John 16:23-33 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Morning. Back in John chapter 16 this morning. Lord willing we might just wrap up the 16th chapter of John.

[0:14] We'll have to wait and see. That's the goal I've set for myself anyway for this morning. Last week the passage that we covered, we ended that passage with cross giving warning, if you'd like to phrase it that way, to the disciples that there was a time coming and coming very soon that they would lament.

[0:42] They would be sad and we know that this whole passage, what you all have heard me and what other theologians and teachers and preachers over the centuries have referred to as the farewell discourse of Christ to his disciples.

[1:00] We know that this began with Christ talking about how he was going away and it made the disciples sad. And you know there was somewhat confused and we've talked about that several times while going through this discourse of Christ to his disciples.

[1:20] But again the passage last week he ended telling them there was coming a time that they would lament but that their sadness would be turned into joy. And I told you all last week that Christ had been preparing them for his departure and in turn that was making the disciples sad.

[1:38] But in this particular passage through the end of the chapter honestly Christ is preparing them for joy, joy upon his departure. And he's telling them why this would be the case.

[1:51] It's because he's come, he's fulfilling his mission, not quite fulfilled at this point in the Scripture, but he's going back to the Father which would open the door for the next leg of that mission which would be the sending of the Holy Spirit to the disciples and by extension to us and to all believers.

[2:17] But again last week he closed giving them somewhat of a warning. In fact let's just read the last couple of verses of the passage that we covered last week starting in verse 20.

[2:28] He says, I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail has sorrow because her hour has come, but as soon as she is delivered to the child she remembers no more of the anguish for that, for joy that a man has borne into the world.

[2:51] And ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man taketh from you. So he's telling them you're going to be sad, you're going to lament, there's going to be tears, there's going to be anguish, there's going to be all these negative feelings, negative emotions, but he tells them don't worry, your sorrow will be turned into joy.

[3:17] And folks it's the same exact way with us. Bad things are going to come in our lives, bad things are going to happen, there's going to be sickness, there's going to be death, there's going to be weeping, there's going to be sadness, there's going to be outright depression sometimes.

[3:34] All these things are going to happen to us, but if we are in Christ, if we are in Christ, every bit of that sorrow will be turned into joy.

[3:45] At some point it may happen more immediately, sometimes than it does others, but there is a promise straight from the Scriptures and straight from the lips of Jesus Christ Himself that our sorrow will be turned into joy.

[4:02] So all that being said, we'll pick up in verse 23 of John chapter 16, says, And in that day you shall ask me nothing, verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you.

[4:19] So he begins verse 23 with, And in that day, in what day, in the day that we just talked about, in that day when they're sorrowful, in that day when they're sad, in that day when things are coming their way, that they would just assume, just like you and I would just assume not happen to us.

[4:40] But folks, when things like this happen in our lives, we must remember that God is in the process of refining our faith and He's in the process of consecrating us into His service.

[4:56] He is in the process of molding us to be more like and fashioning us to be more like Jesus Christ. And just that thought alone should be joyful to us.

[5:10] And in that day you shall ask me nothing, verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Now this would have added a layer, a thin layer, but a layer nonetheless of confusion to the disciples that would have me.

[5:28] Because he's just talked about their joy or their sorrow being turned into joy. And he says, And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Well, Lord, who are we going to ask? If we can't ask you, who can we ask?

[5:42] That would have been my question. And me personally, I'm sure that was going through the disciples' minds, but Jesus goes on to explain this to them. He says, whatsoever you shall ask, ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you.

[5:56] And we've talked about this several times while going through this discourse, while I've talked from other books and other passages of Scripture. Jesus says, whatsoever you ask in my name, that is not a blank check.

[6:09] And that does not mean that anything we ask of Him, He's going to give it to us. We've talked about going to God in the name of Jesus Christ. Just uttering the name of Jesus Christ, that's not a get out of jail for free card.

[6:24] That's not a free pass to whatever we want. It is going to God in the name of Jesus Christ. We're claiming association with Jesus Christ.

[6:36] We're going to God saying, I am Christ and Christ is mine. I'm coming to you in Him and He is in me. I'm coming to you as one of your own. That's all it means to go to God in the name of Jesus Christ.

[6:51] Because if we go in our own name, we ain't going to get anything. But if we go in the name of Jesus Christ, we're going before God, in Christ, because in ourselves and only in ourselves, we'll be consumed by God.

[7:08] But in Christ, in Christ, we can go before God. So, he says, whatever we should ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Verse 24, hither to have He asked nothing in my name, ask and He shall receive that your joy may be full.

