Chapter 16 is the conclusion of Jesus’ final sermon to His disciples before going to the cross.  This night with Jesus had been unusual in that His lesson was one of grave concern to the disciples.  It wasn’t reminiscent of the conversation He had with them at the well in Samaria.  It didn’t ring as exhilarating as His teachings that He gave with power and authority so many times in the synagogues to the Jews…

And so as we’ll see here in Chapter 16, as we look at the conclusion of His final teaching to them that night as they walked, they were quite troubled and confused.  They weren’t able to grasp what exactly Jesus was saying…not like we are today.  And even though out of all adversaries of our peace, none insult us more violently than discouragement and confusion, none of His disciples quit walking.  They continued to follow Jesus.  They continued to listen closely to Jesus.  They even continued to ask of Him…Lord tell us, Lord show us…Lord what is the meaning?  Pretty good example for us to follow as we too are often confused and even discouraged.

Why?  Do you think that men and women who have been walking with the Lord for 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 years don’t get as confused or as discouraged as you do?  Do you think just because a man like Billy Graham has a ministry that has reached millions of people of decades upon decades that he himself doesn’t find himself puzzled at hard situations and circumstances?  Of course he does and of course they do…God’s ways are still higher than theirs right?

The difference is that the don’t stop walking, they don’t stop listening, they don’t stop seeking the Lord and in that look the enemy of confusion, the conqueror of discouragement…the Holy Spirit guides them and you into all truth.  Enlightening and declaring to them and to you what things will come and most importantly He will take of Jesus’ love, Jesus’ compassion, Jesus’ purposes and plans and perfect will and He will declare it to you.  If indeed you do not turn back to the comfort of the last supper meal…if indeed you do not go out into the night in search of personal gain…thirty peaces of cheap silver…

The comfort of materialism, which is not comfort at all…the compassion and confirmation of fellow man, which is worth what?  An unknown author once said, “Seeking confirmation from people will have you on an endless search for unnecessary validation.”  And the truth is that with the same thirst you have for man’s approval and man’s confirmation and comfort you will dread the condemnation and disapproval of men…your weakness will keep you in a cycle of inner turmoil and personal prison. 

These men tonight as they walk with Jesus are hearing that they will be cast out of their culture and even killed all the while being blamed for their own unrighteous condemnation…yet they continue to follow.  They have great consternation.  They are full of fear.  They are more confounded then they are comforted.  Truly their faith is weak…but as they walk, as they listen, as they continue seeking…their truly weak faith is proven true nonetheless. 

Chapter 16 Verses 16 – 18

• What Jesus says here is clear and the meaning, to us, is quite understandable, however the way that Jesus says this, the structure of the sentence, His choice of words if you will is quite interesting.  You see, as He seems repetitive in His statement, “a little while and you won’t see Me, yet a little while you will see Me” however in the Greek this statement is not repetitive at all.  Why?
• Jesus says, “a little while you shall not theoreo Me” which is a word that literally means to discern, to understand, to find out, to see in such a way that truth is perceived.  This was the same word used there at the well by the Samaritan woman after Jesus had told her all that she ever did…”Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” 
• But then Jesus says “yet a little while and you will see Me” but this time He uses the word “optanomi” a whole new word, an entirely different word that literally means you will behold Me because I will allow Myself, I will enable Myself to be beheld.”  So Cool!
• Because by looking at the Greek, by digging in and seeking and knocking and asking and studying we conclude that yes the simplistic surface statement given in the English is acceptable and understandable but wait there’s more!  And there’s always more!  More to the situation than you see.  More to the test, to the trial than you or I grasp but if we ask, if we seek, if we knock, if we walk by faith…the more will be revealed!
• And there’s more here…look in the original language what Jesus actually shared with them is “hey guys, its ok to be a bit confused and a bit uneasy…just a little while longer…walk by faith!”  “A little while more you won’t fully understand…but don’t be discouraged because look just a little while longer and you will see Me clearly…I promise, I’ll make sure of it.”  Why?  How?  “Because I go to the Father…” 
• How can we see God clearly?  How can we perceive the work of Jesus noticeably?  By the ministry of the Holy Spirit!  The Holy Spirit within us guiding us into all truth!

Chapter 16 Verse 18

• See now that Jesus has comforted them and said look its ok if you’re confused…now they pipe up and are ok with saying “we’re confused!” 

