1. Why Jesus prays for these men (vv.6-10)
We can readily understand why Jesus prays for himself but why would he pray for these men also? We might answer that by saying that he is praying for them because they are his disciples. But how did they come to be in that relationship with him?
The question is not asked to elicit a ‘duh!’ from you. It’s a question that the text is concerned to answer; it’s a point that Jesus bases his prayer for the disciples on – and so it must be an issue of real importance for us to grasp. You see, what gives Jesus’ prayer for these men its reality is the relationship he bears to them.
There are 3 aspects to consider, that Jesus makes plain here.
i) The possession of the Father – These men have been given to Jesus by his Father. “They were yours”, says Jesus. They belong to the Father but in a way far different from the simple affirmation that all creation belongs to God. No, this relationship is different. You see, they are given to Jesus “out of the world”. That phrase highlights the Father’s choice, free and deliberate.
That is how these men had come to belong to the Father; he chose them out of the world. And that small phrase, “out of the world” also suggests that, like us, they had previously belonged to the world and were enmeshed in its sin and rebellion against God. There was nothing inherently special about these men that drove the Father to choose them; it was simply the free and mysterious grace of God.
ii) The Father’s gift to his Son – And the Father who chose them and whose they are has given them to his Son (vv.6,9) and so the Father and Son share in all things together (v.10).
The Father will accomplish redemption for this world through his Son and will remake all things in and through him, so anyone who is to have a share in that future must be joined to the Son – and that is what has happened to these men, by the sovereign will of God. They are a gift to his Son, in order to bring glory to the Son through their sharing in all that the Son is and has achieved.
iii) The response of faith – But how do the disciples experience this for themselves? How is it made true in their own lives? In this way: Jesus made the Father known to them and they obeyed the Father’s word to believe in his Son (v.6). They accepted what Jesus said and knew with certainty that he had come from the Father and believed that he had been sent by the Father (v.8).
In these words of Jesus we see the work of God being actualised in the experience of the disciples – he chose them and, as Jesus revealed him to them, they received and believed his words.
In all this we see why Jesus is praying for them. He makes it quite plain that he isn’t praying for the world per se but for those given to him by the Father. This prayer is specific to their calling as disciples, as those who both know God and are called to make him known.
One big thing this tells us is that the divine mission is not in danger, never has been and never will be. Everything is in the hands of the Father and his Son. What comfort that gives to us in terms of our own security and what hope in terms of the progress of the gospel!
2. Praying for protection (vv.11-16)
Having established the basis of his relationship with these men, Jesus then specifically prays for them. His prayer is very revealing; in essence he prays in vv.11-16 for their protection.
Why do they need to be protected and who from? Jesus stresses that his disciples are no longer belong to this world. And because of that, trouble will come to them – but notice where he locates the trouble here: we need protection not from the world in general but from “the evil one” (v.15). He is the one who stands opposed to God and his mission of mercy in the world and he is the one who stirs up enmity against the Lord and his people.
So how does Jesus intend that we be protected from the evil one?
Well, not by being removed from the scene of the strife. Jesus says, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world” (v.15). There you have it, straight and to the point. That, of course, means that all our attempts to evade the world and to run from any engagement with it are contrary to the praying of Jesus.
We often think safety is only gained by removal (“Lord, get me out of here!”) but that isn’t necessarily the case. Jesus is not praying that we be removed from the heat of the kitchen; rather, he is praying that we be protected whilst still in the world. How can that be?
“Protect them”, Jesus prays, “by the power of your name” (v.11). He isn’t saying that there are magical properties in the mere name of God; he is speaking here of the full character and person of God. And notice his own connection to that: “the name you gave me”.
Whilst in the world, Jesus protected his own – kept the powers of evil at bay, corrected and rebuked his disciples and so on. As he prepares to leave, he is asking his Father to continue that same work of protection (and it’s likely that his words imply this will be done through the coming Holy Spirit).
We’ve seen protection from what and how but what is the protection for? “That they may be one as we are one” (v.11). The purpose of God in Jesus is to bring unity into a divided world, to unite all things under one head, even Christ (Eph. 1:10). The devil’s strategy is to divide God’s people and so ruin that great plan; Jesus prays for his people’s protection that they (and we) might embody the reality of his saving and healing work.
3. Prayer for sanctification: set apart for mission (vv.17-19)
Jesus prays for his disciples to be protected because they are in the world but no longer of it and as such they will face much hostility and the rage of the evil one. But, in the face of that truth, Jesus doesn’t simply pray for protection, he prays too for sanctification. What he means by that is that his disciples would be visibly set apart for God and God alone, that the Father would mark them out as his and demonstrate that ownership of which Jesus spoke in vv.6-10.
That sanctification will occur because Jesus set himself apart for them (v.19); their being set apart for God will be the fruit of the setting apart of Jesus and the fulfilment of his mission in the world.
The way their sanctification, their being set apart for God, will be accomplished is through the truth, through the word of God.
God’s will, declared in his word, has the power to set people apart for God, to call them out of the world in order to belong to him. Jesus here prays that this will be accomplished in the lives of his disciples.
And, again, as Jesus prayed for his own so too we can and must pray for ourselves. We must pray that the Lord’s Word would do its sanctifying work in our lives, that we would visibly be the fruit of Jesus having set himself apart as the servant of the Lord. It isn’t enough simply to sit under God’s Word or to read it privately; we must couple those activities with earnest prayer that we would benefit from that same word.
But please notice here what we have seen many times before: the setting apart of the disciples (both then and now) as those known by and owned by the Lord is not simply for our own sakes. In v.18 Jesus again speaks of having been sent into the world by the Father and of his sending his disciples into the world too. He sanctified himself for their sakes and the clear implication is that his people are to be sanctified, set apart for God’s use, for the sake of others too.
In fact, this sits very closely to the reason why Jesus prays for the protection of his disciples in v.11. The verses that follow (vv.20-26) will take up and amplify that prayer for unity and we will come to those next time; we simply note the connection here.
Does all this lay a great burden on us too heavy to lift? Jesus is not like the Pharisees. Yes, to live on a battlefield and to seek to win over the enemy is a great burden – but Jesus has prayed and does pray for us! And so these words are intended to breed not gloom but joy within our hearts (v.13).
No calling was heavier and more onerous than that of Jesus yet he was a man of joy. He wants us to share in that joy – not by running from the battle, nor by isolating ourselves far from the spot where mission hits the road, but through knowing his protection and his deep work of sanctification in us. As we embrace our calling and commission, the words of Jesus breathe an abiding joy into our hearts.
And who would have it any other way?
Monday, 12 February 2007
sermon on john 17:1
Having concluded his extended discussion with the disciples in which he has tried to prepare them for his departure, Jesus now turns to prayer. The prayer which makes up this chapter is very much ‘holy ground’ as we listen in to Jesus addressing his Father. Some feel it wouldn’t be right to preach on the prayer, suggesting rather that we simply read it and reflect upon it.
Whilst there is something attractive about that, I think MLJ had it right when he made the point that, if that was the Lord’s intention, he would not have prayed audibly and caused it to be recorded for us.
Even so, this still feels like a very special piece of scripture. It is profound and profoundly moving – may God bless it to us! As we begin our study of this chapter, I want to begin simply by focussing on v.1 and taking time to ponder what Jesus is doing here and how he does it.
1. Jesus & the act of prayer
The fact that Jesus prays is worth noting, for many reasons. Some would see him praying in front of his disciples and others simply in terms of example – that Jesus himself did not need to pray, that his whole life was one of communion with God that did not need any expression.
As an example they might point to 11:41f where Jesus has clearly been asking God to raise Lazarus even before he speaks openly – “Father, I thank you that you have heard me”. That sounds good but is it true?
I don’t think so and for this reason: Jesus also prayed privately, and often. Of course he prayed as he went along and was ‘in touch’ with his Father at all times but Jesus also devoted time and energy to deliberate and prolonged verbal praying and not just in the hearing of his disciples and others by way of example.
One way of assessing that would be to suggest that it was because he was incarnate and experienced the limitations of the flesh. But there is a difficulty with that view.
Jesus did not sacrifice the reality of his relationship with the Father when he took human flesh to himself; rather, he had the Spirit without measure. What we’re seeing, when we see Jesus praying, and when we get to listen in to those prayers, is not being done simply to teach us lessons in prayer; they are genuine expressions of the reality of the Son’s relationship with his Father.
Jesus’ praying was, then, not an act of accommodation to the limitations of his disciples, nor to the limitations of his incarnation, but was the expression and actualisation of his relationship with the Father.
And on that point we should notice that Jesus did not simply teach the truth here to his disciples, he also prayed the truth. Many of the themes of his discussion with the disciples in ch.13-16 are here taken up in prayer. Why? To make sure the disciples have got the point, kind-of like a second sermon? Not at all! Jesus has taught the truth and now is praying for the truth to be done, for God’s will to be worked out in the lives of his people.
We often pray at the close of the sermon and it is for the same reason, to ask God to help us to apply what we’ve heard, asking him to work out his salvation in and through us. If it was an important ministry of Jesus here then it’s an important part of what we do together also – not just collectively but privately as well.
The disciples didn’t just need Jesus’ instruction, they needed his intercession – and so do we. One of the great encouragements of scripture is that we are expressly told that Jesus does pray for us, that he ever lives to make intercession for us.
2. Jesus & the art of prayer
So, after he had finished speaking to his disciples, Jesus prayed. What John tells us is that “he looked towards heaven and prayed”. I think those words are worth pondering a while.
Jesus looked towards heaven – we can perhaps picture the scene but why did he do so? Why look up? Doesn't he know God doesn't really live in the sky? Wow, how primitive can you get.
But this is the Son of God. His grasp of the reality of God so far exceeds our miniature glimpses it isn't even worthy of a comparison. So what's really going on here?
Perhaps what we're seeing here is the significance of posture as symbol. Posture in prayer is clearly not everything but perhaps we can say that it is not insignificant – Jesus himself seems to teach that in his example here. After all, we are not simply spiritual beings; we were created as physical creatures and need to express ourselves in an integrated way – heart and hands, so to speak.
By looking towards heaven, Jesus is both expressing and teaching by way of symbol. And I think 3 things are evident here.
i) By his posture, Jesus is symbolising, in his upward look, the reality that God is transcendent and reigns supreme. The truth to which the symbol points is found in the prayer he taught his disciples: “Our Father, in heaven”. Prayer to God is prayer that is offered to the great Lord of all, to the one who sees all and knows all, to the one who is in the place of utter and absolute power.
How essential that is at this point when Jesus contemplates his own departure by way of the cross and the experiences of the disciples once he has gone.
ii) It is also a look of unfeigned trust. In Ps. 123 the psalmist likens the upward look to that of a maid looking to the hand of her mistress and the eyes of a servant to the hand of their master. It is a look of expectation and trust. So, too, the look of Jesus – he has come to do his Father’s will, he is committing everything into his Father’s hands – and he is doing so in complete trust and with settled expectation.
Our own praying can and must exhibit the same sense of hope and confidence symbolically expressed by Jesus here.
iii) Jesus raises his eyes – something the tax collector in the temple would not do, because of his felt sense of shame. Only Jesus can by rights look upward into the face of God without any hint of shame, without a shred of arrogance.
Here he models the reality for all who are right with God in him – there is no longer any need to hide our faces but, knowing the mercy of God, we can look upward into the face of our Creator and call him ‘Father’, we can look upward and seek his glory.
3. Jesus and the essence of prayer
As we close, I want to focus for a few moments on the first word and first clause of this great prayer. Here we approach the very heart of prayer – intimate relationship with God: “Father” – and a profound concern for the glory of God: “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”
We will, of course, have much more to say about this next time as we take up these next few verses which are dominated by this theme but, for now, we must simply grasp just how important the theme is, how it grounds true prayer, how it provides its basic framework.
Prayer is not a technique for us to wring out of God the necessities of life or help in difficult times. It is much more about our being lifted into the life of God, sharing his deepest concerns and being eager for his glory. Jesus displays that in an exemplary way in his life and ministry and here in this great prayer.
We start and finish with the glory of God. Nothing is more important that that; nothing is as satisfying as that.
But does that relegate our needs and concerns to the periphery? No; listen to what Jesus said earlier: “if God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself” (13:32). That holds true not only for Jesus but by extension to us too: as we seek God’s glory, we will share in the blessings of that. And remember, too, the whole structure of the Lord’s Prayer and how it encompasses all our needs.
No, we aren’t left out of the picture but are being invited to it in its truest colours and in sharpest focus – and, more, to find our own home and place within that picture. May God grant us grace to do so. Amen.
Whilst there is something attractive about that, I think MLJ had it right when he made the point that, if that was the Lord’s intention, he would not have prayed audibly and caused it to be recorded for us.
Even so, this still feels like a very special piece of scripture. It is profound and profoundly moving – may God bless it to us! As we begin our study of this chapter, I want to begin simply by focussing on v.1 and taking time to ponder what Jesus is doing here and how he does it.
1. Jesus & the act of prayer
The fact that Jesus prays is worth noting, for many reasons. Some would see him praying in front of his disciples and others simply in terms of example – that Jesus himself did not need to pray, that his whole life was one of communion with God that did not need any expression.
As an example they might point to 11:41f where Jesus has clearly been asking God to raise Lazarus even before he speaks openly – “Father, I thank you that you have heard me”. That sounds good but is it true?
I don’t think so and for this reason: Jesus also prayed privately, and often. Of course he prayed as he went along and was ‘in touch’ with his Father at all times but Jesus also devoted time and energy to deliberate and prolonged verbal praying and not just in the hearing of his disciples and others by way of example.
One way of assessing that would be to suggest that it was because he was incarnate and experienced the limitations of the flesh. But there is a difficulty with that view.
Jesus did not sacrifice the reality of his relationship with the Father when he took human flesh to himself; rather, he had the Spirit without measure. What we’re seeing, when we see Jesus praying, and when we get to listen in to those prayers, is not being done simply to teach us lessons in prayer; they are genuine expressions of the reality of the Son’s relationship with his Father.
Jesus’ praying was, then, not an act of accommodation to the limitations of his disciples, nor to the limitations of his incarnation, but was the expression and actualisation of his relationship with the Father.
And on that point we should notice that Jesus did not simply teach the truth here to his disciples, he also prayed the truth. Many of the themes of his discussion with the disciples in ch.13-16 are here taken up in prayer. Why? To make sure the disciples have got the point, kind-of like a second sermon? Not at all! Jesus has taught the truth and now is praying for the truth to be done, for God’s will to be worked out in the lives of his people.
We often pray at the close of the sermon and it is for the same reason, to ask God to help us to apply what we’ve heard, asking him to work out his salvation in and through us. If it was an important ministry of Jesus here then it’s an important part of what we do together also – not just collectively but privately as well.
The disciples didn’t just need Jesus’ instruction, they needed his intercession – and so do we. One of the great encouragements of scripture is that we are expressly told that Jesus does pray for us, that he ever lives to make intercession for us.
2. Jesus & the art of prayer
So, after he had finished speaking to his disciples, Jesus prayed. What John tells us is that “he looked towards heaven and prayed”. I think those words are worth pondering a while.
Jesus looked towards heaven – we can perhaps picture the scene but why did he do so? Why look up? Doesn't he know God doesn't really live in the sky? Wow, how primitive can you get.
But this is the Son of God. His grasp of the reality of God so far exceeds our miniature glimpses it isn't even worthy of a comparison. So what's really going on here?
Perhaps what we're seeing here is the significance of posture as symbol. Posture in prayer is clearly not everything but perhaps we can say that it is not insignificant – Jesus himself seems to teach that in his example here. After all, we are not simply spiritual beings; we were created as physical creatures and need to express ourselves in an integrated way – heart and hands, so to speak.
By looking towards heaven, Jesus is both expressing and teaching by way of symbol. And I think 3 things are evident here.
i) By his posture, Jesus is symbolising, in his upward look, the reality that God is transcendent and reigns supreme. The truth to which the symbol points is found in the prayer he taught his disciples: “Our Father, in heaven”. Prayer to God is prayer that is offered to the great Lord of all, to the one who sees all and knows all, to the one who is in the place of utter and absolute power.
How essential that is at this point when Jesus contemplates his own departure by way of the cross and the experiences of the disciples once he has gone.
ii) It is also a look of unfeigned trust. In Ps. 123 the psalmist likens the upward look to that of a maid looking to the hand of her mistress and the eyes of a servant to the hand of their master. It is a look of expectation and trust. So, too, the look of Jesus – he has come to do his Father’s will, he is committing everything into his Father’s hands – and he is doing so in complete trust and with settled expectation.
Our own praying can and must exhibit the same sense of hope and confidence symbolically expressed by Jesus here.
iii) Jesus raises his eyes – something the tax collector in the temple would not do, because of his felt sense of shame. Only Jesus can by rights look upward into the face of God without any hint of shame, without a shred of arrogance.
Here he models the reality for all who are right with God in him – there is no longer any need to hide our faces but, knowing the mercy of God, we can look upward into the face of our Creator and call him ‘Father’, we can look upward and seek his glory.
3. Jesus and the essence of prayer
As we close, I want to focus for a few moments on the first word and first clause of this great prayer. Here we approach the very heart of prayer – intimate relationship with God: “Father” – and a profound concern for the glory of God: “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.”
