A Simple Mission (Luke 2:8-20)
Notes
Transcript
Sermon
Sermon
Key Passage
Key Passage
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
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.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Series Introduction
Series Introduction
We are in a series entitled “A Simple Christmas”
In this series, it is my hope to walk our way through the Biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus and find simple, yet profound truth for our lives.
The theme that we have uncovered as we have journeyed through this series is “Finding and Following the will of God”
This is important to us as disciples
And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
A disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus and on mission to make other disciples of Jesus.
This is a very simple definition.
If we are called to be disciples of Jesus, then our first order of business is to ask the question, what does it mean to follow Him?
To follow Jesus means that we need to know where He is asking us to go.
I often say that we cannot stay where we are and go with Jesus.
Following Jesus will require change in my life, but what change?
In this series, we have strived to walk through this journey of the birth of Jesus alongside Mary and Joseph and learn vital truths about the will of God.
Week 1- We looked at the story of how Mary found out that she would become pregnant with the Son of God. Then Joseph was told the same by an angel of God
We saw that God’s will can be challenging for us. It often doesn’t make sense and it is rarely what we want for life.
Week 2- Last week, we saw the effect of hurdles, trials and tragedy in our lives as we strive to follow God’s will. We saw that oftentimes people find themselves in a hole while trying to follow God’s will.
If we only try to figure out how we get into the hole, then we find the person to blame, then we become righteous victims, and never grow.
We attach too much of our circumstances to God’s will.
God allows for us to have adversity as we follow His will so we can grow in maturity.
The only path to maturity is adversity as we follow God’s will
At the end, sometimes the adversity leaves us with a pile of broken pieces of our lives, and all we can do is respond in worship.
Today, we are going to add the shepherds to the story of Jesus’ birth.
This is unlike any Christmas sermon I’ve ever preached. There hasn’t been any “Silent Night” or “Joy to the World” or “Peace for all”.
This has been a heavy and real look at applicable elements to this story.
Ironically, the “Joy to the World” sermon will come the weekend after Christmas, so you have to come if you want to hear the good stuff.
Sermon
Sermon
Before we go fully into our text today, I’ve reminded you of Mary and Joseph and their struggles following God’s will to this point.
Now I want you to imagine that they are in the barn with the Son of God laying in a manger.
There is sadness, frustration, and a feeling of failure to Joseph and Mary at this point.
They are there alone with the joy of a child, but humiliation with the humble circumstances. They had nothing to give to God in that moment.
The spotlight of the story turns now to an unlikely group of shepherds nearby:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
Now, if we knew nothing of Mary and Joseph to this point, this would be a fantastic story all the same.
There were shepherds living out in the fields.
Notice their homes. They lived out in the fields. They didn’t just work out in the fields. Rather, this is where they lived.
Likely these were nomadic shepherds that would take their sheep wherever there was grazing space and water.
Likely they were homeless, nomadic farmers.
Similar to the story of Mary and Joseph, now we see an angel again appearing to these shepherds.
The glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified.
I want to remind you of our navigation of God’s will from two weeks ago.
God’s will is sometimes confusing
It is. In this case, Gods will was presented in a way that was terrifying.
In this case, life was going on like normal until God showed up
In this case, it was the glory of God that was terrifying. We can go into a ton of the reasons for the basis of the fear, but if you are in the fields watching your sheep and the sky lights up and there is an angel talking to you, I think most of us would fall on our faces in fear as well.
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
The angels presented a message to the shepherds.
They weren’t there to condemn the shepherds, or to make them repent of their sin.
They were there to give them a message.
The angel said, “Don’t be afraid”....its a little late for that
But the angel goes on to say, that in Bethlehem, a savior has been born. That savior is the prophesied Messiah.
That savior will be Lord.
I want to take you on a little grammar journey here.
This is a proper noun. That means this is not saying, “a lord”, rather the angel is saying “the Lord”.
This is the supreme, sovereign Lord over all.
In fact, look at verse 9 again.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
An angel of who? The Lord.
A messenger of the one who was born.
The glory of who? The Lord.
The glory of Jesus Christ as well.
An angel of the Lord and the glory of the Lord announced the arrival of the Lord.
God’s will always conforms to His word.
The shepherds undoubtedly had heard rumors of the prophesied Messiah. This had been spoken about by revelation from God for hundreds of years.
