I turn with me to John 16. We
will finish this text this morning by taking a look at what Jesus
proclaims at the latter portion of this text. John 16. Let's look at verse 29 through
the end and we'll read it together. And His disciples said, Ah, now
you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech.
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. Jesus answered them, Do you now
believe? 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. 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. I don't know how long any of you have ever had certain
hobbies or interests that you've invested in. But some of us have
learned to enjoy certain things and we sort of do them for a
short while and we move right along. But there are some things
in our lives we just invest in forever. For me, martial arts,
chess, music, things like that. And there are some things that
you do, for example, like instruments or fighting. And when I say fighting,
I don't mean violence, I mean the fighting arts. And any other
type of training, maybe your job. Where you train and you
train and you train and you train and then after a while your training
is what guides you. That which you've practiced for
so long takes you to the end and when you think you can't
remember what to do or how you would respond, all of a sudden
the training takes over and you do that which you were trained
to do. And that works in defense, it works in first responders'
lives. It works with medical profession.
It works with the widget makers and the widget coders and everything
else. And everywhere you look, the
discipline and the training helps guide you to the success of maintaining
whatever it is that you've been called to maintain or to accomplish. And it's not different in a spiritual
sense. However, it is different in a
spiritual sense. Because I've been teaching the
Bible for a long time. A long time. And a lot of times
people would see that and go, okay, so you've been in the ministry
fully for 21 plus years and you've been teaching longer than that.
You've done evangelism even in your youth. So you're the expert
because you have so much experience. You ever felt that way about
somebody? You have so much training. I won't say anything deprecating
to any of my fellow friends who are well-trained, but even the
best of training leaves us wanting sometimes. The Bible teaches
us to be trained in it. The Bible itself is that which
trains God's people in itself. But it is not about us or our
intelligence or our abilities. It's not about our longevity
in the faith or our experience or expertise or the number of
initials that I could add to the end of my name, which are
absurd, that makes us qualified or successful. This isn't new. Paul teaches
Timothy. And he says that all scripture
is breathed out by God and is useful for what? Correction, rebuke, instruction,
training in righteousness, that the man of God may be successful
in all of his work. If that's true for the teaching,
the preparation of the church, then it is equally true for the
church, each and every one of us individually and collectively
to be trained in the righteousness of God, which in that context
means the learning of the person of Christ and what he accomplished. That we might also teach and
train others. And what am I getting at? We
all agree with that. All of us. Amen. Amen. Exponentially
amen. We all agree with all of that. However, sometimes we agree with
it so much that we fall back into our training. We fall back
into our way of thinking from a secular point of view that
I don't have enough time in the Bible to understand it. Or I
don't have enough years of experience rightly understanding the truth
in order to share it. or I can't obviously know what
the Bible is saying so I better ask the pastor. There's nothing
wrong with that. But you see what we do is we put too much
credit on training rather than give the credit to God. We've seen Jesus already in the
last few months of this teaching say, they shall all be taught
by God. We've seen Jesus say in John
6 and in John 3 and then in other places in John 10 that only the
sheep will hear His voice. Only those that the Father has
given to Him will come to Him. And all that were given to Him
will come and He will give them the promise of eternal life.
He will raise them up. This isn't a possibility. It
isn't a probability. It isn't an offer. It's a guarantee. We sang about that this morning
in the first two hymns we sang. the guarantee, the man of God's
own choosing, Jesus the Christ. And with one little word, Jesus
has failed the enemy. It's done. That's what Jesus
proclaims here. I have overcome the world. Think about that for a second. Sometimes it is so common for
us in our flesh to put hope in how we even grow in grace as our hope. And what's that
mean? Sometimes it's easy for us to
think that, well, if I don't do it, God can't do it. If I'm
not disciplined, God won't work. It's the furthest from the truth.
If you cannot pray, God will pray for you. If you cannot see,
God will open your eyes. If you cannot stand, God will
lift your arms. If you cannot live, Christ will
be your life. But when we hear that, in our
culture especially, where there's a will, there's a way. The American
dream. Take up by the horns and slam
that bull to the ground. You can do it. How many other
quips and quotes do we need to show that we live in the secularist
society that calls itself Christian but has no Christ in it? That
training sometimes takes over. Sometimes that thinking takes
over. Sometimes that ideal and mindset
and worldview takes over and we find ourselves in an incredible
dichotomy. Where is our God, we say? Everybody has abandoned me. Everything
has fallen apart. The world has come to an end.
