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Introduction and Scripture Reading
John 16:16-33
The bible reading this morning is from the gospel ofJohn, chapter 16 verse 16 to the end of the chapter.
Jesus went on to say, "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me." At this, some of his disciples said to one another, "What does he mean by saying, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,' and 'because I am going to the Father'?" They kept asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying."
Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, "Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, 'In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me'? Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come, but when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."
Then Jesus' disciples said, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God."
"Do you now believe?" Jesus replied. "A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Understanding Joy in Christ
There are some small, simple joys that make you happy. It's a pink donut for a couple of us in the office at the moment. Not for Nick, not for Vanessa, but for Rachel and for me, the pink donut is peak joy. It's hard to be completely miserable when you're holding a pink donut, and it's just, it's the best of the flavours.
We are possibly eating too many of them, so we might need to move on to something that, I don't know, is a little bit more healthy, like pain au chocolat or something. There are other things, of course, that are simple joys. For me, it is finding that a plant that I thought was dead has a little sprout of life. It really is like, it is my, I go and visit my plants. Yes. I say, Phil, Phil, come and look, there's a, there's a leaf.
These are real joy, but they're fragile joy. The donut is gone within, ah, 30 seconds. The plant might still not make it. These sorts of joys do depend on just the right circumstances or just that moment in time. But in John 16, Jesus is speaking about a different kind of joy. Not the fragile joy of good circumstances or the right colour icing, but a joy that survives sorrow, passes through grief and cannot be taken away.
The Joy Secured by Jesus
And what I love is that he's not telling the disciples where to find it or sort of even what practices they have to cultivate in order to have that experience. He tells them that he is about to secure it for them. They're about to lose him. They're about to experience confusion, grief, pain, fear. But as they go through that moment, Jesus says, joy will come. A joy that will outlast anything that this world has to give.
Now, as he likes to do, Jesus begins with words that deliberately confuse, I really do think so, deliberately confuse the disciples. He's a great teacher because he likes to invite questions. We've talked about that. He does his best work with questions. And so he says, and there's a lot of repetition here. In a little while, you'll see me no more. And then after a little while, you will see me.
And into this enigmatic statement, the disciples do exactly what we do. What does he mean? What does he mean by saying that? What does he mean by saying in the previous part of the passage, I'm going to the father? What does he mean by a little while? All these important questions. And scholars, as they read this passage, have also wondered, because we know if you've read the whole of the Bible, that there might be a couple of moments in the life of Jesus and in salvation history where there's a gap.
The Cross and Resurrection
And there's a not seeing Jesus, and then there's a seeing Jesus. So it could be for the disciples, this Jesus is about to be dead and buried, and you literally won't see him anymore because he's in the tomb. But then you will see him again because he comes back to life, he raises from the dead, and he appears to them. Or it could be, and especially as we've seen in the way that John talks or Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit as his own very presence coming to be with the disciples, it could be that you won't see him after Jesus dies, rises again, and ascends to the father, going to the father.
And you will see him and experience him and know him in the coming of the Holy Spirit. Or something that you and I might often read this passage to mean, that it's between the two comings of Jesus, the first arrival, the life of Jesus, and then his ascension, going to the father and waiting for his coming again. And it is that ascension and without him that kind of gives us the grief, but we will see him again and have joy.
And as Nick so beautifully led at the start of the service, we know there's a truth in that one day there will be more joy. And so is this what Jesus is talking about? Well, I think when we look at the passage, we see that it's most likely talking about the very close events of the cross and the resurrection. And you might be like, well, that's a very simple reading. It is important to us. So you will see.
The Role of Prayer
He says, very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. There's not really a sense in any of the scriptural witness that the world is happy when Jesus ascends to the father, but the world as in everything that's opposed to God is rejoicing when Jesus is on the cross. When this one who was turning things upside down, exposing their sin, opposing their abuse of power, when he gets what they think he deserves on the cross.
And so they're rejoicing, but the disciples are weeping and mourning and grieving. But he says, your grief will turn to joy. And that is when you see him again, when he is risen, you will know that the cross itself defeated death and now life is given for all. So I think the best understanding is the death and burial is the little while you won't see me. And then the resurrection is a little while you will see me.
