverence at its awesome mystery and meaning?

To most people, the event of a child born under such circumstances of hardship is not at all unusual.

We look at our world today, in some parts and in various cultures, it is not uncommon to know of such difficult happenings.

Nor is it uncommon in our society today to hear of infants being born in equally hard situations, even to being trashed at birth for some horrible, unthinkable reason.

So - if we do not look closely at Jesus’ birth here in 
Luke 2:1-7, we would reckon it as nothing so unusual: it has happened before and it will happen again, we may think.

It seemed so mundane, so ordinary to the general public yet, all the while, Mary was taking the stress of the humiliation and pain of it.

More than likely, Mary was shunned and despised by her countrymen as they traveled together to Bethlehem. 

I would not even be surprised if many thought: ‘Good - there is no room in the inn for her tonight - she deserves to sleep in the barn!’

So - I can imagine her giving birth that night was not with the comfort of family and friends about her - it was just ‘another’ baby to most!

But - let us quickly add the verses of 8-20 to that birth and it immediately becomes very uncommon - very extraordinary - we can even say - transcendent!

Mary is relegated to the background and the One Who has been born is heralded - and it is done in a glorious, spectacular way!

I ask you very seriously - how many birth announcements by a host of angels have we ever seen and known?

Someone described this particular one as the ‘most spectacular sound-and-light show’ in all human history - and so it was!

That is what immediately makes us take note: there is something unusual, something quite heavenly, something quite abnormal, something altogether distinct and unconventional about this birth - is that not the sense we Christians get in reading about this account when this season rolls around each year?

Yes - it is true - the night Jesus arrived on this earthly scene was not observable by most - not even welcomed by many.

He entered history not ‘with observation’ - very few knew of His arrival - only a small group of lowly shepherds were privileged to hear about it at this point in God’s salvation history.

But - what a scene we have before us!

An angel had come straight from the throne of heaven - and gave them the news of the greatest event in history: ‘...I bring you good tidings of great joy...for unto you is born...a Savior, which is Christ the Lord...’. (Luke 2:10-11)

Then the angel was joined by a ‘multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men’.’

One angel joined by a host, an ‘army’ - as the word means - an army of angels surrounded by the shining glory of God 
was there among the shepherds.

What would be the reason for such a remarkable birth announcement? Have you ever wondered about that?

Before we come to the final answer to that question, we will need to refer to a number of Scriptural passages that we can look at together first. 

I hope you will be patient and follow me very carefully, if you will, please.

Let us first turn to the book of Acts, to Peter’s great sermon on the day of Pentecost.

Peter, of course, knew the Lord well - he had learned first hand from Jesus and, now, after Christ’s ascension, Peter went on to confidently testify of Him. (Acts 10:39-43) 

Listen to what he witnessed about Him in Acts 2:36, after he reminded the authorities of their murderous deed of this man, Jesus: ‘Therefore, let the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.’

Then, in chapter three, after he and John were empowered to bestow healing on a lame man, Peter explained to the crowd that had gathered around how this miracle happened. 

It was through Jesus: ‘The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son, Jesus;....’ he told them. (v 13)

And, then, he continued on - in v 14 - referring to Jesus as the ‘...Holy One and the Just’ and, continuing on in v 15 as ‘...the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.’

Now go to the end of chapter four and, again, look at the church’s prayer after Peter and John reported to them about their treatment from the authorities when they witnessed of Christ to them.

This is in verses 27-30 - Acts 4:27-30: the Church is praying here, saying: ‘For of a truth against thy holy Child, Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,...’, and now, skip to the end of the verse, ‘...that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy Child, Jesus.’

What Peter, John, and the early Church have declared concerning Christ was shortly after Christ’s death, His  resurrection, and His ascension.  

This was their testimony to the fact of Christ being God’s Son: that this ‘holy Child’ born on this night as shown in Luke 2 is the same One about Whom they witnessed.

Now - let me take you over to 1 John 5:9.

Before we read this verse, let me just give you a little briefing about John’s epistle that will, hopefully, further help us see the significance of what is taking place in this announcement of Christ’s birth by the angels.

This letter was written probably close to the end of the first century when the Church-at-large had already started to be formed - this was much later in time.

One of the problems John was addressing was the matter of attitude toward Christ’s Incarnation that was troubling the Church.

In chapter four, he tried to differentiate between what was true concerning Christ and the false ideas about Him that the Church faced.

And he is doing this on the basis of the fact that he was a witness of Christ.

He started out in the very first verse of the first chapter with that credential: he is about to explain what he and the other disciples had heard, what they had seen, what they have touched with their own hands concerning Christ.

In chapter 4, he is answering the question that may have been asked: ‘how do you know what is of the Spirit of God?’ (v 2)

And he went on to answer that question by starting with: 
‘...every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.’

‘Every spirit which confesses Jesus as the Christ Incarnate comes from God.’

And then he went on to the other side of the coin: ‘And every spirit that does not thus acknowledge Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God...’.

And, now, there is a further explanation of the spirit that does not acknowledge Christ as God’s Son: ‘...and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.’

