What the manger meant… to the shepherds

Third Sunday in Advent

December 14, 2008

 

We’ve been asking the question the past couple of weeks, “What did the manger mean to…” and we’ve looked at God the Father and the devil.  This week as we near closer and closer to celebrating Jesus’ birth on Christmas day, we’re asking the question, “What did the manger mean to the shepherds?” 

Let’s open our Bibles to where the visit of the shepherds is recorded, Luke chapter 2.  We’re going to be reading verses 8-18.  Luke is the third book in the New Testament, so the order goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John.  Luke was a doctor by trade, and more than likely not a Jew.  He was a Greek convert to Christianity and his Gospel and follow-up book, Acts, were written through the Holy Spirit as a testimony to who Jesus is.  What we are looking at today is Luke’s recording of the visitation of the angels to the shepherds.  Luke would have learned about this by talking to the shepherds, Mary herself, and those the shepherds went to and told about what they had seen and heard.

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. But 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.” 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 had been told them 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.

Let’s set the context first, and if you’ve been in the Adult Discussion times recently, some of this will be familiar.  The shepherds were out in the fields at night, not because that’s where they chose to stay or because that was where they normally lived, but because it was the lambing season – shepherds only stayed out in the fields to watch over the lambs at night during this time of the year when the lambs were giving birth to protect the lambs and their babies from being attacked by predators.  Here’s something you can make note of in your Bibles – as was part of the law, the first born lambs that were without any blemish or defect were noted, or marked somehow, and set aside to be sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people.  If you did not have a lamb of your own, you could purchase one for sacrificing.  Some of the same lambs who were born that night would be purchased to be sacrificed later that same year as a blood offering for sins.  On that same night, the Lamb of God was born whose blood would be spilled for the forgiveness of sins for everyone who believes in Him.  Because we are not able to pay the price for our sins, the Lamb of God did it for us, and the ‘cost’ to receive this benefit is simply the ‘cost’ of faith.

This is actually the first thing the manger meant to the shepherds – their sins could be covered by the blood of the Lamb in one, final sacrifice.  In the margins of your Bibles you can write the scripture reference, you can write John 1:29.  When John the Baptist saw Jesus, the Holy Spirit led him to declare: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  You can also write 1^st Peter 1:18-19: For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

The same is true for you and me.  We cannot pay the price of our sins.  I know there are those who don’t like ‘sin’ talk.  “Tell us only good things!” they say.  “Don’t talk about sin!”  These are folks who fulfill the prophecy in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 that says, For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ^[1]

But we cannot, not, talk about sin.  The only reason there was a manger is because you and I are lost and condemned creatures; sinful in thought, word and deed from our very nature.  We need to talk about sin, and recognize it for what it is – the thing that will keep us out of heaven forever if not dealt with.  What was true for the shepherds holds true for us: the manger means God sent His own Lamb, one without blemish or defect, to be sacrificed on account of our sins. 

Verse 9 says, “The glory of the Lord shone around them.”  Again, let’s put things in context.  At that time the teaching was the glory of the Lord existed only in the temple in Jerusalem, and only in the very center of that temple in the room that was called the Holy of Holies.  That’s where the Lord dwelled according to the Rabbi’s.  This verse said the glory of the Lord shown around the shepherds.  For the shepherds, the manger meant God had come to them.  The power, the majesty, the glory of God the Father came to them right where they were and changed their lives forever. 

Why is this such a big thing?  We have to understand what it meant to be a shepherd in those days.  Shepherds were looked down upon as being the lowest of the low in Jewish society.  They could not testify in any court, because their word was not considered valid.  They were not allowed to go into the temple to worship God.  The thought was that you had to hire a shepherd to take care of your flocks, but none of them were honest – they would steal your sheep for its wool, and kill your sheep to eat. 

The biggest complaint against the shepherds, and why there were despised so much in that society was because they were constant law-breakers.  We’ve mentioned this before: at that time (and I’ve been told this still exists today in Orthodox Jewish communities), the thought was if everyone would go just one day without breaking any of the 10 Commandments as well as the 612 oral laws that covered everything from how to wash your hands, to the disturbance of the air around something when you handed it to someone else, then the Messiah would finally come.  The shepherds constantly broke the law because they worked on the Sabbath.  Interestingly enough, they were working on the Sabbath because they were employed by the same people who were upset with them for working on the Sabbath!  The shepherds were also always ‘unclean’ as defined by the law because of their jobs working with and being around animals day in and day out.

Here’s the point: because the shepherds were in the occupation they were, they were always in violation of the law.  “Oh, the Messiah didn’t come again today, did He?  It’s your fault!”

The Glory of the Lord shone around them and came to them right where they were.  God went to them.  And again, the same is true for us.  God has come to us, we don’t ‘go to God.’  The old joke is, “Have you found Jesus?”  “Found Him?  I didn’t know He was lost!”  God the Father left His throne in Heaven and came to us in the form of Jesus, entered into our world, and changed everything. 

