Reasons for joy this Christmas
by Andrew Chan, Senior Pastor, PBC, Vancouver, BC
We want joy, don’t we? Look around, are we not as humans reaching, looking, for it. The Vancouver Grizzlies and their fans are looking for the joy of victory. But alas... Why there is even a dish washing detergent brand name called “Joy”. I bet the company who thought of the name is hoping you buy it as you remember how great it felt to have clean dishes after you have put pasta sauce on it. Joy the word, brings a sense of brightness, cheerfulness, happiness, contentment. Peter McMartin, Van. Sun columnist, writing in yesterday’s paper said: Where is our sun? Where is the true warmth of our existence? Here he is asking essentially where can joy be found. His answer is family: “I will eat Christmas dinner with my wife and children – who are the suns of my existence – and I will dance with my wife and friends at a party on New year’s eve. We will drink too much, and have too much fun, and that is rare enough.” Look at what MacMartin is saying here. Joy is rather elusive, it is rare. The he continues: “ I will orbit around all of them, and they, hopefully, around me. And then the new year will come, and with it, all the old habits and weaknesses. But that is then, and this is now, and Christmas … offers the hope of redemption, however temporary, and rebirth. Galileo was wrong. We are the centre of the universe. Forget the heavens: Our suns are here.” In what he says, you will note there is despair. There is little hope for permanent joy. For him redemption is Temporary, forget the heavens, our suns are here. There is really no hope in this world, relish what u find joyful now for it will be gone. There is no God, we are it all alone in the universe. If friends and family don’t orbit around us, there is really no joy.
Then, I read in January 2001 issue of Reader’s Digest that there is reason for hope to return. In an article entitled “Is the Bible True?” let me quote… “The unearthing of an inscription or artifact can shed new light or cast a shadow –on a scriptural passage. Yet in extraordinary ways, modern archaeology is affirming the historical core of both the Old and New Testaments, supporting key portions of crucial biblical stories.” Thus, to merely treat the text of Bible, Scripture as it were some fairy tale, is to do injustice. I invite you to hear again…
Let’s look in the Bible shall we as we find reasons for joy this Christmas.
Family
Reading of John 1:1-14
Will we know Him when he comes .. are we ready for the child of
Bethlehem says the song by the choir
John begins his gospel, his version of good news, with a beautiful description. No doubt, for John the Christmas story begins right from the very beginning, not in a stable in Bethlehem. But story does a quick jump from V1-2 jump to v.14 where the word became flesh!
Implications seen clearly with help of Heb.2:6ff.
The Hebrews passage points out an even deeper mystery. God was horrified and scandalized by our spiritual genetics. The taint of sin had been passed down from our first parents to us. And yet, rather than saying, "Thank God I haven’t got that in my blood line," God says, "I am not ashamed to call them family." Not ashamed to give them my name, my reputation, my glory! This is it, the jump from the word which was from the beginning, the word who is God, is the word that is not ashamed, to include us as family and to identify with us.
Now think about that. Have any of you got a family member you would rather do without? Perhaps some still remember when Jimmy Carter was president of the USA. His brother Billy was going around guzzling beer, making rude, racist remarks, and belching in public, right in front of TV cameras and radio microphones. I suspect that there were days when Jimmy wanted to closet Billy with all of his cans of Billy beer! And yet he was family. You choose your friends, but you inherit your family. Yet here, God chose the join the human family. He became flesh, chose to let Christmas happen with the birth of Jesus.
When He joined the family of people like Mother Teresa, Francis of Assisi, he also joined the family of Jeffrey Dahmer, Paul Bernardo, and Adolph Hitler. In an interview with the father of Jeffrey Dahmer a few years ago right after he had just been indicted for murder, mutilation, and cannibalism of his victims. Two things became clear from that interview: 1) the man knew that Jeffrey was his son and 2) the man was utterly shamed that the child he raised went on to do the horrific crimes he committed. My thought is that he wouldn’t have chosen to have that man for a son!
I would be afraid to adopt Paul Bernardo and to call him my brother, wouldn’t you? But God is not afraid to call us family. Is this not a reason to rejoice have joy this Christmas. The one who knows it all, God, calling us his children, when we trust His love, faith in Him.
One terrific reason to rejoice this Christmas is the fact that Christ is not ashamed of us. To him, and like Bible says to those who believe in His name He gave the right to become children of God. Family!
Government
Reading of Isaiah 9:2-7
On this Night ...a promise is fullfilled .. child of hope... the
miracle unfolds
Joy is not known in Israel. In fact Christmas would not be celebrated there this year. Because of impending war. Governments of Israel and Palestine seem intent to hurt each other. It seems people more are at risk of dying or being injured with shells being fired each day, Palestinians and Israelis shooting each other, hurting each other, fighting.
Yet we Read v.3 increased their joy, rejoice 3x. Can’t miss it, right, that joy is what God desires to be the experience of people. How? When - Oppression will be vanquished (v.4) and war will come to an end (v.5) And what is that will bring this joy: the hope of the Child (v.6) and then dirty word government. Don’t like that word, do we?
