Sorrow to Joy

Luke 1:46-55,Psalms 30:5 · 2024-12-22 · Jason Wolin · Advent 2024

Luke 1:46-55,Psalms 30:5 · Joy. Sorrow to Joy — sermon from Cypress Bible Church on BibleSlides.

Sorrow to Joy Slideshow for this message PDF Message Download Review So in our advent season we are looking at key contrasts that we see in the Christmas narrative. We looked first at darkness to light. When sin entered into the world the curtain of darkness fell. But even in those early chapters of Genesis a sliver of light pierced through the darkness. And we surveyed the progressively revealed, brightening plan of God to redeem the broken world darkened by sin. We had the Covering in Genesis, Substitute in Exodus. Sacrifice in Leviticus. And the Messianic King in the Prophets. The we looked at weakness to strength where we contemplated Christ becoming weak for us. In the Word becoming flesh we contemplated Christ voluntarily surrendering the independent exercise of his divine attributes. We contemplated Christ shedding His power to the tune of 10^70 joules of energy and becoming a weak baby unable to lift even an apple. But in that weakness, we saw true strength. We saw that it is always God’s plan to use the weak to shame the wise. We remembered Gideon and his weak army that ultimately revealed God’s strength. Then last week we looked at trouble to peace and we saw God’s heart for reconciliation through the story of Jacob and Esau. Two brothers at great enmity with one another gave up the hurt, surrendered the anger, sweetened the bitterness and were reconciled. And while that was a great story of human reconciliation, all of that was pointing to the great reconciliation not between man and man but between God and man. When the angels sang, “Peace on earth and goodwill toward man” they are praising God for the birth of Christ but they looking forward to the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. And we learned in Matthew 5 that since God has reconciled us to himself it is our responsibility to extend that reconciliation one to another. And now today we come to our final contrast in our advent series – sorrow to joy. And we are going to explore this theme by considering the Christmas story from Mary’s perspective. Introduction Now let’s begin by thinking about where the Christmas story intersects Mary’s experience. She wasn’t thinking about shepherds or wise man or stars. What was she thinking about? The Bible doesn’t say exactly but I can nearly guarantee what she was thinking about. She was thinking about getting married. She was engaged! Think back to that point in your life when you were engaged to be married. I mean, all the emotion. All the excitement. It’s getting real for her. And then, out of nowhere, literally out of the clear blue sky, she is confronted, dramatically, by an angel from heaven. There’s nothing in the text that indicates: She’s deep in prayer. She’s begging God for some divine guidance. She’s meditating on the Psalm…

Cypress Bible Church · Full sermon loading below.