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Well, good evening.
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It's a privilege to be back with you all,
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to see you all.
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I read a quote this week
by Stephen Charnock.
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He said, "A mite (m-i-t-e),
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a mite of Spirit is worth more
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than a mountain of flesh."
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And I believe that's true.
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And so before we do anything,
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even the reading of the Word,
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I just want to pray
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and ask for God's Spirit to come
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and be with us and to help us.
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Father, it is in the name of
Jesus Christ that we come.
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Father, we can't even offer up
prayers to You without grace.
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So how am I going to preach
without Your grace?
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How are we going to hear
without Your grace?
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And how are we going to behold
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the glory of Jesus Christ
without Your grace?
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We need Your Spirit.
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Father, we thank You for Your Son.
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We thank You for Your Word.
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We thank You for Your Spirit in us -
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the Guide,
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the Helper,
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the Teacher.
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We thank You for His work
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glorifying the Son.
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And that's my prayer, Father,
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that tonight Jesus would be glorified;
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that Jesus would be lifted on high;
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that He would be magnified and seen,
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Lord, maybe for the first time
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as some are awakaned to Your glory
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and others to a greater revelation.
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And Father we pray not just to be
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a work of the mind,
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although You will work in our minds,
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but You would go to the heart
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and You would stir our affections
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and our hope in Jesus Christ
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as You show Him to us again and again.
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As we pray Father, as we sang,
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do show us Christ.
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In His name we pray, Amen.
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If you'll open your Bibles
to the Gospel of John 16.
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It's a context I'm sure
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that everyone in here is familiar with.
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In chapter 16, we are just a few hours
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before Jesus' crucifixion.
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Jesus is alone with His disciples.
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Judas has already left them
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to go and betray Jesus.
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They began in the upper room in chapter 13
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where they shared the
Passover meal together,
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and Jesus began to teach them there.
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At this point in chapter 16,
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they're making their way down
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to the Garden of Gethsemane.
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Jesus has been teaching His disciples.
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He's been preparing them
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for His soon-coming departure.
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He's already told them
that He's going away.
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And He's told them that where He is going
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they cannot come,
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but He will come back
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and bring them to Himself.
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And although the disciples are hearing
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everything that Jesus is teaching,
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they're really struggling to understand.
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They're really struggling to grasp it all.
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Knowing their blessed Savior
and Lord is leaving them
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has caused their hearts to be troubled
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and understandably so.
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But Jesus is comforting with them.
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But He's also preparing them.
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He's preparing them
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for how they will carry on His ministry
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after He departs.
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In verses 16-24, which is
our text for this evening,
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Jesus is telling the disciples,
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they're going to soon face something
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that they will find very difficult;
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something that will bring them much sorrow
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and circumstantially will leave them
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with no hope or joy.
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But at the end of verse 20,
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the main thing Jesus
wants to teach them and us -
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if you can go ahead and look
at the end of v. 20 with me -
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this is what Jesus is driving home
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and what I want us to see tonight.
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He says this to the disciples:
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"You will be sorrowful,
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but... your sorrow will turn into joy."
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The disciples are about
to be thrust into something
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that will bring all of
their hope crashing down.
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It will at the surface level
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seem like everything is ending
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and it's all over,
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and it will fill them with great sorrow.
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But Jesus says here:
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"... but your sorrow
will be turned into joy."
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This truth that Jesus is teaching
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will help the disciples in
their immediate context
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about what they're getting ready to face,
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but we need to understand this -
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the truth that Jesus is teaching
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is true for every believer in all of life.
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And I want to understand it
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in the disciple's immediate context,
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and I want to apply this glorious truth
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to all of our life.
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Let me give you just a brief overview
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of verses 16-24.
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Then we'll read the text.
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In v. 16, Jesus is going to
teach them something
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that they're really not going to grasp.
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In v. 17-19, they're going to
talk amongst themselves,
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explaining how we're not really getting
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what Jesus is talking about here.
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And Jesus knows that.
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So in v. 20, He's going to
explain it even further
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and He's going to drive
home that main point
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that your sorrow will be turned into joy.
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Even at this point,
the disciples won't get it,
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so Jesus being a good Teacher,
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in v. 21, He's going to
use an illustration.
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He's going to point to something
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that they can relate to,
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that we can relate to,
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and He'll say it's kind of like that
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but a little bit different.
