John 16:12-22 (Teaching)

[0:00] morning back in Gospel of John in chapter 16 this morning John 16, last week we got through verse 11 in the scripture, throughout John 16 thus far, really John 15 could be included in that, John 14 as well.

[0:36] As y'all have heard me say, this is known as the farewell discourse that Christ is saying or conveying to his disciples, and thus far it's more of a preparation for the disciples, for the departure of Jesus Christ. And we know that for three years off and on Christ has told them that he was going to leave, that he was going to be crucified, he would be buried, he would be resurrected, that he would ascend but he's really driving this fact home to the disciples here in what's popularly known as the farewell discourse and that's been the big subject matter of this for the past couple of chapters, on end of chapter 16 is Christ is leaving, and he's preparing his disciples for that, and that continues all the way up through verse 11, and verse 12 kind of changes gears just a little bit, the context is still Christ is leaving that hasn't changed, but Christ instead of preparing them for his departure here starting at verse 12, he starts preparing the disciples for joy, he starts preparing them for the joy that they're going to experience, for the joy that they will feel. Now again, just as Christ for three years has been preparing them off and on for his departure, he's also been preparing them for this joy but again, he really driving it home in the passage that I hope that we make it through this morning but last week, again we got through verse 11, we ended with the spirit's work here in the world once he has come because remember the spirit hadn't been poured out at this point, the spirit was still promised to come by Jesus Christ, he had told the disciples, if I go away, I will pray the Father and he will send the comforter to you, and this comforter has been promised, and I tell you now, if Christ has promised something it's going to happen, you can bank on it that it will happen but the comforter was not here at this point,

[3:12] Christ was still here, and Christ was the comforter for the disciples he's the one that they went to, he's the one that they felt secure around he's the one when they were around him, they didn't feel like anything back could go wrong, so we ended again last week with Christ telling about the comforter and telling about the role of the comforter which we know that to convince the world or to convict the world of sin and of judgment and these things that we talked about last week, that's not the only role of the Holy Spirit and Christ gets into some of that here in this passage we're about to begin so all that being said in John chapter 16 began verse 12, Christ says I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now, I have many things to say unto you, speaking to the disciples, the remaining eleven, he says but you cannot bear them now and honestly this looks like an insult but it's not but to us who are just glad, a lot of times just glance over the Scripture it can be insulting, Christ say I got some other things to tell you all but you can't bear them now, you're not ready for them, folks this should bring us a great amount of comfort, these words here that Christ spoke to these these disciples, these eleven men that have been following him around, as y'all have heard me say for three years they've slept in the same places he's slept, they've eaten meals with them they've communed with them, they've heard the teaching, they've heard the preaching, they've seen all these things going on and Christ is telling them, I've got many things that I would love to tell you all but you cannot bear them, you're not ready for them and folks that is extremely comforting to me knowing that Christ is not going to give me anything that I'm not ready for, that's a key component honestly to ministry but not just in ministry as far as preaching or teaching goes but ministry as far as lay members go, as far as witnessing goes, God is not going to lay anyone on your heart to witness to that you're not prepared to witness to them that you don't have the correct things to say to them that you can't think of the right things to say to them, the right scriptures aren't coming to mind, whatever the case is, God is not going to lay anything on you that you are not ready for and Christ here tells the disciples there's a ton of things I'd like to tell you boys there's all kinds of things I would like to convey to you right now but you cannot bear them, you cannot bear them

[6:16] Paul told the Corinthian church something very similar in the third chapter of 1 Corinthians, he says I fed you with milk, he said I fed you with milk, he said I'd like to feed you with meat, this is just my words I'd like to do this, he said but you're not ready for that yet and it's an aspect of readiness and Christ here telling these disciples you're not ready for this you cannot bear them now, verse 13 how be it when he, the Spirit of Truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will shoe you things to come, so he says how be it and Paul told them this line in verse 12, he says have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them, he says how be it when the Spirit of Truth has come, he will guide you into all truth and for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak and he will shoe you things to come, so he says even though I have things that I want to tell you right now at this present time it's not going to happen because you cannot bear them, how be it when the Spirit of Truth has come, when the Comforter has come this Comforter that I've been promising you, this Comforter that I'm going to pray the Father and he will send you, he will guide you into these truths it's not going to happen right now but these truths will be enlightened to you and shown to you some point in the future and he says he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself folks when the Spirit comes to us as saved individuals and when the Spirit goes to lost individuals to convict them to show them their sin the Spirit isn't speaking of himself then either, in either one of those situations the Spirit witnesses of Christ the Spirit speaks of Christ you might say well what does my sin got to do with Christ

