3. The Conquest of the World

[0:00] It's a strange thing, isn't it? Sermons, well, the preaching of the Bible is warfare, isn't it? So when I say belligerence, in a sense I do mean what I say. I don't mean that the preacher is meant to be shrilly polemical in a strident and over-aggressive way, but there is a sense in which when the Bible is launched forth, it is launched against the lies of the devil, isn't it?

[0:23] So there's a certain sense in which the preaching of the Gospel is an engagement in battle with the enemy. So with that in mind, let's bow our heads and we'll pray now. Our gracious God, your words are truth.

[0:37] The Lord Jesus, too, speaks the truth, and the scriptures are the truth, breathed out by your own self. And so we pray, dear Father, that as we engage our hearts with these wonderful words of our Master, so we might not merely understand them, but be deeply changed by them and have our lives profoundly rearranged by what you teach us in the scriptures.

[1:05] And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, friends, let's turn to our John chapter 16 again and this final section from verses 25 to 33.

[1:19] I want to give this morning's sermon the title, The Conquest of the World. And that's a title suggested by the very last sentence that Jesus gives us here in verse 33.

[1:32] Take heart, I have overcome the world. Now, you'll see that Jesus, as soon as chapter 17 begins, he turns from his disciples to pray to God the Father.

[1:43] And chapter 17 records his great prayer. But chapter 16 is the final section of his instruction to his 11 friends. Now, he's been with them now for some three years, teaching them faithfully and patiently, but this is his signing off.

[2:00] But far from being a mournful farewell, these parting words are designed to encourage the 11 disciples deeply. Martin Luther wrote this about these parting words of Jesus.

[2:15] Thus is the good night said and the hand shaken. But very forcibly does Jesus conclude with that very thing around which his whole discourse has turned.

[2:27] Let not your hearts be troubled. Be of good cheer. Now, I think Luther is right on the button there. Yes, the disciples are still troubled.

[2:39] They're still in something of a mental fog. And Jesus is going to have to say something rather painful to them in verses 31 and 32, as we'll see in a few minutes' time. But the overwhelming tone of this passage is one of encouragement, massive encouragement.

[2:55] Don't be afraid. Don't be discouraged. Don't let your hearts be troubled. Take heart and be of good cheer. And of course, the reason for their being able to take heart is nothing to do with them.

[3:09] It's everything to do with Jesus. It's not as though he's saying, dip into your own personal resources, cheer up and be men, lift up your eyes and whistle a merry tune and hope for the best.

[3:20] No, it's nothing like that. This discourse is about the mighty power of Christ and of God the Father, who is able to help these weak and bewildered disciples in the end to the glorious place prepared for them by the Lord Jesus.

[3:34] That's the tone of the whole thing. So friends, I trust that these words from the end of chapter 16 will prove to be a great comfort and strength to all of us as well today.

[3:44] because we are in many ways like the eleven disciples. Like them, we wrestle daily with the world, the flesh and the devil. Like them, our minds are more often in the fog than in the sunlight.

[4:00] Well, I speak for myself certainly. But these words of Jesus, although they are intended in the first instance for the eleven apostles, these words ring out across the centuries with a strong message of encouragement for all of Christ's people.

[4:15] If there was no message here for later generations of Christians, in other words, if this message had only been intended for Jesus' original hearers, John was wasting his ink and pen in writing it all down.

[4:28] Because by this stage, remember he's writing his gospel in about 85 AD, almost certainly all the other ten apostles were dead by this time. So he's recording all this for a wider audience than just his immediate friends, the apostles.

[4:42] Well, let us look at the material under three headings. First, Jesus helps his disciples to know the Father better.

[4:53] To know the Father better. Let me read verse 25 again. 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.

[5:08] Now, you might expect him to say, I will tell you plainly about myself. After all, there was a great deal about himself that the disciples obviously did not understand, especially the meaning of his cross and resurrection.

[5:25] They still entertained traditional Jewish views of the Messiah, that he would come as a political and military liberator. But just as King David had freed the Israelites of his day from the Philistines, so the Messiah, when he came, would free the Jews from the oppressing power, the power of Rome.

[5:44] So they simply could not understand him when he told them again and again in the course of the Gospels that he was going to have to die. But despite their ignorance of Jesus, he tells them here in verse 25 that it's the Father that he wants to tell them particularly about.

[6:02] And if you look through the next few verses, you'll see that he speaks of the Father again in verse 26 and again in verse 27 and again in verse 28, twice, and again in verse 32.

[6:16] And then the whole of chapter 17 is his prayer addressed to the Father, but recorded, of course, for our benefit. Now, the relationship between the Father and the Son is one of the hallmark themes of John's Gospel.

[6:33] Of course, the other three Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are interested in that relationship. But as John writes his Gospel some 50 years after the events, he recalls with great clarity what his master had taught the Apostles about the Father and about the relationship between the Father and the Son.

[6:53] So just think back for a moment to the very beginning of the Gospel where John first introduces his theme. He writes, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

[7:12] Now that verse, chapter 1, verse 14, teaches us that glory belongs to the Father and the Father has revealed his glory in the person of his Son. And John says, we have seen his glory.

[7:25] And then a few verses later, John writes, no one has ever seen God but the only Son, the one who is in the Father's bosom, he is the one who has made him known.

[7:37] So a great part of Jesus' work is to show his disciples what the Father is like. Jesus came to the earth to achieve a whole raft of different things but one of his major purposes was to reveal the true nature of God the Father.

[7:53] and that's why he gets mildly frustrated with the Apostle Philip back in chapter 14. You perhaps remember that little passage there in verses 8 and 9. Philip says to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father and that's all we need.

[8:07] And Jesus says to him, have I been with you for so long, Philip, and still you don't know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. By which Jesus does not mean that he is the Father but that he reveals the Father's nature in his words and works and character.

[8:27] Now coming back to chapter 16, verse 25, the essence of that verse is that Jesus is saying to his friends, my dear friends, in the very near future, I'm going to tell you a lot of things in clear, unambiguous speech about the Father.

[8:45] Yes, I have been talking up to now in figures of speech. Not so as to conceal the truth, but because metaphors and parables are good teaching aids, they stick in the memory and they help you to understand.

[8:57] But the hour is coming, see that in verse 25, the hour is coming, by which I'm sure he means that he's referring to the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension. The hour is coming when I'm going to tell you clearly about the Father.

[9:12] I'm going to drop the language of figures and metaphors and tell you a great deal in the simplest and plainest English. Well, perhaps Aramaic. but clear speech about the Father.

[9:24] So Jesus is determined that his disciples should come to know a great deal about the Father. Does that mean then that it's more important for us to know about the Father than about the Son?

[9:38] No. Just look on a few verses to chapter 17, verse 3, where Jesus is praying. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

[9:52] So Jesus says there that eternal life, that's the real Christian life begun in this world but carried on into eternity. Eternal life consists in knowing the Father, who is described here as the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who has been sent by the Father.

[10:08] So it's the joy and privilege of Christians to know both the Father and the Son. And friends, this is the adventure and delight and romance of growing as a Christian.

[10:20] As the years go past, we discover more and more what the Father is really like, and also what the Lord Jesus is really like. And it's a journey of discovery, this growth in the Christian life, that is always full of surprises.

[10:34] because by nature, we know God no better than we know the Emperor of Japan. If we were to stop people in Buchanan Street on a busy shopping day, on a Saturday morning, for example, and ask them what God is like, what characteristics they think God has, no doubt some people would say certain things that are true.

[10:55] They would say that he's eternal, for example, or that he's all-knowing, that he's wise, perhaps that he's the creator. Maybe one or two other things of that kind. But they would be clueless about so much that the Bible does reveal about God.

[11:11] I mean, for example, would the typical Buchanan Street shopper, who is thinking mainly about perfume and the latest styles of high-heeled shoes, would she or he tell you that God is just and that he remains just even while he justifies the ungodly?

[11:29] I'd be very surprised if they did. Or would the man or woman in the street be able to tell you quickly that God is so committed to the eternal welfare of his people that he was prepared to arrange for the torture and death of his only son?

[11:44] Or that he decided to set forth his son as the propitiation for his wrath? I very much doubt it. You see, our friends and our relatives, as well as those in the street, those who are not Christians, they don't know these things about God, do they?

[11:59] We didn't know these things about God once. It's only when we come to Christ and we begin the great adventure of the Christian life that we begin to learn what God is really like.

[12:09] The Bible is a revelation. It tears away the veil that prevents us from seeing God. And Jesus is determined to teach his disciples, both in the first century and us today, what the Father is like.

[12:25] Now let me point out just two things that this passage teaches us about the Father. First, from verse 28. Look with me at verse 28.

