Speaker: My favorite movie franchise of all time is the
Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.
Morgan Young coming through with the applause.
Thanks man.
Favorite movie franchise of all times.
And I love the movies and I love the books.
In fact, if you have never ventured into that level of
nerddom, um, you're missing out.
But let me invite you, Amazon on Audible has the Audible versions of
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings narrated by a guy named Andy Serkis.
If you don't know who Andy Serkis is, he's the voice of Gollum from the movies.
And so it is excellent.
It is fantastic.
I'm on my second round through.
And now that you've lost some respect for me, um, it's my favorite series.
And in the first of The Hobbit movies that, that you watch.
The, the movie is called An Unexpected Journey.
And in a lot of ways, I think that's an apt description for the Christian
faith, for the Christian walk.
I think it's an appropriate descriptor for discipleship.
This, this morning, if my voice lasts, we're here to talk about this.
Hold on a sec.
Spiritual warfare right now.
We're going to win.
This morning, we're here to talk about discipleship.
But before we even get there, we've got to define what discipleship is.
I say the word discipleship, there's probably a dozen different categories
of what you might be thinking or people out there might be thinking
about when it comes to discipleship.
What I'm talking about when I say discipleship is discipleship
in its broadest capacity.
That is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
to live your life as a follower of Christ.
What does that look like?
What should we expect?
That, that's the question to ask and answer this morning.
What should discipleship be like?
What should we expect on this unexpected journey of discipleship?
I think our text is going to answer the question and it's going
to answer the question this way.
Discipleship is hard and discipleship is worth it.
We're in John 16.
If you've been with us, you've heard this, you know.
But just in case, just to catch us up, we're on the way to the Garden of
Gethsemane, or we're just getting into the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus.
Judas is gathering the forces to come and betray him.
He's going to betray Jesus.
Jesus is going to be arrested.
He's going to be tried.
He's going to be crucified.
He's going to be buried.
That's all in the, uh, hours that awaits in front of Jesus and his disciples.
So in this moment, some of the last moments Jesus has with his disciples
prior to the cross, he's preparing them for what life is going to look
like following him after the events of the cross and after the resurrection.
In our context, in John 16, 16 through 24, he's going to be talking
specifically about the events of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And what the disciples should expect regarding that, but we're gonna take
it and we're gonna begin to understand what we should be expecting now as we're
on the backside of that as disciples, as followers of Jesus, what should
that mean for us as we look forward to following Jesus for the remainder of
our time before he either comes to get us or calls us home to be with him.
John 16 16.
Jesus says this 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?
Thank you, sir.
A little while, and you will see me, and a little while, and you will not see me.
And again, in a little while, what is this 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 am going to the Father.
So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while?
We do not know what he's talking about.
Okay, let's stop there for a second.
So Jesus enters into the conversation with him and he says this, a little while.
It's the word in the Greek, mikron, which is where we get our word
micro, means small, brief, tiny.
If you grew up in the 80s with micro machines like I did, micro, small.
He's saying just a little while and you will not see me.
Now we may be tempted to think, based on our church age minds, that
he's talking about his ascension.
Uh, that he's talking about because he has talked about that prior to this.
He's talking about his ascension.
He's talking about the time that we're in right now where we don't see him.
So a little while like John later in the, in the letters that he writes, he's going
to say, beloved, it's the last hour.
He doesn't mean a literal hour.
And so here maybe he doesn't mean a literal little while, but he's just
saying a little while meaning this time period that we're in and you won't
see me, but then you'll see me again.
But I think what Jesus is saying is no, in just a matter of hours,
you're not going to see me.
I'm going to be taken from you.
I'm going to be arrested.
I'm going to be crucified.
I'm going to be buried and you're quite literally not going to see me.
And then he says, but then a little while after that, you'll see me again.
After the resurrection, he would appear to the disciples again.
And so he's giving them an idea of what's coming, but they have
no frame of reference for this.
So they amongst themselves are beginning to ask themselves and
wonder to themselves, what in the world is Jesus talking about?
And this is conversations that are taking place between Peter and
James or between John and, and, and.
and Thaddeus or somebody else where they're trying to figure
out what, what is going on?
What is Jesus saying with all of this?
They don't get it.
They don't understand.
And let's not fault them.
