In Case You Missed It – Take Heart, I Have Overcome the World!

John 16:33 NIV “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.”

It’s not difficult to identify the “trouble”. It surrounds us every day, in the news we hear, in the injustices we learn about and in the manner in which humanity (ourselves included) treats humanity. But Jesus tells us that these troubles are not to be our focus and then He tells us why.

In chapter 16 of the Gospel of John Jesus is telling us ahead of time what is to come so that we do not fall away from the truth. Jesus speaks about needing to go away and how it is necessary so that He can send us the Advocate. And what will the Holy Spirit do? Jesus tells us the Advocate will do three things.

1. The Holy Spirit will prove the world to be wrong about sin;
2. He will prove the world to be wrong about righteousness; and
3. The Holy Spirit will prove the world to be wrong about judgement.

Surprisingly enough, these are three topics that you don’t hear about very much these days.

And what is the “sin” that the Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong on? “….because people do not believe in me. Is this not the ultimate sin? Is this not the key issue for all of humanity? Is this not what everything else is dependent on?

And “righteousness” “…..because I am going to the Father“. Our Father, who as we know, is the source of all righteousness. Regardless as to whether we acknowledge Him or not, God our Father is the standard of righteousness. His righteousness is the yardstick that righteousness is measured against.

And finally “judgement” “…..because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” Satan is acknowledged as the prince of this world but he now stands condemned. Note that “prince” is a lower position than “King”. Jesus is our King. When Jesus rose from the dead, death lost it’s power because death is no longer the end, our spirits or souls are no longer sealed to the second death. Because Jesus lives, so shall we who believe. Our spirits have been reborn and we shall, like Jesus, receive a new body when the dead in Christ are resurrected. The verdict has been issued, and Satan knows his time is limited, he knows that the final execution of that verdict is coming in the judgement. Prior to the resurrection, on this world, it appeared as though Satan held the trump card, but no more.

In Matthew 28:18 NIV Jesus said “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Notice how this ties in with John 16:15 NIV where Jesus says “All that belongs to the Father is mine.” How the Holy Spirit will only speak of what He hears, how He will glorify Jesus because the Holy Spirt will receive from Jesus what He will make known to us.

In John 16:26 NIV Jesus says In “that” day which is “our” day, we will ask of God in the name of Jesus. Notice that Jesus says “I am NOT saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” Prayer doesn’t work that way, Jesus doesn’t relay our prayers to the Father. Our heavenly Father hears our prayers BECAUSE He knows we love Jesus and believe that God the Father sent Jesus to us (verse 16:27). It is because we pray to our Father in the name of Jesus that our Father hears our prayers. Kind of like email authentication if you come from a Information Technology background. Because we are children of God, because we have been reborn, because we reside in Jesus and He resides in us through His Spirit, our heavenly Father hears our prayers.

But this is not the conclusion of what Jesus is telling us. This is not the pinnacle of this teaching, because we find the conclusion in verse 33.

“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.”

PEACE. JOY. 

So often and easily we allow the trouble that is in the world to affect us, to change our focus, to modify our attitude and our behaviour. We need to balance what we expose ourselves to, which explains why spending time in God’s Word and prayer is so very important. The prince of this world would have us get discouraged by what we see and what we hear. But that is NOT the whole story, that is the perspective that he would have us focus on. But that is NOT God’s perspective, that is NOT the focus of God’s message to us, JESUS IS. Always has been, always will be. JESUS OVERCAME THE WORLD! Jesus is our peace, Jesus is our joy!

Spoiler alert! 

“……But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Worthy is the Lamb! Blessings!