Peace: A By-Product of Faith, Hope, and Love, Part 2

John 16:28-33

INTRODUCTION

In John 16:25-33, Jesus talked about faith, hope, and love--that which brings inner peace to man. Man is missing those three ingredients in his soul. Everyone desires to love and be loved. People want something to believe in and something to hope for. Apart from love, faith, and hope, man has no reason to exist. Life becomes a meaningless treadmill. It is the plight of twentieth-century man to search for those three realities.

A. The Plight of Mankind

In a book entitled Despair: A Moment or Way of Life (Downer's Grove: IVP, 1971), Stephen Evans wrote that twentieth-century man is unique because of his ability to wipe out life. Death's imminence is very real because the entire population of the world can be wiped out in a matter of months by nuclear bombs, germ warfare, chemical warfare, and pollution. And the greatest horror that every man lives with is the fear of his own death. He isn't bothered so much by the fact that everyone must die as he is that he must die. Every man fears the inevitability of death. Though twentieth-century man is unique in many ways, he is not unique in his fear of death. That fear has haunted all men.

What makes death even more fearful is that it is a one-time event, and that it must be faced alone. Even if you die in a hospital surrounded by relatives or in a nuclear holocaust with the whole human race, death must be faced personally. Since modern man has eliminated God from his life, he faces death even without God. By eliminating God, man also eliminates hope, for who then really loves him? Whom can he believe in for his eternal destiny? What can he hope for beyond this world? Without God, there is no hope beyond death. A man without answers to those questions will never have peace in his heart.

B. The Provision to Mankind

Jesus offers faith, hope, and love to every man. The beauty of the gospel message is that Christ made those three things accessible to you and me. From them, we can have peace. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 the apostle Paul said, "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." It is exactly those three things Christ speaks of in John 16:25-33. He offers to every man a divine love, someone and something to believe in, and a hope that is steadfast and eternal. When a man has all that, he has peace.

REVIEW

I. LOVE (vv. 25-27)

A. The Promise of Understanding (v. 25)

"These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father."

Jesus frequently spoke to the disciples in veiled statements that couldn't be completely understood. But the time was coming when the Holy Spirit would dwell in them permanently. From that time on, the Lord would speak to them clearly about God.

B. The Privilege in Prayer (v. 26)

"At that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you."

From the day that the Spirit begins indwelling believers, we have had immediate access into God's presence. We don't need to ask Jesus to go to God for us. We can pray directly to God in the name of Jesus Christ.

C. The Proclamation of Love (v. 27)

"For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God."

We can go directly to God with our prayer requests because He loves us. Now God loves everyone with a universal love--the agape love spoken of in John 3:16. But the Greek word translated "love" in John 16:27 is philei, which refers to loving in an intimate, affectionate way. God loves you as a member of His family. He has a general, divine love for all men, but He also has an intimate familial affection for those who love Jesus Christ.

1. Explaining God's love

God hears and answers your prayers directly because of His affectionate love for you. When a man discovers that the infinite God of the universe love him, he realizes there is a reason for his existence All the mystery of the universe will become logical, and he will see that God created everything to display His glory. When a man views God's glory and turns to God, the Lord will express His love in return.

Jesus says in John 16:27 that those who love Christ are loved by the Father with a caring, warm kind of love that is different from the general, divine love of God that encompasses every man. To be loved by God is the pinnacle of value. When you love something, you assign value to it. God has valued you to the degree that He not only loves you with a divine, sweeping love, but also with a warm, familial affection. That's how valuable you are to Him! Knowing that is the pinnacle of existence. It's amazing to think that the God of the universe cares about us, let alone has an affectionate love for us. God is not a cosmic, indifferent power; He is a personal, loving Father who gives to man an infinite and eternal value by loving man with an infinite and eternal love. And He shows us that love in spite of our sinfulness and selfishness! God loves us with unconditional love.

