In John chapters 14-16 Jesus is summing up His final instructions and encouragement to His followers. He promises to send the Holy Spirit to be with them so they won’t be left alone while He’s gone, and He promises them they will know His joy and His peace – that they need not be afraid.
But if we’re real about our lives and what we are experiencing, we know there’s a lot of mystery around these promises. Much of the time, experientially, we don’t have a clue what He was talking about.
For example,
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
So the promise here, which is very similar to other promises throughout this section of John, is inner peace in the midst of outward turmoil. We are all very familiar with the outward turmoil part. The whole creation, us included, groans and travails in pain (Romans 8:22-23). Life is extremely hard, especially for those who are growing spiritually.
For those who aren’t growing, life may be somewhat easier because they haven’t incurred the anger of the forces that are against Christ. The flesh is content, they fit into the world, and demons find other people to hassle. But if you try to move forward with Christ and take your stand with Him, the world, the flesh and the devil all come at you in full force. They don’t let up. They don’t know the meaning of vacation or mercy.
That’s tribulation and it doesn’t stop until we either leave this world or turn our back on spiritual advance. So, when Jesus says we will have tribulation we know what that means. But He also said we could have peace in our souls in the midst of whatever storms are raging outside.
We can understand that in concept, but look at the reason He gives for this happening, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but my initial response would be, That’s great – but what’s that got to do with me? How is His victorious life related to my peace? Look at our Lord’s words in the next chapter, John 17:22-23
The glory which You, Father, have given Me, I have given them, so they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and You in Me. . .
All that Jesus was and all that He accomplished was somehow to be transferred to those who belong to Him. His victory, His destiny, His very life would become ours. As Paul puts it, Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Through the Holy Spirit, Christ has come to live within us and to share His own life with us. So, then the question becomes, Again, that’s great, when and how do I start experiencing that life? Having something, but not experiencing it, is no better practically speaking than not having it.
I’m assuming most of you experience, from time to time, some degree of thankfulness, maybe even joy, over the fact that you’re going to heaven instead of hell. You are sharing Christ’s destiny because of what He did on the cross. That’s good news, and occasionally, you probably experience a degree of peace or joy when that reality hits home. When you stop and think about it, and when you contrast eternal condemnation with eternal happiness, one can’t help but experience a bit of joy about that.
So, you will notice that two things are in action when you actually experience something related to the promises of God: The work and Person of Christ, and faith on your part.
If you didn’t believe the cross had anything to do with your eternal destiny, I doubt you’d experience any personal joy or relief around the fact that Christ’s death 2000 years ago resolved your sin problem.
The same is true now that you are His child. Heaven is settled, but now the issues are related more to daily living than eternal destiny. However, the principle remains exactly the same. As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him. (Colossians 2:6)
When we learn something about Who He is and what He’s done or promised, we can either believe or not believe Him. With the gospel, we believed and a billion incredible things happened. Inner rest in this case is the practical outworking of our belief that what the Bible says is true.
Paul tells us that Jesus is head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:22). Not some things, all things. Our lives are not too big a challenge for Him. Our circumstances, failures, weaknesses are not beyond God’s ability to deal with. When we trust Him, the things themselves (our circumstances) may or may not change, but faith affects our inner lives, and to God what matters most is the inner man, the spirit, and that issue must be settled first. The rest of faith must be our position, our stand, in His Word to us.
Even if, like Abraham waiting for Isaac, we don’t see immediate results, it is inevitable that if we stand by faith in Christ on His word, we will ultimately win this battle we’re in. We’re asked to fight a fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).
Think of this hypothetical analogy. We have a loved one, maybe a husband or father, away at war. We haven’t heard from them for too long and we assume the worst. Then an epistle comes to us from the army base in that region telling us the he is alive.. We rejoice without any evidence this is true simply because we believe the epistle.
Compare that story to these verses in 1 Peter 1:6,8;
In this you greatly rejoice . . . Whom (Jesus), having not seen, you love; in Whom, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and fullof glory.
Those Peter was writing to had never seen Jesus and were not seeing Him in the present, but because they believed what they were told of Him, they rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Nothing in their circumstances changed, but look at the effect of faith on their soul!
Thomas needed to see to believe and to this Jesus said, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed: Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet believed.(John 20:29). And in John 4:48 the Lord said, Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. .
All of us would love to have confirmation in terms of experiences, signs, anything to which we could attach our faith. That’s because, like Thomas and others, we are empiricists whether we want to admit it or not. But now we are being asked to walk by faith not by sight; not something we are used to; not something we even want to do.
Knowing and believing the Word of God brings rest, joy, peace. Faith doesn’t always change our circumstances but it definitely changes our heart.
Just as we believed (and rejoiced) that the Cross affected our destiny without any evidence beyond faith to confirm that fact, we can believe (and rejoice) that the Potter is shaping us through our circumstances into something wonderful whether we have any evidence to confirm those promises:
We rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation develops perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope . . . (Romans 5:3-4)
Count it all joy when you fall into various trials . . . that you may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4)
James calls this, the testing of your faith (James 1:3).
Abraham was excited about being the father of many nations. He was excited about that nearly 100 years before Isaac was born! You can read other similar stories in Hebrews 11.
God may supernaturally inject peace or joy into us. He’s God and can do whatever He wants. But as we saw in the words of Jesus to Thomas, there is greater blessing in time and eternity for those whose rest and rejoicing come as a result of faith.
We began this study with the passage in John regarding Jesus' overcoming of the world and asked how that would apply to us. We share His overcoming because we share His life. This is not something that will happen, future tense, if we just believe. It is something that is a present reality. We are, now, seated at the right hand of God above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 1:20-21, 2:6). As John tells us in 1 John 5:4, For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.
Faith doesn’t make something happen, it allows what has already happen to become real in our experience. We’re not going to be blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, we already are (Ephesians 1:3).
If we’re going to have realistic expectations we must never forget the supreme value and definition of what faith really is, Faith is inner assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith give experiential substance to things we cannot see.
Again, we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).
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