“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Luke 2:10

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. No doubt many of you reading this will attend a worship service, most likely a candlelight service. When I was still serving a congregation, I always wondered about all those unfamiliar faces that showed up on Christmas Eve for worship. Some were there because someone made them come. Some attended because “it is what you do on Christmas Eve.” Some were there because they truly wanted the opportunity to worship. What I tried to do for all of those folks, regardless of why they came, was to let them hear the message the angels shared that first Christmas: Good News of great joy for all people. We have JOY in Christ. The New Testament calls on us to “rejoice” over 70 times.

This was no ordinary birth announcement that first Christmas. This was a sin-crushing, death-defeating universal news alert: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). This was the news of great joy! The joy was so contagious that the shepherds, the first to hear the news, couldn’t stop talking about it.

I heard about a couple who learned they had won millions in a lottery. Hoping to keep it a secret until they made the necessary plans, they told no one about their new fortune for a few days. Those close to them, though, couldn’t help but notice that something about them had changed. Something was different. They were obviously very happy about something, even overjoyed. They just couldn’t stop smiling. Finally, a neighbor asked, “What in the world is going on with two of you?” Then the news spilled out. Their lives would never be the same, they said.

The joy God gives is part of your identity as a follower of Jesus. It is what you have in spite of everything that is wrong with the world. God had Jesus pay the price for your sins. That is why you have Joy: You have a relationship with God that goes way beyond striking it rich in a lottery. This is joy in the Lord. This joy responds to all God is and all God has accomplished. This joy is eternal. This joy shines through the carols of this season, the notes we write on Christmas greetings, the works of charity we offer, and the tears which fall as this great good news of a Savior touches our hearts.

At a living nativity scene one Christmas, the costumed shepherds were trained to look like those who had been transformed by the angel’s good news. As people came by to view the scene, the shepherds were beaming from cheek to cheek. They worked the crowd, saying, repeatedly, “Come and see! Christ the Savior is born!” They were the liveliest, most welcoming, smilingest bunch of Christmas shepherds you could ever hope to see.

As you complete your preparation to celebrate Christ’s birth this year, what if all of you took a lesson from those shepherds? If you know the joy of Jesus being your Savior, don’t forget to tell you face about it.

I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Joy to the World. The Lord is come.