Joy to the World // Luke 2:8-11

Pastor Evan Bialk reflects on the theme of joy during the fourth week of Advent, particularly emphasizing the significance of the birth of Christ in restoring joy to the world.  Preaching on the passage in Luke 2:8-11, which details the angel's announcement of Jesus' birth as "good news of great joy" for all people. Pastor Evan elaborates on the meaning of this joy, explaining that it is rooted in a relationship with God and is more profound than mere happiness; it is a choice that emanates from understanding one’s salvation through Christ.Throughout the message, Pastor Evan warns against seeking joy in transient sources such as self, others, worldly possessions, and even religious rituals, stating that these often lead to disappointment. He asserts that true joy is found in Jesus alone, drawing on scripture and historical examples to demonstrate how believers can maintain joy in affliction. By reconnecting to the joy of salvation, as echoed in Psalm 51:12, believers can experience an enduring sense of joy despite life's challenges. Ultimately, Pastor Evan encourages both believers and non-believers to seek the complete joy that comes from a personal relationship with Jesus, emphasizing that this joy, deeply rooted in faith, cannot be taken away.

Transcript

Last week was one of those examples of a congregation having to suffer through and endure a new lead pastor. I wasn't. I had no clue how long I had gone last week. And then I got to my desk and I was cutting the sermon, and, man, it was an extra long one last week. So thank you for your graciousness of sticking around through that.

Although I would say so. I've been using a timer on my iPad that blinks at me when I'm going over, and I'd forgotten to turn it on last week, so I'm gonna blame the timer on that. But, yeah, thank you for your graciousness. Although if you had to sit through an extra long sermon, at least it was about God's love, right? I mean, it could have been about tithing.

I could. I could have. I could have sat up here for over an hour and talked to you about tithing. Probably some of you wouldn't have stuck around for that one. So, speaking about tithing, I think maybe we'll just do.

I don't think I've had a tithing sermon today. Right? We'll just have a joy of tithing sermon today, right? No, I'm just kidding. We're not going to do that.

I'm not. Not going to put y'all on that. I'm only kidding. But we are in. We are in the fourth week of Advent, which is looking at joy, the joy found in the birth of Christ, the joy that is Jesus Christ, the joy that comes from knowing him.

And I almost forgot my timer again. Can't believe that just started it. Just so everybody's aware. All right, we're in. Luke 2:8 through 11 this morning.

If you want to turn with me and stand, we will read the Word of God together.

Luke 2:8 through 11. 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 the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not. Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For unto you, God is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. Amen. You may be seated.

Well, this morning we're going to talk about what that good news of great joy is.

One person. One person. Thank you. One person is excited about the good news of great joy. Well, first, we know what that good news is, right?

If you don't, that good news is for all people, right? Verse 10 tells us that it is for all people, and that's fantastic. And then in verse 11, the angel goes on to describe the good news. He says that born this day in the city of David is a savior who is Christ the Lord. So this is the Messiah.

The good news is that the Messiah has been born. The one long awaited, the one promised throughout the Old Testament, is here, and the angel is coming to announce it to the shepherds. And that is good news to the world. But what does it mean? Why is it great joy?

It says, this is good news of great joy. Well, the good news of great joy is because Jesus came to restore joy to the world. Jesus came to restore joy to the world. Later on, we're going to talk about how joy is not just an emotion, but rather joy is. Is more than that, because joy is grounded upon God himself.

It is derived from him. We see this all the way from the very beginning of creation in Genesis, where he is declaring things good. He is declaring things good. There is joy in the world, and it is derived from Him. Everything is perfect and good.

And then we see the fall that breaks, that breaks the world and brokenness enter and sin enters into the world, and it breaks joy. If joy is derived and grounded upon God himself, it breaks our ability to experience joy. Because how can you experience something that is grounded holy in God if you cannot be in relationship with him? And so the birth of Jesus, the good news of great joy is that joy is entering into the world. Once again, Jesus is coming to restore joy to the world.

