Pastor Brian sets out a course for The Bridge Church in 2022 to focus on rejoicing in the Lord. In this message he emphasizes five great truths about rejoicing.
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Rejoicing In The Lord In 2022
Philippians 3:1-2
Brothers and sisters, this is the last Lord’s Day before the new year breaks upon us next Saturday. Each year, I look for a theme for the coming year – something that we can focus on throughout the entire year. Last year it was communion with God. This year it is rejoicing in the Lord.
That is the subject of our text this morning in Philippians 3:1-2, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you. Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.”
There are five things I want to bring out of this text related to rejoicing.
1. Rejoicing Is In Christ
I think it would be helpful for us to make a distinction right at the beginning between joy and happiness. Happiness arises from happenstance, or what happens to you. When your team wins the Super Bowl, or your boss gives you a fat year end bonus, or the doctor tells you the cancer is in remission, your happiness level rises. Why? Because happiness depends on what happens to you. Happiness is circumstantial. If your favorite team loses in the Super Bowl, or your boss fires you, or the doctor tells you the cancer has spread throughout your body, your happiness drops rapidly.
Joy is very different. Joy is not based on your circumstances. Joy is based on your relationship to the Lord. Our text says, “Rejoice in the Lord.” The sphere of our joy is the Lord. The beautiful thing is that our Lord is immutable. Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Christ’s attributes never change. If He was once faithful, He is still faithful and will be tomorrow and forever. We could say the same thing about His love, power, knowledge, wisdom, mercy, grace, goodness, justice, and wrath. Not only will His attributes never change, but His promises will never change. His word will never change. Since Jesus will never change, then your joy doesn’t need to change. It doesn’t need to fluctuate up and down like your happiness does. If the Lord is always the same, then you have something unchanging and solid to build your joy upon. You can be experiencing great turmoil or suffering but be joyful at the same time. Paul said that he was “sorrowful, but always rejoicing.”
Let’s try to give a definition of this joy. Joy is a supernatural delight in the Lord. No matter what your circumstances happen to be, you can always choose to find your delight in the Lord, and the things of the Lord.
2. Rejoicing Is Commanded
The Imperative Mood. There are different voices for Greek verbs. Sometimes it is the subjunctive mood: “If he would hit the ball, we could score a run.” Sometimes it is in the Indicative mood: “He hit the ball.” But sometimes it is in the imperative mood: “Hit the ball!” An imperative is a command. Philippians 3:1 commands the believers in Philippi, and by extension, every Christian to rejoice in the Lord. This is not “take it or leave it.” God does not give you the option whether you would like to rejoice in the Lord or not. God commands you to rejoice in the Lord. Therefore, if we know that we should rejoice in the Lord but deliberately choose not to, we are sinning. We are living in disobedience to God. And when we choose to rejoice in the Lord we are obeying God.
The Active Voice. Sometimes Greek verbs will be in the passive voice: “He was hit by the ball.” In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence is being acted on by the object. The subject is not doing the action; it is being acted upon. But in the active voice, the subject is doing the action: “He hit the ball.” Do you see the difference? In this sentence, “rejoice” is in the active voice. In other words, we are to do this action of rejoicing. We are not to wait until God does it for us. We are to be actively involved in choosing to rejoice in the Lord.
We are not told to rejoice in our spouse, or our children, or our puppies, or our jobs, or our money, or our possessions, or our reputation. Certainly we are not to rejoice in our sin. No, the child of God is to rejoice in the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, did you realize that God has commanded you to rejoice in the Lord? God holds you responsible to do this. True, you will need the power of the Holy Spirit to enable you, but you still must choose to rejoice in the Lord.
3. Rejoicing Is To Be Continual
Present Tense. A Greek verb in the present tense speaks of continuous, ongoing activity. Kenneth Wuest has paraphrased this sentence like this: “Go on constantly rejoicing in the Lord.” Rejoicing in the Lord is to be a lifestyle. It is not something we are to do once in a blue moon. It is to be the regular ongoing habit of our lives, just like prayer is. We are told to pray without ceasing. Well, we should be rejoicing without ceasing. Remember that Paul said he was “sorrowful, yet ALWAYS rejoicing!” In Philippians 4:4 he says, “Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS; again I will say, rejoice!” In 1 Thessalonians 5:16, Paul exhorts, “Rejoice always.” Always! Always! That is the word that Paul uses over and over in connection with “rejoice.”
You see, rejoicing is not what happens when you have no problems. Think about the Philippians. They were being persecuted. They were impoverished. They were anxious about Epaphroditus and Paul. And Paul says to these impoverished, persecuted, anxious believers – Rejoice!
Paul is not telling them to have a fake joy. He’s not telling them to put on plastic smiles and pretend they have it all together. He’s not telling to rejoice because their problems were not that bad. He’s telling them to continually rejoice, even in the midst of their serious problems. Why? Because the reason for their joy was way bigger than the size of their problems!
Brothers and sisters, there should never be a day that goes by that you and I don’t rejoice in the Lord.
4. Rejoicing Is For Christians
Did you notice who is to do this rejoicing? “Finally, my BRETHREN, rejoice in the Lord.” It’s easy to understand why this joy has to be reserved exclusively for Christians, isn’t it? No one but a Christian can find his delight in Jesus Christ. An unsaved person can never experience joy. The best he can hope for is happiness. The reason is simple. He has a stony heart. He doesn’t value Jesus Christ correctly. He is unable to delight Himself in the Lord because He doesn’t know the Lord. The Christian is the only one on the planet who can obey this command!
