Upper Room Discourse

We have been looking at John chapters 14 to 17, where Jesus knew He was about to be crucified and where He shared things with the disciples that He felt was really important. We are looking at seven of them in this teaching series. So far we have already talked about three of them: believing God's promise, revelation of God and the relationship between intimacy and fruit. Now we will talk about the fourth thing: joy.

As I'm getting older, my face is falling and my face muscles sagging, so it is harder to tell when I'm smiling. I wish my face was more like Ted Haggard's -- he has that perpetual grin and always looks happy. I like that. I think people are attracted to people who look like that. I have a deep joy inside, but I wish my face reflected that a bit better. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Jesus said, "I want you to have works (which is a synonym for fruit), and much fruit, that My Father be glorified. And I want you to have joy." And Jesus meant that when He said it, it really is important to Him for us to be filled with His joy.

I remember some of the critics of Toronto said, "Church isn't supposed to be fun. Who said church is supposed to be fun? It's not supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be reverent." I guess they think of church like going to a funeral home where you show reverence and act solemn. The Bible talks about giving God reverence, but it only does that in one place. The Bible that says "Be still and know that I'm God." But there are hundreds of times where the Bible tells us to shout, dance, jump up and twirl. How is it they can pick up on that one verse and miss all these other ones?

Joy is important in the life of a Christian. Look at John 15:9-11. It talks about in joy. "As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father's commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

That word 'complete' means 'to go on to perfection or to fullness. God has said 'I want My joy to be in you. As a matter of fact, I want your joy to be full, to be complete, to be perfected."

A lot of people don't want to become a Christian because we seem like we are the most remorse, sad, solemn people in general. That is not becoming to Jesus! He talks about His joy being in us. He talks about an intimacy that produces joy in verses 9-11.

Now I want to go back to one other thing. This one promise that Jesus gave in verse 7, "If you remain in Me and I remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you." But Jesus did not say it quite that way. Yes, that passage has a strong emphasis on 'remaining in Jesus,' which can sound mystical and solely experiential -- and there are a lot of people who are geared that way. But it's not just having these experiences with God because He says there are two things to this. 'You must remain in Me and My Word in you. If you remain in Me and My Word is in you then you can ask whatever you want and it will be given you.'

What He was saying is that if you have His covenant promises and you know His word, then you will ask according to His will. And if you know that something is God's will (1 John 5:18), then you are going to ask and receive that which you have asked. Not knowing the Word causes many people to live well below their privileges. This is something we can learn from the Word of Faith camp. It's not just faith, it's the Word Of Faith, the word can produce faith. We need to know what the promises are so we can understand and possess them. Many Christians are defeated because they just don't know the Word. They don't know who they are in Christ, and they don't know how Christ is in them. And they don't know what He has promised us in His Word.

By the way, Did you know that the Word of Faith, (Kenneth Hagan, Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps and those guys), that teaching did not originate in the Pentecostal movement? Did you know that? From 1875-1900 that one of the biggest moves that ever hit the United States was called the "Faith Cure Movement". It had more books and articles written about it than any other move of God It was quite controversial. But it also impacted the church in America very much. There weren't any Pentecostals yet. That wouldn't start until 1901. This was 1875.

Who were these men that were talking so much about healing? B.B. Warfield, a guy from Princeton Seminary wrote a book titled Counterfeit Miracles. B.B. Warfield is a great reformed teacher, but he had an invalid wife who did not get healed, and so he did not embrace healing theology and he wrote the book Counterfeit Miracles. He took one chapter to come against one man, against his book about healing being for today.

Now this man wasn't a Pentecostal; it wasn't even a Holiness guy -- He was a Baptist. Here were the main guys of this movement: A.J. Gordon, the famous Baptist pastor, who did his daily devotions in Greek. He just read in Greek; he was a great scholar. The other was A.B. Simpson founder of Christian Missionary Alliance. The other (many have probably read some of his books and didn't know it) was Andrew Murray. Those were the three major leaders. There were also four minor leaders in it: D.L. Moody, R.A. Torrey, A.T. Pierson, T.J. Grossen, who was a Presbyterian, the examiner of languages (Greek) at Manitoba University. These men were scholarly, highly educated, seminary trained evangelicals, and they brought forth this teaching about believing in the promises of God. It was called "Faith Cure."

So Jesus said, 'Abide in Me and My Word in you, and ask what you want and I will give it to you.' Now I don't know you or am I the only one who struggles with the grandness/greatness of these promises? Yes, we have read John chapters 13-17, but has it got in you yet? This is not theory. This is invitation to reality.