Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning, we are in our series, The Cast of Christmas.

Over the past couple weeks we have been looking at the Advent from the perspective of the the prophets who foretold the coming of Christ, then the Angels who proclaimed the Birth to the shepherds..

Today are going to look at the same verses in Luke 2:8-15 from the perspective of the Shepherds..who received the message From the angels.

Several years ago we having some church gathering in the conference room when we had a minor earth tremor…

it was such a weird sensation .. the room began to move… thought for a moment I was having some sort of health episode.. but thankfully we all experience the tremor..

the funny thing was when I got home and asked the family whether they had felt the tremor… they said they felt something… It just so happened the kids had at the same time as the tremor done some and got in trouble and they said we felt something but just thought it was mom....

It is interesting to think that beneath earth crust are these tech-tonic plates that are constantly pushing against each other and shifting and moving… It is estimated that there is an earthquake every 30 seconds.. but the majority of those are too weak to be recorded… Larger earthquakes happen about 100 times a year..

Eventually the earth gives way to the presure and stress and this results in an earthquake... .

The most powerful earthquake ever recorded was the Great Chilean earthquake in 1960… It struck at about 3:15 in the afternoon and lasted somewhere around 10 minutes… The earthquake registered somewhere around 9.4 - 9.6 on the Richter scale..

So how much power is that?

A magnitude 5.0.

Is about 200 tons of TNT.... that quite a bit… for example 20 tons can blow up a warehouse...

but increases substantially as you go up the scale..

A magnitude 9.0 is equivalent to 99 000 tons of TNT… the equivalent of about 25000 nuclear bombs going off similtaneously… Thats a Lot of energy..

The Great Chilean Earthquake was so large that it cause a massive a massive tsunami…That they record waves reaching the Hight of 35 feet some 6000 miles away...

The incarnation is the Breaking in of God into History..

It was much bigger event than the Great Chilean Earthquake.. the effects of Christ’s coming was felt well into the first - 2n and 3rd Centuries.. Continued through the reformation in 1500’s and continue to feel the Effects of his coming..

At the Center of Story is this interaction between the Angels and the Shepherds..

The shepherds were not the extras in the story.. they are up front and center... they are the first to to receive the News of the Birth of the Savior.

lets read our text

It is fascinating that the Angels come to the Shepherds first.. we have to ask ourselves ..Why the shepherds?

Why not to priests or scribes?

I think that there are couple of reasons…

Firstly, it reveals something about God’s heart toward the disenfranchised of our world.. those we might be on the fringes and neglected…

God comes to us in the simplicity of Mary and Joseph… In the simplicity of a manger… and in the simplistic of the shepherds..

The Gospel is to the least of them…

last week… I mentioned that the.. Shepherds were despised by even the “good,” respectable people of that day.

According to the Mishnah, shepherds were under a ban.

They were regarded as thieves.Scholars speculate that the only reason the flocks were so close to Jeruselem was because these men were keeping the sacrificial animals for the temple.

The fact that God revealed himself to the shepherds first tells us something about God’s deep compassion and heart for humanity...

Secondly, God comes to Shepherds because of their heart for nurturing…

Even though Shepherds had a lowly position in society… there was something about the nature and nurture of the role of shepherding that God is drawn towards...

God often chose Shepherds in the scriptures to lead his people..

He chose Abraham, Moses, King David who were all shepherds , In psalms 23 we are told that Lord is our Shepherd.. in John 10:2.

Jesus compares himself to the Good Shepherd - who comes through gate and whom the sheep recognize his voice and he call his sheep by name and he leads them out…

The work of a shepherd was (and still is) extraordinarily difficult.

They had to wrangle obstinate sheep.

They had to ensure their flocks were well fed.

And they had to fend off predators: wolves or even larger animals like bears or lions.

Sometimes unsavory characters would come in and try to steal the sheep.