Not just joy to the world, but joy to us, so we can participate in that joy, that we can have that joy. Much of the New Testament in speaking about a Christian's life is about having joy, about having joy in Christ, experiencing joy. And so the birth of Jesus is that moment where joy is entering back into the world. Joy is being restored to the world. And we also look forward to a future joy, the redemption of all things.

Revelation 19:7 tells us that let us rejoice and exalt him. Let us rejoice and exult and give glory to God. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Right? We look forward to a future joy, to a future joy of redemption.

My question this morning to you is, do we have great joy as a church? Do we have great joy as individuals? Because I would say, oftentimes, man, we do not live like we have great joy. The good news of great joy that is entered into the world, that we should Be excited about telling people about Jesus, who Jesus is. The experience of joy in our own life, man.

We oftentimes don't live like we have the good news of great joy in our lives, right? We. We oftentimes. So oftentimes. I talked about this a couple weeks ago, man.

We oftentimes sit here and we run through the motions and there is no joy in our life. And that might be because of struggles that we're going through, of physical pain that we're in or whatever, but we're oftentimes it's just because of laziness, because we have forgotten what the good news means to us, what it means for us. The idea of being able to have a relationship with the God and Creator of the universe, the idea that Jesus came into the world to redeem us for himself, the fact that we get to have a relationship with him should bring us overwhelming joy. Overwhelming joy as we look to Jesus.

So what is this great joy? What is this great joy that has come into the world? And Jesus talks about it as well. In John 15:11, he says these things, I have spoken to you. He's just finished up telling the disciples about how he is the vine, the true vine, and to abide in him.

And he is. And he's telling him in John 15:11 that these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be full. My joy, Jesus joy. He is saying, I'm telling you this to abide in me so that my joy, Jesus joy, Jesus joy might be in us as believers, and that our joy may be full because our joy was incomplete, it was broken before. And so he has come into this world.

He is telling us to abide in him so that our joy might be complete, might be full in him. And let's look at what Jesus joy was. What was Jesus joy? Well, Hebrews 12:2 tells us what Jesus joy was. It says, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, who for the joy set before him, endure the cross.

All right, if I'm facing down the cross, crucifixion. And he knew that. I don't know if I'm sitting there saying, man, that's my joy. Jesus joy was the cross.

And Jesus, he says, for the joy that was set before him, that was the joy that was set before him to endure the cross, despising the shame.

If you think about this enduring the cross, at the time, it was the most torturous, most torturous form of execution that had ever been devised by humanity. Now I can go through the steps of the crucifixion. The fact that they flogged people before they got up onto the cross, before they crucified them. And the flogging, what they did on the whips, they would put pieces of metal or pieces of glass onto the ends of whips so it didn't just stain your skin, it would stick into it. And when they pull the whip away, it would literally rip the flesh away from your body.

And they would whip people sometimes so bad that their internal organs would sometimes be showing when they hung on the cross. Okay, this was not. This was not a joyous occasion to look forward to. This was not a joyous occasion to look forward to. And yet it says for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross despising the shame.

What does that mean? He disregarded the shame. That he disregarded the fact that it was a shameful act. Not only were they beaten and broken and whipped, not only were they. That they were also stripped naked and often paraded throughout the town and hung naked on the cross.

And the Old Testament tells us that it's cursed those who hang on a cross. And he took on. He disregarded that shame. He disregarded that shame for the sake of salvation and the glory of God. And so the joy that was set before him is found rooted in the.

In the shame and the torture that he had to go through through the cross. But he didn't look at that. He knew what was going to come out of it. He knew what it was going to come out of it. He knew that.

That through that act, just focusing on what the Father had sent him to do, through that act, we might be saved.

Amen. Come on. Are people asleep in here? Through that act, we might be saved. And he focused.

His joy was found and rooted in God, in his relationship with God, that the plan that had been put in place was for the betterment and the salvation of his people.

And he looked forward to that. And he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God for it. Jesus is more focused on the glory of God and the salvation that his sacrifice would bring than he was on the cross and what he endured there. His joy was rooted in God the Father. And scripture and Christian tradition is littered with martyrs who have experienced the same joy, the same joy when they are looking at Jesus Christ.

