“The Carols of Christmas: Joy to the World!”
Advent Sermon Series 2013
Christmas Eve
(Lk. 2:8-20)
Introduction.
I want you to close your eyes for a moment. Think about a time in your life,
either recently or in the past, when you experienced joy at Christmas. It could be a
special time when you were with family or friends. It could be when you found
great satisfaction in a gift you gave or received. It might be when you experienced
a mighty answer to a prayer from God. Think about that moment. Think about the
emotions you experienced and the thoughts you had.
My joyous memory is visiting our kids in Colorado last year after we
celebrated Christmas Eve here with you in Winston-Salem. We flew to Colorado
on Christmas Day, and we were greeted by our little grandson, Lleyton, and his
parents and our other kids. It was great to all of them, but I have to confess that
little Lleyton was our real bundle of joy last Christmas! There is just something
about your first Christmas with your first grandchild that makes it all the more
special.
Joy. What an amazing gift it is. When it’s present, our lives are richer, and
when it’s absent there’s an emptiness in our souls. Joy is a complex subject, and in
some ways it's hard to define. But once you've experienced it, once you've tasted
its fruit, there’s a longing in your heart to want to know and experience it again and
again for the rest of your life.
As we think about joy tonight on Christmas Eve, I want to ask and answer three
questions: Where does joy come from? How do you get joy? And what are we
supposed to do with joy when it comes our way?
I. God’s Gift of Christmas Joy.
Joy is one of those words we hear most often at Christmas. You see it on
Christmas cards. You hear it sung about in Christmas carols. It’s a word that
describes many of the celebrations and parties at this time of the year. For college
students who have just come through finals, there is joy at being done with another
semester! (Can I hear an Amen?!)
However, I believe that if we’re honest, we have to admit that sometimes it’s
hard to be joyful at Christmas, and looking in the faces of people at Hanes Mall in
recent days, I haven’t seen much joy. Take, for example, this video of someone
caught in a Christmas snow storm who had to dig out his car. (Video clip)
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Seriously, there are a lot of reasons for a person not to be joyful this Christmas.
Our nation is still at war. There has been a tragic loss of life in recent school
shootings. The world feels very fragile and vulnerable. For some people dreams
have been shattered, relationships have been broken, and if we’re honest some of
us battle the blues tonight. Joy isn’t something you can manufacture or drum up, at
Christmas or any other time of the year.
A few weeks ago I shared with you that often we get joy confused with its
cousin, happiness. It’s easy to do. Outwardly they resemble one another, but
happiness comes from the root word “hap,” which means chance. Good things
might happen to you, but it’s really a matter of chance. Happiness is something
that the world may give you but which life can take away or destroy.
Christian joy is different. It expresses itself in a feeling, but it’s often deeper
than a feeling. It’s like knowing a secret. It’s a deep gladness. It’s a delight, a
great contentment. There is something about joy which is beyond our outward
circumstances, and beyond our feelings. And joy is a reservoir in our hearts, a
river that never ceases to flow.
The birth of Jesus was marked by joy, and it was the most dominant mood that
first Christmas long ago. In Luke 2 we read where the angel said to the shepherds,
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the
people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the
Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find the baby wrapped in cloths lying in
a manger” (Lk. 2:10-12). Luke also tells us that when the shepherds found the
baby, they rejoiced. Elsewhere in Matthew’s gospel we are told that the Magi
were overjoyed with the saw Christ’s star. Even John the Baptist leaped for joy in
his mother’s womb when Mary came to visit after she became pregnant with Jesus.
But what was the source of their joy? Where did it come from? The source of
their joy was the One who made the heavens and the earth and who came to our
planet in as a tiny little baby. The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the
author and giver of joy. Later on during His earthly ministry, Jesus told His
disciples, "I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may
be complete" (Jn. 15:11). The babe whose birth we celebrate tomorrow is the
source of joy.
