We have been journeying to Bethlehem in this series. And we started a couple of weeks ago by looking in the Old Testament at how the Old Testament prophets were pointing everyone to the Messiah. And that's why we have prophecies in the book of Isaiah and several other parts in the Old Testament that are really just pointing to all the wrongs are going to be made right when Jesus comes, when the Messiah comes. And there's all these Old Testament prophets that prophesy about the coming birth of the Messiah. And then last week, we looked at Mary and Joseph and some of the challenges that they experienced on their way to.
on their way to Bethlehem. And then today we are going to look at the shepherds.
Some of my favorite characters in the Christmas story are the shepherds. And so today we are going to look from Luke chapter number two and we are going to look at the shepherds. I recognize this week many of our households will probably take some time to read the Christmas story. And I'd encourage you to do that, just to take some time around Christmas with your family to take some time and read Luke chapter number two as a reminder of why we celebrate. And that's been a tradition in our family since I was a kid, and we've kept that tradition going even as we've had our own children.
And just such a great time for you to remind yourself and remind your children and remind your family about the real meaning of Christmas. But we're going to be in the famous Luke chapter number two Christmas story here today. I'm going to read quite a few verses, very familiar passage. Verses one through twenty. And so I know that's a lot of verses to read.
I'll read it pretty straight through. And so let's get going.
So it says this: verse number one. It says, and it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.
Because he was that of the house. and lineage of David. To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child.
So it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. She brought forth her firstborn son. and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, And lo the angel of the Lord came upon them, and And the glory of the Lord shone round about them.
And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, Lying in a manger. Verse thirteen, and suddenly there was 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 it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem.
And see this thing which has come to pass, which the LORD hath made known unto us. Then they came with haste and found Mary. and Joseph and the babe lying in manger. When they had seen it. they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Verse twenty. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. Let's pray together.
Father, Lord, your word is so powerful. Your word is rich. And Lord, even as we come to a passage that we look to each and every season like this and we read and we know, and many of us could probably recite this, Lord, I pray, God, that you would give us something that maybe we have not seen before out of this passage. That you would speak to our hearts, that you would remind us of the reason why you came. And that today we could get a better, clearer understanding of why you came.
And Lord, that if somebody's in here that doesn't understand or they've been wrapped up in all the different festivities of Christmas that they've missed the reason why you came, I pray, Father, that you would reveal that to them today. Lord, speak through me. Hide me behind the cross of Calvary. And let every one of us hear the Holy Spirit speak to our heart here today. Fill this place with your presence.
Lord, we love you, for it's in your name we pray. And all God's people said. Amen and amen.
Well, in this passage, obviously, the Christmas story, you have that the angels came with the greatest news ever, and they revealed this to the shepherds. And as we look to this, I want to just kind of zero in just a little bit into the shepherds. And I want to show you just a couple of things about the shepherds. And I hope by the end of this that you could see yourself in the shepherds, and you could get an understanding and see some of the similarities that each one of us have with the shepherds here. And the outline today is going to be super simple.
It's going to be one of the most simplistic sermon outlines I probably have ever, ever given. But I think sometimes we try to complicate what is so simple. And so today we're going to kind of keep it as simple as possible. But I want to show you three things in this passage about the shepherds that I think are helpful for us. All right.
So number one, Yeah. The shepherds were no bodies.
Now, if you're an English teacher, I want you to know up front that some of my points today, you're going to be sorely mistaken, and you're going to be like, okay, you're going to be disappointed a little bit in this. But it does have a point, and I'm going to show you how I think these three things we all have in common with the shepherds. But first of all, the shepherds were nobodies. And I want you to think about this. God.
Uh dispatches these angels. He dispatches these angels, this heavenly multitude, this choir. This angelic choir, and by the way, what a choir it must have been. And this choir of angels come down. And they could have revealed themselves and really given this incredible news, the best news ever to have been given.
They could have given it to anybody, but yet they decided that they would tell the shepherds.
Now, when we think about this, first of all, I want you to understand that good news. Good news is only good when it's shared with others, right? I think it was Carl Henry who said that good news is only good if it gets to people in time. You see, good news is good. And when you have news, what do you want to do?
You want to share it, right? When you have really good news, you want to share it. I'm sure that you've had something that has happened in your family that's really good. And you get on the phone and you want to tell people. You just can't not tell certain people.
I can remember when Abby, I've told this story before, but when Abby got pregnant with Lindley, our first child. I remember, like, I was away, I was at camp, and so I was at the wilds with our Christian school. We used to go up there every year for a leadership retreat. And so, I was one of the chaperones, and so I was up there, and we had already taken kind of the home pregnancy test. And while, and so it said that, you know, she's pregnant.
