The Joy of the King

Bobby Howell

Advent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted 6 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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The Joy of the King

The Advent of King Jesus refocuses our thoughts on joy. We sing many songs about joy. When most people think of joy, we think of it as an emotion. The man of your dreams proposes. The manager calls to tell you you received the promotion. The IRS tells you that you do not owe any taxes. Or, perhaps border-lining the impossible: your wife tells you that you were right.

In these examples, joy is an emotional response to something that has happened.

Although these are not necessarily wrong, they do not capture the biblical idea of joy. Rather than being an emotion based on the changes of circumstances, biblical joy is a state of being based upon an acknowledgement of truth. Or, to use Paul’s shorthand—it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

What is the acknowledge of truth to which Christians can adhere and thus experience the state of joy? Advent reminds us of the truth: we find our joy in the King. This is demonstrated by the abundance of Christmas hymns.

The hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” has as its chorus,

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,

Shall come to Thee, O Israel!

The hymn, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus,” has in this in the first verse,

Dear desire of every nation,

Joy of every longing heart.

And for the sake of not spending our entire sermon reciting hymns, we will end with the title of one hymn, “Joy to the World! The Lord is Come.”

As we come to the third Sunday of Advent, we will see that...

The King has come to share His joy—through love, life, and eternity

How will we see this? By examining the state of being as a result of this King. The first is the connection to the King, that is, the means by which we who were subjects of the devil become, through God’s initiation and sovereign work. Then, as our come to know our state of being as the King’s subject, His life brings our lives joy. Finally, as we look forward to eternity, we realize we have a joy that will endure for as long as God remains God, which is to say, forever.

I. The Joy of the King’s Love- Isaiah 35

In our Advent reading, we read, “The third candle indicates that the only lasting Joy to be found in life on earth is through Christ. All other joy is fleeting and does not last.”

We cannot begin to grasp the fringes of joy until we are loved by the King. The King sets His love on us in eternity past, when no physical atom existed (Eph. 1:3–10). We see a different perspective from Isaiah 35, but one that I want to highlight, even if just briefly.

Notice, first, the absence and sadness of life (or, joy), due to the separation from the King

35:1- wilderness, dry lan, desert

35:3- weak hands, feeble knees

35:4- anxious heart

35:5- blind, deaf

35:6- lame, mute, wilderness, desert

35:7- burning sand, thirsty ground, haunt of jackals, grass

35:8- unclean

35:9- lions, ravenous beast

35:10- sorrow, sighing

It is only after beholding the coming King that these states are reversed.

35:1- glad, rejoice, blossom

35:2- blossom, rejoice with joy and singing, see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God

35:3- strength, firmness

35:4- strength, peace, salvation

35:5- sight, hearing

35:6- leap like a deer, singing for joy

35:7-Pool, water

Why should the King shower us with His love? Is it due to something in us, or something that we have done? No, it is because His mercies endure forever. Or, to phrase it like Thomas Watson,

Thomas Watson, “It is out of indulgence, favour, and regard to us....God knows we have slippery hearts, therefore he will have a covenant to bind us.”

“He will have a covenant to bind us...” these words bring us to the Joy of the King’s Life. Or, to connect them more concretely—the King’s love gives us the King’s life.

Keep in mind our definition of biblical joy–biblical joy is a state of being based upon an acknowledgement of truth. We acknowledge the unimaginable truth that the King loves, which brings us joy. But it is through that love that we receive life.

II. The Joy of the King’s Life

This King brings joy by bringing life.

To connect this thought with the rest of Scripture, let us remember that in Adam’s failure to obey His Creator in Gen. chapter 3, the result said disobedience would be death.

We know from the biblical text that physical death did not claim Adam until he reached 930 years.

The death of which God spoke included physical death, but more than that, as the apostle Paul tells us, it included spiritual death (Eph. 2:1–3).

As we think about the Bible as a whole, we remember glimpses (or, shadows) of the Coming One who would deliver God’s people from their enemies.

At his birth

the angels of heaven would cry out with joy, Luke 2:8–20.

the wise men rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, Matt. 2:1–12.

biblical joy is a state of being based upon an acknowledgement of truth

Near his death

the crowds rejoiced at his coming- Luke 19:37–40 (remember they have the wrong understanding of the Messiah’s work)

the thief on the cross- Luke 23:43 (no mention of joy directly, but can you imagine the joy biblical joy is a state of being based upon an acknowledgement of truth)

Joy at his death

“When Christ was dead, then Beelzebub, did triumph, and thus speak,

I conquer’d have unto the Grave, God’s Christ of mighty State.

‘Tis I am King, and triumphing, Who will my Subjects be?

And Christ deny, whom I defy, He’s overcome you see.

Who would serve him, a conquer’d one?

Obey me, ‘tis no sin:

Cast off his Name, ‘tis horrid shame

To own one dead your King.

What Revel-rout in Hell throughout,

When they thought all was won, and Christ laid low, see how they crow, in Hopes that all’s their own.

Now Lucifer ascends his Chair, and mounts his gloomy Throne:

The hellish guard flock round the Lord, and vaunt, he’s King alone.

Now the black King began to sing, Although in Flames array’d;

And thus began the hellish Son, when to his peers He said;

Dominions, Thrones, and Powers unknown, I claim all as my Right:

I’ve gained the Field, Jesus did yield, and Hs is conquered quite.

I do not fear him call’d the Heir, Immortal some him thought;

But now he’s dead, he’s gone and fled, and ne’r to life be brought.

Hercules Collins, a Particular Baptist in the 17th century, penned those words.

While Beelzebub with his black Club,

Did vaunt, yea, scoff and boast;

Came starting in the powerful King,

and Guards from God of Hosts.

This glorious Guard surrdong the Lord,

Like warlike Angels stand,

To smite to hell great Belial,

and all against Him band.

Who is this here doth domineer,

And boast of victory,

Over God’s Son, the holy One,

Who lives although did die?

I have the keys of hell and death

It was the love of the King, planned before the foundation of the world, that brought us the life of the King, ironically through His death and joy-giving resurrection.

biblical joy is a state of being based upon an acknowledgement of truth—the truth that we enjoy the King’s love through the King’s life—His incarnation, life, death, and resurrection.

It is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4.

III. The Joy of the King’s Eternity- Phil. 1:21; Luke 23:43

Our last point is the culmination of the King’s love and life—the King’s eternity.

There is unimaginable joy in the King now—Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

biblical joy is a state of being based upon an acknowledgement of truth—for the present

There is unimaginable joy in the King then—Luke 23:43 “And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.””

Paradise echoes the Garden of Eden (a paradise on earth) and a host of messianic prophecies and the glorious new creation spoken about in both the Old and New Testaments (Isa. 51:3; Ezek. 28:13; 31:8–9).

The Puritans maintained a “two-worldly view of life,” Joel Beeke and Mark Jones write.

“Unlike modern Christians, the Puritans believed that you should have heaven ‘in your eye’ the whole time you are walking on earth.”—Joel Beeke and Mark Jones

Colossians 3:1–3 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Christmas is a wonderful time to remember the King’s joy shared through His love, life, and eternity.