Message Overview

Luke 2:8–20 — The Savior Has Arrived

Big Idea: The Savior has arrived.

Question: How will you respond to the greatest news you could ever receive—that the Savior has come?

The Need for a Savior

From the moment sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, the longing for a Savior began. We don’t have to look “out there” to see how badly we need saving—if we’re honest, we can look at God’s people and look at ourselves and see the effects of sin: shame, guilt, brokenness, sickness, death, and loss. We can’t fix it. But when we finally realize we can’t save ourselves, good things can begin to happen—we realize our need for the Savior.

Good News of Great Joy for All People

In Luke 2, the angel announces, “Fear not… I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” God chose to make the first announcement to shepherds—ordinary, despised, social outcasts who couldn’t keep all the ceremonial expectations. That tells us the coming of the Savior is truly good news for all people, and salvation isn’t about what we’ve done, what we can do, or what we can give—it’s about God and what He’s given for us.

Three Responses to the Arrival of the Savior

1) They went with haste

The shepherds responded immediately. “Haste” means urgent action—joyful, excited obedience. Real faith moves toward Jesus; it doesn’t just talk about Jesus. The question is: does your faith draw you to immediate action, obedience, and joy—or is it lukewarm and stagnant?

2) They made known what they had heard

After they saw Jesus, they told everyone. If shepherds can become bold witnesses, then the lie that “you’re not worthy” or “you don’t know enough” gets exposed. The question is simple: when was the last time you shared Jesus with someone?

3) They returned glorifying and praising God

They didn’t abandon their lives; they went back to where they were—glorifying and praising God, telling people they know Somebody who can save anybody. Start where you are: family, workplace, school, neighbors—right here in our backyards. The message is good news of great joy for all people.

Call to Respond

Jesus will return. So how will you respond today? Will you shrug and keep living the same way—or will today be a day of surrender, repentance, renewed faith, and joyful witness?

Lifegroup Guide

Warm-Up

• What’s a piece of “good news” you’ve received that you couldn’t wait to tell someone?
• When you think about following Jesus, do you tend to think “joy and excitement” or “rules and regulations”? Why?

Read

• Read Luke 2:8–20 out loud together.

Observation

• What do the angels announce, and to whom do they announce it?
• What do the shepherds do in verses 15–16? What do they do in verse 17? What do they do in verse 20?
• What words/phrases show the tone of the passage (fear, joy, haste, glorifying, praising)?

Interpretation

• Why does it matter that God chose shepherds—ordinary, overlooked people—as the first recipients of this announcement?
• The sermon emphasized: “Salvation isn’t about what we’ve done… it’s about God and what He’s given for you.” How do you see that truth in this story?
• How do “haste,” “making known,” and “returning glorifying God” fit together as a picture of genuine faith?

Application

• Haste: Where do you need to respond to Jesus with immediate obedience instead of delay?
• Make known: When was the last time you shared the gospel or your testimony? Who is one person you can speak with this week?
• Return: Where has God placed you right now (home, work, school, neighborhood) to live as a worshiper and a witness?
• Is your faith currently “joy and excitement,” or does it feel “lukewarm/stagnant”? What needs to change?

Prayer

• Thank God that the Savior has arrived—good news of great joy for all people.
• Confess where you’ve tried to “fix it” yourself instead of trusting Jesus.
• Ask for renewed joy, urgent obedience, and boldness to make Jesus known.
• Pray by name for one person who needs to hear the good news this week.

Memory Verse

Luke 2:10–11 — “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Full Transcript

I’m excited to share really good news. But it doesn’t start out good.

From the time that sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the longing for the Savior began. The need for the Savior to come and reconcile the broken relationship between God and man seemingly loomed larger and larger day after day.

And as we look to the Old Testament at the people of God—Israel—we see just how badly the need for the Savior truly is. And it would be easy to fall into the temptation to look at the outside world—those who don’t follow God, who don’t know God—and think, “Man, they’re really screwed up. They’re really sinful. We really do need a Savior.”

But we don’t have to look outside if we’re honest with ourselves. If we look at God’s people—if we look at ourselves—we quickly realize the need for the Savior, how great that really is.

As God’s people waited for the Savior to come, we see the effects of sin as they struggle with idolatry, disobedience, unbelief, and rebellion.

Now we’re going to take a minute and do something that might be a little more typical in the youth group setting—probably not on Sunday morning—so bear with me. I’m going to ask you to stand up if, when I say something, it applies to you. For example: stand up if you’re a Browns fan—all six of you stand up. Sit down. Sit down. We haven’t begun.

Stand up if you have ever felt shame, guilt, or emptiness.

