This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 3, 1993.
About this sermon
Philippians 4:4’s command to rejoice suffers misuse whenever worship turns into forced cheerfulness. The Holy Spirit calls believers to rejoice in the midst of suffering, and never as an escape from it. Paul’s own rejoicing in 1:18 and 2:27 follows Christ’s example.
Sermon transcript
This morning we turn first of all to Psalm 33. As we read through this psalm, I would ask you to be on the alert for those statements in this psalm that prepare you for what you find in Philippians 4 verse 4. Listen to the word of God. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the Lord with harp, sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song, play skillfully with a loud noise.
For the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap. He layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to none, he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen. for his own inheritance. The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He fashioneth their hearts alike, he considereth all their works. There is no king saved by the multitude of a host. A mighty man is not delivered by much strength and horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord, for he is our help and our shield, for our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.” Our Father in Heaven, keep your word before us. We plead for your Spirit’s ministry in our hearts, and we plead for that ministry in the world. as your church would stand upon that word and in that word for your glory.
We know of the distractions. We have experienced those distractions ourselves. And we ask, Lord, that we might be kept from being distracted when in fact your word is put before us May we listen. May we listen to our benefits, for our encouragement, but also for our correction and our reproof. And may all of your church be similarly guided. We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen. without saying that Philippians 4.4 is one of those texts, one of those texts that has been memorized by many, utilized by many. It is a text that has proved to be a magnet. It draws attention. But it is also a text that has repelled. Many who have been drawn and those who have been repelled, I must say, have not rightly grasped the force of this verse.
There is a great number of Christians who have used this text, or had it used on them, in the interests of that thesis that says, quote, An unhappy Christian is a contradiction in terms.” Now, there’s something to that statement, but there’s also a lot of misdirection in it, for it seems that over the last two centuries in a great portion of the Church of Jesus Christ, it has been decided that this text would be used to answer Puritan and Victorian austerity, on the one hand, and the collapse, something as monumental as this, the collapse of Western Christian society as a whole, on the other.
This text then is put forth as the biblical justification for an ecclesiastical smiley face. It is put forth as the biblical justification for that conviction held by many that it is actually their effervescence that shall save the world. You know the kind I’m talking about. Christians of the bubbly sort.
The world may well have entered the age of anxiety, but in answer to the anxiety of our age, some in the Church have endeavored to put themselves over as the agents of fun. the agents of fun. In other words, according to them, the church is the place to which you can escape in order to have a good time in the midst of bad times. I am reminded of a Home Missions gathering a number of years ago in which one church bureaucrat wanted to know whether a particular Home Mission’s work was a, quote, fun church, unquote.
I don’t know whether you’ve checked Webster’s recently on the word fun. I hadn’t until recently. The word fun has attached to it ideas like jest. Play. Sport. And I must say that these words that are attended to, the idea and the word fun, do not miss the mark as to what that church bureaucrat had in mind. The church is a place that should be relaxed. filled with fun, jesting, sport and play. And God forbid, so this church bureaucrat would say, God forbid that a church be guilty of that unpardonable sin of the twentieth century, that it be boring. Well, if we are going to interest and retain the young, if we are going to maintain those who think themselves young and imagine themselves young, then we have to turn our faith into entertainment and our worship into play.
Are we having a good time yet? George Gallup recently said, after one of his extensive surveys of the American scene, 20th century American civilization is that civilization that worships its work, works at its play, and plays at its worship. Now you’re disgusted by that, I imagine. But you see, there are some who aren’t. In fact, the last part, the last bit of that analysis by Gallup has been picked up by these people and has become something of a motto. We are in fact to play at our worship.
And if you need biblical justification for this, all you need to do is turn to Philippians 4.4. which becomes the golden test in support of just such a mentality. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. And Christianity and worship in the Christian church are turned into entertainment, into play, if not into frivolity.
And we must say to this congregation that such a use of Philippians 4.4 is misuse. In fact, it’s downright abuse. It destroys the Apostle Paul’s meaning and transforms this text into a mandate for superficiality and downright silliness, neither of which have any place in a serious and proper expression of true biblical godliness.
But it is just this abuse, this misuse of Philippians 4.4 that keeps many well-intentioned and appropriately serious minded saints from taking full advantage of this text.
In fact, I believe It could be said that there are many saints now that are deliberately avoiding this text. They have heard it quoted too often, and misappropriated in those quotations. They have heard it sung in mantra style one too many times. They have seen it employed as a club against them and against any hint of sorrow or melancholy which might rise in them regardless of the circumstance or situation. And they are now unable to receive the God-intended blessing that is to be found within this precious and glorious text.
There is the case of the beautifully devout Christian widow. who in her struggles with her loneliness and her sadness was curbed to say, if anyone quotes Philippians 4.4 at me one more time, I’ll scream. I’m afraid that many in their use of this text, their abuse of it, have succumbed to something of a Christian science idea. a Christian science idea that, in effect, turns Christianity into that insight, into that way of thinking, into that approach to life that brings to an end all tragedy or contemplation of tragedy, all unhappiness, all sorrow, sadness, and even evil itself, treating these things as if they didn’t have any reality whatsoever. they don’t even exist.