[12:36] It's the Father who sent Jesus into the world to accomplish his great work and it is the Father who then received Jesus back to heaven after his work was done.

[12:48] Let me read verse 28. I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.

[12:59] Now that is a lovely short summary in that verse of Jesus' whole mission. He says, I came from the Father, I came into the world to do what had to be done and I returned to the Father afterwards.

[13:14] But that verse 28 is not simply a short statement of fact about Jesus' itinerary. It's not just a brief note about cosmic geography. It's fighting talk.

[13:25] Fighting talk, verse 28. You see, Jesus' critics and opponents would not recognize that he came from God. That was the heart of their dispute with him.

[13:36] They believed that his claim to have come from God and to be one with God, they believed that was utter blasphemy. What they said was, and what they thought was, this man could not come from God.

[13:47] He's a charlatan. He's an imposter. He doesn't have the right credentials at all. He's the illegitimate son of Joseph of Nazareth came from God, from heaven. We know where he came from.

[13:58] Those claims are absurdity and codswallop. That's what they believed and they said it too. Now, John's contention is that Jesus must be submitted to and believed in precisely because he does come from heaven and has returned to heaven.

[14:15] His heavenly origin is his authentication. John's contention is that Jesus is not merely the son of Joseph or the son of Mary. He is the son of God.

[14:27] Look back at verse 27. Jesus commends his friends there, verse 27, by saying to them, you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

[14:38] In other words, my disciples, you have made the connection. You've seen what my opponents have not seen. You've come to believe and quite rightly that I came from God.

[14:50] So, here's one thing. that Jesus is saying to his friends about the Father. Simply, that it was the Father who sent him and that is his authentication. Now, here's a second thing.

[15:04] Jesus is teaching that the Father is fatherly. He is indeed the Father. Jesus' disciples, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if I said this about them, Jesus' disciples are really rather like two short planks.

[15:21] Jesus, of course, has had to deal with a lot of short planks, hasn't he, in the carpenter's workshop over the last 20 or 30 years. But he's dealing with 11 more of them here in the upper room.

[15:31] And he's dealing, of course, with a lot of short planks here in St. George's Tron in 2010, including the one who is standing in the pulpit. He is having to din into our short plank heads that the Father is indeed the Father.

[15:45] And he is, therefore, thoroughly fatherly. Let me give you a statistic. In these three chapters, John 14, 15 and 16, Jesus speaks of God, the term God, three times in the three chapters.

[16:01] He speaks of the Father 46 times in these three chapters. Now, there must be a reason for that. And surely the reason is that he's teaching them that the God they must trust, the one who is the true and only God, the God who sent Jesus into the world, is now their Father, as well as Jesus' Father.

[16:24] He is, therefore, the kind, generous provider of all their needs. He's the tender and caring one that they can turn to in their weariness and their weakness. He's the one who understands their hearts and who loves them.

[16:38] I mean, think of it, even human fathers say to our children, I love you a zillion, million times over. And they mean it, don't they? How much more can our heavenly Father be trusted to love his children a zillion, million times over?

[16:54] Friends, Jesus is saying to his disciples, understand that the true and only God is your Father. You are safe, therefore, with him. Human fathers can mess things up, but he won't.

[17:07] Have you got it? F-A-T-H-E-R. That's how you're to think of him. I've told you 46 times in these three chapters. Well, there are just two bite-sized morsels about the Father.

[17:21] There's so much more. But the point is, Jesus' purpose is to tell his followers a great deal about the Father. And to grow in the Christian life for us today is to understand the nature of the true God, the Father, better and better, as well as to know Jesus himself better and better.

[17:39] Well, now, second, Jesus helps his disciples to know themselves better. I wonder if you've perhaps spotted something in this passage which makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, almost as though Jesus is saying two contradictory things to the disciples.

[18:00] The first of these two things comes in verse 27 where he says, For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

[18:16] Now, those words, especially the latter end of the verse, it looks like a very positive affirmation of their faith. Jesus here is commending them because they've come to love him and they've come to believe, unlike his Jewish opponents, they've come to believe that he really has come from God.

[18:34] But then we have the second element in verses 31 and 32. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming.

[18:44] Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered, each to his own home and will leave me alone. In other words, within a few hours from now, this is Thursday evening, eight, nine o'clock or whatever, within a few hours from now, when I'm arrested, when I'm taken to Pontius Pilate and later crucified, all of you are going to desert me.

