◄ Luke 2:20 ►
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, which was just as the angel had told them.
Study Bible
The shepherds returned,

The shepherds went back to their ordinary responsibilities after seeing the newborn Messiah in Bethlehem. God had chosen laborers watching flocks near the city of David as the first public witnesses of His Son’s birth, showing that His saving revelation comes to the humble and receptive rather than the self-important.

Luk 24:33-35 And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.…
Act 14:27 When they arrived, they gathered the church together…
Mat 2:12 And having been warned in a dream not to return…

glorifying and praising God

Worship marked their response to God’s faithfulness. Like Mary and Zechariah, they recognized that God had acted decisively to fulfill His promises. Their praise arose not from speculation but from a personal encounter with the Savior God had announced.

Luk 17:15-18 When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back,…
Luk 18:43 Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus…
Act 3:8-9 He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Then he went…

for all they had heard and seen,

The shepherds heard the angelic proclamation and saw the child lying in a manger, exactly as they had been directed. Their testimony rested on God’s revealed word and on visible confirmation of that word, making them fitting witnesses to the beginning of Christ’s earthly life.

1Jn 1:1-3 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,…
Act 4:20 For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen…
2Pe 1:16-18 For we did not follow cleverly devised fables…

which was just as the angel had told them.

Every detail confirmed the truthfulness of God’s message. The Lord’s promises concerning the Messiah were not vague hopes but were fulfilled in history through Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.

Luk 1:26-38 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel…
Mat 1:20-24 But after he had pondered these things, an angel of the Lord…
Luk 1:45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word…

Persons / Places / Events
1. Shepherds
Humble, everyday workers who were chosen by God to be the first to hear the news of Jesus' birth. Their role highlights God's favor towards the lowly and humble.

2. Angels
Heavenly messengers who announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, signifying the divine nature of the message and the importance of the event.

3. Bethlehem
The town where Jesus was born, fulfilling the prophecy of the Messiah's birthplace as foretold in the Old Testament.

4. Jesus' Birth
The central event of this passage, marking the incarnation of God in human form, which is the foundation of the Christian faith.

5. Glorifying and Praising God
The response of the shepherds after witnessing the fulfillment of the angel's message, demonstrating a model of worship and gratitude.
Teaching Points
Humility and Divine Favor
God often chooses the humble and lowly to reveal His glory, reminding us that social status does not determine our worth in God's eyes.

Faithful Witnessing
Like the shepherds, we are called to share the good news of Jesus with others, glorifying and praising God for what He has done in our lives.

Worship as a Response
True encounters with God should lead us to worship and praise, acknowledging His greatness and the fulfillment of His promises.

Trust in God's Promises
The shepherds' experience confirms that God's word is trustworthy and will come to pass, encouraging us to hold fast to His promises in our own lives.

Joy in Salvation
The joy and praise of the shepherds reflect the joy of salvation that should characterize our lives as believers, inspiring us to live with gratitude and hope.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the role of the shepherds in this passage challenge our understanding of who God chooses to reveal His plans to?

2. In what ways can we, like the shepherds, glorify and praise God in our daily lives for what we have seen and heard?

3. How does the fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus' birth strengthen your faith in the reliability of God's Word?

4. What are some practical ways we can share the good news of Jesus with others, following the example of the shepherds?

5. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's faithfulness. How did you respond, and how can you cultivate a lifestyle of worship and gratitude?
Connections to Other Scriptures
The shepherds' response can be connected to the Psalms, where glorifying and praising God is a recurring theme, emphasizing the importance of worship in response to God's works.

The announcement by angels parallels other biblical instances where angels deliver significant messages, such as to Mary and Joseph, highlighting the continuity of God's communication with humanity.