Scripture texts like Philippians 4.4 are quoted as if they were magical talisman invoked in the interest of getting one’s mind right, since It is held by those who engage in such practices, we are liable to forget that Christ’s true objective was to give us all a grand good time, dear owners, and to guarantee for us a painless existence while we are here.
May God keep us from such thinking, and may he restore to us Philippians 4.4 in all its power and spiritual value. The Holy Spirit’s intention with this verse is not to provide us with some sort of incantation by which we are to be convinced that our sufferings and our sorrows are illusionary and meaningless and immaterial, that they have ended, come to a conclusion for us in this world, and that any proper Christian thinking sets us beyond all such things. Instead, the Holy Spirit’s intention with this text is to call us to obedient faith, to an integrity of soul, an integrity of soul that expresses itself, yes, resolutely, joyously, in the midst of sufferings, sorrows, and even grave personal disappointments.
Despite the pain, despite the grief, despite the disappointment, I will rejoice in the Lord. In this regard, I am reminded, and maybe some of you know the score, I am reminded of the original scoring of the Negro spiritual, this little white of mine. It’s come down to us as a Sunday school ditty, re-scored with an upbeat style. But the original scoring of that little Negro spiritual set it as a magnificent hymn of hope against the background of the pain and difficulty of those who were responsible for its composition. It is a testimony to true biblical joy, written in a minor key, intended to be sung plaintively.
This little light of mine I’m going to let it shine. All through the night, I’m going to let it shine. Profound, though simple, magnificent and sublime, the joy held out there that we do in fact have alike, little though it may be. and at the same time we are determined to keep that light burning through the darkest night because of and in the power of the One who is in Himself the light of the world. Now do you need any confirmation that this is in fact the Holy Spirit’s intention with this verse? Here is what the Apostle is driving at in Philippians 4. I want to remind you of what the Apostle said in the first chapter, the 18th verse. What then, he writes, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.”
Do you hear the echo of that in Philippians 4.4?
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, the double rejoicing of Philippians 4.4. It’s an echo of what the Apostle has said in the eighteenth verse of the first chapter with respect to his own circumstance.
He speaks in the preceding verses about his imprisonment. That is a sorrow to him, a grief. It is certainly filled with pain. But he also speaks in those preceding verses in that first chapter about his personal disappointment in the behavior of some of the preachers in Rome, where he is presently in prison. these preachers who take advantage of his imprisonment to build up their own reputations at his expense.
And it is specifically in the face of these disappointments and the pain that he experiences that he says that he will rejoice and continue to rejoice in spite of these things in the midst of them. Troubles do not end. Pain has not evaporated. Struggle and difficulty have not ceased. It is specifically in the midst of difficulty and pain that the apostle is determined to maintain his spiritual joy.
But there’s another place where confirmation of this approach to Philippians 4.4 is found in this letter to the Philippians, and that is in the second chapter. And here, even more powerfully, verse 27.
At this text, Philippians 2.27, Paul speaks of the great service rendered to him by a native of Philippi, a member of the church to which he is presently writing. This fellow had come to Rome to minister to Paul. The man’s name is Epaphroditus. Paul tells these Philippians that this man, this dear man, became gravely ill while ministering to him in Rome. But then Paul remarks that even though Epaphroditus was near God, he was at the point of death in his sickness. God had mercy upon Paul, lest Paul might have sorrow upon sorrow. Has sorrow evaporated? for the apostles, has sorrow become illegitimate for Christians? Is it out of bounds for believers? Mary Baker Eddy is wrong. You see the reason that I point this out to you.
The compounding of sorrow in 2.27 does not contradict the compounding of joy expressed in 1.18 or in 4.4. Paul is not sinning when he speaks so candidly about his sorrow, nor is he failing in his faith. In fact, his faith is coming to expression in this very circumstance. But understand the unique quality now of the apostles rejoicing. Not only is this rejoicing not ruling out legitimate sorrow and grief and the experience of pain, but this rejoicing has a unique character and quality all its own.
Because you see, it is rejoicing in the Lord. It is rejoicing in the Lord. It rises then in those who are faithful to their Lord, specifically in the circumstance of their grief and their pain. In that it is rejoicing in the Lord, how can it be otherwise? For this one, the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, is himself the one who rejoiced in his pain and in his sorrow and did it faithfully and perfectly.
And you now, who would claim him, must follow him. You who would say you are united to him, joined to him, have been joined to him in his sufferings and pain as he was joined to you in yours. This one then maintained his joy in God, in glory, in eternal life, in the promises given him, He maintained his joy to the end that we in him might rejoice through all our tribulation and see the day when all our sorrows and griefs will end and God himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Let us pray. Father, save us from foolishness, even the foolishness that rises within the Church, a foolishness that would transform the sublime message of your Word into a matter of frivolousness.
But Lord, as well, may we not be put off by abuse, but rather be pushed all the more to the proper use of every text, and even this text, Philippians 4.4, that we might rejoice in the Lord always. even again rejoice with all determination in the face of every conflict and difficulty, every strain that may well come upon us. O Lord, those strains may not be simply because of the out of jointedness of this world, but because of the out of jointedness of human relationships. We pray God that as there is strain and stress with regard to those things, we might be determined to rejoice as we follow in our Savior’s footsteps. For he proved to be a servant to those who didn’t even understand. And Lord, may we prove to be a servant to all those about us. And through it all, rejoice. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.