Wednesday, 30 August 2023

The Upper Room Discourse 31

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John 15:11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.

Let's try this again. Yesterday we dealt with this same verse, but naturally, there was much left unsaid. Joy is a huge subject in the Bible, mentioned 165 times. It is described as a fruit of the spirit. Fruit grows to maturity and is harvested. In the listing of fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) it is second, planted between love and peace.

Like most verses in Scripture, John 15:11 comes in two parts. Yeshua is telling us something here. He plants His joy in us, so that we will harvest the fullness of it. We receive His words in several ways. Here He says they are spoken to us. We hear the spoken word. But His spoken words were also written in a book and published so we can read them. When you read the Bible, do you hear His voice speaking the words, even whispering them lovingly into your ears?

What words impart joy?

Rabbi Trail: Yes, that was the subject of a message at Shomair last year. Take a few minutes. Go to youtube.com/watch?v=WQlqmrXUlN4 at about 1:40 (an hour and 40 minutes after it started) for the start of the message which is entirely from Acts 1 verse 3. End RT.

The words that impart joy are what we call the good news. The term "good news" in the original Greek is a message of victory that brings joy to the hearer. Luke 2:10-11 But the angel said to them, Do not be afraid! For behold, I proclaim Good News to you, which will be great joy to all the people. A Savior is born to you today in the city of David, who is Messiah the Lord.

The message of Yeshua describes His victory over death and the grave. Romans 6:23 For sin's payment is death, but God's gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord. In His resurrection, He is the firstborn of the dead. Colossians 1:18 He is the head of the body, His community. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead - so that He might come to have first place in all things. Through Him we have the promise of eternal life in the presence of God. 1 John 2:2 Now this is the promise that He Himself has promised us - eternal life.

If that thought doesn't bring joy to your heart, you're already twice dead. There are only two choices ... be the overcomer of Revelation 21:7 or suffer the fate of Revelation 21:8. Revelation 21:7-8 The one who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But for the cowardly and faithless and detestable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars - their lot is in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

To the one who receives it, the message of Yeshua brings the joy of eternal relationship with God. To the one who rejects Yeshua's message, all the future holds is an eternity of separation from His presence and eternal suffering with no relationship in the family of God at all. Choose wisely my friends.