John 16:16-33, How Do You Get Them Ready?

John’s Farewell Discourse and the Coming “Little While”

John chapter 16 be reading from verse 16 to verse 33.

Hear the word of the Lord 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 see me no longer 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 do not know what he is talking about. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him. So he said to them is this what you are 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 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 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 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.

I've said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech. But will tell you plainly about the father in that day. You will ask in my name and I do not say to you that I will ask the father on your behalf.

But the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the father and Have come into the world and now I am leaving the world and I'm going to the father.

His disciples said ah now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God.

Jesus answered them. Do you now believe. Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed. It has come. When you will be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone. Yet, I'm not alone for the father is with me.

I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world. You will have tribulation but take heart I Have overcome the world and the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word.

Preparing People You Love for What’s Coming

Well, how do you prepare people you love for for life, you know for whatever's coming. How do you get them ready? What's needed get along in this world, you know to survive? Pass the test that that life is going to throw at you.

From for most of us. That's what we ask about raising our children are helping raise our grandchildren. There's things coming in life that we want them to be ready for. They're gonna need an education even if they don't become a lawyer or a doctor.

Where's our budding lawyer there is. They need to learn. Something they need to do, you know, they need basic English. They need to write and you know how to read. They need to do basic math. Most good-paying jobs requires some education.

So we send them to school now some of you here. There's Emily is it your teachers and you're preparing people your full-time job is preparing people for the future. And you really have to think carefully about what these students need and that's a very noble task.

They need to learn. What you teach them, of course some Christian parents in our day are a bit suspicious of what other things the schools might teach them or some of the other students might teach them that really they don't need and they.

And they think or maybe they maybe they think their kids are exceptional and the public schools aren't meeting those needs. And so they decide to homeschool their kids now. Mary and I we can sympathize with that because we mostly Mary actually homeschooled our kids until high school.

But we realized that if if that's all we did. And just homeschool at home and then you know, leave them be we didn't expose our kids to other people other experiences other kids and other adults that.

They they might not be prepared for. Dealing with people out there in the world. I think some homeschool parents want to insulate their their children. But that can leave them it seems to me unprepared for the real world.

Where they're gonna have to learn how to deal with all kinds of people some some very irritating people. I'm very trying people some very, you know, all kinds of people not just family members. Not everyone is out there thinks you are a lovely darling and is gonna treat you like it, right?

So we constantly we we approach that not only a homeschool since we were home for a while. We constantly had our boys in sports and Cub Scouts musical lessons Awanas, you know martial arts, whatever. Whatever we could find and I think sports for example are some kind of extracurricular activity that is good for kids.

It's not just fun and games sports itself. It's not just chasing balls around wasting their time playing when they you should be studying if they were really serious kids. They learn in that how to work with other people sometimes people who are very irritating.

Sometimes people who are competing against you are trying to make you lose. Those are important skills how to handle success or loss. How to deal with people who aren't really admiring you all the time who aren't looking out for your best.

So I put I put our I first put our boys in baseball because I wanted them learn. I wanted to experience What it's like to lose? So they didn't grow up to be sore losers to my sort of Disappointment their first baseball team went undefeated.

Was until the second year they finally finally got a taste of losing. I Approached them. So how does it feel to lose now? It didn't like it, but how do you prepare them for the future in the last year of my father's life.

He kept a journal in which he wrote some about whether his family was prepared for a future without him. What if you were dying? How would you? Say you marry people. How would you prepare your spouse for a future without you?

What are you gonna do? Make it easier for them after you're gone. What about your children? Are you going to get life insurance so that hopefully that will take care of their financial needs after you're gone.

I think that's a responsible thing to do. One of my favorite TV shows over the last few years has been Breaking Bad which starts with a high school chemistry teacher named Walter White who was diagnosed with cancer has only about a year or two to live.

And so he decides to put his chemistry expertise to to some use that will make money. For his family, so they'll be prepared when he's gone. He went able to save up much on a teacher's salary and he decides to make meth.

Now it's it's it's that his evil decision is in part so responsible so Understandable you were in his position. You had this expertise. You have this talent. He can easily make a lot of money. He loving in a way Makes him so sympathetic.

What would you be willing to do to prepare your family for the future. Well, that's what Jesus has been doing here in John really from the beginning of chapter 13 where he took up that towel in the basin and washed the disciples feet to now here at the end of chapter 16 for solid chapters of instruction all of it in the last hours before his arrest and all of it to prepare his Disciples for what's coming for what it's going to be like for what life is going to be like for them without him and He does that here in this last section.

We look at his instruction to them. Just before his prayer his last prayer for them. He does that in four major parts first the realization. Second the exaltation third the petition and finally the tribulation.

