For children, Christmas is an especially wonderful time. Trees, gifts, Christmas carols, cookies and a story of a baby. A little boy and girl were singing Silent Night in church the Sunday before Christmas. As they got to the end of the song, the boy finished with the words “sleep in heavenly beans.” His sister elbowed him in the ribs and whispered, “No, it’s not sleep in heavenly beans, it’s sleep in heavenly peas.” As adults, sometimes we get so stressed out with the hustle and bustle of Christmas, the song might as well end in beans or peas instead of peace.
Our family was getting ready to order a toy on the internet, but before we could click the submit button, they were all sold out, everywhere, on December 5. We celebrate Christmas by giving gifts to one another because God gave us His greatest gift, the person of Jesus, born as a baby 2000 years ago. This Christmas, in the midst of all your gift giving and receiving, don’t forget to give Jesus a gift, it’s His birthday after all.
Our message series this December is called “The True Meaning of Christmas.” The true meaning of Christmas has to do with Jesus. His birth was prophesied 740 years before it happened by the prophet Isaiah. NLT Isaiah 9:6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Each title represents one aspect of the true meaning of Christmas found in Jesus. One of the titles of Jesus is Everlasting Father.
What does a father do? He tenderly, faithfully and wisely guides, provides and guards His children. He does so by being there for His children. A father’s presence gives hope, a father’s presence gives meaning to His children. Today, the title of my message is Jesus: The Presence of God. Let’s think back again at that first Christmas night some 2000 years ago. What does the Christmas story tell us about Jesus coming as the presence of God?
The Bible tells that there were shepherds watching their flocks that night. NIV Luke 2:8-9 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. Last week, we focused on the angels who representing the power of God come to earth in the baby Jesus. Today I want to focus on the shepherds.
Shepherds at the time of Jesus were despised by people everywhere. They were regarded as notorious robbers and cheats on the level with tax collectors. One writing of the time said, “No position in the world is so despised as that of the shepherd.” Shepherds were discriminated against in courts and routinely deprived of civil rights. On top of being regarded as social outcasts, their job was difficult, lonely and dangerous. It was a job for those who could not find any other job. It was a hopeless job. Yet it was to shepherds that angels appeared to announce the birth of Jesus. Why do you think the angels appeared to the shepherds?
To hear more about this topic, listen to my December 11, 2005 message entitled Jesus – The Presence Of God
If shepherds were so despised at that time, outcasts in their own society for whatever the reason, then love and truth will find a way to bring them to the light. Angels are messengers or heralds who bring hope and salvation to mankind through God’s divine love. If we can seek out the lowliest born, and the most despised, to become messengers themselves bearing the greatest gift, then what better way to endow the lowliest with the highest?
The chosen shepherds took a lamb to Jesus. Later on, in his parable, Jesus said that “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.”
Jesus was making us aware of our human nature that if we lose something we will naturally seek it until we find it, irregardless of all that we have already, knowing that they are safe. It was the shepherds themselves that were found and brought home.