Joy has come

The following is a taken from the Advent Devotional Guide I wrote (see PDF here ) for our church’s Christmas series: The Advent . The weather has altered our original plans of having the series as four parts: HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE. Yet, even in missing or skipping one we pick it up in the others (e.g., hope is founded upon God’s Love, and true peace is joyful peace).

In the Advent (which is from the Latin word Adventus , meaning "coming, arrival"), we look both backward and forward. Back to Christ’s first coming — and even further before that — to the period of waiting and expectancy, for the Messiah. The long-awaited Savior of the world would be coming — soon! He did come, and God walked among us (John 1:1-16 ). And we now look forward to His coming again, this time not as the Suffering Servant (Isa. 42 and Isa. 53), but also as the Glorious King, the Ruler of all things. He twice-owns everything: as Creator, and then as Redeemer. We long with expectancy for His second Advent, when will experience the full expression of His glory, in all hope, peace, joy and love. Between the two we glimpse each in part, for He should become in our daily experience our hope, our peace, our joy, and the one we love the most.

Here is the excerpt on JOY, meant for this week (see Kari’s reflection too):

Can you imagine the scene, there in Matthew 2 ? Jesus was born as a baby, the promised Messiah, yet with very little public recognition; at least at first. Two groups emerge in this story. Each sees the same sign from God – a star. Yet their responses are as different as night and day. See if you can see the stark contrast between them.

One man, Herod, who the most powerful man in the whole region, was troubled. The great king of the land was disturbed greatly by the news of Jesus’ birth, as was the rest of the people in the capital city (v. 3). This unrest in king Herod’s heart led him to gather anyone wise and religious around him to find out when and where this Messiah would be come. The Scriptures, Micah 5 specifically, pointed to the village next door, Bethlehem.

A whole other group – a trio of men – responded in the completely opposite direction. These men came from the East, probably from Persia. They belonged to a class of philosopher-kings called Magi who were highly educated and skilled in astronomy. Day after day the ancients would watch the constant patterns of the stars. The north star was always in the same place, and the other stars would continually follow predictable paths in the night sky, month after month, year after year. Nothing was off course. All was quite predictable. If one day a new star were to arise, that would seem incredible to these astronomers. It would mean God had broken into his own creation by sending us a new star.

Perhaps they knew of the prophecies from the Old Testament, as the Jewish people had centuries earlier spent time as exiles under Nebuchadnezzar. Check out this prophecy 700 years earlier: “Arise, shine, for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord has risen among you…. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isa. 60 ). All of history was converging and shining forth – like a star in the black night, and signified by it: the Messiah is here!

Read Matthew 2:10 again: “when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Happy to travel for thousands of miles, they arrived at the place of Christ’s birth and “fell down and worshipped him” (v. 11). Their worship involved sacrifice, giving an offering of luxurious gifts fit for a king.

Yet Herod’s curiosity was not driven by a hope of worshiping Jesus as he claimed (v. 8). Rather, the rest of the context tells us the king was jealous of anyone taking his control, and so he sought to manipulate the wise men for the sake of murdering Jesus. Little did he know that Jesus did come to lay down His life, but as a Man and not so soon as a Child.

What is our response to Jesus?

He evoked two contrasting responses in this story. There is no middle ground with Jesus. No passionless, stagnant, apathetic response is possible with this Child who created all things. He made that star by the word of His power to be a beacon of His coming and shine forth into the hearts of His people. Joy, joy, the King is here! Let us come before our Maker and bow down, for we must worship Him! HE is the satisfaction our hearts were made to enjoy!

Two final points on Joy:

1. Christians ought to be the most content of anyone, despite our circumstances
   

2. The greatest gift God has given is the gift of Himself – to know, love and enjoy Him forever

Discussion

Has it ever dawned on you how often God brings up the theme of joy in the Scriptures? He even commands us to be happy! (See Psalm 98 & Phil. 4:4 ). How can God command us to be joyful? And, what is your best path to daily cultivating a joyful life in Christ?

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Joy has come. Christ has come. Enjoy Him.