The Gospel of Luke 2:8-20 Jesus' Birth told to the shepherds
Luke 2:8-20 · Vern Peterman · Nov 23, 2014
Gospel of Luke, No. 08
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926447586528

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be taking a look at this passage here. First, I want to go back and address a couple of things that we touched on last week. Several different topics, actually. It says in Luke 2, 6, and 7, while they were there, that is, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." I've been taking a look at this and I find that Dr. Luke brings out some resolution here. And so I'd like to kind of talk it through with you. You have a supplemental handout on your first sheet, which I've had them put in the front.

There was no Bethlehem Inn. We'll show in a minute why we're quite certain that that's not the case. But what's amazing is there's countless songs and sermons tell about the hard-hearted innkeeper, right? Had no room, right? And turned Joseph and Mary away, saying, no room, right?

So that's been a theme. I even know of fairly recent songs that have been written on that, along that line. We also have various accounts in movies and whatnot of Joseph and Mary going around and banging on a bunch of doors and everybody's turning them away. You get that picture. They go from one place to the next. Nope, nope, no room. I keep studying this and thinking, something's not right about this. What you find out is Dr. Luke gives the critical insight, and so bear with me here.

The smaller houses in Israel would be a one-room living area. That's where you live, that's where you slept, one room. And they would tend to have an overnight area actually connected For the animals and they could have that as a guest room for a smaller house But the the law as the Jews saw it is you couldn't have a woman In one area and a woman in the other area unless you had the material for a dividing wall between them Otherwise that was constructive adultery, right? So you had to have the dividing wall in there. And that overnight stable, when they had the dividing wall, was called a kataluma. That was translated as an inn, right?

But, at any rate, so that's the word. Now, but I got thinking, now, as I read this, this doesn't sound quite right, because there's no room in the inn, therefore we put them in the manger. Hmm. So therefore, all right, let's go and take a look at that. Here's what you have on your handout. But I think there's another situation to look for.

The same word is used later in Luke 22 at the Last Supper. And I won't go through all of it, but they're preparing a Passover in a guest room and it's the same word. Any accommodation for a guest, whether it was a place to eat, or a place to sleep, any accommodation for a guest, was a kataluma.

So here, Jesus tells the disciples, you'll find a man carrying a pitcher of water, and by the way, that was unusual because men didn't carry water. It was the women who carried the water. So if you see a guy carrying water, that's unusual. That's the guy you want to talk to.

And in that guy, verse 11, you shall say to the owner of the house, the teacher pays to you, It says to you, where is the guest room, the kataluma, in which we may eat the Passover for my disciples? So any accommodations, whether for a meal or for spending the night, was called a kataluma. And even the place where Jesus had the Passover with his disciples was a kataluma. Now, there is also another situation.

If the house was a little larger, they might have a guest room built in there. And so you'd have the main family living area, and that would be at the upper level. You would have overnight stable for animals, like you saw in the previous picture. And that would typically be at a lower level. And they would have an open area between that.

And then they would have a guest room called a catalooma, because a catalooma with any accommodations, whether meal or overnight, any accommodations Whether for a meal or overnight that you would have a guest use So what I what I see is the circumstance that dr. Luke is describing for Christ's birth is Something like this that there was a place where Joseph and Mary were planning to stay but because everybody from David's clan was going there to get enrolled for the Roman tax registry because everybody was there the guest room was already taken by somebody else who was there and so the only option that this person could offer was the overnight stable for the animals where they had the manger so I think this is what is described and the going from house to house or the mean innkeeper It is not the real biblical picture. There was a particular place that David was planning to stay, probably a relative, in Bethlehem, but because of the tax enrollment, all the guest rooms and everything were being taken up, and this is no exception. This room is very likely the guest room, the cataluma, where the Last Supper was held. Now, we know that the columns and the ceiling material were added some centuries later, about the year 1200, but that floor is very likely the room, okay, where the Last Supper was held.

There's another shot of it here. Now, Luke also gives the insight that tells us that this was not an inn with a bunch of rooms and you pay rent. And that's because that's a different word and that comes up, we'll see it when we get to the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10. And I'll start with verse 33. But a Samaritan who was on a journey came to him and when he saw him he felt compassion and came to him and bandaged up his wounds pouring oil and wine on them And he put them on his own beasts and brought him to an inn. And that's a different word. It's not a catalooma, right? That's the kind of room that people picture the mean innkeeper. But that's not the right word.

