One of the most popular movies in America right now is called “Inside
Out,” and after just a few weeks, it is already the number three grossing movie
that Disney-Pixar has ever released. The movie is about an eleven year old girl
named Riley – no, actually, it is about the emotions within her: Joy, Anger,
Fear, Disgust, and Sadness. Joy is the dominant character, always wanting to be
in charge and push the other emotions to the side. Without giving too much
away, let’s just say that by the end of the movie, Joy has learned that she
needs her fellow emotions to be complete and whole. What fascinated me most
about this movie was how close it comes to presenting a biblical, Christian,
perspective on emotional well-being. The Christian life is not all about
running around being happy all the time. If you can genuinely do that,
congratulations, but if you can’t, that’s okay. Life’s about more than that.
The Christian life is about growing in joy, and joy is something that God
Himself must impart to us, that can exist within us in spite of our
circumstances, and that needs to exist alongside of other emotions and states
of mind.
How would you define “Joy”? C. S. Lewis was captivated by
the notion of “Joy,” using it to describe many aspects of the Christian life
and the spiritual hunger of all humanity. It shows up in almost every one of
his books, and ironically, he even married a woman named “Joy.” But, even Lewis
had a hard time defining joy. Last year, a previously unseen, handwritten
letter from Lewis to a Mrs. Ellis was found tucked into a second-hand copy of
his book The Problem of Pain. In the
letter, Lewis writes, “Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or
prosperity as it is unlike agony. … It jumps under one’s ribs and tickles down
one’s back and makes one forget meals and keeps one (delightedly) sleepless
o’nights. It shocks one awake when the other puts one to sleep. … [O]ne second
of joy is worth 12 hours of Pleasure.”[1]
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, according to Galatians 5. That
means that we cannot manufacture it by our own natural resources or will power.
It is imparted to us, and through us, by the indwelling Holy Spirit. In 1 Peter
1:8, the Apostle speaks of rejoicing with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
John Piper says that, with this phrase, “[Peter] is not describing a decision;
he is describing an explosion. You can decide to brush your teeth … but you
cannot … decide to rejoice. You can decide to do things that may bring you joy
— drive to the country, visit a friend, read a psalm — but whether joy actually
happens is not in your own power.”[2]
And joy cannot be shattered by contrary experiences or emotions. It is deeper,
more enduring, and more ultimately satisfying. That is why the Bible can speak
of rejoicing in suffering (Rom 5:3), in affliction (1 Thes 1:6), and in poverty
(2 Cor 8:2). Because joy is rooted in our inseparable relationship with Jesus
Christ, it transcends the hardships of the world.
This is the point of the passage we have just read. The
seventeenth chapter of John is one long prayer – we call it “the High Priestly
Prayer” – of Jesus. We’ve given attention to it for several weeks and will for
several more weeks. In the portion we are considering today, you will note that
Jesus acknowledges His imminent departure from the world. He says to the Father
in v13, “now I come to You.” Surely His departure means suffering the cruel
death of the cross, but also the joy of returning to His heavenly home and the
eternal glory and fellowship with the Father that were His from eternity past.
But His disciples will remain behind in the world. For them, His departure
could mean nothing but unchecked and unrestrained sorrow. All they have known
of this new life they have enjoyed for 3 years will come crashing down in a
very short time, bringing them into a potential death-spiral of despair.
This is why Jesus prays for them, and prays for them in such
a specific way. He prays, “These things I speak in the world so that they may
have My joy made full in themselves.” But it is always helpful to remember that
He is not praying only for that first generation of disciples, but for all of
us who have come to follow Him by faith. In verse 20, He prays, “I do not ask
on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their
word.” That’s you and me, and every other Christian who has ever lived or ever
will. He is praying that we all may have the fullness of His joy within
ourselves. Notice that the joy He wishes us to have is His own – the very joy
that characterized His life; that divine joy that the Holy Spirit imparts to
and through us. He prays that we will have this, not in part, but in fullness.
