{"id":301733,"date":"2008-12-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-25T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/%series%\/shepherds-get-word-of-some-heavenly-news\/"},"modified":"2008-12-25T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-25T17:00:00","slug":"shepherds-get-word-of-some-heavenly-news","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/shepherds-get-word-of-some-heavenly-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Shepherds Get Word of Some Heavenly News"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why announce the birth of the Savior of the World to shepherds, of all people?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":294104,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"https:\/\/web.familylifetoday.com\/fl2008-12-25.mp3","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:","filesize":"12.4M","filesize_raw":"13003826","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":""},"categories":[2816],"tags":[4642],"podcast_series":[7623],"cwp_profile":[3142],"series":[2101],"class_list":["post-301733","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","tag-christmas","podcast_series-the-divine-birth-announcement","cwp_profile-bob-lepine","series-familylife-today"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2024\/09\/FLT-Podcast-Cover-2-508x508-3.jpg?w=508","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1001\/2023\/02\/image-scaled.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-download\/301733\/shepherds-get-word-of-some-heavenly-news","player_link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast-player\/301733\/shepherds-get-word-of-some-heavenly-news","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"light","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/familylife-today\/id212174303?mt=2&app=podcast","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/0j5UaKdQOHQCuo1bt0ebEm","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/feed\/podcast\/familylife-today","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"adC3LO8kAW\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/shepherds-get-word-of-some-heavenly-news\/\">Shepherds Get Word of Some Heavenly News<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/podcast\/familylife-today\/shepherds-get-word-of-some-heavenly-news\/embed\/#?secret=adC3LO8kAW\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Shepherds Get Word of Some Heavenly News&#8221; &#8212; FamilyLife\u00ae - A Cru Ministry\" data-secret=\"adC3LO8kAW\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n<\/script>\n"},"spectra_custom_meta":{"_wp_page_template":["default"],"transcript_url":["https:\/\/transcript.familylifetoday.com\/fl2008-12-25.pdf"],"audio_file":["https:\/\/web.familylifetoday.com\/fl2008-12-25.mp3"],"transcript_content":["<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Jesus has just been born.\u00a0 God says, \"I've got to send a birth announcement, who should I go to?\u00a0 How about those shepherds out on the hillside?\"\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why not go into the high priest, wake him up, tell him.\u00a0 Why shepherds on the hillside?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> And welcome to FamilyLife Today.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Wait a sec.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Merry Christmas.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> That's Merry Christmas to you, but I'm supposed to start the program.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> You are, but you're getting the entire broadcast today because we're featuring a message you gave last June when your church decided to celebrate Christmas in the summer.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Well, we were studying through Luke's Gospel, and when you start in Luke, chapter 1, and you start in June, then you wind up having Christmas in the middle of the summer.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> So we're bringing the summer to our listeners today, and we just want you to have a great and happy merry Christmas here, and we want you to celebrate our Savior's birth by listening to my friend, Bob Lepine, who gives this message at Redeemer Community Church here in Little Rock, and we just want you to be encouraged by the announcement of the greatest news that has ever been declared.\u00a0 Here is Bob Lepine.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Merry Christmas.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> [from audiotape.] We are in Luke, chapter 2 tonight, so if you have your Bible, you can turn to Luke, chapter 2, and we're going to talk about the birth announcement when God made the announcement of the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 It got me thinking about sending out birth announcements, and I went online to look at this whole subject of birth announcements to see \u2013 you know, today that's the way you do it.\u00a0 You do your birth announcements electronically, and you'd be amazed how many sites there are advertising birth announcements.\u00a0 There are BirthAnnouncements.com, as you would expect; AdorableBirthAnnouncements.com; BabyBirthAnnouncements.com; BirthAnnouncementsGalore.com; LittleAngelAnnouncements.com; StorkAvenue.com; PurpleStork.com; SmallFry.com; MiracleMunchkins.com; of course, there's MarthaStewart.com; InvitationConsultants.com; SassyBabyDesigns.com.\u00a0 I thought, \"I don't know that I'd want to send out a Sassy Baby design, and then this was my favorite \u2013 LookyMe.com.\u00a0 I thought that was a good one.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, we're going to see tonight the birth announcement that God made when Jesus was born \u2013 a very unique birth announcement on behalf of Mary and Joseph, and in our study of Luke's Gospel, this is scene 6.\u00a0 We've already seen the first scene, where the angel came to Zachariah; the second scene where the angel came to Mary and announced the birth of both of those babies; and then we shifted to where Mary and Elizabeth got together; and the scene was scene 4 where John the Baptist was born; and in scene 5, Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth down to Bethlehem, and the baby is born.\u00a0 And now we're at scene 6 in Luke, chapter 2, beginning at verse 8 where the angels come and announce to the shepherds the birth of Jesus, and there are four things we're going to see in this passage tonight.\u00a0 We're going to look at the messengers who came, we're going to look at what their message was.\u00a0 We're going to look at the recipients of that message, and we're going to look at how they responded.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo it's the messengers and their message, the recipients and their response.\u00a0 And we're going to start where Luke starts, which is with the recipients.\u00a0 In verse 8 it says, \"In the same region, there were shepherds out in their field keeping watch over their flock by night.\"\u00a0 Now, just stop there \u2013 \"in the same region\" \u2013 that means the region around Bethlehem.