Last week, Brother Jesse preached out of 1 Peter 4, 12 through
19. And the instruction there, as
he so passionately taught us, is to, for the glory of God,
take the pejorative label as Christ follower and honor God
in it. You may not know what that means,
that the word Christian, Christ follower, was a negative term
to mock and make fun of those who were believers. Antioch,
King Agrippa, he coined the phrase. And Paul is saying, take that
label not as a curse, but glory, glorify God in it. Glorify God
in it. But yet if we take our Americanized
spiritual training and we put it in front of us, we put it
on like glasses and we look at everything through that lens,
we're going to hear Peter and Jesus and others say to us, you
better get your life together and you better do what's good
and you better do what's right so that God will bless you, so
that God will save you, so that something good can come out of
it. But Jesus teaches something exactly opposite, doesn't he? We've gone through verse 29 through
32 already. We've already taught that over
the last few weeks. John 16, 29 through 33, we'll
be spending most of our time extrapolating Jesus' statement. But for now, let's just get our
minds back in gear. I'm leaving I'm not going to
speak to you. This is Jesus. I'm not going
to speak to you anymore in figures of speech, but I'm going to clearly
reveal the Father to you. I'm going to show exactly who
I am and what I came to accomplish. You will have no more questions.
Now, we know what that means, right? His death, burial and resurrection.
All the teaching that didn't make sense will now finally make
sense for the disciples. And it's not even their discipline
that's going to make it fruitful. It's God, the Holy Spirit, that's
going to make it fruitful. It is God the Spirit who will make
their lives fruitful for the cause of the good news of Jesus
Christ, the redemption that is theirs in Him, the life that
is promised to them through Him. They, as we saw last Sunday or
the Sunday before, were complete failures in their understanding
of the gospel. They saw it, they go, oh, we see now, okay, we
understand. We know that you are from God.
We don't have to inquire anymore. We don't have to ask anymore.
No one has to ask anymore. And Jesus answers in verse 31,
oh, do you now believe? That is a sense of, I don't know,
a word to put there. To me, in context, it's like
Jesus is saying to them, oh yeah, right, now you believe? Now all
of a sudden you just, ta-da, you don't. And he reiterates
that in context by this next statement. Behold, the hour is
coming, and indeed it has come when you will be scattered. Now
is scattering around and away from Christ, is scattering, is
running from Jesus saving faith? To the culture who says discipline
and training is what proves your hope, no. But to the gospel, our hope is
not in our staying. Our hope is in the one who abides
with us, Jesus Christ, who purchased us and paid for us. So as our
lives ebb and flow, as our lives are mature and weak, as our faith
is strong and non-existent sometimes, I'm not saying that we just,
que sera, sera. It doesn't matter, God's gonna
work it out. That's a true statement. But for the believing ones, We
have a true and certain resolve and assurance that though it
wanes, never leaves. But the training of the religious
culture in which we live puts in assurance that has no hope. Puts it in our solidarity. It
puts it in our faith, it puts it in our work, it puts it in
our morals, it puts it in our church attendance, it puts it
in all sorts of things. I mean, I'm still working through, someone
asked this question on Wednesday for next week's Theology on Call,
you know, is there any room for tradition in the true evangelical
church? And that's, you know, a 30 minute
answer if I spent time dealing with it. And the true answer is, not really. Doesn't hurt to sing songs, doesn't
hurt to have a lectern, doesn't hurt to sit out there and I stand
here just for simplicity's sake, but it's not necessary. I could
stand down there. I could stand in the middle chair
and you could all turn around and watch. I could stand behind the curtain,
you could just listen. Pay no attention to the man behind the
curtain. I mean, you know. But yet we hold to those things
sometimes as our our comfort in the midst of struggle, rather
than into Christ. And so even when the believer
doubts and has times of hopelessness, their hope is always reassured,
not because of what we do, not because of the resolve we make,
but because of the finished work of Christ that he accomplished.
And it's a spiritual thing. By the Word of God, we see and
know that the Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are His
children, you see. I've even been wondering, how
do I get out of us the mindset that we go to church? The word
church in itself is just an incredibly poor word. It's a pathetic word. It means kirk. It's a transliteration
of a word that means organization. The word church means organization. It would fit IBM as better than
it fits us. And that's why in our day when
people say, where do you go to church? They give you the address. What's a better word? Gathering
is a better word. We are the people of God saved
by the blood of Christ gathering in this building that just three
years ago was a wig shop. And a not so clean one at that. It's a wig shop. We don't go
to church We are the body of Christ and we gather together
out of necessity. See, there's a necessity here.
