What are You Searching for this Christmas? | Robby Gallaty | Luke 2

How many people in here are about to have, anybody about to have a baby? Anybody, maybe you're online, or about to have a child? How long, sooner or later? February. Okay, pretty soon, yeah. Anybody else? Anybody have, okay, child on the way? Anybody have a child maybe this past year? Anybody have any kids? Okay. If you ever have a child, you know that as you're approaching the birth of the child, normally it's customary to have a baby shower, right, where friends will gather together and throw a shower, and you show up to the party with this expectation that you're gonna bring something to the couple. What is it? A gift, right? You're expected to show up with a gift. I don't know if you know this, but when Jesus was born, he received gifts as well. Now, immediately our mind goes to the wise men, right, when they traveled 600 plus miles and brought Baby Jesus, gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now, the problem with that, and I don't wanna ruin your Christmas, but if you study the text in context, you'll realize that that doesn't happen until Jesus is a year and a half to two years old.

Two reasons for that. One is they're no longer in a cave, they're in a home, and the word that describes Jesus is not infant, but lad in the Greek, which is actually a young child. But the first gift that was given to Jesus was given by the shepherds. You have to look real close to figure it out, but I wanna show you today that the greatest gift that they offered to Baby Jesus, watch this, was their obedience to God. God spoke and they responded, which is, in a sense, miraculous when you know who they are. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter two, and I wanna give you a teaser for Christmas Eve. I'm gonna preach this text in two parts. You're going to want to come back Christmas Eve for the second part when I describe the significance of the clothes Jesus is wrapped in and the cave Jesus is born in, and I'll give you a hint, it's a foreshadowing of his death. But you'll have to come back for Christmas Eve to hear that. Today we're gonna take the first part, which is Luke chapter two, verse eight. We like to say word when we get to the place of scripture we're at, so if you're there, you can say word. Word. Thank you, Charlie. Let's try it again. If you're there, say word.

Word. Amen. The word of the Lord. In the same reason shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock, then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in the city of David, a savior was born for you who is the Messiah, the Lord. Now we know from context that the city of David was what city? Bethlehem. That's where David as a young boy was raised and born. In the city of David, a Messiah is born. This will be the sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger. By the way, not to give the Christmas Eve sermon away, but that word manger is a feeding trough. It would be the equivalent of finding a baby in a dog bowl. Suddenly, there was a multitude of heavenly hosts with the angel praising God, saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to the people he favors. I wanna teach you two insights from this first part of this message in this text, and that is,

I wanna show you the significance of the town, and I wanna show you the impact of the shepherds. So the first thing we notice about this text is this town is significant. In fact, Bethlehem in the ancient world was known for a couple things, kind of like cities in America, right? Like Nashville is known for what? Country music. Somebody said in the last service, bachelorette parties. Okay, I get you. What about Memphis? Barbecue, someone said crime. I mean, who, easy. I'm not saying these things, you guys are. New Orleans is known for Mardi Gras. Orlando is known for what? Disney World. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for squeaking into the college playoffs ahead of Vanderbilt, but yeah, I mean, yeah. I had an Alabama fan say, Pastor, you're taking a shot at me early, and I said, you're as surprised as anyone. You guys are in the playoffs, which he agreed to, right? Don't hate me, don't email. But Bethlehem was known for something. Two things, actually. Bethlehem was known as the city where King David was from and raised, but it was also known as the town

that was the only sanctioned city in all of Israel that could raise and provide animals for sacrifice in the temple. In fact, the only lambs that were accepted. by the priests in Jerusalem on Passover by individuals were to be raised and reared in Bethlehem. It's no accident that of all the cities God chose to send his son to be born in, the city was Bethlehem. Now, they needed a lot of lambs in the first century. An ancient historian by the name of Josephus says that about two million people, one to two million on the high end, traveled to Jerusalem every year. Wrap your mind around this. For Passover. Two million people came to worship and sacrifice, which means, you can extrapolate the numbers, they needed about 250,000 lambs to slaughter for God every year. That's a lot of lambs. In fact, one historian said the blood from the lambs would run so thick and wide in the streets, it was like a torrential downpour of rain, except it was blood. It's no accident that of all the cities Jesus was born into, he's born into this city. Now, I asked myself the question this week, where do we first find the town of Bethlehem in Scripture? Anyone know?

