The Joyful Church

He prays or sings in the end of Ephesians 3, is focusing the church on God, as he says, unto him, and how God strengthens the church, so the church gives glory to God, and that there is hope in God's glory and in his goodness, that we can pray prayers that are so big we can't even imagine them, and God hears them and answers them. And so, this morning I want to talk a little bit about the joyful church, because what we find is that the church that is focused and empowered by the glory of God will be a church that is filled with joy. Let's go ahead and pray. Father in heaven, I ask that you would guide us this morning during this time as we consider what it means to be a joyful church, a church that is focused on your goodness and on your glory.

May we live for your glory. May we declare your glory. May we be strengthened by your glory. And in all things, may we find that our greatest joy and our greatest hope is found in glorifying you. So be with us this morning. May it all be for your glory. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One of the things that is we begin to dig into the idea of joy is that we find very quickly there is a difference between happiness and joy. And what I mean by that is happiness for us can be very fleeting, right? I can be in a great mood having a wonderful day, as I was Friday afternoon, and I'm running down to Walmart to pick some stuff up for the men's breakfast, and some guy jumps a median, cuts in front of me, and next thing you know, it's like my joy, my happiness is gone, and revenge is my only motivation.

We've all had that experience, where things are going well, and one thing, it may not even be a big thing, goes wrong, and all of a sudden we go from happy to angry, or happy to sad, or happy to discouraged, and what we find in our lives is that happiness is incredibly fleeting. By contrast, joy is something that survives the difficulty, that survives the darkness, and survives the struggle of this life. And when I think about joy, there is probably one example in Scripture that my heart and my mind go to almost every single time, and it's in Acts, the 16th chapter. And Paul has come to this town, a familiar town, there's a whole book of the Bible written to them, to the town of Philippi. And as he has been proclaiming the Gospel, there is a girl who has an evil spirit who has been following them.

Eventually, Paul gets fed up with this demon, and he turns around and he casts it out of the girl. We'll talk more about that in just a minute. But in doing so, she loses her occult power to be able to prophesy. And as a result, her owners who were selling her services as a fortune teller lose all their money. And the best way to make somebody mad, right, is to hit them in the pocketbook. And so these guys get so angry that Paul has saved this girl from this evil spirit that they throw a riot. And what we find in Acts 16, beginning in verse 22, is this: "The crowd joined in attacking them." That's Paul and Silas. "And the magistrates tore their garments off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods.

And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet into the stocks. And so one of the things that happens as this riot happens, everything happens fast. They rip the clothes off Paul and Silas, they hit them, and there wasn't a prescribed number of blows, 10 lashes, 15 lashes. Essentially, they beat them until their arms are tired. And then they bring them to jail and say, "Keep them safe," likely awaiting more trial the next day. And so the jailer takes them to the deepest, darkest part of the jail. And he doesn't just lock them in a cell, but it says he will fasten their feet in the stocks. And in a Roman jail or Roman prison, the idea of stocks isn't to keep you from escaping, but to make your time in jail miserable.

So you are essentially hog-tied in jail, which means your muscles are hurting, you can't move, you are struggling just to exist in this moment. And worse than that, you've been stripped naked and beaten until people's arms get tired. So this is a pretty miserable situation. And as I think about that, my first thought is, "What would be my reaction to this type of situation?" Or what would be our reaction to this kind of situation? Or really any situation where there is a large amount of suffering? And my first thought upon reading this is that uncontrolled crying seems to be a pretty good option, right? Like that would maybe be a great option, just to sit there and weep in tears. Another one that probably most of us would go to is we complain, right? We would be upset and angry over the injustice of what has just taken place.

And we would begin to whine and complain, and we would be miserable, not just in our physical affliction, but in our spirit as well. Or we would just go to blind, uncontrolled rage. And in this case, in this fact, with Paul and Silas, it would be justified. Paul is a Roman citizen. By law, before he can be beaten, he has to have a trial that has not happened. So not only is this, like, physically painful and spiritually difficult, it is a massive miscarriage of justice. And I either would be crying, complaining, or angry, or maybe all three at the same time. Look at the reaction in the very next verse. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Imagine us in this situation, and we just sit there, and we're singing a song, singing hymns, singing "Graves into Gardens," singing "Glorious Day."

That would probably and likely not be my first reaction. And what we find with Paul and Silas is that joy goes deeper than happiness. Happiness is like this little kiddie pool that can be tipped over at any instant. Whereas joy is this infathomable ocean, where it doesn't matter how much the wind blows, or the rain comes, or how much waves slosh water out of this ocean. It is inexhaustible. So even when you are beaten and in prison, falsely accused, you're able to find your joy in God. Joy also has a different source than happiness. Our happiness is often based on a temporary physical situation, where his joy is based on the goodness of God and his glory, and it is eternal. That's why Jesus will tell us to lay up treasures in heaven, because everything we store up here, ultimately it can be ruined, it can be taken away.

