John chapter 16 and we'll be reading verses 16 through 24. This is God's word. 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 see me and again a little while and you I'm sorry a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me and because I'm going to the Father. So they were asking what does he mean by a little while? We did not know what he's talking about. Jesus knew what they wanted to ask him so he said to them is this what you're 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 I say to you you will weep and lament but the world will rejoice you will be sorrowful but your sorrow will be turned 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 away your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me truly I say to you whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give to you until now you've asked nothing in my name asking you will receive that your joy may be made full. Let's pray. Father thank you for your word thank you for the gospel thank you for those gathered here to hear your word and pray that it would change us in Jesus name. Amen. In the previous chapter chapter 15 in verse 11 Jesus said these things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. Then he says some things that sound joyful. First he says I no longer call you servants but I call you friends which is certainly a cause for joy. Friends make us happy they give us joy and according to the Mayo Clinic they even make us healthier. Good friends quoting them now are good for your health. Friends can help you celebrate good times and support you during bad times. Friends help keep you from feeling alone. Friends also can raise your sense of connection belonging and purpose and this was certainly the case for Jesus and the disciples in terms of their friendship. It can boost your happiness and lower your stress. It can improve your self-confidence and feelings of self-worth. Friends can help you cope through hard times such as a serious illness, a job loss, or the death of a loved one. We certainly experience when we lost Joe being surrounded by friends. Now the vast majority of our friends are in the US so they surrounded us mostly by phone or through text or things like that. I remember when we were at the funeral for Joe that my Bible studied leader from Eastern Michigan University who I hadn't seen in years he heard that Joe had died and he lived in Memphis. The funeral was in Nashville. It's about a three-hour drive between his name is Mike Shea. It's about a three-hour drive from Memphis to Nashville and I was sitting there it's kind of in a daze and I felt this tap on the shoulder and I looked up and it was Mike. He'd gotten up at 5 a.m. and driven from Memphis to Nashville and as soon as I saw him I burst out in tears and he said to me as I was driving here I was praying and God told me two things that's just how he talked. I don't know that God spoke to him audibly I don't think he did but he said God loves you and this isn't your fault that's what he said. When you lose a loved one a lot of times you think of everything that you could have done to make it be different but he said God loves you and it isn't your fault. So friends can be there at the most devastating times of your life. Friends can urge you to change or avoid habits that aren't healthy. They might include drinking too much or not exercising or always considering yourself a victim. Friends also play a big role in your overall health. Adults with strong, this is still Mayo Clinic, social connections have a lower risk of many health problems. That includes depression, high blood pressure, unhealthy weight. In fact studies have found that older adults who have close friends and healthy social support are likely to live longer than do their peers who have fewer friends. Melanie Dirks, a professor of psychology at McGill University in Montreal said friendships are the first relationships in life that we choose. Because of that they present a really important opportunity to learn how to navigate challenging interpersonal situations therefore we enter before we enter relationships as adults. Which brings us to Jesus saying to his disciples I call you friends. I call you friends and I chose you. Friendships are the first relationships in life that we get to choose freely. And here Jesus says I chose you, you did not choose me. Being chosen shouldn't cause us to feel special, joyful. It's especially so when God the Son is choosing you. Verse 16 you did not choose choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask in the Father's name he may give to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. So he calls them friends, he chooses them, he gives them purpose to go and bear fruit, to participate in the gathering of souls for salvation is a great privilege and purpose. He makes them a promise that through prayer in his name the Father will give them what they need and then he promises love, his love for them and the love of one another. Verse 12 this is my commandment that you love one another is I have loved you. Now all of this sounds very joyful. Friendships, being chosen, being given a purpose, the promise of answered prayers and love. That all sounds like a great cause of joy and happiness but then he changes his tone to warning. John 15 if the world hates you know that it hated me before it hated you. Now this doesn't sound joyful anymore. If you were of the world the world would love you as its own but because you are not of the world but I chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you. Remember the word I said to you a servant is not greater than his master if they persecuted me they will also persecute you. If they kept my word they will keep yours also. So he's telling them hatred for you is because of hatred for me. Persecution of you is because of persecution of me and yet at the same time he's telling them that if you are my friends and because I chose you you will have joy. How does this work together if because of you I'm being hated and persecuted? And verse 2 of chapter 16 goes on to say they will put you out of synagogues. Indeed the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering a service to God. Does not sound joyful. Verse 6 but because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart. Verse 20 truly I say