Gospel of John Part 14: Let God Turn Your Sorrow Into Joy

By Pastor Ron McKey

John 16:1 NKJV – “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be offended.”

Jesus said we should not be offended. Now, I know that sounds strange and probably impossible, especially when living in a culture that is constantly seeking offense. As a believer, you shouldn't look for offense. You shouldn't be led by your emotions because they were never meant to be a guide as to what's right or wrong. They are a gauge of how we feel.

If you are looking for offense, you will find it every time. When you understand the negative effects of being offended, you'll realize that it’s the last thing you want in your life because offense is not a good thing. Granted, offense will happen. Even Jesus said that it is impossible to never be offended. So, someone will say or do something that's going to offend you at some point.

So, Why Is Offense So Bad?

The Greek word for offense is “scandelon,” which means a snare or trap. And so, Jesus is painting a picture of what offense does in this scripture. Offense traps you; it snares you. The purpose of a trap is to hold something in place, and the moment you get offended, you stop all spiritual growth. You are held in place by that offense.

When something is falling into a trap, not only can it not move but it is also waiting to be destroyed. This means the predator that laid the trap will come along and capture it. The moment you get offended, you are immediately stopped in your spiritual walk. So, being offended stops you spiritually. And if you don't grow spiritually, you're going to be easily offended. This vicious cycle is what we call the death spiral.

You’ll go nowhere in life because the enemy has successfully held you in place until you’re destroyed. You may not die or be destroyed physically, but offense will affect you physically. It will increase your blood pressure and affect your heart. It'll stress you out.

Your spiritual walk will also be destroyed. Your relationships will be destroyed because of offense. Your happiness, joy, and peace of mind will be destroyed. All these things happen because we got offended and didn't know how to deal with it.

If you are offended, fix it. We teach the Lord's Prayer as an outline to pray over our lives. Part of that prayer says we are to forgive others as God has forgiven us. So, if somebody offends me or trespasses against me, I am to forgive them, just as God has forgiven me.

As you pray the Lord’s prayer, I challenge you to forgive everybody. Forgive even those who are yet to trespass against you. The beauty of this is that when someone offends you, you know you have already dealt with them in prayer. You know that person is forgiven. You're doing yourself a favor as well when you forgive others. So, don't let offense get a hold of your life. Go ahead and pre-forgive everyone.

How do you handle offense when it comes?

Matthew 18:15 NAS – “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.

You don’t broadcast how someone has offended you. The moment I go to someone else instead of the person who offended me, I have violated scripture.

If somebody offends me, I must go to them and let them know we have a problem. And hopefully, we both have enough God in us to work things out. We figure out what's going on, how we fix it, and how we move on. That's what God wants us to do.

Jesus goes on to say that if you can’t approach the other person, take someone else with you. Sometimes we get so entrenched in what we feel or think that we can't see the other person’s side. Sometimes it takes a spiritually mature third person who can step back and show us the things we are missing.

The third person can help you connect the dots. And if that fails, take it to the church. Now, that doesn’t mean standing in a church parking lot with a sign telling everybody what someone did to you. Find a pastor or somebody on staff who is spiritually mature and can walk you through your problem so you can figure out what's going on. God plans to always restore that situation. That's what he wants us to do in these situations.

Jesus tells the disciples that they will experience persecution in addition to the offense. Now, there are big persecutions and daily persecutions. The big persecutions may include being thrown in jail, getting beatings, being martyred, or being tortured. And that's not a lot of what we deal with in America yet.

We can't always relate to the big persecutions because we don't experience that. But there are daily prosecutions that we've all experienced. Maybe we’re criticized, shunned, fired, or not promoted because of our faith. Maybe we’re talked about, laughed at, cancelled, or treated unfairly because of our persecution.

Whether it’s big or small, don't be surprised when persecution happens. Jesus is saying the world is going to hate us, and we have to understand that fact. That doesn't mean we must hate the world. We still love the world and preach Jesus to the world. Do everything we can to reach the world, but don't be offended.

If the world doesn't respond positively, just keep doing what you know to do. If they rejected Jesus, they're going reject you. Jesus says the Holy Spirit will help you. So, we need to look to the Holy Spirit when persecution comes.

How Does the Holy Spirit Help Us?

Isaiah 59:19 KJV – “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.”

When the devil pushes against you, the Holy Spirit in you pushes back. A “standard” was a banner or flag that armies marched under when they went to war. It showed the kingdom against which you were fighting. So, this verse is saying that the Holy Spirit will raise a standard in the name of Jesus when the enemy comes against you. Realize that you're not fighting against that person, you're fighting against his God. The Holy Spirit does that in you.

Whenever the enemy comes against me, the Holy Spirit reminds me that I am doing battle in the name of my strength, peace, or my savior. The Holy Spirit is your behind-the-scenes ally. You may not see Him working, but He's always moving in the background touching hearts. The Holy Spirit is behind the scenes touching hearts, closing mouths, and revealing motives.

Zechariah 4:6 says, “It's not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.” So, we have to learn how to rely on the Holy Spirit.

John 16:4 NKJV – “But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.”

Jesus is telling His disciples that the Holy Spirit will remind them of everything Jesus told them when they need it.

John 14:26 NKJV – “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

The Holy Spirit is here to assist us. I like to refer to Him as a life coach because we all need a guide in our lives. The Holy Spirit helps us to learn how to be successful. He will give you supernatural recall when you need it. So, you'll never be in a situation where you don't know what to do. If you wait on the Holy Spirit, He'll show you what to do.

John 16:7 NIV – “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Jesus is telling us that the best thing that can happen to us is for Him to leave. He went away so that the Holy Spirit could come.

Three Great Things Happened When Jesus Ascended and Sent the Holy Spirit:

#1 You Can Be Born Again.

No one could be born again until after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, they look forward to salvation. They look forward to a day when their sins can be forgiven and not just covered. In the New Testament, we thank God that Jesus came, and our sins are forgiven.

Nobody could be forgiven until after Jesus’ resurrection. If Jesus had not left, we wouldn't be new creations or people that God put His Spirit into. We wouldn't have that new life that He's given us. We're not just saved as a promise. We get to experience heaven on earth. We get to experience God living inside of us. So, you can become a new creation in Christ Jesus.

#2 You Can Be Filled With the Holy Spirit.

In the Old Testament, nobody could be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would only come and rest on them for an assignment, a season, or a brief time. But it was always lifted off of them. Nobody could live with the Holy Spirit. But now, not only do we have the Holy Spirit, but we can also be filled with Him 24/7.

We’ve forgotten about the importance of the Holy Spirit, and we need to elevate Him again in our churches and our lives. See, we tend to put the Holy Spirit on the back burner. However, you cannot ignore the Holy Spirit because you need Him in your life. You need a relationship with Him. Because Jesus went to heaven, you can have the Holy Spirit 24/7 inside of you.

#3 The Church Could Be Established.

The Bible says that we are the hope of the world; we are distributors of hope. I love the church. Granted, the church has faults and failures and has made lots of mistakes. But it’s something Jesus died to establish and build up. He said it's something we need to be a part of.

The church is the bride of Jesus. We are His body, hands, feet, and all of those things. I know the church has a lot of areas that can be criticized. Someone may ask, “How do we know we can trust the church?” And you don't know. God created the church and the office of the pastor knowing that a person was going to fulfil that office. That doesn't mean there aren't checks and balances or accountability.

Understand that there are imperfect people in the church. So, don’t look at your pastor; look at Jesus. Follow Jesus and stay hooked up to Him.

John 16:13 NKJV – “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

There are two very important things from this verse. First, we all need to learn how to follow the direction of the Holy Spirit and how to let Him lead us daily. Not only do we need to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit, but we also need to learn how to hear the Holy Spirit.

Hearing the Holy Spirit in your life is not just reserved for pastors and evangelists; it is for every believer. Every believer is hardwired from heaven, by God, to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we need to train our ears to hear what the Spirit of God is saying.

John 16:15 NIV – “All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

The Holy Spirit is going to show you things that are going to happen in your life and the world. He will warn you or prepare you for situations coming not only in your life, but even globally.

John 16:20 NKJV – “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.”

This verse does not say that your sorrow will be replaced with joy. It says it will be turned into joy. If sorrow is replaced, then it has never been healed. This means there will always be a root of sorrow to deal with. So, you're never going to be made whole. But if sorrow is turned into joy, you're going to be made whole. You're never going to forget the heartbreak you've had, but you can be made whole from it.

If I let God turn my sorrow into joy, then what broke me will now strengthen me. Now I can look back at a bad season with joy because I'm healed from that. I'll always know that I walked through that season, but it doesn't have a root in me anymore. That's God's will for our lives.