John 17:13 (A Prayer For Our Joy)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon. We pray that as we declare the Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who Christ is.

May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you. Well today we're back in our main series, which is the gospel of John. It's the series that we've been in now for three maybe coming close to four years I'm not sure been been in it for a little while.

The High Priestly Prayer in John 17

And we're gonna be jumping back in today to the gospel in chapter 17 to this sort of unmatched and Unrivaled prayer this prayer that stretches. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of verses. This is what happens when you give me time off.

This prayer that soars above the heights of human language. This prayer that Will minister to the tiniest babe and yet will also baffle the greatest scholars. This prayer that has such an intensity and depth of love that it could have never been prayed by mortal man.

A prayer that was authored by the author of prayer. A Prayer that was prayed by the one who invented prayer the one who receives our prayer and the one who delivers our prayer to the father. A prayer that is a Mediatorial prayer, which just means that he works for us to bring us to God.

He mediates relationship between us and God a prayer of a true and perfect and great high Priest who loves us and cares for us and serves us. And in this prayer We get to see what he thinks about us and our well-being.

Now if you think about well-being well-being is a Multifaceted phenomenon and it occurs not just in our heads and not just in our hearts. But it works itself out across the gamut across the entirety of who we are as a person.

Well-being or as the Bible would call it shalom is that all of you is integrated. All of you is at peace every bit of you is under the blessing of God and when that happens We will have joy. It is the great physician himself who prays this prayer and is it any wonder that he is the one who?

Ministers to us cares for us heals us and brings us to a place of This kind of shalom so that we will have joy. Now if you remember we've been in John 17 now for four weeks. We've done this four different times the first week we talked about the model of praying and we looked and we saw how Jesus is the model of praying and at Every point in his ministry.

Jesus is stopping and praying. He's getting away from the hustle and bustle of things and he's getting before God. He is our model for dependence on God and if there's anyone who did not need Prayer if there's anyone who didn't need.

To go through the motions of what we see in Jesus's life. It is God in the flesh Jesus Christ and yet he does this for us to model that we must depend upon God. He's the one who modeled a prayer saturated life so that you and I would have prayer saturated lives.

He's the one who modeled how to pray when to pray where to pray why to pray. We saw that in week one. In week two, we saw how he prayed for our eternal life our eternal well-being our eternal joy and his prayer.

Was that those who know him? Would be caught up in all of the joy and blessings of heaven forever. Week three we prayed a prayer that focused on his lordship. Those who are saved coming under the lordship of Jesus Christ come under the authority in the dominion of Jesus Christ.

We saw that when Jesus ascended to heaven and sat down on his throne to rule he sat down to rule over his church. When he sat down upon the throne we came underneath his lordship so that every facet of our life is now under his Dominion, he's the Lord over our bodies the Lord over our minds our thoughts our convictions our opinions and our attitudes.

He's the Lord over our hearts and our emotions and our feelings and our affections. He's the Lord over our bodies our physical actions our directions. He's Lord over everything. There's no area of your life that the Lord himself does not call his.

Because he ascended he is our Lord. The last week that we were the last time we were in their series at the beginning of December before our Christmas series we talked about the fourth aspect of this prayer.

Jesus prayed for unity. He prayed that his church would be one as he and his father and the Holy Spirit have always been one in heaven and this one was especially convicting because we live in a time period of great dissension divisions and divisiveness.

The Church of Jesus Christ does not look united. From the top to the bottom from the Baptist to the Methodist from the Presbyterian to the whatever the Church of Jesus Christ does Not look to be in great unity and I believe and we talked about this in that Message that the church needs to repent of that and Before Jesus returns.

I believe his prayer will be answered that the church will be one as he and the father are one. We're not gonna I don't believe that we will see Jesus return to a fractured broken pessimistic limping Diseased and sickly church.

I believe she will return to a glorious triumphant Unified bride. Who loves him and who worships him that's what I think. I think that's what Jesus thinks. Now that doesn't mean we unite in error. It doesn't mean that we accept everyone for everything that we accept the Universalist and the Unitarians and that we and that we just say Theology and doctrine doesn't matter.

