Good News of Great Joy (Morning)
Download MP3If you have a bible, I invite you to turn to Luke chapter 2. For this Advent season, we are looking at Christmas through the lens of the gospel of Luke. At one of our recent church staff meetings, I gave everyone on staff a little quiz about the church. I wanted to see how much they actually knew about the church. I'm not gonna give you the same quiz, but I do want to give you a sampling of it.
Joel Brooks:So real quick, how many folding chairs do you think we set out every week, our typical week, at Redeemer here in this building? Did somebody say 253? Because you would be right. We set out 253 folding chairs, on a typical Sunday. How many babies did we dedicate this past year?
Joel Brooks:Felt like it. But it was not 253. It was a 108. So we had a 108 babies born this year. We have over 550 children, every redeemer, under the age of 12.
Joel Brooks:So there's a lot. So this one I'm gonna go old school Baptist on you. I need every head bow and every eye closed right now. Okay? Trust me, every I need your eyes shut for this.
Joel Brooks:In the sanctuary, we have 3 round stained glasses. Each one of them has a different image. What are those 4 images? We Say it out loud. There's there's there's Somebody said there's not a scroll.
Joel Brooks:Kinda looks like it, but there's a bible. Heard that? That's theirs. Yes. Ding.
Joel Brooks:We got one of them right. Dove. There's a dove. Wheat. Nope.
Joel Brooks:Nope. Alright. Y'all can open up. You have where is it? Grapes.
Joel Brooks:You didn't name the grapes. You see this every single Sunday, yet you you don't actually see it. What's the one symbol we have missing here in the church? A cross. Yeah.
Joel Brooks:Some people get really upset and angry at me about that. It's not like I built this place. But I tell them the cross will always be preached on a Sunday even though it's for some reason it's not here in the sanctuary. One final question. How many cups of coffee do you think we go through on a Sunday morning?
Joel Brooks:870. Approximately half are spilled on the floor, and then we have to clean up. So, when we were going through this quiz, more times than not, the staff was wildly off on their answers, which is remarkable because we're in this building every Sunday. Not just that, the staff is in here pretty much every day, and yet we missed it. I have found that this is also true concerning the Christmas story, in which we could kind of be familiar with it, but we are wildly different in the things that we think are actually taking place.
Joel Brooks:I won't embarrass you by getting you to take a Christmas quiz, but I'll give you a couple questions. How many animals are in the Christmas story? Nobody wants to say, there's one, there's flocks. The shepherds, they were out in their fields watching their flocks. But I mean every manger scene, what do you see?
Joel Brooks:There's ox, there's the donkey, and of course there's lots of sheep, because for some reason the shepherds apparently brought all their sheep with them when they went to go see Jesus. Not sure why. But you have to have those things. So how many wise men went to go see Jesus lying in a manger? Said that doesn't, tell, some said 3, some said that.
Joel Brooks:Actually, none. Because when the wise men came, Jesus was no longer there. Moses when Jared Moses Moses. Joseph and Mary were no longer there. They were in a house, when the Magi came.
Joel Brooks:So possibly even a year later after Jesus's birth. So of course, in every manger scene, you gotta have them, but if you wanna be right, you need to put your wise men in another room, and have them just kinda making their way to Jesus in the manger scene that you set up. You know, we're kind of familiar, we think, of the story of Christmas. I mean, all the Hallmark cards that are out there, you have the phrases, glory to God in the highest, peace on Earth, goodwill to men, joy to the world. Understanding what those things mean?
Joel Brooks:Are we seeing it correctly? That's one of the things I want us to do as we walk through this very familiar story. This story is like the sanctuary. It's amazing how much we miss. So Luke chapter 2, we'll read the first 21 verses.
Joel Brooks:In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
Joel Brooks:And she gave birth to her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 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. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Joel Brooks:For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased. 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.
Joel Brooks:And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned to glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen as it had been told them.
