Traditionally this weekend is recognized and celebrated by many churches as the day, this day that Jesus raised from the dead victorious. We sang about it this morning. Often some churches will celebrate in the days preceding this weekend what is referred to as Holy Week or Passion Week where they will commemorate a service that depicts something about the days that Jesus came into Jerusalem, those six or so days where there were specific events that unfolded leading to His crucifixion which is referred to by many as Good Friday. This holy week is neither commanded in Scripture, nor it is forbidden. So whatever we do, we want to do it in the name and the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, but churches will try to connect that with the resurrection. But there's another tradition that you are very well aware of that's been attached to this weekend called Easter weekend or Easter day that is rather secular in nature and has nothing to do with the resurrection and is that very well-known tradition where kids get baskets and they put artificial grass in it. and they start to make hints or requests to their parents because they want gloriously to appear the next day, baskets overflowing with chocolates and all kinds of interesting looking things that taste very well. Or for some people it's on this day where there will be these plastic colored eggs and stuffed inside will be lots and lots of goodies packed full almost to the point where you can't close it, and then at the signal of some parent The children scurry across the yard, and the goal then is to put just as many of those eggs in your basket as possibly can be done. Now, what that tradition means, as you know, is that if I have a basket full of eggs, I'm going to have a belly full of joy, fullness of joy. But although this tradition is secular and has nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I want you to see there's an unintended analogy in what I just described. Unintended meaning I don't think that people were trying to get there when they started this tradition wherever it came from. Analogy meaning there's something about it that relates to the very purpose of the resurrection. And you'll find this in John chapter 16 as we turn there this morning. And in that day, You shall ask Me nothing." Now the day contextually is the day of the resurrection and the ensuing days that follow, including our day today. In that day, you won't ask Me for anything directly. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name, ask and you shall receive, so that your joy may be full." My title this morning is, That Your Joy May Be Full. Now, of course, we know that this really has nothing to do with what I just described as a basket full of eggs means a belly full of joy. but there's something about it. Really there's something about many different illustrations we could look to in humanity where people are looking, they're searching for baskets overflowing, baskets full, as it were, not just children but adults. Jesus is going to declare to us, beloved, that He came to die and His resurrection will bring us and overflowing a fullness of joy. What does he mean by that? How do we get there? And is this your experience today? Or are you like the analogy we just used of children seeking, searching, looking frantically, drastically to fill up, to overflow your personal basket for your own mini-kingdom for a sort of self-seeking kind of joy, or as we see here in this account that Jesus tells about His death and coming resurrection, has Jesus ransomed your joy and has He purified your joy, that it's something altogether different, but yet it is full, it is overflowing, it is something that Jesus came to give us today. So first of all, let's consider that this joy was a blood-bought joy. Verse 16, a little while and you shall not see me, and again, a little while and you shall see me because I go to the Father. Then said some of His disciples among themselves, what is this that He saith unto us? They don't get it. A little while and you shall not see me, and again, a little while and you shall see me, and because I go to the Father. Verse 18, they said therefore, what is this that He saith a little while? We cannot tell what He saith, we don't get it. Now Jesus, in verse 19, knew that they were desirous to ask Him and said unto them, Do you inquire among yourselves of that I said, a little while, and ye shall not see Me? And again, a little while, and ye shall see Me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned to joy." Now what Jesus is saying is that when He goes to the Father, Whatever that means, He's going to turn their sorrow into overflowing joy. Now we know the means to get there which they don't get yet. What does He mean? A little while and you'll see Me no more. The means of going to the Father is by way of crucifixion. So Jesus declares unmistakably that He came to die to give His life a ransom to turn your sorrow into a God-glorifying joy. Now we don't think in those theological categories, do we? If somebody asked you what is the crucifixion about, that's the last thing probably you would say. You'd say, well, it involves these big words like reconciliation and redemption and justification or righteousness and then there's forgiveness. And if you really want to get deep, I guess you'll say expiation and propitiation and all these big fancy words, or maybe you just say, it just means salvation. But are you thinking theologically in this category it means that Jesus came to die, to ransom my joy and to purify it so that I would have fullness of joy? Oh beloved, the cross