On July 22nd, 2013, Prince George, the son of William and Kate, was born. Before he was born, Paul Mealor, Welsh composer, composed a lullaby entitled “Sleep on”, with lyrics by Irish composer Brendan Graham and a recording was made of it by New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra as a gift for the baby. Special commemorative coins were issued by the Royal Mint of the U.K, Canada, and Australia. 

On the day of his birth, a special sheet of paper was signed by the delivery team at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington. The paper was brought out in a red leather folder and handed to a driver who then delivered it to the Palace. Outside the palace, it was placed in a frame and put on a gold-painted easel to announce the birth. 

In the capitals of Bermuda, the U.K., New Zealand and Canada, gun salutes signalled his birth. The bells of Westminster Abbey and many other churches were rung. Throughout Commonwealth countries, landmarks were illuminated in various colours, mostly blue to signify the birth of a boy.

That’s how prince George was celebrated. Royal births are greeted with fanfare, pomp and display. If someone of great importance has been born, the first people to hear the announcement are other people of great importance – royalty, politicians, judges. They receive special personalised announcements, and they, in turn, send royal gifts, and best wishes. 

So, if someone with no knowledge of God or the Bible were to write a fictional story about the announcement of the birth of God’s Son, taking into consideration what you’ve just heard about royal births, how would he write it? All the fiction writer knows is earthly kings, and how they announce the birth of their sons. This is now the most important birth ever. This is the Son of the High king. He will be the King of the kings. He will rule not a locality, a region, or a city. He will rule the whole earth. With such a momentous birth, with such an anticipated birth, you can be sure that when it happens, the people who hear the announcement are specifically chosen. 

The messengers, as we’ve seen in the past three messages, are angels. To whom does God send His own angels to sing and announce the birth of the King of Kings? He can send an angelic host to anyone, anywhere. The palace in Jerusalem is just as accessible to them as any other place on Earth. Space or distance isn’t a problem. Who will hear first?

The chief priests of Israel? The Sanhedrin? The elite in Jerusalem? The royal house of King Herod? I think if we had written the story, we should say that the experts, the religious professors, the doctors ought to be told. After a royal birth in royal surroundings, we would call on the intellectual elite to come and ratify the birth, agree that it lines up with the prophecies, sign the birth certificate, and stamp, “Messiah”on it. We would have the Sanhedrin gather, call a conference, have some speeches, write some tractates on the matter, and get the written approval of the experts of the day. After all, they are the ones who count. They are wise. When they speak, people listen. 

Who hears first, and who hears it directly from God’s messengers? In the biblical account, in actual history, the unexpected answer is: shepherds. We don’t even know the names of the shepherds. A few shepherds keeping night watch over their flocks in the pastures near Bethlehem. 

And it is not as if the angels were circling over where Jesus was born, and then began travelling from there and then happened upon these men on the hillsides near Bethlehem. No, these men were selected. They were chosen. God had decided thousands of years in advance who would be the very first human beings to hear the royal birth announcement, and it was some anonymous shepherds. 

There’s no question that God has a delight in shepherds. Now to begin to understand why the shepherds were chosen, we should look back into Scripture and see God’s love for the shepherd. The first son of Adam and Eve, the one who had faith and pleased God, Abel, what was he? He was a shepherd. When God selected a nation to be His people and a light to all other people, He chooses Jacob, whom He renames Israel, and what was Israel? He was a shepherd. The twelve sons of Israel, when they come down to Egypt, Joseph tells them to say that they are shepherds, which would make sure Israel was given the land of Goshen, separate from the Egyptians.

When God wants Israel to be led by a king after his own heart, whom does He choose? He chooses a shepherd-boy, David, to be the Shepherd-King, and promises that Messiah will come from his house. He tells Israel through Ezekiel that their false prophets, priests and kings had been false and selfish shepherds of his people, and He was seeing real shepherds. 

When the New Testament church is set up, what does he designate its leaders to be called? Kings? Barons? Lords? Dukes? No, he calls them pastors – shepherds – and tells them to feed His sheep and shepherd the flock willingly and tenderly.

But why? What is it about shepherds that would have them be the first people who hear the most important birth in history? If we answer that question from this passage, we can learn much about who it is that was born, why He came, and how we receive Him. This angelic message had three moments in it: the recipient, the revelation, and the reaction.

I. The Recipients of the Message: Who the Message is For

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 

Shepherding was hard on the body. Miles of walking every day, mostly standing, in the merciless sun during the day, and in the frost and snows at night. Sleeping was usually done in shifts at night, so that at least one pair of eyes was watching for thieves or predators. Shepherding was considered menial work for the uneducated. 

And you can understand why. You literally live with animals for days, weeks on end. Not much place to wash and spray yourself. Day after day in the baking sun, sleeping on the hard ground. Shepherds no doubt looked like people who are in the sun all day, and sleep on the ground, and don’t get to shave very often. 

