16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” 17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “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 am going to the Father’?” 18 So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are 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’? 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 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. 22 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. 23 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. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
(ESV)
John 16:16-24
16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” 17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “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 am going to the Father’?” 18 So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.” 19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are 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’? 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 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. 22 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. 23 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. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
I invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 16. John 16. For those of you who are new, we've been working our way through John. This is actually going to be our last sermon on John before we take a little break for the summer and look some at the book of Psalms. John 16, we'll begin reading in verse 16.
Joel Brooks:A little while and you will see me no longer, and again a little while and you will see me. So some of the disciples said to one another, 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 am going to the father. So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he is talking about. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, is this what you are 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?
Joel Brooks:Truly truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned 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.
Joel Brooks:Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. Pray with me. Our father, right now we ask we ask that we would receive the joy that you have for us.
Joel Brooks:The joy provided for us through the death and the life of your son. The joy that is so freely given to us through your spirit. God, right now I pray in this moment that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. I want to jump right in and begin by asking a question. It's a question that's not easy to answer and it's this, As you reflect on your life where you are right now, are are you at a place where you are doing more yet becoming less? Where you are doing more yet becoming less? A few weeks ago, we looked at John chapter 15 in which Jesus said that he was a vine and we were the branches, and our job as branches were to to suck on the life giving joyful presence of Jesus, and the result of that is that we would bear fruit as believers.
Joel Brooks:There would be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control. The fruits of the spirit will be evident in our lives. All of these fruits should be growing, and as I look around at Christians, I typically I can see this happening. I can see the fruit of kindness or the fruit of patience or a self control growing, But what about joy? What about joy?
Joel Brooks:Do you find yourself doing more than ever, yet becoming less joyful as a person? Doing more but becoming less. But what do you think the the world thinks about when they when they hear the word Christian? Is joyful the first word that comes to their mind? Joyful or judgmental?
Joel Brooks:Which Where do you think they would land on their first thought of Christians? Are Christians a happy, joyful people or would they say they're uptight, fearful, sit around watching Fox news all day, anxious. There are more killjoys than joy, yet the Christian life is to be one that is filled with a never ceasing, ever increasing joy. When the angels came to announce the birth of Jesus, they said, behold, I bring you great tidings of glad tidings of great joy. When Jesus launched his ministry in John chapter 2, he launches it by going to a wedding party, and when they had ran out of wine, he turned water into wine.
Joel Brooks:Jesus' first miracle, his launch into ministry was to take a ordinary party and to take it up a notch to make the party even better. So Jesus at the inauguration of his ministry was all about joy, and as Jesus' ministry, earthly ministry is coming to an end, he reminds his followers that they are to live a life that is filled with utter joy. The Christian life, although the world looks at it like it is foolish, The world looks at us and thinks, I disagree with everything you are saying. The one thing they should be envious of is our joy. We should simply radiate the joy of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Now, how do we get there? In the context here in John 16, Jesus is telling his disciples at first they're actually gonna go through a time of of really deep sorrow. They're gonna go through some pain. They're gonna weep and they're gonna lament, and he compares this to a childbirth. Look at verse 21 says, 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.
Joel Brooks:Now from what I I've been told, childbirth is painful. I've repeatedly been told this by many mothers that childbirth is very painful, and and I'll have to take your word for that. I've not experienced that. I've been present for several and it indeed looks painful. In the 1st century, it would have been more painful.
Joel Brooks:They didn't have, you know, the little new vein that they give you or an epidural. It was it was an extreme, extreme pain. Jesus says that the joy coming to us is going to come to us like a birth. There's gonna be periods of intense pain lasting for a while, but at the end of all of this pain, there will be a child that was that is born, and when the mother sees her child, she's gonna be filled with such joy that she does not remember or think of her pain. I've seen this in in all of my children or or 2 of my children being born.
Joel Brooks:I I say 2 because the the first two are kind of how you picture children being born. They were born, and then, you know, the the nurse puts puts the baby in the lap, of Lauren who's laying down, and and Lauren's just instant tears of joy. All all pain. She's not thinking about any pain. It's just it's just joy.
