Jesus Came To The Night Shift

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all people, not just the elect few, not just the holy, not just people who know their Bibles, but to all people, to the big people, to the little people, to the night shift. Thanks for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon and a message titled Jesus Came to the Night Shift. At the time of our Lord's birth, the shepherds were not well liked or thought of highly in social circles. They had a last resort job tending the sheep. The Bible tells us they lived in the fields, keeping watch over the flocks by night. They worked the night shift, but sometimes something miraculous happens during this late evening time.

Here's Carter. Luke chapter two beginning at verse eight. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone round them and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there was born to you this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord and this will be the sign to you.

You will find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And so it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherd said one to another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

Now when they had seen him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. Verse eight says there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Now it's interesting to note that in Christ's day, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the social ladder of that day, the Palestinian social ladder. They shared the same unenviable status as tax collectors and dung sweepers.

People that took toilet stuff out and got sent it outside of the gate. It's only the Gospel of Luke that mentions the shepherds. The shepherds were the night shift. Nobody at the top of the ladder works the night shift.

Did you ever notice that? None of the bosses, none of the movers and shakers, they're all home in bed. And when all the movers and shakers of society go home to bed, the night shift come out. Some of you know what that's all about.

I've worked in night shift a few times in my life. I get what that's all about. If you were a shepherd in that day in Israel, it means basically you couldn't get a job. It was a last resort. And you know, in our Christmas productions, we have the shepherds so nobly standing there. They're always standing there with stick in hand, looking out. Folks, that's not what they were doing. That's not what shepherds, listen, if that's the only job you could get, that's the night shift.

That's the low rung on the social ladder. Most of the time, they're probably sitting around a campfire because it was cold at that time of the year. And the sheep are not out on the hill top. I was a shepherd. I had sheep for several years. I know a little bit about this. Sheep are afraid of the dark.

I don't know if you knew that or not. That's why many of you are afraid of the dark. That's why Jesus called you sheep. That's why you have to have a light on in the hall at night.

And if it goes out, you start to panic. Sheep are afraid of the dark. And so typically, in my mind, shepherds would build a fire, they'd be sitting around that fire and the sheep would crowd in, in a sense, they would come close because there's warmth there, there's light there, there's safety there. They don't have to go out and try to find them. They'll come to where the light is. Isn't that wonderful? Jesus talked about us, you and I, that if we truly are people who can hear him, we will approach the light.

We won't be afraid to come to his light. Now they're sitting around that campfire, and what are they talking about? How I hate this job, probably most of them. What do you talk about on the night shift?

When you're done cleaning the floor, drying the dishes, whatever it is you have to do, you know, what do people on the night shift talk about? Ah, taxes. The Romans are gathering us just to tax us. We're taxed to death.

I wish somebody else would pay the taxes instead of us having to pay taxes. Probably talking about oppression in that society because Roman culture was a dominant culture and it was trying to impose its will on the rest of the known world. It esteemed its own value system to be superior than the thought of all other cultures. And so there was a despising in Roman culture for the religion of Israel and the Israelites.

They considered it inferior. These people who believe in God, in a sense, they have nothing else to do. If they were more intelligent, they would think the way we do. They would get their will imposed on a society by oppressing that society.

So they're probably talking a little bit about oppression, Roman soldiers and some of the current events of the day of how they've gone into villages, arrested people without warrant, held them without justification, all the things that Rome was prone to do. What else do you think they were talking about around that campfire? It's all young guys that can't get jobs. I know for sure they're talking about girls.

I'm absolutely convinced of that. Guys have a tendency to do that when they get together. And girls, you have a tendency to talk about guys too when you get together, so don't look so holy and pious.

I'm trying to tell you that most likely this is what's going on. These young men or older men would have felt like they were the bottom of the social structure. They probably are not even known if they even attend any of the local synagogues of their time. And they would have felt about as far away from God as you can get. You know, if the shepherds would come into the synagogue and they'd see the Pharisees in their nice robes and the people who could eloquently speak and eloquently pray and they have none of that, that's not what their life is about, it's not where they live, they would have felt so alienated outside of the whole of the religious system of their day. I'm sure they didn't know much about God except one thing that every person in Israel knew.

Even the reflection of God would kill you if there was any sin in your life. Everybody knew that. They all knew the history of Israel. They all understood that when Solomon built the temple and when the Shekinah glory of God, the only tangible, visible presence of God on the earth at that time was behind that veil. It was a thick curtain where God's presence dwelled. If you walked into the presence of God and you had sin in your life, you died, even the high priest died, walking behind that veil, you had to be ceremonially cleansed.

You had to, as much as the law provided, be free from the stain of sin. They would know, even in the Old Testament when an angel appeared, a messenger appeared to Gideon and called him to enter into this incredible battle that he would win for the honor of God, Gideon knew in his heart, he said, alas, there was a sudden fear came into him, I've been in the presence of somebody who's been in the presence of God and just the reflection of God's presence off of that person is enough to kill me. Gideon knew that. That's why the Lord came to him and said, don't be afraid, Gideon, you're not going to die.

