Little While Times

Well, if you have your Bibles, go ahead at this time and join me in the gospel tonight, John chapter 16. So next Wednesday, we won't have Wednesday service because of Vacation Bible School runs Sunday night through Wednesday night, so if you have your Bible, John 16 John 16. Look at verse number 16, and we're going to go down through verse 22.

This is a unique portion of scripture. Jesus Christ is less than 24 hours from the crucifixion, and He is talking to them in a season of life where things are about to get really rocky for them. This is going to be the hardest thing they have ever gone through in their life, and He comes to them in John 16, and He says this in verse number 16. It says, A little while, and you shall not see Me. Again, a little while, and you shall see Me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of His disciples among themselves, What is this, that He saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see Me? And again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, and because I go to the Father. They said, Therefore, what is this, that He saith, A little while? We cannot tell what He saith.

In other words, we don't understand it. Now, Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see Me? And again, A little while, and you shall see Me? Verily, verily, I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful. But your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, or when she's that point of pregnancy, and she's breaking her husband's hand while he's saying, You'll be okay.

I remember my right hand still feels some carpal tunnel right now. It says, Because her hour is come, but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now, therefore, have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

What a blessing. Father, we thank you tonight that your ear is always open to us. There are some in this precious congregation that have endured such suffering over the last day.

There are some who've suffered from other struggles and health issues and all kinds of situations that can land in our life unexpected. And Lord, we are those who would come to you and find grace to help in our time of need. And so Father, we pray that you would be gracious tonight. Pray for anyone that is carrying a heavy heart that they would feel the peace of God that passes all understanding to keep their heart and mind through Christ. Father, I thank you for your word tonight that brings wisdom and comfort. I pray that you would lead guide and direct in this service now.

We ask it in Jesus' name. And God's people said, man, you may be seated this evening. Horatio Spafford was a successful lawyer years ago back in the 19th century who faced some incredibly traumatic experiences and events in his life. He was a successful lawyer in Chicago when the great Chicago fire of 1871 burned up 3.3 square miles of Chicago. It killed hundreds of people and it ultimately ruined him financially. If financial loss was not enough, it was about the same time that his four-year-old son contracted scarlet fever and his four-year-old child passed from that horrific disease. He decided to move to Europe so he sent his family ahead of him as he finished up some business. His four daughters were on one ship and his wife was on another. The ship his daughters were on was struck by a sailing ship causing it to sink and when his wife sent him a telegram, it only said, saved alone. Spafford received the horrifying news that all of his four children were dead, fifth including the four-year-old.

He immediately left to be with his grieving wife. The captain of the ship let Spafford know when they passed the area where his daughters had drowned. And it was at that moment that he let these words come off of his heart onto a piece of paper and it says, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou has taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and has shed his own blood for my soul. In the face of some of life's most traumatic events, God allowed him to be inspired and encouraged to write such words that were still impacting lives around the world in song that we sung even tonight. Has life ever handed you some heavy news? Some news that you can get in a single phone call could change the rest of your life. Impacts that are so heavy sometimes you're not sure if you can keep breathing, keep living, you're not quite sure how you're going to get past the next day or week.

It can change the course of your life, it can change the course of how you and your family do things the rest of your life, wounds that you wonder if they'll ever be healed, mental and emotional pains that no worldly sedative seemed to be able to touch. Just a couple weeks ago we had a precious 34-year-old lady who attended the church who passed away in a tragic car accident and just last night a precious 3-year-old child, part of our toddler class just this last week, died tragically in a car accident, was with a family last night late into the evening. Those are things that you just don't really have words to say, do you? You know, 3-year-old children should not die. God did not intend little children to be in children's hospitals.

It wasn't the design, God created everything good didn't He? And we know that John 10 says, but the thief comes not but for to steal, to kill and to destroy and when sin came into the world we deal with the effects of that and that affects all of us in all different ways. When we come to John 16 it is on the heels of the most traumatic experiences these disciples will ever face. Their hearts will be torn in pieces the next day, literally shattered in their heart when they see their Messiah their Savior who they thought would be their deliverer now being crucified and dying. They are so hopeless. They had physically left what they did for a living for 3 years to follow Him.

