Christmas: Shepherds & Angels

Hey, I'm so glad that you're here today. I'm so glad that you're here today. What a morning it's been so far, man. It just struck me as we were singing those words, that line about the thirsty drinking without price, that was a prophecy from the Old Testament and that when Jesus would come, man, what a gift. What a gift that the thirsty get to drink without price.

If we haven't met, my name is Josh and I'm glad you're here today. And if you'd like to connect with Whitewater any further after the service, the very best thing you can do is go straight out these doors and go to the information desk. We got a team of people that would love to meet you, answer any questions that you have, connect with you, and get you connected here. We, we are only 10 days away from Christmas. 10.

That means you only have 10 more days to shop and lose your minds with everyone else. Kids. You only have 10 more days to wait. Yeah, 10 more days. Come on.

No one's excited.

And that also means that you only have 10 days left to continue or join in on the Christmas Advent Journal. And if you got one, fantastic. No shame. If you haven't started yet, you can start with 10 days left. It's been a great tool.

I talked with a dad this week that said just the simple act of having something every day where we sit down with our family and read part of the Bible and talk about it. Just that this was good for our family. And so you can grab one of those. I think we have a handful of them left at the doors at the information desk. If not, you can also go to whitewatercrossing.org Christmas and you can find.

Not only that, you can find a bunch of other information. We got a lot going on in the next nine days around here. Today is actually a big day for Christmas. Tonight at 5pm we have Whitewater Eats. And it is literally what it sounds like.

We just show up and eat. Doesn't that sound great? Whitewater Eats, we provide the main course and then we just ask that you bring a side or a dessert and let us know you're coming. You can do that on that webpage, the Christmas webpage. Just register and let us know you're coming and show up, man.

It's so good. We've had so many people connect with Whitewater for the very first time sitting around one of those tables. So we'd love for you to join us. And then from 6 to 7:30 in this room and is Jingle Jam I know you're all excited. Jingle jam.

Jingle Jam is designed for families that have little ones between pre K and elementary school, but it's also for everybody else. They're gonna have a bunch of music, some games and some fun lights at the same time. Over in the union, our students, middle school and high school are doing their one night Christmas party. It's awesome that they get to do that. If you are a student in the room and you have not connected with student ministry, I won't shame you, but I will highly encourage you to join.

It is a great community of students and leaders and I just could not be more thankful that my kids are a part of it. So that's tonight from six to nine as well. Just a big Christmas party is going to be good. All right, I got a couple other things and then I'll actually preach. Christmas Eve services this year will be on the 24th.

All three services on the 24th at, at 2, 3, 30 and 5pm identical services. We will have children's programming for birth through three years old at only the 2pm service at only the 2pm so we're just gonna, we're gonna read the Christmas story straight from the Bible. Surprise. And we're gonna sing some great Christmas songs and have a candle lighting together. It's a great opportunity to be in town with your family and friends.

Invite your neighbors to come as well. And this is the last thing if you don't already know. Every year we receive a Christmas Eve offering. And that offering is used solely outside of these walls for kingdom expansion outside of Whitewater. This year we're hoping to raise $75,000.

And to hit that mark, we're going to need your help. So the first $25,000 is going to go straight to the Life Center. If you've been around here very long, you've heard about the Life center, they do a tremendous job of local community impact. So the first 25,000 will go there. The next $25,000 will go to our mission partners in South Asia, the UBE Awantias.

They're going to be building a facility there for the mission and we're going to help fund that. And then everything else that's given will go into our local and global impact fund fund. And we get requests constantly. Every week we're getting requests from individuals, missions, ministries who just need some extra funding. And we got a team that helps decide where those monies will go.

But it will be all local and global impact. So we hope that you'll just do this Just pray and ask the Holy Spirit how he might want you to be giving generously toward this offering. And then do it. Just be obedient to that. So that'll be.

You can give towards that anytime between now and the end of the year. You can just mark those. As for the Christmas offering, let me pray for us and we'll get into the word. Father, thank you.

Thank you for coming.

Awaken in in us a realization or a reminder that this is a real story and that this changes everything.

In Jesus name, amen.

Well, last week we looked at this huge, explosive moment that after 400 years of silence, God sends the angel Gabriel to come to Zechariah and then to Mary, and tell Mary she is going to carry inside of her the Messiah, the Son of God, and Mary and Joseph are going to raise him the Son of God. And this is going to be crazy. It's going to be a huge responsibility, but the Holy Spirit is going to be with them. This week we're going to skip ahead in the story a little bit. We're going to go past the birth.

We'll come back to that as we come into next week and hone in and really focus in on that for Christmas Eve. But today we're zoomed out a bit and we're looking at Luke Chapter two, where the angels show up to some unlikely characters. And I don't know about you, but when. When I think of the Christmas story, I mean, I grew up in the church. I basically was born in the church, have gone to church my whole life.

