Flashback Episode — Never Alone With God: John 16:16-33

As Jesus wraps up talking with His disciples on the night He was betrayed and arrested, Jesus repeats His prediction that they all would abandon Him before the night has finished. While many times throughout Jesus’ ministry, He said some challenging things that caused people to leave Him, every time people left Him prior to this night, some people always stuck with Him. However, on the night Jesus was betrayed, He predicts a different outcome, and that outcome is that all of His followers would abandon Him.

Everyone can look in their past back and identify a point when you have felt abandoned or betrayed. If you think that your life up to this point has not faced this type of rejection, then I would be worried, not because you are fooling yourself, but instead, because you are either living alone, apart from everyone, or abandonment and/or betrayal is coming at some point in your future. However, while feeling abandoned or rejected feels horrible, you are definitely not alone in feeling this way.

I’ll be the first to say that I have felt this way in the past, at more points in time than I would have liked, and I imagine in some way, shape, or form, everyone has experienced feelings of abandonment or rejection to some degree or another.

While it is crazy to think about the ideal, popular person being abandoned, this is exactly what Jesus predicts in our passage for this episode. Jesus was the most famous and infamous person alive during that time period, and because He had avoided every trick, trap, and question trying to knock Him off of His mission, I suspect some people believed there was nothing that could happen to Him.

Our passage for this episode happens during the night Jesus is arrested, but it takes place several hours before Jesus is arrested and His remaining disciples scatter. However, in this passage, Jesus forewarns the disciples about what will happen later that night, and He also says something powerful for anyone who has ever felt abandoned or alone.

Let’s read what Jesus tells His followers. Our passage for this episode is found in the gospel of John, chapter 16, and we will read it using the New International Version. Starting in verse 25, Jesus tells the remaining disciples who are with Him:

²⁵ “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶ In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹ Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. ³⁰ Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

³¹ “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. ³² “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³ “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.”

In this passage, Jesus promises us three things that are significant to our discussion about feeling abandoned or alone.

The first promise is how Jesus concludes this passage, and this promise has two parts. In the middle of verse 33, Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble.” This tells me that there is no getting away from trouble, and in the context of this discussion, this trouble may include feelings of abandonment and/or rejection. However, Jesus is quick to finish the verse by saying, “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The powerful first promise states that even though trouble, abandonment, rejection, hurt, or pain come, Jesus is bigger than these feelings because Jesus has overcome the world that includes all these symptoms of sin.

This leads us to the next promise for us to focus on, which happened to have been shared one verse earlier. In verse 32, Jesus finishes by saying, “You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.” With these words, Jesus recognized that even when everyone He thought was a friend, follower, or disciple had run away, He was never truly alone, because God the Father and His Spirit would be with Him. Even while hanging on the cross, even if Jesus didn’t feel God’s presence, He still knew God was there. His dying breath is directed to God when He says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

This second truth is special for you and I too because as followers of Jesus, we too can claim this promise that being alone is never truly alone, because God the Father and His Spirit are with us.

However, what if you are a little unsure about the Father? After all, isn’t God the Father the deity behind all the Old Testament war and punishments? Isn’t the God of the Old Testament a mean God who is always on the lookout for when we mess up and fail? Didn’t Jesus come to convince the Father to love us?

All of these questions are false according to Jesus. In our passage, Jesus tells us what the Father thinks of us, and this truth is found within the third big promise worth focusing on in Jesus’ words. Move back to near the beginning of what we read, in verse 27, Jesus says, “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” God the Father loves those who love Jesus and believe that Jesus came from God.

If that promise were not enough, one of the most well known Bible verses also clearly states the Father’s love. John 3:16 begins by saying, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” God in this verse must refer to the Father, because He gave His Son, and Jesus declares that He is the Son.

This ultimately means that on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, shortly before all the disciples scatter and Jesus is left alone, Jesus gives us a powerful picture into God the Father’s love for us, and Jesus models the truth for us that when we love and believe in Him, we are never alone.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do in one way or another, intentionally seek God first in your life. If you haven’t yet chosen to believe that Jesus came from God, choose to believe this today. Intentionally choose to place God first in your life and place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus and what Jesus accomplished for each of us on the cross.

However, don’t choose this only because I said to. Instead, as I also always challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself, keeping your eyes open for ways the Bible points to Jesus. When reading the Bible looking for pictures and descriptions of Jesus, you will be surprised how many times Jesus shows up.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!