JOY IN THE JOURNEY
Back in 1987 a musician named Michael Card wrote a song called Joy in the Journey that is one of my favourites. The song says, “There is a joy in the journey. There’s a light we can love on the way. There is a wonder and wildness to life, and freedom for those who obey.”
The bible says that the Cristian life is like a journey. It is a path we follow, a road we travel along. There will be good days and bad days. There will be hills to go over and valleys to get through. There will be delays and detours along the way. Through it all, there will be joy, if we have the proper focus.
Near the end of his life, the Apostle John wrote a letter to the churches in Asia Minor (present day Turkey). He being his letter by summing up what the Christian life is really all about.
1Jn 1:1-7 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
How do we have joy in the journey? By remembering these 4 important truths;
1. The Right Foundation – our starting point
For there to be joy in the journey, you need to have the right starting point. If you have ever used a GPS to navigate you know that it does not work unless it can first figure out where you are. You cannot know the direction you are going until you first understand where you are. Likewise, to have joy in the journey you need to have the right starting point.
1 Jn 1:7 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
John uses 4 words here to describe his encounter with Jesus. Notice the progression. He says first, that which we have heard. There are lots of things that you have heard about and that is your only experience of it. I am sure that you have all heard me talk about the country of Kuwait. You probably know that this country exists and have maybe heard some stories about it. For most people, that is about it. Next, John says that which we have seen. Maybe you saw the news footage from Kuwait during the gulf war back in the 90s or have seen a documentary about it. A picture is worth a thousand words, so seeing something brings it to life in an even greater way. Next, John says that which we have looked at. The Greek verb is THEOMAI and it means to look closely at something or to visit it. Maybe you had a chance to visit Kuwait, or spend a weekend there. Lastly, John says that which our hands have touched. That means to experience fully. I lived in Kuwait for 10 years, so I have experience what it means to truly live there. Do you see the progression?
Think about Tesla cars. I have heard about them. I have seen them driving around town. There was a Tesla store in Orlando where I had a chance to actually sit in one and play with the buttons, but I have never truly experienced one. For that you would have to ask Kirk.
The same is true of our relationship with Jesus. For some Christianity is just something that they have heard about. Maybe they have a friend who is a Christian or a parent or grandparent. That is about as far as they go. For some it is something that they have seen. They have been to church and have sung the songs. They have heard the gospel preached and understand biblical truth, but that is about as far as they go. For others they may have been coming to church for years. They have looked at the truth. They have read the bible and they have seen the difference that Jesus can make in a person’s life, but that is about as far as they go. However, to fully understand what it means to be a Christian you have to have a personal relationship with Jesus. There must be an experience of Him in your life. A practical tangible encounter with the living God.
That is our starting point. There will be no joy in the journey if this is not your starting point because it is only through the Holy Spirit that we truly experience true joy and peace.
In 1849 a wagon train was traveling through Death Valley to follow the gold rush into California. As this particular wagon train trudged through Death Valley, the hottest place in California, they looked ahead and saw a lake of water they all believed was Owen’s Lake. But it was just a mirage created by the intense heat, and the harder their pressed on to make it to the water, the more frustrated they became. The foundation for many people’s spiritual journey is no more real than that mirage.
John wrote this letter to the churches of Asia Minor for a reason. At the time he wrote this, John was the last living apostolic witness to Christ’s life and resurrection. Over the years, false teachers had begun spreading lies about Jesus. Soon the Christians in Asia Minor had become divided between those who held to the apostles’ teaching and those who were believing new and novel ideas spread by the false teachers. John wrote his first letter in order to correct these misunderstandings.
The Christians in Asia Minor had reached a major fork in the road in their spiritual journey. Historically we know that eventually a painful split would deeply wound the churches causing division and leading many into a false religion that later became known as Gnosticism. Ancient Gnosticism is similar to what is known today as the New Age Movement. The word Gnostic in the Greek means knowledge – that faith is just believing the ‘right’ things. John starts here by reminding the church that it is more that that, that faith is all about relationship, not religion. That proper belief must be married with proper behaviour. The right foundation is our starting point.
2. The Right Friends – our fellowship
For there to be joy in the journey, you need to be careful to invite the right friends to go through life with. In any journey, the people we travel with play a huge part in the experience. They can either help make the miles fly by in conversation and laughter or make each minute unbearable. In writing to the churches, John speaks about the bond that unites them. Our common faith unites us in fellowship.
1 Jn 1:3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
We don’t use that word "fellowship" much these days. The Greek word here is KOINONIA, and it comes from KOINOS which means common or connected to. It means a close relationship of sharing with other people. One Bible scholar describes it as the "setting aside of private interest and desires and the joining in with others for common purposes." This is what we are in Jesus Christ. We are family.
