Good News of Great Joy

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Turn with me to Luke chapter 2 tonight. Luke chapter 2. I'll read to you just one verse of Scripture and ask you to leave it open to a familiar story. Luke chapter 2. I'm reading from the King James.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. New American Standard, I think, uses the word good news. Good news of great joy.

And that's what I want to talk, good news of great joy. Praise the Lord. You know what it means when the pastor puts his watch in front of him like this? It means absolutely nothing, especially in this church.

Leave your Bible open to Luke chapter 2. You know the reason that I choose to speak this message tonight based on the angelic appearance to the shepherds is not just because this is Christmas season but the gospel is so vividly portrayed in this event. You know, most preachers can tell you that it's hard to preach from familiar Bible stories or scriptural passages. And the birth of Christ is probably the most familiar and famous of all Bible events.

I remember when I pastored, the traditional thing would be sometime during the Christmas season to preach a message based upon the Christmas story. And I remember how I used to search and try to come up with an interpretation and sometimes maybe a little angle on it and sometimes I'd get a little too creative. But it was always difficult.

But as I read this account of how the glorious announcement of Christ's birth was made, not in the quarters of famous men, not to priests, not to the Pharisees, not to statesmen, not to politicians, but to common ordinary shepherds keeping watch over their flock in a very obscure field miles from Bethlehem in the cold of night. As I read that, I realized what a powerful but simple message of the gospel is to be found in these momentous events. When the angel said, Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy, that angel is the first New Testament evangelist preaching the very first New Testament soul-winning evangelistic message.

And so I want to bring this to your attention in order to convey a message that millions will miss during this season. And if we miss the gospel that's in the manger, then Christmas is just a commercial holiday and it's not the celebration of one who came to save his people and save you from your sins. You see, the cross always stands near the manger.

The gospel is always near the manger. And the hinge of history is on the door of a Bethlehem stable. And when it opened to the shepherds, they were the first converts because the Bible says to the Jew first.

And then came the Magi, the Gentiles, who came in to the knowledge of the gospel. And so I want you to follow this familiar story as the gospel is announced to the shepherds and how they found it to be true. Now, first of all, they were men who had the lamb, but they did not and had not come into the light.

They had the lamb, but they did not have the light. It says in verse 8, And they were in the same country, shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock, the lamb, the sheep, by night. At first they were only simple shepherds, but then suddenly and unexpectedly the solitude of their night is interrupted by an angel, an angel, the Lord, which stood before them.

The other angels who sang held back. They waited because didn't want to scare them all at once. So the angel came singularly and made the announcement.

And then suddenly they were engulfed and surrounded by a blazing, brilliant light. Now, these shepherds during their days, during their shepherding, during their time, they had seen many strange appearances. I'm sure they had seen many a fierce wolf to come into their flock.

Probably they had seen appearances in the sky of the eclipse of the moon or a shooting star or UFO if there was such a thing there. But this night the shepherds saw such an, it was such an exciting night as a night that they had never seen before in their life. And as shepherds, they were men who had the lamb, but they did not have the light until God sent his messenger angel to them.

Now, let me explain to you what I mean by the fact that they had the lamb, but they didn't have the light. There is some controversy as to whether December 25th was actually the month or the day that Christ was born. We cannot know for sure.

The reason for the uncertainty is that the decision to celebrate December 25th was made and was reached in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine. And it was then that the date was chosen to coincide with a pagan festival which was called the Festival of Saturnalia which was the time when they celebrated the return to the sun after days of constantly increasing darkness. In fact, December the 25th begins the turn of the days being short, the light being short and each day beginning December 25th, more light begins to return as we approach towards the spring and the summer season.

And so they have this feast, the Feast of Saturnalia and it was a time they exchanged gifts. And because of its association with that pagan feast, some rejected it as being the date or time of Christ's birth. However, there were certain early church fathers who did believe in spite of that that it was the correct date.

One of them was Polycarp who was a disciple of Apostle John. But another problem with the December date is the belief that the shepherds could not or would not be keeping watch over sheep during that time of the year during winter. However, there is a simple explanation as to why these shepherds would be watching over a flock.