Because remember, it's been a while since we studied the triumphal entry, but for
these disciples, the triumphal entry, they were still listening in their minds
to the echoes of a Hosea and a blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
They were replaying the highlight reel of Jesus fulfilling Zechariah's prophecy
by riding the donkey into Jerusalem.
And they didn't see Jesus at that point be like, Hey, no, no, no, no, no.
It's not time for me to be king yet.
Remember, Jesus stepped right into the fulfillment of that prophecy.
And so let's not fault the disciples saying, Why don't you get it yet?
They still don't get it yet though.
And so they're confused and they're perplexed and they're anxious and they're
wondering what is he talking about?
Maybe you're wondering there because they, they quote him.
They say, what does he mean when he says to us, verse 17, a
little while you will not see me.
And again, a little while you will see me.
And because I'm going to the father, well, Jesus didn't right here say
that he's going to the father.
But if you let your eyes look back up the page at verse 10, look at verse 10,
which was part of this whole conversation.
Jesus said, the spirit's going to convict the world concerning
righteousness because I.
Go to the father and so there it is the disciples.
They're taking all of this in and they're just flat out confused This
is not what would they expected?
This is not what their plans for Jesus were their plans for Jesus was the throne
the kingdom the the the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty, they're ready to
To get Rome out and get Jesus on the throne and so Jesus is beginning to say
these things and they're starting to really go Maybe he's really serious.
What in the world is he talking about?
Look at verse 19 Jesus knew Jesus knew We let our eyes just kind of glance
over that But I think what we see here is some of the unveiled deity of Jesus
Because if you look back, these are conversations that they're having offline.
They're not talking to Jesus.
They're not asking Jesus about these things They're not saying to Jesus,
Hey, Rabbi, what are you talking about?
Jesus knew.
Just like when Jesus feet were being washed by the sinful woman in the
house of Simon the Pharisee, and Simon was thinking to himself, if
he only knew what type of woman this was, he wouldn't let her touch him.
And Jesus responded to his thoughts.
Why?
Because Jesus is God.
And so here we see a veil pulled back right on the doorstep of one of the
most humiliating moments in Jesus life being nailed naked to the cross.
We see His omniscience, His divinity in full tact here, as He knows
what's going on in the hearts of His followers in these conversations.
And He enters into their confusion.
He enters into their grief and their, their panic and their unmet expectations.
And He says this, He says, is this what you're asking yourselves?
Are you talking about what I meant by saying a little while and you will see me?
You will not see me?
And again, a little while and you will see me?
This is an act of mercy and grace in our Savior moving into their perplexity.
What we're going to find though, as our text continues to unfold,
is Jesus doesn't rescue them from these challenged expectations.
Jesus doesn't come in here to say, well, let me just make
everything better for you.
And he also doesn't say, build a bridge and get over it.
What we're going to find is Jesus is quite honest with his disciples about
what discipleship is going to be like for them in the very short term with
the cross and then the resurrection.
But then as we extricate this to where we are today, this is going to be
things that are true about discipleship for the rest of their lives and now
true for us in our lives as well.
The first thing that we need to reckon with, with discipleship, is
that discipleship often means unmet or challenged expectations for us.
Point number one this week is this, expect discipleship to
challenge your expectations.
Expect discipleship.
That is following Jesus to challenge your expectations.
Things that you thought it would be like.
There are plenty of things in life that challenge our expectations, right?
Marriage challenges our expectations.
Parenting challenges our expectations.
Work challenges our expectations.
School challenges our expectations.
Our health can challenge our expectations.
As human beings, we are prone to think about the future, and we are
prone to want to plan our future.
And with that comes an expectation of what our future will be like.
And often times it's radically different from what we expect it to be.
When I graduated from high school, way back in 2002, I decided I was
going to go to a college called Rhodes College in Tennessee.
I decided to go there.
I was like, this is going to be great.
I was going to major in philosophy because that's a useful major to have in life.
But I also wanted to go and just convert the whole philosophical
department there at Rhodes.
That's who I was, by the way.
I was that kid.
Man, God had to break me in my self righteousness in so many different
ways, and this was part of it.
But anyways, I went to Rhodes, and I was there for two weeks.
And I tell you what, church, I was overcome with homesickness
like a little school boy.
Like, I just was broken.
And I ended up leaving Rhodes.
I came back here to Dallas.
I ended up working at the Gap for six months while I was here in Dallas and
never want to go back to work retail.
