The Christmas Story
12/23/2018 Matthew 1:18-25 Luke 2:1-7
We are in the last part of our series “The Christmas Story.” We have looked at God’s Love For Us, Our Love For Each Other, Our Love For Christ, and we conclude with our Our Love For The Lost. It’s Christmas time, and that means that it’s time for family to come together. Each family has that one member that wants to argue about Christmas. They are going to insist that Jesus was not born on December 25th.
Shock them be agreeing with them and saying, “you’re absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, the Bible never tells us when Jesus was born. December 25th was a Roman holiday in which people worshipped the Sun. When the emperor became a Christian, he declared December 25th the day of Jesus’ birth, so that people would stop worshipping the sun and start worshipping the Son of God.” Then ask them, “Now that we both agree that Jesus came, what have you decided to do about God’s love for you.”
Let’s suppose for a moment that you were a scientist who had your own lab in a private section of your house. You were working day in and day out to find a cure for a form of cancer that was rapidly killing people. Somehow you accidentally discover the cure by looking at something else totally unrelated.
Who would you rather immediately publish the news, “Lone Scientist Accidentally Discovers The Cure For Cancer?” Would you rather it show up in the “National Enquirer” or in the “Cleveland Plain Dealer.” Most of us would look at the reputation of the two newspapers and choose the Cleveland, Plain Dealer.
The National Enquirer is full of stories that are often misleading at best and simply untrue at worse. Rarely do we believe the headlines without a lot of skepticism. The Cleveland Plain Dealer has the reputation of being a reputable paper that you can believe and will take seriously. You do not want to have your great cancer cure discovery overshadowed by people arguing over whether or not you can believe the source.
Since you and I know this, you would think that God knows this as well. But God is God, and God does not think or act in the way we think God should act. God is doing something that has never been done before. A promise that was given 1,000’s and 1,000’s of years earlier by God is about to come forward. The single most important event in all of history for humankind is about to take place. Something that will unite people from all races, all socioeconomic backgrounds, all educational levels, all kinds of abilities is about to take place. This news is so important, that history in the world will be divided into between before this event and after this event.
God the Father will send forth God the Son into the world of humanity, so that God and people can be reunited again. People can have the kind of joy, the kind of peace, the kind of hope that God intended for them to have with God and with each other. The event has just happened, and God has to get the word out to people who can in turn get it out to others. You want a reliable distribution network for the message.
Now if you were God, what would you do to get the word out to the people? Now the city of Bethlehem is filled with people because everyone had to come home and be registered for the Roman Census. That’s why Mary and Joseph could not find a decent motel room to rent. I suppose God could have done something dramatic like doing some fireworks in the sky and following it up with speaking to the people.
I suppose he could have blew the trumpet of one of the angels and had him land in front of the place Mary, Joseph and Jesus were, and tell people what was going on. I suppose God could have even touched everybody’s heart and give them the feeling of “I must go to the stable.” You’ve had those moments in which you felt you just had to do something and it was a good thing that you did.”
God could have done that, but God didn’t. God did something that seemed to hurt his cause more than it helped it. God chose the National Enquirer over the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In heaven, I can imagine the angels were all excited over who might get the job of telling humanity that God had come in the flesh and was now living among them.
Would it be Gabriel, would it be Michael, or would be The Angel of the Lord? These were the most important angels that we knew of. But the scriptures tell us, that it was none of these. It was just an angel of the Lord. Jesus’ birth starts out in humility in heaven and continues to the earth.
When the angel of the Lord who is chosen, is told, “I am sending you to a group of shepherds to announce the birth of the Savior of the world.” The angel must have been confused for a moment. God is not sending him to the powerful king Herod with the good news. God is not sending him to Caiaphas the high priest the religious leaders with the good news.
God is not sending him to the rich and famous with the Good news. No doubt, God sees the angel’s confusion, and God responds,” I don’t need the powerful, the religious, the famous or the wealthy to get my message across. I’m sending you to those who are lost and realize there is no reason on earth for them to be loved by me.”
The shepherds may look all holy and righteous in our Christmas decorations and on our Christmas cards, but these guys had the worst of reputations when Jesus was born. Just like we don’t want our kids growing up to be drug dealers, people didn’t want their kids growing up to be shepherds. They were despised by society and were outcasts. You didn’t want your sister marrying a shepherd.
Their reputation for lying was so bad, they were not allowed to testify in a court of law. In terms of social standing, the only people beneath them were lepers who had to announce they were unclean. Shepherds were not allowed in the city and the general public did not trust them because they were considered thieves. We talk about people “cussing like a sailor”, well I’m sure for them, it was “cussing like a shepherd.”
These men were not even thinking about a relationship with God. But God was thinking about a relationship with them, because God loves people who are lost. Because God loves them, we should too. If God is willing to send angels after them, we should be willing to go after them as well.
Now imagine with me for a moment what it was like that night. Here are a group of smelly and dirty dressed men out on the hillside taking turns watching over the sheep. It’s a quiet night. There’s nothing any different from this night than any other night as far as they were concerned. There doesn’t seem to be any wolves or lions coming after the flock.
They are drinking and telling one tall tale after another. Each one is trying to tell a lie bigger than the last lie that was told in order to impress the others. I can imagine one of them saying, “you know good and well you never did do that. You’re the biggest liar I ever heard.” The other responds, “Well If I’m lying, may an angel from God strike us all dead right now.” Before he can laugh about it and take more one drink from his wine jug, All of a sudden an angel of the Lord appears.
