The Fruit of Joy
Cultivating the Fruits of the Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 16:54
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22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Love, joy, and peace—the first three on Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit—are like a triplet. They come together.
Jesus linked them very closely in his farewell conversations with his disciples:
27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
And, to continue the picture, joy and peace are like twins. They come together as a pair even more often than love, joy, and peace come as a triplet.
And Paul is particularly fond of the two words, joy and peace. This is the kind of thing he loves to say:
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In fact, Paul speaks of joy twenty-one times and peace forty-three times in his letters!
When we look closer at what Paul said in regards to what true and genuine joy and peace really are and where those attribute originate from we notice quickly that these attributes are originate from God and are then a fruit of the spirit not a fruit of the flesh.
Joy and peace are key signs of the kingdom of God, just as important as righteousness. These are things that happen when God reigns—true joy and peace are born.
Joy and peace are the way we are to serve and please God.
Joy and peace are essential ingredients in our Christian hope—we are to be filled with joy and peace.
Joy and peace are evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit overflowing in our lives.
These are the truths about joy and peace that are highly sought after realities.
Let us this morning first think of Joy.
What brings you joy?
What makes you smile, laugh, or whoop out loud and throw your arms up in the air for joy and then want to hug everybody around you?
When we consider these questions about joy, four things come to mind, and each of them connects with something very true about Christian joy as the fruit of the Spirit.
These four things bring to us great joy (even if I claim to be a Christian or not): having a family, having a feast, having a faith, and having a future.
All four of these reasons for joy in ordinary life are true in even greater ways (not temporary but a lasting joy) of the joy that fills the life and heart of a Christian as the fruit of the Spirit. Let’s look at each one.
Joy Is Having a Family
Joy Is Having a Family
In the Book of Romans, Paul prays that his readers would be filled with joy and peace. (Romans 14 and Romans 15)
The Christians at Rome were a mixture of Jews who had come to believe in Jesus as Messiah, and Gentiles who had come from a completely “outside,” pagan background.
And Paul has spent two chapters (Romans 14 and 15) telling them to accept and welcome one another, because God in Christ had accepted them and made them into one people.
Then Paul quotes several Old Testament texts that called on the Gentiles to praise and rejoice in what God has done (Rom 15:9-12).
The second quotation says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people” (Rom 15:10, quoting Deut 32:43).
Why did Paul tell the Gentile Christians at Rome to rejoice? What did they have to be joyful about?
They should be filled with joy because they were now included in a whole new family—they belonged to God’s own people (“rejoice with his people,”).
They were no longer far away, outside in the cold, but included.
They had a whole new set of relationships because of the Lord Jesus Christ and his reconciling death and resurrection.
Paul made this point even more emphatically to the Gentile Christians in Ephesus.
12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
They were alienated in every possible way.
They did not belong to the people of God and they knew nothing about the love and redemption and covenant promises of the God of Israel.
They had no relationship with God or God’s people.
They did not belong to the family of God.
Not a very joyful place to be.
But Paul says that now things have completely changed
Eph 2:13, 19
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Now that is Joy in having a family, what about the joy we have in having a feast.
Joy Is Having a Feast
Joy Is Having a Feast
We have feasts when we want to to celebrate a joyous occasion.
(Wedding Celebration with a feast)
We see this happening in Biblical times, In fact, the people of Israel were commanded to rejoice and be joyful!
So many of their songs in the book of Psalms call on the people to celebrate, sing, rejoice, praise, give thanks, etc. And they where commanded by God to observe some festivals that God Himself put into the Hebrew Calendar to be celebrated annually each year.
There were three annual festivals in Israel—Passover along with the Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Tabernacles. You can read about them in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16.
These where to me moments of joy and celebration.
11 You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.
14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.
God’s overflowing blessing each year should produce overflowing joy—with celebration, eating, drinking, and rejoicing.
Now when we look closer at each of these feast we learn that these feast are celebrating what Christ would fulfill through His redemptive work toward His people, the family of God.
Now that is joy in having a feast, what about joy in having faith...
Joy Is Having a Faith
Joy Is Having a Faith
The word gospel, as I’m sure you know, simply means “good news.” And good news brings joy just by being what it is—good!
So if the biblical gospel is the best and greatest good news the world has ever heard, then there is no greater joy than knowing and believing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel tells us the great truths of what God has done through Christ to save the world, because of his love and grace.
In the gospel, God promises us forgiveness, eternal life, and a future filled with hope for the whole creation.
And these are things that can never be taken away, because they are rooted in who God is and what God has done.
How can we not be glad when we know the good news and believe it?
And then there is the joy of having a future...
Joy Is Having a Future
Joy Is Having a Future
If you know anything about what the Bible reveals about mankind and about God you know that the earth is cursed because of our sin—though one day that will be removed (Rev 22:3).
3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
The Bible tells us that God’s plan of redemption includes the whole creation.
It is not that we will some day be saved out of the earth, but that we will be saved along with the whole creation. That is the combined message of Romans 8:16-23.
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
This is a biblical truth that goes back to the Old Testament also. Isaiah tells us that God is already busy creating a new heaven and a new earth, and the way he portrays it is filled with wonder, joy, satisfaction, and safety (Is 65:17-25).
In the light of that great hope, some psalms look forward to the whole creation rejoicing together, when God comes to put things right.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord.
13 For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.
Psalm 98 ends the same way, but adds the rivers and mountains, clapping and singing for joy!
And the Bible ends, not with us going up and away to some other destination, but with God coming down to dwell with redeemed humanity in the new creation (Rev 21:1-5).
1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.
2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
I don't know what that truth does for you but it overwhelms me with joy.