(This sermon was preached on Sunday, December 18 at Arapahoe Road Baptist Church in Centennial, Colorado. You may go to our sermons page to listen to the audio version—approximately 36 minutes.)
Joy. Think about that word for a moment. Even in all its word forms: rejoice, enjoy. What does it mean? It’s a state of delight.
C.S. Lewis gives a great warning to God’s people:
Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
We believe our joy can be found in our marriage and family and we put all our eggs in that basket—but what happens when issues come up in our family? Do we fall to pieces?
We believe joy can be found in a great job. But what happens when layoffs hit and downsizing begins?
We believe joy can be found in a solid retirement portfolio. But what happens if that money runs dry, or worse you find out that everything you were looking forward to didn’t fill that cavern in your soul?
We even believe joy can be found in church, where we are around people we like, hear music we like—but what happens when inevitable problems hit?
Mark Driscoll one time said, “If you take a good thing and make it a God thing, that’s a bad thing.” Human beings were never meant to be put upon a pedestal to be worshiped. Your family, your job, your school, your church are meant to be great gifts from God—but they are lousy gods!
St. Augustine in his Confessions, wrote:
Almighty God,
you have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless
till they find their rest in you;
so lead us by your Spirit
that in this life we may live to your glory
and in the life to come enjoy you for ever.
1. Rejoice that Christ’s birth is historical (Luke 2:1-7).
I recognize that this may not seem like a very spiritual point—that Christ’s birth is grounded in history. Many believe that this story and the entire Christian faith is that simply of personal belief. Many believe that we should embrace that which makes us feel better, and be kept simply in the personal realm. Others say, “Isn’t this simply a story or a myth that some people put forward?”
Dr. Luke didn’t approach it this way, and for good reason. Luke was a physician and historian of the first order. He was not into fantasy or speculation, he was into concrete information—a characteristic you want your physicians to have, yes? Historians as well are into facts and concrete information.
Look with me at Luke 1:1-4:
1Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
Luke was writing this to defend the faith to Theophilus, a Roman soldier who was either interested in Christianity or a new convert. Luke sought to show him that the birth of Jesus was a historical fact.
Go back and look at Luke 2:1-7. Read through this and notice the great lengths Luke went to to establish his case.
- A decree went out from Caesar Augustus:
- … that all the world should be registered
- This was the first (could also mean before the—protos) registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria:
- All went to be registered, each in his own town.
Do you think if you lived during that time you would remember that? No matter where you lived, you had to come back to your hometown on horseback or by donkey.
Let’s look at the unspoken issue here. Notice how Luke bends over backwards to give as many historical markers as possible. He is wanting everyone to go back and look at the evidence. This was no pie-in-the sky fairy tale—Luke was couching it in terms of history, not fantasy. And he had plenty to talk to.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is outlining the importance and necessity of the resurrection.
3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
There were enough people around to refute what Luke said if it wasn’t true.
2. We rejoice because the birth of Christ is personal (Luke 2:8-14).
While we know that the account of Jesus’ birth was not simply something someone made up, the effects of His birth affect us personally! And as we saw last week from Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” When God sent forth His Son through the vessel of Mary, he did not give any kind of distinction as to what type of people can come. In Romans 3:22-23, Paul writes, “For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
We also see no distinction in who will populate heaven. In Revelation 5, the angels were singing a new song:
"Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth" (Revelation 5:9-10).
From every tribe and every strata of society, God calls a people to himself that is based upon his glory and his glory alone. Enter the shepherds.
These shepherds were not invited to the parties of the elite. No, shepherds weren’t invited anywhere—they couldn’t even go into the Temple to worship the Lord. They were considered unclean by the customs of the time, and so they could not approach God by the system in place.
Yet here is another picture of how God operates. We cannot come to him on our own—but God comes to us, even the lowliest of us. Something this marvelous needs telling, and God would send angels to speak to Zechariah, Mary, Joseph, and now the shepherds. Notice that with Zechariah the priest who knew the Scriptures well, he was the only one out of them all who questioned and doubted. Mary, Joseph and the shepherds had little status and even littler material possessions by which to cling.
God came to shepherds! Outside of Mary’s family, it was to these unclean, smelly men that God first announced to those who were considered unclean (a foretaste of how this message would go to the Gentiles). Notice what the angels say:
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all the people.
Look at 1 Corinthians 1:23-25:
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1:26-29).
God does not come looking for the elite—He comes looking for the foolish, the weak, the low and despised, so that who would receive the glory.
By the angels coming to the shepherds with this news, no one could boast in their goodness, their righteousness, or their status in society.
What about the angels? The multitude means 10000 times 10000. -- countless numbers of angels filling the sky, giving glory to God. But on earth peace on whom his favor rests (KJV, goodwill toward men). What does this mean? We must be careful to understand that both of these are saying in essence the same thing. The 'goodwill toward men' makes it sound like men need to be at peaceful with each other and nice with each other.
Joy? There’s that word! As I mentioned earlier, ‘joy’ should epitomize the people of God. There should be a culture of joy and gladness that permeates everything we do—especially our times of worship here.
Author Leo Buscaglia tells this story about his mother and their "misery dinner." It was the night after his father came home and said it looked as if he would have to go into bankruptcy because his partner had absconded with their firm's funds. His mother went out and sold some jewelry to buy food for a sumptuous feast. Other members of the family scolded her for it. But she told them that "the time for joy is now, when we need it most, not next week." Her courageous act rallied the family.
3. We rejoice at the birth of Christ because its worshipful (Luke 2:15-20).
The shepherds, without their religious or rabbinical training, recognized this was from the Lord. So what did they do? They said, “Let’s go!” They went to investigate. They didn’t want to miss out on what God was doing. They had to see it for themselves.
I heard a sermon one time from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the old Welsh preacher from last century, who would encourage everyone to come to church. Why? He encouraged them based on the fact that he didn’t want them to miss anything.
Friends, in the three weeks I’ve been on Colorado, I have found no shortage of interesting places to go. And I have a long, long list of places I want to go and places I want to take my family when they get here. The opportunities for recreation and sightseeing are so enticing—just calling out to so many. But as enticing as this is, nothing compares to having an encounter with the living God through Jesus Christ. Nothing compares to this—nothing bring such joy.
Consider the Bereans in Acts 17. When they heard Paul’s message, it says they “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Paul called them ‘noble.’
The Shepherds upon this further examination were joyful because:
- God was right!
- God could be trusted!
- God cares about those know one else cares about!
- And this Savior He sent is worth worshipping, serving, and sharing.
Roy Lessin sums it up well:
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
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