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John 16:1-5a GETTING READY TO SUFFER FOR JESUS

Introduction:

	In previous texts Jesus warned His disciples that they
would face persecution --- especially after He was gone.  In
our text today Jesus gives them a more detailed explanation
of what persecution awaited them.

I.  The things which Jesus had already said

	V. 1, "These things have I spoken unto you, that ye
should not be offended."  The term "these things" refers to
the several different things that Jesus has spoken to them
in this particular night.  He had spoken to them about Judas
betraying Him to the Jewish leaders.  He had spoken to them
about His arrest, His trials, His crucifixion, His
resurrection, His return to heaven and the persecution which
would come upon the disciples.  He had spoken to them about
the coming of the Comforter, the witnessing for Him which
the Comforter would do, and the witnessing which the
disciples themselves would do for Him even in the face of
persecution.
	Jesus explains that the purpose of Him speaking to them
about these things was that He did not want them to be
caught off guard by these things and overwhelmed by them.
He did not want them to think that all was hopeless.  He did
not want them to quit standing up for His cause.  He wanted
them to see that in spite of the seemingly hopeless
situation which they would soon face, that His cause was not
hopeless at all.  There was indeed great persecution ahead
for them, but there was also great opportunity for
witnessing to the unsaved and spreading the gospel to
distant lands.
	By informing His disciples beforehand about His arrest
and crucifixion, He would avoid the element of surprise and
shock which they would otherwise experience.  Even under the
best of conditions, this was going to be a terrible ordeal
for them.  It would be a terrible experience at the Garden
of Gethsemene when the Jesus would be arrested and carried
into Jerusalem for trial.  It would be a terrible experience
for Jesus to be carried before the Sanhedrin Council and
pronounced worthy of death.  It would be a terrible
experience for them for Jesus to be carried before the Roman
governor and sentenced to death by crucifixion in spite of
being found innocent of all charges against Him.  It would
be a terrible experience to witness the brutal crucifixion.
It would be a terrible experience to witness as the head of
Jesus drop forward in death.
	This would be so traumatic for them that it would be all
too easy for them to just give up, stop preaching and go
back to their old line of work.  Jesus did not want them to
do that.  He wanted them to take up the mission of carrying
the gospel message to all the world.  That is why He wanted
them to be well informed.  He wanted them to be informed not
only about His death, but He wanted them to be informed that
after three days and three nights He would arise from the
grave.  Seeing the arrest and crucifixion take place just as
He had predicted should have encouraged them to believe that
His resurrection would also take place just as He had said.
	They should have all been out at the grave bright and
early Sunday morning waiting for Him to come out of the
grave, but they were not there.  They somehow found it
difficult to believe what He had said about the
resurrection.
	However, soon enough, they would know that He spoke the
truth because they would all see Him after He had arisen
from the grave and they would be greatly encouraged
concerning His death because they would seen Him after He
arose.
	They would still be greatly disheartened because of
persecutions which would come upon them.  Therefore, Jesus
wanted them to know beforehand what was going to happen to
them.  He had already told them that they would be
persecuted.  Now He lets them know that the persecution is
going to be very severe.
	By informing them in advance about the persecutions and
also about the coming of the Comforter they would be
encouraged not to give up and quit.  They would know that
they would not face the persecutions of the world alone.
They would know that the Holy Spirit of God would be with
them to comfort them.

