If
you want to follow along in your Bible, you may want to come to Luke chapter 2,
and we want to begin by reading verse eight.
We're going to talk about the shepherds and the sheep. "There were
shepherds living out in the fields near by keeping watch over their flocks at
night." Who is the
best-known Shepherd in the Bible? It
would be Jesus, wouldn't it? And then
maybe David. There are great shepherds
that were in the Bible and most shepherds who watched over sheep by night were
nomads. Like gypsies. They lived out there. They didn't have many possessions. Some had permanent facilities with
watchtowers and walls to keep their sheep safe at night, but most of them did
not. And they would guard the sheep
from wolves, from thieves, from bears and lions that they had over there. The shepherd was so well known by his sheep
that they would come to his call, and if several flocks got all mingled in
together one shepherd would stand over here and call and all of his sheep would
come.
There's
something interesting about sheep. They
will not respond to anybody else's call.
Look at John 10 and verse 3 in your Bible. This mentions one exception to that rule. John 10:3.
"The watchman opens the gate for him and
the sheep listen to his voice. He calls
his own sheep by name and leads them out.
And when he has brought them out on his own he goes ahead of them, and
his sheep follow him, because they know his voice." Now there's one group of sheep that will
follow a stranger. Verse five. They will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because
they do not recognize the stranger's voice.
There are some sheep who will follow a stranger. And do you know who they are? They'll follow anybody. Sick sheep.
If they are sick, they will follow a stranger, and I think some
Christians do that too.
I
receive publications in the mail at my house, and they're very critical of the
church. I am more or less ashamed of an
organization that their main job description is to throw mud at Seventh-day
Adventists. I don't understand
that. They're sick. And they will follow anybody.
One
night some shepherds were in the field, here in Luke chapter two, watching
their sheep, and it was time for the lambs to be born. They were tending their sheep in the very
same fields that David tended his sheep.
Same ones, according to The Desire of Ages, page 47. Like David, they probably did have a rod and
a shepherd's staff, and they had a sling and two bags. Now David just had one bag. The shepherds most of the time carried two
bags. One for food, and one for stones,
which was their ammunition. And they
also carried a small lightweight tent and a blanket. They were kind people. They
led gently. Their priority was to take
care of the sheep.
Now
if you are about to be in a collision and you're going to be in a wreck, should
you protect yourself or your dog. Let's
suppose you and the dog are in the car and you're about to, one of you is going
to die, one of you is not going to make it.
Which would it be? The dog or
you? You're going to take care of
yourself first. Well the shepherd was
just the opposite. They would take care
the sheep first. If a lion came they'd
say, "Well here I am. Eat me first
because the sheep are more valuable than I am." That was their mentality.
And that is also, by the way, Jesus' mentality. He would rather die then you die. In fact He did.
The
Church leaders of the time looked down on shepherds because they were
lawbreakers. You understand that. A shepherd could not live up to the rules
and regulations of the temple. For instance,
a shepherd is out in the field and regulations of the temple say you've got to
wash your hands before every meal. How
could a shepherd do that? He's out
there in the field. They did not keep
the handwashings. The shepherds in our
text here in Luke just happen to be keeping their flocks in the fields that
were very close to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
They were between these two towns and they were just about a mile out of
Bethlehem. Not far from the town
limits. That was no accident because
they were hired by the priests in Jerusalem.
In fact this very flock of sheep were destined to be killed in the
temple. All the lambs were out there,
says Sister White, to provide a continuous supply of perfect lambs for the
temple. That's why this particular
group of shepherds and sheep were there.
The spotless lambs would be killed in the temple, but not until the
priests had gotten their wealth from selling them. They often sold them right there in church. Right in the temple, in the courtyard, to
supply the lambs for the slaughter.
Life
was hard for shepherds. Undoubtedly
they were underpaid. They were
cold. They didn't take a bath very
often. They didn't smell good. They didn't have the privilege of sleeping
like the priests did in the warm homes.
The priests made all the money.
The shepherds got very little.
But they did not harbor a grudge against these people. They were not interested in criticizing the
church or the priests.
Luke
two verse eight says they were out in the fields keeping watch by night. The Desire of Ages says something
interesting here. They were doing more
than just keeping watch. She says,
"Through the silent hours, they talked together of the promised Savior,
and they were praying for the coming of the King to David's throne." They weren't just out there watching the
sheep. They were talking. They were praying. They were watching and waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ the
Savior. They were sincere seekers of a
deeper religious experience, and while they were out there doing that, the
leaders of the temple were sleeping. So
no wonder the leaders of the temple didn't see Jesus come. No wonder the shepherds did. You can see the difference here. One group was praying and studying and the
other was sleeping and snoring. God
does not reveal Himself to a snoring church.
