Choose Your Own (Advent)ure – Christmas Style
This Sunday we jumped into the journey of the wise men to meet the baby Jesus for the first time (See Matthew 2:1-12)
During an equipping hour, conversation, one person said offhandedly, “I don’t know how long it takes you to prepare a sermon…” and the conversation continued from there.
Well, I think it does take a fair amount of research and prayer, and that made me think:
Did you know that when Pastor Danny and I originally launched this blog/pastoral letter, we wanted it to be a place where we could share the gold “nuggets” that God has taught us during our sermon preparations?
These nuggets, for one reason or another, couldn’t be included in the time to preach during the Sunday worship, but for us have been encouraging, eye-opening, and useful in understanding God and His word. That’s where this whole Pastoral Letter came from!
So today, I’m going to open Santa’s bag of gifts and you can discover some surprises for yourself!
Some of you may be like, “Yawn, great, he’s saying we’ll get more sermon?!”
But instead of listing facts, I’m offering a fun, Christmas Quest called Choose Your Own (Advent)ure – Christmas Style.
So, if you’re reading this right now, I encourage you—and challenge you—to view at least one of the topics below.
Unwrap the gift. Ponder the idea.
Open your heart to the Lord and see if He surfaces truths that encourage or shift your heart posture this Christmas season.
Ready?
Set.
Advent!
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Jesus is drawing all humanity to Himself.
We may have a percieved bias based on cultural influence, but underneath, Jesus really is the main thing that people want.
We see this truth in vivid color in the story of the Wise Men as they travel “over field and fountain, moor and mountain” to find the Infant King.
The gospels again and again attest to the hunger of those, especially those outside Israel, who press into the Kingdom—and, because of what Jesus has done—are welcomed in as sons and daughters of the King!
Blessed are the hungry…for they will be satisfied (Matthew 5:6).
A.W. Tozer says that what comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. And I’d nuance this with the reality that most people, even if they reject God, are doing it on the basis of a unconscious desire for God to be a certain way to them or to the world.
And many are only a healthy conversation or two away from really awakening that hunger for the King.
If they really knew the Jesus we know and read about in scripture, it could rewire some of the predispositions and prejudices they carry. They would find Jesus the most attractive person they could’ve ever imagined (and even better!).
Maybe you too need to remember again that Jesus is the Desire of the Nations (Haggai 2:7), not just for others but for you?
This may be a new idea for some of us….is God desirable?
Does desire itself come from Him?
Is the beauty we see around us in creation, found in its Creator?
Is He, especially as we know Him through Jesus, a person that draws to Himself all our deepest desires?
Consider this. He made everything that makes your heart come alive.
Do you love the redwoods? That’s His design.
Do you love the ocean? His handiwork.
Do you love Christmastime? Yep, His idea too.
He really is the most beautiful person ever, the wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace.
Let’s take a look at some passages from the Bible that show the wonder and attractiveness of Jesus:
Zechariah 8:2-23
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, 21 and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the Lord and seek the Lord Almighty. I myself am going.’ 22 And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord Almighty and to entreat him.”
23 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”
Isaiah 45:21-25
For there is no other God but me,
a righteous God and Savior.
There is none but me.
22 Let all the world look to me for salvation!
For I am God; there is no other.
23 I have sworn by my own name;
I have spoken the truth,
and I will never go back on my word:
Every knee will bend to me,
and every tongue will declare allegiance to me.[d]”
24 The people will declare,
“The Lord is the source of all my righteousness and strength.”
And all who were angry with him
will come to him and be ashamed.
25 In the Lord all the generations of Israel will be justified,
and in him they will boast.
Psalm 16:5-11
Lord, you alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing.
You guard all that is mine.
6 The land you have given me is a pleasant land.
What a wonderful inheritance!
7 I will bless the Lord who guides me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I know the Lord is always with me.
I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.
9 No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
My body rests in safety.
10 For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one[d] to rot in the grave.
11 You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever.
Hebrews 1:1-4
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. 4 This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.
Why don’t you take some time to talk with Jesus about your desires.
What you’ve noticed that you’re looking for this Christmas season.
Ask Him too, if He implanted those desires in you. Is there anything He’d like to say about those desires?
Bring them to Him, the Desire of Nations, and see how He shapes your week ahead.