The fulfillment of prophecy in Jesus' birth connects to Old Testament prophecies, such as those in Isaiah and Micah, underscoring the reliability and sovereignty of God's plan.
Sermons
Dignifying Common LifeDr. Raleigh., J. Parker, D. D.Luke 2:20
Shepherds Glorifying God for the Birth of a SaviourJ. Lathrop, D. D.Luke 2:20
The Changed WorldNewman Smyth, D. D.Luke 2:20
The Savior's Birth and Type Angel's SermonR.M. Edgar Luke 2:1-20
People
Anna, Aser, Asher, Augustus, Cyrenius, David, Jesus, Joseph, Mary, Phanuel, Simeon
Places
Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judea, Nazareth, Rome, Syria
Topics
Accordance, Announcement, Ears, Giving, Glorifying, Glory, Keepers, Praise, Praising, Returned, Sheep, Shepherds, Spoken
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Luke 2:20

     2039   Christ, joy of
     8440   glorifying God
     8667   praise, examples

Luke 2:1-20

     2515   Christ, birth of

Luke 2:1-40

     5652   babies

Luke 2:8-20

     4112   angels, messengers

Library
December 25. "I Bring You Glad Tidings" (Luke ii. 10).
"I bring you glad tidings" (Luke ii. 10). A Christmas spirit should be a spirit of humanity. Beside that beautiful object lesson on the Manger, the Cradle, and the lowly little child, what Christian heart can ever wish to be proud? It is a spirit of joy. It is right that these should be glad tidings, for, "Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all people." It is a spirit of love. It should be the joy that comes from giving joy to others. The central fact of Christmas is …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Was, Is, is to Come
'... The babe lying in a manger...'--LUKE ii. 16. '... While He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven...'--LUKE xxiv. 51. 'This same Jesus... shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go...'--ACTS I. 11. These three fragments, which I have ventured to isolate and bring together, are all found in one author's writings. Luke's biography of Jesus stretches from the cradle in Bethlehem to the Ascension from Olivet. He narrates the Ascension twice, because it has two …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Boy in the Temple
'And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought Me! wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' --LUKE ii. 49. A number of spurious gospels have come down to us, which are full of stories, most of them absurd and some of them worse, about the infancy of Jesus Christ. Their puerilities bring out more distinctly the simplicity, the nobleness, the worthiness of this one solitary incident of His early days, which has been preserved for us. How has it been preserved? If you will look over …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Simeon's Swan-Song
'Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: 30. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.'--LUKE ii. 29,30. That scene, when the old man took the Infant in his withered arms, is one of the most picturesque and striking in the Gospel narrative. Simeon's whole life appears, in its later years, to have been under the immediate direction of the Spirit of God. It is very remarkable to notice how, in the course of three consecutive verses, the operation of that divine Spirit …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Shepherds and Angels
'And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. 10. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Angel's Message and Song
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the LORD came upon them, and the glory of the LORD shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the LORD . And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

December the Nineteenth the Sun of Righteousness
"A light to lighten the Gentiles." --LUKE ii. 25-40. That was the wonder of wonders. Hitherto the light had been supposed to be for Israel alone; and now a heavenly splendour was to fall upon the Gentiles. Hitherto the light had been thought of as a lamp, illuming a single place; now it was to be a sun, shedding its glory upon a world. The "people that sat in darkness" are now to see "a great light." New regions are to be occupied; there is to be daybreak everywhere! "The Sun of Righteousness …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

December the Twenty-Fifth Christmas Cheer
"Good will toward men!" --LUKE ii. 8-20. The heavens are not filled with hostility. The sky does not express a frown. When I look up I do not contemplate a face of brass, but the face of infinite good will. Yet when I was a child, many a picture has made me think of God as suspicious, inhumanly watchful, always looking round the corner to catch me at the fall. That "eye," placed in the sky of many a picture, and placed there to represent God, filled my heart with a chilling fear. That God was …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Religious Joy.
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."--Luke ii. 10, 11. There are two principal lessons which we are taught on the great Festival which we this day celebrate, lowliness and joy. This surely is a day, of all others, in which is set before us the heavenly excellence and the acceptableness in God's sight of that state which …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

The Wilderness: Temptation. Matthew 4:1-11. Mark 1:12, 13. Luke 4:1-13.
The University of Arabia: Jesus' naturalness--the Spirit's presence--intensity, Luke 2:45-51.--a true perspective--- the temptation's path--sin's path--John's grouping, 1 John 2:16.--the Spirit's plan--why--the devil's weakness--the Spirit's leading--a wilderness for every God-used man, Moses, Elijah, Paul. Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar: Jesus the only one led up to be tempted--the wilderness--its history, Genesis 13:10-13. 18:16-19:38.--Jesus really tempted--no wrong here in inner response--every …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Joy Born at Bethlehem
In our text we have before us the sermon of the first evangelist under the gospel dispensation. The preacher was an angel, and it was meet it should be so, for the grandest and last of all evangels will be proclaimed by an angel when he shall sound the trumpet of the resurrection, and the children of the regeneration shall rise into the fullness of their joy. The key-note of this angelic gospel is joy--"I bring unto you good tidings of great joy." Nature fears in the presence of God--the shepherds …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