We need to be wide awake. They
were among the small faithful number mentioned by Luke 2:25 who were waiting
for the Consummation of Israel. For the
Deliverer to come. The Messiah. So no wonder they saw the Angels, and no
wonder the Pharisees missed it.
Are
you spiritually awake? Are you
snoring? Will you sleep through Jesus'
coming again?
Was
this a cold winter's night? Now
definitely not. This season for lambs
to be born was not in the middle of the winter. Their birth would be during a milder time. Winters get cold. Snow sometimes happens there in the mountains. You could see it. It gets cold there. The
cold begins sometime in October or November, and so the time of the birth of
the lambs was before that, during the milder fall weather. Our closing hymn today is The First
Noel. Let me quote you some words from
this song that are not correct.
"The first Noel, the angel did say, was to certain poor
shepherds." That's true. The priests were wealthy. "Poor
shepherds, in the fields as they lay.". They weren't lying down. They were talking. They were awake. They
were praying. "As they lay keeping
their sheep on a cold winter's night that was so deep." Not true.
It was not a winter night. They
were hungering and thirsting for Jesus.
It was the mild fall of the year.
Isaiah 44 verse three tells who will receive Jesus. "I will pour
water upon him that is thirsty." They
were hungering and thirsting for Jesus to come.
Look
at Luke two verse nine. "The angel of the Lord appeared to them," probably
Gabriel, "and the glory of the Lord shone around
about them and they were terrified."
Would you be terrified if you saw Gabriel. If you were praying for something to come
and it came, would you be terrified or would you be glad? There's a difference there. Look at verse 10. "The angel said to them don't be
afraid. I bring you good
news." And that's the
gospel right there, the good news. Same
word for the 'gospel' in the Greek, "and great joy
that will be for all the people. Today
in the town of David a Savior has been born to you and He is Christ the
Lord. And above all those
mountains." They called the
things around Bethlehem and Jerusalem 'mountains', but they aren't really. But there were millions of angels waiting,
all awaiting the signal to sing, and had the leaders of the temple been true
and faithful they might have shared that same joy, but they were passed
by. They were unaware of anything at
all. You realize that they went to bed
praying for the coming of the Messiah.
And they woke up that morning and probably prayed, "Lord, please
send the Messiah," and He was already in town. He was already there and they didn't know it.
Look
at verse 13. "Suddenly
a great company of heavenly host appeared with the Angel, praising God and
saying, 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men and
goodwill.'" In those days
whenever a baby was born they would send out a musical group, usually from the
temple. They would send people who
would sing or play instruments, but nothing like that was done for Jesus. But God was ready. God had a musical group ready and He had a choir of who knows,
maybe millions of angels filling the skies, who came and sang and welcomed this
Baby and carried on that tradition. I
like that. Can you picture a million or
more angels all turning on their headlights at the same time, and all of a
sudden you could see them and there they are.
What a majestic thing that would be.
What a sound and sight show.
Isaiah
9 describes that event. Verse two. "The people who
walk in darkness will see a great light.
A light will shine on all who are in the land where death casts its
shadow." On all of us it
will shine. There's another reason the
shepherds saw it. While 99 or a hundred
percent of everybody else did not see it and that is in Psalm 112 verse four. It says, "Unto
the upright, the upright, arises light in the darkness."
I
have noticed when I go to Home Depot or when I walk through the mall, even
before Thanksgiving, these little lights appear. Way before Thanksgiving.
The Christmas lights start shining and people put up their trees, and
after Thanksgiving it begins in earnest and there are Christmas lights
everywhere. Whole houses covered with
lights. Lights all over the roof. It's
amazing. Light has always been
associated with Christmas. I like the
Christmas lights, and they last till after Christmas. People used to throw their trees out a day or two after but now
that we have artificial ones they leave them up till mid-January
sometimes. The lights of Christmas
surround Christmas day. I like
that. I think Christ is supposed to
surround our lives. Jesus Himself said
He is the true Light of Christmas. Luke
two verse 32. A Light to lighten the
Gentiles. He wants to be the Light of
your life as well.
Let's
go to part two, which is in verse 15 and 16.
The shepherds actually become sheep here. Look at this. Shepherds
becoming sheep. Verse 15. "It came to
pass as the Angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to
one another, 'Let us go now, even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has
come to pass, which the Lord has made known unto us.' And they came with haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the
Babe lying in a manger."
They came, they found and they worshiped.
Now
that could not happen today. Today, if
they were in Bethlehem, and they saw the Angels, then the Angels went back to
heaven, and they would say, "Let's go into Bethlehem. Let's leave this
field and go into town and see the Baby."
They could not do that, because today in Bethlehem there is a wall .26
feet tall that runs right through Bethlehem.
