Father we do pray that you would send your spirit and by your spirit teach us and make your word powerful to us. We pray that you would enable us to understand and to see things that are not visible now except by faith. So we pray for your your help as we come to your word now. And we do lift up the Wakefield family before you as well this morning. We ask your sustaining grace for them and we pray specifically father that the memorial service this week would be one at which the gospel is presented and that this hard and difficult time would be used by you for the salvation of those in that family that do not know you. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, we're looking at these these verses that we've just read and we'll read over them again as we go through the text. John, chapter 16, verses 16 to 33. This is the end of what's normally called the farewell discourse. Jesus' last discourse of instruction and encouragement to his disciples before he goes to the cross. and particularly he mentions this thing called joy in this latter part and we want to consider that that subject this morning as a Christian. You've been taught that you're supposed to be joyful, but you're not, and so you're guilty. OK, there's that. That's the first part of the sermon. If you can get hold of that and we if you're honest with yourself. You will admit as a Christian that you spend time knowing that you're supposed to be joyful but I'm not joyful and therefore I'm guilty. There's there's something wrong with me. I think we should teach our little children songs like I've got that joy joy joy joy down in my heart right that we learn in Sunday school. There's nothing wrong with doing that. But you know we think those words in an empty manner so many times. How do we know this? Well, if I were to simply ask you or you ask me, what is joy? What's this joy that we're supposed to have and that we say that we have down in our hearts? You wouldn't answer right away. In fact, what you would find is that you have difficulty answering that question. Think about it. What is joy? Is it when I'm laughing? Is it when I smile? Is it when I'm happy? Is happiness or happiness and joy the same thing? Is joy pleasure? Actually, as we'll see, surprisingly maybe, the word pleasure comes a lot closer than the other words, smiling and laughter and so forth but it is a very difficult. Word to pin down and define what is what is joy and so it's difficult to talk about because in reality we don't know a whole lot about joy and I don't know a whole lot about it about it. You don't know a whole lot about it. So my job is to teach you about something that you don't know about and and have difficulty relating to and that I have the same problem. And so it eludes us and it does that as we're going to see because of the nature of joy. I hope that this will be an encouragement to you because yes while we should be more joyful than we are at the same time. Joy is something that is of such a nature that we will never experience it in its fullness in this life. We never will. We will, but not in this life. And if we don't know these things, then we can end up living life in kind of a long guilt journey. I think that Christians are the guiltiest people in the world. Not before God. If you're a Christian, you are justified. We're justified before God. Christ. There's no condemnation of the Christians and before God. But we can be the guiltiest people in the world because we don't understand things like the nature of true joy. We are we are we we bring ourselves under loads and burdens of false guilt in many different ways. And this is this is one of them there. Paul wrote that where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. Right. And where we can say there's a corollary. only the opposite whatever you call that whatever word that is for it is that where the tradition of man is there's bondage and we have a lot of bondage in our Christianity that stems from buying into the traditions of man and some of those traditions have to do with this concept of joy that a Christian should be joyful all the time. And so you have people and they can they can be preachers like me they can be eminent supposedly eminent people in the church or or writers of books and whatever bouncing around having some kind of a joy ministry and people look at them and say boy I wish I could be like them and the whole thing can be false and it's and it's destructive because it's built on man's tradition not on scriptural truth and as a result it enslaves it puts people under heavy loads of bondage. There's a lot more of the religion of the Pharisees in our evangelical churches than we even know about and certainly that we would like to admit. So let's see if we can correct some of these things at least in relation to this whole matter of of joy. There is nothing wrong with you as a Christian if in fact in this present life you do not feel perpetual fullness of joy every moment of every day. We do have fleeting moments of the experience of genuine joy. in this life. Christ gives those to us, but they are of the nature, as we're going to see, of the moment we experience them and we turn our attention to them. Have you noticed this with the stars at night sometimes? If you You see a star out kind of your peripheral vision a little bit. And as soon as you turn your eyesight and focus it, it almost dims away. And joy is like in this life. Joy can be like that. We can begin to experience joy and you turn your attention to the thing and you mean to