Sorrow to Joy & Tribulation to Triumph | Sermon 01/21/2024

If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel according to John.

Chapter 16. Chapter 16.

Okay. Thank you. Chapter 16. We're going to be in verses 16 through 33.

I know it's a big chunk today. We're going to complete chapter 16 today and we'll be moving on to chapter 17 next week.

The title of the sermon today, church, is Sorrow to Joy and Tribulation to Triumph.

Sorrow to Joy and Tribulation to Triumph, verses 16 through 33.

Hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God. A little while and you will no longer see me.

And again, a little while and you will see me. Some of his disciples then said to one another, what is this thing he is telling us?

A little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you will see me. And because I go to the Father.

So they were saying, what is this that he says a little while? We do not know what he is talking about.

Jesus knew that they wished to question him. And he said to them, are you deliberating together about this?

That I said a little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you will see me. Truly, truly,

I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.

You will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come.

But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.

Therefore, you too have grief now, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and no one will take your joy away from you.

In that day, you will not question me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the

Father for anything in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you have asked for nothing in my name.

Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, an hour is coming when

I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly of the Father. In that day, you will ask in my name and I do not say to you that I will request of the

Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from the

Father. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. I am leaving the world again and going to the

Father. His disciples said, lo, now you are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.

Now we know that you know all things and have no need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.

Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered each to his own home and to leave me alone, and yet I am not alone, because the

Father is with me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace.

In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.

Excuse me. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and marvelous word.

Let's pray as a church real quickly. Father God, we ask that you would be with us today. Lord, please illuminate the holy scriptures today for your people.

God, help us to see what we must out of this passage. Lord, that we might take it and cherish it, and learn from it and grow from it.

And Lord, that we wouldn't simply be informed, but transformed by your word, dear

God. Lord, help us to see what the apostles went through and how your encouragements and instruction,

Lord Jesus, is for us as well. So God, please be with us. Help us to have every focus on you at this moment.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, we've come upon the final words of instruction and encouragement of the

Lord Jesus Christ to the remaining 11 apostles before his death.

After this moment in the text, right in front of them, in John 17, he will move his focus from the apostles and he'll turn it towards heaven, and he'll pray to his

Father in what is famously called the High Priestly Prayer. It's going to be wonderful when we go over that.

And from that moment, in chapter 18, he'll be captured and then tried and crucified.

And I told you at the end of chapter 14, Jesus said to them, get up, let us go from here.

And they left the upper room from where they were celebrating the first Lord's Supper.

They were celebrating the Passover. And they could be walking right now in the city.

Having seen a vineyard or something similar, that was chapter 15 when he talked about the true vine and the branches.

They left, they're walking around, they're seeing these things, and now they've kept going. They're walking, they're going to get to the

Garden of Gethsemane eventually. And in this chapter, they were told that they will be hated.

They will be persecuted for his namesake. But he said, take heart, the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, the helper, the comforter will come to you.

In fact, he said, it is to your advantage that I leave. It is for your good that I leave, he said.

Because then the Holy Spirit will come, and that's for us as well. You see, the scope of Christ's ministry will change from one single locality and a few men to covering the whole entire globe and many, many believers, innumerable in fact.

All because the Holy Spirit is coming. His presence will be with every believer now, not just a few.

And then we saw at the end of our verses last week that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in this.

They are fully united. He said, all things from the Father have been given to Me, and all things that I have have been given to the

Spirit. All of the Fathers are Christ's, all that are Christ's are the

Spirit. They are one in the Trinity. And shockingly, the Spirit will disclose what this triune

God, the only God, has purpose to share to them, and by extension, us.

And so now Jesus will speak of an immediate departure, but then an immediate return to them.

Look at verse 16. You have a printout there in your bulletin, or grab your Bible. I'm in the

NASB, New American Standard, 1995. Verse 16,

He says, A little while, and you will no longer see Me. And again, a little while, and you will see

Me. He says, In my cross, you will not see Me.

And again, in my cross, you will see Me. This is the word from which we get micro, my cross.

This is very small. This is little. This is a brief amount of time. In a brief moment, they won't see

Jesus. And then in a brief moment from there, they'll see Him again. And the key word there is again.

They'll see Him again. He spoke to this in chapter 14. 14 verses 18 through 20 in the upper room before they departed.

He said, I will come to you. When He told them He was leaving, He said, I'll come to you. I'll come back to you.

After a little while, the world will no longer see Me. But you will see Me, because I live, you live also.

So this is, of course, a prophetic word of expectation.

One of the best ways to calm a fretting child is really to tell them what they can expect.

You know, I don't know if your kids do that. They want to know what's going to happen. What are we going to do there? Because maybe they're a little worried.

So you tell them what's going to happen, right? And so He does that here.

Somehow, knowing what is to come is going to ease our sorrow and worry. But He's going to die.

He's going to die, but He's going to rise. Although He will die,

He will rise. This is no experiment, okay? Jesus isn't hoping things will work.

He's not simply hoping things will work. He marches to the cross. He marches to the cross.

He yields up His Spirit on that cross. And His body is wrapped and carried into a whole hewn out of the rock.

And He does that with confidence. Every step of the way, Christ does that with confidence.

