John 16:14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 "All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. 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." 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'?" 18 ...
John 16:14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 "All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. 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." 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'?" 18 They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'? We do not know what He is saying." 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'? 20 "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. 21 "A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 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.
Jesus tells them another purpose of the Holy Spirit is to Glorify Him by declaring His Word to them. He then begins to tell them in a little while they will not see Him and then again in a little while they will see Him. This totally confuses the disciples who do not understand this at all. So, Jesus begins to explain it to them by using some terms that show that He is first going to the cross and they will weep and lament, but the world will have joy because they have killed Him. Then when he is resurrected they will have joy because He has died for their sins and overcome death. They will see him for a little while here on earth after He is resurrected, but then they will see Him and be with Him forever in Heaven. So remember, James 4:14, Rom 8:18, and Ps 30:5 Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. This life and it’s sorrow will soon be over if we are a Christian and it’s only a little while and then we will be with Him in heaven forever with no more tears, sorrow, pain, or anything else to cause us trouble. AMEN!
14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you—Thus the whole design of the Spirit’s office is to glorify Christ—not in His own Person, for this was done by the Father when He exalted Him to His own right hand—but in the view and estimation of men. For this purpose He was to “receive of Christ”—all the truth relating to Christ—“and show it unto them,” or make them to discern it in its own light.[1]
15 "All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
Because Jesus is the Logos, the revelation of the Father (or as Paul expressed it, “the image of the invisible God” [Col. 1:15]), all that belongs to the Father is also the Son’s. The Spirit of Truth brought glory to Jesus as He revealed to the apostles things pertaining to the person and work of the Logos (taking from what is Mine and making it known to you). The Spirit worked in the apostles’ minds so that they could perceive, understand, and teach about the Savior.[2]
He will glorify Christ. That's the third aspect of the pattern. "He shall glorify Me for He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you all things that the Father hath are Mine...and here's the tangle of the trinity, the mystery of the trinity...all things that the Father hath are Mine...He's reminding them that He comes from God...therefore said I, He shall take of Mine and show it unto you." Jesus always wanted the disciples to remember that He was linked to God...that He was linked to God. And so He says the Holy Spirit will show you My things, and remember, I'm close to God, it's just the trinity.
But notice the key thing in the ministry of the Spirit...He shall glorify Christ. This is the great feature of all the Holy Spirit's revelation. He said He's going to reveal the past. He will bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I have said unto you. When He reveals the past it will be the things of Jesus. In the present He testifies to whom? To Jesus. In the future He shows you things to come that involve whom? Jesus. He constantly reveals Christ. His ministry is ever and always the same, it is to reveal Jesus Christ, always, always, always, and always. And if you do not know the revelation of the Spirit concerning Christ, you can't know Christ.
First Corinthians 12:3, "Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaketh...or speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed..." couldn't. If you spoke by the Spirit of God, could you call Jesus accursed? Of course not. What does the Spirit do? Glorifies Christ. Listen to this. "And that no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit." You can't know "A" about Jesus Christ apart from the Spirit. His ministry is to glorify Christ. And if you ever speak concerning Christ and you speak from the Spirit, it will be glorifying, not accursing Christ.
All false teaching is either the Bible plus, or the Bible minus.” False teaching either seeks to add to or to take away from Scripture. I think one can also say, “All false teaching is either Christ plus, or Christ minus.” Paul would say, “True teaching is Christ only.”[3]
- Is the Spirit of God working in your life and teaching you?
- Is the Spirit of God working in your life to glorify Christ?
- Is the Spirit of God at work in your life at all?
John 16:16-22
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."
Ye shall see (ὄψεσθε). A different verb for seeing is used here. For the distinction, see on 1:18. Θεωρέω emphasizes the act of vision, ὁράω, the result. Θεωρέω denotes deliberate contemplation conjoined with mental or spiritual interest. “The vision of wondering contemplation, in which they observed little by little the outward manifestation of the Lord, was changed and transfigured into sight, in which they seized at once, intuitively, all that Christ was. As long as His earthly presence was the object on which their eyes were fixed, their view was necessarily imperfect. His glorified presence showed Him in His true nature” (Westcott).
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'?"
A little while (τὸ μικρόν). In vv. 16, 17, without the article. Here the article the or this little while defines the special point of their difficulty; this “little while” of which He speaks.[i]
18 They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'? We do not know what He is saying."
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'?
John 7:33 Then Jesus said to them, "I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me.
Joh 12:35 Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going.
John 13:33 "Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you.
John 14:19 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.
20 "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.
“Truly, truly” is that solemn phrase we've looked at before. It's the prediction of a future event that they can be assured of. Jesus gives them a solemn promise, "It's going to be difficult."
The words weep and lament are deep, dark, uncomfortable words. When you use them together, it's talking about a funeral service. The word weep is always associated with death and loss and grief, the way the word is used in the Bible.
So when He puts these words together, He says, "Look, you're going to have a heavy-duty grief at the loss of tasting death and you're going to lament and cry and be bitter about this experience. You're going to weep and lament, but the world's going to rejoice. The religious leaders of the day are going to be celebrating because they finally quieted this 'pesky prophet named Jesus'. They've gotten rid of Him. They've put Him in the ground. He's dead and gone. The religious leaders will be happy; they'll rejoice. You're going to be in incredible grief, but, mark My word, here's the promise: your grief will be turned into joy."
