John 16: 16-23 The Third Sunday After Easter-April 21, 2024-Jublilate

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text for this day is part of the Gospel lesson which was read earlier. We read the 16 and 23 verse of John 16.

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.” ….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.

 

We pray: Dear God and Father, give us and renew in us a love for Your Word. Amen.

My dear friends in Christ.

Our Gospel lesson is taken from the parting words of our Savior, Jesus Christ, to His twelve apostles, before He would be betrayed, put on trial and crucified. The Savior meant to comfort them. They were in need of comfort. He had told them that in “a little while” He would leave them and go to His Father.

Yes, how sorrowful they would be if He were no longer were with them! Yes, they were in need of comfort. The Savior, therefore, tells them with compassionate feeling and encouraging assurance that their sorrow would be turned into joy after “a little while.”

But our Lord’s comforting and encouragement parting words were also a solemn warning to Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve.

Judas was a hypocrite. Love for money had taken full possession of his heart. In order to get the money which, he coveted, he had already made the bloody contract with the high priest of the Jews, to betrayed Jesus onto them.

The parting words of the Saviour to the twelve, therefore, were a solemn warning to Judas. Our Savior knew in “a little while” Judas’s joy over those thirty pieces of silver would be

 

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turned into eternal sorrow. Had Judas only taken the well-meant warning of his Savior to heart! But alas! Judas did not heed this warning.

The Savior’s parting words to the twelve apostles also concern everyone of us. All of us who truly believe in Him, and love and honor Him, should take comfort and  encouragement from His words. Though we must endure trials, tribulations, and sorrows while we sojourn here upon this earth, the promise of our dear Saviour to us is that in “a little while” all our sorrows will be turned into everlasting joy in heaven.

But on the other hand, all of those who do not believe in Him should take warning, less their present joy be turned into eternal sorrow. All the unbelievers and worldly, though they are often joyful and happy while they indulge in the pleasures of this wicked world, shall be everlastingly sorrowful in the hereafter.

These facts are forcibly brought to our attention by our Gospel lesson. Therefore, beloved friends, in accordance with our Gospel lesson, we pray that God the Holy Spirit would bless our study of His Word today as we consider the theme: The Sorrow And Joy Of Believers And Unbelievers.

1. The true believers in Christ have sorrow here, which will be turned into eternal joy.
2. The unbelievers and worldly have joy here, which shall be turned into everlasting sorrow.

The dear Savior says onto His apostles; “a little while” in verses 16 to 20. With these words, the Savior predicts His sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension. “A little while,” He says, “and you shall not see Me.” This little while was the space of time in which our Lord lay dead and cold in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

 

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How sorrowful were His disciples during this little while! All their hopes had vanished. All seemed lost. Oh, the heavy weight of sorrow that was upon them! Their dear Lord, whom they

so ardently loved, for whose sake they had left father and mother, and all their earthly possessions was now dead and buried. Oh, how they did weep and sorrow!

But precious words, “a little while!” For, behold, all at once on that memorial Easter day, the glad tidings were heard; The Lord is risen! The Lord He is risen indeed! Yes, it is true, the Lord had risen from the grave. And for forty days afterwards His disciples had the joy of associating with their risen Lord at different intervals. O happy days! O joyful days

Those forty after resurrection days! But it was again only for “a little while,” because our Savior was to leave them and go to His father, that is He was to ascend up to heaven, and thus withdraw from them His visible presence. Yes, precious truth!

But again, the disciple’s sorrow was not to last longer than, ”a little while.” Only a few years;  all their sorrow would come to an end and when dying, believing in Jesus Christ, these brave confessors of Him would live with their triumphant risen  Lord in heaven.

And, beloved friends, the very same promises given to the disciples is given to all true Christians,  to you and to me, our earthly,  our temporal sorrow will be turned into eternal joy in ‘a little while.”

It is true, in this world, Christians are not exempt from trials, tribulations, distresses, losses, pain, and disappointments. Here in this “vale of tears,” we Christians must often weep and lament.

While we are upon this earth, we must contend with the common misfortunes of mankind, trials and trouble, sickness and death. It very often seems that a Christian must bear a heavier weight of the evils common to mankind then many an unbeliever in the world.

