The Joy of Jesus (Advent 2007)

December 16, 2007 4:20 pm admin Luke, Sermon-Texts

An exegetical treatment of Luke 2:8-20 during the third week of Advent addressing the theme of joy in the shepherd’s candle. This sermon was originally preached December 16th of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.

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December 16th, 2007
Pastor Duane M. Smets

Advent: The Shepherds Candle
Luke 2:8-20 - “The Joy of Jesus”

Luke 2:8-20 8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 15 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.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Introduction
I. The Joy of Shepherds
II. The Joy of All People
III. The Joy of Joy
Conclusion

Introduction

Good morning everyone. We are in the advent season, advent means coming or appearing of Jesus Christ. It’s where Christmas gets it’s name from, from the coming of Jesus. We recognize when he came into the world as a baby and we anticipate the time when he’ll come again to gather all his family together. There are four weeks to advent and this week is the 3rd week where we focus on the joy of Jesus and light the shepherds candle.

Last week I began my sermon talking about Kanye West. So this week I figured I better even things out a bit. San Diego has a been a manufacturer of all kinds of musical artists. Famous artists like Jewel, Blink 182, P.O.D., Switchfoot, As I Lay Dying, and Pinback are all from San Diego. We’re no Seattle or Nashville…but most bands and artists stop through San Diego whenever they go on tour and there are a ton of smaller bands that San Diego keeps pumping out.

If you know anything about music you know there are different genres. There’s country, rock ‘n’ roll, blues, jazz, r&b, classical, hard core, emo, and several others. Are any of you into “emo” music? The term, if you wikipedia it, actually started being used in the late 80’s in reference to one of my favorite bands, Fugzai. But now it has sort of morphed into this classification of music that is either really really sad, or really really angry and can even be used to describe a certain type of dress and hair style. If you’re into self-reflective emo you sort of like being depressed and your favorite thing to do is go home, turn of all the lights, maybe light a candle and sit in the dark listening to music and thinking about how bad your life sucks and crying about it. If you’re into hard-core emo, then you’re just mad and you want to go out and destroy things and light cats on fire or something. It’s actually really funny…it’s kind of a like a secret club with all these unwritten rules. You show up to a concert and you better be wearing converse and something black and just look down a lot…or you’ll probably feel real out of place. Everybody thinks they are all different and you show up to a show and everybody looks the same! I wore my converse today, so I can make fun of it.

I bring it up today because we got a musical genre in our text, it’s angel music, and the theme of this week of Advent is joy…which is kind of different then being really really sad or really really angry. So let’s read our text and pray.

We’re going to work with this text for two weeks. Next week is the last week of Advent which is the angels candle where we talk about the peace of Jesus. So I’m going to save talking about angels for next week. This week I want to talk about shepherds and the message of the angels to them.

The Joy of Shepherds

That there are shepherds in this story and that God had angels announce the birth of Jesus to shepherds isn’t a mistake. There’s something too that. I realize we’re a little disconnected from shepherdness. Shepherding is actually one of the oldest professions on the planet, …just not so much anymore, at least here in San Diego and barely in the U.S. at all.

Dolly, the famous cloned sheep is more popular than shepherding these days. Sheep are still widely used for wool, meat and cheese. Sorry to the vegans, I know that probably makes you cringe. But you can be glad that only about 1 percent of the sheep industry comes from the U.S. though California is the next highest producer after Texas. So shepherding is something pretty distant from us and even the kind of shepherding that happens today is far different. Today you got to have at least 500 sheep and a farm before you can even think about being a shepherd, if you want to make a living at it.

And even then you still don’t make much. You can get a hint of what shepherding was like in Bible times right from our text. Notice it says they were “out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.” How many of you are intersted in working the graveyard shift and being outside all night? Doesn’t sound too fun too me. Shepherding was a pretty low scale job. It was dirty, so shepherds were considered ceremonially unclean to participate in a lot of the Jewish rituals. Shepherding were considered peasants, poor dudes, and they were not even allowed to give a testimony in court, just because they were shepherds. So being a shepherd is pretty low-level job. It might be like working at Jack-in the Box or something.

