Transcript
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Like for the men, if they would, to sing a simple line with me. It goes like so.
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That was applause. I was worried about Earl on the first day. It was a rolling coconut. I didn't know if he was a leaner or not. It could have been messy. Had that happened in Georgia one time. I had to revise. I want to thank you for letting me give these. Ken, I want to thank you for letting me give these three worship times this morning and yesterday and the day before. They've been very, the worship time has been very meaningful for me and I just appreciate the chance to do the expositions. There's a line that appears just before the text that
we looked at yesterday. Yesterday we looked at that great text in John 15 where Jesus makes the promise of friendship to us and the line just before that goes like this in the Thursday night discourse. Jesus says, verse 11, These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. And then comes that beautiful little paragraph. This is my commandment that you love one another as I've
loved you. Greater love than no one in this. They lay their life down for their friends. You're my friends. That wonderful you're my friends passage follows that. It follows this line. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be... You know, we had a problem and I want to get this on the tape. Am I on? These things I have spoken to you that my joy
may be in you. I want to be sure that's on the tape. I want to talk to you today about joy. It's a very important word in the New Testament. You might say it's the fourth great word. We have faith, hope, love, and joy. What's the word mean? Well, you know the word chara in Greek is generic, actual meaning really is surprise. C.S. Lewis, who was a good philologist, knew that when he wrote his autobiography
and called his autobiography surprised by joy because really it's a play on words, surprise by surprise. And that's what he says. I was surprised when I discovered Jesus Christ. I was surprised when I discovered God. And joy, its literal meaning is surprise. You know it's the root for a term the apostle Paul coins as one of his love words. The word charas, grace, is really its best definition would be surprise, gift, love. And that's often the
way it's translated, unmerited love or surprise, gift, love. And the long form, charasmata, is the Greek word for gift in the New Testament. Like when Paul talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, it's the word charasmata. That means gift. So the word joy, chara, surprise, is the root for a lot of very important words in the New Testament. And here's a very important one. Put the eu in front of it. And
you know in Greek eu means good. It's always the preface that means good. So put eu in front of chara and you have the word Eucharist, which is the word thanksgiving in the New Testament. So again, isn't that a rich word? Giving thanks means a good surprise gift. That's why you can never demand thanks from anyone. Sometimes a dad or mom will say all I want is a little thanks for my kids. That's an oxymoron. How
can you demand thanks from your kids? You can't. Thanks has got to be a surprise gift. You've got to suddenly surprise your mom or your dad and say, hey, you're not half bad. Thanks a lot. And then that's a surprise gift. A good, you, Eucharist. And that's the word for the Lord's Supper too. The Eucharist, the thanksgiving. So what a tremendously key word it is in the New Testament. That's why it ranks right up there with
faith, hope, love, and joy. It's a word filled with emotion too because the word surprise has a lot of emotion in it. A lot of feeling in it. Well, how do we figure out how the word is used in the New Testament and what it means? I'd like to do three quick soundings from the New Testament to show our Lord use the word and then to show James as he uses the word and to see how
Paul uses the word so that we can be sure we know what this word, chara, means. Right in the Thursday night discourse, if you have a New Testament open, and there are a lot of them right around, I'm sure, around, follow around on into chapter 16 and see a strategic way in which our Lord uses this word joy in the Thursday night discourse itself. He makes the strange prediction to the disciples on that Thursday night that
he is going to be taken away from them and they're going to be plunged into a kind of grief. And as a matter of fact, notice verse 20 says, Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and you will lament. The world rejoices, you will weep and you will lament, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. And then he tells a parable about a woman expecting a child who's in a period of grief during
the time of birth and birth pains but then has the joy of life. And so he says, you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. Well, he's talking about his victory over death. This is a prediction our Lord is making that I'm going to the cross and you're going to be scattered. Our Lord makes that prediction also in this Thursday night discourse that you're going to be scattered. You're going to be sorrowful,
but later your sorrow will be turned to joy. What will be the nature of the joy then? The joy will be the surprise of discovering that death could not hold Jesus Christ, that death has met its match, and that will be the surprise. Okay, there's one definition of joy. Hold that thought, move over to the book of James. Here's a strange use of the word. The bishop of Jerusalem writing this book of James. I've just written
a comment. This is my latest book I've been working on. I wrote a commentary on James about a year ago and been working on it. It's going to come out this fall. Erdmanns is publishing it. I've entitled the book the book that James wrote. I think James, the bishop of Jerusalem, wrote this book. I'll tell you, I'll give you a little marker. I think the proof of the fact that James, the bishop of Jerusalem, the one
