Fixed on True Joy

I. The Message of Death and Resurrection 00:01

Lord, I pray that as I speak today the words that you’ve given to me, you would loose the bonds of those who feel and are captive, Lord, that you through your truth would set us free to see you clearly, to love what you love, and to experience the joy of our salvation. In Jesus’ name, amen.

I titled this message “Fixed on True Joy,” so keep that in mind as I talk about suffering and death and pain. We’re fixed on true joy. I promise we’ll get there.

There’s this guy that I love, and if you’ve heard me talking recently, you’ve probably heard me bring him up. His name is Jordan B. Peterson, and if you haven’t heard me talking about him, you might have heard about him in the news. He’s a really controversial public intellectual guy. He’s a clinical psychologist, and his basic message is this: meaning and significance comes from shouldering the greatest burden that you could possibly bear. And all of you are like, “Wow, I’m pumped! I’m ready to go! Let’s get those burdens!” But there’s something he’s saying in the midst of that message that is appealing to people all over the world. His book sold six million copies around the world. It’s being translated into many languages. He spoke at 160 cities a couple years back, and at least 250,000 people showed up to watch a public intellectual talk, walking around like this, talking, not even looking at everybody, for two hours. In fact, I was one of those people. Me and Father Powell and my dad and mom and a bunch of us went out there to see this guy talk about suffering, and embracing the suffering that the world brings.

What in the world is going on? Why is that message resonating with people? Well, if you’ve been listening the past few weeks, we’ve basically been preaching that message: that through the suffering and pain and the voluntary embrace of the responsibilities that God has given us, he will train us and raise us up; that it’s through death that you reach resurrection. That’s been the message. And maybe you’re thinking, “Man, Lent is hard this year. We’re getting it again and again and again.” But I want to tell you that the reason why people are choosing to listen to that message is the reason why we should listen to that message, and that is because there is nothing else out there that solves the problems of our life. The message of death and resurrection is actually at the core of what it means to be human, what it means to know love and joy.

If you think about all the different things people commit their lives to, whether it’s money… Do you think Jeff Bezos is the happiest man alive because he’s the richest? I don’t know. I mean, his wife had some choice words to say about him when she divorced him. I’m not making a moral judgment on his life. I don’t know their situation, and I’m sure it was heartbreaking and painful, and that God himself grieved over the breaking of that union. So I don’t want to blithely say, “He’s probably just an evil rich guy, he’s divorced, so we can condemn him.” I’m not saying that. But I am saying that, you know what, if I had to choose between him and me, I want to be me. I want to be the guy who has a wonderful, supportive wife, who knows what it is to lay my life down for her, to lay my life down for the church, and who is trying to do that better every day. Those billions of dollars don’t make him happy, period, end of story.

And the idea of the American dream: if you just work really hard, you’ll get raised up to this place where you can maybe own your own business, or you’ll be a manager in corporate America, and you’ll be able to buy a house. None of those things are bad, but it’s not enough. That’s why you see so many people rebelling against that idea. You see so many people saying, “Oh, it’s unfair in the world. I’m oppressed. I can’t get those things.” It’s like they’re chasing the wrong goals. If instead you chase Jesus and his kingdom, and you submit yourself to his way, which includes death and resurrection, then you will see true joy.

II. To Know the Lord 04:30

Now, all of that was my introduction, so let’s get going. We’re going to talk about some of the readings today, because they really show how this got lived out. There’s one person that I know of on the entire planet, in the history of the world, who embraced this wholeheartedly, and that was Jesus. So we’re going to talk about this: what did that mean for Jesus, to embrace a way of living that he then calls us to live, a way of living that we’re told brings true joy? Because, you know what, I want more joy in my life. I want more joy and peace in my life. I want that. And so this is hopefully going to give you some of the tools to reach that.

And we’re made the promise first. I love the readings today, because in the Old Testament we’re made the promise. God says:

33 “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jer 31.33–34

I don’t know if you heard that, but “no longer shall one teach his neighbor and each his brother.” So that means there’s a time where you don’t have to listen to me preaching from a pulpit anymore. There’s a time coming where you will actually know God so well that we won’t have to teach each other. We’ll just both be knowing God together in community. I look forward to that. You will know the Lord. And this is really hard sometimes for us to grasp intellectually, but ultimately the truest and highest good, the truest and highest joy, is to know the Lord.

Let’s talk about what that means, then. What we learned about Jesus this morning when we read our New Testament, in Hebrews 5:7–9, is fascinating:

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Heb 5.7

Or, the translation we read this morning said he was heard because of his fear. So maybe that challenges your idea of Jesus. Have you ever thought of Jesus as somebody who cried with loud tears and laments, as somebody who had fear of the Lord? Instead we like to think of Jesus as the guy who walked on water. We even use that: “Oh, that guy’s walking on water, man. He’s just on top of the world.” Or we think of Jesus as just going into this amazing ministry with complete and utter confidence like we could never imagine. And yet again and again in the Scripture we’re shown a more human Jesus than that; in fact, a perfectly human Jesus, one who knows our weakness, who can sympathize with the way that we feel.

