John's Gospel chapter 16, reading
from verse 16. And it's the Lord who's speaking
to his disciples once again as he's preparing them for his imminent
crucifixion and death. And this is what the Lord says
to his disciples. A little while, and ye shall
not see me, and again a little while, and ye shall see me, because
I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples
among themselves, what is this that he saith unto us? A little
while, and ye shall not see me, and again a little while, and
ye shall see me, and because I go to the Father. They said,
therefore, what is this that he saith, a little while? We
cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were
desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among
yourselves of that I said, a little while, and ye shall not see me?
And again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily,
I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world
shall rejoice. And ye shall be sorrowful, but
your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in
travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come. But as soon
as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish,
for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore
have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day ye shall
ask Me nothing, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye
shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto
have ye asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that
your joy may be full. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading from his word. Let me point out, as we begin
this passage today, this sermon today, let me point out that
we are probably no more than a few hours away from Christ's
betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane by Judas and the notorious Judas
kiss It is only a few hours until
this deceitful disciple identified the Lord Jesus under the full
moon of the Passover for the benefit of the high priest's
soldiers. So that when the Lord Jesus says
to his disciples, a little while and ye shall not see me, It really
is just a little while. No more than a couple of hours. The Lord Jesus in John chapter
17 gives a prayer. It's called the High Priestly
Prayer of the Lord Jesus. He gives that in the next chapter.
It only takes a few minutes to read that prayer. Then Jesus
and his disciples left Jerusalem for the Mount of Olives and the
Garden of Gethsemane. That journey would have taken
less than an hour. He prayed in the garden. How
long did he pray for? Shall we venture that he prayed
an hour? That makes two hours. And then
his enemies were upon him. From the garden the Lord was
taken, while it was still dark, to the home of Annas, to wait
until the Sanhedrin, the leaders of the Jews, could be assembled
for his trial. Annas questioned Jesus, probably
searching for some accusation with which to charge him before
the council. And then the Lord was taken to
the home of Caiaphas. He was taken for his main trial
to the palace of the high priest. And here he was mocked and he
was beaten and he was condemned. Still all happening during the
hours of darkness. At dawn, Jesus was taken to Pilate's
judgment hall. And then later in the morning,
he was taken to Herod, who asked that he might be shown a miracle
before being returned to Pilate and sentenced to death. It was
at this stage that the Roman soldiers scourged and tortured
Jesus. And then he was led out to be
crucified later that morning. And I'm mentioning all of this
so that we realise just how close we are to Christ's death. And that when he says to his
disciples, a little while and ye shall not see me, the Lord
knew that his arrest and death was so close and he knew how
devastating the experience was going to be for his disciples. From the moment that they recognised
Judas at the head of the temple guard and grasped the implications
of what was happening, every minute must have been fraught
for them. They were not simply sad that
Jesus was gone. They were in the midst of this
turmoil. They were not simply sad, they
were distraught. It was crushing what was happening. And it was
imminent now when the Lord was speaking to them. However, when
the Lord says, a little while and ye shall not see me, he's
not finished. Because in order to ease their
anxiety, he tells the disciples that after a short time, they
would see him again. And it's as if he's saying, think
on that, hold that, grasp that, take that thought on board. You
are going to be so fretful, but I want you to think on this that
you will see me again. It's going to be a little while
and then I'm not going to be here, but a little while longer
and I'll be back. When he says that he will see
them again, he's likely referring to his appearances on Resurrection
Day. We mentioned this yesterday in
the little note. when the Lord did indeed see
them and they saw him when he had risen from the dead. And
of course, we know that this too was only in a short term. The Lord was put to death on
Friday afternoon and he rose from the dead very early on the
first day of the week, which was the Sunday, or our Sunday.
