The King’s Joy, Part 2

Today on Summit Life, JD Greer gives us the pathway to joy. God gave a lot of you some massive resources, massive talent. What if you started to say, okay God, how do I use that talent?

What if I use this one shot that I have and leverage what I have for the purposes of the Great Commission? You know what that would give you? It would give you joy, because you would have joy knowing that your life is eternally significant. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of JD Greer, pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Have you ever wondered where the pathway to true joy is? So many of us search and come up empty, and surely there's directions we can follow, right? Well, today's teaching just might be that roadmap that you're looking for. It's called The King's Joy, and it's the final message from our teaching series called Kingdom Come. Remember, if you've missed any of the previous messages in this series, you can catch up online at jdgreer.com. Now here's Pastor JD teaching from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, where Jesus appears to the disciples.

Let's jump in. Jesus himself stood among them, and then he says to them, peace to you. But to me, that's actually a little humorous. I think you see a little bit of a playful side of Jesus there. They think he's dead, and then he just appears in the midst of them and says, peace to you. I think Jesus got a good chuckle out of that. Verse 37, but they were startled and frightened, and they thought they'd seen the Spirit. And he said to them, well, why are you troubled?

And why do doubts arise in your heart? Verse 39, see my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones like you see that I have. This was a real resurrection, not a mythical one. It's an actual resurrection, and let me tell you this, Christianity rises or falls on this point. And the reason for that is what I've often explained to you, that the central point of Christianity is not what Jesus taught. The central point of Christianity is what Jesus did, and the fact that he rose from dead validates the fact that Jesus had lived for us and died for us and paid for our sin.

And if he hasn't risen from the dead, then he didn't really pay for our sin, and if he didn't pay for our sin, then this whole thing is useless. Verse 40, and when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Verse 41, and while they still disbelieved for joy, and they were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat?

They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. And he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me and the law of the Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, thus it is written, that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. And he told them that repentance and forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, starting in Jerusalem. Verse 48, and you, he says, are witnesses of these things.

He was going to commission them and preserve their memories so that they could accurately record for you and me what we needed to know about Jesus. Verse 49, and behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Verse 50, then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and he was carried up into heaven. Then here's our key verse, verse 52, and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

There's our key phrase, circle that. And then they were continually in the temple blessing God. Luke ends his gospel by talking about their joy, their joy, which is a little counterintuitive, isn't it?

I mean, here you got Jesus, he's leaving. He is their leader, and he has left them with a life that is harder than most of us would ever think our lives could become. And they have joy. What is joyful about that? Their joy, listen, was anchored in four things that they got in those previous verses from the resurrection. All right, four things that their joy was anchored in, certainty, hope, purpose, presence. So here's my question for you.

Do you have that kind of joy? And where are you planting your certainty, your hope, your purpose, and your presence? Number one, certainty.

Certainty. You notice again before this, they still doubted. They still doubted. The disciples had no expectation of a risen Messiah. The hope of the Messiah for them, for a Jew, was he was one who was supposed to throw off the yoke of oppression, not be overtaken by it, and certainly not then to tell his followers that they were destined for the cross that he died on.

What made them go throughout the world to their deaths, proclaiming a message that depended on Jesus being raised from the dead? They had certainty. They had certainty.

And that certainty gave them a joy that gave them joy in the midst of pain and resolve in the midst of persecution. Number two, hope. Second anchor, hope. Where's your certainty?

Second anchor, where's your hope? The resurrection of Jesus gave them hope in two different ways. In his resurrection, he gave them a picture of the creation they were headed to. His resurrection gave them a picture of the creation they were headed into. He could be touched.

He could eat fish. They could recognize him, but it could also beam into rooms. I've told you throughout this series that Jesus was more alive after the resurrection, not less alive, and that all that we love down here is just a pale reflection that we're going to get to experience a resurrection version of up there. What does it look like? What's it like to experience that? Down here, we've got five senses. Maybe up there, we'll have a hundred. What does that look like?

It's got to be awesome. Yeah, how do you describe light to somebody who has no eyes? When Paul was talking about eternity, he said this. He said, eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those that love him.

I take that to mean that you and I don't have the sensual capacity to understand what God has prepared. You see, that gives people hope who are in the midst of pain and deprivation. So Ajani Erickson-Tada, whose story I told you last week, a quadriplegic who loses her ability to walk and to move anything below her neck when she's a teenager, she has hope because she's not going to be a disembodied spirit floating around the clouds up there. She's going to have real legs.

