John 16:25-33
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I want to invite you to the Gospel of John.
JESUS THE VICTOR
I Have Overcome the World
25 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
(CSB)
29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
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Scene
They are in the upper room having their last meal together, and Jesus is givnign them inside information about what is getting ready to happen. Since he’s been saying
There is this thing about being alone that increases fear. But fear is not a fruit of the Spirit of God, but of the adversary. If Satan can get you to feel as though God is not with you, then he can cause fear to infiltrate your heart and feel your mind with doubt, causing you to become paralyzed in your fear.
The great celebration of our text this morning is that Jesus has won the victory. So when we fight we do not fight for victory we fight from victory
Ray Pritchard:
“I ran across the following quote one day: ‘A Christian is immortal ‘til his work on earth is done.’
That statement means that nothing can harm you without God’s permission.
Why would that statement encourage us this morning?
Well living in this world,I’m sure that you have faced trouble.
Jesus is showing that he knows even more than they confess that he knows what they know they know.
rigged into the circumstances of life is the sovreign plan to bring about the good of his people and the glory of his name (). He is working all things out. This means that we don’t pray that trouble be removed from us, but that God’s glory be made know through us in the midst of trouble. This is the victorious posture of the people of God, in the world that is opposed to God. There are people right now losing their lives in other countries around the globe for the sake of the gospel. They are boldly declaring in the midst of impending death, that they will not renounce Jesus, and are boldly declaring that Jesus is better than even life itself.
You see, what Jesus accomplishes on the cross and resurrection is something so miraculous that death can no longer shake us in the way it did as a result of sin. When Adam sinned, it severed any relational tie we had from a spiritual perspective to the source of life. We were cut off. Not only that the effects of his actions created a decaying such that physical death was now a reality for those who are born into the world.
Jesus is showing that he knows even more than they confess that he knows what they know
In many ways this planet with all its living things, is really a planet of decay and death.
He says, they will scatter and they will leave him alone.
If you’re in a season of loneliness this morning, take comfort that Jesus knows what it is like to feel abandoned. To have people say they will be there for you, only to find that when you need them most they aren’t there. Take comfort in what Jesus says, “my Father is with me.” Let that rest in your spirit that in the midst of trial and excruciating circumstances, the Father is as close as he’s ever been.
But too often our circumstances dictate our certainty.
We run into trouble in our marriage. We feel unloved.
We run into financial hardships. We feel unprovided for.
A friend is no longer a friend because of a lack of trust. You feel betrayed.
We run into a debilitating disease. We feel uncared for.
The truth of the matter is living in this world, means experiencing what the world
Illustration: Trouble (Game theme song - “it’s fun getting into trouble”)
Trouble might be fun but isn’t a game. In fact, most of us try and avoid trouble at all costs. In John, Jesus has been predicting trouble for some time.
What if I told you that following Jesus would get you in trouble? How does that make you feel? If I told you that to follow Jesus meant that you would have to be inconvenienced and uncomfortable? If you lived in a place where your very life was at risk at the confession that Jesus is Lord, would you still follow?
Sometimes, I think we have a truncated view of discipleship that embraces a big comfy couch and excludes the old rugged cross.
Illustration: Song - I’m so glad, trouble don’t last always
He is working all things out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
Illustration: Song - Civil Rights Era “We Shall Overcome”
ILLUSTRATION:
Praying courage over my children is a nightly routine. The world is filled with scary things. So many have bad intentions. Only the courage that comes through the Spirit will empower us in the midst of suffering.
Opening Illustration: Ali shook up the world. Shaking up the world required entering into the ring and getting hit. In this ring you will get hit, but I have won the fight! It would be
This passage confronts us in our comfort. We seem to want a discipleship devoid of danger. We want a Christianity that makes us cozy.
Illustration: He’s leaving on his midnight train to Georgia. (Gladys Knight & the Pips)
We often live as though Jesus hasn’t overcome.
Why doesn’t Jesus say “I have conquered suffering”?
Why is conquering “the world” his emphasis?
Jesus isn’t mum on the realities of what following him entails.
The true test of our belief is revealed in the fire of suffering
The flames of testing reveal the foundation of belief.
The temptation will be to fear when Jesus leaves.
Sometimes the very things we say “no” to out of fear, are the very things we should say “yes” to out of faith.
The disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was saying about him leaving.
He was speaking in figurative language
How should my life look in light of Christ’s victory?
Belief
Peace
Courage
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Reason for the Book of John
But these things were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
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Jesus is letting them know that he is leaving, sorrow will enter their hearts, they will be experience pain,
When Jesus proved to them that he knew they were confused, they believed he was from God.
