TURNING JOY INTO SORROW (VIDEO)

This week we begin a new series as we continue our journey towards Christmas, called ‘Surprised by Joy’. The backdrop to this Sunday’s message is that the people of Israel had been waiting a thousand years for a Deliverer, a promised Messiah who would be a descendant of King David. This Messiah would bring restoration to Israel and hope to the nations.

Yet after being exiled to other nations and then dominated by foreign rulers for hundreds of years, the people of Israel must have wondered, “When was God going to keep his promise?” Was God going to come through for them?

With this backdrop in mind, we meet Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-25). They had not only been waiting for the promised Messiah; they had been waiting on God for something much closer to home, a child. Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless, and they were now very old. God had not answered their prayers and the hole left by having no children was filled with a deep sorrow.

Then suddenly God shows up through the angel Gabriel and tells them that their prayers have been heard and they will have a child. This child’s birth will not only replace their sorrow with joy, but the sorrow of a nation as God delivers on his promise to send a Saviour. John the Baptist was born to prepare the way for God’s ultimate plan to send his Son Jesus into the world to save it. It is in the gift of Jesus we find the real source of lasting joy.

This Sunday we will look at the struggles of living with unanswered prayer and the sorrow that can bring us. At the same time, we will look at the joy that comes from knowing that God is still with us and for us. We’ll also look at how the cross of Jesus can continue to give us joy even when we don’t understand what God is up to.

I look forward to exploring and sharing God’s word with you this Sunday.

Noel Kluge