Be of Good Cheer: Slogan or Substance?

Good afternoon, everybody. Happy Holy Days. Hello to everyone who's out there listening in remotely today. Welcome to summer in Northeast Ohio. Tomorrow we'll go back to our regularly scheduled programming. I think I saw some snow in the forecast later in the week, just for good measure. So I've been working recently with a guy who really likes quotes. We'll get on to these meetings that he hosts. He loves to start the meeting with a quote from one of his favorite people.

He ends the meeting with a quote. He's got this endless line of quotes that he's collected over the years. I'm not so much of a quote guy myself. I can't resist. I will share what's probably my favorite quote, though, that pops across my head. Whenever I'm dealing with somebody difficult or who's maybe a little bit full of themselves at work, it's from a U.S. Teamsters Union leader from back in the 1970s. He said, being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to say you are, you're not. So remember that one. It might come in handy sometime. I do, though, love words and language.

I've always liked reading and word games and crosswords and things like that. One of the interesting things about words is, at the same time, they can be trivial and they can be powerful. What is it that causes the difference between that? I had a philosophy teacher who used to go on and on about self-help type sayings, and he would talk about how too many people lived their lives based on slogans. He had in mind phrases, perhaps, like, it's always darkest before the dawn. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. What doesn't kill you make you stronger. One that I found when I was doing an AI search, your vibe attracts your tribe.

I hadn't heard that one before. I kind of like that. But the question my professor was trying to highlight was, how do we separate slogans from substance? How do we separate slogans from substance? I think the point he was trying to make at the end of the day was, sometimes there are truisms that can be behind these slogans that kind of roll off our tongues. But if we don't think about it, if we don't reflect on what it is that lies behind the words, we can often just live our lives based on superficial sloganeering.

The answer to this whole question of slogan or substance becomes important as Christians because we want to anchor our lives on the deep truth of Jesus Christ and on the Word of God, not just on mere empty words. Even more so because nowadays words from the Bible do also get turned into bumper stickers or sometimes these gauzy affirmation posters where you see somebody standing on a mountain side with their hands held high in the air.

I apologize if you like those and you find those inspirational. My favorite one was a bit of a, again, a window, I guess, into my sense of humor. It was on Facebook and it was a guy sitting on a rock on the edge of this big canyon with a beautiful sunset in the background. And I forget the exact quote. I think it was something like, through Jesus Christ, you know, I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.

And then down below it in parentheses, it said, but still, you shouldn't be stupid and stand on the edge of a cliff. So apologies if I offended anyone who likes those posters. I'm a little grouchy and a realist and I own it. So today we're going to spend a few minutes diving deeper into a phrase that maybe becomes a bit of a slogan if we don't think about it. You've probably seen it on a poster or a bumper sticker somewhere. And let's talk about what it is that actually makes it full of substance and not just a slogan. This phrase, I think you'll find very familiar.

We just read it on the Passover, as we do really every year. We'll find it in John 16, verse 33. John 16, verse 33. And there, at the end of the verse, we read a brief phrase, just a few words, and it says, Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Makes for a nice, compact little statement that you can put on a beautiful little poster or on a bumper sticker. But what does it really mean? What does it mean to be of good cheer?

That's what I'd like to focus on today. And why? I'll pull out one more phrase that drove me nuts. I had another. I had an instructor in college who loved the phrase, If you act enthusiastic, you'll be enthusiastic. And that phrase just absolutely drove me nuts. Anyways, enough about my hang-ups. Today, let's focus on this question, this phrase, Be of good cheer. A few quick facts before we jump in and talk a little bit more about it. It's a New Testament phrase. It comes from a specific Greek word, thar-say-oh, which we're not going to belabor the Greek word, but simply to recognize the fact that it only actually occurs a handful of times in the New Testament.

It's distinctive to Jesus Christ. It's a phrase that's distinctive to him, and it's spoken five times through his ministry. And it literally means to have courage, to have comfort, or to have joy. Courage, comfort, or joy. And when we think about it in the context in which this phrase is offered, it starts to bring very deep meaning along with it. And meaning that, as we're sitting back and reflecting during these days, we can learn something from. So let's walk through just a handful of these verses and think about where Jesus used these words and said to different people at different points in time, Be of good cheer. Maybe you can think of a couple.

