The Spirit of Christmas: Joy

The Spirit of Christmas: Joy

The meaning of Christmas is found in Jesus, in His sacrifice, His humble sacrifice. It's found in the hope that we have in Him. It's not about all of the other things. I guess we can say kind of like the Jews. Remember how they got so caught up in the types and the shadows and not in the substance, right? We can become all these things can point us to the Lord, not even all of them, but a lot of things can point us to the Lord this time of the year. But at the end of the day, it's not about the Christmas tree and the light. It's about the Savior. It's about His hope, the hope He brings Himself. It's about having that personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing His love in your own heart, the greatest gift that one can ever receive.

This evening, let's turn to 1 John chapter 1. I thought about these words again. I know we have crisscrossed this. We've used this passage a number of times over the years, but my heart is drawn to these opening words here in 1 John chapter 1, again this evening. 1 John chapter 1, and verse 1 John says that which was from the beginning. Remember John is one of the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was an eyewitness. He wasn't relating something he had heard. He was relating what he had seen and heard directly from the Lord. He says that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled the word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it.

Everything we're talking about at Christmas is the life was manifested, right? Jesus came into this world that we might have life and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. And then he says here, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. It's as he says here, the life was manifested. We have seen it. He says and that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship as he says here, and that your joy may be full. We have not touched her, his voice as he walked among us, but we have his words. We have the word of truth, even though we did not physically reach out and touch his side as did Thomas, but Jesus said, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, right?

It's interesting, we see that word this time of the year in a sense of belief that Santa Claus is real, right? Believe, that word is connected a lot of times with become a child again and believe that Santa Claus is real, or make believe, or whatever you got to do. We believe that Jesus Christ is real. We believe he's the reason for the season. He's the reason not only for this season, but the reason for our joy, the reason for our hope, the reason that we experience, we can know this peace that passes all understanding. I mentioned last week that joy is an inward gladness. It's not based on circumstances. It's an inward gladness that doesn't go up and down with circumstances, but it's a gladness that's based on who Christ is and what He's done. It's based on the fact that God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

We sing that hymn that we sing it today, joy to the world. This morning the last hymn, joy to the world. The Lord has come, let earth receive her King. Well, there will be joy to the world truly when Jesus Christ comes back as King, but even that first Christmas, there was the joy upon the angels' announcement of the birth of the Savior and there would be joy to every heart who would receive Him and every heart who would believe Him. It's often been said by a number of people that what comes into our minds, a number of pet preachers and authors, Christian authors, something along the effect that whatever comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing that could be said about us. What comes to your heart and mind when you think about the Lord?

I was listening to a testimony of a pastor this week that was witnessing, or maybe it was last week, anyway, in the last week or two, that was wanting to witness to His neighbor. He said, witnessing to His neighbor was probably one of the more challenging things to do because you live right beside Him, right? You don't just see Him in the store and then you go. No, you see Him every day when you go out. Witnessing to His neighbor and He was wanting, He was able to sporadically get a witness in, but He really wanted to give a meaningful witness to this neighbor and He, a long story short, wrote down His personal testimony. He took Him some time to really get the main things He wanted to put down, but He wrote down, this is what Jesus means to me. And He wrote down that personal testimony and He gave Him a book, but He also had that sheet of paper where He had written down exactly what Jesus meant to Him in condensed form. And He handed it to Him and said, I want you to know that this is the truth about what I believe about Jesus and He left it with Him after talking with Him for a little bit.

I thought about that. What is our testimony? What do people know what our testimony is? Do people know what we believe about the Savior? What is He the joy of our life? Is He our hope? Is He our peace? Do people know that? Do they see that? Do they hear that from us? And I ask myself that question. Do our neighbors know that? What that hope is. There is a Christian hymn that I've heard sung before. We don't have it in our hymnal, but it goes like this, on Christmas night, all Christians sing to hear the news, the angels bring. On Christmas night, all Christians sing to hear the news, the angels bring. News of great joy, news of great mirth, news of our merciful kings' birth. Then why should men, verse 2 says, on earth be so sad when our Redeemer has made us glad? Then why should men on earth be so sad? Since our Redeemer has made us glad, when from our sins He set us free, all for to gain our liberty. I thought about that question has often come back to my mind. Why should men be sad since our Redeemer has made us glad? Of all people, we should be full of joy. What did John say tonight? We read these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.

