Luke 2:8-20

"A Great Joy for all the People"

I've been given the task of doing a short talk for a youth and children Bible group Christmas party. The passage I've chosen to base the talk on is Luke 2:8-19:
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Here's what I've got so far (not the finished version!), with some "helpful" doodles to accompany it:

It's coming up to Christmas, and soon, perhaps already, we're going to be hearing the Christmas story again and again. In fact I'm guessing most of you are already quite familiar with how it goes. Mary becomes pregnant with a promised baby from God

Then Mary and Joseph have to travel all the way to Bethlehem because the Roman Emperor has ordered everyone return to their home town to get recorded

But there's nowhere that will take them for the night

and Jesus has to be born in a stable

But I wonder how we respond to this message? I don't know about you, but I often get quite tempted to switch off when people start talking about the Christmas story. It's not that I don't care as such, it's just that I've heard it so many times!

But I don't think that is how I, or we if you're like me, should respond to this. What do the angels say when they appear to the shepherds?

They say that this is "good news that will cause great joy for all the people"! They say that Jesus is the Lord, he is God, and he's come to save us, to rescue us from death and judgement! It's amazing, life-changing news!

So what's a good response? Well, let's see how the people in the passage respond.

How do the angels react to this news? They praise God, "Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest! And on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests."

And how do the shepherds react? "They spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child" then, "the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God".

I think that there are two big things we can learn about how we should respond to Christmas from this.

The first is we should want to tell other people, like the shepherds did, straight away! Because this really is good news, we want everyone to be saved and to join in with the celebration!

And the second is that we should want to praise God for it! He came as a baby in a stable to save us from death, because he loves us, what could be more worth praising?

So let's enjoy Christmas! Let's celebrate like never before, let's enjoy our mince pies, our Christmas trees and our Christmas parties with friends and family, Christmas is worth celebrating! But as we do, let's take the opportunity to tell those who don't know, why Christmas really is so good, and to praise God with those who do.