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The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20
What a night that must have been for this group of shepherds. They went from what was going to be an uneventful night in the fields to an encounter with angels; from looking over a bunch of sheep to gawking at an infant with divine implications; from being virtually unknown to being the talk of the town.
We don’t know how long they were gone. But from the story in Luke we can surmise at least three things. First of all, they hung around long enough for everyone to hear their story. We are told that everyone was amazed at what this group of men told them about the babe in the manger. Once you have an encounter with God you can’t keep quiet.
You may have experienced this. A friend, or family member finds Jesus and is delivered from a life of addiction, fear, worry or whatever. Then they find Jesus and all they ever talk about is Jesus. Every conversation is an opportunity to tell about what they are learning from Jesus. You may even be amazed at how they can turn every life experience into at God-experience. Once you have a true encounter with the Messiah you can’t keep quiet.
The second thing we can see is that they went back to what they were doing. To the best of our knowledge none of them wrote a book and went on a speaking circuit. None of them formed first church of the hillside to focus on the very spot where the angels appeared. They went back into the hills to do what they did best…shepherd sheep. Sometimes God calls us to move on from what we are doing to do something new, something exciting, something noteworthy. And sometimes he calls us to go back to the hills and shepherd sheep.
The third thing I see is that they went back changed. On the outside they were still a bunch of men guarding and guiding sheep. On the inside they were worshippers of the almighty God. On the outside they called out to the sheep to move on to a new field. On the inside they were praising God for Messiah.
I’d love to have sat around the campfires of those men in the future. I’m guessing the conversation no longer centered around the woes and evils of the Roman Empire. I’m guessing they spend more time in prayer and remembering the words of the prophets than they did gossiping about the latest news from town. When you meet the Messiah you live life changed.
May you have a fresh encounter with Messiah this Christmas. Whether you’ve been walking with him for years or are new to the family advent is a time to refresh our love for him.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:10-11
It’s interesting how many times God starts out his messages to mankind with ‘Do Not Be Afraid’ in some form or other. His first thoughts of us are comfort.
It was, no doubt, a dark, cold night on the hillsides outside Bethlehem. For the shepherds it was just another night of taking turns watching for predators, hearing the rustling and snoring of sheep and gathering around the fire to keep warm.
These men were at the bottom of the sociological food chain, so to speak. Nothing much happened in their lives that would elicit any kind of respect from the townspeople. They had nothing to offer and no real hope of doing anything significant in their lives.
Not only was the hillside they sat on dark, life was dark. The Roman oppression seemed to be growing. Taxes and other demands from the Caesar in Rome were causing more turmoil among the Jews, and some had died trying to free the land of the Romans.
Life was hard. Life was hopeless. So much so that it seemed God himself had abandoned them. It had been 400 years since a prophet came forward with ‘Thus saith the Lord’. Would they ever be free again? Would God ever speak again or had they rejected him for too long? Does he even exist?
And what about Messiah? Will he ever come to free his people as the prophets of old foretold? So many questions. So few answers. So little hope. Hope seemed to be like the slowly dying campfire they sat around that night.
Suddenly a bright light exploded in the sky above them. Ever had a bright light shine in your eyes when you sat in darkness? I’m guessing you can multiply that by 1000’s. Eyes squinting to make out a form. Fear over what was out there. Then wonder as their eyes adjusted to the light and they made out the form of an angel…not just one be many angels.
‘Don’t be afraid?’ Right, because this happens all the time. Then the message. Rather than fear over the darkness, celebrate joy of a new light. Messiah has come.
I wonder if the words of Isaiah and others came to mind when they heard the name ‘Messiah’. The one come to deliver. The one come to heal. The one come to free you. That is good news.
Proverbs 13:12 says, ”Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.“ It’s easy to lose hope when promises and dreams are delayed and out of our control. But when those hopes are realized they become for us a tree of life, a tree of refreshing, great joy for those who put their hope in God.
This Christmas, in whatever dark place you find yourself, rejoice in the hope of the babe in the manger.
”Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.“ Psalms 51:12
We’ve been talking about joy-killers this week. Those things in our lives that can take away, or appear to take away the joy promised to us through the birth of Jesus.
Joy-killers can be a result of the actions of others, or natural things that happen in life such as life transitions, grief over the loss of a loved one, natural disasters, etc.
While actions against us, or those actions we perceive are against us, can rob us of joy, I think one of the hardest joy-killers to deal with are the self-inflicted ones. It’s relatively easy to point the finger at others and play the victim. It’s easy to blame Mother Nature and say, ‘Woe is me’. But what about those times when you look in the mirror and realize the person you see is both the perpetrator and the victim? Then what?
