Joy that is Complete

John 15:11 (CSB)

“I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

Last week, for the second week of Advent, we looked at “Peace,” and how Jesus said that He has given us His peace. In John 16:33, Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

By studying that verse, we discovered that no matter what is happening, we can experience peace. Even in times of tribulation, peace is a possibility. But we can interrupt that peace if we disobey God or if we do not trust in His ability to help us.

Today, for the third Sunday of Advent, we are looking at “Joy.” And the verse I want us to look at is something Jesus said just one chapter earlier, in John 15:11. He said, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

Those verses are strikingly similar, aren’t they?

First of all, just like the other verse, Jesus states that He has “told you these things” for a reason. What had He just told His listeners this time? He explained how He is the vine and we are the branches. He said that we are to “remain” in Him and produce good fruit. In John 15:9-10, He said, “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”

Jesus is telling us that if we remain in His love and keep His commands, then His joy may be in us, and our joy may be complete. Remember how last week, we saw that it’s only if we are “in Christ” that we can have peace. It is the same with joy.

That means just as peace is a possibility, so is joy. But it also means that just as peace can be interrupted or lost, our joy can be lost, too.

What is it that causes us to lose joy? I think there are two primary ways that we lose the joy we receive from Jesus. And they are the exact same things that interrupt our peace: disobedience and distrust.

If we are not filled with joy, the first thing we should do is ask ourselves if we are disobeying God in some area of our life. If we are, we must repent and make a change so we can remain in His love and have joy.

And the first thing we should check to see if we are obeying is the command that Jesus makes in the verse that immediately follows this one. John 15:12 says, “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.”

There was a song I learned as a child that came back to my mind after I read that verse. Maybe you know it too? The lyrics are: This is My commandment that you love one another so your joy may be full. So your joy may be full. So your joy may be full. This is My commandment that you love one another so your joy may be full.

The unknown author of that song knew what Jesus is talking about in these verses: if we are not full of joy, we should start loving other people.

Why does loving people fill us with joy? Well, the major way that we fail to love other people is when we sin. As Christians, we are all members of the body of Christ. What we do helps or harms one another. There is no such thing as “private sin.” When we sin, we affect everyone around us. So, if we are in sin, we are failing to obey God’s command to “love one another.”

And if we are willfully sinning, we will not have the kind of joy that Jesus says we may have, because sin causes us to lose joy.

Theologian Alexander MacLaren, in his commentary on Psalm 32, says, “All sin is a going away. From what? Rather, the question should be—from whom? All sin is a departure from God… We are ready enough to acknowledge faults; none of us have any hesitation in saying that we have done wrong, and have gone wrong. We are ready to recognize that we have transgressed the law; but what about the Lawgiver? The personal element in every sin, great or small, is that it is a voluntary rending of a union which exists, a departure from God who is with us in the deepest recesses of our being, unless we drag ourselves away from the support of His enclosing arm, and from the illumination of His indwelling grace.”

MacLaren is saying that when we sin, we drag ourselves away from God’s presence. This is what Jesus is speaking about when He says: “If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”

Psalm 16:11 explains this too. It says, “You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures.” And Psalm 34:5 says, “Those who look to him are radiant with joy; their faces will never be ashamed.”

When we look to Jesus, remaining in Him, He gives us joy. And not just a little amount of joy—abundant joy. He wants to fill us with joy. But sin causes us to lose the joy Jesus offers us by moving us away, not only from a place of peace, but from that place of joy.

Psalm 32 perfectly shows us how this works (it is thought that King David wrote it after his moral failure with Bathsheba). Last March, I preached on this Psalm and walked us through it, one verse at a time. Today, I want us to just focus on what this Psalm has to say about joy.

Psalm 32:1-11 says:

1 How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!

2 How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!

3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat. Selah

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

6 Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately. When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him.

7 You are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah

8 I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you, I will give counsel.

9 Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you.

10 Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the Lord will have faithful love surrounding him.

11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Can you relate to David’s experience? He was tortured by the guilt he felt over his sin. His strength was gone. God’s hand was heavy on him. Then, his sin was found out, he broke his silence, and he repented. The contrast is profound. No longer filled with torment, he was forgiven and filled with joy.

David was in torment because, like all of us, if we are in sin, then we are not remaining in Jesus’ love. And as this psalm makes clear, if we are in sin, we are on a path to losing our joy.

The incredible news is that if we have sinned, we can confess our sin to Jesus and seek His forgiveness. He will hear our cry and forgive us and cleanse us of our sin and fill us with His joy, just as He did for David.

Now, last week, I mentioned that we can be deceived into thinking that we are experiencing real peace when we are not. That’s because sometimes if we avoid doing what we know God wants us to do, we can feel a sense of peace. But that peace is not from God—it is simply a feeling of relief.

Well, the same thing can happen, where we think we are experiencing joy, but it’s not the joy that comes from following the Lord—it’s a temporary false sense of happiness. It’s merely a dopamine response, which, as we all know, wears off quickly and often leaves us feeling all the worse. We must be careful not to confuse our temporary happiness, which sin often brings us, with the real joy that Jesus gives.

The kind of joy that God gives us is so much deeper than temporary happiness. The joy we are given by the Lord is present within us no matter what we might be going through. Like God’s peace, God’s joy endures even when we are facing tribulation or sorrow.

We see this expressed by Jesus. He is described by the prophet Isaiah as the “man of sorrows,” yet He was full of all the characteristics we aspire to be. He was full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Yet, at the same time, He still knew what He must endure on the cross. He still was grieved and wept. He still was heartbroken at people’s lack of faith. MacLaren, making observation of this, says, “It is more Christlike to have inexpressibly deep joy with surface sorrow, than to have a shallow laughter masking a hurtful sorrow.”

Do you know what that is like? Have you experienced this? Have you felt this kind of joy: joy that is deeper than any sorrow you feel?

It’s the kind of joy that, even during times of deep sorrow, you discover is still deeper within. I can speak from personal experience that if we remain in Jesus’ love, then even when grieving over the death of a loved one, we may find a deeper fountain of joy within.

That’s because the joy that Jesus is speaking of, and the joy that David experienced, and the joy I have experienced, is a joy that is centered on thankfulness and love, as we remember all the blessings the Lord has given us.

But what if we have checked ourselves and can find no area in which we are willfully sinning, and yet we still do not have this kind of ever-present joy? Then, the second thing we must do is check our hearts. Ask yourself: Am I distrusting God in some area of my life?

We must evaluate ourselves. Are we placing our trust in God’s ability to help us, or are we overcome with fear and doubt? Is our lack of trust in God keeping us from stepping out in courage? Do we lack quiet confidence in Him? If so, that could be what is keeping us from experiencing not only peace, but joy. For how can we be filled with joy if we are afraid? Distrust moves us away from the place of joy.

Again, let me speak from experience.

The number one way that I lose joy is when I let worry and anxiety take it from me.

When I get overwhelmed by fear, worry, or anxiety, it’s because I’m not trusting in Jesus. If I was trusting in Jesus, then I would not fear. It’s my lack of faith that causes me to be anxious. And when I am anxious, I am not joyful.

In the First Nation Translation, the word for joy in Psalm 32 is interpreted as “Harmony and Balance.” This is a paraphrase, not a literal translation, but I like how it’s helping explain that the joy David was describing is not mere happiness or laughter. It’s a joy that brings harmony and balance to emotions. It’s not swinging from one giddy high only to crash in a depressing letdown. It’s a harmony and balance of peace and joy that is constant underneath any other emotions.

This only results from being in Jesus’ presence. Just like sin, when I give in to anxiety, I’ve scooted myself away from Jesus’ presence. I’ve taken my eyes off Him, and I’ve placed them on me. Anxiety results from me trying to solve my own problems on my own. Or when I am worried about all the “what ifs” that might happen.

But what if, when facing a stressful situation, instead of being anxious or worried or afraid, we trusted in Jesus?

Over and over in the Bible, Jesus tells us not to worry. Whether the disciples were afraid during a storm on a boat, they were threatened with prison or death, or they were distraught that a loved one was sick, Jesus’ message was always the same. He’d say to them, “Don’t you have faith? Don’t you trust Me?”

If we will simply place our trust in Him—have faith that He can help us—then we won’t lose the joy He has given us. In fact, He will fill us with even more joy as we step out in faith.

James 1:2-4 tells us that we should rejoice when we face a trial that stretches our faith, for it’s an opportunity to grow closer to the Lord and receive more from Him. It says, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

We don’t have to allow trials to steal our joy; we can keep our joy and respond to stress with faith, trusting in the Lord to grow us and increase our faith in Him. If we did this, we wouldn’t be anxious anymore.  

In fact, many times, God will use the hurt and sorrow we feel to draw us nearer to Him and fill us with a deeper joy than we’ve felt before. It’s as Psalm 34:17-18 says, “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit.”

In times of sorrow—whether that sorrow is because of grief over a tragedy we are facing or grief over our own sin—if we allow Him to, the Lord will draw us even nearer. He will surround us with more and more of His presence, and the result will be that He has filled us with even more of His peace and joy.

If we allow Him to. If we cry out to Him.

I say, if we let Him, because, unfortunately, we can miss out on the joy Jesus wants to fill us with if we don’t allow Him to help us. We must go to Him, remain in His presence and ask for His help.

The devil, the world, even our own selfish desires are constantly trying to rob us of our hope, peace and joy. Christmastime seems to be a paramount time of attack on this front, too. At least in America during this Advent season, all you have to do is go to a store and look at the stress on people’s faces. They are anything but hopeful, peaceful or joyful. They are stressed, worried and miserable. As Christians, we should be the exact opposite of that—especially right now, as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birthday.

Jesus’ promise is for such a time as this. This is why Jesus came to earth. This is why He humbled Himself and was born in a lowly manger. This is why He says, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.”

Right now, we can remain in Jesus’ love and experience the real and ever-present joy He gives, but one day, we will experience it in a way that in unimaginable now. It will be a joy that cannot be lost or diminished in any way. Then it will be fully complete.

A few verses later, in John 16:22, Jesus says, “So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you.”

When we see Jesus, then we will never lose our joy again. It will be fully complete. It will never be diminished or lost. No sin, no sorrow, no fear, no doubt will cause us to lose it.

We celebrate Christmas now and rejoice in the truth that Jesus came in the flesh to be with us, but then, when He returns, we will be in His physical presence, and nothing can take our joy away. This is our hope, our peace, and our joy. Let us not lose our faith in Him and His promises.

Let me close with this prayer of benediction from Romans 15:13. I pray: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Amen.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending us Jesus to earth so we can be with You. We rejoice in all that You have given us now, and we look with hope to our glorious future. Help us to remain in Your love, so we can receive more of the blessings You give. May we be filled with hope, peace and joy, so we can shine brighter, showing the world what it means to be your child. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.