Joy: Emmanuel Immense Gift
Notes
Transcript
Famed newscaster Andy Rooney once responded to the charge that his profession only covered the negative side of everything. He imagined a newscast in which it was reported that planes took off and landed safely. In Florida, the orange crop was hit by another night of average weather. In Detroit, General Motors announced that 174,000 Chevrolet's would not be recalled because they were all perfect. Rooney’s point was that good news isn’t always appreciated unless it’s against the backdrop of bad news.
Our text tells us the best news in the world, but two factors make it difficult for people to appreciate it.
First, the Christmas story is perhaps the most widely known story in history. As a result, many people, even Christians, shrug it off as not being especially exciting or relevant to the problems they are facing.
Second, many people do not realize what dire straits they are in regarding their standing before God and their eternal destiny. So when they read the familiar story that a Savior has been born in the city of Bethlehem, they yawn and say, “That’s nice. What’s for dinner?” Not seeing their desperate need for salvation, they fail to appreciate the fact that this story is the best news in all of history.
The best news in the world is that a Savior was born for you, who is Christ the Lord.
Several years ago, Moody Magazine (Jan./Feb., 1996) reported that 49 percent of professing Christians agree that “all good people, whether they consider Jesus Christ to be Savior or not, will live in heaven after they die.” If that opinion is true, then the story of the birth of Jesus may warm your heart and make you feel good. But it won’t be the best news in the world, news that you cannot live without. However, if the Bible is correct in stating that all people have sinned and apart from Christ they are under God’s condemnation, then the news that the Savior has been born is hardly just nice! It is the best news in the world and it is absolutely crucial!
This news is not only great news but it is news that brings to our lives great joy. Everlasting joy is a by-product of Emmanuel entrance into humanities mess. Everlasting joy cannot be manufactured it must be mediated. It’s delivered to deliver.
This word for good news is also translated “gospel”. The gospel is the source of joy and therefore must be brought or delivered so that joy might be experienced.
What is our text saying to us this morning; “Christmas is Good News because our Savior has provided an Exodus from the clutches of a fictitious joy.”
Why is this child’s birth “good news”?
Sin had separated God and man;
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;
but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
in their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
but the incarnation served to bridge this separation:
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
it is was a prelude to the atoning sacrifice and our richest joy.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
An ancient Edenic promise was made at sin’s advent that a Savior would advent through a virgin. God was going to send a Savior in our form but unlike us He would not fail. He was born of woman’s seed so that he would succeed in every way we have failed.
He would endured temptations, trials, and tribulations yet without sin. He suffered at the hands of Satan and sinner’s yet without sin. He who knew no sin took on sin so that sinners who perpetrated His suffering could be saved.
Eden’s message of a deliverer is given further detail in subsequent chapters. The Author’s manuscript would unveil intricate details about his father, mother, location of his birth, his name, and the political climate. They were prepared for His appearing, but nothing could have prepared them for this announcement. Listen to the angel’s profound revelation; “for unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Savior means Anointed. Our Lord was not an amateur Savior. He was chosen, ordained, and anointed by God; he could truly say, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me.”
Take comfort and find joy in this bedrock truth. Christ is not only authorized to save but is able to save to the uttermost. Furthermore, he has been commissioned to save and with his blood contains sufficient capital to pay your sin debt. “Fear not, for born to you this day is the one whom Isaiah promised;
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
Lord, or Kurios, is tantamount to Jehovah. Our Savior is Jehovah. No testimony to his divinity is more undeniable. Marvel at this mystery. The one sent to satisfy Jehovah’s wrath against sinners was Jehovah himself. May we break forth in praise as we ponder this profundity. He who was sinned against has appeared not to destroy sinners but to deliver them.
Why does God come? Could he not accomplish His salvific purposes another way? He’s God! Can’t He do anything? God’s incarnation is an expression of both the severity of the bad news and the sweetness of the good news.
His Incarnation also serves to enlarge our capacity of praise. Profundity is intended to cause praise. Mystery is intended to produce marvel. Wonder is intended to lead us in worship.
