True JOY is found only in knowing the God of Jesus

True JOY is found only in knowing the God of Jesus Mark 8:27–38 (NIV84) 27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way He asked them, “Who do people say I am?” 28 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 “But what about you?” He asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.” 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him. 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” He said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” 34 Then He called the crowd to Him along with His disciples and said: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.” Before we get the message for today, I’d like to share an observation with you. Have you noticed what happened when Jesus spoke plainly – in other words – teaches clearly without any room for misunderstanding? Peter rebuked Him! How arrogant! Yet, how revealing! A moment ago, Peter could testify: “You are the Christ.” Yet, when Jesus explained the consequences of what that means he thought that he had the right to reprimand God Incarnated because he didn’t like what he heard! And Jesus in return responded by saying to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Friends, it shows us two things: 1. That even God is not spared when people don’t like what they hear! 2. But it also shows us that God doesn’t let people get away with getting what they want. No, He makes sure they get what they need. And then it is up to them, however, to respond to it. It is in this context that I’d like to ask you this morning: “According to you: What is real meaning of life?” I’m convinced that God has revealed the real meaning of life to us. I also believe that God as revealed our purpose in life. I have my own ideas about what it is. But I’d like to hear what yours are. I can still remember the time when Divan stayed with us. He asked me every day when he came back from school: “Did you have fun today uncle?” To him the real purpose of life is to have fun. Without fun life sucks. He said that much. Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and theologian who lived from 1623-1662 wrote in his Pensées: “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. … This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves." It seems to me that we can interpret Pascal to say: • A labourer works hard to earn money so that he/she can be happy and enjoy life. • A student study hard to succeed in his/her studies so that he/she can build their own happiness. • Even people who kill themselves are seeking happiness because they think suicide will finally give them the peace and happiness that eluded them in life. According to Pascal all people seel happiness. Is this the real purpose of life? This pursuit of happiness. No, I think Pascal shared something infinitely more valuable with us that his statement about the pursuit of happiness. While there’s nothing especially notable about Pascals physical birth on June 19, 1623, his new birth, bursting into the spiritual world, came in a blaze of glory. It occurred on November 23, 1654 when he was 31 years old. For two hours, from about 10:30 PM until 12:30 AM, he experienced a kind of spiritual inferno that ended in something really noteworthy. He journaled that experience on a piece of paper he sewed into his coat that he kept near his heart for the rest of his life. This is what he wrote on that piece of paper: Fire God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of philosophers and scholars. Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ. . . Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. . . And this is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You has sent. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. . . Friends, some call this midnight spiritual inferno his real conversion. It doesn’t matter what we call it. What does matter, however, is that from then onward, Pascal was a different man till the end of his life a mere eight years latter before he was 39. But during these next eight years he focussed entirely anew on a Godward orientation of his intellect and his career. Jesus became his source of eternal superlative joy. In this Pascal is not alone. I find surprising in contemporary scholars too. For instance, in his book “The Paradox of Happiness: Finding True Joy in a World of Counterfeits” (Bellingham, WA: Kirkdale Press, 2013:3-4), René Breuel wrote: “Jesus’ counterintuitive call to happiness. The fundamental Christian reflection on happiness appears in some of Jesus’ most avoided words—words we sometimes skip when we read the Gospels and that preachers prefer not to cover, but words that shine with truth and overflow with life.” It seems to me that in Mark 8:34–35 God presents one of the greatest paradoxes in Jesus’ teaching about salvation and the art of true joyful living. The moment when Jesus focuses His teaching on the art of living in two sentences that are so poignant and surprising, but also so countercultural and paradoxical, that they make us look at the page again and ask, “Did Jesus really mean this?” In this crucial passage, Jesus teaches us an astounding principle: that it is by losing and giving that we gain and enjoy life. And more, if we live as Jesus invites us to, while the universe around us continues to pulsate, and as our own hearts long for, we shall be wonderfully, even deliriously happy. But it will happen as a great paradox, for we receive this happy life by losing life. We receive happiness because we are giving. We find joy in life because we have stopped to worry about life. We flourish in life when we help the people around us to flourish in life. In other words: as René Breuel puts it in The Paradox of Happiness: Finding True Joy in a World of Counterfeits (Bellingham, WA: Kirkdale Press, 2013:5): “Happy are the people who work for the happiness of others.” Another one is CS Lewis. He describes the intense happiness of his early childhood