We will, of course, have much more to say about this next time as we take up these next few verses which are dominated by this theme but, for now, we must simply grasp just how important the theme is, how it grounds true prayer, how it provides its basic framework.
Prayer is not a technique for us to wring out of God the necessities of life or help in difficult times. It is much more about our being lifted into the life of God, sharing his deepest concerns and being eager for his glory. Jesus displays that in an exemplary way in his life and ministry and here in this great prayer.
We start and finish with the glory of God. Nothing is more important that that; nothing is as satisfying as that.
But does that relegate our needs and concerns to the periphery? No; listen to what Jesus said earlier: “if God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself” (13:32). That holds true not only for Jesus but by extension to us too: as we seek God’s glory, we will share in the blessings of that. And remember, too, the whole structure of the Lord’s Prayer and how it encompasses all our needs.
No, we aren’t left out of the picture but are being invited to it in its truest colours and in sharpest focus – and, more, to find our own home and place within that picture. May God grant us grace to do so. Amen.
sermon on john 16:16-33
This passage brings to an end Jesus’ discussions with his disciples in the upper room; what follows in ch.17 is his prayer. And so in v.16 here we see Jesus once more telling the disciples that “in a little while” they will see him no more and, then, “after a little while” they will see him.
Those words aren’t cryptic but neither are they entirely clear – at least it wasn’t plain to the disciples what Jesus was saying. But instead of directly asking him about it, they keep asking one another what he meant – pooling their ignorance and finding no answers.
Jesus can see what’s going on and so he addresses their confusion, not by directly explaining his words but by dealing with the impact the reality he is speaking of will have on them.
1. Your grief will turn to joy
The first thing to say in respect of that is that the disciples would experience the most profound grief, whilst the world rejoiced, but their grief would then be transformed into the most glorious joy.
While some have suggested that Jesus has his return in glory in view here, the most obvious and natural way to understand his words is as referring to his death and resurrection. In a very short time, they would plumb the very depths of grief in the hideous loss of their Master but that grief would only last a short while: the Lord’s resurrection would take away that grief forever.
As we know, the disciples didn’t factor the resurrection into their thinking about the Messiah, just as they hadn’t factored in the cross. But as events unfolded, they struggled to cope with the latter and then were surprised by the joy of the former. Jesus is trying to prepare them for both – and is stressing the short wait involved (“a little while” occurs 7 times in 4 verses).
Jesus wasn’t exaggerating – in a very short while their grief was indeed turned into the most delirious joy. It would be wrong to think that they only got joyful once Pentecost had happened; it’s there at the resurrection.
And that note of joy is kept up throughout the NT – the Christian life, for all it is attended by many griefs and trials, is to be experienced as a life of joy (see 1 Peter 1:8,9).
We can, of course, understand why the disciples would be overjoyed to see their Lord again – for anyone to come back from such a brutal and obvious death would be a source of great joy and amazement. But Jesus here uses a very interesting image to describe the coming events – it will be like a woman giving birth, going through the pain and out into the joy. Is he just casting around for a helpful illustration or is something more going on?
I think it’s the latter and it relates to how the OT uses similar imagery – it is often used in passages that speak of God’s climactic work in the world, of the time of judgement/salvation when Messiah is revealed. And it is a truly appropriate image because, at that time, a whole new world will be born, a whole new creation will begin to be unveiled. In 20:1ff, John will describe the events of Easter Sunday in terms that recall the original creation, to show us that this is the start of the new creation.
All of which should alert us to the fact that the resurrection is vitally important to our lives as Christians. It gives us the certain hope of the new creation, it vindicates Jesus as Messiah and assures us of our status in him; it energises our new life in him. How much damage we do to ourselves when we minimise the reality and impact of the resurrection – it isn’t just a proof that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus but the bringing to birth of a whole new creation.
It’s wonderful, a source of unending joy, a joy that is to be ours, even in the midst of perplexing and grievous situations.
2. Asking the Father
Having spoken of the grief and the joy that will so shortly follow, Jesus then goes on to explain further what the effect of his departure will have on the disciples.
In vv.23-28 he speaks of an intensified relationship with the Father, such that his disciples will be able to directly ask the Father in his name and receive answers to their prayers with great joy (v.24).
Here is a further consequence of his departure. Because of his death and resurrection and the promised sending of his Spirit, Jesus will usher his disciples into the same kind of relationship he has lived out with the Father, in which they will work together with God.
But they will only do so ‘in Jesus’ name’, on the basis of who he is and what he has done. And because they have loved him and believed that he came from God, they will experience God’s love – not that they will in that way earn it but this is the road to travel in order to experience the fullness of the Father’s love.
None of that could take place unless Jesus went away, went the way of the cross. These are hard things for the disciples to grasp but Jesus is not selling them short and leaving too soon – he is giving his all in order that they might have it all.
This blessed relationship with the Father is ours, too, in Jesus. And so is the calling to be fellow-workers with him, to be asking for things in Jesus’ name, those things that promote the glory of God and further his purposes in and for the world.
3. Now we know…
In v.29 the disciples say to Jesus, “Now you are speaking clearly …now we can see…this makes us believe”. Things are starting to add up to them, they’re beginning to grasp what Jesus is saying – he doesn’t need anyone to ask him questions. And so they affirm, “This makes us believe that you came from God.” (v.30)
Jesus’ reply is very important. There’s a translation issue involved but it isn’t determinative. Either Jesus replies, as in the NIV, “You believe at last!” or, as in the TNIV, “Do you know believe?”. The latter is probably the better option but what Jesus is doing in any case is raising the stakes somewhat – yes, they believe but it is one thing to believe now; a time is coming when they will all be scattered and will leave him on his own.
The shadow of the cross is steadily creeping across their lives and experience. It is one thing for them to believe in advance of the cross; it will be another to go on believing in the face of such brutal violence and outright rejection.
They think they now know, that they have grasped what Jesus has been speaking about – but he has always had the cross in view and, in the face of the cross, they will all fail, they will all be scattered.
Don Carson very perceptively points out that “No misunderstanding is more pathetic than that which thinks it no longer exists.” The basis for their new-expressed faith in Jesus is very shallow indeed (their own grasp of what he is saying).
How much better it would be for all of us to say with Paul, “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it”. The cross-shaped nature of the Christian life, in which we’re called to share in the sufferings of Jesus, demands a certain humility and a readiness not to be shaken by the unexpected twists and turns of life.
Our faith needs to be deeply-rooted in the trustworthiness of God and the rock-solid reality of his grace, and not in our feeble grasp of truth.
Why does Jesus tell them all this? Why is there this whole prolonged discussion? “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.” Jesus’ purpose is not to shame or humiliate; it is to lead us into his peace even while we’re in the teeth of the storm.
The reality is that “in this world you will have trouble”. No two ways about it – every disciple will prove this in their experience, one way or another; and every church will know it too. But in that knowing we are to also know this: Jesus has overcome the world. By his cross and resurrection, Jesus has conquered the world in its violent defiance and stubborn resistance to God.
Knowing that, we are to take heart from it and not give in to despair. Yes, we do fail the Lord, just like these disciples were so soon to do. But such failures are not absolute; they are real and grievous but the reality is that Jesus has conquered, has overcome the world.
And that counts for everything.
Those words aren’t cryptic but neither are they entirely clear – at least it wasn’t plain to the disciples what Jesus was saying. But instead of directly asking him about it, they keep asking one another what he meant – pooling their ignorance and finding no answers.
Jesus can see what’s going on and so he addresses their confusion, not by directly explaining his words but by dealing with the impact the reality he is speaking of will have on them.
1. Your grief will turn to joy
The first thing to say in respect of that is that the disciples would experience the most profound grief, whilst the world rejoiced, but their grief would then be transformed into the most glorious joy.
While some have suggested that Jesus has his return in glory in view here, the most obvious and natural way to understand his words is as referring to his death and resurrection. In a very short time, they would plumb the very depths of grief in the hideous loss of their Master but that grief would only last a short while: the Lord’s resurrection would take away that grief forever.
As we know, the disciples didn’t factor the resurrection into their thinking about the Messiah, just as they hadn’t factored in the cross. But as events unfolded, they struggled to cope with the latter and then were surprised by the joy of the former. Jesus is trying to prepare them for both – and is stressing the short wait involved (“a little while” occurs 7 times in 4 verses).
Jesus wasn’t exaggerating – in a very short while their grief was indeed turned into the most delirious joy. It would be wrong to think that they only got joyful once Pentecost had happened; it’s there at the resurrection.
And that note of joy is kept up throughout the NT – the Christian life, for all it is attended by many griefs and trials, is to be experienced as a life of joy (see 1 Peter 1:8,9).
We can, of course, understand why the disciples would be overjoyed to see their Lord again – for anyone to come back from such a brutal and obvious death would be a source of great joy and amazement. But Jesus here uses a very interesting image to describe the coming events – it will be like a woman giving birth, going through the pain and out into the joy. Is he just casting around for a helpful illustration or is something more going on?
I think it’s the latter and it relates to how the OT uses similar imagery – it is often used in passages that speak of God’s climactic work in the world, of the time of judgement/salvation when Messiah is revealed. And it is a truly appropriate image because, at that time, a whole new world will be born, a whole new creation will begin to be unveiled. In 20:1ff, John will describe the events of Easter Sunday in terms that recall the original creation, to show us that this is the start of the new creation.
All of which should alert us to the fact that the resurrection is vitally important to our lives as Christians. It gives us the certain hope of the new creation, it vindicates Jesus as Messiah and assures us of our status in him; it energises our new life in him. How much damage we do to ourselves when we minimise the reality and impact of the resurrection – it isn’t just a proof that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus but the bringing to birth of a whole new creation.
It’s wonderful, a source of unending joy, a joy that is to be ours, even in the midst of perplexing and grievous situations.
2. Asking the Father
Having spoken of the grief and the joy that will so shortly follow, Jesus then goes on to explain further what the effect of his departure will have on the disciples.
In vv.23-28 he speaks of an intensified relationship with the Father, such that his disciples will be able to directly ask the Father in his name and receive answers to their prayers with great joy (v.24).
Here is a further consequence of his departure. Because of his death and resurrection and the promised sending of his Spirit, Jesus will usher his disciples into the same kind of relationship he has lived out with the Father, in which they will work together with God.
But they will only do so ‘in Jesus’ name’, on the basis of who he is and what he has done. And because they have loved him and believed that he came from God, they will experience God’s love – not that they will in that way earn it but this is the road to travel in order to experience the fullness of the Father’s love.
None of that could take place unless Jesus went away, went the way of the cross. These are hard things for the disciples to grasp but Jesus is not selling them short and leaving too soon – he is giving his all in order that they might have it all.
This blessed relationship with the Father is ours, too, in Jesus. And so is the calling to be fellow-workers with him, to be asking for things in Jesus’ name, those things that promote the glory of God and further his purposes in and for the world.
3. Now we know…
In v.29 the disciples say to Jesus, “Now you are speaking clearly …now we can see…this makes us believe”. Things are starting to add up to them, they’re beginning to grasp what Jesus is saying – he doesn’t need anyone to ask him questions. And so they affirm, “This makes us believe that you came from God.” (v.30)
Jesus’ reply is very important. There’s a translation issue involved but it isn’t determinative. Either Jesus replies, as in the NIV, “You believe at last!” or, as in the TNIV, “Do you know believe?”. The latter is probably the better option but what Jesus is doing in any case is raising the stakes somewhat – yes, they believe but it is one thing to believe now; a time is coming when they will all be scattered and will leave him on his own.
The shadow of the cross is steadily creeping across their lives and experience. It is one thing for them to believe in advance of the cross; it will be another to go on believing in the face of such brutal violence and outright rejection.
They think they now know, that they have grasped what Jesus has been speaking about – but he has always had the cross in view and, in the face of the cross, they will all fail, they will all be scattered.
Don Carson very perceptively points out that “No misunderstanding is more pathetic than that which thinks it no longer exists.” The basis for their new-expressed faith in Jesus is very shallow indeed (their own grasp of what he is saying).
How much better it would be for all of us to say with Paul, “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it”. The cross-shaped nature of the Christian life, in which we’re called to share in the sufferings of Jesus, demands a certain humility and a readiness not to be shaken by the unexpected twists and turns of life.
Our faith needs to be deeply-rooted in the trustworthiness of God and the rock-solid reality of his grace, and not in our feeble grasp of truth.
Why does Jesus tell them all this? Why is there this whole prolonged discussion? “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.” Jesus’ purpose is not to shame or humiliate; it is to lead us into his peace even while we’re in the teeth of the storm.
The reality is that “in this world you will have trouble”. No two ways about it – every disciple will prove this in their experience, one way or another; and every church will know it too. But in that knowing we are to also know this: Jesus has overcome the world. By his cross and resurrection, Jesus has conquered the world in its violent defiance and stubborn resistance to God.
Knowing that, we are to take heart from it and not give in to despair. Yes, we do fail the Lord, just like these disciples were so soon to do. But such failures are not absolute; they are real and grievous but the reality is that Jesus has conquered, has overcome the world.
And that counts for everything.
sermon on john 16:5-15
1. What’s so good about grief?
Jesus again reiterates his imminent departure to the Father in v.5 and implicitly criticises the disciples for not asking him where he is going. In fact, Peter seems to have asked that very question back in 13:36, so what does Jesus mean here? Some suggest that the emphasis is on ‘now’ – they had asked but aren’t asking now. That’s possible but it seems likelier that Jesus is pointing to the fact that, although those words might have been spoken, they aren’t really focussed on where he is going; they are much more concerned about and wrapped-up in their own grief (v.6).
We can, of course, understand the pain and confusion the disciples were experiencing and that would not have been lost on Jesus. But he is rightly, and helpfully, trying to refocus their thinking. They are down in the depths; because of that, they’re not asking the questions that would bring hope and help to them – if they asked about Jesus’ departure, if they listened to what he is saying, their grief would be tempered: it is for their good that Jesus is going away.
We’ll return shortly to why his departure can be spoken of as being for their good but, first, let’s acknowledge that we, too, can be as guilty as these disciples were of becoming too self-focussed in the pain and confusion that we experience in the Christian life. It is all too easy to allow ourselves to become preoccupied by our own feelings and our own concerns, such that Jesus is effectively, though unintentionally, relegated to the sidelines.
Perhaps a helpful test would be to ask ourselves how much time we spend thinking about and praying for our own needs and feelings as Christians and how much we focus on God and his glory. Those two are related but you probably get my drift – the disciples were not mercenary in their commitment to Jesus; of course they had a concern for his glory, but at this time they were suffering unduly through a too-intense and exclusive focus on their own feelings. And we can do that too.
What’s the solution? Ask the right questions; focus on the answers that scripture gives; lift your eyes to the Lord and to his purposes and glory. In this immediate context, the answer to their grief lies in what Jesus goes on to tell them in vv.7,8 – it is actually good for them that he goes away because unless he does he cannot send the Counsellor to them.
The verses that follow will expand on the benefits of the coming of the Spirit but, more generally, we can see that Jesus is making the point that they would miss out completely if he didn’t go away because that would bring the saving plans of God to a halt. Their vision needs to be larger and often ours does too – we need to learn the lesson that Paul put into these words: “what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
But in what specific sense is the coming of the Spirit shown here to be beneficial?
2. Convicting the world
In vv.9-11, Jesus speaks of the work of the Spirit in the world. Quite what he means is contested by commentators but as we work through his words, we need to bear in mind what Jesus has just told the disciples. He has warned them of the hostility of the world towards him and so to them also. The world is not a neutral place; it stands implacably opposed to God and his Son and it will quickly turn its fire on those who follow the Son.
Into that situation, Jesus is going to send his Spirit and “when he comes, he will convict the world of guilt”. That would seem straightforward but there is debate about the meaning of Jesus’ words and what they refer to. The term translated here as ‘convict…of guilt’ could equally be translated as ‘prove wrong’ or ‘expose’. And who will be convinced about the guilt of the world – the world itself or the disciples?
When we come to the words that follow, there is also debate: sin, righteousness and judgement are often assumed to refer to the world’s sin, Jesus’ righteousness and God’s judgement – but those distinctions aren’t in the text. So in what sense does the Spirit convict about these things?
Without going any further into the details of those debates, let me outline what seems to me the most likely solution here. The term ‘convict…of guilt’ is also used in 3:20 and would seem to have in mind the exposure of a person’s guilt with the aim of bringing them to repentance (which it might or might not achieve).
And the Spirit will face the world with its guilt in relation to its sin, its righteousness and its judgement. The great problem of sin is unbelief – “of sin because men do not believe in me”. Here is the nub of the issue, the heart of sin: unbelief, the denial of Jesus. And when the Spirit comes he will face the world with its guilt in not believing in the Son of God.
He will also expose the guilt of the world with respect to its righteousness, because Jesus has gone to the Father. The term ‘righteousness’ here probably has more of the idea of justice about it (it is always in the picture) and the justice of the world is going to be shown to be filthy rags – the world’s justice rejected Jesus and handed him over to be crucified; it labelled him a criminal but he was innocent. And he has been vindicated in his resurrection and return to the Father.
Then the Spirit will expose the guilt of the world with respect to judgement because the prince of this world now stands condemned. The world does not know how to exercise true judgement, it can only judge by human appearances (7:24; 8:15). In doing so, it takes the side of the devil – but he now stands condemned, shown up for what he is – a liar and a murderer. And the Spirit makes that plain.