And so, she had her official doctor's appointment while I was away at camp that would just kind of confirm everything.
So, we hadn't told anybody, and so we were going to wait until the doctor has confirmed everything. And so, we hadn't told anyone. And so, when I'm up at camp with a bunch of students, she calls me and she says, She says, Josh, it's true. We're going to be parents. And I'm up there, and she tells me this on the phone.
The last thing she told me was this: you can't tell anybody. I mean, like. Like I'm going to abide by that, right? And so I was like, okay. And so I was like, man, I can't tell people and things.
And I'm trying to keep this incredible news inside of you. And when you have such good news, you just want to share it. And so I can remember I couldn't tell anybody, especially the students that were with us, because they would tell other people. And so I tried to be really careful about that, even though a couple of them figured it out. But here's what I'll tell you.
I couldn't tell anybody, but I went into the bookstore and I was just looking in the bookstore. And when I was checking out at this bookstore, At the Wilds, I just said, Hey, can I this lady? I never met her before. She's just a worker there. I'm like, Hey, can I tell you something?
And she said, Yes, I mean, like one more. And I just told her, I said, my wife's pregnant. I'm going to be dad. And so, and she was just like, okay. And so.
And never talk to her again, you know. But but she was like the first one that I ever told about this. But the point is, is that when you have good news, something that you want to share, It has to be told. And the greatest news ever to be given. ever to be announced.
Isn't it interesting that The shepherds were the ones that heard about it. Like when you think about this, like the angels could have gone to anybody. God could have dispatched the angels to go to Herod's home and to the palace, the king's palace, if he wanted to. God could have, you know, announced his birth to, he could have gone into Rome and. And announced it there.
He could have gone into the temple. And announced it to the real, you know, the Pharisees and the religious crowd that would gather at the temple. But yet, instead of any of those places, he goes out with this heavenly host with the greatest news ever to be given. And he shows up in a field. Do a bunch of A bunch of shepherds.
Why is that significant? Why is that significant? And what I want you to see, if you do some study on this, like shepherds during this culture and this time, It was considered to be one of the lowest forms of labor. It wasn't a a glamorous position. I mean, if you do some study on this, what you'll find is that most of the time, a lot of these shepherds were younger.
Because it was kind of one of those entry-level kind of positions that you would do and that when you had a life plan and something that you expected to do, it's kind of like, hey, I'll be a shepherd until really I start my real career. It was kind of one of those. It was a dirty job. It was not anything that was glamorous at all. In fact, the shepherds were kind of, not only were they low, they didn't make a lot of money, they were somewhat insignificant.
And you could almost guarantee because of their position that they would feel somewhat. Forgotten. And by society. And so here it's like the greatest news ever. Comes To the shepherds who are low, poor, forgotten, and very insignificant in this culture today.
Why is something like that significant?
Well, I think what you learn from this is that Emmanuel, Christ the Messiah, what we learn by the angels coming to the shepherds is that God has come for everyone. God has come for everyone. God has come for the poor. He has come for the insignificant. He's come for those who feel, you know, like an outcast.
He's come for people like that. Like a lot of times we think and our society thinks that, you know, if the king of kings is going to come, he's only going to come for those that are worthy. He's only going to come for the rich and the moral and people like that. And let me tell you this, that none of us fit those qualities. And so all of us in some way can identify with the shepherds.
Here in this text, because if you think about your life outside of Christ. We all are Are the lowly? We all are the The poor. We all are the insignificant. We all are the Are the outcast.
I mean, think about it. Ephesians chapter number two talks directly about that. In Ephesians chapter number two, it talks about our life before Jesus came into our life. And what we see is that we were there's some descriptors there that say that before Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. In other words, there was nothing good in any of us.
That includes every one of us, by the way. The pastor up here, every single one of us. There was nothing good in any of you. None of you were born into this world worthy of a relationship with a holy, righteous God. We were all dead in our trespasses and sins.
We were sinners. And what we did was we were disobedient according to Ephesians chapter 2. We followed after our flesh and we lived our life to please ourselves and to please the prince of the power of the heir, which is the enemy. That's what we were born into this world wanting to do. But aren't you thankful that everything in Ephesians chapter 2 changes in verse number 4 when it says, but God who is rich in mercy.
