Earth's First Evangelists

Significant events that have taken place in you, your life, your family's life throughout the summer. But I want you to think with me just for a moment about the most significant event in your life. The most powerful event in your life. The most memorable event in your life. Could have happened a year ago, could happen 10 years ago, could have happened 20 years ago, could have happened 60 years ago. But just think about the most incredible event that ever happened to you. You got it in your mind?

Some of you are still asleep and you haven't even thought about taking your next breath yet, let alone thinking about what took place in the past. But you know, when you think about those things, think about what happened as a result of that. Maybe it was the birth of one of your children. That's a pretty significant event. And you think about the joy it brings to you and to your family. Or maybe it was a situation which centers around a tragedy. And that becomes a very monumental event in your life that you remember.

Sometimes we respond with tears. Sometimes we respond with laughter. Sometimes we respond with shouts of joy and excitement. But when you think about the most incredible event in your life, and you think about what took place some 2,000 years ago in the lives of those shepherds outside of Bethlehem, you have one thing in common. And that is there was a desire, there was a motivation to share with somebody else what took place in your life. If it was the birth of your child, you want to tell somebody about the baby that was born.

If it was your wedding day, you want to tell somebody about the events of that day. If it was an accident that you were involved in and it's tragedy, you tell somebody about what you witnessed and what took place. Well, the same is true with the shepherds some 2,000 years ago. Now none of what has taken place in our life can compare to what took place in the lives of these shepherds outside of Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago. That event that night would forever change their lives. What took place in those shepherd fields changed the lives of these men in such a way that they never went back to tending sheep the same way.

What took place that night would change these men forever. And the reason that is so is because they encountered the living God. The moral of the story is this that when you encounter the living God you never go back to work the same again. You see we as believers today need to understand that there's something about the transforming work of the power of God in our lives. And when God transforms a life, when God invades a life, you never go back to work the same again. In fact work takes on new meaning for you.

Work takes on a great excitement for you unlike ever before. So when those shepherds would go back to tend their sheep nothing would ever be the same for them again. And that's the essence of the shepherd story in Luke chapter 2. We've been studying the narrative of the birth of Christ and this is our sixth week in I believe it is if my memory is correct in Luke chapter 2. And what took place in a brief moment of time in that evening has taken us six weeks to cover. But it was the great birth announcement that the shepherds experienced.

And that announcement led them to go tell others about what they had seen and what they had heard. And there was a result that took place in their life that changed them forever. And so we want to see what they did as a response to what God did in their lives to help us understand earth's first evangelists.

These men actually became the first evangelists in the New Testament. They became the men who would go and tell the story so others would understand that the Messiah had arrived. If you have your Bible Luke chapter 2 is where we're at. Let me read to you the narrative.

It came about verse 15 when the angels had gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds began saying to one another let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. And they came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger. And when they had seen this they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen just as had been told them. As we look at earth's first evangelist I'm gonna let you know that the more I have studied this story the more I've realized things I had never seen before.

And so hopefully I'll be able to convey those elements to you this morning that you might begin to understand how it is God wants to use you to share him with others. I'm going to begin by looking at point number one and that is the enthusiasm behind their evangelism.

The enthusiasm behind their evangelism. What caused them to move in haste? I mean these guys had a job. They had to tend the sheep. And they said let us go in haste to see this thing that was spoken to us. Now you don't move sheep really really fast. I mean it takes a while. Now either they would leave them with someone else or they would take them with them. We don't know exactly what they did. But if you've seen shepherds leading sheep, they don't move real fast. But there was something that happened that night that would cause these men, these shepherds, to move quickly.

There was an eagerness behind their going to Bethlehem. There was an enthusiasm behind moving them to Bethlehem. What was it? Number one, it was the revelation of God.

The revelation of God. The Bible tells us in verse number eight, in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. The glory of the Lord is the presence of God revealed in light. We've talked to you at great length about that over the past few weeks. But there was a revelation of God to these men. Now you think about that. Think about the time where where God revealed himself to you through his word.

