{"id":18713,"date":"2014-09-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/jesus-our-overcomer\/"},"modified":"2014-09-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T05:00:00","slug":"jesus-our-overcomer","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/jesus-our-overcomer\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Our Overcomer"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[434],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18713","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-john","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Jesus Our Overcomer","sermon_date":"20140928","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2014","sermon_notes":9301,"sermon_slides":9302,"sermon_mp3":9303,"sermon_id":"928141112571","series_or_event":434,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"16:29-33","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\nJesus, Our Overcomer\nJohn 16:29-33 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Lesson 96 \u00a0 \u00a0 (9-28-14)\nGood morning everyone. \u00a0If we could take our Bibles and open them to John\u2019s Gospel, John 16, looking this morning at verses 29-33 as time permits. \u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Jesus, our Overcomer.\n\n\nWe, as you know, hopefully, (if you don\u2019t \u00a0know there\u2019s nothing more I can do about it), have been teaching through John\u2019s Gospel. \u00a0And John, of course, as we know by this point, writes a book documenting who Jesus Christ is as evidenced by His signs so that men might believe and have the gift of life. \u00a0Now one of the things that we\u2019ve mentioned, not as frequently, perhaps, but you\u2019ll see the word \u201cbelieve\u201d there and then you\u2019ll also see the word \u201cbelieving. \u00a0 So John\u2019s Gospel is not just for the unbeliever to beleiver. \u00a0What we discover is it\u2019s for the believer, that\u2019s the person that\u2019s already a Christian, to keep on growing.\nAnd so what we\u2019re going to discover in our verses this morning is Jesus has a program of growth for us. \u00a0In other words, the agenda of Jesus Christ is not just to get us saved; that is the opening salvo of his agenda but there\u2019s a whole new program in store for us to get us to keep developing and maturing and growing. \u00a0And we will see that come out very clearly this morning, I believe, in verses 29-33.\n\n\nWe are in a section of John\u2019s Gospel where that believing element is brought out very clearly since Jesus is interacting with the eleven believing disciples. \u00a0And we see that in the Upper Room Discourse, chapters 13-17. \u00a0The people that Jesus is speaking to here are those who are already believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. \u00a0He is not content just to leave them as immature believers. \u00a0He wants the faith that is inside of them to continue to progress, continue to develop and continue to mature. \u00a0That is the tenor and tone that He\u2019s taking with these eleven in the Upper Room Discourse, chapters 13-17. We are in a section of the Upper Room Discourse, chapter 16, and by God\u2019s grace we\u2019re going to try to finish chapter 16 today, although I can\u2019t guarantee that. But there are basically three rounds of conversation taking place.\n\nWe are in that third conversation. The conversation has two parts to it. \u00a0Number 1, the disciples talk, verses 29-30. \u00a0They acknowledge some things that Jesus is speaking plainly to them and Jesus is the Son of God or came from God. \u00a0Then in verses 31-33 He says to them, in essence, I\u2019m glad that you beieve but I want your faith that is inside of you to continue to mature and develop. \u00a0And so He gives them, what I would consider from the human point of view, to be bad news. \u00a0The bad news is in verses 31-33. \u00a0Actually it\u2019s not bad, but it\u2019s interpreted as bad news from the human point of view. \u00a0Then at the end of verse 33 He gives them the good news.\n\n\nSo let\u2019s take a look this morning at our verses, beginning in verses 29-30 as the disciples begin to speak back to Jesus Christ. \u00a0Notice, if you will, verse 29, \u00a0\u201cHis disciples said, \u2018Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.\u201d \u00a0So apparently they have been satisfied with His answer that He has given them to their question. \u00a0Their question actually goes back to verse 17 and a little bit into verse 19 when they began to ask him, what is this talk you are giving us regarding Your soon departure and then Your coming back again and then You\u2019re leaving.\n\nSo He has explained to them what is about to happen, a concept that will be revolutionary for them, His death, burial, and then following His death would be His resurrection. \u00a0And then after that would be His ascension. \u00a0He has explained that program to them, which is about to happen in their immediate future and they are satisfied with a clear answer from God.\n\nHe talks, there in verse 30, or they begin to say in verse 30, or they begin to acknowledge something. \u00a0Notice if you will verse 30, it says, \u201cNow we know that You know all things and have no need for anyone to question You,\u201d so there is an acknowledgement amongst these disciples that Jesus knew all of the spiritual things He had disclosed to them. \u00a0It\u2019s been a tough road for these eleven in terms of their transition but they are more and more accepting the things that come from God.\n\nAnd then they say something else there in verse 30, \u201cby this we believe that you came from God.\u201d \u00a0So they are acknowledging here that Jesus is speaking plainly to them; they are acknowledging here that Jesus has come from God. \u00a0This idea that Jesus has come from God is not a new truth, it\u2019s disclosed all the way through John\u2019s Gospel. \u00a0You recall John 3:16, \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,\u201d and these disciples are acknowledging that Jesus has come from above, He has come from heaven, He has come from God, and they even use this word \u201cbelieve.\u201d \u00a0 We \u201cbelieve\u201d it. \u00a0Now many people read this and they say well, this is where they became believers for the very first time. \u00a0And may I just say to you that is not at all what this is teaching. \u00a0There isn\u2019t any doubt, there isn\u2019t any question that these eleven are already believers.\nHow do I know that? \u00a0Because Jesus called them in John 15:2, a chapter earlier, \u201cbranches in Me.