Christmas 2020: Joy
Notes
Transcript
Today’s theme is Joy.
The questions we want to consider are:
What is Joy?
How can we have joy?
How does Christmas help us to find joy?
The passage for today is Luke 1:57-80.
Let’s read the passage together.
When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah,
but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”
They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”
Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child.
He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.”
Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.
All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things.
Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.
His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.
The birth of John the Baptist, and then when Zechariah was finally able to talk again were occasions of joy!
Today, we are focusing on Joy. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, isn’t it?
Wasn’t it the angels who said on the occasion of Jesus’ birth:
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.
If Christmas is a cause of joy, why don’t we have it?
Today, we want to see what God says about joy, what it is, how we can have it, and how Christmas helps us to find it.
Let’s Pray first and ask the Lord to teach us.
What is Joy?
What is Joy?
Is Joy the same as happiness? Happiness is an emotion that we experience in good times.
Joy, too, can be experienced in good times, like on the occasion of the birth of a child, like when John the Baptist was born.
When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
That is understandable isn’t it? They were experiencing a good time, the birth of a long-awaited child! They were getting what they had wanted for so long. No wonder they had joy, right?
We are robbed of joy by misunderstanding what True, Biblical Joy is.
We are robbed of joy by misunderstanding what True, Biblical Joy is.
When we look at joy as being based upon things going well in life, we are robbed of Joy.
If we define joy as being based upon good circumstances, we can understand why people do not have joy in their lives. There are good times in life, and too often we forget them. Why? Because life in this broken world full of sinful, selfish people is full of pain.
There is a famous quote, “Life is pain highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
This is what robs us of joy. We misunderstand what joy is. When we think of joy as coming from pleasant circumstances, as does happiness, we lose joy when troubles come. And troubles certainly come, do they not?
If you are not directly experiencing troubles, someone you know is. Their pain can rob you of joy when joy is seen as coming from good times, good circumstances.
True, biblical joy is not based upon good circumstances
True, biblical joy is not based upon good circumstances
In the scriptures we often see people who are joyful and rejoicing in both good, pleasing circumstances, and in difficult circumstances. Paul spoke of the Thessalonians this way:
You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus, after telling his disciples how the world will hate them and persecute them , prays this way:
“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
Jesus Himself experienced joy, while suffering the death on the cross:
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Paul experienced the joy for which Jesus prayed, and of which he gave an example:
I have spoken to you with great frankness; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.
An example of this is in Psidian Antioch where:
But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.
So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium.
And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
And also in Philippi, where after having been beaten, whipped and imprisoned:
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
True Joy and Rejoicing in the scriptures is not based on present circumstances. It may be related to present circumstances, but it is not based on present circumstances. For example, the birth of the baby was a joyful circumstance. Zechariah and Elizabeth knew joy.
However, the Thessalonians were experiencing severe suffering, and they knew joy. Jesus suffered and knew joy. Paul suffered and knew joy.
All of this joy was in the midst of suffering.
So, true, biblical joy then is not based on external circumstances. Joy is internal, and based on something else.
Joy is based on the Lord, His deliverance, His mercy, His kindness, His promises, His hope and His peace.
One definition of joy I found is this:
Joy is the sense or state of gladness or elation that people experience through their relationship with God and through good things in their lives.
When we understand what True, Biblical Joy is, we will no longer be looking for the pleasant circumstances to lift us up. We will look to the Lord to lift us up! We will look to our relationship with Him, and His blessings. As we focus on Him, we will experience joy, often despite our circumstances.
Joy, the sense of delight experienced through a relationship with the Lord, what He has done, is doing, and will do.
Joy, the sense of delight experienced through a relationship with the Lord, what He has done, is doing, and will do.
I would simplify the definition this way.
Once we know the proper definition of Joy, it helps us to know how we can experience true, biblical joy.
Rather than looking at our present circumstances, we will begin focusing on the Lord to find joy.
