Leap for Joy, God is With US

Intro: Good morning and welcome to FE. We are glad you are with us this morning, my name is Josh Aguilar, I am one of the elders here at FE, today we are starting our Christmas series God With Us. In this series we will look at different people and their encounters with the good news that the messiah has come, Immanuel, God with us has arrived and he will save us from our sin.

Today we are going focus on Mary and Elizabeth, so open your Bibles, your Bible APP or you can follow along on the screen to Luke 1:39-45

Luke 1:39–45 (ESV)

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

39 En esos días María se levantó y fue apresuradamente a la región montañosa, a una ciudad de Judá; 40 y entró en casa de Zacarías y saludó a Elisabet. 41 Y aconteció que cuando Elisabet oyó el saludo de María, la criatura saltó en su vientre; y Elisabet fue llena del Espíritu Santo, 42 y exclamó a gran voz y dijo: ¡Bendita tú entre las mujeres, y bendito el fruto de tu vientre! 43 ¿Por qué me ha acontecido esto a mí, que la madre de mi Señor venga a mí? 44 Porque he aquí, apenas la voz de tu saludo llegó a mis oídos, la criatura saltó de gozo en mi vientre. 45 Y bienaventurada la que creyó que tendrá[c] cumplimiento lo que le fue dicho de parte del Señor.

I. In Those Days

In those days… only three letters, but they are packed with meaning. Our passage starts in the middle of the story, there are many things that have happened to this point. I encourage to go home and read Luke chapter 1 today or sometime this week. In the beginning of the chapter, an angel visits a priest named Zechariah, who were advanced in age, the Bible’s way of saying they were old and couldn’t have children. An angel arrived announcing his wife Elizabeth was going to have a son and they will name him John. Their son will become the person we know as John the Baptist, the one who was to prepare the way of the Messiah.

After this we read about the angel Gabriel visit to Mary, who is a virgin and betrothed to be married to Joseph. The angel says the Holy Spirit will come upon her and she will be with child and she will call him Jesus. The angel also told her about Elizabeth, who was related to Mary, who was 6 months pregnant now. Knowing Jewish culture we know that life would most likely be hard for Mary, she was pregnant, was not married, people were going to judge her, shame her, think badly of her, because she was pregnant and not married. In those days...

In those days… we can also look at the big picture view, after the book of Nehemiah, there was 400 years of silence. There were no prophets proclaiming thus says the Lord, God was working in silence, setting the stage for Jesus to be born. After 400 years of silence, we do not have a prophet show up, we have angels arriving to announce the messages of hope to Mary and Elizabeth. After 400 years, God breaks the silence to announce news of great joy, hope has arrived.

The people of Israel, God’s people waiting with anticipation for a Messiah who was to come. They had hope, and Proverbs 10:28 says

Proverbs 10:28 (ESV)

The hope of the righteous brings joy,

La esperanza de los justos es alegría,

The hope of the righteous brings joy, the people of Israel were living in hope of a messiah who was coming, this hope, this anticipation, this thought of a messiah brought joy to them. He is here, joy to the world, the Lord has come, leap for joy and receive your king with gladness.

II. Leaped for Joy

When Mary arrives she greets Elizabeth, when this happens something amazing happens.

the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

la criatura saltó en su vientre; y Elisabet fue llena del Espíritu Santo, 42 y exclamó a gran voz y dijo: ¡Bendita tú entre las mujeres, y bendito el fruto de tu vientre! 43 ¿Por qué me ha acontecido esto a mí, que la madre de mi Señor venga a mí? 44 Porque he aquí, apenas la voz de tu saludo llegó a mis oídos, la criatura saltó de gozo en mi vientre.

Elizabeth’s baby, John leaps for joy in the womb when Mary greets her. He is leaping for joy because Jesus has arrived. There is joy because Immanuel, God with us, is in the room. Just his presence brings gladness, it brings joy.

In Psalms 21, one of the royal psalms, describing the relationship between the king of Israel and God, listen to what it says;

Psalm 21:6 (ESV)

For you make him (the king) most blessed forever;

you make him glad with the joy of your presence.

Pues le haces bienaventurado[a] para siempre; con tu presencia le deleitas con alegría.

God makes the king glad with the joy of his presence. Listen to the words, there is gladness with joy, in the presence of God. This explains why, John is leaping for joy, even in Elizabeth’s womb, because God is present in that room, even while Jesus is still in Mary’s womb, there is gladness with the joy of your presence.

