Rabbi Schneider - Experience True Joy
We're continuing today in John, chapter 17, in a portion of Scripture, beloved ones, that is often identified as the high priestly prayer. This is Jesus's great prayer before he goes to the cross. Jesus is exposing the inner dimension of his heart. And beloved ones, when we see into the heart of Jesus, we're gonna become like Jesus as we yield to the Holy Spirit.
So Father God, once again, I ask you to move over our hearts today by your Word in power, and conform us to the image of your Son, as we look into the heart of your Son, as he opens up his heart to you, Abba God, before going to the Cross.
Beloved ones, even though this prayer was prayed in terms of it being recorded 2,000 years ago, it's still alive today because the words of Jesus are spirit and life. And the words that are revealed from the heart of Jesus in this prayer are operative portions of the Holy Spirit in terms of the way God's kingdom operates upon us and in us right now. So with all that said, I'm gonna pick up right now where I left off last week in this prayer, in verse number 13 today. Hear what Jesus said. Again you can go back, get this complete series, The Prayer Life of Jesus. I'm just gonna launch right in now to where I left off last week. I'm hitting verse number 13, John 17. The Word says this, Jesus is speaking. He says to the Father, But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world, Jesus said, that My joy might be made full in themselves.
You know what Jesus is asking the Father for here? You know what he's saying; that his joy would be made full in you and in me; that Jesus, get this now, wants us to be inside happy. Listen, Jesus's joy is not of the world. Jesus said the joy and the peace I give to you are not as the world gives. The joy and the peace that the world gives are rooted in circumstance. The joy and the peace in the world, beloved, is rooted to something that's outside ourself. In other words, we get a new house, we're happy. We get a new car, we're happy. We go swimming at a pool, we're happy. We go on vacation, we're happy. We get a new boyfriend, a new girlfriend, we're happy. We succeed at something, we're happy. It's all rooted in externals. The problem is the external form of peace and happiness, it's temporary. It's superficial. And it can never last because the circumstances always change.
There's nothing wrong with being blessed by the things of the world. Thank God, Father, for all the blessings that you give us in our circumstances. This is something to rejoice about and to be truly thankful about. But there's something deeper, and there's something more. It's the joy and the peace, beloved, that come from the internal working and operation of the Holy Spirit in our heart. The joy that Jesus gives, beloved, is not of the world. Jesus said, Father, I've spoken your Word to them that my joy may be in them and that it might be full. Jesus said, so that they may have my joy made full in themselves.
You see, Jesus's first miracle in John, beginning of the Gospel of John, he turned the water to wine. Now think about this. Jesus's first miracle, why would Jesus's first miracle being, be turning the water to wine? You see, wine in Scripture is a symbol of earthly celebration. In other words, at the wedding you serve wine because the wine is symbolic of celebration. Isn't it interesting that Jesus's first miracle was at a place where the focus was on celebration, on joy, from the world's perspective? People were marrying their children. It was a time of great celebration and great joy. But you see, many of us, as I've been sharing with you on earlier broadcasts, we lack revelation that God wants us to be, get it now, a happy people. We've been so beaten down by preaching on, on, on the consequences of sin, and judgment, you know.
One of the most famous sermons that was preached back hundreds of years ago was entitled, "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God". And you know, we hear so much about this type of message going forth, this message, "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God". I believe it was preached by Jonathan Edwards, a great revivalist. It brought great revival. But at the end of the day, if the only thing, beloved, that's motivating us, if the only thing that moves us is fear of punishment and fear of judgment, our joy will never be made full. You see, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. But there's something greater and that's revelation of the love of God. And when we have a revelation of the love of God, which is what Jesus came to bring in addition to the revelation of the fear of God, when we have a revelation of the love of God, and that above all else Jesus wants us to have a revelation of his love, we're gonna have joy when we know how much God loves us; how special we are to him; how Jesus's blood was meant to purchase us to be his bride.
When we have confidence in the future, that it's gonna be a good day because Jesus is always gonna be in our future tomorrow, we're gonna have joy. And you know what, beloved one? Listen to me, Jesus prayed that you and I would have joy. Jesus said, I spoke your Word to them, Father, that my joy would be in them and that their joy would be made full. Jesus came to give you life and to give it more abundantly. I want you to know, God wants you to have joy. God wants you to be happy, not because of what the world has to offer, but because of his Spirit in your life; because of who he is to you; because of understanding how much he loves you and I. God wants you to be happy. He wants you to have joy. And I want to encourage you to begin to participate in this. Begin to declare things of happiness and joy. Begin to declare when you go to bed at night, Father God, today was a good day, and tomorrow's gonna be a good day 'cause you're gonna be with me tomorrow. And you told me, Father, that goodness and loving kindness would follow me all the days of my life, according to Psalm, number 23.
