The Joy of a Little While | Advent 3

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John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

If you're using a Black Pew Bible around you, we're going to be on page 902.

While you're turning there, my name is Wade Collier.

I'm the Missions and Outreach Pastor here at Grand Parkway.

It's my joy and honor to be before you.

As Neil said earlier in the service on this third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday where we talk about joy.

I think sometimes it's good to know what goes on.

And so I'm going to break a rule and before we begin and before I read the words of someone much smarter than me to open our service, it was it was an interesting uh few days here around uh the church because we had originally, as Neil and I lined out who was preaching when for Advent, I was up this Sunday, but for the last 10 days I've been preparing a sermon on love.

Um if if you know anything about Advent, love is until the fourth Sunday, but nothing gets by.

Neil and I clearly, um, as we plan for today to be love and next week be joy.

And then um it was actually Neil who happened to be in the copy room on Thursday, and I get a phone call from one of the admins here going, Neil really needs to talk to you.

Um, because we saw all the printouts and the things you're holding in your hands that don't say love, they say joy, right?

Um and so I share that with you not as an excuse, but just this beautiful picture of how God gives this great and clear understanding of what he once said.

Um I had oriented my whole um time and study towards love, and then God opened the doors to this whole new understanding of joy that began, and we'll talk a little bit about this, um, but then really landed um this early, I was gonna say last night, but early this morning at about 4:45, um, we have a four-year-old son that when he needs something, um, he bangs on the inside of his door like he's the police, right?

He can open the door, he can make his way into our room.

It's not like we live in a big house, we live like a little postage stamp of a house.

I'm not asking him to come from another wing.

Instead, he bangs on the door until someone comes to help him.

Now, I'll confess, especially because my wife's in the service, I didn't get up.

Uh I pulled the well, I'm preaching tomorrow.

Can you can you go take care of that?

I got the Lord's work to do in the morning.

Um But I I laid there and started to feel incredibly sorry for myself.

I was like, I gotta get a 45 minutes.

You know, I'm preaching on something different.

I thought I need to go over all the notes.

And God did this amazing, it wasn't amazing at the time, it's amazing now.

This amazing thing of giving me this gift of conviction and go, hey, I want you to talk about um in the majority of your sermon different than different than what you thought you would talk about.

Um and a lot of it came from a new understanding of joy.

And so I say all that, and I want to read this to you, um, and then I want to speak um uh God's word over us, and then we're gonna get into John 16.

Sound good?

Um, because today is today's the third Sunday of Advent, a season of preparation for celebrating the birth of the Savior.

The main mood of Advent is one of serious hope.

It's a time more of quiet longing than loud celebration.

But many Christians joyfully celebrate the third Sunday of Advent.

Even as we remember how the Jews waited for the coming of the Messiah, and even as we wait for his second coming, we remember and wait with joy, because we know how the story ends.

Christ was born, Christ is coming again.

This is why the angel of the Lord says in Luke 2, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.

There will be a time when God will wipe away every tear, when the lion will lay with the lamb, and when implements of war will be turned into tools for harvesting.

And it's because of this, on this third Sunday of Advent, we rejoice even as we wait with hope.

And so, as we open God's word this morning to John 16, I just want to read this one verse that will shape our understanding this morning of joy, and it will shape hopefully as we walk out of the doors this morning and implement the understanding of what this Sunday of joy is all about and what God's desire for joy is in our life.

And it's Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17.

Zephaniah 3:17

Says this the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save.

He will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love, and he will exult over you with loud singing.

I know today is not a community group Sunday.

Um, if you've been with us in the past, you know, on those community group Sundays, whoever's preaching the word will offer up some questions that are available for discussion in those community groups.

So I know that we don't have community groups now until the spring.

So maybe if you're taking notes, jot this down for yourself as we understand what joy is after reading about this God who exalts with gladness over us and sings over us.

Do you think of God as taking delight in you with gladness?

When you think about the Lord, and you think about him looking down on you, do you think of God as taking delight with you in gladness?

Why or why not?

Here's a second question just to think about.

What would it be like to hear God sing a joyful song over you?

We don't think about that much.

We sing, we come, we sing to God, but his word says that he sings a joyful song over you.

The prophet Zephaniah in this writing, he was bringing a word of hope to Israel.

Um, that the Lord Himself would rejoice over his people with joyful songs.

What an incredible picture of the future.

Wouldn't you like to see that?

To physically and literally see God singing over his people?

Singing over you.

And that's what his word says.