You see, the point of this story is simply this: that Emmanuel has come for everybody. He has come for all of us. And we can see our s ourselves in In the shepherds, because the shepherds were nobodies. And here's what I'll tell you: I don't want to beat you up too bad, but all of us are nobodies. All of us are the nobodies, the lost, the downcast, the outcast of society, the insignificant.
Every single one of us are that description. And yet the greatest news in all of the world has been revealed to you and to me. That's why when you see the text here, you see the phrase. Good tidings of great joy. which shall be to all people.
That's why this message, this announcement from the angels to the shepherds was so powerful, and it means something for you. It's so significant for you and for me because of that phrase that this good tidings of great joy that was first revealed to the shepherds, it would be for everybody. It would be for everybody. If you're a part of the all people here, can you raise your hand, okay? That's all of us.
That's every single one of you. This is good news, not only for the shepherds, this is good news for all of us. And so, what we learn first about these shepherds and how we can see ourselves in this story is the shepherds. were were no bodies. were no bodies.
And aren't you thankful that God came for the nobodies? Aren't you thankful that God came for us? Emmanuel, God with us. For unto us a child is born. You see, the message is for all of us.
And what we learn is that we are nobodies just like the shepherds, but yet he has come for you. And here's what I'll tell you: if you're in here today and you don't know Jesus as Savior, I want you and you know, perhaps you're feeling like, man, you've messed up your life. You've screwed up your life. Maybe you've made some terrible decisions in your life. And you're sitting here thinking, man, there's no way that God, the King of kings, Our perfect guy could ever love me or ever want a relationship with me.
Listen, the shepherds would beg to differ. The shepherds would beg to differ because for them, God wanted a relationship with them, which shows us that God wants a relationship for all people. It's a message that is open to anybody that will believe. But what we learn first about the shepherds is that the shepherds were nobodies. But here's what is also good news, and what we learned about him: God made the shepherds.
Somebody's. Isn't that interesting? is that they were no bodies and now they have become a somebody. In the story. I mean, many of you have a nativity set, right, at your house, and they're there, right?
They get to be a part of it. The birth of Jesus, like here, this incredible announcement comes to a bunch of nobodies there in the field, and now they are invited. Into the presence of the men. of the Messiah. These nobodies in a field now we see that they get to come and they got to see the baby.
They got to see the child that was born. They got to see the Messiah. You see, what you learn there is that in this story is that these shepherds, these nobodies out in a field, actually got invited into the presence. of the Messiah. And isn't that Why Christ came in the first place?
Emmanuel, the songs that we sing around this time of the year, God with us. You see, that's the reason why God sent Jesus into the world in the first place, so that he could have a relationship with you. And what we learn here is that the shepherds now get to be in the presence of God. And we see that, you know, I always think about the story. Um in the Old Testament.
Uh where David Wants to, you know, find somebody of Saul's household and show kindness to them. Do you remember this story in 2 Samuel? And so he wants to, so he's like, who are we going to show kindness to? And Jonathan's son was crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.
Do you remember that name?
Okay. And Mephibosheth was crippled, and just he was as outcast as anybody. And being crippled in that culture, you pretty much were just kind of the lowest of the low, unfortunately, is how it was. And so for David, he said, you know what, this crippled boy, Mephibosheth, what I'm going to do is I'm going to show kindness to him. And so it says in 2 Samuel that Mephibosheth will always eat at the king's table.
In other words, this outcast Of society now is invited to the king's palace to live. And to eat at the king's table and to have access to the king anytime he wants. What a gospel message in that. Because isn't that the real isn't that our story? Right.
We all are Mephibosheth. We all are the shepherds. We are all the outcast of society, lost and poor and undone. We've all made a mess of our life. And yet, you know what God has done?
God, through Jesus, by sending His Son Jesus, He showed kindness to us. And grace and mercy. And he demonstrated that by sending his one and only begotten son into the world. To live the perfect life that you could never live. and to die the death that you and I both deserved.
Why why would he do that?
So that we can have a seat forever. at the king's table.
So that we could access the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Whenever We In fact, right here, He's with us. Because of Jesus. You see, what you see here is that the shepherds, these bunch of nobodies out in the field, God made them.
some bodies and invited them into his his presence. There at this first Christmas scene that you see here, when they got a chance to behold and to see the baby in Bethlehem. But then, listen, so not only did the angels reveal the greatest news ever to a bunch of nobodies, well, he made them somebodies, but number three. God gave the shepherds a message. for everybody.
What's interesting about this story to me is that they were nobodies, and now God made them a somebody.