Even though you believe, it doesn’t exempt you from suffering.
Too many times people come into the faith thinking that if I just follow Jesus, he will make sure that I never have to experience pain, he will make sure that
Because Jesus conquered death, death no longer is a concern but a crossing over into life
on v.21 -
The combination of intense suffering and relieved joy at childbirth is in the Old Testament a common illustration of the travail God’s people must suffer before the immense relief and joy brought about by the advent of the promised messianic salvation
Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 544). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
Carson, D. A. (1991). The Gospel according to John (p. 544). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans.
Why suffering? - sin is the culprit!
Jesus actually comes on a res
V25 - words
“I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech”
What has he spoken?
A: Of his death, resurrection, departure, and sending of The Spirit
Why “figures of speech”?
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 4. The Prospect of Joy beyond the Trouble of This World (16:16–33)
16:25. Jesus has been speaking somewhat enigmatically, somewhat cryptically: en paroimias (NIV ‘figuratively’) does not necessarily mean ‘in a figure’ or ‘in a metaphor’ or ‘in a parable’, but has to do with the obscurity of his utterances (cf. notes on paroimia at 10:6
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 4. The Prospect of Joy beyond the Trouble of This World (16:16–33)
The reference is therefore not restricted to the illustration of the woman in childbirth (v. 21); it embraces the entire discourse, and confirms Jesus’ assessment of his disciples’ current ability (v. 12).
A: ? cf. v.12 - you can’t bear them now...
note:
note: this encourages us that God knows what his disciples can handle and what they cannot handle. What he has revealed to them by why of figures of speech has been so that they are able to digest the reality that his departure is impending and inevitable
eschatalogical - hora (hour)
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 4. The Prospect of Joy beyond the Trouble of This World (16:16–33)
Here in John 16:25, the contrast is between what is enigmatic or cryptic during the ministry of Jesus, and what becomes plain or clear after Jesus’ death/exaltation and gift of the Spirit.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 4. The Prospect of Joy beyond the Trouble of This World (16:16–33)
None of the Gospel writers suggests that any of Jesus’ disciples made much sense of the cross until after the resurrection.
We aren’t any different than the disciples who didn’t understand the necessity of the cross for the Messiah. Instead of understanding that Jesus came to die, they sought to place expectations on him that were absent of any suffering at all. In fact, their idea is a
But the disciples here aren’t setting their minds on the things of God. This is why Jesus in rebukes Peter and explains the realities of what following Jesus really entails.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 4. The Prospect of Joy beyond the Trouble of This World (16:16–33)
And it is in this most dramatic of divine self-disclosures, in this shame and triumph of death, in this eschatological victory of death and resurrection, that the ultimate significance of Jesus is to be found—and therefore also the clearest display of the character and purposes of God
He had to die. When you understand sin, you understand payment for sin, you understand the death of Jesus, and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, because he overcame death.
We cannot understand suffering in the light of logic. We can only understand suffering in the light of the gospel. In the light of the fact that “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us”
English Standard Version Chapter 16
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father.
When is this hour coming?
A: After his resurrection (; , , )
A: After hi ascension (Jn. 16:12-15)
V26-V27 - interconnectedness of the disciples
“in my name” - does not mean - we are distant and don’t have access or that we can only ask Jesus and not the Father
V27
(the Father loves us)
Jesus does intercede on our behalf (, , )
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to John 4. The Prospect of Joy beyond the Trouble of This World (16:16–33)
Rightly understood, such passages focus on the mediatorial role of the Son in the plan of redemption, and therefore on the basis of the Christian’s acceptance by God; they do not stipulate a mechanical conveyancing of the Christian’s prayers, as if Jesus’ purpose were to restrict the believer’s access to the Father.
the thought is an extension of - remain in me and I remain in you
the thought is an extension of - remain in me and I remain in you
Jesus is showing the interconnectedness of the disciples with himself and the Father.
V28 - mission of the Son
summation of the mission of Jesus. I came from the Father, and I am going back to the Father.
you came from heaven to earth, to show the way
from the earth to the cross, my debt to pay
from the cross to the grave,
from the grave to the sky,
Lord I lift your name on high.
V29 - V30
V30
You think you know, but you have no idea
this is a classic case of, “Oh now we get it!” --Not really
Not really
Have you ever had one of those moments where you think you know what someone is talking about but you really have no clue, but because you want them to think you know you nod and make comments about what it is their talking about?”
Well, this is what their doing
On on hand they have an idea, but on another they have no clue.
Yes, Jesus does “knows”and he in fact “knows all things” but they didn’t really understand what that meant in their human understanding. This is an assumption based on a generalization of his knowledge
Jesus does come from God...
