Joy Delivered

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Luke 2:8-20 

The shepherds in this passage could have been keepers of the Temple sheep.  We don't know but can speculate this because regular worship for Jews required sheep for sacrificing.   While being a shepherd was in one way a lowly and lonely job, if you were caring for the Temple sheep, it was a sacred job. 

You may recall that in the Old Testament God would present himself to men as a bright light.  Exodus 3 records the story of the brightly burning bush that was not consumed by the fire that burned it. Abraham was astounded by it and when he stepped closer a voice from the bush said, step back, you are on holy ground.  Ezekiel says he saw God surrounded by a wonderful brightness and ceaseless fire.  David in Psalm 18 writes, "God is surrounded with clouds which are outshone by His brightness."  According to Exodus 40, God "rested" by day as a cloud over the Jewish Tabernacle and His fire would hover over at night so all of Israel could see and know that their God was with them. 

In the New Testament we find the story of Saul's conversion.  God appears to him in such a bright light that the man is blinded.  Later his sight returns, his name is changed to Paul and the man who was once killing Jesus-followers started preaching to convert men and women to the Jesus way.  That is the power of light, of God, to change us. 

The Message translation of Luke 2:8 says, "There were shepherds...God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them."  It also says that the shepherds were scared by the light.  But next the angels spoke from the light and told them not to be afraid because something fantastic has just happened.  The angels said, "Today a Savior has been born to you.  He is the Messiah and the Lord."

The shepherds were Jews and in the Old Testament writings, savior meant, one who delivers people from harm and evil.  Messiah meant, anointed by God and anointing was a special process.  Lord means both one who is in control and one who is deity. 

Imagine being one of the shepherds.  You are working your regular night shift and the heavens open with a brilliant light and music show with angels telling you that something huge had just happened over in Bethlehem.  Well, rather than wonder if they had dreamed the whole thing, they ran as fast as they could to the place the angels had directed them to go to. 

Since they were probably thinking that this is all too wild and too good to be true, they were shocked to find the baby.  At that moment they became the very first missionaries.  They told everyone what they had heard and seen and that what the angels said turned out to be completely true.

Next we read that Mary didn't understand what was happening.  It says in Luke that Mary "pondered" what was happening to her.  This is a clue to us that while God is working in us and through us to bring about his purpose and his glory, we might not understand what is happening at the moment it is happening.  Like Mary, we need to stay calm, think, and keep trusting. 

Let us be the shepherds today.  Let us know that we have seen the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord.  We have seen the one who changed everything.  Now, what do we do?  We, "Glorify and praise God for everything we have seen and heard."  We leave here singing, "Joy to the world, the Lord has come!"

One Man's Catastrophic "No"

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Luke 2:1-12, Matthew 1:18-25 

Audio file is at the end of this text.

Bethlehem was called the City of David because King David ruled from there and Luke 2 tells us that Joseph was from the "house and linage of David." While Joseph did not live in Bethlehem, he must have owned property there which is why when the Romans demanded a census be taken, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem.  Had he not gone, his property could have been considered abandoned and thus confiscated by the Romans.  Some scholars believe that Mary also owned property in Bethlehem in her own right which is why she made the rough trip at a very inconvenient time for her. 

Others say that Mary went because the process of claiming one's property in the census would take some amount of time that could not be predicted and she didn't want to be separated from her husband when the baby came.  Others comment that Mary was probably happy to get out of town with her husband and away from the mean neighbors who assumed that she and Joseph had been intimate and that they had to get married.  Giving birth out of town then could have been a psychological relief.   

Imagine Joseph's courage.  He was probably around 20 years old and he had to stand up to the community and face down the people who thought that Mary and whoever it was who made her pregnant should be stoned.  That was Jewish law.  Leviticus 20 lists the laws about sex outside of marriage and the traditional punishment was death by stoning. So instead of renouncing Mary and unwinding the engagement when she told him she was pregnant, he stuck by her.  He wanted to believe her when she said that an angel had told her that she was to give birth to the Son of God.

Matthew 1:18 tells us that God also came to Joseph in a dream and corroborated Mary's story.  This must have been when Joseph really trusted.  It was personal with him now.  He had heard from God and trusted God for himself and he no longer had to rely on another person's experience with God.  He no longer had to depend on Mary's story, he could throw in with God.

These young people did not allow the circumstances to determine their faith.  They faced the bullying crowd and their faith in God filled them with courage.  Mary said, "yes" to God and Joseph said, "yes" to God while then and now so many say, "No."  Because two young Jews trusted God, the whole world changed.

When the couple arrived in Bethlehem Joseph knocked on doors to find a room for the night.   The could have paid for a decent hotel room because we know they were land owners and not asking for charity.  However, the town was packed due to the census so the now infamous innkeeper who sent them to his stable is the one I want you to think about.  In the search for a room surely others had already rejected the holy couple but this guy came up with an OK solution so he made it into the story.

What might have happened had the innkeeper made room in his home for the couple?  His whole life would have changed.  He would have been calling up his friends and telling them, "Hey come quick, God is visiting in my home!  I'm cooking up a fresh pot of gumbo."  Instead, the innkeeper said he had no room, only a stable they could use.

God was born anyway.  God comes in spite of us and here we witness one man's catastrophic "No." Because he said, "No," the innkeeper missed it all.  Will you miss it all?  God's looking for a room.  He is knocking on your heart and asking, "Will you let me in?"  

12 18 2011 by Robby4747 on Mixcloud