is all about that. So we need to understand what Jesus is saying and what He means when He says this that the disciples don't yet get but they'll get it. later when the Comforter comes, when Jesus is raised from the dead. Now, in verse 20, why is the world going to rejoice at this? And why are the disciples sorrowful? I want you to see there's a common root to both of them. Now it is true the disciples genuinely love Jesus, but in John 14, 28, Jesus says this, if you love Me, you would rejoice because I go to My Father. But now they're sorrowful because He said, I'm going to my Father, which means there's something off-center about their love and about their concept of joy in the Kingdom. It's off-center. is a different category than the disciples because the disciples love Jesus but there's something off-center, something they don't get yet about His going away that they will which the world knows nothing about. Now the world is going to rejoice when Jesus dies, which they shouldn't do. The disciples are going to be very sorrowful at His death, which they shouldn't do because they should be understanding it, which means there's a common root to both the joy of the world at His death and the sorrowful Now, beloved, I want to ask you this morning, which category do you fall in here? And do you hear your voice cry out among the scoffers when they were shouting out concerning Jesus, crucify Him, crucify Him? Why would anybody kill such a perfect, lovely, Godly man that did so much good, healed so many people, cured diseases, raised people from the dead. But I want you to see, beloved, if you were there, you would have cried with the angry mob, kill Him, crucify Him. Because you see, when Jesus came into Jerusalem on what is referred to as Palm Sunday in Matthew 21 as we turn there, the people were rejoicing that the King had arrived. These same people that Jesus said are going to rejoice when He's gone, they were rejoicing when He came. But then in just three or four days later... They're saying, we don't have a king but Caesar. I get it. They say, here's the king that's coming in the name of the Lord. And then shortly after, they say, wait a minute, we don't have a king but Caesar. Away with this man, crucify him. What happened in just a few short days that the cry of the multitude was that of joy and rejoicing, that then the cry of the multitude was a rejoicing and that he was gone? Good riddance. This man is off the face of the earth. And then we ask, where do you find yourself in this story? this morning concerning fullness of joy. Matthew 21 and verse 1, Jesus is now going to draw Nhi to Jerusalem. He's going to come in the last time to Jerusalem and He will never leave again except by way of death. When they drew Nhi to Jerusalem, verse 1 of chapter 21 of Matthew, and were come to Bethphage unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples saying to them, go into the village over against you, you'll find two donkeys there, a mother and a young, bring them both." If anybody asks you, what are you doing? Say, the Master has need of them. So they go and do it. Now verse 4 says, all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying, Zechariah 9, 9, it's where you find this prophecy. Tell the daughter of Zion, that is Jerusalem, behold your King is coming to you, meek and sitting upon an ass or a donkey, and the colt, the foal, the offspring of a donkey." So here Jesus comes with the two, one has the clothing, the other has clothing, Jesus is sitting on it. He comes into Jerusalem as prophesied. Jesus is announcing by this action that He is the long-awaited King of Israel. He is the Messiah. He's coming as the prophecy has said in Zechariah, not on a horse, but on a donkey. Symbolizing perhaps that a donkey is a beast of burden that serves people. Jesus came not to be served by you, He will bear the burden, He will do the serving, He'll carry the load on the cart. That's what a donkey's bred for. Who goes out on a Sunday afternoon for a ride on a donkey? Nobody. You just work with those animals. You ride on a nice beautiful looking horse. I mean, the gallop is smooth, the donkey is just kind of awkward. So Jesus comes meek, He's lowly, He's riding on this beast of burden and He is announcing by the prophecy, I'm the King. That's the first thing He does with this action. Secondly, the people get it. They know what he's saying and they receive him as the king. Verse 8, and a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, others cut down branches from the trees, hence where the tradition calls it Palm Sunday because they cast palm branches before him, which was an act of homage. That was done in the Old Testament for, I think it was Jehu, recognizing he's the king. They threw their garments before him, he stepped on them. So the donkey comes riding over the palm branches and over the garments the people were throwing out in front of him. What are they saying? You are the king. So then the multitudes in verse 9. went before and that followed cried saying, Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest." Now to say, Hosanna to the son of David means David's son is the king. Luke chapter 19 verse 38 says, blessed be the king that comes in the name of the Lord. So Jesus says, I'm the king and the people respond, you are the king. And in Luke 19.37, it says, they praised God and rejoiced in the mighty works that Jesus did. They knew he raised Lazarus from the dead. They knew he was able to cast out devils. They knew he fed the 5,000. They knew he healed the sick, and they knew he caused the blind to see. What are they thinking? Oh, man, nobody can stop this king. Nobody can get in his way. This king is sovereign. He's going to come in, and he's going to be the long-awaited king that we're all looking for. The third thing is that the Pharisees get it, too. Look at verse 16, after they make all these shouts, Hosanna to the son of David, in verse 15, verse 16 says that the Pharisees said unto him, do you not hear what they are saying? Translated. Do you realize they're calling you a king? They're saying you're the king of Psalm 118 and you're the king of Zechariah 9? For which Jesus responds and says, yes, I know, for so I am. When he says, yea, have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? And in the gospel of Luke, he would say, if these should hold their voice, even the stones would cry out. Meaning what? This is a reality. This is a truth. I am the king that comes to Zion. that's going to bring something with him. Now here's the question. Jesus announces it, the people receive it, the Pharisees aren't happy about it, but they know what they're saying. Why then in just three or four days later does the shouts of praise and joy turn to a kind of rejoicing that says, we're glad he's dead. Away, we don't want this king anymore. The answer is found in the word Hosanna. Hosanna means save now, king. Send now, send help now. Now you have to turn to Psalm 118 to get what they're really saying. So if you turn with me there, I want you to see what the people are after in this king. And beloved, what you're after apart from the grace of God in this king or any other king. So the Pharisees know, hey, they're quoting from Psalm 118, Jesus does not rebuke them for it. So, while the word hosanna is not used in verse 25 of Psalm 118, that's what hosanna means, as we pick up in this Psalm, verse 25. Save now, I beseech Thee, O Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee. Now in the New Testament they said what? Hosanna, which means save us now, send help now. So this is where they're quoting from. Verse 26, blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. That's what they're saying in the gospel of Matthew and Luke and John and Mark. All four gospels talk about this coming into Jerusalem. Then they say, we have blessed you out of the house of the Lord. Jesus rides the donkey right up to the temple and begins to teach. So here is Psalm 118 unfolding as the people cry out, this is the King that's to come, blessed be the name of the Lord. And they're saying with the word hosanna, save us, save us now. Well what's wrong with that? It's found in the Word in verse 25 as I read it again. Save now, Hosanna, I beseech Thee, O Lord, O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity." Prosperity. The word prosperity means to push forward or to advance. You see, the problem with the kind of king that they were looking for was a king that would push their own personal prosperity forward, would advance it. And that's why they crucified Him, beloved, because He would not be the kind of King that would give them a sort of self-centered basket full of joy that's totally disconnected from the Lord of glory. It needed to be ransomed and purified for it was depraved and distorted and blind. a kind of self-seeking pursuit of prosperity that caused them to reject their king and to say, we have no king but Caesar for which people cry out today, loudly and largely in the land that we're living in. Notice the prosperity they saw. They wanted a king that would give them a good economy. They would take away the high taxes of the Roman Empire and get rid of Pilate and the occupation and bring just good comforts and conveniences of life. That's what we want. See, they wanted somebody that would make Israel great again. That's what they were after. And when he wouldn't do it, he said, Get him out of here, we want another king. Maybe Caesar will do it, maybe some other politician will give us the prosperity that we want. What about the prosperity of the Pharisees? Matthew chapter 27, Pilate knew that it was for envy that they delivered him. They hear the praises and the glories that the people are heaping upon Christ and that's what they want. That's the prosperity they're after. So they want a king that will affirm their greatness and bring them into a kind of prosperity that makes much of me. Make me the center of attention, fill my baskets full so everybody will just look at me and praise me and think I'm so wonderful. What do they do? Kill Him, crucify Him. the prosperity of Judas Iscariot, the prosperity of money. For here Mary on that very day breaks an alabaster full of ointment that was worth a whole year's wages. Let's just calculate that in our current monetary value. I don't know, thirty thousand, forty thousand, whatever the going rate of a year's wages, we'll just say starting salary here in our culture. She broke the box and poured over Jesus thirty thousand dollars worth in current money, just over his head, and Judas says, why are you wasting? And the disciples joined in, too. Yeah, give it to the poor. Jesus said, this is not a waste. You see, Judas is looking for prosperity because he sees the value of money, which he was very able, easy to point to, but he could not see the value of the king that was coming to give a far different kind of joy. and the joy of money, the joy of power, the joy of praise, the joy of conveniences, the joy of comforts, the joy of a good economy, the joy of good wages and all the things that people pursue as a sort of focal point of their life. And what about the apostles? We can't leave them out here. What were they pursuing? The apostles that loved