Reasons to Rejoice, Part 1

I love the Christmas season. I love everything about it. And it's the opportunity we have to go through the Christmas story. You know, it's the same old story, but never grows old. It's something unique and fresh every year. And I just love everything about the coming of the Messiah. Everything is in the scripture is about the arrival of the Messiah. And to be able to understand the significance of this season is so important. So I wanna spend the month of December looking at what are the real reasons we are to rejoice at this time of year.

If you understand and remember the real reasons why we rejoice at this time of year, you will rejoice all throughout the year. Because everything about the reasons we rejoice affect how we look at life every single day throughout the year.

So I'm gonna give you seven reasons why we rejoice during this season that will enable you to rejoice throughout every season of life. Because every season might not be as joyous as the Christmas season is. There are seasons of difficulty and seasons of hardship and seasons of pain, but yet we are called to rejoice. The Bible says that we are to rejoice always, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16.

We are to rejoice in the Lord always, Philippians 4, verse number four. And Paul says, and again I say, rejoice. Earlier in Philippians 3, verse number one, he said we are to rejoice always.

So rejoicing is part of who we are and what we do. The question is what are the real reasons we rejoice? We have a Christian hymn that we sing, it's called Good Christian Men Rejoice. It says, good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Give ye heed to what we say, news, news. Jesus Christ is born today. Ox and ass before him bow, and he is in the manger now.

Christ is born today. Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Now ye hear of endless bliss, joy, joy. Jesus Christ was born for this. He hath opened heaven's door and man is blessed forevermore. Christ was born for this. Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Now ye need not fear the grave. Peace, peace, Jesus Christ was born to save. Calls you one and calls you all to gain his everlasting hall. Christ was born to save. Great hymn. And we realize that this season is one of great rejoicing.

In fact, if you read the Christmas narrative in Luke's gospel and Matthew's gospel, you begin to realize the people who rejoiced. It goes all the way back to Luke chapter one with Zacharias and Elizabeth. Zacharias was performing his priestly duties as a priest should. He and his wife had been praying, praying for years for a child. They had no child, she was barren. And the angel Gabriel shows up and says, your wife Elizabeth's gonna have a child. His name is gonna be called John and he'll be the forerunner to the Messiah.

Now they would rejoice because Elizabeth was pregnant, but more than that was the fact that their son was the forerunner that was prophesied in the Old Testament to the Messiah himself. And then you have, of course, Mary. When the angel, same angel, Gabriel came to her and said that she was going to conceive in her womb and bear a child. She had no idea how that would happen because she was a virgin. And the angel said to her that the Holy Spirit will overshadow you and you shall conceive and bear a son.

And his name will be called Jesus. And of course she was ecstatic. Luke 1 47 says she rejoiced in God, her savior. And she would even go to Elizabeth's home and talk to her about the fact that she was having a child and John the Baptist would leap for joy in Elizabeth's womb because it was all about the rejoicing at the Christmas season. Then of course you had the angels who made the announcement in the shepherd's fields where the glory of the Lord would shine all around and said, we got good news.

It brings great joy. And the shepherds, of course, would receive that. They would go see this reality in Bethlehem that they would just heard about and they would leave praising God and rejoicing over what they had just seen and heard. And then of course you have Simeon, that ancient man who lived a long time and was promised that he would not die until he saw Christ's Messiah, his Messiah. And sure enough, he held him in his arms and rejoiced. And then Anna, the prophetess, she would come up and she would take the shot in her arms and she would rejoice because she was looking for the redemption of Jerusalem and Simeon was looking for the consolation of Israel.

So when you look at the Christmas story and you look at the characters that were involved in the narrative, all of them came to a place of rejoicing, ecstatic about what God was doing.

And you go to Matthew's gospel and there you have our theme verse for the series because there you have the Magi who in Matthew chapter two, verse number 10 says that when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy, why? Why, because they knew the identity of the star. They knew about the ministry of the star. How do they know? How do these Persian kings who traveled well over 700 miles to get to the place where they would meet the Christ child how do they know that the star was the king?

Because they were told by their parents who heard from their parents, who heard from the great prophet Daniel who was the leader of the Magi during the Babylonian captivity. And he would tell them about numbers 24, verse number 17 that says these words, a star shall come forth from Jacob and a scepter shall rise from Israel. The star is a sovereign and Daniel would tell the ancestors to these Magi about the star that was coming. And so when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy because it would take him to the house where Jesus was.

