We’re not going to have a very
long message tonight. Instead, what I’m
going to do is let Jesus himself give the message.
What
I mean by that is that in John chapters fourteen through seventeen, Jesus gives
what could be called his farewell address to his disciples. So what I’m going to do tonight is read you
Jesus’ farewell address, and then just make a couple of comments afterward. I’m not going to use the screen—after all,
Jesus did not have a screen. What I want
you to do is what I’ve asked you to do in all of these Wednesday night
messages. I ask to again imagine you are
in the story. Imagine you are one of the
disciples, listening to Jesus.
This
comes after the last supper. It comes after
Judas has left them to go and let the Jewish authorities know where Jesus
was. It comes after Jesus has told Simon
Peter that, before morning, Simon Peter will three times deny knowing Jesus.
The
disciples don’t know what’s coming next.
But they know they’re in a dangerous situation. They know something’s about to happen, even
if they don’t know what it is. So, Jesus
starts talking to them. Here’s what he
says:
“Do
not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe
also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if
that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a
place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You
know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said
to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus
answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the Father except through me. If you
really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do
know him and have seen him.”
Philip said,
“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus
answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you
such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you
say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that
I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I
do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me,
who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and
the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works
themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever
believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do
even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I
will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified
in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
“If you love me,
keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of
truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor
knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in
you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before
long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I
live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in
my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my
commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be
loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Then
Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show
yourself to us and not to the world?”
Jesus replied, “Anyone
who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will
come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will
not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the
Father who sent me.
“All this I have spoken while
still with you. But the Advocate, 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. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be
troubled and do not be afraid.
“You heard me
say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you
would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater
than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen
you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this
world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the
world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has
commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
“I am the
true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in
me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he
prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean
because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain
in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine;
you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much
fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me,
you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked
up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words
remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is
to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be
my disciples.
“As the Father
has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If
you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my
Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my
joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this:
Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to
lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do
what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not
know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything
that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose
me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear
fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father
will give you. This is my command: Love each other.
“If the world
hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to
the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates
you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than
his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If
they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They
will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who
sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be
guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me
hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one
else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen,
and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what
is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
“When the
Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of
truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you
also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
“All this I
have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the
synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will
think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because
they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when
their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not
tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am
going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you
going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these
things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going
away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will
send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong
about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people
do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the
Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because
the prince of this world now stands condemned.
“I have much more
to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of
truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak
on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet
to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive
what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is
mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make
known to you.”
Jesus went on to
say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a
little while you will see me.”
At this, some of
his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a
little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will
see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept
asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what
he is saying.”
Jesus saw that
they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one
another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more,
and then after a little while you will see me’? Very truly I tell you, you
will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your
grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has
pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the
anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with
you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will
rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no
longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever
you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.
Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
“Though I have
been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer
use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In
that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the
Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have
loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father
and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the
Father.”
Then Jesus’
disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of
speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even
need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came
from God.”
“Do you now
believe?” Jesus replied. “A time is coming and in fact has come
when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all
alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
“I have told you
these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will
have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
After Jesus said
this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has
come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For
you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to
all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know
you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have
brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to
do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had
with you before the world began.
“I have revealed
you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you
gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that
everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you
gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from
you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am
not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are
yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has
come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they
are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect
them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be
one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept
them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one
doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
“I am coming to you now, but
I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the
full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and
the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am
of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but
that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is
truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the
world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
“My prayer is not
for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their
message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me
and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that
you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that
they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be
brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and
have loved them even as you have loved me.
“Father, I want
those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my
glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation
of the world.
“Righteous
Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that
you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will
continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in
them and that I myself may be in them.”
That was the end
of Jesus’ farewell address. After that,
he went out to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he would be arrested.
Did you put
yourself into the story? Did you imagine
yourself as one of Jesus’ disciples, listening to all this? How did you feel? What did you think?
I doubt if the
disciples really understood everything that Jesus was telling them. After all, as we’ve seen before, the
disciples hardly ever really understood what Jesus was telling them. But they knew Jesus was leaving. They did not know how that was going to
happen, but they knew he was leaving.
And they knew the one thing they were supposed to do: love each other. That was it, really. Obey Jesus’ teaching and love each
other. And don’t worry about the
consequences. Jesus said, people may
hate you, but that’s okay. People hate
me, too. Don’t worry about it. The Holy Spirit will be here to protect
you. You don’t know what the Holy Spirit
is, but just know that the Holy Spirit is from God. So you don’t have to be afraid.
And that’s really
the lesson for tonight. So let’s do
it. Let’s obey Jesus teaching, love each
other, and not worry about the consequences.
The Holy Spirit is here, and the Holy Spirit is from God. We don’t have to be afraid.
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