The Gifts of Christmas: Joy
Scott Bayles, pastor
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 12/18/2016
If you have been able to join us the past two weeks, you know that we began a journey through the season of Advent by unwrapping the gifts of Christmas. We began with the gift of hope—hope for yesterday, today and tomorrow as we wait together for the arrival of Christ. Then we unwrapped the gift of love—God’s love, which came to us wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Together, hope and love are two of the greatest gifts we could receive this Christmas. But wait… there’s more. Today we’ll open the gift of joy.
If there is a single word that encapsulates all the feelings of Christmas, it’s the little word “joy.” Several of our favorite Christmas carols mention it: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come,” “O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,” “Shepherds, why this jubilee, why your joyous strains prolong?” “Repeat the sounding joy,” “Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies, with th’ angelic host proclaim, ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem.’”
It’s not hard to feel joy when you come to church and sing these joyful songs. But even outside of the church Christmas and joy go hand in hand. The holiday just oozes merriment—all those cozy houses aglow with Christmas lights and dripping with garland, flannel pajama-clad families sipping cocoa under Christmas trees loaded with presents, Christmas carolers, family gatherings, charitable giving, It’s a Wonderful Life!
I mean, So. Much. Joy!
But the truth is—not everyone is joyful at Christmas time.
For some, this time of year is dreadful and difficult. They are missing loved ones, kids, or parents. They can’t afford gifts for their kids or even a good meal on the table at Christmas. They may have had a tragedy in their life, and another holiday without that loved one can be unbearable. Some people won’t make it home for Christmas. And for many, they just want it all to be over because it’s just too painful to fake being joyful, when every day is a struggle.
Many of you may have heard about the terminally ill boy who died in Santa’s arms earlier this week. The story of sixty-year-old Eric Schmitt-Matzen and a very sick five-year-old went viral. Eric—a local, award winning Santa Clause—received a phone call from a nurse at the hospital in Knoxville, TN urging him to come see the little boy who just wanted to see Satan Clause before he died. Santa rushed over, put on a rosy-cheeked smile, and gave the boy a present that was already wrapped and ready to go. “When I walked in,” Santa said, “he was laying there, so weak it looked like he was ready to fall asleep.” To thank him for the gift, he turned and gave Santa a tiny squeeze. “I wrapped my arms around him,” Santa recalled, “Before I could say anything, he died right there. I let him stay, just kept hugging and holding on to him.” The boy’s family, who were gathered outside of his hospital room, sobbing, saw his fragile body and ran to his bed. “I cried all the way home,” Eric said.
How does that Santa—how does that family—experience joy this Christmas?
As we approach Christmas, we often hear about joy and what a joyful season it is, so we try to cram all the other feelings of life down inside. If we don’t feel joyful, we try hard to create joy by tossing our troubles aside, ignoring our deepest struggles, and just living for the moment. But that’s not what the joy of Christmas is all about. And while it may be nice for a moment, it is shallow and short lived.
The gift of joy offered to us in Jesus is one of deep and abiding joy. It is a joy so powerful it can hold its own in a dark and hurting world—and in the midst of all our troubles and struggles. I encourage you to open this gift in a spirit of honesty. You don’t have to cast aside your worries to unwrap this gift of joy.
This gift is more than just a feeling; it is a joy that causes all of creation to celebrate. It’s a deep and powerful, abiding and inexpressible joy.
But the question that nags at many of us is: What if you just don’t feel joy this season? How can you receive this gift of joy even in the midst of suffering, loneliness, pain, grief, busyness, stress, or boredom?
The experience of some shepherds watching their flocks might help us answer that question. When the angel of the Lord first announced the birth of Jesus, he proclaimed, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people” (Luke 2:10 NLT). This is the joy we’re going to unwrap today. As we examine the shepherds’ story, we discover where to find and how to experience this joy.
First, we find joy in the moment.
• JOY IN THE MOMENT
Immediately after Mary gave birth, the Bible shares the shepherds’ story, saying:
That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” (Luke 2:8-14)
I doubt these shepherds felt particularly joyful that evening. These guys were just minding their own business, or rather, their own sheep—just another day at the office, another night in their shepherding. Probably the most exciting thing that ever happened to them was a visit from a prowling wolf, which is why they kept watch. It was just the same boring old routine.
When the angels showed up to delivered their message, the shepherds didn’t immediately feel joy then either—they felt scared! The Bible says they were terrified. That’s why the angel’s first words were, “Do not be afraid.” The angel first addressed their fear, then helped them move beyond it.
Like those shepherds, many of us are just trying to get through life. We’ve got our own fears, our own concerns. We’re not even anticipating joy, let alone experiencing it.
It can be hard to recognize joy in our lives sometimes, especially because it doesn’t always look the way we expect it to. We expect joy to be free of worry and hardship, but the Bible tells us that joy is found in the midst of, and even because of, hard things. For instance, the Bible says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:2–3 NIV).
Joy often comes in the midst of the dull and even the difficult. Many of us think we’ll be happy when all of our struggles are over. We tell ourselves, if only I can get this degree, then I’ll be happy. Or, if only I can get this next promotion… or, get a bigger house… or, a better car… or, if only I could get these bills paid… or, the IRS off my back… or, a few more people in church on Sunday… or, a good nights sleep for once… then I’ll be happy. But the angels came to announce that joy is here! Now! This moment!