Now there was confirmation from a messenger of God that this event was taking place.
Then the angel gives them a very specific description of how they would find the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord.
The glory of the Lord, the supernatural messenger from the Lord said, this is how you will find him.
Just pause for a moment and think, “What would I expect the next words to be?”
This fearsome and powerful angel, with the glory of the Holy God putting me in shock.
I would imagine that with this announcement it would describe a majestic entrance.
Instead, here is what was spoken:
A baby will be wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
The Messiah, the Lord is a baby?
Confusing
But not metaphorical. It is a baby wrapped in baby clothes.
Makes sense, while not making sense.
Lying in a manger
What?
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
If this were not enough, a great company of angels appeared with the first angel.
They were praising God.
When God’s will is accomplished, who gets the glory.
Were they singing, glory to God in the highest and glory to Mary in the barn!?
No.
There was worship and celebration for God in this moment.
Also, there was the foreshadowing of the magnitude of what this moment will mean for all humanity.
God’s favor will be accessible to human beings again because of the Lord, Savior and Messiah that was born.
God’s favor will bring peace.
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.”
The last part of the will of God that we discussed a couple of weeks ago is that God’s will is rarely our will
And that God’s will demands obedience.
Again, the shepherds were put into a situation where they could stay in the fields with their sheep or go looking for the Messiah in Bethlehem.
They left their sheep and went looking for Jesus.
This is very similar to the call that Jesus left for His disciples
He said, “Leave your nets and follow me”
In this case, the angels said, “Leave your livelihood and seek me”
They had the invitation to come face to face with God through their obedience.
They recognized that and they left their fields, their sheep, their lives in that moment and they trusted God.
I don’t want to hammer a point from a couple of weeks ago too hard, but the reality is that we don’t always see God’s will the way we ought to see it
God’s will is not our own. He will often call us out of our own comfort, our own rights, our own kingdoms to follow Him.
The shepherds came to a crossroads and they chose to follow what the angels had spoken to them.
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
This passage seems super innocuous in the text. It is there and it seems like a simple statement of information, but this is where I want to open up some new insight into God and His will.
God is always at work
Before this, Mary and Joseph had been forced to have the Son of God in a barn.
We talked about how sometimes the hurdles in our lives change our lives and circumstances so much that we cannot give God, or anyone else, what they deserve.
They were only able to give the Son of God a barn and a manger. And, it was because of the government.
Humiliating, devastated, feeling like they had let God down in the one thing that He asked of them.
I imagine that they were asking God for forgiveness for their lack of foresight and planning and all of the ways they had perceived that they had failed.
THEN
Do you remember that we talked about this word last week?
In our stories, everything is going well…then
Then is the place where what is good and right take a turn for brokenness, confusion and sin.
But when we feel the story has been written and everything is broken, confused, hopeless and beyond help…then.
Mary and Joseph are in the barn, then a couple of shepherds show up at the door.
I imagine Mary and Joseph likely thought the shepherds were there to occupy the barn for their sheep or something.
But no, the shepherds come in, looking like, smelling like, talking like shepherds (not a compliment)
And they see the baby in the feed trough and begin to worship.
I imagine the shepherds telling Mary and Joseph about how the angels appeared in the sky.
How they had proclaimed that the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord was born and they would find him in Bethlehem, laying in a manger.
Mary and Joseph must have been stunned.
No doubt they had believed the Messiah, Savior and Lord part.
But that the baby would be in a manger, that was their failure.
Even when they felt all alone.
God was at work in another place and in another way that would use this brokenness for His glory.
And do you know what? God was glorified in the broken pieces of what felt like failure in their lives.
Mary and Joseph had been on an incredible journey that seemed to be defined by their own failure of having Jesus born in a barn.
But it was that reality that God used to reveal the Savior, King and Lord to this world.
When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
Once the shepherds had seen the angels and the perfectly fulfilled message of the angels in Jesus, they went out and spread the word about who this child is.
The Messiah has arrived. The Savior is here. The Lord and is born.
Now understand that this is called the City of David
There was prophecy that there would be a descendant of David that would be the Messiah.
It is only logical that when all of the descendants of David were collected into one city that the birth of the Messiah would arrive.
