Katie Kafka, one of our teachers, shared this meaningful message with us at our Women’s Christmas event on December 6th. We hope it sparks joy for you as it did for all of us in the room.
Oftentimes, we celebrate Christmas with moments of merriment: with holly-jolly and oh-what-fun. I can hear the Charlie Brown Christmas choir singing as they ice skate,
“Christmas time is here.
Happiness and cheer.“
These types of moments can often spark joy, BUT do they really?
“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!”
This question comes at a point of exasperation for Charlie Brown toward the end of this
animated Christmas classic because he searched for happy in many places only to feel
disappointed and down in the dumps. But, this question cuts to the heart of the matter—
having a Merry Christmas isn’t about finding happy, it is about remembering your joy. To
carry forward the curiosity of Charlie Brown, I think the next question to ask should be:
“Isn’t there anyone who knows what joy is all about?”
I have learned a lot about joy recently, along with my friends at our Tuesday Morning Bible
Study. If there is one thing that God has shown me through our time in the Word, it’s that joy is not being really, really, really, happy. Nor is it a feeling or a byproduct of merriment. Rather, joy is directly related to our salvation. We will experience true, authentic, fullness of joy in our lives when we remember God’s salvation. It is a gift that He has offered humanity from the beginning of time and will continue to offer to the day of His return. AND, I would wager that there is no better time to remember God’s gift of salvation than right now, at the start of Advent when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is our Joy of Christmas.
So, let’s take some time to remember our joy together this morning. I invite you to follow me for a stroll down memory lane through our legacy of faith and 8 salvation stories in the Old Testament that reveal a different aspect of our salvation. You will notice that there is not a lot of “happy” in these narratives. My hope is that the joy of our salvation – and the
remembrance of the One who accomplished it – will prepare our hearts as we celebrate the
birth of our Savior over the coming weeks.
Our first story takes us to the garden where we remember that salvation is promised. In the
beginning, God made a beautiful world full of good things. He placed Adam and Eve in a
garden and enjoyed unbroken fellowship with them. Everything was very good. But this
goodness did not go untested. The serpent, the father of all lies, tempted Adam and Eve to
distrust God’s Word. He spread false doubt about God’s goodness spurring them on in their
rebellion. When they chose to follow the lies of Satan over the truth of God, they drew a
battle line siding with God’s enemy.
For all practical purposes, the story should have ended right there, but it didn’t. It took a
glorious turn because God stepped into this scene of rebellion speaking first to the serpent
with both a curse and a promise. God said to the serpent in Genesis 3:15,
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her
seed; he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”
Enmity is the curse, but salvation is the promise that God would battle evil not with Adam
and Eve but for them. The promise was that Eve’s offspring would one day crush the head
of the serpent. Victory over the serpent would one day come from the seed of a woman.
God’s merciful salvation is promised from that moment forward. Our joy comes in
remembering that in a moment of darkness for humanity, God ushered in the hope that
comes from promise – and we know that God always keeps his promise.
As we trace the seed of the woman, our next stop down memory lane is the salvation story found in Genesis 6-8: Noah and the ark. The flood account is a picture of salvation for Noah, but it’s also a terrifying display of God’s displeasure – salvation is SO needed in this moment. Even more unsettling, this flood didn’t occur as a result of some uncommon weather pattern. It happened by the very hand of God because the wickedness of man was so great upon the earth. God’s holiness met with his righteousness in a mighty act of judgement. Genesis 6:8 says:
“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”
Why was Noah saved from this righteous judgement that fell on everyone around him?
Hebrews 11:7 tells us,
“By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence
prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned
the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.“
Noah’s faith led to obedience by which God provided the means of salvation for Noah and
his family. This story of faith holds both devastation and salvation in tandem: both bad
news and good news. The same is true of the gospel message. In Jesus, we have an ark of
righteousness to save us from the coming judgement. No matter what happens in this life,
no matter what sufferings we endure, we can rejoice in God’s provision of salvation and the
hope of eternal life in Christ.
We continue tracing the seed of the woman stopping to remember the ram in the thicket. In Genesis 22 we find one of the most challenging stories in all of Scripture when Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his promised son Isaac. You might wonder how God could have asked such a thing, how Abraham could have proceeded with such a thing, or how Isaac could have agreed to such a thing. Where is the joy in that?
You and I will never face such an unthinkable dilemma. Yet we all face situations when
obedience to God’s Word seems to make no sense. Or feels too hard. Or costs too much.
We just don’t see how obeying God could be the best path forward. At the moment when
Abraham was prepared to follow through in obedience, he is stopped by a heavenly voice
and Abraham responds in reverence as we remember that salvation is substitution.
Genesis 22:13-14 says,
Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram
caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and
oered him up for a burnt oering in the place of his son. Abraham called the
name of that place The LORD Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount
of the LORD it will be provided.”
One thing we learn from this salvation story is that joy comes in our ability to walk in faith.
Even when we can’t see the outcome, faith is only possible when we trust in the character
of our good God.
Our next two pitstops down memory lane take us to the wilderness. The Israelites become a free nation, liberated from a life of slavery in Egypt. God raised up Moses not only as a deliverer for the Israelites, but also as a leader that would guide them through the wilderness to abundant life in the Promised Land.
In this time of wandering, grumbling was at an all-time high. In Exodus 17, the Israelites
camped at Rephidim with no access to water. Their thirst led them to quarrel with Moses
and test the LORD. They demanded to know why He brought them out of Egypt only to die
of thirst. It becomes clear that their biggest problem wasn’t their lack of water. Their biggest problem was their lack of faith.
