Preached on Resurrection Sunday, April 4, 2010
from
John 16:20-22

Theme: For His followers, Jesus’ resurrection means that sorrow perpetually gives way to joy.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

[podcast]http://www.bethanybible.org/audio/041110.mp3[/podcast]

On Resurrection Sunday, our focus is—as it ought to be—on glorious fact of the empty tomb; and that our wonderful Savior, who died on the cross for us, was raised from the dead and is alive today. But it’s not just something to think about only on Resurrection Sunday. It’s the one great fact that we’re to build everything else around. It’s something that is to impact every area of our lives every day of the year.

And so, to gain a greater appreciation for just how much the resurrection of Jesus should impact our lives in a practical way every day, I ask that we look back to a dinner-time conversation Jesus had with His disciples before that wonderful event—before, in fact, He even went to the cross.

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The story is told to us in the sixteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. The scene was the Passover Meal—the last supper our Lord would eat with His disciples before He would go to the cross. Judas had already been dismissed from the table by the Lord with the words, “What you do, do quickly” (John 13:27); and with that, the betrayer was on his way to fetch those who would come later and arrest the Lord in the garden.

Now; the disciples didn’t understand why Judas had left. In fact, they didn’t understand much of what Jesus told them during the dinner conversation that followed. And they very clearly didn’t understand what He told them in John 16:16; where He said, “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.”

If you read through the story of the Last Supper, as John reports it to us in his Gospel, you can see that Jesus had said this kind of thing repeatedly. But it had gotten the disciples very confused and troubled. John tells us, “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”?’ They said therefore, ‘What is this that He says, “A little while”? We do not know what He is saying’” (John 16:17-18). Some of then wanted to ask about it—but they were a little shy about doing so.

And it’s understandable that such words from our Lord would disturb them. He had become everything to them. Even when everyone else had left the Lord, and Jesus had asked them, “Do you also want to go away?”, they answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:67-69). They had come to depend on Jesus for everything. If they needed direction, they turned to Him and He told them where to go and what to do. If they needed instruction, they turned to Him and He taught them. If they looked ahead to the future, they kept their focus on Him because it was upon Him that they had placed all their hopes. They had built their whole lives around a relationship with Him, and they were utterly dependent upon Him—which is as it should be. They had come to understand—as each one of us must come to understand—that He is the Son of God; and that people are made by God to exist in a close, dependent relationship to Him.

And yet, now, He was telling them that He was going to leave them for a while. What troubling talk that must have been to them! When He said, “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”, they’d naturally want to know what He meant by this.

By the way; isn’t it wonderful that, now, we—His followers today—know what He was talking about? In fact, we’re celebrating this very morning what it was that He was talking about! He was about leaving them for a short while because He would be betrayed into the hands of evil men, would be crucified, and would be placed in the tomb. They would “not see” Him for a little while, because He would be taken away from them in death and placed in a tomb. The precious Son of God—around Whom they had built their entire lives—would be inaccessible to them for a while. But it would only be for a little while; because, as He had promised to them, they would see Him again alive three days later after His resurrection! We have an advantage over that small band of disciples; because we’re on the other side of what happened.

But they didn’t understand any of this. John says, “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?”‘” (v. 19). And what’s interesting is that, in this morning’s passage, Jesus doesn’t then simply tell the disciples what would happen. Instead, He tells them what their experience of it all would be as it happened.

And it’s these words, in verses 20-22, that I ask you to pay special attention to. I believe it’s these words that help us to appreciate the all-pervasive impact of Jesus’ resurrection to the every-day lives of those who follow Him today. He told them;

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. A woman, when she is in labor, 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. 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 (John 16:20-22).

Joy is mentioned—in one form or another—five times in these three verses. Joy—the experience of real, prevailing, enduring gladness in the very core of our being; the gladness that comes from having what it is that we truly long for—is something that everyone in this room needs. And this means that each one of us needs to hear these very important words from the Lord Jesus on this Resurrection Sunday.

You see; we’re not here to celebrate a mere ‘myth’ today. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is presented to us in the Scriptures as a real, literal, historic event; and that’s what we affirm that it is. And in the midst of this dark, fallen, and often very sorrowful world, our Savior presents His own resurrection to us as the very foundation of real, enduring, surpassing joy. Jesus Christ—upon whom that small band of disciples had utterly depended, and around whom they had built their whole lives and hopes for eternity—was taken from them for a brief while through death. But He was raised from the dead, and is alive today, and is able to transform the life of anyone here who trusts in Him. It’s a glorious truth, the transforming force of which is something that you and I can—and must—now bring into every aspect of life.

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything! He changes everything! And what He changes it all to is joy!

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Look again with me at Jesus’ words about His own resurrection. And think with me, first, about how . . .

1. IT TRANSFORMS ALL OUR SORROW INTO JOY (v. 20).

When Jesus spoke with the disciples, He didn’t give them false advertising. He let them know the truth. He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful . . .” His crucifixion seemed like a great defeat to them. It appeared as if the devil had won. Their beloved Savior was taken from them in death; and they must have felt that all their hopes were crucified with Him. They wept and lamented and had sorrow.

