The Joy-Filled Life | 1 Peter 1:3-9
Introduction
What kind of person do you want to be? How do you want to be known? I would argue that the vision you have of yourself governs a lot about you—how you want to be perceived has a huge impact on the choices and decisions we make in our lives. But who we want to be and who we actually are not always the same thing.
So what kind of person are you? What are the chief emotions or traits that people know you by? When people think of you, what are some of the first words that you think might come to their minds? If you were being introduced as a character in a book, how do you think the author would clue the reader into what kind of character you are?
In Pixar’s movie Inside Out, we are introduced to a little girl named Riley. And in this story, we are given a view into the inner workings of Riley’s mind. And in it we see that there are 5 chief emotions that are all vying for control over her at all times—anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and the leader of them all, joy. Throughout the movie, the character of Joy is doing everything in her power to make sure that Riley stays a happy, easy-go-lucky, carefree little girl. However, throughout the story, Riley is hit with ever-increasingly difficult circumstances that are all threatening her joy and bringing other, less happy and easy-go-lucky emotions to the front.
Now from that story, we see that the Disney view of emotions is that they are various natural responses to our varying circumstances and responses. And to some extent, that is true. At some base level, we are creatures that respond to our circumstances and environment. But, unsurprisingly, where Disney and our modern culture goes wrong is their belief that these emotions are ultimately uncontrollable. As if we are simply victims to our circumstances, helpless and unaccountable to our responses.
And because we’re creatures of habit, we tend to fall into regular rhythms (or habits) of how we respond, regardless of our circumstances. If you take those basic “emotions”, I’m sure one could think of various people in your life where one of those seems to be the main character in that person's inner being.
People who experience chronic and low-grade anger present as frustrated characters.
People who experience chronic and low-grade fear present as anxious or worried characters.
People who experience chronic and low-grade sadness present as depressed characters.
People who present as joyful just seem annoyingly happy and just not real.
Another error is the belief that it is impossible for people to change. Oh, that guy is just a joyful guy—I’m just not that way. Or she is just so content in everything, and that’s just the way she’s wired—I’m just not that way. We are who we are and there is no hope in changing.
One of the goals of ours throughout this sermon series is to convince you that it is possible to change, it is possible to be free from various sins that plague you, and it is possible to cultivate these habits of grace, these virtues that shape us—chief among them is joy.
There are many, many passages we could turn to in God’s word to gain insight and wisdom on the virtue of joy—one could argue that the entire book of Philippians is about joy! But this morning, we’re going to look at 1 Peter 1, where Peter calls the people of God—the ones who have received such unimaginable mercy and grace—to exhibit what one author calls “piety under pressure”, and to glorify God with joy in all circumstances, and thus witness to a hostile and watching world.
Peter’s first letter is listed among what are called the General Epistles in the NT. These epistles get the moniker “general” not because they speak generally about life, but because they have an unspecified and “general” audience. These letters differ from Paul’s letters in this way—where Paul would write to Timothy or to Titus or to the church in Rome or Ephesus, Peter here writes to all the elect exiles scattered throughout the known world (1:1).
And while the audience may be general, 1 Peter’s purpose is much more specific: suffering. If you were to sit down and read the entire letter (a worthy endeavor that would take you no more than 10 minutes), you would quickly see that Peter wants to encourage and fortify the Christians throughout the world who are suffering. And the suffering he has in mind is not just the common and ordinary ailments of life—sickness, poverty, death—but also of persecution and hostility. That is something modern Christians in the West are beginning to understand more clearly, and something that modern Christians living in parts of the world Pastor Greg just visited know much more clearly.
And what we learn from 1 Peter 1:3–9 is that joy is not like the character in Inside Out. It is not only a responsive emotion to be experienced, but a godly virtue to be cultivated. It is a response to the saving work of the Lord to us, but also a choice, a virtue to pursue and to grow in. The Sovereign Grace Journal on the Shaping Virtues defines the shaping virtue of joy this way…
The gospel is “good news of great joy…for all people” (Luke 2:10). As believers hear and embrace the good news of salvation by grace alone, the natural response is to rejoice. In the gospel, God gives us himself, and in his presence there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). Christians are commanded to “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4) because the gospel is a source of joy that can’t be touched by any circumstance in life. Even in our suffering and sorrows we can rejoice, knowing “this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). This kind of joy becomes contagious in local churches and is especially reflected in our corporate worship.