2. Emulating God's love

3. Examining God's love

4. Experiencing God's love

It's simple for you and I to know God's love. Jesus said in John 16:27 that God loves those who love Him and believe that Jesus came from God. When you love Christ and believe in His deity--that He came from God to accomplish a redemptive work that is sufficient for a man's salvation--then you will know God's love.

In John 14:21, Jesus said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father." God will love those who love Christ, and you can tell if you love Christ by whether you obey His commandments or not. The faith of someone who says he loves Christ but lives as if he doesn't care about Christ's commandments can be questioned on the basis of John 14:21. He could be told that because he doesn't keep the Lord's commandments, he is not loved by the Father. A person's love for Christ becomes evident through obedience to Him, and obedience is the key to the entire Christian life. John 14:23 repeats verse 21: "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him." So if you believe in Christ and love Him, you will enter into an incredible, unique kind of love relationship with God.

Every man is loved by God; every man is valuable. But those who love Christ sense their worth because they enjoy an intimate love relationship with God. In Ephesians 2:6-7 Paul said that when we were saved, God "raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ." God's kindness is displayed in a special way when He lifts us up as a result of our belonging to Christ. Earlier in verse 4 we read of God's rich mercy and great love toward believers. The tremendous, unsearchable riches of God's mercy and love lift us up to the place where we become the recipients of His kindness and blessings forever.

When a man loves Christ, who is God in human flesh and the sacrifice for mankind's sins, God responds to him with a gentle, caring love that is different from His universal love. In a human sense, the difference between God's affectionate love and universal love could be described as a person's intimate love for his family and his general love for those who are outside his family. God loves all men, yet has a special love for those who belong to Christ.Happiness for Saddy

Some time ago when I had the opportunity to preach with others in some of the prisons in Mississippi, I met a young man who had devalued himself tremendously all through his life. He never had a family; he didn't know who his mother or father were. He had lived in different orphanages and moved around a lot. Somehow he acquired the name Saddy. When we talked to him, he simply identified himself as Saddy, even though he had a last name. He was always sad, and he said there was no God. He said that no one loved him, and that everything we preached was a lie. One young man on our evangelistic team spent forty-five minutes talking to him. After the talk, we saw Saddy smile from ear to ear, his face beaming. He came over to me, shook my hand vigorously, and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I learned something today. I learned that God loves me and you love me." I'll never forget those words. Saddy's life was transformed because now he knew he had value: He knew that God loved him.

It's no wonder that those who deny God's existence think life is meaningless. Once you rule out God, you rule out any thought that He loves you, and thereby give yourself no reason for existing. To be loved is the crown of life. It's the chief clue to the meaning of existence. 

LESSON

II. FAITH (vv. 28-32)

A. A Commentary on Faith

Every person lives by faith. We operate on the principles of faith in our everyday activities. We believe in our house, our car, the roads, the restaurants, and canned food. We trust certain things; we put our faith in many things. There's a song with the words, "I believe in music." Some people believe in music, but that's not a secure thing to believe in. An older song says, "I believe for ev'ry drop of rain that falls, flowers grow." If you could count every raindrop and every flower in the world, you would probably find that not to be true. Many people put their faith in the various religious systems of the world. Those who belong to Alcoholics Anonymous are told to believe in a higher power. Everyone believes in something. Most people believe in themselves.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said that it is faith in something that makes life worth living. That's a vague statement. What is a man to bet his life on? He could believe in money, but that doesn't last. The paper we print dollar bills on doesn't mean a thing. What can we believe in? Poet G. A. Studdert-Kennedy wrote these words:

I walked in crowded streets where men
And women, mad with lust, loose-lipped and lewd,

Go promenading down to hell's wide gates;
Yet have I looked into my mother's eyes,

And seen the light that never was on sea
Or land, the light of Love, pure Love and true,

And on that Love I bet my life.
I bet my life on Beauty, Truth,

And Love, not abstract but incarnate Truth,
I bet my life on Christ--Christ Crucified.