Where do we first find the city of Bethlehem mentioned? Genesis chapter 35. Go with me there, and I wanna set up the context for you. Genesis 35 is the death of Rachel, who is the wife of Jacob. In Genesis 35, we'll pick up in verse 18, or verse 19. So when Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is what? Look what the text says. Not everybody at once, by the way. Bethlehem, there it is, right here. Bethlehem. Jacob set up a marker on her grave. It is the marker at Rachel's grave still to this day. Here's the line. Israel, which is Jacob, set out again and pitched his tent beyond the tower of what? Adair. Now, the tower of Adair in English misses the point. In Hebrew, it's actually the Migdal Adair, which can be translated, get this, as the tower of the flocks. The tower of the flock. Tower of the flock was, this is a picture of what it would've looked like. This was a tower that was about 1,500 steps from the city of Bethlehem, right outside the city in the fields. And what the shepherds would do is they would climb this tower during the day at night

to keep watch over their sacrificial lambs that would one day find themselves in the temple. Don't miss this. Of all the cities in all the world in all the places that Jesus, God's son, could be born, he's born in Bethlehem. And what's the significance? It's no accident that Bethlehem produces lambs to be sacrificed on Passover for a family. But Jesus is not any ordinary lamb. Jesus is about to die on the cross and sacrifice his life, not for a family, but for the world. Aren't you glad for that? So the town is pretty significant. But what I wanna drive down and focus in on today is I wanna focus in on the supernatural encounter of the shepherds. Now, I've said this before, and just for recap, but shepherds in the first century were the most detestable people in all of Israel. They were lower class. Now, I know what you're thinking. What about David was a shepherd? Jesus is the good shepherd. Yeah, I get that. But you have to understand the context. By the time of Jesus's coming, shepherds were unreliable, untrustworthy, and detestable. They could not testify in court. People thought they were thieves, manipulators.

In fact, in the mission, which is a commentary on the Old Testament, here's what the mission says. The mission says the only individual worse than a shepherd was a leper. Not to mention they were ceremonially uncleaned because they were nomadic in their lifestyle and profession. Think about this, and I never thought about this until recently. These guys lived in a state of uncleanliness according to the law. Why? Because they were constantly walking around with sheep manure on their feet. They were handling mud and dirt. But not to mention, they were delivering lambs and babies, so they were covered in blood at times. These were men who were the outcasts of Zion. So the question we have to ask and answer is, why in the world would God send his birth invitation to these shepherds who are the overlooked and looked over of society? That's the question. And before we answer the question, you have to see something about the character of God. God is teaching us something about who he is. This is the kind of people God loves to draw to himself. Aren't you glad for that? That's what God loves to do. In fact, that's God's MO all throughout the Bible. It's pretty surprising because you wouldn't expect that from a king, especially the king of the world, Jesus.

When a king, let's say King Charles, has a child, Who does he send an invitation to? Who does he invite to come to the arrival of his firstborn son if he has one at this time? You would think it would be an elaborate list, right? Dignitaries, kings, queens. You would invite CEOs and princes and presidents, the upper class of society, right? The haughty tawdy of the world. Those who are above and beyond everything. The last person you would invite if you're the king of England is a bunch of trash collectors in the city, with all due respect. You're not sending invitation to the London cab drivers to come see the arrival of your son who is the king. And yet God is revealing to us something in the calling and the summoning of the shepherds. Here's what God, don't miss this. This is what Christmas is about. God is showing us that he always goes after the disenfranchised of society. God is about the business of going after those who don't fit into the mold. Those who are on the fringes of society. People who are ordinary, just like you and me. Aren't you glad, God? Because you gotta understand, if we could have read this story and we would not think any different,

imagine reading the birth story and it says, the queen of Sheba showed up and the Caesar of Rome showed up and the prince of Persia. We would say, of course they show up. That's what God is. That's what God expects. But aren't you glad? That the first people to witness the birth of God's son are the outcast of society. The down and out, the looked over and the overlooked. You have to imagine, they were probably in shock and awe as well. Like when the angels came to them, they probably looked around and said, wait, y'all want me? Y'all want us? This ragtag motley crew, right? You want us? And the angel probably tried to help them in their disbelief by serenading them with an announcement from an angelic choir, right? I mean, you have to understand, they're in pitch black darkness and all of a sudden the sky is lit up like an ancient fireworks show of song. And the angels light up the sky and they start to sing Gloria in Excelsis Deo. You know what that means in English? Glory to God in the highest.

