Ordinary Shepherds with an Extraordinary Message

It's good to be here this morning. We're quickly approaching Christmas Day. As I said, this is one of my favorite times of the year. We get to celebrate and to focus on and to pay particular attention to the fact that God sent his son into this world which he created to bring about our salvation, to reconcile us to God. And it is a good thing for us to remember this, to spend time thinking about it and celebrating it and meditating on it. As we read earlier, the candle that we lit today is the shepherd's candle. It's the candle of joy. It reminds us of the joy that the shepherds had at the announcement of the coming Messiah, of his birth, of his appearance. And so today we're going to read part of what we read earlier.

and we're going to look at the shepherds. And there are three things that I want us to think about. One is the shepherds themselves. We're going to look at who they are that God appeared to and find some lessons in that, that God appeared to ordinary people like you and me, that God uses ordinary people. And then that's where the majority of our time will be spent. And then we'll look at the message. that the shepherds received, a message of great wonder and of great joy and of great glory. And then third thing we'll look at is the shepherd's response. So please stand for the reading of God's word. This is the word of the Lord and it's eternally true. In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David there is born for you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. and this shall be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and let us see this thing that just happened, which the Lord has made known to us.

So they came in a hurry and they found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Well, you know, you get married, and then some point after that, you find out that your wife's pregnant, right? And when you find that out, most people, maybe people do this before they actually get married and get pregnant, but after you find out your wife's pregnant, what do you start doing? You start thinking, ooh, who do we tell, and how do we tell?

Let's tell this exciting news. And you have to come up with some plan of how you're going to announce it. And often one or maybe both of you will be concerned about who gets told first, who gets told second, who do we need to tell personally, and who can hear it through the grapevine. Are we going to plan an elaborate announcement? Does it have to be a clever reveal? Or who do we just simply say, hey, guess what? My wife's pregnant, right? Everyone does it differently. Often with the first kids, most people want to announce it in some big special way, right? And then as you have more and more kids, maybe an email suffices so that your family's on the same page. Well, what we have in Christmas is, in one sense, just a series of birth announcements.

But it's not just the Christmas story, right? If you go through Advent, it really begins in Genesis 3.15, where right after the fall, when God goes to confront Adam, in the midst of his curse on the serpent, he reminds them, or he promises them, he tells them that there would be born to the woman a seed who would crush. The serpent who would crush his head. But it doesn't stop there. And as you read through all the way up until Malachi 4.6, you see, again, promise after promise of this Messiah. Prophecies of a birth of someone who is coming. A Messiah, a final prophet, a priest, a king. And the Old Testament is full of allusions and prophecies that concern this event.

There are types, there are shadows, all of them prefiguring the moment which we just read about. This is what the Israelites were praying for and looking forward to for centuries. And remember that at the moment that we are at with the shepherds, there have been 400 years of silence, of no prophets. 400 years. And now, all of a sudden, at least all of a sudden from our perspective, right? It seems very sudden. God is again sending messengers. However, remember what Paul says, that Jesus has come in what? The fullness of time. So it may seem sudden after 400 years of silence, but this was all to God's plan. It was at the perfect moment, the exact time that Christ came. What was sent in motion and has been in motion is being brought to its culmination. So what's happening here is huge. It's a big deal.

God has finally broken his silence and is about to fulfill every prophecy, every promise that he's made throughout the entirety of the Old Testament. He is going to do that by sending the promised Messiah, his son. And like the coming of any mighty king, mighty ruler, mighty governor, what happens? The message goes forth, right? When someone in state shows up, everyone talks about it. It's announced. They're coming so that everyone can prepare. So God sends messengers to proclaim the coming of the king. Now, of course, when you send a messenger, what's the other side of that? You have to have someone who is going to receive the message. It does no good to send a messenger without a recipient for the message.

