Because Joy Has Come (Why Christmas part 4 of 4)

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. And then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:8–11)

All men seek happiness—and Christmas is the announcement that the joy they are seeking has come into the world.

All Men Seek Happiness

The 17th-century Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end... The motive of every action of every man is towards this, the pursuit of happiness." Our own nation was founded in part on that ideal—the pursuit of happiness.

Some may argue whether all men truly seek it, but one thing is certain: I've yet to meet a person who does not want to be happy. We are all seeking for joy. I believe God fashioned us that way—He hardwired that desire into us. For when you consider who God is as He's revealed in Scripture, the pursuit of ultimate joy finally leads to Him.

People take paths and go down alleys that seem to bring happiness, but in the end those things don't satisfy. That's why the 20th-century philosopher wrote, "I can't get no satisfaction." All those wells run dry. Jesus said rightly that whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But there is a source of ultimate joy that is abundant and enduring, found in God. As David wrote in Psalm 16:11, "In your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand pleasures forevermore."

In the Beginning There Was Joy

We go often back to the book of Genesis. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1 continues with the six days of creation, and on the seventh God rested. At the end of each day God declared, "It is good." The summary comes in verse 31: "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good."

God made man in His image to walk in relationship with Him. From the opening chapters we can deduce that man and God enjoyed a oneness, that God came and walked with Adam in the cool of the day in the garden He had given as a gift. There was unimpeded connection between God and man—and because His presence is fullness of joy, there was joy.

One way God created for that joy to be expressed was marriage. He formed woman from man, brought her to him, and joined the two as one flesh. Marriage is the institution of God, not the creation of society. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said in Proverbs 5:18 to "rejoice with the wife of your youth," and again in Ecclesiastes 9:9, "Live joyfully with the wife whom you love." So in the beginning there was joy.

The Human Experience: Misery

The first two chapters of the Bible end on high notes; the third does not. Genesis 3 describes the fall—the extreme low of humanity. The Bible's overarching story moves from creation to fall to redemption to restoration. The redemption portion is the longest, and it was the plan God purposed before the foundation of the world.

The fall in Genesis 3 is filled with sorrowful words that dominate the text: fear (v. 10), deceit (v. 13), curse (vv. 14, 17), enmity (v. 15), pain and sorrow (vv. 15–16), toil (v. 17), thorns (v. 18), sweat (v. 19), death (v. 19), sacrifice (v. 21), evil (v. 22), and exile (vv. 23–24). The Apostle Paul hit this note in Romans 5: "Through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all humanity."

The human experience after the fall is characterized by misery, and you need only look at the world to confirm it. We may bury it for a while by turning off the news and entertaining ourselves, but earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wars confront us constantly. And imagine what it is for God, who is all-knowing—all of it rises before Him perpetually. In Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey's character is bombarded by constant voices and asks what they are; they are prayers, the unending cry of the world's suffering coming before God.

But this is not as God intended. In His foreknowledge He knew it would be so, but it is not as He designed it. So even before He said, "Let there be light," God had planned redemption.

The Prophets Foresaw the Advent of Joy

God is the gift-giving God, and like many gift-givers He loves to leave hints about the gifts He's giving. He did that throughout the Old Testament through the prophets, revealing a better future—not marked by misery, but defined once again by joy.

In Isaiah 9, God announces One who will come to bring redemption: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given... and He will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Earlier in that chapter, the prophet describes light coming into darkness and joy coming: "You have multiplied the nation and increased its joy; they rejoice before You according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil" (Isaiah 9:3).

Isaiah likens this joy to the harvest coming in, or to dividing the spoil after victory. For us, it might be the joy of an unexpected Christmas bonus, or the winning team's locker room after the Super Bowl. But those joys are temporary; they fade quickly. The joy God brings is enduring and expansive—forever.

Later, in Isaiah 61, the prophet writes the very passage Jesus read in the synagogue at Nazareth, declaring, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." It reads: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor... to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." The word "anointed" is Mashiach in Hebrew, Christos in Greek—Christ. He would come preaching gospel, healing the sick, setting captives free, and giving the oil of joy to those under the misery of the fall.

The prophets also revealed where this joy-bringer would come from: He would destroy death and Satan (Genesis 3:15), come from the family of Abraham (Genesis 12), through Isaac (17), through Jacob (25), through Judah (49), of the royal line of David (2 Samuel), born of a virgin (Isaiah), in Bethlehem (Micah 5). Very specific—and all pointing to the One who would come.