Jesus, they did. But then when Peter said in Mark chapter 8 and about the thirty-first verse when he announced openly, look, we're going to Jerusalem and the King is going to die there. I'm going to be crucified, they're going to spit on me, they're going to mock me and I'm going to die and I'll be raised again the third day, for which Peter immediately took Jesus and rebuked Him. Why? That's not the prosperity that Peter was after. Peter and the Apostles want the prosperity of being great because that's what they're striving about the whole time, isn't it? Who will be the greatest in the kingdom? One on the right, one on the left. And even the Apostles who are sorrowful because their sorrow is rooted in a kind of greatness that they thought was coming, a prosperity that they thought all is lost, Jesus is dead. And so there's a common root here between the blindness of the world and even the apostles that loved Jesus because their sorrow is not a God-glorifying sorrow at that point. They did love Jesus. He's gone. But they had hoped that He would be the one that would redeem Israel, that He would make Israel great again, and that He would make the apostles great, glorious, powerful. Beloved, how many times have you rebuked Jesus because you brought your blueprint to Him and you said, Lord, this is what I think prosperity ought to be. Now, I'm not asking for too much. I know these rich people, the people have everything. No, I'm just asking for a little. If you just put this in my basket. And when He doesn't, you rebuke Him because you think that the King's aim, the purpose of His death and resurrection is just to fill up your baskets and, you know, however you want them there. You know, you've made your request. What I'm asking for, not too much, just a moderate amount, but this is what I must have. I must have this marriage, this family, this person, this job. And you rebuke Jesus because you and I would have cried just as vehemently, crucify Him. crucify Him because even the Apostles were looking for a prosperity that God was not aiming to give, at least not yet, until His Second...until His Second Coming. Now you may say at Psalm 118, yeah, I understand that, but the Word is there. It says, sin now prosperity, so you can't negate the fact that it's there, and that's true. So I want to show you in Psalm 118 the kind of prosperity that God aims to bring. So let's work backward, if you're looking at Psalm 118, you've got your Bibles open. Look backward, start at verse 25 and go to verse 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it, save now, O Lord, send prosperity. So there's something about the prosperity that Jesus came to give as a King through His death that means rejoicing in gladness because contextually it's there. This is the day and it's a day of rejoicing and gladness. So why is the world so angry? Why is Peter rebuking Jesus? Okay, go back to verse 23. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. So this prosperity in verse 25, we back it up to 24, includes rejoicing and gladness, but it also includes something the Lord's going to do and did that's marvelous, wonderful, splendid, glorious, amazing. Now that fits anybody's definition of prosperity, doesn't it? Whatever it is, whatever you put your finger on, wonderful, amazing, glorious, rejoicing, and gladness. But now in verse 22 we see what it's all about. The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. This is the day He has made. This is the prosperity. You see, beloved, when your eyes behold the glorious rising of the rejected stone. Your joy and your gladness is transformed, it is purified to see a kind of prosperity and beholding the love of Christ on the cross. It's a joy that's in Him that He came to purchase and ransom and to give you, a joy that the world wanted no part of and even the apostles were confused about. But they got it when? In the day of His resurrection, when Jesus revealed that His glorious rising had purchased for them a prosperity that is spiritual, where God aims to bring you to fullness of joy by beholding the glorious Son of God and being transformed by what your eyes behold and giving you a kind of rejoicing and a gladness that's marvelous and it's the kind of prosperity that the Bible is talking about. So the world wants no part of it. The Apostles even didn't get it. But now Jesus is declaring that His death was to purchase, to buy. a joy that is centered upon God. It's not a self-centered kind of joy where you bring your many kingdoms to God and you ask God to serve your kingdom, but a kind of joy where Jesus is the marvelous rising of the stone at the right hand of God and where people behold, they look at, they marvel, they glory with their spiritual eyes at the blessed love of Jesus Christ Himself. But you may think, But I don't think I would have actually tried to kill somebody just because they didn't meet my concept of joy and prosperity. That's a little bit drastic, don't you think? But James says, you still do it today, beloved. I mean, why are you fighting in your family? Why are you warring? Why are you killing people with your words? James chapter 4, verse 1 and 2. You're just killing people. Is it not because your pursuit of lust and joy and a prosperity where you say, I will be the king, it will be my way, and you just kill people with your strivings and your warnings? Oh yes, you would have cried out, kill him, kill him. Even within us, there's something there today that's still trying to push forward, advance our cause, and put down wife, put down husband, put down children, put down everybody in the process so that we