John

“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” 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’?” 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’? 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. 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. 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. “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. 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; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 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.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 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. 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.”

Jesus is here speaking with those who have been closest to Him. Those who had walked with Him, who had lived with Him, who had seen the many miracles that He had done, and yet He says to them “you will leave me.”

John 16:16-33 there is a stark contrast between the feebleness of the disciples’ faith and the faithfulness of God. The disciples will soon abandon Jesus (v.32) but in the same sentence that the Lord reveals this to them He can also say “Yet I am not alone, the Father is with me.” In the previous chapter (15),

Jesus has urged these same disciples to stay abiding in Him, the true Vine, and not to try to live apart. He has also shared that the world will most certainly hate them and feel it is even doing a good thing in rejecting and persecuting them.

Jesus’ mission on earth and the lead into His Passion as we walk towards the Crucifixion and Resurrection - His coming from and returning to the Father and how this initial sorrow turns into great, inalienable joy (What Jesus has given can never be taken away from us) of knowing and being with Jesus eternally and true joy for all Jesus has accomplished in saving us and reconciling us to the Father.

Jesus came for the Cross- Without the sorrow of calvary there would be no joy for eternity. Jesus uses childbirth to show what the cross would be like:

John 16:21–22 ESV

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.

Christ is speaking of the Cross. The pain that he would endure would be worth the joy that would come. - Less than 24 hour after this conversation Jesus would be dead

John 16:16 ESV

“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”

A little while and you will see me no longer- Christ would go to the Cross- showing His faithfulness to God and to man. Revealing God hearts by Offering a sacrifice once and for all so that we could find forgiveness of sins.- His body broken for us.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus tells that there will be great sorrow. Jesus says “I tell you the truth” There will be tears and Lamenting. Jesus was pointing to the Cross. Sorrow that would take place as He died hanging on the cross. They were going to experience loss and a sense of defeat.

Philippians 2:5–8 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

and again Jesus Says, “again a little while, and you will see me.”- We have the promise of eternal life with Christ. Because of the pain of the cross we have the joy of salvation.

Christ also promises that “your hearts will rejoice.”

John 16:22–24 ESV

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. 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.

R.C. Sproul: “For a little while”- That little phrase is used often in Scripture to describe the interval of pain, sorrow, and grief we’re called to endure in this life. Still, it may not seem like a little while when we are enduring something difficult. Ten minutes in an ice cream parlor is a little while; ten minutes in a dentist’s chair is an eternity. So these little whiles can seem quite long when we are enduring them.

But even in the midst of sorrow, pain, struggle, depression, and hurt we have a joy that can never be taken from us.

Romans 8:35–39 ESV

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

nothing can take away the Work of Christ- WE have this assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God

Even to the point that God has put His holy Spirit in us. We are His and He is ours because of the cross of Jesus Christ

Isaiah 53:4–6 ESV

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

There are great trials that bring great pain. Our savior shows that God is faithful to us in the midst of trials.

Even in our wandering away and questioning God is still faithful:

John 16:32 ESV

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.

Jesus Says this verse right after they make there confession “this is why we believe that you came from God.”

John Failing to Follow the Master

“You may be full of belief and trust now, but it isn’t going to last. You all are going to leave. When you see the guards coming through the Garden of Gethsemane, led by Judas, when you see the swords of the Roman soldiers being brandished in the moonlight, you’re going to run for your lives, and you’re going to leave Me alone.”

The easy thing is to confess the hardest part is to live it out- But those who do chose to confess with there mouths and believe with their hearts and live that life out Jesus Promises

John Failing to Follow the Master

In the first year I was a Christian, I attended a weekly prayer meeting, and we sang a number of old hymns. One of them was “Where He Leads Me,” and the first stanza and refrain went like this:

I can hear my Savior calling,

“Take thy cross and follow, follow Me.”

Where He leads me I will follow,

Where He leads me I will follow;

I’ll go with Him, with Him, all the way.

When I sang that hymn, my soul was filled with joy and I thought: “Yes, Lord. I’m yours. Wherever You want me to go, I’ll go.” I look back on the zeal that filled my heart in those days and I can’t help but think of all the places He has gone that I didn’t go, all the times that He beckoned me to follow and I went the other direction and left Him alone.

Jesus said this was what His closest friends were about to do to Him—leave Him alone. Yet, He said, “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (v. 32b).

Revelation 3:21 ESV

The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

The one who overcomes gets the promise to spend eternity with Christ.

This world is full of momentary trouble, trials, hardships, seasons of pain, times of depression

John 16:33 ESV

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.”

But Christ has overcome this sinful world and we can take heart because of the Cross

John A Striking Contrast

I once talked with a dear Christian woman and ministered to her just days before her death after a ten-year battle with cancer. She looked at me with tears running down her cheeks and said, “R. C., I just can’t take it anymore.” Have you been there? It’s one thing to hurt for a day, but when the pain lasts for a month or a year, and then that year turns into ten years, all of a person’s reserves of strength seem to drain away. This woman had trusted God through that whole time, and she finally said, “I can’t take it anymore.” Within a few days, the Lord took her home, took her away from the pain and the lament to unspeakable joy.

John Good Cheer in Tribulation

Jesus said, “I have overcome the world.” In other words, Jesus said: “I have overcome the world. I have taken everything it could throw at Me, and I have come forth victorious.” He crushed His enemies under His feet by His blood.

The world threatens to crush you and me every minute of our lives. It hurls insults, tribulations, pain, death—all sorts of things that take away the joy that should be ours in Christ. But Jesus overcame the world. That’s why the apostle Paul could say we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Rom. 8:37). It isn’t because we have the power to beat the world. We don’t. It is because He overcame the world for us.

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