We talked about that. We correct the heretic. We correct the brother who is an error in their doctrine. The Bible says that you grab them out of the flames. So there let's not let's not call this uniformity that everybody whatever they believe is.

Okay, that Jesus doesn't have an opinion on things. No, that's not what we're talking about. But we are talking about a heart position and disposition of Jesus's church that we start with unity. And if we're going to divide that it must be over primary doctrines.

The Prayer for Our Joy

So that was what we talked about in week four now today. We're gonna come back to this prayer and we're gonna look at it from a different angle. We're only gonna look at it from one single verse today again.

You gave me too much time off. And we're gonna look at something that is extremely Neglected in the Christian life. I think one of those aspects of the Christian life that that we.

Must.

Repent of for not experiencing it to the degree that Jesus prayed it. Jesus prayed it because he cared about it. He cared about it because it's good and He prayed for our joy and if we're not experiencing that I pray that we repent and I pray that our repentance would not look like we just got whacked over the head and that and that we have to grovel and and Show God how serious we are by by putting on sackcloth and ashes.

Sometimes that's important I guess but I pray our repentance actually would be to restore us to a place of joy their repentance would be joyful. That our repentance would be that we would lay down the things that are causing us to be broken and that we would just embrace that God is good and That it would impact us from the tops of our heads to the bottoms of our feet.

And that we would be a joyful people today. We're gonna talk about three things when it comes to joy in this verse. We're gonna talk about what's the ground of joy? We're gonna talk about what is the root of joy and then we're gonna talk about what is the fruit of joy?

So we're extending a little bit of a metaphor here. What's the ground? What's the soil that joy is planted in? What is the root that causes joy to grow and what is the fruit of? Joy, and that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

So if you will turn with me to John 17 verse 13 We'll read it together. We'll pray and then we will get started. John 17 verse 13 Jesus says 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, let us pray Lord you Are the author of life you are the one who has the words of life Lord. Let us as we reflect upon your word today. To see that your word gives life. Let us remember that it's you who made us not we who made ourselves.

That you know what we need, you know our frame. You know what the things that will bless us and minister to us and care for us Lord. You designed us so, you know exactly what fuels us. So that God if you say Christ if you say in your prayer.

That we should be full of joy Lord. I pray that we would hear.

That.

That we would repent whenever we fall short of that and Lord I do pray. I Pray that your church the Shepherd's Church the Reformed Church the church Lord I pray that in this next decade and century that we would be known as a church.

That is joyful.

Jesus name we pray. Amen. Now in the same way that a tree in order to grow needs soil and It needs its roots to be able to go down deep in order for it to bear much fruit. Today, we're gonna be talking about those three aspects of what joy is and we're gonna be grounding Joy in the ascension of Jesus Christ.

Jesus says in this passage, but now I come to you. He's talking about the Father. He's saying God now I come to you. Which is a fascinating thing for Jesus to say because it's 50 days away from the Ascension.

He hasn't forgotten that he's going to be arrested in Maybe less than 30 minutes from this moment in John 17. He hasn't forgotten that and he hasn't forgotten that he is going to endure The sham false trial from the from Caiaphas and the Pharisees.

He hasn't forgotten that he hasn't forgotten that he's gonna be on Radical sleep deprivation from the moment that he's arrested and taken into custody to the moment He's paraded in front of Pilate and then to Herod and then back to Pilate.

Jesus is going to be awake For nearly 36 hours. He hasn't forgotten that when he said now I come to you. He hasn't forgotten the beatings or the bleedings the holes in his wrist and the pain in his back.

That was searing as his back scraped against the back of the cross. He hasn't forgotten that. He hasn't forgotten that he is going to give up his last breath and die that his disciples are gonna take his body down and Put it into a borrowed tomb.

He hasn't forgotten that he's gonna go down to Sheol and minister to the dead saints from the Old Testament and preach the gospel To them. He hasn't forgotten that he's gonna rise from the dead and spend 40 days Ministering to his people before on the Mount of Olives on the 50th day.

He ascends to heaven. He hasn't forgotten that. But what Jesus is doing is he's periscoping what I mean by periscoping. Jesus is looking past Everything that's getting ready to happen and he is summarizing this next 50 days in light of his ascension.

