Joy | Luke 2:8-21

It is an honor to be with you all. My name is Jeremiah Nortier, and the French version is Nortier, but we don't say that here in the South. I'm from Jonesboro, from 12 -5 Church, and we're a church plant that's about two years old, and I serve as one of the pastors and elders there.

12 -5 comes from the verse Romans 12, verse five, that says, even though we are members of a body, we are one another, we are one together in the body of Christ. So, in the city of churches, Jonesboro, we wanted to stand a little bit unique there, and so I'm honored to be with you.

One of my tasks and responsibilities that I absolutely love that I get to serve at my church is in the world of apologetics. So apologetics means to simply give a defense for the hope that lies within us to be able to contend for the faith.

And so I actually have an apologetics ministry, if that's something that piques your interest, seek me after the service, I'll hang around, I'd love to be able to talk with you. So with that being said, during the month of December, we are drawn to remember and reflect on many truths surrounding the birth of our Lord.

Advent, Joy, and the First Coming of Christ

Right, a lot of times this is referred to as the season of Advent, referring to Jesus's first coming. And so we think about things like joy, hope, peace, and love and all these virtues, I believe, are fully put on display at Jesus's first coming.

When he was born of a virgin, how he accomplished salvation by being the only perfect sinless savior. And so when we look back to what Jesus did in his first coming, we wait with great anticipation for his second coming, amen.

And so Christ ascended on high and he did not simply leave us as orphans, no, but he sent the comforter, he sent the Holy Spirit to be with us. And so I believe the Holy Spirit helps us rest in these virtues of peace, hope, love, and hope and joy.

Romans 15, verse 13 says, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that the power of the Holy Spirit may give you hope. And so this type of hope that we as Christians have is not a worldly hope.

The world wishes for things to come about that that may or may not actually happen, but we possess a blessed hope. We rest in the promises of God as he accomplishes a salvation through Jesus. And therefore we have a certainty in our hope in Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and therefore gives us peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding, nothing that the world can explain because they don't know who Christ is. And so we have a hope, we have a peace in the Prince of Peace.

And we look to Jesus by faith alone, we have peace with God, right? Not a peace that can come and go based on how good we are, right? When we look to the perfect Savior, we get his perfect righteousness covering our account and all of our sin gets put back on Calvary's cross.

And the just judge of the whole world says, innocent, no longer guilty of sin. That is peace, right? And we cannot lose that peace when the judge declares us right in Jesus. And so that brings us to the subject this morning of joy.

The Meaning of Joy and the Limits of Happiness

So I wanna invite you to turn with me in your copy of God's Word to Luke chapter two, and I want us to talk more about joy. And so as you're turning there, I wanna explain what joy means. It means to be exceedingly glad, to be overtaken in cheerfulness and delight.

And a lot of times people make a hard distinction between joy and happiness. I hope I don't step on your toes too much here because I've had this thought before too, that happiness is fleeting, but joy is not.

Happiness is a feeling where joy is this everlasting contentment in the things of the Lord. Happiness depends on your circumstances or people, but joy is a gift from God. Happiness is worldly, but joy is divine.

And so I appreciate the underlying point of telling people to look to the things above rather than the things of this world. However, the scripture uses happiness and joy as interchangeable terms, it just depends on context.

But the underlying point remains, as Christians we find our joy and happiness in the promises of God and his work of redemption. And so we ultimately find the promises of God in the person of Jesus Christ and his finished work.

So that being said, please stand with me as we read God's holy word. I want us to start in verse eight of Luke chapter two. There we read, and in the same region there were 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 God shone all around them and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not for behold, I bring to 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. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he has pleased.

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherd 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 made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things pondering them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it has been told them. And at the end of eight days when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus. The name given by the angels before he was conceived in the womb.

Let us pray this morning. Heavenly Father, we want to praise you for all of who you are. God, you are holy, holy, holy. Lord, please help us to understand your truth this morning, to rightly handle it.

God, please guard me from error and please help us to magnify your name, Jesus. We praise things in your name, Lord. Amen. You may be seated. And so I want to drive your focus back to verse 10 where the angel said, "'Fear not, for behold, I bring to you good news "'of great joy that will be for all the people.'".

