Scripture: Luke 2:1-20
Theme: Be Ready …
Title: Shepherds in their Fields at Night
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
All month long we have been looking at God Encounters.
We have been looking at these amazing times in people’s lives where they have either encountered God directly, one of His angels or have been the recipient of a supernatural event.
One of the biggest lessons we are to learn from all of this is that we must begin to realize that having an encounter with the LORD is something that is not to be seen as unusual or infrequent in this present age of the Holy Spirit. Instead, we are to see God encounters more in the line of God walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve on a regular basis. We are to understand that we can have God encounters at any time.
God encounters are those times that the Holy Spirit speaks to us through a variety of ways - ways that include angels, visions, dreams, revelations from His Word, through acts of nature and a number of other ways. There is no limit to the way that God can speak to us.
We need to always remember that if the Incarnation of Christ teaches us anything and the infilling presence of the Holy Spirit shows us anything it is this:
+We serve a God who wants to be involved in our lives on a daily basis.
+We serve a God who wants to shop with us, ride in the car with us, go to school/work with us, clean the house with us and enjoy a walk outside with us.
+We serve a God who seeks to speak to us in all manner of ways – both through His direct words and through His Written words.
+We serve a God who likes to center His day around what we are doing.
Now, you may ask how can God do that?
How can He center His day around what I am doing while at the same time center His day around what you are doing?
I don’t know – all I know is that the Bible tells us that God is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY and He is able to do that. He is able to be with all of His Creation at any time.
+And while I don’t fully understand it I do rejoice in the fact that right now God can be with us here and with another congregation half a world away.
+I rejoice in the fact that God can be with us here and with a single solitary person sitting in a prison cell who has been imprisoned for their faith.
+I rejoice that God can be with us here and at the same time be with someone in a nursing home, a couple who are shut-in or those who are laying in their hospital beds.
+I rejoice in a God who loves us so much that He always wants to be in our midst.
This morning, our story is one of the most familiar passages in the Bible at this time of the year.
+Back on Christmas Eve, 1906, wireless operators working on ships off the New England coast not doubt were wondering if they were having a supernatural God Encounter. Out of the midst of Morse code dots and dashes beeping through their headsets came the sound of a voice reading the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke (Reginald Fessenden) and a violin playing "Silent Night." It was the first time in post-Flood history that the sound of a human voice had been sent over the air waves. The voice wished them a merry Christmas, and then the dots and dashes started up again.
+Since 1965 all over the world people have enjoyed listening to Linus van Pelt share the Christmas Story in the animated presentation of Charlie Brown’s Christmas.
I would assume that in the majority of churches/worship settings this morning and in homes all across the world on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day this passage is the one most people will read. And why should it not be? It is an amazing passage that the Holy Spirit led Dr. Luke to put down on parchment.
So, with all of that in mind let’s look at these shepherd’s God encounter and see what they have to say to us this morning.
I. Be Ready … To be Lifted Up
There is a lot written about what had happen to the position of being a shepherd by the time Jesus was born. Many believe what was once a prized position had fallen down to one of the least desired blue collar jobs of the Middle East. Only those who had to take out the trash and get rid of the dross from the metal works had a worse job.
If that was the case then God’s point of reaching out to them sends out a crescendo of grace and mercy.
If you remember in music a crescendo happens during a musical piece when everyone begins to get louder and louder. The drum beats begin to intensify and all the instruments start playing louder and louder. The music not only fills the air it takes over the space. It becomes all that is happening at the moment. The idea is that the music is getting ready to come to a dramatic high point or conclusion.
In a similar fashion this is what God is doing with these shepherds and what Jesus does many times throughout His time on earth. God reaches down and takes those who others have devalued or passed by and He elevates them.
That is what is happening with these shepherds. Their job was to deliver the sheep needed to sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem. Their job was to raise, take care of and make sure that there were enough “perfect” sheep for the Temple to keep itself in business.
While there may not have been a great deal of people willing to put in the hard work of being a shepherd the nation would have been lost without them. The Temple could not survive without these shepherds. The same today can be said for people who are sanitation workers, decomposition workers and dairy farmers. We desperately need each one of them and if you have studied any of those jobs and others like them they are not glamour jobs.
God loves to take people who others look down on and promote them. We see God doing this with people like Joseph, Rehab and Ruth. We see God doing this with the Children of Israel, with David and with Jeroboam. We see God doing this with the Woman at the Well, with Peter and with Philip. God takes those who others despise and He raises them up.
And in our passage and for all time we see God elevating these Shepherds. They stand beside the likes of Zachariah and Elizabeth, the Wise Men and Simeon and Anna. Their story is just as important as any other story in the Bible and God not only visits them with one angel but with a host of angels who praise God and share the Good News of Jesus’ birth.
This morning one of the greatest things that we can do is to elevate those around us who the world demeans and puts down. When we do that we follow the actions of Our LORD GOD HIMSELF.
