Exceeding Great Joy

EXCEEDING GREAT JOY

Mount Hope

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Luke 1:47-55 New Living Translation (NLT)

⁴⁷     How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
⁴⁸ For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
    and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
⁴⁹ For the Mighty One is holy,
    and he has done great things for me.
⁵⁰ He shows mercy from generation to generation
    to all who fear him.
⁵¹ His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
    He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
⁵² He has brought down princes from their thrones
    and exalted the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away with empty hands.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel
    and remembered to be merciful.
⁵⁵ For he made this promise to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and his children forever.”

            There is a correlation between the Old Testament Scripture in Isaiah 55 and the New Testament Gospel of Luke.  Both Isaiah and Mary are singing a song of joy and praise for what God is going to do.  Isaiah is singing for joy for the hope of restoration of Israel.  In Chapter 34 Isaiah sings about God’s anger, fury and destruction.  But in Chapter 35 he sings of how God will restore what was destroyed and display his glory and splendor.  He sings of how God will destroy their enemies and will come to save them.  Isaiah sings that a great road will go through the once deserted land and it will be called the Highway of Holiness and the evil cannot travel on it – only those who walk in God’s ways.  He sings of those who have been ransomed by the Lord will enter Jerusalem and be crowned with everlasting joy (purchased with a price – the price paid by Jesus who was to come).  No more pain or – only joy and gladness.  When we’re on the Highway to Heaven.

            Mary sings with joy what is known as the “Magnificat” when she visits her cousin Elizabeth and the baby Elizabeth is carrying who is to be known as John the Baptist, leaps in her belly and she proclaims, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed.  Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me?  When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.  You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

            I know we hear this story every year.  But let’s take a deeper look at this exceeding great joy in the light of today.  I’m going to try to break this down so that you won’t be able to do anything but be joyful, not just for a season, but for a lifetime.

            We know that the Israelites, no matter how many times God sent them a king to lead them, would always revert to disobedience and do what they thought was right in their own eyes, right?  They had been delivered out of the hands of the Egyptians, the Philistines, the Babylonians and every other country that had enslaved or conquered them.  They had Moses, Joshua, Deborah, Samson and all the judges.  They had David as King, yet they still wanted God to send a Savior to save them.

            We live in a world where there is so little joy.  We hear of wars and threat of wars.  Our children are being snatched out of their beds, murdered and discarded as if they were trash.  Women and men are being sold into sex trafficking.  Drugs touch just about every family.  Lies and evil behavior at the highest level of our government.  Parents abandoning their families.  Husbands murdering their wives and children.  School shootings.  Strange and unnatural things.  This past week in Waldorf a murder in broad daylight in a public parking area at a shopping center.  People doing weird and crazy things like never before.  Preacher’s and others saying we are living in the last days.  We don’t know the day or the hour, but I’m telling you, you better keep your lamp oil trimmed and burning bright.  Don’t be like the foolish virgins.

            It’s hard to find joy when you’re hungry and homeless.  It’s hard to find joy when your child is missing.  It’s hard to find joy when you’ve lost your job.  It’s hard to find joy when 700,000 collecting SNAP – food stamps – will be taken off the roll because the government has decided to cut them out of the system.  It’s hard to find joy when your medications cost more than your mortgage.  It’s hard to find joy when the elderly are being abused and taken advantage of.  Yet here we are in the season of joy. 

            Mary was between 12-15 when the Angel Gabriel came to announce that she had found favor with the Lord and she was chosen to be the mother of God who was the fulfillment of the promise made in Isaiah’s prophecy.  Luke tells us that Mary’s response was “Let it be to me as you say.”  She was basically saying “They will be done, not my will.”  Can you imagine what her parents thought?  Do you ever wonder what their response was when they found out she was pregnant?  How was this going to affect her betrothal to Joseph?  What shame were they going to have to suffer?  Would they be exiled from their people?  What about Joseph?  Before he could even respond, the Angel Gabriel went to him to prepare and instruct him as to what he was to do – don’t divorce her the angel told him.  Take her as your wife and raise the child as your own.

