John 16. We're going to continue
there over the next few weeks. Have you ever thought of what
it would be like? As I've mentioned, this is not
new for us to consider, but what it would be like to be in the
presence of Jesus and how, as we saw last week in the week
before that Jesus proclaims that his physical presence in the
earth during the incarnation is secondary in the context of
its power and purpose and glory in relation to Him going to the
Father. That Him not being here but being with the Father is
the ultimate end and that God the Holy Spirit who is sent by
Him, who is sent by the Father, this is the real power. This is the real presence. As I read before service out
of Luke chapter 2, the prophecy of Zechariah, you see that it
starts there, that being filled with the Holy Spirit, he prophesied
saying. We sang a song a moment ago that
talked about how the presence of God cannot be escaped, that
he's everywhere. I've seen people relate that
experience with just the fact that God's handiwork is seen.
Heavens display your glory, the work of your hands. As Paul would
teach in Romans that men without excuse for God has made himself
known. It is obvious that he is the God because of what he
has made. And then in our day, we often
find this misapplication of God's omnipresence. We then have a
God is everywhere, but then the spirit is taught to us in scripture
as the person of the Trinity who goes and does as he wishes,
blowing and doing as the will of God prescribes. Yet. We misunderstand the fact
that he's omnipresent, even in that state, even in that work,
even in that action, the God's working. does not constitute
his presence. In other words, if God's here,
then he'll work. And if God's not working, then
he's not here. Isn't that how it works? You've
seen cartoons even long before social media or even the internet
exists. I mean, we, we watched, we saw cartoons and spiritual
cartoons and papers and newspapers and magazines. And I'll never
forget one that I saw sometime in high school. where this man
was driving around in his truck and he said, God, where are you? You've left me. And of course, God says, well,
you're the one who moved. And the illustration was then
given later to me by what we would call a revivalist, quote,
quote, whatever they do. They bring revival, I guess.
using that same idea that, you know, when you're in the South
and you have a pickup truck, it used to just be this really
expensive bench covered in vinyl. And it didn't have any demarcations
or anything, no seatbelts, it was just a bench. So if you were
dating and you had people sitting with you in your truck, even
though there was plenty of the six-foot room to sit, your girlfriend
was like on the accelerator pedal, you see. And you see that historically. You can't do that anymore. It's
against the law. And seats don't do that. I mean, you've got to
be comfortable, you know, because driving here to the store, you've got to feel
like you're in a recliner. But I've seen that illustration.
This man's saying, you know, he was in his 70s, and he said,
when we were in our 20s, my wife used to sit right next to me
when we'd ride somewhere. It was always right here. She
could change gears for me. And then one day, she was sitting
at the other side of the truck and looking out the window, and
she looked over at me and said, what happened to us? We used
to be so close. And he looked over and said, well, you're the
one who moved, being he's still in the driver's seat. No, she
moved. And that's how we look at God. That's how we look at
the presence of God. Even when we feel, even if it's true that
we moved, here's the reality, beloved. God's presence hasn't
gone anywhere. Even when we move, the presence
of God with us is not void. So we cannot escape the presence
of God. We cannot escape His hand, His
arm, His work. We can't do it. But yet, don't we feel that way
sometimes? Don't we illustrate it in that manner often? We come
to think that, well, God is not with us, the Lord has fallen
away from us, or we have fallen away from Him, and yet Jesus
in John 14, 15, 16, we've already learned, He will not orphan His
people. And sending the Spirit of God
is not supposed to be understood as though He doesn't exist in
this place. Now He does exist in this place. See, we could
really spend some time in a doctrinal way studying the person of the
Holy Spirit, specifically in his ontology and the attributes
that he shares as God, His omnipresence. Just like we've had conversations
this last week about God is love, and then we also see the expression
of God loving in the giving of His Son. We cannot separate what
God does with who God is. You cannot separate the work
and the revelation of the work of God, the Holy Spirit, from
who He is. He is always with us. And part of what Jesus is teaching,
we says, my peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you. It
is not like the world gives you. I heard this on the radio a couple
of weeks ago. And why do you think I'm listening
to the radio? We have an old radio from the 1960s, and Abigail
loves it. You know, the antennas are up.
