Sorrow and Joy

Sermon Discussion Questions:

• What examples of sorrow in the Christian life from this sermon resonated most deeply with you?
• Why do you think becoming a Christian can actually make someone more sensitive to sorrow?
• How does the promise of the Holy Spirit help us endure suffering and weakness?
• Jesus says our sorrow will “turn into joy.” How is that different from simply saying sorrow will disappear?
• In what ways can sorrow and joy exist together in the Christian life?
• What current sorrow in your life do you most need to entrust to Christ right now?

[Note: we are trying somethign new with my sermon notes. I normally post my manuscript that I write going into the pulpit. However, while I am preaching, I frequently modify and add in many different things in the moment. Below is an unedited transcript of the actual audio recording of the sermon.]

childbirth is really hard for a husband. Would be a terrible way to start a sermon on Mother's Day.

But it is kind of hard, in a way. I don't do well in childbirth situations. I have passed out in all three of the births of my children. And unfortunately, it hasn't even been during the hard parts. It's been when we're admitted to the hospital, actually. Just the sheer thought of it takes me out.

Today's Mother's Day, and, uh, the sermon today is titled Sorrow and Joy because sorrow and joy are the two dominant themes of the text that we're going to look at, but also because sorrow and joy, [00:01:00] two seemingly contradictory emotions, actually are a pretty good description of what a lot of motherhood is like.

One minute, uh, your child can give you a kiss on the cheek and say, "I love you, Mom," and the next minute they can sneeze in your face. Sorrow and joy. Uh, in our text today, Jesus is going to describe actually the very Christian shape of sorrow and joy is like giving birth. In John sixteen:twenty-one, he says this: "When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come.

But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world." [00:02:00] Now, I'm not a mom, so I have not personally experienced the exact feeling of what is being described here. But like I said, I have been in the room and I've been conscious for some of it.

And I do know, and I'm, I'm sorry, I've, I've probably used this illustration before, but it is, it is unlike anything else. So even at my, my safely removed distance of standing at the bedside, not being on the bed, except for when I pass out— there is just a, a wild quality to the moment of childbirth that goes from, it's intense, it's scary, you-- there's lots of crying, to i-in a minute, in a second, there's life.

And I-- wh-when my first son was born— You, you could have lit the room on fire, or you could have offered me a million dollars and I [00:03:00] wouldn't have noticed because there was nothing. And then there was my son. I think being a mom is the closest thing to being like God we have in the world because God creates out of nothing.

There was nothing, and then there was. Now, we're not God, so of course it's not out of nothing. I know, I know. But that's what it feels like. In that moment, there was nothing, and then here, a soul, a person, a being, and they have brought a tidal wave of joy that is so powerful and potent that all of the pain and agony is just gone.

That, Jesus says, is what it's like to live like a Christian. [00:04:00] Sorrow, pain, and overwhelming joy. Let's read John sixteen, verses four through thirty-three. John sixteen, verses four through thirty-three, as we see sorrow and joy in the Christian life. Now, just to give you a context re- re- reminder, Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples.

He's about to die. That's where we're at. "I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your [00:05:00] 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. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer.

Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will speak-- he will not speak on his own authority." But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it [00:06:00] to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. A little while, and you will see me no longer, and again, a little while, and you will see me. So some of his disciples said to one another, "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'm going to the Father?'" So they were saying, "What does he mean by 'a little while?' We don't know what he's talking about." Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, and so he said to them, "Is this what you are asking yourselves?

What I meant by saying, 'A little while and you will see me, and again a little while and you will'? Truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, [00:07:00]but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come.

But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full. I have said these things to you in figures of [00:08:00]speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I'm leaving the world and going to the Father." His disciples said, "Ah, now you're speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you." This is why we believe that you have come from God."

Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming. [00:09:00] Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you'll leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation.

But take heart. I have overcome the world." The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Let's pray once more, church, and just ask God to help us.

Our Father, we can't understand your word on our own. Here you promise the Spirit of truth will lead us into truth, and that's what we need right now. We are not clever enough or spiritual enough or faithful enough without your help. [00:10:00] And so give abundant help to me as a teacher right now and to this church to hear with faith.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, there are many themes in this passage which we have already looked at in depth in previous sermons. In John 13 through 17, we have this extended conversation, really more of a speech that Jesus is giving, and it's his final goodbye to his disciples before he dies.

Sometimes it's referred to as the Upper Room Discourse 'cause they're up in a, in the second story of a house. They're in a, a room while this whole conversation is happening. And so a number of the things that Jesus has spoken about here that I just read, about the Holy Spirit leading us into truth, the role of prayer, the love of God, these are all things that we've already covered.

So we're gonna pass by some of those today, and instead [00:11:00] we're gonna focus on what seems to be the theme stitched through these verses, and that is sorrow and joy in the Christian life. Sorrow and joy. So let's, let's just look at those two ideas in this passage, sorrow and joy. Let's, let's start with that first one.

Let's look at sorrow. What does Jesus have to tell us about sorrow in the Christian life? Look at John 16:6.

He tells his disciples, "Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart." Well, what things has he said? Well, things like, "I'm leaving this world." And going to the Father. None of the disciples were expecting that Jesus would leave. This is something we've brought up as we studied the Gospel of John, but all of the disciples assumed [00:12:00] that Jesus would be permanently staying with them and that the kingdom he was going to establish was not something that required him to ever leave.

It would be physically, literally established in Jerusalem. And here they are at Jerusalem having this conversation, and they are all thinking, we are like five minutes away from starting this thing. And you're leaving? And so sorrow has just flooded into them. What incredible disappointment. What unmet expectations.

What are you talking about? On top of that, Jesus has insinuated that he is not only leaving, he's being betrayed, and he's going to be arrested and killed. They don't understand.

Verse 20, [00:13:00] Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. It would be one thing for the disciples to have to endure all of those unmet expectations and, whoa, we did not see this coming. They have to sit there and watch Jesus be crucified. You would weep and you would lament.

But to add insult to injury, not only do they have to endure that, but they have to hear the Roman soldiers and the Pharisees stand by laughing at him all the while. And what would that be like for you? A follower of Jesus to see your Lord struggle under the weight of the crossbar as he's trying to go up to Golgotha and to hear crowds laugh at him, mock him, hit him and say, prophesy, who hit you?[00:14:00]

To be nailed to the cross and to see the Pharisees scorn him and say, if you're the real king, come down. You could heal other people, save yourself. Right? Oh, I mean, the agony. What is causing you pain is causing them pleasure. That's sorrow. Not only that, look at verse 18. The disciples don't understand what Jesus is talking about.

They say, what does he mean? A little while and You won't see me, and in a little while, we will. We, Jesus, we don't, we're not following you. What are you talking about? Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who just was smarter than you, and they keep talking, and they keep talking, assuming you're following them, and you realize, like, you have been left back way far [00:15:00] back.

But they keep going, and you're just trying to work up the courage to figure out how to say, "I have not understood almost anything you have said." And you feel stupid. It's a very humbling experience. And the disciples are, they're lost. But this isn't some casual conversation around the water cooler at work about the thing on the news.

Th- this is life and death. This is, "Hey, we've banked everything on this. We thought you were the Messiah. We don't understand what you're saying." So they're sorrowful. But what they do understand sounds pretty bleak. Jesus says, as soon as they say, "Oh, we, well, we understand what you're saying now," look at verses thirty-one and thirty-two, where Jesus says, "Oh, do you understand?

Do you now believe? Well, the hour is coming, and indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave me." [00:16:00]Oh, what a piercing thought. You're not as good as you think you are. You're not as brave. You're not as faithful. You're not as resolved, and when the pressure is applied, you're gonna crumple.

You think you love me. You think you're gonna stand by my side, but you're not. Would that be hard for you to hear? That'd be hard for me to hear.

It is hard for us to adequately imagine the depths of sorrow that the disciples would be experiencing as the following hours play out from this conversation. As they see Jesus' words prove true, and they do flee home, what would it be like for you to be one of the twelve? And you heard Jesus say, "You're gonna abandon me."

And then the moment come, and you do. And you, you run, and you [00:17:00]run, and you're, 'cause you're afraid you're gonna be arrested, and then you slow down, and you have enough time to stop and realize what you just did. You'd be sorrowful. Now, Jesus is explaining the sorrow that the disciples are going to feel, which all has to do immediately with their context, what's happening right there.

