Would you like some good news today? We could all use more good news! There is a parable about when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt. When he came to the Red Sea he asked God for help and was told that there was good news and bad news. “The good news,” said the voice from on high, “is that I will part the sea so you and your people can escape.” “And the bad news?” asked Moses. “You will have to file an environmental-impact statement.”
When someone says that they have good news and bad news, we usually want the bad news first. We call it ending on a good note! Saving the best for last. That’s why desert is at the end of the meal. There is a hymn that we sing which proclaims “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.” This is certainly a Bible principle. Proverbs 13:12 states, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” Psalm 30:5, “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Proverbs 25:25, “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” Cold water always tastes better when you are thirsty!
God has a way of cancelling out the bad news with good news. When the Christian dies, the Bible says he is “absent from the body”. That’s the bad news, but the verse does not stop there. If we finish the verse, the Bible says “…present with the Lord”. Paul Harvey used to say, “And that’s the rest of the story.” Joseph’s brothers were very cruel to him. They wanted to take his life, but God intervened and he was sold as a slave and carried away to Egypt. If you just see the beginning of the story it would be very depressing indeed. But what a powerful ending. Joseph ultimately said to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” It is a story worth reading again and again. Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
The good news is that God overrules the bad news. For the Christian there will be an end to all this suffering and heartache. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end”. There is a place where there is no more bad news! Revelation 21:4, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Revelation 22:3, “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it;”
JESUS DOES NOT JUST BRING GOOD NEWS; HE IS THE GOOD NEWS!