Uncontainable joy

December 11, 2022

Gospel Fellowship Church

Introduction

When you hear the word joy, what do you think of? I think of Dutch people dancing in the streets when they were liberated after WWII. I think of sports fans cheering when their team wins the cup. I think of children dancing around the living room for the sheer enjoyment of it. I think of parents watching their son or daughter take top honours during grad. I think of parents holding their newborn child for the very first time. I think especially of the experience of being forgiven by someone who you’ve sinned against deeply. I think of freedom, jubilation, celebration, being rescued from disaster, being ecstatic. Joy can be somewhat faked, but pure joy is hard to fake. It is infectious. It lifts the spirits and spreads from one person to another.

Where does true joy come from? Is it the same as happiness? Does joy come from inside of us or outside of us? Most of us long for joy. We don’t want to live burdened all the time.

Two Sundays ago, we looked at the hopelessness of Zechariah and how he found new hope. Last Sunday we looked at peace, what it is and how knowing Jesus brings peace in all areas of our lives. Hope and Peace naturally lead to joy.

Hope creates the space for joy. When you are hopeless, there isn’t much room for joy, but when you hope for something good to come, you can have joy in spite of the current difficulties.

Peace on the other hand, the Biblical peace we talked about last Sunday, where everything is the way it should be, leads to joy. When all your family comes home for Christmas and everyone is healthy and the relationships are solid, we tend to be joyful. The opposite often leads to lack of joy. Heaven, the new earth, will finally be a place where everything will be the way it should be. There will be an incredible amount of joy.

Who Do You Tell?

In the story of the birth of Jesus, there is a spot where the joy that Mary, Elizabeth and Zechariah experience is contagious.

Near the end of the angel’s message to Mary, we discover that Mary and Elizabeth are related to each other, Luke 1:36. After the angel left, it appears that Mary immediately gets ready to go visit Elizabeth. Do you blame her? She’s in quite a predicament. She’s got the most incredible news ever, she’s going to bear the son of God, but who can she tell? She’s not quite married yet, she’s not supposed to be pregnant. It reminds me of the proverbial story of the preacher playing hooky on Sunday morning to go fishing and catching the biggest fish he’s ever landed. Who’s he going to tell? Mary has been given the most incredible news of all time; the son of God will be born to her. There has never been any kind of news in all of history to match that. If you discovered the absolute, bona fide, cure for cancer, could you keep quiet? Even a day? I picture Mary getting up after the angel left and wanting to talk and talk, but if she does, she might be stoned. Wondering who can she tell, who would be safe? Then finally thinking of Elizabeth. After all, the angel mentioned that she’s also having a baby, as an old woman, and it’s also a miracle, so maybe she’d understand. So off she goes. V39, Beaming all the way. People are probably looking at her and wondering what’s going on.

But even then, I imagine there’s that nagging doubt, that even Elizabeth wouldn’t understand. She knew what they were like. Righteous, god-fearing. And she didn’t know that an angel had appeared to them. She didn’t know their baby boy would be the forerunner of the Messiah. The angel hadn’t told Mary that part. She needn’t have worried. Our God is an amazing God, a gracious God. He had it all figured out. (Read Luke 1:40-41) The Holy spirit filled Elizabeth, and her baby gave her a swift kick!! Before Mary arrived, Elizabeth didn’t know anything about Mary’s news. Mary didn’t even get a chance to tell her. God told Elizabeth so Mary wouldn’t have to figure out how to. Once the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth whatever God wanted her to know she knew.

What did she now know? (Read Luke 1:42-45).

Luke 1:42–45 NIV

42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Elizabeth’s HS revealed knowledge

Blessed are you, blessed is your child. In our reaction to the Roman Catholic Mary worship we have forgotten that Mary was incredibly blessed. Blessed, in a sense, above all women. She had the privilege of bearing the Messiah, the Holy Son of God.

Revelation that the child was her Lord. What an amazing revelation!! At that time, Jesus was just a small dot in Mary’s womb. That small dot was Elizabeth’s Lord.

Elizabeth’s baby recognized the Lord’s presence. Babies often jump, kick, and move in the womb. But Elizabeth, with the aid of the HS, recognized that this was no ordinary movement.

Mary is blessed for believing that what God said, would happen.