Jot a few notes down if you can think of them. We'll see if we cover them. So the first phrase that I'd like to cover is where Jesus says, Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. And this comes from Matthew 9. Here, Matthew 9, excuse me, starting verse 1, talks about a time period that happened right after the miracle of the fish and the loaves. If you remember, there were 5,000. They were fed.

And then afterwards, Jesus got into a boat in verse 1 of Matthew 9. He crossed over and he came to his own city. I'm sorry, I got the wrong, this is not that passage.

This is a different section. We'll get to the other story in a minute. In this passage, he got into a boat, he crossed over and he came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. That seems like a bit of a strange thing to say to somebody who's paralyzed and wants to be healed, doesn't it? You'd think that he'd actually just say, be healed. But he said it for a reason, for a purpose. Verse 3, some of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes. But Jesus knew their thoughts and he said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? Which is easier? To say your sins are forgiven you or to say, arise and walk.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, arise, take up your bed and go to your house. And he rose and he departed his house and when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men. So he said to be of good cheer.

His sins were forgiven him. So what was happening here was Jesus Christ was not just showing the power to heal, but he was showing that there was something much greater than that, that he could do. And he was not blaspheming. And he proved that he was not blaspheming by granting forgiveness of sins, by showing that he could actually heal of disease. And in doing this, he was doing something greater than what anyone else had done. Because when you think about it, there were prophets, prophets in the Old Testament that came and healed people. There were even prophets in the Old Testament who raised people from death back to physical life. But Jesus was saying he could do something even greater and forgive sins. And so this phrase coming in the situation that did carried so much more with it, so much more weight than just saying he was calming emotions or providing comfort. Where at the same time, somebody who, as far as we know, paralyzed from birth, unable to walk, he was being carried around, as we see in the other accounts, by a group of friends, and he was both healed. And Jesus told him that he was forgiven of his sins. So he's demonstrating the very authority of God as he's uttering this phrase, to be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you. Let's turn to Isaiah 59 verse 2, because this draws another connection of what's happening here in a bigger sense. In Isaiah 59 verse 2, the prophet lays out the fact that it's our iniquities that separate us from God. And so the forgiveness that's given is something that heals. Instead of healing a physical infirmity, though, it's healing a separation from God that happens as a result of these sins. It goes on in Isaiah 59 verse 2, saying, your sins have hidden his face from you, and he will not hear. So God was restoring something much bigger than just physical health as he was going about performing this miracle.

And this is born out then in Colossians, as we understand more about what it is that happens through the New Covenant, through Jesus Christ, and why it is that we can be, have good cheer. Colossians 1 will start in verse 21. Here Paul writing to the Colossians in Colossians 1 verse 21 says, you who once were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. It's using the same language, saying the sins, the wicked works that you did, had you alienated, separated from God. You were not able to come to him because of sin. Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight.

So that's something completely new and different, something that we can take great comfort in, something we can take confidence in that comes through the death of Jesus Christ.

The fact that the sins that we have committed, the burdens that we've carried, all of these things that we even are as human beings, not just the things that we do, but what we intrinsically are as human beings is something that Jesus Christ heals and he takes away, and that barrier that's otherwise there because of the sins that we carry is taken away. And so as we look at this first element of being of good cheer, it really strikes at the crux of the new covenant, the fact that nothing can separate us from God. Our sins, which would separate us from God, have been taken away, and that separation is removed. We won't turn there, but Romans 8, verses 38 and 39 is a place I'd encourage you to turn to and read later where it talks about Paul saying that he's confident of this fact that nothing can separate him from God. And he goes through this whole list of things that cannot separate him, and it is because of this sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

In which we can take good cheer, we can have confidence and even joy in that. Let's look at the second passage. This accounts for two different uses of the word, one in Matthew 9, and the passage we'll read here for the second one is in Luke 8 starting in verse 43. Luke 8 starting in verse 43. Here the phrase is, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well.