can have the power, the praise, the prosperity that we want. And so, it's not drastic. It's something the apostles were confused about and something that we are as well. Now, the question is, how do we get into this joy that Jesus came to purchase. Look again at John chapter 16. And what about the person that says, I'm enjoying life, I've got a basket full, and hey, I don't serve Jesus, right? You know anybody like that? I mean, Jesus is a good man, I think religion is okay, but I'm doing quite well. I'm enjoying life. I'm living a full life and I don't trust Jesus. I'm not interested in Him. Look at John 16 as to what needs to happen in that person's life and any person that's going to have their sorrow turn to joy, they need to first have their joy turn to sorrow. Jesus would say in John 16 verse 8 concerning this Holy Comforter, when He has come, He will reprove the world of sin. Now some of those people in that world that was rejoicing, the Jewish people that were glad that He was death, something's going to happen to them and they're going to be convinced of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. of sin in verse 9 because they believe not on Me. So the first thing that needs to happen, we could tap into the blood-bought joy of Jesus Christ, there needs to be faith and repentance. You must repent of your God-neglecting joy. You must repent of your pursuit of prosperity that has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. You need to own it as sin. You don't get this joy that Jesus came to give. Listen to how James says it in James chapter 4, he would say, cleanse your hands, ye sinners, purify your hearts, ye double-minded, be afflicted, weep and mourn, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. When Jesus purifies a soul, what happens? Everything you've laughed about, everything that satisfied you, everything you found joy in, turns to sorrow. Has that happened to you, beloved? Has all your self-pursuing ways been turned to an occasion of grief and sorrow? If not, then you've not yet been convinced of your sin by the Holy Spirit because you don't believe on Jesus and the joy He came to give you through repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. Verse 10, he says, of righteousness because I go to my Father. Believing on Jesus, embracing His righteousness means He did everything right on your behalf. All of His joys were in God. He never raised any experience that He enjoyed, even from eating of food, to the level of supremacy above His God. And that's what it took to redeem us. So of righteousness, because I go to the Father, that's why I went to the Father, that's why He ascended to the throne of glory. And you see me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. And when is He judged in your life? When is this prince cast out? In other words, as we sang, when has sin's curse lost its grip on you? Alright, fast forward with me just in your mind here to Acts chapter 2, when some of the people who are crying out, crucify Him, they're rejoicing, their laughter turns to sorrow and their joy is going to be grievous. Peter preaches at Pentecost, the first thing these people do is they say, men and brethren, what shall we do? They're pricked in their heart. What happened? They're convinced of their own sin. They're convinced that when they said, crucify Him, that they were seeking a kind of prosperity and a joy that had nothing to do with God and now they're miserable over it. They're miserable. They were pricked, they were pierced by the Word of God. And so they believed. They repented and believed. Secondly, of righteousness. Peter declared that this same Jesus whom you have crucified is both Lord and Christ because God raised Him from the dead, He's at the right hand of God, exalted. They believed in Jesus' righteousness on their behalf. He's exalted. How was the prince of the world judged in Acts chapter 2? They that gladly received the word were baptized. Princes underscore highlight gladly. What happened? They now see the prosperity that God came to give them. is in Christ by beholding His love, fellowship with Christ, His righteousness, His glory, His grace, and now through gladness, the Prince is judged. Now how does that cast him out? Your gladness in God means that the devil loses his grip on you because prosperity in the world means you're glad about it, right? How can the devil now control you and dominate you when you have a kind of gladness and a joy that's not in this world? Sin loses its grip on you because the devil has been judged, he's been cast out in the sense that your eyes have been opened to see a kind of prosperity that comes through believing, repenting, turning, rejoicing, seeing, loving and being glad in all that God is for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus died to give you this joy. Do you have it? Have you repented? Are you on the pathway of joy and gladness in Christ? Are you still trying to fill your baskets just as full as you can get them? You give no thought to the death of Christ. You give no thought to the pursuit of Jesus is just what gladness can you get out of this life. Beloved, the message of the resurrection is turn to Christ and see a kind of joy and prosperity that only comes in knowing Him, seeing Him, and it comes through denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Him. That's what He told Peter, Peter, if you're going to follow Me, you've got to deny yourself, take up your cross. and pursue your ultimate joy in me, not in your own kingdom, your own prosperity, your own way of living. So the first thing we see in this text is