Consider: Have you ever felt like a nobody?
Learn: “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” (Luke 2:8)
The shepherds were nobodies, close to the bottom of the social ladder at that time. Kent Hughes writes that, according to the Mishnah (a rewriting of the Jewish oral traditions), shepherds were under a ban and regarded as thieves at that time. The only people lower than them in the social order were lepers. They were without a doubt considered lowly and humble people.
And yet Jesus chose to come to the shepherds. Why? I think Hughes is correct when he says that God comes to the needy, to the humble, to the poor in spirit, and not to the self-sufficient. Paul writes this in 1 Cor. 1:26-29:
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
“The gospel is for those who know they need Jesus!” The shepherds knew they needed Jesus. They were amazed at the angel’s visit, enthralled by the manger scene, astounded at what God had shown them. And afterwards they spread the good news to all who would hear.
Apply: Do you know that you need Jesus? Are you spreading that word for all to hear?
I Commend Joy! 