Since He changed everything, don’t for a minute think the shepherds walked away from the encounter with the angles, with the glory of the Lord shining down on them, and from the manger seeing God in the flesh, unchanged.  And neither do we.

You can write 1^st Corinthians 5:7 in the margins of your Bibles: Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed, and 2^nd Corinthians 5:17: If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation – the old has gone, the new has come!  The manger meant a new life, a new way of living to the shepherds, just as it means to us.  We cannot go to the manger and walk away the same as we came: the sins we bring to the manger are dealt with by the Baby in the manger who grew to be the Man on the cross.  And that changes everything – the old has died, and the new has been born!

The third thing the manger meant to the shepherds is in verse 14 – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men on whom Him favor rests.”  The manger meant peace.  But what kind of peace?

Webster’s dictionary defines peace as, “A state of tranquility or quiet; freedom from civil disturbance; or a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom.”  Anybody feel like they could use a little of this?  Anyone feel like the days are just whooshing by and a little slowing down of the speeding time would be a welcomed thing?  Maybe in some of our homes, or with some of our family and friends there are ‘disturbances’, or ‘strife’ that we would love to see go away?  I have both good and bad news for you – that’s not the kind of peace that’s being talked about here.

The peace of God is not peace with the world, or even peace with each other.  Think about this for a moment – not even the disciples could get along with one another when God Himself was physically present with them!  They had the Prince of Peace walking and talking and teaching them, and there was still strife: Judas stole from the treasury; James and John tried to make an end-run around the other ten and get on Jesus’ good side to get set up as rulers in His kingdom over and above the other disciples, and Peter was so intrusive and controlling, Jesus called him Satan! 

The peace of God is between God and people: the peace of sins forgiven; the peace of being placed in a right relationship with God through Jesus; the peace that comes from knowing God the Father moved in a very real and tangible way to come to us in the manger. 

That’s a peace the unbelieving world cannot understand.  It’s a peace that cannot be taken away.  Note something else: it’s a peace that only believers get: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace to men on whom His favor rests.”  On whom His favor rests.  We will either be at peace with God, or at war with God.  The only way to be at peace with God is through the Prince of Peace – through belief in Jesus.  Anyone who does not have this peace through Jesus is at war with Him, and here’s the thing: when you go to war with God, He always wins.

Sins covered by the blood of the lamb; God coming to them, and peace with God.  Three things the manger meant to the shepherds.  The final and biggest thing is something we already touched on: their lives were changed and they went from being shepherds to evangelists: When they had seen Him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this Child.

You can’t walk away from the manger unchanged.  You can’t meet Jesus and not be affected by Him.  You can’t look into the grace of God, and not be moved.  You can’t really encounter Jesus and keep Him to yourself.

Here are the hard questions for us as we continue to Christmas: Have you been to the manger?  I don’t mean the manger in our nativity sets, I mean, have you been to the manger?  Have you met this God who would let nothing stand in the way of getting to you?  Have you been overcome by His grace?  Have you told others about Him?

We don’t want to get all ‘touchy-feely’ here, because feelings themselves come and go.  What we ‘feel’ one day we may not ‘feel’ the next, but these are valid questions for us to consider.  When was the last time we had God’s grace wash over us and knock us off our feet?  When was the last time the truth of God’s word hit us between the eyes and we found ourselves on our knees either literally or figuratively, crying out for forgiveness – literally, not figuratively?  When was the last time we looked at a manger scene, or thought about all that it meant, and had our breath taken away?

Or have we become so hardened, so brazen, that we go from one day to the next with just a passing thought about everything the manger means, as we rush to get the decorations up, presents bought and wrapped, and parties thrown? 

When was the last time we invited someone to church?  In survey after survey of people who do not attend church, the same realization emerges.  Hands down, the number one reason unchurched people do not go to church, is because no one ever invites them, and they don’t feel comfortable walking into a church on their own when they don’t know someone there.  We understand that – most people don’t like going into situations they don’t know anything about without the support of someone else.  The same is true for those who do not attend church.  We’re all used to church because we’re in church.  But for those ‘out there’ church is a scary place, and not one they’re going to walk into without some encouragement and support.

Today is the last day in this series.  Next Sunday is the Sunday School Christmas program, and the Wednesday after that is our Christmas Eve worship.  We’ve talked about what the manger meant to God the Father; what the manger meant to the devil, and today what the manger meant to the shepherds.  We’ve been circling around the manger talking about what it meant to everyone else, but as we close this series today, we end with two final questions we need to get honest with and ask ourselves, “What does the manger mean to me, and what am I going to do about it?”

They are questions we can each only answer for ourselves.  I can’t answer for you, and you can’t answer for me.  There  is one last scripture reference you can write in your Bibles next to these verses.  In verse 11 the angels said, Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.  The scripture reference you can write is Matthew 16:15, and it’s the question, “But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?”

See you at the manger.

Amen.