Joy For All People

Now that Thanksgiving has had it’s day…let’s get ready for Christmas. Today we start a new sermon series that I hope will bring joy to your world.

***Sermon Series Slide***

I had hoped we’d have everything all decorated for Christmas, but with all the scheduling, it will have to wait for next week. As the center of the decorations, we’ll have the sheet music for the song Joy to the World here at the center of the platform. We’ll sing it a few times between now and Christmas Eve as we prepare our hearts for celebrating the birth of our king, our lord, our Savior Jesus Christ.

If you are anything like my family, you are well into the swing of getting your physical world ready for Christmas. The decorations are out, the tree is up (not at our house yet), lists have been made and the shopping as started. We as a family have a lot of fond Christmas traditions. We make sugar cookies. The Hallmark channel might be recorded 24 hours a day. We enjoy getting out our ornaments because every time we travel somewhere, we buy a Christmas ornament from that place. We’ll remember some of our trips and tell stories.

None of these things are bad, but this morning, and in the weeks ahead, my hope is to encourage you to see the hope in Jesus…to see your joy in Jesus.

Let’s open our Bibles to Luke chapter 2. We are going to jump right into the events right after the birth of Jesus today. We’ll go back and look at the parts of this story that lead up to this point, but today, I want to start with verse 8. We’ll read a couple of paragraphs and then we’ll just hone in on one verse in particular for today.

Luke 2:8–20 NIV

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

There are times in life something happens that is so out of the ordinary that you can’t help but talk about it. I can close my eye and picture these shepherds sitting with their grandchildren and the kids asking grandpa to tell the story about when the savior came again. Tells us about when the angels came…and you went into town and met Jesus as a baby…and he’s the same guy who died on the cross and came back to life? You really got to meet him?

This idea of what story we have to tell..let’s come back to that at the end.

***Message Title Slide***

The title of the message is joy for all people. It’s part of what the angels initially said to the shepherds. Let’s hone in on that one verse, verse 10.

Luke 2:10 NIV

10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

We are going to examine this verse in three parts: “I bring you good news”, “that will cause great joy” and finally “for all the people”.

I bring you good news...

There is a subtle thing in the Greek. Bring good news is one word in the Greek. This phrase was used by any herald who would be proclaiming any kind of good news to anyone. When Caesar had a son, people went our from Rome bringing good news of the birth. The shepherds would have recognized this proclamation by the angels in the same way. There must be some really important and good news to hear. This is quite the contrary from most of the news we hear today. Most of what is proclaimed by the “news” is definitely not good and it certainly won’t bring great joy.

Paul would use this same Greek phrase when talking about times in which he would preach or proclaim the gospel. In fact, it is the same word used that is translated that way - preach the gospel. From this Greek word we get the word evangelize or evangelism.

These angels are evangelizing the shepherds out in the fields. It was a curious choice as the first people to be told as they would have been considered unreliable witnesses by the legal system. Shepherds were known as scoundrels, kept outside of most social circles and community events. They were not very well liked…and these would be some of the first to hear about the birth of Jesus the Messiah.

Whatever you think of yourself, these shepherds likely would beat you out in a least desirable contest. I bring this on to you, and I, because the angels declaration to the shepherds was personal. I bring YOU good news. There are really just two words here. The verb that implies the I…I bring good news and the Greek word for you. This is a personal pronoun. You would use it when pointing a finger.

This announcement, this news was for the one who would hear it. It is also plural and it would be appropriate for these shepherds to then repeat the same statement to their friends, family or anyone who might listen…like you right now. I am looking at each of you and saying to you personally, all at once, I bring you good news.

The next verse details this good news...

Luke 2:11 NIV

11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

The long awaited Savior is here. The Messiah, the Lord has been born. This is what the people of Israel have been waiting for. Jesus the Christ was born. I bring you good news.

The next phrase is this:

…that will cause great joy...

The word that references what we just read…the good that was proclaimed. The good news that was proclaimed to you will cause great joy.

Another translation for this Greek word behind will cause is just to be.

This good news will cause or as a result great joy will be. Joy the condition of those who receive this good news. Not just joy, but mega joy…much quantity of joy will be the condition of those who receive the good news.

Now, I want to give us a better understanding of this word joy. There are several types of joy and I want to contrast two of them today. There is a worldly joy and there is a Holy Spirit given joy.

