The Disciples Despair Turned to Joy part 2

Well, if you would take your Bible, go ahead and turn with me to John chapter 16. John chapter 16, now this morning we will be in verses 21 to 24. John chapter 16 verses 21 to 24. Now last week we covered verses 16 through 20, and I titled the message, "The disciples' despair turned the joy." And I did state that this was a part one. Simply this morning will be a continuation of last week's message. Last week's message, this morning's message goes together. It's one long message, but we needed to divide that message for several reasons. Two, it's because of time. We want to be good stewards of our time. And then also because of content.

Many times there's a lot of content, and we want to be careful not to try to digest too much at one time. So this morning we'll have a part two, a continuation of last week's message. Now we know that this teaching is within a body of material that Bible scholars call the farewell discourses. That would be the teaching after the Last Supper, which is in chapter 13, and before Jesus' arrest, which is in chapter 18. Now grouping portions of Scripture and identifying the teaching within a body of material, it can help us. I think that has helped us understand why Jesus is teaching the disciples the way He was, this long discourse.

It has a purpose. We also know that Jesus was preparing His disciples. He was preparing them not for just the events that were about to transpire, but for their future. He was preparing them for their purpose and for their eventual ministry. And this was major teaching for the disciples. They would have looked back at these farewell discourses, and they would have seen this teaching as life changing. Now there are three observations about these circumstances that I want to bring to you before we divide our verses this morning. I think these observations will help us in our understanding of these verses.

Now the first observation is Jesus' selflessness. I've mentioned this before, but we see Jesus and His selflessness. Jesus is facing the cross, yet He spent all of this time, and He took all of this energy and poured it into the disciples. He was about to be arrested and suffer the wrath of God for sin, yet He worked tirelessly for these men, not for Himself. Look at the time that Jesus spent with them compared to the time that He spent alone. So if you keep going, you'll see that in the Garden of Gethsemane, He spent time alone with the Father. So we see that Jesus was selfless. The second observation is the disciples and their selfishness.

Now what we see is they are self-focused. Jesus repeated teaching that He would leave them. This caused them to see that their hope for a physical Messiah was utterly dashed. So because their plans were ruined, they were engrossed with sorrow and despair, they were disillusioned, and so they became very self-centered. They could not or would not listen to Jesus. And then the third observation is Jesus patience. Jesus is wonderfully patient with His disciples. He continues to teach, He continues to love, He continues to encourage His men.

He knows that it will take a greater work in them before they are ready for His plan and for His purpose for them. Now just a little application here. This shows us that there is great hope for us. Has not Jesus been selfless in relating to us? Now we can go to the cross, yes. Christ was selfless in going to the cross for us, but He is selfless in that He is patient with us. Just as He was patient with His men, He is far more patient with us than we know. I heard a man say it like this once, "I am so glad that the Lord does not relate to us the way we relate to others." Let that sink in and I think you'll see Jesus and His patience.

Now I think you know by now the title of the message. Like I said earlier, it is a part two. It is a part two. The disciples despair, turn to joy. And this is out of verses 21 to 24. You see how we'll divide these verses? Rather simple. A parable is taught in verses 21 to 22 and a promise in prayer, verse 23 to 24. We will see the Lord continue to deal with their perplexities. They are terribly perplexed. We learned that last week and we will also see how He gives them more hope with this promised joy that was to come. I can say it like this. He just adds another layer to this hope. Now let's look at our verses together.

We'll just pick up in verse 21 and it all goes together. Verse 21, "Whenever a woman is in travail," the English standard reads, "giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she gives birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more for joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore, you too now have sorrow. But I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and no one will take your joy away from you. And in that day, you will ask me no question.

Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in my name." Verse 24, "Until now you have asked me for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy will be made full." So you see how we will divide our verses. So let's start off with our first major truth in our outline. Number one, a parable is taught. A parable is taught. Now I call your attention back to verse 20. "Truly, truly, I say to you," and he talks about weeping and sorrow and their sorrow turning to joy. And then he transitions here into this parable.

"Whenever a woman is in travail or childbirth, she has sorrow because her hour has come." Now these verses are clearly connected to verse 20, and we need to see that. I wasn't just trying to repeat. They're all tied together. In the second part of verse 20, Jesus made them a wonderful promise. What does he say? "But your sorrow will be turned to joy." Now Jesus is about to illustrate this work. He's about to describe this work that goes on in verse 20, and he does it with a story. He does this with a parable. And this story is connected to the promise that we covered last week.

