Advent: The Shepherds- The First Evangelists

Sermon: FCC Afton 12-4-2022 The Shepherds: The First Evangelists Scripture: Luke 2:7-20 The Advent season is a season of searching. It is the story of our search for the Savior, our journey toward obedience and surrender to God. But it is also the story of God's search for humanity- His awesome offer of intimacy and of His journey to rescue His beloved creation. It is the story of Immanuel- of God with us once again, and for the first time since our fall into sin, opening a way for humanity to return to right relationship with the Father. We begin the Advent season with the account of the Shepherds- God's invitation of intimacy to His people and an examination at why God purposefully chose to use Shepherds to be the first evangelists- to be the first to experience relationship with Him and to be the first to share the Good News of salvation. Read Luke 2:7-20: Pray here! [Share: Share story of working on the Mitchell's pig farm herding pigs and falling into pig poop.] There is something revealing about the heart of God that He uses shepherds to be the first to tell of Christ's birth and salvation. God chose the most unimportant characters on the stage to make the biggest announcement ever! There is something about shepherds that God loves. He presents Himself over and over to us as a shepherd. Isaiah 40:11 - "He protects His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment." John 10:11,14-15 "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and they know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep." Why does God choose to announce the birth of the Savior to lowly shepherds first? I think the answer is that it is because our God loves imagery and because He loves to show His strength and glory by using the weak and unimportant. Shepherds in the first century BC were regarded as low class- they had gypsy-like tendencies and were generally considered thieves. These were the worst of the worst, some of the most disdained people in all of Israel- just above lepers and tax collectors. And that's just where Jesus found Himself best fitting- in the company of those most in need of acceptance, most in need of a doctor. Matthew 9:12-13 - "But when He heard this, Jesus said, 'Those who are well don't need a doctor, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" Again and again, Jesus finds Himself in the ire of the religious elites, so He was comfortable with shepherds and others like them. He spent much of His time in the fields, as a shepherd would, seeking the Father's face- just like King David, the man after God's own hearts and one of Jesus' ancestors, who found his relationship with the Father as he served as a shepherd out in the wilderness. God's heart is that of a shepherd for us, so Jesus uses shepherding again and again in His teaching: Luke 15:3-7,10- He spells out His mission of salvation in the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Matthew 10:6- He gives us a command to action: "Go unto the lost sheep of Israel." Matthew 16:16- "I am sending you out as sheep among wolves." Luke 10- The Good Samaritan: We read this now and use the term "Good Samaritan" to mean being a good neighbor or saving someone, but the phrase would be an anathema to the Jews of the day. A good Samaritan? The idea would not compute. The Samaritans were nomadic shepherds living in the Samarian deserts of Samaria, what is now Northern Israel, and were absolutely reviled by the Jews. Yet it is a Samaritan shepherd that rescues and saves the man Jericho when the Jewish priest and Jewish Levite passed him by. Where it would have made the two holy men unclean to touch the bloodied man, an idea that was beyond unthinkable because it would displease God, the Samaritan sacrifices himself to save him- Jesus praises the Samaritan for making himself unclean to save another. [Aside: Another picture of the Great Shepherd, Jesus, sacrificing Himself to save you and me. This is yet another picture of Jesus saying, "I am what makes you clean. I am not worried about you making me unclean!] -Shepherds were regarded as being ritually unclean by the religious establishment and authorities in Jesus' day. They were generally despised, so the idea of God using shepherds to announce the coming Messiah seems an anathema unless you know what we know about our God and what is expressed later by Paul in 1 Corinthians. -1 Corinthians 1:26-29- "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise: God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." Discuss: Things God could have done differently in sending Christ to earth: -He could have sent Jesus as a conquering King at the head of an army, to just take out the earthy governments and set up the Kingdom of God through military force, as the Jews were hoping for and expecting. -He could have had Jesus revealed to the religious elites first, which the elites expected; after all, they were the holy men of God on earth. No one would question the Messiah being revealed to them first. -He could have skipped the physical pain of physical birth and the awkward teenage years and simply had an adult Jesus come walking in from the Judean deserts to begin His ministry. -He could have allowed Jesus to be born into luxury or royalty- He's a King, so this would have made sense; have Him come into His own as the actual King of Israel. But God didn't. God purposefully chose for Jesus to be born into obscurity and to have His birth heralded by those most despised by the world. His arrival was not what the world expected, signaling to everyone that His life and the coming Kingdom of God would not be what they would expect either! He didn't want honor or pageantry; we see a redefining of the Messiah, away from the expected political leader and back to God's plan for a Shepherd and a Savior. Main Idea: The uneducated, unskilled, untrained Shepherds became the first Disciples and the first evangelists Being a