Third Sunday of Advent: Inexpressible Joy
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; Luke 1:39-55
Introduction
For the last two Sundays we have been looking at how the coming of the Lord, what the prophets call “the day of the Lord,” is both looked for and a surprise, revealing the One “in whom we delight,” but also the One who comes as a “refiner’s fire” (Mal. 3:2). When God comes to us, He often brings fire and water, not to destroy, but to refine and cleanse us so that we can share in His holiness. This week, our focus is on joy. The third Sunday of Advent is sometimes called Gaudate Sunday, because as we get nearer the celebration of our Lord’s birth, our readings remind us that joy is the purpose of Jesus’ coming. He comes to make our hearts rejoice! But what does this mean? Specifically, how do we understand the command to be joyful in the midst of the refining fire of God’s coming?
The Foundation of Joy
Our reading from 1 Thessalonians 5 sounds a theme that is common in Scripture: Joy is to be the constant, continuous posture of the Christian life. “Rejoice always!” Or again, “rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Phil. 4:4) This is hard for us to get our minds around because we tend to think of joy as if it were a synonym for being “happy.” The problem with this is that we all know that no one is happy, happy, happy all the time. If joy is the same thing as feeling happy, then the only people who can always be in that state are hypocrites. Moreover, the Psalms display an enormous range of emotions that godly men and women experience while honoring God and yet, rejoicing, which is rooted in joy, is always to be present in our lives. How can this be?
The first thing we have to understand is that joy is not a simple emotion, but rather it is the settled, steadfast conviction that God is in control of our lives. Notice that putting this way immediately draws our attention away from ourselves and our mental states and puts the focus on God and His character.
Second, our readings show us that joy is not only rooted in the fact that God is in control, but also in the reality that He has determined to show us His favor.
Isaiah 61 show us what it is like when the “year of the Lord’s favor” (vs. 2) finally comes. We know this passage is speaking of the Messiah because Luke recounts that this is the passage Jesus read in the synagogue as He began His ministry (Luke 4:16-21). What does this favor look like? “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted;
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 comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit.” Vs. 10 finally shows us the source of Israel’s joy: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
Notice that the basis for Israel’s joy is the work of Her Savior: “He has clothed me…He has covered me.” God has taken away our shame and replaced it with everlasting joy (vs. 7). God Himself is the source of our joy.
The End of Fear
In the Bible, the opposite of joy is not pain or sorrow, it’s fear. Consider Philippians 4:4-7. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
What is fear about and why does it rob us of our joy? First, notice how 1 John 4:16-19 relates fear to judgment/punishment. “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.”
Likewise, Romans 8:15-17 says fear is a manifestation of the spirit of slavery. “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
In both cases, the antidote to fear is God Himself. In 1 John, it’s His love which sought us out before we loved Him in return. In Romans, it’s the Spirit of adoption who teaches us to cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Unbreakable Love
This finally helps us to understand why joy and trials are found together in the Bible (James 1:3; Romans 5:3). Trials have a way of revealing what we hope in. Romans 5:1-5 draws all of these threads together: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The central point here is that the hope of the glory of God is produced in us through suffering. How? Because it reveals that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and His love is unbreakable: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The act of rejoicing doesn’t diminish the experience of pain or sorrow. Instead, it turns the power of pain and sorrow into a force that reveals the glory of God in us. But it isn’t automatic. Pain is an opportunity to turn toward God or away from Him. Which is why we are commanded to rejoice. When we turn to the Lord in our pain, we find that He is already turned to us in favor.
Samuel Rutherford said “When in the cellar of affliction, I look for God’s choicest wines.” Joy is the key that opens the bottles for our strengthening.
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.