[8:28] Christ died for your sin, that's what your sin has to do with Christ, Christ died for you, he died that you could have your sin washed away, he died that you could be washed clean and made pure and made righteous and made holy and upright in the eyes of an Almighty God, the Almighty Creator of this universe and this is one of the truths that the Spirit will guide people into, whether they be lost or saved but we must remember the context that we are in right here, Christ is speaking to the 11, he is speaking to the 11 that are left because Judas has left the scene, he's done going out into darkness, his mind was already made up, so he's speaking to the 11 and he's speaking to the Apostles and he says how be it when he the Spirit of Truth has come, he will guide you into all truth, no that doesn't mean that the Spirit guides false people into false hood, or false people, lost people into false hoods, it's simply again in the context that we're speaking of as far as Jesus speaking to the remaining 11 the Spirit will guide them into all truth but that extends to us, he will guide us into all truth, that's why I tell people if you hear a preacher or a teacher or anyone else say anything that the Spirit told them this or that God told them that and it does not line up with the Word of God and it does not line up with the teachings of Jesus Christ or the teachings of God all throughout the Bible if it doesn't line up, it did not come from the Holy Spirit it is an impossibility for that to happen, the Holy

[10:12] Spirit will not teach of anything that is contrary to the Word of God and he will guide us into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that, shall he speak of where is he going to hear it from he's going to hear it from Christ himself if he's testifying of Christ he's going to hear it from Christ who was Christ here on behalf of, he was here on behalf of God, he was the true and most full revelation of God that we could possibly have, so this Scripture here it should also bring us much comfort that the Spirit will not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that, shall he speak, you cannot separate the Spirit, the Son and the Father, they are co-equal in power, they are co-equal in authority they have always been there, there is no separating them, so whatever the Spirit speaks that's the same thing that Christ would speak and it's the same thing that God the Father would speak there is no difference, no difference in opinion, the Spirit does not work independently of the Father or independently of the Son, they are co-equal in their power and co-equal in their authority, so he will not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that, shall he speak and he will show you things to come so the Spirit is going to be doing these things and again in the context of verse 12 that Christ had many things that he wanted to speak but they could not bear it, this will be very comforting news to those disciples and extended to us that he will show us things to come and he will guide us into all truth verse 14 he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall shoe it unto you, this is the job of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus Christ and to speak not of himself but of Jesus Christ to speak what he hears, he shall glorify me again, if anybody tells you that the Spirit told me this or the Spirit told me that and it is not glorifying under Christ, I promise you it may have come from a Spirit but it did not come from the Spirit

[12:40] I promise you that thing, he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine and shall shoe it unto you, he shall receive of mine, let's continue on verse 15 all things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shoe it unto you, so a lot of people in verse 14 they get a little bit confused when he says he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine, well what is mine, Christ tells us what is mine in verse 15 all things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shoe it unto you, all things that the Father hath are mine, again if the Father hath it the Son has it if the Son has it the Spirit has it, there is no separation between those three and all things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shoe it unto you so he shall take of the things of the Father about the Son and the Spirit is going to show you these things we have the Trinity backwards and forwards here in this scripture speaking of all three persons of the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and

[13:56] God the Spirit, so verse 16 little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me because I go to the Father so here he is preparing these disciples that I said at the beginning of this lesson, he's preparing them for joy but he's going back into, I'm going away, in verse 16 a little while and you shall not see me but then the comfort and again a little while and you shall see me because I go to the Father, now what aspect of seeing Christ are we talking about here because he says because I go to the Father he says a little while and you shall not see me then a little while and you shall see me, you shall see me because I go to the Father, what aspect of Christ revealing himself to the disciples are we talking about here I'm always talking about you shall not see me and then you shall see me because I go to the Father, you shall not see me immediately it would be him going in the grave, it would be just after the crucifixion they won't see him, then they shall see him, we know that Christ resurrected and we know that he showed himself to the disciples, he showed himself to many people after the resurrection and then he ascended to the Father because I go to the Father is how this verse ends right here, so me personally we can agree to disagree and that's fine, he says a little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me because I go to the Father, you shall see me because I go to the Father, he's done been to the