Sorry to those of you who are in retail, but I know the pain.
I understand it because I I entered into that foray for a little while,
worked at the Gap for six months, and then I ended up out at Master's
College, now Master's University.
And at Master's, I was there, and I expected it to go one way, and it still
wasn't going the way that I expected it, and I didn't really love my time there.
But then the second semester that I was there, which was the fall
semester of 2003, I met a cute girl named Amanda, and lo and behold, she
agreed to go out on a date with me, and the rest, as they say, is history.
So, I had my expectations for what my life was going to be like.
I was going to go to Rhodes.
I was going to major in philosophy.
I was going to go be a pastor, or I was going to go be a professor somewhere,
and I was going to do all these things.
And God had radically different plans for me.
We live our life with our expectations, but so often our expectations are changed.
They're challenged.
I wonder how many of us in this room might say that following Jesus has looked
different for us than we thought it was going to look when we were first saved.
If I asked for a show of hands, I imagine most hands of those
that are saved would go up.
See, the disciples at this time, they wanted Jesus plan to match their plan.
And the reality that they were being confronted with was Jesus plan, God's
plan, was not going to match their plan.
Their expectations were being challenged in real time.
Think of the book of Jonah.
Jonah is a great example of this.
Jonah had an expectation of how God should treat the unjust
and the unrighteous, didn't he?
In Jonah's mind, the Ninevites, they were worthy of the wrath of God.
In God's mind, they were worthy of the mercy of God.
Jonah had to wrestle with, and he didn't do a very good job of it.
His expectations of what it looked like to be a follower of God being challenged.
Christian, your expectations are going to be challenged by God as a disciple.
Three broad categories that it could be challenged.
Number one is God's timing.
How many of your expectations of God's timing for your life have been challenged?
You've thought, well, I think God should do this for me at this time,
and maybe God hasn't done that.
Or maybe you thought, I think God shouldn't do this for me at
this time, and God has done that.
Your expectations for God's timing have been challenged.
Or maybe it's God's provision.
You've had expectations saying, God, I need this.
I expect you to provide this for me.
And yet God has withheld that provision for you.
I remember when my wife and I were in Arizona pastoring at a church there.
I was an associate pastor there.
Uh, we had some good friends of ours from Kansas City, Missouri,
because we had lived there prior, and they were moving out to Arizona.
And we were super excited because we thought, man, this is going to be great.
They can come to our church and we'll have this.
Friends at our church because we were lonely.
We are at a church that was a small church, not very many young
families in that church at all.
And so we were just wrestling with that and, and this was gonna be huge.
And, and I personally just thought, man, this is gonna be so good.
God, this is such an answer to prayer.
You're bringing friends with us to partner in ministry and to be here
with us and to be part of this.
And the way it worked out, according to his job and everything else, he
ended up with a job that was about an hour away from our church and they
ended up going to a different church.
And I'll be honest, church, I was, I was frustrated.
I had to wrestle and work through anger with God because He didn't measure up to
my expectations of providing for my wife and I friendship that we so desperately
wanted during that season of life.
Has God challenged your expectations?
Maybe it's not provision.
Maybe it's a doctrine that initially you bought into because you're like,
yeah, that doctrine, I believe it.
But maybe the challenge to your expectation is all of a sudden there's
somebody in your life who's living in such a way that, It contradicts what
that doctrine says they should be doing.
And now all of a sudden it's not just a doctrine, but it's something that's going
to impact this relationship with someone.
And you're sitting there going, God, I didn't expect it to go that way.
Discipleship will often challenge our expectations, just like it does here for
the disciples that were following Jesus.
Discipleship is hard.
As we work through these three points, I want to talk to three
different groups of people.
Three different groups of Christians that I think cover the
gamut in the room this morning.
The first group are the baby Christians, those that are brand new to the faith.
You've just been saved within the last year or so.
The second group are the seasoned Christians.
You've been a Christian for some period of time now.
You've lived some life as a Christian.
You've experienced some things.
And then the third group I want to talk to this morning are the aged Christians.
Those that are, are nearing the finish line, if I can put it gently.
And I'm not going to classify or categorize any of you
in any of those categories.
You can place yourself in those categories.
But I think that, that encompasses all of us.
And I want to talk to those three groups as it talks about discipleship
and what we should expect.
And with this first one, our expectations being challenged.
