I Have Overcome the World

Transcription

1 The following sermon was preached at Redemption Baptist Church on Sunday, 22 May We encourage you to look up the Scriptures that are referenced. May the Lord speak to your heart as you study His Word. I Have Overcome the World John 16:27-33 Over the past couple months, I have been preaching through John 15 and 16; and in these chapters, we have been examining the revelations that Jesus gave to His disciples during their walk from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane. Many of these revelations were deeply troubling to the disciples. In fact, the disciples were filled with deep sorrow when they heard these things. Probably the most crushing revelation that Jesus gave to His disciples was that very soon, He was going to leave them, and go back to His Father s House. Jesus also revealed that very soon they would be persecuted for His sake, and that men would even kill them, thinking that they were serving God by doing so. However, Jesus also gave them some exceedingly good news. Jesus promised them that even though He was about to leave them in bodily presence, He would not leave them alone: He would send the Holy Spirit in His own name to live inside their bodies forever; to comfort them; to give them spiritual light and understanding; and to guide them into all truth. In fact, He also promised that all three Members of the Trinity (including Himself) would come to live inside them. This was a profound and wonderful new promise. Up to this point, God had been near His people, and with them; but never before had He lived inside believers permanently. Things were about to start changing radically. Christ s death on the cross for our sins, His resurrection from the grave, His ascension back to heaven, and His sending of the Holy Spirit to live inside believers, were enormous game-changers. As we saw last week, prayer would be affected by all these changes, as well. Now that Christ was going back to heaven, and would no longer be available to His disciples in bodily presence, He instructed His disciples to bring their questions and requests to the Father, in Jesus name. Because Christ has opened the way for us to come to the Father (by paying for our sins), there is no more distance between God and His people. We can come boldly to our Father s throne in prayer, in the name of His Son Jesus, and address Him as Abba ( Daddy ). This morning, we will be finishing our study of chapter 16; and as we do so, we will be reading Jesus last few revelations to His disciples before they entered the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had said many things that troubled and worried His disciples; but He wanted them to know that they had every reason to be of good cheer. Why can God s people be of good cheer, even though we live in a world of tribulation? Because our Master has overcome the world! The title of this message is I Have Overcome the World. Read John 16:27-33 I. The identity of the Saviour: God (vv ) As we saw in last week s Scripture, Jesus had just told His disciples that the time was coming when He would no longer speak to them in proverbs (parables), but would speak plainly to them about His Father. (Read verse 25.) Now, just as He had promised, Jesus was giving them a very plain revelation. He said that He had come forth from the Father into the world, but that now He was about to leave the world, and go back to His Father.

2 Now, before we go any farther, I want to stop and focus on this statement. This is a very important statement. It is a powerful statement! By claiming that He came forth from the Father, Jesus was claiming to be God! Now, many people would ask how this statement proves that Jesus is God. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was sent by His Father; but does this prove that He is God? After all, hasn t God sent many prophets to declare His messages? Hasn t God even sent His angels to declare His messages? Yes, He has. But, you see, Jesus did not say I was sent from the Father. What Jesus said was, I came forth from the Father. Is there a difference between saying I was sent by the Father and saying I came forth from the Father? There surely is! There is a big difference. These are two totally different words, with very different meanings. Let s look at a Scripture that uses the word sent, and see what we can learn from it. Read John 1:6-7 In John 1:6, we are told that John the Baptist was sent from God. The verb that is used in this verse is apostello; and it means to send on a mission. Our word Apostle comes from this same word. An apostle is simply a sent one someone who is sent by a master to give a message. This word apostello is used throughout the New Testament to describe the mission of God s messengers. The twelve Apostles were sent by God. The prophets of the Old Testament and the New Testament were sent by God. As we just saw there in verse 6, John the Baptist was sent from God. In fact, it isn t just the prophets and the twelve apostles who were sent by God; every believer in this New Testament age is sent from God. Every Christian is a sent one. We have all been sent by God to take the Gospel to every creature. We are like errand boys being sent from the King s throne room with a message for a lost and dying world. Now, make no mistake about it: The same thing that is true of the Apostles and prophets is true of Jesus. He was sent from God with a message. He is the ultimate Sent One. In Hebrews 3:1 Paul wrote, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Jesus is called the apostolos, or sent one, because He was sent from the Father into our world with a message. Jesus was, truly, sent from God. However, here in John 16:27 and 28, Jesus is not using the word apostello. He did not say, I was sent from the Father. Instead, He said, I came forth from the Father. The Greek verb behind came forth from is the word exerchomai. This word means to come out of, or to proceed forth from. It has the idea of being in something, and going out of it. Think about that! Jesus says that He was in the Father, and that He came out from Him when He came down to earth be take on human flesh. That puts Jesus on a completely different level from any other man or angel who was ever sent by God. No man or angel was ever in the Father and came out from Him. To be in the Father (who, remember, is transcendent, infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent), one would have to be the same essence as God. To be in the Father, one would, himself, have to be transcendent, infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent! Yet, here is Jesus

