Advent

INTRO

Good evening Church, I am so glad to be back this evening as we gather together and worship and celebrate Jesus together. As you know we are nearing Christmas and we have been going through the Gospels and seeing Christmas stories. Last week we talked through John 1 and saw God with us and how Jesus is the main idea and story of Christmas. We talked about Jesus being eternal God and that He is not something that was created. We discussed that Jesus is the promised Messiah and that He came for sinners to save us from our sins.

This week we are going to be in Luke chapter 2 and talk about a very popular story in the birth narrative of Christ and that is the shepherds. It doesn't matter if you have a church background or not you know about the shepherd in the story of the birth of Christ. I wonder if we have ever thought why are these men important to the story and why did the announcement of the Savior come to these men. Well hopefully we can shed some light on that for you this evening. As we talk about the Incredibleness of Christmas. So if you have a copy of God’s word go to Luke chapter 2.

As you are turning there I want to bring your attention to the gift that is children. For those of us here who have children, especially mothers, you know how incredible birth is. The more I thought about this during my study I came to realize how birth is truly a miracle. The fact that a human body can sustain another life like and then bring it into the world is really an awesome occurrence. As a matter of fact we love the birth of our children so much that we send out announcements about it to all of our friends and family. Then we often make predictions about what our children will be and what they will do. Things like, my oh my thats a big boy hes is going to be a football player for whatever team you root for. Or your looking at the next great president or preacher or whatever…. This is a good thing by the way, its great that we love our children enough to think they can accomplish anything they want to. We however have no idea if they are going to be that thing or not, so when we get to our scene we see an announcement and a declaration. This declaration though is going to come to pass. So, lets get into it.

(READ LUKE 2:1-20)

Two Announcements

So, one thing Luke does in his gospel is use a lot of detail, Luke is the most detailed Gospel of the 4 we are given. He is detailed on purpose to draw our attention to something that ultimately God wants us to know. Luke is writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit and is drawing our attention to 2 announcements here. The first announcement is of a census. Caesar Augustus has decided to number his kingdom to see just how large the kingdom that he has grown is. If you know much about the Caesars in Rome, they were wealthy and had control over the known world at that time, they were often thought of as gods, and often sought worship from the people. They lived in huge palaces, they had everything a man could have wanted.

By starting the birth narrative this way Luke is drawing our attention to the might and power of Caesar and the governor who would also have a lot of power and wealth in the area in which he was ruling. Then it takes quite a turn in verse 7 where we get our 2nd announcement, we see Jesus born and not in a palace with gold and silver, not with balloons and celebrations, but in a barn or what would be considered a garage where they let animals come in to get out of the elements. There was no soft bed with 1,000 count sheets, but in a place where animals would eat. Not wrapped in a newly knitted baby swaddler, but wrapped in strips of cloth that may have been found laying around. The reason these two announcements are side by side is because there is something for us to learn here. Its actually going to show us the very character of God himself.

The Humility and Sympathy of Jesus

Now last week we established very clearly that Jesus is God, and that Jesus is worshiped as God. We see a picture of what heavenly worship looks like in

Revelation 5:8–14 (CSB)

8 When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were slaughtered,

and you purchased people

for God by your blood

from every tribe and language

and people and nation.

10 You made them a kingdom

and priests to our God,

and they will reign on the earth.

11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. 12 They said with a loud voice,

Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered

to receive power and riches

and wisdom and strength

and honor and glory and blessing!

13 I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say,

Blessing and honor and glory and power

be to the one seated on the throne,

and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

In this scene it is Jesus taking the scroll to open it and declare judgment and peace on the earth. There are elders and living creatures singing a song of praise to Him at this moment. But jumping back into the time machine we see in Luke 2 Jesus is coming from the most humble of beginnings. Caesar is taking a census to show how big the kingdom had gotten so he could boast about all he had done to grow the Roman empire. Meanwhile Jesus who is God left a kingdom that put Rome to shame to become a man and dwell among us. He came in the most mundane and humbling of ways. There wasnt any room for Him so shelter was found where they could find it. As one theologian put it, the agent of God lives without pretense.

