Christmas Joy

It’s Not Always The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

The Christmas season can be a difficult time for many people. Some of you have lost loved ones this year and this will be your first Christmas without them. Others of you have lost loved ones in the past, and Christmas has never been the same. It has been one years since my family lost my 30 year old cousin. I know my aunt and uncle are hurting, and so is his ten year old daughter.

For others of you, it’s the sorrow of someone else who you are hurting for right now. It’s one thing for you to struggle. It s another thing to see someone you love struggle with no relief in sight.

Depression is a dark cloud that hovers around many of you during this season. It can feel thick and unwavering with despair. Despair robs your heart of hope so much so that you believe only death will give you the rest your mind longs to have. It is no myth that suicide rates jump this time of year. If that describes how some of you are feeling right now, I’m really sorry you are hurting. We live in a broken world where sorrow has its place, and sorrow has the ability to rob you of your joy. Frankly, it is not always the most wonderful time of year for some of you. Take heart. God kept his promise to ensure you that your joy, if it is rooted in the right place, can never be taken from you.

Christmas Joy Is Not Seasonal

Great Joy surrounds Christmas in the bible. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus the Christ. Everywhere Jesus goes joy seems to follow him in and around his birth. Before he was born, even in the womb, he was spreading His joy.

Mary came to visit Elizabeth. She was pregnant with Jesus and Elizabeth with John. When Mary shows up to Elizabeth’s house she says

Luke 1:44 HCSB

For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me!

When Jesus is born, angels show up to shepherds and say,

Luke 2:10–11 HCSB

But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David.

After the shepherds visit Mary and spend time with Jesus,

Luke 2:20 ESV

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Wise men from the east come to worship the new born King. When they find the star that leads them to the Messiah

Matthew 2:10 HCSB

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed beyond measure.

When Simeon the prophet got to hold Jesus in his arms as a baby

Luke 2:28–32 HCSB

Simeon took Him up in his arms, praised God, and said: Now, Master, You can dismiss Your slave in peace, as You promised. For my eyes have seen Your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples— a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Your people Israel.

Christmas joy is not about a season of the year. Christmas joy is about a person, Jesus the Christ.

Jesus is God’s joy to the world and his birth brings God’s joy into the world.

The birth of Christ is the beginning of the end of death. In 33 years, Jesus would move from the manger to the grave. He would die on a cross as a perfect sacrifice for God’s people. On the cross it would appear that death had prevailed and it would make Christmas for Mary and his disciples a time of sorrow; the kind of sorrow many of experience this time of year. That would be true had he stayed in the grave. After three days of death, Jesus rose from the dead defeating the grave once and for all. After the resurrection of Jesus, Christmas would never be the same. His victory over death would be given to all who love him and embrace him by faith ensuring eternal joy.

If your joy is in the Christmas season, then it will come and go as seasons come and go, but if your joy is in the person of Christmas, in Jesus, then your joy will always remain.

Even though life’s fragility threatens your joy, Jesus’ resurrection ensures your joy will never be taken from you.

Life’s Fragility Threatens Your Joy (John 16:16-21)

Life is fragile. In a single moment, it can change course causing you to leave the road. In my experience, you do not get a warning that the turn is coming. The turn comes and you brace for impact.

In John 16:16-21, however, the disciples are getting a turn signal that life is about to change course. In verse 16, Jesus, rather ambiguously, tells them that a time is coming where they will not see him. However, in a short period of time they will see him again.

In the following verses, the disciples are confused by what Jesus is saying. What does Jesus mean that they will not see him? They have spent the last three years doing life together. Jesus had to get up in the wee hours of the morning just to get some time to pray to the Father by himself. Otherwise, he spent just about every waking moment with his disciples. How is it that they will not see him? Where will he go? What will happen to him? What about us? What about the mission?

Jesus has to clarify for them what is coming. He tells them

John 16:19–21 HCSB

Jesus knew they wanted to question Him, so He said to them, “Are you asking one another about what I said, ‘A little while and you will not see Me; again a little while and you will see Me’? “I assure you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. When a woman is in labor she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.