The resurrection and the Holy Spirit's coming is going to enable them to understand something they could not otherwise have understood. Now a question that might be on their mind at this point, is, "How can this deep pain ever be turned into joy? If it's as bad as You're telling us is going to be, there's no way You could remedy the situation.” And that's where Jesus goes with an illustration in verses twenty-one and twenty-two:
21 "A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
Jesus says the real intense suffering of childbirth is brutal. The real intense suffering you're going to face is brutal, for now. But you'll have joy. The intense suffering and difficulty of bearing a child gives way to the joy when the child is in your arms and you hold this creation in front of you.
Now this combination of suffering and joy and resurrection was not uncommon to the Old Testament mind. In fact, turn back Isaiah chapter twenty-six for a moment.
Isaiah 26:16
The Old Testament ear knew the pain of childbirth. They knew the pain of the exile of the people. They knew the travail as a nation under discipline of God and they knew the hope of God and they knew the hope of the resurrection. Isaiah twenty-six, let's pick up in verse sixteen. Isaiah twenty-six verse sixteen:
Oh Lord, they sought You in distress;
They could only whisper a prayer,
It's so difficult; they can't even talk out loud. They can just sort of eke out a little prayer.
Your chastening was upon them.
As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
Thus were we before You, O Lord
We were pregnant, we writhed in labor.
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world born.
Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy
That’s a very clear reference to the Rapture, a very clear reference in the Old Testament to the new birth, the rapture of the believer in Christ.
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
Come, my people, enter into your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little while.
Do you think Jesus had in mind the "little while" of Isaiah twenty-six?
Hide for a little while
Until indignation runs its course.
For behold, the Lord is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth will reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.
The Old Testament year was not unfamiliar with pain giving way to joy with the hope of the resurrection. Well, the disciples are going to enter an incredible, intense time of pain, but joy is before them.
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.
First of all, the disciples' joy erupts when they see Jesus Christ after the resurrection. They are explosive with joy when they see Him. They cannot contain themselves.
"Stop clinging to me,” Jesus says to one of His disciples.
They're overwhelmed. All their grief is now transformed into joy. Now some of your Bibles you hold in your laps make, an unfortunate rendering of the verse twenty-two. They say:
Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice.
They say "you will be happy" or they say "you will rejoice." Other Bibles contain the word "your heart" will rejoice. The word cardia is in the Greek text and for whatever reason, I don't understand translators, they took the word cardia out and they just rendered it "you'll be happy, you'll rejoice." I think it's unfortunate because heart is a rich word. It's the kind of depth of happiness that you have a joy in your heart about something.
Secondly, the joy continues. He died once to sin, but He lives on forever.
Someone or something dies a pet maybe. You can't replace that, can you? You can't replace it. This text says the grief through which you went becomes joy. Do not miss it. It's not saying He's going to replace the child, replace the mate, replace the parent, and replace the loss and grief you've tasted. He's not going to give you something better that will overwhelm that thing you lost. He says, He's going to turn that grief into joy, thus the analogy of childbirth.
The pain of the birth canal becomes the joy of a child. Do you see it? He's turning your grief into joy. Only God can turn your grief into joy. Nobody else can do this thing. Only the Sovereign can turn your grief, your disappointment, your bitterness, your anger, your hatred, your injustices, only a sovereign can turn that into joy. That's what He does with His own death. The very thing that caused the pain becomes the source of joy.
Thirdly, the sorrow is transformed into joy. Sometimes we think about if something bad happens then you replace it. So, you bury a child and well-meaning but very stupid people say, "You can always have another."
Three times sorrow or grief are mentioned. I think He's saying, "Expect it." Your lot and mine in life is to swallow a certain amount of bitterness. That's what it means to be in a fallen, sinful world. Your sorrow and mine are in between. They are "a little while." If you don't get anything else out of this text, just circle the words "little while" in verses sixteen through nineteen and count them up. A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. A little while. We're so focused.
Sometimes we think when the sorrow is turned into joy that this good thing is going to overwhelm the bad thing and I'm going to feel a little better about it. Wouldn't the normal language of verse twenty-two go something like this: “Therefore you have grief now, but you'll see Me again?”
If I have buried a friend, a mate, a child or a parent; if I've gone through the worst of the worst grief and I faced that grief, my hope is that I'm going to see them again, right? Notice something very interesting. He doesn't say, "You will see Me again." He says, "I'll see you again." I don't think that's a nit-picking detail. I think that's a theological, profound truth. You didn't choose Him; He chose you. You don't do anything to get His attention. He chose you.
He says, when I die and go away and come back, I'm going to see you. My promise is so good I'm going to come see you. Not, "You're going to see me again," that will take away the sting. I'll see you again.
His promise is incumbent on His work, not ours. The joy, true joy, is not us seeing Him. It's that He would see us.
And I've seen so many friends, as you have, who in torturous experiences, whether it's abandonment of a spouse or news of cancer, they shoulder it in unique ways and it is a testimony. You can talk to people in a waiting room in that hospital who have no hope and they look at you like, "How are you doing this? How are you managing?"
And it is a transforming work of Christ that He can carry you. Sometimes it's just a minute at a time. Sometimes it's hour by hour, but He does sustain even in the worst.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.
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“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -John 8:32
The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions.