And the very first time you were able to realize the significance of who Jesus Christ was. And how God removed the blinders from your eyes and how you were able to understand the deity of Jesus Christ, the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ, the whole aspect concerning his life, death and resurrection, his coming again. And how God just happened to open up to you the truth of the word of God. These men experienced a revelation from almighty God that would change their lives forever. I mean, it's pitch black outside.

Nothing's taking place. They're doing the same old thing they've done for years. They're tending sheep. We told you before they usually would choose the youngest person in the family to take on this job because it wasn't a real hard job. Didn't have to have a seminary education to tend sheep. Didn't have to go to graduate school to be able to know how to knock the sheep this way and knock the sheep that way and put the crook down inside the hole and gather them out of there. Wasn't too difficult to do.

So it was kind of a, for lack of a better word, a boring job. And all of a sudden an angel would show up and the glory of the Lord would shine all around them. Things were going to change in the lives of these men. Now you think about that and you think about how when you encountered the living God and think about the people who encountered the living God in the scriptures. In fact, turn with me to John chapter 1 for a moment.

John chapter 1. I love this story. John chapter 1 verse number 35. And again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked upon Jesus as he walked and said behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and beheld them following and said to them, what do you seek? And they said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, come and you will see. They came therefore and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah.

Which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said you are Simon the son of John and you shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. So here's Andrew. And Andrew's name means manly. And whenever you see Andrew's name in the Bible, he's always bringing someone to Jesus. So the definition of a man is someone who is always leading people to Jesus. A very simple basic definition of what it means to be a man. If you want to know whether or not you're a man, you've got to determine whether or not you're leading people to a deeper knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is.

That's what Andrew did every time he's mentioned in the scriptures. He leads someone to Jesus. He tells his brother we have found the Messiah. You see when when God revealed himself to him, he had to respond by doing what? Telling somebody else. We found the Messiah. Read on the story. The next day he purposed to go forth into Galilee and he found Philip and Jesus said to him follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.

When Philip had understood the revelation of God he had to tell someone else. Daniel said to him can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him come and see. You come you see what I have seen. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said to him behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Nathanael said to him how do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree I saw you. Nathanael answered him rabbi. You are the son of God. You are the king of Israel.

See there is a response. When a man or a woman come to the realization that Jesus Christ is the son of God there is a response that you've got to tell someone else. Go over to John chapter 4. John chapter 4 the woman at the well it says in verse 28 So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men come and see a man who told me all the things that I have done. This is not the Christ is it? Come and see this man who has spoken to me and told me everything about my life. Go down to verse 39 and from that city many of the samaritans believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified he told me all the things that I have done.

So when the samaritans came to him, they were asking him to stay with them and he stayed there two days and many more believed because of his word. And they were saying to the woman it is no longer because of what you said that we believe for we have heard for ourselves and know that the one is indeed the savior of the world. We have heard what you have said we have come we have seen we have heard and we believe not because of what you have said but because of what we have seen and what we have heard.

They too had come to grips with the revelation of Jesus Christ. These men these shepherds on that night encountered the living God. And that was the motivation that was the enthusiasm Enthusiasm listen behind their evangelism So you got to ask yourself this question. Why is it i'm not enthusiastic about sharing Jesus Christ with other people it could be That you've never experienced a revelation from the living God it could be It could be the fact that you have never come to grips with who Jesus Christ is So therefore you're not motivated to tell other people who Jesus is Because once you come to grips with who Christ is you can't be quiet You have to speak You have to say something You just can't be quiet any longer And these shepherds had to move in haste Because of what had taken place in their lives not only was a revelation number two there was trepidation trepidation There was great fear it says And they verse nine were terribly frightened They were scared to death They were absolutely frightened Why?

Because whenever sinful man encounters a holy god sinful man sees His sin And recognizes that that sin is punishable by death And they were frightened because they had encountered the pure and holy living god of the universe They were frightened You see we need to understand that one of the motivations one of the things that makes us enthusiastic about sharing the gospel Is the fear of god Why? Paul said in second corinthians 5 10 knowing the terror of the lord we persuade men We know the terror of the lord.