II. How Do We Get Joy?
In his autobiography C.S. Lewis said that his search for God really began as a
search for joy. There were moments in his life when he had experienced joy, and
he mentions specifically the memory of a memory, the delight he experienced in
reading a particular book, and through the gift of poetry which he loved. These
experiences whetted his appetite and made him want joy all the more. Lewis’
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search for joy eventually led him to a search for God who he discovered is the
source of joy.
Listen to what he writes: "In a sense the central story of my life is about nothing
else....it is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other
satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply
distinguished both from Happiness and from Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has
indeed one characteristic, and one only, in common with them; the fact that anyone
who has experienced it will want it again. Apart from that and considered only in
its quality, it might almost equally well be called a particular kind of unhappiness
or grief. But then it is a kind we want. I doubt whether anyone who has tasted it
would ever, if both were in his power, exchange it for all the pleasures in the
world. But then Joy is never in our power and pleasure often is."1
Lewis went on to say the way we get joy is by finding God. Or better, by being
found by Him. It’s a divine gift that comes our way only through God. However,
I’ve come to believe that joy isn’t just a gift; it’s also a choice. You get happiness
in all sorts of ways, chiefly from favorable circumstances. But biblical joy comes
from the presence of Jesus Christ in your life. The Christian life isn’t merely an
invitation to become a moral person, nor is it just a call to duty. Rather, the
Christian life is an invitation to choose to enter into the joy of God through our
relationship with Jesus Christ and to experience intimacy with the One who is joy
itself. Our experience of joy often comes as a result of delighting in God and
sharing in the wonder of having a personal relationship with the Lord Himself.
Joy involves a choice. We either choose to live in concert with Christ and
claim His joy for our lives, or we choose to live in disobedience to His Word and
forfeit this precious gift. And we shouldn’t be surprised that we lack joy if we are
living contrary to what Scripture teaches. The baby whose birth we celebrate at
Christmas would later on meet with His disciples in an upper room the night before
His death, and there Jesus spoke with them about joy. I think it took them by
surprise, as joy often does. Jesus told them of His impending separation from the
disciples, and He tried to prepare them for the terror of His trial, the awfulness of
His death, and the devastation that stood before Him and them.
Nevertheless, it was in that difficult moment that Jesus told them about joy. He
said, "You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy....Now is your time for grief,
but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy….
I have said this to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have
tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (16:20,22,33).
What Christ was saying is that joy can be ours even in the midst of difficult
circumstances. Regardless of what is happening around us and to us, we can still
know the joy of Christ. The calling of Christ is to choose joy, even in difficult
times.
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Tim Hansel was a man who a strong, risk-taking, all-out-kind-of guy who liked
to climb mountains and lead wilderness experiences. One day, on the way back to
camp after climbing on the Palisade Glacier with friends in California, his foot
slipped and he fell a long distance down into a crevasse, landing directly on his
back on the ice. As a result of this climbing accident in the Sierra Mountains, for
the rest of his adult life Tim lived with continual physical pain.
However, in spite of the pain of his life, he learned that joy is a choice, and he
wrote about his discovery in a powerful book You Gotta Keep Dancing, which is
taken from Psalm 30:11, which says "You have changed my sadness into a joyful
dance." Listen to what Tim writes: "Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional. We
cannot avoid pain, but we can avoid joy. God has given us such immense freedom
that He will allow us to be as miserable as we want to be....Joy is simple (not to be
confused with easy). At any moment in life we have at least two options, and one
of them is to choose an attitude of gratitude, a posture of grace, a commitment to
joy."
These words are no more true than at Christmas. Wherever you find yourself
this Christmas Eve, let me encourage you to choose joy. Joy can be present in a
depressed economy, it can happen in the middle of a war, it can be present in
difficult family Christmas gatherings, and it can be present even in an intensive
care unit in the hospital. That’s the nature of joy.
III. What Do You Do With Joy?
There are two things you can do with joy when it comes your way. One way
you can respond is by being a joy-killer. There are two classic Christmas stories
that have immortalized joy-killers. When I say the names “Scrooge” and “the
Grinch,” what immediately comes to mind? Someone who says, “Bah, humbug,”
and a person who tried to steal Christmas from everyone else. Whenever you and I
act like Scrooge, or we act like the Grinch, we’re killing the joy of Christmas and
we contribute to the sadness of the world.
