Sermon Tone Analysis

Joy

Today we are going to be reflecting on the nature of Christian Joy.

Joy is one of those things that I think most of us know goes deeper than simple happiness.

It’s hard to describe Joy, but you know if when you experience it.

And I think Joy usually accompanies relationships.

Like I feel happy when I’m watching Star Trek or eating Kimchi Fried Rice.

But I experience joy when I hold my children or see my wife celebrated.

And even beyond this, we are going to look at the idea that Biblically speaking, there is a sort of Joy that is given to us only from God. It’s a special kind of Joy that is exclusive to our relationship with him.

There are several words used for Joy in scriptures, about 18 between the Hebrew and the Greek.

I won’t drag you through the weeds of them, but what is interesting is that sometimes joy is a noun and sometimes it’s a verb.

And there are some words for Joy that only get used in the context of worship towards God.

Joy is something that we have, but it’s also something that we do, and the truest joy is found in God and God alone.

How is it that we participate in this joy?

Is it something that happens to us?

And do we have a part to play in embracing joy?

Before we jump into these ideas, I do want to take a moment to address the fact that for some of us, there are some seasons where Joy seems elusive.

Where we are doing everything right, but there seems to be a lack of Joy.

Juan De La Cruz or St. John of the Cross, is a theologian from the 16th century.

And he experienced a deep depression that he described as The Dark Night of The Soul, where he began to lose the sense of Joy in his life.

That light guided me

More surely than the noonday sun

To the place where He was waiting for me,

Whom I knew well,

And where none appeared.

St. John of The Cross

Sometimes I think God brings us through dry seasons in order to deepen and mature our relationship with him.

Much like a marriage, there comes a time when the honeymoon phase is over, and the covenant the two made has to become something deeper than butterflies in their stomachs.

I think our relationship with God can be like this.

So if you are in this room, and you find yourself in a place where God’s joy seems to be just out of reach, know that He hasn’t forgotten about you.

He is faithful even when we can’t perceive it.

Keep showing up.

Keep the faith.

Today we are going to be returning to Luke chapter 1, this time we will be in verses 39 - 56.

If you remember, Zechariah the priest and Elizabeth have just been told that that they are going to become pregnant in their old age and give birth to John the Baptist, who is going to become the first bonafide prophet in 400 years.

And now Mary, who is betrothed to a man named Joseph, but still a virgin, has just been told by an angel that she is going to concieve, via the holy spirit, the Messiah who will be called Jesus.

And the angel told her about her cousin Elizabeth as well.

So Mary is going to go and visit Elizabeth.

Now, I don’t know what it’s like to be pregnant.

But I know that Jayna really enjoys journeying through pregancy with the women in her life.

It was really exciting for her when her and her sister were pregnant at the same time.

There’s this sense of shared experience and excitement.

So imagine this same dynamic but dialed up to 11 right?

Not only are Mary and her cousin pregnant at the same time, but one of them is preganant far beyond child bearing years, and the other before she’s done the thing that is usually required to make baies.

And both carrying children who are going to change the world forever, who are going to fulfill God’s long-awaited promises.

This goes to show us that for God, nothing is ever too late, and nothing is ever too soon, if he wills it.

Mary Visits Elizabeth

39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.

41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.

45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Let’s reflect together on Mary’s song.

Mary’s Song of Praise

46 And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

50 His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), Lk 1:39–56.

So mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

It’s 3-5 day journey from where Mary lived, so she likely would have had to travel in a caravan to avoid getting mugged or attacked.

There was this urgency that Mary felt she needed to be with her cousin in this season.

And it says that John, leaped in the womb upon hearing mary’s voice.

Jewish tradition regarded the human fetus as a fully-fledged human being who could respond to external stimuli.

And two weeks ago we read that the angel told Elizabeth that her son, John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born.

In this account, John is responding to the presence of the messiah, the one of whom he will prophecy, and will one day baptize.

The word used for “leap” in the Greek is exclusively associated with joy.

It’s how one might describe young horses prancing across a field.

This is one of those verb versions of Joy.

And it’s also the kind of Joy that is used exclusively in regards to God.

This story tells us that true Joy, the greatest Joy, is something only God can give to his children.

Joy in God is the happiest of all joys.

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Charles Spurgeon

It is a gift born of the Spirit, born out of his presence.

Notice how Luke goes out of his way to remind the reader that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.

So John is experiencing a Joy found only in the Spirit.

We will come back to that.

If we look at Mary’s song.

It’s this beautiful piece of Hebrew style poetry, and Hebrew poetry made use of a technique called Synonymous Parallelism, basically where the second line mirrors the same ideas as the first line, but emphasizes it in a different way.

We see in verse 46.

My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

The idea is that to worship of magnify the lord is to express my joy to him, that Joy is an active part of my posture towards God.

There are two main themes that we we are going to draw from this story:

The idea is that Joy is a two part dance.