We know How he is We know that one day he will bring judgment down upon the world And therefore we need to make sure that people understand the truth So they don't experience the judgment of god You see i'm not convinced that most of us understand that judgment Most of us don't understand the the wrath of god We don't want to talk about the wrath of god because it's just too hard for us to digest And so when somebody starts talking about the wrath of god, we get a little upset because this doesn't really fit into our comfort zone But it really helps us understand that these men who were frightened realized they were sinners And they were in need of being judged but the third thing consolation They went from a revelation to trepidation to consolation What the angels say say do not be afraid Why?

because I'm bringing you good news of great joy That will be for all the people Here's the consolation that comes only through the gospel Only the gospel can console the troubled heart only the gospel can take the troubled heart and set it at ease Only the gospel can do that because it's only the word of god that can change the heart of a man or the heart of a woman It's the word of god that cleanses the soul. It's the word of god that transforms the life And so the the angel could say listen, you don't have to be afraid Because we're bringing to you good news.

We're bringing to you the gospel. It's going to eventuate into great and wonderful joy great joy And so they move from revelation to trepidation to consolation to confirmation Because they say listen We're going to give you a sign a sign The consolation comes because there has been a savior who's been born Who is christ the lord and we've spent a great many of weeks talking about the identity of the messiah the identity of the christ child And that's what brings consolation But the angel gives a sign This will be a sign You'll find a babe wrapped in in cloths lying in a in a feeding trough It was a confirmation It would it would give these men Something to look forward to it would give these men, uh an impetus that would drive them to bethlehem.

Let's go in haste Let's go Find this thing look what the text says and it came about when the angels had gone away from them into heaven and the shepherds Began seeing one another let us go straight to bethlehem then and see This thing not a good translation should be translated. Let's go see this reality or this word Which have been spoken to us Let's go see the reality see they believed in the heart that the messiah had been born They believed in the heart that what took place was the culmination of all their hopes and all their dreams Because they knew the old testament they knew about the coming of messiah.

They knew about the savior of the world They knew about the lord of the world and they knew that they were anticipating the coming of messiah the redemption of israel The consolation of jerusalem. They knew that the messiah would one day come and all of a sudden He's arrived He's here And how are they going to know him when they see him? Well, the angel gave them a sign It was a confirmation This is how you're going to know the messiah And this would be the impetus this would be the enthusiasm behind their Evangelism this moves us to point number two and that is the environment for their evangelism The environment for their Evangelism now the scriptures don't tell us exactly what took place when the shepherds went to bethlehem And how they found The messiah Now You know, I don't want to take too much liberty here, but you got to try to figure out How they found him?

I mean they knew that maybe there were a couple of babies born in bethlehem that night Let's just say there were three or four babies They had to go find the right baby, right Instead of go knocking on doors and trying to find people in the streets. Have you have you heard about the baby? That's been born this evening Some guy says what baby how about I know about a baby or somebody else might say well, yeah Yeah, my wife had a baby. Where's the baby at? Oh, she's back at home in her house No, that's not the right baby Well, what baby you're looking for?

Well, we're looking for a baby in a feeding trough Well babies, you don't put babies in feeding troughs You put babies In cribs you put babies in warm beds You take care of babies. You don't put them out in cold damp air in stables in feeding troughs So these shepherds are going around trying to figure out. Okay. Have you seen or heard about this newborn baby? That's been born his baby boy He's a savior of the world He's the messiah So, can you imagine the conversation between these shepherds And the people of bethlehem You see they they had no idea that this was the son of god Mary and joseph didn't go in with big t-shirts on saying, you know, the son of god is here You know pointing down to her stomach, you know With humor there on sunday morning, you know, they didn't go with big banners saying Hey, i'm carrying the son of god the son of man.

