The Holy Spirit Convicts the World, Part 1

John 16:1-7

John 16:1 to 11 which is the next in our series of passages in the gospel of John.  Beginning in verse 1, our Lord speaks:  "These things have I spoken unto you that ye should not be offended.  They shall put you out of the synagogues.  Yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.  And these things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father, nor Me.  But these things have I told you that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.  And these things I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you.  Now I go my way to Him that sent Me and none of you asketh Me where goest thou, but because I have said these things unto you sorrow hath filled your heart.  Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient for You that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you.  But if I depart I will send Him unto you.  And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on Me, of righteousness because I go to My Father and ye see Me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged."  May God bless to our hearts this portion of Scripture as we shall study it in a moment.

Let's bow together in prayer.

Father, as we approach Your Word now we ask that our hearts might be lifted up to the heavenlies, that we might see Your truth.  We thank You most of all that we belong to Jesus, what it is to know Him and love Him and to sense His love, companionship, to know His salvation.  And, Father, as we look at this passage in the Word of God, we pray that the Spirit might be our teacher, that we might be thrilled with what we learn and that we might apply it to our life.  We pray in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 16 verses 1 through 11.  In our continuing study of the gospel of John, we come to a very, very classic passage, that which deals with a very, very important ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Now you'll recall that in the gospel of John, John is presenting Jesus Christ.  His detail in each chapter surrounds the person of Christ.  And John's concern is that Christ be seen as God in human flesh.  He is concerned with the deity of Jesus Christ, that Christ is in fact God in a body.

Also, however, he is concerned with presenting the record of the life of Jesus Christ with particular emphasis on certain details that do reveal His humanity.  And we have seen this interwoven as we've gone through the gospel of John, majoring on deity and then minoring on the issues of His humanity.

Now as we come to the sixteenth chapter, it is still the last night before the crucifixion of the death of the Christ...the crucifixion and death of Christ.  He is spending that last night with His eleven disciples, Judas being dismissed to carry out his betrayal.  And He is giving them the instruction they need to face the world without Him.

Now for several weeks we have been studying the fifteenth chapter and we have learned that the disciples will have to face a world that is intensely hostile, that they will be facing a world that will hate Christ and hate Christians and hate them who represent Christ.  The disciples will be facing a world that is in rebellion against Christ.  And if they cannot find Christ upon whom they can vent their hatred, they will vent it upon those who represent Christ.  And so we're going to see, even continuing this morning, this very obvious hostility and hatred of the world.

But in our last study in 15, we not only saw the hatred of the world but we saw that how the hatred of the world is opposed by the testimony of the Holy Spirit.  How that Christ will send the Holy Spirit who will testify of Me, verse 26 of chapter 15.

The Spirit will then confront the world face to face.  And He will do it in the believer.  John has told us the words of Jesus that the Spirit is with you but shall be...where?...in you.  And that the Holy Spirit will come to dwell in the disciples and in all believers, Jesus predicts this, promises it, and it came to pass just as He said in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost.

The Spirit would dwell within them and within them the Spirit would witness through them to the testimony of Jesus.  And we said then that all Spirit‑controlled testimony is about Jesus Christ.  It majors on Christ.

All right, then, in chapter 15 in the last part of the chapter the world will hate the disciple but the Spirit will confront the world with the testimony of Jesus through the disciple.

Now as we come to chapter 16 verses 1 to 11, we find almost a parallel passage.  For Jesus again details the hatred of the world and again presents the work of the Holy Spirit in confronting the world.  Only this time He gets more specific about how it is that the Spirit confronts the world.  He does not only testify about Jesus, but He convicts men of sin.  So it is not only a testimony ministry, it is a conviction ministry.  And by the double conviction and testimony ministry, the Spirit of God seeks to turn the hostile heart of man away from rebellion against God to believing in Jesus Christ and receiving Him as Savior and Lord.  That's the message the Holy Spirit preaches and teaches and does it through the life of the Christian who is faithful.

So, the world then can be confronted, even though it's hostile, even though it hates Christ, hates those who name Him.