San Diego doesn’t have shepherding but we got a lot of Jack in the Boxes. That’s because they started here. I was so excited when I turned 15 and could get a workers permit that I did one of the stupidest things I have ever done in my life and I went out and got a job at McDonalds. I worked there for 8 months and by that time I had been there longer than 90% of the staff. Now, I’m sorry if you work at a fast food place, I’d still do it if it came down to it and I needed a job to provide form my family. But I don’t know anyone who is like, “I want to work at a fast food restraunt!” It’s a pretty low-scale job. Like shepherding was.

And not only that but being a shepherd in the Bible put you in this class of society that said you were sort of less than or secondary or just kind of weird and different. In San Diego, we have a pretty thick Catholicism base, it’s particularly big among our Mexican population. That’s because in the 16th century when the Spainards went into Mexico there was the message of the gospel did not come out right. Mexicans felt inferior to the Spainards who thought they were better than the Mexicans because of their Catholic religion. So the story goes that one day, just north of Mexico City, up on the Tepeyac hill, the Catholic Priest Juan Diego, saw a vision of the virgin Mary and she asked him to build a church. When he asked for a sign, she told him to gather some flowers. So he picked a bunch of roses and put them in a cloth and when he presented them to her an image of her with the flowers miraculously appeared imprinted on the cloth. And from that point on, this sign became known as the “virgin of Guadalupe” which means “the brown skinned virgin” which validates and identifies the Mexican people.

Our Mexican neighbors know what is like to feel other than, second-class, like outsiders…just like shepherds. It’s a big deal that God’s angels show up and announce the birth of God’s Son, the creator of the universe, the most important person in the whole world who has ever been born, and he announces it to shepherds…poor, pathetic, dirty, outcasts…shepherds. God had at his command many reliable witnesses to choose from, many honorable and trustworthy people he could have had his angels appear to, like a king or something, but he chooses shepherds. Why?

First, I think God loves to do things like this. Paul, the author of several books in the Bible, talks about how God sent Jesus into the world and writes in 1 Corinthians 1:27 that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” Jesus birth is announced to shepherds. Jesus is born in a manger, a feeding trough, a dog’s dish, Jesus handpicks his disciples and he chooses guys from another lowly group, fisherman, Jesus starts teaching and preaching and he spend time with other outcasts like lepers and prostitutes and theives and drunks. There is something to this, it is what makes the gospel news.

Let’s look at the message of the angels. Verse 8, “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 fear.” I’d be scared too if I saw an angel. “And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a 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.”

We say we at The Resolved Church want to be a “gospel-centered” church. Here is that word gospel, where it says those two words “good news” there is one Greek word behind it and the word is gospel…I bring you the gospel of great joy that will be for all people. The gospel is first news, it is an announcement. An annoucnement big enough to be made by angels and the news is so good that it brings great joy and joy not just for one person but all kinds of people, even shepherds.

Look at our passage again. The angel shows up and tells them this. Now don’t get hung up on the angels bit, if you’re interested in that, we’ll talk more about angels next week, but look at the next thing the angel says. He says, “And this will be a sign to you.” Why did the shepherds need a sign? Because people already think they are crazy for tending sheep! No one would believe them! I’m sure the angel could see it in their faces. So he doesn’t even give them a chance to respond and just says, now okay, I understand that a lot of people don’t even believe in angels and if you tell them this they may not believe you, so here is a sign…the baby will be born in a manger, a feeding trough, in a dogfood bowl.

You get it? That’s a sign because babies are not normally born in an animal’s dish where animals eat. That’s different. That’s weird. It only happened because all the hotels were booked and the only place they could find to stay was in the stables down at the Del Mar fairgrounds because the guy who was working there that night just happened to have a moment of compassion and let them in.

So the shepherds go there and what is their response? They say, “Hey, let’s go check this thing out…and they leave with haste.” They get there and see baby Jesus, they realize that they were not hallucinating and verse 20 says they “return glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” It sounds like they are pretty happy.

