So once again, the help of God
and guidance of the Holy Spirit. I'd like you to turn with me
to the chapter that we read, the Gospel according to John,
chapter 16, and the text you'll find in verse 33. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me ye might have peace, in the world ye shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. These from chapter 14, 15 and
16 are the closing teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ before
he is betrayed and before he is handed into the courts and
crucified. And he seeks to take this time
to explain to his apostles all that is going to take place. He seeks to prepare them for
all that is going to happen to them. He seeks to teach them
of their relationship with him and his relationship with God
and as he seeks to bring to them a parable of the vine and the
relationship that the believer has with Christ Jesus abiding
in the vine and bearing fruit for the honor and glory of the
Father. And so Christ in his closing teaching seeks to prepare
the apostles for what is going to take place to him. He seeks to prepare the ground
in order that they may have comfort when those things actually take
place. The Lord Jesus was going to be
taken from them. He was going to be crucified
and he was going to ascend up into heaven. But he promised
that although he was with them at the time, as he was going
to go he was going to give them the comforter who would be the
Holy Spirit that he would bring to the memory the teachings of
Christ and enable them to go forth into the world and to preach
the gospel. He says, I'm not going to leave
you comfortless. I will come to you. closing remarks of chapter 16
he tells them that they're all going to be scattered. As Christ
is arrested they're all going to flee from Jesus and he's going
to be alone. But he says, I am not alone because
the Father is with me. Now, all of these things were
just being taught to the disciples. They were yet to walk through
those experiences, but Christ was preparing the way for them. For us, we can just continue
reading in the following chapters and see how all this unfolded. We can see that every word of
the Lord Jesus Christ, every warning that he gave to his disciples,
it took place. that he was arrested, that they
all did run away, that he was left alone, that he was crucified,
that he rose again on the third day and he ascended up into heaven. Then on the day of Pentecost
the apostles were given the Holy Spirit which enabled them to
proclaim the gospel to the nations. And so we can see that the word
of God spoken in prophecy, we can see it coming to a reality
that those prophecies of Christ regarding all that would take
place to him, they came about and they were true. And the Bible
tells us that God's word is true. It is an unchanging truth for
every generation. In chapter 17, in the prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, Thy word is truth. And so Jesus says, These things
I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. That is the key to this text, that it's in Christ. In Christ, there is peace. Outside of Christ, there is trouble. When we were in Kenya, or if
any of you have ever used a P.O. box, you will know that to access
that P.O. box, you need a key. And so someone
could say to you, look, in box 500, there is a million pounds. There's a lifetime supply for
you there behind that box. And you go to that box and you
can't open it. Everything is there behind the
door but you're unable to get it because you can't gain access. What do you need? You need the
key. You need the key to open the door, to obtain what is behind
that door. And so here is a beautiful promise.
But it's behind a door. It's a locked door. And that door is Christ. And the way to open that door
is by faith. Believing and trusting in the
Lord Jesus Christ. There you gain access to the
treasure, the great treasure of forgiveness of sin, of peace
with God. But not only is it peace with
God, Jesus says in me you might have peace. He pre-warns them of all that
is going to take place so that when those things take place
they have peace. because Christ has prepared them
for what they are going to go through. He says in the world
you're going to have trouble, but in me you're going to have
peace. That is the Christian pathway. In the world, yet not
of it. In the world, trouble, yet in
Christ Jesus, peace. Externally, tribulation yet internally
in the spirit there is peace and I think we see that at what
we looked at this morning with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
is a very picture of peace as he was asleep on the pillow in
the boat in the midst of a storm Everywhere, everything round
about him was trouble. Turmoil. Tossing and throwing,
toing and froing in the middle of a great storm, yet Christ
is at peace. Able to rest in the Father's
will, as he said, I am not alone because the Father is with me. The disciples were in the same
storm. They were passing through the
exact same situation as the Lord Jesus Christ yet Christ himself
is asleep at peace. He is resting in the storm. And
yet the disciples are filled with fear. They didn't have any peace. And
Jesus says it's because they have no faith. They did not recognize
with Christ in the vessel they would be able to smile at the
storm. They did not recognize who he
was that was with them in the boat. The God, man, Christ, Jesus,
God manifest in the flesh. All power and all authority had
been given to him. He was in complete control. He
was resting in the Father's will and yet the apostles were in
complete fear They had no peace So it seems to me that there are three experiences set
before us in that boat There are three
ways by which a believer may be able to tackle trouble and
difficulty and opposition and the storms of life. Either he
can rest in that storm like the Lord Jesus. He can have great
faith as Jesus said to the centurion. He can have great faith and rest
in the sovereignty of God. sovereign ruler of the skies
as we've just read ever gracious ever wise all my times are in
thy hand all events at thy command. We sang on Wednesday a sovereign
protector have I unseen yet forever at hand give a rest in complete
knowledge or complete trust in a sovereign God and to be at
peace in the midst of a storm like the Lord Jesus Christ or we can be in deep distress accusing Christ of not caring,
accusing Jesus of losing control being brought to our wits end but having no peace. Or the third is in our fear to run to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask him to bring peace. He
says These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might
have peace. Christ rested in the storm. The
apostles were troubled at the same storm. Christ proved to
them that he could overcome the storm by bringing about a great
peace, a great calm. I think it is very difficult
to be asleep just like the Lord Jesus Christ and to rest completely
in the sovereignty of God. The apostle tells us that he
counted it all joy when he passed through much trouble and difficulty. The apostle saw the sovereign
hand of God in all the experiences of life He was able to see God in the
depths. He was able to see God as he
floated in the ocean. He was able to see God as he
was being beaten. But also he was able to see God
when he was on the mountaintops, when his life was plain sailing. He knew what it was to abound
in the things of this world and he knew what it was to be abased.
Yet he kept a constant joy, a constant peace, because he acknowledged
that it was God who brought him low and it was God who brought
him high. As Job says, it's God who makes
rich and makes poor. It's God who kills and God who
makes alive. and to be able to rest in the
sovereign hand of Almighty God is to be able to experience peace
in our own strength. Obviously it is unobtainable
but the Christian does not walk in his own strength. The Christian
walks in the strength of the Spirit of God. As Christ said
that he is not alone, the Father is with him. So the Christian
can say that he or she is not alone because the Lord Jesus
Christ is with them. I will come to you. Peace I leave
with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. And so as the Lord Jesus Christ
sought to prepare the minds of his apostles for all that was
going to take place he was preparing their minds so that they would
have peace. Everything was going to fall apart. Their life as they had known
it was about to completely change. Their Jesus whom they had trusted
in and walked with for so long was going to disappear. and he
was going to give them the spirit of God. And so in these great
changes he hoped that his word would give them peace. The words
of Christ are the words of God. They are an eternal unchanging
word and Christ sought to give them comfort so that they would
not be troubled. Sometimes we do that with our
children don't we? We try to explain to them this is what
is going to happen. So that when those things happen
they are calm. We say Daddy is going away and
then I'll come again later. We say this is going to happen,
this is going to happen in the hope that it brings them peace,
it brings them some calm. So that when those things take
place they're not shocked, And so the Lord Jesus Christ lays
it down clearly. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. He tells them where he's going.
where he's going and what he is going to do that he's going
to prepare a place for them that where he is he says I am now
going back to the father I have come from the father and I'm
going to the father and where I am there you will be also and
when I am going to go there I'm going to prepare a place for
you that when you come to me everything will be prepared that
you will be with me and although I am going to leave you physically
I'm going to give you my spirit the comforter who will abide
with you forever. Remember what Henry brought to
us on Wednesday. Lo I am with you always even
to the end of the world. Christ's presence has been promised
to his people to the end of time by his spirit and then at the
end of time he will come again. And the scripture tells us we
will see him as he is. We will no longer see him through
a glass darkly but we will see Christ as he is. And he says
that the spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit of God, he will abide
with you forever. That he is the gift, the down
payment, the deposit given to the church. That as one generation
goes, as the generations pass, that the spirit of God remains,
abiding in the true church of Christ, along with the eternal
word of God. And he shall be in you. the Comforter which is the Holy
Ghost who the Father will send in my name he shall teach you
all things and bring to all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have told you. They were not to rely or going
to rely on their own natural memory but the Spirit of God
was going to guide them and teach them and as we read later on
we see that the Spirit of God opened up their understanding
to the scriptures As they begin to search the scriptures, they
begin to look into the Old Testament and lay Christ out before the
early church. As Christ, as he walks with the
two on the road to Emmaus, he reveals to them all the scriptures
concerning himself. And so Jesus by his word seeks
to bring peace and comfort to his apostles and even to us today. The scripture tells us all that
is going to take place. The Bible tells us that there's
going to be wars and rumours of wars. The situation in the
world is going to get worse and worse and worse. There's going
to be earthquakes in various places. There's going to be trouble
and distress and persecutions in the world. In the world you
shall have trouble. Everyone has trouble. Remember the rich man that we
looked at last Sunday evening. His trouble was that his barns
weren't big enough and so that he had to pull down and build
greater. Everybody has trouble, everybody
has difficulty and hardship in varying degrees. You cannot go
through a week of time without some problem, some difficulty,
whether with ourselves or with our family or with our neighbours. This world groaned under the
weight of sin. Jesus says you shall have trouble
and Christians seem to have their fair share of trouble. Much opposition
to the people of God but Jesus says in me you will have peace,
in the world you will have tribulation. Jesus brought about peace through the blood of his cross. First of all he brought about
