Intro to John 16:25-33

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/29/2017 7:29 AM

My Worship Time                                                                             Focus: Intro to John 16:25-33  

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  John 16:25-33

            Message of the verses:  “25 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26 "In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.   28 "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father." 29 His disciples said, "Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. 30 “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God." 31 Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? 32  "Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33  "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.’”

            John MacArthur entitles this chapter in his commentary on John’s gospel “Three Cardinal Christian Virtues,” something I mentioned in our last SD.  Faith, hope and love are these three Cardinal Christian Virtues, a question I also asked in our last SD.  Now what I want to do for this Spiritual Diary is give a rather long quote from a sermon MacArthur preached on from these verses last year, and then we may take the time to add another introduction after this one.  He entitled this message “The Hope That Overcomes the World.”

            “Before we look at the text itself, starting in verse 25, just a kind of a setup, if I might, for just a few minutes. The world, in which we live, obviously, is bleak and filled with fearful people who are struggling to make some sense out of life. Their fears are personal, private, individual, but they are also collective. It’s not enough that we have the trouble of our own. But thanks to the media, we have everybody else’s troubles also to carry. There is a massive accumulated deposit of saturated issues that every person has to face. At the same time, we find ourselves struggling to face them because we’re so bad at relationships. So, we lack real support. Trying to secure a meaningful, lasting relationship in marriage seems well-nigh impossible. Families are full of chaos and disintegration. Add to this decades and decades of propagating self-esteem and pride and what you have is people who are consumed with their own desires and their own wants, who then double-down on the impossibility of making meaningful relationships because they’re so self-centered.

The more materialistic the culture is, the more this becomes a reality. The more things we possess, the more things occupy is – the less significant our relationships become. If you live in an isolated part of the world where you have nothing but family, family takes on a completely greater significance.

There is a kind of pervasive angst in our culture. Even in the midst of all this material prosperity, in all of this supposed freedom, we are engulfed in fears, and anxieties, and doubts, and questions. And there is a kind of cosmic dread that looms in the lives of people in this part of the world and this time in history. People are searching for things that give them meaning, desperately searching while consumed with selfishness and self-consumption. They find themselves unable to be satisfied, to be at peace, and to have any lasting joy.

Now, let me simplify it. Deep in the heart of all people is a need for three realities. This is the irreducible minimum. Three realities: At the same time, it is the requisite maximum. There are three things people need. They need love. They need to be loved. They need to be loved unconditionally. They need to be loved lavishly. They need to be loved generously, and they need to be loved by someone who knows all their faults and still loves them that way.

Secondly, they need someone to trust: Someone to believe. Someone who’s consumed with their well-being. Someone into whose hands they can place their lives who is powerful enough, and generous enough, and have the resources to secure them in the midst of an insecure world. They need someone to love them, and someone to care for them, who has the power to rescue them from all their troubles.

Thirdly, people need hope. They need to know there’s a future. They need to be able to see the light at the end of the ever-darkening tunnel, to know that someone has a plan, and someone has a purpose. And somewhere in the future, something good is going to happen, and it’s going to be far greater than any of the bad experiences that occupy our lives.

Love, faith, and hope. Someone to love you. Someone you can trust, to care for you, to rescue you, to deliver you, to live you above your problems. And someone to give you a future. Love, faith, and hope. Sound familiar? That’s the Christian triad. That’s what is offered to every person in the gospel – the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul the Apostle, in 1 Corinthians 13 says there are these three: “Faith, hope, and love,” and “the greatest of these is love.” Often, the apostle Paul refers to that triad. A couple of times in 1 Thessalonians; again in Colossians and elsewhere. Those three divine provisions that come to us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are essentially what we need to live life with peace and joy. Peace is the sort of negative side. It’s the tranquility. It’s the absence of angst. It’s the absence of anxiety. It’s the tranquility in the midst of the trouble. Joy is the positive side. It’s the exuberance in spite of it. Peace and joy come from these three realities.

Now, as we come to this text, our Lord is going to say the last few words to His 11 disciples. The words that He gave them on that Thursday night of Passion week the night before His crucifixion started in chapter 13, and they’ve run all the way now to the end of chapter 16. Very long, long, drawn out discourse by our Lord. He’s made them all kinds of promises, given them all kinds of warnings. It all sort of culminates in their mind and the reality that He keeps talking about dying and leaving. And they are full of concern and full of anxiety. While He has been with them, they have had someone to love them. While He’s been with them, they had someone to believe in, who has delivered them from every issue and provided everything they need. While He has been with them, He has filled their lives with hope.

But now, He’s leaving. He’s dying, and He’s leaving. In addition to that, He has told them, “You’re going to be persecuted the same way I’m being persecuted.” You’re going to be hated, resented, rejected, and this is going to go on through all of human history, to all the followers of Christ. People are going to arrest you. He says in Luke 21, they’re going to turn against you, brother against brother, family against family members. The society is going to turn against you. Ultimately, they’re going to throw you out of the synagogue, He says earlier in chapter 16 here. And they’re even going to kill you, and think they do God’s service when they kill you.

It’s not going to go well for you. Why are they going to hate you? Because they hate Me. Why are they going to hate you? Because you’re not part of the world’s system and they resent those who aren’t. Why are they going to hate you? Because they don’t know God, and they’re the subjects of Satan. This is a bleak kind of moment for the disciples. Jesus is dying, He is leaving, and it’s going to get far worse for us.

So, as He closes out this evening – by now, it’s in the early hours of Friday morning, past midnight, the day of His crucifixion. They’re headed for the Garden of Gethsemane. A final prayer of Jesus in chapter 17. Then comes the arrest, the trial in the darkness of night, and then His execution in the morning on the cross. It’s all coming to an end, and they are profoundly troubled. Several times in this text, John notes that their hearts were deeply troubled.

So, as our Lord closes in verses 25 to 33, He offers them comfort. And the comfort He offers them is built around these three realities. You have one who loves you. You have one who can be trusted with your life in time and eternity. And you have one who has planned a hope for you. Faith, hope, and love then dominate this final section. You wouldn’t necessarily see that until you dig down a little bit into the text. So let’s begin by reading it, starting in verse 25.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Mary Magdalene” (John 20:13).

Today’s Bible question:  “Where was Melchizedek king?”

Answer in our next SD.

1/29/2017 7:49 AM