While most of the religions of the world believe that God is an impersonal being, some kind-of-cosmic energy or force, the God who is revealed in the Bible is a personal God. He is relational. He is approachable. You can know Him even as you are known by Him. Matthew 1:23 declares, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[a] (which means “God with us”). This name for Jesus, perhaps we will call it His “Christmas name,” this name, Immanuel, brings Jesus up close and personal. He is WITH us. He is with us in our struggle. He is with us in our frailty. He is with us in the difficulties of life. He is with us in the valleys. He is right here this morning. He is acquainted with any sense of awkwardness you feel. He has seen any tear that has come to your eye as we have sung and prayed. He has observed you with the burdens you carried in here. He knows how you are struggling today. He knows if you are feeling victorious or if you feel like you have been run over by a truck. He is with you.
That’s the thing about the relational reach of our God; it puts Him within our reach. If He hadn’t descended to earth in the form of a baby and became human, He would still be beyond our reach. Oh, we wouldn’t be beyond His reach, but there is a sense that we couldn’t know Him the way we can know Him because of His coming. The Psalmist, David, said, “The Lord is MY Shepherd.” You can’t read the 23rd Psalm without being struck by the relationship with God that David described. The whole Bible is about God’s desire for a relationship with us. God pursues us intentionally. He provides for us individually. He undergirds us specifically in the ways that each of us need Him. That is His desire, anyway. His, is a relational reach.
We see this relational reach on display in the Christmas story as He sends a message to the shepherds. Listen to the story in Luke 2:8-15 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
The fact that the shepherds even made the Christmas story reveals that Jesus wants a relationship with everyone! What I mean by that is that Jesus came to a group of people that wouldn’t have been picked first by anyone for anything or even picked at all. They were outcasts. They had no influence or power. No one listened to a shepherd. They were all considered liars and thieves. They weren’t allowed to testify in court because no one would believe their story.
Why didn’t God choose the religious leaders to tell this Good News to? Wouldn’t they have been excited to get on the ground floor of the Messiah’s entrance? They had been teaching people about the Old Testament prophecies for hundreds of years. Why not reward them for that by announcing the news to them? Or why not share this epic announcement with a king or at least a well-known person of influence whose testimony would have actually carried some weight and credibility. The shepherds had little to nothing to offer in this situation. They didn’t have gold, frankincense or myrrh to bring to the infant-king like the wisemen did. In the world’s estimation, they would have been an unlikely choice for such a grand announcement.
Why did God choose the shepherds to be the recipients of the greatest news ever? Here’s a guess: God’s personal reach extends to those who are humble enough to receive it. The shepherds knew who and what they were. They knew what other people thought of them. No one admired a shepherd. They weren’t even allowed to go to the temple for worship. How would you feel if there were bouncers at the doors of the church and you were told you couldn’t come in? Oh, the irony of it all! The shepherds raised the sheep so that the people could buy them and sacrifice them as a way to express sorrow over their sin, so that they could have a sense of cleansing for their sin, but they considered the shepherds, the very ones who provided the means for them to seek atonement at the time, too dirty to worship God, too dirty to hear the Word of God.
Our personal, all-loving God showed the world what He thought of that viewpoint that starry night. Listen, the opinion of man means nothing when God has spoken, and He declared Jesus’ coming as “GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY for ALL people.” You get the sense that when the shepherds heard the angel’s words, they heard something tagged on at the end: “I bring you good news of great joy for all people, especially for you, shepherds.” Just guessing. This I know…the shepherds were forever changed. They would never again wonder if they mattered to God.
No matter how unworthy you feel, God is invested in you. You matter to Him. He has Good News for you personally today. Note that He met them where they were as they were. He visited them while they were at work. If an angel appears at Toyota or Thomas Hospital tomorrow, don’t be surprised. He did it once; He can do it again! Just sayin! He came to them in a way that made it easy for them to receive Him. I guess you would say God came to their territory.
God broke His amazing news to a group of simple, uneducated, uncool shepherds, people no one else wanted to be associated with, but God wanted to associate with them. He invited them to come and see the Christ-child for themselves, and they were never the same.
He could have sent His littlest angel to deliver the news. That angel could have suddenly appeared in the sheepfold and made its way to the shepherds and quietly said, “Pssst. I gotta a message for you guys,” so as to keep things on the down-low, not drawing attention to God’s reach to the lowly shepherds. But y’all! God sent the “heavenly host!” The word “host” means “an army of angels, ten thousand times ten thousand.” (Daniel 7:10 and Psalm 68:17) What an electric choir! Talk about lighting up the night! Seriously, that is like the finale of Randy Parsons’ fireworks each year here on this hill! It was like fireworks in the sky, baby! God sent the biggest display for the lowest group of people! He pulled out all of the stops, and gave them the news with great fanfare because that is what Good News of Great Joy for ALL people deserves! How special did those shepherds feel? No one ever did anything special for them. No one ever invited them to anything, and God invited them to be the first guests at Jesus’ baby shower!
You may not consider yourself to be anyone special. Maybe you feel like an unworthy, unimportant nobody. I tell you on the authority of the Word of God, our personal God is reaching for you. Jesus came and comes to those who feel unworthy. He has chosen you to hear and receive the Good News of salvation!
Maybe you are like the shepherds who felt excluded, unworthy or insignificant, God wants a relationship with you. He invites you to come close. He has chosen you for salvation.
When God reached for us by sending Jesus, it was a relational reach. It’s still a relational reach. God hasn’t met His quota. He isn’t limited to 5000 friends like some people are on Facebook. He is waiting for YOU to say fully “Yes” to Him today.
