We're going to go to our main
sermon now, and we're going to go to John's Gospel, Chapter
17. So once again, join me, if you will, in John's Gospel, Chapter
17, and the intercessory prayer of our Lord. To his disciples,
yes, they were in his presence, but to his father on their behalf,
on this eve before the Lord was arrested and crucified. So we're going to John chapter
17 and we're going to read from verse 13 to verse 16. John chapter 17, and we're going
to read from verse 13 to verse 16. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
and he says to his father, and now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. It is notable how frequently
the Lord pointed his disciples to the true source of joy, in
these final hours before his arrest and crucifixion. Sometimes he was speaking directly
to them, sometimes he was speaking in their presence to his father,
but they were listening and they were hearing what he was saying. And so when he speaks about joy
again, he is repeating himself, having mentioned joy, their joy,
repeatedly in the past hours. And we've often mentioned how
disappointed these men were as their kingdom aspirations crumbled
before them at this time. There was sorrow at the death
of Jesus. There was anxiety for their own
personal safety. There was frustration at their
hopes and ambitions fading before them. And this left them broken
and despondent. And yet the Lord prepared them
in these final hours with promises of enduring happiness. He spoke to them about joy. In the depths of their depressions,
these were the last words that they heard from the Savior. In
their darkness and in their defeat, he spoke to them of victory and
success and of lasting joy. For example, he said in chapter
15, these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain
in you. and that your joy might be full. He was speaking to them about
the vine and the branches and about their union with him and
about their fruitfulness in him. And he says, these things have
I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that
your joy might be full. In chapter 16, he speaks to them
and tells them in connection with the troubles that were about
to overtake them, your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Your
heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you. Ye shall receive that your joy
may be full. And now here in chapter 17, as
Christ prayed to the Father, he says, The Lord was careful. The Lord was was purposefully, repeatedly
taking his disciples back that they might remember what he has
to say about his awareness of their needs and his provision
and supply to help them. And I think that we shouldn't
pass this by. It's kind of the introduction,
but I want to stress it for a moment. I don't think we should pass
it by without observing how carefully the Lord comforts his people,
comforts his brethren, and strengthens their faith in times of trouble. As believers in Christ, I'm sure
that with me, you too find great comfort in our own daily experiences,
knowing we have in the Lord Jesus, one who sympathizes with us in
our trials and fuels our pain with us. Now we read in Hebrews,
and it was coincidental, so there it is. We just so happen to be
in Hebrews 4 today. But we read in Hebrews 4 about
one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And it's
speaking about Christ, our high priest. Christ, the high priest
who intercedes for us. So there is great connection,
great relationship between this prayer in John 17 and Hebrews
teaching of the high priestly role of Christ. And here we see
that connection beautifully exemplified in that we are reminded in Hebrews
of the things that we see occurring in Christ's prayer here in John
17. He being touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. And whether we think about bodily
pain and disease, or whether it's the mental pressure and
stress and anguish, for example, that these disciples were now
having to deal with, or whether it's to do with loneliness, or
temptation, or persecution, or rejection, The Lord Jesus Christ
knows what we are going through. He pities us and he sympathises
with us. And it's real. That's what Hebrews
is telling us. We are not just to think of this
sort of remotely. This is real because it arises
out of his personal knowledge and experience of the things
that he felt and suffered in his own body. The union we have
with the Lord Jesus means that when we suffer, he knows what
we are feeling and can genuinely and does actually empathise with
us in our pain. And that's a comfort, is it not,
to us when we're in those dark, lonely times of trouble? What
