I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33 ESV)
Jesus tells us that haters gonna hate, but he also says we can have peace in the midst of that. How?
- We have a helper 15:26 - you are not on your own
- Our helper is the Spirit of truth 15:26 & 16:13 - We’re not living our lives based on the path of least resistance or the most popular option, the Holy Spirit is guiding us into truth. He is reminding us that God is in control, that we are sinners, that we are loved and forgiven. We can have peace in the midst of tribulation because of the truth of the gospel
- Jesus has prophesied that this will happen 16:4 - The wheels are not falling off God's plan. We can have peace in the midst of trouble when we remember “he said this was going to happen”. None of this is taking God by surprise, he is not getting caught off guard.
- It is better for us to have the Holy Spirit than Jesus walking around! 16:7
- The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgement. 16:8-11 We are free to engage the haters but it is not our job to argue them round or convict them of sin. God’s got that in hand. The amazing thing is that haters can be turned into brothers/sister in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit - look at the example of Paul
- The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus. 16:14-15 & 15:26 We can have peace in the midst of trouble because the Holy Spirit shows us Jesus’ glory
- It is temporary v16 -22 "a little while" - death followed by resurrection. Jesus uses the example of childbirth: pain turned into joy. We can have peace because the resurrection shows us that something better is on it’s way. We are in the labour stage now, but that’s only temporary