Advent Joy

How can there be joy?

How can there be joy when there is so much misery?

The Bible tells us to always be joyful… that’s fine at times, but sometimes it doesn’t feel right to be joyful.

This week a tragic story happened in our community. You hear this story, which I’m choosing not to repeat now, but joy is hardly the first thing that comes to mind. The emotions we feel are heartbreak… sorrow… shock.

Joy is the furtherest thing from mind.

Is joy then something only to be experienced in the good times?

Now, in one way, we have the beautiful verses in Ecclesiastes 3:4 which reminds us that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. The Bible is no stranger to sorrow. In fact, is the sermon on the Mount, Jesus even says, blessed are those who mourn.

In the hard times, the shedding of tears is appropriate and is a healthy thing to do.

So with this being said, is joy only something we feel at certain times?

Well, what if we were to think of joy as more than just a timeof laughing and dancing. Because, interestingly, in that list of seasons of our feeling inn Ecclesiastes 3, it doesn’t explicitly talk about a time of joy.

We find in the bible we get a much deeper understanding of joy.

Today, as we enter the third Sunday in advent, we’re going to explore this idea of joy.

You might recall, advent is all about the coming of Jesus into this world - and so, the big idea for this message, is that as Jesus comes into this world, our hearts are filled with joy.

John the Baptist

Well, let’s introduce the character of John the Baptist.

He’s actually someone who features in the advent period, because this was the man that effectively prepared the way for the first coming of Jesus.

In Luke’s gospel, it is actually John the Baptist’s birth story that features before that of Jesus.

Let me tell it really briefly… His parents were Zechariah, who was a priest, and Elizabeth. They hadn’t been able to have kids, and because they were a bit on the older side, they assumed this hope had passed. But when Zechariah went into the most holy place in the temple, God reveals they are going to have a son, and, what do you know? A short time later, Elizabeth is pregnant.

We then get this precious little moment when her relative, Mary, comes along, who also happens to be pregnant - of course, Mary’s pregnancy is by far the more famous pregnancy - but at the first visit, the unborn baby gives a little jump for joy.

So John the Baptist is born, and we next meet him when he’s living out in the wilderness near the River Jordan. Actually, he’s got this whole wild vibe thing happening. He wears camel’s hair, has a leather belt round his waist, and eats locusts and wild honey.

He’s taken the role of preparing people for the coming of Jesus. He’s preaching a message of repentance, and he’s taking people into the Jordan River to baptise them.

We then get another amazing encounter when Jesus comes by while he is preaching - and despite Jesus being the only sinless human, he has John baptise him.

But it’s not this moment I want to focus on today.

You see, some time passes after this, and things don’t go great for John.

When we come to Matthew 11, which we read a little earlier, we get this little side comment telling us that John is in prison.

Now Matthew doesn’t elaborate on this much, but if you flick over to Mark 6, we hear some of the story.

We’re told that King Herod had arrested John because John had spoken out against King Herod because he’d married his brother’s wife.

Herodias, who was the woman in question - that is, she started out as the wife of Herod’s brother and then became the wife of Herod… well, we’re told she holds a huge grudge and wants John the Baptist dead, but Herod’s afraid to kill him because… well, let’s just say he’s aware of his connections with God.

Now, the story will go on and John the Baptist will end up dead at the hands of King Herod, but for now I want to narrow in on this time when John’s in prison, because this is where we find ourselves in the passage in Matthew 11.

You see, the point I want you to see is that John’s situation is real nightmare.

Things are not good. He’s done everything God wanted him to do, and his reward is to end up locked up, no freedom, with the king’s wife wanting nothing more than to see him dead.

If we’re talking joy today, this is like the extreme opposite of a joy making situation.

Now, John’s got some of his own disciples - people that have followed him around… people that have kept contact with John even while he is locked up in prison.

And he’s obviously having some conversations with these disciples, and it would seem some doubt has crept in. Has he completely messed up?

You see, John was one of the first people to declare Jesus as the Messiah. The Jewish people have long been waiting for an annointed one who would come and save them. A messiah that the prophets had spoken about John the Baptist, right from the early point in the ministry of Jesus said - that is him. Jesus is the Messiah.

But if Jesus is the Messiah, why has everything gone so bad for John?

Well, John asks his disciples to go to Jesus with a “please explain?”

The question is this: “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Change is happening

Well, this question does reach Jesus, so let’s listen to the answer he gives...

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

You know, I think there is a sense in what Jesus is saying is: John, don’t think that just because your situation is looking poor, don’t think that things have stalled.

Jesus is saying: I’m making things happen. Change is happening… you just need to open your eyes.

Sometimes it can be very easy to sit in our own misery, not recognising all of the good things God is doing.

We tend to form a narrative in our life and we interpret everything that happens according to that narrative. For example, the narrative might be - bad things always happen to me. And you know what, it’s possible that you might even be able to put together a pretty convincing argument that that is the case.

The next bad thing happens and you go - see, I told you.

The problem is, a whole bunch of good things happen, but because you have this dominant narrative about bad things happening, they get lost.

Now, I’m not talking about the power of positive thinking. This is not about thinking happy thoughts in order to make things happen.

What I’m saying is that God is already doing good things in your life, you need to take the time to see it.

Start making a list. And if you’re struggling, you can start small - thank you God for placing the beautiful flowers in the garden that brighten my day.

