2017.09.24 John 16: 16-22
Your Joy will no one take away
Good
Morning…. I am glad to be with you this morning… I have Good News for You! His name is Jesus… We
are on a great adventure… We are Experiencing
the Life and ministry of the Lord Jesus…
Jesus continues to Transform hearts and minds… by the Power of His Holy Spirit
working in and through the Word of God… We are studying a very important section
of the Word of God… The last two sermons in John 16… Have been about the
Ministry of the Holy Spirit… The disciples are freaking out… Jesus has said that He is going to die… He is comforting them and preparing them…
God
is the God of all comfort… 2 Cor 1: 3-5…
Just
like the Father… It is Jesus desire and purpose to comfort His own… And when He told the disciples that He was going… He promised to send the Holy
Spirit who is the
Comforter… God is the God of all comfort…
Now in the church age…. the Holy Spirit is The Comforter…. and The Lord Jesus Christ
is our sympathetic, compassionate High Priest… Sometimes we see this clearly in the Gospel record… Like
when we study the life of Christ here in
John… That is the case in our text this
morning… starting in John 16:16… We see
our sympathetic… compassionate High Priest… Jesus… He is the One who carries
our burdens and our understands our weaknesses… He is the One who comforts us… He gives us His peace… And He Himself… Becomes our joy and rejoicing…
It is
His passionate desire to replace our fear and sorrow with His comfort and joy…
The Lord Jesus seeks the
comfort and joy of His people… That
is what flows out of this wonderful
section… The disciples are suffering…
And so He is offering them the ultimate
Hope…
The
Hope of the Resurrection… We
all need hope… Feelings of Hopelessness add
greatly to any time of suffering… And we
all suffer sometimes... We all
experience disappointment and sorrow…
Often life is just
not turning out like we hoped… Well
the disciples could hardly imagine a more desperate time...
After
3 plus years of following Jesus…. He says that He is going and
they cannot follow… They are as close
to hopelessness as one could be… Everything they hoped for and believed is
hanging in the balance…
They are
struggling to comprehend it all… As they see only loss and sorrow…. Jesus
continues to comfort them and offer them Hope… Let´s read our text for this
morning…
John
16: 16-22
NKJV slt 2000
16
“A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you
will see Me, because I go to the Father.” 17 Then some of His disciples said
among themselves, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you
will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because
I go to the Father’?” 18 They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A
little while’? We do not know what He is saying.”
19
Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you
inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not
see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 20 Most assuredly, I
say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you
will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. 21 A woman, when
she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has
given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a
human being has been born into the world.
22
Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will
rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
v16,17…
A little while, and you will not see Me… It was finally
sinking in that Jesus was going to die soon…. But the disciples still didn’t
quite understand that the arrest of
Jesus was only an hour or two away… and then the very next day… He will be crucified… Yet because He goes to the Father… they will see Him again… He will rise from the dead… This was a puzzle
for them… Death is to permanent for them to really understand…
They were filled with
sorrow to hear Jesus talk about
his death… They could not stand the thought of being left alone…. That is
exactly why Jesus is spending so
much of this last night comforting and encouraging them… And That is why He promised the Holy Spirit…
He
knew that between His death on the
cross… And His miraculous resurrection… The disciples world would
fall apart… Their faith would be shaken to the core…. I am sure that
they said to themselves… Maybe it was
all an illusion… When they could no longer see him with their eyes… Their spiritual
vision was temporarily blinded… They were so used to walking and talking
with Jesus… They spent three years watching
Jesus… Now He says that he is going away…
Naturally
their hearts are filled with sorrow…
Today… There is special and profound blessing for those
of us who see Jesus with our ears… We
see Jesus with the eyes of faith…
Jesus comes alive as we study this Book… One of the disciples… Thomas said
after the resurrection… That he
would not believe unless he saw Jesus like
the other disciples…. Look with me
at what Jesus said to him… John 20… v… 29…
John
20: 29
NKJV slt 2000
29
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Even though we
have never seen Jesus with our eyes… We have seen Jesus with our ears as we have heard the Good News of the Gospel
proclaimed… And as we study the Word of God… The Holy Spirit uses it to
persuade us of our sin and pride… To bring us to repentance and to transform
our hearts and minds… 2 Tim 3:15-17…
Back
to John 16… v18…
v18…
They said therefore… We do not know what He is saying… [they said] (elegon)… Can be translated… `They
kept asking` They were asking each other… Whatttt? What does he mean… I don´t
get it… scroll down to v19…
v19… Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him… They
were embarrassed to ask again… What do
you mean? Now we see you and now we don´t…
Is this hide and seek? We don´t get
it… Jesus words did not fit with their belief that He would now take the Kingdom from the Romans… Instead they
faced a crisis of unbelief…
Jesus
understood
that they needed their hearts and minds
prepared to endure the coming crisis… He has been preparing them for the shattering reality of His death on the
cross…
v20…
You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy… Jesus knew they would be plunged into
deep and dark sorrow in the next few hours...