So, with that understanding of where our joy comes from, let's read together in John chapter 16, beginning in verse 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

Jesus says, A little while and you will see me no longer, and again a little while and you will see me.

So some of his disciples said to one another, What is this thing that he says to us, a little while and you will not see me?

And again, a little while, and when you see me, and because I'm going to the Father.

So they were saying, What does he mean by a little while?

We do not know what he is talking about.

Jesus knew they wanted to ask him, and so they said to them, He said to them, Is this what you were asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me?

Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

When a woman is giving birth, she has a sorrow because her hour has come.

But when she has delivered the baby, she is no longer or she no longer remembers the anguish.

For joy that a human being has been born into the world.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

In that day you will ask nothing of me.

Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask in the Father and my of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

Until now you have asked nothing in my name.

Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be may be made full.

This is the word of the Lord.

Um this section of Scripture is pulled from what is referred to as the upper room discourse.

And it's a great piece of scripture for for multiple reasons.

One, though, is it's a great snapshot into the way that Jesus taught the disciples.

It's a great way in which Jesus, a great snapshot in the way that Jesus teaches us, and the fact that throughout the discourse he would bring um certain facts to light, and then he would circle back around and he would teach on them again or speak to them again, and then oftentimes for a third time circle back around and teach them again.

Because I know this is not like anybody in the room here this morning, um, because we always get it right on the first try.

Um the disciples didn't always grasp the truth of Christ the first time around.

Um, and sometimes they needed clarity.

And so this morning, that's what we're asking for and understanding what joy is all about is that clarity.

And so this morning we're gonna look at the joy of in a little while.

The joy of in a little while.

Um The first thing that we see in this is that Jesus knows what you want.

Jesus knows what you want.

Look at verse 19 again.

It says, Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him.

And so he said to them, Is this what you are asking yourselves?

What I meant by saying, In a little while and you will not see me, and again a little while when you will see me.

They have this question in them, and just to bring some context in why this is going on and why this conversation is happening, um, Charles Henrickson paints this great picture of what is going on in their minds.

This is Monday Thursday.

It's the Thursday of Holy Week, the night when Jesus was about to be betrayed and arrested, and the next day he would be taken to the cross.

That helps explain Jesus' mysterious saying.

It would be just for a little while longer that the disciples would see Jesus as they had seen him for the past several years.

Just a little while more in a matter of hours.

They had the Passover meal together, which Jesus ended by instituting the Lord's Supper.

And now he was talking to them about going away, going to his father.

Shortly they would go and they would leave, and they would go to the Garden of Gethsemane, and Jesus would pray there, and then would become the betrayal and the arrest.

Jesus being hauled off to a series of unjust trials throughout the night, and in the morning he would be taken to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor.

Crucify, the crowds would call, and crucify is what they got.

Golgotha, crucifixion, darkness, death, burial, all within 24 hours of the time when Jesus is saying this, in a little while, and you will see me no longer.

And that literally was the case for the disciples in a little while.

But at the moment where Jesus is saying, In a little while you'll see me no longer, and again a little while you will see me, they have no idea what's coming.

They have no idea what the next 24 hours holds.

They have no idea that Jesus will be crucified and died.

They don't know that they will see him again.

So when they say in verse 18, what does he mean by a little while?

We don't know what he's talking about.

Uh now again, not like anybody in this room who is prideful or because no one in this room I know is prideful or married to their own competence or struggle with any of that.

Um, and so we don't know what it is to be like the disciples and struggle to know the answer because when we don't know the answer, none of us in here fake it, right?

We all run immediately to the source and we fact-check everything.

We never fake it.

Um, but you have these disciples who are literally sitting in the room with Jesus.

The one who is saying things to them that they're not quite 100% comprehending and understanding, and he is literally sitting across the table from them.

And so instead of going directly to the source, they start to mumble and murmur to themselves, going, What is he talking about?

Much like my kids.

Anytime I sit them down and have a serious conversation, they're like, Nah, yeah, okay.

And then what is he talking about?

I have absolutely no idea.

But Jesus knows this and he sees this and he and he speaks to it because he knows what they want.

And so he asks it for them in verse 19.

Jesus knew what they wanted to ask them.

So he said to them, Is this what you're asking yourselves?

What I meant by saying, in a little while you will not see me, and again, a little while you will see me.

Here's the deal, church.

Hear this.

Jesus knows what you want to ask.

He knows that you have questions.

He knows that you want to ask them, and in the same way, he knows that they have questions.

Don't turn there, it'll be on the screens.

This is the level to which Jesus knows your every thought.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 7 and 8 says this.

Matthew 6:7

And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do.

