Let's Go!

 

I

f someone wrote you a check for a million dollars, if, suddenly, you came into money that allowed you to pay off all your existing debt, or if your boss walked in and gave you a 50% raise, what would you do?  Probably the first thing you’d do after you picked yourself up off the floor would be to call someone, your best friend or a family member, and tell them what had just happened.  There is something infectious about good news.  We get it and we want to infect everyone else with it.  The shepherds outside of Bethlehem were no exception! 

 

In Luke 2: 15, we read: “When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 

Notice the first two words the shepherds say to one another, “Let’s go.”  After hearing the good news about the birth of Christ, they can’t stay where they are.  They have to go and see God’s work and along the way tell everyone what has happened. 

 

This is just a foreshadowing of what Jesus will tell his disciples in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  The story of the Good News only began in Bethlehem.  The shepherds ran to the manger to see Jesus and they made sure everyone knew the story. 

 

Have you ever stopped to think that when we tell others of Jesus, we are following in the footsteps of those shepherds so long ago?  The good news of Jesus Christ is not something that can be kept secret.  It will be evident, not only in our words, but in the way we think, act, speak, and live.  In fact, people will be able to tell far more about us by our actions than by our words. 

 

Wherever you are today, at work, school, shopping, the hospital, visiting a friend, or on vacation, you have the same opportunity as those shepherds.  Are you sharing the good news of Jesus by your words and actions?  Does the good news of his coming and his salvation burn within your heart?  Can you say with the shepherds, “Let’s go”?  I trust you can!