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And then in v. 22-26,
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Jesus will apply this glorious truth
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to all of our lives
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and show us how it can be a reality.
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So if you'll follow along
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as we read through God's holy Word.
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John 16:16-24.
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"A little while, and you
will see Me no longer.
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And again a little while,
and you will see Me.
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Some of His disciples said to one another,
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'What is this that He says to us?
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A little while and you will not see Me,
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and again a little while,
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and you will see Me?
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And because I'm going to the Father?'
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So they were saying,
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'What does He mean by a little while?
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We do not know what He's talking about.'
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(v. 19) Jesus knew they wanted to ask Him,
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so He said to them,
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'Is this what you're asking yourselves:
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What I meant by saying a little while
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and you will not see Me,
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and again a little while,
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and you will see Me?
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Truly, truly, I say to you,
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you will weep and lament,
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but the world will rejoice.
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You will be sorrowful,
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but your sorrow will turn into joy.
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When a woman is giving birth,
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she has sorrow because her hour has come.
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But when she has delivered the baby,
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she no longer remembers that anguish,
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for joy that a human being has been born
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into the world.
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So also, you have sorrow now,
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but I will see you again
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and your hearts will rejoice
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and no one will take your joy from you.
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In that day, you will ask nothing of Me.
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Truly, truly, I say to you,
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whatever you ask of the Father in My name,
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He will give it to you.
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Until now you have asked
nothing in My name.
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Ask and you will receive
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that your joy may be full.'"
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Let's just start walking
through these verses.
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In v. 16, Jesus says, "A little while
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and you will see Me no longer,
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and a little while, and you will see Me."
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The disciples do not understand
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what Jesus is talking about.
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And they begin to talk about
that amongst themselves.
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Again, in v. 17,
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"So some of His disciples
said to one another,
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'What is this He says?
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A little while and you will not see Me?
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And again a little while
and you will see Me?'
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And 'Because I go to the Father?'"
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That's what He was saying
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referenced back in v. 10
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when He's describing the
ministry of the Holy Spirit
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to the world.
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So they were saying,
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"What does He mean by a little while?
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We don't know what He's talking about."
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And in v. 19, "Jesus knew
they wanted to ask Him."
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So He said to them,
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"Is this what you're asking yourselves?
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What I meant by saying a little while
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and you will not see Me again,
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and a little while and you will see Me?"
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Now before we get to
what Jesus means by this,
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I want us just to stop for a second
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and take note of something here.
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Do you notice how tender and loving
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and patient Jesus is with the disciples?
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Beloved, we are a few hours from Jesus
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being nailed to the cross at this time
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where He will endure the wrath of God
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for His people's sin.
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And who is He mindful of?
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Who is He thinking about?
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Who is He concerned about being ready
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for that moment?
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Who does He want to prepare
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for what's about to come?
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The disciples.
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He is concerned about
how this will affect them
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and He wants to make
sure that they're ready.
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Just behold the self-sacrificing love
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of our Savior Jesus Christ.
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It is an amazing love.
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What does Jesus mean when He says
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"a little while and you
will not see Me again"?
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In v. 20 He explains it. Look at it.
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"Truly, truly, I say to you,
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you will weep and lament,
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but the world will rejoice.
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You will be sorrowful,
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but your sorrow will turn into joy."
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By what Jesus says in the
first half of this verse,
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we can understand what He's alluding to
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that in a little while
will bring them sorrow.
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Something is happening
soon circumstantially.
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The disciples will be tempted
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with hopelessness and despair.
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Weeping and lamenting.
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Because we have the full revelation
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of God's Word here,
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we know what He's talking about.
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He's talking about His death on the cross.
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This is confirmed when Jesus tells us
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the contrast to His death,
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that the world will have compared to
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what His disciples will have.
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At Jesus' death, the disciples
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seeing the Lord suffer and die,
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will be brought to weeping and lamenting.
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We have to remember something
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about the disciples at this time,
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where they're at in their thinking.
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They're not understanding all of this.
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They're still believing that
when Messiah comes -
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and they believe Jesus is Messiah -
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but they're believing that
when Messiah comes,
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He's going to instantly establish
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the full reality of His Kingdom.
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That's why earlier on in the Gospel,
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they're vying for position.