God wants us to be confident in his future for us. He wants us to be confident in, in, in, in the fact that tomorrow and our future's gonna be good and bright. You know the Book of Ephesians told, tells us in chapter 1 and chapter 2, that God saved us, get this now Church, in order that he might show his goodness towards us, get this now; that he might show his kindness and goodness towards us for the rest of eternity. In other words, God saved you that he could keep showing his kindness and goodness towards you forever and ever and ever. Really believing this makes us happy. And this is what the Word tells us. That's why Jesus is saying, I spoke to them that they would understand this so that they would have joy and be happy.
I want to encourage you, beloved one, if you've been operating under a spirit of doom and gloom, if you grew up in a home of sadness and melancholiness and depression, if your personality is flat like this and you can never get excited about anything, I want you to know, God loves you so much. He has something better and something more for you. Jesus said, I have come to give life, get it now, he said, more abundantly. Step out, beloved one, into joy. I want to pray for you right now. I want to pray for you, beloved one, right now.
In Jesus's name, Father God, we want to thank you for the revelation, Jesus, that you gave us in John, 17, that you want us to have joy. Jesus, we say yes to your joy. We're sick of sadness. We cast off spirits of depression, spirits of loneliness and isolation, spirits of doom and rejection and gloom. Jesus, we cast it all off. We tear down every demonic spiritual stronghold of darkness and we say, Jesus, on you is the oil of gladness according to your Word; that you're a happy God, not a sad God, and that you're in us and we're in you, and from now on we declare, Jesus, that as we move forward in life we're gonna practice having a spirit of joy, and practice having a spirit of celebration and thankfulness. We declare, Lord Jesus, that because your, we're your people, that because we're your people we should be a happy people. We should be a people of joy and confidence. And Jesus, we declare right now, that we're gonna move into a new realm of joy in our lives, in your name and for your glory, Jesus, we're gonna do this. Amen, Amen, Amen and Amen.
You see, beloved one, it glorifies Jesus when his people live with a spirit of joy because people see us and they see joy in us. And when we tell them it's because of Jesus, you know what? That makes Jesus attractive to them, and that's what Jesus wants to do through our lives. He wants his fragrance to shine through our lives. And part of this involves, beloved, walking as a people of celebration and joy. God wants you to be happy in Jesus's name. Not because of the world, but because of him. Believe it. Practice it. Step into it. Warfare into it. Make up your mind that you're gonna be a happy person in Jesus, Amen, Amen; in Jesus's name, Amen and Amen, Amen and Amen.
Let's continue on. Jesus said in verse number 14: I have given them Your Word, Amen. We received the Word of God. The Word of God is living and active. The Word of God is spirit and life. We live by the Word. Jesus said, I've given them your Word. Listen, the way to get strong and the way to be happy is focusing on God's Word and coming into agreement with his Word. We reject the world. We reject the message of the world. And what we do instead, beloved ones, is we seize God's Word. Someone say it with me.
I'm gonna seize God's Word. I want you to say it with me. I'm gonna seize your Word, God, and I'm not gonna let anything else in. Father God, I make up my mind, by your grace right now, by the Spirit of Jesus, I'm gonna seize your Word, like Jesus does, and not let anything else in. Amen, and Amen, and Amen, and Amen.
Jesus said, I have given them your Word. And then he prayed in verse number 17, he said to the Father: Sanctify them. Sanctify them in Thy truth; Thy Word is truth. Father God, right now I just speak a spirit of washing over your people; Father, that we would be sanctified; that you would wash us of all defilement; that you would wash us, Father, of every lie as we receive your Word. Jesus said, sanctify them in thy truth; Your Word is truth. Then Jesus continued. He said: As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And so we spoke about this on last week's broadcast, that we've got work to do, and we can't separate our love for God from doing the work of God. We need to be his witnesses. We need to tell the world that we love him. We need to tell our friends, and neighbors, and work associates that Jesus is alive and answer our prayers. We need to start a Bible study in our home. Somebody say it with me. I need to start a Bible study in my home. Come on now. I need to start a Bible study in my home.
Listen, just start. You can't get experience unless you start. You can't get proficient unless you begin. Come on, who's gonna do it? I want someone to get on their knee right now and say, Lord, I hear your Spirit speaking to me. I feel you speaking to me, Father. I'm supposed to start a Bible study in my home. Get on your knee, right now, beloved one, and commit to the Lord that you're gonna do this if you feel him touching your soul right now. Yield to him. Father God, yes, you sent me into the world to preach the Gospel to all creation, to make disciples of all nations. I'm gonna walk around my neighborhood with a flyer and I'm gonna start a Bible study in my home. Now just go ahead, beloved one, and do it. Just start at the Book of Romans. You don't have to be a theologian. Beloved, you just have to have a willingness.
