We’ve Got Joy For You, The Joy Of The Angels
Glenville 12/16/12 Genesis 3”:1-12 Luke 2:1-20
Today we are in our third sermon in the series We’ve Got Joy. Pastor Kellie began with the Joy of the Church, Pastor Toby spoke on the Joy Of the Lord, today I will speak on the joy of the Angels, and next week Pastor Kellie will preach next week on the Joy of the People. It’s hard to go through the Christmas season and not see the word Joy. Joy is that feeling you get inside when something wonderful has happened or something exciting is taking place, or you are just overcome with thankfulness.
Is there anybody here who has ever told somebody a secret? What’s the first thing you say, when you are about to tell somebody a secret? Right-Don’t tell anybody. But if the secret is some really good news, and you’re the person who is being told the secret, your face lights up, your eyes get big, a smile comes on your face. You then want to know how long do I have to keep this secret. There is something inside of you that wants to let it out and share it with the world. There is a joy inside of you. You are happy for the person, and you’re excited about the joy the news that you have is going to bring to others.
To understand the joy of Christmas, you have to understand where Christmas began and what made it so exciting. Many people think that Christmas began in Bethlehem when Jesus was born, but others would argue “no it started in Nazareth when the angel came to Mary.” But I tell you that Christmas began thousands of years before that in a garden called Eden.
God had created the first two people, Adam and Eve and placed them in a garden where they had great joy with each other. Everything Adam and Eve needed was in the garden. They knew nothing of sickness, disease, sorrow, pain or heartache. They didn’t argue with each other. They wanted what was best for the other person.
Now God could have created them as obedient robots who faithfully worshipd and served God. But God was interested in a living relationship in which they had the choice to serve God or to serve themselves. God never forces us to worship Him. So God sets up a test for them.
God says, there are many, many, kinds of trees here in the garden that you may eat of. There is one tree, that one there, called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You must not eat from that tree, because the day in which you do, you will surely die. There was just one rule to keep, to demonstrate a willful obedience to God. God gave them such a huge variety of choices for enjoying themselves, if they just avoided that one tree.
Things worked out beautifully until one day a good looking fellow showed up showed up in the garden. This serpent was beautiful and intelligent. You know him by the name of Satan. He convinced Adam and Eve that God was trying to hold them back from having a good time. God was not telling the truth about the tree leading to death. As a matter of fact, if they did the opposite of what God had instructed, they would become just as smart as God.
How often do we think that God is holding is back from having a good time, from some of the rules God has in place. How many of us discovered the hard way, God was right the first time and we wished we would have listened. There are some of you here who would be about ready to get your college degree, if you had of believed what Pastor Toby, Pastor Kellie, and Pastor Rick and preached, rather than the advice your friends gave to you on what they would do.
Let me ask you this, why were Adam and Eve hanging around the tree that they were not suppose to be near. How many of us are hanging around something or someone that we know can get us into trouble?. All we’re doing is looking for a possible good time and imagining what it might be like. Well Adam and Eve, chose the good times over God and went ahead and ate from the tree. The first bite was so good that she passed it to Adam. He took a bite but didn’t get to enjoy it. Immediately they felt ashamed of their bodies. They found out the consequences of their actions were far worse than they had imagined they could be.
Sometimes with temptation in our face, we are so busy thinking of what we are going to get, they we don’t consider what it is we are going to lose. They found they had broken their relationship with God, they had strained the relationship they had with each other, they had begun to know what sorrow was, they were removed from the garden of Eden ,and they would no longer live forever because death was now a part of creation. God was heartbroken over his loss of relationship to them, but God is holy and cannot accept sin without a payment for it.
But God gave them hope, that one day things were going to change. God told the serpent Satan, “one day one of Eve’s descendants is going to crush your head.” The word crush implies complete destruction. One day one of Eve’s descendants would come into the world and undo the work Satan had done and bring people back into a real relationship with God. This verse in scripture is the first prophecy of Christmas day. But God keeps the timing of the day a secret.
Hundreds and thousands of years past. Only God knows the day when it’s going to happen. God gives people prophecies to let them know the day is approaching, and God provides them with signs. All of the angels in heaven, know that Jesus is going to come into the world and bring back the people that God so greatly loved back into a relationship with Him.
Then comes that moment when all of history starts to come together, and God is going to intervene in the life of humankind in a very dramatic way. Luke lets us know that the birth of Jesus is not something somebody made up. He tells us, “go to the history books and look up Ceasar Agustus of the Roman empire. You will discover he issued a decree that everybody goes to their home town to be counted in a census. Now there was more than one census, but I’m telling you about the census that took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria.”
I want you to notice how God is in charge of presidents, kings, and rulers. Mary and Joseph live in Nazareth. The prophecies clearly state that the Savior is to be born in Bethlehem. Normally Joseph would not take his wife who is about to have a baby on a 70 to 80 mile journey by foot or on a donkey. Ceasar Augustus was the first emperor of the Roman empire. In order to get everything lined up for the prophecy, God simply moved on Ceasar Agustus to make a decree for a census. Knowing that Joseph would go to Bethlehem, God’s will was done using the ordinary events of people.
Joseph and Mary arrive in Bethlehem which is full of people who have also come back to Bethlehem to register for the census. Mary and Joseph have to settle for finding shelter in a cave like structure. It is there in this dark and dirty place, that the Son of God is born into this world.