think, oh, this is joy. And it's gone and it's gone. And we're going to talk about why it can it can be that way. This is meant to be encouraging to you, and I hope that, I mean, that's not just my purpose, that's the purpose of the farewell discourse when Jesus talks to us about many things, but certainly this topic of joy. Some years ago, we talked about C.S. Lewis, and you remember that he wrote quite a bit about joy. One book, I think, isn't it called Surprised by Joy. If you want to talk about C.S. Lewis, normally we think of mere Christianity and apologetics and so on, but really, if you were going to pin down a central theme in the teaching and writing ministry of C.S. Lewis, it would be joy. And he had kind of some strange takes on it, but then as we find out, Joy in itself is a little bit strange. You remember when Lewis would talk about things he experienced in his boyhood, when he read this Norse tale, epic tale of some kind, and he'd be reading about these exploits of, I don't know whether it was Vikings or the Norsemen or whoever, and he said he got this wonderful feeling of something that he called, he ended up calling it northerness. Northerness. That somehow there's this place where these Norsemen were in these tales. And it's somewhere in the north and he would crave for it and even have a little bit of an experience of it and then it would go away. He had another experience of the same thing. of this northern surprisingly when he was a kid and he was. I think he made a little garden thing in a little tin box and he's looking at it and and all of a sudden he experienced the same experience of this thing that ultimately he would realize is is joy. Let me give you a brief synopsis or definition of what our thesis is for this morning. illustrated by some quotations by C.S. Lewis and then come to John 16 and my proposal to you this morning is that this is the very thing that Jesus is talking about here as he talks about joy here in the last part of chapter 16. So here we go. If we believe that as Christians we are to be the most joyful people in the world living in fullness of joy every moment, then we're setting ourselves up for disappointment, disillusionment, and a real load of false guilt. While we have glimpses of genuine joy in this life given us by Christ, they're only glimpses. Joy is primarily something that lies in our future. Why? And here's what I think I'm confident this is the biblical definition of joy. Joy is the pleasure or the experience of being in the presence of the Lord. Understand that and you will understand joy. Joy is that emotion, if you want to call it that, that overwhelming sense of delight in God's beauty and being that proceeds from being in the presence of God himself. The spirit of Christ in it gives a small taste of that joy which is to come, but for now we only see and experience it in part. Joy then, by definition, by its essence, is directly connected with the presence of the Lord and our awareness of that presence. Right. If we had a. Overhead here I draw you a graph. As the awareness and sense and reality of the presence of the Lord increases in our life. Our joy increases and and it might not be a linear relationship right a straight line increase it might be exponential where. Our experience of the pleasure of the presence of God, of joy, increases. What will and what will it be in heaven, in the new heavens and the new earth? So, where's joy to be found? It's to be found in the Lord, specifically in the presence of the Lord. and we've seen in John fifteen already in the account of the vine and the branches that there are ways that we can experience more of the presence of the Lord in this life practical things obey him right keep keep his commandments and thereby abide in him listen to him as he speaks to us in his word. We've got to hear from him. We've got to be in his word. We speak to him in prayer and in those ways we draw close near to the Lord and he draws near to us. But in this life we will never see him face to face. That kind of joy right now would kill us. We couldn't couldn't survive. But the fullness of joy awaits us. It is in this sense, then, that there is nothing wrong with you as a Christian if you honestly admit that this joy eludes me in this life, because certainly it does. And we're going to see in John, chapter 16, that this is the case that this fullness of joy. Oh, wait, it's one of these. It's one of these things so often in Scripture now, but not yet. We have we we have it in a sense a fullness of joy now at times, especially if you're talking about the quality of that joy, this joy that the Lord gives us. And yet we don't have it as we will have it then now and and not and not yet so. You can be honest. You don't have to come to church and bounce around and be bubbly so that you can convince everybody that you're a good Christian because you're joyful. Right. You don't have to do that. And by the way that that relates. I wanted to tell you this is reminding you of this as well. That relates to honesty. Right. What kind of person can be here. What kind of person does God permit to be in his church. What kind of a person. Well first of all he permits really messed up people to be to be present to come to to the worship of the Lord. Right. And so there are Christians who are working out their salvation and there can be pagan unsaved people. who come because they're under conviction or they want to and they want to hear the Lord might be calling them and they want to hear more of the Lord's word. What kind