Yeah, that got just about everyone last time. I didn’t expect that. I thought you wouldn’t be honest. But just stay standing until I say:

Please stand up if you’ve ever experienced broken relationships. That could be marriages, families, friendships.

Stand up if you’ve ever had health problems.

Stand up if your heart breaks for the widow, the orphan, or the stranger.

Stand up if you’ve ever felt lost or confused.

Stand up if you’ve ever lost someone you loved.

I’ll take a minute as you stand and look around. I assume everyone’s standing. Just look around. Turn around—look. You see everyone’s standing. We are all in the same boat. Every last one of us has been affected by sin.

You may be seated.

We all have been affected by sin. All of these things—the reasons we were standing—are because of the fall. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Sickness wasn’t supposed to be this way. Sadness wasn’t supposed to be this way. Broken relationships, guilt, shame—it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Losing your loved ones—it wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Sin has affected every family and every person. And now we must realize—we must come to this somber realization—that we cannot fix any of this. We can’t, can we? I mean, I can’t stop my grandma from passing away, can I? I can’t stop someone from getting sick. I can’t fill in the blank.

We must come to this somber realization that we cannot fix the problem of sin. We can’t fix the problem of sickness, of sadness, of death. No matter how hard we try, we can’t fix any of it.

But it is right there—when we come to this realization—that good things can begin to happen.

We have to realize our need for the Savior. It’s really hard to know you need the Savior if you don’t know what you’re being saved from. We have to realize that we can’t save ourselves. It’s hard to repent of sin if we don’t think we’re sinful.

We have to realize that without Jesus—the Messiah—we’re doomed. We’re lost, wandering, and we’re going to perish. Aren’t you thankful you came to church?

The good news revealed to us this morning in Luke chapter 2 is that the Savior has arrived. The Savior has arrived. And the question that I want us to ponder is: how will we respond?

How will you respond to the greatest news that we could ever receive—that the Savior has come?

We have a couple options. Will you continue to live the same old way? Will you continue to just say, “Man, I can’t stop sinning. I’m a slave to it. What’s the point of trying?” You could do that.

Or will today be a day of transformation? Will today be a day that, a long time from now, you look back on and say, “Man, that was the day that I surrendered. That was the day that God saved me. That was the day that I grew more and more like Jesus than I ever have before.”

We have received the greatest news that we could ever receive. The Savior has arrived. The question is: how will you respond?

Let us pray.

Father who art in heaven, Lord, we thank you for your love. We thank you for sending your Son, Lord, while we were dead in our sins. And Father, I pray today for everyone here. Lord, I pray for the body that you would continue to sanctify us, Lord—making us more and more like your Son Jesus, and less and less and less like ourselves.

Father, I pray for anyone here that doesn’t know you, that they would come to faith in you today. Lord, that we would all realize: we can’t save ourselves. It’s not about what we can do, what we can give, or what we’ve done—it’s about what you’ve done by sending your Son.

So Lord, would you be glorified through the words that are spoken this morning. We love you, and it’s in your name we pray. Amen.

The Gospel according to Luke, chapter 2, starting in verse 8, says this:

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and 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 among those with whom he is pleased!’

“When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

So we have these shepherds in the field, and they’re watching over their sheep—keeping them safe from predators like wolves and jackals, lions. Sounds like a manly job. I’m assuming they don’t have fences around their pasture. They’re grazing alongside the hill, and shepherds had to stay there throughout the night and keep watch, making sure the sheep are okay.

And all of a sudden an angel appears to them and scares them half to death. And the angel says, “Fear not. I bring good news of great joy.” That will be for who? That will be for Americans? That will be for one race? That will be for one country? No. “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.”

If I know anything about how country people are—and I’m assuming these shepherds probably didn’t have soft hands and wear suits and ties—country folk are a little standoffish to new things, right? We’re a little unsure about new ideas or new things. So I imagine the shepherds going, “Tell me more.”

And what the angel is about to say will change the course of history forever. The angel says, “For you—get that—for you, this day a Savior has been born.”

The greatest news that has ever been told—while sin had been ravaging families, people, nations—on what may have felt for the shepherds like another night of work, another ordinary night, probably not thinking of the Messiah but rather thinking, “How can I keep these sheep safe?”—without realizing it, that night their lives would be forever changed.

I don’t want us to miss how big of a deal this is—that the angel appeared to shepherds. Shepherds weren’t respected. Shepherds were despised by orthodox “good people.” They were despised by religious people. They were despised because they couldn’t keep the ceremonial law. They couldn’t observe all the hand washings, the rules and regulations, because they were busy tending their sheep—who may not always have been clean.

Because of this, the orthodox looked down on them. And yet, knowing all of this, it was the simple men of the field that God’s message first came to.

