Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Edna Ferber makes a character in one of her novels say, "I like people with a splash of splendor in their makeup."

Many people would be surprised to know that this is what should characterize every believer in Jesus.

The world often gets a perverted concept of Christ just because Christians themselves are victims of false concepts.

So many Christians are brought up to believe that godliness is such a serious matter that it is incompatible with a life of laughter and happy delight.

Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.

John Wesley knew what he was saying when he stated, "sour godliness is the devil's religion."

The facts of life will back that statement up, as well as the judgment of Henry Van Dyke who wrote, "The lack of vital joy in the church is the chief cause of indifference in the world.

The feeble energy, the faltering and reluctant spirit, the weariness in well-doing with which too many believers impoverish and sadden their own hearts, make other men question their reality and value of religion, and turn away from it in cool neglect."

Joy is the missing ingredient.

The Biblical ideal of godliness is, in both the Old and New Testament, a life of joy.

I counted 187 references to words like joy, joyful, and joyous.

Haufman Kolher in the Jewish Encyclopedia says there is no language that has as many words for joy and rejoicing as does the Hebrew.

In the Old Testament there are 13 Hebrew roots found in 27 different words for some aspect of joy.

The book of Psalms alone is a treasury of joy and rejoicing, often even in the midst of great trial and sorrow.

There is not the slightest hint that God has any pleasure in the a gloomy soul.

God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all, and the more we become partakers of the divine nature the more we will be completely free from persistent sadness and depression.

Jesus told His disciples to keep their faces bright and alert even when they were fasting, and not sad and stern like the Pharisees.

The New Testament has even more words for joy.

There are 326 terms for joy in the Greek N.T. Paul who suffered great sorrows and hardships uses 132 of them.

He practiced what he preached and rejoiced in the Lord always, even when he was miserable.

Joy does not depend upon circumstances like happiness, for it goes deeper and is based on what circumstances can never change.

Aldous Huxley said, "If he were a millionaire, he would finance research for the ideal intoxicant that would abolish inferiority, fill us with love for our fellow men, make life seem divinely beautiful, and enable us to wake up the morning after without any hangover or damaged constitution."

The N. T. says there is not a need for such research for it is available if we just see it.

Paul urged, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit."

The fruit of the Spirit is joy, and this joy which comes from the Spirit of Christ will enable us to be joyfilled as was our Lord.

Christians seldom recognize that pessimism and sadness can be sinful.

Robert Louis Stevenson was an incurable optimist in spite of his constant suffering, but sometimes even he could not escape the snare of depression.

But listen to the way he referred to this state when in 1884 he wrote to his father: "I fear I have been a little in the dumps which, as you know, Sir, is a very great sin.

There is no more abominable sin then this gloomy, this plaguey peevishness."

There have been many famous Christians who have been plagued with a nature easily depressed, but they never accepted it as anything but an obstacle to be overcome.

Charles Spurgeon, the most famous Baptist preacher, for example, was preaching to his people on the need for Christian joy, and he made this confession:"I am the subject of depression of spirit so fearful that I hope none of you ever get to such extremes of wretchedness as I go to, but I always get back again by this--I know I trust Christ."

I know that safe with Him remains

Protected by His power,

What I've committed to His hands

Till the decisive hour.

In spite of their depression, men of God have known the joy and peace of believing.

They have never accepted their infirmity, but fought it with joy.

Pessimism is never an option for the believer.

It is of the kingdom of darkness, and must be recognized as such.

Spurgeon could say after his confession, "There is an obligation upon a Christian to be happy.

Let me say it again: There is a responsibility laid upon a Christian to be cheerful.

It is not merely an invitation but it is a command.

"Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous."

"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice."

In spite of the one thousand and one things that drag us down and seek to crush our cheer and silence our song, we owe to God and this sad world a radiant life.

Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian said to the dead state church of his day, "Everybody is too serious for me, at heart the religious man is humorous."

The New Testament supports his conviction, for it is the most joy filled book in the world.

Someone wrote, "It opens with joy over the birth of Jesus, and it ends with a superb picture of a multitude which no man could number, singing Hallelujah Choruses.

No matter where you open it, amid fortunate or discouraging circumstances, you always hear the note of joy.

