Dear Christian friends:

We all like to hear good news. If a friend is very sick, we wait anxiously to hear the good news that he or she is improving and well again. If our favorite baseball team is playing in the world series we eagerly listen to hear the good news that our team has won.

If our country is in a war with an enemy country we are very very glad to hear that the war is over and our country has won. In 1945 when I first traveled to Spokane, Washington to take up preaching work for the deaf there, I was traveling through Los Angeles, California. Then the radio announced that Japan had surrendered. Soon all the sirens and steam whistles were blowing and people ran out of there houses shouting hooray. Many even danced in the streets with joy.

Good News is wonderful. Any good news is wonderful. Our lesson tells us about:


What is it? Yes it is old news. Some people say old news is not news, and they are right if they mean worldly events. If I announce today Japan surrendered to the US, you will not get excited about that. Why? That's old news, sixteen years old.

Now the best news in the world is also old, old news, the good news that God loves sinners and gave His Son to die for them. That's the oldest good news in the world. That good news is six-thousand years old. God announced it the first time to Adam and Eve a short time after they fell into sin. Perhaps that is why we often are not eager to hear that good news. We've heard it before.

But we make a big mistake if we feel that way about the best news in the world. Why? Because this news is not like any other news. It is good news for all times and for all peoples. The news about the US winning the war with Japan was good news in August 1945, but it is not news today.

And while that was good news for Americans and England, it was bad news for Japan, Germany and Italy. But the good news about Jesus is good news anytime. And its not only good news for America: its good news for Japan and all the nations of the earth. Why? Because all nations are sinners before God and all are equal before God.

All nations are trapped in sin and cannot free themselves. Now comes the good news of Jesus, the Son of God who became the Son of Man, who suffered our sin and shame and won forgiveness of sins and with that salvation from our chief enemies, sin, death and the devil.

Here in our text Isaiah tells about this wonderful salvation which Jesus won for us: "good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (verse 7) And in verse 9, "For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem."

During the Old Testament times God often let His people the Jews get into trouble and be conquered by an enemy nation. Then later He in wonderful ways freed them from the enemy king. We think about how He let them become slaves in Egypt for four-hundred years and then freed them in a wonderful way by Moses and the Ten Plagues and making a path through the Red Sea.

Then there are the many stories about Gideon, Samson and David. How God let Israel become slaves under the Philistines and then freed them in wonderful ways. All these events were to teach and impress them and us today, about Jesus' wonderful salvation. How He saves us from sin, death and Satan.

So also when Isaiah lived. God had let the Babylonians conquer Judah. They led the Jews away to Babylon and forced them to work as slaves. Only a few people were left in the broken, destroyed city of Jerusalem. The captivity of the Jews lasted seventy years.

Now Isaiah prophesies that soon the Jews will be freed from Babylon and come home again to Jerusalem. This was good news for the people. And by this event God intended to impress on them the more wonderful salvation in Jesus, and prophecy of it.

What all these Old Testament stories hinted and prophesied has happened long ago, two-thousand years ago in Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection. Isaiah prophesied seven-hundred-fifty years before Christ's birth. We live 1961 years after. The good news about Jesus continues on and on. All has not happened yet.

True the chief thing happened when Jesus was crucified and rose again on Easter morning. But always new babies are born who need to hear this wonderful news. And some nations have not yet heard it. Some people have forgotten.

You and I again and again fall into sin and need to hear that good news again and again. We still have our old sinful heart. The devil still has plenty of power to tempt and deceive us. So we need to hear this old, good news of Jesus often. If we know our weakness and sins, we never become tired of hearing it. Truly it should become more precious to us as we grow older. If we hear it more and study it more we will love it more.

In our text Isaiah says the feet of those who bring this good news are beautiful. The messenger's feet may be big and dirty. But if he speaks good news, people think he is beautiful.

So also your pastor, who brings you good news from God every Sunday and when you are sick and in trouble. Your pastor may have big feet and he may not be beautiful, and he may have other faults. But if he preaches forgiveness of sins when you are in trouble, you don't care about his faults. You will think he is a very beautiful man because he tells you the best news in the world.

And when you hear this good news you will, like the Jews in our lesson, sing and praise your mighty and kind God.

Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.

Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.
(Isaiah 52:8-10)

Like any good news, you will not hide it or be silent about it. You will sing about it in church and be more interested in lay witnessing and in supporting world-wide missions of your church.

If you are not eager about these things, it proves that you are very weak in faith, maybe have no faith yet, or maybe you have lost your faith.

The story of Jesus is the best news in the world. If you don't think so, you better wake up and change your ways.

Amen.