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CHRISTMAS JOY
By
Rev. Todd
W. Allen
Villa Rica 12/21/03
Luke
2:8-18 (NASB)
8In
the same region there were some
shepherds staying out in the fields and
keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And an angel of the Lord
suddenly stood before them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them; and they
were terribly frightened. 10But
the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid;
for behold, I bring you good news of great
joy which will be for all the people;
11for today in the city of David
there has been born for you a Savior, who
is Christ the Lord. 12“This
will be a sign for you: you will
find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in
a manger.” 13And suddenly there
appeared with the angel a multitude of the
heavenly host praising God and saying,14
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth
peace among men with whom He
is pleased.”
15When
the angels had gone away from them into
heaven, the shepherds began saying
to one another, “Let us go straight to
Bethlehem then, and see this thing that
has happened which the Lord has made known
to us.” 16So they came in a
hurry and found their way to Mary and
Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the
manger. 17When they had seen
this, they made known the statement, which
had been told them about this Child.
18And all who heard it wondered at
the things which were told them by the
shepherds.
I would like to use verse 10
as a theme verse for this message,
And the angel said to them, "Do not
be afraid; for behold, I bring you good
news of a great joy which shall be for all
the people; for today in the city of David
there has been born for you a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
What
is joy? Britannica says it is a lively
emotion of happiness: gladness, anything
that causes delight. It is the greatest
three-letter word there is because it sums
up what all people want in life. We spend
most of our days trying to produce joy. We
work hard so that we can enjoy the fruits
of our labors. We seek people and places
and things in order to find joy.
We
find joy in doing for others, in giving
gifts at Christmas. We think of Christmas
as a time of joy because it is a time when
we set aside the troubles of the world and
our own lives and just try to enjoy our
family and friends. There is that desire
within us all to have joy. We sense that
the deepest need of our souls is to
experience joy.
But
joy is what many people feel they have so
little of. As we grow older we lose the
excitement of childhood when every new
experience is an adventure of fun and
excitement. Laughter comes easily to
children because they were born with a
bubble inside of them that wants to be
released. Christmas is fun for us because
we see the wonder and joy on the faces of
our children and somehow that recaptures
our own childhood memories, our own bubble
gets stirred again. We want to be freed
from the cynicism and pessimism of this
world, even if only for a little while.
Christmas affords us that opportunity.
God
created Adam full of joy. I believe Adam
and Eve were incredibly happy in that
garden. There was no sin, no death, no
misery, no pain, and no troubles of any
kind to mar their happiness. God told Job
that when He created the earth that all
the sons of God shouted for joy. The
Psalmist declares,
"In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at
Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore"
Psalm
16:11.
I.
Sin Has Robbed Us Of Our Joy
Our Larger Catechism says,
"Man's chief and highest end is to glorify
God, and fully to enjoy Him forever" It
also says that the fall brought mankind
into an estate of sin and misery. (LC Ques.
1 & 23.)
Sin
brings personal problems that sap joy and
rob us of peace of mind. There are people
struggling with guilt, with weighty
problems, with personal situations that
take away all joy in life. Right now there
are millions of people who are trying to
piece together their broken marriages,
their broken homes and their broken
hearts. They may be missing some of the
pieces and therefore believe they can
never get it back together again; and that
makes their misery even more intense. They
are about like Humpty Dumpty. You remember
how that rhyme goes..."Humpty Dumpty
sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great
fall. And all the king's horses and all
the king's men couldn't put Humpty
together again."
But
we know that there is one whose name is
Jesus who can pick up the broken pieces
and make something new and even better.
But
besides personal problems there are moral
problems in our culture, in American
society that obviate joy. We have violence
in our streets and even in our schools and
our homes. On top of that we have
worldwide violence.
I
have been following the news for many
years and I cannot remember a time where
there has not been a war raging someplace,
and since 9/11/01 and the attack against
us in New York and Washington, DC that
took so many innocent lives we have been
in a war against terrorism and we are told
it may continue indefinitely.