And so you and I, we're not there right now, and so a lot of the things that Jesus is pointing at that's causing sorrow to the disciples just doesn't apply to you and I. We're not there, right? But it's the last verse, the last verse of our reading, which broadens the application to bring all of us in. Not just the disciples.

Look at John sixteen thirty-three, that, that, this little maxim that Jesus provides. In the world, you will have tribulation, or troubles, or pain, or persecution. And all, all good words we could use there for tribulation. [00:18:00] Which means, as long as God's people are in this world, they will experience trouble, sorrow.

So while we are not in the footsteps of the disciples literally, we can see how the sorrow that the disciples are experiencing are experiences that you and I can. So for instance, Christians can feel sorrow in life because sometimes things do not turn out the way we expected it. We did not expect that life would look like this, that parenting would look like this, that our marriages would look like this.

We did not expect the economy, our world, would look the way it is, and things have proven to be very different than we were hoping. Uh, just this week my wife and I heard about a, an old friend of ours from our [00:19:00] church, uh, back in Kentucky. She's a mom of five children, and she had breast cancer, and she went through chemo, and the, the cancer went away, but just found out that it came back and now it's in her bones.

That is not what we were expecting. And so sorrow fills our hearts, fills her heart. Christians can feel sorrow over hearing the world scorn righteousness, mock our faith. You could be at work, you could be with your family, your friends, and you can hear them talk about what you love like it's something that they hate.

And that brings sorrow. Christians can feel sorrow over not understanding what the Bible says, over what God wants from them. They can feel sorrow, they, they can, [00:20:00] they can look at what it seems like God is telling them and say, "I just don't get it. What do you want from me, God? I don't understand." And Christians, of course, can feel sorrow over the reality of their own sin.

We're not as faithful as we think. And we c- we can be like Paul in Romans seven, "The things I want to do are not the things I do. And the things I don't want, those are the things I do, wretched man that I am." That's sorrow. But more than that- Christians can feel sorrow at the death of those that we love.

Christians can feel sorrow over other Christians falling away and abandoning the faith. Christians can feel sorrow at their own health beginning to fail, sorrow at our friends and family persisting in unbelief. We can feel sorrow as we weep with those who weep, [00:21:00] or we can feel sorrow for mysterious reasons that we can't even explain.

So many of the Psalms seem to indicate that there are just seasons where you just feel sad and you don't know why you feel sad. It, it doesn't make any sense to you. One, one of my heroes is Charles Spurgeon, who is kind of a titan of, of Christianity. I, I love Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon spent most of his life struggling with depression on and off.

At one point, he, he shares a season of depression that he was in that was just wholly inexplicable. He said, "My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, yet I knew not what I wept for." Ugh. In many ways many of those things that I just shared are things that Christians and non-Christians alike can feel sorrowful for.

If you wake up and there's a pinched nerve in your back so that it-- by the time you try to swing your legs out of bed, you have shooting pain going up and down your legs and back, [00:22:00] it doesn't matter whether you're a Christian or not, you're gonna be bummed out about that. I mean, there's sorrows that this world has which hits us all.

But in many ways, by becoming a Christian, you become more susceptible to sadness. There are more things to be sad about as a Christian. The non-Christian is not agonizing over whether or not their children know the Lord. The non-Christian is not agonizing over the sin that they fell into. In many ways, we have more opportunities.

Just think of the relationships that you have with the fellow members in this church. Right, if we're doing our duty as church members to one another, it means that we have stitched our lives so to one another that what happens to you, in a sense, happens to me, so that I rejoice [00:23:00] with you, and I weep with you.

And that's-- See, here's the complexity of the Christian life, and here's where I'm going with this. In many ways, becoming a Christian opens you up to sorrow more and to joy more. You weep with those who weep, and you rejoice with those who rejoice. And so the Apostle Paul can say that he is sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

And we can sing songs like It Is Well, which tells us that when peace like a river attendeth my way, and when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul. That's the complexity of the Christian life. And so we're gonna go now to our second point, joy.

So there's many reasons for us to experience sorrow, [00:24:00] but there are many reasons for us to experience joy. So what are the reasons that Jesus provides for joy? Uh, I think he gives us three reasons here in the text to be joyful even in the midst of sorrow. So first, first reason, there is a purpose to our sorrow.

Look at John sixteen, verses six through seven again.

Because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, 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. So the helper or the advocate is the Holy Spirit. And once Jesus leaves, which the, the thought of Jesus leaving just breaks the heart of the disciples, he promises them there's a good reason here.

The [00:25:00] Spirit is gonna come, and when he comes, look at verses eight through eleven, when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. Okay, that's what he's going to do, and then he explains a little bit more about what each of those, those mean. So try to think about what the disciples are being prepared for.

Again, the disciples are overwhelmed with emotion right now. They can't, they can't see the future clearly, but you and I know, what are they about to do? They are an arrow that has been pulled back with a very taut bowstring, and they're about to be shot out into the world like missionaries, and they're going to do remarkable things.

The, the same men who are all about to flee Jesus out of fear, out of cowardice, out of faithful-- faithlessness, in a short time, they will stand before the very authorities who crucified the Lord, and they will defy them to their face.

They will plant churches. They will [00:26:00] proclaim the gospel to the kings and authorities and principalities around them, boldless, fearless. How? What happens to them? Well, of course, they see the resurrection, which deepens their faith, yes. But they're given the Spirit. The Spirit. The disciples are being sent out on a mission that they are entirely unqualified for.

They cannot do what God is telling them to do. But with the help of the Spirit, they can. One thing I like to do with my boys is build, uh, campfires. I think every little boy should know how to start a fire. It's just something that's not in the Bible, but I feel like that's true, and that's my truth, and I'm gonna just say it.

Um, when I teach my boys how to chop wood, handing a little boy an ax is, like, maybe the worst thing you [00:27:00] could possibly do. But what I do is I, you know, I'm, I'll make kindling so you don't, you know, you're not lumberjack chopping it. You're just, you just kinda... You're careful with how you, you cut it. You tap it.

I'll have my boys come right in between my arms, and I just have them put their hands on the handle of the ax, and then I grab the ax, and I chop the wood. My boys are there learning what it feels like. What does it look like? What's the sensation as the ax strikes? So it is with our Lord as he brings unqualified children into his mission to do what they cannot do on their own.

Now, eventually, my boys learn how to chop wood without me holding it, but not so with us and the Holy Spirit. We grow more dependent on Him.[00:28:00]

Jesus is calling His disciples to do something they cannot do, but He is offering them, the Spirit is gonna come, and He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, judgment. He's gonna do the work. Just put your hands on the handle, and He'll do it.

Verses 12: I still have many things to say to you, but I cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. The [00:29:00] Spirit not only convicts the world of sin, but he also teaches the church his truth. All truth. Did you notice that logic of that verse? Don't go by it too quickly. It's a pretty provocative statement that should actually kind of puzzle us.

Jesus says the Spirit will take what is his. And declare it to you. But then he clarifies, what is Jesus's own? What is mine, he'll declare it to you. What is that? Well, all that the Father has is mine. Whoa. Everything that God the Father has belongs to the Son. The Son will send the Spirit, and the Spirit will declare [00:30:00] to his church all that is his.

So in the Spirit, we are not given the junior varsity version of God. We are not given the concierge who is sent out to greet the guests at the front of the hotel while the CEO stands back in the high-rise. Because he's too important. He's got too many big things to do for us. No, no, no, no, no. The Spirit comes down to us and he says, "Everything I have, I will declare to you."

And that's what should cause you to say, "Hang on, what?" Because, of course, the, we don't have the mind of God. It's not like now that you're a Christian filled with the Spirit, you understand everything that God is thinking. No, but you do, as a creature with a limited mind, you do have access to everything that God is here to share with you.

Everything. This is [00:31:00] why it is better that Jesus leaves so that the Con- Spirit can come. And this, this is the point behind my point. The great comfort for the disciples is the intentionality behind the sorrow. There's a purpose. Jesus is not going away needlessly. He is not a dad who needs a break from his kids.

He is going away to give them something better. So it is with us and our sorrow. Romans 8 promises us, "We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose." All things. So if you could just take a quick, detailed analysis in your mind of the sorrows that you are currently experiencing.[00:32:00]

Your unmet expectations, the pain of your own sin, the pain you're experiencing in your own health, your family. There's a purpose behind every sorrow. It's not needless. All things are being worked together for good. For you, including what you're going through right now. Of course, Jesus is our great model of this, is he not?