Please notice: these are not neutral matters. The world is guilty of sin, of false and wretched justice and of making the most blatant and foolish wrong judgement regarding the Son of God. And the Spirit has come to expose that guilt, to face all people with the reality of their choice. Is he facing you with that today? What you do about Jesus is not a casual matter, it is urgent and ultimate.
Back to the disciples. Tasked with taking the gospel into the world, yet knowing the world’s hostility to Jesus and the vice-like grip of sin upon it, they could so easily conclude the mission to be useless, with no hope at all of seeing the world won for Jesus.
But not so! When he comes he will expose the guilt of the world in the hope of leading people to repentance and faith. What we cannot do, God can – break the hardest hearts, open the most tightly-shut minds and bring to genuine faith in Jesus.
The mission is not doomed to failure; sin will not have the last word. God will prevail and he will do so through his Spirit applying in power the achievements of his Son.
3. Teaching the disciples
But the usual pattern for the work of the Spirit is that it will be through the life and witness of the disciples, of the church. And so in vv.12-15 Jesus deals with the further equipping of the disciples for the task.
He has so much more to say to them but recognises that they cannot yet bear it – they’re too distressed to take on board what he needs to tell them. But when the Spirit comes, he will lead them in all the truth about Jesus. In fact, as v.15 shows, it will be a ministry of the Trinity in complete harmony – all that belongs to the Father is Jesus’ and the Spirit will take from what is his and make it known to the disciples.
Such is the intimate agreement within the Godhead that the Spirit will not speak on his own; he will only speak what he hears (v.13), just as Jesus only spoke what he heard from his Father (8:28). The Spirit will not disclose new truths to the disciples, things in addition to Jesus, but rather he will lead them into all the truth concerning Jesus – he will take from what belongs to Jesus and reveal it to them and so bring glory to Jesus.
And the reality is that the Spirit did come and did lead the disciples into the truth. And we have the fruit of the Spirit’s ministry in the material of the NT – here is the truth into which he led the disciples, the accounts about Jesus and the reflection upon the significance of his life and ministry and how it brings to a climax God’s saving purposes.
The definitive explanation was given to the disciples and under the inspiration of the Spirit they recorded for us all we need to know.
But we need to acknowledge that we, too, need the same ministry of the Spirit to illuminate our understanding, to help us to grasp more fully what he caused to be revealed in scripture.
We need it because we are slow to learn, because our minds are dark and need to be progressively illuminated. We need his ministry because the world is hostile to God and needs to be confronted with its guilt concerning sin, righteousness and judgement so that it might genuinely repent and turn to Jesus the only Saviour and Lord of all.
Jesus again reiterates his imminent departure to the Father in v.5 and implicitly criticises the disciples for not asking him where he is going. In fact, Peter seems to have asked that very question back in 13:36, so what does Jesus mean here? Some suggest that the emphasis is on ‘now’ – they had asked but aren’t asking now. That’s possible but it seems likelier that Jesus is pointing to the fact that, although those words might have been spoken, they aren’t really focussed on where he is going; they are much more concerned about and wrapped-up in their own grief (v.6).
We can, of course, understand the pain and confusion the disciples were experiencing and that would not have been lost on Jesus. But he is rightly, and helpfully, trying to refocus their thinking. They are down in the depths; because of that, they’re not asking the questions that would bring hope and help to them – if they asked about Jesus’ departure, if they listened to what he is saying, their grief would be tempered: it is for their good that Jesus is going away.
We’ll return shortly to why his departure can be spoken of as being for their good but, first, let’s acknowledge that we, too, can be as guilty as these disciples were of becoming too self-focussed in the pain and confusion that we experience in the Christian life. It is all too easy to allow ourselves to become preoccupied by our own feelings and our own concerns, such that Jesus is effectively, though unintentionally, relegated to the sidelines.
Perhaps a helpful test would be to ask ourselves how much time we spend thinking about and praying for our own needs and feelings as Christians and how much we focus on God and his glory. Those two are related but you probably get my drift – the disciples were not mercenary in their commitment to Jesus; of course they had a concern for his glory, but at this time they were suffering unduly through a too-intense and exclusive focus on their own feelings. And we can do that too.
What’s the solution? Ask the right questions; focus on the answers that scripture gives; lift your eyes to the Lord and to his purposes and glory. In this immediate context, the answer to their grief lies in what Jesus goes on to tell them in vv.7,8 – it is actually good for them that he goes away because unless he does he cannot send the Counsellor to them.
The verses that follow will expand on the benefits of the coming of the Spirit but, more generally, we can see that Jesus is making the point that they would miss out completely if he didn’t go away because that would bring the saving plans of God to a halt. Their vision needs to be larger and often ours does too – we need to learn the lesson that Paul put into these words: “what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
But in what specific sense is the coming of the Spirit shown here to be beneficial?
2. Convicting the world
In vv.9-11, Jesus speaks of the work of the Spirit in the world. Quite what he means is contested by commentators but as we work through his words, we need to bear in mind what Jesus has just told the disciples. He has warned them of the hostility of the world towards him and so to them also. The world is not a neutral place; it stands implacably opposed to God and his Son and it will quickly turn its fire on those who follow the Son.
Into that situation, Jesus is going to send his Spirit and “when he comes, he will convict the world of guilt”. That would seem straightforward but there is debate about the meaning of Jesus’ words and what they refer to. The term translated here as ‘convict…of guilt’ could equally be translated as ‘prove wrong’ or ‘expose’. And who will be convinced about the guilt of the world – the world itself or the disciples?
When we come to the words that follow, there is also debate: sin, righteousness and judgement are often assumed to refer to the world’s sin, Jesus’ righteousness and God’s judgement – but those distinctions aren’t in the text. So in what sense does the Spirit convict about these things?
Without going any further into the details of those debates, let me outline what seems to me the most likely solution here. The term ‘convict…of guilt’ is also used in 3:20 and would seem to have in mind the exposure of a person’s guilt with the aim of bringing them to repentance (which it might or might not achieve).
And the Spirit will face the world with its guilt in relation to its sin, its righteousness and its judgement. The great problem of sin is unbelief – “of sin because men do not believe in me”. Here is the nub of the issue, the heart of sin: unbelief, the denial of Jesus. And when the Spirit comes he will face the world with its guilt in not believing in the Son of God.
He will also expose the guilt of the world with respect to its righteousness, because Jesus has gone to the Father. The term ‘righteousness’ here probably has more of the idea of justice about it (it is always in the picture) and the justice of the world is going to be shown to be filthy rags – the world’s justice rejected Jesus and handed him over to be crucified; it labelled him a criminal but he was innocent. And he has been vindicated in his resurrection and return to the Father.
Then the Spirit will expose the guilt of the world with respect to judgement because the prince of this world now stands condemned. The world does not know how to exercise true judgement, it can only judge by human appearances (7:24; 8:15). In doing so, it takes the side of the devil – but he now stands condemned, shown up for what he is – a liar and a murderer. And the Spirit makes that plain.
Please notice: these are not neutral matters. The world is guilty of sin, of false and wretched justice and of making the most blatant and foolish wrong judgement regarding the Son of God. And the Spirit has come to expose that guilt, to face all people with the reality of their choice. Is he facing you with that today? What you do about Jesus is not a casual matter, it is urgent and ultimate.
Back to the disciples. Tasked with taking the gospel into the world, yet knowing the world’s hostility to Jesus and the vice-like grip of sin upon it, they could so easily conclude the mission to be useless, with no hope at all of seeing the world won for Jesus.
But not so! When he comes he will expose the guilt of the world in the hope of leading people to repentance and faith. What we cannot do, God can – break the hardest hearts, open the most tightly-shut minds and bring to genuine faith in Jesus.
The mission is not doomed to failure; sin will not have the last word. God will prevail and he will do so through his Spirit applying in power the achievements of his Son.
3. Teaching the disciples
But the usual pattern for the work of the Spirit is that it will be through the life and witness of the disciples, of the church. And so in vv.12-15 Jesus deals with the further equipping of the disciples for the task.
He has so much more to say to them but recognises that they cannot yet bear it – they’re too distressed to take on board what he needs to tell them. But when the Spirit comes, he will lead them in all the truth about Jesus. In fact, as v.15 shows, it will be a ministry of the Trinity in complete harmony – all that belongs to the Father is Jesus’ and the Spirit will take from what is his and make it known to the disciples.
Such is the intimate agreement within the Godhead that the Spirit will not speak on his own; he will only speak what he hears (v.13), just as Jesus only spoke what he heard from his Father (8:28). The Spirit will not disclose new truths to the disciples, things in addition to Jesus, but rather he will lead them into all the truth concerning Jesus – he will take from what belongs to Jesus and reveal it to them and so bring glory to Jesus.
And the reality is that the Spirit did come and did lead the disciples into the truth. And we have the fruit of the Spirit’s ministry in the material of the NT – here is the truth into which he led the disciples, the accounts about Jesus and the reflection upon the significance of his life and ministry and how it brings to a climax God’s saving purposes.
The definitive explanation was given to the disciples and under the inspiration of the Spirit they recorded for us all we need to know.
But we need to acknowledge that we, too, need the same ministry of the Spirit to illuminate our understanding, to help us to grasp more fully what he caused to be revealed in scripture.
We need it because we are slow to learn, because our minds are dark and need to be progressively illuminated. We need his ministry because the world is hostile to God and needs to be confronted with its guilt concerning sin, righteousness and judgement so that it might genuinely repent and turn to Jesus the only Saviour and Lord of all.
sermon on john 15:18 - 16:4
I want to say 4 things from this passage.
1. Jesus anticipates persecution
Firstly, Jesus anticipates the persecution of his disciples and, in doing so, forewarns and helps them. When he says ‘if’ in v.18 he isn’t introducing an element of doubt into their minds; his words are equivalent to ‘when you are hated’. This is as certain as it gets - the church will face hatred from the world. That isn't to say that every individual believer will at all times be conscious of persecution but it is to say that this is the pattern for the church, this is the fundamental reality of life in this world.
To speak of being hated raises the stakes considerably because that is a very strong word and stands in very stark contrast to the love that Jesus has for his own (v.9). But Jesus goes even further: he says that some of his disciples will be put out of the synagogue and some will even be killed and those who kill them will think they’re doing God a favour. The stakes are about as high as they can get.
The stark warning of Jesus to his disciples is evidence, as one commentator says, that “Following Jesus is not a game”. This is a very serious business – for some, as Jesus warns here, it is a deadly business. Being a disciple is not about quiet therapy for troubled souls; it is a costly calling into the most bitter conflict. Jesus will not have his disciples believe otherwise, then or now.
By anticipating persecution, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the harsh reality that awaits them. That is a service of love on the part of the Saviour. It would be so easy for this hatred to knock us off course and to cause us to give up on our faith. Jesus says, "All this I have told you so that you will not go astray" (16:1). To be forewarned is to be forearmed. And we have been warned.
2. Jesus explains persecution
But why is it the case that followers of Jesus will be hated? Why such hostility? In these verses, Jesus not only anticipates persecution but explains it and, in doing so, provides solid encouragement to us as his people. Let’s notice 3 things here.
i) Because we do not belong to the world – We will find that the world hates us because of who we are – we will face opposition and difficulties because we no longer belong to the world but instead are joined by faith to Jesus and are his servants.
Jesus tells us that if we belonged to the world, it would love us as its own but we don’t belong to it any longer because he has chosen us out of the world (v.19). We are now united to Jesus and have our identity in him – and so, just as he was persecuted, so will we be (“No servant is greater than his master” v.20).
This explains why we suffer in this world but, as it explains it, it gives us cause for real encouragement. We suffer because we belong to Jesus; we are persecuted by the darkness because we belong to the light. Whilst none of us want to face hardship, knowing that it comes because we are loved by God is a real help.
Now, of course, Jesus is not saying here that all those who are badly treated by the world are his followers. Nor is he saying that we can safely assume that whenever we are treated badly it is because we belong to Jesus – the sad truth is that we can bring down trouble on our heads through our own foolishness and sin. Yet perhaps we can say that even then the situation will often be worse than it might have been because we bear Jesus’ name.
ii) Because the world does not know God – The world does not know God and, in its blind and wilful rebellion against the Lord, strikes out at those who do belong to him. Jesus speaks here of the ‘world’ meaning “the created moral order in active rebellion against God” (Carson).
The problem is not a few isolated individuals who can’t stand Christians – it is far more fundamental. Jesus is speaking about a clash of systems – between the Lord and his kingdom and the world as governed by the evil one and trapped in sin.
If individuals try to discourage and cause us difficulties because of our faith in Jesus, we need to see their opposition in this light. They are part of a world system that hates God and stirs up trouble for God’s people.
The issue is far bigger than a husband or wife or sibling who is a trial to us – it is the world in its violent opposition to God.
It is this explanation of the nature of persecution that leads one writer very helpfully to say that: “these verses demand decision, because the issues are of ultimate importance. Following Jesus costs something and may cost life itself. Yet not following Jesus means one is siding with a lost and hateful world.” (Carson)
If you’re not a Christian, it may not feel as though you’re siding with a hateful world but Jesus will not let the issue be fudged: anyone who is not for him is against him. The issues are stark and so, too, is the choice: to follow Jesus and live or to side with the world and be lost. What are you going to make of that choice?
iii) Because of the church’s mission to the world – Jesus adds a very significant dimension to his explanation of persecution in vv.26,27 when he speaks of the Spirit and the church testifying about him. The opposition of the world, in its hatred of God, is stirred when the church engages in mission.
In this whole section, from ch.13, Jesus has been emphasising that he is sending the disciples out to continue his mission. Jesus was persecuted and rejected as he fulfilled his Father’s calling and the same reality will face the church.
To expect to face opposition as we engage in mission is, of course, no reason to cease reaching out. To be faithful as a church to the commission of Jesus is to lay ourselves open to the hatred of the world – but the glory of God and the desperate need of the world demands that we grit our teeth and go on.
3. Jesus condemns persecution
The third thing to notice about this persecution is that Jesus says it is culpable – those who engage in it stand guilty in their sin.
In v.22 Jesus says that those who persecuted him had no excuse since he had come and had spoken to them. They deliberately fought against the light, choosing to reject the Lord of glory and looking to do away with him.
If he had not spoken to them, nor done miracles among them, they would not have been guilty – by which Jesus is not saying they would have been sinless but that their rejection of him would not have attracted the same condemnation. But they did hear, they did see and still they rejected him. That was deliberate and worthy of condemnation.
How does this sit with what we experience today? If someone treats us badly, not knowing we’re Christians, they’re guilty of sin but not of persecution as Jesus speaks of it here. But if someone hates us because of who and what we are in Christ, they are without excuse. They have no reason to react in that way – it is entirely unreasonable for the Lord’s people to be abused since, like Jesus, we are going to the world with a message of hope and mercy – to reject that is madness and invites judgement.
4. Jesus equips for persecution
The overall impact of Jesus’ teaching in these verses, as he anticipates, explains and condemns the persecution of his people is to equip them for it. We are not to be caught off-guard; the world will hate us because it hated him. It hates us because we belong to him; it is a product of the fundamental clash of systems – the world in its opposition to God. But such persecution will not have the last word; it stands condemned for what it is: implacable hatred of God, the opposition of evil to the goodness of the Creator.
We need to know that and so be equipped for the fight. But Jesus does something else – he speaks of the promised Holy Spirit, calling him the ‘paraclete’, the Comforter. He will testify of Jesus and will be the one who impels the church into its witness too.
The days may be hard; tears may, at times, flow freely because we are real people with a real capacity for grief and sorrow. But, in the midst of it all, the same Spirit who leads us into costly service remains with us as the Comforter, reminding us of our status with God and filling our hearts with the realisation of God’s great love for us. That is worth more than words can say – so don’t grow weary in well-doing but rather press on, for Jesus’ sake, knowing that our labour in the Lord is not in vain.
1. Jesus anticipates persecution
Firstly, Jesus anticipates the persecution of his disciples and, in doing so, forewarns and helps them. When he says ‘if’ in v.18 he isn’t introducing an element of doubt into their minds; his words are equivalent to ‘when you are hated’. This is as certain as it gets - the church will face hatred from the world. That isn't to say that every individual believer will at all times be conscious of persecution but it is to say that this is the pattern for the church, this is the fundamental reality of life in this world.
To speak of being hated raises the stakes considerably because that is a very strong word and stands in very stark contrast to the love that Jesus has for his own (v.9). But Jesus goes even further: he says that some of his disciples will be put out of the synagogue and some will even be killed and those who kill them will think they’re doing God a favour. The stakes are about as high as they can get.
The stark warning of Jesus to his disciples is evidence, as one commentator says, that “Following Jesus is not a game”. This is a very serious business – for some, as Jesus warns here, it is a deadly business. Being a disciple is not about quiet therapy for troubled souls; it is a costly calling into the most bitter conflict. Jesus will not have his disciples believe otherwise, then or now.
By anticipating persecution, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the harsh reality that awaits them. That is a service of love on the part of the Saviour. It would be so easy for this hatred to knock us off course and to cause us to give up on our faith. Jesus says, "All this I have told you so that you will not go astray" (16:1). To be forewarned is to be forearmed. And we have been warned.
