John 16, Prophecy & Persecution in Today’s World

John 16, Prophecy & Persecution in Today’s World  by Kelly Durant 3-10-24

¹ “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. ² 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. ³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴ 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, ⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

2. The verses of today are some of Jesus last words before his soon coming arrest, execution, and resurrection. How many of you have ever heard a person share words of who was dying? Sometimes they tell all their family that they love them, and maybe they divide up the inheritance with the family.  Some parents die alone in some rest home with just a worker nearby. We really don’t know about how our circumstances will be!

 You should think about this as we enter into this time of Easter. What are the pages of wisdom you would prepare if you knew you only had a week before you would die? Who would you talk to? What wisdom would you share? Would you tell everyone you loved them, like Jesus did?

Before Jesus leaves this world, He left us a lot to think about. Four chapters in John say a whole lot, 14 to 17.  Also Matthew 23, 24, 25, which coincide with the other chapters in Luke & Mark. Notice how most all of them are full of many prophecies of the future and about Jesus’ return to reign forever and ever. About 25% of each NT gospel are Jesus’ words within the last week of his life! 

3. Leading up to Chapter 16 we have John chapter 15. In John 15 Jesus is the true vine that we must stay connected to, and this coincides with doctrine 9 of the SA, we must continue in obedience, maintaining our faith.  Jesus teaches us about divine love, about laying down our lives for God and others.  In other words, die for Him!

Jesus repeatedly mentions persecution too, which is something very much alive and ongoing today.  And very importantly, He also tells us of the Holy Spirit that will come to us after He is gone to comfort, guide, and teach us all truth.

In John 16 let’s look at these opening words which begin with prophecy. Some people think they always need to hear a word of prophecy from the church or the pastor for their lives, but people who think in this manner rarely are heard just teaching the prophecies of Jesus! 

There are too many modern-day prophets, people who think others will buy into them as being as supernatural and prophetic as Jesus who prophesied, but they have proven their selves to be powerless. For the future, follow only the Bible! 

4. When you hear words of prophecy, be careful who they are coming from and where the focus is: Is it really on Jesus?  Or is it to sweeten your ears and buy you and convince you that your life is extra special to be wealthy, or that some ministry, or some pastor, or denomination are the only ones with the anointing that you must obey since they produce such words? 

We are warned in 2 Timothy 4:3 ³ For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

In the first verse of prophecy in John 16:2 He says those that kill you will believe they are doing God service! How can this be, people killing believers in Jesus thinking they are doing it in God’s service? How did it apply then as well as today?

Did that prophecy occur historically in the disciples’ lives? Yes, each one of them died as martyrs except John which lived by a miracle after being put in oil to boil. In fear, the Romans sent him to live in a lonely island called Patmos.  Historically there was horrible persecution of people killing the followers of Jesus in the name of their church, or pagan Gods, and today it continues as much as it did before.

5. A little over a decade ago, a report came out of the persecution of Christians in Ethiopia. About 20,000 people had to flee! Imagine if you had to leave your home with just a bag of what you could carry, and you are aware many of your neighbors are being killed by invaders. And worse your Christian church got burned down along with dozens of others!

To our horror, there are Communists, false religion followers, and violent terrorists in the world today that would love to burn down every Christian church there is in the entire world! Hundreds have been burnt just in the past few years! The hatred of Jesus and the persecution of Christians is more intense than ever! 

We need to pray for those everywhere and in Africa! Sadly today, as it always has been, hundreds and sometimes thousands die every single day for Jesus in the hands of people who believe they are doing God’s service by killing them! 

Imagine, we have a God that loves like no other; that lays down his son as a sacrificial lamb as a savior of all, but these murderers believe God wants them to kill anyone who will not accept God the way they follow according to their unsacred doctrines! Our God teaches us to love, but theirs teaches to kill!

6. Everyone who boasts spirituality must rely on prophecy as proof of Jesus’ truth. Satan wants to imitate prophecy, but he cannot! Why, because fulfilled prophecy is proof of Christ’s divinity! No one comes close to getting right His predictions!