Not just that it would happen in a random city like Bethlehem
But everyone had gone to their own hometowns to register. This was all of Davids descendants.
The Messiah had come and it was proclaimed by shepherds, just like David.
When the shepherds experienced this, they had a response:
God is always at WORK
God’s work leads to our WITNESS
They had seen the will of God in action. They responded in worship to God.
Then, they went out and gave their eye-witness accounts of what they had seen.
This wasn’t a theological teaching and well crafted sermon.
This was a “Do you know what we just saw?”
Now this is a much different response than what happened to Mary.
A virgin became pregnant.
Not even Joseph believed in that moment.
There was certainly not “amazement” in their story.
But now, there was amazement.
The word here literally means, “be astonished, be amazed, to marvel”
People didn’t have this response when an unmarried lady ended up pregnant, but when the witnesses expanded God’s work became evident.
This wasn’t a case of God saying “Go tell everyone that Jesus Christ is born”
This was a case of the shepherds lives being dramatically altered and everyone needed to know.
They had just seen angels and the arrival of the Son of God and savior of the world.
They spoke up.
We also should speak up if we are presented with the same life altering messiah.
He saved our souls.
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
I love this
A few weeks ago, we were talking about building a legacy as a church.
One of the sermons, we talked about the Israelites crossing the Jordan River.
But before they went to attack Jericho, God instructed them to STOP, BUILD AND ALTAR, and REMEMBER.
These events were massive to Mary.
God is always at WORK
God’s work leads to our WITNESS
When we witness God at work, we build a WAYPOINT to remember.
Mary took the time to stop and ponder what God had done. She treasured these things in her heart.
She wasn’t alone at any point of this journey of following God’s will. But she likely felt alone a ton.
She saw that God was bigger than her loneliness and brought her Joseph
She saw that God was bigger than the government and it arranged the perfect city of Jesus’ birth
She saw that God was bigger than the humble barn, but His glory would be seen in spite of it.
God was at work the whole time.
There is nothing He cannot redeem.
There is nothing that He cannot work out for His glory.
Mary took the time to create something of a waypoint in her mind.
A way to stop and recognize what God had done.
This is true of us
Regardless of how broken or alone your circumstances have left you, God’s redemption is bigger.
I want you to see this:
What changed as a result of the shepherds arrival?
Were they still in a barn? Yes.
Were they still in Bethlehem? Yes.
Were they still under the government mandate? Yes.
No circumstance changed. Except when God showed up everything changed, even though everything stayed the same.
When we stop to recognize what God has done it naturally leads us again to the same place we ended last week.
The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
God is always at WORK
God’s work leads to our WITNESS
When we witness God at work, we build a WAYPOINT to remember.
The waypoint leads to continual WORSHIP
It doesn’t say it in the text here, but do you think that Mary worshiped? No question.
But we do see the shepherds here praising and worshiping God as they returned to their flocks.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God is always at work.
Here is the thing about the will of God. We spoke about this earlier in this series:
We ought to seek God’s will, not just God’s will for our lives.
When we seek God’s will, it will always adjust our lives to Him
As others seek God’s will, it will also draw them closer to Him as well.
God then uses disciples drawing closer to Him to reveal His work in this world.
God is working in your life. Maybe through a struggle, hurdle or problem.
But as we surrender and God is glorified, it may be exactly what the next person needs to see for their circumstances.
God uses His church and His disciples to reveal His heart to us.
God worked in the lives of the shepherds, so He could use the shepherds to work in the lives of Mary and Joseph.
When we see God at work, we share what God is doing in our lives.
It is the calling of the church to be salt and light in the world.
The reality and truth of Jesus and how He works in this world must be seen.
It is seen by those who are saved by Him and know Him and see Him at work.
We must recognize that God is at work and celebrate His activity in our lives
I again remind you all to stop and think about what God has done.
This all results in His worship
Our brokenness and His redemption
Our confusion and His wisdom
Our failure and His glory
Real Life in Action
Head- What changes in my life if I know that God is at work?
Heart- Stop and treasure up what God has done.
Hands- Worship.
If I know God is at work in other places and people regarding my circumstances, do I have confidence? Joy? Maturity? Relationship?
Celebrate
Worship— Respond to Him based on how He has revealed Himself.
We are disciples following Him, being changed by Him and making other disciples on mission with Him