The Devil and his followers do the exact opposite. They demean. They put down. They ridicule. They accuse. They curse. They attack. They blame. They seek to humiliate.
But God and His People uplift, they elevate, the bear one another burdens, they seek to mentor, they help people look up and live abundant lives. They do all they can to encourage people, to see who they can lift up and who they can make have a better day. God and His People find those who the Devil and the world try to discourage and depress and intercede for them, bless them and do all they can to lift them out of their pits of despair and depression.
That is the God we serve and that is the privilege we have today as His People. We have to Be Ready to be elevated ourselves and to help elevate others.
Think for a moment of the people who have had the greatest influence in your life – Were they the people who looked down on you, who accused you and who didn’t believe in you? Or were they the ones who have help you up, who have believed in you and who have poured their lives into you?
That night the LORD GOD HIMSELF looked down on all the earth and He chose those shepherds. He could have chosen lawyers. He could have chosen Pharisees. He could have chosen soldiers but He chose a bunch of shepherds doing their best to take care of their sheep.
II. Secondly, we must Be Ready … for New Revelations
One of the fantastic things about reading the Bible is the number of new things that the Holy Spirit shares with you each time you take the time to read, to study, meditate and contemplate on a passage of Scripture.
I recently listened to a well known worship leader and they were talking about how important it was to spend time in God’s Secret Place. God’s Secret Place is that place that a person spends quality time in God’s Word, in Prayer and just in God’s Presence. Other people call it God’s Garden Time – that time when they put everything in their lives on hold and rest in God – opening up their heart, their mind and their soul to the LORD.
This worship leader shared about how it was in those times that God was able to reveal Himself in new ways; in deeper ways. Ways that enabled them to rejoice, to be spiritually fed and built up in their faith. Ways that enabled them to gain new strength to be able to live the Abundant Life here and now. Ways that enable them to share with others from the overflow they experienced with God.
This passage is one of those passages that hold so many truths, little revelations and insights. More than we can share in one setting.
+Things like it was not by accident that God spoke to the shepherds that night. Genesis 4 tells us that one of the very first sacrifices to the LORD was given by a shepherd; a shepherd boy by the name of Abel. Abel was Adam and Eve’s second born son.
The Bible tells us that Abel brought the first fruits of his flocks and offered them before the LORD in love. The Bible tells us that God received them and respected both Abel and his love offerings.
But Cain (Adam and Eve’s first born) came to hate his brother mainly because of Abel’s purity of heart and his generosity towards God. Cain wanted to serve God but not with all his heart, soul and mind. He wanted to present a sacrifice before the LORD but not his best. He thought you could get by with just presenting God the leftovers; second rate worship and praise. His jealousy of and his hatred for Abel grew so great that Cain killed Abel and then tried to cover up his murder.
So, to me it was not by accident that God looked down and went right back to the beginning of the story and honored Abel’s generosity, his sacrifice and his love by allowing some shepherds to be among the first ones to see the Messiah.
+Little insights like the message of peace that the Angels talked about.
13-14 At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:
Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him. (The Message)
13 And suddenly a multitude of heavenly armies appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth shalom to men of good will.” (Tree of Life Version)
Peace – that word that the world says that it wants but all so often it rejects as it glorifies war, struggles and battles.
We love a good hard fought football game. We proudly raise our hands to our hearts when we think of the Revolutionary War when we Americans defeated those dastardly Brits. We like it when Marvel gives us a character to cheer – be it Iron Man, Captain America or Marvel as long as they win the war against the enemy.
We don’t always love peace as much as we should. But it is something that we yearn for and something that the people in Jesus’ time yearned for as well.
At the time of Jesus’ birth Rome was providing what it called PAX ROMANA – peace from war on land and sea. But as the 1st century writer Epictetus ((/??p?k'ti?t?s) stated –
“… while the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, for which man yearns more than even for outward peace.” ( pg. 112 – The New International Commentary on the New Testament – Luke)
Jesus came to bring that Peace – Jesus did bring Peace. Jesus came to bring more than worldly peace – He came to bring what the Jews called SHALOM.
SHALOM is more than peace – it is more than the ending of a battle or the absence of fighting or war.
+Shalom is bringing healing, well being and prosperity.
+Shalom is planting fig trees, grape vines and then having the ability to share their fruit and drink of their juices.
+Shalom is resting and enjoying life; sharing life with others.
+Shalom is having the time to learn, to enjoy and to celebrate.
That is why Jesus came. And while He was here on this earth that is what He did. He brought peace to those who were anxious, who were suffering from demons and suffering from diseases. He brought peace to those who were suffering from guilt and shame. He brought peace to families and to individuals.
Jesus’ whole message can be summed up in his words in
John 14:27 New International Version (NIV)
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to bring peace into our lives. That is one of the joys of being a Christ follower. When the rest of the world is going crazy; we can take a moment and allow the Peace of Christ to fill our hearts. When we do that we find balance. We discover harmony and we begin to rejoice in living in that harmony.