Chapter 16 Verse 19 – 22

• Now keep in mind, don’t lose sight of the fact that the disciples walking with Jesus, hearing this right now, had left absolutely everything to follow Jesus.  Matthew had been making bank collecting taxes.  Peter and Andrew had abandoned their fishing business as well as James and John who were sons of a prominent fisherman Zebedee…they had left all of that behind.  The others, James the son of Alpheus, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Thaddeus who is also called Judas (not Iscariot), and Simon the zealot…we’re not told what they did prior to their calling but at any rate whatever they were doing, they left it…all of it.
• Family, friends, business, positions, they had left if all and placed all of their stock in Jesus.  For the last three years, every day spent at the Lord’s side.  And now, as they walked with Him on this night of all nights, He tells them He would no longer be with them…concerning to say the least.
• But you may like to remember that we serve the God of all comfort…and Jesus, understanding their confusion, He gives His disciples three elements that would replace their depression with joy…
• First, a principle.  The object of your pain presently, will produce great joy eventually.  To illustrate, He spoke of a woman in labor.  There’s pain and there’s struggle, there’s anguish and hard work but yet look, bet yet hey…but yet don’t miss this…it’s the very object that produced the pain that provides the joy when the baby is finally born.
• Look when you go through pain, when the fiery trials come upon you, the Lord does not take away that which caused the pain and replace it with something else to bring joy…no!  God’s ways are higher, God’s ways are more permanent…In the time of testing, it a time of struggling, of anguish of pain it is not time for substitution!  The world says, don’t like your husband?  Substitute!  Don’t like your day?  Substitute…here’s some alcohol or some mary jane…Don’t like your mom or dad?  Sue them!  NO!  Man what weekness!  Its not substitution but transformation that brings about joy!  Lasting joy!  Real joy!  Growth…maturity…strength with the very thing that once caused pain!
• Joseph was thrown into a pit by his envious older brothers.  Left to die but he didn’t.  Some passing merchants saw him there and saved his life to use him as a slave.  He ended up in Egypt and was sold into the house of Potiphar.  But there he worked his way up (about 10 years mind you) until suddenly Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of rape.  Again, Joseph cast into a pit…cast into prison where he sat and languished for more than 2 years until God miraculously worked through a series of incredible events to release him from prison and elevate him to the position of Prime Minister of Egypt.
• Thus the very things that produced pain…rejection by his brothers, the pit, the prison…were transformed not only to work out for his own good, but to save his entire family in the day of famine.  Check it out in Genesis 50.  So man keep at it, keep in it, keep going because I’ll tell you, from the other side of the pit, if endured in faith, clinging to the Lord…you will appreciate, you will see…a little while longer Jesus said…and you will be SO thankful for what God has done…things don’t happen to you Christian…they happen FOR you.

Chapter 16 Verses 23 – 28

• So first Jesus gives them a principle to hold on to…now He gives His disciples a power to plug in to!  The power to transform that which produces sorrow into that which produces joy…the power of prayer! 
• Jesus says “until now you have asked nothing in My name…but I tell you ask in My name…that your joy may be full!”  What does asking in the name of Jesus mean?  Well we went through this a bit before but by way of review…
• Once when I was just a kid, my mom took my sister and I to a country club…now we weren’t and frankly still aren’t the country club type but this time we had gone at the invite of one of my mom’s friends.
• Well while we were there…the bartender at the clubhouse gave us what seemed to me to hundreds of dollars in play money…and if we wanted a drink or if we wanted chips or if we wanted coins for the arcade games or really anything…well we he would tell us the cost and we would hand him that play money. 
• What’s interesting is that while I got candy and chips and games and drinks…when we got ready to leave, I watched my mom’s friend…settle the bill with the bartender.  And I didn’t understand it then but I do today that I wasn’t getting those things that I wanted based upon what I was offering for them but based upon a precoordinated promise! 
• And so he gives them a principle, then He gives them the power and authority to pray in His name.  And through Him we come to the throne seat of grace, to the Ancient of Days, to God the Father not through our own worth or ability or righteousness but simply through the name I’ve been given to use:  Jesus!
• And then the third things He gives them, first principle…second power…third, Jesus gave His disciples a name to conform to.  If I went up to that same bartender in that same country club and pulled out my fake money and my real gun and demanded all the chips, drinks, coins and candy…he’d probably give it to me but he’d also probably sound some sort of silent alarm, for although I would be using the precoordinated promise of reimbursement via the play money, I would not be acting in conformity to arrangement that was secured for me…
• So too, when we pray in the name of Jesus, we must do so not only in His authority, but in conformity to His desire…Consequently, if a guy cuts me off driving down the road and I pray, “God in Jesus’ name, help that guy to drive off the road…” its not going to happen because that’s not in conformity with God’s nature. 
• Often times we ask for things that are outside of harmony with God’s will and ways…grace and love…and we wonder why our prayers aren’t answered in the affirmative.  That’s why, for me, a real secret in prevailing prayer is to be in the Word constantly, studying the life of Jesus and the Words of the Lord specifically, so that the things I pray for are in conformity with His character…and fullness of joy is continual!

Chapter 16 Verses 29 – 33

• Jesus knows they don’t get it…and He says here that the hour is coming that their inability to understand will scatter them yet He offers a final point for them to remember…first a principle, second a power, third a name to conform to and now fourth Jesus gives His disciples a position to lay claim to…
• “I have overcome,” Jesus said, “And you are in Me.  So even if you do scatter, even if you do stumble, even if you do fail…chin up kid…I have overcome and you are in Me and therefore you too will overcome…don’t lose heart!  Don’t look down > look UP!”
• The Christian race is the only race in the world that begins at the finish line…We don’t fight for victory > we fight from victory!  The battle is already won, Jesus has already overcome!  So be of good cheer!  Seek the Lord…He will be found…and with finding Him, indeed you will find fullness of joy! 
• Principle, power, person and position…all things you have abundantly and immediately in Jesus Christ…and all things you lack tragically in rejection of the Lord and His Word and His Ways!  Come to the well today, the well of living water and drink so that you may thirst no more!  In Jesus’ name…