who Josephus says was martyred in Jerusalem, James wrote it because no one could get away with 61 pieces of advice. This is a book of sheer advice, and no one could get away with that much advice without a lot of clout in the early church, and that's James. He has a lot of clout. He pays for his leadership with his life in Jerusalem as a martyr, but he writes this amazing book. He also attacks the rich
three times, and it takes a lot of clout to be able to attack the rich three times and keep your book in the New Testament. It's another argument in favor of James. But notice how he starts the book. Verse two, count it all joy, there's this word again, count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet various trials. That's the same word used in the Lord's Prayer for Temptations, pareo, peril, when you meet various
perils. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. This is not only one of James' favorite words, it's also one of Paul's favorite words. It means to hang in there. It's not a triumphalist word, it's a kind of survival word. It means to hang in, to hold on. So he says these trials of your faith produce a steadfastness, upomeno, holding on, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect, complete,
lacking nothing. And this lacking nothing is one of the Greek words for health in the New Testament, that you'll be healthy. You'll discover you're healthy when it's all over. Look what he's saying. He is saying you can count all joy when you meet trials, when you meet peril. That's an odd way to talk about joy. Why would you be joyful in the midst of perils? And yet he says that. And you know why? Because you'll discover
the faithfulness and the goodness of God. That's what he goes on to say in this book. You'll discover the faithfulness and the love of God in Jesus Christ, and you'll discover that over the long haul, his faithfulness survives and enables you to survive. It even produces health in the long run. So that here you have a joy. In John's Gospel, our Lord is using the word joy as the, you have joy because he's won the victory.
Now James says you have joy because you win a victory in a sense. You survive. You make it. You keep your sanity. You're able to hold on hupomeno. And over the long haul, you realize that your life can make it. And Jesus Christ can hold on to you. And he says when that dawns on you, it gives you joy. I don't know if you're Lord of the Rings fans of J.R.R. Tolkien, but you know there's one
great scene in the last volume of that book, in the Dark Tower, when Frodo and Sam Gamgee, it suddenly dawns on them that they'll be telling stories about them back in the Shire, and they break out laughing. And Sauron, who is the evil figure in the Lord of the Rings, and that Dark Tower has an earthquake as a result of their laughter, because there was never laughter in that mountain before. And they break out laughing. They
have joy in the midst of the terrible trials, thinking that someday people will tell stories about them in the Shire. Good old Sam Gamgee. In fact, Sam Gamgee says, he'll say, Master Frodo, they'll say good old Sam Gamgee, Frodo's friend. And Frodo breaks out laughing. And there's a sense of joy in knowing that over the long haul, the gospel works. Remember I told you two days ago, Pascal's quotation, that if we're going to win the world
to Christ, we're going to win you to Christ, you've got to prove three things to them, to show that it's reasonable. The first thing is you have to show that it's venerable, that over the long haul, it works. Two, you have to show that at its center is love, so that good men and women will hope it's true. And third, you have to show that it's true. But that's Pascal. He saw that. James saw it too.
That's a source of joy. Now the third sounding is from the Philippian letter. And if you can just glance at the fourth chapter, here's a valedictory from Paul toward the end of his life. He writes these words, and they're marvelous. In the fourth chapter, he says, verse four, rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. There's this word, chara, again. Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Let all people know your forbearance. Now
you know that word epikos here is usually translated gentle in the New Testament. And I think the new RSV, I don't know if the new RSV translates to gentle or not, but that's the way it's usually translated. It means mellow. That always intrigued me that Paul in his last, one of his last pieces of advice to church is not urging the church to be more zealous, but urging the church to relax. Urging the church to calm
down. I want to tell you, I think that's, you know, we're getting close to the year 2000, and you're going to see a lot of hysterical people around 2000. There were a lot of hysterical Christians around year 1000 when they predicted the end of the world. And now there's going to be a lot of people who predicted the end of the world in the year 2000. And you know what we need right now? Are some down
to earth Christians that are not hysterically running around. We need some people who have epikos. The very thing Paul is saying. Some people who have, who are unflappable. Some people who are not panicked. Some people who are mellow. And I believe, and I've ministered to youth my entire career, and I think that's really what wins high schoolers to Jesus Christ and college kids, is meeting some down to earth ordinary Christians who over the long haul are
venerable. Over the long haul they see that it works. They're not hysterical. They're not running around, like Lord Ronald who leaped on his horse and rode madly off in all directions. They don't want that. There's a lot of that. We're a hyped up generation right now. But I believe the greatest witness you can have often is just to be epikos. Like Paul prayed for. Let all people know your mellowness. Your unflappability. Now notice, here's the best
