I. It is written "Rejoice in the Lord." And what is joy in the Lord? Is it merely the joy of the child, a flash of meteoric light, without permanence, without a fixed source within, or an abiding effect without? No, indeed. Joy in the Lord has for its ground, knowledge of the Lord. In order to rejoice in the Lord, you must know the Lord not as you know a mere fact, but as you know a dear friend, a loving father, One who is the source of your life, the fountain of your good, the hope of your soul, the desire of your heart. Men are always tempted to rejoice, not in Him, but in themselves and the world; in their strength, their comforts, their advantages. But He shakes our security in these things, that we may live nearer to Him; that we may learn when and where only is the joy that remains; not written in the sand and washed out by every tide, but graven on the everlasting rock; and that by personal experience we may each one rejoice in Him alone in Him whatever betide in Him for ever and ever.
II. And these things He does with us, that our joy may be full. If He had left us to ourselves, we should be filling the cup with strange ingredients, which we mistake for joy. We should rise in our national exclusiveness, our earthly pride, our carnal security, and thus when the cup of joy seemed to be full, and we lifted it to our lips to drink, it would be part joy and part bitterness; but now He casts out the bitterness, and though in His own way and not in ours, He is filling the cup with true unmixed joy joy which will abide with us and refresh us and stand every trial joy which will be joy on the bed of sickness and in the prospect of death yea, and when death is past, in His heavenly kingdom.
H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. ii., p. 280.
The fellowship of Christ's joy the source of true blessedness
I. What was the blessedness of Christ? As the first step in this inquiry we must ascertain how far His blessedness is to be understood by man. We begin, therefore, by laying down the truth: (1) That the blessedness of the Infinite God is essentially incomprehensible. We can only conceive blessedness as increasing; therefore we must think of Him as more blessed as the ages roll on, and because those two thoughts can never be reconciled, the blessedness of God is for ever incomprehensible. But in God revealed in Christ the mystery is yet deeper. Whether Jesus, during the years of His humanity, did enter into the unchanging bliss of the Father we cannot tell. (2) Regarding Christ purely from the human side of His being, we observe that His blessedness as the God-man must be in some measure comprehensible. We see how His joy rose through all His sorrow. He tells us it came by keeping His Father's commandments and abiding in His love. We have the two elements combined to form it the giving up of Himself to work the will of God, and the consciousness that the Infinite Love was resting on Him through it all. (3) But can that joy be communicated? To enter into Christ's joy we must become Christ-like. Ours must be that utter surrender of self in doing and bearing God's will, and then will the sense of infinite love dawn upon us, and we shall know something of the lofty gladness which filled the Saviour's heart while he was moving to the garden and the Cross.
II. The fellowship of Christ's blessedness is the only source of perfect joy. Perfect joy has two conditions which all men practically recognise. In its source it must be self-surrender to the highest love, and in its action it must be independent of outward changes. The longing to attain a state of life superior to the accidents of time and change shows this. The wisest men have spoken of following the right in the face of all consequences, as the source of the highest and purest joy of man. The fellowship of Christ's joy gives this. It is a joy undisturbed by sorrows; it may seem to be weakened, but it is in reality strengthened by suffering. And even death itself, which damps out the joy of all other men, consummates the blessedness of those who, through fellowship of life, are partakers of the joy of Christ.
E. L. Hull, Sermons,3rd series, p. 46.
References: John 15:11. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. ii., p. 280; Homilist,4th series, vol. i., p. 321; R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 357; A. Mackennal, Ibid.,vol. viii., p. 235; J. T. Stannard, Ibid.,vol. xiv., p. 168; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., p. 131; vol. xi., p. 270; W. G. Blaikie, Glimpses of the Inner Life of our Lord,p. 202. Joh 15:12. Preacher's Lantern,vol. iv., p. 687. John 15:12; John 15:13. G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons and Addresses in Marlborough College,p. 502. Joh 15:12-16. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 278. John 15:12-17. Christian World Pulpit,vol. x., p. 269.