In the world you
will have tribulation.
But take heart; I have
overcome the world.”
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!:)
In Philippians 4:7
we have a wonderful promise:
"The peace of God, which
passes all understanding,
will guard your hearts
and your minds in
Christ Jesus.”
It is important to note the context
of this promise,
because that’s where we find the condition:
“Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation,
by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God”
God’s peace is promised
to guard those who pray—with thanksgiving--
about everything.
This peace will transcend
our ability to understand it!:)
There are other
gifts of God
that are not fully comprehensible
to us.
The
gift of salvation is
“indescribable
” (2 Corinthians 9:15).
The complexity and
wisdom of
God’s plan is inscrutable
(Isaiah 55:8–9).
According to Ephesians 3:19,
the
love of Christ
is something else
so great we will never
fully understand it.
Likewise,
human reasoning is incapable of fully
comprehending
the peace of God.
The believer who places
his or her full confidence
in a
loving God and is thankful
in every circumstance
will possess
a supernatural peace.
An inner calm will dominate the heart.
The faithful believer
will know peace--
his heart and Mind
are “guarded” by it—despite the tempest raging without.
No one,
especially those outside of Christ,
will be able to fathom that peace.
To most,
it will remain a mystery
how someone can be so serene in the
midst of turmoil.
The peace
that comes from
being in a right relationship
with God
is not the peace of
this world.
The world’s peace
depends on having
favorable circumstances: if things are going well,
then
we feel peaceful;
when things go awry, the peace quickly dissipates.
Jesus made the distinction
between His peace and the
world’s vacillating peace:
"Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give you. I do
not give to you as the world gives”
(John 14:27).
God’s supernatural peace surpasses
natural understanding.
A cancer patient who experiences a
remission of the disease may proclaim, “I am so thankful to God!”
That is praise. A cancer patient who is
dying and in pain may calmly say,
“Everything is all right.
I claim Romans 8:28, and I have peace in my heart.”
That is “the peace that passes all understanding.”
As Jesus prepared to
depart this world,
He knew
that difficult days lay ahead for
His disciples. He
wanted them to be ready
for the most challenging times they would
ever face.
Jesus explained how they could
endure through the troubles of this life: “
I have told you all this so that
you may have peace in me.
Here on earth you
will have many trials and sorrows.
But take heart,
because I have overcome the world”
John 16:33, NLT).
Amid the storms of life in a dark and fallen world,
inner peace is only possible through a
relationship
with
Jesus Christ
The disciples could not depend on
themselves
to survive the trials and persecution
they would soon endure.
Instead, they would have to rely
entirely on Jesus and everything
He had taught them
while living and ministering with them.
Fearing for their lives,
the disciples would abandon Jesus at the cross
(Matthew 26:56).
They would be scattered
(Mark 14:50; Acts 8:1), arrested (Acts 5:17–21), thrown out of synagogues (John 16:2; Acts 13:14–52),
and martyred for their faith in Jesus (Acts 7:54–8:3),
but they would not go astray because they would remember the Lord’s words: “Take courage! I have overcome the world”
(NASB).
The Greek word translated “overcome” means “to defeat, to win a victory over, as in a contest or military conflict.” The “world” is the created physical realm, the domain of existence here on earth, which is considered distinct from the heavenly or spiritual realm. Jesus knows that here on earth we encounter trouble and sorrow. But He has overcome the world and every earthly obstacle for us.
What has
Jesus overcome for us
in the world?
Anxieties and cares:
Christ’s victory over the world is multifaceted. First, He gives His followers peace to overcome their troubled hearts: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Those who believe in Jesus Christ don’t have to live with anxious hearts but can experience the gift of His otherworldly peace (John 14:1). We do this by bringing every situation to Him in prayer, depending wholly on Him to meet our needs (Philippians 4:6). The Lord’s peace transcends all the confusion, fear, and anxiety of this world like a shield set over our minds and hearts as we live secure in Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:7).
Hatred and persecution:
It’s important to remember that Christ’s victory over the world does not physically remove us from the battle. We will face the same hatred Jesus did: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:18–20). We overcome the world because we belong to God. His Spirit lives in us and “is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Paul asked the Romans, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?” (Romans 8:35, NLT). He answers his own question with a resounding, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:37, NLT).
Sorrow and death:
Death is an inevitable reality for all people, but for believers in Jesus Christ, death means victory over our last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26–27). Through His atoning sacrifice on the cross and subsequent resurrection, Jesus overcame the world by conquering death. He shares that victory with all who repent and believe in Him as Lord and Savior: “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4–5, NLT). Christ’s death grants salvation and eternal life to all who believe in Him.