Look with me in Psalm 119, verse 16 rather. Psalm 119, verse 16. The psalmist says, I will delight myself in thy statutes. What does it mean to delight? It means to take great pleasure or joy in something, doesn't it? It glads my heart when I read your word, right? I will not forget thy word. The word of God to the psalmist was everything because it told him of the character and the desires, the commands and will of his Savior, the Lord. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. How do we learn more about our Savior? Well, Spirit of God, my teacher, be showing the things of Christ to me. More about Jesus in his word, holding communion with my Lord, hearing his voice in every line, making each faithful saying mine.

We don't like to be alone at Christmas, do we? We like to be together with people. We like especially our loved ones. We want to see their faces. We want to hear their words. We want to hug them, right? We want to be together. We don't want to be alone. And so when we are together and we have that communion, we have that relationship. Not just say, well, I have a relationship with my family. No? I'm enjoying talking with. I'm enjoying being around my loved ones. It brings me joy. It brings me gladness. Well, if we know the Lord, we ought to enjoy being around him. Well, how do we get around him? Well, we don't get around him in that he just walked into the room with us like he did when he was on earth. But we get around him by feeding on his word, hearing his voice in every line and praying and singing his praises. We get, we draw nigh to him in that way.

Well, David delighted, the psalmist here delights in this. I think of that hymn with saying, Jesus is coming to earth again. What if it were today? Coming in power and love to reign. What if it were today? Coming to claim, he's chosen bright, all the redeemed and purified over this whole earth scattered wide. What if it were today? Glory, glory, joy to my heart will bring. Glory, glory, when we shall crown him king. Glory, glory. Haste to prepare the way. Glory and glory, Jesus will come someday. And if I've heard Pastor Peacock say it once, he said it a thousand times. And it might be today. Well, we want to be ready to meet the Lord, should he come today. That's what, that's the spirit we see at the first manifestation of Jesus in this earth. We see that great joy that characterized those that were looking for like Simeon. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel. We read this morning. Right? He was waiting. That means he was looking forward to it. Right? He was, he was waiting on the Lord to come.

I have a brother in Christ who recently told me that he has really been blessed. He never read it before, but he's really been blessed by reading the knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. And it goes through the attributes of our Lord's character, his attributes. It talks about his holiness, about his love, about all these different things about our Lord. And he said, what a blessing that book had been to him. Well, the more we meditate on our Savior, the more we will see his humility, we will see the hope we have in him. His goodness, his steadfast loving kindness, we will see his grace and his worth as we study him, as we think on him, as we meditate and delight to meditate on him. Who having not seen we read, we love. And we rejoice with joy unspeakable, even though we haven't seen him with our eyes, as we see him by faith, and the more we gaze on him, the more we consider him, the more we rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of glory.

In fact, even that word, glory. We can use that word to speak of, yes, the glories of heaven, but we can talk about glory in the Lord, right? We can talk about glory in him, and as in boasting in him, rejoicing in him and praising him, we can glory in him. I will praise him as we sing. Remember what Jeremiah said in chapter 9, verse 23, what did he say there? Jeremiah 9, verse 23, in verses 23 and 24, we remember this passage I'm sure in verse 23, thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. Neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Well, to glory in someone or something is to celebrate them or that thing. To say this is the source of my happiness. This brings me joy. I want to tell everyone about this.

I know I've given the illustration before of the, you know, we have this, what the Super Bowl will be coming up in maybe a little over a month. Not that I really care, but anyway, Super Bowl will be coming up. And, you know, somebody's going to win, right? And they're going to hold up that Super Bowl trophy, the national championship for, I probably care more about that. If I care about either one of the national college football championship. Somebody will hold up a trophy and they'll say, we won! They're going to glory in that, in that accomplishment. They're going to, it is, it will consume all their thoughts and desires and they're going to say, we did it. We're going to glory in this moment. Well, we have something far greater to glory in than that. That's in the Lord himself. It's not a fleeting joy. It's not a fleeting thing to rejoice in. It's the stable, settled character, unchanging character of our God. He doesn't get sick and die, even like our dearest loved ones at some point. We're all going to, if the Lord doesn't take us first, we're all going to pass away. But the Lord is the same yesterday, today and forever. He doesn't change. He never will. I can safely say, he'll never leave me nor forsake me. The Lord is my helper, of whom shall I be afraid, right?

Well, this glorying is good as long as it's in the Lord, right? Rejoice in the Lord. Always. Again, I say rejoice. Rejoice. Jeremiah talked about the Lord's loving kindness, his judgment, his righteousness. Rejoice in that. Glory in that. In who God is? Remember the psalmist looking at Psalm 107 verse 8. Psalm 107 verse 8, he gave us more reasons to rejoice. Those to glory in the Lord. Psalm 107, this would just be some reminders here to scratch the surface. But Psalm 107 verse 8, oh that men, verse 8, verse 6, and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. We glory in the Lord because he satisfies our deepest longings.

In Psalm 106, it said in verse number 1, praise ye the Lord. O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever. Oh, we praise the Lord, we glory in the Lord. We joy and rejoice in the Lord because his mercy is ever enduring. We, if we look back, look over a few pages, Psalm 113 verse 4. Psalm 113 verse 4. What does it say there? In verse 4, Psalm 113, the Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth. Even though he's high, he condescends and he has condescended to our lowly estate, hasn't he? Our lowly place, he is humble though he is high.

Also, in, I look back in Psalm 7 verse 17, Psalm 7 verse 17. Oh, we just could scratch the surface tonight of all there is to glory about in the Lord. Psalm 7 verse 17 says, I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness. And it will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high. We can glory in the Lord because he's righteous. He's not unrighteous. Didn't Paul in some place say that one of the churches, the Lord is not unrighteous to forget your labor of love? The Lord is right, equitable, fair, just in all of his ways. We see also in Psalm 29 verse 2, Psalm 29 verse number 2, give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. That's what we are called to do. That's what we ought to do.

If we understand who God is, I was listening to a message recently that just exalted the Lord for who he is. If you stop and really think about who you are in relation to who God is, it will humble you, but it will also give you hope and fill you with joy. I want it. I know from experience that that's what it is. When we get our eyes off of ourselves, if we have our eyes on ourselves, we're going to be despairing. Aren't we right? I know that's what happens to me. We look at the world around us, we're going to be in distress. But if we get our eyes on the Lord, we have hope, joy, peace. Because he is worthy of our glory, of our praise as we look upon him.

There are so many passages we could look at about the graciousness of the Lord. His omniscience. We could look at all of those things, but we won't take the time to continue down that track tonight. There's just endless what we could look at. But G. Campbell Morgan wrote, our joy is in proportion to our trust. Our joy is in proportion to our trust. Our trust in proportion to our knowledge of God. What do we say before? And before a person can believe on the Lord, they must hear. How are they going to hear without a preacher? They've got to hear. They've got to understand what their minds have got to come. Let us reason together. Your sins be as scarlet. They shall be as white as snow. Right or white as… And then we see he said, to know him is to trust him. To trust him is to triumph and excel. May we be led into fuller knowledge and so find fuller faith. And so enter the fuller joy.

The more we know, truly know the Savior, the more joy we have. Not that we may… As a Christian, we do know the Savior, but we need to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Savior. And so our joy will abound. John said, these things write we unto you. And so many words there that your joy may be full. We've seen him. We've heard him. We've handled him. Touched him. We've been with him. We've witnessed his ministry. He was manifested. The life came into the land of the darkness and the shadow of death. And upon us, have the light shines. And those that sat in the shadow of darkness, the light shines. The light is coming to the world, John 1. And we've seen this word come in flesh. And we want to tell you about him and what he's told us and what he's shown us. We want to write, the apostles write these things and share with you that we may enjoy fellowship in him. And your joy may be full.

And how are we going to… How is that joy going to be full? Well, you've got to read what I've written. You've got to read about him. You've got to read his word. He is the word, the living word, but this is the record. The record of the Son who came. And as we hear his word and trust that word in proportion, our joy will be fulfilled. As we read, we understand, we trust that word concerning Christ. Think about those that we like to talk about with the Christmas story. We go through those names, don't we? In every one of them. What were they doing? They were looking for redemption. They were looking for the Savior. They were looking for Messiah. Well, yes, they were looking for Messiah. But how do they know about the fact that Messiah was coming? Well, they believed the word, didn't they? They believed what the prophets had spoken. They believed the word that had been given for years and years for centuries.

They believed Isaiah's reports that a virgin would conceive and bear a son. His name would be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us. They believed Moses. They even believed, to back all the way to Genesis 3:15, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. They believed Micah when he said Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, right? They believed. So many things we could say, but they believed that Messiah would be the descendant of David, as we've been pointing out recently, as was prophesied. And even given in that covenant to David, they believed Malachi. And Isaiah, when they said Messiah would be preceded by a messenger, right? That would go before him. They believed. Zechariah, when he declared that the Messiah would be pierced. They believed Isaiah when he said Messiah would suffer for sins and as atonement for our sins. They believed Jeremiah when he said that Messiah would bring in a new covenant. They believed Psalm 16:8 through 11, that points to the resurrection of Messiah. Maybe they didn't catch all of those things, but they caught enough of them. They knew they were anticipating they had hope and thus they had joy in the promises of the Lord.

