2024b Advent - A Life of Joy
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The night of Jesus’ birth was a night like any other that would be a night like no other. Just days before, the decree went out through out the land that the entire empire was to be registered. A young man hears of the decree and looks to his betrothed who is at the last moments before the birth of her child. The child that had the most peculiar beginning.
26 In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. 30 Then the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”
The last nine months must have been full of many different thoughts and feelings for these two. Likely shunned from the community for what looked to be a great sin but pondering the words of the angels.
Now Joseph hears that he and his house are to travel to Bethlehem to register as commanded by decree. Mary who is just days away from the birth of her Lord. What a unthinkable command.
I am not sure that there are many women who at the end of their pregnancy would look upon a long walk in the wilderness as an exciting and inviting time. To think of stepping out and starting on a 90 mile journey. A journey that would take many days if not a couple of weeks. Sleeping on hard ground. No bathrooms. No air mattress, no comforts, no way to hide from the elements.
This is the equivalent of being at the end of a pregnancy and being told to walk from here to Canada. These are the same distance. I cannot imagine the feelings that were running through these two young people.
But they set out and and after days of travel they come to their destination, Mary tells Joseph that it is time. With no other options they find themselves welcomed in the great hall of the lowly manger. No nurses or doctors, no medications, or help, it is time. The promised savior of the people has come. The arrival of Immanuel, God with us is here.
6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Joseph hands the Lord, he hands God in flesh, to Mary and she holds and cherishes the promised one. Time must have stood still for them as the quite set in around them. In a city that is busting at the seams these two sit out of sight and out of the minds and eyes of all who are there. The greatest event that had ever happened comes without any tickets sold. No promotion or instagram posts. No event on facebook.
What man missed, God announced and proclaimed through an angel of the Lord. In the quite of the field, the shepherds would receive the announcement to the world that the savior had been born.
8 In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
Can you imagine what they experienced? Probably sitting around a fire and out of nowhere the glory of the Lord appears around them with an angel standing before them. What was there response? Terror. The angel comforts them and proclaims the birth of the savior, the birth of our savior.
10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: 14 Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!
The angel proclaims the best news that the world has heard, good news of great joy. Isn’t it that the greatest news brings the greatest joy, the greatest happiness. Christmas is coming, the season and the day that we remember and celebrate the greatest news to come to man. The news that a savior has been born.
Good News of Great Joy
Good News of Great Joy
Why was this good news? Would they have recognized the great joy that has been brought? Did they realize that fallen man would be reconciled to God through this child. That in 33 years the right time would come for the messiah, the Christ, to die for the ungodly, the wicked and the lost.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.
Mankind was helpless. The only hope for helpless man was the promised messiah. But now he is there in the flesh with body. He would sacrifice that body for sinners and transgressors, for the rebellious and wicked. He would sacrifice for his enemies, in order to reconcile them back to himself. He would be the sacrificer and the sacrifice and would be the atoning sacrifice once and for all.
We believe that this is the good news that brings great joy into a world of darkness. The light of creation brings light to the created. He proved his love in the great plan of salvation. The plan that gives new life.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
All believers. All men who have been convinced of their own sin and need of a savior from the just punishment of God. Each and every person that has this understanding and comes to the cross has this living hope that God died for us. That we were in need of the good news that a savior was born.
Through this, we have hope in an inheritance that is qualified as imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and kept for you. An inheritance that once given will never spoil or pollute. It will never go away or be removed. A believer can never loose this inheritance as the believer is not the one who is attempting to hold onto it. We are being guarded by God himself through our faith and belief in the one and only savior Jesus. In this we rejoice.
Over and over again we are told to rejoice in the Lord and the blessings of the Lord. The promise of our inheritance brings us joy but it doesn’t remove the fact that we still must live in a fallen and broken world. A world that brings challenges and obstacles to us.
Right after Peter speaks of this great promise he continues with.
Rejoice in the Trial
Rejoice in the Trial
6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
This concept of joy while our world seems to be falling apart or challenging seems to be a contradiction. These, at first glance, look to be at odds with each other. Is he saying that I am to be happy while I am battling cancer or after I have lost a loved one. Am I to be cheerfully happy after I have lost by job or am being ridiculed at work for my faith and beliefs? Does Peter get us at all? What about what James says?
2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
How can this be? I am to have great joy when I am facing trials. What we tend to do with verses like these is we jump to conclusions and put our experiences into the text instead of taking the text to help us understand our experiences.
The question must be asked what is joy? I have heard many different ways to try to separate happiness and joy. I have heard it explained that happiness is a fleeting feeling. A temporary emotion that comes and goes with circumstances. And that joy is a way of life, a mindset and a life style.
The issue that I run into looking at it in this way is that joy becomes an emotionless way of living in a positive way and happiness then comes and goes on a whim based on the circumstances of life in this world alone.
Every definition that I can find connects happiness and joy as almost mutually interchangeable. That a person who is unhappy will not have joy and a person who is rejoicing will be happy.
Both come as a reaction to blessing and favor. To good fortune or good news.
So what is Peter and James saying here when both of them say rejoice in the trials of life or rejoice even though for a short time you suffer grief due to various trials. Rejoice while you suffer grief.
Isn’t it true that the magnitude of our joy and happiness is related to the value of the blessing recieved.
Next week I am going to bless each and everyone here. I have decided to freely give you all, with no strings attached, each a brand new dollar bill. Isn’t that great? Each one of you will have more money after service than before service. What do you say? Will that bring you great happiness and joy. Not really. Though it is still a blessing it isn’t one that would excite most people over the age of 4.
