Upper Room No.4 The Overcomer

These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.

Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. And they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee. And they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.

For they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one.

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. God will bless the public reading of this word. And my brother John Hanson read the final part of our Lord's sermon, which actually is his prayer, and I'm not intending to go into a series on that prayer at the moment, but perhaps reserve it until next year.

But the actual address that he gave to his disciples comes to its conclusion from the 31st through to the 33rd verse of John 16. Let me read these verses to you. You believe at last, Jesus answered, But a time is coming and has come when you will be scattered, each to his own home.

You will leave me all alone, yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace, in the world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.

I come then to the final address from chapters of Scripture that have come to mean a great deal to me. Our Lord's last words to his disciples, needing therefore to be taken carefully and to be sifted so that every bit of meaning shall be preserved and applied. Shall I tell you how I go about reading a book? I read many books.

Sometimes I'm asked to review books for magazines. And my immediate practice, and I use this for reading articles too, is to read the first chapter and then the last chapter. That's why Agatha Christie has no hold on me at all because I already know what's happening in the middle, so I skip it and leave it for my wife to read.

Similarly with an essay. You see, you write an essay and you put your direction in your first paragraph. Where are you going to go? What are you going to do? And then in your concluding paragraph, you bring it all together.

Now, I just realized that perhaps I'm making the greatest faux pas from this pulpit at all because you might say, well, let's apply that to preaching. We'll listen to it for the first five minutes. The last five minutes.

Don't quite know how to get myself out of that one. Here is our Lord Jesus, you see. And in some senses, He sets down in the opening part of His final address to His disciples what His intentions are.

And then in the last few verses, He underlines the fact that He has achieved His objective. Look at the first verse of the 14th chapter where our Lord commences His lovely discourse. Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God. Trust also in Me. And now the final verses once more.

The 33rd of the 16th chapter. I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. You see the point? He set out what He intended to do.

And now He brings in His conclusion. He's done it. He's told the disciples why it is that they are to live with serenity as they contemplate service.

He's given them an understanding about Himself. And throughout the whole of these two chapters that bring together, or these three chapters that bring together this amazing address, the thing that's dominant in the mind of the Lord Jesus, and it's phenomenal, is the disciples and not Himself. Isn't that so? Now remember, here's a man who's facing the gallows.

And if you and I were in that situation, what we would want is for someone to come along and comfort us. But this is the extraordinary thing of the Lord Jesus. He doesn't react as you and I usually react.

As someone put it, a Brethren writer actually, of a decade or so ago, ever thinking more of others than of Himself, even in this near prospect of the bitter cross, He forgets His own grief in the grief of His disciples. He is occupied in comforting those who ought to have been His comforters. And dear old Martin Luther, he said of this address and the opening verses and the concluding verses, that this is the good night and the handshake of Jesus.

The good night. Let not your heart be troubled. The handshake.

Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Some of you can only take that in this morning.

And that's enough. Jesus bids good night. And He puts His hand in your hand.

And He says, take heart. Whatever confronts you, remember this. I have overcome the world.

Well, let's analyze the 33rd verse a little more carefully. First of all, the things that He taught and why. I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace.

The sphere in which the disciples would live and how. In the world, you will have trouble. In Me, you may have peace.

The victory He has achieved and so. I have overcome the world. What follows from that? Well, let's use those little levers to help us to get to grips with the teaching of this lovely verse.

The things that He taught and why. I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. What things? Well, He's told them, has He not, about Himself and themselves.

He's told them, His disciples, that He came from the Father. That He came into this world with the idea of demonstrating the love of the Father. For greater love has no one than this, than one lays down his life for his friends.

And that's what the Father asked Him to do. He's told them that He's not going to be around forever. But when He goes, He will ask the Father to send them another Comforter.

And when the Comforter comes, He will have such a close correspondence with the Lord Jesus, it will be just as though He had never gone in the first instance. He's told them many lovely things. He's also told them things that will worry them.

He indicated that one of their number would get up and betray Him. He said of Peter, the spokesman, that before 48 hours was through, He would deny him three times. This is what Jesus told them.

Why? Why did He tell them these things? If that was the what, then what is the why? What is the reason? Well, He's told them these things so that they may have peace. Now you see, this is a great concern about the Lord Jesus for you and for me. We've come across this before, haven't we? He's mentioned earlier that one of the objectives of Him coming into the world is that they might have serenity.

Verse 27, chapter 14. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

I talk to you a lot on peace. Let me summarize. In one sense, our Lord has come to make objective peace possible.

You say, what do you mean? Well, peace with God. What stops you having peace? Well, it's the thing that displeases God in your life, that causes the Father to distance Himself from you. Your sin.

