John Chapter 16:16-24

Some of us may have been nice, sweet people that weren't going to heaven before we met Jesus. But some of us weren't.

I wasn't. And Jesus looked down at me and thought, man, if I save that one, everybody's going to know that it's me and not him. That's the way God looks at us. He doesn't look at any of us and go, that one's beyond hope.

I can't do anything for him. Bob, this is exciting. We've got good news. The good news about God's Word isn't just that God will save us, but he wants to change us. No one, no one is too far away for God to impact. Jesus is in the transformation business, and today as Pastor David continues in the Gospel of John chapter 16, he explains how he can change your life. Awesome, brother. So let's listen as David McGee teaches, I will see you again. John 16, 16. A little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you will see me, because I go to the Father. Verse 17. Then some of his disciples said among themselves, 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 go to the Father. Verse 18. Then they said, therefore, what is this that he says a little while?

We do not know what he's saying. Now, this is interesting, because remember at this point, Jesus has already told them like a dozen or more times of what was getting ready to happen. Describing his death, describing his ascension. And so, yet the disciples didn't get it. Now, either they didn't understand or they weren't listening or paying attention, but I think there's probably something deeper going on and it's this.

You see, we look back on the death and the burial and the resurrection with a certain perspective because we so know these words. But understand, when he was saying to the disciples, look, they're going to kill me, but I'm not going to stay dead, that was hard for them to get their minds around. But it's interesting because even as they say, well, we don't really understand what you're trying to say to us, Jesus didn't get mad. He didn't get mad at them. He lovingly, very patiently continues to explain to them what is going on.

That's encouraging. Notice what Jesus did not do. Jesus did not throw a book at them. Jesus did not start pointing at them and yelling.

He didn't do those things. Well, Pastor David, what's your point? Well, might I suggest that if Jesus didn't do those things, that those representing Jesus shouldn't do those things? See, I think sometimes some of the examples that we've had haven't really reinforced who God is, but more who man is.

And here we see Jesus doing none of those things, but very patiently, very lovingly teaching. Let's continue, verse 19. Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask him, and he said to them, are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said?

A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me? Notice something. If you go back to verse 17, it says, then some of his disciples said among themselves, and in verse 19, Jesus says, and you're inquiring among yourselves. Something that struck me about this is they are inquiring among themselves. They're asking each other these things while Jesus is in the room and available.

Now something strikes me about that, and here's why. Because we tend to do the same thing, you and I. God has given us his word. God desires to communicate to us, but when we have a question, when we have an issue, what's the first thing we do? We go to somebody else.

We go to a person. Now there's a time, and certainly again, we have biblical counseling here. We have elders and deacons that would love to answer your questions, elders and deacons that would love to answer your questions, but what we don't want to do here is develop a dependence upon man. I'm a man, and if you're dependent upon me, at some point you're disappointed, you're disillusioned, but as I encourage your dependence upon God, you'll never be disappointed. You'll never be disillusioned, so I want to keep pointing to him, and I want to encourage you to put your hand in his hand.

That's why I answer the question with a question. I don't know what's God saying, and sometimes obviously I can say, you shouldn't do that. You shouldn't do this, but if it's a choice between God's good and God's best, I want to encourage you to hear from the Lord, to listen to the Lord, because often we're like the disciples. We sit and inquire among ourselves, and there sits the Lord waiting to answer, waiting for us to ask.

He's like, come on, ask me, ask me, ask me. Ask the Lord, seek the Lord. The Lord will tell you. He wants to teach us. Verse 20 says, most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice, and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

Oh, that's awesome. What a great verse. Jesus is really encouraging the disciples at this moment. He's really encouraging them, because He knows the trials that are awaiting Him, and He's speaking of joy, and it reminds me of the verse, Psalm 30, verse 5 says, for His anger is but for a moment.

His favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. I love that verse. We sing that verse in that song, Yes, Lord, because it reminds us of the simple truth, and if you think back to the moment, the night that Jesus is speaking to the disciples here, it was a dark night. I mean, it was the darkest night the world has ever known. It was a night through which corruption and betrayal hung in the air, and sin and death were heavy in the air. It was the night where man would commit the most hideous act of all time. Man would kill God. Think of that, and yet there was going to be a dawn. Oh, the leaders would railroad Him, the Romans would execute Him, and the disciples would end up abandoning Him, but there was a dawn. After the sorrow was come in joy.

Now, see, as we look at this, it's easy for us to go, oh, that's a great thing He said to the disciples. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. He says that to you today. See, some of you are in the midst of stuff.

It's painful. It's tough, and Jesus is wanting to say to you this morning, joy is coming. Joy is coming. Now, I don't know when. I can't say, well, your trial will be over later today about three o'clock. I can't do that, but I know there's going to be an end to it, because the Bible, as it talks about some things sometimes, it says, and it came to pass.

You know what we know? When it says that, it came to pass. It didn't come to stay. And some of you are in the midst of stuff, and you've began to believe the lie. Well, I'm just going to be here forever. I'm going to be stuck in this one trial, this one temptation, this one tribulation for the rest of my life. That's a lie.

That's a lie. See, because I know you may struggle up until the day you go into His presence, but there, friend, you will struggle no more. Your trials will be over.

The battles will be done. And you need to remember this. You need to encourage one another with this. It's interesting. Paul, in the book of Thessalonians, tells us twice that we encourage one another with these words, that what? That Jesus is going to come back.

That's interesting. It's unique in Paul's teachings, because Paul often, a wonderful teacher, spirit-filled, anointed teacher, would take a theme and just build on it. In the book of Romans, awesome book. And so he would take a theme and expound upon it. He didn't usually repeat himself. It was a little different than the ministry of Jesus. Jesus was repeating Himself a lot, didn't He? I used to wonder why He did that.

I had kids. So they'll get it. So we'll get it.

But Paul says encourage one another with these things. Why? Because it can get very disheartening when you start to think where you are right now is where you're always going to be.

It just ain't so. Jesus is telling us this, that joy is coming in the morning. Now, there's a promise, awesome promise. Revelation 21 to 4. It says, And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. What an awesome promise. You understand that promise is to everybody who believes and follows Jesus? It's not just for a select few.

It's for anybody who loves the Lord and is following the Lord. What an awesome thing. Fall back on this when you're discouraged. Fall back on this.

Lord, what I'm going through right now, I thank you. I'm not always going to be stuck here. Because that's the tendency.

That's the way we think in it. Me encouraging something else. Next time somebody starts, I was going to say sharing, but let's be honest. Next time somebody starts whining to you about something, remind them. I'll say, you know, that's a tough place to be.

Boy, it's good you're not going to live there forever, isn't it? Because every trial has an end. Every tribulation has an end. So encourage one another with it. Now, understand something.

Oh, and this is where we get off track sometimes. We want everything to go perfect in this life. I'm sorry.

It's not going to happen. This is not heaven. This is earth. Heaven's coming if you know Jesus, but this is not heaven. If this is heaven, I'm disappointed. You see, trials here, no trials in heaven.

Now, understand something. As a believer in Jesus, the things that I go through here, this is as bad as it gets. This is as hard as it gets. This is as painful as it gets. It gets better later for those who believe Jesus. But now here's a sad fact. To those that don't know Jesus, this is as good as it gets. It doesn't get any better than this. I want you to think about that next time you're looking at somebody's life who may be engaging in sin and living it up, and you're tempted to look back and go, wow, it seems like they got it made. Wait a minute.

That's as good as it gets for them. And what a vapor this life is. You know, when I was young, I thought 80 years old. I thought that was a long time. I don't think that anymore. I think that goes pretty quick.

It seems like the older you get, the quicker it goes. So this life and all its trials and all its stuff is a vapor. Graphs that fade, we're told. But at some point, our tears turn into joy.

Ah, it's a bright future we have. Amen. Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior. Click on submit and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones.

And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for seven cities in our listening audience.

Raymond and Waynesboro, Mississippi, Branson, Chillicothe, Festus, Joplin, and Nevada, Missouri. Lord, thank you for everyone listening in these cities. Lord, we know that you're at work in their hearts because they're tuning in now. Lord, I pray that you would remind them of that, that you're at work.

You have a good plan. You're going to protect them. Lord, give them wisdom and discernment. Help them to not fear during these tumultuous times that we live in. Lord, help them to constantly be in prayer for their family, for their loved ones, and for their co-workers. And use them as divine ambassadors in the cities that they live in. And Lord, anyone who doesn't yet know you in these cities, we pray that you would encourage them to put their trust in you. Use us, Father, to be a blessing to them with your good news. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 21 says, What an interesting analogy Jesus chooses, the birthing of a child. I don't know if you've thought about this, but now, obviously, I've never given birth, but it sure looks painful. But there comes joy. There's joy that comes. And what's interesting is the child that causes the pain causes the joy.

Oh, and you know what? To a father, that's important. See, because I've been a son, a child, and a parent. And let me assure you, I caused my parents many sorrows, many sorrows.

But see, you realize we all have caused that kind of pain in somebody's life. And hopefully now, because we're following the Lord, we're causing joy in their life. And that's what Jesus is speaking about. And Jesus is talking about the birth, and it's interesting because Jesus, understand, Jesus is the one that came up with the phrase born again. That's not something that one church group or denomination came up with. That's something Jesus came up with. In John 3, 3, Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Those are the words of Jesus. Those are the words of Jesus. You got to be born again.

And it's amazing that a lot of people aren't familiar with these words. We were in the old building, and I was counseling with a couple, and the phone rang. And at that time, I mean, I was the only person on staff. I answered the phone, took out the trash and everything. So I was pretty excited the phone rang. So I picked it up, and the guy said, it was telemarketing. He wanted to sell me something.

