Dec. 10, 2017 PM Service Understood At Last by Pastor Josh Sheldon
Dec. 10, 2017
PM Service: Understood At Last
John 16:25-33
Pastor Josh Sheldon
Transcript
Well we come this afternoon to John chapter 16 and verses 25 to 33 of Jesus final discourse with his disciples at this point the 11 disciples and this the evening before his cross as the word of the
Lord from the Lord I Have said these things to you in figures of speech
The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech But we'll tell you plainly about the father
In that day you will ask him my name And I will not say to you that I will ask the father on your behalf
For the father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I come from God that I came from God.
I Came from the father and have come into the world and now I'm leaving the world and going to the father his disciples said ah
Now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech now
We know that you know all things and do not need to ask then do not eat anyone to question you
This is why we believe that you came from God Jesus answered them. Do you now believe?
Behold the hour is coming indeed. It has come when you will be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone
Yet I am not alone for the father is with me I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace in the world
You will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world you know, there's sort of a contagion there and I'm sure many of us have experienced this that Aha moment where you think everything has fallen into place and you just kind of get excited and maybe you're in class and you just learn something that brings months of lectures and reading and study together and the
Instructor the professor the teacher gives you that one Hinge that brings all together you go.
Aha Now I get it as that's a wonderful feeling when all these things these disparate facts suddenly
Coalesce into something and you can wrap your mind around it. Have you ever felt like that?
I know when I was in calculus based statistics in business school and After all the work and after all the lecture and I was fairly good in math in high school as well and also
I saw what the professor was telling us about how you can calculate the instantaneous rate of change on a graph by doing a derivative and a function in calculus in your head and Just clicked made sense and sort of with two or three others in the class we all go.
Oh, I got it. I've arrived And I can almost see
I can always remember now the professor's grin When she told us that there's a lot more to go
But the Apostles here soon -to -be Apostles the disciples They they sort of did the same thing.
It's like okay now we get it plain language at last We have graduated.
Okay, Lord. We've got it. We're ready to go. It's all clear Isn't that great?
Have you ever had a feeling like that where someone tells you something that just puts it all together and you think okay?
I'm ready. I get it And see they thought their faith had come to this point of maturity now they really knew what it meant that Jesus came from God because he's speaking in this what they're calling plain language and So all of a sudden the three and a half years of teaching and discipleship under him seemed to have found its focus
Now they knew Christ's all -encompassing knowledge, and they knew his origins The Lord doesn't so much dampen their enthusiasm here.
He moderates their zeal until they were able to wield it He slows them down a bit.
He gives them the provisions that they're going to need To do what they had earlier claimed remember that when they said they would stay true if all run away
I will stay with you. We will never leave you. I'm gonna go to the cross with you said Peter all these Commitments that they had made
Not ready. They think they're ready, and they think with these few words from Jesus that they've got all they're going to need
There's no more knowledge. They figured it all out or Jesus showed it to them, and they've understood it
He had said to them just a moment before all this that God loved them because first they loved him
They loved Jesus and second because they believe he had come from the father Which is the very thing that they now said they believed
Their self -confidence that they would follow him even to death was eventually proven true But not then
Not that next day either at that moment When Jesus was speaking to them here the verses
I just read to you at that moment Where was their reliance? Well, they said aha.
They said we get it. We know where you're from. There's nothing else. We're ready to go But what are they relying on? still self
They're relying upon their self effort their self assurance their self and what they could do
I Love seeing people get excited about the Lord when they first meet him that joy is a wonderful thing to behold
It's a reminder to us So -called seasoned Christians of the wide -eyed amazement that comes from meeting
Christ for the first time Do you remember that for yourself? When the scriptures suddenly opened up for you showed you
Jesus Christ you repented of your sins And you knew by faith you were forgiven And you followed
Christ you remember what a wonderful feeling that was just how joyful it is and then we get to see it in others when
God so blesses us and It reminds us. Yes. I was that wide -eyed child a baby if you will at one point and Maybe should return to that and be that again
You are now speaking plainly or now you are speaking plainly
So if they say no now you speak now we understand it Now all the mystery has been taken away well
Except for the parables and that odd case where prophecy is fulfilled when
God's truth is hidden behind figures of speech You remember Matthew 13 to you it's given to understand but not to them and then he quotes the
Isaiah prophecy to show why God is obscuring the truth to some but opening the eyes of others
But except for that odd case there in the other Gospels Jesus always spoke plainly