[7:25] He says, in verse 23 again, very, very less and to you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Then verse 24, hither to have He asked nothing in my name.

[7:39] Why have they not asked anything in the name of Jesus Christ? Because Jesus Christ was there with them physically. They had no reason to go to Jesus and say, in your name, we need this.

[7:51] In your name, we need provision for this day. In your name, we need you to multiply these fish. We need you to multiply this bread. We need you to heal this blind man. We need you to heal our own sickness and our own worry and our own doubt.

[8:04] They didn't have to go to Christ and say, in your name, because Christ was there with them. But Christ has been telling them for the past couple of chapters and for three years leading up to this, I am leaving.

[8:18] I am going back to the Father. So He's introducing a whole new concept to the disciples here when He says, hither to have He asked nothing in my name.

[8:30] But He told them in the verse before this, but whatsoever you ask in my name, it'll be granted unto you. Hither to you, you've asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full.

[8:44] Not, as the book of James says, that you can consume it upon your own lust. You ask in my name, and if we are truly in Christ and Christ is truly in us, we will be praying things that are in the will and in the very heart of Almighty God.

[9:02] And that's how prayers get answered. People get mad, people get angry. They say, I've been praying for this for a long time and God just ain't answered that prayer. Well, first of all, what are you praying for?

[9:14] Second of all, what's your reason for praying for such a thing? Is it truly in the will of God? Well, I'm praying for this Lamborghini and God just ain't give it to me yet.

[9:26] Maybe it's because you don't need that Lamborghini. Maybe you're praying for that so that you can consume that again upon your own lust. You have not yet, you have not because you ask not, and you have not because you ask amiss.

[9:42] And you do these things to consume it upon yourself. You do these things because it's what you want, but when we pray what God wants, when we pray what God wants, that's how prayers get answered.

[9:54] That's why I have no problem praying for any lost person out there because the Bible plainly says not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I know it is within the will of God and within the heart of Almighty God that everyone repents and that no one perishes.

[10:14] So it is not a waste of my time or a waste of my breath to pray for any lost soul that is out there. Because I know the will of God because the Scripture plainly tells me what the will of God is concerning that.

[10:30] It says, ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full. And we talked about this just last week or the week before about how our joy doesn't depend on circumstances.

[10:45] It doesn't depend on surrounding situations. Our joy is anchored in Jesus Christ and that is why it can be full.

[10:56] And that's why it's an eternal joy. That's why Christ says no man can take that joy away from you. No man can take that joy from you because I'm eternal.

[11:07] I'm your joy. Your joy is in me. Therefore your joy is eternal. Regardless of what happens in our lives, regardless of how many times we get sick, regardless of how many diseases we might have, regardless of how bad the finances get, regardless of how bad the circumstances get, our joy can be and should be and will be full in Jesus Christ.

[11:33] Hallelujah. And he's telling them asking you shall receive and God will grant these things to you. You shall receive that your joy may be full.

[11:44] It pleases God. It delights God to answer the prayers of His people. And that gives me wonderful comfort. Verse 25, these things have I spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.

[12:05] Jesus Christ telling the disciples here something that we have actually read in some of the other passages, not only in John but throughout the Gospel accounts, not only his disciples showed confusion over some of the things that he was saying, but the crowds in general also said things along these lines.

[12:24] What is he saying? Why is he speaking like this? Why is everything he's talking to us in parables? Why is it in metaphors? Why is it in proverbs? And all these other things. And Christ here says, these things I've spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.

[12:45] Everything that Christ has been doing for these three plus years leading up to this point, everything he's been doing for these disciples, to these disciples, everything he has taught to them, everything he has preached to them, not only to them but to the general crowds as well, he has been revealing the Father to them, whether it be in proverbs or whether it be in plain speech, he has been revealing the Father to them.

[13:12] And here he says, there's coming a time when the proverbs are going to cease, the metaphors are going to cease, and I will show you plainly.

[13:23] And people will say, well, I thought that was the job of the Holy Ghost. I thought that was his job, was to reveal the Father to them, to reveal Scripture to them.

[13:35] And it is. But remember, just a lesson or two ago, actually we covered it, when Jesus said, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. And he was speaking of the Holy Spirit then when he said that.

[13:48] Jesus Christ comes to us in form of the Holy Spirit. And if it's the Holy Spirit revealing God to us, or revealing Scripture to us, whatever the case may be, it is Jesus Christ that is revealing those things to us.

[14:03] So he says, I will show you plainly of the Father. And we know after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that he opened the Scriptures to the disciples, that they understood it better, and they understood him better, and they understood the Father better, and they understood the plan of the Father better.