of a person can't be here. A hypocrite. A person who's not honest. So you can be really messed up. You can be a mess. Right. The real construction project that the Lord has to do. Most of us are more like that than we would realize. But what you as long as you're honest right as long as you're honest. So if for example it would in regard to joy it would be a very serious mistake to not be living moment by moment in the fullness of the joy of the Lord which none of us are and yet feel like well I'm going to come to church and I'm going to convince everybody else I'm such a fine Christian because I am so joyful you see. So there's no need for dishonesty. We know you know I messed up. I'm a sinner. Well I'm trying to steer away from calling Christians sinners. I've been working on that in scripture. I'm a sinner saved by grace and there's still sin in me that the Lord is working on. Right. And it's the same and it's the same with with you. We don't need to pretend that that isn't true. and you can actually admit your sin and I really don't think anybody is going to be all that that blown away by it. So the Lord requires honesty and and certainly when it comes to this matter of joy we need to be honest about it. Well listen to some of these quotations from C.S. Lewis about joy and its nature and how it's it's a fleeting thing that still awaits the Christian. He said, though I do not believe that my desire for paradise, for heaven, proves that I shall enjoy it, I think it a pretty good indication that such a thing exists and that some men will. You see, we desire heaven. A Christian desires If you desire it, it's not here yet. We hope for it, but it hasn't been fulfilled yet. He goes on the very nature of joy. Makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting, and the next quote kind of explains that a little better. All joy. emphasizes our pilgrim status. We're just passing through this life. Always reminds our joy, reminds, beckons, awakens desire. Our best havings are our wantings. What's he saying there? You can have and have and have all kinds of stuff in this life. You will still desire. And that's not necessarily greed or covetousness. It is this desire for more. In fact, if you are a Christian, you will have to be careful here. I'm going to revert into John Piper language here, desiring God, you know, but in that in this sense, he is right is that the Christian desires more and more and more is greedy for God. Because we don't see him yet face to face. And that's what Lewis is talking about here. Our best havings are still wantings, because when I have something here and I take pleasure in it, that pleasure points toward an ultimate pleasure, an ultimate desire of something more. He said joy. is the serious business of heaven. He understood this northern. He came to realize that northern joy and he only had fleeting glimpses of it in this life. Joy is a serious business of heaven. Joy will be a chief thing in in heaven. And again, I think we delight to praise what we enjoy. Because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is it's appointed consummation. So in this sense what he's saying praising what we enjoy. Our worship of God is praising God whom we love and enjoy. But you know as well as I do that our worship of God in this life is pretty pathetic. Right. I mean you know that it it falls short that there is that there will only be perfect worship of God in heaven. Many times that's left out of people write books. It was real popular a while back I think among evangelicals to examine this whole thing of worship and it is an important topic but But it seems that people can get all caught up in. We're going to make our worship of God almost heavenly. But we but we won't. We won't. We will someday when when we are in heaven is then we will be praising what we are enjoying namely God himself. He goes on a few more quotes here. We are born helpless as soon as we're fully conscious. We discover loneliness and what he means there is I desire more. There's emptiness in my life which would indicate there is something I was made for more. I was made for something else. Another one. It was when I was happiest that I longed the most. The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing to find the place where all the beauty came from. Right. So, more and more, especially in the Christian, there is going to be an increasingly holy dissatisfaction, because you know that everything declares the glory of God, but we don't see his glory fully, and we long to. Then a quote from the last battle in the Chronicles, Narnia. There is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes. That's why the more than a person knows God, for instance, the less the pulpit in the Christian church, for example, the less the pulpit will become a comedy routine. Because comedy, shallow jokes and frivolity, we begin to measure up to what joy in the Lord. Another person quoted C.S. Lewis and commented this way. The soul was made to enjoy. This is Lou. These are Lewis's words. The soul was made to enjoy some object that is never fully given. They cannot even be imagined as given in our present mode of subjective and Big words for this life. OK, the soul was made to enjoy some object that that just eludes us. Well, that object is is gone and we don't see him face to face in this life. The commentator went on to say about Lewis Lewis saw joy as pictures or blissful glimpses. God sends to an estranged race to awaken sweet desire of pagan You see, even by his common grace, he puts within the unregenerate man some sense of more, desiring more, thereby calling them to himself. Lewis used the word joy to connote the highest definition of imagination, that is, the sense of awe at the presence of the objective reality and absolute truth, says some philosopher. He means God. Lewis meant God, you see. And this lies outside of ourselves. Someone else wrote about Lewis's idea of joy. The green Castle Ray hills outside Lewis's nursery window. The tiny toy garden that he made on the lid of a biscuit tin. Beatrix Potter's squirrel nutkin and Longfellow's saga of King Olaf. Later, Lewis distinguished these kinds of experiences of joy from happiness and pleasure by observing their common quality as that of, now get this, see this is the whole point of the thing. Joy is an unsatisfied desire in this life. Their common quality as that of an unsatisfied desire which itself is more desirable than any other satisfaction and anyone who's experienced it will want it again. See this that in this life our experiences of joy point to an unsatisfied desire. Biblical terms. Your citizenship is in heaven. That's where we belong. That's where our life Our life is in our joy, our pleasure, not here, and we're not going to experience the fullness of it here. Another one by Lewis. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are substitutes for joy. Is it great? Well, this is a commentator. Lewis had said all pleasures are substitutes for joy is a great quote. I think there's something to the idea that the never ending search for pleasure is at least partially explained by the absence of abiding joy in the lives of so many people. In other words, human beings were made for something more. They were made to enjoy God forever and ever, and that is what joy is. Now, we want to make it clear We are not saying and I don't think the Bible teaches that that you cannot experience joy in this life or lead a joyful life. But simply that because the Holy Spirit does give us as a fruit in our lives joy. That's one of the Galatians five fruits of the spirit right. For example, Acts 13 52, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. First Thessalonians 1 and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. But does that mean that the Christian is to expect to live in perpetual moment by moment bliss of fullness of joy? No, in fact, that is impossible in this life, because the fullness of joy is bound up in being in the fullness of the presence of the Lord. The psalmist in Psalm 16, you make known to me the path of life in your presence. There is fullness of joy at your right hand. Our pleasures forevermore. And yet in this life, First Corinthians 13, For now we see in a mirror dimly. See what? What do we see dimly? God. Right? We only see dimly. But then, then, in the new heavens and new earth, face to face, now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Now, I was talking by email to someone about this the other day and they made these statements here that that reflected in a sense there can be a kind of fullness of joy in the Christian in this life and here's here's what they said. I would view it as true that in this world we can have joy and our joy can be full. and that only in the next or emphasis here should be and that only in the next world we can have fullness of joy. Is that a paradox. Yes but I think both ways of seeing things are true. Didn't Jesus say John 15. These things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full where these things that he had told them referred to abiding in Christ, I am the vine or the branches praying and thus having answered prayer and keeping God's commandments. Absolutely we will not be in perpetual joy until we are perpetually in his presence, which won't be until eternity, but to the extent that we're delighting in him and anything in this life, wholeness of joy should truly Marcus rejoice in the Lord always again again I think rejoice Rejoice evermore plus praying and giving thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you so we can have fullness of joy in this life and we can have fullness of joy only in the age to come. Both true paradoxically. All right. So I just I put that to give you in there to just give you another little slant. The emphasis that I want to make this morning that I think is made by Jesus here in the last part of John 16. is that the fullness of joy awaits us and that, and I'll give you a few reasons why I conclude this, that when Jesus is speaking here in verses sixteen to thirty three, sixteen to twenty four especially, Jesus is speaking eschatologically. He is speaking of the fullness of joy that will be ours in that day when he comes again finally ushers in the new heavens and the new work. OK, let's see if we can sort this out now and you'll have to keep your brain engaged in and to follow along verse sixteen 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 you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me and because I'm going to the father. Now really what we want to do this morning. We want to sort that out too. Jesus kind of explains it here but but what what does that mean a little while and you will see me no longer and again a little while and you will see me. verse eighteen, so they were saying, what do you mean by a little while? That's the heart of it. What does he mean by a little while? We don't know what he's talking about. By the way, this is a difficult passage. It's difficult and there are, commentators are not all agreed on the details of what a little while means, as you'll see. Verse nineteen, Jesus knew what they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, that's what you're asking yourself what I meant by saying here is again 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 going to illustrate it now. 