Even
as we look forward to a joyous Christmas
holiday with our families, there are
grieving families and suffering people
that concern us all. We don't like to
think that we are enjoying ourselves while
others are homeless, hungry, cold and
miserable. Just the knowledge of these
things dampens our joy. We may find it
hard to manifest joy.
A
man wanted to perform some kind of
Christian service, so his pastor suggested
that he go to a rescue mission and help.
The man duly presented himself to the
superintendent of the mission shortly
before a service for the down-and-outers
who walked along Skid Row. The
superintendent told the man to stand out
on the sidewalk and invite passing men to
come into the meeting. The man accosted
the passersby and, in a mournful tone,
asked them to enter the mission. Each man
to whom he spoke glanced at him and went
on. He learned his lesson, however, when
one man responded to his doleful
invitation, "Brother, wouldn't you like
to come into the meeting?" Cynically,
the man looked at his solemn face and
said, "No, thanks; I've troubles enough
of my own"
We
certainly are not good recommendations for
the Lord Jesus Christ if we have not
learned the great truth that joy is one of
the prime requisites of the Christian
life. At least at Christmas we can put on
a happy face.
For many people the joy of
Christmas is merely a very brief interlude
in an otherwise joyless life. They are on
a materialistic treadmill. We live in a
complex, materialistic, competitive world.
We Americans are oriented to a
materialistic philosophy that is really a
killjoy philosophy.
Perhaps you have read the book by Dr.
Maurice Rawlings called "To Hell and
Back". In the book he tells of a man
who had a near-death experience, who had
by training and ambition sought success
and money as his goals. But when
catastrophe overtook him his goals changed
radically. He asked Dr. Rawlings,
"Do you know what you think about when
your next breath may be your last? When
you know you may not live another hour?"
Dr. Rawlings said he did not answer his
question. But the man named Fred told him
anyway. "When your back is to the wall,
the object of life is no longer money --
the object, surprisingly enough, is time.
Immediately the question becomes not how
much money do I have left, but how much
time do I have left. What you will do with
each precious moment you have left."
To explain his predicament Fred quoted
James 4:13-17:
Come now, you who say, "Today or
tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a
city, and spend a year there and engage in
business and make a profit." Yet you do
not know what your life will be tomorrow.
You are just a vapor that appears for a
little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord
will, we shall live and also do this or
that."
Fred
survived his heart attack and is now a
Presbyterian minister. His near death
experience changed his American ambitious
and materialistic outlook. Now he has joy
in serving the Lord Jesus Christ with the
precious time he has been extended. -
Maurice S. Rawlings, M.D., "To Hell and
Back", p. 235, Thomas Nelson Publishers,
Nashville, TN, 1993.
II.
Christ's Mission Was Not A Mission Of Joy
Let me say first that the
mission of Jesus Christ was not a joyous
mission. The cross was His mission. He was
sent on a mission of mercy that required
the laying down of His own life at the
hands of sinners. As we read in Hebrews
10:5-7:
"SACRIFICE
AND OFFERING THOU HAST
NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY THOU HAST PREPARED
FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS
AND SACRIFICES FOR SIN THOU HAST TAKEN NO
PLEASURE. THEN SAID I, BEHOLD, I HAVE COME
(IN THE ROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF
ME) TO DO THY WILL, O GOD.'"
And it
goes on to tell us that we have been
sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
This
was not a pleasant or enjoyable thing.
This was a horrible cup of pain and shame.
He even prayed that if it were possible
this cup might pass from Him,
nevertheless, Thy will be done.
We
are told in that same book of Hebrews that
Jesus endured the cross and despised the
shame because of the joy that was set
before Him (Heb.12:2. That anticipated joy
was His pleasure in presenting to His
Father those redeemed souls, which His
mediatorial work would reconcile to God.
Isaiah spoke of this when he prophesied:
The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting
Him to grief; if He would render Himself
as a guilt offering, He will see His
offspring, He will prolong His days, and
the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper
in His hand. As a result of the anguish of
His soul, He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One, My
Servant,
will justify the many, as He will bear
their iniquities.
God's plan of redemption is to recover an
elect seed from the fallen race -- men and
women, boys and girls to enjoy the glories
of heaven, to know the joy of the Lord.
Adam brought both himself and all his
posterity into an estate of sin and
misery and death, but the
Lord Jesus Christ, as our virgin-born and
sinless Second Adam brings redemption to
the earth. He founds a new race of
justified men, and they are a people of
joy.
There was no joy in the cross, but Jesus
knew the accomplishment of His mission
would bring joy to Himself and all who are
saved by Him.
The
angel of the Lord understood this and
conveyed this truth to the shepherds that
first Christmas in the long ago.
And the angel said to them, "Do not be
afraid; for behold, I bring you good news
of a great joy which shall be for all the
people; for today in the city of David
there has been born for you a
Savior,
who is Christ the Lord." Vs 10.
We
are born into an eternal kingdom of joy.
As Isaiah prophesied
"So the ransomed of the Lord will return,
and come with joyful shouting to Zion; and
everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy, and
sorrow and sighing will flee away...
and the Psalmist wrote,
Let thy priests be clothed with
righteousness; and let Thy godly ones sing
for joy"
(Isa. 51:11; Psa. 132:9).
We are
told that in heaven
He shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes; and there shall no longer be any
death; there shall no longer be any
mourning, or crying, or pain; the first
things have passed away. And He who sits
on the throne said, "Behold, I am making
all things new"
(Rev.
21:4).
III.
Our Joy Is Both Present And
Anticipatory
We cannot say that the
Christian life is all joy and without
tribulation, for Christ Himself told us
that in this world we would have
tribulation, but be of good cheer for I
have overcome the world.
As
Christians we do not shut our eyes to the
fact that even though we have been born
into the Kingdom of Heaven there is still
much sin and misery in this world, and
even in one's own life there is adversity
and trial, sorrow and pain. We walk by
faith and not by sight; and we recognize
that we are still in a world that is
basically joyless because many are yet
without Christ. The only true joy in this
world is that which Christ brings to us,
and that joy is intermittent, even though
our salvation is not intermittent.
We
see how this world is and we don't close
our eyes to the sin and misery that
abounds all about. Nor do we retire from
the world and join a nunnery or a
monastery. We are salt and light. We are
to be involved. We take a stand for
righteousness in a wicked and crooked
generation. This may cause us to be
persecuted and even hated. We do not
imagine for a moment that at this time and
place we are having a heavenly experience,
that all pain and misery have been
vanquished, that sin is no longer a
problem. But we now live our lives with a
new perspective. We do not see things with
a jaundiced and mournful eye. There is
hope! We are the people of hope, not of
despair. Men have forsaken God but God has
not forsaken men.
God
is at work in the world. He is busy with a
program of redemption. He is calling men
and women, boys and girls to Himself.
People are coming to Christ, and when they
do they become new creatures in Christ
with that new and brighter outlook. And
there is joy! There is the joy that comes
through divine righteousness freely given
by Jesus Christ to cover our sin. For when
a person comes to Jesus Christ there is
joy in knowing that sins are forgiven and
that the Holy Spirit has come in to
cleanse and sanctify. This can be a source
of daily joy. There is a fountain of joy
from which every child of God can drink.
And this well never runs dry. One of the
fruits of the Spirit is joy.
There is also joy in fellowshipping with
other believers. We belong to a body that
loves and shares and cares. We can have
that joy that comes through worship,
knowing that the joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion (Psa. 48:2).
We
can also know the joy of sharing Jesus
Christ with others. Jesus tells us that
there is joy in the presence of the angels
of God over one sinner who repents. It is
a privilege to minister the Gospel of
Christ to others, so that they may enter
upon the same life of peace and joy. This
is a way for you and me to increase our
joy.
Do you
know the joy the angel of the Lord spoke
of to the Shepherds in the long ago? Have
you received Jesus Christ into your heart
as your Savior and Lord? Are you following
Him in a life of discipleship? Then you
will surely taste of His joy!
Hymn is
#211
“God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen”
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
distribution. We only request that proper
web page attribution be provided if
distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word. |