He didn't obscure his speech He wasn't clever in his words or give you something that you had to go home and think about and get a headache trying to Parse it out and figure out what he meant no
Jesus always spoke plainly speaking the truth of God So that the people to whom he spoke and the people to whom by his spirit
He speaks today through his word and by his spirit can understand him The Word of God in The words we have in our scripture the
Word of God in Christ the Word of God become flesh Was meant to be understood
They say now you're speaking plainly As Peter put it we did not follow cleverly devised myths we made known to you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ But we were witnesses of his majesty so he said
Now you're speaking plainly, but he had always spoken that way plain speech had informed them that he was from God But Jesus had been saying this for some time just give
Some really quick examples. Let me just read these to you John 10 38 believe the works that you may know and believe that the
Father is in me and I in him John 14 10 through 11 the Father who dwells in me does the works believe me that I am in the
Father and the Father in me or else believe me For the sake of the works themselves John 8 42
Jesus said to them if God were your father you would love me for I proceed forth and came from God Nor have
I come of myself, but he sent me John 3 13 no one is ascended to heaven
But he who came down from heaven that is the Son of Man who is in heaven He's just one more
John 6 51. I'm the living bread which came down from heaven. He's been saying this for a long time
They said that he knows all things he said now we know that you know all things There's no need that anyone should question you in other words question you to find out if you really do
To pose a question. Do you see if we can get something that would if Not make you unable to answer at least get you to pause for one
No There's no need for anybody to question him because now they understand and believe and have proof if you will that he knows all things
They meant that now they believe that his knowledge of the father was so complete that there was no need to question about him about the father
They meant that now it's better to just listen to simply believe what he what he says, but Jesus had spoken to this too for a long time 828 and John Jesus said to them when you lift up the
Son of Man then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the as my father taught me
I speak these things John 10 15 As the father knows me even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep
John 12 49 For I have not spoken on my own authority But the father who sent me gave me a command what
I should say and what I should speak and finally Therefore whatever I speak just as the father told me so I speak
You know This is really very important to us and very important to our salvation because absent this truth
You cannot be saved Because if Christ didn't come from God Just as he says he did if he didn't come from God He's no
Savior If he didn't proceed from God he's not the eternal
Son of God and therefore Cannot save anyone He said in 821 to 24.
I'm going away, and you will seek me and will die in your sin Where I go you cannot come so that you said will he kill himself because he says where you where I go you cannot come
And he said to them you are from beneath. I am from above you are of this world
I am NOT of this world Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins for if you do not believe that I am he you will die in your sins
There's a cardinal point of faith here's a truth a propositional truth that must be believed as Part and parcel with our salvation that Jesus Christ came from the father that he was sent by the father
That all the father knows he knows and that all he spoke was in direct compliance with the father's will for what he would speak word for syllable for point of Punctuation Perfectly reflecting the father in his holiness in his life in it as that in his ethics and in his words
Here is plain speaking
Believe that Jesus is from God or die in your sins Believe that he is from God or die in your sins not created by God Not put together and sent by God That would say he had a beginning and he doesn't have a beginning his
Goings for goings and comings are from of old from everlasting says the prophet
Micah Micah The Lord responds gently he doesn't belittle them
He doesn't really agree with them. He gives them this common question. He says do you now believe?
The sense here is not at last you believe as if you were exasperated, but rather do you this moment believe?
We he's warning them He's cautioning them that their elation will vanish when it's placed under fire the excitement.
They have now is going to pass He says the hour is coming Yes has now come that you will be scattered each to his own and leave me alone and yet I am
NOT alone because the father is with me Now he certainly their faith had grown over the last three and a half years
But the time was at hand When it would be put to the test and as we all know from having read the gospel so many times
They will fail the tests They will deny the Lord Ten disciples ran away, which is denying the
Lord one disciple Peter with words Said I do not know him their faith would fail them
We all fail at one time or another don't we we all fail to speak for the
Lord to say yes I am Jesus. I believe he's the Son of God. I believe he's the eternal
Second person of the Trinity who died for my sins and God raised him from the dead We've all failed
To make that testimony at one time or another or in other ways to speak for or stand for God But understand that if every collapse meant that our faith was gone and needed to be reestablished and until it was reestablished
We go from life to death Well life would be unbearably hard. I Would call that myself a neurotic kind of Christianity because you'd never really know
Did my faith completely fail and God has now taken me out of salvation or did I fail just a little bit and I need?
to be rebuked and chastised If every collapse meant that our faith was gone and had to be restored and then it could go again
And we'd have to get it back in that scenario faith is a transient thing Not really a gift of God But alone from God and God becomes a capricious
Greek type of God who gives and takes just to test us To test us to kind of toy with us
But this is not the case This is not the God we worship in this place It's not the
God of the Psalms that we use to begin our morning and afternoon worship This is not the God who sent
Jesus Christ to die for your sins and give you a faith to secure you in him to know
That your sins have been forgiven That's not our
God who would Yank us around that other way faith is
God's gift and he does not renege. He doesn't take back what he gives The wages of sin is death says the
Apostle in Romans 6 23 But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord not something God gives as if the effect of the cross could be taken away from you and Then added back to you and then taken away and added back
And I hammer this point a bit because of two reasons One is there are those out there call themselves
Christians who explicitly believe That you can lose your faith regain it and lose it and regain it and Some of them even teach that you can't know which state you're in at any point
Well, that's not true Christianity I'm not saying that we here at Providence Bible Church are the paradigm setters and we figured it all out
But we do believe that God does not renege on his promises that we continue in the Lord Not because we're afraid he's gonna take it away, but we continue in the
Lord because God perseveres in us and Carries us through and there are faith when tested no matter what the ups and downs are within that particular test
We come out the other side still in Christ and Get through it because throughout the trial, whatever that trial may be
We were during that time in Christ Here's what
Jesus is telling them will happen Their attachment to him Broken their fellowship with each other gone the next day.
They're all gonna run one so quickly He's going to forget his clothes Peter. We just mentioned he's going to deny deny him three times
John the author of this gospel is probably the disciple who is known to the high priest He's the one who went in the courtyard where Jesus was first questioned but not a word is recorded in Scripture Escaping from his lips during all this time
The only words we have are the ones I referred to from Peter Which were words that haunted him and caused him to weep bit weep bitterly
It wasn't just Peter who was brash and boasting of the courage he'd show under fire in Mark's in Matthew's gospel, excuse me 2635
Peter said to Jesus even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you and so said all the disciples
But they would all run Like the times Israel's was defeated is the
Bible says that each man fled to his own tent You've read that expression many times
All that means is that they fled the field of battle and they just ran home as quick as they could they ran to safety
No more fighting just quaking at home and praying that the victors wouldn't find them. And that's the illusion that Jesus is making here
John doesn't quote it here But in Matthew 26 31 it is quoted then Jesus said to them all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night
For it is written Excuse me. I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered
Now this might seem an odd response to you for a confident assertion of faith
I can you imagine if someone a friend a brother or sister someone like that came to you that you've been discipling or Testifying to for a long while and they came to faith and you said
You know, you're gonna stumble tonight or tomorrow or something like that something it would sound deflating, wouldn't it?
And the odd response most of us would be glad for anyone to voice a determined loyalty
But of course, we're not Jesus. We don't like Jesus know all things
He knows he knew what was about to happen Jesus tells of their coming defection not to discourage them but to encourage and to strengthen them and this happens in a couple of ways
First when they look back and remember Jesus is perfect knowledge of the future Even just from that day to a few days
Hence, they'd be encouraged in what that he truly is Lord that their affirmation that you we know
You came from God that you come from God has been again Unfortified it's been strengthened.
They've given another piece of evidence for it and they'll look back and say yes That's true.
He is from God Jesus said earlier that the very reason he told them things
Told them things to come was to strengthen them during the hard time
So when the hard time comes they could look and say yes, Jesus said about this He told us John chapter 2 verse 12 how they understood about Jesus raising the temple, but when?
Three days after his resurrection After the
Holy Spirit Was given in John 13 19. It speaks of Judas's coming.
Jesus speaks of Judas's coming defection He says now I tell you before it comes and when it does come to pass you may believe that I am he
So reason Jesus spoke these prophetic utterances so they can look back so that we can look back and know yes beforehand
Jesus Even as it says of God in Isaiah 40 Declaring the beginning from the end wise that you can know
I am he so, you know, Jesus is Lord He truly comes from God There's that well -known exchange with Peter in John 13
Simon Peter said to him Lord, where are you going? Where I'm going you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward
Peter said to him Lord Why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake Jesus answered him will you lay down your life for my sake most assuredly
I say to you the rooster shall not crow Until you have denied me three times and right after that Jesus says what let not your heart be troubled
These words are not to ruin you They're not to deflate you.
They're not even to harm you words of encouragement So that after that third denial
Peter who wept bitterly can look and say but Jesus knew my
Lord knows This Jesus is from God and of course heard
Peter's repentance Then there was this in John 14 29 the world's hatred now
I tell you before it comes that when it does come to pass you may believe
It's why Jesus told them tells us what's coming so we know he's from God so we know he's from from the
Father We noted this morning in Matthew's genealogy stuff doesn't just happen
Not only does our Lord know all things past present future. They happen why they happen because of his decree written in eternity past accomplished today in History that's exactly what
Romans 8 28 means when he says the Apostle writes And we know that for those who love
God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose Not just stuff happening and God figuring out.