He knew exactly what would happen. In fact, He knew that Simon the Cyrene would help

Him carry the cross. He knew that Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, had an empty tomb that he had already purchased for himself.

A tomb in which no man had ever laid before. And He knew that Joseph would take

His body, would wrap it, would put it in this tomb. Why did He know this? Because He ordained every single step of it.

Every single step was ordained by Christ. There is no guesswork.

And that's how He's able to say, a little while, you will not see Me. And then a little while again, you will see

Me. Because the resurrection is certain. He had told them similarly of these promises earlier in John.

But especially in the other Gospels. In Mark 9, verse 31, it says,

For He was teaching His disciples. This is possibly even a year before this moment in Mark 9.

For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill

Him. And when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.

He told them. But for many reasons, some which we can't fathom, the disciples don't get it.

They don't get it. And we're often puzzled by that. It must have been so different being in that context in the first century, having your presuppositions of what the

Christ would do, finding out that Jesus is God, but not understanding that He has to die.

You're the Messiah. You're the Deliverer. Why would you have to die?

And then in the next verse in Mark 9, after that, after He said He had to die, but will rise three days later, it says this, look,

But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him. I will die and rise.

But they didn't get it. They didn't understand. Even in Luke 24, this is in your printout as well.

Luke 24 details the resurrection. The women went down to the tomb with spices, and they saw the tomb empty.

Right? They saw it empty. And not only that, there were two angels, and they said, men in dazzling clothing, okay?

And these angels looked to these women, and they saw the tomb empty, and they said, why are you looking for the living one among the dead?

Right? He is not here. He is risen. And then the angel says this to these women,

Remember what He spoke to you all. You've got to remember. And the women came running to the apostles, and told them everything that they had just saw.

Hear what Luke 24 11 says. How did the apostles respond to the women's glorious account?

That the tomb was empty, and angels said that He has risen. Listen to this. Luke 24 11.

But these words appeared to the apostles as nonsense. As nonsense.

And they would not believe them. The words were like nonsense. This means devoid of all worth to them.

Okay? They didn't get it. Then the next verse, Luke 24 12. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in.

He saw the linen wrappings only. And he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.

He didn't wait near the empty tomb. He didn't call out to God for any angels.

Peter looked at the empty tomb, and he went home. Hours and hours and an hour's journey up north to Galilee, he left the garden of Gethsemane.

Peter went north. He went home. Back to fishing, it actually says.

He went back to what he did for a living. When Jesus finally approached the apostles for the first time in Luke, it said,

Luke 24 44. Now he said to them, These are my words which I spoke to you while I was with you.

I spoke all these things to you, he said, that all these things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms must be fulfilled. He said something similar just prior at the road to Damascus.

I'm sorry, the road to Emmaus. I'm sorry. He said something similar to those two disciples.

But right here, right here, what did it take? They didn't get it.

Luke 24 45 through 46, it says this. Then he opened their minds to understand the

Scriptures. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And he said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the third day.

This was written down. This was in the Holy Scriptures. I told you these things.

But this whole time in his earthly ministry, they didn't get it. They didn't understand. So what did they have to do?

It says he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Luke 24 45.

John even confirms this in his epistle. He says that Christ gave them an understanding that they did not have before.

Okay. So when you and I read the Gospels, especially the

Synoptic Gospels, we know the end result. We know the end of the story. We know Christ is

King. We know He's risen. And we kind of look at them like, don't you guys get it? But if you and I were there, we wouldn't have gotten it.

We wouldn't have known either. It says that Jesus had to open their minds to understand the

Scriptures from that point. Now you say, Pastor Wade, okay, that's Luke. What about John?

What about John's Gospel? And look, all of it goes together so well. Look at this. Look at the disciples' response to Jesus here.

Verses 17 -19. Some of His disciples then said to one another, what is this thing

He is telling us? A little while and you will not see Me. And again, a little while and you will see

Me. And because I go to the Father. So they were saying, what is this that He says, a little while?

We do not know what He is talking about. And then Jesus heard them. He questioned them. And He says, are you deliberating together about this?

About what I said? A little while. So the image that we have is,

Jesus is leading the group. They've left the upper room. They're walking through the city, possibly.

And Jesus is leading the group. And He said those things in verse 16. Then all of a sudden, the disciples hanging in the back are like, what does

He mean? A little while and you will not see Me. A little while and you'll see

Me. What does He mean He goes to the Father? And they're talking in the back.

And Jesus hears them. They end their deliberation saying this.

We do not know what He is talking about. That's true. We do not know. Even though in Mark 9 and in other times prior to this moment,

He has said He will die and rise again. He said it. He said

He would die and rise again. But they don't get it. Jesus will admit later that He's speaking to them in figurative language.

Maybe they're just not connecting the dots. But you'll see that even then when

He speaks plainly, they don't even get it after that. So the point is, you guys, the disciples have no category for a victorious

Messiah who would have to die and leave them. They have no category for that. They have no concept of that in their mind.

That a Messiah would come, the Messiah would come, and He would have to die and He would have to leave them.

That doesn't make sense. They have no category for that. It makes sense when

Jesus said in verse 12, He has more to say, but they cannot bear it now. By the way,

I always love how Jesus knows people's thoughts. He knows their mind. He can hear things and know things.

