The Joy of the Lord Is Our Strength Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:16-30

 

Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

Our message is taken from our Old Testament Reading, especially verse 10, Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

 

Do you feel stronger when you’re sad, or when you’re happy? 

 

Happy, I would say. 

 

When you feel sad you feel more vulnerable, and less energized; when you feel happy and joyful, you feel stronger and more energetic.

 

Thanks be to God who gives us joy, and with it, strength!

 

The joy of the Lord is our strength! 

 

Paul says in Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.

 

And with that strength, we rejoice to love and serve.

 

Strength and power from God are holy and benevolent, but in our weak and sinful nature, we sometimes abuse the power we’ve been given. 

 

The good news is, sorry and forgiven, God’s grace and love help us to make better use of the power and strength we have.

 

With benevolent power there is great joy, abundant rejoicing! 

 

On the other hand, malevolent, evil power, has caused much sadness and grief in the history of this world, from very early on.

The devil convinced Adam and Eve that, apart from the Lord, disobedient and disconnected from Him, they would be far greater and stronger, and much happier; they would be gods.

 

What happened is that they, and all humanity since, became much sadder and weaker, burdened with the consequences of sin: grief, shame, anger, hatred, guilt, sorrow, injury, disease, death, and much more.

 

The strength of sin, is sorrow; the strength of the Lord, is joy!

 

How Heaven and angels rejoiced when Jesus did the most difficult thing ever done on earth, when He had the power to rise from death. 

 

How the disciples rejoiced when they saw Him and believed, but the skeptics among them, who doubted, lacked the joy of those who believed.

 

When Jesus sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they all believed and rejoiced. 

 

And they were strengthened to be His witnesses in the world, even at the price of martyrdom, suffering and dying for the spread of the Gospel.

 

Even when suffering, the love of the Lord was their joy and their strength. 

 

They knew the outcome of their faithfulness would be love, joy and glory without end.

 

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught and promised them: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

 

In their Lord, the early Christians found the strength to rejoice, even in adversity, and so can we. 

The strength of our Lord is our joy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength!

 

Paul says in Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the Lord, always; again, I say, rejoice!      

 

The Lord makes us strong to rejoice, even when things aren’t going so well.

 

When we praise God and rejoice, we gain a better perspective and attitude, and so we’re better equipped and strengthened to face our trials and overcome our troubles.

 

We see the strength of rejoicing in our Old Testament reading.

 

After some of the people of Judah, who had been taken into exile in Babylon, returned home to Jerusalem, they got to work rebuilding the city and walls of Jerusalem, under the leadership of Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, their governor, 

 

When they finished, they went and got settled into their homes and towns, and later they returned to Jerusalem to celebrate. 

 

And they all gathered at the town square, and Ezra read the Word of God to them from dawn until noon, and they listened attentively, they hung on to every word he spoke, and then they all affirmed the words of the Lord, shouting “Amen and Amen”, “Yes, may it be so”.

 

Then some of the Levites, the temple workers, explained and expounded on what had been read, and the people were sorry that they had neglected the Word of God. 

 

But Nehemiah told them not to grieve anymore but go and feast, because “The joy of the Lord is your strength!” 

 

You will find strength as you rejoice in the salvation and blessings of the Lord.

 

For all the days of the Festival, their joy was very great, verse 17 says. 

 

Every day Ezra read from the Word of God, and many listened; and after the celebration, the people went back home to their towns and villages, happy and strong. 

 

Taking God’s Word to heart, believing the Gospel, the Good News of Great Joy, is where we find our strength in this fallen world that would tear us down and wear us out.

 

In contrast to the people at the time of Nehemiah, who with faith and joy received the words of God written by Moses, and read and expounded on by Ezra… 

 

… centuries later, the people of Nazareth received the words of God written by Isaiah and read and expounded on by Jesus, with doubt and disgust, even hatred, outrage, and violence.

 

What was meant to be and could have been their great joy, a son of their own town, revealing Himself to be the Messiah they had waited for so long…

 

… the great honor that the Messiah would be one of them, from their very own little village, but because of their stubbornness and refusal to believe, they never felt that joy, nor knew that honor.

 

What should have been a time of extreme joy, became a moment of violent rage, as the people took one of their own, Jesus the Messiah, out of their synagogue, and out of their town, to hurl Him off a cliff to injury or death.

 

So sad, so terrible for them, when it could have been so wonderful, the best day of their lives, a day of joy and salvation. 

 

They used their power and strength for evil and harm, but they used it in vain. It was neither the time nor place for Jesus to die. 

He looked at them, walked through them unharmed and untouched, and never looked back, although it had to have been heartbreaking for Him to leave His hometown and never return.

 

Let us receive our Lord with faith, so that our joy might be in Him, for joy of the Lord is empowering, eternal, and supreme. 

 

There are many things we can find joy in, and for many of them, it can be a good thing. God wants us to rejoice in the good gifts He gives us.

 

The devil would tempt us to find our joy in what is not of and from God, what denies and defies Him.

 

He tempted Adam and Eve to rejoice in disobeying God. 

 

He would entice us to find joy in anything and everything that grieves God, sin of every sort.

 

Scripture calls the devil the masquerader, pretending to be what’s he’s not. 

 

The sin he tempts us to love and relish and glory in, is not the joy and happiness he presents it to be -- nor is sin the strength and power that Satan claims it is; in truth, it’s only ruin and sorrow for us all. 

 

But in denouncing sin, being forgiven, and believing and embracing the love of Christ, there’s great joy for us and for all who would believe and receive.

 

In the Gospel we have great joy to share, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have the strength to share it. 

 

May the love of the Lord always be our joy and our strength, and may His peace, which passes understanding, guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our great strength and our everlasting joy. Amen.