Be Prepared
Text: John 16:1-4
When I was a kid my parents let me watch Saturday morning cartoons. I watched Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, the Flintstones… but my favorite was G.I. Joe… G.I Joe was full of action, and excitement, and danger. And at the end of each episode, there was always a little lesson, and one of the characters on the G.I. Joe team would teach the lesson and then they’d say, “So now you know… and knowing is half the battle.” Later on I learned that this was actually an adaptation of a quote from Cervantes book “Don Quixote” – “Forewarned – Forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.”… and even later I learned that he was quoting a Latin phrase from the time of the Romans.
In the Boy Scouts, the motto was “Be Prepared.” And again, in order to be adequately prepared, you have to have at least some knowledge of what might happen… or what might potentially come your way.
And in our text this morning, we’re going to see that Jesus held to this philosophy as well…
He wanted His disciples to be ready for what lay ahead of them.
We are in John, chapter 16, and this morning, we’re looking at verses 1-4 (READ John 16:1-4).
Now, before I get to the text, I want you to think about how important it is to be prepared, especially with what could happen in just a few days. One party’s candidate is going to be declared our next President of the United States. One party wins, the other party loses. But depending on what news source you listen to… and where you get your information from… you might be prepared for the outcome… or you might be totally taken by surprise by the outcome. So, if people have a whole lot of expectations, and then those expectations turn out completely different than what they thought – that’s where you can see some real problems develop.
And this isn’t just true in politics… it’s true in every sphere of life. Judas had certain expectations concerning the Messiah. They weren’t informed by Scripture, but rather by his twisted understanding of Scripture… and as it dawned on him that Jesus wasn’t going to fulfill those expectations, he betrayed Jesus and sold Him out for 30 pieces of silver.
And throughout the history of Christianity, there are people who fell into this same trap… They heard that Jesus was a certain way, or that He did certain things… that His sole purpose was to give them their best life now… or some other thing. They formulated ideas in their minds… Again, not based on the clear teaching of Scripture, but their own vain imaginations, or from the teachings of false teachers and false prophets…. But then that thing didn’t happen… whether it was healing, or prosperity, or God jumping when they said “Jump”… and instead of repenting, and going back to Scripture and seeing where THEY missed it, they blame God… they walk away… They show that the Jesus they were believing in wasn’t actually the Jesus we read about in the Bible.
But again, Jesus doesn’t want that to happen… that’s why He says in John 16:1, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.”
So, what things did He say to them? Well… what we looked at last Sunday from John 15 – “The world is going to hate you… the world is going to persecute you… the world is your enemy, not your friend… and if it is your friend, that’s a pretty good marker that you’re not following Jesus as you should.” That’s what He is referring to here in verse 1 when He says, “All these things.” In other words, Jesus wants us to be forewarned, so that we can be forearmed…
And this isn’t the only place that He does this… in-fact; we could probably say that the whole book of Revelation is the same sort of thing… Or Matthew 24 & 25… And other places in Scripture. He doesn’t want us taken off guard, or to develop some false expectations about what it means to follow Him and be His disciple.
So, let me ask you once again, what should we expect as people who have trusted Christ as Savior and Lord?
The answer is hatred! Persecution! And possibly even death. That is our reasonable expectation… and all the good we receive is God’s grace, mercy and goodness. But Jesus says it – “In this world you will have trouble…”. And this goes beyond the trouble that everyone in this fallen world faces… everyone in the world, whether they are a believer or not faces the consequences of sin in the world. All of us are going to have our fair share of disappointments, and heartache, and troubles… But Jesus is talking about active hatred against us as Christians.
And again, Jesus is telling us this, so that we don’t go into life as a Christian with false expectations. And why does He do that? To keep you from falling away.
Turn with me really quick to Matthew 13:20-21 (READ)…
Did you notice why the persecution comes? On account of the Word.
You see; the world doesn’t hate you if you just say you’re a Christian… the world hates you when you stand on the Word. When you say, “God’s Word says THIS!”