God could have chosen anyone, could he not have? God could have chosen anyone to receive this message—the greatest message ever received. But he chose the simple men who were despised, who were social outcasts.

If it was you or I picking, we probably wouldn’t have picked the social outcasts. We probably wouldn’t have picked someone disrespected. We would have thought we have to get someone respected to be the one to tell, right?

If I’m given this amazing news, I’m thinking: how can I tell everyone as quick as possible? We’ve got to get the word out. The Savior has arrived. I’m probably thinking of the president. Let’s call Don up—“Don, the King’s here, baby. Tweet it out.” I’ll call Elon—he’s got X or whatever—get the word out. The King is here.

I’m calling the great—like Billy Graham. “Billy, man, you’ve been preaching for it. The King is here.”

But that’s not what God did.

God chose to make the first announcement of the arrival of the Savior to lowly, despised shepherds—those that society threw aside and said they aren’t worth much.

This reveals to us that the coming of the Savior is truly good news for all people. God meeting the shepherds in the field via the angel reveals to us: this is amazing news for all people. Not just male, not just rich, not just one ethnicity—forget about it.

The coming of the Savior is truly good news for all people.

And as we see here, the message coming to ordinary shepherds reveals that salvation isn’t about what we’ve done. Salvation isn’t about what you can do. It’s not about what you can give. Rather, salvation is about God and what he’s given for you.

So maybe you feel like you’re at the top. Maybe you feel like you’re at the bottom. Or maybe for a lot of us, we feel like we’re in the middle. No matter what, Jesus Christ—the Messiah—was sent to save you. He was sent to save ordinary Knox County folk. Do you get that? Do you believe that the Messiah was sent to save ordinary people just like you and me?

Are you thankful for that? Have you really thought about that—that Jesus was sent to save ordinary people like you and me before we were ever thought of by anyone else?

So the question to wrestle with is again: how do you respond? How do you respond to the arrival of the Savior?

The shepherds responded in three ways.

We see the first response in verse 16: “And they went with haste.”

Haste. I don’t know about you, but that’s not a word I use. Until this week, I never really knew what it meant. I’ve read this passage a hundred times—haste, haste, haste—whatever.

That means they went immediately with action. They didn’t wait around. They didn’t think, “I have to tend to these sheep.” They didn’t think, “Man, it’s not the weekend. I’m supposed to be working.” No—they went. They went demonstrating that this is urgent, that this is great, that they have to go and see Jesus.

Does your faith draw you to immediate action? Think about that.

Does your faith draw you to immediate action? When you think about your faith, do you think about all the things your faith pushes you to do?

Or is your faith more like: “Well, I pray seven times a week and read the Bible eight times and I go to church on Sunday and I might go to a life group. I do those things because that’s what I know I’m supposed to do.”

What does your faith look like? Does it call you to immediate action?

Do you use your time for God—to grow in your relationship with him, to witness by telling others about him? Do you use your talents for God? Do you use your treasure for God? Does your faith draw you to do something?

If the answer is no—do you have faith in Jesus? Or is your faith nothing more than saying, “Yeah, I love Jesus”?

Haste means they went with overwhelming joy and excitement. They didn’t half-walk over—“Man, there’s the Savior.” No, they went with joy and excitement, understanding that so much of life is vanity. It’s meaningless. I have so many hobbies, so many things I love to do. I do realize, though, most of it’s meaningless.

The shepherds realized: this is literally everything. The Savior has arrived. There’s literally no greater news that you could give someone.

I remember Christmas morning—walking down the stairs as a kid—the joy and excitement you have for those presents. When you think of your faith, do you think of joy and excitement, or do you think of rules and regulations?

Is your faith exciting to you? Is following Jesus joyous, or is it just: “Man, this is what I do to be a morally good person”?

When you think about your faith, are you filled with joy and excitement because Jesus has saved you—understanding that you needed saved, you couldn’t save yourself—and he has saved you from what? Sin, death, and hell. All that stuff we stood up because of.

Or do you have a gross, lukewarm, stagnant faith like a whitewashed tomb? You look real nice on the outside, but your faith doesn’t bear any fruit at all.

Are you filled with joy and excitement knowing what Jesus has saved you from?

Their haste demonstrates that they believed what they were told. If the shepherds didn’t believe the angel, why would they go? They believed what they had been told.

Does your faith draw you to obedience? Again: do you say you love Jesus and live a godless life? Or do you have genuine faith that draws you to want to obey the Lord? It doesn’t mean you do it perfectly, but it means you have that desire to want to obey him—to be more and more like Jesus and less and less like your flesh.

