Week 3 | The Advent of Joy | Luke 2:8–16

During the third week of Advent, we reflect on the theme of joy through the angel’s announcement to the shepherds in Luke 2. In a dark and weary world, God declares “good news of great joy for all people”—joy rooted not in circumstances, but in the arrival of Jesus Christ.

This message explores what biblical joy truly is (and what it is not): not forced cheerfulness or shallow happiness, but a deep, Spirit-produced delight in Christ that can coexist with sorrow. Drawing from Scripture and the definition articulated by John Piper, we see that Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul, produced by the Holy Spirit, as He helps us behold the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world.

We then consider why Jesus’ birth is good news of great joy—because He is our Savior, the promised Messiah, and Immanuel, God with us—and why this joy is for all people: Jew and Gentile, religious and pagan, powerful and poor. Ultimately, the good news becomes deeply personal: Christ came for you.

Whether you are searching for joy or longing to walk more fully in it, this message points you to Jesus—the true and lasting source of joy, at Christmas and always.

Chapters

• 0:00 Advent Joy And Luke 2 Setup
• 1:44 What Biblical Joy Is Not
• 2:31 Defining Joy: Piper’s Framework
• 6:06 Joy Beyond Circumstances
• 10:59 Seeing Christ In Word And World
• 15:32 Why Jesus Brings Great Joy
• 19:41 Savior, Messiah, And Lord
• 24:05 Joy For All: Jew And Gentile
• 27:31 Joy For Religious And Pagan, Rich And Poor

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey everybody, good to see you this morning. Well, during the uh third week of Advent, the church has historically focused on the theme of joy, as you've already heard this morning. There's a key passage if you want to turn to Luke chapter 2 in which Dr. Luke records an angel's announcement about Jesus' birth to these shepherds. And here he connects the arrival of Jesus to this inexplicible joy that arrived in a dark and desolate world. I'm talking about joy today, so somebody just smile at me and act like you're a little bit happy to be here, all right? So I want to just start with Luke chapter 2, verse 10, which reads like this and the angel said to them, and that is the shepherds, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. That's for you. All people include you. It's not just good news of great joy for the shepherds, because it's good news for us, it's reason for joy because Jesus Christ came as Emmanuel, God, with us. Today, you might lack joy. If you'll listen, I promise you, you will learn no matter your circumstances, you will learn to walk in the joy of Jesus Christ. You ready? All right, here we go. So, what is what we might call biblical joy? Let's start out by talking about what it's not. Biblical joy is not this, it's not Scrooge. And like we all agree with that, yes. But but here's what we think. Conversely, we go, okay, joy is not that. We think it's this, buddy elf. How many love elf movie? All right, but actually, you might be surprised to hear this, but that is not joy either. Biblical joy, really important, is not going around just being bubbly and chipper all the time. Those people drive me crazy. So, what is biblical joy? Well, Pastor John Piper, who is the leading contemporary theologian expert on this subject of joy, defines it like this Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit, as He, the Holy Spirit, causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world. Got it memorized. Let's read it one more time. Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit as He causes us to see the beauty of Christ in His Word and in the world. So let me just break this down. Number one, it's a good feeling. And and Piper's point is in this is that uh joy is not just merely an idea, it is a feeling, or I like better, an emotion. And unlike an idea, this is why it's important. We don't have immediate control over our emotions. Let me just illustrate this. Say a robber, God forbid, breaks in your house one night. You wake up, he's standing at the foot of your bed in a ski mask holding a gun. Here's what you don't think. You you don't think or or say out loud, you don't say, Well, you know, there's a man standing at the foot of my bed. He doesn't live here. He broke in, he's wearing a ski mask, and he's got a gun pointed at me. He doesn't seem very friendly. You know what? I should, I think I'm gonna be scared. I think I'm gonna fear. You don't do that. No, you see a man at the end of your bed with a gun and you just fear, or you get really angry and pull out your Glock, all right? But but the point is this emotions don't work like that. Emotions are immediate and they are beyond our control. So it is first, it's a good feeling, joy is, and it's a good feeling in the soul. And here, Piper draws attention to the fact that joy is not primarily, let's say, in the body, it is the immaterial part of our personhood that experiences joy. The body, to be sure, may feel the effects of joy. Like you win the lottery, yeah, your body's probably gonna show like effects of joy. You might cry tears of joy when something really good happens in your life. And while all that's true, here's the point joy is not primarily in the body, it starts in the heart or in the emotions in the soul. So joy is a good feeling in the soul, and importantly, it is produced by the Holy Spirit. See, there's a joy in the world, just like there's a peace in the world that differs from the joy and the peace that Jesus Christ gives us. So joy in the world is based on circumstances. So it's like you win the lottery, you're joyful, but you go bankrupt, you lose your joy. You get married, hopefully, when you got married, you were a little bit joyful. But then you get home and you try to live together in that joy, just might fade a bit. See, when when all goes awry, joy tends to flee. The the joy that the world brings. But here's the beauty of this Christian joy, on the other hand, is not dependent on circumstances. Let me just show you, uh, read you this text from 2 Corinthians. It's the shows the great paradox of our faith when it comes to joy. This is the apostle Paul writing, who has literally been through hell. Everything you could imagine could happen to him negatively has happened. In 2 Corinthians 6, 8 through 10 says this. Here's what Paul writes through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise, we are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying, and behold, we live as punished and yet not killed. And listen what he says here, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing everything. Is that not powerful? Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. What's that mean? It means, oh Christian, if you are in Christ, that you can be going through the worst circumstance imaginable, like the apostle Paul, and yet, like Paul, you can say, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. And again, it doesn't mean when you're going through loss and pain and sickness that you're uh going around going, hey everybody, how you doing? You know, I just got really bad news today. No. Lament is a good emotion. When things go wrong, when we experience loss, we grieve. But in our grief, in our lament, there is still a joy in our soul that is produced by the Holy Spirit. Remember, you can't conjure up joy, you can't conjure up emotions. Your emotions respond to something, so you have no control over this. That's why the world cannot have this joy. It is the Holy Ghost in us that causes this joy. So joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit as He causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world. Here's what I mean: the Holy Spirit doesn't give us this joy just magically, apart from our mind and heart. No, he gives us joy this way, he gives us joy by helping us to see the ultimate and infinite beauty and glory and wonder and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because no matter what's going on, if you can look to Christ and you can see how wonderful He is and what He has done for you, I am telling you, you can't help but have joy well up in your spirit. And he does this primarily. The Holy Spirit gives us this joy, helps us to see the beauty of Christ, one through the word of God. It's like, how do you have joy in the Lord as we're commanded to do if you don't know anything about the Lord? It's when we read God's word that the Holy Spirit reveals this beauty of Christ, this glory of Christ, this wonder of Christ, which makes us marvel and causes joy to fill our hearts. And then finally, the Spirit does it through the Word and also through the world. Now, what in the world does this mean? Primarily, again, we see Christ and His beauty in the Word. But do you know we also see His beauty through His gifts and His creation and His people? We see His gifts when we look out on a dark, clear night. I love doing this. I live out in the country a little bit, and I love a clear night where you see the innumerable stars in the sky, and every once in a while get a little glimpse of another planet. And what's the psalmist say? The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth proclaims his handy work. So when you go to the Grand Canyon or you go to Lexington and you look at the beautiful horse farms and the majestic horses, thoroughbreds, you give praise to God, and you see the wonder of the Creator. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord. So every Christmas gift you receive this year, if you like it, ultimately it's from God. There's nothing wrong with exchanging gifts, in as much as we remember that everything we have is from the Lord, and then we see his beauty through his people. I mean, what you you need to see who really know who Christ is. Yes, be in his word, but be with his people, especially with those who have walked with the Lord for so long. There it is. Christian joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Spirit as He causes us to see the beauty of Christ in the Word and in the world. So in our text, Luke shows us this very thing that he shows us the reason for our joy. Why is this baby in a manger good news of great joy? Look at verses 10 and 11. And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. And here's why it's good news. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. The shepherds, they would not, I mean, they don't have they're not in the best of circumstances. And when Jesus was born, they didn't come out of these circumstances. That's not the promise from the angel. He doesn't say it's good news of great joy, because you're not going to be poor shepherds anymore, you're not going to be dirty anymore, you're not going to be the lower class anymore. No, he says, here it is good news of great joy, for unto you is born a savior who is Christ the Lord. So, number one, why is this such good news of great joy? Because Jesus is a the, let's say, savior. Verse 11 for unto you this day is born in the city of David a what? Okay, smile. Come on, people. He is born a savior. All right. The Jews were looking for a savior in a Messiah, right? But they wanted a savior who would save them from the tyranny of Rome. But Jesus came to save us from a greater problem, save his people from a greater problem. As a matter of fact, in Matthew's account of the Christmas story, Matthew chapter 1, an angel appears to Joseph. You remember this? And he said, here's what he says about this child that Mary is pregnant with. Matthew 121. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people not from Rome, but from their sins. Now to be sure, when Christ returns, we look towards his second advent with great hope. He will renew the earth, and justice will come to this world, and he will banish evil, and every tyranny will fall. But that's not what Jesus came to do the first time. Jesus came to deal with our greatest need, and that is our sin. See, our sin, as you know, has broken our relationship with God. It separates from our God, us from our God, but Jesus Christ came so that we might be healed, brought to Him. It's a beautiful thing. It's good news because Christ is Savior. Secondly, it's good news because Jesus is the Messiah. Verse 11 again for unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord. The word Christ here means Messiah or anointed one. So many prophecies, you know, this in the Old Testament point forward to a time when God would send a Messiah, a redeemer, a deliverer, a king to help his people, to save his people. And this went on for centuries, these prophecies, and Israel was looking for this messianic figure. Let me just read you one of these, Isaiah 61, 1 and 2. This is a prophecy fulfilled in Christ, and he even uses these words in Luke chapter 4. Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord, God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn. I just want you to know Jesus is the fulfillment of this in every other messianic prophecy. The great deliverer, the great Messiah, the great king has come and he will come again. Amen. So it's good news of great joy because Jesus came as Savior, and he came as the Messiah, and finally he came as Lord. Look at verse 11 one more time. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ, the Lord. Now, of course, as Israel's Messiah, uh, you know, he would be a king. Uh so he would be, in a sense, a Lord. We we know that, that's obvious. But Jesus is not just any Lord, he is the divine Lord, the Lord of Lords, if you will. So this is interesting. Just back one chapter in Gabriel's announcement to Mary, the angel refers to God the Father as Lord. You just move past this insane chapter, chapter two that we're in, move past this a little bit. Mary refers to God the Father as Lord. And this is no accident by Luke. That now Luke says, this Savior born in the manger, he is Lord. What kind of Savior did God send? Matthew 1.23, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means not man with us, not prophet with us, but God with us. God didn't just send a human Messiah, he didn't just send a great army general. No, God took on flesh, God sent his son, and he is not just Jesus, is not just the Son of God, but He is God the Son. How amazing is that He is Lord. That's why it's good news of great joy. Why is the this good news of great joy for all people? Final question I'll answer. Why is the birth of Jesus good news of great joy for all people? Well, number one, it's good news of great joy for all people because he came to save both Jew and Gentile. Obviously, he came for the Jews, right? He came as Israel's Messiah, but he also came to save the Gentiles. And this was always his plan when he made a covenant back in Genesis chapter 12 with Abraham. He didn't say, Abraham, through your family, your nation's gonna be blessed. He said, No, through your offspring, messianic prophecy, through your office offspring, all the nations would be blessed. And here's what I love. I'm gonna do a little comparison between the magi and the shepherds. So in Luke 2, that you have Jewish shepherds who make their way to Bethlehem to marvel at the Messiah. But then in Matthew 2, you have the man magi who are Gentiles, pagans, who see the star and they make their way to Jesus to worship him. In Romans 1:16, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to who? Everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So this is good news of great joy for all people because Jesus came for both Jew and Gentile. Are you grateful for that today? But not only did he come from Jew and for Jew and Gentile, he came for the religious and the pagans. The Magi were pagan Gentiles. The shepherds were religious Jews who sought to follow the God of Israel. But the Bible teaches, and very importantly, that both the pagan and the religious need a savior. Both