Now the Lord Jesus has taken away that sin. Therefore, He leads you into the very presence of God. You have access, says Paul, into the presence of God through the Lord Jesus.

Objective peace. That's what Jesus has done. But not just objective.

You see, that's a theological concept. But it goes beyond that because the Bible, as I tell you so many times from this pulpit, the Bible affects not just your mind, but your heart. And there's subjective peace.

Not just, I know I am a Christian through the deduction of the text, I have peace with God, but I enter into a feelingful experience of that peace. And that's what Jesus is concerned to bring to the disciples. So He says, I've told you these things so that in Me you may have peace.

Now, how can you work that out logically? I mean, these men are going to deny Him, at least one of them. And all of them are going to flee away. Well, you see, when they come to their senses, so to speak, they will reflect on what the Lord has said and they will appreciate that all that He anticipated came to pass.

Look at the first verse of chapter 16. All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. Look at the fourth verse.

I have told you this so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. He's referring even to their act of weakness.

You see, the Lord Jesus knows all about His disciples as He knows all about you, my dear brother and sister. He's not dealing with the greatest congregation on earth that will have a full-fledged faith in Him all the time. Indeed, just before He moves into the 33rd verse of the 16th chapter, He tells them about the fact that they're going to scatter.

Verse 32, A time is coming and has come when you will be scattered each to his own home. You will leave Me all alone, yet I'm not alone for My Father is with Me. Now in those moments of utter despair, when the disciples realize what they have done, they've left their Lord at the time when He needed them most, how will they recoup their position? How will they sort of get back, if you please, to accepting the circumstance in which they find themselves, accepting the fact that they've fallen short of what they ought to have been? Well, you can imagine Peter saying, I, Thomas, He told us though, didn't He? He told us that you'd have doubt.

He told us that I would deny Him. We didn't accept what He said then, but He knew. He has an uncanny knowledge, doesn't He, Thomas, of what we're like.

My brothers and sisters, whether you're 18 or 80, He knows about you. You see, He doesn't give you His peace and promise the objective and subjective peace of God simply because of the way that you respond, but rather because of the largeness of His own heart, the things that He taught and why. I have told you these things.

I've told you about the Father, and I've told you about your own weakness, so that when you are in a condition and I'm no longer with you, you'll remember what I said, and it will help you. You will have reinforced the truth that I've declared about the Father and the Holy Spirit and my presence, and you will remember, even with the thought of your denial and your weakness much in mind, that your failure in no way causes you to forfeit my peace, because I've made allowance for it. Isn't that super? No wonder Martin Luther said it was the good night and the handshake.

My peace I give unto you, the things He taught and why. But secondly, the sphere in which these disciples would live and how. I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace, in this world you will have trouble.

Now there are two contrasts there, aren't there? In me and in the world. Peace and trouble. Now what does our Lord mean by in the world? Did He despise the world? Well, He couldn't do that, could He? That would have been illogical.

After all, John starts off in his opening chapter by reminding us that it's the Lord Jesus who is responsible for the world coming into existence. Verse 3, chapter 1, Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made. The world belongs to God.

David Pawson goes on record saying the world is the Lord's and He wants it back. So when Jesus talks about the world He's not talking about the created world. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

Then what does He mean when He says in the world you will have trouble? Well, Charles Spurgeon helps us. He says this present constitution and arrangement of things. See, that's what the Lord Jesus would never submit to, would He? He came into the world and the society in which He lived was largely a godless society and He wouldn't succumb to it.

Now this is my problem, my brother, and maybe it's yours also, my sister, that as a Christian person I conform to this present order of things far more than I ought to do. Now I shouldn't be like that. Be not conformed to this world, says the apostle.

You see, our Lord Jesus turned His back on the world. The world had nothing on Him. He never had any investments.

He never did one of the 101 things that we generally associate with being successful. He said the devil has nothing on me. He could leave the world order without any regrets whatsoever because the world order had nothing on Him whatsoever.

And Jesus is saying to the disciples if you submit to the present world order then you will have trouble. And how true that was, not only in those days but today. You read your newspaper.

What's it filled with? Well, by and large, with some exceptions, let's not be sort of a Jerry Mayer in, well, not that Jerry Mayer exaggerated, but he's sometimes known as the prophet that weeps. Let's not exaggerate the reason for weeping. There are some good things in the 20th century, but there are some pretty rotten things.

And if you submit to this world, my young married friends who've just had the privilege this past year of uniting your life to another, if you submit to this world in terms of its material objectives and so on and so forth, if that's the only thing, then you're going to be in difficulty. That's what the Lord was teaching here, wasn't it? In the world, you'll have trouble. You'll have trouble.

