Overcoming the World

Posted by Chris on April 26, 2009 under Sermons

See John 16

Click here to listen to this sermon.

This chapter reminds me of “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’!” which is the title of Tony Campolo’s well-known sermon that references a sermon by his preacher, Marshal Shepard Sr. at the Mt. Olivet Church in West Philadelphia …

It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’. It was Friday, and my Jesus is dead on a tree. But that’s Friday, and Sunday’s a comin’. Friday, Mary’s crying her eyes out, the disciples are running in every direction like sheep without a shepherd. But that’s Friday, and Sunday’s a comin’ … Friday, people are saying, “Darkness is gonna rule the world, sadness is gonna be everywhere,” but they don’t know it’s only Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’. Even though this world is rotten, as it is right now, we know it’s only Friday. But Sunday’s a comin’.

The good news is that the cross in Friday is not the end. Sunday, the day of resurrection is coming. I want us to imagine the before and after of Friday and Sunday. Think of the cross – there is a Friday side or sorrow, suffering, fear and loss. And there’s a Sunday side where the meaning of the cross has been changed forever.

The cross is the ultimate turning point. An event of great shame and sacrifice that causes offense and fear, becomes the key to salvation and the door of hope. Using the language of John’s gospel, we might say that there is the view from below and the view from above. We see everything, the world, our life, church, even the cross from either the view from below or the view from above. Those who can see from above are those who’ve been born from above.

That’s important because historically, we live on the Sunday side of the cross. We could just set John 16 aside and say that it was written from the perspective of the Friday side when the disciples are very anxious about Jesus leaving and they will not see him anymore. But don’t forget, John wrote this Gospel on the Sunday side. He wrote it for born from above believer on the Sunday side. Why would he do that? He did that because even though we are historically on the Sunday side, in our experience, we all find ourselves on the Friday side of the cross from time to time.

John is preaching to believers beyond the first generation. He’s preaching to those who have heard but never seen. He’s preaching to you. He’s preaching to West-Ark. He’s preaching to the United States.

He says that he knows it is Friday and there is trouble in the world.

• When the Spirit of Fear and Worry is so thick in the air that we cannot get a breath – that’s the Friday side of the cross
• When those who hate Christ and hate the church threaten to smother those who love to talk to about Christ – that’s the Friday side of the cross
• When the Spirit of Despair grips our chest so that we feel like we can never laugh or smile – that’s the Friday side of the cross
• When poverty wins again because you just had a moment when you think you are going to get ahead and its slimy tendril pull you back under – that’s the Friday side of the cross
• When the sorrow overcomes you and you turn back to the pills, the drink, the sex, the party – anything to numb the pain of loneliness and to silence the tapes playing constantly in your head mocking you in your own voice – that’s the Friday side of the cross

That’s the Friday side of the cross. We’ve all been there. Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble (16:33). Isn’t it strange how we try to avoid admitting that. Maybe we assume that good people don’t do that. Maybe we just try and put a lid on it. We want to belong to church so that we can take heart. We want to belong to church so that others on the Friday side of the cross can lift us up to the view from above – so that we can get to the Sunday side. We want to hold someone’s hand while we breathe through the pain like that woman in childbirth. We know that sorrow will turn to joy.

But Jesus is warning us that sometimes the trouble comes not from the world, but from inside the church. When the church is on the Friday side of the cross looking at the cross from below, there will be real sorrow.

Jesus told his disciples to get ready for the time when they would be cast out of the synagogue. He told them to even prepared for the fact that sincere but mistaken people would consider it a righteous act to kill believers in Jesus. This warning never expired. It applied directly to the generation of believers who worshipped in the synagogue with their Jewish brothers and sisters. They would experience sorrow and suffering from those who claimed to worship the God.

But the warning never expired. Through the ages and even in our own day we experience sorrow from within the church. The church that claims to fight and struggle in God’s name, but they cannot see the cross from above. They cannot leave Friday and get to Sunday.

• In 1907, a Brother Harris in the Bellwood, TN Church of Christ published a letter in the Gospel Advocate. He was complaining to E.A. Elam (a member in his own congregation) because the Elam’s had adopted a child who just happened to be black. Harris asked Elam to send the girl to a different congregation so that there would be peace in the congregation. He concludes one of his letters, “I tried to write this in the spirit of Christ, I know; for I hate to see strife in the church. We would like everything to be run nicely and in order.” Brother Harris was stuck on the Friday side of the cross – he only knew sorrow and worry, he had no hope. I hope he figured out that Sunday was coming to Bellwood. Read more through this link.
• Changing the Locks Story
• A few years ago I visited with a woman named Darlene who was dying of cancer. Some of the members of our congregation had befriended her but she had questions and wanted to talk to the minister. She told me about her experience of Friday below the cross. Not only was her sorrow for the cancer and the pain, she was also concerned about her soul. She was afraid that God did not hear her prayers. Why? I wondered. It was because Darlene had grown up with well-meaning but misinformed people who claimed to follow God. According to them, one had to pray with tongues or with the spirit with exuberance – and Darlene just couldn’t do that. All she knew how to pray was the Lord’s Prayer. Those people who prayed so well and sincerely wanted to speak to God had cast Darlene out. They left her on the Friday side of the cross, but Darlene started talking to her Father and found out that Sunday is coming.
• Disfellowshiping the Divorced Story – They realized that they could honor God’s ways, but did not have to add the shame and sorrow of exclusion to the sorrow of broken marriage. They decided to take heart and overcome the world.

Inside the church and outside the church we are looking for the quick fixes that will make the sorrow go away. We want the pill, the book, the verse, the plan, the cash, the bill or the amendment that will make it all go away. We want to jump from Friday straight into Sunday. Jesus doesn’t say there will be a quick fix. He says that we will see him again, not right away, but in a little while.

Jesus says that only in him can we have peace. Only in him can sorrow turn to joy. When the world cranks up its hate and fear, When the church seems to be acting like the world , When we find ourselves standing below the cross on Friday – Jesus calls to us from Sunday and says – “Take heart, I have overcome the world!”