It's going to be great. Everybody gather around for the birth of the messiah They didn't do that We know that there was no room for them in an inn So they found themselves in a stable and a maybe a cave and that's where she would give birth And so these men would have to go around Looking i'm not sure they went exactly doesn't say that a star led them to the place. Maybe it did didn't say that So we don't know exactly that they actually went to the right place first pop out of the box.

They had to get there But I want you to notice two things concerning the environment Of their for their evangelism one it was in their back yard See if you go to israel and you know Several years ago, we used to go to israel.

We go to bethlehem and you could see the shepherd fields. There was nothing there And you could you could see and and one year ago back back in the year 2000 We went there were actually some shepherds out in the shepherd fields tending their their sheep So you're sitting on top of a hill in bethlehem looking down to shepherd fields seeing these shepherds thinking wow, man That that that could have been the place somewhere in that vicinity And it kind of sends chills up and down your spine thinking that that that two thousand years ago Those shepherds could have been right there Or somewhere in that locale because the bible says in verse number eight in the same region in the same location In the same vicinity of bethlehem there were shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night And we know that in bethlehem is the place where they would tend to the sheep who would be offered for sacrifices on the day of atonement So these men didn't have far to go So you begin to learn That when you're going to share christ it begins In your own backyard Some people have forgotten about that When I say your backyard it really truly is your own your own home your own family first, right?

It's family first. It's neighbors next And sometimes we forget about that sometimes we are so caught up in sharing christ with the world that we forget about our family and the need for Our wife or a husband or a son or a daughter to know jesus christ in a personal way But folks that is The main aspect of your ministry It's your family first do they know christ are they walking with the lord do they know the lord That's where it has to be first.

Why? Because that's where you are known the most that's where you are known the best And that's where your christianity either works the best or fails Horribly And so you've got to focus in on your family first And then your neighbors The people in your community, do they know that you believe in the lord?

Jesus christ that you are committed to following jesus christ But it doesn't end there it begins In the backyard as it did with these shepherds But point number two that was just the beginning It wasn't the end That was just the beginning Of how the news would spread that's why when christ said you shall be my witnesses in jerusalem judaea samaria and the uttermost parts of the world It's got to begin at home It's got to begin where you live Because that's your greatest Influence And that's where it must begin And so let me challenge you as parents let me challenge you as grandparents Let me challenge you to make sure your family knows the lord and walks with the lord You can share christ with thousands of people And never share christ with your family or live christ in front of your family You need to make an impact at home first because in reality That's where your ministry truly lies In your family those closest to you And those who work with you those who live in your neighborhood do they know that you are committed to following christ But like the shepherds that was just the beginning Because the good news would begin to spread And some people would hear the good news and not respond Some would hear the good news and and and not even care about what took place But yet others would hear And others would come to christ as we will see in our study of the of the book of luke Let's move to point number three the essence of their evangelism What is the essence of their evangelism Look at the enthusiasm behind it We looked at the environment for it and now the Essence of it.

First of all, it's simplicity The bible says clearly Let's go straight to bethlehem And see this thing Which has happened which the lord has made known to us In verse 17 and when they had seen this they made known the statement Which had been told them about this child Now think about this ladies.

You've just given birth to a baby The last thing you want to see in your hospital room are a bunch of smelly strangers Just off the field Can you imagine here you are you're in this this stable you're in this cave like Area, and you've got your baby in the feeding trough and all of a sudden around the corner come four five six seven eight different scroungy looking scruffy looking shepherds Yo, hey Hey, hey, is it there's the baby there it is You're like who are these guys joseph? So who are these men?

Where are they from? Oh, don't worry. We're shepherds We're out in the fields And all of a sudden the glory of the lord would shine all around us And they would begin to make statements to mary and joseph What had taken place in their lives? Let me tell you something about evangelism And the simplicity of it You need just to make known the statements that god makes about himself That's it We we have made evangelism so difficult That most people don't even want to do it anymore You just need to make known the statement About who jesus is that's it Say the same thing about god that god says about himself That's all you got to do.

