While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
Chuck Sligh
December 11, 2022
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation for this message is available by emailing me at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please request the title, “While Shepherds Watched.”
TEXT: Turn to Luke 2
INTRODUCTION
Don’t you just love kids at Christmas? [USE TWO OF THE JOKES BELOW.]
JOKE – One time a little boy was in a Christmas play and he had one assignment: To say at the right time, “I am the light of the world.” But when his time came, he totally forgot his line. His mother was on the front row and she whispered loudly, “Say, ‘I am the light of the world.” Suddenly, he brightened up and shouted, “My mom is the light of the world!”
JOKE – One time two young boys were spending the night at their grandparents’ house the week before Christmas. At bedtime, the two boys knelt beside their beds to say their prayers. The younger one began praying at the top of his lungs: “I PRAY FOR A NEW BICYCLE…AND A NEW PLAYSTATION…” and on he went like that. His older brother leaned over and said, “What are you shouting for? God’s not DEAF.” The little brother replied, “No, but GRANDMA is!”
JOKE – Kids also are notorious for mangling various aspects of the Christmas story. One nine-year-old schoolboy drew a picture showing three men offering gifts to Jesus in his manger—with a FIRE TRUCK outside the manger. Puzzled, His teacher asked him what the truck was doing in the picture. In his heavy East-Texas accent, he explained: “Well, the Bible says the wise men CAME FROM A-FAR.”
Kids—and moms and dads too—love the story of the shepherds in their fields that first Christmas morn found in Luke 2:8-20.
Picture yourself a simple, obscure shepherd, tending your flocks by night, doing your job on a cool Judean night with a few of your shepherd friends. This is what we see in verse 8 – “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night..”
There you are watching your sheep; talking with the other shepherds; probably telling jokes, laughing; maybe discussing the political situation in Judea—just doing what you’d been doing for the last several years. Then suddenly, an intense, bright light overcomes and overwhelms you. – Look at verse 9 – “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.”
Along with this light appears an angel—and you are TERRIFIED! It’s not every day you see an angel. You don’t sit at the dinner table and say, “Hey, Hon, I saw an angel today.” This is a very special, unique experience that happens only to a select few in all history.
Terrified, shielding your face from the light, verses 10-12 say, “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”
Then unexpectedly, the heavens fill with a vast army of angels—an enormous, vast host shouts out glory and praise to God – verses 13-14 – “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Then just as suddenly as the angels appeared, they all DISAPPEAR. It’s all dark again, just like before, and you turn to your shepherd friends and say, “Did you see THAT? That was AMAZING. We’ve got to check this out.”
So, you all decide to go see if you can find this baby the angels told you about – verse 15 – “And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”
You go looking in Bethlehem—but Bethlehem is not a tiny little village, and it isn’t all that easy finding this baby the angels told you about. So you stop and ask someone, “Uh, you didn’t happen to see a heavenly host—you know—up in the sky, did you?”…“You didn’t. [ACT EMBARRASSED] Well, uh, never mind. Thanks a lot.”…“No, I haven’t been drinking.”
But finally, somehow guided by God, you and the other shepherds find the baby – verse 16 – “And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.”
And NOW you understand what the fuss was all about. You get to personally witness the newborn Savior—the promised Messiah. You got to BE there; you got to SEE it!—And you’ll NEVER be the same again!
No wonder you had to tell everyone you could about it. – Look at verses 17-20 – “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”
This wonderful story is full of beautiful truths to help us in our lives. Let’s look at five truths from this story in the Scriptures:
I. NOTE FIRST GOD’S INTERVENTION – Look again at verse 9 – “And, behold, the angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them: and they were filled with great fear.”
All throughout the Bible, God has a wonderful pattern of intervening in and permanently altering people’s lives.
Illus. – God gives a prophet named Isaiah a vision and asks, “Who will go for me?.” Isaiah answers, “Here am I, Lord; send me.” And Isaiah’s NEVER THE SAME AGAIN!
Illus. – A shepherd boy faithfully watches his flock of sheep, and while out in the fields, God sends a prophet to his house to choose the next king. He inspects all his older brothers—but none of them passes muster. So, they send for this shepherd teen brother out in the fields—and the prophet says, “Yes—HE’S the one God has chosen.” The shepherd boy’s name is David, and the prophet anoints him with oil and his life is permanently altered.