But we needed to divide verse 21 and 22 individually, separately, because there is so much to learn. Now we need to remember the purpose of a parable. A parable is an earthly story which is cast alongside a spiritual truth. And the purpose is to illustrate spiritual truth. Now Jesus was a master teacher, a master preacher, and a master illustrator of truth. That is exactly what he is doing here. He is illustrating truth for these weak disciples. Now here we must take the time to examine this parable. Clearly, Jesus is talking about a woman giving birth to a child.

But for us, there is a big, I mean a big disconnect from the manner in which women gave birth in that day. They did not have doctors trained in modern medicine as we do. They did not have medical techniques such as a simple blood test that can help so much. They did not have the ultrasound to monitor the development of the baby in the womb, as well as to monitor the health of the mother. They did not have genetic testing to test for things such as Down syndrome and other genetic disorders. No hospitals with sterile delivery rooms. No operating rooms for that emergency C-section. No medicines that we are accustomed to.

No epidurals or spinal blocks so a mother could deliver almost if not totally pain-free. Get the popular epidural, a medical procedure where anesthetics are placed into the space just outside the spinal cord in the lower back using a very small catheter. That way a mother can go through the most arduous and painful part of giving birth virtually pain-free. Now in the Old Testament as well as Jesus' day, giving birth was a totally different experience for all involved. Now the Bible does not give much information about childbirth but from the Old Testament and secular sources, accurate information can be gathered.

In Old Testament and New Testament times, women gave birth at home. They were assisted by midwives. Now midwives were women trained to assist in giving birth. Like in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 1 verses 15 through 20. That text mentions two Hebrew midwives who turned out to be great heroes in the Old Testament. Women would give birth on a stool or possibly a chair. Exodus chapter 1 verse 16 mentions the birthing stool. Now in New Testament times the Romans and other cultures use specially designed birthing chairs.

Most of the resources I consulted this week said that there were probably Jewish women who adapted to these type of techniques as well. But there are no medicines mentioned in the Old Testament or New Testament. Now there's a great resource that's out there. There's a very notable Roman physician. As a matter of fact, his writings are available today. He was popular in the first and second century and in his writings he gives a list of supplies that were needed for childbirth in that day. First on the list was olive oil. Just to be honest with you, olive oil was used as a lubrication to assist in delivery.

Warm water was next on the list and it was for cleansing and to help alleviate some pain. Shoes of cloth were on the list for coverings and for privacy, bandages so that the newborn could be wrapped, but not much was available as compared to our day and our time. So what is my purpose in contrasting the experiences of women giving birth then and women giving birth now? In Jesus' day the experience for a woman giving birth was raw and untamed. There was no escaping this sometimes long hours of labor, great pain, the risk to health, even the possibility of death. Now that is the backdrop to this teaching, this parable just in this one verse.

They knew the raw and untamed experience of childbirth. It was a part of their culture and it would have been a part of their lives. Peter? Peter was married. Most likely he had children. They all would have known women who had children in this very manner. Their own mothers, their sisters, their wives. This was raw, it was untamed and it was a part of everyday life. Now with all of that in our minds, there are three observations that I want to make out of these verses. They can be called sub-points in our outline. This is dividing those verses. So our first observation, our first sub-point is the sorrow of childbirth is turned to joy.

Go back to verse 21. Whenever a woman is in travail giving birth, the English standard, she has sorrow because her hour has come but when she gives birth to the child she remembers the anguish no more for joy that a child has been born into the world. Now in this verse we have a woman, not a specific woman but a reference to women in general. She is in travail. She is in travail because of childbirth. The New International, or excuse me, the New American in the King James uses the word travail. I like that word. This word travail in the Old Testament, it is a common word and it is a common word used to describe pain.

Here we see this produces sorrow. Now this is all a result of the curse that God pronounced on Eve as a consequence of the fall. We see that in Genesis chapter 3. In verse 16 God says, "I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children." Now notice the text says that she has sorrow. Go back to the verse. Whenever a woman is in travail she has sorrow. This is because of the entire process of childbirth, not just the pain from the delivery but I believe the mystery and the risk of the event as well. There was a health risk. And a risk of death.

