Good News Of Great Joy: Lessons From The Gospel Of LukeSample

"Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: The Good News of Great Joy"

The welcome that Jesus received—or didn’t receive—had spiritual significance. It showed that he was coming to live among sinners and demonstrated the humility that led him to the cross. But it was not right for his advent to go unrecognized. So God sent angels to tell people the Good News of Great Joy. 

The first people to hear this Good News were shepherds. Why? Shepherds were outcasts, and thus their presence at the manger shows that salvation is for everyone. Shepherds did not enjoy a very good reputation in their day. Because they lived out in the fields, they were unable to keep the ceremonial law, and thus they were treated as unclean. Their testimony was inadmissible in a court of law. With the exception of lepers, they were the lowest class of men in Israel. 

Yet these were the men God wanted to hear the gospel. Like everything about the birth of Christ, this upsets our expectations. We tend to think that God is for the good people, when in fact he is for needy sinners who are desperate for grace. 

What the shepherds saw out in the fields that night absolutely terrified them: “And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear” (Luke 2:9). Every word in the angel’s announcement was important. The words “fear not” offered reassurance. The word the angel used for “good news” eventually became the title for Luke’s book. It is the Greek word for proclaiming the gospel (evangelizo). The words of the ancient promise were starting to come true: Good News was being preached to the poor (see Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). The Good News brought “Great Joy.” This was the real joy of Christmas, that God had become a man to save his people. And this joyful Good News was “for all the people” (Luke 2:10). The joyful Good News was about the birth of a baby. By the time we get to the end of Luke, we will discover that the Good News also includes a death and a resurrection. 

It is the gospel of the cross and the empty tomb. But here we are given the Good News of the manger. A child is born! A Son is given! The angel was making a birth announcement about a boy of flesh and blood.