Disciples are Winners
Notes
Transcript
The disciples are about to face 3 days of loss, confusion and sorrow. They will then have the unshakeable joy and invincible peace of Jesus’ Resurrection Victory. Jesus wins over Satan and all powers and principalities, over death, guilt, shame and sin, over unrighteousness, over humanity, and in every other possible way. Jesus wins.
Chess
Chess
This is my semi-daily challenge on the Chess.com app. The game, the challenge, is to walk through the final steps of the chess game. Spot the path to victory, the few moves that will get us there.
I love it… because I know there is a victory there. I just have to find it.
Not so much in life. Some days, some weeks, it’s hard to see anything like victory. Which makes statements like our sermon title today hard to buy, hard to accept and receive, hard to believe.
Recap
Recap
Jesus is teaching his disciples what it is going to look to abide in him, to do life with him, now filled by the Holy Spirit, the Helper, whom he will send. And why? So that they don’t fall away… and so they are filled with invincible joy.
From Sorrow to Joy
From Sorrow to Joy
16 “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”
What’s a little while?
“a little while” is pretty consistently used of a few days or weeks or months. Which is important to what comes next. Immediately my head goes to Jesus’ death and resurrection… and that makes a lot of sense. We will see if that’s it…
But they don’t know what that means, so here ends the longest monologue in the New Testament..
17 So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father’?”
18 So they were saying, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he is talking about.”
Same questions I’m asking. Love it.
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’?
20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
Jesus’ focuses doesn’t seem to be on the details of where he is going and what is going to happen… but the emotions they will feel.
Sorrow, and then sorrow turned to joy.
I love this metaphor:
21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
I have a friend who has gone into labor a dozen times, all the screaming, all the pain and… kidney stone. No joy!
But I well remember the absolute joy of the babies being born into the world.
From sorrow to joy!
22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
23 In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
That your joy may be full!!!
25 “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 will tell you plainly about the Father.
26 In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;
27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
This is what Jesus has been saying the whole time. “Going to the Father.” Which has us thinking of something else besides his death and resurrection.
Sure enough, Jesus does go away for a few days, and then they see him again. “A little while, a little while…” But it is hard to describe that as “going to the Father.” And maybe hard to connect that with the sense of “seeing” and “understanding” and “unshakable joy” Jesus is promising.
On the other hand, “a few days” they see Jesus in a number of resurrection visitations, then his ascension “to the Father.” They don’t see him for a few days… and then 10 days… and then the giving of the Holy Spirit.
… which is exactly what Jesus has been talking about for the last couple chapters. The giving of the Holy Spirit to reveal all things, to teach and empower, to dwell within, to abide… and to give unshakable joy.
29 His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!
30 Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?
32 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.
And here, one of my favorite, most oft-repeated verses. A hard, but powerful, and beautiful truth:
33 I have 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.”
That you may have Peace
That you may have Peace
Add to all the reasons why Jesus has given this teaching, this last night curriculum, this sermon… all that he has said. He said it was that we wouldn’t fall away. Twice he has said “that your joy may be full.” And now he adds to joy… peace. In Greek that’s eirene, but here I like to remember that he is likely speaking Aramaic or Hebrew and he is almost certainly saying Shalom. Not just absence of conflict, but everything just as it should be. In the right place at the right time, in the right way. And it is peace that passes understanding, as the apostle will later understand.
It is Present Active, that you may keep on having peace. Love it.
The subjective peace despite the tribulation, despite the circumstances, despite the troubles. Hear is a walking island of peace and joy, this subjective experience that can’t be touched because it is based on this objective fact: Jesus has won!
We have subjective peace in Jesus because he has objectively victory.
In This World
In This World
Again, this is an all-encompassing word.
Kosmos. Yes, this is the Universe (or the Multiverse if that exists), planets and stars and galaxies and all the spaces in between.
Yes, this is Satan, the adversary, the rebellious council of gods, fallen angels, demons, powers and principalities.
Yes, this is kings and emperors, governments and governors, even small town mayors and city managers.
Yes, this is your world, the people you admire and respect and look to for affirmation and respect.
Yes and yes, the world and all of it.
In that world…
You Will Have Troubles
You Will Have Troubles
Tribulation. Trouble.
This is not just “persecution to stamp out the name of Jesus.” It absolutely includes that… and that is coming for the apostles. Tribulation, persecution, and every one of the men in that room will be martyred except for John, who will die on a prison island in his 90s. Yes, that kind of persecution, tribulation, trouble.
And also… harassment and conflict, pain and trouble. The immediate context is the sorrow and anxiety and fear they will feel at Jesus’ coming crucifixion and death… and even again at his ascension.
Sorrow at the loss of a friend and mentor, a loved one.
Anxiety and concern about tomorrow. Feeling lost and untethered.
Quite literally this word is rooted in “pressing” or “squeezing” just like our English word “Oppress” comes from “Pressing you down, towards destroying or eliminating or squashing.”
Anyone feel pressed at times? In this world? Trouble and tribulations.
We all have a list, just from this week! Jesus doesn’t hide the ball, doesn’t give a false or over-optimistic sales pitch.
In the very face of reality, and a hard reality, you will have trouble BUT…
(One of the big BUTs of the Bible). Even seeing all of the trouble and tribulation before you:
Take heart
Take heart
Be Encouraged.
Through the book of Judges, to every leader, and to the people of Israel: Be strong and courageous. Even though, especially because, they are heading into danger, into battle, Outgunned. Outmanned. Outnumbered. Outplanned!
Be strong and courageous. Be encouraged. Courage in the face of danger.
I love the translation “encourage”. The NASB says “take courage”, I love that.
You need courage? Here’s some, Jesus says I have plenty, because I can see the end from here.
Jesus is offering free refills on courage. On “heart”. Be filled up with it.
Why does he have so much? How? Even though it seems like he needs it in his own prayer in the garden, coming in just hours, how does he have any courage to offer?
Because he can see the victory from here.
Jesus Has Won
Jesus Has Won
Jesus has “overcome the world”
Nike - VICTORY!
This is Victory in War, in competition, in a fight.
How has Jesus overcome the world?
The answer is “yes.”
Spiritually. If there was a struggle for the spiritual authority over the world, over the kosmos. It was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden. They immediately ceded it over to the serpent at some profound level. There’s a mystery there, how that works, and Satan became in some way the “god” (little g) of this world. In his death and resurrection, Jesus ransoms the world, the kosmos, including you and me. He brings us OUT of the domain of any other god or spiritual being… and into His Kingdom.
It is Victory.
It is political victory. Every government of man from start to finish has had ambitions of eternal rule. The Roman Empire, and the Roman Republic before it, certainly thought they would be forever. The United States Empire would love to be forever. But every government of man has an expiration date… to make way for the coming literal in every way Kingdom of Jesus.
Jesus wins.
It is a personal physical, emotional, spiritual victory. Peak human. In his obedience to the Father, self-sacrifice unto death for the love of his friends, for the love of us… there is no greater love than this. Jesus wins at being fully and perfectly human.
Jesus wins.
It is victory over humanity’s oldest and ultimate foe. Lots of psychologists, Freud, Jung, would call it the battle against death or shame… or those are both the same thing, really. But in Genesis, death is just a consequence. Sin. Unrighteousness. That’s the true issue which renders us unable to stand, to survive, the holy presence of God. Jesus creates perfect righteousness to cover us, a robe of righteousness, that we might be holy and righteous as he is and dwell in the presence of God forever.
Jesus wins.
It is victory over temptation, over death, over guilt and shame, over satan, over powers, over every other thing.
And he declares that victory even before anyone else sees anything that looks like victory.
In a Marathon, or any race, who knows who the winner is first? The winner… because they have crossed the finish line already. In the Ironman, the winner is done in something like 7 and a half hours. There are still people finishing at 17 hours, that’s 10 hours after the winner has conquered… and that’s only because they shut it all down after that, they clear the course.
In medicine. You may still feel the symptoms if disease for awhile. The symptoms of shame, guilt, death. You may still feel the trouble, the tribulation… but the healing is accomplished. The body, the world, the cosmos… they just have to catch up.
Here’s my favorite example. Chess. Where you and I may just see the board, with captures and moves, so many options and possibilities and lines of threat: Jesus now sees al the moves left… and it is over. He wins. Here, in this upper room, every opponent is out of moves.
He has conquered.
Jesus Wins
Jesus Wins
And we are on Team Jesus.
Because He Wins… every trouble and tribulation is transformed. Not that it isn’t trouble. Struggle. Pain and tribulation. That’s all still real.
But we have peace and even joy in the midst of it… because we know the Victory.
In the face of every challenge, every trouble, every tribulation, we know something they don’t know. The game is already over. Won. Victory.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