She's gonna poke her eye out before it's all over with. She can't hear it, so she turns
it up instead of tuning the dial. But you can pick up the non-Christian
Christian stations. They're everywhere. They've got
the most power of all things, it seems like. If there was a
good gospel-centered station, you'd have to climb the tallest
building to get it. But I heard someone use that
text and then butcher it. Not teaching what it meant, but
teaching that Jesus provides for you a way for you to have
things in this life go your way. That's what they said. I'm like,
that's not peace. You do not want things in this life going
your way because you would not have the peace of the Lord. The
peace of the Lord brings a sword to his people. The peace of the
Lord brings frustration to his people. The peace of the Lord
brings persecution to his people. And there is no escape from these
things for as Christ suffered, so we shall also be identified
with him in his suffering. So when we see the work of the
Holy Spirit coming and filling and being. It is that God the
Spirit himself at that moment is expressly working with his
people in a way that manifest the outcome of his work, which
is first and foremost, the assurance of their election and the assurance
of the hope and the promises of Christ. And that's what we're
going to learn today. We're going to see starting in chapter 16
of John's gospel. Verse 16, we're going to see
what it means to be full of the joy of Christ. To be full of
the joy of Christ. Let's read together. 1616. 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 you'll not see me and a little while you will see me. And because
I'm going to the Father. So they were saying, what does
it mean by a little while? We do not know what he's talking
about. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them,
is this what you're asking yourselves, what I meant by saying a little
while and you will not see me, and again, a little while and
you will see me? Truly, truly, I say to you, you
will weep and you will lament. but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your
sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth,
she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered
the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for 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've asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive
that your joy may be full. Next week we're going to see
why Jesus uses figures of speech and what his intentions are in
this narrative as far as how he illustrates it. But if you'll
recognize here, this is not the first time you've heard some
of these things. Jesus has already said he's going away. Now they're
filled with sorrow. Now they're troubled. Jesus has
already said that they would not see him. Jesus has already
taught them that he was going to be with the father and that
he was going to send a helper. He was going to send a replacement.
He was going to send the paraclete, not the parakeet, but the paraclete. He's already told them that he
would not orphan them, that they would not be alone, and that
it is good for them and it is better for them. And if they
want to be his friend, they need to love one another. If they
want to express their love for him, they need to do what he
says in the context of loving one another. But never, ever,
ever has he told them they would be forsaken. And so this emotional
experience of the disciples, And, you know, we've gone through
that. We've we've played that out in a little narrative, a
little story. How would it be to be a disciple,
to be in the first century with Christ? How exciting and exhilarating
looking back. But what would it be for us if
we actually were one of the 11? It would be everything that we
knew as life would be gone. Everything that we knew the way
the world would show it to us would be gone. We're not here in this world
to establish kingdoms on earth, but we are here in this world
as the kingdom of God. For Christ is the kingdom come,
the promise of the one who is the throne of David, who is the
mercy seat, who is at the right hand of majesty. And that kingdom
is completely opposed by the world in which we live, by the
religious world in which we live, by many times the so-called Christian
world in which we live. We see Peter speaking to the
Jews in the dispersion in chapter one of his first epistle wherein
he talks very candidly about joy. And he uses the idea of
suffering in a way that is preparatory for glory. Paul does the same
thing in 2 Corinthians chapter four. That this light momentary
affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond
comparison as we look to the things that are unseen, not to
the things that are seen, which are transient, passing away.
John deals with it in his first epistle when he tells his brothers
and sisters not to love the world for the things of the world are
passing away and they are not of God, but they are of the world.
Do not love the things that are temporal. Do not love the things
that are not of God. Don't love these things. And Peter goes on to say that
joy is something that cannot be taken. Jesus closes this out. with that statement. Verse 24b,
ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. What is
the joy of Christ? If Christ is giving us His joy,
if Christ is giving us His peace, if Christ has given us His love,
then we need to really understand what those three things are.
We've seen them, we've talked about them, but as a way of review,
putting them all into perspective, it ultimately comes out to what
established spiritual fruit in our lives? Joy. So if Christ is loved by the
father and loves the father and thus does the will of the father
and does not glorify himself, but glorifies the father and
in turn God, because he loves the father, loves the son, he
gives all things into the hand of the son and he exalts the
son and he glorifies the son. So the son's desire out of his
love for the father is to give glory to the father. And then
the father's love for the son, because of the son's love for
the father, he glorifies the son. You see the, you see the
combination. So you too, my beloved children,
this is how you glorify me. This is how you love me. This
is how you are experiencing my friendship. This is where we've
been over the last few weeks. And when you don't know how and
you don't see that you can establish yourself, you don't see that
you can keep yourself in the faith. Great. You're seeing it
correctly. I have bought you and I will keep you in me. I
am the vine. and I'm the branches, and I'm
the fruit, and I have snatched you into me. You are attached
to me. You are alive. You belong to me. But yet you know now that everything
that the Father has given me is mine, and everything that
is mine the Spirit of God will glorify. He will glorify, He
will keep, He will prepare, He will instruct, He will teach,
He will do it all. For as I did all the words and
all the work and all the will of the Father, so shall the Spirit
do likewise, for we are your God. This is what Jesus is teaching. And you are my people. Peter would express this joy
in this way. We often conflate joy with happiness,
joy with emotion, joy with this experience of glee or bliss,
but it's so far from true. That's why so many of the cults
are so appealing to religious people is because they're looking
for that happy moment with Jesus. They're looking for that opportunity
when all the cares of the world just sort of gone, there's nothing
more to worry about, yee-haw, let's go, let's go. Let's do
what we came to do for Jesus and just enjoy it. What are we
gonna do? We're gonna do softball for Jesus, we're gonna do basketball
for Jesus, we're gonna do baseball for Jesus, we're gonna do chess
for Jesus, we're gonna do all sorts of stuff. We're having a blast.