The spirit that does not acknowledge Christ as God’s Son is called the ‘spirit of antichrist’.

John went on in several verses of that chapter four, witnessing of Christ as the Son of God - let me just point out a few more.

He said the witness God manifested on the night of Christ’s birth ‘...was the love of God manifested toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world,...to be the propitiation (or, the means of reconciliation) for our sins...’. (1 Jn 4:9-10)

And, in verse 14, ‘...and we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world...’.

‘Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God...and who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.’ (1 Jn 5:1,5)

The first fact that we see, then, - as we look at Peter’s witness, as we look at John’s witness, and the witness of the early church - is that in this new dispensation, in the dispensation in which you and I now live, we have reliable eye witnesses - two or more of them.

They testified to this truth of God’s Son - the same Holy Child born on the night spoken of in Luke.

Now, let us go back to Luke 1:13-17 where the angel, Gabriel, sent by God, told Zacharias about John, his son, who would be born through a normal conception, even though both he and his wife were elderly.

John was to become God’s special witness of this ‘Holy Thing’ to be born through Mary, Elizabeth’s cousin: ‘...he will go before Him [Christ] ...to make ready a people prepared for the Lord’. 

Skip over to verses 26-37: again, the angel, Gabriel, sent by God, gave Mary the news of how God’s Son was going to be brought to earth.

In verses 31-33, he told Mary that this Child would be the Son of the Highest by an overshadowing of the Holy Spirit: ‘the Lord God would give Him David’s throne and He would reign in an eternal kingdom.’

And - now - we come back again to Luke 2:10-14, where the angel appeared once again - we do not know if this was Gabriel as in the other two cases - the record just says: ‘the angel’.

Here the angel came and announced: ‘...I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,..’. 

This news is not just to you, shepherds, it is going to go to everyone - to all people - it is going to come up again, and again, and again - every season of every year: albeit, not always in its purest sense, nor for its purest reason - but it will be to ‘all people’.

I am just amplifying this with my own personal observations, but it goes on: ‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord...’.

So, we see that Elizabeth and Zacharias, Mary and, - let us not forget Joseph, - and the shepherds - all who were of the old dispensation - were also eye witnesses of this great event.

And, now, to answer the ‘why’ of this spectacular birth announcement by the angels, please notice that Gabriel, the angel, was sent to Zacharias, Gabriel, the angel, was sent to Mary, and the angel was sent to the shepherds, along with a host of angels who glorified God by saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, to men of God’s good will.’

What were these angels doing?

Now - hold your breath as we go back to - 1 Jn 5:9 - 
1 Jn 5:9: ‘If we receive the witness of men (those from both the old dispensation and the new dispensation), the witness of God (the divinely-sent angels coming right out of heaven) - the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God, which He testified of His Son.’

The witness of God is greater - the witness which He testified of His Son!

The good news of great joy was coming directly through the mouth of the angels - God’s voice was being heard.

His heavenly emissaries were confirming what the angel, Gabriel, told Mary months earlier.

This was God’s Child, this ‘Holy thing’, this ‘holy Child! 

This was His Son, this Savior, this Jesus Who was later crucified, this Jesus through Whom signs and wonders were done, this Jesus Who is Lord and Christ!

This is He!

Jesus Himself confirmed God’s witness when He said, in 
Jn 5:37: ‘And the Father Himself, which hath sent Me, hath borne witness of Me...’.

This was God’s full and complete confirmation of what He has told Zacharias and Mary through His own mouth via His angelic ambassadors! 

Why is God’s witness of Christ so vital?

The reason is simply this: if it were just men’s witness, we would have reason to doubt and question and to even reject it altogether.

But it is God’s confirmation through His angels witnesses to the truth of Christ, and it is His witness that demands man’s attention to it.

Without it, we would be like ships without a sail!
     
Thus - God Himself gave three witnesses of His creative act in the Incarnation of His Son! 
       
This is in line with His own edict of ‘...a thing shall be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.’!

You will find that in several Scriptural passages: Deut 17:6, Mt 18:16, and 2 Cor 13:1. 

Yes - this was a dramatic, moving occasion: God Himself was confirming His own Word through the angelic host so that we - all people - ‘...may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ.’

This is the true God and eternal life.’ Amen!

I think there is more yet to say concerning this passage and, Lord willing, I should like to continue this the next time we meet as we go on in the study of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

But - in the meantime, as we hear this passage being read in the coming days, I trust it will no longer be considered as just a momentary review of an old story, a story that seems to have become an ‘enchanting, charming tale’ for us.

I trust that it will ring with true and great significance in our hearts to the point that all of the earthly re-creations of it will seem to be hollow in comparison to its remarkable revelation. 

Let me read it again: ‘If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God, which He testified of His Son.’ (1 Jn 5:9)

Amen! 

Let us pray together. [PRAY]

To God be the glory - great things He has done,
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, 
And opened the Life gate that all may go in.

Chorus:

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, 
Let the people rejoice.
O come to the Father through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He hath done.

[Repeat Chorus]

Now - Go forth, this week, with His joy and with His peace. 

So be it!