January 1, 2023. A Lord’s Day—not a better way to begin the New Year. This date marked the twenty-second time I have preached a New Year’s message to my congregation. My joy-ometer was in the clouds.
But joy in ministry can plummet in a moment. Sin tends not to announce its presence when it attacks the congregation, turning joy into grief for the flock and her leaders. Unbelievers pervert Noah’s rainbow. Pluralism strangles believers in corporate America. On many days, believers have to search for reasons to smile. Yet pastors who have had a hand to the plow for very long confess that joy in God and the missions of divine persons compels joy in the church and its mission regardless of the circumstances of our lives.
Joy in God and the Salvation of Man.
Joy iterates throughout the economy of salvation. The persons of the Godhead rejoice in one another, and those who know God experience the overflow of joy in the acts of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Joy in God is the basis of any joy in ministry.
Election.
When Jesus sent out the seventy in Luke 10, He warned them that they would encounter dangerous circumstances and be rejected. They were, after all, representing Him. They returned with joy because even demons submitted to them in Jesus’ name. Jesus replied that He knew of the demonic world; He had seen Satan fall from heaven. Jesus recalibrated the spiritual compass of the seventy, charging them to find their joy in God’s election of them to be in His kingdom. Their names were written in heaven (Luke 10:18-20)!
At that time, Jesus rejoiced in God’s sovereign administrative authority and His personal mission in the Trinity. Jesus, full of joy in the Holy Spirit, praised the Father for disclosing His kingdom to the seventy through the Son while excluding the wise and learned from experiencing the kingdom’s blessings (Luke 10:21-22). Their names were not written in heaven.
Regeneration.
Jesus’ resurrection elicits joy in believers even beyond this life. In 1 Peter 1:3-9, Peter states that Jesus’ resurrection and the subsequent ministry of the Spirit give us new life on earth and hope of an eternal inheritance. In this we rejoice despite present suffering for Christ. We are progressing toward this eternal salvation each day, compelled by joy in what is to come. Peter’s presentation of joy in 1 Peter 1:3-9 shares points of contact with Paul’s in Galatians 5:22-23. For both apostles, where the Spirit is, joy follows.
Union.
The Gospel of John provides believers with a relational-theological framework for our faith. Here we see the deity and personal mission of each person of the Trinity. One feature of John’s Christology is the joy that Jesus shares with the disciples. Jesus articulates His joy-sharing in John 15:11, 16:24, and 17:13 during the Farewell Discourse and His intercessory prayer. In John 15, Jesus uses garden imagery to portray the spiritual union believers will enjoy with God in light of the Son’s mission. Jesus obeyed the Father in making Him known to humanity, and thus remained in the Father’s love (John 15:10). And the disciples were the direct beneficiaries: Jesus promised that they would have His joy fulfilled in them as they obeyed the Father (John 15:11). Throughout John 13-17, Jesus presents the blessings believers enjoy because of His incarnation. The disciples’ joy surfaces again in John 16:24, this time concerning their participation in prayer. Because of Jesus’ mission as the incarnate Son, the disciples can pray with understanding and confidence in Jesus’ name, experiencing His joy. Jesus’ mission as the incarnate Son progressed in revelatory stages. Throughout John 13-17, as in the whole narrative of John’s Gospel, Jesus states that His incarnation, death, resurrection, and return need to be understood as one unbreakable sequence. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17:13, Jesus tells the eleven that His joy would be fulfilled in them as they grasped that sequence as God’s glorious redemptive revelation.
Resurrection.
Just as Jesus rejoiced in the Father in Luke 10, Peter and Paul note that after Jesus was resurrected, He experienced joy in God’s presence. In their first sermons recorded in Acts, Peter and Paul cite Psalm 16:8-11, interpreting David’s poem as a prophecy of Jesus’ resurrection. In Psalm 16, David rejoices in God’s covenantal favor, confident that it would extend beyond his earthly life. David closes the psalm anticipating eternal joy in God’s presence (Psalm 16:11).
