1. "To become a follower of Christ, you don't need to have an answer to every single one of your questions. But actually, if you trust in Jesus despite not having all your questions answered, it's those unanswered questions you continue to have that show your confidence in him, your trust in him."

2. "What makes you the most perplexed should make you the most prayerful."

3. "The disciples have a head question and Jesus gives them a heart answer."

4. "Christ's words begin by disintegrating the world, reversing all of its standards and ideas about justice, resulting in an upheaval of the human condition itself. The world could not abide this shattering message that Jesus spoke and so they turned off the speaker permanently, as they thought."

5. "Sin is loving what harms ourselves and others. Sin is loving what God hates."

6. "The very cause of their most acute grief will become an unsurpassable comfort. The sorrow itself will turn into joy, like Jesus once turned water into wine."

7. "We often think of joy as merely a momentary flicker. In some choice moment, joy flashes through our hearts and then it fades and it's back to the normal dark skies of our lives. But here, Jesus promises us a joy that is stable and is utterly secure."

8. "If you suppress sorrow, you're denying the reality of the fall. Sorrow is a fitting and natural response to sin and suffering. But if you wallow in sorrow, you're forgetting that Christ has risen and Christ will return."

9. "When you take inventory of your prayers, you take inventory of your heart. What you pray for reveals, like nothing else does, what you want."

10. "Put less confidence in your ability to figure things out and more confidence in Christ's character."

Observation Questions

1. In John 16:16, what two things does Jesus tell his disciples will happen "a little while" from now?

2. According to verses 17-18, what specific phrases from Jesus' teaching confused the disciples, and what did they admit to one another about their understanding?

3. In verse 20, what contrasting responses does Jesus say the disciples and the world will have when the events unfold?

4. What illustration does Jesus use in verse 21 to explain the relationship between sorrow and joy, and what specific details does he include about this illustration?

5. According to verse 22, what does Jesus promise will happen to the disciples' hearts when he sees them again, and what characteristic does he say this joy will have?

6. In verses 23-24, what does Jesus promise about prayers made to the Father in his name, and what does he say will be the result of asking and receiving?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think John repeats Jesus' statement about "a little while" three times in verses 16-19? What does this repetition suggest about the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection for understanding who he is?

2. The sermon emphasized that Jesus gave a "heart answer to a head question." How does Jesus' response in verses 20-22 address more than just the disciples' intellectual confusion, and why might this approach be important for believers facing trials?

3. What is the significance of Jesus' promise that the disciples' sorrow will "turn into" joy (v. 20), rather than simply being replaced by joy? How does the childbirth illustration in verse 21 help explain this transformation?

4. In verse 23, Jesus says "in that day you will ask nothing of me." How does the sermon's explanation that this refers to questions (not petitions) connect to the larger theme of the passage about moving from confusion to clarity?

5. What does it mean to pray "in Jesus' name" (vv. 23-24), and how does Jesus' completed work of death, resurrection, and ascension make this kind of prayer possible in a way it wasn't before?

Application Questions

1. The sermon suggested that unanswered questions can actually demonstrate trust in Christ's character. What is one significant question about your faith or circumstances that you are currently holding while still trusting Jesus? How might you bring this question to God in prayer this week rather than suppressing it or letting it erode your faith?

2. Jesus promises a joy that "no one will take from you" (v. 22). When you consider your current sources of happiness and satisfaction, which ones could be taken away by circumstances or other people? What specific step could you take this week to root your joy more deeply in Christ's resurrection and promises?

3. The sermon challenged listeners to make the church "a place where it's safe to be sad." Is there a sorrow you are currently experiencing—especially one related to the world's opposition to Christ or your faith—that you have not shared with a trusted believer? Who could you approach this week to bear that burden with you?

4. The preacher asked, "What are your top 10 most frequent prayers over the past year?" Take time this week to write down your most common prayer requests. What do these prayers reveal about what you truly want and value? Are there requests you should be praying more persistently, specifically, or expectantly?