The Joy of All Peoples

That leaves two main things for us to talk about, the connection of all peoples and joy and the nature of joy itself. The angel says the gospel is good news because it is about a savior for all peoples. Why is it significant that the gospel is for all peoples?

I think that is because there is this dominant idea that has been around for centuries and is still around today, that if you are rich, if you are wealthy and have a lot of money, or if you are born into the right family or country…that means you are privileged. Good things will come for you.

And in many ways doesn’t it seem like that is how it works. If the right set of circumstances are there for you, then you will be okay. If you have enough money then you can buy good health insurance for yourself. If you have enough money you can a good car and a house and go on vacation and that is the good life. The implicit message is that then you will be happy and have joy.

I have a friend who is very wealthy, born into a family where he will be set for life, a multi-millionaire probably billionare easily. He bought his first house when he was 21 which was a huge condo on top of a high rise building. One day we were standing out on his balcony looking out over the city at night and he said this to me. He said, “You know Duane, having money really is better and all the people who say it isn’t just say that because they don’t have it.”

I saw him a few years later, shacked up in a tiny little apartment in New York. He had got rid of all his cars. He had a sweet Porsche I got to drive a couple times. But we went out to dinner and he said to me, “You know Duane, it’s all meaningless, none of it matters.”

So who are the all peoples? They are everyone. Everyone experiences that sense of being alone and outsider, like no one else knows what it’s like to be them and go what you are going through. Even the rich person. Sometimes we are so isolated in our individual lives. We may hang out with other people but never have any real conversations and you fail to realize that other people are going through the same or similar things that you are. The circumstances may be different but the feelings which result are the same.

The message of the gospel from the angel here says it is about a savior for all peoples. I don’t think he was just making a class disctintion about the rich and the poor. And I don’t think he is saying that eveyone, every single person will be saved and embrace the savior, that’s why I say peoples with an “s” meaning peoples from every different kind of place and status and location in life across the world. There is none to whom the gospel does not and cannot apply. Jesus is a sufficient savior for all.

Perhaps a better disctinction is the healthy and the sick. Jesus said in Luke 5:31-32 “Those who are healthy have no need of a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” What Jesus sees, is that we are all sick, and only those who see themselves as sick are able to embrace him and receive his gift of redemption and forgiveness and life. If you think you are all fine and can figure it out on your own and find your own way…as long as you “lean on your own understanding” as the Proverb says…then Jesus and the good news of salvation found in him will be irrelevant to you.

The Joy of Joy

The hardest thing is being able to see we’re sick because our vision gets so warped, we don’t want to think that we are at fault or that there is anything wrong with us…it is always out there. And yet this experience of isolation and aloneness is so common and we try all these things to absolve it.

This week of advent is about theme of joy. It seems here in our passage that an essential part to joy is seeing yourself as an outcast and then recognizing that though you are an outcast you are included and cared about by God and that brings joy to the heart. Now I realize that there is more to it than that but just think about the nature of joy with me.

What is the opposite of joy? Two main affections come to mind, anxiety and anger. Current statistics says that over 40 million people living in America suffer from anxiety disorders, most common illness. Anti-depressants are the number one prescribed drug creating a 43 billion dollars a year industry. That is insane, 1/3 of the total health bill for the US. That means about one in seven of us suffer from regular anxiety. 3 times more likely to go to the doctor and 6 times for likely to be hospitalized. Personally I don’t know who couldn’t get anxious about life. Life is hard.

I got a thing in the mail just a couple days ago advertising a seminar for health professionals, the title of the seminar is this “Why We Worry: Understanding and Treating Anxiety Disorders.” Here are some of the things on their agenda.

Panic disorder. Fight or flight scenarios…when you are faced with a situation where you either just blow and get angry and cuss someon out or when you just have to leave and get away. Do you every fantasize about leaving…getting out of town, going to another country and changing your name and starting over?