John Calvin says that there is nothing in afflictions which ought to disturb our joy.

Think about that. Nothing in Our afflictions that should disturb our joy. And as humans, as people, I mean, I have a lot. I've dealt with afflictions. I know you've dealt with afflictions.

And it can rob us. Oftentimes they can rob us of our joy if we are not focused on where our joy comes from. God, Jesus.

And this is why, for the Christian, for the Christian, we don't view joy as a simple emotion. Joy does not mean happiness. Joy is not happiness. There's a movie that came out a couple years ago, years ago, called Inside Out. How many people have seen it?

It's okay. I'm not going to judge you if you raise your hand. I've seen it I don't know how many times because our kids love it. It's a great movie about emotions and dealing with emotions and stuff. It's a great way to have conversations with your kids about emotions.

But in it, one of the main characters, the first character that you see is an emotion called joy, and that's her name, Joy. The problem is that joy is not an emotion. Even in the dictionary. Even in the dictionary defines joy as to experience great happiness, pleasure or delight. So joy is.

And joy is. They're describing it as an elation of or an increase of another emotion of happiness. But joy, for the Christian, is not happiness. It is not great happiness or pleasure or delight. Joy is, according to J.I.

packer, is joy is not an accident or of temperament or an unpredictable providence. Joy is a matter of choice. Joy is a matter of choice because we choose who we look to to find our joy. Are we looking toward Jesus to find our joy? Are we rooting ourselves in the One who provides us joy?

Or are we providing or are we rooting ourselves in other things that often fail us to provide us joy? We oftentimes seek joy or happiness or pleasure from other places. We oftentimes seek joy from other places. And Thomas Aquinas, he was a saint, early church father. He says that man cannot live without joy.

Therefore, when he is deprived of the true spiritual joys. And that's Jesus, when he's deprived of the true spiritual joys, it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures. So this morning I want to talk to us about four areas that we oftentimes seek joy out of that ultimately fail us. Those four areas that we're going to talk about this morning, I'm just going to go really quickly. There's self, others, the world, and religion.

And so these are the four areas that we oftentimes seek joy out of that end up failing us. The first one I'm going to talk about today is self, because this is where culture is today. Culture today is all about yourself, elevating yourself, the inner journey, your inner journey, your truth, your identity, it's all rooted in yourself. Culture is telling you that everything can be solved if you dive deep enough into yourself.

But Plato, if you know who Plato is, Plato discusses this idea of selfishness. So this culture today is one of the first times in history where we have not seen selfishness as a vice. In fact, if you go onto Google and type in is selfishness a vice? You're going to see tons of articles claiming that selfishness is no longer a vice, but a virtue.

And any movie that you watch today, you think about it, the movies today out there are all about discovering yourself, going on your journey to discover yourself. And if you discover yourself and who you are, it'll solve all of your problems and you'll be happy forever. But Plato, from years ago, thousands of years ago, he talks about this in his works called Laws 5, and he calls it the excessive love of ourselves. The excessive love of ourselves. And he explicitly rejects this idea.

And he goes on to say, and he says, the most serious vice innate in most men's souls, it is true to say that the cause of each and every crime we commit is precisely this excessive love of ourselves, a love which blinds us to the faults of the beloved ourselves, and makes us bad judges of nobility and justice because we believe we should honor our own ego rather than the truth. Man, if that doesn't describe today's culture, summed up, I don't know what else does, because we have been told that our identity, whatever that identity is, right? Culture tells you you gotta find your identity. I can't even tell you what your identity is, because it's your journey to find your identity, right? It might be your sexual orientation, it might be your race, it might be your heritage, it might be your religion, but there is some inner journey that you need to take to find your identity.

And the deeper you go, the more you identify with yourself and identify that inner peace you're going to be, create happiness. But that's just not true. That's not true because the more you dive deeper into yourself, the more divisive your life is going to become. Because if I find my identity, and I say my identity is in this, and this is who I am, and, and this is what creates happiness for me, and then you run across somebody that disagrees with you, they're not Just attacking an idea, they are attacking yourself, right? And that's what we're seeing in today's culture where we have families being divided because people are finding their inner self and finding their identity in these things.