I don't know how many times I've heard the Christmas story. And I go, yeah, yeah, yep, yep. Heard that. Yep. Mary, Joseph, the angel.

Y. Yep, yep. Shepherds. Yep. Magi. Yep.

I remember all that part. Not that I don't appreciate it, but I just. It's all there. And for most of us, this is the truth. It's just there.

But I think we've. We have this high tendency when things are right in front of us to just kind of lose sight of how great they are. So a great example of this, a cousin of mine lives down in Oklahoma City, and she was coming up to Cincinnati for a conference, and so I went to the airport to pick her up. She hops in the car, and on the 15 minutes between the airport and my house, she can't stop talking about how beautiful it is here. The trees are so beautiful, the grass, the leaves, the hills.

This is so beautiful, Josh. You live in such a beautiful place. And I'm like, I've clearly lost sight of how beautiful it is to drive around here and and it just reminded me of this stuff that's outside of my window every single day that I'm taking for granted. And we do this with the Christmas story. So my hope today is we get a swift kick in the backside and it wakes us up a little bit to the glory and the wonder and the gratitude that comes in the Christmas story.

So I hope we can read this with fresh eyes and fresh appreciation and a renewed sense of wonderful read Luke 2, starting in verse 8. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. What if this is actually true?

What if there were actual people in an actual field at night watching over actual sheep and an actual angel showed up on the scene? By the way, that's what we believe. We believe that real people in a real place at a real time, that God erupts into reality with an angel. And this is scary. And then on top of that, we have a multitude of angels that show up.

This is insane. This is the most explosive moment that God, God has never shown up before like this, and he has never shown up since like this. And I think there is something huge for us to note in the details of what's going on here first is who God shows up to to proclaim this news to. He shows up, for some crazy reason, he chooses to make this giant announcement, this most explosive news to some shepherds. Why does he pull out all the stops for this group of guys?

Like he didn't show up to a place and they just happened to be there. He chose them to show up to. He pulls out all the stops. A messenger angel, a fun scavenger hunt to go find, a baby in swaddling cloths, God's glory shining in the night sky, a whole host of angels. No one else gets any sort of message like this in the Bible.

Not like this. This is significant and it must cause us to ask what's going on? Why did he choose to do this? Why so much pomp and flash and flare and powder for shepherds? In this account with the shepherds, God is showing us something about the way that he works, about his character and about who he wants to work with, what kind of people God wants to work with, and what looks like a crazy approach to go tell shepherds is actually perfectly aligned with God's way of doing things.

All throughout Scripture, Paul puts it this way in First Corinthians 1, starting in verse 27. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him. All throughout the Bible, God chooses to work through the unlikeliest of characters to accomplish his work.

And this moment is no different. In 1st century Judea, the only people who were considered to be lower class citizens than shepherds were those who had a disease called leprosy. Leprosy was a bacterial, a chronic bacterial infection that they didn't have a cure for at the time that would cause the nerve endings on appendages to go numb. And then those appendages would get cut, they would get infected, and the people wouldn't even feel it. And so they wouldn't even take care of it or pay attention to it.

And so they had literal limbs missing and skin infected on them. And they were required to walk and say out loud, unclean, unclean, unclean as they walked so that people would not get near them. They had to wear certain clothes and they had to live in like a place outside of town that was just for the lepers, called a leper colony. They were considered completely unclean and so they were the lowest rung of society. Just above them were the shepherds.

Shepherds were considered unclean, too, because they were with animals all day. They were stereotyped as thieves. They were ostracized and avoided. In fact, in the court of law, shepherds were not considered to be reliable witnesses because everyone viewed them as untrustworthy. And this is exactly who God purposely chose to bring the good news to.

I don't know what this is comparable to today. I'd be hesitant to name a group of people. Steelers fans come to mind.

Sorry, sorry. I don't even care. I just. It's a joke.

But I. Whoever this group of people is, this is crazy. This is crazy that God would choose them to bring this message to. Now. It's also interesting to me that this role of shepherd and the theme of shepherding shows up as a theme that's on repeat all throughout the Bible. Some of the most significant heroes of the faith, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, they were all shepherds.

And then Jesus himself had the audacity to say, I am the good shepherd. This is significant. And again, God's way is to use the lowly things to accomplish his work. This is the exact opposite of how the rest of the world functions. And just like Paul said, this is because at the end of the day, when amazing things happen, amazing things happen from lowly beginnings.

God's the only one that gets the glory. That's his plan. So just one angel shows up. At first, the Bible doesn't say this, but I think it's very likely that this is the angel Gabriel who showed up to Zechariah and to Mary who showed up in the Old Testament to Daniel. I think it's him.

