Luke 10:21

THE JOY OF THE LORD

‘In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.’

Luke 10:21

What were the grounds of our Lord’s joy?

I. That the Father had passed by the worldly-wise and prudent, and had revealed the glorious things of the Gospel to those whom the world regarded as ‘babes’ in intellect, in power, and in knowledge. These ‘babes,’ then, are not children of tender years, but children in docility, humility, and simplicity; those who not only ‘from a child have known the Holy Scriptures,’ but who, as a child, have received them into their understandings and hearts. Now let us pause and press the inquiry, Has the Gospel been revealed to you? Has it pleased God to reveal His Son in you?

II. That the sovereignty of God was thus displayed.—Seeing that the Gospel, hidden from the wise, was revealed unto babes, and resolving this into the sovereign will and discriminating grace of God, He rejoiced in spirit, and said, ‘ Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.’ And here it is we must find a solution to what would else, in our poor ken, appear partial, unjust, and inexplicable in God’s testimony of His grace—why the Gospel should be a hidden thing to one, a revealed thing to another; why one should be called and another left, we can only explain and understand in the exercise of that Divine sovereignty which belongs essentially to God. ‘ He giveth no account of any of His matters.’ Who art thou, then, O man, that repliest against God? Shall not He, the Judge of all the earth, do right? Has He not a right to do with His own as He will? And in the merciful decisions of His grace, and in the awful decisions of His providence, and in the yet more tremendous decisions of His judgment, He, the most upright, will be guided by the eternal principles of righteousness, rectitude, and wisdom. Beware, then, how you quarrel with God’s sovereignty!

Rev. Dr. Octavius Winslow.

Illustration

‘It is a frequently-quoted remark of one of the Fathers that Christ was often seen to weep, but never once to smile. We doubt both the correctness and the wisdom of the statement. Our Lord was a man of joy as well as a man of sorrow. He must, in the fathomless depths of His holy soul, have been as intimately acquainted with gladness as with grief—with the emotion of joy as with the feeling of sorrow. And can we picture Him to our mind thus rejoicing in spirit, the oil of gladness poured upon Him without measure, and insinuating itself into the innermost depths of His being, without a gleam, a smile of joy lighting up that benign, placid, and expressive countenance which more than all others must have been a perfect index of the soul’s hidden, varied, and profound emotions? Impossible! A portrait of Christ with nought but shadows—shadows of grief and sorrow darkening the entire picture—would be wanting in one of its most essential and life-like features.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE JOY OF THE LORD’S PEOPLE

If Christ was a man of joy we, who are Christ’s, should be joyful too. And yet how much this Christian grace is overlooked!

Consider some grounds of the Christian’s joy.

I. His possession of Christ.

II. The work of Christ for him.

III. The coming of the Lord to receive him unto Himself.

Rev. Dr. Octavius Winslow.

Illustration

(1) ‘A Persian allegory tells how there was a beautiful fragrance about some common clay. When asked the reason the clay replied, “I have been near where a rose tree grows.” So all who come near Christ are near the Fountain of Joy.’

(2)‘Then may the life, which now on earth I live,

Be spent for Him, who His for me did give.

Oh! make me, Lord, in all I will and do,

Ever to keep Thy glory in my view.

And when my course is run, and fought the fight.

Life’s struggles o’er, and faith is changed to sight,

Then all triumphant I shall ever be,

Safe in Thy Home, for I belong to Thee.

“Fullness of joy” with all Thy ransom’d there,

In Thy loved presence I shall ever share;

With them I’ll sing the love that made us free,

The grace that taught us we belonged to Thee.’