So this sorrow was associated with this raw, untamed event called childbirth. But notice a transition. Notice a transition in the middle of the verse. That word but shows us that. But when she gives birth to the child she remembers the anguish no more for joy that a child has been born into the world. Here's the transition. When the delivery of the child is complete the mother does not remember the pain as much for great joy has come on top of that pain, on top of that sorrow. It is all worth it. The child is brought forth into the world. Now notice our second observation. Their sorrow will be turned to joy.

The disciples sorrow will be turned to joy. Look at verse 22 of the first portion of verse 22. Therefore you too now have sorrow. But I will see you again and your heart will rejoice. Here we see Jesus make application. He makes application of all of this teaching to these disciples. He states that their sorrow, their anguish, their travail, their despair, it will be turned to joy. Verse 22 is a lot like verse 20. Both verses communicate this promise of joy that is to come. Of course this joy would come after the cross, after the resurrection and after the coming of the Holy Spirit.

I do believe that this comes after the Holy Spirit comes and reminds them all that Jesus had taught them. So we see the application, their joy will be turned, their sorrow will be turned to joy. And then third, notice their joy will be complete. Look at the second part of verse 22. And no one takes your joy away from you. Here we see a reference to the complete and lasting work in these men. After they come to the understanding of these events through the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, they will come to a place of joy. This work will be complete and lasting.

So much so that the trials and even persecutions they would face would not rob them of this joy. It was complete. Now in summary, what do we see here? The disciples were going through despair. They were going through disillusionment, but it was painful for them in many, many ways. Jesus was soon to be taken from them. Their dreams for the Messiah were dashed. They were just like many. They were looking for a physical Messiah. But Jesus shows them through this parable that through this pain they would come to a place of joy, complete joy, a joy that would never be taken from them. But now I want you to see another layer.

I like the illustration of an onion. We know that an onion has layers, but this layer is a sweet layer. It's not a bitter layer. When this mother in the parable gives birth, not only does she have joy that comes on top of the travail that she has endured, she has a baby. These disciples do not just get joy. They get something just as tangible as a living, breathing baby. Look at the process that they are going through. They are going through travail, which is producing all this despair. After the giving of the Holy Spirit, they receive two concrete realities. First, the reason for the cross. They understand the reason for it all.

It was the redemption of man, and the second reality is their purpose. They were sent to preach Christ. They were appointed as apostles to birth the New Testament church. That is what brought them joy. When you see a mother and a baby, she presents to you the reason for that joy. And when you see the disciples, you see the reasons for their joy. That was the cross and their purpose. Now some of us really need to get this. When we go through trial, it is painful and sometimes long just like childbirth. But what brings us joy? Is it when that pain is over? Don't make that mistake. That's not what brings us joy.

What brings us joy is coming to the place of knowing why God has brought the trial in the first place. That is what is concrete. That is what brings us joy. When we come through the trial, we know why the work is complete in us. That is what brings us joy. I know last week I mentioned the trial that Brother Keith and Teresa dealt with attempting to adopt a baby. It didn't work out. Little Sadie was in their home for a little while. They went through great trial, great despair. But they will tell you that the joy comes from the concrete work that God did in them. They can articulate to you a work and a purpose that God had for the event.

That is what brings them joy. There's some of you here. You're going through trial and you need to see that when you come through that trial, there will be a purpose. Many times there are people in the life of the church. They are going through pain. They are going through trial. They are going through circumstances. And lo and behold, when they get through that, they realize that the purpose of that pain was to turn around in the life of the church and minister to people just like them. And when you get to that place of knowing that purpose, that's where joy comes from. And it's all on top of the pain that you've experienced.

So look for the concrete work. Look for the purpose in what you're going through. There's no crime in looking to the Lord and saying, "Lord, show me the reason. Show me the purpose. Show me how you want to use me." And then second, look for that joy. It'll follow. Oh, when the Lord reveals to you His purpose for the whole thing, joy will come flooding in your life. Let's move on to our second major truth. Our second major truth, number two, a promise in prayer. Verse 23, "And in that day you will ask me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in my name.

Until now, you have asked me for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy will be made full." Now, besides the statements about His departure for the cross, Jesus made several definitive statements or promises. In verse 20, Jesus promised Him joy. In verse 22, Jesus promised Him a permanent joy, one that could never be taken away from Him. Here, Jesus makes them another promise, but this promise is about prayer. Now three observations that I want to make here, three sub-points in our outline. First, there will be no questioning. There will be no questioning. Look at the beginning of verse 23.

