Jesus Has Overcome
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2022 · 16 January 2022
Before we look at the text itself, let us look briefly at the world in which we live. It is bleak and filled with fearful people who are struggling to make some sense out of life. Their fears are personal and private, but thanks to the media, we have everybody else’s troubles also to carry. At the same time, we find ourselves struggling to face them because we’re bad at relationships.
The more materialistic the culture is, the more this becomes a reality. The more things we possess, the more things occupy us, the less significant our relationships become. Even in the midst of all this material prosperity, in all of this supposed freedom, we are engulfed in fears, and anxieties and questions. People are searching for things that give them meaning, while consumed with selfishness.
They find themselves unable to be satisfied, to be at peace, and to have any lasting joy. There are three things people need. First, they need to give love and they need to be loved. They need to be loved unconditionally. They need to be loved lavishly. They need to be loved generously, and they need to be loved by someone who knows all their faults and still loves them anyway.
Secondly, they need someone to trust. Someone to believe in. Someone who’s consumed with their well-being. Someone into whose hands they can place their lives who is powerful enough, and generous enough, and has the resources to secure them in the midst of an insecure world. They need someone to love and to care for them, who has the power to rescue them from all their troubles.
Thirdly, people need hope. They need to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to know that someone has a plan, and someone has a purpose. And somewhere in the future, something good is going to happen, and it’s going to be far greater than any of the bad experiences that occupy our lives. Love, faith, and hope, that’s what is offered to every person in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:13 says there are these three: “Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.” Often, the apostle Paul refers to that triad. A couple of times in 1 Thessalonians; again in Colossians and elsewhere. Those three divine provisions that come to us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are essentially what we need to live life with peace and joy.
Now, in this text, our Lord is going to say the last few words to His eleven disciples on that Thursday night of Passion Week, the night before His crucifixion and death. While He has been with them, they have had someone to love them, they had someone to believe in, and who has delivered them from every issue and provided everything they need. But now, He’s leaving and He’s dying.
In addition He has told them, “You’re going to be persecuted the same way I’m being persecuted.” So, by now, it’s in the early hours of Friday morning, the day of His crucifixion. They’re headed for the Garden of Gethsemane. A final prayer of Jesus in chapter 17. Then comes the arrest, the trial in the darkness of night, and then His execution in the morning on the cross.
Verses 25 to 33, “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I 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 shall pray the Father for you; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.”
28 I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” 29 His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! 30 Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?”
“32 Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” How do you have peace in the face of Jesus dying, leaving, persecution and execution?
Let’s start at verse 33, “In the world, you have tribulation, but be of good cheer.” What does “world” mean? “World” doesn’t mean the physical planet; it means the system of evil that dominates the creation. It is satanically operated, demonically infested. It is the complex of evil that dominates human life. And has not only dominated human life, but cursed the entire universe.
So in the face of this world of tribulation, how do they survive? Well, our Lord says in verse 33, “Be of good cheer.” But a human has no power over the circumstances. But when Jesus says, “Be of good cheer,” that’s far different. It is a command. Cheer up. Take courage. If the Lord Jesus, who is in control of absolutely everything, says, “Cheer up,” that’s different, this is a divine promise.
This is what every human on the planet needs. Why don’t people run to Him right away? The simple answer: they love their sin. But for those who come to Him, He provides all that we need. And to know He has a hope for you, and He’s in control of all things in the universe – that takes all the anxiety out of life. Peace of your soul comes only from love, faith, and hope in God.
Jesus has been revealing God. But all of it was in figurative language. Jesus spoke about being the light, about being water, about being bread. He spoke about the temple and His body. He spoke about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And even though there was truth in all of this, it was veiled. But now, there was enough truth to remove any excuse for not believing in Him.
He taught that He was God, He was the Savior, He was the Messiah, and why He had come. But, there were things that hadn’t happened that He couldn’t fully explain. The cross, the resurrection, the ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. He had said a lot of things about the Father, but there was still a veil. It wasn’t a full explanation. They had a hard time getting it, even what He did say.
If you were in their situation, with no New Testament, and the cross hasn’t happened, and the resurrection hasn’t happened, and the Holy Spirit hasn’t come, and you’re trying to interpret all the things Jesus is saying. But, now He says in verse 25, “An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly about the Father.”
