Sermon Bible Commentary
Luke 2:14
We have on the Feast of the Nativity these two lessons: instead of anxiety within, and despondence without instead of a weary search after great things to be cheerful and joyful; and again, to be so in the midst of those obscure and ordinary circumstances of life which the world passes over and thinks scorn of.
I. Why should the heavenly hosts appear to the shepherds? What was in them which attracted the attention of the angels, and the Lord of angels? Were these shepherds learned, distinguished, or powerful? Were they especially known for piety and gifts? Nothing is said to make us think so. Why then were they chosen? for their poverty's sake and obscurity. Almighty God looks with a sort of especial love upon the lowly. Perhaps it is that man a fallen, dependent, and destitute creature is more in his proper place when he is in lowly circumstances; and that power and riches, though unavoidable in the case of some, are unnatural appendages to man as such. The angel appeared to the shepherds as if to show that God had chosen the poor in this world to be the heirs of His kingdom, and so to do honour to their lot.
II. The angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to the shepherds; next he taught it to be joyful by his message. He disclosed good tidings so much above this world as to equalise high and low, rich and poor, one with another. Surely the lesson of joy which the Incarnation gives us is as impressive as the lesson of humility. Let us seek the grace of a cheerful heart, an even temper, sweetness, gentleness, and brightness of mind, as walking in His light, and by His grace. Let us pray Him to give us the spirit of ever-abundant, ever-springing love which overpowers and sweeps away the vexations of life by its own richness and strength, and which above all things unites us to Him who is the Fountain and Centre of all mercy, lovingkindness, and joy.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons,vol. vi., p. 244.
We learn from the text
I. That the Gospel is not originated by man, but is brought to him.
II. That in revealing the Gospel the ministry of angels is only temporary.
III. That the Gospel is inseparably identified with the highest joy.
Parker, City Temple,vol. i., p. 307.
Religious Joy.
We have on the Feast of the Nativity these two lessons: instead of anxiety within and despondence without instead of a weary search after great things, to be cheerful and joyful; and again, to be so in the midst of those obscure and ordinary circumstances of life which this world passes over and thinks scorn of.
I. First, what do we read just before the text? that there were certain shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, and angels appeared to them. Why should the heavenly hosts appear to these shepherds? Were they learned, distinguished, or powerful? Nothing is said to make us think so. They were chosen for their poverty's sake, and obscurity. Almighty God looks with a sort of especial love upon the lowly.
II. The angel honoured a humble lot by his very appearing to the shepherds; next he taught it to be joyful by his message.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. v., p. 326.
I. There is no news equal to the news of Christmas. To those who receive it, who feed on it in their hearts, it is like news of a great victory. It tells of an enemy defeated and a cruel, malicious enemy, an enemy who is alike the foe of God and man, and that is the devil. Satan's power was shaken to its centre on the day that the angels sang their hymn of joy in the fields about Bethlehem. Today, instead of the "gods many and lords many," we are presented with a truer and nobler Object of our homage. We have shown to us One who is the brightness of His Father's glory, and the express image of His Person.
II. What is it that distinguishes the glad tidings of Christmas from the tidings of Easter, or of Ascension, or of Whit-Sunday? It is this, that the Son of God has come into the world, and come as a Son of Man, and come not for a day, or for a year, but to be ever with us unto the end of time: Emmanuel, God with us. Christmas speaks to us of One who is Partner with us in all our sorrows, all our joy, all the changes and chances of our mortal life. Are there any here who mourn? Christ mourns with them. Is anyone here perplexed and troubled, from whatever cause? There is One come who is able to unravel for us our difficulties, and to make our way plain before our face. Let us seek the Lord, and pray Him to come into our hearts, and fill us with peace and joy, and gentleness, and goodness, and to make our hearts a copy of His own.
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons,4th series, p. 98.
References: Luke 2:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxii., No. 1330; vol. xii., No. 727; Preacher's Monthly,vol. ii., p. 435; Homilist,3rd series, vol. vi., p. 49. Luke 2:10; Luke 2:12. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 1026; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. i., p. 104.Luke 2:10. Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 321.Luke 2:11. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 556; vol. vii., p. 341.
The Angels' Christmas Hymn.
