Paul refers here in verse 3 to something which plagues us all from time to time. When was the last time you became “wearied and faint in your mind?” If it hasn’t been recently, then you are a rare and blessed person. Most of us, from time to time, get emotionally drained, wearied of soul, spiritually beaten down. It might start with weariness of body, but you find that it creeps into your heart and then into your faith. Sometimes is it simple weariness in well-doing – in doing good things. Paul encouraged the Galatian Christians: “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” In Galatians he expresses one good reason NOT become “wearied and faint in our minds” – we shall eventually rejoice in the harvest of God’s blessings. And here in Hebrews the apostle refers to another incentive to keep on keeping on – “Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, endured the cross, for the JOY that was set before him.”
Paul spoke of the joy of the Lord Jesus. When was the last time you gave any consideration to the Saviour’s joy? Without a doubt the Lord Jesus was the most serious and purposeful man who ever lived. As the God-man, He was focused on completing the work He was sent to do. But He was not the gloomy, morose, unfriendly, puritanical man many religious leaders have been down through the years. He saw the beauty that still remained in His creation. And He recognized the humor that sometimes came up in daily life. People were drawn to Him, not only for the truth He was sharing, but for the warmth of His personality.
Various forms of “joy” and “rejoicing” are found over four hundred times in the Bible. But rather than pick and choose some of them to use as exhortations, I’d like to look at five scriptures which speak about Jesus’ joy. Rather than Deuteronomy 16:11, Psalm 5:11 or Psalm 32:11 – “Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God.” “Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice; let them ever shout for joy…” “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” Rather than exhort you to rejoice because the Bible commands us, let’s just think about our Saviour’s joy. Hopefully you won’t disagree with my outline. I think I see Jesus’ joy of accomplishment, His joy of multiplication and communication. I also see Christ’s joy of fulfilment, as well as Hebrew’s reference to Jesus’ joy of anticipation.
Let’s start there: Look at the joy of Jesus ANTICIPATION.
During most of His life, Christ Jesus was looking right thru what He knew was going to be His physical death. He “endured the cross (and even) despised the shame” that was going to be included in His crucifixion. He had eyes fixed on “sitting gown at the right hand of the throne of the Father.” And that vision – that thought – that objective – that guaranteed reality, filled him with JOY.
There is nothing special about Paul’s use of that word “joy.” It is not something unique to the Son of God – something which you and I cannot experience. It is the same joy that the new believers in Samaria experience when Philip preached Christ to them. It is the same joy to which Jesus referred when He said, “Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” It is the same joy of I Peter 4 – “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.”
But notice – while it may be a common word, this is not the joy which the lost world so often has. This is not the Black Friday joy, of buying, at a greatly reduced price, that new electronic trinket. This is not the Christmas joy of beginning to own something which you yearned to have for an entire year. This is the joy of spiritual ownership and heavenly possession. It is the joy of ANTICIPATION.
This is something which the person without a guaranteed hope in eternity can never possess. Christ knew exactly where He would be after the crucifixion and after His ascension into glory. This gave Him joy. And this is a joy which any child of God can enjoy simply because he or she is a child of God. Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled…” That could be “let not your heart be WEARIED and FAINT.” “Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Christ Jesus went through His earthly life, ending up at the cross, with joy, knowing what He was doing and where He would be after His work was finished. And there is no reason why we can’t have a similar kind of joy, through our trials and troubles. The Christian’s eternity is now as guaranteed as was the Lord Jesus’.
In Luke 15, I see Jesus’ joy of ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Of course our Saviour was, while He was on earth, much more of a man than any other man. But if I may – let me make an application of that perfect human life. Can you remember when you finally gained something after struggling so long to get it? Maybe it was something physical – to drop a few pounds or to lift a certain weight at the gym. It could have been something as secular as paying off the mortgage, or reaching a savings goal. Perhaps it was educational or even spiritual, like prayerfully beginning to understand some Bible doctrine which perplexed you for so long. Whatever it was, didn’t it make you feel good; it put a smile on your face; it gave you a few moments of joy?
In Luke 15 the Lord Jesus gives us a parable with Himself as the primary subject – the Proto-protagonist. He describes Himself as a cattleman with a hundred head of sheep, but one has become lost. The shepherd is not so much thinking about his ledger and the financial loss he will suffer. He is thinking about that poor lost sheep, so he “goes after that which is lost, until he finds it.” And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his should, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.”
I won’t try to explain this joy in the light of the eternal counsels of the sovereign God – because I can’t. I can’t explain the joy the Bible tells me that the Saviour has in the salvation of any one of us. But I will tell you, based on the written Word of God that there is joy and rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents and puts his faith in the Redeemer. The Saviour rejoices, the shepherd rejoices. It is the joy of accomplishment. Christ gave His pastoral life in order to save this one wayward sheep. And it gives Him joy to fulfil His eternal purpose.
It should be the desire of every Christian to want to enable the Saviour to have that joy. It is not only our privilege to bring lost sheep – dead sheep – to Christ to be born again… But it should be our joy to give joy to the Saviour.
In Luke 10, we see that kind of joy in the Lord Jesus – the joy of MULTIPLICATION.
Christ had sent thirty-five pairs of evangelists out into world to make preparations for His visit in specific places. “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” When Jesus heard their reports & saw their joy, I imagine that His face began to beam as brightly as theirs. He said that He knew that they would have power over those fallen spirits. Then He added, “You know – power over Satan is glorious, but there is something even better.” “Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”
Then Luke 10:21 says, “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes…” As much joy as there is in the birth of a tiny baby, there is infinitely greater joy when that baby becomes old enough to put its humble faith in Christ, its Lord and Saviour, proving that its name is written in Heaven. Furthermore, when those spiritual babes become warriors for Christ, winning battles over the devils, this brings another smile to the Saviour’s face. I would like to think that when you bring someone to hear the gospel, and when I am enabled to present the gospel to your friend, that both these things bring joy to the Saviour. Oh, I know that God is sovereign over all things, but still, as He sends us out “before his face into every city and place, whether he himself would come,” He enjoys our obedience, and He enjoys our “success.” I can’t explain it theologically, but our success gives our Saviour joy.
In John 15, I see Christ’s joy of COMMUNICATION.
This is the great chapter of the vine and the branches – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye 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 full.”
As I’ve already suggested, one of the great joys of the Son of Man, was doing His Heavenly Father’s will. As He looks at us, He says, wouldn’t you like to have this joy as well? He says, stick with me, and I will enable you to bear fruit, just as I bear fruit. “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I … abide in (my Father’s) love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
Listen to Jesus’ plan for sharing His joy. “Abide in me and do my Father’s will, just as I abide in Him and just as I do His will.” Joyfully serving the Lord will spread that joy both vertically and horizontally. Joy is one of those things which is not diminished in someone when he shares it with someone else. “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” “If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, let God’s will come into your heart. If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy, serve the Lord God with all of your heart.” Christ Jesus is ready to share the joy He possesses in His Father, with us. He is the vine, we are the branches. If we abide in him and He in us, we will bring forth much fruit, and in the process we will be filled with the joy that belongs first to the vine.
In John 17, Christ refers to one more form of His own special joy – the joy of FULFILMENT.
“These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me… And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.”
In prayer, the Lord Jesus was summarizing His earthly ministry. He was nearing the cross, and in His mind the work was already finished. “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”.
This, of course is a joy which we can’t experience until we are the same place as the Saviour. His work was finished. He was as good as sacrificed. He was ready to be glorified. You and I, on the other hand, can’t say that. We still have a way to go. We don’t know how long it will be before we reach our heavenly home. Paul may have been anxiously anticipating this conclusion, but not even he had arrived. “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fount a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” Paul was ready, but he wasn’t there yet.
But there came that day for Paul, and there will be that day for us. It is my prayer that on the day when I stand before my Saviour and my works come under His scrutiny that He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” There could be – I hope there will be – a joy of fulfilment, just as there was for the Lord Jesus. But in the mean time – thankfully there is the on going joy of service.
“There is joy in serving Jesus, as I journey on my way. Joy that fills the heart with praises, every hour and every day. There is joy in serving Jesus, Joy that triumphs over pain; Fills my soul with heaven’s music, Till I join the glad refrain. There is joy, joy, joy in serving Jesus, Joy that throbs within my heart; Every moment, every hour, as I draw upon his power. There is joy, joy, joy that never shall depart.”