What does "that your joy may be full" mean in John 16:24?

*It is not the thing they receive which makes their joy full, but the proof they get through it that they have their Father's heart and ear. The Father, not the gift, does this for them, filling up their joy. (See John 16:24.)

"In that day" refers to this period, while He is with the Father, and the Holy Ghost here. The first mentioned blessing of that day was in chapter 14:20. They would know that He was in the Father, and they in Him; here (ver. 23) He tells them, that "in that day" whatsoever they asked in His name the Father would give them. They had never asked in that name yet; if they did ask in Christ's name they should receive, and their joy would be full. The fulness of that joy would not be found so much, I think, in the value of what was given, as in the Father's response to requests in Jesus' name.

While He was with them, they of course had not asked in His name: now they are encouraged to find such delight in that name that they ask with firm, holy confidence for that which will honor that name. In this their joy would be full.

Having come out of death the Lord gives to His own a joy that the world cannot take from them (see John 15:11); and in the day of their joy, though He was absent from them, they would receive from the Father whatever they asked in the Name of the Son. This divine certainty of receiving what they asked would give them fulness of joy. While with them He had spoken to them in proverbs, but in resurrection He would declare unto them the Father's Name, bringing them into relationship and intimacy with the Father; meanwhile assuring them of the Father's love for them, because they loved Him, the Son, and because they believed that He came forth from God. The word for love here is stronger than the usual word: it is used in John 5:20, and in John 20:2. It gave the Father joy and delight that the disciples were attached to Jesus and had faith in His Son, having received His testimony, while the world refused the fact that He came from God.

Again He recurs to the subject (John 15:20-24), and dates forward their joy to the day of His resurrection. Then they should ask in His name, knowing the Father in this intimacy and relationship. Tbus asking and receiving in His own interests, and as occupying His place here below, our "joy is full." Remark here there is no mention of His joy - this was rather in surrender for His Father's glory - but it is our joy that is thus full. Once more He speaks - in the world indeed - but to the Father, in the intimacy of love, as one no longer in it. The joy of obedience in which they could share has no place here; still less that joy that answers to the unmeasured grace that gives as to the beloved Son. Here Jesus speaks of the relationship of love, the Father's name which He had given Him. Never had man known or been given that name till the Son was Man, and now, leaving the world, He passes it over to His own, praying the Holy Father to keep them in its power, and speaks it in the world that that joy which was specially, peculiarly His, impossible to any being but Himself, might be fulfilled in us. (John 17:11-13.) That discipline is needed in our case is true - dependence, faith, and exercise of heart and conscience; but the "Name" is guaranteed, and all that it imports as given to the beloved Son Himself. It is now on earth the holy Father keeps us - now that we have communion with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ; and, marvellous grace! not only have we the words spoken by His precious lips in His Father's ears that His joy may be fulfilled in us, but the Holy Ghost come down has revealed this fellowship to us that this joy, which is now our own, "may be full." (1 John 1:1-4.) It is no longer called His joy simply, but ours - "That your joy may be full." (v. 4.) For the "thing is true in Him and in you: because the darkness is passing, and the true light now shineth." (1 John 2:8.)

This will suffice to show that while the Lord's Prayer always remains inestimably precious, yet it was given to meet the individual wants of the disciples, and that the further revelation of divine truth modified their condition, and would thus lead into another strain of desires, which, in fact, were not then given expression to. It seems to me a happy reflection that it is our Lord Himself who tells us this. "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name." What do I gather from this? That one may use the Lord's Prayer every day, and never have asked anything in the name of Christ. "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy maybe full. "At that day ye shall ask in My name." What day does this mean? A still future time? No, but the present; the day that the Holy Ghost brought in when He came down from heaven. It is this which is connected with that full revelation of truth which is so essential to Christian joy and blessedness, and to the unworldly and heavenly walk of the children of God; and where the one is not entered into, the other cannot be. There may be vigour of faith and personal love to Christ, but for all that a soul will still savour of the world in spirit and religious position till he has entered into this blessed place which the Holy Ghost now gives us of drawing near to God in the name of Christ.

This also turned (as was intended) to their increasing sense of the value of Christ's own name. "In that day ye shall ask (αἰτ.) in My name." Asking in His name is not merely for Christ's sake as a motive, but in the value of Himself and His acceptance. His worth goes in its fulness to the account of those who thus plead; and how precious and all-prevailing it is in the Father's eyes! How glorifying to both the Father and the Son! How humbling and no less strengthening to the saints themselves! It is the title of every Christian now; none ever enjoyed it before. Never was there a soul blessed on earth apart from Him and His work foreseen; but this is known nearness and acceptance applied even to our petitions in virtue of Himself fully revealed when His work was done and accepted in infinite efficacy.

Now here for the first time do we read of prayer to be offered up in His name. When He gave the disciples the prayer of Matt. 6 He did not tell them to present their petitions in His name; and in John 16:24 we distinctly learn from His own lips that this was something quite new. "Hitherto," He said, "have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." The prayer of Matt. 6 was prayer to the Father, the pouring out of the heart to God from one that knew himself to be His child; but, till the atonement by the blood of Christ was accomplished, prayer in His name was unknown. As soon as that was effected, and known by those who believed on Him, prayer was to be offered up in His name. His name would henceforth have a meaning for them as well as for God; for it expresses all that He is in the eyes of God the Father. The answer would come from God; but the Son it would be who would fulfil the desires of their hearts. "I will do it" assured them of this, and of His unabated interest in all that concerned them.

It would have been out of season and presumptuous for the disciples in the past to have drawn near to the Father as the Son did, Who, in His wisdom and goodness, gave them a prayer perfectly suited to their then state when the atoning work was not yet done, and the Holy Ghost accordingly not given. But now, as we have already seen so often in this context, consequent on Christ's glorifying God on earth by death and going up on high, the Holy Ghost would come to be in and with them. And this is the great result Godward, as we have already seen much saintward: they should ask in Christ's name; and they are called to ask and receive, that their joy might be full. Life in Christ would go forth in suited desires, to which the Holy Ghost would impart power as well as intelligence; and assuredly, with such a ground and motive before Him as the Son of man Who had devoted Himself at all cost to His glory, the Father would fail in nothing on His part. Their joy would indeed be at the full.

Well, it was the joy He had in His Father's love which kept the Son amid all the ignominy and the shame of His sorrowful life down here. The love of the Father filled His heart and He does long for us to have this joy. (See John 16:19-24.) How full these verses are of joy. He says, Ye shall weep. Why? Because you love Me and you will weep for My absence, but your sorrow will be turned into joy because you have Me back again, and far nearer than I ever was. The Son has not gone further away by going to the Father, on the contrary He has come much nearer. He is a great deal nearer now than when the disciples handled Him with their hands, and when John leaned upon His bosom. There is a far nearer place for you, if you will have it. Those were the figures, you may have the blessed reality figured by that handling and that leaning. How marvellous, the Father Himself loves you, not pities you, nor is gracious to you, but He can find His joy and pleasure in you. It is the same delight that He, the Father, found in His own Son. It is so blessed, so wonderful. There is nothing which can be compared to it. It is outside all the sorrowful circumstances of earth. This love takes us to the place where none of these things ever come: the place of the infinite love of the Father to the Son, outside all the failure and the strife down here, and the sense of this love fills your soul while you walk down here. Alas! how very little we know, it is such a very wonderful joy. Then He goes on, "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." It is identification with the Son, the promise is absolute. There is no condition there except that you ask in the Son's name. These truths are so blessed and we lose so much by refusing entrance into them. The world seeks to rob us of this joy by presenting what will allure the flesh.