Sermon Tone Analysis

One of the things people love about Christmas is that it truly is a joyful season.

All season long we celebrate with music and song and lights and decorations.

We celebrate by getting together with family and friends and by exchanging gifts.

It is a joyful time of year.

But I do feel that the world hijacks their joy in the season from the true joy at the center of Christmas.

Because when you come right down to it, the real joy at Christmas comes not from the lights and the decorations and the music but from the meaning of Christmas – Jesus!

The heart of Christmas is the astoundingly good news that Jesus Christ was born as a Savior into this world.

From beginning to end the Christmas story is full of various outbursts and moments of joy, and they all center around the birth of Christ.

You can’t get away from it.

You can’t get around it.

You can’t spell Christmas without Christ, and you can’t enter into the true joy of the season without Jesus.

This morning let’s look at three truths about joy at Christmas.

1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation.

2) Joy leads to proclamation.

3) Joy leads to praise.

Prayer: Holy Spirit reveal to us the joy of the season, the joy of serving and knowing you and let that and allow the joy of who you are set into the lives of those who have not experienced you and come to right relationship with you.

Jesus brings the joy of salvation

Jesus brings joy in so many areas of life, but the joy that is especially associated with Christ’s birth is the joy of salvation.

Jesus’ very name means salvation, and this week I want us to see the connection that the Bible makes between salvation and joy.

For example, we read David’s prayer to the Lord in

David wrote this Psalm after committing adultery with Bathsheba.

David had sinned greatly against God, but he still understood the connection between salvation and joy.

He repented of his sin.

He asked God’s forgiveness and asked God to restore to him the joy of his salvation.

We find the same connection between salvation and joy in:

What a beautiful image!

In this passage Isaiah is prophesying about the second coming of Christ.

Advent not only reminds us of Christ’s first coming, but also helps us as we anticipate Christ’s second coming.

Take a look at Isaiah 11 where we saw that when Christ returns he will bring peace on earth, a peace that includes not only peace among the nations but extends even to the universe.

Now Isaiah follows that up with Isaiah 12 by speaking of God’s salvation and the joy that accompanies his salvation.

There is no true joy without salvation, and there is no true salvation without joy.

The two go together, and they especially go together in those Scriptures which tell us the Christmas story.

In the gospel of Luke we see how when Mary was pregnant with Jesus she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

Elizabeth was also pregnant at this time with John the Baptist.

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

In a loud voice she exclaimed:

I love this scene.

Mary enters the house, and John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, starts jumping for joy!

Why?

Because as Elizabeth put it, Mary was the mother of her Lord!

Jesus is Lord, Mary was Jesus’ mother, and John was in close proximity with Jesus who had come to bring salvation for his people.

And so John begins jumping with joy in his mother’s womb.

And you might wonder, how is that possible?

Well, it’s because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

You have two of the members of the Trinity here in one house.

You have God the Spirit filling John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb and God the Son growing as a child in Mary’s womb.

· Now we see the Holy Spirit’s role is to glorify Jesus as Savior.

· That’s what the Holy Spirit does.

· The Holy Spirit’s job is to get excited about Jesus!

· And so when Jesus enters the house in Mary’s womb, John the Baptist who is filled with the Holy Spirit gets excited about Jesus because the Savior has come.

Another great example of Jesus bringing the joy of salvation is the wise men in the gospel of Matthew.

· They traveled a great distance just to see the Messiah and to worship him.

· They had seen his star in the east, but they didn’t know exactly where he was to be born, so they stopped in Jerusalem along the way to ask King Herod for additional information.

We read in:

Once again, they rejoiced to find the place where Jesus was born.

Why?

Because Jesus was the Messiah who had come to bring salvation to his people.

· Salvation and joy belong together,

· Joy and Christmas belong together,

· Because Jesus came at Christmas to bring us joy,

· Especially the joy of salvation.

Joy leads to proclamation

Jesus brings the joy of salvation, and that joy leads us to share the good news of Jesus with others.

We find this truth demonstrated for us in the story of the angels and the shepherds.

For example, we read in:

Luke 2:8-12

· Notice the news about Jesus’ birth is not only news, it is good news!

· And it is not only good news, it is good news of joy!

· And it is not only good news of joy, it is good news of great joy!

· And it is not only good news of great joy, it is good news of great joy for all the people!

· But how will all the people know about this good news of great joy unless we share it with them?

We share good news with each other all the time.

When something good happens, we talk about it with our friends at work or at school.

We post it on Facebook.

· When the good news is the birth of a baby, we especially share it with others, don’t we?

· We take pictures and send out birth announcements.

· We are filled with joy at the birth of a child, and that joy naturally leads to proclamation.

· We want everyone to know and share in our joy.

Well, if we tell everyone about the birth of our own babies, how much more should we proclaim the birth of God’s Son!

Good news is for sharing, and there is no better news than the news the angels shared with the shepherds that first Christmas Eve:

What did the shepherds do after they received this good news of great joy that was for all the people?

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another,

When the shepherds heard this good news of great joy that was for all the people:

1.

First they checked it out for themselves and found everything just as the angel had told them.

2. And after they had checked it out for themselves, what did they do?

They spread the word to others.

3. Why?

Because good news is for sharing!

This was good news of great joy for all the people, and it would have been wrong for them to keep it to themselves.

4. Joy leads to proclamation.

Joy leads to praise

1) Jesus brings the joy of salvation

2) Joy leads to proclamation.

3) Joy leads to praise.

We find this truth demonstrated for us in two examples from the Christmas story.

The first example is Mary after she hears the words of prophecy from Elizabeth that we looked at earlier in the message.

Mary was filled with joy and wonder as her cousin Elizabeth spoke words of blessing and favor over her and the child she carried in her womb.

Her joy could not be contained, and so then she burst out in a song of praise.

And Mary said: