Christian Joy

Introduction

And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy, inexpressible, and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1, verses 8 and 9. Christian joy. Christian joy is not merely an emotion, it is an attitude. We normally think of joy or happiness as an emotion that goes up with good times and down with bad times. But Christian joy is not an emotion. It is an emotion, but it’s not merely an emotion. It’s an attitude that is based upon hope. Our salvation is the cause of exceeding joy, even in the face of manifold trials that surround us, so that we can greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

We have every reason to rejoice and to be a joyful people.

In fact, we ought to have it, even right now. But sadly, many Christians are lacking in joy. And instead of that picture of the young lady on the opening slide, this is the way that some may end up looking. Rodney Gypsy Smith used to say that you couldn’t get a hallelujah out of some Christians, if you squeezed them through a ringer. And something has happened to us since Pentecost. I don’t quite know what it is, but when you think about the church that was established and the zeal and the joy that they had, and you look at us today, I think we pale in comparison. It is not merely the externals that are important, brethren. And I think we have those down. We take the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week.

And that is not, by the way, merely an external matter. We sing to the Lord. We don’t use instruments. We get that one right. And that’s important. It’s absolutely vital. We use the money of the Lord’s church in the right way. These things are all very, very important. But what about the internals? We say, well, we’re just like the church of the first century. Can you honestly say that? They were turning the world upside down. They were spreading the name of Christ everywhere they went. Is that how we are? I believe that it is a sad sight to look out on many a congregation supposedly engaged in the worship of the Creator of the ends of the earth who look about as miserable as any group on the face of the planet could look.

Singing hallelujah like a funeral dirge. And I’m not saying that that’s the case with this congregation. This is not meant to discourage. It is just saying, why are we so downcast when we ought to be rejoicing? And what a sadness it is to see those who declare themselves to be in Christ, who are identified by their neighbors as Mr. and Mrs. Grouch. Billy Sunday said, if you have no joy in your religion, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhusiastically embrace the call to greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. But before you can really do that, you have to understand where that joy comes from. So first we look at the basis of joy. And I want to begin in 1 Peter 1. And so you might turn your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 1.

1. The Basis of Joy: A Living Hope

And before I actually start reading there, I want to refer to a passage you probably know of in Philippians 4 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. Now that passage doesn’t just say to rejoice, it says it twice, but it says rejoice in the Lord. And so there is a danger here of pop psychology, the idea of just happy go lucky joy. That’s what we need to have. Just be happy. Well, no, it’s so much deeper than that. This is joy in the Lord. That is significant. It might not always appear by your personality that you’re the exuberant, joyful type, but you have that deep joy within you, and you are deeply happy. So, with that understanding, let’s delve into this passage. Now, 1 Peter is in the context of suffering and of patience in that suffering.

And not only that, but of joy in that suffering and in that persecution. And we learn in this passage, verses 3 through 9, in this sweeping doxology at the beginning of 1 Peter, we learn two of the foundations for joy. And the first one is in verses 3 through 5, which is hope. We read there in verse 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now just pause there for a moment. Living hope. Not a dying hope, not a dead hope. Not a hope that goes to the grave with us and ceases to exist when we cease to exist, like the hope of the rest of the world.

But a hope that is real, a hope that will be materialized in heaven, a hope that is based on the promises of the gospel, a living hope. And that’s a powerful thing. You give me a Christian who has no hope, and I’ll give you a Christian who has no joy. And hope is not just a think so. It’s not, well, you know, I hope that we have good weather tomorrow. I hope I go to heaven. You know, we use it in the same way. No, it is confident expectation, a living hope. Verse 4, to attain an inheritance, which is imperishable and undefiled, and which will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. The inheritance is our salvation, and our salvation is reserved. It’s there for us.

And I know that the Bible does not teach once saved, always saved. That’s an important thing for us to realize. But sometimes we become so fixated upon that, we become so fixated on the fact that we can lose our salvation that we forget that there is security for the believer. And we get to a passage like this, and all we preach about is once saved, always saved is not true. Well, this passage is pointing out that we need to have confidence that our salvation is secure. As long as we are faithful, of course. But let us not take away from what it says. And so we need to exalt. We need to rejoice in the fact that our salvation is reserved. You give me a Christian, show me a Christian who doubts his salvation, and I’ll show you a Christian who has no joy.

