What Is “the Joy of the Lord” and Where Can I Find It?

00:00:00.000 | [Music]

00:00:05.000 | A really important question comes in from a listener named Nicholas, who went to

00:00:08.920 | the Ask Pastor John homepage and emailed us this question. Hi Pastor John.

00:00:13.400 | In Hebrews 12, 2 and Nehemiah 8, 10, what is meant by the phrase "the joy of the Lord"?

00:00:20.100 | How can we find this joy, and how can we apply this joy to our lives?

00:00:25.200 | This is one of the most important questions that anyone can ask, because everyone wants to be happy

00:00:33.000 | and never lose their happiness in the miseries of hell, and therefore how to find joy and experience it

00:00:40.700 | to the full is what everybody cares about and ought to care about.

00:00:45.800 | And if it's possible that we could actually share in the joy of God Almighty, nothing could be greater,

00:00:55.600 | and nothing would be more stable and lasting. So this is important.

00:01:02.200 | The reference to the joy of the Lord in Nehemiah 8 means at least the joy that the Lord Himself gives.

00:01:12.700 | "Go your way, eat the fat, drink sweet wine, and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready,

00:01:18.800 | for this day is holy to the Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

00:01:27.000 | And the joy referred to in Hebrews 2, 12 is clearly the very joy that Jesus Himself has today in heaven,

00:01:35.700 | which sustained Him through suffering. It says, "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter

00:01:42.200 | of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,

00:01:48.500 | and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

00:01:53.200 | Now, what I assume that Nicholas is asking is something like this.

00:01:58.700 | What is the fullest, deepest, most lasting kind of joy that a human being can have from God?

00:02:05.200 | And how can I get it? How can I find it?

00:02:08.500 | Now, those texts, those two that he mentioned, are pointers for sure.

00:02:13.200 | But I'm going to go to another text where the answer is given even more clearly.

00:02:20.000 | Namely, I'm going to go to the Gospel of John, chapter 15, verse 11, where Jesus says,

00:02:25.200 | "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."

00:02:35.200 | Now, the reason this text is so important is that Jesus refers to His own joy as being in us.

00:02:44.500 | Not just giving us a joy, but His joy in whatever He's joyful in is in us.

00:02:52.500 | We're not just rejoicing over what we know about Jesus.

00:02:56.000 | We're rejoicing with the very joy of Jesus over what He knows about everything,

00:03:01.500 | especially what He knows about His Father.

00:03:05.000 | So let's make sure we hear it again. Let me say it again.

00:03:07.500 | This is Jesus. "I have given all these instructions to you," He says,

00:03:12.500 | "about what it means to be in the vine." That's what John 15 is about.

00:03:17.000 | I'm the vine. You're the branches.

00:03:19.000 | "I've given all these instructions to you so that you would enjoy my joy with me."

00:03:26.500 | So that my joy would be in you as your joy.

00:03:31.500 | Now, this is incredible, almost.

00:03:34.500 | "My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full."

00:03:41.500 | In other words, the reason your joy can now be as full as it is,

00:03:46.500 | and moving toward perfect fullness when all our battle with sin is over,

00:03:51.500 | is because in union with me, the branch in the vine, you no longer enjoy merely your joy.

00:04:01.500 | You now have my joy in you, and you enjoy what I enjoy as your joy, as you abide in me.

00:04:10.500 | If you want to press further up and further into this mystery, which I think is a good idea,

00:04:16.500 | we can ask, "Is it not the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,

00:04:21.500 | the indwelling of the very person of the Trinity,

00:04:25.500 | who himself is the embodiment of the joy that the Father has in the Son,

00:04:31.500 | and the Son has in the Father?

00:04:34.500 | Isn't this joy of Jesus in us the presence of the Holy Spirit,

00:04:41.500 | the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God?"

00:04:45.500 | So when the Holy Spirit comes like a dove upon Jesus at his baptism,

00:04:51.500 | how does the Father put that into words?

00:04:53.500 | He says, "This is my beloved Son, this Jesus, in whom I am well pleased."

00:05:02.500 | In other words, God takes infinite pleasure in the excellencies of his Son,

00:05:08.500 | and this pleasure is symbolized at his baptism by the coming of the Holy Spirit

00:05:14.500 | as a dove landing upon him.

00:05:17.500 | And listen to how Jesus prays for us at the end of John 17.

00:05:21.500 | "I made known to them your name, Father, and I will continue to make it known

00:05:26.500 | that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

00:05:33.500 | In other words, the very love which the Father has for the Son,

00:05:38.500 | delights in, pleased by, cherishes, treasures the Son,

00:05:43.500 | that very joyful love will be in us so that we have the capacities

00:05:51.500 | to love and enjoy the Son with the very love and joy of the Father.

00:05:58.500 | Oh, for the day! Oh, for the day!

00:06:01.500 | So in answer to Nicholas's question, I would say,

00:06:06.500 | pursue the experience of this joy by looking steadfastly at the whole array

00:06:13.500 | of excellencies of Christ in the Word of God,

00:06:16.500 | while crying out continually for the Spirit to come and open your eyes

00:06:22.500 | to see this glory and to savor this glory with the very savoring of God.

00:06:30.500 | In answer to that prayer, God will give you significant measures

00:06:36.500 | of the joy of the Lord in this life, and then at the end,

00:06:40.500 | you will hear him say, "Enter into the joy of your Master,"

00:06:46.500 | and it will be full and unmixed forever.

00:06:50.500 | Oh, amen. That's glorious. Thank you, Pastor John.

00:06:53.500 | We talk a lot about joy on this podcast.

00:06:56.500 | What is true joy, and how do we find it and apply it to our lives?

00:07:00.500 | And in the podcast archive, I see 50 episodes with the words

00:07:04.500 | "joy" or "happy" in the titles alone.

00:07:06.500 | You can find all of them and about 850 other episodes right now in that archive.

00:07:11.500 | Scan those episodes really easily in the APJ app for Apple and Android devices,

00:07:16.500 | or go to our web home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:07:21.500 | Well, can Satan devour Christians? 1 Peter 5:8 seems to imply that,

00:07:27.500 | yes, we can be devoured. Yikes.

00:07:30.500 | So what does that mean, and how can we be safe?

00:07:33.500 | That's tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:07:36.500 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:07:37.500 | Thanks for listening to the podcast with longtime pastor and author John Piper.

00:07:41.500 | We'll see you tomorrow.

00:07:43.500 | [Pastor John's Podcast - The Joy of Prayer]

00:07:48.500 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

What Is “the Joy of the Lord” and Where Can I Find It?

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