Advent Brings: Joy

I’ve enjoyed studying for these Advent sermons this year. We have been working diligently through Matthew verse by verse, and we will continue to do so in the new year, so it has been good to take a short break and do some more topical study.

Our Advent themes, of course, are hope, love, joy, peace, and Christ. Christ is at the center of all these, of course, and our experience of all these good things come to us because of Christ’s advent.

We have seen hope, the hope of expectation and waiting. Waiting for the promised Messiah, waiting for the curse to be eradicated, waiting for deliverance. Christ brought great hope to the people who believed on Him in His day, and He does just the same now.

Love, we saw last week, is from God, and God is love. The greatest demonstration of God’s faithful, benevolent love is in the coming of His Son, Jesus Christ. Love gives us life, and gives us cleansing from our sin - the very sin that caused the rift and separation between us and God in the first place. That very rift is bridged and healed by the Advent of Christ. Advent brings Jesus, so advent brings love, because God is love, and Jesus is God.

That brings us, of course, to Joy. Joy is a great Christmas theme. We have sung this morning “Joy To The World.” We have sung “Praise the Lord, Praise The Lord, let the people rejoice.” We have read, from Luke 2 already, with the announcement of Jesus’ birth to the Shepherds. An announcement, that would have started as fearful - seeing an angel of God and the glory which accompanied him would startle anyone, especially lowly and unassuming shepherds simply doing their nights work.

Luke 2:10–11 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. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

The reason, of course, that it was good news of great joy, is this: unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

The Messiah and Lord - redeemer and ruler - king and deliverer - God and the God-Man - was born that day in Bethlehem. That is what brought good news of great joy. Good News of Great Joy, and why? Because A Savior, Christ the Lord, was born that day. That news brought joy then, and that new brings us joy now as well!

Joy in deliverance, joy in salvation, joy peace, joy in comfort, joy in redemption, joy in righteousness. Everything that Christ brought was with joy, and for joy. So what is joy?

Well, simply put, joy is the experience of great delight, or happiness. Now there are a lot of ways to think about joy. The long used J.O.Y. Jesus, Others, Yourself, is a good pattern for how to think about life, but it doesn’t really define joy.

We can try to compare and contrast joy and happiness, maybe we say happiness is an emotion while joy is above the emotions. But often we get into semantics when we talk about these things. Our definition of joy might be the same as someone else’s definition of happiness, so we may just talk past one another.

When the Bible speaks of joy, it seems to refer to experience and action more than just feeling. For instance, we are told to “rejoice.” There is a sense in which we can choose joy, live out joy. In my study this week, I read one language tool which said many languages don’t have a word for joy that is different than happiness, but in stead they express the idea of joy in idioms - “my heart is dancing” or “my heart shouts.”

And maybe that is a good way to look at it. The kind of joy and rejoicing that comes with Advent is more than just a little shot in the arm of emotion, more than just a state of mind - it is also a state of being and an action. We are joyful, and we can and do rejoice because of what Christ has done!

Because of Christ, Because of Advent, my heart can sing and shout! My heart can dance within me. He has brought, secured, and promised true joy!

We will look at joy in three different little facets for a few minutes this morning. We will see joy as an inner experience, we will see joy as a pursuit, and we will see joy as an action and a response.

We will see joy as enduring, we will see it as present, and we will see it as future.

We will see joy being brought to us, being modeled for us, and promised to us.

The coming of Jesus brought good news of great Joy. Joy is to know and experience pure delight; and full, enduring, and eternal joy can be had because of Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus Brings Fullness of Joy

When I picture Christ from the scriptures, I picture, of course, a righteous man, but I picture a man with a lot of joy. A man whose heart was full, who was continually satisfied and delighting in His Father and the work His Father sent Him to do. That is not to say Jesus’ never experienced times where, emotionally, he was downtrodden or less-than-joyful. Certainly, he wept when Lazarus died. He mourned for the wayward children of Jerusalem. He grieved to the point of sweating out great drops of blood in the garden before his arrest.

Isaiah 53 says he is a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and “surely he has born our grief.”

Yet, at the end of that great prophetic chapter, it also says of Him that “out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.” That is, Jesus always had a joy and satisfaction in looking to the purpose of His coming. There was a true joy, a full joy, and that is the kind of joy that He desired and desires His followers to carry with them also.

