Seoul Grace Community
The Fruits of the Spirit: Joy
Galatians 5:22, Romans 5:1-11
May 11, 2014
1. Introduction
a. We are examining the fruits of the spirit—these represent supernatural change in our lives, not just
moral restraint
b. “Rejoice” Paul says 3 times—a Christian life should be marked by Joy. Joy is central to this passage.
c. Happiness vs. Joy
i. Happiness is circumstantial to a large degree. Smiling, being merry or happy depends in large
part on your circumstances.
ii. Paul says something interesting—word for joy means “to glory in” or have weight—Christian joy
means something of substance, of weight.
iii. Paul says that our joy is situated in God, not in circumstances and therefore isn’t subject to our
conditions
2. Joy in all
a. Paul says that Christian joy isn’t only found in the “hope” we have looking towards our future knowing
that we will live eternal lives(v. 2) but even, and especially, during times of suffering (v. 3).
i. This doesn’t mean we are happy during sufferings (He doesn’t say “rejoice for your sufferings”
but rejoice in your sufferings)
ii. Anyone who’s gone through suffering knows that the only way to get through suffering is to
either shut down/detach or see the hope that this present suffering can’t take you down!
There’s a deep-centered joy to be found even in the midst of suffering because Christian “joy” is
not dependent on circumstances and is actually made sweeter often through the trials of life.
3. Joy only through Jesus
a. How do we find joy? Paul points us to the gospel clearly in v. 6-8 but the key is to see the work “weak” in
v. 6.
i. The word means utterly without strength or means to help oneself in anyway at all.
ii. Paul uses this word “weakness” again in 1 Corinthians 1:25—and he’s talking about the cross.
iii. When we were weakest and without the ability to help ourselves, it was Christ who became
weak for us that we might be able to leap with joy of being saved.
b. Do you not feel this joy? It’s because you can’t see your weakness, your debt. Our response of joy to the
message of the gospel is in direct proportion to us seeing that Jesus is the only God who comes to us in
our weakness and doesn’t give us a list of ways to fix our lives before we can approach him—he gives us
himself! No conditions, no rules, no standards to live up to in order to earn it—just free grace to pick us
up in our weakness.
c. Our inability to feel deep, centered joy in our lives comes because we don’t know how much we are
loved and “joyed” by our Creator.
i. Hebrews 12:2: For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God.
ii. What’s the “joy” being mentioned here? Jesus already had infinite joy in heaven within the
Trinity. What “joy” would then be set before him?
1. John 16: 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come,
but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that
a human being has been born into the world.
2. Women went through excruciating pain in childbirth at the risk of their lives
3. Jesus went through excruciating pain at the cost of his life—for us, for his “joy”
iii. To the extent you know you are his joy, you will start to know true joy.
4. Conclusion
a. How should joy manifest itself in the life of a Christian? N.D. Wilson: We Christians are the speakers of
light. We are the proclaimers of joy. Wherever we go, we are the mascots of the gospel, the imagers of
the infinitely creative Father…or so we say. We say we want to be like God, and we feel we mean it. But
we don't. Not to be harsh, but if we did really mean it, we would be having a lot more fun than we are.
We aim for safety and cultural respectability instead of following our stated first principles: that we are
made in God's image and should strive to imitate him. A dolphin flipping through the sun beyond the
surf, a falcon in a dive, a mutt in the back of a truck, flying his tongue like a flag of joy, all reflect the
Maker more wholly than many of our endorsed thinkers, theologians, and churchgoers.(SLIDE) Look
over our day-to-day lives. How do we parent, for example? Rules. Fears. Don'ts. Don't jump on the
couch. No gluten in this house. Get down from that tree. Quiet down. Hold still. We live as if God were
an infinite list of negatives. He is holiness, the rawest and richest of all purity. But how does God parent?
He gave us one rule at the beginning: "You must not eat from that tree." Only one tree was held back.
Besides, he was giving us an entire planet. A hot star. Wild animals to discover and name and tame.
Animals with fangs and sinews that rippled in the sun. He gave us the Dragon to beat that beat us
instead. And then he stooped down to save. So now we have two rules—love God, love others—along
with imputed righteousness, grace for our failures, and a door through the grave into eternal life. Do we
act like all this is true? Our Father wove glory and joy into every layer of this world. He wove in secrets
that would tease us into centuries of risk-taking before we could unlock them—flight, glass, electricity,
chocolate. He buried gold deep, but scattered sand everywhere. Our God made things simple and
funny—skin bags full of milk swinging beneath cows. And also hard: Skim the cream, add sugar from
cane grass and shards of vanilla bean from faraway lands, surround with water cold enough to have
expanded its molecules and become solid. Now stir. Keep stirring. Now taste. And worship. Us: No more
for you, Johnny. You've had enough. God: Try the hot fudge. We should strive for holiness, but holiness
is a flood, not an absence. Are you the kind of parent who can create joys for your children that they
never imagined wanting? Does your sun shine, warming the faces of others? Does your rain green the
world around you? Do you end your days with anything resembling a sunset? Do you begin with a dawn?
We say that we would like to be more like God. So be more thrilled with moonlight. And babies. And
what makes them. And holding on to one lover until you've both been aged to wine, ready to pour.
Holiness is nothing like a building code. Holiness is 80-year-old hands crafting an apple pie for others,
again. It is aspen trees in a backlit breeze. It is fire on the mountain. Speak your joy. Mean it. Sing it. Do
it. Push it down into your bones. Let it overflow your banks and flood the lives of others. At his right
hand, there are pleasures forevermore.