But in me, in me there will be peace. You see, he's taking us back, if you please, to what he so brilliantly taught us about the vine and the branches. Do you remember? The vine and the branches are interconnected.

The vine branch is a reproduction of the vine main stem. And the vine branch can draw its life and exist only as it takes its strength from the center of the vine. Now, that's the same with you and me.

You see, we have the option, even as Christian people, of drawing sufficient strength from the Savior and getting from all the spiritual resources that are His ability to live our life, or we can, if you like, draw from Him and from the world. This is the problem with most of us. It's not that we're all worldly.

I don't think you'd be listening to a 30-minute address Sunday by Sunday, if you were. Nor is it that we're all spiritual. We sort of sometimes try and draw a lifeblood from two sources, and that's the reason why some of us are often spiritually defective and sometimes unhappy.

Our Lord Jesus says, no, make me and the responsibilities that you have on me or for me the main fulcrum on which your life swings. Let me try an example. Let's take the man who went on the moon for the first time, Neil Armstrong.

Now, he was living in an atmosphere that was totally uncongenial. You see, although he was on the moon, he wasn't really on the moon, he was on earth. You say, how do you work that out? Well, by this reason, he got a balloon, so to speak, at least covering his head.

In fact, it was covering the rest of his body, wasn't it? And if he had taken off that spacesuit, he would have really been in trouble. He had to take with him the atmosphere in which he had been created to live because you can't live as a human being on the moon. Now, that holds with a Christian, you see.

We are to live in Christ. We are to live drawing from him, if you like, breathing in his oxygen, so to speak, so that we bring everything that we do, everything that we're engaged in, under him and ask for his control and his direction. And then we will know peace.

And now, it's a jolly sight more easy to say that than what it is to do it. I'll confess. But this is what our Savior is saying, isn't he? The things he taught and why, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.

The sphere in which they would live and how. You have the option of being in the world, one foot in one camp and one foot in the other camp. But if you take that compromise, then there's going to be trouble.

Happy is the man who wholly leans on the Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean that you've got to go to a monastery or a convent depending on what sex you are. It's living here with the Lord controlling your life.

Now, do you do it? Are you trying to do it? No, I'm not asking your husband. I'm asking you. I'm not asking your wife.

I'm asking you. I'm not asking the pensioners. I'm asking the young people.

I'm not just asking the young people. I'm asking the pensioners. Do you try and do these things? Because this is the good night and the handshake of Jesus.

If in the world, you're going to have trouble. Live in me and you'll have peace. Your body can be in a cancerous condition but you can have peace.

Your business can collapse but you can have peace. See, this is what the world can't give you because the world depends upon the sort of peace that it offers, the happenings around you. They've got to always be right.

But the Christian, as the Lord Jesus demonstrates, can face the greatest difficulty possible and yet still be serene. You see, here is Jesus. I repeat, He's the Galilean speaking to His disciples at a time when He knows that they are going to leave Him.

I mean, this is the incredible thing about this. I fail to understand Him. Our Lord Jesus.

I bow at His feet because I cannot comprehend His psychology. That's what attracts me to Him. You see, He knows that this bunch of men in a few hours, in a few minutes are going to leave Him.

And yet He says, I've got perfect peace. Why? Because I'm not alone. Because the Father is with me.

Now you see, years will come in the life of the disciples when they too will feel alone. And so it's necessary for them to remember what He has taught them. How did the Lord cope when we left Him? Well, He did very well because He got the Father.

But He said that the Father in Himself would come to us by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we too would never be alone. In fact, His last words were, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you.

But those words, my dear brothers and sisters, can only have meaning to you as you endeavor to live in Him and not in the world. The things that He taught and why. The sphere in which they would live and how.

Finally, the victory He has achieved. And so, I have overcome the world. The victory He has achieved.

And so, take heart. This is the cause. I've overcome the world.

This is the consequence. Take heart. How did our Lord Jesus overcome the world? Well, Revelation 6-2 will tell you that He went forth conquering and to conquer.

Hebrews 11-7 says that Noah condemned the world through his preaching. But we could add a rider. Jesus Christ conquered the world through His life.

He conquered the world. You say, in what sense? Well, take the ignorance in the world. He diffused truth, didn't He? Take the sinfulness in the world.

He diffused holiness. Take the ugliness of the world. He displayed beauty.

Everything that was wrong and vile, in the current order of things, our Lord Jesus provided the opposite. And the world therefore, in that current order, had no hold on Him whatever. Isn't He an incredible man, really? I mean, I've been preaching, I forget for how long now, I've been getting on for 20 odd years.

But really, I am utterly fascinated by the Lord Jesus. He stands in front of Pontius Pilate. He's got the Jewish hierarchy in front of Him.