so that it was only Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So it's only a little
while until they didn't see him, a few hours until he would be
arrested, and then it would be a little while more, a few days
hence, that they would see him. And Christ would be seen on the
day of his resurrection by Mary Magdalene and the women at the
tomb. He would be seen by Peter and
he would be seen by the two on the Emmaus Road. And then he
would be seen by all the disciples except for Thomas. And after
that, he would be seen in Galilee several times before his bodily
ascension to heaven 40 days later at Pentecost. All this the Lord
told them, that soon they wouldn't see him and soon they would see
him, that they might be comforted in their distresses. And yet
the disciples remained perplexed We read in John 16 that they
whispered amongst themselves as to what Christ's meaning was
and wondering if they dare ask him to explain. And the Lord,
being God, knows the hearts and knows the minds of men and women,
and he knew his disciples' hearts and minds. He knew their confusion. He knew that they would weep
and they would lament in spite of his reassurances. And he understood
the genuine shock that was coming in the coming hours that would
inflict his friends with distress and sadness. It was not merely
their shattered hope of an earthly kingdom for which they still
harbored this longing, this desire. It was grief and disillusionment. All the things that they'd hoped
for had crumbled around them. It was mourning for Christ and
his death and it was shame that they had run away. It was fear
for the Jews that were now looking for them and confusion about
what was going to happen in the future. It was loss, the loss
of all that they had aspired to, all that they had believed,
and regret, of course, that the Lord was gone. They were bereft,
they were broken, and they were defeated. And again, it is so lovely to
note the care taken by the Lord to address his disciples' need
and ease their pain. It was the divine plan that Christ
would die for the sins of his people and that he would rise
again from the dead for their justification. It had to happen. This was the plan. This was the
fulfilment, the accomplishment, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the eternal covenant of peace. This had to transpire. And yet the disciples, in their
human emotions, in their human frames, would be wracked with
the witness and the experience of this plan of God. So the Lord endeavoured to ease
their troubled minds as he was able. He showed them that their
sorrow would be short-lived. Their desperation need not drive
them to the destruction that it did Judas. Yes, the Lord would
be taken. Yes, he would be brutalised and
slain. Yes, his enemies and theirs would
rejoice to be rid of him. The prospects for the Lord's
disciples would seem bleak. But the Lord says it will only
be for a short time. Soon they would see Christ again. Let them hold that thought. In
a little while, their hopelessness would be turned to happiness. Their sorrow would be turned
to joy. And the Savior uses an analogy
of a woman in labor to aid their understanding. A woman travails in labor. It seems that she will be overcome
by her efforts to bring this child into the world, her exertions,
her pain. And then just when all seems
too much to bear, she's delivered of her child. And in that moment,
she forgets the hardship of her labour. Her physical sorrows
turn to joy and gladness. That was just a picture that
the Lord gave the disciples to show what he meant. Such would
be the transformation. Such would be the change in their
demeanour. This is what it would be like
for the disciples. You will labour only a short
time, he's saying. and after that your joy will
be great and it will be enduring.' And so it was. When the Lord
met the disciples gathered together in the upper room for fear of
the Jews and revealed himself to be alive, on that first day
of the week, on his resurrection day. We read in Luke chapter
24, verse 41. This is what we read. It's almost
amusing. This is what it says. They yet
believed not for joy. They believed not for joy and
wondered. He said unto them, have ye here
any meat? Eating was to prove to them that
he was physically raised from the dead. A spirit wouldn't be
able to eat. He was showing them by asking
for meat that he was a real, tangible, physically alive Jesus. The joy filled their hearts to
the point of inhibiting their rational, balanced thinking. They believed not because they
couldn't get their head around the fact that here he was and
the joy of seeing him bubbled up and filled their minds to
the exclusion of everything else. And that joy endured as the Lord
said it would. After Pentecost, so that's 40
days later, when the Lord ascended and then
came to Pentecost and the Holy Spirit came. After Pentecost,
when Christ had ascended, we read in Acts chapter two, verse
46, and they, that is the disciples, continuing daily with one accord
in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house did eat their
meat with gladness and singleness of hearts. These disciples had
felt bereft and shattered when the Lord had died. And now as
the Lord had said, their lives had been transformed. Now they were glad, now they
had joy, now they praised the Lord with singleness of heart. In the time that I have left
today, I want to speak about this joy that the Savior spoke
of and how the sorrow of Christ's redeemed people is turned into
joy. And I want to apply it to all
all of us, all who have known the sorrow under sin and the
travail of laboring under the fear of death. It's an interesting
parallel in scripture that the fall of man into sin and the
sorrow that was enacted in the garden of Eden occurred in a
garden while the raising of man to new life and everlasting happiness
in Christ was also effected in a garden. Man fell in a garden
and man's joy arose in the garden with the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. Following Eve's temptation when
she and Adam ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, we read there in Genesis chapter three, verse
16. Unto the woman, he said, that
is the Lord, said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because
thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat
of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life. so that sorrow characterized
the lives of Adam and Eve thereafter. Because sorrow is a consequence
of sin. Where there's no sin, there's
no sorrow. And when sin is taken away, Sorrow is turned into joy. That's
why there are no tears in heaven, because there's no sin in heaven.