Your faith has made you well. This is a fairly well-known account as well of a healing. In Luke 8, verse 43, a woman, having a flow of blood for 12 years, had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any. So we're talking about a pretty dire situation. We talk today about the fact that health care costs can bankrupt people. It's exactly what we're seeing here back in Jesus Christ's time talked about, even though we might not interpret it that way when we sometimes read the scripture. It says, over 12 years she had spent all her livelihood on physicians and she couldn't find healing. She came from behind in the crowd and touched the border of Jesus' garment and immediately her flow of blood stopped. And then came kind of a ridiculous question from Jesus of, who touched me? And you can almost see Peter in this situation. You're in this crowd, you've got people pressing from every different side, and Jesus turns around and he says, who touched me? And you kind of picture Peter as like, what are you talking about? There's like a hundred people around you, everyone's jostling into you. Why are you asking who touched you?

It's like the most ridiculous question in the world. And he said, in nicer words, master the multitudes throng and press you. He's saying, got people all around here, and you're saying, who touched me? But Jesus said, somebody touched me because I perceive power going out from me. Now, when the woman saw she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, and she declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason that she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. And he said to her, daughter, be of good cheer. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Now, why was this such a big deal? One of the things we don't always think about when we read an account like this, and we're not going to turn to Leviticus 15, but Leviticus 15 verses 25 through 27 talks in one of the places about ritual uncleanness. And blood and other bodily fluids were things under the old covenant that caused ritual uncleanness. So think about this situation for 12 years, if you're a person who has uncontrollable bleeding, and you are therefore unclean. Anybody who touches you becomes unclean, has to purify themselves, has to halt from their daily things that they're doing, and remove themselves in order to be purified again. They have to wash, and the next day they're clean. Now, if you're that person, is anybody going to be coming up to you and giving you a hug? Is anyone even going to want to talk to you or spend any time with you when you're coming to the well to draw water? You can imagine what 12 years of life must have been like for this person, as they were essentially shunned by people. Because anyone who was living under those rules of ritual cleanliness would not, in their right mind, have come anywhere near her. I mean, it begs the question even of why she was in this crowd of people, but it certainly explains why it was a big deal that she touched Jesus Christ, because she should have made him, under the Old Testament law, ritually unclean. And so it's incredibly tender what he did in verse 48, when he said to her, daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well.

And you can always imagine this. You know, someone who's been a social outcast for a dozen years, and Jesus looks her in the eye, and he doesn't berate her. He doesn't say, you silly woman, you've made me unclean. I'm supposed to do all these important things today. Look what you did to me. He looks her in the eye, and he says, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well.

He restored her. Even more importantly than the physical healing that she experienced at that moment in time, was that restoration. Being part of the community, being able to partake of a regular relationship, have someone speak to her as a human being, and really understand where she was and what she was going through. Turn with me, if you will, to Galatians 4. This speaks about more than just a healing. It speaks about more than forgiveness of sins and how that takes down a barrier between us and God. And it talks more to the relational aspect of what it is that Jesus Christ enables and why we can be of good cheer. Galatians 4, we'll read verses 4 through 7. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons.

These are sons here, sons and daughters. And so again, drawing this close familial attachment, not just saying you're part of the team, not just saying great to have you here in the same room, talking about us as his children. And because you are sons, in verse 6, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, father. And that word in the language would have meant daddy, a term of endearment, not something he would call just anyone walking down the street, but someone who is very near and dear and close to you as your father and reaching out to that person. And therefore, in verse 7, you're no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. So as we reflect on this phrase, be of good cheer, all of the meaning that comes into this, we think of this woman cut off without regular human contact and tenderness and hope who was restored. We look at that close familial relationship that God brings us into through Jesus Christ, something we can have great confidence in, courage, and joy. Let's look at the next one, and this is also mentioned in a couple of places in the Gospels. Be of good cheer, it is I. Do not be afraid. One account of this is in Mark 6, the other is in Matthew 14. This is the one I was referring to by mistake earlier. It happens after the feeding of the 5,000. So if you remember, Jesus did that miracle. He fed 5,000 people, loaves and fishes, sends the disciples off in a boat, and then he needs to decompress for a little while. He needs to go and pray. This one always makes me feel good because sometimes when I'm around people for a long time, I just feel exhausted and need to have a little time alone. If you're a bit of an introvert, you can identify with this, and so can Jesus Christ. So he went off to go and pray, and a wind came up on the Sea of Galilee. And you can read articles that are out there to talk about some of the winds that come, and even though it's a relatively small sea, it can get really tempestuous. Huge waves, and you can really be scared for your life out there.

