A Shepherd’s Surprise - Part A

What I really love, and I mean I really love it, I love the fact that when God has really big news to tell, the biggest news to tell, the birth of his son, who does he go to? He didn't go to the blue bloods in Rome, does not go to the religious elite in Jerusalem, scribes, Pharisees, high priests. He goes to blue-collar Bedouins, shepherds, day workers. He goes to ordinary people doing ordinary tasks who were marginalized by society, shepherds.

Merry Christmas. Today on Connect with Skip Heidzik, Pastor Skip shares a message about that first Christmas morning and the surprise announcement that came to certain poor shepherds on the outskirts of Bethlehem. But first, here's a resource that will deepen your love and understanding of God's word.

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Call 1-800-922-1888 or go to connectwithskip.com. All right, we're going to be in Luke 2 as Skip begins his message, A Shepherd's Surprise. Looking at this nativity set reminds me of a story. There was a little boy before Christmas who wrote a letter to Jesus. Dear Jesus, he wrote, he had a little list next to him of what he wanted for Christmas. Dear Jesus, please give me everything I've asked for on my list for Christmas because I've been a good boy all year long. And he paused, he looked down at what he wrote and he scratched out all year long and he said, Dear Jesus, please give me what I've asked for.

I've been a good boy. He wrote above it for six months. And he paused again. He goes, I can't lie to Jesus because he knows better.

So he wrote two months. And then, you know, he kept looking at it, kept looking at it, feeling really guilty, frustrated, and he wrote two weeks. Finally, you know, he's looking down at it, knows his own life, throws the pen down in frustration, puts his head in his hands, and suddenly he looks across the room and sees his parents' nativity set. He walks over and takes Mary out and says, Dear Jesus, you ever want to see your mother again? You better give me what I've asked for for Christmas. Now, I share that with you, first of all because it's funny, but second because I feel that some of us do that with the Christmas story, with certain characters in the Christmas story.

I think we take them out and we sort of hold them hostage to preconceived notions that are not necessarily part of the biblical narrative. Now, again, this is what I grew up with in my home. I loved setting up this every year. I did this as a kid. It was sort of my job to set it up. We had a little stable that went with it.

I don't know what happened to it, but I have these characters left. But I have to say that my idea of what the first Christmas was like was largely derived from this nativity set. I mean, we weren't Bible readers. We didn't read the biblical story.

I might have heard a verse here or there, but largely what I thought of as Christmas comes from looking at the nativity set. And I've discovered that's true for a lot of people. A lot of people are informed about the biblical story, not from the biblical story, but from depictions of the biblical story, often erroneously portrayed.

I'll give you an example. I was in Iraq. I was in Baghdad many years ago, went to my hotel, and in front of my hotel on the window was painted a huge Christian nativity set. Because it was around Christmas time. And I thought, well, first of all, I'm in a Muslim country, so this is odd. But I know that they weren't looking at the Bible to write that or put that depiction up. They got that from traditions they had seen and observed in other Christians.

Now, I want to underscore something. Absolutely nothing wrong with nativity sets. So don't walk away saying, he doesn't like nativity sets, Martha. I'm not saying that. I love them.

I love them. I still set this one up every year. What I'm saying is we don't always get accurate information from the stuff we put up. And that's why, again, everything that we do is under review. We compare it with the Scripture. But when it comes to nativity sets, I've noticed that we sort of create these things in our image according to our likeness. I'm looking at this nativity set and what I notice about baby Jesus, for example, is he has blonde hair.

Now, I'm sort of okay with that because I grew up with blonde hair. When I was a kid, I thought, look, Jesus looks just like me. He's Anglo-Saxon. Very European looking, even gold around his shirt.

But then I start looking around. I think pretty much everybody here looks very European. I'm looking at the dress of the shepherds. He's wearing like a little hat and knickers. This guy looks like he's got binoculars, this shepherd. So, you know, where's the brown skin? Where's the dark hair and the brown eyes? Something that would be more accurately a depiction of what it was really, really like. Now, I bring this up because we tend to do this to the point of perversion. Nativity sets are not created equal.