When is that? When the Holy Spirit comes and lives in the life of the believer all the veils are removed. We have the book of Acts, through the book of Revelation to explain everything that Jesus introduced in the gospels. Christ comes back in the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery of the Trinity. Now these 27 books in the New Testament take out all the mystery and make everything clear.
“In that day,” verse 26, “you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray to the Father for you.” In that day you will be able to talk to the Father personally. Well, that’s how their relationship worked up to now. Whatever they needed, they went to Jesus. But when the Holy Spirit comes, and takes up residence in your life, you’re going to be able to directly pray to the Father.
He already said this in verses 23-24, “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. 24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” When the Spirit comes, you will have direct access to the Father. This is really a stunning thing to the Jewish people.
Because their God was distant and veiled. God was symbolically in the Holy of Holies where only a high priest could go in there once a year, and he had to get in and out fast, or judgment might fall on him. He didn’t have access to God. But at the cross the veil was ripped from the top to the bottom so the Holy of Holies was opened, and God said, “Everybody has now free access to Me.”
In Judaism God was distant. You didn’t talk about God as your Father. You didn’t have an intimate relationship with God. And you certainly didn’t go to God and say, “Abba, Father.” But now, Paul in Romans and Galatians says, “When you go to God, say ‘Papa.’” You’re going to have direct access to God. Now, that doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t intercede for us.
But Jesus intercedes for us on the matters over which we have no insight, knowledge nor wisdom. But what we desire from God, we have direct access to ask for. And if it’s consistent with the will of Jesus and the purpose of Jesus, the Father will respond. That sets Christianity apart from Judaism in a significant way. It also sets Christianity apart from Catholicism in a significant way.
Catholicism is a kind of New Testament form of Judaism that says you don’t have access to God. You need somebody else to give you that access, like a priest. That would be an Old Testament perspective. But in Roman Catholicism, this is what the Catholic Church teaches. They teach and have taught for centuries that access to the Father comes only through the intercession of mother Mary.
How can that access ever be granted us?” Listen to verse 27, “For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.” Why does all of this come to us? Because God loves us so that we can go to Him and ask for anything consistent with the purpose of Jesus, and know we will receive it. What an astonishing truth.
This is family love. This speaks about a personal affection. It’s nice to know God loves you, but how much more wonderful is it to know that He actually likes you? He likes you, He’s drawn to you. His affections go toward you. He wants to lavish you with all the benefits and blessings that His affection for you can draw. And it’s present-tense. He continually loves you with a deep affection.
He loves us like that even though He knows everything about us. All your unfaithfulness, all your critical spirit, all your bitterness, all your sin. In John 14:21 Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” How do you know if you love Christ? ‘Because you obey Him. “And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father.” So love His Son.
The Jews didn’t believe that. The Jews said Jesus is from Satan. Verse 28 says, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” It is the basis of what we believe. Listen to the response in verse 29, “His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!” They say. “Now we get it.”
They didn’t yet want to acknowledge that that ministry here included His death and resurrection. But they believed that He was God in human flesh. And they make the confession in verse 30, “Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.” Who alone knows all things? God.
In verse 31, “Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? He affirms their faith. You are believing now. Then in verse 32, “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his [e]own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” There’s another hour coming when they run. They go into the garden, Jesus is arrested, and they flee.
Zechariah 13:7 says, “Smite the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered.” Matthew 26:56 pictures them running. Was their faith a sham? No. It was weak faith. It was very important for Jesus to say that, so that when they did that, they would say, “Oh, that’s exactly what He said we’d do.” Which again affirms His omniscience, and it also affirms that He knew they were true believers.
Their faith was real, and it was tested. And when it was tested, they fled. But by Sunday night, they were all back together, and their faith, was inflamed. And when the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, they then turned the world upside-down. There’s a maturing process. And because they believed, God kept them, and God used them mightily when their faith was strengthened.
Verse 33, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” What brings you peace? 1, to know that God loves you with a sovereign and divine love. 2, To know that your faith is real and God is your redeemer and Savior. 3, from this statement, “In the world you have tribulation, take courage; I have overcome the world.”
Jesus overcame the world. Past-tense. It hasn’t yet worked out in time, but it’s all planned in eternity. This is the ultimate victory. The world will persecute you. The world may kill you, turn against you, “but I have overcome the system. I have overcome sin. I have overcome Satan. I have overcome demons. I have overcome the complex of sinners. I’ve overcome it all.” Let us pray.