Do you have haste when it comes to serving God? When you think of prayer and worship—when you think of what it means to serve the one true King—do you think of action, doing something? Do you think of joy and excitement? Do you think of obedience?

Or do you think: “This sucks. We have so much we have to follow. We have so much we’re supposed to do.” Which is it?

The second response we see is in verse 17: “And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.”

The shepherds responded by making known the miraculous news of Jesus’ birth. They went and told everyone of the amazing news.

When someone has told you something amazing—I don’t know about you, maybe it’s because I’m an extrovert—but I want to tell everyone. I want to go tell everyone what I’ve heard.

They went and told everyone this amazing news: the Messiah—the Lord—has arrived, that he has been born. These lowly shepherds, despised by society, outcasts, go from that to great evangelists real quick.

There’s a temptation to think: “Am I really worthy of sharing good news with anyone?” There’s a temptation to think, “Am I enough? Do I know enough? Have I read enough of the Bible? Am I holy enough?”

But if these shepherds teach us anything at all, they should teach us that that’s a lie from the devil.

They should teach us to go—with joy and excitement—to share the good news: the greatest news that has ever been told—that the Savior has arrived and he has come to save.

Do you make known the good news of the Savior? Think about that.

Or maybe a good question to ask yourself would be: when was the last time you shared Jesus with someone? When was the last time you told someone the good news of the gospel?

Do you make known the good news of the Savior? Do you make it a point—a habit in your life—to make known the good news of Jesus?

Our culture loves to make things known—especially on social media, don’t we? We like everyone to know exactly what we think about everything. We like everyone to know all our opinions.

What about Jesus? Do you make him known? Do you make known the good news of the Savior?

The third response we see is in verse 20: “And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

There’s a trap we often fall into where we say, “Okay, Jesus has saved me and now I need to tell others. So where do I go? Who do I tell?”

Don’t get me wrong—God does call some of us to pick up everything, sell everything, and move across the country or move across the world. But clearly, that isn’t the story of most of us, is it? If it was, we wouldn’t all be sitting here together.

So what do the shepherds do? What can we learn from them? The shepherds returned. It doesn’t say they went on a crusade and preached to everyone. It says they returned glorifying and praising God.

They returned telling everybody that they know somebody who can save anybody.

So what do we need to do? We just need to go tell everybody right where you are. Tell them the good news—the greatest news—that the Savior has arrived.

Where do you start? Start with your family. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got people in my family that don’t know Jesus. Tell those you work with, you go to school with. Tell your neighbors. Tell that person that serves you coffee. Tell everyone—just like the shepherds.

Don’t tell them in a way like, “I have to do this.” Tell them with joy and excitement—with haste—like the shepherds did.

Where do we go? We go right here in our backyards—in this county. I don’t know if you’ve realized, but there are a lot of people here in this county that need Jesus, that need to hear the good news of the gospel.

Many times we fall into this lie that there are some people in our lives who we shouldn’t share the good news with. We all know somebody—the faces are coming to mind right now—where it’s like they’re standoffish, or they’re part of a different religion.

So we fall into this temptation set by the enemy that those people—we shouldn’t share the good news with.

But if I’m reading the Scripture right, it says: good news of great joy—for who? For all people.

If that’s the case, then we probably should share it with all people. Let that give us confidence that whether people think they need to hear the good news or not this Christmas season, it truly indeed is good news for all people.

Someday, on an ordinary day—just like it felt for the shepherds—Jesus will return. He will return not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him, just as it says in the letter to the Hebrews.

So one last time I ask you: how will you respond to the good news that the Savior has arrived? How will you respond today?

Will you respond saying, “I knew that,” and go on living the same old way? Or will you respond saying, “Father, please save me”?

Will you respond surrendering? Will you respond by saying, “Man, yeah, I know Jesus, but I’ve been stagnant. I’ve been in the mud”?

How will you respond to the good news that the Savior has come to save?

Let us pray.

Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for this day. God, we thank you for your love and your mercy. Lord, we thank you that while we were still sinners—stuck in our old ways—you saw it fit to send your Son, Jesus.

Lord, I pray for everyone here today. Lord, you know where each person’s at. Lord, I pray you would convict our hearts and reveal to us that we are in desperate need of the great Savior.

I pray for anyone here that doesn’t know you, or anyone here that has a family member or a friend who’s lost and wandering. Lord, we pray for salvation.

We pray you would use us as you used the shepherds—ordinary people. Lord, we pray you would use ordinary Knox County folk—just like everyone in this room—to reach lost people with your good news.

Lord, would that be a priority in our lives—to grow more and more like your Son Jesus, and to share what you have done—by conquering sin, death, and hell.

God, we give you all the praise today. In your name we pray. Amen.