touches us touches our head. And furthermore, he knows what
help and assistance is best for us and suits us best and how
to heal us from our heart. Knowing he knows is of great
personal relief and comfort to us. So let me move on to what
the main part of what I want to say today. Because I want
us to consider what the Lord means when he says to his father
that his joy is fulfilled in us. And the first thing I want
to think about is the joy of the Lord. Now let me briefly
sketch out where we're going today in my plan. I've got three things that I
want to touch upon. I want to think about the joy
of the Lord. I want us to think also about
the hatred of the world. And finally, the third point
that I have is that there is a fullness of joy and yet a fullness
of joy to be had in this world for believers. Now, I'm saying
all this because I want to reassure you that I know where I'm going
in the service today. It splits about 80, 10, 10. Okay, so when I say here's my
second point, I'm in the last fifth of the time that I've got
available. So don't worry when you hear
me doing that. The first thing I want us to
think about is the joy of the Lord, and that is going to take
up the grandest part of our time together today. So now you know. No panicking. So here we're thinking
about the joy of the Lord. And I'm going to take a couple
of points within this subject. And the first one is this. What
is true joy? What is true joy? The pursuit of happiness has
always been man's principal desire. There was a time in the Garden
of Eden when man was happy. And yet even there, he wanted
more. And sorrow was the immediate
result of the fall. Satan tempted Eve by suggesting
that she would discover greater satisfaction, greater fulfilment,
greater happiness in disobeying God than she would by trusting
his word. And in consequence of that, fear
and sorrow followed. And in fear and in sorrow, men
and women have pursued happiness ever since. They've had this
residual desire that their troubles might be behind them and that
they might enjoy better things, that they might be happy. Specifically, Eve was told that
she would have sorrow in childbearing. And Adam was told that he would
have sorrow in working the land by the sweat of his brow. And
that there would be a third element, which was the sorrow of separation
from God. And what we discover from the
testimony of scripture is that man lost true joy when he lost
fellowship with God. And it will not be recovered
until reconciliation takes place and that fellowship is restored. There is no enduring peace. There
is no happiness. The word that the scripture uses
is blessedness. So although I'm saying joy and
happiness, blessedness is the word which perhaps most is used
to characterize the sense of peace and contentment that scripture
is pointing to here. There is no enduring peace. There
is no enduring happiness. There is no enduring blessedness
or satisfaction outside of Jesus Christ, outside of being reconciled
with God. David tells us in Psalm 16, verse
11, there are many verses that I could have selected to provide
an example here, but this is just beautiful. In Psalm 16,
11, David says, in thy presence, is fullness of joy. At thy right
hand there are pleasures forevermore. In thy presence, in the presence
of God, is the fullness of joy. And at thy right hand, now we
know who's at the right hand of God. there are pleasures forevermore.
So that it is in Christ and with Christ, in the presence of God,
reconciled to him, at peace with God, justified, cleansed, forgiven
by the blood of Christ, that there is the fullness of joy,
true joy to be had. So we should not imagine that
true joy in this world is the absence of pain and hardship,
which is what many people think. When the Lord Jesus Christ taught
his followers about true happiness in the Beatitudes, remember what
I said that blessed is the word that is used often to speak about
happiness and the Beatitudes are where the Lord speaks about
what is truly blessed in this world in Matthew chapter 5. But
he showed his followers there that joy was a spiritual experience. not an accumulation of physical
things or the fulfillment of natural desires. Many imagine
that joy can be found in satisfying passions and acquiring things
by physical means. but it is the poor in spirit. It is the meek of the world. It is the mournful of the world. Those who are meek and mournful
spiritually who find true joy when they find spiritual comfort
and mercy and forgiveness and righteousness in Jesus Christ. Now let us note this also in
this little phrase that is before us at the moment. The Lord Jesus
Christ is speaking about my joy. So it's the joy of Christ that
