Services | Jesus the Overcomer

Bulletin

Hymn # 208 “Like a River Glorious”

SCRIPTURE READING – Philippians 4:4 - 7
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“House of the Lord”
“Living Hope”
“Way Maker”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Jesus, the Overcomer”

“Overcome”

Benediction “Praise You Anywhere”

Sermon Notes
John 16:16 Jesus speaks figuratively about His death and resurrection
John 16:17 & 18 Disciples talk among themselves what Jesus might mean
John 16:19 – 22 Jesus tells them they will grieve and then that grief will turn to joy and that joy can’t be taken away
John 16:23 & 24 The Father will give to them things asked for in Jesus’ name
John 16:25 – 28 Jesus talks plainly to them about going to the Father and prayer
John 16:29 & 30 Disciples response is that they believe
John 16:31 – 33 Jesus tells them even though they believe they will be scattered, but He will not be alone and that He has overcome the world

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

While heading to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is going to be talking to his disciples and figurative language initially about his death and resurrection. He tells them that their reaction is going to be very different than the world's reaction, but their reaction is only going to be temporary and eventually their change reaction will be permanent. It will also tell them that during their time here on earth, they will be facing tribulation, but they can have peace because of what Jesus is going to do. Come see what Jesus says, how we can have peace.

And so the scripture says this, it says, we're backwards here, it says, "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while and you will see me." And so Jesus is kind of speaking figuratively about his death and resurrection, and we have the advantage because we're looking at this from the future. They are looking at it and they're confused.

My phone's not working again.

So he's saying these things and his disciples, as some of his disciples then said to one another, "What is this thing that he's telling us? A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me, and because I go to the Father." So they were saying to one another, "What is this that he says a little while we do not know what he is talking about?" So it is typical of the disciples.

But when they are confused about what Jesus says, they debate among one another what Jesus might mean. And they're saying, "We're confused because we don't know what he's talking about."

You would think when someone says something that you don't understand, you would say, "Hold on, what do you mean?"

But consistently throughout Jesus' ministry, when Jesus says something that they don't understand, they talk amongst themselves. But then again, not to unlike us. We will read the Scriptures and go, "We don't know what Jesus means."

And so instead of looking at the rest of the Scriptures to find out what Jesus means, we either read a commentary or ask a pastor or do whatever to find out what Jesus means rather than researching what he might mean. And then after maybe researching what he might mean and not finding it, then maybe go to someone who might know.

But these guys are as confused, and oftentimes when you ask somebody, they're about as confused as the rest of us, especially on some of the really deep, interesting questions.

And so one of the things I need to do and one of the things that we need to do is when we're not sure what Jesus means, find out from the rest of what Jesus is teaching that might fill in the gaps. Because this is not the first time Jesus has told them that he's going to suffer and die

and come back.

But again, when we don't want to hear what people are saying, we get confused.

So Jesus knew that they wished to question him, and he said to them, "Are you deliberating together about this, that I said a little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me?" So he knows that they're questioning among themselves. Again nothing takes Jesus by surprise.

He understands what they're saying. So he goes, "Truly, truly I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will be turned to joy." Jesus says that there is a distinction between him and what his disciples are going to experience and what the world is going to experience. He says that this time that I'm going to be separated from you, the world is going to rejoice.

But you are going to grieve. Your response is going to be different than the world.

But your response is going to be changing.

And he says, "Whenever a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come, but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world."

Now I am not a woman who has been pregnant and delivered a child.

So what I'm about to say, I don't have first-hand experience.

But I do remember my mother talking about childbirth, and she said it hurt like no pain she had ever experienced before.

But once she saw my brother and then me, the pain went away. It just didn't matter. It went to some foggy backdrop because of the joy of seeing that little child.

Gave you great joy. And so it didn't matter that you experienced that pain. And for some women, it's a very, very long time. And for some, it's a very short time.

But the pain versus the joy of the child is not comparable.

And Jesus is saying that you're going to experience great sorrow and pain when you see what is going to take place.

But when you see the results thereafter, there will be great joy.

"Therefore you too have grief down, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you."

So He's saying, "Yeah, you're going to grief, and that grief is going to be short, and you're going to be devastated, but that grief and that desperation is going to be short.

But when you see me alive, there will not only be joy, but it will be joy of such completeness that no one can take it away. Nothing in this world will be able to eradicate the joy that Jesus will give His disciples and you and me once He experiences and we see Him alive again."