Joel Brooks:We didn't have that with our with our last child because she was knocked out, and it was an emergency c section. So when hours later, they we bring in the baby, Georgia, who looks nothing like a Brooks, she was £10, jet black hair, and put on Lauren's lap her first words were, this is not my child. The joy was delayed. It had to come. There was just a lot of uncertainty at the time, but she has since proven to be a brooks.
Joel Brooks:It's important to note that Jesus does not say that the pain is gone. He doesn't say the pain is removed. He says the pain is forgotten, because as any mother can attest, not all of the pain is gone once a child is born. There there is still pain there. There's a reason that a mother is still lying in bed and has the baby brought and laid in their lap instead of jumping up for joy.
Joel Brooks:They have to lay down and receive and have a joyful experience as they rest and as they heal. The pain's not gone, it's just simply forgotten in light of the new life that they've been given. That's what Jesus is saying here. This is the type of joy that he promises to his disciples. Says for 3 days, they're gonna be in childbirth.
Joel Brooks:They're gonna be in this deep, deep sorrow. But when He rises again and when they see Him in light of the new life that is before them, they will rejoice. But they will forget their pain, but their pain is not gonna be removed. In many ways, their pain is just beginning. 12 will be executed, but their pain is forgotten in light of the joy that they have been given.
Joel Brooks:Joy is promised to us as Christians. It's promised to us. Jesus says, you will have joy. He doesn't say you might have joy. There's a possibility that you'll be joyful.
Joel Brooks:He promises you will have it. All Christians experience joy. There is simply no way to encounter, to experience the risen Lord and to have your sins forgiven and to be given new life inside you and promised eternal life to come. There's simply no way for that to happen and for there to not be joy. Joy is part of our life.
Joel Brooks:The gospel itself means good news or news that brings rejoicing. So Christians should be the most joyful people in all the world. Jesus says that the joy that he gives us cannot be taken away from us. I love that. Look at verse 22.
Joel Brooks:Says, 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. No one will take your joy from you. It's impossible for anybody to steal your joy. It's not like a purse or a wallet that somebody could just come and rip off you. It's it's not like a piece of clothing that somebody could just take off your back.
Joel Brooks:This is an internal deep joy that cannot be removed. This joy is a part of us. I mean, the promise that Jesus is giving here is absolutely staggering that no one, no thing will ever be able to take away this gift of joy that I am giving you. No overbearing boss, no absentee spouse, no dreary job, no financial ruin, no infertility, no rebellious child can take away the joy I give you. There no amount of wrinkles that you get or gray hair that you have or weight that you gain can take away the joy that I am giving you.
Joel Brooks:No amount of sickness or cancer can take away this joy, no election results, no neighbor that drives you insane, no disappointment from your parents. These things cannot take away your joy. That that one person that you have in mind right now, who you think, no, no, this guy can. That that one person that's just been a thorn in your side, that person cannot take away your joy. And by the way, you are that person to somebody else, and you can't take away their joy if they're a believer.
Joel Brooks:When Jesus says here that no one can take away our joy, he means no one. And the reason he could say this is because we receive joy differently than the world receives joy. Just like we receive peace differently than the world receives peace, Our joy is not dependent upon any circumstance. Joy is not something we ever achieve. Joy is something that we receive.
Joel Brooks:It's a gift. It's a gift from Jesus to us. We don't work for it. We just receive it. Now this is not true of those who do not know Christ.
Joel Brooks:For the non non Christian, the experience of joy and the experience of sorrow are mutually exclusive. You cannot have joy and you cannot have sorrow together happening at the same time. That is that is not true for the non Christian. For the non Christian, they cannot experience those things, but for the Christian, we can experience both of those things at the same time. We can have a life filled with both sorrow and a life filled with joy, because our joy is not based on any circumstance.
Joel Brooks:For the non Christian, and I know we have some non christians here. A non christian has to escape or avoid suffering in order to experience any degree of joy. Or often they just deny pain. Deny any suffering in order that they might have some joy. Literally, an unbeliever has got to turn off their mind if they want to experience joy, And we we do this all the time.
Joel Brooks:I mean it's it's the reason why half the people go to the movies or binge on Netflix. It's We call it escapism. We're escaping a pain in order that we might somehow be able to experience joy. Of course, the ultimate pain that's underneath all the pains for the non believer is death. That's the one thing that anytime, you know, the thought of death starts coming up, it's gotta be pushed down.