And if you're a Christian who really lives for Christ, you live godly in this world, Paul says you will suffer persecution, you'll feel the hostility of the world.  Even though the world is hostile, the Spirit of God has the power and energy to confront the hostile world, break its hostility, smash down its wall of resistance and bring to the heart of a man conviction of sin, the testimony of Jesus Christ so that that man gives his life to Christ and is redeemed.

Now in chapter 16:1 to 11, we see this pattern.  And we see how the Holy Spirit breaks down this resistance by the tremendous work of conviction.  And it's an obvious thing that before anybody can ever be saved, that before anybody can ever come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, he has to have a sense of his own sin, doesn't he?  He has to be made aware that he has a need for a Savior.  He has to come to grips with the problem of judgment and righteousness and sin in his life.  And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does.  He brings to light those three areas of sin, righteousness and judgment.  Convicts of those, then gives the testimony of Jesus which is the answer to those problems and by that a man can trust Christ and be redeemed.

So you see then it's all of the Holy Spirit.  Christian witness is all of the Holy Spirit.  We're still reviewing a little bit.  He's the one that does the witnessing in us.  He's the one that does the conviction.  We can't do it on our own strength.

Now as we look at this passage in chapter 16, I want to break it into three simple categories that really are...they're unique in themselves and yet they lead into the next one very very simply.  We're going to see three things...the killing of the disciples by the world.  This is the first little area Jesus talked about.  Into the comforting of the disciples by the Lord.

And then the convicting of the world by the Spirit.  Now these three separate themes blend into each other and we see the narrative here as Jesus presents it.  And it's a fantastic thing culminating in the Spirit's ministry to the unsaved man...the ministry of convicting him of sin, righteousness and judgment so that he feels a need for Jesus Christ.  And then giving testimony to Christ so that the need can be met.

But first Jesus begins by repeating the warning that a disciple in this world is going to feel hatred, persecution and maybe even death.  And point one we call the killing of the disciples by the world...the killing of the disciples by the world.  And it's verses 1 through 4...your outline says 3, it's 4.

Verse 1, Jesus speaks, "These things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended."  Now the key thing that we want to understand to begin with is what is the word "things"  refer to.  What are these things?  One word in the Greek, two words in English, "These things He has spoken,"  what things?  The things that He has just said in chapter 15:18 through 25.  That which deal with the hatred of the world.  Jesus is saying I told you about the hatred of the world because I don't want you to be surprised when you get it.

In other words, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.  I want to equip you to go into the battle with your eyes wide open.  I want you to realize that you're going to get it when you get into this world.  That when I leave it's only going to begin, the hostility the world has directed at Me is going to be directed at you who represent Me, so be ready for it, anticipate it.  These things have I spoken unto you that you shouldn't be offended.

And the word "offended"  is a very interesting word.  In the Greek, and I'll say it in the Greek because that will help you to realize what it means...the word is skandalizo from which we get our word "scandalize"  which is kind of a long process of etymology away from what it originally meant.  It comes from a noun skandalon.  And the noun meant a stick...now watch this...but a special stick, a stick that held up a trap.  You'd set a trap and you'd put a stick there, some kind of a stick, and you'd put the bait on the stick and when the animal hit the bait, the stick went down, the trap came down and that was it.  The skandalon then was a trigger that pulled the whole trap down.

And Jesus is saying that to these disciples.  He is saying, "Men, I'm telling you this that you might not be trapped unaware, that you might not find yourselves in the world jumping around without any kind of sensitivity to the fact that there's a trap set for you.  I don't want you to get trapped without knowing it.

Realize, men, the world is going to be after you.  They're going to hate you and persecute you because they did it to Me and the servant is not greater than his lord.  Don't get trapped unawares, men, you got the information, you know it's coming."

And so, Jesus gives them full information.  His disciples are totally aware of what's going to go on.  They know the meaning of discipleship.  They know all the heart and painful parts about it as well as the joyous parts.  They know that there is a trap awaiting them out there that the world is going to try to catch them, the world is going to try to persecute them and they are to be aware of that and not to be caught unaware.