Mary’s song of joy

Now Mary, with her heart full, is finally able to pull the cork out of her mouth and let loose with the emotions that have been held in. She erupts with a song of joy.

(Read Luke 1:47-55) This song is in a very traditional Hebrew form. It is very similar to the prayer that Hannah prayed when she presented Samuel to Eli at the temple.

Luke 1:47–55 NIV

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

But for our modern English ears, it doesn’t sound like something we would say. Here’s Eugene Petersen’s version in The Message (read Luke 1:47-55)

Luke 1:47–55 M:BCL

47 I’m dancing the song of my Savior God. 48 God took one good look at me, and look what happened— I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! What God has done for me will never be forgotten, 49 the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others. 50 His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. 51 He bared his arm and showed his strength, scattered the bluffing braggarts. 52 He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. 53 The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. 54 He embraced his chosen child, Israel; he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. 55 It’s exactly what he promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

There are four sections to this song – the first two focus on herself and the second two move beyond her.

V46-48a – My soul/spirit glorifies the Lord. Message – “bursting” This is coming from deep inside of her.

48b-49 – He’s recognized my humble position and now all people will call me blessed because God has done mighty things for me. Mary was a poor country girl. Why would God choose her? She can hardly believe that God would do so and she rightly recognizes that everyone will regard her as blessed.

50-53 – God in his mercy to those who fear him, raises up the lowly and pulls down the proud and arrogant. This is a section in which she is praising God for the fact that he doesn’t give us what we deserve when we trust in him, and then she goes on to talk about how God is for the lowly people of earth and is against those who are proud, arrogant, and selfish.

54-55 – God has mercifully helped Israel as he said he would. Here Mary brings to mind the fact that God had promised to redeem his people, to send a Messiah, to be merciful to Abraham’s descendants forever, and now he is doing what he said he would do.

Clearly Mary has been thinking about what this all means. I’m guessing the whole way from Nazareth to Judea she was meditating on it, and it all comes spilling out. I also think the Holy Spirit inspired her to sing this song of praise.

Mary is full of joy because of Jesus and what he means to her and to the world.

Our Joy

What about us? Where does our joy come from? Do the things Mary said mean anything to you?

Mary glorified God because God had chosen her to give birth to our Messiah, God’s own son. None of us will experience what Mary experienced. None of you ladies will physically give birth to the son of God. So we can’t know exactly that joy. However, every follower of Jesus bears Jesus. He is every bit as much in you as he was in Mary. God, who was outside of me is now inside. He is our ultimate source of joy. We may not give physical birth to him and so bring him into the world. But when we share our faith and bring Jesus’ light into the world, aren’t we doing something very similar? Where does this joy of the presence of Jesus come from? Both outside of us and inside of us!

Mary talks about God being mindful of her “Humble Estate”. In spite of how poor she is, God has chosen her. She rejoices because God has chosen her in spite of how undeserving she was. I can rejoice for the same reason. Who am I that I should carry around in me the Living God? I haven’t deserved it. God has also done great things for me; he has lifted me out of my pit of sin.

Mary says, “All generations will call me blessed”. Are we not just as blessed as Mary? We have been forgiven, we have been cleansed, we can talk to God as a friend and a brother. We have been given the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us. I could go on and on. Even if they don’t, all generations should call us blessed.

Mary goes on to say, “His mercy extend to those who fear him.” This is still true, nothing has changed here. When we fear God, follow him, we receive wave after wave of undeserved favour, mercy. God has performed mighty deeds in our lives as well. If we would set aside a time in which all of us would share of all the times when God has done something amazing in our lives, we would be here for days.

“He has lifted the humble and brought the proud down.” God is still doing this. Not always in the way we want him to or in the time we want him to, but he is still doing it. And even if it doesn’t happen on earth, it will happen when we face Christ at the judgement.

“Has helped his servant Israel” Who is Israel? Well, Paul says in Romans that we as believers are grafted into the trunk of Israel. Anyone who is following God through Jesus is Israel. He has remembered us.

Conclusion

Christ’s coming over 2000 years ago brought great joy to Mary. Joy uncontainable. What about you? How has Jesus brought joy to you? To close this service, I want to give each of you time to express how Jesus has brought joy to you. Shout out your reasons. Then I’ll close with prayer.

Pray

Benediction: 1 Timothy 1:17