Leaving 'Old Hope' (John 16:16-33)

In the last section of John 16, Jesus will give a final group address to His disciples, preparing them for His crucifixion and ascension to go back to be with His Father. The disciples are still in a bit of confusion and so Jesus speaks very plainly to them, telling them that He came from the Father, entered the world and now He is leaving the world and going back to the Father. The disciples feel they completely understand now what Jesus is speaking about. Yet, Jesus tells them that they are going to abandon Him, but that He is never alone because His Father is with Him. In this section we will talk about the difference between new hope, which is placing our lives in the hand of God and trusting Him and His resourcefulness, compared with old hope which is almost pre-faith when our problems were our own and we had to work things out by our own resourcefulness. In John 16, Jesus reminds us to pray, pray, pray that God will answer, that God will deliver and help us, that we can have peace and joy in our reliance upon Him. Yet, sometimes we can mix old hope and new hope, and we will be challenged today in this sermon, to put our trust and our lives in the hands of God completely.