And so when you're sharing christ with people you want you want it It's easy to get sidetracked in your gospel presentation, isn't it? Because people have stories they want to tell And you have illustrations you want to give, you know, just get to the point bottom line And yeah, and the bottom line is is who jesus is and what jesus did It's the simplicity of evangelism It's speaking the truth faith cometh by hearing and hearing by a word about the christ romans 10 17 So you got to give a word about the christ you got to make a statement about the christ You got to show him what the bible says about who jesus christ is Because that's the essence of evangelism He who comes to god must believe that he is and that he's a reward of those who diligently seek him So you got to tell him who jesus is Which which leads not only from its simplicity to number two.

It's singularity It's about the child They made known the statement About who this child is It's a singular presentation It's about one individual and one person only yes, you can give your testimony Yes, you can tell about what jesus did for you. That's a good thing But the bottom line is it's a story about the christ And who he is And what he did that's why paul said We have determined to know nothing among you but jesus christ the person and him crucified the work What do these men hear about the statement?

For to you this day in the city of david has been born a savior who was christ the lord That's the statement they're going to give To mary and joseph We know this is the savior. We know this is the christ and we know this is the lord so in their statement in their Evangelistic efforts in their speaking forth the good news the gospel that brings great joy They are listening talking about his saviorship his messiahship his lordship in his saviorship. Listen They are declaring His sacrifice In his messiahship They are describing His sufficiency And in his lordship They are demanding Their submission Folks that's the gospel He's a savior, right?

Now these jews knew that the savior who would come would offer the ultimate sacrifice and we told you about the abrahamic covenant Being centered around a seed a soil and a sacrifice Genesis 22 It's all about the savior who would come and offer the ultimate sacrifice And so to to declare him as savior is to declare yourself a sinner in need of a savior And when they would describe his sufficiency in his messiahship remember the messiah was Three offices prophet priest and king As prophet he revealed the way as priest he removed the veil That is when he was sacrificed on calvary's tree The veil and temple was torn in two so that man now had access to the holy of holies and as the king He rules the world So now you're talking about the sufficiency Of the messiah because every jew longs for the coming of messiah Why because the messiah is the one who reveals to them the way?

and removes all obstacles in order For him to rule In the lives of his people And then of course his lordship demands our submission He's the lord of the world every knee will bow every tongue will confess that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god The father so you see that is the singular message of the gospel It centers around the person and work of jesus christ our lord And so when they finally find mary and joseph and they and remember they don't know their names They didn't say listen.

This is the son. This is who he is Mom's name is mary Father's name is joseph So when you go looking for them look for mary and joseph, no, they're looking for a baby in a feeding trough wrapped in cloths So you don't know the parents names Hi, i'm i'm shepherd number one This is shepherd number two shepherd number three shepherd four shepherd five and on down the line.

What is your name? Oh, it doesn't make a difference what your name is. We're here for the child We're here for the messiah the savior the lord And Didn't make known the statement It's simplicity It's singularity Please when you when you share the gospel somebody don't get sidetracked Don't get off kilter stay focused on the person and work of jesus christ the messiah What Leads us to our fourth point and that is the effects of their Evangelism the effects of their Evangelism Now, can you imagine the conversation between the shepherds and joseph and mary Now joseph and mary had no idea that anybody else knew about what was happening Because the angel didn't tell them the lord didn't tell them nothing was revealed to them All they knew is that as they sat down in that cave or in that stable and they held in their arms The son of god that it was just them the baby That's it And all of a sudden the shepherds show up Hey, guess what?

We got good news. We got great joy. Guess what happened to us tonight? We want to tell you And mary and joseph begin to soak all this in and you can imagine how they would relay back To the men and recount to the men What took place in their lives? As they would share about their relationship As mary would share about how the angel gabriel would come to her And joseph would share about how he had confirmation That mary was a virgin and this was the son of god You can imagine the conversation in the cave that night But the effects Upon the many And upon mary Listen to what the text says The text says Verse 17 and when they had seen this they made known the statement which had been told them about the child and all Who heard it?

wondered At the things which were told them by The shepherds now, who's that? You know, those are the people in bethlehem Whoever they they they would come in contact with night that night and and tell them about what they had encountered What had taken place in their lives and had they seen this child had they seen this messiah racked in cloths lying in the feeding trough And the bible says that all who heard about the statement Wondered literally were amazed or were absolutely astonished And you'd think That they'd all get in line And follow the shepherds and help them find the stable help them find the location And they'd all gather around and there'd be hundreds of people from bethlehem Gathered around that night listening to the words of the shepherds the testimony about the statement and the words from mary and joseph and falling down and Worshipping the son of god, but there is no record of that Because the effect of the gospel upon the many Is not received very well No matter how great the news, right?

