Counting It All Joy

Last Sunday, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our ministry there at Bethlehem, and it's a time for gratitude, I told the people, a time for regret, and a time for hope. And the gratitude, of course, is based on memory, and so I thought back to the beginning 20 years ago in 1980 in the summer, and the first sermon that I preached when I came. That was a sermon on Philippians 1, 19 to 25, and I want to begin with one of the points that I began with there. You read the key verse. It's verse 25. Paul says, Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. And I said to the people, the apostolic mission was to stay on planet earth for the joy of the people of Philippi, which is why I'm coming to Bethlehem. I am here for the advancement and the joy of your faith. I wonder if you pastors realize that's your mission. Indeed, every Christian should share in this mission to advance the joy of those who don't have it in Christ. That's our reason for being. The apostle Paul is one of the greatest men who ever lived. He was an intellectual giant, and he suffered more than anybody in this room probably has ever suffered. And he said his mission on planet earth was to glorify God through joy in the other people, by bringing people to rejoice in God. That was his mission. Let me try to confirm this so you don't think it's an isolated point in Paul's understanding of his own mission. Here's a verse from 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 24. He said, We are not lording it over your faith. We are workers with you for your joy. You would have expected him to put the word faith in there. We're not lording it over your faith. We're workers with you for your faith. It's not what he said. He said we are not lording it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy. His mission, his work was joy. He suffered to bring joy, everlasting joy into people's lives. That is not a small goal. It is the goal. I remember in those early days of Bethlehem, I was new. I was 34 years old, and mainly older people in this downtown church, and some of them did not like me. They didn't like this talk. They didn't like my exposition. They didn't like the way I dressed. They didn't like the way I led the service. And on Sunday evenings, they'd sit in the back several rows like this, daring me to get them to sing or in any way be happy that I was there or that God was there, as far as I could tell. And I remember I did some things there that I have told many pastors to do. I looked them right in the eye, and I said, You know, I love you, and I'm going to outrejoice you and outlast you. And I did. They're all dead, and some of them became very precious supporters. You know, new pastor in the midst right here, new pastor in the midst, remember this. Some of your present adversaries will someday be your strongest supporters. Just love them enough and outrejoice them. I suppose when pastors call me and ask for advice about this or that, that's one of the most common pieces of counsel I give is outrejoice them. Outrejoice them. Outlove them. Now, those are almost the same. Outrejoice them and outlove them. And if you could explain that right now, I would just close my book and sit down. That outrejoicing and outloving are almost identical. They're almost synonymous. Let me explain with Hebrews 13, 17. This verse says, Obey your leaders. Now, he's talking to the people, but he'll get to the pastors. Obey your leaders, pastors and elders, and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as men who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not sadly or with murmuring, for that would be of no advantage to you. Now, think about that. Calling the congregation to help by prayer, by support, by submission, help their pastor be happy in the ministry of the Word. Then he explains why that is so essential, because he says, if that doesn't happen, it'll be of no advantage to you. Now, joy and love, joy and love. I said they're almost the same as you pursue them over your people. Now, you see it? See it in the verse? Let the pastor do his work with joy, because if he doesn't, if he's a murmuring, depressed, discouraged, legalistic, duty-driven pastor, you'll get no advantage out of it. That means if he's not pursuing his joy, he won't be blessing you, and that's an unloving thing for a pastor to do. Therefore, to outrejoice and outlove are the same, or at least they are largely overlapping realities. Now, here's my question. Why is joy so central in the Apostle Paul's thinking? And here's the answer. Joy is so central, so vital in our lives, because joy in Christ, or joy in all that God is for you in Christ, magnifies and glorifies the truth and the beauty and the worth of Christ more than if you lived your life without it. Now, that's an understatement. That's putting it mildly. The reason joy is central in the life of a Christian is because joy magnifies the worth, the truth, the beauty, the greatness of Christ, especially when the joy is preserved through suffering. Now, let me go back to that sermon 20 years ago. If you have a Bible, you might want to open it, in fact, and keep it open. I'll return to this text two or three times. Philippians chapter one, verses 20 and 21. It is my eager expectation and hope. I was speaking these words through the Apostle, but it was my desire as I came to my church. It still is my desire for my church. It is my desire in this room right now. It's my desire for the rest of my life, and when I lie like Jim Boyce on his deathbed, I want it to be my desire there. So, note this is an important verse to me. It is my eager expectation and hope that I shall not at all be ashamed, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now, the reason I quote this verse is because it contains the argument that I just assumed in stating why joy is so central to Christian living, namely that it magnifies