You Will Call Him Jesus — Thaddeus Barnum

The Shepherds Receive the News of Jesus’ Birth

Father on this holy night, we thank you we praise you and give you glory for your kindness and giving to us your son your well-beloved son. We thank you tonight for Gathering us here in this place and we pray for the presiding of your Holy Spirit should attend this time now as we come to your word Lord we pray our hearts calloused by this world so speak so set us free in Jesus name.

Amen. Tonight I'd like to call your attention to this group of shepherds. This phrase that comes out of our text that in the same region. There were some shepherds saying out in the fields and keeping over.

Watch over their flock by night. This night God chose to honor them. He chose them and chose to honor them. These are the ones to whom the angels came. These are the ones that bore the news the good news of great joy.

These are the ones who found the sign that they would go and find a child. These are the ones who went and found and saw with their own eyes the child. This is the group of people who actually got to tell Mary and Joseph What they saw in the splendor of the angel of the Lord and the and the company that we just heard.

Singing praise to Almighty God and then they got the trumpet this news. Everywhere this group of people got to worship and glorify the Lord. I'd like to call your attention for a few minutes tonight to the shepherds, but don't disconnect from me.

Shepherds as a Picture of Our Calling to Serve Others

Don't say well good. This isn't about me. It is about you. It's about how you choose. It's about how you live. It's about how we do life together. It's about the world. We live in. It's about the choices We make.

It's about every aspect of what's happening here in our day and in our time. Nothing is needed more today than leaders. Shepherds who will rise up and do this work In a day that's ever increasing in darkness.

My dear friends tonight. I should call your attention to their job. What they do. There was a professor an Old Testament professor out of Gordon Conwell who spent a year in the Middle East interviewing shepherds and When he was doing his research.

Trying to find out because he was convinced that if we could find out and understand the nature of shepherds we would understand the heart of God the heart of his son and what it means to be a Pastor a leader a parent a counselor a shepherd in our day.

That somewhere embodied in their life. We would find the secrets of the kingdom of God. And one of them said in the interview. He said hey mister said one of the shepherds. What is there's a research about us?

We are nothing. We spend our lives running after sheep and goats. Neither home nor an address sleeping under the open sky in winter summer and rains. Year after year we measure the length of the roads by our feet.

Carrying cooking utensils or camels on camels and mules. Can't even rest in one place for a week. Why waste time then on us? said one of the shepherds we are nothing and yet complexities of what they do is.

Stunning that the complexities of these poor shepherds abiding in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. What experience what knowledge what concern lies that lingers in these Shepherds minds they're active minds constantly taking inventory.

Looking out for human and animal threats assessing the weather vegetation supplies checking for signs of dehydration disease. Anxiety inspecting the mothers the young the sick. Periodically counting bodies they constantly question which animals need to be separated today.

Which one should stay back tomorrow. Which one's hoof needs to be healed. Why is that you giving so little milk. Will one give birth to twins? Is this the final year for that buck thief or complicated people?

They're like moms. They're like anybody who knows what it means to be a caregiver. Who put right? Who pours out their life for somebody else and that basically includes everybody if you're the number one child in your family.

You've been doing this forever. And the last born gets the pet. All of us know what it's like to oversee to constantly be in that role. Not just a parenting, but it's in family. It's in business. It's in leadership in all aspects of leadership.

It's in every part of it and on top of everything the shepherd has to be massive doctor. Listen to this according to this this this professor. With consummate skill the shepherds see the sheep. Constantly susceptible to Braxy pulpy kidney.

I don't these things mean staggers pneumonia. Passerella twin lamb disease cancer hypothermia in the winter maggots in the summer. Crows dogs they push their sheep push their head through fences and get stuck.

They climb trees to picket foliage and get hung up by their horns or legs. They fall down banks. They get bitten by snakes and wasps. They tumble into ponds and streams. They gorge themselves on fallen ash leaves roll on their backs and blow up like balloons.

They poison themselves on ragwort. They starve they freeze they get depressed they fall ill and the good shepherd knows how to counter every affliction. Every part of the shepherd is found in the staff and the rod.

They're the ones who provide they're the ones who protect. They're the ones who guide every day always. Constantly their job description is to find water and especially these shepherds in the Middle East which have to deal with extreme weather.

Always from cold extreme cold to extreme heat to constant droughts and famines always trying to just find water. Just find wells to dig and to build to big build pens. Safe enough and secure enough so that no enemy can come in.

They're constantly trying to find pasture land and a place for feeding and for nutrition. They're constantly having to discipline because sheep are defenseless. They cannot do for themselves. They are constantly getting in trouble constantly wandering and utterly dependent on the shepherd always.

The Shepherd’s Life: Family Rather Than a Job

The sheep know that the shepherd knows that and that's why there is one Basic thing that goes on in the shepherd world and it is so stunning and it is so fundamental and it is so basic. And it's this simple.

Is this your job or is this your life? Is this a nine-to-five which became an eight-to-six and the seven-to-seven and a six to nine thirty. Is it a job? Or is this? 24 -7 365 because they belong to you.