It's kind of an interesting thing to realize that even with all this information that they had, and even though Jesus said I don't want you to be offended, it turned out that they were.  You say, "Well why?"  Well, just look at it, backing up for a minute, from this angle.  Can you imagine what would have happened to them if they were offended when He told them this, what would have happened to them if they hadn't known this?  It would have been infinitely worse.  I mean, they hadn't known anything about the hatred of the world.  And all they had to go on was chapter 14 and the first part of chapter 15, and all the promises, love, joy, and peace and all this kind of stuff and promises that you can do anything in My name and I'll give you power to do greater works than I did.  And I'm going to give you a comforter and He'll energize you and empower you and they'd be like a lot of little kids running through the park with balloons, you know.

Just..."Oh, oh...life is really terrific, just one big ball...happy go lucky Christian life,"  see and all of a sudden the world will start to persecute them and all of a sudden their thoughts would go..."Wait a minute...wait a minute...what is this...what is happening?"  And they would become disillusioned with Christ, they would become disappointed with Him.  Their whole faith would begin to falter and become undermined.  Jesus needs to warn them so that they understand that this is all part of the plan so they don't go racing into this whole area of discipleship with a misguided kind of glee, unaware that there are going to be obstacles.  The Lord says expect it, it's going to come.  And He's not trying to discourage them, He's trying to fortify them so when it does come they're going to be ready for it.

And it's really the tenderest kind of concern that causes Him to do this.  In fact when it did happen, when the persecution came, they should have, you know, said in their minds..."Oh, yeah, that's what He said, didn't He?  Fulfilled prophecy."  And it should have strengthened their faith.

But the first time the persecution began, they were offended.  And who was the first of them that was persecuted?

Well it was Jesus Himself.  This very night, this very night, they came to get Jesus.  The disciples should have known it was going to happen, but look what they did.  Matthew chapter 26 verse 31, just listen.  "Then saith Jesus unto them,"  now listen to this, "All ye shall be offended because of Me this night for it is written I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad."

Jesus says, "Men, you're all going to be skandalizoed, you're all going to be offended, trapped, caught, you're going to blow the whole thing, men."  Now this presents to us a very interesting theological dilemma and I'll share it with you because I want you to suffer the same dilemmas that I suffer.

Jesus says in John 16, "I don't want you to be offended."  In Matthew 26 later on the same night He says, "You will be offended."

You say, "Well, if He knew they were going to be offended, why did He bother to say I don't want you to be offended?"

That's a good question, I'm glad you asked.  The answer is the same answer that's throughout all Scripture.  The answer is this...God knows everything, Christ knows everything but it's a man's responsibility as to how he responds.  Let me show you what I mean.  Jesus says to them, "You don't need to be offended, you don't need to be.  I'm going to give you all the ingredients...all the promises, all the warnings, all the information to go into the world and not be offended and not be trapped unaware...you don't need to be."  And yet He says you will.

You see, from a divine side they had all the equipment.  But it boiled down to a personal will, didn't it?  To a personal choice.  In other words, there's a tremendous principle here.

The principle is human responsibility.  A man has his own personal will as to whether or not he applies the truth and the promises of God.  Did you know that?  Did you know that?  God knows everything.  And God gives man the information he needs to live his life, He gives him all the instruction and yet a man can either take it or leave it.

They had sufficient warning.  They had sufficient information.  And yet when it came to the hour, they rejected what they knew to be true and in fear they ran away.  You say, "Boy, that was pretty bad of them."  Yeah, well it's a lot like us.  We aren't much different.  The Bible tells us we have all knowledge.  We have all the wisdom that we could possibly ask for.  And God doesn't hold back any of it.  We have all the resources that He could possibly give us, we are complete in Him, Colossians 2:10.  And yet we run into a problem and immediately fear...we're afraid...begin to doubt our salvation.  We fall into sin.  We stumble.  We neglect this.  We neglect that, etc., etc., etc.  It's not that we don't have the ingredients, it's not that we don't have the information and it's not that we don't have the Holy Spirit who is the power to conquer everything, it's that we have not been willing to apply our personal will to that which we possess.

It's the same thing here.  Jesus says you don't need to be offended, I'm telling you all this so you don't have to be offended but you will be because that's the way you are.  Instead of calling on your resources, you'll fall back on your human fears.  Christ had done all that He could do.  He positionally had, as to us, given them everything.  They knew what they needed to know.  They had everything.  So do we.  We have the Holy Spirit to overcome.  It boils down to whether or not we want to claim the power, the love, the strength, and the wisdom that He's put at our disposal or whether we not...or whether we want to cower in fear.  It's a personal will that's involved.

