As a young child visiting my grandparents church, the start of the service was always something of a curious affair to me. This particular building had a vestry, not to the side at the front as in our own church, but at the back of the building where the pastor and the elders and deacons would pray before the service. Then at the appointed time five elderly men in dark suits would walk down the aisle. The pastor would stop at the lectern which was this grand carved wooden eagle on which the church Bible sat and the elders would step up on to a little platform and sit on 4 high backed chairs, almost like thrones, facing the congregation. These serious, sombre and suited gentlemen would then sit & the service would begin. In the summer it was always a question of which one would nod off to sleep first. 

It was as if the joy police were there to make sure no one got carried away. To make sure that the worship of God was conducted with proper decorum. Corporate worship was a serious business. God, it seemed, did not want anyone obviously enjoying themselves.

Much of my Christian upbringing was in a church context where it seemed they only believed in joy because the Bible said they had to. There was this apparent determination that if they had to believe in joy that did not mean they had to actually show it. Joy was therefore deeper. Much, much deeper and deep, deep down is the proper place where joy should stay.

In John 15:11 Jesus says to his disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

In fact Jesus repeats in this section of John’s gospel that the coming sorrow will be temporary but joy will replace their sorrow, and their joy will be full, complete, perfect.

Maybe you’re carrying significant sorrows, undergoing severe trials, perhaps you’re a glass half-empty kind of person, one who struggles with depression, or you were made in a world where every silver-lining has a cloud. Sometimes because of personality, culture or circumstances we can find the whole idea of being joyful a very difficult one.

Yet the writers of the New Testament repeatedly put forward two truths that they insisted could be true at once. 

You can be going through severe trial and count it a joy. 

You can experience great affliction or persecution and yet joy can sustain you.

The promise of future joy can even help you endure something as testing as crucifixion. 

Joy in this sense is deeper, in that it is deeper than the sorrows, trials and pain we feel and therefore holds us up when we are grievously tested.   

If you are in a season of discouragement or sorrow, if your thoughts are marked by the scars and battles then I invite you to consider the ministry of Jesus the Joy Giver!

A Christian has many reasons to be joyful. 

We are forgiven.
We are no longer under law but grace.
We were lost but now found, dead but now alive.
We are adopted by the Father.
We have access to His throne of grace.
We are given the Spirit as counsellor.
We are being transformed from glory to glory.
We are not without hope.
We are loved.
We are friends of God.
We are included in His church and His mission.

He hears us when we pray.
He forgives us when we sin.
He will complete His good work in us.
He has seated us in heavenly places.
He will raise us up and clothe us with immortality.
Sin, death, and the devil are defeated.
Nothing can separate us from His love.

All of these remain true no matter your circumstances. Even if right now you feel weighed down, even if you feel little joy or feel as Paul did, ‘so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.’ But that just makes us rely on God who raises the dead because — these truths don’t move.

But despite our many reasons to have joy in God that is not, I believe what Jesus is talking about. He did not say “these things I have spoken to you, that your joy may be in me, and that your joy may be full”.

He said, instead that ‘my joy may be in you’. The joy of Jesus Christ, the joyful one, Jesus the Joy Giver.

At the end of Zephaniah’s prophecy he urges Israel to sing, to shout, to rejoice, to exult because of the salvation of God. Our joy in His salvation. But then in one of the more remarkable verses of the Old Testament, he says this (Zephaniah 3:17):

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love; He will exult over you with loud singing.”

A picture of a God who first rejoices in his people, who He loves like a Father loves His children. His joy results in exulting, rejoicing, loud and raucous singing. We might very well sing, ‘Oh how He loves me’ but God Himself declares that He sings, “Oh how I love them”. 

Can you imagine anything more joyful than a God who bursts into song because the object of His love is safe in His arms? Do you believe that? That God Himself rejoices over you.

This should not be surprising because God loves us. He really does. Because of the great love with which He has loved us, all fear has gone and all that is left is eternal rejoicing.

His joy in us and our joy full.

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