The Realization That Jesus Is Leaving for a Little While

Now first the realization you need to come to a realization that he's leaving them. So far, they've been in denial, you know, they call that the first stage of grief not a river in Egypt, right? It's always hard to let go of someone who has been such a key part of your life.

But it would be doubly hard here for these disciples. Because they believe rightly that Jesus was the Messiah, but like all Jewish people of their day They believe that the Messiah would be a conquering king.

And so when you've been indoctrinated in a particular point of view for so long and everyone around you has it's difficult to break out Of that and to hear another point of view and like today many assume, you know, many assume that Either their decision that they made or their ethnicity because they're born into a certain ethnic group.

Hey, that is what matters in their relationship with God. It's that that determines whether they are one of God's people or not the idea that God is sovereign. That his decisions cause ours that he is the center of the spiritual universe.

You know like the Sun is the center of the solar system everything revolves around the Sun and the God Decisions everything revolves around him that idea. To many people is this is unimaginable the people today as Was the idea, you know before Copernicus that the earth revolves around the Sun.

Think no, I can't be earth can't revolve around the Sun. Look I'm not moving the Sun's moving. But of course scientists proved that we're revolving around the Sun the Bible proves We're revolving around God's decisions.

It took a While of having to face facts before people are willing to accept reality now here. Jesus is Preparing his disciples by making them face the facts to come to the realization that they're going to be without him.

He's assured them that he's not abandoning them as orphans that he's sending the Holy Spirit to be in them. That it's even to their advantage. We saw last week to have the Holy Spirit inside them Rather than just have Jesus beside them.

But still it's a bitter pill to swallow so he speaks plainly a Little while and you will see me no longer.

Gone and.

Again a little while and you will see me. And he's he's about to be in just a couple of short hours. Arrested and crucified his body put in the tomb. It's only a little while though. Then they will see him because he'll be raised.

That but they are confused by this too, you know in their bewilderment they're full of grief. They're full of anxiety fear denial. You don't know what's going on. They can't even accept that he'll be gone for a little while.

So they mumble among themselves. What's all this talk about a little while? What do you mean? First they need to realize that he will be gone in death for a short time. He's preparing them for that as best he can the best they can be prepared so that when it happens They aren't totally crushed by it.

Now some people think that We need to keep the reality of death. We need to hide it hide it away in hospices and nursing homes and never see it particularly keep it away from kids. Insulate them from it now maybe for very young ones.

They're not ready yet to handle it, but there comes a time when they need their To they need a realization of the bitterness of death. I think the aunt might one of my aunts that told my y 'all pronounce it aunt around here.

I don't know which side on this side of the Appalachians Alabama it's aunt never mind but I think the aunt who told my teenage cousin who not to not to look don't even don't look at the At the corpse being loaded into a hearse.

I Don't think she was preparing her for reality. I Wonder whether God made our pets short-lived. So that eventually we'd have to bury them to prepare us for reality. And what couldn't all what couldn't dogs live long like turtles do a few years ago when we found our dog dead on a Sunday Morning coming here on the way here.

We were busy all Sunday, but the next day I Purposely waited until our boys were back from school and we buried her together. Did that? To show them you have to come to the realization that death is real.

That's what Jesus is doing here with his own death. Of course. His death was only for a little while. So he declares in verse 20 truly truly I say to you This is solemn serious when he begins with this truly truly pay attention to this, especially he says You will weep and lament.

Some people think they can skip over that part, you know I have to weep and lament that Jesus is a ticket out of all that. No, he's saying realize that Don't live in this fantasy world where we're all insulated from death and disappointments to make matters worse.

I don't know we weeping and lamenting but the world will rejoice and There's a snapshot of the world. You want a definition of the world? Society of society of people in rebellion against God. They're the ones the world is who are rejoicing when they think they've destroyed the kingdom of God by killing its king.

The world.

Happy.

When you're sad. Are you prepared to live in a world? That's that depraved. Now that that's that opposed to Christ. He's act that they're actually made glad by his death. We can kind of pretend that's not the case here where they celebrate Christmas's birth.

Although actually they're really distracting from it most of the time. Aren't they all this materialism stuff? Why do they do that. Because they're actually really opposed to him. Are you ready to go back out into that world?

It's so completely opposed to what you love. After we leave here, are you ready? That's that Jesus isn't with us physically. That he died for us is what we're supposed to remember. And come to terms with in the Lord's Supper.

Think of that Jesus gave us this. The Lord's Supper is something that impacts our senses. We see the bread we see the cup. We touch it just as Jesus could Have literally been touched. We taste it. We hear the words.

