News to Jesus’ Family

Introduction:

Alright, church, if you’ve got your Bibles—and I hope you do—open them up to Luke 1.

Go Tell It on a Mountain: Good news is meant to be shared… What is the news?

Advent: that Jesus Christ came to earth… God’s rescue mission had begun…

2nd Advent: Christ is coming back… we look ahead… we wait with eager expectation… like children waiting to open presents Christmas morning.

Tension between the two advents

And that’s where we find ourselves… between the 1st and 2nd Advents… we’re stuck in the middle and that’s a hard place to live. Because in the middle, there is tension… tension between what has already come and what is not yet…

So, yes, we sing about Christ’s coming, and this season more than any other we talk about peace and hope and joy… but we all know someone, if it’s not ourselves, who are suffering greatly. And that’s the reality of our world: Pain. Suffering. Hardship.

And we see this reflected in the Apostle Paul’s writings: Romans 8:23 “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

He is speaking about believers here… eagerly awaiting for our adoption to be fully realized… for our bodies to be fully redeemed.

And so, we rejoice in the coming of our Savior (the 1st Advent) as we, like the Apostle Paul, eagerly await for Christ’s return.

So what do we do in the meantime? How do we pursue joy in the midst of suffering?

That’s the question I hope to answer today as we look at how Jesus’ family reacted to the news of Christmas.

Context

We pick up in verse 39 where we left off last week. Last week, we looked at the news to his mother, Mary. How the Gabriel came to inform Mary of her own pregnancy by the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, prior to the account of Gabriel and Mary, we see an account of Gabriel and Zachariah… where Gabriel is telling Zachariah about how his wife, Elizabeth, (who was Mary’s relative) and who had been unable to have children, would have a son… this is the same Elizabeth mentioned in our text last week, and the same that Mary is visiting in our passage for this morning.

So, if you would, please stand for the reading of God’s word:

Luke 1:39–45 (ESV)

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

This is the word of God—let’s pray.

Main Idea: The right response to Christmas is Joy.

We have to be clear here… and I need to explicitly say that I don’t mean “happiness”. Happiness and joy are not the same thing. We know that real life is not what we see in a Hallmark movie…

And we already said that life is hard. Suffering is real. And pain blows!

But, we still get a clear picture from the scriptures that Christians are to be marked by joy. A Holy Spirit joy that runs deep, a joy that sustains you in the midst of suffering, a joy that breaks through the tension of what has already come and what is not yet…

And that’s what Elizabeth shows us in her response to Mary…

Elizabeth’s Reaction: Experiences joy through the Holy Spirit.

when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

This fulfilled what Gabriel told Zechariah in Luke 1:15 “for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.”

And that is Our Response: To experience joy through the Holy Spirit.

Why is this important… because what we are about to walk through, we cannot do on our own… our very nature, or our flesh as the Bible refers to it, is contrary to the pursuit of joy. Our sinful nature craves vindication, retaliation, anger… it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that joy can exist in the midst of pain and suffering.

So, how do we experience joy?

Our Response: To experience joy through the Holy Spirit by… 1. Speaking Blessings (v42)

“And she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed on you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!’”

Elizabeth spoke blessing on Mary, and on Jesus… Blessed on you… Blessed is the fruit…

What does it mean to speak blessing? It means to speak to someone’s identity, speak to who they are in Christ… Why? Because the Bible in Proverbs 18:21 that the tongue has the power of life or death… and James 3:5-6 tell us that great forest fires get set ablaze by a small spark. And the tongue is a ‘spark’…

And I get it… each one of us has experienced pain. And hurt. And no one would fault you for not speaking blessings… I mean, we get it, don’t we? Experiencing what you’ve experienced. It makes sense to be angry, to be bitter, to just remain quiet even…

Matthew 12 tells us that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks…”

Years ago I had a very good friend. His name is Scott. And the Lord used Scott in a very profound way at a time in my life when I felt pretty low… I struggled to see myself the way God saw me, and my friend Scott would say to me, over and over again, “You are a good man.”

“You are a good man. You are a good man.”

At first I would argue with him… just in my own mind… but then something awesome started to happen! I began to believe him. And now, not only do I believe it for myself, but I believe it for others… and it’s one of my blessings that I speak over other men as I speak to their identity of who they are in Christ…

And if you are listening to my words now, listen to me: “You are a good man.”

That’s what it means to speak blessings…

So, what is God doing in your heart? Is the Holy Spirit there? If so, we can and we should speak blessings upon ourselves and others…

BUT, if we don’t, we are missing out on the JOY offered to us in Christ.

