“These things I
have spoken to you so that My joy may be [“abide” in Greek] in you, and that
your joy may be full.” (John 15:11). NASB
“But now I come
to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made
full in themselves.” (John 17:13). NASB
Please note that
in John 15:11 we see, once again, the theme of “abiding”. In this instance it
is the joy of Jesus abiding in us.
(Why, O why, our
English translations are not consistent in their translation of certain words
in the same passages I do not know – other than for “stylistic” reasons in
English, which seems to me a poor justification. Certainly the Holy Spirit knew
what He was doing when He inspired the human authors of Scripture – can we not
trust the Holy Spirit?)
In John 15:11
and 17:13 we have the idea of Jesus’ joy being “made full” in us. What does this mean and what does this look
like? What is the source of this joy? Is the joy of Jesus being made full
within us? As individuals and as His People, His Bride?
I want us to
ponder this, to explore it, and not to gloss over it. Jesus deeply desires us
to have His joy made complete within us; He wants us to live in His joy and for
His joy to live in us, no matter where we are in life. Consider, that it was
Jesus “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2b).
Jesus not only
wants us to know His joy, He wants His joy to fill us and to be made complete
within us. Peter writes that even in the midst of our faith being “tested by
fire” that we can “greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory”
(see 1 Peter 1:3 – 9), and let us not forget that it was from prison that Paul
wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!” (Phil. 4:4).
Let me state two
points, and then we’ll explore them. The first is that we cannot manufacture
the joy of Jesus, we cannot produce it, we cannot “make it happen.” The second
is that Jesus, forever and always, is our source of Divine joy and in Him our
joy is made complete. To quote from a prayer that we’ll return to, “He who is
the ground of thy faith should be the substance of thy joy.” (The Valley of
Vision, page 278).
These two points
are in line with the Vine and the branches – apart from Jesus we cannot bear
fruit, and that includes the fruit of joy (John 15:4 – 5).
Do we truly
believe that Jesus must be the source of our joy? Do we really believe that we
cannot manufacture joy?
The way we use
words matters, and the way God uses words in Scripture especially matters. One
of the tragedies of our age is that language is being desecrated in an orgy of
deconstruction and destruction – we are destroying the beautiful gift of
language that God gave us, and we don’t seem to care. We are now at the point
where we are surrendering our God – given creative abilities to AI and we are
unable to discern the frontiers and dividing lines of the issues at hand. We
don’t even see that there are issues, and we continue to be agents and pawns of
our own destruction – within and without the professing church.
In John 15:11 we
read “that your joy may be made full.” Then in 17:13 we have “that they may
have My joy made full in themselves.” In both passages joy is not something
that we produce, it is a work that is being done within us. The Greek words in
both instances for “made full” are passive verbs, meaning that we receive the
joy rather than produce the joy (πληρωθῇ in 15:11 and πεπληρωμένην in 17:13).
Perhaps two
passages from James can help us with this.
“Consider it all
joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing
of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so
that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2 – 4).
When James
writes that we should “let endurance have its perfect result” the picture is of
a work being done within us to bring us to a place of maturity – we are to
submit to the Divine working, we are not the originators or sustainers of the
Divine working. (Consider Galatians 3:1 – 5).
Similarly we
read in James 1:21, “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that
remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to
save your souls.” We receive the word of God, implanted within us, and the
growth and action of this Word will save our souls (see also 1 Peter 1:22 – 25;
Phil. 2:13).
I am attempting
to make this point about our source of joy and our inability to manufacture joy
because I am not sure we understand it. We have become so good at choreographing
our gatherings (our Sunday morning “experience” as I have seen it termed), our
music has become so professional, that we don’t really need the Holy Spirit any
more than popular performers – and we call what we do “worship”…but is it
really? Can we tell the difference between having a good time, responding to music
and lyrics and group excitement, and the worship of the True and Living God?
Let me be quick to say that this principle also applies to teaching and preaching. I realized early in my pastoral ministry that I was so well trained in preaching that I didn’t need the Holy Spirit to present a good sermon – and that was a sobering and frightening realization. I don’t know why we weren’t cautioned about this in seminary.
(I have seen
Christians sing lyrics that not only make no Biblical sense, I have seen them
sing lyrics which go against clear Biblical teaching – how can this be? And how
can this pass for Biblical worship? God does not ask us to leave our discernment
behind when we gather, nor to subordinate sound wisdom and teaching to the excitement
of music and pop culture conformity.)
When we use the
term “worship” today it tends to be isolated to the musical element in our gatherings,
and that is a problem that we don’t realize, so accustomed have we become to
this use of the term. Life ought to be worship – all of life, and all
that we do in our gatherings ought to be worship, for we ought to be offering
ourselves and our actions to God, receiving from Him, and all that we do ought
to be holy to the Lord.
Since in worship
we find joy and receive joy, since in worship we know the Trinity as our source
of joy, I am touching on this as we consider John 15:11; for if we associate
the “joy” Jesus speaks of with momentary experiences, rather than as an abiding
character of our life in Him, then we will be confused about His joy.
Perhaps we can
know if we are worshipping on Sunday by how we truly live Monday – Saturday.
Are we sharing Jesus Christ as our Way of Life? Is witnessing our Way of Life?
Are we loving one another as Jesus loves us, laying our lives down for one
another? Are we loving God with all that we have and all that we are? Are we
living holy lives as our Father is holy? Are we communing with God in His Word?
Are we interceding in prayer for others? Do our calendars and bank accounts
testify to Jesus Christ? At work and in school and in our civic lives, are we
known as disciples of Jesus Christ?
Well, a blog has
its limitations, one of which is length. The Lord willing, we’ll pick this back
up next time…
“He who is the
ground of thy faith should be the substance of thy joy.” (The Valley of
Vision, page 278).
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