The word Gospel means "Good News." Christian faith is good news. The theme of Christmas is joy; the theme of the resurrection is also joy. Had there been no Christmas, no birth of Christ, there would have been no resurrection, and with no resurrection there would be little joy in life and certainly none in death. But Jesus changed all that. We have suffered a great loss at the death of our friend and loved one, _____________, but for Christians there is joy even in the midst of sorrow.
Just before his cross, Jesus said, "And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." It happened just that way for those early disciples. Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the believers. Fear was cast out, faith filled their hearts with joy, and they lived in the joy of the assurance of the resurrection from then on.
People and circumstances change. Christ never changes. Death can physically separate us from the people we love. It can never separate us from Christ and from those who love Him. The Bible promises, "For neither death...nor anything else in all creation will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
THE CHRISTIAN HAS A JOY THAT DOES NOT DEPEND ON THE EXTERNAL CONDITIONS OF LIFE, WHETHER SICKNESS OR HEALTH, POVERTY OR WEALTH, SUCCESS OR FAILURE.
At age ninety-three, Rose Kennedy was being interviewed by a magazine reporter. By this time, four of her nine children had died violently. Another daughter, Rosemary, was severely retarded all her life and would soon be gone.
Mrs. Kennedy had outlived her husband long enough to have seen his rather profligate and unscrupulous life told and retold in the press. She is an old lady, hit by tragedies again and again. The reporter asked about all this and Rose Kennedy answered, slowly: "I have always believed that God never gives a cross to bear larger than we can carry. And I have always believed that, no matter what, God wants us to be happy. He doesn''t want us to be sad.
"Birds sing after a storm," she said, "Why shouldn''t we?" *
In the presence of death, it is not easy to express joy--at least not for the world to see. But those in Christ have an inward joy just the same.
After speaking of the resurrection of believers and the Heavenly home, Jesus says in John 15, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and your joy may be full." He speaks of "my joy." His joy was a joy which poverty, suffering, disappointment, earthly failure and even death could not take away. And that''s the joy he will give to all who trust him.
PART OF THAT JOY COMES FROM VICTORY OVER SIN. Jesus says a believer''s joy will be full. Those who do not have their hope and trust in him can never have fullness of joy.
The Bible does not deny that there is something approaching happiness or joy, at least for a time, in a sinful life, a life lived apart from Christ. Moses chose to serve God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, says the Bible. Sin''s pleasure is short-lived. Its joy is only seasonal. Sin is deceptive; it appears happy and promises much at first. It never appears sad at first, but soon its true nature is revealed. It is sad because it separates man from his maker and the source of true joy. Sin brings an incredible loneliness when we who were made for fellowship with God do not walk or talk with Him. Sin bears bitter fruit. It leads to cynicism, suspicion, hard feelings, loneliness, disappointment with ourselves and with other people. But a Christian can have a joy that never fails because it comes from One who never fails us. He promises that His joy will be full and complete. No wonder the Apostle James can say then, "Count it all joy when you suffer various trials." We know, humanly speaking, that''s unrealistic and foolish, but when Christ is our joy human wisdom is transcendent. Even in the face of illness, pain and death we can rejoice.
PART OF THAT JOY ALSO COMES FROM THE KNOWLEDGE THAT IMMANUEL HAS COME. Immanuel, "God with us." We rejoice, knowing that sorrow is temporary. We rejoice in the strength He gives us to bear it.
The late pastor Martin Niemoller, a Jewish Christian, was one of few who survived Hitler''s Dachau Prison in World War II. To his last day he was tormented by the sights he had seen of men and women trudging to their death and the smell of burning flesh. Years after his ordeal, he was interviewed by a Chicago radio station announcer who asked him how he kept his sanity during that time. "You can stand far more than you think," said Niemoller. "You are much stronger than you think you are if God is dwelling in your life."
That is a lesson that many Christians learn in the valley of the shadow of death. We can stand far more than we think we can when God is with us. We can rejoice from the knowledge that Christ is with us.
WE REJOICE, TOO, BECAUSE OF TOMORROW. Jesus promised, "Your sorrow will be turned into joy." And he also said, "I am the resurrection and the light. He who believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die."
John Hus, the courageous Protestant reformer, was urged by his emperor and the pope to deny his faith. He refused. And from his prison he wrote, "I write this in prison and in chains, expecting tomorrow to receive sentence of death, full of hope in God, I will, this day, joyfully die." That is the supreme achievement of the human soul--to joyfully die trusting in the Saviour.
The death of our loved one in this Christmas season may seem to be an occasion to drain all joy from life, but not so if we believe in Immanuel and hear him as he says once again, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy may be full."
The great 18th century Bible commentator Matthew Henry, anticipating that some would unduly mourn his passing, wrote these words of comfort and assurance: "Would you like to know where I am? I am at home in my Father''s house, in the mansions prepared for me here. I am where I want to be--no longer on the stormy sea, but in God''s safe, quiet harbor. My sowing time is done and I am reaping; my joy is as the joy of harvest. Would you like to know how it is with me? I am made perfect in holiness. Grace is swallowed up in glory. Would you like to know what I am doing? I see God, not as through a glass darkly, but face to face. I am engaged in the sweet enjoyment of my precious Redeemer. I am singing hallelujahs to Him who sits upon the throne, and I am constantly praising Him. Would you know what blessed company I keep? It is better than the best on earth. Here are the holy angels and the spirits of just men made perfect...I am with many of my old acquaintances with whom I worked and prayed, and who have come here before me. Lastly, would you know how long this will continue? It is a dawn that never fades! After millions and millions of ages, it will be as fresh as it is now. Therefore, weep not for me!"
Those are ____________________''s words to us. "God''s victory over sin and the grave is won. Immanuel has come. God is with us. I am alive forever in God''s new tomorrow. Therefore weep not, but rejoice!"
* Alan Loy McGinnis, THE POWER OF OPTIMISM (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990).