Meanwhile in heaven, God announces the time is up. No more guessing, today My son has entered into the world. God points to one of the angels and says, “you go and tell the shepherds.” That angel was so full of joy. Remember what it was like when you were told, it was okay for you to share the news of the secret you had been given. Well the angels had been waiting centuries to tell it. They knew the birth of Jesus, meant the destruction of their enemy Satan and the bringing back to God the people God had created. The angels were happy for God and happy for the people on the planet.
While the party was going on in the inn, and Mary was going through labor pains, the shepherds were out in the fields guarding their sheep. On our Christmas cards, the shepherd look very holy and righteous, but that was not their reputation in the first century.
Shepherding was a very low occupation. Shepherds were almost a kind of outcasts. They were not allowed in the city and were not trusted by the general public. They had a reputation for being thieves and petty criminals. Whereas we say “cuss like a sailor”, they probably said “cuss like a shepherd.” They did not go to the temple that often. God was not a topic on their minds or hearts.
Now imagine these guys are out one night sharing stories lying to each other while they are drinking and using foul language. All of a sudden the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were terrified. Now why would they be so scared? They knew the only reason God would visit them was to bring down judgment. They knew they were rotten sinners to the core and they had no hope or reason to receive God’s mercy. If the people thought they were the scum of the earth, then what on earth did God think about them.
This angel with this secret waiting to burst out of him has so much joy that he doesn’t even consider how his awesome presence would nearly scare them to death. The angel appears, and it goes from darkness to light. To the shepherds, it must have seen as though judgment day had fallen. In a sense judgment day had fallen, but the judgment was going to be in their favor.
The angel lets them know that he has some really good news. A secret that had been kept, can now be shared. “ Today in the town of Bethlehem, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah. If you go into the city, you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” As he is saying this, the other angels in heaven are asking God,” please let us go and tell it too.” They’ve got a joy bursting inside of them, that they want to let it out. God says, Okay, you can go too.”
So as soon as the first angel finishes telling where the child is, a whole host of angels appear, and they shout out together, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Once they have released the joy of their secret, they leave the shepherds and head on back to heaven probably giving each other high fives.
Now why did the angels go to the shepherds and not to Ceasar Agustus first emperor of the Roman Empire, or even to Quirinius the governor of Syria who lived nearby? God wanted us to know, that those whom we consider as worthless, are precious in his sight. God wanted us to know, that the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, would mean hope for anybody who wanted to enter a relationship with Him. God is not impressed by people of importance, or fame, or anything else. God responds to the heart that says, “I have made a mess of my life and I need God.”
Some of us have secrets and they are not good secrets that we are proud of. They take away our joy. I want you to know that God knows about those secrets, and God still loves you. Remember the promise was that Jesus would crush the head of Satan. Satan may have you bound today with something in your life, but Jesus wants to crush his head and release you from the control Satan has over you.
The shepherds were given an invitation to go and see Jesus for themselves. But it was going to cost them something to do it. They had just experienced something, that nobody else in the Bible had gotten to see. A host of angels had appeared to them at once and the first angel spoke directly to them. Would they go and find the child, and risk losing their jobs and having someone steal the sheep?
Would they go against society norms and risk entering the city? What on earth would people think about them? If Jesus is truly the Messiah, would his parents actually let them go close enough to see Jesus. After all they know they are stinking, having had a bath in days, and who knows what they’ve stepped in out their in the fields. Would the shepherds have been welcomed into our church during a Christmas service? Funny how people can be good enough for God to receive, but not good enough for us to accept.
The joy of the angels, was passed on and it became the joy of the shepherds. They left what they had behind, in order to go and see Jesus. Too many of us are trying to carry too much stuff along, and its hindering us from getting to see and to know Jesus. By the time we arrive where God told us to go, Jesus has left the place.
The shepherds did not spend a lot of time debating. They hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in a manger. We like to dress up whatever God does that is to plain to our liking. We make the manger appear to be this stand or cart with beautiful gold hay with plenty of light in the room.
The manger was probably carved into the rock in the cave where Jesus was most likely born. There was not much light. A manger was where they put the food for the animals to eat. Jesus didn’t even have a whole blanket that he could be wrapped up in. God wanted us to know, that He stooped as low as possible to let everybody know, that Jesus was to be the Savior for even those at the bottom of society.
Can you imagine when these rough looking shepherds found Mary and Joseph and they said, “we’re looking for a baby who was born today who is the savior of the world.” When they saw Jesus, their joy became too much to contain. They had a secret that had to come out. They left Mary and Joseph, and hit the streets preaching what the angel had told them about Jesus. All who heard the shepherds were amazed at what they were saying about Jesus.
The shepherds woke up on Christmas eve and were some of the most obnoxious and filthy talking men rarely thinking about God. But on Christmas day, because of the joy of the angels, and their running into Jesus, they returned to society, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen,
The truth about Christmas is this. We were lost and separated from God because of our sin. God sent Jesus into the world, to pay the price for our sin and to crush the head of the devil. Christmas is the gateway to the death of Jesus on the cross. He will be killed, he will be buried, he will be dead for 3 days. On the third God will raise him from the dead, and the defeat of Satan will be assured. Jesus is going to come back to earth one more time to complete what he started at Christmas. He won’t be a baby, and he won’t rest in a manger. He is coming back with the host of heaven to judge the world and to remove Satan from the scene.
That my friend is the joy of the angels. Look beyond the trees, the decorations, the lights, and the gifts and recognize that you have a need for the life changing power of Jesus Christ. Sin, that desire to eat from the tree that has been forbidden affects us all. It keeps us from having joy with each other and with God. This Christmas, remember why Jesus came and try saying yes to the Lord, when things do not go you way. Give the gift of allowing Jesus to live in and through you this Christmas season.