\u201d \u00a0And then in verse 3 He said, \u201cYou are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.\u201d \u00a0They were already clean. \u00a0They were already branches in Him.\n\nWell, if they were already clean and already branches in Him, how do we make any sense of verse 30 when they said \u201cBy this we believe that You came from God.\u201d \u00a0It is not saying that they became believers for the very first time. \u00a0What rather it is communicating is that they were developing a fuller conviction or persuasion for the truth that they already believed.\nYou see, there\u2019s a difference between watching a movie in black and white and there\u2019s a difference between watching that same movie in color. \u00a0Black and white you only pick up certain things, it\u2019s still the same movie, but in color the details are more readily apparent and you enjoy the movie much more. \u00a0In essence Jesus is moving people from simply being black and white or superficial or immature in their faith to a fuller assurance and a fuller conviction of who He is. \u00a0Their initial faith was real. \u00a0Their initial faith was genuine, but Jesus has in mind a program where He wants the faith that\u2019s already existent in them to develop all the more. \u00a0And so what is happening to these eleven is they are trusting in more and more and more of the truth that they are learning. \u00a0It is not saying that they are trusting in Christ the very first time, so as to become believers.\n\nDo you remember what the very first miracle of Jesus, that\u2019s recorded in John\u2019s Gospel, the water to wine at Cana of Galilee at that wedding? \u00a0Remember what it says there in John 2:11, it says, \u201cThis beginning o His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.\u201d \u00a0Now I believe that they became believers all the way back in chapter 1, so what then is happening in chapter 2? \u00a0The truth that they had trusted in is now being brought to a fuller leverl of growth and a fuller level of maturity. \u00a0So as you go through John\u2019s Gospel it keeps saying they believed in Him, they believed in Him, over and over again. \u00a0In other words, they\u2019re developing or they\u2019re growing or they\u2019re maturing in their faith.\n\n\nJesus, as He begins to speak to them, in verses 31-33, acknowledges this but first He gives them some bad news from the human point of view. \u00a0It actually is not bad news from the divine point of view, it is a reality that is going to come into their lives that will allow their faith to mature even more. \u00a0From the human point of view it\u2019s bad news because it\u2019s uncomfortable; from the divine point of view it\u2019s actually good news because it is the tool that God is going to use to deepen their faith. \u00a0It\u2019s like when you\u2019re wife or husband or mom or dad, daughter, son, says to you, do you want the bad news first or the good news first. \u00a0I typically prefer the bad news first, at least I can end on a positive note is my thinking.\n\nBut He, in essence, is giving them what they would probably consider to be bad news. \u00a0Notice what He begins to say there in verse 31, John 16:31, \u201cJesus answered them, \u2018Do you now believe?\u201d \u00a0Question mark! \u00a0He is not questioning, as I said a moment ago, their initial salvation; that\u2019s not what He\u2019s questioning when He says, \u201cDo you now believe?\u201d \u00a0Because we know that anybody, going back to the purpose statement in John\u2019s Gospel, anyone who trusts in this man, Jesus Christ, based on His signs has, present tense, the gift of life, John 20:31. \u00a0John 15:3 He said, \u201cYou are already clean,\u201d a chapter earlier, \u201cbecause of the word which I have spoken to you.\u201d \u00a0The only disciple who\u2019s salvation is in doubt, this man, Judas, has left the Upper Room. \u00a0John 13:30. So when Jesus says \u201cDo you now believe,\u201d He\u2019s not saying to them I really don\u2019t think you do believe. All the way through, when we study the Bible in context He is acknowledging that the faith that is within them is genuine and it is real.\n\nSo what is Jesus saying here in verse 31, \u201cDo you now believe?\u201d \u00a0Question mark! \u00a0What He is questioning is the depth of their faith. \u00a0What He is questioning is the maturity of their faith. \u00a0What He is questioning is the growth of their faith. \u00a0And you see, this has tremendous application for us today. \u00a0Why is that? \u00a0Because God is never satisfied with our current level of faith. \u00a0Yes, we have faith in the man, Jesus Christ and we have the gift of life. \u00a0And we think that\u2019s it, right? \u00a0No, that\u2019s not it. \u00a0What God begins to do is He begins to orchestrate your life in such a way that He puts you into circumstances that are bigger than yourself. \u00a0You say well, how do I know God is at work in my life? \u00a0Here\u2019s how you know; you\u2019re in the middle of a circumstance that\u2019s bigger than you to solve or mastermind or figure out; it\u2019s beyond both your intellect, it\u2019s beyond your strength. \u00a0And that is there by the divine design of God because if you were not in the middle of that you would not have to trust God.\n\nI find that as a sinful human beings we trust God only as a last resort. \u00a0I try to figure out, if something goes awry in my life I try to scheme and manipulate and figure out every which way I can to get out of it. \u00a0And finally at the point of our finitude because we\u2019re exhausted in trying to figure it out, we finally say well, I guess I\u2019m just going to have to trust God with it and God says thumbs up, that\u2019s what I wanted all along. \u00a0In fact, I put that circumstance in your life to get the faith results that I am looking for. \u00a0God is never satisfied with where we are. \u00a0He is pleased with where we have come but He is not satisfied with where we are.\n\nDo you remember the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, \u201cAnd without faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please Him.