Joy in the Spirit

1 Timothy 6:17 “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

He wants us to enjoy life, he wants us to enjoy our families, the fruits of our labor and so forth.

However, we are not to depend on those things, temporal things for our joy. But to depend on him.

Therefore our joy is not circumstantial but secure even in times of suffering adding this- even in great suffering.

Job was questioning God

Job 38:1-3 “Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”

The relationship is revealed, We are the ones being questioned, we are the ones being tested.

Testing is always for our benefit.

Job saw God as an ingredient in his spiritual experience, as a character in his story.

No, we are ingredients in God’s experience and characters in his story.

God says, where were you job when i did this and that… you must know because you are so wise to question me and my wisdom

God never answered Job’s questions instead, God gave him himself. Job repented.

Job 42:5-6 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.””

What did we (the Church) receive on the day of Pentecost? Himself, His Spirit - not for the Spirit to be an ingredient in our experience or to assist us as we write our story. NO - we are His characters and He is writing His story with us.

This is where joy regardless of circumstance begins, because I have him and He is writing a story. I don’t need all the answers, because I trust Him. He doesn’t answer to me, I answer to Him.

The book of Acts is filled with the work of the Holy Spirit moving the story of God forward such as:

The Spirit filling believers and empowering them

The Spirit guiding Philip to convert the Ethiopian official

The Spirit snatching Philip away to the city of Azotus

The Spirit instructing Peter to go with the 3 men to Cornelius’ house

The Spirit actively guiding Paul and his team away from the provinces of Asia and Bithynia

The Spirit actively leading Paul and his team to preach in Macedonia & Greece

The Spirit provides warning of impending suffering

The Spirit provides assurances of safety & miraculous deliverances

The Spirit grants boldness in the face of opposition

The Spirit works to guard and protect His people

The Spirit can blind those resistant to the Gospel and open other’s hearts

The Spirit opens doors of ministry

The Spirit raises the dead

The Spirit is at work healing the sick

The Spirit is at work prophesying about the future

The Spirit works through sufferings

It’s this paradoxical balance (it’s a paradox to us because we aren’t God) of embracing the cross, the gospel: death and resurrection. Living out the Gospel message.

Paul brilliantly describes this paradox in 2 Cor.

He is saying: This is what it means to follow a crucified Messiah! This is what it means to be a disciple of the world’s true Lord!

2 Corinthians 6:3-10 NLT “We live in such a way that no one will stumble because of us, and no one will find fault with our ministry. 4 In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. 5 We have been beaten, been put in prison, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. 6 We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. 7 We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. 8 We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. 9 We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We have been beaten, but we have not been killed. 10 Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.”

The point made is: whether in the forefront or in the background, in good times and bad times, God is working to accomplish his purposes, plans and promises by His Spirit through His people.

Whether enjoying the favor of all people and government leaders or facing the prospect of death, God is working in every situation, in every circumstance to move His plan forward.

Therefore it is not fate, it is not chance, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

A change of perspective.

Acts 2:22-24 ““Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

This wasn’t the result of fate or chance or people just being evil. This was the work of God behind the scenes to accomplish his purposes and promises.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

And we know Jesus endured with joy: Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

This reminds me of the story of Joseph.

God still gave him the dream even foreknowing everything that would happen… why? because he is the writer and determines how the story ends.

Genesis 45:6-8 “For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”

Genesis 50:20 “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

He interprets his past, not as a victim but sees God working in it all.

Because God is the writer of his story, he can forgive them, because they don’t determine the ending. But people that are writing their own story, trusting in themselves can’t forgive easily because they blame the others for changing the destiny of their tale.

What if you not getting that promotion or that job was God, what if you being wronged actually moved the story of God forward… Joseph sure thought so.

It is not that sufferings and pressures are “good” in and of themselves, but the work God does in them is good.

Do not think for a moment that because you are living through difficult circumstances - that God has ceased working. Whether in the forefront or background, in good circumstances and bad - He is working to accomplish his plans and purposes in your life.

