More Important Messages From Our Master Series

More Important Messages from Our Master

The Gospel of John

John 16:1-7

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - November 15, 2017

(Revised March 26, 2020)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to John 16, as we continue our study of the night before the cross. By this point, Jesus and His disciples are on the road walking toward the Garden of Gethsemane.

*The scene apparently shifted at the end of John 14 from the upper room of the Lord's last supper to the road that led to the Garden of Gethsemane. I say that because at the end of John 14:31, Jesus spoke to His disciples and said, "Arise, let us go from here."

*John Phillips explained that those "words implied haste. Evidently as Jesus spoke, He rose to his feet. The time for action had come. The Lord had decided to go out now and meet the enemy head-on. He was resolved to carry out the purpose of his Father for the redemption of mankind. The rest of the words in this private conversation were spoken somewhere between the house where he had kept the feast and the crossing of the brook of Kidron on the edge of Gethsemane.

*With the solitude of the upper room now over and the agony ahead, Jesus talked as he walked, first to his followers, then to his Father. His talk with his followers gave them revelations about God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Heavenly Father." (1)

*The vital information Jesus gave His disciples 2,000 years ago is still vital for us today. Let's begin by reading John 16:1-7.

MESSAGE:

*Do you ever send text messages? Most people do. Researchers at textrequest.com gave this estimate for 2017: 277 million Americans sent 26 billion texts every day. Church: That's nine trillion, four hundred ninety billion texts for the year!

*Believe it or not, people have been texting since 1992, over 27 years ago. The first text message was sent by British software developer Neil Papworth. He sent it on December 3rd, 1992, and it's interesting to me that his text message said, "Merry Christmas"! (2)

*You probably don't remember your first text message, but I remember mine. It was Friday night, June 6, 2008. I never felt the need to text before, but that night I got a text message that said, "Hey this is Kamerin. Ivy just called and said you like me. Is it true?"

*Kamerin needed to know that she was not the object of my affection, and I surely didn't want to call her, so I sent her a two-word text: "Wrong number." (Took me about 15 minutes to send it.)

*There are much more important things we need to know in life, and Jesus was talking about these things as He walked on the road to the Garden of Gethsemane. What a Savior! As He walked toward the cross to die for us, He talked about the things we needed to know the most.

1. FIRST, JESUS SPOKE ABOUT THE SUFFERING THAT WILL COME OUR WAY.

*He spoke about the suffering that will come to us as Christians. One of the most important things Jesus did that night was prepare His followers for persecution. For example, in John 15:18-21 Jesus said this to His disciples and to us too:

18. "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

19. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."

*Now in vs. 1-4, as Jesus continued their conversation, He said:

1. "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.

2. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.

3. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.

4. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you."

*In those crucial hours, Jesus was telling these things to His disciples because He cared about them, and because He cares about us.

*Again in vs. 1, Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble (or be tripped-up)." Jesus doesn't want us to hit a stumbling block in our faith, but we might, if we get the wrong impression that Christianity is going to be an uninterrupted journey of health, wealth and popularity.