Joy in the One Who Has Overcome

John 16:16-33 Joy in the One Who Has Overcome Introduction: In these closing words of Jesus to his disciples he holds out to them and to us some of the greatest words of comfort…We continually need comfort. We are very fragile. Not much is sure and firm and solid in our lives. That's why this word from Jesus is very precious. Jesus say, “Your sorrow will turn to Joy and No one will take your joy from you." This joy is irrevocable joy. It cannot be destroyed. It cannot be lost. It is sure and firm and solid and certain even if everything around our soul gives way. This joy will not. 1. Sorrow will turn to Joy 1. It’s amazing that after all this time and all Jesus’ explaining the disciples still don’t understand that Jesus will die and be raised again from the dead. John shows their confusion clearly in this passage. Even when they think they’ve got it, they still don’t. No, what is going to happen in a span of only a few hours is going to radically alter all that the Disciples thought they knew… They are going to be overwhelmed as they watch their jewish leaders, unjustly try, beat, mock, crucify and kill the one they believe to be the the true messiah, the son of God, and they are going to be theologically dumbfounded, and emotionally destroyed. Jesus knows that all of this is coming 2. But in a moment, when they least expect it, everything will change. 3. The cross, the very thing that would be to them the reason for great sorrow and despair, will become for them a source of unending Joy. Jesus explains that it will be like childbirth. In childbirth the process brings both excruciating pain and joy. - It will be like a grain of wheat, which if left alone doesn’t do much, but if it falls into the earth and dies, it will produce a fruitful crop. What looks like the grain’s demise is in fact its harvest and blessing. What feels like the woman’s death and sorrow becomes the source of exceeding joy. 4. The Joy comes because although Jesus is “going away”, a euphemism for his death by crucifixion, his death is accomplishing salvation and redemption for the world. Jesus after all will not simply die, but his death will defeat death and he will come out the other side victorious. He will rise again and He will see his disciples face to face. And this will bring them exceeding Joy. As the great Litany says, Christ is risen from the dead, Trampling down death by death, And upon those in the tomb. Bestowing life! 5. C.s Lewis, in his Chronicles of Narinia puts this beautifully. Aslan - his Christ character, has just risen from the dead, after being slaughtered by the witch queen - Lewis satan figure. He writes, “It means that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards.” 6. Jesus resurrection is the sign that God was making everything sad come untrue, he was making even death come untrue. This is why our the disciples sorrow turns to Joy. 2. Joy Cannot be taken away 1. Joy is an abiding happiness or contentedness in life that is not ultimately shaken or moved by circumstance…. 2. Isn’t this what everyone one of us wants? Does it ever bother you that your happiness is dependent on stuff that fails, that breaks, people that hurt you, that fail you and let you down. Goals and achievements that are never attained, or goals that are attained but only leave you wanting more? How many of us want a joy that cannot be taken away? 3. Augustine upon losing a dear friend once said, “Don’t let your happiness depend on something you might lose…” 4. Joy is similar to hope in that it is the result from being rooted in something that doesn’t change, that cannot change.. 5. Joy for the Christian cannot be taken away because it is rooted in the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. 6. Two things have to be true if your joy is never to be taken from you. One is that the source of your joy lasts forever and the other is that you last forever. If either you or the source of your joy is mortal, your joy will be taken from you. 1. Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.” - John 14:18-19 2. The resurrection means Jesus will never die. 3. The resurrection means you will never die. 4. Which means that if your joy is in Jesus it can never be taken from you, it can never be shaken, it is protected from every evil and all harm. 5. Seeing Jesus post resurrection - the disciples will then rejoice in a way that is permanent. No one will take that Joy away from them then. It doesn’t mean that believers will never experience sorrow. it means rather that after they have come to understand the significance of the cross they will be possessed by a deep seated joy, a joy independent of the world. The world didn’t give it and the world cannot take it away… 3. Joy is founded in Jesus - “I have overcome” 1. The disciples’ reason for Joy/hope in the trials they will face (and ours for the ones we face daily) is captured by the final words of John 16, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” - To say this world can be a tough place is an understatement. There will be times when you feel that you simply don’t have what it takes to deal with what your’e facing. You will be tempted to think you’ve been singled out to endure particular difficulty. Yes, you will have moments when you look back with regret and moments when you look forward in fear. But in all of these there is real reason for peace, hope, and joy. It’s not because things are going well, and life seems to be working out in your favor, or because people seem to be appreciating you more, or your health and finances are good. It is found in knowing and resting in the fact that grace has connected you to the One who has overcome everything that could cause your heart to be troubled, and nothing can sever that connection.. 1. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” - Romans 8:31-39 Conclusion: Jesus has overcome. My sorrow is turned to Joy, and my Joy cannot be taken from me…I need to hear this again and again and again because there are so many things in this world that seek to steal my joy away, that seek to rob me of the joy that is mine in Jesus…The resurrection changed everything. It turned not just the sorrow, and "defeat" of the cross into a joy, triumph and boasting. But it turns every evil, every hardship, into a victory in Jesus..it totally changed our relation to God the Father. It totally changes our relationship with others. It totally changes our relationship to the world - Jesus has overcome the world… (We’re finding that the world no longer has a reason to live or a reason to die…. I was just reading an article about euthanasia in the Netherlands. Though still technically illegal, doctors are “helping people die who simply no longer live because they can no longer live autonomous lives, they can’t go shopping on their own, or go to the theatre on their own so they don’t want to live.. family members don’t see the need to take this responsibility upon themselves to care for their older family members since this option is available. Assisted suicide has also been expanded for infants, and even children as young as 12 years of age can be euthanized for any reason with a parents consent, but 16 year olds need no parental consent….. Secular humanism is bankrupt, nothing to live for, nothing to die for… Jesus gives us a reason to live, a reason to suffer, a reason to die, a joy in our suffering, a joy that no one can take away….Jesus has overcome.) “Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it,4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” -Revelation 5:1-5