Now express the gospel of free and sovereign grace and see how
that blast goes. It'll be a blast all right, it'll blast you. Peter says the joy is inexpressible
in the midst of suffering sometimes. What does that mean? It means
sometimes we can't wear it here, sometimes we can't proclaim it
here, sometimes we don't even know what to say. But we don't have to worry about
what to say. We don't have to worry about
what to remember. Remember a time back when I was doing martial
arts a lot, and a lot of my buddies had these cool tattoos in Chinese
and stuff like that. And I'm like, I might not want
a tattoo. Oh, Tippins, you need to get
some tattoos. No, I don't want a tattoo. So you get a temporary
tattoo just to prove to yourself you don't want one. And you do.
You don't. You don't want one. And I thought, you know what?
I do want a tattoo. I want to tattoo the entire Gospel of John
on my arms in Greek. So I always have the word of
God with me. Now how silly would that be? And there's some similarly
older men than me that are doing that right now. That's really
weird. But anyway, even if the truth is there, is
that expressing my joy? The joy in the midst of it all
is something that you have. It's something that you have
been granted. It's something that is yours. It has been given
to you. If you bump your head on the
wall and you're unconscious, you will not. Well, you could,
but let's just say you're just unconscious, you will not hold
your breath until you wake up. If you try to hold your breath
and you're not going to breathe and you're going to prove to
yourself, I can control my breath, you will pass out and then your
diaphragm will move and your lungs will fill and expel and
you will breathe. And when God grants us faith,
we believe. And when Jesus gives us joy,
it's ours. You see, this is what He's trying
to show you. And then we'll say, but how?
And he's saying because God in the fullness of His Spirit is
with you. And the experience of God the
Spirit is expressed in this way. He is in you and He can fill
you. See, God is not in the cavities
of my body. He's not in the organs of my...
He is omnipresent at all times. So an unbeliever and a believer
alike, the presence of God is in Listen to be careful of what
I'm saying and around and with them. But we use in and around
and with in a relational way, not in an ontological way, not
in a way of existence, because God doesn't work in the reprobate. God works in the elect. God works
with you, beloved. God's promises are yours because
of the spirit. And this is what Jesus is showing
his disciples. And this is when our joy truly
begins to take form. Let's go through this text together.
And I've broken it up a little bit to make sense of it. Verse 16, in a little while,
you will see me no longer. Now, what's he talking about
there? That's very obvious. In a little while, you will see me no longer,
and again, a little while, you will see me. Now, that sounds
like a really bad fortune cookie. It's like, okay, is this the
waitress talking, the chef, the sous chef? Is it me? Is it the
cookie? You know, you ever really try
to make sense of those things? Don't. But this is, this is a
figure of speech in some sense, but it is perfectly obvious to
us, isn't it? In a little while, you will not
see me. In a little while, you will see me. Are we going to
see or are we not going to see? You see how confusing this can
be to them? In the middle of their despair and this distraught
reality of where they are in life and they've just been told
that the very man that ruined their lives but also have the
words of eternal life is about to disappear. And Peter, no you don't have
to die. Thomas is like, let's go die with him. Andrew's like,
where are you going again? I'm confused. Could you imagine
the memes that could be pulled out of the Last Supper conversation?
I mean, it would just be social media gold. But Jesus is saying
very clearly, in a little while, you will not see me. What's he
mean? I'm going to die. I won't be around. My body's
going to be dead. I'm not going to be with you.
And then in a little while, you will see me. He's talking about
the resurrection. So I'm gonna die, and during that period,
you're not gonna see me, and Peter, you're gonna tell everybody
you'd never seen me, and the rest of you are gonna go back
to your jobs, and John's gonna be at the cross crying. He's
gonna see me, but he's gonna see me dead, and then in a little
while, you're not gonna see me, and then in a little while, you're
gonna see me, because I'm coming back, because I'm gonna take
my life for you, and then I'm going to raise my life up for
you. just for you, just for you, my people, not for everybody,
not for every person in the world. Because when I die, it's going
to satisfy the father's wrath. When I die, it's going to fulfill
the decree of the promise of eternal life for God's people.
So when I die, it's going to be finished. I'm going to say
that too, by the way, it is finished. And then I'm going to die and
then I'm going to come back and you won't see me. Now you will
see me. You see, But his disciples, as they often
did, as we see in John 4, who gave him something to eat? You
know, that kind of stuff. We need to remember John 4 because
I'm going to refer to it in a moment. The disciples were confused.
Verse 17, what is he saying to us? What is he saying? You know,
I remember as a kid, your parents tell you something and you don't
dare want to even ask a legitimate question because you just don't
know. Is that going to be viewed as talking back? Is that going
to be viewed as being smart aleck? Are you gonna get the spoon,
the belt, the boulder, the stoning, the electric chair? What's it
gonna be? So we just sort of wait, yes sir, and then when
dad leaves the room, you go to your siblings, you go, what the
heck is he talking about? Hey daddy, shh, I'll kill you, don't
ask. Let's just figure it out. I mean, I sort of feel like that's
the way the disciples were. They're like, what are we, what
is he talking about? What is he saying? A little while. Now what does this illustrate
here? This illustrates that there's some type of Train going by. It illustrates that there's some
type of conversation happening amongst them. So that Jesus says
these things and maybe some of them down at the end, it's not
like all 11 of them got together. Maybe the ones standing by Jesus
are over there with this dumb look on their face. And you've
seen the picture of the Last Supper, right? All those white
people out in the middle of Palestine. Must have been hard on them.