And in that day, you will ask me no question. Here we have moral scriptural evidence that this joy is given upon the giving of the Holy Spirit. In between the resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, the disciples did ask questions. They had not come to that place of peace and understanding. When the Spirit reminded them of all that Jesus had taught them, giving them understanding, then they knew the reason for the cross and His departure and back to heaven. So their questioning finally comes to an end after the Holy Spirit comes and works in them. The second observation, there will be asking. You can call this praying.

There will be praying. There will be asking. Look at the second part of verse 23. "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name." Again, we see Jesus elevate and emphasize what He is about to teach. Notice this truly, truly. Now this is the third time Jesus had taught the disciples on prayer within the farewell discourses. We see this in chapter 14, verse 13. Again in chapter 15, verse 16. And now here in verse 23. The emphasis that Jesus gives by repeating this teaching and using this term truly, truly, it really elevates the significance of this teaching.

He is wanting the disciples to grasp prayer. And this will be a major part of their life. And then third, this is a future event. Look at verse 24. "Until now, you have asked for nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be made full." All along, they have not had to ask Jesus for anything. He has been with them all along, so there was no need for them to ask. But now when asking in Jesus' name, they will receive answered prayer and a joy associated with that answered prayer. Now it is important to note the meaning of this phrase in Jesus' name. This is not a blank check for their use in prayer.

This means to ask for that which is consistent with the person of Christ and the work of Christ. And that is what the disciples will do. So what do we see here in summary? We see a promise connected with this future event, the coming of the Holy Spirit. No more questions. Just seeking Christ in prayer. Again, this work did not happen after the resurrection and before the giving of the Holy Spirit. They will possess the name of Christ. They will pray and receive that which will glorify Christ and will further the kingdom and kingdom work. Now an application, we need to see that here is a great lesson on what to do in trial.

We must not focus on the questioning. We must focus on the praying. Some of us need to hear that again. When we are in trial, we must not focus on the questioning. Isn't that what the disciples did? We must focus on the praying. Now how we pray is very important. The disciples could not pray anyway. Their flesh wanted them to. We must pray for the purpose that is at the end of the trial. That is the baby the mother is going in labor for. That is the great mystery here. We might not see the purpose, but we see it by faith. Just like that mother in labor. She can't see that baby, but she sees that baby by faith.

And when we are in the labor of trial, we see by faith that there is a purpose for His glory and His honor to be used. And we must pray for the purpose of the whole thing. And in a trial, there are always two parts. There are always two parts. First that inner work. Isn't that what was going on with the disciples? This inner work that would come to completion when the giving of the Spirit was complete. And then second, a purpose for His glory. And it is always to minister to brothers and sisters and to reach the lost. And these two work hand in hand. Now let me give you a warning here. Oh, listen to you pastor. Let me give you a warning here.

You can't get the purpose without the inner work. You can't get the baby without going through labor. You can't receive the baby without going all the way through the travail of giving birth. And that's what we must see. The purpose that God has set out for us can only be attained when we are willing to go through that travail. Now moving away from our verses, the body of the message, I want to revisit those four points of application that I gave us at the end of last week's message. I told you that we would come back to this, this teaching, for two reasons. We are prone to forget. We need reminding.

And then second, there are a few things that I want to add here. I purposely held back some things last week that I felt like really applied more to these verses. So if there's a repeat, if there's a review, be patient, but listen close for the added sweet layer of application. I taught you last week that number one, there can be a failure to see that God is good and He knows best. We serve a sovereign God. He is in control. When we are blood-bought, we belong to Him. And no matter what, God is good. We can fail to see that, that He has a purpose for all circumstances in life. One of the greatest examples is the Old Testament figure Job.

Go back and study the life of Job. What was Job? Job was a righteous man, a solid man of God. And by God's great work and plan, God allowed Satan to touch his life. What does he do? He loses his children. He loses his possessions. I mean, it's all gone except for his wife. And at the end of chapter one, specifically verse 21, what does Job say? "Naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." He understood the trial. God is good. He is sovereign. And if He chooses to do these things, He's still good. That's where it all begins, people.