B. A Cornerstone for Faith

What certainty can a person believe in? God's unending love. When you come to know God's love, you can place you faith in it. How do we know God loves us? By Christ's death on the cross. I believe God loves me, and I'm betting my eternal destiny on that. That's not a gamble because God proved His love for me by doing what He did on the cross. If a father tells his son he loves him, and in an emergency situation the father loses his life to rescue his son, no one would have to argue with the boy about whether his father really loved him. I know God loves me because He came into this world in human flesh and died on a cross for me. He bore my sins in His own body; He took the punishment that I deserved. That tells me that God loves me.

1. Believing in Christ's deity

According to John 16:27, we can know the Father's intimate love when we love Christ and believe that He came from God. The basis of our faith is that Christ came from God. I would never know that God loves me unless He had showed His love, and the greatest proof of it was in Christ's coming to earth. We can believe in God's love because He revealed it to us. We can't discover God's love on our own; He had to disclose it to us. As we can see in the Old Testament, God revealed His love to the people of that era. His love then became fully realized when Christ came.

The basis of our faith, according to the end of John 16:27, is believing that Christ came from God--believing that Christ is God. Unfortunately, that is one doctrine liberalism is willing to give up today. When you give up that, the basis of everything Christians believe in is gone. If Christ isn't God, then we could speculate that everything He said about God's love is a lie. If so, we have nothing to believe in and no divine love at all. We must accept the fact that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. It is the cardinal doctrine of everything we know, believe in, and hope for. Christ is not merely a man. If He were, the claims He made about His deity and God's love were lies. But Jesus is God. Second Peter 2:1-2 says that those who deny the Lord are heretics. In Galatians 1 Paul expressed concern over those who preached falsehoods about Christ. First John 4:3 says that every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus Christ is from God is the spirit of the antichrist. According to 2 John 10, anyone who presents a different Christ is not to be given welcome. We must commit ourselves to the basic doctrine of the gospel: that Jesus Christ is none other than God in human flesh.

2. Believing in Christ's redemptive work

John 16:27 tells of God's special love for those who "have believed that [Christ] came out from God." Why did God send Christ? To redeem man. So the basis of our faith is not only the deity of Christ, but also that Christ was sent from God to accomplish the redemption of man. So we who are Christians don't just believe in love, music, religion, or church. We believe in God's revelation of Himself in Christ to do a redemptive work in the world. And the real commitment of faith comes not when you just believe the truth about Christ, but when you love Him. James 2:19 says that the demons believe in God and tremble. Belief is not commitment unless it is backed up with a love for the Lord. I believe the truth about Christ. I love Him, and that secures my faith.

Jesus said in John 8:24, "If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." What did He mean when He said, "If ye believe not that I am he?" (emphasis added). He was referring to all that He claimed to be: the way, the truth, the life (John 14:6), the bread of life (John 6:35), the light of the world (John 8:12), the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), and God in human flesh (John 10:30, 33). Unless you believe Christ is God, you are mocking Him. And not only are we to believe, but we are to back up our belief with love.

Falling Passionately in Love with Christ

Pastor Daniel A Poling told this story American novelist and dramatist Channing Pollock, a relative of his. Mr. Pollock and another author were working on a play late one night in Mr. Pollock's New York apartment. Somehow their conversation led the author to ask Mr. Pollock, "Have you ever read the New Testament?" Pollock admitted that he had never read it, and after that brief exchange, nothing more was said about it. After the friend left in the early hours of the morning, Pollock went to sleep. However, he couldn't sleep because he kept thinking about the comment his friend made about reading the New Testament. Finally he got out of bed and searched his books for a New Testament. He found one, and read straight through the gospel of Mark. After doing that, he walked the streets of Manhattan until dawn. He later told Daniel Poling that when he returned to his apartment exhausted, he found himself on his knees passionately in love with Jesus Christ. That's the commitment of true faith. Salvation is initiated by belief in Christ, but true saving faith is expressed by a love that backs up our belief.

