John chapter 17, starting at verse 11. Our Lord Jesus prays to his Father,
and now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those whom thou gavest to me,
I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. Verse 14, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of this world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou has sent me into
the world, even so I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
You may be seated. The Bible says that the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord
endures forever. Let's pray.
Father, we acknowledge even right now there's a battle over our minds and our souls.
Lord, the enemy does not want your people to hear your word.
We confess, Lord, we're so easily gripped by our own fear and our own flesh. We confess that we are weak.
We are in the courts of our king, but yet we feel sad and disappointed in other ways.
Our hearts long for a true, eternal, soul-filling joy.
So we ask, like the hymn says, from our fears and sins release us.
Let us find our rest in thee.
You are our strength and consolation.
Hope of all the world thou art.
Dear desire of every nation.
Joy of every longing heart.
May your word fill us, Lord.
May your people today hear from you, O God, through the words of Jesus Christ, God the Son, who took on flesh and who sanctified himself, that we would be sanctified in his truth.
We ask this in his name and for his sake alone.
Amen.
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
my prayer for you this week, my hope for today is that you can see in the words of Jesus how he fulfills his joy in you.
How our Lord Jesus Christ fulfills his joy in you.
This is true every week, but especially today, I come to you as a poor, tired pilgrim, not from a position of strength or mastery.
I'm preaching this to myself, to my own soul.
I just need you to know that right away.
So if you and I expect this world to fill us with joy, we will be disappointed.
If you and I expect this world to fill us with joy, we will be disappointed.
This is the time of the year where smiles are everywhere, at least in the marketing.
And any marketer worth his salt knows that you try to sell the hope of joy with smiles.
Listen to these familiar songs of silver bells.
City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style.
In the air, there's a feeling of something.
Children laughing, people passing, meeting smile after smile.
Listen to this.
As shoppers rush home with their treasures.
Hear the snow crunch, see the kids bunch.
This is Santa's big scene.
It's true, isn't it?
Psychologists did a study, and those who already have depression report that in this season of silver bells, depression gets worse.
64 people with depression report that depression gets worse.
If we expect the world to fill us with joy, we will be disappointed.
Now, put your eyes on our scripture text.
Look at what Jesus says in verse 13.
Really, this one verse is the whole sermon.
Jesus, he has already said, I am not in this world.
I'm with the Father.
He's already there spiritually.
He's already accomplished.
It's finished.
And in verse 13, he says, I am coming to you, Father.
Now, notice, he says what he says next for your sake.
He says, these things I speak in the world.
Why?
That they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Jesus is praying to the Father while he's still in the world so that John and his disciples can be within earshot.
He is praying so that we can know how the Son prays.
And that his joy of being at the right hand of the Father, ruling over all, that his joy would be fulfilled in them.
I believe in these verses we see five ways or so of how, just how our Lord Jesus Christ fulfills his joy in his disciples.
The world wants to try to promise joy coming at you from the outside.
If you dress this way, if you're in a certain atmosphere, if you buy certain things, it's all coming at you from the outside.
Jesus says, no, I'm going to fulfill my joy inside of you.
What is the joy of the Lord?
The joy of our Lord Jesus Christ is inner gladness, delight, rejoicing, a genuine happiness that is based on spiritual realities.
What's the first way?
Number one is this.
In this isolated world, Christ fulfills his joy in you, dear believer, as you experience oneness with his people.
In this isolated world, Christ fulfills his joy in you as you experience oneness with his people.
That's what he says in verse 11.
Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
The same apostle John gets a vision of heaven, and he writes that letter to the seven churches in Asia Minor.
Notice the words in Revelation 2, 3, to the church in Ephesus.
He commends them.
This is our Lord Jesus Christ through the pen of John, the same disciple.
He commends the church for enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and not growing weary.
Well, there's the vision of this promise, this prayer of Christ being fulfilled in the church.
They've gathered in his name.
They've gathered as Christians, as a body.
And they are standing together as one in Christ.
They are enduring and bearing up.
And he's able to report years later, decades later, the church has not grown weary.
Christ has sustained them through the persecution.
He is fulfilling his joy in them as they band together and hold together in the name of Jesus as one.
If you're a Christian, this is true for you too.
You do not grow weary when you bear together in this world as one with Christ's church by gathering in his name.
And as we do that, the spirit that dwells in each believer, it's concentrated when his people come together.
So we just saw in Sunday school how he multiplies the fruit of the spirit.
It's multiplied when God's people are coming together.
And that same spirit starts to work that out in each life together.
