What The Angel Told The Shepherds

At the time of Jesus’ birth, there were some shepherds out in the field, watching their flock in the night. An angel appeared to them and told them: ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David A SAVIOUR, who is Christ the Lord’ [Luke 2:11].

Do you believe that Jesus’ birth is ‘good news of great joy’?

When we hear about some offer, we often subconsciously ask three questions. ‘Is it good?’ ‘Is it true?’ And, if it is good and true, ‘What should I do?

AN ILLUSTRATION

Let me give an example. Last week, I saw an advertisement in a newspaper. It said, ‘Free cod liver oil capsules from Holland and Barrett.’ Underneath, there was a voucher.

Let me ask my three questions.

Is it good? Yes, it is. Cod liver oil is good for you.

Is it true? Could I simply go into a Holland and Barrett shop and walk out with a bottle of cod liver oil capsules? I didn’t know if it was true. But I thought it might be.

If it was good and true, what should I do? Logically, I should accept the offer.

So, I went to the Holland and Barrett shop in Tesco Extra and presented my voucher.

Who thinks that I walked out of the shop with a bottle of cod liver oil capsules?

Well, I did. I got a bottle of 30 cod liver oil tablets. Here it is.

WHAT ABOUT JESUS?

The angel told the shepherds that he had ‘good news of great joy’. A Saviour had been born!

Is it good? Is it true? And if it is good and true, what should we do?

IS IT GOOD?

Is it good? Specifically, is it good that Jesus came into our world as a saviour?

In 1987, an 18-month-old baby named Jessica fell into an abandoned well in a town called Midland, in Texas. Jessica had been playing in her aunt’s backyard when she fell into the well. When I say ‘well’, this wasn’t an old-fashioned well like you see in pictures. This was a pipe which was just eight inches wide. Jessica fell until she was stuck, 22 feet below ground. She was alone. She couldn’t climb. In fact, she couldn’t move at all. She couldn’t communicate except for her cries. She was at risk of dehydration, hypothermia and injury. She was completely incapable of saving herself.

If someone saved Jessica, would that be good? Of course it would be.

Emergency services got to work. They dug another shaft to connect to the one Jessica had fallen down. Eventually, after 58 hours, a paramedic crawled through the shaft, reached Jessica and rescued her. She had only minor injuries.

Is that a picture of us? The Bible tells us that this is exactly true of us. We’re stuck in a hole and are completely incapable of saving ourselves.

Let me tell you another story.

There’s a nonprofit organization in the United States called RIP Medical Debt. It buys and forgives medical bills for people who can’t pay their healthcare costs. One person who benefited from it was a woman called Amanda.

Like Jessica, Amanda was from Texas. She was a single mother. She had a medical debt after a complicated childbirth. She worked full-time but couldn’t keep up with the bills. She was constantly worried, expecting to get calls from debt collectors. But one day, Amanda got a letter telling her that her medical debt – over $3,000 – had been completely forgiven through RIP Medical Debt. Afterwards she said, ‘It was like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I could finally breathe again. I felt hope for the first time in a long time.’

These two stories illustrate the Christian message. The Christian message is that every person in the world has disobeyed and wronged God. If no one rescues us, we will die. But no ordinary person can save us. We need a very special saviour. The Bible tells us that only Jesus, who never committed a sin, could save us. Jesus, by dying on the cross, paid the debt we couldn’t pay.

Now, we can come to God and say sorry. When we do that, God will forgive our sins. With our sins forgiven, death no longer has a hold on us.

Jesus told a woman called Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die’ [John 11:25-26].

The New Testament tells us more than forty times that those who put their trust in Jesus inherit eternal life.

Jessica and Amanda were both stuck. We are also stuck – but we are even more stuck than Jessica or Amanda. But, as the angel told the shepherds, ‘…unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour’.