This is so not worth our time if it's to be entertaining, because
this is not entertaining. It's not worth our time if it's
just to be myopic and introspective in such a way that we don't care
about anything else or anybody else around us. It doesn't work
that way. There's nothing beneficial for
us there. We're the body. And I don't know
about you, but if I wake up tomorrow morning and my legs are missing,
I'm gonna be freaked out. I was having a conversation last
night about the failing of my eyesight. I mean, I'm just, I'm
fighting this battle. This is a real battle for me,
y'all. I use my eyes all the time. I know most of you don't,
and some of you just sort of walk around with them closed
half the day, but I use my eyes as long as I'm awake, which is
a lot, sometimes 19, 20 hours a day. And when you talk about,
I mean, I'm thinking, if I woke up tomorrow not able to see out
of one of them, it's gonna be a problem. And I go, oh, well,
I guess my eye took off for the day. And my right leg, that's
gonna be real funny, my left eye, my right leg, I'm just gonna
hop around in a circle. That's okay though, let me make my coffee.
Fall, spill, trip down the stairs. I mean, can you imagine? Make
a good YouTube channel, probably make a million dollars. The one-eyed,
one-armed man falling down the stairs. And you see it over and
over again, then they make memes out of it, and I digress. But
I'm not gonna say, it's okay, I'm gonna be freaked out, I'm
gonna have a problem. There's gonna be somebody to have to
give an explanation as to what happened to my body parts. Where
are they? And if they have their cell,
I'm gonna call my legs up and say, yo dog, where are you? And they're
not answering my text, I'm gonna freak out, I'm gonna call the
cops. Have you seen any legs on the side of the road? Has there been
any accidents on the freeway with some legs? Mine never came
home last night. You get the point. We should
have the same tenacity about our intimacy as God's people
as we would if our legs were missing. Because we are the body
of Christ and when we're all together, we're functioning well.
You know what? We're not functioning well this morning. We are not
functioning as a body this morning. I would say that half of our
brain is probably gone. I would say that one of our legs
is missing, one of our eyes is missing, one of our hands is
missing, and a whole bunch of toenails. For those of you who
remember me talking about bags of toenails some years ago. Why? Why would you say that?
Because we're not all together. We have some of us who are sick,
who cannot be here, and we long for them. We want to be with
them. We want to help them. They have
ministry to give to us as well. So, what's the point there? The
point is, is that, see how the training of culture has dictated
who we are and how we operate? Just in a word? I'm going to
church. I went to church. Yeehaw, I'm
done with church. Let's eat. I love church. Let's go back
next week. And it's just silly. Because it's completely unbiblical.
It's not like wicked evil. It's just the training we've
been taught. And that's easy. Living life
like that as a body, as a false body in a false box, as an organization,
is simple. A monkey can do it. Any animal
can create an organization and make it function. You ever been
to a zoo? Works all the time. You go to the zoo, there's all
the animals, you stick them in a cage, people pay money, go
look, there's an animal, there's an animal, there's no animal,
there's no animal, and then it's, you go home. $15 hot dog, it's
a day at the park. Organization. You aren't an animal. You aren't in the jungle. You
aren't part of a lion pride. You just walked around and looked
at them. That's sort of how most people deal with being a Christian
in our culture. They walk around and look at
each other like, oh, look at the tigers today. They were in rare form.
They were actually kind. They weren't chasing the mice.
They didn't chase the rabbits. How do we get that out? I don't
know. As a pastor, I've been working on that for over a decade. How
do I get that out of my own brain? But training takes over. So where's
my hope? My hope is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. My hope is that He is the victor over even that silly
stuff. These people, these 11 disciples
of Jesus at this Last Supper said to Him, Oh, now we believe
and see clearly. And Jesus says, You're about
to run for your lives. Is that the totality of your
faith in Me? Is that what it means to believe?
Is that when somebody comes along and says, Hey, you were with
Jesus. You're going to go, Not me. Jesus
who? It wasn't me. Aren't you Paul? No, no, no. No, I'm Bob. I mean, Paul did that. I mean,
Peter did that three times. Aren't you Peter? No, I'm Bob.
Call me Pebble. Three times, and now he's telling
the rest of them, the other ten, you're going to scatter. Only
one disciple went to the cross, and it was the author of this
gospel. He's the author of this gospel.
And many years ago, I put myself sitting at my desk, reading this
text, reading the gospel of John. And I put myself in the face,
if I could, in my mind's eye as John, watching my savior die. Being at the cross, seeing my
creator bleed. and understanding just what an
intimate relationship he had with the Savior. He's the only
one. Was it because John was so passionate? Was it because John was so disciplined?
Was it because of John? No, John was counted in this
number. He went to the cross because it was ordained by God
for him to be there, that he might have more to say concerning
the love of God for him than any other apostle that ever lived. You'll be scattered, each to
his own home, and you will leave me alone." We've dealt with that.
We don't have to revisit it now. Listen to these words now. Yet
I am not alone. I'm not alone, for the Father
is with me. Does that come home for you?