[15:48] Father in the context that we're talking about here so he's talking about when he comes back for the disciples, when he comes back for those that are his when he comes back for the bride he says they will see him, he says a little while you shall not see me because he's going to a sin because I go to the Father, you shall not see me and yet a little while and you shall see me, you shall see me so we know that all these, all the apostles here, all the disciples, all of them have died now, here in 2024, none of them are alive now, John's dead Peter's dead, Andrew's dead, they're all dead and gone but nevertheless they've seen Christ they have seen Christ but we're promised an even more glorious revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures when Christ comes for the church, I mean you read about it in the book of Revelation, you read about

[16:56] Christ coming for the church, you read about him coming for his bride, and you read about the final battle that's going to take place and you read about Christ coming and he's riding on a white horse and we know that he does judge and make war and we know all these things but who's riding with him the armies of heaven are riding with them, they're all on horses according to what I read in the book of Revelation and if I'm dead and gone I'll be riding with Christ, if I'm still left here on earth at that time, I will be with Christ, either way I'm going to be with Christ and it's going to be a wonderful and glorious revelation of Jesus Christ in that day regardless of whether we're dead and gone and coming back with him or if we're still alive here on this earth because the same way that Paul wrote it to the church at Thessalonica when he said that we would be changing the moment and the twinkling of an eye either way it will be a glorious and a wonderful revelation of Jesus Christ so he said again verse 16, little while you shall not see me and again a little while you shall see me because

[18:12] I'm going to be with you to the Father and folks if he went to the Father and he did and he's still there now at the right hand of majesty making intercession and mediation and being our advocate, if he went to the Father he was exactly who he said that he was he was and is the Christ, he was and is Messiah so verse 17 and again a little while you shall see me and again a little while you shall see me and because I go to the Father, let's go ahead and read verse 18 they said therefore what is this that he saith a little while and again this brings me wonderful comfort because again these disciples have been with the man for over three years at this point and Christ is here in this room speaking to them very intimately very one on eleven, you could say one on one if you want to but he's speaking to the disciples here and he's just told them a little while you won't see me, a little while after that you will see me because I go to the Father and the disciples still don't understand what he's saying and folks I'm in that boat a lot of times I'm in that boat and if you're honest with yourself a lot of times you're in that boat as well we don't understand everything that there is to do with this book but God will reveal things in his time and in his way and he will do that through the same means that Christ here is telling these disciples he will employ the Holy Spirit to reveal those things unto us in his time, we don't have to have an absolute understanding of Scripture and we won't have an absolute understanding of Scripture and I praise God for that that we don't have to have nor will we have absolute understanding of all of the Scriptures of God or all of the things of God. It's impossible to know everything about God. It's impossible to know everything about the ancient of days, about the one who in the beginning

[20:44] God created the heaven and the earth, in the beginning he done these things it's impossible for us to know with finite minds how God created everything that we know out of nothing out of nothing, nothing was there and God spoke it into existence I can't explain that to you, all I can tell you is that the Bible says it and I believe what the Bible says, that's what I can tell you so these disciples let's not look down our nose at them because they're right there with Jesus, Jesus told them in very plain speech these words of a little while I won't be here a little while, you'll see me again because I go to the father don't look down your nose because you didn't understand it. I wouldn't have understood it had I been there either Verse 18 again they said therefore what is this that he said a little while we cannot tell what he says so they're just reiterating that verse 19 now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him and said unto them do you inquire among yourselves of that I said a little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me again the comfort that this brings me knowing that Christ knows my thoughts, Christ knows my emotions

[22:12] Christ knows what I'm feeling, he knows if I'm confused he knows if I'm content, he knows all these things about me and that brings me a wonderful sense of comfort here within these verses because Jesus plainly says here now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him and said unto them do you inquire among yourselves of that I said a little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me this is the exact thought that the disciples were having and I praise God that even before it's just like it's taught in Matthew chapter 6 God knows what we have need of before we even ask him before we ever go to him and people will say well what's the point of praying then why wouldn't we pray why would we not want to pray to the Father even though he knows exactly what we need and exactly when we need it why would we not pray to a God that created us and a God who desires to commune with his creation folks that is a wonderful privilege that we have and then that we don't deserve none of us are deserving of the things of God none of us are deserving of a conversation with God let alone a relationship with God but he desires these things he wants to commune with us so that should encourage us to be completely open with God folks he already knows everything about you anyway there's no reason to not be open with him if you got things that the world sees as little and insignificant take him to God if you got something major going on in your life then take that to God as well take all things to God make all of your petitions and all of your supplications known unto him we got a God that hears our prayer but we have a God that acts on behalf of his saints who pray to him why would we not want to take advantage of that why would we not want to go to him as our heavenly Father verse 20 the disciples here for joy he's been preparing him for his departure but here in this passage he's preparing them for joy and he tells them here that you shall weep and lament you're going to be sad you're going to be sorrowful you might even get depressed you're not going to feel good about what's going on he says that you shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoice and you shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy your sorrow shall be turned into joy just like the psalmist said I believe it's in Psalms in chapter 30 weeping shall endure for a night but joy in the morning folks there's going to be things that go on in our lives that drag us down that make us sad that make us depressed or make us blue or however you'd like to phrase that things like that are going to happen that was going to happen to these disciples here they were going to witness the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the world was going to rejoice in that crucifixion and they were going to be sorrowful and they were going to lament and they were going to weep over this but he says your sorrow will be turned into joy how so he's done told them we read it just a few verses ago yet a little while and you shall not see me then again little while and you shall see me because I go to the Father folks that's where our joy is at our joy is in the Father and it's in our joy is in the Father because is one with the Father he said that himself in John chapter 10 we read that a few chapters back said I and the Father are one and if God the Father and God the Son are one and God the Holy Spirit is the third person of that God and folks we have nothing to worry about regardless of what comes our way and that's a hard pill to swallow

