Untitled Sermon (12)

Have you ever wondered why there are 3 purple candles and one of them is pink. Well you are not alone, and there is some question as to why this is? But the third Sunday of Advent is sometimes called “Gaudete” in the Latin, for Joy. It is different from the other two previous themes of Hope and Peace, which are solemn and contemplative. Probably why they are represented by deep purple color, but joy that the Advent of Christ is drawing nearer is bright and pink because it represents the feelings of joy and happiness and excitement.

Hope is the feeling of tension, and anticipation like a long cord being stretched to it max about ready to burst at any moment. (I love to play pickleball, some people think that it is a game for old people and maybe I am one of them now, but when you watch it its kind of a slower game. Most of the time you are dinking the ball back and forth, it basically just a glorified whiffle ball so you cant hit it that fast, but every once in a while you get into a fire fight where the ball is hit out of the air back and forth back and forth and the tension builds with every shot as you are just waiting to find out who is going to be the first to make a mistake. That’s when it gets exctiting.)

What child as the days draw closer does not get more and more exctited about Christmas. My children have them selves told me that they cant wait that they are going to make it and amazingly enough they do make it to Christmas time. But it is the anticipation of it drawing near that drives them crazy. If you don’t believe me you should have attended our youth Christmas party the other day the kids were more excited than usual.

But this is the point that joy is that feeling that gets us going and excited. I love the verse from Malachi 4:2

Malachi 4:2 ESV

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

One of my favorite pictures ever is the picture of the pig.

Joy is not dependant upon circumstances. Happiness comes and goes with the circumstances. I am am sure if you asked PT right now at home sick if he has happiness he would tell you something different, but joy now that is different.

Philippians 4:4–5 ESV

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;

Our joy is directly proportional to our proximity to the Lord.

The nearer He is to us the more joy that we have. But the opposite is true also the further from the Lord we are the more desperate we become.

Imagine complete silence for over 400 years and then in one instance the tension snaps as the silence is broken by a great host of angelic voices crying out. Malachi prophesied about this moment that the Lord would send a prophet John the Baptist to pave the way for salvation, but they had to wait 400 years, even when the Lord was born they still watched and waited, the shepherds, the wisemen, Mary waited 9 months and then a life time to see the fulfillment of their promised salvation.

Luke 2:10 ESV

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Isaiah 9:1–3 ESV

But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

Before the Lord drew near, there was hopelessness. There was only dark and void. If you can imagine the darkest place on earth. Maybe outer space, or the deepest part of the ocean. I remember as a kid growing up in Indiana, we took a field trip to Mammoth cave, it was a famous cave that you could take tours in. And during the tour as we entered into this room deep in the cave that was huge, they had us all turn off our lights, and i have never been in such a dark place, you could not see your hand in front of you. Imagine if you had not light at all how scary that would be.

Ephesians 2:12 ESV

remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Isaiah speaks of the Gentile nations who were formerly alienated from God that is they were outside of the the promises and the common wealth of Israel. They were not partakers of the promise. They lived in the land that were beyond the borders of Israel, in foreign places.

It is interesting that Isaiah 9 seems to be fulfilled in Matthew 4. When Jesus went an ministered and lived to the North in Galilee, which is where these territories were. By the time that Jesus was on the scene, this was a road called the “Via Maris” the way of the Sea and this road was a major trade route from Egypt all the way into the lands beyond the Jordan and North. It was a convenient place that was often a associated with the progress of the Gospel to the gentile nations as it gave easy access and safe passage for those seeking to take the Gospel.

In Isaiah it says that their joy increased as with the harvest. Think with me for a moment on this. Because this is a great picture our salvation. A man goes out to sow seed and he must be willing to part with a handful of his previous years harvest, he must take those kernels and bury them in the earth where they wither and die, and for a time he looses sight of them. But just as we talked about a few weeks ago there is joy at the spring time when the promise of a new harvest comes, and as he watches it grow the anticipation of the harvest grows.

Once the time for harvest comes, entire cities rejoice because the are filling their stores and warehouses with grain for the winter. The horses carts are delivering the joy of harvest to every town.

“To rejoice in the Lord is to have joy which tends to salvation.” Augustine

There are all sorts of stories that I am fascinated by of people who go deep into caves and dark places where few people have gone. There are plenty of stories of people going into crazy places where they have to bring tools to dig a hollow out enough that they can squeeze through. There are also plenty of people to have gotten stuck. Some that survived others that did not. Imagine though waiting, for hours and hours and days and days, as your lamp slowly goes dark, and then you are left with only the thoughts in your head. The hopeless and despair soon sets in. You cling to the shallow breaths of life and waiting perhaps even seeing death as welcome relief from your misery and pain. When all of the sudden you see a small flicker in the distance, at first it is very faint and hard to see, but it grows brighter and brighter and you realize that salvation has come.

If we have salvation, then nothing can take away your joy unless you let it. We know that all will be well that we shall weather the winter storms just fine, because our salvation has come near. The storehouses are filled with grain and that is just the first installment. We know that He is coming again, all that we and He has to do is wait for the appointed time, the time of harvest where He will once again leave His throne in heaven and bring with Him our salvation.