Even when He's out of earshot, that's always really cool. But like a loving master and teacher,

He knows much of this confusion can breed sorrow. Because they were told that their master is about to leave.

They're already sorrowful. But then when you add confusion to the mix, that makes it worse.

So He seeks to reassure them. Look at verse 20. Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.

You will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Not only were there a group of women, including

Jesus' mother, weeping and lamenting as they followed Him when He marched to the cross and hung there dying, but when

He was finally buried, there was a large group of both men and women mourning and weeping in someone's house nearby.

These words depict the highest form of sadness and grief. They will wail out of a deep pain of loss in their hearts.

This is not like the professional mourners who are paid to cry or wail at the graves of loved ones.

We talked about that in John chapter 11. There were Jewish mourners who you would pay them and they would come to a loved one's funeral ceremony and they were paid just to cry and wail, right?

And that's something that's not happening here. That's not what we're talking about here. This is true sadness.

This is true sorrow. This hurts. The apostles think that they're filled with sorrow now, but it's going to get worse before it gets better.

And they know these words, weep and lament are associated with death, with death.

The one who they love will die very soon. Mark 16 speaks about what they were feeling after the resurrection as well.

Look in your handout, Mark 16, 10 through 11. She went and reported to those who had been with Him while they were mourning and weeping.

So she went to the house. The men and the women, the apostles were there.

They were weeping in this house, mourning and weeping. And when they heard, she reported it, when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

They would not believe it. They couldn't believe that He was alive. Now, while they weep, the world,

He says, the system in opposition to God and the people of it, excuse me, who

He said the Holy Spirit would convict, will rejoice. When He dies, you will mourn, but the world will rejoice.

That's a twisted thought. The world rejoiced at the death of Christ.

The world rejoiced at the death of Christ, not because they knew that that death would afford them a substitutionary sacrifice for their sin, but because they believed that they rid themselves of the

Holy One of God. That's why the world rejoiced. The Holy One who would cause them to come to grips with their own darkness and sin and evil, that One.

You know, He was like a righteous and clear mirror.

Imagine someone has never seen their reflection in a mirror -like lake, in a body of water.

Imagine if no one has ever seen a mirror in someone's bathroom. You've gone your whole life and you've never looked in the mirror once.

And that's what Christ is to the world. Christ is like a pure and righteous mirror.

And when these people, when you and I, when the world looks into that mirror, it sees how unrighteous and how wicked and ugly it truly is.

Christ and His Word reminds us of who we really are. That's what the

Bible says. Their father truly was the devil.

Jesus said that. He said, your father is the devil. Those who sin, He said, are slaves to sin.

They wanted to suppress the reality of their true state. So the world sought to kill

Him. Kill the One who reminds us of our sin. There might be people in your life,

I said this before, there are people where you're just trying to live faithfully to Jesus Christ.

You're trying to live faithfully in this Christian walk and you'll have family and friends who see what you do.

You won't even sometimes say anything. You won't even sometimes give them the Gospel. You won't even open your mouth and they'll go, you're so self -righteous.

Look at you. Look what you do. Because you and I are a reflection of Jesus Christ in the world.

And the world can't stand that. It cannot. Now, here's the good news.

The world rejoices in vain. The world rejoices in vain. It thinks it can dispose of the

Son of God, but it can't. When the world rejoices at the death of the saints or the persecution of the church, it only ever backfires.

Okay? God always uses such occasions to bring about good.

Always. Always. You see, the worst death in history brought about the greatest life.

You see, the worst they throw at Christians, the worst they throw at Christians, the opposition, the oppression, the shoving

Christianity down to make it smaller always results in it becoming bigger and more full of authentic devotion.

Because times of peace can result in Christian complacency. Times of peace for Christians can result in laziness.

But when we are attacked, when we are pressed in upon, Peter says in his epistle, it's like gold.

It's heated up in a crucible. And that's the fire of persecution and oppression.

But then it says that the impurities will rise out of the gold, become pure gold.

And that's the promise that we have for us. Not only that, followers of Christ are like a spring.

Okay, they're like a spring. With cars, I don't know if we have guys who work on your own car here, or maybe you attempt to like I do.

If you've ever changed the struts or the shocks or the springs on your car, you have to get the top hat off, to get the strut mount off of the top of the whole suspension system.

You have to rent these clamps. And you put these clamps on the springs. And you have to use actually a socket wrench to tighten those clamps.

And those clamps will bring that car spring and compress it. Okay, it'll bring that spring down, it'll compress it so that you could actually take the strut mount off the top.

Now, also, if you've worked on cars, and either you know this by way of warning, or you know this by experience, if you accidentally drop a shock spring that has those clamps on it, if you drop it onto the garage floor, that spring can go shooting across actually into a neighbor's house, through their door, through their window, because that spring is so highly compressed.

And so what I'm trying to say is the church is like a spring. It's like a spring.

People try to compress it, they try to make it small, they try to obliterate the church, but it becomes too much to hold down.

It'll be too much to stay compressed. They have to actively press it. But the longer they try, the more it'll just explode out.

That's the church. It'll come with power into full length. And even that, when they press in upon Christians, it'll only result in it getting bigger.

Bigger. Bigger than before it started. So Christ's promise is the same for us as it is for these men.