And He's the one man who retains His cool. Pilate's almost angry. Caiaphas blows a fuse.

But Jesus is able to stand serene. Why? Well, because the current order of things had no hold on Him. He conquered the world.

I mean, He's this side of Calvary. He's yet to go through the garden experience and the crucifixion. And yet, so absolutely sure He is of the Father and fulfilling Father's purposes that even now He speaks in the perfect tense.

I have overcome the world. I've conquered it. The devil has nothing on me.

Now, if He's overcome the world, then it's possible that you and I can because we're living in a faith union with Him. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 1 John 5.4 They overcame Him by the word of testimony and the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 12.11 I do want to overcome the world, don't you? I don't want the Dallas Syndrome to have any hold on me. Yet I find it so hard at the ordinary human level. And you see, unless I work at it... Now remember, I've confessed I've been in the ministry, I almost said priesthood, I suppose I have in one sense, 20 years, and yet I'm still working on not being in the world.

I do find it hard. You see, Jesus will never bankrupt you in terms of the effort that He requires. He never steps in and does everything for you.

It's Him and you. He supplying the main stimulus that you have got to want. I've overcome the world.

And you can overcome whoever you are, whatever you are, if you really want to. If you really, really want to. I've overcome the world.

Jesus is like the guide helping the mountaineer to the top of the mountain. The guide gets there and therefore there's good reason to suppose that the mountaineer can get there. Our Lord Jesus has got to the summit and He encourages us likewise.

And therefore, having looked at the cause, here's the consequence. Take heart. Take heart.

Be of good cheer. It's only our Lord Jesus who uses this. At least there's one exception to the rule in the Gospels.

It's only the word with that one exception, the phrase that falls from the lips of Jesus. He's always saying, be good hearted, cheer up. Summon up your strength.

He's always the optimist. The paralytic man comes. He says, cheer up.

The woman with the haemorrhage who spent all her money on the doctors and she feels worse than she did when she started and she's bankrupt into the bargain. He says, cheer up. You see, He can say these things because He's entered into the heart of the experience of knowing the joy of God even when facing at the human level travail and difficulty.

He's overcome the world. Therefore, He says, be of good cheer. Do you know, it's nice occasionally for a Christian to break his face into a smile because he does have a lot going for him.

You see, the apostle Paul says, we're more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Romans 8, where are we, 37. We therefore have a right to be cheerful.

Acts 5, 41, you find the disciples who've been incarcerated in a jail and they praise God for the opportunity of going through temptation and persecution for Him. That's marvelous, isn't it? Now, I do tell you, I swear on the Bible on which I've got my hand right now, that that is possible today. I have seen refugees praising God in the most appalling circumstances, richer than some of you folks in Goring, spiritually.

Richer than some of us in the center of Worthing. Richer than some of us in the east of Worthing. Why? Because they have discovered what it is to take their life blood from Jesus.

They live in Him. Not in the world, dead to the world and all its toys, its idle pomp and fading joys. Jesus, my glory be.

That's what I was brought up to sing as a kid. I used to sing it with a great enthusiasm, not realizing how difficult it would be to live it out. But here we are, my friend.

Here is our Lord Jesus and He comes to the end of this consummately skillful piece of teaching. And He says to the disciples in summary, reinforcing what He said right at the beginning, I've told you these things so that in you, in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.

But take heart. I have overcome the world, the good night and the handshake of Jesus Christ to brothers and sisters in wording tabernacle. Let's stand for a moment, shall we? Let's hear that song sung again, shall we? May our praise be unto you as incense.

Do you come and sing it, you girls, please? Let's bow our heads in prayer and let's follow these words through. We're not singing ourselves, but we're asking that God will make our lives be as incense before Him. Let our praise to you be as incense.

Let our praise to you be as pillars of your throne. Let our praise to you be as incense as we come before you and worship you alone. As we see you in your splendor, as we gaze upon your majesty, as we join the hosts of angels and proclaim together your holiness, is the Lord holy, holy, holy.

Father, enable us to work that through the challenge of your word, the good night of Jesus and the handshake. Lord Jesus, don't unclasp the hand, for then we can take the night. Help us to feel your embrace and give us the courage, whoever we are and whatever we are, to correct our lives in accordance with your word and to know the peace that so often we have despaired of ever entering into.

For the sake of the Savior, amen. Let's conclude our worship this morning by praising our Savior for what He's done for us. 111.

One of the many hymns that will be sung at my funeral service. Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne, hark how the heavenly anthem drowns, all music but its own. 111.

Crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne, all music but its own. Behold Him, yet visible above, in beauty glowing, the Lord of peace. His peace and holy prayer is where He shall be.

And all God's people said, Amen. And the saints rejoiced. Amen.