that when their sorrow is turned to joy, it means Jesus died, Jesus was raised, the Comforter comes and they see what true prosperity really is. Jesus died to bring a joy that is a newborn kind of joy. Verse 21, a woman when she is in travail has sorrow because her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. and you now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice." Now when Jesus says, I'll see you again, He means I'm going to go away, I'm going to die, I'll be raised again. So the resurrection of Jesus is going to bring a birth to a new kind of joy that Jesus Now this is a common analogy in Scripture, the birth of a woman giving birth to a child, Jesus uses here in the Old Testament, She used it throughout the New Testament. Now what Jesus is saying is that the sorrow of a woman who's going through labor pains or birth pains, that gives way to joy after the child is delivered. Then He applies that to the disciples in verse 22. Between the anguish of the woman and the joy, there's the delivery or the birth. And between the sorrow of the Apostles and their joy is the phrase, I'll see you again, or the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is going to bring about a delivery, a birth of a kind of new joy. that had never been experienced on the planet until now and the day that you're living in. And that relates to three things in the gospel of John. The comforter was coming, that's new. Jesus says, when I go to the Father, I'm going to send the comforter. That had never been done before. That's related to this new joy. Jesus said in John 13, a new commandment I'll give you, that you love one another. Well, that's new, but it's also old. Leviticus 19.18, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as yourself. What do you mean it's new, Jesus? That's what He says. There's a new commandment. It's an old one, but it's altogether new. You're living within the stage of the cosmic redemptive history of Christ in which you should be pursuing a kind of new joy and a new commandment that no one prior to the resurrection could experience because they didn't have the Comforter, He had not come, they didn't have the New Commandment and they didn't have a new kind of joy which Jesus says a full joy, it's becoming a full joy that's overflowing. Now let's back up to John 15 to see what He's talking about. John 15. What's new about it and what's not so new about it? And how does this apply to you and I today with regard to this resurrection weekend that's celebrated? John 15, as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you, continue ye in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be...what?...full. overflowing, complete. Verse 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. The English words continue, remain, and abide are from the same Greek word, mino, which means stay in it, live in it, dwell in it. Jesus says, when you stay in my love, What's going to happen? It will empower you to keep the commandments or the sum of all the commandments, thou shalt love thy neighbors yourself. So keeping commandments is not the same as abiding in His love. If we abide in the love of Christ, then the upshot is we do what He...we love one another and then His joy stays and our joy becomes what? Full. It's complete. See, we're not to become a kind of storage tank kind of love where we're just receiving the love of Christ and it terminates with us, just fills up our basket. I'm keeping this basket. No, as Jesus loves us and we receive His supply, His Spirit, His help, His strength, and the basket spiritually begins to flow and overflow, Then when joy comes to completeness, you start giving it away. Would you like an egg? Take some of mine. Here. That's the joy that Jesus is after. Now the question is, how does His joy relate to this new birth of joy? What's different about it here that was not that way in the Old Testament? Because there's joy in the Old Testament, we can't deny that, and there's the commandment to love your neighbor. It's in this phrase in verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Never before has the love of God been seen and witnessed and known as the coming of the brightness of His glory in the second person of the Trinity down to earth to live and to die. so that we can embrace it and see it in a way that no Old Testament saint has ever seen it. It's new. It is becoming more full in us because Jesus has displayed it. He died for it, but He gave witness to it. And He says, look at Me, see God in action, see the love of God in a way that you can't see it through sacrifices and tithes and shadows and temples, which originally would be obliterated in 70 A.D. You can't see it there. So now, beloved, you have the potential for a kind of fullness of joy that no one before you prior to the resurrection had. Let me illustrate it like this. Suppose you attend a public play, a drama. And you know the best seats are front row, but that's not the seat you've got. You're like the Old Testament saints which see afar off. And you're in this massive stadium, like these football stadiums where you just see dots on the field. So you're way up on the very top row, and there's no jumbotron, or whatever you call it, to see, and there's no microphones. You can't even hear what they're saying, but you're looking on and you're trying to grasp what's being said. You can't really hear it. You say, there's something wonderful. I can see something wonderful happening there, but you just don't get the fullness of it. Then all of a sudden you're transported to the first row. Now you hear everything the actors are