In Difficult Times, Remember Easter!

Introduction

I want you to take your Bible and turn to John 16:16. I want to share a message with you entitled, “Remember Easter!”  Notice that is an imperative. 

 

Last week, Bro. Ronnie took you through the first half of John 16.  Let’s go back before Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday.

 

In our text, it is still Thursday night.  The disciples have been with Jesus in the Upper Room.  Jesus washed their feet.  Jesus served the Passover Meal to them.  Then Judas left.

 

After Judas left, they then followed Jesus to Garden of Gethsemane.  That is where they are in John 16, but it is very late, and they haven’t slept, and they haven’t eaten any more, and Jesus has told them that He is going away.

 

In John 16, Jesus tried to encourage them during difficult times.  He told them to remember He knows the future.  He also told them that He was going to send His Spirit to them.

 

When we find ourselves in difficult times, we should remember the same.  Jesus or God knows the future and is in complete control.  Our trial may not be for testing but to demonstrate how great God is.

 

Furthermore, we also have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.  Remember that He is the third person of the Trinity, and 1 John 4:4 says He is greater than the devil in the world. 

 

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

 

 

Exposition 16:16-19

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.”  ¹⁷ Then some of His disciples said among themselves, “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 go to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They said therefore, “What is this that He says, ‘A little while’? We do not know what He is saying.”  ¹⁹ Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? 

 

In verse 16, we see the Lord giving a prediction to His disciples.  In a little while, He will be gone, but in a little while, He will return.  When was He talking about?

 

You can see from verse 17 that the disciples didn’t understand what He was saying.  However, they tried to talk it over for more understanding. 

 

In verse 19, Jesus began to explain further what He meant.  It seems that He had His death, burial, and resurrection in mind. 

 

Once He was dead and buried, they would not see Him.  However, they would see Him when He was resurrected. 

 

He pointed them to His future resurrection.  It would be the ultimate game changer. 

 

After it happened and to remember it, would bring us joy, give us confidence in prayer, and give us peace in difficult times. 

 

 

1. In difficult times, remember Easter, and rejoice, John 16:20-22.

²⁰ Most assuredly, 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. ²¹ 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, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 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. 

 

In verse 20, Jesus seems to be pointing toward a specific event.  The disciples will be weep and lament, but the world will rejoice.

 

The disciples will be sorrowful, but their sorrow will be turned to joy.  What could Jesus be talking about?

 

The disciples were certainly grieved to see Him die on the cross.  However, the unbelieving world loved it.  They rejoiced. 

 

In verse 21, Jesus used an illustration to prove His point.  It was about childbirth. 

Childbirth is unbelievable pain or so I am told.  However, once that mother has birthday that baby, her anguish and pain turns to joy when she holds her newborn.

 

In verse 22, He will see them again, and they will rejoice, and no one will take that joy from them.  What was Jesus talking about? 

 

Some say that He was talking about the Holy Spirit.  However, that doesn’t seem to fit the most immediate context. 

 

Again, I would suggest to you that He was talking about His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.  After He was crucified, He would go away for a little while.  That was three days in the tomb.  However, He would return to them after His resurrection, once they experienced the resurrected Christ, no one could take that joy away from them. 

 

Therefore, here is our first big idea.  The disciples’ grief turned to joy when they experienced the resurrected Christ.  Their grief turned to joy.  God brought pleasure from their pain. 

 

If you’re in the middle of difficult days, remember Easter that Jesus was raised, and we can rejoice because Jesus won!  He is the winner, and we are too.

 

Romans 6:8-11, 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

1 Corinthians 15:57, 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Colossians 2:12, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

 

1 John 5:4-5, 4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

 

Remember Easter, and rejoice!

 

2. In difficult times, remember Easter, and pray with confidence, John 16:23-30.

²³ “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.  ²⁵ “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. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; ²⁷ for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. ²⁸ I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”  ²⁹ His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! ³⁰ Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.”

 

Because of the resurrected Jesus, we can pray with confidence during difficult times.  See verses 23-24. 

 

When Jesus was resurrected and ascended, we can pray with Jesus as our go between.  He will be our intercessor.  We can come to God on His behalf. 

 

In verse 24, we can ask anything in His name or according to His will, and it will be granted.  That is not some magical formula but an attempt to help us align our desires with His desires.  Because of the resurrected Jesus, we can pray with confidence during difficult times.

 

You can pray with confidence for God to save your marriage.  You can pray with confidence for God to break your addiction with self-control that He gives.  You can pray with confidence for G

 

We also see in this section that because of the resurrection, the disciples knew for certain that Jesus was God’s Son.  Look at verse 30.  The resurrection didn’t make Jesus God’s Son but rather proved Him to be God’s Son. 

 

It was the crowning moment when we know that we could trust everything that He ever had said because He did what had never been done.  Jesus came from the Father because He is God’s Son, and He is returning to the Father because He is God’s Son. 

 

 

3. In difficult times, remember Easter, and experience peace, John 16:31-33.

31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

 

In verse 32, as the disciples acknowledged finally being able to understand Jesus, Jesus predicted their abandoning Him in the coming hours.  However, these things that He told them would ultimately turn their grief to joy when He conquered death.

 

In verse 33, He even spoke of it as an already accomplished fact.  Jesus overcame the world.  He conquered the grave. 

 

The pleasure of the resurrection was worth the pain in His dying.  His suffering was worth our salvation, and now, if we have Jesus as Lord and Savior, we have peace.

 

How so?  He has overcome the world.  Regardless of my difficult times, the greater truth is that God raised Jesus, His Son, from the grave never to die again. 

 

 

Conclusion

Are you grieving today?  Does life have you tied up in knots?  How about remembering Easter?

 

Easter won’t necessarily make your difficult times go away, but they might fade into the background.  Because of Easter, we can rejoice, we can pray with confidence, and we can experience peace that surpasses all understanding.

 

If you have never been saved, putting your faith and trust in Christ is the only way to be at peace with God and experience this peace from God.  Would you be saved today?