John 16:16-33
In This World We Will Have Trouble
16 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
17 At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Jesus grew up poor and in poverty...When Jesus was born His first bed was a manger, in the town of Bethlehem...He and His family had little money, so He grew up poor...As He got older He worked as a carpenter...Then He became a Rabbi, a Teacher around the age of twenty eight or twenty nine...Yet, in all the pages of the four gospels, we do not hear Him complain once about being poor...Money meant very little to Him...When He did start to minister money was not something He desired...He wanted to preach the Truth of God's Word...As He preached the Pharisees, scribes, and teachers of the law looked for ways to fool Him and later plotted to kill Him...Jesus' opposition finally came up with the idea that He had blasphemed God's Word...
When we study Jesus' life, a man who had never sinned, had in some ways lived a tough and troubled life...So when He told His Disciples that in this life you will have troubles, we can relate His Disciples leaving Him during His arrest...We see His rejection by the Jewish Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, and the teachers of the law (who were His peers)...They would be the ones who had Him tortured and have Him hang from a cross until His death...
Author, Pastor, and Theologian Tim Keller writes, “The basic premise of religion– that if you live a good life, things will go well for you– is wrong...Jesus was the most morally upright Person who ever lived, yet He had a life filled with the experience of poverty, rejection, injustice, and even torture.”...
In this world Jesus had troubles, yet He never complained about His growing up poor and His life of challenges, but He was always LOVING and forgiving -full of Grace and Truth...And we can take heart, because He has overcome this world...