The Angel's Announcement to the Shepherds

Now this angel, I believe, is likely referring to Gabriel who earlier in chapter one spoke to Mary and Joseph. And this angel is declaring the gospel that should cause the whole world to rejoice. Why should the world rejoice?

Well, the long prophesied Messiah is finally here. And so I think it's interesting that the angel is first talking to shepherds. Think about the task of shepherds. They have one of the lowliest, dirty jobs amongst the people.

These would not have been famous or mighty men or even educated. They would have been lowly and humble men. They were keeping watch over their flock. And as we're familiar with the entirety of God's word, this type of imagery is striking because Jesus is the good shepherd, right?

And all of us are like sheep that tend to go astray. But we depend on our shepherd keeping watch over us. And so this is where the account begins. And so the angel reassures these shepherds not to be afraid.

And I can identify with them a little bit. If I saw an angel shining in this glory, I probably would tend to have some fear, right? That's not something you see every day. And so the angel reassures them, don't be afraid.

In fact, I have some news for you that will cause great joy. It's news about the savior for all of mankind. The prince of peace has finally come. And so when we meditate on these truths, it should produce great joy for all the people.

And so look with me at verse 11, where I wanna break down this verse in five points. The angel says, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And so number one, he says, for unto you is born.

Now, if you're familiar with the prophet Isaiah, then this phrase should perk your ears up a little bit. I believe the human writer Luke is wanting us to think back earlier to the prophet Isaiah, where he says, 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, Prince of Peace.

Now, this prince of peace brings peace to the world by reconciling us back to God. This prince of peace is mighty God who took on flesh and dwelt among us by being born of a virgin. And so the angel is announcing that God is with us.

He has been born of a, he has been born of a virgin, and he has taken on humanity to his person. And what's interesting is this angel is talking about the perfect human substitute. I want you to understand that Jesus is a substitute for mankind and not for angels.

He didn't come to represent the angelic host, but mankind. And so he is saying it should cause all of humanity to rejoice. And yet we even see the angels rejoicing at this good news. And so for unto us a child is born.

Number two, we look at the city of David. And so here the angel is announcing the location of where the Messiah is going to be born. When I looked back into the Old Testament to see how this phrase city of David was explained, sometimes this referred to the cities that David would conquer when they go to war.

But if you look with me earlier in the context at verse four, we realize that this is actually talking about the birthplace of King David. Verse four says, and Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.

And so in 1 Samuel chapter 17, we see that King David was born in Bethlehem, Ephrathah. Okay, it's a weird name to us, Ephrathah, right? There was multiple Bethlehems during this ancient time. And so the scripture is very clear about which city David was born from, Bethlehem, Ephrathah.

And guess who else was going to be born in Bethlehem, Ephrathah? Jesus Christ. And the Old Testament predicted that as well. In fact, the prophet Micah said, but you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is of old and of ancient days.

And so the angel is announcing that this coming Messiah, this ruler would be born from the lineage of King David and would also be born in the same location that David was as well. And so in that verse, when Micah 5, 2 says, his coming forth is from old and ancient of days, that is a reference to his divinity.

The ancient of days refers to eternity. So that is so wonderful. And so here, point number three, Jesus is given title of the Savior, okay? Now, this is really important because the Old Testament frequently refers to God as the Savior of Israel, right?

We're all kind of like Israel. We keep getting ourself in trouble, don't we? Right, when we look at Israel, we shouldn't be like, man, why do they keep messing up? Because that's us as well, right? And so God is the Savior of Israel.

And we see that time again and time again. Go read the book of Judges. It just happens over and over and over. And so God is referred to as Savior in the Old Testament. And in the New Testament, this title is given to Jesus because he came to save his people from their sins.

In the Gospel of John, many Samaritans encountered Jesus and confessed this. They said, we believe for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world. Jesus indeed is the only Savior the world has ever known.

And I love how the Apostle Paul says this. He says, we have set our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe. And so point number four, Jesus is given the title Christ.

And growing up, I thought that maybe Christ was Jesus's last name. Did anybody else think that? They just heard Jesus Christ so much. And I come to find out this is a title, right? He is Christ. This is the Greek word Christos, which means anointed one or chosen one.

