Would you open to the Gospel of John, please? The Gospel of John, chapter 16. We'll be picking up in verse 16, and we will actually be going until verse 22. This is the reading of God's word. 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 that he says to us? A little while and you will not see me. And again a little while and you will 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 that they wanted to ask him. So 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 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 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." It's the reading of God's Word. So, coming back to the gospel here. We say things like, nothing is impossible for God. Right? All things are possible in Christ. We say those things, and we really like saying those things. They're easy to say, actually. And even if you take it in the abstract, they're even pretty easy to believe. Well, of course, if God's involved, we can do anything. Of course, nothing can stop God. When the rubber meets the road is when it gets taken out of the abstract, and it gets put into your life. When you are facing trials and tribulations, when the world is overwhelming you, and you have no idea what the way out is, that's the moment when you really see, do I really believe that nothing is impossible for God? The world can throw things at us that just seem inconceivable. We never even thought of them before, that they could come in such intensity, in such severity. And we can be so overwhelmed by these problems that we find that we start doubting what is really possible. It turns out that in the back of our minds somewhere, we had actually never really gotten rid of the belief that there are such things as what is impossible for God. We had been holding on to just a seed of that belief somewhere deep down in our hearts. And so then these problems come. Then our trials come. And that doubt grows up and we concede, Lord, there are some problems that just cannot be solved. This breakdown is a lot like what the disciples are about to face. They're about to face something very much like this. They're used to a life in which Jesus walks with them. He explains things for them. He protects them. He's always around. They can tackle anything just so long as Jesus is around. And so they can walk confidently after the Savior while he's there. What if Jesus isn't around? What if he dies? What then? In their minds, there is no solution for their Savior dying. There is no remedy for that kind of loss. What can God do about that? And Jesus starts to tell them. Jesus starts to tell them what God can do about that. When you pick up in verse 16, Jesus is announcing again his departure and his return, right? And you see in verse 16, I mean, it sounds a little bit like a riddle. It's understandable that the disciples were not following this all the way through. The disciples just sitting there, confused. One more time. We understand things. Again, it's always good to remember when you're reading these Gospels, we understand things they had no idea about. Maybe they should have understood, they didn't though. We understand things with such clarity, and we take that for granted when we read these accounts. But the disciples, I really... I understand. I understand why they're confused. They don't have a category to possibly process what it means that Jesus Christ, their Messiah, would die and rise from the grave. So maybe he said it, but there's no category in their brains to understand it, and it makes no sense. You know, just getting in the shoes of the disciples, it's a reminder that we make this massive mistake sometimes of making one-dimensional, lofty religious figures out of the characters of the Bible. We think that the people of the Bible are smarter, better, wiser. And it seems like a lot of the time they're not. I mean, okay, yeah, you compare us to David's fierceness, Solomon's wisdom, Okay, they're gonna beat us on that. There are some good things in the Bible. There are some good aspects of people in the Bible. But, you know, if you ask me if I could stand in utter confusion just like the disciples did, I can do that. It turns out I can see eye to eye with these characters of the Bible. It makes total sense to me to stand in front of Jesus and be like, can you explain that again? I have no idea what you're talking about, Jesus. Yes, they're apostles, and they're going on to bring the revelation of God in just wondrous ways, right? But they're also just saints, and they're a confused bunch of them, right now. So the Savior, again, taking time that, this doesn't make sense in a sovereignty sort of way, but in an earthly way, taking time that he doesn't have, and clarifying one more time for them, right? You're wondering what I meant. We're getting to verse 19 here, right? You're wondering what I meant when I said, a little while and you will not see me, and again, a little while and you will see me. Before we move on, have you noticed just how much repetition there was in this set of passages? I mean, I have a writing background. I have an editing background. I could chop two-thirds of the words out of this section and convey a lot of the same things, you know. He says at once, a little while and you'll see me no longer, and again a little while and you will see me. Then I could just say, well, the disciple said, we don't understand what you mean. And then he, Jesus could say, oh, you don't understand what I mean. Right? Why the repetition? A little while. Not, without looking down your Bible, guess how many times he says it. Seven. Just gotta keep your eye on the scripture sometimes. Really, that was seven times, huh? I'm watching you, right? Any time, though, that the scriptures want to tell you something seven times in a row in a very short passage, probably good reason to say, oh, I'm gonna pay attention on this, okay? In a little while, he says. In a little while, God will blow them away with a demonstration of what he is capable of. In a little while, everything is going to change. So Jesus, getting to verse 20, he starts explaining some, at least, of what he means. He says, what's coming first is the hard part. What's coming first is you will weep and you will lament But the world will rejoice. And think how stark a difference that is. You will weep and lament, but they will rejoice. The world has a completely opposite