Good News

12/21/2014 Reading: Isaiah 11:1-9

Text: Luke 2:8-20

Don't you love a good story?

If there ever was a story that has been embellished with

traditions and celebrations this one takes the cake. The story

of Jesus birth. Last week we looked at Isaiah 9 where the

prophet says, "unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given

and the government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall

be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace..."

We saw how God often does His greatest works through humble

beginnings, such as the birth of a child. I'm sure all you who

here here last week remember all about this.

Well, this week let’s look at the birth of Christ through Luke's

gospel. And next week we will see what Matthew says about it.

By looking at Jesus birth from the Old Testament first and then

seeing how the gospel writers tell of this event we learn many

things to help us see God's faithfulness and love. This gives us

more assurance today, when our world seems to be moving farther

and farther away from God.

We start with Luke only because he is my favorite. And as we

study we will learn some great things about Luke's gospel that

should help in understanding the rest of this book.

You'll appreciate this, listen to the introduction of Luke from

the Student Bible.

(Read Intro.)

Here's a couple of other things we need to know as we read this

book. Luke 1-2 and 10-19 contain information about Jesus that

none of the other gospels record.

Luke is the most positive writer of the four gospel writers, and

in fact most of the traditional story of Christ's birth is found

only here. Angels singing, shepherds coming to see the baby, the

manger scene, no room in the inn, and why they made the trip to

Bethlehem in the first place. Matthew gives us the star and the

wise men, which Luke did not record. Probably because they did

not come on the night Jesus was born, but only some months

later.

Luke totally ignores the problems of Herod, and the part about

Joseph and Mary's fleeing to Egypt to hide from him. Matthew

gives us that. But like I said, we will see Matthew next week.

There is so much that we could get into here, but I have chosen

to focus on verses 8-20 of chapter 2 for our lesson today.

Listen to this part about the Shepherds and the Angels and follow

along with me, or close your eyes and imagine the scene as Luke

is guided by the Spirit to tell us.

(Read Luke 2:8-20)

These shepherds lived outside. When we were in Romania we saw

some shepherds up in the hills. To this day, shepherds still

live outside with the sheep over there. They have huge sheepskin

coats that they use as a shelter from the weather. We got a

picture of Jenny in one. We had stopped on the side of the road

in the mountains and along comes this wagon pulled by horses and

filled with hay and drunk shepherds. Boy were they friendly...

too friendly. You could smell them coming. A rich blend of

alcohol and B.O. We were sure impressed.

Shepherds are often poor people, but not always. Abraham, Isaac,

Jacob, and David were all shepherds, and none of them were of

poor families. In fact, in Romania, my translator told me that

the shepherds were the richest people in Romania. They just

chose to live in the great outdoors near the earth and the

livestock. So its not that these people just couldn't get a good

job in town, they usually chose to be shepherds, believe it or

not. It is true that a lot of the shepherds even in Jesus day

were among the poor. And many of them never became noted

scholars. In fact, from the history of Jesus day we know that

shepherds had a reputation of being uneducated. The Pharisees

considered them unreliable as witnesses. And as a reputable

means of making a living, shepherding did not rate high in the

days of Jesus.

But God loves shepherds. Jesus identifies himself as the good

shepherd. And when Heaven announced the birth of God's Son the

audience God chose was not a group of the upper elite class, but

instead a group of shepherds watching their sheep at night.

And when He did, it scared them to pieces!

Shepherds have a reputation for bravery. They fight off wolves

and lions and bears and thieves. But this was different. The

whole night exploded into light and glory and unearthly visitors!

Its a wonder any of them were conscious enough to hear what the

angel said. But listen to the words of the angel again... This