It's not temporary joy. The joy of the world is going to rejoice because they're going to think that they have stopped Him.

But that joy will be temporary because He will be victorious.

Then He goes on, "In that day, you will not question Me about anything." Because right now, they're questioning each other and they're questioning Him and they're not understanding. He says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you."

Notice Jesus says, "If you ask," before He said, "If you ask Me of anything in My name, I will give it to you." Now He's saying, "The Father and I are one." He's been repeating that over and over. Now He says, "When you ask the Father, it's the same as asking Me. If you ask anything in My name, the Father will give it to you." Now I've repeatedly over and over and I'm going to repeat it again.

People say, "Well, if I magically use the words in Jesus' name, therefore Jesus will give it to me or the Father will give it to me." That is not what He is saying.

He is saying, in essence, like I use as an example, "If I give you a credit card that's in My name, then you are to use it in My name. You're not to use it for yourself and your selfish motives, even though you might think it's something positive."

Now some will say that perhaps Jesus is saying to these eleven, "If they ask anything in His name, then He will give it and it doesn't include us." Well, that might be a possibility. My assertion would be, if that were the correct interpretation, then why would John include it? Because he would have just said, "Hey, that's for us, not for them, and I'm trying to write so that we might have faith." So I think it's universally applicable to we believers, but it's universally applicable to we believers in His name. And I'm going to show you further in the next verse. "Until now you have asked for nothing in My name.

Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be made full." Now if you remember the Scriptures, you'll remember that there was a time when James and John, at the behest of their mother, went to Jesus and said, "We want to be on your right side and your left side."

And Jesus' answer was, "No, because that's not something that I give out but the Father."

You see, their request was not in Jesus' name because their request was for their position and their authority, and that was contrary to the will of God. So just because you say, "In the end of your prayer in Jesus' name," doesn't magically make it so.

To ask things in Jesus' name because you're asking and taking His name not in vain but in reality.

To ask something that is contrary to the will of God is to take the Lord your God's name in vain.

So He's saying, "The Father so loves you that He will give you anything that you ask in My name because the Father loves the Son and thereby loves us, but He's only going to do what is in His will."

And He started out in the beginning of His ministry, "Hollow be thy name, your will be done, not mine.

These things I have spoken to you in figurative language and ours coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father." So Jesus says, "Yeah, I've been talking to you in figurative language just like I have been talking to the rest of the people I've been preaching to in parables."

So He goes, "But there's come any time when I'm going to be very plain speaking about what the Father's will and what My will is."

And He goes on to say, "In that day you will ask in My name and do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf because for the Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father."

Again I want you to notice the tie. The tie is the Father loves you because you love Jesus and believe in Him.

We all want to say we're all God's children.

We're all God's creatures.

Only those of us who believe in Jesus is the Son of God and the Father sent Him are the children of God and who love Him.

It's not universal.

The Father loves us because we have responded and love Him.

Jesus says, "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world and I am leaving the world again and going to the Father."

So Jesus says, "And if you will, I almost still think that this is figurative language."

What does He mean? He's leaving the world. What does He mean? He's going to the Father. Now we know what it means because we've experienced it and their response is this. And His disciples said, "Lo, now you are speaking plainly and you are not using a figurative speech.

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."

That's a fantastic statement and it is true and it is awesome. I'm a little confused by them because He's taught the words of the Father.

The Father has said, "Behold, my Son in whom I am well pleased." John testified, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." They have seen Jesus heal. They have seen Jesus rebuke demons. They have seen Jesus raise people from the dead. They have seen awesome things that Christ has done. He goes, "I'm going out of the world to the Father and now they believe Him."

Okay.

I don't doubt them but now their faith is like yours and mine, kind of little.

Because He's already told them, "I'm leaving going to the Father." And what is their response when He's crucified?

It's all over.

We're finished.

Maybe they're going to come after us.

And so Jesus is, I think, response is kind of like mine.

Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe?"

This one statement caused you to believe when you didn't believe my words and my works and the testimony of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of the Father and the testimony of John.

But this statement now, now, let me be fair.

When we come to faith, sometimes it seems to be maybe that little slight thing. God works on our hearts and works on our hearts and works on our hearts and works on our hearts. And all of a sudden, some simple thing happens. We go, "Oh, now I see."

