Angels & Shepherds: The Extraordinary Invades the Ordinary - Christmas

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

So why Shepherd?

There's a reason.

Why not Herod?

Why not the Emperor of Rome?

Why not a great influencer over Israel?

Shepherds! Shepherds don't know anybody but Shepherd.

Shepherds have no influence.

Herod had influence.

Herod could make an announcement to all of Jerusalem.

And everybody would know that over in Bethlehem, just a few miles away, a king's been born.

King of Shepherds.

Men and women, it's because they believe.

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

All right, turning your Bibles to Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

And if I were to give a thesis this morning, it would be this that Christmas is really about the extraordinary invading the ordinary.

I mean, from day one, from the very beginning, it's all about the extraordinary invading the ordinary.

You got Zacharias.

He comes into the temple.

He's just leading some sacrifices and leading worship.

And then the angel Gabriel shows up, proclaims to him that his wife, even in her old age, Elizabeth, is going to have a child.

And it was a prophecy of John the Baptist, a prophecy of the forerunner to come.

And then you have Mary, we talked about last week, just doing her peasant, young girl, probably 14 to 15-year-old thing, and the same angel, Gabriel, shows up.

And then a few weeks ago, we talked about 465 prophecies, even as far back as a thousand years, more than a thousand years before Christ, about the coming Messiah.

And I share with you that even in Judaism, we looked at, we looked at one of the great rabbis who said, if you call yourself a Jew and don't anticipate the coming of the Messiah, you're not a Jew.

And so even the rabbis of old all proclaim those, most if not all, of the same prophecies that we as Christians have.

So it's not just a Christian thing.

The prophecies of the Old Testament, the coming of the Messiah, is also a part of the rabbinical history of the Jewish nation.

And the chance of just eight, just eight of those prophecies coming true in one man is one to ten to the 21st power.

And so it's just amazing, just amazing the extraordinary invading the ordinary.

And so what I want to talk about today is angels and shepherds.

And I'm going to toggle back and forth about angels and shepherds.

And look at Luke 1.

We looked at it last week.

Let's look at it again from the perspective of angels.

Verse 26.

Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel, it's the same angel.

There's only two angels in the Bible that are named, Gabriel and Michael.

And we know this mighty man of God is what he's called, from the presence of the Lord.

He talks about him being in the presence of the Lord.

Now we're not sure exactly in systematic theology what an archangel is, but it would appear from Ephesians, Colossians, and Ephesians, Colossians, especially, that there is principalities and powers, hierarchies of angels in the heavenly realm, or what I would call the fourth dimension.

And here's what's interesting about angels.

Angels, we are considered a little lower than the angels in the scriptures, but then later it says that in heaven we will rule over angels.

So we're a little lower than angels now, but we're going to rule over angels later.

So the only explanation for that is that the fact that angels are not on a time space continuum like we are.

So we're limited to time-space continuum, that they're not subject to all of the laws of physics.

But angels are created beings.

So in one sense they're kind of supernatural, another sense they're not.

I mean that they're created by God, but they're in the fourth dimension, the heavenly realm.

We know about Gabriel being in the presence of God.

It would seem that Michael is somehow in the presence of God, but their name is Angelos in Greek, Angel.

It's messenger of God, like one of the young people said today.

That's exactly right.

An angel is a messenger of God, and in our story, Gabriel is bringing a message to Zacharias, and then Gabriel is then sent to bring a message to Mary.

Angels fight.

Seems as though angels battle when we pray.

Isn't that interesting?

So remember Joshua's facing Jericho, moving out across the Jordan, and what does it say?

An angel of the Lord came, and he self-identified as a commander of the Lord.

And he was dressed as a soldier.

Remember that in Joshua.

And then we know in Daniel chapter 10, Daniel for 21 days is fasting and praying and calling out and warring before the Lord about a revelation.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

He needed a revelation to a vision that he had seen.

Angel comes and says, I've been engaged with the prince of Persia the entire 21 days.

So from the day you started to pray, Daniel, I've tried to get to you, but I could not.

So angels rule over nations.

Angels have the ability to choose, to make choices.

Because we know that a third of the angels of heaven chose to rebel with Lucifer when he was kicked out of heaven because of his rebellion.

So a third of the angels became demons.

