The Shepherd's Faithful Response

Introduction

So here we are, Merry Christmas everyone! We’ve made it to the final sermon of our Christmas mini-series on faithful responses to the birth of Jesus. The first week we talked about Joseph and his response to the angel of the Lord, then last week we talked about Mary and her response to Gabriel. This week we’ll read from Luke’s Gospel the familiar story of the shepherds found in Lk 2:8-20. Now before I read the passage let’s set the scene. It’s the early first century and it’s been around 400 years since the last prophet spoke God’s word to the nation of Israel. All over the land people have been waiting eagerly for God to fulfill His promise: That He would send a special “anointed one” to save His people and be their King forever. Rabbi’s have been poring over the books of the law and the prophets picking out all the verses that allude to this coming person and compiling lists of what would be necessary to qualify someone as this “Messiah,” which is the Hebrew term for anointed one, or the “Christ” as it would be said in Greek. One otherwise ordinary night a group of shepherds were tending to their flock of sheep at night.

It was important for shepherds to guard their flocks at night because of the threat that theives would come and steal their sheep, or that predators would come and eat them. So they had to be dilligent, and likely would have taken turns staying awake in “watches” so they wouldn’t be caught unawares.

This is what their sheepfold may have looked like. You’ll notice the opening in the wall there, that’s where the shepherd would lay while he kept watch over the sheep.

One thing you should know about these shepherds is that they were not exactly well respected citizens. At best they were considered your typical uneducated laborers, who did dangerous work out in the fields mostly alone. Because of the nature of their work they were often considered “unclean” by the Jewish law, and so often missed out on participating in Temple worship. In fact they were so disrespected at this time that for some reason they weren’t allowed to give testimony in court.

So these are the shepherds that Luke is writing about where we pick up the story in Luke 2:8-20

Luke 2:8–20 ESV

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 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. 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. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Imagine yourself hard at work, in fact awake in the middle of the night working. I used to work nights at a hotel, so I can relate to having a job that requires you to lose sleep. So here you are workinmg late at night probably just trying your hardest not to nod off when BAM! An angel appears with the glory of God shining around him. I think you’d be frightened too. In fact they aren’t just afraid but “filled with great fear,” or in the literal greek they “feared with great fear.”

This is a common reaction to angels in the Bible, which sort of makes you question the images of angels that are most popular in art, right? Because who would be “filled with great fear” by those? In any case I’m sure the angel was at this point quite used to needing to tell people to “fear not.” The angel reassures the shepherds that his message isn’t a message of judgement or terror, but of joy. They’ve come to bring “good news.”

And what good news it is! “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” There’s so much packed into this one statement. For one, the prophecy of Micah 5:2 “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” was well known at this point as a prophecy about the coming Messiah, so already in promising a saviour from the city of David these shepherds would have clued in that the Messiah had come, you know that and they say that he will be “Christ the Lord.” This is significant because the title “the Lord” was the way the translation of the old testament most popular in their day referred to God Himself.

The angel tells these shepherds where they can find Jesus, wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger, before he is joined by “a multitude of the heavenly host.” The word “host” here is a translation of the Greek word stratias, which literally means “army.” So the sky is filled with an army of angels singing “Glory to God in the Highest” or in latin “Gloria In Excelsis Deo”.

So we will ask the question we’ve asked for every one of these Christmas sermons: how do the shepherds respond to this message of the angels? Well like Mary and Joseph they respond faithfully, and their example shows us how we should respond to the birth of Christ, we should:

Search Out Jesus With Haste

Share the Good News With Others

Glorify and Praise God.

1. Search Out Jesus with Haste

It’s after the angels depart and silence falls in the shepherd’s fields that we get their response to this incredible message. How do the Shepherds respond? We read their response in Lk 2:15-16

Luke 2:15–16 ESV

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

Now I think it’s actually quite interesting to point out that the angels never actually tell the shepherds to go to Bethlehem and find Jesus. Reread their words and you won’t find anything like that. Instead all they do is tell them the wonderful exciting news that a savior has been born and they can’t help but find themselves making haste to go and see him.

300 Illustrations for Preachers (Finding an $18,000 Diamond in a Hedgerow)

A London-based diamond retailer launched a 1.14-carat diamond into the air attached to a weather balloon. For the promotion, they announced that whoever found the diamond could keep it. Then things went a little haywire. It drifted off course and the tracking system failed. For several months, people carefully searched the presumed landing area, all without success.Imagine the surprise when four months later Allan Bell was walking his springer spaniel, Rosie, some ten miles from the original search site. Rosie was nosing under a hedgerow when she discovered the package containing the $19,000 diamond. Bell plans to sell the diamond and use the proceeds to take his wife on a cruise for their 25th wedding anniversary.Such a discovery pales in significance to the people who—consumed by guilt and at war with God—discover they can have peace with God through the free gift of Jesus Christ.—Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Remember that the people of Israel have been waiting 400 years for God’s promised “anointed one” to come and save them. These shepherds were quite probably pious Jews who would know their scripture well enough to at least know that the promised King was coming and they would have understood that this message of the angels was confirmation that the time of promise had come.