They went all in. And what they went all in for 3 years they see crucified, totally ravishing their hearts. Jesus tells them in verse 16 He says, a little while and you shall not see Me. And in verse 20 He says, verily, verily, a double verily is trying to bring attention about what He's saying.

It's a Jewish mode of expression of saying like this is something you need to really listen to. And He says, I say unto you that you shall weep and lament but the world shall rejoice and you shall be sorrowful. It's one thing to be sorrowful and others are sorrowful with you.

It's another thing to be sorrowful and they're rejoicing at your sorrow. As you read verse 16 through 22 you'll find 7 times the phrase a little while is used. And I want to call this a little wild times.

Little wild times. Just 4 thoughts tonight as we walk through this passage that I feel is so needful for us to think through. First of all, little wild times can come in life. One thing that's true in life is there are difficult seasons that come. There are things in life that we will face that will be heavier than what we can handle. Sometimes people say God will not give you more than you can handle. Yes He will. The water was more than Peter could handle.

Right? Could Peter walk on water? On his own, could Peter walk on water?

Okay. So Peter could not walk on water. It was more than what Peter could handle but it was not more than what Peter could handle with Jesus. So you guys are like is this a trick question preacher?

You're like I ain't going to be the first one to answer wrong. This stuff is live streamed man. It should go down in history. So it's important to realize that sometimes there are things in life that on your own you and I can't handle that. And I think God allows us to face certain weights in life to bring us to Himself. The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 3 to everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under the heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plan and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down, a time to build up. The Bible says there's a time to weep and a time to laugh, time to mourn and a time to dance.

I will say this. If you are ever in a situation where someone's grieving, learn to speak less than more. They don't need a sermon.

They just need a body. It's not the time to quote Romans 8 28. You know all things work together for good. Well it wasn't your family member that just died either. And maybe they just need to know that you're living out that verse to them and you're loving them and being there and just give them some room to be emotional. If somebody begins to break down and cry, let them.

That's good. What's not good is when people never cry. God has created us to mourn. That's a response to grief. And if you silence mourning and you shut that down, it causes internal problems that will break you on the inside. Things begin to break down.

And by the number of people that are in this room, I know there are people who've probably faced some tragedies. Because it hurts, you don't want to face it. So you don't want to think about it.

You don't want to talk about it. You don't want to feel it. So you just try to numb it. Mentally you disengage from it.

This is a lot of times where medication comes into involvement of it. You focus on other things. You ever notice somebody, if they lose a loved one, sometimes they can get real focused and they're doing a lot of stuff for a day or two. But then when it all hits, when they're not preoccupied doing things, they have to face it. And when you see them cry and you see them go through that, don't feel like you want them to stop crying.

That's part of them healing through that. You know, I've done like 170 funerals. Like I've seen a lot of people pass away in my life. And it's never easy. Yesterday was one of the hardest things I've done in 20-some years of ministry.

One of the hardest things I've ever seen. And you just, when people start breaking down and crying, just let that flow through. But I would also say this. In these years, I've seen through the years where sometimes young people will isolate themselves. Parents will, you know, kids playing a video game and they're consumed in that because if their mind's on that, they don't think about what happened and that's not good. You want them to think about it. You want them to talk about it. You want them to heal through that because if they don't heal correctly, it will affect every single relationship the rest of their life.

And that is true. You have to learn to work through problems. If you go around the problem and don't deal with it, it's like a ball and chain you're dragging with you the rest of your life. You'll feel it. And so the next thing you come to, you'll go around because you'll avoid it.

And you keep doing that and you have a bunch of closets of stuff that you never work through. And so the Bible says there's a time to weep and there's a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn.

And that's a reality. God tells us through the Word, there's a season for all of these things. Men in the Bible were also not exempt from the hardships of life. I think about Adam and Eve, their second child murdered their firstborn. The first human beings on earth, the first child born into the world of men was a murderer. And the parents understood that they, that Adam or that Cain was a murderer because they allowed sin to come into them that was now passed into the world.

Envy and jealousy and all of those things. They lost one son to death, they lost another son to judgment. Abraham, you think about the trials he went through, the family struggles. Isaac's older son wanted to kill his younger son. Jacob's older brother wanted to kill him.

His father-in-law was a crook. Genesis 35, Jacob's wife Rachel died. He had a son, Reuben, who commits a great sin against him.

Then he lost his dad all in the same time frame. Hannah in the Bible felt the pain of being barren for many years of her life until God brought her Samuel. Think about Naomi. Her husband dies and then her two sons die. You know, she said, don't call me Naomi anymore.

Naomi, you know, Mara, Naomi means full, Mara means empty. Think about Moses, 40 years in the wilderness leading Israelites, at times he said he just wanted to die. Elijah got so down, Elijah was so depressed he wanted to die.

I mean, these are great men in the Bible. David had great victories and great defeats. He felt the pain of losing a child, then a son who tried to kill him. And then that son died and David, I think, would have much rather died than even Absalom died.

He was so grieved by that. Hebrews speaks about the Old Testament saints that went through such suffering. You know, think about John the Baptist was in prison for preaching. Spent about a year in prison. Wasn't, you know, wasn't a nice place like we have today in a lot of our prison systems. And then he was beheaded around 33 years of age. Do you think John the Baptist, no wonder he said, Jesus, are you the one or should we look for another? I mean, you know, the prize for me preaching is imprisonment. I mean, 10 years my younger, he's imprisoned and beheaded.

So, you know, it's an incredible thing. Paul, what did he get for serving Christ? Paul speaks of being beaten for Christ in 2 Corinthians 11, 23 through 28, going through imprisonments, being stoned, shipwrecked, hardships, fasting, being cold and hungry, the weight of carrying church, all the churches as well. He was just, he was weighed down. The early church martyrs, people in the Bible, you see there was many, many people throughout Scripture. And what you find is, it's a rare thing where you find somebody that didn't have troubles.

You know, we didn't even talk about Job. So what you find is little wild times come. Little wild times come. It's not that God is against you. It's that we live in a fallen world where fallen things happen.

Right? I mean, people die young. We were having a revival years ago and right before the revival service, I got a phone call that my grandma died. So do I get up in front of the church and say, hey guys, we're going to have to postpone this for a minute. My grandma died. You just keep rolling through. Praise the Lord.

She's in heaven. And you know, sorrow may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. But you know, these, life happens, doesn't it? So little wild times come. Secondly, little wild times are often hard to understand. If you notice in verse 17, it said, then said some of the disciples among themselves, what is this that he saith unto us a little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me and because I go to the Father. They said, therefore, what is this that he saith a little while? We cannot tell what he saith.

What you find is the disciples are struggling to understand what Jesus means by a little while. You can sense their nervous question and struggle. They don't just write out ask him because they're often like, you know, like we should know this. Like a lot of times when we ask him, he's like, don't you know this already?

And so they sometimes would struggle to ask him. But just because you're saved doesn't mean you have all the answers. The disciples had some questions and listen, sometimes the Lord will allow us to be in a state of questions without clear answers on purpose. Sometimes he'll let you be in a season where you don't have all the answers.

And you're like, boy, if I could just have the answer. And I think God wants us at that point to not have a horizontal answer but to realize he is the answer. That I have to now trust him for what I don't understand. Because if I understood it, I don't know how much I would need to trust him.

Right? I mean, God in the wilderness, God says, listen, I'm going to open this up. This is Zach. Let me show you what I'm going to do. Go through all this. I'm going to give you some water here at Mara. And the water's not going to be good at first. You're going to throw some trees in there. It's going to get better. It's going to go from bitter to sweet. And then you're going to go over here and find 12 wells of the springs area. And I'm going to send down manna from heaven.

We're going to have some birds out there you're going to feast on. And if he laid it all out, but he didn't give them all the answers, he would like let them go three days without water. And they're like, there is not a good option. Aldi's is not out here. Water's not cheap. Walmart's not out here to get some water.

I mean, they are in, you know, there's no creeks running through the desert where they were. And God provided that out of rock. Sometimes God wants us in situations that are dire straits to where we just have to lean into him. Job did not have all the answers up front. And God did not obligate himself to give Job all the answers. Abraham didn't have all the answers when he set out to seek the promised land. God just says, arise and go to the land that I tell you of. And he didn't tell him exactly the location.

He just got up and left. I mean, how many women would follow their husband and they weren't quite sure where they were going. But they're like, but I know I'm following the Lord. Moses didn't have all the answers to leading the people in the wilderness. I mean, can you imagine leading millions? It'd be one thing leading your own family into the wilderness.