Okay. I know a way to make this not so bad or to make this pretty okay Working for good because God declared them all from the beginning
We don't know Specifically what's going to happen tomorrow, but we do know that God knows and we do know that God Intended it and intends it for our good, and this is exactly the kind of confidence and Encouragement Jesus is giving to the disciples that evening
Is exactly what he gives us today? something over 2 ,000 years later
That we know that he's from God that he knows all things and then nothing happens just because it happened it
Happened if you're in Christ if your faith is in him it happened for your good because God before eternity
Before time was even started Declared it and decreed it and meant it for your good or for my good to bring us closer into the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ Well, they would falter But Jesus would not he knew he said the father is with me
They would abandon him But the father would not at every point of man's weakness God's strength
God's mercy are made all the more evident You see as he's told the
Apostle Paul My grace is made perfect in what in your abilities
In your strength and your intellect in your self -confidence In your plans you're no of course not my strength is made perfect in your weakness
These things I have spoken to you that you should know that I Told you but also that you might have peace with a crucial qualification peace in me
You see outside of him is only false peace a worldly peace a temporary truce waiting to be broken
The peace Jesus speaks of is found in him by faith on by and by those who love him and Because of loving him are loved by the father
It's a peace based not on ourselves not on our circumstance not on anything is happening but in Jesus Christ and his promises and the certainty that Is happening because Jesus Christ decreed it and he knows of it and he is with us in it and through it
Peace that comes from certainty that he has been raised from the dead that he lives forever that he's watching over us
He's ruling in our hearts. He's interceding for us Against this peace is the tribulation to be found in the world world is usually
The word tribulation is used of trouble intentionally brought against someone specifically because they follow
God It's really the capstone on what he said earlier about How the world would for his sake hate his disciples
Be of good cheer. He says I've overcome the world and that's meaning that means just what it sounds like I have victory over the world be finalized the next day on the cross
But the course was at that point so certain that Jesus could speak of it as an accomplished feat or fact
This is why he could tell them to be of good cheer in other words be courageous keep a stiff upper lip as some would say
This is the provision for their coming trial Jesus suffering setting the example
The Prince of Peace went quietly to the cross and there The only words he spoke were words of comfort of forgiveness of love for the father whose plan and whose purposes he was fulfilling
When as Apostles they encountered hatred and tribulation and Persecution which they all did it was met with this peaceful equanimity
Because they knew that Jesus was with them because they knew that Jesus had come from the father
Not because of their courage When the soldiers came they ran like frightened sheep.
We all know that But all that Was when it was before Jesus resurrection as ascension
It was before the giving of the Spirit I think this is what Jesus meant back when he said do you now believe?
No, you're not ready yet. You have the facts But what pulls all that together for us
What makes that powerful to live a life for Jesus Christ to stand for him to be courageous for him?
What makes anything possible in the Christian life to grow even the smallest increment from where we are now wherever you are
Closer to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ How is that possible?
It's exactly what Jesus is telling the Apostles they need to wait for that final provision that eternal provision
The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God was Jesus said we've covered this a few weeks ago here says
I will send him and he will be with you and we will make our home in those who love me and The Holy Spirit will remind you what to say the
Holy Spirit will empower you to stand for me the Holy Spirit Will bring you closer to my image step by step according to God's will and decree
It's a gift of God. That's the joy that cannot be taken away when he says
They have to take cheer. I have overcome the world. I've had victory over the world And you may have this joy in me
This is what it is. Not just a happy feeling though. It does make us happy nothing against happy But there's a deep -seated joy that overcomes and overlooks and overrides any circumstance
Even if it was one as intensive as what the Apostles went through the next day
That's because we have in us the certainty of our faith the seal of the
Holy Spirit indwelling us and Giving us that power to persevere
That's the gift of God. That's the joy that no one can take That's a quality alien to us.
That's something given as a gift to those who love Jesus so in a sense, it's it's mystical a
Spiritual experience inexplicable to those outside of Christ But more simply it's a peace that comes from knowing that all events are in God's sight and in God's control and under his decree
Jesus told them before it happened so that he could look back and have the peace that comes from complete confidence in their
Savior in our Savior Jesus Christ William Hendrickson says here and I will close with this
The light is shining brightly now more brightly perhaps than ever before Yet the confession which is here made will linger on in the realm of the subconscious until by and by When the
Lord arises in triumph from his tomb and a little later pours out his Holy Spirit It will bear fruit of calm and steadfast assurance and this fruit will abide forever
Amen Let's pray Heavenly Father we again
Thank you for calling us into your presence for bringing us Together again as a body to worship you and for your word that we can hear from you and know your will for us
Thank you father for these words from the Lord Jesus Christ we thank you father for this assurance that he knows all things and Always has known and always will know all things and that he and all our trials is with us