Peace on Earth for Outcasts and Ordinary People

Tom Shrader walks through Luke 2:8-20, drawing out the significance of the shepherds as outcasts chosen to receive the angel's announcement that a Savior, Christ the Lord, had been born. He unpacks the angel's proclamation of great joy and peace, explaining that this peace is not the absence of hardship but the presence of God, made available through faith in Christ to all people regardless of background or status. Speaking with characteristic candor about his own health struggles and conversion story, Shrader calls listeners to move beyond familiarity with the Christmas story and embrace the personal reality of reconciliation with God through Jesus.

“Peace is not the absence of turmoil. It's the presence of God.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Scottsdale Bible Church

Recorded: 2018 at Scottsdale Bible Church

Duration: 44 min

Themes: peace, joy, christmas, outcasts, salvation, reconciliation, faith, belonging, feeling unworthy, new believer, struggling with health, searching for meaning, spiritually complacent, unchurched background, older adult, questioning faith

Scripture: Luke 2:1, Luke 2:8-20, Isaiah 9:6-7, Matthew 5:3, Matthew 28:19, Matthew 1:21, Romans 1:16, Romans 5:1, Romans 5:6, Romans 5:8, Romans 5:10, 2 Corinthians 4:18, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Philippians 4:6-7, Acts 17:6

Theological Themes: incarnation, soteriology, justification, peace with god, christology, savior, proclamation, grace

Full Transcript

The Shepherds' Story

In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the field and keeping watch over their flock by night. An angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them. The glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a Savior, who is the Christ, the Lord."

"This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger." Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God, singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as He lay in a manger. When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told to them.

The Setting: Caesar and the Census

"Today in the city of David, there is born for you a Savior who is the Christ, the Lord." Take that whole story, and if we had to pull one thing out of it, this is what we would pull. Jesus is born. The birth becomes center stage. It has been a long wait. The historians tell us that the people were weary. There was despair. The nations were unsettled, and against that backdrop, Jesus is born.

To give us context, chapter 2, verse 1 reads: "In those days, there was a decree that went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabitants of the earth." That is why Mary and Joseph are on the way to Bethlehem — to report for this census. It seems almost innocuous, and I have so many Christmas memories, but there is something about this verse that takes me back to Holy Family Church and the Christmas story. I am not sure why, whether it was the first memory I have of it, but the census to the nation of Israel was an awful reminder. They had rebelled against Roman rule, and they were living in an occupied land.

This becomes key as a backdrop — I do not want to make it the main point, but I think it enriches the story. Caesar Augustus was considered, and these are the words that were actually used to describe him, the savior of the world. His birthday was marked as a time of good news. He was there to bring peace to the world. That is the backdrop. So you can see where we are going. There is a new kingdom. There is real peace. There is a real king. Let us unpack it.

The Shepherds: Outcasts and Ordinary Workers

Chapter 2, verse 8 introduces these shepherds. They become the characters through which we look at the story today. When I think of shepherds, I think of someone in a robe with a cloth over their head and a staff — a fairly innocent image. In reality, they were unskilled and progressively falling out of favor with the people of their culture. They were stereotyped as dishonest, unreliable characters. They were at the bottom rung of the ladder.

The Egyptians considered sheep, and therefore shepherds, worthless. In the old nomadic days, this had been an important trade, but once agriculture moved in, the shepherds became the bottom rung of the cultural ladder. It would be easy at this point — and I am sure it is being done today in churches all over the country — to point out that these were the most marginalized people in the culture. And they were. They were the down and out. I am not sure what our equivalent is today, and I am hesitant to name it, but I will let you identify it for yourself: those people who are disrespected and despised.

These shepherds had fallen to such low repute that they were deprived of all rights. They were not allowed to be witnesses in court. Mike Goheen, who is based here in town, has written a book called *The Drama of Scripture*, and in it he writes this: "Shepherds appear on nearly every list of despised professionals in the rabbinic tradition. Despite their numbers and the seemingly useful nature of their work, they were held in contempt because of their vulgarity, their ignorance, and especially because of their lack of moral character." They were the outcasts. Within Jewish culture, because of their constant contact with sheep, they were continually ceremonially unclean. They could not meet the demands required for entrance into the temple. That is who these men were.

The People Jesus Came to Save

Now I want to make a connection here. These shepherds represent the people Jesus came to save. In Matthew chapter 5, verse 3, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins with this phrase: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." The word poor there means literally not just a beggar — like someone on the street asking if you have any spare change — but someone who would cower, who would not even look up, utterly dependent on whoever walked by to give them something for their provision. Jesus came for the poor in spirit. It is you and me. It is all of us who are spiritually bankrupt. That is who Jesus came to save.

An Ordinary Night Interrupted

There is something about these shepherds and what they are doing on this particular night that I find fascinating. It is just an ordinary night at the office. It is a bunch of men working the third shift — mundane, nothing special. If they had pulled out their phones and checked their calendars, there would be nothing on there to say tonight is the night. I have a talk I gave years ago called "Mastering the Mundane," because that is where we live. We can rise to great occasions when they come, but to master the ordinary mundaneness of life — to find meaning in the midst of that — is something else entirely. These are shepherds minding their own business.

Verse 9 tells us that an angel of the Lord appeared to them. The glory of the Lord shone around them. We do not know the name of the angel — it may have been Gabriel, we simply do not know. He shows up, the glory is there, and they are terrified. In verse 10, the angel delivers his message: "Do not be afraid." That is the most frequent prohibition in all of Scripture. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.

Do Not Be Afraid

Do not be afraid — not because it is not a scary world. It is a scary world. Think of money. We are afraid we are not going to have enough, and we are afraid we are going to lose it. When the market goes up, we are nervous because it cannot last. When it goes down, we bail.

We are afraid of insignificance, that you are just going to go through life and nobody will know it. You are afraid somebody is going to find you out. It is called imposter syndrome — that the people at work are going to discover you are not the ace they think you are. You may carry a lot of bravado, but inside you are just a little kid. I deal with a great many important, successful business people and athletes, and they are almost all little kids inside. They look tough, but we are afraid.

The angel says, "Do not be afraid," and here is a key word: *for*. Here is why you should not be afraid — "I am going to bring you good news." It is the same thing the angel said to Zacharias and to Mary. Do not be afraid, because I am going to bring you good news, the gospel.

Good News for All People

This good news is for all people. Paul writes in Romans 1:16 that he is not ashamed of the gospel, "for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." This good news is not targeted to a limited group or an elite group. If you are in this room today, this good news is for you — rich, poor, American, African, all nations, all people, all people in all places.

Matthew 28:19 records Jesus' final instructions: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." That is why you have a missions program. We are on a mission to take this gospel around the world. God is going to make the good news known through people like you and me.

I have a friend whose father is aggressively antagonistic toward Christians. He describes missionaries this way: "Losers chasing losers." We recoil from that, but if you play it out, it is actually quite true. It is those of us who are poor in spirit who are now made rich through contact with the King.

The Savior, the Christ, the Lord

Here is the good news, verse 11: "Today in the city of David" — notice this, it is a real place, not in Never Never Land, not in Narnia, not in some make-believe place — "there is born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." There are three key words there: Savior, Christ, Lord.

Jesus is the Savior. Matthew 1:21 tells us He came to save His people from their sins. I need to be saved. Perhaps you are here today — and Neil mentioned it — this is a time of year when people drift into church. Maybe you came because somebody invited you, lured you with the promise of a wonderful lunch afterward. Or you are visiting from out of town and you are simply stuck. You may not even know that you need a Savior. But the Bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

When I first moved here in 1975, Campus Crusade was in the middle of a campaign called "I Found It." I did not know anything about it. I pulled into a Circle K, and there was an old Volkswagen bus with a bumper sticker on the back that said "I Found It." A man came out of the store, got in the van, and I knocked on the window. He rolled it down and I asked what "I Found It" meant. He said, "I don't know, man, it's my brother's van." So the campaign was effective in getting attention, but I was lost. I did not know it. I knew I was a mess, but I did not know I was lost. I did not know I needed a Savior.

I guess I knew it in my actions, because I kept trying to make myself good, to make myself better. I reached a point in college where I concluded that to get to heaven, I had to have more good than bad on my record — and my bad stack was so high that I had no chance. So I thought, well, let's see how high we can get it. Then one day I sat down with a man and he told me I was lost. He told me I was a sinner, and it was the one argument for which there seemed to be empirical data to support his case. And he told me that while I was helpless, I was not hopeless — that there was a Savior, the Messiah.