Not to the grotto, not to the manger. So if you get your three wise men up in your front yard by the manger, take them down. That's biblically inaccurate. They were not there. And there were more than three. There was probably at least 700 to a thousand of them, okay? That's why all Jerusalem was in fear and trepidation when they came, why? Because three kings walking into Jerusalem would not cause all of Jerusalem to tremble. But a thousand kings on the back of Persian steeds, not camels, Persian steeds, they then would be afraid and all Jerusalem was afraid because they came looking for the Messiah, the king of the Jews.

They knew he was the king. That's why they brought him gifts fit for a king. That's why when they went to the house where he was, not the manger because he was probably a toddler somewhere between the ages of one and two. That's why Herod killed all the children two years and younger because he had to decipher how old the child would have been since the Persian kings were following the star for a certain amount of time. And when they got to the house, they would bow in submission to the king because they knew the star was a sovereign.

Think about it. The glory of the Lord would shine all around the shepherds, right? What's the glory of the Lord? It's the presence of God manifested in brilliant light. So God was manifesting himself in brilliant light by shining all around the shepherds. All the while, the light of the world was wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. The magi were following the star, a star that would lead them to the ultimate star. It was a supernatural star. Was it a natural star? Because it would lead them to the place where the Christ child was.

And there the star, who would one day hold the scepter in his hand, was worshiped by the magi. You see, everything about the Christmas story is astonishing. All the prophecy and all the promises that were fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah blow anyone's mind when you begin to realize the precision of prophecy and how it was fulfilled. I wonder if you understand the real reason you are to rejoice at this season. I was thinking this past week about the different reasons people rejoice. So I wrote them down.

They're not the real reason, but they are reasons. One was the sights of Christmas. They cause you to rejoice. The sights become very influential. Look at our auditorium, all the decorations of the auditorium, all the trees, the stars, the garland.

You'll probably go looking at lights with your children. Why? Because of the sights of Christmas. Your neighborhood is probably decorated with all kinds of lights on houses and in their front yard. They don't do that in June, July, and August, September, October, but come Christmas, everybody decorates. Why? Because there's something about the sights that become very influential that move people to rejoice at this time of year. It's not the real reason to do it, but it is a reason as to why people rejoice.

So although the sights are influential, you must always recognize that there are sounds of Christmas and the sounds are inspirational. The sounds could be music. The sounds could be the ringing of bells. The sounds could be coming from movies of Christmas, but there's something about the sounds of Christmas. I was sharing with the first service.

You know, it's really unique when it comes to snow at Christmas. If you were like me, raised in the East Coast and you were able to experience fallen snow, you'll recognize that when you're out at night and snow is falling, that snow makes a sound. People say, well, snow doesn't make a sound when it hits the ground. No, it does, because I've experienced it. When you're out in the snow and you're looking up in the sky and the snow is falling down and it lands on your jacket or your face or your nose, the quietness of snow falling is a lot different than going out in the middle of the night when there's no clouds and no snow and it's just perfectly clear.

There's a unique difference between the two. And when snow falls on your face, it's almost as if it makes a sound when it falls. It is so silent that it's almost as if you hear the sound of snow falling. And to watch cars or listen to cars that travel along freshly packed snow on roads, it's so much different than cars driving on pavement. It's a unique sound. And all that plays a part in the sound of Christmas, whether it's the music we listen to in our car at home, whether it's the movies we watch and the sound that they give out, whether it's the jingling of bells, whatever it may be, it's the laughing of children, all those sounds cause us to rejoice.

So while the sights might be influential and the sounds inspirational, the songs, the songs are informational. We sing the songs of Christmas, away in a manger, O little town of Bethlehem, O come, O come, Emmanuel, the first Noel.

And the list goes on and on and on. And all those songs are very informational. Why? Because they give us the information about what took place at Christmas. And all that information that we sing about in the songs give us reason to rejoice. But still, it's not the real reason we rejoice. There's also the smells of Christmas, right? You have the songs, you have the sights, you have the sounds, but you also have the smells of Christmas. I don't know what it was like in your house growing up, but there was a certain smell in my house at Christmas time that wasn't there throughout the rest of the year.

Because my mom would, bake pies and cookies and breads and rolls and all kinds of things. And the house would just smell different at Christmas. In fact, I love to go to the store and buy those pine cones that smell like cinnamon and put them in my car, because it makes my car smell like Christmas when I open the car door. We even have the pine smell that you can buy because all of our trees are artificial now.