Because they are family. This is the thing about sheep. That's so stunning. They know your name. They know their name. They know the voice of the thing. They get it their family. There's a story that the doctor of this Old Testament Professor's tells of a other you that when straying off and the morning came and they couldn't.

They went out to look into search and to seek for a day for a week for a month. They couldn't find the you was gone. Three months passed and this other group of sheep and herds come by and show. The shepherd goes up and says I've got to tell you three months ago I lost I lost my you and just the sound of the shepherds voice and out of the 300 flock pops the use head.

They think it's not a job. They think it's family. It's where it all rests in that one little statement. Everything rests here of whether what we do is what we do because it's in it for us or whether we're in it for others.

That's simple. Are we doing what we do for us? Always us or do we pour ourselves out for others? It's always so utterly simple and every single night a shepherd is tested on that question. Because the one thing that happens at night is that as they such a poetic statement.

Isn't it really the shepherds were staying out in the fields. They were watching their flock by night. It's poetic. It's Romantic. It's lovely. It's tough job. Because guess who else is watching over the flock by night?

Protecting the Flock from Predators and Darkness

Every predator you can imagine. The Lions the Tigers the Bears. Oh my. It's the Panthers. It's the it's the ones who know exactly. They know exactly because they're driven fearlessly because they're hungry.

They're hungry and they want to get the sheep and that's the problem when the lights go out. The shepherd has to know the sounds of the night because he can't see the wolf. He's got a here. He's got a he's got to know the shepherds the shepherds the shepherds have got a feel the story of night.

And they've got to do what they do to protect their own. Who knows them by name and they know him? Them by name. It's what you do you protect and up come the predators and the worst thing is that they're not just animals in the common Middle East.

From day in and day out the the other predator isn't animal. It isn't wild beasts the other predator looks like us. And the problem with us is guess what us does we are the innovators? We are the ones that when you figure us out.

We will innovate we will mutate and we will do something else. The weapons of yesterday aren't the weapons of today. That's why in the Middle East. They don't carry any longer a staff and a rod. It's a staff and a gun.

It's a staff and a weapon. Because everything everything shifts and everything changes and every parent knows exactly what that means every parent. It used to be we build fences around our house to keep things secure and then they're invented locks.

Locks on the doors and then we got dogs and dogs and locks and fences and finally we got security and alarm systems. We're always innovating always trying to protect our own. That's what we do. We protect our own until one day the world was no longer outside because it came inside.

Through the internet to the eyes of our children while we thought they were sleeping. Secure and safe in their rooms under their covers the world was in their hands sometimes. Positive other times stealing their minds breaking marriages.

Constant pleas for money watching families bankrupt because of this this thing that's come in not to help only but to harm. How do we how do we protect. How do businesses protect. Haven't you seen the news recently?

How do we how do we actually safeguard and secure our businesses and companies from being hacked. People coming in predators? Who are able to get inside? Government to government stealing information always out to do harm.

Always there to destroy always there to take down. My friends there are predators in the world and everybody who's anybody learned how? Those you love you protect because the world is full of darkness.

They were watching their flock by Night, I don't know what you hear when you hear that wonderful text. But don't think they were sleeping don't think they were resting because this is the time that you're on edge always.

Because of what might come because of what might happen and it's into this story that our Lord Jesus Teaches us about the Good Shepherd. He says two things so important. He says two things one is at night the strength of the pen is everything and the only way to get in the pen is Through the door and and that door is how the sheep actually got in and sir Jesus would actually make these words true.

Jesus as the Door and the Good Shepherd

I'm not just the Good Shepherd. I am the door if You are in you are safe. Or the way it said in the in John 10 9 the way it's actually said is he who enters through me will be saved. It's the same word.

It's a you'll be safe. You'll be rescued. You'll be cared for you'll be home because no predator can touch you without going through me. That's the whole point of him saying I'm the door. I'm it you're protected.

Guess what you get to do tonight. You get to sleep you get to rest. You get to be secure tonight because they're one guarding. You will not let anything pass through and touch you. Second thing he said is that only Distinction you'll ever need to know between a Good Shepherd and not a Good Shepherd is the one who thinks this is a job and not a family.

Because the one who thinks it's a job as Jesus said so well in John 10 12 the moment he sees the wolf coming. The one who's it's just a job. That one flees. Because it's all about me. Not about somebody else.

The Shepherd doesn't know that language not a Good Shepherd. Good Shepherd lays down his life. This is this is this is a poor job. This is no reputation in culture. If you're the kind of people that travel in the high circles with big elite people.

You're not going to have a shepherd in your midst because guess what shepherds smell like. They smell like the sheep. They're poor shepherds. We thank they're the ones that are marginalized. They're constantly giving their life running around as they declare themselves.

David’s Shepherd Training and the Formation of Leaders

We are nothing and yet in the embodiment of this this is where leaders were made. This is where Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and the brothers. This is where Moses was made. This is where David was made.

All of Israel could not stand the the great giant Goliath. Who stood up to Goliath who did that David did and why did David stand up. Because he said very clearly this. Listen, he does not bother me my language.

I Tend my father's flux when a lion comes. When a bear comes they can't have them. I ripped them apart with my hands. I Have been trained for battle and that's Philistine will be like a lion and a bear.

