Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.

The Christmas season is not the only time when we can experience joy. But there is, for many of us, a special experience of gladness or enjoyment during this time of year. 

It could be related to family traditions, the exchanging of gifts, the abundant food, or a number of other things related to what we do during this season.

For others, it is not a season of joy at all. It is a season of sorrow due to the loss of a loved one in recent years. For some, this was not a happy time of year in the home growing up. 

For some reason, Christmas seems to elevate  both negative and positive emotions. I do not have an answer for why this is. 

I only want to acknowledge that among us are a variety of emotions and we need to be mindful of what others may be experiencing. 

The experience of joy at Christmastime, however, is for all of us. No matter how much you enjoy the festivities or traditions, there is a reason for joy as we approach December 25. 

We will look at the three sections of this one statement the angel made to the shepherds:

“I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.”

Good News

Good news of great joy for all people. 

We have heard these words inside and outside the church for many years. We sing them in songs, we hear them in Christmas concerts and movies. 

It has become a slogan for the Christmas season, which makes it easy to detach from its original meaning.

For most of the world, hearing the angel say good news would not bring the joy and hope that these words truly mean. 

And so, we need a reminder of what this news is, and why it is so good.

In Isaiah, we read about the good news as the coming of God (40:9), the saving reign of God in peace and justice (52:7) on behalf of the outcast (61:1-2).

You who bring good news to Zion, 

go up on a high mountain. 

You who bring good news to Jerusalem, 

lift up your voice with a shout, 

lift it up, do not be afraid; 

say to the towns of Judah, 

“Here is your God!” 

Isaiah 40:9

How beautiful on the mountains 

are the feet of those who bring good news, 

who proclaim peace, 

who bring good tidings, 

who proclaim salvation, 

who say to Zion, 

“Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, 

because the Lord has anointed me 

to proclaim good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 

to proclaim freedom for the captives 

and release from darkness for the prisoners, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor 

and the day of vengeance of our God, 

to comfort all who mourn.

Isaiah 61:1-2

Isaiah 52:7 encompasses the essence of why the news that is being proclaimed by the angel to the shepherds is good. Peace, good tidings, salvation.

It is a message that hostility and conflict will come to an end, the restoration of relationships. Negative experiences of evil, hatred, sickness, and death will no longer be present. The restoration of all things to goodness will bring wholeness and rest

The news is that God will deliver the people from anything that might harm, oppress, or attempt to overpower them. This will all be possible because God himself will reign as King over his kingdom.

This message was given to a nation under oppression, exiled from their homeland. But it is a message for all people. 

As is indicated at the end of the book of Isaiah, God will bring people from all nations and languages to see his glory and experience the peace, good tidings, and salvation that comes with God being our king.

The announcement of good news to the shepherds that night was an echo of these proclamations in Isaiah. 

It is an announcement that the Messiah, the one who will bring about the peace, good tidings, and salvation, has been born. 

It is good news because God, through this child born in Bethlehem, is actively working to fulfill his promise to bring wholeness and rest to all who want it.

While we wait for the completion of this plan, we can have joy.

Great Joy

As I said earlier, this season is not a happy season for all people. But, it can be a joyful season because of this good news.

Joy is an interesting word because we use it in so many different ways:

“Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”

“If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.”

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”

“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”

“The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.”

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.”

“Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.” 

“Christmas is joy, religious joy, an inner joy of light and peace.”

Hearing these quotes may stir up different meanings of joy for each of us. Some of them ring true and could carry us through a difficult time. 

Others sound like a Hallmark card, sentimental, but noting worth building our lives upon.

What does the Bible mean by great joy? It is used frequently in both the Old and New Testament, with several different Hebrew and Greek words that are translated as Joy in English. It is often associated with the celebration that came after victory.

It is closely related to gladness and happiness, although joy is more a state of being than an emotion; a result of choice. One of the fruits of the spirit (Gal 5:22–23). Having joy is part of the experience of being a Christian.

I spoke a few weeks ago about how anger in the Bible is often associated with a burning of the nostrils. Whereas, joy is often associated with the heart. 

As is often the case with anger, joy cannot be contained. It bursts out in the form of laughter, celebration, dance, contributing to the experience of happiness and celebration.

