Joy!

The Meaning of Joy and the Gospel’s Call to Rejoice

And so as you're turning there, I just want to briefly tell you what joy typically is when we look at it in the scripture. To have joy means to be exceedingly glad, to be overtaken with cheerfulness and delight.

And so growing up, I've heard many preachers share a strong distinction between joy and happiness. Maybe you've heard things like, happiness is fleeting, but joy is not. Happiness is a feeling, and joy is not.

Joy is everlasting, and happiness, once again, is fleeting. Happiness depends on our circumstances and other people, but joy is a gift from God. Happiness is worldly, but joy is divine. And so I've heard this a lot, and I actually appreciate the underlining point telling us we need to look to the things of God and His promises, not in the things of the world.

But as we look through all of scripture, we see that these two terms, joy and happiness, are really used interchangeably. But the underlining point still remains. As Christians, we ought to find joy and happiness in the promises of God and in His finished work in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Shepherds, the Angels, and Great Joy in Luke 2

So with that being said, I want us to consider our introductory passage this morning. Look with me at Luke chapter two, starting in verse eight, where we read, in the same region where the shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you that you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom He is pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the angel said to one another, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they had made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at the shepherds and what they had told them.

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel among before he was conceived in the womb.

Let us pray this morning. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for all of who you are and the grace that you continually to show us each and every day. God, I pray that this morning our hearts would be encouraged, that we would be filled with great joy as we behold the redemptive work that you have started in our lives by sending the one and only savior to the world.

Pray all these things in your name, Jesus. Amen. So if you notice, joy was mentioned one time in this passage back to verse 10. So that's where I would like to bring your focus to. The angel said, fear not for behold, I bring to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

So this angel more than likely is Gabriel, who revealed himself to Mary and Joseph earlier in chapter one. And the angel here is declaring the gospel that should cause the whole world to rejoice. Now you may say, why is there, why should there be so much joy?

Because this is the long awaited Messiah. He has finally come. And I think it's very interesting that the angels chose to announce to the shepherds back in verse eight. Now you got to think the shepherds had a very lowly job.

These were very meek and humble men, and they weren't famous. They probably were not very educated because of their job. Their status was being among the sheep, right? This was considered a very dirty job.

And yet this is who the angel announced the gospel message to. When I was looking in this passage, I thought, man, this is such striking imagery because we see that Jesus is the good shepherd and all of us are like sheep that have gone astray.

And if we are in Christ, we are dependent on Jesus keeping watch over us. But the angel here, as he is communicating to the shepherds, he says, do not be afraid or fear not. And I can kind of understand that because you got to think this giant light was shining.

It says the glory of the Lord shone around them. I think the immediate compulsion would be to really tremble in fear. But the angel says, no, I bring great news of joy. The savior of all mankind, that prince of peace that was long prophesied ago is now here.

And so I'd like for you to make a note of this. The gospel proclamation ought to produce joy for all people. And so I believe the angel unpacks this in verse 11. Look with me. The angel says for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.

Christ the Lord: Savior, Messiah, and Divine Lord

Now in this single verse, there are so many important things that I just want to briefly bring to your attention. So number one, the angel says for unto you is born. Now this gospel is written by Luke and I really think that he wants to draw our attention back to what the prophet Isaiah said, which pastor Nathan talked a lot about last week in Isaiah chapter nine.

And in that passage, we read that for unto us, a child is born to us. A son is given and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, and prince of peace. Last week, pastor Nathan talked about peace and we see that the prince of peace came into the world, allowing us to be reconciled back to God.

And in that passage, we see that the prince of peace is mighty God who took on flesh and dwelt among us to be born of a virgin. So this is everything that the angel is bringing to the shepherd's attention.

He is announcing that God has been born as a human child to represent humanity. That is important because Jesus did not come to represent angels. He came to add humanity to his person and to be the perfect substitute for man.

So number two, we learned that for unto us, a child will be born in the city of David. Now, as I was looking in the old Testament for that phrase city of David, I learned that when David, you know, he was a king, he was a warrior, it could refer to those cities that he would rule and conquer.