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One of the amazing things I researched while studying for the wise men passage, was some history of Babylon (which became Persia, now modern day Iran) and the biblical history of the kings who were impacted by one Israeli prophet…a young exile named Daniel.
You can read his story in the Old Testament. But did you know, Daniel was places as chief over the Magi—the same priestly class who would later visit the Baby Jesus?
500 years before Jesus was born, Daniel, wrote prophesies about the coming Messiah while in the midst of the Babylonian exile. These may have led them to the feet of this little King.
These prophesies can led to some amazing insights about the people of God and the Babylonians too. Moreso, the prophesies point too God’s plan to invite all the Babylonians (and all people) into the redemption Jesus was offering to Israel, which ultimately is the restoration of the whole world.
Below we’ll take a look at some amazing passages about God’s involvement in the history of Babylon and consider how He really dos rule the nations and will ultimately restore all peoples in the love He shows through Jesus.
How encouraging is it right now to consider that God actually rules over the nations?
Have you ever taken time to trace His hand over the history?
Consider, is humanity really shaping history, or is God? Or both?
If you’re not familiar with the theme in scripture, Babylon was a historic nation that both attacked and conquered Israel and oppressed them in their exile.
Babylon becomes a symbol in the sacred writings of all that is perverted, broken, and vile about the disordered creation. In the book of Revelation, it is Babylon that rises up against God’s people to draw people to worship the enemy.
But, surprisingly enough, God not only invites, but welcomes and even plans for the conversion of many in Babylon (and those who the Church would think “outside the fold”).
We see this first in the Wise Men at Jesus’s birth, but we also see it in the welcoming of the non-Jews (the Gentiles) into the Kingdom of God after Jesus’s resurrection. The Apostle Paul’s whole ministry was to folks like the Babylonians.
All of us, unless we’re of Jewish decent, are welcomed in humble and wonderful ways like these Wise Men were 2,000 years ago. God doesn’t neglect corruption and hard-hearts, but is always able to welcome those ready to receive His love and that is our great gospel hope.
Isaiah 47:1-10 – Written while Israel is in Babylonian captivity:
“Come down, virgin daughter of Babylon, and sit in the dust.
For your days of sitting on a throne have ended.
O daughter of Babylonia, never again will you be
the lovely princess, tender and delicate.
2 Take heavy millstones and grind flour.
Remove your veil, and strip off your robe.
Expose yourself to public view.
3 You will be naked and burdened with shame.
I will take vengeance against you without pity.”
4 Our Redeemer, whose name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
is the Holy One of Israel.
5 “O beautiful Babylon, sit now in darkness and silence.
Never again will you be known as the queen of kingdoms.
6 For I was angry with my chosen people
and punished them by letting them fall into your hands.
But you, Babylon, showed them no mercy.
You oppressed even the elderly.
7 You said, ‘I will reign forever as queen of the world!’
You did not reflect on your actions
or think about their consequences.
8 “Listen to this, you pleasure-loving kingdom,
living at ease and feeling secure.
You say, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other….
Yes…calamities will come upon you,
despite all your witchcraft and magic.
10 “You felt secure in your wickedness.
‘No one sees me,’ you said.
But your ‘wisdom’ and ‘knowledge’ have led you astray,
and you said, ‘I am the only one, and there is no other.’
“Now use your magical charms!
Use the spells you have worked at all these years!
Maybe they will do you some good.
Maybe they can make someone afraid of you.
13 All the advice you receive has made you tired.
Where are all your astrologers,
those stargazers who make predictions each month?
Let them stand up and save you from what the future holds.
14 But they are like straw burning in a fire;
they cannot save themselves from the flame.
You will get no help from them at all;
their hearth is no place to sit for warmth.
15 And all your friends,
those with whom you’ve done business since childhood,
will go their own ways,
turning a deaf ear to your cries.
Daniel 2:47-48 – Recorded by Daniel after he interprets the Babylonian King’s Dream:
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar threw himself down before Daniel and worshiped him, and he commanded his people to offer sacrifices and burn sweet incense before him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Truly, your God is the greatest of gods, the Lord over kings, a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this secret.”
48 Then the king appointed Daniel to a high position and gave him many valuable gifts. He made Daniel ruler over the whole province of Babylon, as well as chief over all his wise men. 49 At Daniel’s request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be in charge of all the affairs of the province of Babylon, while Daniel remained in the king’s court.
Daniel 4: 34-37 – Recorded by Daniel after Babylonian King loses his mind and regains it under God’s power:
34 “After this time had passed, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven. My sanity returned, and I praised and worshiped the Most High and honored the one who lives forever.
His rule is everlasting,
and his kingdom is eternal.
35 All the people of the earth
are nothing compared to him.
He does as he pleases
among the angels of heaven
and among the people of the earth.
No one can stop him or say to him,
‘What do you mean by doing these things?’
36 “When my sanity returned to me, so did my honor and glory and kingdom. My advisers and nobles sought me out, and I was restored as head of my kingdom, with even greater honor than before.
37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.”
Daniel 7:9-13 – Daniel’s prophesy about God the Father giving the Kingdom to Jesus and including all nations in His loving plan:
I watched as thrones were put in place
and the Ancient One sat down to judge.
His clothing was as white as snow,
his hair like purest wool.
He sat on a fiery throne
with wheels of blazing fire,
10 and a river of fire was pouring out,
flowing from his presence.
Millions of angels ministered to him;
many millions stood to attend him.
Then the court began its session,
and the books were opened….
13 As my vision continued that night, I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him. His rule is eternal—it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.
Wow, this is amazing to see the breadth of God’s involvement in History. Also, it’s powerful to think of His hand of love moving in the complexity of exile for Israel, the paganism of Babylon, and somehow working all of this history together for His love, ultimately in Jesus!!
What if God is doing this now in your circumstances too?
Perhaps you’re in the midst of conflict or corruption?
Perhaps you’re feeling far from God or unworthy of His love?
Perhaps your heart is breaking for a friend or relative who doesn’t know Jesus personally?
Bring this to the Lord. His is God of History. He’s God of your heart. And He’s the One who brings love powerfully into complex situations, just like He did that night when His Son was born!
JOY TO THE WORLD:
He rules the world with truth and grace
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness
and wonders of his love,
and wonders of his love,
and wonders, wonders of his love.
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One aspect of our faith that’s neglected in many church conversations (though not at HSCC!) is how God’s creation actually fuels our joy.
I’ve even met people who give themselves to following God just because of their experience of His presence in nature!
For many of us, nature is the most natural place to commune with Him.
And did you know, that the Wise Men were literally led to Jesus by the movement of God through Nature?
How, you ask? They followed Jesus’s star!
They used their skills of astrology (which wasn’t differentiated from astronomy back in that time, like it is today) to discern the location and season of the birth of God’s Son!
Wow, is God really revealing that much through His creation?! Perhaps.
And, surprisingly enough, many of our Christmas carols are full of Joy language.
Check out some of these classic Christmas carol lyrics below and see if you can spot how God’s creation literally join’s the chorus of the angels—declaring that God is here—and especially at Christmas, we emphasize the whole created order arising in praise as their Lord arrives as a baby!
And it would be even better if you’re reading this on your phone or laptop, and could walk outside to see all the good things God has surrounded you with this week.
Read these lyrics afresh with the Lord at your side…
Which lyrics stand out to you?
Do you see the power and wonder of God’s creation in these words?
What’s stirring an inkling of Joy in you as you read?
JOY TO THE WORLD:
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
Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns
Let all their songs employ
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy
No more let sins and sorrows grow
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.
JOYFUL JOYFUL, WE ADORE THEE:
Joyful, joyful, we adore You,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow'rs before You,
Op'ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!
All Your works with joy surround You,
Earth and heav'n reflect Your rays,
Stars and angels sing around You,
Center of unbroken praise;
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flow'ry meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain
Praising You eternally!
Always giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Well-spring of the joy of living,
Ocean-depth of happy rest!
Loving Father, Christ our Brother,
Let Your light upon us shine;
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.
Mortals, join the mighty chorus,
Which the morning stars began;
God's own love is reigning o’er us,
Joining people hand in hand.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife;
Joyful music leads us sunward
In the triumph song of life.
Also, consider this quote by George Macdonald that gives clues to what creation moves us so much:
“For the world is—allow us the homely figure—the human being turned inside out. All that moves in the mind is symbolized in Nature. Or, to use another more philosophical, and certainly not less poetic figure, the world is a sensuous analysis of humanity, and hence an inexhaustible wardrobe for the clothing of human thought.