Verse 24 of Matthew 14, we read that the boat was in the middle of the sea and tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it's a ghost, and they cried out for fear. But immediately, Jesus spoke to them, saying, be of good cheer.

Yet his eye do not be afraid. And of course, we know, when we read down in verse 29, Peter comes out of the boat. He walks on the water to go to Jesus, but when he sees the wind, he takes his eyes off of Jesus, and he sees the physical situations that are around him, he sinks into the water, and Jesus Christ pulls him up out of the water. And in verse 33, sometimes a section we don't pay attention to at the end of this passage, the first time, this is mentioned in the Gospels, those who were in the boat came and they worshipped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. So this moment, even though we don't always think about it that way, this miracle that Jesus Christ did, the way he appeared to him, the walking on the water, the dealing with Peter, was the first time that the disciples responded by worshipping him. And at some level, understanding that this is not just a prophet, this is not just a wise man, this is the Son of God, the one who was prophesied to come. And he said, be of good cheer, it is I, don't be afraid. So through this miracle, they really understood his power. To me, this is a great lesson in focus, not to ignore reality, but to maintain a focus, a focus on Jesus Christ, despite the reality that we see around us. This is something we see repeated in different places of the Bible. We'll turn to one other one in Matthew 6, and then pause to think about it a little bit more. Matthew 6, we'll start in verse 25.

As Matthew drives home this very similar point, rather recording the words of Jesus Christ here in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6, verse 25.

Here Jesus, speaking, says, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? And then in verse 33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Verse 33 is important because it gives an explanation of the previous verses. I think there's sometimes misunderstanding among some Christians about what these earlier verses are saying. Jesus is not saying, don't do anything. He's not saying don't work. Somebody's just going to deliver food to your door.

He's clearly talking about priorities here, and the fact that regardless of all of these other things going on in life, the things that we can and we do rightfully have concerns about, that when we look first to Jesus Christ and his coming kingdom, we make that the priority in our life. These other things fall into place, and we can be of good cheer because God has said, Jesus has said, do not be afraid. I've got it covered. And even though not everything works out perfectly, he has everything designed and taken care of to look after us. You know, I think in this context, I think about where our vision goes of teaching a little kid to catch a ball. I went through this with my son. I'm going through it with my grandson now, and it's a fun experience, right? You stand them up. Some of you have done that. You say, all right, stick out your hands. You're going to throw them a ball, and they look away, don't they? You say, hang on a second. Look at me. Look at the ball. Oh, and they put their hands down. Okay, put your hands back up. Look at me. They look away at something else because, you know, Grandma went by or whatever else was happening. But how much is that like all of us? Jesus Christ says, look at me. You think of Peter there on the water, and Jesus saying, look at me. And we look away, don't we? Because, spiritually speaking, you know, we are like little children, and I think sometimes God just probably giggles a little bit. Other times, he probably just silently shakes his head, but we need to keep our eyes on him. We need to look. And we have to think about, you know, what are the things in this life that can catch our gaze and take it away from what we should be looking at and start to dilute that good cheer that we should have in the understanding. You know, we think about materialism. We think about the envy and the greed that can go along with it. We see all the things that are out in the world, sometimes, especially in today's world, where everyone's posting the best things that happen to them are probably more accurately. They're editing things. They look better than they actually were, and they post them online. It's so easy to look at these things and think that everybody in life has things better than we do and start to want a piece of that. We can think about the evils that are in this world. We can think about politics and world affairs and all those things, and our gaze can go so strongly to that place that all we can think about is how awful the world around us is. And we don't think about Jesus Christ and the joy and the comfort and the confidence that we should have in Him. And let's face it, we can sometimes get so caught up in things like prophecy that are written up and trying to attach events that are happening in the world and people and attach them to things predicted in the Bible that we fix our eyes on those things and we take them off of Jesus Christ and what it is that He's trying to accomplish in our lives.