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Who gets to sit next to
You in Your Kingdom?
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They believe it's coming here and now.
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They believe He's going
to overthrow the Romans.
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He's going to overthrow the
hypocritical Jewish leaders.
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He's going to establish Himself
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as King here and now.
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And then in a little bit here coming
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He's going to die.
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I mean, no doubt that
they're going to weep
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not only in seeing Him die,
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but the confusion that all of this
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is going to bring to them.
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The world on the other hand,
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Jesus said will rejoice.
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Why would the world rejoice
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at the death of Jesus Christ?
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You've read the Gospel of John.
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You know what Jesus says
about the world in John 3.
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Listen to it.
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He says, "People love darkness
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rather than light,
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for their works are evil.
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For everyone who does wicked things
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hates the light
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and does not come to the light,
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lest his works be exposed."
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Saints, know this.
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Rejection of Jesus Christ
is not an intellectual issue.
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It's a moral issue.
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It's a heart, affection, love issue.
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We need to know something about
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what Jesus has said here
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about the world and their hatred
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and their rejoicing when
He's going to die.
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There are only two responses
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to Jesus Christ in the world.
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It's either hatred or it is love.
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There is no neutrality.
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There is no: you know what?
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He's a good teacher.
I can deal with Jesus.
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No.
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There are two responses in the world.
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You either bow to Him as Lord and Savior
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and embrace Him in
fullness of faith and love,
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or you reject Him in hatred
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and in love for your sin.
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And I would be wrong if I
didn't stop and ask you this:
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Do you love Jesus?
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Do you love Him?
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You can't be indifferent towards Him.
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There's no middle ground.
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If you say I don't know
if I really love Jesus,
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then the other alternative
that the Scriptures lay out
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is you hate Him.
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And Paul reminds us in his
letter to the Corinthians
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if you don't love Jesus Christ,
you're accursed.
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Jesus says to the disciples,
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"You will weep and lament,
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but the world will rejoice."
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And then the second part of v. 20,
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He gets to the main truth
of what's being taught here.
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He says, "You will be sorrowful"
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to the disciples,
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"But your sorrow will turn into joy."
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Think about that for a moment.
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Sorrow turning into joy.
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If you and I can grasp what this means
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and what it does not mean -
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how sorrow turns into joy -
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then we're going to be able to experience
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what Jesus desires for us to experience,
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and that's found at the end of v. 26.
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This is where all this is leading.
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Look at the end of v. 26.
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What does Jesus desire for all of us?
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"That your joy may be full."
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That's His end desire, His end aim,
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is that His disciples and all of us,
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that our joy would be full.
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There is an immediate
application for the disciples
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that when they see Him crucified and dead,
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that they will have joy
at His resurrection.
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But this truth that Jesus is teaching
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can be applied to all of life.
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The disciples are still not grasping
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what Jesus is teaching -
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that their sorrow will be turned to joy.
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So He uses an illustration in v. 21
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to help the disciples understand how.
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How is it that sorrow is turned into joy?
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Look at it in v. 21.
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"When a woman is giving birth,
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she has sorrow
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because her hour has come."
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That hour is the hour of delivery
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or we could say hours
sometimes of delivery.
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And it brings genuine real pain
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and because of that, sorrow.
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"When a woman is giving
birth, she has sorrow
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because her hour has come,
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but when she has delivered the baby,
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she no longer remembers the anguish
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for joy that a human being has been born
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into the world."
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See, the delivering of
the baby is something
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the disciples can relate to.
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It's something that many
of you can relate to.
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There are many children in here.
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God has blessed many
of us with many children.
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Some of you by firsthand experience -
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the women here - or by
secondhand as a father,
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you've witnessed this.
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You've seen a mother go into delivery.
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And often they're brought to tears
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in pain, in anguish.
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But once that baby is born,
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those tears of pain and anguish turn.
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And they turn into tears of joy.
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And that's glorious here.
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But I want to ask one
really important question
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to help us tonight.
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Why does the mother have joy?
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Is it because the sorrow
and anguish was gone?
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No.
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She doesn't have joy because the sorrow
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and the anguish are gone.
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It's still there.
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What's happened?
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The sorrow and anguish
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has been swallowed up
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in the joy of the baby.
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See, this is really important.
