Nov. 26, 2017 PM Service Explaining Our Joy by Pastor Josh Sheldon

John 16:16-25 and the Promise of Unshakable Joy

Open your Bibles, if you would, please, to the Gospel of John, chapter 16. John 16, verses 16 through 25. Again, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ to his disciples on that last evening before his crucifixion.

A little while, and you will see me no longer, and again a little while, and you will see me. So some of his disciples said to one another, what is this he says to us? A little while, and you will not see me.

And again a little while, and you will see me. And because I'm going to the Father. So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he is talking about. Jesus knew what they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, is this what you're asking yourselves?

What I meant by saying 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, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered her baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

So also, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. The Lord here speaks of course, and it's right there on the surface for us to see and latch onto this joy, this fullness of joy that the disciples will have that we should have.

This joy that cannot be taken away. This joy that has a foundation that is not in something that makes us glad at the moment, as getting a promotion or a raise or winning a prize or something like that.

That could be joyful, that could make us even gleeful, but it's a fleeting one compared to what Jesus Christ has in mind for his disciples and then for us. For all Christians of whatever stripe, a joy that is not based upon any circumstance except this.

The death, burial, and ultimately resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Something that God did in history when he sent his son to the cross and after three days raised him up again. A one-time event never to be repeated.

A one-time death which can have nothing added to it. And that, dear ones, our foundation for joy. A foundation for joy that cannot be taken from us. No circumstance, no trouble, no trial can remove this joy from the Christian.

Because the Lord is risen, he is risen indeed. And this as a basis for our joy, as a foundation, as the place from which we leap into this joy is something that can never change. Never be added to, never repeated.

And so is an eternal and a fixed and a firm foundation. One of the things I like about studying John, and this is very true in his gospel most especially, but all his letters also and the book of Revelation for that matter, is the way he uses repetition.

And he repeats things and so it's fairly easy if you pull off a section, what we call a pericope, a section that is a definable unit of one of John's writings. You will find in there quite often that the main point doesn't have to be searched at.

You don't have to dig down into the bowels of the earth to find what John wants to get to you because he repeats things so often. So verses 16 through 19, this first portion of what I read to you, the Lord makes a statement, a little while and you will see me no longer.

And then verse 17, John the author tells us that the disciples were asking each other what he meant and when he asks, when he tells us this, when he relates to us how they were asking what he meant, he repeats the question.

So Jesus says a little while longer and you will, a little while you will see me no longer and the rest of that. And then John says well the disciples were asking themselves, what does he mean a little while and you will see me no longer and gives the rest of the quote.

And then when Jesus finally intervenes, he asks whether this question and here John repeats it again where Jesus says is this the question and the whole question is given to us one more time about what they're talking among themselves about.

So what do we think the main point is? It's the joy we're going to have in seeing Jesus again. They had in his resurrection, we have looking back upon it, his resurrection. That's what John is getting at here.

This is the firm foundation. This is the basis for joy which can never be robbed from you. God himself, God Almighty would never take. He is the source of this joy. He is the giver of this joy and if God gave it, none or nothing can take it from us.

We can make pretty short work of a lot of this in terms of expositing what the text is because we're on our side of what was coming which is of course the cross. We have in the scriptures the record of this death on the cross and his burial and a little while longer you will see me no longer.

That's what that part is and then his resurrection and again a little while you will see me. So we can move on pretty quickly to these words of comfort that come next which is verses 20 to 22 because that thrice repeated question where Jesus tells it to them and they ask themselves what it means and Jesus says is this what you're asking about?

Well for us, from where we stand, we can make pretty quick work of it. It's the resurrection. The resurrection explains so much in the scripture. So many things where we can look and scratch our heads and say how do we pull this together?

How do we answer this? The resurrection is quite often if not always the answer that will pull it all together for us. In the portion that follows starting in verse 20, there's this antithesis between the Christian and the world and it's very evident there.

Not unlike what we had this morning from Romans 12 too. Not being conformed to the one side but being transformed on the other. But here we find the disciples, Jesus prophesying to them that they will weep and lament on the one side while the world on its side will rejoice.

So there's this antithesis between the two. They, the disciples, will have lost their teacher and their master while the world will have removed a bothersome pest. This Nazarene carpenter, this itinerant preacher constantly harping on them about their sin, about their lack of knowledge of God.

And so that part of the world is going to rejoice that this inconvenience has been taken away. And here is why the world hates Christ and hates all who follow them. Even as he said just a few verses before what we have with us this morning.

They know, they being the world, they know that we, we being Christians, that we stand with him who knew no sin. We stand with him, Jesus, who brooked no sin. He tolerated no sin even while eating with sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes and the like.

They know that we follow one, Jesus, of such pure holiness that he could be in their company, the company of sinners, and take no part in their ways either by indulging them or by approving them. There's a perfection in Jesus that despite our imperfections is a cause for this, this reaction of the world against his followers.

You know, the accusations against us that we're hypocrites, we hear this all the time. Well, you're just a lousy sinner as well. What are you talking about? Why are you acting so holy? We hear this all the time.