3 claiming to have been in the Father, and to have come out from Him when He took on human flesh! This is a weighty truth, isn t it? But guess what? It gets deeper. Let s take a look at another Scripture that says that Jesus is in the Father. Read John 1:18 In this verse, John the Baptist is contrasting Jesus Christ to every other man who ever lived. No sinful man has ever seen God (at least, not in His full, uninhibited glory). No mortal man could possibly see God and live. Yet, John says that the only begotten Son not only has seen the Father, but is in His bosom! That is an awesome statement! According to John the Baptist, not only was Christ in the Father s bosom, but He was still in the Father s bosom even after He had come to earth. How could Jesus come out from the Father s bosom, yet still be in the Father s bosom? There is only one way. Putting both these statements side by side, we must conclude that: 1. Jesus is distinct from the Father (since He came forth from Him); yet, 2. He is equal with His Father, and one with Him, and possesses all His divine attributes. No Apostle or prophet of God would have ever said about himself what Jesus said about Himself here in John 16. No other man could say this of himself, or else he would be a blasphemer. No angel of God has ever said such a thing, either. But Jesus Christ can say this, because He is God. Two times in a row here in John 16, Jesus said that He came out from God. In fact, Jesus also said this exact same thing in John 8:42, 13:3, and 17:8. Jesus didn t merely say that He had come out from heaven; He said that He had come out from God. By the way, there were many times when Jesus said that He had come down from heaven. Now, false religions such as the Jehovah s Witnesses, who deny the Trinity, would say, Ha! See? Jesus came down from heaven: therefore, He can t be God, because He left God s presence in heaven. However, there is one huge problem with this reasoning. Not only did Jesus claim that He came down from heaven: He also claimed that He was in Heaven! Read John 3:13 There is only one way that Jesus could have come down from heaven to earth, yet have been in heaven at the same time that He was on earth, in human flesh: namely, He is God in human flesh! In His humanity, Jesus was localised on earth; but in His divinity, He was omnipresent, and was still in heaven, in the bosom of His Father! He is the second Person of the Triune Godhead, who took on human flesh. In 1 Timothy 3:16 Paul put it this way: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Now, let s see how the disciples reacted to what Jesus said. (Read verses again.) At this point, the disciples were pleased. They said, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Jesus had spoken very clearly, and they understood what He was saying. At least, they thought they fully understood. As we will see shortly, they still were

4 not grasping one very important thing the fact that He was going to die and rise again before going back to His Father. They should have understood this, since Jesus had said it so many times before; but they didn t. You do have to give the disciples credit for one thing, though. They may not have understood that Jesus was about to die; but they did fully understand who Jesus is. They were crystalclear about His identity. The disciples understood that Jesus is God; and their response to Jesus shows it. Let s look again at the disciples answer. There are three parts to it. First of all, they said, Now are we sure that thou knowest all things. They were convinced that Jesus is omniscient all knowing. By the way, there are three Greek verbs for know. Ginosko means to know by experience. The word epistamai means to know as fact. But the word oida means to know something absolutely. This word, oida, is the word that the disciples used here. They were sure that Jesus knows all things absolutely. What does this tell us? It tells us that the disciples regarded Jesus as God! Only God knows all things. Isaiah 40:28 says that there is no searching of God s understanding. Isaiah 46:10 says that God declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done. Psalm 147:5 says, Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite. Psalm 139:1-4 says, O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandeth my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. The disciples were well aware that only God is all-knowing; and they knew what they were saying when they told Jesus, Thou knowest all things. They were acknowledging that Jesus is God. If Jesus were not God, He would have rebuked the disciples for saying that He was all-knowing; but He didn t. He accepted what they had said as truth. Now, let s look at the disciples next statement. They told Jesus, [thou] needest not that any man should ask thee. In other words, Jesus already knows our questions before we ask them. This is an attribute that belongs only to God. Jesus Himself said that your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him (Matthew 6:8). The same thing that is true of the Father is true of Christ: He knows what is on our heart before we ask! Time and time again, the disciples had seen Jesus answer questions before they were asked. They themselves had gone to Jesus many times to ask a question, and Jesus answered their question before they asked it. Nicodemus found this out, as well. Remember when Nicodemus went to Jesus by night? He had gone to Jesus with doubts in his mind about whether he would enter the kingdom or not. Even though he was a very moral man, and a family man, he apparently had nagging doubts that he was good enough to merit salvation. However, Nicodemus never even got to state his question, because Jesus answered it before he had the chance to ask it. He told Nicodemus, Ye must be born again. Read John 3:1-3 The disciples knew that Jesus is omniscient. They were also sure that Jesus doesn t even need to be asked a question, since He already knows our thoughts. But that isn t all. Let s look

