The Presence of Joy
Linus
Most people in America are familiar with this passage, even if they rarely crack open a Bible. These verses from Luke have even entered the popular culture, through Linus’ famous speech in the Charlie Brown Christmas video.
Every December since 1965, (That’s 40 years!) in between televised scenes of the Grinch slithering around Whoville, and George Bailey being saved by Clarence the angel just as he’s about to jump off the Bedford Falls bridge, and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer running around the North Pole with Herbie (an elf who wants to be a dentist), we have Linus, who discovers the true meaning of Christmas in the gospel of St. Luke, chapter 2.
Luke 2:8
8 That night, some shepherds were in the fields nearby watching their sheep. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them. The glory of the Lord was shining around them, and they became very frightened. 10 The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news that will be a great joy to all the people. 11 Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord. 12 This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box.”
13 Then a very large group of angels from heaven joined the first angel, praising God and saying:
14 “Give glory to God in heaven, and on earth let there be peace among the people who please God.”
15 When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem. Let’s see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So the shepherds went quickly and found Mary and Joseph and the baby, who was lying in a feeding box. 17 When they had seen him, they told what the angels had said about this child. 18 Everyone was amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured these things and continued to think about them. 20 Then the shepherds went back to their sheep, praising God and thanking him for everything they had seen and heard. It had been just as the angel had told them.
The presence of Joy
Build Slide
Joy is different than happiness. Happiness is temporary. It lasts just about as long as the wrapping paper does on Christmas morning. Sometimes it doesn’t last even that long.
That’s because happiness is based on people, places, and things.
People can change and occasionally they let you down. Places seem more permanent but somehow they don’t last either. Anyone who has tried to go back to a place and recapture a moment knows that it can’t ever really be done. You capture the shadow of times past but never the essence. And things don’t create permanent happiness either. Things break. Parts get lost. They wear out or just lose their luster.
What was your best Christmas Gift ever as a kid? Mine was a Kenner Girder and Panel set #9. It was the top set with an electric motor, pulleys, and everything you needed to build a 12 story building with an elevator. I was so happy – for about a week. That’s long for a toy.
What was yours – shout it out…
Well, we know that Christmas Joy does not come from people, places or things. Christmas joy comes from God in the form of good news and it lasts for a lifetime + eternity.
Luke 2 tells us about the presence of Joy…
The Presence of Joy…
Build One: Conquers Fear
The Shepherds saw the Shekinah (The Glory of God)
The sheep are bedded down for the night. The air has gotten cold and still. The campfire had burned down to a few glowing embers and the conversation had ceased completely when it happened.
The angel of God appeared to these men with the message of good news.
As the angels appeared before the shepherds there was surrounding them an amazing glory.
God dwells in unapproachable light. There is no need for a sun because the glory of God is so brilliant and it radiates splendor.
The Shekinah is a white shining cloud of intolerable brightness. It was the token of the presense of the eternal God.
It was at the burning bush when Moses was called to God’s work. It was at Sinai when Moses received the covenant from God that would be between the almighty and his people Israel.
It was in the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day that guided his people through the wilderness.
It was in the tabernacle and in the temple and it shown round Jesus on the mount of transfiguration.
The Shikinah was in visions John saw and wrote down and called the Revelations.
And it was here in a cold dark hill side where sheep huddled against the cold and shepherds sat next to a small campfire.
When the shekinah – the glory of God shown around them they did what each of us would have done – they fell to the ground in fear and amazement.
Here is what the angel then said, “Do not be afraid. I am bringing you good news that will be a great joy to all the people. 11 Today your Savior was born in the town of David. He is Christ, the Lord. 12 This is how you will know him: You will find a baby wrapped in pieces of cloth and lying in a feeding box.”
Prov. says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…it’s a good thing to fear God, for you can’t be saved until you at least have that healthy fear! [a holy respect!]
“No Fear” is the motto of our lost world around us. Even today’s religious world has no reverence, no awe, for Almighty God! Too often we treat God as a casual friend or a far off force to whom we give token allegiance – or more likely from whom we ask for his allegiance in the midst of our adventures.
The world uses his name as slang when they are surprised or as a curse when they stub their toe on a chair leg. His name is spoken in vain because they don’t fear God.
Why? No Fear. Yet they do fear God in the end. Everyone of them – even the communist, hedonist, pagan, agnostic and atheist. When death comes they are all afraid – we see it in their anguish, their resolute rebellion, and false bravado.
Yet the angel brought a message that overcomes fear. Our God must be respected but need not be feared.
Build Two: Trumps Irrelevance
How easy it is to think we are unimportant and useless.
How reasonable it is to conclude that we have offered little of noble value, nothing of noteworthy accomplishment for having lived, no glorious or heroic deed justifying our being here. Indeed sometimes we wonder why we are here at all. In our darkest moments we question if we are worth the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the space we take.
Who were these shepherds? Nobodies. Dirty, scroungy, cold, smelly, unbathed, unimportant, and unnoticed people. In their culture they were at the very bottom of the food chain – economically and socially.
The religious people looked down on them because they couldn’t keep the Sabbath – sheep get lost and have to be taken care of. They couldn’t say ceremonially clean – sheep are dirty and sometimes diseased.
Shepherd’s were in the hills and fields for months at a time – far away from the rest of the community. It was difficult, tough, dirty, lonely job that most people wouldn’t want to do and few people even noticed. They were the servants that were invisible to the nobles. No one saw them. They were nothing – nobodies.
But God saw them. His angel came to them on a dark, cold hillside far away from the luxuries of the Jerusalem palaces.
The angel said, “I am bringing YOU good news”.
