The Promise of Joy
Notes
Transcript
CHRISTMAS EVE IS AT 4PM
CHRISTMAS EVE IS AT 4PM
Every year at Christmas time, during Advent we look at the 4 great themes of Advent…Of God with us.
Hope
Peace
Joy
Love
And what I try to do during these weeks is to show you how all of God’s character is present in Jesus and imparted to us today.
I love the scripture that was just read…Because it exemplifies the Biblical theme of Joy
and that is this. You wouldn't necessary know it unless you read the whole book of Zephaniah….But up until what we just read it was all doom and gloom…
It was all judgment
So the theme of Joy in the Bible is not just that you can have joy through Jesus, that is certainly true…But it is much greater than that
The theme is that Israel shouts for joy in the dessert…If you go on vacation to Hawaii…It’s easy to shout for Joy right?
But what about if you decided to camp in death valley in the middle of the summer? Might be hard to find that joy!
So this idea of Joy in the dessert is sort of the Biblical paradox….That God’s people find Joy in the dessert
How many of you know exactly what I am talking about if I were to say…How many of you have been through a dessert period in your life…
Long, Hot…Hard…You get burned?
Well Jesus himself exemplifies this paradox…This bIblical theme…
Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
The Biblical theme of Joy is not that joy and happiness comes from what is happening in life,
but it comes from this deep and profound trust in who Jesus is.
It means that you can experience joy in any circumstance
When your made fun of for following Jesus
When your relationships are not going the way you want
When you are sick…on those long dreadful days of receiving chemotherapy
When life just doesn't seem like it is working out for you
See Christian joy is so different than the joy in our world
In our world Joy depends on winning, on finances, on relationship on approval
I think the truth of the matter is that we often find our joy in what we have our identity in
So if you build your identity as the smartest guy in the room then its going to be really hard for you when someone walks into the party who is smarter than you
If you build your identity on the idea that you are a super successful business man then one bad year will get you down in the dumps
If you build your identity on your kids then you will only be happy when they are happy
So I want to start today with one point and then I want to spend the rest of the time proving it to you
Christian joy is a profound decision of faith and hope in the power of Jesus’ own life and love
Christian joy is a profound decision of faith and hope in the power of Jesus’ own life and love
Now what I want to do first is to go through this Zephaniah passage because it is so good but then come back to this
Context of Zephaniah:
There was a child King named Josiah who would do so much work to bring israel back to the Lord. But he had a downfall. his pride would end up setting Israel on a collision course with Babylon, Josiah would tragically die on the battlefield, never really restoring Israel….Instead, israel would go to exile
Zephaniah was a prophet in the final decades of Judah (the southern kingdom of Israel)
The book of Zephaniah is a collection of his poetry…He had been seeing israel go down this really bad road for a long time and this is what Zephaniah is warning against
and if you have never read the minor prophets here is kind of the format…Usually, there are some exceptions:
they read almost like a court case
List of charges against israel…Here is what you did wrong
The ways God will punish you
But they always end with this promise of restoration
So let’s look at some of the rougher parts of Zephaniah so you can see what I mean when I tell you that it is a dessert
1. So lets look at Zeph 3:14-15,
1. So lets look at Zeph 3:14-15,
So I know we have not read all of Zephaniah…So I want to give you a taste of the way the rest of the book goes../.Because if you just had the verse that we read for advent you might thing the whole book is just a love fest!
“I have destroyed nations;
their strongholds are demolished.
I have left their streets deserted,
with no one passing through.
Their cities are laid waste;
they are deserted and empty.
Of Jerusalem I thought,
‘Surely you will fear me
and accept correction!’
Then her place of refuge would not be destroyed,
nor all my punishments come upon her.
But they were still eager
to act corruptly in all they did.
Therefore wait for me,”
declares the Lord,
“for the day I will stand up to testify.
I have decided to assemble the nations,
to gather the kingdoms
and to pour out my wrath on them—
all my fierce anger.