reaction of the followers of Christ. And as it turns out, that just seems to be par for the course. Because really, sometimes don't you look at the world and it just baffles you why we can be at such polar extremes of just spectrums of perception and morality and everything. How can you love the things you love and hate the things you hate? Sometimes it makes no sense. And this, that is exactly what's going on here. Weird or not, baffling or not, this is just what we should expect. It's not that there's no such thing as a common moral ground, but unfortunately it turns out it's much less common than we wish it were. The world is going to rejoice, but you, to the disciples, you, you will weep, you will lament. Why? Again, we know something more clearly than they do, because Jesus, your Savior and Messiah, is going to die. He will fall into the ruthless hands of the world and they will crush him, break him, and crucify him. And you will weep and you will lament because your world is falling apart. Think of all they have invested in this relationship. Think of all that they have built together. Just in the most basic ways, think of the friendship. Think of the affection. They've walked together with Jesus for years now. They've talked together. They've shared light conversations and deep ones. They've laughed together. They've been bound together by suffering. All of these personal touches that cause us to mourn when we lose someone, that's what they're gonna have. But on top of that, there's theological implications. There are religious implications here. They thought that he was the Son of God, the Messiah himself, here to rescue them. They thought, this man, this rabbi, you have the words of life! Him dying just seems to scatter all of that, to undermine all of that. Part of the sorrow that's going to come their way, part of the weeping and the lamenting, it's going to be disappointment. Profound disappointment. You see in Luke's gospel, after the resurrection, Jesus finds some of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, right? And before they recognize him, they're telling him about what's been going on. And there's this telling comment when they say, we had hoped he was the one. As in, we had hoped he was the one, but apparently we were wrong. This is so human. We understand these disciples perhaps better than you think sometimes. They are just being human here. They are going to be so broken and disappointed over this. And haven't we done this? I thought this job was the one. I thought this person was the one. I thought this opportunity was the one. The disciples here, they thought we had found the one worth devoting our lives to. But I guess we were wrong. and then as they go on to live their everyday lives after Jesus is crucified, before he's come back, there's going to be that question of what do we do now? What do we do now? What do you do the day after a tragedy, right? You have to go on living, but why? For what? What keeps you going? What if your central reason for living is gone? That's what the disciples would be experiencing. And to make matters worse, as they are mourning, as they are grieving over the greatest loss they've ever experienced, the world would be throwing a party. They would be rejoicing because they hated Jesus. The world, this band of rebels, they were united against their master. And they are going to achieve that wretched goal that they've been grasping after, striving for. They would kill the Savior. They would kill this false Messiah. how bitter it would be to have the world celebrating your greatest loss. You know, in American culture, one of the weirdly and widely accepted reasons for a man to openly cry is losing a sports game. It's just the way apparently things work, right? If anyone catches you crying during like an emotional movie or something like that, just expect mockery, right? Breakdown weeping after you lost the championship game? Totally acceptable. Baseball players particularly like to do this. But, in the end, in the end, no matter how, and I think I've probably been one of those grieving athletes before, so, you know. In the end, though, we recognize that what we have lost is a game. No matter how much it's symbolically come to mean to us, it is a game, and the other team, people like us. They just came out on the winning side of it. How much harder would it be that the world would be rejoicing in the successful murder of the Son of God? The indignity of that, the anger, your blood would boil having to witness that. And on the other side, on the other side, it would simply feel like Well, we lost. Having your leader die in battle is losing. When the dust settles, here we are, they won, we lost. How low and how broken down they would feel. And this is where they would run into their belief of what is possible and what is impossible. You see, they would be certain that there is nothing that can undo this sorrow. That is why they will mourn like they will mourn. If they just had a crystal clear picture on it, oh, just wait three days. We'll see them soon. They would have behaved differently. Weeping and lamenting, it's because they think nothing can undo this sorrow. But then Jesus says, everything will be reversed. Jesus says, yes, you will have sorrow, but it will be transformed into joy. Your sorrow will become joy. How are these things possible? How are these things possible? How could it possibly go from something so opposite to something so joyous? Jesus says, you've seen it before. You've seen it with mothers. You've seen what a mother goes through giving birth to their children. The agony, the anguish that they go through It is transformed on the arrival of their baby. And keep in mind, too, he's talking about a time that has a lot less ability to reduce pain during birth. Mothers, how many of you reflect on the actual childbirth time as a pleasant experience? Raise your hand. No one. No one. Okay. How many of you even just think it was a neutral experience? No one. This is, on many people's scale, the worst thing they've ever gone through before. Just terrible. Anguish is absolutely the right word. But then that baby arrives. then that little person arrives on the scene and everything changes. The anguish and the sorrow are transformed. With that kind of joy of that little person, the sorrow is replaced by joy. Jesus says, you've seen this. You