Being one as a father and son are one.
See, this truth made that list of the fruits of the spirit hit me in a new way this week.
Listen to this.
Galatians 5.22
The fruit of the spirit is...
Now, listen to the list, but think about which of these are internal and then which of these just work themselves out.
The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
You see how it starts by the inside.
The spirit fills you on the inside with Christ's love.
He fills you with Christ's joy.
He fills you with Christ's patience.
It's still internal, but it's relating to other people.
That's the joy of Christ in heaven being fulfilled in his people on earth.
So if you're full of the love, the joy, the peace, and the patience of Jesus, you almost don't need to list anything else.
It's all going to overflow, isn't it?
So dear Christian, don't expect this world to fill you with joy.
According to John 13 and John 16, Satan is the prince of this world.
Instead, ask the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the prince of peace, to fill you with his joy.
Don't expect the world to fill you with joy.
1 Corinthians 1.20 calls the wisdom of this world ignorant foolishness.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, he is the wisdom of God.
He is the one who will fulfill his joy in you.
What is it?
What is this joy?
The joy of our Lord Jesus Christ is a part of God's very essence.
God is joy.
We have a notion of joy because that's who God is.
His spirit manifests Christ's supernatural joy in you who are his children.
So yes, in this isolated world, Christ fulfills his joy in you, dear believer, as you experience oneness with his people.
Number two, in this violent world, if you belong to Christ, he fulfills his joy in you as you trust him to guard and keep you.
Yes, even in this violent world, Christ fulfills his joy in you, dear believer, as you trust him to guard and keep you.
Look at what he says in verse 12.
While I was with them, this is his disciples, I kept them in your name.
I have guarded them.
Not one of them has been lost.
Jesus says, it is accomplished.
I finished the work you gave me to do.
And the work of Jesus is the perfect obedience to the Father.
And that includes him guarding and keeping his disciples.
Every single soul the Father gave to him.
It is Christ who keeps you.
Listen to how Paul echoes this truth to the church in Thessalonica.
2 Thessalonians 3.3.
He writes, the Lord is faithful.
He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.
We sing in these beautiful Christmas hymns that he rules the world with truth and grace.
He makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.
Jesus says, not one of those souls that the Father gave him were lost.
Not one soul lost.
It's Christ who guards you.
It's Christ who keeps you.
Christ will not lose you.
Don't expect this world, though, to fill you with joy.
1 Corinthians 11.32 tells us that this world is condemned.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, he guards you and keeps you.
And he says, you are no longer condemned with the world.
You belong to me.
I'm the one who hold you.
And I will fulfill my joy in you.
What is this joy?
The joy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a deep-seated pleasure.
It is a depth of assurance and confidence that he holds you.
When you rest and trust that he holds me and keeps me and guards my soul,
this ignites a cheerful, glad heart.
You're full of gratitude for the Lord who keeps you.
So yes, in this violent world, Christ fulfills his joy in you, dear Christian,
as you trust him to guard you and keep you.
Number three, in this world of lies, Christ fulfills his joy in you, dear Christian,
as you receive God's word from Christ.
In this world of lies, Christ fulfills his joy in you as you receive his word from Christ.
Jesus fulfills the word of God in two ways here in this passage.
First is in verse 12.
Take your eyes to verse 12.
Jesus is praying to the Father, knowing exactly how he will be handed over and tied up.
And in verse 12, he says,
The son of destruction was lost, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
If you skip down a couple verses, in verse 14,
Jesus says,
I have given them my disciples who I guard and keep.
I've given them your word.
Now, Judas is described in the book of Matthew as turning.
Let me read it for you.
In Matthew chapter 27, Judas says in the temple,
I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.
And he throws the money back at the rulers, the religious elite of the world.
But the term that Matthew uses, it does not define true repentance and change of direction.
It's only really meaning a changing of the mind.
That's how the ESB correctly translates it.
Judas changed his mind, but as someone put it,
he merely felt regret and sorrow.
There was not a genuine conversion.
Judas did not experience spiritual penitence, but only emotional remorse.
Judas was so trapped in sin that he was willing to be an instrument of Satan.
We're told in Luke 22, 3, that Satan entered Judas, who was called Iscariot.
So you see, this is really an expression of the great cosmic battle.
It's the promised seed of Eve, Jesus Christ, against the serpent.
And Judas has taken the side of the serpent.
And Jesus comes to fulfill all scripture.
That the serpent will, in fact, injure him.
And to the point of death, Jesus will fulfill the scripture by laying down his life and becoming accursed.