If you lose sight of the fact that God is good, you'll drown. The second point of application is that there can be a failure to trust God. We do not want to move in the direction of trial. We feel sucked in. We feel trapped. We want out. Our flesh wants out of the pit. We try so hard sometimes to get out. But there's just a failure to trust God. Just give up and let God be God. I think I mentioned this individual last week, the story of Joseph. Not only would it do you some good to read about Job, it would do you some good to read about Joseph.

You can see this in Genesis starting in verse 37 all the way to the end of the book, chapter 50, chapter 37 to chapter 50. But notice really the crescendo of the whole story, the apex of the work of God in verse 5 of chapter 45. Remember, Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers. Tragedy and heartache had struck him. False accusations, but lo and behold, by God's good grace, he ends up the second in command in Egypt. Because of the great famine, Joseph's brothers had to come to Egypt to get food. And notice what Joseph said to his brothers. And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves. Wow.

These are the brothers who sold him as a slave. Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. What is Joseph saying? God did this. God is in control. You have to trust God and I had to trust God. Just in case we think Joseph was mistaken, notice what he says in verse 7. God sent me here before you to preserve for you a remnant in earth. God did this work. Something that we can have a hard time with, but we must trust God no matter what. And then third, there is a failure to seek God. There's a failure to seek Him. We're in despair. We're in sorrow.

We're in the difficult circumstances. We're good at asking the questions. We're good at being introspective. We look in. We look in. But we must look up. We must pray. We must seek Him. We must seek Him diligently. Why? Because we know there's a work that God is doing. And then there's the failure to see. There's the failure to see and understand that the source of grief can and most likely will become a great and wonderful source of joy. Now I know that joy can be hard to see when you're blinded by grief, but we see it by faith. Now I'm adding to what I shared with you last week. Number five, this is part of that application.

There can be a failure to see that there is a purpose. There is a tangible purpose in the end. There is a concrete purpose which is produced through the child. Folks, this is the baby. The parable of the mother going through raw and untamed childbirth is like our child. And in the end, we will hold God's purposes in our lives. And we will be used for Him. That is when joy comes. I'll give you two examples that will illustrate this. One is me. In my experience, years gone by in ministry. Most of you know that I spent 10 years in full-time ministry. In the last church that I served, I left under some very difficult circumstances.

Now the difficult circumstances were only the beginning for me because the Lord had me out of vocational ministry for four or five years. And I really didn't like it. Now I want you to listen to your pastor. I was in the deepest and the darkest and the muddiest pit. I hated it. I fought it. Yes, I was introspective. I cried and moaned and complained all along the way. Brother Keith can attest to that. I hated it. I hated my job. I hated the fact that ministry had been taken from me. And I wondered why. Why? Now God only gave me one word during all those times. Psalm 40 verses 1, 2, and 3. Wait. Did you know how hard it is to wait?

It's hard for me. That was the travail for me. But as I was submissive to the lordship of Christ and I was obedient to wait, I let the Lord finally work in me and the travail was the work of God that brought me to this place. Had God not pulled the rug out from under my feet and the floor out from under the rug, I never would have come to the Nola Baptist Church. I was not that godly. Now why do I bring this to you? I want you to see the purpose through that travail. Now I'll be glad to sit down with you and tell you a little more in detail about all that I went through. That was the purpose. This is the purpose.

And this is what brings me joy because looking back all of the pain, all of the travail, all of the depression, all of the questions, all of the time was worth it. I'll show you how good God is. I've been counseling a friend lately. I went through very much the same thing. Having to leave a church from difficult circumstances, church leadership going one way, he feels like he's going one way. I shared with someone this week, I think for two weeks, I spent just about every day on the phone with him for one hour. Why? I saw me and him. I knew where he's going. I knew his circumstances.

And he would say, "I just can't believe the wisdom and the things you've been giving me." And I would just say, "It's not me, it's the work that God's done in me." See the joy that comes through that purpose? And I've been sharing with my friend, you just keep going through the trial because at the end of the trial, there'll be a purpose with it all and then you'll have joy. So what do we see? The disciples to spare turn to joy. We know the rest of the story. We know what happens after the Spirit comes. For us, sometimes we're looking in the future, sometimes it's cloudy, sometimes it's not so clear. What do we do? We must hold on to Christ.

Look for the purpose, look for the baby, receive all the work that God wants to do in us and then we'll be usable in his church and with his people and to reach others. May the Lord enable us to receive any trial that comes our way and may these trials produce the work that he desires for us. Let's pray.