Jesus
told Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus,
“I am
the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me,
even if he dies, will live. Everyone
who lives and believes in me will never die”
(John 11:25–26, CSB).
Christ. grants
that we overcome the world in Him,
and He gives us the
right to sit with Him on His heavenly throne at the
right hand of God the Father
(Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 10:12; Romans 8:34).
There, in our eternal home
in God’s kingdom, we will live forever
in the Lord’s presence:
“Look, God’s home is now among his people!
He will live with them, and they will be his people.
God himself will be with them
He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there will be no more
death or sorrow or crying or pain.
All these things are
gone forever”
(Revelation 21:3–4, NLT).
“
I am the Light of the world”
(John 8:12)
is the second of seven “I AM” declarations of Jesus,
recorded only in
John’s gospel, that point to
His unique divine identity
and purpose
In declaring Himself to be the Light of the world, Jesus was claiming that He is the exclusive source of spiritual light. No other source of spiritual truth is available to mankind.
There are two types of light
in the world.
We can perceive one, or both, or neither!
When we are born into this world,
we
perceive physical light,
and by it
we learn of our
Creator’s handiwork
in
the things we see.
However, although that light is good, there is another Light, a Light so important that the Son of God had to come in order to both declare and impart it to men. John 8:12 records, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.’” The metaphor used by the Lord in this verse speaks of the light of His Truth, the light of His Word, the light of eternal Life. Those who perceive the true Light will never walk in spiritual darkness.
We take a candle
into a room
to dispel the darkness.
Likewise, the
Light of Jesus Christ
has to be
taken into the darkness
That’s the condition behind
having this
Light-- that we follow Him.
If we do
not follow Him, we will
not have this
light, this truth, this eternal life
Physical light is necessary for physical life.
The earth would certainly
change very rapidly
if there were no longer
any sunlight.
A forest full of trees with very thick
canopies of foliage
high above has very little plant life
on the ground except for moss or lichen, which needs little sunlight.
Plants will never move away from the light—they are said to
be
positively phototropic,
drawn to the light.
In the same way,
spiritual light
is necessary for spiritual life,
and this can be a good test of our standing in Christ.
The believer will always tend toward spiritual things;
he will always tend toward
fellowship, prayer,
the
Word of God,
and so on.
The unbeliever always does the opposite
(John 1:5; 3:19–20)
because light exposes his evil,
and he hates the light. Indeed, no man can come into the true spiritual light of Jesus Christ, unless he is enabled (John 6:37).
Following Jesus
is the condition of two promises in John 8:12.
First,
His followers will never walk in darkness,
which is a reference to the assurance of salvation we enjoy.
As true followers of the
Light, We can repent of our sin
in order to stay close
to the Light of the world.
The second promise is that we will
reflect the Light of Life. Just
as
He came as the Light of the world,
He commands us to be “lights,” too.
In Matthew 5:14–16
we see believers depicted as the
light of the world.
Just as the moon has no light of its own,
reflecting the light of the sun,
so are believers to reflect the Light of Christ
so that all can see it in us.
The Light is evident to others by the good deeds
we do in faith and through the power of the
Holy Spirit.
The emphasis here is maintaining a credible and obvious
witness in the world,
a witness that shows us to be
faithful, God-honoring,
trustworthy, sincere, earnest, and
honest in
all that we do. Also, we should always be ready to
give an account of the hope that we have
(1 Peter 3:15),
for the gospel Light we have is not to be
covered, but made obvious for all to see and
benefit from,
that they, too, may leave the darkness and
come into the Light.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,
just as in fact you are doing.”
Throughout the Bible we see
instructions to encourage one another
and verses that are meant to
encourage us.
encouragement is necessary to our
walk of faith.
Jesus told His followers,
“In this world you
will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world”
(John 16:33b).
Jesus did not shy from telling His followers
about
the troubles they would face.
In fact,
He told them the world would hate them
(John 15:18-21; see also Matthew 10:22-23 and 2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
But Jesus’ grim forecast was tempered
with cheer;
He followed His prediction of trouble
with
a
sparkling word of encouragement:
He has overcome the world.
Jesus is greater
than any trouble we face.
Without encouragement,
hardship becomes meaningless, and our
will to go on wanes.
The prophet Elijah struggled with discouragement
(1 Kings 19:3-10),
and so do we. It is important to remember that
“our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against . . .
the powers
of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”
(Ephesians 6:12).
This truth
makes encouragement all the more important.
It is not just that we face the world’s displeasure;
we are caught in the
crosshairs of a spiritual battle.
When we are encouraged
in Christ, we have strength
to put on our spiritual armor and
remain steadfast
(see Ephesians 6:10-18).
In the world you
will have tribulation.
But take heart; I have
overcome the world.”
