Sermon

We’re continuing our summer sermon series on the Fruit of the Spirit, the nine virtues, the nine behaviors that the apostle Paul says mark the Christian life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we put off the old life, filled with the acts of the sinful nature, Paul says that we then fill ourselves with these virtues, which we put in action as we live out our new, abundant life in Jesus Christ. Last week we saw the foundational virtue in this list, agape love – an unselfish, unconquerable love which perseveres in spite of circumstances. Life in the Holy Spirit means a life of this divine love for God and for each other. But today, we will see that life in the Spirit also means a life of joy, the second of the virtues that make up the Spirit’s fruit.

And like with the word “love”, we must spend some time defining that word “joy”. For many think that joy is synonymous with happiness, when in reality, joy and happiness are two entirely different things. Our English word “happiness” comes from the Anglo-Saxon root hap, which means “chance” or “fortune”. Hence, we also say that something happens, or that there is a happening. Therefore, happiness is based on what happens in life, upon the circumstances of our living. I am happy when someone gives me a piece of coconut crème pie, or when gas dips below $2.00/gallon, or when new episodes of Lost come back on television. Conversely, I am unhappy when I have to eat cabbage, when gas is above $4.00/gallon, or when I have to wait six months before the events of the Lost season finale are explained. Happiness is entirely dependant upon what happens to me, upon the circumstances of my life. Happiness is fleeting, and often cannot be predicted or depended upon.

Joy, on the other hand, is not tied to our life circumstances. Joy is not dependant upon the whims of chance or fate, even if such whims actually existed. Joy is a Christian virtue grounded in something else entirely, for it is grounded in the character and the actions of our Lord God – and those are things that are constant. The author Philip Keller writes that joy “throbs throughout the Scriptures as a profound, compelling quality of life that surmounts and transcends the events and disasters which may dog God’s people. Joy is a divine dimension of living not shackled by circumstances”.[1] And this explains all the times when Scripture tells us to be joyful in the midst of our sufferings – for joy is not dependant upon things going well for me in life. Consider the following: Jesus tells us in the Beatitudes “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12, NIV, emphasis added). Or consider our second Scripture reading for today, in which James says “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:2-3, NIV).

How is this possible? How is it possible to have joy in the midst of suffering, trials and pain? It’s possible if we know and trust the Lord God. We can have joy, for we know that even if life is bad, God is still good. We know and love Him – and we therefore know that He knows and loves us. We know that God is at work in our lives. We know that He brings good even out of the very worst situations, that He redeems suffering and makes us better people because of it. We know, therefore, that suffering is temporary and that it is not meaningless – for the Lord cares for us and delights in us. He has agape love for us, and therefore will seek what is best for us. After all, this is the God who was willing to come to earth to die for us, just so that we may live. Is it any wonder that when the angels appeared to announce His birth, they told the shepherds that they have “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10, NIV)? That same joy is ours, my friends – a constant, sustaining delight which carries us through and helps us to persevere and more. Joy brings us to a place which is more than survival, more than existence; joy brings us to full, abundant life in the Lord, whose character and love for us are constant.

And we see this in our first Scripture reading for today. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah tell the story of God’s people returning from exile in Babylon to the Promised Land. After seventy years of living in shame and suffering in a foreign land, God’s people returned to rebuild their shattered existence. In Ezra we read of the rebuilding of the Temple; Nehemiah tells of the miraculous rebuilding of Jerusalem’s defensive wall, which amazingly took only fifty-two days. But more rebuilding was needed – the rebuilding of the city itself, and a rebuilding of their lives, particularly their spiritual lives. And so, we read in chapter eight of the people assembling to hear Ezra the priest reading the Law of God. They stood for six hours, listening. And when they heard of all that the Law required, all they did not do, the people’s first reaction was to weep. But Nehemiah told them to stop their weeping; he said that instead they were to take joy in the Lord, who loved them and forgave them. “Do not grieve”, Nehemiah said in one of the most beautiful verses of Scripture, “for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10, NIV). Even in the midst of suffering, grief and overwhelming work, the joy of the Lord has the power to strengthen us and carry us through. Even in situations like Nehemiah’s, and even when we feel how unworthy we are, it is still possible to delight in the Lord, to lift our hearts to Him, and to rejoice.

That may sound very strange to some of us. We may never have experienced this kind of thing, this new, abundant life in the Lord which transcends our earthly circumstances. But my friends, the good news today is that this life of love and joy, this life in the Spirit, is ours for the taking! It’s ours as a gift of God, because of the work of Jesus Christ our Savior and in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the fullness of salvation which God gives to us. But this is also a fruit; we exercise this, we produce this as we live into God’s precious gift. And sometimes that means that we deliberately choose this way of life, friends. When life threatens to overwhelm us, we need to choose to live in joy. Consider the example of the apostle Paul – in Acts 16, we read of Paul and Silas imprisoned in the jail in the city of Philippi for disturbing the peace. Any normal person would be pretty down at that point. But Luke tells us that around midnight, as they were chained in that dark prison, Paul and Silas were singing hymns, praising God for His goodness and faithfulness (Acts 16:25).

Friends, we can live like this, too! We can choose to “praise our way through” times of trial. We can give thanks to God and be joyful in the midst of our sufferings, knowing that even in spite of how things may be today, God is still God, God is still good, God still loves us, and God will carry us through to a better, greater, more abundant life. That doesn’t take away the pain, of course. That doesn’t make the bad stuff good. But it does help us to triumph over it all. It gives us victory. It helps us to rise above life’s tragedies rather than being defined by those tragedies. It keeps us from despair and bitterness, giving us instead life and fullness. But we have to remember to trust God in the midst of suffering. We have to remember to rejoice, even as we suffer. It’s an attitude, a discipline, a fruit we produce which says that we won’t let the Enemy steal away our joy.

Do you want this in your own life? It can be yours, friends – that’s the amazing, wonderful news we have before us today! All we need do is pray for this; all we need do is practice this in our own lives. For friends, no matter how many reasons we may have to grieve, we have so many more reasons to rejoice. And if we keep our eyes on Jesus Christ, if we let the joy of the Lord be our strength, if we remember that He guides and sustains us, we will have a full, abundant, joyful life, even in the midst of suffering and hardship. It’s a precious gift from the Lord – and it’s ours to savor, ours to enjoy, ours to delight in! So let us rejoice in Him, my friends – today, tomorrow and always! Let us rejoice in the good times and in the bad. Let us rejoice in His blessings and in His character. Let us rejoice that He loves us with an unconquerable, undeserved love, remembering that in Him we have “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10, NIV). And no matter what life may throw at us, let us remember that the joy of the Lord is our strength – and to Him alone be the glory!

[1] W. Philip Keller, A Gardener Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit. (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1979), 94.