Alright, thank you Steve and band. I don't know, how many of you have played in a band
or an orchestra sometime in your life? Alright, not too many of you. I'm a little surprised
by that. Normally it's more than that. It's a real challenge actually to play when you
are separated like this as they are this morning, and they did a fine job.
Open your Bibles with me please to the Gospel of Luke in the second chapter, Luke chapter
2. The familiar words of this chapter describing to us the birth of Jesus. Luke chapter 2,
I'm going to pick up the reading in verse 6 where it says, and while they, Mary and
Joseph, were there in Bethlehem, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave
birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because
there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields
nearby keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them,
and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. And the angel said
to them, do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the
people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.
This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and
saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another,
let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.
And so they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger.
When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what they had been told about this
child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary
treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as
they had been told.
No screenwriter could imagine the details that are written here by Luke. They seem a
little odd, don't they? In fact, they're way out of the ordinary, almost bizarre. God
coming into the world as a baby. Now you could probably write scores of story lines to bring
about God into the world without ever thinking of God joining himself to humanity and then
being birthed. And then a baby born to a virgin? The central figure of all of history, cradled
away in a manger, no crib for his bed? I mean, this story is really something. It's unusual.
And as if that weren't enough, the supernatural announcement of his birth was not made to
kings and nobility of the world, or to the important, or to the newsmakers, but the announcement
was made to shepherds who were doing their work in a field nearby. As you probably know,
shepherds were considered in that day among the lowest of society. That may seem a little
strange to us because some of the most famous people of the Bible were shepherds, Jacob,
Moses, and David, for example. But in these days that we're reading about here, they were
ranked among the outcasts of polite society. It was a low class kind of job, a bottom of
the rung sort of position. Their work made them dirty and smelly. They possessed very
little of their own, although they took care of the wealth of those that they worked for.
They essentially lived with their flocks, leading them from pasture to pasture and water
supply to water supply, as well as guarding them against predators and thieves. And although
sheep, perhaps these flocks in particular, were used for sacred sacrifices in the temple
being near Jerusalem. And so these shepherds were caring for them.
One author suggests in a contemporized paraphrase these words to help perhaps more accurately
paint the picture to us today. The author says, and there were in the same country street
people huddled over a heating grate by night, passing around cheap wine in a paper sack.
Now that may sound a little extreme to you, but that's the picture of what the shepherds
were in that day. What in the world was God signaling when he first sent the gospel to
the shepherds? What was God signaling to the world when he did that? Well, he was saying
at least two amazing things about himself. Things that are so counterintuitive that we
might not even accept them, except the fact that God tells us about this and here demonstrates
these truths about himself. The first thing is this, that his good news,
the gospel, is intended for everyone, most especially the outsider. There is no insider
club when it comes to the good news of God. God does not have favorites of race or of
position in society. The gospel of salvation is offered to everyone. The apostle Paul captures
this so well in Romans chapter 10 and verse 13 in quoting actually from the Old Testament
where it says, whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Whosoever.
One author writes, by choosing the outcasts of society, God declared that there is no
one beyond the bounds of his love. No one is too dirty, too sinful, too despised. There
is no place too ugly for his presence, whether a sheep pasture or a cross. The common mistake
a lot of people make is thinking to themselves, I am too sinful. I have done too much in my
life for God ever to forgive me. God could never love somebody like me.
Amazingly, God specializes in people like that. God specializes in those who think of
themselves as the outcasts. God specializes in those that society despises. He forgave
prostitutes who came to him. He called to be one of his own disciples a tax collector,
a Jew who had turned against his own people and was working for Rome. He was considered
a traitor. He touched a man who was dying with leprosy in order to heal him and to give
him eternal life. He himself forgave a thief who was so guilty of his crimes that he was
being crucified alongside him.