2. Jesus explains persecution
But why is it the case that followers of Jesus will be hated? Why such hostility? In these verses, Jesus not only anticipates persecution but explains it and, in doing so, provides solid encouragement to us as his people. Let’s notice 3 things here.
i) Because we do not belong to the world – We will find that the world hates us because of who we are – we will face opposition and difficulties because we no longer belong to the world but instead are joined by faith to Jesus and are his servants.
Jesus tells us that if we belonged to the world, it would love us as its own but we don’t belong to it any longer because he has chosen us out of the world (v.19). We are now united to Jesus and have our identity in him – and so, just as he was persecuted, so will we be (“No servant is greater than his master” v.20).
This explains why we suffer in this world but, as it explains it, it gives us cause for real encouragement. We suffer because we belong to Jesus; we are persecuted by the darkness because we belong to the light. Whilst none of us want to face hardship, knowing that it comes because we are loved by God is a real help.
Now, of course, Jesus is not saying here that all those who are badly treated by the world are his followers. Nor is he saying that we can safely assume that whenever we are treated badly it is because we belong to Jesus – the sad truth is that we can bring down trouble on our heads through our own foolishness and sin. Yet perhaps we can say that even then the situation will often be worse than it might have been because we bear Jesus’ name.
ii) Because the world does not know God – The world does not know God and, in its blind and wilful rebellion against the Lord, strikes out at those who do belong to him. Jesus speaks here of the ‘world’ meaning “the created moral order in active rebellion against God” (Carson).
The problem is not a few isolated individuals who can’t stand Christians – it is far more fundamental. Jesus is speaking about a clash of systems – between the Lord and his kingdom and the world as governed by the evil one and trapped in sin.
If individuals try to discourage and cause us difficulties because of our faith in Jesus, we need to see their opposition in this light. They are part of a world system that hates God and stirs up trouble for God’s people.
The issue is far bigger than a husband or wife or sibling who is a trial to us – it is the world in its violent opposition to God.
It is this explanation of the nature of persecution that leads one writer very helpfully to say that: “these verses demand decision, because the issues are of ultimate importance. Following Jesus costs something and may cost life itself. Yet not following Jesus means one is siding with a lost and hateful world.” (Carson)
If you’re not a Christian, it may not feel as though you’re siding with a hateful world but Jesus will not let the issue be fudged: anyone who is not for him is against him. The issues are stark and so, too, is the choice: to follow Jesus and live or to side with the world and be lost. What are you going to make of that choice?
iii) Because of the church’s mission to the world – Jesus adds a very significant dimension to his explanation of persecution in vv.26,27 when he speaks of the Spirit and the church testifying about him. The opposition of the world, in its hatred of God, is stirred when the church engages in mission.
In this whole section, from ch.13, Jesus has been emphasising that he is sending the disciples out to continue his mission. Jesus was persecuted and rejected as he fulfilled his Father’s calling and the same reality will face the church.
To expect to face opposition as we engage in mission is, of course, no reason to cease reaching out. To be faithful as a church to the commission of Jesus is to lay ourselves open to the hatred of the world – but the glory of God and the desperate need of the world demands that we grit our teeth and go on.
3. Jesus condemns persecution
The third thing to notice about this persecution is that Jesus says it is culpable – those who engage in it stand guilty in their sin.
In v.22 Jesus says that those who persecuted him had no excuse since he had come and had spoken to them. They deliberately fought against the light, choosing to reject the Lord of glory and looking to do away with him.
If he had not spoken to them, nor done miracles among them, they would not have been guilty – by which Jesus is not saying they would have been sinless but that their rejection of him would not have attracted the same condemnation. But they did hear, they did see and still they rejected him. That was deliberate and worthy of condemnation.
How does this sit with what we experience today? If someone treats us badly, not knowing we’re Christians, they’re guilty of sin but not of persecution as Jesus speaks of it here. But if someone hates us because of who and what we are in Christ, they are without excuse. They have no reason to react in that way – it is entirely unreasonable for the Lord’s people to be abused since, like Jesus, we are going to the world with a message of hope and mercy – to reject that is madness and invites judgement.
4. Jesus equips for persecution
The overall impact of Jesus’ teaching in these verses, as he anticipates, explains and condemns the persecution of his people is to equip them for it. We are not to be caught off-guard; the world will hate us because it hated him. It hates us because we belong to him; it is a product of the fundamental clash of systems – the world in its opposition to God. But such persecution will not have the last word; it stands condemned for what it is: implacable hatred of God, the opposition of evil to the goodness of the Creator.
We need to know that and so be equipped for the fight. But Jesus does something else – he speaks of the promised Holy Spirit, calling him the ‘paraclete’, the Comforter. He will testify of Jesus and will be the one who impels the church into its witness too.
The days may be hard; tears may, at times, flow freely because we are real people with a real capacity for grief and sorrow. But, in the midst of it all, the same Spirit who leads us into costly service remains with us as the Comforter, reminding us of our status with God and filling our hearts with the realisation of God’s great love for us. That is worth more than words can say – so don’t grow weary in well-doing but rather press on, for Jesus’ sake, knowing that our labour in the Lord is not in vain.
sermon on john 15:9-17
Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. We derive our whole life from him; we are who and what we are because we are in him. Without him we are nothing and can do nothing; remaining in him, we are called and enabled to bear fruit that will glorify God.
Such we read in vv.1-8. But that is not the end of Jesus’ discussion about our relationship to him and what must proceed from that. We’re going to pick up that discussion again this morning in vv.9-17.
1. Loved by the Son
The depiction of the relationship between Jesus and his disciples as a vine to its branches is very bracing – it is easily grasped and makes its point powerfully. But it does not, can not, tell the whole story; the image as it stands is rather impersonal. But Jesus straight away makes good on that in a statement of profound proportions: he tells his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”
In this gospel, the relationship between Jesus and his Father has been seen to be of the deepest, most rewarding nature. The love they share has no comparisons. So when Jesus tells us that he loves his own just as the Father has loved him, we’re perhaps lost for words and taken aback: can that really be true?
Wonderfully, the answer is yes, it can be and it is! The love of Jesus for all his people is of the same nature as the love between the father and the Son. Being loved in this way, we are caught up into the very life and love of God in the most deeply personal way.
The imagery of vine and branches which on its own might have seemed mechanical and merely functional has now given way to a plain statement of glorious reality: we are loved by God with the love that exists within the relationships of the Trinity.
But whilst the fact of that love is secure and settled, our enjoyment of that love is not a static reality. Jesus calls us here to remain in his love, just as he remained in the Father’s love. And the way Jesus did that, and that we are also to do so, was through obedience. Just as he obeyed his Father, so we are to obey the commands of our Lord.
In no way is Jesus here describing a merit-theology in which we earn his love; that could never be and would utterly rob love of its meaning and vitality. What he is saying is that our enjoyment of his love for us will be conditioned by our obedience to his commands. As someone has said, “This obedience is not what makes them friends; it is what characterises his friends.” (Carson)
The upshot of our taking Jesus at his word and remaining in his love (by obeying his commands) is that his joy will be in us and our joy will then be complete (v.11). Although Jesus was known as a man of sorrows, he was also a man of joy, great joy, in his relationship with his Father. Doing the will of the Father meant so much to Jesus because of his relationship to the Father; it was for the joy set before him – the joy of completing his assigned task and so honouring his Father – that Jesus went through the terrible suffering of the cross.
If we remain in his love by obeying his commands, we will share in that joy, fully. To put Jesus first, to give your all for God, is not to suffer loss; it is great gain. Just as the man who discovered treasure in a field and sold all he had to obtain it didn’t lose out, so we don’t lose out when we seek first God and his kingdom. Rather, we are blessed by sharing in Jesus’ joy.
2. Jesus’ command: Love each other
We might want to ask our Lord at this point what his commands are that we are to obey to remain in his love for us. There are, of course, many commands in scripture and we are to take all the will of god seriously; it isn’t a pick’n’mix affair. But Jesus here summarises our response to his claims upon us in this way: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (v.12).
Essentially, Jesus here repeats the call he made back in 13:34 and the standard is still as high and as demanding: “as I have loved you”. Our love for each other must rise above mere sentiment; it is instead to be patterned on and reflect the self-giving sacrifice of our Lord for us. That is going to take some working on but we can’t dodge it if we want to be true disciples of Jesus.
But why does Jesus reduce his commands to this? Why this one and not the command to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength? Clearly, that command is presupposed and everything else builds on and flows from it. The reason for fixing on this command by way of summary would seem to be because “love is the fulfilment of the law” (Rom. 13:10) and love, as Paul tells us, binds every other virtue together in perfect unity (Col. 3:14).
The call for disciples to love each other is made on the basis of the example of Jesus, “as I have loved you”. But here also is the reality which gives not just the example but the energy for us to love each other, that Jesus laid down his life for his friends and we are his friends (by the grace of adoption).
We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good; we have been rescued from our sin by a love which went all the way for us. Knowing that love and rejoicing in it gives a power and an impetus to our lives as believers, such that we are enabled to love each other as Jesus loved us.
But it must be worked out in practical detail in our lives. We need to pray as Paul did for the Philippians, that our love “may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” (Phil. 1:9).
3. Being friends and bearing fruit
We are loved by Jesus as his friends and are called to love each other as he has loved us. Our Lord has brought us into the most rewarding relationship imaginable. In vv.15,16 Jesus explains why he is now calling them ‘friends’ and what it means for their mission.
They are no longer called servants but friends on account of what has been revealed to them: “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” Servants are not in that position of intimacy; they don’t know their Master’s business but Jesus has held nothing back from them – everything he has heard from the Father he has told them (although they haven’t grasped its full import).
It’s important to see what Jesus means by this new description of his relationship with the disciples. In calling them friends he isn’t leaving behind the vine and branches imagery; they are his friends but he is still their Master.
Yes, he is our friend – that is a precious truth – but not in the sense of the friendship of equals. They are no longer called servants because they have been brought into the truth that only friends know – but Jesus remains their Lord.
As someone has said, “Jesus’ absolute right to command is in no way diminished, but he takes pains to inform his friends of his motives, plans, purposes.” (Carson)
And it is as their Lord who has made known to them the will of the Father that he has both chosen and appointed them to go and bear fruit.
As we’ve seen, fruitfulness is a very comprehensive notion but in this specific context, with the emphasis on going and bearing fruit, it seems that Jesus is highlighting the evangelistic ministry of the church. His purpose is that they should bear fruit that will last – seeing the gospel make a lasting impact in the lives of many people.
With this in mind, Jesus reiterates that his disciples can petition the Father and he will give them whatever they ask in Jesus’ name. As we seek to do his will, as his friends, reaching out to others, we can ask for whatever we need and be assured of God’s help, according to his purposes.
And with this emphasis on the outreach of the church it is no accident that Jesus repeats in v.17 his command to his disciples that they love each other. The mission of the church is not a matter of words only; the world must see in the unity and love of the church something of the reconciling ministry of God.
May God grant that our life together would show that kind of fruitfulness, for his glory and praise. Amen.
Such we read in vv.1-8. But that is not the end of Jesus’ discussion about our relationship to him and what must proceed from that. We’re going to pick up that discussion again this morning in vv.9-17.
1. Loved by the Son
The depiction of the relationship between Jesus and his disciples as a vine to its branches is very bracing – it is easily grasped and makes its point powerfully. But it does not, can not, tell the whole story; the image as it stands is rather impersonal. But Jesus straight away makes good on that in a statement of profound proportions: he tells his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”
In this gospel, the relationship between Jesus and his Father has been seen to be of the deepest, most rewarding nature. The love they share has no comparisons. So when Jesus tells us that he loves his own just as the Father has loved him, we’re perhaps lost for words and taken aback: can that really be true?
Wonderfully, the answer is yes, it can be and it is! The love of Jesus for all his people is of the same nature as the love between the father and the Son. Being loved in this way, we are caught up into the very life and love of God in the most deeply personal way.
The imagery of vine and branches which on its own might have seemed mechanical and merely functional has now given way to a plain statement of glorious reality: we are loved by God with the love that exists within the relationships of the Trinity.
But whilst the fact of that love is secure and settled, our enjoyment of that love is not a static reality. Jesus calls us here to remain in his love, just as he remained in the Father’s love. And the way Jesus did that, and that we are also to do so, was through obedience. Just as he obeyed his Father, so we are to obey the commands of our Lord.
In no way is Jesus here describing a merit-theology in which we earn his love; that could never be and would utterly rob love of its meaning and vitality. What he is saying is that our enjoyment of his love for us will be conditioned by our obedience to his commands. As someone has said, “This obedience is not what makes them friends; it is what characterises his friends.” (Carson)
The upshot of our taking Jesus at his word and remaining in his love (by obeying his commands) is that his joy will be in us and our joy will then be complete (v.11). Although Jesus was known as a man of sorrows, he was also a man of joy, great joy, in his relationship with his Father. Doing the will of the Father meant so much to Jesus because of his relationship to the Father; it was for the joy set before him – the joy of completing his assigned task and so honouring his Father – that Jesus went through the terrible suffering of the cross.
If we remain in his love by obeying his commands, we will share in that joy, fully. To put Jesus first, to give your all for God, is not to suffer loss; it is great gain. Just as the man who discovered treasure in a field and sold all he had to obtain it didn’t lose out, so we don’t lose out when we seek first God and his kingdom. Rather, we are blessed by sharing in Jesus’ joy.
2. Jesus’ command: Love each other
We might want to ask our Lord at this point what his commands are that we are to obey to remain in his love for us. There are, of course, many commands in scripture and we are to take all the will of god seriously; it isn’t a pick’n’mix affair. But Jesus here summarises our response to his claims upon us in this way: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (v.12).
Essentially, Jesus here repeats the call he made back in 13:34 and the standard is still as high and as demanding: “as I have loved you”. Our love for each other must rise above mere sentiment; it is instead to be patterned on and reflect the self-giving sacrifice of our Lord for us. That is going to take some working on but we can’t dodge it if we want to be true disciples of Jesus.
But why does Jesus reduce his commands to this? Why this one and not the command to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength? Clearly, that command is presupposed and everything else builds on and flows from it. The reason for fixing on this command by way of summary would seem to be because “love is the fulfilment of the law” (Rom. 13:10) and love, as Paul tells us, binds every other virtue together in perfect unity (Col. 3:14).
The call for disciples to love each other is made on the basis of the example of Jesus, “as I have loved you”. But here also is the reality which gives not just the example but the energy for us to love each other, that Jesus laid down his life for his friends and we are his friends (by the grace of adoption).
We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good; we have been rescued from our sin by a love which went all the way for us. Knowing that love and rejoicing in it gives a power and an impetus to our lives as believers, such that we are enabled to love each other as Jesus loved us.
But it must be worked out in practical detail in our lives. We need to pray as Paul did for the Philippians, that our love “may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight” (Phil. 1:9).
3. Being friends and bearing fruit
We are loved by Jesus as his friends and are called to love each other as he has loved us. Our Lord has brought us into the most rewarding relationship imaginable. In vv.15,16 Jesus explains why he is now calling them ‘friends’ and what it means for their mission.
They are no longer called servants but friends on account of what has been revealed to them: “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” Servants are not in that position of intimacy; they don’t know their Master’s business but Jesus has held nothing back from them – everything he has heard from the Father he has told them (although they haven’t grasped its full import).
It’s important to see what Jesus means by this new description of his relationship with the disciples. In calling them friends he isn’t leaving behind the vine and branches imagery; they are his friends but he is still their Master.
Yes, he is our friend – that is a precious truth – but not in the sense of the friendship of equals. They are no longer called servants because they have been brought into the truth that only friends know – but Jesus remains their Lord.
As someone has said, “Jesus’ absolute right to command is in no way diminished, but he takes pains to inform his friends of his motives, plans, purposes.” (Carson)
And it is as their Lord who has made known to them the will of the Father that he has both chosen and appointed them to go and bear fruit.
As we’ve seen, fruitfulness is a very comprehensive notion but in this specific context, with the emphasis on going and bearing fruit, it seems that Jesus is highlighting the evangelistic ministry of the church. His purpose is that they should bear fruit that will last – seeing the gospel make a lasting impact in the lives of many people.
With this in mind, Jesus reiterates that his disciples can petition the Father and he will give them whatever they ask in Jesus’ name. As we seek to do his will, as his friends, reaching out to others, we can ask for whatever we need and be assured of God’s help, according to his purposes.
And with this emphasis on the outreach of the church it is no accident that Jesus repeats in v.17 his command to his disciples that they love each other. The mission of the church is not a matter of words only; the world must see in the unity and love of the church something of the reconciling ministry of God.
May God grant that our life together would show that kind of fruitfulness, for his glory and praise. Amen.
sermon on john 15:1-8
1. Relationship: the Vine and the Branches
As he begins this next section of his discussion with the disciples, Jesus makes a statement that is quite staggering. He tells his disciples, “I am the true vine.” Jesus deliberately takes on OT picture of Israel and applies it to himself.
Israel is called the vine in a number of places, for example Isaiah 5, and Jesus here says that the reality of what Israel was meant to be is found in him: he is the true vine. This is not the only time that Jesus makes such a claim. The very act of calling 12 disciples signalled the same thing; being sent by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days and being tempted by the devil mirrored the experiences of Israel.
The gospels are full of incidents and sayings that make this point very powerfully. And it is a point that the rest of the NT takes up also – remember how Paul can say that it is those who believe who are Abraham’s family, not those who are his physical descendents.
It makes for a fascinating study and once you’ve grasped that this is what’s happening, the gospels are seen in a new light and reveal so much more about Jesus.
