Shepherds Emotions

Emotions of Shepherds • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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Good morning everyone. It is so good to see you all and get to worship with you all together this morning……Dismiss kids……Welcome online extended family.

So we have been in a series over the last couple of weeks where we have started to focus on emotions. We started doing that because frankly there are so many emotions that hang us all up around Christmas and I wanted to give you guys all the tools you needed in order to truly worship the Lord and not be stuck in a place you don’t want to be. So, a few weeks ago we talked and we learned about what emotions are. Actually, I gave us a shared vocabulary because it is important to speak the same language. So, what I said is that Emotions are subjective feelings, that can be either positive or negative, and subject to change. Thats easy enough…Now, we can start to understand the emotions are in fact subjective, right. That means that what you feel about a certain situation I might not feel about a certain situation. Our emotions are largely dictated by our lived experiences and beliefs. That is why emotions are subjective and not objective. Facts, are objective and so we need to be aware of any facts surrounding a situation, but emotions are different. You see, they may be informed by facts, but they are then filtered through your lived experiences, beliefs, and circumstances, which is why emotions are subjective. Here’s the deal though…and this is really important. Emotions are not meant to control, but to be controlled …So if you find yourself in a situation and your emotions are driving every decision you are making, then that is a situation you need to regain control of….and that is what we are talking about over the course of this series. How can we regain control of our emotions when we feel like we are drowning in the midst of all of the emotions that are swirling around us everyday…especially leading up to Christmas and the stress of family and trying to make everything nice for everyone. It is my hope that as we look at the Emotions of Christmas that we will able to regain that control and refocus our hearts and minds on the Lord this Christmas season.

Well last week we saw the emotions of Herod. Herod was a king who was half Jewish, but had turned his back on the Jewish search for the Messiah. Later we are going to look at the Magi, that will happen on New Years, but we will look at how these men from outside of Israel and how they were searching for the coming Messiah…For today I want us to look at a very special group of men who were just busy doing their job…but they had an amazing first encounter with the man who would change the world. Today, I we are going to look at

The Emotions of the Shepherds

In order to look at these men we will need to read about these men, so go ahead and open your Bibles to Luke ch. 2 so that you can be ready for when we read about the shepherds in a minute. Before we read about this specific event though, I want to give you a little context as to who these shepherds were. Now, you will want to pay attention to this, because it is pretty amazing. I want to read this story though before I get to far, so let’s go ahead and open up to

Luke 2:8–20 ESV

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 for 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 host 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, 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.

Now, I have been fascinated by Biblical geography for the last 7-8 years. Prior to that, to be honest, I didn’t think there was anything that geography would teach me about Biblical truth. Boy was I wrong! Let me explain…We just read this story that I know many of you have read over and over again. You have read and you have been encouraged by the faithful shepherds that were simply hanging out in the fields and the angels came and sang them a song and they went to Bethlehem and saw Jesus as a baby…The first men to worship Jesus as the new born king. Wow…that is amazing isn’t it. I mean this is such an encouraging story of these men who simply heard about Jesus being born and went to worship him. We could end it there, and be happy with this story. But what if there is more that we can understand by paying attention to geography?

Let me tell you about Bethlehem first of all…

The first mention of Bethlehem in Scripture is in Genesis 35:19–21 as the site of Rachel’s burial. Rachel was the wife of Jacob, one of the patriarchs in the lineage of Jesus, and her name means “ewe”—a lamb or sheep. This passage also tells us that Rachel was buried at Migdal Eder—a Hebrew term translated as “tower of the flock.” According to Jewish history, it was at Migdal Eder in Bethlehem that unblemished firstborn male lambs were born, wrapped in cloths, and brought to Jerusalem as Passover sacrifices in the temple—an extraordinary foreshadowing of the Lamb of God to come, isn’t it…That isn’t all though…

You see, later in Scripture, the prophet Micah announced that to the “tower of the flock” would come a king (Micah 4:8)—the one true King Jesus, who was first introduced to the world by John the Baptist as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wrapped in cloths, and eventually brought to Jerusalem during Passover, where he “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins” (Heb. 10:12)—just like those unblemished male lambs wrapped in cloths and brought to Jerusalem for sacrifice from Migdal Eder in Bethlehem. Jerusalem, and Bethlehem are only about 6 miles apart from each other, so this is not that difficult of a task for the shepherds. Now, that is the geography of where they are, and why is it so important.

