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Welcome back to day four. Happy New Year. And what we need to start this new year with is the message that the angels brought to the shepherds on that very first Christmas. Luke chapter 2, beginning in verse 9, the Bible says, And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, that's the shepherds, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to 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 Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you, you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. So why are they to not fear? The reason that they are to not fear is because the angels bring good news. That word good news is the word for gospel. Uangelion is what it is in Greek. And for news to be news, two things have to happen, at least ideally. Now, don't think about your local news station. There is no such thing as the free press anymore. Everything is paid for and everything has a slant. But for actual news to be news, two things have to happen. First of all, it has to actually happen. He doesn't say, I bring you good ideas, I bring you good theology, I bring you good news. And the news is that there is a landed invasion that God has put on flesh and he's come on a rescue mission for you and for me. And so not only does news have to happen, but it has to be reported upon. And so the angels say, I bring you good news. This thing has actually happened. That God has become a man, the word has become flesh, and I want you to go and see this thing. He says, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is called Christ the Lord. You see, the gospel of Jesus Christ is this that in the beginning, God, one God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God and the Holy Spirit, in a perfect, submitted relationship with himself, out of an overflow of God's love for God's self, he created image bearers. That you were created by God for God. When sin entered the world, it fractured that relationship and it fractured every piece of the environment that we live in. But God didn't leave it there. God sent his son, Jesus Christ, on a rescue mission for you and me. In order for us to be in a right relationship with God, we must be righteous. We must be perfect. And in and of ourselves, we cannot do it. So Jesus did for us what we cannot do for ourselves. This is the good news. He was born of a ver a virgin. He was raised in utter obscurity. He steps out on the scene to begin to tell us who God is, the Father, to begin us to teach us the characteristics and the nature of God Himself. But he was not primarily a teacher. He was not even primarily a miracle worker. That he came to be the atoning sacrifice for our sin. That Jesus lived a perfect life every single time, though he was tempted in every way that you and I are, that he lived a perfect life. He chose God's will and God's plan every single time. And with that perfect life, he went to the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. He did not simply die for you, he died instead of you. And upon the cross, God made him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. And when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, the great exchange happens. He takes the full penalty for our sin and he pays it in full. That's why on the cross, Jesus pushes up on his nail-pierced feet and says, Totelasi, which literally translated is, it is finished or paid in full. And he pays our sin debt at the cross. That whoever would believe, we would be made the righteousness of God, that we are given or imputed a right relationship with God because the righteous one paid the penalty in our place. And then one day he's coming back to take us home. And for whoever would believe, we would receive the right to become children of God. That is the good news of the gospel of Jesus. And it brings to us great joy. Not happiness, happiness is rooted in our happenings. But when we have Jesus, we have joy. Because though our circumstances change, our sovereign Savior never does. And again, he says, Fear not, for behold, I bring good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Not just the Jewish people, not just the good people, not just the church people, but for all the people. And he says this again to a shady group of shepherds, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. And he says, this will be a sign. You're going to find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths. This was in Bethlehem. This is where most of the sheep for the Day of Atonement were raised. On the day of atonement, the blood of a lamb would be shed for the remission of sins. And so what they would typically do with a perfect spotless lamb is they would swaddle those little lambs and they would put them in the manger or in the feed trough so that when the folks from the temple would make the six-mile journey down to Bethlehem to gather up the lambs for the Day of Atonement, they would know the perfect spotless ones were swaddled in the feed trough. Jesus was swaddled in the feed trough. Why? Because he is the Lamb of God that's come to take away the sin of the entire world. So let's start our year this way. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, for unto you, and that means the you listening right now, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And when you know Jesus as your Savior, as the Christ as your Lord, it changes everything about everything about everything. Amen.

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