This is what our God did for us, He didn't come with flair and explosions but was born into the world just like us. He grew like we did, he learned like we did, he experienced the pains of life like we did.

What Luke and therefore God wants us to know is that He is for us because He gets us. That the humble birth that Christ experienced is for us to know how much God loves us.

2 Corinthians 8:9 (CSB)

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

B. Our Hope and God’s Faithfulness

The next thing we see in the first 7 verses of Luke here is that our hope is not in men or Governments but in Him. Luke wants his readers to understand that no government official no matter how powerful or mighty they may appear in the moment that God is greater. He has always had a plan and His plan is being played out perfectly in this scene. The fact that the Messiah is born in the way in which He is born is the proof that is being portrayed in this story.

You see this hope was prophesied and promised LONG before this event even occurred. In the book of Micah we see this prophecy made.

Micah 5:2 (CSB)

2 Bethlehem Ephrathah,

you are small among the clans of Judah;

one will come from you

to be ruler over Israel for me.

His origin is from antiquity,

from ancient times.

So this story of Jesus birth and the detail upon where He was to be born is purposeful and deliberate. It is pointing to God’s sovereign plan and God’s faithfulness that He was going to fix the mess that mankind made when we chose to sin and brought judgment upon ourselves and the world. That God can truly sympathize with His creation in this way is quite incredible. That as we have said already that He emptied Himself and became like us to feel what we are going through. To be like us.

C. The Savior for All People

The next thing we see in the Birth of Christ is who Christ came for. Lets look at verse 8 and set our scene here. These are shepherds working third shift and then all of a sudden a being appears in the sky. Not only does this being appear in the sky but it talks to them, and of course they are afraid. After the angel assures them that they are safe it delivers quite a message to them. While the message is incredible its who the message is delivered to that makes it even more awesome.

You see we dont think much about shepherds today, we dont really have a “tradional” shepherd anymore. There might be some here and there, but I highly doubt you can jump on Indeed or some job posting website and find a posting for shepherd. As a matter of fact I did that, just to verify that this point, and sure enough no job for shepherd came up. But you see in the ancient days shepherds were thought of, they werent thought of very highly though.

Shepherds were by law under a ban from entering the temple to worship, the only class of people lower than shepherds were lepers. They were common dirty men who no one really thought much of at all. The message that the angels delivered was the GREATEST NEWS that has ever been given. This is the GOOD NEWS of Jesus. The word used here is eugelion which means good news. Its also where we get the idea of evangelism, you see when a kingdom would conquer another kingdom they would send out evangelist to share the message that the war was over and WE had won.

This message was the mnessage that the war of sin and death was about to be over, that the messiah had come and it came to shepherds. This is incredible because listen all of us are the shepherds, maybe you are in here today and youve thought God cant save me, God doesnt want anything to do with me. This story is for you, because the great news of Jesus didnt go to Kings and Diplomats, to the rich and famous, no it went to common unwanted shepherds.

THE RESPONSE

Lets look at the response of these shepherds and even Mary as well. Go with me to verse 14. After the angels left look at what these men said. Lets go right now, lets dont wait, lets go and see. This is a huge point, these men heard the good news of Jesus and they left everything, they left their sheep in the field to go an see this baby. Now leaving sheep in a field unprotected from predators is one thing, but these sheep were more than likely special. You see history tells us that the sheep and lambs that were used most for temple sacrifice for the day of Atonement were kept in Bethelehm. So these men didnt just leave a common animal they left the most important type of animal. This would the equivalent of soldiers leaving FORT KNOX unproteced or the HOPE DIAMOND. They left it and went and worshipped. They left sacrificial lambs to see the true and better sacrificial lamb that would cover the sins of the whole world. The final sacrifice.

(INVITE ELI)

So, that then begs the question how would you respond and how do you respond. You have heard the gospel, you have heard the good news of Jesus. You have heard that it is Christ alone that saves us, it is Christ alone that redeems us. How will you respond to this news? Will you abandon your life of sin? Your life of trying to earn Gods favor? Will you respond as the shepherd do and worship the true sacrifical lamb.

(PRAY)