part. Let all people know your mellowness. The Lord is nearby. And that's a source of joy. Knowing that the Lord is nearby. I can ride on Aslan's back if you're a C.S. Lewis fan. The great golden lion, son of the emperor from beyond the sea, I can ride on his back. And if I'm riding on his back, what am I frightened of? Why am I so flappable? Why not be unflappable? See, that's joy. Okay, there
are three soundings of joy. Three glimpses at what the word means. And that's what James is telling us using the sense of venerability. Yesterday we looked at love, which is what follows this line. Let all people know that your joy may be full. And then our Lord makes a promise of friendship and tells us about his love. And now Paul giving us an assurance of the victory of Christ, knowing that that victorious Christ, who won the
victory over death, is nearby. And that gives us joy. I think the best definition of joy I've ever read comes from the man who used it in his autobiography, and that's C.S. Lewis. In his little book, Screwtape Letters, he gives, in my opinion, the finest definition of joy there is. It's funny. He was a philologist at heart. Lewis was fascinated with words. In his book, Experiment and Criticism, he says, tell me what the hard words
mean, and you've done more for me than a thousand commentaries. And he always wants to know what the words mean. And in Screwtape Letters, which is his satirical book, where he takes the position of a senior devil writing to a junior devil, trying to tempt and reclaim this patient who's a young man who's become a Christian. And it gives Lewis a chance, chapter by chapter, to deal with all kinds of themes in the Christian life. Prayer,
relationships, sex, feelings you have in your life, relationships to people, the war in Europe. He writes it during World War II. And one chapter is on laughter. And it is really a neat chapter, chapter 11. Screwtape starts by saying to Wormwood, who's the person he's writing to, he says, you tell about this new circle of friends that the patient is in as being great laughers. He says, I trust this does not mean that you're under the
impression that laughter is as such, always in our favor. The point is worth some attention. And now Lewis, in this chapter, gives us his own theology of laughter. He divides the causes of laughter, okay, I divide the causes of human laughter into joy, fun, the joke proper, and flippancy. He has four causes of laughter. His section here on the joke is absolutely priceless. The sudden perception of incongruity is his definition of a joke. And it's a
marvelous analysis of that kind of laughter. His analysis of flippancy is interesting. I'll read what he says about flippancy. He says, flippancy's the best of all, that he wants to cultivate. In the first place, it's very economical. Only a clever human can make a real joke about virtue or indeed about anything else, but any of them can be trained to talk as if virtue were funny. Among flippant people, the joke is always assumed to have been
made, no one actually makes it. But every serious subject is discussed in a manner which implies that they have already found a ridiculous side to it. If prolonged, the habit of flippancy builds up around a man or woman the best armor plating against the enemy that would be God, that I know. And it is quite free from the dangers inherent in the other sources of laughter. It is a thousand miles away from joy. It deadens instead
of sharpening the intellect. It excites no affection between those who practice it. That's flippancy. And then he talks about jokes. But listen to what he says about joy and fun. I divide the causes of laughter into joy, fun, the joke, crop, or flippancy. You will see the first, that's joy, listen to his definition of joy now. We have to look at it through the eyes of Screwtape, of course, first. We see it among friends and
lovers reunited on the eve of the holiday. Okay, it has to do with fellowship, we know that much. Among adults, some pretext in the way of jokes is usually provided, but the facility with which the smallest witticism produced laughter at such a time shows they're not the real cause. What the real cause is, we do not know. That's nice to know that the devil is not as powerful as you think the devil is. The devil cannot
figure out joy. Okay, that's one thing he can't figure out. Something like it is expressed in that detestable art called music. And something like it occurs in heaven. A meaningless acceleration, not acceleration, acceleration, speeding, a meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience, quite opaque to us. Laughter of this kind does us no good and should always be discouraged. Besides, the phenomena is of itself disgusting, a direct insult to the realism, dignity, and austerity of hell.
And then after that, I will read what he says about fun, because fun is really remarkable, his analysis of fun. Fun is closely related to joy, a sort of emotional froth arising from the play instinct. It is of very little use to us. It can sometimes be used, of course, to divert humans from something that the enemy wants them to do, and feel. But in itself, it is wholly undesirable. It has wholly undesirable tendencies. It promotes
charity, courage, contentment, and many other evils. That's fun. But now take a look at joy. Look at Lewis's definition of joy. Remember you have to reverse what Screwtape says, because Screwtape is speaking from the vantage point of evil. And remember, this whole thing is opaque to him. Listen to what Screwtape says. This is the definition then. Joy is what he calls a meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience, quite opaque to us.
