The Greatest Birth Announcement of All Time

Luke 2.8-20

The Birth of the King of Kings was not announced in Jerusalem, not to nobility or rulers of Israel but to shepherds on the job. The Birth of the Son of God was not announced to the Pharisees but to the Shepherds. The Birth of the Great High Priest was not announced to the Chief Priests in the temple to shepherds in the fields abiding watching oer their flocks by night.

What an announcement it was!

My good friend, Pastor Jerry Bonfiglio, reminded me this past week of a line from Art Alexander's devotional a few weeks ago, "It was our party before it was theirs!" And what a party it is!!!

1. This was in sync with the rest of what was happening with Jesus' Birth.
Joseph and Mary humble people from a humble town
Bethlehem, least among the clans of Judah

The Birth Of Jesus was overlooked by the world event of the census but not overshadowed! There may have been a massive movement of people on earth due to the decree of Caesar Augustus but what was happening in the skies that night and in Bethlehem among the animals infinitely surpassed it. It forever changed human history and eternity.

Christ's birth was overlooked by almost everyone save Mary, Joseph and a handful of shepherds...

Yet
2. This was the event on which time itself hinges.
B.C.

Compare Caesar Augustus' decree for the world and this announcement.
The parchments are gone which the decree was written on. The Roman Empire fell.
The Gospel records stand and the kingdom of Christ is an everlasting Kingdom. Those in heaven already.
John 21:25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
Luke wrote at the end of Jesus' ministry on earth, Acts 1:1-2 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

His Kingdom continues to move forward here on earth.

God's ways- confound the wise. Small and insignificant in beginnings growing everyday.

We measure time by Advent, this event!
Even unbelievers consent unconsciously every time they wrote the date!

3.The Most Humble of Men were Shepherds.

Not an desired position- youngest in the family David
1 Samuel 16:10-11 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

Despised by the Egyptians
Genesis 46:31-34 Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father’s household, “I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, ‘My brothers and my father’s household, who were living in the land of Canaan, have come to me. The men are shepherds; they tend livestock, and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own.’ When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”


Lowly tasks:
*The shepherd is an expert in care of each lamb.
*He had to often dig out a reservoir among a flowing stream.
*He would prepare the meadow for pasture, sticks, poisonous plants.
*The shepherd picks up the sheep when they are cast.
*The shepherd leads the flock.
*He kept the flock safe from danger.
*The shepherd would discipline the sheep when they needed it.
*He would take care of wounds and scratches and pests.

In Psalm 23 David proclaimed, "The LORD is my Shepherd!"
In John 10.11 Jesus proclaimed, "I am the Good Shepherd."

Good news of Great Joy: The Lamb of God, The Good Shepherd has come to lay Himself down for the sheep! Born that men may no longer die, born to free the sons of earth, born to give them second birth, Jesus Our Immanuel

Temple sacrifices- Some Bible scholars have suggested that these were temple shepherds, the ones who raised the lambs for the daily sacrifices and for the feasts.
I think in one way, more than all other people, the shepherds understood the severity and ugliness of sin. They would raise the little male lambs for a year. They would take them to the temple to be inspected by the priest at the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem. They would scrub them in the Pool of Bethesda. He would pick the best, the one without any defects and then bring it in to be sacrificed. That little lamb would die.
We think about how dogs and cats get attached to us. All dog and cat owners know what I am talking about, but sheep and the shepherds are even more attached. Little lambs were cared for by the shepherd in special ways. Then he had to give him up at such a young age.

A perfect little lamb killed for man's sin. It is a picture of what sin does. It kills. It takes our best. It wipes out the best among us. I think back over the years to the beautiful women I have known who allowed alcohol to get a grip on their lives and destroy them, making the broken and so unattractive. I think the shepherds must have been broken hearted people. This was good news in part because the old sacrificial system was being done away with.

I think back on the strong men, handsome and talented who allowed themselves to cross lines with a woman. Proverbs 23:27-28 for an adulterous woman is a deep pit,and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Like a bandit she lies in wait and multiplies the unfaithful among men.

Proverbs 2:16-19 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.

Proverbs 7:21-23 With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.

I cannot help think of those who tried to become rich by cheating others and ended up bankrupt in their lives and souls: Proverbs 1:19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;it takes away the life of those who get it.
I have seen people sell their souls for money only to be destroyed in the end.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

1 John 3:8 The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

The Shepherds:
Unclean under the law.

They went to Bethlehem.
They saw Jesus.
They spread the Word.
30 years before John came as a witness to the Light the shepherds were telling what they had heard and seen about Jesus.

Luke 2:16-18 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

John proclaimed just prior to Jesus' Baptism, "The Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world."

The priest would cut the jugular vein of the lamb and drain out the blood.
Jesus Our Great high Priest, the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world, the Son of God suffered an agonizing death as He carried the sins of the world.

We are to be like John and the shepherds, a witness to the Light, spreading the word concerning Jesus Christ. Go tell the story!