[26:48] I understand that depending on what circumstances come our way we have a promise of eternal and enduring joy and what makes it eternal and enduring because it is rooted in Jesus Christ and he is eternal and he is enduring that's what makes it a joy worth looking forward to that's what makes it a joy worth having folks no one can take the joy of a Christian we might get sad over some things we might even get out some things all kinds of things can happen in the life of a Christian individual but no one nor anything can steal our joy because our joy is in Christ and Christ is eternal and if our joy is in him and he is eternal then our joy is eternal as well you shall weep but the world shall rejoice and you shall be sorrowful but your sorrow shall be turned into joy and Christ gives a good analogy here of what he's talking about a woman when she is in travail has sorrow because her hour has come but as soon as she is delivered of the child she remembers no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world

[28:08] I can't speak of this from experience but I can say that I've seen it with my eyes the pain that a woman goes through when she is in labor when she is burying a child the hurt that she's going through frustration sometimes all these things that they add up and they compound on the woman but the moment that baby is born the moment that baby is born and they lay that baby on that mama's chest it's like all that's out of the picture I can't speak of that from personal experience regardless of what the world says men can't have babies but I have seen that and that is an amazing sight it's an amazing sight to see to witness a woman when I saw both of my boys being born I gained a whole respect for women but I didn't have before I've always respected women but it was a whole new level of respect that I had for women after witnessing that but when both of my boys were born even my oldest after she was induced on Monday evening he was born

[29:28] Wednesday night at 7.03 pm so I was going to say 2-3 days for the labor wore out, tired, hurting screaming when the time come but folks all that was set to the side once my boy was laid in her arms and that was amazing and that's the analogy that Christ is using here but he's talking about or he's comparing that with the joy that they're going to have there's going to be pain here, there will be pain there will be pain, there will be mockery, there will be ridicule, there will be suffering, there might even be murder or death or martyrdom however you'd like to say that all these things come against the Christians, they come against believers but what joy we have promised us after that just like Paul said in Romans chapter 8 this world, the suffering of this world can even be compared to the joy and the glory that we're going to have one day in

[30:44] Jesus Christ, hallelujah we don't have to worry about any of those things, yes we're going to suffer yes there's going to be pain, yes there'll be sadness but folks all that's going to be over one day, it will all be over verse 22 and you now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again in your heart shall rejoice in your joy no man taketh from you ye now therefore have sorrow presently in other words ye now therefore have sorrow, why? because you're in that birthing stage he was talking about in the verse previous to this, you're in that painful stage he says, and ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again in your heart shall rejoice now understand that after Christ resurrected immediately after the resurrection there was some joy after some surprise and after some excitement there was some joy amongst the disciples, we talked a little bit about that last week how that when Christ ascended they worshiped God, they're at Jerusalem and ye now therefore have sorrow but I will see you again in your heart shall rejoice in your joy no man taketh from you why is that that no man can take it from us again because it is rooted in Christ our joy is in Christ, our joy is in the promises that

[32:20] Christ has made for all who believe our joy is in the fact and the statement that Jesus Christ made that he will return again for his own remember in John 4 he said if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also praise God they've got that promise we have that same promise and that is why we can have this eternal joy that we're talking about here and this enduring joy because it is in the promises of Jesus Christ and it is in Jesus Christ himself that's what makes it an enduring joy and that's as far as I would I really want to get today there at the end of verse 22 anybody got any questions or any comments on any of that alright God bless you Amen yes sir