The whole world will be consumed
by the fire of my jealous anger.
I mean this book is absolutely written to a group of people who have not lived out God’s ethics and values…
This is pretty harsh
I mean just verse 8 here is that God will consume the nations with his fire…And you might have apocalyptic visions in mind
SO this is the epidomy of what it looks like to be in a dessert
But it turns out that this wrath is also a function of God’s grace
Because look at the next verses
“Then I will purify the lips of the peoples,
that all of them may call on the name of the Lord
and serve him shoulder to shoulder.
From beyond the rivers of Cush
my worshipers, my scattered people,
will bring me offerings.
On that day you, Jerusalem, will not be put to shame
for all the wrongs you have done to me,
because I will remove from you
your arrogant boasters.
Never again will you be haughty
on my holy hill.
But I will leave within you
the meek and humble.
The remnant of Israel
will trust in the name of the Lord.
They will do no wrong;
they will tell no lies.
A deceitful tongue
will not be found in their mouths.
They will eat and lie down
and no one will make them afraid.”
It turns out that the fire that God will bring wont consume and kill but will purify!
What they thought would be a dessert was actually God’s grace!
What is interesting is that if we were to take a survey of the theme of Joy in the Bible you would see this coming up a lot….What looks like it will kill us…The desserts that look like death…And actually going to reveal Joy
How many of you are going through desserts today?
Walking though the dessert of pain?
Walking though the dessert of loneliness?
Walking though the dessert of loss?
Walking though the dessert of regret?
What if the dessert is God’s tool of bringing you through the refiners fire?
So what Zephaniah sees is a disobedient people and a God who is with this disobedient people
And that God in his holiness doesn’t burn up the people and throw them into everlasting death
But what God does with his people is that he puts them through the refiners fire
And that God so transforms his people in the midst of their dessert that there is only one real response!
Sing, Daughter Zion;
shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
I want you to hear this last stanza again:
The Lord, The king of Israel is with you, never again will you fear any harm!
This is part of the larger message of the Bible….The message of what God wants to get across to his people.
“This present world is a perfectly safe place for us to be.
I realize how strange and even strained that might sound. I realize that there are unknown drones flying over New Jersey
I realize that we have countries on the brink of nuclear war…
I realize there are people gunned down in the streets
I realize that we live in a volatile and violent world world
But you see this is the promise of Jesus. Even if you die, your are safe
See the promise of God is not that he is going to remove you from the dessert…The promise of God is not that you won’t experience hard times
The promise of God is that he will be with you always!
True Joy is found in the promise of God’s presence
True Joy is found in the promise of God’s presence
It is realizing that yes I may be in the dessert right now
But God is here
I might be going though hard times but I trust that God already has it worked out!
This is what Zephaniah is saying
God is present with you!
You have no need to fear
So be glad and rejoice with all of your heart
What we have to see is that Christmas is the ultimate intersection of Heaven and Earth.
It is the moment when God steps out of Heaven, takes on human flesh and is present with his people…It is when he gives his holy spirit to his people!
So Zephaniah…
After all the turmoil of the beginning of the book says
Sing for Joy…God will be with you!
He has taken away your punishment…What they couldn't understand at the time is that the way that God would remove their punishment…He wouldn’t actually take it away, he would send his son to take it for them.
let’s keep reading
On that day
they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”
On that day…When Judgment is complete…
God says don’t fear, don’t let your hands hang limp
This is a Hebrew colloquialism or a turn of phrase. The power of a person was seen to be in the hands so what Zephaniah is saying is look, before you were powerless but once God took your punishment and is now with you in person…
Stop hanging your head…Quit walking around like your weak and powerless…You have the power of the living God with you
Look God is with you and in his love he will no longer rebuke you…
What that means to the first audience of Zephaniah is that they will no longer have to deal with invading armies because of their sin, God will take the punishment for them.
Then I love how it says…He will rejoice over them with singing.
It’s crazy…It is one thing for us to rejoice over our salvation
It’s one thing to rejoice over what God has done for us!
That God delights over his redeemed
That God delights in you so much that he will burst into song over you.
To consider Almighty God singing in contemplations of love over a once-wretched human being can hardly be absorbed by the human mind
But that is exactly the point of the verse—God delights in you.
“Yahweh joins the people’s singing and soothes them by expressing love.” This amazing love of God for human beings is inexplicable. Human minds would never dream up such a God
In fact…
This is such a perfect picture of the God that we have.
Listen every other system of religion is a person trying to appease God and earn goodness and favor with their god because of what they have done.
You have to do the right things
you have to say the right things
give the right amount
And with that you can move a little closer to your god.
But this verse in Zephaniah speaks of a God who will come and be present with us…He will take our punishment and then when we are able to stand in his presence because he has redeemed us…There will be nothing but Joy from God
He will burst into song over you…because you have been redeemed
I think that this is what Jesus was saying
Lets look at Luke 15:1-7
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Jesus is being rebuked because he is eating with the “Bad” people…
The people who are basically blight on society
Folks these are dessert people…The people who have lived some life!
The tax collectors…The Jews who have turned on their own people for money
The Sinners…Kind of a blanket term for those who are not in the good graces of Judaism.
And Jesus is saying here…Look…All of heaven rejoices…all of heaven delights when just one person who was lost is found.
God shouts for joy when people put their faith in him
It is really no mistake that just a few verses later Jesus tells the parable of the lost son
The son who squandered his inheritance…Who dishonored his father and did all kinds of bad stuff…
He comes home and the father rejoices
No questions asked there is a giant feast on the table
no questions asked he takes his ring off and gives it to his son
The point is look this is how God is…
Because of Jesus work on the cross when you trust in him he rejoices over you
Let’s keep looking at the rest of the this verse
God rejoices over the lost becoming found.
God rejoices over the lost becoming found.
“I will remove from you
all who mourn over the loss of your appointed festivals,
which is a burden and reproach for you.
At that time I will deal
with all who oppressed you.
I will rescue the lame;
I will gather the exiles.
I will give them praise and honor
in every land where they have suffered shame.
At that time I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise
among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes
before your very eyes,”
says the Lord.
I just want to pick one thing out of this…One of the things that God does in the middle of the promise to restore his people…To rejoice over them with singing
There is this phrase that God says when the text moves from speaking in the third person to the first person.
I will rescue the lame…
Gather the exiles So in Zephaniah’s time this literally meant a coming home from Babylon to Israel
But you have to remember…The “Lame” in these days meant the ones who couldn’t walk…
The ones who were too weak to make the trip…
And what God is saying here is look, I will gather all of you…My kingdom is for everyone especially those on the outskirts
Especially the weak..
Especially the lame
Especially those who feel like they are on the outside
I want you to see what jesus has to say about this
When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’
“But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
“Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
“Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
“The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
“ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
Did you catch who Jesus invites to the banquet?
The lame…
The beggars
And Jesus tells these parables saying look…I am going to rescue the lame…Look Heaven Rejoices when the lost is found…
And then we have the mystery of Christmas
The God that Zephaniah was seeing bursts fourth into a manger.
I am God with flesh on and at my table there is more than enough room
And I love this picture that the servants go and find everyone they can and they report…look Master everyone is here and there is still more room and the Master’s response is go find more people!
There is room at his table
And God invites Dessert people to the table…And replaces their heartbreak with Joy
I dont know what it does to you to read Zephaniah…To see that God shouts for Joy over the redeemed!
But I know it brings me joy…How can it not…
I don’t know where you are at today…What dessert you are walking though but I do know that jesus is out searching for you
I know that there is a seat at God’s table for you
I do know that he wants you to experience his Joy!
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light
RESPONSE
RESPONSE
Maybe you’re here this morning and it has just been a long time