‘The glory of God is to conceal a thing, but the glory of the king is to find it out,’ says Solomon. ‘As if,’ remarks [Francis] Bacon on the passage, ‘according to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took delight to hide his works, to the end to have them found out; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God’s playfellows in that game.’”
- George MacDonald, A Dish of Orts
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So, we often think of worship as singing, praying—but worship isn’t just those things. The nature of worship is bowing ourselves and our lives before the Lord.
When we say with our heart, our lives, and our actions He is worthy and high above, and placing ourselves, our values, our lives appropriately below Him—this is worship.
In Romans 12.1-3, Paul describes worship as giving over our whole day to day living as a “sacrifice” offered to God. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were almost always burned on the altar.
So, in a similar way, like Jesus did, we place our lives on the alter, but instead of dying, we’re living “on fire,” in His presence.
Did you know this was what the Wise Men did when they saw Baby Jesus?
When the Wise Men show up, their initial reaction to the star at the house where Mary and Baby Jesus were was ecstatic Joy.
But then, when they saw Him…His little feet…His soft cheeks…His small stature…His youth…wow, they bowed in humble worship.
The word worship here is:
Proskyneō, which means…
“[Especially among] the Persians, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence”.
Now these men had every reason to feel self-important.
They were of national significance, even reading cosmic signs, they were prominent in their society, respected, etc.
Yet somehow, this journey toward Joy, and in seeing the Baby. They literally lowered their bodies. The postured themselves in worship before an infant King.
Now, if you read the notes on Joy for Babylon or the Joy of the Nations, you’ll see it was God’s plan to include these “outsiders” the entire time.
And it maybe they heard of the strife and struggle of their Babylonian Kings against Israel’s God, YHWH?
Or perhaps their father’s father’s fathers were mentored by Daniel in the ways of true discernment, prayer, and worship?
Or could it be that they themselves had found such disappointment, defeat, or pain when Babylon fell to King Cyrus of Persia, and they lost their civilization, and their specialty as a Magi in court swept them into forced service for a foreign ruler?
All of this and more has contributed to their arrival at the feet of Baby Jesus…and somehow, in the midst of seeing Him, they respond as Israel ought to have responded.
They bow low.
They recognize His holiness.
His authority.
His influence.
Even as a baby.
They place themselves below. Get in the dust they were made from.
And, agree with God that this Baby is the King, not just of Israel, but of all. And out of worship, pours the treasure of their hearts—laid at the feet of the King.
Where is their reaction striking you right now?
What is it that comes up when you think of these men lowering their rights and privileges? Letting go of their status and control?
Is this wonderful image for you? Or threatening? Or embarrassing?
Is there anything you’re holding onto now that might make it hard to worship like this?
What would it be like to posture your body for worship, even before your heart feels it?
What would you like to lay at Jesus feet right now?
Maybe take a moment to do so in prayer and begin a journey just like these wise magi.
From THE FIRST NOEL:
They looked up and saw a star
Shining in the east beyond them far,
And to the earth it gave great light,
And so it continued both day and night.
And by the light of that same star
Three wise men came from country far;
To seek for a king was their intent,
And to follow the star wherever it went.
This star drew nigh to the northwest,
O'er Bethlehem it took it rest,
And there it did both stop and stay
Right over the place where Jesus lay.
Then entered in those wise men three
Full reverently upon their knee,
and offered there in his presence
Their gold, and myrrh, and frankincense.
Then let us all with one accord
Sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
That hath made heaven and earth of naught,
And with his blood mankind hath bought
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I shared on Sunday how the experience of Joy actually led C.S. Lewis to move from atheism to faith in Jesus as Lord. What an amazing power we can find in Joy!
And the C.S. Lewis story is not a new tale, over and over again, intellectuals (GK Chesterton), scientists (Francis Collins), heretics (Augustine), and persecutors (Apostle Paul), have personally encountered this Jesus—and He rewrites their whole story.
What if Joy, as C.S. Lewis describes it, could rebuild some Joy in you this season?
What is it about Joy that would take someone from unbelief into faith?
How might God want to shift your Joy this season as you step into the tension of Christmas this year?
Well, below, let’s take a look at a few insights from C.S Lewis as he illustrates the beauty, tension, and wonder of Joy. And let his brilliance illuminate the way forward into Joy this Christmas season.
C.S. Lewis calls his experience of the Joy-Ache, Senschuct, which is a German word for Joy that also includes pain, angst and longing:
Senschuct - “Joy is distinct not only from pleasure in general but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.” – Surprised by Joy
All joy (as distinct from mere pleasure, still more amusement) emphasises our pilgrim status; always reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are wantings.
-C. S. Lewis, Letters, 5 November 1959
“From at least the age of six, romantic longing – Sehnsucht – had played an unusually central part in my experience. Such longing is in itself the very reverse of wishful thinking: it is more like thoughtful wishing.”
- C.S. Lewis, Narrative Poems
“In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name.
Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing.
These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.
Here, then, is the desire, still wandering and uncertain of its object and still largely unable to see that object in the direction where it really lies . . . Heaven is, by definition, outside our experience, but all intelligible descriptions must be of things within our experience. The scriptural picture of heaven is therefore just as symbolical as the picture which our desire, unaided, invents for itself . . .
-The Weight of Glory
“The experience is one of intense longing . . . This hunger is better than any other fullness; this poverty better than all other wealth. And thus it comes about, that if the desire is long absent, it may itself be desired, and that new desiring becomes a new instance of the original desire . . . The human soul was made to enjoy some object that is never fully given – nay, cannot even be imagined as given – in our present mode of subjective and spatio-temporal experience.”
-The Pilgrim’s Regress, Preface
“What is universal is . . . the arrival of some message, not perfectly intelligible, which wakes this desire and sets men longing for something East or West of the world; something possessed, if at all, only in the act of desiring it, and lost so quickly that the craving itself becomes craved.”
-The Pilgrim’s Regress
Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning . . . a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again.
-The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words . . . Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction . . . – something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat’s side? Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires . . . you are looking for, watching for, listening for?”
-The Problem of Pain
Below is a dialogue from The Last Battle, the concluding Book in Narnia, when the soldier of the “god”, Tash, who is opposing Aslan, actually encounters the Living Aslan:
Emeth, Servant of Tash -
“Then I fell at [Aslan’s] feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death, for the Lion (who is worthy of all honour) will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the Lion and die than to be Tisroc of the world and live and not to have seen him. But the Glorious One bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, though knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.”
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Now I ended our sermon with a familiar scripture, that “For the Joy set before [Jesus], He endured the cross.”
This is quoted often regarding Jesus’s victory on the cross. Which is amazing! It’s also quoted for our encouragement in gospel proclamation. And for our confidence in His work. All worthy things!
But rarely do we stop to digest what it means about us…about me.
Let me ask you this, what is Jesus’s Joy referring to this passage?
Is it about the gaining His throne? No, He already had that in heaven.
Is it about union with God? No, He already had that before too.
So what was the Joy set before Him?
It’s not a what, but a who…
It had to be something that would bring Him Joy that He didn’t have before, right?
Well, the scriptures attest—that Jesus’s Joy was and is you.
His Joy is us.
We who put your faith in Him.
He went to the cross thinking of us, that is the potency of His love.
And the Father agreed and worked for this too.
This was God the Father’s plan all along—that His children would return to Him.
This was Jesus’s Joy, not to suffer, but to suffer in order to have you with Him at His Father’s side.
And this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, now—He reveals the power of this love in our innermost being.
Whether we know it or not, if we’ve given our lives to Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in our core self, loving us, and loving us, and loving us, and loving us unconditionally.
And when we begin to notice it.
Our heart beats louder—and we can taste just a hint of the Joy for which Jesus went to that cross.
Like Peter writes…
You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.
Yes, the Joy of Jesus reverberates off our souls and echoes in peals of louder and louder joy.
All we have to do is begin to pay attention.
Do you hear it?
Listen! They’re Singing! by Evan Wickham:
Wait
You can hear it
Be still
They appear
Sing all you angel armies
Look
Watch the skies
Let the stars
Fill your eyes
Beautiful angel armies
Hope so real you can feel it grow
Rising high like the tides that flow
As they sing
The birth of our King
God of the angel armies
We welcome the Messiah tonight
Skies announce your arrival
The darkness is banished by light
We rejoice
We rejoice!