Why do you think we struggle with joy within the church? There are so many of us. I don’t know if it’s true in this congregation or not, but I know many places I’ve been that people have actually told me, well, I don’t know if I’m going to heaven for sure. They don’t rejoice in the hope of salvation, so they don’t have joy. Verse 5, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Protected. Not only is our inheritance protected, but we as individual Christians are protected, guarded. That is a military term in the Greek. By the power of God, the same power of God that protected Daniel from the lions, that protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace, the same God that protected Paul in all of his suffering and tribulations, is the same power that will protect us and that does protect us for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

2. The Second Basis of Joy: Faith

So, hope, confident expectation. That’s the first basis of joy. The second basis is found in verses 6 through 9, but it’s touched on in verse 5, and that is faith. And we read in verse 6, in this you greatly rejoice. Notice he doesn’t just say rejoice. It’s not a little bit of joy, it’s a lot of it. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials. So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Just pause there for a moment. And so again, the context of 1 Peter is that of suffering, that of persecution.

And so here, even in the face of suffering and persecution, we we have joy. Now you might recall that James, in James chapter 1 and verse 2 says, Brethren, count it all joy when you face various trials. So James regards trials as occasions for joy. Paul admits that trials produce grief. But he says that we can have joy anyway. Happiness for the Christian is defined in a totally different way than happiness for the world. That’s why Jesus could say in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed, which is a word that means happy, are the poor in spirit. Those who mourn, the gentle, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, let them rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for their reward is in heaven.

Happy are those people who are humble and meek and serving God and even suffering. In 2007, my grandfather on my mother’s side of the family passed away. And the following Sunday, I was at church with my granny. And I was sitting in the pew right in front of her, toward the back is where she always sits. Chances Crossroads congregation in Coleman, Alabama. And I just turned around before services began. I said, Granny, I’m so sorry that Papa died. And she just looked at me with pain behind her eyes, but her lips curled in a sweet smile.

And she said, This is the day of the Lord. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad in it. And that struck me because she was hurting deeply inside when she said that. And that’s what Christian joy is. It is not simply reserved for the person of fortunate circumstance. But it is available to all of us who trust in Jesus Christ, regardless of our circumstance. Continuing in verse 8, and though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. And so you notice here that it isn’t only that faith leads to our salvation, but in verse 8, it leads to our joy now.

Because we believe in him, we greatly rejoice. And notice that Peter doesn’t merely say you rejoice. You believe in him and you rejoice. He says, You greatly rejoice. But more than that, he says, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible. I mean, it’s something that you how can you explain this joy? It’s incomprehensible. And we can’t even explain it how wonderful it is. And not only does he say that, he says, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. The glory of having salvation. That’s a lot of joy, brethren. That is a lot of joy. And notice that he doesn’t say, You must greatly rejoice. And if you don’t, you’re sinning. He doesn’t say you may greatly rejoice. He just says you greatly rejoice. He states it as a fact.

3. We Find Joy in the Spirit

That if you’re a Christian who truly trusts in Jesus and who has hope, then what is the natural outcome? You greatly rejoice. You see? It is not a command, it is a result. Joy is not a command, it is a result. So we have hope and we have faith. Now you might expect the next one to be love, because that’s the Trinity, the three words we normally put together, 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 13. But actually, love is nowhere here in this particular context. And the thing I want to point out next is that we find joy in the Spirit. In Galatians chapter 5, you know the passage where beginning in verse 16, Paul is contrasting the works of the flesh with walking in the spirit.

And after he lists out the works of the flesh, he says, beginning in verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This is the fruit of the Spirit. Notice it’s not the fruits of the Spirit, but the fruit. So the fruit of the Spirit. God is not interested in producing within us eight ninths of the fruit of the Spirit. He is interested in producing within us the fruit of the Spirit. And joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit. It’s right next to joy, it’s the second one listed. I mean, it’s right next to love. It’s the second one listed. Love, joy. It’s important. And so if we plant within our hearts the garden of the Holy Spirit, and it grows within our hearts, and we take care and we tend to that garden as we should, it will produce what it should produce.

4. Six Behaviors of Joy

It will produce joy as one of the parts of this fruit. And as I said, if you have no joy in your religion, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere. If we find ourselves irritable and unhappy people, maybe we are not filled with the Spirit. We’ll talk more about this filled with the Spirit in a moment. It is very closely connected with joy. Well, once we understand this basis of joy, it is based on hope, faith, and being filled with the Spirit. And once we have obtained that joy, then how does a person with joy behave? What kind of things does a person with joy do? I want to give you just six things. And we’re going to go to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5.

In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 18, Paul says, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. By the way, this is a parallel passage to Colossians 3.16 that says, Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Same exact context, parallel passages. So when we let the word of Christ dwell within us, we are letting the Spirit dwell within us. His will is within us, and in that sense, he is speaking to us. When we have an impulse to do the will of God, that Spirit within us, that word that we have put in us, is doing what it should do. We have to act on that impulse. And so what does a person filled with the Spirit do?