And then when somebody in their family or their friend group disagrees, disagrees with them, they cut them out of their life because there's no other way that they can justify it. Because if they don't, they're allowing somebody to attack themselves. You're not just disagreeing on an idea, you're being attacked. And so you must defend yourself. And so we have a culture today that is all about our identity and finding ourselves.

And it is creating more and more division, more and more division, because it is turning ourselves inward and it is not allowing us the space to have relationships. Because relationships, ultimately there are going to be times where you disagree with people. And so if you don't create that space and you get so ingrained in who you are, if somebody disagrees with you, you have to break fellowship with them.

This leads to a you against everyone else. And it's a very, very lonely place to be. And we see this in culture today. We see this in culture today. The studies that are out there about how we are the greatest connected generation with technology, but also the loneliness.

We are the loneliest people that has ever lived because we have created this idea of us against everyone else, because we believe in this nonsense that selfishness is not the vice but a virtue.

Rather, there's an acronym that you can use for joy. Rather we should use this acronym that it says, secret to joy is to put Jesus first, others second, and yourself third. Okay? Instead of being self centered, instead of being selfish and so involved in ourselves, if we want joy, if we want joy in our lives, we need to put Jesus first, others second, and ourselves third.

Another one that we go to is others, right? When we're seeking joy in other places other than Jesus, we go and say, okay, if I can't find it in myself, I'm going to find it in others. And if you're married in this room, this is an easy one that you've probably experienced in your marriage. I know me and Kelly experienced it. We had several conversations about it over many, many years about finding our joy in our spouse, Right?

It is one of the pitfalls when you get married. I'm sure most people who get married experience this. If you never experienced it, man, we should bring you up here and do a marriage seminar.

I mean, it is a struggle sometimes. It is a struggle sometimes to not find or lay the idea of finding my joy on Kelly. That joy is that Kelly is where I find my joy. Kelly is my source of joy. That's unfair to her.

It's unfair to her. And it's also unfair to her if she were to say that I'm her cinch of joy, that I derive joy from her and she derives joy from me. In marriage counseling, this is a major problem I've seen multiple times over and over again where the spouse is putting on this idea that they get their happiness, their joy from their spouse.

And if you do that, I mean, Kelly is a great wife and I love her to death, but she's not perfect. And she knows that. She knows that I'm not perfect. I'm not perfect. And so.

And there has been many times where I've hurt her. And so if she is deriving, if she is deriving her joy from me and I'm sitting there hurting her, what is that doing to her?

And that's why it's not a good idea to find our joy in others. We do this also with our friends, with our friends group. How many friends we have? Does somebody want to hang out with me? Social media, you think about others.

Social media, man. I know people who post on social media and if their post doesn't get enough likes, they will take it down because they don't want people to think that not enough people like them. So they might repost it at a different time to see if it gets more likes. So we are getting our joy, like getting our joy for others. How does that work for us?

It fails us every time. Others is not a good place to get our joy. You're getting your joy from other broken sinners who are going to hurt you.

The next place we get our joy from, we often turn to is the world.

And this can. This can come in a variety of different ways. We can look toward money and wealth to find our joy. How big our bank account is and how, how that brings us. We feel safe because of how much money is in our bank account.

Or we might find our worth and our joy in the work that we do, being celebrated for the work that we do and the accomplishments of the work. Or it might just be the satisfying nature of doing work that you find your joy in. But what happens when you find your satisfying joy in the work that you do and layoffs come and you're out of work for year?

What happens when you're diagnosed with cancer and you can't work anymore because you have to go through chemo. And you can't do the physical job that you used to do.

If we're deriving our joy from the things of this world, they will ultimately always fail us. Other places we might find joy, we might say, vacations are our joy, right? There's a restaurant, tgif. Thank goodness it's Fridays, right? That's a saying that we used to say.