To be the only 11, 12, 13 white people in the entire nation.
It was tough on them. You've seen the pictures and
they're out there and they're there. You know, you got people
sitting in this. I mean, it's not the way it was, but obviously
Jesus is not duplicating himself and sitting with all 11 of them
at the same time. So there's probably easily just like some
of you that talk and whisper and pass notes and think, I can't
hear you when I'm teaching. Jesus is having the same problem. And some of them are going, what's
he talking about? What's he talking about? So in the middle of this
conversation, some of them on the end, probably Thomas and
Andrew, are going, what's he talking about? Or even Peter. And Peter's going, I know, I'll
tell y'all later. He knows it all. But they repeat what he says. In a little while you won't see
me, in a little while you're gonna see me, because I'm going to the Father.
See, they're still confused about that. What is he talking about,
I'm going to the Father? What is this, a visit? Is the father
in the nursing home? Is he going to give him some food? What's
happening? See, the disciples were forever confused about what
Jesus was truly trying to say, and so Jesus would say, okay,
let me tell you what I'm trying to say, and I'll even say, amen, amen,
in front of it, because it means truly, truly. What are you truly
trying to say? Truly, truly, I'm saying to you.
And they go, oh, we don't get it. Why? Because we can only
get it when God the Holy Spirit teaches us. And there's not a
level of illustration that James Tiffins can give you or a level
of application that I can provide for you that will help that solidify
for you. It is a spiritual thing. It is a supernatural work of
God that causes you to go, I see it. And then what's crazy is
unless God grants it as a teacher, he may not ever grant you the
ability to express it. Well, explain it to me. And then
you explain it, and you explain it, and you explain it, and you
explain it, and guess what? People go, I just don't get it.
Why? Because they haven't been given
eyes to see. But God gives eyes to see to his people who hear
his word. So his disciples, like in John
4, he's talking to this Samaritan woman from Sychar. He's asking
to drink out of her bucket. He's telling her that he has
water that's better than the one she's dipping. She wants it.
He confronts her. She sees that he's a prophet.
Then he converts her. And she just yields to this mosaic. It's the Christ. He's my only
hope. He'll show me the way. The way
to what? The way to truth. Jesus has already
said in this very dialogue, I am the way, I am the truth, I am
the life. No one comes to the Father except
through me. But they come back from town at that journey in
John 4 and what do they have with them? They have food. And
they offer some to Jesus and Jesus says to them, I have food
that you know not of. And then he explains it, my food
is to do the will of the one who sent me. Now how is it that
Jesus is able to look beyond the cross to the glory? because he is given the joy of
the Father. Well, how does the joy of the Father really planted
in the heart of Jesus? Did Jesus have the joy of the
Father and the peace of the Father and the love of the Father when
he's in the Garden of Gethsemane that we'll get to it about 2026? Did he have these things in him
when he was crying and praying to the point that the capillaries
in his skin burst and he bled, sweated blood? Yes, he did. So in the midst of the angst
of the human nature of Jesus, he still had the eternal joy,
hope, love and peace of the Father. It was his. He owned it. He possessed
it. And so in the midst of the hardest
day, the hardest reality of his existence eternally and in the
incarnation as a human being, he had perfect joy. perfect love and perfect peace. He's going to give it to the
disciples and the way the disciples are going to know it and experience
it relationally, because that's the point, isn't it? These things
are ours because we have him. They're not abstract objects
that Jesus said, here's a little bit of joy, sprinkle, sprinkle.
You dropped some, better get it. They're not infused ideologies. Change your mind. Now you've
got a little joy in mind. You have me. I'm humiliating myself. I'm taking
off my clothes. I'm doing that which a Jewish slave is not even
allowed to do. I'm going to wash your feet. You're not washing
my feet. If I don't wash you, you have no part of me. If I
don't wash you, you're not me. You're not with me. If I don't
wash you, you're not mine. If I don't wash you, you die
in your sins. Then wash all of me, Lord. That's
what Peter says. See how it's coming together
now? When it takes months to get through a chapter, we lose
picture sometimes. We lose the narrative. But they were confused. How does
he have food? His food, the love and the joy
and the peace of God the Father is Christ's and all of this rest
in his relationship with the Father, all of this rest in our
relationship with the Son, and now all of that is secured in
the omnipresence of God by the Spirit. We have Him. He has us. He is with us. He is in us. He
is working through us. He is filling us when we're empty.
He is carrying us along. He's teaching us all these things.
And when we close out this section, before we get into the high priestly
prayer, we'll go through and deal with these things as a review. But His disciples didn't know
what they were saying. They didn't even understand about going to
the Father. What does He mean by a little while? We do not
know what He's talking about, verse 18. We don't know what
he's talking about. What does he mean by a little
while? When is that? Today? Next week? I mean, you tell a child, I mean,
when are we going to the store? In a little while. I mean, six
seconds later. Are we going? You give them that look, and
then they talk amongst themselves. What does he mean, a little while?
Go ask. No, I'm not asking. Don't ask. Verse 19, Jesus knew that they
wanted to ask. Now what does this show us? I
mean, from the very beginning we've seen Jesus as God. Jesus is God, He was with God,
and He became flesh as God. And from the very beginning we've
seen Jesus have the power and the prerogatives of His divine
nature. He knows all things, He's omnipotent, He's all-powerful,
He's all-knowing. And He doesn't have to be told
what someone's thinking or doing or anything of that nature. Jesus,
in the preaching to the crowds, especially when the Jews came
along, the Jews meaning the Pharisees, Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, He
knew their heart. He knew what was in them, so
He would speak directly by His knowledge. And as God, He wasn't
looking into their heart like whatever a Marvel superhero.
I'm going, I see that now, I see that thought. Don't hide that
thought from me. I mean, God knows all things at all times.
He doesn't learn. Jesus and his humanity, of course,
learned. But when God, the Father, at the time he appointed, permitted
the divine nature to completely instruct the human nature of
Jesus, all the growth was over. When his ministry was put forth
and the power of God in his baptism was revealed and the voice of
God spoke, this is my son, Jesus knew. He understood. No one had to tell him what was
in man at the end of John 3, for he knew what was in man.
And he knew what was in the hearts of these people. That's how he
could teach them so clearly. How did he know them? Because
he wonderfully knit them in their mother's womb. I had that question
a few months ago. What does it mean? We're fearfully
and wonderfully made. Those are adverbs of how God
made us. They're not adjectives describing us in creation as
an object. They are how God did it. God
created fearfully and God created wonderfully. Christ knows our
every thought, our every fear. Christ knows everything about
us, even when we do not. And Christ knows that we are
weak and frail and it's impossible for us to maintain our faith,
maintain our life, maintain our focus, especially when we identify
with Him in suffering. And we will. We will identify
with Him in suffering. So Jesus knew that they wanted
to ask Him. And instead of saying, y'all got anything, y'all got
any questions? Any questions? All right, no questions? I don't
wanna hear it. Now is your time. He doesn't say that, he just
answers their question. And so they're going, I'm so
glad he decided to do that, you know. We were sitting here, I
didn't know what was gonna happen. He was gonna go away in a little
while, and we were just gonna be left holding this dummy bag.
And if Jesus being a carpenter, it probably was a bag of hammers.
What's this? We don't know what's going on.
We don't have the knowledge. We don't have the experience. We
are clueless. Jesus answers. Is this what you're asking yourselves,
what I meant by saying, a little while and you will not see me?
And again, a little while and you will see me? Doesn't it seem
odd to read it over and over again? You hear it constantly.
I mean, is that really how the narrative went? I think it is.
I think John was very careful by the Spirit to illustrate it
just that way. So I don't think it was just
this ambiguous, what's he talking about? I think they were troubled
by this, they were troubled by this figure of speech. They were
troubled in a way that they could not put their finger on the exact
meaning. And so Jesus asked them, is this
what you mean? I mean, is this what you're wanting
to know what I mean? Is this the problem? Verse 20,
he explains it. Truly, truly, I say to you, you
will weep and you will lament, but the world will rejoice. Now
let's take that sentence and then we'll take the next one.
Do you think he helped him there? No, I don't think he helped him
there. I think he made it even worse.
Wait a minute, I thought this was about seeing you and not
seeing you in a little while. And now you're explaining that
we're going to lament and we're going to be weeping and the world's
going to be excited about it. But he is explaining to them
very clearly, isn't he? How is it that we can see that?
Because we know the gospel. We know the work of Christ. We
know that Christ perfectly fulfilled the righteous requirements of
God the Father for His elect and all who are born of God know
this and rest in this and hold fast to this and they make no
provision for the flesh whatsoever by faith. They believe and they
live in Christ. So there's several things at
play. He's reiterating the gospel, the narrative of His death. The
hatred that we've already seen. The world will hate you. They
persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. They persecute
the master, they're definitely going to persecute the servants.
They persecute the father, they're certainly going to hate the children.
And most of them are going to do it in the name of God. Because
they're religious, y'all. They've been looking for me for
millennia, now I come and they don't want me. John illustrates
that in the very beginning, first five verses of John 1. They don't
want me. Listen, the religious world doesn't
want the true Christ. Evangelicals don't want the true
Christ. It doesn't fit the popular scheme.
The true Christ wouldn't make Chick-fil-A the third fastest
growing fast food chain in America. See? But that's the extent of
most people's Christianity. We'll show those devil worshippers,
give me some chicken. Eat it, I don't care. I'm just
saying, that's the culture. That's the culture of Christ
in America. We're not gonna shop at this
store, we're gonna shop at this store. I'm not gonna buy this brand, I'm gonna
buy this brand. I'm not gonna put this sticker on my car, I'm
gonna put this sticker on my car. How about when the world begins
to kill us and the Constitution no longer applies to us? How
many Christians are there? The ones who are filled with
the Holy Spirit of God, who are truly redeemed by the blood of
Christ, who can do nothing but scream out, Abba, Father, my
joy is complete. You will weep and you will lament.
Why will they weep? Because he's going to die. He's
going to finish the work that the Father sent him to do. He's
going to give His life for His people. Those that the Father
has given to Him, He will save them, He will buy them, He will
satisfy God's wrath, and they will understand propitiation. They will receive expiation.
They will be forgiven. And when something is forgiven
by the righteousness of God, it can never be called in again.
The blood of Christ is sufficient. for the forgiveness of sins.
It is the only effectual cause of forgiveness. Christ died. And friends, when Christ died,
they were destroyed. And what happens the very night
of his arrest? What happens? People are looking
for his disciples. You see Mark's gospel when it
talks about the arrest of Jesus. We often don't read Mark as much
as we read the others. You see the guy in that narrative
who runs away naked? It's Mark. Now why was he naked? I don't know. Maybe it was like
Joseph. They were tugging at him and he got away and his tunic
came off. That's all you wore. It ain't
like you had underwear out or wear a coat. You had your cloak and
your tunic. Whoa. They were looking for the disciples.
They didn't stand around and say, hey, don't arrest our Jesus. I mean, Peter
tried it. Whacked off an ear. Jesus heals the ear. Says, we're
not living by the sword. Let them take me. And then they
all start trying to take everybody. They all escape. So they were weeping and lamenting
because Christ was gone and they were weeping and lamenting because
now they were next, you see. They were going to go to trial. They were going to be hated. But the world rejoiced. When I'm gone, you're going to
weep and you're going to lament. And that's what I'm saying in
a little while. You're going to weep and lament. And in that
time, when you're weeping and lamenting, the world will rejoice.
Why did the world rejoice? The same reason the world rejoices,
even when they take a stab at cultural Christianity. We got
that Ten Commandments off the wall. Yee-hoo! You know, they
have a parade. Oh, we're rubbing our debauchery
in the face of evangelicals. Yee-haw! I mean, don't they? They like to flaunt it. People rejoiced, the religious
people of the day rejoiced that they had finally stopped this
cult leader, that they had finally gotten Jesus of Nazareth. The sinful born man, according
to their standards, who had caused all kinds of problems, who had
made us as the religious elite of God look bad. He rebuked our teaching, He rebuked
our prophecies, He rebuked our station, He rebuked everything
that we were and He made us look bad and now we have an entire
generation of people that we're going to have to win back with
an iron fist. Thank God He didn't rescue us
from Rome because we got Rome on our side. Don't you ever find
that interesting? Zechariah's prophecy about Messiah
is that he would rescue his people from their oppressors and get
them out of slavery from their enemies. What's the picture of
being rescued from slavery and out of the oppression of your
enemy? For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus. That's the point of it. It's a gospel issue. It's not
a kingdom of man issue. And yet, all they wanted Messiah
to do was to take them out of the tyranny of Rome. And now
Rome fits their purposes and they're glad they've got those
armies. As a matter of fact, that's why
Jesus was crucified. Because not only did Israel fear
Rome and want to separate from them, Rome wasn't stupid. They
didn't want to have to massacre millions of people and make their
entire nation desolate. They could have, but who wants
to do that? See, France had the right idea.
Let's just throw a parade for Hitler when he comes in. I don't
want him to burn it down. We'll get him on the back end.
And that's a joke. But they did not fight. Now Rome and Israel had a common
enemy. Jesus, the common enemy. And they rejoice when they got
him. Can you imagine Caiaphas? What
it must have been like in that meeting that next day, that Sabbath,
as Jesus dies and is taken down off the cross and as the sun
goes down, the Sabbath begins. And they get together preparing
for that work for that temporal display of the righteousness
of God, looking forward to that rest that they just crucified
on the cross. And what it must have been like
for Him to say, you know, like I said, it is better for one
man to die than the whole nation perish. I know it's tough, guys,
but we did our job. Israel's going to be fine. Israel's going to be good. We're
going to be okay. It's going to take us a while. These young people
of theirs, Those are pre-lineals. They're ready to just overthrow
the Sanhedrin and put in coffee shops, but we'll get them. We'll
get them. We'll give them some waffles
and they'll come along and they'll get with the program. We'll scare
them really well. We did it. We got the problem
out of here. What it must have been like for Nicodemus to sit in that to know that he knew that they
crucified Messiah, while watching all of his peers
rejoice in the name of the coming Messiah. Do you see the wickedness? Now
if it left it there, end of story, Shakespeare, exit left. It's
a tragedy. But it's not a tragedy. Even
the death of Christ wasn't a tragedy. It was a purposeful and glorious
promise. Because Jesus says, you will
be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. And then
he gives an illustration of childbirth, which I think most of you ladies
would agree with partly. But your sorrow will turn into
joy. You will weep, they will rejoice.