II.  The new details which Jesus now gave

	V. 2, "They shall put you out of the synagogues..."  In
Israel it was no small matter to be put out of the Jewish
synagogue.  There were two types of excommunication from the
synagogue.  The lesser of the two was to be prohibited from
going into the Jewish temple or any Jewish synagogue for a
period of thirty days.  Even this was pretty severe.  The
person who was thus expelled was not only forbidden to enter
into a synagogue for thirty days, but neither was he allowed
to enter into his home for thirty days.  Nor was he
permitted to come closer than 6 feet to any member of his
family --- not his wife nor any family member.
	But the second type of excommunication was much more
severe.  Instead of being expelled for thirty days he was
expelled for an indefinite period of time.  It would be
permanent if that person did not recant.  He was forbidden
to speak at all to any member of their family or any member
of any synagogue.  He was not allowed to buy nor sell.  This
would not only make it extremely difficult for the
disciples, but also for their entire families.  Unless
someone would befriend them, it would make it difficult to
stay in the land and survive.
	Back in John chapter nine we read about a man who had
been blind from his birth.  Jesus healed him and gave him
his eyesight.  Then when the man spoke out publicly and
acknowledged that he believed Jesus to be the Christ, the
Jewish leaders excommunicated him from the Jewish synagogue.
	Jesus informed disciples that this is what would happen
to them.  After Jesus would leave and return to heaven, the
Jewish leaders would turn the hatred and wrath for Jesus
toward His followers.  They would soon excommunicate them
from the Jewish synagogue just as they had excommunicated
the blind man to whom Jesus gave sight.
	It is worthy of note that the disciples of the Lord
would continue to worship at the synagogue and the temple
just as long as they were allowed to do so, but the time
would come when they would be forced to meet separately
because they would no longer be allowed within the temple
nor the synagogue.  At least they would not be allowed into
the local synagogue where their excommunication was known.
(V.  2), "...yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth
you will think that he doeth God service."  Jesus said that
the time would come when the Jews would not only think that
if they kill a Christian, they would be doing God a service.
They would not only think that God approved of the killing
of Christians, but they would think that God would bless
them for killing Christians.
	Actually the very opposite was true.  God would be
highly displeased with anyone who would kill a Christian.
But the Jews would be encouraged to kill Christians because
they actually thought that by doing so they would gain favor
with God.  This just goes to show how far a religious
organization can go out of the will of God.  They thought
they were worshipping and serving God by killing Christians.
Some of the Arab nations think the same thing today.
	V. 3, "And these things will they do unto you, because
they have not known the Father, nor me."  What a tragedy!
Here were people who had been members of the Jewish faith
all of their lives.  They had been active in the Jewish
faith all of their lives.  Some of them were the top leaders
in the Jewish religion.  They thought of themselves as
worshipping God.  They thought of themselves as serving God,
but the sad truth is that they did not even know God.  They
had never known God.  Most of them would live and die
without ever knowing God.
	Did you know that this very same thing can happen within
a church.  One can be a member of a church and yet be
unsaved.  One can be a top leader in a church and yet be
unsaved.  One can hold office in a church and yet be
unsaved.  One be very active in public worship services
where both the name of God and the name of Jesus Christ is
proclaimed and yet be unsaved.  It is not membership in a
church that gets one into heaven.  It is not leadership in a
church that gets one into heaven.  It is not active
participation in church services that gets one into heaven.
One must repent of his sin and trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ as his Savior in order to get saved and go to heaven.

IV.  The reason Jesus told them these things now, but had
	not told them at the beginning

	V. 4, "But these things have I told you, that when the
time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them..."
Jesus is well informing His disciples of these things just
before He is to be crucified and shortly before He will
leave them and return to heaven.  He tells them now because
when the time comes for Him to be crucified and when the
time comes for Him to leave He wants them to remain true to
Him and to be firm in their convictions that He is the
Christ.
	(V. 4), "...And these things I said not unto you
at the beginning, because I was with you."  Jesus said that
He did had not informed them of these things at the
beginning of His ministry, at least He had not gone into
this much detail.  He had informed them early that they
would be persecuted, but He did not go into this much
detail.  They were just young in the faith at that time and
were not strong enough spiritually to be given this much
information on such disturbing matters.
	He would remain with them for a period of three and a
half years and He would continue to feed them information on
these things a little bit at a time.
	V. 5, "But now I go my way to him that sent me..."  But
now His time with them was about to end and the time for the
full load of information on these things was at hand.  As
Paul Harvey would say, now they were to hear the rest of the
story.  The time for His arrest was at hand.  The time for
His crucifixion was at hand.  The time for His departure and
return to heaven was at hand.  The time for their own
persecution was not far away.  If He was ever going to
inform them and let them know just what they were going to
face it was now.  If He was ever going to have opportunity
to forewarn them and encourage and strengthen them
beforehand, it was now.  It was now or never.  At least it
was now or never beforehand.  It was now or it would never
be early enough to help get them prepared for what was
ahead.