It is believed that these shepherds were a very special, very special ones taking care of a very special flock of sheep. In the temple every morning and every evening an unblemished lamb was offered as a sacrifice to God In order to see that a supply of such perfect offerings was always available, the temple authorities had their own or maintained their own special flock for that purpose. Now we do not know this for sure, but it is an interesting thought that the very shepherds who looked after the temple lambs and sacrifices may have been the very first to hear the announcement and then have the privilege of seeing the lamb who would be the permanent sacrifice to take away the sins of the world.

Now based upon that argument and I would call that divine logic, these shepherds may have been, if not the actual ones, yet in type they would still be the same. They were those who had the lamb, but they had not yet seen the light. In other words, they may have had the symbol of the gospel, but not the substance of it.

You see throughout the Old Testament the coming Messiah and the message of salvation was presented in symbols, in types, and in shadows. Colossians 3.17 refers to those things which are a shadow of the things to come. Hebrews 1.1 in the New American Standards says God spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways.

And in the King James it says that he spoke in divers manners. And this again refers to the types and the shadows such as the various sacrifices, the tabernacle in the wilderness, the priest, the candlestick, the table and shoe bread, the Ark of the Covenant, and so forth. Hebrews 8.5 says they, the priests, serve in the sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven.

Hebrews 10.1 says the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. And the book of Hebrews was written to show that all the symbols of the Old Testament, all the ways that God was revealed bit by bit and in many different ways, was to bring them to the time when Christ was to be born so that all that had been previously presented in types and in shadows and symbols would become substance. Hebrews 1.2 says in those last days God has spoken to us in his Son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the world.

Now please follow me. It was these ordinary shepherds that it was to these ordinary shepherds that the fulfillment of the promises would become alive and personified and made flesh in the person of God's only begotten Son. They were to have the privilege of seeing the shadow become the substance and the symbol become the savior and the lamb out of their flock a type of that which would give way to God's living lamb who would once for all purge us from our dead conscience, from sin under salvation.

These humble shepherds did not know it but they who may have guarded the temple lambs and handed them over to the priest that they would have the privilege of being a witness to God handing over to the world that little child who would be the lamb to replace all those other lambs. In other words, they had the symbol. They were about to see the substance.

Hebrews 10, 9 says, Then he said, Here I am. I have come to do your will. That's what the manger meant.

Here I am. I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second and by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus once for all.

And thus a better hope was introduced by which we draw nigh to God. Now I said that in order to say this. There are many like those shepherds today.

They only possess, listen to me, They only possess the outward symbols and shadows of Christianity. They have not yet come into the light or they have not yet come to walk in the light. They have not yet come into the reality and the substance of the gospel.

Do you know that you can have the lamb but not have the light? You can be just like these shepherds. You can be sincere. You can be humble.

You can be religious. And yet you're keeping watch over a flock of religious symbols and you may have the lamb but not have the light. You can have religious tradition.

You can participate in religious form and ritual. You can know religious songs and know religious symbols and say religious prayers. And you can even take a lamb as it were to the temple but still not know Jesus.

Now if these shepherds did watch over the temple lambs, it's very possible that they did. They were strangely linked to the gospel but only an outward symbol. They had in their possession the offering or sacrifice for sin.

That Old Testament offering which Hebrews 10, 11 says, day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties. Again and again he offers the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. In other words, lamb after lamb was presented to the priest and offered to God but yet it did not cleanse them.

And you see all that many so-called Christians have are religious forms and rituals. They perform religious duties day after day or Sunday after Sunday but there is no substance, no reality, no light in their religion. And they still keep watch over that flock of religious symbols by night but they're still living in spiritual darkness.

They go to church, they go to confession but they're no closer to God than the shepherds who had the lamb but had not come into the light. Listen, you can go to church, you can light a candle but that doesn't bring you into the light. That does not mean that you have the light.

