Joy is at the Heart of Christmas

One of the most beloved Christmas songs of all time is Joy to the World. Did you know that this song was written not as a Christmas tune but it is a song about Christ’s second coming? It was never intended to be sung at Christmas time.

However, I thing it to be a fitting tune at Christmas time. It is a song of hope. We are anticipating the soon return of the King of Kings and Lords of Lords. There is no better time to celebrate that kind of Joy than at Christmas time.

Jesus was sent to this earth to Save the world.

John 3:17 NIV

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus came to bring salvation. That is a joyous time and we should celebrate that moment. So, Joy is at the heart of Christmas.

What is the definition of Joy?

Joy - the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires: Delight.

Think about a moment in your life that brought you absolute joy.

Here are a few to think about.

You go through the drive thru of your favorite coffee shop, order your favorite drink, and discover the car in front of you paid for it. Joy?

You wake up Christmas morning and find that it snowed four inches overnight. Joy?

You water your Christmas tree enough so it doesn’t become dry and crispy and drop needles all over your floor. Joy?

Maybe some of you see these reasons for joy. For most of us our joy in life is connected to the circumstances in our lives.

Think of it this way.

When things are going well, we feel good. When things are going poorly, we feel bad. Our joy is like a roller coaster, it goes up and down.

But the truth is Jesus came so that our joy would not have to fluctuate with our environment, but could remain steady as we fix our eyes and hearts on Jesus.

Our joy should come from the Lord and not our circumstances.

Turn with me to the book of John chapter 1. John gives us something to celebrate. Look at verse 1

John 1:1–18 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

What John describes here is known as the incarnation. It comes from the Latin word carne, which means flesh, the incarnation was God putting skin on and becoming one of us. Look at verse 14 again.

John 1:14 NIV

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Notice in this verse that word is capitalized. That is because it is referring to Jesus. He is called the Word because he perfectly embodies all of scripture in human flesh by the way he lived here on earth. When Jesus was born in the manger, he was God coming to live among us, as one of us, with skin and bone, flesh and blood.

This passage gives us a message of joy that doesn’t have to change with our circumstances.

1. We can have Joy Because God Came to Us

Too many people believe that in order to have a right relationship with God you have to work hard and do the right things. One thing that can steal our joy faster than anything is thinking we can never be good enough.

We are flawed people.

We make mistakes.

We live selfish lives.

And if you are relying on your ability to earn a connection with God, then you will always be disappointed.

I remember in our first year of marriage coming home from work one evening. Kelly had decided to make her Grandma’s fried chicken. I love fried chicken. She always talked about her Grandma’s chicken and one day she tried making it for me.

I came in the house and it was a mess. There was flour everywhere. The counters were messy. The cabinet doors were messy. I think she used every pan we had trying to make this fried chicken all because she wanted to show me how much she loved me. It was a sight. It was a giant mess that I think took a couple of weeks to clean up. But it was delicious. And it made this newly married husband very happy. Her thoughtfulness that day brought joy to my face in spite of the mess that we had at our house.

The same is true for our joy in God. Many times life can look like a messy disaster from our perspective. It can be hard for us to find reason for joy in our circumstances; however, if we look closely, we might see God coming near to us like he did that first Christmas night to let us know he is making something of our lives when we are tempted to feel hopeless.

Remember, Jesus will be called Immanuel which means God with us. At His birth, He came to us.

Romans 5:8 NIV

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God’s grace is offered to us generously without price because we could never afford it on our own. Remember, while we were sinners, Christ came and died for us. There was nothing we had to do. He came and died for us.

That is why there is so much joy at Christmas time. When you read the stories of the shepherds and angels and wisemen, you can hear the joy in each of these stories. Christ came to us and died for us.

And the second reason joy can be a constant reality for us is…

2. God Loves Us Just as We are and Too Much to Leave Us that Way

Do you realize that you are loved by God? Not just tolerated or put up with but loved! Deeply loved. In fact, John says this love that God has for us is like that of a father for his children.

1 John 3:1 NIV

1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

When Jesus came to us, he came full of grace. If you look up the word Grace in the Greek it is a word charis, which means favor, kindness, or a gift of blessing.

Think about a wrapped gift for a moment. When you share it with someone it brings joy to someone’s heart. That is the same way that Jesus was from God to us. Jesus was grace, a gift from God to us.

We haven’t earned it. We don’t deserve it. But God offers it to us, and when we recognize it, it fills us with joy. God loves us just the way we are.

Jesus also came full of truth. The word for truth is aletheia, which means divine reality revealed to man or a straightforwardness. Jesus holds grace in one hand that allows us to be accepted into his family, and in the other hand he holds truth that shows us the areas of our lives that must be transformed to live the fullest life possible.

1 John 4:9 NIV

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

Grace is how we live with joy. Truth also leads us to joy. Think of it this way.

You and your wife want to go to a concert. The concert is two hours away and the only way you can get the tickets is to drive the two hours and hope that you can get a seat.

You make the long drive just to find out that the tickets are sold out. The despair and disappointment is evident on your faces when an older man walks up to you and informs you that he has two tickets for the evening’s next play, but he was not able to attend and wondered if you’d like his tickets. Immediately you say “yes!” and asked how much he would like for them, to which he responded, “they’re free, enjoy!”

Of course this is tremendous news and you enter the theater and try to find the seats and row written on the ticket, but you are having no luck. So you go to one of the ushers, showed her your tickets, and she said that she would walk you to your seats.

You are not prepared for the fact that you were to be led all the way to the front of the theater and seated in the middle two seats in the very front row — the best seats in the entire theater! You can not believe how blessed you are by this ticket owner’s generosity!

Your invitation into the theater was indeed free, but those prime seats were nevertheless contingent upon tickets that demonstrated the legitimacy of your claim to those seats. That legitimacy, in turn, was purchased by someone else and accorded to you. And just like this moment into that theater your invitation into the kingdom is free, but it is nevertheless contingent upon the sacrificial gift of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our heavenly Father sent Jesus to a manger in Bethlehem because He wanted to dwell among us to demonstrate his amazing grace and life-changing truth. We can experience joy in our lives no matter the circumstances because we can be confident in knowing that God is with us and God is for us.

Romans 8:31 NIV

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

The late pastor Charles Spurgeon said it this way: “There is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful; but this, which is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste, and comforting to the heart. This blessed joy is very contagious. One dolorous spirit brings a kind of plague into the house; one person who is wretched seems to stop all the birds from singing wherever he goes… But the grace of joy is contagious. Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life’s machinery. Holy joy will strengthen you for your daily labor. Holy joy will beautify you and give you an influence over the lives of others.”

This Christmas may you come to find at the heart of this holiday a deep and abiding joy because of the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. It holds the power to change us and to change the world.