Good News! A King Is Born!
Advent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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It’s come to my attention that I might’ve left y’all with a bad impression after the introduction to last week’s sermon.
You might recall that I talked about how different Christmas is for an only child versus a kid with siblings.
I talked about how an only child doesn’t have to share toys with brothers and sisters. I talked about how an only child tends to set the pace for Christmas Day.
And I talked about how Christmas in the home of an only child can be a peaceful time, as opposed to the noisy and chaotic visit we had with our grandchildren and great-grandchildren last Saturday.
What I didn’t realize as I was preparing that message was that my description of Christmas in the home of an only child would sound like I thought Christmas was all about me.
Certainly, there must have been a time, when I was very young, when that’s exactly what I thought. But I’m older now, and more mature. And now, I know that not everything is all about me.
Many things are, of course. But not Christmas.
You’re all laughing and shaking your heads at me right now, and I get that. But we all make this kind of mistake from time to time.
And what I’m going to suggest to you today is that one of the times followers of Jesus often make that mistake is when we’re talking about the gospel.
We talk about asking Jesus into our hearts. We call Him our personal Savior. We talk about how He came to save us from our sins.
And those things aren’t wrong per se.
Indeed, Jesus, the unique and eternal Son of God, came to live a life of perfect obedience to and faith in His Father so He could offer Himself as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins.
He lived a sinless life and gave Himself to be crucified, taking upon Himself the sins of all mankind — and their just punishment — so that all who turn to Him in faith can be saved and have eternal life.
That feels pretty personal to me. And so does the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctifying me and making me more and more like Jesus.
It’s all VERY personal. And that’s appropriate, because salvation comes to individuals. Every one of us must choose whether we will follow Jesus or reject Him. Every one of us decides whether to accept the gift of salvation or decline it.
But when we think of the gospel in these terms only, we shortchange it. When we think of the gospel only in these terms, we make it all about us.
And that’s a mistake, because, even though we who’ve placed our faith in Jesus BENEFIT from the gospel — from the good news of a Savior — the gospel is really not about us. It’s about Jesus.
Perhaps if we had a better understanding of what this word, “gospel,” means, we’d not make the mistake of making it all about ourselves.
So, this morning, I’d like to spend some time looking at some of the places this word appears in Scripture and the context of those appearances.
When we’re through, I hope you’ll see a new significance to this word. And perhaps, if you’re already a Jesus-follower, a new appreciation of the gospel will lead to some changes in your life.
Let’s start out with the first verse of the Gospel of Mark.
1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Now, there’s a lot of theology packed into these few words. Mark would have expected most of it to be obvious to his original audience. But we’ve lost many of the cultural understanding that the original audience would have had.
So, let’s take a look at what Mark’s saying in this brief introduction to his Gospel.
The first thing to notice is that this gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We’ll talk in a few minutes about why that’s significant, but let’s look for a moment at the object of this verse: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Now, understand that “Jesus Christ” is a name and a title. Jesus was the name the angel told Mary to give to her son when He was born. It was a common name at the time that meant “Yahweh is salvation.”
At a time when the names parents gave their children often had some significance, the name Jesus was intended to remind people that their salvation would come from God alone.
The Jews at that time in Judea and the other parts of what had been Israel desperately wanted salvation. But the salvation they sought was temporal.
They wanted to be saved from the mistreatment they received at the hands of their Roman oppressors.
But Jesus had come with a greater purpose. His salvation is eternal, not temporal. He was largely unconcerned with the political situation of the time. Instead, He was focused on saving people from the penalty we all deserve for our sins.
And so, He called them to do the same thing He calls each one of us to do: to repent and believe.
And the title, “Christ,” which appears after Jesus’ name, points to the fact that saving people is just what Jesus was sent to do.
“Christ” is the Greek word for the Hebrew term we translate as “Messiah.” Messiah means “anointed one,” and was a term used of kings and priests in the Old Testament. They were anointed for the service they had been called to do.
