We have spent some time during this holiday season talking about how God
• Choose Shepherds to be the recipients of the announcement about His Son being born.
• And when we think about this from a worldly point of view it sounds ridiculous.
• Why would God choose to make this announcement to the lowest of the low?
• Why wouldn’t He choose to tell the important people, the Religious leaders, the media, somebody, anybody, other than Shepherds.
• And yet, this is the way that God’s choose to announce Jesus birth.
• And what we need to understand is that God’s ways are certainly not our ways.
A. (READ Luke 2:8-15)
Somehow, when we hear about shepherds coming to the manger and seeing the Christ-child it makes us feel warm inside.
• Because If shepherds are important to God, then we are important, too.
• God loves the common people, and God loves us!
B. Now let’s look at another very familiar passage in Matthew 2, beginning with
vs. 1. (READ Matt 2:1-12)
What we see here is that the story of the wise men is also a story of love / worship / adoration.
• They represent the important people of the time
• The rich, the educated, the learned.
• We see that these people are valuable to God as well.
• Whenever we think of the shepherds & the wise men,
• It promotes feelings of love & joy & worship.
C. But at the same time when we think of King Herod we see darkness & hatred & death.
• In verse 16 we read this terrible statement,
• "When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, / he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, who were two years old & under."
Why do you think it is that some people react like Herod did?
• While others react like the shepherds and the wise men?
• Some people are filled with love and happiness,
• While others are filled with darkness and despair?
Now tonight I think we can learn something about this
• As we look again at what these Scriptures tell us about the shepherds, the wise men, and Herod.
• Maybe through it all Christmas will mean even more to us.
I. FIRST WE CAN SEE THAT GOD CAN WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE PREPARED TO RECEIVE HIS MESSAGE
• I think that one of the reasons that God chose to make this announcement to the shepherds and the wise men
• Was because they were prepared, / they were ready. \
• The soil of their souls, / hearts had been plowed It was ready for the good news.
A. I mean Who better to understood the idea of sacrifice than shepherds?
• Do you realize how close Bethlehem is to Jerusalem?
• They are just a few miles apart, separated only by some hills,
• And it's on those hills that the shepherds raised their sheep.
ILL. History tells us that many of the sheep raised on those hills between Jerusalem & Bethlehem
• Were raised with the sole purpose of being used as sacrifices in the Temple at Jerusalem.
• You see, once a year every Jewish family was supposed to come to Jerusalem
• And offer sacrifices in the Temple for their sins.
• And the animal that they sacrificed was generally a lamb.
• And They usually didn’t bring a sacrificial lamb along on the long journey with them.
• Instead, they waited until they got to there and then bought a lamb.
So these shepherds knew about sacrifice.
• They spent their lives on the hills outside of Bethlehem watching little lambs be born.
• They watched them grow up. They watched them mature.
• The whole time realizing that someday a priest would come and buy them
• And take them back to the temple to offer as sacrifices for the sins of the people.
• They realized that sin was so bad in God’s eyes that it required the shedding of blood.
• It required the giving of life.
• So how appropriate is it that these shepherds should be the first to hear about the "Lamb of God" who would be "the Savior, Christ the Lord."
They were ready. Their minds were uncomplicated.
• They weren’t great theologians.
• They didn’t think of reasons not to believe. They just believed.
• Their hearts and their souls were ready.
• And when God spoke through the angels they listened.
• They listened and accepted the news with great joy.
B. The wise men were also prepared.
• Evidently they had studied the great prophets of Israel.
• We aren't for sure where they came from
• All we are told is that they came from the east.
• But somehow, we do know that they were waiting. That they were hoping.
• And when they saw that bright light, that star shining,
• They knew that it meant something special.
• They thought about all of the things they had learned and they were ready to make their journey.
• Because they knew that this star meant that somewhere a king had been born.
• He had been born and they wanted to worship Him. They were prepared / ready for Christmas.
C. But King Herod wasn’t ready.
• Have you ever wondered why Herod didn’t see the star?
• If it was bright enough for wise men to see it in far countries, it was bright enough for Herod to see it too.
• So Why didn’t Herod hear the announcement of the angels?
• Why didn’t he see the heavens lit up?
• He could have seen. / have heard.
• But he didn’t have eyes that were ready to see / ears to hear.
Christmas came to Herod in the same way that it came to wise men and shepherds,
• In the form of a star.
• But Herod didn’t know, because he wasn't prepared.
You see, if we resist Him; if we ignore what God has done through Jesus Christ,
• Then Christmas will come tomorrow, just like it always does.
• But it wouldn't mean anything to us because our hearts aren't prepared.
• Because our hearts are cold, their insensitive to what God is trying to do in our lives.
II. SECOND WE SEE THEY WERE WILLING TO TAKE A JOURNEY OF FAITH TO SEE JESUS
• We see that when they heard the message that the wise men and the shepherds were willing to step out
• They were willing to take a journey of faith. But Herod wasn't.
