The Shepherds' Response To The Christ Child Series

b. Start by INVITING people to come to WORSHIP. (Action #4 in OUR MISSION.)

COMMENT:

This is a great time to of year to INVITE people to come to church with you. Just tell them that for the next two weeks the lessons are going to be about Christmas, and you’d love for them to

come worship with you.

Invite your FRIENDS, CO-WORKERS, NEIGHBORS to come to our Christmas Eve Candle Light Service as we CELEBRATE the BIRTH of God’s Son.

3. People are being bombarded by the Atheist message that “THERE IS NO GOD”. Let’s start SHARING with them who God really is and what He’s done for them.

IV. THEY RESPOND WITH PRAISE AND WORSHIP- v. 20

A. So the shepherds HEAR the message, FIND the child, SHARE the news, everyone is AMAZED, and

then what happens?

1. They RETURN to their SHEEP.

a. REAL LIFE continues.

COMMENT:

Shepherding is what they KNOW. This is their LIVELIHOOD. This is what they DO BEST.

b. They RETURNED to what they KNOW, but they don’t RETURN as the same MEN that they were just the day before.

2. Luke says, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard

and seen”- v. 20

a. There is a SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION that has occurred within these SHEPHERDS.

b. They have been in the PRESENCE of God, and they’re not the SAME.

COMMENT:

These men may very well have been just like the stereotypical shepherd of the day—THIEVES, ANTI-SOCIAL, QUICK-TEMPERED. But I don’t believe that you can WITNESS the COMING of the Son of God and not be CHANGED.

B. Yes, they are back in the FIELD, but this time they are conducting a CHURCH SERVICE.

1. Right there on a HILLSIDE, surrounded by SHEEP, they are WORSHIPING and PRAISING God.

2. Greek word used here for “PRAISING” means “to celebrate.” I don’t think it’s possible to

CELEBRATE silently.

COMMENT:

This must have been a sight to behold watching these ROUGH looking SHEPHERDS on the side of the hill DANCING, SINGING, SHOUTING, CLAPPING HANDS.

I wonder what the SHEEP were THINKING.

CONCLUSION:

A. The SHEPHERDS were the ones who provided the LAMBS that were SACRIFICED daily for the SINS of the PEOPLE.

1. Little did these shepherds REALIZE that the TINY BABY lying in the MANGER that brought them such JOY, would become the LAMB OF GOD that would be SACRIFICED once and for all for the SINS of the PEOPLE.

2. Jesus came to SHOW us who God is and to SAVE us from our SINS. (STEP DOWN)

B. People RESPOND to Christmas in different ways.

COMMENT:

Some look forward to Christmas with a child-like GLEE. While others DREAD the HOLIDAY

for one reason or another.

ILLUSTRATION:

A MINISTER of a non-instrumental Church of Christ told the story some years ago in a sermon on what he learned about the TRUE MEANING of Christmas while STRANDED at an AIRPORT:

“On an ICY winter’s night two weeks before Christmas in 1997, I was impatiently waiting at the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. All FLIGHTS had been CANCELED due to FOG and FREEZING RAIN. The TERMINAL was in BEDLAM. Thousands of people were CLUSTERED at the TICKET COUNTERS demanding projected DEPARTURE times. Others were sitting silently FUMING at the DELAY of their FLIGHTS. Children were CRYING, the PA SYSTEM was BLARING, and the DEFEATED were BELLYING UP to the BAR. And, yes, I, too, was extremely TENSE and ANXIOUS. I was on my way back HOME to Texas after holding a week-long REVIVAL.