5 again at verse 30. (Read verse 30 again.) At the end of verse 30, the disciples wrapped it all up by saying, By this we believe that thou camest forth from God. The disciples were using the same verb that Jesus used exerchomai. They were convinced that Jesus was not merely sent by God, as any other prophet would be, but that He had come forth out from God (meaning that He had come from the very bosom of God). So, there you have it. Jesus claimed it, and the disciples affirmed their belief in it. Jesus is Almighty God! Now, the fact that Jesus is God has a profound impact upon God s people. If Jesus be God, then what position do the saved have before God? That is what we will talk about next. II. The position of the saved: Overcomers (vv ) (Read verses again.) At this point, the disciples were feeling confident. Jesus had spoken plainly, and they felt sure that they understood what Jesus meant. Christ had come out from the Father, and He was returning to the Father. That s simple enough, right? However, they still didn t get it not completely, that is. What they still didn t understand is that before Christ would return to His Father, He would die on the cross, and rise again. Now, there was no reason why they should not have understood this. Jesus had been telling them, again and again, that He was about to die. Only two days earlier Jesus had said, Ye know that after two days it the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified (Matthew 26:2). How could the disciples have heard this clear, unmistakeable announcement, and still not have understood that Jesus was actually going to die? Well, perhaps, in their own minds, they were trying to allegorise or spiritualise Jesus words, and not take them literally. Perhaps they were thinking that by saying that He was going to be crucified, Jesus meant that He would go through some kind of fierce struggle with the religious leaders before being crowned as the Messiah. Whatever their reasoning was, though, one thing is for sure: they were in a very vulnerable spiritual position because of their doubting and unbelief. Any time we doubt Christ s words, we are headed for big trouble! The disciples also were filled with pride and self-confidence: and this made them vulnerable, as well. The Bible says, Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). Everything was set for the disciples to stumble and fall; and as they were approaching the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus told them so. Read Matthew 26:30-35 We know, from other Scriptures, that the disciples had been quarrelling among themselves earlier that evening about which of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom. They were all filled with pride. Yet, they actually thought that they were in a spiritual position to fight to the death for the Master! Jesus knew that the disciples were cruising toward a big fall; and so, He did what He often did: He asked them a question. He said, Do ye now believe? Jesus was provoking them to stop and examine themselves. Now, please don t misunderstand. Jesus was not denying that