The glory of the Lord shown around them, which means the whole area which had been black except near the campfire was all lit up. It says the shepherds were terrified. They no doubt thought, that God’s judgment was about to fall on them and that God had had enough of them. They were about to be wiped from the face of the earth. After all, what other possible reason could God have had to send an angel to them. They knew they were unworthy of anything God had to offer.
Do you realize the first step to having a relationship with God is to admit, you are unworthy of God’s grace. Nobody had to tell these shepherds they were sinners. As long as you think you are in some kind of bargaining position with God for your soul, you can’t receive what God wants to give you, because salvation is free. One day you will see the glory of the Lord shining around you as these shepherds did, for the word of God of teaches, one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
The first thing the angel said to the shepherds was, “Do not be afraid.” The Shepherds could think of plenty of reasons to be afraid. Some people think God is out to get them, when all God is trying to do is to rescue them from a lot of future heartache and pain. The angel went on to say, Luke 2:10-12 (NIV2011) 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.”
Once this was announced to the shepherds, the other angels who had wanted to come with the good news, got word from God to go ahead and express themselves. The horizon lit up with more angels than we could count and the word of God tells us . Luke 2:13-14 (NIV2011) 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 favor rests.”
For a few moments, Heaven and earth celebrated the birth of Jesus; the one who would take away the sins of the world; the one who would rise from the dead; and the one who would one day once again sit at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.
And as quickly as it all began, it was over. The angels were gone and the darkness reappeared. The sound of the sheep baaing in the distance could be heard once again. Have you ever gone on a trip or a vacation, and when you got back home and was lying in your bed a night or too later, it almost seemed as if it was all just a dream? You ask yourself, did all that really happen?
Now why did God do all of this out on the hillside, when it would have been much more effective if all of this had happened right over the city of Bethlehem itself? Think of how many people would have rushed over to the stable.
Let me ask you this, if it had of happened over Bethlehem, do you think the shepherds would have been included in the good news of the birth of Jesus? God did this to let us know that God is concerned about everybody. Jesus is not going to belong to any one race, any one group, any one class, or any one nation. He is to be the Savior of the world. His mission is to save people from their sin.
Can any of us admit, that our own sin has caused us and others a lot pain, grief and heartache. Jesus died and rose from the dead, not only to have our sins forgiven, but to send the Holy Spirit which enables us to live with the power to say no to ourselves and the sin all around us.
Our love for the lost will motivate us to want to see people set free. The shepherds had been given the message that the Savior was now born. They were given instructions on where to go and how to find Jesus . They were told, the knowledge of the birth of Jesus will cause great joy for all people.
But now the shepherds had to make a choice. Would they choose to love others in the way God had loved them by sharing the good news? Would they keep the message to themselves? How many of you know, there are plenty of lonely people who will attempt suicide this week, because they are not aware of a God who loves them so much, that God sent his Son into the world to be their Savior. One of the best kept secrets of the church from the world is that people can find people who will actually love them in the church. They can find people who will help them grow in God.
The Shepherds like us had several courses of actions they could take. Notice what they could have done:
• They could have denied it. Maybe we all had a little too much too drink and all that angel stuff really never happened.
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• They could have debated it. Who should actually go and check out the story. We might get in trouble if we try to go into town. Does the Bible really teach that angels would come to Shepherds? How many angels actually showed up in the heaven host?
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• They could have sat down and analyzed what they should do. Somebody has to stay and watch the sheep. We can’t afford to lose any money just to find a baby in a manger. Come to think of it, if he’s as important as they said, shouldn’t he be like in a palace or fancy home .
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• They could have rejected it. They could have said, “This is not for me! I am happy with my life just as is.” I didn’t really need God before tonight, and I don’t think I need God now. I’m pretty sure with the way I have been living, God wants nothing to do with me.
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• They could have complained about it. They could have said, “It's too far to go to Bethlehem this time of the night! Who knows if they will even let you in when you get there. If this message is going to disrupt my life now, I can only imagine the inconvenience in the future. You can go if you like, but don’t say “I didn’t tell you so.” .
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But the shepherds chose to believe that God was no respecter of persons and that if God had reached out to them, they had better try to reach back out to God. The Scriptures said, Luke 2:15-18 (NIV2011)
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.
When the shepherd saw Jesus, they went from being people who considered themselves unworthy of God’s notice to evangelists proclaiming that the Savior of the world has been born. They didn’t know how Jesus was going to save the world. They were relying on God’s word from the angels, that this is what this child was going to do.
Everybody who responded to the good news that night, was acting in faith that God would do through Jesus what God said he would do. None of them knew about the miracles Jesus would perform, or the death he would die on the cross, or on resurrection to life he would experience after being dead for three days.
None of them knew that people from every tribe, every race, every background and every economic level would one day this same Jesus as the Savior of the world. But it happened, and millions upon millions of lives have been changed because God chose to send his Son into the world and gave the message to a group of shepherds.
Are you willing to love God enough to love the shepherds of this world and to share the message of the gospel with them through your life and your testimony about Jesus? The shepherds didn’t know much theology, they simply told what they had heard and what they had seen. To the amazement of the shepherds, there were people who believed what they told them.
Not everyone is going to believe that a Savior has been born who will save us from our sin. But everyone at least deserves that chance to hear the message so that they can decide for themselves, what will they do with Jesus, not only for Christmas, but for a lifetime.
A small section of this message came from ideas in Dr. Alan Carr’s Sermon “When Shepherds Meet Christmas” in The Sermon Notebook.