More Jesus and More Joy

Joy, Books, and Summer Updates

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Mike Abendroth here. What is happening? I hope you are enjoying the summer. Today and tomorrow I think are my last two quote unquote live shows on No Compromise Radio.

We'll probably play some reruns in August to give me a break and then we'll be back at it late August and early September for I think going into the 16th year of No Compromise Radio Ministry. Crazy, I know.

You can get the books Cancer's Not Your Shepherd and the updated Sexual Fidelity on Amazon. Remember if you want to order a bunch of them, let me know and we'll get you the 40 discount. And I think that's about it.

I'm glad I don't make my living selling books. But it is what it is. So I guess the upside of publishing with Zondervan is they promote the book. The downside is you publish with Zondervan. Today on No Compromise Radio, I want to talk about joy.

Rejoicing in the Lord and Finding Joy in Trials

Now I talked about joy a little bit later, earlier rather. This was later. And I preached about it, which will be probably on No Compromise Radio a month before this show airs. So you've already forgotten, right?

You need to be reminded, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice, of course. But I want to continue this theme, Jesus and joy, and how if you can have Jesus by faith, and more importantly, how he has you by doing the Father's will, then you can have joy.

There can be trials, obviously, and circumstances and things that go on in your life that are very, very tragic and awful. But in spite of that, you can still have joy. I think of the Apostle Paul in jail singing.

I think of Paul writing Philippians while he's in jail. And we would like to talk about joy. As my friend Phil Howard says, have you ever met a Christian that's encouraged too much? No. And I would also say, have you ever met somebody that couldn't have more joy?

That's a good way to put it. Have you ever met someone that couldn't have more joy? I mean, some people are just so full of joy, and they're happy, and they're just making it their choice to rejoice, as my grandmother-in-law used to say.

But other people like me, we struggle with joy. Even today, as I was sitting reading my Bible, just meditating a little bit, I was reading Isaiah. I'm in Isaiah about 51 to 55, catching up on my Robert Murray McShane Bible reading app to read through the Bible in a year.

I haven't done that for a long time. I'm really enjoying it. And I love the app because then I just click off what I need, what I have read. And I thought, well, you know what? This is hard. Having leukemia is hard.

Getting older is difficult. This is certainly a time where I would like more joy. Kim's out of town, so I'm by myself. And sometimes when you're by yourself, it's nice because you can just kind of sit and think.

Other times, you just sit and think, and it's not good. It spirals down. So, I got online, and I typed in how to have joy. How to find joy is what I literally typed. And what do you think popped up? Close to the top was an article on Oprah Winfrey's website.

Oprah, the great theologian. Hey, everybody's a theologian. You're either a bad theologian or a good theologian, and she's great in her bad way. How does that sound? Unless she's repented. How to have joy.

Give a little bit. This is according to the Oprah site. Like charity. Just a little. You don't have to give too much. Just throw in a five, a fiver at church. When the plate is being passed at Bethlehem Bible Church, I don't look because I don't want to see someone throwing in $2.

Two buck chuck, which it isn't two bucks anymore. What's going on with California? They can't keep fast food restaurants open. Arby's is closing. A bunch of other stores are closing. How does that all work?

I think we know how that works, and that's sad. I was reading the other day how many people are leaving California. A lot. How to have joy, according to Oprah's website. Be even kinder. That's kind of nice.

You're already kind. Be kinder. Add some color to your home. Did you know that Ingrid Lee, a designer and author of Joyful, says that you can have confetti in your house, rainbows, tree houses, hot air balloon pictures, kites, and colors if you go outside, and things that are bright are translated into joy.

Make time for exercise. Savor joyful moments, both big and small. Get houseplants. If you want more joy, get houseplants. According to Oprah's website, there are budget-friendly ways to jazz up a room.

Some say, even in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology, that touching and smelling indoor plants can reduce psychological stress. Some even say the mere sight of an indoor plant can reduce stress.

Oprah says if you want joy, go outside. Spend time in nature. Be grateful and skip the negative news first thing in the morning. Maybe that was my problem this morning. I used to read Newsweek and Time to put me to sleep when I was an unbeliever, and I always had crazy dreams.

I don't know if it was from the drugs that I took or from the crazy things that I put in my mind before I went to bed. Today, we're talking about joy and Jesus. We're in Luke chapter 5, when Jesus talks about himself as the bridegroom.