Reminder:

Those with the Spirit and equipped with the Gospel message are a threat to the earthly minded.

Leave Paul and the disciples alone - they turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6)

Put them in prison - they turn Caesar’s elite and household upside down (Phil 1:13, 4:22)

We see this very thing play out in Philippians 1

Philippians 1:12-18 “Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,”

Perspective - seeing everything in light of the bigger picture.

The gospel is bigger than his personal circumstance. His metrics for progress and advancement is not status and wealth and popularity, but rather evangelism, is Christ being preached and magnified. Just because he is locked up has not slowed the advancement of the Gospel.

This was not an opportunity for personal advancement, in fact he doesn’t really care what happens to him so long as the gospel itself moves forward.

Rather than telling the Philippians how he is doing, he tells them how the gospel is doing.

He has learned by the grace of God to see everything from the divine perspective.

His joy is not because he is in prison, that kind of morbid thanking God for all things is not sound. He isn’t thanking God he is in prison, or thanking God for evil.

But rather his perspective - of seeing every event in his life as chapter in the greater story that God is writing. He long wanted to preach the gospel in Rome, and now he is. Even though in prison, God in his own wisdom is carrying out his purposes.

Like Joseph and Paul, have confidence in God’s overruling power even when everything seems to be going wrong. His con

Joseph said that with hindsight

Paul said this in the middle of it, with the fresh story of another man Jesus who suffered the extreme penalty at the hands of wicked people and with the resurrection, “God meant it for good”

We need to learn from Paul (and, long before, from Joseph) the art of seeing God’s purposes working out through problems and difficulties. ‘God meant it for good.’ ‘The king is being announced, and I’m going to celebrate!’

Discipleship: Participation in the sufferings of Christ,

Paul was not surprised by what he went through. In fact he says that he is ready to be poured out as a drink offering in ministry for the sake of others.

And he says these trials - are our destiny.

1 Thessalonians 3:3 “so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them.”

Philippians 1:29-30 “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.”

To be a disciple is to be hated by the world because of the name of Christ.

Single passion: Christ and His Gospel message

Everything is to be seen and done in light of Christ. Both life and death mean Christ.

Paul’s concern is altogether on Christ’s being magnified, however the trial turns out. The advancement of the gospel was his primary goal in life.

Paul is not masochistic and somehow enjoying the pain, but there is something bigger that controls his focus - the Gospel message and magnifying Christ.

This is not just for special Christians, living for the message and magnifying Christ, is the very duty of everyone who calls on His name… How can it not be?

Because you don’t love him. You haven’t received his love… We only give back what he first gave to us.

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

It doesn’t matter my circumstance or where I am or what I am facing, I can choose joy because I am loved by God, and he is the writer of His story and I am one of his characters. Nothing can separate me from His love. He doesn’t have to change my circumstance to prove his love for me, he already did by giving me everything in himself.

When difficult, even life-threatening, circumstances face us, we should take Paul as our example and look for how God might be working in such circumstances to advance the gospel either in our lives or in the lives of others. When fellow Christians tighten the shackles on our wrists rather than seek to alleviate our pain, and when they take advantage of our difficult circumstances to promote their own goals, we should remember Paul’s perspective. What matters most is whether or not the gospel is going forward. If it is, then we should rejoice.

Thus when God’s purposes seem far from our own suffering, we can remind ourselves through the example of others that he is nevertheless at work.

This passage contains no implicit claim that suffering is good, that God is its author, that the mysterious paradoxes that surround it have suddenly been solved, or that Christians should plaster smiles on their faces when they experience it and pretend that hardship is a joyful experience.

This passage, finally, teaches the modern church something about the nature of joy. It is not the self-satisfied delight that everything is going our way, but the settled peace that arises from making the gospel the focus of life and from understanding that God is able to advance the gospel under the most difficult circumstances.

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