But here, Luke is referring to something different. If you have your Bibles open, look back to verse four here in Luke chapter two. Luke tells us exactly what he means when he says the city of David. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.

So what we're understanding here is that the city of David, the way that Luke is using it is referring to David's birthplace. And when I went and researched this back in the old Testament, first Samuel 17 tells us that David was born in Bethlehem, Ephrathah.

And that's so important because there was more than one Bethlehem in this region. And so David, King David was born in a very particular location, Bethlehem, Ephrathah. And this also was prophesied that the Messiah would not only come from the line of David, but would also be born in Bethlehem, Ephrathah.

The prophet Micah in Micah five, two says, but you owe Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah from you shall come forth for me, one who's to be ruler in Israel, who's coming forth is of old and from ancient days.

The angel is announcing that this coming ruler, the Messiah is of divine origin. And this Messiah not only comes from the line of David, but is also born in the same place. That is incredible. So number three, we see that Jesus here is given the title of savior.

So in the old Testament, the title savior often was given to God because he was constantly saving Israel. And we see in the new Testament that savior is equally applied to Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus, we're told came to save his people from their sins.

In John's gospel, many Samaritans encountered Jesus. And this is what they confess. We believe for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this indeed is the savior of the world. Jesus Christ is the only savior that the world has ever known.

Right. But the apostle Paul says that is true. He is the only savior, but he is a relational personal savior for those that put their trust in him. Paul says we have our hope set on the living God who is the savior of all people, especially for those who believe.

So number four, Jesus not only is given title of savior, but Jesus is also Christ. Now, to some of your surprise, Christ is not Jesus's last name. Now, growing up, I heard Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, JC, and I just kind of thought, I guess that's his last name.

Right. But we understand that Christ is a title in the Greek. This is Christos, meaning God's anointed one or chosen one. And there's a Hebrew equivalent to this Christ. And it is the Messiah. It is the long awaited Messiah.

And so what we see is that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah. And he revealed this firstly to a Samaritan woman. In this account in John four, the woman said to Jesus, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ.

And when he comes, he will tell us all things. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he. And so Jesus possesses this title as Christ. He is God's anointed one, the one who fulfills all the Old Testament prophecies.

He is the chosen savior who came to rescue sinners. He alone is king of kings. And he is returning one day to set up his everlasting kingdom. So number five, Jesus is Lord. We know that he is the only savior.

He is the long awaited human Christ. And he is also Lord. Now, when we look at Lord in the Old Testament, this carries a divine element to it. And the best way I wanted to illustrate to you is I want to read a brief passage when Moses was talking with God in the burning bush back in Exodus chapter three.

Listen to how God uses the term the Lord in this passage. So Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, well, what is his name?

What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, say this to the people of Israel. I am has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, say this to the people of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you.

This is my name forever. And thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Right? Yahweh, he and he alone is the Lord. He is the one and only creator God. In the New Testament, we understand that Jesus is Yahweh.

We understand that Jesus is the divine Lord. And so to confess Jesus as Lord is to confess that he is God. This is exactly what the apostle Thomas did when he was, when he looked at our resurrected Lord, he said, my Lord and my God.

In fact, for the person that says Jesus is Lord and has this full understanding that Jesus is God and that he is supreme authority over all things. This is evidence of a person that has been divinely enlightened.

The apostle Paul says, no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy spirit. That's why we're told that if you believe that Jesus is Lord, then you will be saved. If you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the grave, then you can be saved.

This is so important for our salvation, understanding who Jesus truly is. And the angel is announcing that God is truly with us. He has dwelt among us through being born of a virgin. And this is such an amazing message that he would condescend and what should this produce in our hearts, but joy.

So look with me, continuing on through verses 13 and 14, where we read, and suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is well pleased.

And so we start out with a single angel here, but very quickly, it then turns to a number that can't even be counted. So many angelic beings worshiping and praising God. And what I find interesting is that the angel or Jesus did not come to benefit the angels.

