Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy
Are
there any sermons that have made a lasting impact in your life? For me
personally, there are several, but one of the sermons that had a lasting impact
on me was Pastor John Piper’s message on joy,
titled, “Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy.” In his sermon he asks, “What’s at
the bottom of your joy?” “What is the feeder of your happiness?” These
questions really made me ponder and examine myself. You see, all of our joys
have a foundation. What does it mean by that? Let me give you an
example. One day my 7-year-old Grace and I had some conversation. She said to
me, “Dad, when I grow up, I want to be either pastor or teacher.” I said, “I
see. But why do you want to
be a pastor or teacher?” She replied, “Because
you teach and talk in front of many people, and they listen to you. I like
it.” So I asked, “Why does that
make you happy?” She replied, “Because you
can tell them what to do and boss them around.” If we continue this “why –
because” conversation, we eventually get to the bottom of what makes us happy.
At the bottom there are only two possibilities of our joy: making much of me, or making much of God. Self or God.
Tasteless & Invisible
In today’s passage Jesus says to
his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world”
(vv. 13-14). Then he continues, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”
(v. 20). Here we learn that there are two different kinds of righteousness – external righteousness vs. inner righteousness. And Jesus invites
us to take a closer look inside our hearts.
John Wesley called these people “almost” Christians. In his sermon The Almost Christian, he shares his own experience with us. Basically, he did everything he could do – Bible study, daily prayer, giving alms to the poor, visiting prisoners, and all other good works. He even volunteered to go to Georgia as a missionary to the settlers and Native Americans. But the harder he tried, the more he felt empty and dry. Wesley said,
I did go thus far for many years,
as many of this place can testify: using diligence to eschew all evil, and to
have conscience void of offence; redeeming the time, buying up every opportunity
of doing all good to all men, endeavoring after a steady seriousness of behavior
at all times and in all places… doing all this in sincerity… Yet my own conscience
beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost that all this time I was but ‘almost a Christian.’
Tasty & Shining
What is then an inner righteousness?
The inner righteousness is a righteousness of the heart. The default
mode of the human heart is self-centered, self-exalting, making much of self.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?” (NIV). That’s why being “born again” is necessary. The
new birth changes the default mode of our fallen heart. It changes the bottom
of what makes us happy – from self to God.
“You must be born again” Jesus said to Nicodemus, who was a good man, moral man. He was knowledgeable, experienced, respected Pharisee. But for some reason, he felt miserable. He felt something was missing. At night he came to see Jesus. Here Jesus was saying, “Nicodemus, you need something new at the bottom. Now God is not at the bottom. You are at the bottom. You must exchange yourself at the bottom with God.” We don’t know exactly when Nicodemus was born again. He struggled. He wrestled through questions. He changed over the time as he pondered, as the “yeast” of Jesus’ teaching appealed to his conscience, his convictions, his expectations. He changed gradually but surely. Later, when the Pharisees openly criticized Jesus, he advocated for Jesus (cf. John 7:51). Eventually the Pharisee Nicodemus became a faithful disciple of Jesus. After Jesus was crucified, along with Joseph of Ari-mathea, he risked alienation from their colleagues and punishment from the Romans by claiming Jesus’ body (John 27:57-60).
Altogether Christian
Nicodemus is our shining example of
being salt and light in this world. When Jesus says to his followers, “You are salt
and light”, he refers here to more than good deeds; he refers to a good
character, which comes from the new heart. It’s from the inside out.
Pastor Tim Keller compares encountering with Christ to what he calls "a life-quake"[i]:
When a great big truck goes over a
tiny little bridge, sometimes there's a bridge-quake, and when a big man goes
onto thin ice there's an ice-quake. Whenever Jesus Christ comes down into a
person's life, there's a life-quake. Everything is reordered. If he was a guru,
if he was a great man, if he was a great teacher, even if he was the genie of
the lamp, there would be some limits on his rights over you. If he's God, you
cannot relate to him at all and retain anything in your life that's a
non-negotiable. Anything … any view, any conviction, any idea, any behavior,
any relationship. He may change it, he may not change it, but at the beginning
of the relationship you have to say, "In everything he must have the supremacy."
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you,” God promised (Ezekiel 36:26). How would he do it? He told Ezekiel: “I will put my Spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes” (v. 27). Those who have a new heart by the Spirit, those who have Christ at the bottom of their joy, John Wesley would call “altogether” Christians. Are you altogether Christian? Let us examine and ask ourselves: “Is God’s love poured into my heart? Do I take delight in God and desire nothing but him? Am I happy in God? Is God my glory, my delight, my joy? Also, do I love my neighbor as myself? Do I love all people, even my enemies, as Christ loved me?”
May we say “yes” to all these questions by grace through faith. May we all experience what it is to be not almost only, but altogether Christians! May Christ – his love, his truth, his teaching – be the “yeast” within us that transforms our views, our convictions, our character, our behaviors, our relationships, so that people around us may see our congruent lives and praise our Father in heaven. Amen.
[i]
Tim Keller, ‘The Lordship of Christ Is 'A Life-Quake', https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2016/march/3031416.html
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