5. The sermon warned against two opposite errors: denying sorrow and being dominated by it. Which tendency do you lean toward when facing difficulty? What practical habit or practice could help you hold sorrow and joy together more faithfully—acknowledging grief while remembering Christ's resurrection?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Isaiah 66:10-14 — This passage, which Jesus echoes in verse 22, describes the joy of God's people in the new creation and helps us understand the ultimate fulfillment of Jesus' promise that our hearts will rejoice.

2. John 14:1-14 — Earlier in the same discourse, Jesus teaches about going to the Father and promises that asking in his name will be answered, providing important context for the promises in chapter 16.

3. Romans 8:18-25 — Paul describes the present suffering of believers and the certain hope of future glory, reinforcing the sermon's theme that current sorrow will give way to incomparable joy.

4. 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 — This passage illustrates how believers experience sorrow and joy simultaneously, being afflicted yet not crushed, and looking to eternal glory beyond present troubles.

5. Revelation 21:1-7 — John's vision of the new creation shows the ultimate fulfillment of Jesus' promises: God dwelling with his people, wiping away every tear, and making all things new.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Experience of Being Perplexed

II. Promise One: Your Sorrow Will Turn Into Joy (John 16:16-22)

III. Promise Two: Your Prayers Will Be Answered (John 16:23-24)

IV. Promise Three: Your Confusion Will Become Clarity (John 16:23)

V. Persevere in Pursuing Christ Until Faith Becomes Sight

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Detailed Sermon Outline

• Why did someone let you down?
• Why did God close a door on a cherished goal?
• Why did God allow evil to happen?

When's the last time that you were perplexed?

Kids in the congregation? When's the last time that you were stumped by a math problem?

Or for those of you who have ever set up a new room or a new apartment, when's the last time you were stumped by the instructions for putting together IKEA furniture? You've got your collection of planks and screws on the one hand, you've got the little stick figure pictures on the other, but you cannot discern the fit between the two.

In any circumstances like those, you're certainly confused. You may also have been anxious or frustrated or angry, but sometimes being perplexed is a condition that lasts longer. That weighs heavier and that seems to draw a shade over all the windows in your life.

Being perplexed in this more serious sense means not just having unanswered questions but by being troubled, being disturbed by those questions. Why did that person you counted on let you down? Why did God just shut the door on this long cherished Goal. Why did God let that evil happen to this person?

As the theologian Oswald Bayer has written, why? This question, this lament, is an open wound that hurts. There is a primal human impulse to close this wound. Have you ever lost sleep over questions like these? Have you ever lain awake at night, unable either to find healing or to close the wound?

The section of John's gospel that I've been teaching through this year, chapters 14 to 17, anticipates questions like these. The whole section narrates a conversation between Jesus and his disciples that took place on the night before he was crucified. The disciples were about to experience the bewildering tragedy of Jesus' death. And so throughout these chapters, Jesus teaches his disciples again and again that his death will not mean defeat, but victory. He teaches them that his death will not have the last word, but that he will rise again and he will see them again.

And he prepares his disciples for the trials that will follow his death and resurrection when he returns to the father and sends the spirit to enable them to bear faithful witness in the world. Our passage for this morning is John 16:16-24. It's on pages 902 and 903 of the Pew Bibles. And our passage starts with Jesus' disciples being perplexed. They can't make sense of what Jesus is saying.

But Jesus' response to them shows that their problem is not merely intellectual. The trials that they're about to face will shake them to their core. So Jesus' answer to their questions addresses their heart as much as their mind. Please follow along as I read. John 16:16 to 24.

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 they said, 'What is this that He says, 'A little while, and you will not see Me, and again, a little while, and you will see Me'? Because I am going to the Father. So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he is talking about. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, Is this what you are asking yourselves?

What I meant by saying a little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me.

Truly, truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, 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.

In our passage, Jesus offers three promises for perplexed believers. Three promises for perplexed believers. First, your sorrow will turn into joy. Your sorrow will turn into joy. This is the main point of verses 16 to 22.

That's most of the passage, so we'll spend quite a bit of time here. Looking at it verses 16 to 19, 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 do not know what he is talking about. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, Is this what you are asking yourselves? What I meant by saying, A little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while and you will see me. In verse 16, Jesus is telling his disciples in a cryptic way that he is going to die and rise again.