Joel Brooks:It's gotta be pushed down, because if we were to think about death, there's no way you could have joy. You can't. If you were to to think that your life is merely an accidental collision of different atoms and that you have no meaning in life, there is no purpose in life, and all that awaits the end of your life is simply a switch to be shut off, and there's total darkness and nothing. If you were to hold that before you and think about it, it is impossible for you to experience joy. The only way for you to have any kind of joy is to deny that, to push it, to scoot it to the side and just say I'm just not gonna go there.
Joel Brooks:I'm not gonna go there, because the thought of death is too horrible. Now it's it's been at least 3 years since I last quoted from Ernest Becker in denial of death, And so I want to give a quote from him here. Ernest Becker, he was an atheist. He actually won the Pulitzer prize for his book, The Denial of Death. It's a profound work.
Joel Brooks:And his thesis is this, the thought of death is so horrible and terrifying that for humanity to even function, we've got to deny it. And let me just just read you an excerpt from his book. It's very encouraging. It says man is a worm and food for worms. This is a paradox because man is out of nature and he's hopelessly in it.
Joel Brooks:He is dual, he's up in the stars, yet he's housed in this heart pumping, breath gasping body. His body is a material fleshy casing that's alien to him in many ways. The strangest and most repugnant way being that it aches and it bleeds and it will decay and it will die. Man is literally split in 2. He has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness and that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order to blindly and dumbly rot and disappear forever.
Joel Brooks:It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and have to live with. The lower animals are of course spared this painful contradiction, as they lack a symbolic identity in the self consciousness that goes with it. They merely act and move reflexively. They are driven by their instincts. They live in a world without time, pulsating as it were in a state of dumb, dumb being.
Joel Brooks:This is why it is so simple to shoot down whole herds of buffalo or elephants. The animals don't know that death is happening, and they continue grazingly placidly while others drop alongside them. Knowledge of death is reflective. It's conceptual. Animals are spirited.
Joel Brooks:They live and they disappear with the same thoughtlessness. A few minutes of fear, a few seconds of anguish and it's over. But to live a whole lifetime with the fate of death haunting one's dreams, and even the most sun filled days, well that's something else. And his conclusion is this, the result of this de Nallo death is modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing. It's a powerful quote.
Joel Brooks:But for the non christian, there's simply no other way to cope with life, to have any kind of happiness or joy than to simply try to deny the meaningless of their life and that one day the light switch will go off. But for the Christian, we don't fear death because, well, we believe in the one who's conquered it. We believe in Jesus. And we are not scared of the pain and the sorrow that this world might bring because we know through Christ, we can actually experience joy in the midst of it. We can experience both sorrow and joy at the same time.
Joel Brooks:Paul actually tells us this. He tells the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 6 that the normal Christian life is that we are always rejoicing, yet we are full of sorrow. Always rejoicing, yet full of sorrow. We certainly have pain, but joy makes us forget it. As a matter of fact, it's often through the most painful times we experience the deepest joys, Because it's in times of sorrow, there's times of sorrow when you just feel like every external reason for joy is gone and all you have is Jesus, all you have is Him and He sustains you, there is a deepness to that joy that you'll never experience any other time.
Joel Brooks:Even as I'm looking out here, I'm I'm looking at some faces, and I know I could get up here and I could have people testify over and over and over. Those of you who I'm looking out, and you have you have lost parents. Some of you have lost children. Some of you have lost spouses. And you have told me that in the midst of those times, Jesus was so near.
Joel Brooks:You're not denying the pain. The pain was there, but underneath it all, there was this joy that came from Jesus. Let me give you two reasons why joy can never be taken from us. Two reasons. First is this, our joy comes from Jesus, and Jesus will never die again.
Joel Brooks:Our joy comes from Jesus and Jesus will never die again. Our joy is is tied to His presence, and Jesus has defeated death and He lives forever. Now if Jesus is not your joy, then this promise is not for you. Alright? If you tie up your joy with money, well, then when your money dies, your joy dies with it.
Joel Brooks:If your joy is tied up with family or with your spouse or with your children, when when they leave, your joy leaves with them. But if Jesus is your joy, you never have to worry about him leaving because Jesus will never die again, and he is our joy. I love it when when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, they come to the tomb of Jesus and they're greeted by the angel, and the angel tells them that Jesus is alive. It says that they left with with fear and great joy. Literally in Greek, the word is mega joy.
Joel Brooks:They had mega joy. Why? Because Jesus is alive and their joy is attached to him. 2nd reason, your joy will never be taken away from you. That's because you will live forever.
Joel Brooks:You will live forever. It does you no good to attach your joy to Jesus who lives forever if you don't live forever. That's still a temporary joy, but you will live forever. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, you will rise from the dead because you are united with Christ. We just celebrated that in our baptisms, and you're gonna live forever in his presence.
Joel Brooks:And Psalm 1611 says that in his presence there is fullness of joy, and in his right hands there are pleasures for every more, and for all of eternity you will bask in the presence of Jesus. Now realize in talking to a room this size that there are gonna be some people out there who just think, I hear you. I actually understand the words that you're saying, but I'm not experiencing joy and I'm a believer. I actually think I am doing more, but I'm becoming less joyful. So what am I supposed to do?
Joel Brooks:I wanna give you just a couple of things, what you should do if you are not experiencing joy. 1st, remind yourself of the gospel. I know it sounds so simple, but remind yourself of the gospel. For the non Christian to experience joy, they they have to not think, but I'm asking you to think and the more you think about the gospel, the more joyful you will become. You think about it.
Joel Brooks:Did you know that there were times that Paul, the great apostle Paul, did not experience joy? I mean, Paul, who wrote from jail a letter to the Philippians in chapter 4 saying, rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. So he's literally having a party rejoicing in prison, but yet there were times that Paul wasn't always like that, And so he would tell the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 1 that there were times he was brought so low that he despaired of even life itself, That Paul fell into such a depression, he wanted to die. Rejoice in the Lord always.
Joel Brooks:Again I say rejoice. I just spared even of life itself. But then Paul goes on to tell the Corinthians, the reason that happened is so that he might believe the gospel that God can raise the dead and bring him new life, and he had to remind himself of those truths. If you struggle with joy, don't beat yourself up over it. Instead just remind yourself of the simple truths of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Think about what you believe and remind yourself that while the rest of the world would die to know the answers to some really deep questions like, is there a God? What happens when you die? How can I be forgiven? What can the what can my purpose or meaning of life be? They would die to know the answers to those questions.
Joel Brooks:You have
Jeffrey Heine:them. You have them. Think of that.
Joel Brooks:Speak truth to yourself. This is what the Bible calls meditation. Meditation is simply speaking truth to yourself. So when King David in Psalm 42, he says, why are you downcast? Oh, my soul.
Joel Brooks:Put your hope in God. He's having like this little conversation with himself. It's actually kind of odd. It's like, why are you so downcast soul? Hope in God.
Joel Brooks:That's meditation. It's reminding yourself of truth is speaking truth to your heart. 2nd second thing you should do, do not ask God for more joy. Don't ask God for more joy, because God has given you joy through His son Jesus. Instead, ask God to show you what you were doing to smother it.
Joel Brooks:What are the things that you were doing to push that joy down? Ask God if there's any sin in your life that you currently refuse to repent of. Is there any area in your life that you know you are actively disobeying Jesus? If so, you need to repent of that. Sins clog up the fountain that Jesus has put in you.
Joel Brooks:And so if you're actively walking in disobedience and saying I'm not gonna change this, I know it's disobedient, don't expect joy in your life if you're clogging up the fountain. Listen, Jesus came that we might have life and we might have it to the full. He came to take our boring party up a notch to the next level. He's come to to give us a joy that cannot be taken away from us. Cannot be taken away.
Joel Brooks:Neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come. Neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the joy from the joy that we have in Christ Jesus. Pray with me. Our father, make us a joyful people. Even if the whole world were to look at all that we say, all that we do, all that we believe, and they were to flat out reject it, may they be envious of our joy.
Joel Brooks:May our joy be unexplainable to them. They they can't see any human reason for it, and may that ultimately lead them to you, Jesus. So right now, I pray that we would all believe the gospel deep in our hearts and in our minds, that we would repent of any known sin, and we would experience the fruit of joy that you would have for us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.