Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Introduction

Don’t you just love seeing the little ones singing their hearts out?

And to watch them try out their acting skills in front of all of us is just cool!

I love it!

This is one of my favorite times of year and this service is one that I truly look forward to.

I mean this program had it all!

Adam, Eve, Mary, Joseph, the Angels and Shepherds.

And weren’t they cute?

I think it is interesting all the different characters that make up the Christmas story.

Over the past several weeks we have been talking about the characters of Christmas.

Tim shared with us about Zechariah and I covered Elizabeth and Joseph.

Today, in light of this program, I want to talk with you about the Angels and the Shepherds from .

Take a look at verse 8...

What region?

Bethlehem, the City of David!

And the shepherds where out that night like they were every night, keeping a guard over their sheep.

Sheep are a quite needy creature.

They can’t really defend themselves from their predators, so the shepherds would take on that role for them.

Feeding and caring for them during the day, guarding them by night.

Well, as the story goes, these shepherds were in for quite a surprise.

Out of nowhere an Angel appears!

So this one angel was quite impressive.

I mean all angels are impressive, but this text tells us that when this angel showed it freaked the shepherds out!

They were not just startled, they were “filled with great fear.”

And if we are going to be honest, you and I would have jumped out of our skin as well.

Well, the angel didn’t just appear, he also had some amazing news to share with the Shepherds...

Luke 2

“Don’t be afraid of me!”

“I get that this is outside of your norm, but set your fear aside for a moment and listen to the amazing news I have for you!”

As good Jewish shepherds, they had heard their whole life about the coming Messiah!

And, no doubt they were looking forward to this reality in their own lifetime.

And now they have a supernatural encounter with an Angel, a messenger from God.

That’s one of the roles of an angel, by the way.

They are God’s messenger.

They only do it when something is very important.

And this message was of the upmost importance.

The second person of the Trinity, God the Son had just arrived!

And the Angel not only informs them of this amazing event, but he compels them to go and check this out!

He tells them exactly what to look for...

And as if this were not enough of a demonstration of the importance of this event in human history, the Angel had some friends show up to clearly make the point that this is actually happening!

The Angels put on a breathtaking concert of praise!

luke 2:13

What a beautiful phrase of praise!

“Glory to God in the highest” - May God be high and lifted up! May His fame supersede the fame of anyone or anything even in the highest heaven!

and...

“…on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” - By the way, to whom is God pleased?

Those who trust the Christ as their only hope for eternal salvation...

Well, after this spectacular display of praise, the Shepherds made a B-line to the place of the birth of the Messiah!

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What an amazing experience to not only see and hear Angels of God proclaim the birth of Jesus, but to actually see the long promised Christ / Messiah before their very eyes!

And there was no way they could keep the Angel experience to themselves.

They had to tell Joseph and Mary!

Now, as I thought about this scenario, I was really bothered about why in the world would these holy, godly, sinless, magnificent and wonderful creatures, show up and announce this unparalleled message to a bunch of shepherds?

After all, shepherds were not at the top of the financial food chain.

In fact, this occupation was very much menial labor.

And often times shepherds were not looked upon in a favorable light.

It was a dirty, lonely job!

So why would these high and holy beings reach out to the low and lonely shepherds?

Well, first of all this is how God often operates.

God chose not to show up and impress the religious elite, to try and fit into the mold of the establishment, to do what everyone expected.

I mean, think about it!

The Creator God made His grand entrance into this world not through a celestial parade of holy, angelic, dignitaries, but through the normal, messy birthing process of a teenage girl!

If we were writing this story, Jesus’ entrance would have been grand and glorious, but God wrote this narrative - and it was simply, humble, messy and all too human.

God didn’t come to impress us.

He came to save us!

But I believe there is more to this story than God going to the shepherds simply because pursuing the humble things of this world is His pattern.

These were no ordinary shepherds.

These shepherds had a very special and distinct role to play.

Alfred Eldersheim - “And yet Jewish tradition may here prove both illustrative and helpful.

That the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, was a settled conviction.

Equally so was the belief, that He was to be revealed from Migdal Eder, ‘the tower of the flock.’

This Migdal Eder was not the watchtower for the ordinary flocks which pastured on the barren sheepground beyond Bethlehem, but lay close to the town on the road to Jerusalem.

A passage in the Mishnah (Shek.

7.4) leads to the conclusion, that the flocks, which pastured there, were destined for the Temple-sacrifices, and accordingly, that the shepherds, who watched over them, were not ordinary shepherds…Thus, Jewish tradition in some dim manner apprehended the first revelation of the Messiah from that Migdal Eder, where shepherds watched the Temple-flocks all the year round.

Of the deep symbolic significance of such a coincidence, it is needless to speak.”

(Jesus the Messiah, Eldersheim, 131, 32)

Isn’t this amazing!

These Sheep were special sheep that were used exclusively for the sacrificial system within the temple.

And these shepherds were the special shepherds who cared for these sheep.

And it was God Himself who decided to dispatch His Heavenly Hosts to announce the breathtaking message to the shepherds of the sacrificial sheep that the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb who would take away the sin of the world, the One who would make sheep sacrifices null and void, was lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling cloths.

God provided THE Lamb - Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind.

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Mary and Joseph must have been blown away as they listened to the shepherds describe their experience with the Holy Angels!

After all, these Angles came to this earth praising God because of their Son!

Their Son!

The long awaited Messiah, the true sacrificial lamb who would one day sacrifice His life on the cruel cross to ransom the life of many.

The One who was the only one that could make peace with God possible.

Can you imagine taking all of this in as a new mother and father?

Mary listened intently - she treasured the words that were spoken about her son, no doubt thinking through the painful reality that one day her son, her sweet little lamb would become the sacrificial lamb of the world.

Born to Die

On the night Christ was born

Just before the break of morn,

Just before the break of morn,

As the stars in the sky were fading,

O’re the place where He lay,

Fell a shadow cold and gray

Of a cross that would humble a King

Chorus

Born to die upon Calv’ry,