The Last Word

Trinity Church Tamworth

I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD Trinity John 16:25-33 24.03.24 What would it look like if I could show on a graph how I have followed the Lord Jesus for 65 years? At age 11, when the story began, I didn’t know much … so I’ve learnt a bit since then. Just small faith in 1958, but some growth through to 2024. A few small sacrifices along the way, but nothing world-shattering. Then I’d have to put in the losses … compromises, tangents, unbelief, inconsistencies and sins. The upward trend suddenly looks more jagged. I think the graph for Jesus’ disciples in John 16 looks a lot like mine. Pretty ordinary for the most part? I think so. A lot of talk, but not much delivered when the heat is on. For every one thing they ‘get’, there are 10 they do not. Two weeks back we were with them in John 16:17, they thought they had a lot worked out, but they missed some simple things. Jesus had said “In a little while you will not see me … and then in a little while you will.” “What does he mean?” they keep asking (v18). So, he tells them. So that they think they now get it … “now we believe” (30). Really? … “Do you now believe?” (v31) If they do, they do not believe very deeply. As much as they think they have grown over the past 1000 days and nights with Jesus, they aren’t as sure or as reliable as they might think … “Behold the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone.” (v32) Now I need to say something here that is very important before we say anything else about their failure. Their failure is very real. These are the men who had been so full of talk: “Yes, I’ll die with you.” “No, I’ll never deny you.” “We will follow you wherever you go.” However, not one of them is there even when it is time to remove his body from the cross. What will Jesus do with them? You may be a follower of Jesus and you are only 6 or 10 years old, or you are a starter in your 40’s or 50’s. You have been following him for 50 years and you know you are way short of where you ought to be by now. Does he write off children, or beginners of any age? Is he harsh or dismissive of weak faith? Faith can be weak and inconsistent, but still be true faith. Jesus does not mock the man who said to him “Lord I believe; help my unbelief.” Or the faith of children. Or of others who are not the big hitters, but who have small faith. Or of faith that fails under pressure, as it did for these men. Just because faith is shallow, or is uneven, that does not mean it is not genuine faith. I am not talking about any old faith, as though it does not matter what you believe, so long as you believe something. No, genuine faith has genuine content, like it did for these weak, soon-to-be-running-away disciples. The faith they had was true faith. Look at verse 27: “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.” Friends, true faith has true content, and it is so important that Jesus repeats the content again, and again and again. Who is this Jesus whom they have believed and loved? v27c “I came from God”. v28a “I came from the Father”. v28b “now I am leaving the world and going to the Father”. v32b “… you will leave me alone is. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.” Jesus has come into time from his Father in eternity – and is soon to go back again to his Father in that eternity. Even now, in time, intimately connected with, one with his Father, in a relationship that cannot be broken. Here is more than a man. Here is the eternal God. To see him is to see God … to hear him is to hear God … to believe him is to believe God. Conversely, to resist or reject him is to resist or reject the Living God. This is the content of the only faith that is real, and which truly matters: Jesus is eternal God. That is basic to all real faith. People believe all kinds of things … • I’ll get that job, or have that money, or be healed • Islam is true and Allah is real • God will accept me because I am such a nice person • if I jump off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I’ll fly rather than hit the water with a thud Believing something doesn’t make it true and believing it earnestly doesn’t make it valid. True faith has true content. It’s based in true truth and is light years away from wishful thinking or delusion. These men have been with him for 1000 days and nights.  They saw the five bread rolls and two sardines in is hands feed 10,000 people – they were the ones who collected a truckload of leftovers after the crowd couldn’t eat any more.  They heard him give orders to man-killing, ship-sinking waves.  They were there when a four-day dead man got out of his grave.  