saying. You see it. You can even shake their hand. You can get their autograph. Now both people are viewing the same event. One is seeing it from a very great distance, but the person in the front row is seeing it up close. Hebrews 11.40 says, these all having obtained a good report by faith, they didn't receive the promise. They're up on the back row. God having provided some better thing for you. You have seen, as John says, John embraced the Word of Life and he wrote that our joy might be full. Beloved, you live within the stage of redemptive history where joy has the potential to flow more deeply and freely than it did by looking at sacrifices, types, shadows, laws, dietary laws for which the people could look at and say, there's something coming spectacular. But now you've seen it because Jesus says, I want you to love as I have loved you. Look at me, see me, embrace me, know me, fellowship with me. and experience this new joy and this new commandment to love in a way now that is overflowing with joy. And so even when Jesus commands us to experience His love, He's working for the very purpose that He came to die, a blood-bought joy that then is a newborn joy that is more full because of His resurrection, knowing it, seeing it, until the fullness of joy completely comes at His Second Coming, right? So you live within that stage. You live within this point and time in history. And so may we be seeking a kind of fullness of joy where Jesus is loving us, Jesus is supplying to us, and then we are loving one another. But thirdly then, we see in verse 22 that this joy is indestructible. Verse 22, And ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. So Jesus is going to go to the Father, He's going to purchase your joy, He's going to give you a new kind of joy that was not into anticipation through tides and shadows. You'll see it, know it, and the experience of it will be closer than it was. But now He declares, no one will take it from you. Now, who can say that about the kind of prosperity that human beings seek after? I mean, you grab it and it's gone. And even if you do pretty good at keeping it all your life, at the end, when death comes, it's gone forever. You perish. Judas perished with his 30 pieces of silver. He just perished. But Jesus declares, the joy that I came to purchase, nobody can take it from you. Now what He doesn't mean by that is that there'll never be a day. where this joy does not exist. That's not what he means. Because you can say, well, it sure seems like it gets ripped out of my hands from time to time and that I'm not experiencing this joy that Jesus is talking about. But that's not what he means. He means since I will see you again and nobody can take me away from you, Nobody can ultimately take your joy from you. Beloved, you have to be severed from Jesus Christ. We're just saying what? One with Himself, I cannot die. One with Jesus, no one can die eternally forever. because your faith is secure in Him. Now, if you're united to Jesus by faith, you trust in Him, that means no one can ultimately take your joy away because the Bible declares that joy comes from believing, from faith. The joy of faith in Philippians 1, and Paul is a helper of our joy and faith in 2 Corinthians 1. And so Jesus means because your faith cannot fail, your joy cannot ultimately be taken away totally, finally, and forever. Now we know that He's saying it this way because of verse 32 and verse 33 in John 16. You will have tribulation. So if Jesus means nobody can take away your joy, it means it's just always there. What about this tribulation? Well that seems to take away my joy from time to time. It means affliction, pressure, difficulty, pain. God has ordained that your tribulation remain. He's never promised to take it away. But notice what Jesus says in verse 33, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. The word overcome means to conquer. This king has conquered the world. Now we put that together, this is what it means about your joy that no man can take. If your tribulation comes from the world that you live in, And Jesus has conquered the world, that means your tribulation is subject to the conqueror. Because the world is subject to the conqueror. That means Jesus aims to use your tribulation to serve your joy. His aim is to take the tribulation, but which he rules over because he's conquered the world, and make it to serve your joy. Now how will that transform your tribulation? It won't mean that you'll never sin again. It won't mean that you'll never have sorrow again. But what it will mean is that you can remember Jesus is ruling and reigning on your behalf, therefore when tribulation comes my way, He has overcome the world in which my tribulation and sorrow comes. Therefore, Jesus is using the very tribulation that you have to serve your joy. Now, just a couple of passages that remind us of this. We know that tribulation worketh patience. Worketh means it serves. We rejoice. In tribulation, knowing that tribulation serves patience, patience works for the experience, and experience works to produce more hope, and hope produces joy in Christ. What about James 1? My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into all kinds of temptations or trials, knowing this. that the trying of your faith, you could just insert there tribulation because when your faith is tested, it is not a joy like we count joy. Your tribulation, the trying of your faith is serving your patience or endurance. Why? because you need endurance to get to the end. Why? Because at the end, there will be fullness of joy and pleasures at the right hand of God