[19:06] And what is that going to say about your belief in me? So do you see the tension between these two things? In verse 27, he's warmly commending their belief in him, but in verses 31 and 32, he shows them really quite sharply just how shallow their commitment to him really is.

[19:25] and what he predicts in verse 32, which you're all going to scatter and go to your own homes, that indeed happened on the very next day as Matthew puts it in his gospel very bluntly, then all of the disciples left him and fled.

[19:40] So is there a real contradiction here? Does Jesus not know his own mind that he should commend them for their belief in verse 27, but then question their belief at verse 32?

[19:52] Now I want to linger over this for a moment because what Jesus says to his disciples then may well be something that we need to hear ourselves. He's doing two things for them here.

[20:05] On the one hand, he is encouraging their small faith, but on the other hand, he's helping them to realize how small their faith is.

[20:18] So first of all, he's encouraging their small faith in verse 27. And this encouragement arises out of Jesus' teaching to them about the Father. So in verses 26 and 27, his message is, yes, you're to pray to the Father in my name.

[20:34] That's the right way to pray. You have access to the Father because I have constant access to him and you belong to me. So pray to him in my name. But, don't let this create a misunderstanding in you.

[20:48] You're not distanced from the Father because you pray to him in my name. It's not as though you convey your requests to me and I then have to take them an immense distance to the Father who is shrouded away in impenetrable mystery beyond the furthest galaxies.

[21:06] No. The Father is close to you. He knows all about you and he loves you. And why does he love you? Verse 27, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

[21:20] So, although you come to the Father in my name, you need to understand that the Father is very close. He loves you and he loves you not least because you love me and you've come to understand my heavenly origin.

[21:35] So that's the setting of these words of commendation from Jesus. But these words in the second half of verse 27 are a genuine commendation. Yes, Jesus is going to raise a sharp question in verse 31 and if you think on to chapter 21, the last chapter of John's Gospel, he's going to have to ask Peter then if Peter really does love him.

[21:59] But here in our verse 27, Jesus is saying to these confused and sorrowing disciples, I recognize that you do love me and that you do believe in me. Now, of course, he knew that their love was small and that their belief in him was based on rather shaky foundations and yet it was real love, he knew that and it was real belief.

[22:23] And this is what the Lord Jesus is like with his disciples. He doesn't break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick. So if our love for him is not what it might be and yet it is real and if our belief that he came from God is not yet highly developed and yet it is real, he commends us and encourages us and delights in us.

[22:53] He doesn't wait until we have the courage of Martin Luther or the learning of John Calvin before he finally squeezes our hand and whispers into our ear, you are mine.

[23:04] So let's be encouraged by this verse 27. We know the frailty of our own hearts, he knows the frailty of his people and yet he acknowledges in the warmest way that in the hearts of his people they love him and in their minds they believe in him.

[23:23] However, secondly, he is also concerned to help his people to know themselves and their frailties better and that is why he says what he says in verses 31 and 32.

[23:34] This is part of his educating of them. They've just said in verse 30, we believe that you came from God. Now, it's all very well for them to assert their belief in him in the peace and quiet of the upper room but Jesus knows that something very difficult is lying ahead the very next day, the day of his execution and he knows that his friends who have just asserted their belief in him are going to be put under a degree of pressure that they simply will not be able to bear.

[24:06] So he tells them plainly that they will be scattered and they will leave him alone. It's just the same pattern as we saw back at the end of chapter 13 where Jesus says very, I'm sorry, where Peter says to him brashly I will lay down my life for you and Jesus answers him will you lay down your life for me?

[24:26] Truly, truly, I say to you this very day before the cock crows you will three times deny that you know me. So these men didn't know themselves. They didn't know what pressure was going to do to them.

[24:40] They're a bit like very young and very raw recruits in the army. They know the drill, they're wearing the uniform, but the parade ground and the classroom is not the same as the field of battle.

[24:54] It's one thing to know the drill and to wear the uniform, but quite another thing to face the enemy. Now there's a question here for us, isn't there friends? Doesn't this raise a question in your hearts and mine?

[25:06] Namely, how would we fare under real pressure of persecution? Would we run and hide if real persecution against Christians arose in this country?

[25:17] If there was real persecution going on out there in Scotland, how many would be here on a Sunday morning? Would we have this great crowd or would we just be a few? Let me make a suggestion.