Jesus as Bridegroom and the Joy of the Wedding Feast

One of the things about a bridegroom is he's at a wedding, and with weddings, there are feasts and celebration. The Pharisees, of course, in Luke 5 .33, they try to get after Jesus. They accuse him of not eating and drinking with tax collectors like they just accused him, but now just eating and drinking in general.

You're eating and drinking, and you should be fasting, and Jesus has a counter question for them. When you try to put Jesus on the hot spot, it's very, very unwise. My suggestion to you is duck. Did you know that when it comes to fasting for the Jewish people, Jesus' day, there was only one fast that they had to do?

It happened to be during the Day of Atonement, or as we call it, Yom Dei Kippur, to cover, where we get the word propitiation. And Leviticus 16 says in verses 29 through 30, one, and it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the 10th day of the month, you shall afflict yourself and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you.

I'm thinking about the word mourn. I'll tell you why. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be cleaned before the Lord from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves.

It is a statute forever, Leviticus 16. Now, where in the world, do you ask, is the command to fast? Now, certainly there were fasts in the Old Testament. David fast regarding his son and his death. Esther proclaimed a fast because the annihilation of the Jews was about to happen, potentially.

You had King Jehoshaphat and enemies and fasting. There's all kinds of times for fasting, and it usually happened around times of sorrow. And here we have afflict yourself in verse 29 of Leviticus 16 and verse 31.

Here's what the ESV study Bible says. Literally, afflict or humble their souls. When it says afflict yourselves, it's afflict or humble your souls. This term expresses self-denial and self-mortification connected with fasting and prayer.

And there you have it. So, you only have to fast once a year, and now the Pharisees are fasting. And remember, they fast twice a week because what happens with legalists is they add on more rules, and they add to the Bible with speed, with alacrity.

When do you ever get to say alacrity? Luke 18, 12, the Pharisees said, I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get. And if you're spiritual, you should be fasting. And Levi got saved by Jesus, had a big party.

It probably was on a Monday or a Thursday, one of those fast times, and now you're eating when you shouldn't be eating with tax collectors and sinners. And basically, you shouldn't be eating at all. And we have the Pharisees, not trying to be sticklers on the Bible and the Old Testament, although they tried to do that in their own weird way, but they've got extra rules, extra biblical rules.

And the counter question from Jesus is, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? That's ESV. And most of the time, ESV does a good job. It does a horrible job here. Can you make the wedding guests, literally, it's sons of the bridegroom?

It's not like he's been married before and has children. This is a word, a Jewish phrase, a set of words for groomsmen, the men who were the groom's pick to help him, to represent him, to support him.

The wedding's going to take a week of celebration. And so you need some helpers. And we would call them the groomsmen. And so Jesus says, I'm a bridegroom. Now that should start making you think of all kinds of things.

Jesus as the groom, the church is the bride of Christ, marriage supper of the lamb, joy, feasting. I mean, how do you talk about joy being in the presence of Jesus? How would you describe to someone on earth what heaven must be like?

I think probably there's more descriptions of hell than there is heaven. And you say, well, heaven's more than a place. It's a person. Amen. Yes. And amen. But it is a place as well. And how do you describe inexpressible joy and full of glory as 1 Peter 1 talks about it?

How would you describe a joy on earth, let alone the ultimate, the most wonderful joy when you see the Lord face to face upon Jesus's return or your death? How would you describe that? Well, lots of times what the Bible does, it uses language of accommodation.

It's analogical. It tries to use human language or human situations and circumstances to describe something that it would be spiritual or describe something that would be in this particular case, what's heaven like?

Well, I don't know. And you sit and you think, well, what are the most wonderful experiences that I've ever had in my life? And one of those should include weddings because weddings should be a time of, I mean, assuming that the young people are doing the right thing and they're not trying to circumvent their parents and everything else.

But when weddings are done rightly, there are worship services, praising God for putting this couple together. The two families, just so thankful. There's tears of joy. There is a celebration afterwards with dancing and feasting and drinking and just a time of just partying in a good way.

I don't mean that in a negative, you know, people getting drunk, although sadly some people do. Nonetheless, one of the ways we can describe being with Jesus, if you are on earth or if you now live what you do now live, if you're listening to this, I might be dead by the time you listen to this.

You say, well, the closest we can get is describing a wedding because for us, weddings are wonderful. They take place within about 24 hours. All the festivities from the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, the wedding, the rehearsal, et cetera.

But for those folks back in the Bible days, it was seven days of just celebration. And while Jesus said, I'm a physician, right? For sick souls. And I come not to call the righteous, those that think they're righteous, but sinners to repentance.

