Well, we still have the Joy book, Philippians, fairly fresh in our minds from this winter. And as we talk about Joy as a fruit of the spirit we are talking not so much about jumping up and down for joy like when you win the lottery, though it might be like that I suppose. Sometimes I think people who are always bouncing around seeming ridiculously happy may actually be covering up something that is not true joy.
The direct translation is “cheerful calm delight”. But this joy is usually more like a contentment, or a state of intense gratitude, a constant inner smile regardless of what is going on around you, but it’s also noticeable by others. Sometimes we rejoice in an energetic way, other times we rejoice in a calmer way.
I have chosen watermelon to represent joy because it usually reminds us of summer and when you eat a slice of watermelon you are usually left with the rind in the shape of a smile. So let’s look at two things about this joy today. First we see:
I. The Motivation for Joy starting with:
A. The Salvation of Our Souls
Every single human being ever born since Adam and Eve is destined for death and eternal separation from God. Let’s let that sink in for minute. Until you claim Christ as Saviour and Lord, believe in Him and entrust your life to Him, you are a dead man walking.
Now it’s easy to say, “well I better make the most of life while I have it then”, and that is true, but the methods you choose have eternal consequences. Life is short but our souls are eternal and will reside somewhere after the death of this body. According to the Bible there are two choices, heaven or hell. Those people who choose to get every drop out of life, by doing whatever they desire, and fail to accept Jesus’ salvation might have a great time in this millisecond of eternity life, but forever isn’t going to be very pleasant.
So for the believing Christian the greatest thing we have, and will ever have to rejoice in, is the salvation our souls. Jesus is promising eternal communion with God in the Kingdom of Heaven after we die. How can we not rejoice in that when we think of the alternative?
In Luke 10:20 Jesus tells the 72 disciples that went out and performed miracles, not to rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, rejoice that your names are written in heaven, that you are saved.
1 Peter 1:3-9 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
No matter what the Christian’s situation, we always have this to rejoice about.
B. Another motivation is The Realization of the Lord’s Presence
Psalm 16:11 “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” There are many Psalms where David rejoices about being in the presence of the Lord. Is His presence your greatest joy? Have you experienced His presence in your life?
He talks about pleasures, but pleasures are fleeting, joy can be constant, and I believe it will be in heaven. Our actions not only show what we believe, but they also show what our greatest joy is. Is it being on the golf course? Our actions will tell. Is it our work? Actions will tell. Is it our family? Actions will tell. Is it God and our salvation? Our actions will tell.
John 16:20-24 “20Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. 23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
What is Jesus saying? He is saying that first of all you will be sad when I am gone, but that will turn to joy when I come back, when I am again in your presence. When I come back your joy will be permanent. And your joy will be full when you ask something in my name directly to the Father or in the presence of the Father, and it is given to you.
Like realizing we are saved, realizing that God the Father and Jesus Christ are present here and now, and forever, should also give us full joy.
Then there’s:
C. The Possession of God’s Word
We have salvation, the presence of the Lord, and we have God’s Word. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and it is right at the center of the Bible, and the two verses that are dead center are verses 88 and 89, here’s what they say, “In your steadfast love give me life, (why?) that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. Forever oh Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens.”
Just about every verse of the 176 verses in Psalm 119 mention his word, his testimony, his statutes, his commandments, his truth, his law, his rules, his promises, his precepts, in other words the Word of God, the Bible. Don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is largest and most central chapter in the entire Bible.
Do you understand how blessed we are to have the complete word of God in as many different translations as we could handle, at our fingertips? Do you know how many people have died for this book. Here we have the very presence of God. His word is alive.
Someone once said that if every Christian in the world blew the dust off their bibles at the same time there would be a cataclysmic dust storm that would end the world. Maybe that’s what Jesus is waiting for, maybe that’s the final plague. Did you know that only 18% of professing Christians read the Bible everyday?
The Bible is God incarnate, Jesus was called the Word. There would be no church, no Christianity, very likely no world if the Bible did not exist. It has withstood time unlike any artifact in the history of the world. Nothing has been able to destroy it. In fact in spite of severe persecution for centuries it has flourished to become by far the best selling book of all time.
“All Scripture is God-breathed.” “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
Here’s what R.C. Sproul (remember him from the truth project) smacks us with about our neglect of studying the Bible. He says:
“Here then is the real problem of our negligence. We fail in our duty to study God’s Word not so much because it is difficult to understand, not so much because it is dull and boring, but because it is work. Our problem is not a lack of intelligence or passion. Our problem is that we are lazy.”
Ouch, is he right?
Have you seen the joy on people’s faces in third world countries when they receive their first Bible? The possession of this book should be one of our greatest joys and I think the church in general should be ashamed at how we have taken it for granted and tried to make church work without it.
When there are no bibles in the pews it usually means one of these things: Everybody in the congregation brings their own – good; or there are so many new people coming that need Bibles and take them home, that the church can’t keep them in stock – good; or that people don’t really think it’s important to bring or have bibles at church on Sunday morning.