"Nunc Dimittis"
We shall note, this morning, first, that every believer may be assured of departing in peace; but that, secondly, some believers feel a special readiness to depart now: "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace;" and, thirdly, that there are words of encouragement to produce in us the like readiness: "according to thy word." There are words of Holy Writ which afford richest consolation in prospect of departure. I. First, then, let us start with the great general principle, which is full of comfort; …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Christ About his Father's Business
But now I shall invite your attention, first, to the spirit of the Saviour, as breathed in these words, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" and then, secondly, I shall exhort the children of God, with all the earnestness which I can command, with all the intensity of power which I can summon to the point, to labour after the same spirit, that they too may unfeignedly say, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? " I. First, then note THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. It was …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

The First Christmas Carol
Let us turn aside, having just thought of angels for a moment, to think rather of this song, than of the angels themselves. Their song was brief, but as Kitto excellently remarks, it was "well worthy of angels expressing the greatest and most blessed truths, in words so few, that they become to an acute apprehension, almost oppressive by the pregnant fulness of their meaning"--"Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men." We shall, hoping to be assisted by the Holy Spirit, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Christ's Boyhood
LUKE ii. 52. And Jesus increased in wisdom, and in stature, and in favour both with God and man. I do not pretend to understand these words. I preach on them because the Church has appointed them for this day. And most fitly. At Christmas we think of our Lord's birth. What more reasonable, than that we should go on to think of our Lord's boyhood? To think of this aright, even if we do not altogether understand it, ought to help us to understand rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ; …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

The Christ Child (Christmas Day. )
LUKE ii. 7. And she brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapt him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. Mother and child.--Think of it, my friends, on Christmas day. What more beautiful sight is there in the world? What more beautiful sight, and what more wonderful sight? What more beautiful? That man must be very far from the kingdom of God--he is not worthy to be called a man at all--whose heart has not been touched by the sight of his first child in its mother's bosom. The greatest …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Music (Christmas Day. )
LUKE ii. 13, 14. 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, good will toward men. You have been just singing Christmas hymns; and my text speaks of the first Christmas hymn. Now what the words of that hymn meant; what Peace on earth and good-will towards man meant, I have often told you. To-day I want you, for once, to think of this--that it was a hymn; that these angels were singing, even as …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Of Having Confidence in God when Evil Words are Cast at Us
"My Son, stand fast and believe in Me. For what are words but words? They fly through the air, but they bruise no stone. If thou are guilty, think how thou wouldst gladly amend thyself; if thou knowest nothing against thyself, consider that thou wilt gladly bear this for God's sake. It is little enough that thou sometimes hast to bear hard words, for thou art not yet able to bear hard blows. And wherefore do such trivial matters go to thine heart, except that thou art yet carnal, and regardest …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The Birth of Jesus.
(at Bethlehem of Judæa, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke II. 1-7. ^c 1 Now it came to pass in those days [the days of the birth of John the Baptist], there went out a decree [a law] from Cæsar Augustus [Octavius, or Augustus, Cæsar was the nephew of and successor to Julius Cæsar. He took the name Augustus in compliment to his own greatness; and our month August is named for him; its old name being Sextilis], that all the world should be enrolled. [This enrollment or census was the first step …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Circumcision, Temple Service, and Naming of Jesus.
(the Temple at Jerusalem, b.c. 4) ^C Luke II. 21-39. ^c 21 And when eight days [Gen. xvii. 12] were fulfilled for circumcising him [The rite was doubtless performed by Joseph. By this rite Jesus was "made like unto his brethren" (Heb. ii. 16, 17); that is, he became a member of the covenant nation, and became a debtor to the law--Gal. v. 3] , his name was called JESUS [see Luke i. 59], which was so called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. [Luke i. 31.] 22 And when the days of their …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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