Christmas Eve Sermon

Merry Christmas Everyone!

As I was preparing for my Christmas Eve Children's Sermon for this year, I found the one from last year.  I really enjoyed thinking about the importance of shepherds in God's revelation of Himself to us so I thought I would post the sermon.  Remember: it is a children's sermon!  

Here we are: it is Christmas Eve... the time we celebrate the greatest gift from God – Jesus our Saviour!  Now on such a special evening we could talk about so many interesting and wonderful things:

We could talk about Mary: and how this young woman became the mother of God’s Son
We could talk about Joseph: who took a very pregnant Mary to Bethlehem to be counted with his family
We could talk about the angel: who appeared in the night sky proclaiming “good news of great joy for all people.”

But... they are not going to be our focus today – as important as they are all.
This Christmas Eve, I want to talk about some very ordinary people. Men who were just living their lives, doing their job, out in the fields at night when all of a sudden their lives were interrupted...
Do you know who I am talking about? I can give you a hint, they were watching sheep.
The shepherds! Yes.

The shepherds are important for many reasons. Tonight I want to propose three:

1. For the first reason that shepherds are so important, we need to go back into the history of Israel... back into the Old Testament. And here is reason #1: There are many Famous Shepherds in God’s Family. I don’t mean famous as in YouTubers or hockey players today – famous for what they did and perhaps really popular or well known for a time. I mean famous because they are known by those who worship the LORD because of their important role in God’s story. They are so important that they are written about in the Bible. That’s how we know about them.

Through the history of the people of God, God has called certain shepherds to know Him and to lead His people. In fact, many of the fathers of our faith were shepherds or owner of sheep and livestock.

Abraham: had vast flocks. One night God took him outside and said, “Look toward heaven and count the stars.... so shall your descendants be.” 
Abraham was the grandfather of Jacob from who the whole people of Israel come.

Moses: was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro when God appeared to him in a burning bush and told him that God was sending Moses to Pharoah to free God’s people. 
Moses lead the people out of Egypt and was the one through whom God gave the 10 commandments.

David was out in the field keeping the sheep when Samuel told his Dad Jesse to send for him. When David came home he was anointed – had oil poured over his head - for God chose him to be the next king. 
It is from David’s line that the promised Messiah was to come.
Abraham, Moses, and David: these shepherds all received God’s word to them and through them salvation history moved along.

2. The second reason that shepherds are so important is that God’s people relate to God as their shepherd.

Throughout the Bible, God’s people have understood the Lord to be like a shepherd to them: protecting them, caring for them, and feeding them. God is the shepherd and the people are the sheep.

Psalm 23: is well known for this. It starts: The Lord is my Shepherd
There are many other references to God as shepherd and the prophets spoke of the Messiah coming and being like a shepherd to God’s people and then baby Jesus (the little baby we are so happy to celebrate tonight) when he was all grown up, he identified with this image of God as Shepherd and said “I am the Good Shepherd”.

3. And now we have our third reason. The shepherds are the first people to meet the newborn King. How did it happen?

It was night time and the shepherds were out in the field – in fact they lived out there with their sheep. So they were just living their lives, doing their jobs when a terrifying thing happened: an angel of the Lord stood before them and God’s glory shone around them.

Remember, no electricity back then. They have never seen streetlights nevermind something so spectacular as fireworks. So whatever God’s glory shining was like, it must have been awesome. And not only that...there was an angel in front of them. Of course they were afraid.

And what did the angel say, “Do not be afraid:” I have good news ....news of great joy that is for everyone... “to you is born this day in the city of David, a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
And the angel didn’t just leave it there... the angel went on to say that they would be able to find the baby. They were told that “you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” A manger is the place where animals feed. These shepherds didn’t even have to go into a house to find this baby. They just needed to search through the barns in Bethlehem.

And did they go? Yes they did! But first they were witnesses to a large group of angels praising God. When the angels left them they hurried into Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and the baby.

The baby! The Saviour was born in the city of the shepherd king, David.
The baby! The Messiah – had come! The one who would feed his flock like a shepherd.

These ordinary men doing an ordinary job represent so much to us. They bring with them the history of God’s people who have been waiting for the Saviour and they remind us of the Lord’s relationship with His people: like a shepherd with sheep. But they don’t just represent something – they were somebodies. These shepherds were people who got to see the baby Jesus.
And once they saw the baby, they started to talk:
- they told others what they had been told about the child – they were the people to share the good news of the Saviour coming into the world
- and they talked to God – give praise and glory to God for all they had heard and seen.

Wow! What a night those shepherds had!! They meet Jesus: Saviour, Messiah and Lord.