And so who does God send his messengers to? Who does he send them to? Well, he doesn't send it to the people we would choose. The initial messages are received by an old priest and his wife. Two nobodies. Then he sends a messenger to a teenage girl who's pregnant out of wedlock. And then he sends his messengers to shepherds. A bunch of shepherds. Now, many people will talk about shepherds and shepherds are despised and they're outcasts. They're presumed unworthy. They may not even been able to testify in court. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. We're very far from the first century and all those types of references are not concurrent with when Christ came. So we don't know on that. But what we do know, is that being a shepherd is not an elite job. Shepherds are not powerful. Shepherds are not wealthy. They are necessary, right? They were an integral part of the society. They were near Jerusalem raising sheep for what? Sacrifices. But they weren't the leaders of the society. Jesus's birth announcement didn't come to priests.

It didn't come to the rulers. It didn't come to the scribes. It didn't come to the Pharisees. But it came to simple, ordinary shepherds. It came to the blue-collar tradesmen, the migrant workers, janitors, garbage men. Jobs that are necessary, but jobs that aren't like the high-performing, significant, important jobs. The powerful jobs. They were ordinary, boring, insignificant in the world's eyes. The message came to people who, when the history books are written, don't even get a footnote. Their names aren't mentioned. Probably like most of us. Of course, these shepherds do get more than a footnote in history. And yet, God in his wisdom sends his most glorious announcement of his son's birth to shepherds.

Of all the people God could have chosen, he sends this announcement to shepherds. Do you realize how crazy this is? How foolish this is? I mean, God really doesn't know how to do PR, does he? Because isn't it bad enough? God chose for his son to be born of a woman who's not even married yet, out of wedlock, who's poor and a nobody. could have chosen anybody. He could have chosen like an elite family, a powerful family, someone with connections. But he doesn't just stop there. God then announces the birth to nobodies, to people without influence and without power, people who don't hold public office, people who are not full of wealth and influence to be used to, you know, bring society into conformity with the coming king.

And then think about this. This is crazy. God sends a multitude, myriads of his heavenly army. Just one angel comes and talks. And then all of a sudden, this guy is filled with heavenly hosts. An army to who? A couple shepherds and sheep in a field. This is a private birth announcement. The glory of heaven is on full display to sheep and a few shepherds. Think like, what a waste. Why wasn't it over Jerusalem? We're like, it'd be undeniable. Or at least Bethlehem. Why weren't there many witnesses and people with power who could confirm and could bring about real change? Why would God act so obscurely? We can learn here an important lesson about how God works. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, 21, Paul says this, for since the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God. God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, the Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,

Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen. The things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God. God's wisdom isn't like ours, is it? He chooses obscure men, ordinary men to bring about his will.

He comes to old people who are out of their prime and raises them up to be nobles in his kingdom. Lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb. How many of you would not abhor your mother's womb? Like, who here wants to go back and have to come out again? It's a thought that every one of us would shudder at, right? Like, what I wanted to go back. That's not Christ. Christ abhorred not. the virgin's womb. Jesus is subjected to birth, and not even birth from a married couple, but from a little girl. And to top it all off, who are Christ's first visitors? Shepherds. From what? A field. What kind of, a field that sheep have been walking in and pooping in all day. Like, think about this. When you give birth in the hospital, What is like the first thing a visitor is supposed to go do? Wash their hands. They get ready, right? You wear clean clothes. You go in. You know, I visited a kid in a hospital once who was really sick. And you come in and you get cleaned. And then they put like this gown over you. And you put your gloves on and your mask, maybe a hat. And like you go in to keep all the contaminants out.

That's not the environment that Christ was born in. And that's not the people who visited him. Dirty shepherds who are sitting and laying in fields, dealing with sheep, the stink. This is humility on a scale that's hard for us to grasp and makes us really uncomfortable. So in all the nativity scenes, everything's very clean, very kosher, very unstained clothing. We make it pretty and cute and we forget what it must actually have been like. We have a hard time accepting that God would go to ordinary shepherds and not to powerful, influential, wealthy people. Now, of course, I say that and we're like, well, we like the shepherds, right? Why would I say that we have a problem with the idea of God coming down in this humble and...

way, to uninfluential, to nobodies. Well, I say this because your hope today and your joy is spent on getting the right people elected. We think that our problems will be fixed if we could just get influential people to be Christians. If we could just get the right people in power, then the problems will go away. Then we can live peaceful lives. you see when a celebrity becomes a Christian, there's like all this great excitement and buzz because, you know, they'll have so much influence, right? I remember when Kanye West all of a sudden maybe sort of became a Christian. And it's like all this buzz, this undercurrent of excitement. Like what's he going to do? He's going to start putting out all this really good Christian music. And like, you know, like things are going to change. Like there's just like this really excited undercurrent. And we should rejoice when people become Christians. Don't hear me not. Don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that there isn't joy. But rich, wealthy, famous.

