The Shepherds

Luke 2:8-20

1.     What unexpected message comes to the shepherds?

2.     How do the shepherds respond?

3.     What possible resistance could the shepherds encounter when the share their good news with other people?

4.     What impact do you think the message has on the people they tell?

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This whole story is remarkable from start to finish.  

 

That God would choose to announce the birth of His Son, the long-awaited Messiah, to the lowliest of society.  To dirty and uneducated shepherds.  Hired hands. 

 

And this most special baby, the very Son of God, arrives with humility.  Lying in a manger, wrapped in strips of cloth.  

 

It is unexpected in every way.  

 

And so is the shepherd’s response.  These men, whose livelihood depends on protecting the sheep in the fields, leave to go in search of Jesus.  And after finding Him, scripture tells us that they go out and spread the good news about Him.  It is a final remarkable detail, for the shepherds would be talking to people who had previously rejected them, risking further scorn and ridicule from a society who had traditionally given them plenty of both.

 

But they have such remarkably good news.  It seems they simply share it with joy.

1.     Who has made you feel most loved and valued in your life?

2.     When have you felt rejected or ‘less than?’

3.     How has God loved you, and how does that encourage you to love others?

Look for opportunities this Advent to share the Good News of Jesus with the joy of the shepherds

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Wisemen