I was 18 and unmarried when I found out I was expecting a child.  I was not joyful.  I was terrified.  How was I going to tell my parents?  What were they going to do to me?  What shame had I brought on them?  My father didn’t want me in the house.  I had to move in with my brother and his wife in Southeast DC.  Getting married was not an option for me because my child’s father was just graduating from high school and going away to college in Chicago because his parents said they didn’t want my pregnancy to ruin his future.  What about my future?  I was in this on my own.  I had to get a job to support myself and the baby.  I couldn’t even sign myself into the hospital when the time came.  It was a cold and snowy January night and my parents had to drive from Indian Head to DC so that my Mom could sign me into the hospital.  They wouldn’t even let her come to the delivery room to see me when I was in labor.  I was all alone.  Alone and scared as to what my future would be.

So, I can only imagine how Mary felt on that night in Bethlehem.  After traveling about 100 miles and jostling about on the back of a donkey and pregnant.  Then arriving in Bethlehem and having to be put in a stable with the animals and going through labor and birth without a support system.  Alone and scared as to what the future would be.  Only knowing she was giving birth to the Holy One.

Yet, there was joy in Bethlehem that Christmas night and there was joy in Cafritz Hospital that cold, snowy January night.  Joy because Mary brought forth the Savior of the world and the start shone bright about that stable and the angel of the Lord appeared among them and reassured the terrified shepherds who were guarding their sheep, “Don’t be afraid.  I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.  The Savior – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!  And you will recognize him by this sign:  You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.” Then the angel was joined by a host of heaven’s armies praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

In that labor room in Cafritz no angels came, but a son was born and eventually there was joy in that he was the first boy born in the family since my older brother.  But my parents had to come to terms with the reality of that child whom they were eventually to raise as their own.  I know my story is not unique and I am nowhere near the innocence and faithfulness of Mary.  But at 18, I was very innocent and very naïve.

Please understand that I am not comparing myself to Mary or my son’s birth to the birth of Jesus.  Mary sang a song of praise to God for the blessing she was to receive.  I did not sing one note.  I believed in Jesus, but I wasn’t saved yet.  Mary was a devout Jew whose father was well known in the Temple.  She was a young girl of modest means.  So was I, and my Dad was well known in our community.  But there the similarities end. 

Today we can rejoice and praise God because the Savior has come and walked among us.  He has hung on an old rugged cross and died for us so that we can have access to live in eternity with him.  We have a hope and a future that people didn’t have before Jesus walked among us.  We can rejoice in the promises of God.  We can find joy because we are saved by God’s unmerited favor, His grace.  We did nothing to deserve it and we can’t do anything to earn it.  It is a free gift.  We’ve been purchased, redeemed, with price and set free from eternal sin and death.  Now, I don’t know about you, but for me that is something to be filled with joy and shout about.

We can have the kind of joy the world can’t give and the world can’t take away.  It doesn’t matter that the do in Congress or the Senate or the Supreme Court or the White House because we serve a God who is greater than any Congressman, Senator, Judge or President.  We serve a God who picks us up when we fall, who heals us when we’re sick, who comforts us when we’re grieving, who opens doors we cannot see, who provides when we can’t make ends meet, who may not come when you call him, but he’s always right on time.  We serve a God who’s a lawyer in the courtroom and a doctor in the operating room.  You can’t see him, but you know he’s there because he said he’d never leave us nor forsake us and he is a man that he cannot lie.  He’s a father to the fatherless and a mother to the motherless.  He is our joy in the time of sorrow and our hope for tomorrow.

Nehemiah 8:10 says, “God and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared.  This is a sacred day before our Lord.  Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”

            Psalm 28:7 says, “The Lord is my strength and shield.  I trust him with all my heart.  He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.  I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.”

            Psalm 94:19 says, “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.”

            James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.

            Psalm 47:1 says, “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.”

            Isaiah 9:3 says, “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice with dividing plunder.”

            Provers 10:28 says, “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.”

            1 Peter 1:8-9 says, “Thought you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

            Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

            Isaiah 12:6 encourages us to, “Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

            He now lives within us and we carry the light of Jesus with us.  We should walk in the light, the beautiful light with our heads high and our shoulders back.  God has promised that no man is able to stand against us all the days of our lives because greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world.  So, I will end with Matthew 2:10 – “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.”  Let us be so filled with the joy of the Lord that we are strengthened and transforming lives with the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we reflect with our lives.