This week, Michael recalls
that when his Pastor was a young Christian in Alabama, a guest teacher from
Campus Crusade for Christ came to speak at his Wednesday night prayer meeting. The
speaker said, “I’m so excited to be a
follower of Jesus Christ.” This was the first time anyone had said anything
like this in his church. That young man didn’t realize that God expects us to
be on fire as a Christian. No one had taught him the Romans 12:11 verse that
says, “Not slothful in business, fervent (white
hot) in spirit, serving the Lord.” Shortly thereafter, this young man was
sharing with one of his baseball teammates about the gospel of salvation. He
heard himself saying, “I’m so excited to
be a Christian.” That’s when he realized that this verse described his joy
in the Lord. God will open the eyes of our spiritual understanding, the moment
we realize that our joy and rejoicing is in Christ.
The book of Philippians
is Paul’s epistle of joy. The word “Joy” is used nineteen times in this short
letter. Joy is the passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation
of good. Happiness depends on outside circumstances. However, our “Joy”,
that glorious and triumphant state, is in the Lord. Joy is our response from
the heart of Christ in us, the hope of glory. In the book of Philippians,
the Apostle Paul and Silas met a group of people who came to pray by the
riverside. Lydia, a seller of purple fabrics, believed Paul’s gospel message,
so she and her household were baptized. She invited Paul and Silas to stay at
her house while they were in Philippi. Philippi was a Roman colony that was
known for its salt mines. This colony was important because Rome paid its
soldiers in salt. This is why wages are called a “salary” from the Latin word
for salt.
In Philippi, Paul cast out a
devil spirit from a young slave girl who was used by her masters to tell
fortunes. When her masters realized that their means of income was gone, they
went to the local magistrates, stirred up the crowd in the marketplace and had Paul
and Silas thrown in jail. There they were beaten and put in stocks in the inner
prison. Despite their mistreatment and imprisonment, Paul and Silas
rejoiced with prayer, praises and hymns to the Lord. At midnight, a
miraculous earthquake released the prison doors. The jailer, knowing that he
would be tortured and executed for allowing the prisoners to escape, took his
sword and was about to kill himself. Buy, Paul said, “Do yourself no harm. We are all here.” That night Paul and Silas
led the jailer to the Lord, along with his whole household.
Paul said in Philippians
1:3, “I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you always with joy in my prayer for you in view of your participation with
me in the gospel.” God’s plan to redeem mankind from sin is revealed
in Philippians
2:6-8 “Let this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” “Who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Let's continue Michael message on "Joy" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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