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 that anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now. This is the beginning of birth pains. 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 and we see what what day in that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly truly I say to you whatever you ask 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 full. Now that you see what I mean is that those passages you read in and you can get some highlights but really do you follow everything extremely clearly and we don't because it's difficult. Jesus began this section and it is a cryptic statement. And and we know that when he says a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me that certainly he is talking about his death and his resurrection and his ascension. All right. His death a little while you will not see me again a little while three days and you will see me as he as he rises from the grave and then eventually a fan. But now I am going to him that he is and they don't see him again. Right. And so. But here's the question. Is Jesus only speaking of when he says a little while and you will not see me and again a little while you will see me. Is Jesus only speaking of What was going to happen immediately then to the disciples. Jesus they wouldn't see him because he would be put to death and then they would see him three days a little while when he was raised. Is that all he means. And I'm suggesting to you and I think I'm right. No by no means is that all that he means and that this relates directly to what joy is believe it or not. And we'll see this in a in a moment. I hope we can do this clearly. The Farewell Discourse begins. The Farewell Discourse is chapters fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, and it begins by the statement, you might remember, of what is really the great theme of the whole Bible. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house, in my father's Right. That's what it is in my father's presence where my father dwells. There are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I don't prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. So this is this whole business of I will be there. God, they will be my people. I will dwell among them. That's the Genesis to Revelation theme of the whole of the whole Bible. Sin is what causes separation. In Christ, it's all about bringing us back to Eden and dwelling with God. And that is all about regaining joy. The farewell discourse is about this and it closes really with a reminder of the same thing. Verse thirty two. Behold the hour is coming. Indeed it has come when you will be scattered each to his own home and will and will leave me alone. Yet I'm not alone for the father's with me. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation in this world. We're going to have trouble. Christians especially are going to have trouble. But take heart. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. So Christ has affected this victory. All right. Now with that background. Let's see what Jesus means when he says a little while and you will see me no longer. And again a little while and you will see me. Remember, we saw that Jesus then expounded on this. He illustrated what he was talking about in verse 19. He said, Remember that the woman in labor? Listen to it again. Verse 19. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him. Ask him, Is this what you're 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 to joy. The illustration comes later. We'll come to that in a second. All right. You see what's happening here. A little while and you will not see me. What's that? That's sorrow. Right. You're going to weep and lament. When is that? The world's going to rejoice. Well, it's when He's put to death on the cross and he's buried in the world is rejoicing and they'll be sorrowful. But again, a little while you will see me. What happens then? Your sorrow will turn to joy. So you see how it's working? Jesus, they don't see him. They're not in his presence. So they're sorrowful. He sees them. They see him again. Their sorrow is turned into joy. So joy joy is dependent upon the absence or presence of the Lord. Right. That's what that's what's happening here. And immediately and historically a little while and you will not see me and again a little while you will see me was worked out in the crucifixion the burial and the resurrection of of Christ. And so their sorrow turned to joy because joy is that response that pleasure in us to the presence of the Lord and sorrow is that response in us when we are absent from the Lord. Now here's the illustration again. Verse twenty one when a woman is giving birth she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she's delivered the baby she no longer remembers the anguish. for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you you are like that. He's telling them you have sorrow now but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. Now what I'm trying to do I hope kind of successfully will make it clear is show you that Jesus' words, while they certainly apply to the sorrow that the disciples felt experienced at his crucifixion, and their joy that they experienced upon his resurrection, have far more meaning and application than just to those historic events that the disciples experienced. And therefore, they apply to us and to all Christians of every every single era. And there are hints in the text that tell us that Jesus is not just speaking of his death on the cross and his resurrection. But when he's saying these the when he says this cryptic thing a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me. He is speaking also eschatologically. And I'll show you what that means. And there it has application to us then as well. For example, look at verse twenty three. In that day, you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask 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 full. Now that's odd. We've seen this before in this section. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full until now. You've asked nothing in my name. Ask in my name, praying in Jesus name and so forth. This has to do with the change between old and new testament. The fact that Jesus is going to part and not be with them and so on. But in verse twenty three, he says, In that day, you will ask nothing of me. And then he turns around and tells them to ask in his name what's going on. And I think that the answer is the explanation is that he is speaking eschatologically in verse twenty three. In that day, you will ask nothing of me. What day? The day of the Lord, the day of Christ in the in the new heavens and the new earth. I wonder at that point we don't have time to go into that. But is there going to be prayer in heaven. Think about that. Here he says if this day is that eschatological day in the new have the new earth you'll ask nothing of me. Maybe we won't ever pray again in in in the new heavens and the new earth. But this is odd. In that day you will ask nothing of me and then he turns around and talks about them praying in the fall in the father's name what's happening here. I think that Jesus is talking not only about his departure in the sense of dying on the cross and his return to them in the sense of his resurrection three days later. But I think that he's all also speaking of his then ascension to heaven. He leaves them again their sorrow. The day of Pentecost when he returns to them in the person of the spirit and they experience they're filled with the spirit and they experience joy. Right. But also to that era which we are in now in which Christ in this sense is absent from us. We don't see him now but our sorrow will be turned to joy when he comes again, because because joy is dependent upon the presence of the Lord. And so there is a real sense in which right now, as we'll see in a moment from Romans eight, the Christian whole creation, the Christian is groaning and prevailing, right? Waiting for the coming of the of the Lord Jesus and are coming into our full adoption and our are full inheritance and I think that that inverse twenty three Jesus when he says in in that day you will ask nothing of me. He's talking about the day of Christ the day of the Lord the day his second coming when he when he comes again and and also and this is why I emphasize Jesus illustration of verse twenty one. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow and so forth. But when she's delivered the baby, then she she has joy. I think that Jesus, again, there is speaking eschatologically. Why do I say that? Because the Apostle Paul in Romans, Chapter eight, picks up on that same thing. The Apostle Paul, when he wrote Romans, He he knew about these words of Jesus. This illustration when a woman giving birth, she has sorrow and Paul in Romans chapter eight. Remember, he has that whole section on all his groanings that are going on in the Christian's life and and inverse eighteen Romans eight eighteen. Paul says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that's to be revealed to us for the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pain of childbirth until now and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the spirit growing inwardly as we we we wait eagerly for adoption of the redemption of our of our body. Here's what a Christian is like. The Christian is just like Jesus said these disciples were. Like a woman who's giving birth and she has sorrow. There's this groaning. Why? Well, in us and in the creation, it's because we want to see the full coming, the birth of the new heavens and the new earth. There's that there and what and what is the greatest glory of the new heavens and the new earth. It is seeing Christ and is seeing God is being in the presence of the Lord face to face. That's where the fullness of joy is again. This relates if we understand this. We recognize that living for Christ now in this present life is tough. It's not fullness of joy. The baby hasn't been born yet. Right. He's developing coming. But but the baby hasn't been born yet. And so we are still in anguish. We're still groaning. We are still in that sense experiencing not seeing the presence of Christ in his fullness. But that day is going to come. So we have sorrow now. we live, we have tribulation in this alien world, but Christ is coming again at his second coming and in that day our hearts will rejoice. Now you can check different commentators disagree. D.A. Carson thinks that Jesus is only speaking of his death and the sorrow that they experienced and his resurrection three days later. and their joy. But but I think that for several reasons contained in the text that that that is far too limiting. William Hendrickson seems sees a double fulfillment here. He says that when Jesus