And the people of Israel had been waiting for the Messiah for centuries. His arrival had been promised through the prophets, as in Isaiah, chapter 61, a portion of which Jesus read in the synagogue at the beginning of His earthly ministry.
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;
2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
The word that’s translated as “anointed” there comes from the same root as “Messiah.”
And, looking at these verses, it’s easy to see why the people of Israel might have hoped the Messiah would bring them political deliverance.
They certainly felt afflicted and brokenhearted under the thumb of the Roman Empire. Perhaps Messiah would bring them victory over the Romans.
But the text here and elsewhere in the Old Testament suggests that the captivity from which Messiah would release His people is a spiritual captivity, not a temporal one.
And that’s because the biggest problem for the Jews of that time — indeed, the biggest problem for us — isn’t our political situation or any other earthly matter. The biggest problem for them and for us is our sin.
We are slaves to our sin. And Jesus came to redeem us from that enslavement.
And He is uniquely able to do that, because He is, as Mark says here, the Son of God.
This is a fulfillment of the second Psalm, which describes God’s anointed one as His Son and promises Him that He will one day rule the nations.
And that brings us right back to that word, “gospel.”
So, what does this word mean? Good news? Well, yes. And the fact that God sent His Son to save us from the penalty we deserve for our sins is good news, indeed.
But “good news” is only part of the meaning of the word, “gospel.”
The Greek word here is “euangelion,” and it does, in fact, mean good news or good tidings.
But, outside of the Bible, whenever the word “euangelion” appears, it’s almost always in the context of announcing a new king or a great victory in battle.
Plutarch, the first-century Greek philosopher and historian, wrote about soldiers delivering the “good news” to Marc Antony of the death of his enemy, Cicero, in battle.
He also used the word “euangelion” to describe the tidings of the battlefield defeat of Persia’s Cyrus the Great.
Even in the Greek version of the Old Testament, we see euangelion used the same way. Look at 2 Samuel, chapter 4.
In this passage, David is getting news about a battle against the Philistines. He’s already heard about the death of King Saul, and now two of David’s servants are bringing him news of the death of Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth.
Now, look at David’s response in verse 9.
9 David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,
10 when one told me, saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.
Now, let’s set aside for now the fact that David literally killed the messenger here, because I want you to focus on the phrase “thought he was bringing good news.”
The servant who came to David with the news that Saul was dead thought he was bringing David “good news,” euangelion.
Saul had been a terrible king, as evidenced, in part, by the fact that he spent so much time hunting David, rather than the enemies of Israel. And David already had been chosen by God and anointed as the next king of Israel.
So, it would certainly have seemed like good news when Saul finally lost his life in battle. The old, hated king was dead, and a new, beloved king could take his place.
Now, notice the royal language in the familiar passage from Isaiah, chapter 52, verse 7.
7 How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
What’s the good news here? What’s the euangelion?
That there’s peace! That “Your God reigns!”
Indeed, with this new understanding of euangelion, if we look back at the passage we read from Isa 61 earlier, we can see the suggestion of royalty in the things the anointed one would do.
1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;
2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
Proclaiming liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners is the purview of rulers and kings.
So the good news here is not simply that these things will happen, but that a righteous King is coming who will MAKE them happen.
We’ve spent the past four weeks looking at the prophetic titles of Jesus from the familiar prophecy in Isaiah, chapter 9.
And you might recall that I’ve said these titles describe the kind of king Jesus will be. Indeed, the whole passage describes His coming Millennial reign. Let’s look at those verses again, beginning with verse 6.
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
The government will rest on His shoulders. There will be no end to the increase of His government on the throne of David. He will reign with righteousness and justice.
So, what’s the good news? What’s the euangelion? That Jesus reigns! The Righteous King has come to inaugurate His Kingdom here on earth.
Here’s why that’s such good news.
