Too Good NOT to Share

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The message of Christmas is an open invitation for any and all who will accept it, to come to Jesus.

John 3:16.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

WHOEVER believes…

Next week, as we look into a new year, I want to come back to this thought and challenge us with how we are doing at sharing the message.

BUT before we can be challenged with how well we are doing at SHARING the message, we need to be GRIPPED by the message.

If we are not gripped by the message, we won’t be motivated to share it.

If we do not truly understand the deep import of the message, we won’t be compelled to share it.

BUT when we are changed, impacted by the message, we WILL be challenged and motivated to proclaim it.

SO for today, I want to reflect upon this thought……

Big Idea: The message of the Messiah is too good NOT to share.

Sermon Body

Big Idea: The message of the Messiah is too good NOT to share.

In this Luke 2:8-21 account of the announcement of Jesus birth, we given four aspects of the message of the Messiah that is too good NOT to share.

The message is about Joy.

Luke 2:10.

Luke 2:10 ESV

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

As was noted last week, anytime in scripture that angels appeared to man, there was always fear involved.

So, almost every time, we see this command…Fear not.

What causes fear? Where does it come from?

1 John 4:13-21.

1 John 4:13–21 ESV

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Pay close attention to verse 18.

Why do we fear?

Punishment, judgment.

What casts out fear?

Perfect love.

Who displays perfect love?

Jesus

How?

Dying in our place, innocent and undeserving.

What happens to our rightful punishment/judgment because of Christ’s love?

It is born by Him so we do not have to bear it.

What are we given when we repent and believe?

His Spirit. His abiding presence. His Spirit seals us.

What, therefore is the cure for fear?

LOVE.

Unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good.

When you have confidence that someone will act like this for you, towards you, fear has no place.

God will ALWAYS unselfishly choose for our highest good. Always. How can He not? He IS love. He is perfect love.

This love may not look like we think it will. It may not look like we want to it with our fleshly perspective, but we can rest assured, GOD WILL ALWAYS act according to love.

THEREFORE, The opposite of fear is faith, confidence in God’s love for us.

When we stand afraid, we are not standing confident in God and who He is for us. We have not yet been perfected.

THIS is why there is no need for fear.

Jesus, through His coming (and upon our repentance), once and for all deals with our punishment problem.

This is why the message they bring is great news of joy.

JOY

The experience of gladness.

BUT, as we know, for us as followers of Christ, our joy is eternal because it is rooted in the PERSON of Jesus and not in our circumstances.

This is the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is circumstantial. Joy is eternal because it is rooted in the one thing/person that never changes, Jesus.

Jesus came to drive out fear…with Himself, with His love.

Jesus came to drive out fear of judgment, by dealing with the just consequences of our sin in Himself.

We have JOY because LOVE came to dispel fear through providing a means of escaping judgment when we repent and believe.

God proved HIS LOVE for us.

God proved the extent he will go through in order to save us, to offer us forgiveness, to reconcile with us.

In the fact of the extreme extent he goes to, we either will respond with joy OR with disdain. These are the only two possible responses.

BUT when God works His grace into our hearts, when we see our hopelessness and our helplessness, we are overjoyed when we see the means for hope to be restored to us.

THUS, the message of a Savior IS TRULY A JOYOUS MESSAGE indeed isn’t it?

And it is a joy that transcends temporal, external circumstances because is rooted in THE PERSON of God and HIS UNCHANGING and UNFALTERING love.

THIS IS A JOYOUS message isn’t it?

The message is for all people.

Luke 2:10.

Luke 2:10 ESV

10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

John 3:16.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

God came to save who?

The world

Who shall not perish?

Whoever believes

God came to save the world, that is all people groups, from their sins.

Not all will accept it, but His message and invitation go out to all.

God did not come to saved JUST Israel. God chose Israel to be His people and through them to bless the world world, which He did by sending the Savior through them.

But God’s salvation is not limited to only Israel.

However, or Israel, this is something new, something they will wrestle and struggle with.

The NT ushers in a new way of doing things. Up until this point, God really did seem to restrict His activity to Israel. Not that Gentiles could not follow Christ before the NT, Ruth (For one) is a prime example of a non-Israelite woman who chose God to be her God. She would covert and follow God for the remainder of her life. Rahab was another.

