The Joy of the Cross // It's Time to Start Enjoying Your Life, Part 3

Joy is a wonderful thing. And it turns out that Jesus died in order that we might have His joy. True. But sometimes, sometimes we squander that joy – what an incredible waste.

 

Paint the Picture

Over these last few weeks we’ve been taking a look at joy, especially God’s heart for us to have His joy in our lives – a complete and overflowing sense of joy. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want joy in their lives but I’m not talking about some fleeting happiness; not some warm and fuzzy that we get when we’ve had a good day or something good has happened to us. Those warm and fuzzes, well, they’re nice but somehow, they seem to evaporate so quickly.

Now when Jesus talks about joy, He talks about something quite different. Have a listen. On that last evening together with His disciples, before He was to be crucified He talked so much about joy and what an odd time and place to do that. He is about to die and He says in John chapter 15, verse 11:

I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

And again you can read for yourself in John chapter 16, verse 20. He says:

I tell you the truth – you’ll weep and mourn while the world rejoices you will grieve but your grief will turn to joy. A women giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into this world. So it’ll be with you. Now is your time of grief but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one can take away that joy. In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. I tell you the truth, My Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. Until now you haven’t asked anything in My name - ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.

And again, His final prayer before He is crucified – you read it in John chapter 17, verse 13. He says to God, His Father:

I’m coming to You now but I say these things while I’m still in the world so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them.

See, when Jesus is talking about joy He is not talking about a warm and fuzzy. He said all of these things just before He was about to be crucified. Clearly, He wasn’t having a warm and fuzzy. There is a clear distinction between the world’s happiness and the joy of the Lord. And He does this on the night before He is to be crucified as if to draw a clear line between the two.

He talked so much about joy so close to His brutal crucifixion. The Holy Spirit is nothing if not absolutely consistent. And again He draws this peculiar distinction by including in the New Testament, a whole book about joy – written by the Apostle Paul whilst he was in a Roman dungeon, in chains and on death row.

We’ve been looking at that book over these last few weeks on the program, it’s the Book of Philippians. It’s a letter that Paul wrote whilst in jail, to his friends in the church in Philippi. Now let’s continue there today. If you have got a Bible, grab it and open it up at Philippians chapter 2. Come with me into God’s Word.

I truly believe and I’ve seen it often in people and I’ve seen it in days gone by in my own life; that we ourselves do so much to rob ourselves of this joy that the Master – let me say this quite deliberately now – that the Master died in order that we may have. That is the price He puts on this joy, His joy in us, complete and abundant and overflowing. How sweet it is! Yet we ourselves, we can rob ourselves of that joy which has such a high price on its head.

Come with me now to see what the Holy Spirit writes to us through Paul in his prison cell about this tragic robbing. Comes from Philippians chapter 2:

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ; if you got any comfort from His love; if any fellowship with the Spirit; if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded; having the same love; being one in Spirit and purpose. Don’t do anything out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.

Just short four verses!

So what is Paul saying to the Philippians and what is the Holy Spirit whispering to you and me today, all these centuries on? "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ ...” In other words, if there is any benefit at all from knowing Jesus; any comfort from His love; any fellowship with His Spirit; any tenderness and compassion, if you have got anything out of knowing Jesus Christ, make my joy here in this dungeon complete. How? By doing what? Well effectively, by being humble.

Here is Paul with his own life in serious risk if the truth be known, shackled in a prison, talking to his friends in Philippi about such a serious matter. The thing that will rob them of their joy is their pride. Listen again to these words:

... then make my joy complete by being like-minded; having the same love; being one is spirit and purpose; do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.

Let me ask you this. How much joy is there in selfish ambition and vain conceit? At the end of the day when all that matters is looking after "number one", our own interests, it’s so empty and hollow and let me say, completely joyless. When we manipulate and strive to get our own way; when we harbour selfish ambition and vain conceit in our hearts and live them out in our lives; when we tread on people and destroy our relationships, in truth, what we discover is that we are completely alone. What joy is there in that?

