St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Christmas Day -- December 25^th, 2006

Dear children of God who have come to worship the birth of our Savior.

How many of us have seen the goofy commercials where the person blurts out, "I’ve good news, I saved a lot of money on my car insurance." It is a catchy little way to get our attention isn’t it. You think he is going to tell you something, which is going to be very helpful and good, but after a little pause he blurts out this good news thing about saving lots of money on his car insurance. You can almost sense the letdown as the person hears these silly little words. Reading between the lines we realize that this isn’t really good news at all.

As we gather in God’s house, we are here to once again let God announce to us the phrase, I’ve got Good News. As Christians we have heard this phrase many times before, so it may not grab our attention quite like it did the first couple of times we heard it. But non the less, God announces the phrase again this Christmas Day, I’ve got Good News for all sinners. And exactly the opposite of the car insurance commercial, there is no let down because we know God is telling the truth. This morning in part two of our Christmas Day message we follow up on the words of Pastor Schultz as we look again at the words Good News and what they actually mean for us this Christmas Season. Our theme for this 2^nd part of today’s message will be:

We just heard how the people had heard God’s promise of the Good News of Savior throughout the time of the Old Testament. Prophet after prophet proclaimed this simple truth – that the Good News of a Savior from our sin would indeed come. But Old Testament promises would mean absolutely nothing, if they were not fulfilled. The same holds true for the message of the coming Messiah. If the phrase of God’s Good News was just some hype to get people’s attention only to fall short of what people really needed. Then why even listen to God or follow God.

It is great to know that this isn’t the case. Christmas time gives us a perfect opportunity to see God’s perfect plan of Good News begin. It happened just as was promised long ago by Isaiah and the many other prophets. Jesus was born from a virgin and this virgin named Mary did give birth to a child in the lowly city of Bethlehem and Mary and Joseph gave him the name Jesus just as the angel Gabriel had told them. But this morning we will use the account from Luke to once gain see this fulfillment through the words and actions of the angels And through the baby that was being worshipped by the angels.

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." How many of you have that certain song or tune that when you hear it sung it just sends chills down your spine. It is a feeling that is almost hard to explain? What do you think the shepherds must have felt when the skies lit up and were filled with angels singing praises to God? The angels made sure that the shepherds knew about the Christchild that was born in the Bethlehem. They brought the good news of great joy. They were being used by God to announce that God’s plan of Good News was being fulfilled in this small baby. They could not contain themselves as they joined together as a host of angels and made sure that everyone knew who this baby was as they sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

The good news would only have been a let down if the baby was just another baby, but this was not the case. This baby that the angels proclaimed was God in every way. "Glory to God" they sang. Not glory to another baby. As we gather here this morning I pray that we can in our hearts and minds hear the words of praise from the angels as they sang Glory to God in the highest. I hope we can almost feel that tingle up and down our spine and the burning in our hearts just like the shepherds must have felt to be in the presence of this wonderful good news. It almost makes you want to get up and start running to Bethlehem to see this good news that the angels were proclaiming.

If there is one thing that I hate it is reading all the fine print that is included with every thing you see and buy. You hear about this wonderful deal, but after reading all the fine print you realize that it isn’t really that good of deal after all. But the great thing about the word of God through the angels, there is no fine print. What you see is what you get, ^"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." You see that today a Savior has been born and is wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. You see God’s Son who was promised long ago. You see the one who will take away your sins and mine. You see the God’s Good News that Jesus who would grow up living a perfect life and dying a perfect death. You see Jesus rising from the dead on the third day and ascending into heaven 40 days later where he now sits in heaven ruling over his kingdom in all power and glory. We see through our eyes of faith that Jesus will return on the Last Day just as he promised and will take all those who believe in the good news of Jesus to their eternal home in heaven to be with Jesus forever.

There is no fine print. God is not trying to fool us. Yes, it sounds too good to be true -- but that is what makes it so wonderful. We receive the wonderful blessings of our God and we have to do nothing to get it. It is God’s gift to us. That is what we see when we look at the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. We see the Good News that was promised long ago. We see exactly what God’s plan was and is for our salvation. As we leave this morning may we hear the phrase, I’ve got good news and be reminded about what good news we have seen a witnessed this morning in the birth of Christ our Savior. Amen.