A Message For The Night Season Pt 6 | Pt 1

Al Pittman: Today on the Dwelling Place. Let me tell you that the loud shouts of sinful jubilation, no matter how hearty you party, no matter how loud you're shouting for joy and rejoicing over wickedness, it cannot silence the shout of victory that comes from His empty tomb. And so Jesus is saying to His disciples, "You're going to have sorrow, but oh, your sorrow is going to be overcome with joy and the joy that I give to you will never be taken away." Amen. Thank God for the joy of His resurrection. Thank you for listening to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman of Al Pittman Ministries. The purpose of this radio program is to encourage you, strengthen your walk with the Lord, and grow. To support this program financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at alpittmanministries.com. That's alpittmanministries.com. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, here's Pastor Al. If you have a Bible, please open to John chapter 16. We'll be looking at verses 16 to 33 today. This is again a message in a series of messages I've been doing entitled "A Message for the Night Season." They are the words of Jesus on the night that He was betrayed, and they're very important words and messages here for us. I pray that they've been a blessing to you as we've gone through them over the last several weeks, and now this is installment number six. The message for the night season, which I've entitled "I Go to the Father." That is basically the theme that Jesus brings to us here from the text, that He will go, He is going to the Father, as He tells His disciples here as we will see. We begin reading here, picking it up in verse 16, John chapter 16. We're going to read to verse 19 to get started and then, of course, we'll go all the way to verse 33. In verse 16, Jesus, again speaking to His disciples on the night that He was betrayed, continues the conversation with them and the instructions with them. He says in verse 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." Then some of His disciples said among themselves, "What is this that He says to us? 'A little while you will see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me,' and 'Because I go to the Father?'" They said therefore, "What is this that He says, 'A little while'? What's this whole deal about a little while? We do not know what He is saying." Now, Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, "Are you inquiring among yourselves by what I said, 'A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me'?" The curiosity finally catches up to the disciples. They're listening to the Lord's dissertation, His instructions on that night, and kind of wondering where He's going with all this. Then He starts talking about this "little while you will not see Me and a little while you will see Me." What does this all mean? Jesus tells them that He must go to the Father. He says, "I must go to the Father," and that He is going to the Father. And so they're wondering what this is all about. But for us today, why did Jesus have to go to the Father? Why was it necessary for Him to say, "I go to the Father"? Well, number one, the Bible tells us and gives us the answer in Hebrews chapter nine, verses 11 to 15. I think I alluded to it a little bit last time we were together, the book of Hebrews. But in Hebrews chapter nine, verses 11 to 15, it speaks about the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Now, that's a lot of "Christianese" for people, but it speaks of the fact that Jesus had to go to the Father to present Himself, His own blood, as our sacrifice for the cleansing of our sins. For the Bible says without the shedding of blood, there would be no forgiveness of sins. And so His blood was offered for us for our everlasting forgiveness. But He had to go to the Father because the Father resides in the tabernacle that is in heaven, not the one created by the hands of men, but that which is not created by the hands of men, that which is created by God. So He went into the tabernacle, according to Hebrews chapter nine, verses 11 to 15, also not only to present His own blood for our atonement, but also as our High Priest. The word atonement, again, a lot of Christianese, but it simply means the act by which God restores a relationship of harmony and unity between Himself and human beings. If we are in Christ by His blood, we have been brought into a relationship of harmony and unity being one with God. That's what that means. The atoning work of Jesus Christ, that's what He did for us on the cross, brought us back into a relationship with the Father. He said, "I must go to the Father," that you and I might be able to go to the Father as well, as we'll see here in just a moment. Remember, it was Mary Magdalene who met Jesus outside there by the garden tomb on that resurrection morning nearly 2,000 years ago. When she realized that it was Jesus, her Master, who was risen from the dead, she clung to Him. Jesus said, "Don't cling to Me because I've yet to go to My Father." What was He doing? He was going to present His blood