A Shepherd's Eyewitness Account

Yes.

Yes.

That is exactly what happened.

It is the word of God.

All right.

Precisely.

That is what happened.

I don't know about y'all, but this music is new to me. It's kind of unfamiliar. I tell you that night I was there for it. Oh, forgive me. My name is Benjamin and I'm a Judean shepherd and I was there for it. Allow me to tell you the rest of the story.

Life as a Shepherd

You know, ever since I can remember, and even longer than that, for more than 400 years, my family has been a shepherd family. Ever since we came back from the Babylonian captivity that y'all read about in the Bible, when we came back, my family became shepherds and has been passed down from one generation to the next to the next. We have always been a shepherd family. Now, do we have any shepherds in here?

Oh, I guess I'm the only one. So, I need to tell you a little bit about being a shepherd. Let me tell you about being a shepherd. The life of a shepherd in many ways is very lonely.

I say it's lonely because we were somewhat outcasts in society. Many people looked down on our vocation. Many people just thought we were dirty and smelly.

Oh, forgive me. Do I smell?

In all honesty, though.

A shepherd, a good shepherd should smell like his sheep. You know, this time of year, y'all celebrate the birth of Christ, right? And we celebrate the fact that God sent his son, Jesus Christ, down from heaven to this earth. And Jesus is known as the chief shepherd. And you know what? Jesus, he walked amongst us. He smelled like his sheep.

And I think as a shepherd, I should smell like my sheep, too. So, yeah, some people ignored us because we were smelly. Some ignored us cuz we were poor. Some because they looked down on our vocation. So, in many respects, you could think the shepherd life was a sad life. But in all honesty, the shepherd life was quite a good life.

I say we were lonely from the world, but I tell you, amongst our shepherd friends, we had true friendships.

You know, I hear about y'all having a hundred or a thousand Facebook friends. Those aren't true friends. You know what? I would rather have a small group of true friends than hundreds of so-called friends. That was one blessing about being a shepherd was that we had friendships with other shepherds. I'll tell you another blessing. Every day we got to be out in God's creation.

So many of y'all, you work indoors all day. You go home and you watch TV all day. There was something so special about being out in God's creation. And every day we were in God's creation taking care of our sheep. I can't even imagine the amount of sunrises I've seen. Oh, glory to God. When you see a sunrise or a sunset, there's something so beautiful about God's creation. And I tell you, the shepherd's life was also good because it was a simple life. You know, have you ever heard the phrase less is more? Sometimes I hear you people get all caught up in stuff. Buying the big house, buying the nice car, stuff isn't going to make you happy. Worldly possessions, you're not taking it with you.

And you're not going to get happy from stuff. I tell you, we lived a really simple life, but it's kind of a good life. We didn't have all the stresses. We weren't slave to the lender. I hear you people spend money that you don't have and then pay what you call interest. I tell you, the simple life was kind of actually nice. So although the shepherd life could be lonely, it was actually a really good life. I'll tell you, as for me, I never had more than about 75 sheep in my fold. The 10 very best ones we would use for breeding purposes. Then we would have three or four very good ones that we would bring annually to the temple for sacrifices. That was the primary source of our income. We would make a little bit of money off slaughter of a few lambs and a little bit of money at shearing time from selling wool. But all in all, we only made about the equivalent of $10 a year. But it was enough to live the simple life that we lived.

The True Meaning of Christmas

And I tell you, as we celebrate, as y'all celebrate the birth of Christmas, I hear that y'all buy all kinds of stuff. I hear about the traditions that y'all have. And I suppose they can be good. And I know more than anything, God looks to the heart.

But one reason I wanted to come here today was to remind you what Christmas is truly about.

Dangers of Shepherding

I tell you before I get into what happened that night, I tell you one more thing about being a shepherd. Being a shepherd can be dangerous. There were always lions and bears in the Judean hilllands of my day that lurked about. That's what I had this for. I'd give him a little he'd poke him away from the sheep.

But you know when the sheep would stray, that's when the lion and the bear would try to devour him. It's kind of like the devil. The Bible says, "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." Listen, if you know somebody that's straying, try to bring them back to God. And if you are straying from God, return to the Lord because the enemy will try to devour you. And for us as shepherds, we were to protect our sheep.

The Night of the Angels

But that night, that night that you heard these kids read about in the Bible, that is exactly how it happened. I could never forget that night. What an amazing and a glorious night that was. It is really indescribable what happened that night. The word of God describes it best, but I'll try to put it into my words a little bit about what happened that night. We were doing what shepherds normally do. We were protecting our sheep. We were watching our sheep. And of course, shepherds always loved a campfire. We love to have a campfire. It kept us warm when we watched our sheep. We were out in the fields all the time. It would get cold and the light from the fire would let us keep an eye on our sheep at night.

