Encouraged To Endure Sermon V: Real Joy Endures Series

Real Joy Endures

My first Christian Service assignment was leader of a Youth for Christ Fellowship Group in Hapeville. The chorus we used as our theme song is familiar to all of you who were teenagers in the forties and fifties:

If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy,

Let Jesus come into your heart . . .

Your sins He’ll wash away,

Your night He’ll turn to day,

Your life He’ll make it over anew . . . !

Real joy comes from knowing and serving Jesus!

He is the source and the object of all Christian endeavor - I Peter 4:11 . . .

Peter is speaking of the two most important activities of the Christian Church – preaching and practical service – and the aim of both must be to glorify God.

Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway: Preaching is done not to display the preacher, but to bring people face to face with God. Christian service is rendered not to bring prestige to the one who renders it, but to turn people’s thinking to God. Introducing people to Jesus Christ is the way to do that! Real joy is the outcome!

In the course of these two endeavors . . . there is the inevitability that some hearers of the gospel are going to be rubbed the wrong way – to the point that the bearers of the good news and the practitioners of the good deeds, if not persecuted, at the least can expect to be shunned, protested, or if carried to the extreme, silenced. To silence Him was the real reason why the authorities demanded the crucifixion of Jesus.

Thus, endurance is a necessary factor that must be taken into consideration when we determine that God is calling us into active Christian service whether it takes the form of preaching, or, practical Christian service – I Peter 4:12-13 . . .

Remember last week’s 5 R’s for the Remaining Days of Our Lives? Right in God’s sight . . . Reverence the Lord . . . Be aware of the Reason for your hope . . . Resolve to finish on a high note . . . Be Ready for the coming of the Lord.

Yet, Peter’s “law” of the “inevitability of suffering” must not be forgotten! Why? The way of the Christian and the way of the world of evil are incompatible! It is human nature for people to dislike, resent, regard with suspicion . . . Christians who dare to be different.

Even within the ranks of the clergy, not just people in the pews, there are sharp contrasts in how we view the world and what our responsibility in the world should be. For all Christians, though, regardless of doctrinal or political differences, Peter reminds us that persecution, whatever form it takes, should be viewed as a test (“fiery” ordeal) of true commitment to Jesus Christ. So . . .

For goodness’ sake, we need to “get our act together” - preaching Christ, rendering practical service in His Name - even if we are misunderstood - even if ulterior motives are ascribed to our compassionate responses and merciful acts of kindness – all of which are characteristic of our Lord’s life as well as His teachings.

However, believe it or not, the very goodness of Christianity is oftentimes seen as offensive to a world in which selfishness trumps selflessness. There appear to be more than a few who desire to compromise with the anti-Christian world and, for the sake of going along to get along, seek to play down the differences between the Christian way and the world’s way simply to accommodate “comfort-ability”.

Well, let Peter tell us what ought to make us feel “comfortable” to the point of rejoicing! If you are persecuted for Christian beliefs and practices, guess what? So was Christ who died for you, and whose “sufferings” you are now sharing in – which can only mean one thing: You will share in His glory too!

Folks, as I have heard so many preachers of the gospel say, “The Cross is the way to the Crown.” Our Lord is no one’s debtor; we are indebted to Him; He paid it all; so, our joy comes from the realization that, even in the midst of suffering, His joy and crown await those who have been true to Him through thick and thin.

What an experience of inner exhilaration - not only to be ours in the hereafter but also is ours in the here and now – I Peter 4:14-16 . . . Does it register in your mind what Peter said? The “Spirit of GLORY rests on you”!

“Shekinah glory” would have been familiar to Jewish recipients of Peter’s letter, as it is to anyone who studies the Bible in depth – a reference to that luminous, glowing, cloud-like representation of God’s presence that was visible to God’s people in OT times.