disciple means that we believe in Jesus as Messiah and then we drop everything to follow Him and to spread the Good News of the salvation He brings. There is a difference between Believer and Disciple- not every who Believes will drop everything, give up control of their lives, take up their cross, and follow Christ wherever He leads. -Luke 2:8,15 - "In the same regions, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified- When the angels had left them and returned to Heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go straight to Bethlehem to see what has happened.'" The Shepherds were terrified and astounded by the appearance of the angel of the Lord and the message they were given, yet they immediately abandoned everything- including their livelihoods- to go find the Savior and spread the Good News! And so, the Shepherds embarked on the journey of obedience- it wasn't as far or difficult as the journey of the Magi, but it was far more costly. These weren't wealthy men, by any means; their entire lives were sleeping and wandering in the fields around them and yet the Shepherds left everything when the angels said go. The Messiah is where? Somewhere close in the same region? They gave up everything to go and see this baby, the Savior; they gave up everything to just have a chance to worship their God, in the presence of God. The Shepherds embodied Jesus' words in Matthew 10: to be worthy of Me, you must leave everything and take up your cross to follow Me." The Shepherds embodied Jesus' Words here: they gave up everything, even family well-being, to follow Jesus and then to tell others about Him. -When we talk about this journey of obedience and surrender, how many of us are ready to give up everything to go find what it is that God has for us the way the Shepherds did? Mary and Joseph, will you surrender to me and make this journey into the unknown while pregnant, with no preparation and no guarantee of safety on the other end? Shepherds, will you abandon your livelihood, your opportunities to provide for your families, give up everything to go worship this new King, to go preach about the newborn Savior? Question: What about you, Christian? Will you surrender what you've got? When God calls, would you abandon everything in order to go and be His disciple? These shepherds amazed all who heard them with the message. God used those that 1 Cor. describes as unwise, weak, and common- the most deplorable of all candidates to be the very first to come before Him, tiny, 6 lb, 8-ounce baby Jesus, newborn King, to worship- and then He sent them out to go and tell others. So, if God can use the uneducated, unchurched, untrained, unskilled, unwise, weak, deplorables to spread the Gospel, then what is your excuse? -The Shepherds believed, obeyed, and then went and told everyone about the Savior. Their response reflects the Gospel process: a person hears the Gospel, believes the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, obeys God's call, and wants to tell others the good news, as well. This is what the shepherds did. But the most amazing part about this story is not that the shepherds followed God's call- it's that people believed based on what they had heard! -The stinky, sweaty shepherds pour into the stable, into the makeshift throneroom for the new King- to worship at this feeding trough that has become the altar for the Living God. Then they go out to find every single person that they can find to tell about what has just happened! And not only did people listen, but they were amazed at what the shepherds had to say! -These men were so committed to the message of this little baby, the message of the Messiah, that their lives were completely altered- and the lives of those to whom they gave this message were altered, as well. Question: What if our faith was this powerful? What if our lives were so drastically altered by the message of the Messiah that we went out and boldly proclaimed the Gospel to anyone and everyone that we could get close to? What if we shared this amazing message of redemption and salvation that everyone who heard it was amazed and had lives drastically altered, as well? -What your excuse? It can't be that you're not well enough equipped- God used the lowest of the low to spread His message. He used shepherds and fishermen and the hated tax-collectors and completely changed the world. What's your excuse for not being part of that today? Closing: As we close, I just want to look at this last statement from Luke: "Then the Shepherds returned." Returned where? I think most of us probably assume that it means that they returned to their fields and flocks, that their job was over and so they went back to doing what they had been doing, that they went to try to see if their flocks were okay and if they still had jobs. But I wonder- these men who completely sold out to preaching the message of the Messiah- what if this return is something different? What if it is referring to a return from traveling through Bethlehem preaching the Good News back to that stable, returning to report to the Master all that Had been done, just like the disciples would do in 30 years- and then to keep worshipping at the feet of the Most High? -In this journey of surrender and obedience, are you willing to put yourself out there for Jesus like the Shepherds did? Are you willing to go and tell everyone about the amazing things Jesus has done for you and wants to do in them? If some lowly, uneducated, unskilled Shepherds can do it, what's your excuse? On this journey of surrender and obedience, if God is calling you to drop everything and follow Him, what's your excuse for not doing it? If He's calling you to go preach the Gospel with so much excitement and fervor that people are amazed when they walk away from you, what's your excuse for not doing it? If He's calling you today to surrender your life to Him and accept His unconditional gift of salvation, what are you waiting on?