Changed in the Presence of Christ
Notes
Transcript
Grab your copy of God’s word and find Luke chapter 2. We will be in verses 15-20 this morning. We are going to be looking at the rest of the story of the shepherds and their reaction to the birth of the messiah.
If you weren’t here Friday night at our service, it was a very sweet time of worship and being in God’s word. We had the opportunity to sing many of our favorite Christmas carols. We had a candle light sendoff. And we looked at what happened right after the birth of Jesus. To recap it, the angel of the Lord showed up to the shepherds in the field and told them that the Christ was born. He told them how they would find Jesus. The center of what the angel proclaimed to these shepherds is found in Luke 2:10–11 “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.”
Jesus is savior and Lord. And God sending Jesus to us to live a sinless life and go to the cross for the sins of man is good news of great joy. And the greatest part of all of this is that it is for all people. Not just the people of Israel, but for all the people. So I want to pick up where we left off on Friday night.
15 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.”
16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Pray
Have you ever been around someone that has made such a wonderful impact on you? I am not talking about leaving and being able to remember the good time you had with them. What I am talking about is being a changed person when you leave their presence. You may be able to think back and remember something like this but I would believe that the lasting effect of this person wore off at some point. In this passage today, we see the shepherds go and find the messiah that the angel told them about. And this encounter changed these men. And just as these shepherds were changed by being in the presence of Jesus, we should be too. Changed in the presence of Christ.
So let’s dig into God’s word
15 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.”
In studying this, I saw something that I have never seen before. And you may get mad at me about this, but don’t get mad at me, because it is God’s word. But the angel never told the shepherds that they needed to go and find Jesus. Luke 2:12 “12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”” He never tells them they need to go and find him. You could make an argument that it was implied, but it is never an explicit command. And this makes this scene so much more wonderful to me.
These men were shepherds. I have spoken recently about how they were considered lowly people. That they had jobs that were often relegated to children. So you know that they were probably not the most educated men either. But when they heard this exclamation from the angel of the Lord, there was no containing them. The angel did not have to tell them to go because they knew that they needed to find this baby, this messiah, this savior.
They had heard this message from God by the angel of the Lord and it moved them. They are moved to action by the words of God being proclaimed. They didn’t just go and sit in a pew and listen to God’s word being proclaimed. The word of God was spoken and they moved. We are quick to become complacent in our Christian life. We should be moved to action by the word of God just as these shepherds are. Sometimes this action is killing the sin in our lives but other times this action is going and volunteering at a local school or food kitchen. We should always be fighting complacency with action. Just as these shepherds went into action and they went on a journey.
16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
We don’t know how hard of a search this was. The angel did tell them how they would know it was Jesus. But he didn’t necessarily say where. So they may have had a difficult search. But I believe that God was leading them where they needed to go. And I would love to know the details of this as well that we don’t see in scripture like this. And I can picture them reacting to the angels in such a way that they aren’t worried about the sheep at all and just leave them.
All because of this proclamation from the angel. That the savior and Lord, the messiah was born. And that this was good news of great joy for all people. And they knew that their shepherding needed to take a back burner for this. Because this baby is the King who shall reign forever. Yes, their sheep may have been important. Their sheep may have even been sheep that were being raised to go and be slaughtered for a sacrifice for the remission of sins. But there is a greater lamb. This baby that they were just told about will grow up and be slaughtered for the remission for for those who are grafted into the family of God. Jesus was the greater sacrificial lamb. So they go and find him.
17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
They are there with Mary and Joseph now. They were visited by an angel of the Lord earlier and he told them how they would know who the Christ was. And exactly what the angel told them is what they found. So when they found it, I can imagine the conversation between the shepherds and Mary and Joseph. “You’re never going to believe what happened”.
And then they proceed to tell them all that the angel had told them. They of course tell them that the reason they know that this is the child they are looking for is because the angel told them exactly how they would find him in a manger and wrapped in swaddling cloths. But they also tell them the other things that the angel had told them.
That this baby is the savior. They may not have known it at the time but this baby would be the one to live a sinless life to be a perfect sacrifice on the cross. That he would bear the sins of man on himself as he was enduring the torture of death. That through his death salvation would be offered to mankind. And through repentance and faith in Jesus that he is God, that they would be saved.
They told them that not only would this baby be the savior but that he would be Lord as well. And I know we use the words savior and Lord together many times but there is some differences in them. When someone is Lord, you submit yourself to them. So, if Jesus is Lord, then that means that what he says to do, you will do. And what he says not to do, you won’t do. This means that you will love the things that Jesus loves and hate the things that Jesus hates. This means that you will go where Jesus tells you to go. You are no longer a slave to sin but a slave to righteousness and you will follow Jesus with everything that you have.
