A GOOD PIECE OF MAIL

INTRODUCTION

OPENING ILLUSTRATION: 2018, THE YEAR OF BAD NEWS- 11 PEOPLE GUNNED DOWN IN A PITTSBURGH SYNAGOGUE; GUNMEN KILLS 17 AT MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLASS HIGH SCHOOL IN FEBRUARY; KIDS LOCKED IN CAGES DURING AN IMMIGRANT STANDOFF; PROLIFERATION OF INCIDENTS INVOLVING AA’S SIMPLY DOING LIFE AND ARRESTED OR HARRASSED WHETHER AT A BBQ HERE IN OAKLAND, SITTING IN A YALE LOUNGE OR CHECKING OUT OF AN AIR B&B; EARLIER THIS FALL BOTHAM JEAN WAS KILLED BY A DALLAS COP FOR SIMPLY BEING IN HIS OWN APARTMENT; AND THEN THE EVERY SURROUNDING NEWS STORIES HOVERING OVER 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE.

POINT: ALL OF THIS LEAVES US DESPERATE FOR GOOD NEWS.

AND THEN THERE’S WHAT’S HOVERING OVER YOUR HOUSE AND MINE…TALKED TO A DEAR FRIEND (BROTHER) IN MINISTRY, A CHURCH PLANTER WHO IS TRYING HIS HARDEST AND MISSING PAYCHECKS, DRIVING UBER, DEALING WITH DEATHS OF CLOSE RELATIVES.

POINT: ALL OF THIS LEAVES US DESPERATE FOR GOOD NEWS.

YOUR HOUSE: SICKNESS, FUNERALS, DIVORCE, FINANCIAL WORRIES AND HEADACHES...

POINT: ALL OF THIS LEAVES US DESPERATE FOR GOOD NEWS!

OUR TEXT IS ALL ABOUT GOOD NEWS. THIS TIME OF YEAR IS ALL ABOUT GOOD NEWS. SUM UP THE STORY AND POINT TO VERSES 10-12.

JESUS IS A GOOD PIECE OF MAIL.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS; WHO IS THE GOOD NEWS FOR; HOW SHOULD THIS GOOD NEWS EFFECT US?

WHAT IS THE GOOD NEWS?-

EXPLANATION- HISTORICAL CONTEXT. THE JOURNEY OF ISRAEL, MUCH LIKE OUR JOURNEY, HAS BEEN MARKED WITH PEAKS AND VALLEY’S, BY THE TIME WE GET TO THEY’VE BEEN IN A VALLEY THAT SEEMS TO HAVE NO END IN SIGHT. BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY. 400 SILENT YEARS. IN BONDAGE TO ROME. SEEMS HOPELESS. IT’S BEEN A LONG SEASON OF DARKNESS. ISAIAH EXPRESSED WHAT MOST ISRAEL FELT DURING THIS LONG DARK SEASON: “O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down”- . Ever been there? DO SOMETHING!

APPLICATION: EVER BEEN THERE? 2018 FELT LIKE JUST A LONG YEAR???

EXPLANATION: NOW WE COME TO OUR TEXT AND THERE’S A BREAK IN THE CLOUDS, A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE VALLEY IN THE FORM OF AN ANGEL WHO ANNOUNCES IN VERSE 11…GOOD NEWS! NOTICE THE GOOD NEWS ISN’T ULTIMATELY CONCERNED WITH YOUR FINANCES, HEALTH OR GETTING INTO THAT UNIVERSITY. THE GOOD NEWS IS MORE…IT’S CENTERED ON JESUS. BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE JESUS, YOU HAVE IT ALL!

ILLUSTRATION: HE WHO HAS THE SON HAS IT ALL! GET JESUS, IF YOU HAVE JESUS YOU GET IT ALL.