So, the shepherds that the angels of the Lord came to…These are the shepherds that are searching for the unblemished lambs to serve as a sacrifice for sins. Their whole job is to find the perfect lambs to take to the temple…Now, these shepherds who were accustomed to preparing lambs which symbolically represented the Messiah in their cleanliness, perfection, and their sacrifice on the altar of the temple. These guys would have talked about the Messiah and what they were looking for frequently. Maybe they have brought bad lambs to the temple before, and have had to deal with having imperfect flocks. Now, they are back out at the fields where they were keeping their flocks, the same flocks that were used in the temple for the sacrifice.

So, that’s alot of geography, but what about the emotions of the shepherds…what are they feeling, and how do they process that, and what can we learn about ourselves and how to deal with our own emotions from reading about the shepherds? Well, first of all we see that The shepherds were filled with fear. Actually, the more accurate description is that they were filled with a great fear…In other words, they were terrified at what was going on…They didn’t expect what just happened, they didn’t understand what was going on did they? Now we saw a similar emotion from Herod last week. We saw that Herod was troubled which we understand to mean that Herod was terrified. Now we have a similar emotion with the shepherds, but it is different. What makes their emotions different? What is different about Herod and the Shepherds? Well, Herod wasn’t looking for Jesus…the Shepherds were…so what are they going to do, are they going to use that fear to sin…or are they going to use that fear to worship? Well, we read about that and it seems that while the shepherds were terrified because of what they have just seen, they listened to the information that was given to them. They listened to the Gospel, the good news, from the Angel of the Lord and they took that to the Lord in worship.

Can you imagine for a moment what the shepherds were experiencing. Knowing the context of what the job of these shepherds was, do you think they stayed in fear? Absolutely not. Now I want to remind you about something. This is not a normal thing that is happening in this area, or really in any area. At this time, God has been silent for approximately 400 years, there have been no angelic moments that these men would have every heard of from a living person that actually experienced them. Maybe they are looking at each other like “hey, are you seeing this…what is going on…what was in that soup you made tonight…” They were experiencing shock, amazement, astonishment, surprise and fear all at one time. Here is what i love though. You see, Herod experienced fear that led to sinful anger. The shepherds experienced fear that led to excitement.The Messiah they have been searching for and waiting for had finally been announced…to them…

So what did they do with this information? They left immediately…you see when the Gospel is proclaimed, it requires an immediate response.

Sometimes, many times, that response is a rejection of the Gospel…sometimes, that response is worship…That is what the shepherds chose to do with their emotions. Do you know what the result was of them choosing to control their fear and choose to worship the Lord instead of worshiping themselves? Well, they got to see what happened! So what did happen…

The Setting of the Nativity…

When they got there and saw Jesus, maybe they even got there soon enough to have witnessed his birth or the screams of labor as they came on the scene. Then, they told everyone what they were told by the angel of the Lord. Now, here is where I am going to have to break your hearts a little bit. I want to help you form a more realistic picture of the birth of Christ. You see, there has been a lot of research and understanding over the years about the nativity scene. Just like we can learn much from geography, we can learn from archeology as well. So, alot of our beliefs about the Nativity actually comes from artistic interpretations, and conversations, but not necessarily reality. So, I want to share with you what things would have actually looked like in that time. There are things that we know from an archeological perspective as well as a Scriptural perspective. When we begin to marry these two we can see some pretty cool things.