I should have maybe read all of chapter 14, 15, 16, but then
we would have had about 20 minutes to preach it. But it should just
come alive for you. It should be there for you. Jesus
throughout this whole gospel has talked about, I come from
the Father. I come down from heaven. I am
the bread of life that comes down from heaven. Your ancestors,
this is John 6, your ancestors ate the bread in the wilderness
and they died. But I am the bread that gives
eternal life. Moses gave our fathers the bread.
No, God gave you your fathers the bread and they died and Moses
died. He's a dead husband, has no hold
anymore. He's through. But yet the culture
of Jesus' day was a group of religious zealots called the
Pharisees who ruled and managed worship, who ruled and managed
the teaching of the Bible, who ruled and managed the prayers
and the sacrifices that they couldn't even accomplish the
way that they were supposed to be because they were under Roman
occupation. They could not even have court.
The Sanhedrin could not even go into certain areas of the
temple for judicial hearings because the sword belonged to
Rome. This is why Jesus was crucified,
not stoned. And yet the whole of the world
saw those who were close to God, those who knew God the Father
as the Pharisees. The Pharisees came about during
the Maccabean Revolt. Where? In the occupation of Israel. They sacrificed a pig in the
temple and these zealous Jews said enough is enough and they
fought against their enemy and God granted them success. And because so much of Judaism
had been Hellenized, had become more culturally indistinctive
from the culture around them, a group of people known as the
Pharisees came about. And they were the reformers of
Israel. And now, they were the anathema of Israel. And Jesus is telling his own
people that the Father is with him. He is not alone. Imagine this reality and what
it causes in the hearts of its hearers. What does it say in
your heart when everything you knew as solid and true and real,
you're told that it's about to come undone? When every solid
foundation that you've ever had in life, that you've always known
would be there, suddenly vanishes. When you wake up without legs, And you have no idea how. How
are you going to get out of the bed? How are you going to go
about your day? Is that something that brings
peace? No. Just the thought of it is horrifying.
It's been the stick of most evangelists throughout our lifetime. from
the mid-19th century, 1800s to present day. It's the modern
stick of evangelism where let me scare the audience into seeing
the reality of death and its subsequent judgment.
And that in that fear, in that elevated blood pressure, in that
sinus rhythm increase, I can put a hook and catch them for
Jesus. Sounds sort of sinister when
I say it like that, because it is sinister. There's no bad news that gives
us peace, is there? And so what we want desperately,
if I said to you, if I go to the doctor tomorrow and I hear,
James, you're going to die of cancer in six months. I mean,
as much as God will give me peace in the midst of all of that,
I will not have peace in that moment. As a matter of fact,
it's very likely I die of a heart attack at the hearing of that
news. Because I've nearly died of a
heart attack in the hearing of news of others that I've lost.
Because of how it feels. I couldn't imagine being told
it was me. And so at that moment, in that
time, when we think that everything that we thought was going to
secure us is no longer there, all we want is to resolve that
conflict, that problem. We want peace. But hearing the
words do not bring peace. That's why I find this extremely
important, church. Behold, the hour is coming. You
say you believe now. You're going to leave me alone
and abandon me. But I will not be alone, for
the Father is with me. And I've said these things to
you, that in me you may have peace." Doesn't that seem counterintuitive?
Two things to think about here. One, Jesus is showing that there
is nothing in the world, he's already said it, he's just repeating
it right here, but he's showing there is nothing in the world,
and I'll define the world for you in just a moment, that will
ever, ever, ever give you peace. It's not a new relationship,
it's not a new job, it's not a new city, it's not a new opportunity,
it's not a new organization, it's not a new nothing. It's
not a raise, it's not a good bill of health, none of it will
give you peace because it's just like a new car. Just as a show
of hands, how many of you have ever bought a new or newer car? How long is it the new car? As long as it smells that way. I'm being honest. As long as
it has that tight, crisp, oh my gosh that's carcinogenic but
I love it smell. As you know, it's killing us.
But we love it. That's a new car. When the smell
goes away, or the first ding, or the first spill, the first
time the coffee cup flips over in the floorboard, first chip
on the window, and we don't love it anymore at all. I need to
trade this thing in. I've only had it three weeks, but it's old. A new car. That's what the worldly
peace is. That's what temporary resolve
of this internal conflict is. It's just a new car that's the
old car that you can't wait to get rid of years later. It's
just a new toy at a holiday or a birthday or a Christmas time
that a child gets and can't stand it. Been wanting it all year
long. Gets it. By March it's worthless. I want this. Back in the days of catalogs,
we had that wish book. Remember that? As a kid, we'd
fight over that thing. They sent it in the mail, I don't
know, what, June? The pre-wish wish book, and then
the wish book, and then the mega wish book, and it was just full
of toys. And by the time November came around, you couldn't even
read what was in there. Everything was circled. 700 pages,
all of it circled. I want this, I want this, I want
this. Just call them up, Sears, and say, I don't want these four
items. Send the rest. That's basically what it was.