Luke was very careful about his choice of words. He's a very good scholar. And he took care of him on the next day. He took out two denarii. That's two days wages. and gave them to the innkeeper. You can tell it's a related word. Pando is the beginning part in each. And say, take care of him and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.

And by the way, this inn of the Good Samaritan is down at the lower end of the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. There today. At any rate, I think this is a good insight into what was actually happening. I don't believe that Joseph and Mary went around banging on doors. I don't believe that there was a mean innkeeper, but rather that the place where he had accommodations planned and was planning to stay, the guest room was already taken, and so they were forced to make the stable area into the second choice guest room. Now, another thing is Jesus' family tree. Obviously, Jesus was not descended physically from Mary, so that's one exception.

But we get the picture from Mark 6.3. We have James, Joseph, which is a nickname for Joseph, Jude, and it's actually Judas, and Simon were Jesus' brothers. And then you have Salome and Mary are not from scripture, but from an external source, the names of the sisters. It's possible that those are mistaken in some way because it's not from scripture. Of Jesus' brothers, James is the one about whom we know the most. We know the most because he wrote the book of James. He's referenced in Acts and on in through a few different places in the New Testament.

And this, after a careful investigation, this appears to be the bone box. The practice they had was to bury them in a tomb for a year and then take the bones and put them in a bone box for permanent storage. And they would write on the side of the box, or the end of the box, who was in it, right? And so this appears, by careful investigation, to be genuinely the bone box of James, the brother of Jesus.

And right there is where it's etched, and you have kind of the explanation of it. It reads from right to left, but James, and that's our English version, it's actually Yaakov, okay? And then son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. Now all three of those names were common names, but it was very unusual to list a brother. And the only reason to list a brother is the brother of Jesus. And so that appears to be the real thing, genuine.

Okay, now we'll get into Luke 2, 8 through 20. Now, one of the things that we've done here is to have questions, and we'll return to them. One of the questions we have is, when the angel appears to the shepherds, and then many angels appear to the shepherds, do the angels sing or do they speak? Because all of our songs talk about the angels singing, right? And so we'll take a look at that.

Was the angel announcing the good news for everybody in the world or just the people of Israel? So we'll take a look at that, too. Is the baby said to be Savior, Messiah, or Lord? Do the shepherds find Jesus and Mary and Joseph the same time as the Magi do? The wise men, as we sometimes call them, right? So we'll take a look at that.

Meanwhile, here are Joseph and Mary. They've come from Nazareth. Through Jerusalem to Bethlehem in order to register for the the compulsory Roman tax enrollment and So they come to the Bethlehem the city of David. It's the city where David's you know clan and family were brought up and so they have Jesus there as we saw in last week's passage and And what they would typically do when the baby is born is they would rub the baby with olive oil and with salt, and then wrap the baby in cloths fairly tightly, in cloth strips.

And that would be the usual way. And because they didn't have the guest room, they used the manger, probably with straw in it. And the manger would have been made of stone and not wood like we see in a lot of our manger scenes, right? Wood would have been too expensive, wood wouldn't last long enough, and I know from having mangers made of wood that the animals chew them up. Anyway, so they would have used a stone manger, something that would last, you could even pass it along to the next generation.

Now, so here's Luke 2.8, in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

And it's not a very exciting time because most of the time they're just sitting there and you're just sitting there and they're standing around. But anyway, that's what they did. And they have to keep watch and they probably took turns, you know, hey, your turn. It was the same old, same old.

I mean, shepherds, these guys have been doing this for a long, long time and been doing it for many generations. And in this area, David had been a shepherd boy in the same fields a thousand years earlier. Shepherds watch over their flocks. David himself had done before when he was anointed king. As a matter of fact, Samuel came to Jesse, David's father, and not All these brothers, it's none of these. Is there any other? Yeah, there's another, but he's watching the sheep. That's the one I need to talk to, right?

So you would have this long-standing tradition of standing long, watching the sheep at night. Shepherds spent lots of time with the sheep, lots of time with the sheep, protecting and guiding and leading and seeking pastures and waters and selecting paths and correcting the path of some and rescuing and mending wounds and illnesses and crazy things like that. Okay? And that's just the way it is with the sheep. I have never been a shepherd in this sense, but I have spent some time with sheep, and yeah, you've got to do all those things.