and to present Himself as our High Priest forever. Amen. Thank God for His atoning work, for His sacrifice. And in our text, Jesus mentions three benefits here, what I want to share with you, three benefits related to Christ going to the Father. Number one is that our sorrow will be turned into joy. Verses 20 to 22, read along with me. "Now, most assuredly," Jesus said, "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." Amen. Then He gives an illustration. He says 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. Now, some of you moms may want to debate with Jesus about that. "For joy that a human being has been born into the world." Verse 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." Amen. What is He speaking about here? It was obvious for us, but to those disciples, they didn't have a clue. What is He talking about? Oh, we know that He was talking about the resurrection. And you're going to have sorrow, and the sorrow He speaks about here is the sorrow of the crucifixion. You're going to see Me die, but then you're going to have great joy. The joy that you're going to have, the world will not be able to take away from you. There He speaks about the resurrection. You know, oftentimes the world rejoices when the church is sorrowful because the world rejoices over evil. The world rejoices when the church is sorrowful. Jesus said they're going to be rejoicing, they're going to be partying, they're going to be having a lot of fun, but you will be sorrowful. And what were they rejoicing over? They were rejoicing over the crucifixion of Christ, rejoicing over the crucifixion of our Lord. I know sometimes people think today that the most loving thing that we can do for someone is to embrace every propensity of mankind. Everything you have a propensity to do, you know, you want to be a woman one day and a man the next day or whatever, it doesn't matter, we should just accept that, embrace it, and that's the most loving thing that we can do is just embrace every propensity of mankind. I'm here to tell you that the Bible says that true love rejoices not over iniquity but in the truth. It's not that you go around condemning folks, but you speak the truth to people in love. Love rejoices in the truth, not in iniquity, not in sin. And so we must speak the truth, and sometimes people say, "Well, no what? You need you're just an old stick-in-the-mud, and we have a freedom of expression." But it's not freedom of expression. In fact, it is bondage of expression, if you will, because the reality is that if your expression is outside of God and apart from God, it is bondage. It is not freedom at all. The Bible says if the Son has set you free, you're free indeed. That's true freedom. But the world often rejoices over that which the Bible condemns. Jesus said this in Luke chapter 16. He says, "For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." When the world is celebrating, a lot of times we in the church are weeping because we see them getting further and further away from God and not coming to God. The world rejoices when Jesus Christ is demeaned, when He's kicked out of our politics, when He's kicked out of our schools and educational systems and all. We don't want anything to do with Jesus. When He's demeaned, when He is cast aside, the world rejoices. But it's the natural response, don't be alarmed. It's the natural response of a world that's at war with God. The world is at war with the Lord. God's not at war with the world, but the world is in rebellion and at war against God. But let me tell you that the loud shouts of sinful jubilation, no matter how hearty you party, amen, no matter how loud you're shouting for joy and rejoicing over wickedness, it cannot silence the shout of victory that comes from His empty tomb. And so Jesus is saying to His disciples, "You're going to have sorrow, but oh, your sorrow is going to be overcome with joy and the joy that I give to you will never be taken away." Amen. Thank God for the joy of His resurrection, what it means to us. You know, there's always pain many times before that joy comes. Even in our lives as believers, there's times we must go through a painful time. And the beauty there is that even when we're going through sorrow and pain as a believer, that pain and sorrow, by God's design, is to give birth to joy. It's to give birth to joy. Some of you may be going through that right now. You're struggling with something, you're going through a painful time. I mean, there's times that I've stood before God and I said, "God, I can't take this anymore. I just can't take it. I'm ready to quit. I'm ready to give up." And yet God speaks to me and gives me strength to hold on because I know after walking with Him for so many years that that pain has actually given birth to something that's going to bring glory to His name. Psalm 30, verse 5, says, "For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life." Many of you know this, "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Amen. That's the promise and the heritage of every believer. You say, "But Pastor, I've been going through pain for a long