I was like, yeah, okay. Well, I'm not really interested. I appreciate your phone call, though. And he goes, well, no, I mean, you really need this product. And I said, well, no, actually, this is a church, and I don't think we need your gizmo or gadget or whatever. I mean, I was trying to be nice, and he said, oh, no, no, no, you could use a church. And so at this time, I'm kind of getting flustered. I kind of want to do that, hey, let me get your name and number so I can call you at home or something later about this.

And I didn't do that. But as I sat there on the phone, I thought, oh, this guy's kind of bothering me. And then I understand I can be thick spiritually in the sense that God's like, hey, hey, hey. And that was kind of one of those moments because I'm sitting there going, God, why is this guy bugging me right now? And I'm like, huh, I got a guy on the phone.

So do you go to church somewhere? And he said, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm a Catholic. I said, okay. I said, have you been born again? He said, no, no, no, no, no. I said, so what do you do with the fact that Jesus said you must be born again?

He said, he said that? He said, yeah, he said that in John 3, 3. He said, you got to be born again. I said, do you know what born again is? He goes, no, no.

I said, well, born again is when you come to Jesus, you ask him to forgive you of your sins and you ask him to give you the power to live for him. There was this silence. I said, I could pray this prayer right now with you on the phone.

Would you like to pray this prayer? And he said, yeah. So I started leading them in the sinner's prayer. The couple that was sitting there, they're like, and I had to clarify that this doesn't happen every time a telemarketer calls.

I was kind of glad there were witnesses there, but it's the simple truth and it's so strange that so many people don't know that truth. The new birth. We were out another time, another group of us, we were out and Nick asked this person, you know, do you go to church somewhere? Oh yeah, I go to such and such church.

Oh, okay. Have you been born again? That's not that kind of church. That's weird, man.

That is weird. So Jesus uses this birth analogy again. Verse 22, therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice and your joy, no one will take from you. Man, do you understand the significance of this verse? Jesus is going to pay the ultimate price for our forgiveness and to offer this abundant life. He's saying, you know, I'm getting ready to endure pain and shame and suffering, but I think you're worth it.

And at the end of this, you'll have great joy. Hebrews 12, one and two says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward.

Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven. God wants to change us. God wants to change us. I know somewhere in our mind we think that God looked down from heaven and thought, oh, well, there's a brother. He's, you know, he's basically a good guy, just a little tweakin' and he'll be a great Christian. Oh, well, there's a sister. Boy, she's got such a sweet heart. You know, I can just do a little couple of changes and she'll become a fine Christian. That's not what he does. Oh, granted, some of us may have been nice, sweet people that weren't going to heaven before we met Jesus, but some of us weren't.

I wasn't. And Jesus looked down at me and thought, man, if I save that one, everybody's gonna know that it's me and not him. That's the way God looks at us. He doesn't look at any of us and go, man, that one's beyond hope.

Can't do anything for him. So if Jesus doesn't say that, be careful of you ever saying that. Because the people that you look at sometimes, and we can slip in the judgment easy, we can look at somebody and go, oh, look at this person. Look at this person on drugs or drinking or homosexual or lesbian or this or that. There's no hope in God for them.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. If there's no hope for them in God, there's no hope for you and I. Because God can do anything. God can change any life. As a matter of fact, the first life lesson, Jesus is in the transformation business.

That's what he does. He changes people. He changes us. He's changing us now.

God takes broken lives like mine, like some of your lives, and he does something wonderful with them. And he's been doing that for a while, hasn't he? Took the life of David, the life of Moses, the life of Peter, the life of Paul, and he changed them, changed them.

And he's still doing that. He even took a symbol like the cross, a symbol of punishment and death and pain, and changed it to a symbol of freedom and victory. What an amazing God he is. Verse 23. And in that day, you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now, you've asked nothing in my name.

Ask, and you will receive that your joy may be full. He says, pray in my name. Now, we understand, and that's why we pray. When we pray, we say, in the name of Jesus at the end of the prayer. But understand, in the Jewishness, Jesus was a Jew. In the Jewishness of what he's saying, name and nature were together.

You were often named according to your nature. That's why some people were renamed, we see in Scripture. We see Saul to Paul. We see Peter to Petrus.

We see Judas to mud. No, I'm just kidding about that. But people get their names changed. Why? Because of the nature change. So name and nature are synonymous.

They're the same thing. Why is that important? Because you can't just pray anything and put it to end in Jesus' name and expect God to honor that. See, if I go out in the parking lot and I notice you have a nice car, and I go, wow, that's a nice car. God, give me his car right now in the name of Jesus.

No, not that I've ever done that. But I mean, there's certain people that have their theology built around this, and it almost turns into a, okay, well, I'm going to hold my breath till my face turns blue if you don't give me that man's car, God. And that's so unbiblical. But if you change that to, God, give me that man's car in the nature of Jesus, well, that doesn't work anymore, does it? So ask yourself when you're praying, is this in the nature of Jesus? Is this in the nature of Jesus? Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him.

And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God, with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.