And then you've got to keep them from being stupid and silly. Which they are. Okay. Lambs can be cute, but the shepherds not so much. As far as most of the folks in town are concerned, shepherds spent way too much time with the sheep. And that's just the way it was. And the shepherds would also tend to live in cave-like structures because those were You know, some areas close to where they kept the sheep and, you know, that worked. And so they're kind of cavemen type. So, their social skills and social appeal to most people were not so appealing. Okay? Most folks didn't hold shepherds in very high esteem. Oh, a shepherd. Hmm.

There may have been something about these shepherds, however, that was very, very special. Since Bethlehem was close to the Jerusalem temple, it's likely that these shepherds raised lambs that were used in the temple ceremonies and animal sacrifices. So here they were, the ones raising these lambs that would be used in the temple ceremony, and they're being told about the birth of God's Lamb. so the birth of God's once and final lamb in the town nearby would be huge momentous news telling them all to tell them fulfilling what the sacrifices of the lambs pictured no other generation of shepherds would have heard an announcement quite like these were about to hear they had not been prepared for this nobody said You know, you guys just kind of brace yourself, an angel is going to show up. And then a whole bunch of them are going to show up. Just kind of get ready for it. There wasn't any of that.

So, Luke 2.9. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. Now, as with most angels in Scripture, We don't know this angel's name. We know of Michael and Gabriel, and that's it. And Gabriel we've already heard from in chapter 1. We don't know this angel's name. Now, one angel shows up, and they are really scared.

Whoa! This isn't in the manual, right? Where is this in the shepherd's job description? You have to have angels appear to you. most of the time what the angel says right off is be not afraid or some similar kinds of words right this is going to scare the daylights out of these shepherds or night lights or something right these shepherds were not scared easily they'd seen fierce predators you know mountain lions were Something that they would see, lions rather, and they would see other predators as well.

They'd also seen fully armed Roman soldiers go tromping back and forth because the fortress Herodium was only a few miles east of Bethlehem. And so you got back and forth between there and Jerusalem. and the glory of the Lord shone, and I think that is what scared them. And here's what's interesting. Did they see the Lord? No. They saw an angel, so here isn't even seeing the Lord, but seeing the glory of the Lord as it's secondarily expressed through this angel. Even that was frightening.

Now, glory is the radiant essence of who God is. The radiant essence of who God is. God's eternal purpose is to declare and reveal and to share his glory so that he might be glorified. Okay? Those four things. Declare, reveal, and share his glory so that he might be glorified. And what we're going to see is all four of those in this passage here. So through the angels, God's glory was being declared, revealed, and shared such that God would be glorified. So the angels would say, glory to God in the highest. They'd give him the glory. We'll see that in verse 14.

So here's Luke 2, 10 through 12. And the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in claws and lying in a manger." Now this birth has just taken place. The shepherds were told in such a way that it was clear that they were searched for the child.

Notice, it did not say, look for him at the inn. Right? Because there wasn't an inn like we saw with the Good Samaritan parable. That's not the word. It didn't say look for him at the inn. What they said was to look for the newest kid in town. Look for the newest kid in town because he's just been born and you're going to find him in a manger, which means he's not going to be in the inner room of the house. He's not going to be in a guest room.

He's going to be in the Cataluma that's makeshift, that's ordinarily used as a stable. And that baby would be wrapped tightly in claws, particularly lying in a manger in one of these stables. So they got about 800 homes, about 3,000 inhabitants, plus many out-of-town guests, because everybody related to David is here. This is going to be a challenge, except that they knew it wasn't inside the house. It's going to be on a stable at the end of one of the houses. And it's going to be in a stable that's going to be lit up, and there's going to be people in there. Right? As opposed to just animals. So they know what to look for. They know what to look for. Also being fairly familiar with Bethlehem, since that's where they hung out all the time, being fairly familiar with them, that was also going to make it a little easier.

So, Luke 2, 13 and 14, And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men, with whom he is pleased. You can imagine, okay, one angel just scares the daylights out of these shepherds. Now the whole sky gets filled with them, right? And it says a multitude, so I looked for a bunch of different artwork and different things. Inadequate.

Here they are, they were scared to death with one angel and now the whole sky is filled with angels and the angels are all saying the same thing. Glory to God in the highest on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased. Whoa. And all these great many angels were saying, glory to God in the highest. All of them were saying it. And apparently discernible in unison. In unison. Saying it.

Got that? And a part of what we do is because we think that, well, them singing has got to be really cool. And besides that, sing rhymes with king and bring. So you've got to put that in there, right? So that's what we get in all of our hymns. But the reality is, it says twice, the single angel and all this great multitude say. So that's apparently what happened.

The shepherds seemed to have said nothing until the angels went back to heaven. Of course, you can understand, what would you say? You know, besides, wow, or ah, or something like that, right? What words could you possibly come up with? Imagine, even after the angels left, I imagine they had a tough time starting to speak, right?

But just this, why not just one angel? I mean, one angel gets the message across and the guys are scared to death anyway. Why not just one angel? Why would God have sent a multitude of angels? Besides that, these guys are shepherds. I mean, they're just kind of the low end of the things anyway. Wouldn't just one angel be enough to get the message across to these guys without scaring them to death with a whole sky full of angels? Yes, one would have been enough to get the message across to the shepherds.

Apparently, God wanted, because God sends angels. Angels don't just decide what they want to do. God wanted to let these shepherds know that this was a really big deal. This was a really big deal. Let me ask you. If you were God, and you were going to send some angels, would you send them to shepherds? I mean, wouldn't you say, let's go to the king? Let's go, at least the mayor of Bethlehem or something. No. Send them to shepherds.

Send them to these lowly shepherds. so here's Luke 2 15 and 16 when the angels had gone away from them into heaven the shepherds began saying to one another let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us so they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger so as soon as the angels left the shepherds went to Bethlehem with obvious excitement Dr. Luke doesn't record the reaction of the town folk when these excited shepherds, in the middle of the night, come looking for, you know, where's the baby? Where's the baby? Where's the baby? No, he doesn't record that. What is clear is that the shepherds did find the newborn infant Jesus and his mother Mary and his father Joseph.

As others heard what the shepherds have been told, They wondered. So Luke 2, 17 and 18, when they had seen this, the shepherds, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. And what was told them? We're going to go back to 10 and 12.

But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in claws and lying in a manger.

So in verse 18, And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. So the shepherds told Mary and Joseph and any others that might be gathered around the house host or something around the manger that the angel had appeared to them and told them the things we just read in verses 10 and 12. Mary and Joseph had seen and heard a lot in the last nine months up to this point and now these angels Appeared to these shepherds who now, you know show up and they know that there's a baby in a manger wrapped and you know these bands of cloth and They know to look for this child you imagine Mary and Joseph kind of whoo This is quite an event and the whole sky filled with angels, right? Very definitely an event all those listening just wondered and marveled at at what had been told the shepherds. And I imagine this is referring to those who were told about this account later in Bethlehem. Was it because the shepherds were told? Was that amazing people? Or because of the content? A Savior who is Christ the Lord. Now, I put the the in there because that's actually not in the original Greek. We insert that for smoother English.

We'll talk about that here. Let's look to this chart here. It's on page two. It's got three columns. So let's kind of talk our way through it. Well, that is curious. OK. There is at the top the column Savior. And Jesus is the name that's been given to him. That's the English form, the Greek. And that's what that G colon is about. The Greek is Jesus. And the Hebrew would be Yeshua. Joshua is the way that gets carried across in English.

It means God is Savior. God's the Savior. And of course, Mary, as we saw before, recognized that when she was speaking to Elizabeth. She said, God, my Savior. So she recognized that. And this name Jesus points to his first coming to save. Christ's first coming to save. The next one here is Christ. That's the next title. And the Greek is Christos. And the Hebrew is Hamashiah. We carry it across as Messiah. Either way, it means anointed one. Anointed one. And the Messiah, that points to his second coming to reign. So we say his name is Jesus Christ, it isn't his first and last name. It's his first name, Jesus, refers to his coming. The next name, Christ, refers to his second coming to reign.

And then Lord, and again it's not the definite article actually in the Greek. Lord, the Greek is kurios. And the Hebrew is Yahweh, that is the Hebrew name for God. There's no definite article, so it points to character. And this points to his eternal deity. So you have his first coming, and his second coming, and his eternal deity, all pointed out in those three.