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She doesn't have joy
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because all of a sudden the pain was gone.
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The pain is still there.
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It's there at that moment.
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But she is instantly filled with joy.
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Her sorrow turned into joy
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and it wasn't because the sorrow left her,
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it's because the sorrow was swallowed up
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in the joy of the baby.
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That's an important truth.
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And I'm going to try to carry that
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as we work through
the rest of the text here.
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In v. 22, Jesus applies the illustration.
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He says, "So also, you disciples
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(us here - just like the
mother giving birth)
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you have sorrow now..."
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Speaking of when He's going to die.
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"But I will see you again
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and your hearts will rejoice."
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Again, the disciples will have
sorrow when Jesus dies,
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but when He rises from the dead
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and they see Him again,
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their hearts are going to rejoice.
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Yes, because He was gone
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and now He lives,
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but they're going to rejoice
beyond that moment
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in that reality, and here's why:
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Because they're going to be
growing from then on
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until they enter into eternity
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of what that resurrection meant.
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Yes, they're going to miss Him.
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They're going to weep that He's died.
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He's in the tomb.
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And they'll rejoice when
they see Him again,
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but when they begin to grasp
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more and more and more
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as life goes on
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by the revelation of the Spirit
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what that resurrection meant,
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the joy of that resurrection
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will be able to be applied
to their entire life.
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It's not a one time thing.
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Oh, we saw Him and we're happy. Move on.
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What's tied up in that reality
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is joy for the rest of life.
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This joy Jesus is talking about
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is like what the mother experienced,
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but it's better.
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You know why?
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Because of what He
says at the end of v. 22.
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"No one can take it from you."
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No one can take this joy from you.
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You see, the joy the mother
has in the moment,
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swallows up the pain of the delivery.
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But that joy can fade.
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Babies die.
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Children die. Relationships are broken.
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The joy Jesus is speaking about
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to the disciples and to us,
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it's an eternal joy.
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Real joy.
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This isn't just joy for when the disciples
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are sorrowful over the death of Jesus.
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This is joy that's with them forever
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through all of life's sorrows.
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This is a sorrow-conquering joy
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that is for every believer
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and that never leaves us.
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Real joy and fullness therein
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is available to every one of us
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despite our circumstances -
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even the most bleak of circumstances.
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And when I say that to you,
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it gets a little bit personal.
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Because I want to ask you this:
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Do you really believe that?
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Honestly?
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That fullness of joy is available
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to every believer
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despite how bleak the circumstances seem?
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I know when I ask a question like that,
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that we're dealing with real pain
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and real sorrow.
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I know we're dealing with things
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like being offended by others.
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I know we're dealing
with things like cancer.
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I know we're dealing with things
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like living in continual
pain day after day
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because of physical struggles.
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I know we're dealing
with broken relationships
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and broken marriages.
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I know we're dealing with injustice.
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I know we're dealing
with spiritual warfare.
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I know we're dealing with death.
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Those are real pains and real sorrows.
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And I have a question for us all.
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If Jesus is speaking of a joy
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that no one can take from us,
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why aren't we
experiencing it all the time?
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I think everyone in here wants joy.
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I think the answer is because
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in our practical, street-
level Christian living
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of our everyday lives,
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where we experience suffering and pain,
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we really struggle to see how joy
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can be truly experienced
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in the midst of sorrow, pain, and anguish.
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And we have begun at times to believe
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that if we're really going
to experience true joy,
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it must be at the removal
-
of sorrow, pain, and anguish.
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In v. 23 and 24, Jesus is going
to teach the disciples
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a really important theological shift
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that's going to take place
in light of the resurrection.
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It will help us see how we
can approach the Father
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regarding these things.
-
And we need to understand that.
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But because the aim of v. 24
-
is that our joy would be full,
-
but it's also going to
teach us another thing
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and that is this:
what's the source of joy.
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What's the source of joy?
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We need to know how we
need to approach the Father
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if we're going to have this
joy that's set before us.
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But we need to understand importantly too
-
what's the source of joy.
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And to help us think about that,
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I'm going to go back
to the illustration again
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and just drive the point
home one more time for you.
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In the illustration Jesus gave,
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the woman was in the midst of sorrow -
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true physical pain -
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and then her sorrow turned into joy.
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And it wasn't because
the sorrow was removed.
