John 16 17 to 28

17 Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father?
18 They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith.
19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?
20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.
22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.
24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:
27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
28 I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

Key Observation:
Joy was to come after the disciples’ sorrow for losing Jesus.

Devotion:
Again, the mystery of election is so prominent in John, and here it is in verse 27: “For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me.” The will of man is foremost here. But we know from other verses that no man comes to the Father except that the Father draw him. The two are a beautiful mystery in our minds, undoubtedly worked out in perfect harmony in the mind of God. In yesterday’s devotion, I compiled a few of the verses from John that show the two truths inexplicably intertwined.

Here Jesus reminds us that we need not pray to Him directly in hopes that we might get the Father to hear us, but rather that we can pray directly to the Father, for the Father Himself loves us. The proof of the Father’s love is in His sending the Son. He tells the disciples as plainly as He can that He has come from the Father and is going to the Father again.

Of course, this is a passage after He has just told us: “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.” (verse 23) So my confidence in prayer is based on both the Son and the Father. As stated before, the Holy Spirit is also involved in answering prayer, for Paul tells us in Romans 8:26, “we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” Thus, when I pray, I can have confidence in the Triune God behind my prayer, and I can look to God in total confidence, knowing that the awesome God who started our universe, and is yet bigger, is very much listening to my words. Imagine!

And the Scripture says, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” As a young man it was my privilege to take a class on prayer from Dr. Curtis Mitchell, one of the three professors to start praying for the junior high school next to Biola, that God might give them the property. Dr. Mitchell had me start on a semester long search through the Scripture looking into the topic of answered prayer. I found, if I remember correctly, over 2500 verses on prayer, or prayers themselves. A handful, mind you, just a handful of prayers were unanswered, and those were always because of obvious sin. One such example is Saul, just before he went to the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28) inquired of the Lord, “but the Lord did not answer him by dreams or Urim or prophets.” Saul was in obvious sin. In my perusal of all the other 2500 verses on prayers, the overwhelming majority were always answered and answered yes.

Did you get that? God almost always answers prayer. The only exception, the only exception that I know of is obvious sinful behavior. If I am a serious saint, before God, praying earnestly, I can know that He hears me, and I can have every confidence that He will answer me. Does that mean I get everything I pray for? Of course not! But it does mean that I get an answer from God. It may not be exactly my prayer, but it will be an answer, and as far as I am concerned, having the answer from my God is everything.

Remember Paul’s prayer? Three times he came before God and prayed, and God said no. Paul exalted in the answer and lived with the answer, “my grace is sufficient for thee.” (2 Cor. 12) In everything that I pray, I do expect an answer. Not because of me, but because God has decided in invest His nature heavily in this thing called prayer. While I have little faith in my ability to do anything like I should, even prayer, I have lots of faith in the incredible God I serve. It is part of who God tells us He is—that He answers prayer, and brings glory to His name. My confidence, then, is not in myself, it is in the God that has called me.

(Aaron Barker)

I got sent home from school one day with a shiner on my eye.
Fightin' was against the rules and it didn't matter why.
When dad got home I told that story just like I'd rehearsed.
And then stood there on those tremblin' knees and waited for the worst.

And he said, "Let me tell you a secret about a father's love,
A secret that my daddy said was just between us."
He said, "Daddies don't just love their children every now and then.
It's a love without end, amen, it's a love without end, amen."

When I became a father in the spring of '81
There was no doubt that stubborn boy was just like my father's son.
And when I thought my patience had been tested to the end,
I took my daddy's secret and I passed it on to him.

And he said, "Let me tell you a secret about a father's love,
A secret that my daddy said was just between us."
He said, "Daddies don't just love their children every now and then.
It's a love without end, amen, it's a love without end, amen."

Last night I dreamed I died and stood outside those pearly gates.
When suddenly I realized there must be some mistake.
If they know half the things I've done, they'll never let me in.
And then somewhere from the other side I heard these words again.

And he said, "Let me tell you a secret about a father's love,
A secret that my daddy said was just between us."
He said, "Daddies don't just love their children every now and then.
It's a love without end, amen, it's a love without end, amen."