That's what he's been telling them throughout these chapters, but as verses 17 and 18 show us, they were puzzled by this, Now you see me, now you don't. Verse 18 tells us they were especially confused by him saying a little while. If he was going to leave them, how would he be able to come back to them so soon? Part of the issue here is that they had no category for a Messiah who would die and then rise again. And verse 17 tells us that they were also confused by something Jesus had said back in verses 5 and 10.

That he is going to the Father. So as verse 18 says, they actually admitted to themselves, We do not know what he is talking about. Isn't that comforting? The disciples had no idea what Jesus was saying. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, we're very glad to have you.

I hope that you'll see something that might even be a little bit surprising here about what it means to follow Jesus. To become a follower of Christ, you don't need to have an answer to every single one of your questions. Now, of course, you do need a basic grasp of who Jesus is and what he came to do and what that means for you. But actually, if you trust in Jesus despite not having all your questions answered, it's those unanswered questions you continue to have that show your confidence in him, your trust in him. It shows that you believe he is trustworthy.

You are banking on his character. You're banking on his ability. You're trusting that he has all the answers, even if he hasn't given them all to you.

So if you are a Christian, what should you do with your questions about the faith? Three things that I think are at least suggested by this passage. First, acknowledge them. It is far better to ask a question than to squash a question. And the first step to answering a question is stating it.

Sometimes simply articulating your question in a clear form and putting a question mark at the end of it is actually the first step toward a solution. Sometimes in the process of asking a question, the answer starts to slowly appear.

So acknowledge your questions. Second, bring your questions to other Christians who love Christ and know their Bibles. As the Bible commentator Matthew Henry put it, By mutual converse about divine things, we both borrow the light of others and improve our own.

Third, bring your questions to Jesus. Don't just say your questions, pray your questions.

Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. What makes you the most perplexed should make you the most prayerful. In verse 19, we see that Jesus knew their question without them even having to say it.

Jesus knows all of your questions before they ever pass your lips. Verse 19 is the third repetition of exactly the same thing. In verse 16, Jesus says it, these two sayings about a little while. In verses 17 and 18, the disciples puzzle over it and John tells us the full quote. Then in verse 19, Jesus says it again.

When he states the disciples question back to them, why so much repetition? Verses 20 to 22 give us the answer. Look again at those verses, verses 20 to 22.

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, 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 these verses, Jesus is answering the disciples' question. But you'll notice he doesn't actually give them more information. He doesn't specify the sequence of events that's going to take place. He doesn't tell them how long a little while is going to be.

Instead, he tells his disciples how all this is going to affect them. The disciples have a head question and Jesus gives them a heart answer. The issue Jesus zeroes in on is the meaning of his death and resurrection. So again, back to verse 19, the first phrase there, A little while and you will not see me, refers, of course, to his death. And again a little while and you will see me refers to his resurrection.

But what do these things mean? What's the point of him dying and rising again? This question is the continental divide that separates knowing Jesus truly from, in the end, not knowing him at all. This question is the knife edge between hopelessness and hope, between despair and determined faith.

What sense do you make of Jesus' departure from this world and his present absence from this world?

Again, this is why this saying of Jesus is repeated three times in four verses. The conversation is stalling and turning in circles here because this is decisive. Throughout these chapters, Jesus' references to his departure, his going to the Father, are a kind of shorthand code for the gospel, for the good news of the salvation that Jesus came to accomplish for us. So looking at verse 20, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.

The very next day from when Jesus is speaking, the world will rejoice because it seems that they have decisively defeated Jesus by killing him. The world didn't like the mirror that Jesus held up to them, so they shattered the mirror. Christ's words, as one writer put it, Christ's words begin by disintegrating the world, reversing all of its standards and ideas about justice, resulting in an upheaval of the human condition itself. The world could not abide this shattering message that Jesus spoke and so they turned off the speaker permanently, as they thought. The world rejoiced in the ultimate act of rejecting God.

