Three Reasons to Rejoice
Psalm 66:1
April 26, 2026 anno Domini
Shout for joy to God, all the earth. Alleluia. Those first words from the Introit are where this Fourth Sunday of Easter gets its name – Jubilate is Latin for “Shout for joy.” There are three Sundays in the Church year that are called “rejoice” Sunday. You might remember the other two because they are the rose-colored Sundays in Advent and Lent – the 3rd Sunday in Advent is called “Gaudate” Sunday. The 4th Sunday in Lent is called “Laetare.” In Advent and Lent the rejoicing is because the fasting season is half over. In Easter the rejoicing is because we are right in the middle of the Feast – we’ve had three Sunday of Easter and we have three more to go.
What should you learn from being commanded to rejoice on three different Sundays in three different seasons? Simply this – your life as a Christian should be one of rejoicing – of shouting for joy to God, and that’s a tall order, isn’t it? It’s much easier to complain than to rejoice, to be sad than to be happy. There is so much more wrong in the world, in our lives, than there is what is right and good or so it appears.
This morning God’s Word gives you reason to rejoice. I’m going to give you one reason from each of the three appointed readings – from Isaiah, from Peter, and finally from Jesus. Now don’t worry, just because I have three texts doesn’t mean the sermon will be three times its usual length, although that would be another reason to rejoice, to have three times God’s Word.
Isaiah gives us reason one to rejoice. There is no god in all the world who compares to your God, to the Lord. The Lord Himself asks us, “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like Him?” Then the Lord tells you how He is different than other gods. He is almighty. He created the heavens and the earth. He put the stars in their place, the host and called them by name. Just observing creation ought to convince you of God’s great might and power.
Rejoice, the Lord your God is strong in power. He doesn’t grow faint. How many times this past week did you lament because you were powerless, because something came up and you could do absolutely nothing about it? Someone tries to assassinate the president. There’s a war and gas is expensive. There’s a pain in your knee or neck and it’s not going away. Your state and county government just don’t have enough money so your taxes are going up again. Every day another uncontrollable event inserts itself into your already overwhelmed calendar.
Rejoice, the Lord is not only Almighty, meaning He has power over all things, but He uses that power for you. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. By the Lord’s might Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the Red Sea, Samson brought down the Philistines, David toppled Goliath, Mary conceived the Son of God, Peter courageously preached on Pentecost and 3000 were baptized, and James, our Lord’s brother, offered His life as the first of the Apostles to be martyred.
How do you know God uses His power for you? Because Christ is risen from the dead. This is our first cause of joy. God the Son, of equal might with His Father, set aside His power and came down to earth. He set aside His power and was arrested, let those nails hold Him to the cross, suffered death and hell for us. And then, God having humbled Himself in weakness, having died for our sins, rose again in power and might. We’ve heard of His power the last few weeks – walking out of the sealed tomb, walking in to the locked room, showing Himself alive to the disciples, having beaten sin and death. Rejoice – your God came for you, your God died for you, your God lives for you, your God rules the whole world for you. There is no god like the Lord your God.
St. Peter gives us another reason to rejoice in today’s Epistle. Rejoice, because you are sojourners and exiles in the world. One of the most joy-robbing realities is the knowledge that the world and everything in it is getting worse. Some of you can remember Redeemer in the glory days of 300 people in church and a Sunday School with hundreds of children. You can remember when the election of a Democrat or Republican didn’t send people into a life-threatening panic. You can remember when families visited at the dinner table and everyone wasn’t staring at their own individual screen. You can remember when you could do whatever you set your heart to – and now your body won’t let you.
Rejoice – the Lord has delivered you from this. This world, because of our sin, is destined to destruction. All the trouble should not surprise us. We should expect it. However, by faith in Jesus Christ, we are called out of this fallen world into the everlasting Kingdom of God. When your sins are forgiven, you are born again to an eternal life. You are promised the resurrection of your body, a place in the heavenly mansion, residence in the new heavens and the new earth.
The moment you were baptized the Holy Spirit made you subjects of the Kingdom of heaven, residents in the city of God. You’re sojourners and exiles – and Peter urges you to express your joy, by acting like you’re not from around here. Don’t act like the natives, don’t act like unbelievers. Abstain from the passions of the flesh so that unbelievers will see your good deeds and glorify God. Do good, submit to the governing authorities – don’t put your hope in them, don’t despair over them, rejoice because your Jesus is Lord and you’re under Him in His Kingdom. Live as people who are free – free from sin, free from death, free from destruction. Don’t use your freedom to cover up evil, rather live as servants of God. Rejoice – you’re just travelling through this wasteland of destruction – you’ve already got citizenship in heaven, and real estate in the new creation. Bring that hope, that joy, that future into the world by acting like a resident of the heavenly city.
In today’s Gospel reading the phrase a “little while” is spoken 7 times. Now seven is God’s number. It’s a number of fulfillment. God created seven days in a week and the book of Revelation is filled with sevens signifying the completion of God’s saving work in Christ. If you hear something seven times hopefully it will sink in. This then is Jesus’ own reason for you to shout to joy – in just a little while you will see Jesus again.
Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He’s preparing them for the little while He is going away in death. For three days the world will rejoice and they will be sorrowful, but then their sorrow will turn to joy. Jesus is also speaking about another little while coming for them – and this applies to us – the little while after He ascends to heaven until He returns on the last day.
Three days isn’t long, but don’t tell that to Jesus’ men as they mourned His death. Except that is exactly what Jesus says to them and to you. Add up all the years of your life, your worst day ever, the longest season of sadness or suffering you endured and this is what Jesus says, “a little while and you will see me again.” A hundred years is a little while compared to eternity. 80 years of trouble and toil is a little while compared to the glory that will be revealed when Christ returns. Because then it won’t just be a good day, or a good week, or a season of peace. It will be an eternity – without sin, without the Devil, without death, without tears, with Jesus.
Shout for joy because there is no god like the Lord your God. Shout for joy because you are sojourners and exiles. Shout for joy because in just a little while you will see Jesus. In His name. Amen.