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.25
“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.
26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;
27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28
I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” 29
His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!
30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”31
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The world is full of things that we would not think it to be full of if the God we know, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is in control of all that happens, so
what do you do with this?We have all thought this, you have thought this, you have wondered, you have been puzzled by such things in your own life and in the lives of those you know and love, even as I have.
Think of all the things you have prayed for, asked the Lord for, and as far as you know, your motives were not sinful and it seemed to you that what you desired was in keeping with God’s
pleasure, definitely not contrary to that pleasure. But the Lord did not answer you…at least not in the way you prayed and in some cases now, it is too late, the prayer that meant so much to you, cannot be answered, prayers for someone who was sick who did
not get better, the repentance of a child that never happened, the salvation of someone who has now passed away, the ability to conceive a child; some lasting victory over a sin in your life that still sits there every morning you wake. Or even things that
were not as big, but still important to you, the job that your co-worker got instead of you, the love of a woman who married someone else, the house of your dreams that was taken off the market and on and on it goes.
As a minister of the gospel I have prayed for people, asking for things that would surely make their life, their Christian life, more enjoyable, more fruitful, more at peace…and I have
prayed thinking that surely the Lord would give these things…but He did not. And while we are at it, the bottom line is that life, for many if not all of us, has NOT been one of unbroken joy, in fact, the furthest thing from unbroken joy. Granted, that most
of the time that is our fault. The Lord has made it clear in our study of John that if you don’t have joy, then you need to find out where you are not obeying Jesus, repent, and obey Him, for He says joy comes in and through obedience.
But still, in this context, Jesus is saying that His victory produces a joy that never leaves, that cannot be taken away…but how can the Lord speak as He does here? How can he speak
of the kingdom of answered prayers and unrelenting joy having come at His resurrection with such unqualified certainty?
So, what are we to do with all of this? How are we to understand the Lord’s comments about this new day of joy and triumph when that isn’t exactly what we see in the Bible and for that
matter in the 2000 years since? Well, there are many things that could and must be said so that we might think and more importantly live correctly before our God and in light of his perfect, unerring Word. What I mean is the problem is not Jesus’ nor is
it the Bible, the problem is ours.
The Lord wants us to have the mind of Christ and learn how to think and get strength and inspiration rather than doubt and confusion from our observation of the world and our own life.
Again, if you want the Christian life to be simple, all the answers on a little cheat sheet, things to be easy, then you will never get to the answer to such questions and you will not
get to the depth of fellowship and enjoyment of God and His Son. But what will happen, is that when your head hits the pillow and the room grows dark, you will have a hard time chasing away the feelings of doubt, confusion, discouragement and the disarray
that seems to be everywhere because you are trying to understand life through your own eyes.
We typically view things only by what we experience and we make judgments accordingly, by our feelings, and by sight. The Bible often presents things to us as if what
is true at the end, the reality of all things made perfect, is actually going on right now, and expects us to be seeking and by faith living, the reality of what will be true at the end, right now. And if I might be a bit blunt: This is what it means to live
as Christians. There is a lot out there telling us what the Christian life looks like. For some, it is all external, don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t smoke…that is Xn living. To others it is social action and even others political influence…without speaking
to the good and bad of those things, let me simply say that those are not the essence of Christian living…this is. Living by faith, seeing the unseen…acting and reacting according to the victory promises of Jesus and not according to the chaos of what is around
us. The bible will describe your life, here and now, using language that is speaking of what it will be like in the new heavens and the new earth.
Think about how the prophets often speak about the Messiah’s coming and there are many of them like this – they speak of the coming of the Messiah and of the consummation of all his
purposes in the world, in a single breath, as if there were not to be this long period of time separating the Lord’s first coming from his second. Isaiah says that when the Messiah comes He will bring justice to the world: When the Messiah comes, the lion
will lie down with the lamb. When the Messiah comes, the increase of his government and peace will have no end. Isaiah says things about Jesus coming as though the first and the second are actually one.
The Messiah will come and the world will blossom white; the wicked will be no more and the righteous will rejoice forever, there will be no more tears, nor sorrow. But of course, that
did not happen when He came the first time, at least not as Isaiah and the others described it. No wonder the disciples couldn’t understand the Lord when he spoke of coming and going and his followers being scattered.
When the Messiah arrives, so the prophets seem to say, that will be that! Things will be put right, wonderfully right! What is Jesus doing talking about being turned over and killed!
That’s not what we have come to expect! Jesus says many things like this as well. He speaks to his own disciples over and over again as if they are going to be in the world when he returns in triumph!
Never once does the Savior say in talking about what is to come, “Now, you people will not see any of this; you will be long in heaven when these things come to pass; but some distant
generation of my people will see it.” He never says that. He tells his disciples such things as this: “…when you see all these things, you know that the coming of the Son of Man is near.” Matt. 24:33
Well, here in our text, the Lord is speaking in that same way. He seems to be saying, using both answered prayer and indestructible joy as illustrations, that in a little while the kingdom
of God will have come and that will be that! You will be riding on the heights of the land! You will be living in the glory of the new heavens and the new earth, you will be looking upon Christ in the perfection of fellowship with Him and with one another
and the restoration of all things and all enemies destroyed!
We are taught everywhere in the Bible to think of our lives and our situation in the world in terms of the soon and certain coming of the Lord Jesus and all things being made new. We
are never taught that the fulfillment of Christ’s kingdom is far, far in the future and that the joy the characterizes the kingdom, or that the deep intimacy we share by asking the Lord for what we need, are realities far in the future so we should just settle
down, grit our teeth and wait it out…that is never said. Do you see how the Bible sees everything as a whole: what Christ did and its eventual and final consequence. It is all seen as one. And we are being taught to see it as one as well.
You must see your life, you must rightly understand it, not first in and through all of the circumstances of what happens to you day after day, which is the way you will naturally be
inclined to see it. But your life is rightly understood in light of the great happenings of the cross, the resurrection, and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no mistake here on the Lord’s part. No dishonesty. He isn’t playing fast and loose
with the truth in speaking about endless and boundless joy and prayers that are always heard and always answered.
Look at what He says at the end, “In this world you will have trouble…” He spoke in another place of going on a long journey and of his servants growing weary of his being gone…The
Bible tells it like it is. It is very honest, painfully honest about the struggles, the troubles and disappointments of even the finest Christian life. But, see how he ends. “But I have overcome the world!” He has! And here is the kicker, we are included in
that triumph. It is ours and it is not ours only way off in the future, it is, for all intents and purposes, already ours.
You might be thinking that your circumstances are discouraging to you, or difficult or deeply sad. Jesus understands that. But do you view all of these things under
the shadow of the cross and the soon coming of Jesus? Your life is not rightly understood, if you are a Christian, when you see yourself standing right between the cross and
the second coming, as someone who is about to be raised up to the world of endless joy because Jesus Christ was raised up on the cross for you. Every
day and in every circumstance…there you are, the cross behind you and the great day ahead beckoning. These are the two absolute certainties of every Christian’s existence, they are the two great hopes that speak to us of joy unending and of prayers all answered.
Christ’s overcoming the world for you means that the world of boundless joy and the satisfaction of all desire is upon you, so certainly upon you, he speaks of it and you are to think
of it, as if you were already there! Because in His mind…You are.
Prayer: Father in heaven, help me to live in the joy of Your salvation and to see myself as You see me as well as seeing my brothers and sisters as You see them! I know that the joy
that comes in Christ cannot be taken away but sometimes in my discouragement and unbelief, sadly, I lay it down on my own. Give me the peace that comes from the victory of Jesus and may I walk this day in that victory to the glory of my Savior, in Jesus name,
Amen.
Hymn: Hymn: Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah
