Suffering Gives Way to Rejoicing

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church.

Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota.

We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith.

Alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to Saint John, the 16th chapter.

Jesus said, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.

For He will not speak on His own authority, but of whatever He hears, He will speak.

And He will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify Me, for He will take what is Mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is Mine, therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and declare it to

you.

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 that 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 am

going to the Father.

So they were saying, What does He mean by a little while?

We don't know what He's talking about.

Jesus knew that 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, you will see Me?

Truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, and 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 the baby, she no longer

remembers the anguish for the 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 hearts will rejoice, and

no one will take your joy from you.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus.

Alright, have any of you watched that Netflix series, I know some of you have, the Netflix series Stranger Things,

Stranger Things, kind of an interesting program.

If you haven't seen it, there's monsters and they live in this other dimension, and the name of the dimension is The Upside Down,

and Dungeons and Dragons comes into play.

It's kind of an interesting series, and one of the things I find fascinating is that in our

scary movies, in our scary stories, there are certain ones that deal with interdimensional

beings that come into our world, and Stranger Things is just one of them.

But have you ever stopped to consider that we are the ones who live in the upside down?

We are the ones.

You see, we're all born under the dominion of darkness.

We're born dead in trespasses and sins, under the power of the devil, and each and every one of us is suffering the

wages of our sin, which is death.

And what we do to each other, as well as to God, is, well, can be described

as monstrous.

It's kind of the thing.

And so, you'll note then that we sin against God, we sin against each other, and

we are sinned against.

This is not a very nice place to live, at the end of the day.

And you'll note that Adam and Eve, they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and now we get good

and evil coming through the tap mixed together.

And oftentimes it feels like evil is the thing that's coming through the tap a lot, and good

only comes through the tap from time to time.

In fact, I've gotten to the point where if things have been okay in my life and I've experienced some

good, I start to get anxiety because I'm thinking, uh -oh, trouble is just around the corner

again.

Suffering.

We suffer in all kinds of ways, and as Christians, we are told by Christ that we will suffer for our

testimony of Christ, and that as a result of our testimony, the devil will come after us and he will

make us suffer in various ways.

And then, don't even get me started on the fact that we are all born already with one foot in the grave,

and as we grow older, the older thing really becomes a joke as different parts of

our body begin to shut down and don't work properly.

So with that as our frame, consider then what Christ is saying

about living in the upside down for the here and the now, because we are living kind of between two

things, Christ's ascension into heaven and his return in glory.

And Jesus has a funny way of talking about his, how shall I say

it, a little while and you will see me no longer, and again a little while you will see me.

Now some of his disciples said to one another, what is this he says, a little while and you'll see me, again a little while and then

you will see me.

Now it's really easy for us in reading this text to think, well Jesus is talking about his death and his resurrection, and in some sense

that's absolutely true, but throw into the mix he says, because I am going to the Father.

Now it's true that a little while Jesus would be crucified, put into the tomb, they would cover

the tomb and they wouldn't see him anymore.

And then they would see him again on Easter Sunday after he had risen from the grave and appeared in their midst,

but it says here, Jesus says because I am going to the Father.

And so now we've got this interesting thing, Jesus has a different perspective of time than you and I have, because I don't consider 2

,000 years to be a little while, but apparently Jesus does, being

an eternal being.

So the disciples are a little bit confused, what does he mean by a little while, we don't know what he's talking about.

So Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, is this what you are asking, what I meant

by saying a little while and you will not see me, and a little while and you will see me.

Truly I tell you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

And now Jesus here is telling his disciples something that is important, you need to listen to his

words and you need to believe his words, because our experience in this life, as Jesus said,

is going to be one of sorrow.

That's what we can expect here in the in -between.

In the in -between time between Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, and his return in

glory to judge the living and the dead.

In the in -between time when we have been redeemed and regenerated, and we are still

awaiting the resurrection and the redemption and consummation of time and the glorification of

our bodies, and to be done once and for all with sin.

And so Jesus is consoling us and giving us words to hang on to.

And then he uses an example that many people can understand,

and he says this, when a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come.

And you'll note that childbirth is a painful thing here, and Jesus then is in a sense basically saying

that child pain that women experience while giving birth is a type and shadow that

he's using as an example then to help us in this in -between time.

Now I am not about to tell you that I know how painful childbirth is, I know that every

woman in here would stone me if I made such a claim, but I would point out what Carol Burnett said when

asked about what childbirth is like.

She said basically take your lower lip and pull it over your head and you'll get an idea of exactly how painful

that can be.

So that being the case then, note then the metaphor.