will have sorrow, Jesus says. There's no denying that. But I will see you again. Yes, I am leaving, but I will see you again. And the joy that you will have, it will be permanent. The world can't take that, however hard they try. Most things that we love, most things that we cherish, They are things that the world can take away. They are. The world can take away families. The world can take away churches. The world can take away friends. The world can certainly take away jobs and possessions. The world cannot take the joy that Jesus gives. There is no way to steal away the truth that Christ won. And our God lives. That is a joy that cannot be taken. A little while and you will see me, he says. And a little while and you will see me turns out to be our Savior's M.O. To these first disciples, he said this. A little while and you will see me. He said, death won't stop me. Though the world trumpets its victory, it has not won. Why? Because I will see you again. Death itself cannot stop me, he says. A little while and you will see me. But then, I mean, think about how this kept going. He came back and then what? He came back and they have 40 days. of just this amazing experience where the Savior is back on the other side of the trial. It must have been incredible. Just incredible. The disciples emerged from this darkness of this terrible trial, but with a new perspective. They went through the thing that they never understood before, namely that their Savior had to die. They could never understand it before, and then they came out, and it must have just been so stunningly clear. I have really pretty lousy eyes, right? And I remember the first pair of glasses I ever got. And if you have a similar experience, I bet you remember. Because what it means, before you get glasses, there's a very gradual decline, where you just don't even notice that you live in a fuzzy world that everyone else thinks is clear. And I remember the eye doctor giving me my first pair of glasses, and I put them on and I was taken aback. I said, you look like that? There's trees on the mountains, who knew? It was stunning to see how clear the world was after I got that first pair of glasses. And I think that's how it was for them. I think those 40 days, whatever amount of time Jesus spent with them, I think they were better than any of the old days. Not only were they back with their master again after going through all of that, but they understood so much more. I bet you there were these times where they said, Jesus, Jesus, I remember when you said such and such, right? Did you mean that? I bet you it was just time after time after time of, that's what he meant! All the consternation we witness in the Gospels clarified. It would have been so cool. I bet that time was permanently seared into their hearts in the best of ways, into their hearts and in their memories. 40 days of bliss and understanding. But 40 days comes to an end at some point, doesn't it? There's the 41st day to deal with. Then what? Well, Jesus ascends into heaven, leaving them again. Leaving them forever? I will see you again. He orders them to stay in Jerusalem and await the coming of the Holy Spirit, right? And then the Holy Spirit comes with this jaw-dropping power poured out on them, ushering in this new era. And in this new era, the Holy Spirit would do all the things Jesus has been telling them He would do. He would bear witness to Jesus Christ. He would bring to their memories all the things that he had taught. He would guide them into the depths of Christ. By the Holy Spirit's indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or indwelling of the disciples, you also get this kind of included package that the Son and the Father also indwell them through the Holy Spirit. And he would inspire these scriptures that unmistakably point to Jesus Christ. The coming of the Holy Spirit would mean that the disciples would know Jesus even better in his absence than they had in his presence. A little while and I will see you again. And then there's the second coming. You look at the world, and there is so much to grieve over. There is so much sorrow. Our lives, just our own lives, even if you don't even read the news for a while, our own lives bear so many scars of our mistakes, of our sins. And you look around at the world with its polar opposite values, and it just seems undefeatable. and the emptiness and the depravity just seem to be so pervasive. They're everywhere you look. But Christ tells us that it is His joy that is permanent, not our sorrow. You could ask, how could any situation so miserable and sorrowful as this world, as the state of this world, how could that ever be reversed? It seemed unthinkable for the disciples too. Wasn't a dead Savior insurmountable? Wasn't that a problem that even Jesus, God, His Father, anyone, wasn't it beyond any of them to handle? It turns out it wasn't. The Savior promises us a reversal that is at least as stunning as His resurrection. He will return. Reclaiming and recreating the entirety of this fallen world. Where He will create a world where sin and sorrow cease. Where there is no more pain. Where there is no more mourning. Where every tear is wiped away. We cannot imagine a remedy to the sorrow of this world, to the sorrow of death and sickness and injustice, but Christ can. Christ can. As we grieve over the state of this world, and this world should grieve you, as we grieve over the state of this world, we hear those words echoing, I will see you again. That is why we long for the second coming. We long for it because there is so much that needs our Savior's attention. So many things that are out of line with God's goodness. So much that needs fixing. But this world, this sorrow, it is not forever. This is only a fleeting hour, as you would have it, because Christ is coming again. And no one, no one can take that joy from us. Let's pray. Lord, we long for the joy that you intend for us to have. We long for the faith to trust you. When we live broken lives and we have broken families and we're in a broken world, may we have the faith to trust that you are truly the God of the impossible. That there is nothing beyond your power. We long to see our Savior again. We long for the new heavens and the new earth. Would you hold us firm in that faith and in that joy until that day comes? It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.