Completely (Part One)

COMPLETELY (part one)

Last week, in my sermon on sleeping in heavenly peace, I talked about the boat story, where Jesus was sleeping on a cushion while the disciples were battling the storm. Matt. 8:26 says that Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the waves, and it was completely calm. I thought it was interesting that the verse doesn't just say, 'and it was calm'; it says completely calm. It wasn't just somewhat calm, but completely calm.

Jesus wants to do that for us. When we're worked up or losing self-control for whatever reason, he wants to quiet the wind and the waves inside of us and bring us to a state of complete calmness. What are some other ways the bible use the word, complete? Let's look at some of them and find out.

1) Complete joy.

The scene is the upper room. In the beginning of John 15, Jesus describes to his disciples that he is the vine and they are the branches and that they must remain in him. A branch can't bear fruit if it's not connected to the vine. A branch can't survive if it's cut off from the vine. We pick it up in vs. 9.

John 15:9-12, “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. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

Jesus speaks of his and the Father's love for them. Not that they didn't know Jesus loved them, but the upper room is the first place we see Jesus specifically mentioning his love for them. In 13:34 he said, "as I have loved you, so you must love one another".

Then we see an interesting phrase, 'remain in my love'. What does that mean? Some translations say, 'continue in my love'. Remaining in the love of Jesus means to continue operating in his love. Jesus loves us no matter what. So remaining in his love isn't about him continuing to love us; it's about us continuing our love for him.

And we will when we love what he loves. We remain in his love when we love one another, as Jesus said. When we continue strengthening our love for Jesus and continue to love what he loves and serve him in love, then we will remain in his love.

And we see in vs. 10 what will enable us to remain in his love-obedience. How so? In 14:15 Jesus said, 'if you love me you will obey what I command'. Love is an action word so the way we love Jesus is to follow his commands. If we love Jesus we will do what pleases him; there will be the fruit of obedience in our lives.

There will be a difference in how we operate from before we came to Christ. If the love of Jesus is in us then the desire to do his will also be in us. Our love for people prompts us to show it; not begrudgingly but joyfully. It's not always easy to do loving things; sometimes we'll need to force ourselves because we won't always feel like it.

The same goes for obeying Jesus. Our love for Jesus is there but our desire to obey him won't always be there. But when we push ourselves to do the will of God despite a lack of desire, that's still loving the Lord. And when we do that, we will get satisfaction from that accomplishment. Sometimes there's a greater reward in doing what we don't want to do but doing it because of love.

Then, in vs. 11, Jesus reveals that he has told them this so that his joy could be in them and their joy may be complete. The word complete here means to fulfill or make full. So Jesus told them this so they could have the fullness of joy. Having the fullness of joy is having the joy that Christ has.

However, in order for our joy to be complete we need to stay close to Jesus through obedience and building a relationship with him. The love that Jesus and the Father shared is the love he wants to give to us. The pure joy Jesus possesses is the joy he wants us to have.

Whatever joy we had before Jesus was incomplete and unfulfilling. There were happy times, times when feelings of joy came upon us, but it wasn't a spiritual joy. Worldly joy comes from having an experience, spiritual joy comes from a state of being. Worldly joy is not there when tragedy strikes.