Okay, that means we have to reverse it. It's a meaningful, see, meaningless to the devil, but it's a meaningful acceleration. What an insight into the surprise of joy. See, it's an acceleration in the rhythm of our experience with God, and it's opaque to evil. Evil cannot understand. That's joy. I think that's what you're seeing in James. You're seeing in our Lord's statement when he talks about your sorrow will be turned to joy. You feel a sense
of grief at the apparent victory of death, and then when death is reversed, and remember in all the resurrection accounts they were glad when they saw the Lord, there was a sense of acceleration. And you see also in that marvelous calmness. By the way, in that passage in Philippians, Paul goes on to say, when he says, let all men know your forbearance, the Lord is nearby, then he goes on to say, be anxious for nothing, but
with everything with prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God will guard your hearts. Notice, Paul always unites peace with joy. He sees it rhythmically. Joy is not just always saying, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Sometimes it's calming down to and being quiet. Joy is also peaceful. Louis saw that, that it is a meaningful acceleration. That is the energy side of joy. It's opaque to evil. Evil cannot
understand it. It's meaningful. It's filled with truth. We don't have joy for joy's sake. Drugs can produce joy for joy's sake. Drugs can produce acceleration. But it's meaningless. In fact, interesting studies were done. People who took marijuana a lot and used it and wrote poetry and said, oh, I wrote the most beautiful poetry, but when they later read the poetry, even they themselves saw that it was dribbled. Very few good things have been written under the
influence of drugs. You think you're writing magnificent stuff, but you're not. It's meaningless acceleration. Alcohol produces meaningless acceleration, except it does a lot of harm. But here's a joy that's meaningful acceleration. In the rhythm of our relationship with God, it's rhythmic acceleration. So that sometimes it's totally peaceful and quiet. That's why I think you should never model in praise music or in singing or in worship, you should never model just one kind of joy. You should
always in worship sort of model both. You should model the calmness in worship, that's joy, as well as the acceleration. It needs to be modeled. Because joy is surprise, but it's the surprise of peace and it's the surprise of acceleration. Lewis saw that. I think that's what these three soundings of joy. When the disciples realized that Christ had won the victory, they couldn't keep quiet. That was acceleration. And when James, it dawned on James that even
in the midst of trials, over the long haul, the faithfulness of God endured and gave him strength, he felt joy. Just like Frodo and Sam Gamgee did on the dark tower. And when Paul, at the end of his life, writes to the Philippians, he urges them to rejoice. In fact, he says it twice. It's a double. Rejoice the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let all people know your melanin. The Lord is nearby. If Jesus Christ
is nearby, his relationship with you is what gives you your joy. You know what we're talking about here? We're talking about a resource. It's interesting. It's the resource that God gives you that enables you to carry on a ministry. It's the resource that enables you to be generous. To be gentle. To be generous. To count on the fact over the long haul the gospel works. And I'll tell you something right now about youth ministry. You cannot
serve out of emptiness. The worst thing that could happen to you at this forum is if you came to this forum and felt that you are now getting one more guilt trip on how you have to love youth. One more guilt trip on all that you've got to make youth relevant. One more guilt trip on you've got to make them concerned for social justice. You've got to make them this and you've got to make them that.
One more load for you to carry on what you're supposed to do. You've got to have a resource before you can do it. You have to have a resource. You have to have your need. I hate to put it in this tacky way, but in a sense you have to have your needs met too. In order so you can have a grace that flows out of fullness. Beloved, let us love one another. That's New Testament ethics.