That word that our English translations translate as “Fall away” or “Stumble” is the Greek word “skandalizo” it’s where we get our English word “scandal”. And it literally means to be tripped up, so as to result in a falling.
And Jesus has told them what to expect so that this doesn’t happen.
Now He goes on… in verse 2 and says, “They will put you out of the synagogues.”
To any self-respecting Jew of this day and age, it would be better to die than be excommunicated from the synagogue. Basically, Jesus is saying, “They’re going to treat you like a leper.”
You’re going to have all your privileges as a citizen of Israel removed. You’re not going to be counted as Jewish any longer. You’ll be looked at by your former friends as an outcast, worse than a Samaritan, or Gentile.
And understand… back in those days, you couldn’t just synagogue hop. You couldn’t just say, “Hey I don’t like the synagogue over here in Bethlehem, so I’ll go to the one over here in Hebron, or Shiloh, or Gaza”… it didn’t work that way.
And then Jesus even warns them further by saying, “The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.”
Church, it IS serious business to follow Jesus! I mean… in the very next book… in Acts, we’re going to see these exact things happen to these men… Saul (who later becomes Paul) was literally hunting Christians down, throwing them in jail, and killing them – all while thinking he was doing God’s work!
And why? Why are these disciples going to get put out of the synagogues and hunted down and killed? Why does the world hate Christians so much? Why is persecution of Christians something that the United Nations, and world leaders, and the world in general just turn a blind eye to. They just kind of shrug and say, “oh well”?… Why does the world do this? Well… look at verse 3, “And they will do these things BECAUSE they have not known the Father, nor Me.”
Jesus said pretty much the same thing in John chapter 8. Do you remember that? He was speaking to the crowds, and said, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” They wanted to kill Him… and He said to them, “The reason you want to kill Me is because you are of your father the devil, and he was a murderer from the beginning.” And then… sure enough… they proved Him right, because as soon as Jesus said, “Before Abraham, was I AM.” They picked up stones and wanted to kill Him.
But do you see how it all ties together? The unbelieving world doesn’t know God… they don’t know Jesus… Their father is the devil, and because he was a murderer from the beginning they have the same nature as their father… murder is in their heart.
And it is in the heart of every unbeliever. EVERY unbeliever! That’s why we need to be BORN AGAIN. Born with a new nature! Born from above! Born from an imperishable Seed! That’s why we need to become a NEW CREATION IN CHIRST!
And it’s also why we need to go into our Christian lives, and live our Christian lives with the right understanding and right expectations.
The world is not our friend.
The world and all that is in it is perishing.
The world hates you, it hates your God, and your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The world is not your home.
We are to be in the world, but not OF the world.
And our job as Christians is to go into the world and rescue people out of the world!
Jesus wanted His disciples to be prepared for what was to come.
Now I’m going to close where I started…
In just two short days our nation will elect a new President. And I am no prophet, this is my own opinion based on reading the terrain. But I suspect that regardless of which sides candidate wins, the other will not accept those results. Both sides of the political spectrum feel that this is it. It’s all or nothing. And you know what? Maybe it is… maybe we have reached that point in our history. But all history is – is HIS -STORY!
Our God reigns! Our God is upon His throne. And the results of our nations elections do not take Him by surprise. He can put whichever candidate in the position He pleases, be it one placed in order to show mercy and grace, or one to usher in His judgment. Lord knows we are deserving of judgment, and yet we plead for the mercy.
In the next two days, I want to challenge you to spend a great deal of time in prayer.
Pray not only that God would show us mercy, but that He would bring true and real revival. That He would bring repentance to the hearts of men. That He would prepare and strengthen His people for whatever may come, and that he would awaken us to urgent need to share the Gospel with a lost and dying world.
Pray that His will be done, and that by His good grace, we be conformed to it – regardless of what it looks like or how it comes.
CLOSING