I'm sure it's probably still said out there. Looking forward to the weekend, looking forward to vacations. That's where our joy is. Our time off, the ability to relax or materialism, how much stuff we have. We find joy in having the new car that everybody is jealous of and comes up to you and says, man, that truck looks fantastic.

You spend your weekends waxing it, washing it, and waxing it so that on Sunday you roll in and it looks really nice and shiny. So people look at it and say, man, I wish I had that car.

Or maybe it's your house and you want a big house. So when people come over and say, man, this is a fantastic house, it looks fantastic, it's decorated perfectly.

Maybe it's the need to always have the brand new Android or iPhone or the new tablet out there or the new game system out there.

Maybe it's your status. We can find joy in the world by looking at our status of where I am in the corporate ladder, what my title is at my job. Am I my director of something? Because that would make me important if I'm. Am I a VP of something that would make me important?

Do I own my own company? You know, am I a deacon on the church board or am I an elder?

Status is often something we chase to bring us joy.

There's also a ton of other vices that we go after. Drugs, alcohol, porn, pills, entertainment. That's a huge one today. Entertainment and laziness kind of goes together. The hours that we spend vegging on Netflix and Hulu and Disney and ESPN and YouTube TV and Peacock and I mean, you can tell there's so many to choose from.

Sex, envy, rudeness. I mean, think about rudeness. Sometimes we find. We find there's people out there that find joy in being rude to other people. They find joy in just telling people that, well, that's just how I am.

You just have to deal with it. Pride, gambling. I mean, there's a list, I mean, lists of hundreds of vices that we turn to in the world to help us find joy. That ultimately all of these end up taking us down a road that doesn't give us Joy, but it steals our joy.

And this is why we need to be a people of the Word. Because if we were people of the word, we might read Ecclesiastes, right? Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, the richest, most wealthy man in the world, the wisest man in the world. He wrote a book, Ecclesiastes, where he says that, man, I did everything I wanted to. Everything I wanted to.

Ecclesiastes 2, 10, 11. And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil. And this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it.

Behold, all was vanity and striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Man, if we were people of the word, if we were, in our scriptures, daily, we would read that and we would say, man, the things that I am chasing don't make any sense. Because God's truth tells us that it is all striving after wind, and we don't gain anything under the sun from it.

The last area that I think we as Christians, and I think the world does this as well, is that we turn to. To find joy in is religion.

And religion, I mean, religion can mean spirituality, but a lot of times people turn toward religion to find joy because they see a glimpse of it. They see a glimpse of it, especially in Christianity, they see a glimpse of it in Jesus. But instead of fighting Jesus, they find religion. Instead of trusting in Jesus, they begin trusting in the system of religion to give them joy. And we can get really good.

We can get really good at playing the part of checking all the boxes of what a Christian is supposed to look like, what a Christian is supposed to sound like, what a Christian is supposed to do. And yet we can never experience the joy of Christ because we have never experienced Jesus. And in Luke 10, there's an interesting. Luke 10 is an interesting story. Luke 10, he is sending out the 72 to go minister to the area.

Luke 10, he sends out the 72. He gives them warnings that, hey, not everybody's gonna. Not everybody's gonna like your message, but come back and report to me. And in Luke 10:17, they've. They've gone on their mission.

They have. They've spread the gospel, they spread the good news, they've told people about Jesus, they've cast out demons, they've healed people. And they're excited. They're excited. And so they come Back.

And they're like. They're like Jesus. They returned. It's in 1017. The 72 returned with joy, saying, lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

They were joyful about the work they were doing, the ministry that they were doing. They were joyful. They were rejoicing, calling out to Jesus, saying, even the demons, Even the demons are subject to us in your name, man. Right? We should be joyful like that in our ministry.

Right?

But they were joyful about the results of ministry and the power they have exercised. And we can oftentimes get wrapped up and joyful about the things that we do in religion, in church and in ministry. I mean, we can oftentimes get wrapped up in the fact that, man, I'm joyful. I bought these coats for young people. I went and sung at the nursing home, you know, and it was fantastic and administered to people.

