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Pastor Chris Matthis
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado
Christmas Eve (Series: While Shepherds Watched)
Wednesday, December 24th, 2014
Sermon:
Text:
“While Shepherds Watched: Bethlehem Shepherds”
Luke 2:1-20
Focus Statement: God uses the most unlikely people to accomplish his purposes.
Function Statement: That they would go and tell people the Good News of Jesus’ birth, death,
and resurrection.
Sermon Structure: Story-Applied
Doctrinal Locus: “He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary” (Apostles’
Creed).
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11,
ESV).1 That is the angel’s message to the Bethlehem shepherds in our Gospel reading from
Luke, chapter 2. “I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.” What a
wonderful message! But what strange witnesses the Lord chose to call upon: shepherds!
In Jesus’ time, shepherds were often looked down upon by their fellow Jews. They were
considered dirty and dumb, simple-minded, and unsophisticated—much like the sheep they
tended. And yet many of Israel’s most celebrated heroes got their start as shepherds, among
them, Abraham, Moses, and David. It just goes to show that appearances aren’t everything (cp.
1 Sam. 16:7). Besides which, shepherds performed an important role for the whole society. Not
only were sheep a source for food and wool, but sheep were necessary for the elaborate
sacrificial system at the Temple in Jerusalem. Sheep were required for many of the Jewish
rituals for “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Heb. 9:22). No doubt,
1
All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.
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because of its close proximity to Jerusalem, many of the Bethlehem shepherds’ own sheep were
used to atone for the sins of the nation.
And so it happened that “in the same region there were shepherds out in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8). Those poor shepherds were “sore afraid”
when “the glory of the Lord shone round about them” (Luke 2:9, KJV). But the coming of God
in the flesh is not a cause for fear, but excitement and joy, which is why the angel declared, “Fear
not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is
born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
There is so much mystery and wonder in these two verses that we don’t have enough time
to sound the theological depths of the angel’s message. But let me touch briefly on the three
titles by which the newborn baby Jesus is called: Savior, Christ, and Lord.
The baby Jesus is our Savior. In fact, that’s what his Hebrew name (Joshua) means: “The
Lord saves” or “The Lord’s salvation.” That is why another angel told Jesus’ stepfather, Joseph,
“You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus
came to save us from our sins. And so on Christmas, as cute as a little baby in a manger may be,
we must kneel before the infant Jesus and confess our sins—all the ways in which we have
rebelled against God, broken his commandments, and done wrong to other people. “Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners,” sinners like you and me (1 Tim. 1:15). If we do not repent
of our sins and, in humble faith, recognize our need for the Savior, then we will miss the point of
Christmas. Yes, Christmas is about the birth of a baby, but it’s about the birth of a baby who
was born to die.
Jesus is also called Christ. Christ is Jesus’ title, not his last name. “Christ” comes from
the Greek word Christos, which means “anointed one.” It’s the New Testament equivalent of the
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Hebrew word messiah. From conception, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).
He was set apart for a special mission to rescue God’s people from their enemies. Israel had
many enemies throughout its history: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. But, of
course, the greatest enemies of all are “sin, death, and the power of the devil,” as Martin Luther
indicates in The Small Catechism.
And finally, Jesus is Lord. This is, perhaps, the most striking statement of all. For when,
by faith, we declare, “Jesus is Lord!” (Rom. 10:9; 1 Cor. 12:3), what we are really saying is that
Jesus is God! “Lord” is kyrios in Greek. In the Hebrew Old Testament, “LORD” is Yahweh, the
proper name of God, the name of the One True God of Israel, the name by which God revealed
himself to Moses in the burning bush (Ex. 3:14). I know we often refer to Jesus as the Son of
God, and that is true (cp. Luke 1:32). But Jesus is not a created or adopted Son the way that we
are, or even the way that various cults have imagined throughout church history. No, Jesus is the
same as God Himself. He is Yahweh (Jehovah), Lord. And so the wonderful mystery of
Christmas is that the almighty, all-knowing, eternal God and creator of the universe took on
human flesh and allowed himself to be born as “a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in
a manger” (Luke 2:12).
All of this, I am sure, was more than the shepherds could comprehend. It would took a
lifetime of memory and prayer to parse their way through the miracle of Jesus’ birth. But for
now it was enough to marvel and celebrate the birth of Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
“When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another,
‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has
made known to us.’ And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby
lying in a manger” (Luke 2:15-16).
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Who knows what the shepherds thought or felt as they peered at the infant Jesus?! All we know
is that they heard and saw and believed. On the very first Christmas, God gave faith to the poor
shepherds of Bethlehem. They were some of the very first Christians (Mary was first!).
The shepherds also became the very first Christian missionaries:
“And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning
this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them…. And the
shepherds returned, glorying God and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it
had been told them” (Luke 2:17-18, 20).
The shepherds rejoiced at the Good News of Messiah’s birth. And so they told everyone they
met about the baby who was born: Savior, Christ, and Lord.
The shepherds’ response to the Good News is the way I hope each of us will respond to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ: with faith, with joy, and with the urge to go and tell. Like the
apostles after Jesus’ death and resurrection, so also the shepherds could not help but speak of
what they had seen and heard (Acts 4:20). I hope the same is true of us.
The Good News of Christmas is for “all the people” (Luke 2:10). Not just Mary and
Joseph. Not just the Bethlehem shepherds. Not just for you and me. There are many more who
need to hear story of Christmas, including your family, friends, and neighbors who don’t yet
know and believe in Jesus. “Fear not,” the angel said, “for behold, I bring you Good News of a
great that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). And so I close with the refrain of one of my favorite
Christmas hymns:
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere!
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born!
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of  the Holy Spirit. Merry Christmas! Amen.

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