Sermon: Sunday, 14th December, 2025
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Luke 2:1-21
This morning, our theme is ‘Christmas joy’. Some of us like Christmas more than others. In the cold and dark winter months, it is good to have things to celebrate and remember. We can enjoy special family times, giving and receiving presents, eating turkey and all the trimmings, especially pigs in blankets and stuffing, and drinking mulled wine or a dram or two. And our children get 2 whole weeks off school, which is always a bonus for them. It is important to have times of celebration and not just to meet up with wider family and friends at funerals or a hospital bed. I genuinely enjoy all of these things. But (there’s always a but) many of us will experience the anticlimax of Boxing Day. Family has gone home, wrapping paper is everywhere and rather than feeling rested we feel exhausted. That warm, magical feeling of Christmas Day simply evaporates. The joy was real, but fragile, like a sparkler that burns bright and then fizzles out. Perhaps the image of a real Christmas tree captures it well; at first, the tree looks and smells great but a few weeks later the needles are falling off and the branches sag, even if we’ve watered it. Most earthly joys are a bit like that – even as we receive them, they are beginning to fade. But those who are united to Jesus draw from a living root that never withers. His joy is evergreen. The Christian content of Christmas offers us a lasting joy. Everlasting joy even! The angel who explains the meaning of Christmas to the shepherds (and to us) says this: v10 ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people’.
Christians believe that God speaks to us when we read the Bible. So, what is God saying to us through this event with the shepherds?
1. This joyful news from God is for ordinary people
It is for ‘have-nots’. We like to be the first to hear good news. We consider that an honour. ‘You’ll be the first to know,’ we tell our closest friends. And yet, when Jesus, the true king of the Jews and the Son of God is born, who is the first to know? It is not Caesar Augustas, the most powerful man in the world or the religious elite or King Herod or the wealthy businessmen. God deliberately chooses ordinary shepherds. Why shepherds? They were usually poor and uneducated and not highly thought of in society. God usually calls the weak things of the world before the mighty. Why? Because people who think they are ‘sorted’ often think they don’t need God. They are self-sufficient. They have money and good jobs and find it easy to forget God. Of course, none of these things will last, and they do need God. They just don’t realise it.
Mary’s song puts it well: class=”blu”>‘He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.’ (Luke 1:52) Those who proud and think they are really good people and don’t need God will not find lasting joy at Christmas. But those who come to God and realise their own mortality, frailty, need of forgiveness and their need for a solution to these universal problems will be more likely to cry out to God for help. Of course, the joyful news of Christmas is not just for the poor and ordinary. It is for everyone. Remember the angel’s words: ‘I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.’ (Luke 2:10) All people can benefit from the birth of Jesus. Jesus comes for all, but not all will respond to him in faith and that’s the only way to benefit. God wants our faith. And the shepherds believe.
After the elation of beating Denmark on the 18th of November, and securing a place at the World Cup, it is sad that some of the tartan army will be excluded from seeing their team live due to the extortionate prices of tickets, flights and hotels. Jesus’ offer of Christmas joy is offered free of charge. All are invited. You don’t need money. In fact, the less you have the better. You don’t need to be a good person or have done charitable works. Come to God with nothing but your mistakes and sins and fears and concerns. Come as you are. Christianity is not about what you can do for God but about what God can do for you. Jesus pays your entry fee to Heaven with his own blood shed on the cross. But those who trust in themselves and their own resources will never receive this free offer.
2. This joyful news is supernatural
Imagine being one of the shepherds. You have driven your flock to be with the others for the night to keep watch. The fields near Bethlehem are inky black. Suddenly, an angel, a normally invisible heavenly being appears (verse 9). And the glory of God shines around them with intense brightness. God is sending them a message from Heaven. It is easy to be cynical about the supernatural. But 85% of the world believes in a higher power. Perhaps this world with all its design and laws of science happened by itself, with the earth just the right distance away from the sun for life by chance, and if so, we have no answer to the meaning of life or of our ultimate purpose (apart from passing on our genes) and no hope for life after death. Or, the design in this world speaks of a Designer who has always been there. What was in the beginning? Was it eternal matter? Was it nothing and something came from nothing? Or was it God? It had to be one of these, and if God then we must expect the supernatural. The Christmas story is full of the supernatural – angels and in Jesus God becoming a true human being and a special star and dreams. God is at work here. God is breaking into history to reveal to us who he is. That is so special. Jesus leaves Heaven and comes to earth so we can know God through him.