The Advent of Joy Has Come

The advent of Jesus, celebrated this time of year, is the dawning of the fulfillment of all those prophets who looked forward in hopeful expectation. Whether or not He was born on December 25th, we celebrate that joy came to the world—that He came to set captives free, to heal the brokenhearted, and to remove the misery of sin and death, not for a moment but eternally.

It's an awesome thing that God revealed the coming of joy not to Herod or the political powers of the day, but to regular tradesmen out in their fields. The angel said, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people." Not the minimal joy of a Christmas gift, nor the fading joy of the Super Bowl champion who realizes he has to do it all over again next week—but gospel of great joy.

And it is for all people: not just the culturally elite, not only the wealthy or the poor, not only the whole or the sick, but for all people, at all times, in every place. "There is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

The Christian Experience Should Be Marked by Joy

When Jesus stepped onto the scene of humanity, He came as the embodiment of joy, and as the path through which we can access it. On the night He was betrayed He told His disciples, "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11). In His high priestly prayer He said, "These things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves" (John 17:13).

Jesus declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). Since fullness of joy is in God's presence, Jesus is the path to joy. The one brought near to God in Christ becomes the recipient of abounding joy. That is what our lives should be marked by. Paul lists it as evidence of God's Spirit dwelling in us: "The fruit of the Spirit is... joy" (Galatians 5:22)—something you can't buy at the supermarket or earn in school.

Experience, Express, and Extend Joy

Because Christians are recipients of this joy in Christ, we are to experience it, express it, and extend it. If your expression of Christianity is a melancholy, joyless countenance—if it's dour and "everything is pitiful"—then you're doing it wrong. Why would anyone want what we have if we walk around saying everything is terrible? If all men seek joy, and we have found it in Christ, then it should be evident, and people should want to know how to get it.

It's striking how often powerful people and celebrities, having won every award, find they have nothing. My pastor friend Joey Buran was a pro surfer who won the Pipeline Masters in the early 1980s. Years ago, helping him move, I pulled that championship trophy out from under a bed, covered with dust. He told me it was the lowest day of his life: he stood on the platform, the cameras flashed, a storm drenched everything, and he found himself sitting alone on the beach thinking, "Is that it?" That emptiness eventually led to his salvation. What he had aimed for didn't bring the joy he sought.

To experience joy means to come into practical contact with something that leaves an impression on you. Has your contact with Jesus left such an impression that you express His joy to others? To express it means to convey it in words, gestures, and conduct.

I'll admit this isn't always easy. We all face tasks and difficult situations that don't naturally overflow with joy. I'm not advocating a Joel Osteen-ish plastered smile while pretending everything is great when it isn't—some situations don't warrant that. When I was learning German before moving there, I learned that Germans don't ask "How are you?" the way we do; they figure you don't really want to know. In our culture we ask and just expect "Everything's great," even when it isn't.

But the Christian has a joy that does not find its foundation in this world or its circumstances. It is seated in what God has promised us—the restoration of the resurrection. Our joy isn't found in the job, the relationship, the house, the car, or the money. We will face things in this life that warrant a different reaction in the moment, yet the underlying current is joy, because the trajectory of our lives is to be with the Lord. Charles Spurgeon said it well: "When you speak of heaven, let your face light up and be irradiated with a heavenly gleam; and when you speak of hell, your everyday face will do."

To extend joy means to hold it out toward someone, to make it available, to cause it to cover a larger area. Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and preach glad tidings of good things—gospel. We are to extend our enduring joy to a joyless world abiding under misery. And you can't give out what you don't possess, so we must first learn to experience the joy of God in Christ.

The sad reality is that the trappings of Christmas often drag us down to a base level of bad attitude—too much traffic, too many people in line, the item that's sold out—and we lose our patience and our joy, in no way representing the One who is the reason for the season. So may God transform us to experience this joy not just at Christmas but every day, to express it and extend it to others. The advent of Jesus is the advent of joy. Joy has come to the world, and the greatest thing we can offer anyone this holiday season is the joy we have in Christ.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, the Scriptures reveal that because of what You did on the cross 2,000 years ago, we who have put our trust in You are heirs of You—that we inherit You and Your glory and all that indwells Your nature: love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, and gentleness, all the things described in Galatians 5. These things are ours in You. I pray that we would take possession of them, that we would experience them and have them expressed in our lives, and that through that we would extend them to others. I thank You for this time of year when, at the very least, people desire to experience joy, and I pray it would be very clear in us that we have it. Make it a part of our lives this week. We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.