he is going to fulfill in his people. So what is Christ's joy? We've thought about what true
joy is. True joy is being in the presence of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ or by the benefit of his reconciliation. But what
more is to be understood when Christ speaks about my joy? Well, true joy for a believer
is the knowledge of our sins forgiven and union with Christ. It is the experience and enjoyment
of Christ's own blessed accomplishments. And scripture calls it the joy
of the Lord. It's the joy of the Lord in our
soul. Now Hebrews tells us that the
joy set before Christ in the covenant agreement was the redemption,
the salvation, and the cleansing of God's elect,
the cleansing by blood of God's elect. And Hebrews tells us furthermore
that Christ For the joy that was set before him, that is we're
talking about the joy of the Lord, Christ's own joy, that
he for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. So David understood this about
the right hand, Christ at the right hand of God. And here we're
speaking that that was where true joy was to be found. And
here we're speaking about the joy of Christ specifically, which
Christ had, the joy that was set before him, for which he
endured the cross, despising the shame. So that by this we
understand Christ's covenant duties filled the Saviour with
delight. Let me say it again. Christ's
covenant duties filled the Saviour with delight. The prospect of
coming into the world to recover his lost sheep long gladdened
the heart of the Good Shepherd. From everlasting in those covenant
obligations, Christ took great joy and pleasure in the prospect
of uniting himself to his people and making them holy in him. In being joined to him by faith,
and experiencing this union, the church shares the joy of
the Lord. Now, here's the third part that
I want to think about in this opening section. How is the Lord's
joy fulfilled in us? We've thought about what true
joy is, it's being in the presence of God, reconciled to Him. We've thought about what the
Lord's joy was that is to be fulfilled in us, which is those
things that were set before him in the covenant of grace for
the salvation of his people. And here we are thinking about
how those things are fulfilled in us. Well, they're fulfilled
in us by faith, of course, which is how all spiritual gifts are
known and experienced. The joy of the Lord is a spiritual
gift given to the elect of God. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit
in a believer's life. And as such, it is received by
faith. So John, of course this is his
gospel, he was present there with the Lord while this prayer
was being made and he wrote some epistles towards the end of our
Bible and this is what he says in 1 John 1, verse 3 and 4. He says, that which we have seen
and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship
with us And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Christ Jesus. And these things write we unto
you that your joy may be full. That is, that Christ's joy might
be fulfilled in you. So that it is in this union that
the church has with the Father and with His Son, Christ Jesus,
that we have the fulfilment of Christ's joy in us. It is because he successfully
fulfilled his covenant obligations that which gave him the most
joy is where we by faith receive the fullness of Christ's joy
to ourselves. And it is that faith that leads
us into the fullness of that joy. Paul is explicit in this. He tells us that there is joy
in believing. He speaks of joy and peace in
believing. The joy of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the joy of the Lord, and the peace which he has won for us
with God. Joy and peace in believing, the
joy that comes by faith. And Peter, speaking of the Lord
Jesus, tells the church, So that our happiness, our blessedness,
our joy, which is this fruit of the spirit,
is the joy in a believer's life who trusts in what Christ has
done and accomplished. The Old Testament says, it's
Isaiah I think, there is joy and gladness and cheerful feasts
to be shared by the Lord's people who love the truth and peace
of God. as it is personified in the Lord
Jesus Christ because it is he himself who is the truth and
it is he himself who has reconciled us to God and made peace with
us and God. So believing the gospel, believing
the gospel of God with its gracious doctrines of divine mercy is
this source of joy to the church. We have Christ's joy in that
he has fulfilled all of the covenant obligations and that is revealed
to us in the gospel which we also believe. So we believe the
gospel of God which is all the things that Christ has accomplished.
