JOY


The Holy Spirit brings joy to every Christian. He fills our hearts with praise and thankfulness to God. Yet as you look back over the past few weeks, how joyful have you been? How can you experience this refreshing fruit of the Spirit more fully?

What do you think of when you hear the word “Joy?”

Charles Spurgeon had a lot to say about joy:

As for joy, if it be not the first product of the Spirit of God, it is next to the first, and we may be sure that the order in which it is placed by the inspired apostle is meant to be instructive. The fruit of the Spirit is love first, as comprehensive of the rest, then joy arising out of it. It is remarkable that joy should take so eminent a place; it attainted unto the first three, and is but one place lower than the first. Look at in its high position, and if you missed it, or if you have depreciated it, revise your judgment, and endeavor with all your heart to attain it, for depend upon it this fruit of the Spirit is of the utmost value, and it is brought forth in believers not alike in all, but to all believers there is a measure of joy.

The word “joyful” is a very sweet and clear one. “Happiness is very dainty word, but yet it is somewhat insecure because if begins with a “hap” and seems to depend on a chance which may happen to the soul. We say “happy-go-luck,” and that is very much the world’s happiness; it is a kind of thing that may hap and may not
hap; but here is no hap in the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy. When we are joyful or full of joy, and that of the best kind, we have favored indeed. No man taketh this joy from us, and a stranger intermeddleth not with it; it is a celestial fruit, and earth cannot produce its like.

There is room in Rome that is filled with the busts of the emperors. I have looked at their heads; they look like a collection of prizefighters and murderers. Brutal passions and cruel thoughts deprive the lords of Rome of all chance of joy. Turn now to the poor hunted Christians, and read the inscriptions left by them in the catacombs; they are so calm and peaceful that they say instinctively, “A joyous people were went to gather here.”

Why should Christians be such a happy people? Why, it is good in all ways. It is good for our God; it gives Him honor among the sons of men when we are glad. It is good for us; it makes us strong. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” It is good for the ungodly, for when they see Christians glad; they long to be believers themselves. It is good for our fellow Christians; it comforts them and tends to cheer them. Whereas, if we look gloomy we shall spread the disease, and others will be wretched and gloomy too. For all these reasons, and for many more that can be given, it is a good and pleasant thing that a believer should delight himself in God.
Gloomy Christians, who do not resist despondency and strive against it, but who go about as if midnight had taken up its abode in their eyes, and an everlasting frost had settled on their souls are not obeying the commands of God. The command to rejoice is as undoubted a precept of God as to love the lord with all your heart. The vows of God are upon you. O believer, and they bind you to be joyful.

Spurgeon addresses the reason you as a believer may not be experiencing the joy of the Lord by saying that I must notice, in the fourth place, that This Fruit Of The Spirit May be Choked In Its Growth. Some of you may have muttered while I have been speaking of this joy, “I do not know much about it.” Perhaps not , friend, shall I tell you why?

J VERNON MCGEE observes that the world has what they call the “happy hour” in cocktail parlors all across our land. People don’t’ look too happy when they go in, and they sure don’t look happy when they come out! They are a bunch of sots, if you please. That is not joy.

C. S. LEWIS got a bit close to the biblical meaning when he called joy an “unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.” That statement is a bit obtuse but Lewis then goes on to add that joy “must be sharply distinguished from happiness and from pleasure.” Ultimately Lewis experienced joy when he discovered that Jesus was the wellspring of joy.

C. NORMAN BARTLETT rightly says that joy is more intense than happiness and is not like it, dependent upon outward circumstances or happenings. The difference may be illustrated by a river that flows steadily and continuously onward as compared with the transient hillside torrents produced by cloudbursts. There is no joy to compare with that which flows from a deep, rich and sweet communion with Jesus Christ.

MARTIN LUTHER comments that joy is the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride, that is to say, sweet cogitations of Christ, wholesome exhortations, pleasant songs or psalms, praises and thanksgiving, whereby the godly to instruct, stir up, and refresh one another. Therefore, God loves not heaviness of spirit; He hates comfortless doctrine, heavy and sorrowful cogitations, and loves cheerful hearts. For therefore has He sent His Son, not to oppress us with heaviness and sorrow, but to cheer up our souls in Him. For this cause the prophets, the Apostles, and Christ Himself exhort us, yes they command us to rejoice and be glad; “Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee.” (Zechariah 9:9)

And in the Psalms it is often said” “Be joyful in the Lord,” Paul says “”Rejoice in the Lord always.” And Christ says: “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Where this joy of the Spirit is, there the heart inwardly rejoices through faith in Christ, with full assurance that He is our Savior and our Bishop, and outwardly it expresses this joy with words and gestures.

Also, the faithful rejoice when they see that the gospel spreads abroad, that many are won to the faith, and that the kingdom of Christ is enlarged.

JOHN EARDIE writes that joy is based on the possession of present good, here means that spiritual gladness which acceptance with God and change of heart produce. For it is conscious elevation of character, the cessation of the conflict in its early stage, the opening up of a new world, and the hope of final perfection and victory. It is opposed to dullness, despondency, indifference, and all the distractions and remorses which are wrought by the works of the flesh.

This joy is the spring of energy, and praise wells out of the joyful heart. Where the heart is gladness, the instinctive dialect is song. May not the joy of restoration at least equal the joy of continuous innocence? It is therefore here not merely nor prominently Mitfreude, joy in the happiness of other, nor joy as opposed to moroseness, though these aspects or manifestations are not exclude.