Now they get to be a part of the greatest moment in all of history: the birth of Christ, the birth of the Messiah. But then God After he made him a somebody, he gives them a message. That is for everyone. That is for everybody. And This is us in the story.
We were no bodies. God made us a somebody. And you know what he's done for all of you nobodies that have become somebodies, right? Try to say that a few times fast, okay? You'd struggle as much as I'm struggling, all right?
And then he gives you and I a message. is for everybody. That is for all the other outcasts, that is for all the other poor, that is, for all the other people in the world. The message that was originally for these shepherds that went and became great tidings and good news for all people has reached you. And now he's given you the same commission.
that he gave the shepherds here in our text to go and tell Everybody, look at verse number 17 of our text. It says this, and when they had seen it. They made known abroad the saying which was told them. concerning this child. Drop down to verse number 20.
And the shepherds return. Glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them.
So so follow the the path here. In Bethlehem, the shepherds, they're in the field doing their work, doing their thing, a bunch of nobodies. And all of a sudden this angelic choir. Comes singing songs. About the birth of the Messiah and tells them to go to Bethlehem.
And they show up in Bethlehem.
So nobodies became somebodies. And now, after they see this incredible scene and they become, they realize the Messiah has finally come. They're now commissioned out to go and tell a message that is for everybody. You know a lot of Christians They realize that they were nobodies and that God has made them a somebody. But you know what's sad?
Is that a lot of us forget that the commission given to the shepherds is for every single one of us? It's not just for pastors. It's not just for missionaries. It's not just for deacons. It's not just for Sunday school teachers and things like that.
No, the message that is for everybody that we see that the shepherds were commissioned to go out and tell, it's for every single follower of Christ even today. Because what the message is, is we realize that we were the nobodies, and now God has made us a somebody, and that's a message, that is good news. That is good news. And what did we learn at the very beginning of this sermon about good news? Good news has to be shared.
Good news has to be told. Good news, we don't keep those things to ourselves. When something good happens, we want to tell somebody. And there's nothing better than realizing that we were all once nobodies and God through Jesus Christ has made us a somebody. Why on earth are we not going out and telling everybody?
The greatest news that has ever been given. You know, you see this like you could say, I've heard it said that the shepherds were some of the first evangelists. Think about it. I mean, they're leaving there, these bunch of nobodies, these bunch of people that are insignificant, and now they get to be commissioned to go out and share the greatest news that had ever been given that would be for all people. And what a gift it is for us to be able to go out and glorify and praise God and tell everybody.
That we what of what we have experienced. in this life. Charles Spurgeon. said it about as About as good as anybody else, and about as directly as anybody else. Here's what he said: if you aren't telling people about the gospel, you might not be truly changed by it.
Church, listen, when was the last time you took the message of what has happened in your life? Take it straight from verse number 20 of our text of what you have personally experienced. What you have not only heard, but that you have seen and you have tasted and you've experienced what Christ has done in your life. When was the last time you took that message out into the community? And you shared the good news with somebody out in our community, say, man, I don't think I've ever done that.
Well, listen, I'll tell you this, what Charles Spurgeon said. If you aren't telling people about the gospel, you might not be truly changed by it. Because here's what I'll tell you. When you have been changed by the gospel. When you have been changed from the inside out.
Would the greatest news ever that I was a s a nobody and now God's made me a somebody. I was insignificant, and now God has invited me to sit into his presence each and every day. It's the greatest news ever. How foolish would it be for me not to want to take that? to take that into my neighborhood.
To take that into my family. To take that to my workplace. To take that to my school. To take that to my friends, to take that to the gym. To take that to where we do life.
How foolish would we be not to want everybody to experience? Because if the message was for a bunch of nobody's like us. The message is for everybody. And that's what we learn here. And so, as you see, this message about the shepherds.
I want you to see yourself in the story. The Shepherds were nobodies just like us. But yet God made them a somebody. Just like he's done for you. And now he's given them a message to go and tell.
Everybody. That's what we have, and this is such an opportunity for us. This is not a difficult sermon. It's simple. It's simplistic for us to see ourselves in the story and for us to realize that the commission.
Remains true even today for us to go out and tell. You see, God came to nobodies, He made them somebodies, and He gave them a message that is for. Everybody. So, you say, what's the next step? What do we need to do here today?
I like to think very practically.
So I like to leave. Church services with like a to-do. Like, hey, what can I do? What can I, how can I apply this or whatever? Just a few things I want to give you.
