John 16:
16 A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.
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.
This short section of John 16 mentions how the disciples disputed over the Lords words. And How the Lord came to settle the dispute, giving them an answer that seems to completely change the subject.
We are going to look at this passage in depth and find several lessons here that can enhance our end time prophetic vision.
Double Fulfillment
What he told them in verse 16 is a case of double fulfillment of prophecy.
The first time it is fulfilled is by his death and resurrection. At his death and burial, they no longer see him, and mourn greatly. He returns from ascending to his father and appears to them again. Then they forget their sadness, rejoicing to see him again.
The second fulfillment begins when he ascends to the father again after 40 days. It concludes with his return in these end times.
The dispute is a picture of what happens in his absence.
Look carefully at what Jesus says in verse 16. It can be broken down into three phrases:
A little while, and ye shall not see me
and again, a little while, and ye shall see me
because I go to the Father.
Now look carefully at verse 17. Notice that his disciples quote these three phrases exactly, word for word. Yet in verse 18 they say "we cannot tell what he saith."
The dispute is an illustration of the history of the Church
We have had the Word of God available to us in many translations. We have concordances, word studies, lexical aids, volumes of commentaries and historical data to help us. Yet we are unable to agree on what it says and on what it means.
The written word is contrasted with the spoken word. They knew what he said [past tense] but could not agree on what he says [saith, present tense].
So it is with us. We know what the Bible says, but continually argue about what it means. You may at times hear someone begin his remarks with something like "The Bible clearly teaches ….' Prepare yourself to take it with a grain of salt. In spite of all the great things about the bible, clarity is not one of them. I've never heard anyone admit this, especially to a non believer. But lets face it. The bible is unclear on many things. In fact, the bible is deliberately written to be vague, confusing, and open to multiple interpretations. It is full of parables, contradictions, inscrutable proverbs, riddles, dark sayings, and complex structures. It is chock full of symbolism, numeric clues, types, shadows, allegories and mind boggling passages that constantly change subject and point of view. It has numerous mysterious passing references; it's constantly quoting other parts of itself producing volumes of cross references; many actions and events make no sense and it has a great amount of stuff that seems totally useless. It often raises more questions than it answers Yet it tells us that all scripture is given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and is profitable to us. So all of it has meaning and purpose, but unless the Spirit gives you some light on a passage of scripture, it's just the dead letter of the law. The letter kills but the Spirit brings life. This is because the Word is spirit and must be understood by the help of the Spirit.
God wrote out his word is such a way that to understand it we constantly have to go to Him to seek explanation. We are continually faced with the choice between the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. The written word is the tree of knowledge, the spoken [by the Spirit] word is the tree of life. Choose life.
I once heard a minister say he didn't need faith any more because he knew what the word said. All he had to do was go by what it said in the bible. That sounds great but we seldom agree on what it says in the bible! Perhaps he forgot that it says without faith, it's impossible to please God! Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. That is spiritual hearing. Let he that has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying!
The action of the scene is an illustration of the point made.
Now the dispute is specifically about the return of the lord, which is the greatest dispute in the church.
The action of the scene shows the return of the lord, when He said to them, why do you dispute among yourselves. This indicates that for a short interval he was not among them, and then rejoined them to find them in the dispute. And it is a dispute that only He can settle. As a picture of the Church today, it shows a very interesting point. If we are disputing among ourselves, it means Jesus is not with us! Because only He can settle the dispute. And He will settle it when he comes for he says he will put all things in order when he comes.
This is not to contradict His word that says I will never leave you or forsake you.
… and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:20
… for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Hebrews 13:5
It only means that He is not with us in full measure.
Consider how he was with Joshua as Captain of the Host.
And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
And the captain of the LORD'S host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. Josh 5:13-15
We can apply this to today's church. Note that Joshua asks: Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? The answer he gets is not what he expected. The question is a either/or type question. The answer is NO!
Does it make any sense for Joshua to ask a soldier in his own army 'whose side are you on?' Does it make any sense for this soldier to be hanging around the camp with his sword drawn? But as we discover, the man is the Angel of the Lord; the man is the Lord! When Joshua heard his voice he knows who it is, and worships.
" …as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come." This is saying the Lord has come to his people to take charge of the battle. It points to the second coming of Jesus, the spiritual coming, not the physical. It's saying when the Lord comes to us, as the latter rain for example, it's not to take one side or the other in our petty doctrinal disputes. When He comes to us, He is coming to Take Charge. He's coming to Take Over!
What is the point of the drawn sword? The sword speaks of the word, in this case the word of judgment. We see the angel of the Lord with sword drawn in his hand in the story of Balaam. Once Balaam realizes who it is, he worship as Joshua does. We also see it when David sees the angel at the threshing floor of Ornan. Here the context makes it clear that the drawn sword speaks of the Lord's judgments being carried out.
This tells us that He will come to us in a time when we can see His Judgments being carried out. For we know that Judgment must begin at the House of God.
Now lets look at the second fulfillment of verse 16 above. Jesus' answer to the disciples request for clarification seemingly doesn't clarify anything.
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.
Just as Joshua didn't get an expected answer to his 'either/or' question, neither did they.
But what he is saying here is telling us what will accompany his return. Weeping, lamentation, sorrow and travail will be our part. This will be from the Judgments Of God being carried out. And the Judgments come first to the house of God.
But then comes the comparison to a woman in childbirth. This speaks of the woman in Revelation 12 giving birth to a manchild.
Once the judgments are over, a new kingdom will be birthed into the earth.
Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: ….
He will reveal Himself to us and we will know him, worship him and rejoice as we're clothed in His righteousness. This is the Sabbath of Rest, and the peace that passes understanding. This Is The Day The Lord Has Made.