\u201d \u00a0One of the things to understand about God is He deals with us totally on the basis of faith, which means the faith that is already in you is very precious to God and God will not let that faith atrophe, He wants that faith to develop, to mature and to grow. \u00a0Faith is a lot like a muscle on your body. \u00a0If your body, let\u2019s say your leg, or legs are still because \u00a0you\u2019ve had some kind of accident let\u2019s say, if they are still for a long period of time the muscles on those legs, those leg muscles will atrophe. \u00a0If you don\u2019t use it you lose it. \u00a0That\u2019s why doctors now are trying to get patients more involved in rehabilitation, exercises. \u00a0The last thing they want is for you to just stay still because the positions, and the medical doctors know that one of the great proofs of healing is movement. \u00a0And so after that cast is off they\u2019ll usually\u2026 I\u2019m not a medical doctor but there will usually be some kind of rehabilitational exercises, physical fitness, because if you don\u2019t use it you lose it.\n\nFaith is the same way, it\u2019s a muscle; if the muscle is not actively used it will atrophe. \u00a0God will not allow our faith to atrophe because \u201cwithout faith it is impossible to please God.\u201d \u00a0[Hebrews 11:6] \u00a0And so consequently what Jesus begins describing is the circumstances that are about to come into the lives of these eleven so that their faith, which is very precious to God will continue to grow. \u00a0You\u2019ll notice there in verse 31, He asks the question, \u201cDo you now believe? \u00a0I\u2019m happy that you have acknowledged Me and believed in Me thus far, but I am unhappy, Jesus in essence is saying to them, with the maturity of your faith, with the depth of your faith, with the quality of your faith. \u00a0So now I will orchestrate things in your lives whereby that faith will develop.\n\nHe begins to speak to this in verse 33, \u201cThese things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace. \u00a0Actually I skipped verse 32 didn\u2019t I, I went right to verse 33. \u00a0Here\u2019s what I meant to say. \u00a0\u201cBehold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be sdcattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.\u201d\n\nWhat is about to happen is a problem is about to come into your life; in fact, an hour is coming. \u00a0Now this hour, I believe, primarily speaks of the final week of Christ\u2019s life, the passion week, when the disciples\u2019 faith would be tested to the maximum sense. \u00a0Their program for Jesus Christ is the coming Kingdom and we want to see it right now. A whole other program is about to be unfolded. \u00a0In fact, it\u2019s difficult for them to even understand it but as it unfolds the question is, are they going to continue to trust in God when they can\u2019t understand everything. \u00a0And that really is the question in your life, it\u2019s the question in my life. \u00a0Are we going to continue to trust God in the midst of life\u2019s circumstances when we can\u2019t make heads nor tales of what is happening to us.\n\n\u201c\u2026an hour is coming,\u201d and notice what He says, \u201cand now is,\u201d verse 32. \u00a0The hour was descending on them. \u00a0Why is that? \u00a0Because Judas, John 13, had already set in motion the plan by which Jesus Christ would be betrayed. \u00a0The \u201chour is coming\u201d and now is, the plan is already moving, in which you will be scattered, each to his own home,\u201d or \u201ceach to his own.\u201d \u00a0Being scattered refers to a force greater than yourself that is going to come into your life and push you beyond your comfort zone. \u00a0When we are pushed beyond our comfort zone we know that is the hand of God in our lives because He is developing something in us which is precious.\n\nVerse 32, \u201cBehold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered each to his own home, and to leave Me alone;\u201d all of you are acknowledging Me as the Messiah now, when it\u2019s comfortable and easy, but what is about to happen is the moment the fires of the trial hit you will virtually leave me alone and when that happens that trial will evidence, or demonstrate the immaturity of your faith. \u00a0We do not test the quality of our faith when everything is rosy.\n\nAnybody can trust God in good times but what is the depth, what is the level, what is the quality of our faith when things done go the way we think they ought to go? \u00a0What is the depth, what is the level, what is the maturity, what is the quality of our faith when we go through a valley? \u00a0That\u2019s where you determine where you\u2019re at with God, not in terms of initial faith but in terms of the maturity of one\u2019s faith. \u00a0Is Christianity to you just a black and white movie? \u00a0Or is Christianity to you something much more in depth, is it technicolor? \u00a0How we respond to God, not in good times but in the scattering times, by and large, will determine the depth and the quality of our faith.\nIt is interesting here that Jesus makes a short term prediction; the hour is descending upon you when you will be scattered. \u00a0 Now one of the things to watch about Jesus, as He ministers to these elveven, is the number of the short term predictions that He gives. \u00a0You remember what He said in John 13:19, very early on in the Upper Room Discourse? \u00a0\u201cFrom now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.\u201d \u00a0Just in case there are any lingering doubts in your mind concerning My true identity I\u2019m going to give you a series of short term predictions. \u00a0Some of those predictions involve your scattering, some of those predictions involve my betrayal, some of those predictions involve Judas and what he will do to Me. \u00a0And as the scattering comes you won\u2019t understand it all but when it\u2019s all said and done you\u2019ll be able to look back and you\u2019ll be able to say wow, Jesus predicted all of it.\n\nSo He is using these short term predictions to expand the quality of their faith as well, because only God knows the end from the beginning, and the beginning from the end. \u00a0Only God can tell them what is going to happen tomorrow and then lo and behold tomorrow happens just like God said. \u00a0What other person in the history of the world have you ever come across, Jesus is saying to them in essence, that has this power of predictive prophecies. \u00a0We talk about the predictive prophecies about the end of the age and those are fascinating to study but here He is giving them short term things, things that are going to happen within days, within weeks, as further evidence of who He is.\nOne of the guys that is about to be tested to the maximum is this guy named Peter. \u00a0Remember what Peter said in John 13:37-38? \u00a0\u201cPeter said to Him, \u2018Lord, where are You going?\u2019 \u00a0Jesus answered, \u2018Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.