And I remember that night we were singing around the campfire some good old shepherd tunes like what?

Well, like we would say Mary had a little lamb ba and we would say Mary had a little ba ba. We thought we were funny. You know, everybody always said that I couldn't sing.

Amen. But sometimes when I started to sing, I really felt like I could. If you want, I can sing for you now.

Maybe later. Maybe later.

But I'll tell you one other thing about that night I remember before I get to the main event.

We were talking about heroes of the faith. You know what I always took pride in as a shepherd? A lot of the heroes of the faith in the Bible, you know what they were?

A lot of them were shepherds.

Abraham,

Moses,

Jacob,

Joseph,

and my favorite, David. I love the way God gave David the ability to handle the lion and the bear when the lion and the bear attacked.

I used to dream of being like David when the lion would try to attack my sheep. But I tell you, our job was to protect that sheep. But at that night after we had had that night, my friends drifted off to sleep and it was just me and my best friend Tophi. We were on the evening watch, the night watch. And I tell you, we were looking up at the stars, amazed by God's glory. And we started to think about things of God and talk about things of God. And my friend, he said, "Benjamin, do you ever think Messiah will come?"

Now, my friend and I, we believed in God. We believed in the one true God. And we knew that Messiah was supposed to come. And after we talked about it for some time, we both agreed and we both said, "We know Messiah will come, but we just don't know when." And then it happened. I tell you, suddenly there was brilliance everywhere.

I can't fully describe the light that we saw except it was not a light from this earth. It was from God.

I later realized it was the glory of the Lord. I don't know if anybody's ever had the blessing of being in the glory of the Lord, but I have, and it's indescribable.

We were overwhelmed with awe and peace.

But then we had fear. All of the sudden we saw this being. We later realized it was an angel of the Lord. And we were afraid.

But then the angel said, "Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." My friend and I had just been talking about will Messiah come? When will he come? And now we're in the midst of the glory of the Lord and this angel talking to us and say today's the day that in the city of David a savior will be born. And then the angel said and this will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And I tell you what happened next.

There's no way I could describe it. All of the sudden we saw multitudes of angels everywhere. Everything we saw was the glory of the Lord and angels. Can you imagine?

And this group of angels, this heavenly choir, the best choir you've ever heard, they started singing out praising God, saying, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men."

I've often wondered since that day, the word of God doesn't tell us, but I've wondered if that was the exact moment that Christ was born.

I can't put into words how much we were in awe.

There we were in the fields, but it was like all we saw was the glory of the Lord and angels. It was indescribable the joy and the peace we felt. And just as quickly as it came, like a light switch turned the light on and off, bam, it was gone. And there we were in the Judean hillside in the darkness.

Have you ever had a God moment where you felt the presence of God?

We had a mountaintop moment with God. And let me tell you, when you have a moment like that where the glory of the Lord is around you, it doesn't just fully go away. Even though we were on the hillside, we had this spiritual high.

Finding the Baby Jesus

We were all looking at each other. Then we were pondering what the angel said. He said, "Do not be afraid, for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord." Well, all shepherds knew where the city of David was. That was Bethlehem. Not to mention, we knew what Micah the prophet said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Your Bible, Micah 5:2. And I tell you, we knew what we had to do right away. We started to run to Bethlehem. Now I know I'm old kind of big and my knees and my back aren't the same, but back in the day I could run. And boy, I was leading the way. We were running. One of my friends said, "Who will watch the sheep?" Because we never left our sheep unattended. And I shouted out, "God will protect the sheep." And we ran to Bethlehem so fast. We were so full of joy. But I must admit, the moment we got to Bethlehem, we had a little bit of discouragement.

We started to think about how will we find the child? How will we know where to go? And then we remembered what the angel said. This will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Now, let me tell you, a manger wasn't quite like what y'all think of as a manger. I think a lot of people nowadays think of a cradle, something sweet with a blanket. A manger in our days was an animal trough. It was often a big stone and we people would use tools to make a trough so that food could go in there for animals and the animals would eat out of it. We thought to ourselves, "What a strange place for the savior of the world to be born in a manger." Then we saw a man. And we said, "Excuse me, sir. Have you seen any visitors in Jerusalem?" And this man looked at us and he laughed. He said, "Visitors? Visitors? You shepherds are so clueless. Don't you know Rome ordered a census? Everybody's to go back to their hometown. Visitors? We have more visitors than we have residents." You shepherds sure don't know much. Then we said, "Well, well, do you know, have you seen a baby perhaps with parents?" And the man looked at us and he said, "Well, I haven't seen a baby, but I did see a man and a woman, and she was just about to give birth." And they went over there to try to get a room, but there was no room for them in the inn. And then I saw them go that way. I tell you, we thanked the man and we were so excited. We felt like we were getting that much closer to seeing the savior of the world. And we started to run. And as we ran, we saw an area. The Bible doesn't tell us it was a stable, but what we knew was the angel had said the babe would be in a manger. We started to see an area that looked like where a manger could be, where animals could be. And we were getting excited as we drew close. And then suddenly this man, he came out and he looked startled and he looked at us. We later learned that man was Joseph.

