Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

Transition:

Context:

Read:

The best solution seems to be that he was referring to the Resurrection, which would take place “a little while” after he had left them.

Rather, he is simply referring to his return in resurrection.

He is departing from the world in his glorification and the world will no longer have access to him.

When he returns in resurrection, it will be his followers’ final opportunity to see him as he has always been.

What clues point to the resurrection?

(1) The opening words of 16:20 underscore the seriousness of Jesus’ answer.

The NIV’s “I tell you the truth” disguises the Greek “truly, truly.”13

The celebration of the world (16:20b) can only point to Jesus’ crucifixion, which is contrasted with a time of sorrow for the disciples (16:20a), triggered by their shock at Jesus’ death.

There is no doubt that it is the resurrection of Jesus when the joy promised in 16:20 will be fulfilled.

Since these ideas—suffering and dramatic deliverance—are properly eschatological, this has led some commentators to say that Jesus is actually referring to the Second Coming in 16:16 (or at least that John is confusing the Second Coming with Easter, or reinterpreting it).

But such a view is unnecessary.

The cross and resurrection represent a dramatic deliverance; but more, they truly inaugurate an era in which eschatological gifts such as the Spirit are given.

But what about us today?

We do not live in an era that can await such a moment of resurrection.

The “little while” of chapter 16 is now long past.

The resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem is not a personal experience to which we can point, but instead has become a solid doctrinal position that we hold with fervor.

I envy the Easter experience of John, Peter, James, and the other disciples.

And I would wish that the blessing pronounced by Jesus in 20:29, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” did not belong to me and my generation.

We live with spiritual imperfection and incompleteness, not unlike the disciples as they awaited Easter.

Paul’s candid admission is that our vision is opaque, like looking through a dark glass or an ancient mirror (1 Cor.

13:12).

We yearn for the day when we will see “face to face” (13:12b) and discover that all our questions have disappeared (John 16:23a).

This is perhaps where an application of John 16 requires that we understand clearly that Jesus participates in four episodes of self-revelation.

(1) There was Jesus’ earthly ministry, which was filled with ambiguity for his followers.

(2) His resurrection provided the confirmation and clarity they yearned to experience.

(3) Jesus promised the Spirit, who would serve as his personal, indwelling presence during his absence.

(4) We await his glorious second coming, when we once more will see him again.

I have just suggested that we are interim citizens of the kingdom, looking back to the resurrection and forward to the Second Coming—equipped by the Holy Spirit and eager to see Jesus as his apostles did.

In this interim citizenship we need to understand fully what will be the character of our lives.

For some interpreters, possessing the “victory of Jesus” means being exempt from tragedy, conflict, poverty, struggle, and disillusionment.

ALREADY NOT YET TENSION

That is, the Second Coming serves the church much the same way that the resurrection served the apostles.

Anticipation

Our anticipation is a picture of our transformation.

That we are no longer conformed to this world but transformed by teh renewing of our minds that our hope is not here taht our peace is not here that our joy is not here.

What is your source of joy of hope of peace???

When we fail to live in anticipation of another world another kingdom we reveal our present hope when we live in anticipation we reveal a world to come...

What we anticpate we celebrate what we anticpate we point others to

People of this anticipation live in light of their why… why do you do what you do?

On the one hand the disciples are currently experiencing “grief” (lypēn), while on the other hand Jesus promised “I will see you again.”

The shift in the focus from the disciples to Jesus is significant.

It should remind readers that they do not pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

The gaining of hope is not ultimately a result of our own efforts.

Transforming hope comes because of divine action.

The resulting action is literally expressed by the statement that “your hearts will rejoice.”

For the Hebrew/Jewish writers, who loved to think in pictorial words, the heart was frequently regarded as the seat of the will (see Paul’s threefold analysis of the fallen human person in Rom 1:24, 26, 28; cf.

Gen 6:5–6; Pss 7:10; 10:6–17; 14:1).

Thus the transforming of the heart is regarded as crucial in gaining wholeness or salvation (cf.

Jer 31:33; Ezek 11:19; 36:26).

Here transformation is exemplified in the rejoicing heart.

We at least need hope… what Jesus gives here is more than hope, He gives a promise… when Jesus gives a promise it is better than a prediction

Most people can endure a trial if they can see an end.

Lack of hope is the ultimate agony of suffering, since “hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Prov.

13:12).

In the midst of his trials Job lamented, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to an end without hope.…

Where now is my hope?

And who regards my hope?…

He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; and He has uprooted my hope like a tree” (Job 7:6; 17:15; 19:10).

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor.

4:17; cf. 1 Tim.

4:8–10).

During the seventy-year Babylonian captivity (Jer.

29:10; Dan.

9:2), God reminded the people of Israel that their ordeal would one day come to an end.

“ ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope’ ” (Jer.

29:11).

In Jeremiah 31:17 He added, “ ‘There is hope for your future,’ declares the Lord, ‘and your children will return to their own territory.’

” During the captivity, recalling God’s compassion gave Jeremiah hope:

This I recall to my mind,

Therefore I have hope.

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“Therefore I have hope in Him.” (Lam.

3:21–24)

Interpreters disagree over what the second little while, after which the disciples would again see Jesus, refers to specifically.

Some view it as a reference to the second coming, connecting the Lord’s illustration of a woman’s pain in childbirth (v.

21) with His reference to the birth pangs preceding His return (Matt.

24:8).

But the two references illustrate different truths.

The birth pains associated with the second coming refer metaphorically to the cataclysmic events of the tribulation.

On the other hand, the Lord used childbirth in this passage to show that the same event that initially produces sorrow can ultimately result in joy.

Further, it is difficult to stretch the phrase a little while from the few days or months of its earlier uses into the more than two thousand years that have elapsed since Christ spoke these words.

Ha.

Have you ever been utterly bewildered?

So confused?

(Things that confuse me)

The disciples had not been heard from since Judas’s question in 14:22, but Jesus’ enigmatic statement in verse 16 startled them out of their silence.

Unwilling to question Him openly (cf.

Mark 9:31–32), perhaps because He had just told them, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (v.

12), some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling 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’?…

What is this that He says, ‘A little while’?

We do not know what He is talking about.”

They had a difficult enough time coming to grips with the reality that Jesus was about to die (see the exposition of 16:12 in chapter 18 of this volume); His words, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me,’ left them utterly bewildered.

In the day when the disciples see the Lord again (v.

23) and their sorrow turns to joy, they will not question Him about anything.

That further suggests that the day cannot be the resurrection (cf. the discussion of v. 16 above).

The disciples undoubtedly asked many questions during the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension that the Lord spent “speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3; one of their questions is recorded in v. 6).

But after the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they would no longer question Jesus.

undoubtedly refers to the events of the forthcoming death and resurrection of Jesus, the departure of which had been alluded to using similar words in 7:33; 12:35; 13:33.