Point is, Gentiles could believe and follow God, but in God’s plan, he focused all his work and plan to be accomplished THROUGH Israel and Israel alone.

However, NT the focus shifts. The blessing to the world still comes through Israel because the Messiah came through Israel BUT God changes his tactics and extends his word directly with Jew and Gentile alike and no longer restricts it strictly to come through Israel.

Romans explains…

The writer, we believe Paul, writes how Israel has largely rejected the Messiah they have spent centuries looking for. Just because one is born an Israelite, does not mean they bound for life with God. Only those who are children of faith, not merely flesh, will know that blessing.

THUS, the natural question arises, has God rejected Israel as His people?

Romans 11:11-12.

Romans 11:11–12 ESV

11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

God’s plan involves us as Gentiles, in order to make Israel jealous, to draw them back. HOWEVER, it has always been part of His plan. John 3 makes that clear. God’s plan was for people of all groups to come to him in repentance and faith.

In fact Peter says……

2 Peter 3:9.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

The message of the gospel, the message proclaimed by the angels makes this message abundantly clear.

This will be a message of joy FOR ALL PEOPLE, for ALL people will be invited to it.

Israel, for sure, struggled with this. THEY were the chosen people. THEY were God’s people.

Problem was, for Israel, they took greater pride in being the chosen people than they did in being intimate with the God who had chosen them.

They chose status over relationship.

They chose position over a person.

God therefore, opened access DIRECTLY to all people in order to make Israel jealous and draw them back.

And He will draw them back, some at least. God is not yet done with his people and he will draw them back.

But His invitation for reconciliation and forgiveness goes TO ALL the world, to all peoples.

Question for us…Are we inviting all men to come? Are you inviting them, calling them? This will be the challenge and focus for next week as we gather on New Year’s Eve Sunday…but does our lifestyle, our mentality expose our conviction that salvation is for all people?

E.G. - Handing out tracts in downtown Indianapolis - Told to avoid the homeless.

The message is good news of great joy for ALL people. None ought to be excluded from the invitation. Not class, race, ethnicity, gender… No classification of sinner, rebel, hypocrite…No righteous or good person…is exempt.

None are excluded. God’s invitation goes to all.

The message is about God and His glory.

The message reveals God’s glory.

What does the word glory mean?

A condition of being bright or shining; splendor, magnificence

A state of being magnificient

Honor as enhancement or recognition of status or performance

Glory is essentially the state of BEING BRIGHT, BEING MAGNIFICENT.

God’s glory is seen in His character. He shines through his justice, goodness, compassion, love, mercy, grace. It is even seen in His wrath. The things he gets angry over, the just way he responds, and the compassion with which he responds to victims of evil, to those in deep suffering.

Consider one example of God’s glory….

Matthew 8:1-3.

Matthew 8:1–3 ESV

1 When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

How is God’s glory revealed in this fleeting passage?

Among other things, the thing that stood out to me in high school as I read this passage was this.

Leper’s were the “untouchables.” Due to the nature of their sickness, the contagiousness of it, and the lack of a cure…anyone with it was ostracised outside of any village. No one touched them. No one came near. In fact, they were required to yell “unclean” if anyone not also having leprosy came near. In this way, they would be warned away from the danger of their sickness.

You want to know where God’s character and person shines brightly for me in this passage? You want to know where I see His glory?

“Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him…”

Jesus TOUCHED a leper.

And not a finger tip touch (at least I do not believe so). A hug. A shoulder embrace. I full hand cupping the man’s face. A firm hand grip. Whatever. HIS GLORY is seen in that He not only healed a man, but he healed him in such loving, compassionate manner as to give the man a sense of his love by providing for him one thing that he had likely lacked for a very long time…intimacy with other through meaningful touch. He made the made feel valued, loved, and precious while the rest of society had cast him out.

He healed him physically, but he also healed his soul.

We talk about giving God glory. This statement is not technically accurate. We do not give God anything. HE IS GLORIOUS, we just RECOGNIZE IT.

God HAS glory whether we acknowledge it or praise it or not.