I bought Operation Christian Trial boxes. I serve on the deacon board. I serve on the elder board. I serve in kids. I serve on worship.

We can get so wrapped up in the joy that that ministry can bring, and we forget that joy is not found in those things. Joy is found in Jesus. And that's why in Luke, that's why in the next three verses, in the next three verses, Jesus doesn't join them in rejoicing with them. The fact they had power over demons, right? No, he doesn't join them in the rejoicings, but instead said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Do not rejoice in the work that you are doing in ministry. Do not rejoice in the religious. The religious hoopla that we do. Do not find your joy in church. Do not find your joy in the fellowship.

Do not find your joy in the serving. Do not find your joy in the things and the things of religion, but find your joy. Have joy. Rejoice that our names are written in heaven.

Have joy. Rejoice that we have the ability to know Jesus, have a relationship with them. Have joy. Rejoice that we have salvation.

Luke 2:11 says that a savior was born because we needed salvation.

So we are to find our joy in the fact that we have a savior, not anything else.

R.C. sproul has a book called Can I have Joy in My Life? And in chapter four, he has this to say that our joy comes from the assurance that we have redemption in Christ. The greatest joy that a person can have is to know that his name is written in the Lamb's book of life, that he is saved, and that he will live forever in Christ. And so our joy is only found in Jesus.

And that's why John Calvin can say that afflictions cannot disrupt our joy. It's because our joy, when our joy is rooted in Jesus and in the work that he did, and the fact that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of life, they are written in heaven. Nothing, nothing that we go through here on earth can steal our joy. It is the reason why for thousands of years, martyrs have faced down death and torture with joy in their hearts, singing praise to God in situations that the world would look at and say, y'all are insane.

It's the reason why Paul and Peter could be in chains and be singing out to God praise.

It's the reason why they could be beaten and be singing out praise to God. True joy is only found in Jesus.

Psalm 51 is one of the greatest examples of repentance in all of Scripture. If you've never read Psalm 51 and you want to know what it looks like to repent, man, go read Psalm 51. It is one of the greatest examples of repentance on all of Scripture. And this psalm is where David, being convicted of the Holy Spirit, is brought to repentance for the sins that he committed with and against Bathsheba. In the middle of the Psalm, we see David make this cry in verse 12, in the middle of this Psalm, of him repenting, of him repenting before the Lord, he makes this cry to the Lord.

He cries out in verse 12, restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. And that should be our cry every day. That should be our cry every day to restore to us. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Remind me every day of the good news of great joy that came into this world through the birth of your Son and the salvation that I have through the redemption of his blood.

Return to me. Restore to me that joy, so that I might live a joyful life, not seeking after those things that are striving after wind, but instead be rooted in the source of joy, Jesus Christ. And that is why, when in verse 10 of Luke 2, it says, the angel comes and says, I bring to you good news of great joy. Because the good news was that joy was here. The good news was that joy would be available to us through the sacrifice that Jesus Christ was going to make for us.

That our Savior was here, the Messiah was here, and we should rejoice in that daily.

R.C. sproul says that nothing gives believers more joy than to see God glorified. And we should live our lives to glorify God. And in doing so, we find the greatest joy that we can ever experience. So if you're sitting here today and you're feeling down, you're not.

You don't have joy in your life, and you're a believer. And I want you to pray God. Psalm 52:12 or 51:12. Pray it right now. Restore to me the joy of your salvation.

Let me see that joy once again. Might I be rooted in Jesus Christ and the joy of knowing him? And if you're an unbeliever in the room and you don't know Jesus and you've never experienced that joy, man, you are living life. You might be happy, there might be times of happiness, there might be times of what the world would say joy, you might experience some of that. But the fullness of joy that you can experience in the relationship that you can have with Jesus Christ is nothing compared to anything the world can give you.

You are experiencing a brokenness. Even the joy that we experience in the world is a broken joy because it is not rooted in Jesus. And so I would encourage you, I would encourage you to make that choice today. Cry out, cry out, cry out to God, and he'll be there. He'll answer, let's pray.