Have you heard?
Dec 24, 2005
Christmas Eve Service
Dallas Baptist Church
Luke 2:8-16
Have you heard the Good News?
Read passage
2000 plus years ago, here were these guys standing out in some pasture,
in the middle of the night, and suddenly this angel of the Lord
comes on the scene.
I’ll bet they came to their full senses in about one heartbeat.
I remember walking guard duty while I was in Army boot camp.
It was dark as it could be, and our guard detail was walking around
a bunch of old empty buildings at Indian Town Gap, PA…
that by the way, was my first real encounter with PA…
but as I was walking around the dark buildings that I was assigned to guard (who knows why we were guarding empty buildings for anyway, but that was our job that night),
and after a few moments out there, and my eyes adjusted to the darkness
so I wasn’t tripping over my own feet, I got into the swing of my guarding. And it was boring. Nothing going on. Just walk, seeing nothing.
After a while, your mind starts to wander also.
This went on for most of the shift, until suddenly, as I rounded one of the buildings, there’s this bright shining light in my face…
what a start that gave me…and no it wasn’t an angel…
it was our sergeant of the guard…he was checking up on us to make sure we weren’t sleeping on our posts.
Well the shepherds were no doubt super-terrified when the angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone all around them…
they were terrified, and you and I would be also.
But even though Good News can come in startling packages, it’s not to be feared.
Had the angel not really been God’s messenger,
he would have probably gone, “BOO!”
trying to scare them out of their robes and sandals.
But because he was God’s messenger, and because he recognized their fear, the angel, says, “Don’t be afraid.”
Folks, God is just like that still today…He comforts His people.
He is not the cosmic cop waiting for us to mess up
so He can terrorize us with His paddle.
He is the God Who loves His creation.
That is why He was proclaiming this good news to the shepherds,
and it’s the same reason He still is proclaiming Good News.
“for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people”
Good News…
the Good News was that God stepped in our lives
and was offering a very special gift that every person needs…
the special gift was the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
You know folks…Ever since man sinned when Adam and Eve
disobeyed God through Satan’s temptation,
man has had this problem of being separated from God.
And all down through the generations, we’ve tried all sorts of things,
and all sorts of ‘religious jump through the hoops’ to please God
to try to get back into His favor…
but it just didn’t nor does it work even today.
From the time of Noah and Abraham down through David,
even though God was requiring nothing more than faith to be saved,
people have tried all sorts of gyrations to try to make it happen.
The Jewish religious leaders came up with
their own expanded list of what it takes to satisfy God.
And then later the church down through the years after Jesus came,
came up with it’s own list of do’s and don’ts….
turning faith into meaningless religious rituals.
The shepherds back in Jesus day, needed to hear some good news,
not just because their religion had become ritualistic, and empty,
but also because they needed a real hope for something better.
They needed someone to come and save them…
they needed someone to come to deliver them,
and not just from the Romans or from corruption in their own nation, but they needed the True Messiah Who would come
and defeat the powers of sin and death
and give hope and put joy back into their lives.
Friends, we too need that same hope and joy today.
We’re not one bit different.
Oh sure, we think we’re in pretty good shape
because we’ve got some money to spend
and can put some pretty gifts and toys under the tree
and make our kids feel good for a few days
until the new wears off.
But what happens when the tree gets bare,
and the lights are packed up,
and the reality of life sets back in?
Where did the ‘good feel’ go?
We’ve got to ask ourselves, why was it temporary?
The answer is that we need something permanent,
and there is only Person Who can give that to us…
that is the Same Person Who the angel spoke of…
That is the same One Who was born in the city of David,
some 2000 plus years ago…
He is the One the angel proclaimed, saying,
v.11…“today a Savior Who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a manger.”
The people back then need a Savior, the Messiah, the Lord, just as we still do today.
So God came to be our Savior, the Messiah, the Lord,
the One Who would come as a baby, would grow up into a man,
Who would face temptations and overcome them,
Who would demonstrate the power of God through healings,
though miracles,
and He was the One Who would go to the cross and die for
all the sins of mankind so that we could be reconciled
back into right relationship with Him.
The good news of Great Joy was just that…
God had come to Save…
He had come as Savior, as the promised Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Even His Name in Greek means “To Save”…
And in the Old Testament His Name is “Yeshua”…
means the Lord is Salvation.
Jesus Came to Save us from our sin…
He came to do what we can’t do for ourselves…
And that is Really Good News!
He came to bring Light into the darkest of hearts…
to set the captive free…
to set us free from the bonds of sin and death…
He came and gave Himself so that
through trusting in His Name,
and accepting the free gift of salvation
turning our lives over to Him,
we would have LIFE eternal with Him in heaven
rather than eternity in Hell.
So, can the Good News still be a bit terrifying today?
Yes, before you accept it.
That’s why so many refuse to accept it…
it’s terrifying because you and I have to first admit that
we need God and that we can’t become acceptable to Him
on our own.
All our good deeds won’t get us to Him.
All our pious religious talk won’t get us to Him.
All our religious acts in and of themselves won’t get us to Him.
All our hoping that God will be understanding that we’re just human,
And will look the other way because He is love
when we stand before Him,
and let us into heaven because we were really trying
real hard…
none of that will get us to back into right relationship with Him.
And oh, yes, we sure try.
We even try to appease God by going to church every once in a while.
We try to appease God by throwing a few coins in the offering plate.
We try to appease God by even sending our kids to Sunday School…
we try to appease God by trying to clean up our act
and our mouths every once in a while, too…
but unfortunately,
and even though we refuse to admit it, none of that works.
Our slate is still not good enough to get us into the front door of heaven.
We still need the Savior.
And that’s where this Good News of Great Joy comes in…
And that message of super good news to the shepherds way back then should give us great joy today also…
and the heavenly host praised God and said, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors.”
Tonight, I’m sharing that same simple message,
just as the shepherds did some 2000 years ago…
in v. 17, “After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this Child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”
“…a Savior who is Messiah, the Lord, was born for you…Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people He favors.”
Jesus came specifically for you so that He could offer to you
the greatest gift ever given. And all you have to do is accept it.
You don’t have to be ‘better’ to have Jesus…
you just have to accept Him.
You don’t have to get more religious to receive the gift of salvation…
you just have to accept Him.
He wants you to have the gift of salvation.
And it’s a gift in order to receive,
that all you must do is repent of your sins…
ask His forgiveness…
and accept the gift by simply putting your trust in Him…
by inviting Jesus to come into your life today…
and turning your life over to Jesus
so that He can be your Savior and your master of your life.
He stands holding your gift of life right now…will you accept it?