What does this mean for those who follow him?
It means scattering, denial, restoration, it means death
To make the claim that you know who Jesus is, requires a life that accompanies that claim. That truth should make us live in a way that is obviously detached from this world, and attched to Jesus.
V31
He’s been telling them who he is this whole time, and only “now” they get it?
The New American Commentary: John 12–21 (4) The Forthcoming Reversal and Its Implications (16:29–33)
The disciples had arrived at the point of a “belief” that they could express. But typical human words and adequate believing may be far apart in real life. People may say they believe in Jesus, but that does not mean they have arrived at the point where their life patterns follow their beliefs.
Where are you in your stages of believing?
Is it merely in word? Or do your actions validate your confession?
One thing we know about Jesus, which the disciples so eloquently allude to albeit from a limited understanding when they said that he “knows all things”
Including the fact of faith. The boldness of belief. The words and the works. The real from the replica.
When Jesus hears your words, what will be his response?
English Standard Version Chapter 2
Jesus Knows What Is in Man
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
We find ourselves in a day and time when it is harder and harder to determine the real from the replica. In an age of social media, the world only sees those things that we want them to see...
But Jesus knows everything.
Those secrets in the darkest corners.
The temptation you’re facing at work to do unethical things or flirtatious ways with a coworker
He knows the problems you’ve been having with your spouse
He knows the susceptibility to deny him through your actions even though you say you know him and believe him.
He knows. Do you know he knows?
Or are you living like you are trying to earn some merit based form of acceptance from him because you believe that somehow you have manufacture a feeling of love before you believe you truly are?
Maybe we believe that he isn’t God enough to love us, until we are good enough to be loved.
V32
They were anxious about him leaving but in reality they would be the ones to leave him.
repeating the cycle that played out in the Garden in , when mankind decided to abandon God by going after their own desires to
This is the pattern over and over throughout scripture, that God’s people are prone to wander, prone to leave the God they love
We see it in the Garden
We see it in the children of Israel
We see it in the disciples
We see it today
This pattern in scripture shines the light on the amazing faithfulness of God, not abandon the very ones who leave him.
This is why God says to Abraham in that “I have made a covenant with myself.” God is the only one who can perfectly keep God’s covenant faithfully. And so his faithfulness isn’t based on our ability to dot all of our spiritual i’s or cross all our spiritual t’s but that he is the God who is faithful.
ILLUSTRATION: Jesus is the ultimate glue guy - “On athletic teams, a glue guy (or gal) is the one who, in the midst of adversity, will make sure that everyone sticks together. In an corporate or professional setting, a glue guy (or gal) is the one who does the little (often unnoticed) things that help the team to succeed. But that isn't all a glue person does.”
Here, Jesus shows that he can keep the team together through adversity.
V33
Jesus reveals “why” he is sharing this prophetic information with his disciples.
What if you knew all of what would happen in your life, pain, hurt, suffering, how do you think you would react if it happened?
English Standard Version Chapter 2
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
We can learn a great deal about overcoming from the events of the Civil Rights era. Faced with the injustices of Jim Crow laws and segregation, and inequitable rights, blacks were persecuted because of nothing more than skin tone. God would use Charles Albert Tindley to pen the words that would become the pivotal anthem during these tumultuous times, “We Shall Overcome.” It was the cry that gave people the boldness to endure bodily and even death by the hands of those with cruel intentions.
As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ this ought to encourage us today. As we live in a world that seeks to go against and undermine everything that Jesus stood for, we can utter these words with blessed assurance, “We shall overcome.”
The reason we shall overcome is because Christ overcame!
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow
Because he lives, all fear is gone
Because I know, who holds the future
And life is worth the living because he lives.
We don’t have to fear in the face of persecution or suffering. We know that God is working all things out for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purspoe
“in me” - you may have peace
“in the world” - you will have trouble
“in you” - you will have the Spirit
“take heart” - have courage, face your suffering like a good soldier
tribulation -
θλίβω fut. θλίψω; 1 aor. ἔθλιψα. Pass.: fut. 3 sg. θλιβήσεται ; aor. ἐθλίβην; pf. ptc. τεθλιμμένος (s. next entry; Hom.+; ins, pap, LXX, pseudepigr.; Philo; Jos., Bell. 3, 330, Ant. 20, 111; SibOr; Mel., P. 80, 587).