And so, Christ is saying I don't have any...anything to hold back, I'm going to tell you the whole thing because I don't want you to be trapped unaware.  But they didn't fall back on what they knew.  In fear they ran.  Boy, that's a tremendous principle.  You see, that's why...and watch this one, this is really critical...that's why whatever you do in your Christian life is not the responsibility of God because He's given you all the ingredients to conquer in every situation...it's a matter of personal will as to whether or not you take those resources or not.

All right, then having said that, that I don't want you to be offended, and knowing in His mind that they would, He describes for them the kind of persecution they're going to get.

And this adds detail to chapter 15.  He just told them the world would hate him, He didn't give them these kind of details, but look at this in verse 2.  This is what they can expect.  "They shall put you out of the synagogues,"  that's the first thing, "yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service."  Isn't that interesting?

He says, first of all, you're going to get unsynagogued.

Now that's a very important thing.  To be a part of the synagogue in a Jewish situation was to be a part of the entire culture.

All the social life, all the economic life and all the religious life surrounded the life of the synagogue.  That was everything.

That was the place where they were together.  That was their whole world in the synagogue.  And if you got unsynagogued, you became a moral outlaw.  The jewish law said you were worse than a pagan Gentile.  You were dropped to the scum of the earth when you were put out of the synagogue.  And, boy, they feared this...they feared it.

Back in chapter 9, for example, you remember the parents of the blind man that Jesus healed?  The one thing they were afraid of, verse 22, "These words spake his parents because they feared the Jews for the Jews had agreed already that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue."  They didn't want to get put out of the synagogue.

They didn't want to get ostracized from all the prerogatives and hopes of Israel.  They didn't want to become an Unjew and get lost from all the things that were part of their life and their culture.  They didn't want to be cut off from their families.

They didn't want to lose their job which happened when you were put out of the synagogue.

And so, what He's saying to His disciples is this, "Men, you're going to get cut off from the life of your nation.  You're going to get cut off from your people.  They're going to throw you out of their whole world."  And they hated them so much they did this.  The Jewish leaders would focus the hatred they had for Christ on those who were Christ's and they'd focus their hatred on the disciples and they did.  And the followers of Jesus would little by little be excommunicated from the life of Israel...social and religious and economic life.  They would become castoffs.  They would be viewed in the most despicable terms as traitors to Israel.

And the sad part of it is that it would go so far as to kill them.  They would literally kill them.  Look at verse 2 again.

"And when they killed them, they would think that they were doing God...what?...service."  Service...fantastic...what a colossal mistake.  I mean, to kill the Son of God as service to God.  And then to go along and kill every other disciple they could find and say, "Here, God, we're doing this for You."  What a colossal blunder.  I mean, they were doing God service by killing His.

That was the depth of their sin and that was the depth of their ignorance of God.  And it became true of the Romans and it became true of all the other people who persecuted Christianity.  And they've done it in the name of service to God.  You go back far enough and read things like the Spanish Inquisition.  That was all done in the name of God, service to God.  Or you go back and read the Crusades, how that the crusaders marched across Europe and thought that in order to take the land back from the Turks, the holy land, they ought to eliminate the Jews so they slaughtered Jews all the way across Europe and left a trail of Jewish blood everywhere they went.  And they did it in the name of Jesus Christ.  Is it any wonder the Jew has not much concern about the name of Jesus Christ?  People have done things like that all throughout history in the name Christ as service to God, so called.  And in truth it's been blasphemous to God.

But you can see the attitude of the Jew in this situation.

The Jew believed in one God.  And he believed he knew who that God was.  And here came Jesus along and said, "I'm God,"  and that just blew their minds, you know.

Back in John, for example, chapter 10 and verse 30, Jesus says, "I and the Father are one,"  I'm one with God.  And immediately in verse 31 it says, "And they took up stones to stone Him."  They were infuriated that anybody would claim to be God, it was blasphemous.  And He says, "I've done many things, I've done many good works.  For what work do you stone Me?"  And they said, "We don't stone You for any work, we stone You because You say You're equal with God."  To them the destruction of anybody who claimed to be equal with God was service to God.  Do you see?  They thought they were serving God.

