ADVE NT: DO N OT FEAR | 17
DO NOT FEAR SERIES LESSON FOUR I BRING GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY Luke 2:8-21
QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION: 1) What is the Good News of Christmas? 2) Which Scripture passages of Christmas are you able to quote most accurately? 3) What do the birth narratives found in Scripture tell us about the coming King and Messiah? 4) How could we best become messengers of the Good News (the Gospel) this Christmas? 5) How can I keep the true spirit of the Christmas story in a day when society is all about the stuff we get and the things that we do to celebrate the Season?
INTRODUCTION Today we celebrate the birth of Christ; a truly High Holy Day throughout all of Christendom. We once again remember the fact that at a very inconvenient time in Jewish history a child entered the arena of human history. This was not an ordinary child, but a child born with the natures of God and humanity intermixed into one single person. Because of this unique combination of natures, this person, Jesus, could make a bridge between the fallen line of human kind and the pure righteousness and holiness of God. The bridge was made when this person absorbed into his person all of humanity’s sins and took them to death in his body. His resurrection assured them entrance into Heaven. The key to crossing the bridge was their faith or trust in this work of Christ Jesus for themselves. As we close out this series, we are going to dig deep into the meaning of this Good News, and what the Angel was trying to convey to those shepherds who were blessed to be among the first to hear about this great miracle that had taken place in Bethlehem. As we do this, we will also look at the person of Jesus, and how he is described in Scripture.
THE GOOD NEWS The real question of Christmas is what the Angel meant when he said that he was bringing Good News to all people (the world)? Certainly what the Angel said next gives us a hint as to
the meaning of this event: “to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah (Christ), the Lord.” (Luke 2:11) The implication seems to be that the actual Good News is the birth in Bethlehem of the Messiah/Christ. And the purpose of the Messiah born in the City of David is to be a Savior. So the Good News is actually a message of salvation. It is interesting that the Church has co-opted the words Good News to also be applied to the term Gospel. Most of us have heard someone as they teach say that the very word Gospel means Good News. Well, that is kind of true and not true at the same time. The literal word, Gospel, actually derives from the Anglo Saxon word, “god-spell,” which means “good story.” That word is rendered from the word that we find in the Luke 2 passage when the Angel says to the shepherds: “I am bringing you good news.” The Greek word translated here is “euangalidzo,” which is, itself, a combination of two other word forms: “eu” which is actually a prefix that means “well or good;” and “angellos,” which means “tidings or news.” The Angel has a message of good tidings for everyone to hear. There is something else that is interesting here, and it is something that should be kind of obvious – the second part of the word for Good News, is also the root word for the noun, “Angel.” So, the very word Angel is rooted in one who brings news or tidings. When the Angel hovered over the Shepherds to announce the coming of the Savior of the World, he was doing what his very nature existed to be – he was giving out the News. But, this message was not just any news; it was the “good news,” of all good news – a Gospel that would be lived out for 33 years here on earth, and read for centuries afterwards. But, perhaps the question can be asked: why is this proclamation given by the Angels (God’s Messengers) good news for all people? What makes this Good News universally worth knowing; how will it impact people everywhere? Well, to understand this it will be helpful for us to look at how the Old Testament passages describe the expected Messiah, now revealed as a babe lying in a manger somewhere in the city of David. 13 Let’s begin our search in the Gospel of Luke, probably the most quoted Gospel in the Christmas tradition. Within the Gospel of Luke there are several places that Luke supports his narrative with “fulfillment Scriptures” from the Old Testament. Often he sets them up with a statement like, “this was done in order to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet,” and sometimes he will add the name of the prophet, but not always (early followers knew who he meant; we, of course, rely on Google). To give you a sense of how the Gospel writers did this let’s look
13 BIBLE QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION: how many of the four Gospels tell the story of the Birth of Christ? If less than 4, where will you find the baby Jesus?
