Sermon Tone Analysis

The Supreme King

First we see God's Kingly Supremacy in the Christmas story.

In the first lines we read a text that for us is so common at Christmas that we seldom take into account the glorious truth of God’s Supremacy over all things in these verses.

Now you may be saying, “Pastor” Luke is merely pointing out the facts of the birth of Christ.

But there is so much more going on in these pages, in these verses.

The God of the universe is working in the affairs of man to set up perfectly the pieces so that Christ would be born in Bethlehem.

It wasn't that God told Joseph to go to Bethlehem, which would have been easy to do, but that God moved the geopolitical realities of their world to place Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem on the day that Christ would be born.

Joseph's Lineage

Caesar's Census

Mary's Progression

All these had to line up perfectly for the prophecy of Christ being born of a virgin in Bethlehem to be fulfilled.

This is in contrast to two other kings we see in the Christmas story.

While Gaius Octavius, the nephew of Julius Caesar was proclaiming himself Caesar Augustus, literally calling himself the Exalted King, and Herod, king of the Jews was being called “Great”, the great king of the universe was shaping all of human history around a boarding house, an animal lodging, a manger, and a baby.

This baby would truly be the Caesar Augustus.

The Gracious King

Second we see God's Grace in using the shepherds.

The announcement begins with the introduction of shepherds, who represented the most common of Palestinian people.

Luke mentions two characteristics of shepherds: living outside in open country and taking turns in night watches.

Nomadic shepherds who were separated from human communities and culture for long periods of time were inevitably subjected to suspicion and scorn.

During this time many accused them of being thieves, and because they could prey on lonely travelers, they were often suspected of practicing “the craft of robbers” (m.

Qidd.

4:14).

Their prolonged absences—and ill-repute—disqualified them from being legal witnesses.

A third-century rabbi, commenting on Ps 23, said, “There is no more despised occupation in the world than that of shepherds.”

Along with gamblers and tax collectors, herdsmen were regularly listed among despised trades by Jewish sources.

That being said, The Mishnah, which is a group of documents that recorded oral traditions that governed the Jewish people during the time of the Pharisees, may give us a different look at these shepherds.

One of its regulations states it “expressly forbids the keeping of flocks throughout the land of Israel except in the wilderness — and the only flocks otherwise kept would be those for the Temple services (Bab K.7:7; 80a).

These shepherds were in the fields surrounding Bethlehem, not out in the wilderness where regular sheep were kept.

So these shepherds, though unclean ceremonially, were keeping the sacrificial lambs that would be used in the temple worship and could have been part of a priestly family.

Regardless, it is to these lowly shepherds were the ones God chose to announce the coming of the Lord to.

Another statement in the Mishnah says that the Messiah would be revealed from the Migdal Eder, which translates as “tower of the flock.”

It was an actual tower that stood just outside town and within the Temple priests’ fields.

It was a kind of lookout tower, you might say.

It was a priest’s job to stay in the Migdal Eder all night.

So, with the tower being so tall, the shepherd priest was “watching over the flock by night” while the other shepherds were on the ground also keeping watch.

And that’s when the angel showed up with some very good news.

The God of heaven used those tasked with tending the Lambs used in the sacrifice of the temple to announce the coming of the Lamb of God who would end the temple sacrifice by becoming the Lamb of the God who takes away the sins of the world.

Jesus was the Supreme King, but by becoming the lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb, Jesus is our gracious king, our glorious shepherd, our sacrificial lamb.

The Glorious King

Finally we see God's Glory in the Baby who Came Down

The Glorious God of the universe displays his radiant glory to the world in a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

The angelic proclamation to the shepherds is Existential, eminent, and effacing.

It is existential in that it deals with being.

The word existential has to do with existing.

The angel proclaims to the shepherds.

"Today".

Today is a loaded word in the gospel of Luke.

Throughout Luke, Luke uses a lot of loaded vocabulary.

And he does so here too.

"Today" is the first word preached by Christ in Luke 4:21

It is also the first word of the final promise of Jesus on the cross.

Christ is the God-man, existing today with us.

Jesus is the true Savior of the world come today.

This stood in sharp contrast to the world of Jesus who was looking for a savior in other places and other people.

The Romans looked for a Savior in Caesar Augustus.

"The identification of the Messiah-Lord as “savior” counteracts the claims and cult of Caesar Augustus in v. 1, who repeatedly promoted himself as “savior of the common folk” and “savior of the world.”

In an official litany of accomplishments known as Res Gestae, Caesar Augustus postured as a “savior” who inaugurated a new and propitious age of peace, order, and prosperity, fulfilling the longings of humanity.46"

James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed.

D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 76–77.

But Caesar is not the savior of the word, nor are all the saviors we see rising up to save us today.

No president, prime minister or dictator can save us.

No philosophy, political theory or government can save us.

No only Christ can save us.

It's eminent in that Christ came to us.

The word eminent means among, present.

The angel proclaims, unto YOU is born.

Jesus is born for us.

Jesus isn’t “there”.

Jesus is here, with us.

Jesus isn’t God above us, but God with us.

Finally, Christ is the effacing king.

Christ humbled himself.

The poem by W.

Howard Doane sums up the coming of Christ:

He came not with his heavenly crown,

his scepter clad with power;

His coming was in feebleness,

The infant of an hour:

A humble manger cradled, first,

The virgin’s holy birth,

And lowing herds surrounded there

The Lord of heaven and earth.