Filled
with Sorrow
1 Sorrow
at the loss of relationship
2
Sorrow at the humiliation of their Master and Messiah
3
Sorrow at the seeming victory of His enemies
4
Sorrow because all they hoped for was taken away
They will see the cross as failure and tragedy… But The cross was not a tragedy… It was not
an obstacle to overcome… It was
God´s plan of redemption from the beginning… That Jesus would suffer in our
place… That He would pay for our sins… And He then give us His Righteousness…
His right standing with God… He knew that their deep sorrow would be
transformed…
He
knew that God would… Because of His
grace and unfailing love… turn their deep sorrow into wonderful joy... He knew that He would rise from the dead in victory…
God’s
plan was not to give joy instead of sorrow… God does not prevent pain and
sorrow in the lives of Believers… That is not what the Bible teaches… But to heal and transform their real sorrow…
into a deep and lasting JOY… Joy that no one can take away…. Because it is
deep… And rooted in God´s wonderful Redeemer…
He
often does this in our lives… Childbirth is a great example… The sorrow of watching Jesus
suffer and die…. Will be directly connected to their coming joy in the Resurrection… Just like the
sorrow of a woman in childbirth… Is directly connected to her joy that her child has been born… That
is the example that Jesus uses here… Moms
I know that you can relate… scroll down to v21and 22…
v21…
A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as
soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish,
for joy that a human being has been born into the world…
What a perfect picture of pain and sorrow turning to joy
in an instant… What heavenly joy floods the heart of a mother at the birth of
her child… now comes Jesus´ promise… v22…
v22a…
I will see you again and your heart will rejoice… When
we really see Jesus for who He is…. Our
hearts do rejoice…. Our hearts leap for
Joy at knowing that our sins are forgiven… Jesus is promising His resurrection in
this verse… He is telling them that their sorrow is only temporary… That is always true for genuine
believers… When it is all said and done…
Victory
is certain… And our redemption
is guaranteed and sealed by Jesus Himself… The presence of the Holy Spirit in
us is like a certificate of authenticity… Proof that we are genuine believers… His work in our hearts means that Jesus has begun the process of transforming
us…. And He promised to finish what
he has begun in us…. Phil 1: 6…
The terrible temporary pain of their loss is nothing when
compared to their joy-filled testimony after the resurrection... It was
testimony so sure that they shook the world… And most of them endured death for
Jesus sake…
v22b…
Your
joy no one will take from you…
Here is a wonderful verse to
begin and end
our study this morning… God is
Sovereign…
Since God is
sovereign… He guarantees the final triumph of our joy… In the text from the Gospel of John that was read at the
beginning… Jesus said to the disciples
who were about to lose Him in death… And
then get him back at His Resurrection… v22…
22… you have sorrow now, but I will see you again,
and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you…
No
one will ever take your joy away… The Joy that Jesus gave us at the
Resurrection is invincible… His joy is Eternal… When we have God as our
exceeding Great joy… He will see us through every disaster in our lives… As I
said… Jesus has promised to continue the work that he has begun in us… He
cannot fail… to redeem us and take us to Himself forever… Amen
This morning we are going to celebrate Communion together… God´s
people have been doing this for almost 2000 years… Since the night that Jesus
celebrated the Passover with His disciples for the last time… Why do we
celebrate His death and resurrection like this? It reminds us of Jesus´
promises to us… He will come again…. Then we will be with Him forever…
The Promise of
Communion with Him Forever is sealed by the death and resurrection of the
Lord Jesus Christ
Promise
of Communion
1
Our sorrow is turned into Joy…
2 He
is finishing the work that He has begun in us…
3 The
Lord will come again and take to Himself Forever…
Communion
Danger
caution!!!! We want to once again welcome all of our guests and visitors this
morning…. We are very glad that you are here…. We are going to celebrate
communion this morning as a church family…. If you have given your heart to
Jesus… And if you are willing to let the Lord Jesus search your heart…. And
willing to Confess any sin that is in
your life…. You are welcome to participate with us…. In 1 Corinthians… Paul
exhorts us….
Examine
your hearts… That is what we need to do this morning as we
prepare to take communion together… The
worship team will come forward and as they lead us to the throne of grace…. Let´s examine our
hearts…. The elements will be passed out…. Please hold them and we will take communion together when I
come back up here… Song….
Communion
is a picture of the fact that we are all in Christ…. Every time we take communion… we take into
our hands a reminder that we have been
redeemed…. And that we belong to each other…. We are members of another… Jesus
has saved us and made us one family in Him…
1
Corinthians 11: 23-26 NLT
23
For I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself. On the night when
he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread 24 and gave thanks to God for
it. Then he broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for
you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine
after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his
people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as
often as you drink it.” 26 For every time you eat this bread and drink this
cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 Neues Leben
23 Das Folgende hat der Herr selbst gesagt, und ich gebe
es euch so weiter, wie ich es empfangen habe: In der Nacht, als er verraten
wurde, nahm Jesus, der Herr, einen Laib Brot,
24 und nachdem er Dank gesagt hatte, brach er ihn und
sprach: »Das ist mein Leib, der für euch hingegeben wird. Tut das zur
Erinnerung an mich.«
25 Ebenso nahm er nach dem Abendmahl den Weinkelch und
sprach: »Dieser Kelch ist der neue Bund zwischen Gott und euch, besiegelt durch
mein Blut. Wann immer ihr daraus trinkt, tut es zur Erinnerung an mich.«
26 Denn jedes Mal, wenn ihr dieses Brot esst und aus
diesem Kelch trinkt, verkündet ihr den Tod des Herrn, bis er wiederkommt.
Let´s pray…
