Tidings of a Gospel True
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Well dear congregation, we have been preparing for the Coming the Lord, both to understand his first coming but also to be ready for that day when He calls us home or until the Last Day when He returns in glory. And how have we prepared by taking hold of the blessing that come with Emmanuel, God-with-us, God in our human nature.The incarnation of the Son of God, not just 2000 years ago, but what it means right now for heaven and earth. What it will mean when we see him and will be made like him. But now on our church calendar, we turn our hearts and minds from this wonder of incarnation, to the wonder that happened after He became incarnate. God sends his Son into this world to rescue it and what happens? Well we know what happens in heaven, from the angelic hosts(maybe all of them) appearing and singing glory to God in the highest.
And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Of course angels know a bit of what’s going on? But these dumbfounded shepherds, the hosts, family of Joseph and Mary, pin points of wonder a holy conception, a virgin birth, an army of angels? What can it all mean? Earth cannot comprehend it, yet we rejoice like heaven on Christmas morning. Like so much of the Bible not just a story, but there is an action of God, and then he sends the interpreting Word - to let us know what His plan is, what He is doing, how we are to draw near to Him find salvation. Think of creation - He creates and then he gives - a simple and clear account for all ages of what His creation means, of what life is all about. Well, that creation gets broken, so deeply broken, and he promises the Seed of Eve would crush the Serpent Satan’s head, and restore the kingdom of God on earth. And God sends His Son into the world to save it because He loves us, and right away and for the 2000 years that have followed it, he sends His official word explaining what He is up to. It is no good to just believe in the miracle of the incarnation as bare event of history, certainly not as a myth that shows God is nice. The incarnation the birth of Jesus, Christmas fits into a bigger plan, a bigger program and God wants you and your neighbourhood and the world whole world to know it. So heaven is rejoicing on Christmas morning, earth can’t yet. So what’s going on on earth, even to this day. Look carefully at our text:
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.
I bring you good news / glad tidings - literally gospel: and the child is wonderful in Himself He is God-with-us He is Christ the Lord, but listen the glad tiding about His birth - are what brings real and everlasting - deepest JOY - MEGA JOY! Now this Christmas morning do you have mega joy? If you got tickets to latest Star Wars movie, the finale, or the world Jr Hockey game,or the latest Iphone - have mini joy, , temporary joy - like that commercial so much of our stuff passes away. And if things happen to be going pretty good with family friends, have a warm fuzzy joy of fellowship. But you need to know when God sends His Son into this world, it wasn’t for the mini joys first of all, all those restored. He doesn’t send an army of angels, the heavenly host, doesn’t send blinding light of this mystery of incarnation - for a mini joy in your life. But for a mega joy. A joy not just for you, your family and friends, but for all people - what the OT says God is going to build his kingdom into a PEOPLE OF GOD! But at the same time just like it was for the world back then, it was all for these no name little old shepherds. Born to you.
You know it from the OT that the Christ, the LORD the Messiah, anointed rescuer from God, would not just come to have us say - awe how cute. You know the prophesy from
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Do you see it the mega-joy to us isn’t just God is near Us, Jesus is God drawing near. Isaiah moved from the child born - to a government - WONDER< COUNSEL< POWER, PROVISION, PRINCE WORKING PEACE! Now why would that be good news, gospel truth, glad tidings to Jews?
A. The Gospel of Christmas is about your New & Alternate Governor
Oppressed Roman , not a nation a people of the LORD, now Augustus - and you need to understand that Luke is contrasting this Augustus - with Christ and saying, not just for Israel but for those very Romans for who Christ came. You’ve got a Caesar who just a short while ago - took up two titles: Julius Caesar was said to be a god, and he adopted a son, named Octavious - now he is reigning the known world, and he takes the title “Son of God”. He changes his name to Augustus - and takes up a second title Kurios, LORD of all. Do you remember what Luke records the angel telling Mary about the child conceived in her by the Holy Spirit: o you remember what the angels said this gospel is:
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
Do you remember what the angel Gabriel said right after the Son of God is coming to you people, what is the good news in that?
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Do you get that the Son of God dis going to start a new time in this world, where the kingdom of God breaks in , in the newest and most wonderful way!
