God's Good Tidings

Good News (9b)

Good News (9b)

The good news is that God comes to us

To a people being chastised for disobedience, God’s approach wouldn’t be a welcomed one; that’s the situation of Judah

Yet Isaiah is confident in the goodness of his news because of verses 1-2

For people whom God has redeemed, presence is welcomed

The good news is sometimes distorted

Let’s go back to that image of God; does this resonate with how you might identify God

Or perhaps our conception of God might match more of what Lewis describes (Problem of Pain, p. 31)

But this isn’t the image of God as we’ve discussed in the series; we must watch for when our understanding of God and God’s good news becomes distorted

God in Isaiah is both powerful and tender; just and merciful; holy and present

God’s presence gives us cause to rejoice (even in the midst of a broken world)

To have such a being associate with us is a great cause for joy

Of course, we’re going to go home and see the news; we’re going to read the latest headlines on our phones and wonder if we should rejoice

God’s presence in the baby Jesus is a down payment on his promise—a way of showing us that he intends to make good on his word and finish the work

So what are we to do with this good news? Push our budgets and waistlines with Christmas gifts and cookies?

Transmitted (9a)

The shepherds model the behaviors that Isaiah describes

For an example of what we’re to do, we can look at the shepherds in this morning’s Scripture

Good news is announced to them

They need to be told not to fear

Go out of curiosity (I wouldn’t read this as they knew what they were going to see)

Have an encounter with Jesus—the Word made flesh

2:17/20 Only after their encounter do they start transmitting the good news

Go and seek Jesus first so that you encounter him personally

Then we have joy and begin to speak about what we’ve seen

When it comes to speaking the Good News, we are to lift up our voices

2:17; once they saw, they spread the word; they lifted up their voices to anyone who would hear

What’s your speaking voice?

Elementary Christmas concert: the timid singer

Confidence as the song builds

This sounds a bit sales-ish, and that turns people away; what are we to do?

We act like God’s cell phone

If we think that we’re to sell God, we’ve got the wrong image

Rather than see a salesperson when you think evangelism, look at your cell phone (doesn’t matter what type!)

The basic purpose is to allow messages to be sent back and forth

That’s what messengers did in ancient times; they were human cell phones

Messengers sometimes had to deliver hard messages; but they were never their own; they spoke their master’s words

God’s advent is good news for humanity.

Do you know the good news from an encounter with Jesus?

Are you willing to transmit that good news to whomever will pick up the phone?