Joy Comes In The Morning

“Joy Comes in the Morning”

John 16:16-24

A product of the erroneous preaching of our country is a generation of Christians who have the mistaken notion that because they are Christians that Jesus will protect them from any major suffer-ing. Therefore, when tragedy strikes, some feel that God has abandoned them. Others are devastated because they were taught to claim healing by faith, and when the healing failed to come they were told that it was because of their lack of faith. Still others, have been taught that it is unspiritual to grieve and shed tears. So, when they come to church and are asked, “How are you doing?” they feel compelled to say, “Just great thanks!” These kinds of mis-conceptions lead to personal devastation and make these individuals a target for the enemy (1 Peter 5:8-9). It is crucial therefore that Christians learn to work through times of loss biblically, because the sad truth is that we are ALL going to face them.

At least part of the problem is that we tend to equate happiness with joy; but they are two totally different ideas because they each spring from completely different sources. Happiness comes from the world around us. Joy on the other hand originates directly from the hand of God. Happiness is conditioned by and dependent upon what happens to us. Joy on the other hand, which is seen through-out Scripture, is a profound compelling quality of life that transcends the events and even disasters of this life. Joy is a divine dimension of living that is not shacked by circumstances. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word translated joy means “to leap or spin around with pleasure.” The word translated “joy” in the New Testament (chara) refers to gladness, bliss and celebration.

In our text Jesus is seeking to prepare His Disciples for the overwhelming sorrow that they will experience in the coming hours. They would in amazement and horror as He was arrested, mocked, whipped, tried and crucified. Their whole world, everything they believed, everything they had lived for, will come to a horrible and shocking end. Jesus wants to prepare their hearts so that they would not be crushed by what is headed their way.

Note with me three things….

First, The Prediction of Sorrow. (16: 16-20a)

In verse sixteen Jesus says, “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.” While we living on this side of cross have little trouble understanding what Jesus meant, His Disciples did not have this advantage. But surely, this verse speaks of His death. For that very night, while He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas came with a band of temple soldiers and arrested Jesus. He was hastily tried by Caiaphas and the Jewish Sanhedrin, then He was put in the dungeon prison to await the breaking of day. By 9 a.m. the very next day, He would be put on a cross between two thieves and by 3 p.m. He would be dead and laid to rest in a borrowed tomb.

There may be many causes of Sorrow!

One cause of sorrow is Disappointment.

It is hard to really grasp just how devastated the Disciples were by the series of events which culminated in the crucifixion of Jesus. Their whole world came crashing in! One glimpse in the depth of their sorrow is seen in the Emmaus disciples recorded in Luke 24:13-35. These disciples were on their way home for Jerusalem. The Lord appeared to them on the way and asked them why they were so discouraged. They told Him about Jesus, explaining how He had been tried and crucified by the leaders of the people. Then in Luke 24:21 they uttered what must surely be among the most heartbreaking lines in scripture, “but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (NIV) The NIV does a good job of displaying the past tense of their hope, they said “we had hoped.” They had put all of their hope in Jesus and now He is dead and with Him their hope died also. In the same way, when you have hoped and prayed and worked for something that you were sure was God’s will, but it didn’t happen, you will experience disappointment and sorrow!

Jesus’ negative prediction of sorrow is followed by a positive promise when Jesus says, “little while, and you will see Me,” (v. 16b) this refers to the fact that after three days He would rise from the grave and would again appear to His Disciples. The two words translated “see” in verse sixteen are not the same word. Jesus tells His Disciples in a little while they will not see (theoreite) Him physically but in a short time they “see” (opesthe) Him with greater insight and clarity than ever before.