These shepherds in Bethlehem made their living from pilgrims needing to buy animals for Temple sacrifices, and from a few Levites who were regular customers. Keeping their flocks just about an hour south of Jerusalem meant enough space for the animals to graze, but close enough to the city to get a few coins to scrape by a living. 

Shepherds are simple people, humble people. Those kinds of people are the ones God wants to target. God announces this news to the people most humble in terms of social standing – shepherds. Simple, untaught, illiterate, unlearned shepherds. Because, do you know what untaught, unlearned, illiterate shepherds will do with a message that the Messiah has been born in Bethlehem? They will believe it. They will humbly accept it. 

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–31) 

The tendency of the human heart is to think God chooses us because He wants to gather an impressive group of people and make them His own. As if God is attracted to human wealth, human beauty, human intelligence, as if they are things we develop independently, instead of gifts He Himself disperses. So we glory in these things, thinking they give us standing, attractiveness, merit. 

But these things tend to crowd out God; they tend to fill us up and leave no room for God. This is why James 4:6 and 1 Peter 5:5 both quote Proverbs 3:34, which says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Sometimes people ask, if Jesus is really the only way, then why didn’t God write the Gospel in the sky? Why did God tiptoe into the world? The answer is, those kinds of announcements appeal to the wrong things in man. They say to the powerful, the proud, the wise in their own eyes, the self-directed, come and add more power, more status, more to your life. Instead, God extends a quiet, simple humble call, come to me, all ye who are weak and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Come, you, who by grace realise that you are sheep, needing direction, needing forgiveness, needing the care of God Himself.

God has come to seek and to save those who are lost, who are poor in spirit, who are needy, who are simple and unlearned. If you glory in your own wealth, your own fulness, your own wisdom, your own beauty, then the message will go over your head; the message will bounce from your inbox, the message will not reach you. The recipients of the message were shepherds: simple, humble, needy, ignorant, dependent people. 

II. The Revelation of the Message: What the Message Says

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.  And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:  “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Again, as in the appearance to Joseph, we are not given the name of the angel who speaks. Perhaps it was Gabriel, but we do not know for certain. Here angels are found at the very beginning of the life of Christ on earth. But angels are found throughout His life. Here’s a short list:

After having announced the birth of the forerunner (Luke 1:11- 16), and having announced the coming birth of Christ both to Mary and Joseph, they proclaimed His birth here. After his birth, angels warned His parents of coming danger, Matt 2:13, and angels told His parents when it was safe to return to Israel, Matt. 2:19-20.

During His Ministry, they ministered to Him following His temptation, Matt. 4:11), they strengthened Him during Gethsemane ( Luke 22:43). They stood ready to defend Him if called, Matt. 26:53, 12 legions strong. They rolled the stone from the tomb (Matt. 28:2). They announced the resurrection, Matt. 28:5-6.

At His Second Coming, they will accompany Him, Matt. 25:31, and gather the elect in preparation for the Kingdom, Matt. 24:31; they will remove the unrighteous, Matt. 13:40-42, wheat and tares, and help to judge the lost, 2 Thess. 1:7-8.

But here, on His very first day, they announce His birth. And again, the first words are, do not be afraid! Don’t fear. I have a message for you, not of judgement, of doom, or of terror. I bring you good news. In fact, the best news. News of great joy for all people. 

What is that news? This very day, a Saviour has been born in Bethlehem. This Saviour is for you. He is “born to you”. He has specifically come for others. He has come to be a saviour. He has come to save. 

Then he is specifically identified: Christ the Lord. Xhristos, the Anointed One, the Messiah, who is also the Lord. Messiah who is Adonai. Messiah who is Jehovah.

Now here is where shepherding comes into the actual message. Shepherds are, by nature, saviours. Here is a shepherd, a human being, who chooses to spend his time amongst the sheep. He lives with them. He feeds them. He names them, and cleans them of their parasites. He binds up broken limbs. It’s an uneven relationship. Sheep are not worth more than humans, but shepherds will lay down their own lives for the sheep. He will risk his own human life against wild animals to protect these simple, dumb sheep. Sheep – not fast enough to be raced, not strong enough to be ridden or used to pull ploughs. Not aggressive enough to be protectors. Sheep are made to have human shepherds. Shepherds that protect them, lead them, take them to green pastures and good waters. Shepherds that fight off predators. 

As we read Scripture, God begins to call Himself a shepherd:

Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 

Psalm 80:1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who dwell between the cherubim, shine forth!

Isaiah 40:11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young. 

Here is God, the infinite, transcendent, self-sufficient God, perfect in beauty and joy and pleasure. He makes these humans, who are of infinitely less worth than him, like sheep are to us. Humans that are needy, weak, and prone to self-destruction. The prophet Isaiah was careful to choose the metaphor when he wrote:

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; 

But like a shepherd who dwells with the Sheep, God added to Himself the nature of a human being, the very ones He was shepherding, so He could be God among us, Immanuel. So committed is He to shepherding the flock, that like human shepherds will risk their lives for animals, so God the Son was willing to lay down His life that was worth an infinite number of human lives, so as to save some. 