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It was swallowed up
in the joy of the baby.
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And Jesus teaching us
how to come to the Father
-
after the resurrection,
-
He's going to be teaching
us the source of joy.
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And let me tell you this,
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the source of joy is not the removal
-
of pain, sorrow, and anguish.
-
In this life, you're guaranteed
-
constant pain, sorrow, and anguish.
-
Yet, here Jesus holds out before us
-
eternal joy and fullness thereof.
-
I think most of us are getting this wrong
-
and I'll help you to diagnose
if you're like me often.
-
Regarding your pain, sorrow, and anguish,
-
how do you pray about that?
-
If you're like me,
-
most of my prayers regarding
my pain, sorrow, and anguish
-
are: God, I want to have joy,
-
so I need You to remove the pain,
-
the sorrow, the anguish,
or the source of it.
-
I spend a lot of my prayer time there.
-
I want to be careful here.
-
I'm not implying it's wrong to pray
-
for healing or for God
to remove those things.
-
I'm not implying that at all.
-
But I think it's really important
-
that we see as we look
through the lens of Scripture
-
the normative means through which God
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brings joy to us is not the removal
-
of pain, sorrow, and anguish -
-
it's by giving us joy in the midst
-
of pain, sorrow, and anguish
-
by giving us Jesus.
-
Saints, there's something more - better -
-
than the removal of pain.
-
It's Jesus in the midst of pain.
-
And when we really struggle to see that,
-
to believe that because the pain is real,
-
but I want you to know this:
-
Jesus is more real.
-
God gets glory by
removing pain and sorrow.
-
He gets glory by healing,
but I want you to know this,
-
God gets even more glory
-
when He swallows up pain with joy.
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I mean tell me what looks better
-
from a world's persective:
-
to see someone who circumstantially
-
has no basis for joy?
-
And is in full pain?
-
Yet they're unexplainably rejoicing?
-
That gives God glory.
-
You know what else it
forces the world to do?
-
It forces the world to come to you
-
and say, hey, what is
the source of the hope
-
that is within you?
-
Because they can't see the circumstance -
-
in fact, they see a circumstance
-
that should lead to grumbling
-
and complaining and whining,
-
yet they're seeing joy.
-
And when they ask you that,
-
you get to stand up
and you get to say this:
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Jesus Christ is the source of my joy
-
in the midst of my sorrow and pain.
-
Saints, God looks good in that scenario.
-
I just want to say it
again to be pastoral.
-
I am not saying it's wrong
-
to pray for healing.
-
"Father, if this cup could pass from Me."
-
It's not wrong to pray
that these things would pass.
-
But I do want us to think about praying:
-
Give me Jesus.
-
Give me that which is better
than physical healing -
-
Jesus in the midst of healing -
-
that You might look good.
-
How are we to approach the Father?
-
V. 23, "In that day..."
-
that's after the resurrection,
-
"You will ask nothing of Me,"
-
Jesus says to the disciples.
-
Let me ask you this:
-
Why will the disciples
ask nothing of Jesus?
-
He's leaving.
-
He's not going to be there physically.
-
That's one reason, but
it's deeper than that.
-
This is a theological shift.
-
It's more than just Jesus
ascending into heaven.
-
There's a theological
shift occurring here.
-
Jesus is going to go to the Father
-
and up until this time
-
the disciples have been
able to turn to Jesus
-
and say, Jesus, what should we do here?
-
Jesus, give is this -
-
and He's been able to
answer that for them.
-
But now what Jesus is doing
-
is He's teaching them a theological shift.
-
Look at v. 23.
-
"Truly, truly, I say to you,
-
whatever you ask of the Father
-
in My name..."
-
That's the shift.
-
They have prayed to the Father before.
-
Now, Jesus said to them 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."
-
What doctrine is Jesus teaching here?
-
The doctrine of mediation.
-
The doctrine that through His
death, burial, and resurrection
-
He has reconciled once and for all
-
a holy God to sinful man,
-
and He is the means through which
-
this reconciliation took place.
-
And He wants them to acknowledge that
-
that when they come to the Father,
-
they come to Him in Jesus' name,
-
acknowledging all that
Jesus has accomplished.
-
If we're going to pray this prayer right,
-
and in the end have fullness of joy
-
in the midst of our pain and sorrow,
-
we need to know what does it mean
-
to pray in Jesus' name.
