Luke 2:14-20 - "As It Was Told Them"

Somebody told someone, who told someone, who told someone, who told you, that a Savior was born in Bethlehem two-thousand years ago! I couldn’t help but notice this phase at least three times in our passage today!

 

But first let me go back to yesterday’s chat and make a final comment about verse 14, where the multitude of angels said, “On earth peace, goodwill toward men!" Some text actually read, “On earth, peace toward men of goodwill”. I just wanted to point out that God’s peace through Jesus Christ will not and cannot be experience just by anyone. Isaiah makes this very clear in Isaiah 57:20-21, “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. "There is no peace," Says my God, "for the wicked." Only when the Holy Spirit and the Word of God awaken our hearts and minds to the terrible condition and lostness of our soul, and we repent and by faith look to the cross, and by His grace become “a person of goodwill”, will we experience this peace with and of God! And we become “peacemakers” ourselves and are “called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9).

 

“And so it was….” (v. 15), after the shepherds heard this wonderful message from the angels they immediately responded with obedience and faith and begin their search for the “babe lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling cloths”. Certainly, they must have arranged for others to care for their flocks while they made their way to the little town of Bethlehem.

 

The verb “found” in Luke 2:16 means "found after a search." The shepherds knew what to look for because they were told by an angel! The word angel derives from the Greek angelos, meaning "messenger. We need a “messenger” to tell us the life-changing story of Jesus! And then we need to become messengers, like these shepherds and tell others about Jesus!  In verse 17, when they saw and experience Him, “They made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.”

 

This means that they didn’t just tell the story of a baby lying in a manger, but they shared the Gospel message about Jesus that they were told! Remember what they were told in verses 10-11: “Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

 

They found Jesus the Savior! And they worshiped Him and marveled at God's grace and goodness and the miracle He had wrought for them. And after finding the Baby, they reported the good news to others, "glorifying and praising God” (v. 20). They took the place of the angels! (Luke 2:13-14) Then they humbly returned to their duties, new men going back to the same old job. I imagine that their dirty talking and cussing stopped.

 

It is amazing how God used some humble shepherds to be the first human witnesses that prophecy had been fulfilled and the Messiah had been born. The angels have never experienced the grace of God, so they can't bear witness as we can. Telling others about the Savior is a solemn obligation as well as a great privilege, and we who are believers must be faithful.

 

In verse 19, Luke tells us that after the shepherds left, “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” And interestingly, again in verse 51, Luke tells us after Jesus’ parents found Him in the temple when He was twelve years old, that “His mother kept all these things in her heart.” I believe that Luke personally interviews Mary after the resurrection and she gave him all these details, because she kept them in her heart and never forgot them!!!! She told Luke the story of Jesus she personally experienced, and Luke wrote it down, and is still telling us the story of Jesus today!

 

And someone told you the story of Jesus and you should be telling someone else too!

 

God bless!