Take your heart back, and be of good cheer...

“Overcoming”

(John 16:29-33, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 31, 2010)

John 16:29-33 His disciples said, "Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! ³⁰ Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God." ³¹ Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? ³² Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. ³³ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart**; I have overcome the world."

**Look at the use of this expression in Matthew 9:22 and Mark 6:50 and consider the meaning: take heart, take courage, be of good cheer… How does someone lose heart?

Q: What encouragement does Jesus give His disciples concerning the tribulation of the world?

A: "Take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

– Is your true happiness in this life in the absence of tribulation, or in the overcoming of it?

Now we know… (29-30)

The first few verses of this passage may seem unnecessary. They make the disciples look over-confident. Maybe that’s why we need to hear them.

Jesus is going to the cross very shortly. The entire next chapter is Jesus’ prayer. After that comes the Lord’s arrest and death. So this is it for the disciples… These overconfident words, “Now we know,” and “We believe” are their last words recorded before the return of Judas as a traitor. Very soon they will look like people who do not know up from down, who do not believe in themselves or anyone else, and who could not overcome anything. They will all run away.

When they say, “Now we know,” and “We believe,” they seem to be responding to something Jesus said. He said, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” Is this what they know and believe?

“I came from the Father.” No one else has ever done that. Every person after Adam and Eve had no beginning until one cell met another cell. Jesus became man, but somehow, He was who He was before that in heaven with the Father. “I have come into the world.” That is plain enough. They have been with Him in the world. They are witnesses of His life, His words, and His miracles. “Now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” This can’t be very clear to them. What could He mean?

Yet the disciples make it sound like suddenly everything is all clear for them for the first time. He has told them before this point about how he will leave the world and something about how he will go to the Father, but they have never really known how to deal with His statements. Taking in a fact in the deepest way can take some time. The way that Jesus is going to leave the world and go to the Father will be first through His death and then through His rising from the dead. There is nothing plain or easy to understand about death and resurrection.

They may finally accept in some way some of what He has said. They say they know that Jesus knows all things, and that they do not need to question Him. They say they know that Jesus came from God. But how well do any of us here today really know something like that? How much do we really trust God? When you face some difficult trouble, in your heart, are you aware that Jesus knows all things? Do you question God about what He is doing in your life? Do you trust Jesus with everything as the One who came from God and went back again?

Do you now believe? (31-32)

I suppose the disciples could be lying when they say, “Now we know,” and “We believe,” but I don’t think so. I think they really mean it, but I think that they don’t have an appropriate sense of their own weakness. Very soon their lives will not be a great display of their knowledge or their faith. They will be scattered. They will go home. They will not even be together. They will leave Him. He will be alone. Jesus knows that, and this is why He says, “Do you now believe?” He knows that they do not believe as much as they may think they believe.

His disciples will abandon Him, but Jesus says, “The Father is with me.” Who can really understand what it was like between the Father and the Son during that awful moment when Jesus took our sins and became the sacrifice for us, turning away the wrath of God? We do know what He said on the cross from Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?” But do you know all of what that means? Do you trust in it as you ought to?

Peace and victory in Jesus Christ (33)

Jesus does not seem overly impressed with the power of their “Now we know,” and “We believe.” He is deliberately telling them that their knowing and believing will be shown to be very weak. It will not be the source of the “overcoming” that they need. Sometimes we think that our knowing and believing is what carries us through life. But is it strong enough to do that?

There is a different answer that is much better than this, a far more powerful answer. Jesus says it in verse 33: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” The strength they need will be in Him and not in their own knowing and believing. In His Word and in Jesus Himself the disciples will have peace. In His Word and in Him they will overcome the world.

What is the world? Sometimes that word is used to talk about those who do not believe. Sometimes it is used to talk about this life (as opposed to the next) where we do not know and believe as well as might imagine. Sometimes it means both of these things together. In this passage Jesus is distinguishing the world from where He is going. He came from heaven into the world to do something. He is almost done. He is leaving the world and going back to the Father.

The world is a place where we regularly overestimate how much we know and how well we believe, and where life has proven to us that our strength is not what we thought it once was. The world is a place where we disappoint ourselves. But be of good cheer, take courage, take back your heart, because Jesus has overcome all of that. He has overcome the world.

Jesus is no ordinary man who thinks He knows, but He doesn’t really know, who is sure He believes, but is later embarrassed by what He said and what He did. Jesus is God, and He is speaking to you in His powerful Word. You shall overcome in Him and in His Word.

There is a big difference between trusting in the strength of your own knowing and believing and trusting in Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, has overcome the world. He has told you this so that you can have peace: All the overcoming you need in life is here for you in Him. Starting from the strength and security of the peace that is yours in Christ, now take heart, know, believe, and spread some cheer in a world that has tribulation. The opportunity is yours. Some examples…

1. What do the disciples seem to understand?

2. Why have they not understood these things already?

3. Do they understand even now? Do they believe now?

4. What does Jesus mean when He talks about the “world” in this passage?