When our kids were younger, Miranda and I used to go to Fuddruckers here in town. One night a week (maybe Tuesday nights?), they offered kids meals for $1. The meal was a small burger, fries, drink, and a cookie. It was a crazy good deal. . . cheaper than going to the grocery store. But the best part about it was that they allowed adults to order them too. We could walk in there and spend $5, yes, there are only 4 in my family, but I was the guy who ordered two meals for himself. I mean, at that price, it was almost required. It was incredible! We first heard about it from some people at our church and we told everyone we knew about it, and they told everyone they knew . . . it wasn’t long before it felt like we were practically having church at Fuddruckers every week.
Have you ever found such a good deal that you couldn’t stop talking about it?
That’s what Christmas is. The gift is so amazing that you can’t just keep it to yourself. It’s not meant to be a gift that just sits under the tree. It’s got to be opened and experienced and then shared. It’s meant to spread. Jesus should be viral. He’s too good not to be. Jesus is a gift, but He’s more than that. He’s worthy of the re-gift.
We’re going to read today about the first guys to do that. The first re-gifters were the shepherds.
Turn with me to Luke 2:8-14
It’s the 3rd book in the New Testament and it contains a record of Jesus’ life – starting with His birth. (Pick up a Bible, Follow on Screen)
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
I guess I should pause here for a second. Notice that they were “living” in the fields and that it was “night.” They weren’t vacationing. It was the night shift, but it wasn’t just a shift. It was their life. They were hard workers. In their culture, shepherds were sort of the lowest rung of society. They were poor. They were outcasts, shunned, avoided, despised and rejected.
Verse 9:
9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
God broke through. He interrupted their boring routine that night. God’s presence was expected at the temple among the priests, but here in the fields with sheep and shepherds??? This is something else, something more.
Hear the angel! He says, “I bring YOU good news.”
To the shepherds!!! God didn’t send this message first to the priests in the temple. God didn’t choose the palace. He chose the pasture. He entrusted this message first to the regular guys, the blue collar guys, working hard trying to support their families. He was looking for hungry hearts, not holy resumes.
Unfortunately, sometimes we think we have to have the holy resume. We put limits on God believing that He only speaks to people who are professional Christ Followers, or that He only speaks to us in the church building, but hear this: God can meet you in your mess, at your desk (whether in an office or classroom), at your house or in the plant, at noon or in the middle of the night like He did with these shepherds. He is present, always and everywhere.
Now let me be clear. I’m not saying this message wasn’t for the priests and the people in the palace too. It was!! The angel said it was good news for “ALL people!!” But it was given first to these humble men who were taking care of sheep.
By the way, God loves using ordinary people to do extraordinary things. God met them where they were, not where they should have been. He meets us that way too. Where we are. Where you are right now.
God used shepherds, He can use you too. Some of us need to hear that today. We think He can’t use us. We think we are too far gone or that we’re just not enough.
This message was first given to the shepherds, but God’s intent was that it would go to the world. They had to receive the gift. The angel gave it to them, but their response would determine if they would open the gift or not. To open it, they would need to go and find Jesus. This gift, Jesus must be personal. He must be ours before we can share Him with our neighbors, nations, and next generation. We must receive Him before we can give Him to others. Jesus must be personal before He goes global. In a dark field, the angel spoke to the shepherds personally, but this message is bigger than that. It’s not just THEIR good news. It’s THE good news! It’s not supposed to stay small. It’s supposed to go global!
In verse 11, the angel makes it clear:
11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.
This is huge! All of God’s people had been waiting for generations for the Messiah, God’s promised Savior.
12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
These guys have to be stunned. I mean . . . what do you do? I’m betting they were torn too. Like, could they leave their sheep? What about their responsibilities? It had been a long day and they were just settling in for the night, do they really want to walk into town?
Vs 15 says:
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
I love this!!! They ignored all the conflicting messages. They just went. The verse says “they hurried off.” They knew about the gift that God was giving the whole world and ran to open the gift and experience it for themselves.