When we talk about “Glorifying God in your body” (glorifying God in our words and actions), what we mean is this…WE are to reveal God and His glory through our words and our actions.

Maybe it is slight, but this little distinction is huge. For if we get it wrong, we can inadvertently think (or cause others to think) that somehow we contribute to God’s glory. We do not. We simply reveal, expose, and praise the glory that is there.

Whose glory is Jesus’ coming supposed to reveal and magnify?

Certainly not ours.

God’s.

Luke 2:14.

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke 2:20.

Luke 2:20 ESV

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The message was about God’s glory.

The shepherds, when they proved that what the angels had said was true, acknowledged the glory of God.

Note what they did NOT do. They did not go about proclaiming the glory of man as being so great that God would come for them.

Though, this would be a very fleshly and prideful thing to do.

In fact…if God was sending a Savior, that would in fact imply that we needing saving, which would in fact destroy any illusions of sufficiency and goodness, any shining majesty in us. If the God of heaven had to step into created flesh just to rescue us, well then, our mess up seems pretty severe. And if that solution to fixing it involves death, THE DEATH of God, well, then our sin and need is pretty great…wouldn’t you say?

We are so very good at lauding and parading about with our accomplishments, our virtues, our goodness…

Problem is…we do not have any.

Romans 3:10-12.

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

THIS is how desperate our situation was.

NO, no this was never about our goodness, our worth, our value. We were not worth saving. We were not worth rescuing. We were not worth the price of the dung heap we willingly wallowed in.

Do not mix this up. There is too much humanism in too many of the gospel’s we preach. Even a little pollutes it beyond recognition, destroying the worth and value of the gospel we preach.

Keep your eyes open for it

Keep you ears open to it

Keep you heart on guard for anything that adds man worth, righteousness, goodness to the pot.

This is about God and His glory, his worth to save the worthless sinners that we are.

This is about the goodness of God who would pursue us after we spit in his face and said that He was not worth the sweet taste of the fruit he made to be so desirable. We would cast the infinite and eternal weight of his worth away for the mere pleasure of a fruit which promised us satisfaction in ourselves.

For that was the temptation wasn’t it?

“God knows is you eat that fruit, you will be like Him, knowing good and evil.”

In other words, you will no longer need him. You WILL BE him and you will have ALL YOU WANT and NEED in yourself.

We cast away God for ourselves.

And we do it again and again every time we sin.

And yet, we always come up empty, don’t we?

Because we were not created FOR OUR OWN GLORY.

We were created FOR HIS GLORY and thus ONLY HIS GLORY can satisfy our hearts.

The message of Christmas, the true beauty and worth of Christmas is NOT FOUND in the fact that God deemed us beautiful enough or worthy enough to enter creation to die for us.

The message of Christmas, the true beauty and worth of Christmas IS found in the fact that God knew us to be utterly despicable and evil creatures that deserved every second of our eternal judgment and torment for our divine rebellion against His INFINITE HOLINESS AND GOODNESS

AND YET

He came anyway.

He died for vile and worthless scum that we were…SO THAT He could restore us to intimate fellowship with Him when we repent and believe in Him.

THAT IS WHY, the message highlights HIS glory and not ours. We have none. He has it all.

The message was about GOD sending a SAVIOR into the world, to bring joy, to restore peace.

The message was about GOD keeping His word, His promise in sending the Messiah to save men from their sins.

The message was about His immeasurably bright and shining majesty! His goodness and splendor! His beauty and extravagance!

And, as we have seen throughout this month, this message is about peace with God.

The message is about peace.

Luke 2:14.

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Because of Christ’s work, because of His coming, because of our repentance and faith…

We have peace with God.

Look with me at Romans 5 for a moment.

Romans 5:1-11.

Romans 5:1–11 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

We have been justified…

Legal term…legally our standing before God has been cleared, exonerated. This happens when we repent and believe.

We are NOT perfect in practice, but legally, we are no longer liable for our sin and it’s penalty because Christ took it.

Romans 8:1.

