Joy

As I have told you many times before, I have developed a process to select sermon speaking passages and themes. I often spend time in prayer and begin to develop a framework for the messages.

This Advent season has been like many others in my planning, but this season has been much different in the delivery.

I guess, God was preaching directly to me and you are coming along to hear the messages. In my journey through the flood situation, I have been learning first Hope, last week Peace, and this week was to be on the topic of Joy.

God News of Great Joy,

has not been my first thought of my personal situation, yet I began this week to sit down and write this sermon.

So I turned to my notes, jots of notes I had developed over a month ago. This was written in my notes,

Joy in the midst of Pain, suffering or grief.

This was written before I knew what was coming, but God did.

So we ask ourselves the question

Can we experience Joy in the midst of Pain.

and if we can, how is that even possible?

Full Disclosure, much of this material and research I found lies in the hands of John Piper. If you would permit me to give some reflections on this topic from what I learned from him.

You now may be wondering Why Joy and suffering.

What part of the Christmas story does this happen.

Let’s turn to today’s text as we study for the preparation for the Christmas Story

Matthew 2:13-18 2:13-18

Matthew 2:13–18 ESV

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Joy in the midst of Grief.

John Piper wrote,

One of the most natural questions in the world is to ask how joy relates to sorrow in our lives.

On Thursday, I had the pleasure of leading a team with Samaritan's Purse. I have been giving a few days of my week to lead a team so that the SP team leader’s can go and do assessments of the homes to determine in what order we serve the people. It has allowed more homes begin reached.

Joy in the midst of Grief.

Our team spent the entire day, walking through a foot of mud in this families basement suite pulling out their mud soaked ruined belongings.

Standing beside this women as she was deciding what was ruined and what could maybe kept and restored.

We had asked her is there anything specific we could find.

Yes, she said, a box of jewelry that was a family heirloom.

I was praying, Lord, help us find this box. The team was searching as well.

around 3:00 out came another pail of stuff. Dumping the contents in the wheelbarrow, I began pulling up mud things. There was a small bag that looked like it should be thrown out and we opened it up. There inside was the box,

Joy in the midst of grief.

For that one moment, her face lit up. We shouted, we found it and there in the middle of the mud, with devastation all around us, there was a loud shout of Praise God.

So today’s text tells us that in midst of the wonderful story of the Christ Child being born, where there is much praising and joy, there were many who were experiencing a different life. Grief. The loss of their child.

I’m going to take a few moments to explore the theme of Joy and Grief and how they exist in our lives.

John wrote:

The Bible reframes happiness for us by [making it more complex]. We tend to think of being happy or sad, but Scripture depicts a sort of happiness in the midst of sadness. In this life we will have trouble, but in this life we will have happiness. And this doesn’t mean being on an emotional yo-yo (even though it will sometimes feel that way), but rather experiencing two things at once: one being the damage caused by sin and the other being the happiness given by God. (emphasis added)

To understand this, scripture puts two different perspectives on the idea. The first would be that there is a progression for Grief then joy.

The second found in scripture is that Joy & Grief are together at the same time in our lives.

To understand this fully, scripture needs to be looked upon as a whole.

And the two different ways are in tension with one another

Why,

you see,

When we are walking down the road of grief, there are many comments given to people.

The first often is, “This time will pass”

Psalm 30:5 ESV

5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Does the Joy follow suffering and grief.

Do we need to experience or go through this time so that Joy will come?

For those Biblical Scholars out there, you may be thinking that this Psalm was written before the NT and therefore was looking for a time this side of the cross and it doesn’t apply.

2 Corinthians 6:10 ESV

10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

In other words, do Christians have a new kind of experience on this side of the cross, which the psalmists did not have on that side of the cross?

What it really boils down to is our theology on this topic.

Can we truly hold to one way or another. Does Joy and grief come at different times or at the same time.

Strategy for Theology

So what is our strategy for our thinking our theology and understand of how we are to live in the midst of our grief.

As John P puts it,

So many times, we make mistakes in biblical thinking because we focus entirely on one group of passages that support something we like, or condemn something we don’t like, and ignore the other passages that seem to say something different. What I have found over decades is that, because the Bible is God’s word, and therefore is consistent and doesn’t contradict itself, there are deeper things to be seen when both groups of texts are put together than if we only focused on one group or the other. The upshot of this approach is that we not only see the deeper unity between the texts, but we see with greater clarity what each group itself means.

So I want to spend the remaining time looking at the two ways scripture address this theme and then draw a few conclusions.

Passages on Joy following Grief

The first set of passages are ones that show a process or step by step working in our lives.

Psalm 30:5 ESV

5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

In some sense, the joy that comes in the morning wasn’t there in the evening of weeping. And presumably the weeping that was there in the evening went away in the morning. That’s a real sequence. And a real experience.

Another Psalm states this

Psalm 126:5–6 ESV

5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! 6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

The picture is that the farmer is weeping while he sows his seed, and then at the harvest, there are shouts of joy. That’s a real sequence: first one, then the other.

John 16:20–22 ESV

20 Truly, 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.

This was one of my thoughts about the Christmas story. We all focus on the Joy of the child being born and forget the pain that Mary would have gone through in delivery.

Jesus was also telling His Disciples that the pain and suffering they experience will bring about Joy in the end.

It’s a sequence

Look at Paul’s thoughts,

Romans 12:15 ESV

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

This is a simple command from the apostle Paul:

“Tearful joy in God will be replaced with tearless joy in God. Painful joy in God will be replaced with painless joy in God.”

In other words, just because Paul says in another place, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4), don’t plan the funeral as though it were a festive wedding. And just because Ecclesiastes 7:2 says, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting,” don’t throw a blanket of gloom on the bride’s joy by bringing your weeping to the wedding celebration. “For everything there is a season . . . a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 4).

