Sermon Notes: Messengers of Comfort

**Who were the shepherds?**
Youth/low in status
• David = Runt of the litter = In the fields with the sheep (1 Samuel 16:11)
Male or Female
• Rachel = Shepherdess = (Genesis 29:6)
• Another profession may have excluded women from the message
• Nomadic - No roots
• Shunned
• Distrusted outsiders
• Uneducated/Ignorant
• Deemed Unclean for orthodox rituals

**Sacrificial Lambs in the field**
To be a sacrificial lamb
• Perfect
• W/out spot or blemish
• No broken bones or even scarred skin
Required Full-Time supervision
• One wrong step
• The price of commodities
• Wool, leather, meat

**May it have been difficult for people to hear that Shepherds were chosen for this vision?**

**Is it ever shocking that you were chosen to hear the Good News?**

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. – Luke 2:9-10

Whoever has ears, let them hear. – Matthew 11:15

**Do all who have ears get to hear the Good News?**

And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. — Luke 2:12

**What is striking about this list to find a baby in a bustling town?**

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

**The shepherds go, possibly at great cost.**
Loss of income
• Personally
• Family
• Employer
Respect

**What does it cost you to go in faith?**

The shepherds had time in the pursuit of the child to begin to question and turn back.

**What lies might you be listening to that prevent you from running to Jesus?**

**The scene at the manger**
• Unclean
• Disgraceful
• Dark
• Smelly
• Loud
• Etc.
• Opposite of the glory experienced in the fields

***God in the highest has made himself lowly to be available to shepherds.
God in the highest has chosen to make himself lowly to be available to you.***

**What does this scene tell us about the love of God?**

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. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. — Luke 2:17-20

**Jesus Changes Everything for the Shepherds**
• Nobody wonders what an untrustworthy source rants about
• There is something peculiar enough about these Shepherds that earns a hearing
• What message do they carry?
• The Savior Lives!

**The shepherds got a glimpse of the Glory of God but we have the fulness of the Gospel**
• Do we live with comfort, peace and contentment that earns a hearing?
• We carry the same message!

**Messengers of Comfort**
• Mary and Joseph deliver comfort to shepherds
• Shepherds deliver comfort to Mary and Joseph

...who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. - 2 Corinthians 1:4

**How will you share the God of Comfort with others?**