Our Response: To experience joy through the Holy Spirit by… 2. Displaying Humility (v43a)

“And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

What a refreshing posture… especially around Christmastime… to experience JOY by displaying humility. Elizabeth could have made this moment about herself… “Look Mary, in my old age, I am having a baby, too…”

But, she doesn’t… she’s overwhelmed with humility that God would allow her to be a part of his plan…

Now, humility is not about seeing yourself poorly… No, humility is seeing the greatness of God… and acknowledging our dependance upon him… and when we interact with others—we’re to see how their made in the image of God.

Philippians 2:3 says this: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

We refer to the Book of Philippians as the Book of Joy, and that’s exactly what we miss out on when we approach this season with our own wants and selfish desires…

Let me ask you, church: is this season about you? Your plans? Your stress? What it is you want? Or, are you pausing to marvel at the fact that God has invited you into his story? And you have a beautiful role to play in the life of your family, or in your group of friends…

Because, as Philippians tells us and Mary shows us: Humility is the soil where joy is found and flourishes…

Our Response: To experience joy through the Holy Spirit by… 3. Recognizing Jesus (v43b)

“And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

Mary doesn’t just recognize Mary; she recognizes Jesus… She calls him “my Lord.” She sees Jesus for who he REALLY is… the Savior.

What’s that mean for us? And for our experience of JOY?

Well, I wonder how many of us see Jesus but we don’t recognize Jesus as our Savior. And because of that we’re attempting to be our own Savior… Nothing kills JOY in your life quicker than thinking your actions can save you:

You’re either winning at life and it makes you prideful… well, because you’re better than others and they really need to get their stuff together… I mean come’on… You can do it, right? They are without excuse!

You’re losing at life and it makes you hate yourself, makes you depressed… because they have their stuff together… why can’t you?

How do we know, though? Because, let’s be honest… sometimes, even me as a Pastor, over the year this church has existed, I thought I killed it at least 4 times… then, at the same time… sometimes I feel like I’m knocking it out of the park! They are so lucky to have me as their pastor…

I would say we’re all a little Spiritually Schizophrenic… we simultaneously think WAY TOO HIGHLY of ourselves… and WAY TOO LOWELY of ourselves… sometimes in the same hour…

So, how do we know if we see Jesus as our Savior or not?

Trust in Jesus’ Work Vs. Our Own Efforts - we rely on Jesus’ finished work on the cross… we cannot add anything to our salvation…

Identity in Christ Vs. Identity in Performance - we know we are a beloved child of God because of Christ…

Freedom in Grace Vs. Bondage to Rules - we rest in the grace of God, knowing that He has already paid the debt of sin…

Dependence on God’s Power Vs. Human Strength - we pray and seek God’s guidance, relying on his direction and power… not our own…

Motivation: Worship Vs. Pride - and this one leads to our next point:

Our Response: To experience joy through the Holy Spirit by… 4. Worshipping Jesus (v44)

“For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

This is so good. Even John, still in the womb, responds to Jesus with “leaps for joy.” His whole being reacts to the presence of the Savior…

And that’s what worship is!

I think too many Christians think of worship as singing songs on Sunday… and that is worship, but it’s also so much more than that…

Worship is about responding to the presence of Jesus… the presence of our Savior… when we really see the news of Christmas as good news that answers the bad news, how can we not “leap for joy”?! When we stop to think that we are fully forgiven, fully loved, fully valued because of what Christ did on the cross for us… how can we not give back to him our worship?

Because, each time we worship Jesus, we claiming with our body that we are free from sin and death… there is no guilt to be had… shame is gone… and in place of shame and guilt, we experience joy… and peace… and hope.

Our Response: To experience joy through the Holy Spirit by… 5. Trusting God (v45)

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

I love this part… not only do we see another “ blessing” here… but we see the reason for the blessing is Mary’s trust in God.

Mary trusted that God would do what he said he would do…

But, listen, Mary didn’t know how it would all turn out… she didn’t have all her questions answered… we believed in faith… just like Abraham in the Old Testament… “Go to a land I will give you…” Uh, okay… what does that mean? I don’t know… but Abraham believed God…

This is like our kids, waiting for Christmas morning… they don’t know how it all works—they just know that when they wake up, the promises under the tree will be fulfilled… that is child-like trust…

We all go through dark times… times when we don’t know how the bills will get paid, or how the situation would be resolved… but we get to experience JOY when we trust God in the midst of those circumstances…

And let me tell you, every time I’ve trusted Him, He showed up. Not always in the way I expected… actually, never once in the way I expected… but always in the way I needed…

And that’s what Elizabeth saw in Mary… “Blessed is the one who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to them from the Lord.”

Conclusion:

And that’s really what it comes down to… As we live in the in between… between the 1st and 2nd advent… in the tension of what has been and what is yet to come… where pain and sorrow exist alongside joy and hope…

And how we experience more JOY along with our pain and sorrow, we must follow the example of Elizabeth, John and Mary:

And through the Holy Spirit, let’s…

speak blessings

display humility

recongnize Jesus (for who he is)

worship Jesus

trust God

Let’s pray…