He's saying my death my arrest my beating my burial my resurrection. All of that the resurrection appearances that happen over the 40 days. All of that is under the canopy of I am coming to you. My job is finished.

My mission is finished. I am coming. Which teaches us something about how Jesus viewed his incarnation? His incarnation was not about getting arrested. That wasn't the sum total of of his effort. His incarnation wasn't just about him coming to die.

There's been millions of trillions of people. Maybe who died plus at the end goal for Jesus. It wasn't even about his resurrection. Those were stops in route to the finishing of his work. Which was the ascension?

This tells us exactly how important Jesus thinks the ascension is to him. He says now I am coming to you. Without the ascension we would not be saved. Without the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God.

We wouldn't be able to glorify God. We wouldn't have eternal life. We wouldn't be able to submit under his lordship. We would never have unity. We would never have joy. Jesus is saying that it's going to take more than me getting arrested to accomplish what God has sent me to do.

It's gonna take a whole lot more than dying. Everyone in this room will do that. Jesus did something more. It's gonna take a whole lot more than a resurrection. Even Lazarus underwent that. It's going to take the resurrected Lord.

Ascending to the ancient of days being welcomed by the angels of heaven being celebrated for his victory. Sitting down on the throne to reign to finish the work that God had called him to do and as he sat down and all of his glory and powerful or power and dominion he finished the work and In that moment Jesus sent forth his spirit to his church so that every single Christian That has ever lived in every generation that has ever been Can know him and have his joy.

If Jesus finished the work at his resurrection You and I would have to travel to whatever town he was in that day to see him because he ascended. Because he sits at the right hand of God and sent forth the Spirit of God.

You and I can know him all over the face of the earth. His work was finished in his ascension, which means that.

Joy is.

Grounded in the ascended Christ. We don't get the joy of Christ without the ascension. We don't get the joy of Christ without him Raising to life raising to the throne of God and Seated sending forth his spirit.

We don't get it and this is so important to me as at least in the last year and a half or so because I realized something about The sermons that I've been listening to all my life if you think about it.

And maybe you're in a similar boat that than I am. We've heard maybe a hundred sermons in our life on the life of Christ. We've maybe heard ten thousand sermons on the death of Christ. We've maybe have heard a thousand sermons on the resurrection of Christ.

But how often do you hear about the importance and the necessity of the ascension of Christ? The job wasn't over until he sat down to rain and that's what he says here. I now come to you so that They may have joy made full.

Without the ascension you do not have his joy. Without the ascension you don't have the spirit who authors joy and it's a gift to the spirit that you would have joy. It's his ascension that connects us to the father.

Who's the maker of joy? It's Jesus who went to heaven not to Experience the joy of heaven all for himself before his brothers. He shared it with us through his spirit. It is through his ascension that he intercedes for us to bring us ongoing joy.

It is through his ascension that we gain the victory and that we will have the victory which brings us great joy. It is through his ascension and through his work that we are that we will return to him and Have great joy.

Do you know our life really is an imitation of him even down to the to the smallest parts? Jesus came and lived a life of pain and suffering died was resurrected and ascended. That is the story of our life now as he is the first fruit of a new creation.

For he who has been raised he's went to where we're going. You and I live right now in a life that is filled sometimes with suffering and with pain. But in our death don't we ascend to be with him and that's not even the end of the story.

But that's not what this sermon is about. He ascended So that we would imitate him follow him and that we would have joy. He says that I am going to the father so that They can have full joy. His ascension assures every single Christian in this rooms Joy, and I would say That if you think joy is impossible.

Then you have to argue with the Ascended Lord who sits at the right hand of the father who said I did this so that they would have joy and As we said in Sunday school again another plug. You my dear friend are not that powerful.

He ensured that you would have joy in every aspect of your life. Not just on the good days. When your team wins or your stock market thing that you did Does really well? You would have joy Jesus is promising on even on days when your dog dies.

On days when you're sinned against on days when you're cheated on in days when you lose Everything that you own and days when you're fired from your job. In days when your pancreas stops working in days when your kids disappoint you.