If you're brand new to the faith, you'd be in that baby Christian category.
Maybe for you, it's that your challenges is, your family is opposing
your faith in Christ in a way that you didn't expect that they would.
Or maybe for you, you're struggling now as a brand new Christian to let go of a
past sin that you once loved and embraced and you're thinking, man, I didn't
realize I was gonna have to give that up.
Or maybe for you, it's, it's, you just didn't experience your life improving
as much as you thought it would.
You thought coming to faith in Christ was going to mean that your life was
going to get dramatically better, and it's gotten a little bit better, but
not as much as you hoped it would.
To you this morning, I want to just encourage you, keep pressing.
Jesus is worth it.
Talk to the seasoned believer, the aged believer, the mature saint, and ask
them, has Jesus been worth it for you?
And I think the answer that you're going to get is yes.
Keep your nose in the Word of God.
Keep learning as much about Jesus as you possibly can, and you will
find that your expectations will begin to be informed more by the
Word of God than some presumptions that maybe you had coming into it.
Seasoned believer.
Those of you that have been in the church for a while, you've been a believer for a
while, maybe your expectations are still being challenged as a follower of Jesus.
Maybe you thought, you know, the longer I'm being a Christian, the easier my
marriage is gonna be, but maybe what you're finding right now is that your
marriage is running into some, some tough spots, some tough stretches,
stretches that you didn't expect to be there as a seasoned believer.
Or maybe for you, you just thought you'd be passed a sin by them.
This is a sin that maybe you, you battled as an early, as a baby
Christian and you thought by the time I'm a seasoned believer,
certainly this is going to get easier.
I'm not going to have to battle this sin anymore.
And yet you're finding that's not the case.
Or maybe you're frustrated over why God hasn't saved the person that
you've been praying for and pleading for him to save for years now.
And you're sitting there saying, God, why haven't you met my
expectations by saving so and so?
To you, seasoned Christian, I want to encourage you this morning that
he knows exactly where you're at and what you're walking through.
And that he hasn't given up.
I wanna encourage you to remember the doctrines that you know and
perhaps you take for granted.
I wanna encourage you to remember the promises, like the fact that he is right
now interceding on your behalf, that right now you are being guarded by God's
power through faith for salvation, and ready to be revealed in the last time.
I want you to remember that you have been commissioned by Jesus
to go with the gospel to the lost.
I want you to remember that He delights to save the lost
aged Christian.
Maybe you're here this morning with your own challenged set of
expectations about what discipleship should be like right now.
Maybe you're not as eager for heaven as you hoped you would
be at this stage of your life.
Maybe you thought, well, uh, younger, I always thought to myself, well,
I, I'm good going to heaven, but not until this or not until this.
And maybe you thought when you got to that point where heaven was a stone's
throw away, you thought to yourself, well, it's going to be better.
I'm going to be ready.
I'm going to be eager to go and meet Jesus at that point.
But maybe right now you're battling with the questions about, is my
family going to be okay without me?
What about my lost loved ones that I'm going to leave behind?
Maybe you're even wondering and you're fearful over what
death is going to be like.
And so your expectation that you're going to be ready is, is not quite reality.
Or maybe, aged Christian, you're, you're discouraged because your expectation was
you were going to finish strong, full of life, and vibrant, just like Moses
was when God eventually took him home.
And yet what you're finding is your body is breaking down, your mental faculties
are not quite as sharp as they used to be.
And those expectations are leaving you frustrated, or perhaps at this point
you thought that you'd be confident 100 percent in your eternal state,
and you find that you're battling more doubt than you thought you would.
I want to encourage you, aged believer, to finish strong,
regardless of your physical state.
Finish strong.
Don't let the enemy distract you with doubts or thoughts that you know
are not ultimately from the Lord.
Remember Paul's words to you.
That these earthly tents they're wearing out, but God has prepared for you a body
that he has got ready for you in glory.
Think of Paul's words when he talked about reaching the finish line
and having the, the, the crown of righteousness awarded to him by Jesus.
Remember the promise is the truth of God's word that you can rely upon.
As disciples, our expectations are going to be challenged.
But church, God is faithful.
God is faithful.
And in the end, he's better.
His plan for us is better than our plan for ourselves.
Point number two, pick up in verse 20.
Jesus continues, He says this, 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.
I mentioned that Jesus is not here to rescue them from their turmoil.