Another motivation for our joy is:
D. The Conversion of Others
Have you ever been witness to someone’s conversion? If you really think about it, is there anything that could be more meaningful. Here is this person, dead in front of your eyes, being made alive forever in that moment by the Spirit of God. This should be as meaningful as the birth of your child, or a loved one being brought back from death by the paddles. It certainly is to God and the heavenly host.
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. 6And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ 7Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:4-7)
Acts 15:3, “So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers.”
This is what it’s all about. If no one is being saved then what is there to rejoice about. Well we can rejoice about our own salvation I suppose. Do you think Jesus would have been perfectly joyful if he just clung to his own salvation? “Oh thank goodness the Father actually did raise me from the dead. I am not going back down there, I’m going to sit on my throne and just be grateful I’m in heaven, they can fend for themselves.” We who now believe got saved somehow, often because of another person. Our salvation caused rejoicing in heaven and on earth, do we want to rejoice like that? … Finally there’s:
E. The Anticipation of Glory
“Man I can’t wait to get to heaven. I’m dying to see what kind of robe Jesus is wearing, and I’ll finally know whether he actually does have a beard like all the pictures show.” Uh, uh, there will be such amazement and joy we will drop like we’re dead, speechless in our utter amazement. Listen to the words of this song written after the writer lost his father. Play I Can Only Imagine video
What does the Word say? 1Peter 1:8 again, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.”
Jude 24 “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy…”
Proverbs 10:28, “The hope of the righteous brings joy…”
Isaiah 29:19-20, “In that day … the meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord.”
I’ll let you read Revelation 21 by yourself, which though it may be symbolic through John’s vision, certainly represents his best attempt to describe what heaven will be like, and what Jesus will be like.
The anticipation of what life will be like when we shed these bodies should bring not only joy but incredible awe as well. … Now let’s talk about:
II. The Manifestation of Joy
A. Starting with Church Relations
I remember back in Mission, we had about 300 regular attenders at our church, so you didn’t get to know everyone. But anytime I would bump into someone I recognized from church, even if I didn’t know them or talk to them, I would get a bit of an excited feeling in my gut. I can’t wait to get here on Sunday morning to see everybody, and I always have a bit of a let down when church ends.
Seeing other believers even from other churches brings me joy. And even better, we should be joy bringers to others we bump into. Let’s go back to Philippians and remind ourselves what brought Paul joy.
1. Remembrance of the people in the church
2. Christ being proclaimed by others
3. Deliverance from suffering because of the prayers of others
4. The church having the same mind and being in full accord
5. Sacrifice for each other
6. Receiving other Christians
7. That others were concerned about him
8. And He calls his brothers and sisters at the Philippian church his joy and his crown
Are we a joyful church? Are we happy to see each other? I must say that it brings me great joy to see people stick around after the service talking and laughing with each other. When we work as a team when there is some kind of event. I am sure that kind of joyful togetherness makes Jesus smile. … We also manifest joy:
B. In Difficult Situations
Again we only have to look as far as Paul when he clearly speaks of the joy in suffering for the cause of Christ:
- Romans 5:3-4 – “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”
- Colossians 1:24 – “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake”
- And in James 1:2 - ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.’
“Several churches in North Dakota were being served by a clever old preacher. The people were always amazed, for no matter what the circumstances, the preacher could always find something to give thanks for. As he made his rounds one cold December morning, he was late in getting to worship because of excessive snow drifts. As he began the service with prayer, the parishioners were eager to see what the old preacher could come up with to be thankful for on this dismal and frigid morning. "Gracious Lord," his prayer began, "we thank you that all days are not like today.”
Clearly this kind of biblical joy is related to a sense of gratitude. Finding something to be grateful for in any situation. Now some will think, that we are just in denial or aren’t being realistic, but I think it’s more a matter of where you choose to focus your mind.
Difficult situations will either help you grow, or they will knock you down, and the difference is simply in how you choose to perceive them. You just need to listen to people’s words when bad things happen. “Oh this is the worst thing that could ever happen. I’ll never get over this. Etc.”
Remember Paul said he learned to be content in any circumstance, and when we looked at Philippians he showed us that the secret to this is in how we think. This is what our video of the fellow with no arms and legs demonstrated to us.
My friends, as Christians and Canadians we have so much to be joyful about, and our joy needs to be manifest if anyone outside of the believing community is going to be attracted to Christ. I never saw joy in churches when I was growing up and many young people were turned off by the rigid, solemn nature of many churches and Christians.
I am not saying church should be a party, but of all people on earth we should be the most content and joyful because of Christ and the hope that we have for eternity. Joy, the fruit of the Spirit is unexplainable, but if someone is to ask us where our joy comes from, we can tell them it is from the Lord. Let’s go out there and be joy bringers, and when people ask us how we can be so joyful and content, we get to tell them, and that should bring us the most joy.
