Introduction
The First Songs of Christmas.
When we hear songs of Christmas we may think of Hark the Herald Angels sing.
Maybe Joy to the World.
Maybe Frosty the Snowman.
Maybe Rudolph, Santa Claus is coming to Town, or even Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer.
But these are not the songs we will look at in this series of sermons.
No, those songs are a mix of worship, fun, and just goofy but all are written by a human.
These songs are from a person but are in Scripture so it is God’s word.
These songs we will look at are from people or angels but all are about praise to Christ who was or will be born.
The first one we will examine is from Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptizer. An elderly woman who was well beyond the years of childbearing was made able to bear a child because God works in amazing ways.
She had much to celebrate with this miraculous birth yet even her amazing blessing was overshadowed by something far greater.
She did not let herself get in the way of what was more important. We will see in a minute that she placed the more important far above anything she had going on.
Which leads to a question I want you to think about as we go through this Scripture.
This question is, “Do you celebrate and honor the more important over you, or do you allow you to be celebrated more than the more important?”
The more important is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was a farmer named Ralph L. Woods who was unhappy about the yield of his crops. He heard of a highly recommended new seed corn and promptly bought some. This new seed produced a crop that was so abundant his astonished neighbors asked him to sell them a portion of the new seed. But the farmer, afraid that he would lose a profitable competitive advantage, refused.
The second year the new seed did not produce as good a crop, and when the third-year crop was still worse it dawned upon the farmer that his prize corn was being pollinated by the inferior grade of corn from his neighbors’ fields.
Here we see a farmer celebrating himself over the more important. Do you know what the more important was?
It was all the crops receiving the same thing so his crop could stay abundant. He hoarded the good seed to his destruction.
When we celebrate the goodness God gives us over the God who gave we do the same thing. God blesses us so we can bless others because we are to glorify Him in all things.
This is money, time, talent, and love toward others. But if we are to into ourselves we will not celebrate the more important over the less of ourselves.
In this Scripture from Luke 1:39-45 we see Elizabeth show us how to celebrate the more important by being Amazed by Christ. The text reads…
39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Luke 1:39–45 ESV
Mary immediately went to see her elder relative who was pregnant. Mary was an obedient servant of the Lord. Look back at verse 38 Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
She was sold out for the Lord and was to become pregnant as an unmarried but betrothed woman and she accepted this on faith because it was from the Lord.
She faced possible stoning or rejection and shame for this but she was sold out for the Lord.
So the fact that she went to Elizabeth immediately after the angel told her of her pregnancy to rejoice with her because she knew it was from God too, is not surprising.
She has put herself out two times in just a few short verses. She accepted this task faithfully from the Lord and now goes to celebrate with her relative over her God-given pregnancy.
A faithful woman who upon arriving hears a different greeting than expected.
At Mary’s greeting the baby leaped in Elizabeth and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In this we see that Elizabeth demonstrated…
Joy Over Christ
She could have taken the adoration that comes from being pregnant. She could have allowed Mary to ohhh and awww over her, but she was ecstatic over her coming to her.
She was because the more important was in Mary.
Yes, Elizabeth received an amazing blessing with her child.
Yes, Elizabeth was extremely blessed by the Lord having the amazing blessing of giving birth to the greatest prophet and man born of women.
But she demonstrated that her joy is over the more important in the womb of her younger relative.
This is a culture shift because the younger always honored the older rather than the other way around.
She praised not Mary, but the child in her.
I ask, where is your joy?
Is it in some blessing you have received?
Is it in the money in your pocket or account?
Is it in your job?
Your clothes?
Your car?
Your house?
Your vacations?
Your children?
Your position?
You may be saying no to all these and thinking it is in Christ, but is it really in Him?
Do you give to the Lord above what you desire? Do you allow purchases to surpass what you could have done for the Lord?
Do you allow fear of losing something material to overshadow your love of God?
Do you spend all your money on things that will fade and disappear because it is fun rather than using it for the glory of the Lord?
Joy, Joy indescribable unfathomable Joy because of Christ will cause you to leap and forget yourself and the things in your life.
Joy is not in anything of this world but in Christ alone.
Joy is only made possible by Christ.
The world only offers fading and dying things that bring momentary joy and happiness.
