THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS

The angel said with heavenly authority when these words were spoken, “behold, I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). So, from the very start joy was meant to be attached to Jesus’ coming into our world.

Two of the great men of the faith who lived long ago said powerful words about Christmas joy. Augustine said, “The Christian should be an alleluia from head to foot,” and that happens when the coming of Christ to our world is fully appreciated and honorably celebrated. God wants there to be alleluia joy at each Christmas celebration!

The other spokesman on this subject of an authentic Christmas joy is Martin Luther, saying essentially the same thing in a different way: “The Christian ought to be a living doxology.” But let’s be clear. There is as much distance between the intended spiritual joy of Christmas and the secular, manufactured joy of Christmas as between a shining star in the heavens and one painted on an empty beer can in the gutter!

Christmas joy is a supernatural celebration created because of Jesus, but without Jesus as the focus of Christmas, there can only be superficial happiness. One is holy celebration, the other is artificial happiness. Trying to have joy at Christmas without God has been compared to being as foolish as looking for a needle in a haystack when there is no needle in it!

All this is wonderfully expressed in those words the angel spoke, “I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone!” (Luke 2:10, Living Bible) We can be sure the shepherds must have gone home “singing songs of everlasting joy” (Isaiah 35:10). Every Christmas celebration should be a repeat of that. To realize God has come to us with love should cause us to openly say, “The Lord himself is my inheritance, my prize … my highest joy!” (Psalm 16:5, TLB) We should all say in loud unison, “Jesus, you see, is what makes it Christmas to me!” It centers in Him! The whole of Christmas is found exclusively in “the fulness of the blessing of Christ.” (Romans 15:29)

I. THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS DECLARED

Let me repeat it because it’s so meaningful—“but the angel reassured them. ‘Don’t be afraid!’ he said. ‘I bring you the most joyful news ever announced, and it is for everyone!’” (verse 10)

So, from the start God says Christmas is to be a joyful celebration.

1. It Was Declared with the Authority of Heaven~

It is, said the heavenly visitors, “the most joyful news ever announced,” so throughout the New Testament the meaning of Christmas is made clear. God sent Him, Jesus; the Word became flesh. He, Jesus, revealed the glory and grace of God as never before. This is God the Son, who is God and who reveals God in a way never known before. This is God revealing Himself, and if that had not happened, we could have never found God at all!

Humans cannot find God. Here is the truth: no one less than God can bring us true and reliable information about God. God must give it Himself, and He did. This was not man reaching up to God—it was God reaching down to man. It is not a discovery or an insight or the emerging of a bright idea. No! It is God showing Himself to us.

God’s chosen method is to reveal Himself. We have no ability to find Him or reason correctly about Him. Here is Spurgeon telling us about what God said to us: “I hold one single sentence out of God’s Word to be of more certainty and of more power than all the discoveries of all the learned men of the ages.”

God spoke to us at Christmas, and He didn’t stutter. We submit to what He said—His Word is totally accurate and has total authority. At Christmas God told us about Himself, and it brings joy!

2. It Was Declared with the Aim of Everyone~

“… and it is for everyone!” said the angel.

God thought of you, so you can never say, “I am a nobody, I have no importance, I am overlooked.” No, it’s for everyone, but especially you!

“God so loved the world”—are you in the world? Then God loved you and sent Jesus for you. Yes, God commendeth, or showed, His great love to us by sending Christ. (Romans 5:8) Without that act, all of us were totally helpless and totally hopeless with no way of escape from the prison we put ourselves in.

Jesus came to show us God and His love which led Him to die for us on the cross so that He can save us for all eternity. Let us find ourselves amazed. “Come, let us adore Him.” We now rejoice in this wonderful news that we can be at peace and know pardon from God. It’s all connected together: birth, life, death, resurrection all linked together as one, and it’s for you and me and everyone. Christmas proves that we are loved and it’s beyond question or challenge.

The correct Christmas theme is grace, and the correct Christmas conduct is gratitude. That’s the true spirit of Christmas!

II. THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS DEFINED

Let’s define this Christmas joy, and I pray you will be overwhelmed to realize how different it is from anything in all world religions.

1. Real Joy at Christmas Is to be a Delight~

Christmas joy is when deep in our soul there is a delight in Jesus Himself and it’s not so much happiness as heart gladness. And let’s not lose the meaning because you and I have heard it all our life. Real Christian joy comes as a surprise like the shepherds knew—if we will allow it, joy comes to flood our souls at Christmas.

Joy comes as a delight when what we think and what we say and what we do are in harmony with Him. So, this joy-filled delight is not a goal but a byproduct of a focus that celebrates “the Lord has come.”

We don’t go to a Christmas party looking for happiness and joy—it’s not found in foolish festivities. It’s not artificial happiness, it’s authentic joy. It’s a delight on the inside that is eternal. All the other things are shallow and temporary, and it often leaves a hangover. But this delight is totally lasting. Sometimes it’s quiet praise and inward peace that leads to private and public praise; it was for Mary at Christmas.

It’s not something you work up. We don’t go on a wild and reckless pursuit of it. Jesus said it’s all in Him. He said, “I have spoken to you, that my joy (notice, “my joy”) may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11) So, He desires to give that to us and for all of us to have “His joy.”

The world’s effort to manufacture and produce it is foolish and vain. One is by “manmade spirits,” but this is joy produced by Him and by His Spirit. What is more distasteful and disgraceful than a Christmas party where the master-of-ceremonies says, “All right, everybody, let’s lift our glasses for a toast and get into the Christmas spirit!”?