And then you might start seeing bigger things - thank you God for a restored relationship. Thank you that you gave me the strength to get through the day.

We then see even bigger things - thank you for healing. Thank you that an addiction could be broken.

Now, I just want to add something here - sometimes changing your thinking habits is really hard. When there are mental health struggles, it can be even harder. Sometimes we might need to seek extra help. And let me just say, seeking help from a health professional in the case of mental illness, is not a sign of a lack of faith - it is rather a wise use of the resource we have available.

The point I want to make is that the power of Jesus is alive and active, and if you care to look, amazing things are happening all around us.

You know, at the start of advent, we talked about the ultimate future hope that we have in Jesus coming. Well, that future hope still stands, but the amazing thing is, Jesus has already come, he has already been making things better, and he continues to do so.

Yes, suffering will still happen, and it will be hard when we are the one bearing the brunt of it. That’s because God has allowed it for a time. But we can see him actively moving against it, even today.

Looking deeper

Now, on one level with the response Jesus has just given back to John, you can read it in terms of just the life changing miracles that happen. Blind people receiving sight. The people who couldn’t use their legs, are given full ability. Even people who have died are being brought back to life.

These life changing miracles were literally happening, and still do today.

But I want to dig just a little bit deeper with this list of occurrences that Jesus is pointing out. You see, these changes are happening on a spiritual level.

Let’s start with the blind receiving sight. There is a spiritual blindness that so many of us suffer from. Physically, our eyes might have perfect vision, but yet we fail to see what God is doing.

As the kingdom of God grows throughout our world, we’re seeing people become aware of what Jesus is doing.

We might not be physically lame, but yet we become so busy with the stuff in our lives, that we stop having the feet that are ready to bring the good news to the world. Jesus is making our feet ready again.

We might not have leprosy, but yet we are crippled with a spiritual disease. Jesus cleanses us so we are clean again.

And though we might not be physically dead, we look around our community, and for so many people there is a lifelessness. Jesus is bringing people back to life.

Have you ever thought… eternal life with God does not start when Jesus returns. Eternal life with God starts when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. That’s why we call it being born again.

The most amazing part of all of this is that when we think about this from this spiritual sense, it actually doesn’t matter what your physical circunstances are, because nothing in this world can take this truth away.

If you’ve received spiritual sight, it doesn’t matter if you go blind. If you have been washed clean by Jesus, it doesn’t matter what illness you face. And when you have been born again, not even death is considered defeat for us.

Once we look at this deeper level, we really start to understand how no matter what your circumstances, once you allow Jesus into your life, you are blessed.

We are blessed in being able to know the truth. We are blessed in having experienced life as it’s meant to be experienced. We are blessed in knowing that there is no condemnation.

Isaiah’s joy

So let me take you back to the prophet Isaiah, because he really has a great way with words.

Isaiah was prophesying before the time of Jesus, but God gave him the ability to see what things will be like when Jesus comes.

In Isaiah 35 starts with a desert and parched land, and somehow turns it into a thing of joy.

It starts parched, but then it burst forth with life.

From verse 5, we see some of the same idea Jesus talked about in his answer to John, but here in Isaiah, there this joy that springs from it. The lame don’t just walk, they leap like a deer. The mute don’t just speak, they shout for joy.

Things that seemed dead and not just alive, they’re bubbling away.

People are rescued, and they enter Zion with singing. Their crown is described as everlasting joy.

I love the last few words of Isaiah 35. It says, “gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away”.

While in a sense, we will only fully know this kind of joy after Jesus returns, but I want to suggest that ever since Jesus came the first time, this is already beginning to happen.

We already can have this everlasting joy crown our head.

We have it, because Jesus is with us.

Application

So what does all of this mean in practice for us?

As I said at the beginning, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have sorrow. There are struggles in this world, and I don’t want to minimise how tough they can be.

But in the midst of those tough situations we find Jesus.

Sometimes it is only in hindsight that we see it.

Many of you will know the poem called “footprints”.

The poem imagines someone walking along a beach and there are two sets of footprints. One belongs to the walker, the other belongs to Jesus. But when the walker looks back at the footprints, they notice that at times, there are only one set of prints. They then realise that it was in the toughest part of the journey that their are only one set of prints and so they make the assumption that Jesus abandoned them in their hardest moments.

The punchline of the poem is that Jesus then says to the walker, no, I didn’t abandon you, there is only one set of prints because it was in these moments that I carried you.

The truth is, while we might not always feel it, Jesus is with us.

This is the source of our joy.

But what we need to realise is the joy that results is so deep, it’s almost unrecognisale from the superficial joy that we usually like to run after.

This is the joy that is found in having new life.

It’s the joy that comes from having the hope that only Christainity can offer.

It’s a joy that we can actually cultivate in our lives as we focus on Jesus.

Conclusion

We’re getting very close to Christmas now. And for many, Christmas is associated with joy and happy memories. But for others, Christmas can be hard, particularly if it’s the first Christmas after the loss of a loved one.

But the joy of Christmas is not in receiving presents or having a lovely lunch with family - as great as those things are. Rather the joy we have is the joy in knowing that Jesus is alive and active in our world and he is bringing things to life.

The joy we find with Jesus is a joy that cannot be distinguished by anything of this world.

Let me pray...