John 17:13

These things I speak in the world, that they might have My Joy fulfilled in themselves

Christ’s prayer for His disciples’ joy

I. CHRIST IS THE AUTHOR AND ORIGINAL OF THE JOY OF HIS PEOPLE.

1. As He is their Prophet to instruct them. The state of ignorance is a state of darkness. And that is an uncomfortable state, full of fear, and sorrow. But when Christ comes with light He gives joy (Psalms 97:11).

2. As He is their King to rule them (Psalms 149:2).

(1) As He subdues their enemies, and gives them peace (Luke 1:75).

(2) As He gives them His Spirit. The Spirit is the Comforter (Acts Galatians 5:22).

(3) As He dispenses rewards (Luke 6:23; Matthew 25:21).

3. As He is their Priest.

(1) To sacrifice. For by this means He satisfies the justice of His Father for them, He frees them from the guilt of all their sins and reconcileth them to Luke 2:10).

(2) To intercede. Therefore in the text, He gives them as it were a taste of His future intercession, that thereby they might guess what He would do when He was come to heaven.

4. Uses. Is Christ the Author and the Fountain of the joy of His people

(1) Then they that are out of Christ can have no true and solid joy, because they are divided from the fountain of it (James 5:1). There is no peace, and consequently no joy to wicked men.

(2) Then fetch your joy and comfort thence. Drink you out of the Fountain, and not out of broken cisterns.

II. CHRIST WOULD HAVE HIS PEOPLE TO BE FULL OF HOLY JOY.

1. This He has made sufficiently to appear

(1) By publishing the gospel, which as it is a gospel of salvation, so of consolation (Luke 2:10; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:17).

(2) By giving precious promises, and sealing them with His own blood Hebrews 9:16; Hebrews 6:18).

(3) By giving glorious ordinances. For ordinances are not for our profit only, but are for our comfort too (Psalms 27:4; Isaiah 56:7;Jeremiah 15:16; Isaiah 12:3).

(4) By giving clear discoveries of Himself (Acts 2:28).

(5) By sending the Comforter.

(6) By giving deliverance (Isaiah 66:5).

(7) By purchasing heaven.

2. But wherefore will He have it to be so?

(1) Out of self-respect, because by reason of the nearness of His union His joy is theirs, and theirs His (2 Thessalonians 1:12; Zephaniah 3:17).

(2) To recompense them for sorrow (Matthew 5:4; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Psalms 6:1; John 16:1, John 20:1; Isaiah 61:3, Isaiah 35:1.).

(3) That they may be large in duty. Sorrow is a kinder straightening the 2 Corinthians 2:4). But holy joy dilates the heart, and consequently doth not only make it fit for duty, but it makes it to exceed in every service that is suitable to joy.

3. Use. Is it so that Jesus Christ would have His people full of holy joy?

(1) Then it serves to censure those who seek to hinder the joy of Christ’s people, and to embitter all their comfort with spiteful molestations.

(2) Then it taxes those who waste away themselves in heaviness and discontent. Consider what the will of Christ is, and let Him have His will in this business; use all means possible to have your hearts brimfull of holy joy.

(a). Be studious in the Word of Christ (Psalms 19:8; Romans 15:4).

(b) Employ your serious thoughts upon that delicious place where there is fulness of all joy and pleasures for evermore (Romans 4:4).

(3) Take heed that neither sin nor Satan steal away this jewel from you, which is the legacy that Christ bequeathed you when He was even about to leave this world. But first be sure the joy you have be Christ’s joy, the joy which He works by His Spirit (Galatians 5:22); so there is another kind that is a fruit and effect of the flesh (James 4:16).

III. THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF HIS INTERCESSION FOR THEM IS ONE ESPECIAL MEANS TO FILL THEM FULL OF THIS JOY. It is a means to comfort them exceedingly. In reference

1. To all the oppositions of their enemies, whether without them or within them.

2. To all the accusations that are laid against us at the bar of God’s justice 1 John 2:2).

3. To the many weaknesses and imperfections of our own prayers.

4. To the defects of all our graces.

5. It assures us of His dear love to us, and His tender care of us. (G. Newton.)

Christ’s desire for His disciples’ joy

I. WHAT THIS JOY IS THAT CHRIST WOULD ESTABLISH.

1. For the kind of it--“My joy;” not a worldly joy, but heavenly; not corporal, but spiritual. It ill beseemeth Christians to set their hearts on earthly things, or suffer the world to intercept their joy (Philippians 4:4).