Do you remember why God said He was creating Adam and Eve, back in Genesis, chapter 1? We see it in verse 26 of that chapter.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
We were created to rule over God’s creation. He made us in His image — in other words, to reflect His good and perfect character — so we could extend the reach of His kingdom here on earth.
The idea was that Adam and Eve would extend the boundaries of the Garden of Eden to the four corners of the earth.
They were to be God’s vice-regents here, ruling in His name and with His character, and spreading the shalom of the Garden of Eden to the rest of the earth.
But we all know what happened. They rebelled against God. They decided they wanted to choose for themselves what was good and what was evil.
And their sin against God brought death into a world that had been characterized by life.
They failed to be the righteous rulers God had created them to be. And that failure, along with the sin nature of Adam, has been passed down to us through the many generations between them and us.
Much of the rest of the Old Testament is devoted to telling the stories of kings and other rulers of God’s chosen people who similarly failed to represent God’s character, to rule with justice and righteousness.
But Christmas brings us the promise of Emmanuel, God With Us. And what we can conclude from the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 9, is that Jesus will accomplish what we have failed to do.
He will reign with perfect justice and perfect righteousness.
No longer will the world be cursed with tyrants and despots. No longer will we elect leaders, only to learn that they’re driven by a lust for power, rather than a desire to help and protect us.
His reign will be good, and His kingdom will continually increase in greatness and majesty BECAUSE of His goodness.
What Adam and Eve failed to do, Jesus will accomplish. And don’t miss this: Scripture tells us that those who have followed Jesus in faith will reign WITH Him.
And having received glorified bodies no longer subject to temptation and sin, we’ll finally be ABLE to do what we were made to do.
That’s why this is such good news. That’s why both the Old Testament prophets and the writers of the New Testament Gospels called this the “gospel,” the euangelion.
The king has come, and He has won a great battle over sin and death. And His kingdom is at hand.
We often speak in terms that suggest the gospel is only the message of salvation through Christ, our savior. And it IS about that.
Jesus IS your savior if you’ve repented of your sins and turned to Him in faith that only His life, death, and resurrection provide a way for us to be reconciled to God.
But Jesus is also LORD. The Greek word kyrios, which is translated as Lord, appears over 700 times in the New Testament, usually in reference to Jesus. It means “master” or “lord.”
And while it wasn’t used ONLY to refer to kings, given the prophecies about His reign — along with His own pronouncements about the Kingdom of Heaven —kyrios takes on an added dimension when it refers to Jesus.
He is King of kings and Lord of lords. King of kings and master of masters.
So, if He’s our king and our master, why do we so often treat His commandments as simple suggestions? Why do we so often embrace the sins He gave His life for?
When we do these things, we reveal that we’ve made the gospel all about us. We’ve made it something almost transactional. If I believe, then I’m saved, and I’m good, and I can just go on living my life the way I want to live it.
But when we recognize that the promise of Emmanuel is that the God-man born in a stable in Bethlehem — the one who gave Himself as a sacrifice on a cross at Calvary — is not only Savior but LORD —
When we recognize that, then we’re forced to reckon with our own lives to determine whether we’re honoring Him as King, whether we’re submitting to Him as our master.
As we prepare to begin a new year, I want to encourage you to resolve in 2024 to honor Jesus as both Savior AND Lord. He is worthy of your love AND your obedience.
Maybe you’ve never given your life to Christ. Maybe you’ve never repented of your sins and turned to Him in faith. Maybe you’ve never acknowledged His lordship in your life.
The Bible tells us that one day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Indeed, He is Lord over all creation, including those who reject Him.
But for all who have rejected Jesus during their time here on earth, the news is not good. In the second Psalm, God says they will be shattered and broken. They’ll be subject to His wrath.
But the same psalm says that all who take refuge in Him — all who turn to Him in faith — will be blessed. They’ll be delivered.
You are either saved by Jesus, or you’ll be destroyed by Him.
The choice is yours to make today. What will it be?