as “Joy,” a state of divine otherworldliness that he has spent the rest of his life trying to recollect. He distinguishes this state of mind from mere earthly “Pleasure” and “Happiness” in that it not only captures satisfaction, but also a deep and unsatisfied desire for something that one has lost. For Lewis all this Joy does, is it reminds – it retells the stories of the times well spent. It is never a possession. It is always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still 'about to be'. By "joy," Lewis meant not mere pleasure but the sublime experience of the transcendent, the glimpse of the eternal that is only fleetingly available in earthly loves and aesthetics. It is, for Lewis, only finally received in heavenly glory at the consummation of the age, a joy to be found in the Creator who Himself invented both world and word, person and personality. It is He alone who redeems His fallen creation and provide them Joy. From his earliest intimations of this joy, Lewis describes himself in Surprised by Joy as intensely concerned with the supernatural and ultimate questions of life and existence. A signpost found by someone lost in the woods carry much more significance than a signpost on a freeway where you find one every few kilometres. Both might say exactly the same thing – but to the one who was lost it means so much more than the one who knew all along where he was. Matthew tells us another story about a young man who wanted to know what he needed to enjoy eternal life happily forever after. Matthew 19:16–22 (NIV84) 16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “ ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honour your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’” 20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus told him that he needed to keep the commandments. Then he got specific – ending with: “love your neighbour like yourself!” The rich young man answered “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Listen carefully, we often think that this story is about money. It is not. Money plays a role, but not the most important role. This is really a revelation about love going off-centre – “and love your neighbour as you love yourself”. Jesus knew this young man’s heart. He didn’t have any problem loving himself. But he did lacked love for God and his neighbour. He loved himself and his money more than he loved God and his neighbour that is why we went away sad. He sought eternal happiness. Jesus told him that eternal happiness lies “loving God by obeying His commands and loving your neighbours by taking care of their needs and their honour”. Instead he thought that his happiness was locked up in his possessions. So, he left empty handed and sad. Most people rush after happiness so fast that they rush right past it. What about you? Friends, as Christians we should find our joy in following Jesus, in imitating His life and in obeying His commands. We should find our happiness in the taking up of the cross. Even if this means that we have to carry our own cross to the place where we would be ridiculed, mocked, rejected and even killed. Many Galileans had been killed that way by the Romans. Applied to the disciples, to take up the cross meant to identify completely with Christ’s message, even if death were to result. We must deny our selfish desires to use our time and money our own way and to choose our own direction in life without regard to Christ. Following Christ is costly now, but we are promised true victory and eternal rewards. We may not be called to die for our faith, but real discipleship implies real commitment—pledging our whole existence to his service. If we try to save our physical life from death, pain, or discomfort, we may risk losing our true eternal life. If we protect ourselves from pain, we begin to die spiritually and emotionally. Our lives turn inward, and we lose our intended purpose. When we give our lives in service to Christ, however, we discover the real purpose of living. To be willing to put personal desires and life itself into God’s hands means to understand that nothing that we can gain on our own in our earthly lives can compare to what we gain with Christ. Jesus wants us to choose to follow him rather than to lead a life of sin and self-satisfaction. He wants us to stop trying to control our own destiny and to let him direct us. This makes good sense because, as the Creator, Christ knows better than we do what real life is about. He asks for submission, not self-hatred; he asks us only to lose our self-centred determination to be in charge. God loves to exalt the humble and humble the proud. So, Paul says, “not many wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth, when you were called” and “He who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:26 and 31). So, our eternal joy, our eternal happiness, our eternal peace is based on the truth that God is strong enough and wise enough to make all things work together for our good. Because God’s joy is based on that same sovereign control: He makes all things work together for His glory – we can seek true joy in this life too as we pursue to live our lives under His sovereign control. Jesus was born to make this possible. Jesus was baptised to make this possible. Jesus ministered to make this possible. Jesus carried a cross to make this possible. Jesus died to make this possible… So, I’d like to close with the testimony Pascal felt so strong about that he had it sewn into coat lining to keep close by forever: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob,” not of philosophers and scholars. Certainty, certainty, heartfelt, joy, peace. God of Jesus Christ. God of Jesus Christ. . . Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy. . . “And this is eternal life, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent.” Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. This is the real meaning of life, real happiness and real joy. Amen