To do so, He had to not only be the Shepherd who seeks, but the Lamb who dies. That’s why Jesus says, John 10:11-18 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep… “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 

I am both a shepherd who dies to protect the sheep, and I am also the ultimate Lamb, given to pay for the sins of the world. 

God has always been a shepherd at heart. He loves. He feels pity. He protects. He provides. He leads. 

These shepherds are hearing that after centuries of waiting, this very day, the long awaited Messiah has been born. But how will they find this baby in Bethlehem? It is not a large town, but there will be a number of infants in the town. The angel says he will be in a very unusual position: he will be lying in a feeding trough, wrapped in strips of cloths. It doesn’t sound like a royal birth. But it will already communicate all sorts of things to these men.

And now, the one angel was joined by many, many others. They then praised God with this simple praise: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Lk. 2:14). We don’t know if they said it or sang it, but we find the great secret of existence, and the great secret of the Gospel: God’s glory, man’s good. Glory to God, goodwill and peace to man. In this birth, God is shown to be beautiful, excellent, worthy to be admired, and mankind receives blessing, kindness, mercy.

God is glorified for His humble love, and man is blessed with a chance to be saved. 

This is the revelation of the message: A shepherd has been born. The Good Shepherd of John 10. The Great Shepherd of Hebrews 13. The Chief Shepherd of 1 Peter 5. The Shepherd-Saviour was is also the Lamb of God.

III. The Reaction to the Message: How the Message Must Be Received

 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.  Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.  And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.  But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them. (Luke 2:8–20) 

Once again, here is a picture of what faith is like. With Mary, we saw that true faith involves submission. With Joseph, we saw that true faith contains courage. 

But here we learn that faith contains a childlikeness. Not childishness, but childlikeness. Childlikeness is a simple, uncomplicated trust and acceptance of God’s message. It accepts, and hastens to believe. It trusts, and rejoices to share with others. 

Where do we see this?

Notice the simplicity of the shepherds’ response. They don’t doubt, speculate, pontificate. They say, let us go and see what God has just told us. Simple, direct, believing faith. Like children: God said it, it must be true.

Notice, they say, “Let us go now to Bethlehem.” No procrastination, Verse 16 tells us they were running. They came with haste. They find exactly what the angel told them they would find. 

Once they see it, what do they do? “they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. They tell others. The simplicity of a faith that believes and then shares with others. The shepherds are the first evangelists! Once they do that, notice their reaction: Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

These people are exercising a beautifully simple, straightforward, trusting faith. It is not filled with objections to the Gospel or filled with worldly wisdom. It is happy to be a fool for Christ, foolish in the world’s eyes, and wise unto God.

By choosing shepherds to first hear, and first tell the message, God is showing the world what it looks like to believe. Receive it, embrace it, see it, delight in it, tell it to others. 

Jesus described this faith in Matthew 18: 

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”  Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,  and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1–4) 

At another times, Jesus rejoiced and marveled to see proud Pharisees stumbling over His message and simple disciples getting it. ²⁵ At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. ²⁶ Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. (Matthew 11:25–26)

Faith is childlike. 

Because before we rush to say that children are pictures of purity and innocence, a myth started by the French sceptic Rousseau, common sense and experience tells us that this is not the case. Children can be very cruel and spiteful to one another. Children do not naturally serve others, they push to the front of the line, and say ‘Me first” in loud voices. Children can be proud, and boastful, and supremely selfish. 

It is not that God is calling us to embrace the naivete of children. God is not calling on us to imitate the ignorance, or immaturity of children. 

The aspect of childlikeness that God wants is its pliable, teachable openness. A candid, direct, uncomplicated, receptiveness. But perhaps the most amazing thing about being childlike is when you can believe something without being able to explain it. 

The problem is not growing up, or even learning more, or becoming stronger, wealthier, wiser. The problem is that we fall in love with these things, begin to trust in them, and so we lose the wonder, dependence, simplicity of heart that lies at the heart of faith. We grow harder, not just older. 

It may be that…we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” ― G. K. Chesterton, 

God is the ultimate Artist, and nothing He does on His canvas is wasted. When He painted the story of His Son’s birth, He added this detail to cleverly and beautifully say three things to the world: First, the message is for the shepherdlike. Those who have no trust in their own status, merit, wealth, beauty, education, morality, religion. Those who know they are poor before a holy God. 

Second, the message is that the Son born in Bethlehem is a Shepherd: he has come looking for the lost, laying down his life for the sheep, becoming one Himself, and being the Lamb of God. 

Third, the message should be received with the faith of these shepherds: eager, simple, glad, trusting faith. Not naïve or childish, but teachable, open, persuadable, hearts that embrace what God says.