How Do We Receive Good News?

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Hebrews 10:19-25
• Hymn — We Gather Together
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin — Psalm 38
• Assurance of Pardon — Psalm 103
• Scripture Reading — Acts 21:27-36
• Hymn — Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow
• Sermon
• Hymn — O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: How Do We Receive Good News?

Scripture: 2 Samuel 18:19–19:8

I. The Good News Is Received with Swift Giddiness (vv. 19–30)

A. Ahimaaz the son of Zadok eagerly desires to run and tell David the good news of the Lord's deliverance

1. Joab warns him that David will not receive the news as expected, since David commanded that Absalom not be killed
2. Joab sends the Cushite instead; Ahimaaz insists and is finally permitted to run
3. Ahimaaz takes the longer but easier route through the plain and outruns the Cushite

B. Ahimaaz's eagerness reflects a godly naivety — he expects David to rejoice because Yahweh has delivered the kingdom

1. He anchors his announcement in the Lord's saving act: "The Lord has delivered him from the hand of his enemies" (2 Samuel 18:19)
2. His naivety resembles new believers who expect everyone to share their excitement over the basics of the gospel
3. Jesus says the kingdom belongs to those who receive it like a child — this kind of naivety is welcomed by God

C. Ahimaaz's swift joy is rooted in his sacrificial service to the king

1. He and Jonathan had risked their lives as spies in Absalom's Jerusalem (2 Samuel 17)
2. He mirrors the disciple John, who was present at Calvary and ran with swift joy to the empty tomb
3. Those who have been in the thick of suffering with and for Christ run fastest and with greatest joy toward the King

D. Application: our service to Christ determines the depth of our joy in the gospel

1. If Christ is merely convenient, gospel joy will be small or absent
2. If life is Christ, we will run like Ahimaaz, like John, and swim like Peter — with childlike, giddy joy toward the King

II. The Good News Is Received with Sorrowful Guilt (vv. 31–33)

A. The Cushite delivers the full news plainly: Absalom is dead; the Lord has delivered the king

1. David responds with extreme anguish — he repeats "my son" five times and "Absalom" three times
2. Some natural sorrow of a father over a lost son must be acknowledged

B. David's grief is deeper than natural sorrow — it is guilt-ridden

1. God's word through Nathan in 2 Samuel 12:10 promised the sword would never depart from David's house as punishment for his adultery and murder
2. Absalom is the third child David has buried since that judgment: the son of Bathsheba, Amnon, and now Absalom
3. "Would I had died instead of you" reflects David hearing Nathan's words echoing: you shall not die, but your son will

C. Guilt-ridden sorrow paralyzes David and deafens him to the good news of the Kingdom

1. Both the Cushite and Ahimaaz rightly direct praise to Yahweh for the deliverance, but David cannot hear it
2. David's tears are directed inward to Absalom, not upward to the Lord
3. Absalom had murdered Amnon, usurped the throne, publicly violated David's concubines, and sought David's death — this is not a figure warranting such prolonged mourning

D. Unresolved guilt can make us blind, deaf, and dumb to Kingdom deliverance

1. Illustration: refusing a costly gift out of false humility is an offense to the giver — so too refusing the free gift of Romans 6:23 out of wallowing guilt offends the Giver
2. Do not measure holiness by how much you wallow in sin — that is the kind of godliness Satan wants: guilt without the good news
3. The liturgy of confession is paired with the assurance of pardon — we are not left to wallow; we receive God's word of forgiveness
4. Sorrowful guilt not placed at the foot of the cross prevents us from skipping like a child and praising God

III. The Good News Is Received with Selfish Grief (2 Samuel 19:1–8)

A. David's mourning is so loud it turns the victory of all Israel into mourning

1. The people steal back into the city ashamed, as though they had fled in defeat
2. Joab rebukes David sharply: David's servants saved his life, his sons' lives, his daughters' lives, and his wives' lives

B. Joab's rebuke is on target: "You love those who hate you and hate those who love you" (2 Samuel 19:6)

1. Joab warns David that if he does not go out and speak kindly to his servants, not one man will remain with him that night
2. David rises, takes his seat at the gate, and the people come before the king

C. Lesson 1: Selfish grief breeds ungratefulness toward those who truly love us

1. David's servants had said he was worth ten thousand of them — Absalom never said anything like that
2. Personal grief is not a legitimate excuse to mistreat others or live in ingratitude
3. The culture of our day validates self-absorbed grief at others' expense — the church needs the corrective voice of Joab

D. Lesson 2: Selfish grief robs the people of God of their joy

1. Ahimaaz ran with all his enthusiasm to David, only to be turned aside and deflated
2. Our disposition toward the gospel either spreads the aroma of joy or the aroma of grief to those around us
3. Ephesians 5:18-21 — be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, giving thanks always
4. Gospel joy is not a personality type — it is a Spirit-wrought joy that flows from faithful use of the ordinary means of grace: the Word read and proclaimed, prayer, the sacraments, and singing to one another and to God
5. May we run like Ahimaaz, run like John, and swim like Peter — spreading the aroma of gospel joy wherever we go