Which rarely happens? In days when the world looks gloomy and awful. Joy brothers and sisters is not achieved by you. You don't work hard and get it. Joy is achieved by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

And his work was finished in his ascension into heaven. He earned it for you. And what does this tell us this tell us that we need to repent. We need to stop as we talked about earlier feeling defeated.

Because the Ascended Lord promised that you and I are more than conquerors. We need to stop feeling abandoned. Because the Ascended Lord said I will never abandon you nor forsaken you. We need to stop dwelling in negative putrid emotions that the world slops at like pigs at the trough and we need to stop being weighed down by the things that makes everyone else miserable and Understand how good and how glorious Christ is and brothers and sisters.

I don't care what you're going through today I do care but listen to what I mean by that.

Christ is better.

Christ is better than your pain. He's more beautiful than the ugliness. He can minister to your sorrows and give you great joy. I Want you to embrace that because it's yours. He purchased it. He bought it.

He paid for it and he ascended to give it.

It's yours.

So don't give in to the lies lift your eyes to Jesus so that you can have full joy. He says full joy, by the way, let's stop there for a second. He didn't say partial. He didn't say a smattering or a scintilla of joy.

Those are fun words. He didn't say I'm gonna leave you running on fumes. How often do you feel like that though? You feel like you're running on fumes? That's not what he promised you. He ascended in order to give you full joy.

My question to you is do you believe that. Do you believe that. Or have you been jaded by life? Do you believe that Jesus in his ascension and in his power and in his dominion can bring you joy. And if you believe that.

Because it's very Christian to say that you believe that. Why does our life not look like that. This is so convicting because I'm like everyone else. New England is horrible in the winter time. You look at the vitamin D map.

It's blacked out like a redacted CIA document. There's no vitamin D here in New England. So I get it. I get a case of the fields for a couple months every year. I.

Get it.

But the question is not where we're at. Every one of us stumbled into here today in various different places with backgrounds with pains with hurts with betrayals. With all the baggage that we all carry every one of us came in in a certain way.

The question is not where you are. The question is where you are going. Are you going to ignore the promises of Christ or are you gonna fight for joy? Are you gonna take out the hatchet and start hacking?

Your pessimism. Are you gonna live with it? That's the question. Because joy is rooted grounded. I mean in his Ascension We don't act like orphans brothers and sisters. We're princes and princesses. We are Royals in the kingdom of Christ.

What are you gonna do about the truth.

Today as.

You hear the word of Christ. What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna sit in your sadness in your gloom? Are you going to fight for the joy that was purchased for you? Because it's grounded in his Ascension.

Joy Rooted in Christ's Words

The second thing we learn is that it's rooted in his words. Look at me. Look one more time with me says 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.

It's not.

Artificial joy, it's his joy being worked in you and it's two-part. It's grounded in his Ascension to heaven and it's rooted in his words. Why is it rooted in his words. Because Jesus came to teach us the truth of who God is.

We said earlier. The third plug for Sunday school is anybody listening and coming next week. We said last week that the knowledge of God is the most needful knowledge of them all. It is what grounds us.

It is what shapes us. It is what makes us joyful if you can. You cannot be joyful if you don't know who God is. So Christ came to tell us who God is. He said when you see me, you've seen the father. When you've heard my words, you've listened to the very words of God.

Peter acknowledges this in John chapter 6. Jesus said are you gonna go away? Are you gonna leave me. Peter and the disciples. And Peter said where can we go? You have the words of life. You have the words of joy.

Where else could I go? All the pain does it matter the. The struggle that we go through. It's much smaller and it's annoying but it's worth it because you have the words of life. Jesus communicates to us who God is and he does it all across his entire ministry.

He communicates the character and the nature of God. He communicates through his parables. What God's kingdom is like and what it means for God to be king over your life and for you to be his servant.

He communicates what it means for us to be transferred into his kingdom as citizens to serve him and to and to Extend his gospel to the ends of the world. He talks about the fact that you don't belong to Satan anymore that you've been Raptured out of that kingdom and brought into Jesus this kingdom because Jesus bound to the strong man.

