00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
And when before the throne I
stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washes it white as
snow. Amen. What a joy that brings
to the heart to know sin had left a crimson stain, but through
the blood of Jesus Christ, He washed it white as snow. Praise
the Lord. All right. John chapter 17. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they may know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are of thee. For I have given unto them the
words which thou hast given me, and they have received them.
and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not
for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them. 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. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those thou gavest 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. 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 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 hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray for these alone,
but to them also which shall believe on me through their word.
that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast
givest me I have given them, that they may be one even as
we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world
hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known
that Thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them
Thy name, and will declare it, and that the love wherewith Thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. All right, now
turn with me, at least for a minute, back to John chapter 17. I mentioned that this is the
Lord making intercession to God the Father for those, a particular
people, and he makes reference to that fact several times in
this prayer. That these are the ones that
you gave me. I'm not going to be here with
them in this physical form. And then he prays. that God would
provide all that we need, knowing that he would. The Lord lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, verse
1, glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh. You deal every day with
his flesh like I do? Sure you do. Do you have problems
coping with things that you must think about, things that you
must plan to do to accomplish what you have to accomplish every
day? Sure you do. Do you get down
about it? Does it depress you? Sure you
do. It does me. I know it does you to some extent,
but I want you to notice and to find, if you haven't recently,
true joy this morning. In this fact, verse 2, God the
Son speaking to God the Father. He says, as thou hast given him
power, me, himself, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Power over what? Over all flesh. See, that's that part of me that
I'm fighting to, isn't it? But you see, God has given Jesus
Christ power over that side of me that I'm fighting in this
battle every day. Oh, and He displayed that power,
didn't He? Absolutely. He gave His perfect
life on the cross of Calvary for us. The Bible says, "...for
the joy that was set before Him." That joy is that joy that we
have a glimpse of now, a small taste of now, that we will have
with Him in glory. With Him after this battle is
over. When we see Him, we're going
to know Him because we're going to be like Him. We're going to
have that joy of the unity that we have with Him. This is a little
taste of that. When we come together and we
look into His Word and we seek Him, which by the way, that's
obedience to Him because that's what He's told us to do, instructed
us to do. to come together and to seek
him in his word. When we do that, we experience
this union, the joy of this union that we're going to experience
after this physical life. And you see, all his promises
are true. So we know he's here with us because we are meeting
together in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who's been given
all power in heaven and on earth. over all flesh, God has given
him power. In verse 13, we're in John chapter
17 and verse 13, And now come I to thee. Again, Jesus talking
to God, 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. You see, His Word His power,
His Word does away with the feelings that we have because of the things
we go through in this life, these negative feelings, these worries,
these concerns. It does away with those and replaces
those feelings with a joy that can't be touched by anything
that's fleshly. It's a tremendous joy. And now
I come out to thee, verse 13, and these things I speak in the
world. His word is what He spoke in
the world. We have a record of what He said.
We're reading it today. In this particular Bible, the
words are in red. These things I speak in the world. Why? That they might have joy
fulfilled in themselves. fulfilled. Come to a reality. Come to a fulfillment in us,
in our minds, in our hearts. Yes, in the way we feel. I want
us to see that true joy is an eternal gift. It's an eternal
gift. It's not something you can conjure
up. It's not something that some situation or circumstance can
bring about for you. It's different than happiness.
True joy is an eternal gift from God. Turn with me back to John
15 now. John chapter 15. I know that
all of us will be familiar with this passage, the 15th chapter
of the book of John. the Lord Jesus Christ, these
are his words. And remember, he spoke these
words. Why? That his joy might be fulfilled
in us, remember? Just read it. We're familiar
with the fact that he was teaching about the vine and the farmer,
the husbandman, and the branches, and he was identifying again,
it's actually previous to chapter 17, but he's identifying another
time who those are that he is speaking to and making intercession
to God for that are on the earth, his chosen. And he identifies
them. He says in verse 7, if you abide
in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and
it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified
that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father
hath loved me, verse 9, as the Father hath loved me, so have
I loved you. What joy the Father and the Son
must have together. What a union, a glorious union. Well, as the Father loved the
Son, so He loves us. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you, so continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in His love. And praise God, He lived a perfect
life. And God the Father accepted it
on your behalf. Amazing grace, isn't it? Verse
11. We're in the book of John, chapter
15, in verse 11. The purpose of Jesus' words. What is the purpose of Jesus'
words? Verse 11. And here it is again. These things
have I spoken unto you. Why? That my joy might remain
in you, and that your joy might be full. so this joy that i said
earlier is an eternal gift and here jesus says this word the
things that i have spoken unto you god's word jesus's word i
have spoken unto you for the reason that my joy might remain
in you and i want us to see this morning that that joy That true
eternal joy is unshakable. It's unmovable. That joy remains
in us eternally. The word there, remain, is minyo,
and it means exactly what you would think it means. It says
to stay in a given place. Jesus said, I have spoken these
things unto you. And again, He had spoken a lot. But in chapter 15, He was identifying
that we are in Him just like a vine and a branch are together. They're part of the same life.