So Judas made his choice.
He chose this world.
And he experienced the lies of Satan.
In this world of lies, the worldly leaders said to Judas,
after he had thrown the money back at them,
what is this to us?
See to it yourself.
You see, even with the example of Judas,
the contrast is so stark.
You put your trust in Christ,
he will satisfy you.
He will not disappoint you.
You put your trust in the world,
this world is full of lies.
You will be disappointed.
Trust is the lifeblood of any relationship.
So a lie is like a cut.
And the relationship starts to hemorrhage trust.
You can trust Jesus.
Jesus says,
I give my disciples your word.
He comes as the great prophet.
He comes to speak the truth of God.
In the word of Jesus, you can trust.
Listen to how the church in Sardis held on to the word of Christ.
In Revelation 3.8, Jesus says to the church,
I know that you have little power,
and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Jesus keeps you, and he gives you his word,
and you keep his word.
This world of lies, it can feel like we are.
crawling through barbed wire and thorns.
I mean, it's a vicious world that Christ has left us in.
I love how the hymn shows the work of Christ.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found.
And as the word of God goes out
through his church, through his people,
the power of the Spirit draws all who belong to him.
They hear the shepherd's voice and follow him.
And he keeps them, and they keep his word.
And by doing that, he fulfills his joy in his people.
So don't expect this world to fill you with joy.
1 Corinthians 7.31 says that the fashion of this world will pass away.
But our Lord Jesus Christ,
his throne is forever,
and he will fulfill his joy in you.
Don't expect this world to fill you with joy.
In John 14.27,
we saw that this world does not receive the Spirit of God.
But our Lord Jesus Christ fills you with his Spirit.
And his Spirit brings the joy of Christ in heaven
and fulfills it in your life.
What is that joy of Christ?
It is the deep down sense of well-being that abides in you
when you know that all is well between you and your Lord
because of Christ's finished work for you.
How can you trust that?
Because he promises it in his word.
So yes, in this world of lies,
Christ fulfills his joy in you, dear believer,
as you receive God's word from Christ.
Hold on to it.
Number four.
In this world of rejection,
Christ fulfills his joy in you
as you learn that you belong to Christ,
not to the world.
We hear this promise, we receive it by faith,
but we need to learn it.
In this world of rejection,
Christ fulfills his joy in you
as you learn and I learn that we belong to Christ.
Body and soul, both in life and in death.
We don't belong to this world.
This world is not one you want to belong to.
Listen to this disturbing description of our country.
Blood grows hot and blood is spilled.
Deception breeds and thrives.
Universal suspicion reigns.
Each man feels an impulse to kill his neighbor,
lest he first be killed by him.
Revenge and retaliation follow.
Does that sound like our country?
Sound like human nature?
That was written in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.
Don't put your hope in this world.
Look at what Jesus says in verse 14.
The world has hated them
because they are not of this world,
just as I am not of this world.
Jesus has been saying this.
The world hated me first.
If you belong to me, the world will hate you.
The world hates you because you have my word.
As the church holds on to the word of God,
the world hates the Christian even more and more and more.
It's easy to want to cower and back down,
maybe let go of some parts of the word of God.
It's easy to want to try to keep one foot in each camp.
You want to be across the borderline of these two kingdoms
with one foot on each side.
Jesus says, if you belong to me,
you don't belong in this world.
You are either under Adam's curse in the world
or you are under the blessings of Christ
in the eternal kingdom of heaven.
The good news is that we don't do this alone.
He's speaking of his disciples.
The world hates all of my disciples
and none of my disciples are of the world
because all of my disciples are united to me,
Christ says,
and I am not of this world.
We see this promise in Romans 7 verse 4.
You belong to another,
to him who is raised from the dead
in order that we might bear the fruit of God.
In verse 15, Jesus says,
I do not ask God that you take them out of the world,
but that you keep them from the evil one.
In verse 16,
they are not of the world
just as I am not of the world.
The world is vicious,
but yet Jesus says it's good
for you and me, his people,
to remain in the world.
Look at what he says in verse 15.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world.
God wants you who belong to Christ
to remain in the world,
and Jesus is praying right now from heaven
that the Father will protect you,
protect your soul from the evil one
as you remain here.
He keeps you by the power of his spirit.
The Lord Jesus knows the war for your soul.
It's vicious.
The enemy is coming at you.
The world hates you,
and yet he prays for you.
The evil one will try to deceive Christ's disciples
into thinking that they are of this world.
Jesus says,
you belong to me.
I am not of this world.
Don't expect this world
to fill you with joy.
