Fellowship in the Word

Jason Gebhardt: Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functional follower of Jesus Christ.

Bill Gebhardt: What was it like to endure the cross? All I can say is this: probably one million times at least more suffering there than anyone has ever suffered in the history of man. What it would mean to bear the sins of the entire world? What it would mean to become sin and a holy, wrathful God pours out his wrath on you? I couldn't even imagine what that was like.

I know he cried out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" And in the context of that kind of suffering, guess what he had? Joy. What? That's what it says. "Who for the joy set before him endured the cross." He had joy.

Jason Gebhardt: Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

Bill Gebhardt: When I became a Christian, one of the most important events that happened to me at that time is Velma and I had our first son, and he was a preemie. And then the next boy died at childbirth. So that was pretty bad. Within the next year, we had a second son that died in childbirth. He died at that time as well. So we lost two boys, and then we had Jason, our youngest. So we have four boys: two are here and two in heaven.

But the point was, I can still remember going to the funeral home, and he brought out two caskets. One more of a composition, one a little bit wood. They were about this big. And he laid them on the desk, and I just broke down and started bawling. The realization that that's a little person dying right there and we're going to bury him just seemed overwhelming to me.

But God used that event. God used that event for me to come to Jesus Christ. That event told me I'm not in control. We wanted to have a whole bunch of kids, and we had four; we just got two here and two there. But the point of it would be that started me down a road where I began to look for God.

And it really is a wonderful story for me. I got to see how it worked together for good. Sometimes you get to see something like that; other times, not necessarily. That's not the way it works, but it clearly tells me he is providential over everything, and he's in the business of redeeming things.

He takes something terrible and redeems it, makes it something great. Here I am, a lost sinner, and now I'm a new creature in Christ, and so are you. So that's what God does. So not only is God's presence and precepts, but his providence. And one more: his provision. Go with me to Philippians chapter 4, verse 19, right at the end of the epistle. Paul writes this: "And my God will supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

So what will God supply? All. Yeah, how many? All of them. You see, this is all of them. He said, "My God, the God's provision is to supply all my needs." I can never think, "I could get through this if I could only do this," because I have that; God will supply it. And notice, he says, "according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." Wow, that's everything.

So we have the presence of God, the precepts of God, the providence of God, the provision of God. And one more thing we have: the protection of God. One of my favorite terms you read in the book of Psalms: you'll see this over and over again, "God is my refuge." He is my refuge. One passage says, "He is my refuge, and I can go under his wings," using a different metaphor for protection, like a little chick hiding under the wings of its mom. You see, he said, "God is my refuge." In other words, God is my protector. Wow.

So this starts covering almost everything: presence, precepts, providence, provision, and protector. And I haven't even talked about his hundreds upon hundreds of promises. Now, I have all those, you see? And I have a God that can work all things together for good. Can you see why because of God, in God, you see, "rejoice in the Lord," I can have joy? Not because of circumstances, not because it's going to be painless. None of that. But in the context of all of this, I can really do a lot better.

Turn to chapter one of Philippians for a moment here. Now, what's interesting about this from my point of view is that we really do have to understand a context here. The apostle Paul wrote this, and he's in prison, and he doesn't know if he's getting out. He believes he's going to be beheaded very likely. So he writes his prison epistles. Now, the churches are devastated that Paul's in prison in Rome. And apparently the church at Philippi is very upset that the apostle Paul's been in prison and he's very likely to be executed.

Now, you would think that Paul would write to the Philippians and say, "Look, guys, thank you for caring about me so much, and you're right, it stinks here. I want to tell you how hard it is. Any moment now, the executioner's going to come and get me. Any moment. This is going to be awful." He doesn't do that. In fact, it's called the epistle of joy. Everything he writes in this epistle is about joy. He's in prison. He's on death row. He says, "Yeah, isn't this wonderful? You see, I've got joy in this."

This is an amazing thing that Paul is able to do in a situation just like this one. And I find it such a fascinating thing that the apostle Paul is able to do something just like this. So what you end up seeing here is that he says, verse 18: "What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice." They told him, "Hey, there's some other guys out there spreading the gospel; we're not sure if they should be."

"We don't know what their motives are." He just said, "I don't care. I think I'm just going to rejoice in the fact that they're spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ." And so he says that. Then look at chapter 2 and verse 2. He says, "Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose." He said, "You want to give me more joy? Get along with each other. Have a sense of unity in the church. How about if you do that?"