So, only Christians can experience joy. But it is also true, that all Christians can experience joy. It is God’s will that every Christian rejoice. This deep abiding joy is not just for the pastors and deacons. It is not just for the apostles and prophets. It is not just for missionaries. It is for every born again child of God. That means, you were meant to experience God’s joy!
5. Rejoicing Must Be Contended For
It was C. S. Lewis who wrote that “joy is the serious business of heaven.” God is serious about our joy.
We know that because in Philippians 1:23ff, Paul says that he has the desire to depart and be with Christ, because that is very much better. Yet, he knows that if he lives it will be better for the churches. Then in verse 25 he says, “Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.” Think of that! Paul wants to die and go to be with Christ. Yet, he is willing to stay and remain for the sake of the church. But what exactly does he want to see take place in the church? Their progress and JOY in the faith! The apostle Paul was serious about Christian joy. That tells me that God is serious about your joy.
And if God is serious about our joy, then we must be serious too. We must be so serious about it that we will fight all our enemies that would try to rob us of it.
That’s where verse 2 comes in. Paul tells the Philippians that they must beware of the dogs, the evil workers, the false circumcision. Why? Because if they are seduced by them, they will lose their joy.
Now, let’s back up a little so you can understand what is going on here.
Beware: Paul mentions this word three times in verse 2. It is a command. We might paraphrase it like this – “be on the constant lookout for.”
False Circumcision: Paul is describing the Judaizers. The Judaizers would come into town after Paul had planted a church and left, and then teach these new converts that they needed to be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses to be saved. Paul had taught them that Christ had done it all, and they only had to receive His grace through faith. But the Judaizers taught that these Gentiles had to become Jews through circumcision if they were to be saved. Yes, it was good to believe in Jesus, but they also had to be circumcised and keep the Law. In other words it was Jesus PLUS.
Dogs: Today when you or I think of a dog, we think of cute, cuddly, loyal – you know “man’s best friend.” That was definitely not the way a first century person would think of a dog. In the first century, dogs were wild, and they were scavengers. They were definitely not cute or cuddly. They roamed the streets, and hunted the garbage of the city in packs. They snarled. They were sometimes rabid. They would fight each other and attack people. The Jews called Gentiles “dogs”! Now, these Judaizers would call Gentiles and even Gentile Christians dogs, because they were uncircumcised. But Paul turns it right around and calls them “dogs”. They are the unclean, filthy, snarling, dangerous ones. Their doctrine is dangerous and rabid, and the Philippians should have nothing to do with them.
My friends, anyone who tells you it’s fine that you believe in Jesus, but that’s not enough. You also need to be water baptized, or you need to speak in tongues, or you have to keep certain laws. That person is a dog, that the church of Christ must avoid.
Evil Workers: not only are these people “dogs”, but they are also evil workers. Now they pretend to be workers of righteousness, because they were the ones who sought to enforce circumcision, and the Law. They sought to earn God’s favor by their righteous deeds. But all of that was evil, because it was motivated by pride, which is sin. And when they sought to enforce their law-keeping among the Philippians, they were trying to get them to earn God’s favor which would only promote their pride.
Brothers and sisters, beware of anything that would rob you of your joy in the Lord. So, what can rob us of our joy? Anything that gets our eyes off of the Lord and onto something else. Paul describes false teachers in verse 2 who get our eyes off of the Lord and onto ourself. They seek to get us to take pride in our works and deeds and accomplishments. But friends, you will never find true joy there! If someone tells you that the way to have joy is to become a better person, they are dead wrong. That is called “putting confidence in the flesh.” Paul says that a true Christian puts no confidence in the flesh. True joy does not come to us because of our works and efforts and sacrifice. It comes in union with and communion with the Lord. It comes to us because of Him, not us. True joy is only “in the Lord.” You must look away from yourself, and gaze at the beauty of Jesus to find real joy.
Conclusion
So, if this joy is only for Christians; if this joy is commanded; if pursuing this joy is our duty; and if this joy ought to be experienced continually, how do we go about experiencing it? Of course that is the great question of the hour. To answer that question we need to look at Paul’s words again, “Rejoice in the Lord.” Rejoicing is only in the Lord. So, to experience joy you must experience the Lord. This means that you seek the Lord. This means that you worship the Lord. This means that you praise the Lord. This means that you pray to the Lord. This means that you commune with the Lord. This means that you serve the Lord. This means that you walk with the Lord. This means that you live the Christian life! Rejoicing comes as you make Jesus Christ the focus of your entire life.
If you want to experience joy in your life, you must draw close to the Lord. You must resist those things that draw you away from him, and embrace those things that draw you to Him.
What is keeping you from finding your joy in the Lord?
What decision can you make today that will enable you to obey this command?
Let’s make 2022 the Year of Joy! Let’s decide that we are going to rejoice always in 2022. When things go well we will rejoice. When things don’t go well we will rejoice. We will find our life, our well-being, our delight, or pleasure in Him and His Word.
At this time I want you to pair up with someone in a little breakout session. And I want you to teach summarize this message to your partner. Then confess to him or her what is hindering you from experiencing the joy of the Lord and pray for one another.
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