What would joy be worth to you?
What would you be willing to endure for the sake of true joy?
A deep-seated, genuine, heartfelt, overflowing, overwhelming, never-ending, never-fading, all-consuming joy.
Would the confident expectation of a joy like that help you to endure the hardships of this life?
Would the promise of that kind of joy comfort you as you grieve the death of your loved ones?
Would it give you hope to go on in the daily grind of life?
Would it give you peace in the face of stresses at work, stresses at home, stresses about your health or your lack of health?
Would it give you strength when you feel like the people around you hate you without cause?
Would it sustain you if you felt like your whole life of following Jesus was just getting too hard or too long or too different,
making you feel too different from the people around you?
Our gospel passage this morning is taken from a long section in John's gospel.
It stretches from the end of chapter 13 to the end of chapter 17.
And the setting is the upper room.
It is the night of Jesus' betrayal, the night before his crucifixion.
And he spends much of this final evening caring for his closest disciples, preparing them for what is about to happen.
And towards the end of the whole conversation, he tells them clearly the reason, tells them his purpose in this conversation.
If you have your pew Bibles at hand, you can open them to page 936 once again, or in your own Bibles, John chapter 16.
So he tells them what he's up to in this final evening.
He says in chapter 16, verse 1,
These things I've spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble.
And at the end of chapter 16, verse 33, he says,
These things I've spoken to you that in me you may have peace.
So he doesn't want them to stumble.
And he wants to provide them with peace.
And one of the main things that he wants them to understand in order that these things would happen is that he is about to leave them.
He is leaving them.
Right at the beginning, he says so.
In chapter 13, in verse 33, he says,
It's a recurring theme throughout the conversation.
He's repeatedly telling them,
I'm about to leave you.
And then in our passage that George read for us,
He repeats the point again.
But he says it almost in the form of a riddle,
a cryptic way of speaking,
perhaps to see if they really understood what he's been telling them.
And actually, from their response,
it becomes painfully obvious that they haven't at all understood what he's been telling them.
He says in 16 and verse 16,
A little while, and you will not see me.
And again a little while, and you will see me.
Because I go to the Father.
Then some of his disciples said among themselves,
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 go to the Father.
They said, therefore, what is this that he says,
A little while?
We do not know what he's saying.
Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask him,
and he said to them,
Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said?
A little while, and you will not see me.
And again a little while, and you will see me.
The repetition over and over again,
A little while, a little while.
It allows us to enter in to the disciples' bewilderment
as they spin in a circle, as it were.
A little while.
What's he saying?
A little while.
We go around with them.
And it sets us up for Jesus' bold and strong
and clear declaration in verse 20.
But just before we look at that,
he begins that by saying,
Most assuredly, I say to you.
And many of you know,
when he says at the beginning of something in your Bible,
in your Bible, most assuredly, I say to you,
or truly, truly, I say to you,
he's saying, peel back your ears.
Peel back your eyes.
Dig out your ears.
Heads up.
Everything he says is important.
He says himself in chapter 5,
Thanks, brother.
That his words are the very words of God.
But when he says that, he's underlining it
and putting it in bold and highlighting it.
Caps.
Heads up.
So what does he say?
Most assuredly, I say to you,
you will weep and lament,
but the world will rejoice.
And you will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
So the heart of what he's saying
is there's a strong contrast
between what the disciples
are about to experience,
the followers of Jesus,
and the world.
On the one hand,
it's not going to go very well for them.
You will weep.
They will rejoice.
You will mourn.
They will rejoice.
You will grieve.
You will be sorrowful.
You will lament.
They will rejoice.
The hour of darkness was coming.
Jesus was about to be betrayed,
arrested, crucified,
dead, and buried.
It was to be the darkest time
that the disciples had ever known.
And the enemies of Jesus,
who had hated him for years
and plotted against him,
seemed to finally have triumphed.
And as it were,
they are celebrating their victory,
toasting one another with champagne.
And the disciples were shattered
and scattered
and running for their lives.
They were weeping,
crying, mourning, lamenting.
But, Jesus says,
but,
your grief will turn to joy.
A little while,
he says to them,
a little while,
a little while.
And after a little while,
your grief
will turn
to joy.
And he goes on to compare
their experience
to the experience
of a woman in labor.
The woman in labor
has intense
pain
and grief
when the hour of delivery
comes.
For many women,
it is physically,
at least,
the most difficult
and painful experience
of their life.