And so now it makes sense. In verse nine, the angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid. Of course they would be afraid. They would feel like they're going to die in the presence of God. Suddenly all the wrong of their life would come to the surface, all the wrong thinking.

You know, it's funny, we all know what to do, but there's always something in our lives that we're not willing to do or we haven't done it yet. And now the presence of God has come. They have this inner knowledge that if I stand in the presence of God, they're the reflection of God with sin in my life, I'm going to die and they had every reason to be afraid at that moment in time. But listen to the message of the angel.

The angel said to them, do not be afraid. Now you see folks, God can choose to stay his hand of judgment. God can choose. And for everyone who's here today, God has chosen.

You're not just lucky. God chose to stay his hand. God chose to spare you. God chose to have you alive here. God chose to bring you here today. God chose to have you in a place where his presence is and yet speaks to you the way the angel spoke to these men, these shepherds and said, do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all people. It's good news and it's news when it's received in the heart brings the human person into a place of great joy. David the psalmist said, I was sinking in a place where I could not get out in my own strength and God lifted me up and set me upon a rock.

He set me on a place of solidness in my life and put a new song in my heart. And he said, many will see it and begin to fear and start trusting in God. I bring you good news of great joy, which will be to all people, not just the elect few, not just the holy, not just people who know their Bibles as they knew it at that time, but to all people, to the big people, to the little people, to the night shift, to all people, good news of great joy. And then he goes on to say this, for there is born to you this day in the city of David, the savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be the sign to you.

You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. This will be the sign that this news is for you. This will be the sign that God has not rejected you. This will be the sign that you've not gone down too far and somehow God can't reach you. This will be the sign that you've not offended God with your conversation, your lifestyle, your indifference, even to his presence.

This will be the sign. You will find God in the form of the weakest among us, a baby. God who created the universe by the word of his mouth. God who spoke and said, let there be light. God who took dust from the ground, breathed into it. And out of that dust was created a man called Adam, our forefather, God, God, God, almighty God comes to this world in the form of a baby, not a 15 foot angel. He didn't come down in a chariot of fire.

He could have, he took Elijah to heaven in the chariot of fire, but he comes to the earth as a baby, as the weakest among us. And not just a baby, can you imagine Mary? What are you doing, Mary?

I'm changing God's diaper for real. He came to the earth, God, God, God in human form as a baby wrapped in rags. He's showing us that he's willing to take to himself all the weakness of our condition and all the rags that we have wrapped around our lives. All of our filth, those rags probably weren't that clean. All of our failures, all of our disappointments, even our best attempts to be good. Remember that prophet Isaiah said, all of our righteousnesses, it means our good works are like filthy rags in the sight of a holy God. So God comes down in the form of that which is the weakest among us.

A newborn baby can't feed himself or herself, a newborn baby can't walk, a newborn baby can't travel, a newborn baby can't change themselves, a newborn baby can't do anything. And the thought that God comes down to the earth as a child, as a baby, to show you and I that he's not offended with our weakness, not offended with our struggles, he's not offended by our trials, not offended with our questions. He's not offended in a manger, lying in a manger, a manger. You know, it sounds like pristine and when we do these plays and charts, we have this nice clean straw. Look at, I've been a shepherd, I've had a barn. I mean, it's filled with animal manure and urine. It stinks in this manger.

It stinks no matter how you look at it. And he comes to us to experience our weakness, to wrap himself in the rags of humanity. May I put it that way? And he comes to us in the places of our deepest filth and failure. There's no lower he can go. Where else can he go?

Tell me how much lower could he get? God in a human form. God willing to tell us, I am willing to indwell you in all of your weaknesses and all of your struggles and all of your trials, all your rags, all your filthiness in every place that you found yourself that you shouldn't be in. I'm willing to indwell you and be God to you. This is good news of great joy to all people. Jesus Christ comes as a child, comes in a place of filth, comes wrapped in the rags of humanity, comes to those who are on the night shift.

You see, the whole thing is not just some pretty little Christmas play. It's God trying to speak to us, to say, I love you so much. I'm coming to get you where you are. I'm coming to get you where you found refuge. I'm coming to get you in your failure. I'm coming to get you in your struggles, your trials, your questions, your disappointments, all of those things that have come into your life that have caused you to be on the night shift.

You know, you can actually be in the administrative office and still be on the night shift in your heart. You still hate where you are, still wonder what life is all about, still be complaining about everything. It's all around you. But suddenly, suddenly, suddenly a messenger stands before you just as I am today saying, I have something for you. I have something that's great news of great joy.

And it's for you. No matter where you find yourself today, this message is for you. You cannot go so far away that God can't meet you. And only 30 years later, Jesus steps into the synagogue is now it's his turn to read from the scriptures and he takes the role of the prophet Isaiah, opens it up in that place and says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

Now it makes sense. In other words, God, my Father sent me for the sake of the poor, those who don't have strength, they have no resource, they can't get out where they are, they can't change their heart, they can't change their lives. He sent me to heal the broken hearted disappointments that have come into your life, words that have been spoken over you that wounded your heart. He sent me Jesus said to heal wherever your heart has been broken, and to proclaim liberty to the captives, freedom from whatever has held you down, whatever has found a lodging place in your life and you can't get rid of it.