And interestingly enough the word "service,"  see it there at the end of verse 2, the word "service?"  The word in the Greek that is used for service here is the word that's used for the service of the priests at the altar.  It's the highest word for religious service.  It's the standard word for service to God.

They were actually carrying out worship in their own heads by slaughtering people who named the name of Christ.  And that's been going on under the guise of religion for years and years and years and still is.

Now you know, it's interesting as I thought about this, I tried to see...now this is a prophecy.  "They shall put you out...they shall kill you thinking they're doing God service..."

when did this happen?  Listen, that could be a direct prophecy to the life of one man.  You say what man?  I'll show you what man.

Acts chapter 26, that will give you a hint.  Listen to the comments of this one man.  Verse 9, Acts 26, "I verily thought within myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth."  Humph..."Which thing I also did in Jerusalem.  And many of the saints did shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them, the slaughter of these Christians.  And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even unto foreign cities."  Who was that?

That was Paul.  He chased Christians all over everywhere killing them.  You know what he was doing?  He was doing service to whom?

In his own heart he was doing service to God...he figured it out, that's what God wanted me to do, Hebrew of the Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin, circumcised, right in the little situation there.  And I was going around defending the name of God...encouraging people, making them talk about Christ because that was blasphemy, then killing them.

Now Jesus said it will happen to you, and it did.  And there was one great example, the man Paul.  And I'm sure if Paul went at his persecutions like he went at everything else, it was something.  Jesus says that's the way it's going to happen, get ready.

You say, "Well, that doesn't happen any more today."

Listen, persecution still goes on in places in our world and I still believe with all my heart, though you may not die for Christ in the simplest sense here in our life, in our country, it's still true that Paul said, "All that live godly shall suffer persecution."  I don't feel the world likes Jesus now any better than they did then.  And a man who stands up and really defends the name of Jesus Christ is going to get it.  Someone told me the other day that a young man got up at Arrowhead Springs and gave his testimony, that there was a group of men in America who had met for the express purpose of eliminating all of the Christian leaders in America by assassination.  And this one young man had been assigned to go to Campus Crusade to eliminate Bill Bright, as I understand it.  And on the way was converted to Christ and gave this testimony.  Now if you don't think that Satan is active underground in our world, you're wrong, he is...he is.  The persecution of those who love Jesus Christ goes on not only in a disconnected way but in a very organized manner.  But God has the upper hand, doesn't He?

Now why is it that men persecute and think they're doing God favors?  What kind of a God do they worship?  Well, they worship the God that's in their own heads, don't they?  They worship the God they make up, their own fictitious deity.  But notice in verse 3 what their problem is.  And this is a repeat of what we saw last week in verse 21, listen to it.  "And these things will they do unto you...why?...because they have not known the Father nor Me."  You know what the whole problem is?  They don't know God at all.  They're not serving God, they don't even know God.

They don't know who I am, they don't know who He is, Jesus said back in chapter 8 verse 19 of John, "If you knew God, you'd know Me.  And you don't know Me so you don't know God either because I'm God."

The problem with people today who do these things in the name of service to God is that they're worshiping a God who isn't.  Did you know that?  Imagine slaughtering people and offering human sacrifices to God and especially one of those being His own Son and the others the followers of His own Son as an offering to God, human sacrifice.  What an abominable mistake.

So Jesus says they do it because they're ignorant.  They don't know God.  The sad part of it is it's a willful ignorance, isn't it?  Read it in Romans chapter 1, "When they knew not God...when they knew God they glorified Him not as God,"  right?  Men willfully reject the knowledge of God, construct some little God of their own whether it's a little tin God, or sex, money, or whatever else, pride, whatever it is, it's a little God, they worship that God in the name of that God they do whatever they want to do.  And religious people think they're serving their Gods and blaspheming the one true God.