But it's not just those who killed Jesus. We're all born with a sinful nature. We are all born with an innate tendency to love exactly the opposite of what we should love. We have all, each one of us, rejoiced in what we should have rejected. We've rejoiced in what God rejects and we've rejoiced even in rejecting God.

That is the essence of sin. Sin is loving what harms ourselves and others. Sin is loving what God hates. And because God is good, he will punish sin. He will punish forever all those who reject his goodness and persist in sin.

But because God is gracious and merciful, because God is more committed to our true and lasting joy than we are ourselves, he sent Jesus into the world to save us. In his death, Jesus bore the penalty for our sin. And in his resurrection, he triumphed over death. In his death, Jesus satisfied God's wrath against our sin. And in his resurrection, he triumphed over sin, entering into a new life, life with God that nothing in this universe can threaten or hinder.

And he promises to all those who repent of their sins and trust in him that they will share in that same eternal life. So if you haven't turned from sin and trusted in Jesus, if you haven't committed yourself to him, if you haven't relied on him and banked on him as your only hope to be in a right relationship with God, then turn. And trust in him.

Look at the second half of verse 20.

You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When Jesus dies, his disciples will be in anguish, in agony, but his resurrection will reverse that. The very cause of their most acute grief will become an unsurpassable comfort. The sorrow itself will turn into joy, like Jesus once turned water into wine.

That's the point of the illustration of childbirth in verse 21. Like a woman giving birth, the disciples' pain at Jesus' death will be intense and overwhelming. But it will be brief and it will end. And the joy of Jesus' resurrection will more than make up for the pain of his death. So Jesus then restates this point in verse 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. Note carefully that this is a promise of an experience. This is a promise of an emotion. The joy Jesus is talking about here is more than an emotion, but it isn't less.

What Jesus is saying here is a guarantee of our joy, our satisfaction, our happiness.

Are there any guarantees that you can count on? Absolutely. Our van has a warranty that guarantees that certain repairs will always be taken care of free of charge. But in practice, the only thing that warranty seems to guarantee is that about every six months something is going to break that is not covered by the warranty and that costs $1,000 to repair.

Do I sound bitter?

Whose guarantee can you put all your weight on? Whose guarantee covers every possible circumstance? Whose guarantee is not limited to a tiny range of what they can provide because, well, he's the creator and sustainer of the universe. That's only Jesus. Only Jesus can guarantee everything you ultimately need for perfect and unending happiness.

Now, in speaking to his original disciples, Jesus walked them through how they were going to experience these emotions in sequence. First sorrow, then joy. But for we who trust in Christ today, we tend to experience both at once. Like Paul said, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. So we are grieved by the effects of sin and the curse and we are especially grieved by the world's opposition to Christ and how the world opposes us because of Christ.

But at the same time, because Christ has been raised from the dead, we have right now a joy that no one can take from us. The Christian life is an often bewildering mashup of sorrow and joy. But joy should sound the dominant note.

Let's meditate for a bit on both. First, sorrow, then joy.

In these verses, The primary source of sorrow is the world's opposition to Christ and therefore, by implication, the way it will oppose those of us who trust in Christ. In verse 20, the disciples will weep and lament because of what the world did to Jesus. So while it is right and natural for us to lament all sorts of things in this fallen world, this fallen world burdens us with abundant causes for grief. Jesus here is especially focused on the sorrow that comes from the world's opposition to him. Because the world opposes Jesus, in this world we should expect opposition, rejection, mockery, scorn, disapproval.

We should expect loneliness. We should expect that Other people will withdraw from us because they want less of Jesus.

We're focusing in this point on Christ's promise, your sorrow will turn into joy. But you know what? In verse 20, the words yous will weep and lament are a promise too.

Christ's promise that you will encounter sorrow should provoke you to stock up on comfort in advance. Arm yourselves with Christ's promises now so that when sorrow comes, you can deploy those promises against despair. You will weep and lament.

As a church, we need to have the time and the space and the nerve to help each other in our sorrow.

Especially the sorrow that comes from the world's opposition to Christ. As a church, we should continually strive to care for each other's sorrow with greater and greater love and sympathy. Church should be a place where it's safe to be sad.