But when we, in humility, consider others better than ourselves; when we look after other people’s interests and not our own, well, we turn that around completely and that, my friend, removes a blockage to joy. Listen to how James and Peter put it. James chapter 4, verse 6 and First Peter chapter 5, verse 5 as they quote Proverbs 3:34:

God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble.

If we would have that deep and abiding joy of which the Master spoke on that frightful evening before He was crucified; the joy that He prayed over us in that final prayer; that joy that He died to purchase, then let me say bluntly, that we too must come to that cross and lose our lives.

 

An Odd Place

I remarked earlier in the programme that a dungeon on death row is an odd place for Paul to sit and write a letter about joy. It’s a short letter, just a few pages, but it oozes the joy of the Lord. Earlier we saw that the Holy Spirit through Paul’s words was putting His finger on one of the things that robs us of joy – selfish ambition and conceit, getting our own way. And he pleads with his friends, "If you have any benefit from knowing Jesus Christ, put all that other stuff behind you."

Well, that’s easier said than done. I mean, we’re all a bit selfish; we all want our own way, and one of the first words we learn to utter as little children is, "No!", so how do we get beyond that? How do we grow and move on so that instead of being disobedient to God and being robbed of His joy, we love Him through our obedience and live "in" His joy? See, obedience – it’s not a particularly trendy word these days – it smacks of old fashioned, rigid, out dated religion, doesn’t it? Yet John writes in First John chapter 5, verse 3:

The love of God is this: that we obey His commandments.

That’s how we express our love to God. Ok, well, that much most of us know. We know the theory but what about the practice? The prize is the joy of the Lord, so how do we get over our sin of selfish pride that robs us of that prize? Well lets go on to see what the Holy Spirit is whispering into our hearts through the next part of this Book – Philippians chapter 2, beginning at verse 5 – he writes this:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who being in the very nature of God, didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name.

That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not just in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

This is a wondrous picture of the cross. Have you ever thought about it this way? I mean, it’s tough for anyone to do, to go to the cross, but Jesus humbled Himself. He stepped out of His glorious heavenly realm where angels bowed down and worshipped Him and became a man. What a huge step of humility. And Paul is saying here, "Let your attitude", literally, "Let this be in you, just as it was in Jesus." I love that.

See, Jesus comes first; He does it first. He never asks us to do something He hasn’t already done and when we hear His gentle call, we hear a call to follow Him. Do you hear that call in your heart today? "Follow Me; come follow Me to the cross – the place where I poured Myself out for you." Jesus, God Himself, didn’t consider what He was entitled to out of His love for us, you and me. He humbled Himself and became – wait for it, here it is, that word – obedient to death, even such an excruciating death as death on a cross.

And He is calling us here, to lay down our lives – this great paradox. We think we can get joy our own way but we don’t discover the joy of God until we lay our lives down; until we die to self. This is the heart of the message of joy. So long as you and I reign as our own little tin pot, despotic dictators in our lives there can be no joy of the Lord. So long as the self, selfish, self absorbed, self centred wraps its tendrils around our heart, that heart will be constricted and all joy squeezed out of it.

I mean, real joy, the joy that comes from God Himself. That when we go to Him and say, "Jesus, I crown You as Lord of my life, every part, every dealing, what I eat and drink and say and do and think and feel and hope and dream; every dealing and every transaction." When we crucify that "self" on the cross, look at what happens, Jesus is exalted and there in comes the joy.

Listen again to His prayer that night before He died; a prayer that He prayed very deliberately for you and me. His final prayer before the cross, the purpose of His suffering.

Father, I’m coming to you now but I say these things while I’m still in the world so that they may have the full measure of My joy within them.

Do you see this? Obedience is a word of liberation not oppression. The sweetest paradox of the human experience is that ‘the self’ is a ruthless tyrant. It is at the cross where we invite the Spirit of God into our hearts to breathe His joy into us. Here is that peculiar distinction between the world’s happiness and God’s joy. Listen with me to the last part of the passage we just read, Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence but now much more so in my absence, continue to work out your salvation in fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.