Wait. What? Weep? Wail? What is this about a woman giving birth. Can you feel their anxiety growing? Life’s chaotic turns does that to a person. Confusion. Anxiety because of uncertainty. The prospect of weeping and wailing. That sounds like gut-wrenching grief. The kind of grief witnessed at grave sites of a lost love. When Jesu says “a little while” he is speaking of the night before his death. The disciples have no idea that in a matter of hours Jesus was going to be delivered up to a violent death. His hour had come. The Messiah, the Son of God, the world’s Christmas joy, was about to be crucified on a cross. His court proceedings will be a sham. Pilate will cower. Jesus will be beaten and flogged and nailed to a cross with criminals. He will be rejected and despised by all of Jerusalem. He will die, and His disciples will feel like they have been left to the slaughter.

Jesus explains that his departure is going to be in such a way they will weep and wail. Grief will reach deep into their hearts and cause their body to convulse. What they will see and experience will shake their faith and tear apart everything they had built up over the last three years.

The world is going to rejoice at Jesus leaving this world. The Jews will believe they are doing God’s will. They will be zealous t rid the world of this heretic who is up-heaving the Jewish faith and turning over the temple. And everyone who was associated with Jesus will be put on notice.

The whole experience of what is about to happen to them, Jesus says, is like a woman who goes into labor. While she is in labor, the pain is real. The striving is real. The reality that her or the baby may not make it is real. Life and death teeter in the balance while she labors through the birth. But her suffering will pay off. When the child arrives, her joy of the child outweighs the suffering she endured. That is what the next few days are going to be like for you disciples of Jesus.

Do you see the fragility of life’s joy? Do you see how quickly joy can turn to sorrow? The disciples world was about to be turned upside down and inside out. It was going to cause confusion, fear, sadness, uncertainty about the future, and a stretch of their faith so thin that even Peter fails to hold fast. Jesus says, in 24 hours, your joy will be taken from you momentarily.

Jesus cautions us to not cling to the things of this world. He says

Matthew 6:19 HCSB

“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

The things of the world are prone to be taken from you. It is what we live with in a broken world under the curse of sin. You invest all of your retirement savings into a business at the beginning of 2020, only to have COVID 19 hit you in March. Your doors close by August with all of your money lost.

You eat right and workout regularly. You take your supplements and vitamins and drink plenty of water, only to have a virus attack your heart and give you chronic fatigue and paralysis on your left side of your body. Your youth is robbed of you.

It’s been so hard to get pregnant. You’ve done everything humanly possible but to no avail. You decide to adopt. You meet a young lady who feels overwhelmed by motherhood. She has made the decision to give her child to you. You plan. You paint. You show up in her hour to deliver and see your new baby, only to have the new mother decide to keep her child.

Everyone of you has a story of how fragile your joy can be in this life. It can turn to sorrow in the blink of an eye. It did for the disciples, and it does for you. How does Jesus repsond to life’s fragility?

Jesus makes an astounding claim to his disciples. He says

John 16:22 HCSB

So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy.

The sorrow will be brought on by Jesus’ death. But then he says, “I will see you again.” That is, I will come back from the dead. I will rise and conquer death. And when I conquer death you will have joy once again because you will see me. After his resurrection, he came to them in a room

John 20:20 HCSB

Having said this, He showed them His hands and His side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Now your joy will no longer be fragile. It will be rock solid. Your joy will never be taken from you. Your joy will be everlasting joy. How?

Jesus’ Resurrection Ensures Everlasting Joy (John 16:22-23)

There are three ways Jesus’s Resurrection ensures your everlasting joy.

Jesus resurrection is final, therefore, your joy is final.

Because Jesus arose from the dead he can never die again. He defeated death once and for all. Jesus alludes to this when he tells His disciples, “ I will see you and your joy will not be taken from you.” No one can rob you of your joy if it is in Jesus because the resurrected Jesus can never die.