I believe that we can see this in the passage today.
How can we find Joy?
How can we find Joy?
I think in this passage we
Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
See God’s mercy in the good times
See God’s mercy in the good times
Elizabeth and Zechariah had true joy not just because they had a baby. They had true joy because they knew this baby was from the Lord.
They named him John, or in Hebrew Yohanan. The meaning of the name is Yahweh has given, or Yahweh has been gracious.
They knew that this child was directly a gift from God. They saw the good times as God’s mercy and grace on them.
To know true Joy, we need to learn to see the good times in our lives as direct gifts from the Lord. They are examples of God’s mercy upon us!
The next way to experience joy that I see in the passage for today, and other scriptures is this:
His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
Be filled with the Spirit
Be filled with the Spirit
Being filled with the Spirit means to be yielded to, listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit.
As we listen and yield to what the Spirit wants, we will be filled with Joy.
Joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Other scriptures as well speak of the need for obedience.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Jesus let us know that when we remain in his love, and obey his commands, we will have His joy in us. He even goes so far as to say our joy will be complete or full.
When we suffer, if we continue to walk with the Lord, we can know the joy of being in a right relationship with our Father. Then, no matter what else is happening, we can have joy in Him.
As we saw in Psalm 32, if we are walking in sin, or unconfessed sin, it robs us of joy. Our relationship with the Lord is broken. We need to walk with the Lord in obedience. Then, in the midst of suffering we can still have joy, knowing we are right with Him!
Job experienced this.
Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.
Zechariah was unable to talk because of his unbelief.
Once he obeyed, and said to name the child John, giving testimony to God’s Grace, he was filled with the Spirit, and he rejoiced in the Lord!
Obedience and being filled with the Spirit leads to Joy, even if there is suffering. That is why Job, Jesus, Paul and so many others could rejoice in suffering. They were filled with the Spirit, yielding and walking in obedience to the Lord.
Zechariah’s rejoicing shows us another way to know joy.
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
See God’s deliverance
See God’s deliverance
God’s people have often rejoiced with God delivered them. We see the Israelites rejoicing when they are led out of Egypt. We see them rejoicing everytime God gives them victory.
But God’s deliverance is not just about temporal victories. God’s deliverance is what He is doing for us for eternity.
This is why John’s birth, and Jesus’ coming were both reasons for rejoicing! God was at working redeeming sinful people for eternity!
This is why there is rejoicing in Heaven over sinners coming to faith.
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.
God delivering us from the just punishment of our sin through Jesus is a true cause for rejoicing! We need to remember what He has done for us, and rejoice in that.
And it doesn’t stop there. God is delivering us from the power of sin in our lives. We are not perfect, yet, while in these bodies in this world. We still struggle with sin. However, God is using suffering to purify us and to break us free from the power of sin in our lives.
This is why Paul wrote this way in Romans 5:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
The suffering we go through helps us to learn perseverance. Perseverance is holding onto the Lord through the trials of life. We endure the difficulties knowing that He is with us, He is for us, and He is at work! The same truths that we saw were essential for Hope and Peace are true for joy as well!
As we persevere, holding on to the Lord, we will develop godly character. That godly character produces hope. As we see obedience growing in our lives, we will have hope, as did Job.
James wrote about it this way.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Persevering makes us grow up in the Lord. It makes us mature.
As we hold onto the Lord, knowing that He is in charge, He has a plan, He is at work, He is teaching us obedience, we will find joy!
And we will know the joy of our coming ultimate deliverance.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
We will someday be with our Lord and receive the crowns He has promised, the righteousness He has promised, we will finally be like Him, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more struggle with sin!
That is something to rejoice over.
The trials of this world are tools helping us to be conformed to His image.
Like iron that is heated and hammered to become beautiful, useful instruments, God is going to use the heat, the hammering of our sufferings to shape us into His image!
Joy comes with a proper focus, and drawing near
Joy comes with a proper focus, and drawing near
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.