Christians today have diluted the word "fellowship" to describe any kind of social event. Join us for a time of fellowship after the service. We use it to describe meetings, but that is not what it means. Fellowship means genuine life involvement, a true investment of ourselves in relationships with other Christians. It is a choice, a two-way commitment.
This is especially true in the choice of a spouse. When choosing the person closest to you who will go through life together it is important you make that choice based on whether that person will help you grow closer to Christ or lead you further from Him. When I was thinking of getting asking Naomi to marry me, I asked my pastor about it. He said that the person you marry will either double your ministry or half it. Naomi definitely doubled it. That is also true in a lesser degree of friends.
Many Christians today try to live the spiritual journey alone … just me and Jesus. You cannot have joy in the journey in isolation. Others try to find companions in the workplace, or in Alcoholics Anonymous, in their political party, or in their country club, or in a myriad of other possible social groups we encounter every week. Yet the Bible pictures the church as the place to find that biblical fellowship, not because the people are perfect, but because they live in fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Attending worship services doesn’t guarantee genuine fellowship. Worship services are a hard place to find fellowship. Here we find teaching and corporate worship and celebration. However, fellowship is more than that. This is why we have small groups so you can get together in smaller groups and live out this koinonia together.
I read recently about a woman who was driving from Alberta to the Yukon. She didn’t know that you never travel that way alone, especially in a rundown Honda Civic. So, she set off on a road usually reserved for four-wheel drive trucks. Eventually she found herself in a truck stop. Two truckers invited her to join them, and since the place was so small, she felt obligated to oblige. "Where are you headed?" one of the truckers asked, to which she replied, "Whitehorse." "In that little Civic? No way! The pass is dangerous in weather like this." "Well, I’m determined to try" was her naïve response. "Then I guess we’re going to have to hug you," the trucker suggested, to which she replied, "There’s no way I’m going to let you touch me." The trucker laughed, "Not like that. We’ll put one truck in front of you and one in the rear. That way we’ll get you through the mountains." That entire day she followed two red dots in the fog in front of her, as the two trucks hugged her through the dangerous pass as she made her journey. We need to have the right foundation and the right friends.
3. The Right Focus – our message
For there to be joy in the journey, you need to have the proper focus. You need to keep your eyes on the road. Driving a car requires constant correction. You can’t be falling asleep behind the wheel! That focus must be the person and presence of Jesus. When we lose sight of that, the journey becomes long and difficult. Jesus is our focus.
1 Jn 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
God is light; therefore, His word is truth. The bible is and always must remain as our sole guide and authority. People today are flocking to all kinds of different sources for truth in their spiritual journey. Whether it’s pyramids or the psychic friends network, whether it’s astrology or science or even church dogmas, there’s no lack of claims to spiritual truth.
Yet only the Bible has stood the test of time as the only reliable source for God’s revealed truth. The entire Bible, all 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are our guide to this spiritual journey. The Bible contains everything we need to know for the journey. There will be no joy without the truth that its pages contain. Looking back upon his own journey, Paul was able to write:
2Ti 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
What a powerful proclamation that is. Paul lived a DISCIPLINED life (fought the good fight). This speaks to the continual struggle that he faced. Through his life Paul faced physical opposition, spiritual opposition and emotional opposition – and so will all who seek to live for Jesus. Paul never stopped fighting until the day he died, and neither should we. Living your life on God’s truth is not always the easiest path, but it is always the best. Remember it is not just about suffering (fighting the bad fight) it is about suffering for what is right.
Paul lived a DIRECTIONAL life (finished the race). He did not just do whatever he wanted.
He did not live like Frank Sinatra sang, “I did it my way.” His song instead was that he did it God’s way. He followed the path the Lord Jesus set out for him that day He saved him on the road to Damascus. Ever since that day, he had been obedient to his calling, doing whatever the Lord had for him to do. Whether in good times or bad, whether in happy circumstances or in the midst of pain and suffering, Paul had walked in the way of the Lord. Now that journey was almost over. He could look back and say that he had completed the work he was given to do. He had followed the course, and now he had reached the finish line at last. E.g. skiing in Quebec.
Paul lived a DOCTRINAL life (kept the faith). This simply means he refused to compromise the truth. When other people fell away, Paul kept preaching the Word. When truth went out of fashion, he refused to bow to the pressure of the culture around him. When it would have been easy to trim his message to save his own life, Paul proclaimed the whole counsel of God. He did not back down, he did not compromise, and he would not preach just what people wanted to hear. He kept the faith.
What is your source of truth for the spiritual journey you are on? Is your faith based on religious traditions or the fact that your parents or spouse is a Christian? Do you see the Bible as just an old book full of stories from the past or do you see it as what the Bible claims to be – the inerrant, inspired, God breathed and Spirit filled revelation. Nothing else in the world - no other book, no preacher or teacher, no theologian, no church can make that claim.
If we want to have joy in the journey, we need to have the right foundation, the right friends and the right focus.