But what if I came in next Sunday and I told you that I was going to pay of every mortgage in this room. If you are a renter I will buy you a home and there will be no payments. Now would that excite you and fill you with joy and happiness. I bet it would. See the magnitude of the blessing is related to the amount of joy and happiness that we have.
Now you are going through a trial. Your health is rough and you are going to the doctor routinely. You are experiencing grief as you try to get better. Would you still experience joy laying in the hospital bed if someone came in and said “I know you are going through a lot so I want you to know that all of your hospital costs for the rest of your life are covered.
Even though you are experiencing grief, you are filled with joy and happiness because of the blessing. The greater the blessing the greater the grief that can be overshadowed by the blessing.
John uses the image of a woman in labor
20 Truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. 21 When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. 22 So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you.
As a father, the delivery room was not my most shining moments. To watch the trial that your wife is going through. The pain and the impact to the body. When we were having Tanna I was like this is the only child we are ever going to have. Who would ever sign up for this again. But fortunately the joy of the child draws the mind away and it doesn’t take long for the desire for another joy package to be requested.
But we are not to be surprised.
12 Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you, as if something unusual were happening to you. 13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
There is a focus of each of these passages to point to the blessing and the work of the Lord. To see that the tests, trials, and fiery ordeals that come upon even the saints, will have the out come of proving the quality of our faith, proving our endurance and maturing us. Because while you are in the trial you know that you hope is set in the imperishable inheritance that is guarded by God. And that he is at work in our lives and will be grown. Because we will rejoice all the greater after the trial because God’s glory will be revealed by those that make it through the fire and endure.
When we truly come to terms with the gift that has been given to the most undeserving of people, we are filled with gratitude and joy that doesn’t remove the pain and the grief of the trials but over shadows and dwarfs the trial in our lives. Because we are focused on the goal out in front.
I am not a runner but if there was a drawing and the result was that I won a million dollars but I had to run a marathon, I would set out immediately. The reward would keep me focus on moving forward. As mind and body want to give up the hope of the promised blessing keeps me going and the entire time I would be filled with joy that at the end of the race the full blessing will be given.
We run with that anticipation towards the fulfilment of the guaranteed prize.
Rejoice in the Goal of our Faith
Rejoice in the Goal of our Faith
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
The goal of our faith, of our belief and trust in the salvation of our souls. We come to believe and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy. Have you ever been given a gift that you had no way of expressing how it made you feel? The emotion was so overwhelming that you could not explain what was going on.
The heart is filled with joy because of the gift of salvation we then exult God.
10 I rejoice greatly in the Lord, I exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a groom wears a turban and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
We have been clothed in the garments of salvation and from our mouths comes forth rejoicing in the Lord. There should be an overflowing or praise for what God has done. Like a mountain spring that cannot be contained any more out of the fountain of our joy comes the stream of praise to the Lord.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. 9 Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
We rejoice because the Lord is near. He abides in us and us in him as he has given his Holy Spirit to dwell in us and has written the law on our hearts. He has brought forth the new covenant.
14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, the Lord says, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds, 17 and I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. 18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
We have had our sins removed and forgotten and we now are told to not worry about anything but to present our requests to God. In prayer and petition and the result is the peace of God. The peace that the we cannot explain to others.
When you think of Christmas morning and the celebration of the baby that was born in the most humble of places. Does your mind go to what God would accomplish in that baby? That through him and him alone you will stand in the presence of his glory. Not condemned but filled with joy as you have no fear before God because you fully trust in the work of the Son.
24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
This joy is not just a result of intellectual understanding. It is part of the work of the Spirit in our lives.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
As we live for Christ, he will grow our understanding of the blessing. We will come to have a deeper understanding of the reconciliation that was accomplished. We come to understand that no matter how filthy we thought we were when we came to Christ to be saved, that we are way worse than we thought. Our gratitude grows our understanding of the blessing grows and so our joy grows as well.
The angels came to the shepherd and proclaimed the good news with great joy that a savior was born. And today we have been given that message. It has been put in our hearts and our mouths to share in the joy that we have. To tell others about the love and sacrifice of God. There is great joy in heaven when one comes to hear the message of a savior and then receives this salvation and heaven rejoices along with us here on earth.
7 I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.
Conclusion
Conclusion
It brings joy to see a person come to the Lord and be regenerated and reconciled to the Lord. To be brought into the spiritual family. Without the birth of Jesus, and his sacrifice there would be no hope or joy for mankind. But since he came, died and was resurrected we have much to be joyful about.
The psalmist writes.
23 My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you because you have redeemed me.
Let us be a people who shout for joy because we have been redeemed. Will we no longer be silent but raise our voices to the lord. Will we be a church and a people that others would see our joy?
When someone comes into our presence they cannot help but to see a people that are filled with expressible joy even when life seems to be hard and trying.
This Christmas season is a great time to sing the praises of our Lord. To tell people what Jesus and his birth means to you and how it has saved your soul. Will you rejoice in praise of the baby that came this season. That the savior has been born.
If you have never come to that place in your life where you have confessed Jesus as Lord but you have come to be convinced and convicted that you are in need of a savior. I invite you today to repent and believe in the saving work of Jesus today. I would love to walk with you through this time of your life. You can write on a connection card, call me, or come to me after church and we can talk.
In Deuteronomy God says “Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you do." Everything you do.
Let us not be joyless Christians. That is not what we are called to be.
We will be the people of hope and a people of Joy.
Valley of vision
Invite people to repent
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Communion
Warning
Children, Lost, Sin
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
27 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them and said, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer
Song
Closing
Blessing/Benediction
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.