forever. Beloved, Jesus is going to cause everything to serve His ultimate purpose, to make you like Himself so that your joy should be increasing spiritually, although tribulation means what? This prosperity in the world could be decreasing, right? Tribulation means things are taken away, ripped out of your hands. Possessions leave. Relationships leave. People leave the world, things that we value. And so when we see that Jesus says no man can take it away from you, it's because He is going to use it to serve your joy as you look to Him and trust Him in it. Paul was a man that said, I'm always sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. How could Paul experience so much tribulation, so much pain, so much sorrow, and say, in all that sorrow, I'm always rejoicing? Because he knows Jesus is making his sorrow to serve his joy. How could he get there? How do these two things exist together? See, this is not a kind of chipper thing. You know, Paul would have come into a worship service in our day and somebody would have gotten chipper with him and sort of, you know, upbeat. He'd say, I'm sorry, I'm just...I was just beating 39 stripes, saved one yesterday. And I got this trial in Rome I'm going to, I'm sorry if I'm not, you know, kicking up my heels and running around the room. But he was joyful, joyful. even though his back looked like it was scarred, no doubt, from all the beatings he had. Paul's not a chipper. Paul is joyful. Why? Because he knows that as he looks at the things which are not seen, He experiences a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Now he uses the same word work there in 2 Corinthians 4. Our light affliction, there's our tribulation that we have in the world, our light affliction is but for a moment, it works for us, it serves us in producing a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look. How often do we look at our prosperity? look at the things we want, look at our mini kingdom, look at our blueprint, we just got our eyes and all of a sudden God comes along and just rips it right out of our hands. The pain of it, the difficulty, and then as you start looking around you have to look up once again. That's the aim of removing it, that's the aim. His aim is not just to cause you pain. His aim is that you experience more of the resurrection joy that He came to give you, a joy and a kind of prosperity that Paul says, while we look, not of the things which are seen. Well, that's what I look at all the time. I mean, I'm looking at you because I can see you, right? The word look means you're gazing upon it. It's riveting your attention. You have to look at things that are seen. I mean, I don't recommend you close your eyes when you're driving. It is not going to go well. But what Paul means is that's not our gaze. We are looking at things which we cannot see. Things are eternal. And so by looking on Christ in this way, in our tribulation, God then is taking our sorrows, our afflictions, our trials, and His aim is to use those things to serve our joy by getting us to look up and look at Him and being transformed into the image of Christ. Now I know that statement can sound kind of flippant and trite because everybody says, oh, you know, to be more like Christ and share the love of Christ and things that we say that we can just kind of roll them off our lips. But think about it. If Jesus says, I want you to experience the love that I have with my Father, And the love I have my Father is immeasurably satisfying and joyful. It's always been. Now the way that you're going to experience the love I have with God the Father, and I've always had, is that you've got to be like me. Because when you take on my image, you'll start to see the Father like I see Him, and then you'll start to experience this joy unspeakable and full of glory. Okay, I'm ready to be like Christ. Okay, here's some tribulation. So you need to start looking in the wrong way because when you look at Jesus, you start to take on His image. And so we find that here Christ says no man can take it from you, not because you always have a better day than the day before, because your faith cannot fail, it cannot die. And because Jesus rules and reigns over all tribulation because angels, authorities and powers are being made subject under the resurrected Christ, which means whatever tribulation you have is subject to the ruling Christ, which means His aim, according to Romans 8. is not to harm you. It's not just to afflict you. It's so that you look, you turn, and you pursue a kind of joy that's found only in Christ. Have you turned to see Jesus? Have you repented? Has your laughter in the world, has your friendship with the world, has your enjoyment in the world and prosperity turned to sorrow and grief? Then James says, when that happens, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and then He lifts you up. What does that mean? Now, if God is lifting you up, He doesn't mean He's going to throw you past Him into some galaxies out there. I'm just going to catapult you. He's going to lift you up into His Son. He's going to lift you up to gaze on His face in Christ. He's going to lift you up into the joy He purchased for you, the new kind of joy. that you can experience in this stage of cosmic history and the joy that no man can take away from you because God will cause everything then to serve that ultimate end of bringing you to the shores of glory where you'll behold the resurrected Christ, the one that loves you, died for you, gave himself for you, and you'll behold his face forever. Won't you turn to Christ, repent, and trust him today? Let's pray.