Illus. – A fisherman named Peter was going about the family business of fishing with his brothers James and John one day on the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus walks by. – With one sentence, Jesus changes their lives forever when He says to them, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
And so it was with many of you here. You were going about your business—just living your life without God in your life. But then one day God intervened in your life—and He sent a messenger to tell you the sweet, precious story of salvation.
God is a God of INTERVENTION. He knows you; He loves you; He sent His Son to die for you. And if you have not met Christ as your Savior, He wants to SAVE you; He wants to CHANGE you—He wants to ALTER the course of your life permanently. If you’ve never been saved, dear friend, why don’t you let God change your life forever today by trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior?
Not only do we see in our text GOD’S INTERVENTION in this passage of Scripture…
II. WE ALSO SEE THE SHEPHERDS’ INVESTIGATION – Luke 2:15 – “So it was that when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us now go even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”
The shepherds were not content to hear the good news of the Savior’s birth—they wanted to see about it for themselves.
Many people have an intellectual knowledge which they accept as true about Jesus Christ, but they have never experienced Jesus in a personal way. They are what I call “cultural Christians.” Cultural Christians are people who grew up in church and all the stuff about church and God and Christ and salvation are all a part of their culture. But those truths have not been PERSONALLY appropriated. Or a person marries a true believer and kind of “joins the club,” so to speak, to keep peace and harmony; but in his or her heart of hearts, they know they do not possess true, life-altering, transformative Christianity.
You see, it’s not enough to accept intellectually with your head the facts ABOUT Jesus in the same sense that you believe in the existence of Julius Caesar or Abraham Lincoln. To be saved is to experience Christ PERSONALLY by KNOWING Him through a salvation experience in which Christ comes into your life and makes you His child. To know Jesus personally, you must voluntarily receive Him by faith into your life.
John 1:12 says, “But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe on his name.”
Can you look back to a time when… you realized that you were a sinner before a holy God... and you realized that Jesus died on the cross in your place to pay the penalty for your sins… and you believed upon Him and turned to Him to save you?
If not, PLEASE don’t leave this auditorium today without being settling the matter of your relationship with God!
III. NOTE THIRD THE ANGEL’S INTRODUCTION – verse 11 – “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
The angel introduced Jesus to these lowly shepherds. Note the three titles he uses for this Person who was born in the city of David:
• He called him SAVIOR.
Jesus came to save us from our sins. Listen to a couple of other passages in the Gospels.
Matthew 1:21 – “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he will save his people from their sins.”
The name Jesus means “Savior.” Why was Mary told to call Him Jesus?—The answer is right there in the verse: “…for he will save his people from their sins.” You see, we need someone to save us from our sins because we’re all sinners, and NO ONE can meet God’s standard of perfect holiness.
This is the whole purpose for which Christ came, which Jesus Himself said in Luke 19:10. – There He said of Himself: “For the Son of man has come to seek and to save those who are lost.”
The PURPOSE for Jesus coming to this earth is to save you from your sins. Have you been saved and fulfilled Christ’s purpose in YOUR life?
• Back in Luke 2:11, the angel also called this One who would be born in Bethlehem CHRIST.
Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for “Messiah.” The meaning of names had greater significance in Bible times than today. A name was often given to a child because of its meaning—not because it sounded cute, or was popular at the time. “Jesus,” as I said, means “Savior” and “Christ” means “Messiah.” So, when we refer to Him as “Jesus Christ,” we’re actually calling Him “Savior Messiah.”
In other words, Jesus is not only the Savior; He’s also the long prophesied, long expected Deliverer whom God had promised to send to the Jews. Every Jewish woman hoped to be the mother of the Messiah. This title reminds us that GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES. For centuries God had promised this great Deliverer and finally He fulfilled His Word. You see, God never gets in a hurry, but when He acts, He’s always right on time, and HE ALWAYS KEEPS HIS WORD!
Centuries ago, Jesus made His own prophecy. He promised that He would come again and set the earth aright again, and reign on earth again to fulfill His promises to the Jews. Just as surely as He came the first time in fulfillment of His word, so He will come the second time in fulfillment of His word! He’ll do everything for the Jews He promised to do. But folks, God keeps His word with us just as He will for the Jews. Every promise for you in the Bible, He’ll fulfill it in your life if you meet His conditions.
• The third name the angel called Jesus in Luke 2:11 is LORD.
The title “Lord” tells us of Jesus’ deity. Not only was He a human, He was also God—every bit as much God as God the Father and God the Spirit. Since we discussed this fully last week, let’s move on to our next point…
IV. NUMBER 4, WE ALSO SEE THE SAVIOR’S INCARNATION – verse 16 – “And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.”