I mean, wouldn't that be enough? And then to have millions of people bring you their problems. Anybody like carrying other people's problems? Or having a lot of people, maybe you're a boss at work and people bringing you stuff, or you're in the HR department. Isn't that a fun place to live?

Yeah. Who wants to grow up and work in the HR? I just, you know, wanted the people to bring me problems. Or work in the telemarketing world where you deal with all the problems. Call in and cuss me out. I had one of those jobs in college. Paid me really good money. I thought the next year if I ever have to go back and do that job, I would rather die. I don't care. No money is enough.

Miserable. But all these men in the Bible, they trusted God. In other words, where sight was not available or the answer was not clear, they inserted their trust in God into that void. So just because you're saved doesn't mean you have all the answers in the midst of trials and hardships. Sometimes you don't know exactly why you're going through this. You won't have all the answers.

When life hurts bad enough, we all ask questions. You know what's interesting with doubt? Have anybody ever doubted God before?

Like at some level? Do you know that's only a believer's problem in the Bible? You don't see unbelievers doubting God. They deny God, but only Christians doubt God. Even John the Baptist doubted it. And if John the Baptist doubted it, do you think you'll ever doubt? And you know what makes us doubt?

When it hurts and we don't have the answer. Because it's at that point, we have to trust what we don't see. Does that make sense? So now I have to put faith in the unseen God based on his word. So is what he said believable? You know, Thomas was a believer. He doubted. Peter doubted. A lot of people throughout the Bible had doubts, struggles. I've met many families who have lost loved ones and as we sit down to talk about their loved one who passed and in the middle they begin to cry and say, I don't understand why this happened. I don't understand why this had to go this way.

I mean, God doesn't say, hey Josh, when you go to their house, you know, this is what you're going to say. You know, there is no golden answer. There is no golden answer. Christ is the answer, isn't he? I know many of you have been in those situations, times where life doesn't make sense, the pain in life, times we cannot reconcile the level of pain we're enduring with our lives.

We ask, what did I do? You feel like you maybe sinned somewhere, you're like backtracking over the last couple weeks. Did I do something really bad to make life hurt this bad? Like do I have some unrepentant sin in my life that's like maybe a sin of ignorance somewhere?

I've read that in Leviticus once and is there something missing in my life that God is bringing this struggle into my life? Maybe it's a physical thing, a family thing, a relationship thing, a health thing, a job thing. Maybe you have some questions today.

Maybe your heart is heavy with questions that you just can't seem to get the answer to. Life can hurt sometimes very bad. And if you love people, you will hurt. That's one of the risks of loving people.

Did you ever notice that? You ever notice people who don't want relationships with anybody? You know why they don't want relationships? Because they're not worth, they don't want to take the risk.

They shut down, they stay so far away from people, they usually wall up with anger. They just don't want anyone to get close enough because they've been hurt before and they just don't want to deal with that again. You're worth the risk to me. You're worth the risk to Christ.

And it hurts sometimes. But when you love people enough, you're willing to open your heart up to them enough and say, you know what? Every time we had a child, I cognitively thought through the process, this child could devastate me by them dying prematurely, something happening to them. I mean, it could bring incredible pain into my life, but loving them is worth the risk. Having that child, does that make sense? So just when you love much, it can hurt much in life.

But you'll never know what it's like to love truly like that unless you're willing to take the risk. But when you have Christ, you understand the risk is mitigated through the resurrection. So, you know, I think about Job, he didn't understand. David didn't eat for a week when his child was sick and ended up dying. And you read John 16, the disciples were so heartbroken. I mean, you read Luke 24, the road to Emmaus, they were overwhelmed with grief. So we see first of all, little wild times come.

Secondly, they are sometimes extremely hard to understand. And just know you and I at some point in our life will be there. Some point in your life, your eyes will be filled with tears. You will get a phone call, you will have something happen and you won't have a clear answer. It's not like God's like, hey, this is exactly why that happened.

You're going to have to step into trust. That is why we have to build our life on the Word of God so we can have the strength of the Word to uphold us in those seasons. It is the Scriptures, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ that upholds us in those little wild times. Now, the third thing tonight is Jesus knows we struggle to understand these little wild times.