Hear Jesus's words in

Revelation 1:17–18 HCSB

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Paul says in

Romans 6:9 HCSB

because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is also promised to you to you. When you place your faith in Jesus, you are promised victory over death by resurrection

“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven… For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality… then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49, 53-57).”

Jesus resurrection ensured that we can be forgiven for our sin and made perfect before God with his righteousness. He made sure you will never loose God’s favor with His resurrection.

Romans 4:25 HCSB

He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

When you give your life to Jesus, he gives his life to you for all eternity. Now your joy is final. Your joy can never be taken from you. Jesus says

John 11:25–26 HCSB

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?”

the joy of Christmas is not in a season of the year. It is in the resurrected Jesus who can never be taken away by death again. He has promised to those who trust him the same resurrection. Because he cannot die, you cannot die in the second death, and therefore your joy can never die.

Jesus’ resurrection is freeing, therefore, your joy is free to be enjoyed now.

The resurrection provides you with the power to live a joy-filled life now. Once again Paul says

Romans 6:4 HCSB

Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life.

The new way of life for you in Christ is bearing the fruit of God (Romans 7:4) and living a Spirit-empowered life (Romans 8:11). Paul says in

Ephesians 2:4–7 HCSB

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

You are free from the slavery of sin. You have been made alive by the mercy of God to walk in a new abundant life filled with God’s joy over you. The resurrection guaranteed life over death. His ascension guaranteed His Spirit would come to live inside of you, to empower your joy in this life.

Jesus says

John 10:10 HCSB

A thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.

This word “abundant” in the Greek is perisson, meaning “exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, a quantity so abundant as to be considerably more than what one would expect or anticipate.” It reminds me of what Paul says in

1 Corinthians 2:9 HCSB

But as it is written: What eye did not see and ear did not hear, and what never entered the human mind— God prepared this for those who love Him.

Abundant life is not health, wealth, and prosperity. That is an empty well. All of that can be taken from you in a hot second. Joy in those things is fragile joy. Jesus says

John 17:3 HCSB

This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent —Jesus Christ.

Abundant life begins with Jesus and his promises. Jesu promises to give you rest from your anxieties over this life (Matthew 6:33-34). He promises to give your heart rest with the Father, securing your salvation and giving you total access to the Father all the time.

John 16:23–24 HCSB

In that day you will not ask Me anything. “I assure you: Anything you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

Jesus paved the way for you to be able to come into the presence of the Father and have his favor. You ask by the authority of Jesus’s name, and if the Father hears you and responds for your good. You always have the Father because of Jesus. If you have the Father, you have life. And Paul says of the Father

Romans 8:32 HCSB

He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?

Jesus’s resurrection ensured his Spirit and access to the Father. You have both now and forever. Your joy is final and free. You are free to live in your joy now.

His resurrection is forever.

Jesus's resurrection ensured your will have eternal life with him.

John 3:16 HCSB

“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Paul says

1 Corinthians 6:14 HCSB

God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.

Peter says to you who put your hope in Christ

1 Peter 1:3–4 HCSB

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

You have a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus has given his kingdom. You have an imperishable, uncorrupted, unfading inheritance waiting for you in heaven. Moth and rust and thieves cannot take your inheritance from you. it is safe and secure in the resurrected Jesus. Your joy is final. Your joy is freeing. Your joy is forever. Your joy is in the resurrected Jesus.

I know this time can be difficult for many of you. As long as we teary in this world sorrow will have its place our joy will be tested. If you your joy is in the things of this world, health, wealth, and prosperity, then your joy will be seasonal. It will come and go leaving you disheartened. If your joy is in the resurrected Jesus, then your joy can never be taken from you. Even through tears of suffering and trial and tribulation, Jesus has ensured your joy remains steadfast in the face of opposition with his resurrection.

Even though life’s fragility threatens your joy, Jesus’ resurrection ensures your joy will never be taken from you.