A. I love the words of the shepherds. After the angels went back into heaven
• They said, "Let’s go to Bethlehem & see this thing that has happened."
• They didn’t say, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see if this is for real"
• They didn’t question the message of God.
• They didn’t question the announcement of the angels.
• They didn’t sit around and think about all the impossibilities.
• They didn't think about how humanly speaking it didn’t make sense.
• No, they dropped everything / and they left the sheep and rushed to Bethlehem to see the baby.
• It was a journey of faith for them.
B. And what about the wise men? Have you ever put yourself in their place?
• Can you imagine them standing out in their front yards / getting their camels ready for this long journey?
• Loading up their saddlebags with food and clothing, gold, frankincense and myrrh.
• Just then some neighbors walk by & ask, "What are you doing?"
• And The wise men reply, "We are getting ready to take a trip."
• And their neighbors respond "Where are you going?" Do you have a map?"
• To which the wisemen reply "Well, we’re not sure where we are going, we’re gonna follow that star.
• What do you hope to find when you get there?
• "We are going to find a king." " All we know is that we have seen His star and we are going to follow it until it leads us to Him, and then we’re going to worship Him."
It was a journey of faith.
• And what we need to understand is that sometimes faith doesn’t makes sense to people who don’t know the message.
• It doesn’t make sense to those who don’t share the faith.
• And this was a journey of faith.
• The kind of faith that can only be explained by a heart that understands what faith is all about.
C. But Herod didn’t have faith. He heard the message of the wise men.
• Because The wise men had come to Herod’s palace and asked for directions.
• They asked him Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?
• We saw His star in the east, and we have come to worship Him."
But when Herod heard this he was troubled.
• "Where? Where is a king? I haven’t heard of any king."
• So Quickly he called together the chief priests and they told him that the prophets
• Had foretold that the Messiah, the Christ, would be born in Bethlehem.
And we all know what happened after that.
• Herod sent the wise men to go find Him.
• He had an opportunity to learn about the new king.
• But he didn’t have eyes of faith or a heart that believed.
• So while the king was born only a few miles away,
• he was not ready to receive Him
Now this is a problem, isn’t it? There is a whole lot that can’t be explained.
• You can’t explain a virgin birth.
• You can’t explain the heavens lighting up / angels announcing the birth of a king.
• You can’t explain a mysterious star shining above.
• You can’t explain all of the drama / glory / wonder.
• Because It’s divine.
• It can only be understood through a heart and a mind of faith.
And we have to understand that the same is true for us.
• Our journey has to be a journey of faith as well.
• We have to realize that we will never completely understand the wonder of God’s love,
• Until we have the faith and we are ready to accept it.
III. FINALLY WE SEE THAT THEY WERE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE / MAKE THE SACRIFICE
• The wise men & the shepherds were willing to pay the price / to make the sacrifice.
A. Think about the shepherds. When they said, "Let us go to Bethlehem
• That was a major decision for them.
• They had to leave their sheep.
• Everything they owned was wrapped up in their sheep.
• It was at night, a time when wolves could come and attack and kill their sheep.
• They had to be willing to say, "We will leave everything, Just to go seek the Lamb of God.
• And we will trust our flock to the Good Shepherd who will take care of them."
Personally I have always hoped that when they came back they found all of their lambs safe and sound.
• And that from then on God blessed them in ways they had never dreamed.
• He blessed the because they were willing to step out in faith / because they were willing to place everything in His hands.
B. The wise men paid a price, too.
• They left behind families / businesses, / everything that was familiar / dear to them.
• They left everything to follow a star /
• All to pay homage to the new king, and to give Him their gifts of gold, frankincense & myrrh.
C. But not Herod.
• When Herod learns about a king
• He rushes to his throne and puts his arms around it, saying, "Where is He?"
• He wants to cling to all that he has.
• He refuses to leave his silver / gold, / his power & prestige.
• He was afraid that he was going to lose everything.
Tonight we need to understand that Christmas means surrender.
• It means that God looked down and saw us dying in our sins.
• He saw us and said, "I can’t let this go on. I have to do something about it."
• He surrendered His glory / His power. He became a baby. He walked among us.
• He breathed our Air. He let us persecute Him / spit on Him / drive nails into His hands and His feet.
• This is what it means to surrender.
Christmas means giving.
• Not just gifts to people but also giving of ourselves.
SUM: A. So here we are. Some of us may be like the shepherds. We don’t have much.
• We may not know a lot about what the world considers important.
• But we are ready to listen to what God has to say.
B. Others may be more like the wise men, searching for the truth,
• Asking questions, knowing His promise that if we will seek the truth with our hearts that we will find Him.
But Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the world today who are like Herod.
• People who would rather hate God than love Him.
• People who will not receive what God wants to give.
God wants to take all the Herods and turn them into shepherds and wise men.
• But it can only happen if they are willing for it to happen.
• It can only happen if they are prepared to receive His message.
• It can only happen if they are willing to make a journey of faith.
• Tonight God invites each one of you to come to His manger,
• To come to His throne, to come to His cross, and to know His love.