Look at verse 19. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him and said in him, do you inquire among yourselves of that I said a little while and you shall not see me and again a little while and you shall see me? I mean, Jesus knew they were struggling to understand. He knew they had a question they wanted to ask, but perhaps they were afraid or didn't know how to ask him. I mean, when Peter doesn't ask, you can tell there's a level of intimidation to ask Jesus some questions, right? You know, and I think sometimes we have this Jesus is my buddy, my pal, you know, and this cultural thing. They lived with him and they're like, I'm not asking him what he meant by that.

I mean, just think about that. There was a level of like reverence, respect, a godly fear. So Jesus knows when we have questions, he knows that he knows where our minds are running. He knows that we can be in times of struggle. Remember when Mary and Martha came out to see Jesus when Lazarus had died?

You remember what they both said? Jesus, if you had been here, our brother had not died. That is in essence saying, Jesus, you are too late and it's your fault he's dead.

That's a monumental statement. Now Jesus didn't say, how dare you? He ministered into that, didn't he? That's why I say when sometimes people in a time of great grief can say some things, they may not always believe fully, but out of anger and hurt and pain, they may sputter off some statements. Don't try to theologically correct every single thing somebody says when they're in a grief grieving situation.

Does that make sense? Give them some room to grieve, bring them to prayer, bring them back to the truth. Sometimes people can be very cold and theological, right?

The Pharisees were cold and theological. But just know this, your struggles do not go unnoticed by God. God knew exactly what the disciples were struggling with. He is not unaware of the concern. People say, well, then why hasn't he done anything yet? Well, let me ask you, has he done anything about our struggles?

Has he done anything about our struggles? What did Jesus do to help with our great struggle, with sin, with eternal judgment, with death itself? Think about Hebrews 2.14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, Jesus also himself, likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So for Jesus to rescue us from the great enemy of death that has taken our family, our grandparents, our children, our loved ones, Jesus had to take death on himself to rescue those who were dead, who would face spiritual death, also physical death. Not only would he bring salvation, but he would deliver us from the fear of death. When you're a believer, you don't live in fear of death.

When you understand the scriptures, when you truly understand, when you've built your life on the word of God, he delivers you from that. Because when you close your eyes in death, you open them to eternal perfection in the glories of heaven. Can you imagine your last breath? Just think about that. That's ultimate reality. Like there will be a point if Jesus does not return, you will do your last, everybody here is crying, and you're, and everybody there is rejoicing. Immediate.

Is that going to be amazing? This will sound wrong probably at some level, but this happens to me all the time, and it's not because I'm super spiritual, I just have read enough of the Bible, and I just, I know it's the truth. I'm beside people that are dying, and there's a sense of great jealousy I have. And I'm sure some of you have been there too, like I'm just thinking they're right there. And then they, and I'm like they're there. I mean they are in the perfect presence of God, everything that is evil and wicked and painful and sinful and satanic and all, it's gone forever. Like they're in perfection. And we're stuck here.

You know? I mean if we could see them there, we'd be drying up the tears right away, we're like man, you know what I'm saying? We'd be like, look at that! We'd be crying for ourselves, like boy, we'd end up like Paul saying, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I mean there is more there than here. And I can tell you friends, there is a truism when you have loved ones who begin to pass on, and the more and more loved ones that go there, I mean it's like some of you have more family there than here, and it's like man, you begin to really look forward to heaven. I've had many precious saints say, oh I'm ready. They know they're dying, and they have like zero fear. I've seen it. It's one thing to say you're not afraid to die like when you're 30.

Y'all know what I'm talking about? Well I have no fear of death. People are like, oh I believe in Jesus, I have no fear of death. Yeah, you're 25 years old. You're 120 over 80 every day in your life.

You eat donuts three weeks in a row. I mean usually you have nothing wrong with you, right? I have no fear of death. Yeah, you be 85 years old, and you know you're going to die within like two weeks, or you get cancer or terminal, and they say you have two months left.

That's a whole different ball game, right? And I have seen it incredibly number of times where the peace of God is unbelievable. It's tangible.

It's like you can just feel it there. It's unbelievable the power of God, the sustaining power of God. Now the context reveals the caring nature of Jesus.