And the Greek equivalent in the Old Testament is the Meshiach or the Messiah. And so Jesus in his earthly ministry revealed himself as the long awaited Messiah firstly to a Samaritan woman in John's gospel.

That account says 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's title of Christ means that he is God's anointed one, the one who fulfills the Old Testament prophecies.

He is the chosen Savior who came to rescue sinners. He is the one who is King of kings and Lord of lords. And guess what? He's coming back. And he's setting up his earthly kingdom. Sorry, that gets me going sometimes when I meditate on that truth.

And so lastly, number five here, Jesus is given the title Lord. And so Lord comes from the Hebrew scriptures and often is pointing to Yahweh. And so in Exodus chapter three, this is the perfect example how Lord is referring to God himself.

This is the account of Moses talking to God in the burning bush. 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 ask me, what is his name?

What should 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. And then 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. So it is very clear that the Lord refers to the one and only creator God, the self existing I am. And so the New Testament repeatedly applies this title to Jesus.

To say that Jesus is Lord is to declare that Jesus is God. This is exactly what the Apostle Thomas confessed when he saw the risen Lord. He said, my God and my savior. A person who says Jesus is Lord and believes in their heart that he is God and has supreme authority over all things.

This person has been divinely enlightened by the spirit. First Corinthians 12, three says, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And so it is an amazing truth that Lord Jesus left his exalted position in heaven, came to earth to save us.

And this should cause us great joy, amen. And so look with me at verses 13 and 14 in our anchor passage. Really, this is just an introductory text because there will be more. Verse 13 says, and suddenly there was with an angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased.

And what I love about this is there's a uncalculable number of angels in the sky. I can't even imagine what that was like. It must have been phenomenal. And they were all worshiping and praising God in light of this good news.

And I want you to remember, Jesus' coming was not to benefit the angels, but mankind. And has anybody else found angels mysterious, right? Growing up, I would ask my parents more questions that they could answer about angels.

And I'm so intrigued by this. And so what's neat is the scripture actually gives us a lot of information, but there's a lot of things that we don't know. And guess what? Angels have a lot of questions about who we are.

They don't fully understand us. They have many questions about the things of salvation. In fact, 1 Peter tells us concerning this salvation, the things which have been announced to you through those who have preached the good news by the Holy Spirit from heaven, these are things which angels long to look into.

The plan of redemption is hard for angels to understand because holy angels do not need to be saved, and the fallen angels cannot be saved. But holy angels have this overwhelming curiosity to understand the kind of grace that they will never experience.

They seek to understand salvation, that they may glorify God more fully because that is their primary reason for existence. And so they declare here in Luke, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased.

Man can have peace with God when we look to Jesus by faith alone, we are justified like we talked about earlier, just as if I never sinned. And so angels cannot help but to declare this good news with joy, and that should be our response as well.

Shepherds, Mary, and the Joy of the Incarnation

And so look with me at verse 15, I want you to see how the shepherds respond in this moment. 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. I love how the text says they went with haste. That means they hurried off, why? Because they desire to see their King, the Lord of glory.

And verse 17 says that when they saw it, they made it known the saying that had been told them concerning this child, and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. The shepherds responded with haste and all those who heard this message, they responded with wonder, they were filled with amazement, they marveled and were filled with joy.

And then we get to see something about Mary. But Mary treasured up all of these things, pondering them in her heart. No doubt that Mary was going through all the normal thoughts of any mother that just had a child would go through, but she was pondering up the promises of God, how he would send forth a savior.

And she was overtaken by that, pondering these things, treasuring them up in her heart. And so I wanna ask you this morning, when was the last time you ever wondered in amazement at the work of our savior?

Does it ever cause you to think deeply about how God has saved us by his grace? Does this produce joy in your life? Or is the story of Jesus's birth, just a story no different than the theme of Santa Claus that the world celebrates?

But if you are a saint this morning and have been transformed by this gospel message, we cannot help but to continue to praise and worship God. Verse 20, the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all that they have seen and heard and that was told to them.

