What Sparked Jesus’ Joy?
The Gospel of Luke
Vol. 5 (Luke 10-12)
Luke 10:21-24
Introduction:
What sparks your joy? Marie Kondo rose to global fame asking that question. As a professional organizer, Kondo decluttered homes by asking a simple question: “Does this spark joy?”
Her method was simple. Gather every item in a category such as books or clothes, pick them up one at a time and ask, “Does this spark joy?” I
f so, keep it. If not, donate or discard it, then organize what remains. The goal was to create a life filled only with things that support your joy, but even more important, by asking what sparked joy, you were clarifying what your truly value most.
What are those items that, when you hold them in your hand, truly bring joy?
What would you least want to part with?
- A wedding ring
- A watch received at graduation
- Your grandfather’s rifle.
What is it, that when you see it, floods your mind with memory, bringing a smile to your face?
What sparked Jesus’ joy? Only once in all four Gospels are we told that Jesus experienced thrilling, overflowing joy.
Luke 10:21 says that he “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” His heart burst with thrilling joy. Why?
Because Father reveals himself to the lowly through the Son.
That single sentence is the beating heart of this passage, and it gives us three life-changing truths about God:
- The Father delights to reveal himself. He is, therefore, not a hiding God.
- He reveals himself to the lowly. Therefore, he is not a conceited God.
- He reveals himself to the lowly through the Son! Therefore he is not a stingy God.
If you have wondered who or what God is, or whether he wants anything to do with you, hear the good news of this text:
God is not hiding from you.
He is not too proud to have you.
And he has proven the greatness of his heart by giving his Son to you.
So, let’s read this magnificent passage:
The Text
In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will…
- The Father Reveals Himself (10:21)
Jesus had commissioned 72 messengers to heal and preach as they traveled toward Jerusalem, and those 72 returned bringing news that many believed the gospel, and the demons had been subdued in Jesus’ name.
And, upon hearing their report, Luke tells us that Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.” The Son of God was thrilled with joy that the Father was a God who reveals himself.
Three times Jesus explains the revealing nature of God. He reveals himself to little children (v. 21), the Son reveals the Father (v. 22), and the prophets and kings of the Old Testament spoke of the revealing of God. (v. 23-24)
The God of the Bible is a Father who delights to reveal himself.
Notice first that the God of the Bible is a Father. We ought to think of him as Father before we ever think of him as Creator or Law-Giver, because God is eternally a Father.
Think of it like this: What was God doing before creation? And someone once said, “Making hell for those cheeky enough to ask such questions.” But listen to Jesus in John 17:24. “Father,” he says, “you loved me before the creation of the world.”
The God who Jesus reveals, before he ever created, before he ever gave a rule to a human creature, before anything else, God was a Father loving his Son.
Michael Reeves put it this way:
Since God is, before all things, a Father, and not primarily Creator or Ruler, all his ways are beautifully fatherly. It is not that God “does” being as Father as a day job, only to kick back in the evenings as plain old “God.” It is not that he as a nice blob of fatherly icing on top. He is Father. All the way down.[1]
God the Father, for all eternity, has not been a solitary grump, yelling at the kids to get off his lawn. He’s an eternal Father; inherently out-going, life-giving, and loving. He has loved his Son from all eternity.
If God was not Father, then love could not be essential to his nature—for who would he love? He could be a creator, but he would be cold and distant. He could be a rule giver, but , he might be harsh and severe. Because God is Father—because he has eternally loved his Son—then his nature is eternally loving.
This helps us understand why God made us. He did not create us because he needed love. He created us in order to gift love. The God of the Bible, Father, Son and Spirit, have loved and enjoyed one another from all eternity. And therefore, the Father doesn’t need us. We are gloriously superfluous. He makes us, through his Son, in order to be our Father—to give himself to us.
This is why the Father delights to reveal himself to his creatures. He reveals himself, Jesus says in v. 21, “for such was your gracious will.”
The Father wasn’t forced to reveal himself. No one twisted his arm, or coerced him out of hiding. He graciously, or freely decides to unveil himself to us. No one has to convince the Sun to shine, and no one has to convince the Father to reveal himself.
In reality, it’s our nature to hide. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God in Eden, they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden, and they hid themselves from God in the trees of the garden. (Gen. 3:8)
Friend, God is not hiding from you. Any distance we feel between us and God is almost always on our side. We sin, we’re too busy, we doubt, we carry shame from past mistakes.
Some of you have been hiding for years. You don’t have to keep hiding. The Father delights to reveal himself to undeserving sinners.
- To The Lowly (10:21)
To whom does the Father reveal himself? Jesus says God has “hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.” (10:22)
The contrast is stark. God deliberately conceals himself from those who feel self-assured and opens himself to those who know they are hopelessly lost.
The simple meaning of this is that God is not conceited. He is not trying to surround himself with impressive people. He doesn’t neglect the simple, the weak, or those who are of no account in this world. He’s not embarrassed to be seen with the overlooked.
John Calvin said, “Though the Father is Lord of heaven and earth, he preferred children and simpletons. If he preferred the wise and noble, we’d come to the conviction that men obtain [God] by their skill, hard work, or learning.”
So many of us want a refined and cultured God—prim proper, selective. We mistakenly believe he would only associate with a certain kind of person. But if God was half as refined as most people think he is, he would be useless to us, because he wouldn’t have anything to do with us.
