CH Spurgeon on John 16, verse 33

Spurgeon on John chapter 16, verse 33

Verse 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 Jesus Himself there was ever present an abiding peace. He had peace. If He had not Himself possessed peace, we could not have had peace in Him. But what a holy calm there was upon the spirit of our divine Master!

Never man had more to disturb Him, but never man was less disturbed. He could not be turned aside from anything which He had resolved to do, for He set His face like a flint. Men might oppose Him, but He endured great contradiction of sinners against Himself with marvellous long-suffering. His soul abiding in God, giving glory to God, and resting in the eternal Power and Godhead which He knew to be always at His side.

The background of the life of Christ is the omnipresence of the Father. Wherever you see Him—if you see Him quite alone when every disciple has forsaken Him—you see this text expounded, “You will leave me alone, and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.”

This fact that He felt the presence of the Father, and did not occasionally speak to God, but dwelt with Him—that He did not resort to God as a make-shift in time of trouble, but abode with God at all times, and so kept His spirit above everything that would draw it down, this it was that filled Him with an unbroken peace. Even Gethsemane did not break that peace.

O friends, Christ has peace enough and to spare. He is Himself, personally, the deep well-spring of an endless peace, and therefore we can understand why we always find peace in Him. His infinite peace breathes peace into our vacillating spirits. We rest because we see how He rests.

Our Lord Jesus Christ delights to see His people firm, calm, happy. The Saviour does not wish His disciples to go through the world as through a twilight of sadness, whispering in fear, because of judgments to come, and suppressing all joy because of the evils with which they are surrounded. No, brethren, Jesus wishes us all to be happy in Himself, with a quiet peacefulness like His own.

Oh, that we could learn from Christ the art of peace! We ought not to be movable as waves, but fixed as stars. We ought not to be as thistledown, the sport of every wind, but as yonder granite peak, which defies the storms of the ages.

The Saviour told His disciples of the power of prayer. What a breath of peace cools the forehead of the man who remembers that he may pray, and that prayer is heard in heaven! There is a noise in the streets, there is a disturbance within doors, even your own heart is perturbed, what then? Let us pray. The known remedy for unknown evils is prayer.

Oh, the peace that comes from the mercy seat! You that are familiar with it will bear me witness that it is wonderful what storms it will quell, what cyclones it will quiet.

Our tender Lord let slip a precious word that ought to give peace to all our minds, “The Father himself loves you.” The love of God the Father is a treasure-house of peace. The Father Himself—not moved by the importunities of His pleading Son, but Himself, of His own accord, loves you. God loved His people, and, therefore He sent His Son to redeem them. Christ is not the cause of divine love, but the sweetest and best fruit of it. “The Father himself loves you.” Therefore, be of good cheer, and let your peace be like a river.

Remember, then, you may not expect to derive peace from yourselves. You will turn that dunghill over a long while before you find the jewel of peace in it. Peace of the deepest, truest, most constant, most emphatic kind is only found in Jesus. Peace in all seasons, and in all difficulties, peace forever, all this is in Him, and in Him only.

Outside of Him it is all tossing to and fro, and question, and fog, and haze, and fear, but in Him we dwell as in a sheepfold, where the sheep lie down and rest. In Him we are in a home where all is love and comfort.

Verse 33. In the world ye shall have tribulation.

You are in Christ, and the Saviour saves you from your sins, but He has not promised that you shall have no sorrow. He has not promised to screen you from either poverty, or toil, or sickness, or slander, or any of the common ills of mankind. Some of the very best of His beloved have been enriched and indulged by being permitted to undergo much secret discipline of pain, and sorrow, and want.

Your Lord, among the treasures that He gives you, grants a cross. You start back, and say, “Not that, Lord,” but He answers, “Yes, this, My child. This and no other.” The cross is the best piece of furniture in your house, though you have sometimes wished it was not there. It shall always work your good—it does work it now.

Some of the comforts allotted to you in providence will be questionable in their effect upon you, by reason of your sinfulness and weakness, but the cross which the Lord appoints you has no result but your good. It is a bitter tree, apparently, but it is a healthful medicine. Take it, child of God—plant it, and let it grow, and its fruit shall be sweet. We are not guarded from tribulation, but we are promised it, and we are benefited by it.

You shall have tribulation, perhaps, where you least wish it or reckon on it. “Any cross but the one I have,” cried one. Surely it would not be a cross if you had the choosing of it, for it is of the essence of a cross that it should run counter to our liking. It must be something from which the flesh shrinks, which is not for the present joyous but grievous.

The Christian is not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world. He is out of his element. He is an alien. He is a pilgrim. Can he expect the comforts of home while he tarries here? It is a world uncongenial to his spiritual nature.

We are always trying to pluck handfuls of its flowers, and if its roses had no thorns we would bury ourselves in heaps of them! We would never quit the nest and learn to fly if the Lord did not stir up our nest even as does the eagle. Thanks be unto God for the tribulation which weans our thoughts from earth, and wins them for heaven.

Verse 33. But be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Our Lord was at that time still in the world. He was on the edge of Gethsemane. He was at the foot, so to speak, of Golgotha, where He was to die. He had not then borne the scourge and the cross. Yet He said, “I have overcome.”

Oh, but it was bravely spoken! The faith which abode in Him made Him say, “I have overcome.” On the verge of the fight He said, “I have overcome.” He took for granted that He would overcome the world, for the Father was with Him.

Its blandishments He had overcome. Its temptations He had overcome. Its terrors He had overcome. Its errors He had overcome. Everything in the world that had assailed Him He had put to the rout. He was tempted in all points like as we are, but He remained without sin. He had been victor at every point.

The cheer lies in this, that He is one with us, and we are one with Him. He does as good as say, “I have overcome the world, and you are in Me, your Head. My overcoming of the world belongs to you. I, your Leader, have overcome the world for you. I have led the way in this dread fight, and conquered the adversaries which you have now to fight with, and thus I have virtually won the battle before you begin it.”

You must fight your way through. You cannot quit this conflict. You have to cut your way through a solid wall of difficulties—there is no other course! But you are going to do it. You shall do it. Every battlefield to which God calls us is only another opportunity of victory, and, Christ being with us, another certainty of victory.

Let not the brightness of your armour be stained by the rust of fear. You shall overcome as surely as your Lord has overcome. If you commit yourself to His keeping, and abide in Him who is all-in-all to you, no defeat can possibly befall you.