When childbirth comes, it is difficult, it is painful, it is hard, it is

labor, it is intense, and it has an end.

And all of that pain then gives birth to a new life.

And when you see your baby for the first time, see his or her face, and

you count those ten little fingers and those ten little toes, and you see that tiny little nose, and you hear the little

noises that the baby makes, you have joy within you and all of the pain that you

experience and the sorrow that the woman went through gives way to something completely different.

In the same way then, we as Christians as we walk through the valley of the shadow of

death must keep this in mind, that Jesus wants us to keep our eyes on what

is coming.

He recognizes that it is painful, that it is difficult, and we are to expect suffering,

pain, and sorrow.

But all of that being said, keep in mind that this is normal

for Christians.

You think of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 basically saying that I do not count the sufferings of this world

to be worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed when Christ.

Comes.

And then when you read the Apostle Paul's epistles over and again, he talks about the

privilege that Christians have to go through suffering, to share

in the sufferings of Christ.

And then when you read in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 what Paul went through himself as a Christian,

he was made to suffer in all kinds of ways.

And so then we as Christians as we go through our suffering, and the suffering that we may be experiencing could be in

body, it could be in health, it could be in relationships that we have, it could be because that we proclaim

Christ, it could be because people are slandering us and gossiping against us, it could be because you

are in a conflict with a member of your family.

There's all these different ways in which we suffer and we are to expect that

Christ has told us ahead of time.

But the consequences of our sin that play out within our own bodies and our own relationships, even in the world

around us, you'll note that the creation itself is winding down.

One of the things I like watching on Netflix are documentaries regarding the animal kingdom and stuff

like that.

There's a new Netflix series about our planet.

And if you've ever watched it, the photography is brilliant.

But the narration is all about how animal populations around the world are declining, how

basically the world is wearing out.

And it is.

Terribly. Terribly.

In fact, that's exactly what Scripture says.

That the earth itself will begin to wear out like a garment.

And so then we note this, that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, He suffered

for us.

And His suffering was substitutionary.

His suffering was vicarious.

His suffering was so that we can be forgiven, so that we can be

reconciled to God, and then rather than have us skip payday,

payday for our sins, we all die, Jesus is now pulling everybody and

everything through death and resurrection.

You will die and you will be raised again.

The earth itself will die and will be raised again.

Even the heavens themselves will die and be raised again.

And it's a painful experience likened to childbirth.

But at the end of that childbirth, all of the pain and the suffering that we go through,

and even death itself, will be a distant memory, one that we will not recall because

of the joy that will be before us when Jesus returns.

And with that we consider then what is said in our text from the book of Revelation.

John says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

The first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

And that's what's happening to our planet, passing away.

And the sea was no more.

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.

I always like to think that the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, you know, the great building project that

is going on outside of our ability to see, we recognize that that is going on even to this day.

Christ himself is preparing for us a city.

And so he says,.

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, now the dwelling place of God

is with man.

He will dwell with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

The joy that you experience when you see your child's face for the first time after they are born is similar to the joy

that we will see when we see Christ's face for the first time when he appears.

And because we are forgiven because of what Christ has done for us, we do not have to shrink back in fear, fear

of being judged, fear of being thrown into the fires of hell.

Instead, it'll be a joyous occasion, one that will warm our hearts in a

way that we even cannot describe at this moment.

And then God himself, Christ, will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death

shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for

the former things have passed away.

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

And this is a great promise for us.

Us, all of us who are heading towards the grave, all of us who are suffering and languishing now, Christ is

making all things new, including you.

And he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

And he said to me, It is finished.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of

life without payment.

And then listen to verse 7, To the one who conquers, the one who conquers will have this heritage,

and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

And so you hear then, wow, the importance of conquering.

How does one then conquer so that he has this heritage?

The answer is by believing in Christ, trusting in him,

recognizing your need for Jesus' blood to forgive you of your

sins, recognizing that he is the only way, that salvation is found in no one except

for him, trusting in his great promises that you are reconciled to God and that this

heritage is yours, given as a gift in inheritance because of the death that he suffered and bled and

died for you.

That is how one conquers.

It's not conquering in the way that we normally think of conquering.

It's conquering by receiving.

It's conquering by believing.

It's conquering by faithfully continuing to believe.

And so God himself, through his word, through the body and blood of Christ, continues to strengthen this

faith, trust in the promises of the fact that we will have joy in rejoicing and that the

suffering we are experiencing now will all give way to the joy that we experience

in the new creation, the new heavens and the new earth.

To conquer is to believe.

Trust in Jesus, the one who conquered death and the grave for you and

for me.

And you too will have this heritage.

In the name of Jesus, Amen.

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