And I'll tell you something in youth ministry. The key to youth ministry is getting a lot of young adults and older adults who are non-exploitive adults that love youth. And get them to work with youth but they will not work with youth if they're hung out to dry. They've got to be supported. And that's where staff comes in. It's to support volunteers. If you want a lot of volunteers in your church, you need to hire
a lot of staff. Because volunteers can't be hung out to dry. They've got to have nourishment. They've got to be nourished. You've got to be nourished. You've got to have a support group. You've got to have a prayer group. I say to every student from our church that comes to the seminary, you cannot make it in the seminary if you don't have a support group. If you don't have some small group of people that are praying
for you, that are nourishing you too, you just can't give out. Can I give you an illustration? Have you ever been to, yesterday I told you about going to a big estate? Here's something even better. This is more fun. Have you ever been to a big party? Have you ever been to a kind of one of these parties where they have a loaded table in the middle of the room and maybe it's a very wealthy party,
somebody with a lot of money is putting it on, and you got invited and you didn't go fast. I've learned some rules about going to these parties. You have to be there at the right time before all the really good elements, the good things in the party have all been taken by greedy people. And you come in to a party and my son and I used to, we made a joke about this once, that you come
into a party to figure out, you know these buffets, you have to figure out how to because they give you a very small plate. You got to figure out how to attack the party. You know. Let's make this a really good one. You come in and you see on the table there's an ice sculpture in the middle of the table draped with huge prawns. I'm giving you my favorite things. Prawns. Over on the side black caviar.
By the way, I've had caviar three times in my life. It's wonderful. I wouldn't want to buy a can of it. But if you've ever been to, I've been to embassy parties in the Philippines when I was pastor of the Union Church and I got to see caviar actually being served. And you know, with mounds of caviar and all the condiments that go around it, I want to tell you, it is good. And you go for
that fast. I'm going to tell you. And then over on the other side another one of my favorites is smoked salmon. All laid out like a big fish. All laid out and cut in nice little slices. And that's the middle table. And then over on the side of course all the marvelous things like celery, carrots, and all those things around the edges. And you walk in. My son and I learned this trick. You walk in, you
size it up and over on the side you see my favorite dessert. Siberian peach pie. Right over there on the side. Siberian peach pie. I say to my son, we're walking in, wow, what a party. So we've learned the trick. You take your small plate, you walk over it. We have found that start eating the prawns immediately off the ice sculpture. You sort of stand at the ice sculpture for a minute and visiting, visiting you know
with people, but eating prawns immediately. Because they will not fit very many of those on your plate. You start eating them. You scoop a little caviar while you're eating the shrimp. Keep the shrimp going. And you eat a little caviar, you get a little or you get the salmon. You do not fool around with carrots or celery. You avoid the dip. I hate dip anyway. And all those chips, all those chips. Skip those. You go right
to the shrimp. You go right to the caviar. You start piling it on while you're just graciously eating the I mean you do this. And we have found that if you go there immediately to that table first, that's before a lot of the other really greedy people are coming in. I mean, am I right? Is that the way you do it? That's what you do. Alright, now I'm going to give you one little thing to the
scenario. You walk into the party, you're over at the ice sculpture doing this graciously. Of course eating the prawns as fast as you can. Trying to talk while you eat. No crackers, no celery, none of that stuff. Just the prawns aiming in on the things that are really good. And just then the hostess comes over to you. And she says, Ernie, you're at the party. I'm so glad you came. And your son John, you came. It's
so nice that you came to my party. Hey, thanks for coming. By the way, and she takes your sizes. By the way, you know I know that you love prawns. It's your very favorite. You told me that once. And you told me once you loved caviar. Hey, got it here. And you told me that you loved salmon. Smoked salmon. I know what you're talking about. Look, Siberian peach pie. You told me you loved that. How do
you like that for a party? I put all your favorite things here at the party. Hey, by the way, Earl, when you leave, would you go by the kitchen? I've asked the chef to set aside some shrimp for you, some salmon, some caviar, and a whole Siberian peach pie for you to take home. I want you to take it home. Because I know it's your favorites. Hey, have a good time at the party, Earl. Hey, now
what happens to you at the party? Notice you and your son walk away from the shrimp table. You walk over to celery cauliflower. For all you want to be a well balanced person, you walk over there, you go over to the dips, you say to people, you casually talk to people, be sure to have some of the shrimp and the caviar. And you're over there eating celery and all. Now why are you doing that? Why are
you suddenly so generous? Because your needs have been met. And you know something? That's where we are. You have to have your needs met. And isn't it beautiful that that fourth word appears in the great litany of the New Testament? Faith, hope, love, joy. And joy is a gift from God to you so that your needs can be met. The meaningful acceleration in the rhythm of our relationship with God so that you can relax and you
can love others because you've been first loved. Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and thank you that it stirs us up with joy. And may these who work and have invested their lives in the lives of youth may we share at that banquet and may we invite others to share at all the best tables knowing that you've loved us first. You know what we like. You know what we need. Amen. We thank you that the
gospel is venerable. We thank you that it's true. And we thank you Lord that at its center is love. And that's why there's so much joy. May we experience it too. And may it flow through us to our generation in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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