says speaks about them being in sorrow because they won't see him and then in a little while they'll see him again. William Hendrickson also includes the ascension of Christ so his departure when they're perhaps sorrowful. and then his coming again on Pentecost in the day of the spirit. But I think that we have grounds to add Christ's ultimate second coming in the new heavens and in the new earth. OK, so let me see if I can tie this. I can tie this together and apply it. The. Verses 25 to 33. I'm not going to read them again. They're in the text for you here, but they emphasize another theme that's working in the farewell discourse, and that is Jesus saying that that the day is coming when he will no longer speak to them in figures of speech, but he will speak to them clearly. And I think that we are partially, at least in that day. Now the spirit has come. We have a much greater understanding of Christ's words and we have a lot more of Christ's words here in the scripture and the spirit to help us understand those things. But he is also referring to the fact that in the new heavens and the new earth, though we will still forever, for an infinite amount of time, for eternity, be learning about God, The fog that was in our minds and interfered so much with us that that seeing in a mirror darkly stuff will be will be gone. Let's bring this home with some concluding thoughts then on joy. Joy once again is the pleasure the experience of being in the presence of the Lord. Joy is that emotion that delight that overwhelming sense of God's beauty and being that proceeds from being in the presence of God himself. And we get small taste of that joy in in this present life but nothing like it is going to be then. And I think that Psalm 16 shows us this progression from this partial experience of joy the joy of the Lord in this life to its fruition in his presence. Look at watch this progression here. Psalm 16. Preserve me, O God, for for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. And this is I think the Lord is my joy. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed I have a beautiful inheritance. That's just Old Testament language for the new heavens and the new earth. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel in the night. Also, my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not and that part is the joy that's experienced by the Christian in this life, but. For you will not abandon my soul to shale. This is a very Christological psalm right. For you will not abandon my soul to shale shield or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence now. Now what was verse 10 talking of. That's a prophecy of the death of Christ. Right. And the resurrection. You will not abandon my soul to shield or let your holy one see corruption. Then what happens? You make known to me the path of life in your presence. There is fullness of joy at your right hand. Our pleasures forevermore. Joy, pleasure, true pleasure. Joy is bound up as man's response to being righteous and being in the presence of God. And incidentally, That which is the fullness of joy for the Christian who is righteous before God is the fullness of terror for the wicked man outside of Christ. What is more terrible and terrifying to the sinner, the wicked man, but to be in the presence of the Lord and perish. There are other scriptures that teach the same thing that joy is the pleasure of the presence of the Lord, Psalm 21, for you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with the joy of your presence. Second Corinthians four for this light momentary affliction. This life is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen for the things that are seen or trans. The things that are unseen are eternal eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. That's joy that being in the presence of the Lord and finally, of course, revelation seven. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more neither thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That is not all going to happen in this life. You are not going to experience fullness of joy of the Lord until that day comes. But that day is coming. It is coming, and when it does, all the junk, all the stuff and the baggage that we have been stumbling over and all the evil that we've experienced and we've been grieving over and all the times that people have told us, just get over it. You're a Christian. Get over it. Right. You're supposed to be joyful. All of that junk is going to come to an end because we will experience the perfect presence of the Lord and therefore perfect joy. And perhaps that will be the very best thing about the new heavens and the new earth. Fullness of joy. You don't know what that is yet and neither do I. But we but we will. And we have that we can be sure. Let's close in prayer. Father. We thank you for Christ and. And for your great mercy shown to us in him. That you have. Called us to yourself. That you have rescued us out of this present darkness. and delivered us to the kingdom of your son. And that you you have given us this promise that you're coming again to get us and to take us out of here. That we can be where you are in the present in your presence and the father's presence uninterrupted. And experience the fullness of joy forever and ever and ever. Father we pray that we would long for that increasingly as the days of our lives go by and we pray that we would not be given to any cheap substitutes at the present time and we pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.