Disaster can strike. Fire can come. All kinds of different struggles can come. And here, Paul and Silas, in the midst of this struggle, joy is waving because their clothes have been taken. Their comfort has been taken. Their health has been taken by this beating in rods, and yet they sing, maybe even with tears in their eyes, to God. And joy should be the flag that waves over the life of the Christian and the life of the church who glorifies God. If you ever are in D.C. and you walk down toward the Capitol building, do you know how to tell if the Senate is in session in their chambers? Or the House is in session in their chambers? You look at the Capitol building, and if it's during the day, and the Senate is in session in their chambers,

there will be a flag flying over that chamber. And the same with the House, and at night there will be a light indicating that there is somebody within working in those chambers. Joy, for the Christian, is the flag that flies over the work of God for His glory in the depth of our life. It's the external result of what God is doing in our lives. And as I've thought about joy a lot over the last several weeks and several months, there's another difference between joy and happiness. I like to see people happy. It is good when somebody is happy, and I am happy that they're happy. But if you're ever near somebody who is filled with joy, that joy is contagious. So this morning, we got about three inches of rain last night, a bunch of snow melted,

and I was taking the dogs out about 6:30 this morning, and I'm out there in flip-flops because I wasn't going to put on shoes, and I walk into the yard, and I step down, and what happens? All this water just oozes out of the ground, and super cold water all over my feet, and I'm like, "Why are you guys up at 6:30? Can you wait till it warms up?" Now the Christian life, so saturated by hope and trust in God, joy is what happens when you squeeze the life of those who live for the glory of God. It just comes out of us. Even if we're hurting, even if we are in tears, even if the world has fallen apart, when you squeeze the Christian who lives for God and His glory, joy comes out because we are saturated with the goodness of God.

And that joy is contagious and affects others. And so with that being said, what we want to do is we want to pursue joy. We want to pursue joy in our lives, and we want to pursue joy in our church. And we do that ultimately by looking to the goodness and the glory of God. We said last week that to Jesus, to Him be glory, to God be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. The church is to lift up the name of God as we've been transformed by Jesus, not just for a short time, but for all generations forever and ever. Amen. Joy, I think, in our lives is one of the ways in which we know that we are glorifying God. And so the question that I want to try to answer this morning with just sort of three short things from Acts 16.

As I answer this question, what makes a joyful church? What makes a church that when you squeeze it, it's not anger, it's not bitterness, but it's joy that comes out of that church. That joy that is contagious, but like in a good way, to a world that sits in darkness. And I think, first of all, the answer is this: a joyful church knows that God is the source of their salvation. The book that Paul writes to the Philippian church is a joyful, joyful book. It's a book that is filled with Paul's joy and pictures of the church's joy. 1:6, "I am sure of this: He who began a good work in you." And as Paul begins to talk to this church, he calls their mind back to this reality that God is the one who is at work in church,

that God is the source of their salvation. And I want to go back to Philippi. And first of all, ask the question, "How did the Apostle Paul get to Philippi?" The Apostle Paul gets to Philippi not by his choice. He had another plan. He was planning to go out into Asia on this missionary journey, and as he prepares and starts to leave on this route, the Holy Spirit stops him. He says, "You know what? We're going to go a different way. God doesn't want us going that way. We're going to go this way." And it says the Spirit of Jesus, in Acts chapter 16, stops him. So the only place left to go is Troas. So they go to this city of Troas, and in this city, Paul has a dream of a man from Macedonia,

standing up saying, "Come and help us." So the next day, Paul gets on a boat, and they travel across to Macedonia, where Paul begins to proclaim the gospel. And the first place that he stops is in the city of Philippi. And in Acts chapter 16, we see three people being saved by the power of God. The first is one that is known, very famously in the church, one who is named Lydia. And I want to ask the question, what did God do, or how did God save Lydia? The one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods. She was a worshiper of God, so she's already worshiping God, likely in a Jewish way with a group of other women, because the city of Philippi didn't have enough Jewish people to form a synagogue.

And listen to what happens as Paul shows up at the women's prayer meeting. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. How is Lydia saved? It's because God comes and opens her heart. And then we have this demon-possessed servant girl, and I want you to see how God saves this demon-possessed servant girl. And she kept doing this for many days. She's following the Apostle Paul around, talking about how he is a servant of the Most High God, interrupting his preaching. It's like having a mob following you, shouting you down at every turn. And Paul having become... Listen to how God saves her. It's not because of Paul sharing the gospel. Paul having become greatly annoyed. Right? Not just annoyed, but he is greatly annoyed. He turns to her and says, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her."