That's why I'm here. I'm a doctor and I need to be around these people to cure them. And Jesus didn't celebrate people's sin. He cured their sin. He saved them from their sins. And now, instead of just as a physician, spiritually sick people need a doctor.

Now he's calling himself a bridegroom and he comes to give joy. And when you have Jesus, you have a feast. When you have Jesus, it's not a funeral. The wedding feast. Could there be a more vivid picture of joy and happiness in that culture, according to one writer?

This is wonderful. We have not a time to mourn, but we have a time to celebrate. John the Baptist said, he who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him like the best man, he's saying, who John is, rejoices greatly because the bridegroom's voice.

So this joy of mine has been made full. And as I made allusion to it earlier, let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.

And of course, Jesus goes on to say the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in those days. There's going to be a time where Jesus must suffer many things, according to his own words in Luke 9, and to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised.

So for us as Christians, this side of the cross, this side of the resurrection, the side of the ascension, we can have joy. And you can just walk through the list. You're right with God. You're being sanctified by God.

One day you'll be glorified by God. You can rejoice that you were chosen in eternity past, that Jesus died for you at Calvary. All your sins are taken care of, past, present, and future. Sins when you were an unbeliever, sins now when you're a believer.

You have a friend named Jesus. You have an advocate. You have a mediator. You cannot be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus, that God is for you, who can be against you. God gave you his son.

What greater gift could he give when he gave you every lesser gift? Romans 8 .32. You had a stony heart. God changed you. I mean, those are just, I'm just rattling them off as fast as I can think of them.

So since we have Jesus and he has us, should we not rejoice? Promises of God are ours in Christ. Provision, protection, everything. It's appropriate for Christians to have joy. What's the chief goal in life, chief end of life?

Westminster Shorter Catechism, question one, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. George B. Duncan once talked about the Christian life as a life of continual rejoicing. See, that's not dependent on circumstances.

It's dependent upon the Lord. John Calvin, the Holy Spirit has exhorted the faithful to continue clapping their hands for joy until the advent of the promised Redeemer. There you go. By the way, my hands are so arthritic or something.

One of the things I can't do is clap. My grandson Amos, he still doesn't have all kinds of manual dexterity and he's, you know, toddler. And when he claps, he kind of claps funny. He doesn't really know how to cup his hands perfectly to make the loudest clap.

And so I now clap like an 18 month old. Though you have not seen him, 1 Peter 1, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

The thing that I probably think of the most regarding that is like a child that's skipping. You ever see a child so happy, so joyful, they just start to skip. I wouldn't know what skipping was like. Choosy mothers choose gif, but what about skippy?

I had a church friend, his name was Skip. I wonder what happened to Skip. He had cancer and surgery seemed to turn out well. I wonder whatever happened to Skip. Skip Burrell, if you're ever listening, would you email me?

Mike at nocompromiseradio .com. You ever become so captivated that the God of the universe loves you and you just want to jump for joy? You just want to dance? Not saying in Sunday morning worship service, but there's a time and place for everything.

And Kim and I, my wife and I love to do ballroom dance together, something we can learn together. I'm trying to get her to go to my boxing lessons. Now I have boxing lessons, Muay Thai boxing lessons.

I look at my emaciated arms, I'm thinking, who could I ever hurt? I could give a good, I could at least try. One writer said, joy is contentment and satisfaction with God and his dealings. Aren't you glad God has dealt well with you, dear Christian?

Aren't you thankful for that? One writer said, joy is the triumphant overflow of Christian gladness. Another writer said, joy is the exaltation that arises from a sense of God's mercy communicated to the soul in the pardon of its iniquities and the prospect of that eternal glory of which it has the foretaste in the pardon of sin.

Wow, that is wonderful. That is so wonderful to think about that foretaste. Pardon of sin is just a foretaste of glory. Remember how wonderful it was when you first understood that you were completely forgiven and it was based on Jesus' blood and righteousness and had nothing to do with baptism or communion or confirmation or church attendance or good outweighing the bad or anything else?

That's exactly what gives us joy. But that, according to the writer I just quoted, is just a foretaste. So, Jesus comes on scene and he essentially is saying, the new is here, these old pharisaical ways are gone, and I am the fulfillment of the Old Testament.

I'm the fulfillment of all these feasts, and the new is here. And so, we're not going to go back to the old ways of the Pharisees who added on to Scripture. The stuff that they didn't add to, I'm the fulfillment, Jesus says, of those promises, and I am the fulfillment of the law.

