Responding to the Good News

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Imagine that you’ve been waiting for something to happen for a very long time, something great, something exciting. When it finally happens, how do you feel? Maybe you’ve been waiting for test results and they come back with a good report, maybe it’s a repayment for a loan you gave years before. Whatever it may be, when it happens it makes you want to shout “Praise God!”
God had promised the Jewish people that He would send the Messiah, a Savior who would set them free. They had been waiting for Him for a very long time. In this evening’s reading the angels announced to the shepherds that the promise had at long last been fulfilled. Let’s look again at their response:
Luke 2:16–20 NIV84
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Can you imagine what it might have been like for the shepherds when they heard the angels announce that the long-awaited Messiah had been born nearby that night? Shepherds were despised by the orthodox good people of the day, yet it was to them that the news was first given. They were not allowed to give testimony in court, yet God chose them to be the first to testify about the birth of Jesus.

Shepherds

The shepherds could have responded in several ways to the angels’ message. They might have laughed in disbelief, they could have believed but said so what, or they might have said wow, that’s great, let’s go check it out in the morning. Instead:
Wanted to see for themselves
Hurried and found
Spread the word
What had been told them. It is not enough to hear about Jesus. It is not enough to peek in the manger and say, “Oh, how nice.” We are called to spread the word. It seems that most of what we hear on the news is bad news. People need to hear the good news. It may seem like old news to us, but it still has the power to change people’s lives, and if we don’t spread the news who will?
Glorifying and praising God
When the shepherds left the manger they went back to their fields, back to their profession, but they did not go back the same. Now they were rejoicing. When Christmas is over we will probably still have our normal lives, whatever that may be. Living in the same place, working at the same job, dealing with the same problems, but if we allow the good news to take root and grow in our hearts we will be different. Once we realize the incredible grace God has given us, the mercy He shows in sending Jesus to be our Savior, we cannot help but give Him praise and glory.
Russel Brownworth tells the following story:
While I was attending seminary, our two older children (ages 9 and 7) seemed to attract every other child in the mobile-home park for after-school games of hide-and-seek.
Our youngest, Carrie, was not quite 3—and (in the minds of the older siblings) always in the way. It was something you could count on; ten minutes into the games our little one would get pushed aside or skin a knee.
One afternoon she came through the front door crying for Mommy. She had gotten the worst again. My wife, Elizabeth, attempted to comfort her by giving her two freshly baked cookies. “Now, don’t tell the big kids yet,” she cautioned. “I haven’t finished; I haven’t got enough for everybody yet.”
It took less than three seconds for Carrie to make it to the screen door, fling it wide, and announce to the big kids, “Cookies, I gots cookies!”
Great news should be shared with enthusiasm!
Things were just as they had been told.
e can trust that God’s word is true, that He is faithful to His promises. We must simply act in belief.

Those who heard

Amazed

Mary

Treasured up the words
Pondered them in her heart

Us

We haven’t had angels appear to us, at least I don’t think so, but we have heard their message. We know that the Messiah has come, we know Jesus is Savior. Do we respond as the shepherds did, by rejoicing and praising God?
A stranger in St. Louis stopped a policeman one Sunday morning and asked him to recommend a church. He directed him to one at a little distance. “What’s the matter with these other churches that I see along the way?” asked the stranger. “Why don’t you recommend them?” “To tell the truth,” replied the policeman, “I am an unbeliever myself, but people coming out of that church are always happy. They are different. If I ever decided to go to church, that’s where I’d go. They’ve got something there that makes them happy.” That something was the gospel of Jesus Christ. You may not be able to fully understand it, but it has the power to give you the joy, peace, and satisfaction of heart that the whole world cannot give.
Today we know much more than the shepherds did because we have the whole story. Nevertheless, it still does us good to continue considering what it all means as Mary did.
And, like the shepherds, we might feel able to testify about what the birth of Jesus means but once we have experienced His presence for ourselves we will respond by rejoicing and praising God, and in that way testifying to the reality of Christ’s presence in us.
As Peter and John later declared to the Sanhedrin:
Acts 4:20 NIV84
For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
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