Find Joy in Sorrow

There’s an old and ancient Chinese proverb which says, if you wish to be
happy for one hour, get drunk. If you wish to be happy for three days, get
married. If you wish to be happy for eight days, kill your pig and eat it. If
you wish to be happy forever, learn to fish. (Chinese proverb, James S.
Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p. 277)
Evidently that Chinaman got more pleasure out of his pig than his wife.
Where do we find a lasting happiness?
Where do we find real joy, not just for the moment, but a joy that lasts
forever even through the hard times?
Martin Rinkert was a pastor in 1636 during the Thirty Years War. It was
probably one of the worst wars in the history of the world in terms of the
sheer number of deaths, epidemics, and economic results.
In a single year, this pastor buried 5,000 people in his community – about
fifteen a day. It was a terrible time.
And yet, during that time, Martin Rinkert wrote a table grace for his
children, that is in hymnbooks today. It goes like this:
“Now thank we all our God With hearts and hands and voices, Who
wondrous things has done, In whom his world rejoices.”
I don’t know about you, but if I’d spent the year conducting 5,000
funerals, I’d find it very hard to write a song of thanksgiving for my
children.
Why is it that those who have the least thank God the most?
Poukisa moun ki gen pi piti yo di Bondye mèsi plis?
Tell me. Where do they get their joy?
Where do they find gladness in the midst of such pain?
Where do they find true happiness in the midst of such great sorrow?
Well, Jesus told us where to find joy in sorrow in John 16.
John 16:1-6 All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will
put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone
who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do
such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told
you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned
you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was
with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me,
‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have
said these things. (ESV)
The future doesn’t look too bright for these followers of Jesus.
He tells them He’s going away, and He warns them of persecution.
Sorrow has filled their heart – lit., pain has filled their heart.
Even so, they can find joy in the midst of sorrow; they can find gladness
in pain.
John 16:7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.
Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will
send him to you. (ESV)
This “Helper,” this “Comforter” is none other than the Holy Spirit Himself.
So…
FIND JOY IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Find gladness in the Spirit of God himself.
Find true and lasting happiness in your Holy Helper, especially in
troubling times.
He’s the One who comes along side you to encourage you, to comfort
you, and to defend you before your accusers.
Specifically, the Holy Spirit has a two-fold ministry.
1. First, He convicts the unbelieving world.
He shows them the truth of God for what it is.
He exposes their sin and convinces them of their need for a Savior.
John 16:8-11 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong
about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do
not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the
Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because
the prince of this world now stands condemned. (ESV)
Do you know what that means?
You don’t have to argue.
You don’t have to prove yourself.
That’s the Spirit’s job!
All you need to do is present the truth and let the Holy Spirit do His work.
He is your Helper in terms of your witness to the world.
2. He conducts believers in the truth. He leads them. He guides
followers of Christ according to God’s Word. Jesus says…
John 16:12-15 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now
bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the
truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and
he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from
me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs
to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me
what he will make known to you.” (ESV)
The Holy Spirit will declare the future. He will declare Christ, and He will
declare Christ’s riches.
Now, this is a promise addressed specifically to the apostles, the eleven
men now gathered in that upper room.
They were to record the words and works of Christ.
This, along with the “many things” they could not bear at the time (vs.12),
became our New Testament.
In John 14, Jesus promised these same men that the Holy Spirit would
“teach [them] all things and bring to [their] remembrance all that [Christ]
said to [them]” (vs.26).
In other words, as you look at your Bibles, you’re not looking at made-up
stories and words.
You’re looking at the words of men who were moved by the Holy Spirit to
write what they did.
They were men who didn’t have to depend on their faulty memories.
Instead, the Holy Spirit declared to them.
He reminded them of the words and works of Christ as they wrote them
down.
What you have here is an accurate record of what Christ said and did,
because the Holy Spirit Himself superintended the process.
But there’s more!
Not only did the Holy Spirit direct in the writing of the Bible.
He also helps you when you READ the Bible.
He helps you to appreciate and apply the Bible to your life.
H. B. London writes about the time four doctors in surgical greens stood before Dave and Jana
at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. London was their pastor, and he stood by
helplessly as one doctor spoke. “Your baby has died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. We
want to give you a chance to hold your child before we take her.” Their shoulders shook with
emotion as they held their firstborn for the last time.