Jesus said, I am the light of the world. You can know all about the lamb. Even as the Jews knew the scriptures and religiously sacrificed the lamb and they made their sacrifices in the temple but you can still do all that and be in darkness.

And oh what a tragedy in this season. A week or so ago when I came to church by cab and my family was in the back and so I sat in the front and I noticed a cab driver doing something that the only other person I knew that did that was me. He was reading a book as he was driving us to church.

Every time he would come to a traffic light he'd have a book and he'd start reading. And I'm sure other people do that, they read the newspaper and so forth but I'm the only other one I know that would read a book like that. And I looked over and it said Armageddon.

And I said that's an interesting book you're reading and he told me what it was and I said, I forget whether I said are you a Christian or do you know the Lord or are you a Christian? And he paused for a few moments and he said no, he said but I like prophecy. And we talked for a little bit and I told him well there's a lot of good prophecy in the Bible and about that time we arrived at the church and my family gave him an advertisement or a little brochure about it and we invited him to come to church and he looked at it and he saw the name Wilkerson and he said oh he said Nicky Cruz and he knew who Nicky Cruz was right away and we invited him and when I left the cab he kept looking and looking at the church but what interested me was here was a gentleman who liked prophecy and listen I know a lot of people that like the Word or they like prophecy or they study the Scriptures but they don't know Jesus. They haven't come into the light.

John 4.20 says for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. I'll mention a name some of you will know this name some of you will not know it. Nathan Sharansky.

Nathan Sharansky was a Soviet Jew who became world renowned in the 1970s as a spokesman for Moscow's dissidents. He was given a 13 year prison sentence. He spent seven of those years in prison.