And we said to him, "Are you the father of the baby?" And he said, "Well, yes. Well, no. Well, kind of." And then he said, "Wait, wait, how do you even know we're having a baby?" And we went on to tell him what happened, how we were in the fields and the glory of the Lord shone around us. And angel said, "Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people, for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." And then how the angel said, "And this will be a sign to you. You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." I tell you, right as we said that, that man Joseph just held up his hand. He praised God as if he knew God sent us and he motioned for us to come in. And as we came in, there was the manger.

And in the manger, we saw baby Jesus.

Worshiping the Newborn King

I tell you, you can't fully describe what it's like to be in the fullness of the presence of the Lord.

But we could not help but fall to our knees. We dropped to our knees and we worshiped the Messiah.

We were overwhelmed being in his presence.

I tell you, I've never asked to hold a baby. I've held many baby lambs. But as rough and as smelly as I am, I looked at the mother Mary and I said, "Would it be possible to hold your baby?" And she sweetly looked at me and nodded and handed me Jesus. And I tell you, as I held Jesus and I looked in his eyes, it was like looking into eternity.

I was changed that night when I met Jesus. The Bible says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away. All things have become new." I was made new that night when I met Jesus.

And I tell you, I was completely overwhelmed being in his presence. I tell you, I would have never stopped holding him. But I realized my friends wanted to hold him. So I gave him my friend Tophi. And as Tophi held him, he just started to weep.

He just started to praise God.

He was in awe. We were in awe of being in his presence.

I tell you, we didn't want to leave, but it didn't seem like any time had passed. The time just It was like time didn't exist being in the presence of the Lord. But we finally left. And as we left, we realized we had been in there a while. The sun was starting to come out as we left.

Spreading the Good News

And I tell you, as we left, there were people walking around and we were telling everybody, "The Messiah has been born. The savior of the world, he has been born." We were telling everybody what the angel said. And we were telling everybody that today in the city of David, Jesus, the Messiah, the savior of the world, has been born. We were shouting. We were, some people, I think, thought we were crazy.

But you know what?

I'd rather be crazy for Jesus, telling everybody in this world that Jesus saves than sitting around and not telling anybody and people thinking I'm normal. What about you? Amen.

Christmas Challenge

You know, I came this Christmas for one to just hearing the way y'all celebrate Christmas, which I think has a lot of good things. It can be good. But for one, if you're a believer today, if you're a child of God, do we have anybody that's saved? Anybody that's born again? If you've given your life to Jesus this Christmas, remember the reason for the season.

There's a lot of stuff you can do. Decorating, buying presents, all those stuff can be good. But more than anything, take time to remember why we celebrate Christmas.

It tells us in the beginning that word Christ.

We're celebrating the birth of Christ. And don't be like the innkeeper when you don't make room for Jesus. Don't get your schedule so busy that you forget to make room for Jesus. We should be willing to put all the other stuff aside and make room for Jesus. Make room to worship him. Make room to read the word of God. Make room to pray. And most certainly, if you're a believer, make room to tell people about Jesus. Who have you told about Jesus?

I hope you'll tell somebody about Jesus. Listen, I'm a shepherd. We were lonely. Nobody cared about us. If God can use me, let me tell you, God can use you. And that day when we left, I suppose we became some of the very first witnesses ever to the birth of the savior of the world. But you know what? It's not supposed to stop with us.

You have good news. If God saved you, you have good news.

Tell somebody about Jesus. Y'all saying go tell it on the mountain. Go tell this world about Jesus. Be fired up for Jesus. I know y'all used to have a lady here that went to church here named Debbie. She would say, "Are you fired up for the Lord?" Be fired up for the Lord. Tell this world about Jesus and tell them how he saved you and tell your family how they can be saved, too.

Invitation to Salvation

And listen, please, please, please. If you're here today and you've never placed your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I pray you will do it today.

You know the Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have all turned everyone to his own way.

But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. We have all sinned. We are all sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God. Every one of us who agrees they're a sinner.

Every one of us have messed up and by the way still mess up.

But that's why God sent his son. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

That whoever whoever no matter how simple you are, whoever believes in him will be saved.

More than anything today, I want to tell you if you've never given your life to Jesus, place your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior this very day.

It will be the best decision you ever make.