I believe when you and I get to heaven, we may well find out that there are far more
outcasts in heaven than there are people who are in-crows in this world. You see, the gospel
of Jesus Christ is intended for everyone, but most especially for the outsider. The
second thing we learn about God is this. His good news can be shared by anyone, most notably
the ordinary. What I'm saying here is that you don't have to be a theologian or a saint
or Billy Graham to tell others about Jesus. God uses people. As that song said, just ordinary
people, people just like you and me who are willing to do what he commands. He appears
to the shepherds as the angel of the Lord. Those shepherds then become the first evangelists
of the gospel that the Savior has been born.
The contemporary songwriter has penned these words, I looked in the mirror, I saw average.
You looked down from heaven, you saw a gift. Still can't figure out why you loved me so,
but that's what makes you God. I'll never know, because I'm just ordinary people who
found extraordinary love. Sometimes it's hard to believe that God keeps loving me so
much. There are so many people I look up to, used to tell them I want to be like you. Then
God took ordinary me and gave me a chance, and every day I got to thank him for where
I am.
Isn't it great to know that any of us can share God news, and most notably, the most
ordinary of us can do that? God uses ordinary things. He used fish. He used bread. He used
spittle in dust. He used nails driven into a piece of wood. God uses ordinary people
to do extraordinary things when we give ourselves to him and allow his Spirit to fill us and
to use us.
This season God wants to use you in that extraordinary way to share the good news, just like the
shepherds did. Our friend Christmas is a miracle, and Christmas can be your miracle. How? By
doing what the shepherds did. It can be your miracle first by responding to the good news
in faith. They did. And their faith was exemplified by the fact they said, let's go, let's go
to Bethlehem and see this which God has spoken to us. And they came to where Mary, Joseph,
and the baby Jesus were.
Respond as they did to the good news by believing God's Word. And like them you'll experience
for yourself that this miracle of Christmas is for you, that you can know peace with God.
You can know the forgiveness of your sins. You can be lifted out of the depression of
your life and lifted and set upon the rock of God. You can know that this Christmas.
That can be your miracle.
But you can also do what the shepherds did and repeat the good news to others. Like they,
you can tell what God does. What he's doing in the world. What he's done in your own life.
How many of you are familiar with the greatest Christmas pageant? You've seen that? It's
probably 20 years old now. But it's the story of the herdmen's, who are, as it says on the
jacket cover of the video, are the meanest, nastiest group of six unruly siblings in town.
And these children, who are the outcasts of the town, show up for a practice of the Christmas
pageant at a particular church. And everyone is aghast that they would be there. And when
it came time to select people for parts, they looked for volunteers. And who do you think
stepped forward first? Not the usual ones who did it every year. No. The herdmen stepped
forward. I'll be Mary. I'll be the wise man. I'll be a shepherd. I'll be the angel. And
of course, once they had volunteered, what can you do? And so they worked with these
children. And they, well let's just say, brought a lot of interest and humor and not a little
bit of sentiment to the Christmas pageant once it came off. But perhaps my favorite
line in the whole video is the very last thing. For one of the herdmen girls, her name is
Gladys, with her smudged face and her dirty clothes, comes running with the star still
in her hand that she had held up as the angel. And she says, listen, listen, unto you a child
is born. And the most ordinary little girl had heard for the first time what Christmas
was about. And she immediately began to tell the people. My friend, that's what God wants
you to do. That's the Christmas miracle that God wants to perform through you today that
others also may know that unto us a Savior has been born. He is Christ the Lord. Claim
the Christmas miracle for yourself. Let's pray together. And with our heads bowed and
our eyes closed, what is the miracle that God wants to do in your heart this Christmas?
Is it the miracle of the new birth? Is it the miracle of responding in faith and receiving
Jesus the Christ as your own personal Savior? You can do that right now, you know. Right
where you're seated. It's just the attitude of your heart, turning away from what you've
trusted in before to receive Jesus. Will you do that right now? And may all of us who have
been down that path, who follow the shepherds, and who have experienced the reality of Christ,
may we see the Christmas miracle as we tell others as they did regarding what we have
seen and heard and know of Jesus. Amen.