There are at least two ways we can get this wrong. As Christians, we should neither deny sorrow nor be dominated by it. Those are opposite temptations. Some of us are more tempted to wallow in sorrow and some are more tempted to suppress it.

If you suppress sorrow, you're denying the reality of the fall. Sorrow is a fitting and natural response to sin and suffering. Those things are real and so is sorrow. But if you wallow in sorrow, you're forgetting that Christ has risen and Christ will return. So instead of either basking in sorrow or stifling sorrow, We should offer the burden of our sorrows to fellow church members and together we should offer those burdens to God.

Hurtful things hurt still more if they are pent up within us. That's how Thomas Aquinas put it. But if you express your sorrow to another believer that you trust, that expression is no longer simply a howl of anguish, but it becomes a lament. Like Mark Vrogap taught us a couple weeks ago. By expressing your sorrow to another believer, you take some step toward expressing it to God when you may be struggling to do that.

And if you lovingly receive another believer's lament, you lessen the load of grief that they bear by bearing some of it yourself. Simply listening is an act of receiving. And bearing that burden that your brother or sister bears. So bring your sorrows to God's people and together bring them to God. But sorrow doesn't have the last word, so let's talk about joy.

Secure joy is our present possession, even in the midst of sorrow. And that joy is the down payments on the perfect and permanent joy that is to come. Again, look at verse 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. We often think of joy as merely a momentary flicker.

In some choice moment, joy flashes through our hearts and then it fades and it's back to the normal dark skies of our lives. But here, Jesus promises us a joy that is stable and is utterly secure. No one will take your joy from you.

So what can give you a joy that nothing and no one can take away? It's only Jesus. Only knowing Jesus as the victorious Lord who has paid the penalty for sin and defeated sin by his resurrection. Only knowing Jesus as the Savior who will come again and who will appear to you personally. And who by the sight of his very person will satisfy your heart forever.

Earlier in our passage, Jesus promised that the disciples would see him again after a little while. But look again at verse 22.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again. Again, and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. It is us seeing Jesus that will satisfy our hearts forever. But our seeing him is guaranteed by his commitment to come see us. Like Paul says to the Galatians, now that you have come to know God, or rather, to be known by God, we long to see him.

We can be assured he will come to see us.

Do you ever feel like no one sees you? Do you ever feel like no matter how many people you may be surrounded by, whether at home or at work or at church, that no one is actually committed to looking you in the face and taking Whatever comes, Jesus is. Jesus does see you and Jesus will see you. This is another promise you can take to the bank. I will see you.

Seeing Jesus on that day will be infinitely more satisfying than any earthly pleasure. Seeing Jesus on that day will be infinitely sweeter than any earthly reunion. Jesus' answer to sorrow is not stoicism, but a stable, secure, and soul thrilling joy. So seek him as your greatest good and trust his promise that your sorrow will turn into joy.

Point two, a second promise for perplexed believers. Your prayers will be answered. Your prayers will be answered. We see this in verses 23 and 24. Look at those verses starting in the second half of verse 23.

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.

This is a promise that God will answer our prayers. And at the end of verse 24, Jesus tells us that the result of these asked and answered prayers will be joy. So if you want more of this joy that Jesus is promising up in verses 20 and 22, then pray. Jesus is saying, this is how more of that joy will come to you. The first part of verse 24 might seem a little puzzling.

Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. This doesn't mean that the disciples haven't asked God for anything at all. Instead, what Jesus is doing here, as he is throughout these chapters, is he's looking ahead. He's looking ahead to his death and resurrection and his ascension and his installation in glory and power at the Father's right hand. Just before the cross, Jesus is also looking beyond the cross and he's saying, I will become your completely effectual mediator.

I will become your fully sufficient access to God. And when I do, you can ask for anything and you will get all you need. Like Lincoln reminded us last week, a human being is now at the helm of the universe. By leaving us and departing to go to the Father, Jesus has not left us out to dry. Instead, he is right where we need him, interceding for us at the right hand of the Father.