He's saying, Hey, don't fake it.

For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you even ask him.

He knows that they need an answer.

So what does this joy look like?

And where are you going?

In a little while, I don't understand it.

So Jesus is sitting with his disciples.

He knows what they want, and here's what they want.

Here's what the disciples want.

They don't want to start over.

They've known Jesus for three years.

They are just four days removed from Palm Sunday.

Remember Palm Sunday?

When Jesus comes riding in triumphant through the gates, and the crowds are laying down palm branches, many of them laying down their own clothes on the ground, and they're saying, Hosanna to the son of David, Hosanna in the highest, the same people that we just read about that yelled crucify a few days later.

But they're like, This is it, we've arrived.

We we don't want to go back.

This is the joy that we want.

But what Jesus says to them and what Jesus says to us is oftentimes what we think we want is not what we need.

And Jesus is going to speak what they need.

Look at verse 20.

Here's what I mean.

Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

What Jesus is telling them is that his departure is going to mean great sorrow for them.

It's going to mean great joy for the world, but it's going to mean sorrow for them.

And because the Lord is so vast in his purpose and his love for us, we like the disciples, daily, weekly, some of us, minute by minute, we need to know and we need to remind ourselves that God has this big picture of what we need, not just what we want, but what we need in mind.

And it's all rooted in his well-documented knowledge of us and his love of us.

It's in his character.

And here's what I mean.

How many parents in here are familiar with sticky faith?

Any parents in here?

Okay, this is the same response.

Google, write that down.

Write sticky faith.

It's an incredible way, and not just for the parents in the room, to have great conversations with people about the character of the Lord.

But this is pulled from a little bit of some things that they have in conversations that you can have.

And it's good for us this morning because in our understanding what real joy is, Neil said earlier when he was up here, if you were in here, that it's not a feeling.

That joy is this indwelling, incarnational thing within us, that Jesus living within us is joy that is found in understanding who He is.

And so here's eight things that are gonna be on the screen behind me that Jesus wants you to know about himself as you understand joy.

Alright?

The first one is I knew you before you were born.

As my hand formed you, I whispered purpose into your bones.

I can't not love you.

That comes from Psalms 139 and 1 through 6.

The second one is this I'm not like people.

So please don't put human words in my mouth or apply human behaviors to my character.

You will miss me altogether.

Isaiah 55, 8.

I've never ignored you.

I've been here all along, protecting, loving, and waiting.

From Psalm 56.

Number four, as resourceful and brilliant as you are, you cannot save yourself.

It's by God's grace and faith in me alone that you're saved.

From Ephesians 2.

Number five, the shame and guilt weighs you down.

That shame and guilt that has weighed you down, it's been taken care of on the cross.

Your bill has been zeroed out.

John 3, 16.

No matter what you've heard or what you've come to believe, there's nothing that can separate you from my love.

Romans 8.

Number seven.

My love for you won't walk out.

It won't fail or ever come to an end.

And probably my favorite one.

This is a list, I think, of 21 or 25, and I just chose eight, but here's my favorite one.

I love you.

Let's talk.

To understand what true joy is begins with understanding these things about God.

And this is where it begins for the disciples as well.

These truths about God's character, his infinite depth of knowledge about who we are, about what we want, and more importantly, what we need.

This is what allows us to face this next point of the joy of in a little while.

And that is that joy is often born from sorrow and anguish.

Joy is often born from sorrow and anguish.

Look at verse 21.

Neil mentioned this also at the beginning.

He said that you can have joy and be sad.

Because sometimes that's the pathway to finding what the real joy is.

And sometimes it's it's it's born of that anguish and that pain.

And let me go ahead and ruin the ending of this point.

Um, and that is if you trust in the fact that God will prioritize what you need over what you want, it allows you to struggle well.

It allows you to face anguish and sorrow well.

If you would just trust, if we would just trust that God prioritizes what we need over what we want.

Um, Neil and I were talking yesterday about the sermon, and he said something really profound that I would love to pass off as my own.

And so maybe when I'm sure he's not in the service, I'll act like this is my thought.

But um, he said this he said, The joy of thinking of life as a little while is that it helps to eliminate the unnecessary and it clarifies the necessary.

I want to say that again.

I told him I would quote him favorably and correctly.

It says, he said, The joy of thinking of life as a little while is that it helps to eliminate the unnecessary and it clarifies the necessary.

Look at verse 21.

So we know that, and now when we read verse 21, it says, When a woman is giving birth, she has the sorrow because her hour has come.

But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into this world.