You can't really smell the pine in your trees so you buy the pine and put it in your house so your house smells like a pine tree. All those smells of Christmas, they become very invitational. They invite us to rejoice during the season. But again, those aren't the real reasons we rejoice. The sights, although they're influential and the sounds, although they're inspirational, and the songs, although they're informational, and the smells may well be invitational. The sermons, the sermons are intellectual and instructional.

That's where I come in. I'm the one who preaches the sermons about Christmas. And they become very instructional. They instruct us in terms of what took place and how it all comes together and all the prophecies and we're instructed on those things and they are reasons to rejoice. But again, the sermons are not the real reason we rejoice. Yes, you can see the sights and you can hear the sounds. You can sing the songs. You can sniff the smells. You can hear the sermons. But none of those are the real reasons we rejoice.

The real reason is the sun, the sun. While the sights are influential, the sounds inspirational, the songs informational, the smells invitational, the sermons informational. Intellectual and instructional. The sun, incarnational, the enfleshment of the King. That's the real reason we rejoice. What kind of son is he? He's the son of David, Psalm 89. Fulfilled in Matthew one and Hebrews one. It speaks to his royalty. He's also the son of God. Isaiah nine, verse number six. The child was born, but the son, the son was given.

The son was not born. The son's eternal, he's the everlasting father. He was given. That's why Peter said in Matthew chapter 16, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. As son of David, it speaks to his royalty. As son of God, it speaks to his deity. He's also the son of man. Daniel seven, verse number 13, prophesies about Daniel's vision in the coming of the son of man in all of his glory, on the clouds of great glory. Christ would refer to himself as the son of man over 80 times in the Gospels.

In fulfillment of Daniel seven, verse number 13. As son of David, he's royalty. As son of God, he's deity. As son of man, he's humanity. But he's also the son of righteousness. That's not S-O-N, that's S-U-N. Malachi four, verse number two.

The prophecy of Malachi that there would be one who would come to Messiah who's called the son of righteousness who will rise with healing in his wings. Malachi four, verse number two.

And Jesus said in Revelation 22, 16 that he was that bright and morning star. And Zechariah would fulfill that in Luke chapter one, verse number 77, when he would say that the son of righteousness would bring healing to the nation. The son of righteousness speaks of his glory, right? The glory of the Lord. That's the kind of son he is. And so when you come to the son of righteousness, everything comes full circle because now you're talking about the brightness and the glory of the Lord. You're talking about the light of the world.

You're talking about the day stars, Peter says in 2 Peter 1, 19, that shall rise in your hearts, speaking of the Messiah, where Christ would say in Revelation 22, 16 that he is the bright and morning star. Where in Revelation chapter three, the promise was given that I will give you the morning star. Why? Because he is the son, S-U-N, of righteousness. All that to say is that he, Christ, is the real reason we rejoice. And so I wanna give you the reasons surrounding that to help you understand that if you can rejoice because of these seven reasons at Christmastime, you can rejoice no matter what season you face because you understand the scriptures and you understand who Christ is.

So here's point number one. We won't cover it all this morning, but we will introduce it to you this morning. The real reason we remember to rejoice is because of the reality of his person. The reality of his person. Now think about this. There had been 400 silent years, 400 dark years in Israel's history between the book of Malachi when the prophecy was given that the son of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings to the arrival of the Messiah in Luke's gospel in chapter two. 400 years.

And people were living in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah. They had come back from Babylonian captivity. They had begun to rebuild the temple. They had begun to rebuild the walls around the city and they sat and they waited and they waited and they waited and they waited and they kept waiting and waiting and waiting. All the while there was no sign from heaven. There was no prophet to speak for God. There was no angel to give an announcement from God. All the while there was nothing but silence and people waited and kept waiting and waiting until that night in the darkness of the night and the glory of the Lord would shine all around the shepherds.

The darkness and the silence was broken for the Messiah had arrived. And you think about Mary, right? She was waiting but all of a sudden, Mary was able to connect all the dots. When she received from the angel the announcement that as a virgin she would conceive and bear a child, now as she begins to connect the dots, she can go all the way back to the beginning to Genesis chapter three, verse number 15 and realize that the woman will have a seed that will bruise the serpent's head. And never in the history of man has a woman ever had a seed.