You can hold your place here. Turn with me to Matthew 26. John 16 is literally a couple hours from Jesus being in the Garden of Gethsemane. He's asking Peter, James and John to come be apart and to pray, and as Jesus walks off into the garden by himself he is so overcome with grief, weight, and sorrow of the bitter cup that he has to drink that night.

It says in Matthew 26 36, then cometh Jesus with them into a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples sit ye here while I go and pray yonder, and he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee. That's James and John, and it says this, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, look at how Jesus self describes this.

Here's his self-diagnosis. My soul is so exceedingly sorrowful, he's saying here, even to the point of death is how sorrowful I am. Tear ye here and watch, which means pray with me. Now the word sorrowful signifies tremendous grief here. Six days prior to Jesus coming to the garden he says, now is my soul troubled. He was troubled six days before he arrived at this point. He was already being troubled. The Bible calls him a man of sorrows.

And then he says very heavy, it's a Greek word, it is the strongest of three Greek words that he could have used. It is a verb that means to be tremendously distressed and anguished. It's a deadly kind of grief. It's why the Bible says he was sorrowful unto death. The agony he was feeling was like literally beginning to take his life. It was breaking him down inwardly to the point where he begins to perspire blood.

It's a phenomenon known as hermatidrosis. It's interesting Leonardo da Vinci even described a soldier who swept blood before battle, people who faced incredible turmoil. I have seen mothers fall before caskets of their kids. I've seen parents who couldn't enter into the funeral home weeping, falling down, just heartbreaking things.

I've never seen anybody sweat blood. I just want you to understand for Jesus to rescue us from our grief he bled through his sweat glands to do it. That's the level of turmoil he was entering into, just entering into it. So sometimes we say how could God allow us? All we do is have to look at the page of scripture and say whatever the cause was I can trust that man. He's trust with me. I don't need to have all the answers when I have him because whatever his cause is it must be loving. It must be merciful.

He is gracious. Incredible turmoil. That night Jesus was under such anguish, such turmoil.

He knew his hour was coming. John 13, just a couple, and this is what I preached through the Gospel of John. It took me a couple years. I like sped through it.

You guys are probably like how'd you do that in two years? But I went through it and I can tell you I've never gotten over the compassion he had for his disciples. From chapter 13 through 18 is like the day before Jesus dies, all that section.

Chapter 12 is like two weeks before it then you lead up to just write John 13 through. All he does, you will never one time see him concerned about himself. He's getting ready to be under such agony and he knows it's coming, but all he can do is care for his disciples. It's just impossible. It's totally impossible, but he does it. In John 13, just a couple hours before the passage of John 16, he's in the upper room.

He's not talking about himself, talking about his needs. Judas goes out to betray him and just makes it worse. Peter's like, I'll never deny you. Yeah, wait till the rooster crows three times. Yet in that setting in John 13, they are arguing over who's the greatest.

You're going to be dying the next day. They're arguing over this. What does Jesus do? John 13 one, now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world. He goes on in John 13, knowing that's coming, he washes their feet.

He knows what's coming and he serves them in total humility. John 14, he's like, I go to prepare a place for you. Let not your heart be troubled. John 14 one, John 14 27, let not your heart be troubled. Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give unto you. John 15, greater love hath no man this that a man lays down his life for his friends. John 17, the whole chapter, he's praying for his disciples. John 18, he's arrested.

There are so many details to those chapters. All he does is pour into them. He just keeps dumping into them, caring, caring, caring. They had to have thought after he was crucified.

You know what? You remember back then he never said anything how we could care for him. He even broke the bread for us and passed it.

He did everything for us. Then after he rises from the dead and we can't catch a stinking fish, we come to shore after he tells us to throw it on the other side. We fill the net up.

We don't even need to use any of our fish. He's already made breakfast. Then he serves us.

I mean, what more could he do? It's just lavish life, lavish goodness, lavish grace. One day we're going to get to heaven and Luke's gospel says he will come forth and serve us. I don't know about you, there's going to be some times we're going to have some little wild times in our life we're not going to understand.

Your eyes are going to be filled with tears. You're going to say, I don't know what God's doing right now, but you can say I can trust that one. Christ is worthy of my life.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. That is the undaunted life that's fixed on Christ. It's just an amazing thing.

