Good News About Bad News

The Good News About Bad News

John 1:1-5

Skit…

Have you heard the news? Charlie is in a cast.

That is bad news! No that is good news! At first they thought he broke both legs but it was just one.

That is good news! No that is bad news! Now he can’t work.

That is bad news! No that is good news! The other driver was a fault and is paying for everything.

That is good news! No that is bad news! It wasn’t a car wreck, it was a golf cart wreck and his wife will find out he was playing golf instead of working.

That is bad news! No that is good news! He won the golf match and won $500.00

That is good news! No that is bad news! He lost $499.00 playing poker.

That is bad news! No that is good news! With the other dollar he bought a lottery ticket and won $25,000.00

That is good news! No that is bad news! The IRS found out and they took 2/3.

That is bad news! No that is good news! It left him enough to get his teeth and his truck fixed.

That is good news! No that is bad news! He had to get his teeth fixed because they got broken in a fight when somebody smashed into his pick-up truck.

That is bad news! No that is good news! He won the fight and the other fellow has to pay for the truck.

That is good news! No that is bad news! He got locked up for being drunk and disorderly.

That is bad news! No that is good news! Charlie owed his bookie $8,000.00 and when he heard Charlie had won the $25,000.00 and didn’t pay up, he said he was going to break Charlie’s other leg and knock out those new teeth. So it’s a good thing Charlie is in jail. That is the safest place he can be.

That is good! No that is bad. I just saw Charlie’s mother-in-law going into the jail to bail Charlie out.

Good news/ bad news. Our world is full of both. We got the good news that Saddam was captured. Then we got the bad news that within the hour several people were killed by car bombs.

Last Sunday we got the good news that the Bucks won. But then we got the bad news that if any two of the Packers, Seahawks, Cowboys or Vikings win today, the Bucks are out of the playoffs.

Sometimes the same news can be good and bad… like the girl in college who told my roommate that I was not as ugly as I used to be.

How about Christmas??? For many people Christmas is good news about the holidays. It is bad news about the cost.

Many people will live every day of January dreading the arrival of the bills. A trip to the mailbox will not be joy and expectancy… but with dread and fear.

Some people are living that way every day.

Some are sick or have some pain, but they refuse to go to the doctor, because they don’t want to hear the word “cancer.”

Some live every day with this dark cloud hanging over them, like an axe that is ready to fall. They don’t know when but they are sure it is just about to fall.

Some elderly persons live in constant fear of a fall or a stroke, or some sickness that would get them down, or hospitalized, because they are certain that if they get down it will spell the end.

When I consider these people and their fears I am reminded of a song from my teen years that said, “Sure could use a little good news today.”

Well, I HAVE GOOD NEWS!!!

I have good news about bad news.

First of all let me say…

God’s good news is greater than the world’s bad news

I love the way John puts it in his gospel…

“The light shown in the darkness and the darkness apprehended it not.”

Your translation may say, “comprehended it not.”

The actual Greek word John used was katalambano and it means, “to grasp”

Some interpret it as “grasp the meaning of” and so they translate it “comprehend”.

The other translation is grasp as in “take control over or apprehend”

The best translation is APPREHEND!

The good news (light) shines in the darkness (arena of bad news) and the darkness (bad news) apprehended it over came it not.

God’s good news is stronger than the world’s bad news.

Just as with light and dark… darkness has no power of it’s own. Darkness is just the absence of good news. You can come into this sanctuary in the middle of the night with the shutters closed and IT IS DARK! You can’t see anything. You don’t know where anything is. For all you know there may be nothing there, everything stripped out… or there may be dangerous people waiting for you. But with one small candle, it all changes… reality is made visible. You can see the white pews, the red carpet and the mahogany trim. And the more light you have the more you can see, and the farther away you can see.