Man carries the seed, not the woman. That's why it's a unique prophecy. It's the seed of the woman. And Mary begins to connect the dots. And then she takes her back all the way to Isaiah chapter seven, verse number 14 where the prophecy was given that a virgin shall conceive. This will be a sign to you that a virgin shall conceive and bear a child. His name will be called Emmanuel, God with us. Now all that's coming into focus for Mary. And then she can go back to Jeremiah chapter 31, verse number 22 and realize that all the rabbis before the birth of Christ interpreted Jeremiah 31, 22 as the fact that the Messiah would come, have no earthly father when the Lord said, I'm about to create something new on the earth, a woman shall encompass a child.

And then she could go back to Isaiah nine, verse number six, that the child would be born, but the child is a son that was given. Speaking of the eternal nature of the child and what God was doing in Mary's life. So she began to connect all the dots as she carried this baby, the Christ child for nine months and realize the joy that was there, the reality of this person. And so when you come to Luke's gospel in the second chapter in verses eight to 20, you have the Christmas story.

And that Christmas story has one verse that is the thesis of the story. And that verse is Luke chapter two, verse number 11, that reads this way. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. That is the thesis of the Christmas story. That is the pinnacle of redemption. That is the gospel message. That is everything you need to know about Christmas. Then the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. Now, isn't it interesting that when the announcement was given, the shepherds never asked the question.

They never said, I'm sorry, what did you say? Who's born, where is he born, what is he? Never asked that question. Why not? Because he already knew. If you already know, you don't ask the question. They knew about Israel's savior. They knew about Israel's messiah. They knew about the coming of the messiah and what he would do, why? Because you see, they were the ones who raised all the lambs that would be sacrificed at Passover. They knew that the ultimate lamb was going to come and be sacrificed.

They knew that. They knew that when the angel said, this will be a sign for you, that you'll find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in the manger. Whoa, see, they would understand that because you see, when they gave birth to the lambs, what did they do? They wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Why did they do that? Because when the lamb was born, if they didn't wrap him in swaddling clothes, he would kick and be all around the place getting cut and scraped, which would make him a blemished lamb, not an unblemished lamb.

So when the lamb was born, they would wrap him in swaddling clothes and hold on to him till he calmed down so he could be a spotless lamb ready for Passover. And so when Christ says there's gonna be a sign, this is it, you're gonna find a babe wrapped in the same kind of clothes you wrap your lambs in because this is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Whoa, they didn't ask any questions. They said, let us go in haste to see the reality of what was just spoken to us. Why? Because you see, the reason you rejoice is because of the reality of his person. That's why. He is a savior, he is Christ, he is the Lord. His saviorship, his messiahship, his lordship is what Christmas is. It's all about the gospel. That's the Christmas story in one verse, Luke 2, verse number 11. And so they understood saviorship because saviorship is not a New Testament concept.

It was an Old Testament picture of Christ. All the way back in the book of Exodus, when Christ was proclaiming himself as he spoke to Moses in the burning bush and Moses said, who shall I say sent me? He says, I'm gonna give you my name, Moses, but mark it down, my name is my memorial name. It's to be remembered from generation to generation. This is how I need to be remembered forever and for all time. And my name is this, I am that I am. And when you look at those four Hebrew consonants, they make up the name Yahweh, which speaks to us about the arrival of the messiah for Christ in John 8, 24.

Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Unless you believe that I am a savior, a deliverer, a redeemer. Because you see, in Exodus chapter three, Moses was told by God, I have seen the affliction of my people Israel and I am coming down to deliver them. Listen, God only comes down for one of three reasons. He's gonna come down to destroy you, he's gonna come down to discipline you, or he's gonna come down to deliver you. Those are the only three reasons God ever comes down. He was coming down to deliver them, right?

And so he said, you tell them that I'm coming down and I'm going to deliver them. I've heard their cries, I've seen their affliction, and I'm gonna come down and deliver them. You tell them, this is my memorial name, and they remember it from generation to generation, I am a redeemer, a deliverer, I am a savior. Which goes against every other God of the world. Because if you study the Old Testament, you realize that the Canaanites had a God, that God was Baal, right? But he was the God of apathy.

Just go to the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel, and how the 450 prophets of Baal were trying to call down fire from heaven, and they couldn't, because Baal doesn't exist. And so Elijah mocks him by saying, well, maybe he's away on vacation, he can't hear you. Or maybe he's sleeping, why? Because evidently your God is indifferent and apathetic to your cries. And you go to the other side of the spectrum, and that's the God Moloch, where you sacrificed your children on the altar to appease his hostility.

