God's Shepherd: Hope and Presence for the Marginalized

You see, God doesn't get tired. He doesn't get fatigued. That's not what it means. You know, some people will say that the seven days of creation are about setting a template for the week for all of us feeble and frail humans. That's certainly in there, but we're missing something else because that word resting is about where God is resting. God has finished creating and he has come to dwell in his creation with the people that he has made. And he does that at the Garden of Eden where he meets with Adam and Eve and his presence dwells.

But God wasn't done with mankind, because he had a plan. He selected somebody. It was a nomadic shepherd called Abraham, and he promised Abraham that he would have a son from whom a great nation would arise, through whom he would bless all mankind. But then something really curious happens in that story. You see, Abraham's wife, Sarah, is barren, and she can't have children. And when she miraculously conceives a son called Isaac, God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on an altar.

Moses, who started life as a prince in the court of Pharaoh, and then fled to the wilderness where he became a shepherd. And that's where he met with God. And God told him to go and free his people from Egypt. And God, through Moses, told his people to set themselves apart by sacrificing a lamb so that they were different to the Egyptians who were about to receive God's judgment. But do you know, even after that, God's people saved from Egypt and they rebelled.

He gives them instructions to make a sort of portable temple. It's made as a tent and it's a tabernacle is the name that it's given. We read about it in Exodus. So here it is. He says, then have them make a sanctuary for me and I will dwell there. Among them, make this tabernacle and all its furnishings like the pattern I will show you. And then he goes on a little bit further and gives some more instructions.

You see, Jesus' ministry on earth started with his baptism in the Holy of Holies. And I want to take you to that passage in Luke. It's in chapter 3, just after the one we began with. Notice how Luke describes it. When all the people are being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And he was praying. Heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my son whom I love. With you, I am well pleased.

The important thing that you have to understand is Luke is sending a message here. Adam did not succeed in the task he was given. He failed. Jesus, unlike Adam, had come to follow God's plan to do what Adam could not do. Well, that's all great, Matthew. How are you going to fit in this Abraham and Sarah stuff? Where do you get that from? Well, Jesus has just been baptized in the Jordan. And the person who baptized him was John the Baptist.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led to the Spirit into the wilderness. How long for? Forty days, where he was tempted by the devil. He wasn't there to find himself. He wasn't there for some look -after -me time. He was being tempted by the devil. And when the devil tempted him, how did Jesus respond? If you know the story, he quoted from Scripture. Here's the verses that he quotes to the devil.

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land, until three in the afternoon. For the sun stopped shining, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he said this, he breathed his last. Do you see what Luke records? The curtain of the temple was torn in two. What does he mean by that? That's the curtain between the holy of holies and the rest of the temple.

There are no more sacrifices in the temple. That practice has come to an end. Jesus is no longer, sorry, God is no longer going to dwell, in a temple. He is going to dwell in the hearts and the minds of every man, woman, and child who decides to accept him. If you don't believe me, look what the apostle Paul has to say in these two passages. Do you not know that your bodies are what? Temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you have received from God.

Do you know, in the first century, there was a tower, and it was in between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. That tower was a watchtower, and the watchtower was used by shepherds to look after their sheep. And we know from a Jewish book called the Mishnah that the sheep who were between that tower and the city of Jerusalem were used for sacrifice in the temple. You see, when we come to this passage in Luke, these were no ordinary sheep, and these were no ordinary shepherds.

There is a reason that God announced to the shepherds, first of all, because he was announcing none other than the practice of sacrifice in the temple was over. He was announcing that once again, he was coming to dwell with and amongst his people. That's the importance of the shepherds. And do you know what? There's clues, right here in the passage that we began with. But if you're the casual reader in English, you might not pick that up, because some of the language underlies the original languages of the Bible, and it's quite technical.

The angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. That phrase, the glory of the Lord, is a technical phrase, that appears a handful of times in the Old Testament. It appears when God comes to meet with Moses in a burning bush. It happens when God meets with Moses on Mount Sinai. It comes also when God fills the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. That phrase tells you that God is coming to dwell on earth once again.

Today in the town of David, a savior has been born. What do you mean, town of David? Why doesn't it say Bethlehem? Jesus was born in Bethlehem. What's the town of David? David was the most revered king of Israel. He came from Bethlehem. But what did he do before he was a king? He wasn't born a prince. What was he born as? A shepherd. It's telling you something about the king that Jesus was.

Jesus is savior. We get that. We're in a Christian church. We talk about it all the time. Jesus comes to save. There's no mystery there. But Messiah, what's Messiah? What does Messiah actually mean? The term Messiah means the anointed one. The anointed one means the anointed one. Who's anointed? Kings. Kings were anointed. King David was anointed by the prophet Samuel. Luke is pointing to who Jesus was.

But if you don't think that Luke understood what he was saying when he used the word Lord, you haven't been paying attention. Luke knew exactly what he's saying. He's telling you that Jesus is the God of the Old Testament, and it's right there. There in the passage. So in summing things up, God has come from the Old Testament and is the one and same person as Jesus. He's also the Savior, and he's the Messiah, the King.

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