He came to represent humanity, but this still caused the angels to worship and to have joy in worshiping God. And if you've been like me, I've always thought that angels were very mysterious beings. A lot of times growing up, talking with my dad, I would have so many questions and to my delight, there's so many answers in scripture about who angels are and what they do.

But I still have so many questions. And what I learned is that angels have a lot of questions about who we are and they don't fully understand the human experience. And they've even been observing us since the very dawn of time.

Something else that angels do not fully comprehend is Jesus's redemptive work on our behalf. And the apostle Peter is familiar with this too, and tells us in his first epistle concerning this salvation that the prophets long prophesied about, it was revealed to them that in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news by the Holy Spirit that was sent from heaven, these are the things that angels long to look into.

And as I pondered more and more about this, that we have questions about angels and they have questions about us, you have to understand that holy angels do not need to be saved and fallen angels cannot be saved.

So the holy angels, they have an overwhelming curiosity to understand the kind of grace and mercy that they will never experience. They want to understand salvation better so that they might glorify God in a fuller capacity, because that is their primary reason for existence is to worship and glorify God.

And so here in Luke, we see that they are declaring glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased. We talked about this last week, that man can have peace with God. We are justified by faith alone in Jesus Christ the Lord.

The angels cannot help but to declare this good news with great joy, and I think the point is, so should we. So look with me at verse 15. I want to draw your attention to how the shepherds immediately responded in light of all this.

We read, when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and a baby lying in a manger.

So I love that they hurried off real fast. They left with haste. Why? Because they could not wait to see the King of kings, the Lord of glory. And verse 17 says, and when they saw it, they had made known the sayings that had been told them concerning this child.

They couldn't help but to share this good news with others. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds had told them. I love that. We see the shepherds, they had this sense of urgency to tell other people.

And when people heard this good news, their heart was filled with wonder and awe. They marveled at the good news that the angel had announced to them. And then we see Mary here in verse 19. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

She responded by thinking about the deep significance of the birth of the son of God. And no doubt she would have had all the other thoughts that any mother would have giving birth, but she meditated deeply on the promises of God and His plan of redemption.

And so I want to ask all of you this morning, when was the last time you wondered in amazement at the work of our Savior? Does it cause you to think deeply about how God has saved us by His grace? Does this produce joy in your life?

I think a lot of times, especially around Christmas season, it's so tempting to think about baby Jesus in a manger and just acknowledge that as a story. Something no different than the story in games of Santa Claus.

But if you are a saint this morning, we have been transformed by the gospel message. We cannot help but to continue to praise and worship God. That's what we see back in verse 20. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told to them.

That is wonderful, is it not? Their hearts were full of joy because they had peace with God. They have peace with God because of the faith in the only Savior, Jesus Christ. And so, like I said, we only saw joy was mentioned once there back in verse 10 in this passage.

And as I continue to study more on this subject of joy, I learned that this is a theme throughout Luke's gospel. Earlier back in Luke chapter 1, the angel of the Lord announced to Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, who was barren, that they would miraculously have a child.

And the angel said to them, you will have joy and gladness for many will rejoice at his birth. For John the Baptist, he will be great for the Lord. That's where this theme of joy first began. And so we just touched on the passage here in Luke chapter 2, how that joy is for all the people, right?

Because the long-awaited Savior has come. And looking in later in Luke's gospel in chapter 6, we see Luke's version of the sermon on the mount where Jesus encourages those who are being persecuted for the faith.

He says, rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets. So I would like to invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter 8 now, where we're continuing Luke's theme of joy.

Superficial Joy and the Rocky Ground

But it seems like we get a little twist here in Luke chapter 8, because I think Luke highlights a superficial joy that many people experience. So let us look at Luke chapter 8, starting in verse 4, where we find the parable of the sower.

I just want us to briefly examine a few parts here. So look with me. And when a great crowd was gathering, and the people from town after town came to him, Jesus said this in a parable. A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and were trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.