Powerful people becoming Christians are not the solutions to all our problems. It's so easy for us to put our hope and joy in politics and in wanting powerful people and forgetting that God doesn't need elite people to get his work done, nor is it easier, nor is it faster. God generally uses ordinary, simple people whom he raises up to get his work done. We also can see this in our treatment of others, right? How often are we silent about the good news of the shepherds that they hear that night because we prejudge people? Because we're concerned about their ethnicity or the bearing that they have. They don't look like someone who might want to receive the word of God. How many godly warnings have you ignored because the messenger didn't look like someone that you should listen to? I mean, think about it.

What we're going to see is like these shepherds go forth and tell everyone. Are you going to miss out on the news, on the joyful news, on the good news of the gospel, on God's warning because you don't like the package in which it came to you? The vessel who brought you that news? Think how easy it would be for everyone to dismiss them. They're just shepherds. Maybe they're out in the fields hallucinating. After all, the angels came to them and then everyone else had to trust the word of the shepherds. God sent the angels only to a few shepherds and everyone else had to receive the good news from ordinary, salt of the earth sort of shepherds. And listen, brothers and sisters, this is us today, right? I mean, how many of us have received the good news of the gospel from an angel? We get it from ordinary.

sinful men from our parents who sinned against us, from our pastors and elders who are all sinful men too. God uses ordinary people all the time. We need to be warned on both sides. God uses asses to teach people to be so humble, right? Think of Balaam, right? I mean, a donkey. That's who he used. Beware lest you don't hear what God says to you because you reject his messenger because they didn't say it in the right way. They didn't approach you in the right way. Or they don't look the right way. And so you write off the message. Don't discount or overlook the work of faithful ordinary men who are obeying God and are simple. Don't think that God can't use you because you aren't smart enough.

or don't have enough influence, right? Maybe part of the reason we want like influential, powerful people is because we think we're not influential and powerful, so we just don't have to do much of anything. Like, let's pin it all on those powerful leader people and hope that they can affect the change, and maybe we can escape the weight of it. Think about that as you gather with your families, and as you see issues or problems. Like maybe we should speak up and we shouldn't just wait till the right person that maybe or may or may not say something will say something. Maybe that should be us. Another thing to note with these shepherds is what are the shepherds doing? They're doing the work of shepherding, right? They're out in the field doing the work that shepherds do. Why is that important? Because We ought to be out in our fields doing the work that we're called to do. We don't have to go to a spiritual retreat. We don't have to go and get all these, you don't have to go find an experience. God went to ordinary, humble people doing their regular jobs. You don't need to find something that seems spiritual to be used by God. You need to be faithful in the work that God has called you to.

And take the message that he gives. So God in his wisdom. And against our better judgment. Uses ordinary humble people. Who are faithful in the work that God has given them to do. People like you. People like me. If you're humble and faithful in your work. It's wrong for us to pin our hopes on other people. Rather than in the extraordinary God. Who uses ordinary means. Ordinary people. So that's where the people that God came to. But what was the message that God gave them? The message the shepherds received was this. Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy. You know what that is? Mega joy. The Greek word is mega, right? So when he comes, the shepherds were mega afraid. And then they bring news of mega joy.

Imagine the, I mean, it's like bipolar, right? Mega afraid to suddenly mega joy. which is for all people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased. This, this is the joy of Christmas. It's the joy that is for the whole year. It's the joy that should rule our whole lives. But I believe it is appropriate for us to set aside a particular season for us to meditate and remember and to take great joy, mega joy in what is announced here. Why is this news so joyful? Well, there's a few things that we see here, right? Who's it for? All people.