John 15:11 ESV

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

That is great statement - he has spoken these things so that his joy might be in us, and that our joy might be full. So we can say, Jesus desires that we would have full joy, the kind of joy that He has. But what exactly is he speaking about here? When he says, “these things have I spoken so that my joy might be in you...” what are “these things?”

Well, if you know John 15, you know that the first section, the first 11 verses, are all about abiding in Christ, or remaining in Christ. He uses analogy from the world of agriculture, the prevailing agriculture of that place and time being grapes and vineyards.

This past fall, for the first time I got to go and help Denis and Liz with their grape harvest. That was the first time I had been around grape vines at all, but Jesus’ disciples would have seen them constantly as they traveled the countryside. The imagery of a grape remaining on the vine, drawing moisture and nutrients from that vine, surviving and living and growing on that vine, as long as that relationship lasted, the branches and grapes thrived.

Well this is what Jesus tells his disciples - abiding in Him is the key to life, it is the key to bearing fruit, it is the key to a relationship with the Father as well. And then He says, these things have I spoken so that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

Whatever is wrapped up in Abiding in Christ, which includes following Him, obeying Him, loving Him, and loving others with that love, Jesus tells us that produces “fulness of joy.”

We’ve seen this word filling before, we’ve seen it a lot in Matthew. It is the same word that is often translated as “fulfill.” That means, make complete, bring to fruition, bring to its expected and intended purpose. In this case, it isn’t speaking of a fulfilling of prophecy like Matthew uses it for so many times, but simply of our joy. That is, when we abide in Jesus Christ like the branch remains on the vine, that is when our Joy is filled up, complete, and brought to its intended purpose.

Which leads us to make one major observation - God desires for us to have joy. He wants us to have joy. I believe God gets great glory when His people are satisfied and joyful in what He has given us, and given us to do. I think that is just what Jesus is speaking about there in John 15, and he also goes on to speak about it again in John 17.

John 17 is Jesus great prayer to the Father. We get a glimpse into the relationship between the Father and the Son - something remarkable, because this relationship has existed from eternity past. And here, there is communication from Jesus to His Father, and he is praying about his Disciples - his followers.

John 17:13 ESV

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

Jesus had just prayed, “while I was with them, I kept them… but now I am coming to you.” He is praying concerning his departure, and one of Jesus’ main desires in his departure is this - that His disciples continue to have his joy - the kind of joy Jesus has - fulfilled in themselves.

There he uses that exact word again, for filling. Fullness. Bringing to its intended purpose. Jesus prayed for his disciples to have true, full, Christ-like joy. Think of all the emptiness in the world. There is emptiness everywhere we look, and certainly there is emptiness when it comes to Joy. But this is Jesus’ prayer and His desire. Fullness of joy. Lasting joy. If you ever get the false Idea that God intends for your life to be morose, melancholy, depressed, anxious, nervous, paranoid, or just sad, look at Jesus! He probably was the most joyful man who ever lived, and as God, the Son of God, He expressed the Divine desire that His followers have his joy. Jesus’ coming brings joy, because Jesus has and desires that we have this fulness of joy.

2. Jesus Models Enduring Joy

We mentioned Isaiah 53 in the last section, how Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Yet, out of the anguish of His soul he shall see and be satisfied.

There was a goal at hand, a purpose for his suffering, a prize to be won, a redemption to be secured, and that goal, that prize, that light at the end of the tunnel of grief Jesus’ held on to for satisfaction.

Isaiah 53:11 ESV

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

His work would make many to be accounted as righteous, and he would bear our iniquities. That ties in to what we saw last week, as we saw that John the Baptist would go before the Lord, and one of the things the Lord would bring was forgiveness of sin. We saw it in 1 John 4, where the demonstration of God’s love in the coming of Jesus accomplished two things - it brought life, and it brought propitiation from sins - forgiveness, payment, atonement.

We can’t talk about Jesus’ life and work and death without talking about forgiveness of Sins. It was something He did both in His living, but mostly in his dying. Jesus forgiveness shows God’s love, and it also shows joy. Now, it brings us joy, no doubt. But I want to focus on the fact that, just like love, which was first in God and comes from God, so it is with Joy.

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now,Hebrews 12 1 starts with “therefore...” And as the cliche but memorable and helpful phrase goes, when it comes to Bible study, you have to know what the “therefore” is there for. So, for the context of this passage, you have to know what Hebrews 11 is all about. Hebrews 11, of course, is that great chapter of faith. It begins by telling us what faith is, and then it goes on to describe faith by giving examples of faithful men and women, men and women who trusted, followed, and gave their lives to God because of the promises that God had made.