And that spirit came out of her in that very hour. God saves her through the annoyance of the apostle Paul. It gives me some great comfort in those times where maybe I'm grumpy and maybe I'm annoyed. And then, look at how God saves the Philippian jailer. The jailer is not looking for the gospel. He's sound asleep. And Paul and Silas, they're praying, and God sends an earthquake. And in this earthquake, their shackles fall off, the doors are opened, and the jailer runs in. And one of the responsibilities of the jailer is you guard them with your life. Which means that if Paul and Silas are gone, the jailer will die. And he is so discouraged because the bonds have fallen off, the doors have swung open, he assumes everybody's gone. He says, "Well, I'm going to die anyway." So he pulls out his sword, and he is ready to kill himself.

And Paul speaks up and says, "We're all here." And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, trembling with fear. He fell down before Paul and Silas, brings them out of their cell and says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Look at what's happening to this guy. He's not looking for the gospel. He's not like Lydia, who's already at a prayer meeting. He's not somebody already involved in this spiritual war, but on the wrong side, encountering the victorious power of Jesus. This is a guy who isn't looking for anything. He is sound asleep. And literally, God comes in an earthquake and shakes him awake. It doesn't just shake him awake, but through the work and the testimony of Paul and Silas, he's shaken to his very soul. And he looks at them and says, "What must I do to be saved?"

And Paul will say, "Believe in Jesus." Directs him toward Jesus. He's not looking for anything, but God still gets him. I want you to see a side note here. He takes Paul and Silas home. He bathes their wounds, and then they baptize him and their family. So there is this beautiful picture of the Gospel in this interaction with the jailer. Here are the wounded innocents, Paul and Silas, saving the one who likely was involved in the wounding. Just as Jesus, the wounded and killed innocent, saves those of us who are responsible through our sin for his wounding. He then washes the wounds of their flesh, and they turn around and baptize him. Do you see the beautiful picture of how God turns things upside down? The wounded innocents testifying to the Gospel to the very one who is likely responsible for their discomfort and wounding.

How he washes them and they wash him in the waters of baptism. It's this beautiful picture of the Gospel. And Paul, when he says to the church, he says, "He who began the good work." Lydia, the one who opened your heart to the servant girl, the one who cast out the evil spirit to the jailer. You who were shaken awake in the middle of the night by an earthquake and shaken to the depths of your soul by the Gospel testimony. God has your heart. He removes your oppression. He shakes you awake. And the church who focuses on the goodness of God as a source of their salvation will be joyful. A joyful church is also energized for the works of the Gospel. There's a difference in obedience between have to and want to, right? For have to, especially with kids, you get chore charts.

It's like, did you do your chore chart? You check the box. Oh, I haven't done it. Well, you better do it or you're going to be in trouble. I have to. But then think about the kind of things when we serve others or do the difficulty out of want to. And what the Gospel does and the way the joyful church happens is that God changes our hearts from have to to want to. From obligation to joyous response. And the church is energized for the work of the Gospel as we see the grace of God pour out. You know what Lydia does? She hears the Gospel, becomes a Christian, and immediately opens her house to start a church. It's this beautiful picture of how the Gospel moves us and changes. Thankful and simply wanting that joy. A church that is joyful when they see an opportunity to share the Gospel.

It's not like pulling teeth to get them to do it. It's a joyful response to the Gospel. The church continues this joyful response in Philippians 1:3-5. Paul will say this, "I thank God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, for all of you, making my prayer with joy." He's like, "Your joy has made me joyful. It's contagious because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now." From the day that they became Christians, they went to work with Paul for the Gospel. Some of your translations will say fellowship in the Gospel. It's not a bad picture, but it may be a picture that for us is too shallow. If you think about the difference in how we view Christian fellowship, right, basically we use it to differentiate between spending time with people who are Christians and people who were non-Christians, right?

So if I go out for coffee with a friend, right, that's coffee with a friend, but if I go out for coffee with somebody from the church, right, that's fellowship, right? So if I go out to eat with a buddy, right, that's us going out to eat, but if we go out to eat as Christians, right, that's fellowship. And Paul will say, because of your partnership or fellowship with me in the Gospel, he's not just talking in a superficial spending time together way, but fellowship in the Bible is sharing what we have, not just in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense, and in a missional sense, that we are sharing a direction, that we are sharing a passion, that we are sharing this desire, and what we have, we're going to use to pursue the good news of the Gospel.