And that's not to say we are all in a state of grief until the second coming when He says, your grief will be turned into joy.

His return to them and the pouring out of the Spirit is our joy as well.

But this also has other applications for us in the form of grief that we will face.

You see, the Bible promises it. We've been forgiven of all our sins.

You've been declared righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is all true. But He even warns us, you will have tribulation.

You will have grief in this life. You will have it. But your grief in this life will turn into joy.

It'll turn into joy. And that's always the promise.

That's always the result for the believer. We read it today.

Psalm chapter 30. For His anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime.

Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.

Excuse me. As sure as the night fades and the morning sun rises, so does the grief fade and the joy return bright and brilliant.

That is always the promise. The Greek word for the phrase here, will be turned into, is genestetai.

And genestetai is often associated with new life. It's a creation -related word, like a child being born.

Okay. And so, what is bad for you is born into something completely different.

Think about it this way. In Genesis, in the book of Genesis, what we have the creation account.

And in the creation account, the Bible records that everything reproduces after its own kind, right?

Everything reproduces after its own type. That's what the Bible says. You know, a fish won't turn into a bird, and a mammal, let's say cattle, won't turn into a reptile.

The Bible says that cattle come and reproduce cattle. Fish reproduce fish.

He even says in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, that fruit of a certain kind will release seed into the earth, and it will reproduce the same type of tree that it came from.

Genesis talks about reproducing in types, but this is the only thing that doesn't reproduce with the same type.

This is different. You see, grief for the Christian won't produce more of the same.

Grief for the Christian won't reproduce grief. Grief for the Christian reproduces into joy.

That's what he says. It turns into something completely different than what it is.

And it makes sense that Jesus uses this language. Look at verse 21. Whenever a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come.

But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.

Isn't that incredible? What a grace from God. Genesis chapter 3 says that the woman would be cursed with pain in childbirth.

And it isn't stated explicitly in Scripture, but Jesus confirms it. God lovingly made it so that a woman can forget what she went through in that intense pain.

I'm not saying that there aren't exceptional traumatic deliveries, right?

I'm not saying that. Those are situations like that. But largely, and it even baffles scientists, they don't get it.

But a woman can begin to forget the pain and anguish she went through. I even, it's funny,

I talked to my mom and I go, Mom, what was it like? What was it like delivering us?

What about my older brother Greg? Then there's me and my younger sister Ariel. What was it like for each one of us?

And she's like, easy, no problem. She's so funny. She says it like that.

Yeah, it was no problem. You guys are such treasures, you know. And so I very much have seen that even in women

I've asked and talked to about that. But it's amazing. And this child delivery language is all throughout the words of the prophets, especially in Isaiah.

Look at your handout or look in your Bible, Isaiah 26, 17 through 19. Isaiah 26, 17 through 19 on your printout.

As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, she writhes and cries out in her labor pains.

Thus were we before you, O Lord. We were pregnant. We writhed in pain.

We gave birth as it seems only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, nor were inhabitants of the world born.

Your dead will live, their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your due is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

So it says that the people have faced great pain, great anguish, but the people, you and I, could not bring about deliverance.

That is also the word for salvation. In great pains, in great writhing, and in great anguish, you and I, and from the beginning of the world, could not accomplish our own deliverance, okay?

God must do that. God must bring that and go through that ultimate suffering.

Christ must go through that anguish. But then look what it says. It says, then, then the dead will live and the corpses will rise.

And they will shout for joy. They will shout for joy. Jesus must be even alluding a bit here to Isaiah.

Here in John. But back to our text, Jesus says the pain and anguish are replaced with joy due to a woman's child being born into the world.

It all becomes worth it. It's all worth it. Something wonderful, something amazing, something that the

Bible calls a blessing, a baby has come into the world. Come as a result of a trial of delivery.

You see, if grief was the introduction, it doesn't matter what the middle is.

Doesn't matter what the beginning is. Joy is always the conclusion for the Christian and even for the mother in this situation.

And I really, I love that. This is Jesus's view of babies. Of course it would be.

Of course he says this. A child brought into the world is a uniquely positive thing in contrast to everything a woman might face for that child every single time.

Verse 22, Therefore you too have grief now, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.

And so now we see the basis of that joy. Even though this may contextually fit with Jesus's immediate appearance after the disciples have scattered and his resurrection has occurred.

Nevertheless, even for us, the basis of our joy is Christ. It's in Christ.

It's in what he accomplished for us. It's that in him, every single offense made in the heart, mind, will, or actions against God from us towards him is forgiven.

Every single one. He has made us pure. And for that reason, we will see him again.

Actually in Matthew chapter 5 verse 8 in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says,

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And honestly, this is why

I oppose the veneration of the saints in Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy.

Um, that's why I repudiate that and reject the worship of idols and icons and the veneration of the saints.

Because this is who the treasure is.

It's Christ. And this is even why I would oppose forever family from Mormonism.

It idolizes humans over God. It makes the wonderful thing about going to heaven, seeing people.

Seeing humans. And look, that may be a great thing. That may be wonderful. I can't wait to talk to Paul.

I can't wait to see my grandmother. All those things. Those are wonderful things. I'm not talking against that.