So what does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? It means, first of all, to come to the Father, trusting in the work that Jesus has done to save you. I love how Martin Luther puts it. He says the phrase in my name is the foundation on which prayer must rest. These words give to prayer the good quality and the dignity that make it acceptable to God.

They also free us from all severe trials and from useless worries regarding our worthiness. Worries that hinder our praying and frighten us more than anything else. From these words, We gather that we should not be concerned or worried about our own worthiness, but should forget about both worthiness and unworthiness and base our prayer on Christ and pray in his name. It is as though he were saying, my dear friend, it does not matter in what condition you are. If you cannot pray on your own authority and in your own name, as indeed you should not, then please, Pray in my name.

If you are not worthy and holy enough, let me be holy and worthy enough for you.

In this passage, Jesus writes us a blank check for answered prayer.

When Kristen and I talk together about priorities for how we'll use our time, whether we should host this or that visitor passing through town, whether I should take this or that ministry opportunity that would take me away from home for a few days. We try not to write each other checks we can't cash. That would be like saying, oh yeah, sure, that'll be fine, no problem, but kind of inwardly knowing, no, it really won't. We all have limited time and energy, so don't write someone a check you can't cash. The question is, is that what Jesus has done here?

Has Jesus written us a check he can't cash? The answer is, of course he can cash this check. And only he can cash this check. He can make good on this and every promise. Only he has won a complete and sufficient salvation for us.

Only he in himself is all the fullness we need, and from his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For Jesus' sake, God will hear your prayers. He will hear and he will answer. Now, this is the third time that Jesus has taught basically this same thing in these three chapters so far of John. The question we butt up against every time is, how do we square this passage is open-ended promise of answered prayer with the fact that many of our prayers are not answered in any way that we can see.

I don't know. That's my main answer. I don't know. Certainly, God can answer prayers in ways we don't expect. Or ways we don't immediately perceive as an answer to prayer, or ways we don't even see evidence of in this life.

And yet there remains a mystery, at least to me. I don't know. There's a lot about prayer I don't know. But like Calvin said of the Lord's Supper, I would rather experience it than understand it. What I do know is that this promise is meant to urge us to pray persistently, specifically, and expectantly.

That is the point of this promise. We are doing what this promise tells us to do if we pray persistently, specifically, and expectantly. So keep knocking on God's door until he answers. Keep calling God's number until he picks up. God is not a millennial.

When we call, he answers.

What are your top 10 most frequent prayers over the past year? It'll be good to take a little time, maybe this afternoon, maybe later this week, and try to get a rough sketch. Jot down, what do you think are the 10 things you've prayed for most frequently, whether for yourself or for other people?

When you take inventory of your prayers, you take inventory of your heart. What you pray for reveals, like nothing else does, what you want.

Now, why does asking in prayer and receiving answers to prayer make our joy full? It's because In prayer, we lift up our hearts to God and we align our hearts with God. Prayer turns our union with Christ into communion with Christ. In prayer, we give more of ourselves to God and we get more of God for ourselves. And the more you give yourself to God, the more God himself will be your unshakable joy.

A third final promise for perplexed believers: you: confusion will become clarity. Your confusion will become clarity. Look again at verse 23. This time the first sentence, which we skipped in our last point.

In that day, you will ask nothing of me.

We're going to dig a little deeper into this half of a verse. First, we're going to ask, what does in that day mean? Then, what does ask nothing of me mean? So what is in that day? What is this?

When is this? Jesus has just been talking about his resurrection in the verse before. So at the very least, the primary focus of the phrase is the day of Jesus' resurrection. But in Scripture, the phrase that day frequently refers to the last day. The last day when Christ will return and all the dead will be raised and everyone will be judged.

So for instance, a couple examples of this, Matthew 7:22, on that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord,' or 2 Timothy 4:18, Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.

So I think what's going on here in verse 23 is that Jesus is referring to his resurrection, but he's describing his resurrection with terms appropriate to the last day because his resurrection anticipates and inaugurates the last day. That is, Jesus' resurrection is a foretaste of the last day of what's to come. And in some ways, Jesus' resurrection brings the last day, stretches it forward into the present, and sets it ticking.