Then you go down to verse 17. He said, "Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith"—that's called death row. He said, "I rejoice and share my joy with you all. Isn't this great? I'm good." Would you feel that? You see, Paul rejoices in the Lord. Remember, the Philippian church asked Paul a question: "Hey, if you had a choice, would you rather"—because they know where he's at—"would you rather die, being executed, or would you rather hang around and be around a lot longer?"

Paul said, "Well, if I was selfish, I think I'd rather die." You see, that's his thing. But how can he do that? "Absent from the body is"—what?—"present with the Lord. Why wouldn't you want that?" He said, "But if God wants me here for your sake, I'll stay." That's Paul. You can't steal his joy. I couldn't even imagine what Paul was like when, second imprisonment, they took him to execute him. You know, the guy comes to the door and says, "Paul, I got to tell you something. Today's the day." And Paul looks at him: "Praise the Lord. That's wonderful."

He meant that. You see, he didn't go there fighting, "I want to live, I want to..." No, he didn't. He rejoiced in the Lord. You see, and that's what he did without a question. So then he says in chapter 3, verse 1: "Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord." He wants everyone to have his joy. Chapter 4, verse 1: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and my crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. You're my joy."

Everything about Paul's life is joy. Verse 4: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice." There's a lot of joy here. This guy's on death row. You see, but notice all of the joy that he has. How did he do that? Simple. Verse 13: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Where does joy come from? In the Lord. It didn't come from Paul. You and I don't have that capacity. The joy he has comes from the Lord. You see, that's the way this whole thing works. "I rejoice," he says, "in the Lord." That's the way Paul saw this. It's an amazing thing when you think about it. It only works in that way.

There are truths that should make us more joyful, which give us perspective. I mean, I say things like this all the time: the worst thing that can happen to you can't happen to you. Or, "Hey, I read the end of the book, and we win." This last week, I heard John MacArthur talking, and John used the same thing that I did on that phrase, except he added something, and I loved it. He said, "I read the end of the book, and we win. Up until then, we're going to do a lot of losing."

And it's true. See, there's truth to that. That's life. You see, that's the way life works, but in the end, we're going to win. So, show you the final example of this. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Here's the summation of the whole book. And the writer of Hebrews wants to tell us that your life and my life is like a race. All of us are in this same race. He said, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us."

That's everyone who has ever followed God, everyone who believed in God from all eternity is all in a sense surrounding us. But we're running now. We're here on this earth; we're running. He said, "Let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us." We've talked about that in the past. Encumbrances are usually wrong priorities, and all of us have our own unique sins that so easily encumber us. You see, that's hard. He said, "Lay those aside."

He said, "And let us run with endurance the race set before us." And so the whole point of the race is, by the encumbrances and sins that I bear, they're going to knock me to the ground. The whole key to the Christian life is get up. "Steadfast love of the Lord never changes, his mercies never come to an end; they're new every morning." New every morning. Every morning, get up. You see, it doesn't matter. The whole key to the Christian life is the endurance aspect of it, not the speed in which you're running.

Then he says, "Let me show you how you do this: fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of the faith." I don't look anywhere. I don't look to the circumstances. I don't look down on runners. I only look to the Lord. And then he says this: "Who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross." What was it like to endure the cross? All I can say is this: probably one million times at least more suffering there than anyone has ever suffered in the history of man.

What it would mean to bear the sins of the entire world? What it would mean to become sin, and a holy, wrathful God pours out his wrath on you? I couldn't even imagine what that was like. I know he cried out, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" And in the context of that kind of suffering, guess what he had? Joy. What? That's what it says. "Who for the joy set before him endured the cross." He had joy. Let me help you with that. What is that joy he had?

It's you. A redeemed people of his own, a people that he'll die in their place and they will spend eternity with him. That's the joy he had. It was a future joy; he saw it coming. You see, because of what I'm going to do on the cross, these will be mine; they'll be my bride forever. See, that's the—what an example Jesus Christ is here. And he's an example like that to all of us. We need to have some sense of joy.

Chuck Swindoll, in his book *Laugh Again*, he has a little poem he wrote there by Ella Wilcox. And the poem goes like this: "One ship sails east, one ship sails west, regardless of how the winds blow. It is the set of the sail and not the gale that determines the way that we go." Now you're going to say, "What's that mean?" I'll explain it now. He wants to talk about a woman that he knows well. Her name is Lucy Mayberry.