Sorrow is turned into joy. And Christian joy is built on
Christ having dealt with our sins on the cross. Isaiah says,
surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. And
as believers, our joy and peace, because they are two sides of
one gift, our joy and our peace arises in finding and discovering
Jesus Christ to be our Savior. The essence of spiritual joy
is our souls finding what they need. Our souls finding what
they desire. Our souls finding what they require
for reconciliation and life and union with God, our creator. And this finding Christ that
initiates our joy, this finding Christ, this discovering salvation,
is spoken of by the Lord in Matthew chapter 13, verse 44. This is what the Lord said. Again,
he says, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in
a field. the which when a man hath found,
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he
hath, and buyeth that field. The joy of finding the treasure
that is Christ is the beginning of true joy, spiritual joy for
God's elect. The joy that the world offers
proves empty to such a person. We tried the broken cisterns. It looked good for a time, but
the pleasures of sin, they last only for a short time. Sin brings
sorrow, and under that cloud of sorrow we find no peace and
no joy until we discover the pearl of great price, the treasure
hidden in the field. And then gladly does a needy
sinner receive Christ. We give everything for Christ. The man that found the treasure
in the field, he selleth all that he hath, and he buyeth that
field. He's not going to let that treasure
go. And a believer will not let Christ
go. That's the first thought about
discovering Christ. Here's a second thought about
how our joy is experienced as a believer. Our sorrow is turned
into joy when by faith we trust Christ for life and forgiveness
and peace with God. You remember how the Apostle
Paul in Philippi was in prison and the story of the Philippian
jailer. That man, when the earthquake
took place and all the prison doors burst open, that man was
on the verge of taking his life. So distraught was he at what
he perceived was happening around about him. And yet Paul preached
Christ to him. And the Holy Spirit gave him
faith to trust the Lord Jesus as his saviour. Do you know what
we read after that in Acts chapter 16? Verse 34 says, And when he
had brought them, that's Paul and Silas, into his house, he
set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his
house. This was the experience of all
those to whom the apostle carried the gospel. They rejoiced in
believing. In 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 6,
Paul says, and ye, that's the Thessalonians, became followers
of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost. Christ was preached. There was
trouble when Christ was preached. And yet with joy did these people
believe. It was the joy of quickening. It was the joy of new life. It was the joy of regeneration
and conversion and trusting Christ. Even in affliction, the Lord's
people do not lose their deep joy. We do not mourn as others
who have no hope because we have hope. We know the Lord who doeth
all things well and we trust him. And for joy, even when worldly
realism would oppose us doing so. Another way in which this joy
or sorrow is turned to joy is seen in the way in which the
Lord Jesus has been nurturing his disciples throughout these
passages in John's Gospel. And he does so with promises
of joy and comfort from the Holy Spirit. And this is speaking
about the Holy Spirit's indwelling. The Holy Spirit's indwelling
brings us joy. It's one of the fruits of the
Spirit. Love, joy, peace. John 15 verse
11. We thought about this just a
few weeks ago. The Lord says to his disciples, these things
have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you. and that your joy might be full. In John chapter 17, that we're
going to go into in a couple of weeks time, the Lord will
say to his father, and now come I to thee. He's going back to
his father. He's going to ascend into heaven.