Peace happens when we take off control and place everything in Jesus’ control. Peace happens when we allow the LORD to be LORD of all in our lives. Peace happens when we realize that we can give the LORD our mind, our body and our spirit. When we do that we can rest in Him. He promises us that He will take care of us. He promises that He will lead us. He promises us that He will give us an abundant life.
It’s not always easy to do. At times it is hard to let go. At times is hard to rest in God. But the more we release the control the more we experience peace. The more we trust the more we can just do what we were called to do – to enjoy life on God’s Good Earth.
+Things like Swaddling clothes.
For most Jews swaddling clothes (or strips of cloths) were used twice in a person’s life. They were used at birth to help bring comfort, stability and warmth. After a baby was born it was a traditional ritual to clean up the baby, to salt the baby (putting a little salt on its body) and to bundle it up in strips of cloths called swaddling clothes. And then at the time of death many people used similar strips of cloths to help bind the deceased’s body to the herbs and spices.
Some have believed that these strips of cloths that Mary used may have been set aside for herself. She knew that she was about to give birth but she also knew that she would be giving birth in the city of Bethlehem.
The city of Bethlehem had one of the most famous grave sites in the entire ancient world. It was the city that Rachel (wife of Jacob) had been buried in after she had died giving birth to Benjamin. That grave site forever stood as a stark reminder to any woman giving birth that giving birth is never an easy affair. And it is never a safe affair.
Some believe that Mary was ready to die in Bethlehem giving birth to Jesus. That while God had told her that she would be carrying the Christ Child there was nothing solid about her raising the Christ Child. For all she knew part of the reason she was having the child in Bethlehem was to not only fulfill scripture but she would be listed among those who like Rachel who brought forth a child and died and yet it was from that child’s people the 1st King of Israel came – the Tribe of Benjamin (King Saul).
Others believe that it was a foreshadowing of the truth of Jesus’ mission. Yes – the swaddling strips were a sign to the Shepherds to find a woman who had just had a baby but also as a fore shadowing of Jesus’ mission –
Luke 9:22-24 Easy-to-Read Version
22 Then Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the older Jewish leaders, the leading priests, and teachers of the law. And he will be killed. But after three days he will be raised from death.”
Whether it was Mary’s thinking, a common custom or a fore shadowing the reality is it could have been all three. Mary was not sure she would survive the child birth – after all no virgin had ever given birth. No human female had ever been told that they would bear the Son of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.
There are many more little nuggets of truth that this passage holds. But we can either save them for a later date or better yet between now and Christmas Day take some time to be with God and this passage – allow His Holy Spirit to reveal new insights and revelations to you.
III. Finally, Be Ready … to Share the Good News
Not only did the LORD elevate these Shepherds but they were told to
+Go and witness the birth themselves
+Go and be a part of the blessing God was giving to the World
+Go and tell other people about what they had heard and seen
Their obedience led to a time of Praise and to Blessings.
Our obedience can do the same. Our obedience opens up doors to Praise and Blessing.
At the very earliest the Gospel of Luke was written around 50 AD which is around 50 or more years after the Birth of Jesus. And yet, even 50+ years later the stories of the Shepherds made it into the Gospel account. One has to wonder if any of the boy shepherds were still around to share their story.
All we know is because of their obedience they got to witness the coming of the Savior of the World. And all we know is that they were the very first human beings who got to tell the world that the Savior of the World had arrived.
Again, in God’s goodness both Mary and Joseph were once again being reassured. I am sure they were experiencing some anxiety and concern – was Mary really bearing a supernatural child? Had Joseph’s dream been real? Had they been obedient to come to the city of Bethlehem? Was this the way God wanted His Son brought into the world – lying in a feed trough surrounded by animals?
When the Shepherds showed up just minutes after the birth all was confirmed.
Yes - everything was going just as God had planned.
Yes - Mary had been chosen to give birth to the Messiah.
Yes - Joseph was doing everything God wanted done.
Yes - to everything!
This morning as we close and as we share the Lord’s Supper we do so knowing that we need to Be Ready. We need to
+Be ready to be both Lifted up and Lift others up
+Be ready for New Insights and Revelations
+Be ready to share the Good News of Redemption and Salvation
We need to be ready to share the Good News that Jesus not only came as a baby but that baby grew up, lived among us, shared the Good News, died for our sins on the Cross of Calvary and was resurrected on the 3rd day.
We need to be ready to share the Good News that we can be redeemed, cleansed, purified and filled with His Holy Spirit.
We need to be ready to share the Good News that Jesus is right now standing at the Right Hand of the Father and everyone in heaven and on earth will proclaim Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
We need to be ready to be His Light and His Salt in the world both outside the doors and inside the doors of His Church.
Let us now celebrate His Coming with the taking of Holy Communion
Sharing of Holy Communion/Prayer/Blessing