She's going to know what it's like to walk and to run. The things she has been deprived of here, she experiences in their fullness there. You're married or you're not married and you've always wanted to be married and you're like, if I don't get married this time around on earth, then I'm just going to be lonely.

No, no. Marriage is just a pale reflection here of something that is eternally fulfilled there. In eternity, the lame walk, the lonely have companionship, the blind see, the poor abound with riches, the good, the best, the resurrected version is coming. That gave them hope in the midst of deprivation. The other way that he gives them hope is he shows them there's a purpose in their pain. Remember that point about him showing his nail scars in his hands and his feet?

What was he showing them? Jesus' crucifixion, if there was one time where it ever looked like their lives were out of control, it was during the crucifixion, right? If there was ever one time when it looked like the bad guys were winning and that God was absent, it was when Jesus died on the cross. And now here he stands in front of them showing, get this guy, get this, that his nails and his hands and his feet, the time when they thought God was most out of control was actually the time that God was most in control and the very bad things that had happened in their life where they thought God was absent were the very things that God had used for their ultimate salvation. No wonder they disbelieved for joy.

Did you see that? There are three kinds of movies, three kinds of movies, right? There are movies with good endings. I like those movies. There are movies with bad endings. I don't like those movies. If I'm in a movie and it doesn't end well, I'm like, I wasted my money.

The critics are like, oh, but it's so real to life. I know. My life is depressing enough. I don't need to pay $20 to come out depressed. If I'm gonna pay 20 bucks, I want to come out feeling good for just a few minutes.

That's all I ask, okay? So movies with good endings, movies with bad endings, and then there's the best kind of movie. And that are movies that have really, they're really bad all the way through it, but then they end with a really good ending. And all of the bad things that happen somehow become part of the good ending or what caused the good ending to be able to come, right? So it's not just a good ending slapped on the end of a depressing life. It's like all these bad things that were happening actually were part of the good ending.

You tracking with me? I was trying to think of a good example of a movie on this and the only one I can come up with, I got to reach back into yesteryear so hang it with me, okay? Remember that movie by the director M. Night Shamalalala, remember that guy? Oh, it's like I'm speaking in tongues when I say his name.

M. Night Science, Science. You remember that movie, if you can remember back, it's all this bad stuff has happened to this guy. His wife has died. His brother's got a failed baseball career. His daughter has OCD and so she drinks half cups of water and leaves them everywhere.

His son's got asthma. All these bad things that happen, but in the end, the good ending actually is because all those things happen. Those become the very means by which the good ending is achieved and you walk out feeling like that was worth $18 for me to walk out and see that all those bad things happen and that good thing.

That is what Jesus is showing them. That the very worst things, the times when they thought life was so out of control with the times that God was most working for their good, no wonder they disbelieved for joy. What if God, what if God was suddenly able to open your eyes and to show you that those most painful moments in your life, the times when you thought God was most absent, the times when you said, God, where are you? What if God suddenly opened your eyes and showed you how those very things were the things that he was using to produce that good ending?

You might disbelieve for joy. What if you really believe Romans 8 28 that all things work together for good? All things, not the good things.

All things, the good, the bad, the ugly, all of it was working for God's best and most beautiful plan. Question, what's your hope in? What's your hope in?

Your ability to make a good life for yourself, your ability to hold on to a good life. Well, so then what happens when life goes wrong? What happens when the job falls apart? What happens when the marriage partner disappoints you or dies or leaves you? What happens? Proverbs 14 12 says, hope deferred makes the heart sick.

The word sick means it leads it to depression because what you'd set your hope on crumbles. I always thought that I'd be married. I always thought I'd have this kind of job. I always thought this is kind of home.

I have it. I don't get it. So you go into deep depression. The disciples are going to go through some very difficult chapters of their life ahead, but they had a joy that death could not touch. Deprivation could not take away.

These could not. Disease could not corrupt because their joy was anchored in a hope that was anchored in something that was beyond the touch of disease and death. The resurrected body of Jesus. What's your hope in?

And is it something that death and disease can take away? Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. We hope you've enjoyed our teaching series through the Gospel of Luke, and we'll get right back to the final moments of it here in a second. But first, I wanted to make sure that you knew today is the final day to get a hold of your copy of the featured resource we created to coincide with this series. It's called Kingdom Come 20 Devotions from Luke. If you've loved hearing Pastor J.D. preach in the Gospel of Luke, we know that you'll enjoy these devotionals that he wrote to take you even deeper into the life and teachings of Jesus. This devotional book makes a fantastic addition to your own time with the Lord. And like most of the resources we create, it would also be a great way to disciple someone and help them learn more about Jesus. Again, today is your last chance to get a hold of this exclusive resource, so don't wait. You can get your copy as a thank you for your gift of $35 or more.