A lot of people look for joy like they look for a store in the mall. You walk up to one of those kiosk maps with the little star that says “You are here.” Then you look up the store you’re trying to find and locate that on the map, then you have to figure out how to get from point A to point B. If you think that joy is somewhere else (around the corner), you’re never going to find it. It’s right here—in the midst of your struggle, in the midst of your fear, in the midst of your boring old routine. Joy is here!
In addition to discovering joy in the moment, these shepherds also discovered joy in the Messiah—in Jesus.
• JOY IN THE MESSIAH
Notice the angel’s announcement again. He says, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” (Luke 2:10-11).
The “good news” that brings “great joy” is Jesus—the Messiah. The birth of Jesus brought indescribable joy to the world. The Psalms actually predicted this joy. They declare: “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the LORD, for he comes” (Psalm 96:11–13).
Jesus continues to bring joy to those who know him and love him. Even though we weren’t there to witness his birth, he still brings joy to our lives. The Bible says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8 NIV).
How and why does Jesus fill our hearts with such joy?
He reveals the secret in John 15, saying, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:10-11 NIV).
The joy you are to have as a Christian is the joy of Jesus. He says my joy, not joy like mine. Jesus wants to take the joy that He has and place it in you. Perhaps you’ve thought of Jesus only as a man of sorrows; you’ve never thought of Him as the Jesus of joy. Many times when we think of Jesus we picture him as this serious, sober, and solemn person—and he was at times. But, what many of us miss is that Jesus was also a man of indomitable joy. He radiated real happiness. Jesus wasn’t this melancholy, depressed person with a raincloud following him around everywhere he went. The Bible says that Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21 NIV).
Jesus wants to take that joy, His joy, and put it in us! That’s why joy is described in Galatians 5 as a fruit of the Holy Spirit. As we draw closer to Jesus, the Holy Spirit produces the joy of Jesus in our hearts.
The shepherd must have experienced this in a very tangible way. They must have felt an almost instant injection of joy at the angel’s announcement. But then they said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about” (Luke 2:15 NLT). The Bible says they “hurried to the village” to find Mary and Joseph. I imagine the excitement and merriment built with each step they took until they finally reached the humble stable. Standing around the manger, seeing the face of God in their newborn Savior must have been the most joyous moment of their lives.
This is why we can experience deep, abiding joy even in the midst of hardship and suffering. Our happiness doesn’t depend on what happens; rather, our joy comes from Jesus and grows with our proximity to Him.
First, they found joy in the moment. Furthermore, they found joy in the Messiah. Finally, these shepherds found joy in the message.
• JOY IN THE MESSAGE
These shepherds were so bursting with joy, they just had to tell someone about it. The Bible says, “After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished” (Luke 2:17-18 NLT).
These shepherds made it their mission to spread the joy of Christmas. What do you think happens when you spread joy to others? It increases your own joy, doesn’t it? In fact an old Swedish proverb says, “A shared sorrow is half a sorrow; a shared joy is a double joy.”
Believe it or not, you experience an actual chemical reaction whenever you do something nice for another person. Dr. David Hamilton, Ph.D., has studies the side-effects of kindness and he found that when we do something kind for someone else it causes elevated levels of dopamine in the brain (which is sort of like the brain's natural versions of morphine and heroin) and so we get a natural high, often referred to as "Helper's High." Put simply: doing something nice for another person makes you happy. You think God wired our brains that way on purpose? I do.
I think this is why we see so much goodwill and kind deeds during Christmas time; people just want to spread the joy. While donating to a toy drive or volunteering at a soup kitchen are wonderful ways to spread Christmas cheer; the most meaningful way to give the gift of joy this Christmas is by telling everyone about the newborn king.
The good news that brings great joy is meant to be shared, and the best people to share it are ordinary folks who’ve personally experienced the joy of Jesus. These shepherds weren’t preachers. They may not have even been literate. They may not have been able to quote Scripture or argue theology, but they had a story to tell. And, as unbelievable as it was, their story touched people’s hearts and changed people’s lives. And it still does.
You have a story too. If you’ve experienced inexpressible joy through Jesus, tell someone about it and share the gift of joy this Christmas.
Conclusion
So as we unwrap this gift of joy we discover what the shepherds discovered:
• Joy in the moment—any moment, every moment, even the dark and difficult ones.
• Joy in the Messiah—the coming of Jesus into the world brought and still brings inexpressible and glorious joy.
• Joy in the message—when we shared the gift of joy with others, we don’t have less of it, we have more.
Could you use a little joy this Christmas? Joy in the midst of your struggles and stress? Then I want to invite you to come to Jesus, put your faith in Him and unwrap this gift of joy.
Invitation
If I can help you with that, then please come talk with me as stand and sing, but before we do, let’s pray together.
Prayer: God, thank You that in this season of Advent we can receive and unwrap the gift of joy. Help us to discover true joy in You. Lead us into joy as You lead us into deeper relationship with You. Give us the courage and strength to rejoice no matter what circumstances we face. And make our joy complete in You. Amen.