Now you think about it Just think about it They wondered they were amazed great story Shepherds guys, man. Well, these guys been smoking out there in the middle of the field. They don't know what's going on These guys are wacko Some of them were amazed. This is amazing. This is incredible But none of them would actually follow them to the stable to hear and to see the Christ child They would not respond in faith They would not believe in their hearts about the coming of messiah They were just amazed They were in awe They wondered you know, a lot of people are like that They are amazed about what the bible says about christ But they never embrace the christ Maybe that's you today Maybe you are astonished about the work of christ and the ministry of christ the miracles of christ the words of christ And yet you never embrace the christ You never realize that you are a sinner in need of a savior and you fall down on your face before him and beg for mercy Many people Wonder and stand in awe At the birth of the christ child And they forget the that that the births Is not about his infancy But about his deity And the reality that god became man But upon mary it was different wasn't it Mary began as the bible says it's but mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart There's a contrast between mary and the many The many Stood in awe and wondered At what the shepherds had said but mary She began to treasure all these things.

She began to ponder. She began to meditate She had to soak it all in now you can imagine here she is 13 14 15 years at the oldest at best And all that's taken place in the last nine months And now here come these shepherds Telling her about this story About the angels and the glory of the lord shining all around them And she is just overcome With emotion She's holding the new born babe in her hands, this is the messiah When will he begin to give us deep Theological insights when will he begin to do miracles?

When will he begin to do the things that messiah is going to do as portrayed in the old testament? Wondering all these things and realizing that what she holds in her hand is the savior of the world She treasured these things in her heart Because she understood the deep things of god at a very young age And she wanted to know more And she would find out more as we will see in weeks ahead When she encounters simeon just eight days from this day in lutu And what simeon Tells her about the future of her son I mean, it's almost like information overload It's one thing to have a baby Okay I wouldn't know by experience But I know from secondhand experience And and and and all the emotions that go with that right ladies Lots of emotions that go into giving birth to a child Yet on top of that emotional upheaval that that comes because of a newborn child Comes the overwhelming responsibility that you hold in your hand the perfect sinless son of god You don't want to drop them that's for sure, you know saying You don't want to mess it up And and so I mean, it's just an overwhelming responsibility that this young teenage girl has She begins to treasure and ponder all these things What do these things mean You see These shepherds they would come they would speak the truth Some would hear and not believe A few would hear and truly believe Folks you need to realize that in your evangelism efforts That many people are not going to come to christ There's not Oh, they're going to stand amazed at what you say.

They're going to stand in awe about what has taken place They might marvel about how you present it But for the most part many will not believe a few will but don't get discouraged Don't get discouraged Your job is not to save souls Your job is just to speak the truth a word about the christ And encourage others And implore others to give their lives to christ That leads us to our last point and that is the experience from their evangelism Two things I want you to notice number one is adoration the bible says And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising god for all that they had heard and seen Just as had been told them so we know that they had heard something from Mary and joseph They go back praising god for all that they had heard and all that they had seen Because what they saw was a confirmation of what had taken place in the shepherd fields a short time before that And what they heard from the lips of joseph and what they heard from the lips of mary would cause them to praise their god All their more you see the effects of evangelism cause one to glorify and praise their god Because of what he does right It's god who does the work it's it's god who is Magnificent.