Much of it in solitary confinement in a freezing punishment cell. He also protested by going on hunger strikes and his wife became traveled all over the world during the Carter administration and brought his cause to the attention of congressmen and so forth. And his is a story of great courage and defiance the KGB did everything they could to try to get him to break him down to get him to compromise to get him to confess but he had an amazing resilience and but at one point in his imprisonment his wife Avital I believe is how you pronounce it sent her a book sent him a book of psalms in fact she sent it and it was held from him for about a years time and at one point mysteriously it was given to him and when he received it he knew nothing of although he was Jew he knew nothing of Judaism he had never read the Torah but when he received the book this is what he said I opened it and immediately decided that I must read all 150 of the psalms not sometime in the future but starting today and he said for 40 days he said I copied he had to translate it he didn't know Hebrew he just didn't know Hebrew that well or didn't know how to read it that well but he translated I guess into Russian and he read them and it took him at least an hour or more on each psalm and this is what he said he said I can't say that I understood the psalms completely but I sensed their spirit and felt both joy and the suffering of King David especially the author of the psalms he said his words lifted me above the mundane and directed me towards the eternal he said I especially like psalms 23 though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil in fact his book which I'm reading is entitled Fear No Evil I will fear no evil for though thou art with me and the words thou art with me were especially important to him but then he said this but who was thou who is thou my wife the presence of my wife is it Israel is it God and then he said I didn't try to narrow it down he said psalms verse 27 was particularly comforting to me do not forsake me do not abandon me oh God my deliverer though my father and my mother forsake me the Lord will take me up but you know the tragedy of this story and when I first read it I thought well here is a man who's come into the light but no all he had was the Lamb Nathan Cheransky did not find out who the Lord is he had the psalms or like the shepherds he had the Lamb he read about the shepherd the true shepherd but he never had the light he was so near he was so near to salvation and yet he was so far and I'm sure that many of you you know people just like that people who they have all the religious aspect of it they know the religious traditions and yet they do not know Jesus I had a friend a Jewish friend an accountant and I noticed one time that on his dashboard he had a cross the Virgin Mary and a Star of David and I said what's that all about he said I don't know which is the way he said I'm just trying to cover all my bases he had all the religious symbols but he didn't know Jesus and I know people who grew up with them they lived them all their life they know them but they don't know Jesus these shepherds at first had the Lamb they were so close they had the link to Jesus but they had not yet come into the light oh but the shepherds did come into the light you see some people have the Lamb but they don't want to come into or walk in the light they neither cometh to the light as the scripture says they want the good feelings that religious symbols and rituals will give them but they don't want to obey the truth or walk in the light but these shepherds were different I believe they were chosen to hear the message of salvation because they wanted they wanted more than just to watch over a flock of religious symbols John 4 421 says but he that doeth truth cometh to the light last Tuesday night in our service a young woman was at this altar she came to the light because she prayed she wasn't going to church but she got a hunger for God and she began to ask God to show her the way and then she happened to know a young man who attended the church called him up and said are you still religious or something like that do you still go to church he said yes he said can I come with you and you see she was tired of just watching over lambs and knowing about the Lord she was tired of just having religious feelings but not knowing Jesus but last Tuesday night she came and she found Jesus because she wanted to come into the light and anybody who wants to have more than dead religious formalism and will come seeking the truth will be led to Bethlehem and that true light which is Jesus now these shepherds by their reaction to the light that shone around about them revealed that they wanted to know the meaning of the light and not turn away from it note the comforting words that the angel gave to the shepherds fear not fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people and you see when they saw this blazing light that shone around about them it says and they were sore afraid but let me tell you my friend that's a good kind of fear that's the kind of fear that we all need to have because it means awe it means reverence as one who is in the presence of the Lord now listen to me there is a man or a person who ought to fear but does not and there is the person who does fear but need not let me say that again there is a man who ought to fear but does not and there is the person who does fear but need not if your deeds are evil and you do not want to change then you're going to have a fear of coming to the light this is the fear of exposure it's the fear of giving in and giving up to something John 3 19 says and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil for everyone that doeth evil hateth the light they fear the light because they don't want to have to give up their evil practices or pleasures for them the good news is not really good news oh they may have the lamb and you may have the lamb you may know and read the bible they may even and you may listen to preaching but they never come into the light they do not have the fear or reverence that leads to change did you ever go to a funeral I'm sure you have I've gone to my share of them when they buried somebody that lived like a devil and you didn't know they were talking about the same man or woman and the whole family is there who still live like the devil and you hear them quote psalms 23 and all those other scriptures and you got to bite your tongue because there's a whole bunch of heathen who are acting like saints for about 30 minutes religious symbols religious symbols but not the light ah but these shepherds had a reverence a fear of the light and the message of the angels and this is why the angels said to them fear not because this message is good news to you I said before a person there is a person who does not fear who ought to fear and there is a person who fears who need not fear you know occasionally I encounter people at this altar and the other pastors have somebody who says I believe that I've committed the unpardonable sin and boy does the devil ever throw that in some people's face well you see the man or the person who asked that question I've never known a person yet who asked that question in the church who had ever committed the unpardonable sin because the person who asked it it's evidence that they're coming to the light and they have a sense of reverence for God they have a fear of God in their heart and they're a person who is a candidate for the good news which will cleanse and forgive them of their sin you see the only thing that you ought to be afraid of is to attend a church or to hear a preacher who does not strike a fear a fear with reverence in your heart and who does not bring you to the light of all the things that a church might fail to do for its people the number one failure is to not shine the light and preach the awesomeness of God's presence and if you're in such a church where you're never made to feel sore afraid because of the light and you're never made to feel uncomfortable at times then you're either not hearing the good news of great joy or you hate the light because you love darkness nobody has to be afraid that comes to the light it's good news it's good news for you tonight hallelujah when you come to the light but there's something else about these shepherds these shepherds heard the song they heard the angel song but they still needed to go to the Savior and you know something tonight you can have the song but not have the Savior it's possible to hear the song or even sing the song of redemption but not know the Savior you see the single angelic messenger who delivered that first evangelistic sermon was joined by a whole heavenly host this is the end of side one you may now turn the tape suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying now in Bible school they used to argue and they still argue whether they were singing or whether they were chanting or whether they were saying or how they were doing it for my part I like to think they're singing it a host of angels singing glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill towards men and let me tell you something those angels must have anxiously and expectedly waited for that day to sing out that great song I believe that they had been associated with Christ in heaven before his incarnation they knew something of his riches in glory they knew something of his majesty and they probably had rehearsed for centuries I want to tell you I think the only other position I would envy is Gabriel who's waiting to make the trumpet sound for the next coming or the second coming of the Lord but there is probably no greater position how many angels must have volunteered for that time perhaps these same angels had been at the temple singing when Isaiah heard them cry holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and I believe that the angels were aware of man's fall they had been informed that God had provided the way of salvation for man this is implied in Gabriel's announcement in Matthew 121 it says you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins and I also wonder if the angels know that the work of saving men meant that the father would not spare his own son and that the son though he was rich for his people's sake would become poor vicariously bearing the curse resting on those whom he had come to save and you see the birth of Christ in that condition of poverty must have caused even the angels even the angels to stand in awe of God's indescribable marvelous love Paul said in these words thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift and it was that love that would cause those angels it says that love that was included among the things that the angels desired to look upon but they could not that's what we sing about in the song the angels cannot sing this song they could not experience what they were singing about ah but the shepherds did and although the shepherds sang the song and they heard the wonderful news even the most wonderful news was announced to mankind yet that was not enough it was what happened listen to me it's what happened when the music stops it's what happens when the angels go away it's what happened when all of that disappeared that became the most important part of this story and listen my friend we have got to have more than the song we've got to have more than the song we have got to bow down to the savior you can have the song but not know the savior look at verse 15 and 16 and it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven the shepherds said one to another well this service is over we may as well go home the shepherds said one to another let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass which the lord hath made known unto us and they came with haste and found the babe now Luke uses the imperfect tense to show that these devout men never hesitated note the word now let us go now that little word now means without delay at once oh what faith these men demonstrated they didn't say let's go and see if it happened they did not raise one doubt or one question the announcement was taken as a fact and they acted upon it they said let us go now and see this thing which is come to pass hallelujah not if not maybe not might but which is they did not discuss the announcement of the song they simply obeyed it and my friend the point is this it is what we do when the message and the music stops that is the measure of true faith let me say this again it is what we do when the message and music stops that is the measure of true faith you see a lot of people hear the announcement they listen to the message and messengers they hear the music they even love the music that tells of a savior who was born this day in the city of David but they never respond they never go to find out the reality behind the song they worship the symbols of Christmas or the Christmas story but they never go to Bethlehem but these shepherds were men of true faith let us go now and see this thing which is come to pass you know in this season in churches and in cathedrals and even in places like Lincoln Center the song the angels sang will be repeated in melodious harmonious beautiful emotionally stirring terms but what happens when the music stops or what about when the preacher has delivered his sermon you see it is not enough to hear the announcement or listen to the music it is when the angels are gone and we obey it's then that we see the promised word become reality to us and God help you if you're only a music or a message lover but you never make a move to God listen there are churches and people in them who love a good gospel music or good gospel service they love it some if it's nice soft traditional music they like it especially if the preacher preaches a good sermon they go out to the service and they say it was good especially if the message had three points and thirty minutes and that's it and I've traveled enough in my time I can spot them now when I used to