I guarantee you that if Christmas morning they'd have had a brand
new wish book, we wouldn't even have opened our toys. Oh, well,
we got this junk over here. Let's circle some stuff now.
Because the feeling of peace that comes from the world is
fleeting and it is never going to happen. It is never going
to bring us a fullness and a satisfaction. It never will. And this is not
even talking about persecution. This is not even what Jesus is
dealing with in context. This is just the nature of the
heart of humanity. This is what's real and alive
in us this very moment. And this is what's real and alive
in me right now. And if it isn't stuff from a
magazine, it's opportunity. If it isn't an opportunity, it's
resolve. I want resolve. I should have
been in a beauty pageant. What do you want? World peace.
I want world peace. But God will not give it. There's
no such thing. It's actually oxymoronic according
to what Jesus teaches. World and peace are like non-compatible. The world will never have peace.
Ever. We're just on the precipice of
another war. Which one? I don't know. But I promise you
it's coming. And if it's not a war of world Wide flavor, it'll be a war of
somebody. There's wars going on right now.
There's rumors of wars. It will always be the case. And
then suddenly, and passionately, and powerfully, we no longer
look at the world. What does John say in his first
epistle? 1 John 2, 15, 16, 17. Do not love the world. Do not
love the things of the world. Do not love the things in the
world. For the things of the world are not of God, they are
not of God, but they are passing away. What are they? The prod
of life, the prod of possessions, the prod of power, the lust of
the eyes. What's the lust of the eyes? That's really not, I'd like to
have that. Do I need that? Nope, but I'd really like to
have that. I'd really like to be that. I'd really like to look
like that. I'd really like to go there. That's nice. Close
the eyes. Is there anything wrong with
buying a new shirt or new pair of shoes? Could be. Could not
be. Buy them. It doesn't matter. But if we
think that happiness is what life is all about, how long does
it last? Not long. It's not true. It's not real. It's a magic trick.
It's an illusion. Magic isn't real. It's all trickery. It's smokes and mirrors. The
enemy, as he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, took him up on
a cliff to look out over the kingdom. And he said, look at
all that you can see, as far as your eye can see. I own this. Now how delusional was the enemy? But that's how he viewed himself.
It was just powerful metaphysical being in a spiritual
realm and he felt like because he'd been thrown to the earth
that the earth was his, the prince of the power of the air. But yet, what happens? He says,
if you just bow down to me, O son of man, son of God, Jesus the
Christ, I will give it all to you. And Jesus commands him to leave.
And he leaves. The foolishness of humanity is
often seen very clearly in the fact that even when we know that
the benefit and the joy is fleeting, we are willing to take temporal
joy over eternal peace. And the temporal joy of the disciples
in this conversation was, well, at least the Father is with us
in our minds, we know that. And some of them, even Peter,
would say, I'm not going anywhere. Thomas had already said, we're
going to die with him. I'm laying my life down for Jesus.
Thomas wouldn't even come back to the upper room after the resurrection. The Father is with me. And I've said these things that
in me you may have peace. You see, Jesus is showing us,
this is the two things I was trying to say, that the world
will never give peace, it's only in Him. It's not in our discipline, it's
not in our focus, it's not in us at all. It's never in us,
it's always in Him. It's never in our training, it's
always in Him. It's never in our academic knowledge, it's
always in Him. And this is the work of God.
My peace, I give to you. My love, I give to you. My joy,
I give to you. If we were to back up a few chapters
of where Pastor Jesse preached last week, in chapter 1 of 1
Peter, it says that that joy is often inexpressible. And now Jesus says something
extremely important. Just in case we or his hearers
didn't get the point that Christ alone is our peace and everything
else in the world is not, he makes it clear. In the world
you will have tribulation. You will suffer, you will have
pain. Jesus has never promised his
beloved people that they will have an easy life. Do you know
that? The heretics and the damnable
false gospels of our culture will tell you that all the time.
Jesus is going to give you a nice life. Jesus, if you've got enough
faith, will give you a nice pocketbook. Jesus will give you an easy way.
