Joy After Sorrow - John 16:16-24
This morning we’re continuing to make our way through John 16. And by way of reminder, Jesus is still speaking to his disciples in the upper room. He’s warned his disciples of future trials and persecution, but reminds them that they are not alone. He’s going to send them the Holy Spirit.
And that’s really what we looked at last week. That the Holy Spirit was going to sustain the disciples and at the same time, He was going to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
But now, Jesus is shifting gears. He’s moving away from the Holy Spirit in order to drop some serious hints about what’s going to happen to him. That he’s going to go away and die, but ultimately rise again on the third day from the grave in glorious power.
And specifically, he’s interested in how that wonderful event, how his glorious resurrection is going to bring them joy.
Because isn’t that the truth? The source of the Christian’s joy and optimism in life is rooted, centered, and founded upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That he has overcome the grave! And we see this primarily in three ways: first, a future hope brings present joy (vv. 16-19), second, the presence of Christ brings joy (vv. 20-22), and lastly, access to God brings joy (vv. 23-24).
Future hope brings present joy. (vv. 16-19)
I’m not a preaching or public speaking expert, but I do have some experience in the area and one of the common pieces of advice that you’ll often hear is whenever you’re speaking publicly make sure you use clear and concise language. Additionally, you’re going to want to have a clear thesis statement or main point that you develop throughout your speaking event.
It’s what I try to do, whether I do it well or not is up for debate! But obviously, Jesus didn’t take the same seminary classes that I took.
Because verse 16 is about as clear as mud. “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”
It will probably be of no surprise to you that there is a lot of scholarly debate around this verse. Is he talking about the resurrection? Maybe he’s talking about his second coming?
Cases have been made for both. But I think the natural reading of this verse is talking about the resurrection.
For whatever it’s worth, I find myself in good company because both Sinclair Ferguson and R.C. Sproul believes he’s talking about the resurrection too.
But the resurrection does make the most sense. Essentially Jesus is saying in verse 16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer because I will be in the grave, and again in a little while, and you will see me because I will rise from the grave.”
Of course, we have the great privilege of being on this side of the cross. We know what happens! We know that Jesus’ story doesn’t end with his passion and crucifixion. In many ways, that’s just the beginning isn’t it?
But the disciples didn’t have the same privilege that we have. They didn’t know at this point what Jesus was talking about. Additionally, if there’s some degree of confusion over what Jesus meant even to this day, how much more confused must have the disciples been?
So it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that his disciples were talking amongst themselves unsure of what he meant as well! It’s not so straightforward!
Notice that the primary source of their confusion is centered around how to best understand, “a little while…”
Because ‘a little while’ can mean all sorts of things can’t it? A little while can sometimes feel like a blink of an eye or an eternity depending upon what you’re doing.
But they’re discussing the words of Jesus amongst themselves, trying to figure it all out. They don’t really know or understand.
Jesus had predicted his death so many times, they probably even understood that he had that in mind. But the reality is, you can’t really understand Jesus’ death apart from the resurrection.
It’s a package deal. You need both of those things to fully appreciate and understand what Jesus has done for you, and of course, they didn’t understand that.
The part that actually makes me smile is what the disciples say there at the end of verse 18: “We do not know what he is talking about.”
Perhaps Jesus needs to retake his seminary course on preaching! But the reality is Jesus said these words, not to discourage them, but rather to encourage them.
Jesus telling his disciples that he’s going away was obviously discouraging, but that’s not really where we should put the emphasis. The emphasis isn’t on the fact that Jesus was going to leave them for a little while, rather, the emphasis is on the fact that they’re going to see him again.
In the midst of incredible sorrow, he sprinkles in a future hope.
Again, Jesus is speaking to his disciples about the resurrection, but nevertheless, the future expectation of seeing Jesus is certainly true for the Christian even to this day. One day we will be with the Lord in heaven.
And so, as Christians you must maintain an eternal perspective regularly reminding yourself that your citizenship is not of this world. Your citizenship is in heaven.
And that future heavenly hope should give you an unassailable present joy.
The presence of Christ brings joy. (vv. 20-22)
But of course, Jesus knew their thoughts and responded to the disciples question. Look at verses 19-20 with me.
“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’? 20 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.”
Notice that Jesus restates their question, but doesn’t directly answer it. “Oh you guys want to know what I mean by ‘A little while? Well, you will be sad but the world will be happy. Then your sadness will turn into happiness.”
He addresses their emotional state, but only hints at the events or circumstances that will cause their sadness and then joy.