In John 8, verse 23,
Jesus says,
I do not belong to this world.
Neither do you if you belong to me.
Instead, our Lord Jesus Christ,
he opens the floodgates of the blessings of heaven,
and he does that in order to fill you with his joy.
James 5, 6 says that
it was the world that slew Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ,
he endured the cross.
He was made to bleed.
He was publicly shamed.
He took on the curses of this world
and the judgment of God
for those souls who were in this world
in order to confirm,
you belong to me.
I have purchased you with my blood,
and I will fulfill my joy in you.
What is this joy of our Lord
who gave up his life on the cross,
was buried,
and rose again?
The joy of the Lord is not an experience
that comes from favorable circumstances.
It's the opposite.
It is a gift of heaven
to your soul
through the most difficult trials
that this world can pile on.
Number five,
in this sinful world,
Christ fulfills his joy in you,
dear believer,
as God sanctifies you
by his truth.
Yes, in this sinful world,
Christ fulfills his joy in you
as God sanctifies you in truth.
See what Jesus prays in the final verses,
17, 18, and 19.
It says,
Father,
sanctify in the truth,
my disciples.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I have sent them into the world.
And for their sake,
I sanctify myself,
that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Jesus says,
for their sake,
I sanctify or consecrate myself.
It means to be set apart,
to be marked,
to be cut and made holy.
The cross of Jesus,
it's referred to by Paul
as the circumcision.
This is Christ being cut,
being sanctified,
being set apart.
And Jesus,
in this prayer,
says,
I consecrate myself
for their sake,
for the sake of my disciples.
And he does this
so that you
will be sanctified
in his truth.
How does this happen?
How does God
sanctify his disciples
in his truth?
Well,
what I want to emphasize
from today
in these verses,
it's the truth
that Christ
was sanctified
for you.
So your sanctification
begins by resting
in that truth.
I love how
one Scottish pastor
in the 1800s,
Horatius Bonar,
he wrote this,
faith is rest,
not toil.
It is the giving up
of all the former
weary efforts
to do or feel
something good
in order to make
God love
and pardon you.
Faith is the calm
reception
of the truth
that God
loves you
and pardons
your sin
of his goodness.
Rest upon
God's free love.
He so loved you
in the world
that he gave
his only begotten
son.
Rest in the joy
of who Christ is.
He is the son of God
consecrated for you.
And as we rest
in this truth,
we find out
the greatness
of God's love
to you
in Christ.
That's what we focus
on in Christmas
in this season.
God the son
took on flesh,
consecrated himself,
he fulfilled,
he accomplished
all the work
his father gave him
to do
to show you
the love
of the father
for you.
In verse 18,
Jesus says,
Father,
you sent me
into the world.
The Lord Jesus
was sent
on a mission
into this world
and it was
to minister
to you.
Ultimately,
it was to fulfill
his joy
in you
for the glory
of God.
And now,
Jesus says
of his disciples,
so I have sent
them
into
the world.
God doesn't
take us out
of the world,
he keeps us
in the world,
and as the
father sent
him,
he sends
his disciples.
Alistair Begg
pointed out,
we cannot
minister
to a lost
world
unless we
are in it.
And yet,
we're in the
world,
not because
we belong
to the world,
but we're in
it as a
sojourner,
as a pilgrim.
We are in
the world,
but we are
not of
the world.
In 3 John
1-4,
sorry,
chapter 1,
verse 4,
we read,
I have no
greater joy
than to hear
that my
children are
walking in
the truth.
We receive
the truth,
and we walk
it out as
pilgrims and
sojourners in
this world.
Jesus was
sent by
God,
and he was
sustained by
the power of
the Holy Spirit,
and it's that
same Holy Spirit
who sustained
Christ,
who now is
sending and
sustaining his
disciples,
his people,
as we march
out his
mission on
the earth.
He accomplishes
it.
We are his
hands and feet
marching it
out.
And we do
this before
the face of
God himself,
before the
Lord Jesus
who looks
down on
his church
with pleasure.
This is the
great high
priestly prayer.
It's a glimpse
into how Jesus
prays from
heaven,
and it reminds
us of the
Numbers 16
blessing that we
say,
the Lord bless
you and keep
you.
All of those
themes are here
in these verses.
I love how the
hymn makes that
connection.
We ask our
Lord Jesus on
this mission as
pilgrims in the
world,
Lord, ever lift
thy face upon
me.
Resting
neath thy
smile,
Lord Jesus,
earth's dark
shadows flee.
So we do not
expect this world
to fill us with
joy.