\u00a0 Bethlehem is about six to 10 miles south of Jerusalem, down in the Southern Kingdom area, and off to the south of Bethlehem there is a hilly region, and the shepherds would take the sheep out into the hilly region, and they would pasture them out there, and so that's where the shepherds were.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd a shepherd, obviously, is somebody who is watching over either sheep or goats, and if it's a small flock, it may be a single shepherd.\u00a0 If it's a large flock, it may be a group of shepherds.\u00a0 Sheep and goats were important animals in the Middle East at this time.\u00a0 They were an important domestic animal in Palestine.\u00a0 They provided wool for clothing, they provided meat and milk and, of course, these were the animals that Jews would bring to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord.\u00a0 So these were an important part of the life of Israel, these sheep.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd a shepherd, if he was a single shepherd working with a small flock, he would get up in the morning, and he would go to the pen, and he would open the pen and let the sheep out into the pasture area where they were going to spend their day getting both grass and getting water to drink, and the shepherd would go out with them, he'd keep an eye on them, he'd want to make sure that none of them got lost or ran away; he'd want to make sure that there were no predators that would come in and invade the flock and prey on the sheep.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo he would stay with the sheep all day, walking around kind of the outside of where the sheep were, getting them back into kind of the general area making sure they don't wander away, and then at night his job was to lead them back to the pen, where he would put them in the pen at night.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, if it was a large group of shepherds, if there was a big herd or a big flock, the sheep would be marked so the different owners had their different sheep, but the shepherds would do this together, and they'd go out on a hillside, and they'd have the sheep out covering a hillside, eating and grazing during the day, and what would often happen is they'd eat the hillside up, so they would sleep there that night, and then the shepherds would lead them to another hillside where there is fresh grass, fresh water, and they would just move around throughout the season from one hillside to another, letting the grass grow over here while they grazed over here, and they would take care of that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd once the sheep were grown, it was the shepherd's job to take them to market either to be shorn or to first be shorn and then to be slaughtered for meet or to be milked or then to be offered as a sacrifice.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, you've probably heard a lot of things about shepherds, but in case you haven't, here are just some things you need to know.\u00a0 This was not a profession for which you needed a college degree.\u00a0 Pretty much anybody qualified as a shepherd.\u00a0 It was kind of lower on the societal totem pole.\u00a0 You didn't have to be real smart to be a shepherd, you didn't have to be highly trained to be a shepherd, and you didn't make a whole lot of money as a shepherd \u2013 very meager wages.\u00a0 They were among the lowest-paid people in the Middle East, and they lived apart from society.\u00a0 Because of the nature of their job, they spent more time with sheep than with people and especially these ones who were nomadic who were out moving the flocks around.\u00a0 They'd often be gone for weeks or for months at a time, off with the sheep, just moving them around and, really, not in touch with very many people.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBecause of the nature of their job \u2013 this, by the way, is a seven-day-a-week job, and they were hired to do it seven days a week, which meant that there was one particular day that they were working when everybody else wasn't working and when you weren't supposed to be working.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo what did the Pharisees think about the shepherds, do you think?\u00a0 Well, they were dirty lawbreakers.\u00a0 They didn't keep the Sabbath.\u00a0 I don't know if the Pharisees ever figured out what do we do with the sheep on that day, since you need a shepherd to watch over them, but they would scorn the shepherds for breaking the Sabbath and not being a part of the religious observances of Israel.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe good shepherds were strong, they were alert, they were responsible, they could live out in harsh weather conditions, and they were committed to those sheep.\u00a0 They never lost a sheep.\u00a0 They made sure \u2013 if you had a good shepherd, you had somebody who was strong and diligent and cared for the sheep and could endure all kinds of harsh weather conditions.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tOf course, in the Old Testament there are many men who God raised up to lead the nation who had started as shepherds.\u00a0 Abel was a shepherd, right?\u00a0 And so was Moses and so was Abraham and so was David.\u00a0 So many of the great leaders of Israel began as shepherds.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, you have undoubtedly heard that shepherds were nefarious or men of low repute; that they didn't have good standing in the community.\u00a0 Some of you may have heard that shepherds could not testify in court; that their testimony was considered unreliable.\u00a0 That was not always the case in Israel, but about the time of Jesus and following that, shepherds began to be more and more looked down upon and despised.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tJohn MacArthur says this \u2013 he says, \"It wasn't long after Jesus came that shepherds began to be seen as unreliable, untrustworthy, unsavory characters who were largely suspected of stealing sheep and doing other kinds of illegal things.\"\u00a0 He says, \"Shepherds were not allowed to testify in court in that society because they couldn't be trusted, and part of the reason they couldn't be trusted is because the Pharisees, the churchgoing group, thought that they were not spiritual enough, and they weren't thought to be intelligent enough to put ideas together.\u00a0 So they were pretty much dismissed, and they were down on the societal totem pole.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI have to stop at just this point, because it occurred to me as I was thinking through shepherds, I was thinking about a famous shepherd in the Old Testament who, one day, got out his pen and his paper, and he wrote this \u2013 \"The Lord is my shepherd.\"\u00a0 This is the shepherd, David \u2013 \"The Lord is my shepherd.\"\u00a0 I have everything I need.\u00a0 \"I shall not want.\u00a0 He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me by the quiet waters, He restores my soul.\"\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tDavid, who had spent every day doing this for the sheep, understood, as he did it day in and day out, that God did the same for him.\u00a0 Now, we hear that \"the Lord is my shepherd,\" and we get this picture in our mind of Jesus with the little lamb over his shoulders that we've all seen before, smiling, carrying that little lamb, and we think that's a beautiful picture, and it is a beautiful picture.