Christmas: A Time For Joy Series

INTRODUCTION

• I remember going crazy waiting for Christmas as a child (until I was 35).

• In my hometown, we have a town square, and each year, a few weeks before Christmas, they move a tiny Santa house on the square!

• WE KNEW SANTA WAS COMING!

• My excitement, anticipation, and joy grew each day I went by the Santa house.

• Then came the time to see Santa!

• Oh my, that was exciting!

• Santa gave me hope that I would get the loot I was so desperately wanting!

• I grew up in a dark time when kids did not get every single thing they wanted, so Christmas was a time when hope and joy abounded!

• When you are anticipating good things, joy overflows.

• As I have matured a little over the many years, my perspective on Christmas has matured.

• I used to get joy during Christmas over what I was going to receive.

• Now, my joy comes from giving, and more importantly, my joy comes from knowing that God loved me so much that He sent His Son to free me from the bondage of sin and to give me eternal life through His Son Jesus!

• When we harken back to our main passage in Isaiah 40:1-5, we remember that the nation of Israel was in a bad way; they were going from captivity to captivity because of their disobedience.

• In the midst of these dark times, God gave the nation hope; God gave them something to look forward to, something to anticipate.

• Anticipation can breed joy.

• Joy is something that transcends our station in life or the circumstances we face because we know we have something coming that is so great that the stuff we face now is nothing in comparison!

• Jesus talked about joy and happiness throughout his teachings.

• For example, describing the idea of joy from Matthew chapter 5, Bible Commentator Michael Green states:

• “It is as if Jesus is saying that life in the kingdom with him is a life of profound joy, a joy that no person and no circumstance can take away. And this blessedness is not reserved for some nebulous future. It is for now! It is the mark of those who have really surrendered to the King and tasted his grace, although of course there is a future to rejoice in too” (Michael Green, The Message of Matthew: The Kingdom of Heaven, The Bible Speaks Today [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000], 89–90).

• Tidings of comfort and joy! Joy is brought to the world through Jesus.

• God did not just want to bring comfort and peace to the weary, but also joy because of the salvation that God is bringing to his people.

› Big Idea of the Message: The Christmas season is a time of joy. God wants his people to be joyful in their redemption.

• Let’s turn to verses 8 and 9 of Luke 2.

Luke 2:8–9 (NET 2nd ed.)

8 Now there were shepherds nearby living out in the field, keeping guard over their flock at night.

9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were absolutely terrified.

SERMON

I. The shepherds’ encounter with joy.

• The life of a shepherd was difficult.

• Because of the nature of their job.

• The religious authorities of the temple had such a strongly negative view of the shepherd that they kept them from participating in the religious ceremonies in Jerusalem (Craig Keener, IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament [Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2014], 185)!

• The Mishnah (a transcription of Jewish oral tradition, authoritative for Jewish life) includes some unkind passages about shepherds.

• It says shepherds are incompetent and that if a shepherd falls into a pit, no one should feel obligated to rescue him (Randy Alcorn, "Shepherd Status," in Come Thou Long Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas, ed. Nancy Guthrie [Wheaton, IL: Good News Publisher, 2008], 87)!

• Imagine being a shepherd in a society where the religious leaders taught that if you were trapped and needed help, no one need feel obligated to help you.

• These guys also smelled like their sheep, and that was not a pleasant smell.

• The life of a shepherd was not one that brought great joy; they did not have much to anticipate in life.

• These guys were going to live with their sheep and die without much fanfare with their sheep.

• I think many people live their lives with nothing to look forward to.

• Their life is a life of existence, one that does not have a great anticipation for the present or the future.