Advent: God's Rejoicing Over Us

So we are in the season of Advent.

So maybe you've been around church and you know what that means.

If you're new to church, it just means we're in four weeks of expectation leading up to Christmas.

This Sunday, this third Sunday in Advent, is known as a Sunday of rejoicing.

It's an odd text to read on a Sunday of rejoicing, wasn't it?

We'll make sense of it.

We have to first begin back in the Old Testament book of Zephaniah.

The story here is King Manasseh led Judah into idolatry.

Then his son Amon comes and takes power, becomes king.

And then just after two years of being king, Amon's assassinated.

This is the soap opera of the Bible that we get.

Then Josiah becomes king.

At age eight, he becomes king.

He becomes king of a people that are in full-on rebellion to the ways of God.

But at age 16, Josiah's in the temple, kind of like an Indiana Jones scene.

He discovers a scroll of the law and he begins to reform his people.

Now it's during this time, all this upheaval, that Zephaniah speaks to the people as a prophet.

So their lives are a mess.

Jerusalem is about to fall, and this prophet, he first declares the beginning of Zephaniah, if you read through that little book in the Old Testament, he first declares judgment on the people for how they've lived, judgment over their sin.

But the judgment is in preparation for the word of grace, as it always is.

And then here's the climax of the book, the reason we rejoice today.

Zephaniah 3, 16 and 17.

On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be Cheer up, Zion.

Don't be afraid, for the Lord your God is living among you.

He is a mighty Savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness.

With his love, he will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Now that's the New Living Translation version.

Out of that we get point number one.

We are saved and quieted.

Like quieted in our souls.

We're saved and quieted by God's mighty and lavish love.

So the ESV takes that same idea of calm your fears in verse 17.

The ESV says, He will quiet you by his love.

What a beautiful picture.

I mean, what, like what if, what if that pain, you know it's there?

It's really deep.

The sorrow, the thing that drives so many other things, but you don't talk about it to anybody.

But if you touch it like a little bit, it can almost feel like you're suffocating.

What if that pain?

What if that sorrow, right?

The one that gets triggered, right?

Maybe you hadn't ever told anybody but hear the song and it sends you back to the pain, the sorrow.

You see that thing, you see the person.

What if that pain could be calmed?

Be quieted by his love?

I can remember 10 years ago, our oldest two daughters, here's a picture of us.

It was 10 years ago.

Here's a picture of me.

My oldest two daughters, they were younger at the time.

Our babies, they were in the children's ministries.

Back when I worked at a different church, there they are.

They're about this age right here.

This is about 10 years ago.

And I was working at a church in Atlanta.

We had Wednesday night, you know, Wednesday night stuff, right?

Like, you know, different stuff going on.

And they went to children's ministry.

We had dinner, we had we had a prayer service.

And by the time everything was over, it was like 7:30, 7:45, and bedtime, that's right at bedtime, right?

And we pick them up, they'd be entertained enough through the church while you're walking out, but by the time you wrestle them into that car seat, you know, 17 buckles that you're cussing at, and you pull out, like everything is starting to fall apart.

It's just like, can we stay married on the drive home?

That's the goal.

Stay married, stay married.

Driving down I-75, and we the rear view mirror, you know, you don't keep the rear view mirror on the traffic.

You tilt it, right?

You tilt it so you can see your two little kids, their eyes are starting to shut, and the the more the pilots come down, the higher up Taylor Swift goes on the radio, just crank it higher and higher, and then they start to fall asleep.

This would happen every single week.

It doesn't matter if it's January and it's icy rain.

The windows will come down on I-75 South.

Icy rain, pelting them in the face, right?

Because of this, you're about to ruin my two selfish hours of television watching.

That's what these two little, those cute, cute, they're cute.

Don't let them trick you.

They won't steal stuff from you.

So windows are down, Taylor Swift is cranked up, we're just trying to get home, right?

It's a battle.

Finally, we get home, no bads, you know, change the diapers, throw on the pajamas, you lay them in their bed.

Safe, right?

Pull a comforter up.

Give them their lovey.

Kiss them, pray for them.

And then one of the most wonderful moments of parenthood is when you walk out of that room.

Finally, everything's okay.

They are at peace.

You you are at peace, which you're pretty sure they're they're gonna fall asleep.

Their fears are calmed, our fears are calmed, the house is quiet.

You are quieted.

They've been quieted.

You know that.

That little taste, right?

Like the taste of being quieted.

Man, I want more of that.

Like for my heart, where there that that that sorrow, I told you about all of it, but that sorrow, that pain, the thing that can just get you all bunched up for that to be quieted.

Would you dare?

Would you dare on rejoicing Sunday to go to that place, that sin, that shame, that guilt, that sorrow, that woundedness?

It's underneath everything else, it's underneath like the churchy stuff we do, it's underneath faking, it's underneath coping, it's underneath escapism, it's underneath religion, it's under all that, it's driving everything else.