III. At the Tomb of Lazarus 06:40

So what are we learning about this? I was curious: when do we see Jesus praying with tears? When do we see Jesus crying? I want to examine those stories. There are three times in Scripture where it specifically articulates that Jesus was weeping, and I want to see what his response is in these moments, because when we encounter those places in our life, I want to do it the way Jesus did it.

So let’s talk about this. At the tomb of Lazarus is the most famous time, and the shortest verse in all of Scripture: “Jesus wept” (John 11.35). So what’s the story here? Jesus has a good friend, in fact, we think, probably one of his best friends outside of his followers who walked with him day by day. And they come and they say, “Lazarus is sick. Come, Jesus, heal him.” And what does he tell his disciples? He says, “No, we’re not going to go. We’re not going to go see Lazarus.” And the disciples and everybody, his followers, are aghast: “Why wouldn’t you go?” And in fact (not to go too far down this rabbit hole of this story, but it’s fascinating) the disciples think he doesn’t want to go because he’s afraid that the religious leaders are going to crucify him. That’s why they think he’s not going: “Oh, he’s staying away from Judea because the people want to kill him or stone him.” Because a couple days later Jesus says, “Okay, it’s time to go see Lazarus,” and they go, “Wait a second, I thought we had this figured out. They’re going to kill you if you go there” (John 11.8).

But you know what? Jesus’ delay, we find out, was not because he was afraid of the religious leaders, but actually because he was following a higher purpose. He was following a higher directive. And you know what? We see this perfect moment where he arrives at the tomb, and he sees people weeping at the death of his friend, and he just breaks down and cries. I don’t even think Jesus wept in a pretty or holy way. Maybe you think of Jesus as serenely standing there and a couple tears are falling down his face. I think he wept like you and I, snot coming down his face, bent over double. I think Jesus felt in the same type of way that you might have felt when you experienced a tragedy of losing someone you love. Let’s not purify Jesus so that he is no longer relatable to us at all. The whole point of him coming is so that we could be in relationship with him and understand him and learn to be like him.

So he breaks down in pain, as we all would, even though he knows that God has a plan. He told his disciples, “This is actually not an illness to death. This is for God’s glory” (John 11.4). But you know what? We all know this well: to know the truth and to feel the truth are two completely different things. You might know that God loves you. You might know that God’s taking care of you. You might know that Jesus said, “Do not be anxious for anything.” But it’s not so easy to not be anxious for anything. It’s not so easy to not feel the pain of that. And we see Jesus knowing the truth, knowing that this is not an illness to death, but Lazarus will be raised from the dead, and he still has to encounter the reality of this tragedy, and he has to walk it out. Jesus knew the truth, but he had to walk it out.

And so then, of course, we see the joy of resurrection, the most remarkable resurrection story outside of Jesus’ own resurrection, when he’s taking off the burial clothes, and you can imagine the embrace that comes as Lazarus comes back from the dead. I mean, it’s joy unimaginable. They were in the pit of despair, and yet they see resurrection, and God is glorified, and the word spreads: “Hey, God’s doing something.”

IV. Weeping over Jerusalem 10:40

Next we see Jesus… And this is actually chronological, because the death of Lazarus and the raising of Lazarus gets him that much closer to being killed. Because, you know what, the religious leaders couldn’t stand the idea that somebody outside of their system had the power to raise the dead, and they’re getting scared: “If he can raise the dead, man, he’s going to just overthrow everything.” So we see this progression from that moment, and it’s relevant for Lent, because that’s what we’re walking out, this march to the cross. You’ll see it really clearly next Sunday as we go into Palm Sunday. But as Jesus is getting closer now to Jerusalem, he looks out over Jerusalem, knowing that he’s going to be crucified, and he cries. He weeps and says:

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Matt 23.37

Now we can see the poetic… not even justice, but the mercy of Christ in this, because he’s weeping over a people who are going to call out for his crucifixion. Like I mentioned, next week we have Palm Sunday, and we get that powerful moment in the Gospel lesson where we’re all prompted to cry out, “Crucify him!” And over those very people who are going to call to Jesus, “Crucify him,” Jesus is weeping and saying, “I would love to embrace you, to bring you into deep, healing relationship with me, and yet you’re not willing.” That cuts to my heart, because I wonder how many times Jesus has looked down on my life and said, “Jesse, Jesse, I want to embrace you. I want to heal you. But you’re not willing.” How many times has Jesus wept over us, or our friends, or our neighbors, when he wants to bring them into his embrace?

