“So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” – John 16:22
Try to imagine the feelings of those first followers of Jesus. Try to feel what they must have felt. Jesus, their friend and teacher, whom they had literally been following around 24×7 for years would soon be brutally executed. He would be betrayed by one of their own, arrested, tried unjustly, humiliated, and tortured. Soon He would be dead and buried.
What sorrow they must have felt. What a loss of purpose and focus for their lives. What a sense of waste must have crept into their hearts. Unable, as they were, to understand what Jesus was predicting they had to have felt like failures and fools. Their pain had to be enormous. Try to imagine and feel the depths of despair they felt.
Then feel the joy that came from seeing Jesus again! He was alive! On the third day He rose from the dead and appeared to them. They touched Him, talked to Him, and ate with Him. Once again, He was with them and taught them. Their joy had to be beyond imagination! Feel their joy…
This joy, the certain knowledge that Jesus had conquered death, sin, and Satan, the confidence that they saw Him go up to heaven with their own eyes, this joy never ended. The joy of knowing the risen Christ fueled their ministry for the rest of their lives. This joy overcame every kind of opposition and persecution imaginable.
You too hopefully know and believe that Jesus is alive and ruling from heaven. Rejoice in that! Try to feel the joy those first followers felt. Let the joy of having a Lord Who is victorious over everything that threatens you fill your heat and fuel your passion to make disciples of Jesus Christ.