Joy to the World

Today is the third Sunday of Advent. As I’ve said for the last two Sundays –and I say it again for the benefit of those who’ve missed my comment – although we celebrate Christ’s birth of December 25, Jesus did not become flesh on that Christmas day. He took on human flesh nine months earlier – in March of that year – when He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin womb of Mary. It was at His conception that Jesus became fully human while always remaining fully God. This is not an insignificant point - especially in our culture when so many millions of little boys and girls maturing in their mother’s womb are destroyed by intentional abortion.

May God have mercy on America.

As I’ve said in the last two weeks, there are more than 300 Old Testament prophecies in which God promised humanity a deliverer from the spiritual darkness that originated in the Garden of Eden and metastasized like a deadly cancer, thoroughly infecting the whole of Creation itself.

Two weeks ago, we looked at Genesis 3:15, which is the first of those many prophecies promising the future arrival – the future advent of our Messiah. Last week, on the second Sunday of Advent, we turned our attention to Isaiah 7:14, 9:2, and 9:6-7 – further promises of Christ’s first Advent. Today, on this third Sunday, we’ll look at another prophecy of His first advent. We find it in Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor . . ..” (Isaiah 61:1-2a)

Many of you will recall that when Jesus visited His hometown of Nazareth, He applied this prophecy to Himself. Luke tells us: (Luke 4:17-21) “The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

After applying the prophecy to Himself, we then find this vignette later in Luke’s gospel: “John [the baptizer] summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” When the men reached [Jesus], they said, “John the Baptist sent us to ask you, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” At that time Jesus healed many people of diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits, and he granted sight to many blind people.  He replied to them, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.” Luke 7:18b-23 

Let’s go back to verse 18 of Luke chapter four. Jesus said the Holy Spirit had anointed Him to heal the sick, release prisoners, and – and this is important as well – to preach good news to the poor.

Albert Barnes (d. 1870) in his commentary on this passage in Luke writes: “By the "poor" are meant all those who are destitute of the comforts of this life, and who therefore may be more readily disposed to seek treasures in heaven; [Poor also meant] all those who are sensible of their sins, or are poor in spirit . . . . Riches fill the mind with pride, with self-complacency, and with a feeling that the gospel is not needed. The poor [in spirit] "feel" their need [for] some sources of comfort that the world cannot give.” [End of quote]

You might remember what the Lord said during His Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)

Listen to the Lord Jesus also speak of the danger facing those who are wealthy and those who strive to be wealthy: “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:23-24

But why might it be hard for a rich person to enter heaven?  I think there are probably several reasons, but the fundamental reason is that the rich typically trust in their wealth more than they trust in God, AND they will do anything to increase their wealth, even if such doing violates God’s commandments.

Listen to St Paul’s warning to the rich: “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:9-10)

Listen also to the Lord’s warning to those in the Laodicean church (Revelation 3:15-17) “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”

And just to be clear, one doesn’t have to be rich to fall into that category of creating a god out of wealth. Those living in poverty can just as easily make money into their god when they think all their problems would be solved if they had more of it.

Solomon wrote about that deceptive idea in Ecclesiastes. Listen to what he said: “I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces . . . Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:8-11)

Yes, it’s hard for a rich person to enter heaven; Hard, but not impossible. And on that note, let me digress a moment to bring up an important parallel warning: Although Jesus didn’t say it here, from my observation, He could have also said it’s hard for an older person to enter the kingdom of God.

Think about those in their 50s, 60s, 70s and older and who have been actively walking away from the truth for decades. They’ve spent years of their adult lives convincing themselves of reasons to reject Christ, to reject the infallibility of Scripture, to reject God’s commandments for a holy lifestyle.

It’s hard enough when you’re 20 or 30 to admit you’re wrong about Christ, about righteousness, and sin, but when you’ve walked for decades in spiritual darkness – well, not many people will humble themselves before God and admit they’ve been so completely wrong about such critically important issues of life and eternity. They’ve had decades to harden their hearts.

That’s why it’s so important each time we hear the gospel that WE do not let our hearts harden to truth – especially truths we don’t like or want to obey. We should all be very careful because Scripture warns us that we can harden our hearts until there is no remedy but judgment.

Every honest person in this sanctuary readily understands how hard it is to turn from long-held errors. But such a turn is absolutely necessary because there can be no salvation without humility and repentance.

I think it’s noteworthy that the Lord included preaching the gospel to the poor in the same category as physical healing and freedom. That’s because no physical healing or freedom can occur without the Lord. He’s the one who gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, life to the dead and so forth. And as for the reception of the gospel message, the Lord also tells us, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” John 6:44

In other words, receiving the gospel message into our hearts is just as much a miraculous work of God as is physical healing or freedom. They all arise from the same miraculous source – and from no other source.

But coming to Christ in one’s old age – miraculous as that is – raises a question for some: Are older converts able to produce fruit for God’s kingdom?

The answer is, of course, an unqualified ‘Yes.’ Think of the so-called ‘good thief’ on the cross next to Jesus. No, he was not an old man, and yes, he had no time to be fruitful for Christ before he died.  

But although he had no time to ‘do’ anything for Christ, for 2000 years Christians have referenced that dying thief as incontrovertible evidence of God’s incomprehensible mercy. Because of that thief’s deathbed conversion, men and women for the last 2000 years have been able to find peace with their merciful God in their last-minute deathbed confessions of sin and prayer for mercy.

Scripture promises: “How blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 2b:12), and (John 6:37b) “The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

And so, Christian – never think you’re too old for God to use you. God remains . . . well, God still remains God. Listen to this promise from the Psalmist: “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree; He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon . . . .They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” (Psalm 92:12, 14-15a)

So, Christian – keep praying for your family and friends. Keep praying for those that sit around you in the dining room. God is a God of mercy. He miraculously raises the dead, cleanses the lepers, heals the sick – and just as miraculously, He softens hearts that are disposed toward humility – hearts that are poor in spirit – so that they will hear and receive the gospel.

All of what I’ve said thus far brings us back to Genesis 3:15 and the prophecies of Isaiah in chapters seven and nine. I hope we can all see more clearly now the mercy of God, the compassion of God, the patience of God, the love of God – love infinitely beyond our ability to even begin to comprehend.

It is our gracious Creator’s love and mercy that revealed to those who walked – and who walk – in darkness, to those who lived and who live in a spiritually dark land that they did not have to keep walking or living in darkness.

Healing the sick, freeing men and women held captive by sin, preaching words of hope to the poor. Those were the defining marks of Christ’s ministry and the fulfillment of so many of those Old Testament prophecies about the first advent. And those are the defining characteristics of every Christian who truly cares about the salvation of others.

As we’ve seen thus far in this Advent series, the prophecies of Christ’s first advent began in Genesis wherein God promised to crush the Serpent’s head – the Serpent who is at the root of all sin, sickness, heartache, poverty, imprisonment, and death. And those prophecies – all 300 of them – thread their way throughout the Old Testament.

Our Creator loves us. Deeply, passionately loves us. He wants to RESCUE every person on this planet from spiritual and emotional darkness – if only we would humble ourselves and seek His mercy. What He said to Israel through Jeremiah He also says to us, even now, at this moment, in this sanctuary:

(Jeremiah 29:11-13) “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” 

It is to us and for us that a Child was born on that first Christmas day, whose name is called, Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Jesus is God’s gift to everyone in this sanctuary: the lonely, the joyful, the hurting, the happy, the lost, the found, the struggling, the full, and the empty. God gifted us with the Light of the world. It is no wonder Jesus offers each of us: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

And for all the reasons I spoke of in this message, I close with these lyrics from a popular Christmas song:

Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.