So they tell them that the angel said that he would be savior and Lord. But they also tell them that this is good news of great joy. In a time that would be filled with uncertainty for Mary and Joseph, this would be a comfort to hear. That the angel said that the birth of Jesus is good news of great joy. Even though they were in a stable where animals would have been, even though the nation of Israel would have been in hard times for quite some time, even though they were now under the control of the Romans, that the birth of Jesus would be good news of great joy. But this wasn’t just good news for Joseph and Mary, but that this would be for all people.
This would be good news for not only Joseph and Mary, not only the shepherds, not only for the other people that may have been in the stable, not only for the Jewish people, but for all people, all nations, all of time. The good news of Jesus still applies to us today, right here in Albemarle, right here at Immanuel Baptist Church. The gospel still has power to radically change people and we still see that happen today.
So the shepherds tell Joseph and Mary everything that the angel had told them.
18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
This was not confusion but they were in awe of what the shepherds had told. This verse shows us that there were likely more people in the stable than just the shepherds and Mary and Joseph. Maybe there was the inn keeper who knew that this pregnant lady had just had the baby and was checking in. Maybe they got a doctor there to check on the baby as well. Maybe people from the inn heard the cries of the screaming baby and came to see what was happening.
But these people were not witnesses of the birth of an ordinary child. They were in the presence of Jesus Christ, the one who would die on the cross for the sins of man. So when they heard what the shepherds said, it caused them to wonder. It caused this sense of awe inside of them. And it wasn’t because they were in the presence of a new born baby. It was because they were in the presence of Jesus the Christ who is savior and Lord. These lowly shepherds preached a sermon about this baby lying in the manger. God’s word was rightly proclaimed to everyone that was in that stable and they were changed. They were now changed because they realized that they were in the presence of the incarnate God. This realization caused everyone in there to experience this awe. But Luke focuses on one person in particular here.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Mary treasured up all these things. Mary knew that this baby was the savior of the world. She had a similar experience that these shepherds had. She too had been visited by the angel of the Lord and he told her that she was going to give birth to the son of God. Mary knew. But when she heard what the shepherds had told everyone about their encounter with the angel, it made her to treasure up these things. And she pondered them in her heart.
She had given birth to the son of God. And she heard the words of God given through the shepherds and she sat, quietly. She didn’t need to add anything to wha the shepherds said. They preached a wonderful message. So she pondered on her heart all of these things that were said. I said earlier that the proclamation of God’s word should cause action in us. Treasuring up God’s word and pondering it in our hearts is sometimes the actions that it causes in us.
To sit and dwell upon the goodness of God that is displayed in Jesus Christ. And she was sitting there, just having given birth to the one who is the son of God. And she knew what was happening. She knew that he was the savior that God’s people were waiting for. And she sat quietly and pondered all that was said.
I am not sure that we can really understand everything that she was going through. But we can relate to the shepherds after this had happened.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Glorifying and praising God. Everything that had happened in the hours before had caused this to happen. They didn’t just sit there and mumble the words of a hymn to praise God. There was this awe, this excitement around what they had seen and heard. I can imagine them screaming and shouting and cheering for all that they had witnessed. They had just left the presence of Jesus Christ. These men were changed.
Conclusion
I know that we get in these routines. We come and we sing some songs, we hear a sermon, sing another song and them leave and go back to our every day lives. These shepherds may have left and went back to tending sheep, but this men were radically changed because of what they had heard and seen. They were changed by God’s word being proclaimed and they were changed by seeing the truth of God’s word. So I want you to think about this, when was the last time you were in awe of the word of God being real in your life? When you hear me explain each and every week what the gospel is and what Jesus has done for us, does it cause you to wonder at the works of God in your life? When we are reminded of the sinless life that Jesus lived, and the horrible death that he endured on the cross, do you remember that it should have been you. That you should be the one living a sinless life but we are born into sin and have this separation between us and God, and that is why Jesus came and was born. Do you think that it should have been you being beaten and killed because of your own sin, but Jesus was sent to endure this so that you don’t have to?
These are all things that should cause some sort of awe in our lives when we think about them. As we sing our last song, I want you to dwell on that. And maybe you need to really search yourself and ask God if you truly have been changed by the gospel. If you have not, turn from your sins and turn to Jesus so that he can be your savior and Lord.