December 2007 Advent Series – “Why
Christ Came: Joy”
Various Scriptures
Sermon preached at Curwensville Presbyterian Church – December 23, 2007
Prayer Introduction: {Right after Children’s Christmas Pageant, which concludes with the congregation singing “Joy to the World.” Acknowledge the kids (and the adults who helped). Keep kids engaged in the sermon.
Is there anybody who is excited about Christmas coming? Tomorrow is Christmas Eve – so you know what that means today is? Christmas Eve…Eve!
What are the four weeks before Christmas called? No, not “the longest four weeks of the year” – this is called the season of Advent. Do you remember what the word “Advent” means? It means “coming.” We are excited that Christmas is coming, because we are excited that the Christ has come – and we are excited because Jesus Christ is coming again. We don’t know when, but we know He’s coming again.
During the Sundays of Advent when we’ve gathered together we have lit four candles on our Advent wreath – do you remember what the first candle was for? Hope. And the 2nd? Peace. And the 3rd? Love. And the pink one that we lit this morning? Joy.
And those are four big reasons “Why Christ Came” – to be our hope; to bring us peace; and to demonstrate God’s love.
This morning I want to talk about the last candle – the last reason Christ came: Joy. Instead of looking at just one verse from the Bible on joy – we are going to see a bunch of verses on joy, which shows that joy is a major theme of God’s Word. Let’s pray…We pray now for the preacher in the pulpit. He is not worthy, but by your grace he is able. And so it is through Jesus Christ that we pray – Amen!
From God’s Word I would have you see the noun, adjective and verb of why Christ came: to bring us Joy, to make us Joyful and to cause us to Rejoice.
I. Joy
First I would have you see that Jesus came to bring us Joy. The words for joy (joy, joyful, joyfully, rejoice, [and happy] – which is often the same Hebrew or Greek word) are used almost 500 times in God’s Word – don’t worry we’re not going to look at 500 verses.
The word “joy” is a noun. Now I need the kids here, because you [and teachers] are probably the only ones who can answer this question – fully. [You might have to be “smarter than a 5th grader”]. What is a noun? {It is a person, place, thing OR idea}.
Joy isn’t a person (although I do know a couple of people named “Joy); Joy isn’t a place or a thing, either. Joy is an idea. Joy is an idea that is rooted in the person of Jesus.
Many people think that joy is the same thing as happy. But it is different.
Webster’s dictionary defines the noun “joy” as, “a very glad feeling”
But “happy” is defined as “favored by circumstances; lucky.”
Happiness has to do with what’s happening to you; joy has to do with what’s happening IN you. You can be happy but have no joy. Being happy is a good thing – it’s great when good things are happening to you.
Someone asked Buffalo Bills offensive lineman Glenn Parker why NFL linemen are so cheerful: “There are not a lot of well-paying jobs for 300-pounders. We found one, and we're happy about it.”
But joy is more than being happy. In fact you can have joy and not be happy. Because joy is not about what is happening to you, but what is happening in you.
In
How do we have joy in us – no matter what is happening to us – by truly knowing God’s love for us. Notice I didn’t say to know ABOUT God’s love; but to know God’s love.
Victor Hugo (who wrote Les Miserables) said, “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.”
It isn’t just
knowing about love, but knowing – being convicted – that we are loved. Last week
we looked at that great verse from
And God didn’t just say he loved us – he showed his love by sending Jesus – “For God demonstrated his love in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Because of our sin we were God’s enemy; but instead of getting angry at us – he poured out his anger on Jesus – so that he could forgive us for all of our sins; and give us joy.
You kids who have come to Sunday School over the last couple of years have learned about this through your catechism questions. Do you remember: “In what condition did God create Adam and Eve? He made them holy and happy” (#22) And, “How did Adam and Eve change when they sinned? Instead of being holy and happy, they became sinful and miserable” (#35).
Christ came to redeem us from this curse. He came to re-create us. He came to return us to the condition of being holy and happy. Christ came so that we might have joy – to make us joyful.
II. Joyful
And so I would have you see the adjective, “Joyful” which means – “to be full of joy” – Joy FULL (or the adverb = joyfully”).