And ultimately, I think, there is a joy we can take in that even as the apostles did when they were accused and said they took it as great joy to be beaten for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to have been punished for having proclaimed his name.

There's something intrinsic about following Jesus where the world knows it's not me that I'm presenting as anything. Much more convicting than that is they know that behind me is Jesus, this wonderful, perfect, sinless Savior.

And even while admitting ourselves to be sinners, even while admitting that we're ever prone to fall and ever watchful against it, there's this innate sense that we stand with a perfect and a pure Savior whose name we bear, and not by our perfections, but by our commitment to his.

Well, of course, the travail that Jesus spoke of was like a woman giving birth, you will have travail. The travail is over. We know that from our side. Christ rose from the grave just as he promised, and he gave them cause for joy that could never be stolen or diminished.

This is more than just a surface embellishment of a sourpuss attitude. This is deeper than just hearing something that sounds good and makes us happy for the moment. The worldly way to do this, to make us feel good, to give us joy, is just to put on a patch.

They tell us that the harm to our self-esteem is not worth the wound that's brought by conviction of sin. They say your genes determined this or that, and your upbringing caused it. Just believe in yourself and your intrinsic worth, which may work for a while.

But only for a while. It sounds good to the ears that long to hear what a fine fellow I am, but it's like using a band-aid to fix a severed jugular vein or an aspirin against cancer. What Jesus promises here is a true joy, one that emanates from deep within the person.

I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice. From the inner man, there will be this joy, joy in seeing the Savior alive, never to die again, knowing that sin has been answered by His death, and so we are free because of Him.

Your hearts will rejoice from deep inside, not this surface kind of a patch, not this temporary solution to things, not a phony kind of just believe in yourself, just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and get going again, but a joy that is based upon Him and God's work in Him and His accomplishment on our behalf, His resurrection.

He promises a joy that comes in a way that the world cannot give. They base our joy in ourselves. They say we should rejoice in life, celebrating that random molecules finally happen to come together and become me.

I mean, how special, how affirming, how joyful a message is that? And I think people latch on to this because at the base level, they just want to be happy. They just want to be joyful. They want to have a positive outlook.

And I also think, and I have no proof of this, only my thoughts and my observations, that most people know that this worldly way is only a thin patch on a great need. Jesus speaks here of a joy that's not natural.

It has a basis that only faith can believe or apprehend. The heart rejoices at the news of the resurrection. It's a joyful confidence. It's a house built on a rock to have this confidence, this certainty.

Resurrection calls for joy because He lives. That's first, He lives. We know this. He's at the right hand of God even now, this moment interceding for His people. Second, because He lives, our salvation is assured because God raised Him up never to die again.

We know that that's our fate because He's the first fruit, and we will follow after Him. And more to the immediate context of our text, because He lives, we have immediate and we have direct access to God the Father.

I've often wondered how verses 23 and 24 where Jesus says, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you. And the next verse repeats that. He says, ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.

I mean, responsible preachers read that and we preach that, and then we take care to point out that we can't ask for just any old thing. But asking in Jesus' name means asking in accordance with His will as revealed in Scripture.

And that's all true, and that's correct. To pray in Jesus' name means to pray in a manner that honors Him and asks for things that will bring Him more and more glory. But as I looked at this text, again, I began to wonder if that's what the Lord means.

Maybe it's not so much that we get what we ask for. Maybe that's not the point here so much as that we get to ask at all. Maybe it's not so much that we can go to God for anything, and there is a context to that, and perhaps we'll cover that another time, but I wonder if the cause for joy here is just being able to go to the Father and ask Him anything at all.

Priesthood of believers, we spoke about that some weeks ago. Each believer in Jesus Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, can go on their own to God the Father in Jesus' name. Is that not cause for joy?

Just to be able to go to the God who inhabits eternity, who dwells in unsearchable holiness, and someone like myself, like yourself, because of faith in His Son, because we're covered by the blood of His Son so His righteousness is ours, we can go to God the Father.

This is what Jesus is telling them here. You will ask in my name. You can go directly to Him. I would call that cause for joy. Anything less than Jesus Christ, anything less than His death for our sins and His resurrection for our justification as the object of joy is obviously impermanent.

When we set our hope on anything or anyone but God, we stand on very shaky ground because people change, money vanishes, society's values ebb and flow. One day you're everyone's darling, the next day you're hopelessly out of step, but the Word of God endures forever.

We often think of the disciples in terms of their foibles. John and James, remember when they asked to be raised up above the others, they wanted to be sitting on Jesus' right and left hands and Jesus rebuked them and says, you don't know what you ask.

Are you able to drink the cup that I shall drink? They said, we are able, and He said, it's not for you. Remember Peter rebuking Jesus. I spoke of it this morning. Far be it from you, Lord. This shall never happen to you.

Remember that Peter and the others couldn't stay awake and pray with the Lord on His last evening. And then there's Peter's treacherous denial of the Lord during his trial. Remember the disciples so often in terms of their failures and their weaknesses.

But do we remember that Peter and Andrew and James and John, when they were called by the Lord, do you remember what they did? They all immediately left their livelihood. Two of them were fishing and they left their boats.

