Chapter BY Chapter

Jesus Has Overcome The World

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John 16:16-33

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 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

 

At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”  They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

 

Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?  Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.  A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.  So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.  In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

 

“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.  In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.  No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.  I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

 

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.  Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

 

“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.  “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 

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In these last hours, Jesus is giving his disciples many assurances of what will come to pass and that what comes to pass will be good.

 

In last week’s lesson, Jesus said, “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away.”

 

In chapter 15, Jesus said:

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

 

And

 

“I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit”

 

And

 

“And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

 

In chapter 14, Jesus said:

 

“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

 

And

 

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

 

And

 

““You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’”

 

Now, Jesus says, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

 

What would have happened if Jesus had not risen from the dead?  What if his spirit had just gone up to heaven to be with the Father?  Would this promise have been in vain?

 

Unbelievers ask, “Why is the atonement on the cross necessary?  If God wants to forgive people, he can just forgive people.”

 

          First, when Adam sinned, God said that he would surely die.  Since Adam did not immediately die physically, we know that a spiritual death was entailed by his sin.  This means that he was dead to God and his spirit was dead to God.  A spirit that is dead to God cannot revive itself.  A spirit that is dead to God cannot go to be with God for eternity.  An already dead to God spirit cannot pay for its already destined eternal death.  An eternal, infinite, and perfect being can revive the spirit, pay for infinite eternal deaths, and bring the dead to God in eternity.

 

          Second, what assurance does only a voice or saying give you?  How would one be assured that a voice meant what it said?

 

We don’t have a God of promises only.  We have a God of action!  God put his promise into action through Jesus Christ on the cross.  Then God put his promise into action through the resurrection of Jesus Christ!  We have assurance that our sins are paid for!  We have assurance of forgiveness!  We have assurance that Jesus will keep all his other promises because of his resurrection! 

 

Jesus knows that this is the plan.  That is why he tells the disciples, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

 

Now, some of the disciples are confused by this.  They don’t know what Jesus is talking about when he says this or when he says, “I am going to the Father.”

 

Jesus makes an analogy about childbirth. 

 

“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.”

 

This is like what they are about to experience concerning Jesus.

 

“So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

 

Now we come to a very interesting thing that Jesus said.

 

“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.”

 

Didn’t Jesus already tell them everything plainly?

 

Back in chapter 15, verse 15, Jesus said:

 

“For everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

 

How can both of these things be true?

 

I believe this is reconciled with what it says in Luke 24:44-49,

 

“He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”

 

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

 

This event correlates with John 20:19-22, where Jesus Breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

 

You see, without the Messiah’s atonement sacrifice for sins and the resurrection of the Messiah, the Old Testament prophesies do not make sense.  The Old Testament does not lay out everything in exact order.  It does not say when the Messiah will make the atonement.  It does not say when the Messiah will take rule over the nations. 

 

One of the reasons that things did not make sense to the disciples at this time is that they did not realize this was the time for the atonement sacrifice.  They thought this this might be the time for the Messiah’s rule to take place.  They certainly did not want their Jesus to be taken away from them.  Even though Jesus had mentioned that several times, they did not want to believe it.  They put it out of their minds.  And this is why they do not understand when he says, ““In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

 

It is no wonder that the disciples will grieve.  They will weep and morn while the world rejoices.  It will seem like everything has been destroyed and the world and Satan has won.  So Jesus tells them that their grief will turn to joy.  It is not as though their grief will be replaced with joy, but the grief itself will turn into joy.  For the very thing that they will grieve over – the crucifixion of Jesus – will be a thing of joy.  This is the very thing that Jesus has been saying over and over what he came for – to provide atonement for sins.

 

Just like the birth pains become joy when the child is born, the crucifixion of Jesus turns to joy when it is seen that it provided atonement for sins for the whole world. 

 

Remember these verses in the Gospel of John:

 

John 1:29, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

 

John 1:36, “When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

 

John 3:14-16, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

 

John 6:53-54, “Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

 

John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

 

John 10:15, “even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.”

 

John 10:17-18, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

 

John 11:51-52, “Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

 

John 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

 

So, the very death of Jesus on the cross that the disciples grieved about became a joy.  Jesus turned grief into joy, death into life, despair into triumph. 

 

It is very interesting how detailed Jesus is here.  It is only just an hour or two away till Jesus will be turned over to the Pharisees.  We are right at the doorstep of the disciples’ grief, and Jesus says, “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

 

Now Jesus takes the Joy a step further.

 

“In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.  Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

 

Why will the disciples no longer ask Jesus anything?

          Jesus is going to the Father.  They will ask the Father in Jesus’ name and the Father will give them anything they ask in Jesus’ name. 

 

Did the disciples really think that things would go better without Jesus there? 

 

Now Jesus summarizes without using an analogy:

 

“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father.  In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.  No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.  I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

 

Then the disciples praise Jesus for his straightforwardness:

 

“Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.  Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

 

But did the disciples really catch what Jesus said about going to the Father?  Do they know what this will entail? 

 

Jesus did. 

 

“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied.  “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 

The disciples would still experience much trouble and experience much grief.  But Jesus can claim that he has overcome the world because, even though his work is not done, because he is executing God’s plan, he can say that he has overcome the world.

 

Did Jesus say that he was going to take them around the times of grief so they would not experience it?

 

No, Jesus said they would go through these times.  Peace is not about avoiding the times in life that are hard.  The peace that Jesus gives us is something that we can have while we are going through these times.  Pay attention to what this first singer says in the first two sentences.  After this plays, I will have another song. 

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