There's a couple in Ohio. They put this up every year. This is a zombie nativity set. And they've gotten a lot of flak for it, but they keep putting it up because they know it angers people.

So, they keep doing it. Then you can get this nativity set. This is Star Wars. Some of you are thinking, where can I order that? Then if you want to take it into the bathtub, you got the rubber ducky nativity set, right? This never ends. And then this goes on.

But look at this next one. This is the Irish nativity set. And what's very unique about the wise men is the gifts that they bring to the baby are gifts of clover, Guinness, and a pot of gold.

Of course, those clever Irish men. Now, we're going to look at these characters this week. We're going to look at the angel, and we're going to look at the shepherds because that's next in the biblical narrative, the angel and the shepherds. We're going to begin in Luke chapter 2, verse 8.

Let me just give you the setting. Jesus has been born in nearby Bethlehem. The population of Bethlehem was very small at the time of Jesus, under a thousand.

W.F. Albright, the noted archaeologist who did a lot of research on Bethlehem, believed that Bethlehem at the time of Christ had 300 people total. That's a hamlet. It's a very tiny, little walled village where Jesus was born. But what happened that night in Bethlehem was the greatest event that had ever happened or would ever happen in Bethlehem. We still sing about it. And I do love this song, O Little Town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie above thy deep and dreamless sleep. The silent stars go by, yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting light, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. For Christ is born of Mary and gathered all above while mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wondering love.

That's the narrative we are about to read. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. That's verse 7. Verse 8, there's a scene change. If it were a film, the camera pans from the little town of Bethlehem to somewhere on the outskirts of that town, out in the fields in the rural communities where the shepherds are keeping their sheep. Now, for these shepherds, it may have started out as silent night, holy night.

It didn't stay that way. It quickly turns into scary night. It turns into hectic night as they get interrupted by an angelic visit. Just really quick, I was flying into Amman, Jordan a few years ago.

I've done this twice. And as you fly into Jordan, it's right over the Jordan River. It's right over the nation of Israel. The plane descends, puts its landing gear out, and as they were announcing that we were landing in Jordan, I peered over the plane through the window, and I noticed, I know the topography well enough, I saw, I'm looking right now down at Bethlehem. And this thought came into my mind. I am now invading angelic airspace right now. This is where it happened 2,000 years ago.

It was just a surreal moment. So we're going to begin in verse 8 where it says, 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 around 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 is 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 a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there were with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts 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 shepherds said to one 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. And 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. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told them. We know this stuff. We've heard this stuff. We've heard this for so long every year. Some of us probably could just spit it out almost verbatim. We know it.

Or do we? Let's sort of comb through a few of these things. Let me show you some of the components of this visit, this angelic visit. First of all, I want to draw your attention to the audience. The audience is introduced to us in verse 8. There were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks at night. Now, angels I get. Anthems of praise I get.

Blazing glory in the sky I get. But shepherds? Shepherds? You wouldn't even care about shepherds unless God had included them in the narrative.

But we do care about them because they're part of the story. You know, most people look down at shepherds. In ancient society, shepherds were so low on the totem pole, they were considered one step above lepers. They were outcasts.

They were marginalized. Shepherds. Did you know in the book of Genesis, chapter 46, the Egyptians hated shepherds?

It says so. It says, for shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. It wasn't much better in Judaism. In Judaism, being a shepherd would make you ceremonially unclean, just by virtue of the work that you do and where you are.

You would become unclean. And because you're a shepherd, you pretty much work 24-7. You're not going to keep the Sabbath day like the leaders think you should keep it, so they would place you under rabbinic ban if you were a shepherd. Shepherds were considered untrustworthy. Shepherds were not allowed to serve as witnesses in court cases. It's a very, very unloving attitude toward shepherds. And this attitude sprung from the fact that shepherds were largely uneducated, especially in Mosaic law. They don't know the law. They don't. You know, it's not really skilled work to be a shepherd.

You don't have to go to post-grad school to be a shepherd. You know, you show up on the job and you say, okay, so when does my training begin? It begins right now. Ready?

Here it is. Watch the sheep. That's all you got to do.

