The Angels Did Say

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" ... "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." (Luke 1:26–33)

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows... an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." (Matthew 1:18–21)

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 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." (Luke 2:9–11)

What did the angels did say? The whole story of Christmas is hidden in the message of the messengers of God.

What the Angels Did Say

Although we didn't sing it tonight, many of you know that popular old Christmas song, The First Noel. It begins with the line, "The First Noel the angels did say." Tonight I want to look at what the angels did say. As we look at the story of the First Noel, we find that three different times—in Luke 1, in Matthew 1, and in Luke 2—the angels speak about the coming of the Lord.

The first comes in Luke 1:26, where the angel Gabriel is sent to Mary, a virgin betrothed to Joseph of the house of David. The second comes in Matthew 1, to Joseph, assuring him that the child conceived in Mary is of the Holy Spirit. The third comes in Luke 2, where not just one angel but an entire host appears to the shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem.

A Good God Who Loves to Give Good Gifts

For the last four Sundays leading up to Christmas, we have been meditating upon the gifts of the Lord—the gifts so beautifully pictured at this time of year as we celebrate the coming of Jesus by giving and receiving gifts. Throughout that series I have shared four driving points: our good God loves to give good gifts; He gives them that we would enjoy them; our enjoyment of His good gifts brings Him glory and praise; and finally, He gives them that we would share them with others.

I assume there are many of you here tonight who love to give good gifts. And one of the things I've observed is that people who love to give often have a hard time containing the surprise. Once they have the gift wrapped—maybe even under the tree weeks early—they can hardly keep it back, so they start dropping hints. "Don't you want to know what it is?" My wife is like this. She's at work right now, so I can talk about her at this service.

God Could Hardly Contain the Surprise

As I've looked through the Scriptures, I think our God, who loves to give good gifts, does that very thing all the way up to the coming of the great gift—Jesus Christ. For centuries, through the prophets, God could hardly contain the surprise. He kept dropping hints.

It goes all the way back to the fall of humanity. In Genesis 3:15 we have the first prophetic hint about the coming of this gift—the very one the angels speak of, who would be named Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. The name Jesus, or Yahushua, means "the Lord is salvation." There God reveals that the one who would deal with sin, brokenness, and death would be a male child born of a woman.

Tracing the Hints Through the Old Testament

Move down to Genesis 12, and you discover this male child would come through the line of Abraham. Continue through Genesis 17 and 22, and you find He would come through Abraham, then through his son Isaac, then through Jacob. So all along the way it is a male child born of a woman, from the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Then in Genesis 49:9, God reveals this child would come from the tribe of Judah—the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Come to 2 Samuel 7, and you discover He would be a son of David, of the royal line. The prophet Isaiah, some 2,800 years ago, reveals in Isaiah 7:14 that He would be born by miraculous means, conceived of a virgin, and that He would be God incarnate—called Emmanuel, God with us. In Isaiah 9:6, He would be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, establishing a kingdom with no end. And Micah 5:2 declares He would be born in Bethlehem.

I could go on and on, because the prophecies of Christ's first coming are many—and there are many about His second coming as well. But in all of this we see that our God could hardly contain the surprise of His great gift.

The Heavenly Hosts Announce the Gift

Then, when the time finally came and the gift was to be revealed, God dispatched His heavenly hosts—the angelic messengers—to carry the message to humanity that now is the time.

The first message came to Mary: "Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus." He will be great, called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, just as prophesied in 2 Samuel 7. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will have no end. He still rules and reigns—we look forward to His kingdom coming here on earth as it is in heaven, but even now He rules and reigns from heaven.

The angel then comes to Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary but had not yet been joined to her as husband. Finding her with child, Joseph—a just man—is wrestling with how to deal with the situation without bringing the law down upon her, for in that day such a matter was dealt with by capital punishment. The angel comes to him in a dream and says, "Do not be afraid to take Mary to be your wife, because that which is conceived is of the Holy Spirit. You will call His name Jesus, and He will save His people from their sins."

The First Time Angels Looked Upon the Lord

Then comes that glorious scene in Luke 2, where not just one angel but an entire host gathers to tell a group of shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem that the gift—the Savior—had come.

I had the privilege this last week of sharing at a Christmas gathering for Blue Letter Bible, where my friend David Guzik and his wife were present. Afterward, as I was talking with his wife about this passage, it occurred to me that when the whole host of heaven crowded there in Bethlehem, it may have been the very first time they could look upon the Lord with their eyes. When we see angels described in the Old Testament, they always cover their eyes with their wings in the presence of God; they are never able to look upon the King of Kings. Until that moment—when He was there in Bethlehem in the flesh—and they came to worship Him and rejoice, because the gift had come.

Why We Gather to Rejoice

What gift? The gift to bring salvation to all humanity. Every century since, every year since the coming of Christ, the church has rejoiced in His coming. There are discussions about whether He was actually born on December 25th, but that is pointless to debate. What matters is that He came—He came to save us from our sins, to release us from the burden of sin and death, and to bring joy, peace, rest, love, and hope, all the things we've been talking about these last several weeks.

That is why we gather at this time of year: to rejoice in the wonderful things God has done in and through Jesus Christ, the things He has done in our lives, and the things He desires that we would share with others.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, we rejoice tonight. We praise You for the good gifts that You have poured out upon us, God, in abundance. You have given us every spiritual blessing, but all those blessings come in Christ. He is the Christmas gift; He is the package in which love, joy, peace, and gentleness are all found. Lord, I pray that as all of us here have partaken of those gifts, we would distribute them to other people this season, and that You would be glorified in and over our lives as we rejoice in the good things You have done. Stir our hearts now to sing with abandon, with nothing held back, as we sing glory to You. We pray this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, Amen.