MATTHEW HENRY defines joy as cheerfulness in conversations with our friends, or rather a constant delight in God.

DONALD CAMPBELL, former President of Dallas Theological Seminary, says joy, “chara,” is a deep and abiding inner rejoicing which was promised to those who abide in Christ. (John 15:11) It does not depend on circumstances because it rests in God’s sovereign control of all things.

WILLIAM MACDONALD says joy is contentment and satisfaction with God and with His dealings. Christ displayed it in John 4:34.

ADAM CLARK defines joy as “the exultation that arises from a sense of God’s mercy communicated to the soul in the pardon of its iniquities, and the prospect of that eternal glory of which it has the foretaste in the pardon of sin.

WILLIAM BARCLAY adds that it is not the joy that comes from earthy things, still less from triumphing over someone else in competition. It is a joy whose foundation is God.

HAYDN, the great musician, was once asked why his church music was so cheerful, and he replied: “When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap as it were from my pen, and since God has given me a cheerful heart it will be pardoned me that I serve Him with a cheerful heart.

Biblical joy has a spiritual basis for as Scripture explains this joy:

Is joy in the Holy Spirit: “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)

Is the joy of faith: “And convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.” (Philippians 1:25)

Is the joy of the Holy Spirit: “become initiators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6)

Is joy in the Lord: “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.” Philippians 3:1)

Is the welcome which will be addressed to faithful servants: “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master. (Matthew 25:21,23)

The Christian life is to be a life of joy. It is founded on faith in Jesus, whose life on earth began as “good news of great joy for all people.” Luke 2:10. The theme of joy is underscored by the 59 uses of joy and the 74 uses of rejoice in the New Testament always to signify a feeling of happiness that is based on spiritual realities.

Joy is God’s gift to believers. Paul speaks of more that just a mood. This is a deep confidence that was rooted in God’s sovereign control of the universe, His unchanging promises and eternal spiritual realities including the assurance of ultimate victory for those in Christ.

Joy is a part of God’s own nature and Spirit that He manifests in His children.

Joy is the inevitable overflow of receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and of the believer’s knowing His continuing presence and having a sense of well being experienced by one who knows all is well between himself and the Lord.

Joy not only does not come from favorable human characteristics but is sometimes greatest when those circumstances are the most painful and severe.

God’s joy is full, complete in every way. Nothing human or circumstantial can add to or detract from it. But it is not fulfilled in a believer’s life except through reliance on and obedience to the Lord.

Although joy is a gift of God through His Spirit to those who belong to Christ, it is also commanded of them “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!” Paul commands it in Philippians 4:4 and 3:1. Because joy comes as a fruit of the Spirit, the command is not the blessed seed of joy they already possess. The command is to gratefully accept and revel in this great blessing they already possess.
Certainly there is joy in human life, such as joy when one experiences a victory, “We will sing for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions” (Psalm 20:5), or reaps a bountiful harvest. (Isaiah 9:3).

But more often the Bible speaks joy in a spiritual sense. For example, Nehemiah declared to the down in the mouth, not very filled with joy, Jews that “The joy of the lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10). Similarly, David pleaded with God to “restore to me the joy of Thy salvation” (Psalm 51:12). It is not surprising that joy and rejoicing are found most frequently in the Psalms, about 80 references and the Gospels, about 40 references.

We could go on and on talking about joy. We can discuss the definition of joy, do a word study on it, and I could fill this posting with lots of pages about joy.

What does joy mean to you?

How have you experienced joy?

How does the joy of the Lord strengthen you?

Is it easy to experience joy in the good times?

Do you find it difficult to experience joy in the hard times?

At the beginning of the year when the financial meltdown was the topic of the day on the news channels, at first I was apprehensive about what was going on, mainly because nobody knew exactly was what going to happen next.

There was talk of a depression. I have noticed that everything that was happening, the stock market falling rapidly. I saw it close at –800 points one day. There was the housing market meltdown. People losing their homes. People getting laid off from work by the thousands. All of this was being perpetuated by fear.

I made a decision not to get caught up in the fear. I remembered the Exodus from Egypt. I have a copy of the logistics of the Exodus. It is mind boggling to see what was required to take care of approximately 3 million people. If God could take care of 3 million people for 40 years, feed them, provide water, shelter from the heat, and their clothes and shoes didn’t wear out, then He certainly would not have a problem taking care of me.

I have not worked since December 19th, 2008, except for a couple of weeks with a temp agency. Yet God has met my every need. It has been a joyous occasion to watch Jehovah Jireh do His thing.

I could have focused on my circumstances, which would have depressed me. I chose to focus on my heavenly Father and have enjoyed every moment watching Him provide for me. What joy! The joy of seeing Him provide for my every need strengthened my faith in Him.

He is truly the God who is more than enough! Here is my joy. Enjoying a Father who cares for me take care of me. Joy in the midst of adversity will carry you through. Choose to be joyful and rejoice. No matter what.

Jesus fulfills His words in John 16:24:

"Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.”

I am going to challenge you to spend some time reading the gospels and seeing the joy of Jesus. Pay attention to the passages of Scripture about joy, especially in the gospel of John.

Make a decision to be full of the joy of the Lord, no matter what your circumstances are.