APPLICATIONS: WELL WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU GET? THREE THINGS: 1. A SAVIOR. A FAMILIAR TERM IN THAT CULTURE. THE EMPEROR, CAESAR AUGUSTUS WAS REFERRED TO AS SAVIOR. IN GREEK CULTURE THEIR gods WERE REFERRED TO AS SAVIOR. RESCUE FROM DANGER. A SAVIOR IS SIMPLY THE THING YOU DEPEND ON TO RESCUE YOU. WE ALL HAVE FUNCTIONAL SAVIORS…THOSE THINGS WE TURN TO, TO MEDICATE, TO RESCUE US. FOR SOME ITS ALCOHOL, PORN, RELATIONSHIPS, MONEY, SUCCESS. FUNCTIONAL SAVIORS. WHEN WE GET TRIGGERED WE GO TO THEM. THE PROBLEM IS THEY CAN NEVER FULLY SATISFY. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT THEY FAIL TO DELIVER, AND WHAT’S MORE IS THEY ENSNARE YOU EVEN MORE! THERE’S ONLY ONE SAVIOR WHO CAN REALLY RESCUE YOU, AND IT’S JESUS CHRIST.

2. CHRIST. UNIQUE NAME THAT PUTS HIM IN A DIFFERENT CATEGORY…HE’S GOD. MJ’S ALIAS IS YHWH WHEN HE TRAVELS. SORRY MJ, THAT’S NOT YOU, IT’S JESUS. EXAMPLES: BEFORE ABRAHAM WAS I AM. HE DID THINGS ONLY GOD COULD DO LIKE FORGIVE SINS. HE’S GOD. C.S. LEWIS QUOTE FROM MERE CHRISTIANITY: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

3. Lord. THIS IS A WORD THAT MEANS MASTER. IT MEANS HE CALLS THE SHOTS. IT COMES AGAINST THE GRAIN OF OUR NEED TO BE IN CONTROL. WE LOVE HAVING JESUS AS SAVIOR, JUST NOT AS LORD. ANALOGY OF SON’S FIRST PAYCHECK- WHOSE FICA? GOVERNMENT IS CALLING THE SHOTS. EMINENT DOMAIN MEANS YOUR HOUSE IS EVEN UNDER THEIR LORDSHIP. IN BOTH CASES THEY SAY YOU ENJOY THE BENEFITS SO WE HAVE THE RIGHTS. IF WE ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF CHRIST BEING THE SAVIOR, THEN IT MUST BE SEEN IN HIM BEING LORD. HE CALLS THE SHOTS WITH OUR BODIES, WITH OUR MONEY, WITH EVERYTHING. HEY, I WANT TO TALK TO YOU…THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS!

WHO IS THE GOOD NEWS FOR? (FOR ALL THE PEOPLE)

EXPLANATION: OUR TEXT IS AMAZING. FIRST WE ARE INTRODUCED TO SHEPHERDS. IN AN AGRARIAN SOCIETY MOST SHEPHERDS DIDN’T OWN THE LAND THEY NEEDED TO SHEPHERD THE FLOCK. SO THEY WERE POOR PEASANTS WHO HAD HIRED THEMSELVES OUT TO WORK FOR WAGES. THEY WERE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCALE OF POWER AND PRIVILEGE. AND YET, WE FIND THESE SHEPHERDS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIELD WHERE GOD’S GLORY SHOWS UP. GOD’S GLORY IS HIS SELF ADVERTISEMENT. IT IS GOD’S PERSONAL INSTAGRAM PAGE WHERE HE REVEALS HIMSELF. GOD DOES THIS IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIELD. BUT IT CONTINUES. PLEASE NOTICE THAT THE TWO PRIMARY SETTINGS IN OUR TEXT IS A FARM AND A BARN. THE SIGN, THE ANGEL SAYS, WAS THAT THIS MESSIAH, THIS KING WOULD BE LAYING IN A MANGER. A FEEDING TROUGH FOR ANIMALS. WHILE CAESAR SAT IN A PALACE, THE KING OF KINGS LAID IN A MANGER.

PEDIGREE?

