The Christmas season is supposed to be a season of joy. It’s supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. That’s what we are told, at least, in tradition and song. And yet I would suggest that for a lot of people, Christmas time is anything but joyful. For many people that are financially strapped, it is a stressful time. And for many who have lost loved ones, it is a sorrowful time. I think our expectations during this holiday are part of the problem. Perhaps because of the media’s portrayal of what we should be the Christmas experience, we have high expectations when it comes to this holiday in particular.
However, I do believe that the Bible teaches us to expect joy during this season. In fact, the angels announced to the shepherds in Luke 2:10, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” So the Lord’s birth was intended to be something which would bring great joy to all people on earth. It should be something to celebrate.
One of the Christmas carols we sang earlier was “Joy to the World.” I didn’t realize that the music for that song was attributed to Handel, of Handel’s Messiah fame. The words were written in 1719 by Isaac Watts, who based them on the second half of Psalm 98. The first and second verses are as follows;
Joy to the world! The Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Verse 2
Joy to the earth! the savior reigns;
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
So if joy is supposed to the be the experience of Christmas, then what is the problem? Why are we not experiencing joy? Well, I would suggest that the problem is our perspective. We often have sorrow rather than joy because our perspective is shortened. We are focused on the wrong things. We focus on the past, or on our circumstances or compare our situations with what we think others have. And quite often, we have unrealized expectations.
In the passage of scripture we are looking at today, the disciples had mistaken expectations as well. Instead of experiencing joy, they were experiencing grief and sorrow. And Jesus is quite concerned about that. In fact, practically the whole Upper Room discourse is devoted to Jesus trying to lift the hope of the disciples. He offers hope, and comfort and peace in the previous verses. Now in today’s passage He offers joy.
It’s amazing really that in the midst of the greatest trial and suffering of Christ’s life, He is concerned about our joy. That is a lesson for us. That no matter how dire the circumstances, there is the promise of joy through Christ to those who are His disciples. But there can be a promise of joy, there can be the gift of joy, and yet it can remain unclaimed, unexperienced. So let’s look at this section and try to learn what Jesus is telling us, how we can know the joy of Christ. And that is the joy of Christmas. It’s not going to be found in the commercialization of Christmas, or the kind of joy the world gives. The joy of Christmas is found in Christ.
Before we expound upon these verses though, we need to remember the context of this passage. In the directly previous verses, Jesus is speaking of the ministry of Spirit of truth who will disclose the Lord’s words to them and teach them and work through them to be a witness to the world.
So within that context, we might expect that the following verses will be related to the ministry of the Spirit as well. The first principle then that Jesus teaches is that joy, or the lack of it, is often related to our perspective. In vs.16, Jesus says, “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Now this is a bit of a riddle, and the disciples evidently thought so as well. The reason teachers sometimes employed these type of riddles in their teaching was to get their students to ask questions. To get them to think it through.
And we see that’s exactly what happens. “Some of His disciples then said to one another, ‘What is this thing He is telling 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’?” So they were saying, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is talking about.”
Now the problem is not that they were asking the question. Because Jesus certainly phrased the riddle in order to make them ask questions. But the problem is they are asking the wrong person. They ask one another.
Jesus had just finished telling them in vs.15 that the Spirit would disclose to them the things of Christ. So they heard that, but in practice they weren’t looking to the Spirit. They were asking one another. And the result was confusion and ignorance.
Folks, let this be a lesson to us. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He has the answers to life. So when you have questions, ask Jesus. Don’t come to Him as a last resort after you have exhausted all your natural resources, after you have failed time and time again in your own wisdom. But ask of God. James said in James 1:5, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
The problem with the disciples perspective was it was short sighted. Jesus had told them He was going away. He had told them He was going to be killed. And so they were upset. Because they had pinned their hopes upon Him. And well they should have. But their hopes were wrong expectations. They expected Him to establish a physical, immediate Messianic kingdom here on earth, overthrow the Roman government, and seat them on thrones of power as His cabinet ministers within the kingdom. That was their expectation. And it was ill founded. Because that wasn’t the plan of God.
How many times are we discouraged and disappointed in life, especially as we attempt to live out the Christian life, because we have misplaced expectations? To put it bluntly, we expect to have our cake and eat it too. We expect to reap the glories of heaven, and yet experience the glories of earth. And since we are now on the earth, that takes precedence. We want glory now. We want prosperity. We want blessings now. We want worldly success as a benefit for godliness. But God doesn’t necessarily promise those things. In fact, God promises hardship now, but triumph and joy in the age to come.