Consider for a moment this question. What produces greater praise; God sending a proxy to save or God condescending in passion for the renown of his name and the redemption of the nations?
God Incarnates to amplify our hearts in praise. God does not subcontract His renown or the redemption of the nations. He Incarnates to be our substitute. He Incarnates to separate himself above all other gods.
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Many will celebrate this season with a fictitious joy. Their joy will dissipate with the season’s finality. A feast comprised of our favorite foods cannot produce enough sufficiency to sustain our joy. A cup filled with the choicest drink cannot provide enough merriment perpetually fill our hearts. Gifts whether thoughtful or expensive will not provide the kind of joy of hearts need to thrive.
A New Testament Exodus
This good news is our cause for joy because our Savior has provided an Exodus.
The word Savior in verse 12 is the same word used to describe Moses, deliverer.
I am using the word “Exodus” as a means of connecting Christmas with the Book of Exodus. This Old Testament parallel must not go unnoticed.
In the Exodus narrative God’s people had spent 400 years in Egyptian bondage before their Exodus. Our New Testament reminds us that it has been some 400 years since God last spoke through the prophet Malachi. I am not sure which is worse 400 years of slavery or silence.
God breaks slavery’s yoke through a baby’s birth and preservation. He breaks His silence through a baby’s birth and preservation. Both Savior’s are preserved in Egypt. Moses would deliver slaves out of a sovereign’s tyranny while Christ would come out of Egypt to deliver spiritual slaves out of Satan’s tyranny.
Moses was commissioned by the Lord with these words; Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, “Thus says the LORD, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” This same salvific purpose continues into our New Testament deliverance.
God saves people for service. Or to be stated another way; God delivers us for duty. This may sound joyless, but God has designed it to be joy’s source. Service, or worship, is the fountainhead of joy. Duty is not drudgery. When duty is given direction, it produces delight.
Scripture gives us clear direction in how our duty provides great delight or joy.
We don’t serve God because is in need.
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
We are not saved to add to God but that He might add to us. If our service could add to God, then he would be incomplete. God is complete and, yet he commands our worship-service which he does not need. Is God contradicting Himself or do we lack clarity?
We are commanded because God knows our condition. Though he reigns in our lives there yet remains the residue of Eden. A life that has been fully forgiven does not equate into a heart that is fully following. Our hearts are prone to undulations. C.S. Lewis was right when he said;
We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
God commands our worship-service as a means of developing half-hearted creatures into fully devoted followers of Christ. God’s commands serve as a weapon in our fight against half-heartedness. We are half-hearted, and therefore we are commanded to worship-serve.
God’s joy does not increase with our service. Our joy in Him increases as we serve. As our joy in him increases so does His glory. Our command to worship-serve is intended to bring us great joy and God great glory.
Don’t get the cart before the horse this morning. Scripture is filled with commands. However, these commands possess no salvific ability, but they do provide a pathway to our ultimate satisfaction. We are commanded in
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
How is this accomplished? John gives us direction in
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
Obedience is the pathway to joy because it produces in us a greater love for Jesus. Obedience does not save us, it sanctifies.
Clutches of fictitious joy
Adam and Eve were given duties within the garden to maximize their joy in God. Duties were given to grow their love for God and fill them with joy.
This love and joy came under attack by a Scripture twisting lyricists. Satan cast doubt on their duty and their Sovereign Lord’s direction. He convinced them that their present joy was fictitious and promised them a joy full and free of duty.
Their rebellion and unbelief delivered all of creation into the clutches of a fictitious joy. Sin is deception. It makes us believe that what is death is life. It possesses persuasive powers. It’s a nightmare dressed up as a daydream. Its aim is the nullification of God’s glory and man’s joy.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
Christmas reminds us that Jesus mission was to destroy fictitious joy. Jesus delivers us from fictitious joy to full joy. Joy that is not rooted in what is fleeting or fading but that which is lasting.