[14:22] And it was only because their minds were open to the Scriptures, not only their minds, but their hearts were open to the Scriptures as well. Verse 26, at that day, he shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you.

[14:41] At that day, at what day? At the day that we're talking about right now. Now, this isn't necessarily the day that we were talking about earlier, when he was talking about the weeping, the lamenting that they were going to have, in the day that he reveals the Father more plainly to them, in that day, in that hour, at that day, he shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you.

[15:11] And people will take this verse and they'll say, we don't need Jesus anymore. Jesus says it himself right here in this verse, that he's not going to intercede for us anymore.

[15:25] And that's not what Jesus Christ is saying here. Folks, we ever, ever need Jesus Christ. There is not a moment, whether we're lost or whether we're saved, there is not a moment that anyone on earth does not need Jesus Christ.

[15:45] We all need Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is life, Jesus Christ grants life, not only physical life, but he grants eternal life, spiritual life, and all those that believe and repent.

[15:58] He is not saying that his intercession is going to completely go away at this point. In fact, the book of Hebrews, it says that he is able to save to the other most, all of them that come to God through him, ever making intercession for those that believe, those that have repented, those that have trusted in him, ever making intercession for us.

[16:19] At that day, he shall ask in my name, I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you. Why is he saying this?

[16:30] They have gone to Christ for everything that they needed these disciples had. They had gone to him for provision, they had gone to him for healing, they had gone to him for everything.

[16:41] It's just like the prophets in the Old Testament. Moses, Moses had to intercede with God on behalf of the Israelites. Samuel had to do the same thing in the Old Testament.

[16:53] That's what the disciples here, I'm sorry, were doing with Christ. They were having to go to him so he could intercede on their behalf to the Father.

[17:04] But folks, when Christ died and that veil was written twain, we had direct access to the Father. When we come up here, when we kneel down at an altar, or we're at our bedside, or wherever it is that we're at, and we say something along the lines of, Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus Christ, we are coming to the Father directly in the name, in the name of Jesus Christ.

[17:31] But we have direct access to God. That was a new concept for these disciples. Because they had always, remember all these disciples, they were Jewish.

[17:43] They would have been familiar with how it worked in the Old Testament, where the prophets had to go before God on behalf of the people. They would have been familiar with how the sons of Levi had to intercede and had to do the priestly work on behalf of Israel to God.

[17:59] They would have known about all these things. But here Christ is telling them, again, he says, at that day he shall ask in my name, and I say not under you that I will pray the Father for you.

[18:12] He says, I'm not, he's saying you can go to the Father yourself in that day. At this point they still couldn't. Christ hadn't died, the devil hadn't been written in twain.

[18:25] None of that had happened at this point. He's saying you can go to the Father yourself, and by extension you and I have access to the Father ourselves.

[18:37] He says in verse 27, for the Father himself, love with you, this is the reason. Y'all have heard me talk about what's and why's many times the what here.

[18:48] Verse 26, at that day you shall ask in my name, and I say not under you that I will pray the Father for you. That's the what. Then he gives the why in verse 27, for the Father himself, love with you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God.

[19:05] So in other words, in verse 26, you will have direct access to the Father. Going in the name of Christ.

[19:16] Again, us going to God in our own name, in our own power, in our own will, will do us no good. Zero good.

[19:27] But going in the name of Christ, it will. Verse 27 again, for the Father himself, love with you. The Father himself, love with you, because you have loved me.

[19:38] But what we need to remember, what we as Christians need to remember, is that it's the Father's love for us. Why do we love God?

[19:51] Verse John 5 tells us that we love him because he first loved us. We love God because he first loved us. We love Christ. We love Christ because we were drawn to him.

[20:04] We would have no dealings with Christ, and Christ would have no dealings with us had we not been drawn by the Spirit to him. I had no interest in Christ.

[20:15] I had no interest in the Bible. I had no interest in being saved. I had no interest in any of those things before I was drawn of God by the Spirit of God. So for God to love me because I loved Christ, folks, it has nothing to do with us.

[20:34] It was all done off and by God. God drew us. God saved us. God loved us, and therefore we love God.

[20:45] It wasn't because I come to God and said, I love you, save me. It's because God looked down upon me and said, you're my creation. You're one that my Son come to redeem.

[20:57] I love you, and therefore I love God. It is not me, it is God, for the Father himself loved with you because you have loved me and have believed that I have come out from God.

[21:13] You believe these things about me. You believe what I have told you. You believe the very Word of God. You believe these things, and God loves you.

[21:24] Therefore you love me. And that's why we can go to God in the name of Jesus Christ and ask anything in the will of God, and God will answer those prayers.

[21:37] Verse 28, I came forth from the Father and come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. Folks, within this verse, really and truly, has encapsulated the entire gospel of Jesus Christ.

[21:55] Here in John 16 and verse 28, I came forth from the Father. Why did he come forth from the Father? To do the Father's will. What was the Father's will to redeem mankind, to reconcile lost and fallen and sinful and wretched mankind back to the Father?

[22:15] That's the very reason he came forth from the Father and come into the world. He came into the world, he was born of a virgin, he lived a perfect sinless life, he was crucified, he was buried, he was resurrected, and then we come to, again, I leave the world and go to the Father.

[22:33] He came, he is not at this point here, not quite, but he was almost there at this point, but he came, he accomplished his mission as far as doing the work for reconciliation of man back to God.

[22:48] He has gone back to the Father, and folks that not only speaks of what he has done as far as the ascension goes, as far as him sitting at the right hand of majesty, now and forever, but it also speaks of his promised return.

[23:04] If he's gone back, I mean, we read it in John 14, if I go away, I will come again to receive you unto myself, that where I am there, you may be also. So it not only speaks of him going back and doing what he's doing now, which is making intercession for us, but it also speaks of his second coming, the entire gospel account.

[23:24] Really and truly, he is encapsulated in this one verse here, verse 28 of John 16. I came forth from the Father, and I'm coming into the world again. I leave the world and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.

[23:39] Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou cameest forth from God. So his disciples here are saying, say, you're not speaking in proverbs now, or these metaphors we were talking about earlier.

[23:56] He says, you're speaking plainly. We understand, and I have no doubt in my mind, they were genuine in what they were saying here. They were genuine in saying, we understand.

[24:07] It was like the proverbial lot bulb went off over their head, and they said, we understand what you're saying now, and you don't need any man to come and ask you of anything. We believe you, we believe that you have come out from the Father, we believe in the mission that you've come forth, we believe everything that you've taught us.

[24:27] But they said, why they believed it? Because he was speaking plainly to them. The folks, we're just like these disciples, and Christ makes it very plain to these disciples here in the next couple of verses.

[24:42] Even though they did have a genuine, better understanding of Christ, and they believed Christ, all 11 of these disciples believed Christ, even though that was the case.

[24:58] Christ makes it very plain to them, the next couple of verses, that their faith was not what they thought that it was. Folks, our faith ain't what we might think that it is sometime.

[25:10] I've told a lot of people, I'm not a man of great faith. I'm not. And I'll admit that to anybody. When I first got saved, probably the first few months to a year after I was saved, I thought that I was.

[25:24] I thought I was something. But God stripped me of that prideful thought. And he humbled me. And I thank him for it. And it made me realize that I don't have the faith that I thought that I did.

[25:39] But I've got faith in God. And I've got faith that God saved me. I've got faith that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that I would not have to suffer eternally.

[25:51] The punishment and the wrath of Almighty God in a place called hell. Christ came, he offered his life for me. He has done the work. He has redeemed me with his blood.

[26:04] He has accomplished the will of the Father. I believe these things. And I've got enough faith to believe those things. And that faith in itself is a gift of God. I wouldn't believe those things with any type of faith had I not had the gift of faith that God granted to me.

[26:22] So not only a salvation belief and a salvation of gift, but that belief, that faith that I have, it is a gift as well of God. He's the one who gave me the ability to believe.

[26:35] He's the one who gave me the ability to comprehend what the Scripture says. He's the one who gave me the ability to understand that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. All of it is of God.

[26:47] None of it is of me. So they tell him, you're speaking plainly. And we understand and we accept that. You're not speaking in any proverbs.

[26:58] And we believe that you've come from God. By this we believe that thou came as forth from God. They're at the end of verse 30. Verse 31, Jesus answered them, do you now believe?

[27:10] And you Bible readers out there should know that if something like that comes up, it means something bad about to happen. And this isn't the only time things like that, something like that has come up.

[27:25] But Jesus says, do you now believe? Do you truly believe this thing? This was Jesus' answer to then. Verse 32, he says, behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.

[27:45] And yet I'm not alone, because the Father is with me. So he tells them, very plainly here, the hour is coming. First he says, do you now believe?

[27:58] Then he says, the hour is coming, that every man is going to be scattered. And it's coming. The very next chapter, we read about it.

[28:09] After chapter 17, when Jesus is in the garden of Gethsemane, giving his high priestly prayer under God the Father, the very next chapter we see exactly what Christ is talking about here.

[28:22] And that is a fulfillment of prophecy actually, in Zechariah 13 and 7. There's a prophecy spoken about, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.

[28:33] That's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. But Christ tells them what's going to happen, behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.