The false religious followers often declare they have a prophet, but their prophet(s) has no fulfillments to prove anything, no dozens of future events predicted as Jesus did. They have some prophecies, but only are for a self-interested conquest. Khrushchev, the communist leader of Russia when I was a kid prophesied with his shoe banging the UN table that he would bury the United States.  But no book in the world from any man or from any religion has hundreds and hundreds of fulfilled prophecies as the Bible does! Khrushchev died, his words did not happen, but communists & terrorists are still working in the shadows to make it happen!

 ² “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.³ They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me”. So many billions of people in the world following false hopes and false prophecies believe that their sacrifices, their self-induced sufferings, their long boring prayers, their dedication to kill others make them worthy to dominate the world. Evil ones always treat other people as their slaves. But since these people have not accepted, loved, and obeyed Jesus, they have not known our true God, our Father creator, and their dedication is in vain and a big waste of life and of their soul! Hell on earth and hell hereafter is for those who seek to murder, and impose lies in order to gain power and money.  

These persecutors may cause Christians to lose their lives, but these evil ones will lose their souls in hell! Matthew 10:28 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. We must fear God, never mortal men, be they ones in the government, of a huge religion, or of a secret world order.

7. In Sudan, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in dozens of countries, it is against the law to preach Jesus! In these countries dozens of thousands have been killed, and notice that those that “live by the sword, die by the sword.”  

Who could ever imagine we would see the entire world in such turmoil and chaos in these past few decades? All of this coincides with Matt. 24 where Jesus says, “and nation shall rise up against nation, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars”.  

We should be watchful and pray more for the leaders of this world as war and turmoil is spreading here in the U.S.. After all, the Middle Eastern nations look upon America as the great Satan that invades and destroys them, so they want to destroy us. Communist countries as well. This last great Christian nation is being sold out by corrupt politicians, perverts in power, and by jealous invaders who speak hate.  

8. We should suffer in our spirits for our Christian suffering brothers and sisters in other countries. The Bible says a lot about Ethiopia and the Middle Eastern nations that they would have war in their lands for their sins which have lasted for millennium. Consider these:

11. Ezekiel 38:5
Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: (in other words they were in war, and keep repeating having turmoil)

Daniel 11:43
But he (the Antichrist world leader) shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.

Zephaniah 2:12
Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword. (This refers to the ones who will suffer God’s anger for their sins in God’s coming judgment)

Now, imagine if I were to tell you, most of you will die within a few years for being a part of this Christian movement of God?! Put yourself in the disciples’ situation: the disciples had left everything to follow Him and now Jesus is leaving them with the bad news that they will be rejected and killed! But Christians died singing and praising God because Jesus left them, and you and I, the Holy Spirit! It was the blood of the martyrs that was the seed of the church in Rome and the blood thirsty Romans converted and became Christian seeing their love passion, and power.

If you do it right, Satan will fight! Who knows the future and if revolution arrives here in this country. We are peacemakers, but most people don’t want peace!

9. Never think that what happens over in Africa, the Middle East (Ukraine), and Israel could not affect you here! Millions of immigrants from everywhere are arriving here! At Easter every year we are reminded that every day we must read our Bibles like it is our last week to live, pray like it is our last week to live, and write to our families and share our love with them as if we had only one more week to live! We must take advantage of the Holy Week and invite our relatives & friends to church.

⁷ “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned”.

Jesus reassures us His Holy Spirit will be with us and that there will be a final judgment and God will condemn Satan and his followers. And the most wonderful thing Jesus says our sorrow will be turned to joy! The disciples were going to witness Jesus going away, but He is telling them, I am coming back (He meant after 3 days) ^20 “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy”. 

10. Jesus gives it a powerful meaning when he mentions the birth pangs of the woman, which refers to the end-times, and reaffirms we can pray to the Father and receive answers and have joy. He left and returned after 3 days, and now He will return very soon after all the world hears the gospel & the prophecies are fulfilled!

Jesus said the disciples would be disbanded, and end-time Christians will be as well, but we know Jesus will return to take us to heaven! 33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Do you have dying grace? Probably not yet because you are not dying yet! But remember every Christian martyr died with the Holy Spirit giving them the victory, praising even with their last breath.  How important the Holy Spirit is? It is our comfort; it is what will be present when we must die and leave here. That is Jesus’ Easter gift to us! Come ask God for more of his comfort, His Spirit, his power to witness in you in this special time of the year!