travel a lot and minister I'd see these dear ladies because I used to preach in a lot of denominational churches and they'd greet me after the service and it goes something like this preacher that was a nice talk you gave that was a nice little talk you gave that was a good word preacher and I used to think to myself if it was so good why didn't you make a move towards God you see if there's no soul searching if there is no making haste to see to go and see the thing that is prophesied if there is no personal application then all that you have is religious pageantry and a show and the only difference between a religious show in some churches and Lincoln Center is that in the church the quality of the performance is not as good and the seats are cheaper otherwise there's no difference but you know for other people the standard of a good church is if the music is hand clapping if it's foot stomping and if it's emotionally exciting and there's nothing wrong with that because we love that here but the question is what happens when the music stops and some of you know exactly what I'm talking about you were in churches just like that all the words were right all the music was right the singing was great and even the preaching was good but there was never a move to God there was never repentance there was no fear of the Lord other people never make a move towards God once the angels are gone you know there is a type of believer whose faith or commitment is only as strong as the last miracle they witnessed or the last angelic appearance in other words they're drawn to the sensational to the miraculous to signs and wonders and to great religious events and if they don't have a sign if they don't have a tongue if they don't have an interpretation if they don't have a prophecy if they don't see or hear or think they hear or see heavenly hosts then they have no faith and you'll never see them going to see this thing which has come to pass you'll never see them making a move towards God they'd rather go to the shepherd's field and wait until the next angelic appearance you see some people are only moved or disturbed by great events they look for and they live on the sensational or the super meeting or the super preacher I'm not surprised when a man writes a book announcing Christ is coming on a certain date and watch the body of Christ flock to it by it and swallow it hook line and sinker I'm not surprised because some people live for that they live for the angelic appearance as it were and there are preachers who know this and exploit it and live financially off of that kind of Christian and in their meeting you can go and I want to tell you especially if they're on some of the Christian radio stations because there's great competition for every dollar and so it becomes a question of who can top this and I want to tell you some of the stories are fantastic some of the stories are amazing and many of them are just lies and gross exaggeration or they pray for the sick and they create miracles which are not miracles and yet the people clap their hands they shout I know I've been in meetings like that I remember I preached in one place and it so happened that they brought a man, wheeled him in all the way up the front in a wheelchair on the right hand side and after I preached it so happened that I preached from the third chapter of John on the lame man at the gate beautiful and I made a spiritual evangelistic application to it while the altar call was going on I saw a woman I spotted her and she kept looking at this man in the wheelchair she kept looking at him and I knew what was coming I knew it was coming she shot out of her seat and she went up and she laid hands upon this man and prayed for him and he got up and he started to walk across the front and the place went wild, the place went crazy everybody but me everybody but me because I knew that something was wrong well I found out he could always get up and walk a little bit he was not totally incapacitated but you see there are people who live on the sensational and they'll go and they'll find it one way or another and the preacher who knows it exploits it and if there's no real miracle he'll make it sound like a miracle he'll create as if it's there but the story here is this and it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven that the shepherds said one to another let us go even unto Bethlehem the question is this where are you when the music stops what are you doing when the angels have gone back to heaven and you're like the shepherds and you're still there are you living out your faith or are you living for the next burst of angelic light from heaven but the Lord you see one shepherd who will obey him after the lights have gone out and after the music has stopped and after the message is over and after all the miraculous is over when you go forth that's what the Lord wants your obedience one more thing and I close when the angels were gone and the music stopped Jesus remained Jesus remained and they came with haste and found the bay the angels departed but Jesus remained now it probably took the shepherds a little while to realize that the angels were gone and the darkness and the quietness of their situation remained you see a shepherd's life was very lonely it was not very exciting in fact it was very boring and yet it was not while the brilliant light shone around about them it was not when the heavenly choir was singing the hallelujah chorus that the shepherds found the place where Christ was laid it was after the shepherds had gone that they rose and they made their way to Bethlehem and though the angels were gone yet Christ remained the music stopped but the Lord was still in their midst and you see the point is this never build your relationship with Christ on past blessings or on some glorious experience that happened previously never live off of signs or wonders or heavenly light shows or an angelic announcement that does not include this as the center of the prophetic word this is what the angels said this is how you can measure every fantastic thing that comes along if it has this in it and this shall be a sign unto you ye shall find the bay if Jesus is not in the midst of it if it doesn't draw you to Jesus if it doesn't bring you to the light I don't care how happy it makes you or how good it makes you feel unless it brings you to the light and unless Jesus is there then it's only religious symbols when the angels went Jesus remained and my friend when everything else is gone and if this theater is gone or this church is gone and these pastors are gone and this choir is gone and all of this excitement is gone my friend if you still can hold on to Jesus without all of this then we've done our job here hallelujah hallelujah now we ain't planning to go anywhere but in case who knows what could happen and you've all seen it you've seen it when the pastor is gone or the church is gone you've seen the sheep scattered but my friend when all else is gone Jesus remains hallelujah