Isaiah 52:7-10; Acts 10:34-44; Luke 2:8-20

December 9, 2020

Old Testament Lesson                                                 Isaiah 52:7-10

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” ⁸ Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. ⁹ Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. ¹⁰ The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Title: Good News to the Earth

Intro: – This passage from Isaiah speaks of the miraculous return of the exiles of Judah who were taken into Babylon. They were to rejoice in God keeping His promises in this miraculous way. Verse 10 shows this when it says, “¹⁰ The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” It was hard to miss what God was doing. For the great works He was doing, He did in the sight of all nation – out in the open for everyone to see.

And that is the purpose of Israel. They were meant to be a physical, in the flesh, demonstration of God’s faithfulness to His people. Through them, God would demonstrate His power to protect and deliver them from even the most fearsome of enemies, even though they were not a powerful people themselves. Certainly as the news was spread as to what God had accomplished – that the exiles were returning –  it was received as good news. Good news is beautiful, and how wonderful and blessed are those through whom the Good News comes to us.

Yes, the message of Good News comes from heaven, but it is meant to be spread throughout the earth. God has always used people to spread that Good News, for this Good News is not just for those to whom it came initially, but is meant to be shared. The Good News of the Messiah wasn’t just meant for Israel, or the shepherds, or the apostles, but it was meant for all people in all nations. So just like the shepherds at the birth of Jesus, we shouldn’t hoard the Good News.

1. Proclaim Peace

So what is this Good News that we are to share. First, this is the initial proclamation that the war is over – that the victory has been won. It is the Good News of peace. So we are to proclaim to others this message of peace, that you don’t have to live in opposition to God, that He has made a way for reconciliation. That He desires to live in peace with you. That He has destroyed the barrier of sin. And it is the death of Jesus that has made that peace possible. As were told in Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”

And how should we receive such news?  Verse 9 of our passage command us to “burst into songs of joy together.” And notice to whom that command is given, “you ruins of Jerusalem.” The message of peace is usually most gladly received by those who have been living through and experiencing the horrors of war. And this is Good News for us, especially when we seem to be sitting in the ruins. The Good News never changes. It is always just as good, it is always just as real.

So, too, often it is easy for us not to share the Good News with those who may need it the most. Sometimes we try to look for “church people” to invite to church, rather than look for hurt people and introduce them to Jesus. And, yes, we should certainly invite people to church, and I’m grateful for all those who have been invited throughout the time I’ve been here. But we also need to be willing to tell those in bad situations, those who are standing in the ruins, the Good News that Jesus came for them, too.

Peter proclaimed this Good News to Cornelius, a Gentile, a Roman Centurion, and he says in Acts 10:34-36, ““I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. ³⁶ You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”

At one time, Peter and the disciples assumed the Good News of Jesus was sent mostly to the Jews, but through a series of God-arranged encounters, Peter came to realize that this Good News of peace needs to be shared to all. For God has offered His peace to all who would receive it.

1. Bring Glad Tidings

I like to think of Glad Tidings as filling in the important details. For often the first messenger was sent immediately with just the big picture news, and subsequent messengers would fill in the details. Details, such as: What brought about this peace? What does this peace mean? This might also include a call to action and further instruction. Such as: What are we to do with this peace we’ve been given? How should this change our daily routine?

These types of details are seen in the proclamation of the angels to the shepherds in Luke 2:11-12, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

These glad tidings told them how they would know where to find the Messiah, Jesus. We, too, have been given instructions in God’s Word as to how to find Jesus. We are also given the promise that if we follow Him, He will show you the way. The glad tidings are the proclamation that The Lord Himself is Coming! Get ready! Be prepared!

It is through the glad tidings that we also get to know the heart of God better. For the Glad Tidings is really nothing less than Scripture itself. For through God’s Word we come to learn more about His love for us, and the depth of His grace and mercy. We learn more about how He rescued us, what the sacrifice of Jesus meant, and why it was necessary. It is in these glad tidings that we get to know what it means to live in God’s Kingdom of Light. And it is through these glad tidings that we learn about the future salvation that is still to come. And we look forward to the final proclamation of salvation, “The Lord is Here!”

III. Proclaim Salvation

For the cry that the Lord Is Here is the final proclamation of salvation. It is the announcement that everything is finished, and the Kingdom of God has now come to earth. This is the proclamation that Paul speaks of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, “ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

The coming of the Lord is meant to be an encouragement to us. It is something we are to look forward to and speed its coming. It is not a time to dread or be afraid of. Too often when we speak of the Return of Christ and the End Times, we act as though they are something to be dreaded, something we want to avoid. However, the Bible speaks of the Second Coming of Jesus as something to look forward to. It is meant to be a message of Hope. And we need to share this with others in that way. We need to remember to share it as Good News.

Paul says to Cornelius in Acts 10:^42 “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.” This is what we are waiting for. This is the Hope we are living in. We are awaiting the return of the Lord, and we are waiting for the establishment of His eternal kingdom on earth. We are looking forward to joining the others who have already returned from their exile. It is also a reminder that the Good News is not completely fulfilled yet. Don’t get discouraged when you seem surrounded by the bad news. For God isn’t finished.

So this Advent, we need to proclaim the Good News. But to proclaim the Good News, we first need to let the Holy Spirit proclaim the Good News to our hearts – on a daily basis. We need to let God proclaim peace to our hearts in the midst of the noise of this world. We need to let Him bring His Glad Tidings to us through His Word that we might have joy even the midst of the chaos of this world. We need to let Him speak His promise of salvation to our hearts, so that we might have hope even when this world brings nothing but despair. That is the Good News of Christmas. That is the Good News of Jesus. That through Christ, God has brought His offer of peace to earth. Amen.