\u2019 \u00a0[37] Peter said to Him, \u2018Lord, why can I not follow You right now? \u00a0I will lay down my life for You.\u2019\u201d \u00a0And Jesus must have been thinking to Himself that\u2019s a joke. \u00a0Verse 38, \u201cJesus answered, \u2018Will you lay down your life for Me? \u00a0Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied Me three times.\u201d \u00a0Peter, you\u2019ve come a long way, your trusting in Me but your faith muscle is very flabby. \u00a0It\u2019s very immature. \u00a0And to demonstrate to you the weakness of your faith I am about to put you through a series of circumstances through which you, who just said you\u2019ll lay down your life for Me, you are actually about to deny Me, not once, not twice, but three times.\n\nDid Peter develop through this crisis? \u00a0Did he develop through this experience. \u00a0You bet your bottom dollar that he did. \u00a0How do I know that? \u00a0Because when you get to Acts 1-10 there isn\u2019t a more important guy in the life of the early church than Peter. \u00a0You look at all of the major sermons that are recorded and all of the major decisions that are made in Acts 1-10 and you\u2019ll discover Peter is the instrument that God is using. \u00a0In fact, according to tradition it is Peter who will be crucified upside down decades later so as to glorify God. \u00a0This man, who was so weak in faith, would become a stalwart of the Christian cause.\n\nYou see, that\u2019s what God is doing with you. \u00a0That\u2019s what God is doing with me. \u00a0He looks into your future and He says there is so much I want to through you but your level of faith is so infantile, your level of faith is so immature, that I cannot use you the way I want so we will develop the faith muscle through a series of crises and difficulties because God never looked at Peter the way he was, He looked at him based on what He would become. \u00a0And that\u2019s how He looks at me and that\u2019s how He looks at you.\n\nPeter, decades later in his epistle called 1 Peter, would learn his lesson because he would write these words, \u201cIn this you greatly rejoice, even though for now, for a little while if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials.\u201d \u00a0[1 Peter 1:6] \u00a0He\u2019s writing to a flock of believers who are about to go into the first imperial persecution against Christianity, the Neronian persecution. \u00a0And He tells them that you are being beset by various trials. \u00a0Why is that? [verse 7] \u00a0\u201cso that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nHe describes the way God matures out faith using this analogy of the refiner\u2019s fire. \u00a0Not every reference to fire in the New Testament is talking about hell. \u00a0This is not talking about the fires of hell. \u00a0This, instead, is talking about something called the refiner\u2019s fire. \u00a0A refiner\u2019s fire is designed, not to destroy that which it is refining. \u00a0 The only thing the refiner\u2019s fire can do is to purify that which it is refining. \u00a0 That is the trial that Peter is about to go through. \u00a0He could look back on it decades later and he could see it as a refiner\u2019s fire. \u00a0It did not destroy their faith, what it did is it brought that faith, which was immature, into a greater state of maturity.\n\nThe Lord was not satisfied with Peter\u2019s level of faith when He spoke to him in the Upper Room Discourse. \u00a0And so the refiner\u2019s fire was set in motion. \u00a0The Lord is not happy with your level of faith. \u00a0The Lord is not happy with my level of faith. \u00a0He certainly is pleased with our progress but He is not content with where we are. \u00a0And that will be the case until your dying day in Christ. \u00a0You will make great strides and great progress in God but God will never sit and look and say well, they\u2019ve arrived. \u00a0We do not arrive until we enter glorification. \u00a0In the meantime faith is always a candidate for greater development.\n\nYou say well, I thought the Lord loved us as we are. \u00a0He does! \u00a0He loves you as you are, but you know what? \u00a0He loves you too much to leave you like you are. \u00a0He looks at me and He loves me as I am but He loves me too much to leave me as I am. \u00a0The refiner\u2019s fire, therefore, being a necessity to bring that faith, without which it is impossible to please God, to a greater level of development.\n\nAs you look back on your life you\u2019ll have to acknowledge this point, that the times you grew the most as a believer were not times where you were on the mountaintop. \u00a0I love the mountaintop experiences in God, I wouldn\u2019t change the mountaintop experiences in God for anything but I have noticed, at least in my own life, that you can enjoy the mountaintop and then God says okay, we\u2019re going down again. \u00a0We\u2019re going through yet another valley. \u00a0And as you go through the valleys of life and the mountaintop experiences in life you\u2019ll have to admit that you grow the most in the valley. \u00a0We simply do not grow on the mountaintop. \u00a0Why is that? \u00a0Because on the mountaintop you\u2019ve got everything figured out right? \u00a0If you\u2019ve got everything figured out why do you have to trust God. \u00a0If you\u2019re on the mountaintop too long the faith muscle which is in you begins to become flabby and it begins to atrophe. \u00a0And mountaintops to valleys to mountaintops to valleys to mountaintops to valleys will be, as you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the pattern of your life till your dying day.\n\nThat\u2019s why there is so much in the New Testament about \u201cConsider it pure joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.\u201d \u00a0[James 1:2] \u00a0How foreign an idea that is to us, to be joyful in the midst of trials. \u00a0Joy in the midst of trials is something which can only happen as we look at our lives thorugh the divine grid and the divine blueprint.\n\nAnd then Jesus says once this scattering comes and you are driven \u201ceach to his own home,\u201d you that told me that you would lay down your lives for Me, He says to me you will go and you will \u201cleave\nMe alone.\u201d \u00a0And notice what else He says here, ,\u201dyet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.\u201d\n\n\nDid you know that within the Trinity, except for one exception, there was never a schism between God the Father and God the Son? \u00a0Did you know that God the Father was with God the Son until the very end? \u00a0The eleven certainly weren\u2019t. \u00a0But God the Father was.