Joy To The World

Introduction

Well, if your home is anything like mine is right now, there’s a lot of built up anticipation and eagerness for Christmas day. These final days leading up to Christmas in a kid’s world are probably the longest days they have to endure for the entire year.

I remember these days well as a child. This was always an exciting week but at the same time, seemingly the slowest one as well. I loved Christmas Eve but dreaded trying to fall asleep because there was always such excitement for the next day.

Last year my son, Maddox told me that he was awake until about 1 or 2 in the morning because he just couldn’t fall asleep the night before Christmas. You would then think that they would sleep in a bit the next morning but like clockwork they’re bounding out of their rooms as soon as the slightest ray of sunshine begins to peep over the horizon.

Now, I think most understand why kids respond this way to the Christmas season. There’s just a lot of joy wrapped up in receiving gifts and spending time with family. However, the built-up excitement is there because most kids live with the hope that they’ll get that one gift that they’ve been longing for all year.

The well-known Christmas movie, “A Christmas Story” bases its entire story-line upon the main character, Ralphie, hoping that on Christmas day he’ll open up that most sought after gift that his heart delights in, “An official Red Ryder, carbine-action, two-hundred-shot, range-model air rifle.”

Hope is a powerful feeling. It drives us and impacts decisions we make.

As parents, we have a rudimentary hope that our kids will grow up to be well-adjusted, successful, kind-hearted, Jesus-loving people who will have a positive impact in the world. That hope shapes how we parent.

As employees we hope that our hard work will be noticed and rewarded with promotions and raises, more responsibility. And so, that hope shapes how we work, how we interact with co-workers, and how much we commit to the work in front of us.

College students pick certain colleges because they hope that an education and diploma from certain universities will reap benefits down the road.

It’s often hope that shapes how we handle our finances and how we prepare and plan for the future.

It’s hope that causes us to rally around certain political leaders every few years thinking that their leadership and policies will bring exactly what our cities, states, and country needs.

Hope impacts why we leave one job for another. Whether it’s a better working environment, better hours, more impact. Hope still drives those decisions.

But we see hope impacting our lives in lesser ways as well.

Chicago Cubs fans and Bears fans always live with a hope that next year, “Maybe that’s our year.”

High school or college-aged young men nervously hope that the girl they like, likes them in return

Our lives are filled with things we hope for.

Problem

The problem is, many, if not all of the things we hope for are in some way or another out of our control and even if what we hope for comes to pass, it still doesn’t satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.

As parents we can read all the parenting books we can get our hands on, do the best we can to love, serve, and lead our children but it doesn’t guarantee that they will be the thriving, impactful, Jesus-loving kids we long for. Now, it for sure sets them upon a strong and healthy foundation, but their hearts are still out of our control.

We can work as hard as possible at our jobs, do all the right things and still get passed over time and time again for that promotion or raise.

We can try to make all the right financial decisions and still end up losing it all in the end.

Certain leaders may do great things that bring a lot of good to the world, but they’re still fallible. They still make mistakes and it usually is hoping that the good decisions they make outweigh the poor decisions.

The change in careers may not always pan out like we hoped they would.

The girl you ask out in college may laugh in your face and walk the other way.

Now, these things don’t change the fact that we still live with hope in many things but it may make us more skeptical or pessimistic or cautious, maybe even joyless. Depending on your own journey in life, you may think that there’s nothing worth putting your hope in because it all doesn’t work out anyway.

All of us in here today are carrying differing levels of baggage and struggle from our lives. Some may be lighter than others, but it’s still there because we’re all still human and experience together the struggle found in life.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” It’s a little song written in 1943 by Hugh Martin that in its lyrics and melody capture the longing in the human heart for peace. It’s a song written with hope for a better day. “From now on our troubles will be out of sight.” And then repeats, “From now on our troubles will be miles away.”

It’s become a beloved song over the decades since it was written because I believe the human heart resonates with that hope. We long for peace but feel like it’s out of reach. And so, we continue to sing and hope, for next year.

It seems as though all the things we hope for in this world come up short. But yet, we still do walk in hope.

Is there a hope that is certain? A hope that we can hold on to with confidence that what it promises will come to be?

Main Aim

The text before us today speaks of that kind of hope. A hope in a promise that we still wait for, but a hope that is certain and guaranteed.

You see, that’s the difference between the world’s definition or explanation of hope and the biblical definition of hope.

John Piper defines biblical hope this way:

“Biblical hope is a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future.” - John Piper

And the two words to hold onto within that definition are, “confident expectation.”