I. "Glory," so the angels began, "to God in the highest!" Why was the birth of Christ glory to God in the highest? Besides other deep mysteries, which there may be in that saying, God did thus begin to make known to the holy angels, to those who serve Him in the highest, His manifold wisdom in respect of the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is evermore His special glory among them, as any condescending act of a great and beloved king is his glory among his subjects: namely, that He is now Man as well as God; He hath lowered, abased, emptied Himself, so unspeakably as to have taken our nature into His own, and in it to have suffered for us the worst of pain and shame love taking on itself what sin deserved.
II. The birth of Christ is also peace on earth, peace between God and man, the blessed way to His favour which is better than life. Many of us may know something of the heartfelt, extreme, unutterable delight, when parents or brethren, or dear friends whom we depend upon, are reconciled to us after any kind of falling out; how the whole soul, before unquiet and restless, is restored to sweet assurance of safety and repose! Now people say to themselves over and over, "Come what will, now we have that which we most craved for; we have the heart which we thought we had lost; we know now that we are still dear to him whom we feared we had affronted for ever." Like to this, only unspeakably more than this, is the sense of being reconciled to God, the knowledge of how grievously soever we have fallen from Him, He still cares for us as our Father; and this blessing is solemnly renewed to us as often as Christmas comes round, in the very words of the angel: "On earth peace."
III. And it is, also, good will towards men; not peace only, but grace; not forgiveness only, but every blessing flows from it. There is nothing too good or too great to be expected, hoped, and prayed for, by those whom the Eternal Son owns for brethren and the Eternal Father for children, and into whom the Eternal Spirit has entered, to join them as true members to the Son.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. viii., p. 278.
The tidings of the coming of Christ, which were communicated to the shepherds by the angel appointed of God, are no longer confined to the spot and to the period which were rendered memorable by their disclosure. They have ceased to be tidings. They are no longer new. Now they have a history. Time itself has been God's commentator. The ages have rolled away, nations and kingdoms have changed, but this truth of the coming of Christ has not been rolled away, and it has changed only to grow.
I. If theology could exclude the truth that Christ is God, it would remain as poetry. The world would not let it fall. Humanity would enshrine it; we would dream it; we would wake to believe; we would follow it wherever it should lead us.
II. The true work of Christ was to reveal to men their sins, to humble them, to empty them before God, to bring them under the complete control of the Divine will; and this became a sieve, as it were, which separated men one from another. It was the spiritual power of Christ's purity that arrayed the Scribes and Pharisees against Him, and led to His arrest and crucifixion. It was the contrast between His life and theirs, the influence of His doctrines upon their self-conceit, and the power of His soul upon their nature and conduct, that aroused their opposition to Him.
III. For eighteen hundred years Christ has been ostensibly received and rejoiced in as a spiritual power; and yet during this whole period, those who have really received Him according to His errand of the soul, in a way that humbled them, cast them down into condemnation, judged them and raised them up into life, have been relatively the few, the despised and the outcast. Christ has been accepted almost universally throughout the world as an external power; but Christ as a purifier, Christ as a Saviour from sin, taking sides with the weak, the oppressed, the wronged, has been almost universally rejected throughout the world. How many myriads of men are there, who on Christmas Day, wear flowers in memory of Christ, chant hymns in honour of Christ, and present gifts in celebration of the birth of Christ, who will not let the Master enter one step unto their hearts to purify them! Let us beware lest we fall into this error, which so widely prevails in these latter days, of receiving Christ outwardly and rejecting Him inwardly.
H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 45.
References: Luke 2:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 168; Homilist,3rd series, vol. iv., p. 343; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 80; W. Dorling, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 27; Ibid.,vol. iv., p. 401; E. J. Willis, Ibid.,vol. x., p. 120; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xix., p. 91; New Manual of Sunday School Addresses,p. 234; H. Wace, Expositor,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 195.Luke 2:15. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany,p. 108; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 45; Ibid.,vol. x., p. 337; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 72; J. M. Neale, Sermons for Children,p. 45; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., pp. 557, 558; vol. xv., p. 360; Expository Sermons on the New Testament,65; H. G. Robinson, Man in the Image of God,p. 155.Luke 2:15. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 10.