Because it seems like anytime there's this messianic explosion that comes on the scene, God's like, gabriel, we got one for you. It's time to go. So I just imagine Gabriel for 700 years after he tells Daniel. He's like, can we go now? Can we go now?

Can we go now? Can we go now? God's like, it's time. I think that's fantastic. But the Bible doesn't say that.

We'll just assume that I might be wrong.

So he shows up on the scene, and then the angel. Let's see. Either way, this is the angel that says that he brings good news of great joy for all the people. Good news of great joy for all the people. These are really significant phrases when we break them down.

First, is this good news? In Greek, that word is euangelion. Got that? Euangelion, that's a good word. Sounds like an onomatopoeia or something.

But euangelion, this is the word that is most often translated the gospel or the good news in the New Testament. And this is the verb form of that word, which is literally gospeling or good newsing. And at this time in history, anyone who would have heard this word, euangelion, would immediately have it connected in their heads to a royal proclamation. Because in the Roman Empire, euangelion was the word that they used when someone was sent to announce a significant event of the empire. Events like a major battle being won or the birth of a new emperor.

And make no mistake, using this language would have absolutely stirred up this understanding from those who heard it that this is a political and military announcement, that this was the proclamation that a new king was born, that a major battle has been won. And it would have been viewed by many as a subversion of Roman power and rule. This is a huge statement, to use this language. It's no happenstance. Euangelion.

Now, the next phrase is great joy. Sounds pretty normal and nice. But the word here is the word cara, C H A R A. And it's a word that means way more than happiness or gladness. It's a word that goes beyond the physical situational happiness or excitement for something and goes into being rooted in spiritual realities.

It's actually anchored, too, in this idea of relief and victory and salvation. It echoes Old Testament prophecies like Isaiah 9, verse 3. It says, you have enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. So it is good news, you and Gallion, of great joy, Chara, for all the people.

All the people. This is good news for everyone. Between the fact that this phrase is the phrase that's used and the fact that it is brought and proclaimed to this particular audience, it's like the reality of this thing is being lived out in real time and the word and the definition are happening together. This is the proof that it's for everyone. Salvation through King Jesus is for all people in all places, from the lowliest echelons of society all the way up to the throne of Caesar himself.

And while we've talked about this before, this idea that the Gospel is wildly exclusive in the sense that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus, it's wildly inclusive in the sense that anyone who chooses to call on his name and name him as Lord over Their life. Anyone can be saved. Yes, even me. Even you. Even from whatever darkness and sin you have either taken part in or experienced.

Even that. It is wildly inclusive. The proclamation of the good news, of salvation is for everyone. And if there's any confusion on what and who this royal announcement is about, the angel uses very clear language that on this very day the Messiah, the one who's been promised for 700 years, has been born a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And then the angel gives them a sign.

This is their clue for the scavenger hunt. You'll find a baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger. And you're like, okay, a baby got that wrapped in cloths. This makes sense. Lying in a manger.

This does not add up. I think there's two things going on. One is this theme on repeat that we've been talking about, that God chooses lowly things to bring his glory into this world. But the second is, I think it's significant when they go looking for a baby in claws, they. They might find another baby that was born that day.

They are definitely not going to find another baby that's in a trough. And so I think this is super practical at some level. I think something really interesting that I found as I was studying this, and I don't want to make too much of this because it's not in the Bible, but there are historians and theologians that believe that there is something else going on here, that under the surface is a deeper reality. See, there was this area outside of the city of Jerusalem where the sheep in those fields would have been used for temple sacrifice. They were sacrificial lambs.

They were the sheep that would be brought and killed, and their blood would. Would temporarily cover the blood of the people. And so they say that they would. When the lambs were born, these sacrificial lambs, they would wrap them up in cloths to make sure that they would stay clean and stay unblemished, so that they would remain clean and unblemished for the holy sacrifice. Now, I think you see where I'm going here.

Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, the perfect sacrificial lamb. So you imagine that the angel could have been coming. If this is true, the angel could have been coming to proclaim to the very shepherds who are caring for the sacrificial lambs that the greater significant, long lasting, eternal, forever salvation for the people whose the lamb whose blood covers their sins forever is now being born. That's a beautiful picture. Either way, the Idea of Christ being the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world is on repeat.

We read about this Lamb who was slain in Revelation, chapter 5, that Jesus himself is the only one who can open the seals of the scroll and jumpstart God's redemption plan. So whether this is implied in this moment with the shepherds and angels, I'm not sure. But either way, this is a beautiful picture of Jesus. Well, then, after the angel gives the shepherd this sign, it says, suddenly with the angel was a multitude of the heavenly hosts. That word is the word plethos.