\nNow you say what was that one exception. \u00a0The only exception is when Jesus became the sin-bearer for the world\u2019s sins. \u00a0Remember what He said in Matthew 27:46, \u201cAbout the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice,\u201d and it gives the Aramaic expression, [\u201cEli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani?\u201d] which is translated, \u201cMy God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?\u201d \u00a0 This is why Jesus did not want to, I believe, in His human sense go through with the ordeal of the cross. \u00a0He knew that as He went through the ordeal of the cross and that the sin debt of the world was transferred to Him and God the Father was pouring out His wrath on God the Son, for our sins, that there would be a momentary rupture in the fellowship between God the Father and God the Son.\n\n2 Corinthians 5:21 says, \u201cHe made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,\u201d He did not sin but He became sin in the sense that He became the sin-bearer. \u00a0There was a moment in time in which God the Father poured out His wrath on God the Son for the sins of the entire world. \u00a0But even that transaction itself was temporary. \u00a0As we will be studying, beginning next week most likely, there is a prayer that follows in John 17 where Jesus prays that when it\u2019s all said and done I want to be restored to that position of glory that I had with You before the world was. \u00a0This bearing the sin debt of the world was temporal. \u00a0And other than that brief fracture in the Trinity, God the Father, was always with God the Son. \u00a0Jesus is saying it doesn\u2019t matter if you believe Me, and in fact, you will leave Me, but the Father never will.\n\nAnd this becomes a very important principle for us to understand. \u00a0People will let you down. \u00a0Proverbs 18:24 says, \u201cA man of too many friends comes to ruin,\u201d be careful about loading up your friends list on Facebook. \u00a0\u201cA man of too manyf riends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.\u201d \u00a0Isaiah 43:2 puts it this way: \u00a0\u201cWhen you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. \u00a0When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you.\u201d \u00a0Now why was that? \u00a0Because God would be with us in the midst of trials.\n\nI am reminded of the book of Daniel, Daniel 3:24-25, where Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego were thrown into the firey furnace. \u00a0Remember that story? Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian kind, who threw them into that fire looked into the fire. \u00a0Daniel 3:24-25 records what Nebuchadnezzar saw. \u00a0\u201cThen Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and he stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, \u2018Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?\u2019 \u00a0They replied to the king, \u2018Certainly, O king.\u201d \u00a0[26] He said, \u2018Look! \u00a0I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearnce of the fourth is like a son of the gods!\u2019\u201d \u00a0Isn\u2019t that great.\n\nIn the most difficult of times of your life, where people disappoint because people are tainted by the same sin nature that besets you and besets all of us, isn\u2019t it great that no matter how many people desert you have promises from God that He will not desert you. \u00a0And there are promises like this all over the Bible.\n\nMatthew 28:20, as Jesus is giving the great commission to the disciples, He says, \u201cteaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d \u00a0Spoken to eleven people that were about, as the decades unfolded, to be martyred for the cause of Christ; rejected by the things of this world, rejected by the dignitaries and the higher-ups of this world. \u00a0And yet through it all, I will be with you, \u201ceven to the end of the age.\u201d\n\nHebrews 13:5 comforts those who lost financial prosperity because of persecution from unbelieving Jews. \u00a0They lost their homes. \u00a0Maybe some of you within the sound of my voice this past year have had a monumental loss of some sort, family, friends, economics, property. \u00a0The author of Hebrews says this: \u201cMake sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, \u2018I will never,\u201d now \u201cnever\u201d means never. \u00a0\u201c\u2026I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake You.\u201d\n\nThe fact of the matter is man can disappoint; family can disappoint, God forbid the church of Jesus Christ can be a real bummer sometimes. \u00a0There are people in the church of Jesus Christ that are just regular ordinary people and because they are regular ordinary people they will disappoint you as well. \u00a0If you have a church you have problems, right? \u00a0Because people are in a church and as long as people are in a church there\u2019s going to be problems. \u00a0Now if you don\u2019t have any people in your church then you\u2019ve got another problem. \u00a0But as long as there\u2019s people with flesh, like you have, there will be disappointments, there will be bruised feelings. \u00a0There will be people that you trust in and they just don\u2019t follow through.\n\nWhat does Psalm 27:10 say in the midst of that? \u00a0\u201cFor my father and mother have forsaken me,\u201d now father and mother is your most important relationship in your life besides your marriage and your children. \u00a0Father and mother is everything to a person. \u00a0\u201cFor my father and my mother,\u201d and it\u2019s so tragic to see people that have been rejected by their own parents for whatever reason, that happens. \u00a0\u201cFor my father and my mother have forsaken me,\u201d Psalm 27:10 says, \u201cbut the LORD will take me up.\u201d \u00a0The Lord will defend my case; the Lord will stand by me even if my own parents desert me.\n\nThere is a big difference between understamding these things intellectually and understanding these things experientially and that is the devlopment between an immature faith to a mature faith. \u00a0You see, the person with the immature faith says I know all the verses, I\u2019ve got my theological boxes checked off, I know this and I know that and I can spit out the doctrines and spit out the Bible verses. \u00a0But you see, the Lord wants you to know the Bible verses but there\u2019s so much more in store. \u00a0He wants you to actually experience His presence in the midst of a dessertion.