Bible Text: St John 16:16–22 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
Alleluia. Christ is risen.
Dear friends in Christ, especially you Timothy and George and Leuna and Elinor and Rylee and Avamarie and Isabella and Louisa, grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus speaks a promise today. It’s a promise He makes often, in different words and at different times. It’s a promise that shapes and defines the faith and the whole life of His Christians. Listen again to these words spoken by your Savior, written down for you by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so that you believe them and take them to heart. “I will see you again. And your heart will rejoice. And no one will take your joy from you.”
We are going to spend some time this morning meditating on these words. The first thing to ask is TO WHOM does Jesus speak this promise? Judas has left. The unbeliever and betrayer is gone. He has no part in this promise. “He who denies Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Only the eleven disciples remain. Who are they? I’m not asking what their names were. I’m asking who they are. They are men who confess Jesus. [Just as you are doing today.] They confess that He is their Lord, the very Son of God, who became a man for them and by His suffering and death reconciled them to God. Now why do they confess Jesus as their Lord? Because Jesus chose them and Jesus called them to follow Him, Jesus baptized them, Jesus taught them, Jesus gave them His body and His blood to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of their sins. Jesus promised them everlasting life. And then Jesus went to the cross to win it for them.
These disciples are, in other words, people just like you. You confess Jesus as your Lord today. [That’s what confirmation is. You are publicly proclaiming to this church and to all the world that you are Christians, that you trust in Jesus as your Savior, that by God’s grace you will trust in Him and confess Him all your life through, until He takes you to heaven to see Him and be with Him forever and ever.] Why do you confess Him today? It’s for the same reason the disciples confessed Him. Jesus has called you out of the world to follow Him, Jesus has baptized you, Jesus has instructed you for all these years, and now Jesus gives you His body and blood to eat and to drink. Jesus died for you. He rose for you. Jesus has prepared a place for you in heaven. So know today, that He speaks these words to you. No one will take your joy from you.
That’s TO WHOM Jesus speaks. To you. The second thing to ask is, “What is this joy your Lord promises you?” It isn’t the joy of this world. It’s not a joy you share with unbelievers. You know that your Father in heaven makes His sun rise on the just and the unjust, and sends rain on the good and the evil. The joys you can buy with money, the joys you can get for yourself by your own industry, hard work, and virtue, those are joys God showers on sinners whether they believe in Him or not. And they are joys that end. Decisively, with finality, the little while of this life passes on, and all its joys flee away.
The joy Jesus promises to you today has no end. No one can take it from the heart that trusts in Jesus. Nothing can. Not life or death or angels or principalities or powers. Nothing. It’s the joy of seeing Jesus. It’s the joy of knowing that in Him you see God. The God who made this world, who made you, formed you in your mother’s womb. And this God loves you. He isn’t angry with you. The sins that separated you from Him He bore in His own body. He made eternal satisfaction for them on the cross. He isn’t absent, or simply caring about others, caring about other things, too busy for you. He cherishes you as His own child. His pledge to you in your Baptism remains forever – He is your God, your Protector, and He will be with you always, in your joys and in your sorrows, all your life through and then forever. Today He gives you the greatest joy God has ever given to any man, woman, or child, and that is to commune with Him, to receive from Him the body and blood the Son of God assumed into His own Person, by which He won for you the forgiveness of yours sins and everlasting life.
You need to claim this joy all your life through. It answers to the good times in life and it answers to the bad times. Everything in this life is a chain of little whiles. You’ll see that. In a little while you’ll be graduated, in a little while you’ll have your first job, in a little while you’ll be married if God so wills, with children, and then a little while and they’re confirmed, they’re grown up and graduating, and then a little while and they’re getting married and grandchildren come, and retirement, and you look back at all the little whiles and wonder where the time went.
In those little whiles, God will give you many good times. And what you need to know is that He gives you those good times not simply because He makes His sun rise on the just and the unjust, not simply because He gives it to everyone. No, He gives it to you, specifically, because He died for you, loves you, forgives you, gives you life and immortality in His body and His blood. That’s why He gives the good times. Remember to thank and praise Him every single day for the good things He gives. Come to church every Sunday and sing His praises for all He’s done for you. It’s one of the greatest privileges of the Christian, to know where we get everything good and beautiful in our life and to thank Jesus for it all.
And in those little whiles, God will also send you bad times and sad times. That’s what Jesus says to His disciples, “You will weep and lament, and the world will rejoice.” And once again, the bad times aren’t random, they don’t “just happen.” God’s in control. Your God is in control. And He sends all of His Christians crosses to bear. He does it on purpose. He knows what He’s doing. The world rejoices when it sees that Christians have to go through bad times. That the death, and sickness, and pain, and disappointments that hit everyone else also hit Christians. They think it’s proof that the God we worship can’t hear us. It’s what the enemies of Jesus taunted Him with on the cross, “If you are the Son of God, prove it, come down from the cross.”
You respond to that taunt of the world, and of your own sinful flesh, that thinks God’s abandoning you in those little whiles when He makes you bear your cross, you respond by clinging even more tightly to the promise of your God – that’s what Jesus did, and He conquered – you cling even more tightly to the joy that Jesus gives you in His body and blood, given and shed for you. That joy, no man can take away. What can the world’s response be, if met with pain and disappointment, you respond with Job, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord”? Christ is still risen, my sins are still buried in the grave, God is at peace with me, He loves me, I bear His name, I have eternal life with Him. That’s our joy. And it shines brighter for every cross we bear.
You will confess[ed] at your confirmation that you will remain faithful to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, come to hear His Word and receive the body of blood of Christ all your life. You will promise [promised] that you will continue to confess Jesus, and remain true to Him, even if it means death and persecution and pain, that you will suffer anything rather than fall away, by God’s grace.
This isn’t the arrogant promise of a Peter, who said, “Even if everyone else falls away, I will never fall away.” It’s the promise of a Christian who believes what Jesus says: “And no one will take your joy from you.” It’s the promise of a Christian who relies on Jesus and His Word for all the little whiles of life. If Jesus gives you wealth and health and long life and good times, ask Him also to give you the heart to thank Him for it all and to use it all for His glory as a member of His church. When Jesus sends crosses and losses, ask Him to make His cross comfort you through it all. And then when all the little whiles have passed, you will see Him as He is, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
Alleluia. Christ is risen.