He's not the helicopter parent that doesn't want their kid to suffer.
He tells them, no, no, you're going to weep, and you're going to lament,
and you're going to be sorrowful.
These words, they suggest pain and grief and even anxiety and fear.
And Jesus is telling the disciples up front, this is
what's going to happen to you.
These are the things that you're going to face.
And then he compares it, look in verse 21, he says, he compares it to labor.
He says, 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 that.
For, for a joy that a human being has been born into the world.
We're gonna talk about the joy here in the third point, but what I want us to
realize and understand up front here is that Jesus acknowledges that discipleship
means that there is going to be a cost.
That, that being a disciple, a follower of Jesus, means that there
are going to be things that hurt, that there's gonna be pain, that
there are gonna be seasons of sorrow.
And again, for the disciples in the immediate context, he's
talking about the three days.
Well, more Yeah.
Th the three days.
The, the, the death.
He's saying during this time you're going to weep and you're going to
lament and you're going to watch the world celebrate my death.
He says, but joy is going to come.
But these are words that stick with us even after the resurrection of Jesus.
And again, if I was asked for a show of hands, I'm sure every believer's hand
would go up here if I said, how many of you as believers have gone through trials,
have wept, have lamented, have felt pain, have battled fear and anxiety at times,
and have watched the world rejoice over the things that are causing you the pain?
This is part of what it is to be a follower of Jesus, and I just
want us to see, church, that Jesus doesn't bury the lead on that.
He's not selling you a bill of goods when he says, come and follow me.
In fact, it's quite the opposite.
What does Jesus tell his followers?
He says, if anyone wants to come and follow me, let him take up his.
Cross.
Let him take up his instrument of execution and come and follow me.
Our second point is we talk about what to expect as disciples of Jesus.
Discipleship is hard along those lines.
Second point here, expect discipleship to cost you worldly joy.
Expect discipleship following Jesus to cost you worldly joy.
Again, the disciples were gonna watch Jesus nailed to a tree.
Well, John at least was he was gonna hear the mockery from the crowds
watching his savior suffocate to death.
He's going to hear the crowds celebrating and mocking Him, saying, You who save
so many, you can't even save yourself.
Heal yourself, physician.
Get down from the cross and we'll believe in you.
Church, following Jesus often puts us in a position that
the world is going to mock us.
But not only that, the world's also going to hold out things to
us and say, Why don't you come over here and enjoy these things?
Why don't you come join the chorus mocking Jesus on the cross?
It'll be way better for you.
Why would you want to associate With that one,
following Jesus is going to cost you worldly pleasures.
Listen, salvation is free, discipleship costs.
Salvation, 100 percent free.
It is a gift of God that no man should boast.
Discipleship, which begins at salvation and continues until we stand face to
face with Jesus, discipleship costs.
Chuck Swindoll, I remember him once said this when I was in high school, he
said, A ministry or discipleship that costs nothing accomplishes nothing.
A relationship with Jesus, following Him, one that costs you
nothing, accomplishes nothing.
I need to share the fact that we are following Jesus in
a broken and fallen world.
Discipleship is going to cost us.
And so again, let me talk to our groups, baby Christians.
Perhaps you're realizing discipleship costs as you're watching friendships
that once you held dear for a long time turn into relationships where they are
walking away from you because you are now a believer, a follower of Jesus.
Perhaps for you, you once stood with them and mocked Christians and now you're
the Christian that they're mocking.
Or maybe for you, you're all of a sudden coming to terms with the fact
that the things that you used to go out and do on Friday nights, you no longer
want to do as a Christian, but there's part of your flesh that still wishes
you could go back and do those things.
To you, I want to say, press on.
It's worth it.
Even when it feels like you're missing out.
Remember Jesus words to his disciples.
He said,
But to lose a soul.
Christian, if you are brand new to the faith, you've
gained your soul for eternity.
It may cost you some things in this world, but in the long term it's worth it.
It's worth it.
Keep pressing on.
Count the cost.
Follow Jesus.
Take up your cross.
Seasoned believer, that cost continues as we progress in our faith, doesn't it?
Maybe it's you've had family that's put up with your faith
for a certain amount of time, but recently they've just cut you off.
They don't want anything to do with you anymore.
Or maybe it's that you've watched Your atheist coworker, or your coworker
that is openly mocked and rejected God, get everything that you wish you had.