Social anxiety disorder. Being in too large of groups makes you uncomfortable or being in too small of groups. You don’t have many friends and when you do make friends you wonder whether the really like you because you know how weird you are. You like to read books and are into Jesus but you also like tatoos and surfing. Those don’t go together right?

Phobia disorder. Fear, a constant anticipation of the future and thinking about the worst possible scenarios. You worry about whether you are going to make it financially and pay your bills or whether you will find a mate or whether the mate you married will always love you. You worry about whether the church you are pastoring will grow, so that your family can keep eating and you worry about the people you love who make bad decisions and then you can’t sleep at night so you get up and try to make it go away by watching tv but then you feel sick afterward because you just watched two hours of UFC and feel like the only thing that is going to help is beating someone up and that is wrong. : )

Obsessive complusive disorder. Here are some of the things they list: tourettes, hypochondria, skin picking, nail biting, kleptomania, jealousy, gambling and compulsive shopping. Ever do any of those? How about weight gain or weight loss? Or excessive use of alcohol or tobacco?

Post-traumatic stress disorder, horror frozen in your memory from some sort of domestic violence, sexual assault or combat…you have flashback and often just disassociate and daydream away off into space. You try and solve your problem by thinking of everyone and everything you can blame and then you get together with someone else and can talk about how much everyone else suck together.

What about anger? Everything starts with anxiety but then just leads to anger. Someone hurts you misrepresents you mistreats you disrespects you. You get bummed and frustrated about it. Sometimes that happens pretty quickly. What is your response? See ya! You bite back and cut people off.

What is going on here? What are we to do? The seminar’s answer. Therapy, educational prevention, alternative medicine (exercise, aroma treatment, yoga, accupuncture), and medication. It seems to me there has got to be a better answer for why we feel so alone, so anxious, and so angry as a people.

There is. The story of the Bible, the Christmas Advent story. We are all outcasts, like the shepherds. Every person is created by God and designed to be in fellowship with him as their Father, worshipping and serving him who creates all things and takes care of all things. But we have all like sheep, who are notorious for wandering away, have wandered away on our own away from the love and care of God as our Father. We are all rebels and are in rebellion and the result is we feel alone, and sad, and anxious and angry in a dark world.

Into that dark world Jesus comes, the chief shepherd is born in a manager to save us and he is sufficient to save us no matter who we are, where we have come from, what we have gone through, what we have done…He is good news for all peoples because he saves us from ourselves and from the consequences of our sin on the cross.

Jesus comes into the world to save the sick and we are all sick. We are anxious and estranged and Jesus is sufficient to meet oru every need. I’m not saying that you should never take medication or anything and I don’t mean to devalue any of your experiences. I think they are real and they are areas in which Jesus has something to say and something to do in our hearts. It’s the difference between responding to Jesus with the issues of life versus reacting emotionally and try to self-medicate and heal ourselves.

Conclusion

The angel said Jesus was good news of great joy and the shepherds went away glorifying and praising God. Here is how joy works. We recognize that we are far worse than we ever thought and thus far more loved than we could ever have dreamed and that should cause joy to start to arise in our hearts. Knowing that we are loved, that God sees and cares and sent his son into the world to do something about it so that there might be an end to our sufferings.

Jesus suffered through all the anxieties we face. Anxiety and anger is not new, Jesus knew them well and defeated them in his life and defeated them finally and ultimately in his victory over all evil on the cross. And he did that for all peoples. There is none here today who is dealing with something that Jesus did not die for. Jesus is Christ the Lord.

In turning away from our anxieties and turning toward Jesus, our God and savior we begin to experience the joy and satisfaction and security for which we were made. And this joy and striving for this joyfulness through faith in Christ produces a character and a lifestyle that doesn’t get stuck but presses through and is able to abound in the midst of great challenge and hardship. We trust him and follow him and rejoice always, taking everything to him in prayer…that is our way of life as Christians. It is a life of joy and worshipping Jesus who is sufficient for our every need.

Joy gets sustained by worship. So let’s worship Jesus in joyful thanks today as we come before his table to repent of our sin and thank him for his grace.