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 457). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
③ to cause to be troubled, oppress, afflict τινά someone (Dt 28:53; Lev 19:33; SibOr 3, 630) 2 Th 1:6. τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον oppress the Holy Spirit Hm 10, 2, 5; χρεώστας θ. oppress debtors 8:10.—Pass. be afflicted, distressed (UPZ 42, 22 [162 B.C.]; PsSol 1:1 al.) 2 Cor 1:6; 4:8; 7:5; Hb 11:37; Hm 2:5. θλιβείς by suffering B 7:11. θλιβεὶς τῇ γνώμῃ τινός distressed by someone’s scheming IPhld 6:2. ψυχὴ θλιβομένη distressed soul Hs 1:8 (PGM 1, 213 θλίβεταί[?] μου ἡ ψυχή; TestSol 1:4 θλιβομένης μου τῆς ψυχῆς; Mel., P. 80, 587; Proclus on Pla., Crat., 72, 3 Pasqu. δαίμονες θλίβουσι τ. ψυχάς; Nicetas Eugen. 2, 27 H. ψυχὴ τεθλιμμένη; cp. Philo, De Ios. 179). On Hs 8, 10, 4 s. Bonner 113 note.—Subst. ὁ θλιβόμενος the oppressed (one) (TestSol D 4, 11 παραμυθία των θ.; JosAs 12:11 τῶν θλιβομένων βοηθός; Diod S 13, 109, 5 οἱ θλιβόμενοι=those who were hard pressed) 1 Ti 5:10; ISm 6:2; B 20:2; D 5:2. Esp., as in some of the aforementioned pass., of the persecution of Christians 1 Th 3:4; 2 Th 1:7. θλιβῆναι πάσῃ θλίψει suffer every kind of affliction Hs 6, 3, 6; cp. 7:1ff; 8, 10, 4. ὑπὲρ τοῦ νόμου θλιβέντες persecuted for the law (i.e., for the way of life that is in accordance with the instructions of Jesus) 8, 3, 7.—DELG. M-M. EDNT. TW.
overcome -
① to win in the face of obstacles, be victor, conquer, overcome, prevail
① to win in the face of obstacles, be victor, conquer, overcome, prevail
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 673). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
② to overcome someone, vanquish, overcome, trans.
② to overcome someone, vanquish, overcome, trans.
② to overcome someone, vanquish, overcome
active tense - that he has overcome someone -
active tense - that he has overcome someone -
② to overcome someone, vanquish, overcome, trans.
Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 673). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Of Christ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον I have overcome the world (i.e. the sum total of everything opposed to God; s. κόσμος 7b)
Also said of Christians in
We are
said of Christians 1J 5:4f; cp. αὕτη ἐστιν ἡ νίκη ἡ νικήσασα τὸν κόσμον vs. 4b (s. νίκη). Also ν. τὸν πονηρόν overcome the evil one, the devil 2:13f (on this passage and J 16:33b s. JBruns, JBL 86, ’67, 451–53); cp. Rv 12:11. αὐτόν (=τὸν διάβολον) Hs 8, 3, 6. αὐτούς (=τοὺς ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου) 1J 4:4. ν. τὴν ψυχήν win a victory over the soul (i.e. the earthly-minded part of man; cp. Sextus 71a νίκα τὸ σῶμα) 2 Cl 16:2. The conquering power added in the dat.: by (means of) ἔν τινι (Pla., Symp. 213e; Himerius, Or. [Ecl.] 3, 11 ἐν δόγμασι νικῶν ἐκείνους): ἐν τῷ μὴ ποιεῖν τὰς ἐπιθυμίας αὐτῆς τὰς πονηράς by not carrying out its base desires 2 Cl 16:2. ν. ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ τὸ κακόν overcome evil with good Ro 12:21b (TestBenj 4:3 οὗτος τὸ ἀγαθὸν ποιῶν νικᾷ τὸ κακόν).
We don’t fight for victory we fight from victory. We overcome because Christ overcame. Nothing can conquer those who are in Christ because we are more than conquer
Stand up, stand up for Jesus ye soldiers of the cross
Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss
from victory to victory, his army shall he lead
Til every fo is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed
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“It’s not the absence of trouble but the presence of God that makes a joyful life!”
Tim Bice
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Sin doesn’t make sense. It over promises and under delivers. God always delivers on his promises.
God’s promise = I will never leave you or forsake you.
There’s a sense in which hard times make for strong faith and easy times make for weak faith.
When you persevere through pain and come through it, there exists this understanding that would not have been obtained in an incubator of comfort. But so often this is the for of discipleship we crave. But what we crave cannot be found “in this world” because it only exists “in Jesus.” I have told you so that you might have peace. You weren’t created for this world, but for the world to come. But while we are here, we are on a kingdom assignment to invade spaces and encounter people who may at a distance seem like trouble. But the great hope to us is that Jesus
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free?
No, there’s a cross for everyone,
And there’s a cross for me.