C. A Call for Faith

1. The announcement from Christ

a) A clear presentation of the truth about Himself

In John 16:28, Jesus said, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." Christ's existence is a fact of history. That He came from the Father speaks of His deity. He existed in heaven, and came into a sin-cursed world. The absolute, historical revelation of God in Christ is basic to saving faith. Jesus came from God, and He was God in human flesh. We can't do away with that doctrine, or the basis of our faith becomes nothing.

(1) The truth rejected

The Jewish religious leaders of the New Testament era didn't love Christ. They didn't even believe He came from God. That is evidenced in John 8:14, where Christ told them, "Though I bear witness of myself, yet my witness is true; for I know from where I came, and where I go; but ye cannot tell from where I come, and where I go." The Jewish religious leaders were the scholars on religious matters in that part of the world, but they didn't know anything about Christ. They didn't know where He came from or where He was going.

(2) The truth proven

In John chapter 1 we read, "In the beginning was the Word [Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (vv. 1, 10-11). The people Christ came to didn't know who He was, where He came from, why He came, or where He was going. They didn't understand the redemptive plan of God. Jesus said in John 16:28 that He "came forth from the Father." He is nothing less than God in human flesh. He wasn't just a human being, a revolutionary, or a religious freak. He is God come into the world.

b) A clear presentation of the gospel message

John 16:28 is the most concise statement Jesus ever uttered in regard to His origin and destiny. He had told the disciples before in vague terms that He came from God and would go back to Him. But John 16:28 clearly proclaims that Christ came from God to do His perfect, redemptive work for mankind, then went back to God. The entire gospel message is contained in John 16:28.

Some of the earlier statements Christ made about His relationship with God weren't very clear. In John 16:5 He said, "Now I go my way to him that sent me." Then in verse 16 He said, "A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." Those statements didn't make much sense to the disciples. In John 14:28 the Lord said, "Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than I." That was a confusing statement, too. But in John 16:28, Christ made a straightforward statement that speaks of Christ's purpose on earth and His identity as God.

It's beautiful to realize from verse 28 that Jesus wasn't a string puppet who came and went at the whims of an outside force. There weren't any hostile powers that forced Jesus to leave earth. He wasn't running in fear from persecution, nor was the Father calling Him home. He came to teach man about God and die on the cross. When His work on earth was finished, He returned to God. By His own will He completed His mission, and returned to the place He came from. John 16:28 speaks of God's existence. It speaks of a God who loves man and became human to accomplish a redemptive work, then returned so they could be energized by the Spirit to live the life He provided for them. That's a love story that's absolutely true; it's not fiction.

2. The apprehension by the disciples

In John 16:29 we read, "His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb." They were saying, "Now we understand, Lord! We're finally beginning to understand what You're talking about." Perhaps the disciples thought Christ's earlier prophetic statement about the day when He would no longer speak in proverbs (v. 25) was fulfilled at that moment. They understood Christ's words about His work, origin, and destiny in verse 28, but they wouldn't actually have full understanding of all Christ's veiled statements until the Spirit's coming on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4).

The disciples grasped the meaning of Jesus' simple statement in verse 28, and probably felt good about that. We can see the simplicity of their faith by their response in verse 29. They could see that God loved them, that He sent Christ to redeem them, and that Christ was going back to God when He finished His work. God's divine plan was becoming clear to them. Jesus came, loved them, and opened up the way to God. Once they had access to God's presence, Christ went back to God.