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Son of God and LORD. Luke is presenting Christmas as the gift of a new government, a new kingdom - and that is why the angels say the big deal is not just the birth but the good news, glad tiding, the gospel! And here you must also understand that Luke is picking up on what else Caesar was doing in the world. When he took up his power, set himself up to be worshipped as a whole new religion that all were called to give homage to, in 9BC for his birthday look what he sent out, we even have an inscription of it: Priene "Calendar" Inscription because it refers to the birthday of Augustus Caesar as the beginning of an era - the beginning of the gospel announcing his kingdom that heralded peace and salvation for his people - and a Roman decree to start a new calendar system based on the year of Augustus Caesar's birth was published.
Son of God and LORD.
The gospel is this official proclamation of a new era, a new king, a new government - but God from heaven saying, not from Caesar but from this JESUS. Do you get this gospel, these glad tidings? Mary did at her conception - the powers of this world, the proud and the mighty are misguided but look in Christ she understands:
Do you get this gospel, these glad tidings? Mary did at her conception - the powers of this world, the proud and the mighty are misguided but look in Christ she understands:
He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
She understands the promises to Abraham are coming true not just for her, but for his offspring forever - the greatest movement of God the greatest might displayed, the most awesome government is getting kicked off with the Son of God’s incarnation! And she know it chagnes everything:
as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Now if an unwed single mother of about 14 , who face scorn of a monser - a child born out of wed lock, if an adoptive father, - sacred unsure how do they raise such a king? If the Son of God showed up in Bethlehem with these shepherds, and they do not hesitate to have their hearts filled with joy - and indeed even early salvation - what about you and me?
You have fears that are not from God, you have future tasks you dwell in the darkness of the valley , you know sins grip and government of Satan pressing in on this world. You know the fleeting pleasures of worldliness that don’t deliver. You have bad news from the governments of this world so often - corruption, debt, trampling of rights, lack of compassion of stewardship and there is no real peace!
And that brings us to our second text. Look at how Mark begins his account of Jesus. Really less of a biography, or like Luke a chronological account of what Jesus did and said. Mark probably the first one to write down what is being taught by the apostles, and it is a Holy Spirit inspired writing of testimonies about who Jesus is and what He has done. And look at how he begins it:
B. The Gospel of Christmas is about a New Beginning /the New Creation (that new governor can bring)
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
That is the same word, the genesis, the beginning of the official good news, the glad tiding, the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. First Christian writing of Jesus’ life and how would he begin, what would be his first word. Just like the first word of the OT, how they got name for the book. What’s the first book of the Bible? Genesis - Bereshit - IN the beginning. And how does Mark begin this first account of Jesus life and deeds - Same way the Beginning - Do you get what he is saying, Christ’s coming isn’t just a nice event, it is the beginning of a whole new world. This is the second creation of God. Not just God making a new Adam in the most amazing way, but this New Adam this new head of a new people - coming to heal and restore - what is sinful, dead, broken in you and me. And Mark who is not writing to Jewish audience, skips over all the genealogies - and gets right to it - Jesus comes and look what the beginning of the gospel is…
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Do you see what Christmas is really about - it is about the coming of Jesus yes, but it is about how His coming, his really coming is setting up this kingdom that is at hand. And just like the word gospel is a government and military word. After battles won - messengers, heralds dispatched to give the official good news in every nook and cranny, after kings born… so too that word repent is a Roman military word. Sure later ethical philosophical meaning of remorse and a change of heart or mind. But literally a simple, about turn of a soldier, marching one way - about turn mark another way. And trusting Jesus that is what His Kingdom of grace and peace, justice and holiness requires as our response. Here is the gospel - the having good news, the proclamation of another kingdom, a new creation, the Word of God that explains it and miraculously even delivers it you and me!
We’ll sing the simple words, to save us all from Satan's power when we had gone a stray, o tiding of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. This Saviour, this Messiah, this LORD GOD born for you, - coming to you in the proclamation of the kingdom go home, out to the world. Repent and believe is the only proper response and it will result to the greatest joy that just explodes out in worship and service! If you really get this good news o a king born for you, you will turn and march in the direction of His kingdom, you will offer your self in service to Him!
And when you get the gospel of Christmas with the coming of Jesus, its then that what the angels did - all worship,- and they are proclaiming that good news. Only as you get the gospel of Christmas and responding to this new and better Emperor - can you do the same. And we see that not just with the angels, but look at those shepherds in the last verse of our text:
And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
They go out sharing tiding of comfort and joy. Will you with each other, with neighbors, like wisemen, two years later - not living for proud powers of this world, go home another way. Can you imagine saying somehting about your hope, peace, your joy, to somoene that would make them WONDER about Christ in this life, Christ in the world to come? - Going and telling it on the mountains over the hills and everywhere - Jesus Saviour, Jesus Christ Your Messiah and rescuer - was born to you!
C. The Gospel of Christmas Employs Messengers and Heralds in People’s Wilderness
And that brings us to the last part of this message about the Tidings of a gospel true. Where are you and I as heralds of the gospel sent. And that is in the second part of Mark’s description of the beginning of the gospel:
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way,
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’ ”
The first prophesy is from
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
People like John the Baptist go before the Messiah in people’s lives and they prepare a way for the LORD from heaven,. But look what happens when the messengers go with this message to people in the desert. V1b suddenly come down to earth to His temple. Do you understand that God is still sending out people like you and me to prepare the way in people’s lives to receive this King, to receive this messenger of the covenant - people in our lives haven’t got a wonder King, need counsel, need this message of a covenant a new ideal new arrangement of God in their lives. And Jesus himself has promises as you go into the desert places of people’s lives, bring my word, there is another coming of the Christ, a little mini Christmas in the brokenness of our lives that happens:
You and I are to experience the mini-Christmas of receiving Christ in the circumstances of our lives - and he promises to show up and lift you up in salvation:
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
You’ve experienced this, whom could you give the greatest Christmas gift and walking with them in their desert, extend the promise that Jesus will come to them too?
But lastly look where God would have us bringin these tidings of comfort and joy in this wide world. Think of your life as a vast landscape, the week ahea dof you: The scond part of th prpecy si from
And that brings us to the last point of this message: Look where God would have us bring in these tidings of comfort and joy in this wide world. Think of your life as a vast landscape, the week ahead of you: The second part of the prophecy is from
C.
The second part of the prophecy is from
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
You know this passage, it tells us to cry out comfort to a people who have suffered long. Forgiveness for people wracked with guilt and tired of not only the guilt but the punishment and consequences of their sin. But the heralds of the gospel are to go to people in the wilderness. And if we are honest, we acknowledge that we are all a wilderness people, broken people in a broken world - death, loneliness, danger threatens, and none of us are in the Promised Land yet.
And we like those shepherds, having seen the Christ child’s coming, his birth - we can’t help but go to the people we rub shoulders with in the wilderness of this world - and simply point them to a bigger story - of a King who came down from a far country into our wilderness - a king who has ultimate healing, who can deal with our guilt , our sickness, our death.
CONCLUSION:
What is the bigger plan that the Son of God’s birth fits into? Wihtout that bigger plan understood and received and lived into this mroning, celebrating Christams will only be afarce. The bigger plan is that the Son’s coming, was for working the SOn’s slavation and His Kingdom in your life and mine. What was the Son of God doing wrapped not only swaddling cloths, but in our human nature perfectly united to his divine nature - in one being. He was God drawing near to save us, and remake us by his forgveiness andgrace - Connect the creadle with the Corss, his birth with his death and resurrection, his ascension, and you’ll see the highest of heaven, came down to the lowest of earth, and even lower to the grave, to be with us and to lead us to eternal life.
It reminds me of helping translate one of Shakespeare’s plays as revival was happening in Slovakia after communism fell. They had all his plays but one - Henry V most famous monologue considered by the communist as to dangerous and Christian. There you have the English commoners, soldiers sorely outnumbered tired, on the edge of defeat on the night before the battle. And the King disguises himself and comes down among the tents and camp fires, to survey the moral of his troops and then to rouse them. His saint Crispan Day speech does just that and they win the battle: The king turns to them and promises that those who fight with him in this battle will be forever united with Him as a band of brothers! “We, few, we happy few, we band of brothers… he turns to the most common and says: “whoever shed his blood with me - shall be my brother, be he ne’er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition!”
This Christmas do you hear the tidings, the gospel the good news that Jesus has won and is now sharing among the nations? Do you see He not only came down among us 2000 years ago, to our muddy battlefields of life, and he not only worked salvation, but comes to us and says - join me in this salvation, jopin me in this kingdom, be forever part of this story! And now reigning from heaven until he returns, he has not left us alone, but he comes to all who repent and believe, and He is really with us, really healing and re-making us in His kingdom!
That is the bigger picture and the bigger King we must worship and serve as we celebrate Christmas.You sang it as a child: Be near me Lord Jesus I ask thee to stay close by me forever and bless me I pray. Can you imagine the answer to that prayer - the King come down, and now with you r by His word and Spirit - come down into the battlefield of the wilderness of this broken world - I will not just be near you , but my Spirit in you, and together we will bring this Kingdom of God to this broken world.
Amen.