Believers, see this is This is the beauty of the gospel. It is the filling out, it is
the meaning, it is the truth, it is the depth, the wonderful
truths of the accomplishments of Jesus Christ. Believers are
not asked to trust ignorantly and blindly in some invisible
void. We are invited to trust a real
person. We're not asked to suspend logic,
but rather to hear the Word, to study the Word of God, and
to discover the revelation of God in it. Because God's word
is truth. That's the very next thing that
the Lord is going to say. We'll come to that another time. But the very next thing that
the Lord is going to say in this intercessory prayer is, thy word
is truth. And that is what has been given
to us. We are wise when we come to the
scriptures to exercise humility and to acknowledge God's holiness
and power and majesty and dominion and his sovereignty. But truly,
that isn't difficult for those who have eyes to see when we
recognize the amazing things that he has done and the evidence
of his handiwork all around us in creation, for example. The message of the gospel is
a peace-inducing, joy-provoking explanation of the world and
the meaning of life. In the gospel, we have all of
the revelation, all of the explanation of the meaning of what God has
done for us. And I am happy Right? I am joyful. I am blessed. This is the word that we're dwelling
on today. My joy is fulfilled in them.
I am happy to be able to trust in God and the way of salvation,
his way of salvation by Jesus Christ. I rejoice in his divine
will and his saving grace. which he has taught us in the
gospel, which is full and free and rich and plentiful. God has left nothing undone in
giving spiritual life to the spiritually needy. He has satisfied
every requirement. He has removed every obstacle,
every hurdle. He has fulfilled every promise
for his elect. And our inheritance of glory
awaits. And nothing will hinder our accession
to it. And it's all revealed to us in
the gospel. Let me give you an example here
again. I read or I read in Isaiah 51 these words. The redeemed
of the Lord shall return and come with singing into Zion and
everlasting joy shall be upon their head and they shall obtain
gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. Now
when I read that, when I read that verse written in the Old
Testament, written by Isaiah, and read it in the light of Jesus
asking His Father that His joy be fulfilled in His followers,
when I read, the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come
with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head,
I see a connection between those two things. I believe I have
been taught by the Holy Spirit, by faith, to interpret these
words from Isaiah spiritually and to see beyond the return
of the Jews to Israel from captivity and to understand rather a future
joyful entrance into heaven for all those redeemed by the blood
of Jesus Christ. So that the scripture teaches
us these things. This is not just some stepping
off a cliff and believing or throwing everything up in the
air and believing. This is a reasonable, rational revelation which God
has given in the gospel which we receive and believe and trust. When I learn that these people
of whom Isaiah wrote, that they shall obtain gladness and joy
and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. I want to believe
that. By faith, I do believe that. I have a joyful, a reasonable,
a justifiable hope and expectation of entering into heaven and there
spending eternity in the holy glory of my Savior. And why should
I doubt it? Why look at the promises of God
and the person of Christ and the work of redemption and doubt
it? It gives me joy and assurance
to believe it. It gives me joy and assurance
to live like this, to live believing it day by day. I wish everyone did. I recommend
it to you all. Now, that's my 80% done. Here's
my next 10%. That's my second point. The faith
that brings the joy of the Lord also incurs the hatred of the
world. The faith that brings the joy
of the Lord also incurs the hatred of the world. Because of our
faith, believers are objects of the world's hatred. Because
we believe the teachings of Christ, because we believe the doctrines
of the gospel, the promises and assertions of Almighty God, the
world hates us. Now, they present it as pity. And they say we are delusional. But it's more than that. At first,
the Jews accused Jesus of being delusional. But it soon became
clear that Christ's message condemned the very basis of their life
and the beliefs that he taught were an existential threat to
their world. And so it is with Christ's people,
the church in this world. We preach a message that damns
them all. Well, the message doesn't damn
them, it's their own sin that does that. But the gospel we
believe, the saviour that we serve, the God we worship, is
despised by this world. So Jesus says in this prayer
to his father, I have given them thy word, and the world hath
hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world. You see, there's a fundamental
conflict between the flesh and the spirit. between satanic evil
and divine holiness and the two cannot be reconciled and ultimately
they cannot coexist. It is therefore the world's desire
to extinguish the testimony and ministry of Jesus Christ. When the Lord says, I have given