But it's true to say in John's gospel that the coming of the Holy Spirit is part and parcel of the resurrection of Jesus. So in John chapter 20, and we'll have a look at that on Easter Sunday, the Holy Spirit is actually breathed out by Jesus onto the disciples before the spirit comes upon the church. Because Jesus wants them to know that it is his resurrection that makes it possible for them to live with the spirit of God being with them forever.
Living in the Joy of Resurrection
And that they actually are not left alone. So even when he goes to the father in the ascension, the promise that he said, I will not leave you as orphans, is true. He has said, I breathe on you the Holy Spirit. And even as they wait for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon the church, they are still with him. So I would say that the coming of the Holy Spirit is connected to the resurrection appearances. And so when, in a little while, you will see me, the spirit is part of that because he enables us to never be alone.
But he uses this beautiful picture of childbirth and it is important because it's not the same sort of image of something bad happens, but then something good happens. It's all connected. The sorrow and the pain and the hardship of labor and pregnancy, to be honest, actually is part of the receiving of the joy of having a child. And even though all of that can be so difficult, having a child is so great that the species keeps on doing it. We forget it's so good. It is so joyful. It is part of that whole process.
And so when Jesus says, yes, there is something coming that is painful and it will look like catastrophe and it will be a time of weeping and wailing, this is actually going to be the very event that brings you joy. The hour of darkness is part of the hour of salvation. Sorrow is not kind of bypassed, it's transformed into joy. The cross and the resurrection are intimately connected and both bring the salvation and joy and they secure it.
Now I said it was important for us to understand that timing because we live in the good bit. We live in the good side of the cross and resurrection. The disciples were grieving because they saw everything that they had hoped for up on a cross being destroyed. But for us, we live in the child has arrived. We live in the joy of the resurrection. We know that death has been defeated and in as much as we have sorrow and trouble, it's not the same. We're not waiting for that movement to happen for us.
So the sorts of sorrow and grief that he's speaking about to the disciples is because they look at the cross without knowing that it is part of the hour of salvation where resurrection will come. But we live on that side. We know that Jesus has risen. We know that life has been opened to those who are in him. We know that we have not been left as orphans but that he has come to us in himself risen and in the gift of his spirit. And so we have joy that no one can take away.
When I thought about this joy that no one could take away, I just immediately thought of my dog Sprocket and his love affair with the sock. It has to be a dirty sock and he wants to show it to you, of course, but if you try and take it away, I mean, it's sort of a game, but also no way. You're not having it and he will take it everywhere and he will take it up onto the bed and he will take it onto the couch. He will take it into the toilet when you're there. He will take it outside. No one will take away his sock.
And for us, I think when Jesus says, I have secured you joy, you live on this side of the cross and resurrection, you know that someone has been through death, come out the other side and offers that eternal life to you. It has been secured. You carry that. You carry that delightful thing with you wherever you go and no one can take it from you. You take it onto the bed. You take it onto the bathroom. You take it outside. You take it into the hard times. You take it into the good times. No one can take away our joy.
The reality that Christ is alive, this one that is so precious and so beautiful and did so many amazing things and taught the most precious things for human life. He's alive. Sins are forgiven. Death is defeated. The spirit has been given. It might be chaos where you live. Your house might look like chaos. You might ask, how does he get all these dirty socks? I don't know how they're available to him. I don't know. Your house might be chaos. Your life might be chaos. Your internal world may feel like chaos. The sock is still there. You have it. It is resurrection joy and you have carried it with you and you can carry it with you into uncertainty, into illness, into hardship, into grief. And the world cannot prise it out of your jaws. And you bring it to them and you show it to them. And they will try. But it is secured by the risen Christ.
Jesus then moves into speaking about prayer, but he does it in a fun way because he's talking about asking. And he says, in that day when you see me, when I'm risen, when all of this starts to make sense, you won't ask me anything. And that's referring to questions. You won't ask me these questions. What do you mean by, and he says further on, I won't talk in riddles, basically. I won't talk in figures of speech. I'll tell you plainly, you won't ask me anything. But the asking that you will do won't be, is it going to be okay? What do you mean by going to the Father? The asking you will do will be asking in prayer.
Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete. You have the secured joy of the resurrection of Jesus in your mouth. But actually the experience of that, whatever it is that's rocket enjoys about a sock. All right, we're pushing it, but that's okay. The lived experience of this joy comes from prayer. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.