The same thing is true with us and Him. So He's saying that
He speaks these things. I have spoken these things unto
you that my joy might stay in the given place where I put it.
And that's in the heart and the mind, isn't it? You see, it is
a confidence. We talked about a resolution,
where it's a sure thing that we decide of intent. It's what we intend to do. This,
minyo, is to stay in a given place. It is a joy as our salvation
is, that we continue to return to as we're living in this life. Yes, we have unhappiness. We
have things that try to take away our joy, but they can't,
because Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, has placed His
Spirit, this life, with the joy that comes with this life, in
us, and it's an eternal placement. It ain't going nowhere. See,
we are eternal creatures, born again, spiritually created by
Him. These things have I spoken unto
you, verse 11, that my joy might remain in you. Now the word joy
there, that word kera, it is a cheerfulness, it is calm, not
in fear of being lost. You see, that's the confidence
that we have in our salvation. God gave it to us. As we rely
on Him, we experience the strength that comes from this joy. You see, we return to it over
and over. Even in Nehemiah chapter 8 and
verse 10, Nehemiah was telling them, go ahead, eat this and
eat the fat. Go ahead and do all this now, because the joy
of the Lord is your strength. The joy of the Lord is your strength.
As we return to it, to this joy that we have in our heart that
He's paid the price for our eternal life as we return to it and stand
on it and depend on it then there is no fear of it being lost,
is there? No. There is none. Why? Because our salvation is
in the hands of God. It cannot be lost. When we let go of the dependence
on ourselves and we totally trust in Him, then we are strong. And then the terminology in the
Bible, when I'm weak, that's when I'm strong. It comes to
life, doesn't it? When we totally depend on what
He's done for us, He has paid the price for our reunion with
God. Now, happiness, I think I said
this earlier, and joy are two different things. Happiness is
an emotion. Happiness is an emotion that's
based on circumstances in our lives. Certain things make us
happy. Certain things take our happiness
away or make us sad. But joy is a certainty of knowing
who God is. I know Him. How? How do I know
Him? How do I have the faith in Him
that stands through any circumstances and the joy that comes from that
faith, that confidence, that knowing Him, knowing that He
paid the price for me, knowing that when He died on the cross
of Calvary, He had me on His mind? Well, you might say, well,
that's not physically possible in a human brain. That was God
hanging there, let me tell you. He's always known you. He chose
you before the foundation of the world and you can joy in
that. Joy is a confirmed certainty
that God is in control. We can be in total chaos and
at the same time be relaxed because we know that God's in control.
All of us can look back in our life, whether it was yesterday
or or 50 years ago, and we can see where God steered us into
His will, into the path that He had laid out for us. God is
in control. This knowledge of the absolute
sovereignty of God, and I could go into definitions there, but
we know that God is sovereign, sovereign, He's one over all
in everything, especially in things that man has no capability
to accomplish. Spiritual life. Salvation. God is in control. This joy comes,
again, from this confirmed certainty. How is it confirmed? The Bible
says that God put His Holy Spirit within us, and His Spirit is
witness with our spirit that we are His. Isn't that a joyous
thing? I'm telling you, our spiritual
eternal life solely depends on what He has already accomplished
for us. You see, He's laid the plan out
for your life, and He's working that plan, and that is a joyous
thing. Oh, I would be sad if I thought
I could do something to lose my salvation that God has given
me. I certainly wouldn't have an
unshakable joy in my heart, would I? No way. But praise God, our lives are
in the hand of a powerful and mighty Savior. All power has
been given unto Him in heaven and on earth. These things have
I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full. Verse 11. John 15. Now verse
12. This is my commandment that you
love one another as I have loved you. Do you see that reflection
of what he said earlier? In verse 9? Remember what he said? He said,
as the Father hath loved me, so I love you. Continue you in my love. Now,
in verse 12, he says, this is my commandment. It's flowing
downhill to us, isn't it? What? This love and the joy that
comes with it. This is my commandment that you
love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You're
my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call
you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth.
But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known. unto you. Why? That your joy
may be full and fulfilled. Verse 16, we'll close with this
one. You have not chosen me but I
have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit and that your fruit should remain like that joy remains
You see how the love and the joy keeps flowing from God the
Father, to God the Son, to us, to others? And that your fruit should remain
that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it to you. These things I command you, that
you love one another. Praise the Lord. May you see
this morning the purpose of Jesus' words, and that is that your
joy in Him might be full. True joy is an eternal gift from
God, undeserved, unsolicited, unmerited
favor and amazing grace.
Joy the Eternal Gift (Following Jesus16)
Series Following Jesus
| Sermon ID | 21625221381179 |
| Duration | 22:19 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.