But that's not the thing about heaven that makes it great. Seeing Christ and being with Christ is the treasure of heaven.

You see, I don't want to spend an eternity with people alone. I want to spend an eternity with God.

See, don't give me a family. Don't give me a land. Don't give me a house.

Don't give me a planet. Give me Christ. Give me

Christ. He says to them, I will see you again. It's not just us seeing

Him. It's Him seeing us. He chose us. We didn't choose

Him. That's what He said in John 15. He knows us and thus we know Him. He sees us.

And your heart will rejoice. This won't be surface level. This isn't superficial. This is joy from the innermost being.

It's from the heart. You'll have joy in the heart. And no one, He says, will take your joy away from you.

No one. No one can take your joy away from you. In Romans chapter 8,

Paul says, no one can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our

Lord. And so if Christ is the source of our joy and no one can take you away from Christ, then no one can take you away from your joy.

No one can take you away from that joy. Joy. See, I don't know about you, but I was taught when

I was little, I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart, right?

That's what it's saying here. You'll have joy in the heart. I see you guys laughing. No one can touch that since Christ put it there.

It was put there by Christ. And so the apostles don't get it now, but they will.

This is going to happen. You see it, especially in the rest of the New Testament. You and I don't always get it, but we will have joy.

We have joy. And no one can take that from us. Okay. So Jesus now switches topics a bit.

He moves to future promises for them and requests that they can make to God while expecting powerful answers.

I know this is a lot of text today. We're getting through. Verse 23.

They're not going to have to question Christ about anything. That's what he says.

In other words, a day is coming when you will understand all of this.

It will make sense. A day when you won't talk amongst yourselves wondering about what I'm saying.

It's like that verse in Luke that we just read that he had to open their minds to understand. They won't need to question him.

And this is, once again, the basis of the New Testament. I told you that. Jesus promised them that when the

Helper came, when the Holy Spirit would come, he would what? He would teach them all things and remind them of everything that Jesus ever spoke.

Teach them all things and remind them of everything Jesus ever spoke. That's what Jesus promised the apostles.

And I told you that those two things are the basis of the New Testament. That is the promise of Jesus lived out in the

New Testament. You'll remember everything I said and you will be taught all things.

Okay? And this goes along with it too. In that day, you will not need to question me anymore.

You'll know. That's what he tells them. Their complete understanding led the way to the

Gospels and letters that we have today. Have you ever noticed this? The apostolic writers, have they ever wrote in any of these sacred

Gospels or letters? Have they ever wrote in here? By the way, I hope I got this doctrine right.

Make sure you test it against the Old Testament or something like that. They didn't even have the words

Old Testament back then, right? They've never said anything like that. They've never said, you ever see an apostolic writer put, this is my belief, but there could be others out there.

None of them ever said that. They wrote with confidence. There's nothing like that in this whole book.

There's nothing that says, I think this is correct. I think this is right. They would write, this is how it is.

This is it. This is it about God. This is who God is. This is how to be saved.

This is what we can expect. They wrote with certainty and with confidence because what in that day, you will not need to question me.

You will know. Something unique has come to these men. There was an inerrancy and an infallibility in that that could only come because the

Holy Spirit came upon them and caused them to pen down every single word and yet somehow maintain their own vocabulary and their own writing styles.

Fully from God and yet that human element in it. Amazing.

It's truly remarkable. And so he says they will know. And now we know.

And we saw that the spirit of truth guides us into all truth. Do we still have questions today?

Do you and I still have questions today? Yeah, in a different way. Of course we do.

And just like He answered their questions when He returned to them post -resurrection, so will all our questions be satisfied at His second coming.

They will. Either by no longer needing them answered anymore or because we have peace with what we know now or because His coming actually satisfies the questions that we have.

Or He might tell you exactly what you seek. Jesus may return and you will rise again.

It says there'll be a final resurrection. Don't get me wrong. Apart from the body, present with the Lord. If you die now, you're with God.

But then He says there's a final resurrection. We'll rise again. And it says...

Sorry, I forgot where I'm at. That happens sometimes.

Oh, our questions. I'm so sorry. I just got over like this

COVID thing last week and it's still affecting me even days later. Our questions will be satisfied.

We will receive answers. He is good to us. He will tell us what we're seeking.

We can ask Him. Jesus then reiterates the promises in the vine and branches passage in chapter 15.

He says, ask the Father in my name and He will give it. I don't think we need to go over that again.

We went over that in detail. If you want to understand what that means, listen to the true vine sermon. But I told you when people ask for things in Jesus's name and He says, and I'll do it, that this is no genie.

God doesn't become a genie for us to do our bidding at any time we want. I told you that this is not being able to exercise our desires or wills above God's.

You see, Peter was able to successfully, in Acts chapter 3, heal the man who was lame by the gate, asking for that in Jesus's name.

But then I told you in Acts chapter 19 that the seven sons of Sceva asked to remove a demon in Jesus's name in this demoniac and they couldn't do it.

The demon beat them up in Acts chapter 19. So obviously, this isn't indiscriminate.

Peter won't sit there and pray for a cup of cold water in Jesus's name and get it.

Oh, give me this in Jesus's name right now. Boom, cup of cold water. Peter doesn't do that.