\n\nYou see, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego no doubt knew the theology well before they were thrown into the fiery furnace. \u00a0Daniel no doubt knew the theology well before he was thrown into the lion\u2019s den. \u00a0These disciples knew the theology well before the ordeal of the Passion Week was about to happen. \u00a0But once Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego went into the fire and they experienced the fourth man in that fire, who looks like the son of the gods, you\u2019re no longer dealing with intellect any more. \u00a0Intellect is important. \u00a0You\u2019re no longer dealing with academics any more. \u00a0You\u2019re no longer dealing with memorizing some data to pass a test because there\u2019s so much more than that. \u00a0You are now actually experiencing the presence of God rather than just knowing something intellectually.\n\nWhat is Jesus saying? \u00a0I want you to believe but I want you to keep on believing. \u00a0I want you to trust Me for salvation but I want you, as you grow in Christ to continue to experience the power and the presence of God in your life when things in your life, from the human point of view, seem to go south. \u00a0The difference between an intellectual understanding of the Bible and an experiential understanding of the Bible is all of the difference in the world. \u00a0That is growth from faith which exists, which is immature, to a vivacious faith, a bold faith, a faith which continues to trust in God over and over again despite the exigencies and the problems of life. \u00a0That is the difference between believe and believing. \u00a0That is the difference between black and white, watching the movie, and watching it in technicolor.\n\nAnd let me just say this from personal experience; God is not going to leave you alone until that faith that is inside of you starts to grow. \u00a0And if you don\u2019t understand that what you will begin to think is God has deserted you. \u00a0In reality God brings these things into our lives, not to hurt us but to refine us, much like the refining fire purifies. \u00a0These things are not designed to destroy. \u00a0These things are designed to purify, to build, to mature, to grow. \u00a0We\u2019re moving from intellect, God says,s to experience, are you ready? \u00a0You\u2019re not going to like it but in hindsight you will, here we go! \u00a0We\u2019re going through another valley. \u00a0But Lord, I\u2019m comfortable up here on the mountain top. \u00a0Sorry, that\u2019s not the divine program. \u00a0You want your permanent mountain top you can get that in glorification; you\u2019ll get primo real estate, believe me, on your mountain top. \u00a0But until you die and enter glory it is one mountain top to a valley, to a mountain top to a valley.\n\nAnd notice what Jesus begins to say in verse 33, \u201cThese things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.\u201d \u00a0What is peace? \u00a0Well, peace refers to our position before God. \u00a0Did you know that before we came to Christ we were at war with God, Romans 5:10 calls us God\u2019s enemies. \u00a0[Romans 5:10, \u201cFor if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.\u201d] \u00a0Now that we are in Christ by way of faith and our sin debt has been paid for we are at peace with God, Romans 5:1 says, \u201cTherefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d \u00a0Positional peace. \u00a0But there\u2019s more to it than that.\n\nPositional peace is one thing, that\u2019s the greatest thing you can have; there\u2019s something more though, called experiential peace. \u00a0Experiential peace is the tranquility that a person has the ability to experience in the midst of a storm. \u00a0Paul experienced it. \u00a0In Philippians 4:6-7 he says, \u201cBe anxious for nothing,\u201d nothing means nothing, \u201cbut in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. \u00a0Verse 7, \u201cAnd the peace of God,\u201d this is experience now, \u201cwhich surpasses all comprehension will guard your heart and your minds in Christ Jesus.\u201d\n\nPaul did not write those words from a place of comfort. \u00a0He was in a prison cell, largely unclear about what his future held as his case was being handled by Caesar. \u00a0And some of you are in a prison cell, maybe not physically but metaphorically, there are question marks regarding your future. \u00a0And yet Paul, in the midst of all of that could talk about a peace which surpasses all understanding. \u00a0That\u2019s the difference between intellect and experience, black and white and color.\n\n\u201cThese things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace.\u201d \u00a0I love the story of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. \u00a0Tonight if you come back I\u2019ll show you why there\u2019s storms there, there\u2019s a geographical reason. \u00a0Of the storm that is about to overtake a boat, I\u2019ll even show you tonight, not too much of a plug here, pictures of a Galilean fisherman\u2019s boat that they\u2019ve discovered. \u00a0So this storm overtakes them. \u00a0Jesus, Mark 4:38, was in the stern, what does it say, \u201casleep on the cushion\u201d. \u00a0[Mark 4:38, \u201cJesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, \u2018Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?\u201d]\n\nJesus Christ, in the midst of a storm was totally calm. \u00a0Can I ask you a question. \u00a0Where does Jesus live right now? \u00a0He lives inside of you, doesn\u2019t He? \u00a0Doesn\u2019t the book of Galatians, Galatians 2:20, doesn\u2019t Paul say \u201cit is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God\u2026.\u201d \u00a0Is not the same Jesus Christ who is asleep with his head on a cushion in the midst of a storm, is He not inside of you? \u00a0Is not God the same today, yesterday and tomorrow. \u00a0You put these things together, is this not an ability that we have as God\u2019s people to experience in the midst of difficulty not just a positional peace, which is always yours, but an experiential peace. \u00a0Is that not the differnce to believe to be saved and believing? \u00a0Is that not the difference between black and white and color? \u00a0Is that not the difference between intellect and experience? \u00a0That\u2019s the trajectory that God has us on.\n\nNotice verse 33, the words, the prepositional phrase \u201cin Me.