We are going to come back and look at God’s work in us next.

 

Shining Like Stars

My prayer for you today is that God’s Word has quickened your heart to His purpose, His purpose for joy in your life. See, dying to self is such a scary concept; such a step of faith and not just once but daily. Look at what Jesus says in Luke chapter 9, beginning at verse 23:

Jesus said to all of them “If anyone would come after Me he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.

This is the great paradox of dying to live. And you see, God wants us to shine like stars – we are going to look a little bit further what Paul writes about that. And that’s what happens when we have the joy of the Lord in us because there is something that happens; something that the rest of the world sees when God is at work in our hearts; when we live the joy that can only be found at that cross.

See, this last bit is so important because it speaks about the attitude we take as we suffer as the self dies. Make no mistake, death is always painful. When Jesus talked about taking up our cross daily and following Him, He was talking about nailing ‘the self’ to flesh and the flesh will hang on for dear life. It will be prone to complain and grumble; it will want to turn back; to run from the cross. Listen again as the Holy Spirit whispers His wisdom into our hearts. We are going to pick up what Paul was saying at Philippians chapter 2, beginning at verse 14:

Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure children of God, without a fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you so that you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

See, humility; laying down our lives at the cross, stands out but it’s not humility when we complain and argue and grumble. Humility is when we submit obediently to the will of God; dying to self. There are times in my walk where this dying has been particularly painful I can tell you, the power of the temptation to lash out and blame others; to grumble and complain. You see, dying at the cross never seems fair. "I have rights you know, I am entitled", the flesh cries. But the Spirit of God calls us to this odd place to discover joy.

Our attitude should be the same as that of Christ, who being in the very nature of God didn’t consider equality with God to be something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of the servant, being made in human form and being found in appearance as a man, humbling Himself, He became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

We should be like that. That is what Paul is saying; that is what the Holy Spirit is saying and here is what happens. We all of a sudden appear different to those around us – utterly different – other worldly. Like something that is rarely seen on this planet, we shine like stars amidst a crocked and perverse generation. We shine with a light of joy that only glows in a life surrendered to Jesus Christ. And that light is what will draw others naturally to Jesus.

What a great deception of the devil that is, to have us think that joy only comes when we assert our rights and follow our driving ambition. What a great deception! You see the truth is exactly the opposite. Real joy; the joy of the Lord comes in that bitter sweet surrender of our lives on that cross. There is Paul in the dungeon – see how he talks about himself? He says:

Even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith.

You see, Paul is facing execution because he preached the Gospel of Jesus, not just to the Philippians but right around the known world. Paul is coming to the end of his life and is looking martyrdom right in the face. He is looking death right in the face and yet his greatest concern is the joy of those in Philippi, that they experience the joy of God; that they don’t do anything through selfish ambition or vain conceit to miss out on the joy of the Lord. And here is Paul in this dark dungeon shining like a star amidst a crooked and depraved generation.

Have you ever looked up at the stars lately, away from the light of the city and the smog of the city, and looked up at the stars and what a wondrous sight it is? That’s what the Holy Spirit wants us to be in this world that’s so dark sometimes – in this world where people just follow their noses and do what feels right and look after their own vain interests.

Jesus wants us to stand out and be different and that joy is what makes us different. It shines like a star. The joy of the Lord comes in that bitter sweet surrender of our lives on that cross – a life-long surrender; a daily surrender.

“Take up your cross every day and follow Me,” said Jesus.

A surrender that will mean loss and pain as the self is crucified, but a surrender that little by little will reveal this purpose of God – that our joy would shine like a star in a dark and hurting world.

I want encourage you – if you haven’t surrendered all of your life to Jesus Christ, do that right now. The prize is so wondrous. Yes, it’s a step of faith; yes, it’s a scary thing to let go of things that we know are wrong, but the prize is the joy of the Lord. The prize is living a life where God takes just who we are and who He made us, for us to shine like stars amidst a crooked and depraved generation.