They get the promotion.
They get the new house.
They get the new, new, new car.
They get all the upgrades that you wish that you could have and that you don't.
And you're sitting there saying, man, it costs.
Because you know that to get that promotion, they were willing to
do things that you're not willing to do because you're a follower of
Jesus, you're a disciple of Christ.
Or maybe the cost for you is you're fighting and battling a sin and the
temptation comes in to say, well, what's a little bit of sin in your life?
After all, you can't lose your salvation and it's not going to hurt anybody.
And the cost for you is to continue to fight, to continue
to battle that temptation.
To you, Christian, I want to say keep making eternal deposits.
Keep making eternal deposits.
Remember Jesus, when he told the disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, he said,
don't store up treasure here on earth.
We're moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal but store up for
yourselves treasure in heaven keep making eternal Deposits through your
faithful obedience to the Lord stay the course regardless of the cost
Aged Christian, what is discipleship still costing you?
Maybe it's the question that comes into your mind is heaven really gonna
be worth everything that I've had to give up Is it really going to pay off?
Is the sacrifice that I've had to make in this life going to be worth it in the end?
Or perhaps you're already grieving the loss of some earthly pleasures
that you are going to have to give up when you go to be with Christ.
You're thinking, okay, man, I'm not going to be able to watch my grandkids grow up.
I'm not going to be able to enjoy my retirement.
To you, aged Christian, I want to encourage you to keep your eyes fixed
on the author and perfecter, the finisher of your faith, Jesus Christ.
Remember what awaits for you.
Hearing him say, well done, good and faithful servant.
Which will fill your heart with more joy than anything else
this world could offer you.
Stay the course.
Discipleship is hard, and these first two points have been stressing that,
but I want to encourage you with a thought this morning, and that's this.
It's not our job to explain why it's so difficult.
That's beyond our pay grade.
The comfort that we have is we have a Savior who's told
us it's going to be difficult.
Again, you don't have a Savior that's doing the bait and switch.
Hey, come follow me, it's going to be great.
And then you come to follow Jesus only to realize that it's not as
great as you thought it would be.
Jesus is being clear.
He's being clear with his disciples.
And yes, he's talking about the cross and the resurrection.
But it applies even beyond this to what discipleship continues to be like for us.
He's saying it's going to bring sorrow.
It's going to bring lament.
But then what does Jesus say?
It's not only going to bring sorrow and lament, but he says
it's also going to bring what?
Joy.
And that's the rest of the metaphor of childbirth.
And I'm glad Jesus says this, not me, because I'm a man up here,
so I don't think I've got the grounds to say what He says here.
But this is Jesus, so this is God.
So we're gonna take God at His word here when He says that for, for
you ladies, the pain of childbirth is, is eased, it's comforted, and
it's, it's consumed with the joy then of holding your newborn child.
That's what He talks about here.
He says, yeah, there may be seasons of sorrow, but they're gonna be
met by, by times of joy that are going to overwhelm the sorrow.
And then he goes on and he says this 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 that 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.
And so Jesus, again, is talking about the period of sorrow that's going to be
marked during the interlude, the three days when He's dead before He rises again.
But now He begins to transition even into what it's going to be like after that.
Because the resurrection and everything about to happen, in here is going to
change the dynamic of the relationship that the disciples have with God forever.
And it's changed our relationship forever too.
Because notice what he says.
He says, in that day, that day when your hearts are filled with joy
again, because you're going to see me again in that day, he says, you're
not going to ask anything of me.
To this point, the disciples had looked to Jesus to provide what they needed.
They had had Jesus with them.
And so if they needed something, they went to Jesus.
If they had a question, they went to Jesus.
But Jesus says, Now in that day, you're not gonna ask anything of me.
He says, Truly, truly.
Instead, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my
name, He will give it to you.
So there's a dynamic shift here where now all of a sudden the disciples
are gonna have a relationship with the Father, such that they're gonna
have access to the creator of the universe that they've never had before.
Why?
Because on the, the, the cross, when Jesus died and says, Tetelestai, it is finished.
Something happens in the temple.
What happens in the temple to the veil?
It's torn in two.
From top to bottom.
As if God was to say, in case any of you are mistaken, who's doing this?
The veil is torn such that now the writer of Hebrews can say, let us
with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive
mercy and grace in time of need.
Amen.