This Advent was unlike previous appearances. Remember that terrible coming when three angels went into Sodom at nightfall, for the Lord said, “I will go now and see whether it is altogether according to its cry.” God had come as a spy to witness human sin. What he witnessed caused Him to lift his hand and order fire to descend and burn up these wicked cities. It’s horror when God comes in such a manner. But now God comes not in vengeance, but as a man in mercy; not to spy out our sin, but to remove it; not to punish guilt, but to forgive it.
There is no doubt that Christ’s Advent is for all people. This truth is substantiated by the good news first being preached to shepherd. Shepherds, on the societal rung, were next to last. Only those with leprosy were considered lower. They weren’t allowed to participate in temple worship because they were considered unclean nor could they give testimony in court. They were outcast, rejects, and nobodies. Who can believe and be saved? Anyone who will believe.
Beloved, the greatest joy is for those who know Christ as a Savior. Even if men do not receive him as the Savior, and so miss the fullest joy, yet they will receive a measure of benefit.
All joy is not fictitious because common grace allows all humanity to experience a level of joy. However, fathomless depths of serious joy are for those who know the Savior, obey the anointed one, and have communion with the Lord himself. Spurgeon in a Christmas sermon told his congregation; “the most joyful man who is the most Christly man”.
You will never know the fulness of the joy which Jesus brings to the soul, unless under the power of the Holy Spirit you take Him to be your Master; your All in all. Only then will you be able to confirm the angel’s chorus.
Let me ask each of you a few personal questions. Are your sins forgiven you for his name’s sake? Is the head of the serpent bruised in your soul? Does the seed of the woman reign in sanctifying power over your nature? Then, you have the joy that is for all the people in its truest form.
Christian behold the Incarnation. Look at Emmanuel dwelling with his people and now living in His people. Pondering what Christ has done will drive you to greater submission. Look at His obedience and learn. See His delight in His duty. Forsake your willpower it will not work. You will need to practice wonder-power will transform. Until you behold joy you will not become joyful.
Christian drink joy from those sacred wells dug by Christ himself. Drink perpetually for there is no fear of running to excess. Plunge yourself in His pure stream of spiritual delight.
A family during the great depression was unable to afford anything but the bare necessities. One day the news came that a circus was coming to town. Tickets cost one dollar. The little boy came running home excited and eager to get the money from his dad. The father regretfully told his boy that he could not provide him with that much money, but if he went out and worked on odd jobs, he might make enough to purchase a ticket on his own. The dad promised to match what the boy could earn.
The boy worked feverishly and, just a few days before the circus came to town, he found that he had just enough, including his dad’s contribution. He took the money and ran off to town to buy his circus ticket.
The day the circus came to town, he grabbed his ticket and rushed to the main street, where he stood on the curb as the circus parade went by. He was thrilled to watch the clowns, elephants, and all of the performers. A clown came dancing over to him and the boy put his ticket in the clown’s hand. He eagerly watched as the rest of the parade went by.
After the parade, the boy rushed home and told his father that he had been to the circus and how much fun it was. The father, surprised that the boy was home already, asked him to describe the circus. The boy told of the parade that went down the main street and of giving his ticket to the clown. The father sadly took his son in his arms and said, “Son, you didn’t see the circus; all you saw was the parade.”
They think that they are experiencing what Christmas is all about. But really, all they’re doing is seeing the parade and missing the main event, the true joy of Christmas.
To those who wish to know the only true peace and lasting joy, come to the babe of Bethlehem, who will become the Man of Sorrows, and the substitutionary sacrifice for sinners.
You who feel that you are lost; REJOICE, your Savior comes to seek and save you. Do you feel yourself enslaved by sin? Are you held the sway of the evil one? Be of good cheer Christ has comes to set you free. Is anyone famished? Are you sick and tried of bread that will not satisfy. Then come to Bethlehem, a house of bread, and receive the babe in the manger, who is the Bread of Life.
Jesus is no partial Savior. What he truly begins he completes perfectly and presents His work before his Father’s throne.
Rejoice aloud all you people, let your hills and valleys ring with joy, for a Savior who is mighty to save is born among you.