When we read this, when we read verse 21, we see the Lord has given us a context, right?

This tangible experience in which to understand the fact that joy, there is a joy sometimes that can only be born from sorrow and anguish.

Now, clearly, I've never experienced childbirth, all right?

Well, I was there when I was born 37 years ago, but you know what I mean, all right?

How many dads are in the room?

By the way, raise your hand if you're dad.

Leave them up, leave them up.

We're gonna make it, we're gonna make a covenant right here in front of God and everybody, all right?

We're gonna make a covenant to stop saying two things.

When we had our baby, when we went into labor, all right?

We're gonna stop saying those two things, and we're gonna stop saying them for two reasons.

One, you as the man did nothing, all right?

You did not have the baby, you did not labor with the baby.

And number two, every time one of you guys says this and my wife hears it, I gotta struggle with the elbow to the ribs and then the lecture of how men do nothing when it comes to birth, alright?

So agreed?

Deal?

Deal.

All right.

So just as Jesus uses the illustration of childbirth to explain to the disciples and to us how that joy can only be born from sorrow and anguish, so there's some women in here who can relate, women who have given birth, who can relate to what I've been told, obviously, with no experience, what I've been told that labor can bring about such anguish and pain, and pain that can sometimes push a woman to feel that they cannot take it anymore.

Right?

But then in like verse 21, it says the anguish is replaced by the joy that she holds in her arms, right?

Right up until they start talking and then it's all gone, right?

But this baby, this joy would not be possible without the pain.

This baby, this joy would not be possible without the pain.

The joy that is born from sorrow and anguish.

The point is, church, that this anguish, while intense, only lasts for a relatively short time.

Right?

That then that then it gives way and it is pushed away by this surpassingly wonderful joy, which far outweighs the pain felt just a short time earlier.

It's a joy that lasts much longer than the pain, because now a new life has come into the world.

And so Jesus concludes so also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Remember, as we're reading this in context, remember they're they're in the upper room.

And if you remember that what comes on Sunday after Jesus is crucified, remember the joy the disciples felt?

Remember just that excitement when Jesus walks into the room and they realize who it is?

They have this excitement of, oh, this is where the joy is, but so much more than realizing, oh, this is the joy, they realize the reason.

For the suffering.

They realize the reason for the anguish.

And as Jesus shows them the holes in his hands, and he shows them the hole in his side, it begins to click with them, and they begin to understand this isn't possible without Jesus' death.

Without Jesus' sacrifice, I have no way.

I have no ability to understand this joy.

I have no frame of reference for this true and complete joy.

But here's the rub for many of us.

Here's the rub for me, oftentimes.

And this is what I spoke about at the very beginning of the service is sometimes we have a hard time seeing how pain, how sorrow and anguish can equal joy.

And you're like, hey man, I get it.

You're jumping around and you seem real excited about it, but I don't know if it resonates with me.

I don't know if it connects with me, that pain and sorrow can then translate into joy.

I don't understand how that happens.

And here's what I believe, and here's what I believe that God's word says.

The reason we struggle with this is not because we don't want joy.

We hear what Neil had to say about, hey man, when you really experience and you really live the joy of in a little while and it begins to push away the unnecessary, you're like, I want that.

I look back at my week and I look back at my month, and I'm about to turn the clock on another year, and I look back and I'm like, man, there's a lot of unnecessary I've been chasing, and I want to lay that aside.

I just don't know how.

And for many of us in here, it's because we have confused happiness with joy.

We have tried to replace joy with happiness.

And here's the problem with that is those are two totally different things.

The word joy comes from a Greek root word, which is chara.

And chara literally means to be exceedingly glad.

To be exceedingly glad.

And when you understand that there's a true joy and it's not happiness, then when you read crazy things that the Bible says, like in James 1, 2, where it says, consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials.

And you read that and you're like, How can I count a trial as joy?

But when you begin to understand that it is a gift from the Lord and it is only possible through him, then when you read James 1, you keep reading in verses 3 and 4, and it says, Knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be per may be made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

You begin and we begin to realize that this deep abiding joy comes as we persevere through trials.

And with God's help and our faith, it begins to mature and it gets strengthened.

And so then we look at joy and we go, man, that's what joy is.

And then we begin to see with new lenses, well, happiness is pretty fleeting.

And when I look at when I think I'm happy, it's pretty based on circumstance.

Or it's based on a person.

Or it's based on if it's raining outside, or if at two o'clock, if the sun's supposed to come out, right?

And it's and it's it's very fragile, but this joy says that it's it'll be full and it can never be taken away.

