GETTING FROM GOOD NEWS TO GREAT JOY (1 OF 3)
by Craig Smith
Scripture: Revelation 12:15
This content is part of a series.
Getting From Good News to Great Joy (1 of 3)
Series: Christmas
Craig Smith
Revelation 12:15
Introduction Well it’s the third week of Advent and traditionally, the theme of the third week of Advent is joy. Probably not a big surprise, because joy’s a common theme at Christmas, right? We sing ‘‘joy to the world’’, we sing ‘‘a weary world rejoices. And there’s a good reason for that: the birth of Jesus is supposed to be a tremendous source of joy. After all, the angel that appeared to the shepherds at the first Christmas said, ‘‘ 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.10 But the angel said to them, ‘‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. (Lk. 2:8-10). Now, why is that? Why is the good news of the birth of Jesus supposed to cause great joy? Well, first, because it means God’s paying attention. Second, it means God is for us. Third, it means our sin isn’t our sentence. Fourth, it means our pain isn’t permanent. Fifth, it means that peace is our destiny. But the reality is that we often find ourselves in circumstances where there’s a gap between the good news and great joy. We often find ourselves in circumstances where bad news seems to cancel out the good news. Where the bad news makes it really hard to get from the good news to the great joy. Maybe you’re in one of those places right now. To be really honest with you, I’m kind of in one of those places. I’ve had a rough week. My dad’s been fighting cancer for 22 years, but we just found out he has another, much more aggressive cancer and he probably has less than a year to live. So this is probably our last Christmas with him and that’s hard. And then, right after we got that news, my mom, my dad and my sister all came down with COVID. My mom and sister are doing ok, but my dad was hospitalize ...
Series: Christmas
Craig Smith
Revelation 12:15
Introduction Well it’s the third week of Advent and traditionally, the theme of the third week of Advent is joy. Probably not a big surprise, because joy’s a common theme at Christmas, right? We sing ‘‘joy to the world’’, we sing ‘‘a weary world rejoices. And there’s a good reason for that: the birth of Jesus is supposed to be a tremendous source of joy. After all, the angel that appeared to the shepherds at the first Christmas said, ‘‘ 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.10 But the angel said to them, ‘‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. (Lk. 2:8-10). Now, why is that? Why is the good news of the birth of Jesus supposed to cause great joy? Well, first, because it means God’s paying attention. Second, it means God is for us. Third, it means our sin isn’t our sentence. Fourth, it means our pain isn’t permanent. Fifth, it means that peace is our destiny. But the reality is that we often find ourselves in circumstances where there’s a gap between the good news and great joy. We often find ourselves in circumstances where bad news seems to cancel out the good news. Where the bad news makes it really hard to get from the good news to the great joy. Maybe you’re in one of those places right now. To be really honest with you, I’m kind of in one of those places. I’ve had a rough week. My dad’s been fighting cancer for 22 years, but we just found out he has another, much more aggressive cancer and he probably has less than a year to live. So this is probably our last Christmas with him and that’s hard. And then, right after we got that news, my mom, my dad and my sister all came down with COVID. My mom and sister are doing ok, but my dad was hospitalize ...
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