The Bible contradicts that 100%. Name me one person in the Old
or New Testament that had an easy life and barbecued
on the weekends and did slideshows at the end
of their day. Look how awesome my life was. You don't wanna
see a slideshow of my life. Y'all know what slideshows are,
right? If you grew up in a missionary family, you know what a slideshow
is. Oh my goodness, how many are there? Six trays, I'm done. I mean, you know. And this is
the entrance to the park. This is the dirt road going to
the place we did the work into the park. Oh, I'm sorry, I just lost myself
for a minute. It's torture. Sorry for those
of you that read the, I love you all and your mission work,
but I do not like your slideshows. I mean, you don't want to see
a slideshow of my life. It'd be depressing. I mean, I
could show you the quick flip book of the awesome times, but
there would be a fake representation of my life. Like I could show
you the fun moments I had at a theme park or the joy on our
face as each of our children were finally born. but not the
hours of agony beforehand and the years of up and down pain
and suffering since then. The depressive thoughts, the
frustration, the morning sickness, the motion sickness, the food
poisoning, the bad reports, death, destruction,
divorce. I mean, look at it. I mean, do
we really want to show that? Look how good the Lord is. Yep,
that's where I broke my leg. That's where I woke up and one
of them were gone. And this is where, you know, oh wow, that's
so entertaining. It's not joy. The world is not
going to give us that. Christ is our joy. He is not
of the world. He created it. And we who are
in Him are not of the world, though we are in it." Now, what
is the world? See, people think the world is just the planet. Well, it
could be, but not in the context of John's writing. The world
is looked at in one of two ways. And how do we know what something
means? context. You should look at your
British counterparts who speak the English language on how they
say certain words that we use differently. As a matter of fact,
if we use some of the words we use commonly in their culture,
we are actually using profanity. If I cut my hand and it gets
blood all over my arm, it's a bloody arm. Well, over there, that's
profane to a cent. It doesn't mean the same thing. What's a cookie? What's a biscuit?
We know what the difference are. They don't. Context. What is the world? The
world in this context of John, which is why I read John 1, the
first 18 verses in the beginning of our service. John 1 talks
about that he came into the world. The world did not know him. In
John 3, God loved the world in this way that He gave His only
Son, the only one that He had, that those believing ones would
not perish but have eternal life, but the non-believing ones are
condemned already, for they are not believing in the only Son
that He has sent, the only one that He has. This is the judgment. The light
has come into the world, but the world loved the darkness
rather than the light because their works are evil. Let me
tell you something. There are two aspects of the
world that John utilizes in every usage. And it is this. It is
the totality of sinful humanity. And more specifically, it is
inclusive and identified by zealous religiosity. So just as all the world and
its paganism is evil and wicked and sinful, so are the Jews and
their religion are just like them. That is it. And when Nicodemus,
who was the teacher of all of Israel, who understood the law,
and who understood Moses, and who understood the prophecy of
God through the prophets concerning Meshach, Messiah, the Christ,
When Jesus said, your confession of who I am and where I come
from is insufficient for your eternal life, you must be born
again by God the Spirit. Then Jesus tells him that the
world of which Nicodemus at that moment was considered a part
of did not love the light because he could not see the light. He
loved his own zeal and religious and piety and everything. And
I believe Nicodemus was probably the most humble of the Pharisees. The most loving. the most concerned
with truth, but he still was not born of God. He never hated
Jesus in the context of how Jesus fought against the status quo
of his own religion. He was consciously aware that
Jesus came from God, but yet he could not see until he was
born of God. So that's what the world means.
So in the world of unbelievers, in the world of religious people,
you will have tribulation. When has the church of Jesus
Christ had the greatest tribulation and from whom? I mean, when has
there ever been in history the alliance of angry atheists? That's the new AAA, by the way. fifty dollars a year. When has
there ever been an alliance of angry atheists who have risen
up against the church of Jesus and persecuted her to the ends
of the age? Never. When's the last time you saw
the bad boy Buddhists coming in to take over the church? You see those religious zealots
with a false gospel, with a false God, using the Bible as their
guide, who hate the church. Now, I know I can't speak holistically
and exhaustively there in that little tiny dogmatic statement,
and all of the historians of the world are going, oh, you're
wrong. I've got 14 off the top of my head. Well, that's fine.
It's for emphasis. not to be taken down. There's
never been ever, any, ever, ever, ever, ever. It's for emphasis.