We won't turn there, but the focus that He's driving is a godly heart. Micah 6 verse 8, I'll just paraphrase. It says that we're to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him.

It's written in the Old Testament, but that's like at the very heart, no pun intended, of what it is that God is trying to develop in us. That's a description of God's spirit working in a human heart, acting justly, loving mercy, walking humbly with God. That's where we need to fix our eyes. That's where we need to have our focus. And when we do that, we can have confidence. We can be of good cheer. We don't have to be afraid. And we can have the joy in our lives that comes from knowing that He is watching out for us and He is caring for us, regardless of some of the things that might happen to us humanly. You know, I sometimes like to think in terms of visuals. I don't know if some of you do. I kind of create different pictures in my head that help me remember different types of concepts. And in this vein, there's a visual that I just love, and it's in 2 Kings 6. And we'll read verses 16 and 17 in terms of where we should focus our eyes. And the fact that God has things happening that we can't even fathom sometimes. This is an account of Elisha with his young servant. And at that point in time, Israel was being attacked by the Syrians, a really powerful empire. Had troops that far outnumbered anything that Israel could put on the battlefield, humanly speaking. There was absolutely no hope when the Syrians came along. They would just stomp on everything. And Elisha's young servant, of course, was fearful because he's seeing this incredible army that devastates all the nations around it, and they were coming to march. And Elisha answered his servant and said, do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed, and he said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. How incredible is that? I just, I love that visual.

And I try to hold that in my imagination when things get difficult. And you think of all the angels that surround us, the power that's out there, and the confidence that we can have because of the power of our God. So as we move towards conclusion here, in full disclosure, I'm going to skip two instances of the word that I mentioned. If you want to look them up later, you can. One is in Acts 23 verse 11. This is an account of Paul, where it talks about the Lord speaking to Paul and saying, Be of good cheer. Even though you've been taken prisoner by the Romans, it's because I want you to witness in Rome. The other one is Mark 1049, where Jesus is healing a blind man. And in this instance, it's the disciples actually repeating words that they had heard from Jesus Christ, and they say to the blind man to be of good cheer. So you can see his disciples taking on some of his phraseology and the things that he was saying. But I want to conclude with the most powerful be of good cheer, and that's the one that we began with in John 16, where we read, Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. We'll start in verse 32. As we read just a couple of nights ago on the Passover, Indeed, the hour is coming, and yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave me alone. And yet I'm not alone, because the Father is with me.

These things I've spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Those words are just so much more meaningful. You know, we really focused, if you want to think about it that way, in the first part of this message about what is behind this phrase, I have overcome the world. Because if you think about it, all of those things that were being demonstrated in these earlier stories that I just read and that we reflected on, were the different ways in which Jesus Christ overcame the world. The separation that we have because of sin. The relational separation that we have, that we can now have given to us of that familial relationship with God. And the lack of a need to fear, if we focus on him, and the care that he'll have for us through anything that can come our way.

And interestingly, right after he speaks these words, is when he turns his face to heaven to pray, and says that the hour has come. And they're the last recorded words that were spoken before his prayer, his crossing over to Gethsemane, and then his arrest. And to me, this is where the power of these words come into full force. It means a lot more than what you might see written on a poster. This is not be of good cheer, your Amazon package is going to arrive two days late. It's tied to real, painful struggles of life, a paralytic. Somebody sick for 12 years has gone bankrupt trying to get their health care taken care of. Being scared to death in a storm on the water, thinking you've seen a ghost. Probably thinking you're going to die. Those are the situations that this phrase is attached to. It's meant to be so much more than just a quick throwaway line to put a smile on somebody's face for a moment. So in conclusion, one of the interesting things about words is they can be completely silly and meaningless, and they can also be powerful beyond measure. The way we can differentiate slogan from substance is by getting behind the words to really understand the context and the meaning that's behind them.

So as we make our way through the rest of these holy days, I'd like to encourage us all to focus our minds and our eyes on Jesus and on his very substantive words. Be of good cheer, for I've overcome the world.