time." It's giving birth to joy. It's giving birth to joy. Not only do we have the joy of the resurrection, yes, but in our lives as Christians, we go through painful times, but it gives birth to joy. That is God's design. And my friend, in the very end, there will be joy. Why? How do I know that? Because sorrow and all the pain of the earth will pass away. I love what it says in Revelation chapter 21. It says, "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." Amen. If you've been crying lately, let me tell you, He will wipe away every tear from your eyes. "And there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Amen. You know what? I just look so forward to heaven, look so forward to that. Not that we can't have joy now; we can have joy now. But oh, that day is coming when there'll be no more sorrow, no more pain, no more crying. Amen. And there will only be joy. Praise His holy name. Glory to God. I know sometimes people wonder, when we get to heaven, are we going to be able to remember different things? I don't think we'll remember any of it. It ain't going to be worth remembering with heaven. Amen. All the wrongs people have done to you, all the pain and the suffering you've gone through. Now, we will recognize each other in heaven. You know, my wife and I have been married 41 years; I'll recognize my wife in heaven. Amen. But it'll be kind of like, "What's up?" because there's no marriage in heaven. Our joy is so great that it just causes everything that's happened in this world to be in the past. And we will recognize one another, but joy will be the triumphant cry. It will help us overcome all those past feelings of hurt and pain and sorrow; all will be wiped away. God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Amen. Thank the Lord. Praise His holy. Give Him glory, praise and glory. Amen. He's worthy. That's the promise we have as believers. So Jesus reminds the saints, "You're going to have joy. Joy's going to overcome the sorrow you're going to experience from My crucifixion, My resurrection." And because He is risen, we can have joy. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. And because of His resurrection, we know one day God will wipe every tear away. The second benefit we find here is we have direct access to the Father. Look at verses 23 to 28. "And in that day you will ask Me nothing," Jesus said. "Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I 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 shall pray the Father for you." In other words, "You ask in My name and well, let Me go tell the Father and see what the Father says." He says, "That's not the way it's going to be." He says, "For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. And again, I leave the world and go to the Father." We have direct access to the Father. The atoning work of Jesus Christ grants us a direct line access, if you will, to God, who is our Father, our Daddy, if you will. And Jesus said, "In that day, you'll have direct access to the Father." Verse 23, "And in that day." What day is He talking about? He's talking about the day of atonement. He's talking about the age of grace in which we live. He's talking about the other side of the cross, the resurrection, and the age of grace in which we live. He's talking about the New Covenant. You see, there was a First Covenant, which was according to the law. That covenant has passed away. And then now a better covenant has come, the Second Covenant, which is the New Covenant, which we call the New Testament, which is at grace that Jesus has granted us through His life, death, His resurrection. We now have access to God according to grace, not according to the law, but grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, the Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 8, verses 6 to 13, that the New Covenant is better than the old and that the Old Covenant, the law, has passed away. In other words, my relationship with God is not based on the law; it's based on the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And it is better, according to the writer of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 8, than the old covenant. The day of the New Covenant. "In that day," Jesus said, "when you ask anything in My name, you will receive it, that your joy may be full." Now, I don't know about you, but in the flesh, speaking in the flesh, what I kind of glean from that is that my joy may be full. Oh, I can ask in His name that my joy may be full. So in other words, God wants me to be happy. Amen. That's God's purpose in existing in my life is to make me happy. Because if I want something, if I think it's going to make me happy, then God just needs to give it to me, right? That's not the context at all. Amen. What is the context? Well, we go back to John chapter 14, turn over a couple of chapters, in verses 13 and 14. Here's the context for asking: "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Did you catch that? "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do." Why? "That the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you love Me, keep My