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The Joy That Sustained Jesus · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, we hear many painful stories from you of suffering
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  Speaker 1: that you write up and send to the inbox. Thank
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  Speaker 1: you for welcoming Pastor John and myself into your life
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  Speaker 1: in those seasons to share. Thank you for sharing the details.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the stories that we get are heart-wrenching. Some
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  Speaker 1: of them are too painful to even address on the
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  Speaker 1: podcast from a distance. There's just nothing to say from
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  Speaker 1: a distance over a podcast. But those emails you send
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  Speaker 1: us bring tears to our eyes as we read about
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  Speaker 1: the things that you have endured and the ways God
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  Speaker 1: has sustained you through the very darkest seasons of your life.
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  Speaker 1: And when we read the agonies of Gethsemane, we see
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  Speaker 1: in Christ's tears, his tears of blood, a suffering that
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  Speaker 1: is unmatched in human history. And yet there, as we
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  Speaker 1: read the crucifixion narrative together right now in Luke, We
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  Speaker 1: are told something that's almost hard to believe. Christ was
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  Speaker 1: sustained through all of it by joy. That's today on
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  Speaker 1: Ask Pastor John, the joy that sustained Jesus. Here's the
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  Speaker 1: question from an anonymous listener. Pastor John, how does Christian
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  Speaker 1: hedonism relate to the agonies of Gethsemane like we see
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  Speaker 1: in Luke 22, verses 39 to 46? You argue that
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  Speaker 1: obedience without delight is hollow. Mm-hmm. But what I think
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  Speaker 1: is the most God-glorifying act in all of human history,
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  Speaker 1: the cross, was fueled not by any sensible joy, but
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  Speaker 1: expressed in the crushing weight of bloody tears. How does
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  Speaker 1: this work?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the last thing I want to do is minimize
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  Speaker 2: the agony of Jesus in the hours before his death.
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  Speaker 2: One of the most moving, sobering moments convicting sermons I
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  Speaker 2: ever read is a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called Christ's Agony.
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  Speaker 2: It's based on Luke 22, 44, which says, and being
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  Speaker 2: in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became
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  Speaker 2: like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
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  Speaker 2: This is such a sacred and awful moment in the
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  Speaker 2: life of Jesus that I am very hesitant to intrude
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  Speaker 2: upon it. However, there is a passage in the book
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  Speaker 2: of Hebrews that invites us into the heart of Jesus
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  Speaker 2: as he was enduring Gethsemane, enduring the cross, And it
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  Speaker 2: shows us some fraction of the mystery that enabled him
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  Speaker 2: to bear the horrors of crucifixion and the weight of
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  Speaker 2: the sins of his people. And I think it's not
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  Speaker 2: wrong to look into that with all humility and trembling,
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  Speaker 2: to look in and see what God wants us to see.
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  Speaker 2: The text is Hebrews 12, 2, but before I read it,
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  Speaker 2: Let's remember that leading up to this text are 40
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  Speaker 2: verses of illustrations in chapter 11 of Hebrews of how
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  Speaker 2: the Old Testament saints were able to obey God in
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  Speaker 2: triumphs and in suffering. For example, verse 8, by faith
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  Speaker 2: Abraham obeyed. So faith is the power of obedience. And
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  Speaker 2: then in verse 35, it says that by faith, some
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  Speaker 2: were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might
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  Speaker 2: rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging,
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  Speaker 2: even chains and imprisonment. Then when these 40 verses of
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  Speaker 2: examples of obedience by faith are complete, the writer says
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  Speaker 2: that that because we are surrounded by such an amazing
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  Speaker 2: cloud of witnesses, these examples of faith, we should run
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  Speaker 2: our race with endurance. So they endured by faith. You
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  Speaker 2: can endure by faith. But then he gives one more
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  Speaker 2: example of endurance, namely Jesus. And he says we should
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  Speaker 2: look to Jesus. Why? Because in the hours of his
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  Speaker 2: greatest suffering, He was the most beautiful example of endurance
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  Speaker 2: by faith. Jesus is the climax of all those saints
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  Speaker 2: who lived and endured and died by faith. However, here's
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  Speaker 2: the striking thing. It doesn't say that Jesus endured the
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  Speaker 2: cross by faith. It says he endured the cross for
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  Speaker 2: the joy that was set before him. The joy that
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  Speaker 2: was set before him got him through Gethsemane and the cross.
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  Speaker 2: So it looks like enduring by faith, the way the
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  Speaker 2: Old Testament saints did, and enduring for the joy set
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  Speaker 2: before him are very close, if not the same reality,
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  Speaker 2: which is exactly what we expect in view of Hebrews 11.1.
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  Speaker 2: which defined faith like this. Faith is the substance of
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  Speaker 2: things hoped for. So Jesus saw great joy. He hoped
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  Speaker 2: for great joy just over the horizon in three days.
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  Speaker 2: And as he believed that, he trusted his Father for that.
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  Speaker 2: He treasured that, the substance of it, the substance of
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  Speaker 2: that hope for joy. became present in his faith. Faith
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  Speaker 2: is the substance of what we hope for, the present
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  Speaker 2: experience of the substance of what we hoped or hoping for.
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  Speaker 2: There was a great joy set before Jesus. He believed,
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  Speaker 2: he trusted, he treasured it, and it became a present reality.