Two of them were mending nets, getting ready to go back in the boats with their mended nets. And they immediately left the nets. Do we remember that Matthew immediately left his very lucrative tax collection franchise?

When Jesus said, follow me, immediately stood up from his booth. And we have no clue in scripture that he ever looked back. Do we remember Peter in Matthew 16, 13? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

A revelation Jesus said was from the Father that is the bedrock of his church. Or John chapter six, verses 68 and 69, when Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

Now my point here is not to raise these men up higher than they ought to be. They were men with spirits like ours. But they left everything for Jesus. It's like Cortez when he burned their ships. That general did it so his men would be forced to conquer or die.

The disciples did it because Jesus Christ called them and without hesitation, they went to him. And right up to his arrest, without wavering, we see much of this. In John six, Jesus answers Peter. He says, did I not choose you, the 12?

They're chosen by God to be who and what they were. That's the divine perspective. On a human level, they gave their all. Not just skin in the game as we say it today. They held back nothing, at least nothing as far as they understood it.

As dullard as they might seem in their wondering about Jesus and what he could have meant, especially given the other three gospels where Jesus so often announced his death and his resurrection. Remember that they were just told something that you or I could never know.

They were just told that he was about to be taken away from them. And from our side of the cross, with Jesus Christ at his father's right hand and the spirit given to us, we will never know him to be taken from us.

Remember the disciples were told that he'd be taken from them, and he in fact was. I mean, if I was handed my death warrant, let's say I had it here and I read it to you and it says something like this, by order of the most honorable justice, Haman Himmler Eichmann or something like that, cousin of Pol Pot and grand nephew to Stalin, grand inquisitor and glad executioner in this realm, Pastor Sheldon is to report to firing squad tomorrow and there to be shot dead.

I mean, you'd mourn some for me, I should think, as I would for you. But think what the disciples were just told. Not from the world, but from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. What they heard was much worse than that.

They were to be parted, not from me, but from Christ Jesus. I mean, I made up a little parable there. Jesus spoke literally. What the Lord told them was infinitely more certain than any death warrant here could be.

Would we expect nonchalance? As though they should have just shrugged their shoulders and said, okay, great, but three days and you rise up again, right? Okay, so cool, we'll see you then. Let us know if there's anything you need.

Say, Peter, maybe we can go fish for a little while while we're waiting for the resurrection. That would be silly. That would be ridiculous, almost blasphemous. They heard what you and I would have heard had we been there.

Just this, he's being taken away. He was going to die. I mean, death was common enough, so that part was easy. They could wrap their minds around death, but the resurrection, the see me again part, do we really expect them right then and there to have instantly understood all this?

Well, the explanation is, of course, the same for so much as it is for so much of our faith. The resurrection, again, explains it all. They saw him after a little while while on the beach. When they did, Peter fairly leaped out of his boat to get to him.

The last two verses of Luke's gospel say, and they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and there's the joy that Jesus promised, and were continually in the temple blessing God. Peter speaks of this joy enduring when he writes to the Philippians.

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same thing to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. Verse 4 -4, Philippians, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Or the psalmist in Psalm 4 -7, you have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

Because one day wine and grain will fail. But the joy we have in Christ Jesus, because what God did in him and in him for us, is a joy that cannot fail. It's a joy that generates from within. It permeates all that we do.

And this is what Jesus promised. This is what he provides. A joy founded on the certainty of the cross that Jesus paid the full measure of God's demanded wrath for our sins. A joy based on the resurrection.

He's risen, he's ascended back to the Father, and that's something that we cannot be robbed of. There in all likelihood, most of our lives, will come causes for sorrow. What we're speaking of here is a joy that comes from a settled confidence in Christ that all his works were done in perfection and for the Father's name.

And certification of all of them, the Father has proved his pleasure in them by Christ's rising again, and we take joy in the equally certain hope that he will return again to us. So Jesus speaks here of this joy, and he says this joy will never be taken from you.

Nothing can take it from you. And he's speaking to them, and he speaks as well to us. If you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, if his death, his burial, his resurrection is where you have pinned your hope for eternal, your eternal fate, then you have a proper basis and cause for joy, and one which will never fail and never fade.

It doesn't mean that we're joyful at sorrowful times or at times like memorials when we lose loved ones who are close to us. That would be silly. It's an abiding joy, a deep joy, a joy that is almost the same as having full confidence that God's word is true, and what it says he has done, he has in fact accomplished, and for what he said he did things.

And Jesus is speaking of the cross coming the very next day. His death, burial, and resurrection, and again we have before us in the elements of the Lord's table that remembrance of his death and burial and resurrection.

And so as we go to the table this afternoon, let us do so soberly because we're remembering the Lord's death. Let us go joyfully because we remember there his resurrection. And let us go with great confidence because we always end the communion, and I think this is right, with until he returns.

For he'll come back for us one day. He will bring us to himself. And so we have all cause for joy, and a joy that can never be taken from us because it is premised and based and founded upon the works of the Lord Jesus Christ in accordance with the word of God.

Amen. Please turn to hymn number 77. This hymn will prepare us for the church.