[Music] [Music] as we begin this series on Joy in the letter of Paul to the Philippians it seemed good to me that we should probably begin with a definition of Joy definitions as I'm sure you know are simply descriptions of the way people use words words don't have intrinsic definitions they're given definitions by the way people use them so groups and societies use words and individuals use words so when I say I want to uh Define joy for you before we dig into how it's used in Philippians I have to ask well whose Joy am
I talking about or what usage am I talking about and so very clearly I mean joy as the Apostle Paul uses it in his letters and particularly in in the book of Philippians so I'm not just asking about the meaning of joy in general I'm talking about uh Christian joy as Paul the Apostle uses it so let me give you my definition and then um take it apart one piece at a time Christian joy as Paul understands it is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit as he causes us to see
the beauty of Christ in the word and in the world so let's take those one at a time Christian Joy is a good feeling and by that I mean it's not an idea it's not a conviction it's not a persuasion it's not a decision it's a feeling or I use the words interchangeably here an emotion and one of the marks of the difference between a idea and an emotion or feeling is that you don't have immediate control over your feelings or your emotions you can't snap your finger or decide to feel something so for example
if you're camping I'm going to go camping in a few weeks and it's the middle of the night and you wake up and there's this this gigantic silhouette of a bear outside your tent grizzly bear he seems hungry maybe he's wounded you don't say now let me think about this there's bear bears are big bears are dangerous conclusion I should should feel fear here so I will now decide to be afraid emotions don't work like that thinking works like that but Emotions Don't it happens to you which means that the Bible is filled with commands
that we do things that are immediately outside our control to do commands to Rejoice commands to fear commands to be grateful commands to be tenderhearted one of the reasons I'm the kind of Christian I am with the theology that I have is that I know as I read the Bible it requires of me things that I cannot immediately by a decision produce I'm Fallen I'm sinful and yet I know I should be having those emotions in this moment where the Bible expects me to have them and therefore I Know Myself guilty and so this is
huge St Augustine said father command what you will and Grant what you command and so he knew that there were emotions toward God commanded of him he couldn't make happen just like that and so he said oh God if you're going to command me these things grant that you would give them when you command them so the first part of this definition is it is a good feeling second part it is in the soul and by that I'm drawing attention to the fact that it's not in the body the soul the immaterial part of my
personhood experiences joy and the body may have effects of that I may get butterflies in the stomach I may have a brightness to my step with joy my eyelids May flutter there may be tears of joy rolling down my face but none of those effects in the body are Joy they are distinct the body is chemicals and muscle and nerve and made up of electrons and atoms and molecules and when those things move that's not a moral event so the body doesn't have right and wrong a movement of my arm back and forth has no
moral significance until I tell it by my will or my emotion to punch somebody and then becomes bad or hug somebody in need then becomes good but it's my soul that is imparting virtue right or wrong to the physical dimensions of my life and the Bible clearly says it's right to feel Joy in God it's wrong to be anxious about this situation and therefore there's a rightness and a wrongness to these emotions and therefore they're not mere bodily movements they are movements of the Soul that's number two the third part of the definition is these
movements of the Soul are produced by the Holy Spirit which is clear because I cannot make these things happen they're called the fruit of the Holy Spirit Galatians 5: 2 to the fruit of the holy spirit is love joy peace so my my joy in my soul overflowing towards God is coming from the work of the Holy Spirit and the fourth piece is that he does this the Holy Spirit does this not magically without my mind being engaged he does it by causing me to see the glory the beauty of Jesus Christ Galatians 3:1 says
rejoice in the lord well how do you rejoice in the Lord if you don't know anything about the Lord how do you rejoice in the Lord if you're not seeing things about the Lord that cause joy to rise up in your heart and that's the work of the Holy Spirit he doesn't just flick a switch and you rejoice with no uh mental content whatsoever the holy spirit is given according to John 16:14 to glorify Jesus Christ which means the holy spirit opens the Eyes of My Heart to see the beauty of Christ and when I
see Christ in all that he's done and all that he is then my heart is drawn out in Joy towards him so the Holy Spirit Bears this fruit by causing us to see the beauty of Jesus Christ and the last piece the fifth piece is we see him in his word and in the world it's obvious that the most authoritative and the clearest place where we see the beauty of Christ is in his word that's why the Holy Spirit who is charged to glorify Christ inspired the word so that we could read the word know
the Christ have eyes to see the beauties that call Joy up out of our hearts but it's not just in in the word that we see Christ we see him in his gifts in people we see him in his gifts of nature we see him in his gifts of food and all the good things that our father in Heaven gives to us every gift of Christ to us is intended to be a communication of something of himself and so we see Christ not only we taste Christ not only in his word but also in his
works so when we take up Joy in Philippians now and it's incredibly important place not only in the book but in the Christian Life and in God's whole scheme of things the definition that I'm I'm working with is joy is a good feeling in the soul produced by the Holy Spirit as he causes us to see the beauty of Christ in his word and in his work