He won't test the Lord his God in that way. Because the Holy Spirit will guide them and you and I, even with what to ask for and to learn

God's will. Verse 24, Until now you have asked for nothing in my name.

Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full.

You see, there is a certain delight that comes with praying to God for something and he answers.

Is there not? And see, the Lord listens. He knows what's best for us.

He enjoys when we take pleasure in Him. James chapter 1 says, Every good thing and every perfect gift from above is from our

Father of lights, coming down from Him with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.

Jesus makes a good point too. This is much like when He says, You do not ask and therefore you do not have.

They haven't asked for anything yet. Application -wise, you and I often don't pray about what we need from God until it comes to the emergency things, until it comes to the big things, and sometimes not even then.

Do you pray even about the small things? Do you pray about the big things?

You know, I even think about, what about driving in these 4 ,000, 3 ,000 pound machines that we go, 80 miles per hour down the

I -15. Do we pray that God might keep it running? Do we pray that we might be safe hurling down the highway things to think about?

We ought to pray more. He says they should ask for things. We should ask for things.

And sometimes not asking God can be ignorance, it can be laziness, or sometimes a belief that God doesn't act in the world today.

Some Christians are actually functional deists. Do you know what a deist is?

A deist is someone who believes that there is a God in the heavens, but he's absent from interacting with his creation or the creatures therein.

That is to say, the world's on autopilot. There's a God, there's a creator, but he stepped away from it, he's absent from it.

And we often live our lives that way. But we've got to talk with him. We've got to pray to him.

We've got to worship him. We've got to rejoice with him. We've got to come to him with our questions, with our needs.

And then our joy would be made full. That's what Jesus says. And the word is like a cup that is filled to the brim.

You see a child and they say, can I have juice, mom? Can I have juice, dad? And you take a cup and you put it like a quarter way, they're like, they have this face, you know.

But you put that cup all the way to the brim, their eyes are like, okay, I love you, dad.

Because we know who would do it. I'm just kidding. But that's really the image we have of made full.

It's this overflowing, your joy will be made full. It'll overflow if you pray.

You must pray. That's the radical thing. As God is completely sovereign, ordained all things that have come to pass, and yet somehow in it all, he moves with prayer.

There have been Elijah, Daniel, Jesus, the apostles,

Paul. There have been men who understood that God is completely sovereign, and yet they pray and God moved.

And that's a mysterious thing. God moves. Jesus reveals something about how he's been speaking.

Look at verse 25. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, an hour is coming when

I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the

Father. So we know for much of Jesus's ministry, he's used parables, he's used figurative language.

We see that especially in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Some of the parables, he would reveal their interpretations.

Some, he wouldn't. Very soon, the apostles will know even more about the nature of God and the

Word that he wants them to give humanity. They won't simply know these things in the sense of basic knowledge, but experientially in their spirit.

They don't understand everything now. They don't get it now. There's a lack of confidence of knowledge of what

Jesus is saying now. The point is, very soon, they will know all this with certainty.

I'll speak to you plainly. You will know, you will understand all things, he tells them. Don't worry,

Thomas. You'll see the way to the Father's house with clarity.

Peter, you will know why I had to die and you will preach about it with courage in just a few weeks.

In a matter of weeks, Peter will know exactly why Jesus had to die. And then you see one of the first sermons of Peter in Acts chapter 2.

That wasn't long after this moment. They'll know something completely to the point where the

Pharisees and the scribes are like, these are unlearned men. How do they know this stuff?

They'll say that in the book of Acts. How do these men know these things about God? Because of what will happen to them.

Because of the understanding he'll give them. John, you and your brother

James have asked to sit at my right and my left. But soon you'll know to the fullest who

I am and what that request meant. All these things are going to come to their mind.

Go to verses 26 and 27. In that day you will ask in my name and I do not say to you that I will request of the

Father on your behalf. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came forth from the

Father. You see, Jesus wants his disciples, including us, to understand that the phrase in my name doesn't mean that we're disconnected or distanced from the

Father. We are not restricted to asking Jesus only and then he relays our petitions, our inquiries to the

Father. He says, I won't ask to the Father on your behalf.

By no means. He says, for the Father himself loves you. The Father himself loves you.

For God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son. The Father loves you too.

You and I aren't objects of his wrath while Jesus stands in the gap and says, Father, please, just love them.

Please, Father, love them. Jesus says he won't have to do anything like that.

Even then, they won't have to ask Jesus, will you make sure to tell the Father what we need?

And Jesus says, I won't have to do that. For the Father himself loves you.

In fact, the reason Jesus is even there is because the Father loved them. That's what's crazy.

The Father loves us. Of course, Jesus is our intercessor. And this in no way goes against his intercessory work.

All that to say is there is no mechanical formula to the Christian's prayers and requests that we make of God.

Sure, Jesus showed us how to pray in the Lord's prayer. But in Christ, we can talk to God.

We can talk to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. You see, God is open wide to you and I now.

Christ's work doesn't further restrict the Father. I talked about that last week.

I talked about that in my prayer today. Christ's work doesn't further restrict our access to the

Father, but extends it, makes it wider. Jesus has spoken so much of his love for the

Father and the Father's love for him. But here, it is special. The Father loves you,

Church. The Father loves you. He loves those who love his

Son. It's incredible. Now, a real quick word on when he says,

I came forth from the Father. There are many false religions who will use this last phrase in verse, what is that, 22?

I'm sorry, 27. He'll use, false religions will use this last phrase,

I came forth from the Father in a wrong way. This is not a matter of ontology or the pre -incarnate

Christ springing forth from the Father. This is actually, this word is never used in a creative sense or a birthing sense or anything like begetting or anything like that.

This is not what's being used here. This word is exerkamai, exerkamai, which literally means arrived.

You pull up to the airport, it says arrivals. That's the word that Jesus is using here, arrive.

In other words, you have believed. He says, not that I spring forth, that I'm a creation of the

Father. No, he's not. Jesus is uncreated. This word is literally arrived. You've believed that I've arrived from God.

You believe that I've been sent by God. They have believed in the incarnation of the divine and eternal

Son. They don't believe that he's just a mere human prophet. They believe this is the

Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Father loves those who love and believe in his

Son. So now we see the disciples' response. Look at verses 29 and 30.

His disciples, to all that Jesus just said, they say this.

Lo, now you are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. Now we know that you know all things and have no need for anyone to question you.

By this we believe that you came from God. Can I let you in on something?

The awkward thing is the disciples still don't get it. There's nothing worse than that.

You ever been in a conversation with someone and they're not understanding what you're saying? And then you re -explain it and they're like, oh, yeah, and you're like, and then you ask them if they get it and you kind of ask something that only you would know and they're like, oh,

I don't know, right? That's what's happening here. There's nothing worse than that.

They think they know, but they don't. They're unknowingly ignorant. Again, I've been nailing it in this whole time.

Understanding for the apostles will come after the cross and resurrection.

In that day they will know, but it isn't quite that day yet. I love what they say right here.

Look at this. Lo, now you are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.

And they say, now we know. Now we know that you know, right?

Now that we know that you know all things. What does that even mean? Yeah, no one needs to question you.

Yeah, like you said. Yep, you've arrived from God. We believe that. I think they're speaking genuinely, but I don't think that this is a claim to maybe

Jesus' omniscience. Oh, yeah, you're the all -knowing, all -powerful God. That's something that's starting to develop in them, but they don't know it fully yet.

This is an affirmation that no one has ever been able to reveal the mind of God like Jesus.

They know that. They know that for sure. But arriving from God says even more about Jesus than they know in this moment, okay?

And so look how Christ responds to the apostles' words here. Verses 31 and 32.

Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered.

Each to his own home and to leave me alone. And yet I'm not alone because the Father is with me.

So the poor disciples, we would be in the same position. They're now on the receiving end of another rebuke by Jesus.

The human pretentiousness has shown through. They have no clue what they're talking about and Jesus knows it, okay?

The way Jesus responds here is in a form of exasperation in the

Greek. So they're saying, Now we believe. Now we know. And he says basically,

Oh, now you believe, huh? Now you believe. Let me tell you how much you believe.

Within hours from this moment, the moment for which

I came has come and each of you will scatter. Let me tell you how you actually believe. You're going to leave me.

You're going to desert me. You're going to run away. Let me show you. Oh, now you believe. Each of you will scatter and leave me alone.

Any commitment that you have or that you profess to have will be tested and found wanting.

They will deny Christ with their absence and abandonment. And they dog on Peter.

Peter, you're going to deny me three times. You know what? They're not much better than Peter. At least

Peter snuck around He came to the trial. He was looking around. Yeah, he denied the

Lord three times, but the rest of the men, they ran for the hills, man. They ran. They scattered.

And yet Christ shows us ultimately when all our companions leave us,

God doesn't. When all our companions leave us, God doesn't.

He says, I'm not alone though. Although I am alone physically, I'm not alone. The Father is with me.

I like what Dodd has to say about these verses. He says, the damping down of an enthusiastic confession of faith might seem surprising if we did not remember that it corresponds to a constant pattern, not only in the fourth gospel, but elsewhere.

And that pattern is the constant lack of faith, the constant denial of Christ, the constant leaving and scattering.

And he says, it is part of the character and genius of the church that its foundational members were discredited men.

The church owes its existence not to these men's faith, courage, or virtue, but to what

Christ alone has done with them. And this they should never forget.

That's true. You know, every foundation, every human institution, they like to speak.

They have an opening, an inaugural meeting, and they say, this is how we started. With these wonderful people, this amazing man, the generosity of this person, the genius of this person.

But you know how this started? It's a bunch of failures, a bunch of men and women who did not get it.

If you don't get it sometimes, you're in good company. If you lack faith sometimes, and Jesus would say to you, you have little faith, you're in good company.

That's how this all got started. Now we come to our final verse for the evening.

One that is definitely a dear favorite to many Christians. I know some preachers who have done whole sermons on this verse alone.

I think Jeff did recently, I'd have to double check. Maybe I do that in the future, but for now, we'll look at this verse in context.

And so however disheartening and dire this all looks from the apostle's perspective, including now being made aware that they're about to desert

Jesus, Christ ends the whole discussion from the beginning of chapter 13 to the end of chapter 16.

He ends it with these words right here. Look at verse 33. These things

I have spoken to you. That's everything. These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace.

