Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon: FCC Marianna 12-5-2021

The Shepherds: The First Evangelists

Scripture: Luke 2:7-20

The Advent season is a season of searching.

It is the story of our search for the Savior, our journey toward obedience and surrender to God.

But it is also the story of God's search for humanity- His awesome offer of intimacy and of His journey to rescue His beloved creation.

We begin the Advent season with the account of the Shepherds- it is an examination of God extending an invitation of intimacy to His people and a look at why God purposefully chose to use Shepherds to be the first evangelists- to be the first to experience relationship with Him and to be the first to share the Good News of salvation.

Read Luke 2:7-20: Pray here!

[Aside: Share story of working on the Mitchell's pig farm herding pigs and falling into pig poop.]

Main Idea: There is something revealing about the heart of God that He uses shepherds to be the first to tell of Christ's birth and salvation.

Disregard the fact, for now, that God chose to send Christ as a baby (we'll discuss it a bit more later), the idea that we're looking at is that God chose the most unimportant characters on the stage to make the biggest announcement ever!

There is something about shepherds that God loves.

He presents Himself over and over to us as a shepherd.

Isaiah 40:11 - "He protects His lock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them in the fold of His garment."

If we ask the question: "Why does God choose to announce the birth of the Savior to lowly shepherds first?"

I think the answer is that it is because our God loves imagery.

Shepherds in the first century BC were regarded as low class- they generally had gypsy-like tendencies, including confusing other people's property with their own.

These were the worst of the worst, some of the most disdained people in all of Israel- just above lepers and tax collectors.

And that's just where Jesus found Himself best fitting- in the company of those most in need of acceptance, most in need of a doctor.

(Matthew 9:12-13 - "But when He heard this, Jesus said, 'Those who are well don't need a doctor, but the sick do.

Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

For I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.'")

Again and again, Jesus finds Himself in the ire of the religious elites, so He was comfortable with shepherds and others like them.

He spent much of His time in the fields, as a shepherd would, seeking the Father's face- just like King David, the man after God's own hearts and one of Jesus' ancestors, who found his relationship with the Father as he served as a shepherd out in the wilderness.

It's part of the reason that Jesus uses so much shepherding in His teaching:

-Luke 15:3-7,10- He spells out His mission of salvation in the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

-Matthew 10:6- He gives us a command to action: "Go unto the lost sheep of Israel."

-Matthew 16:16- "I am sending you out as sheep among wolves."

-Luke 10- The Samaritans were nomadic shepherds living in the Samarian deserts of Northern Israel and were absolutely reviled by the Jews.

Yet it is a Samaritan shepherd in Luke 10 that rescues and saves the man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho when the Jewish priest and Jewish Levite passed him by.

Where it would have made the two holy men unclean to touch the bloodied man, the Samaritan sacrifices himself to save him.

[Aside: Another picture of the Great Shepherd, Jesus, sacrificing Himself to save you and I.]

-Shepherds were regarded as being ritually unclean by the religious establishment and authorities in Jesus' day.

They were generally despised, so the idea of God using shepherds to announce the coming Messiah seems an anathema unless you know what we know about our God- what is expressed later by Paul in 1 Corinthians.

-1 Corinthians 1:26-29- "For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise: God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

Discuss: Things God could have done differently in sending Christ to earth:

-He could have sent Jesus as a conquering King at the head of an army.

He could have sent Jesus to just take out the earthy governments and set up the Kingdom of God through military force.

This is, after all, what the Jews were hoping for and expecting.

-He could have had Jesus revealed to the religious elites first.

This is what the elites expected; after all, they were the holy men of God on earth.

No one would question the Messiah being revealed to them first.

-He could have skipped the physical pain of a physical birth and the awkward teenage years and simply had an adult Jesus come walking in from the Judean deserts to begin His ministry.

-He could have allowed Jesus to be born into luxury or royalty- He's a King, so this would have made sense; have Him come into His own as the actual King of Israel.

But God didn't.

God purposefully chose for Jesus to be born into obscurity and to have His birth heralded by those most despised by the world.

His arrival was not what the world expected, signaling to everyone that His life and the coming Kingdom of God would not be what they would expect either!

Point 1: The Shepherds were the First Disciples:

Being a disciple means that we believe in Jesus as Messiah and then we drop everything to follow Him and to spread the Good News of the salvation He brings.

-Luke 2:8 - "In the same regions, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock.

Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified."

The Shepherds were terrified and astounded by the appearance of the angel of the Lord and the message they were given, yet they immediately abandoned everything- including their livelihoods- to go find the Savior and spread the Good News!

-And so, the Shepherds embarked on the journey of obedience- it wasn't as far or difficult as the journey of the Wise Men that we will discuss next week, but it was far more costly.

These weren't wealthy men, by any means; their entire lives were sleeping and wandering in the fields around them and yet the Shepherds left everything when the angels said go.

The Messiah is where?

Somewhere close in the same region?

They gave up everything to go and see this baby, the Savior; they gave up everything to just have a chance to worship their God, in the presence of God.

-Matthew 10:37-39- "The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

And whoever doesn't take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.

Anyone finding His life will lose it, and anyone losing His life because of Me will find it."

The Shepherds embodied Jesus' Words here: they gave up everything, even family well-being, to follow Jesus and then to tell others about Him.

-When we talk about this journey of obedience and surrender, this period of intimacy that Jesus calls you, how many of us are ready to give up everything to go find what it is that God has for us the way the Shepherds did?

This entire season is about our search for our Savior, Jesus, but it is also this amazing invitation of intimacy and of journey of surrender!

Mary and Joseph, will you surrender to me and make this journey into the unknown while pregnant, with no preparation and no guarantee of safety on the other end?

Shepherds, will you abandon your livelihood, your opportunities to provide for your families, give up everything to go worship this new King, to go preach about the newborn Savior?

Question: What about you, Christian?

Will you surrender what you've got?

When God calls, would you abandon everything in order to go and be His disciple?

Point 2: These uneducated, untrained, unchurched, unskilled shepherds were the first evangelists, amazing all who heard them with the message:

-God used those that 1 Cor.

describes as unwise, weak, and common- the most deplorable of all candidates- those with the least training and the least pedigree- to be the very first to come before Him, tiny, 6 lb, 8-ounce baby Jesus, newborn King, to worship - and then He send them out to go and tell others.

Question: If God can use the uneducated, unchurched, untrained, unskilled, unwise, weak, deplorables to spread the Gospel, then what is your excuse?

-The Shepherds believed, obeyed, and then went and told everyone else that they could find about the Savior.

Their response reflects the Gospel process: a person hears the message of God, believes the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, obeys God's call, and wants to tell others the good news, as well.

This is what the shepherds did.

The most amazing part about this story is not that the shepherds followed God's call.

The most amazing part is this: Luke 2:17-18- "After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them."

-The stinky, sweaty shepherds pour into the stable, into the makeshift throneroom for the new King- to worship at this feeding trough that has become the altar for the Living God.

Then are so overcome by the brilliance and radiance of meeting the Living God that they go to find every single person that they can find to tell about what has just happened!

Then not only did people listen, but they were amazed at what the shepherds had to say! Imagine people approached by someone that you considered to be repugnant, someone unclean, maybe someone who looked like a dirty farmhand or a homeless person.

You'd likely not even want to let them approach on the street- maybe you'd cross over to the other side, not make eye contact- let alone have a conversation with them.

But these men, these shepherds who have just left the presence of the Most High God men were so insistent that they made people listen to them- and their message was so compelling that not only did people listen, they were absolutely amazed by what they had heard!

-These men were so committed to the message of this little baby, the message of the Messiah, that their lives were completely altered- and the lives of those to whom they gave this message were altered, as well.

Question: What if our faith was this powerful?

What if our lives were so drastically altered by the message of the Messiah that we went out and boldly proclaimed the Gospel to anyone and everyone that we could get close to?

What if we shared this amazing message of redemption and salvation that everyone who heard it was amazed and had lives drastically altered, as well?

-What your excuse?

It can't be that you're not well enough equipped- God uses the lowest of the low to spread His message.

He used shepherds and fishermen and the hated tax-collectors and completely changed the world.

What's your excuse for not being part of that today?

Closing: As we close, I just want to look at this last statement from Luke: "Then the Shepherds returned."

Returned where?

I think most of us probably assume that it means that they returned to their fields and flocks, that their job was over and so they went back to doing what they had been doing, that they went to try to see if their flocks were okay and if they still had jobs.

But I wonder- these men who completely sold out to preaching the message of the Messiah- what if this return is something different?

What if it is referring to a return from traveling through Bethlehem preaching the Good News back to that stable, returning to report to the Master all that Had been done, just like the disciples would do in 30 years- and then to keep worshipping at the feet of the Most High?

-In this journey of surrender and obedience, are you willing to put yourself out there for Jesus like the Shepherds did?

Are you willing to go and tell everyone about the amazing things Jesus has done for you and wants to do in them?

If some lowly, uneducated, unskilled Shepherds can do it, what's your excuse?

On this journey of surrender and obedience, if God is calling you to drop everything and follow Him, what's your excuse for not doing it?