Joy in Advent

Sermon – Joy – 12/18/2022

I. Hab 3:16-19

a. I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.

b. Context

i. Habakkuk has received a prophecy of the destruction of Israel and so he comes to the Lord with a protest in chapter 1. But by chapter 3 Habakkuk has come to understand and accept, even though he fears what is coming.

ii. Now not many of us would be able to do what Habakkuk does here. In fact, I think only with the Holy Spirit could Habakkuk declare all this destruction of his own people, his family, with confidence and still rejoice in God. [1]

II. Joy in Loss

a. It is abundantly clear that Habakkuk sees all this destruction coming and yet still rejoices. Habakkuk is waiting for the destruction but also waiting, joyfully, for salvation. He says his bones rot and all their farm animals will die and yet he will still rejoice in the LORD.

b. Illustration

i. CS Lewis – Winter

1. Always winter, never Christmas

ii. Advent

1. Advent, the build up to Christmas, can be a hard time, a sad time for those who have lost loved ones, who are sick or poor or needy. It can be tough for anyone, and that’s okay.

a. Advent is a season of longing. It’s a time when we recognize the truth of Romans 8:22: “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” The world is not right. Since Genesis 3, it never has been. The headlines change in the newspaper, but the reality hasn’t. This world is sin-sick and cries out for redemption. – Darryl Dash[2]

2. O Come Emmanuel

a. O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

iii. Tie in – Habakkuk is waiting. He is waiting for this judgement to come. He is already mourning the destruction of Israel, and yet he rejoices in the Lord. That leads to my first point of application.

c. Application

i. Do not look for joy in circumstances/stuff/rulers

III. Joy in Christ

a. So where do we find our joy? Well Habakkuk doesn’t say it, because he hasn’t come yet, but even he is looking towards salvation here. In verse 13 Habakkuk says

b. “You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.”

c. In the original Hebrew a little trick comes up in this verse though. We usually understand this verse to mean that God goes out for the salvation of his anointed people, and its just making that same point twice. However, theres a little Hebrew word that basically means “with or beside”. And it appears with the word Anointed there. So this verse could mean what we read in the text, but it also could be translated “You went out for the salvation of your people, for their salvation with Your anointed”.

d. He finishes his book with that he will take joy in the God of his salvation. Who is that?

i. Habakkuk is looking to the coming messiah for the salvation of Israel, and that is where we look as well in the season of advent, of longing, waiting and mourning. And who better to look at for this example than the Shepherds.

e. Luke 2:8-12

i. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

ii. Shepherds – adam mentioned

f. Illustration

i. Trash man story

g. Application

i. Look to Christ for your joy, when you have loss or gain, look to Christ for your joy

IV. Victory in Christ

a. That would be a good place to leave off huh? Look to Christ for your joy. But we have one more thing that Habakkuk looks to, beyond just Christ. Its not just salvation in Christ, and the joy that comes with that.

b. In his final verses Habakkuk says “God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places.” And in verse 13 he says “You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.”

c. CS Lewis quote again

i. Wrong will be right when Aslan comes in sight, at the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death and when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again

d. Habakkuk here is looking, not to today, when all is lost, but he is looking to Christ and the victory that comes with Him. He is looking to something, a big word, called the Eschaton. What does that mean though? Habakkuk is looking to the end times. When we see that Christ has beaten not only sin, but he ultimately beats death, and he destroys the enemy. What is this last bit that we are to take from Habakkuk? It is that we have Victory in Christ.

V. BIG IDEA

a. Our God Won

VI. And I want to build off of that. Our God won, that’s the best news ever!

a. In Luke the angels said they bring good news of great joy. And In romans, Paul says

b. Romans 10:15/Isaiah 52:7

i. And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

ii. But paul is just quoting Isaiah,

iii. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

iv. What is this news? Our God reigns, he won, and he is reigning.

c. O Come all ye faithful

i. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant! O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem! Come and behold him, born the King of angels.

d. Illustration

i. V-E Day

e. Application

i. Knowing Christ won is great, and it brings us a lot of joy, but sometimes it feels like a vague joy. “Great, my God reigns.” What does it mean? It means that if we believe in Jesus then the Holy Spirit helps us, helps us to not sin, to comfort us and bring us joy when we are struggling. It means that when we lose someone, we not only do we get to see them, but one day God will resurrect all of us again and we will get to worship Him together! It means that all the enemies, sin, satan, and death, will finally be defeated and all that is wrong, all that advent tells us is wrong with the world since Adam and Eve, it will all be fixed, all of it. Sickness, death, sin. All of it.

ii. And knowing this wonderful joyful news, We go out today, and everyday, and share our good news because the war is over, God won, and one day we will all be resurrected together in the new creation and we wante everyone to join us!

f. Closing

i. In verse 16 Habakkuk talks about waiting on the day of invasion. That these people will come and nearly destroy all of Israel. And then he looks to the future, to the days when the Lord will make his feet like that of a deer, when he will be in the high places. Habakkuk is afraid and waiting on this invasion, And death and sin can feel like that, invaders in our lives bringing wreck in ruin. But ultimately we take joy not in the invasion but in what the angels said, an invitation. So rather that fear the invasion, let us take joy in the invitation to come worship Christ the Lord.

g. Look at final verse. To be sung.

i. In similar fashion, Habakkuk’s message is all about life—the life of faith despite many calamities. Integral to such a life is the singing of songs praising the redeemer and sustainer of life. So a book beginning with complaint and distress ends in joy. Faith triumphs in life despite many calamities. Songs in the night anticipate the glad arrival of the eternal dawn in which the faithful shall receive their ultimate vindication.

[1]Robertson, O Palmer, The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, 1990. [2]Dash, Darryl, I’m Starting to Understand Advent, https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/straight-paths/im-starting-to-understand-advent/, 12/15/2021