[25:29] Why don't all of us, from time to time, not necessarily every day, but from time to time, let's try to imagine ourselves in a position where we are, as an individual Christian, being deeply challenged over our allegiance to Jesus.

[25:44] For example, picture yourself facing a mob who are threatening violence against you unless you're prepared to deny that Jesus is your Lord. People who are saying to you, we're going to hurt you, even kill you, unless you denounce Christ and the Christian faith.

[26:00] Now, what would you and I do if we were faced by that kind of threat? These verses from John 16 force us to think about that question. If you're a person who comes from Nigeria or Pakistan or certain parts of India, you know that you may have to face just that kind of pressure if you should return to your country.

[26:22] Now, there's a great encouragement here. You think of these eleven men, these disciples. These men who on this Thursday or the Friday morning scattered and fled and left Jesus were later on changed men.

[26:35] They were strengthened by the Holy Spirit and they were able in the end to stand firm. We know that because think of James and John, the sons of thunder. James was beheaded, wasn't he, because he stood firm as a Christian.

[26:48] John was exiled to Patmos. Peter was martyred. Paul was martyred. Stephen was martyred. Many others. So the Peter who denied Jesus as a young man was willing to be martyred for Jesus as an old man.

[27:03] Isn't that encouraging? So Jesus helps his disciples here to know themselves better. He encourages their small faith, but he forces them to look at their hearts and to ask themselves just how that faith would stand up under real pressure.

[27:20] friends, it may cost some of us very dearly to be persevering Christians over the next 50 years or so. Well now third and last.

[27:35] Jesus assures his disciples that he has overcome or conquered the world. Verse 33. I've said these things to you. Really these things is the whole of chapters 14 to 16.

[27:49] I've 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.

[28:01] Now this is a very important verse and it's a fitting conclusion to the whole discourse. Now he begins verse 33 by saying I have said these things to you.

[28:12] And that phrase, or phrases very much like it, have come several times in the course of these three chapters. Just look back to chapter 16 verse 1. I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.

[28:28] Or back to chapter 15 verse 11, there's another example. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Now isn't it kind of the Lord Jesus not only to say certain things, but to tell his disciples why he's saying these things?

[28:46] It's a little teaching device whose purpose is to make his teaching even clearer. So if at the end of verse 32 some of his friends are scratching their heads and looking blank and asking themselves, well I wonder why he's saying all this to us, he then answers their query.

[29:06] Do you want to know why I've said all these things to you? Well I'll tell you. I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

[29:21] Now friends, we'll take this slowly. The best things in life mustn't be hurried. And if we can get this great verse deep into our systems, it will sustain us against the January gales of life.

[29:34] Can we notice first of all the two ins? In me, that's the first one, in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.

[29:48] The Christian therefore is like a person who lives in two homes, two residences simultaneously. So the Christian is in Christ as the branches of the vine are in the vine, but at the same time the Christian is in the world.

[30:06] Now that's the reality of being a Christian believer. until we die, or until the Lord Jesus returns, we are in the world. We might not always want to be in the world, because the world is often a very uncomfortable place to be in.

[30:22] In fact, I'd be astonished if there was a single person in this building this morning who was feeling thoroughly comfortable about living in this world. It's a pretty uncomfortable place, isn't it?

[30:34] There are, of course, great blessings, blessings that come from the hand of God. which we enjoy in this world. Think, for example, of Scotland in dry summer weather, such as we've been experiencing and enjoying up to this morning.

[30:48] It's a beautiful place to be in, isn't it? Lovely, we enjoy it. Especially we English people. You've always had it, you Scots, but we English, we come here and we love it. Tennis. Who's been enjoying the tennis?

[30:59] Many of you have been enjoying the tennis. Great fun. We had a bit of a downer on Friday, I know. Our boy from Dunblane met a gale force wind blowing up from Spain. That was a bit difficult, wasn't it?

[31:11] But we enjoy tennis, we enjoy sport. Strawberries are very nice at this time of the year. If you're a gardener and you have a strawberry patch, you're enjoying your strawberries. I have a battle against slugs and wasps, but strawberries are very nice, aren't they?

[31:26] There's so much, isn't there, which is enjoyable and comes to us from the hand of God in this world. We're very grateful and we're thrilled with him for being so kind to us. But, but, overridingly, this world is characterized by the pain, the suffering and the tribulation that is experienced by all its inhabitants.

