We Are Overcomers! (25 of 31)
Series: The Gospel Of John
Tim Badal
John 16:16-31
Grab your Bibles and turn to John 16. We’re in a series entitled ‘‘The Gospel of John.’’ We’re looking at the life and ministry of Jesus through the eyes of the Apostle John, one of Jesus’ disciples. For the past few weeks we have been in John 14, 15 and 16.
In the story line, there are no miracles, nor are there any cool messages being shared that would give lots of hope and encouragement. In fact, in these last moments Jesus has with His disciples before His arrest and impending crucifixion, He told the disciples, His closest friends, what life without Him would look like and it was a scary proposition. Jesus told them that after He was gone, their lives would be filled with hatred and opposition from the world. Life without Jesus would be filled with persecution and that some people would even die for their faith.
We now know that was true for 11 of the Apostles and for countless others throughout church history. Even today we see persecution going on in our world. Not too long ago, we saw videos of people losing their lives for standing up for Christ in front of ISIS.
We might ask, amidst all that bad news, was Jesus trying a new marketing strategy with the goal of attracting people through the worst possible means? Was He trying to attract people by telling them that if they followed Him, life was going to be terrible? No. Jesus was telling them that to be a disciple of His meant to follow in His footsteps. We say that, we sing that, but we don’t always believe that. We would rather think that following Jesus means victory, not suffering. But Jesus was saying, ‘‘Life without Me in the flesh will look like My life did while I was with you. I suffered a little while in order that I might be glorified. I suffered for a little while so others can be blessed, therefore the joy of being glorified will be even sweeter.’’
Jesus is telling us that in order to enjoy ...
Series: The Gospel Of John
Tim Badal
John 16:16-31
Grab your Bibles and turn to John 16. We’re in a series entitled ‘‘The Gospel of John.’’ We’re looking at the life and ministry of Jesus through the eyes of the Apostle John, one of Jesus’ disciples. For the past few weeks we have been in John 14, 15 and 16.
In the story line, there are no miracles, nor are there any cool messages being shared that would give lots of hope and encouragement. In fact, in these last moments Jesus has with His disciples before His arrest and impending crucifixion, He told the disciples, His closest friends, what life without Him would look like and it was a scary proposition. Jesus told them that after He was gone, their lives would be filled with hatred and opposition from the world. Life without Jesus would be filled with persecution and that some people would even die for their faith.
We now know that was true for 11 of the Apostles and for countless others throughout church history. Even today we see persecution going on in our world. Not too long ago, we saw videos of people losing their lives for standing up for Christ in front of ISIS.
We might ask, amidst all that bad news, was Jesus trying a new marketing strategy with the goal of attracting people through the worst possible means? Was He trying to attract people by telling them that if they followed Him, life was going to be terrible? No. Jesus was telling them that to be a disciple of His meant to follow in His footsteps. We say that, we sing that, but we don’t always believe that. We would rather think that following Jesus means victory, not suffering. But Jesus was saying, ‘‘Life without Me in the flesh will look like My life did while I was with you. I suffered a little while in order that I might be glorified. I suffered for a little while so others can be blessed, therefore the joy of being glorified will be even sweeter.’’
Jesus is telling us that in order to enjoy ...
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