In a 30-minute Advent sermon from Luke 2:8-20 and Matthew 2:1-12 Pastor Marben Bland teaches about the liberating power of Jesus.
Key Points:
Jesus came to save us from sin and liberate us from oppression.
The image of the shepherd has been prominent in the Bible. In Able the son of Adam and Eve was described in Genesis 4:2 as a keeper of sheep.
Woe to the shepherds the faith leaders of Israel who feed themselves without feeding the flock is the warning given in Ezekiel 34
In John 10:11 Jesus is called the good shepherd, and we all know from 23rd Psalm that the Lord Is My Shepherd.
God thinks highly of the shepherd, but the world does not.
The African American slave and the shepherd have much in common. Both are accustomed to backbreaking work, both are accustomed to being separated from family, both exploited, looked down on and discriminated.
The texts we are studying today from Luke and Matthew about the star that shined the light to the baby Jesus has a history of being cloaked in discrimination and white supremacy.
This cloak has attempted to hide the liberation that the birth of Jesus represents to all people…especially those who are oppressed.
As evident by the spiritual Rise Up Shepherd And Follow our enslaved brothers and sisters embraced the liberating power of Jesus
Today as shepherds of the Lord we are called to rise up.
We are called to rise up to help our suffering neighbors
We are called to rise up to fight discrimination
We are called to rise up to stan up for candidates in the 2024 election
However, we cannot rise up without Jesus
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