All of this is to impact us so that we come to the realization of what he did. That he really died. That this shard of bread is his body. There's blood like juice is. Like his blood. Yet many of us still don't get it as though they'll treat this life though.

This is something we do for God. To earn favor with him that he really is with us still physically in the bread and the juice. But Paul said that we do this to proclaim the Lord's death. Come to a realization of it.

Until he comes. Until we see him. Like the disciples on implying, of course, we do it until he comes implying that he's not now.

Physically.

With us. And we need that realization. Well second is dreary and sobering is that sounds we need the.

The Exaltation of Joy After the Resurrection

Exaltation.

That Jesus brings we need the joy. He talks a lot about joy here. Imagine that he's talking about their joy saw that last week to talk about and he wants to make their joy complete. He's just he's just hours away from being tortured and killed and he's talking about their joy.

In the second half of verse 20 you will be sorrowful. That's the reality of life in this world. But your sorrow will be turned to joy because of the resurrection because of the little while of His death and when that's over and he's no longer dead and that's where we live now, right.

We live on that side of.

The little while.

So we remember the sorrow. But we have the joy. Even now when we have to face death, we have the joy of knowing that eventually that the sorrow of death Will be turned to joy. Then at the end it will only see our own deaths will only seem like it's a little while.

Yeah. That at the end there will be for us exaltation not depression.

Not disillusion.

What Jesus compares it to a woman giving birth. Several of you are experts on that and he says in verse 21. She has sorrow because her hour has come. Jesus had already admitted that his own soul is troubled Because his hour has come but for the joy of what's on the other side of that agony that what's on the other side of that shame that The other side of that cold hard death he went through that and came back out alive for our joy.

A Woman might be apprehensive I guess nervous about the the pain she's going to go through. Even today with modern anesthesia and medicines, you know pregnancy involves morning sickness. Doesn't it Joyce?

Well, she heard me and giving birth Gives at least some discomfort. Even with the what do they call that? Spinal thing they do. I don't know but involves some Epidural. Yeah involves some Pain. I guess Mary says yes, but most mothers don't at least they don't focus on the pain They went through to deliver the baby, but on the on the joy of having a new child with them so Jesus says they and speaking to the disciples These Apostles here.

They will remember and They will experience some sorrow for a little while as Jesus is dead, but he says in verse 22. I Will see you again notice. It's interesting because over and over again You will see me you won't see me you will you will see me you won't see me you will see me it's always you Seeing me but now in verse 22 after the resurrection.

I.

Will see you.

His emphasis is on him seeing them now sure. They will see him but most importantly. Just like it's most important Paul said in one place. It's most important that That God knows us. Then that we know God.

You know says that I know God are more importantly that God knows me here. Jesus is saying most importantly I.

Will see you.

You disciples he will see them because he will be raised from the dead and then he says your hearts will Rejoice. And so they did when Jesus first when Jesus appeared to them in chapter 20. Verse 20 resurrection.

They're in a locked room. They're traumatized by well that's happened. They're living in fear that maybe they're gonna be the next ones hauled off and crucified. And then Jesus appears to them and.

They were glad.

He says at the end of verse 21 no one will take your joy away from you.

Now.

That's where we live. We can remember the sorrow in the Lord's Supper, but now we live and the era of.

Exaltation.

The joy that Jesus gives To those who believe in him which cannot he says be taken away. Can't be taken away because his resurrection can't be taken away. It can't be undone. It can't be canceled. It can't be it can't be overcome.

What ended our joy before? The sorrow of death Has now been ended. Jesus has risen from the dead and begun the air begun the end of death. And we might still have to realize it death. We might still have to taste it.

But we live in the era in which his end has begun the era of joy. Well third Jesus prepares us for what's coming for life ahead. By telling us to petition the Father. Pray in other words or pray ask God for what you need.

The era of joy is an era of prayer. Not just a prayer meeting for an hour or so. It's a whole era. Oh time a prayer having a direct relationship with a father which results in our asking him. When we need something.

Starting in verse 23 in that day, and that's now our day. After the little while that Jesus was gone his death and gone in death and now he's raised up in that our time. You will ask us interesting here.

You will ask nothing of me. And what he means he's fighting to his disciples here up to now. You've been asking me all the time now. You'll be asking the father. He's telling them that when he's raised and gone no more will they need to come to him to get to God.

But they can go directly they can relate directly to the father. That's why now we we normally pray in the name to the father in the name of Jesus. But almost always to the father. And that's not just a tagline, you know.

The name of Jesus thinking not just a tagline at the end of the prayer magic word finally makes it work. Password to get you in like it to your email.

No.