A King Greater Than Caesar

He is the Lord — the Ruler, the Sovereign, the Mighty One, the Everlasting Father. In that culture at that time, that is how Caesar was described. So this announcement was rebellious stuff. But it also takes the Jewish listener back to the Old Testament. Look at the passage from Isaiah 6:

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this."

We have a King — a King forever. It is not Caesar, it is not a president, it is not a political party. It is Jesus. What the shepherds were hearing that day was an announcement that the Savior had been born.

A Sign in the Most Humble of Places

I did not put verses 12 and 13 on a slide — that is my fault — so let me read them to you. "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God."

You are going to find this baby. It would not be unusual to see a newborn baby wrapped in cloths, but you would not find one lying in a manger. You will find this baby — this baby who is a King — in the most humble of circumstances, in the place where you would least expect it. There is a phrase in one of the songs we sing: "You, my King, would..."

Peace on Earth

Glory to God in the highest. We sang it. Glory to Him, exclusively to Him, and peace on earth. Don't you want that peace? Yearn for that. The peace, however, is not the absence of turmoil. It's the presence of God.

Consider your circumstances. Some deals are going to close. Some deals are going to blow. Some scans come back clear. Some come back with cancer. Some relationships thrive, and some don't do so well. Peace is not the absence of turmoil. It's the presence of God. There's a calmness. The Bible tells us that He'll give us this peace that passes all understanding.

Now, the King James version reads: *Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.* That's the translation you'll see on most Christmas cards. Most modern translators would say that's not a good translation. Here's the same verse from the New American Standard: *Peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased.* This peace is not found in everybody everywhere. It's not a universal declaration of peace among all humanity.

This peace is not a reward for those who work hard. It's a gift to those whom God calls. Paul says it this way in Romans chapter 5, verse 1: *Therefore, having been justified* — here's a key phrase — *by faith we have peace with God.* We're in right relationship with Him. You'll sing this phrase somewhere over the next three weeks: God and sinner, reconciled. We have peace with God. Not through our works, not through the church, not through baptism, not through our pedigree or our parents, but by faith.

Helpless, Sinners, Enemies

After this, Paul unpacks it. Look at chapter 5, verse 6: *While we were still helpless, Christ died for us.* Verse 8: *God demonstrates His love for us, and that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us.* Verse 10: *For while we were enemies, we're reconciled to God through the death of His Son.* While we're helpless, while we're enemies, while we're sinners, Christ dies. And now we have peace.

That's what I find at Christmas — the peace of God, peace with God. I made a list of just the things. I have peace with God that comes through faith in Christ. And once I have peace with God, I begin to experience a peace of God, a peace of God that passes all human understanding. I'm no longer mired in my guilt and worry and confusion and uncertainty. Those things are still around, but there's a peace that's there.

And I don't just have peace with God. I have peace with others. Relationships are put back together. And I have peace with myself. Paul says, "Don't be anxious about anything, but pray about everything. Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your heart." That's what Christmas is about.

Peace Through Faith Alone

The joy that we find is the result of that peace with God, that right relationship with Him. Maybe it was a single moment, and you can give me the day, time, and place. Maybe it was a spiritual evolution and you're not sure exactly when. You just know that at some point you understood you were a sinner, you understood your sin separated you from God, and you cried out to Him. You believed.

That symbol is so contrary to us. This almost seems anti-American. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Make something of yourself. You can be whatever you want to be. Believe it, conceive it, achieve it — all that hogwash. You can't achieve and conceive yourself into the family of God. It's done by belief in Christ, in Christ alone. He died. It's so simple.

I was teaching one day at a seniors' center — I'm now shopping for myself there, but at the time I was teaching — and I made this point about forgiveness. There were maybe thirty people in the room. And a lady in about the third row, who by her own admission couldn't hear well despite having a hearing aid in each ear, spoke in a voice you could hear five blocks away. She said, "It can't be that simple." That's how counterintuitive this is. You're saved by grace — unmerited favor. Believe. And that becomes transformational.

The Ministry of Reconciliation

In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 18, Paul writes: *All these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.* The word "reconcile" appears in that passage, I think, four times. God brought you into this right relationship, and then He gave you a ministry of reconciliation — namely, that God is reconciling the world to Himself, and has committed to us this ministry of reconciliation.

