Jesus was victorious in completing His mission. This daily devotional looks at how He wanted the apostles to believe, even though He knew that His friends would leave Him alone.
Nuggets
- It always comes down to a moment when we make the decision to believe or not.
- The time had come to put their faith to the test.
- Jesus overcame the world by completing His mission.
Devotions in the Living Life Connected to Christ series
The Upper Room discourse ended with a bold statement of victory. It is one of the most loved ones in the Scriptures.
Let’s look at the two leading up to it before we jump in the discussion of it.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
A Decision Is Required
“Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe?’” (Jn. 16: 31 ESV)
It always comes down to a moment when we make the decision to believe or not.
Jesus point blank asked the apostles, “Have you made the decision to believe?”
A few years back, I went through an evangelistic training. Their main thing was don’t ask the person you are witnessing to whether they are a believer or not.
I thought, “What?” The reasoning was we don’t want to put them on the spot.
Jesus is going to put them on the spot. He demands that we make a conscious decision whether we are going to believe Him or not.
It is going to come down to a point-blank question.
We’ve got to answer with genuine faith. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11: 6 ESV).
A Time of Testing
“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” (Jn. 16: 32 ESV)
The time had come to put their faith to the test.
Jesus had warned the apostles about some of what was coming. Here was another warning.
It was time.
Jesus had already singled out Judas as His betrayer. He told Peter that he was going to deny Him.
Now, Jesus was saying that everyone was going to run away.
It kind of sounds like Jesus was accusing them (if that can happen prior to the offense). But then He downplays it.
You will all leave, but don’t worry. Dad will still be there.
Bersier felt that every disciple will eventually get lonely. The message of Christ that we share will be misunderstood and rejected — possibly even more times than not.
Resource
We, too, won’t be alone. We will be with the Father.
Think of it this way. Jesus was able to accomplish His mission here on earth because He still had communion with the Father.
We also have that open communication with the Father. It is called prayer.
When we think about it, Jesus was always a people person. Yes, He took His time off to pray to Dad, but He spent a lot of time with people.
Now, here Jesus is saying He will be alone to fact the biggest challenge of His life.
And He is okay with that.
But take that a step further. When He was on the cross, Jesus said that His Father had forsaken Him.
A Time for Victory
“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” (Jn. 16: 33 ESV)
Jesus overcame the world by completing His mission.
We talked about Jesus telling the apostles what was going to happen before it happened. God usually doesn’t do that for us.
This time, it did.
Usually, we think the forewarning happens so that the apostles would realize that Jesus was really God. He had to have some inside track to know what was going to happen before it happened.
“For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (I Jn. 3: 20 ESV).
God not only knows everything, but He also knows everything about us. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29: 11 ESV).
That should give us peace. Peace is a fruit of righteousness manifested in an inward tranquility resulting from a balanced life with spiritual order, equity, and truth that implies cooperation, humility, integrity, communication, and cohesiveness; and is a fruit of the Spirit that translates rest into tranquility with God, ourselves, and others.
Vaughan expanded on that.
- Peace comes from being forgiven.
- It stems from our love of God.
- We can choose to make peace a habit of mind. A habit of mind is a disposition utilized by an intelligent person when solving problems through draw on preexisting skills and previous experience to gain insight into the problem.
- This decreases our anxiety.
These bullet points led Vaughan to say that “peace is the root of all holiness.”
Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to our being set apart through consecration to mold to God’s Will.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
We want to become holy like God.
Resource
Peace – spiritual peace – only comes from God. We can’t underestimate the relief of being forgiven and knowing we have the One in control fighting on our side.
We can be joyful even when we are going through tribulations. There are several tribulations: standard human tribulations, Satan tempting us to turn back to him, and flat-out persecution.
But our joy is centered in God, not our circumstances.
After God gave me the devotion of Quit Playing Church, I have been giving a lot of thought to where are we in our confidence of salvation. Do we really know we are saved? Or are we going to be one of the ones Jesus says, “Elaine, right? I know your name, but I really don’t know you” (Mt. 7: 21).
I know the status of my heart and salvation. Do you?
If we don’t, that takes the peace away.
Why? The flip side of the verse says no Jesus, no peace. To me that means, if we don’t have Sovereign God — our Creator and One Who controls everything — on which to focus, we don’t have peace.
That means we focus on the turmoil of the trials. When we are thinking more about the worries of this world, we aren’t thinking about the peace God has to offer us.
The world is used to identify any who has not been regenerated — in other words, has not ABCDed.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Spurgeon expanded on the definition of world. He wrote that it included “certain customs, fashions, maxims, forces, principles, desires, [and] governments.”
Resource
We may think we find peace in this world without God — but we don’t. Worldly peace is just a physical peace.
We’ve talked before about how we are in two different worlds — the spiritual world and the physical world. We are to in the world but not of the world.
Being residents of two worlds can really raise issues. The in is polar opposite of the of.
Yes, we want the world to become more Christian. As we come closer to judgment day, that isn’t going to happen.
That is when we have to take heart. “… I [Jesus] have overcome the world” (Jn. 16: 33 ESV).
Maclaren told us why it is so important that Jesus overcame the world. He wrote, “It may aid us somewhat to more strenuous fighting if we know that a Brother has fought and conquered. But the victory of Christ is of extremely little practical use to me, if all the use is to show me how to fight. You must go deeper than that. ‘I have overcome the world,’ and ‘I will come and put My overcoming Spirit into your weakness, and be in you the conquering and omnipotent power.’”
Resource
Jesus is coming to us to put the conquering power of God into our hearts!
I think many times we just think Jesus overcame the world by His resurrection. No, that isn’t right.
Jesus lived in this world and didn’t sin. He was the only One to overcome the temptation to sin.
On the cross, Jesus overcame sin because His blood was used to defeat sin. His blood paid the penalty for our sins, not His, because … reread the last paragraph.
Jesus had the trifecta of overcoming this world.
Jesus overcame the world by
- how He lived His life.
- completing His mission, which was to unselfishly lay down His life for mankind.
- the power of His truth.
- His holiness.
- His infinite love.
Those are all attributes of God.
Resources
To read a devotion in the Finding Our Center series click, on the button below.
Making the Connections
Jesus was victorious because of His love for us. His mission was to overcome sin for us. And He did.
How Do We Apply This?
- Every step we take toward God is that much closer to peace. Remember, we take one step toward Him, and He runs ten steps in our direction.
- Genuinely put our faith and trust in Christ.
- Be strong in the Lord.
- Don’t let the world draw us away from God.
- We only share in Christ’s victory when we are in Christ.
Resources
Father God. Thank You that Jesus completed His mission to be our Savior. We want to be in the world but not of the world. Amen.
What do you think?
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