Three quick things, real brief. That we can take with us as we leave here today. Here's what I want you to know: if you have never experienced Jesus as your Savior, Maybe you have been attending this church for years. And maybe you've been trusting in church membership to improve your relationship with God, or maybe you've been, you know, trying to do the very best you can and kind of crossing all the T's and dotting all the I's of your life and trying to abide by some type of moral code. And you feel like if I do that, then that will be enough.
And that's what you've been living by, but you've never actually trusted in Jesus as your Savior. Here's your next step. It's simply this: you need to receive the free gift of salvation. It's a gift. You know, this week we're going to be giving gifts.
Every one of us are going to be giving gifts and things like that. Here's what I'm telling you: the greatest gift that has ever been given was what we just read about in Luke chapter 2. That God loved us in spite of our sin, that He loved us so much that He sent His one and only begotten Son, Jesus, to die for a bunch of nobodies like us. It's the greatest gift ever. And the work's already been done.
You say, what do I have to do to accept that? Listen, the work's already been done. All we have to do is receive it. That just means that we have to believe that he is the only way, Jesus is the only way to have a relationship with God. And we just have to receive, believe and receive as free gift.
That's the first step for any of us if we've never done that. And then the second thing I think all of us, and this applies to every single one of us. Is I think we need to bow. in worship. One of my favorite words around Christmas is the word behold.
You see it throughout Scripture. Especially around Christmas time. It's in a lot of our Christmas songs, it's in a lot of these passages and stuff. Behold. The word in Scripture really means to to look and to to really grab somebody's attention.
If you would. And you know what some of us need? We get so busy with just day to day our careers. Our sports schedules. Our time and just the different events and stuff that, and there's nothing wrong with any of those things.
But what happens is, we get so busy with those things that we're too busy to actually stop. And bow in worship. You see, the shepherds, when they came, there was this incredible praise moment. There was an incredible like praise I mean, they left praising God and glorifying God. They didn't leave their board like a lot of us leave church services on Sunday.
You see what I'm saying? They left there and they were excited about it. They had a song in their heart. A song that was expressed. And they went out praising and glorifying God because of what they had just seen.
And for some of us, that's our next step. If you already received the free gift of salvation, maybe today you need to just stop. Forget the gifts that need to be bought, forget the activities, forget the trips, forget the stuff. And you need to just quietly today bow. In worship.
Worshiping him, the king of kings, because he came. To a bunch of nobodies like us, and he made us a somebody with a message for everybody. And then, number three, it's very simple. We got to go and tell everybody. We got to go and tell people.
This is why we do things around our church, these outreach events, and we do cantatas, and we do family Christmas services and all these kinds of things. You say, why are we just doing those things? Because that's just a fun, feel-good kind of moment. No, we're doing these things as opportunities for you to invite your friends. who possibly don't know Jesus.
So that they can realize that they're the nobody in the story, just like the shepherds, but God loved them. The way that they are. And he wants to make them into a somebody. You see what I'm saying? And so that's what we got to do.
We got to get passionate about the gospel. We got to get passionate about telling people about the message. of hope. The greatest news ever been Given. And for some of us, let's just be real.
We don't do a very good job of with this. I mean, when was the last time you told somebody? If it's been weeks, then this is where you need to say, God, help me. Today. If you haven't told anybody about the message of hope personally, Then listen, your next step is, hey, I got to ask God for forgiveness and I got to get passionate about this.
God, give me a fresh glimpse of the gospel message in my own life because I don't know if I fully am getting it. You remember the moment that you got saved? Way different then than it is now, isn't it? Like what what happens? We lose the fire.
We lose some of those things. I can remember I became a follower of Christ when I was a kid, five years old. And I didn't know a whole lot, but here's what I'll tell you: is that the moment that I trusted in Jesus as my Savior. Like my dad was working third shift, and this was at night. First thing I did, I was like, I want to call him.
So we got on the phone that was attached to our wall, and we, you know, I called him. Right there. Right before I went to bed, I told him, Dad, I got saved tonight.
Next morning, I go into. Um kindergarten. Told my teacher. And nobody had to tell me to do that. There's just something because when the good news comes to you and it gets a hold of your heart, the only thing that we have to do and the only response, we got to tell people.
Because we just experienced the greatest news ever to be given. Ever to be displayed upon earth, we have to tell people. And somewhere down the line, when we get into adulthood, we lose sense of the simplicity of the gospel. And sometimes we just think like People are on their own. No, the message, just like the shepherds were given, they were commissioned to go out and to tell people.
what they had heard and what they had seen. And that's the message for every single one of them. You see, God came to a bunch of nobodies. He made them somebodies, and he gave us all a message. That is for everybody.
Mm.
