25/12/10 - God sends the Shepherds

Luke 2:1-20

Intro…An Adventure with God…recent weeks school prize lists in Ensign. I only ever won one school prize – in st.4. It was the book, “The adventures of Marco Polo”. How I loved reading that book over and over again. When reading a great adventure story, we often wonder how we would have coped if we had been there or were the main character. Eg Scott of the Antarctic, Hillary on Everest, Buzz Aldran on the moon. Those who have read James Thurber’s “The secret life of Walter Mitty” will know what I mean for they are “fantastic daydreams of personal triumph”. This is not escapism, it is adventure!

I believe much of the detail given of this true record of Jesus birth is for us to get such a feel for this amazing event, that we can project ourselves into it and be swept up into the heart of God’s love for his creation and his ultimate last effort to redeem us lost people. So let’s join with the shepherds this morning, become one of them and for the next few minutes get caught up in their experience, their great adventure.

1. Good News has come to us - v10….don’t be frightened, but count it for what it is; the greatest privilege and act of loving grace ever experienced by mankind, and by lowly shepherds at that ! Why us? Why not shepherds in China or Africa, why us? Why not to princes or religious leaders? – Anyone but us! (Shepherds love chatting, talking late into the night, mulling over the facts, the event and any underlying meaning. On the other hand, Wikileaks reveals that princes and leaders distort and hide the truth!)

“That will be for all people” v10, because you and I are chosen by God to chat and send this Good News on throughout the world – to those shepherds in China and Africa and all places in between. Later on this baby Jesus was to grow and teach us that, “To those that much has been given, much will be required of them”.

2. So you want a sign? – v11-12. OK check this out you shepherds who for years have been to Sunday school and church, had 20 years of Peter Cheyne’s excellent teaching, so know your Bibles well. Two facts.

1. Town of David (Bethlehem) and 2. Messiah, Christ, the Anointed One coming to save God’s people. That checks out in OT – great. We know our Bibles, our theology. – thanks Pastor Peter!

BUT what’s this baby idea? Is that in the OT? Is 40 says, “the sovereign Lord comes with power and his arm rules for him”. That doesn’t sound like a baby. Try Is 7 “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel” That’s more like it! That sure seems to fit what these angels are singing about.

Another point, us shepherds know about babies. Why, during lambing we often need to use our midwifery skills to help a ewe give birth, so that shouldn’t scare us. And strips of cloth and a manger, bales of hay etc., well all rather basic stuff just like we are used to and find ourselves sitting on!

3. A message from heaven – v14 ..Wow, as if one angel isn’t enough, this massive choir of angels, of heavenly host is amazing – perhaps even overkill. But listen, it seems there are 2 verses to their song, one exalting God in the heavens for what is happening and second, a message of hope, salvation and peace for us people who know him. Wow again, that makes me wonder if I really do know Him, this amazing God who keeps intervening in our lives, who keeps sending us messages almost every day trying to get our attention.

4. Let’s see for ourselves – v15 nothing like a first hand encounter with this Jesus, this Messiah, even if he is just a baby in a manger. And that’s exactly what God has been trying to get us to do, have a first hand encounter with those things, “which the Lord has told us about”. The Bible is full of the Lord “telling” us. And come to think of it He has been telling our parents, grandparents, right back down through history – ever since Adam and Eve mucked up and sinned in the garden, God has been sending this same message down through the centuries. And He will continue to do so until the day he returns again, so that we and all those people out there we are responsible for to tell this Good News have heard it. Heard it clearly as we have been privileged to do; until they say, “Yes”, He is the Christ. But first! – Have you ever said “Yes” to Jesus?
5. Spread the word – v17-18 tell others this Good News. Don’t let it stop with us shepherds. John 3:16, For God so loved the world, the rich, the poor, the Kiwi and the new immigrant. Thank God for His love, His grace, his revelation, his angels, his intervening in our lives today,, leading us here to Bethlehem, to this particular baby in this particular manger. This is the only place where the God’s glory can be seen, can be experienced, where true lasting peace can be found and where we must acknowledge our responsibility to keep on sending this Good News out into a needy decaying, dying world of sin and shame.

Conclusion… Two times the Bible record here tries to catch our attention this Christmas with the words, “just as they had been told” v 17,20.

I believe God has been telling us shepherds here this morning the same thing. A saviour has come, proof has been given, our hearts have been warmed, we have been amazed at the grand scale of events, events that have again challenged our finite minds and natural understanding of this world. But remember this world is just the beginning of a next world, entered by God’s grace alone. That grace is found here this morning in the baby we found in the manger in God’s chosen town of Bethlehem.

We have seen, heard, tasted that the Lord is good. - Heb.

As we return home from this place this morning, may we go as shepherds who have been dazzled, amazed, drawn towards and transformed by our encounter with Christ. We too will spread the word so that others can be amazed, we will go glorifying and praising God for all that we have been told, all that we have seen, all that we have experienced with Jesus.

And one final word, as good shepherds, don’t put the lid on your experience with Jesus on Boxing Day. Don’t wrap Him up and put Him away until next December. Make your new year resolution here today by taking up Mary’s testimony of all that happened by your visit to the manger – treasure your knowledge and experience with Jesus that day, ponder it in your heart and starting tomorrow with the traditional meaning of Boxing Day which is not the getting of more sales bargains, but rather the giving of our abundance, have the Holy Spirit grow all that knowledge and experience into a dynamic faith to pass on as a gift to those without Christ through 2011.