That was the decision King David faced. His enemies were largely defeated. He was popular among the people. And God had a nickname for him, ‘A man after my own heart.’ Imagine that! The God of all creation looking down on you and seeing someone so in tune with His heart that he calls him out. God says, ‘HUGE SHOUT OUT to my buddy Dave. He’s got it all together. He knows what I like and he does it!’
Pretty cool, right? Not so fast. David had a heart for God but he also had a heart for pleasure and sometimes pleasure took the place of God.
Can you relate? Oh, maybe you didn’t have an affair and murder one of your friends like David did. Maybe you didn’t see your daughter raped and ignore it. But what about the other ways we choose satisfaction over surrender?
Those times we gossip. The times we lie and then lie to cover up that lie, and then lie again…well, you know the picture. The times we harbor wrongs committed. The times we hang on to judgmental attitudes.
Surrender brings joy, satisfaction (in the human sense) destroys joy. I love David’s honesty in Psalms 51:12, ”Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.“
David knew his limitations. David knew how easy it is to sacrifice surrender for satisfaction. But David also knew the joy that comes from total surrender to God’s ways. Easy? Definitely not. Worth it? Beyond description. Available? That’s grace.
The joy of Christmas is much more than a babe in a manger. It’s being totally surrendered to God through the power of the Holy Spirit, because of the babe in the manger.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
What’s robbing you of your joy? I love the story of Christmas and all it’s plots that we may miss. Take Mary for instance. She was a young teenager in an obscure town. Her only hope for claim to fame would be marrying the man of her dreams.
Then the angel showed up and everything changed. She found out she was pregnant, but not by Joseph, by the Holy Spirit. From that point forward her life would never be the same. Yet what amazes me is her attitude. She doesn’t scoff in unbelief. She doesn’t argue with God about His decision. She sings a new song of praise and joy!
Too often we allow things in our lives to rob us of joy. Unmet expectations, criticism, negative self-talk, failure and more can take away the joy God wants us to have.
In Paul’s letter to the Roman believers he prays that they (and us) would experience joy and peace. Simply stated, peace is that attitude we have about what’s going on around us. We can be full of fear or faith, we can act in courage or hide in despair, we can move forward or slip back to where we were.
Joy on the other hand is an attitude of the heart. Peace relates to the external, joy empowers the internal. So, where to we get joy? When life goes south, when those you trusted abandon you, when life deals you a critical blow it’s hard to have joy in your own strength.
You can’t just decide to be joyful. But that’s where God comes in through the power of Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is control of our minds our focus changes from despair to joy.
Our enemy Satan works overtime to find ways to kill our joy. He knows we are forgiven. He knows we will be in heaven someday if we have accepted Jesus. He can’t change our destiny, but he can change our outlook if we let him.
Don’t allow life circumstances to kill your joy. God’s Holy Spirit is ready to fill you with joy, but not just any joy, joy overflowing. Imagine that. By relying on the Holy Spirit you overflow with joy and when you do some of that joy will touch those around you.
For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. Ephesians 2:14 NLT
Without Christmas there would be no Easter. Without sacrifice there can be no forgiveness. Without love, there can be no unity. Without unity there can be no peace.
Hours before Jesus was brutally murdered he knelt in the garden to pray. He prayed for strength for the upcoming test of endurance. He prayed for a way out. He prayed for the unity of his followers.
He could have prayed for our courage since we would experience hatred because of his name and even be killed because we were his followers. But he didn’t. He prayed for unity.
It’s important to remember that unity does not mean uniformity. He never asked that we would think alike, act alike, speak alike and like all the same things. In fact, one of his followers, the Apostle Paul, says that divisions among us can be useful for the health of the body (1 Corinthians 11:19).
Jesus prayed for us to be unified because he knew the Father was a God of creativity. While we are all made in his image, we are certainly different from one another! How boring would life be if everything in nature was green. The grass, the water, the sky, the rocks the trees?
God knew what he was doing when he created us in his image and consequently with a creative component. Ironically, perhaps, it’s our differences that make unity beautiful. I like to think of unity in the way illustrated by an orchestra. Each instrument playing its part but in harmony with those around it.
Jews and gentiles? Gay and Straight? Black or white? Republican or Democrat? The body of Christ is made up of all of these. The unifying factor isn’t heritage or denomination or ethnicity or orientation. The unifying factor is Jesus. The result is peace on earth and goodwill to those in whose God finds favor.
Jesus came to be the example of how we can live in unity. His birth in the manger was to be one with us. His death and resurrection destroyed the walls of hostility so that, different as we are, we can live in solidarity because of him. Unity is not uniformity, but unity is peace and peace is power.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 