This picture of partnership or fellowship is a beautiful one for the church. And Paul says, "Now, because of the Gospel, we are energized and we are together for a purpose." Lydia starts a church in her house. Paul, while he's in jail, they'll send a young man by the name of Epaphroditus who comes to Paul to minister and help him while he is in prison and take care of him. We see it earlier in the book of Acts as there's persecution and famine in Jerusalem, and the churches gather together and send resources to feed the hungry Christians. That a joyful church is a church that has energy for the good news of the Gospel. And third, a joyful church is at peace in the chaos of the world. Our world can be pretty stormy, and I don't mean just a rainy Sunday morning. We see the storm of spiritual opposition.

We see the storm of moral opposition. We sometimes see the storm of political opposition. It's just like, it seems like everywhere we turn, right, there is a storm. But notice the words to the Philippian church. Paul says this, "I'm sure of this, and I'm certain, he who began a good work in you, who softened your hearts, who delivered you from evil, who shook you awake in the middle of the night, that he who began that good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus." The same God that saved you is the same God that will bring you home. And the church in the midst of this stormy world, the church that is built upon the rock of Jesus, the life that is built upon the rock of Jesus, has this promise that God begins the work and that God will finish the work, and God is the one who will make us joyful in our salvation,

in our service of the gospel, and as we consider the uncertain future that God will bring us home. And so the question as we think about it as a church is, are we joyful? Do we see God as the energizing source of our mission and our purpose, the love that he has poured out, the strength that he has given us? Is he the one who is giving us the strength for our efforts? Is he the one we trust to bring us home? I want us to see, as we think about the church, three things from this. First of all, there's hope for the unlikely sinner. This is true of those who maybe are here and need Jesus, but it's also true as we think about those that we would like to reach for Jesus. As I think about those that I would love to share the gospel with, sometimes the objection comes to my mind that maybe they're too far away from Jesus.

They're too far, and Philippians shows us there is hope for the unlikely sinner. Lydia, who was at the prayer meeting, is saved. The servant girl is delivered from a demon in the marketplace. The jailer unknowingly in the middle of the night is delivered into the gospel through this earthquake. The good news of Jesus is that he brings hope. He doesn't come with advice saying to you, "Try this and maybe it'll work." He doesn't even come and say, "Let me give you a hand with this difficult project." He doesn't come and offer you a toolbox and say, "Here's some resources so that you can do it by the self." Here's what he does. He comes and he picks up your sin. And not just some of it, but all of it. That stuff that you have pushed down and are hiding deep within your soul. The stuff that has caused you to run and to hide from him.

The stuff that has caused you to try to cover it up with a facade of being good. The stuff that you have made excuses from Jesus comes and he steps into this world and he picks up the brokenness. And he steps right into your mess. And he takes your sin upon his shoulders. And he pays the price for it at the cross. And he doesn't just take it to the cross. But at the cross, he removes it from you. And it's gone and it's paid for forever. He doesn't just die in your place, but he rises for your victory. In the resurrection, Jesus is victorious over sin and as in death. And here's what I love. Just as he takes your sin that he didn't deserve, he then turns and gives you the victory that you don't deserve.

That in the good news of the Gospel, Jesus takes your sin upon himself and then gives you his victory that you didn't work for, strive for, or earn. This is good news. It's not just advice to point you in a direction. It's not just a helping hand. It's not a tool so you can do it by yourself. The message of the Gospel to the sinful, broken heart seeking salvation is that your salvation is finished. Right? That's the word on the cross. As Jesus dies for our sin, what does he say? It is finished. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus has accomplished your salvation. And like Paul says to the jailer, run to Jesus. Christians, this is not something we can take for granted either. There is nobody outside the reach of the Gospel.

And as we see that in our life, it must be a reality as we seek to reach out. What Paul says, you were dead in your trespasses and your sins, and God made you alive together with him. Forgiving all of your trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. I want you to see that there is energy for the tired and weary saint. That we work, not in our strength, but in Jesus. And that there is a promised future that is not just promised, but it is secured by the work of Jesus. Let's pray. Father, for the unlikely, we pray this morning for those who are unlikely in our minds, to come to know you. We pray for their salvation.

We know that you are the one who did good work, and so we ask that you would soften hearts. You would open hearts to hear the gospel. We ask that you would bring about victory, evil that seeks to oppress and possess. We ask that you would shake those awake who so desperately need the gospel, and that we as a church would stand as a witness to your glory. We would point them to you. May this not just be an idea for us. May it be a reality in our churches and in our lives. May we see your goodness. May you refresh our weariness. May you remind us of our hope. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.