The Joy of Our Salvation
Philippians 4:1-9
Have you ever met really sour person? That is, a person who has a sour personality. Sour people, worry about the weather, complain about the community, fret over finances, and grump about their jobs. They take life very seriously and rarely crack a smile. What about Christians? Have you ever met a sour Christian? Zig Ziglar says there are far too many sour Christians who walk around with a long face and short pocketbook. After spending time with sour people, you leave feeling like you have just been sucking on raw lemons. Consequently, we avoid sour people, because they spill their vinegar everywhere they go.
What about you? Have you ever been a sour Christian? I think if we are honest must of us will probably admit t hat from time to time we often emit a strong sour flavor. Many of us aren’t always grumpy or sour, but we worry and complain a lot. And the majority of us are not really sour we are simply bland. Our normal way of living is flavorless and tasteless. We just go about our routines passing the time.. We are neither happy nor sad, we just simply are. But that is not the way God intended Christians to live. In fact that’s not the way he intended anyone to live.
God wants us to be joyful. He wants us to live sweet and fresh lives. God wants us to rejoice in the Lord always because he longs for us to have a joyful life. Joy is central in a life of faith. Part of being a Christian is being joyful.
That is a strong statement. Is joy really central to the Christian life? Is joy the norm? These past two weeks I’ve really been struggling with this passage. Heck last night I was struggling with it. It is divine irony that I was cleaning up my son’s throw-up at 2:00 in the morning before preaching a sermon on joy. Surely Paul doesn’t mean that we are supposed to rejoice always? We think, it’s o.k. to get excited about our faith every once and a while, but always? This must be one of those passages like women covering their heads, or slaves obeying their masters. Paul can’t really mean that Christians are to be joyful always, can he? As I dug deep into the scriptures, it is clear that joy is central to our faith. Rejoicing is a consistent theme for the lives of the saints. It is consistent in the Old Testament. Here is just a sampling. 1 Chron 16:10 says “let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” Psalm 32:11 says, “Rejoice in the Lord and be glad.” Isaiah 61:10 says, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.” And Zeph. 3:14, this morning’s assurance of pardon, says “sing O daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart.” The Old Testament calls saints to rejoice.
The same is true for the saints in the New Testament. In 1 Thes. 5:16 Paul says, “Rejoice always.” In 2 Cor. 13:11 he says, “Finally Brothers, rejoice. Aim for perfection.” And Paul is not the only one, Peter writes in his first letter “rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” And Jesus Himself in Luke 10:20 tells his disciples to “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Yes, the Bible is full of commands to rejoice. From Scripture we learn that having joy, rejoicing, is part of the normal Christian life. It is a central component in our faith.
So why is it so difficult to rejoice? Why do we have so much trouble when Paul tells us to “be joyful always?” Let me offer three reasons we have so much trouble rejoicing, three obstacles to our joy. First, joy doesn’t come naturally. Because of our sinful nature, we are much more likely to see the trouble in the world than the good things. We are quickly angry when someone cuts us off in traffic but we slow to be thankful when people are courteous drivers. We grumble when a server at a restaurant and brings cold food, but we rarely celebrate those servers who do an excellent job. We are quick to protest when a teacher mistakenly gives us a lower grade, but we don’t respond with gratitude when they have grace on our errors. It is hard to rejoice because we expect that things should always go our way. So, we are quickly offended when they don’t. It’s part of our nature to complain, rejoicing doesn’t come naturally.
Second, our culture keeps us from expressing joy we otherwise might have. In our society genuine expressions of joy are only acceptable under limited circumstances. It’s O.K. to celebrate a victorious sports team, or a wedding, or maybe even a newborn baby, but joy isn’t very acceptable in most other contexts. The news shows countless bad stories, but only occasionally do we hear positive news, and then it’s usually some warm and fuzzy human-interest story. But I think the biggest obstacle to joy in our culture is materialism. Companies constantly tell us about the latest game system, the newest music player, and most innovative home appliance. They tell us that if we buy something new, then we will be happy. When we are bombarded by all of that new and great stuff, we start to feel a little gloomy about what we have. Our house starts to look small, our toys seem a little boring, and our cars begin to feel a little like a clunker.
