The Outsiders - Shepherds (Part 3) Series

“When God Crashed Our Story”

Luke 2:8-20

December 14, 2025

Have you ever ended up somewhere you weren’t supposed to be? Maybe it was getting lost. And to make matters worse, you didn’t even realize you were going the wrong direction. Suddenly, something just didn’t make sense. Anybody willing to admit that one?

Or maybe somehow you were invited to a dinner event. Yes, an event. You went and you felt like you were totally out of your realm of understanding. It was designed for literature buffs and you have a hard time reading the Sunday comics. You were just out of place.

Maybe you were in a conversation with people who were talking about thermodynamics vs. kinetic energy sources and you knew, you had absolutely nothing to add to that conversation.

It’s that feeling — awkward, uncomfortable, unsure — it’s wondering what am I doing here. How do I even relate to these people.

Sadly, that’s how many people feel about God. They’re just not sure about Him. They’re not sure how to relate to Him - - - How do I pray? How do I open that big book and read it? Does God really love me? And if I’m struggling with the basics, then how am I ever going to get deep in a relationship with God?

Some people think church is for “good people.” Faith is for “clean people.” It’s kind of like God lives behind religious velvet ropes. You know those ropes that keep the crowd at bay. It’s like when people are walking down the red carpet. There’s those velvet ropes that keep you away.

It’s like we’re on the wrong side of the velvet ropes. Like we’re standing outside of a great banquet where people are laughing and we can see inside, but nobody is inviting us in.

You know something good is happening …… but you don’t have the wristband or the invitation to attend.

A lot of people think God is like that.

They think He’s inside. The church is inside. The holy people are inside.

And the nobodies are left on the outside . . . wanting to get in, and at the same time,

hoping nobody notices them too much.

But Christmas didn’t build a velvet rope.

It tore it down.

The Christmas story doesn’t say, “VIPs only. Come only for the sinless. Only the good are allowed in. Only the law-abiding ones can enter.”

That’s not what the Christmas story is about. God says - - - - “Come, come and see.”

And then Christmas happens … … and the first invitations don’t go to church people. That’s what we would assume. The priests and the pharisees and the scribes and the nobility will get the first invitations.

But that’s the beauty and majesty and power of God on display.

Instead the first invitations go to a group of shepherds.

They go to people with the wrong résumé, the wrong reputation, and the wrong way of practicing religion.

In Christ’s day, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the Palestinian social ladder. They shared the same status as tax collectors and dung sweepers. During the time of the Patriarchs, shepherding was a noble occupation.

The shepherds were not men revered or esteemed by society. These were men marginalized. Some shepherds earned their poor reputations, but others became victims of a cruel stereotype. The religious leaders maligned the shepherd’s good name; rabbis banned pasturing sheep and goats in Israel, except on desert plains.

Shepherds were labeled ‘sinners,’ representing a class of despised people.

The shepherds who navigated the dark streets of Bethlehem to find the newborn baby were not the kind of men that regularly made kingly visits. These men were separated from mainstream society and likely their language, habits and associations would have been repulsive to those living in the homes they passed.

If you have a Bible, open it to Luke 2, beginning in verse 8. Luke is the 3rd book of the NT. Luke tells us - - - -

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,