But what is the significance of this claim for Jesus and for us? Jesus is saying that what God intended to be achieved through Israel actually comes to pass in and through him. They had been chosen and set apart for the sake of the world but had singularly failed to be a light to the nations; in Jesus, that calling is fulfilled in the most dramatic way. He will keep the law of God, he will offer himself for sin and he will form in himself one new, united people of God from all nations.
And what this does for us as the church is to clarify and draw into focus our relationship to Jesus. We are given our identity in him – he is the vine, we are the branches. We derive our whole life from him and are constituted in him. Jesus is then at the very centre of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a church. He is the vine; we are the branches.
A vine speaks of God’s gracious purposes for his garden, the world. To share in those purposes, you need to be related to Jesus. It isn’t a matter of pointing to ancestry as the Jews did or to law-keeping; all that counts is whether you are ‘in Christ’, joined to Jesus and considered a part of his family. That is the only way to share in God’s blessing on his creation.
2. Mission: Fruit for God’s Glory
But incorporation into Jesus is not simply for our own benefit. If Israel was called to be a light to the nations and that calling is truly fulfilled by Jesus, then those who are the branches in the vine are called to share in that reality (cf. Acts 13:47).
The way Jesus speaks of that mission here is as fruitfulness. Taking the picture of the vine, the whole purpose of the branches is to bear fruit and Jesus says that it is by doing that we will show ourselves to be his disciples – not that we will prove it to ourselves but simply that bearing fruit is what he calls disciples for.
But what does he mean by ‘fruit’? Does he mean that each of us needs to be able to point to various people that we have led to the Lord and that if there are none then our discipleship is false? I don’t think he is saying that for a moment.
Bearing fruit might helpfully be spoken of in these terms. It means personal holiness (cf. Gal 5:22f); it means corporate unity and love; it means the church’s winsome evangelism; and it means implementing God’s will in wider society as we have opportunity to.
We are to bear fruit in the whole of our lives – it isn’t restricted to our personal lives, as though we could privatise what Jesus says; nor is it restricted to the family life of the church – it is intended that the light of God’s grace should shine in all the nations.
Here is our mission, our commission from Jesus – he sends us out to bear fruit and that involves the whole of our lives.
And the great impetus behind this is that when we bear such fruit, our Father in heaven is glorified (v.8).
God is seen to be who he is – a God of grace and mercy, a God with power to save and transform, a God who makes good on his ancient promises to rescue his fallen and lost creation.
Fruitfulness is the original purpose of God for his creation and it is brought to pass only in and through Jesus and the work of his Spirit.
3. Call: Remaining in the Vine
But how will people as feeble as us manage to produce such fruit? The more widely we define fruit, the harder it seems to get! Well, the disciples were no different – they were often very slow on the uptake and their faithfulness to Jesus was hardly exemplary. How does Jesus expect them – or us – to produce fruit that will glorify God?
The answer lies implicitly in the imagery being used and is made explicit by Jesus in his teaching here. The branches are able to produce fruit inasmuch as they draw life and nourishment from the vine; it is the connection between the vine and the branches that is paramount. And so Jesus says here, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (v.4)
On our own, we would have no chance – “without me, you can do nothing.” Cut off from Jesus we would be like withered branches that are simply fuel for the fire and utterly lifeless. Yet connected to the vine, joined to Jesus and living in him, we can truly be fruitful.
But what does it mean to remain in the vine? For some, that might describe an emotional state of wellbeing, an inner sense of being at one with Jesus – but that is not what Jesus means. He clearly links remaining in him with his words to remaining in us (v.7). We remain in Jesus and abide in him as we go on believing the truth about him.
And that means grappling with the Bible, loving it and feeding on it, studying it and obeying it. The branches must draw their life from the vine and here is how we as branches draw nourishment from Jesus, through his Word, by his Spirit. We will not grow and be fruitful as a Christian if we don’t read the Bible and do what it says. The fruit of the Spirit is cultured through the Spirit-inspired Word of God.
For some in John’s gospel, faith in Jesus was transient – they believed for a time but no longer. They are like the branches Jesus speaks of here that are cut off because they bear no fruit. When he says that, it isn’t a threat to our security in him but rather it simply shows how that safety is experienced: we go on believing in Jesus, we go on living in him. That is what it means to abide.
We only bear fruit as we remain in Jesus. But Jesus also speaks here of the branches that bear fruit being caused to grow in their fruitfulness: “every branch that does bear fruit (the Father) prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (v.2).
Every gardener knows how important pruning is, none more so that God himself. But what is the pruning that Jesus speaks of? The word means ‘cleanses’ and is also found in v.3. Those who have truly believed in Jesus have been made clean by God’s Word, by his message of grace, and have been set apart for God to use. The way he makes us more fruitful then is through that same word.
Engaging with the Bible in this way can indeed by painful as it challenges our thinking and straightens it out, then shows us how to live right. That may seem rather unspectacular in our modern world yet it remains God’s way for fruitfulness.
Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. That gives great dignity to our sense of identity yet at the same time there could scarcely be a more challenging call than to bear fruit to the glory of God. But the means for that is plain and gracious: we are to remain in Jesus, drawing our life from him, believing his word, and allowing that word to go on forming us into his image and likeness.
As he begins this next section of his discussion with the disciples, Jesus makes a statement that is quite staggering. He tells his disciples, “I am the true vine.” Jesus deliberately takes on OT picture of Israel and applies it to himself.
Israel is called the vine in a number of places, for example Isaiah 5, and Jesus here says that the reality of what Israel was meant to be is found in him: he is the true vine. This is not the only time that Jesus makes such a claim. The very act of calling 12 disciples signalled the same thing; being sent by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days and being tempted by the devil mirrored the experiences of Israel.
The gospels are full of incidents and sayings that make this point very powerfully. And it is a point that the rest of the NT takes up also – remember how Paul can say that it is those who believe who are Abraham’s family, not those who are his physical descendents.
It makes for a fascinating study and once you’ve grasped that this is what’s happening, the gospels are seen in a new light and reveal so much more about Jesus.
But what is the significance of this claim for Jesus and for us? Jesus is saying that what God intended to be achieved through Israel actually comes to pass in and through him. They had been chosen and set apart for the sake of the world but had singularly failed to be a light to the nations; in Jesus, that calling is fulfilled in the most dramatic way. He will keep the law of God, he will offer himself for sin and he will form in himself one new, united people of God from all nations.
And what this does for us as the church is to clarify and draw into focus our relationship to Jesus. We are given our identity in him – he is the vine, we are the branches. We derive our whole life from him and are constituted in him. Jesus is then at the very centre of what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a church. He is the vine; we are the branches.
A vine speaks of God’s gracious purposes for his garden, the world. To share in those purposes, you need to be related to Jesus. It isn’t a matter of pointing to ancestry as the Jews did or to law-keeping; all that counts is whether you are ‘in Christ’, joined to Jesus and considered a part of his family. That is the only way to share in God’s blessing on his creation.
2. Mission: Fruit for God’s Glory
But incorporation into Jesus is not simply for our own benefit. If Israel was called to be a light to the nations and that calling is truly fulfilled by Jesus, then those who are the branches in the vine are called to share in that reality (cf. Acts 13:47).
The way Jesus speaks of that mission here is as fruitfulness. Taking the picture of the vine, the whole purpose of the branches is to bear fruit and Jesus says that it is by doing that we will show ourselves to be his disciples – not that we will prove it to ourselves but simply that bearing fruit is what he calls disciples for.
But what does he mean by ‘fruit’? Does he mean that each of us needs to be able to point to various people that we have led to the Lord and that if there are none then our discipleship is false? I don’t think he is saying that for a moment.
Bearing fruit might helpfully be spoken of in these terms. It means personal holiness (cf. Gal 5:22f); it means corporate unity and love; it means the church’s winsome evangelism; and it means implementing God’s will in wider society as we have opportunity to.
We are to bear fruit in the whole of our lives – it isn’t restricted to our personal lives, as though we could privatise what Jesus says; nor is it restricted to the family life of the church – it is intended that the light of God’s grace should shine in all the nations.
Here is our mission, our commission from Jesus – he sends us out to bear fruit and that involves the whole of our lives.
And the great impetus behind this is that when we bear such fruit, our Father in heaven is glorified (v.8).
God is seen to be who he is – a God of grace and mercy, a God with power to save and transform, a God who makes good on his ancient promises to rescue his fallen and lost creation.
Fruitfulness is the original purpose of God for his creation and it is brought to pass only in and through Jesus and the work of his Spirit.
3. Call: Remaining in the Vine
But how will people as feeble as us manage to produce such fruit? The more widely we define fruit, the harder it seems to get! Well, the disciples were no different – they were often very slow on the uptake and their faithfulness to Jesus was hardly exemplary. How does Jesus expect them – or us – to produce fruit that will glorify God?
The answer lies implicitly in the imagery being used and is made explicit by Jesus in his teaching here. The branches are able to produce fruit inasmuch as they draw life and nourishment from the vine; it is the connection between the vine and the branches that is paramount. And so Jesus says here, “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (v.4)
On our own, we would have no chance – “without me, you can do nothing.” Cut off from Jesus we would be like withered branches that are simply fuel for the fire and utterly lifeless. Yet connected to the vine, joined to Jesus and living in him, we can truly be fruitful.
But what does it mean to remain in the vine? For some, that might describe an emotional state of wellbeing, an inner sense of being at one with Jesus – but that is not what Jesus means. He clearly links remaining in him with his words to remaining in us (v.7). We remain in Jesus and abide in him as we go on believing the truth about him.
And that means grappling with the Bible, loving it and feeding on it, studying it and obeying it. The branches must draw their life from the vine and here is how we as branches draw nourishment from Jesus, through his Word, by his Spirit. We will not grow and be fruitful as a Christian if we don’t read the Bible and do what it says. The fruit of the Spirit is cultured through the Spirit-inspired Word of God.
For some in John’s gospel, faith in Jesus was transient – they believed for a time but no longer. They are like the branches Jesus speaks of here that are cut off because they bear no fruit. When he says that, it isn’t a threat to our security in him but rather it simply shows how that safety is experienced: we go on believing in Jesus, we go on living in him. That is what it means to abide.
We only bear fruit as we remain in Jesus. But Jesus also speaks here of the branches that bear fruit being caused to grow in their fruitfulness: “every branch that does bear fruit (the Father) prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (v.2).
Every gardener knows how important pruning is, none more so that God himself. But what is the pruning that Jesus speaks of? The word means ‘cleanses’ and is also found in v.3. Those who have truly believed in Jesus have been made clean by God’s Word, by his message of grace, and have been set apart for God to use. The way he makes us more fruitful then is through that same word.
Engaging with the Bible in this way can indeed by painful as it challenges our thinking and straightens it out, then shows us how to live right. That may seem rather unspectacular in our modern world yet it remains God’s way for fruitfulness.
Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. That gives great dignity to our sense of identity yet at the same time there could scarcely be a more challenging call than to bear fruit to the glory of God. But the means for that is plain and gracious: we are to remain in Jesus, drawing our life from him, believing his word, and allowing that word to go on forming us into his image and likeness.
sermon on john 14:28-31
Once more, Jesus reminds his disciples that he is going away and then coming back to them. In this context, the coming back seems to be referring to his second coming and not his post-resurrection time with them. This is a recurring theme in the upper room and Jesus is relating it directly to the mission he is sending his disciples into. In that way, it relates directly to us today as his church.
1. If you loved me, you’d be glad
This repeated talk of Jesus’ departure has been deeply distressing to the disciples, as we’ve seen. In v.27 Jesus speaks his peace to the disciples and urges them not to be troubled or afraid any longer.
But he doesn’t leave it there. The challenge he gives – that they should not allow themselves to be fearful and troubled – is now advanced by Jesus as he addresses their self-pity by speaking of their love for him (or apparent lack of it). If they loved him (which they ought to do and no doubt would claim to do) then they would be glad about this departure.
We’ll come to the reason for that gladness in a moment but we do need to stop and pick up on what Jesus is saying here. The disciples are understandably distressed and Jesus has tried to comfort them with his words and has challenged them to apply what he has said to them. But that isn’t enough. It would be so easy for the disciples to get the impression that their feelings were what really mattered, that they were at the centre of everything – and that would be so wrong.
They need help in their distress but they need also to be pointed away from themselves and to the Lord; they need to see again his pre-eminence and their call to love and serve him. It’s so easy, when we feel troubled and afraid, to think that the Lord ought to comfort us and patch us up and so on, and at the same time fail to see that we have a duty and a calling to love him.
Our feelings and struggles are not at the centre of everything. Yes, we feel things keenly and desperately need the Lord’s help but a significant part of the help we need is to have our eyes lifted to the high and holy calling we have: to love the Lord.
In our sorrow and as we experience the trials of life as disciples of Jesus, we can become self-interested; Jesus will comfort us but he also calls us to a love for him that rises above our self-interest and self-pity and instead leads us on the path of joy and gladness. That is an extremely valuable lesson to learn.
2. Why they should be glad
But just why should the disciples be glad that Jesus is leaving them? For this reason: “the Father is greater than I”. But what does Jesus mean by that and why should that cause the disciples to be glad?
Jesus is not saying that he is a lesser being than the Father. That is simply impossible in the light of what he has elsewhere said about himself and the Father and what John has said about Jesus. Jesus and the Father are one; they are both God, both eternal, both fully divine. So Jesus is not speaking here of a difference in their essential being. As someone has said, “the Father is God sending and commanding; the Son is God sent and obedient”.
What Jesus is pointing to is that relationship of sender and sent – he is the obedient Son who does all his Father’s will. The Father is greater than the Son in terms of the mission Jesus came to perform – it is a greatness that relates to function and not to being.
But why should joy and gladness be the order of the day for the disciples as Jesus returns to the Father? Because that is where he belongs, at the right hand of the Father; because his return will mean his mission is completed, his suffering and deep humiliation over; because the Father will be glorified in the Son and the Son in him.
Could there be any greater reason for joy than this? If they loved Jesus, could they want anything less for him than to return to his Father? They would of course be deeply distressed but if their love was genuinely more than self-interest, how could they not rejoice?
We perhaps can relate to that in terms of loved ones who die and go to be with the Lord. We are understandably distressed and grieve deeply over the loss – but our loss is truly their gain since they are at home with the Lord and any approach to grief that doesn’t at least try to handle that runs the danger of sliding into harmful self-pity.
Relating this to our own relationship with the Lord, I think we can draw the lesson that John Piper has majored on in his ministry: that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him; that God’s love for us consists in calling us to share his own joy in himself. And so we need very much to learn this lesson: his disciples should rejoice that he is returning to the Father with his job done.
But it isn’t just about Jesus’ own joy in returning home. The Father is greater than he and the return of Jesus will herald the pouring out of the Spirit who, as we’ve seen, will enable the disciples to do those greater works Jesus spoke about. Jesus will personally be present with his disciples by the Spirit – indeed, both Father and Son will come to make their home with all believers.
So the sadness of the disciples is short-sighted in terms of their own situation and mission. It is for their good that Jesus goes away (16:7). That is a lesson for us to take to heart – we need to take the long view, the Christ-centred view.
Our immediate sorrow and grief in all sorts of trials needs to be set in the context of the work of God and the progress of his mission in the world. Where that mission is being forwarded and Jesus glorified, our own sorrows which might arise directly from being involved in that mission, are put into their true light. That’s why Paul and Silas were found singing praise to God at midnight in the jail in Philippi.
3. What the world must know
Jesus has told his disciples this so that when the time comes they will believe. And that time is now upon them: “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming.” (v.30)
Jesus is acutely aware of Satan and his evil schemes. He takes him seriously but there is a careful balance in what he says here: he neither plays him down nor talks him up. Yes, he is the prince of this world; he has power and seeks to govern the nations and keeps people in the darkness and blinds their eyes to the truth about God.
But – and this crucial – he has no hold on Jesus. That is something only God’s Son could ever say; no other man or woman could make such a claim.
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, is not under Satan’s sway; there are no accusations that can be made against him that will stand. He faced Satan in the wilderness and won and now he is going to the cross to complete that victory.
And yet, to the eyes of most, including the disciples, the cross would seem to show that Satan has had the last word, the last laugh. But that simply isn’t so. Jesus goes as a willing victim in complete obedience to his Father’s will. The cross is, paradoxically, the scene of Jesus’ great triumph over the devil.
And this is something the world needs to know – it needs to see the one truly righteous man over whom the devil has no hold and it needs to see him because there is no other hope for the world.
Jesus goes to the cross to effect salvation and to witness to the world that the devil is not ultimate. Yes, he has power but Jesus has greater power, the power of godliness and loving self-sacrifice.
How utterly terrible it would be for the whole world if there was no-one worthy of bringing God’s plans to fulfilment (remember John’s weeping when no-one was found able to take the scroll and open its seals?). But that is not the reality; Jesus is worthy because he shed his blood and was obedient to death – and the world needs to know that.
It needs to know it in order to be saved; it needs to know it that Jesus would receive the praise he is due. But how will the world learn it? Not by accident; the world will only learn of Jesus and his majestic grace and matchless obedience if we bear witness to it – in our words and by our deeds.
1. If you loved me, you’d be glad
This repeated talk of Jesus’ departure has been deeply distressing to the disciples, as we’ve seen. In v.27 Jesus speaks his peace to the disciples and urges them not to be troubled or afraid any longer.