So the last day still is a day set in the future. But the last day is also the whole time we live in now. Using only slightly different language, John says this exact thing in 1 John 2:18. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.

Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

Another reason why I think Jesus is describing his resurrection as the beginning of the last day, another reason I think that's a persuasive understanding of this phrase is that immediately before this, in verse 22, the phrase, your hearts will rejoice, is borrowed exactly. The Greek phrasing is a perfect match from Isaiah 66:14. What's Isaiah 66 about? It's about God's new creation. It's about him making all things new.

It's about the end and renewal of all things. So again, in the verse before, Jesus refers to his resurrection in terms appropriate to the last day. Jesus' resurrection is the last day brought forward into the present. Jesus' resurrection does what his return will do even more of.

And what does his resurrection do according to our verse? Here's the second half of the phrase: In that day you will ask nothing of me. Now, the word that's translated ask here can refer either to a question where you're seeking information or to a petition where you're seeking some some help.

Here, I think the word clearly refers to asking a question, not making a petition. Two reasons for this. One is that the very next phrase Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, introduces a new thought. It's a kind of bold underscore way of introducing something new. That's how Jesus used that phrase back in verse 20.

So the teaching on prayer that we've already considered is a new thought. It's an additional comfort and encouragement to his disciples for when he's gone.

In other words, it introduces a new theme. A second reason to see this verse as speaking to questions is that this is the very end of Jesus' answer to the disciples' question from back in verses 17 and 18. Again, the next verses, which we've already considered, offer another comfort focused on prayer. But here, Jesus is reaching back to the questions that they have and that they're not even asking and he's giving them a further answer, not just, Will my resurrection answer your questions? but, A day is coming when you won't have any at all.

Jesus is saying the resurrection and ultimately his return will dispel the disciples' doubts. It will make their questions disappear. And for us as Christians today, Jesus' resurrection should do the same thing. Jesus' resurrection fulfills God's promises. Jesus' resurrection confirms God's faithfulness and it confirms the truth of what Jesus taught.

The resurrection answers the haunting question of the cross. Jesus' resurrection should be all the answer. That our questions need. But Jesus' resurrection isn't God's only answer to our questions and it won't be his final answer. That will come when Christ returns.

On that day, Christ's presence with us will burn away all doubt like the rising sun burns off coastal fog.

In about 2013, when we were living in Louisville, Kristen and I took our kids to visit my parents who were living in Northern California. That's where Kristen and I both grew up but I hadn't been back, we hadn't been back in about a year or two. And on our first day back, I just couldn't get over the sunlight. Having lived in a place that had actual clouds and variations in weather, the sunlight just boggled my mind. It was like a whole new deal.

Like I'd never seen it before. Not only were there no clouds in the sky, But the sunlight was so bright and even and constant, it was like you could never even imagine the possibility of a cloud being in the sky. The light so filled up the air that it's like, unless it's being blocked by a building, every single thing is clear. Every single thing is filled with light. The light is so bright, so constant, so clear, it's like it made the whole world be rendered in HD.

And that is just a pale anticipation of what the light of Christ's presence will be for us on the last day.

One day, Christ himself will be our light. That light will leave no room for the darkness of doubt, no lingering Questions will obscure the brightness of that light. That light will leave no good desire unsatisfied.

On that day, the light of Christ's presence will so fill our minds and hearts that we will have no desire to ask Him to give us anything else. And we will have no need to ask him any questions.

So if you're perplexed now, persevere in pursuing Christ. Don't throw away your faith because of a lack of understanding. Don't let present perplexity pressure you to let go of Christ's promise of everlasting joy.

Put less confidence in your ability to figure things out and more confidence in Christ's character.

If you're perplexed, pray for faith and wait for sight. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that yout would cause more of Christ's light to be shed in our hearts even now. We pray that yout would grant the fact of Christ's resurrection to strengthen and sustain our faith, and to be an ever renewed source of joy. And Father, we pray that you'd grant us to persevere and help one another persevere until that day when faith will be sight, and we'll have no more questions. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.