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!:)
In Philippians 4:7
we have a wonderful promise:
"The peace of God, which
passes all understanding,
will guard your hearts
and your minds in
Christ Jesus.”
It is important to note the context
of this promise,
because that’s where we find the condition:
“Do not be anxious about anything,
but in every situation,
by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God”
God’s peace is promised
to guard those who pray—with thanksgiving--
about everything.
This peace will transcend
our ability to understand it!:)
There are other
gifts of God
that are not fully comprehensible
to us.
The
gift of salvation is
“indescribable
” (2 Corinthians 9:15).
The complexity and
wisdom of
God’s plan is inscrutable
(Isaiah 55:8–9).
According to Ephesians 3:19,
the
love of Christ
is something else
so great we will never
fully understand it.
Likewise,
human reasoning is incapable of fully
comprehending
the peace of God.
The believer who places
his or her full confidence
in a
loving God and is thankful
in every circumstance
will possess
a supernatural peace.
An inner calm will dominate the heart.
The faithful believer
will know peace--
his heart and Mind
are “guarded” by it—despite the tempest raging without.
No one,
especially those outside of Christ,
will be able to fathom that peace.
To most,
it will remain a mystery
how someone can be so serene in the
midst of turmoil.
The peace
that comes from
being in a right relationship
with God
is not the peace of
this world.
The world’s peace
depends on having
favorable circumstances: if things are going well,
then
we feel peaceful;
when things go awry, the peace quickly dissipates.
Jesus made the distinction
between His peace and the
world’s vacillating peace:
"Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give you. I do
not give to you as the world gives”
(John 14:27).
God’s supernatural peace surpasses
natural understanding.
A cancer patient who experiences a
remission of the disease may proclaim, “I am so thankful to God!”
That is praise. A cancer patient who is
dying and in pain may calmly say,
“Everything is all right.
I claim Romans 8:28, and I have peace in my heart.”
That is “the peace that passes all understanding.”
As Jesus prepared to
depart this world,
He knew
that difficult days lay ahead for
His disciples. He
wanted them to be ready
for the most challenging times they would
ever face.
Jesus explained how they could
endure through the troubles of this life: “
I have told you all this so that
you may have peace in me.
Here on earth you
will have many trials and sorrows.
But take heart,
because I have overcome the world”
John 16:33, NLT).
Amid the storms of life in a dark and fallen world,
inner peace is only possible through a
relationship
with
Jesus Christ
The disciples could not depend on
themselves
to survive the trials and persecution
they would soon endure.
Instead, they would have to rely
entirely on Jesus and everything
He had taught them
while living and ministering with them.
Fearing for their lives,
the disciples would abandon Jesus at the cross
(Matthew 26:56).
They would be scattered
(Mark 14:50; Acts 8:1), arrested (Acts 5:17–21), thrown out of synagogues (John 16:2; Acts 13:14–52),
and martyred for their faith in Jesus (Acts 7:54–8:3),
but they would not go astray because they would remember the Lord’s words: “Take courage! I have overcome the world”
(NASB).
The Greek word translated “overcome” means “to defeat, to win a victory over, as in a contest or military conflict.” The “world” is the created physical realm, the domain of existence here on earth, which is considered distinct from the heavenly or spiritual realm. Jesus knows that here on earth we encounter trouble and sorrow. But He has overcome the world and every earthly obstacle for us.
What has
Jesus overcome for us
in the world?
Anxieties and cares:
Christ’s victory over the world is multifaceted. First, He gives His followers peace to overcome their troubled hearts: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27). Those who believe in Jesus Christ don’t have to live with anxious hearts but can experience the gift of His otherworldly peace (John 14:1). We do this by bringing every situation to Him in prayer, depending wholly on Him to meet our needs (Philippians 4:6). The Lord’s peace transcends all the confusion, fear, and anxiety of this world like a shield set over our minds and hearts as we live secure in Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:7).
Hatred and persecution:
It’s important to remember that Christ’s victory over the world does not physically remove us from the battle. We will face the same hatred Jesus did: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:18–20). We overcome the world because we belong to God. His Spirit lives in us and “is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Paul asked the Romans, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?” (Romans 8:35, NLT). He answers his own question with a resounding, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:37, NLT).
Sorrow and death:
Death is an inevitable reality for all people, but for believers in Jesus Christ, death means victory over our last enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26–27). Through His atoning sacrifice on the cross and subsequent resurrection, Jesus overcame the world by conquering death. He shares that victory with all who repent and believe in Him as Lord and Savior: “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4–5, NLT). Christ’s death grants salvation and eternal life to all who believe in Him.
Jesus
told Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus,
“I am
the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me,
even if he dies, will live. Everyone
who lives and believes in me will never die”
(John 11:25–26, CSB).