It's it's our way of saying that I'm praying this father because of my Association with Jesus because I believe in him because I'm seeking to further his mission. I'm continuing what he began in verse 23.

Another of those notice another one of those serious truly truly statement stop pay attention to this. Don't read over so fast. You neglect it. Truly truly I say to you whatever you ask of the father in my name He will give it to you.

So we ask again in Jesus name for his glory to accomplish his mission. Like, you know, a policeman might say Stop in the name of the law. Now what he means is he doesn't have the right to tell you to stop just because he says so.

But to fulfill the law to achieve the purpose that the law is for. So he when he's doing that he does have the right To tell you to stop. So here when we pray for the purpose Jesus came to achieve his mission and That is to gather the lost sheep into one Seeking and saving the lost Bringing in the kingdom of God.

When we pray for that That's our goal. That's what we're trying to further. And we pray for that that's that's what it means in Jesus name and we're praying directly to the father he says He'll give that.

He'll it he'll achieve Jesus's mission. The father will he'll glorify himself by answering those prayers. Now if we're always praying for you know, help me get to the beach safely. You know, I have a cousin who has a friend who has an uncle who has a surgery on his toe next week.

You know, that's all we were consumed with that. Maybe Maybe that's not really in Jesus's name. Even if we're tagging that at the end of our prayer We're praying for his kingdom to be further than it is and The father will answer that.

So Jesus tells us that in this time after his resurrection The time of realizing sure there is death for a little while a little while. But there is joy. There's joy that death deaths end has begun and Now we petition the father we ask he says and he invites us ask.

Pray.

But why. Oh. Prayer can seem like such a chore. Sometimes, you know, it's like exercising. I gotta do those sit-ups. Washing the dishes. Oh. No fun. I gotta pray. But Jesus advises to pray so that there's the purpose of our praying in Jesus's name.

Why does he want us to pray in Jesus's name? Well, it's like exercise. We've got to get in shape. That's not what he says verse 24. Pray ask so that.

Your joy.

May be full.

He's still thinking of our joy. Notice it's not though. It's not pray for joy. You know pray to be relieved of your depression, although maybe you're really depressed. You may need to pray for that from time to time So so that you can Fulfill your mission but pray in Jesus's name for the mission that he came for and the result of that that is the result of you being So wrapped up in furthering the mission of what Jesus came to do.

You're so wrapped up in that that that's what you pray for. You're not praying for a good trip to the beach or you're praying for them the kingdom of God. The result is a big so focus on his kingdom. Seeking that that that's what you pray for.

The result is.

Joy.

You will be in CS Lewis's words surprised by joy. You didn't pursue it directly. You know like so many other people do looking for the money that will finally make them happy. Maybe that's what they they're praying for the money because the money will make them happy.

No, that's not the way it works. I'm for the big house. Give me the big house. The big house will make you happy. The nice car. Other relationship finally get the boyfriend the girlfriend the marriage that will finally make me happy.

You're praying for that. No. You pursue Jesus to further his mission and you were surprised by joy as someone said. Happiness is like a butterfly. The more you chase it, it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.

Here Jesus is saying the other thing. That you can chase that will finally make you happy. Not happiness itself but his mission. Prayer in Jesus's name for his sake to further what he came to do. Do that.

Then you'll be surprised by joy. Well, we pray now directly the father because now we have a relationship directly with him up to now. The disciples have been relating only to Jesus if they wanted something or they needed to know something.

They just asked Jesus. He's right there their relationship to God. The father was through Jesus. But here Jesus says in verse 23 that in that day again, this is our day.

Now.

You will ask nothing of me. In other words, you won't ask you other words. You'll ask the father not me. Jesus is saying in verse 24 up to now. You've asked nothing from the father in my name now because you haven't.

Because you haven't really been relating to God the father speaking to his disciples. You haven't been relating to him yet. You've only been relating to me Jesus the son now. That he's going away. He says that's gonna change and it should be the already changed for us.

So in verse 25, he's going to tell them plainly about the father and then in verse 26 in that day again. That's our day. It's when we live you will ask we should be asking the father. Jesus says in my name we ask in Jesus's name then Jesus says it's not.

That we should pray to him pray to Jesus to get to the father. He says I do not say that. I will ask the father on your behalf. All right, but that's the way some people think. Something the father's kind of, you know, he's kind of cold and distant up there.

Maybe they have stern fathers themselves and they think God is was like that. He didn't really care about them. He's distant and you've got to get something from the father where we got to get got to get then somebody that's on his good side.

You know, so you get to Jesus we got somebody's it's on. Jesus is a good side maybe pray to Saints they're on his side. God likes the Saints or maybe pray to Mary. She's one of his favorites, right? Jesus the son will do anything as his mama tells him to do right a good good good son is gonna do what his mom says.

