Do You Hear Part 4

Luke 2: 8-14 "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Now, we've already seen that God sent an unusual STAR to announce the birth of Jesus to wise men in the Far East.

And here we see The Lord using, not a STAR, but ANGELS to herald the arrival of the Messiah, The Lord Jesus Christ, to a group of shepherds.

We have four things taking place in this particular account:

A visitation, a proclamation, a confirmation, and evangelization.

First,

The Visitation

These shepherds were minding their own business, simply doing what they'd always done.

It was typical for them to pull a night shift while watching over their flocks, for that is when predators usually choose to strike.

We can only imagine what suddenly transpired:

I imagine the shepherds talking about typical stuff--paying the bills, raising the kids......Or perhaps politics like the misery of Roman oppression, high taxes, and what not.

When suddenly a sight greeted them that, at first, struck fear in the marrow of their bones.

Suddenly they are confronted with a heavenly visitor--an Angel of God!

And with the Angel a bright, heavenly light lit up the night.

The Angel isn't described for us, but they are described in other places in the Bible.

We are told that angels are spirit beings created by God (Heb. 1:14).

They are sent to minister to those who are heirs of salvation.

They can resemble human form when God permits or wills it (Gen. 19).

Angels are neither male nor female, although they always appear as a man when they take human form.

Nowhere in the Bible are angels described like the pictures, paintings, or figurines of little baby cherub angels with wings like we so often see.

Angels are not effeminate looking, nor do they ever resemble beautiful women.

They are awesome beings that virtually always strike fear in human beings when they appear.

It is no wonder that those men who were keepers of Jesus’ tomb severely shook and fell down like dead men in terror at the sight of the angel that appeared because “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow” (Matt. 28:4).

The Prophet Daniel had an angelic vision where he saw that the sheer number of angels could not be counted.

He wrote of seeing God's throne room where, “Thousands upon thousands of angels attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him…“(Dan 7:10).

So it was an awesome Angel like this that suddenly appeared to a group of shocked and amazed shepherds.

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Then next there was:

II. A Proclamation

The Angel made the announcement that a very special baby had been born that was a fulfillment of ancient Bible prophecy:

Luke 2:11 "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, Christ the Lord."

This was HUGE!

Anyone who knew Bible prophecy would have immediately thought of the Prophet Isaiah's prediction:

Is. 7:14 "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel (God with us)."

Notice that the Angel's announcement to the shepherds and Isaiah's 700 year old prophecy are one and the same!

Isaiah had predicted that a miraculous birth would take place by which God's Messiah would enter the world to die for the sins of men.

Now here it was! Prophecy had become reality!

IN FACT, the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus fulfilled literally hundreds of ancient O.T. prophecies!

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It's worth noting that Isaiah also predicted the purpose, method and manner of Jesus' death.

As to the METHOD AND MANNER: Isaiah wrote that He would be spit on, beaten and His face would be “marred (disfigured) more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” (Isaiah 52:14)

This all came to pass!

The gospels record that Jesus was beaten, slapped, punched, His beard was plucked from His face by the roots, and he was given 39 strokes with a cat o’ nine-tails.

And Isaiah also explained the PURPOSE for such a horrible death:

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

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Now get this: The same Bible that predicted all of this ALSO PREDICTED that Jesus would come a second time!

There are nearly 500 O.T. prophecies predicting His return, and in the New Testament 1 in every 25 verses describe Jesus' Second Coming!

A couple of passages that really stand out to me are:

"Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen." (Revelation 1:7)

When Jesus comes back, everyone throughout the whole earth will see it, and there will be wide-spread regret mixed with fear of having refused the chance to repent and turn to Him.

Mark records the words of Jesus with virtually the same scenario:

"But in those days, after (great) tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." (Mark 13:24-26)

Supernatural and unusual cosmic signs will take place dovetailing with the return of Christ.

I repeat, if the Bible was totally accurate about Jesus' first appearance as a baby in Bethlehem, it will also be spot on with His second appearance!

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Now thirdly, we see that the shepherd's experienced:

III. A confirmation.

We are told that they immediately set out to find the child the Angel spoke of...

Luke 2:15-16 "When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about. 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger."

The words of the Angel were confirmed when they found exactly what had been described to them--the baby Jesus lying in a manger.

APPLICATION: When God gives you a word, He will confirm it, sometimes in more ways than one, as He did with Jesus.

Joseph and Mary received four powerful confirmations of God's word about their Son--the shepherds were first, then Anna and Simeon in the Temple, and around two years later the arrival of the Wise Men.

Mary, we're told, "kept all these things in her heart," meaning she guarded them under lock and key, refusing to allow the thieves of doubt and unbelief to rob God's Word from her.

Then finally, we see that the VISITATION, and the PROCLAMATION, followed by the CONFIRMATION, resulted in:

IV. Evangelization

The shepherds were so moved by these events that, "When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

The shepherds started their night out going through the same old routine they'd always known, but ended up on the receiving end of a MIRACLE!

First visited by an Angel, then led to the birth place of the long-awaited Messiah, they closed out the night by becoming the first New Testament EVANGELISTS!

WATCH THIS! Saved people save people; healed people heal people; delivered people deliver people; and convinced people CONVINCE people!!!

"All who heard their report were amazed!"

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Let me close today with this:

We, too, have experienced a heavenly visitation, not by Angels, but by the very Holy Spirit Himself.

And we have heard the same proclamation--Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

And we have also experienced a confirmation--when we turned to Him by faith our lives were transformed, just as the Bible promised.

So now I exhort you to make the New Year of 2014 a year of great evangelization--let's spread the good news of Jesus to people everywhere!

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