Your Grief Will Turn to Wonderful Joy

In one paragraph

Pastor Carl led the Monday night group through John 16:16-33, where Jesus prepares His disciples for the grief and confusion that were coming and promises them a joy that no one can take away. The setting is Jesus moving toward the cross, speaking to people He loves, knowing He does not have much more time with them. The whole chapter, and really the whole stretch of teaching behind it, is aimed...

Read together

1. Matthew 11:28 invitation to come to Jesus with burdens and receive rest, quoted during song introduction
2. John 3:16 congregation recited it together as good news being celebrated in song
3. 1 Peter 1:3 praise to God for new birth into a living hope through resurrection
4. John 13 Jesus loved his disciples and would love them to the very end
5. John 16:1 Jesus said he told them these things so they would not abandon their faith
6. John 14:14 ask me for anything in my name and I will do it
7. John 16:16-33 main passage covering Jesus teaching about sorrow turning to joy, praying in his name, and overcoming the world
8. Acts 2 Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and empowered Peter to boldly share the gospel
9. Hebrews hold tightly without wavering to hope because God can be trusted to keep his promises, used as closing benediction

Talk about it

1. Jesus listed several things he told his disciples so they would not abandon their faith, things like 'my peace I leave to you' and 'remain in me.' Which one of those lands hardest for you personally right now, and why?
2. Pastor Carl used the image of a mother in labor, where anguish gives way to joy at the birth of a child, to describe what the disciples experienced when Jesus rose from the dead. Has there been a season in your own life where grief or hardship gave way to that kind of joy? What did that look like?
3. Pastor Carl suggested that the more time the disciples spent with Jesus, the more they would want his will rather than their own, and that praying 'in Jesus' name' is tied to that shift. Do you find that to be true in your own prayer life? How has what you pray for changed over time?
4. Florin shared from his own experience that obedience to God's will deepened his sense of joy, and that walking away from that produced a kind of emptiness. Have you experienced that same connection between obedience and joy, or between wandering and loss of joy?
5. Jesus said, 'Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world.' He said this before the cross. What does it mean to you, in a practical way, to 'take heart' in the middle of a trial you are actually going through right now?