Philippians 4:1-9 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved. 2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Rejoice in the Lord Always
Do you remember Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple? Apple gave us the first personal computers, I know I had one. They’ve also given us iMac, iPod, iPads and iPhones.
Christianity Today said, “As remarkable as Steve Jobs was in countless ways—as a designer, an innovator, a (ruthless and demanding) leader—his most singular quality was his ability to articulate a perfectly secular form of hope. Nothing exemplifies that ability more than Apple’s early logo, which slapped a rainbow on the very archetype of human fallenness and failure—the bitten fruit—and made it a sign of promise and progress. Steve Jobs was the evangelist of the gospel of secular hope. It has the great virtue of being based only on what we can all perceive—it requires neither revelation nor dogma. And it promises nothing it cannot deliver—since all that is promised is the opportunity to live your own unique life, a hope that is manifestly realizable since it is offered by one who has so spectacularly succeeded by following his own “inner voice, heart and intuition.” Upon close inspection, this gospel offers no hope that you cannot generate yourself, and only the comfort of having been true to yourself.” It has been said that human beings can live for forty days without food, four days without water, and four minutes without air. But we cannot live for four seconds without hope.
Our passage today offers real hope. Hope of how to live in a way that rises above circumstances and live in the joy of knowing Jesus. When Paul writes this letter to the church in Phillipi he is sitting in a Roman jail cell. Think about it, locked in a jail cell, no comforts, knowing he will probably be executed, how, how can Paul experience joy? The joy of the Lord is very special, it is not happiness, it is not contingent on physical surroundings. It comes from our relationship with God. The joy of knowing Jesus is right in front of us, waiting for us to receive it. The psalmist said, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34) We need to avail ourselves of that refuge. It will make such a difference in our lives if we learn to live from the joy of knowing Jesus. It will strengthen us and enable us to stand. It will allow us to rise above our circumstances. It will help us to turn from worry and anxiety and instead know the peace that passes all understanding that comes from knowing Jesus.
Let’s look at what joy is and what it can do for us. First, joy is indestructible. As Christians, we live in the Lord’s presence and in the company of Jesus. Jesus told his disciples in John 16:22, “your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” You can lose all things and all people but you will never lose Christ because he will never let you go.
Joy has nothing to do with circumstances or material possessions. The world often tells us things will make us happy. Buy this and you will be happy. Change your circumstance and happiness will be yours. The problem with this is that happiness is not joy. There is a vast difference. Happiness is conditional on circumstances; joy is not. Happiness is fleeting; joy endures.
I remember back before seminary when I was going through my divorce. I was part of the Praise Team at my church. Don’t worry they didn’t let me sing, I was the computer techie. The drummer for the Praise Team was also going through a divorce and sometimes we commiserated. I will never forget what he said to me right before the service one day. He talked about how amazing it was that we could feel joy despite our circumstances. We were both in emotional pain going through constant stress and anguish yet somehow we could still feel peace, still feel joy in God’ presence.
Joy strengthens us. The prophet Nehemiah told the people, “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10) , it was true in Nehemiah’s day, it was true for Paul and it is still true for us today. As the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, says, “did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.” It is Christ who makes things possible and it is his strength that allows us to stand.
By now, some of you are probably saying to yourselves, ok, joy is good but how do we receive the joy of knowing Jesus? I know Jesus but I don’t feel any joy. Why?
We need to be open to joy in the first place. Some think the Christian life is a grim job filled with the struggle of Christian discipline. No! If we think being Christian is only about following rules we are as bad as the Pharisees that Jesus argued with so many times. The Christian life is most importantly about relationship with Jesus. It is about knowing Jesus, experiencing Jesus and letting Jesus into our hearts to change us into who God meant us to be in the first place.
God has given us free will, we have the choice here. We can close off our hearts and not let ourselves be changed but we will be the losers if we do this. Jesus wants us to open wide the doors of our hearts and let him in. Presbyterians have a reputation of being the “frozen chosen,” of living out of our heads but never our hearts. People who live out of their heads only will not experience joy because joy is an emotion that comes from having a heart relationship with Jesus. There are many ways to build a heart relationship. Paul mentions some of them in this passage.
Prayer is one way. He tells us not to worry but through prayer and petition to let our requests be known to God. Prayer is powerful. Scientists are just beginning to learn how it affects our brains. Prayer is to be an intimate conversation with God; through it we build a relationship over time. As it becomes a habit we will find we turn to it without thinking, it becomes automatic to pray rather than worry. The result of prayer is peace that passes all understanding. Paul tells us this peace will guard our hearts and minds. Think of having a soldier standing guard over our minds. Whenever worry or anxiety come knocking, this soldier, the peace of God, will send them packing.
Rejoice in the Lord always; I will say it again, rejoice! Paul emphasizes it, he says it twice. This is a command, not a suggestion. Why is it important to rejoice? W hy should we praise God? After all, I don’t think God needs our praise. What difference does it make? The difference it makes is in us, in the kind of people we are. People who rejoice are people who are strong in the Lord and able to withstand the stress and strain of everyday life and also the tragedy and pain that life can sometimes be.
Finally Paul tells us to practice right thinking: Concentrating on the good, keeping ourselves pure, avoiding that which upsets or agitates us. For me it’s scary movies. That may sound dumb but I know if I watch a horror movie or read, say, a Stephen King novel, I will be upset and anxious. If I do that, I am not concentrating on the good. For many in our culture, many Christians, pornography has become an addiction they struggle with daily. This is not keeping ourselves pure. Rather than thinking of things that are harmful we need to discipline ourselves to read the Bible, read spiritual books, these will lift you up.
A number of years ago I had the opportunity to fly in a small four passenger airplane. We flew down to Virginia and we didn’t fly very high so I was able to see the houses and buildings and cars as well as the rivers and mountains. It was an hour and a half each way so there was lots of time to study the view and think about what I was seeing. The first thing you notice is the change in perspective. Rather than driving along a road and passing houses on the same level, I was above them looking down. At one point I remember realizing that I was looking in two separate valleys at the same time but the people in each valley had no way to see each other. I looked at all the things people had built, buildings, roads, power lines; then I looked at the vastness of the mountains and thought of God. When you take your eyes off of yourself and your problems and instead reach out to God, reach for the joy of knowing Jesus, your perspective will change. We can rejoice because Jesus is our source of joy and life eternal.