Let me share a recent experience which illustrates this. A few months ago Jenny and I walked into a men’s store that was having a going out of business sale. I wanted a new suit. The woman who helped us was wonderful. She was excited about the clothing and was thrilled we came in. She brought out not one suit, but two. The first was a fairly conservative, traditional brown suit. It was a very nice suit and fit my needs perfectly. The second suit she brought out was gorgeous. It was a trendy dark suit with purple pinstripes. Our sales lady was very excited about it and kept telling us how good it looked on me. “This suit was made for you,” she said. She assured us that we would be happy to have it and that it wouldn’t go out of style. Jenny and I spent a long time admiring it. We marveled at how good it looked on me. We wanted that suit. But it just didn’t fit into our budget. When we only purchased the first suit the sales woman was surprised, and she seemed genuinely disappointed for us. Now, I know we made the right decision, but I was sad that we didn’t buy both suits. Instead of being happy that I had a brand new suit, for an excellent price, all I could think about was that trendy beautiful suit that I didn’t buy. In fact I still catch myself being sad about that other suit from time to time. Materialism sucks us in and sucks out our joy.
The third reason that rejoicing is difficult for us is that we spiritualize the commands to rejoice. In our religious way we argue that joy and happiness really don’t have much to do with each other. We argue that when it says to rejoice, it has little to do with feeling happy, but it means to know that a deep sense of inner peace and security. That is not right. Joy is an emotion; it is an expression of pleasure. We are right that joy is not the same thing as being happy. Joy is certainly more than happiness. But joy is not less than happiness. You can’t mope around as a sour, Eyore Christian, complaining worrying and argumentative and claim that deep down inside you are actually rejoicing. Either we are joyful or we are not. Now joy, is not a happy-slappy Christianity where everything is always wonderful and troubles never come our way. No, Paul wasn’t thrilled to be in prison – he prayed for deliverance – but even as he awaited deliverance, he sang praises to God in the dungeon in Philippi. Nor does the call to be joyful always means we should constantly be singing praises. But it means that expressions of joyful pleasure are supposed to be a regular and normal part of our every day lives. When Scripture speaks of joy, it always refers to an action; it refers to an expression of pleasure. Let’s not spiritualize joy away.
So, if God calls us to be joyful, and we have such a difficult time rejoicing, how can we rejoice? What will bring us to live joyfully? Paul tells us here in verse 4. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” We are not called to rejoice in our situation, in our circumstances, or in our possessions, but we are called to rejoice in the Lord. What Paul means is that we are called to rejoice “under the control of the Lord.” The source of our joy, the only thing really worth rejoicing about is the Grace of our Lord. His grace is truly good news, it is the Gospel. One source of rejoicing is God’s past grace. You and I were sinners, we were rebels and aliens. We were hell-bound pleasure seekers going our own way. But God, in His rich love sent His son Jesus. God did not leave us in our sins but sent us a savior to rescue us and redeem us. Yes, God’s past grace is a genuine source of joy. Another source of grace is God’s present grace. Because of Jesus’ resurrection and victory over sin, we no longer are slaves to sin. Today, this very hour, we have the ability and pleasure of living in a right relationship with God. And we are not alone in this world. God has sent His Holy Spirit to fill us and live in us. That is good news. God’s spirit dwells in us. Yes, God’s present grace a genuine source of joy. And God’s future grace is also a source of joy. Jesus is coming back someday. He is coming to redeem the entire creation. There will be no more pain, no more sorrow, no more suffering, and no more sin. Jesus is coming back and will reign forever and ever. That is good news. No wonder the angels told the shepherds, “I bring you good news of Great joy. A savior has been born, he is Christ the Lord.” No matter what our circumstance is there is always reason to rejoice “in the lord.” We are able to rejoice in Him when we remember his past, present and future grace.