Romans 8:1 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

HOWEVER, this is not license to sin at will. To do so is to completely miss the point of why Jesus came. To do so invalidates our claim of repentance. To repent means to CHANGE ONES MIND about something. One who is truly repentant, will NOT go back to living the same way BECAUSE their mind has changed about that way of living. YES, they will struggle with temptations and failures because those desires are still in the flesh and we are still a work in progress, but when we slip back, a repentant life will be marked by confessing and turning again AWAY from that sin AND it will be marked by one taking radical steps to avoid falling back into that sin.

A repentant life will not be marked by perfection but it will be marked by a lifestyle of repentance and turning AND it will be marked by progress…because God has promised to sanctify and cleanse those whose hearts are turned toward him.

So justification does not mean perfection, but it means legally, even though we continue to struggle with sin, we will not face judgement and condemnation for it.

WE WILL face discipline from our loving heavenly father who will seek to draw us back into fellowship with Himself and who is loving us enough to protect us from a harmful course of action, but we WILL NEVER face condemnation for our sin.

Our justification, this act of declaring us just and clear based upon our repentance and faith brings us into a state of peace with God

A state that persists even when we sin and God does have to discipline us. We may lack fellowship with him in those moments and we may face rebuke and correction but that does not remove the state of peace we know and enjoy as his children. At least positionally.

This peace, in the sense of never facing God’s condemnation for our sin will persist for us.

Relational peace, internal peace, that may well be disrupted, but positional peace will not.

Our peace with God brings…

Grace, in which we stand

Rejoicing

HOPE (confident expectation) in the glory (majesty and worth of God)

We can rejoice in suffering (BECAUSE WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD AND CONFIDENCE IN HIS GOODNESS THAT NOW HE MEANS ALL THINGS FOR OUR GOOD AND NEVER FOR CONDEMNATION OR JUDGEMENT).

Christ did for us, what we were unable to do for ourselves.

And in so doing, he made the way to reconcile us to Himself and grant us PEACE with Him. No longer do we stand at odds with Him.

And for this reason, we can have internal peace in this life because of our confidence and hope in Him.

And we have promised FUTURE peace forever more.

Is this message of peace simply Too good NOT to share?

Conclusion

Big Idea: The message of the Messiah is too good NOT to share.

Luke 2:8-21.

The message is about Joy.

The message is for all people.

The message reveals God’s glory.

The message is about peace.

As we reflect upon this message, too good NOT to share, I pray that we will ever be growing together to become more like Jesus for the glory of God.

Application

How does understanding love as “unselfishly choosing for another’s highest good” drive out fear? (How does perfect love drive out fear?)

When we are confident in God’s goodness and His intentions towards us, we can rest in peace and joy, in contentment and confidence that no matter what pain or sorrow come, we know His intention for us is our highest good and His glory. It gives purpose to the pain and sorrow.

Practically speaking, how do you put on an attitude of joy in the midst of sorrow and trouble? What does this look like?

Even while feeling sad, we can pray prayers of thanksgiving and worship to God for who He is.

In the midst of trouble and turmoil, we can (and do) find things to give thanks for and regularly do give thanks for it, both in prayer and publicly.

We still laugh in times of sorrow and trial.

We continue to serve while hurting.

We never speak ill of God and cling to our hope of suffering being redeemed.

Do don’t dwell in self pity and complaining.

We resist gossip and idle talk.

How is the glory of God revealed in his open invitation for ALL people to come to salvation?

God is no respecter of person.

He is able to save and redeem all…no matter how fall into sin one has plunged.

We are all on level ground at the foot of the cross. He is good, and we are not.

How ought we respond to the fact that God desires ALL men to repent?

We ought to be making it our life goal and purpose to tell them.

We ought NOT to be playing favorites.

We ought to be wary of stereotypes and unfair judgements.

In what other way(s) have you seen the glory of God shine from your study in the word or His work in the world?

How can we best display God’s glory to others?

Talk about it often, openly and passionately.

Live Humbly.

Love Mercy

Walk with God.

Keep in step with the Spirit.

Obey

Serve

Talk about Him to others as much as we can, as often we get.

We grow in Christlikeness. The more we reflect Christ, the more others see Him and not us when they look at us.

How can we “give” glory to God?

We THANK HIM often for being Him. Do not just thank God for His works, but thank Him for his attributes. Thank God for being God. Acknowledge in personal and public prayer as often as you notice it.