The world takes joy if all your joy is in money, material, or people.
Truthfully, the world is against joy because the world is against Christ.
Joy, true Joy is in Christ alone. Joy is in the more important over the less important.
Now, do not misunderstand what I am saying here.
I am not saying that we should not enjoy the creation. We should enjoy what God has given us, but we do not need to make it be the end all of our joy.
It is here for our joy and happiness but that is only possible when we honor the creator over the creation.
If we allow the materiality of this creation to overshadow our Joy in the Lord or Joy Over Christ, then we are not in Joy but in the World and seeking the World to give us Joy.
Elizabeth had every right to celebrate and rejoice over her blessing.
She was old, barren, and disgraced in that world because she had not had a child.
She had all the right in the world to rejoice over what she had, but she gave her Joy to the Lord because He is above all things. C
Christ is the reason for Joy and happiness. Nothing else can do that for us. Only Him.
If you think holding onto the worldly will give you Joy, you will be disappointed and depressed in the long run.
Only Christ can give joy and peace because He is the Messiah, the creator of it all. He can do far more abundantly above anything we could ever imagine.
When you have the joy in the Lord that Elizabeth demonstrated you too will then allow yourself to have a major…
Celebration of Christ
Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Why is it that you the one chosen to carry the Lord, Christ, come see me?
Worship, praise, exaltation of the Lord and Him coming to us will ultimately follow joy.
We are joyous over the Lord and then we exclaim that joy because we cannot contain it anymore.
Like a child on Christmas day opening a gift and they see it is something they wanted all year, they yell out and rejoice over the gift.
You become the greatest because you gave them something that was so amazing.
Joy becomes worship and praise. It becomes a celebration.
Nothing in the world can make us celebrate like knowing Jesus.
I mean KNOWING Jesus.
You can know about someone but to Know someone means you know who they are.
Most everyone in this room knows about Sam Elliot. We know his movies and maybe a few things about him, but I bet few if any Know him on a personal level.
By this I mean a friend who speaks to him daily.
This is the difference in knowing about and KNOWING. When we know someone we are intimately connected with them either by a close friendship, relationship, or familial bond.
In Christ you have all the above. We are family because we are children of God through Christ.
We are friends of Christ because friends know what the friend does, Christ said in the Gospels.
And we are in a relationship with the Lord Jesus because we are involved in the intimate details of His life.
This is reason to celebrate. We have Jesus and all other things, even a miraculous pregnancy, pale in comparison.
Jesus is the reason for Joy.
Jesus is the reason for happiness of any kind.
Jesus is the reason for celebration.
He is worthy of our worship and we WE have been granted access to Him.
We should respond as Elizabeth did here when she said, “why is this granted to me?”
Why me Lord? Why did you save me?
We are not worthy? We are not Good?
We are still struggling with loving you more than the things of this world?
We do not give all of ourselves to you?
We do not serve you as we should regularly?
Yet, you still give us more than we should get.
You do not give us what we deserve but what you have decided to give us.
Who are we to not exclaim in Joyous Celebration and Worship to you over what You have allowed us.
Which You Came To Us.
You came into the world and drew us and came to us to save us.
Who are we not to rejoice and celebrate this in all of our lives?
Elizabeth shows us how to worship and celebrate Christ above all.
Why am I granted this?
This shows that we recognize we are not worthy of Him but we celebrate the fact He came to us.
We acknowledge our failings and thank Him for coming to us.
We admit our failures and celebrate that He came anyway.
We do not hold onto what we have been blessed with when the blesser comes. We celebrate Him above it all because it is all here and ours because of Him.
He is the reason for Joy and He is more than worthy of our worship.
He is because He is a faithful savior and one we can maintain a faith in.
We see that Elizabeth also demonstrates a strong…
Faith in Christ
She says blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord in verse 45.
She was told the same and she believed. She was pregnant but she still gives praise the Lord.
She does this because the Lord is faithful.
He told Zechariah the husband of Elizabeth that their child would make the way of the Lord. She knew the Lord was coming and she believed.
She had faith from the Lord and to the Lord. This faith is not the faith for salvation but for knowledge the Lord will deliver, that He will do all He has said, it is a trust and comfort in Him who gives that.
