Day 17, The Christmas Story, The Shepherds

8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”


As Mary and Joseph were alone and taking in the wonder of what had happened in the past few hours, they held this newborn baby boy and enjoyed the warmth of the moments that are the first treasured times with your child. A calmness comes over a woman who has her new baby in her arms. I can say, outside of the peace that God himself gives, there is no other peace quite like it for a woman. I would say that humanly, the absolute most contented times I remember in my life are those holding my newborn children. Everything feels like it is absolutely right with the world, that you are right where you were made to be – holding this tiny new life, finally knowing what everybody else meant when they tried to describe the love you would feel for this child. You nodded and smiled, but you didn’t really understand the depth of what they meant until you experienced it for yourself.

Meanwhile, surrounding the town where they are staying, we see a fourth angelic visitation take place in this story, the angel’s visit to the boys and men tending sheep on the night watch that evening around Bethlehem. Dark night, maybe it was overcast, maybe there was some moonlight. They could see flickers of light from the buildings in town. But there in their field were only themselves, and their flock of sheep. I don’t know why, but I’m beginning to find it slightly funny that “boom”, an angel is standing in front of your face out of nowhere and he keeps saying “don’t be afraid!”. If I was out in a field alone in the middle of the night in extreme darkness, and all of a sudden a being immediately just burst into the scene before my eyes, I think smelling salts would be in order, not just a “do not be afraid”. But nevertheless, the angel of the Lord said it. Is there any doubt in your minds by now that if you ever see an angel, he’ll probably say that to you before you faint?

So, once the shepherds regained their composure, they realized it wasn’t dark anymore! There was a radiance, a glow all around them. The really neat thing about all these angelic visitations in this story is that not one of these people questioned that an angel was visiting them. They got scared, but nobody disbelieved that there was an angel there with them. I think in our culture, it would be much harder to convince anyone that we just saw into the spirit realm. However, I truly believe the further that time progresses, the more we will begin to see supernatural things and see into the spirit world. We will be returned to a place of belief. The shepherds believed and they listened to what was being told to them.

“I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”


The unlikeliness of the announcement can’t be missed here. God didn’t send the angels to the authorities, the pharisees, the town administrator, the governor, or any king or other ruler. The first place he wanted to tell that his son had arrived was a bunch of shepherds. Everything he has done in this story is unlikely (according to our human understanding), but when looking at the bigger picture it all makes perfect sense. Of course, he would come to the lowly and humble. Of course, he would ask these shepherd boys to come see one like them, a shepherd, the shepherd of their people. Their savior. They were the first to be told that the prophecy of their people had been filled just a short distance from where they stood that very night. There was nothing to merit such a visit to this unlikely audience, except that God delights in humility, in humbling himself to come here, to be born in the nastiest, dirtiest, place. To reaching as far down as it took to get to even the absolute lowest person in our eyes. To be born into the exact stuff he came to set us free from. Filth and dirt, darkness, coldness, aloneness, social prejudices, poverty, oppression... He didn’t just come to earth, he came down as far as one could come, so much so that it would be a very difficult thing for his own people to accept that he was their King, their Messiah. It didn’t fit their fairytale dream of how they decided it would be once he showed up. It didn’t this night, and it never would. He was pure and innocent and holy, yet everybody was so offended by him. He would become a stone to cause many people to stumble. But not the shepherds – not tonight. God chose to announce the Shepherd of his people to these shepherds. He was now one of them, a shepherd.

13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”


Suddenly, the shepherds saw something even more amazing than one angel in front of them, they saw a host, it says they saw the ARMIES of heaven praising God. Now THAT would be an overwhelming sight. I believe their eyes were opened into the spirit realm. They saw what was going on in the heavenly realm. They saw armies, not wimpy little thin blonde metrosexual angels as we so often see portrayed in pictures and movies. They saw warriors. (You men reading this, think "Gladiator" or "300"). They saw the massive strength of the heavenly host, all humbly praising their commander, consumed in total worship of God at that moment. They were witnessing a worship service, church, heaven-style. They were witnessing what every member of heaven was experiencing at that moment. They were given an open window to watch it. A scene no one could ever forget in their lifetime. And very few since that time have been privileged to see into the worship that surrounds the throne of God. Stephen, Paul, and John are a few.

And then, as soon as it had come, it was gone. The glowing light around them was gone and the night was again black around them and they could only hear the bleating of the sheep around them. (I’m thinking the sheep weren’t able to take all this in, because knowing how stupid and afraid sheep are, they would have run away while the shepherds weren’t watching them, scared to death. Thank goodness they weren't shepherding fainting goats.)

15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”


And it is here we will stop for the weekend. Tomorrow will be the last Sunday before Christmas, and I truly do hope for you it is the most meaningful Sunday that you have experienced this whole year of 2009. I hope that more than ever, you identify with this story in such a personal way that it becomes more than just The Christmas Story. I would also encourage you to watch the movie that came out last year entitled “The Nativity”. It is an amazing Biblically-based movie that just totally brought to life the characters of these events for me, and I can’t wait to watch it again this year! When Perry and I left the theatre last year, we were both in tears and speechless because it was so real to us. I know if you watch Elf, Christmas Vacation, Four Christmases, The Family Stone, The Santa Clause, The Grinch, etc., etc., that you can carve out the time to watch the one movie that has been out recently that will encourage you in your faith this Christmas!! Buy it, rent it or borrow it. It is showing on cable TV all the time right now. I want to encourage you to carve out quiet time this week with God and with your family. A time to hear in your mind and see in your mind what these shepherds must have witnessed. These next five days are the last five of this season to truly deeply reflect on why Jesus came to you. What he did by coming to you.

Before ending, I want to share this true story with you. As I said before, I believe in these coming days, we will be allowed to see more and more into this spirit world that the shepherds saw into. Into things that are happening but that with our human eyes we can’t see. I have an awesome first-hand account from my mother-in-law, who was watching over her unconscious sister in hospice during her last days, and this occurred only a few weeks before last Christmas. She was in her room alone with her and heard voices singing. She thought the radio was on too loud in another patient’s room nearby. She called her husband to listen, but he couldn’t hear it. So she asked him to go see if somebody had a radio on too loud in another patient room. She called her brother, a pastor, to come in and find where that sound was coming from, but he didn’t hear anything either. But for her, the sound got louder. She stood up looking around for it, and came to the foot of her sister’s bed, where she stopped, and the sound began to get even louder. It was clear to her now that she was hearing singing, like a choir. She closed her eyes, and when she did, her “eyes” were opened and she saw a host of innumerable angels surrounding her sister’s bed. And it finally became clear the words she was hearing, “Holy....Holy....Holy....” It was so real that she reached out to touch them. She was in the presence of angels. She was given the privilege of seeing what was happening in the heavenly realm as her sister’s life was fading from this reality to the ultimate reality. She got to see just a little glimpse of what her sister was seeing and would soon see for all eternity. I’ve heard a few other amazing stories from very reputable people lately about seeing into the spirit realm. God is at work, but you know, he always has been. Most of the time our spirit eyes are shut, and a few times God will allow them to be open. Let him open your eyes to the depth of this time, of God actually becoming one of us. And coming here with one purpose in mind.

Teresa