In Acts 2, when the Spirit descended upon the crowd gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, Peter stood to proclaim that the presence of the Spirit confirmed that the last days had begun at the resurrection of Jesus. After quoting Psalm 16:8-11 (Acts 2:25-28), Peter states that David was dead and buried. David was thus speaking not of himself but of one of his descendants whom God would raise to sit on David’s throne. In Peter’s interpretation of Psalm 16:8-11, Jesus ascended and was filled with joy in God’s presence, sending the Spirit to confirm that the last days had begun (Acts 2:32-33).
Paul’s first recorded sermon in Acts took place during his initial mission to the region of Galatia (Acts 13-14). On a Sabbath day stop in Antioch of Pisidia, the synagogue leaders asked Paul and company if they had a message to share (can you imagine Paul’s joy!). Paul did. He preached a survey of God’s work in history from the exodus to David’s reign (Acts 13:16-22). Paul proclaimed that Jesus is the Savior whom God promised would descend from David’s line—and confirmed Jesus as Savior by raising Him from the dead (Acts 13:26-31). Jesus’ resurrection, Paul announced, was according to God’s Word in passages like Psalm 16:11, “You will not let Your Holy One see decay” (Acts 13:35, CSB). Therefore, Paul concludes in Acts 13:36-39 forgiveness of sin is available in Jesus alone.
Joy in the Church and its Mission.
Because God is joy in Himself and produces it in His people, it follows that believers would have joy in the church and its mission. Stated differently, pastors partner with the people of God to display the gospel in the world, marked by joy despite opposition. This is one way to summarize Paul’s portrait of his relationship with the Philippians. Philippians is a missionary thank-you letter from Paul in prison to the church for the financial support they supplied for his needs while he was in prison (Acts 28:30-31). Paul’s logic in Philippians provides a framework for us to reflect on a pastor’s joy in the local church and its mission.
Empowerment.
Like Paul toward the Philippians, pastors swell with joy when they look back at all God has done and ahead to all God will do in their local church. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:3-6 that he viewed his partnership with the Philippians in light of God’s work in them from the day of God’s first work among them until the day of Christ’s return. Pastors can take joy in partnering with God and His people in the local church. Rejoice, pastor; it’s not up to us alone.
Proclamation. Pastors can rejoice in God as He works ministry trials and opposition for the promulgation of the gospel. While Paul was in prison and preaching the gospel, some proclaimed Christ because they wanted to mock Paul. Paul could not have been happier. “What does it matter?” Paul asks rhetorically in Philippians 1:18, “Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.” Rejoice, church leaders, the message is more potent than any messenger opposing you and your church.
Gathering.
Pastors and churches filled with joyful confidence will overflow with joy when they meet to speak of the Lord’s work among them. In Philippians 2:17-18, Paul describes the back-and-forth joy he shared with the church as they proclaimed the gospel in their separate spheres. This you-be faithful-where-you are, and I’ll-be faithful-where-I am mindset sparks joy when believers meet. The Philippians sent Timothy and Epaphroditus to carry their financial support to Paul in Rome. Paul sent Epaphroditus back, bringing the epistle with him. Paul knew that the Philippians would rejoice in seeing Epaphroditus—who had risked his life to get the church’s financial contribution to Paul in Rome (Philippians 2:28-29). Gathered on the Lord’s Day or at meetings throughout the week, face-to-face, we rejoice as we share God’s blessings, the challenges before us, and the power of the faith.
Doxology.
Paul stitches the final two chapters of Philippians by urging the Philippians to rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 3:1; 4:4). In each reference, Paul emphasizes the ongoing, continuous manner of the church’s disposition toward Jesus. Paul establishes a model for pastors. Our job is to remind the congregation of the wonder of their relationship with Christ and all of the glory and privilege they enjoy, even in suffering for Him. Pastors, remind the church that no greater joy can humans find than the Lord.
Todd R. Chipman | Dean of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies
