Last Words | Week 4 · Rewind

Last Words | Week 4 · Rewind

Pastor Bill Bush · Mar 31, 2019

Big Idea

When you feel overwhelmed, remember that Jesus overcame — the battle is won even though the fighting isn't done.

Jesus told His disciples the truth so they could have peace and joy even in a world full of trials. Real peace and joy aren't the absence of problems — they come from love, faith, and hope found only in Jesus, who has already overcome the world.

Key points

1
1The battle is won, but the fighting isn't done
Pastor Bill tells the story of his father, a 17-year-old Navy machine gunner at Iwo Jima, who watched the flag go up on Mount Suribachi four days into the battle — a symbol of victory — even though 90% of the casualties came after that picture was taken. He uses this to frame how Jesus comforts His disciples in John 16: they can know the war is won even while the fighting continues.
2
2Joy and peace are not the same as being problem-free
Pastor Bill explains that happiness depends on circumstances, but joy is exuberance despite circumstance and peace is a tranquility that can overcome us in a moment we'd expect to freak out. Jesus offers this even while promising many trials and sorrows.
3
3'Take heart' only carries weight because Jesus backs it up
Pastor Bill shares a story about telling his stressed wife to 'relax' when their son's car broke down, and how empty that word was because he had no power to actually fix anything. He contrasts this with Jesus, who alone in the New Testament can say 'take heart' because He has already made a way.
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4Every person craves love, faith, and hope, and only God can fully supply them
Drawing on 1 Corinthians 13, Pastor Bill argues that people chase relationships, jobs, or possessions to fill a longing that only God can satisfy, and that having everything without love, faith, and hope still leaves people empty.
5
5The Father loves you dearly because of your faith in Jesus
Working through John 16:26-28, Pastor Bill unpacks the Greek word phileo (family love) used here, explaining that believers are adopted into God's family and can go straight to the Father without a curtain separating them, as Jesus modeled by calling God 'Abba.'
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6Believing in Jesus doesn't mean you won't stumble, but He calls you back
Pastor Bill walks through John 16:29-32, showing that even though the disciples finally declared belief, Jesus told them they would scatter and abandon Him. He connects this to Peter's denial and to anyone who has tried to follow Jesus and kept falling back, showing that Jesus expects and welcomes the return.
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7You are not fighting for victory, you are fighting from it
Pastor Bill lands on Jesus' statement 'I have overcome the world,' noting the Greek is past-present tense — a done deal. He ties this back to the Iwo Jima flag as a symbol his father could look to in the fight, just as believers can look to the cross on Calvary.

Application

Pastor Bill's charge is to stop fighting for victory and start fighting from it, looking past the battle to the hill where Jesus already won.

Look up at the hill, not down at the fight
When you feel crushed by circumstances, look past the battle in front of you to Calvary, where Jesus already declared 'it is finished.'
Come home if you've run away
If you've been fighting Jesus' plan for your life or running from Him like the prodigal son, stop running and come back — He is still your family.
Put your faith in Jesus, not yourself
If you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, pray now and turn from trying to save yourself to trusting what He did on the cross.
Take communion as a moment to remember, not a ritual
Use the bread and cup this morning to fix your eyes on the fact that Jesus already overcame, rather than treating it as a mystical routine.

Take it into your week

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Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“we're gonna continue on. And today, we're gonna be in chapter 16 of John. And what's interesting is is to to really wrap our arms around what he's talking about”
From the transcript
“So so I'm gonna start with the end in mind here. So verse 33 says this. Jesus is trying to bring them comfort. He says, I have told you all of this so that you may have peace in me”
From the transcript
“It's talked about clearly in in first Corinthians 13, Paul writes all about it. And the three things are love, faith, and hope”
From the transcript
“So with that context, I'll show you how it comes out in this. Let's read. Starting verse 25. I've spoken of these matters and figures of speech, but soon I'll stop speaking figuratively”
From the transcript
“four verse 27, the father himself loves you dearly. He just said the father himself you know, I've loved you and you're worried about me leaving”
From the transcript
“In John three sixteen, the most famous verse in the Bible always held up at football games, for God so loved the world, the word there is agape”
From the transcript
“Well, chapter 15, what did Jesus say is loving him? Remaining in him. And he says, does it mean to remain in me? Obey me”
From the transcript
“Yes. Verse 28. I came from the father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the father”
From the transcript
“So then look what happens next. So he says it's the love through the faith. And then in verse 29, they say, then his disciples said, at last, you're speaking plainly not figuratively”
From the transcript
“s it worded? It says that he who began a good work in me will see it to the end. He's saying that if you know me, I will see it out. When you are faithless, I am faithful”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Sign in to track your progress through this devotional.

Day 1

There is something striking about the moment Pastor Bill opened in John 16. Jesus is hours away from the cross, and instead of rallying His disciples with strategy or courage, He speaks plainly — no more figures of speech. He tells them the Father Himself loves them. He is not softening the difficulty ahead. He is grounding them in something that cannot be shaken by what is coming. That is worth sitting with. Jesus does not promise His followers a smooth road. He promises something better: clear-eyed access to a Father who actually knows them and loves them anyway. Before the arrest, before the trial, before the silence of Holy Saturday — He speaks directly. There is an intimacy in that. The disciples had been following Jesus for three years, and here He is widening their view: the relationship you have with Me opens a direct line to the Father. Not through ceremony. Not through a priest or a performance. Directly. If life has felt distant from God lately — if prayer has felt like sending a letter to an empty house — this passage is an invitation to reconsider. The door Jesus opened on that Thursday night before the crucifixion is still open. You are not talking to a ceiling. You are talking to a Father who is already leaning in.

For reflection

When you pray, do you approach God as a distant authority or as a Father who is genuinely glad you came? What shapes that sense?

Pray

Pray for a renewed sense of direct, personal access to God as Father — not just as a theological idea, but as a felt reality today.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Jesus' last words to His disciples before the crucifixion weren't a pep talk — they were a promise backed by power. This message looks at what it actually means to 'take heart' when life is pressing in hard.

Discussion questions

1
In John 16:33, Jesus says, 'I have overcome the world' — past tense, already done. What difference does it make that He frames the victory that way, rather than saying 'I will overcome' or 'we can overcome together'?
2
Pastor Bill pointed to 1 Corinthians 13 and said every human being is wired for love, faith, and hope — and that only God can fully satisfy those longings. What does that suggest about why people search so hard for those things in other places?
3
In John 16:27, Jesus describes the Father loving His followers with phileo — a family love, the kind that not only loves you but actually likes you. How might that specific word change the way people picture their relationship with God?
4
Pastor Bill observed that we often fail to feel God's love not because He stopped loving us, but because we run from Him — and he pointed to John 15:10 as a picture of what returning looks like. What does that 'way back' look like in practice, and what makes it hard to take?
5
Pastor Bill described communion as a regular, tangible moment to lift our eyes from the fight in front of us to the finished victory of Christ on the cross. What does it look like for a community — not just an individual — to practice that kind of perspective shift together?
6
Jesus says in John 16:33 that in this world we will have trouble, and then immediately says to take heart. How might the way we support one another through hard seasons look different if we really believed we were fighting from a victory already won, rather than toward one still in doubt?

Pray together

Thankfulness that the victory is already finished — and courage to live and love from that place

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Topics

Communion God's Love Jesus' Victory Peace in Christ Taking Heart

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