JOY TO COME AFTER SORROW
John chapter 16:16 to 33
The Lord's statement in verse 16 was not clear to His disciples at the time. They may have thought it was some figure of speech and they couldn't work out what its meaning was.
It became very clear after the event, and it was no figure of speech: a little while, that is, shortly (it would happen in a matter of hours), you will not see me (for He would be dead and buried), and again a little while (after three days and three nights - Matthew 12:40), and you will see Me (resurrected), because I go to the Father (He would return to Heaven, having accomplished what He had been set to do).
They enquired of one another what He meant. Their puzzlement was evident, and the Lord said so and repeated His statement. As a clue He told them that they would weep and lament, whereas the world would rejoice (because of His death); they would be sorrowful (after His burial), but their sorrow would be turned into joy (because He would rise again).
He compared the experience they would go through to the pain and sorrow of a woman going through labour and the joy she feels when the baby is born, obscuring the memory of her previous anguish. The sorrow they were now beginning to experience as He told them these things would be replaced by rejoicing when He saw them again, and this joy no one would be able to take away from them.
Looking forward to the time beyond His ascension, the Lord tells His disciples that in that day they would ask Him nothing (since he will be gone). Grammatically this can be understood both as:
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asking a question as in verses 19 and 30 and
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making a request or asking for favours.
This is the third time He spoke of praying in His name. Up to this point the disciples had never used Christ's name in prayer to the Father, but after His resurrection they (and all who belong to Christ, abide in Him and obey Him) were given the honour of praying to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, as His own people. It does not mean just simply tagging His name at the end of a request and then expecting to get what we ask: when we use His name in our prayer we are invoking His authority for our request, therefore it must be in His will.
He was nearing His crucifixion, the hour of redemption for which He had come into the world. After that, they were free to approach the Father directly in prayer in His name, the Lord Jesus Christ. As His agents, they would receive what they asked for, and this would bring them joy. Today God wants to hear and answer prayers, but they must come from the heart of one who loves Christ, and is in fellowship with Him, obeying Him.
The Lord Jesus understood his disciples' limitations, therefore did not burden them with the full implication to them of what was about to happen. He spoke in "proverbs" which they would fully understand later. After His resurrection he spoke to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3), and after His ascension He gave them the Holy Spirit who guided them into all truth (verse 13), recorded in the New Testament.
The disciples knew the Lord prayed to the Father for them - as He did after the end of this conversation. After His resurrection they would pray to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus, and He does not say He will continue to pray for them: it would no longer be necessary, as the Father Himself loved them because of the love they had for His Son, and because they believed that He had come forth from His Father.
He came out of the Father into the world, and would leave the world and go back to the Father: He came in out of eternity, from the presence of God, spent a little time on this earth, then would shortly go back to the presence of God, for eternity.
The disciples liked to hear Him speak this way - He was speaking clearly! They had failed to understand the plain words of Jesus about going to the Father heretofore (verse 5), but Jesus read their very thoughts (verse 19) and this fact seemed to open their minds to grasp His idea.
Because of Christ's supernatural insight into their very minds, they were now convinced that He knew all things, and this was sufficient proof to them that He came from God. They were convinced of the facts. They now perceived that He had come forth from the Father and that He had come into the world: He was the Messiah; He was the Saviour He claimed to be. However, they still did not understand the dark waters of death through which He must pass, nor the door of resurrection and ascension back into the Father's glory. They still didn't quite comprehend it all.
Their belief in Christ was genuine as far as it went, but perils awaited them of which they were ignorant. They were too self-confident, as their despair at Christ's death later proved. They would leave Him alone; and yet He was not alone "because the Father is with me." God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).
That is a great truth, and it is also equally true that on the Cross Jesus cried out, ". . . My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:34), a quotation from Psalm 22. The explanation is, "But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:3). Jesus Christ was made sin for us, and there was a rent in the Godhead as well as a rent in the veil. Yet at that very moment, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, a difficult fact for the human mind to understand.
No wonder God wrapped the mantle of night around that Cross as if to say, "You will never be able to enter into what is happening here." Throughout the endless ages of eternity we shall continually understand something new and wonderful about the death of the Lord Jesus for us. It will cause us to get down on our faces before Him afresh and anew.
The Lord closes with peace. The child of God can have peace in this life because peace is found in Christ and in no other place. We won't find peace in the church, or in Christian service. Peace is only found in the person of Jesus Christ.
Our Lord made it very clear that in the world we shall have tribulation. There is no peace in the world, only trouble. But He has overcome the world and His victory is our victory. The only One who ever lived a victorious life over the world was Christ. We cannot live it, but we can let Him live it in us! When we learn to identify ourselves with Him and come into close fellowship with Him, then we will begin to experience the peace of God in our hearts. We will be of good cheer, and have courage in the face of danger. There is trouble in the world but in our lives there will be joy. Peace and joy! How important they are.
R David Jones
16"A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father."
17 Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "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 go to the Father'?"
18 They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'? We do not know what He is saying."
19 Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, 'A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me'?
20 "Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
21 "A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
22 "Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
23 "And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.
24 "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
25 "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I 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 shall pray the Father for you;
27 "for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.
28 "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."
29 His disciples said to Him, "See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!
30 "Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God."
31 Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?
32 "Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."