26 feet is very, very tall. A
big wall with barbed wire on top and watchtowers every so many feet sealing off
the Palestinians from the Israelis. And
so if the shepherds would go from their fields into Bethlehem today and they
were Palestinian shepherds, they would have to swipe a magnetic ID card, first
of all. They would have to show a
permit. They would have to give a thumb
print routinely, and often wait hours just to cross through to the other
side. I am so glad Jesus was born at
the right time, aren't you? Had He been
born today it would've been hard.
I've
always wondered what happened to the sheep by the way. When the shepherds came in to worship the
baby, who cared for the sheep? Were
these under-shepherds or somebody? The
shepherds did come. They did find Jesus. They did fall and worship at His feet and
they did not worship Mary. They
worshiped Jesus. That's what we should
do. With David of old they could say,
"The Lord is my Shepherd."
And so these shepherds became sheep of the true Shepherd. They accepted Jesus as their Shepherd, which
means they are sheep. First Peter
chapter 5 verse four, "When the chief Shepherd
appears you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade
away." And so they became
sheep. Obedient sheep.
On
that first Christmas, God so loved the world that He gave His best gift to
humanity. Have you thought what the
best gift is that you have ever received.
Think back when you were a child.
Some of you still are children.
Some of you are long since removed from that, but think back to your
favorite Christmas and the favorite gift that you received when you were a girl
or a boy. What was it? Was it a bicycle or a doll or a dollhouse
that your daddy made for you or a toy train?
I think back to my favorite Christmas and it would've been an erector
set. A Gilbert erector set. That would be mine. When I was about nine or 10 there was that
heavy box under the tree with my name on it.
I thought, "What is that?"
On Christmas morning we opened it up and there it was. An erector set and I was so overjoyed. I could build jeeps and towers and bridges
and wagons. They were just
wonderful. What an erector set that
was. I spent a lot of happy hours with
that erector set.
Years
later we were looking for a gift for our boys, because we had two boys and a
girl, and I thought, "Maybe I should give my erector set to one of my boys
for Christmas. It's the most valuable
gift that I received, that I appreciated when I was a kid. Maybe I should do that. But would they appreciate it like I
did? It's still in good condition. Should I give it to one of them for
Christmas? I could never replace it. Would they value it as much as I did? Would they eventually throw it out? Would unappreciative hands ruin it?" It was a great risk to give my treasure
away, perhaps to only see it rejected or to see the disappointment in their
face at receiving a used erector set.
So after great thought my wife and I got them something that was on
their list.
You
know, God had a similar choice. God's most
valuable Gift was irreplaceable. Would
He dare give that to His children? It
might be destroyed by unappreciative hearts.
They might not love His best Gift.
But after a lot of thought God decided to give His best, His most
valuable Gift, to His children. And how
it must've hurt God when cold hearts rejected His Gift. They slept the night that Jesus came. Herod tried to destroy God's Gift and Jesus
was wasted on a cross. And so how
emotional God must have been when these shepherds came and appreciated His
gift. Tears must've come to the
Father's eyes seeing that at least somebody came.
Part
three. Luke two verse 17. The sheep become shepherds. Look at verse 17. "When they had seen Him," what
did they do? They spread the word. They themselves became shepherds. Just like the disciples who were fishers of
fish became fishers of men, now these sheep became shepherds of, not sheep, but
shepherds of men. Taking care of
others. Witnessing. They were the first witnesses. They were the only eyewitnesses to that
event that night, other than Mary and Joseph.
They were the eyewitnesses, and you realize that in Bible times
shepherds were never allowed to be eyewitnesses. Legally, a shepherd could not serve as an eyewitness. It was illegal, because you can't trust a
shepherd. But who does God appear to
with all of His angels? He appears to
the shepherds. God does things just the
opposite of what we might think. We
would expect that first of all the Pharisees would see Jesus come. No, the shepherds did. And they were the eyewitnesses. I would've expected several books of the
Bible to be written by these shepherds.
We don't hear anything else from them.
I
hope that when God gives you His best Gift that you won't reject it. I hope you got a good Christmas present
yesterday, I hope you gave one and I hope you receive Jesus as your
Savior. Don't waste God's Gift in
unappreciative hands. Make sure you
accept it with your heart.
Let's
sing our closing hymn.
Dear
Father, thank You for sending us something far more valuable than a doll or a
doll house or an erector set or a train.
Thank you for sending us Jesus Christ.
May we accept and fully appreciate and utilize that Gift in our life,
our family and our home. Thank You for
promising that Jesus will come again.
Help us to be ready that time.
We ask in Jesus' name, amen.
Hymn of Praise: #115, O Come, O Come, Immanuel Scripture: Luke 2:8-11 Hymn of Response: #118, The First Noel
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 1/29/10