The difference between a worldly hope, or a hope in the things of the world and a biblical hope, such as a hope in the promises of God is like buying a lottery ticket and hoping you win millions or being a son or a daughter of a father who has written you into their will. A hope that you will one day inherit all that is his because you’re his child and are loved by him.

There’s still a waiting for that inheritance, but it’s settled, it’s certain, it’s guaranteed, it’s a confident expectation.

Far too many people live their lives holding onto the $3 scratch off ticket hoping that it will give them all that they need when God is calling us to hope in his promises that are certain to come.

God’s promise of total redemption and complete restoration of ourselves and his world will come true. There is coming a day when all that is broken in the world will come undone. And the reason we can hope and long for this day with confidence is because Jesus has already come in the form of human flesh 2000 years ago in Bethlehem.

Big Idea

Our confident hope for a restored creation is guaranteed because of the first Advent of Christ.

Outline

So, why can Romans 8 be read with such confident expectation in a future glory?

Promise Made. Promise Kept.

We can trust what Romans 8 says when it looks toward a future day, a future glory that is ours who are in Christ Jesus because of what we’ve read and seen and have celebrated this season from Luke 2 and the birth of Jesus which has already happened.

Are you following me? What I’m saying is that we can trust the future promises of God because God’s past promises have already come to pass. He’s shown himself to be trustworthy.

In six days we’re going to celebrate Christmas morning. And what we’re doing on that day is celebrating a God who keeps his promises. We’re celebrating on Christmas morning a promise that was made all the way back in Genesis 3 when sin entered into God’s good world.

In Genesis 3 Satan sought to destroy God’s good world and bring destruction to its order. Now, sin has absolutely corrupted, perverted, and fractured what God has made. But God still reigns over it all. And in this moment where God’s world had been fractured, a promise was made of a future redeemer who would come to set things right again.

In Genesis 3:15 God says to Satan, looking toward that future day where a Messiah would come,

Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is the first evangelistic proclamation. God is saying, “A Savior is coming. One who will represent humanity and who will crush your power over this world.”

From that point forward, the question the Old Testament authors and prophets ask is, “Who is He and when will He arrive, what will He do?”

The Old Testament is filled with passages looking to the first Advent of the Messiah and all these prophecies have been fulfilled in Jesus. All of them. Some biblical scholars suggest there are more than 300 prophetic Scriptures that have been completed in the life of Jesus.

Let me mention just a few.

We just saw in Genesis 3 that the Messiah would be born of a woman. But we also see that his birth would be miraculous.

The prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

God, speaking through Isaiah is pointing to the virgin birth of Jesus.

Two chapters later we see what kind of child this will be.

Isaiah 9:6-7 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

We see from the book of Genesis, chapter 12 and chapter 22 that this Messiah would come from the line of Abraham. He’d be a descendent from the line of Isaac and then Jacob.

In Genesis 49 the Messiah comes from the tribe of Judah.

In 2 Samuel 7 we see he comes from the line of David and would be heir to the throne and will rule forever.

In Micah 5:2 we see that this Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

Micah 5:2 “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

But we also see in Hosea 11 that the Messiah will spend a season in Egypt and that’s because at Jesus’ birth, King Herod sought to destroy all children because he was threatened by this new King of kings. And so, even this horrific massacre was foretold in Jeremiah 31:15.

Both the Psalms and the prophet Isaiah speak of this Messiah who would be rejected by his own people

Psalm 69:8 “I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.”

Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

The psalmists and prophets speak of this suffering servant who would be betrayed, falsely accused, spat upon and struck, hated without cause, crucified among criminals, hands and feet pierced for our sins, forsaken by God, and even buried with the rich (Jesus was buried in a rich man’s tomb). But the prophets also speak of a Messiah who would be resurrected from the dead, who would ascend to heaven and seated at God’s right hand.

Psalm 110:1 “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

These fulfilled prophecies are but a drop in the bucket of all that Jesus began to fulfill on that silent night in Bethlehem.

In their book, “Science Speaks,” Peter Stoner and Robert Newman discuss the statistical improbability of one man fulfilling just eight of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled. They calculate the chances of this happening at 1 in 10 to the 17th power. Here’s how they illustrate the magnitude of such odds:

“Suppose that we take 10 to the 17th power silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man.”

Now, that’s just with eight prophecies coming true. Jesus fulfilled so many more than that.