\u201d \u00a0How do you get positional peace? \u00a0How do you get experiential peace? \u00a0May I just say it is only available through the Prince of Peace. \u00a0Probably the first lesson I ever got on this was in San Bernadino County around the year 1987-1988. \u00a0The reason I got this experience is because I needed a paper typed. \u00a0I looked on the bulletin board and there was an advertisement for someone to type a paper. \u00a0This was back in the prehistoric age, before e-mail and things of that nature. \u00a0I called this person up, I had to drop off the paper by hand. \u00a0I went into her home, didn\u2019t know her at all, her name was Sandy{?}. \u00a0Frankly as I look back I have often wondered what happened to her because I don\u2019t know.\n\nBut I went into her house, she was in a wheel chair, she was obviously in a physically deteriorating state. \u00a0I was a very new Christian at the time. \u00a0I looked around her home and I saw evidence of Christianity; I saw plaques with Bible verses on them, Jesus statues, those kind of things. \u00a0And finally I asked her, because she seemed so calm after telling me what had happened to her through conversation, she had been at one time in her life very prosperous in the mortgage business. She began to get reports from the doctor regarding her declining health. \u00a0She had sold everything, all of her business. \u00a0She had moved to San Bernadino County, not far from where I was a student at the time, basically to die.\n\nHow was she supporting herself? \u00a0She was supporting herself through these typing jobs that she would do for university students, a few dollars here, a few dollars there. \u00a0Finally I began to get into a spiritual conversation with her. \u00a0It was very clear that she was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. She preached to me about the best sermon I\u2019ve ever heard, and it was just a few words. \u00a0\u201cThere is no peace without Him.\u201d \u00a0Here I was looking, with my head as an arrogant twenty-something, filled with knowledge, about ready to graduate, looking at somebody who was walking with God. \u00a0This was not intellect for her, this was experience. \u00a0This was not sitting outside a fire and wondering if God is going to show up. \u00a0This is going into the fire and the fourth man shows up. \u00a0And I began to understand that as much as I thought I had arrived as a Christian at the ripe old age of twenty something, twenty-one, twenty-two, that I knew basically nothing about the things of God because God allowed me to experience her and to watch her in life.\n\nThere are people like this in your life, that God is going to introduce into your life as well. Some of us will become her; some of us God has a program in mind where life will deteriorate from the human point of view but what does the Scripture say? \u00a0\u201cThough my mother and father desert me, the LORD will take me up. \u00a0[Psalm 27:10] \u00a0This peace that she had was not available through drugs; it was not available through alcohol, it was not available through financial prosperity, because she was anything but lucrative. \u00a0It was not available through a healthy body, it was obvious that her body was deteriorating. \u00a0I don\u2019t think I described her disease, I think it was leukemia that she had. \u00a0It was avilable through the Prince of Peace.\n\nVerse 33, \u201cThese things I have spoken to you, so that in Me,\u201d those words, \u201cin Me\u201d are such a good deal, \u201cso that in Me you may have peace.\u201d\n\nHe goes on in verse 33 and he says, \u201cIn the world you will have tribulation. \u00a0They are about to have tribulation through the Passion Week. \u00a0But you see, I take this passage, not as only a description of the Passion Week, not only as a description of the immanent crisis that they are about to enter, but it is descriptive of the pattern of the Christian and the church age believer living in a hostile world system. \u00a0The language, to my mind, goes far beyond just the passion week. \u00a0Jesus is describing the Passion Week but He is describing a pattern which would emerge.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice this word \u201cworld, \u201cIn the world you have tribulation.\u201d \u00a0Well, we know what the problem with the world is; the world is under the control of the devil. \u00a0Jesus has said that in John 12:31, He called Satan the ruler of this world. \u00a0John 14:30, John 16:11. \u00a0[John 12:31, \u201cNow judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.\u201d \u00a0John 14:30, \u201cI will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.\u201d \u00a0John 16:11, \u201cand concerning judgment, \u00a0because the ruler of this world has been judged.\u201d]\n\nDid not Jesus say in John 15:18-19, a chapter earlier, \u201cIf the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. \u00a0[19] If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.\u201d\n\nDoes not John in 1 John 2:15, in his other book, say \u201cDo not love the world, nor the things in the world. \u00a0If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. \u00a0[16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. \u00a0[17] The world is \u00a0passing away, and also its lusts\u2026.\u201d \u00a0Everything that we know about this term \u201cworld,\u201d the Greek word kosmos, is a reference to an alien value system that we\u2019re living in. \u00a0That\u2019s why in the world we have tribulation. \u00a0We are an alternative system of thought and values living in Satan\u2019s territory. \u00a0That, beloved, will not change until glory. \u00a0The circumstances that the world is in will not change until the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom. \u00a0That is why we pray, \u201cThy Kingdom come.\u201d\n\nSo we are living in a world system that is antithetical and is hostile to God. \u00a0Somebody sent me in the mail a tract. \u00a0It\u2019s from The Voice of the Martyrs ministries. \u00a0It\u2019s entitled 2014 Global Report on where Christians are being persecuted today. \u00a0If you get your hands on this tract I would encourage you to take a look at it because they have in this tract every country on the planet and they document, in a very short space, how many Christians there are, how many groups are hostile to Christians, and what percentage of Christ\u2019s body is under persecution as we talk. \u00a0It\u2019s quite eye opening for someone that grew up in America that knows nothig but peace and prosperity. \u00a0Did you realize that 50 million martyrs have preceded us, roughly, in the last 2,000 years of church history? Do we realize that most of the body of Christ as I speak is under persecution somewhere around the world. \u00a0And what is happening here in America is an abnormality, it\u2019s an anomaly! \u00a0And yet, why are we surprised by this, did not Jesus say, \u201cThese things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. \u00a0In the world y ou have tribulation,\u201d and how we love the promises of God, don\u2019t we. \u00a0\u201cMy God will supply all your needs, I love that one. I love that one. \u00a0[Philippians 4:19, \u201cMy God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.