the moral and the immoral need a savior because Romans 3.23 declares, For all have sinned. That's you, that's me, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Billy Graham, sinner, that needed a savior. Mary, sinner, who needed a savior. Jesus came, I love this, to save the most upright and the most wicked. He came for the religious and the pagan. It's good news of great joy for all people. Finally, Jesus came, not just for the religious and the pagan and the Jew and the Gentile, but for the powerful and the poor. The Magi, these are high status men. They run in royal circles. They're very educated. They are scholars, very well respected. The shepherds, on the other hand, not so much. They were low men on the totem pole. I don't know who's the pastor of the South East and Little Give a powerful illustration by going through the alphabet with the point that reminding his people that Jesus came for everyone for all types of people. And uh I just believe in giving credit where credit's due. I think plagiarizing in a sermon is probably pretty bad. Now, to be sure, I don't remember this list. He goes to the alphabet. I don't remember his list. This is my own, but uh here we go. Jesus came for A. The artists, the aristocrats, the alcoholics, the atheists, the agnostics, the athletes, and even Android users. B, he came for bankers and baristas and the barren and the blue collars and the bullied and even the bullies, the backslidden and the brokenhearted. C. Jesus came for caretakers and construction workers and children and CEOs and John Caliperi. Cat lovers, those who put noodles in chili, the charming, the cranky, and the crushed. D, he came for dreamers and doctors and dancers and dietitians and drug addicts and the depressed and the down and out and the divorced and the dysfunctional and the diseased and the disabled. E. Entrepreneurs, engineers, he came for electricians, Matt, and extroverts and the envious and the endless talkers, Jerry, and those who feel empty. F. He came for fathers and firefighters and farmers and failures, the fearful and the forgotten. G, he came for grandparents and gamers, garbage collectors and gamblers. The goofy, Chris, the generous and the grieving. H, he came for homemakers and horoscope readers and fans of Harry Potter. Hippies and hunters, the humble, the homeless, and the hurting. I, he came for introverts and ice skaters and immigrants. The insane, the immature, and the insecure. J, he came for judges and janitors and Jews and journalists. Those who get jiggy with it. And the J didn't. I had to put humor in here because it just makes me weep. K. Kindergarten teachers and kings and those who are kilts, and even the Kardashians. L, lawyers and librarians and lovers and losers, the lost, the lonely, and the LGBTQ community. M. Mothers and mechanics and musicians and managers and mathematicians and movie lovers and the misunderstood. And nerds and nurses and newlyweds and narcissists and those who feel not enough. Oh. Olympians and office workers, the old, the oppressed, the outcast, and the overwhelmed. P pastors and pagans and prostitutes. Professors, plumbers, pilots, purple-haired people, the Pope and Mark Pope. And those who don't use punctuation. The prisoner, the powerful, the poor, and the prodigals. Q, quarterbacks and quilters, and the quarrelsome and the quick-tempered, and the one who questions everything. R roofers and ranchers and retailers and runners, the rich, the romantics, those who wear Ralph Lauren, the rotten and the restless. S students and scholars and scientists and secretaries and smokers, the sorrowful and the skeptic, the smart and the smug, the sad, the secluded, and those on the spectrum. T teenagers, teachers, travelers, truck drivers, even telemarketers, the tattooed, the timid, the tough, and the tired, the veterans. Did I skip you? You Uber drivers, underdogs, the unemployed and the unsure. V veterans, veterinarians, volunteers, and the vulnerable. W waitresses and welders and writers, those who shop at Walmart, those who think wrestling is real. Hunter, if you're watching, and the worn out, X, X-ray technicians, those who play Xbox, and those who take Xanax. That's the best I could do with X. Z Zookeepers, the Zealous, the Zeros, the Zongs, and everybody at the end of the rope. Now, I intentionally skipped Y. Thank you. You were listening because I want to make this personal. Luke 2, 11. For unto you is born this day in the city of David. Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Just make that personal day unto me a savior is born. Unto you a savior is born. You the broken, the insecure, you, you the confused, you the abandoned, you the divorced, you the single mom, you the hurting, you the angry, you the paralyzed, you the frustrated, you the addict, you the widow, you who look at pornography, you the adulterer, you the undependable, you the sinner, you the rich, you the poor, you the skeptic, you the fatherless, you the abandoned, you the religious, you the prodigal, you the shameful, you the guilty, you the exhausted, you the anxious, you the hopeless, you the depressed, you who feels like a failure. Unto you in Bethlehem was born a savior. And today you can become a recipient of this Jesus who will bring you unspeakable joy. Jesus' birth and his death and his resurrection, though offered to all people, hear me clearly, becomes a reality of good news only for some. It's good news of great joy for all people, but it only becomes a reality for some. Who's the sum? It's those who receive Jesus Christ. How do you experience good news of great joy? Look at verses 15 and 16 of our text. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Look at this. Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that's happened, which the Lord has made known to us. Watch this. And they went what? They went with haste. And they found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in the manger. Non-Christians watching online, maybe here this morning. Maybe somebody who's backslidden. You want this joy? You want Christ? Run to him with haste. Notice this. You say, Well, you don't know what I've done this week. The shepherds, interestingly, that dirty job, right? They don't change clothes, they they don't go clean themselves up and take showers and all of these things. No, they just come as they are with in haste to Jesus. Come with haste today. Don't don't try to clean yourself up. No, you come to him, he'll clean you up. Okay, if you're a Christian and you're here, and so many Christians know the idea of biblical joy, but they don't experience. Here's what you do. You've got to read and save your savor God's word so that you can see Christ as your ultimate treasure. I've just say to you, it's alive enemy. Quit looking to money and human relationships and other things of this world for ultimate source of joy. They will fail you time and time again. Ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, help me to see the infinite worth and beauty and majesty of Christ. And so this Christmas season and always, may we as God's people walk in the steadfast joy of Jesus Christ, treasuring Him above all. Thanks.