He said she's delightful, intelligent woman, rearing a family, teaching Bible classes, busily engaged in a dozen other involvements while happily married to Dr. Trevor Mayberry, a successful physician who was at the zenith of his career. And then her whole world just caved in. Trevor was flying back to Dallas with three other men from a Montana retreat where they had been with Dr. James Dobson, discussing and praying about the Focus on the Family ministry.

Their plane crashed; all four men perished in the accident. Shock waves stunned the city of Dallas. All four men were public figures and highly respected. Their widows were left to pick up the pieces of their own lives and begin again. Lucy chose to do it with joy. Without a moment's warning, her beloved Trevor was gone. Grief, one of the most vicious of all joy-stealers, tore into the Mayberry family like a tornado at full force.

But determined not to be bound by the cords of perpetual grief, Lucy remained positive, keen-thinking, and joyful. How can a person in Lucy's situation recover, pick up the pieces, and go on? How can anyone press on beyond this kind of grief? How do you have joy in your life? How do you put your arms around your children as a new single parent and help them have joy in their future? It comes from deep within because people like Lucy Mayberry set their sails for joy, regardless of how the wind blows.

Lucy has a quiet confidence, not in a long life of a husband and not in the fact that external circumstances will always be good or peaceful or easy. But she has a confidence in God who is at work, who is in control, who is causing all things to result in his greater glory. And when you and I focus on that, we too discover that we can have joy again, even after the horror of an airplane crash and the loss of your life's partner. Everything, I repeat, is determined by how you and I set our sails.

How's your sail set? You see, on joy? Is that how you set your sail? That no matter what circumstantially happens to us. And remember, I kept saying this whole time, it's in the Lord, it's in the Lord. If you're here without Christ, you can't have this. It's not yours. You'll have to settle for happiness based on circumstances, but you're not going to have this kind of joy in the midst of suffering, the joy that you find in the Lord. But don't be discouraged.

Jesus said, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. I'll give you rest." You see, that's what happens to us when we don't have joy: I'm weary and heavy laden. He said, "Just come to me. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke. It's light. I'm humble." You see, that's what Jesus does. That's what he offers us. The Philippian jailer who thought he was going to have a capital offense because he thought Paul and Silas left the jail.

There was an earthquake, everything opened up, it was pitch black, and he found out they were still in there, still singing hymns. So he walks up to them, relieved, and said, "What must I do to be saved?" He said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved." Next verse, he believed. That's how simple it was. That's how this worked. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You have to be born again." Nicodemus said, "Oh, I don't—how can I get back in my mother's womb?"

Jesus said, "No, I'm not talking about physical birth; I'm talking about spiritual birth. You have to be born again." Then he explained it to Nicodemus. He said, "As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, all you have to do is look to the serpent, and they were healed. The Son of Man's going to be hanging on a cross. Look to me." You see, "Look to me." That's his promise to you. By the way, it's exactly what the thief on the cross did. "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."

"This day you'll be with me in paradise," was the promise of Jesus Christ. So it's available to all of us. If you put your faith and trust in Christ, it's available to you. But the invitation I'm giving to the rest of us is you and I have a possibility of perpetual joy in our life, no matter what circumstantially happens to us. And boy, I invite you to do that because that is cultivating the joy of the presence of God in your life.

Let's pray. Father, it's so easy for us to feel that we have joy when life is going smoothly for us. But then life does happen, and suffering always rings our doorbell. And we suffer in so many different ways: some of us a little and some of us a lot. And that kind of suffering can steal our joy. And it makes us have this despair in our soul, as the psalmist said. But Father, I pray that as we looked at the verses we looked at today, that that's on us.

We need to remember. We need to remember who you are. We need to remember your presence and your providence and your promises and your protection. We need to remember these things. We are your children forever. Thank you, Father. Give us a perspective so that we can maintain joy, no matter what the circumstances are like. And Father, if someone didn't know Jesus Christ this day, I pray for them, that they understand that their sin has separated you, a holy God.

And that Jesus Christ came to this earth, lived a sinless life, and went to the cross as the sin-bearer of the world, and he experienced your wrath. And your wrath was propitiated or satisfied because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. And that if they put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the promise of scripture is they have eternal life. That's my prayer for them, Father. I pray all this in the magnificent name of Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.

Jason Gebhardt: You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the radio ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you'd just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well.

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