2. In what manner He would have it received--“fulfilled in them.” The joy is full because the object is infinite; we can desire nothing beyond Him Acts 13:52).

3. It is inward for the quality of it; it is wrought in the midst of afflictions; like the wood that was thrown in at Marah, it maketh bitter water sweet Exodus 15:25; 1 Peter 1:6).

II. REASONS WHY CHRIST WAS SO SOLICITOUS ABOUT THIS MATTER.

1. Because of the great use of it in the spiritual life, to make us to do and to suffer (Nehemiah 8:10). This is as ell to the wheels. Sorrow maketh us serious, joy active. This is sweet, when a man, out of the refreshings of the Spirit, can go about the business which God hath given him to do with delight (Acts 20:24; Acts 8:39). Not like slow asses that go by compulsion, but like generous horses, that delight in their strength and swiftness.

2. To mar the taste of carnal pleasures. The soul cannot remain without some oblectation; it delighteth either in earthly or in heavenly things. Now God will give us a taste of pleasantness in wisdom’s paths, that we might disdain carnal pleasures. It is not a wonder for a clown, that hath not been acquainted with dainties, to love garlic and onions; but for a prince, that hath been acquainted with better diet, to leave the dainties of his father’s table for those things, that were strange.

3. It is for His honour. Nothing bringeth reproach upon the ways of God so much as the sadness of those that profess them. You darken the ways of God by your melancholy conversation. Religion should be cheerful, though not wanton and dissolute. We are to invite others (Psalms 34:2). Otherwise thou art as one of the spies that discouraged the children of Israel, by bringing up an evil report upon the land of Canaan.

4. Because He delighteth to see us cheerful (chap. 15:11).

III. SOME OBSERVATIONS CONCERNING JOY.

1. God’s providence to all the creatures doth aim at their joy and welfare.

2. Spiritual joy ariseth more from hope than possession (Romans 12:12; Hebrews 3:6; Romans 5:2). Some birds sing in winter. Though we have not an actual possession of glory, yet there is a certainty of possession.

3. This joy is more felt in adversity than prosperity (1 Peter 1:6; Romans 5:3).

(1) Partly from God Himself; He proportioneth His comforts to our sorrows, and then sheddeth abroad His love most plentifully (2 Corinthians 1:5).

(2) Partly from the saints; they rejoice most in afflictions, because they taste in them what evil they are freed from in Christ.

(3) Partly because of sweet experiences.

4. Those have the highest feeling of joy that have tasted the bitterness of sorrow (Isaiah 57:18; Jeremiah 31:18; Jeremiah 31:20). Unutterable groans make way for ineffable joys.

5. The feelings of this joy are up and down, yet when the joy is gone, the right remaineth, and this joy will be fulfilled (chap. 16:22).

IV. USES.

1. To show us the goodness of God, who hath made our wages a great part of our work, and our reward our service.

2. To take off the slander brought on the ways of God, as if they were dark and uncomfortable, as if we should abandon and renounce all delight. Oh! that wicked men would but make experience!

3. Let us despise the dreggy delights of the world. We are empty by nature, and worldly joy filleth not but with wind.

4. Reproof of two sorts

(1) To those that are always sad. Christians do not live up to that care and provision which Christ hath made for them (1 Thessalonians 5:16). They live as if God had said, Weep evermore. It is verily a fault, however disguised; in some it deserveth pity; in others chiding and rebuke.

(2) The other loft are those that would rejoice, but do not provide matter of joy. “My joy.”

5. To raise your minds to the exercise of this joy, I shall show

(1) What reason a Christian hath to rejoice.

(a) The remembrance of his past estate (1 Peter 2:9). No man looketh on the sea with more comfort than he that hath escaped the dangers of a shipwreck.

(b) His present interest, sense, and feeling (Romans 8:37).

(c) His future hopes (Hebrews 3:6). We are heirs-apparent to the crown of heaven.

(2) By what means it is maintained. God hath appointed for this end.

(a) Graces; faith, hope, and obedience.

(b) Ordinances: The Word, prayer, sacraments, meditation. (T. Manton, D. D.)

The joy of Christ

I. THE STRANGE THING NAMED “MY JOY.” It is about the most unlikely thing in connection with the career and testimony of the Saviour. It would excite no one’s surprise to hear Him say, “If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross;” “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” But when He speaks of His joy, is it not strange? What, then, is His joy?