London didn’t know what to say. He wanted to tell them that everything would be okay, but that
wasn’t true. Their baby was dead. All his pastoral training and experience seemed to fail him
then. “Dave and Jana,” he began, with words that were broken and slow, “I don’t know why this
awful loss has to come to you. But I know God loves you as if you were the only ones in the
whole world to love. If you accept his love… if you believe he does love you, you’ll make it. If
you don’t, you won’t.” Those were the only words he had for them, which seemed awfully empty
at the time.
London choked back his own emotions while the young couple tried valiantly to cling to their
newfound faith. But something happened in that hospital room. Even though there were no
words to erase the pain, a Holy Presence invaded that place. God joined the three of them. Just
as in the Old Testament story of the fiery furnace, when God himself came to comfort Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, they felt in the fiery trial of suffering an assurance that God was
caring for them.
Years later, after H. B. London joined Focus on the Family, he received a letter with a picture of
Dave and Jana holding a beautiful baby. They wrote:
H. B., you probably don’t think we heard you when you encouraged us to cling to the love of
God when our baby died. But we heard you clearly. So we have believed over and over that
God loves us as if we were the only ones to love. We have learned to live in the love of God. We
quote your words to each other often. The Lord is gracious. Notice in the picture we are holding
a beautiful new baby—God’s special gift to us. We don’t understand why we lost our first child.
We still hurt when we think about it, but we don’t question God anymore…
London says, “I have thought a lot about their faith and mine since receiving that letter. Some
tough situations are mysteries beyond our comprehension. Mysteries greater than our answers.
Mysteries that stretch our faith. Mysteries that force us to turn to God because we can’t find
answers anywhere else.” (H. B. London, They Call Me Pastor, Regal, 2000, pp. 23-30;
www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s where the Holy Spirit steps in.
He surrounds you with His holy presence and helps you live in the
wonderful truths of God’s Word, especially in the truth that God loves
you.
FIND JOY IN THE RESURRECTION.
Rejoice in the fact that Jesus is alive! Be glad that your savior lives!
John 16:16-22 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no
more, and then after a little while you will see me.” At this, some of his
disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little
while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see
me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What
does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them,
“Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while
you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?
Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.
You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a
child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born
she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the
world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and
you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (ESV)
Jesus was about to die on a cross, which would bring His followers great
sorrow.
However, Jesus would soon rise again, which would bring them a joy
nothing could ever take away.
What looked like death and defeat on Friday became life and victory on
Sunday!
Satan thought he had dealt the fatal blow.
Instead, Jesus dealt him the fatal blow.
Max Lucado talks about the time he was in a 6th grade basketball
tournament. He says, “I can’t remember the exact score when I finally got
to play, but I know it was close. I recall a loose ball, a scramble to grab it,
and complete surprise when my teammate on the bottom of the pile
threw it to me.
“When I saw that no one was between me and the basket, I took off. With
the style of an MVP-to-be, I made a lay-up worthy of air-time on ESPN.
My surprise at the ease of the basket was surpassed only by my surprise
at the silence of the crowd.
“No one applauded! Rather than pat me on the back, my team buried
their faces in their hands. That’s when I realized what I’d done. I’d made
a basket on the wrong end of the court – I’d aided the enemy! I’d helped
the wrong team. No wonder no one tried to stop me, I was helping their
side.
“Can you imagine how silly I felt?,” Lucado asks. (Leadership, Vol. 19,
no. 4)
If you can, then you know how silly Satan felt.
He thought he scored a win when Jesus died on the cross.
Instead he ended up only scoring a win for Jesus Christ.
In fact, every time he sets out to score one for evil, he ends up scoring a
point for good.
That’s what the resurrection of Christ is all about.
It’s about the victory Christ won for us on the cross.
Please, don’t forget that especially during our current crisis.
It’s Friday, and all seems dark, but Sunday’s coming!
So rejoice even in the darkness.
This is how Joseph Bayly put it after losing two children to premature deaths. He said:
Let’s celebrate Easter with the rite of laughter. Christ died and rose and lives. Laugh like woman
who holds her first baby. Our enemy death will soon be destroyed. Laugh like a man who finds
he doesn’t have cancer, or he does but now there’s a cure. Christ opened wide the door to
heaven. Laugh like children at Disneyland’s gates. This world is owned by God and He’ll return
to rule. Laugh like a man who walks away uninjured from a wreck in which his car was totaled.
Laugh as if all the people in the whole world were invited to a picnic and then invite them.
(Joseph Bayly in Psalms of My Life; Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 6).