He works miracles. What does a person fill with the Spirit do? You see, it’s nothing, you know, mysterious. It’s nothing supernatural. Verse 19, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. That’s what a person who is joyful does and filled with the Spirit. He sings. It’s a joyful thing. Sing out. It doesn’t matter if you can’t carry a tune in a bucket. Sing anyway. My father is a music teacher and told me about a song leader who can, when he sings, it’s two different pitches coming out at the same time. And he never knew which one to follow. Well, it doesn’t matter. You know, that fellow, he tried anyway. You know, maybe he shouldn’t be a song leader.

I don’t know, but he didn’t let that slow him down. Sing out. The Lord hears the melody of your heart. It’s like Psalm 100 in verses 1 and 2. Shout joyfully to the Lord. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with joyful singing. And not only in the assembly, but when we are with other Christians in our homes, or when we are with our family, or when we’re all alone. Sing songs of praise to God. As we pointed out a lesson or two ago, as I did, Paul and Silas and Philippi in Acts chapter 16, when they were on the jail floor in stocks, which means a method of torture, which probably means laid flat on their back. What are they doing in the middle of the night?

They are singing, but what kind of songs are they singing? Songs of praise to God. That’s what a person who is joyful does regardless of the circumstance. A second behavior of joy is giving thanks. Giving thanks. And we see this in the following verse here in Ephesians 5 and in verse 20, when it says, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father. Always giving thanks for all things. Let me ask you, when’s the last time you gave thanks for that job that you hate? Or that car that always breaks down. Or that spouse you might not be getting along with, or in laws you might not be getting along with. Or children that might not be behaving the way they should.

You see, my point is we need to change our attitude towards those things so we don’t view them that way. And we have an attitude that says, I’m going to rejoice and I’m going to give thanks for all things. And in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 19, when it says, do not quench the spirit. We talked about this on Wednesday night. That part of what that means is when you have that impulse to do a good thing and a right thing that is a result of having filled your heart with the Spirit and been filled with it. If you do not act on that impulse, you are quenching the Spirit. When you have an impulse to give thanks, what should you do? Turn on your iPhone and play minion rush or whatever.

No. You need to pray and to give thanks to the Father. A third behavior of joy is that joy does not complain. I’m going to now introduce you to the book of Philippians, which I’m sure you know is the most joyful book in the Bible. It is only four short chapters, but we have the word joy mentioned seven times besides the times that we have the words rejoice and rejoicing. It’s phenomenal. And Paul writes this from Roman imprisonment, this letter of joy to the Philippians. And so it’s a very practical thing to go through Philippians, and you can learn a lot of lessons about what does a joyful person do? How do they think? Paul tells us, because he’s a joyful person. And in Philippians chapter 2 and in verse 14, do all things without grumbling or disputing.

What things? All things. No complaining. If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything. You know, that’s a truism, and then it’s biblical. So often it is not our unhappiness that generates our complaining, it’s the other way around. It’s our complaining that generates our unhappiness so often. And the more we complain, then the more miserable we become. Maybe we should try to challenge ourselves to just go 24 hours without complaining about a single thing. Just try this. Try to go the rest of today.

Without complaining about anything. You know, you might come to be surprised how cynical of a people we become. We complain about everything. We complain about the government. We complain about the wrongs that people do to us. We complain about our job. Complain, complain, complain. That’s all we talk about sometimes. Shame on us when we do that. A joyful person doesn’t do that. There are two kinds of people. Those who cause happiness wherever they go, and those who cause happiness whenever they go. You don’t want to be in that second category. A fourth behavior of joy is it is anxious for nothing. It is not anxious. And this is only separated one verse away from Philippians 4 and verse 4 that says, rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say, rejoice. He then says, let your gentleness be made known to all men. And then he says in verse 7, be anxious for nothing. Or in verse 6, be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer, supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Verse 7. So be anxious for nothing. Show me a Christian who doesn’t worry, and I’ll show you a Christian who is joyful. Show me a Christian who is anxious, and I’ll show you a Christian who cannot find joy. Number five. Joy thinks on good things. Philippians 4 and verse 8 says, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are pure, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

And in the Greek, it would literally read, be thinking on these things. It doesn’t mean to sit down once in a while in a lotus position and meditate on some things. No, it means to let this be your habit and your manner of thinking, to think on good and pure things all the time. If you find yourself miserable as a Christian, ask yourself what you’re filling your mind with. All those negative things that you’re complaining about, maybe. If you watch a lot of TV, what are you watching a lot of? If you listen to a lot of music, what are you listening to a lot of? Whatever you fill your mind with, that’s going to affect your spirit and your attitude, and it’s going to determine whether you’re going to be a joyful person or a cynical one.