This is how you absolutely get the most out of this secured joy, you pray. You ask the Father for things in the name of Jesus, the one who has broken through every barrier to you, asking the Father and being confident of being heard. I think it's important that we don't think that prayer must be in Jesus' name because that's the postage stamp. You and I might've been taught that, that you kind of, you tack it onto the end in Jesus' name, amen, and that will get it there, you know, through the whatever. But it's also not because Jesus makes you lovable or loved by the Father.
I've also wondered about that in my Christian life. We say, when God looks at you, he sees Jesus and so he loves you. Actually God loved the world before he gave Jesus. God loved the world, therefore he gave his only son. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you. And when you are in Christ, that relationship of love is enabled to be real, is enabled to be active, is enabled to be dynamic. He loves you, but that's different from being in a relationship of love with you. And that's what Jesus enables, that's what praying in the name of Jesus gives you confidence that not only does God love you, but that you can live in his love, that you can be in that dynamic of what Phil talked about as the group hug. You can listen to that online from last week.
You don't relate to God through distance or uncertainty, wondering if you're good enough or lovable. Jesus shows you that you are now right next to the father. You are in a relationship with him in Christ. Prayer is relational before it's transactional. That's what it means to be praying in Jesus. It's participation in the love between father and son, son and disciples, disciples with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, drawn into the relationship. To pray in Jesus' name is to pray in relationship and alignment with Jesus, sharing his purposes, trusting his plan, approaching the father, not wondering if you're loved, but in union with Christ.
John Stott writes that prayer is the chief way in which we express our dependence on God and our confidence in him. If Jesus says, abide in me and you'll know that you are in the father, that you are loved, then you do that through prayer. And if joy is secured by the resurrection, it's experienced through ongoing prayerful communion with God. As we pray, we're drawn deeper into the relationship that Jesus has opened up for us. And we experience God's care, provision, presence. We see the Father at work, our confidence grows. And joy is completed not merely because requests are granted, but because prayer draws us more into the life of God.
But if Jesus says, ask and you will receive, okay, well, what? What should we be confident that we will receive? Obviously, it's an invitation to pray in alignment with the character and purposes and mission of Jesus. And we can be confident that God will answer prayers that draw us deeper into relationship with him. Prayers for knowing God, loving God, abiding in Christ. It's the heart of why Jesus came and they are God's heart to answer. For the work of the gospel, for people to come to know him, for witness to be effective, for his name to be made known.
We have confidence in these things, but we also see in Jesus' life that he gives people the freedom to respond. And so we have confidence that God will answer prayers in the balance that he has chosen for his sovereignty. We can be confident that God will answer prayers for transformation for us, particularly when we look at Jesus saying, if you love me, you will obey my commands. I think that's one of the things that I'm getting out of these couple of chapters is that I want to pray that he helps me to obey his commands because I like to do an invitational kind of grace-filled type of Christianity. And I don't like to talk about the commands all that much. And Jesus says, if you want to know that you're living in my love, you need to obey my commands.
But what about the prayers that matter just as much to us? Prayers for healing, prayers for relief, prayers for changed circumstances, for the ending of suffering, for removal of certain consequences. Now, Scripture never treats those as small or inappropriate, ever. Jesus invites us to ask. Jesus' life shows us that when people came to him with these sorts of requests, he expected that. He honored it. He wanted it. But we know that those prayers in our own experience are not always answered in the way or the timing that we're longing for.
Clearly, it's not ask correctly and you will control the outcomes. But clearly, unanswered prayer cannot be because God has abandoned us or because God is not alive to work or God does not love us because in relationship, prayer is that joy completer. But we're not dealing with a system that we can master despite whatever books you might have bought from Kurong or I've bought from Kurong. We are coming to a father who loves us, who sees more than we see, who's committed to a bigger work than we can always grasp. But he is powerful. And Jesus is the same Jesus yesterday, today, and forever. And so it's right that we come.
But crucially, the cross itself reshapes how we understand prayer and its answers or not. There is no moment in scripture where a request, where prayer appears more unanswered than the cross of Jesus. He's in the garden and he says, take this from me. And God says no. Jesus is rejected, suffering is not removed, death comes. And yet that is the very moment where God is accomplishing his greatest work, defeating sin, overcoming the world, opening life. What looks like silence from God, a no from God, is actually a yes to salvation. What looks like loss is victory.