This news is not an exclusive news. It's not just for you to hold and hold tightly to and to keep hidden. This is news that's for all people that should be proclaimed and spread abroad, right? Because when Christ came, he throws open the doors. It's not just... All the exclusivity, the set-apartness of Israel is now revealed as the church in which all are welcome. This news is not just for wealthy people. It's not just for powerful people. It's not just for good-looking people. It's not just for men. It's not just for women. It's not just for the people you're comfortable talking to. This is news for all people. It's joyful news, right? It's good news because it's for all people to hear.

What is the news? A Savior has been born. A Savior has been born. So you think about all the time that transpires from Genesis chapter 3 to Luke. All of that sin, the misery, the trials, all of that is now going to be taken care of. The Savior's been born. All the promises of the Old Testament are fulfilled. It's a present reality. The things that everyone was looking forward to, there's no looking forward to it anymore. It's here. It's here. Why else is it good news? Because there's proofs. There's proofs, right? The angel says, look, you'll go to this house and there will be a manger and there will be a baby in it and he's going to be wrapped up.

And he gives these signs, right? And here's the thing. In the beginning of Luke, Luke says, I carefully researched and organized and wrote this. We have eyewitness accounts. We have witnesses and testimony. This is true. This is a carefully written history that's authenticated by God himself. So we take joy in this because any one of us can go and read a fairy tale or a myth or some sort of a legend about these great heroes of old, but there's not much joy in that because it's not true. But this message is true. It's verified. It's proven. It's a fact. And so there's so much joy because it's real. An actual savior has been born. The greatest proof of it is the resurrection, right? That the savior who was born died and is now alive again.

What other reason is there for joy in this message? Well, what the angels tell us is that God, God is at peace and pleased with his people. God is at peace and pleased with his people. I mean, can you think of better news than that? And think about it. When someone who's in authority over you comes up to you and says that they're pleased with what you've done. That there's no antagonism between the two of you. They are happy and pleased with you. How do you feel? Like, aren't you happy? Right? Who's happy in the house when dad's mad at everyone? No one's happy, right? But when you're pleased and at peace with everyone, there's joy. And that's what the angels say. There's peace with God. That should make you want to sing.

I mean, that should make your mouth run, right? With praises and with joy and with song. Like, you should probably want to go tell people. And with news like that, it's no wonder that the shepherds then go and tell everyone. Because, I mean, it's the most joyful news that you could have. That God is pleased with you. And that's what the shepherds do, right? Their immediate response to the word of God is so instructive for us because it is faith. They don't say, huh, do you think this is true? Maybe we should go verify and test. They say, let us go straight to Bethlehem and see, right? Let's go see. They immediately believe that this is true and they're going to go see it with their own eyes.

They drop everything they're doing and head out to see what the angels have proclaimed. What are they doing? They're shepherds at night. Why? Why are they out in a field at night? Because robbers and wolves and dumb sheep, they need a close eye kept on them. And yet when this news comes, they leave. They go. Forget robbers and wolves. We have a savior to be seen. And then, I mean, that's obedience, right? The angels issued this command that came from God and immediately they obey. I mean, that's what we want with the kids, right? All the way, right away with a happy heart. That's what we say to our children. Obey all the way, right away with a happy heart. I mean, that's what the shepherds do. All the way, right away. They don't, well, but dad, I gotta finish. They just leave their sheep. Maybe the angels guarded them. I don't know. But they just go.

They find Jesus, they worship him. So their obedience is multiple things. They leave, they find, they worship, and then they leave Jesus and they go and tell everybody. We also see them glorifying God. And how could they not help but give God glory after such wonderful tidings? Like the joy of the shepherds is palpable. It simply pours forth out of them. How about you? Now, the shepherd's joy isn't a shallow thing, right? The shepherd's joy is not a, now they got out of the work of being shepherds and they're just, these life doesn't matter anymore. What do they do? They go, they worship, they tell everyone and they go back and they are shepherds again, guarding sheep at night. Their joy is not based on physical difficulties being gone. It's not based.

on the fact that now their lives are easy and smooth and there's no difficulties and they get along well with their in-laws. The joy that they have is based on the fact that they have a savior. It's based on the fact that they have peace with God. It's based on the fact that God is pleased with them. So you're going to go. And I've talked with a lot of you. I know a lot of you have a lot of difficulties coming up. You're going to be around family and it's painful. And there's sin. There's all these problems. But you can still be joyful. Because our joy isn't based on all of the hard things that we're going through or all the problems that surround us. Our joy isn't based on the fact that we don't have to go out and work anymore in a poor fallen world.

