Scripture: John 16:16-33
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
Introduction
- One of the things that I have going for me is that each day is a new day.
- No matter how bad today is, after a good night’s sleep, I usually can start over the next day.
- Kind of like Drew Barrymore’s character in one of my favorite movies, 50 First Dates.
- I Love that movie – I’ve probably seen it 50 times.
- Drew Barrymore plays the lead character who has a brain injury that prevents her brain from adding the days events to her long-term memory,
- After she goes to bed at night, everything is erased and it’s like the day never happened.
- Today’s message is kind of the same idea.
- What Jesus accomplished with His death and resurrection makes every day since, a new
- Like the short-term memories in the movie, our sin has been erased like it never happened.
- My dear wife, Leslie, provided me with the inspiration for today with the Scripture from John’s Gospel.
- There is a new reality – it’s a new day and John gives us three things that define it:
- Pray in the name of Jesus
- Jesus had to return to the Father
- There is joy in the resurrection
1. Pray in the name of Jesus
- There are 21 chapters in the Gospel of John.
- In John chapter 12, Jesus triumphantly enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday
- Easter Sunday happens just 7 days later in verse 20.
- Almost half of John’s Gospel is about the last week of Jesus’ life.
- In our Scripture today, they have just finished the last supper.
- Jesus has washed their feet and predicted His betrayal and Peter’s denial.
- Starting in verse 14, Jesus begins to comfort the disciples to prepare for what is to come.
- At the end of chapter 14, they all leave the upper room and head out to the garden.
- Today’s Scripture comes at the end of His time comforting the disciples.
- One of the most important messages that Jesus gives the disciples is: how to pray,
- This was the main reason that inspired Leslie to suggest this Scripture to me.
- In verses 23 and 24, Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray and ask for help:
In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
- Pay attention because there is new information here.
- He is telling them that He is going away, and He will no longer be available to help them.
- Instead, they should ask the Father DIRECTLY for whatever they need.
- The key point here is to ask in his name.
- This is why we always include in ALL of our prayers, the clause: “it is in Jesus’ name we pray.”
- Very important technical details, but an essential part of HOW we should ask for help.
- Jesus further distinguishes this by reminding them that they have never done this before.
- He then goes on to encourage them to do this: “Ask and you will receive.”
- Jesus used a lot of parables and illustrations that were sometimes hard to understand.
- He knew this when He told the disciples in verse 25: “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.”
- I turned to Matthew Henry’s commentary to understand this, and he says:
They had asked some ignorant questions, some ambitious questions, some distrustful ones some impertinent ones, and some curious ones; but after the Spirit was poured out, nothing of all this. In the story of the Acts of the Apostles, we seldom find them asking questions. For they were constantly under divine guidance. For example, in that weighty case of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, Peter went, nothing doubting,
- So, the Holy Spirit gives them (and us) a constant connection to the Father.
- Again, in verse 26, Jesus further clarifies how we should pray:
In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
- Here He is saying that we aren’t asking Jesus and not praying TO Jesus or THROUGH Jesus.
- We are praying directly to the Father but doing it IN HIS NAME.
- I know this is a subtle distinction, but it is very important to know.
- And then in verse 27, Jesus explains WHY this is important to know.
No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
- It is by invoking the name of Jesus that we claim our new relationship with the Father.
- We don’t have to wait until we die to come into the Father’s presence.
- All we have to do is pray in the name of Jesus to claim the love of the Father.
- And the Father will give us whatever we ask for in His name.
2. Jesus had to return to the Father
- Today’s passage starts by Jesus telling them: “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
- They were all scratching their heads and saying: “what in the world is He talking about?”
- Jesus understood their confusion, so He explains in verse 20:
Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
- The world killed Jesus in the cruelest possible way on the cross – the world is satisfied
- All who knew Jesus and believed in Him as the Messiah was deeply sad and in mourning.
- But Jesus tells us that those tables will be flipped – just like the moneychanger tables in the temple.
- That is something the enemy never saw coming: the powerful impact of the resurrection.
- He thought: “I’ll take the Son of God down and have Him killed.”
- What he didn’t think about was that this was God’s plan and exactly what God wanted.
- That ole devil, he just stepped right into it. He didn’t even know what hit him.
- But at this point in the story, the disciples still didn’t realize what would happen either.
- Jesus tells them there will be a “time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”
- Of course, they didn’t understand what He meant by this either even though they had just witnessed Him raise Lazarus from the dead.
- The joy of our salvation is based on the presence at the table of our advocate, Jesus.
- Jesus has to return to the Father to complete the process of salvation.
3. There is joy in the resurrection
- Now that Jesus sits at the right had of the Father, our joy is complete.
- The disciples were finally starting to see the light and He was speaking clearly.
- In verse 30 they realized that He “knows all things already without even needing to have anyone ask Him questions.”
- This made them believe that He was from God.
- “Do you now believe?” Jesus asked in verse 31.
- Jesus knew what was soon going to happen to Him, so He shared what was coming in verse 31 when He said:
“A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home.
- As we find out later, only John was present at the cross – the rest did run for cover,
- “You will leave me all alone,” He said, “Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.”
- And just like Jesus, the Father is now with each of us now who believe in Jesus.
- Jesus said: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.”
- This isn’t the world peace that pageant contestants speak of – from Phillipians 4:6-7:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
- Our great joy does not come from this world – it comes from the peace of Jesus.
- Jesus knows the cruelty of the world and that’s why He has come to save us.
- The joy of the resurrection comes from the words of Jesus Himself in the final verse 33:
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
- And now WE have the great hope that because of Him – WE have also overcome the world.