He said, I came to give sight to the blind, I came to show you a way out of your dilemma. You find yourself in a place you can't get out of. God the Father sent me to show you a way forward in life, and to set free those who are oppressed, those who allowed something of darkness into your life, and you're oppressed in your dreams. You're oppressed in your daytime thinking. There are things in your life that you know shouldn't be there and you fight this inner secret war constantly inside. And there is a cry in your heart, will I ever get free from this?

You've tried pills, you've tried booze, you've tried everything that you can try, but you can't get free. Jesus said, I was sent to set you free from oppression and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. In other words, to tell you now is the time of your freedom.

Not tomorrow, not next year, not next month, not some other time, not some other generation. Now, now is the time of your freedom. Scripture tells us he took the scroll, he put it away, he went back, sat down in his bed, and everybody's looking at him because they'd never heard anybody speak these words this way before.

There's something in the way he spoke them. And he said to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Today, this is the day of your redemption. This is the day when all these promises and everything God came to do through his son can be yours. This is the day.

It's an amazing, I wish I would have been there, but I'm thankful I'm here. I'm thankful that I'm getting to be the messenger today to proclaim to you, this is the day of your freedom. This is the day. You don't have to wait till tonight. You don't have to wait till tomorrow or next week.

This is the day. This is the day in Luke chapter two, after all of this, and suddenly there was with the angel of multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will towards men. Suddenly I have this picture in my mind. I see all these created heavenly beings and angels there. There's a veil that separates heaven from earth folks.

We can't see them. They can see us, but we can't see into the heavenlies and they're pressing against that veil and it's as if the veil, they push through it somehow. And not only is one angel, not only has one angel appeared and no harm has come to the shepherds, but now the scripture says there's a multitude of the heavenly host. They're not just angels. There's all kinds of created beings in heaven. You read the book of Ezekiel, you'll see a few of them there or revelation and they're praising God. In other words, God has made a way for mankind to be reconnected with heaven again. He's made a way through his son Jesus Christ and suddenly there's a multitude of the heavenly host praising God.

It's as if they can't contain their joy any longer. There's been something going on on the other side of the veil. You know, folks, the Bible says the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner, one sinner, one person that says, God, if you came to get me and I'm coming, I'm giving myself to you. I'm going to give you what you came for. You came from my heart, you came from my life and my future. You came to forgive my past and set me free from my present. And so Lord, if that's what you came for, I acknowledge that you are my God and my savior.

I opened my heart to you. The Bible says the angels, Jesus said the angels in heaven start to rejoice. Now we see part of that in this passage of scripture, the heavenly host suddenly appeared and they started singing glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.

Glory to God. In other words, only God could have done this. Only God could have bridged this gap because the angels don't forget, would know the distance between fallen humanity and a holy God.

I don't think it can be measured. They would have known how far he had to come to get us. The writer of Hebrews says God's love for you and I is a mystery that the angels desire to look into. They can't fully understand why God so loves us, but he does. He loves you.

Do you understand that today? He loves you. He loves you. No matter where you are or what you found yourself doing, he loves you. He loves you with the love that can't be measured.

There's no human instrument that can measure it. He says through the prophet Isaiah to his people at that time, a nursing mother could forget her child, but I can't forget you because I've engraved you on the palms of my hands. When those nails went through the palms of Jesus' hands, your name was there and it was engraved in the hand of God and he can't forget you. God loves you. God loves you.

If you cannot hear anything else I say today, hear this. God loves you with a love that you can't fully comprehend. He loves you so much he would come to the earth, walk among us for 30 years, allow himself to go into public ministry knowing it was going to take him to a cross, allow himself to be spit on, the everlasting God beaten, whipped, bruised and battered beyond human recognition. The scripture says he was so beaten up, he was no longer recognizable as the physical Jesus.

If you had known him, you wouldn't recognize him. He was so bloodied, so battered, so bruised, so rejected, so mocked, so hated, so scorned, and he did it to get you back again. He did all that for you. He went to the cross because he loves you. He would have done it if it was only you that would have ever received him.

He still would have done it. It's not a numbers game with God. It's about you. That's why he went to a cross, to get you, to get you no matter where you are, no matter what shift you're working in, no matter where you've fallen, no matter what kind of a stable you've wound up in, no matter what kind of rags are wrapped around your mind, your heart, your head, your life, your body, no matter where you are, he came to get you. That's who God is.

That's why the angels burst through the curtain. They knew this. They understood his actions. They didn't fully understand the depth of his love.

I don't know if anybody can. Maybe one day, the Bible says when we see him, we will know as we are known. Suddenly there'll be an explosion of knowledge in our hearts and in our minds about this whole mystery of God creating us, we walking away from him. And so it was when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherd said one to another, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.

Let's go. Whatever shift it is you work on, he came to you. That's why Christmas is such a beautiful time.

Still, 2,000 years later, even the hardest heart has to fight, stick their fingers in the ears and fight to ignore it because there's something about it that won't go away. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.