Joel Brooks:And at the end of 8 days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. This is the word of the lord. Pray with me. Father, I pray that, you would give us fresh eyes to look at this very familiar story. Show us what we're missing.
Joel Brooks:I pray that, Lord, we would grow in our appreciation, our affection, our adoration of you in this moment. May my words fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:So kind of like last week, this story we just read, it doesn't need any embellishment. It doesn't need any bells and whistles. So we're just gonna walk through this story just line by line. The story begins with a decree going out from Caesar Augustus that everyone must participate in a census. This happened at the time where Quirinius was governor of Syria.
Joel Brooks:Why is that detail important? Well, it's important because when Luke is telling us the story about Jesus, he doesn't begin it this way. Once upon a time. He doesn't begin it with long ago in a galaxy far far away. Luke's not telling us a fairy tale.
Joel Brooks:He's telling us of an actual historical event. And let me tell you why why that is so important for us. As a as a church that a lot of you, you know this. The last 2 weeks have been especially hard for us. We've had, 3 of our members pass away, and I was preaching at one of those funerals, and I just felt that I should say to the group that was there that I actually think many of the people were not believers at this funeral.
Joel Brooks:Like, guys, you grew up in church. You've heard the stories. You gotta decide if you believe them or not. Did Jesus actually come, walk this earth, live a perfect life, die and rise again? Do you do you think that was just a fairy tale that was told to you, maybe a moral tale to kinda keep you to behave well?
Joel Brooks:Or did this actually happen? Luke tells us right off the bat, I'm not making this stuff. This was a real event in history. Christ, our savior, has come at this time, 2000 years ago. Caesar Augustus, the the man that he mentions here, at the time, he was the most powerful man on earth.
Joel Brooks:He was one who had actually the one who turned the roman republic into the roman empire. He was so proud that he did that. He renamed himself. He was Octavian. He named himself Augustus, which means revered.
Joel Brooks:It was a title that up until that point was only used to describe the gods. He was declaring himself to be a god. And and sure enough at this point, kind of the empirical cult began and people began worshiping the emperors as gods. As if that wasn't enough, he also gave himself the title of Dominus et Deus or Lord and God. For one of his birthday celebrations, he sent out invitations and it read this, behold, I bring you good news.
Joel Brooks:And behold, I bring you good news. A savior has been a savior has been born. Do those themes sound pretty familiar to you? Themes about someone being called Lord and God, Good news going out announcing a birth. The savior of the world having come.
Joel Brooks:Luke isn't just picking up these things randomly here. He is deliberately telling us these things in order that we would compare them. What we see here is a clash of kingdoms. And we're supposed to be wondering who actually is the rightful Lord and God of this world? Who actually is the one with power?
Joel Brooks:Who's the king? And you have these these two very different kingdoms are clashing together, and they're both promising peace. The Pax Romana. They're promising, this is the way to bring peace to the world. Who's it through?
Joel Brooks:Is it through the emperor Augustus? Is it through Jesus? And how they would go about bringing peace will be 2 very different things. Now during this time, Augustus, he decided he would take a census. But he decided not to do it in a typical normal way to do a census.
Joel Brooks:The best way to do a census is to not make people have to travel all over the place, but you just say, no, you stay where you are and we'll take a census wherever you are. Why disrupt the lives of 1,000 upon 1,000 of people? They have to leave their jobs, travel great distances, the economy kinda tanks, it's not the best way to take a census. But for some reason, Augustus decides, I want everybody to go back to their original hometown. And he was so powerful that he could make people do it.
Joel Brooks:And so they did. And what this resulted in was, a poor village carpenter and his teenage pregnant bride having to travel 80 miles away to go to Bethlehem. I know that we we typically, when we picture that scene, we picture Mary, very pregnant, traveling on a donkey, but remember, there's no animals in the Christmas story. And so there's no mention of a donkey here. And actually, they would have likely been so poor that they could not have afforded such a luxury.