They saw him do and heard him say what only God does and says. They were far from perfect: they didn’t know everything, and they baled out when they should not have, but they knew that Jesus is God. Fully God, and they loved him. They sure are on the graph, headed in the right direction, from the right starting point. There is so much they don’t get, however, and such failure and inconsistency. Yes, there is – just like there is in the best of us. Is there a deep spiritual secret we need to learn, to change all that? No. Jesus is taking them back to basics, yet again. Yes, they believe that he came from God the Father, and they love him. That’s verse 27. What does he go on to tell them? That he came from God with whom he is One. The way ahead is to go back to the start. Jesus is: • Not a second “god” – but the true and only God. • Not apart from God the Father, but one with him. • Not a part of creation, but Creator over it. I think that is the first of two things that they need to know: who Jesus is, but there is a second: what he does. We must be honest and say that it often does not seem as though Jesus is Lord and God. How can the Living God be shamed and mocked and hung on a cross under the curse of God? How can a thousand things happen in our world in the way that they do, if Jesus is Lord and God? How do we explain even the presence of a pretend god in this world, the one whom Jesus has ironically called “the ruler of this world” (Jn 16:11).  You’ve longed for your children, grandchildren, spouse, friends to come to Jesus – you’ve prayed for them and given them good books to read – and brought them to church … but it is as though they are trapped in darkness. They are. God says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel” (2 Cor 4:4)  You wonder why, now that you follow Jesus, it’s not just a story of one victory after another. That is because it is a fight all the way … “your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) … and we are wrestling against “the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph 6:12b).  Why are so many good plans frustrated, and happy things spoilt? It is because the devil “has the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14).  Why is there so much grief and sadness in this world? It is because people (mostly unknowingly) “follow the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). There is only one instruction in our verses this morning. It is spoken to us as much as to these prototype disciples. Just 2 words in English and 1 in the original: “take heart” (v33). Why say that? Because it’s tough in this world. Because there is “tribulation” here and now. Because failure takes the heart out of us. Because not having all the answers takes the heart out of us. Because seeing the inroads of Satan in the lives of others and in our world, and in our own hearts, takes the heart out of us. How do we take heart? By unlocking our inner potential? Getting a healthier diet? Just lowering the bar, and settling for the way things are? Pretending things are better than they are? Jesus says, “Take heart; I have overcome the world”. Will the blindness of unbelief be broken? Yes. Will the ruler of this world and the forces of evil be completely banished, and sunk into hell? Yes. Will death and decay be reversed? Yes. Totally.  It started when Jesus pushed back death at the grave of Lazarus, when he said, “Now will the ruler of this world be judged.” (John 11:31), as a taste of the reversal to come.  It started when thousands had a banquet as a taste of the one that was coming.  It started when he smashed the power of the storm and people had a smell of the smashing to come. It ultimately happened when he smashed the power of sin, death, and Satan in his dying. On the day he opened heaven for all the men and women and boys and girls whom his Father loved. The day when His Father’s kingdom became his by right. The reality of all that which we know now, in part, we will one day very soon know in full … with only light, no darkness, with joy, no tears, with perfection and no sin or failure. What about now? Right now? We are not waiting for Jesus to send in an army or fight some decisive battle. He has done that already. We are waiting for the day when he will return and throw Satan and sin and failure and ignorance and every other ugly thing into the Pit of Hell to be sealed up forever. That day is not here yet – but it is just “a little while” away. There is nothing uncertain about it. Jesus says, “I have overcome the world” and “the ruler of this world is judged” (16:11). Will the forces against Jesus win? No. Will unbelief triumph? No. Is the kingdom of God secure forever? Absolutely. So, the graph of your record of Jesus is all over the place. Does that matter? It does, but it is not decisive. What is decisive is the Jesus to whom you are connected: 1. Who he is … God, fully and totally. 2. What he has done … Lord who has overcome the world. I’ll bet the disciples were glad to know that … and to remember that that changed everything for them from here on. I’ll bet you are also glad to know that … and to rest in Jesus, the overcomer of this world, no matter what is to come.