to you you will weep and lament but the world will rejoice. Even as somebody is weeping and lamenting there is somebody else who's rejoicing over their weeping and lamenting and that's the case Jesus says for you you will weep and lament. He's talking about when he is crucified they don't know this yet but that's what he's talking about when he is arrested tried found guilty tortured and crucified they will weep and lament but the world will rejoice. How can this be joyful hated persecuted weeping lamenting and even being killed? How can their sorrow be turned into joy? Well then he illustrates this was with an analogy something they would be familiar with that of a woman giving birth. Verse 21 when a woman is giving birth she has sorrow because her hour has come that's an odd way to say it her hours come usually when Jesus says the hour has come they're talking about the hour of death but when she's delivered the baby she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Now some of the women here have given birth and you know what a painful experience that can be even with modern medicine like epidurals. Now my wife wife Tracy has given birth to six children. Six it's kind of funny these days when a couple has a baby they say something like we're pregnant oh no we are not she is or they'll say we had a baby oh no we didn't she did I've been there. The first three of our children were all boys John David and Daniel and they were all natural childbirths I don't know who thought of this but the idea was that you would go through the childbirth with no drugs whatsoever so you got to experience I didn't she got to experience all of the pain. I was there for all three and it was quite a painful experience and yet when each baby boy was born we were filled with joy. Now our fourth was our girl Jessica she was two weeks late and they didn't want her to go beyond two weeks late didn't want Tracy to go beyond two weeks late so they induced labor with the drug I don't know if they still use this at the but at the time the drug was called Pitocin and the problem with Pitocin it was very effective it did induce contractions but those contractions were harder and more painful than any she would experience in natural childbirth. So Tracy decided she would have an epidural after she had the epidural she looked at me and she said what was I thinking to have these children natural childbirth when I could have had this epidural it was like she was la la la all the way through it. The point here is that Jesus is telling them their sorrow and pain will be short-lived like a woman who's going through childbirth. Now we have to remember that women at that time they didn't have the medicine they didn't have sterile birthing rooms they didn't have epidurals and the percentage of women who died during childbirth was shocking it would be shocking to us. So when a woman got pregnant and had a baby she was literally putting her life on the line. So when she gave birth and the sorrow was over she rejoiced and that's what Jesus is comparing the sorrow of the disciples when he is arrested and tortured and crucified. He says you'll have sorrow now but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. Again Jesus is speaking of his suffering and death and they will have sorrow now. They will also have sorrow over their own betrayal and cowardice. In verse 32 of chapter 16 he said, Behold the hour is coming indeed it has come when you will be scattered each to his home and leave me alone. The disciples promised that they would never forsake Jesus. Peter in the strongest of terms promised he would never forsake Jesus and yet they all did except John and Peter especially denied him three times and wept bitterly. So not only were they sorrowful over Jesus death they were sorrowful over their own response to it and yet Jesus tells them that their sorrow will be turned into joy. Now how do we know that happened? Because once the disciples saw Jesus risen from the dead there wasn't any sorrow that they could be confronted with there wasn't any pain they could be confronted with there wasn't any threat they could be confronted with that would cause them to waver in their belief and their joy after the resurrection. All of them except John died a martyr's death because they refused to deny Jesus. They all had the chance can you imagine you're been preaching the gospel you've been telling other people that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world and if you believe in him all your sins will be forgiven and he's risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty and he will come again and they're preaching this to whoever will listen and all of them all of them eventually are arrested and caused to suffer and are killed except John and all they had to do all any of them had to do was say I was making it up or it's not true and they would have been released but they didn't there was no amount of sorrow and persecution which could cause them to relent and holding on to the joy once they had seen him and the Holy Spirit had entered their hearts the joy was permanent now that doesn't mean that sorrows or persecutions ended it didn't but their joy didn't so what can we take from this for us well the first thing is our joy is not circumstantial circumstances can bolster our joy or heighten our joy certainly there are joyful things that happen in our life i was talking to Bryce on the way in he's very joyful over his hockey team and i'm not so much over my hockey team but that doesn't mean that i've lost joy now if i was his age and my hockey team was doing bad maybe i would lose my joy but but now i wouldn't do that joy is not circumstantial worship fellowship other believers good music can heighten our joy but even without preferred circumstances we can be joyful in christ paul and some of his letters is writing of his joy in christ while he's in prison joyful while in prison certainly his circumstances weren't such that would cause joy but his belief in christ his realization of who jesus is and what he's done for us is what brings joy that doesn't mean we don't feel pain hurt or rejection or loss but it's not ultimate in our lives tim keller when he's teaching on this passage says that joy in christ should also make us thoughtful and he uses a famous author from