We believe that demons are angels.

So it would appear that there are principalities and powers, as Ephesians 1, 3, and 6 speak of.

Ephesians 6 especially, and then we juxtapose that to Daniel chapter 10, that there seem to be demon powers over nations.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

Which I would surmise that there's demon powers over states.

There's demon powers over regions, Prince of Persia.

And then if you remember the story, the angel is leaving Daniel, and you can read all about this in Daniel chapter 10.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

He's leaving Daniel, and he says, I go to battle with or to deal with the Prince of Greece.

It's kind of a giveaway to how these principalities and powers rule.

There is a demonic power over the United States of America.

And there's lots of prophetic opinions about what that spirit is.

I don't know that we know.

I mean, you can look at the manifestations of evil in a country, and it tells you a lot about what the demon is that's behind that.

But I'm not here to talk about demons.

I that's that's more when I talk about spiritual warfare.

But there's these angels, and I have to tell you a story.

The one angels unaware.

How many of you think you might have encountered an angel in your life?

Raise your hand.

Yeah.

So, way back many years ago, Liz and I were in Japan.

We had just gotten married, and we were traveling around the world.

So we instead of going straight from Japan to Hawaii, to San Francisco, to Atlanta, we went the other way.

We went uh Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain.

We were supposed to go to Frankfurt, everything got messed up.

It would take me an hour to explain the whole story.

It was it was something like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I mean, it was just like one thing after another, all these encounters and and stuff.

But anyway, we end up, it's four, it's three.

Okay, where my story picks up, it's 4 a.m.

in Malaga, Spain on the Spanish Riviera in a red light district.

We don't know where we are.

Liz speaks Spanish, so that's good.

Taxi driver drops us off, and the whole nation is on strike.

So everything's closed.

So we're standing there with our bags, and a lady comes out of the dark and she says in perfect English, what do you need?

Now, you guys know if I'm in the red light district and I was alone, then you probably know who that is.

But Liz is right next to me.

She comes out, says perfectly, what do you need?

I said, We need a hotel.

We were not expecting to be here.

We're here right now, and she goes, go there.

And she points at a hotel.

We turn back to thank her and she's gone.

We go into the hotel, go up to the receptionist, say, We're looking for a room.

It's 4 a.m.

in the morning.

She goes, I can't believe that you had come here.

We go, why?

She says, There's not a room anywhere.

There was no room here just a few hours ago, and someone canceled, we got one room.

I mean, we're talking about a huge hotel on the Spanish Riviera.

And we believe that this was a messenger of God to take care of us in that time of need in our life.

Angels, I think we encounter angels way more than we know.

They're out there, they're moving.

The extraordinary, invading the ordinary, is the Christmas story.

The Christmas story, men and women, is with you every day.

If you're aware, it says angels, what does it say?

Unaware, right?

Angels unaware.

Be aware.

Start being more supernatural in your thinking.

Be more supernatural when you pray.

Be more supernatural as you go through your life because I believe God wants to invade.

It's his MO.

His MO is to invade our lives with healing, to invade our lives with witnesses for him, to invade our lives with wise men that are there for us.

So look what Gabriel says, verse 27.

The virgin betrothed a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.

The virgin's name was Mary.

And having come in, the angel said to her, Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.

Blessed are you among women.

But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and considered what manner of greeting this was.

Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

So the first thing we notice about an angel angels bring messages from God, but they show the greatness and the power of God's love for us.

I mean, this is such a beautiful statement.

It's astounding here that she's troubled by what he says, but she's not troubled by what he looks like.

Because that's going to come later.

But this word to her is an encouragement.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, shall call his name Jesus.

And he will be great, be called the Son of the Highest.

The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Angels primarily are messengers.

They're gonna bring something, they're gonna say something.

Go there, she said to me.

You know, angels are on the move at all times, and it's like they are on, they're on a mission.

They're called flames of fire in Hebrews.

Hebrews calls angels flames of fire.

Now turn to Luke 2.

So turn in your Bibles to Luke 2, and this is where the shepherds encounter angels.

And I'm gonna toggle back and forth between the extraordinary and the ordinary, and let's look at shepherds.

Now there we're in the same country, verse 8.

Shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

It's interesting when you do research on shepherds, there's one line of thinking out there that shepherds were considered outcasts.

And then when you actually look at the bibliography of where that comes from, there's always a reference to Aristotle, because Aristotle didn't like shepherds.

But when you actually look at the writings of that time, shepherds were not outcasts.

Shepherds were your hardworking, blue-collar, ordinary people of that time.

And the history of Israel was one of Abraham, Moses, and David, the great leaders of Israel, being shepherds.

As a matter of fact, the prophecy of the Messiah to come was this, found in Matthew, but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.

So it wasn't, shepherds were not at the status that they had once been before, but they were certainly not despised, as Aristotle said.

Jesus self-identifies as the good shepherd.

So shepherds were ordinary laboring class people.

Joseph and Mary are ordinary laboring class people.

God with the extraordinary invades the ordinary.

Verse 9.

A little different now on the take with Mary.

So Mary is only troubled by what the angel says, but in verse 9 of chapter 2 is different with the shepherds.

And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid.

So sometimes angels show up with the glory of the Lord.

The angel we met in Spain on our way to Morocco did not come with the glory of the Lord.

Remember that part in Touched by an Angel?

Like when they start to make their big message and everything, they kind of shine, you know, and all that.

That's kind of cool.

But that's not the way it is in the Bible.

When they come with the glory of the Lord, it is terrifying.

It is terrifying.

And I've heard it a hundred times if I've heard it once from people.

Man, if I could just see an angel.

If I could see an angel, I would believe.

Man, if I could see an angel, I believe what you're saying.

But I've never, I don't, I never see any of that kind of stuff never happens.

My response is always the same.

It's like, you want to encounter an angel?

Go to Daniel chapter 10 and tell me if you want to encounter an angel.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

Here's what it says in Daniel chapter 10.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

And Daniel chapter 10, Daniel is not a wimp.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

Okay, Daniel has been in a lion's den.

Daniel has led through four administrations, four government administrations.

He encounters an angel, and this is not uncommon in Scripture.

Now, on the 24th day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is the Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with the gold of Uphos.

His body was like bereal, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.

Remember Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Remember that last scene with the Ark of the Covenant and all that?

Well, I knew the guy who was the who was a pastor, he was a vineyard pastor at the time in Southern California.

He was the consultant for that movie, and this was the passage they used to develop that last scene where the glory comes off the ark and everything.

And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision, but a great terror fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

Therefore I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me, for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength.

Yet I heard the sound of his words, and while I heard the sound of his words, I was in deep sleep on my face with my face to the ground.

So this was so terrifying to Daniel that every bit of his strength just leaked out, and then he went to bed.

Have any of you been so like stressed out, all you can do is go to bed?

I mean, I have.

There's times where I just got to take a nap.

I've got to get out of it.

He's so terrified, it seems like he falls on his face and just goes unconscious because of the terror of the glory of the angel of the Lord.

I believe that's what these shepherds are encountering.

They're encountering not just angels, but it says here, even the glory of the Lord, and they're greatly afraid.

These are men's men out there in the field, and they are greatly afraid.

Verse 10.

Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid.

For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people.

I wonder if, like, an angel, like when they do Angel 101, you know, if you go through their training center to be an angel, like the first thing they train you to say is, always say to those folks down there, don't be afraid.

They get really freaked out really easily.

There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

This is actually Linus's line in uh in the great series that uh Ryan was talking about.

And this will be assigned to you.

You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men.

So one of the principal functions of angels is to ever praise God.

So in Revelation 4, it talks about seraphim and cherubim worshiping God.

Revelation 4 and 5, when John goes in to heaven, he sees heaven up there.

And I'm assuming that there's angels there worshiping the Lord.

So they're bringing, that's angels tend, I think, they bring the glory down.

They give some people a glimpse of glory.

And in this case, it's written down, it becomes scripture to us, this glory of God.

I believe this is what's happening in heaven all the time.

And so when we start to pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and then we come to a worship service like this at the road, or you're online watching it, our prayer always, when we come up here 20 minutes before this the service starts, we're all up here in a big circle praying.

Somebody always prays, Lord, we pray that people who come to the road today would experience the glory of God.

Would experience the presence of God.

When you guys were singing this morning, holy, holy, holy, when you were singing, did you hear that?

Oh my goodness.

It was, and I just liked the way Brian did it, where he just brought all the instruments down.

I think there was just one instrument playing, and we could all just hear each other singing.

There's nothing else in your week, there's nothing else in your job quite like that.

Even if you're in a 242 C group and you guys worship together, maybe there, something about the whole congregation coming is a glimpse of heaven.

And you're getting the glory of God.

You're getting a little bit of a piece, of a touch of the glory of God.

Well, imagine this a bunch of shepherds just tending their sheep, and suddenly angels come and the hosts come.

I freaked them out.

It was amazing.

That's what God does.

He gives us a glimpse into wonderful.

Worship and praise with him.

So it was.

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, verse 15, that the shepherds said to one another, let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they came with haste, found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying around.

So why shepherds?

There's a reason.

Why not Herod?

Why not the Emperor of Rome?

Why not a great influencer over Israel?

Why not a Roman centurion at least?

Shepherds.

Shepherds don't know anybody but shepherds.

Shepherds have no influence.

Herod had influence.

Herod could make an announcement to all of Jerusalem, and everybody would know that over in Bethlehem, just a few miles away, a king's been born.

It came to shepherds.

Ordinary, hardworking, laboring people.

Mary, ordinary, hardworking, laboring class, fourteen or fifteen-year-old.

Joseph, Carpenter.

It's because they believed.

Men and women, it's because they believe.

Billy Graham once said, the one thing, the one thing that holds back God's glory in America is if just Christians would believe.

Doesn't matter your doctrine entirely.

Doesn't matter your theology entirely.

Doesn't matter how much how many resources you have, if we would just believe, if we would just believe that God is real, if we would just believe that God can show up in our circumstances, if we would just believe that God's working all things out together for good, what he could do miraculously across our country.

Right?

These shepherds believed.

I love what it says they went in haste.

They didn't just go, hey, maybe we should go.

I don't know.

I think I've got a, you know, we gotta eat here.

You know, it's time for breakfast.

Or I've got an appointment.

There were they just moved out.

They were they were doing exactly what the angels said, and they moved out, and that's why the angels came to a group of shepherds.

Well, a number of years ago, I was at Mountain Springs Church as a pastor there, and one of the couples there sent me an email.

This is in 2009.

They sent me this email.

And y'all know Bill and Tammy Mount.

Some of you know them here.

They were in the first service.

And I wanted to read it to you, and the worship team can come up, but I wanted to read this encounter that is pretty amazing.

I call it the Trucker Angel Story.

The trucker angel story.

And this is Tammy after interviewing her father.

My dad is a trucker and has been for the past 20 plus years.

He and my mom were raised Catholic and married in the Catholic Church.

When I was two, they divorced and were kicked out of the Catholic Church.

Both were convinced they were going to hell for their sin.

And so that's a little bit of their background.

He had been driving all day and stopped at a truck stop to eat and sleep.

He sat at a table with another two truckers who were also there to eat and sleep.

They made small talk while they ate, during which another trucker came and sat down across from my father.

He listened to their conversation, but he said nothing.

The other two truckers decided to call it a night and got up and left.

After the two left, the man across from my dad said, You're being called as a witness.

My dad said he became instantly agitated with him and asked him, A witness for what?

Impatient with this person, my dad got up and said, Good night.

He tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep, and decided to get up early and look for the man across from him the night before.

He found the first two truckers having breakfast, but didn't see the third man.

When my dad asked the truckers if they had seen the third man, they said they had never seen anyone come and sit across from my dad.

Puzzled by all this, my dad decided to stop by a church, good choice, that was known to cater to truckers by putting out CDs of the pastor's sermons on a weekly basis.

My dad picked up everything he could get his hands on.

Once he was back on the road, he put in one of the CDs.

In the middle of the sermon, there was a short message that said to call 1-800.

He thought that was odd.

So he rewound that part of the message, wanting to hear it again, but it wasn't there the second time.

He called the 800 number, and a woman answered the phone.

He told her that he had no idea why he was calling this number, and she said, You're being called as a witness.

And he began to sob and he pulled off the road and he gave his life to Christ.

So God's in the business of revealing himself to ordinary people who believe in extraordinary things.

And God still does that in your life.

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