So Jesus answers that false expectation with another enigmatic statement. Vs.20, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy.” Now we see the promise of joy. But note that their joy comes as a consequence of their sorrow.
I want to point out here that I didn’t write these words. I didn’t create this principle. If I were making this up, I would tell you what the false prophets on television tell you; that God doesn’t want you to suffer. That God never wants you to suffer. He just wants you to be happy. And whatever makes you happy makes God happy. That is the false prophet's message today. And it’s a popular message. It’s what people want to hear. And so they seek out those false prophets who will tickle their ears and tell them what they want to believe.
But the truth is that Jesus says we will suffer. He said back in vs.2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” Jesus said in vs.33, “In this world you will have trouble.”
So I would suggest that the joy of the Christian is not tied to your circumstances. Our circumstances change from day to day, from sorrow, to grief, from riches to poor, depending on the tides of this world. But the joy of the Lord carries us through whatever trials we may endure. Maybe it would help to define our terms. Joy is not necessarily happiness. Or at least it is not constant happiness. Switchfoot has a song in which they say that happiness is a yuppie word. Happiness is the aspiration of a narcissistic world. Modern man is addicted to the notion of achieving happiness at all costs. And as such we are doomed to missing out on true joy because constant happiness is unachievable. The Bible never promises us constant happiness.
However, Jesus does promise us joy. Joy that will not be taken from us. So what is joy? I believe it is an abiding hope, a sense of contentment, the presence of peace that we can have no matter what our present circumstances may be. It is something that is not focused as much on the present as it is on the future, or the goal.
Jesus illustrates this joy with a analogy, or a parable that is a very familiar figure to all of us. Vs.21, “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.”
I don’t know this the of pain and grief that a woman feels in childbirth, but I have witnessed it. As I’m sure you all have some familiarity with childbirth. And I suppose that it is one of the most painful things a person can endure. In fact, many women have died giving birth. But commensurate with the pain is the joy that is produced. So that you might say that the degree of joy is directly related to the degree of pain. But that’s not entirely true either. Because the joy of a child in the long run far outweighs the temporary pain of childbirth.
So it is with our sorrows and joy. Ps.30:5 says, “Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.” For the Christian, our sufferings are temporary, but our joy is eternal. However, it is important to realize that suffering does not eclipse joy. In fact, it is turned to joy. And the way that is achieved is by having a longer range view, a different perspective.
Consider Jesus Himself as our example. Hebrews 12:2 says, we should fix our eyes on Jesus, “the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” What that verse tells us is that Jesus went to the suffering of the cross with the view of the joy set before Him, knowing that the result of His suffering would be the joy found at the right hand of God, when He was glorified because of His obedience even unto death.
I am not espousing a false type of piety that claims joy in the midst of a tragedy of some sort. We aren’t supposed to pretend everything is joyful when it isn’t, and somehow that is construed as faith and that faith results in actualizing joy. I don’t believe that is what Jesus is teaching. Obviously, you can’t rejoice in everything that happens in life. Jesus Himself wept and was greatly disturbed in His Spirit on at least a couple of occasions. So Jesus isn’t saying that it’s wrong to feel pain, or wrong to grieve.
On the contrary, Jesus says you will grieve. There will be times when you will feel pain like a woman in childbirth. But He also promises that sorrow will be turned to joy. And though there may be times when circumstances sort themselves out and we find our sorrow turned to joy on a physical level, I think this verse must be considered as relating to spiritual joy. God can turn our sorrow into joy when we look at it from a spiritual perspective.
For instance, no one can take the joy of my salvation away. No matter what I lose on this earth, no one can take that away. It is reserved in heaven for me, far beyond earthly circumstances. And nothing can take away God’s love for me. Romans 8:38, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
So in the security of that knowledge, I know that Romans 8:28 then is true; “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” God will work all things together for good.
Now how will Christ accomplish His promise of turning the disciples sorrow to joy? Well, in verse 16 He equates their sorrow and grief stemming from His leaving them. ““A little while, and you will no longer see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me.” That statement is paralleled in vs 20; “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned to joy.” So we see that the fact that they will no longer see Him results in their sorrow and grief. And in like manner, when they see Him again, their grief will be turned to joy.
The obvious conclusion is that He is talking about His death producing sorrow and grief. And then His resurrection will be the occasion for turning their grieving into joy. And that certainly is true. But there is evidently a further explanation as well when you consider vs. 22; “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” That joy that they have when they see Him again, will not be taken away from you. I believe this statement indicates a more full measure of joy than simply temporal. He is talking about eternal joy.