The doctrine of the incarnation is the teaching that God became man. The Christmas story in Matthew 1 is a little more precise in telling us about the Savior who would be born in Bethlehem. Matthew 1:23 says “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, ‘God with us.””
Jesus is here called “Emmanuel,” which is a Hebrew word, so Matthew interpreted it for us, telling us it means “God with us.”
Think of it!—Not a God who despises us because of our sin and rebellion, but… God who was WITH us—AMONG us… a God who BECAME one of us… a God who lowered Himself to come to this earth to live as a human… to share our burdens and sorrows to experience the joys and burdens of human existence to go through what we go through—what it is to be tempted; to suffer; to even experience death
And because Jesus was “Emmanuel”—God WITH us—He really DOES understand us because HE HAS BEEN WHERE WE ARE!
You’ve heard the old saying that “You can’t understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in his moccasins.” Well, Jesus has walked in your moccasins. He really understands and sympathizes with you. He knows your struggles…your fears…your discouragements.
That’s why Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in ALL points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”
Do you ever feel like God doesn’t understand you?—HE DOES! Do you ever feel like God’s never been through what you’re going through?—HE HAS! So if you’ve got A CARE today; if you’ve got A BURDEN; if you’ve got TROUBLES; if you’ve got TRIALS; if you’ve got A PROBLEM—just remember 1 Peter 5:7 – “Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.”
V. NOTE ONE LAST THING IN THIS PASSAGE: THE SHEPHERDS’ INFLUENCE – verses 17-18 – “Now when they had seen Him, they spread the word about what had been told them about this child. 18 And all who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.”
The shepherds could not keep quiet about what they had experienced. They had to tell others about it. They had to make known abroad what was told them about this child.
The first sign someone has been truly saved is that they’re not ashamed to tell others about it. They’ve experienced a life-transforming event, after all—and if you experience a life-transforming event, I can promise you, it’s going to come out. You’re going to be willing to take a public stand for Jesus. You won’t put a bushel over a candle, like Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. You’ll want others to experience what you’ve experienced. God help us to spread the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ—our Emmanuel (God with us)—to everyone we can.
CONCLUSION
Illus. – I began this message telling you a couple of humorous stories about children at Christmas, and I would like to end it with a serious one about a child at Christmas. A preacher’s family had started putting up a nativity scene in their front yard. All of them were carrying out the little statues to put in the nativity scene.
Finally, everything was in place—Mary and Joseph and the manger and the baby and the angels and the shepherds and all the barnyard animals. Then little Scott came out carrying one of his favorite toys—the figure of the fierce Tyrannosaurus Rex, king of the dinosaurs!
It was one of those plastic figures that you inflate, and, in comparison to the other figures, it was an enormous thing, towering over them all, and certainly not something to have in a nativity scene.
The Dad said, “I tried to tell him, ‘Scott, you have to take that back because it doesn’t belong there. Dinosaurs existed long before the baby Jesus, and it just doesn’t belong in a nativity scene.’”
But little Scott insisted—so they finally put it there behind all the other figures—a fierce dinosaur hovering over the manger and everything else. Then he said, “As we stood back and looked at it, we realized that maybe that dinosaur says more than we realized. For over each of us there is this menacing character that threatens to rob us of all our joy and peace and cheer. But Christmas reminds us that the baby in the manger is stronger than all the dinosaurs in your life or mine. And God has given us the victory through the gift of His Son.”
Isn’t that cool? And you know what?—it’s true.
Maybe you have the dinosaur of sin that overshadows you and you know—whether you’ve been a churchgoer all your life or not—you know your sin condemns you before God. Well, praise God, Jesus is greater than that dinosaur in your life. When He died on the cross for you and later rose from the dead—He conquered sin and death. You can have the joy and peace that comes from knowing Jesus as your Savior. Why don’t you come to Him and be saved today?
Maybe you’re facing a personal dinosaur as a Christian today? A dinosaur of trials and problems and suffering that seems to overwhelm you. I’ve got good news for you—Jesus is bigger and greater and stronger than your dinosaur. And what is even more wonderful is that He has been where you are. He was “God with us”— and because of that, He CARES about what you’re going through. Today, why don’t you let Jesus defeat the dinosaur in your life.
Maybe you’re struggling with the dinosaur of fear in sharing your faith and standing for the Lord. Put your life in God’s hands and follow Him and please Him. He’s greater than anything or anyone—and worthy of our whole-hearted commitment and devotion.