What a glorious message that is. You were born behind enemy lines and Jesus rescued you. Why do we struggle with joy so much? Why do I struggle with joy so much? I don't belong to that kingdom anymore.

He promises us eternal life that we didn't deserve. He tells us how to live righteously and guess what righteous living is not a burden to you. Righteous living actually ministers to you and brings you great joy.

Fish.

Function the best in the water bald eagles have great joy when they're soaring. You brothers and sisters were made for righteousness And obedience to God and when you do that, it brings joy. Proverbs says that it's the wicked man who suffers.

Because wicked sin evilness brings Damage into our life. It is obedience to Christ that restores us and this is not legal. I wish the Church of Jesus Christ today would forget Would forget this accusation of legalism when it comes to obedience.

For ten years. I've been in Michigan. Let me just Let me just say this real quick because I think this is important. For ten years. I've been in ministry and there's been so many times where I've said Obedience to God is important and I've been challenged by folks who say well don't say that that's legalism.

I.

Am NOT saying that we must obey God in order to be saved because no one in here can do that. What I am saying is that now that you have been given the greatest gift that you've ever been given and Now that he has rescued you out of Satan's kingdom and he's transferred you into the kingdom of light.

Obedience now is a gift for you. Before you were a Christian obedience was a noose around your neck. Now obedience is a gift for you to bless you. Why wouldn't I tell you to obey as a Christian if it blesses you it does.

All of Jesus's words were for our joy. He assured us of God's presence. He promised grace and forgiveness. He told us that there's hope in our suffering. You look through every word that Jesus spoke and That means the whole Bible because Jesus is the author who sent forth the Spirit to author the entire word.

If you look at the Word it is for your joy. So what we've learned so far is his ascension Grounds us in the joy. It accomplishes the joy and his words teach us how to live in that joy now as we close.

I'd like to take a Survey of the Bible. We're not gonna go to all of these but I do have them there if you take a picture of the screen you can reference them so I Had to decrease the font actually to get them to fit so.

The Fruit of Joy in Worship, Salvation, Trials, and Community

What is the fruit of joy? How does joy work itself into every aspect of your life? I believe that the scripture teaches that there's not a single facet of your being that God doesn't want to bring his joy into.

There's not a hidden closet where you can be gloomy and glum. There is not a room that you get all to yourself to complain about your problems. Every facet of your existence God is going to and wants to and has written in his word that he is going to bring you into Joy, that is why Jesus said my joy will be made full in them.

What does fullness mean? It means fullness in your experience. It means fullness in your mind fullness in your heart. Fullness in your worship. Fullness in your experience of salvation. Fullness in your joy of all things every area of your life.

He intends to bring under his joy. Can you imagine like how incredible that would be if that's the way we lived? He's gonna bring joy in our worship. God wants you to be joyful in worship. Did you know that?

We say that every week because we forget it. God wants us to be joyful in worship. I don't care if your neighbor likes your tone. I don't care if you are Incapable of carrying a tune in a bucket as my grandma once affectionately said God does not author limping distracted haggard quiet dull worship.

So when that's the kind of worship we have it's not from him. Look look just a couple verses first Chronicles 15 16. Then David spoke to the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their relatives the singers with instruments of music harps lyres loud sounding cymbals to raise sounds of joy.

We talked about it earlier in that passage where joy is going to break out. Do you know why joy has to break out because We are so hard and crusty that in order for it to actually come out of us. Something has to break.

Psalm 95 1. Oh come let us sing for the joy of the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Psalm 100 verse 1 shout joyfully the Lord all the earth. Can you imagine what it's gonna be like on the day when the entire planet is shouting to the glory of Christ?

We've got to recover this Aspect not our just our church the church has to recover this. See there's there's we talked about division earlier. I've been to churches where shouting happens and in those churches.

Also, they roll on the floor speak in tongues and bark like dogs. I've seen that that's not worshiping the Lord. That's worshiping something else and Then I've been to Reformed churches. Where we're prim and proper the frozen chosen and we stand very calmly and we don't ever shout.