There are a lot of ways we can be joy-killers at Christmas. Bitterness, anger,
criticism, ingratitude, isolation, greed and envy – they all steal joy from our hearts.
In some ways I think joy is a rather fragile thing, and it can easily be killed. The
most joyful moment for a family at Christmas can be shattered by an angry word or
a flippant remark. Be careful to treasure and encourage joy tomorrow when you
gather with friends and family, and don’t be a joy-killer.
The other response we can have to joy is to share it. It’s never as much fun to
experience joy and then keep it to yourself. It’s always a better experience when
you have someone with whom you can share it. For example, there was a pastor
who loved to golf, and he loved it so much that he decided to call in sick one
Sunday so we could pursue his passion, and he went to play a round by himself.
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On the third hole that Sunday morning, he did something he had never done
before. He made a hole-in-one! He was so excited he started to dance all around
the tee box, and he was filled with joy over his great accomplishment. But then it
hit him. He couldn’t ever share his joy with anyone, because then he’d have to
admit he had lied about being sick that Sunday!
The Bible says that joy isn’t something you’re supposed to keep to yourself.
Rather, it’s something you should express, just like the shepherds did that first
Christmas. “When they had seen [the baby Jesus], they spread the word concern
what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at
what the shepherds said to them….The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising
God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they have been
told” (Lk. 2:10).
When you’ve got joyful news, you want to share it with others. Many years
ago when our oldest son Nate was small, he and Lorie went out shopping one
Christmas. When they returned home, they drove into our driveway and Lorie
turned to Nate and cautioned him and said, “Now, don’t tell dad that we bought
him some new tennis shoes for Christmas. It’s a surprise.” Nate nodded his head
in agreement. But when they came in the door, I said, “Oh, you’ve been out
shopping for Christmas. I wonder what you got me.” Nate tried to hold it in as
best he could, but then when he couldn’t hold it in any longer he blurted out,
“Shoes!” When you’ve got good news to share, you can’t keep it in.
What should we do with joy? We don’t keep it to ourselves. We share it with
others, or, as the famous Christmas carol suggests, we “repeat the sounding joy!”
And when we do, it has a rippling effect that can change our lives and even change
the world. You and I are here tonight celebrating Christmas because the joy has
been repeated down through the ages.
Conclusion.
Well, if you had a hard time coming up with a Christmas memory at the
beginning of my message, I don’t want you to leave this Christmas Eve worship
service without making sure you’ve experienced a little Christmas joy. So as I
conclude this sermon, I want you to take a look at this video of a child
experiencing joy. It came to me as an attachment to an email that was titled:
“What to do with those bills when they come in January.” Check it out. (Video)
Babies can bring us so much joy. The baby in that video did for all of us, and
my grandson Lleyton did for Lorie and me last Christmas. But the joy the baby
Jesus brought to the world 2000 years ago outstrips them all!
Are you filled with joy this Christmas, or are you still searching for it? Biblical
joy comes from the presence of Jesus Christ in your life, and it’s a choice to be
embraced by His gift of joy and a choice to share it with others. In past years at
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Christmas, sometimes I received a two-part present in which one gift said, “Open
me first!” To get joy, you first need to open your heart to Jesus Christ. Becoming
a Christian is not a matter of birth or nationality or going to church or even being
religious. Rather, it’s an act of the will that begins when you invite Jesus to take
up residence in your life through the presence of His Holy Spirit.
To know the joy of which the Bible speaks begins with giving your life to
Christ. Have you opened the gift of God’s Christmas joy offered to you in Christ?
If you never have, I pray you’ll do it tonight. It will make all the difference in the
world, and Christmas will take on a whole new meaning. Through Jesus you and I
can choose joy this Christmas!
1
C.S. Lewis in Surprised by Joy, pp. 17,18.