Verse 20: *Therefore, we are ambassadors.* My friend Larry Wright used to say it this way: our title is impressive — Ambassador. Our job description, not as impressive — Slave. That's who you are. When someone says take these invitations, you become an ambassador for Christ. You're His mouthpiece.

In Acts chapter 17, verse 6, Paul and Silas are moving into yet another town — Thessalonica, if I remember correctly. The powers that be are concerned, and they say, "These men are here. They've turned the world upside down." That's the ministry of reconciliation. That's what you have. God is turning the world, not upside down, but right side up, as you take the gospel to the world around you.

Back to the Story

Back to the story. Verse 15 of Luke 2: when the angels had gone away, the shepherds said, "Let's go to Bethlehem. We've heard this. Let's go check this thing out." And they went.

Finding the Manger

In a hurry, they found Mary and Joseph. Bethlehem was not a large town, and the news of a new birth would have spread quickly through the city, so they were able to find them. Verse 17: when they saw them, they told everyone what they had been told, what had happened, and why they had come to see it. And everyone who heard it wondered — some translations say they were amazed.

That is what the gospel does. This time of year reminds me of those snow globes where you shake them up and the snowflakes are swirling everywhere — that is what the world feels like every day. But the gospel comes along and says, no, it can all settle down. The problem is not the world; the problem is your heart. The problem is that you are a sinner. And that is amazing news.

I can only speak from my own experience. When I heard that I could have a relationship with Christ, my world was turned right side up, and for the first time the colors were brighter. I remember my first Christmas as a believer — Christmas of 1980. I was born and raised Catholic through grade school, high school, and college, trained by the most misnamed group of people on the planet earth: the Sisters of Mercy. Brutal people.

I had sung Christmas carols all my life, and Christmas carols stir me deeply. When we began to sing today, I was sitting over there and I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks — memories, thoughts. But in 1980, for the first time, I really understood "Joy to the World, the Lord has come." Do you?

Keeping the Wonder Fresh

Maybe you need to have that spiritual stirring. Maybe you have heard all these songs and all these stories so many times that they have grown almost stale to you. I had a friend who was thinking about moving down here from Iowa. He had been here about three days, and one morning we were meeting for breakfast before I took him to the airport. It was one of those incredible sunrises — pink and orange, just gorgeous. He said, "Look at that sunrise, it's spectacular." And I said, "Yeah, it's like that every morning." Every morning. We can become so accustomed to the extraordinary that we stop seeing it — and the same thing can happen with the gospel.

Mary's Example and the Shepherds' Return

Verse 19 tells us that Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. Then the shepherds become something of a role model for us. They go back — back to work. We are much like them. We have this extraordinary experience, and then we return to the mundane of life, but we go back with a new heart.

Last week, when Jamie ended his lesson, the take-home point was this: joy is found not in our circumstances, but in the reality of our faith. Jamie quoted from 2 Corinthians 4 — we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things unseen. The things that are seen are temporary.

The body is wasting away. It takes me thirty minutes to shower now; it used to take five. And then, I don't know what idiot designed our bathroom, but you step out of the shower to a floor-to-ceiling mirror. You cannot do that on a full stomach, I am telling you. It is just wasting away. I do not want to be morbid, but it becomes more real to me every day. I had a long meeting recently — my heart is not strong, and they are worried about anesthesia tomorrow and all of that. And I said to him, this would be a great way to go: just fall asleep and wake up with Jesus.

All I know is that the reality of my faith tells me to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The reality of my faith tells me that though the world feels out of control — out of my control — it is not out of His control.

Joy That Comes From Faith, Not Circumstances

I love sports, television, and politics. Sandy hates sports, television, and politics. I will get myself into a dither — whatever a dither is, I am in it. She will walk by, I will start going off, and here is what she will say: "That's so cool — that'll give you something to pray about." That is not the answer I want, and I do not want to argue. But that is the reality: the joy, the peace, comes from the reality of your faith.

Let us pray, and ask God to bless it. Father, thank You. Bless our hearts. Open our eyes. Take this truth and push it deep into our hearts. We love You, God, but only because You first loved us. Father, thank You for that this Christmas season. Let us experience personally Your joy, the resulting peace, and then give us that ministry of reconciliation. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.