Isaiah 53 identifies him as the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Jesus knew what was coming, but oh, his path was sorrowful. How did he keep going? Well, he knew there was a great purpose behind it. The pain of the cross was being used [00:33:00] for a great purpose, the redemption of his bride. He loved you too much to just leave you by yourself.

He cares about you too much to let you drown in your sorrows, and so he comes and takes your sorrows upon himself so that he becomes the man of sorrows, so that you could be redeemed. There's a purpose behind sorrow.

Okay, that's not the only reason. Why can we have joy? Because there's a purpose to our sorrow. That's my first point, and I hope that helps you. But maybe more encouraging is the second point. There's an end to sorrow. It's not forever. Let's look at verses twenty through twenty-one. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.

You will be [00:34:00] sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a woman being-- that a human being has been born into the world. Uh, Jesus teaches his disciples that their life, their experience with joy will be like childbirth.

And what a, uh, what, what a, what a dignifying mark upon childbirth. You want-- What's a metaphor for life in this world? It's like childbirth. Doesn't Romans eight tell us that all of creation is groaning in the pangs of childbirth. What is it waiting for? What's the pain? The second coming of Christ.

Childbirth is the metaphor to think about [00:35:00] reality. It, it's painful, it's terrible, it's horrible. You don't want it. But it's only through it do you get the greatest good that this earth has to offer you, life. And all of us are here today because someone else endured that. So it is with our Christian life.

You know, if you-- this is a little technical, but I'm gonna risk it. Throughout John's gospel, he uses the word hour to refer to himself. The hour, my hour has not yet come. In John two when Jesus' mom says, "Hey, they ran out of wine at the wedding. Can you do something about that?" Jesus says, "My hour is not here."

And then throughout the gospel, Jesus refers to his hour as this moment of judgment. It's the hour that he's now at [00:36:00] when he will be arrested, betrayed, crucified. Now, did you notice in the metaphor, in the little parable of childbirth, Jesus again brings up that term hour. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come.

Jesus is comparing himself to a woman in the travails of childbirth. Great pain, great suffering, great agony. What's Jesus suffering? He's suffering for us. He's suffering our sin, our punishment, so that he can bring about what? Life. New life. The new birth, you and I. So Jesus can, for the joy set before him, endure the shame of the [00:37:00] cross.

The joy being he's purchasing your life in the same way that a new mom suffers, so to speak, to purchase life of the newborn child. The joy of the disciples will be the joy of the new birth, and their agony, as they follow their Lord in his example of agony, will be transformed into happiness. After a baby is born, the anguish of pain, of course, doesn't blink out of memory, right?

Every woman who's given birth here, if you ever talk around a woman who's given birth like childbirth is not a serious thing, you are sharply corrected. Or if you just so happen to complain about something hurting a lot, you might be reminded of how painful childbirth is if you complain in the presence of a woman who has undergone childbirth.

Every woman does remember how painful childbirth is. [00:38:00] But isn't it fascinating the way that your memory changes it, right? Your-- the, the, the pain, the, the emotional anguish is kind of the color's drained out of it. You're, you're aware of it, but it is not the same thing. Jesus says, "That's what will happen to you."

You will be in sorrow and anguish, but it will be transformed into joy. Now, for the disciples, he's referring explicitly to their experience of pain at seeing Jesus leave, but then come back. They'll, they'll be in agonizing pain, and then they'll be back, and then their joy will be this kind of invincible joy.

Look at verses 22. "So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."[00:39:00]

So too, you and I have sorrow right now. Great sorrow, anguish and pain and disappointment. But we will see him again, and our sorrow will be turned into joy that will never be taken from us. The birth pangs of creation, all creation is groaning for the day when we see him again, and he will wipe away every tear from every eye, and there will be no sadness or death or sickness, for everything will be made new.

This is the path of the Christian, pain and then joy, suffering and then happiness. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of [00:40:00] joy. So the reason we have reas- reason-- the reason that we have reason for joy, first, our sorrows have a purpose.