But he doesn’t leave it there. The challenge he gives – that they should not allow themselves to be fearful and troubled – is now advanced by Jesus as he addresses their self-pity by speaking of their love for him (or apparent lack of it). If they loved him (which they ought to do and no doubt would claim to do) then they would be glad about this departure.
We’ll come to the reason for that gladness in a moment but we do need to stop and pick up on what Jesus is saying here. The disciples are understandably distressed and Jesus has tried to comfort them with his words and has challenged them to apply what he has said to them. But that isn’t enough. It would be so easy for the disciples to get the impression that their feelings were what really mattered, that they were at the centre of everything – and that would be so wrong.
They need help in their distress but they need also to be pointed away from themselves and to the Lord; they need to see again his pre-eminence and their call to love and serve him. It’s so easy, when we feel troubled and afraid, to think that the Lord ought to comfort us and patch us up and so on, and at the same time fail to see that we have a duty and a calling to love him.
Our feelings and struggles are not at the centre of everything. Yes, we feel things keenly and desperately need the Lord’s help but a significant part of the help we need is to have our eyes lifted to the high and holy calling we have: to love the Lord.
In our sorrow and as we experience the trials of life as disciples of Jesus, we can become self-interested; Jesus will comfort us but he also calls us to a love for him that rises above our self-interest and self-pity and instead leads us on the path of joy and gladness. That is an extremely valuable lesson to learn.
2. Why they should be glad
But just why should the disciples be glad that Jesus is leaving them? For this reason: “the Father is greater than I”. But what does Jesus mean by that and why should that cause the disciples to be glad?
Jesus is not saying that he is a lesser being than the Father. That is simply impossible in the light of what he has elsewhere said about himself and the Father and what John has said about Jesus. Jesus and the Father are one; they are both God, both eternal, both fully divine. So Jesus is not speaking here of a difference in their essential being. As someone has said, “the Father is God sending and commanding; the Son is God sent and obedient”.
What Jesus is pointing to is that relationship of sender and sent – he is the obedient Son who does all his Father’s will. The Father is greater than the Son in terms of the mission Jesus came to perform – it is a greatness that relates to function and not to being.
But why should joy and gladness be the order of the day for the disciples as Jesus returns to the Father? Because that is where he belongs, at the right hand of the Father; because his return will mean his mission is completed, his suffering and deep humiliation over; because the Father will be glorified in the Son and the Son in him.
Could there be any greater reason for joy than this? If they loved Jesus, could they want anything less for him than to return to his Father? They would of course be deeply distressed but if their love was genuinely more than self-interest, how could they not rejoice?
We perhaps can relate to that in terms of loved ones who die and go to be with the Lord. We are understandably distressed and grieve deeply over the loss – but our loss is truly their gain since they are at home with the Lord and any approach to grief that doesn’t at least try to handle that runs the danger of sliding into harmful self-pity.
Relating this to our own relationship with the Lord, I think we can draw the lesson that John Piper has majored on in his ministry: that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him; that God’s love for us consists in calling us to share his own joy in himself. And so we need very much to learn this lesson: his disciples should rejoice that he is returning to the Father with his job done.
But it isn’t just about Jesus’ own joy in returning home. The Father is greater than he and the return of Jesus will herald the pouring out of the Spirit who, as we’ve seen, will enable the disciples to do those greater works Jesus spoke about. Jesus will personally be present with his disciples by the Spirit – indeed, both Father and Son will come to make their home with all believers.
So the sadness of the disciples is short-sighted in terms of their own situation and mission. It is for their good that Jesus goes away (16:7). That is a lesson for us to take to heart – we need to take the long view, the Christ-centred view.
Our immediate sorrow and grief in all sorts of trials needs to be set in the context of the work of God and the progress of his mission in the world. Where that mission is being forwarded and Jesus glorified, our own sorrows which might arise directly from being involved in that mission, are put into their true light. That’s why Paul and Silas were found singing praise to God at midnight in the jail in Philippi.
3. What the world must know
Jesus has told his disciples this so that when the time comes they will believe. And that time is now upon them: “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming.” (v.30)
Jesus is acutely aware of Satan and his evil schemes. He takes him seriously but there is a careful balance in what he says here: he neither plays him down nor talks him up. Yes, he is the prince of this world; he has power and seeks to govern the nations and keeps people in the darkness and blinds their eyes to the truth about God.
But – and this crucial – he has no hold on Jesus. That is something only God’s Son could ever say; no other man or woman could make such a claim.
Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, is not under Satan’s sway; there are no accusations that can be made against him that will stand. He faced Satan in the wilderness and won and now he is going to the cross to complete that victory.
And yet, to the eyes of most, including the disciples, the cross would seem to show that Satan has had the last word, the last laugh. But that simply isn’t so. Jesus goes as a willing victim in complete obedience to his Father’s will. The cross is, paradoxically, the scene of Jesus’ great triumph over the devil.
And this is something the world needs to know – it needs to see the one truly righteous man over whom the devil has no hold and it needs to see him because there is no other hope for the world.
Jesus goes to the cross to effect salvation and to witness to the world that the devil is not ultimate. Yes, he has power but Jesus has greater power, the power of godliness and loving self-sacrifice.
How utterly terrible it would be for the whole world if there was no-one worthy of bringing God’s plans to fulfilment (remember John’s weeping when no-one was found able to take the scroll and open its seals?). But that is not the reality; Jesus is worthy because he shed his blood and was obedient to death – and the world needs to know that.
It needs to know it in order to be saved; it needs to know it that Jesus would receive the praise he is due. But how will the world learn it? Not by accident; the world will only learn of Jesus and his majestic grace and matchless obedience if we bear witness to it – in our words and by our deeds.
sermon on john 14:25-27
This passage seems to be something of a bookend to 14:1 (Jesus repeats his exhortation not to be troubled). In the larger passage, Jesus has confirmed to his disciples that he is going away to prepare the way for them to come to God. He alone can do that but he is also sending them into the world to continue his mission. To enable them to do that, he is going to will confer on them the gift of the Spirit who will be with them for ever.
The verses before us this morning continue to deal with the situation facing the disciples after Jesus has left them and his provision for them in that situation.
1. The Paraclete from Jesus
Because Jesus is going away, he is instructing his disciples; “All this I have spoken to you while still with you” (v.25). But with the disciples’ hearts clouded by grief and their minds so slow to take in what Jesus has been saying, there is a real probability that their recollection of his words will be slender and their understanding of them very slight.
“But,” says Jesus, “the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (v.26) Their need is great but that need will be met by the Triune God: the Son will ask and the Father will send the Spirit of Truth to minister to the disciples.
Now, we should notice that this promise is quite specific to the disciples and relates to their role as the authoritative messengers of Jesus, those who will record and pass on the truth about Jesus. They need to be able to recall his words and deeds and they need to be able to correctly understand the significance of them. Jesus is here promising that God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – will see that they get that help.
This is why we have the 4 gospels and why we have the epistles and, indeed, the whole of the NT. The Holy Spirit was at work in and through Jesus’ apostles, just as he here said he would be.
If the ministry of Jesus is to be continued in and through his disciples, this is invaluable and utterly essential ministry.
But even though we can’t responsibly say that this promise is directly for us today, there are 2 things that we can say with confidence:
i) Because the Holy Spirit led the disciples into all truth, we can trust what the scriptures tell us about Jesus, both in terms of the gospels themselves and the rest of the NT. The Spirit of Truth instructed them and helped them to reflect on the meaning of Jesus and his work and so we have solid ground on which to base our faith and live our lives as Christians.
ii) The same ministry of the Spirit’s illumination is both needed by us and given to us. As we’ve said, this context is directly concerned with the Spirit’s work in the disciples but we can have every confidence that, as we ask for his help in understanding the truth, he will be pleased to give it to us.
Both those points have a real part to play in strengthening us in our life as the Lord’s people. We need to gratefully receive their help and work it through in our engagement with God’s Word because it is through his Word that the Lord equips us for our calling in this world.
2. The Peace from Jesus
The disciples need the Paraclete to instruct them, to teach them. But they also stand in need of peace in a world that is disturbed and disturbing – and that is exactly what Jesus now goes on to promise them (and, this time, by extension all believers).
The disciples lived in the days when the empire promised its own version of peace, the Pax Romana. But that was a pale imitation of peace – it was peace obtained and maintained by the edge of the sword; it was peace that relied on fear and oppression for its ‘success’. It was peace as the world gives it, the only peace this world can give.
But Jesus deliberately says that the peace he is going to give to his people is not like the world’s peace. His is not a peace that is enforced through fear, nor is it won by brute force.
The peace that Jesus has (“My peace”) and which he bequeaths to all his own is the peace of the risen Messiah, the peace that is one of the central marks of God’s Kingdom (cf. Is. 52:7; 53:5; 54:10,13).
It is the peace that speaks of reconciliation with God, that flows from forgiveness and mercy. It is peace that speaks of a better world and an unshakable confidence and hope in the resurrection of the dead. It is the peace of God’s certain victory over all sin and evil and the dawning of a new heavens and earth, where righteousness dwells.
It is peace that comes to us directly from Jesus himself – it is peace he himself has won. And his victory was not through superior military force or cunning but by his laying down his own life for our sins upon the cross. The peace the world gives is often costly for those it is imposed upon; this peace is a free gift from God but at the greatest cost to the one who gives it.
Peace in this world is very fragile and will not last. But the peace that Jesus gives as the Messiah is solid and permanent; it isn’t like the world’s peace. It cannot be taken away – our sin may disrupt our enjoyment of this peace but it cannot erase it; suffering may threaten to overwhelm it yet ultimately it cannot and will not because this peace was forged in the furnace of Messiah’s afflictions.
And Jesus has given this peace to every Christian. No exceptions. Every Christian has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; every believer experiences the peace of God that passes all understanding. You can’t adequately explain it; you can’t quantify or bottle it but all who have put their trust in Jesus know it and have it.
This is a peace that is given by Jesus as a gift and yet at the same time we are encouraged in scripture to live in such a way as to allow this peace to truly be our experience. As someone has said, “It is a peace born from a living personal relationship with Jesus, and deepened through a growing surrender of life to his gracious rule. This the Holy Spirit makes available to the troubled hearts of the disciples, and to ours.” (Milne p.217)
3. Neither troubled nor afraid
Both the Holy Spirit and this matchless peace are gifts of Jesus but in both cases we need to make sure we do what we can to receive the blessings of those gifts. In particular, Jesus here exhorts his disciples, in the light of his promise of peace, not to let their hearts to be troubled and not to be afraid.
Both trouble and fear are unwelcome guests in our hearts and minds; we would far rather be without them and Jesus is saying here that, under normal circumstances, that is possible – if it wasn’t, he would hardly be urging his disciples in these terms.
But much of the onus rests on us – we need to believe the promise and rest in the peace that Jesus alone gives us. Like the disciples, we face a hostile and unbelieving world, a world that will bamboozle us with its philosophies and shock us with its blatant disregard for the Lord and his ways. But Jesus has given us his peace, which means that much of our distress in the Christian life is needless; instead of fretting, we need to take Jesus at his word.
Yes, the work is hard and the world is a difficult place in which to hold out the word of life but in the midst of the conflict we have been given the peace of the risen Saviour. Do you believe that? Do you believe him? He doesn’t lie, does he? Then if he can be believed, we have been given peace and are to live in the beautiful rest this peace – his peace – breathes into our souls.
And that peace, along with the ministry of the Spirit of Truth, is to further equip us for our lives in his service. The calling is high and holy; its demands are costly but the provision of Jesus is full and complete. That’s the best of all foundations to work from.
The verses before us this morning continue to deal with the situation facing the disciples after Jesus has left them and his provision for them in that situation.
1. The Paraclete from Jesus
Because Jesus is going away, he is instructing his disciples; “All this I have spoken to you while still with you” (v.25). But with the disciples’ hearts clouded by grief and their minds so slow to take in what Jesus has been saying, there is a real probability that their recollection of his words will be slender and their understanding of them very slight.
“But,” says Jesus, “the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (v.26) Their need is great but that need will be met by the Triune God: the Son will ask and the Father will send the Spirit of Truth to minister to the disciples.
Now, we should notice that this promise is quite specific to the disciples and relates to their role as the authoritative messengers of Jesus, those who will record and pass on the truth about Jesus. They need to be able to recall his words and deeds and they need to be able to correctly understand the significance of them. Jesus is here promising that God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – will see that they get that help.
This is why we have the 4 gospels and why we have the epistles and, indeed, the whole of the NT. The Holy Spirit was at work in and through Jesus’ apostles, just as he here said he would be.
If the ministry of Jesus is to be continued in and through his disciples, this is invaluable and utterly essential ministry.
But even though we can’t responsibly say that this promise is directly for us today, there are 2 things that we can say with confidence:
i) Because the Holy Spirit led the disciples into all truth, we can trust what the scriptures tell us about Jesus, both in terms of the gospels themselves and the rest of the NT. The Spirit of Truth instructed them and helped them to reflect on the meaning of Jesus and his work and so we have solid ground on which to base our faith and live our lives as Christians.
ii) The same ministry of the Spirit’s illumination is both needed by us and given to us. As we’ve said, this context is directly concerned with the Spirit’s work in the disciples but we can have every confidence that, as we ask for his help in understanding the truth, he will be pleased to give it to us.
Both those points have a real part to play in strengthening us in our life as the Lord’s people. We need to gratefully receive their help and work it through in our engagement with God’s Word because it is through his Word that the Lord equips us for our calling in this world.
2. The Peace from Jesus
The disciples need the Paraclete to instruct them, to teach them. But they also stand in need of peace in a world that is disturbed and disturbing – and that is exactly what Jesus now goes on to promise them (and, this time, by extension all believers).
The disciples lived in the days when the empire promised its own version of peace, the Pax Romana. But that was a pale imitation of peace – it was peace obtained and maintained by the edge of the sword; it was peace that relied on fear and oppression for its ‘success’. It was peace as the world gives it, the only peace this world can give.
But Jesus deliberately says that the peace he is going to give to his people is not like the world’s peace. His is not a peace that is enforced through fear, nor is it won by brute force.
The peace that Jesus has (“My peace”) and which he bequeaths to all his own is the peace of the risen Messiah, the peace that is one of the central marks of God’s Kingdom (cf. Is. 52:7; 53:5; 54:10,13).
It is the peace that speaks of reconciliation with God, that flows from forgiveness and mercy. It is peace that speaks of a better world and an unshakable confidence and hope in the resurrection of the dead. It is the peace of God’s certain victory over all sin and evil and the dawning of a new heavens and earth, where righteousness dwells.
It is peace that comes to us directly from Jesus himself – it is peace he himself has won. And his victory was not through superior military force or cunning but by his laying down his own life for our sins upon the cross. The peace the world gives is often costly for those it is imposed upon; this peace is a free gift from God but at the greatest cost to the one who gives it.
Peace in this world is very fragile and will not last. But the peace that Jesus gives as the Messiah is solid and permanent; it isn’t like the world’s peace. It cannot be taken away – our sin may disrupt our enjoyment of this peace but it cannot erase it; suffering may threaten to overwhelm it yet ultimately it cannot and will not because this peace was forged in the furnace of Messiah’s afflictions.
And Jesus has given this peace to every Christian. No exceptions. Every Christian has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; every believer experiences the peace of God that passes all understanding. You can’t adequately explain it; you can’t quantify or bottle it but all who have put their trust in Jesus know it and have it.
This is a peace that is given by Jesus as a gift and yet at the same time we are encouraged in scripture to live in such a way as to allow this peace to truly be our experience. As someone has said, “It is a peace born from a living personal relationship with Jesus, and deepened through a growing surrender of life to his gracious rule. This the Holy Spirit makes available to the troubled hearts of the disciples, and to ours.” (Milne p.217)
3. Neither troubled nor afraid
Both the Holy Spirit and this matchless peace are gifts of Jesus but in both cases we need to make sure we do what we can to receive the blessings of those gifts. In particular, Jesus here exhorts his disciples, in the light of his promise of peace, not to let their hearts to be troubled and not to be afraid.
Both trouble and fear are unwelcome guests in our hearts and minds; we would far rather be without them and Jesus is saying here that, under normal circumstances, that is possible – if it wasn’t, he would hardly be urging his disciples in these terms.
But much of the onus rests on us – we need to believe the promise and rest in the peace that Jesus alone gives us. Like the disciples, we face a hostile and unbelieving world, a world that will bamboozle us with its philosophies and shock us with its blatant disregard for the Lord and his ways. But Jesus has given us his peace, which means that much of our distress in the Christian life is needless; instead of fretting, we need to take Jesus at his word.
Yes, the work is hard and the world is a difficult place in which to hold out the word of life but in the midst of the conflict we have been given the peace of the risen Saviour. Do you believe that? Do you believe him? He doesn’t lie, does he? Then if he can be believed, we have been given peace and are to live in the beautiful rest this peace – his peace – breathes into our souls.
And that peace, along with the ministry of the Spirit of Truth, is to further equip us for our lives in his service. The calling is high and holy; its demands are costly but the provision of Jesus is full and complete. That’s the best of all foundations to work from.
sermon on john 14:15-24
In vv.12-14 that we looked at last week, Jesus promised his disciples that they would do what he had done; indeed that they would do even greater things and that they could ask for anything in his name and he would do it.
We noticed that his promises were conditional: the doing of greater things would be based on his return to the Father and the disciples’ faith in Jesus; the answering of prayers would be for the glory of God and in accord with the character and will of the Son (his name).
The verses we’re looking at today continue that theme and advance it in significant ways.
1. Comings & Goings: Fellowship with God
Jesus has revealed himself as the exclusive way to God; in these verses, he reveals that he is also the giver of the Spirit. But what he says here about the coming of the Spirit and his Father’s coming to the disciples needs to worked through. When will Jesus come to his disciples (v.18) and in what way will both he and the Father come to the disciples and make their home with them?
I think that v.18 has the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus partly in view but the full picture can only really be understood to refer to the ministry of the Spirit.
The Spirit will be given by the Father in answer to the request of Jesus but we should note that scripture can also speak of the Son giving the Spirit; he proceeds from both the Father and the Son. And when he comes, his work will be to reveal the Father and the Son to his people. It is in that way pre-eminently that the Father and the Son will come to their own (v.21 is not restricted to the disciples as such but extends to ‘whoever’, that is to all believers in all ages).
Having noted that, we need to pay close attention to how Jesus described the Spirit and what he envisages him doing. He refers to the Spirit as “another Counsellor” (‘helper’; ‘paraclete’).
Jesus has been just that to his disciples. And he will continue to do those things is his exalted reign (as 1 Jn. 2:1 makes clear). But there was a great need for another helper who would be able to do what Jesus could not.
Jesus could not be with his people for ever; for his work to be completed he had to return to the Father. That prospect was filling his disciples with grief but their grief would be turned to joy for they would see Jesus again. That occurred after his resurrection but his promise is not to leave them as orphans and the outworking of that promise is in the giving of the Spirit.
• He is the one called alongside to help us; he will speak up for us; he will comfort us;
• He is the Spirit of truth: he reveals the truth about Jesus to us; he is the true one, the genuine article who alone can bring us to know God and Jesus his Son;
• He will witness to our spirits that we are the children of God (and so we will not be left as orphans);
• He will be the means by which we will experience the Father and the Son making their home with us, making us a spiritual temple in the Lord.
The ministry of the Spirit is absolutely necessary and wonderfully real. These are not empty words but a reality to know and to live.
2. Love and obedience
But we have skipped over v.15 which opens up this paragraph and the connection of that verse to the coming of the Spirit is very important. At first sight, it might seem that Jesus is saying that if we prove our love for him through our obedience then – and only then – will he ask the Father to send the Spirit to us.
But that is not the case. Jesus has plainly shown that the coming of the Spirit is conditioned only by his dying, rising and being exalted to the Father. It was never to be conditional upon the disciples’ faith – but, having said that, there is a distinct connection between the two made by Jesus here and we need to pay attention to it. First, though, we need to work through the relationship of love to obedience that Jesus speaks of here.
At the very start of this section in 13:1, John told us that having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the finish. In his teaching, praying and self-giving, Jesus was demonstrating divine love for his own.
In v.15, Jesus turns to the issue of the disciples’ love for him. God’s love for us calls forth our love for him (as John elsewhere says, “We love him because he first loved us”). But that isn’t Jesus’ emphasis here; he doesn’t exhort his disciples to love God but simply asserts that if we love him we will obey his commands.
This is a point that Jesus emphasises here - it recurs in vv.21,23,24. But what is the connection between love and obedience? Quite simply, Jesus is saying that our love for him will be demonstrated by our obedience to his word. That love will of course involve emotions but that is not to be the measure of whether we love God or not; rather, it is our obedience to the word of Jesus – to follow him as Lord and to love his people as he has loved us (see 13:34).
In his first letter, John tells us the marks of genuine Christians: what we believe about Jesus, how we live our lives and whether we love God’s people in deed and in truth. If we love him (as a response to his love for us) we will obey the word of Jesus.
Genuine love for God is not a matter primarily of the emotions but of doing his word. Do you love God?
Now to the connection between loving Jesus and his giving of the Spirit: it is as we show our love for him that we will discover more of the Spirit’s ministry and be conscious of the warm fellowship of Father and Son as they make their dwelling among us and in us (“I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you” v.20). That, surely, is something we would desire personally and corporately – to know the Father and his Son through fellowship with the Spirit.
But it will be ours only if we do the words of Jesus, taking seriously the call to faith and the life that proceeds from it – right belief, right conduct and genuine love for each other. Where those things are present, as concrete signs of our love for God, we can be sure that our enjoyment of fellowship with God will be heightened.
3. Jesus & the world
But isn’t this all rather insular? Isn’t it encouraging an inward looking Christianity – the Spirit will be in us and we will know the Father and his Son. What about the world? That, at least in part, seems to have been in the mind of the other Judas who asks Jesus, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
He seems to have a point, doesn’t he? If Jesus has come from God and is the way, the truth and the life, the exclusive way to God, why wrap that up and hide it away? Why stop with a few disciples? Why not reveal himself to the world? Two things need to be said.
Firstly, Jesus tells Judas that the way is not closed, that anyone and everyone can know him and the Father and can have the Spirit dwelling within them: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Anyone who hears Jesus’ call to repent and believe and responds to it, who shows the obedience of faith, will be welcomed into the family of God. The way is not barred but it is a narrow way – it is the way of faith in Jesus, the one who is the way, the truth and the life.
Secondly, remember the whole context of the Upper Room teaching. Jesus is going away and is equipping his disciples to take up his mission – to even do greater things than he has done. Heightened fellowship with God is not for purely personal enjoyment but it is essential equipping for going into the world with the gospel of grace.
Jesus will show himself to the world – in and through his disciples. If we love him, we will obey his word – and he will make his home in us. When that happens, it cannot be hidden – just look back at Jesus’ words in 13:35.
All of which leaves us with the most winsome invitation and the most exacting commission: invited to know ever deeper fellowship with God and commissioned to show the reality of that life to a world that is lost and in terrible darkness.
If we love him, we will obey what he commands.
We noticed that his promises were conditional: the doing of greater things would be based on his return to the Father and the disciples’ faith in Jesus; the answering of prayers would be for the glory of God and in accord with the character and will of the Son (his name).
The verses we’re looking at today continue that theme and advance it in significant ways.
1. Comings & Goings: Fellowship with God
Jesus has revealed himself as the exclusive way to God; in these verses, he reveals that he is also the giver of the Spirit. But what he says here about the coming of the Spirit and his Father’s coming to the disciples needs to worked through. When will Jesus come to his disciples (v.18) and in what way will both he and the Father come to the disciples and make their home with them?
I think that v.18 has the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus partly in view but the full picture can only really be understood to refer to the ministry of the Spirit.
The Spirit will be given by the Father in answer to the request of Jesus but we should note that scripture can also speak of the Son giving the Spirit; he proceeds from both the Father and the Son. And when he comes, his work will be to reveal the Father and the Son to his people. It is in that way pre-eminently that the Father and the Son will come to their own (v.21 is not restricted to the disciples as such but extends to ‘whoever’, that is to all believers in all ages).
Having noted that, we need to pay close attention to how Jesus described the Spirit and what he envisages him doing. He refers to the Spirit as “another Counsellor” (‘helper’; ‘paraclete’).
Jesus has been just that to his disciples. And he will continue to do those things is his exalted reign (as 1 Jn. 2:1 makes clear). But there was a great need for another helper who would be able to do what Jesus could not.
Jesus could not be with his people for ever; for his work to be completed he had to return to the Father. That prospect was filling his disciples with grief but their grief would be turned to joy for they would see Jesus again. That occurred after his resurrection but his promise is not to leave them as orphans and the outworking of that promise is in the giving of the Spirit.
• He is the one called alongside to help us; he will speak up for us; he will comfort us;
• He is the Spirit of truth: he reveals the truth about Jesus to us; he is the true one, the genuine article who alone can bring us to know God and Jesus his Son;
• He will witness to our spirits that we are the children of God (and so we will not be left as orphans);
• He will be the means by which we will experience the Father and the Son making their home with us, making us a spiritual temple in the Lord.
The ministry of the Spirit is absolutely necessary and wonderfully real. These are not empty words but a reality to know and to live.
2. Love and obedience
But we have skipped over v.15 which opens up this paragraph and the connection of that verse to the coming of the Spirit is very important. At first sight, it might seem that Jesus is saying that if we prove our love for him through our obedience then – and only then – will he ask the Father to send the Spirit to us.
But that is not the case. Jesus has plainly shown that the coming of the Spirit is conditioned only by his dying, rising and being exalted to the Father. It was never to be conditional upon the disciples’ faith – but, having said that, there is a distinct connection between the two made by Jesus here and we need to pay attention to it. First, though, we need to work through the relationship of love to obedience that Jesus speaks of here.
At the very start of this section in 13:1, John told us that having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the finish. In his teaching, praying and self-giving, Jesus was demonstrating divine love for his own.
In v.15, Jesus turns to the issue of the disciples’ love for him. God’s love for us calls forth our love for him (as John elsewhere says, “We love him because he first loved us”). But that isn’t Jesus’ emphasis here; he doesn’t exhort his disciples to love God but simply asserts that if we love him we will obey his commands.
This is a point that Jesus emphasises here - it recurs in vv.21,23,24. But what is the connection between love and obedience? Quite simply, Jesus is saying that our love for him will be demonstrated by our obedience to his word. That love will of course involve emotions but that is not to be the measure of whether we love God or not; rather, it is our obedience to the word of Jesus – to follow him as Lord and to love his people as he has loved us (see 13:34).
In his first letter, John tells us the marks of genuine Christians: what we believe about Jesus, how we live our lives and whether we love God’s people in deed and in truth. If we love him (as a response to his love for us) we will obey the word of Jesus.
Genuine love for God is not a matter primarily of the emotions but of doing his word. Do you love God?
Now to the connection between loving Jesus and his giving of the Spirit: it is as we show our love for him that we will discover more of the Spirit’s ministry and be conscious of the warm fellowship of Father and Son as they make their dwelling among us and in us (“I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you” v.20). That, surely, is something we would desire personally and corporately – to know the Father and his Son through fellowship with the Spirit.
But it will be ours only if we do the words of Jesus, taking seriously the call to faith and the life that proceeds from it – right belief, right conduct and genuine love for each other. Where those things are present, as concrete signs of our love for God, we can be sure that our enjoyment of fellowship with God will be heightened.
3. Jesus & the world
But isn’t this all rather insular? Isn’t it encouraging an inward looking Christianity – the Spirit will be in us and we will know the Father and his Son. What about the world? That, at least in part, seems to have been in the mind of the other Judas who asks Jesus, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
He seems to have a point, doesn’t he? If Jesus has come from God and is the way, the truth and the life, the exclusive way to God, why wrap that up and hide it away? Why stop with a few disciples? Why not reveal himself to the world? Two things need to be said.
Firstly, Jesus tells Judas that the way is not closed, that anyone and everyone can know him and the Father and can have the Spirit dwelling within them: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Anyone who hears Jesus’ call to repent and believe and responds to it, who shows the obedience of faith, will be welcomed into the family of God. The way is not barred but it is a narrow way – it is the way of faith in Jesus, the one who is the way, the truth and the life.
Secondly, remember the whole context of the Upper Room teaching. Jesus is going away and is equipping his disciples to take up his mission – to even do greater things than he has done. Heightened fellowship with God is not for purely personal enjoyment but it is essential equipping for going into the world with the gospel of grace.
Jesus will show himself to the world – in and through his disciples. If we love him, we will obey his word – and he will make his home in us. When that happens, it cannot be hidden – just look back at Jesus’ words in 13:35.
All of which leaves us with the most winsome invitation and the most exacting commission: invited to know ever deeper fellowship with God and commissioned to show the reality of that life to a world that is lost and in terrible darkness.
If we love him, we will obey what he commands.
sermon on john 14:12-14
Some products make large promises for themselves – or at least those advertising them do. But all too often, the reality is a great let-down – far from being and doing what they claim, they disappoint and annoy.
And this passage can also be taken that way – it makes the most amazing claims and promises but is that really how it is? Taking it as it stands, people might say, ‘Well, I asked for healing and never got it’; ‘I wanted a life-partner and never found one’; ‘I prayed for an opening to serve God but only found closed doors’.
Then, in the light of these words, some answer that the problem lies not in the promises or the one who makes them but in the one doing the asking – if only they had sufficient faith then God would have answered their prayers and how.
And so we’re left asking whether Jesus’ words are the empty claims of a spiritual salesman or, if not, whether the fault lies in our small and ineffective faith? Neither option is attractive. But there is a third option: maybe we need to pay more careful attention to what Jesus is actually saying here. How should we understand his words? What is he really promising to his disciples, then and now?
1. Greater Works & the faith that produces them
One of the most tantalising aspects of Jesus’ words here is the promise that his disciples will not simply do as he has done but will do greater works than even Jesus has done. What does that mean – the dead regularly raised, every sickness healed, all storms stilled?
Clearly, if that was Jesus’ meaning then the church has never lived out his words, not even in the book of Acts. A much more likely explanation is that the church will see many more conversions than Jesus did in his ministry – a point which is certainly true. But we still haven’t got the heart of what Jesus is saying.
i) The ‘why’ of greater works What these greater works are is intimately tied by Jesus to the reason why they will do them: “because I am going to the Father” (v.12).
Jesus is going to be glorified and that will inaugurate a whole new age in which his Spirit will be poured out upon his people. In 1:50 and 5:20 Jesus speaks of greater things which are connected with his glorification – when he ascends, a new day is born which is justifiably called ‘greater’.
This is very similar to what Jesus says about John the Baptist and the one who is least in the kingdom being greater than John. Why is that the case? Because John is the last of the old covenant prophets; a whole new age is being brought to birth in and through Jesus – and that age is born when Jesus ascends and pours out his Spirit (see Mt. 11:11ff).
So the greater works are so-called because they are works that proceed from the reality that Jesus has been exalted. What was begun in the earthly ministry of Jesus reaches its fullness when he is exalted and his church sent out in mission to the world – we have a full message to proclaim of a Saviour who lived, died, rose and ascended – it is a glorious message which yields greater works.
ii The need for faith But the promise of Jesus in v.12 (and it is a solemn promise; “I tell you the truth”) is a conditional one. Jesus says “anyone who has faith in me will do…” – and that is a very important qualification.
But what precisely is he saying? Is he intending to make a point about the quantity of faith a person has, so that his words really mean ‘anyone who has sufficient faith in me…’? That’s how some explain his words but elsewhere Jesus tells us that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains (Lk. 17:6).
The point is not so much about quantity but the nature of faith and who it is focussed upon. Jesus is speaking about trust in him as the risen and ascended Lord of glory, a faith that is focussed upon him and his Kingdom (with all its concerns).
It isn’t a matter of having a strong enough trust in Jesus that will then yield what we’re hoping for; Jesus is calling us to a trust that honours him as Lord, that seeks first his kingdom and righteousness.
And, very importantly, there is a link between faith and obedience in the wider context – it is those who obey what Jesus commands who will be conscious of fellowship with the Father and the Son and who will know most of the work of his Spirit in and through them (v.15ff).
2. Praying for anything & receiving it
Having promised that his disciples will do greater things, Jesus follows it in vv.13,14 with a promise that they can ask for anything in his name and he will do it. This falls into similar territory, with the same possibilities for misunderstanding and misuse; we need to pay close attention to what Jesus actually says here.
i) The purpose of prayer Again, Jesus speaks here of why he will answer his disciples’ prayer: “so that the Son may bring glory to the Father” (or, more accurately, “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son”).
This is entirely in keeping with what Jesus teaches in the Lord’s Prayer, that we focus on God and his glory, longing for his name to be hallowed and his will to be done. Jesus will answer the prayers of his people in order that his Father may be glorified – and that is no surprise, it was the heartbeat of his whole mission.
ii) Praying in Jesus’ name And this helps us to grasp what Jesus means by the condition he sets upon the prayers he will answer, that they are asked ‘in his name’. To ask in Jesus’ name is not to simply attach his name to the end of our prayers but to ask in line with the character of the Son and in line with the character of his mission.
So there is no way that Jesus is giving his people carte blanche here to just ask for what they want and they can have it; this is a call to pray in line with God’s will and for God’s glory. This is prayer with God and his kingdom at the very centre.
And notice that the contrast in these verse is not between what Jesus did and what his disciples will do; it is between what Jesus did and what he will continue to do through his people – “I will do whatever you ask in my name” (v.13).
3. Living it out
So Jesus makes some amazing promises – how should we respond to what he has said?
i) By recognising the age we live in and responding with faith in Jesus, a faith that is not just a formal belief but personal trust and commitment. We live in the age of ‘greater works’; the age of the Spirit.
That holds amazing promise for our life in this world, but the challenge is to live out our lives with faith in Jesus, with him at the centre, with his concerns firmly upon our heart, with an obedience to his word that yields a sweetness of fellowship with Father and Son and that issues in a greater awareness and experience of the power of his Spirit.
ii) By praying in Jesus name and so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. There is the closest connection in these verses between having faith in Jesus and praying in Jesus’ name – the two belong together; if we are believers, we are to be pray-ers too.
Praying in Jesus’ name means we must endeavour to pray in line with his will and for his glory, which means we need to soak our minds in the scriptures so that our prayers reflect their concern for God’s glory. The burden of our prayers is not to be our comfort and ease, nor the security of loved ones but rather the glory of God in the Son.