So we see in this the heart of the message: that not only are we called to enter into death and resurrection, but Jesus actually has so much compassion for us that he went first. He did it for us. So every time we encounter a situation (and they could be big or small), it could be as simple as, you know, a death and resurrection is like, “Man, I want to watch the football game.” But instead of that, I feel God prompted me: “Hey, you need to go and clean the kitchen for your wife.” Made-up scenario. I’ve never skipped a football game in my life. But I probably should now. But the point is, I could imagine a situation in which God might tap on your shoulder and say, “Hey, you need to die to your desire to watch this football game, and you need to clean your house.” That feels like a serious death. But you know what he promises? When we give in to those things, he will raise us again. There will be true joy found when we submit our wills and our desires to his.

So for our sakes he knew the truth, that Jerusalem was going to crucify him, that the people he loved were going to turn on him, and yet he walked it out. He knew the truth, but he still had to walk it out.

V. Father, Save Me from This Hour 13:51

And we see that manifest most evidently, most importantly, most powerfully, in the garden of Gethsemane, where he goes off by himself to pray, and he calls out, and they say he even wept tears of blood, just utter agony, as he cries out to God, “Would that you could take this cup from me.”

What did we read today in the Gospel? This is before the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is already considering the importance of what God’s leading him to, and he says:

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” John 12.27–28

We do a disservice to the agony that Jesus walked through when we only focus on the garden of Gethsemane. This is weeks leading up to the death and resurrection. He’s agonizing over the fact that God’s leading him step by step, and he’s wrestling with that question: “Will I ask God to save me from his purposes? But this is the reason I’m here.”

The reason nothing else satisfies in the world is because you were actually made for a purpose. The reason that money, sex, drugs, lust, comfort, the reason none of those things are fulfilling in you, is because you’re actually called for a purpose on this world. That might be getting married, raising a family, having a particular job, loving the people in your life, coming to church and glorifying God. But there are purposes that God has set in front of you. And the question we should ask ourselves when we’re going through our hard times is: what shall we pray? “Father, save me from this hour”? Or, “Is this your will for me? Are you leading me step by step through this?”

Now, that doesn’t mean… As we see, that came before the garden of Gethsemane. But do you know what? When Jesus was confronted with the true pain, not just the physical pain of the cross, but the true pain that the people he loved more than we could imagine were betraying him and putting him up on the cross, when he came to that reality, he cries out, weeps in pain, weeps tears of blood, and says, “Father, is there any other way?” But even at that moment, Jesus is able to say, “No, but your will be done.” Even at that moment.

Now, why do we even know the story of the garden? I was wondering this the other day. We find out in the story of the garden that the disciples are sleeping while this is happening. Jesus is having his crisis moment, and his disciples are sleeping. Maybe you’ve had people in your life where you’re having your most difficult moment and the person you thought you could rely on is sleeping. It’s pretty relatable, let me say that. But how do we know the story of the garden of Gethsemane? We know it because Jesus then told the disciples later, “Hey, you know what I was doing that night? I was weeping tears of blood. I was crying out to God: ‘Father, save me. Father, is there any other way? But not my will; your will be done.’” Why did Jesus tell us that story? That could have been his private fight with God, and we would have never known Jesus in that moment of doubt and pain. He told us because he wanted you to know it’s okay to have those moments of pain, those moments where you cry out to God, where you’re weeping and you just say, “Father, is there any other way?” He wanted to model for us the way that we could respond in those moments, the way that we could respond when we’re faced with the most difficult thing that we ever see in our life. He wanted us to know how to respond in tragedy and difficulty. And the way to respond is not to ignore the pain, not to pretend that it’s not there. The way to respond is to call out to your Father who loves you, and to remember that he loves you, and that nevertheless there will be resurrection, there will be joy. He knew the truth, that God would raise him from the dead, but he had to walk it out.

VI. He Learned Obedience 18:16

Now, why did Jesus go through all this suffering even though he knew the truth and was willing to follow God’s commandments? If he knows all the right doctrines, which we know he does, if he’s more than willing to obey, then why did he have to actually go through the process of obeying and suffering? Because we see in Hebrews, as we finish out our Hebrews passage:

8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Heb 5.8–9

So even Jesus had to learn obedience. It’s actually, I would argue, written into the fabric of reality that we have to actually walk out the truth. We can’t just know it. And in fact, if you say you know it but you’re not willing to walk it out, we call those people hypocrites. They don’t really know the truth. If you know the truth and yet you can’t walk it out when it’s difficult, then do you really know it? And I don’t say that as a condemnation; I say that as an invitation. If you know the truth, like we prayed in our collect, that there’s true joy on the other side of the death that God’s calling you to in your life, then why don’t you do it? It says, in fact, that Jesus learned obedience, and he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him (Heb 12.2).

VII. Dying to Everything Else 19:28

We were going to go through a YouTube clip, but we’re going to skip that. Eventually I want to learn how to use TVs to make these messages more compelling, because I think there’s a way to do that, but I couldn’t get it all working this morning. So we’re going to skip that, and I’m going to describe it to you.

So close your eyes and imagine a guy on skis with a parachute, and he’s flying off a mountain, and there are buildings in front of him, and he curves around and he jumps off of one building, and then he curves around and he jumps off the other one, and then he falls through, and he grabs the parachute and he collapses it in his arms, and he goes flying through this tunnel, and then he comes out the other side, and he parachutes off into the sunset. Now open your eyes. Who here would like to be like that guy? I would love to be that guy. It’s insane to watch him do these miraculous tricks. He’s got skis on his feet and he’s got a parachute, and he’s flying through, and he’s gliding, he’s hitting the side of the buildings, and then he perfectly lands on the ground so that he’s now skiing. He collapses the parachute, he goes through the tunnel, and he comes out the other side. And there are all these different tricks he does. He does a backflip, he does a barrel roll, he does all these things, and then he flies off into the sunset. It’s gorgeous. It’s wonderful.

I watched it like five times this morning when I saw it pop up on Facebook. Why did I watch that? It’s not just because the cinematography was beautiful and the sound mixing was perfect. I mean, everything about the video was great. But I watched it because there was a guy on the screen who had achieved a level of mastery unlike anything that I could possibly dream of. He had achieved an ideal. And what he had done is he had sacrificed those parts of his life that held him back from achieving that ideal. It said in his bio, “As a teenager, when he wasn’t on skis, he was spending hours learning the basics of the demanding discipline of parachuting.” Can you imagine a teenager who’s so committed that instead of Netflix, instead of video games, instead of hanging out with their friends, they are spending hours learning the disciplines of their craft?

The reason that he’s so compelling and amazing is because he died to all the other things in his life that could have distracted him, and he had one goal, one focus: to be the best… I guess there’s a new name for it. It’s called speed skiing or something like that. The best speed skier in the world. That basically means you use the parachute and the skis, and you get these huge miles per hour, and you can ski things that nobody ever skis. He submitted himself. He died to the ideal that was set before him. And you know what? I think he had some true joy as he was sailing through that city, as he was jumping off those ramps, doing the backflips. He had some true joy, because he had bought into the program.

The program is this: if you will take up your cross and follow Christ and die to the other desires in your life, then he will raise you to newness of life and bring you into true joy, and eventually eternal joy, where everything that you gave up in this life will be restored, we’re told, a hundredfold. All of that to say, when we are willing to lay down our life for the purposes that God has set before us, we can achieve… literally, we can become sons of God. We can be like Jesus.

And it’s not just something where you can be a super sports person and you’re flying around in your parachute. That’s just an example. We also see that in music. When somebody plays an instrument better than we could possibly imagine, it’s like, the tens of thousands of hours that got him to that point? “Yeah, I don’t think I’m willing to pay that price.” It’s pretty awesome. It’s transcendent. I can’t imagine how good it is. But there was a dying and a rising that had to happen for that to be fulfilled.

VIII. Where True Joys Are to Be Found 23:42

So what are we saying this morning? Well, we found it. I could have just read the collect and we would have been done with this whole sermon. But let’s just go back and read these couple sentences here: “Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found.”

Why did Jesus die on the cross? Because he loved what God commanded, regardless of what it cost him, and he looked forward to the promise of God, which was true joy. He did it for the joy that was set before him.

There’s this perplexing line in Psalm 51 that I want to leave you with. It says, “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice” (Ps 51.8). Why are we crazy Christians able to say something as absurd as that: “Let the bones that you have broken rejoice”? That makes no sense from the world’s view. But we have an eternal viewpoint. We have the guarantee that the love and the goodness of God will bring us day by day into new life. Death and resurrection is the pattern, until we enter that true resurrection, where true joy, eternal joy, where every tear is wiped away, where there’s no more sorrow, no more pain (Rev 21.4).

If you take anything away from the sermon, take this: the balance of the scales in our life is not good and bad evenly parsed out, like karma tries to teach. It’s actually eternal good. The good outweighs the bad more than we can ever imagine. And if you’re going through a hard time right now, know that you have a Savior who knows how you feel, truly knows and sympathizes and cares. He’s not sitting up there going, “Man, if they could just get their act together.” No, he’s entering in. He’s weeping with you. He is sorrowing with you. And yet he is holding out hope for you in a way that you can’t imagine, because he knows the joy on the other side of death. He knows the resurrection that’s coming. Have hope. Easter is coming. Amen.