In these verses we see them at different times.

The Final verse on the theme of Joy and grief are come at different times is found in John’s word of future events.

Revelation 21:3–4 ESV

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

I am looking forward to this time. No more sorrow, no more pain, no more suffering. No more mud.

These group of text do show that there is a progression of Pain/grief then comes Joy.

If we stick only with these verses, and look at our current situation, we have hope that through all this Joy is coming. It may not be right now, but Joy is coming.

The problem with holding only to this type of theology is this.

We want to move out of grief as quickly as we can because Joy is much better.

In those moments where we are feeling grief, we feel stuck or even thinking what is wrong with us, why do we not have Joy.

We can also have good Christian Brother and sisters say

this is for a short time, and you will learn so much. Joy is coming.

It’s a good thing scripture doesn’t end there because it is not always good to be in this stage.

With this in mind,

Passages for Joy in Sorrow

Now we turn to texts that focus on the simultaneous experience of joy in weeping, joy in pain, joy in sorrow.

Philippians 4:4 ESV

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

ALWAYS

Did you notice that Joy is in the middle of Re-Joy

Paul is describing a heart that is unshaken with Joy even when they are walking down the road of grief.

Its not an “either or” but an “And”

Tears can live alongside of Joy

Lest we think that Paul’s sorrow over the unbelief and the perishing of lost people is perhaps just an occasional interruption to his joy, listen to Romans 9:2–3,

Romans 9:2–3 (ESV)

2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Paul is living the dream.

Rejoicing always yet in the midst of the Joy is having grief.

Great Sorrow unceasing Anguish

Consider just two more passages from Paul about joy in suffering, not just after it.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

This is the most extended probing into the reason why Christians can exult in suffering and not just after it. Suffering, he says, produces the endurance of faith, and when faith survives and flourishes in a crisis of suffering like that, it reveals a character that God approves, and that steadfast approvedness confirms that we are real and strengthens hope, and that hope does not let us down, because it is sustained by the work of the Holy Spirit pouring into our heart the real experience of being loved by God.

Isn’t that amazing?!

The joy is in the process, not the result of the process.

Joy runs parallel with grief. They hare side by side.

2 Corinthians 6:10 ESV

10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

Applying the passages to our lives

We’ve seen two groups of biblical texts:

one group focusing on the fact that rejoicing follows sorrow,

and the other group focusing on the fact that Christian joy is real in sorrow.

For a moment, let’s step back and make three observations that I think make sense out of this, and become really important lessons for living an authentic Christian life.

I’ve taken the following three lesson from John as he relates these scriptures.

Reasons for joy and sorrow can converge.

One of the reasons there can be joy and sorrow simultaneously is that the reasons for each of them are different, and those reasons can both be true together in our experience.

As I mentioned earlier, the face of this women when we found the Jewelry and also her precious cookie cutters, her face changed.

Praising in the midst of grief.

Pain and joy are grounded on different realities.

Pain and loss hurt. And hurt brings physical weeping and emotional sorrow. That’s what pain is. Pain is what causes weeping and sorrow. Christian joy doesn’t mean we don’t feel pain. And when we feel it, tears come. We don’t decide for them to come; they come. And the Bible speaks about that pain in relation to joy in two ways — two real, true ways.

“Nothing can dislodge this boulder of joy in all that God is for us in Jesus.”

When the psalmist says, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5), he means tearful joy in God will be replaced with tearless joy in God. Painful joy in God will be replaced with painless joy in God. The tears will be wiped away, the pain will be healed. You can’t stop pain and tears from coming, but you can keep joy from going.

Because the pain and the joy are grounded on different realities.

They run side by side.

Someone asked me once, you seemed emotional one time all you alright. Yes right now, but wait a moment. Grief and joy are side by side.

Nothing can dislodge our joy in Jesus Christ .

The final observation is this Nothing can dislodge our joy in Christ

John Piper, said it this way,

Picture joy as a great granite boulder on the rugged seacoast of your life. It is solid because it is built out of the sovereignty of God, and the forgiveness of sins, and the preciousness of Christ. God is in charge of what happens to you. There is no condemnation now or forever. And Jesus is an all-satisfying treasure and friend. This is an unshakable boulder of joy — real gladness, real satisfaction in all that God is for you in Jesus.

Pain and grief are real, but cannot displace the Joy that comes from God.

In the midst of the pain of tears will come tearless joy.

Luke 2:14–20 (ESV)

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

.......

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Matthew 2:18 ESV

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

There was a shout of Great joy in the Christmas story, but along side of the story, many were suffering a great loss.

Joy in the midst of Grief

Can we live in this tension, yes.

Can we have joy in the midst of Grief, yes

Folks, for many of us, and those we are reaching out to help we offer up the greatest Joy that can be given, yet in the midst of it there is real grief.

Loss, pain and suffering will draw us to the real Joy Giver.

It is not an “and or” but an “And”

Walking down the two roads, sometimes different sides of the road, sometimes on the same side, they are both there in our lives.

If you right now do not seem to have grief, rejoice all the more.

The world of sin brings about sadness grief, it’s not a prediction or a enjoy it now because a day is coming but a reality.

Joy in the midst of Grief is possible

If we are true to the scripture we can live with this tension.

Sometimes it may be this way Joy comes after grief, but we can also experience and joy in our lives with Grief

In Summary

As the worship team comes forward to lead us in our closing song.

We have the greatest news, the greatest Joy that we can give to people as they may be travelling down the roads right now.

Christmas, our Advent comes to bring about Joy.

Whether it comes in the morning after this has all passed or we live it right now in the midst,

Christ is the sustainor of all our Joy and that is why we can sing this Song.

Response to Worship

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