As we do that, Jesus has encouraged us to expect that our prayers will be heard and answered; after all, he has gone to the Father and has poured out his Spirit, making this the day of greater things. Shouldn’t that give a real impetus to our living and our praying, both personal and corporate?
And this passage can also be taken that way – it makes the most amazing claims and promises but is that really how it is? Taking it as it stands, people might say, ‘Well, I asked for healing and never got it’; ‘I wanted a life-partner and never found one’; ‘I prayed for an opening to serve God but only found closed doors’.
Then, in the light of these words, some answer that the problem lies not in the promises or the one who makes them but in the one doing the asking – if only they had sufficient faith then God would have answered their prayers and how.
And so we’re left asking whether Jesus’ words are the empty claims of a spiritual salesman or, if not, whether the fault lies in our small and ineffective faith? Neither option is attractive. But there is a third option: maybe we need to pay more careful attention to what Jesus is actually saying here. How should we understand his words? What is he really promising to his disciples, then and now?
1. Greater Works & the faith that produces them
One of the most tantalising aspects of Jesus’ words here is the promise that his disciples will not simply do as he has done but will do greater works than even Jesus has done. What does that mean – the dead regularly raised, every sickness healed, all storms stilled?
Clearly, if that was Jesus’ meaning then the church has never lived out his words, not even in the book of Acts. A much more likely explanation is that the church will see many more conversions than Jesus did in his ministry – a point which is certainly true. But we still haven’t got the heart of what Jesus is saying.
i) The ‘why’ of greater works What these greater works are is intimately tied by Jesus to the reason why they will do them: “because I am going to the Father” (v.12).
Jesus is going to be glorified and that will inaugurate a whole new age in which his Spirit will be poured out upon his people. In 1:50 and 5:20 Jesus speaks of greater things which are connected with his glorification – when he ascends, a new day is born which is justifiably called ‘greater’.
This is very similar to what Jesus says about John the Baptist and the one who is least in the kingdom being greater than John. Why is that the case? Because John is the last of the old covenant prophets; a whole new age is being brought to birth in and through Jesus – and that age is born when Jesus ascends and pours out his Spirit (see Mt. 11:11ff).
So the greater works are so-called because they are works that proceed from the reality that Jesus has been exalted. What was begun in the earthly ministry of Jesus reaches its fullness when he is exalted and his church sent out in mission to the world – we have a full message to proclaim of a Saviour who lived, died, rose and ascended – it is a glorious message which yields greater works.
ii The need for faith But the promise of Jesus in v.12 (and it is a solemn promise; “I tell you the truth”) is a conditional one. Jesus says “anyone who has faith in me will do…” – and that is a very important qualification.
But what precisely is he saying? Is he intending to make a point about the quantity of faith a person has, so that his words really mean ‘anyone who has sufficient faith in me…’? That’s how some explain his words but elsewhere Jesus tells us that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains (Lk. 17:6).
The point is not so much about quantity but the nature of faith and who it is focussed upon. Jesus is speaking about trust in him as the risen and ascended Lord of glory, a faith that is focussed upon him and his Kingdom (with all its concerns).
It isn’t a matter of having a strong enough trust in Jesus that will then yield what we’re hoping for; Jesus is calling us to a trust that honours him as Lord, that seeks first his kingdom and righteousness.
And, very importantly, there is a link between faith and obedience in the wider context – it is those who obey what Jesus commands who will be conscious of fellowship with the Father and the Son and who will know most of the work of his Spirit in and through them (v.15ff).
2. Praying for anything & receiving it
Having promised that his disciples will do greater things, Jesus follows it in vv.13,14 with a promise that they can ask for anything in his name and he will do it. This falls into similar territory, with the same possibilities for misunderstanding and misuse; we need to pay close attention to what Jesus actually says here.
i) The purpose of prayer Again, Jesus speaks here of why he will answer his disciples’ prayer: “so that the Son may bring glory to the Father” (or, more accurately, “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son”).
This is entirely in keeping with what Jesus teaches in the Lord’s Prayer, that we focus on God and his glory, longing for his name to be hallowed and his will to be done. Jesus will answer the prayers of his people in order that his Father may be glorified – and that is no surprise, it was the heartbeat of his whole mission.
ii) Praying in Jesus’ name And this helps us to grasp what Jesus means by the condition he sets upon the prayers he will answer, that they are asked ‘in his name’. To ask in Jesus’ name is not to simply attach his name to the end of our prayers but to ask in line with the character of the Son and in line with the character of his mission.
So there is no way that Jesus is giving his people carte blanche here to just ask for what they want and they can have it; this is a call to pray in line with God’s will and for God’s glory. This is prayer with God and his kingdom at the very centre.
And notice that the contrast in these verse is not between what Jesus did and what his disciples will do; it is between what Jesus did and what he will continue to do through his people – “I will do whatever you ask in my name” (v.13).
3. Living it out
So Jesus makes some amazing promises – how should we respond to what he has said?
i) By recognising the age we live in and responding with faith in Jesus, a faith that is not just a formal belief but personal trust and commitment. We live in the age of ‘greater works’; the age of the Spirit.
That holds amazing promise for our life in this world, but the challenge is to live out our lives with faith in Jesus, with him at the centre, with his concerns firmly upon our heart, with an obedience to his word that yields a sweetness of fellowship with Father and Son and that issues in a greater awareness and experience of the power of his Spirit.
ii) By praying in Jesus name and so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. There is the closest connection in these verses between having faith in Jesus and praying in Jesus’ name – the two belong together; if we are believers, we are to be pray-ers too.
Praying in Jesus’ name means we must endeavour to pray in line with his will and for his glory, which means we need to soak our minds in the scriptures so that our prayers reflect their concern for God’s glory. The burden of our prayers is not to be our comfort and ease, nor the security of loved ones but rather the glory of God in the Son.
As we do that, Jesus has encouraged us to expect that our prayers will be heard and answered; after all, he has gone to the Father and has poured out his Spirit, making this the day of greater things. Shouldn’t that give a real impetus to our living and our praying, both personal and corporate?
sermon on john 14:4-11
Jesus is leaving his disciples; he will be with them only a little while longer – and that departure has a two-fold meaning. He is going to be taken from them violently, crucified and buried; then he will be taken from them in his exaltation.
Having announced his departure, he is seeking to comfort them and in vv.1-3 urges them to trust in God and to trust in him – his going away is in order to secure a permanent place for them in the Father’s household – starting now and gloriously completed when he returns.
In vv.4-11 that discussion is furthered in how it directly relates to the disciples. They are not simply bystanders; they (and we) must respond to what Jesus is teaching.
1. The way of Jesus and Jesus the Way
In v.4, Jesus tells them that they know the way to where he is going – after all, he has explained to them that he is going to be lay down his life for his sheep, that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it cannot produce other seeds. And, without metaphor, he has told them he is to be betrayed and will be lifted up from the earth.
In many ways, Jesus has opened for them the way he is about to take. But, just like you and me, they are slow learners. Here it is Thomas who demonstrates that when he replies to Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going so how can we know the way?” (v.5).
He is assuming that the way Jesus is about to take will also form the way for the disciples to take and, partly, he is right to assume that (in that all disciples must go the way of the cross – Jesus himself says so). And yet in a very important sense, he is badly mistaken, as Jesus’ famous words make plain.
In response to the slowness and confusion shown by Thomas, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (v.6). There are massive implications in those words. Jesus is here proclaiming an exclusive way to God; all roads do not lead to God – there is one way only.
That doesn’t sit comfortably with most people today and it is certainly true that we need to be careful how we convey this claim but we must never go soft on it – there is no hope for anyone outside of Jesus – that’s what he says here, plainly and clearly.
But, important as that is, what we must also see is that Jesus is not saying that the way to God the Father is by following his way; it is by following him – he is the way! Don Carson has expressed this truth memorably in a sonnet…
The way Jesus took was a unique way, a way that we are not called to travel. His was the way of utter loss and rejection; his was the cup full of woe for our sins; his was the unimaginable anguish and pain of separation from the Father. Our way is not that way but the Jesus who went that way for us.
This is dazzlingly important for his disciples to grasp – then and now. The only way to the Father is by the Son, not by any sacrifice or pain that we might endure. Yes, we are called to serve sacrificially; yes, we will have to endure pain and sorrow and maybe much more. But none of those are in order to secure us a place in the Father’s family; none of those are to atone for our sins – Jesus, Jesus is the way.
2. Why Jesus is the Way (vv.7-10)
But some may ask us why it is that Jesus is the way – it is clear that he says he is but why is that so? The answer to that question is found in vv.7-10.
There is a textual issue in v.7 which it might be helpful to clear up. The NIV wording seems to suggest that the disciples might not really know Jesus because they don’t seem to know the Father, but there is another possibility, reflected in the TNIV: “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”
Whichever text is correct, the implication is the same in both and is drawn out by Jesus: from now on, they do know the Father and have seen him. To which Philip replies, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” – he hasn’t yet grasped what Jesus is saying and so Jesus makes it as plain as can be: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (v.9).
That claim is utterly astonishing and could not be taken any higher. Jesus is aligning himself with God the Father in the closest possible way – he isn’t saying he is a bit like God; he is without doubt saying that he is God, come in the flesh.
The words of Philip almost echo those of Moses when he asked the Lord to show him his glory; you’ll remember that the answer he was given is that it is impossible for man to look at God but the Lord would show him something of his glory. Well, as this gospel has already made plain in 1:14-18, especially v.18: “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
Why is Jesus the way to God? Because he is the Son who fully reveals the Father; he is in the Father and the Father is in him (v.10); it is the Father who is at work in and through him.
In the OT, the law revealed much of God to the people – it revealed his ways, it disclosed his truth, it held out the promise of life – but all those things are found fully and finally not in the law but in Jesus the Son of God: he is the way, the truth, the life, because he is the true and full revelation of God.
The claim to be the exclusive way to God makes complete sense when we grasp who Jesus is. If to see him is to see the Father, what other way could be needed to come to God? Every other claim to truth is then, of necessity, lesser and under suspicion – the benchmark for God is Jesus.
This explains why Jesus is the way but it also shows us why we must hold onto that declaration in days that despise such claims – the Father has been fully and uniquely revealed in Jesus his Son; to go soft on that claim is to rob God of his glory and it is to endanger the lives of those we share the message with. The claims of Jesus are stark and bold – but nothing less will do as we engage a lost world with the message of the gospel.
3. Why you should believe Jesus reveals the Father (v.11)
But large claims need strong evidence to back them up – why should anyone believe what Jesus is claiming here?
In v.11 Jesus calls for belief in what he says – in a very real sense, if he says it then it’s enough for his disciples. But Jesus realises that might be problematic for them and so he adds, “or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves”.
John has catalogued in this gospel 7 signs from the many that Jesus performed; his purpose in doing so for his readers is put in these terms: “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name” (20:31). Jesus is saying just that to his disciples here – the works he has performed stand as powerful testimony to his claim that he is in the Father and the Father is in him.
Although he calls them ‘works’ here, elsewhere they are called signs and that is precisely how they function – pointing us to the reality that, in Jesus, the Father is active, bringing about a new creation, overcoming sin and death, uncorking the blessings of the last days, drawing near in saving and healing power.
The evidence is there for all to see – for those who have never come to faith in Jesus and also for disciples whose hearts are heavy and troubled for whatever reason.
Is it right and wise to trust Jesus? The answer is clear: yes, he alone is the way to God, to becoming a child of God, having been born again; he is the way to God because he alone fully reveals God; and the evidence for that is in the works he has done – they will bear continued meditation and will yield much comfort and strength as we do that.
We know where he has gone; we know he is himself the way there for us; we know that in him we have seen the Father. Those are realities to sustain and strengthen our daily living and to bear a keen testimony to others of the precious person of Jesus.
Having announced his departure, he is seeking to comfort them and in vv.1-3 urges them to trust in God and to trust in him – his going away is in order to secure a permanent place for them in the Father’s household – starting now and gloriously completed when he returns.
In vv.4-11 that discussion is furthered in how it directly relates to the disciples. They are not simply bystanders; they (and we) must respond to what Jesus is teaching.
1. The way of Jesus and Jesus the Way
In v.4, Jesus tells them that they know the way to where he is going – after all, he has explained to them that he is going to be lay down his life for his sheep, that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it cannot produce other seeds. And, without metaphor, he has told them he is to be betrayed and will be lifted up from the earth.
In many ways, Jesus has opened for them the way he is about to take. But, just like you and me, they are slow learners. Here it is Thomas who demonstrates that when he replies to Jesus, “Lord, we don’t know where you’re going so how can we know the way?” (v.5).
He is assuming that the way Jesus is about to take will also form the way for the disciples to take and, partly, he is right to assume that (in that all disciples must go the way of the cross – Jesus himself says so). And yet in a very important sense, he is badly mistaken, as Jesus’ famous words make plain.
In response to the slowness and confusion shown by Thomas, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (v.6). There are massive implications in those words. Jesus is here proclaiming an exclusive way to God; all roads do not lead to God – there is one way only.
That doesn’t sit comfortably with most people today and it is certainly true that we need to be careful how we convey this claim but we must never go soft on it – there is no hope for anyone outside of Jesus – that’s what he says here, plainly and clearly.
But, important as that is, what we must also see is that Jesus is not saying that the way to God the Father is by following his way; it is by following him – he is the way! Don Carson has expressed this truth memorably in a sonnet…
The way Jesus took was a unique way, a way that we are not called to travel. His was the way of utter loss and rejection; his was the cup full of woe for our sins; his was the unimaginable anguish and pain of separation from the Father. Our way is not that way but the Jesus who went that way for us.
This is dazzlingly important for his disciples to grasp – then and now. The only way to the Father is by the Son, not by any sacrifice or pain that we might endure. Yes, we are called to serve sacrificially; yes, we will have to endure pain and sorrow and maybe much more. But none of those are in order to secure us a place in the Father’s family; none of those are to atone for our sins – Jesus, Jesus is the way.
2. Why Jesus is the Way (vv.7-10)
But some may ask us why it is that Jesus is the way – it is clear that he says he is but why is that so? The answer to that question is found in vv.7-10.
There is a textual issue in v.7 which it might be helpful to clear up. The NIV wording seems to suggest that the disciples might not really know Jesus because they don’t seem to know the Father, but there is another possibility, reflected in the TNIV: “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”
Whichever text is correct, the implication is the same in both and is drawn out by Jesus: from now on, they do know the Father and have seen him. To which Philip replies, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us” – he hasn’t yet grasped what Jesus is saying and so Jesus makes it as plain as can be: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (v.9).
That claim is utterly astonishing and could not be taken any higher. Jesus is aligning himself with God the Father in the closest possible way – he isn’t saying he is a bit like God; he is without doubt saying that he is God, come in the flesh.
The words of Philip almost echo those of Moses when he asked the Lord to show him his glory; you’ll remember that the answer he was given is that it is impossible for man to look at God but the Lord would show him something of his glory. Well, as this gospel has already made plain in 1:14-18, especially v.18: “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”
Why is Jesus the way to God? Because he is the Son who fully reveals the Father; he is in the Father and the Father is in him (v.10); it is the Father who is at work in and through him.
In the OT, the law revealed much of God to the people – it revealed his ways, it disclosed his truth, it held out the promise of life – but all those things are found fully and finally not in the law but in Jesus the Son of God: he is the way, the truth, the life, because he is the true and full revelation of God.
The claim to be the exclusive way to God makes complete sense when we grasp who Jesus is. If to see him is to see the Father, what other way could be needed to come to God? Every other claim to truth is then, of necessity, lesser and under suspicion – the benchmark for God is Jesus.
This explains why Jesus is the way but it also shows us why we must hold onto that declaration in days that despise such claims – the Father has been fully and uniquely revealed in Jesus his Son; to go soft on that claim is to rob God of his glory and it is to endanger the lives of those we share the message with. The claims of Jesus are stark and bold – but nothing less will do as we engage a lost world with the message of the gospel.
3. Why you should believe Jesus reveals the Father (v.11)
But large claims need strong evidence to back them up – why should anyone believe what Jesus is claiming here?
In v.11 Jesus calls for belief in what he says – in a very real sense, if he says it then it’s enough for his disciples. But Jesus realises that might be problematic for them and so he adds, “or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves”.
John has catalogued in this gospel 7 signs from the many that Jesus performed; his purpose in doing so for his readers is put in these terms: “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name” (20:31). Jesus is saying just that to his disciples here – the works he has performed stand as powerful testimony to his claim that he is in the Father and the Father is in him.
Although he calls them ‘works’ here, elsewhere they are called signs and that is precisely how they function – pointing us to the reality that, in Jesus, the Father is active, bringing about a new creation, overcoming sin and death, uncorking the blessings of the last days, drawing near in saving and healing power.
The evidence is there for all to see – for those who have never come to faith in Jesus and also for disciples whose hearts are heavy and troubled for whatever reason.
Is it right and wise to trust Jesus? The answer is clear: yes, he alone is the way to God, to becoming a child of God, having been born again; he is the way to God because he alone fully reveals God; and the evidence for that is in the works he has done – they will bear continued meditation and will yield much comfort and strength as we do that.
We know where he has gone; we know he is himself the way there for us; we know that in him we have seen the Father. Those are realities to sustain and strengthen our daily living and to bear a keen testimony to others of the precious person of Jesus.
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