God’s promises to these people have been kept, mostly in the coming of christ. So when we come to chapter 12, when it says “therefore since we are surrounded with such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run with endurance.”

These men and women serve as an example of faith and faithfulness, and we are called to run as they have. The Author uses that term from athletics, setting our life before us as a race, and calls us to run with endurance. Not a sprint, but not a meandering either - a race, and one we hope to finish faithfully.

Now, the saints of Old are our examples, but they are not our chief examples. There is one chief example, the example that the Author of Hebrews has been pointing to all throughout the book. The main idea of Hebrews is that “Christ is Better...” and in this case, although we have great examples in the faithful gone before, our best example is Christ Himself.

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith - that is, the designer of our faith, the originator of our faith, the sustainer of our faith, and the end of our faith. And what is the example that Jesus’ gives us? Well, Jesus, too, ran a race in His life, a race with an expected end. A race that ended with his death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus ran that race with endurance, and he ran it with joy.

“who for the joy that was set before him.” Like Isaiah said, “out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied.” Jesus had the joyful cause of his sufferings always before him. He had enduring joy, even through the worst human suffering imaginable. Enduring joy! That is why James, the half brother of Jesus, can say in his letter,

James 1:2–3 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

Jesus has already prayed that we can have the kind of Joy he has, and that kind of joy is joy that endures through suffering, and even rejoices in suffering, because we know there is a great and grand purpose of the sovereign and wise Lord, and in God’s good time he is working all things for good.

3. Jesus Secures Eternal Joy

Our final scripture for today also includes this theme of trials. Peter is writing to the saints, encouraging them concerning their “final salvation.” That is, the aspect of salvation in which we are finally and fully saved from sin and the curse of this world. It is eternal life, the new heaven and new earth, the perfect existence that was intended from the beginning but interrupted by sin and the curse.

1 Peter 1:3–9 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

It is interesting, because Peter is clearly speaking about future things - things like an inheritance, the last time, eternal life, yet he speaks about them in a way that sounds like they are present possessions.

He says, “in this you rejoice...” that is, we rejoice now because of our salvation, our inheritance, our eternal life. There is a present joy, even though, as he says, we have been grieved by various trials.

Now, again, these trials have a purpose - the tested genuineness of our faith - yet, they are still trials. they are still incredibly difficult. But still, there is that idea of enduring joy, even through the trials.

The trials and the joy work themselves fully up to the praise and the glory of Jesus Christ, and then Peter says something remarkable - one of the dearest and sweetest little portions of scripture to me in all the Bible.

He says, of Jesus, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

There is that great joy, that joy that endures, that joy that Jesus prayed for us to have. It is that joy that comes when we abide in Christ, when we love the one we’ve never seen.

There is a special meaning for advent in those words. We love Jesus, whom we have never seen. But, Peter had seen Him. Peter had walked with Him, learned from Him, saw the miracles, heard the teaching. Peter had spent considerable time with Jesus - and He knew, it was worth it. It was worth it to love and trust this Jesus, and it was worth it to, though we have not seen him, rejoice with inexpressible joy.

Jesus did come, but He is not here. He has gone, and has left the comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be in us and with us as His followers. But, his leaving is part of his promise. The end of His first Advent is of great importance for His second advent.

John 14:2–3 ESV

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

There is the most poignant conditional clause in all of scripture, i think. Jesus says “If I go, I will come again...”

So yes, we love and trust and rejoice in the one we’ve never seen, but not for nothing - the hope set before us is that He is coming again, and that we will be with Him. There is that full and final salvation that Peter was speaking about. There is that final inheritance that is coming, but because it is a promise of Jesus, of God Himself, the promise is as good as accomplished - and in that we can rejoice with “joy unspeakable and full of glory” as the old King James puts it.

At the beginning we said that sometimes Joy can’t really be defined as much as experienced, and sometimes it can only be described in idioms - a full heart, a dancing spirit, well, Peter does just that - inexpressible joy filled with glory.

You can’t really describe that, you can’t really explain it - but you can experience it, and you can only experience it in trusting the person of Christ. Advent brings Joy, because advent brings Jesus Christ, who promises and displays fulness of joy.