Her faith and knowledge came from the Spirit filling her.
Guess what? We have that same Spirit in Us.
We can have strong faith in the Lord over anything else.
We can know that He has promised great treasure in Heaven for us if we faithfully follow and serve Him.
He has told us that everything here will fade and be destroyed.
We can trust Him and rest in Him over this all.
We see in His word that the poor and downtrodden can be happy and joyous because He will deliver them and bless them.
Our faith in the Lord will be seen in our actions and service to Him.
When we are full of faith we will not hoard and worry.
We will not strongly desire the things of this world.
We will place ourselves on second, third, or further back seat.
We will allow the Lord to use us and we will celebrate Him over anything.
We will not continue to cling to and desire the things we have been blessed with but will take our blessings and bless others with them.
When we have this faith that the Lord will fulfill, and He will because He does not lie as Num. 23:19; 2 Tim. 2:13; Titus 1:2; and Heb. 6:18 tell us.
He is faithful and will deliver us into glory and grace.
We are not promised greatness here but we try for it usually to the neglect of the Lord.
The world and all that is in it is passing away John has told us in 1 John. It is dying and will not sustain us.
We are meant for glory ith the Lord and that glory is more important than any glory or goodies here.
Our faith in the Lord will help us to give away things, pass up things, not use our blessing for us alone. We will have more Joy in the Lord and celebrate Him in Worship more when our faith is strong in Him.
We can test Him and allow Him to work more when we are willing to be more sacrificial for Him. That is showing strong faith in Him to do all He has said He will do.
We can be like this if we allow the Spirit to fill us and use us to His glory.
We can have Joy when we allow our joy to be found in Christ alone.
We can celebrate more when we allow our celebrations to come from a strong faith in the Lord because our Joy is in Him alone.
Again, Elizabeth had much to celebrate and rejoice in with her pregnancy, yet she pushed that aside and had joy, celebration, in the Lord because her faith was in Him alone and nothing else.
We can be just as joyous if we will but rest completely in the Lord and nothing else.
Blessed to Bless
Joy
Celebration
and Faith.
We can all have each of these. We can rejoice in the Lord in all things because He is a fulfilling God.
I want to give a couple suggestions where we can allow Him to bring us joy, celebration, and strengthen our faith.
- In any blessing you receive, be willing to give it right back. Celebrate God with His amazing blessing by being a blessing. Elizabeth celebrated the child in Mary above her own miracle Baby. She gave the blessing back here.
- Worship God by being astounded that He would visit you. He has blessed you with a job, family, home, clothes, food, and many other things. Be in awe that He has done this. Do not fall into the trap that it is because of you that you have this. It is not it is all from Him. How? He gave you the abilities and gifting or the intellect. He did that and you used it wisely but He gave them to you. Worship Him and give back to Him what He has given you.
- Trust Him. When you doubt, go to Him. When you think I cannot make this work, go to Him. When you are clinging to the worldly blessings and afraid to let some go, trust Him and know He is faithful to fulfill all our needs. Remember the words of the apostle Paul in Phil. 4:19 “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” He is faithful and will bless you more and more when you bless Him.
We can be like this child with his dad,
One day, [this dad was out with his son] Zac in the country, climbing around in some cliffs, [he] heard a voice from above [him] yell, “Hey Dad! Catch me!” [He] turned around to see Zac joyfully jumping off a rock straight at [him]. He had jumped and then yelled “Hey Dad!” [The dad] became an instant circus act, catching him. [They] both fell to the ground. For a moment after [he] caught him [he] could hardly talk.
When [he] found [his] voice again [he] gasped in exasperation: “Zac! Can you give me one good reason why you did that???”
He responded with remarkable calmness: “Sure…because you’re my Dad.” His whole assurance was based in the fact that his father was trustworthy. [The dad said] He could live life to the hilt because I could be trusted. Isn’t this even more true for a Christian?
Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat, 1987, Word Books Publisher, pp. 46-47.
This is the faith you can have in the Lord. This is why you can have joy in the Lord. This is why we can celebrate Him in worship because He is faithful and true and will care for us even more than this father did with his child.
Elizabeth knew this and responded with joyous worship and praise to the Lord.
You can too.