\u00a0 But when \u2013 in the time of Jesus to say \"the Lord is my shepherd,\" would be like saying, \"the Lord is my janitor,\" \"the Lord is my sanitation worker,\" \"my taxi driver.\"\u00a0 It sounds absurd, it sounds almost blasphemous to say it, doesn't it?\u00a0 But we have to consider, in this culture, to say \"the Lord is my shepherd,\" had just this little ring of \u2013 \"Are you saying the Lord is disreputable?\u00a0 Not to be trusted?\"\u00a0 No. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tJesus Himself would say, \"I am\" \u2013 what?\u00a0 \"The good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.\"\u00a0 It is interesting to me, as we think about this, that the coming of Jesus was in a humble, lowly setting.\u00a0 He's in a manger, and the first announcement of His birth is made to humble, lowly men.\u00a0 And Jesus, who empties Himself in coming to earth says \"I am a shepherd.\"\u00a0 And then in the New Testament we see the leaders of the church saying, \"Our responsibility is to be under shepherds.\"\u00a0 Not even with shepherds, under shepherds.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t1 Peter 5 \u2013 \"that we are to shepherd the leaders of the church\" or \"to shepherd the flock of God among you.\"\u00a0 The metaphor of being a shepherd, we typically think of it in terms of the responsibility and care for the sheep, but we don't necessarily capture the humility, the humbleness that comes with even that declaration.\u00a0 And for Jesus to say, \"I am a shepherd,\" is a statement of humility.\u00a0 For God to come to shepherds is a statement of humility.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWhy did God send the birth announcements to shepherds?\u00a0 Now, think about this.\u00a0 Jesus has just been born.\u00a0 God says, \"I've got to send a birth announcement, who should I go to?\"\u00a0 How about those shepherds out on the hillside?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why not go into the high priest, wake him up, tell him?\u00a0 Why not go to Elizabeth and Zachariah and say \"Your nephew has been born.\u00a0 The one, you know, John the Baptist.\"\u00a0 Why shepherds on the hillside?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, we don't know.\u00a0 The Bible doesn't tell us, but we do have to wonder if God wasn't trying to reinforce maybe He is our shepherd, and I'm sending the Good Shepherd, and I go to shepherds with the announcement.\u00a0 Or maybe because in Isaiah 61, the very people that Isaiah said the Messiah will come to, \"the spirit of the Lord is upon me, the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to\" \u2013 who?\u00a0 To the poor?\u00a0 \"Sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim to the captives, opening a prison to those who are bound.\"\u00a0 It's this disenfranchised group that David talked about last week that the Lord is sending the announcement of the good news to.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tMaybe, and we have to assume, based on how these men responded to the news \u2013 that these were men who were God-fearing men who longed for the consolation of Israel.\u00a0 When they got the news that a Savior had been born, who is Christ the Lord, they didn't go, \"Oh, that's nice.\"\u00a0 There was something in their hearts that struck a resonant chord.\u00a0 These shepherds out on the hillside got the news, and it stirred them.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo these may have not \u2013 they may have not been keeping the law of Israel like the Pharisees were calling them to do, but they longed for God to send the Messiah, and so God came to them.\u00a0 Remember, Jesus said, \"I didn't come to the well people, I came to those who are sick who know they have a need,\" and these men said \"We have a need for a Messiah.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd then, finally, it's possible that God went to shepherds first because the baby who was born was the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.\u00a0 He was not only a good shepherd, but He was the sacrificial lamb.\u00a0 So I'm going to the shepherds, I'm going to the shepherds to tell them, and in telling them, perhaps, to reorient everyone's thinking \u2013 to begin the reorientation of thinking about the ministry of the Messiah.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWhat were the Jews thinking?\u00a0 A conquering military hero would come and lead us out of captivity from the Romans, and we would once again be the nation set up on a hill, and all the other nations would bow to us, and we will have military strength and might, and God says, \"I'm sending a sacrificial, suffering servant.\u00a0 I'm going to the shepherds to tell them, because these shepherds, every day, after caring for their sheep week in and week out, take many of them up and offer them for slaughter, for sacrifice.\"\u00a0 These sheep have become like pets. You've had pets, right?\u00a0 To take your pet and say, \"Okay, time to take them to slaughter or for sacrifice.\u00a0 It had to be hard for a shepherd.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tGod comes to these shepherds and says, \"There is a lamb being born.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo what happens next?\u00a0 Those are the people who are receiving the message, and here comes the messenger, verse 9 \u2013 \"An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.\"\u00a0 Now, let's just break that down.\u00a0 The angel comes, probably not hovering in the sky.\u00a0 Okay, get that Christmas card picture out of your mind.\u00a0 There is nothing that says an angel is flapping wings in the sky.\u00a0 That's not how angels typically came.\u00a0 Angels walked up.\u00a0 Abraham is in the camp, here comes the angels to greet him; they just walk into the camp.\u00a0 They're angels, that's how they normally came.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo here are the shepherds.\u00a0 It's nighttime, they're out in an open field, the sheep were out here, or they've been penned up for the night, the shepherds are sitting around keeping an eye on the sheep, they've got a campfire going and, all of a sudden, somebody looks up, and they see a guy coming, and they don't know whether this guy coming is a thief or if he is a robber, but as soon as they see him, the glory of the Lord starts to shine around them.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, the glory of the Lord \u2013 and, by the way, angels didn't show up every day, right?\u00a0 It's been 500 years since there was the last record of an angel showing up, and here in the last nine months, we had an angel come to Zachariah, we had an angel come to Mary, and now we've got an angel coming to the shepherds.\u00a0 The angels were busy at the time of the birth of Jesus, and the glory of the Lord \u2013 don't miss this.\u00a0 So often you hear that \u2013 \"The glory of the Lord shone around them,\" and we just kind of zip past that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, this is God's majestic presence, His shekinah, coming to earth to announce the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 Shepherds out on a hillside, dark night, the sheep are over here, a guy show up \u2013 angel \u2013 and as soon as he shows up, the sky lights up as bright as day.