Do you, do we understand that, that before the cross, the disciples had no
such concept of access to the Father?
But after the cross, because of Jesus Word, because the veil is torn, and
the way is thrown open, they now get to enter into this access with the Father,
where they can pray for anything, ask for anything in the name of Jesus,
which is an important qualifier, and the Father will give it to them.
And Jesus is saying, this is part and parcel of what's gonna bring you joy.
Amen.
Look at verse 24.
Until now, you've asked nothing in my name.
They didn't have this dynamic of praying to the Father through the Son.
But now ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.
Their discipleship is going to be fully orbed now.
They're going to be complete in their ability to follow Jesus because
they will now have the great high priest interceding on their behalf.
And now they will be able to seek the Father's help and receive from
the Father the things that they need.
And so Jesus is saying, the joy that's coming is better than
anything else is going to cost you.
And that's our third and final point this morning, church, as we
think about following Jesus in our expectations and what we should expect.
Expect point number three, discipleship to yield a better joy.
Expect it.
Bank on it.
Count on it.
Expect discipleship to yield a better joy.
And we have to remember, because we're cutting this up and chopping it
up as we're preaching through this, but within earshot of this for the
disciples was John 15, where Jesus had talked about abiding in Him and
the branch that abides in the vine.
And in that same context, He said this in John 15, 11.
He said these things, I've spoken to you that my joy may be in
you and your joy may be full.
See, the disciples had not yet stepped into the full reality of discipleship.
They didn't know discipleship and the blessings of being able to go
to the father for help to navigate this life the way that you and I do.
But they would.
But first, Jesus had to go away and then to come back again,
he had to go to the cross.
and then walk out of the grave so that we could have this access to the Father.
And so as we navigate this life of discipleship, that's why
discipleship is hard and discipleship is worth it because it's worth it.
Because we're not alone.
It's worth it because we're not doing this of our own power.
It's worth it because as we've been talking about, we've
got the Spirit within us.
And now not only do we see that we've got the Spirit within us, but
we've got the Son interceding for us so that we can pray to the Father.
And the Father is going to listen and respond to our prayers when
they're prayed in His name.
Now, let me talk about that qualifier for just a second.
When we're praying in the name of Jesus, what we're doing is we're praying for
something and asking for it, for His sake, for His name, for His glory, for His
honor, and in accordance with His will.
Maybe Jesus wants you to drive a Bentley for His sake and His glory and His
honor, but you can't bank on that, okay?
If you want to pray once, hey, Jesus, I'd love to have a Bentley
if it'd be for your glory.
Great, pray that once and then let's move on from that prayer if the Bentley
doesn't show up the next day, right?
This concept has been abused by the church, hasn't it?
Well, look, the Bible says you're going to have anything that you want.
Just pray for it and God's going to give it to you.
That's why we have to understand it's in accordance with His name.
It's for His glory and for His will.
His will would be done.
And so, church, as we pray, As disciples, grow more and
more into the image of Christ.
We will find that we pray more and more for the sake of Christ
and in accordance with His will.
And we will find that God begins to answer more and more and more of our prayers.
And that in turn, what's that going to produce in us?
This abiding joy, this joy, this is a different joy, right?
This is a joy that satisfies.
It's a joy that abides.
It's a joy that transcends.
It's a joy that anticipates the
full realization of it.
I had to get a car recently because my son is turning 16 and he's taking
the Explorer that we have so that heaven forbid if he hits anything,
hopefully he wins in the Explorer.
It's our thought process there.
No, but he's a good driver.
I'm confident in his abilities behind the wheel.
But we added a car, and so researching all of that, I found this week that
part of the joy of that process is the anticipation of getting it, of
doing the research and finding what you like and what you don't like.
And then you get it, and that anticipation is realized in the thing that you have.
Now we all know as human beings that earthly possessions disappoint
us in that regard, right?
Jesus won't.
As we live this life in anticipation of being with Him.
That better joy, when we finally get to be with Jesus, that's gonna
be a joy unlike anything else we've ever experienced before.
So expect discipleship to yield a better joy.
Back to the Hobbit, if I can.
There's a scene early on in the Hobbit where Gandalf, the wizard,
this is how nerdy it gets, okay?
So just if you, if you're thinking about, maybe I should look into the Hobbit.
There's wizards, okay?
And dwarfs, and orcs, and hobbits.
