Message: What the Shepherd’s Heard
Christmas Series: The Key Witnesses to Christmas
Preached by Mike Pickard @ North Point Church on 12-18-11
This month we are listening to the key witnesses to Christmas—what they saw and heard that changed their lives
and then changed the world. In the past two weeks we’ve listened to the stories of Mary and Joseph; today we
move outside Bethlehem to the surrounding fields and listen to the story of the shepherds.
Prayer:
In Jesus’ day, a man’s wealth was measured by how many sheep he owned, so you might hear a conversation
like this:
“John, son of Alphaeus, meet my friend Timothy, son of Zebedee; he owns two thousand sheep.”
“Holy Moses—two thousand sheep—that’s quite a return on your investment, Timothy son of Zebedee.
So tell me…who’s your livestock broker?”
Sheep were basic to the Hebrew economy, providing food, clothing, various wool articles and numerous products
made from their bones—and of course, they were offered as sacrifices at the Temple. They were so important to
the economy, in fact, that if Timothy, son of Zebedee, and other sheep owners were losing lots and lots of sheep
to predators because the shepherds were sleeping on the job, the government would step in with a sheep bailout.
Some flocks were too big to fail.
But of course the sheep economy wouldn’t work without the shepherds. Shepherds were a special breed. It took
an unusual person to live with sheep year round—constantly feeding them, watering them, sheltering them,
protecting them, and assisting them during birth—and then shearing them in the Spring.
Because shepherding was a tough, nomadic life, away from the life of the city, shepherds were loners. As loners,
they were also social misfits, lacking certain social graces and being… well, hygienically challenged. Sometimes
even the sheep didn’t want to get too close to them!
And since Shepherds were always working, they rarely observed the Sabbath or participated in the religious life of
their communities. So in addition to being loners and misfits, they were regarded as religious outsiders, and the
city people considered them untrustworthy. As a Father, you would prefer your daughter date a young man whose
sole ambition in life was to have a rock band, than a young man who wanted to be a shepherd.
All of this is to say that it was great to own sheep; it just wasn’t great to shepherd them.
And that’s what makes it so unusual that God would choose to announce the arrival of the Savior of the world to
Shepherds first! But the gospel of Luke says, that is exactly what God did:
“That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly,
an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They
were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said.
“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has
been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a
baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and
saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” Luke
2:8-14 (NLT)
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What I love about the Shepherd’s story is that it not only brings these nomadic, loner, religiously marginalized
misfits to center stage, but also that it begins with an audio/visual extravaganza!
A single angel—the angel of the Lord—appears to the shepherds suddenly in the dark of the night and literally
lights up the field: “the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them,” Luke says.
And then, the single angel is joined by the angelic armies of heaven, all shouting praises to God and peace on
earth towards men. Remember, as we saw two weeks ago, angels are not chubby little cherubs but more like
military Special Forces. So the decibel level of the shouting “armies of heaven” must have sounded like the
stadium noise at the annual Army-Navy football game as Navy intercepts the ball with 2 minutes left in the game
and begins the game winning drive!
Understandably, the shepherds were terrified at the sight and sound, but the angel told them what he had told
Mary and then Joseph before—“don’t be afraid.” What you see is not the beginning of something terrible, but the
beginning of something wonderful for the world—a Savior has been born! The game winning drive has begun!
Note here that Jesus has come as a Savior.
He didn’t come as a teacher, as if what the world needed was only some new information. Nor did he come as a
Life Coach to inspire us to perform at our highest level. He didn’t come as a prophet to warn us to work a little
harder to keep God’s law. He didn’t come as a counselor to help us with our dysfunctions, nor did he come as an
ambassador to help us keep the peace.
Now, Jesus was all these things and more, but the angel announced that he came to us as a Savior. If all we
needed from God was some new information, or a little motivation and a few tips on how to better ourselves and
get along with one another, we wouldn’t need a Savior.
A Savior is for people who are helpless and hopeless—who need to be rescued, who need a game changer.
And that is what the audio/visual extravaganza was all about. The weary world has been kidnapped and trafficked
by Satan to service his lusts and ambitions, but God has sent a Savior to rescue us, and now—as the carol, “O,
Holy Night,” puts it, the weary world rejoices!
The weary world, represented by the shepherds, now joins the armies of heaven in worship and praise because
God has come to free us and take us home!
As soon as the angels leave, Luke says that the shepherds go into Bethlehem to inquire about a baby born in the
manger, because this was the sign given them by the angel.
Their arrival in Bethlehem must have caused some buzz. The “townies” would have wondered why the shepherds
weren’t out in the fields with their sheep where they belonged, and why they were asking about a baby born in a
cattle trough.
Luke says that the shepherds finally found Mary and Joseph, and saw the child lying in a manger, just as they had
been told. They began chattering excitedly about what had happened and what the angel had said to them about
the child.
Mary and Joseph were astonished. Here was further proof that what the angel had said to each of them was true,
and so they told the shepherds their story.
After the initial excitement, I picture Mary and Joseph and the shepherds staring silently in amazement at the
baby and then at each other, and again at the baby.
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What an odd company of witnesses and worshippers brought together by this child! On one side of the manger
are a young peasant girl and her husband, tired and overwhelmed, away from their home town and with a crazy
story to tell. On the other side, an awkward group of shepherds, with smudgy faces, smelling like sheep, away
from their fields and with an equally crazy story to tell.
The child has brought them together into community and worship, just as he continues to bring people
together today.
As I look around the room this morning at the great diversity of people who make up North Point, I am certain that
were it not for Jesus, many of us would not be connected with one another.
But we are connected—drawn together by a common spiritual need, a common Savior and a common experience
of his grace.
This in turn creates fellowship, inspires worship, and then compels us to bear witness to what we have seen and
heard.
Luke notes that when the shepherds left Mary and Joseph and the child, they began telling everyone they met
about what had happened and what the angel had said to them about the child.
The “townies” must have thought they were crazy!
But they couldn’t help it! They had to tell everyone because good news is for sharing, and as the angels told the
shepherds, this particular news is “good news that will bring great joy to all people,” because it is news that bring
diverse people together. And Luke wants us to know that only the gospel is big enough to bring diverse people
together.
Finally, what happens next amazes me. Luke says that the shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and
praising God for all that they had heard and seen.
They didn’t go on a celebrity tour; they simply went back to work as transformed men. I suspect that they were
better shepherds because of it.
It is the same with us: Jesus came as our Savior so that we, like the shepherds, could go back to the important
business of our lives—of becoming the men and women that he created us to be: rejoicing in his grace, united in
community and worship, and bearing witness to what we have seen and heard.
I love the fact that God made his first public announcement about Christ to shepherds—that shepherds were the
first outsiders to worship the child and the first to bear witness to the world about the Savior.
This says that God is pleased to use ordinary people to do the work of his kingdom on earth through the ordinary
routine of our everyday lives. As Paul told the Corinthians:
“Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or
wealthy when God called you. Instead chose things that the world considers foolish in order to shame
those who think they are wise. And he chose things are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
God chose things despised by the world; things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to
nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.” 1
Corinthians 1:26-29
So that is the shepherd’s story. May it be yours as well.
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