Jesus will be resurrected 3 days after His crucifixion. And that will be a joyous occasion. But He is not with them constantly during those next 40 days He is on earth. He comes and goes. And many days they don’t know where He is during that time. And then after 40 days He is taken up into heaven. So what happens to their joy at that point, if it is dependent upon His physical presence with them?
Well, I believe as you consider the context of vs.15 and other sayings of Jesus in the Upper Room discourse, He is talking about being with them forever in the presence of the Spirit. He said earlier in vs.6 “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”
So again Jesus relates His leaving them as producing sorrow, but their advantage will come from the coming of the Holy Spirit.
And so Jesus speaks of that day, the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit would come and be with them forever. And through the Spirit of Christ, Jesus would be with them always. His presence in them in the person of the Spirit would be the source of their joy. Because He would be their Helper, their Comforter, their constant guide, their source of truth, and their source of hope and peace.
That helps us understand what He is saying in vs.23; “In that day [what day? the day the Spirit comes to dwell in you forever] you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”
That helps us because Jesus has already told us what the Holy Spirit will do for us. Vs.15, “He takes of mine and discloses it to you.” So Jesus isn’t saying here that this is like Christmas for adults. We climb on God’s lap and ask for anything we want and just like Santa Claus, He will give it to us. We can’t ask for a Porshe 911 and get it. I have to admit, I find that prospect appealing to my flesh. But that isn’t what Jesus is saying.
He’s talking about His words, His truth, and His teaching. And the Holy Spirit will guide us, teach us, bring those words to our remembrance. He will take of Christ’s words and disclose them to us. That means He will disclose the truth to us. Jesus says in that day, you won’t ask me, because I won’t be present physically to ask as you do now. But I am giving you another Helper, and you will ask in Jesus’s name, and God will give you whatever you need.
I do think that our needs include physical needs. Phil. 4:19, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” But there is a difference between our needs and our wants. But though that is true, I think that the primary emphasis here is on our spiritual needs. Jesus has said that His words are life. His truth results in life. And Jesus has also said that you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Not only that, but Jesus calls the Spirit the Spirit of truth, so that we might be more certain that this is His chief ministry to us; to teach us the truth, to lead us in all truth. And when Jesus is gone, and the disciples cannot ask Him to help them, they will have the Spirit of truth to disclose His words to them.
Finally, in vs.24, Jesus says, “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.” Up until this point, the disciples asked Jesus directly anything that they had questions about or were concerned about. So Jesus says, now that I am leaving, you are to ask God in my name. To ask God in the name of Jesus is not just a phrase tacked on to the end of our prayers. Like some abracadabra and then presto, we get whatever we asked for. But to ask in Christ’s name is to ask according to His will. To ask according to His plan and purpose. To ask consistent with who Jesus is.
When we ask in His name, consistent with His will, then we will receive, and our joy will be made full. Literally, it says, our joy will be fulfilled. That speaks again of the promise of joy in the midst of sorrow. The promise of joy is fulfilled when we ask according to His will. That’s how Jesus Himself prayed to God in the Garden of Gethsemane. Though He was suffering, sweating drops of blood, He prayed, “yet not My will, but Yours be done.” And though He continued to suffer, He considered the joy set before Him, and endured the cross, until He was exalted on high to the side of the Father’s throne.
The same is true for us as it was for Jesus. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
The next verse, Rom.8:17 also adds, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” That is the key to having joy. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and as He considered the joy set before Him, so we must consider the joy set before us; even our inheritance.
And the way we do that is through the help of the Spirit of truth who will be with us forever. He is our Comforter, our Helper, and He will take of Christ’s words and disclose them to us, that we might have that joy fulfilled. Joy is the fruit of walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 tells us, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
It was a long time between the birth of Christ in a manger, and the joy that He experienced in glory in the presence of the Father. Thirty three years He suffered and was tried and tested. Thirty three years He suffered in all points like we do, yet without sin. He suffered as no man has ever suffered, leaving the throne of heaven for the life of a pauper, rejected of men whom He came to save. Yet as a consequence, God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a kingdom which will never end, and to which all knees shall bow. Consider Him this season. Consider His example. And keep the promise of His joy before you. Walk in the Spirit, and the joy of the Spirit will be with you, whatever the tidings, whatever the season, whatever the circumstances.
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