russia leo tolstoy as an example he is very well known in russia he was part of the elite in russia in case you're too young to remember russia this is before the soviet union maybe you don't even know what the soviet union is another time anyway tolstoy was very famous he his probably his two most famous works are war and peace and anacaranina i started war and peace i got in of about a hundred pages and gave up but i did read anacaranina his fantastic book he was part of an elite society and as with many cultures including ours the elites make fun of the not elites and non-elites and their backward ways they think such as religious belief in fact he asked some of his friends what do you think happens after we die and almost to a man they said oh we just cease to exist just we are no more we steve job said that he thinks it's like turning on a light and he said doesn't that ruin it for you he asked what do you mean he said if there's nothing after you die what is the point why do you live at all so what was their advice to him he was perplexed he was tortured over this idea that he had spent his whole life accomplishing things becoming well known using his creativity to write some of the best literature in the history of the world and yet it was all be for nothing if he ceased to exist so what was their advice don't think about it they said go to the beach don't think about it and so much of what we do in this life when we when we contemplate our non-existence is we just don't think about it but if we understand the gospel we won't be thought less we should be thoughtful how do i live in light of eternity considering that i have a friend in jesus that i have been chosen that i have a purpose that i am loved by the most important person in the world the creator of all that there is that i have access to him through prayer that his spirit lives inside me even if i do face hardship it's temporary no matter how long it lasts and that my joy will not end you see you have to be thoughtful you have to figure out how in light of all this am i supposed to live another thing way to apply this is prayer jesus says anything you ask in the name of the father he will give to you now there's a story of a christian man who was an elder in the church and he attended church all the all the time he taught sunday school he was he tithed he he he did all of these good christian things and they are good but then he complained to his ministry he said i do all this and god still doesn't answer my prayers what's the use and the minister thought for a second he said well here's the problem you aren't praying in the name of jesus you're praying in your own name you have a list of all that you've done in luke chapter seven there's a story i'll read to you after jesus had finished his sayings in the hearing of the people he entered capernaum now there was a centurion who had a servant who was sick and at the point of death who was highly valued by him when the centurion heard about jesus he sent to him elders of the jews asking him to come and heal his servant when they came to jesus they pleaded with him earnestly saying he is worthy to have you do this for he loves our nation and he is the one who built us our synagogue you see this is how the jewish elders were reasoning he's earned it he's done this this and this for us therefore he deserves to have you do this for him so jesus went with him when he wasn't too far from the house the centurion had sent friends and lord don't trouble yourself for i'm not worthy to have you come under my roof do you see the difference the jews were saying he's worthy for you to do this for him the centurion was saying i'm not worthy to have you come under my roof and to the extent that we boast either in our own hearts or to others about our own worthiness about what we do in ministry or in our life what we accomplish we are praying in our own name so the centurion goes on to say i did not presume to come to you but say the word and let my servant be healed for i am a man under authority with soldiers and when i say go they go and when i say to another come he comes to my servant do this and he doesn't when jesus heard these things he marveled at him and turning to the crowd and that followed him he said i tell you not even is in israel have i found such faith when those have been sent returned to the house they found the servant well you see when god promises to answer your prayers that you pray in the name of the father you have to you have to go to him and ask for what you want knowing that god will give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he did an example from when we had little kids we bought an arrow star i think it was an arrow star van big blue van that would carry all of our children and we had just gotten out and and the kids were enthralled with it and john and david went down and got in it i they were like eight and six they got in the van and i didn't think anything of it i had the keys i looked out the window we were on the second floor looked out the window and the van was rolling into the street backwards this vehicle unbeknownst to us you did not have to have the key on to move the transmission so john had put it into reverse and it was rolling backwards now now occasionally john or david at that age would ask me if they could drive did i love my kids yes was i willing to let them use my car yes were they ready to use my car no see i'm a father and i love my child and i'm not going to let him do something that would harm him i'm not going to give him what he thinks is good even if it isn't and our father in heaven is the same we can ask for anything just know that he will give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows finally the passage that read read that we look to jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of god why did jesus become a man live a perfect sinless life and die the death we deserve to die because we are his joy we are his joy we are the joy that was set before him which is why he had endured the cross and that should be a cause of joy for us no matter what sorrows we face father in heaven thank you for your word thank you for the gospel thank you that you can turn our sorrow and you will ultimately turn all of our sorrow into joy we pray in jesus name amen please stand