I totally remember running down the stairs on Christmas morning to open my gifts. My parents would tell us that we couldn’t come wake them up until the big hand was on the 12 and the little hand was on the 7. Yes – I’m that old. Our clocks had hands. . . My brother and I had this one figured out though. We knew how to move those hands. . . so sometime before 3am, the big hand was on the 12 and the little hand actually was on the 7, so we went to wake up my parents. After some annoying whining our persistence paid off, my parents gave in, and we sprinted down the stairs to open our gifts.
I ran for wrapped presents, but I have to ask myself, “Do I run to the One wrapped in flesh? Do I run for Jesus??
The shepherds did. And once they received the gift, Jesus, they immediately became Re-gifters. Check out verse 17
17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
They were amazed by these regular guys . . . regular guys who stumbled into the greatest discovery the world would ever know, but believe it or not, this wasn’t the last time a shepherd made a world-changing discovery. In 1947 a humble shepherd boy was searching for a sheep. He threw a rock into a cave and heard pottery break. His accidental discovery led to the biggest discovery of Bible manuscripts ever recorded – the Dead Sea Scrolls. When the boy showed up in town with some fragments of the scrolls, no one knew what it was. He convinced a cobbler to give him a few dollars for them. The cobbler eventually showed the fragments to some scholars and they finally knew what the boy had found. When the scholars started telling the world, the word spread quickly. The shepherd was the first to discover the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it took several “regifts” to reach the world.
That’s the way it was that night in Bethlehem too.
Jesus isn’t a gift that is meant to stay wrapped – He is meant to be shared! And that’s how He will reach the world. Jesus should be re-gifted to our neighbors, the nation, and the next generation.
Vs 18 says that when the shepherds shared the message “everyone who heard it was amazed.”
It’s crazy to me how this message was received. In their culture, the shepherds were the least likely to have been chosen as God’s messengers. They weren’t highly respected and were considered unreliable as witnesses, but these shepherds were faithful. If they had been apprehensive about whether people would believe them or not, their encounter with Jesus changed them. Once they experienced Him, their fears subsided and they were overcome with excitement to tell everyone they met.
Do you see it? Did you notice?
The shepherds heard the angel’s message. They received the gift. They opened the gift by going to experience Jesus for themselves, and then. . . they re-gifted it. The shepherds received, experienced, and gave. That’s my prayer for my family and for you this Christmas. That you would receive, experience, and share the gift of Jesus this year.
In Matthew 10:8 – Jesus says, “Freely you have received; freely give.”
Jesus is the gift that is intended to be viral. The shepherds didn’t discover Jesus and keep Him a secret – No! They couldn’t help themselves. This news, Jesus, was too good to keep to themselves.
When we receive Him, we can’t help ourselves. We become re-gifters. And by the way, that’s God’s plan too. That’s what He wants. He is the gift that is intended to be re-gifted. If we truly receive Jesus, We don’t just HEAR the good news. We become CARRIERS of it.” Our identity is changed.
Transformed people, transform people.
Changed people, tell people.
This isn’t just about telling people. It’s about transformation, about who we are. It’s about becoming people who find people – about being people who tell people.
The shepherds model this well. Look at verse 19:
19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
I think this is important. After it was all over, after the shepherds met Jesus and re-gifted Jesus to everyone they met, they returned to their fields, to their normal, everyday, quiet lives. They went back to the same place, the same job, the same sheep, BUT they weren’t the same people. They were changed! Their circumstances didn’t change; they changed! They returned not just as shepherds, but now as worshippers, “glorifying and praising God.” They allowed the gift to change them, before they tried to change others.
This story here in Luke tells us what happened to the shepherds when they encountered Jesus. Titus 3:4-7 describes what happens in us when we truly encounter Him.
Titus 3:4-7
4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,
(That’s Christmas y’all – the kindness and love of God has come to us in Jesus. Christmas is when the kindness and the love of God was wrapped in skin.)
5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
The shepherds hadn’t done anything noteworthy or righteous. It was just the mercy and grace of God. We aren’t saved by our resume, but only by His mercy.
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generouslythrough Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Through their encounter with Jesus, the shepherds had been reborn and renewed as well. They were changed.
I heard someone say once, that a Christ Follower is someone who:
- has been changed by Jesus
- is being changed by Jesus
- and is committed to the mission of Jesus.
We use different language here at Brazos Pointe, but it’s the same idea: It’s someone who
- has discovered Jesus.
- is developing in Jesus
- is deployed on Jesus’ mission
The shepherds are great models of all of this. Once they were back in the fields, I actually don’t think their lives were ever the same. The fields didn’t change. They did! Yes, they went back to their jobs and roles and sheep, but I don’t for one second believe they would see any of those things in the same ways.
Vs 5-6 says
“He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously”
Generously.
Extremely generously.
The Holy Spirit has renewed us, but He is also continually renewing us.
The Holy Spirit is “the gift that keeps on giving.”
He is the gift that keeps re-gifting Himself back to us. Renewal isn’t something God did once. It’s something He keeps doing.
You know that time after Christmas? the let down? the time between the wrapping and the routine, the season of returns. You know what I’m talking about . . . when things go back to what they were and people starting counting down how many days ‘til next Christmas. Well . . . let me be clear. That’s not what’s supposed to happen with Jesus. You may return a sweater, some gadget or fruitcake, but The best return you can make is to Bring your heart back to Jesus. That’s renewal, and THAT’s what this passage is all about. Like the shepherds, yes, we may return to our routines, but we don’t return the same people. The gift, Jesus changes us. He makes us new. Each and every day we return to Him, He renews us. We are made new each and every day.
The re-gift idea works here too. Jesus is the gift worth re-gifting to others. But we need to re-gift our hearts to Jesus each and every day too. That’s our response. When He calls us to “Deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him,” that’s what He is talking about. Give Him your heart today, and tomorrow, and the day after that.
Broken heart? He’ll renew it.
Battered heart? He’ll restore it.
Lonely, angry, or shattered heart? He makes us whole.
Don’t just unwrap the gift at Christmas this year –Open it, experience it, let it change you, and share it! Re-gift it!
Don’t stop receiving. There’s always more to receive with Jesus. Don’t stop opening. Continue to discover more and more of the gift we have in Him.
But don’t stop there either.
Let Him to change you. And then . . .
Re-Gift Him.
Re-gift hope.
Re-gift grace.
Re-gift renewal.
Re-gift Jesus.
Let your life become a Bethlehem. . . a place where people encounter Jesus.
When people are with you, may they experience Him. May they find in you a place where Jesus can be found and experienced.
May your life be a Bethlehem where people are changed by Jesus
where they return glorifying and praising God
and where they become re-gifters themselves.
The gift that changed the shepherds is still changing lives. He is here. Many in our world are still waiting for the long-awaited Messiah, but it’s not because He hasn’t come. He is here!
Some of us just haven’t opened the gift and experienced Him yet.
Some are still standing in the fields ignoring the call to come and see.
Some are distracted and haven’t even noticed that there’s an angel in the sky calling them to come and see.
Some are afraid of what this gift might require of them. They aren’t willing to leave the fields that they are in.
Whatever your excuse. Let it stop today!
Be like a shepherd.
Respond to the invitation.
Open the gift.
Experience Jesus.
Be changed by Him,
and become a Re-gifter.
Payer:
Lord, change us. Start with me. Father, help us to re-gift our own hearts back to You. Renew us. Change us! Let us encounter you this Christmas as the shepherds did that night in Bethlehem. Lord, overwhelm us, invade our lives, fill us so that we might be like the shepherds who can’t help themselves. They return glorifying and praising You simply because they couldn’t hold it in. You are too big, too amazing, too good. Let us receive the gift of Jesus and show us ways to re-gift Him to the world around us. AMEN.