Psalm 68:3 – “But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.”
Jesus came to change us – to make us different. Instead of being sinful and miserable, Jesus came to make us holy (righteous) and happy (joyful).
The great old preacher, Billy Sunday, said, “If you have no joy in your religion, there's a leak in your Christianity somewhere.”
I hope you don’t have a leak; but if you do, I heard a story about two dogs that may help.
A big dog saw a little dog chasing its tail and asked, “Why are you chasing your tail?” The puppy said, “I have learned that the best thing for a dog is happiness, and that happiness is my tail. Therefore I am chasing it; and when I catch it, I shall have happiness.” The old dog with great wisdom said, ‘I, too, have judged that happiness is a fine thing for a dog, and that happiness is in my tail. But I have noticed that when I chase after it, it keeps running away from me, but when I go about my business, it comes after me” (Illustration from C.L. James).
We can’t be joyful, by trying to be joyful; we can only be joyful by going about the business of following Jesus. If we follow Jesus, then joy will follow us – if we are with Jesus then joy will be with us.
We don’t believe in Jesus because we see him; we believe in Jesus because we know his love for us and love him in return.
When we know God’s love, we ask God to send his Holy Spirit to live in our heart – and God changes us from the inside out. It is called the fruit of the Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23a).
Did you hear it? Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. Joy comes from having the Holy Spirit live inside of us. We can be joyful by asking God to have his Holy Spirit live in us.
We can be joyful no matter what is happening to us, because of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Earlier this
year we read in
Wow! These were people who had their stuff taken from them, because they were Christians – and the people in power around them hated Christians. But these people joyfully accepted this – because they knew the stuff we have on earth is temporary; but in heaven we will have better stuff that will last forever.
I’ll bet you’re excited about getting Christmas gifts – in just TWO MORE DAYS! That stuff will be great, but how long will you enjoy it? A few days? A few weeks? A few months? Maybe a few years? But those who have the Holy Spirit in their hearts – who know of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ – know that one day we will receive the treasure of heaven; a treasure that we will enjoy forever.
III. Rejoice
And so, finally, I would have you see the verb – “Rejoice” – which is defined as, “the expression of this feeling [of joy].”
If you have joy, and have been made joyful, by knowing Jesus and having the Holy Spirit living in you – then you can’t keep it inside; you’ve got to let it out – all the time.
I remember learning
Really? Rejoice always?!
Absolutely. We can because God never leaves us. We can rejoice always, no matter what is happening to us – because of who is in us.
My friend Matt Mitchell recently said to his 7-year-old daughter – “Our joy is not determined by whether our life is going as we’d like, but by how we respond to however our life is going.”
In fact, God’s Word says it is a good thing when things aren’t going well.
God is showing you love, by not letting things go well. He is trying to help us discover joy, separate from happiness.
Have you
heard the 9 beatitudes [blessed are or happy are], which Jesus tells us. They
don’t look much like blessings on the surface: “Blessed are the poor in
spirit…those who mourn…the meek…those who are persecuted…when people insult you”
(cf.
And in the
very next verse Jesus says, “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your
reward in heaven”
You are blessed, even when it doesn’t look like it by the world’s standards, because your reward isn’t in this world; it is in heaven.
C.S. Lewis (who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia) said, “Joy is never in our power, and pleasure is. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted joy would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasure in the world.”
No matter how good a Christmas you have – how many presents you get – would you not exchange them in a heartbeat in order to receive heaven and eternal joy?!
And so
There was a nine-year-old who had leukemia and was given six months to live. When the doctor broke the news to her parents outside her hospital room, the youngster overheard the doctor's words. But it did not become obvious until later that she knew about her condition. To everyone's surprise, her faith in Christ gave her an attitude of victory. She talked freely about her death with anticipation in her voice. As she grew weaker, it seemed that her joy became more radiant. One day before she sank into a final coma, she said to her family, “I am going to be the first to see Jesus! What would you like me to tell Him for you?”
May we all have this kind of joy. After all that’s why Christ came.
MAY THE TRUTH SET YOU FREE – AMEN!