He Said to Them, “Go Into All the World and Preach the Good News to All Creation.”

Our theme for this Christmas Eve might sound odd at first. The passage we are focusing on comes from the last chapter of the Gospel of Mark. It might sound odd to focus on something Jesus said close to his return to heaven, when tonight we are celebrating his birth, but the two events are closely tied together. The night Jesus was born, the good news of the Savior was announced and spread to many people. And, in Mark 16, Jesus said, 15 … “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” The good news of Christmas is not for a few select people. Tonight, we are reminded that the good news of the Savior’s birth applies to all people.

There are four reasons the good news of Jesus must go out to all creation. First, is the truth about sin. When you question why your life is so difficult like losing a job, marriage troubles, divorce, parenting frustrations, money problems, anxiety, depression, sickness, etc. Or when you question why the world seems to be so broken with countries at war, poverty, sickness, inflation, etc. Or if you have been confronted with death with the loss of a loved one or seeing coverage of natural disasters, war, shootings, etc. Sin causes all of these. When the Bible talks about sin, it means doing things that are not good, helpful, kind and loving. God wants us to be good all the time as we hear in Matthew 5, 48 “Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.” The problem is we are not always good, helpful, kind and loving. Instead, we each have a long list of bad things we have done. So, we are not perfect as we hear in Romans 3, 23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And the world itself has been broken by sin as we hear in Romans 8, 20 “For the creation was subjected to frustration.” And God is good, perfect and without sin, so he cannot let all of this sin and evil go unpunished as we hear in Romans 6, 23 “The wages of sin is death.” So, the bad news is that our sins and the difficulties they cause us lead to death and hell, which leads us to the second reason the good news of Jesus must go out to all creation.

Second, are the solutions we try to stop the havoc sin causes and escape the consequences of death and hell. One solution is trying harder; we try to better ourselves thinking that with enough effort, the right mindset or plan, we can get to the point where we only do good things. The problem with that is all the setbacks you experience, plus you cannot get rid of your past and all the time that you were not good. So, no one is perfect. Another solution then is balancing the bad with the good. But again, the good you do today, does not mean the bad you did in the past goes away. And, the final solution is to compare ourselves to one another. We reason in our minds that we are better than some or, if we are feeling especially complimentary of ourselves, better than most of the people in our lives. The problem with comparing ourselves to one another is that God never asks us to compare ourselves to one another. Instead, remember what we heard in Matthew 5, 48 “Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.” You need to be as good and perfect as God, not another person. None of these solutions work. Instead, you need the good news of the gospel. But even that word has been falsely used by a lot of people to share one of these failed solutions. For example, if you have been told that to go to heaven, you need to stop doing ‘blank’ and start doing ‘blank’ instead, that is just the try harder solution. Any time we make the solution to sin about what we do, choose, decided, dedicate ourselves to, work at, etc. we will fail. Which leads us to the third reason the good news of Jesus must go out to all creation.

Third, is Jesus came to saves us. Since we cannot fix our sinful nature and cannot escape death and hell, we need to be saved. If you picture it like a guilty person being led away to punishment from a courtroom, then we need someone to step in and take the punishment for us. Jesus did that for us as we read in Isaiah 53, 5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” These words describing Jesus’ sacrifice for us were written 700 years before he died on the cross. It was always God’s plan to send Jesus to die for all people, whether they were born before or after Jesus’ birth. God was willing to put his own Son to death to save us because of his love for us as we hear in John 3, 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” When your difficulties, guilt, regrets and fear of rejection, death and God’s anger fill your heart, the place to look is the cross where Jesus was punished for you. This brings us to the fourth reason the good news of Jesus must go out to all creation.

Fourth, Jesus did you what you could not do. Jesus lived a perfect life. He did what we heard God wanted in Matthew 5, 48 “Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.” So, Jesus forgave our sins through his death on the cross, but he also gave us the credit of a perfect life as we hear in 2 Corinthians 5, 21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus gives us his righteousness or perfection. Through Jesus, God no longer sees you as a sinner who deserves punishment, but a perfect person who deserves to go to heaven. All of this is from God and does not change as we hear in Ephesians 2, 8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.” Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins and his righteousness are a gift to you.

Our theme for this Christmas Eve is “the good news to all creation.” Jesus is the good news because he did not come as a coach, mentor or source of inspiration. His purpose was not to show you how to become a better person. His purpose was not to tell you to work harder to get through difficult situations. His purpose was not to make you feel bad for doing things wrong. Jesus is the good news because he came as our Savior. We were in trouble, and he saved us. Whether it was his parents or the shepherds, or you and I, Jesus is the source of good news at Christmas. Tonight, we pray God fills our hearts with joy and the reason to do as we read in Mark 16, 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” Amen.