So maybe this is the, "Oh, now I see."

And maybe in our lives there was that little thing that everybody else goes, "That caused you to believe?

Something else caused me to believe." There probably was a little thing.

"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." Jesus is again telling them, "Not only do I know what's happening, and now I know because you say that you believe and I've told you these things.

But even though you believe, when these things happen, you will scatter because he is the Good Shepherd.

He is the One.

And Jesus says, "When this thing happens, I will be alone."

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 want to stop there.

Jesus says, "I'm telling you these things ahead of time so that when they happen, you may have peace."

Because in the world you will have tribulation.

Now in the regular world which we are a part of, there is sickness and disease and pain

and death and despair and hopelessness and grief and rejection.

That is something very common to we human beings.

And we believers are subject to the very same things.

But they're also, Jesus says, on top of those things that are common to all people.

Believers will have tribulation.

The world is not happy with us.

Just as the world rejoices when they crucified Jesus, they will rejoice and say that they are doing the works of God when they persecute us.

Now we live at a time, in a kind of a quasi time, when we talk about being in a Christian nation or whatever.

The times are changing.

But even if we were protected, look at the rest of the world and how Christians, how believers are treated by the world. They are in and always have been in tribulation.

But take courage.

I don't know how many times I forgot the number because I remember at one point how many times

Joshua was told to take courage.

Because oftentimes that is what we need to fight the battles that not we fight, but that he fights and we participate in.

To take courage, to be strong, and to say, "This will not stand, that I am his and he is mine." And it doesn't matter what the world says or does, because I have courage, because he gave me courage. And why? Because I have overcome the world.

It doesn't matter how they treat us and what they do, because he has overcome. He has won.

Now the congregation knows that I am a very big Kansas City Chief fan.

Those of you who are listening or watching this, you may be surprised. Yes, I am a very big Kansas City Chief fan. And when they win, I watch all the newscasts and I watch the things over and over. And when they lose, I turn my TV off and don't watch any sports for a week, because I am grieving.

Well, in the last few years, I have been very fortunate as a Kansas City Chief fan. I went 50 years as a Kansas City Chief fan and wandering in the wilderness.

In the fourth Super Bowl they won. It wasn't until the 54th Super Bowl they showed up again.

And they won.

And then kind of COVID hit. You know what I did?

I watched the game over and over and over.

And when I watched it over and over and over, I was not nervous at all.

During the original game when it was on, I was nervous.

I mean, we got to the mountain. Are we going to be there?

And the pain of losing and whatever. So I didn't know.

But when I watched the game over and over, I was never nervous.

When the pass looked like we were going to lose, it was overthrown. And I knew it. So I wasn't nervous.

Because we won.

Jesus has overcome the world. We win.

Why are we nervous?

Why are we anxious?

He's overcome the world.

So yeah, I know in our lives as we're watching our lives play out, we can get anxious and nervous because we don't know how it turns out. But we do.

Now, using the sports analogy, most games are timed on a clock.

And you run out of time. And in that game, unless it's very tight, the team that is winning knows that it's winning.

Because they're up by such a large margin that there's no way that the team can come back to win.

And generally speaking, the team that is losing knows that it's losing. And then it somewhat tests the character of the team. Are they going to continue to play hard, whether they win or lose, because they love the game and they're of that kind of character that they're going to put all the effort out. Now I'm not saying to take cheap shots and all those type of things, which you see some people doing. But they play hard even knowing that they're losing.

And the fans know in this stage, stadium, that this team, your team or the other team is up by enough points.

You win or you lose. So everybody kind of knows.

If in your life you think that the time has run out and there's not enough time for you to win because the other side points are so high you can't come back.

Let me tell you something. Our God is so powerful that He can stop the clock.

And it doesn't matter how many points you're behind, He can get you to victory because He is all-powerful. He is all-knowing and He is all-loving.

So when you're down and it seems like you're out and it seems like you're going to lose, know that God can stop the clock and get you the points you need to be victorious because He is victorious because He has defeated death. And if once He's defeated death, what else can they do?

How awesome is Christianity?

How awesome is God in our faith? Because it just doesn't matter. Because we win.

It just doesn't matter what the score is. We win. It just doesn't matter how inept I am at the sport my life.

We win because He has won and I am on His team. And all God's people said.