But the sorrow they would experience would only be temporary. He then said to them, “. . . you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” And think carefully of how victorious those words are. He didn’t simply say that their sorrow would be “accompanied” by joy—as if to say that, even though they’ll have sorrow, they shouldn’t feel too badly about it; because there will be some good times too. Nor did He say that their sorrow would be “replaced” with joy—as if the great sorrow they were about to experience would be driven out and displaced with a greater emotion of joy. He said something even greater than that—that their sorrow would be “turned into joy”. The basis of their sorrow—that is, that He would be taken away from them—would be the very basis of their joy!

Do you remember how, after Jesus was raised from the dead, a couple of His disciples were walking along on the road to Emmaus? They were in great sadness and grief; and they were talking and reasoning between them about all the sorrowful things that had happened on Golgotha. And without their knowing who it was, the resurrected Lord Jesus drew near to them and began walking along with them.

“What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Jesus asked? I picture them stopping dead in their tracks, and looking sadly at this new traveling companion as they said, “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?”

He led them to think further along on what had happened by asking, “What things?”

So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see” (Luke 24:19-24).

Now; wouldn’t you agree with me that—based on the limited knowledge they had—they had real reason for sorrow? And in fact, wouldn’t you agree that the basis of their sorrow was also the basis of the unbelieving world’s rejoicing? The chief priests and rulers of the people, after all, were deeply jealous of Him. They condemned Him to death, and saw to it that He truly did die and was securely placed in the tomb. There His body was for three days! On the basis of their limited knowledge, the enemies of our Lord seemed successful. They seemed to have reason to rejoice; and His followers seemed to have reason to sorrow.

But it was the very thing that the disciples sorrowed over—the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus—that the risen Lord Jesus then turns into joy. Luke tells us,

Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (vv. 25-27).

He showed them that the very thing that they sorrowed over was actually the fulfillment of God’s plan all along—and was the very event that necessarily preceded His entry into His glory. Luke tells us that they invited this “Stranger” to dinner; and it was there that He revealed Himself to them and vanished before their eyes! They ran immediately to the disciples in Jerusalem to tell what happened—and found that the Lord Jesus had appeared to them as well!

Luke goes on to tell us;

Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.” But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?” So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. And He took it and ate in their presence (vv. 36-43).

Dear brothers and sisters; Jesus didn’t just replace the sorrow of the cross with the joy of the resurrection. He still had the nail prints in His hand! He showed them that He still bore the distinctive marks of the sorrowful suffering on the cross. But He then used those very same nail-scarred hands to take up fish and eat before their eyes—just to show that He completely conquered death. He had completely turned sorrow into joy!

And it’s still true today! If you know this wonderful Savior, you can count it all joy today when you fall into various trials! If the resurrected Son of God was able to turn the most dreadfully sorrowful event of human history—His own crucifixion on a cursed cross—into the cause of the greatest possible joy, then we can trust Him to wash us clean of our sins, and turn every aspect of our sinfully broken and wounded lives into something that will bring Him glory forever.

That’s a cause for joy! And it means that there is now a basis for solid, substantial, enduring joy in every aspect of your life and mine—if we will but trust Him!

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So; that’s one reason that the resurrection of Jesus Christ changes everything today. It’s on the basis of Jesus’ resurrection that all the sorrow we could ever experience in this world can be transformed into joy. Nothing else in this world can do that! Only the resurrected Jesus.

But there’s more He wanted His disciples to know concerning His resurrection . . .

2. IT PROMISES THAT OUR JOY WILL COMPLETELY OVERWHELM SORROW (v. 21).

To help the disciples understand the joy that was about to be theirs, Jesus used a well-established experience—common in humanity—as an illustration: “A woman, when she is in labor, 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.”

As far as personal experience, I’m afraid I’ll have to take the Lord’s word on that. But the illustration is clear enough; isn’t it? We’ve all had some at least some contact with the delivery room. We all know how the mother-to-be is in a far different state of being coming out than she was going in. Going in, she is—in the words of the old King James version—a woman “in travail”. She’s takes classes, and has training weeks in advance in breathing exercises, so she can manage the pain of that “travail”. There’s great anguish, and pushing, and “labor”. But suddenly, it’s over! A child is born! There’s laughter and tears and joy. In fact, the laughter and tears and joy completely overwhelm the pain, and anguish and labor that came before.

Jesus was telling His disciples that the things that they were about to experience—His betrayal, His arrest, His trial, His scourging, His crucifixion, and His body laying in the tomb; and—along with it all—the shattered dreams, the disappointed hopes, and the absence of their beloved Master, would all be deeply painful and sorrowful. But suddenly—three days later—all those sorrowful feelings would give way to joy. They would have their Lord back—and His resurrection would so change everything that the deep sorrow they once thought would never go away would no longer even be remembered!