I want to draw your attention to verse 6. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. And as he said these things, he called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. If you want to look back or look down with me to verse 11, where Jesus begins to explain this parable to his hearers.

Now this is the parable. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then when the devil comes and takes away the word, takes away the word from their hearts, so they may not believe and be saved.

And I want you to notice verse 13. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while, and in time of testing, fall away.

So this is the part that I really want to focus on is the rocky ground. These are the people that are false converts. These are the people that for a time professed to believe in the facts about Jesus Christ.

And when they were initially confronted with the gospel, how did they respond? With joy. But I think this proves to be a superficial joy because they are not rooted in the person of Jesus and his finished work.

Rather, they enjoy the idea of salvation. Jesus says, but these have no root, for they believe for a while, and in time of testing, fall away. These are people that are merely acquainted with facts about who Jesus is.

It's really no different than the demons. They understand that Jesus is the Holy One of God, and they tremble, but they do not experience a saving relationship with him. And so these false converts, they are like the demons.

They understand the facts about who Jesus is, but they were never rooted in Christ. Their feelings may have changed, but never were their souls changed. To be firmly rooted in Christ when you hear the gospel, there ought to be a deep brokenness over your sin before a holy God, and that ought to move us, this is the key, to repentance.

This ought to move us to repentance. Repentance is crucial. In fact, St. Corinthians 7 .10 says, for godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation. Now, Pastor Nathan and I, we talk often about repentance because it's so important.

To repent, it means to change your mind, but it's not to just be acquainted with facts only. This repentance moves and captures the hearts, and in your heart, you realize, man, I am a sinner. I am no longer a good person.

I desire to do things that are pleasing to God, and in that time of your heart no longer loving self, loving the things of this world, we turn and look to the Savior, and we put all of our trust in Him.

That is the good soil in verse 15, where we read, they are those hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. This is a transformed heart by the work of the Spirit, someone who now loves the Savior far more than anything else in the world, and guess what?

There will be everlasting joy that lasts in all circumstances because joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It's not a superficial joy that just loves the idea of salvation that's devoid of brokenness over sin and repentance.

So let me ask you, do you have joy in your life? Yeah, Jeremiah, I have joy in my life that comes and goes all the time, but how do you know that that's not a superficial joy that we see here with the rocky ground?

I think there is a way to know that if you are only happy and joyful when things are going your way, that's the superficial joy, but if you have joy in Jesus Christ, even through tears of times of trials and testing, and it might be through hurts and pains, but you still find joy in the Savior, that is divine everlasting joy because you know that God is sovereignly sanctifying you in all circumstances.

That's the real thing. So continuing this theme of joy, Luke continues to build on this in Luke chapter 15. So if you would like to turn there, I'd like to invite you to do that. It's a real interesting chapter because there are three parables, and I believe there is a common thread that holds them all together.

So we're just going to briefly look at the second parable, starting in verse 8, where Jesus says,. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it?

And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I have lost. And Jesus says, Just so I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

Now the common thread that kind of binds these three parables together is that there is so much joy in heaven when a person is overwhelmed with deep repentance and comes to saving faith. Now the first two parables, they highlight God's pursuit, God's initiative to save, seeking the lost.

And the third parable that a lot of us are familiar with is the prodigal son. This highlights man's perspective of repentance, being broken over sin and returning back to the Father. So look with me back at verse 10.

I want you to see the joy that the angels get to experience in the throne room of heaven. This is so similar to what we touched on back in Luke chapter two, where the angels are announcing the good news to the shepherds and they are overwhelmed with joy and they praise and worship God.

But angels do not experience repentance. They do not experience saving faith in Christ. And so this is one of those things that they long to look into. They are able to observe a sinner who is saved by grace.

They get to see their brokenness over sin, true repentance. They get to observe how someone is rooted in Christ and possesses true joy. And so this causes the angelic host to have great joy in heaven.

They are watching God's manifold wisdom, his plan of redemption unfold before their very eyes. And so just briefly, I want to tell you something that does not produce angels' joy in the throne room of heaven.

Look at verse seven earlier in the passage in the first parable. Jesus says, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

There is no joy in heaven when a person thinks that their good works somehow gains favor with God. This is a self-righteous individual who does not see their need to repent and trust in Jesus Christ.

I'm sure the angels are like, why are they not trusting in the only Savior for mankind? It's because they're trusting in themselves. Friend, do not be like this Pharisee. Do not be like the person that trusts in yourselves.

You know how broken you are. We're all on the same boat. We've all sinned and fallen short of the Jesus. Look to him alone. Don't look to the things that you do. So many people think getting up and walking into a baptistry is somehow going to forgive your sins.

That's never going to happen. You could never do anything to please God. No matter how many times you read your Bible, no matter how many times you pray, no matter how many times you help people out, that's not going to gain favor with God.

But you know what will make God happy and pleased and full of joy is if you are in the Savior, Jesus Christ. Then everything that we do will be a sweet-smelling aroma to him. That's a pretty awesome gospel message that should cause joy.

This is the same joy that the Apostle Paul had, and he wrote the book of Philippians. If you don't know, he wrote that book in prison. That's a pretty tough circumstance, yet Paul found joy in the joy-giver.

That's the same type of joy that we can all experience. This is the type of joy that the angels experience in the throne room of heaven. I hope it's really apparent at this point that there is a strong connection between joy and repentance.

Continuing this thought in Luke's gospel, you don't have to turn there, but in Luke chapter 19, we are told of a very short story about a man named Zacchaeus. If you were in Sunday school like I was, I learned the song to this.

The text says that he was small in stature, but we know that that means he was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed in that sycamore tree. What I love about this is this man was so intrigued about the person of Jesus Christ.

The text says that he was seeking to see who Jesus was. Then there came that moment where Jesus came to Zacchaeus and said, for I must stay at your house today. I love this because then this carries the theme of joy.

Zacchaeus hurried and came down and received Jesus joyfully. I had this question, and maybe this is already starting to come up in your minds. How do we know that Zacchaeus didn't possess that superficial joy like the rocky ground had?

Well, in that story, we see evidence of repentance in Zacchaeus' life. The text says, and Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, behold Lord, half of all my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.

So what's going on is Zacchaeus judged his own sin severely, and he was willing to give back more than what the law required him. And then Jesus confirmed the reality of Zacchaeus' salvation. Jesus said, today salvation has come to this house, since he also was a son of Abraham, for the son of man came to save and seek the lost.

No doubt Zacchaeus was convicted over his sin, but that moved him to action, and he quickly found joy in the joy giver. Now right before the story of Zacchaeus, towards the end of Luke chapter 18, we see another story of a different man, the rich young ruler.

And I believe these two men stand in stark contrast to one another, but they have many things in common. These men both were very wealthy, but it's a much different story. There was no joy with the rich young ruler when he faced the person of Jesus.

In fact, Jesus said to the rich young ruler, one thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. This is the point in the story where Zacchaeus would have said, absolutely, whatever it takes, I want to be with you.

But that's not what we see with the rich young ruler. In fact, the text says, and when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. So when the rich young ruler was faced with the cost of following after Jesus, he concluded the cost was too great.

And earlier in the story, he even said to Jesus that he kept all the commandments since his youth. And let me tell you, there's a difference in desiring to obey the commandments and keeping them, because the rich young ruler did not keep the commandments.

He broke the commandments like we all do. He did not see himself as a sinner. And so with the rich young ruler, we see no brokenness over sin, no repentance, no salvation, and no joy. But with Zacchaeus, we see a man that understands that he has sinned, and there needs to be restitution.

He did it with joy, because he now experienced salvation in Jesus Christ. And so as we begin to wind down, I want to draw your attention to the last few verses in Luke chapter 24, where he brings this theme of joy to an end.

He says in verse 50,. And Jesus led his apostles, he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And while he blessed them, Jesus parted from them and was carried up into heaven.