1. It is the ripening harvest of suffering--suffering grown into joy, fully realized by Him in the completeness of His work. How true the prophetic description of Him A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief!” Wherever He turned His face men saw the sign. One ceaseless grief He bad--loneliness of soul. Spotless purity in the midst of foul pollution,transparent truth in the midst of elaborate falsehood, earnest spirituality in the midst of consummate hypocrisy, self-sacrificing goodness in the midst of grasping selfishness. Go into His own family: they are hostile and scornful. Mix with His disciples: they are dull, grovelling, strifeful-By the grave of a friend He groans and weeps. But the soul of the Redeemer’s sufferings was the sufferings of His soul. In Gethsemane--what is this? On Calvary--oh, what is this? His heart breaks, and on this account, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” “He shall see the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.” The harvest of ripened suffering--suffering turned into joy. Only He knew that in all its fulness.

2. It sprang from ministering to the sad and comfortless. He spent His life with the sufferers. His loving care lavished all its resources upon them. He was the Christ, anointed to comfort all that mourn. And such gathered to Him without hesitation. “He bare their griefs and carried their sorrows.” He alone could; the rest would sink under the burden. He alone would; all the rest would have gone away in despair. But He did, and in a weeping world He had a word of mighty power. That word was “Weep not.” So He speaks to the widow, to Jairus, and to the woman that was a sinner. And so He found solace in making the unhappy happy--a grand position, divinely high.

3. It consisted in sympathy with the heavenly Father’s will, and sprang from doing that will.

4. It was the joy of doing the highest possible good--saving men’s souls.

II. OUR LORD’S DESIRE IS RELATION TO THIS.

1. That His joy in His disciples might be perfect in kind; that is, that it should spring from the same sources and have the same attributes in the seme proportion, as in His life and heart.

2. That it might be abundant in degree. I invite you all who have faith in Jesus, and a good hope in Him through grace, to cherish the fulness of the Saviour’s joy.

(1) There is good ground for it. The Saviour and the saved will rejoice together. The saved man was guilty, but he is forgiven, and against him there is no condemnation.

(2) There is no danger in it. It will awaken no bad passion, it will create neither envy nor strife. The more the heart is filled with it the more the affections will be sanctified.

(3) There is no alloy in it. Not like the joy of the world, it will never be dashed with bitterness, or overshadowed by dread, or startled by horror, or stung by remorse.

(4) It will not die and disappoint you. It will live on and grow, not like the lamp of the wicked that goes out, but like the path of the just, shining more and more to the perfect day.

(5) It will bless your whole nature. The understanding will say, “It is wise.” The conscience will say, “It is right.” The heart will say, “It is good.” Long as you live your confidence will grow; and when death looks you in the face your confidence will not be shaken, but it will be dearer when everything else is dying, and brighter when everything else is darker. (J. Aldis.)

Christ’s own joy our joy

I. THE NATURE OF CHRIST’S JOY. The joy of Jesus was not that then that every eye could see. It certainly was not the mirthfulness that plays over the countenance. To have looked into His face would not have been to see joy mirrored. It was more marred than that of the sons of men, and deep were the furrows care had ploughed. If it was a joy not strongly expressed in the countenance, it was also a joy not easily detected by His conversation. In His recorded discourses we have no sparkling coruscations of mirthfulness, investing them with brilliancy, but rather a spirit of calm sadness. Observe also that the joy of Jesus was not one extracted from surrounding circumstances. With too many of us our joy is distilled from our circumstances, and consequently if those circumstances be adverse we are destitute of happiness. Our joy, like honey, is gathered “from every opening flower.” Many of you know what poverty means--can you coin joy out of it? You may know what reproach is--do you find it a fount of sweetness or bitterness? You have been betrayed--do you like it? With us death is in a great measure an unknown thing, and the time of it is uncertain, but remember that with Jesus every pain was foreknown, and all the agony and shame forefelt, and yet He had so deep a joy that He prayed that His joy might fill His disciples. Assuredly then, it was not the joy gleaned from surroundings. What was it? It was a joy that had its fount deep within the soul. It was not a joy that flowed into the soul through the channel of the senses. The tide flowed the other way. It flowed out from the soul. Here is one of the great differences between the joy of the Christian and the joy of the worldling. The latter drinks in nearly all his joy through the senses. The child, lovely and beloved, sends joy into the heart through the channel of the sight. Music comes stealing through the corridors of the ear--joy comes with it. The scent of the rose awakens pleasure, and taste and touch alike become the instruments of happiness. The Christian, like his Master, has all these, but the joy of his heart is the joy that rises there independently of all outside things; the joy which like himself is born from above. This joy is not confined to any one place. Being an inward joy it may be had under any and every circumstance, yea, it is a joy that will thrive where any other joy would perish. It is the chamois of the Alps, that leaps like the hind of the morning where others cannot walk, and finds its food where most would starve. The only difficulty would be to say where it cannot and where it has not grown. It has sprung up between the stone slabs of the dungeon floor, and made the prison a conservatory. It has flourished in poverty until the inhabitant of the palace has envied. It has lived in the flames of martyrdom, and made the tongue sing when almost all beside was charred and blackened. It is a joy that lives in the fountains of the great deep of the soul. So much for the joy of Christ being an inward one. Let us now go more into particulars, and see what was the nature of this inward joy, or the different channels in which it flowed.