Second, our sorrows will end. And then lastly, our sorrows and our joys intermingle together. Look at the last verse, John 16:33. "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." How has Jesus overcome the world?

Here we are, you and I, living in it still. Last time I checked the news, not everyone in the world was a Christian. And the last time I took the temperature of our culture, [00:41:00] didn't seem like, man, everybody loves Jesus the way I do. So in what sense has Jesus overcome the world? Well, here's what one commentator says.

"Jesus' point is that by his death, he has made the world's opposition pointless and beggarly." The decisive battle has been waged and won. The world continues its wretched attacks, but those who are in Christ share the victory he has won. They cannot be harmed by the world's evil, and they know who triumphs in the end.

From this, they take heart and begin to share his peace. Do you remember the last day of school? You were in elementary school, middle school, high school. Do you remember what that was like, the last day of school? Better yet, if you can remember the last day of high school. Right, 'cause high school's kinda [00:42:00] like you're exiting the...

You're gonna go to college maybe, but, but you're, you're leaving the, the, the public education system. The last day of school, there's this weird quality to the social dynamics of cool kids and not cool kids because you realize this whole thing's about to end. You know, I don't... Who was really good at football and who got the best grades, it kind of doesn't matter that much anymore.

And if you're at the last day of school and the jock, the cool kid, are acting like their social hierarchy status from high school is the most important thing in the world, it doesn't affect you as much anymore, does it? Hey, I'm about to leave this place. That, that, that's fine, man. If this one's...

If you wanna live your life, cryogenically frozen in 12th grade, yeesh, okay, fine, that's on you. But I'm going on to bigger and better things. [00:43:00] The Christian's experience in this world is just that. This world is not our home. We are strangers and sojourners, exiles and aliens here on our way out.

And so what the world cares about and fights about and screams about and is envious of just does not weigh on us. Their attacks, their accusations, their mocking, their scorn does not affect us. What Jesus Christ has accomplished at the cross and in his resurrection has purchased our ticket out of this world and into an eternity which will be so big and bright and vast and heavy that this world will be a puff of smoke.

That's all it is, a puff. It's gone.

So, in this world, we will have trouble, sorrow. [00:44:00] But while we wait, we have joy because Christ has overcome it. And in the midst of our sorrow, we have joy. My concern with the last point I made is that sorrow will end and then joy will begin might present to you the idea that, okay, life is sad. I just have to wait till I die or Jesus comes back, and then I can be happy.

But that is not the picture. The picture is that Jesus has now overcome the world. So you can take heart because in Him you have peace, joy, life. No one will take it from you. You can have it right now, even in the midst of your sorrows. And because the source of your sorrows has been conquered, right? The hose has been shut off already.

There's a little bit of [00:45:00] water still coming through, but the spigot's been turned off. So as the rest of the water comes out of the hose of sorrow, you know this is only for a little bit. In a strange way, the sorrow can actually accentuate your joy. Let me give you a couple examples from some literature.

We'll see maybe. In The Lord of the Rings. Yeah. You never would have guessed.

After one of the main characters has died, we're told, "The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it [00:46:00] grows perhaps the greater."

In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which is a dystopian story about this futuristic society which is so technologically advanced it has eliminated all inconveniences, all pain, all suffering. It is just a nonstop pleasure bath. That's all the world is, and it's miserable. And the story is about how a couple of people try to escape it, and so bear much pain to escape.

And at the very end of the story, the three of them are all sentenced to exile. They've been caught and, you know, they-- their attempts to try to save the society didn't work. "There was silence. In spite of their sadness, because of it even, for their sadness [00:47:00] was the symptom of their love for one another.

The three young men were happy."

How can you be happy but sad? How can love grow mingled with grief, maybe even the greater? Well, you know that love and joy win. You know that the pain and the grief are not pointless, that there is a God who is in control, and he has orchestrated the events of your life so that that grief, that pain actually serves to uphold the joy.

You know that that pain is there just as a brief temporary highlight to underline and highlight over and over again how big your joy is and how long it will last. Sorrow is but for the night. [00:48:00] Joy comes with the morning. And friends, there is coming a morning that will not end.

And it will be here soon. And so bring your sorrows to him. He understands and he knows your pain, and he has given you bright hope that will last.