You see, God, listen, God doesn't not call the qualified, listen now, God does not call the qualified, hear me, God does not call the qualified, but he qualifies the called. And you're called. So just step out in faith and he's gonna give you what you need, beloved one, Amen. Just start. God will be blessed, and you'll get better and better as you get experience. But how you gonna get experience unless you start? How you gonna get better unless you begin? God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Don't worry about falling on your face. You're gonna succeed just because you did it, Amen.
You're a success just for stepping out. Let's start some Bible studies in our home. In fact, start a Bible study around Discovering the Jewish Jesus. My teaching notes from every episode, you can get right on our webcast, on our website rather for free. Just go to DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com. You can download the teaching notes from every episode. All you need to do, beloved, is watch the broadcast together, even if you just record it, and then pass out the teaching notes and discuss them; so many different ways you can do it. Go through the Book of Romans. Go line by line. Beloved, let's just step out and do it. Let's be movers and shakers, Amen, for the kingdom of God. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. You can do it. Amen.
Jesus continues on and he says, he prays that we would be one. He says that they may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world might believe that You sent Me. So Jesus is praying here now for the unity of the body that we walk in oneness. You know, a lot of people, Church, they start attending a congregation somewhere and as soon as they have a disagreement with the pastor, or the rabbi, or somebody in the congregation they leave and they run. But you know what? We're never gonna grow if we run from a relationship every time we have a conflict. I have grown so much in my life from working through problems in relationships.
I think about how much maturity the Father has built into me by working through relationships, by accepting my responsibility where any division in a relationship is a result of my immaturity, or wrong perception about the situation, or some type of sin in my heart. And then I express and communicate to the other person, not in such a way that says you did this and that made me mad, which just puts a person on a defense, but rather saying, you know, it hurt me when you did this, so that they can hear what I have to say. And then they can dialogue it. We can dialogue and work through it together rather than running from it. Let me back up and say this again. Jesus is praying here, beloved, for unity in the body; that we, they might be one, Father, he says in John, 17:21; that they may all be one even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us so that the world might believe that You sent Me.
Jesus is praying for oneness in his people in the body. But too many of us, when we have a problem in a relationship, we immediately close the door on the relationship and block it, and block the person out of our life, when sometimes that's the right thing to do. But usually the right thing to do is to continue to love, and to reach out, and to try to find a way through the breach in the relationship. And one of the primary ways that we can get past difficult situations in relationships, and there's always gonna be difficulties in any relationship, the way that we continue to grow together in love and in oneness, beloved, is through communication rather than running and separating ourself, rather than going from church to church, from husband to husband, from wife to wife, from job to job, instead we make a commitment to work through things so that we can grow up in maturity and love.
And if there's something that happened in a relationship, the best way I found to handle it is to not go to a person and all steamed up in anger, and point our finger at them and say, you did that. But to basically say, you know, this is what I perceive happened, and this is the way it made me feel, and it hurt me. And when people hear us expressing that what happened hurt us, rather than hearing us saying to them you did this, and I'm angry and blaming them, if they hear that we're hurt, and that we're trying to work through it, then they're gonna have ears to try to understand our heart, and there's gonna be a foundation for us to talk it through together, and to work through it, and to get over it.
So I want to encourage us today, Church, let's grow up as a people. Let's grow up as a bride. Let's learn how to walk through difficulties in relationships, marriages, jobs, etc. Okay, let's talk them through without blame, without anger as much as possible, looking for a way to resolve situations and grow together, and stay unified, because this shows a maturity in our lives. It shows a maturity in the body. And this is what Jesus prayed for because he said that when people remain unified it shows the love of the Father.
I thank God that, that you know, God in my marriage, it's all the grace of God. I've been married now for 31 years. It's all the grace of God. But when people see a marriage that has sustained 31 years, you know what they do? They say there's something, there's something to be respected there. There's something beautiful there. There's something mature there. And it makes them more open to hear of Jesus from our lives and to see Jesus in our lives. But you know what? It's not that my marriage has been without conflict or struggle. No, my wife and I have worked together all these years to become one. We've worked through things. We've prayed together. We've talked together. It's been hard. It's been a struggle, but through it all there's been such a unity that's been developed over time. And this is what God wants to develop, beloved, in your life, in each one of our lives. He wants the world to see unity in the Church and in our relationships.
And then Jesus speaks about the fact that he has given us his glory. Look at verse 22. He says: The glory which You have given Me I have given to them. Wow, Jesus has given you and I his glory. Beloved, I'm going to conclude this important series on next week's broadcast. You're not gonna want to miss it. To think about the fact that Jesus wants you and I to participate in his glory, you know what this means? God has got a supernatural plan for your life. God wants to reveal his glory to you. He wants you to be a partaker of it. Let me tell you, beloved one, that's something to shout about, to know that eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and never has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love him, and that includes you. Join me on next week's edition of Discovering the Jewish Jesus.