IV.  Some things we learn about the Christian life in
	today's world

	Listen, living a Christian life is not all fun and
games.  Living a Christian life is not all blue sky and
sunshine.  Living a Christian life is not at all a bed of
roses.  The Christian has the normal trials and suffering
that all human beings have.  He has illness the same as
other people do.  He has the stress of coping with trying to
raise a family in a troublesome world just as other people
do.  If he lives long enough he gets old and feeble the same
as other people do.
	Yet in addition to all this, the Christian suffers
persecutions from the unsaved world.  He sometimes has
persecution from people of a different doctrinal persuasion.
He might even suffer mistreatment from members of his own
family or members of his own church congregation.  It can
happen.  It does happen.
	Listen, that is why Jesus had the words that He spoke to
those disciples recorded in the Bible.  Just as Jesus wanted
them to know beforehand about the trials that they would
face so that they would not fall by the wayside, even so
Jesus wants us to know beforehand about the trials that we
will suffer in this life so that we will be somewhat braced
for them when they come.  Jesus does not want us to be
caught off guard and to be overwhelmed by our grief and
struggles in life.  He wants us to be forewarned about them
and to know that there is a Comforter available to us.  He
wants us to be strong in the faith.  He wants us to continue
to serve Him faithfully.  He wants us to keep on keeping on
in the worship and service of God.  He wants us to keep on
standing for Bible truth.  He wants us to keep on living
godly lives.  He wants us to keep on witnessing to the
unsaved.  He wants us to keep on loving our Christian
brethren and loving the unsaved, and loving even those who
persecute us.  Jesus wants us to keep on letting our lights
shine so that men may see our good works and glorify God the
Father who is in heaven.
	Listen, it is not those who serve God only when all is
rosy who keep the cause of Christ going in this world.  It
is those who are faithful to Christ and to God the Father in
spite of difficult situations which they face who keep the
cause of Christ going in the world.  .
	Listen, Jesus did not suffer for us because He had to.
The truth is that He did not have to suffer for us.  But He
did have to suffer for us if we were going to have an
appointment be saved.  He was totally without sin, yet He
willingly took our sins upon Him and suffered in our stead
on Calvary's cross.  He considered it a privilege to suffer
in our stead.  I think that we should consider it a
privilege to suffer for Jesus who suffered for us on the
cross.
	It was not going to be fun for those disciples to see
Jesus suffer for them and it was not going to be fun for
themselves to suffer for Jesus.  Neither will it be easy for
Christians to suffer in our day for Jesus.  But we had might
as well face it, especially as we get deeper and deeper into
end-time events.  Christians will suffer more and more
persecution as we draw closer and closer to the return of
Jesus Christ.
	May God help us to get braced for it.  May we have a
burning desire in our hearts and souls to be faithful to Him
to the end.  May we be faithful to the end of this age or to
the end of our lives, which ever comes first.  Let us pray
to that end.  Let us pray for one another.  Let us help one
another.  Let us carry on the work of Christ to the best of
our ability.
	In closing let me say a word to anyone who is unsaved.
I may have painted a picture of the Christian life which
seems undesirable to you, but if you have gotten that
impression from what I have said, I want to correct it.  Let
me say that the suffering which the Christian does for Jesus
is nothing when compared with the suffering that Jesus has
done for the him.  The suffering which the Christian is
called upon to do for Jesus in this world, is nothing when
compared to the suffering that he would do in the next world
if he were not saved.  So in spite of the suffering that a
Christian endures in this life he is a lot better of than
the man who never gets saved.  He is better off than he
would have been if he had remained unsaved.
	
Conclusion:

	Who will come this morning and take Jesus as Savior?
What saved person who is in need of a church home come and
present yourself for membership here at Pleasant Hill?