And what amazing sight to they find when they reach Jerusalem? They find exactly what the angels told them to expect: a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger. Now perhaps you’re familiar with mangers, although I’d bet a lot of people only ever hear that word at Christmas. They were feeding troughs for animals, and in all likelyhood if Christian tradition is correct than Jesus’ manger wasn’t a nice looking well constructed wooden one like you see in many manger scenes, but actually looked more like this:

Looks comfy, right?

Without the word of anouncement from the angels I wonder what the shepherds would’ve thought about this scene. This isn’t how you’d expect a newborn King to be adorned. Yet that is what they find. These ordinary despised shepherds find a King who has been made like them. not a king who lives in cushioned opulance in a palace somewhere far away, but a king born in rags in a stone feeding trough. In the words of 2 Cor 8:9

2 Corinthians 8:9 ESV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

So Christmas should inspire us with its’ message about God come to earth to save us. We should look in awe at this King who condescended to become like us so that He could lift us up with Him. So we too should make haste to seek out this Jesus so that we can know Him. Christmas is not just a time to have warm fuzzy feelings about how great a gift we received. It’s a time to seek this wonderful gift and seek it with all of our hearts. In the words of Kent Hughes:

It is not enough to hear about Jesus. It is not enough to peek in the manger and say, “Oh, how nice. What a lovely scene. It gives me such good feelings.” The truth is, even if Christ were born in Bethlehem a thousand times but not within you, you would be eternally lost. The Christ who was born into the world must be born in your heart. Religious sentiment, even at Christmastime, without the living Christ is a yellow brick road to darkness. -R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1998), 89.

So I wonder today, are you seeking Jesus? Maybe you’re hearing these words today and you know that although you’ve heard the Christmas story and heard that Jesus has come for us, you don’t actually know Him. If that’s you I would challenge you to pray that He reveal Himself to you. Confess to Him that you’ve done wrong and pledge to turn away from your sins, and if you haven’t been baptized let myself or anyone else in church leadership know and we can make that happen.

Or maybe you do have a relationship with Jesus but you’ve been feeling really Lukewarm lately. Maybe you haven’t been praying very much, maybe your bible is gathering a little bit of dust and you feel like you’re really losing touch. Don’t get discouraged if this is you, but instead find the courage to make today a turning point. Say to Jesus “I don’t want to stay this way, help me seek you out again with fresh passion.”

Give Jesus your first and your best and he will give back to you Luke 6:38

Luke 6:38 ESV

give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

So once you’ve found Jesus for yourself, once you’ve dilligently sought him with all your heart, where do you go from here? Well that brings us to our second lesson from the Shepherds:

2. Share the Good News with Others

Have you ever noticed that newly saved Christians are usually the ones most passionate about sharing the gospel? This is especially true when they’ve experienced radical life transformation. People who’ve been at rock bottom and have been picked up from there by God are so on fire for the gospel. In the words of Jesus, those who forgive much love much.

When our shepherds in this story experience the coming of Jesus for the first time they act just like newly saved Christians. They can’t wait to tell everyone around them what has happened! We read in Luke 2:17-18

Luke 2:17–18 ESV

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

You can just picture them telling everyone they run into about their crazy vision from the angels and about the humble King sleeping in a manger.

Now it’s very possible that these shepherds were in charge of flocks that were specifically being raised to be sacrificed at the temple. If so then they would have ample opportunity on their way to the temple and at the temple to share the good news with other people.

This should serve as an example to every one of us to recapture that zeal for spreading the gospel that comes with first discovering its beauty. Yet often when we’ve been Christians for a long time, or if we’ve been in the church our whole lives and haven’t really known anything else, we get real quiet about the gospel.

I very intentionally say we here because I’m bad for this too. Sharing the gospel is hard. You face rejection and ridicule. Some of the people you love might avoid talking to you because you bring up religion and that’s awkward. Someone might ask you a question or challenge your faith in a way that you’re not prepared for. So how do we overcome this difficulty?