The hobbit's talking to the wizard, and the wizard's trying to recruit the
hobbit to go on this journey to kill.
There's a dragon too, to kill a dragon.
So the hobbit is going to go kill the dragon with the wizard and the dwarfs.
Okay?
Anyways, Gandalf is talking to Bilbo.
Those are their given names.
Um, and he's trying to recruit him to go on the journey.
And he's talking to him, and, and at the same time, he's conveying
that this journey is going to be a little bit adventurous and dangerous,
and there's some risk involved.
And Bilbo makes it very clear that that's not something that
hobbits are interested in.
And so Bilbo says this to Gandalf.
He says, Sorry, I don't want any adventures.
Thank you.
Not today.
Good morning.
Please come to tea anytime you like.
Why not tomorrow?
Goodbye.
Bilbo doesn't want the risk.
He doesn't want the adventure.
He's happy to have Gandalf around if Gandalf just wants to come and
have some tea with him in his house.
But how about we do that tomorrow?
Come back tomorrow.
Let me, just leave me alone to myself today.
Church, that's how a lot of us treat our relationship with Jesus, discipleship.
Jesus is beckoning us into a life of discipleship that's going to cost, it's
going to challenge our expectations, but in the end it's going to yield a joy way
better than any joy this world offers us.
And yet, we are so risk averse to doing anything that might put us
in danger for Jesus that we look at Jesus and say, thanks, but no thanks.
But if you want to come to tea, I'm good with you coming to tea.
Just how about tomorrow, not today?
And when that's our approach to discipleship, we leave
so much on the table.
So much on the table that He could do for us and through us.
Our three groups again, baby Christians, early Christians.
Listen, in the years in front of you, you're going to experience God's provision
in the ways that you have never imagined.
But here's what I want to encourage you along the lines of what Jesus is
talking about here in this third point.
I want to encourage you early on in your walk with Christ, baby Christians.
Develop a deep pattern of prayer in your life.
Ingrain prayer as a part of your life.
Begin praying and asking God to do big things for you.
In accordance with the will of God and for the sake of Jesus.
Talk to any believer in the room who's been a believer for a while,
myself included, and we would all say, I wish I had prayed more as a
young Christian and made it more a regular part of my walk with Christ.
Develop that early on, and it will pay dividends for you and your
relationship and your discipleship.
Second season Christians, let me talk to you.
Don't let prayer slip to the back burner, or if it has, get it off the back burner.
We need to be continually praying.
And it's easy for us in this stage of discipleship that's the majority
of our lifetime as Christians to fall prey to the to do list Christianity.
Well, I show up to church and I, I do the daily Bible reading and I listen to the
podcast and I'm serving and I'm taking notes and I'm attending a community
group and I'm putting off sin, therefore I'm good, my discipleship is great,
but there's a key component missing.
See, that's like trying to have a good marriage through keeping on top
of your honey do list and remembering the significant milestones and stay,
staying faithful to your spouse, but yet never communicating with her.
Never actually having the very fabric of the relationship in place.
You can do all of the other things, that's not going to make a good relationship.
So seasoned believer, get prayer off the back burner.
Bring it back in.
Start praying big things for God and trust Him with what He will do.
And then finally, aged believer, don't forget to keep praying
and ask God to keep using you.
Some of you in the room are retired.
I had to break it to you.
There's no retirement from discipleship.
You are not off the hook.
We need you desperately.
If you are on the backside of your life, you would say, man,
the finish line is approaching.
Don't sideline yourself.
You have some of the most fruitful wisdom to impart to future generations
of anybody else in this room.
So pray, keep praying, keep praying that God will use you,
that you will be fruitful all the way through until the end.
Rest is coming, but not yet.
Not yet.
Discipleship.
What does it look like to follow Jesus?
If somebody were to ask you that question, I think an appropriate response
would be it's hard and it's worth it.
It's hard and it's worth it.
As Jesus continued to prep his disciples for life without him, as Judas was
making his way there, he knew they would face unexpected challenges.
He knew they would have to forfeit worldly pleasures that it was
going to cost them to follow him.
And He knew that it was going to be proved to be a greater source of a better joy
than anything else this world could offer.
Discipleship is, in so many ways, an unexpected journey.
It's an unexpected journey.
I'm just glad that our guide is the Spirit, not Gandalf.
Will you stand with me and let's pray.