Now, this is the word that we get our word plethora from. And plethos is the same exact word when the disciples were fishing and Jesus says, throw the net on the other side of the boat, and they caught so many fish that it started to sink the boat. The amount of the fish that word was plethos. It's uncountable. It's the same amount that word is used when Jesus fed the 5,000.

We know that it was 5,000 men, but we don't know how many women and children were there. Jesus fed them. And that word plethos is to describe the number of people. It was so many, it was uncountable. And so now you go from one angel to a massive, uncountable group of angels.

And then that word heavenly hosts, that's a military term. It's a heavenly army. So a heavenly army of uncountable warrior angels shows up on the scene. Last week I said that the Christmas story is a giant declaration of war, an atomic bomb. This is that moment of declaration of war where the army of heaven shows up on the scene.

Now, next week we're going to read from Revelation chapter 12. This describes this battle scene, this heavenly war that's waging. But again, don't miss the explosive nature of what is happening here. And then it seems that just as suddenly as this plethora of angels shows up, they disappear. And then the shepherds immediately, hastily go to go find this baby.

Now, I have always wondered, how could they have found this baby? Like, yeah, I have in my mind Bethlehem, it's a big city. How do you go find a baby in the middle of the night in Bethlehem? And I thought, man, that would just be impossible at this point. The star's not in the sky.

That was the magi. They got led to where Jesus was. But we're not told how the shepherds find Jesus. And so I was reading up on this, and historians believe that there were only three to five Hundred people that lived in Bethlehem at this point in history. Three to five hundred people.

And then we read in Matthew chapter one that the Caesar Augustus made a proclamation that everybody had to go back to their hometown to register for taxes. And so they think there might be have been as many as a thousand people staying in the city at that point. But if you break down the numbers of 3 to 500, the regular number of homes, that would have to be there for six to eight people to live in a house, you're only talking about somewhere between 40 and 80 houses. That's just practical. Some of you care about practical things.

So there you go. That's what I found. So God breaks into the darkness of this world with this explosive announcement to the unlikeliest audience. And he proclaims that this is the beginning of salvation for all people. This is the good news of the arrival of Jesus.

This is why the Christmas story matters so much. And if this story has become mundane and ordinary and forgettable, like the hills and the trees and the grass outside my car window every single day, we got a problem. It's time to wake up and see this story for what it is to rekindle the wonder and the power and the gratitude that is inside of this Christmas story. So here's my challenge for us today. It's two things.

First, take a step to either light this spark for the first time or rekindle this fire. Blow on this coal of understanding the significance, the wonder, the awe and the gratitude of the Christmas story for this good news of great joy for all the people. You can do this by getting in the word surprise. This is my answer to almost everything. Get in the.

In the word. But before you do, here's what I would encourage you to do. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to wake up your spirit and rekindle and stir up your gratitude and your affection for Christ's arrival. And then read. Read the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two chapters of Luke.

That's where the. The Christmas story is. So pray and read. That's step one. The second challenge is this.

And it starts with praying, too. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit. Because if God's plan is to work through the lowly, there's something else going on here that we got to tap into. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show you someone who you or society would consider as outcast, marginalized, lowly, or ostracized.

And then ask him how he wants you to express this joy, this wonder, this gratitude, this good news to them. I think this is the time of year that we're all willing to write a check or we're all willing to drop off some cookies. We're all willing to buy gifts for kids that don't have very much. We're willing to go visit them in the hospital. We're willing to do all of these things, but most of us withhold the greatest possible gift that we could give to them, which is the good news.

So pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you one of those people and then be obedient to sharing the wonder and the good news of Christmas with them. Those are two things all of us can do this week. No matter how much money we have, no matter how old we are, no matter if we're married or have kids or don't or single or whatever, all of us can do both of those things this week. In Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus is teaching about the kingdom, this thing that he told us to seek first, the most important thing. And he's talking about what it will be like when he comes back and he tells this parable of the sheep and the goats.

Matthew 25, verse 31. When the Son of man, Jesus, comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and and he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me.

I was in prison and you came to visit me. And then the righteous will answer him, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothed you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply, truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

You did for me.

It's time that we wake up to the power of the story of Christmas good news of great joy forever. All people, all people.

And if you feel like an outcast today, if you feel like you've been on the fringe of society. Guess what? It's for you too. It's for you too. Will you pray with me?

King Jesus, your willingness to shed the glory of heaven just to come to earth is baffling.

That you would not only do that, you would come to earth as a baby, needing to be fed and changed, needing all of your needs taken care of by so much someone else. That you would shed the glory of heaven to choose that for us, wake us up to the wonder, to the beauty, to the gratitude of your story. And may you receive all the glory from our lives. In Jesus name, amen.