them thy word, he's talking about the whole revelation of God,
the whole truth of God. It is true that there are many
doctrines of Holy Scripture by which the whole truth of God
is known. And yet, God's truth is one. And when our Redeemer says, I
have given them thy word, he's telling us two things. First,
the whole revelation and knowledge of God is from Jesus Christ. And what had previously been
revealed in part through the types and the symbols and the
prophets and the workings of God with the Old Testament peoples
that we've been spending a lot of time with the young people
thinking about, for example, has now been fully revealed in
the person of Christ. The whole of it, to completion,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is Christ that has revealed
that. Here's the second point. The Lord is telling us that the
whole truth of God is known by those who know Christ as their
Saviour. So not only has He taught it
to us in its completion, but it is known of us in its completion. Now, that doesn't mean that we
know all there is to know about God. That would be foolish. He
is infinite, we are finite, so that's impossible. Nevertheless,
the point the Lord is making here, I believe, is that the
whole of revealed truth The truth of God in His holiness, in His
justice, in His goodness, in His truth, in His majesty, in
His power, in His knowledge, in His sovereignty, in His saving
purpose is known to us in Jesus Christ. So here is an important
principle. No one can teach you anything
about God outside of Jesus Christ. But be assured, if you seek that
knowledge in Christ, you will find it. Because Jesus Christ
said, I have given them thy word. And here's my last point, this
is my last 10%. If there is fullness of joy for
the Lord's people, and we anticipate that in glory. And the world
hates the church here on earth. Why not just bring it all to
an end? Why doesn't the Lord just take us all home to glory
right now? Well, you know the answer. There's
work yet to be done in the service of his kingdom. The Lord Jesus
says here that he is not asking that we be taken out of the world.
He rather calls his people to worship. He calls his people
to service. He calls his people to obedience.
And we must preach his word. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel. We must preach the gospel. We
must pray for its success. We must support its growth. We must defend its interests. But the Lord does make a request
of his Father. Remember what we said last week? It's really a claim. It's his
right of having completed the covenant as he has done. The Lord's request to his Father
is that we be kept in this world from the evil. while we go about
his business. And accordingly we shall be kept,
because Christ has asked for it, we shall be preserved, each
one of us individually and the church collectively, we shall
be preserved until our work is done. And then we shall be taken
to glory. The fact that we are still here
means that our work is not yet complete. What is the evil from
which we must be kept? Well, it's the evil of sin, which
opposes our holy God and his ways. It's the evil of Satan,
from whose harm the church needs to be protected. It's the evil
of our own fleshy nature, which remains with us until we are
taken home to heaven. And being kept does not mean
that we shall be free from sin, indwelling sin, as it is called,
or free from acting sinfully, or free from temptation, or free
from the effects of sin in our lives. But we are free from the
rule and dominion of sin in our lives. It doesn't control us. We are kept from being devoured
by sin and devoured by the devil that's like a roaring lion going
around seeking whom he may devour. And we're free from condemnation
for our sin in the sight of God because the Lord Jesus Christ
has already taken that condemnation and there is therefore now no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The Bible calls
that our justification. And Paul says, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God and joy with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. So let me wrap things up for
today. Sin is a continuing threat to Christ's church and to you
and to me. Christ in praying in the way
he does shows that evil is both powerful and destructive. It is a continuing threat to
the child of God personally and the church of God collectively. Being unable to keep ourselves,
we must be kept from it. And the Lord God must keep us
and does keep us at Christ's request. It doesn't mean that
Christ has abrogated responsibility for his people, for our well-being,
or removed himself in any way from our care. Remember, he tells
his disciples, Lo, I am with you always. And yet, for his
disciples' sake, in this moment of intense anxiety, and for their
ongoing joy, he draws, as it were, additionally, on his Father's
help and on the Spirit's help, the Comforter, in this intercessory
prayer, to encourage and comfort and fuel their confidence for
the days ahead and for the mission that lay before them. May we
all know Christ's joy in believing. May we all know the divine comfort
in being kept by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit until it
is our time to be called to glory. Amen.