Talking about their emotional state doesn’t seem incredibly helpful does it? Why wouldn’t Jesus just tell them exactly what to expect? I’m going to be crucified, which is going to make you sad, but then I will be raised in power, might, and everlasting glory, which will make you happy. Don’t you think that would clear some things up?
But the reality is, even if he had said that to them, it would have been too much for them to process. It wouldn’t make sense.
But remember what Jesus had said earlier in chapter 16? “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
I had a friend once tell me that as a kid he overheard something inappropriate, and he innocently asked his Dad about it and his Dad said, “you don’t need to know, but you’ll figure it out one day.” Fast forward like 20 years and he’s a grown adult, and he was talking with a friend who said something inappropriate and he had like a flashback to that moment and realized, “oh that’s what Dad was talking about!”
The disciples would witness Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension, but it really wouldn’t be till after the Holy Spirit descended upon them at Pentecost - everything would make sense. Why Jesus had to die, why Jesus had to be raised, why Jesus had to ascend to the right hand of God the Father, everything would click into place. The gospel would become crystal clear to them.
But Jesus’ death wasn’t going to make a lot of sense until they would see him raised from the dead.
Frankly, isn't that true for all of us? Christ’s death is only good news and something that we look to with thankfulness in our hearts in light of the resurrection. In fact, his death is meaningless apart from the resurrection. Sinclair Ferguson said, “A gospel without the resurrection is no gospel at all!”
This is precisely what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 15! Death on a cross is sad, but the resurrection makes it something glorious!
But notice how Jesus illustrates how their sadness will turn to joy. He uses the example of a woman giving birth.
The pain of childbirth appears to be excruciating. Am I right ladies? And labor is brutal. Regardless of how long a woman is in labor, speaking as a man, it really feels like forever. Even if your wife is only in labor for a few hours, from the husband’s perspective, it might as well be a week. Honestly, that’s a neglected topic - how tough childbirth is on fathers. I’m just kidding! Mothers, we don't know how you do it. You all are amazing.
But as we all know, the most amazing thing happens: once the baby is born you forget about all the fear, sadness and pain of those first few contractions. All of that has been completely replaced with the joy of being with your little girl or little boy. Your child makes everything you went through worth it!
And I know there isn’t a mother in here that wouldn’t do it all over again, because that’s how much you love and care about your children. The inexpressible love that you have for that little baby completely overwhelms everything you went through to get him or her here.
Isn’t that Jesus’ precise point in verse 21?
“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.”
Being in the presence of that little baby, getting to hold him or her for the first time in your arms is such an overwhelming experience that it feels like your heart could explode with love and joy. The pain is minor in comparison to a little beautiful life that has been brought into the world.
In a similar way, the sadness, pain, and sorrow over Jesus’ death will be completely overshadowed and overwhelmed by the joy and happiness of his resurrection.
I don’t think Jesus gives them all the details concerning his passion, crucifixion, and resurrection, because he didn’t want to distract them from the main point: They were going to see him again. They were going to once again, be in the presence of the Lord. The pain, the suffering, the sorrow, was going to be completely replaced by the joy of seeing the Lord Jesus again.
And that really is the point of the whole childbirth illustration: the joy of the mother is in the presence of her new baby. And in a similar way, the joy of the disciples was going to be found in the presence of the resurrected Lord Jesus.
I don’t think Jesus tells them precisely what he means because he doesn’t want them to take their eyes off the ball so to speak. He wanted his disciples to stay focused on one big idea: They’d be in his presence again!
Jesus even makes this point in verse 22: “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.”
“I will see you again.” There’s no doubt in that at all! Go ahead and take it to the bank.
And as we know from Scripture, Jesus continued with his disciples for forty days after his resurrection. Obviously, that was a unique moment in redemptive history, but the reality is, we too will one day stand in the presence of our Lord.
You and I will one day stand in the presence of the Lord and everything we’ve gone through, all the pain, all the suffering, will suddenly melt away into irrelevance because the joy you’ll have in the presence of Christ will completely overwhelm all of it.
Nothing will matter at all when you’re standing in the presence of the Lord, will it?
Access to God brings joy. (vv. 23-24)
But here’s the deal: Jesus was going to see the disciples after the resurrection, but then he was going to ascend to the right hand of the Father. In other words, the disciples would see him for a short window of time and then he left them to be at the right hand of the Father.
In other words, they were going to have to soldier on without being in the physical presence of Jesus. But again, Jesus gives them instructions for that day. Look at verses 23-24:
“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. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
In the Greek, Jesus actually uses two different words that are translated into English as “ask” in verses 23 and 24. The first Greek word that he uses in verse 23 is “erōtaō.” “In that day, you will “erōtaō” nothing of me. “erōtaō” means “to inquire” or seek more information. So Jesus is saying there in verse 23 to his disciples that after his ascension they will not ask him for more information.
Then Jesus switches to another Greek word is aiteō which means “to ask or request.” So we could read the second half of verse 23 and 24 as “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you request of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have requested nothing in my name. Request, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
And here’s why that’s significant: the disciples weren’t going to need to go to Jesus for information because the Holy Spirit would fully reveal the gospel to them.
So they were going to have a tacit understanding of the gospel, but not only would they have a tacit understanding they would have direct access to the Father through prayer. No longer would the disciples need to make their requests to Jesus because they were going to be able to take their requests directly to the Father.
Now it’s important to say that Jesus isn’t suggesting that God is a genie in a bottle who waits hand and foot on you to make your wildest dreams come true. I don’t think he’s just waiting in heaven to fulfill your every desire and the only reason your dreams haven’t come true is because you simply haven’t asked.
Rather, Jesus is communicating something quite specific to the disciples in verses 23 and 24. Unlike David, who constantly sought the Lord for guidance as to what he was supposed to do, that wasn’t going to be the case for the disciples. The disciples would know exactly what they were to do: to preach the gospel to the nations! And the Spirit was going to lead them in accomplishing it.
The disciples wanted God to be glorified.
At the broadest level that is what we should all pray for, that God would receive all the glory.
Westminster Larger Catechism 184 is incredibly helpful on this particular subject:
Question: For what things are we to pray?
A. We are to pray for all things tending to the glory of God, the welfare of the church, our own or others’ good; but not for anything that is unlawful.
Obviously we’re not to pray for clearly unlawful things, but the reason I quoted larger catechism 184 is because it encourages us to pray for all things to tend to God’s glory, the welfare of the church and the good of mankind. In other words, we are to pray “thy will be done!”
This is quite the opposite from the default way most Christians think about prayer.
Whenever we think about prayer, we tend to immediately think of ourselves. We think about what I want, what I desire, what I need. And if we’re not careful it can turn into a simplistic exercise in announcing our selfish desires.
And so we think, “God hasn’t made me a billionaire yet so he must not hear my prayers.” We’re so often apathetic about His glory and indifferent towards the welfare of His church. And so often, we fail to sincerely ask God with open hands to do what is best for us and others?
Instead we often settle for half-hearted prayers that are flippant, rote, and formulaic.
“Dear Father, I ask for ___, ____, and ____, and bless this 10,000 calorie meal to the nourishment of my body in Jesus’ name, Amen.”
For those of us who have grown up in the church it’s second nature. We fail to recognize the privilege we’ve been to enter his throne room in prayer. In fact, we tend to think of it as a right and not a privilege.
But why should God listen or care about you and what’s going on in your life? I mean that with all due respect. Why should a sinner be able to enter into the throne room of God in prayer? What does perfection have to do with imperfection?
Nothing, right? If we go to God on our own, he has no reason to listen to us, does he? But the Christian doesn’t come to God on their own - the Christian approaches God through Jesus Christ. You see he is our mediator. He goes before us and he makes us clean.
So when we go to God in prayer we go to him humbly, empty handed, pouring ourselves out before him recognizing who we are and who he is and what Jesus has done for us. And that is a source of joy, isn’t it? There’s a certain level of contentment and even joy that we can all experience when we earnestly seek the glory of God and acknowledge that he is in total control!
I recently read where someone quoted the Scottish preacher Alexander Whyte as saying, “we hang our heaviest weights on the thinnest wires.”
And what Whyte meant by that is we hang our happiness and joy on things that are so fragile and fleeting. So much of our contentment, happiness, and joy is based on things like our health, our families and our finances.
As long as those things remain intact, we’re happy. But of course, the reality is all of those things can be taken away from any of us at a moment’s notice! All of us are an unexpected diagnosis away from losing our health. All of us are a misunderstanding, or argument away from losing valued relationships. All of us are one or two mistakes away from losing the money you worked so hard to earn.
As I stand here and look out at all of you, I know all of you have gone through incredibly difficult things. Abuse, the loss of loved ones, unsatisfying work, family struggles, marital struggles, and the list goes on, but in those seasons of pain and sorrow what is the wire that you hang your joy and happiness on?
What Christ wanted his disciples to see is that his resurrection joy will always be stronger, more powerful, and preeminent over the pain, sorrow, and suffering of this world.
Joy that is found in the things of this world can be taken from you at a moment’s notice but joy rooted in resurrection hope can never be snatched away from you.
“...I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” There’s inexpressible joy in Jesus Christ! It’s a joy that runs so much deeper than the things of the world. Amen.
Let’s pray together.