And yet,
astonishingly,
if all goes well,
and we're not speaking here
of those
exceptionally difficult times
when all does not go well,
but if all goes well,
amazingly,
the pain of labor
is instantly
overcome,
overwhelmed
and drowned out
by the joy
of the new baby
that has been born
into the world.
Actually,
just as an aside,
some of you may question
whether Jesus
has overstated
the point here
when he says,
she no longer
remembers
the anguish.
Probably,
many of you
who have had
babies
would have no trouble
remembering
the anguish
if you wanted to,
if you called it to mind.
But this doesn't need
to cause us to stumble
because the word
that many English
translations
put as remember
could just as well
be
to think of,
to set your mind on,
to call to mind.
And that is
a better representation,
I would put to you,
of what Jesus is saying.
When the baby
has been born,
the mother
is no longer
thinking about
the pain of labor.
She no longer
is setting her mind
on those things
and keeping them in mind,
but she's entirely
focused
on the baby,
on the joy
and the delight
in the new little boy
or the new little girl
that's been born.
And so like
the laboring mother,
Jesus says,
you will have grief
now.
I am being taken
away from you.
But also like her,
the grief will only be
for a short time
and then
it will be
swallowed up
with joy.
He returns
to the disciples
in verse 22
and in this verse
he draws together
all that he's been
saying so far.
So look with me
at it.
Therefore,
you now have sorrow,
but I will see you again
and your heart
will rejoice
and your joy
no one will take
from you.
We see,
we see here
the source
of the joy
that he's been
talking to them about.
It's in coming
face to face
with the risen
Lord.
The joy
that he's been
telling them about
is found
in meeting
Jesus,
the resurrected
Jesus,
face to face.
Earlier he said,
in a little while
you will see me
again.
now he changes
it ever so slightly
and he says,
in a little while
I will see you again.
And by doing this
what he does
is he
he completes
the picture
of
of an
intimate
face to face
reunion.
It's not as though
it's true
when he says
you will see me again.
But it's not
it's not as though
when you go
to a concert
and you're
in your place
in row
ZZ
seat 19
and you see
the singer
as small
as an ant
on the stage.
It's not
and it's not
like
when
Bill Clinton
was here
a few weeks
or a couple
of months ago
and you might have
seen him
being hustled
through a crowd
and surrounded
by burly
bodyguards
and you caught
a glimpse
of his elbow
or something.
It's not like
that at all.
You will see him.
He says
you will see me
yes
but
I will see you.
It will be
an experience
of face to face
reunion
of true fellowship.
You will see me again.
I will see you
again.
This is the source
of the disciples joy.
And we also see
the depth
of their joy.
He says
I will see you again
and your heart
will rejoice.
Your heart
will rejoice.
You will have joy
at the very center
of your being.
It will be joy
like the mother
of the newborn
baby.
A joy
that is so strong
and so powerful
and so overwhelming
that
in her case
the agony
of labor
is all but forgotten.
Completely
drowned out
by the joy
of something
far greater.
This is the kind
of joy
that Jesus promises
to those who will see him
face to face.
I will see you again
and your heart
will rejoice
and your joy
no one
will take
from you.
The joy
that he promises
is secure.
No one
will take
it from you.
When
Jesus was
crucified
the world
rejoiced.
But when he
rose from the dead
again
that world
that was opposed
to him
and hostile
to him
didn't cease
to exist.
It still
is hostile.
It still
threatens.
It still
is opposed
to him
and those
who name
his name.
And Jesus
warns his disciples
that there will be
those who try
to take
their joy
away.
But they're doomed
to failure.
They cannot succeed.
The joy
that comes
with seeing
the risen Lord
is a joy
that is
secure.
The overwhelming
joy that drives
out weeping
and mourning
and lamenting.
No one
can take
away from you.
And so
what about
us?
What about
those of us
here this morning?
How does
this relate
to us?
Brothers
and sisters,
the experience
of the disciples
that first
Easter weekend
is in
a capsule
form.
The same
experience
of all true
followers of Jesus
in every age.
We do not
see our Lord
face to face.
It is true
that he has
been taken away.
He has
left us.
Now,
it is also
true that
when he left
he did not
leave us
orphans.
When he ascended
to the Father
he poured out
the Holy Spirit
upon us
to come
and to live
within us
and to fill us
and to give us
power and strength
in this life.
And in fact,
Jesus even said
it is to your
advantage
that I go away
so that I can
send the Holy Spirit
to you.
And so,
it is true
that for us
today
we are even
in a greater
situation
than the disciples
that lived with him
and walked with him
and talked with him
during his earthly
ministry.
All these things
are true
and I don't want
to say anything
to minimize
or diminish
the wonder
of the gift
of the Holy Spirit
and his power
and the joy.
And in fact,
he is the foretaste,
the deposit,
the down payment
of the joy
that will one day
be ours
in fullness.
But nevertheless,
the hope
of the Christian
remains
future-oriented.
One day,
we will come
face-to-face
with the risen
Lord Jesus.
That is the Christian's
hope.
We will stand
before the Lord
face-to-face
in glory.
And this is not
only our hope
and our joy
and our longing
and expectation,
but it's even
the desire
of the Lord himself.
As Jesus prayed,
Father,
I desire
that they also,
whom you have
given me,
may be with me
where I am
to see my glory.
Amen.
And so in the
meantime,
the world does
seem to be on top
at times,
doesn't it?
Those who are
hostile to Jesus
continue to threaten.
And now that he
has departed,
that unwanted
attention that was
focused on him
has now been
redirected
to his followers,
to his people.
It began
right away
in the days
of the disciples.
And Jesus
told them
in this
upper room
preparation,
he warned them,
he said,
if the world
hates you,
you know
that it hated
me before
it hated you.
And they will
put you out
of the synagogue.
Yes,
the time is
coming that
whoever kills
you will
think that
he offers
God service.
In the world,
you will
have tribulation,
but be of
good cheer.
I have
overcome the
world.
And so
for the
early
disciples,
and also
for us,
these sufferings
are just
for a little
while.
For a little
while.
Like the
pains of the
laboring woman,
they are soon
to be replaced
with joy.
And this is
the constant
biblical pattern.
pattern.
We sometimes
long for
the glory
now without
going through
the suffering,
but all
through the
scriptures,
that's the
pattern.
It was true
for Joseph.
He had to
be a slave,
and he had
to suffer in
prison before
he was exalted
in Egypt.
And David
had to be
hunted like
an animal,
running for
his life from
Saul before
he took the
crown and
the throne.
And Jesus
wandered
homeless and
had to endure
the cross
before he
came to
glory.
And that is
the experience
of all of
his people.
Suffering
comes before
glory.
So we do
not lose
heart, as
Paul says,
because this
slight,
momentary
affliction is
preparing for
us an eternal
weight of
glory beyond
all comparison,
as we look
not to the
things that
are seen,
but to the
things that
are unseen.
For the
things that
are seen
are transient,
but the
things that
are unseen
are eternal.
So,
Christian,
do not be
surprised by
trials.
Do not be
discouraged by
hardship,
or heart
ache,
or suffering.
Don't be
surprised when
the world
hates you.
It hated
him before
it hated
you.
But instead,
set your
minds on
the hope
that he
gives us,
on the hope
that we've
been given
of seeing
the Lord
face to
face.
Let your
minds often
return to
this thought.
Keep them
before you,
especially,
especially when
the way becomes
difficult.
world.
Set your
minds on
the hope
of glory,
and let
this promise
be a source
of strength
to you.
You have
sorrow now,
but I
will see
you again,
and your
hearts will
rejoice,
and no
one will
take your
joy from
you.
God.
Finally,
I close
with a
word to
those who
do not
yet name
Jesus as
Lord and
Savior.
These are
very great
and precious
promises that
we've been
hearing this
morning.
Jesus offers
true joy,
joy,
a deep
inner joy,
a joy of
the heart,
a joy that
will one
day overcome
all sorrow
and all
heartache,
and all
that this
world can
throw at
you.
Like the
sorrow of
the woman
in labor,
it will be
forgotten
when the
baby is
born.
The joy
that Jesus
offers is
permanent,
and it's
personal,
and it's
secure.
No one
can ever
take it
from you.
And what
can the
world offer
to compete
with this?
What
superficial
pleasures
can the
world entice
you with?
What
fleeting
pleasures
can it
produce?
Where do
you seek
joy?
Come to
Christ,
turn to
him,
and become
an heir
of this
great joy.
You need
to know for
certain that
the way will
at times
be hard.
This joy
comes at a
cost.
The world
was hostile
to him,
and it still
is,
and it will
hate you
too.
you will
have sorrow,
but your
sorrow will
turn into
joy.
Amen.