\u201d]\n\nWell, what about this one, this is a promise, is it not? \u00a0\u201cIn the world you will have tribulation.\u201d \u00a0Acts 14:22 says this: \u201cstrengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying \u2018through many\u201d not some, \u201cthrough many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.\u201d \u00a0What is the normative pattern for the child of God? \u00a0Mountin top, valley, mountain top, valley, because that is how that faith muscle is developed. \u00a0Does not the Lord\u2019s brother, in James 1:2-4 say, \u201cConsider it all joy, my brethren, when you encournter various trials, [3] knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. \u00a0[4] And let endurance have its perfect result, so that \u00a0you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.\u201d\n\nPeter described that as the refiner\u2019s fire which does not destroy, it matures or purifies what is there.\nAnd how we are candidates, according to the Scripture, for problems. \u00a0We\u2019re candidates for trials. \u00a0Jesus said so in John 16:33. [\u201cThese things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. \u00a0In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.\u201d] \u00a0We are candidates for man\u2019s wrath, 2 Timothy 3:12 says, \u201cIndeed,\u201d here\u2019s another promise, you ready? \u00a0\u201cIndeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.\u201d\n\nYou say well pastor, I\u2019m not being persecuted. \u00a0Well, maybe the problem is the first part of the verse, maybe you don\u2019t desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, because if you desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, in a value system, in a world system that Satan controls, how can you not experience persecution? \u00a0We are candidates for Satan\u2019s wrath himself. Ephesians 6:11-12 clearly tells us that we \u201cwrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of this dark world.\u201d \u00a0[Ephesians 11-12, \u201cPut on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. \u00a0[11] For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.\u201d]\n\nAnd while I am just thrilled to death that we have our children in our Wednesday night Kids of the Heavenly Kingdom program memorizing Ephesians 6. \u00a0I work on it every night with my daughter. \u00a0And how important it is to understand that, that God never promised us a rose garden. \u00a0What He promised us was growth through difficulty and how we are a candidate for the world\u2019s wrath, John 15:18-19, verses we just read earlier.\n\nAnd how heart breaking it is to turn on so-called Christian media and have the message coming through over and over again that God wants you to be blessed, God wants you to prosper, God wants to heal you. \u00a0And maybe He will bless you and maybe He will heal you, and maybe He will prosper you but those are not promises for the church age believer. These are the promises of God, and yet they are never designed for destruction but for purification. \u00a0And how, of all of the churches in this city how many of them this morning are even talking about this? \u00a0And yet it is as clear as language itself; it is as clear as the revelation of the New Testament itself. \u00a0And how grateful I am that there is a form of wrath that I am not accountable for. \u00a0What form of wrath would that be? \u00a0That\u2019s the wedge between the Trinity that Jesus stepped into at a time in history where in a moment He bore the wrath of God the Father for the sins of the world.\n\nOh yes, I\u2019m a candidate for trials, I\u2019m a candidate for man\u2019s wrath, I\u2019m a candidate for Satan\u2019s wrath, I\u2019m a candidate for the world\u2019s wrath, these are promises from God, I\u2019m very comforted that God will use these things as the refiner\u2019s fire, but I am not a candidate for divine wrath. \u00a0And there are people that have walked into this room and they don\u2019t even know Jesus personally. \u00a0That\u2019s very possible. \u00a0May I just say to you that if you do not know Jesus personally you are a candidate for divine wrath because someone has to pay for the sin debt. \u00a0Either we\u2019re going to pay or a Holy God will pay. \u00a0We will pay for all eternity or we will simply accept the gift of Jesus Christ, who stepped into the line of fire and absorbed the wrath of God in our place. \u00a0Because He went through that, we are the beneficiaries of what He has done. \u00a0Because He went through that we don\u2019t have to. \u00a0And that\u2019s the gospel. \u00a0You receive this benefit just as easy as you receive a gift and in the mind of God there\u2019s only one way to receive it and that\u2019s by faith because \u201cwithout faith,\u201d as we have seen, \u201cit is impossible to please God.\u201d \u00a0[Hebrews 11:6]\n\nIf you\u2019re here today and you have never received this free gift, our exhortation to you is to receive it right now where you\u2019re seated. \u00a0You don\u2019t have to raise a hand to do it, you don\u2019t have to walk an aisle to do it, you don\u2019t have to give money to a church to do it, you don\u2019t have to vow to try harder in your life to receive it, you receive it as a free gift by believing, another way of saying believing is to trust. \u00a0In other words, you rely on it, you confidence is built in it. \u00a0And initial faith in Christ will enter you into this blessing.\n\nIn the quietness of your mind, in the quietness of your thoughts and heart if you\u2019re here without Christ our exhortation to you is to believe His truth. \u00a0That moves you from death unto life. \u00a0And then once that happens, oh, God will let you rest a little bit, but get ready, because the faith that\u2019s in you, that is extremely precious to God, will be built through the many tribulations and trials of life. \u00a0And as we go through these things we don\u2019t become bitter and angry at people and God, we learn that this is the hand of a loving God in our lives to bring us to a higher level.\n\nShall we pray.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1488","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t