That is the attitude that we should all share with them. Our hearts should be full of joy because we have peace with God. And so in this passage, the word joy was only mentioned one time. So I guess that's the end of the sermon.

We can just pack up and go home. As I was thinking more about this message of joy, I started looking throughout the entirety of Luke's gospel only to find that the theme of joy starts in chapter one and goes through the entire book.

Back in chapter one, the angel of the Lord announced to Zechariah and his barren wife that they would miraculously have a child, which was John the Baptist. And the angel told them, and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at John the Baptist's birth for he will be great for the Lord.

So here in chapter two, we also saw how the angel brought the gospel and it produces joy for all the people. And so in Luke chapter six, we have Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus encourages those who are going to be persecuted.

He says, rejoice and in that day leap for joy for behold, your reward is great in heaven. And so I'd like to invite you to turn with me to Luke chapter eight, as we continue to see Luke's theme of joy throughout his gospel.

Superficial Joy and the Parable of the Sower

And I want us to see another type of joy, okay? This is going to be a superficial type of joy when we look at the parable of the sower. Many of your Bibles may call it the parable of the soils and because it's talking about the dispositions of different people's hearts when they come in contact with the gospel message.

So Luke with me, starting in verse four. And when a great crowd was gathering and people went from town to town and they came to Jesus and he said this in a parable, a sower went out to sow a seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot and the birds devoured it.

And some fell on the rock as it grew up and withered away because it had no moisture. Make a middle note about the rocky ground. And some fell among thorns and those thorns grew up and with it and choked it.

And some fell on good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As Jesus said these things, he called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Verse 11, Jesus further explains the meaning of this parable.

And so verse 11, he says, now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. The one along the path are those who have heard this gospel message. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and not be saved.

And make note of verse 13, and the ones on the rock are those when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while and in a time of testing, fall away. And so I want us to focus on this category of the rocky ground.

These are people that are false converts. These are people for a time that profess to believe in the facts about Jesus. And then what did they do when they were initially confronted with the gospel? They had great joy.

They were not broken over their sin before God who is holy, holy, holy. And so this kind of joy proves to be superficial. It proves to be fleeting. This is a joy that's not rooted in the person and work of Christ.

These people had joy in the idea of salvation. Jesus says that these have no root. They believe for a while and in times of testing, they fell away. And so Jesus is saying that these people had a knowledge about the facts about Jesus.

Guess who else knows facts about Jesus? The demons. The book of James says, yeah, you believe in one God, that's great, but even the demons believe that. When you go read the gospel accounts, they tremble in fear because they know that Jesus is the holy one of God.

Big deal, if you know facts about Jesus, even the demons know that, right? The facts start here, but it must penetrate the heart, right, in love, in faith, a repentant faith. And so this rocky ground, we realize that their feelings were changed, but not their souls.

To be firmly rooted in Christ when you hear the gospel proclamation means that there must be a deep brokenness over your sin before a holy God. That ought to remove us, that ought to move us, and this is a key word, to repentance.

Repentance is so important. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 7, 10, for godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation. Repentance means that you change your mind, but it doesn't just stay there, right?

It captures the heart. Your heart turns from loving sin and the things of this world and turns to loving God, turns to loving Christ and his promises. That is a heart change, that is repentance. And Jesus said, blessed are happy are those who mourn.

What are we to be happy about mourning? Well, when we understand the right facts about our sinfulness before God, that should initially break our hearts, right? But then Jesus says, but then you will be comforted, right?

The Holy Spirit comes into our life and gives us great joy in really who Jesus is. But the key for repentance is a brokenness over our sin, and that may cause weeping for a moment, but then everlasting joy in Christ.

And so verse 15, we see the good soil. They are those that hearing the word, hold it fast, and in an honest and good heart, bear fruit with patience. And so this is a transformed heart, a work of the Spirit.

And this person now loves the Savior with repentant faith. And that will produce in your heart everlasting joy in all circumstances. This is joy, a fruit of the Spirit, not a superficial joy that comes from the loving, the idea of salvation, something that is devoid of repentance and mourning over sin.

And so I want us to think about this question. Do you have joy in your life? Yes, Jeremiah, I have joy that comes and goes all the time. Well, how do you know that that's not a superficial joy? I believe there's a way to tell.