There are two aspects of joy I want to point to today, presence and beauty. Joy is produced by the Holy Spirit, and goes beyond just happiness, because happiness is dependent on your circumstances, but joy is a supernatural blessing produced in you by the Holy Spirit’s work in your life, regardless of what is going on around you. Notice we read the Spirit filled Elizabeth and she blesses Mary, there is joy in the room, because God is with them. God is still with us today, if you are are a follower of Jesus, then the Lord’s is present with you through the Holy Spirit who has sealed you. One of the fruit of the Spirit we read about is joy, as we grow in Christ, we should become a people who are filled with joy because God is with us, God has saved us from our sin, and has given us his Holy Spirit, he is with us always, there is gladness with the joy of your presence. It doesn’t matter what you are going through because joy is a state of being and is not dependent on your circumstance.

The Spirit produces joy in us and opens our eyes to understand and see the beauty of Jesus. Elizabeth and Mary, none of them completely understood the full extent of what would happen with Jesus, they didn’t know he would suffer and die for our sins, they didn’t know he would rise again on the 3rd day. What they did know is, his name would be Jesus and he would save his people from their sin. The Holy Spirit produced joy and allowed them to see the beauty of Christ even though they did not completely understand how salvation would come about, they knew Jesus, would save his people from their sins because that is what God said and they believed. The reason Jesus’ presence brings joy is because the Holy Spirit open our eyes to the beauty of Jesus. Elizabeth rejoices because her Lord has arrived when Mary visits. The Holy Spirit produces joy in us by allowing us to to see the beauty of Jesus in the word and in our world.

Listen to what the psalmist says;

Psalm 20:5 (ESV)

May we shout for joy over your salvation,

and in the name of our God set up our banners!

Nosotros nos alegraremos de tu victoria, Y alzaremos pendón en el nombre de nuestro Dios;

Shout for joy for salvation is here. Leap for joy for God is with us.

III. Blessed Are You

We cannot leave here without talking about the blessing Elizabeth says about Mary in vs 45. “blessed is she who believed”. What does that sound like to you, what does that remind you of? Mary put her life on the line, to obey God, but before obedience there was faith. Mary believed God would bring to pass what he said and submitted to the will of God for her life. As a result she was blessed for her belief in what God said. which is why she could sing in the next verse “my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour” Mary needed a saviour just like you and I, the baby she carries will on day save her also. She is blessed for her belief.

We are blessed by our belief in Jesus as well. We have been talking about the joy Jesus brought even before his birth, people were rejoicing in the salvation he would bring. They were rejoicing because in Jesus, God was with them. In Jesus, through the Holy Spirit God is with us. The apostle John wrote these words in 1 John, listen closely to his words

1 John 1:4 (ESV)

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Os escribimos estas cosas para que nuestro[b] gozo sea completo.

John is writing So that our joy may be complete, so what was John writing...

1 John 1:1–3 (ESV)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Lo que existía desde el principio, lo que hemos oído, lo que hemos visto con nuestros ojos, lo que hemos contemplado y lo que han palpado nuestras manos, acerca del Verbo de vida 2 (pues la vida fue manifestada, y nosotros la hemos visto y damos testimonio y os anunciamos la vida eterna, la cual estaba con el Padre y se nos manifestó); 3 lo que hemos visto y oído, os proclamamos también a vosotros, para que también vosotros tengáis comunión con nosotros; y en verdad nuestra comunión es con el Padre y con su Hijo Jesucristo.

John was writing to us about Jesus, he is going to explain how we can have fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus. He writing so that we can experience joy. The true meaning of Christmas is God with us, in the person and work of Jesus who can save us from our sin. Only Jesus can bring Joy to the world and it is only through faith, trust, belief in him can we experience true joy. It only when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the presence and beauty of Christ in the word and in our world that we can experience true joy.

We know we must trust Christ, but the other aspect is confession, listen to what John says

1 John 1:9 (ESV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Si confesamos nuestros pecados, Él es fiel y justo para perdonarnos los pecados y para limpiarnos de toda maldad

We must confess our sin to God, which that word confess means to agree, and you are agreeing with God that yes I have sinned and I am sinner and I need Jesus to save me. The promise is that he will forgive and cleanse you. John is writing so that you joy may be complete, so that we can experience God with us and the beauty of Christ in the word and world. Joy to the World, the Lord has come.