The reason the shepherds were awake on this night that the angels appears.. was because the were on watch… taking shifts, ensuring the livestock were safe and guarded..

Another Reason God chose the angel is that He knew Shepherds would get the word out… …

When you think about it ...

We know little or anything about...

The great diplomats and ambassadors of two thousand years ago, the councils that met and made peace treaties that were signed … How many of those treaties are remembered?

But with these trusted shepherds the world today 2000 year later still reverberates with the peacemaking message of a group of amateur preachers and peacemakers… who told the angels story....

The Shepherds show us the Ripple Effects of the coming of Christ...

T/s The first Effect is that...

1.

The Birth of Christ Breaks the Silence.

You can imagine the shepherds out in the star lit night.. and just the sounds of the night.. maybe a gentle breeze… and then all of a Sudden the angel Gabriel appears and the Glory of God surrounds them..

Lets read...

The angels appearing is a dramatic scene..

It is like an announcer standing on stage before a curtain.

The curtain rises, and “suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel” (v.

13).

“Suddenly” (Gk.

exaiphnēs) indicates that what follows is not something that is divinely given..

What is significant about this scene is that angels break 400 years of prophetic silence..

This is the period between the OT and NT which has been called, “the silent years” Because....

There was no prophetic word…since the Prophet Malachi...

But on the Night that Jesus was born God broke into the silence.....

What followed were the ripple affects of God Breaking the Silence..

When God broke the silence....

When God broke the silence...

a.

Light came into Darkness.

Several weeks back we changed and we gained an hour… but, when it gets to about 4 O’clock… it just seems so dark… Sometimes the darknesses impacts us..

Darkness can impact our vision… It can impact our emotions the way that we feel about life… Darkness can impact our actions… When it so Dark --- we may not want to do certain things…

What happens is that we can get caught up in darkness… we can let the darkness.. impact our world and taint our world views…

The impact of incarnation does brings light back into our darkness..

This what John tells us… that when Christ came into the world He brought light..

There is this struggle between the darkness and the light in our world… between God’s light and unregenerate humanity…

John tells us that Christ shines Spiritual light into the world…

Christ is not bringing light but he himself is the light..

When the angels came with the Glory of God they were reflecting the light…Just as the moon reflects the rays of the sun.…

We know that the moon is just a dim reflection of the greater light of the Sun… John tells us that Christ who is the light of men has come into our world…

We need to remember that it is the nature of darkness to try to quench the light.

Here John tells us that “the light shines,” continually...

Timeless light has invaded our time, and we can see it in our darkness.

What a promise that when God light shines — the darkness cant overcome it...

When God broke the silence...

b.

It brought us the answer to our Yesterdays..

The angel Gabriel Brings a message of Good news..

There is great emphasis on the fact that “today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you” (2:11).

The word “today”stresses the fact that it is on this very day — Things were going to be different… From this day forward there was going to a means of God reconciling man to himself...

This is the turning point of the ages — today also apply’s to all the “yesterdays”...

God rescues us today from all our yesterdays… When God broke the silence it is good news… because it dealt with the failures of the Past… Gospel always moves forward...

The angel said that the “good news” was “for all the people.”

Good News is God comes today so that we don’t have to live in the yesterdays… this is what the apostle Paul taught us.

T/s When God broke the silence...

c.

He came to meet our need for real wholeness...

Luke uses the word savior on purpose..

At the time of Christ’s birth — It was during peace time… and everyone was looking to the Roman Emperor Caesar as Savior…

It seems like Caesar was the one who brought Peace..

Here is the thing there Saving wasn’t going to come from a politcal figure it was going to come from God himself… Because Caesar wouldn’t be able to give the Peace that they really needed...

The meaning is peace; Jesus’ birth is to bring peace, shalom, blessedness, fullness.

T/s What are the aftershocks of the incarnation?

How does the Breaking in of Christ impact our lives?

1.

The Birth of Christ Breaks the Silence