So, Jesus is saying to them, "Men, I just want you to know what it's all about.  I gave you a lot of real goodies in chapter 14, a lot of terrific promises.  And you got all the equipment you need to make it in this world, you've got all the commodities to really move through the world with power and energy, you've got it all.  But I want you to know the other side, I want you to know that the world's just not going to lie there and give it to them.  There's going to be hostility.  There's going to be persecution.  And it's going to be confused because they're going to do it in the name of God and that's going to mess up the whole thing.  Don't you know that the best way to discredit God that Satan could ever devise would be to do things in the name of God that are obvious atrocities, don't you know that?

Don't you know that Satan spends 99‑44‑100 percent of his time in religion?  Fooling with the name of God and the name of Christ to confuse?  So Jesus is saying it isn't going to be easy, the world's going to come after you and they're going to do it in the name of religion and service to God.  Boy, I'll tell you, a day like that and a day like this demands an awful lot of discernment, doesn't it?  No wonder John says try the spirits to see whether they're really of God or not.

So, Jesus says I'm going to show you the whole shot, guys, I'm not going to pull any punches, I want you to know what it's going to be like.  I'm offering you, friends, the hardest task in the world.  Are you up to it?  I like that about Jesus, that honesty.  He doesn't want any disciples who haven't counted the cost.  This has to be a part of our witnessing, friends, did you know that?  That when you bring someone to Jesus Christ, it's not only the abundant life, it's not only the joy and the thrill of knowing Jesus Christ, it's also the thrill and joy of being in a world that's set against you and knowing that in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer...what?...I've overcome the world.  It's also knowing there's going to be a hostility and a rebellion and persecution if you really live for Christ.  I don't think anybody could come...should come to Christ until they've counted the cost.  And Jesus is saying that's what I'm telling you, guys.  I'm offering you something which can lacerate your body and tear your heart out, but the dividends are eternal.

When the Spaniards were conquering South America, the famous Spaniard Picero presented his men with a choice.  They were about to move south into Peru and he drew a line with his sword on the sand and he said, "Gentlemen, on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, storm desertion and death and the adventure of Peru.

On the other side, the safety and poverty of Panama.  And yours is the choice.  For my part, I go south."  There was a silence and a brief hesitation and then an old soldier led 12 other soldiers to step across the line to Picero's side and the 14 men were the ones that opened the way to Peru.

That's essentially only in a grandiose glorious sense what Jesus is saying to men today as He said to His disciples then.

I'm not offering you the way of ease, I'm offering you the way of conquest.  I'm not offering you the way of comfort but I'm offering you the way of victory and riches and eternal blessing.

He wants men who are willing to go into adventure with Him with their eyes wide opened to know what it is to be His disciple and to know that we just don't fit in the world...we just don't fit.

But yet in the power of the Holy Spirit we can confront the world, can't we, and we can see the hearts of men and women turned to Jesus Christ.

Then in verse 4, Jesus expands the thought of verse 1, kind of like verses 2 and 3 are little interlude.  Verse 4, He says, "But these things have I told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them."  This is good.  He says...again this is the same thought as verse 1...I'm telling you this so when it all happens you'll remember that I told you and your faith will be strengthened.  Don't you know that the greatest way to strengthen faith is to see fulfilled prophecy?  I believe the greatest proof of the Word of God and its divine authorship is the fulfillment of prophecy.  And it happens all the time.  It's because history verifies the Word of God.  And there's so many, many instances.  And so what Jesus is saying, now that I've told you this, when it happens you can look back and say He told us, He knows and our faith will grow.  These things that I've told you about the hatred of the world are to strengthen you.

Back in chapter 14:29 He said the same thing essentially.

Now I've told you before it come to pass that when it is come to pass ye might...what?...believe.  You know another word for believe that starts with "f"?  Faith...He told them before hand to build their faith when it happened.  And naturally when they began to see all these things come to pass like Jesus said they were going to come to pass, their faith started to grow.  And so He fortifies them by telling them.

Now look at the last part of verse 4, "And these things I said unto you...I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you."  Oh, this is really good...this is good.  He says I didn't tell you all this stuff at the beginning.  Can you imagine if they'd been living with this for three years?  Can you imagine what they'd be like by this time?  They'd be basket cases, anticipating the hatred of the world and the persecution that was going to come all through those years.  They wouldn't hav