He desires that our lives would be characterized by complete and total joy,
even when our circumstances are not happy, desirable, or pleasant. Jesus said
that He speaks these things “in the world.” In the world, there is much
suffering and hardship. Jesus Himself had endured it, and was on the precipice
of the worst that anyone has ever experienced or ever will. He knows His
disciples will experience it as well. But in the midst of it, we can have joy –
His joy, made full, in ourselves, in this world (of all places).
Jesus says He speaks “these things” for this reason – that we
might have this kind of joy. So what are the “things” He speaks that enable to
us to experience the fullness of His joy in ourselves in the world? There are
at least three here that I want to draw your attention to in the time we have
today.
I. God’s Word gives us joy in a world that hates us. (v14)
When I first started traveling overseas, I would grow very
homesick. On those first few trips to Africa ,
there was virtually no way to communicate with folks from home. Nowadays, we
are a bit spoiled. We have wifi and cell phone signals almost everywhere in the
world, and we can email, text, twitter, facebook, facetime, and skype so that
we never have to be entirely severed from our comfort zone. And yet, as
Christians living in a fallen world, we are never
in our true comfort zone. We are, as it were, in enemy-occupied territory.
It is as though we are secret agents in a foreign land, and our very presence
there is despised and dangerous.
Jesus said that the world hates His disciples. The “world”
refers to the general mass of humanity which is marching along in its
unregenerate and sinful state in unflinching rebellion against God. As a
Christian, you represent everything the world hates, and so you yourself become
a target of that hatred. In America ,
we have been immune to this for a long time, because traditionally it was
socially advantageous to be at least friendly toward, if not openly aligned
with, Christians in the broader culture. But that day is gone and a new day is
upon us. If you want to know how Christians are viewed by “the world,” just
read the opinion pieces that circulate daily about issues like same-sex
marriage and abortion. We are viewed as intolerant, hate-filled bigots. And in
a world that champions tolerance so ardently, we may be surprised to find out
how intolerant the world is toward people who do not hold to its moral values.
Hatred. It is a strong word, but it is not an exaggeration.
True Bible-believing Christians of consistent conviction and action have always
been shunned by the broader culture, even when the broader culture was
nominally Christian itself. The world hates the Christian because, Jesus says,
the Christian is “not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Jesus came
into the world from another realm. This world was not His home; heaven was. But
though we were of the world, having
been born into it and lived as a part of it for some part of our lives, we were
chosen from out of the world, as Jesus said several times in the preceding
verses and paragraphs. This world which was once our home is no more. Our
citizenship has been transferred to heaven and we live in this world now as
alien residents. We do not share this world’s values, priorities or passions,
and for that reason, the world hates us.
It can be a lonely place, living in this world as aliens and
strangers. But Jesus says that He has given us the Word of God so that we might
have joy. When I was in Nepal ,
I could read the Greensboro News and Record every day online, and communicate
with my family online, and feel connected to home, though I was on the opposite
side of the world. In a similar way, Jesus has given us God’s Word so that we
may stay connected to our true homeland and have His joy in the midst of a
world that hates us. Every day, we can read the Word and communicate with God
through it. His promises remind us that we are not alone, though we are
surrounded by a culture that hates us and the God in whom we trust. He reminds
us that He is present with us and in us. Though we are hated in the world, His
word reminds us that we are loved at home in heaven, and when this world has
done its dead-level worst to us, we are welcomed there. We find unshakeable joy
in the midst of a hate-filled world as we immerse ourselves in the Word of God
which Jesus has imparted to us. We must not dare to neglect the Word, for we do
so to our own peril and to the forfeiture of our own joy.