Although the disciples had a new understanding regarding Christ, they still didn't understand Christ's words in verse 28 as much as they would later on. John Calvin said of the disciples' response in John 16:29, "It is certain that the disciples did not yet understand fully the meaning of Christ's discourse; but though they were not yet capable of this, the mere odour of it refreshed them" (Commentary on the Gospel of John, vol. 2 [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979--reprint date], p. 161). The disciples were getting a few sniffs of what it was to really understand Christ, and they liked that. Of course, they still didn't have full understanding until the Holy Spirit came. And they were making progress because for the first time that we can tell, the disciples stopped acting sorrowful. They took their attention off their problems long enough to be excited about what they were learning, and they believed all that they understood.

How Can I Believe What I Don't Understand?

All God ever asks from a man is that he believe what he understands. Frequently people ask questions such as, How did the people in the book of Genesis become saved? Did the people who lived in the era of 1 and 2 Kings know how to become saved? What about other people in the Old Testament? Men were saved by believing the revelation of God at whatever point it had been disclosed. He didn't expect those in the book of Genesis to know and believe the revelations that were given in the New Testament era. God expects people to believe only what they are able to understand from the revelations He has given up to that point in time. We don't need to know all the answers; we just need to believe what God has told us. True saving faith is a commitment to everything that God has revealed to you. The Old Testament saints didn't know exactly how God's redemptive work would be done. But they believed God's promise to redeem them. They believed only what they understood. And Jesus didn't expect the disciples to understand everything He said in John 16. But His statements weren't said in vain; the disciples would have full understanding later on.

D. A Confession of Faith

In John 16:30 the disciples said, "Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee; by this we believe that thou camest forth from God." They were asserting their confidence in Christ's deity.

1. The ironic event

What's ironic about that great statement is that a few hours later, when Jesus was arrested, the disciples ran away like a flock of fearful sheep. At this moment, they said they were sure that Christ was all He claimed to be, but later on, they weren't so sure. As Christians, we've all experienced those moments of doubt. We begin to mistrust God and say, "Does God really exist? Is what the Bible says for real?" Then we get over the doubt and regain our confidence that God is all He claims to be. The disciples were no different. Their faith may have been more infantile, thus making them more susceptible to doubt. But in John 16:30, they were sure that Christ knew all things.

2. The indisputable evidence

The disciples had recently realized how much Christ knew because earlier in John 16:17-19, He answered a question they hadn't even asked. The disciples had already seen evidence that Christ was who He claimed to be, but what finally convinced them was the fact that He knew everything. Consequently, they said, "We believe that thou camest forth from God." They made a statement of their belief in Christ's deity. And we know that the disciples also loved Christ. Their belief and love was sufficient for saving faith.

Some people wonder if the profession the disciples made in John 16:30 determines their actual conversion. I don't know if we can really pinpoint when they became saved. I think they believed in Christ prior to John 16, and that in John 16 they simply gained a better understanding of who He was. They had believed in His divine origin and His deity, and they had shown Him again and again how much they loved Him. That's the essence of salvation: believing and loving Christ. By saying, "We believe that thou camest forth from God," the disciples were expressing that the glory of His deity shining through the veil of His humanity. Their understanding was as clear as it had ever been in the three years they had spent with Christ.How much faith do I need to become saved?

After the resurrection, the disciples' faith became even greater. John 16:30 marks the apex of their faith prior to Christ death. The disciples struggled with doubt during Christ's trial and death, but their faith was still present within them. And when Jesus came out of the grave, their faith shone more brightly than it ever had shone. The childlike faith they expressed in John 16 was like the faith of the man in Mark 9:24 who said, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." With their doubts, fears, and misgivings, Jesus accepted them as they were. That's how He accepts you, too. Some people say, "I want to become a Christian, but I have some questions. I have some fears; I don't understand everything." Christ is willing to accept you at the point you express your infant faith.

It's important to keep in mind that the disciples' faith had content. They believed that Jesus came from God to accomplish work here on earth, and that He would go back to God afterward. Believing is a matter of putting your faith in something and someone, not in nothing. Faith must have content. 