6 they believed that He had come from God, and was going back to God. The disciples (other than Judas Iscariot) were saved men. They did have saving faith. Jesus Himself had just said that they believed that He had come from God. (Read verse 27 again.) Why, then, did Jesus ask, Do ye now believe? Basically, Jesus was asking them, How strong is your belief? You do believe that I came from God. You are saved. But will your faith in me withstand persecution? You see, their faith in Christ was about to be put to a severe test, in a very short time. That is why Jesus went on to say, Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. As we saw in that passage in Matthew, Jesus quoted Scripture to show that their abandonment of Him had been prophesied. He said, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. This is a quote from the book of Zechariah. Let s take a look at it. Read Zechariah 13:7 (Zechariah was written about 500 years before Christ was born.) Jesus was now coming to the end of His farewell address. He had revealed many things to His disciples; and many of these things were very troubling to them. What He had just told them (that they were soon going to be scattered like frightened sheep, and abandon Him) must have been very startling to them. But now, Jesus wrapped it all up with words of encouragement. He said, These things (in other words, everything He had spoken to them that evening) I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. Even though they were about to be catapulted into a time of tribulation and sorrow, Jesus promised them that they could have peace in the midst of it all. Christian, this promise is to you, too. You can have peace as you go through trials and tribulations in this life. Actually, you already are at peace with God by virtue of your position as a child of God. Romans 5:1 says, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul didn t say that Christians should try to have peace with God, or strive to have peace with God; he said that they have peace with God already. The enmity between a sinner and God is removed the moment that person repents of his sin and believes on Jesus Christ. That person is no longer God s enemy, but is accepted as a child of God. He is now clothed with Christ s imputed righteousness, and is in God s family, and is no longer condemned. Every Christian has peace with God by position. But that doesn t change the fact that our hearts can be troubled, does it? When adverse circumstances arise, Christians can, and often do, experience fear and internal tumult. But it doesn t have to be that way! Not only do we who are saved have peace with God by virtue of our relationship with Him, but we can also have actual peace in our hearts (the absence of fear and distress) even when we are going through trials. Our hearts can be comforted, and filled with peace. How is this possible? Here s how. Read Colossians 3:15-16 In verse 15, Paul exhorted the members of the church of Colosse to let the peace of God rule in your hearts. You ll notice that Paul is not talking about peace with God, which every believer has; he s talking about the peace of God. This is the practical, everyday peace that Christians can experience in their hearts. What is the condition for this peace, though? Well,

7 just look at the other exhortations that Paul links with it. For one thing, he says, be ye thankful. He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. He also says, teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. All these things go together. When you are thanking God for His blessings, and are filling your heart with God s Word, and reinforcing God s Word by singing songs that are based on God s Word, God will place His perfect peace in your heart! God s Word always brings peace to those who believe it. That is why Jesus said here in John 16, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. The disciples didn t have any peace during the three days when Jesus body lay in the grave, because they had forgotten Christ s words. But when they later recalled His words, and put their full trust in them, they were filled with peace. You can be filled with peace, too, Christian, if you will trust His word. Now, there is one more comforting promise that Jesus made. Not only did Jesus promise His disciples that they could have peace in the midst of tribulation; but He said that they could be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world. What is Jesus saying? He is saying that because He had overcome the world, they would also be able to overcome the world. By the way, you ll notice that Jesus did not say, I will overcome the world : He said, I have overcome the world. Jesus used the perfect tense verb. That is significant, because the perfect tense describes an action that was completed in the past, and which has a continuing effect in the present. Jesus had not even died on the cross yet; yet, in Christ s mind, His death for our sins was so sure, that it was as good as already done. And because it was as good as already done, the disciples could be overcomers, as well! Read 1 John 5:1-5 Christian, the Bible teaches that you are, by virtue of salvation, an overcomer. An overcomer of what? Of sin, of death, and of hell. Because Christ conquered sin, death, and hell, you are an overcomer of these things because you have been placed in Him. Conclusion: There is no question that you are, by position, an overcomer, Christian. John said that those who have been born again by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, are, by definition, overcomers; and in Revelation 2, Jesus Himself said that he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. There is no question of your eternal destiny. Because you are an overcomer by position, you will not see the second death (an eternity in hell). However, in order to have actual, practical victory over sin in your daily Christian life, you must allow Christ to have complete control of your thoughts, motives, and actions. You must go to God daily in prayer, and ask Him for the strength to overcome sin. In order to overcome sin and temptation, you must continually trust in the One who overcame sin, death, and hell for you. Because Christ overcame the world, you can overcome, too if you will abide in Him, and draw your spiritual strength from Him. Are you struggling with sin, Christian? If so, please realise that you can overcome that temptation. In Christ, you have the victory. Perhaps you have never been saved. If so, please realise that trying to clean up your life, or to stop sinning, won t save you. (See Ephesians 2:8-9.) Salvation is a gift of God, which Christ purchased for you with His blood. You can t buy it, or earn it; you must receive it by simple faith in Christ and what He did for you. Won t you let go of your own works and your own righteousness, and believe on Him? If you will call on Him in faith, and ask Him to save you from all your sins, you will enter into a relationship with Him; and He will make you an overcomer.