July 2024 Newsletter
The take-home point each day at VBS this past week started with the phrase: Jesus gives us Joy. Joy is a truly otherworldly thing that only God can give. It cannot be adequately compared to happiness. Happiness is far too fleeting and temporal to be compared to the Joy that comes to us from God much like the peace of God that surpasses understanding.
Each day we talked about different aspects of God’s love and mercy to us, like the fact that Jesus came for me, “born of a virgin, born under the Law to redeem those under the Law.” How the all-powerful Lord God of creation willingly took on human flesh, came down into His creation to fix the problem of sin that we had fallen into. The wise men reminded us by the presents they brought of the true gift that our Lord Christ is to us and that by His birth Jesus gives us Joy.
Jesus feeding of the 5,000 shows us His power over creation and reminds us that Jesus cares for Me. We heard the words of Paul in Philippians 4:19 where he says, “God will supply our every need.” Everyday needs like food may not seem miraculous, but the fact that we so rarely suffer want in our society is truly something to rejoice over, because Jesus gives us Joy even through normal everyday things.
The healing of the paralytic man shows us even more than Jesus’ power over creation in healing the man’s paralysis, that Jesus heals me body, mind and soul when He forgives the man his sins. The physical and even emotional problems we deal with in this life in body and mind are frustrating effects of sin that all people see as terrible and eventual realities of life, but in forgiving the man’s sins Jesus shows to the people that He is God incarnate by doing something equally unbelievable: offering forgiveness. The joy of sins forgiven is a reality we know by God’s grace shown to us in Christ. The ability to forgive others as we have been forgiven comes to us because Jesus gives us Joy in the forgiveness, He has first won for us, which was the next day’s focus.
If there is anything that is going to fill us with joy it is the fact that Jesus saves me. His suffering and death to atone for my sins and yours ought to be an unending source of Joy. The fact that Jesus was willing to obey the Father’s will perfectly and yet innocently suffer and die for those who caused Him to suffer is a greater show of love than a man laying down his life for his friends, because even when we were enemies of God, at the right time, Christ died for us ungodly sinners. But for most people, the even greater source of joy is not only in Christ’s death but in His resurrection. The reality that death and the grave have been conquered for us means that Jesus give us Joy not just in this life, but eternally!
Knowing these realities means that Jesus fills me with Joy. Just as the disciples on the road to Emmaus, when we talk about the Father’s love for us, sing songs praising Him, and join in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus gives us Joy that we cannot help but share. We are given a confidence in and by His Word, so that this faith which we have in common enables us to encourage one another in every circumstance, so that His Joy may be in us and that by Him our Joy may be full.
Celebrating the Savior!
Pastor Nick
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