An Amazing Announcement

Let’s not miss the message!

An announcement is meant to inform, to prepare us. But sometimes we can miss the apparent. Announcements are as useful to today as they were 2,000 years ago. Throughout history, they have come in varied mediums. In the Ancient Near East, they were given audibly. Today, we see them come across the ticker on our television set. We hear them over an intercom, or read them on the front page of the newspaper.

One such announcement occurred near Christmas of 1903. In December, after many attempts, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine:

"We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas."

Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said,

"How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas."

He totally missed the big news--man had flown! This announcement would change the field of innovation throughout the world! How could this man miss the message!?

Tonight, we look at a familiar Christmas passage, one about the greatest gift of all, that came with a Most Amazing Announcement. It contains an announcement, news made public.

With this in mind, we must ask, what was the greatest announcement of all time? Its bearers: the angels of heaven. Its hearers: the shepherds of Palestine. It’s content: God. It was and remains today the most important announcement of human history.

But today, we see how the angels appeared to the shepherds and answered the question: “Who is this?”

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT WAS GOOD NEWS FOR EVERYONE.

And that news was of abundant joy! Luke 2:10 reads, But the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

The angel brought to the shepherds of long ago, …good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

In our world, we are starved for good news. If we pick up our local newspapers or flick on the news at ten, we are given plenty of bad news. But the angels said this would be good news for all people. In other words, all people without distinction. We see this in the message’s first recipients.

It would not be for just the rich or ruling. It was not exclusive to the merchant class. Shepherds were not your upper middle class of ancient Palestine. They were poor, suspicious and dirty. And yet, God chooses them to receive the greatest news of all time! This announcement would be good news for all people: black and white, men and women, poor and rich, ruling and ruled.

Do you need good news? The application to you this: Jesus came for you regardless of your race, your gender or your assets. He came in spite of who you are or what you have done. He came to provide for your greatest need. Christ came for you. Do you know that if you were the only one on this earth, Jesus still would have come to die on the cross for you? And this is good news. But why, you might ask? Next, we find that…

THE ANNOUNCEMENT WAS THE BIRTH OF A PERSON, BUT NO ORDINARY PERSON.

Once again, …the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

The reason that Christmas is good news to you and me is because Jesus is the world’s only Savior.

In order to appreciate the good news, you must first understand the bad news. You see each one of us has disobeyed God from birth. Since the fall of humankind, not a one of you was taught how to lie, how to be selfish, how to steal. You do that naturally. R.C. Sproul says, “We are not sinful because we sin; we sin because we are sinful.” Because the God of the universe is perfect in character, all sin greatly offends Him, and requires His judgment.

We must see Jesus as God’s promised gift. At the time of the fall, we see from Genesis chapter three that God promised to put enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. Genesis 3:15:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Jesus is the One who crushes Satan’s head.

The birth of Christ answers our hearts greatest longing. He is the fulfillment of God’s promise. Christmas is a reminder of hope, that God saw your greatest need and provided it.

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.[1]

But God, looking upon your plight, sent you a deliverer. This is why Jesus is called Savior. The Greek word means one who rescues, one who delivers, one who preserves. It is the same word used in Matthew 1:21 in which the angel said to Joseph concerning his fiancée Mary:

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

That has been good news for me. At a very young age, I was made aware that my sin had offended God and was the reason Jesus was put on the cross. It was my fault. And I needed to be forgiven. This did not damage my self esteem, nor did it make me hate myself. Rather, it led me to realize that I had a tremendous need before the God who created me. Whereas I have offended God through my actions, a relationship with God can be reestablished through faith in the who came and gave His life for me.

Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung states:

“The point of the gospel is not that Jesus saves us from low self-esteem, or from singleness, or from our crummy job. Sin is our deepest, most fundamental, most pervasive problem. Other teachers and heroes may be able to save us from life’s stresses and disappointments, but with this problem of sin, there is only One who can save, and His name is Jesus.”[2]

Jesus was also called Christ. This was His title. Christ was the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew term Messiah, God’s chosen One who was promised to come to redeem Israel.

And He was also known as Lord. Jesus is Lord. That means He is Master. He is God in the flesh, the Second Person of the Trinity, and the One who the angels worship.

Not to be overlooked was the fact that this message was delivered by angels, God’s messengers. Luke 2:13:

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’”

These angels bore the message to the shepherds. God’s most important messages were always delivered by angels. They would sometimes bring messages of judgement. Other times they would announce warning or doom. Still other times they would deliver messages of encouragement. Here, they chose to appear to shepherds, which tells us that God cares for the common person.

Don’t get distracted!

Jesus is the reason for the season! And He is exactly what we needed! Jesus is the reason we give gifts at Christmas time. 20th century children’s author E. B. White said:

“To perceive Christmas through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.”[3]

And it is so easy to get distracted, especially from the miraculous elements of Christmas! David Mathis points out that there is significance over Jesus’ birth from a virgin. It highlights the supernatural.

“At one end of Jesus’ earthly life lies his supernatural conception and birth; at the other, his supernatural resurrection and his ascension to God’s right hand. At both ends, the God-man’s authenticity is attested to by the supernatural working of His Father.” (David Mathis, The Christmas We Didn’t Expect, 30).

I could never erase the guilt of my disobedience, Christ did it for me when He died on the cross. By virtue of His death, he saves those who come to Him by faith. Hebrews 7:25 tells us,

“...he is able to save completely those who come to God through him...”

Christmas is good news because of what Christ did for us. Let us never miss the meaning of Christmas. [4]

In just a few minutes, we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Many years ago, our church used to hold preparation services for the observance of communion. These were times of confession and prayer.

Tonight, you are given the opportunity to prepare your heart for communion. If you have never placed your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have never been baptized, we kindly ask that you refrain. Simply spend this time in quiet meditation. But if you are a Christian and you realize your need for forgiveness, come and confess your sins to God and receive of His forgiveness anew.

And, confess your faith in the God of the Bible by reciting now, the Apostles’ Creed found in the bulletin. Church, what do you believe?

[1] Unfinished Business, Charles Sell, Multnomah, 1989, pp. 121ff [2]Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot, (Chicago: Moody, 2010), 64. [3]E. B. White, The Second Tree from the Corner. [4] Daily Bread, December 23, 1991.