That's what oratory does. It has things you employ for
emphasis. I find it silly that I have to
say that, but I do. The tribulation comes mostly
from those who claim to be God's people, who claim to be in the
faith, who claim to be Christ's people, who claim to be followers
of Christ, even in the midst of our own soteriological circles. You may find Calvinistic people
who hate the gospel because they want their own gospel to appease
their own flesh, to hold something over the churches that they govern,
not willfully, not with joy, but with an iron fist. And they talk to all these front
row Christians, you know, we've got a lot of them. These front
row Christians, they point to them, you sitting on the front
row, you think you're special? That's why I chose that row, nobody's
there. You think you're special, you
think you're really in love with the Lord? Sitting on the front row doesn't
make you right, you're probably not even good enough. When just
a year before they saw their sin and God converted them and
they saw the gospel and God converted them and that's why they saw
these things. I mean, it's not cause and effect
here, I'm just throwing out things I want to say. I mean, they've
been born of God. And they know their sinner. They
know that Christ satisfied God's wrath for them. They know that
they are the elect of God, the chosen. And they trust fully
in the finished work of Jesus. Even in their greatest of days,
in their awesome opportunities of obedience, when they're walking
in a manner worthy of the calling of Christ, they hope in the Lord
Jesus. And then all of a sudden, because
there's something in their life that the man up there says it
and quite good enough, now they're lost. And that's what a false gospel
looks like, y'all. You're not quite good enough,
praise be to God. Measure this year as to how your spiritual life
truly ended up. On a scale from 1 to 10, how
close is your hope in your own flesh. Are you an 8? Are you a 7? You
got that low D on the grading scale? It's a pass, but it's
a D as in dull, almost lost. Guess what? D's don't get into
heaven. Neither do C's, neither do B's, neither do A's. There
is no A grade. If you make 100% in your behavior,
you cannot have eternal life. The only thing, the only way,
the only one who can give you eternal life is Jesus. In His
obedience, in His perfection, in His righteousness, in His
atoning work on the cross. The world will cause you pain. This life will be painful. So
let's stop looking, church, for the day when God's going to give
us ten years of reprieve. And let's start looking at what
is promised to us in this. In me, you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But here's the problem. In my
flesh, in my logic, And in my ability to deal with things,
even if it's better than it used to be, or worse than it used
to be, or better than somebody else, or worse than someone else,
no matter how it is, as long as I'm looking at the tribulation
that comes from the world, I'm not looking at Christ. I'm not looking at Christ. And I'm always thinking, OK,
Jesus, You're my peace. Take away this world. And we live in a depressed state
of wondering when it's going to get better. It's not. The
world is never going to be better for the Christian. What is better
is that which is best and perfect, who is Jesus Christ. Jesus was
going to the Father. He was in the mind of His disciples,
abandoning them. But He says, I'm giving you the
Holy Spirit. God the Spirit is with you and
you will do greater things because now you will see the truth. He
will teach you the truth. We see that in John 17. We understand
that clearly. So I'm not just asserting this
stuff. It's here. You will have tribulation, but
even then sometimes we think, well we've got to overcome this.
We've just got to get past this. We've got to deal with this.
We're not going to. How do we overcome this? And here's the truth. We don't. But take heart. I have overcome Let me just rant for a minute
and put it in perspective for you. Jesus is saying here, all
of your guilt before the Father, all of the fallenness of your
being, all of the sin in your life and in your mind now and
forever, I have destroyed. I've overcome it. That's the
word overcome there. I have destroyed and am victorious. That's what it means. I am victorious
over this. I have conquered this. There
is no guilt for you, even though you're going to run for your
lives and deny me before men, I will bring you back to me. And you will believe. and you
will confess me before men. And just as those who say in
the name of God, I put you to death, remember that over in
chapter 16, chapter 15? I've overcome them too. Paul, when he teaches to the
Corinthians in that second or third letter, as we call it Second
Corinthians, when he teaches to them and he says, We have
this treasure in jars of clay to show that the insurpassing
power belongs to God. Chapter 4, verse 7 of 2 Corinthians. To God and not to us, we are
afflicted in every way. Listen to what the world gave
Paul. We're afflicted in every way,
but what Christ is in peace, but we are not crushed. The world,
we are perplexed, but in Christ we are not driven to despair. In the world we are persecuted,
but in Christ we are not forsaken. In the world we're struck down,
but in Christ we're not destroyed. In the world we're always carrying
in the body the death of Jesus, and that's an important reality.
so that in Christ the life of Jesus may be manifested in our
bodies. For we who live are being given over to death for the sake
of Christ, so that the life of Christ may be manifested in our
mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life is at work
in you. But this life momentary affliction
is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison
as we look not to the things that are seen, the world, but
to the things that are unseen, the Christ. For the things that
are seen are passing away, but the things that are unseen are
eternal." And I mean, I could go to every letter Paul wrote
and I could show it to you. I could go to Peter's, both of
his letters. I could go to all three of John's letters. I could
show you this in every New Testament teaching. I've overcome the world. You're not guilty before the
Father because I overcame sin. The world and its ruler will
be cast out, John 12, 31. The sting of death is no more
for I, put it in me. 1 Corinthians 15, the sting of
sin and death and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be
to God who gives us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 John,
that portion there before, do not love the world, in chapter
2 verses 12-14, I'm writing to you little children because your
sins are forgiven for His namesake. I'm writing to you fathers because
you know Him who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you
young men because you have overcome the evil one. I'm writing to
you children because you know the Father. I write to you fathers
because you know Him who is from the beginning. He just repeats
Himself. And I write to you, young men, because you are strong,
and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the
evil one. Jesus has overcome the world,
even its religious paganism that persecutes us greatly as the
church, as the gathered ones. See, I hate the word, but it's
the word, you know? What do you do with that word?