E.The Celebration over Faith

In John 16:31 the Lord said to the disciples, "Do ye now believe?" That is not really a question; it was a response to the disciples' confession in verse 30. He was saying, "Now you believe. That's great; I accept your faith." Christ must have been happy when the disciples professed their belief in Him in verse 30, because He had been teaching them about Himself for three years. The reality of the disciples' salvation appears to come to a climax. We can't dogmatically say Christ was speaking factually and not asking a question. But the context of Christ's words seems to call for a factual statement.

In John 16:31, Christ was experiencing a moment of sweet victory because from the time the disciples begin to express their sorrow in John 14, He struggled to make them trust Him in the midst of the bitter news of His departure. Finally, the sunlight of faith begins to break in the disciples' hearts, and smiles replace their sorrow. Their infantile faith was enough for Jesus. After three years of miracles, teaching, and loving, and a full evening of giving Himself to comfort the disciples, they finally said, "We believe." For Jesus, that was enough. They didn't have full-grown faith; nevertheless, they believed. As we said earlier, Jesus doesn't ask that we come to Him with total comprehension. He asks only that we come with infantile faith and say, "I believe; help me in my unbelief" (cf. Mark 9:24).

F. A Caution About Faith

When the disciples told Jesus, "We believe that thou camest forth from God," they were self-confident in the strength of their faith. That is made evident in verse 32, which is a warning. So in verse 31-32 Christ basically says, "Now you believe. But there is going to come a time when your faith is tested." The disciples thought they were immovable rocks when they were really like pebbles. In John 13:37 Peter said he was willing to die for Jesus. But in John 18, Peter denied Christ three times. He failed to realize the infancy of his faith and the weakness of his flesh. Likewise, in John 16, the disciples as a whole failed to recognize Satan's power and the weakness of their faith. They were like young military recruits who knew the drill instructions but didn't know what to do when they got into a real battle. We have to remember that the secrecy of spiritual strength is self-distrust and deep humility. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, "When I am weak, then am I strong." When you recognize your weakness, you will be strong.

1. The fickleness of man

Jesus began John 16:32 by saying, "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone." In Matthew 26:56, we read that the disciples fled when Jesus was arrested. That fulfilled the prophecy in Zechariah 13:7: "Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered." It is sad that Jesus had to state that warning. Does the fleeing of the disciples prove that their faith was a sham? No. Their faith was shaken badly, but they still had some faith. When Christ rose from the dead, their faith was stirred again and bore fruit.

I like the way the disciples are honestly portrayed in John 16:32. The Bible frequently reminds us that the greatest saints were people like you and me. They weren't superspiritual, pious heroes. They lacked faith at times. The disciples were barely hanging onto a thread of faith when Christ was crucified. But after the resurrection, Christ fanned their faith again, and they set the world on fire for Christ.

2. The faithfulness of the Father

John 16:32 concludes with this statement from Jesus: "Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." The disciples would soon leave Christ, but the Father would be with Him. For the first time in the upper room discourse with the disciples, Christ reflected on His own anguish. He sadly told the disciples that they would all leave Him. Thinking of His loneliness, He said, "The Father will be with Me." Did you know that even the Father left Christ for a brief period of time? When Christ was on the cross bearing all the sins of the world, He said, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). Our holy Father couldn't look upon Christ when He bore the sins of the world.

The dialogue in John 16:28-32 gives us wonderful insights into the Lord Jesus and the level of the disciples' faith. We we learn there is something to believe in, even if with infantile faith: that Jesus is God in human flesh, and that He came to earth to do a redemptive work. He died on the cross for us, and then returned to the Father. That's all we need to believe, despite any doubts and misgivings we might have. When you believe Christ, He will receive your faith as it is and strengthen it. There will be times when sin and temptation may cause your faith to wane, but Christ will fan the flame of your faith and strengthen it again.

Faith is believing in Jesus and all that He claimed to be. We can believe in God's love because He revealed it to us in Jesus Christ. You can bet your life on His love.