It's god who who opens hearts. It's god who who saves souls It's god who who does the work and and they would leave glorifying and praising god for all that they had seen For all that they had heard it was a monumental day in their lives That would change them forever But not only was there adoration There was satisfaction You know the bible didn't tell us what the shepherds were like before that night It didn't tell us if they were worried about their future If they were weary because of their work Doesn't tell us if if if they were bored with their job Doesn't tell us anything about their conversation that night or by the fire or even if there was a fire It doesn't say anything about their lives before that night.

It just tells us the Effects of that night in their lives They would go away glorifying and praising god listen folks when you encounter the living god you You're never the same That's why the bible says if anybody in christ, he's a new creation He's not the same old person He's a brand new person Because god transforms from the inside Out this doesn't give you a new makeover on the outside He does it on the inside where it counts And these men's lives were were were changed they were ecstatic But they had come to a a point of of realization That they were truly satisfied On the inside Because of what they encountered that night and the truth of the word of god Remember what peter says peter was one of those men who encountered the living god Peter was one of those men who came face to face with the living god Peter was one of those men who who understood what it meant to follow god But listen to the words of the apostle peter in first peter chapter two when he says this Verse six for this is contained in scripture.

In other words. This is what the scriptures say Behold, I lay in zion a choice stone a precious cornerstone And he listen very carefully he who believes in him shall not be disappointed Disappointed Now you think about that Shall not be disappointed it goes back to isaiah 28 verse number 16 Isaiah 28 16 and if you read isaiah 28 16, it says these words Behold I am laying in zion a stone a tested stone a costly cornerstone For the foundation from your place he who believes in it Will not be disturbed So the bible says when you believe in the chief cornerstone the precious stone jesus christ the messiah Not only are you not disappointed?

You will never be disturbed Now if you take a literal hebrew rendering of isaiah 28 16 It says this he who believes in him will never be in a hurry Hurry What does that mean never be in a hurry i'm always in a hurry You'll never be in a hurry to distrust And to run away from the one who never fails you You'll never be disturbed. You'll never be disappointed Because he is the precious stone he is the cornerstone you see when someone gives their lives to christ They're not gonna Ever be disappointed in him Because he's always true.

You see, you know, we we find friends we find Spouses that we love and adore and at times they disappoint us, don't they? Jesus never does He's faithful he's true always keeps his word And you can count on him forever And when these shepherds left that night They left glorifying and praising god ecstatic over what they heard And that would lead to a deep inner satisfaction of the workings of god that god is true to his word. Yes. Messiah has come We have witnessed his word because he gave us a sign and it was true just like he said God never fails.

He's always perfect and you see That's the way it should be with us and really truly that is The ultimate in terms of our evangelism. We believe that those who trust in god will never be disappointed because we're not Now I Think there'd be a great resounding. Amen as we know that statement Oh, amen pastor, we're not disappointed but the fact of the matter is a lot of us sit out there and think wow i'm disappointed Things just aren't working out the way I thought they would And you know what things might not work out the way you thought they would work out But Jesus is always true to his word always is he never fails And we need to count on him and trust him and believe in him and in the book of luke It's about what it means to to learn to trust in this one who is truly the messiah of the world And these men that night They have changed they never went to work the same again Tomorrow morning when you get to go to work I hope that you never go to work the same again I Hope it's just not the same old boring job What gives your job life?

and excitement Is to realize that when you go to work, you don't go to work to find Meaning in life you go to work to bring Meaning to the lives of those you work with And how do you bring meaning to their lives? By sharing with them The simplicity of the gospel the truth that jesus christ is the savior of the world And he who believes in him will never Be disappointed Let's pray Our most gracious heavenly father we are grateful for your word And we are grateful lord that in it. We find These shepherds who truly believed In the message of god And he would take that message And spread it into the village of bethlehem And while many heard it and many stood in in wonder at it It was mary who in stark contrast to them Would treasure all these things in her heart.

I pray father for the men and women in this room the boys and girls in this room father, they would do more than just With a passive curiosity Give respect to the word of god But lord, they would truly believe and embrace the truth of the scriptures And thus leave this place and go to work tomorrow Never the same again In jesus name. Amen