Grumbling comes to an end at the camp when God instructs Moses go to the rock at Horeb
where God will produce a wellspring of water that leads to life. We read in Exodus 17:6 how
God partners with Moses in this miraculous scene.
“Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike
the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink”.
Just like the Israelites, we’ve grumbled and complained. We’ve walked in sinful unbelief.
And yet, rather than strike us with punishment, God has shown us mercy. In the same way,
Christ, the rock of our salvation, was struck on our behalf. His body was broken so that the
life-giving Spirit could be poured out on all who believe. Joy is found when remember that
salvation is life.
Pit stop #2 in the wilderness with Moses and the Israelites takes us to a scene about snakes…or should we call them serpents? Either way, ewww.
By the time we get to Numbers 21, a whole generation later, the Israelites are still in a state
of wandering and continue to remain impatient. They spoke against God’s provision and
Moses’ leadership, complaining about the lack of bread and water, despising the manna
they had been graciously given without fail. In response, the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and many Israelites were bitten and died. When the people repented, they asked Moses to pray on their behalf.
In Numbers 21:7 we read,
So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have
spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may
remove the serpents from us.
God so graciously hears their prayer and provides a way of salvation for those bitten by the
serpents. We see in verse 8, God’s solution and again how he partners with Moses.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard,
and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.“
The truth for all of us who are in Christ is that we, like the Israelites, have been delivered
from oppression and slavery to our sin, and God has provided everything we need for life
and godliness. Our hope is not in looking to ourselves, but to look to him, the One bearing
all our sin and shame, yet we live. His gracious love brings us joy.
We pause next in the city of Jericho as we remember the faithful heart of a Canaanite prostitute, Rahab. The king of Jericho evidently knew her, for he sent a royal messenger to her home with one request – to bring out the Israelites who had come to spy on his city. Instead of obeying the king’s wishes and aligning herself with the people of Jericho, she chose to put her lot in with the Israelites and their God, Yahweh.
Rahab’s actions demonstrated her faith – she hid the spies and protected them. In turn,
she was promised protection by the scarlet cord tied on her window. Rahab’s faith in the
LORD and her alignment with his plans led to a salvation story of great rescue and a legacy
of faith. Joshua 6:25 tells us after the walls of Jericho came crashing to the ground,
…”Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared;
and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers
whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.“
We can be certain that Rahab entered into the Israelite community. Fast forward several
generations tracing the seed of the woman, Matthew 1 documents Rahab in the genealogy
of Christ – an even greater testimony in her life. She is one of only four women mentioned in the legacy line. Thank you, Jesus, for your shed blood—the ultimate scarlet cord that marks us for salvation sparing us from the judgment we deserve. Help us to live under that cord with joy and gratitude, and to tell others about the God who saves all people.
Our final two stops on memory lane cause us to remember the faithful life of David – one of the greatest heroes of the Old Testament and yet, a mere shadow of our ultimate hero. We first notice an epic duel between a shepherd boy and a Philistine giant. A most familiar story that has even found its way into popular culture. We know of the sling and stones. We know of the fatal outcome of Goliath and the victory for a future king of Israel. But does this knowledge spark joy in our hearts when we realize that salvation is won by another? David’s brutal words to Goliath are confident on victory (and a little gory) in 1 Samuel 17:46, David says:
“This day the LORD will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down
and remove your head from you. And I will give the dead bodies of the army of
the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth,
that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”
The Israelites did not engage in the striking battle between David and the man who represented the seed of the serpent, Goliath. They cowered in fear, hoping the boy from
Bethlehem would defeat their enemy. When he did, the Israelites ran behind their champion, receiving his victory as if it was their own. Because of David’s faithfulness and
courage, all of God’s people were victorious. Salvation was won by another.
Our final stop in our stroll down memory lane is a look at David not as a young shepherd boy, but as the regal king of Israel looking to make due on a promise to show kindness toward Jonathan’s family. It is then that the king searches the land for a descendent of Jonathan, David’s dear friend from the prior royal family. This salvation story found in 2 Samuel 9 starts with King David’s search.
Is there anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?
Through the help of a servant, a son of Jonathan, named Mephibosheth, is found. He is
discovered in the wilderness, a barren place, where he has lived the majority of his life
crippled, fatherless and an enemy to the king. Instead of violence, David immediately puts
Mephibosheth at ease and meets with lovingkindness. In 2 Samuel 9:7, David says to his
friend’s son,
Do not fear, for I will surely show kindness to your father Jonathan, and will
restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul; and you shall eat at my
table regularly
Mephibosheth came to the palace fearful and lowly – he considered himself a dead dog.
He left that day a wealthy man, invited to a feast at the king’s table, welcomed like one of
David’s own sons. All of this was given to him for the sake of Jonathan. It is a beautiful
picture of a life radically changed because of grace. It’s my story, and it’s yours too. It is the
story of every person who has accepted the gracious invitation of God. Salvation is an
invitation to a feast.
Salvation is promised, needed, substitutionary. Salvation is life, gracious, for all people,
won by another and salvation is born! In light of our stroll down memory lane, it has been a
privilege to spark joy by remembering these stories of salvation. I would like to close this
moment by turning our gaze toward the Joy of Christmas where we celebrate that salvation
is born!
Equip Her 