\u00a0 The Bible talks about the shekinah of God appearing in the Old Testament.\u00a0 You know the places where it appeared, right?\u00a0 Moses is up on Mount Sinai, he says, \"Lord, can I see your glory?\"\u00a0 The Lord says, \"You'd die. Put your face against the rock, I'll come along your back,\" and it bleached him out, right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd then there is the temple, the dedication of the temple, when Moses finishes \u2013 actually, the tabernacle \u2013 he finishes building the tabernacle, and they're getting ready to dedicate it, and what happens?\u00a0 The cloud comes and settles over it, and it says, \"And the glory of the Lord shone.\"\u00a0 The people \u2013 God was showing his pleasure with what the people had done in building this place of worship to Him by coming and bringing His bright presence, His blinding light, as a revelation of His glory.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe same thing happened in 1 Kings, when Solomon's temple was being dedicated.\u00a0 The glory of the Lord shows up.\u00a0 So it's only happened on a few significant special occasions.\u00a0 Here, nobody is asking for it or looking for it, angel shows up, sky lights up, bright as can be, the shepherds \u2013 and, no wonder, it says \"the shepherds were filled with fear.\"\u00a0 That happens to you out in the middle of the desert out on the hillside at night, bright as day, blinding light, a guy standing there, you can barely make him out because of the light that's around you.\u00a0 But it's not just the scene that is frightening.\u00a0 These shepherds know what's going on, I think.\u00a0 I think they know this isn't just somebody turned on the light, but they've learned their New Testament \u2013 or their Old Testament.\u00a0 They know about the shekinah, and they're going, \"This is the shekinah of God.\u00a0 God is here.\u00a0 God's glory is being revealed to us.\"\u00a0 They were filled with fear.\u00a0 Throughout the Old Testament when God shows up and reveals Himself, people are afraid.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe very first scene, Adam and Eve, after the fall, God shows up in the Garden, \"Adam, where are you?\"\u00a0 Where was he?\u00a0 Hiding.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 He was afraid.\u00a0 In Isaiah, when he saw a vision of God, Isaiah, chapter 6, what was his response?\u00a0 He trembled, and he said \"Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.\"\u00a0 In Ezekiel, chapter 1, Ezekiel sees a vision of the glory of God, and what does he do?\u00a0 He falls on his face.\u00a0 In the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter and James and John go up with Jesus on the Mount and God shows forth His glory there, what do they do?\u00a0 Fall on their faces.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIn Revelation, chapter 1, when John, the Apostle, gets this picture of Jesus in His glory, what does he do?\u00a0 Falls down.\u00a0 Fear was a common response to God showing up.\u00a0 Now, what would you do?\u00a0 What would we do if it got real bright in here, all of a sudden?\u00a0 What would you do if God showed up?\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe're all familiar with the song, \"I Could Only Imagine,\" and, you know, it is that imagination \u2013 when you see Jesus will you dance or will you fall?\u00a0 In that glorified setting, I don't know that I've got an answer for it, but right here I know what I'd do \u2013 before glorification I know what I'd do.\u00a0 I wouldn't stand; I'd fall down.\u00a0 We don't hear much today about the idea of fearing the Lord.\u00a0 It's not really talked about a whole lot.\u00a0 We used to refer to devout Christians as \"God-fearing people.\"\u00a0 We'd call them \"God-fearing people\" but you don't hear that so much anymore.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tDo you fear the Lord?\u00a0 Should you fear the Lord?\u00a0 Well, in one sense, the answer to that is no, we don't need to fear.\u00a0 Perfect love does what?\u00a0 Casts out fear.\u00a0 There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 We have no need of fear \u2013 \"Death where is your sting?\u00a0 O grave, where is the victory?\"\u00a0 There is no fear in death, no fear in condemnation.\u00a0 \"No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine,\" right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo, in one sense, no, we don't need to fear the Lord.\u00a0 But in another sense, there ought to be a holy reverence, respect and awe and, I might even say \"dread\" for God.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Well, we've been listening to Bob Lepine.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> You were smiling.\u00a0 That's one of your life messages.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Well, it is, and you're right on target, Bob.\u00a0 Because I think there has been a loss of respect and awe of who God is in our culture today, and you see it in all kinds of places \u2013 our entertainment, our language, the music that's sung, and, really, our behavior.\u00a0 We are in need of, I think, freshly rediscovering the fear of God and giving Him rightful place in our lives.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Well, and, hopefully, here on Christmas Day, our listeners have had an appropriate, joyful celebration with family and I hope you have had an opportunity or will have an opportunity to spend some time just enjoying being with one another.\u00a0 But we ought to pull back and remember that this day, while family and friends and presents are a part of it, that's not what the day is all about, is it?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> It's not.\u00a0 And, in fact, if Jesus had not become flesh and dwelt among us, that verse you were speaking about, having death swallowed up in victory and Christ going to cross and was resurrected after He died on the third day, it's really the message of Christmas.\u00a0 It is the greatest love story ever told \u2013 that the Savior came, and He took upon Himself our sins so that we might be forgiven and might have a right relationship with God.\u00a0 And, frankly, that is the good news of Christmas.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> That's right, and we hope you have a merry Christmas today.\u00a0 If you're listening to FamilyLife Today and not a regular listener, maybe the Christmas celebration has given you an opportunity to listen, and you don't normally get a chance to tune in, we want to invite you to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com.\u00a0 There is more information about our program and about our ministry available on the Web, FamilyLifeToday.com, and we want to invite you back tomorrow when we'll hear part 2 of this message on the divine birth announcement when the angels came and told the shepherds to go to Bethlehem because a baby had been born who is Christ the Lord.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.\u00a0 On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 Have a merry Christmas, and we'll see you tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tFamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 help for today; hope for tomorrow.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t______________________________________________________________\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider <a href=\"http:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/donate\">donating today<\/a> to help defray the costs?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tCopyright \u00a9 FamilyLife. All rights reserved.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>www.FamilyLife.com<\/strong>\n\t\t\t<\/p>"],"_seopress_titles_title":[""],"_seopress_titles_desc":[""],"_seopress_robots_index":[""],"duration":["00:"],"show_notes":[""],"_thumbnail_id":["294104"],"filesize":["12.4M"],"filesize_raw":["13003826"],"_uag_css_file_name":["uag-css-301733.css"],"_uag_js_file_name":["uag-js-301733.js"],"_uag_page_assets":["a:9:{s:3:\"css\";s:82560:\".wp-block-uagb-container.uagb-block-e11dbe9f .uagb-container__shape-top svg{width: calc( 100% + 1.3px );}.wp-block-uagb-container.uagb-block-e11dbe9f .uagb-container__shape.uagb-container__shape-top .uagb-container__shape-fill{fill: rgba(51,51,51,1);}.wp-block-uagb-container.uagb-block-e11dbe9f .uagb-container__shape-bottom svg{width: calc( 100% + 1.3px );}.wp-block-uagb-container.uagb-block-e11dbe9f .uagb-container__shape.uagb-container__shape-bottom .uagb-container__shape-fill{fill: rgba(51,51,51,1);}.wp-block-uagb-container.uagb-block-e11dbe9f 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announce the birth of the Savior of the World to shepherds, of all people?","meta_box":{"show_notes":"","transcript_url":"https:\/\/transcript.familylifetoday.com\/fl2008-12-25.pdf","transcript_content":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Jesus has just been born.\u00a0 God says, \"I've got to send a birth announcement, who should I go to?\u00a0 How about those shepherds out on the hillside?\"\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why not go into the high priest, wake him up, tell him.\u00a0 Why shepherds on the hillside?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> And welcome to FamilyLife Today.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Wait a sec.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Merry Christmas.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> That's Merry Christmas to you, but I'm supposed to start the program.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> You are, but you're getting the entire broadcast today because we're featuring a message you gave last June when your church decided to celebrate Christmas in the summer.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Well, we were studying through Luke's Gospel, and when you start in Luke, chapter 1, and you start in June, then you wind up having Christmas in the middle of the summer.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> So we're bringing the summer to our listeners today, and we just want you to have a great and happy merry Christmas here, and we want you to celebrate our Savior's birth by listening to my friend, Bob Lepine, who gives this message at Redeemer Community Church here in Little Rock, and we just want you to be encouraged by the announcement of the greatest news that has ever been declared.\u00a0 Here is Bob Lepine.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Merry Christmas.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> [from audiotape.] We are in Luke, chapter 2 tonight, so if you have your Bible, you can turn to Luke, chapter 2, and we're going to talk about the birth announcement when God made the announcement of the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 It got me thinking about sending out birth announcements, and I went online to look at this whole subject of birth announcements to see \u2013 you know, today that's the way you do it.\u00a0 You do your birth announcements electronically, and you'd be amazed how many sites there are advertising birth announcements.\u00a0 There are BirthAnnouncements.com, as you would expect; AdorableBirthAnnouncements.com; BabyBirthAnnouncements.com; BirthAnnouncementsGalore.com; LittleAngelAnnouncements.com; StorkAvenue.com; PurpleStork.com; SmallFry.com; MiracleMunchkins.com; of course, there's MarthaStewart.com; InvitationConsultants.com; SassyBabyDesigns.com.\u00a0 I thought, \"I don't know that I'd want to send out a Sassy Baby design, and then this was my favorite \u2013 LookyMe.com.\u00a0 I thought that was a good one.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, we're going to see tonight the birth announcement that God made when Jesus was born \u2013 a very unique birth announcement on behalf of Mary and Joseph, and in our study of Luke's Gospel, this is scene 6.\u00a0 We've already seen the first scene, where the angel came to Zachariah; the second scene where the angel came to Mary and announced the birth of both of those babies; and then we shifted to where Mary and Elizabeth got together; and the scene was scene 4 where John the Baptist was born; and in scene 5, Mary and Joseph travel from Nazareth down to Bethlehem, and the baby is born.\u00a0 And now we're at scene 6 in Luke, chapter 2, beginning at verse 8 where the angels come and announce to the shepherds the birth of Jesus, and there are four things we're going to see in this passage tonight.\u00a0 We're going to look at the messengers who came, we're going to look at what their message was.\u00a0 We're going to look at the recipients of that message, and we're going to look at how they responded.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo it's the messengers and their message, the recipients and their response.\u00a0 And we're going to start where Luke starts, which is with the recipients.\u00a0 In verse 8 it says, \"In the same region, there were shepherds out in their field keeping watch over their flock by night.\"\u00a0 Now, just stop there \u2013 \"in the same region\" \u2013 that means the region around Bethlehem.\u00a0 Bethlehem is about six to 10 miles south of Jerusalem, down in the Southern Kingdom area, and off to the south of Bethlehem there is a hilly region, and the shepherds would take the sheep out into the hilly region, and they would pasture them out there, and so that's where the shepherds were.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd a shepherd, obviously, is somebody who is watching over either sheep or goats, and if it's a small flock, it may be a single shepherd.\u00a0 If it's a large flock, it may be a group of shepherds.\u00a0 Sheep and goats were important animals in the Middle East at this time.\u00a0 They were an important domestic animal in Palestine.\u00a0 They provided wool for clothing, they provided meat and milk and, of course, these were the animals that Jews would bring to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord.\u00a0 So these were an important part of the life of Israel, these sheep.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd a shepherd, if he was a single shepherd working with a small flock, he would get up in the morning, and he would go to the pen, and he would open the pen and let the sheep out into the pasture area where they were going to spend their day getting both grass and getting water to drink, and the shepherd would go out with them, he'd keep an eye on them, he'd want to make sure that none of them got lost or ran away; he'd want to make sure that there were no predators that would come in and invade the flock and prey on the sheep.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo he would stay with the sheep all day, walking around kind of the outside of where the sheep were, getting them back into kind of the general area making sure they don't wander away, and then at night his job was to lead them back to the pen, where he would put them in the pen at night.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, if it was a large group of shepherds, if there was a big herd or a big flock, the sheep would be marked so the different owners had their different sheep, but the shepherds would do this together, and they'd go out on a hillside, and they'd have the sheep out covering a hillside, eating and grazing during the day, and what would often happen is they'd eat the hillside up, so they would sleep there that night, and then the shepherds would lead them to another hillside where there is fresh grass, fresh water, and they would just move around throughout the season from one hillside to another, letting the grass grow over here while they grazed over here, and they would take care of that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd once the sheep were grown, it was the shepherd's job to take them to market either to be shorn or to first be shorn and then to be slaughtered for meet or to be milked or then to be offered as a sacrifice.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, you've probably heard a lot of things about shepherds, but in case you haven't, here are just some things you need to know.\u00a0 This was not a profession for which you needed a college degree.\u00a0 Pretty much anybody qualified as a shepherd.\u00a0 It was kind of lower on the societal totem pole.\u00a0 You didn't have to be real smart to be a shepherd, you didn't have to be highly trained to be a shepherd, and you didn't make a whole lot of money as a shepherd \u2013 very meager wages.\u00a0 They were among the lowest-paid people in the Middle East, and they lived apart from society.\u00a0 Because of the nature of their job, they spent more time with sheep than with people and especially these ones who were nomadic who were out moving the flocks around.\u00a0 They'd often be gone for weeks or for months at a time, off with the sheep, just moving them around and, really, not in touch with very many people.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tBecause of the nature of their job \u2013 this, by the way, is a seven-day-a-week job, and they were hired to do it seven days a week, which meant that there was one particular day that they were working when everybody else wasn't working and when you weren't supposed to be working.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo what did the Pharisees think about the shepherds, do you think?\u00a0 Well, they were dirty lawbreakers.\u00a0 They didn't keep the Sabbath.\u00a0 I don't know if the Pharisees ever figured out what do we do with the sheep on that day, since you need a shepherd to watch over them, but they would scorn the shepherds for breaking the Sabbath and not being a part of the religious observances of Israel.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe good shepherds were strong, they were alert, they were responsible, they could live out in harsh weather conditions, and they were committed to those sheep.\u00a0 They never lost a sheep.\u00a0 They made sure \u2013 if you had a good shepherd, you had somebody who was strong and diligent and cared for the sheep and could endure all kinds of harsh weather conditions.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tOf course, in the Old Testament there are many men who God raised up to lead the nation who had started as shepherds.\u00a0 Abel was a shepherd, right?\u00a0 And so was Moses and so was Abraham and so was David.\u00a0 So many of the great leaders of Israel began as shepherds.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, you have undoubtedly heard that shepherds were nefarious or men of low repute; that they didn't have good standing in the community.\u00a0 Some of you may have heard that shepherds could not testify in court; that their testimony was considered unreliable.\u00a0 That was not always the case in Israel, but about the time of Jesus and following that, shepherds began to be more and more looked down upon and despised.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tJohn MacArthur says this \u2013 he says, \"It wasn't long after Jesus came that shepherds began to be seen as unreliable, untrustworthy, unsavory characters who were largely suspected of stealing sheep and doing other kinds of illegal things.\"\u00a0 He says, \"Shepherds were not allowed to testify in court in that society because they couldn't be trusted, and part of the reason they couldn't be trusted is because the Pharisees, the churchgoing group, thought that they were not spiritual enough, and they weren't thought to be intelligent enough to put ideas together.\u00a0 So they were pretty much dismissed, and they were down on the societal totem pole.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI have to stop at just this point, because it occurred to me as I was thinking through shepherds, I was thinking about a famous shepherd in the Old Testament who, one day, got out his pen and his paper, and he wrote this \u2013 \"The Lord is my shepherd.\"\u00a0 This is the shepherd, David \u2013 \"The Lord is my shepherd.\"\u00a0 I have everything I need.\u00a0 \"I shall not want.\u00a0 He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me by the quiet waters, He restores my soul.\"\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tDavid, who had spent every day doing this for the sheep, understood, as he did it day in and day out, that God did the same for him.\u00a0 Now, we hear that \"the Lord is my shepherd,\" and we get this picture in our mind of Jesus with the little lamb over his shoulders that we've all seen before, smiling, carrying that little lamb, and we think that's a beautiful picture, and it is a beautiful picture.\u00a0 But when \u2013 in the time of Jesus to say \"the Lord is my shepherd,\" would be like saying, \"the Lord is my janitor,\" \"the Lord is my sanitation worker,\" \"my taxi driver.\"\u00a0 It sounds absurd, it sounds almost blasphemous to say it, doesn't it?\u00a0 But we have to consider, in this culture, to say \"the Lord is my shepherd,\" had just this little ring of \u2013 \"Are you saying the Lord is disreputable?\u00a0 Not to be trusted?\"\u00a0 No. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tJesus Himself would say, \"I am\" \u2013 what?\u00a0 \"The good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.\"\u00a0 It is interesting to me, as we think about this, that the coming of Jesus was in a humble, lowly setting.\u00a0 He's in a manger, and the first announcement of His birth is made to humble, lowly men.\u00a0 And Jesus, who empties Himself in coming to earth says \"I am a shepherd.\"\u00a0 And then in the New Testament we see the leaders of the church saying, \"Our responsibility is to be under shepherds.\"\u00a0 Not even with shepherds, under shepherds.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t1 Peter 5 \u2013 \"that we are to shepherd the leaders of the church\" or \"to shepherd the flock of God among you.\"\u00a0 The metaphor of being a shepherd, we typically think of it in terms of the responsibility and care for the sheep, but we don't necessarily capture the humility, the humbleness that comes with even that declaration.\u00a0 And for Jesus to say, \"I am a shepherd,\" is a statement of humility.\u00a0 For God to come to shepherds is a statement of humility.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWhy did God send the birth announcements to shepherds?\u00a0 Now, think about this.\u00a0 Jesus has just been born.\u00a0 God says, \"I've got to send a birth announcement, who should I go to?\"\u00a0 How about those shepherds out on the hillside?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why not go into the high priest, wake him up, tell him?\u00a0 Why not go to Elizabeth and Zachariah and say \"Your nephew has been born.\u00a0 The one, you know, John the Baptist.\"\u00a0 Why shepherds on the hillside?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, we don't know.\u00a0 The Bible doesn't tell us, but we do have to wonder if God wasn't trying to reinforce maybe He is our shepherd, and I'm sending the Good Shepherd, and I go to shepherds with the announcement.\u00a0 Or maybe because in Isaiah 61, the very people that Isaiah said the Messiah will come to, \"the spirit of the Lord is upon me, the Lord has anointed me to bring the good news to\" \u2013 who?\u00a0 To the poor?\u00a0 \"Sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim to the captives, opening a prison to those who are bound.\"\u00a0 It's this disenfranchised group that David talked about last week that the Lord is sending the announcement of the good news to.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tMaybe, and we have to assume, based on how these men responded to the news \u2013 that these were men who were God-fearing men who longed for the consolation of Israel.\u00a0 When they got the news that a Savior had been born, who is Christ the Lord, they didn't go, \"Oh, that's nice.\"\u00a0 There was something in their hearts that struck a resonant chord.\u00a0 These shepherds out on the hillside got the news, and it stirred them.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo these may have not \u2013 they may have not been keeping the law of Israel like the Pharisees were calling them to do, but they longed for God to send the Messiah, and so God came to them.\u00a0 Remember, Jesus said, \"I didn't come to the well people, I came to those who are sick who know they have a need,\" and these men said \"We have a need for a Messiah.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd then, finally, it's possible that God went to shepherds first because the baby who was born was the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.\u00a0 He was not only a good shepherd, but He was the sacrificial lamb.\u00a0 So I'm going to the shepherds, I'm going to the shepherds to tell them, and in telling them, perhaps, to reorient everyone's thinking \u2013 to begin the reorientation of thinking about the ministry of the Messiah.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWhat were the Jews thinking?\u00a0 A conquering military hero would come and lead us out of captivity from the Romans, and we would once again be the nation set up on a hill, and all the other nations would bow to us, and we will have military strength and might, and God says, \"I'm sending a sacrificial, suffering servant.\u00a0 I'm going to the shepherds to tell them, because these shepherds, every day, after caring for their sheep week in and week out, take many of them up and offer them for slaughter, for sacrifice.\"\u00a0 These sheep have become like pets. You've had pets, right?\u00a0 To take your pet and say, \"Okay, time to take them to slaughter or for sacrifice.\u00a0 It had to be hard for a shepherd.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tGod comes to these shepherds and says, \"There is a lamb being born.\"\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo what happens next?\u00a0 Those are the people who are receiving the message, and here comes the messenger, verse 9 \u2013 \"An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.\"\u00a0 Now, let's just break that down.\u00a0 The angel comes, probably not hovering in the sky.\u00a0 Okay, get that Christmas card picture out of your mind.\u00a0 There is nothing that says an angel is flapping wings in the sky.\u00a0 That's not how angels typically came.\u00a0 Angels walked up.\u00a0 Abraham is in the camp, here comes the angels to greet him; they just walk into the camp.\u00a0 They're angels, that's how they normally came.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo here are the shepherds.\u00a0 It's nighttime, they're out in an open field, the sheep were out here, or they've been penned up for the night, the shepherds are sitting around keeping an eye on the sheep, they've got a campfire going and, all of a sudden, somebody looks up, and they see a guy coming, and they don't know whether this guy coming is a thief or if he is a robber, but as soon as they see him, the glory of the Lord starts to shine around them.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tNow, the glory of the Lord \u2013 and, by the way, angels didn't show up every day, right?\u00a0 It's been 500 years since there was the last record of an angel showing up, and here in the last nine months, we had an angel come to Zachariah, we had an angel come to Mary, and now we've got an angel coming to the shepherds.\u00a0 The angels were busy at the time of the birth of Jesus, and the glory of the Lord \u2013 don't miss this.\u00a0 So often you hear that \u2013 \"The glory of the Lord shone around them,\" and we just kind of zip past that.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWell, this is God's majestic presence, His shekinah, coming to earth to announce the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 Shepherds out on a hillside, dark night, the sheep are over here, a guy show up \u2013 angel \u2013 and as soon as he shows up, the sky lights up as bright as day.\u00a0 The Bible talks about the shekinah of God appearing in the Old Testament.\u00a0 You know the places where it appeared, right?\u00a0 Moses is up on Mount Sinai, he says, \"Lord, can I see your glory?\"\u00a0 The Lord says, \"You'd die. Put your face against the rock, I'll come along your back,\" and it bleached him out, right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tAnd then there is the temple, the dedication of the temple, when Moses finishes \u2013 actually, the tabernacle \u2013 he finishes building the tabernacle, and they're getting ready to dedicate it, and what happens?\u00a0 The cloud comes and settles over it, and it says, \"And the glory of the Lord shone.\"\u00a0 The people \u2013 God was showing his pleasure with what the people had done in building this place of worship to Him by coming and bringing His bright presence, His blinding light, as a revelation of His glory.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe same thing happened in 1 Kings, when Solomon's temple was being dedicated.\u00a0 The glory of the Lord shows up.\u00a0 So it's only happened on a few significant special occasions.\u00a0 Here, nobody is asking for it or looking for it, angel shows up, sky lights up, bright as can be, the shepherds \u2013 and, no wonder, it says \"the shepherds were filled with fear.\"\u00a0 That happens to you out in the middle of the desert out on the hillside at night, bright as day, blinding light, a guy standing there, you can barely make him out because of the light that's around you.\u00a0 But it's not just the scene that is frightening.\u00a0 These shepherds know what's going on, I think.\u00a0 I think they know this isn't just somebody turned on the light, but they've learned their New Testament \u2013 or their Old Testament.\u00a0 They know about the shekinah, and they're going, \"This is the shekinah of God.\u00a0 God is here.\u00a0 God's glory is being revealed to us.\"\u00a0 They were filled with fear.\u00a0 Throughout the Old Testament when God shows up and reveals Himself, people are afraid.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tThe very first scene, Adam and Eve, after the fall, God shows up in the Garden, \"Adam, where are you?\"\u00a0 Where was he?\u00a0 Hiding.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 He was afraid.\u00a0 In Isaiah, when he saw a vision of God, Isaiah, chapter 6, what was his response?\u00a0 He trembled, and he said \"Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips.\"\u00a0 In Ezekiel, chapter 1, Ezekiel sees a vision of the glory of God, and what does he do?\u00a0 He falls on his face.\u00a0 In the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter and James and John go up with Jesus on the Mount and God shows forth His glory there, what do they do?\u00a0 Fall on their faces.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tIn Revelation, chapter 1, when John, the Apostle, gets this picture of Jesus in His glory, what does he do?\u00a0 Falls down.\u00a0 Fear was a common response to God showing up.\u00a0 Now, what would you do?\u00a0 What would we do if it got real bright in here, all of a sudden?\u00a0 What would you do if God showed up?\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe're all familiar with the song, \"I Could Only Imagine,\" and, you know, it is that imagination \u2013 when you see Jesus will you dance or will you fall?\u00a0 In that glorified setting, I don't know that I've got an answer for it, but right here I know what I'd do \u2013 before glorification I know what I'd do.\u00a0 I wouldn't stand; I'd fall down.\u00a0 We don't hear much today about the idea of fearing the Lord.\u00a0 It's not really talked about a whole lot.\u00a0 We used to refer to devout Christians as \"God-fearing people.\"\u00a0 We'd call them \"God-fearing people\" but you don't hear that so much anymore.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tDo you fear the Lord?\u00a0 Should you fear the Lord?\u00a0 Well, in one sense, the answer to that is no, we don't need to fear.\u00a0 Perfect love does what?\u00a0 Casts out fear.\u00a0 There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 We have no need of fear \u2013 \"Death where is your sting?\u00a0 O grave, where is the victory?\"\u00a0 There is no fear in death, no fear in condemnation.\u00a0 \"No condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine,\" right?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tSo, in one sense, no, we don't need to fear the Lord.\u00a0 But in another sense, there ought to be a holy reverence, respect and awe and, I might even say \"dread\" for God.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Well, we've been listening to Bob Lepine.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> You were smiling.\u00a0 That's one of your life messages.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> Well, it is, and you're right on target, Bob.\u00a0 Because I think there has been a loss of respect and awe of who God is in our culture today, and you see it in all kinds of places \u2013 our entertainment, our language, the music that's sung, and, really, our behavior.\u00a0 We are in need of, I think, freshly rediscovering the fear of God and giving Him rightful place in our lives.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> Well, and, hopefully, here on Christmas Day, our listeners have had an appropriate, joyful celebration with family and I hope you have had an opportunity or will have an opportunity to spend some time just enjoying being with one another.\u00a0 But we ought to pull back and remember that this day, while family and friends and presents are a part of it, that's not what the day is all about, is it?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Dennis:<\/strong> It's not.\u00a0 And, in fact, if Jesus had not become flesh and dwelt among us, that verse you were speaking about, having death swallowed up in victory and Christ going to cross and was resurrected after He died on the third day, it's really the message of Christmas.\u00a0 It is the greatest love story ever told \u2013 that the Savior came, and He took upon Himself our sins so that we might be forgiven and might have a right relationship with God.\u00a0 And, frankly, that is the good news of Christmas.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t<strong>Bob:<\/strong> That's right, and we hope you have a merry Christmas today.\u00a0 If you're listening to FamilyLife Today and not a regular listener, maybe the Christmas celebration has given you an opportunity to listen, and you don't normally get a chance to tune in, we want to invite you to our website, FamilyLifeToday.com.\u00a0 There is more information about our program and about our ministry available on the Web, FamilyLifeToday.com, and we want to invite you back tomorrow when we'll hear part 2 of this message on the divine birth announcement when the angels came and told the shepherds to go to Bethlehem because a baby had been born who is Christ the Lord.\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tI want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, and our entire broadcast production team.\u00a0 On behalf of our host, Dennis Rainey, I'm Bob Lepine.\u00a0 Have a merry Christmas, and we'll see you tomorrow for another edition of FamilyLife Today. \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tFamilyLife Today is a production of FamilyLife of Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 help for today; hope for tomorrow.\u00a0 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\t______________________________________________________________\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tWe are so happy to provide these transcripts for you. However, there is a cost to transcribe, create, and produce them for our website. If you've benefited from the broadcast transcripts, would you consider <a href=\"http:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/donate\">donating today<\/a> to help defray the costs?\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p>\n\t\t\t\tCopyright \u00a9 FamilyLife. 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