You will mourn, they will rejoice. But it's only a little while.
Remember, in a little while, you will not see me. And then
in a little while, you will see me. When I'm gone, you will weep,
they will rejoice. When you see me and I'm back,
you will rejoice, they will weep. They will hate you more than
they've ever hated you. Like Jesus says to the Pharisees.
Then what are you gonna say when you see me going back to where
I say I came from? have friends that work for the
Secret Service and they can just come and go inside the White
House as they please with their credentials. One of them told me the story
one time. This is before 9 11, where most anybody could just walk
up to the White House and just, you know, get a tour and stuff
years and years ago, maybe the seventies or eighties. And one
time he was out and got to talking with somebody on the street and
they basically, well, what do you do? Well, I work in the White
House. Yeah, whatever. And they're walking and he just
walks in the gate and goes in and it blew their mind. Wow.
It's like Jesus. Oh, who are you? Well, I'm the
son of God. I came from heaven. Yeah, whatever. Nobody believes him. And then they see him go back.
Now, what are you going to do? But how does he go to the father
through the death that experiences on the cross? but not just in
death, but in life. He comes back in
His body, He raises Himself from the dead, He walks amongst this
earth, and then He ascends to the Father with more than 500
witnesses, more than 500 brothers who saw Him. So you're going to have joy when
you see me again. You're going to see, and then
all of a sudden you're going to see me in a way that you've never
seen me. You're going to understand what I've been talking about
very clearly. I've said these things, you've said this three
times already in this dialogue. I've said these things to you so that
when they do happen, you'll remember that I said them. And then verse 21, he gives the
illustration of a woman that gives birth. She has sorrow.
Why? Because her hour has come. What
hour? The hour of birth. This is not
a ticker tape parade. This is not a tea party. But
it's the hardest thing that I've ever experienced in my life watching
my wife experience childbirth. I'm thinking, oh my goodness.
And every time we're like, we're done. And then, you know, no
more. You know how it is, ladies. But
you don't lament when the child's born. You rejoice. Oh, that child, child, caused
me so much pain. Get it away. I mean, that's atypical, very
atypical, and that's indicative of a bigger problem. It could
happen. But most of the time, I'm like,
wow, okay, the joy has come. The pain is still here a little
bit, but it's over. I'm done. And for us fathers,
we're like, I don't know, to faint or to laugh or to cry or
kick out a wall or to take everybody hostage or what, but I'm glad
it's over, too. Don't know what to do. Especially
when you're giving birth at home, you know. She no longer remembers the anguish.
That's what I said y'all probably wouldn't agree with. But in that
way, the steady anguish and the pain of childbirth, of labor,
is ceased for joy that a human being has been born into the
world. Now, I want you to understand the imagery here. Why is it that
Jesus and the disciples, the apostles specifically, they always
use this illustration of childbirth? Paul loves it. He uses it in
Romans 8 as a way of the entire world, all of creation groaning
as if in labor. And then when the day of Christ
comes, it gives birth. And then illustration after illustration
after illustration after illustration about childbirth is an illustration
of the gospel. Marriage and the consummation
of marriage is a picture of the gospel. Conception is a picture
of the gospel. Childbirth is a picture of the
gospel. The whole point of its existence is to illustrate in
a microscopic way the reality of Christ and His church. So this is true not only in an
emotional standpoint, Not only in the illustration of, wow,
you're gonna suffer really hard, but then when you see me out
of the grave, I am new, I am alive, I'm the, what does Paul
say to the church of Colossae? The firstborn of all creation. You will rejoice. But there's
something specifically beautiful about this in that the scriptures
teach us that the new birth, Jesus teaching in John three,
the new birth, It's the very work that He's
securing in His cross work. And who does the new birth? What
person of God brings alive His people for whom Christ died?
God the Spirit. That's why Jesus said just some
sentences ago that greater things than these. The ministry that
you'll have when I leave will be so far greater than the ministry
that you ever had with me with you. Because where we go and where
we teach, that is it. But when the Spirit of God comes
and is with you as you go, He will teach His people. He will
instruct them concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
He will show the world who He really was and they will not
believe in Him either. It's okay. Because all that Christ came
to save will be found. All that Christ came to atone
for, their sins will be forgiven. And nothing, not even you, beloved,
in your greatest day of rebellion can ever stop Him. Cannot do
it. The joy of a human being being
born into the world, then in this comparison, I'm making this
observation, is nothing compared to the joy of those being born
into the kingdom of God. For that's what it points to. Jesus says earlier in the gospel,
when a seed falls to the ground and it dies, it brings forth
life. In the same way, I must die that my. Brothers and sisters will be
alive, and that's a paraphrase there. So you will have sorrow when
I'm gone, but you will rejoice, for I will be alive. Verse 22. So also you have sorrow now.