peace by reconciling sinners to God through his sacrifice
upon the cross. As he gave up his life, as he
offered up his life as a substitutionary atonement, as he paid for the
sins of his people, As he rose again from the grave, he brought
about peace between God and man. All those that would ever trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that which is bringing them hostility
between them and God, their sin, the Lord Jesus Christ removed
it. And therefore he brought peace by the blood of his cross. But not only does he bring peace
between them and God but he brings peace within the
soul that the Christian or those surrounded by trouble those surrounded
by the storm can rest in the knowledge that Christ is in control
Yes because he has promised you will have trouble but he has
also promised on the other side of the coin that in me you shall
have peace. By the knowledge that He is in
control by the knowledge that he has told us that we will pass
through these various things but by his Spirit who brings
to our memory the things that Christ has taught us. As Christ rested asleep on the
pillow, as the Apostle Paul said, I count it all joy when I pass
through much trouble, much opposition. The believer is able to experience
this peace in the midst of tribulation. There are many battles that we
go through. We are told to put on the whole armour of God. There's
that spiritual battle that we must face. After we have been
converted, after we have been born again, there is the old
nature, the old nature of sin. There is the opposition of the
world, the temptation, the doubt and the fears. That spiritual
warfare. As Christ experienced those temptations
in the wilderness so the believers pass through those times of temptations. There's no peace. But there's peace in Christ.
He says, I have overcome. the world. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Take courage. Jesus has overcome. Jesus overcame as he died and
as he rose again on the third day. He overcame death. He overcame the strongholds of
Satan. He gained a victory. He secured
the salvation of the souls of millions of people. That as Christ
overcame so they also will overcome. Although they walk through a
pathway of trial and tribulation yet they have peace in Christ
and they are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. As Christ overcame
the world so they also will overcome. It's revealed to us in the book
of Revelation. Revelation chapter 12. In verse
10 it says, And I heard a voice saying in heaven, Now is salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ. For the accuser of the brethren
is cast down, which accuses them before our God day and night. and they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they
loved not their lives unto death. And so there in heaven the apostle
sees those who had overcome by the blood of the lamb as Christ
had overcome So they will overcome. Though
at times it feels like the storm is overcoming us. We feel like
our boat is sinking, like the boat of the apostles. Yet with
Christ in the boat, as we are in Christ Jesus, as we abide
in Christ Jesus, as we rest in Christ Jesus, there is peace. Do not let your heart be troubled.
You believe in God. Believe also in me. If you believe
that God is sovereign, if you believe that God is all-mighty,
all-powerful, then rest in that knowledge. Trust in his Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, as he leads you through this world
of tribulation. He has told you, you will have
trouble. You will have opposition. You
will have difficulty. But you will also have peace.
You will experience peace. You have peace with God. You
have peace within the soul. although externally trouble,
yet peace within the heart. Christ has laid it all out for
you. He's told you all that is going to take place. He's warned
you how, he's taught you how you can overcome. Then trust
him and rest in him. Rest in his word, his unchanging
word. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In Christ Jesus you might
have peace. In the world is trouble, but
be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Let's sing in conclusion from
hymns for worship number 162. 162. Go, labour on, spend and be spent,
your joy to do the Father's will. It is the way the master went,
should not the servant tread it still. Hymns for worship 162,
tune 409. Your joy to do the Father's will. ? The spirit's heavenly gain ?
? Let me to love you praise to God ? ? Thou hast our praises
bought ? The world's dark night is hastening
on. Speak, speak, O world, the truth
of men. It is of earth the truth of men. ? Not be watched and prayed ? ?
Be wise, the earthly soul, to pray ? ? Earth, hold me to the
world's high way ? ? Come help the wanderer to me ? Soon you shall hear the bright
world's voice, the midnight cry. Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and communion of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with you each,
now and for evermore. Amen.