II. God’s Protection gives us joy in a world dominated by
evil. (v15)
Many of you know that my aim in life as a young man was not
be a preacher. From my childhood, I dreamed of being an Air Force pilot, and
had it not been for God’s intervention in my life, that is probably what I
would be doing today. During those years, I went to every air show I could go
to in order to see the jets that I dreamt of flying on display. I recall
vividly a demonstration that I saw at numerous air shows involving a modified
C-130 cargo plane that had the ability to extract a downed pilot from enemy
territory without landing. On one pass, the plane would drop a crate via
parachute, which the downed pilot would open once it hit the ground. Inside the
crate was an apparatus that had a large balloon on end, and an elaborate
harnessing system on the other. He would strap himself to the line and deploy the
balloon, and the plane would make another pass to grasp the balloon, yanking
the downed pilot from the ground and reeling him into the cargo door on the
rear of the plane. The entire process took about ten minutes. I never ceased to
marvel at that. As an aspiring pilot, I never wanted to experience being downed
behind enemy lines, but I was glad to know that there was a way to be extracted
if it ever happened.
I’m sure that, as Christians, there have been times when we
wished that we could be similarly extracted from this hostile world. Truly, the
world is enemy occupied territory, under the domain of the chief of evil,
Satan. Under the sovereign rulership of God, Satan is allowed authority here on
the world for a season – a season that began at the fall of man into sin in the
Garden of Eden, and will end at the return of Christ at the end of the age. The
world is a battlefield for Satan and his demonic and human forces to wage war
against God and the people of His kingdom. And as we endure life on this battlefield,
seeing sin and suffering abound, and experiencing the brunt of it in our own
persons on a regular basis, it is only natural to wish that we could be
delivered from it. In Scripture we find Moses, Elijah, and Jonah all praying
that God would not delay in removing them from the world, even by way of death
(Num 11:15; 1 Ki 19:4; Jon 4:3, 8). We may have prayed that way ourselves. We
need not be surprised to find that the answer to our prayer is the same as the
answer to theirs. In each case, the answer seems to be a resounding, “No!”
For God to answer our prayer to be removed from the world
would be for Him to deny the prayer of His only begotten Son, who prayed in
verse 15 that the Father would not “take them out of the world.” Though this
world is not our home, and it is enemy occupied territory which Satan has
filled with evil, Jesus Christ desires that we remain in it, at least until our
work here is finished. This would be utterly depressing and disheartening if it
were not for the fact that He has prayed for something better than evacuation
for us. He has prayed for our protection. In verse 15, He prays, “Keep them
from the evil one.”
Every time I have ever traveled overseas, the one question I
receive most often before I go is this: “Is it safe where you are going?” I
don’t think I have ever been to a country that wasn’t on some kind of watch
list of the State Department. So, I suppose the answer is, “No, it isn’t safe.”
But, friends, if the last few years have taught us anything in America , it is
that safety is a myth. You do not have to travel overseas to be unsafe. Satan
is as active in the United
States as he is anywhere else in the world.
Jesus did not promise safety to His followers, He promised and prayed for our
protection. If the world in which we live were safe, we would not need
protection. Not only did He pray for us to be kept from the evil one, He taught
us to pray for it ourselves. In the model prayer, we are instructed to pray,
“Deliver us from evil.” We need constant protection from the evil of the enemy
with which he ravages this fallen world.
So, there is joy to be had, though the enemy is powerful. We
are kept, protected, by the power of one who is even greater. Greater is He who
is in you than he who is in the world (1 Jn 4:4). And though the world is
unsafe, we are protected, and therefore we can have joy, come what may in this
world.
III. God’s Mission
gives us joy in a world that needs Him. (vv16-19)
We have this sort of notion that life is all about enjoying
ease and leisure, and work is what interferes with that aim. This is not the
case. Work was given to Adam to do before the fall. Frustration in work, and
the laziness and lethargy it produces, is a product of the fall – fruit of our
sinfulness. We were made to be active and at work in the world. To work with
the abilities and talents God has given us provides a sense of satisfaction.
But the greatest and most abiding joy is to labor toward the purpose for which
God redeemed us. He saved us to put us on mission, carrying out the mission of
Jesus Christ Himself to the ends of the earth, until Christ returns or calls us
home in death. This is why we are left in this unsafe world, but protected by
the Father’s power. To be taken out of the world might mean relief and ease for
us, but it would mean destruction for the world. The world perishes apart from
the witness of the Church of Jesus Christ, and Jesus has left us in this world
for this purpose.