Why can't we as a Reformed Church in America be joyful about who we worship. Why can't we be enthusiastic? Why can't we shout? It's not gonna hurt anybody. If you don't like it, that's okay go to a church where they don't worship God enthusiastically, I don't want that to be us.

There's joy in knowing Jesus. Let us express it brothers and sisters when you do that. It actually Causes you to have more joy. It's kind of like a helix. The more you're joyful in your worship the louder you actually commit to singing the more joyful it actually makes you.

Because it's not just for the glory of God it is but when you glorify God it ministers to you. So have joy in your worship. There's joy in the presence of God and in your salvation. Psalm 1611. You make known to me the paths of life.

In your presence is fullness of joy and in your right hand There are pleasures forever. Did you know that it is pleasurable to know God? All of the pleasures that the world pedals to you are nothing. It's like a dog drinking antifreeze it tastes sweet going down, but it kills it.

The pleasures of the world are like that. Not so the pleasures of knowing God and knowing Christ. It's not just an Old Testament truth. Look at what it says the angels say this in Luke 2 11 the angel said to them do not be afraid for behold I bring you good news of great joy.

Which will be for all the people. That word great in Greek Megara means multiplied. It means like take an amplifier and hook it up to Regular joy and make it great. That's what he is accomplished for us brothers to step into that.

And it's not just a spiritual joy. It's not just it's not just me and Jesus in my spiritual life that has no impact on my physical life. No, there's joy in that too. Look at what he says about about us having joy when our enemies are defeated.

This is fascinating to me first. Samuel 18 6. It happened as they were coming when David returned from killing the Philistine. That the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines with joy and with musical Instruments.

If that happened today the gospel coalition and every other Christian organization would say well that is just offensive. They're just intolerant Christians. They the Moscow mood as it were and Yet God delights in this kind of joy.

God Wants us who don't know everything to pray for our enemies and God wants us. To rejoice when our enemies are converted and God wants us to rejoice when they are crushed. Because when they're converted we rejoice in his kindness.

When they are crushed we rejoice in his justice in all things we rejoice. We rejoice in God's creation. Psalm 65 8 those who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in all of your signs and You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

I saw a double rainbow yesterday. I went outside and it was there for about one minute and it was gone and I was reminded God keeps his promises. Brothers and sisters don't live your life in a cubicle or in your bedroom office or whatever it is.

Get outside and see the glorious things that God has made and rejoice in who God is. Psalm 96 12 the field exalts and all that is in it then all the trees the forest sing for joy. They're already singing Brothers and sisters join them.

Isaiah 55 12 for you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth into Shouts of joy before you and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands join them.

The whole world.

Redounding for the glory of Christ. I Believe that's what Jesus is waiting on before he returns. Why would Jesus return to a world that is not filled with worshipers? Why would Jesus return to a world where the human beings are so curmudgeoned and sticks in the mud?

It's our joy to spread his joy. It's our mission to spread the joy of Jesus Christ. Christianity and the gospel is Not for the arrogant and for the proud and for the stuck-up. It's for the joyful. It's for those who know that they're not worthy and that he alone is worthy.

And when you get that You can do nothing but have joy. There's joy and righteousness as we talked about Psalm 19 119 11. I have inherited your testimonies forever for they are the joy of my heart. The law of God is joy.

David Struggled to go to sleep at night not because he was watching some television show not because he was doing whatever. David struggled to go to sleep at night. Stayed awake at night panting over the Word of God because he knew that it was dripping with joy.

Proverbs 12 20. Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but Counselors of peace have joy. What better counselor do you have than the Word of God?

There's joy.

How often do we pull our Bible out? How often do we forget? That this treasure chest of heaven has been deposited in your house. How often do we? Waste hours and hours on Netflix and YouTube and everything else and we neglect the treasure chest of joy that Christ has given us in his Word.

It's almost like we hate ourselves. It's almost like we are trying to be miserable. There's joy and trials. Consider it all joy. Not some all. That's a really complicated Greek word. It means everything.

Consider it all joy my brethren when you encounter various trials of various kinds our trials and our tribulations are not opportunities for whining. I Know I whine a lot. I've said it many times when someone cuts me off in traffic.