And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world,
that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. So that because
Christ has gone to his Father and sent the Holy Spirit, the
Comforter, to us, we have Christ's own joy in ourselves. Christ's joy. Literally, the
joy of Christ. We have Christ's joy. What was
it the Lord said, or was said by Isaiah of the Lord? He shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. This was the
joy of the Lord, that he had succeeded, that he had accomplished,
that he had victory, that he did all that was required of
him and he looked upon his people and he was satisfied. This was
the joy of the Lord and we have the joy of Christ. This is the
influence of the Holy Spirit on the soul. Romans 14 verse
17 says, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what we have. Righteousness,
the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ is ours. That is our standing of holiness
and perfection before God. We have peace in knowing that
we are reconciled to God. And we have joy, the joy of Christ
and the satisfaction of seeing ourselves redeemed, our sins
atoned for and us brought into union with our Saviour. The fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy and peace amongst all the other graces. And these are Christ's gifts
to his church and people. The joy of Christ is a fruit
of the Spirit. And fourthly, there's another
way in which this joy is manifestly and our sorrow is turned to joy
and that is in our serving the Lord and in our looking forward
to the promise of eternal glory. Believers rejoice because our
names are written in heaven. The Lord told his disciples after
he had sent them out on their evangelical preaching ministry,
they came back and they said all of the wonderful things that
they had seen, how that spirits were cast out, how that they
were able to perform miracles. And the Lord said, don't rejoice
at that. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Our names
are written in the Lamb's book of life. That is something to
rejoice over. We rejoice in hope of eternal
life. We rejoice when Christ is preached. As Paul writes to the Philippians,
he says, because we know that he is the way of life and that
he is peace to all who believe. And if we are persecuted in this
life, in serving and in standing for Christ, then here we also
shall find joy. Peter says in 1 Peter 4, Rejoice
inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings. that
when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding
joy. We have so much to look forward
to, both in our service here for the Lord and in what the
Lord has laid up for us in heaven. We've been thinking recently
with the young people about David, and we have seen how David endured
so much by way of sadness and sorrow in his life for his sins
and the trauma that that caused in his family. But David says,
as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall
be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. Then he also goes
on to say, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. These are
the blessings that the Lord has laid up for us. Just a little
while, you won't see me. Then in a little while, you will
see me. And it will be joy and it will
be enduring. Let me just make one final point.
Believers have joy in their spiritual friendships and their spiritual
fellowship. We are united to Christ. Christ is our head and so we
share his joy and his gifts with one another. John in his second epistle says
that he greatly rejoiced when he found the elect lady's children
walking in truth and we rejoice when we encounter other saints
who love the Lord. It is a joy to share fellowship
with one another. It is a joy to be together under
the sound of the gospel. It is a joy to share these truths
that we have been brought to believe and know that though
we are separated now by distance or miles or time or wherever
it is, soon, soon we shall be together and how Blessed it is
to encounter the Lord's people in this life and to share together
with them in friendship and fellowship. We rejoice with our brothers
and sisters. In fact, it goes deeper than
that. We rejoice with them that do rejoice, and we weep with
them that weep. Such is the depth of that union
that we have with our brothers and sisters, that we empathise
and sympathise and enter into their experiences in this life,
but under girded at all times with this love of the Lord for
us and between us. These are things that this world
knows nothing of. The world indeed conspires to
steal our joy in Christ. But that and the trials and the
hurdles and the barriers and the problems that it throws up
in our lives, they only prove the depth of the love of Christ
for us. and the peace that passeth understanding
that we possess. And since peace and joy are two
sides are so intimately connected, it is the joy that passeth understanding
as well. We have a peace and a joy that
passeth understanding in this life. John 14 verse 27 says, peace
I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. And John 16 says, Christ's peace
and Christ's joy are our possession, our inheritance, our gift in
the Holy Spirit. There were dark days. that the disciples had to encounter
at the time of the Lord's crucifixion. But they emerged from them at
the resurrection and still more on the day of Pentecost. This
joy remained with them and it became a distinguishing feature
of the New Testament church and all who trust in Christ for salvation. In Christ, a believer rejoices
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. The joy of the Lord's
disciples is the joy of victory and liberty and success. Christ drank the cup of trembling,
even the dregs of the cup of God's fury against our sin. When the Saviour died, he secured
our victory, our liberty and peace with God. The return of
the Lord from the grave opened a whole new perspective for the
disciples and it gave them a whole new purpose. They discovered
the joy of the Lord and that is the same joy that we have
for we trust a living Saviour who is coming again to take us
to Himself that we may dwell in glory with Him forever. And that which gave the disciples
their endless joy belongs to us as well. And it is true that
for a little while we experience sadness and sorrow in the flesh
as we negotiate our journey through this fallen world. And yet the
joy of the Lord remains and the fullness of our joy lies ahead. Christ's suffering and death
was the price of our salvation, and his resurrection is the source
of our life and joy. As we trust in him, our sorrow
too, like that of the disciples, shall be turned into joy. Living
upon him, our sorrow shall be turned into joy. And then, someday,
dying in him, Our sorrow shall be turned into endless joy when
we open our eyes in heaven and see our Saviour face to face. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us today.