Even when a company of friends gather at a farewell supper, before their Leader is crucified, he says to them, "These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might be in you, and that your joy may be made full."

Even when their best friend had gone, the mourners 'take their food with gladness, and with singleness of heart, praising God.' If they are flogged for their faith, the disciples depart from the council, 'rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.'

When an apostle is put in jail overnight he passes the time singing, and if you listen to him in his Roman prison, you will hear him dictating, 'rejoice in the Lord always; and again I will say, rejoice.'

There is enough tragedy in the New Testament to make it the saddest book in the world, and instead it is the joyfulest.

The religion which expresses itself in this book and which issues from it, is the most joyful religion on earth."

If you don't enjoy your faith there is something wrong with your faith or with you.

It is hard to sell anything by exhibiting a poor example.

It would be hard for a dirty bum to sell soap, or for a bald man to sell hair tonic, and it is hard for a joyless Christian to sell people on the joy of salvation.

Paul Tournier, the famous Christian psychologist says many Christian people have come to a life of sterility because of false concepts.

He writes, "All joy has been replaced by the pursuit of duty.

They have come to the point of doing nothing that gives them pleasure, as if God, who loves us never required any but disagreeable things of us!

They make incredible efforts, but win no victories.

They are always comparing themselves with those they look upon as their betters."

But some may be objecting in their minds, you can't be joyful all the time, for even Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

This only leads to further confirmation of the truth that the believer must always be joyful.

Jesus said that when we are reviled and persecuted we are to rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is our reward in heaven.

The Christian is to look always beyond the sorrow of the present to the glorious reward of the future, and, thereby, be joyful even in sorrow.

Jesus was no less joyful as a man of sorrows, for we read in Heb.

12:2, "Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross."

Jesus was the most joyful man that ever lived, for He was joyful even as He went to the cross.

One of the most laughable perversions in the history of the church is that which gives us an image of Christ as one who never laughed or told funny stories.

The way some artists picture Jesus you would think He was a sour and solemn Pharisees rather than a radiant redeemer who walked among men sharing His abundant life.

He was a center of many a banquet; the common people heard Him gladly; the children flocked around Him and sat on His lap.

Wherever He went He saved and healed and left people with hearts overflowing with joy.

From His birth to His death the good news of great joy was the major theme of His life.

One of the fruits of the Spirit is joy, and Jesus was filled with the Spirit, and, therefore, was filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Jesus wept with those who wept.

Can we imagine that He did not rejoice with those who rejoiced?

There was no mere splash of splendor in Jesus for He was splendor incarnate.

To be more like Christ is to be more joyful.

Henry Van Dyke wrote, "Every great revival of Christian power-like those which came in the times of St. Francis of Assi, and John Wesley-has been marked and heralded by a revival of Christian joy."

John tells us in verse 4 that the second basic reason for his writing this book was that believers might have fullness of joy.

In other words, joy is a very important quality in a believer, and this part of the Bible exists for the purpose of increasing this essential quality.

If the truths John writes of in this book do not add a splash of splendor to our makeup, then we are failing to listen to the voice of God speaking through this book.

The first thing we want to look at about Christian joy is that-

I. CHRISTIAN JOY CAN BE COMMUNICATED.

Christian joy is not a matter of mere feeling, but is a matter of fact.

It has its basis in knowledge that can be communicated from one person to another.

It all begins with Jesus Himself on the night of His betrayal.

In the upper room that night Jesus taught His disciples much valuable and eternal truth, and He said in John 15:11, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."

That is a source of all Christian joy.

Jesus said that by His communicating these truths to the disciples they would share in His joy, and their joy would be complete.

Now John is saying that I am now relating to you what we heard that these some truths that gave us fullness of joy might be yours also, and that you too might have fullness of joy.

John is being a channel by which the truths of Christ can be communicated to us.

The important thing for us to see here is that this process of communication must go on.

No link in the chain must be broken.

Jesus shared His joy with the Apostles; the Apostles shared them with the believers of their day, and believers of every age through their writings.

Now, believers of every age must continue to share with those of their generation.

Witnessing is not trying to persuade people to join a society for the promotion of solemnity, and the prevention of hilarity.

On the contrary, we are opening up the very road they are searching for-the road to joy and happiness and abundant life.