Why do they have sorrow now? Because they're anguishing over
the reality of Jesus no longer being with them. But I will see you again. And
when I see you, your hearts will rejoice and no one will take
your joy from you. I should not have taken so long
to get to this verse because this is the point. I've already said it. You know,
I preach everything and then I go back and I prove it. No one will take your joy from
you. But yet, remember when we first started out the teaching
this morning? How often do we feel that? How often do we experience
that? Where's my joy? It's Jesus. He's alive. Your joy is in Christ. And that means that your joy
is Christ. Your joy is knowing Christ. Your joy is knowing He knows
you. Your joy is that He satisfied
your debt to the Father. Your joy is that He promised
you eternal life and proved it. Your joy is Christ because Christ
finished the work of God on your behalf. Your joy is Christ because
though He left to be where He is supposed to be, The Spirit
of God is with you forever. Forever. And you are not alone. And you will not fall away. And
you will not forget that Christ is your joy. You cannot be taken
from Him, beloved. And He will not cast you away. And if you think that these disciples
had an incredible life of ministry bliss, read the Acts of the Apostles. They had a hard time. They all
were martyred but John, and he died in exile. And then look
at the history of the nobodies. Throughout history, the nobodies
constantly living Because their joy is Jesus, but living in a
life that we would look at and go, poor thing. Friends, don't
ever look at your life and go, poor me. Listen, let me say that
again. Don't ever look at your life
and say, poor me. For if you are Christ and He
is yours, there's nothing poor about you. And that is your joy. Is it expressible
all the time? No. I mean, my goodness, if we go
to a restaurant at lunch and they don't have Diet Coke, my
joy's gone. I just want to get up, find me, yeah, get up, find
me another place to eat. What kind of establishment is
this, running out of Diet Coke? Go to Hardee's after 6 a.m.,
they don't have biscuits. What kind of place is this? Y'all
need to shut this down. You see? The obedience of faith. Real
deep, isn't it? But that's not joy. That's temporary
fleshliness. That's being inconvenienced by
a first world problem. Oh, there's not enough butter
on this biscuit. My Chick-fil-A sandwich was not Jesus enough.
Can you please redo this? No one's going to take your joy
because no one's going to take you from Jesus. And in that day,
verse 23, we'll talk more about this next week, but let me get
through it. In that day, you will ask nothing of me. Why?
Because he's going to be in the grave. When Jesus is dead in
the grave, they're not going to be like, psst, hey, I know
you're coming back, but... He's not going to ask anything
of Jesus. And he says it again, truly,
truly, I say to you, he repeats himself from earlier instruction,
the same conversation, whatever you ask of the father in my name,
he will give it to you. By my authority, because you
are mine and I am yours, all that I have, all that the father
has is mine and all that I have, I declare to you. And the spirit
is going to keep you all. God is very jealous of his bride. He will not lose her and he will
not share her. I'm reminding you that you are
asking in your heart, how are we going to deal with this? How
are we going to live in this? You will just ask the father
to walk you through it. He will do it because of me.
You've never asked anything in my name. Until now. And now you can ask and you can
have it and you can receive it. Why? So that your joy may be
full. I wanted to have time for that.
Having joy and having full joy are two different things, aren't
they? Joy can never be taken, but sometimes where is it? The will of the Lord be done.
on earth as it is in heaven. That is the prayer of a saint.
That is the prayer of a man whose sins are forgiven. That is the
prayer of a child of God who's been bought by the blood of Christ.
And that is a prayer of promise. So the joy who is Christ, the
fullness of joy is a constant remembrance and satisfaction
and assurance of knowing that God is not a liar. and that Christ
has promised eternal life to us, and Christ has promised suffering
for us, and Christ has promised glory to us. So as He is, we
will be also. Where He is, we shall be also. He's already said that right
here in this dialogue. That's not about proximity. That's
about glory. Jesus is at the seat of glory.
He's at the place of preeminence. We will be with him. So we will be like him. How is it so? It is finished. That's how it's
so. It is finished. So your joy is
full. When you prayerfully desire by
the Spirit the things of God in Christ, His will be done for
you. And next week we'll talk much
more about those things. Let's pray. Father, there are many things
in this text. These narratives, as I pray often
and as you know, as we all have prayed, can move quickly and
we can miss things. But Lord, your word is true and
enough. So we've heard it read this morning
and it is sufficient for us. We praise you for your love and
your kindness and your grace toward us and the finished work
of Jesus, your son, on our behalf. We thank you that our joy is
complete in Christ and we pray that we would be taught as you
promised through your word to pray, that our joy would be full,
that we would see that Christ has purchased us, that we are
his, That his promise of life is secure. That his power in
us by your spirit is sufficient. And that we, in the way of our
earthly creation, you have done so very wonderfully and fearfully.
Father, how much more in our spiritual creation have you worked
fearfully and wonderfully? Help us to focus there to put
our eyes on that which is eternal, not which is passing away and
all the issues of this flesh, whether we are fighting temptation
by your grace or fighting persecution by your grace or fighting our
own circumstances. Lord, the the fight is won in
Christ. He has overcome the world. And we have been snatched out
of it into the light of your son. In his name we pray these
things. Amen.