Worldly joy is largely based on circumstance. If there is something good, something I want and get or my physical needs are met…I would call that wordly joy. This kind of joy comes and goes based on circumstance. Some might even allow there feelings to determine this. The problem with worldly joy is that inevitably, circumstances will change and with it, your joy will go. This joy is temporary and often needs us to be constantly striving for our next fix. This striving for the next thing usually causes heartache and hurt.

In contrast, Biblical joy is a persistent condition of the Spirit filled believers. Galatians tells us that Joy is one of the qualities of our Spiritual fruit. The joy in our spirit cannot be quenched or taken from us by circumstances. The one way to increase this spiritual joy within us is to recognize what was done for us through Jesus being born and ultimately dying for our sins. I want to read a passage out of Romans 5. This is one of those passages that gets me every time. Every time I read it, God shows me something else about him and something else about me. And the result is a deeper joy for the good news of Jesus’s birth.

I may make a few comments here and there as I read, if there is not a sense of joy in your spirit as you hear and read this, (and I don’t say this lightly), I would want to ask you some questions about your salvation and understanding of what this passage is saying. This is not something to be embarrassed about, I want for all of you this mega joy that is for you as a result of the good news.

Romans 5:1–11 (NIV)

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

I am going to come back to this idea of boasting in God, boasting in the hope and boasting in our sufferings…let’s first talk through our last phrase...

Luke 2:10 NIV

10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

…for all the people.

This is exactly what it says. Galatians sums this up nicely...

Galatians 3:28 NIV

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

***Message Title Slide***

Jesus came to reconcile us all back to the Father. Jesus commanded us to bring this good news message that the angels proclaimed to all the people. There is a website called peoplegroups.org. They are tracking all the different culture groups of people in the world and which of those have been reached with the Gospel. Here are the numbers...

There are 12,262 different people groups, totalling 8.1 billion people.

Of those, 7,323 people groups are unreached totalling 4.2 billion people. This means that less than 2% of the people group are evangelical Christians.

Of those, 3,126 people groups totalling 282 million people. They have had zero gospel interaction and there is currently no active plans to reach them.

These people represent Jesus’ mission to go to the ends of the earth in Matthew 28.

I want to close with a portion of one of Charles Spurgeon’s messages preached on this passage titled Joy born at Bethlehem in December of 1871.

(https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/joy-born-at-bethlehem/#flipbook/)

But, beloved, the greatest joy is to those who know Christ as a Saviour. Here the song rises to a higher and sublimer note. Unto us indeed a child is born, if we can say that he is our "Saviour who is Christ the Lord."

Let me ask each of you a few personal questions. Are your sins forgiven you for his name's sake? Is the head of the serpent bruised in your soul? Does the seed of the woman reign in sanctifying power over your nature? Oh then, you have the joy that is to all the people in the truest form of it; and, dear brother, dear sister, the further you submit yourself to Christ the Lord, the more completely you know him, and are like him, the fuller will your happiness become.

Surface joy is to those who live where the Saviour is preached; but the great deeps, the great fathomless deeps of solemn joy which glisten and sparkle with delight, are for such as know the Saviour, obey the anointed one, and have communion with the Lord himself. He is the most joyful man who is the most Christly man. I wish that some Christians were more truly Christians: they are Christians and something else; it were much better if they were altogether Christians.

Perhaps you know the legend, or perhaps true history of the awakening of St. Augustine. He dreamed that he died, and went to the gates of heaven, and the keeper of the gates said to him, "Who are you?" And he answered, "Christianus sum," I am a Christian. But the porter replied, "No, you are not a Christian, you are a Ciceronian, for your thoughts and studies were most of all directed to the works of Cicero and the classics, and you neglected the teaching of Jesus. We judge men here by that which most engrossed their thoughts, and you are judged not to be a Christian but a Ciceronian."

When Augustine awoke, he put aside the classics which he had studied, and the eloquence at which he had aimed, and he said, "I will be a Christian and a theologian;" and from that time he devoted his thoughts to the word of God, and his pen and his tongue to the instruction of others in the truth.

Oh I would not have it said of any of you, "Well, he may be somewhat Christian, but he is far more a keen money-getting tradesman." I would not have it said, "Well, he may be a believer in Christ, but he is a good deal more a politician." Perhaps he is a Christian, but he is most at home when he is talking about science, farming, engineering, horses, mining, navigation, or pleasure-taking.

No, no, you will never know the fullness of the joy which Jesus brings to the soul, unless under the power of the Holy Spirit you take the Lord your Master to be your All in all, and make him the fountain of your intensest delight. "He is my Saviour, my Christ, my Lord," be this your loudest boast. Then will you know the joy which the angel's song predicts for men.