I can do this as fearless as the lion and the bear. Because he was trained on the anvil of what it means to give your life for somebody else and not just for you. The Shepherd is an amazing person full of complexity and skill nothing short of a mom.

It always killed me when I was growing up and my my mother turned the age of 45 and and All she had done in life was raise us. That's all Came time for her. She wanted to get a job. She wanted to go out and and she started interviewing.

Well, what value do you have? That's all you've done. Do you understand why on this holy night? Of all the people he could have announced the news to he announced the news to shepherds. He had had enough of false shepherds the ones who come for themselves.

Always about power and money and success and themselves making themselves fat on the flock he was done and In the prophets, you'll see it's buried in the prophets. You heard it in Micah 5 read by Paul today.

One will arise from Bethlehem, Judea Bethlehem, Ephrathah out of the line of David the Shepherd King. One shall come and he will shepherd the people. From Ezekiel the prophet all the false shepherds that were out for themselves.

I will give him one that is my own from the line of David. I Will be their God and he shall shepherd his people and he will lead them into security Rest and blessing and peace. There's one coming and So is it any surprise that on this night on this night of all nights?

Guess who he appears to guess who gets to get the news first. You see he's like them. David has power and money success, but he had in his in his in his value of what it means to be a person. He had an old cry inside of him.

Psalm 23 and Dependence on the Shepherd

I wonder if you know his song. In order to be somebody in order to pour your life out in order to be a shepherd you've got to have a shepherd to be a shepherd and He knew that. And so he would sing The Lord is my shepherd.

I Shall not want. Do you know if that makes him Sheep defenseless. Utterly dependent in need of a shepherd can't do it on my own. Is that you tonight? Or are you doing just fine without a shepherd in your life the shepherd in your life?

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he make it me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for his Namesake he provides he guides.

That's what he does and he protects. Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I will fear no evil why? Thou art with me thy rod. The defense against all enemy thy staff that cares comforts corrects and disciplines.

Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. You can set a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. But still my head is anointed with oil my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord.

Not just now I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This is the story. It's just a simple story, but he comes to us as shepherd. He comes himself that one in the manger that one is to be greeted by the shepherds.

Christ’s Victory over Darkness, Death, and the Powers of Evil

He is to be greeted by the shepherds he who is the good shepherd who one day will rise up to shepherd his flock. Who will lay down his life for us who will know that the real predator out there? He isn't just simply wolves and tigers and bears and Panthers or even mankind, but the devil himself and darkness the powers of darkness and spiritual forces of evils and heavenly places and death and Death itself and yet he will come to destroy and break the powers of death.

And by the time the Bible ends it says simply this the lamb in the center of the throne shall be your shepherd. And so guide you to springs of the water of life without cost. My dear friends tonight what Christmas is all about is you who pour your life out for others.

Guess what the good news is he's come to pour out his life for you. If you've got a shepherd we can be a shepherd and in this world today, that's exactly what's needed. There are too many children growing up who are in darkness tonight because they do not have Moms and dads.

Too many kids growing up tonight who don't have food on the table. Too many people in this world where darkness is. Everywhere, where will they find the light? How will they find the shepherd? How will they do it?

Sent to Feed and Shepherd Those in Darkness

Well, it's very simple in the Bible the way it's done the shepherd comes for us and then he trains us and then he sends Us he looks at Peter and says Peter. It's your turn. Feed my flock tend my flock shepherd my sheep.

This is what the shepherd does. He calls you and me to go out there and pour out our life for those who do not have. The kind of care and provision we have those who are lost in darkness tonight and don't you know, it's increasing.

Can't you feel it in the world today? Thank God this generation is coming up. We're seeing right now across the globe. Half the world today doesn't have what we have here in this country and they're rising up and saying we've got to do something about it.

But my friends it's not it's not to be done. It's not to be done in our strength because at the end of the day we are just shit we get into trouble. Constantly wandering. But we've got a shepherd. Who wants to pour his life into us?

Have you got a shepherd today? Can you say the words the Lord is my shepherd? I shall not want. Are you able to put your head on the pillow at night and know That no matter how dark these days are no matter how painful no matter what you're going through.

This one has earned eternal life for us and Nothing can have us at the end of the day. Have you got a shepherd tonight? Because that's the news and Nobody could hear this better than shepherds to hear the news that tonight in the city of David.

Oh shepherd is born for you a savior a protector a Rescuer for you who are the protector and Savior and rest and constantly helping others. Sit back and take a breath because he has come for you we Can go change this world?

Pour out our life for others. Because he has poured out his life for us. Stop living on your own stop being self-dependent and self-reliant. Stop thinking that you've got life where you want it. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and say tonight.

I need a shepherd for my life. I Need a shepherd to come into my life. I Need Jesus Christ to do what he came to do and save me. Pour out his life for me. And in receiving these things I might go and pour out my life.

For those who are unprotected tonight. For those who are under the watch of Panthers and Tigers and Thieves who come to rob and to steal? But not us. Not us. We have a job. The shepherd has given us a job if we just receive him tonight.

In Jesus name Amen.