The blessings are made known as far as the curse is found, but the curse isn't actually undone yet all the way. We still live in a fallen world. Our joy comes from the fact that a Savior has been born, that we have peace with God, that God is pleased with us. And notice, Christ hasn't even done all the work yet, but it's so certain. You'll see in Scripture that When we're talking about the work of God, whether the work's happened or not, you can talk of it in past tense because God's work is so certain. And so the peace and the joy and God's pleasure is based on the fact of the work that Christ is going to do in the next 30 years, not in the fact that it's already completed. And yet God says he has peace because the Savior's come and the Savior's going to do that work. And God is going to look at his people.

through the work of Christ, through the righteousness of Christ, through what Christ has done, right? It's about Christ and who he is and his righteousness being applied to us. And so then God is at peace with us and pleased with us, right? And what else do we see with the shepherds? Well, they spread the good news. And this is what we ought to be talking about all Christmas season long. all year long, we ought to be proclaiming the good news of the Savior that has been born. This is the thing that ought to be filling our hearts and our minds and our mouths, wherever we go. And we shouldn't worry about whether we're a fit enough messenger. God used shepherds. And if we really find joy in our salvation, and in the work that Christ has done, and in who he is, and in the fact that we have peace with God and God's pleasure, then that ought to be something that just pours forth from us all the time. And again, like I said, it's not a shallow, circumstantial-based joy that's because our lives are easy or because there's no problems. It's based on the relationship that we have with God. And we ought to remember that

As we go through Advent season and we see and we think about Christ's Advent is coming, you know, all the Old Testament Christians looked forward to the coming of Christ. We look back, but we also are looking forward. You ought to be. Because the humility that we see at Christmas of this infant that comes is not the full story. It's the beginning. But Christ is coming back. And when he does, it will not be a private announcement. It will be with a trumpet blast that wakens the whole world and the dead included. Christ will not come back as an infant again. He's going to come back as a conquering king riding a white war horse with a sword coming out of his mouth. And he'll have a name that no one knows and it will be a powerful name.

And he will be leading angels again, but this time as a conquering king. And so we have this window of opportunity to call people to repentance, to repent ourselves, to put our faith and hope and trust in God. Because when he comes back, that opportunity will be gone. And we'll have joy if you're his people, because it will be our brother. bringing us home to live with God. But if you're opposed to him, there will be no joy for you in that day. And so we always are looking back to the salvation which Christ wrought, but we're looking forward to the coming kingdom. And there's this dual looking because our salvation is back and present and it's future. Well, God uses ordinary people like you and me to spread the good news of Christmas message. So when we gather with others, whether it's our work parties or our family gatherings, be God's messenger. Speak the truths that the angel sang of. Testify to the great Savior. God uses ordinary people like you and like me. He doesn't need the great and powerful. He doesn't need the people that we think would have influence.

The people rejoiced at the testimony of shepherds. And be joyful. Would anyone think that being a Christian is worthwhile based on your demeanor? Like, think about it. The people's testimony, the testimony that they received were from absolutely joyful, thrilled shepherds. And everyone got caught up in that joy and excitement that they had. They didn't have the testimony of the angels. And I just wonder sometimes how compelling our witness is when we're so lacking in joy. That if we don't have the joy of knowing God's pleasure, of that a Savior came for you, then it's going to be much harder for us to try and spread that joy to other people. And so, be like the shepherds.

Be obedient. Go spread the news. Have great joy and give God glory throughout this Christmas season and throughout your entire life because we have peace with God because of the Savior that came. Let's pray.