POINT: THIS PASSAGE SHOWS US THAT JESUS WILL BE FOR ALL PEOPLE, PARTICULARLY IDENTIFYING HIMSELF, RIGHT OUT THE GATE, WITH THE LOWLY. DO YOU SEE THE JUXTAPOSITION: THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS CHOOSES TO REVEAL HIMSELF NOT TO THE RULERS OF THE FIRST SEVEN VERSES, BUT TO A LITTLE GIRL NAMED MARY…LOWLY SHEPHERDS, AND SURROUNDED BY ANIMALS!

ILLUSTRATION: WHEN PRINCESS DIANA WAS AT THE HEIGHT OF HER POWERS SHE VISITED ANGOLA TO CARE FOR THE SICK, TAKING ONLY A DOCTOR WITH HER AND PROHIBITING CAMERAS ON HER HOSPITAL ROUNDS. WHAT THE DOCTOR SAW THAT DAY TOOK HIS BREATH AWAY. HERE WAS THE PRINCESS OF THE MOST FAMOUS MONARCHY IN THE WORLD STOPPING BY THE BEDS OF THE DISEASED AND DYING TO WEEP WITH THEM, CARESS THEM AND ENCOURAGE THEM. SURE THERE HAVE BEEN FAMOUS PEOPLE TO DO THIS, BUT HARDLY ANY HAVE BEEN ROYALTY. THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT ROYALTY STOOPING TO BE WITH THE COMMONERS.

APPLICATION: AND THIS IS JESUS: BORN IN A MANGER. LONG BEFORE DIANA HE TOUCHED LEPERS. AND IN HE IDENTIFIES WITH THE LOWLY SAYING WHATEVER WE’VE DONE FOR THE HOMELESS WE DO DO HIM!

APPLICATION 2- THEREFORE TO BE CHRISTIAN AT ITS CORE MEANS WE FOLLOW JESUS BY GIVING OUR LIVES TO THE MARGINALIZED. THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS OF CHRISTMAS!

HOW SHOULD THE GOOD NEWS EFFECT US-

EXPLANATION: GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY. IN THIS TEXT THERE IS THE LINKING OF THE GOOD NEWS WITH GREAT JOY. WE SEE IT WITH THE SHEPHERDS…WE SEE IT WITH THE HEAVENLY HOST…EARLIER WE SEE IT WITH JOHN THE BAPTIST IN UTERO LEAPING WITH JOY…HIS PREGNANT MOTHER ELIZABETH RESPONDS TO THE GOOD NEWS WITH JOY…MARY RIGHTS A WHOLE SONG OF REJOICING AT THE END OF CHAPTER 1…JOY! JOY! JOY! EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK THERE IS JOY! THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS SOLICITS JOY!

KORIE AND CHICAGO BEARS/PACKERS ILLUSTRATION: JOY FOR BEING THERE TO SEE THIS DREAM MATCHUP OF RIVALS. NO MATTER WHO WINS SHE HAD JOY. JOY NOT BASED ON OUTCOMES. BUT THE BEARS WIN AND IT’S FOR THE TITLE. FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE SHE’S GOT A SENSE OF JOY ON THIS DAY BECAUSE THEY BEAT THEIR RIVALS FOR THE DIVISION TITLE. ON THE CROSS JESUS TOOK ON HIS RIVAL AND WON.

BUT THERE’S MORE. JOY IS NOT JUST A FEELING. THE BIBLE SAYS THAT WHEN THEY SAW IT THEY MADE KNOWN (VERSE 17). JOY LEADS TO WITNESSING. WHATEVER HAS YOUR JOY YOU TALK ABOUT. SOME OF YOU IT’S FOOD. YOU’RE A FOODIE. OTHERS OF YOU IT’S YOUR FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM. STILL OTHERS IT’S YOUR WORK…BUT IF JESUS IS REALLY YOUR JOY YOU SHOULD BE LIKE THE SHEPHERDS...

GOSPEL CONCLUSION.

BLAISE PASCHAL.