This is what it means. God, you're worthy to be praised. So what did the shepherds do? Soon as they hear the announcement, the Bible says they take out their phones and check Twitter to determine. Is this real, right? Let's make sure this is real, right? No, they don't do that. What do the shepherds do? Do they venture into the city to independently check and verify that the news is reliable? No, they don't do that. Do they look one to another and say, is this real? Should we go? Do they decide a plan of action? We stay, no. The Bible says, don't miss this, when they heard the announcement, immediately they dropped everything and they went and sought after Jesus. Now, if anybody at that time could have had an excuse for not going, it would have been them. My suggestion, I don't wanna mess you up, but I think Jesus was born right at or before Passover in April. The reason is shepherds are not in the field in December, not to ruin your Christmas even more, but so I think Jesus was born in April, April around Passover.

If that's the case, that amplifies, intensifies the narrative, why? Because if anybody had an excuse as to not go see some baby wrapped in a cloth in a dog bowl, it could have been them, why? They're like, really God? Like this is the busiest time of the year, we can't go. Don't you understand? Who's gonna watch the flock? Who's gonna take care of the sheep? Don't you realize that we don't have time for this? If anybody had excuses, it would have been them. And yet the Bible tells us, when God spoke, what did they do? They responded and came to Jesus. Here's the takeaway I want you to get for Christmas. This is how God works all the time. God is in the business of always doing the opposite of what everyone expects. You ever notice that? That's what he does, why? Because when he calls people like you and me, he gets the glory. Now this shouldn't surprise anybody in here because if you know your ancient geography, you understand this is how God rolls in a sense. This is how he always has worked. I was thinking this week, I've never done this before, I was thinking this week, is there significance in the town of Bethlehem?

I mean, obviously King David, I knew that. And I knew Jesus, but I started to ask the question, is there something in Bethlehem that describes the character and the quality of how God works with people? And I started to go on this journey. So I'll take you on a quick journey with me. When the nation of Israel finally makes it to the promised land, all the way back after 40 years of wandering, watch this, they cross over the Jordan River and they make their way to the first town of Jericho. Jericho is a walled city. They sent two spies in, remember, two spies go, and they wind up at a house of a woman named Rahab. Now, some scholars believe that was like a house where women lived and that's why. They felt safe there because a lot of guys were traveling in and out of town, so they went to this kind of a brothel, if you will. So they go to this house, they meet Rahab, and Rahab protects them, and for doing that, the two guys say, when we come back, and God's gonna level this city, if you hold a crimson cord out your window, we'll save you. And that's what happened. Now, you fast forward to after they take over the city, Sammon, who's one of the Israelites, decides to marry Rahab, the prostitute, and bring her into the family of God. Now, the problem with that is this.

Rahab has three strikes against her. Number one, she's a woman. Number two, she's a Gentile. Number three, she's a prostitute. But that's what God says. No, no, not only are you gonna be outcast, you're gonna be grafted into the family of God, and oh, by the way, you're gonna be in the lineage of my son Jesus, the Messiah. So Rahab and Sammon decide to settle in a city. They could've settled anywhere. Guess where they settle and have a family? Guess what city? Bethlehem. Sammon and Rahab would have a son by the name of Boaz. And Boaz, like his father, would one day take in a woman who was an outcast. Many years later, if you remember how it goes down, Ruth loses her husband. She loses her father-in-law. She loses her brother-in-law, who can't take care of her. So she goes to her mother-in-law by the name of Naomi, who is an Israelite living in Moab, which is east of Israel. And she says, what are we gonna do? We're widowed, we don't have money, we don't have anything. She says, hey, let's move back to Israel and settle in, of all cities in all of that area, guess what city we're gonna move in and settle? Bethlehem.