-
I'm going to tell you at
least three things it means.
-
It means probably more,
but at least three.
-
The first thing it means is this:
-
you're not coming in your name.
-
Praying in Jesus' name means
-
you're not coming in your name.
-
It means this: I'm not coming and saying
-
Father, I know You'll be pleased with me.
-
I read my Bible seven days this week.
-
And I increased my
prayer time by 30 minutes.
-
Did You see that?
-
And I did witness to that person,
-
so here I am.
-
I know You're going to give me favor.
-
That's coming in my name.
-
That's not coming in Jesus' name.
-
And Jesus' name does mean
-
that when we come, we say,
-
Father, I recognize that it's
through Jesus' shed blood
-
that I am cleansed.
-
It is through His righteousness
-
that I am declared righteous,
-
received by faith,
-
and I come in His name.
-
But it means at least one more thing,
-
that if we're going to come
-
in the name of Jesus,
-
that we're going to come
with all that Jesus is
-
and that means that
align our will to His will.
-
And all throughout the Gospel of John -
-
if you've read it before, you know this -
-
what is the will of Jesus Christ?
-
It is to do the will of the Father.
-
So if we're coming in Jesus' name
-
to the Father as Jesus tells us here,
-
it's not in my name,
-
not in my accomplishments,
-
not in my own righteousness.
-
It's in His name, it's in His shed blood.
-
It is in His righteousness.
-
And it's in align with His will
-
which means now I'm in line
-
with the Father's will.
-
And did you take note here
-
of what Jesus said after that?
-
"Whatever we ask of the Father..."
-
in Jesus' name, He will give it to you.
-
He will give it to you.
-
This is a verse that the health, wealth,
-
and prosperity heretics lay hold of.
-
They say, see, Jesus wants
you to have fullness of joy.
-
And they say, see, if you come to Him
-
in Jesus' name, He'll give it to you.
-
And they see at the
beginning of the text here
-
that they were in sorrow
-
and God's bringing them to fullness of joy
-
and all they need to do is
come here in the middle
-
and say "in Jesus' name"
-
and He'll do whatever they ask.
-
So they look at this verse and they say
-
"in the name of Jesus...
-
take away all my sorrow,
-
all my sickness,
-
all my suffering;
-
in the name of Jesus
-
give me prosperity,
-
give me things,
-
and in that, I will have fullness of joy."
-
Is that what the verse means?
-
No, it's not what the verse means.
-
Joy's not tied to circumstances.
-
And joy's not found in the removal
-
of sorrow, pain, and suffering.
-
Joy is not found in the things
-
that God can give you.
-
Joy is found in the
giving of Jesus Christ.
-
Joy is found in interpreting all of life
-
through the resurrected Savior.
-
Joy is seeing my sorrow
-
in light of what Jesus has accomplished
-
and what His work is in me now.
-
What God answers in this prayer is
-
He does give us fullness of joy,
-
but He doesn't do it by removing
-
our sorrow most of the time.
-
He does it by giving you Jesus
-
in the midst of your sorrow
-
which will bring you to fullness of joy
-
and will crowd out and force you to forget
-
about the anguish
that you're experiencing
-
because Jesus is greater.
-
Saints, when we rightly approach
the Father in Jesus' name
-
we're asking what we
sang a few moments ago.
-
Show us Christ.
-
Help me to see Jesus.
-
Help me to see who I am
-
in light of that death,
burial, and resurrection.
-
Help me to see who I am in union to Him.
-
See, this truth will help the disciples,
-
but it's true for all of our lives.
-
What about in the circumstance of death?
-
Death is real. Death hurts.
-
Whether it's someone close to us
-
or even our own,
-
how can the Father give you joy
-
in the face of death?
-
By helping you realize
-
that Christ has conquered death
-
through His resurrection.
-
By helping you see
-
that death no longer has a sting anymore.
-
It's been swallowed up
-
through Jesus conquering it,
-
and that death is not
the end for the believer.
-
Death is the beginning of all things.
-
And we begin to look through the lens
-
of Jesus Christ in all of life,
-
no matter what the sorrow is,
-
we can have fullness of joy
-
if we're looking through
the lens of Jesus Christ.