They're sleeping and all he could do was care for them. Then lastly, we'll be done. Not only do little wild times come, sometimes we don't understand them. God always knows when we don't understand them and he cares about that. Fourthly, Jesus will one day transform our little wild times of sorrow into incredible and forever joy. It says in verse 16, a little wild and you shall not see me.

But praise God it doesn't end there, right? And again, a little wild and you shall see me. Theologians agree on the first little wild when Jesus says a little wild and you shall not see me.

This is referring to his death just hours away. But they don't agree uniformly on the second a little wild and you shall see me. So when is that? When is the second one? The first one he's going to die and then they're not going to see him. But he says in a little wild and you shall see me.

When is that going to be? I believe there's three aspects to this. Many times in the Bible there's more than just one aspect to something.

David was a lesser David and a greater David. There's the resurrection. There's a first aspect to the resurrection, a second aspect to the resurrection.

I could dive into that. But there are just different aspects to things in the Bible. Sometimes there's layers of things. And let me share with you what I believe it means.

When he says in a little wild and you shall see me, I believe initially that will be at the resurrection. If you had a tooth that a doctor said needed pulled, you would be disappointed. Like, ah, you don't have so many.

I only have seven left, you know. But after they examined it and they said, hey, something happened. The tooth looks fine.

We don't have to pull it after all. You'd be like, sweet. Go eat some sweets or something, right? You'd be happy.

But if you had stage four cancer and you were facing chemo and radiation but you got a call from your doctor that after more tests were run, they said the cancer is gone. The joy would be incredibly intense for that. Now the death of Christ, its tragedy brought the hearts of the disciples not to the level of a tooth or even to the depths of cancer, but to a level of heartbreak that they had never felt before such despair. They were brought so low that when Jesus Christ was risen three days later, the joy was unimaginable. They were overwhelmed with joy. John 16 22.

The Bible even says they could not believe for joy. Like, like it was too good to be true. Remember when Peter came and knocked on the door? And Rhoda comes to the door and he's like, hey, it's Peter.

Let me in. She's like, no way. She comes back and they're like, hey, Peter's at the door. And they're like, that's impossible. We're just in here praying for him, right?

It was just too good to be true. So the disciples live with an unending joy in life because they saw the risen Christ. That's the first aspect. Secondly, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was with him for the first 40 days after he resurrected.

He said, 10 days. He said, go up to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to descend upon you. And Acts 2, that happened at Pentecost. And the Holy Spirit brings joy into the life of the believer. That's why the joy of the believer is not based on circumstances.

It transcends that. It's based on God. And because God doesn't change, our joy can be strengthened through seasons of even heartache. The Bible tells us in Galatians 5-22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy. Romans 14-17, for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. These kind of passages go on and on through the scriptures. And then third aspect of that joy is not only in Christ's resurrection, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that fills us with joy, but thirdly, his future return.

You know, think about John 14-1. I love it when he says, let not your heart be troubled. In other words, I don't want you to be heartbroken. I don't want you to be in despair.

You naturally would be, but I don't want you to be. Don't do that. Like, don't grieve like that. Don't be so overwhelmed with grief. Don't be so stirred up with trouble. And look what he says, you believe in God, believe also in me.

And what is the joy base? Like, how would they not be grieving? He says, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. The reason they did not have to let their heart be troubled was though he would be separated them for that three days, they will spend forever with him one day. So it's the future promise of being with Jesus in heaven that brought incredible comfort. This is why 1 Thessalonians 4-13-18, he says, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep or spiritually dead. Asleep, there is a euphemism for Christians who died.

He says, I don't want you to be ignorant. Like, I don't want you to be unlearned, brethren, concerning them which have the Christians who have died that you sorrow not, even as others who don't have any hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. You know what that means? When Jesus comes back, all of our loved ones that are saved, he's bringing with him.

Is that going to be an incredible reunion day? For if we believe that, and then he says in verse 15, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, this isn't what we made up, this is what God says, we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, the dead in Christ. These are all New Testament saints at the rapture. Old Testament saints get raptured, resurrected at the end of the seven year tribulation according to Daniel 12, one and two. But here you find the believers in Christ, those who are dead in Christ, New Testament saints rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds. Why do they resurrect first? Because they have about six feet further to go. But they, whatever reason, they're resurrected first and we which are alive and remain are instantly caught up.