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  Speaker 2: So we can describe the heart of Jesus in two ways,
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  Speaker 2: which mean, I think, essentially the same thing. For the
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  Speaker 2: joy that was set before him, he endured the cross,
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  Speaker 2: or by faith he endured the cross, because faith is
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  Speaker 2: the present experience of the substance of that joy. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what does that tell us about Gethsemane, where so much
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  Speaker 2: of the agony, of Jesus' endurance was already beginning. I
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  Speaker 2: think if we dared, I don't think we would dare,
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  Speaker 2: but if we dared to ask Jesus in the Garden
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  Speaker 2: of Gethsemane, Jesus, do you have joy? I think he
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  Speaker 2: would have said, in great patience, like, why are you
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  Speaker 2: asking me this? But if he would have answered us,
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  Speaker 2: it would have gone, I think, something like this through
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  Speaker 2: his bloody tears and his agony.
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  Speaker 1: I can see it.
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  Speaker 2: I can taste it. It's going to get me through.
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  Speaker 2: This future hoped-for joy in the presence of his Father
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  Speaker 2: had a present, obedient, sustaining power because faith now is
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  Speaker 2: the substance of things hoped for. This is how a
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  Speaker 2: hoped-for joy becomes a mighty force of love in the present.
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  Speaker 2: No greater act of love. has ever been performed than
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  Speaker 2: when Jesus endured the cross to save his enemies. So
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  Speaker 2: what I'm arguing for is that Christian joy is a
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  Speaker 2: profound and mysterious thing. I don't think it's right to
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  Speaker 2: strip joy of its feeling as if it were a
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  Speaker 2: thought or a conviction or an act of willpower. Joy
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  Speaker 2: is a feeling. It's a good feeling. It is the
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  Speaker 2: sort of feeling we will have in the presence of
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  Speaker 2: God forever. Psalm 1611, in your presence is fullness of joy.
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  Speaker 2: At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. We must not
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  Speaker 2: strip the biblical language of joy and pleasure forever. of
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  Speaker 2: its deeply satisfying emotional reality. The goal of eternity is
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  Speaker 2: enjoyment of God, real enjoyment, a feeling. It really satisfies. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 2: the fact that it can coexist with sorrow and affliction
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  Speaker 2: and agony means Christian joy is something far more substantial.
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  Speaker 2: Get that from substance? It's the substance of things hoped for.
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  Speaker 2: It's far more substantial, more durable, deeper, more wonderful than
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  Speaker 2: the pleasures that come merely from the world. Paul said
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  Speaker 2: in 2 Corinthians 6.10, he was sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
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  Speaker 2: He said in 2 Corinthians 7, 4, in all our affliction,
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  Speaker 2: I am overflowing with joy.
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  Speaker 1: In, not after.
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  Speaker 2: In, not after. Affliction. And I think that's part of
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  Speaker 2: the mystery of Gethsemane. The joy that was set before
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  Speaker 2: Jesus sustained him. And I think it sustained him because
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  Speaker 2: his faith was so real that that it became the
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  Speaker 2: substance of that joy in the present, in the garden,
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  Speaker 2: the substance of what was hoped for. He tasted the
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  Speaker 2: joy in the midst of his agony, and it sustained
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  Speaker 2: him for the joy that was set before him. He
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  Speaker 2: endured the cross.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, from one angle, the cross is pure agony. From
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  Speaker 1: another angle, there's a joy that sustained him. A joy
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  Speaker 1: set forth. And if I can see that joy by faith,
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  Speaker 1: if I can taste it in this life, what I
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  Speaker 1: see and taste now is going to get me through.
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  Speaker 1: That's the takeaway. Even through the cross, as we see
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  Speaker 1: in Jesus' life. Jesus endured Gethsemane and the cross because
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  Speaker 1: by faith, The future joy of being with his father
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  Speaker 1: became a present sustaining reality in the midst of his agony.
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  Speaker 1: Another angle on this whole episode is to say that
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  Speaker 1: none of us sins out of a sense of duty.
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  Speaker 1: We don't have a duty to sin. We prefer to sin.
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  Speaker 1: Sin makes promises to us and we buy those promises.
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  Speaker 1: And to the degree that we find them more compelling
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  Speaker 1: and more attractive and more desirable, we will sin. The
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  Speaker 1: key to killing sin is severing its root by the
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  Speaker 1: power of a superior promise of joy. John Piper wrote
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  Speaker 1: a 400-page book to explain all this. It's called Future Grace.
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  Speaker 1: That's the title, Future Grace. If you haven't read it,
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  Speaker 1: I commend it to you. And if joy in suffering
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  Speaker 1: seems odd to you, you're scratching your head, still trying
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  Speaker 1: to figure out how joy in suffering happens, how someone
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  Speaker 1: can see and pursue joy during their greatest pain, This
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  Speaker 1: is a distinctive of the life of Christ and a
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  Speaker 1: distinctive of the Christian life. We call it Christian hedonism.
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  Speaker 1: For more on that, on joy alongside suffering in this life,
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  Speaker 1: see the Ask Pastor John book on pages 391 to
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  Speaker 1: 394 for more on that. Thank you, Pastor John, and
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  Speaker 1: thanks for joining us today. If you have a question
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  Speaker 1: to Ask Pastor John, find the link to email us
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  Speaker 1: and find our complete episode archive at the same place, askpastorjohn.com.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Reinke. We'll see you back here on Thursday.