In the world, you have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. I have overcome the world.

You have two systems here in the world or in Christ. Two systems, two realities, two statuses in the world and in Christ.

And the world doesn't conquer anything, but Christ conquers and overcomes the world.

In Romans chapter 2, Paul relates this word tribulation to affecting both

Jews and Gentiles. If you know the context of Romans, Romans 1, 2 and 3 are all about the fact that not only the

Jews, but Gentiles have sinned as well. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Everyone needs to be reconciled to God. In other places, like Acts and Ephesians, tribulation is viewed as persecution.

So persecution, hatred of Christians from the world. And I think that Jesus has both forms of tribulation in mind here,

OK? You see, what this world produces are people who are desperately sinful.

The world produces those who are sinful. And our problem, all of our problem, the problem is that God is not sinful.

That's our problem. Our problem is God is holy. Our problem is

God is righteous. He's perfectly righteous. And therefore, by His very nature,

God must punish that which is opposite of Himself. Think about it.

If a perfect creature, perfect and righteous in every way, if He were to turn a blind eye to sin,

He would no longer be perfectly righteous. Because what do you do when someone makes a crime or someone does something against another person?

You need justice in that situation. And that's our problem, you guys, is

God is just, and He is holy, and He is perfect. And He'll make good on what

He says He will do. He will punish the world for its sin.

And that's the tribulation of every single man, woman, and child. The tribulation Christ must take and place upon Himself for us.

You see, punishment isn't just absolved into thin air. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death.

Every single time, the wages of sin is death. And let me tell you, someone has to die.

Someone has to die. But for you and I, it was Christ. The sins weren't just absolved into thin air.

Jesus took them on Himself. That's the Gospel. That's the Gospel. And that's why, whether it's the salvation that He purchased for us or aiding us in the midst of persecution,

He then says, in Me you have peace. Take courage. I have overcome the world.

Both forms of tribulation are overcome by Christ. The world can continue its petty attacks, but it and its ruler are defeated.

The word overcome is to conquer, to triumph, or prevail. It comes from the root word victory.

He's won. Christ has won. You and I couldn't overcome the slavery to the world that we had, but He did.

We can face anything now. In our Psalm, Psalm chapter 30, it says,

I shall not be moved. What can man do to Me? The Bible says we're more than conquerors in Christ.

He says, in Me you have peace. It's in Christ that we have these things and that these things are given to us.

What can man do when the King has won the cosmic war? Nothing. And so as we wrap up tonight,

I have two final words. First, Christ was about to face His kin, His people,

Roman soldiers, scourging, beatings, crucifixion, the sneers of the devil, and the cheers of demons.

And most of all, Jesus would face the full cup of the righteous wrath of His Holy Father.

That's what He's about to face. What would it have been like for a perfect righteous being, it says, to become a curse?

And He knew all this. He knew all this was coming. Even in this moment, in John chapter 16,

He knew this was coming. But His mind and His heart is on His followers.

His mind's on you and me. He's about to face the worst thing anyone could ever face in this universe.

And His thoughts are for you and me. He says, take courage. I have overcome this.

That's amazing. He speaks in the perfect tense when

He hasn't even gone to the cross and risen yet. That's how certain His victory is. That's how certain

He is at the cross and His resurrection would accomplish what He set out to do.

He overcame it. He overcame it all. Every bit of it. He was victorious.

And so at any point in your life, when you feel yourself at your end, when you're at the brink of yourself, it says here that you may fully rely upon that victory.

That victory is yours now in Christ. It's yours. It's for you. And secondly,

Jesus knew the disciples would falter. He knew they'd fail in their faith.

He knew they would desert Him for a brief time. He foretold it, yet He did not forsake

Him. That's what's crazy. He knew they would desert Him and scatter, but He did not forsake them.

You see, Jesus knows every trial, every grief, every sorrow, every tribulation you have faced or will ever face, and even the doubts that may rise up in your mind or the hard times that it takes to believe that how could this turn into good?

You're going to have those feelings. You're going to have those thoughts. But I tell you,

He's right there. He's right there with you. You, like these men, are secured and in His hands.

No one and nothing will snatch you out of those hands. And so what do we do?

We just keep on going. We keep on going because He says, for soon, in soon time, in a short time,

I will see you again. We will see Christ again. That's how we put one foot in front of the other today, church.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for the word that went out today.

Thank You, God, that You hold us that You carry us, that You preserve us, that You will take us to the end, that we will see

You again. That's the promise, Lord. And we lay hold of it today as Your church, as Your body, that we are

Your sheep and You are the Good Shepherd and no one will ever steal us from You.

And You will let none of us perish. And Lord, I pray for those who are in grief today.

I pray for those who have tribulation in some way. Lord, that they would come back to joy, that they would see that Your victory is their victory, that You overcoming the world is their overcoming the world.

We only need but wait and we will see You again and You will bring us to Yourself.

And so, Lord, help us to stay strong. Help us to persevere. Preserve us to the very end,

Lord God. We need You for every single moment, Lord. We thank

You for all that You've done. We thank You for giving to the apostles the words and understanding that they needed, that they may pass it on to us, the church.

We love You, Lord. Pray this all in Your name. Amen. All right, we're going to now celebrate the