Just in the twinkling of an eye, that's just in a moment of time. And the Bible says we'll be caught up together with them in the clouds. Notice, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

And it concludes by saying we're for comfort one another with these words. The comfort to those who've lost believing loved ones is Jesus is coming back with them. If our loved one can't be here with us, where else would we want them to be than with him? So in the grief, in the pain, in the suffering, ultimately they're better off there.

Though we want them here. We're so thankful they can be there. And it's not goodbye. It's I will see them again. Jesus told the disciples in John 16, listen, you will be sorrowful. Your hearts will break. Friday I die. Friday tears will fall, but Sunday's coming. And not only is Sunday coming and you'll see me, but I will send the Holy Spirit and you're going to have joy. And then one day I'm going to return and there's going to be joy. This is like joy heaped upon joy, heaped upon joy, layers of joy. Relief is on the way, Jesus is saying.

Relief is coming. He gives the example in verse 21 of an expecting mother, a woman when she's in travail has sorrow. I mean, it's not easy because her hour has come, but as soon as she is delivered to the child, she doesn't remember. You know, that's going to be us in heaven.

That's going to be us. The joy that a man child's born. What is greater for a mother, the pain of childbirth or the joy of the baby? I've never heard a mother after they're holding that baby like this was so painful. It's like they don't, they're like, they're so tough. You just take that baby and they're so, men would be over there. And all the women laugh because they know, they know. He may fight off an intruder who came in. He may beat that guy up, but if he had a baby, he's done.

He's done, right? If we understood though, by the experience, the magnitude of the glories of heaven, we would mentally be lifted from the earth to daydreams every day of heaven. Like if we could glimpse it, you imagine glimpsing heaven for five minutes, being there for five minutes, you come back here, all you could think of was that. You'd be so consumed. When you got to the place of, you knew your death was coming, you would be like, oh, it's coming.

I mean, you would literally be daydreaming about it. You would have, we would welcome the aging process. White hair's here. Bring the wrinkles.

No Botox for me. We would welcome the aging process. We would, we would be lifted into the eternal state. Paul says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, they're not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Second Corinthians 4 17, he says, our light affliction is just a moment.

You know, Jesus, knowing the joy it says that was set before him and Hebrews 12 to endure the cross. Three things heavenly minded, being heavenly minded will do. First of all, God's goodness won't be based on the temporary, but it'll be based on the eternal. God's not good based upon what happens to me for a breath length lifetime.

It's based on where I'm going to spend eternity. Secondly, the issues, pains and sorrows of this life will not be our focus. The glory of heaven will be weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Thirdly, death is not the end.

It's just the beginning. And because of that, you won't put all of your eggs in the basket that's going to crash. You're going to place it where it really matters. So as I close, little wild times come, pain is real. This message will mean more to you at that day.

Right? For some people, it may not mean as much. Some people, these are the kind of messages that help them get through.

It's like, I needed that. When you've had great loss, you know what that means. I didn't have great loss as a young kid growing up. The order of God, I've felt the pain of loss. And when you grieve at a level that is so heavy, it is needful to have the words of Christ in your heart.

You need them. It's like water to the man in the desert, isn't it? But in our trials to understand, realize it does not mean that Jesus does not care.

Oh, he does. And he's done everything necessary to bring us joy one day from that. One day, our little wild times of sorrow will be turned into eternal joy. Jesus said, your joy, he says in verse 20, shall be turned. Your sorrow, he says, shall be turned into joy. And he says in verse 22, and ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice. And your joy, he says, no man taketh from you.

What a day that's going to be when no one can take your joy from you. You have unending peak joy in the presence of God, and it can never be interrupted by anything. That's why Psalm 16, 11 says, in his presence is fullness of joy and at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. That's awaiting you as a believer. If you're not saved, you're missing all of that.

Weeping endures for a night and it will endure for eternity. You reject Christ, you reject all of that. You reject Christ, you reject eternal peace, eternal joy, eternal forgiveness. You said no to the only one that can save you and bring you to heaven. The only one that can forgive your sins. It should make you run to Christ a thousand miles an hour and forsake anything in life that would keep you from there. Jesus is your number one priority because sorrow is going to come to you. You will be broken by this world. The world will crush you. And there is one hand that can hold you up, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ.