Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Upper Room Discourse of Jesus*

 

Picture this scene in your mind:

It is Passover time.

The time when a lamb was slain to cover the sins of those who partook in the Passover meal.

Jesus has eaten the Passover meal with His disciples.

The Apostle John has recorded the sayings of Jesus in the book of John, starting in Chapter 13.  Jesus is preparing to go to the cross, and then to His Father.

Jesus is the ultimate Passover lamb, who would die for the sins of all the people in the world.

Jesus is preparing them, and us, for those things that will occur in our lives while He is away.

In Chapters 13 to 16, Jesus described to His disciples how they were to be related to Him, to each other and to the world.

John 13 – the Last Supper: Jesus washes the disciples’ feet.

Jesus tells of His departure: and He gives a new command -  which is - His disciples and we are to love one another.

John 14 – Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; Jesus is one with the Father; The HS will be given; and Satan, the ruler of this world is coming (14:30).

John 15 – Jesus is the vine, His followers are the branches; Jesus describes how His followers are to be related to Him, to each other and to the world.

John 16 – Jesus warns His disciples of how they will be treated by the world; The HS is promised again; Jesus describes how the HS will minister to His disciples and to the world.

Jesus describes how His followers will be related to the world.

John 17 – Jesus’ High Priestly prayer for His followers.

If the church of Jesus Christ were a worldly corporation, Jesus would be putting down his rules and his corporate policies, in order to preserve His company.

We see, in Jesus’ words, that His Church will not be run like any world organization or world government.

Jesus will leave this world: but He will send His Spirit to direct His people.

Our conduct, in this world, is based on our love for the Savior.

Our conduct in His church is based on our love for the Savior.

Notice that the Bible does not record how we as Christians are supposed to protect the Church.

Jesus does not give directions what we must do to preserve the church, but how we must act, as we are persecuted.

The Church of Christ will never be over-run or defeated and dismantled by the world, or by the ruler of this world.

The books written by the Apostle John were written after 90AD.

Nero had been killing Christians since 64AD.

The Apostle John is the last of the living Apostles.

He is the Pastor of the church in Ephesus.

We see the backdrop of persecution by the world.

What does God instruct John to write about?

Does Jesus direct John to establish a moral majority, or a political party, or a righteous Army?  No, Jesus directs John to write about our relationship to Him, our relationship to each other as believers and then to write about  the non-violent attitude that Christians are to exhibit in this world.

The Christian must keep his~/her eyes on Jesus, not on our job, not on our future, but on Jesus.

As John writes his 4 letters of John, 1 -3 John and Revelation, the world is violent towards and is mistreating the followers of Jesus - but Jesus’ followers are to be like sheep.

We are to be rightly related to Jesus first of all; then we are to be rightly related to each other.

The result will be that we will be ostracized by the world and persecuted for our faith.

So let’s take a look at what Jesus is telling His disciples and us.

Turn to John 16 (pray)

 

*John 16:1* “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.

These things, what things?

- Jesus is referring to all He has told them since Chapter 15.  (Stay attached to the vine – that is, Jesus, and bear fruit - the Father will prune each of us in order to bear much fruit: and in our Christian walk, forgiveness is commanded).

The word “stumbling” means to be offended.

The world will try to be offensive to you (cause you to stumble in your Christian walk); your only means of holding off the offense is to keep~/abide in the words of Jesus.

Jesus’ words will be our protection from the world’s offensive actions against us.

As you are rejected by the world, family and friends, you need to stay in the words of Jesus.

Jesus’ words will keep you from being tripped up by the world.

(Repeat verse 1)

 

*John 16:2* “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

 

Being a Christian does not mean that you are going to have a wonderful life, with health, wealth and prosperity.

If you choose to follow Jesus, you will *not *be accepted by the religious norm.

If they persecuted the Good Shepherd, they will persecute His sheep.

You may be rejected by Family and friends; but now you have a new family and a better friend.

Notice that it is the Jesus words of Jesus that will keep us from stumbling.

As the world rejects us, we will need something to hold us up.

That will be the Words of Jesus.

Those words found in your Bible.

You will outcasts from the world’s religions and the religious majority, and some of God’s saints will be killed, by those who think they are serving God in the act of killing the true child of God.

Also notice the expression: The hour has come - in this world, everyone who kills a Christian is thinking that they are offering a good work to God.

You can look on the internet at sites for Christian persecution, and see that, today, many Christians have been tortured and martyred for their faith in Jesus.

“An hour is coming”- this tells us that God is aware of the times and He allows these trials and persecutions to begin at a certain hour in history; and He will also stop these  trials and persecutions at a certain hour in history.

You see, God is in control.

God is allowing His children to be persecuted just like His Son was persecuted.

If you follow Jesus, you must follow where the Shepherd leads.

There are several “time” expressions used in the Bible, and especially in this section that we are looking at today.

In John 13:1 we read “Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that “His hour” has come that He would depart out of this world to the Father,….”

In John 13:31 Jesus said “NOW is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him”

 

In John 14:20 Jesus said “In That Day you will know that I am in the My Father and you in Me and I in you.”

So be aware of these special “time” expressions.

They tell you that God knows all that is going to happen in your life; and He allows it to happen.

Now back to John chapter 16:

 

In verse 33, of this same chapter, Jesus states that we will have tribulation in this world.

Verses 1,2 and 33 are the rock and hard place that we Christians will find ourselves, as we live for Jesus.

Between these verses, Jesus is telling us how we ought to live as we are persecuted, maligned, beaten, misused, abused and sometimes killed for our faith in Jesus.

Remember that at the time that the book of John was written, the Roman Empire was persecuting Christians because Christianity was not acknowledged as a legal “religion” of the state.

Also during this time, Christians were being ejected from the synagogues because the Jews would not tolerate them anymore.

So Christians were caught between a rock and a hard place.

God was allowing this, for His honor and glory.

We should not take persecution personally.

All persecution is ordained by your heavenly Father.

Remember also, that some of us used to be on the other side, living in darkness,  finding fault with those who claimed to be cleansed from their sins.

But now, we are in God’s family, and we have a new nature to live by, a new conscience to guide us, and a new family name to honor in our living.

\\ *John 16:3* “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.

The people, who do not know Jesus, and are not His, do not belong to the Father and are not acknowledged by the Father as belonging to Him.

This goes with John 3:36  and John 5:24.

*John 3:36* “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

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*John 5:24* “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

The world does not know the Father because they do not know Jesus, the Son of God.

The only door to God is through Jesus.

If a person does not know Jesus, they do not know God.

The world is hostile towards Jesus, God’s Son.

And we read in Chapter 15 and 16 that if the world rejected God’s Son, they will also reject those who believe in God’s Son.

I am not to take it personally; but I am to have the right attitude towards my persecutors, while I am being subjected to their persecution.

Remember that before you accepted Jesus as your Savior, you were part of the world and were to some extent comfortable in going down that broad road that leads to destruction.

The only way off that road is through faith in Jesus Christ.

Look at what Jesus said in

 

John Chapter 15: 18-21, 23

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

\\ John 15:19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.

\\ John 15:20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’

If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

\\ John 15:21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. \\ John 15:22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.