Our God has made a promise and he has kept it. Because of Jesus’ first Advent, we can have hope in His second Advent.

A Promise Still To Come: A Future Glory.

This is what Romans 8 points us to. A day when all will be made right again. When all that is wrong with the world will come undone and the King of kings and Lord of lords will reign forever and all of heaven and nature will cry out and sing in worship of our great God.

We sang this morning the well-known Christmas song, Joy to the World. What we may not recognize is that this song was not written with Luke 2 in mind but really Psalm 98 in mind and the teaching from Romans 8. It was a song written to stir believer’s hearts to anticipate and long for the return of Jesus.

Psalm 98 “Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises! Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody! With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord! Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”

Psalm 98 is a song that points us to the hope we have with all of creation that there’s coming a day when the curse from Genesis 3 will be lifted.

Romans 8 joins us with all of creation as well as we wait with eager anticipation for the return of Christ. You get from the text this internal pain that creation has for all things to be made new again.

Verse 19, “Creation waits with eager longing.” Verse 22, “Creation has been groaning together.”

But not just creation, we ourselves, long for His return.

Verse 23,

Romans 8:23 “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

Paul’s painting this picture of something that’s broken that’s longing for it to be fixed.

When I was about 13/14 years old I broke my collarbone. And so I was in a sling for several weeks. During that time I really couldn’t get comfortable and had to sleep in a chair for most of the time cause I just couldn’t lay down. It just would hurt too much. And so, for those several weeks there was something broken in me and I was longing to get back to my bed and full mobility.

I’ve spent time with many of you in here in hospital rooms. Now, there’s always different reasons for why you’re in the hospital but one thing is the same with everyone I visit; you just want to go home. The most common question asked in a hospital is, “when can I go home?”

Again, there’s something broken and our eagerness is to be well again and whole.

That’s what Paul’s talking about here. Creation is broken. We ourselves are broken. Life right now is not how God intended it to be. And so, there’s a longing deep within our souls for the King to return, to reign and to establish his eternal Kingdom over all the earth.

We know from Jesus’ first Advent that the power of sin has been destroyed through his life, death, and resurrection but we still live with sins’ effects, or with its residue. That’s verse 18. Suffering is still present.

What we want to look to this Advent season is not just his first coming but also his second which will usher in the consummation of all things and those whom he has purchased through his death will be fully restored, will be set free from their bondage, and will finally receive their full inheritance as sons and daughters of God Most High.

Application

But until that day, what do we do? Let me suggest two things from this text.

Walk by faith and not by sight.

Verse 24,

Romans 8:24 “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?”

Paul says something similar to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 5. Listen to the similar language used between Romans and 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 5:1-9 “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.”

This here is often the difficulty of the Christian journey. We know all these things to be true. We know God is good and powerful and that through faith in Christ we will be with him forever one day. We know there’s coming a day when he will restore all things to how they were meant to be. We know he will never fail to fulfill his promises. But, until that day we wait and we struggle and we suffer.

But it’s in this hope that we were saved. This hope that the glory that awaits us far surpasses the struggle and suffering we’ll endure in the meantime. Isn’t that what he says in verse 18?

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Now here’s what that’s saying. It’s not meant to diminish the pain that so many have walked through. I know that the suffering that so many in here have endured has been incredible. So, it’s not meant to make light of our suffering but what he’s saying is that as hard as your suffering is now, the glory that awaits you in Christ is even more profound.

This is the hope in which we were saved. And so, we walk by faith and not by sight. We pray for God, through the Spirit to increase our faith to not only know these truths, but to believe them and be shaped by them.

We wait with patience.

It’s in this season of waiting that God grows us by His grace.

If we would allow the Spirit of God to work within us as we wait we would see growth in our lives. Do you know what waiting does for us if we’re led by the Spirit?

It instills humility within us. In a self-centered culture waiting takes our eyes off ourselves.

It causes us to be still and to trust the Lord.

It reveals areas we need to confess. Waiting brings to the surface our impatience and our demanding attitudes or what we think or feel we deserve.

Waiting rubs against the grain of the human heart. We don’t want to wait for anything. We want it now but God says, no, you need to wait and you need to rest in me. Trust me.

Conclusion

I pray that this season of Advent would cause us to rest, to wait, to trust, and to enjoy God. May we celebrate that Christ has come. He has disarmed the powers of this world and may our hearts be stirred to long with eager anticipation of his return when he will come and make all things new again. But until that day, may we wait, and may he grow us in his grace.

(communion)