It's all you got to remember. So because of that, shepherds were disdained. That may have been the case of society's view, even religious society's view, but it is not the scriptural view. In fact, you know your Bible is probably well enough to know that shepherds are given a place of respect. Abraham was a shepherd. Moses was a shepherd. David was a shepherd. The prophet Amos was a shepherd. And Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, John chapter 10, the good shepherd. The writer of Hebrews chapter 13 refers to Jesus as the great shepherd of the sheep. 1 Peter chapter 5, Peter said he is the chief shepherd. So all of that shepherd motif speaks of Jesus' care and love and concern.

But what I really love, and I mean I really love it, I love the fact that when God has really big news to tell, the biggest news to tell, the birth of His Son, who does He go to? He didn't go to the blue bloods in Rome, does not go to the religious elite in Jerusalem, scribes, Pharisees, high priests. He goes to blue collar Bedouins, shepherds, day workers. He goes to ordinary people doing ordinary tasks who were marginalized by society. Shepherds. Every society has its shepherds.

They're there, they work, but you don't really think much about them. When is the last time, for example, you ask a cab driver his name? Or do you know the person who picks up your trash? Or the one who bags your groceries?

Or the one who delivers your mail? They're there, yeah, they plan important tasks, but they're sort of marginalized. Now let me throw in another little note about this audience. It is believed by some scholars that given the proximity of these shepherds, not only to Bethlehem, but because of Bethlehem to Jerusalem, Bethlehem is only five miles away from Jerusalem. In fact, today it is one uninterrupted suburb of Jerusalem.

It's part of the city. Because of the proximity of the shepherd's fields to Jerusalem, it is believed that these particular shepherds were raising the sheep that were to be sacrificed in the temple sacrifices in Jerusalem. Now if that's the case, and there's no reason to not believe that, that just brings a whole other implication to this, that these shepherds are about to meet the one whom John the Baptist said is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If they were raising sheep that would be sacrificed for a temporary covering of people's sin, they're about to meet the one who would once for all time provide a sacrifice for sin. That's a beautiful thought. So that's the audience.

Now let's look at the angels. In verse 9 it says, and behold, I always like this word, behold, it's such a Bible word. And I translate behold as, since it means to see, is hey, check this out. That's what a behold is. So let's read it that way, shall we?

And hey, check this out. An angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. I know we just read through this every Christmas, even yawn at it, because we've heard it so much. But keep in mind, for these shepherds, it's silent night, holy night, until a UFO shows up. And I don't know what they were doing up to this point, maybe by a campfire smoking their hookah pipe, and all of a sudden an angel shows up.

Last time anything exciting happened is when one of their rugs got eaten by goats. Now an angel shows up. Now you'll notice that it's an angel. An angel singular shows up, just one. One angel, a lead angel, followed by a multitude of the heavenly host, it calls them. So it sort of begs the question, at least it does to me, this is just how I think and I study, who is this singular angel? Who is this lead angel that shows up? It doesn't say.

I have a guess. It's my belief that this is the angel Gabriel, and here's why. If you know anything about the angel Gabriel, you know that he shows up four times by name in the Bible. He's introduced four times by name, and when he shows up, he is the angel who is in charge of announcing Messiah, or the coming kingdom of Messiah. So he shows up first in Daniel chapter 8. Daniel is in Babylon by the Uli River. Gabriel appears and tells him of the coming kingdom of Messiah.

He shows up again in Daniel chapter 9, giving Daniel the 70 weeks prophecy from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah, the prince, Gabriel says, will be seven sevens and 62 sevens. We've unfolded that for you before. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series, Into the Night. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Right now, listen as Skip shares how you can share life-changing teaching from God's unchanging word with more people around the world. Here we are ending 2023.

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800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. And come back tomorrow for more from Skip's message, A Shepherd's Surprise. Can you imagine being the one shepherd that didn't go to Bethlehem to check it out? Maybe there was such a shepherd, just a legend, but maybe, you know, they had to leave the sheep with someone.

Maybe he said, yeah, you guys go. I'm not into that religious stuff. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross. At the foot of the cross. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Hyton is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.