1. I observe that it was the joy of communion. Our Saviour ever had an abiding sense of His Father’s nearness, and deep beyond all description, must have been the fellowship between them.

2. Christ’s joy was also the joy of realized and returned love, Communion is more a positive act, this an experience. Christ felt His Father’s love. This

He declares--“The Father loveth the Son.” Christ loved the Father. This also He declared--“I love the Father.” Now a realized and returned love can only result in joy. I was standing on a tongue of land, or rather rocks, with a river on either side of me. Both rivers could be traced for some way back. They came from almost opposite directions. Both of them came leaping and roaring along channels filled with great boulder stones. Both of them were beautiful to a degree. For many a mile they had each run their lovely course, gradually nearing, until at last their streams met at the foot of the rock on which I stood. The place was called “the meeting of the waters,” and marvellous was the “water’s music.” The two streams embraced, and seemed for a moment or two to dance for very glee, and then blending, ran off no longer separate but one. So I thought I have in this division of my subject the meeting of the waters. The one stream is called “the Father loveth He.” The other stream is called “I love the Father.” Both are exquisitely lovely. Both are born from above. One flows from the mountain of the Father’s house on high; the other from the Rock of Ages. They meet in our subject, and the music of the meeting of the waters is joy. A heart beloved and a heart loving must be a heart of joy. This joy was Christ’s This joy may be, should be, must be ours. The same stream of love that flowed from the Father to the Son, flows from the Father to us.

3. It was also the joy of complete surrender. What would have been a source of sorrow to most, casts a bright gleam of sunshine into the heart of the Man of Sorrows. How is it so? By what process does He extract matter for joy from seeming want of success--a bitter cup to the lips of most? The answer you have in His own words, “Even so Father.” Yes, this was enough for the soul perfectly surrendered. It was the Father’s will that so it should be, and therefore it being so, was the Son’s joy. Would to God we knew more of this joy of perfect and complete surrender. It is our will clashing with our Father’s will that gives disquiet. Were our will but one with His, it would be utterly impossible for us ever to be anything else than serene, calm, and happy.

4. It was the joy of one who could look back upon a life work finished. In the fourth verse of this chapter our Saviour says, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” Yet once more.

5. It was the joy of approaching glory. How clearly does this shine out in the first few words of our text, “and now come I to Thee.” “I to Thee!”

Ah, here is joy indeed. Christ’s own joy is indeed ours in this respect. His heaven is our heaven--His home our home.

II. THE MEASURE IN WHICH CHRIST DESIRES HIS SAINTS TO POSSESS THIS JOY. “Fulfilled.” What an expressive word have we here! Full to the overflow--filled to the utmost capacity. This is the measure of joy Christ wishes for His disciples. They already possessed it in some degree, but He wished them to have it in a far larger; like a sacred flood until it overflows all banks, and eddies into every nook and cranny of the soul. How are we to obtain this inward bliss? Our text tells us. “These things I speak that they might have My joy.” It is the word of Jesus that gives this joy. No looking into our own hearts or inspection of our own feelings will avail. That will but empty us. And oh how necessary it is that we should be filled. A very simple illustration will show the necessity. Take a bottle but half full of water, and placing your hand over its mouth, shake it. See how the water rushes from end to end as you move it. There is a turmoil within at the slightest motion. Why? Because it is only half full. Now fill it until you cannot add another drop. Shake it--all is still within. Turn it upside down--all is quiet. Why is this? Because it isquite full, and therefore no outside motion affects it. (A. G. Brown.)