And so somewhere between hostility and apathy are all the other gods that have ever existed. But none of them are gods of long-suffering, and patience, and kindness, and mercy, and saving. There's only one God like that. That's our God, savior of the world. That's why I love what it says over in Isaiah chapter 63, verse number eight, for he said, surely they are my people, sons who will not deal falsely. So he became their savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.

In his love and in his mercy he redeemed them, and he lifted them and carried them all the days of old. Only God does that. And then earlier, Isaiah chapter 43, verse number 11, I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no savior besides me. There is no other savior. It is I who have declared, and saved, and proclaimed, and there was no strange God among you. So you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, because I am God. Then over Isaiah chapter 45, he says this, verse number 21, who has announced this from of old, who has long since declared it, is it not I the Lord?

And there is no other God besides me, a righteous God, and a savior. There is none except me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. So when the angels made the announcement, there was no question about a savior coming, because they lived in anticipation of that savior. The fact is, he's finally here.

The reality is now seen. And all they'd hoped in has arrived. That's why they went in haste to see. Your text might say, this thing that was spoken to us, it really means, it reads, this reality that's been given to us. Because they recognized that their savior had come. And that's why the Bible says, in 1 Timothy 4, verse number 10, that Jesus Christ is the savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

God is the savior of all men. That's why you're here today. Why? Because God is always in the business of saving people from the immediate consequences of their sin. The soul that sins, it will die, Ezekiel chapter 18, verse number four. But you sinned this morning. Did you die? Nope, you're still here. You're still breathing. That's because God is the savior. He's the savior of all men, especially those who believe. In 1 Timothy, God saved Israel over and over and over again. He saved them through the Red Sea.

He saved them through the wilderness. He saved them through all kinds of bondage. He saved them through all kinds of hardship. Why? Because God is in the business of saving us from the immediate consequences of sin. Because he's a savior by nature. That's who he is. He saves all men physically and temporally. But he especially saves those who believe eternally and spiritually. The ones who believe are saved eternally. They're saved spiritually. Go all the way back to Genesis chapter three, right?

The day you eat of the tree of knowledge, you're good and evil, you're gonna die. They ate, but they lived. Well, wait a minute. I thought you said if you eat, you die. Well, they died spiritually. They ultimately then would die physically, but God is a saving God, and God saved them spiritually. He saved them and allowed them to continue to live because he's a saving God. That's why anybody lives today. And we say all the time, why do bad things happen to good people? Never has a bad thing ever happened to a good person because there are no good people.

Romans chapter three, there is none good and no not one. So it's impossible for bad things to happen to good people. That's impossible. But good things happen to bad people every single day because God is the savior of all men, especially those who believe. That's why we rejoice at Christmas. That's our reason to rejoice because he says, for in the city of David, there's been born for you. It makes it personal. A savior. There's a savior born specifically for you. He is the Messiah. He is the Christ.

He is the Lord, but he's been born for you. And that's why you rejoice because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He's a saving God. All throughout the Old Testament, all throughout the New Testament, it was all about the one who came to seek and to save that which is lost. The reality of his person. He's a savior. He is the Christ. He's the Lord. He was born for you. And I wonder today if you know Christ as your savior and Lord. I wonder if you understand the saving grace that he offers.

In Titus chapter one, Titus chapter two, Titus chapter three, Jesus is called God my savior because Jesus is the son of God, son of man, the son of David, the son of righteousness. He is the day star that rises in your hearts. He is the one who lights the way to heaven because he's the only way to heaven. And therefore you recognize that we rejoice at Christmas because there's been born for us a savior who is Christ the Lord. The reality of his person. This is who he is. This is what he does. Now one verse in Luke two, verse number 11, sums up the entirety of the New Testament.

Sums up the entirety of the Bible because it is the reason Christ came to save us from our sin. And that's the real reason we rejoice this Christmas season. If you know Christ as savior, if you know Christ as Lord, then your life will be one under his direction, under his authority, under his sovereignty, under his rulership. And you can rest in the things that he does and the things that he has said because he's your savior and Lord. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today. And are grateful Lord that you allow us to celebrate you.

We realize Lord that our coming together is brief, but it's a time to focus. Focus above and not below. Focus on who you are and what you did without ever looking at us and what we are or what we've done. Because everything is about you and your glory. So we thank you that we've come to celebrate you today. We can do it through song. We can do it through sermons. We can do it through prayer. We can do it Lord through our ministry to one another because we are here for your sake and not for ours. So we thank you in Jesus name, amen.