—Sovereign Grace Shaping Virtues: Joy
I think that’s a good synopsis of what the Bible and our own experience tells us about joy. And I think Peter would agree with that summary. And my aim today is to join Peter to convince you of this… The joy-filled life is possible for those who hope in Christ.
I believe that is Peter’s main point in 1 Peter 1, and I believe that it is a truth that ought to inform our minds, awake our hearts, and motivate our actions to be filled with joy in the Lord. To do that, I believe we need to unpack 3 different elements regarding our joy—1: the TRUTH about our joy, 2: the THREAT to our joy, and 3: the TRAJECTORY of our joy.
The TRUTH about our joy.
Joy is a word we all may know what it means. When you hear the word joy, my guess is you can think of people who make you laugh, who always seem to be upbeat. Or you remember specific events in your life where you experienced deep joy—like your wedding, the birth of your children, the Vikings winning tonight in Detroit. Of course there are many different words we could give to the experience of joy, like happiness, gladness, pleasure, etc, but there does seem to be something deeper about joy that separates it from these other words. C.S. Lewis in his autobiography Surprised By Joy, defines it this way…
It is that of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction. I call it Joy, which is here a technical term and must be sharply distinguished both from Happiness and from Pleasure. Joy (in my sense) has indeed one characteristic, and one only in common with them; the fact that anyone who has experienced it will want it again.
—C.S. Lewis
It’s difficult to get our heads around the concept of joy, but one of the things we could all agree upon is that it is desirable, and once experienced, you want more and more of it. This is true of happiness and pleasure, although joy is more a state of being than an emotion; a result of choice. We take great joy in the things that we love and in the things that we find good and desirable.
The Bible has much to say about joy, and it is mostly seen first and foremost as a response to God and to his saving works toward us. If you’re looking for a place to start on understanding joy, I recommend looking to the Psalms. All throughout, the Psalmists call us to joy in everything…
Joy in hard circumstances (Ps 4:7–9)
Joy in the Lord’s provision (Psalm 16:8–11)
Joy in the Lord’s reigning (Ps 47:2–3)
Joy in the Lord’s power and might (Ps 66:2–4)
Joy in the Lord’s glory (Ps 96:1–3)
Joy in the Lord’s justice (Ps 97:9–12)
Joy in the Lord’s steadfast love (Ps 100:1–5)
Joy in our redemption (Ps 118:21–25, 28–29)
The entire OT is about anticipating the joy that will come when the Lord comes to right all the wrongs, and the entire NT begins in Luke 2 with angels heralding “good news of great joy” that is for all people. And it is here in 1 Peter 1 that we get a clear picture of what joy means for the people of God today.
Look again at 1 Peter 1:6…
In this you rejoice…
—1 Peter 1:6
Our natural question should be what is the THIS that Peter recognizes causes us to rejoice? Well, it is all of the preceding section, v. 3–5…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
—1 Peter 1:3–5
It is in all of that we rejoice! To rejoice is the verb of the noun joy. To rejoice is to take something that has been given to you and to return it back with joy. So, of course, there is an element of response in joy—and Peter marks here that the main thing that causes us to rejoice is the incredible reality that we have been born again.
Notice Peter’s logic here—praise be to God the Father, because the judge over all, the one who we have sinned and rebelled against, out of inexplicable mercy, caused us to go from dead to life, rebel to citizen, enemy to son. That, my friends, is good news of great joy!
So yes, we rejoice and experience joy when we respond to the goodness and kindness of God in Christ Jesus. But this response of joy is a miraculous response. It is not normal, it is not natural. On our own and by our own flesh, we will not respond to Christ with joy. Look how Paul outlines this difference in 1 Corinthians 1…
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
—1 Corinthians 1:18
Paul highlights the one event, the cross of Christ, and recognizes that that event elicits 2 different responses—folly and awe, madness and joy. How can the same event produce 2 totally different responses? Well look at who the characters are that are responding in the different ways—those who find the cross foolish, who find it unbelievable, who find the thought of an innocent man dying for the sins of the guilty repulsive, they are the ones who are perishing. And the ones who look on the cross, see the spotless Lamb of God hanging in our place and cry out “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”, it is they that are being saved. So a tree bears its fruit in keeping with its nature.
