NOTE:
This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.
ENGAGE
In 2012 NASA created an image called the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field that was created by combining 10 years’ worth of images from the Hubble Space Telescope that covered only this small portion of the sky.
[Show Hubble eXtreme Deep Field image #1]
This represents only one thirty-two millionth of the sky.
Here is what the image that was created looks like.
[Show Hubble eXtreme Deep Field Image #2]
With the exception of a few stars in the image, every one of those points of light is a galaxy and there are about 5,500 of them in the image. Some are small galaxies that are billions of light years away and others are similar to our galaxy, the Milky Way.
As a result of that work scientists estimate that there could be as many as 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. Given that scientists estimate that there are between 100 billion and 400 billion stars just in our own Milky Way galaxy, you can see that God was right when He said that the stars in the sky are far too numerous to count.
The nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way is the Andromeda galaxy, which you can actually see with the naked eye on a clear moonless night. It is 2.5 million light years from earth and contains approximately one trillion stars.
So let’s put this in perspective. Each of us is one of about 7.5 billion people here on earth, which is one of 8 – or 9 if you count Pluto – planets in our solar system, which is one of 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is one of 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. Doesn’t that make you feel just a bit insignificant?
[Show graphic of our significance in the universe]
TENSION
But even if we didn’t know all of that, there are other factors in our lives that can make us feel insignificant, too:
• Some of you children and teens might feel like you’re too young to be significant. And at the other end of the spectrum, some of you who are senior citizens might feel like you’re too old to be significant.
• Some of you might feel insignificant because you don’t think the job you have is important.
• Some of you might feel insignificant because of your physical limitations.
• Some of you may feel insignificant because you don’t make very much money or you don’t have much in the way of financial resources.
• And it’s even possible to feel like we’re insignificant to God, perhaps because of some sin in our life that makes us feel like we just don’t measure up.
TRUTH
This morning, as we continue our series titled “The Christmas Dilemma”, we’re going to focus on a group of people who had to deal with their dilemma of insignificance that first Christmas. We’ll find their story in Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. I’m going to begin reading in verse 1 of Luke chapter 2, so that we’ll have the entire context, but we’ll focus primarily on the account of the shepherds beginning in verse 8.
[Read Luke 2:1-20]
Most of the people in the Christmas story had reasons to feel insignificant. As we’ve seen the last two weeks, there was nothing notable about Mary and Joseph. They were probably just a couple of unknown teenagers from a small town that had a bad reputation. God did not choose them because they had anything to offer to Him other than their humility and their availability.
But if there was any group in that culture that had good reason to feel insignificant, it had to be the shepherds. They were far from the clean, nicely dressed young men that have been sentimentalized on our Hallmark Christmas cards.
Although there had been a time when shepherds enjoyed a good reputation, that was no longer the case at the time of Jesus’ birth. Because they lived and worked out in the pastures, and the sheep needed constant care and protection, they couldn’t keep the Sabbath or engage in the cleansing procedures in the ceremonial law. So they were considered by the Jews to be unclean. With the exception of lepers, they were considered to be the lowest class of people. They were regarded as liars and thieves and so they were not permitted to testify in a court of law.
And certainly in the minds of the religious leaders of the day, and in our minds, for that matter, they would have been the very last people to whom God would choose to announce the birth of the Messiah. I’m sure those religious leaders expected that announcement to be made in the Temple to them, not in a field outside of Bethlehem to a group of unclean shepherds.
But because the birth of Jesus was about God meeting ordinary people in ordinary places in an extraordinary way, the angels appeared to the shepherds and not to the religious, or the rich, or the famous, or the powerful. And by doing that, God made it clear that no one, not even the lowliest shepherd, is insignificant to Him.
And in the response of the shepherds to the announcement of the birth of the Savior, we find the antidote to the dilemma of insignificance:
Obviously the way that God inserted Himself into the lives of the shepherds was a lot more dramatic than the way he usually intervenes in ours. But the one thing we do have in common with the shepherds is that God does often intervene in our lives while we are just living life – in those ordinary moments at home, or at work, or out on a walk, or in the grocery store, or like I found out this week, even in the emergency room at the hospital.
So let’s see what we can learn from the shepherds about…
APPLICATION
HOW TO CELEBRATE THE PRESENCE OF GOD
To those of you who were at our Monday Morning Bible Study a couple weeks ago when we talked about this passage, some of these things might sound familiar because they are very similar to a process that Jon Settlemeyer observed in this passage.
1. Observe
This is one of the clues in the Bible that Jesus was probably not born on December 25 since it would have been unlikely for the shepherds to have been out in their fields at night that time of the year.
For these shepherds, there was nothing that would have had them expecting what they would experience that night. They were just doing what they did every night as they brought the sheep into the sheepfold where they would protect them against any predators that night. Since Bethlehem was only about 6 miles from Jerusalem, some commentators believe that these shepherds might very well have been tending the sheep that were to be used in the sacrifices in the Temple.
But as they were out in the fields, an angel appeared to them. And not surprisingly that was pretty frightening. In the Greek the end of verse 9 literally reads that they “feared a great fear”. I’ve always loved how the KJV translates that phrase: “they were sore afraid.” No wonder the angel begins with the familiar phrase “Fear not”.
And as the shepherds observed the angels with their mouths agape, they received a message from the angel. God was bringing them good news for all the people. A Savior had been born in Bethlehem. And the sign they would find is that there would be a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. It wouldn’t have been unusual for a baby to have been born that night in Bethlehem and it would not even be out of the ordinary for a newborn baby to be wrapped in swaddling cloths. But it sure was unusual for a baby to be placed in an animal’s feeding trough.
And then, if that wasn’t frightening enough, an entire angel army appears – that is what a heavenly host is; it is not, as tradition would lead us to believe, an angel choir. And that angel army broke out in praise.
While the shepherds were understandably afraid, they nonetheless watched the angels and listened to what they had to say.
As we’ve discussed previously in this series, while He could certainly do it if He chose to, God does not normally speak to us today through angels. But if we will keep our spiritual eyes and ears open, He does still speak to us if we will watch and listen.
The main way He speaks is through His Word, the Bible. That’s why it’s so important for us to read it regularly and systematically. He also speaks through prayer and through other godly people and by communicating deep down as His Holy Spirit communicates with our human spirit.
Last week when I was preparing my sermon that dealt with interruptions, God spoke to me by bringing an interruption into my life right in the middle of my sermon preparation. And I just about missed it because I was so entrenched in my work. But then when I realized what had just happened, I literally laughed out loud because I realized that God was testing me to see if I was going to actually apply what I was teaching. And it also got me to wondering how many times that I miss God speaking to me because I don’t take the time to watch and listen.
Granted, the shepherds probably would have had a hard time ignoring the way that God spoke to them, but what they did next does indicate that they were being observant of what God was doing in their midst.
2. Believe
While the passage doesn’t explicitly say the shepherds believed what they heard and saw, their actions certainly show that they did.
Even though the message they received was brought to them by a bunch of angels, the message itself was so unbelievable that it would have been easy to write off their experience to some bad Mexican food or to the fact that they had a little too much wine with their dinner.
First of all, if the Savior of the world had just been born, why would God choose to reveal that to a group of insignificant, lowly shepherds? Why not reveal it to King Herod or to the governor or to the religious leaders in the Temple? And if this was indeed Christ the Lord, why would he be lying in a feeding trough in a stable in Bethlehem rather than a nice cozy crib in the palace in Rome or at least the house of one of the religious leaders in Jerusalem?
The good news, the gospel, still doesn’t make a lot of sense today does it? While it is simple, the idea that Jesus lived a sinless life and then died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins and rose from the grave to prove his mastery over death and sin makes about as much sense as the Savior being born in a stable and announced to some shepherds in a field.
That is why in 1 Corinthians Paul writes that the word of the cross is folly to most, but it is the wisdom of God and the power of God for those God enables to believe it.
But the shepherds don’t just believe what the angel tells them intellectually, they act on it.
3. Pursue
As soon as the angels left, the shepherds decided to go pursue Jesus. But can you imagine what that search would have been like? The only clues they had were that the baby would be wrapped in swaddling cloths and that he would be lying in a manger. Unlike what we often see portrayed in many Christmas cards, neither Jesus or Mary had a halo around their head to verify that the shepherds had come to the right place.
So the picture I have in my mind is that a bunch of dirty, smelly shepherds arrived in Bethlehem to a lot of unapproving stares. “What are they doing in town?” And then they began to ask around, “Does anyone know about a baby that was born tonight?” In a town the size of Bethlehem there probably hadn’t been a lot of births that night, but possibly more than one. “Do you know if that birth took place in a stable or barn?” That probably narrowed down the choices a lot. But whatever form their search took, the shepherds finally found the baby Jesus.
Can you imagine the conversation they must have had with Mary and Joseph as they all sat around recounting their various encounters with the angels? I have to imagine that discussion lasted for quite a while, maybe even continuing until the daylight of the new day.
We’re reminded here of the fact that our relationship with Jesus doesn’t end the moment that we believe in Him. In fact, it’s only starting. Our life is to be a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment pursuit of Jesus. I think that’s what Paul had in mind when he wrote these familiar words:
Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
(Philippians 2:12 ESV)
Working out our salvation and pursuing Jesus certainly includes the obvious things we always talk about, like reading our Bible and prayer and corporate worship. But I think it also incorporates the idea of just being aware of God around us as we go through life each day. It means recognizing when God brings people into our lives so that we can minister to them. It includes seeing the creativity of God in a beautiful sunset and just giving Him thanks for that. It is enjoying the peace that comes while you’re waiting for test results in the emergency room at the hospital.
4. Tell
As soon as those shepherds left Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, the first thing they did was to tell everyone they encountered about their experience with the angels and with Jesus. These uneducated shepherds didn’t first take a few years out of their lives to go to seminary, They didn’t go through any kind of evangelism training. They just told other people about their experience with Jesus.
Sometimes, I think we make telling others about Jesus much more complicated than it needs to be. We even coin a big, complex sounding word – evangelism – to describe something that is actually very simple. While there is certainly a place for evangelism training and learning ways to become more effective in sharing our faith, we certainly don’t seem to need that when it comes to telling people about the other things that we are passionate about.
If I were to sit down with any of you in this room this morning and have a conversation, it probably wouldn’t take all that long to figure out what you are really passionate about – maybe your family, or your job, or some hobby you have, or a favorite sports team or movie or TV show. And I’m convinced that if we’re really passionate about Jesus and our encounters with Him, that will just naturally come up in our conversation with others in that same way.
5. Live
After this whole experience, we are told that the shepherds returned to their fields and they just continued to live their lives as shepherds, although I have to believe that the way they did that was impacted tremendously by what had happened to them.
That is exactly what the apostle Paul instructed the people in the church in Corinth to do as well. In 1 Corinthians 7, he instructed them to live as they were called. In order to live as disciples of Christ they didn’t need to move to a new location or change jobs or do some outward religious act. But they were to live their lives in a different manner that reflected the inward change that Jesus made in their hearts.
And the same thing is still true today. When we put our faith in Jesus, in most cases He does not require us to make a bunch of external changes in our lives. Now obviously if we are working in a job or engaging in activities that are contrary to the clear commands of Scripture, some changes are in order. It’s probably not OK to be a bank robber or a hired assassin or a prostitute and remain in that profession as a Christian.
But what should change is the way that we work and the way we live in every area of our lives. Our motives may need to change and the way we treat people may need to change and almost certainly the strength we depend on to live a life that is pleasing to God needs to change. But those changes tend to be more internal than external, although they often do result in outward changes that others will notice.
6. Worship
Finally, we see that the shepherds joined the angels in praising and glorifying God. In other words, their life became a life that was characterized by worship.
I think it’s important to point out here that their worship was not a separate part of their life that they just engaged in once a week for an hour. The verbs glorifying and praising in verse 20 are present tense verbs which meant that this was something they continued to do in their lives, not just a one time action.
I’m reminded here of what Paul wrote in his letter to the churches in Rome:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
(Romans 12:1 ESV)
The kind of worship that is pleasing to God does not revolve around making sacrifices of dead animals. And it’s certainly more than a weekly gathering where we sing a few songs, listen to a message, give some money and leave the same way we came in. Instead what pleases God is worship that consists of making ourselves living sacrifices who worship God continually as we live out every area of our lives.
I think that Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of this verse in The Message, captures this idea so eloquently:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.
(Romans 12:1-2 The Message)
INSPIRATION
When the shepherds out in the field that night looked up at the stars in the sky, they didn’t know all that we know now about planets and solar systems and galaxies. But I wonder if even without all that information, those stars reinforced the sense of insignificance they probably already had because of their place in that culture. But because they were willing to celebrate the presence of God in the midst of something they did every day of their life, my guess is that before the sun came up the next morning they no longer felt insignificant at all.
And the good news is that while we probably aren’t going to have an angel or an angel army appear to us any time soon, when we take the time to celebrate the presence of God in the ordinary moments of life, we,too, will find that we are not insignificant after all.
ACTION
So as we close, will you join me in praying for God to help us see His presence in our life each day, so that we can celebrate it?
Discussion Questions for Bible Roundtable
1. What are some of the things in your life that might lead you to think your life is insignificant?
2. How do we know that the shepherds believed what they heard from the angels? How do we demonstrate that our belief is real?
3. What are some “planned” and “unplanned” ways that we can make sure that we are pursuing Jesus in our lives?
4. Share some examples of when you have encountered God in the ordinary moments of your life.
5. How should our lives remain the same when we encounter Jesus? How should they be different?