So if you can get Mary convince her. Get her on your side. Then she'll convince Jesus her son and Jesus will convince the father, you know. And it's he got to go up the chain of command like that, right?

George's in the army. You don't go directly to the general at the top and ask for something. You got to go up the chain of command. That's the way it works, but Jesus here is saying. You can go directly to the father.

He's not cold and distant indeed in verse 27 Jesus says for the father.

Himself.

Loves you. Our our relationship is directly with him with a loving father. The father loves as he says because we love Jesus and we believe that he came from God and Then Jesus here at the end of the his last lesson to his disciples.

Remember this is just the last minutes are ticking down. He's going toward Gethsemane. He's gonna pray there and then he's betrayed just minutes away. He's preparing for what's ahead. He summarizes his mission in verse 28.

Look at verse 28. You know those missions about Jesus describes his own mission there in verse 28. He says I came from the father. He did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped. He says I have come into the world he made himself nothing taking the form of a servant being found in the likeness of man and Now I am leaving the world Through the cross to pay for our sins the resurrection to triumph over death the ascension.

So we can send the Holy Spirit to us. Do you believe that? That's his mission. If so, the father loves you and Invites you to speak to him. Talk to him.

Relate.

Directly to him. So we're being prepared for what life is going to throw at us in this world. We need to come to the realization of death, but death is not the end. It's not the end of the story. So we have exaltation.

We have joy and we live in a relationship with a father in which we're invited to ask him. Directly what we need in Jesus's name. It's just one more thing that we need to know and he saves for the end one more thing.

We will have tribulation. The disciples finally see that Jesus is speaking plainly to them proving that he really has come from God they they believe finally. Somewhat declaration finally you believe in but in verse 32 the time is coming.

Presently, in fact it he says it already has come. When you will be scattered. They will flee. Because they really aren't ready. Yeah. They've been thinking they signed up for triumph for glory to be high officials in Jesus's palace.

To be generals at his side just like some Christians today. I think they've signed up for prosperity and health and everything goes well. When things don't turn out that way they flee. Here he's been trying to prepare them for what's really coming.

Showing them that they need to wash feet to. That they need the Holy Spirit inside them. They seem to finally believe. That he's cut that he has come and is going back to the father. But it's too late now the hour has come and they aren't prepared not fully.

And so so soon they will be running they'll be leaving him the one they said they they know came from God. But they'll be leaving him alone. They aren't prepared for tribulation. But Jesus says he won't be alone.

He is prepared. He's prepared for the tribulation. She's coming for him. He knows that the father will be with him that it's necessary that he go through that torture the cross and the tomb. So so that he can make people prepared for the life ahead.

He told them before that one of them will betray that him that Peter will deny him and now all of them are nearly. All of them will run away and he's told them all of this. He says in verse 33 All what this has all been about since chapter 13.

The reason he's told them it in me. You may have peace. Well in one hand, it sounds kind of natural. They would have peace. When you know when we have a joy the world can't take away that a resurrection that begins the end of death.

That we live in a loving relationship with the father who invites us to to ask him sure We're gonna have peace. Why wouldn't we have peace? Well, he says why? What is the challenge to our peace?

In the world.

You will have Tribulation. That's the reality. The world will give us distress with trouble. It will make it harder for you to believe in Jesus and have peace at the same time. The world are those people outside of us who make it harder to follow Jesus.

It tempts you over television or the Internet with lust. It tries to draw you away to serve Dollars instead of the Lord. It undermines your faith with snide comments from friends or professors. It tells you to compromise in just this a little bit.

It says to be accepted if you really believe in Jesus. Then in this world You will have tribulation. Now some people some Christians approached in. That's the case. The world's gonna give us tribulation.

Let's retreat from the world. So they'll build monasteries or little Christian communities where they can be insulated from the world. Maybe they just try to live their whole lives. You're just between a Christian family and the church everything never exposed to the world.

Some are hoping that God will do that for them take them out of the world so they can escape tribulation. But Jesus prays in the very next chapter chapter 17 verse 15. He prays to the father. I do not pray that you father would take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one while.

They stay in the world even though in.

The world.

We will have tribulation. How can we have peace in the middle of tribulation? How can we have joy and being enjoying a Relationship with a father when our enemies are surrounding us when they're plotting against us luring us to our destruction prowling to ambush us how.

Well, actually.

That we'll have tribulation is not the one final thing. There is one final thing he adds to that. It's not just that we'll have tribulation. There's there's one other thing.

He says.

He says take heart be encouraged.