Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Luke 2:1-20; John 3:16

Theme: The shepherds teach us how to respond to the Good News of Jesus.

Date: 12/22/2019 File Name: Chronicle_of_Christmas_2019_04.wpd Sermon ID:

Our theme for this year’s season of Advent has been response—how do we respond to the Good News of the incarnation of God’s Son into our world?

• Joseph and Mary both responded with obedience.

• King Herod responded with rejection.

• Magi from the east responded by worshiping.

This morning I want us to consider how the shepherds responded.

The shepherds told.

They responded to God’s redemptive message by telling that message to others.

They are the first heralds of the message — “that God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

(John 3:16, NIV).

In our text for this morning, we find three essential responses to the good news of the incarnation.

• We Need to Really Hear the Message

• We Need to Make Peace with the Message

• We Need to Trust the One Whom the Message is About

I. WE NEED TO REALLY HEAR THE MESSAGE

1. let’s begin with the end of the passage, verse 20

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

(Luke 2:20, NIV84)

a. this is probably the least known part—or at least the least quoted part—of the passage

2. Luke tells us that they heard, they saw, and they listened

They Heard — the message of the Angels

They Saw – the message validated in the manger

They Listened — the message inculcated by the repeated telling

a. let’s examine all three of these

A. THEY HEARD—The Message of the Angels

1. as the shepherds are doing what shepherds do—tending to their flock—an Angel of the Lord appeared to them

a. the angel has a message of great joy for all people

2. the angel speaks, the shepherds here, and when they go to investigate, they find everything just as had been told to them

a. then we read in vs. 17 ...

“And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.”

(Luke 2:17, ESV)

b. the verb, made known the saying in verse seventeen means message—they spread the message of what they had heard and seen

1) the shepherds are the first evangelists of the gospel!

3. the first stage of responding to the gospel is to hear the gospel

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.””

(Romans 10:14–15, 17, ESV)

a. the angel speak to the shepherds, and then the shepherds speak to everyone else

4. the problem, of course, is that not everyone who hears a message really hears the message

ILLUS.

Every married couple here this morning—especially the wives—are familiar with this phenomenon of hearing, but not really hearing.

Every now and then I’ll say something to Linda, and I’ll get that “look” that communicates “you’re an idiot.”

But she is too kind to say that and so she says, “I told you about that three days ago.

Didn’t you listen?“

The answer usually is, “Yes, and no.

Yes, I heard it.

Yes, I remember saying ‘okay’.

Yes, I remember acknowledging it.

But obviously I really didn’t pay attention to what she said.

Did I really understand?

Did I really perceive the implications?

Well… No.”

a. the Bible reminds us how easy it is to hear, but not to REALLY hear

5. there’s something important here I want you to see

a. don’t miss the ordinariness of how the Word of God comes to most people

1) His word comes to most of us in a very ordinary way

2) the shepherds got an angel, but everybody else got the shepherds

b. some people, people like Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Peter and Paul, they get visions, they get burning bushes, they get lights, and angels, and voices and revelations from heaven

1) the get the spectacular, and they paid attention

c. but most of us get the Word of God in very ordinary ways

1) if an angel were in this pulpit this morning, face glowing, garments shining, sword flashing it would be very easy to pay rapt attention to him

2) but you got me instead!

6. some people miss the gospel because they want flash, but what they get is the ordinary

B. THEY SAW—The Message Was Validated by the Manger

ILLUS.

When I was working on my Master’s Degree in Communication, I was introduced to the work of Edgar Dale.

In 1946 he developed what we now call Dale’s Cone of Learning.

He tells us that we learn, really learn, only about 20% of what we hear.

That’s pretty depressing for someone who earns his living through oral communication!

But we learn 50% of what we hear and see.

“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.”

(Luke 2:15–16, ESV)

1. the message the shepherds hear is extraordinary

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

(Luke 2:11, ESV)

a. the people of Israel have been waiting over 1,000 years for this

1) and now it’s revealed to, of all people, peasant shepherds

b. the Old Testament prophesies concerning the coming Anointed One have begun

1) a Savior—Christ the Lord—has been born and heaven cannot contain the excitement as God’s heavenly host break into time and space erupting in glorious praise

2. the sight the shepherds see is ordinary

a. they find Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger

1) there are no Wise Men lingering in the background ... yet

2) are cattle lowing?

... possibly

b. what the shepherds see that night could have been seen in virtually all of the households of Bethlehem that night—mothers with babies

1) but this one is swaddled and in a manger—an animal feeding trough

3. what makes the ordinary scene extraordinary is that it is a confirmation of what the angels had told them

a. we can’t “go and see” the child in the manger, but we can go to the Scriptures and get confirmation of the Gospel

b. we can’t “go and see” the child in the manger, but we can attend church, and confirm the Gospel in the lives of those who have experience Christ in their own lives

C. THEY LISTENED—The Message Inculcated by the Repeated Telling

ILLUS.

Edgar Dale discovered in his research that we only really learn about 20% of what we hear only.

We learn 50% of what we hear and see.

But we retain an amazing 90% of what we hear, and see, and tell to others.

“And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.