-
Beloved, the joy of Jesus surpasses
-
the most difficult of circumstances.
-
In John 15, Jesus told the disciples,
-
"the world will hate you
-
because they hated Me."
-
And then He told them this:
-
but you're to be witnesses to them.
-
And then He told them this:
-
The way that they'll
demonstrate their hate to you
-
is that they're going to put
you out of the synagogue,
-
and they'll even kill you.
-
They'll even kill you.
-
Well, where's the joy of Jesus in that?
-
That's a pretty bleak circumstance.
-
You're going to live in a world of people
-
that hate you and they hate the message
-
that you're going to bring.
-
They're going to put you
out of the synagogue
-
and they're going to kill you.
-
Is there joy available in the
midst of that circumstance?
-
Have you read Acts 5?
-
When they went out and they preached
-
in the name of Jesus Christ
-
and they were beaten for it.
-
And it says that they
left the council what?
-
Rejoicing that they were counted worthy
-
to suffer for the name.
-
Beloved, every area of life,
-
if we commit it to the Father
-
in the name of Jesus,
-
and He grants to us the
greater revelation of Jesus,
-
we can have joy in the midst of suffering
-
which is better than even
the removal of the pain.
-
This is our Gospel message.
-
This is our life between
the now and the not yet.
-
This is what's available to us.
-
Jesus demonstrated this to us, didn't He?
-
I mean, He faced the
greatest anguish and suffering
-
any human being will ever face
-
under the wrath of God for His people,
-
and what does the writer
of Hebrews tell us?
-
For the what that was set before Him?
-
For the joy that was set before Him,
-
He endured the cross.
-
It doesn't mean the cross didn't hurt.
-
It doesn't mean your pain is not real.
-
The Bible never says put on a fake smile
-
and act like Jesus is good.
-
That's not what we're talking about here.
-
The Bible acknowledges pain.
-
It acknowledges suffering.
-
It sets proper expectations,
-
but it says this to you:
-
I can give you joy in the midst of it
-
by giving you more of Jesus -
-
a greater revelation of the sufficiency
-
and the love of Jesus Christ,
-
and in that there's fullness of joy.
-
This is a supernatural joy.
-
I'm going to close by telling you this:
-
When you come to the
Father in Jesus' name,
-
and you ask for Him to grant you
-
fullness of joy in Jesus Christ,
-
He accomplishes that
-
by the ministry of the Holy Spirit
-
through the Word
-
glorifying the Son.
-
I want you to look, before we close,
-
look back at chapter 16:14.
-
This is the verse where Jesus
-
is describing the
ministry of the Holy Spirit
-
to the church.
-
Jesus is saying I'm leaving you,
-
but He'll send you another
Helper - the Paraclete.
-
He will come and He
will be a guide to you.
-
He will guide you in all truth.
-
And then He tells us
that the pointed climax
-
of what the Holy Spirit is doing
-
in the life of every believer.
-
What's He doing in chapter 16:14?
-
"He (the Spirit) will glorify Me."
-
This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
-
The Father is working through the Spirit,
-
revealing the Son through the Word.
-
The Spirit is magnifying Jesus Christ.
-
He is lifting Him up and shining upon Him
-
that we may behold Him.
-
So when we pray,
-
"Father, in the name of Jesus,
-
help me have joy,"
-
you can't do this.
-
You've got to keep in
step with the Spirit.
-
God, help me to see.
-
This is how He works.
-
Through the Spirit magnifying the Son
-
and in the revelation of who Jesus is,
-
what He's accomplished,
-
and who we are in union to Him,
-
you can have joy in the midst
-
of sorrow and suffering.
-
Praise God for His grace.
-
O come to the Father
-
through Jesus the Son,
-
and give Him the glory;
-
great things He has done.
-
Let's pray.
-
Father, how good You are!
-
This is a room of trophies of grace.
-
That's all we are, God.
We're people under grace.
-
You've rescued us in Jesus.
-
You've put Your Spirit within us.
-
You've given us Your Word.
-
And here You give us hope in this life
-
for the most dire of circumstances
-
and real pain by telling
us there's something
-
better than the removal
of pain and sorrow -
-
Your Son in the midst of it.
-
So God, grant to Your people
-
fullness of joy in Jesus Christ
-
as we behold Him through the Word
-
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
-
In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.