Galatians 6.14
says that the
world is crucified
to you,
and you are
crucified to the
world.
In John 7,
Jesus said that
the proud of this
world hate Christ.
Why would the
proud of this
world be able to
fulfill us with the
joy that only God
can give?
By contrast, our
Lord Jesus Christ
humbly entered
this proud world,
and he did that to
fulfill his joy in
you, his people.
Do you see how the
joy of Christ is
independent of what
is happening around
us in the world?
The joy of Christ is
a cheerful heart that
leads to cheerful
behavior.
in this sinful
world, our Lord
Jesus sanctifies
his people by
his truth as we
walk with him.
Well, the only way
that we can respond
to this glorious
truth of how Christ
fulfills his joy in
us is to rejoice.
Rejoice because
Christ has accomplished
his mission in the
world so that you
can have his joy
fulfilled in you.
I want to take you
back once again to
verse 13.
Jesus said to the
Father, I am coming
to you, and these
things I speak in the
world, that they may
have my joy fulfilled
in themselves.
If we expect this
world to fill us with
joy, we will be
disappointed.
But if we expect
Christ to keep his
promise and fulfill
his joy in us, we
will be satisfied.
George Swinnock, a
Puritan, in a book
called The Blessed
and Boundless God, he
wrote this,
Those who have never
seen the sun are
amazed at a candle.
Likewise, those who
have never known the
blessed God are fond
of pitiful things on
earth.
Our Lord Jesus Christ
came revealing the
radiance of the glory
of God.
God.
He reveals the joy of
heaven.
What is this joy?
It's spiritual life.
Psalm 16, as we read
today, in verse 11, we
read that it's in the
presence of God that we
find a fullness of joy
at the right hand of God
where Christ is seated,
our pleasures forevermore.
Father, in verse 13, our
Lord Jesus said, Father, I
am coming to you.
And now from the right
hand of the Father, for
he has ascended, the Son
of God, he prays for you,
Christian, who are in the
world, and he prays that
his Father will guard you
and keep you and fill you
with his joy.
I had a phone call this
week with a dear brother,
a Christian who's been
going through some of the
hardest trials you could
imagine for the last two
or three years.
And he was telling the
story of not feeling this
joy.
He said, it's just been so
hard.
And when he's feeling
stirred up like that and
the weight of life in this
world and the sin and the
brokenness, the
disappointment, he just
drives back to Scripture.
He's memorized the book of
Romans from chapter 1 all
the way through chapter 14.
He's reciting Scripture
constantly.
He's memorized about 10
different Psalms that he's
trying to recite to himself.
And he said there was a week
a little bit ago where he
just went into work, took his
lunch break, went to the
grocery store, and just had to
sit in his car and start to
journal.
I wrote down some of what he
was sharing.
He said later on when he got
home, he had seen that a call
had gone to his phone and it
was just a short little voice
message of another Christian
brother letting him know they
were praying for him because
God put him on their heart.
He said that that didn't
instantly change how I was
feeling, but it was a very
small reminder.
That fellow Christian was
praying and took time to make
a quick phone call because
Jesus Christ is praying for
him.
Jesus Christ sees what he is
enduring in this world.
And Jesus Christ is praying,
Father, keep my dear son.
Guard him and fulfill my joy in
him as he endures the pain of
this world.
He's taking up his cross and
fill him.
And so when the Lord stirs you
to pray for one another, I
believe this is how the joy of
Christ in heaven multiplies the
blessings for his people on
earth.
He doesn't take us out of the
world, but he prays that the
spirit of God in fellow
believers will stir one another
up and spur one another on in
the faith.
Reminding each other the Lord
keeps you, dear brother, dear
sister.
The Lord guards you.
The Lord loves you.
We can rejoice and we can rest.
We're going to sing in a moment.
Jesus, I am resting, resting in
the joy of what thou art.
I am finding out the
greatness of thy loving heart.
Thou has bid me gaze upon thee
and as thy beauty fills my soul,
for by thy transforming power,
thou hast made me whole.
So dear Christian, rejoice and
rest in Christ.
He has accomplished his mission in
this world so that his joy may be
fulfilled in you.
Let's pray.
Oh Lord, please train our hearts to
treasure your son, Jesus Christ,
above all.
Please grow our faith, grow our love,
grow our joy as we rest in him.
In the words of 1 Peter 1.8,
though we do not see our Lord Jesus
now, we believe in him and we
rejoice with joy that is
inexpressible and filled with glory.
Please give us more of this joy,
we ask.
Amen.