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Luke 2:8-20

The first Christmas Message was…

For the Faithful not the Famous v.8.

The gospel is for all people!  Who would you get to announce the greatest news of all time?  Not the outcast!  Expect the Unexpected!

Shepherds although needed and are used as a biblically example for care, they had a hard time maintaining religious purity as the Pharisees defined it. They couldn’t keep the Sabbath because sheep need constant protection. Shepherds spent most of their time in the fields away from society and had no influence to speak of. In modern terms they were blue-collar workers largely unnoticed by those in power. Shepherds were in the lower classes of society.  So why did God announce to the shepherds the King of kings is here?  God is breaking the mold of the expected and ushering in the unexpected, Bethlehem was insignificant, yet God planned it for the King’s birth to be there.  A manger, while meager, this is what He wanted.  God is showing that He wishes to be the Savior to all people.  Jesus is a champion of the broken hearted, in fact you don’t realize you need a savior until you realize you’re a sinner.  You become broken about your condition of sin.  It’s not the healthy that need a hospital, it’s the sick.    

John McArthur says this about the Shepherds.  “They were near the bottom of the social ladder.  They were uneducated and unskilled, increasingly viewed in the post- New Testament era as dishonest, unreliable, unsavory characters, so much so that they were not allowed to testify in court.”

Remember Abraham, Jacob, Moses, King David, Amos were all shepherds!

Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”

The religious leaders of that day didn’t think they were broken.  It is not until you realize just how desperate you are for Christ.  What did Jesus tell us in the Beatitudes?

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

 

For the Fearful to Turn to Fullness of Joy vv. 9-10.

Hebrews 2:14-15

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.”

 

For the Few who would Further His Glory vv. 15-20

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1 Corinthians 1:27-31

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being[a] might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him[b] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”