III. HOPE (v. 33)

A. The Proclamation of Hope

Jesus said to the disciples in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." What fantastic hope that gives us! In John 15 the Lord warned the disciples that the world would persecute them. In John 16:2 He said, "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." The world is hopeless; war, pollution, and disaster surround us. Is there any escape from the plagues of man? Yes. Jesus said, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

When you know and love Jesus Christ, there is hope. This world holds no fears for us. People talk about the terrible disasters that will come about in the future. I don't believe Christians will ever experience them, because Christ takes care of His own. I'm confident that before any catastrophic disasters happen, Jesus will take us out of this world in the rapture. We have the hope of living in eternity with Christ someday.

B. The Passages on Hope

Satan gave Christ his best shots when Jesus was on the cross, and the Lord took every one. He went into the grave, and emerged the victor from the other side of the grave. He defeated Satan and conquered the power of death (1 Cor. 15:54). Jesus said, "Because I live, ye shall live also" (John 14:19). We can put our hope in that. Just as a mountain guide who reaches a flat area and pulls up to safety an ascending climber, so Jesus is a conqueror who is pulling us to Him. He won the victory, and shares it with us. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

According to Romans 8:37, we are "more than conquerors through him that loved us." Nothing can separate us from the Lord's love (v. 35). That is our hope. Someday, we will leave this world to be with Jesus Christ. And we don't need to fear the world because Christ has overcome it. First John 5:5 says, "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" If you believe in Christ, you are an overcomer--just like He is!

CONCLUSION

When you know faith, hope, and love, you will have peace. Jesus said, "These things [faith, hope, and love] I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace" (v. 33). In John 15:11 Jesus told the disciples, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you." The result of peace is joy.

Is it possible to know peace in a world like ours? Yes, because God loves you. And you'll know peace when you love Him. We can believe in God and the gift of eternal salvation. The hope God offers is steadfast and secure. He gives the hope of eternal life in His presence. Because of that, we can have perfect peace and joy through Jesus Christ.

Focusing on the Facts

1. Give some examples of how people live by faith.

2. What certainty can man put his faith in? Explain (John 16:27)?

3. What is the basis of the Christian faith? What does Scripture say about those who don't acknowledge that truth?

4. Why did Christ come forth from God?

5. Belief is not commitment unless it is backed up with _____ .

6. What did Jesus mean when He said, "If ye believe not that I am he?" (John 8:24).

7. What verification do we see of Christ's deity in John 1:1, 10-11?

8. Discuss the clarity and significance of what Jesus said in John 16:28.

9. Does God ask a person to believe what he doesn't understand? Explain.

10. In John 16:30, the disciples professed Christ's deity. What helped convince them to the point of making that profession?

11. What kind of faith is Christ willing to accept from us? What must we keep in mind about whether a person's faith is acceptable?

12. In John 16:32, Jesus warned the disciples that their faith wasn't as strong as they thought it was. Does the fact that they fled when Jesus was arrested prove that they had no faith? Explain.

13. Discuss the hope we have of victory over death and the world.

14. What will you have when you know faith, hope, and love? What then follows (John 16:33)?

Pondering the Principles

1. For a better understanding of faith, let's look at what Hebrews 11:1 says about it: "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (NASB). Faith is trusting in a hope or a promise that is so real, it gives assurance. With that in mind, read Hebrews 11:3-13, which lists a number of Old Testament saints who rested on the promises of God. How did those people express their faith?

2. Satan frequently tries to make Christians doubt God and His promises. One way we can defend ourselves against such doubt is to learn all that we can about God's character and His promises. When you don't know what God is like or what His promises are, then Satan will try to create doubt out of your ignorance. During the next two weeks, make a project of writing down everything you learn about God's character and His promises whenever you read your Bible. You might also be able to use the sermons at your church or good Christian books as resources of information. You'll find the knowledge of God's character and His promises to be a great faith-builder!