The great joy experienced by those who hear the good news is a sustaining joy. Like peace, it transforms how we experience the good and the bad of life. Like the shepherds, we can trade our fear for joy.

In one of his shorter parables in Matthew 13:44, Jesus speaks of this joy. 

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

This sort of joy causes us to happily trade everything we have in exchange for the treasures given to us through Christ.

Paul speaks of this in Phil. 3:7-8 

“But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”

There is no payment required in order to receive what is offered by God through Christ. We do not need to worry about doing more good things than bad things in order to have the scales weigh in our favour.

However, if you are not able to say with Paul, or with the main in the parable, that everything I have is worth nothing compared to the treasure that God is offering, then you have not understood what God is offering.

The great joy of the good news of the Bethlehem Messiah is that the greatest pleasures of our present situation are but a shadow of what is promised because of his arrival.

If you are wondering whether you can experience it, let’s consider who this joy is for and how it can be yours.

All People

The joy spoken about by the angel to the shepherds, or the joy that the man experienced when he found the treasure in a field, this joy can be had by all people.

If you are lacking joy today, and we were having a conversation about this lack of joy, I wonder if I asked you why, if you would point to your circumstances. 

I do not want to pretend that joy is independent of our circumstances. The Bible is filled with stories and examples of joy being a result of things going the right way. 

But, if you lack joy because of your circumstances, then I would suggest you are seeing only a small picture of what’s really true. This is not to dismiss the reality of what you’re going through.

You may be grieving, or in some sort of trouble, or struggling financially, or in your relationships. These are all experiences that can take away our joy.

But, they are not the whole picture.

There were two quotes in the mix that I read earlier that I think are worth more than the others. 

One is from a Swiss pastor and theologian named Karl Barth and the other from a German pastor and theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. 

Both men were in circumstances that could rob the joy from the best of us.

Barth was deported from Germany when he refused to sign an oath of loyalty to Hitler. The quote, “Joy is the simplest form of gratitude” is attributed to him.

Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and eventually killed for his stance against the Nazis just weeks before Germany surrendered. He wrote in one of his letters while in prison, “Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.” 

There is a stark contrast between someone who is grateful and someone who is ungrateful.

And, it doesn’t seem to matter how much or how little a person has. We can find grateful people who have very little. We can find ungrateful people who have very much.

The problem is not so much our circumstances, but our vision. We are ungrateful because we cannot see what is ours to have.

Barth and Bonhoeffer had a vision beyond their present trouble. They understood what the angel meant by the words, “good news of great joy.”

When we can maintain a vision toward the fulfilment of God’s promises, toward an eternity filled with unending joy, our present circumstances are transformed.

For those who fear to lose what you have because you love it so much, you will fear no longer because what is coming is far greater.

For those who are experiencing unbearable loss or trouble, you will grieve and despair no longer because what is coming is far greater. 

If you cannot imagine it, be patient. Diligently seek this vision of the good news of great joy. Seek it more than you seek anything else and you will see it.

On December 19, 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote his final poem in a letter to his fiance, Maria. 

By kindly powers surrounded, peaceful and true,

wonderfully protected with consolation dear, 

safely, I dwell with you this whole day through 

and surely into another year. 

Though from the old our hearts are still in pain, 

while evil days oppress with burdens still, 

Lord, give to our frightened souls again, 

salvation, and thy promises fulfill. 

And should’st thou offer us the bitter cup, resembling 

sorrow, filled to the brim and overflowing, 

we will receive it thankfully, without trembling, 

from thy hand so good and ever-loving. 

But if it be thy will again to give 

joy of this world and bright sunshine, 

then in our minds we will past times relive 

and all our days be wholly thine. 

Let candles burn, both warm and bright, 

which to our darkness thou hast brought, 

and, if that can be, bring us together in the light, 

thy light shines in the night unsought. 

When we are wrapped in silence most profound, 

may we hear that song most fully raised 

from all the unseen world that lies around 

and thou art by all thy children praised. 

By kindly powers protected wonderfully, 

confident, we wait for come what may. 

Night and morning, God is by us, faithfully 

and surely at each new born day.