Red tape, inefficiency, waste of money, taxes but look at the words in Bible
Joy is there because this child will bring a gov’t that will be unlike any, his reign have is as one who can listen to us, unlike deaf gov’t we know, where people suffer but can they fix health care?? His counsel will be wonderful cause people to gape in awe, plans
Mighty God – warrior God – who be champion for oppressed
Everlasting Father – provider, compassionate, protector will be enduring
Prince of Peace – he will be One who brings wholeness and well being
Bad gov’t seems to last a lifetime, BC can’t wait to dump NDp in next elections according to the polls. Disarray, misappropriation of funds, bad taxes GST and PST will done, no GVRD vehicle levy, bad projects like the Fast Ferry fiasco, no more ministers who would equate Bible believers with Nazis. BUT This government will be no end (v.7).
Zeal of the Lord will accomplish this.
Good reason for joy this Christmas is to know God is zealous about bringing in a just gov’t a righteous gov’t, a great gov’t and He is passionately, deeply overwhelming in favour of this becoming a reality. The passionate commitment of the LORD Almighty will guarantee this!
Because of him there will be an end to oppression, war, injustice.
Descent
Reading of Luke 2:8-12
Silent Night, Holy Night .... similar to the well known hymn
So one day he came on that silent night… “Wonder how Christmas day felt to God? Philip Yancey in his book Disappointment with God wrote this: Imagine for a moment becoming a baby again: giving up language and muscle coordination, and the ability to eat solid food and control your bladder. God as a fetus! Or imagine yourself becoming a sea slug – that analogy is probably closer. On that day in Bethlehem, the Maker of All that is took form as helpless, dependent newborn.”
Why didn’t he come as an adult? Be easier, no need to go through scrapes and bruises, fighting off colds and fevers, why not start life as a teen, maybe that’s not a good idea, fast forward to 30, why go through that silent night, holy night bit.
Let me share with you a parable, you’ve heard it before, But it’s worth a second
Hearing, beautiful story…Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden. The king was like no other king. Every statesmen trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all his opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden.
How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his very kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist- no one dared resist him. But would she love him?
She would say she loved him of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she left behind. Would she be happy at his side? How could he know?
If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross over the gulf between them.
The king, convinced he could not elevate the maiden without crushing her freedom, resolved to descend. He clothed himself as a beggar and approached her cottage incognito, with a worn cloak fluttering loosely about him. He renounced the throne to win her hand.
Phil.2:6-8
Joy this christmas is known because of a God who loves, demonstrated in his descent.
Descent tells of a God who fell from heaven, because he is falling in love with us, the bride.
For God so loved the world…
Conclusion:
“Joy was God’s plan for man from the beginning.” Says JI Packer.
I believe him. You can trace that thread of joy from the way God enjoyed creating the world and declared that after man was made in His image, it was very good. Humans, were crown of his creation. He absolutely enjoyed walking the Garden of Eden in cool of the day where Adam and Eve lived. I Tim 6:17 declares that God and I quote “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” Did u get it? That e word? Joy to the world is not just a Christmas carol, it is a reality of where God wants this world to be. From the lips of Jesus before his suffering in his prayer to His father he prays in John 17:13: “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” Get that? Missing out on joy this Christmas??
You see, we can get so caught up in the tragedies and the battles of today, pressure get dinner perfect, shop the best gifts, balance budget so can have a super Christmas, but what does it matter in light eternity? 1000 years from now who will remember our names. Yet there is one who will remember, he said that every hair on your head he knows. How are we right now missing out on joy of God, on God’s family, God’s government, on God’s descent to show us his love, thus miss out on investing in our future. While the world rolls on, God calls us to pay attention to what we’ve got growing all around us, preparing us for the future. Don’t lose tomorrow for today! Perhaps sorrow has crept into your heart, but I pray that you are like apostle Paul, in 2 Cor. 6:10 and I quote “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” end quote. Here is a person with every reason to be bitter, “hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.” (2 Cor.4:8) Keep it in perspective. In fact, most of the world didn’t know what had happened in an obscure corner of the world about 200 years ago. No one really paid much attention. They didn’t realize that an act of God had taken place. Most did not know that Jesus, the perfect one, was beginning to perfect our salvation through identifying with us, with that miraculous descent, the birth, the gift of a son, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given. Most still don’t know this now, nor do they know that Jesus can help us because he identifies with us completely. He is not ashamed to treat us like family or to come to our aid. He guarantees that he will provide the kind of government we all long for because of the birth of that child prophesied in Isaiah. His descent tells us it was no hoax, be a great plan to win us over with love rather than power. By identifying with him our salvation is perfected. Will u therefore identify with Him? And join in with him?
Joy this Christmas is best known when you know that with Jesus, who was born to die on the cross for sins of world, died for you. Greater love…
So are we ready for the child of bethlehem? Let the measure of his joy invade you!
Prayer:
In this holy moment O Compassionate God, you look into our hearts. You see the struggles, despair, sorrow, longing, hunger, pain we long for Your word to be true. But there are battles and it seem no one understands, but as I hear Your word, You say You can come to my aid, because You are not ashamed of me, You want me to identify with You, so I give You my life now. Take over all that I am, grant me the right to become Your child, part of Your family. Love me the way I want to be loved.
Help me to praise You now, from this Christmas onwards with new joy knowing You are my Father, You and I we’re family, as I long for the hope of Your government that has no end, guaranteed because You descended to my level. So I ask now speak to me. Alright and amen God!
Love and Praise Medley (Trio) Joyful we adore Thee ..Joy of heaven come down.. praise to God