Joy is a miracle. Its source is not found in us by nature. Sure, all people can experience pleasure, and all people can experience the thin and fleeting emotion of happiness, but only joy comes from God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see this most clearly in Galatians 5. Pauls says…
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do…But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
—Galatians 5:16–17, 22–23
These fruits are called the Fruit of the Spirit because they do not come from the flesh, but from the Spirit, and only those who have been born again to a living hope receive the gracious gift of the Spirit. So the virtue of joy marks the people of God individually. You can not experience true joy apart from the work of Christ. Have you experienced this joy that this world knows not of? If not, let today be the day you receive this incredible mercy.
Joy is also the mark of the corporate people of God. Ryan said this last week but it’s worth repeating—these 7 shaping virtues are virtues that we want to cultivate at Emmaus Road Church and in all of Sovereign Grace. When people come to worship at our church here or any of the churches in our denomination, we want them to walk away saying, “There was something different about those people.” Maybe you have experienced that as you’ve attended here. We hope so! And what is that thing? Well, we hope it is these shaping virtues, one of which is joy. We hope that our people are marked as a joyful people!
But it’s important to remember that humility, joy, and all the other virtues are not supposed to be unique to a church or to a denomination. We do not have the corner on the market of joy. Joy is meant to mark the entire covenantal people of God.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
—Romans 14:17
When Christ came to dwell among us, he ushered in his Kingdom that came not of this world, secured ultimately in his death and resurrection. Before ascending, he gave his people marching orders to go forth, spread that Kingdom to the ends of the earth and conquer the world—but not by the power of the sword, but by the joyful heralding and declaring that King Jesus is Lord of heaven and of earth and that there is no other name under heaven or on earth by which you can be saved. Joy marks the kingdom of God and the people of God.
But what about when we don’t experience that joy?
The THREAT to our joy.
Again, 1 Peter 1:6…
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials…
—1 Peter 1:6
Remember the purpose of Peter’s letter is to encourage and edify the saints throughout the world who are experiencing real and hard persecution. They rejoice, but are constantly being threatened, constantly meeting hard and bitter providences, who are tempted to join Naomi’s voice and say that the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with them. It’s no secret that rejoicing is much easier to do when circumstances are for you, but what about when you are dealt from God a bitter hand? What then? What do you do when everything around you circumstantially is telling you to listen to Job’s wife and curse God and die?
Notice here, Peter is not telling you that there are no hard circumstances or trials. He is not down-playing their suffering—quite the opposite. He uses that verb grieved in order to sympathize with the suffering Christians. These circumstances cause great sadness, great distress, and it is right and fitting to grieve them. But we are not slaves to our circumstances.
We’ve said it before but we’ll say it again, circumstances are simply the heat that reveals the true nature of our heart and our faith. They are the heat that will produce whatever fruit is natural to your tree. Every circumstance that comes to us is another opportunity to respond by faith with joy or by fear with despair. Remember James 1…
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
—James 1:2–4
James commands you to rejoice, regardless of the circumstances. Peter agrees. And notice how Peter says we ought to view our grievous circumstances back in verse 6–7…
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
—1 Peter 1:6–7
The trials and hard circumstances we face are tests to our faith, like refining fire, which burns away all the dross, all the imperfections, revealing only the precious gem beneath. To have a faith that has been tested, according to Peter, is more precious than all the gold in the world. Why? Because the result is that all glory, honor, and praise goes to Christ—the result is joy in the Lord.