We talked about Zechariah this morning, didn't we? When he finally got to speak, oh, his joy was full, wasn't it? Messiah hadn't even been born yet, but his joy was full. He knew, well, the angel would appear to Mary already and said that was just conceived in thy womb as of the Holy Ghost. He was going to save his people from their sins. The angel Gabriel that appeared to Zechariah, told him that his son, John, would be the forerunner of Messiah. Oh, what joy he spoke with as he recounted all the fulfillment of all these prophecies that was about to come to pass that had been given over time. Mary said, my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior, didn't she? My spirit, when she in her Magnificat as she was magnifying the Lord with her words, she said, my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior. The Magi, the wise men said, it said of them when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. God keeps His Word, and they were rejoicing in God's honoring His Word. Simeon rejoiced when he held that baby in his arms. Anna rejoiced when she saw that the Savior had been born. She gave thanks likewise, like Simeon did, said, unto the Lord. She gave thanks unto the Lord likewise. And speak of Him to all them that look for redemption in Jerusalem.

We said this morning, if you have hope, it's going to lead you to speak, isn't it? If you have joy, it's going to come out in your words, in your actions, in your interactions with people. There's so many that we could look at and say what their response was to that. But ultimately, if we know the scriptures, if we believe the scriptures, there are going to be Christians who don't dot every i and cross every t exactly the same way when it comes to eschatology. Somebody might say it a little differently than the other one. But at the end of the day, there's some non-negotiables, aren't there? Some non-negotiables like Jesus Christ is coming back soon. I don't know what your timetable exactly might look like. You might say it a little differently than me, but one thing for sure, we better be watching and waiting for the Lord to come back. Even if somebody held a mid-trib position, the Lord could come back any time, even today, right? Don't let that cause you to disobey what the scripture says, right? The Lord could come back even today. And we, anticipating that, must we must be walking in holiness, right? That's what the scripture says as we anticipate the Lord is coming.

And the scripture even says we ought to be even more and more as we see the day approaching, assembling ourselves together, not like the manner of some is forsaking to be assembling, but more and more, we ought to be that joy ought to be seen. And we want to be with God's people, those who also get excited or have true gladness at who God is and what His promises are. We need to surround ourselves with like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ. You know, we're to comfort one another with these words, aren't we? We're to remind each other of these words and strengthen the brethren. The problem with the Pharisees was they had not the Word of God abiding in them, did they? They didn't have God's Word abiding in them. Jesus told them to search the scriptures. If you read them, they testify of me, but the problem is, the Word doesn't have a place in you, and therefore you don't recognize me because you don't know the Word. You have a form of godliness, but you deny the reality of that godliness.

And so the most important thing for us, folks, if we know the Savior, even as we think about this Christmas, may our joy increase as we delight ourselves in the Lord. May we delight ourselves in being in His Word. There's so much. I know. I mean, we're all human beings. We all have distractions and lots of things to do and all of that. We just need to get still in God's presence and just spend time in God's Word. And even when we're not holding God's Word, I'm not saying that we can read it all the day long, but let's meditate on Him. There's so many things to get our minds filled with. But even as we deal with those things, let's not forget what God has done for us. Let's rejoice in Him. Let's rejoice in our Savior. Let's have that spirit of Christmas and may it overflow into our words and our actions towards one another.

We need, we leak. We leak and we get affected by the world around us, don't we? My wife was just talking about, you know, there's been some positive experiences she's had, she's been out and about in the stores at different times this Christmas season. But a lot of times you can come back home, feel beat down, you know, when you're just in this world. I mean, there's just a lot of negative attitudes and all of that. But thank the Lord, He's the same. He doesn't change. You might be at work that you, you know, on your job, it's a difficult place to be sometimes, or it might be that you have, you know, you might have hard neighbors that are not easy to get along with, any number of things, but may we, may we show the hope and the joy we have in the Savior as we interact with people this Christmas and may He be honored and pleased through our worship of Him, this Christmas.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for those who come tonight. Lord, we want to help us to just delight ourselves in the Lord and you more and more in your Son, Jesus Christ, who's given Himself for us. Help us to be joyful in the Savior. Help us to think about the glories and the glorious characteristics and attributes of our Savior. And in thinking on Him may our thoughts feed our speech as we interact with one another, as well as those that are without, that our words may be filled with joy. May we, may we just as much as or more than those who glory in riches and glory in human temporary accomplishments, may we, may we joy, joy and glory in most ourselves in the Lord and what you accomplished for us on that cross of Calvary and coming down and manifesting yourself in this planet for our redemption, for our salvation. Well, bless us now as we conclude this service tonight with the final hymn and keep us safe as we go our respective ways we pray. May we enjoy spending time in thinking on, meditating on, and anticipating what you'll do for us even as we think on these things this Christmas. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.