The songwriter Rich Mullins was a melancholy and glum kid, and people would say to him, “Cheer up! God loves you.” And he would respond, “That doesn’t make me special. That just proves that God ain’t got no taste.”
In a sense, he was right. Jesus says God has never revealed himself to anyone because he was impressed by them.
When we walk into a room full of people, we instinctively size everyone up, surveying the crowd to identify the most attractive, the most intelligent, the most outgoing. We wouldn’t admit it, but we’re looking for those who might offer us something.
Jesus says God looks for the little children, the ones who have nothing to offer except neediness. Why does he do that? Because that’s what a Father does. It further reveals his Fatherly nature.
God’s choice of the lowly isn’t reluctant. “Ok, I guess you’ll have to do.” God is not conceited. He isn’t stuck up, or smug.
Some of you have spent years believing God tolerates you at best. Hear this passage: God prefers the lowly.
You say, “I have nothing to offer God.” Good. You’re qualified to be his.
You say, “I’m an absolute mess. No one wants me.” God does.
Some of you believe that God would prefer a more impressive version of yourself. You think he would love you more if you could quit a few bad habits; that you’d be more loved if you could just read your Bible more.
And therefore you are trapped on a hamster wheel of good works. Constantly trying to do more all while getting no where. You’re exhausted.
And Jesus says, “Come to me, you who are weary. I will give you rest.”
There are no second-class children in God’s family. There are no high achievers who God loves more than the rest.
Jesus says the only people God hides himself from are the “wise and understanding.” This doesn’t mean that God hates nerds. It means he hides from the self-sufficient.
C.S. Lewis writes:
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that—and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison—you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.[2]
Maybe this is why you don’t know God, because you don’t think you need him. You think you could contribute something to him. Or you think that he’s merely here to supplement your already glowing resume. You’d like to add him to your orbit. But God’s gravity is too great to orbit around you.
This is why Jesus blessed the poor in spirit. God gives them the kingdom of heaven precisely because they admit they don’t deserve it. (Matt 5:3) This is why the last shall be first and the lowest shall be the highest.
The God who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity is with those who are lowly and broken in spirit. And this is good news for us. We are not beneath God’s care or concern.
- Through the Son (10:22)
This God, who is Father, can only be known through the Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus says that “no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Our entire definition of who God is must be built upon the Son who reveals him. He is the eternal Word, who spoke through the Spirit, inspiring Scripture. He is the Word made flesh, the exact imprint of God’s nature and the radiance of God’s glory to us. To hear Jesus’ teaching is to hear the authoritative voice concerning the Father.
In the 1960s and 70s Walter Cronkite was cited as “the most trusted man in America.” He anchored the evening news and every night, he would sign off with the same phrase. As the broadcast wound to a close, Cronkite would look into the camera and say, “And that’s the way it is.” He meant it in a tongue and cheek kind of way, but because he was highly regarded in his work, the phrase indicated that if Walter Cronkite said it, it was reliable.
Of course, we know that Cronkite was not infallible, and we’ve come to question any one who calls themselves an expert, the truth, or “the science.”
But, when Jesus Christ speaks, that’s the way it is. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (John 14:6)
Matthew Henry, commenting on this passage writes:
No man knows who the Son is… but the Father, who possessed him in the beginning… nor who the Father is… but the Son, who lay in his bosom from eternity…(Prov. 8:30)
The Father has not sent a mere servant or a letter. He has not send a substitute or a summary. He has sent his only begotten Son to our doorstep.
And there is no greater gift he could give than the Son. God is not rationing Himself, holding back the rest. This isn’t piecemeal revelation. It is full and final revelation.
Do you still relate to God as if he is holding back? He is not stingy, and the gift of his Son proves his generous heart,
You may wonder, “Doesn’t God withhold things from us?” Absolutely, he may for his own purposes withhold lesser things from us. But he has not withheld our greatest need – his only Son. And if we have his Son, we can be sure than in due time, he will give us everything else we need.
Remember what God said to Abraham when he prepared to sacrifice Isaac? “Now, I know that you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son from me.”
In the same way, we stand at the foot of the cross and we say back to God, “Now we know that you love us, because you did not withhold your only Son from us.”
Have you doubted God’s goodness? Friend, you can look to him from the deepest pit and say, “I do not know why you have allowed this, but I know it cannot be because you do not love me—because you have given me Christ. I don’t know why you are withholding what I believe I need, but I know it’s not because you are stingy.”
Friend, receive the gift of his Son. Don’t just know some things about Jesus. Don’t just believe he’s the Son of God. Trust and rest in him. Fall upon him in faith.
Cultivate the habit of daily trusting him. As one writer put it: “The Christian life is a life of faith that grows in faithfulness.”
Conclusion
So hear the word of Christ again:
The Father reveals himself.
He is not a hiding God.
He reveals himself to the lowly.
He is not a conceited God.
He reveals himself through the Son.
He is not a stingy God.
You don’t have to find him. He finds you. You don’t have to impress him. He chooses the unimpressive. You do not have to pry anything from his grip. He opens his hand to give his only Son.
And that is what made Jesus rejoice. It’s what still sparks the joy of heaven. And that same joy can be kindled in you today.
Come to Jesus.
[1] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, 23.
[2] Lewis, C. S.. Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis Signature Classics) (p. 124). (Function). Kindle Edition.