And the ceremonies and the ceremonial system all pointed to me. Sacrificial system all pointed to me. Yom Kippur pointed to me. Day of Atonement pointed to me. Feast of Booths pointed to me, and now I'm here.

So, we don't need to go back to the old ways. And so, what Jesus does, as the text says, that he tells them a parable. And, excuse me, it says in verse 36 of Luke 5, he also told them a parable. Now, the word parable, when we hear parable, we think earthly story, heavenly meaning.

That's true, but this is a generic word. It can be used for any kind of little saying or illustration or figure of speech. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If it does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

We're not combining the old way of the Pharisees with the new way of Jesus. They don't go together. The mix and match does not work. Jesus is not saying that the old covenant, we might say the Old Testament, is not true, is not right.

He's not saying that. He's saying, you guys want the old. I'm here. I'm the new. And by the way, you need to bow to me, and you need to believe in me and abandon your old system, your old system of tithing twice, your old system of, I mean, tithing it for everything, your old system of praying twice a week, fasting twice a week, whatever you think the rules are that you've added on to Scripture.

Of course, it's fine to pray every day. I just misspoke, but we don't have an editor. Well, his name's Spencer, but he has a day job. New and old. I'm here. We're not going back to these old Pharisaical ways like fasting.

I'm here. You should be feasting. And so Jesus just gives an easy illustration. Of course, if you're thinking about weddings, you're thinking about new clothes and what the bride wears, what the groom wears.

And then he also says, and no one puts new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled and the skins will be destroyed. Well, if you've got these wine skins made out of bladders and they're already a certain size or stretched out.

Now, if we put in new wine, it starts to ferment new wines already started to ferment. Sometimes new wine means, or it will start to ferment. Then it's going to expand gases. It's going to explode and you're going to lose the wine and you're going to lose the container.

That doesn't work. You can't put the old Pharisaical system in the new container of Jesus. It's just not going to work. New and old. And of course, again, when it comes to weddings, people think about wine because wine is a celebratory.

You think of even John chapter two with wedding and wine, they go together. Jesus turns the water into wine. And so this just flows easy from Jesus, the great preacher. And then the last one, he says, it's kind of an interesting one.

It's not the same as the last two, but he's just talking about old and new still. And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good. And this is different in this way. He's slamming the Pharisees.

Now for us, we might say, oh, would you rather have a vintage 2024 wine or would you rather have 2010? Well, if you're like me and you don't know much about wine, I guess you can get an app and find out, but more questions need to be asked, right?

Whose vineyard does it come from? Who's the one doing the bottling? How do they ferment it? Just because something's old doesn't make it good. Now, sometimes old is good, but just because something's old, it doesn't make it good.

And you guys want the old way Pharisees and old isn't always good because the grapes that are new might be better, different kind of grape, different soil that it's grown in a different year in terms of water and irrigation and all these things.

Old isn't always good. We talk about the good old days, but sometimes those good old days aren't so good. Like no penicillin, no antibiotics, no anesthesia. So Jesus says, you just want the old. You just want the old wine and you don't know there's a better vintage.

So don't go back to your oldest good. And of course, an easy way we could talk about that on No Compromise Radio is, well, if you're an unbeliever and you're saying to yourself, well, I know Jesus died for sins.

I know he's a friend of sinners. I know this about him. I know that about him, but I'll stick to my old ways because I already have Jesus in my baptism. I have Jesus in my circumcision. I already have Jesus in my Hinduism.

I have Jesus in my new ageism. I have Jesus in my Roman Catholicism. I have Jesus or whatever you want to add him to. You're like, well, my old way of doing things better. You're presenting me with these truths and my response is supposed to be faith alone.

You're telling me I have to be born again. You're telling me Jesus is the only way. You're telling me the exclusivity of Jesus as Savior. I kind of like my old way. You're telling me that homosexuality is sin, that transgenderism is mutilation.

I like my old way because I have my old friends. And Jesus says, just because something's old doesn't mean it's good. In this particular case, old isn't good. New is good because I'm new, Jesus said, and I'm here and you need to be believing in me and then join the feast.

If you want to mourn, mourn for your sins. If you want to mourn and fast, mourn over how awful you are and how you need a Messiah like all of us. I don't know. I just broke out into preaching there. If you have Jesus, you can have joy because the new has come.

Behold the new. Mike Havenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.