What if right there you were limitlessly loved by God?

You'd be willing to face that.

You'd know you were forgiven if there was forgiveness needed.

An active wound could become a sacred wound.

Now we go to Luke 3.

Remember the context from last week.

This wild man preacher, John the Baptist, is preaching, he's calling people to repentance of the heart.

So not a religious repentance about how much you can do and can you get your act together?

It's about your heart turning toward God.

And here's our gospel text for today, Luke 3, 7 through 9.

I'll reread what I already read.

He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, you broad vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.

For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.

Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire.

How is this rejoicing, right?

How's that?

How is that rejoicing Sunday?

Point number two is this bearing fruit is response to our repentance, and it's inside of and empowered by God's grace.

It's all of that.

We need all of that.

Another way to say it is this our obligation for obedience in the gospel has become our delight.

Imagine if that transformation happened for you.

John says, We love.

We live out of love because we've been loved.

Then in verse 10, the crowds ask John the Baptist, what then should we do?

He told us all this, repent, you know, get, you know, oh, thrown in the fire.

What should we do?

John goes on to say, well, share your clothing, your food, stop taking advantage of people and stealing.

Okay?

Great.

But John doesn't tell us how we change.

He just tells us to change.

John doesn't have a perfectly worked-out theology of grace.

He doesn't even have a New Testament.

He doesn't have Paul.

He hasn't seen the life of Jesus play out.

He's just pointing to Jesus.

He knows enough to point, is what John knows.

Luke 3, 15 through 18.

As the people were in expectation, all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ.

John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with the water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.

Again, that sounds scary.

It's rejoicing Sunday.

And then the last verse says, Good news.

That's good news.

So what does this mean?

Verse 17.

Now, sphere inducing verse 17 for sure is actually our joy.

Because Jesus came and took the threshing.

See, Jesus took the threshing.

Jesus took the unquenchable fire, so we might become the stalks of wheat that bear fruit.

This week I read an article, The Top Images of 2021.

Here's the picture that stuck out to me as I was thinking about this morning.

Maybe you remember this storyline this year.

That's the Suez Canal, connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Seas through Egypt.

Huge passageway for tankers.

Huge passageway.

This tanker turns sideways, rams into the side, blocks the canal.

Hundreds and hundreds of tankers are just backing up.

It's stuck.

It needs outside help.

It doesn't matter how much power that tanker has.

That tanker has tremendous power, but it doesn't matter.

It has to have outside help.

So Egyptian, Dutch, and Italian tugboats pull it free.

It's an image for us.

No matter how strong you are, some of you are so strong, great, fantastic.

Some of you are disciplined, wonderful.

You're still a tanker stuck sideways.

We need outside help when it comes to the condition of sin, that we're just resistant to grace.

We're resistant to that.

Even our motives, if you evaluate your motives, your motives aren't perfect, you're our mind.

That's what it means that we're sinners in need of grace.

Man, when this grace comes in, God's love to us is limitless and it's not conditioned, it is powerful.

To go to that place of pain, that sorrow.

The one you're not talking about.

It's powerful.

You know this interpersonally, right?

You have some pain.

You have some issue with somebody.

I don't know what it is.

Something, she said something, he did something, something happened, there was a wound, something, you're living in pain, you're a little resentful, maybe you're bitter, you're you're clung up about it.

You know the feeling?

And then they call.

You're nervous.

And they so vulnerably just say, I need to apologize to you.

I'm so sorry.

I love you so much.

I'm so sorry I acted like that.

And all of a sudden, what what happens inside of me?

You get freed up.

This is how outside love works.

You get freed up by love.

Fleming Rutledge.

She was an episcopal priest, brilliant writer.

She reminds us how repentance relates to our growth.

If I am told over and over to repent, to change, to orient my life to God, nothing will ever happen.

I will cling to the Gucci luggage, not that I could afford it, and the earthly status symbols more desperately than ever.

I don't need to hear exhortations to repent.

I need power from outside myself to make me different.

A power from outside is coming.

A power that is able to make a new creation out of people like us, stones like us, people who have no capacity of ourselves to save ourselves.

The power that is coming is not our power.

Not the power of our deeds, our inner strength, our spiritual disciplines, or our faith, or even our repentance.

It is God's power that gives good deeds and inner strength and spiritual discipline and faith and repentance.

Isn't that relieving?

That it's not even your repentance and your faith, it's God's power that creates your repentance and your faith.

By grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ's work alone.

See, we're more like Paul than we are like Jesus.

Because you gave your life to Jesus, and a month went by, or a year, or five years, or 15 years, and then you did realize you didn't change as much as you thought you would.

You changed some.

You had some amazing deliverance in some areas, you grew in godliness, but you're discovering more and more stuff that was messed up about you.

We're more like Paul than we are like Jesus.

Or you're just worn out trying to pretend like you're not like Paul and that you are like Jesus.

We need Jesus.

But we're like Paul.

What a wretched sinner I am.

All this stuff going on is I want to do one thing and then I end up doing the other, and I shouldn't do that, but I do that.

Man, I need Jesus.

See, we don't pursue a changed life.

I know that sounds crazy in church.

We don't pursue a changed life.

No, no, no, no.

We live in greater and greater gaze on Christ, who forgives, heals, and declares righteous.

We rejoice where John is appointing us.

We don't stay just with John the Baptist in this passage.

No, he's pointing us ahead to Jesus.

And then Paul helps us understand Jesus, doesn't he?

Paul says in Titus that grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness.

And then look at this verse.

I read this work this week in my devotion.

Listen to who is doing the work in this verse.

It won't be on the screen.

Just listen.

Listen to the nature of the one doing the work.

1 Thessalonians 5.23.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.

And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now back to Zephaniah 3.17.

For the Lord your God is living among you.

He is a mighty Savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness, with his love.

He will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful psalms.

So point number three, last point.

We grow in godliness without condemnation.

As we are rooted in God's saving, God's delight, and God's rejoicing over us.

It's from there the Holy Spirit works in us to create any of this bearing of fruit or growth in godliness.

Someone singing over you.

What a picture Zephaniah gives us of intimacy.

It's powerful, right?

You rock your little one to sleep and you sing just gently into her ear.

They close their eyes and they feel safe.

Or maybe you remember the scene from 1998.

Adam Sandler's the wedding singer.

Very profound scene.

Profound movie.

A lot of times the wildness of the gospel is more seen outside the church than in the church.

And you go, a lot of times we have to go to counselors to get gospel.

Or go to AA, go to an AA meeting.

Or Adam St.

La Romantic Comedy.

It's very possible.

Because Robbie's the wedding singer.

I'll ruin it.

You had like 24 years or something, right?

I'll just ruin it.

Robbie's the wedding singer.

And he's left at the altar by his fiance.

It's just tragic.

There's his pain.

He's gonna live out of this pain the rest of the movie.

But he falls in love with Julia, Drew Barrymore, who's just so wonderful, endearing.

So endearing.

More tragic, romantic comedy events happen, they just can't quite get together.

It just unfolds over time.

And you think, oh, it's not gonna happen.

Finally, Drew Barrymore is on a plane to go get married.

Some putts, just like the putts of the movies.

And you're like, oh, she's gonna go marry him.

This is just so awful, right?

But the great thing about the romantic comedy is the ark, the redemptive arc, you know it's coming, right?

So profound.

Robbie gets on the plane.

You remember the scene?

Yes.

That's right.

And he sings this.

It's not Shakespeare, by the way.

I mean, it's not what is about to happen.

I'm not about to read like Shakespeare or Alden.

I mean, this is Sandler.

Okay, here's Sandler.

I want to make you smile whenever you're sad, carry you around when your arthritis is bad.

All I want to do is grow old with you.

I'll miss you.

Kiss you, give you my coat when you are cold, need you, feed you, even let you hold the remote control.

That's too far.

That's too far.

So let me do the dishes in our kitchen sink.

Put you to bed when you've had too much to drink.

Oh, I could be the man who grows old with you.

I want to grow old with you.

Not Shakespeare.

That's all we want to hear.

Somebody would love us.

Like as we are, and just want to be for us and stay with us.

It's powerful.

The only time somebody's singing over somebody else isn't.

I mean, just think about it.

Maybe you sung over somebody, maybe a child.

Maybe to your sweet someone.

It's intimate.

It's powerful.

Wow.

I mean, he must really be he must really love you and delight in you and like you, right?

In our sin and our brokenness.

I mean, their city's about to fall.

Zephaniah just blasted them with judgment, but the word of grace follows.

Judgment always leads us to grace.

And that is the wild pursuing, forceful, transformative power and love of Jesus for us to know.

So, church, God says, In Christ, in Christ, I sing over you.

I am mighty to save.

I delight in you.

I forget, I forgive it all.

I forgive all your sin and I deem you righteous.

It's the work of the cross.

And I can calm your fears and quiet you.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you that Jesus is enough for our fear, for that pain we have not talked about yet.

For the sorrow over our own sin.

Thank you that Jesus is enough for the forgiveness of all our sin.

Thank you that Jesus is enough for all the righteousness we need.

Thank you that the gospel is enough not just to save us, but to begin to sanctify us.

May we root deeper and deeper into the great wealth of the identity we have as your beloved children in Jesus, that our lives might honor you.

As we got the beautiful baptism symbol this morning, that we are buried with Christ in baptism and we are raised to walk in a newness of life, that we are covered by you.

Teach us what it means to walk with you in grace.

Allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us.

May our lives honor you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.