Christ. grants
that we overcome the world in Him,
and He gives us the
right to sit with Him on His heavenly throne at the
right hand of God the Father
(Revelation 3:21; Hebrews 10:12; Romans 8:34).
There, in our eternal home
in God’s kingdom, we will live forever
in the Lord’s presence:
“Look, God’s home is now among his people!
He will live with them, and they will be his people.
God himself will be with them
He will wipe every tear from their eyes,
and there will be no more
death or sorrow or crying or pain.
All these things are
gone forever”
(Revelation 21:3–4, NLT).
“
I am the Light of the world”
(John 8:12)
is the second of seven “I AM” declarations of Jesus,
recorded only in
John’s gospel, that point to
His unique divine identity
and purpose
In declaring Himself to be the Light of the world, Jesus was claiming that He is the exclusive source of spiritual light. No other source of spiritual truth is available to mankind.
There are two types of light
in the world.
We can perceive one, or both, or neither!
When we are born into this world,
we
perceive physical light,
and by it
we learn of our
Creator’s handiwork
in
the things we see.
However, although that light is good, there is another Light, a Light so important that the Son of God had to come in order to both declare and impart it to men. John 8:12 records, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, ‘I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.’” The metaphor used by the Lord in this verse speaks of the light of His Truth, the light of His Word, the light of eternal Life. Those who perceive the true Light will never walk in spiritual darkness.
We take a candle
into a room
to dispel the darkness.
Likewise, the
Light of Jesus Christ
has to be
taken into the darkness
That’s the condition behind
having this
Light-- that we follow Him.
If we do
not follow Him, we will
not have this
light, this truth, this eternal life
Physical light is necessary for physical life.
The earth would certainly
change very rapidly
if there were no longer
any sunlight.
A forest full of trees with very thick
canopies of foliage
high above has very little plant life
on the ground except for moss or lichen, which needs little sunlight.
Plants will never move away from the light—they are said to
be
positively phototropic,
drawn to the light.
In the same way,
spiritual light
is necessary for spiritual life,
and this can be a good test of our standing in Christ.
The believer will always tend toward spiritual things;
he will always tend toward
fellowship, prayer,
the
Word of God,
and so on.
The unbeliever always does the opposite
(John 1:5; 3:19–20)
because light exposes his evil,
and he hates the light. Indeed, no man can come into the true spiritual light of Jesus Christ, unless he is enabled (John 6:37).
Following Jesus
is the condition of two promises in John 8:12.
First,
His followers will never walk in darkness,
which is a reference to the assurance of salvation we enjoy.
As true followers of the
Light, We can repent of our sin
in order to stay close
to the Light of the world.
The second promise is that we will
reflect the Light of Life. Just
as
He came as the Light of the world,
He commands us to be “lights,” too.
In Matthew 5:14–16
we see believers depicted as the
light of the world.
Just as the moon has no light of its own,
reflecting the light of the sun,
so are believers to reflect the Light of Christ
so that all can see it in us.
The Light is evident to others by the good deeds
we do in faith and through the power of the
Holy Spirit.
The emphasis here is maintaining a credible and obvious
witness in the world,
a witness that shows us to be
faithful, God-honoring,
trustworthy, sincere, earnest, and
honest in
all that we do. Also, we should always be ready to
give an account of the hope that we have
(1 Peter 3:15),
for the gospel Light we have is not to be
covered, but made obvious for all to see and
benefit from,
that they, too, may leave the darkness and
come into the Light.
“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up,
just as in fact you are doing.”
Throughout the Bible we see
instructions to encourage one another
and verses that are meant to
encourage us.
encouragement is necessary to our
walk of faith.
Jesus told His followers,
“In this world you
will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world”
(John 16:33b).
Jesus did not shy from telling His followers
about
the troubles they would face.
In fact,
He told them the world would hate them
(John 15:18-21; see also Matthew 10:22-23 and 2 Corinthians 2:15-16).
But Jesus’ grim forecast was tempered
with cheer;
He followed His prediction of trouble
with
a
sparkling word of encouragement:
He has overcome the world.
Jesus is greater
than any trouble we face.
Without encouragement,
hardship becomes meaningless, and our
will to go on wanes.
The prophet Elijah struggled with discouragement
(1 Kings 19:3-10),
and so do we. It is important to remember that
“our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against . . .
the powers
of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”
(Ephesians 6:12).
This truth
makes encouragement all the more important.
It is not just that we face the world’s displeasure;
we are caught in the
crosshairs of a spiritual battle.
When we are encouraged
in Christ, we have strength
to put on our spiritual armor and
remain steadfast
(see Ephesians 6:10-18).