Fill your mind with good things. Think on these things that are pure and lovely and of good report and praiseworthy and so on. On a regular basis. And finally, on this point, joy is content in any circumstance. We know that Paul said in this same chapter in verse 11, not that I speak from want, but I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. And he goes on in verse 12. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. I’ve learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both having abundance and suffering need. We preached on this two weeks ago. Paul is not saying, since I’m in prison and I have no other choice, I’m learning to be content with what I have.

5. Benefits of Christian Joy: Effectiveness, Influence, Strength

He’s saying, I don’t care whether I have a lot or little, I’m learning how to be content. Truth of the matter is, not only can you learn to be content in whatever state you are, you can learn to be miserable in whatever state you are as well. It is an attitude. Paul found his happiness in the Lord, and that’s why he said in verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So these are six behaviors of joy. Joy sings, gives thanks, does not complain, is anxious for nothing, thinks on good things, and is content in any circumstance. And I dropped the thing and I’m stepping on it, so I’m going to pick it up. Now, once you have this joy and you are behaving this way, there are some tremendous benefits that will result from having Christian joy.

And I’ll be very brief. I know our time is basically spent, but that’s not all my fault. I got up here a little bit late.

Thomas Carlyle says, wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness and its power of endurance. The cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it better, and will persevere in it longer than the sad or souling. You want to get things done? Be a joyful person. You want to have a mind to work, be a joyful person. So effectiveness. A joyful heart makes a cheerful face. But when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken. Broken spirit doesn’t get much done. Broken spirit is paralyzed. David prayed in the 51st Psalm Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. To be lacking in joy is to be paralyzed in your spiritual walk.

But to have joy is to be lit on fire. And so effectiveness. What else can be a benefit from joy? Charles Spurgeon said more flies are attracted to a jar of honey than they are to a bottle of vinegar. If you want to be attractive to others in the faith, be a joyful person. You’ll be a jar of honey. You want to ward people off, then be lacking in joy. You’ll be a bottle of vinegar. So we’re talking here about influence. The German philosopher Frederick Nietzsche said scornfully about Christians of his day, I would believe in their salvation if they looked a little bit more, a little more like people who have been saved. Do we look like people have been saved? Do we act like people have been saved?

Do we talk like people have been saved? I mean, think about it, brethren. Eternal life. Without anything bad. In the presence of God the Father and of Jesus Christ, with pleasures untold. That’s a thousand times better than winning the lottery. You can’t hold anything on earth in comparison to that. We have that. I mean, shouldn’t we look like we have that? Do we really believe that the gospel is the good news? Do people see that within us, or is it kind of the dreadful news? What was the early church like? We say we want to imitate the early church. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord was adding their number day by day those who are being saved. You see the direct connection between their joy, their influence, and the saving of others. Why isn’t evangelism working in the church today? We don’t have enough joy. Can I get an amen? We get more joy, the church will grow by leaps and bounds. I believe that. I really believe that with all my heart. So, effectiveness, influence, and thirdly, strength. It’s another benefit of joy. In the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah comes to encourage the people to rebuild the walls, to lead the people, to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that have been destroyed. And they do that in chapter 6. It is finally done. The walls are rebuilt. In chapter 7, the people are numbered.

We have a census there. And then in chapter 8, Nehemiah reads the law of Moses to the people. And what is their response? They begin to weep. They are grieved about their sin. They are ready to repent. And he comforts them at the end of verse 10 of chapter 8, saying, Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Brethren, do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. You want to have strength? You want to have motivation to push you outside of the bounds of your comfort zone and to push you to the next level to lead you to lead a life of righteousness. Joy is a powerful motivator to do that. Grief is too. Fear is too, but I think joy is ten times more effective.

Conclusion

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again, and from joy over it, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Those are the words of our Lord. Well, as I said in the introduction, joy is not reserved simply for heaven. It’s something we can have now. But the truth of the matter is, our ultimate joy is reserved for heaven. As it was even for Jesus, who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It was that joy set before him that motivated him to go through what he went through. And so if we are going to imitate our Jesus, if we’re going to fix our eyes upon him, the author and source, the perfecter of our faith, then we’re going to do what our Lord did, and we’re going to look ultimately to heaven for our joy and for our fulfillment.

And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Obtaining is the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Would you bow with me in prayer? Our God and Father, we praise your name. We thank you for the joy that is in the Lord. May we grasp that joy and hang on to it, and may it show itself evident in our everyday walk of life. Through your Son, we pray. Amen. We will now be dismissed to Bible class.