commandments." Verse 14, "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it." And then He says, "If you love Me, then keep My commandments." The context is that which glorifies the Father in my asking. In other words, Jesus tells us here that He wants our joy to be full. God wants our joy to be full. But our joy being full, our joy can be no more full than when I'm seeking the glory of Jesus in that which I am asking. Did you get that? My joy cannot be any more full than when I'm seeking the glorification of the Father when I'm asking for things in Jesus' name. The motivation of my heart has a lot to do with my joy. Am I asking because I want to see God glorified, or is it just about me? Now, here's a thing. When you ask, and we ask God for many things, God has the right because He is Father. Amen. And for you baby boomers, remember "Father Knows Best," the TV show. Father does know best. God does know best. And so when we ask, God has a right to say, "No," amen, and, "Yes," and, "Wait." Amen. Amen. And we don't like that in the flesh. "He I thought He want me to be happy, my joy to be full. I'm happy if He would just give me this and I would have joy." But sometimes God says, "Wait." Remember when you were a child and it was dinner time and you wanted the cookies and ice cream, and Mom said, "No"? She's the most evil woman on earth. Ice cream will make me happy right now! Cookies will make me happy right now! Candy will make me happy, but she said, "No," because it would what? Spoil your dinner. Because she has something better for you planned all the time. And if she'd given you the cookies and ice cream, where would you be today? You wouldn't be here; you'd be dead, malnourished. But Mom says, "No," because she knows she's got some spinach and some collard greens and cornbread, black-eyed peas. Anyway, she's got something better for you, right? And what do we do when God says, "Wait," God says, "No"? We rebel. We get mad at God because we don't believe Father knows best. But He knows best. He has a right to say "Yes" and "No" and even "Wait." Wait. The problem is many times the motivation for which we are asking for things. We're not concerned about His glory; it's just what my flesh wants, what I want right now. One of the pastors sent me an article entitled, check out this, entitled "Photobombing Jesus." Now, you know what photobombing is, you know, someone's taking a nice picture of something and somebody jumps in at the last minute and goes, "Ah!" You know, one of those. And sometimes we photobomb the Lord. My life is supposed to be about Jesus. It's about Jesus. Jesus is supposed to be in the frame. They're just supposed to see Jesus in my life. And a lot of times I'm doing this because I want some of the glory. It's just supposed to be about Jesus, but I'm photobombing the Lord. And behind the Lord, there I am. But we all say we want to glorify Him. But in fact, many times we want to glorify ourselves. So "ask," Jesus said, that your joy may be full when you ask to glorify Me and you're seeking My glory in what you're asking. And because He says, you know, you don't need to come and ask Me anymore. You don't need to ask Me anything. In fact, you can go directly to the Father. There's not a need for an operator. Some of you remember when you used to call the operator and the operator would connect you with somebody and all this. You don't need a go-between person. "Oh, I need God to answer my prayer, so I need to go talk to the pastor or go find a priest." There's no go-between. Jesus died on the cross. His blood has gained for us direct access to the Father whereby you can go directly into His presence yourself through His blood. Thank the Lord for that. Amen. Praise His holy. Give Him glory, praise and glory. Amen. He's worthy. That's the promise we have as believers. So Jesus remind the saints you're going to have joy. Joy's going to overcome the sorrow you're going to experience from My crucifixion, My resurrection, and because He is risen, we can have joy. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning, and because of His resurrection, we know one day God will wipe every tear away. The second benefit we find here is we have direct access to the Father. Look at verses 23 to 28. "And in that day you will ask Me nothing," Jesus said. "Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full. These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I 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 shall pray the Father for you." "For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. And again, I leave the world and go to the Father." Thank you for listening to the Dwelling Place. We hope you've been encouraged and your walk with the Lord strengthened. If you would like to receive this message or any of our messages, please visit our website at alpittmanministries.com. There you will also find more resources to help you in your study of God's Word. You can also listen to any of our archived programs and find information on upcoming events. That's alpittmanministries.com. Until next time, may God bless you as you dwell in His presence.