Give now by calling 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. Now, let's return for the end of our series. Once again, here's Pastor J.D.

Number three, purpose. Because of his resurrection, Jesus showed them that they did not have to be on an obsessive quest to obtain everything down here. You remember, I explained this to you last week. If the resurrection is true, then bucket lists don't matter that much. Because whatever we miss out on down here, we get a much better version of up there.

And remember I explained that it is our refusal to believe that that keeps us from being able to really live like true disciples because we could never really sacrifice because we're so obsessed with what we're missing out on this time around. Oh, I got to get married. I got to get married. If I don't get married now, I'm never going to get married. No one wants to be married. No.

No. Marriage, just a pale reflection. Oh, I'm never going to see the Alps. If I don't save up my money now, take a vacation. I'm never going to see the Alps. I don't know what time to see the Alps. No Alps in heaven.

Yes, there is. There is an Alps in heaven. I don't know what it looks like, but I know that somehow it relates to the Alps now, the way that Jesus resurrected body, which can eat fish and pass through walls relates to the Alps that are here.

And I'm willing on this earth to maybe forego some of the things that I'd like to see now because I get to experience them in eternity. It tells me obtaining everything down here is not essential, but it also shows me, get this, it also shows me that people do matter. People matter. The interesting thing about Jesus' resurrection, and notice this, his followers recognize him, but not at first. Like Mary. Mary's the first one that sees him in the garden after he's resurrected. Not his mom, but the other one, his friend, Mary. And she doesn't recognize him. Until he says, Mary, oh, it's you, I didn't recognize you.

His disciples feel like they've seen a spirit when they look at him. Whenever you see him appearing after the resurrection, he's always like, it's me. Hey, it's me. Well, actually, he would have said, it is I because he would speak correct English if he spoke English.

It is I. And they're like, oh yeah, I see you now. What's going on with that? A little deep, so hang with me.

There's a certain graduation or there's a certain flowering in the resurrection that has continuity with the past, but it's so much more than the past. I'll give you an example. You guys know, you know me well enough to know that. I think my daughters are the most beautiful people in the world. All right, but they're eight, five, and three.

So just little kids. Take the three-year-old Raya. Let's say that for some reason she gets separated from me and I think she died. I think she separated from me for 20 years. 20 years later, she walks up to me. Now, I think she's dead.

I have no category for the fact that she might be alive. She walks up to me and she says at 23, do you recognize me? My response to her is, I'm sorry, I don't think we've met. And then she says, daddy. And all of a sudden, I see in that face the little beauty that I loved at three years old, which has now become that young woman.

The little traces of personality that I saw at three years old have become the mature woman that I see at 23. And I look at her at 23 years old, this bright, articulate, beautiful young woman, and I say, I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it. I always knew you could become like this. And I saw it in seed form in you at three years old.

But you had to tell me what it looked like at 23 because I didn't know what it was going to look like. That's what happened in Jesus' resurrection. There were evidences of the real him still there, but they didn't get it.

They didn't see it until he told them about it. It will be that way, listen, for us in the resurrection. You're going to see people, you're going to see people that you knew on earth, and you're going to be like, I knew it. I knew it. I always knew you could be like this. I saw flashes of it in your best moments, but only flashes and only in your best moments.

And then you went back to the regular annoying you, okay, that I lived with. But I saw these flashes, and then now I see them in their fullness. That's what happens in the resurrection, which means, listen, that what you and I are investing in one another's lives now, you see, that carries eternal significance because people matter. And we are every day, every moment, helping the seeds of beauty and Christ's likeness that God has planted in those people that are around us. We are helping them grow into those things. And I'm seeing in you something eternal that lasts forever, so my investment in you matters.

This is what was on C.S. Lewis's mind when he wrote that famous passage in The Weight of Glory. Listen to this.

I love this. It is a serious thing to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to, think about who that is for you. Don't stare, don't point, okay? Dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree helping each other to one of the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You've never talked to a mere mortal. It is immortals with whom we joke, work, marry, snub, and exploit.

Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. No, we must play, but our merriment must be of that kind, and it is in fact the merriest kind which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously. Bucket lists don't matter. Bucket lists don't matter because the resurrection is true, but people matter.

So we take them seriously, and we get to be a part in seeing and seed form what will flower in eternity. And then in verse 47 he tells them that people all over the world matter. He lifts their eyes to the nations. The gospel, he says, must be preached to all the nations. All people everywhere must be called to repentance and to receive this gift of forgiveness.

All people and all nations are made in the image of God. This gospel was not just for the Jews, it's not just for us, it's not just for our children. The people in the unreached people groups around the world, it is for them. God loves their children as much as He loves mine.

The homeless, the orphan, the prisoner, the unwed mother, the high school dropout, born into situations where they don't feel love. They are loved by God. And God commissions us to go and to tell them because they matter, they're loved by God, and this message has to get to them, and this life is the only shot we have to get it to them. Listen, people from our generation who die without hearing about this gospel will never get another chance.

And thus they should be for the most part, the only thing on our bucket list, this generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls all over the world. What if some of you begin to think about the resources, God give a lot of you some massive resources, massive talent. What if you started to say, okay God, how do I use that talent?

Not to invest in a bunch of stuff down here which is actually a pale reflection of what I get up there. What if I use this one shot that I have and leverage what I have for the purposes of the Great Commission? You know what that would give you? It would give you joy. That's what it would give you. Because you would have joy knowing that your life is eternally significant. Number four, presence.

Presence. Let me take this one from a kind of strange place. He eats with them. He eats with them. There are two accounts in Luke 24 of the risen Jesus interacting with his disciples.

I love this. Both times he eats with them, which is one of the things I love about Jesus. He loves to eat.

That's why we get along. First time I see him we're going to eat. I don't know what we're going to eat. I don't know what we're going to eat, but we're going to eat marriage supper with the lamb. Now what's the significance of that? It's not just that Jesus loves food, although that's important.

The significance is eating in Jewish thinking was a sign of intimate fellowship. So the two times that he sees his disciples after he's resurrected in Luke, he eats with them, intimate fellowship, and he shows them his hands and his feet which show them the eternal scars of his love for them. And he promises them the Holy Spirit that will fill them.

And that presence is satisfying to them. Again, the disciples are going to become some pretty unbelievable people. They're going to be bold. They're going to zealous. They're going to change the world. I want you to hear this.

Listen. They didn't start that way. They started out as little idiots.

They started out like you, me. They're not fundamentally different people. They're not different people. They just had their roots, their certainty, their hope, their purpose, and their presence. Their roots were in the gospel, in the resurrected Jesus, and that gave them a joy and a zeal and a boldness.

They're not different. They're not born that way. They're not born leaders.

They're born idiots. You can have the joy, the boldness, and the world-changing power they had if you will anchor your life in what they anchored theirs in. Joy and boldness and zeal, those are the fruits if the resurrection is the root. Quit trying to think if you can just master how to have joy and boldness and zeal.

No, just plant your flower in the right place and those things will come as naturally to you as roses on a rose bush. Where's your certainty? Where's your hope? Where's your purpose?

Where's your presence? I love how the old hymn says it. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but holy lean on Jesus' name. The resurrected Christ is the solid rock on which I stand.

All the others are sinking sand. That's why I have founded my hope, my purpose, my presence, and my joy, my certainty on something that death and deprivation cannot take away so when the sands go, the rock remains. Jesus is the immovable rock.

He's the only one that can not only say that but back it up. Have you built your life on Christ, the solid rock? You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. Today's message is called The King's Joy. It's the last part of our study in the Gospel of Luke and the entire Kingdom Come teaching series is available online at jdgreer.com. I mentioned it earlier on today's show but don't forget today is the last day to get your copy of the exclusive resource that we created to supplement this series called Kingdom Come 20 Devotions from Luke.

Pastor J.D. created this devotional specifically for our financial supporters and Gospel partners. It's not available anywhere else and we would love to send you a copy today with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry. To give, simply give us a call at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220 or give online at jdgreer.com. If you'd rather mail your donation, our address is J.D. Greer Ministries, P.O.

Box 122-93, Durham, North Carolina, 277-09. And one more time, today is your last chance to get ahold of Kingdom Come 20 Devotions from Luke. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us tomorrow as we kick off a new teaching series called Question Everything. Have questions? Good, you should. But what do you do with them?

What do you do with them? Find out starting tomorrow right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.