Word of Salvation – December 2025

THE SHEPHERDS AND THE ANGELS

Sermon by Rev. Dr Steve Voorwinde

(Christmas Message)

Scripture: Luke 2:8-20

Introduction

I wonder how many of you have heard the saying, “Australia rides on a sheep’s back.” I heard it often growing up as a kid in the 1950s. It meant that Australia’s economy and prosperity depended heavily on sheep – their wool and their meat. And there were the figures to prove it. At school the teachers would remind us that Australia had the largest sheep population in the world – about 150 million. Today that figure is down to 75 million, but we still have the second largest flock in the world.

With that many sheep around the country, you would think we have lots of shepherds. But we don’t. I’m not sure we even have any shepherds in Australia. Perhaps drovers or jackeroos come the closest. So, when we think of shepherds, we picture them as rugged outdoorsmen, hardworking kind of blokes. They may still have some rough edges, but they will always do an honest day’s work.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, that’s not at all the way people thought about shepherds. In the ancient world, shepherds had a bad reputation. When his brothers came to settle in Egypt, Joseph reminded them that “every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians” (Gen 46:34, NASB). In Jesus’ day shepherds roamed the countryside with their flocks, often stealing and pilfering as they went. They were so unreliable, they were not allowed to give testimony in court. One ancient writer claimed that they were brawlers, agitators, and rabble rousers (Malina and Neyrey, 118). They were the low life of society, an underclass that no one could trust.

I’m not sure that we have an equivalent group in our society today. Maybe used car salesmen might come the closest, but even they can be witnesses in court. Shepherds were routinely looked down on because of their occupation. But just as there are honest used car salesmen, there were no doubt also honest shepherds in the time of Jesus. The ones we have just read about in Luke’s Gospel may have been among them, but Luke never says so. When we first meet them near Bethlehem, they are just going about their business. It says, “there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night” (v. 8). They were ordinary men doing an ordinary job, but most other people looked down on them.

a) But then something extraordinary happened: “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified” (v. 9).

 1) Did you hear that right? The glory of the Lord shone around This was the glory of the Lord that had appeared on Mount Sinai for seven days when Moses received the ten commandments. To the children of Israel, it looked like a consuming fire on the mountain top (Exod 24:16, 17). This was the same glory of the Lord that filled the tabernacle in the wilderness (Exod 40:34) and later the temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chron 5:14; 7:1-3).

2) But this is the earliest mention of the glory of the Lord in the New Testament. And it didn’t come to the king or to the high priest, or to the Pharisees or the Sadducees; the glory of God came to a gathering of used car salesmen, it came to a group of working-class shepherds that everyone else despised. They were the first to see the glory of the Lord in the New Testament!

3) As a young friend of mine would say, “That is so God!” From a human point of view, those shepherds were the most unlikely candidates to see the glory of God. In Luke’s Gospel they were also the first visitors to see the infant Jesus. It’s much the same in Matthew. The first to visit him there were not even Jews but Gentiles. We now call them “the wise men.” But, as we read earlier, they were called ‘Magi’, astrologers from the East, all the way from Persia or Babylonia. God is the master of the unexpected. He seems to choose the most unlikely people to be part of his kingdom.

4) And because God reveals himself to Gentile astrologers and to low-life shepherds, there is hope for the likes of you and me. Sadly, we are not the most highly regarded members of our society. If I wanted respect as an older person, I would have retired in Asia. In a Western country like Australia, people are expected to be productive and to contribute to society. But what about those who don’t or who can’t? What about the elderly and the disabled? After a lifetime of hard work, have we suddenly become a burden to society? As older Australians, have we become invisible? When do the media ever come to interview us? Who wants our opinion? Who ever comes to us for advice? We have years and years of life experience, but how many even take us seriously? I hate to break it to you, but we are not the most popular and sought after people in Australia today!

5) But we matter to God. He does seek after us. He does take us seriously. Just as he revealed himself to the shepherds and the Magi, he is now revealing himself to us. And he is revealing himself to us in essentially the same way. It may not be by his terrifying and dazzling brightness or even by a guiding star, but he is revealing himself through Jesus. Do you want to see the glory of God? Then look at Jesus. As one of the apostles said, “He became flesh and we beheld his glory, the glory of the One and only from the Father, full of grace and truth”(John 1:14). And we know even more about Jesus now than the shepherds and the Magi did then. We know him as our crucified and risen Saviour and Lord, and we praise him for it. Now we know what God is like, because in the Gospels we have seen Jesus.

6) The shepherds may have been very privileged to be the first to see the glory of the Lord in the New Testament. But at first it left them terrified. It literally says that “they feared a great fear.” They were overwhelmed by the dazzling splendour of the glory of God. They were like a deer caught in the high beam headlights of a semi-trailer. They were stunned and shaken, as any other human being would be (see Luke 1:13, 29-30).

b) But now the angel speaks to reassure the terrified shepherds: “Don’t be afraid! For, behold, I am bringing you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people” (v. 10).