4. The Right Finish – our destination
For there to be joy in the journey, we have to keep our eyes focused on the destination. We have to remember the finish line.
Life is about a journey; a journey toward God, toward Home, toward Heaven. If we're not focused on that, life is just one long, bumpy ride to nowhere -- Dale Pilgrim
1 Jn 1: 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
In verse 6 John hints at one of the misunderstandings that was circulating among the Christians in Asia Minor at the time. Apparently, some people were claiming to be in close fellowship with God, but these same people were living lives of moral and spiritual darkness. Now that means that for all their pious talk about God, their lives were characterized by disobedience, sinfulness, and rebellion. In fact, some Bible teachers think that these people were claiming that once you trust in Jesus Christ, God doesn’t care what you do or how you act, that sin no longer matters. I have met Christians who live like that. They may not say it in words, but you see it in the choices they make and the life they live. That since they have received Jesus that they can just do anything they want because God will forgive them.
John is clear here. You cannot say you live in the light when you are walking in darkness. You cannot claim to be an apple tree when you only produce pears. This does not mean that we as believers in Christ will never make any mistakes and never blow it. The issue is not the destination, it is the direction. Obedience is the key.
How do you know that you are going in the right direction? Verse 7 tells us. You love hanging around God’s people and you are seeing sanctification in your life.
When we are walking in the light, we have fellowship with one another. When you love Jesus, you love hanging out with other people who love Jesus. We saw this so often in Kuwait. When Kuwaitis came to Christ, we would tell them not to come to church because it was dangerous, but they would come anyways. They would rather die than worship alone. They loved being with other believers.
When you are walking in the light, the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. Notice the wording here. It does not simply say that the blood of Jesus provides forgiveness from sin. That is true. In Christ we have been justified, our sins have been paid for and are forgiven. The word used here is purify which goes even further. Not just justification from sin but sanctification. When we walk in the light, we see transformation. Purification of sin means that God washes away the stain caused by our continual struggle with sin. So, the challenge here isn’t sinless perfection, but a life that seeks to walk the spiritual journey in the light of God’s truth. When we walk in the light, we grow closer to one another and we grow closer to Jesus.
A boy who was rebelling against his dad constantly. This boy was destroying his own life by his rebellion, but he refused to heed his father’s words. One day, the dad said to the boy, "I want to show you what you’re doing to your life. I’m going to put a wooden post in our front yard. Every time you rebel, I will put a nail in this post. Every time you obey, I will pull out one nail." The first thought from the boy was, "I’m going to do everything I can to fill that post with nails." And he did. In two months, he filled that post with nails. But he also began to feel the damage he was doing to his own life and to his parents’ lives.
With true remorse, the boy began to obey his father. One by one, the nails came out. When the last nail came out of the post, the boy broke down in tears. The dad asked, "Son, why are you crying?" And the boy replied, "I got rid of the nails, but I can’t get rid of the holes."
God the Father saw the nails in our lives and He saw our helplessness against sin. So, He sent His Son Jesus to not only take the nails but to also fill the holes so that we could have a restored relationship with God. Again, Paul wrote at the end of his life;
2Ti 4:8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day -- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
At the end of his life, Paul was focused on two things. He was focused on Jesus, and he was focused on his brothers and sisters in Christ.
There is joy in the journey. There is a light we can love on the way. There is a wonder and wildness to life, and freedom for those who obey. To have joy in the journey, you need to have the right foundation, the right friends, the right focus and the right finish.
I am reminded of the story of the young man back in the 1800s who had a dream to go to America. He scrimped and saved, and did everything in his power to save enough money to buy a ticket on a boat bound for America. The day came when he had precisely the amount of money needed, and he went immediately and purchased that ticket. The ship was to leave the next day, so with great excitement, and with all of his possessions wrapped neatly in a blanket he boarded the ship, and settled down on the deck for his great journey. After the first couple of days, the young man had exhausted the meager supply of food that he had been able to scrimp and save in his blanket, and he began to get hungry. He knew that if he could only survive for a few days more, he would enjoy all the riches that America promised.
It was that evening that a steward found him preparing to sleep in a secluded corner on deck. The steward confronted him, accusing him of being a stowaway. Protesting his innocence, the young man produced his ticket. The steward apologized, but then asked "but why are you sleeping here on deck, when you have quarters below"? When the young man replied that he had only enough money for the passage but no room, the steward explained that the room was included in the price of the ticket. As the steward led the astonished young man to his room, they passed the large dining room where a sumptuous meal was being laid out. The young man peeked in and saw that the room was filling with people, and the steward told the young man that he could be seated for dinner in about fifteen minutes, as that was included also.
So many times, we understand that we have redemption, and we look forward to the beauty of Heaven, but we are ignorant of so much that is in between. We fail to grasp all that God has prepared for us. There is a joy in the journey. Enjoy the trip.