You know it’s interesting that there are a lot of things in my life that I don’t have so much difficulty sharing about, even some really unpopular things. For example, I happen to love the movie Batman V Superman. Now the benefit of recording this sermon instead of doing it live is that I don’t have to hear any of you groaning. I’m sure some of you really hated that movie and perhaps more of you just don’t really care about superhero movies at all.

The point is, I happen to really like Batman V Superman, in fact it may be my favorite batman movie of all time. Now I’m not afraid to say that to people, and even to passionately defend that movie if I hear someone trash talk it in public. Would I do the same for the gospel? Why not? Isn’t the gospel so much more important?

Now imagine with me for a minute that the Maple Leafs actually won the Stanley Cup this year. If you’re a Leafs fan I’m sure you’d tell a person or two about it, am I right? Something so much better than that came at Christmas. Redemption for our very souls and eternal life started with the birth of Christ, and now we have access to this. We live in a world full of people who are on their way to death and we have the cure. We need to tell them about that cure.

So we have learned so far from the Shepherds that in response to the Birth of Jesus we should Search Out Jesus with Haste, and here we see the need to Share The Good News. Yet there is a third response of the Shepherds that is equally important as a lesson for us today, that in response to the message of Christmas we should:

3. Glorify and Praise God

The final thing that the Shepherd’s do in response to the birth of Christ is shown to us in Lk 2:20

Luke 2:20 ESV

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

How appropriate is that? Let’s remember what it is that the angel tells them about, what this birth means. This is not just a new baby, as amazing as the birth of a new baby always is. This is not just a prophet, as much as they would be glad to hear from another prophet for the first time in over 400 years. This is not just a king, although Israel longs to see their nation put back together again and ruled by a righteous king.

No, it’s all those things and more. The angel tells them that born in Bethlehem this day is a savior, who is the christ and the Lord. God himself has come down to earth in the greatest act of humility in all of history. He has come to save us not just from being ruled over by the Roman empire, but from death itself. The messiah has finally come and God has finally fulfilled all of the promises He had made.

You see the only proper response to experiencing the gospel is to praise and glorify God. Worship is a natural outflow of our experience of God in our lives. It’s not just songs that we sing because that’s what we do at church, and it isn’t limited to songs at all. The word worship actually comes from the word “worth,” it means giving to God the “worth” that He’s due. Which I will remind you is quite a lot of worth.

The thing is we have even more cause to praise God than these shepherds did. They got to see the birth of the Messiah, but we get to experience the saving grace of God and have Messiah “born” in our hearts. We don’t know how many of those shepherds, if any, responded to the gospel. We however get full access to the saving death and resurrection so that we can respond in faith and live forever. Grant R. Osborne puts it this way:

Theirs [the shepherds'] is to be our response as well, for the glory of the coming of the Christ child still overwhelms us. For many of us, Christmas is our favorite time of the year, but the glory of Christ himself is the true highlight of the Christmas season, much more than the lights and the tinsel and the other bright and loud elements, as much fun as they are. We must combine the awe of verse 18 with the praise of verse 20. Mary and the shepherds show us the true and proper reaction to the Christ event

Grant R. Osborne, Luke: Verse by Verse, ed. Jeffrey Reimer, Elliot Ritzema, and Danielle Thevenaz, Awa Sarah, Osborne New Testament Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 72.

So my challenge to you is the next time you give praise to God, whether that’s in our church building, driving in your car, or sitting at home, I want you to first take a moment to reflect on all that God has done for you. Think of everything that God does for us all in the Bible, what He did for us on the cross and what He will do for us in the resurrection. Think specifically of your life. How did God change your life? How did He transform you? How has He provided for you? How has He loved you and blessed you?

Then you can worship God out of a sincere heart of thankfullness. When we take the time to reflect on God and what He’s done for us it can truly awaken our hearts to worship Him “in Spirit and in Truth.”

Conclusion

So this Christmas let’s take our inspiration from the Shepherds, the ordinary men who were priviliged to be the first outsiders brought into the miraculous birth of Christ.

Let’s take their haste to search out Jesus as inspiration for us to give our all to finding Jesus and continually growing to improve in our discipleship to him.

Let’s take their readiness to share with others the testimony of what happened to them, and let it inspire us to share with the people we meet how Jesus has changed and transformed our lives.

Let’s take their greatful praise and worship as inspiration to reflect on how God has been good to us and worship Him together in Spirit and truth.

Let’s every day remember the miracle of Christmas. The birth of Jesus can be celebrated all 365 days of the year.

In the words of the ghost of Christmas present in The Muppets Christmas Carol:

“It is the season of the heart A special time of caring The ways of love made clear And it is the season of the spirit The message if we hear it Is make it last all year”

God bless Fredericton Christian Church, and Merry Christmas!