2. Real Joy at Christmas Is to be a Deliverance~

People who have come to Christ often say, “Oh, at last I am delivered from that empty lifestyle.” They often admit, “I have been on a wild search for something to cheer my spirit, and it ended flat and empty.”

Remember, this is “great joy” and it comes as God expresses Himself to us. Here is one special verse: the magi who came from the east, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” (Matthew 2:10) Let’s emphasize “great joy.”

Heaven’s visitor announced, “I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Again, not just joy, “great joy.” God promised to give that to us if we respond to Him. He will put within us a “great joy” only He can bestow, which is so great we don’t have words to describe it. It is full of glory!

Jesus said, “… that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). I repeat those words of Jesus on purpose—full joy and great joy!

It is a discovery and a deliverance to learn Christmas joy breaks on us after moments of reflection and resting in Him amidst typical Christmas activities. It comes when you do something selfless, love something priceless, and love something endless.

And consider this, “There is a sense in which the people of the Lord are a people apart, belonging to each other in a sense in which we do not belong to anyone else,” remarked Tozer.

Let that be your delight and deliverance at this Christmas.

III. THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS DISPLAYED

Certainly we see it in the shepherds. They must have returned to friends and neighbors “singing songs of everlasting joy” (Isaiah 35:10). All that is found in verse 17, which says, “The shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child.”

The shepherds were pictured this way, they “… went back again to their fields and flocks, praising God …” (verse 20)

1. True Christmas Joy Is Joyful Praise from the Heart~

At Christmas we should allow His presence and glory to shine on us and around us and within us—that is what happened to the shepherds. Again I quote A. W. Tozer, who maintained that believers “have every right to be the happiest people in the world,” and it can be celebrated for we should not have to “work up” a source for celebration. No one should have to say, as is done in some Christmas parties, “Now, let’s get into the celebration spirit.”

We do not have to search for a reason to rejoice. Christmas joy is deep in our souls when there is a delight in Jesus himself, and it’s not so much momentary shallow happiness as it is lasting heart gladness. I like what David Augsberger said, Christmas celebration is “a happening with God.” John Piper called it “the dawning of indestructible joy.”

Allow me to paraphrase Richard Bach: If your Christmas happiness depends on what someone says or does, “then I guess you have a real problem”—all celebration at Christmas should be heartfelt! Searching to produce artificial Christmas joy and celebration is a sure sign of spiritual emptiness. And to be very negative, the three weeks after Christmas is the time of the year there are more suicides. Counterfeit joy can produce depression because it is not flowing from the heart.

2. True Christmas Joy Is Joyful Praise to the Lord~

Yes, I repeat with pleasure that the shepherds went back to the flock “praising God.” The psalmist said, “in thy presence is fulness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). When God is in every heart and home, joy comes without asking for it! And it’s God who caused it because “thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” (Jeremiah 15:16), and the word is “The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord” has come to us, and that’s the source of it. The shepherds said, “Let’s see this wonderful thing that has happened, (but notice) which the Lord has told us about.” (verse 15) And they couldn’t stop praising Him!

And then we see in Mary the same thing expressed in a different way, “Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and often thought about them.” (verse 19) So, please find time to sit down and “treasure these things” and deeply think about them.

The awareness that God dwells within causes us to say Christmas joy is a God-given privilege bestowed only on the true believer. Elton Trueblood was a theologian who lectured on the most profound Christian truths. Yet, he spoke simply about Christmas joy, “The only way to have it is to never give it a thought.” So, Christmas joy is God-centered and it comes to those who seek it least and think less about it and more about how good God has been to all of us.

And when that spirit is ours and it takes over and overwhelms us, it gives us something that the world, with all its noise and efforts to produce happiness, cannot match. Christmas joy in a word is the result of being in harmony with the Lord. “Why?” I ask. Again, put the verse in a Christmas setting, “in him are hidden all the treasures” (Colossians 2:3), and add to it, “in him the whole fullness” (Colossians 2:9) of Christmas joy. Yes, in Him and in Him alone.

So, let it be as God intends, a response of faith celebrated on truth. That’s what we see in the humble shepherds. Believe me, they enjoyed Christmas! Yes, indeed, “… a Savior …” Here it is, “Unto you a Savior … Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Never forget the fact, that’s why Jesus was sent—to forgive sins.

Once, when we lived in Scotland, a very large secondary school principal asked me to speak to the students on the eve of Christmas. And hundreds were present. Being an evangelist, I pointed out that God sent Jesus because we need to be saved, and I ended with a brief call for them to come to Christ and asked the students to pray. At the end, when it was over, the principal, in proper, refined English said to me, “I am absolutely amazed. I have been to many Christmas celebrations, but I never heard anyone turn it into an occasion for evangelism.” He said, “I did not expect to have a preacher akin to Billy Graham speak to our students!” I asked him, “Were you offended?” He replied, “Just amazed how you did that!” But really we should do that!

Later, Jesus reminded us that only God alone can forgive sins. “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Only He has that authority—not the church, not the minister, not religious ritual—only He has that authority. He—“… who is the Christ” because He is also “… the Lord.” Scripture says it, “… a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” It is a staggering, almost incomprehensible truth. Christmas means God himself has come down on this planet in the person of His Son. So, Christmas becomes the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ was much more than a baby in a manger, He was God himself in human flesh—fully God and fully man. Yes, He came to save us!

So, together with you we declare we have a great Savior, Jesus, the Christ, the Lord who came to save us from our sins. Let Him forgive yours as He has forgiven mine!