And Ruth and Naomi work in the field, and Ruth sees Boaz. Boaz not only takes her in, but he marries this Gentile Moabite woman and takes her into his family, and now she's grafted into the family of God in the lineage of Jesus, just like her father took in her mother-in-law. They would have a son by the name of Obed. Obed would have another son named Jesse, and Jesse would have 12 sons. The 12 sons would be where the Messiah or the leader of the nation of Israel, the king of Israel, would come from. So God taps Samuel on the shoulder, you know the story, and he says, hey, Sammy, go and find and anoint the nation of Israel king. He's in this family of 12. And so he goes to Jesse's house. He knocks on the door, and he's like, hey, do you have anybody to be king? And Jesse, in an ancient beauty contest, if you will, parades, you know, parades the guys forward, and the first guy comes out. He's tall, dark, and handsome, and Sam's like, no, that's not the guy. What? This guy, just look at him. No, you got anybody else? I mean, I got number two. He's not as good as number one.

Come on out. He parades him in. No, that's not it. Next guy, not it. Next guy, not it. After 11 guys, Sam's like, you got anybody else? He's like, well, we got a runt in the backyard messing with sheep. I mean, surely you don't want... No, let's take a look at him. David, who's the least of all the brothers, David, who's the lowly, David, who's the youngest, well, once again, this is how God works, will one day become the greatest. That's how God works. God always chooses the most unlikely people. And Long Hollow, that's the story of Christmas I want you to take with you. God came to earth to choose those who are looked over and overlooked. Think about it. Rahab was a prostitute. God welcomes her in. Ruth was a Moabite. God welcomes her in. David was the youngest of all shepherds, of brothers. God welcomes his in. The shepherds were those who were looked over and perpetually unclean. And God says, no, I want you in.

And all of these people, don't miss this, are in the lineage of Jesus, the Messiah, to prove one point. I want you to get this. The people Jesus came from are the people Jesus came for. I want that to settle in. This list of checkered past people like us are the exact people Jesus came for. Aren't you glad of that? Isn't that so cool? I mean, that's what God does, right? And so I wonder today, this Christmas season, I wonder what would happen if you surrendered your life completely to Christ. See, the shepherds show us something interesting. Nobody in here, nobody online is too far gone from God. Do you believe that? No one in here is too addicted. No one in here is too angry. No one in here is too lost. No one in here is past the point of no return. No one is too sinful. No one is too unclean. No one is too dirty. Nobody is outside of the reach of God's grace, including you. Amen, do you believe that? And some of you are here today and you're like, man, I didn't, you know, you could praise the Lord for that, amen?

Some of you are here today and you're like, man, I'm only here because I got drugged this morning, drugged by my parents to church. Yeah, I mean, I get it, I don't know. I used to be drugged by my mom and dad. church all the time when I was your age, I get that. Or maybe you're here because a friend invited you or a family member said, hey, you ought to come to Long Hollow Christmas, regardless of who you are and where you're from and where you're coming here today. I really believe some of you are saying, man, that resonated with me. The fact that God chose those who are the farthest away from him and welcomed them in shows me that I'm not too far gone for God. I hadn't sinned too great where God can't forgive. If you believe that, look at me. If the devil says you don't have what it takes or God won't save you, that is a lie from Satan himself. Here's what I know about God. Anyone at any time, anywhere, with any past can experience transformation if they repented their sins and call out to Christ for salvation. Do you believe that? So here's the greatest, the greatest gift you could give Jesus this Christmas. You know what it is? What's the greatest gift you, every person, individually, you know what the greatest gift you can give Jesus is you for Christmas, fully surrendered to the Lord.

Wouldn't it be cool to give the creator the very thing he created back to him as a gift? Father, we thank you so much for Jesus. God, I pray you shine a searchlight on our heart and reveal to us what area of our life we're holding back from you. Maybe we are believers, maybe we know you and we're saying, no, I know Jesus, but I'm not living for him. I haven't surrendered everything to him. Or maybe there are people in here today, we've had people in the last few services who've come forward after and said, hey, I wanna trust in Christ. I'm ready to surrender my life to Christ. I pray that someone stops at one of our prayer stations or our welcome center and just says, hey, would you pray with me? I'd like to surrender my life to Christ. We love you, Lord. Do what only you can do. We ask it in Jesus' name. And everyone said, amen.