I believe that the disciples could take that in the immediate sense. The sorrow they were about to feel would be overwhelmed by the joy they would experience immediately afterwards. But I believe there’s also a greater sense in which this could be taken—and it’s one that you and I can share today. The apostle Paul once wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Now these words were from a man who was once met by the resurrected Jesus Himself. That encounter transformed Paul so much that he became the church’s greatest missionary. And as you know, he suffered in outstandingly severe ways for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was beaten, and scourged, and stoned, and shipwrecked, and persecuted, and jailed over and over again! He went hungry and thirsty in his labors for Jesus; was often poorly clothed, or in danger from malicious attacks. Any one of the events we read that he went through in the book of Acts would be something that you and I would be talking about for the rest of our lives as outstanding ‘badges of suffering’. And yet—because He had met the resurrected Jesus—he didn’t feel that any of those things were even worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as the glory that he was destined to experience in Christ!

One of the last promises that the Bible makes to you and me, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is this one found in Revelation 21:4—when all the saints will be glorified in Christ and will stand together in their eternal home with Him: “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

So; there’s another way that the resurrection of Jesus gives us the basis of real, substantial joy today. It promises that, when we are completely glorified in Him—where His death on the cross has redeemed us to be—our eternal joy will utterly overwhelm all the temporal feelings of sorrow we might have experienced on the way.

You can count on that right now—and experience overwhelming joy today—if you trust in Him.

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A third thing we need to know about the resurrection of our Savior, from what the Lord Himself told His disciples, is that . . .

3. IT ESTABLISHES OUR JOY IN AN ETERNAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM (v. 22a).

This is a wonderful truth that it’s very important to remember. Jesus wants a deep, personal relationship with us. The Lord Jesus didn’t simply rise from the dead and leave us with an abstract, theoretical source of joy. Our joy isn’t simply based on the theological confession that there was a resurrection. Our joy is, ultimately, based on the fact that He was raised in order to enter into a relationship with us that will never end. He Himself is the resurrection and the life! He told His disciples, “Therefore you now have sorrow. . .”; though it would be like the sorrow that a woman in labor has—suddenly giving way to joy. And He then adds, “. . . I will see you again and your heart will rejoice . . .”

Do you know what, to me, is the greatest reason to rejoice over the resurrection of Jesus? It’s because it means that He is alive right now; and I can walk in daily fellowship with Him in a personal relationship of love! Just as He was everything to the disciples when He walked on this earth with them, He can now be everything to me—and to anyone who trusts in Him. I can turn to Him for everything; and He welcomes me! Through the mediating ministry of the Holy Spirit—Whom He sent to minister to His people on this earth until He returns for them—He is as much in real, living fellowship with those who trust Him today as He was with those with whom He spoke during that dinner long ago. And when my time on this earth is done, I will behold Him with my own eyes!

Peter spoke of the joy that comes from this personal relationship with Jesus to a group of Christians who were suffering persecution. He wrote;

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ . . . (1 Peter 1:3-7).

But this wasn’t meant to be understood as an abstract truth, somehow independent of a personal relationship with Jesus. Peter goes on to say this of Jesus:

. . . whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1:3-9).

The joy that we experience because of the resurrection of Jesus, dear brothers and sisters, is ours because we enter into a personal love relationship with Him! As He said, ” I will see you again and your heart will rejoice . . .”

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And there’s one more thing to note from Jesus’ words about His own resurrection . . .

4. IT ENSURES THAT OUR JOY WILL NEVER BE TAKEN FROM US (v. 22b).

After setting before His disciples all these ways that His resurrection would give them joy, He adds, “. . . and your joy no one will take away from you.”

There’s lots of other sources of joy other than Jesus. But they’re all temporary, and can be easily lost to us. Circumstances can rob us of it. Trials can rob us of it. Losses can rob us of it. Even other people can rob us of it. But if our joy is based in a relationship with the resurrected Jesus Christ, it’s a joy that endures. It’s a joy that remains—even in the midst of difficult circumstances, or trials, or losses. No one can take it away from us, because no one can take Him away from us.

Look with me for a moment at the very last verse of John 16. It’s His last words to His disciples during this final dinner—as it’s recorded for us in John’s Gospel. Jesus said, “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” (John 16:33).

How did He overcome the world? Certainly it was by the cross—but it wasn’t by the cross alone. If all that had happened was the cross, then the world would have overcome Him. He overcame the world by not only dying on the cross for the sins of all humanity, but also by being raised from the dead in victory three days later. And now, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39).

No one can take our joy away from us, if it is in the resurrected Jesus Christ!

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The resurrection of Jesus, then, isn’t merely a theoretical matter—somehow detached from everyday life. Rather, it is the basis of real, lasting, enduring, surpassing joy in every circumstance of every day of our lives! It transforms all sorrow into joy, gives us the prospect of seeing all sorrow completely swallowed up in joy, establishes a relationship with the risen Christ as the basis of our joy, and ensures that our joy will never be taken away from us!

Do you know the risen Savior? If so, then you truly have reason to rejoice!