If you are someone that's happy and joyful when things are going your way, that's a superficial joy. But if you count it as joy when you're going through the trials and hardships of life, and you find joy in the promises of God, and you find joy in Christ, then you can know that God is sovereignly sanctifying you to become more and more like Christ.

That is true divine joy. That produces a peace that surpasses all other joy. And so back to our theme of joy throughout Luke's gospel, we come to Luke chapter 15. We're not gonna read the whole chapter, but it's interesting, because Luke chapter 15 has three parables there.

And I wanna briefly look at the second parable. So if you would like to turn to Luke chapter 15, I'm gonna look briefly at verse eight through 10. And so Jesus says in this parable, what woman, having 10 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, rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I have lost. And then Jesus says, just so I tell you, there will be joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.

And so there's three parables here, and I believe there's a common thread that brings them all together. There is a joy that fills heaven when a person is overcome by deep repentance and comes to saving faith.

And so the first two parables highlight God's pursuit and his initiative for seeking and saving the lost. And the parable that we're probably most familiar with is the parable of the prodigal son. This highlights man's perspective, repenting and going back to the father.

And so quickly look with me at verse 10. I want you to see once again, the joy that the angels get to partake in. And remember, we touched on this earlier, even the angels, when they announced the good news to the shepherds, there was this overwhelming number of them in the sky and they broke out and praised and worshiped God.

But remember, angels do not experience repentance or saving faith in Christ. And so that's why they long to look into these things. However, angels are able to observe a sinner that is saved by grace.

They get to see their brokenness over sin and have true repentance. They get to observe someone that's like of the good soil, someone who is rooted in Christ producing much fruit. And so this equally causes the angels to have great joy in heaven.

They are literally watching the manifold wisdom of God's redemption unfold before their very eyes. And so just briefly, I wanna show you something that does not bring the angels in heaven joy. Look with me at verse seven in the first parable.

Jesus closes there and says, just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, over the 99 righteous persons who have no need of repentance. The angels are not joyful. When a person thinks that their good works can gain favor with God, the self-righteous like the Pharisees, those individuals that don't see their need to repent and look to Jesus, they are looking to themselves.

Friend, do not be like this person, like the Pharisee, someone that says, well, I do a pretty good job most of the time. I don't really need Jesus. I can look to him when it's convenient. The scripture says you will not be saved, right?

You have to understand that there is nothing, no works that you could conjure up to make yourself right before God. Not your baptism, that offends people, but that's something that you do and you can accomplish, right?

Baptism is a picture of what God has already done in your life, right? Reading your Bible day after day after day is not going to gain favor with God, right? Should we do that as Christians? Absolutely, but understand nothing that you could achieve in your works gains you a right standing before God.

That's what the Pharisees did and that does not bring joy in the throne room of heaven when somebody is self-righteous. We have to understand that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so any works that you do are tainted by sin.

In fact, the Bible calls this, our best deeds are like filthy rags before God. We need a perfect savior and his finished work applied to our account. And so I believe this should cause our hearts to rejoice.

The apostle Paul was chained up in a prison, right? That's pretty rough and he was about to be killed and you know what he said? I will rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Paul was finding joy in the joy giver.

He wasn't looking to his fleeting earthly circumstances. And so at this point, I want you to see a strong connection between repentance and joy. And so as we continue the theme of joy in John's gospel, I wanna take your attention to Luke chapter 19 and I wanna talk about a man named Zacchaeus.

Does anybody know who I'm talking about? You know the songs. Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he and he climbed up in that sycamore tree. I sung that in Sunday school and would draw little pictures and so I'm sure that's been your experience too.

Zacchaeus was a wealthy man. He was a tax collector and he was very intrigued by the person of Jesus. And so the text says he was seeking after Jesus to see who he was. And then there came that wonderful moment where Jesus came to Zacchaeus and said, for I must stay at your house today.

And I love this next part. It says, so Zacchaeus hurried and came down from that sycamore tree and said, he received Jesus joyfully. But Jeremiah, how do we know that this wasn't a superficial joy like the rocky ground we read earlier?