Experiencing Joy like the Angels
Living the Christmas Story • Sermon • Submitted
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· 31 viewsWe can have JOY just like the Angels had in this description of the Christ Child
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What is this thing called Joy?
What is this thing called Joy?
Perhaps you have already received a card with that word on it. Perhaps you have heard a song about it. Maybe you have in imprinted on one of your ornaments or some other festive decoration.
It is but one word that is mentioned one time in the Christmas Story.
Listen to this passage from
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
Luke 2:
Did you catch that word used only one time?
Joy.
What is this thing called Joy?
Webster’s says in its noun form, it is the “emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying.”
The angel said, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great JOY, which is to all people.”
Did you hear that? The good tidings of great JOY is for all people. That means that you and I can have this same JOY that this angel described and that a multitude of other angels joined in with the one in celebrating the birth of Christ.
Let’s look at this JOY the angels proclaim.
First, we have JOY DESIGNED.
Joy Designed
Joy Designed
Joy was designed by God Himself when He chose to reveal Himself to us.
God takes the initiative to reveal Himself to us in many ways. He chooses to do so that He might create a people for Himself. God’s desire is to have fellowship with you and me. He tells us Who He is: that He is loving and shows Himself to us in ways that we can understand. You see, God is so great and mighty that we cannot understand all that there is about Him.
God takes the initiative to reveal Himself to us in many ways. He chooses to do so that He might create a people for Himself. God’s desire is to have fellowship with you and me. He tells us Who He is: that He is loving and shows Himself to us in ways that we can understand. You see, God is so great and mighty that we cannot understand all that there is about Him.
However, He reveals Himself to us in ways to that help us understand why we are chosen by Him as His creation. He is gracious, purposeful, redemptive, as well as the Author of Life and Hope. In showing this to us, He wants us to develop characteristics like His. He wants us to be loving, hopeful, and a people of grace. He wants our soul to be united with Him and to be give us salvation from our sins. Therefore, He has provided for us the Christ child, the Savior, so that through Him our sinful selves can be united, atoned for and redeemed to a Holy God.
One great theologian put it this way: “The first link between soul and Christ is not my goodness but my badness, not my merit but my misery, not my standing but my falling, not my riches but my need.
You see, you and I as well as all mankind have a problem in that we are not good enough to be associated with a Holy God. My badness, my misery, my falling and my need are far greater than my goodness, my merit , my standing and my riches.
Sure there are things we can do to accomplish great things in each of these areas, but the sum total of all our best efforts will still fall short of a Holy God! We are condemned because of our shortcomings.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Now we are not sure that this was the same angel speaking to the shepherds that had spoken to Mary in person and to Joseph in his dream. But the message was sure the same:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Joy was designed because of our great need. Our great need has been met, and that is cause for great joy! Do you realize what this means? It means that you and I have been given the opportunity of a lifetime! What we are doing on this earth is just practice for eternity.
We strive in this life to make something of ourselves, perhaps with things we can buy or taste or see or do. All of these things will only satisfy us temporarily if at all. We need to satisfy our souls with the way that God has designed them to be satisfied.
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
We are a stubborn people!
Many of us have done what what Jeremiah described in
This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
What a sad verse this is, yet so many of us make it the theme of our lives: we choose not to walk in the path that God has designed for us.
God has designed JOY for you and me in order that we can be all we can be for the glory of God!
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
Psalm 23:
That is what the angels knew! They knew that the glad tidings of great joy they spoke of meant that you and me could be be restored, guided and directed down “paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
In this season, we can have this same joy!
Not only has this Joy been determined, this Joy has been delivered!
Joy Delivered
Joy Delivered
A birth announcement is a glorious thing. Perhaps when your child was born, you sent out an embossed card outlining all the details about the date of birth, the size of the baby, the place of the birth and the announcement of the child’s name. I texted my mom this week to ask her about my birth announcement. “On July 23, 1962, coming in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 21” long, born in Winston Salem, North Carolina, here is Mitchell Lee Marlowe!”
My mother was quick also to say that I was the smallest of her four children, but look at me now!
By the way, isn’t funny when we die, we make a similar announcement but leave out some of the details?
“On such and such date in Boone, North Carolina, Mitchell Lee Marlowe died. He was 6’6’’ tall and weighed too much! Boy did he ever grow passed that little size from birth.”
On such and such date in Boone, North Carolina, Mitchell Lee Marlowe died. He was 6’6’’ tall and weighed too much! Boy did he ever grow passed that little size from birth.”
In the birth announcement of Jesus, we don’t get the length and pounds, but we do get the announcement of the day, place and the name. But do you see what else we get in this birth announcement? We get His name, His purpose, and we get the results which are Glory to God, Peace on Earth and the favor of God!
The result is JOY DELIVERED!
These angels knew what this meant and as a result, they expressed great joy!
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
Luke
How many is in a great company?
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.
It’s a big deal when this announcement of Joy is delivered. Can you imagine the chorus that shouted and perhaps sang “Glory to God in the highest and Peace on Earth with whom His favor rests.”
Joy was designed.
Joy was delivered.
Joy was determined.
Joy Determined
Joy Determined
When something is determined, there is set outcome, a set plan if you will, that takes place.
When the Joy Designed becomes Joy Delivered, there is Joy Determined.
We see that outcome at the conclusion of this Angelic Birth Announcement:
Glory To God in the highest! What does this mean? It means that there is nothing higher, nothing greater, nothing more important than God. No if’s, and’s, and but’s. He is the ultimate authority. It is the necessary preliminary to real peace on earth.
To whom, then, will you compare God?
What image will you compare him to?
As for an idol, a craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and fashions silver chains for it.
A man too poor to present such an offering
selects wood that will not rot.
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not topple.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
No sooner are they planted,
no sooner are they sown,
no sooner do they take root in the ground,
than he blows on them and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
“To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.
Now you have gone off because you longed to return to your father’s house. But why did you steal my gods?”
Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid, because I thought you would take your daughters away from me by force. But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself whether there is anything of yours here with me; and if so, take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah’s tent, he entered Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.
Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.
Genesis 31:
Isaiah
Glory to God in the Highest!
Joy is determined!
If we can say Glory to God in the Highest, then we can say, “He is in charge, He is control, His way will be my way, and then we can say PEACE will reign.
Only God can give you and me peace.
The Stoic Philosopher Epictetus stated that “while the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief, and envy. He cannot give peace of heart for which man yearns more than ever for outward peace.”
You see, if God is at peace, then all peace results from it!
We have peace with God. We have peace with angels. We have peace with mankind.
This all results from Christ leaving His throne in Heaven and becoming flesh!
This should give you JOY!
“We will never know the fullness of the Joy that Jesus brings to the soul, unless under the power of the Holy Spirit, we take the Lord our Master to be our all in all, and make Him the fountain of our delight! He is my Savior, my Christ, and my Lord. Let this be our loudest boast. Then we will know the joy the angel’s song predicts for people.” Alistair Begg
Joy is designed, Joy is delivered, and Joy is determined.
The angels had a great joy as a result. You can too!