So it's understanding these things which brings it to our last point, and and what makes our last point so important this morning, um, to this joy of in a little while, and and that is that this isn't it.

This isn't it.

And here's what I mean by this isn't it.

Take a minute, think about the rest of your day today, all right?

Don't go too far because then you gotta come back and listen to me for a minute.

But think about the rest of your day today, all right?

Gonna grab some lunch, God willing a nap, all right?

Rest, hang out, maybe enjoy your day.

The teachers in here that I know are going, no, I got grading.

That's a good Sabbath, right?

But all in all, a pretty good day, right?

But that's not it.

But that's what we do.

We think about today and we're like, if I can just get through today, if I can do my best to avoid any conflict today, if I can do my best to interject some peace and maybe some things I like into my day, then I'll count it a good day.

But then we miss it, and what we begin to do is we begin to live what I call an event-based lifestyle.

And here's what I mean by an event-based lifestyle is we miss this full joy that God is telling his disciples about, this joy of a little while, and we begin to say, Hey, I got two weeks of vacation, or I got three weeks of vacation, and I'm, I mean, I'm really looking forward to this vacation I'm having here, and then I'm gonna go on a hunting trip here, or I have a girls' weekend here, or I have this going on here, and all those are great things.

But what begins to happen is we decide that our joy is based on these events that we've created.

And so then all we do is we just live for those events.

But what about all those days in between?

Right?

What about all those days in between the events?

Remember at the very beginning we read from Zephaniah, and it says that he sings over us.

I don't think that God is singing for us to have four good days or four good weekends a year.

Right?

That's not joy.

That's our happiness, and that's that's this event-based lifestyle.

I don't think God delights in that.

God's desire is to sing a joyful song over you every day.

So you would experience his joy every day.

And here's how you know if this is your struggle.

If you're like, hey man, that sounds pretty good to me.

Two weeks of vacation, four trips, that's all I want.

That's not all there is.

You're missing it, and we're missing it.

If this insulated lifestyle is all that we want, we've lost this holy hunger that God has put in us, this holy desire to have his joy.

So when we look at verse 22 and it says, So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

The pastor and author John Piper says this.

I'm almost done, are you with me?

He says this, Jesus says, I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice.

This text doesn't offer any guarantees to people who don't enjoy being with Jesus.

If Jesus says to you this morning, hey, I'll see you again, and your heart doesn't rejoice in being with him, then this text is not a promise for you, it's an invitation.

It's an invitation to love Jesus.

Because if you don't enjoy Jesus, your joy will be taken from you.

And here's what I mean, because Jesus is the only permanent joy.

Notice, look, look with me at verse 22 again.

He says, I will see you again and your heart will rejoice.

Why will they rejoice?

Why will they rejoice?

Because Jesus says, I'll see him again.

And then keep reading.

Then it says, No one will take your joy from you.

What joy can never be taken away?

Jesus.

Jesus being with them, right?

That's the joy that is guaranteed forever by Christ.

No other joy.

If you don't believe in that, whatever joy you've created through a series of happinesses, you need to be aware, and let me love you enough to be honest to say you're standing on fragile ground.

Because if your joy is found in things that you create, we're standing on shaky ground, church.

But God says, no, there's a true joy.

And so this text serves as an invitation to people whose joy has been built in the past on money or success or family or hobbies, physical intimacy, being liked, or games, or sports, or even church.

It's this beautiful invitation by Jesus as he says, the only joy that lasts forever is mine.

He says, I'll see you again, and your heart will rejoice forever.

I had a um, I'm looking at a guy I went to high school with over here, and we had a trainer that was one of our coaches, and he was always pushing hydration, right?

He was afraid of guys cramping up and passing out, and he'd say, Hey, once you're thirsty, that's your body telling you you're about a court low.

All right?

You need a refill of water, you're about a court low.

I say that because I look at verse 24 and we'll be done.

It says, Until now you've asked nothing in my name.

Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.

God is saying, Hey, you're about a court low.

You're about a court low.

Ask and I'll fill you up.

I'll give you true joy.

Do me a favor and stand to your feet.

If you're a guest with us today, hopefully you had the opportunity to fill up that tear-off portion in the worship folder you were handed.

Um, as you exit today, if you could drop that off in one of these tall brown offering boxes on your way out, we'd appreciate it.

And for all of us, if today is your day to worship through giving, that's where you would do that as well.

Put your hands out and let me speak a blessing over you.

Your God sings over you.

You sing to him, but he sings over you.

Go and live as those who are sung over.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.