Joel Brooks:So, Mary, being 8 and a half months pregnant, would have had to walk. And I'm sure she reminded Jesus of that later in life many times. By that time, I'm sure the story had grown. She walked uphill both ways through the snow, but she held it over him, I'm sure. Now when you think of this up to this point, let me ask, who does it seem has all the power?
Collin Hansen:It's Augustus. It's Rome. That's where all the power is.
Joel Brooks:I mean, Joseph and Mary just seem to be little pawns on his chessboard that he could just move around however he wants. And that is one way that you can read the story. However, another way you can read the story is actually Augustus is God's pawn. That the Lord has put it in his heart to take a census, and God is so powerful and his plans are so complex that literally he will disrupt the lives of thousands of people all across an empire just because he wants to move a poor little Jewish couple from point a to point b. And he wants to move them to Bethlehem where he said the messiah would be buried or born.
Joel Brooks:I when I think of that, I am it blows me away, and it makes me realize I can never know what God is doing in this world. I I can't figure out what he's doing in my life. If he is willing to disrupt thousands upon thousands of people just to move a couple from point a to point b, that is a power and a complexity I won't ever really understand. One of the most worthless questions we ask people all the time is, so what is the Lord teaching you right now? The true answer is this, I have no idea.
Joel Brooks:I have no idea what He's really up to, what He's really teaching me. And so what we do is we actually go back to these one central truths. I know this, God is sovereign, God is good, and I am His child. The same truths we looked at weeks ago, that's our anchor. God is sovereign, God is good, and I'm His child.
Joel Brooks:And so if you feel like your life is being disrupted by something, I mean, that's exactly what Joseph and Mary, I mean, their life is being disrupted. They didn't wanna do this. And they're like, nothing seems to be going according to plan. The truth is, everything is going exactly according to God's plan, as He is moving them there to Bethlehem to be born. The reason He needs to move them to Bethlehem is because of the prophecy that we just read at the start of the service.
Joel Brooks:700 years earlier, God raised up the prophet Micah, and he said the messiah would be born there. Now, that Micah prophesied that is absolutely astounding, because at that time, Assyria had just gone to Bethlehem and leveled it to the ground. Assyria was marching up against Jerusalem. They didn't get to conquer Jerusalem, but literally the entire Assyrian army camped out on top of Bethlehem. And then when they left, they they absolutely leveled that place.
Joel Brooks:And it was small to begin with. I mean, if you thought Nazareth was small, Bethlehem wouldn't even be a dot on a map. And now it was in complete and total ruins. In Micah, the Lord raises him up, and he's looking at the ruins of this teeny, insignificant level place, probably still smoking. He says, oh, you Bethlehem, smallest of the clans, Of you, the Messiah will come.
Joel Brooks:It's really remarkable. From you, the Messiah will come. What we see here is God did not choose Bethlehem because Bethlehem was great. He chose Bethlehem for the same reason he chose Mary, the same reason he chose, Joseph. He chose them because they were insignificant nobodies in the eyes of the world.
Joel Brooks:He was gonna raise them up as a testament to his power, his grace. Don't ever forget that the Christmas story is about God. Don't ever let one of the other characters or the other scenes take the primary focus. This is about his power, his grace coming to this world. Everything else, there's just an insignificant nobody.
Joel Brooks:Now because Bethlehem was so tiny and insignificant, historians, they'll tell us that there was likely just about 12 families living there at this time. And it's now being flooded with all these people having to go there for a census. Mary and Joseph can't find a place to stay. I know that we like to give this innkeeper a bad rap. You know, he's kinda like this Nazi figure in the Christmas pageants, you know, no room for you.
Joel Brooks:He just like sends them out. There's not even an innkeeper here. Okay? There's there's no mention of 1. So maybe, maybe not, but there's no mention.
Joel Brooks:All we know is that they couldn't find a place to stay. Maybe Joseph didn't call ahead. Maybe didn't make reservations. We don't know. But when you take a step back and you look at that in the context of the entire Christmas story, it's really astounding.
Joel Brooks:I mean, up to this point, God has been making meticulous plans and carrying them out. And he's been doing miracle after miracle after miracle to ensure everything goes exactly according to plan. And so he'll send the angel to Mary. He is going to send a star up in the sky for the Magi to follow. He's going to give dreams to Joseph, and another dream to the Magi as well.
Joel Brooks:I mean, the Christmas story is actually full of miracle after miracle after miracle. And now you're coming into the most important part, kind of the climax of it all. Jesus is going to be born. And when we get to this point, it seems like the plan falls apart. It's really astounding.
Joel Brooks:I mean, the innkeeper doesn't get a dream saying, hold a room. There's nobody that an angel's not sent to somebody's house and say, hey, we need you to save a bed. I've got a young couple coming here. There's none of that. So after all of those miracles, it seems when we come to this point in the story that God's kinda dropped the ball.
Joel Brooks:But what he's actually doing is teaching us something quite profound. He's saying, okay. Jesus is coming. Now you need to make room for him. You've got to make room for him.
Joel Brooks:We have to receive the gift of his son. One of the famous carols that we sing says this so well, joy to the world. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room.
Joel Brooks:Every heart has to prepare room for Jesus to come. You making room for Jesus and inviting him in? I mean, we make room in our lives for the things that are important to us. Are you making room for Jesus? Or does he get one of those back rooms?
Joel Brooks:Does he maybe even get a stable in your life? Or does he get central place in your heart? And Mary and Joseph said they they can't find a place to stay at the inn, and that means now they're forced to try to find some place else. Likely, they were able to stay in, one of the back rooms of a house that was there that a lot of times these these homes, they would have a little lean to almost back room where they could bring the animals in at night. Or sometimes their homes were built into a hillside, and they literally would dig out a cave, and that would also be a place where they could bring the animals in at night.
Joel Brooks:The church of the nativity in Bethlehem actually sits on top of one of those caves. That's where they believe Jesus was born, and they might be right in that. We're not sure. But we know that, Mary and Joseph, they found a place. Gave birth Mary gave birth to Jesus, wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and then laid him in a feeding trough.
Joel Brooks:Now, because Luke is well, because Luke is a dude, we don't get any other we don't get any other information about this. I mean, there's there's no birth narrative. We don't know what you know, I mean, there usually is a whole drama if you ask how was the birth, you know, what happened. There's no, weight given. Jesus weighed this many pounds, this many ounces.
Joel Brooks:We don't know his length. We don't know those color of his hair. None of the details that my wife wants to know. Luke, the way he describes this is very similar to like our elder email threads when one of those 107 babies or 8 babies was born. It's like, hey, so and so had a baby.
Joel Brooks:That's it. That's our thread. And I'll tell, Lauren, it's like, hey, so and so, they just had a baby. She's like, great. What's the baby's name?
Joel Brooks:Don't know. Was it a boy or girl? No idea it was a baby. I mean, they had a baby. Is is are the parents' baby healthy?
Joel Brooks:I assume so. They texted us about it. Those are all the details I would give, and, that's pretty much all Luke gives here. But he does tell us what we really need to know. And what we really need to know is this.
Joel Brooks:The king of the universe was not born in a palace. He was put in a place fit for animals. To a young poor couple who cannot be any more insignificant in the world's eyes. From a worldly perspective, there likely was not a child on the planet who had lower prospects than Jesus at this moment. Think of that.
Joel Brooks:That's how God comes to us. It's remarkable. That's how he humbles himself. How low he comes to be with us. Once again, this is a story about God, his power, his grace coming to us.
Joel Brooks:And I just even think of the the bookends of Jesus' life. He's born and he's placed you know, he's in a stable, in a feeding trough. The beginning of his life, at the end of his life, he's hanging on a tree in between 2 robbers. And yet, we see him as the savior of the world. Now, after each one of my children were born, one of the first things Lauren and I did was we sent out birth announcements.
Joel Brooks:Well, God the father, he sends out a birth announcement after Jesus is born. He didn't send out a card, he could use angels. And so he he sent out angels. And he sent them to these shepherds that were abiding in the fields nearby. Any of you ever be were you ever in a Christmas pageant growing up?
Joel Brooks:Kids ever in a Christmas pageant? If ever that that was the case, you were who did you want to be if you were a girl? Wanna be Mary. Everybody wanted to be Mary. If you were a boy, who did you want to be?
Joel Brooks:Joseph, if you could. Magi, the wise men, a close second because he got dressed kinda cool, like, you know, like a king and got to carry gifts. Those were the parts you had to audition for. You had to audition for, you know, Mary, if you were like the beauty popular girl, you got to be Mary. The jocks, maybe they got to be Joseph.
Joel Brooks:But if you weren't good enough to get those parts, what part were you given? The shepherds. That's right. Because all you have to do to be a shepherd is have a bathrobe and you just gotta like just stand in the background and do nothing. Because nobody wants to be the shepherd.
Joel Brooks:Nobody wanted to be the shepherd. Now nobody wanted to be the shepherd then. In the 1st century, shepherds were about as far down the social ladder as you could get. I mean, today, we kinda romanticize that lifestyle. You know, they lived under the stars.
Joel Brooks:They're holding cuddly little lambs. They're doing all of that. But in the 1st century, these people were considered pretty sketchy. They weren't allowed to hold public office. They were thought to be so untrustworthy.
Joel Brooks:They were not allowed to testify in court. They couldn't go into the temple because they were almost always ritually unpure. Once again, God comes down to a bunch of nobodies. Look at verse 9. Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them.
Joel Brooks:And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of 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. Now as far as birth announcements go, this one's highly unusual. It's different from any birth announcement I've ever received from anyone, different than anyone I've ever heard of. Because a normal birth announcement would have read like this.
Joel Brooks:For unto Joseph and Mary is born this day a child. A child is born to the parents, But that's not what the angel says here. He says, for unto you is born this day. A savior. That's strange.
Joel Brooks:The child was not born to Joseph and Mary, at least not only to Joseph and Mary. Jesus was God's gift to the shepherds. And the shepherds are representative of all of humanity. So so when the angel is saying for unto you is born this day a savior, what the angel is saying is unto you, and unto you, and unto you, and unto you is born a savior. Those words, unto you, change everything about this announcement.
Joel Brooks:It's there's words, unto you. They're the difference between being able to just rejoice in the Christmas story or in it just passing you by. Do you understand Jesus to just be a savior that you've heard about in the story? He's a savior, or is He your savior? That's that's the question here.
Joel Brooks:Is He yours? If you wanna know the joy of Christmas, the peace of Christmas, then you have to come to a point where Jesus is not just a savior, but he's your savior. It becomes good news of great joy when you realize he saved you from your sin. I gotta tell you, I I know so many Christians I have to think how I could say this. So many Christians who spend all this time talking about a joy I've never seen them experience.
Joel Brooks:Do you notice that? Always talking about, yeah, I mean, I'm I'm just so joyful. I really always talking about this joy, you know, things are good. Yep. They're they're good.
Joel Brooks:They're good. I mean, like, they're just trying to convince themselves that I'm joyful. Talking about a joy, I just rarely have ever seen them experience. And I think one of the reasons is this, this announcement that's going forth that they believe in a savior. They believe that Jesus came to die for sins.
Joel Brooks:All of it changes when you believe He is your savior, and He came to die for your sins. When that hits you, peace and joy explode. How can it not? That's what's being announced to these low, low people. Jesus came for them.
