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I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11

Joy

Is our lack of joy due to the fact that we are Christians, or to the fact that we are not Christian enough?" Paul Tillich raised this question in The New Being (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1950, p. 42). I wonder what the answer is? We sing, "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee . . . " and we call God the "Giver of immortal gladness. . . . " We sing, "All thy works with joy surround Thee . . . " and all these works "call us to rejoice in Thee." We sing that God is the "Well spring of the joy of living," and we ask him to "lift us to the joy divine." We sing how "joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life."

Are you really as joyful as that hymn seems to indicate? Are those really your feelings or just the feelings of Henry van Dyke, the author of the words? Maybe he felt that way, but you do not. "Is our lack of joy due to the fact that we are Christians, or to the fact that we are not Christian enough?"

You have heard the story about the worshiper who was shouting and hollering in the last pew of a church at various times during the service. After one gleeful alleluia, the usher rushed up to him and asked, "Is there anything wrong?" "Not at all," he responded, "I've got religion."

"Well," said the usher, "you didn't get it here." Would you be ushered out of church if you were too joyful? Would your cohorts at work usher you out if you were full of joy? Would your classmates at school usher you out if you were joyful on campus? If you were always full of joy, would your spouse wonder what happened to you? If you embraced this fruit of the Spirit, would your personality be so dramatically altered that your everyday acquaintances would think that you have had a serious personality change?

"Have your eyes ever watered out of sheer joy in worship?"

In the Bible, joy is expressed in worship by shouting, by a loud voice, by playing a pipe, harp, trumpet, flute, or stringed instrument. Joy in the Bible is an action of dancing, leaping or stamping our feet. Joy is smiling faces, twinkling eyes, and expectant feelings. Joy is getting all bubbly and feeling the emotions rising up in you, feelings over which you have no control. I had those feelings when I held my grandchild for the first time. I was overwhelmed by joy. Joyful tears filled my eyes. Have your eyes ever watered out of sheer joy in worship? I hope so. I grew up in the House of Hope Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every church should be a House of Joy Church. Unashamed, blatant, tearful, outrageous, uninhibited joy! When it isn't, it lacks one of the outward indicators of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is a person of joy, for a relationship of love with God leads to joy. Every Sunday school room in this nation should have a smiling Jesus on its walls. Every sanctuary in this nation should have a smiling Jesus looking down upon us. It is a travesty that in most of our minds we do not think of Jesus as smiling when we imagine Jesus. Do you ever think of Jesus with the twinkling eyes?

Jesus is telling us in the Gospel of John that he is the true vine and that we are the branches. We are connected to him for life, and when we are cut off from him we die. We are nothing without him. We are dependent on him for life and sustenance. Jesus said, "Apart from me you can't do a thing" (John 15:5). In our text, Jesus tells us, "I have said these things to you so that..." What? . . . "my joy." Jesus wants to share his joy with us. Jesus, the "joy of man's desiring," the joyful Jesus, wants to share his joy with us. Too often we only think of him as rejected and a man of sorrows, but through all he experienced, he was a joyful Jesus. He had a relationship of love with God that led to joy. The author of the book of Hebrews tells us Jesus "for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (12:2). Jesus endured all that he endured, not for the fun of it. It wasn't fun. Not for the glory of it. There was no earthly glory. Not for the power in it. There wasn't any. But for the joy that was set before him, the joy of being in the presence of God himself. Being with God, obeying God, doing the will of God on this earth, produces joy in the hearts of human beings. That's what God promises to his faithful people today. He promises all who would obey him pure joy.

In the cross of Christ I glory,

Towering o'er the wrecks of time;

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round its head sublime.

When the woes of life o'ertake me,

Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,

Never shall the cross forsake me.

Lo! it glows with peace and joy.

When the sun of bliss is beaming

Light and love upon my way,

From the cross the radiance streaming

Adds more luster to the day.

Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,

By the cross are sanctified;

Peace is there that knows no measure,

Joys that through all time abide.

—John Bowring, 1825

Abiding joy is to be found in God's presence, because joy is at the very heart and nature of God.

Because Jesus is full of joy from being in the presence of God and from being God, he wants us to be full of joy also. If it is a major travesty that every Sunday school and every sanctuary is not adorned with a smiling Jesus, it is a worse travesty that every person in Sunday school and every person in worship is not smiling, for a relationship to a joyful God through the joyful Jesus leads us to be joyful disciples.

Joy is a by-product of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Our text quotes Jesus as saying, "I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete." Other translators refer to "complete joy," "perfect joy," and "your cup of joy will overflow."

Joy is a by-product of a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The world does not give this relationship and this joy, and so the events of this world cannot take this relationship and this joy away. Now, that's an important point! Happiness comes and goes. Happiness may disappear with the next telephone call. Your loved one dies. Your X ray shows bad news. Your car needs repairs. Your stocks are worth nothing. Your C.D.'s which were insured by the federal government, are not. Sorry about that mistake. There goes your happiness. But your joy is based on a relationship to God through the joyful Jesus, and he will never be taken away. He is always there. "Jesus never fails, never never fails. I'm glad so glad, Jesus never fails."

I begin and end with Paul Tillich: "Is not the decision to be a Christian, a decision for the joy in God instead of the [happiness] of the world?" (The New Being, p. 144). I think so! I know so!