That is truly astounding. When a child is born to a member of royalty; for instance, when Princess Diana’s sons Harry and William were born, they didn’t send a messenger down to the docks to break the news first to the longshoremen and the fishmongers. They didn’t issue personal invitations to the cab drivers of London to come visit Diana and her new infant in Windsor castle. I’m guessing that if any announcements or invitations were sent out, they were printed in gold leaf and hand delivered to political leaders and foreign heads of state.
God gave his announcement to shepherds! Astounding. Amazing. The good news is for everyone – even someone like me.
Build Three: Restores Wounded People
These shepherds were not sweet and nice fellows. They were not gentlemen, noblemen, or landed gentry.
These were tough gnarly guys.
They used slings to bring down the wolf intent on a the slaughter of a lamb. They walked the hills searching for each blade of grass that would feed his flocks. They carried their food, mended their garments, made their own shoes and created their own competitive games. When a sheep got lost they looked in the high and dangerous places until it was discovered and then they rescued the lost lamb. When they were sick the rubbed oil on the open sores of the sheep. When they were heavy with wool and covered with mud they would help them out of depressions where they had laid down and then couldn’t get back up. When they were lame they carried the sheep on their shoulders.
These were men of life – and of sin. They knew how to cuss. They knew how to carry on when the 6 months in the hills ended and they got their pay. These were men who needed a savior – and they knew it.
The word joy (chara) is associated with salvation all through the writings of Luke. Salvation from the effect and destruction brings real eternal joy – not just momentary happiness. It is this joy that heals broken people and redeems lost souls.
But it is important to understand that the presence of joy is greatest when the need is the deepest.
These men – like all men had great need. And they understood the need more than most.
The Good News is important because of the content of the message. When the angel spoke of good news he said that today a savior is born. He didn’t speak of a king. The angel didn’t speak of a mighty God. He spoke of a savior.
The one who had been promised from the opening pages of the Bible.
Today a savior is born, He is Christ.
The shepherds understood the cost of sin. They understood that sin brings death and the shedding of blood – the source of life.
Shepherds were despised by the orthodox good people of the day. They were quite unable to keep the details of the ceremonial law; they could not observe all the meticulous hand-washings and rules and regulations. Their flocks made far too constant demands on them; and so the orthodox looked down on them. It was to simple men of the fields that God’s message first came. They were sinners who had no doubt of their need; no opportunity for self righteousness. But these were in all likelihood very special shepherds.
In the Temple, morning and evening, an unblemished lamb was offered as a sacrifice to God. To see that the supply of perfect offerings was always available the Temple authorities had their own private sheep flocks; and we know that these flocks were pastured near Bethlehem. It is very possible and given what we know of God it is even likely that these shepherds were in charge of the flocks from which the Temple offerings were chosen.
They had birthed, raised, and cared for countless lambs taken for constant sacrifice.
What a lovely thought it is to think that the shepherds who looked after the Temple lambs were the first to see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (Barclay)
How sober these shepherds must have been to the great cost of sin …by the great cost of sacrifice. The lambs they raised were destroyed by sin.
GOD HAD BROUGHT THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS TO THOSE WHO RECOGNIZED ITS NEED MOST; AND UNDERSTOOD ITS COST….
Such recognition of need is essential for every recipient of His Son, for all who would encounter Him and this same recognition is the spring of Christmas joy that heals the wounds of our sin.
But Salvation is only understood through the despair of being lost. Too many of us have not experienced the presence of joy because we gloss over the presence of sin.
The Presence of Joy… Comes as a Child
The angel speaks of God’s peace and his favor that would rest upon all of the world. I say “would” because this is a dependent statement not a conclusive one.
God’s peace and favor is not an imposition.
The King James version says that the angels sang “peace on earth, good will toward men”. While this is accurate it misses the nuances of the original language.
Walvoord says, “The NIV‘s on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests is preferred to the KJV’s “good will toward men.” God’s peace is not given to those who have good will, but to those who are recipients of God’s good will or favor.”
The presence of God’s Christmas joy was not forced on the shepherds. They were told of good news and where they could come in the very presence of the message itself.
It is an invitation – not a summons. It is a gift offered with the love of a creator, father, and savior.
And the nature of this gift is beyond compare. God himself as a baby in a box filled with cow food.
The God who thought and created the world in the course of week – no – six days, has come to us. And in coming to the world he created for humankind he came as a baby – low born and without so much as a place to call home.
Yet it is here in this person, this place, and with these things that joy – not happiness – is found.
“God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
It is only when you experience God’s love while understanding your need for being saved that you get – really get – the presence of Joy.
Brad Bailey is a minister who a couple of years ago started a personal tradition on Christmas Eve. After the Christmas Eve service, he would make a large amount of hot cider and then take it to all the homeless I could find on the corners and crevices of his town.
On one particularly cold Christmas Eve he pulled up along the some bluffs on a dingy avenue. There he began walking down along the bluffs. When he was about a block from his old VW van… he looked back and saw the door was open and someone was in the front.
Brad turned back and as he approached he caught the intruder, who was going through the car’s glove box, by surprise… A young man, barely 20, leapt out. He was scared and seemed to have a good sense of the consequences of what he had just been caught in the act of doing.
At first Brad was rather confrontive. The potential for police involvement and his arrest was probably running through his mind. And then Brad simply said… “Get in the car. You’re going to help me deliver hot cider tonight.”
And he did. And he knew all the hot spots… the hiding spots. And each time he jumped out of the van and took someone a cup of cider his face just lit up more as he told them it was from Jesus.
It was then that Brad heard the Lord say, “Here it is. Here is your Christmas.”
This is the Presence of Joy – it is the receiving of and giving of the good news of Jesus.
Have you found God’s presence of Joy yet?