I want to change it. He's overcome the world. That
means all the suffering of the world, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians
4, I just read, is light, momentary affliction preparing us for an
eternal heaviness, weighty, grave, grave weight of glory. beyond comparison, so that the
pressures of this world and the suffering of this world, even
in its darkest pain, as heavy as it feels, is nothing. Put
on the glory of Christ and see how heavy that is. It's like weighing the waters
of the sea against the feather of a chicken. And the feather
of the chicken is the suffering of life and the world. And the weight of the waters
of the sea is the glory of God in Jesus Christ. And the beautiful picture there,
when I use that image, I hate the sea. And I hate the ocean. I hate water. I'm fearful of
drowning in water. And I can swim very well. It's
just a phobia. I'm not one of these guys that
go on cruises. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Free food,
who cares? I'm going to die. But when I think about the weightiness
of the glory of Christ drowning me in His joy and peace, I want
to take a breath so deep that I can't stop sucking in air. I've overcome the world. That
means that all of the suffering, all of the religious persecution,
all of our so-called brothers and sisters in the faith who
hate us and malign us and destroy us, it's all just a tiny little
waste of nothing. Nobody wants a hangnail, but
just clip it off. That's how we should look at
it. And that's the peace that is Christ. There's not an argument,
there's not death, there's nothing. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. So we rejoice even when we're
not able to express it. We hold fast in the midst of
all this life as we tarry, as we work, as we labor. It is hard,
beloved. And I feel, and I see people
throughout life, when tribulation comes and when stress comes and
when life happens, it's easy for them to walk away from the
faith. Because there is some imbalance,
though the righteous and the unrighteous both have calamity,
there seems to be an overwhelming sense of unbalanced calamity
for the believers. Because as long as we're walking
in the way of the world and the world's religion and pagan Christianity,
people leave us alone. Ever been the odd person out
at a dinner party and things got a little off? You're thinking,
I think they've had a little too much wine. But you don't
drink. It's an odd place. They're laughing
about stuff you didn't get the joke. Ever been somewhere in public
at a restaurant and a fight breaks out and you don't know what's
happening? Then all of a sudden people see you looking at it
and they think you're part of it. Ever been in a relationship where
you're minding your own business and you're just trying to grow
in the faith and somebody in your own household comes against
you? Somebody in your own family comes
against you? It happens. It's strange. But yet if we join
in with them, we're friends. If we put down our Bibles, we're
friends. If we give up this gospel, we're friends. If we just talk
about the love of God for every single person in the world, then
we're friends. Everybody loves us. Everybody's a Christian.
If you don't believe me, ask them. But few are. Few have been born
of God. Few see that tribulation is theirs
to bear. Now, what do we do with that?
The so what? Here we go in the last few seconds. Paul tells Timothy to endure
the tribulation that he faces by the grace which is his in
Jesus Christ. That means that when we see suffering
and we whine and complain about it, we're not rejoicing in the
promise of God. For if Christ suffered, and if
Christ was hated, and if Christ was persecuted, and if the world
came against Christ, what else are we supposed to expect if
we are in Him? If we are His body and they hate
Him, they will surely hate Him. I've never seen anyone arrest
an arm. Well, your left arm stole that
cash at the Dairy Queen. I'm going to put it in jail.
And that would be it. My legs are gone. Let's call
and see if they're locked up. I've never seen anybody's finger
trigger go to prison for murder. Well, that trigger finger, boy.
No, you are indicted and persecuted and you get it. You get sick,
you're sick. That's it. If we are the body
of Christ, what Christ has suffered, we shall also suffer. But here's
the beauty of it. If we are in Christ, this promise
is ours. Let us look at our suffering
as preparation for an eternal weight of glory because Christ
is going to be exalted above all names and every tongue on
the earth and every tongue in heaven and under the earth is
going to say that Jesus is Lord. He will be glorified and if we
are suffering as his body, we also shall share in his glory.
That's how we look at persecution. That's how we look at this promise.
That's how we look at tribulation. And the only way we're going
to maintain that, back to the beginning, is to together have
the discipline and the training, not of what the culture has taught
us to do, but what the Word of God and each other encourage
us to do. That's the point. And that's
what you need to see from here. And the most beautiful thing
is that not only did Jesus declare these things as so as God, he
then prayed to the Father to secure them for us. And that's
what chapter 17 is all about. That the security of the promises
of Christ are guaranteed. They're guaranteed, beloved.
So in that alone, you can rejoice. Let's pray.