The Joy of Advent
Advent 2018 • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro:
Intro:
Following Christ will be difficult and will cause us to become outcast
Our suffering is not about us...
When life gets difficult, we need to ask God what He is doing...
Our willingness to suffer shows how much we love God and it shows the world how much God loves us.
Setting the stage...
Setting the stage...
400 years of silence...
Alexander the Great and his conquest...
Alexander the Great’s death...
years of conflict after A’s death in which all of his generals are fighting for control...
The great wall of china is built
The great wall of china is built
Julius Caesar...
Mark Antony...
Herod the Great (Herod means Hero) is put in power over Isreal by Julius Ceaser, because Herod had saved his life.
Herod is only half Jew...
Think about your own family history for a moment. How far back can you trace your ancestors?
Consider that the united states isn’t even 250 years old yet.
Let your brain wrap around that. For almost twice as long as we as a country have existed, the Israelites were literally caught in the middle of many wars.
Think about how much we as a country have messed things up in our short history.
Everything these people have ever known was lying, deceit, murder, adultery, and constant pressure to believe in the gods of your captures.
I bring this up because when we talk about the Anguish of Advent, and we consider the things we have had to suffer… WE HAVE IT SO EASY!
It is no wonder to me why the Jews were convinced that the promised messiah was going to be a conquering king.
That is what they believed they need in order to have Peace and Joy.
They put God in the box… They could only imagine him delivering they in the way they had seen other peoples being delivered by Kings and armies.
They did get their Peace and Joy, just not in the way that they had imagined.
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah,
40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,
42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Luke 1:39-
I believe she rushes away because of fear and is looking for counsel and comfort.
Mary has been told by the angel that Elizabeth is also pregnant…
Zechariah was a priest and obviously she knew that she could trust them and they were legitimate followers of God.
Without Mary saying anything other than hello, the HS fills Elizabeth and she immediately knows what is going on.
God uses Elizabeth to confirm for Mary, what is going on.
God loves us enough to speak until we are confident.
Look at Mary’s response after the confirmation of Elizabeth.
1. God speaks through other believers and it helps us to believe and understand what He is doing.
1. God speaks through other believers and it helps us to believe and understand what He is doing.
This is not something new for us, but what my goal is during advent is for us to take these stories that we “know” so well and take a fresh look.
Mary rushes away from home to visit her relative (aunt?).
I believe she rushes away because of fear and is looking for counsel and comfort.
Mary has been told by the angel that Elizabeth is also pregnant…
Zechariah was a priest and obviously she knew that she could trust them and they were legitimate followers of God.
Without Mary saying anything other than hello, the HS fills Elizabeth and she immediately knows what is going on.
God uses Elizabeth to confirm for Mary, what is going on.
God loves us enough to speak until we are confident.
Look at Mary’s response after the confirmation of Elizabeth.
Look at Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s testimony...
Luke 1:46-
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Mary goes from running in fear to praising the Lord for choosing her, remembering Israel, and for keeping His word by sending the promised Messiah.
There are times when what God’s people need is a testimony to be encouraged and it is also what God wants because it shows people how God is speaking.
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,
60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea,
66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
Luke 1:57-
2. God does not always want us to tell others what He is doing in our lives.
2. God does not always want us to tell others what He is doing in our lives.
vs58 points out that Elizabeth’s family and neighbors didn’t even know she was pregnant.
This shows the extremes that she went through to hide this pregnancy from everyone.
Just like we need to share our story, there are also times when we need to keep it to ourselves until the appointed time.
I’ve experienced this God does things in lots of different ways and we don’t need to fall into the trap of simply assuming that we should opperate as we normally do.
Just like in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He told those that He healed not to tell anyone.
It wasn’t time for His work and plan to be revealed yet.
you may be thinking that these first two points contradict each other, but they don’t.
God does things in lots of different ways and we don’t need to fall into the trap of simply assuming that we should do what we normally do.
God may need you to keep quite...
OR He may want you to tell everyone what He is saying
Let me give you two examples:
God telling me that Bethany was going to be ok before she even had the official diagnosis that it was cancer.
God told me very specifically that I need to tell people that she was going to be ok and God used that testimony to show others the truth that God loves us and takes care of us.
There have been several times when God has me make a change in my employment and he began to speak that months before it actually happened.
Speaking that too soon would not have been good.
It is critical to that we ask God what we are to share and what we need to keep to ourselves.
Praying with Jason about the outcome of a court case… I needed to know if I was supposed to tell him...
God told me it would be favorable to them
I was nervous about saying it because I didn’t want to be wrong or cause their disappointment to be worse than it already was.
3. God can take what is devastating for us and make it a miracle for others.
3. God can take what is devastating for us and make it a miracle for others.
Can you imagine being in Zech’s shoes? His wife is now pregnant and he can’t hear or speak. Talk about your world being upside down!
God used the temporary disability of Zech to draw the attention of others to prove that God was at work.
We need to be careful about how we respond to what God is doing in our lives.
Especially what we say to others about what we are going through.
God may want to use that time of discomfort to amaze people by showing them what He can do through you.
If you spend the whole time complaining about your circumstances, people will stop listening to you and it will cast a shadow over what God is doing.
Our complaints make the focus go from what God is doing to what we are saying.
65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea,
66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
Because of the way that both Zechariah and Elizabeth handled this entire situation their neighbors are amazed and the word of the Lord’s goodness and power is spread throughout Judea.
Because of the way that both Zechariah and Elizabeth handled this entire situation their neighbors are amazed and the word of the Lords goodness and power is spread throughout Judea.
Also, because of how they handled it, John’s life is set up the way the Lord needs it too.
There is an expectation from the people in John’s life that God is going to do something great because of what the Lord had done in his birth.
So, where is the Joy and that Christmas is supposed to be about?
4. Our obedience will result in Joy for those around us.
4. Our obedience will result in Joy for those around us.
Now, keep in mind what we discussed at the beginning today. God has sent a prophet in hundreds of years and all of the sudden, when things are at their darkest, God shows up and sends a prophesy through Zech.
Not only do they now have a prophet, his son is a prophet as well and they are preparing the way for the long awaited Messiah!
This is a huge deal! God has not forgotten them!
Look at Zechariah’s response to this whole ordeal.
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
Luke 1:67-
As we are enduring, and spending time with God. He begins to piece together all the things he has been teaching us our entire lives and makes them real.
We gain a small glimpse of what God is doing because we are paying attention and we are asking Him what He is up too.
God uses this experience to allow us to speak truth into the lives of others.
This is not the same old, tired out saying, God uses our pain to help others.
He does, but it is so much deeper than that. Us being able to empathize with others is just scratching the surface of what God is trying to do.
We gain mountains of knowledge about ourselves and more importantly about God as we endure.
God doesn’t waste our suffering and we shouldn’t either.
God’s involvement in our lives will ultimately end in Joy!
God’s involvement in our lives will ultimately end in Joy!
God’s involvement in our lives will ultimately end in Joy!
You need to be at a place in your life that when things get really hard, you run to God, not away from Him.
Mary’s response to the angel and then her response after talking to Elizabeth
Zechariah’s response after his hearing and voice are restored...
God told him there would be ...
14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
English Standard Version Chapter 1
14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,
Mary didn’t ask to be the mother of Christ
Zechariah had a hard time believing that it was even possible…
We also, don’t go looking for hard times...
When we find ourselves in a hard place in life, ask God what he is doing, and follow the leading of the HS.
as tough as it may seem in the moment, God always has our best in mind and that will always end in joy.
The joy of Christmas is that God is coming to his people and will bring peace with Him. He is the peace. He is the comfort. He is the joy.