Christ. That's in these verses, but I want you to see it clearly. So, let me linger here for a moment. My aim, he says, and everybody surely in this room, unless you just came here curious, would agree with this for yourself. My aim is that Christ would be shown big, magnified. I thought, what illustration shall I use? And I was sitting for R.C.'s talk way back there, and he was so small if I looked at this pulpit, just a little teeny R.C., and then you lift your eyes up there or there or there, and he's big. That's magnifying, right? Your life is meant to take the Christ who is not little but looks little to the world and make him look like that. Can't tell what color the tie is looking at the pulpit, but if you look at one of those things, you could probably even tell it's one of those library ties that half of you have on tonight, if you have on a tie, which you don't, but Paul and I have a library tie on. So, we want people to be able to see the little books in his tie, the wrinkles in his face, the scars on his hands. Your life exists to magnify Jesus. Now, how do you do it from these verses? It says, you do it in life or in death. How? Verse 21, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Just collapse down to the death half here. I want Christ to be magnified in my dying for to me to die is gain. Get it? How will Christ be shown to be great in your dying? Answer, when dying is gain to you. Now, why would dying be gain to you? Verse 23, my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. So, death is Christ. Sure, Paul has lots of Christ now by the Spirit, but oh, so much more when he dies. And therefore, he wants more of Christ and therefore, he looks at leaving his friends, he looks at leaving the earth, he looks at leaving family, or let's say, let's just bring it to me, I look at leaving Noel and Carsten and Shelley and Millie and Benjamin and Barnabas and Abraham and Talitha and my staff, five of us collectively there, 82 years at this church. I look at leaving you and the pleasures of talking about Christ in public on the earth. I look at leaving the beauty of nature and I say, lost gain, because Christ is so superior. So, to the degree that death is gain to me and satisfying to me, Christ is shown to be great in my dying. Now, does that make sense? So, if you want Christ to be magnified in your life, you have to be satisfied in Him in your dying, which is another way of saying joy in Christ is the key to magnifying Christ. A joyless Christian is a very bad advertisement for the all-satisfying glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, suffering. Bring all of that together with suffering. What I've said so far in this message is foundation for understanding the biblical relationship between suffering and joy. Suffering and joy. Here's the relationship. The suffering of God's saints is appointed by God so that in it our joy in God would make the worth of God be seen as more precious than what we lose when we suffer. Now, that was a complicated sentence. Let me say it again. Suffering is appointed by God for His saints for this purpose, so that as we persevere in joy in God through suffering, He is shown to be more valuable than what we are losing as we suffer. That's why you suffer for God's sake. Now, I know at this point there would be some stumbling over the word appointed. God has appointed suffering for His saints. There are old-time liberals like William Barclay. I want to pick on William Barclay here because far too many evangelicals of my generation read his books and commentaries. Barclay said in his spiritual autobiography, I believe that pain and suffering are never the will of God for His children. That's quote, page 44. Today it goes on among the open theists especially, quote, God does not have a specific divine purpose for each and every occurrence of evil. God does not have a specific purpose in mind for the occurrences of suffering, and yet I said that they are appointed by God for a purpose. There are so many hymns that we sing and we don't know what we're singing. They're so good. Thank God for great hymns. If I could see you, I'd ask you to raise your hand, but you know I'm looking out on a totally blank audience almost because of this light here, so I won't ask you to raise your hand. I'm trusting that you're still there in fact. Good, thank you for that. I can't hear you if I can't see you. There was a hymn writer, she didn't write many, Carolina Vilhelmina Sandell-Berg who wrote a hymn, Day by Day. Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here, trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure, gives unto each day what he deems best. Lovingly it's part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest. You believe that? Our loving Father bestows on each day its proper proportion of pain and pleasure, but we don't need to take her word for it. Right here in our text, Philippians 1 verse 29, it has been granted to you. Now the word granted in English kind of takes the edge off of the word give. It's the same old simple word give. The Lord is given to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer. It's a gift from God. God has granted to you to believe and he's granted to you to suffer. It's a gift from God that you suffer. Or John Bunyan, 12 years in prison, at the end of his life for his suffering church, wrote a book called Seasonable Counsels, Advice to Sufferers. And the whole thing, the whole book is an exposition of 1 Peter 4 19. It says, let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator according to the will of God. And what an exposition of suffering that book is. Get his collective works and read it. And there are of course dozens of other texts we could go to like Genesis 50 verse 20. You meant it for evil, Joseph said to his brothers, but God meant, not just used, it's an intentional word. Not a result but an intention. God meant it for good when Joseph was sold into slavery. So even though there's a stumbling over a point, I say that the reason for suffering in our lives is that it is appointed by God so that He, through our joy in Him, through suffering, might be seen to be more valuable than what we lose when we suffer. Now let me just lay on the table some texts that link suffering and joy so that you'll know the breadth of the concern. Matthew 5 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely. Rejoice in that day for great is your reward in heaven. Romans 5 3. We rejoice in our sufferings knowing that sufferings produce endurance or patience and patience works approvedness and approvedness works hope and hope doesn't put to shame because the love of God is poured out in our lives. James 1 2. Count it all joy my brethren when you meet various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance or steadfastness. 1 Peter 4 13. Rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings in order that you may rejoice when he appears. Hebrews 10 34. You had compassion on the prisoners and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property for you knew that you had a better possession and an abiding one. Acts 5 41. They left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. Hebrews 12 1 2. Let's say two. Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated seated at the right hand of God. 2 Corinthians 12 9. I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ. Then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities for when I am weak then am I strong. Philippians 2 17. Even if I am to be poured out as a libation upon the sacrificial offering of your faith. Make sure you understand that. Even if I am poured out as a libation, even if I do die for you and my blood is shed for you and my life drains out for you. I am glad and rejoice with you all. Colossians 1 24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body the church. First Thessalonians 1 6 and 7. You became imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word in much affliction with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers of Macedonia. And one of my favorites the last one I'll mention 2 Corinthians 8 1. We don't want you brethren to be ignorant about the grace of God which has been shown in the churches of Macedonia. How in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty overflowed with a wealth of liberality. That's Christianity. Grace came down, joy came up, liberality overflowed in affliction and poverty. That's Christianity. Don't you want to be like that. To be a lot of simplifying of life to be like in America in the church. Now here's the question I suppose. How can you be joyful in this? What's the key? Are there keys? There are many. The key is trusting God that he's good and that he's sovereign and that he works this suffering for you and for those around you for things you never will imagine. I know that thousands in this room right now, I don't know 4,500 people I'm told are about here, several thousand are walking through suffering right now. And I want to say in the name of God Almighty that if you are a child of God, God is at work gloriously through this for your benefit and the benefit of many around you. So I want to in whatever time I can here mention some purposes that God has in your suffering in order to kindle joy. Number one, we've heard it, just heard it from Ajit Fernando. Pray for Ajit. I got an email from Ajit three days ago just pleading for prayer. He's exhausted. There is one great servant of God. I love Ajit Fernando. Pray for Ajit even now. Number one, deeper holiness and deeper faith in your life. Hebrews 12, you all know this, he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. I have never in my life heard anybody say, I have become more holy and learned the deepest lessons of Christ-likeness in the easiest, most comfortable, brightest days of my life. Never have I heard anybody say that. Instead, what I've heard over and over and over and testified to myself that holiness comes. Paul put it like this with regard to his own faith, 2 Corinthians 1, 8 and 9. We do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. We felt that we had received the sentence of death. And then he puts in a purpose clause. And this is not the purpose of the devil. It is the purpose of God, because the devil doesn't have these kinds of purposes. That was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. God ordained that every prop be knocked out from under Paul until he had nothing left to fall upon but the God who raises the dead. That's where Jim Boyce is tonight. He has one choice. Despair or resurrection. We know where he is. God cares about your faith very deeply, and he will do whatever it takes to take you deeper with him. Number two, suffering makes your cup increase so that when it is tossed into the ocean of everlasting joy in heaven, it will contain more if you have suffered joyfully on the earth. In other words, suffering is designed to make your capacity to experience the glory of God larger in heaven. Let me read you the text. Second Corinthians 417. I will go lightly here in order that our speaker later may go heavily. This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Just note one word, preparing, working. The slight momentary affliction is working, working, working. It's not just that the reward in heaven is awaiting us and thus sustaining us through suffering. That's true. It's that the suffering is working, working. The capacity to sense more fully the weight of glory there than if we hadn't suffered and enjoyed it here. Jonathan Edwards said, it will be no damp to the happiness of those who are of lower degrees of happiness in glory that others are more advanced in glory above them. For all shall be perfectly happy. Everyone shall be perfectly satisfied. Every vessel that is cast into the ocean of happiness is full, though there are some vessels far larger than others. And there shall be no such thing as envy in heaven, but perfect love shall reign through the whole society. One of the things God is doing in your suffering is preparing you to enjoy him more in heaven than if you had not suffered. So one of the aims of God in suffering is to enlarge your number three. Our suffering serves to make others bold if we rejoice in it. Philippians chapter 1 verse 14, most of the brothers, Paul writes from prison, most of the brothers have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear. You've tasted this, haven't you? Either in watching someone bear suffering in faith and joy, you've been made bold to be weaned off this world, take a risk for Jesus, or you've done it in a biography, the way Henry Martin did in reading Brainerd. Listen to what he said. May 12, 1806, Henry Martin, missionary to the Persians. My soul was revived today through God's never-ceasing compassion so that I found the refreshing presence of God in secret duties. Especially was I abundantly encouraged by reading David Brainerd's account of the difficulties attending a mission to the heathen. Oh, blessed be the memory of that beloved saint. No uninspired writer ever did me so much good. I felt most sweetly joyful to labor amongst the natives here, and my willingness was, I think, more divested of those romantic notions which have sometimes inflated me with false spirits. Brainerd died at age 29, coughing up blood the last seven years of his life as he rode horses through the woods of the Northeast, winning a few Indians to Jesus. And Jonathan Edwards wrote his biography, and tens of thousands of people have been made bold for God because of it, and therefore never, ever, ever, ever think that there was a wasted life in David Brainerd, though he died at 29. Nothing is wasted in the service of King Jesus. We all know the five martyrs in Ecuador. Elizabeth Elliot has done us well, but there are lesser lights, perhaps. Roger Udarian and his wife Barbara, she wrote that night, January 1956. Tonight, the captain told us of his finding four bodies in the river. One had t-shirt and blue jeans. Raj was the only one who wore them. God gave me this verse two days ago, Psalm 48, 14, for this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide even unto death. As I came face to face with the news of Raj's death, my heart was filled with praise. He was worthy of his homegoing. Help me, Lord, to be both mommy and daddy. That's powerful. That's powerful. And do you not hear it, women, who are about to lose your husband or your child and want to be like that? Doesn't it have that function? Fathers, children dying. Doesn't it have the function when the saints suffer with praise and with joy that it was the appointed time and though the pain is indescribable. We will praise him who guides us even unto death. Does not that function in the world to do what nothing else can do for the cause of Christ? What a shattering to the apathetic saints whose lives are empty in countless comforts. Number four, the suffering that we experience in Christ and for Christ completes what is lacking in his afflictions. At least it could. Colossians 124, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. Now, everybody in this room knows nothing is lacking in the atoning afflictions of Jesus. What's lacking then? What's lacking is the presentation of those sufferings in person to those for whom he died. And one of the means of the great commission to get it done that God has designed is that his sufferings will be presented to those for whom he died in the skin of his emissaries. I bear in my body the marks of Jesus and die daily with him. In 1990, I think it was two, I was at Trinity Seminary hidden away working on a project for a month and I got word that J. Oswald Sanders, who was at that time 89 years old and a great mission statesman, was speaking in chapel and I didn't want anybody to know I was there because I was working and I snuck in the back to listen to this great man. He said, by the way, that he had written a book every year since he was 70. 19 books after he was 70. I said, what a way to retire. That is terrific. Oh, that all Americans would learn from J. Oswald Sanders to get to work when you're 70. Get to work when you're 70. Don't go play golf or move to Orlando and bask in the sun and get all leathery. And he told the story of an evangelist in India. Poor man knew the gospel well. Tramped across a day's worth of hills, came to a village. Sun was about to go down. Thought, though he was tired, he would tell the gospel to the unreached village. He told the gospel to them. They scorned him, ran him out of town and in discouragement and exhaustion, he lay down under a big tree and fell asleep. And just at dusk, not long later, he was startled out of his sleep by the village crowded all around him. And he thought they were going to harm him. And the chief of the village leaned over him and said, we came out and saw your blistered feet. And decided you must be a holy man with an important message. And we would like you to tell us again. I complete in my sufferings the afflictions of Jesus. And Paul said he did it with joy. Because what could be greater than to have a village believe because you had blisters on your feet. Number five, suffering enforces the command to spread the gospel. Oh, how lazy we are as a church, how apathetic and lethargic we are. And God spurs us. Acts chapter eight, verse one, on the day of Stephen's murder, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem. And they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Now that ought to ring a bell in your mind, Bible knowers. Judea and Samaria, where's the only other place in the preceding chapters where those two words come together? Chapter one, verse eight, you should be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria. And