[28:44] And why did they scatter? They scattered out of fear. Out of outright fear for their own lives.

[28:56] Now, people will look down on the disciples for doing that, you do the same thing. Everyone of us would do the same thing. In their circumstance, everyone of us would have scattered.

[29:08] Everyone of us would have went to our own place, we would have went and found a hole in the ground, we would have went and found a closet in our house, we would have went and found a pantry to hide in, we would have went somewhere to hide the cause we were scared.

[29:21] And every one of us would do that same thing. And then we want to look down our nose at Peter for denying Christ the times that he did in Scripture.

[29:32] We got no right to do that either. I mean, he may have denied Christ, but you know what, he was still following him. It was from a distance. It was from a distance, granted, and you know, I've heard it preached and I've heard it taught.

[29:44] He was warming himself by the enemies fire, shame on him. He was still following. He was still following. He still had faith and he still believed.

[29:56] Folks, no matter how our faith falters, no matter how much confusion might come in our lives, no matter how much we stumble, no matter how much we fall flat on our face, that does not negate the faithfulness of God.

[30:15] God is faithful. We are not. By nature, we're not. We're not faithful creatures. But God is faithful and God is ever faithful.

[30:29] It's just like the parable, the prodigal son. Jesus speaks in Luke 15. When the son, when he gets hungry, he's out in the far country and he finds himself in the pigsty and he's eating the pig's food and that's not sustaining him well.

[30:46] And he got hungry and he said, I'll go to my father. I'll go there and maybe he'll just make me one of his hired servants or whatever and he starts off and the father sees him in the distance.

[30:59] He says, a far way off, the father ran to him. He didn't need an intermediary. He didn't send a messenger out.

[31:10] The father went himself to the son that had repented and had come home and that is a beautiful picture of God the father accepting us back, restoring us.

[31:24] That's a wonderful picture of that. Our faith will falter. Our faith will get weak at times. But my God's not weak and my God is ever faithful.

[31:36] Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God. Behold the hour cometh ye as now come that you shall be scattered and shall be sent to his own and shall leave me alone.

[31:49] Men are going to leave the Son of God alone but cross this and yet I'm not alone because the Father is with me.

[32:00] Folks, there's times in this life that you and I are going to feel alone. There's times in this life that regardless of how many years we might be married, regardless of how many children we might have or grandchildren we might have or nephews or nieces or kinfolk, whatever the case is, regardless of how many people might be around us at any given moment of our lives, we can feel alone.

[32:22] But if we are in Christ and Christ is in us, God is with us. And if God is with us, we are never alone. So that was not only the case for Christ here when he was saying this.

[32:36] Remember the reasons that he's telling them these things. It's to bolster their faith. It's to encourage them and it's to prepare them for joy.

[32:47] And their joy can certainly be found in Christ and it can be found in God because God would always be with them and God will always be with us.

[32:59] Verse 33, these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

[33:13] He gives them a great big why here. These things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. Not in the world will we have peace. Not in our circumstances will we have peace.

[33:28] This is the most unpeaceful time of my lifetime that we're living in right now. As far as the physical world is concerned, as far as what's going on in the world.

[33:41] But I have peace because my peace is in Christ. My peace is in the prince of peace. My peace is in him. He says these things I've spoken to you that in me you might have peace.

[33:56] This is what we need to focus on. This is why Paul in the book of Philippians he could write so much about peace. He could write about the peace that passed on all understanding. And folks he was sitting in prison when he was writing that letter.

[34:09] This is why I could say I've learned whatsoever state I'm in there with to be content because he had the peace of Christ and he had the peace of God because he was in Christ.

[34:20] And he communed with God and he had fellowship with God and he could pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ. All the things that we've been reading about here this morning he could do all those things and that's why he could write the things that he did and mean them.

[34:34] And folks we are in the same boat. If we are God's and we are in Christ. We have that peace and the world you shall have tribulation. He doesn't say you might have, he doesn't say it might come your way, he doesn't say you, you know, this might happen or that might happen.

[34:52] Because in the world you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. This is why we can have that peace because Christ has already made that peace.

[35:05] He is already that peace for us. He has already defeated death hell in the grave. He's already defeated Satan. He's already defeated hell. He's already defeated darkness and sin and all these other things.

[35:19] We can have peace in that. Although everything that I just listed, Satan, darkness, sin, evil, treachery, wars, all these other things. It's because of sin Christ has already defeated those.

[35:33] And because of that we can be of good cheer for he has overcome those things. He has overcome the world. That brings us to the end of the 16th chapter of the Gospel of John.

[35:44] Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that? Alright, God bless you all. I appreciate you.