Which means for us when God does not answer as we hope, it is not because he's absent or indifferent. The father was not absent or indifferent to the son. He was working at something which required deep loss so that deep gain could come. And so we must pray boldly, we must ask for healing, we must ask for change, we pray for the world, we pray for the Middle East, we pray for each other. We ask for relief and we don't ever pretend that those requests don't matter. But we also pray as people who trust the father revealed in Jesus, the father who did not spare his own son despite his cries, the father who brings life out of death and the father whose ultimate purpose is to bring us into full joy in him.
Every prayer is heard, every prayer draws us deeper into the father's love and every prayer becomes part of the way Jesus completes our joy. Not always by changing our circumstances immediately or maybe ever, we all will die one day. But by holding us securely within his victory, within his victory, his presence and his purposes and knowing that we, though we die, will live.
Final Assurance of Victory
Well, the final section gathers us into one final climactic assurance after the completion of our joy in prayer. The disciples say, okay, now we're getting it, we're getting it, yeah. And he said, really, you're going to leave me? But just like disciples in the future who feel left and abandoned, I'm not gonna be alone. My father is with me. The joy that I've promised to you is exactly what I'm going to be experiencing still. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble but take heart. I have overcome the world.
The tense is absolutely fascinating here. It looks to us as though Jesus is about to enter the ring and be very outclassed, that he will be humiliated and he will die. But Jesus now speaking before that moment declares that the victory is already accomplished. I have overcome the world. As soon as the hour has come, it is a single divinely governed event, suffering, cross, resurrection, exaltation. The world now stands condemned as Jesus enters the ring because from heaven's perspective, the fight is won as soon as it has begun.
Jesus' victory was never in doubt, although it looked like abandonment. It looked like and sounded like, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And yet, if we look at that Psalm, Psalm 22, it ends with victory. It is all part of the single divinely governed event, the hour of glory, salvation, and overcoming. So the Psalm that starts with, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Those words that are on Jesus' lips on the cross, ends with, he has not despised or scorned my suffering from you comes the theme of my praise. Before those who fear you, I will fulfill my vows. The poor will eat and be satisfied. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down.
What does it look like for Jesus to say, I have overcome the world and mean it? It looks like suffering, abandonment, and loss, dereliction, that moves to worldwide praise. Provision, blessing, and life. The poor will eat and be satisfied. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship. Posterity will serve him. Future generations will be told about the Lord. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. What God intended from the beginning for people to be under his rule and for that to be expanded across every nation and every generation will happen. This is his victory.
What looks like defeat becomes the turning point for people from every nation to experience his goodness and blessing. The poor will eat and be satisfied. And he says, he has done it. On Good Friday, we're gonna hear the words, it is finished, from Jesus' lips. And there is an echo of both victory and surrender in those words. And at the end of Psalm 22, it is a victory which results in life evermore.
When I read John, and we're ending here, when I read John repeating Jesus' words that things will get a little easier to understand about God once Jesus is raised from the dead, then he won't be speaking in parables and imagery. I like to read his letters, the letters of John the Apostle, because he is doing that. He's talking about the Father as it has been revealed to him post-resurrection in ways that are much clearer and bolder and confident. And he writes this, "'I'm writing to you, dear children, "'because your sins have been forgiven "'on account of his name. "'I'm writing to you, fathers, "'because you know him who is from the beginning. "'I'm writing to you, young men or young people, "'because you have overcome the evil one. "'I write to you, dear children, "'because you know the Father. "'I write to you, fathers and fathers and mothers, "'because you know him who is from the beginning. "'I write to you, young people, "'because you are strong, "'and the word of God lives in you, "'and you have overcome the evil one.'"
Jesus' victory is shared by people who live this side of the cross. We have his secure joy. We have his joy completer in prayer, but we share his overcoming. We experience it because of our sins not having control over us, they are forgiven. We experience it because we know him who is the creator of the world. We experience it because we have overcome the evil one despite his many attempts to devour us. We know the Father, and we are strong, and the word of God lives in us. We share his victory, and we carry his joy. We carry it into everything. We carry it in the times where we feel like we've overcome. Rooms into uncertainty, into loss, into waiting, into fun, into celebration, into anxiety, the world cannot take it from us. Jesus has overcome.