Earlier I told you a little about Bethlehem, now let’s be more specific about the Nativity. Here is what we know…there was no room in the inn. We know Jesus was born in the manger, or feeding trough. So from that the picture we keep with us is that the inn keeper was out of rooms, and so he sent them to the stable. That’s a pretty clear picture. Over the years it was been speculated that the stable, was actually a cave that was carved out of a hill. That would be like us going to Motel 6 and there not being any rooms so they said we can sleep in the garage.

Well, that is likely not exactly what has taken place. The term for inn is actually better translated as guest room. Remember that there is a census in place currently and everyone from distant family would have been traveling to Bethlehem for this census. The family of Joseph that still lives there only has so much space. Actually they would have had a guest room up top and that room was apparently filled up with other family members. Therefore, the only space available is the space where the animals are being kept. You should also know that the place where the animals are being kept is not a barn out back. No, in this time period when space was at a premium for these towns, they would have constructed their homes in multi levels and the bottom level would be the level where the animals would come in at night in order to protect them from predators. It is easy for a predator to jump a fence, it is not easy for a predator to get into a home. So, the stable where Mary and Jospeh are is likely the bottom floor of the family home , with all of the family upstairs.

So, with that in mind, picture the scenario where they are on the bottom floor of the house with the other women of the house that were helping to deliver this child. Maybe by the time the shepherds got there Joseph is down with Mary…maybe not. Then, they told all of these people what they saw. Everyone in the family, everyone that has heard the screams of a mother giving birth has just been told that they shepherds saw an angel that just told them

“for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ‘This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’” Now all of Jospeh’s family has heard that Jesus is the Messiah. They have been told that Jesus is the messiah and that he will be born and will be wrapped in cloths and that he will be laid in a manger…while they are looking at Jesus who is laying in a manger, wrapped in cloths.

Now everyone is amazed just like the shepherd were. Then, they leave the house where Jesus is and they are excited and are glorifying and praising God for everything. They have been searching for perfect lambs for sacrifice, and now they have seen the birth (and participated) in the birth of THE PERFECT LAMB for sacrifice.

The shepherds, they had no option but to tell everyone they have seen about this. They have no option but to not allow anyone in Bethlehem, maybe even up in Jerusalem about what they have seen and experienced. Maybe some will believe, likely many will think they are crazy…but that doesn’t matter. They tell others, because they know it’s true! I have had some really sad conversation with some other pastors in the past. In the coarse of those conversation many reveal that they do not actually believe the Bible is true. They believe that God exist, but that the stories of Scriptures are just moral teachings and not actual historical facts. That Jesus never actually died and rose again. Then they told me that I had a narrow view of Scripture if I believe that this book is actually true. I’m told that one thing can happen and prove it all wrong. I agreed, but said that one thing will never happen because it’s actually true!

Some of you here today have been searching for hope in your situation. Some of you have been searching for a long time and you have tried all kinds of things to try and find that hope that you simply have been unable to find because you stopped looking for the Messiah. Some of you are so busy focusing on fear over your situation that you are unable to see Jesus as the perfect lamb that came to be sacrificed. This morning I want to encourage you to return your focus to Christ and take your eyes off of self. You see, what I love about this story is that the shepherds had the opportunity to search for lambs, for the substitutes of Christ. Then they had the opportunity to participate in the birth of the promised Messiah, the ultimate lamb. They were excited because they had the opportunity to participate in Christ life. Are you excited to have Christ participate in your life? Are you excited enough about what you have seen and heard and experienced to feel like you just have no other option but to tell everyone you know that Jesus is here…that the long awaited savior of the world has come!

Lastly, what will you do with your fear this morning? Last week we saw how Harod turned fear into anger…this week we see how the shepherds turn fear into worship…which will you follow this morning? The deciding factor is the focus of each individual. Harod was focused on himself, while the shepherds were focused on Christ. Where is your focus this morning?

Let’s pray (pray that God reveals any area of fear that has turned to anger and softens our hearts to be able to repent and refocus on Christ this morning)

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