they hadn't, they hadn't been his witnesses. They had stayed put. There's a good harvest in Jerusalem. Go to places where there's a good harvest. Grow a big church. Don't plant churches where it's hard. Don't go to people groups that are resistant. If that's your mindset, brace yourself for suffering. On that day, a great persecution arose because what obedience will not achieve, suffering will achieve. He will get his people moving if he has to kill them to do it. Kill his favorite. Surely not Stephen, Lord. Surely he will not have to pay this price. The one whose wisdom they couldn't answer. The one whose face shone like an angel. The one who knew his history by heart. The one who understood the temple. The one who had the grasp of the gospel. I'll take Stephen. We'll create a persecution here that will move these people into mission. Let us rejoice that the story could be told over and over and over again. And the point here is not simply that God turned setbacks into triumphs. That God takes a Stalin and the way he maneuvered some Korean people into Tashkent. And Christianity spreads in a way that nobody ever dreamed because there were Christians among those Koreans. Let us exalt that God is sovereign over those kinds of movements in history. But the point is also this. Comfort, ease, affluence, prosperity, safety, freedom. These things which we hope and pray will unleash more missionaries, more resources. Don't! Weakness, apathy, lethargy, self-centeredness, preoccupation. Aren't there people at home here who need Jesus? Let the thousands of unreached peoples go to hell without the slightest testimony to Christ while Christian radio stations abound all over the place in America. The Minneapolis Star Tribune said the poorest fifth of the church gives 3.4 percent of its income to the church and the richest fifth of the church gives 1.6 percent. What does that tell you? The harder it goes, the more people give. And the easier it goes, the less people give. Who cares about prosperity? God, deliver us from prosperity. God, deliver us from prosperity. God, give us whatever we need. And I know this can be abused. I'm not calling for you to jump off the temple and put God to the test, try to walk on water, throw yourself on a sword. I'm just saying if we hear things like this, if we read things like this, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ who counted it all joy to endure the cross, we will embrace more paths of love that are risk-taking and costly. We will, and I'm calling you to it. Orlando's not an easy place to do a conference like this. Good grief, what did we do putting it here? Well, this is exactly where it needs to be. Let's not be glib about this. The price was Stephen's life. It was Stephen's life. He had a wife, perhaps, children. Lastly, number six, the supremacy of Christ. This is where I began. The supremacy of Christ is manifest in suffering when we suffer joyfully. Here's another text besides the one I gave you from Philippians, 2 Corinthians 12 9. My grace is sufficient for you, Christ said to Paul, because he wouldn't take away his thorn. My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weak endurance of this thorn, if you will trust me and rejoice. To this, Paul responded, I will all the more gladly, I like the name of that music group, that is a good name, and they will bless us. All the more gladly will I boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. Can you believe this man? Content, glad with, let's not read them too quickly, weakness, insult, hardship, persecutions, calamities. For when I am weak, then am I strong. So here we are back where we began. The point of suffering is so that the glory, the beauty, the worth, the truth, the all-satisfying supremacy of Christ might be seen magnified in the joy of those who count him more to be desired than all that they are losing in suffering for his sake. You know, gratitude is a wonderful way to show glory to God, but nothing like joy and suffering, because when you're grateful for all of God's gifts, the world looks at that and says, I can do that. I can do that. I can say thank you when I've got health. I can say thank you when I've got wealth. I can say thank you when I've got a job. I can say thank you when nobody's upset with me. That's no big testimony. It's good. It's good to be thankful. It's just no big deal in the world. It's a big deal to God. If you're not thankful, you're lost. But what's a big deal in the world is when you suffer and count him, not his gifts, they're all being taken away. Count him as all-satisfying. Then the world cannot explain, and they might ask you a reason for the hope that is in you. Anybody asked you a reason recently for the hope that is in you? You know why? You're not suffering very much, and therefore you have no occasion to show that Jesus is superior to the computer or the car or the lake home or your health or your family. Jesus makes very clear how we rejoice in suffering. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice in that day and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven. So I'm calling you here as I close. I'm calling you to a radical wartime simplification of your life and the embrace of the Calvary road of love. You all know people that you could love more that would be more costly to love. You know people who to talk to. Let's just start simple. You know people who you could talk to that would be risky to talk to. You don't have to jump off the temple. You just have to be loving, radically mouth-opened loving in hard places, in risky places, and then you'll have an occasion to prove that Christ is great and is magnified in your life. Orlando quoted my favorite sentence. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. Let's just add this as we close. He is even more glorified in you when you are satisfied in him if your satisfaction in him is persevering through pain.