Joel Brooks:After the angel tells them this, we read that a host of angels fills the sky. They begin praising God, saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those whom he is pleased. Notice what they didn't do. This. So we're doing it all wrong.
Joel Brooks:Peace on Earth. It's another one of those themes, isn't it? That's everywhere during the Christmas season. Perhaps that might even be the one that's out there the most. Peace on Earth.
Joel Brooks:Goodwill to men. But that peace that we see on every Christmas card, peace on Earth, what kind of peace was Jesus bringing? Because we have to we have to acknowledge this. If peace is the end of violence, if peace means no more wars, then Jesus failed miserably. I mean, look at the last 2000 years.
Joel Brooks:Just been filled with violence, filled with wars. So if that's the peace that's supposed to come to earth, we have to say that the Prince of Peace himself, Jesus, failed in this. But that's not the type of peace that's being announced here to the world. And Jesus, He would talk about this during His life. I mean for 1, He would have said there's always gonna be rumors of wars and there's gonna be wars.
Joel Brooks:He would talk about those things were gonna continue after He ascended up to heaven. In Matthew 10, he said this. He goes, do not think that I have come to bring peace to this world. I have not come to bring peace. I've come to bring a sword.
Joel Brooks:It's pretty clear. He didn't come to bring that type of peace. Says, I've come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. In other words, it's the clash of kingdoms. The clash of kingdoms there.
Joel Brooks:Even families will be divided as to who Jesus is. I mean, some of you felt that over this Thanksgiving as you're sitting down with family. Where was people's hope during that time? Was there hope in the political structures of this world, or was there hope in Christ alone? Clashing kingdoms.
Collin Hansen:So that's not the type of
Joel Brooks:peace that Jesus is talking about here. The peace that he is that's being proclaimed by these angels is the peace between God and man. The carol, Heart the Herald, it describes this piece beautifully. Peace on earth, mercy mild, God and sinner reconciled. That's the piece.
Joel Brooks:God and sinner reconciled. The angel came to announce this great and glorious news. The rebellion. The war that's been going on between humanity and God since Adam took of that fruit. The war's over.
Joel Brooks:The rebellion is ended. Peace has come through Jesus. God has sent his son into this world to reconcile us to himself. Paul writes about it this way in Romans 5. He says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:In other words, God is announcing here, I'm not gonna bring the sword of judgment. Instead, I'm bringing the sword, I'm gonna bring my son for reconciliation. I've mentioned that we've had we've had 3 deaths over the past 2 weeks, several funerals. One of the things that I I have got to experience and see firsthand is the unbelievable peace that these people have had at the end. Truly a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Joel Brooks:You know, even last Sunday as one of one of my friends is is passing, the the peace that was there was not a peace that came from a, a body being made whole. No. He had been at war with his body for months and lost that war. But it was a peace with God. Man, there's no peace like it.
Joel Brooks:You know, when it comes to that point, and every one of us will come to that point, do you think, as powerful as Augustus was, he could help you in a moment like that? Do you think any kingdom on earth can help you have peace at that moment? There's not one. But the savior of the world can. And to have that peace, to know that all hostility between you and the Lord is over, he didn't send the sword, he sent his son, can actually make you even long for that day.
Joel Brooks:This is the peace that Jesus brings us. It's the good news of Christmas, our rebellion against him. It's over. God loved us so much to send his son to save us from our sins. And now we have a peace and a joy that not even death can take away.
Joel Brooks:Let's pray. Jesus, if there's anyone here, and I'm pleading with you, if there's anyone here, and when they think of the whole Christmas story, they think of of you, they think of all of that, they see a savior Right now, I pray that through your spirit, they would cry out to you as their savior. They would see that you came for them. So Jesus, thank you that you have not just saved, this vague world from sins. You saved us from our sins.
Joel Brooks:And now you give us a peace and joy that nothing will ever take away. We pray this in the sweet name of Jesus, our present and our future king.