Joy is also deeply connected to our communion with God. Not our union with God—not our legal status of righteousness before him which is secured in Christ—but our communion, our fellowship with him. The Psalmist connects our joy in communion with God in Psalm 16…
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
—Psalm 16:11
But that joy can be interrupted. That experience of joy in the Lord can come and go. Jim Wilson in his chapter How To Be Free From Guilt/How To Maintain Your Joy identifies another obvious threat to our joy—sin. Those who belong to God still battle indwelling sin and continue to sin against him, interrupting our communion and fellowship with him. And since we are sons of God, we receive the discipline of God when we sin. We receive this discipline because he loves us—but it is not pleasant and not joyous. Notice what David begs the Lord for in Psalm 51 in his confession after his sin with Bathsheba…
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
—Psalm 51:10–12
Joy, then, can serve as a barometer for our communion with the Lord. If you find yourself lacking in joy, quick-tempered, frustrated, annoyed, down-cast, watch out! Take inventory of yourself and of your heart. But what are you to do?
Wilson outlines a 6-step process, which the first 3 are…
We sin.
We receive the discipline of the Lord.
We experience loss of joy.
This is the refining process Peter is talking about. Whether the circumstances were brought about by your own fault or completely out of your control, we are responsible before God on how we respond. So what do you do next?
Take responsibility for yourself, for your own sin, and confess that sin before God and whoever you have sinned against.
Receive the forgiveness of the Lord!
Joy is restored—so rejoice!
If you find yourself out of fellowship with the Lord and others, and you find yourself not joyful, the good news is that you can do something about it because God has done something about it. In Christ, we have forgiveness of our sins—so take steps! Confess your sins quickly and fully, and experience the restoration of your joy!
This is a process that you can practice daily, it’s one we have sought to implement in our home with our kids. If one of them sins, they receive discipline, but with the aim of restoring fellowship and joy. After they have received discipline, confessed, and when I give forgiveness, I want my tone of voice to change—I want them to know that being forgiven is great news and a joyful occasion! I don’t give them forgiveness begrudgingly, because God in Christ has not forgiven me begrudgingly, but has joyfully laid his life down so that I might experience the joy of salvation.
Finally, where is our joy aimed at? What is it all moving towards?
The TRAJECTORY of our joy.
All throughout this passage in 1 Peter, Peter is setting out in the distance the great and living hope that we have been born again to, and all of our joy is aimed at it. There is a future hope, a distant longing, that has been secured in the death and resurrection of Christ. He calls it an inheritance—a birthright given only to the family of God, to those who have been born again in Christ—that can not be touched, damaged, or destroyed by any hard circumstance or trial.
This hope is kept in heaven, guarded and preserved not by our own might and strength—something that we know is fickle and erratic—but kept by the omnipotent God himself. To the pagan world, this is not good news. How can you trust some God who is in the sky? Peter’s answer in v. 8–9…
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
—1 Peter 1:8–9
Peter had seen him. Peter had travelled with Jesus for 3 years. Peter had been there the night he broke bread and poured the wine, the night he was betrayed and arrested, the night that he, Peter, had denied Christ 3 times, he had seen his brutal death and glorious resurrection and ascension…and he now says to all believers, you do not have to have seen him to experience the joy of your salvation, secured in the hope of Christ!
The unbelieving world is filled with hopelessness. We who belong to God, however, have a future that is secured by the saving grace of God in Christ Jesus. He promises to secure the outcome of our faith, the very salvation of our souls, and we have such an assurance that there is no trial, no circumstance that can thwart our assurance.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
—Romans 8:35–39
That, my friends, is the great source and hope of our joy. There is nothing that can separate us from Christ, and therefore there is nothing that can destroy our joy. Whatever suffering we face now, and we do face suffering, is only necessary to refine and sharpen our faith, ultimately producing more potent and durable joy.
Pastor Sam Storms, in commentating on this passage, summarizes it well…
As distressing as life may often be, this tested-as-though-by-fire faith enables us to love Christ even in his physical absence and to experience the blessings of a joy so deep that words fail to account for it.
—Sam Storms
I want that joy. I want the joy of the Lord and of my salvation to mark me. I want, when people see me—not just my presentable self, but who I am with my wife and with my family and with my friends—I want them to say “that man is a joyful man.” I want to live the joy-filled life. And the good news is that, in Christ, this life is available to you. In Christ, you can make Habakkuk 3 your prayer day in and day out…
Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
—Habakkuk 3:17–18