 

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Besides, Christians have sorrows which are unknown to the non-Christians; they must bear their Savior’s cross as truly as Simon of Cyrene did. They must suffer persecutions for the sake of Christ Jesus.

For the devil, the world and our sinful flesh do not only hate Christ, but they also hate His true disciples, and it is  their desire to seduce us into misbelief, despair, and other great shame, and vice; to tempt us with false doctrine and an ungodly life.

We Christians must truly experience the truthfulness of our dear Savior’s words, which He spoke  to His disciples ,”If you were of the world, the world would love you, but because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you. “

And though we are not left alone to battle with our declared enemies the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, yet it very often seems to us as though no one would help us. It is true, Christian friends we know from the Holy Scriptures that Jesus Christ, our dear Savior is always fighting our battles for us, and yet, must we not admit that it is so often seems to us as if He has forsaken us? Sometimes we may feel like Jesus disciples on the stormy sea of Galilee; “Master, do You not care if we perish.”

But my dear Christian friends, what does our Savior say to us in today's Gospel lesson? Listen! He says verse 22, “A little while you will be sorrowful,  but your sorrows shall  be turned into joy. I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you.” Wondrous promise! And Jesus keeps His promises.

-Does not our risen Lord fulfill His promises everyday?

-Does not our ascended Savior comfort us in all our trials, tribulations, and sorrows?

Indeed, He does. By His Word and sacraments our  troubled souls are comforted everyday.

 

 

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When therefore “in a little” when the time of our departure from this vale of  tears is at hand,  then, thanks and glory be to God! We can joyfully say with David, “Yes though I walk through the Valley of the shadow of death, You are with me” Psalm 23:4.

Yes, everyone that dies in the Lord  will hear that comforting  Word of that Savior-God, Truly  I say unto you. Today you shall be with Me in paradise. Yes, and then all the sorrow shall be turned to into joy, eternal joy.

But, beloved friends, as every true Christians earthly sorrow shall be turned into eternal joy, so on the other hand, every unbelievers and worldly, earthly  joy will be turned into eternal sorrow, unless he truly repents, and turn back to God in simple, childlike faith.

When Jesus, the Savior of mankind, have been crucified and buried, His disciples were weeping and lamenting, but the enemies of Jesus Christ, the unbelievers in the world were rejoicing. For during His trial and on the cross we see how He was  mocked.

How His enemies jeeringly treated Him as King and bowed to Him,

how they sneeringly said to Him that He should save Himself now since He had saved others.

 

Yes, how the unbelievers and worldly did rejoice, when the news of that Galilean’s death reached the city! That one, so much hated and despised by them, that Jesus of Nazareth, that preacher of repentance, was now dead. His voice had now been silenced. He could no longer rebuke them on account of their unbelief and worldliness. O,  how they must have rejoiced over His  death!

But, beloved  friends, it was only for ”a little while.” The crucified Galilean, the dead “king of the Jews,” the buried Jesus of Nazareth, had come again. He had risen, risen indeed!

 

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And how awful was that just wrath and judgment that came over His declared enemies in Jerusalem,  in Jerusalem's destruction which took place some 40 years later, which our Lord had foretold.

Yes, be not deceived God is not mocked! For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. The joy of Christ enemies were turned into sorrow, temporal and eternal sorrow. Oh, how they now did lament weep and lament.

Beloved friends, so it is to this very day. All enemies of Christ, His Word and His church, all non- Christians, unbelievers and the worldly, who now rejoice in their unbelief and worldliness, shall in “a little while” weep and lament, if they do not truly repent.

Yes, beloved friends, the unbelievers and the worldly sinful rejoicing in this world shall  be turned into wailing and gnashing of teeth in the place of torment of  hell forevermore. Tell me, I pray you my dear friend what does a man profit a man  if he gains the whole world with all its riches with all the honors  and with all its pleasures and if he loses his own soul.

Therefore, my friends, flea, O flee, to Jesus, the only Savior and Redeemer of sinful mankind; and cling to Him by true faith and love and obedience in life and death. Then you shall have eternal joy, and your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man will take from you.

And we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ. Jesus. Amen.