Luke 2 – The Birth of Christ

Recorded on 3rd Feb 2010 from Chin Lien Bible Seminary night class spoken by Rev Teo Kiak Hock.

Question: Why was Jesus born in Bethlehem?
Because it was the town of David.
Because it was the town of bread and Jesus is the bread of life.

Question: why was Jesus born in a manger?
He came Unto earth, and made nothing of himself.

Question: why did the angels appeared to the shepherds instead of anyone else?
They could have appeared to the Sadducees, Romans or other important people. But they appeared to the shepherds because God often works in a way contrary to the world. He doesn't use the wises, most intelligent, or the richest. This is evident in the salvation of the Greeks due to the Jews rejecting Him.

Another reason is because all the sheeps under the shepherds are used for offering as a sacrifice. Each sacrifice requires millions of sheeps. The greatest sacrificial lamb is Christ. Hence the shepherds have to know of this lamb.

Third reason why angels appeared to the shepherds is because Christ came to be our shepherd.

In verse 9, the glory of God shone with the angels. It's important that he glory of God shines with the church. The glory of God shone with Moses and dwelt with the temple. The church is just a empty shell if the glory of God is not present.
The glory of God left the temple 2400 years ago when it departed from the temple as mentioned in Ezekiel 11. But on this night, the glory of God shone with the angels. We ought to greatly give thanks for this. What child is this that such a phenomenon? Remember the hymn. This child is a saviour.

Today we have forgotten the meaning of saviour. It is actually a great word. Today, we don't preach Christ as the saviour but him as the giver of peace, prosperity, as a fulfillment, as healing or just something good. What a pity. How would those who remain sick, poor feel? That God does not love them?

Without Jesus, you sill can gain wealth, health, fulfillment, family togetherness. But Jesus came to give something no other can. The redeemer of our sins. The saviour of our sins. To pay the price of our sins. Have you believed in the wrong Jesus? We ought to stand before the great white throne of judgment. But thanks be to God for Jesus has SAVED us. This child is our saviour.

Qn: should we celebrate Christmas since it's a pagan day of celebration?
There is no absolutes for this. We do not have to be argumentative about the date itself. What's important is that we remember the birth of our saviour. Many people today also do not know that 25th of dec is a pagan date of celebration.

Verse 12. You will find a baby wrapped in cloth, lying in a manger. V13. Suddenly, there appeared a legion of angels. This  is a separate appearing of the first angel that appeared to the shepherds first. How many angels were there? From Micah, from revelation 4, 5, we can infer that there were millions of angels in that appearing. Why did the Angela appear? The angels have seen the second person of God before in the heavens. The angels seeks the secret of salvation too. This great saviour, from the glory of heaven, now willing to come into earth. Hence just like the angels glorifying God, we have to glorify Him.

V14. And peace be unto man. This peace refers to the peace between God and man. Not the world peace that we often think or the peace during Chinese new year.
Seeing the angels worship God, the more we man the recipients of grace, ought to worship!

Can you imagine the fellowship between Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, Zechariah, Elizabeth when they met at the manger? They would witness, share with one another the great experiences they had. This is like us sharing the gospel because we are excited with the great news!

V20. The shepherd left and gave glory and praises to God. They went back to shepherd. Went back to the same work. But the attitude is different. Now they had seen the Lord. Christ was with them. Praising God is linked to having the correct theology. He shepherds received the correct theology and thus were Able to praise the Lord.

The progression of the shepherd were they heard, they believed, they obeyed, they praised. They gave thanks.

Now Mary would have thought how to raise the saviour of man? So many difficulties for her. Hence she had to deeply ponder over it. V19.

In the next portion of verses, Luke had some witnesses to testify to his writings. Mary, Simeon, Ana, Joseph the righteous one. It was extremely difficult to find a righteous person during that time of the Pharisees, saducceess. Yet Joseph was one. Recall that there were only 120 believers who gathered as mentioned in acts 2 after the resurrection of Christ. Few are the righteous during that time. What about now? Are we one of them?