He reminds us again in verse 16 that we are not of the
world, even as He is not of the world. But though the world is not our home, it
is our base of operations for Him. And in order to be effective in our mission,
we must be prepared. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them.” To sanctify something is to
set it apart from the rest, and in the Bible it has the sense of consecrating
something or someone for a holy purpose. Jesus prays that the Father would do
just this, consecrate His followers for a holy purpose. He sanctifies us as His
indwelling Spirit shapes us to reflect the fullness of the image of Christ. But
the tool that the Spirit uses for this sanctifying work is the Word that Jesus
has imparted to us. Remember that in v14 He said, “I have given them Your
word.” Here in v17 He says, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”
As we ingest the Word of God, the Spirit of God uses it to transform us for the
Father’s good purpose in our lives. And His good purpose is that we would
become participants in the mission of Jesus Christ in the world.
“Sanctify them,” Jesus prayed, for “As You sent Me into the
world, I also have sent them into the world.” We have been sent by Jesus in a
way that reflects His own sending from the Father. Jesus was sent into the
world to seek and save the lost, by laying down His life to redeem humanity
from sin. He was born to die, and to die for the sins of the human race. Having
done that, and conquered death by His resurrection, salvation is available to
all who call upon His name. But as Romans 10 says, “How will they call on Him
in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How
will the preach unless they are sent?” We have been sent by Jesus Himself so
that we can proclaim the good news of His salvation in the hearing of the whole
world – a world that hates us, a world that is under the reign of the enemy,
but a world that desperately needs to hear and call upon the name of the Lord.
Jesus sent us as He Himself was sent by the Father. We are not sent to
accomplish redemption, as He was. Only He could accomplish that through His
sacrificial death. But we are sent to make that redemption known by pointing
others to Him. Like His own mission, ours may not always be safe or pleasant,
but there is joy to be found in the doing of the work for which we ourselves
were ransomed from sin. Ours is not a purposeless existence. We have a divine
mission and a holy calling to make Christ known among all nations. As we engage
in that mission, we will find a deep and abiding sense of joy that cannot be
shaken by this world or anything in it.
Jesus said in v19, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that
they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” In sanctifying Himself, Jesus
was consecrating Himself fully to the Father’s mission. He was accepting the
charge to live, to die, and to rise again for the redemption of humanity. If it
were not for His self-sacrifice in laying down His life on the cross for our
sins, we could have no joy. We would be separated from Him forever because of
our sins. But because He has sanctified Himself, He has made it possible for us
to know God through Him, to be reconciled to God, and to be cleansed,
transformed, and used by God to extend His rescue mission into all the world.
There is joy in knowing Him and making Him known. It is the abiding and
satisfying joy of doing what we were created, redeemed, and empowered by God to
do. Though the world may not celebrate our labor for the Lord, their own
eternal destiny depends on the faithful carrying out of our mission.
Next to Jesus, I suppose the world has never seen a more joy
filled man than the Apostle Paul. Paul comprehended and experienced the joy of
the Lord to such an extent that he could sing praises to the Lord from the
confines of a dingy jail cell and turn every perilous circumstance – from
imprisonment, to earthquake, to shipwreck – into an opportunity to testify of
the goodness and grace of the Lord Jesus. I don’t know that any follower of
Christ ever suffered for the Lord to the extent that Paul did, and I don’t know
that any were ever more effective for Christ than he was. And as we follow
Christ in this world, we can expect no better or different reception than Paul
did. In Acts 17, after preaching the gospel of the risen Jesus, the Bible says
that some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning
this,” and yet others “joined him and believed.” For the joy of seeing those
who will join and believe, we must endure the sneering and the questioning of
others. God’s word provides us with joy in the midst of the world’s hatred. His
protection safeguards us in an unsafe world controlled by the enemy, that
nothing could ever steal our joy. And His mission gives us the joy of
satisfaction in knowing that we are doing what He has made us, saved us, and
called us to do.
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