1) ‘Angel’ means ‘messenger.’ Angels could therefore be messengers of good news or bad news. In the past, angels had sometimes come to people with threats or warnings. But this angel wants to reassure the shepherds that he has come with the best possible news. He has not come with the kind of news that inspires great fear. He has come with the good news of great joy, and this joy will not just be for the shepherds, but for all the people. Initially that meant the Jewish people, as they had been given the promise of the Messiah. But once he had come, it would be a message for the whole world. It would be a message for us. And what was that message of great joy? The angel tells us in the very next verse:

2) “For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Saviour who is Christ, the Lord” (v. 11). This was the best possible news. Why? Because this was the birth of the One the prophets had foretold hundreds of years before. Remember when King Herod asked the chief priests and the teachers of the law where the Christ was to be born? They answered his question in a flash, “In Bethlehem of Judea” (Matt 2:5). And then they quoted the prophet Micah, who had predicted this more than 700 years before! (Micah 5:2). This is exciting! Prophecies are being fulfilled! The long-awaited Messiah has been born in Bethlehem!

3) But there’s more. In the angel’s answer, there are two little words that we easily overlook: “For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.” This message, this good news of great joy, is personal. It is for the shepherds personally. This infant who has just been born in Bethlehem is their Saviour, their Christ (or their Messiah), and their Lord. What he would do in his life was for them personally. The joyful message of Christmas is a personal message. And it is also a personal message for us. And so, each of us needs to ask ourselves a very serious question: “Is Jesus also my Saviour, my Messiah, and my Lord?” Because only if he is, will the Christmas message be “a message of great joy” for you.

4) Then the angel continues by encouraging the shepherds to go and see for themselves, and again he makes it personal: “And this will be the sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). Can you picture it? Here is God’s promised Messiah, Saviour, and Lord wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough! Here’s another God moment in these verses. Only God would think of doing things like this! We would think that someone of this stature – a Messiah, a Saviour, and a Lord (which were all titles of kingship) – would arrive in royal pomp and ceremony. He would be born in a palace; he would have servants; he would live in luxury. In recent weeks on TV, we have seen some of the regal estates where the royals spend a lot of their time. The former prince Andrew lived in a stately country mansion surrounded by manicured lawns and delightful gardens. Jesus started his life wrapped in pieces of cloth and his bed was an animals’ feeding trough. No luxury there!

 c) Before the shepherds could ask any questions or even say a word, “Suddenly there were with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and singing” (v. 13).

1) If the one angel hadn’t spoken to them first, this would have been even more terrifying to the shepherds. As the first angel was still speaking, he was surrounded by “a multitude of the heavenly host.” Think about that for a moment. These angels were a multitude. They came as a large crowd, like you might see at the MCG at the Boxing Day cricket or at an AFL grand final. This was huge!

2) But this was not a crowd from the general public, it was “a multitude of the of the heavenly host.” A host is an army. This huge crowd of angels belonged to the heavenly army. That’s why God is often called the Lord of hosts or the Lord of armies. These angels were in the Lord’s army. Jesus has just been called ‘Lord’ by the angel. This “multitude of the heavenly host” has come to celebrate the arrival of their commander-in-chief, who has just been born in Bethlehem. They are an army. But they have come not to fight, but to sing. And in their song, they announce peace. It’s a song that has resounded down the ages:

3) “Glory to God in the highest

And on earth peace to those

On whom his favour rests” (v. 14).

Often, we get Christmas cards with the message, “peace on earth.” But how can that be true, even on Christmas Day, when wars keep raging around the world? Has there ever been a Christmas when there hasn’t been a war somewhere? Despite the best efforts of world leaders, the devastation of war can still be seen in places like Ukraine, Gaza, the Congo, and in various other hotspots around the globe. Has peace on earth become but a dream or a forlorn hope? Is peace on earth a promise that even God can’t keep? These are very real questions that people have these days. So, what is the answer?

4) When we look at a phrase like “peace on earth,” we can’t just look at it in isolation. It comes in a context. We need to see what comes before it and what comes after it. Before it are the words, “Glory to God in the highest,” and after it we have the words, “to those on whom his favour rests.” To understand what “peace on earth” means we have to understand the whole of the angels’ song.

5) The angels begin by singing, “Glory to God in the highest.” Some of you may have learned the Latin version, “Gloria in excelsis Deo,” which is just beautiful. These are wonderful words to sing, but they are also a condition for peace on earth. As one Bible scholar has wisely said, “Giving glory to God is a necessary preliminary to peace on earth.” Peace comes when we praise, honour, and give credit to God in heaven for all that he is and does.

6) And then there are the words that follow “peace on earth”: “to those on whom his favour rests.” This suggests that peace on earth is not for everyone, but it is only for those on whom God’s favour rests, or, as some other translations have it, “peace to those with whom he is well pleased.”

7) This puts the angels’ song in a whole new light. They are not singing about universal peace, but about peace for a certain kind of people: Those on whom God’s favour rests and with whom he is well pleased. They are also the ones who praise God and give him the glory. They are the people on earth who are promised peace – peace with God, peace with one another, and peace in their hearts.

Conclusion

After the angels returned to heaven, the shepherds hurried off to Bethlehem. There they found everything just as the angel had told them. There, wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough, they saw none other than their Saviour, their Messiah, and their Lord. On the way back from Bethlehem, the shepherds became like the angelic host, because they were “glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen” (v. 20). Their great fear had been replaced by great joy. By giving God glory and praise, the shepherds showed they were the kind of people with whom God is well pleased and on whom his favour rests.

Are you also that kind of person? Then may God’s peace be with you – today, on Christmas Day, throughout the New Year, and indeed into eternity!