[31:49] Remember how Paul tells us in that very poignant phrase in Romans chapter 8 that the whole creation is in bondage to decay. Now that's our experience, isn't it?

[32:01] in bondage to decay. No amount of tennis and strawberries can conceal the fact that the power of disintegration and decay is at work all around us.

[32:12] You only have to look into the mirror if you're over 25 to be reminded of the fact that we are in bondage to decay. Now we must notice who Jesus is speaking to when he says, in the world you will have tribulation.

[32:31] He is speaking to his own disciples, his people, those who are in him, who belong to him. And we need to notice this carefully because it is being denied in all too many churches these days.

[32:47] You'll know that. We mustn't be duped by preachers and teachers who say that to be a Christian is to be guaranteed a lifelong supply of good health and financial prosperity.

[33:01] to say that is simply to deceive people. And what Jesus says in verse 33 utterly contradicts that. In the world he says, you, my disciples, my people, will have tribulation.

[33:14] Not may have, but will have. He's assuring us, you might almost say promising us, that life in this world will be difficult. And we need to know that, friends, if our faith is not to break down in the face of appalling tragedies that will come our way.

[33:33] Of course, not all Christians face an equal measure of tribulation. Some have to suffer much more than others. But we can be sure that all Christians will face very difficult experiences and episodes in the course of life.

[33:48] Now let's look again at verse 33. Isn't it a good thing that that sentence about tribulation is not the last sentence of Jesus' great sermon?

[34:01] So let's look at his final words now to his disciples. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I've overcome the world.

[34:14] Now if you're quite a young Christian, I know some here are quite young Christians. If you've never really noticed that verse before today, let me say this to you. Get it branded into your soul today.

[34:25] Learn this verse off by heart and never forget it because you will need it. The question is, what does Jesus mean when he says, I have overcome the world?

[34:39] Well let me say first what he doesn't mean. He doesn't mean merely that he's given his friends a fine example of how to face adversity and overcome it.

[34:49] He's not saying, look friends, at how I have dealt with opposition, how I've scorned flattery, how I've repelled all the attacks of my enemies. You follow in my footsteps and you too can live a strong and victorious life.

[35:03] No, he's saying something much more important and much more wonderful. He is saying, in my life and my teaching and particularly in my death and resurrection, I have conquered decisively and forever the power of the prince of this world.

[35:24] Before I came, before my intervention, you were at the mercy of the world and of its ruler, the devil. You were in his grip and you were destined for perdition.

[35:36] But my coming to die and to be raised to new life has permanently altered the relationship between God, the devil and my people. I have conquered and disarmed the ruler of this world.

[35:50] So if you belong to me, you share my victory. Yes, the world will throw tribulation at you, sometimes in bucket fulls, but ultimately it cannot claim you. It has no power over you because it has no power over me.

[36:06] Now that's why Jesus is able to say to his friends at the end, take heart. Yes, you will have tribulation in this world. Be clear about that. But take heart. The decay, the tribulation, the suffering, the persecution will not have the final word in your lives.

[36:24] You are no longer subjects of Satan's dark dominion. You belong to me now if you're Christians. So take heart if you're Christians. Now it's possible there are some here today who are not yet Christians.

[36:40] Maybe some who have never yet capitulated to the Lord Jesus. If that is the case, then the world and its ruler still grip you and rule you. You need to run up the white flag and surrender to Jesus as your true king and then his victory will be yours too.

[36:59] But for all who do belong to him, we have this invincible assurance in the midst of our trials. Take heart, he says. I have overcome the world.

[37:15] Let's bow our heads and we'll pray. how we thank you, our dear Lord Jesus, that you have conquered the power of the prince of this world.

[37:36] Indeed, he has no claim upon you and cannot lay a finger upon you. You have disarmed him, defeated him at the cross. And this victory that you have won over the world and its power is something that we, Lord Jesus, who trust in you, share and we're so grateful to you for it.

[37:54] And we pray, therefore, that you will arm us with this deep and certain knowledge of your conquest of the world, especially when the world throws tribulation at us. we pray that you will write brand deep into our hearts this assurance that we are conquerors because you are the conqueror.

[38:14] And we pray, therefore, that our lives, especially in times of trouble and testing and tribulation, will bring honor to your name as we stand close to you and stand by you and the gospel and as we look forward to the great day when the new heavens and the new earth, where there is neither pain nor death nor crying appear.

[38:35] And we ask these things for your name's sake. Amen.