So here's Luke 2.19. Look 219, but Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. Can you imagine, there would be a lot to ponder, right? There would be a lot to ponder.

I just gave birth, little tiny baby, I just gave birth in the stable, and put this baby, and now these shepherds come, and they've been told by one angel, and then by a whole sky full of angels, to come and look for this Savior, who is Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, and Eternal Deity. He's fully God and fully man, all in one little baby here.

Mary treasured these moments. She placed a high value on them. When you have something that's treasured, you placed a high value on it, right? The miracles that had come about in the last nine months was only the beginning of events and moments of value. There was a great deal for her to think about as well. This tiny baby would mean momentous and immense things she was only beginning to ponder in her heart. And I'll try an experiment here.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? This child that you delivered will soon deliver you. Mary, did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man? Mary, did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod? When you kissed your little baby, you've kissed the face of God. Oh, Mary, did you know the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again? The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb! Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation? Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations? Did you know that your baby boy is Heaven's perfect Lamb?

The sleeping child you're holding is the great I am Luke Luke 2 20 reads like this the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen just as had been told them one wonders how long would be before these shepherds would sleep Whoa! You know, you don't just say, well, that was quite a night, and then just go... You know?

That's not going to happen. First of all, you're scared to death by one angel, and then the whole sky gets filled with angels. And then you're told to go into town and start looking among about 800 houses for the newest kid in town. Right? And so after you do that, and then you talk to Joseph and Mary, you talk to Joseph and Mary, and you tell them what's going on, and Joseph and Mary are going, Right? And so, with something like this, you just have to wonder, how long would it be before they go to sleep? Why had these angels told us, these lonely shepherds, that's got to be something to think about. I mean, we're not the mayor of Bethlehem, we're not the king of anything, you know, not the governor, nothing. Why us?

How will these things be fulfilled? I mean, what's this all going to look like? We saw a little baby, but we're probably not going to live long enough to see where all this goes. How will the life of this child unfold? Savior, Messiah, Lord, but born with such lowly status. born where they keep the livestock, in the manger. How long would it be before you could sleep?

The shepherds, it says, glorified and praised God. Remember what we said earlier? God's eternal purpose is to reveal and declare His glory and to share His glory so that God would be glorified. And what did the angels do? In this last verse, they glorified God. A complete fulfillment of God's eternal purpose that night.

So let's look at the questions. In today's passage, when the angels appear to the shepherds, and then many angels, do the angels sing or do they speak? They speak. There's not one reference to them singing. Was the angel announcing the good news for everybody in the world or just for the people of Israel? That's something I haven't addressed.

It turns out that the words, the people, the people is a phrase used consistently for Israel, especially in the Old Testament. And all the people, just like you see here, shows up over 250 times in the Old Testament referring to Israel. referring to Israel. So I think what this is referring to is all the people in Israel. All the people in Israel.

Is a baby said to be Savior, Messiah, or Lord? Yes. All three, right? Do the shepherds find Jesus and Mary and Joseph the same time as the Magi do? The answer is no. Because what's apparent is The shepherds found them in the part of the house, whatever house they found them in, the part of the house where they kept the animals overnight. That's where the shepherds found them. But the Magi go into the house. The Magi go into the house. That's in Matthew. So that's at a different time.

Apparently the guest room was then available and Mary and Joseph were staying in the guest room of the house. Now, questions for next Sunday to ponder. Did Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the temple on a whim or because they were compelled to bring Jesus to the temple on a particular day?

Did Simeon say, a sword will pierce your soul, and I cut it off there, to Joseph and Mary or just to Mary? And why would he say these words to the one or ones he did? Why would he say that? And lastly, Was Simeon necessarily old, or was it Anna who was old, or was it both of them?

So, we'll take a look at that next week. Right now, we're going to pray. Lord, we thank you for this very dramatic story, this amazing story. Boy, we would not have done things this way. To have the Savior of the world, the one who will rule the world, be born in this kind of stable that had been made temporarily into a place to stay and But we wouldn't have chosen that and we we certainly wouldn't have gone to lowly shepherds that wouldn't be a human choice, but it's obviously yours and Thank you that you do things in ways that we wouldn't think of we need that And we thank you Lord for what you revealed here because you love us in Jesus name Amen