3. The joyful news in a nutshell – Jesus is the Christ, the LORD and the Saviour
The joyful news the angel delivers isn’t about an end to Roman occupation or lower taxes. What then? If God in Jesus is leaving Heaven and becoming a human baby, we need an explanation for this. Why does God become a true human? God does not leave us to guess why! The angel of God comes specifically to explain this to us. ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord.’ (Luke 2:11) In a nutshell, Jesus comes to rescue us and give lasting joy and eternal life.
What qualifies Jesus to be the Rescuer and the one who brings peace? He is ‘the Christ’, which means the ‘anointed one’. In other words, Jesus is the special one, the chosen one, who alone can bring light to humanity. He is ‘the LORD’ which means he is God. He is deity. That’s why his death on the cross is powerful enough to wash the dirt from anyone’s life, no matter what you have done. His sacrifice has infinite worth because he is God. And he is called ‘the Saviour’. Many find this part offensive. A Saviour implies that we need to be ‘saved’. If my wife were to give me deodorant or mouthwash for Christmas, I might be offended. Does this mean I have bad B.O. and bad breath? This gift might be offensive. Well, God’s gift is offensive in a sense. The gift of a Saviour means that the truth is, all human beings need Rescuing from danger, sin and death. It’s either true or it’s not.
4. The joyful news brings glory to God and peace to us
We read that after the angel had spoken, a huge army of angels appeared, singing the first ever Christmas carol: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’ (Luke 1:13)
Why do the angels sing about God being magnified because of the birth of Jesus? Well, it’s not just about the birth. Jesus would grow up and live a perfect life- the lift we could never live. And then he would voluntarily give his life for others. It’s at the cross especially, at the other end of Jesus’ life on earth, that the justice, love, holiness and mercy of God would be shown as never before.
J C Ryle: ‘Creation glorified God but not so much as redemption’. The angels know that Jesus was born in order to die, to die on the cross for our sins. And they are gobsmacked. They sing ‘glory to God’. They must have thought: ‘God must really love those human beings to offer such a rescue’.
And this first Christmas carol also mentions ‘peace on earth’. But what kind of peace is this? There doesn’t seem to be much peace on earth now so has God failed? The peace the angels sing about is peace between God and human beings. Without Jesus we cannot know eternal peace with God, because he is perfectly clean and holy and we are not.
The wrong things we do and say and think are a barrier between us and God. And like the Grand Canyon, it a gulf we cannot cross without a bridge. Jesus is that bridge. His blood can wash us clean us from all that’s wrong, bringing peace with God.
In Roman times, there was a kind of peace between countries- called the pax Romana – Roman peace. A famous Greek philosopher of the first century called Epictetus recognised that Rome’s ability to bring peace was limited. He was not a Christian. But he had great insight: ‘While the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, for which man yearns more than even for outward peace’. This is profound. Epictetus longs for a deep and lasting peace. This is what Jesus offers. And once we taste this deep and lasting peace with God, we find that it also brings peace with ourselves in our souls and with other people too. It is the greatest Christmas gift.
O Holy night: ‘Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease’.
‘Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King: peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!” Joyful, all ye nations, rise, join the triumph of the skies…’
I wish Epictetus had known the source of peace he longed for was in Jesus. But we can know. I know this peace. No matter what happens to me in life – cancer, unemployment, the loss of loved ones, depression, anxiety, I can hold onto this amazing fact: I have peace with God forever and no one can take that from me. The sparkler soon burns out, and the Christmas trees are taken to the dump, but lasting joy at Christmas can be yours if you receive Jesus as your Saviour. Then you can know peace, forgiveness, the love of God, and know the security of having the security of a place in Heaven, paid for by Jesus.
I love the shepherds. They are the first to hear of Jesus’ birth. They believe God’s message through the angels. They go and see for themselves. Their simple faith is rewarded as they make their way to the house where Jesus was and apart from Mary and Joseph become the first to see the Saviour. They respond with joy and, like the angels, glorify God for this amazing gift. May the shepherd’s journey also be our journey. May God help us to go and see for ourselves what God has done in giving us his Son. May we respond like the angels and shepherds, with wonder and praise, giving glory to God.