ESGAL10 Fruit of the Spirit Part 4 Joy
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
“These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
This evening we are looking at the second part of the fruit of the spirit which is joy.
And joy is most discovered when times are hard rather than when we are on the mountain tops. Joy is proof of the Holy Spirit’s work in us when all is going wrong and nothing is going right – it is the unnatural response to disaster! This means, therefore, it is the spiritual response. And, of course, we are joyful when things are going well, [when we come back from a great camp, when we have seen people saved, when we know we have been used of God and after a particular great worship session]. Joy is the second fruit mentioned. Love, the first one mentioned, should clearly be seen between us together and between ourselves and God. And Joy, in the same way, should be evident in the same way; between us and ourselves and God.
Now I am not talking about plastic smiles and fake happiness but, actually, most of the time we should have the joy and whilst it is deep in our hearts it should also show itself outwardly. It should be our attitude to be joyful! Do we look like those who have no purpose and no hope in our lives for today and the rest of eternity or do we look like those who have good news?
Joy is an inward attitude whose source is God. It is present even when things are going wrong because it is not dependent upon our circumstances but entirely upon God. It is found in delighting ourselves in God.
Nehemiah says in 8:10b: Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Again I will say; joy is not dependent upon our circumstances
Let’s hear what Paul thought about his circumstances:
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
What does he call his light affliction? He alludes to it a short time later in same letter talking of the things that happened to him:
But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
You might wonder how it is possible to have joy in such circumstances but, in fact, as God’s people, we are told to have joy, as James says in:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
It is in the hardest times that joy is revealed. It is when we remember, as Peter tells us, that we have a living hope, an inheritance and because of this we can have joy no matter what is happening in the here and now. Our faith will get tested but we have joy inexpressible because we will have the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls when we see Jesus. It is when Paul was in prison, again, that he wrote the letter to the Philippians where we get the most famous verse in the Bible on joy:
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
We might think that this must of just been Paul’s natural state but I guarantee you it was not. It was always a choice. Of course, we have another choice which is the most natural one especially for Brits, the one of complaining. Complaining is the opposite of joy. Have we become a sour puss? Have our hearts hardened? Joy or complaining - the choice is ours.
Jesus tells is to have joy:
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man’s sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.
Whether it seems that the enemy is winning or has actually won a battle in our lives we can still rejoice because the enemy has already lost the war. If we are down because of things we have done, we can rejoice we are forgiven. If we are down because of what others have done we can rejoice because in the end God’s justice will prevail and because we have forgiven.
Throughout Scripture we are given examples of joy winning the day. King Jehoshaphat, of Old Testament fame and one of the very good kings, experienced this when they praised God going out to battle, rejoicing in His name despite the overwhelming odds and massive army arrayed against him. God turned the battle on its head for the battle was the Lord’s. The things of this life are still controlled or allowed by God and we can rejoice because He is sovereign, the One who is in charge and though it may not seem it at the time God will come through in the end. The battle is the Lord’s.
It may all seem depression even in the Church when we see little fruit, few coming to faith in Christ, but joy is a choice:
Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.
To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.
Life is not a garden of roses. Let me tell you about:
N. B. Vandall, a singer and evangelist, was rushed to the hospital to discover that his son Paul had just been struck by a car and was critically injured. The doctor held out very little hope for recovery. Mr. Vandall recalled:
For one hour and fifteen minutes, I held on in prayer while they cleaned and sewed up the head wounds and set the broken bones. Wearily I made my way back to my humble home. I tried to comfort my wife, when, in my own heart, I had no assurance. I fell on my knees and tried to pray, saying only, “O God!”
Hardly had those words been uttered when God came. It seemed to me that Jesus knelt by my side and I could feel His arms around me as He said, “Never mind, my child. Your home will be visited with tribulation and sorrow, but in the afterwards to come, these things shall not be. Your home is in heaven, where all tears shall be wiped away!”[1]
This life is fleeting and we don’t have time to waste being consumed by our troubles. We are to seek first the Kingdom of God, we are to seek eternal things. Yes, I am not taking away from how difficult this is, and I am not talking about being unrealistic nor am I talking about pretending nothing is wrong but what I am saying is that we have to decide. Will we hope in God or go down to despair.
Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
It is odd how this sermon is about joy yet so much of it is in relation to suffering. If this sermon was on suffering so much of it would be about joy!
Jesus, of course, is the supreme example. If He was not able to be joyous despite His circumstances then what we are told to do amounts to fraud. But Jesus does live up to expectations. For the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross…and it never ceases to amaze me that His joy is us. He endured suffering and shame for us who are His joy.
How do we know it is us who are His joy?
He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
Let me ask you this: who is the one rejoicing?
The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
God actually sings! So, surprisingly, the cross is actually a time of rejoicing for God as well as an interruption of the everlasting fellowship – the darkest moment of human history when we turned upon the one who had created us, the Word of God – and were the cause of the greatest suffering any one person has ever suffered – and Jesus did this willingly, with joy, because we were going to be the reward of His work!
The Gospel then should cause us joy.
Did you watch TV in 2013 when they announced the birth of a new King? Prince George was born and the joy in the streets was palpable. The future King is now with us! And we joined in the joy that was Kate and William’s.
Yet, we have a greater King, with greater good news, greater grace, a greater work through the cross, a greater gift in eternal life where we will reign with Him when in due course He will come to take us to be with Him.
It is clear that we should be full of joy when we remember all that God has done for us in salvation. When we remember his promises to us and that we have been given life to the full and that we have every spiritual blessing that is in Christ and that He is with us through thick and thin.
If joy is our attitude it leaves very little room for complaining.
We can have confidence that He whom we believe is worthy of being trusted. John and the others were eye-witnesses and had even touched Jesus which is why he wrote his first epistle where he says: ‘I write these things that you joy may be full’. Our faith is not baseless but on verifiable facts. Our joy is not baseless because He is going to come and take us to be where He is.
We rejoice in God because He is the source of life, the source of joy…it is because of Him that we can cope with everyday life.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
This joy is for us now not just for when we die.
We are to rejoice!
This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Let me finish with Vandall, the man we heard about whose son had a car accident; he wrote this hymn soon afterwards:
Verse 1:
After the toil and the heat of the day, After my troubles are past, After the sorrows are taken away, I shall see Jesus at last.
Verse 2:
After the heartaches and sighing shall cease, After the cold winter's blast, After the conflict comes glorious peace: I shall see Jesus at last.
Verse 3:
After the shadows of evening shall fall, After my anchor is cast. After I list to my glorious peace, I shall see Jesus at last.
Chorus:
He will be waiting for me, Jesus, so kind and true. On His beautiful throne He will welcome me home After the Day is through.
As a postscript; You’ll be glad to know his son survived the accident and recovered somewhat with some minor disability.
[1] Osbeck, K. W. (1996). Amazing grace: 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions (p. 227). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.
Benediction
Benediction
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.