What else does it mean to rejoice “in the Lord?” Lets look to the text again. Paul commands us to rejoice. It is a call to action. Notice that this is one in a whole list of commands that Paul gives. In verse 1 he says, stand firm, in verse 2 he says, agree with each other, in verse 4 he tells us to rejoice, in verse 6 Paul tells us to pray, in verse 8 he tells us to think about noble things, and in verse 9 he tells us to put his teaching into practice. So joy is an act of the will; we must choose to rejoice in the Lord. It takes conscious effort, especially in our culture, to remember God’s grace, and respond with pleasure. Now, I am very well aware that many Christians, probably even some in this room struggle with depression. I don’t want to belittle that struggle. Depression is real, and it doesn’t make you any less of a Christian. But that’s a message for another day. For most of us, we are able and called to respond to the Lord’s grace with joy. We must will to focus on the source of joy, God’s grace.
One final note about rejoicing “in the Lord.” Joy is ultimately a gift from God. It is not something we can well up in our own hearts just because we want to. Galatians 5 tells us that Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. On our own, we cannot manufacture joy. But because the Holy Spirit dwells within believers, He enables us to respond with joy in all circumstances. Because we followers of Jesus Christ have received the good news, because we have accepted the grace of Jesus Christ, we have the Spirit dwelling in our hearts, and the Spirit enables us to be joyful.
When we chose to live a joyful life, there are some wonderful benefits, for us and for others. First the benefits for those who live joyfully. There are many, but I’m just going to focus on the ones in this text. Notice where verse four falls within the text, it is in Paul’s exhortations about standing firm in the Lord. When we have joy in the Lord we are less likely to fall into temptation and sin because we know the richness and joy that is in the Lord. When we have joy in Him we see Satan’s lies as the tarnished filth they really are. Living joyfully in the Lord also helps to resolve Conflicts (like the one between Euodia and Syntice). When we rejoice in the Lord, we don’t have time to argue with fellow Christians, we are too caught up in His grace. And when we rejoice in the Lord it helps to alleviate anxiety by driving us to prayer. Those who are joyful don’t have time to fret and worry about the troubles of life, instead they take their concerns to the Lord, with thankful hearts in prayer. That is where the deep peace that surpasses all understanding comes from. It comes from those who go to the Lord in prayer in times of trouble.
Living joyfully also benefits those who see our lives, especially non-Christians. Notice Paul’s statement immediately following the command to rejoice. “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” This is the principle that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Sour Christians, and even bland Christians are difficult to be around. We tend to avoid such people. When non-Christians encounter them, they think, “If that is what Christians are like, I want no part of it.” But when we respond to God’s grace with joy we spread the good news of the Gospel. We are attractive to other Christians and to non-Christians. It is not normal to be joyful and when we are other people are attracted to the sweet flavor of Christ in our lives. Living joyfully benefits others as well as ourselves.
We rejoice during the Advent season. We celebrate Jesus first coming, his present comings, and his future coming. In our world it is hard to remember all of that, especially during our commercialized Christmas. But Christmas does provide a sweet, savory reminder of God’s grace, something that will help us to rejoice. The Candy Cane. Now I’m sure that some of you have heard of the legend of the Candy Cane about how the Candy cane was made by a candy maker in Indiana as tool for evangelism, or as a secret symbol for persecuted Christians in medieval Europe. Those are legends. But even so the Candy Cane can still remind us of the joy of Christmas. It is shaped like a shepherd’s crook to remind us of the Great Shepherd who rescues us from trouble and cares for our every need. It is hard as a reminder that Jesus is the rock of our Salvation. It is flavored with peppermint, which is similar to the Biblical Hyssop –which reminds us that we have been cleansed from sin. It is white which reminds us of the purity of Jesus Christ. It has one thick red stripe which reminds us of Jesus blood Shed for us, and three small stripes to symbolize his suffering. Hopefully, this common symbol of Christmas won’t be so common for you this year. I pray that as you enjoy sweet candy canes this year, that they will remind you of the joy we have in our lord Jesus Christ. So that we may not be sour, or bland, but a sweet presence of the good news of Jesus Christ.
Let me close today with a quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that great 19th Century preacher. “Rejoice, you who feel that you are lost; your Savior comes to seek and save you. Be of godo cheer, you who are in prison, for he comes to set you free. You who are famished and ready to die, rejoice that he has consecrated for you a Bethlehem, a house of bread, and he has come to be the Bread of Life to your souls. Rejoice O sinners everywhere for the restorer of the castaways, the Savior of the fallen is born.”