Balancing Out Fear - In This World We Will Have Trouble

‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ John 16:33 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.16.33.NIVUK When I was a small child, there was a knock at the door. One of our neighbours, who was then around sixteen years old, wanted to use the phone. This was back in the day when landlines were a thing that not everyone had or even could afford. My mother let her in and led her to the phone. She stood and stared at it, because she didn't know how to use it. My mother showed her and noticed a little bump. "Oh, are you pregnant?" she asked. "Yes, with my second." the girl responded. "But I still haven't worked out how. Was it because I've been kissing a boy?" Maybe you think it is utterly impossible that something like this could happen. It seems so far-fetched nowadays. But back then, in that neighbourhood, poverty was rife. Parents often neglected their children, leaving them to their own devices while the adults drank alcohol, smoked and watched TV. They didn't really bother if their children went to school. Education wasn't valued. And underage sex was something of a rite of passage. In that kind of an environment is it really so far-fetched? More than a decade later, I met a classmate of my sister's. She had gotten drunk one night, went to bed with a boy, who then kicked her out, she fell pregnant and lost the baby. Aged sixteen. Dealing with a miscarriage at sixteen. When I met her, she was close to suicidal. I was ministering once in a Romanian village. Romanians are normally highly educated, especially with languages. It's quite normal to find a Romanian who is fluent in four or five languages. But this village was different. We were leading a children's programme. We had some choruses all prepared - the kind of thing children in their early years in primary school could normally sing without much effort. But these kids couldn't because they hadn't learned to read... and neither had the teenagers standing behind them. They also came from a poor environment where education wasn't prized at all. Why am I talking about these dreadful situations? Because often, when hard times come, we are quick to look for someone to blame. We form a mob and grab the pitchfork and torches to find the person responsible and crush them with our bare hands. This is one of the most useless responses to difficulty. Why? Because even if there is somebody to blame, and even if you do find them, destroying them will not ever fix the problem! The issues I used to illustrate this point are where the environment has produced shocking situations because people literally do not know better. And since they don't know better, they allow their negative environment to overcome them. They conform to expectations. What Jesus is saying here is that our environment is a sinful world, and so suffering is inevitable. Just as you wouldn't expect paradise in a bad neighbourhood, so we should not expect to pass through this sinful world trouble-free. As one of Job's comforters correctly pointed out: For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards. Job 5:6‭-‬7 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/job.5.6-7.NIVUK Or as Jesus pointed out: ‘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. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. John 15:18‭-‬21 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.15.18-21.NIVUK They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, John 16:2‭-‬4 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.16.2-4.NIVUK Trouble is absolutely inevitable in this world. In fact, the same word for 'trouble' (or 'tribulation') is used both here and in Revelation to describe the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:14). The only difference is scale. Paul teaches us that the whole of creation knows that our present life is not perfect and that it longs for heaven (Romans 8:18-25). We can think of this longing in the same way that some restaurants used to put out nuts or salted crackers on tables as appetisers before serving food. Why would they do something like that? Because the salt makes us thirsty and causes us to order over-priced drinks! So why is our life not perfect here? Because it makes us thirst and long for heaven! Maybe you are wondering why Jesus would say such a thing to His disciples before he went to the cross. It seems like such a downer! But actually this truth is tremendously liberating. Without it, we would blame ourselves or go hunting for a scapegoat like an angry mob every time something went wrong. If we realise that trouble comes because we live in an imperfect environment, and that this reality makes us long for heaven, then blame is no longer an issue. Instead, we accept it and look to use it to make us better. Some parents bring their children up cossetted in fairy tales and romantic myths. When that happens, we set them on a one way ticket to cruel and bitter disappointment, to crushing relationship failures and awful pain. And it just won't go away. Disillusionment spreads like a virulent virus through families who raise their kids in a fake, theme park bubble but don't prepare them for the real world. Jesus is not doing that here. He prepares His disciples for the harsh realities of following Him in a world which is ultimately hostile to His teachings. If we listen to what He says here, we too will be liberated from unrealistic expectations or angry retaliation when life doesn't quite our way. Instead, we will accept the inevitability of trouble in life and, instead of it being a stumbling stone, we will use it as a stepping stone to grow and become stronger. So we've seen that in Christ we have peace because He balances out trouble. We have also seen that in this world we will have trouble - it's inevitable. Lastly, we will see that IN CHRIST WE CONQUER THE WORLD.