Comfort In Christ - [John 14:7-14]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

2 views

0 comments

00:00
Well, I'd invite you to open your Bibles this morning to John chapter 14. John chapter 14 as we continue in the book of John.
00:11
How many of you have seen these commercials on TV where they're selling silver or gold?
00:18
Have you seen any of these? If you don't, you don't have a TV and blessed are you among men. You know,
00:25
I watch these things and I'm just like, okay, let's just think about this. Here's this company that is so wonderful that they're going to sell me gold and gold is going to go through the roof.
00:36
It must be the first company in history that ever cared more about its customers than about its bottom line, right?
00:43
We don't care how much money we make. We could, we could keep the gold ourselves and we could get rich, but that's not what we're going to do.
00:50
That's not what we're about. Come on. Silver, silver could explode.
00:57
Silver is great. Silver is this, silver is that. But they want to help you, right? Why do they, why do they do this?
01:06
Because they're appealing to one thing, our fears. They're appealing to our fears.
01:13
The stock market's going to go down. Money's not going to be worth anything. Society's going to fall apart and you know what?
01:19
You're going to be able to take a fleck of gold and buy six months worth of food.
01:27
What they don't mention is you're probably going to need like a militia with you to get it. But they're appealing to our fears.
01:37
I've been thinking a lot about fear and what it means to remain calm in the face of overwhelming odds.
01:44
I've been reading this biography about Ulysses S. Grant. And it's interesting because, I mean, there are a lot of things that are interesting about him.
01:51
I mean, he was a complete failure up until the time he was about, well, up until the time of the Civil War starting.
01:58
And we don't, you know, often think, okay, he won the Civil War, president of the United States, complete failure, but that's what he was.
02:07
But he goes into his first battle, first real big battle. And he's feeling pretty good about his position in Shiloh.
02:16
He's feeling pretty good about it. Well, the Confederate general knows that he's feeling pretty good about it, so attacks him when he's not expecting it.
02:23
And the first day is a complete disaster. I mean, the Union forces get pushed way back. They've taken all these losses.
02:30
And, in fact, I mean, Grant has had already in the first early stages of the war a couple brushes with death.
02:37
He had a horse shot out from underneath him. Had another situation where he was standing next to an aide and the aide gets killed and he doesn't.
02:46
And then in this first battle, he actually, the Confederate forces are so close to him that they shoot at him and a bullet gets deflected by the scabbard of his sword.
02:59
The scabbard's broken and he's unharmed. And I just thought, in the midst of all that, he's running around to his troops on this, after the first day when they just got thrown back.
03:12
They were in full retreat mode, running as fast as they could. And he goes around to all of his forces and he tells them, we'll get them tomorrow, boys, we'll get them tomorrow, boys.
03:26
And they believe him. Leadership, real leadership, not fear -mongering, but real leadership provides calm in the midst of, and hope in the midst of the worst circumstances.
03:46
And taking it to a whole other level, as we go to John chapter 14, we're going to see
03:53
Jesus really call his disciples to comfort. He wants to calm them.
04:00
He wants to still their fears. And we're going to see this morning that he does it in a very unique way.
04:12
Let's go to our text. I'm going to start reading in verse 1 because I want us to really get the heart of the matter here that he's addressing.
04:25
John chapter 14, verse 1. Let not your hearts be troubled.
04:32
Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would
04:40
I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you,
04:45
I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.
04:52
And you know the way to where I am going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going.
04:59
How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
05:07
No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my
05:14
Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said to him,
05:22
Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.
05:29
Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me,
05:37
Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the
05:43
Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you,
05:50
I do not speak of my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
05:57
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves.
06:05
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the
06:16
Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the
06:21
Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name,
06:27
I will do it. Now, we know the goal of John's Gospel.
06:32
It is to show that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and that eternal life is available only in him.
06:42
And we're in the upper room discourse. The disciples are discouraged. Judas has left, somebody rightly pointed out to me.
06:51
Well, maybe not all the disciples knew about it. Well, at least Peter and John knew about it, and we don't know if the other ones knew about it, but at least a few of them would have known.
07:02
And Judas is gone. Peter has already been prophesied that he's going to deny the
07:09
Lord before the cock crows three times. Jesus has told them that he is, in effect, going to die, that he's going to leave them, and leave them because of death.
07:25
So this is a time of discouragement. Last week we talked about really finishing up verses 1 to 6 and just talking about the uniqueness of Christianity.
07:38
If what Jesus said in verses 1 to 6 is true, then every other religion is false.
07:43
And he did that, we know from verse 1, because the disciples are discouraged. He wants them to stop being discouraged, to stop being trouble in hearts.
07:57
In fact, if we just look briefly back, he tells them that he's in his father's house in many rooms, we talked about that, and we talked about how that's heaven.
08:11
Then he says, if he goes to prepare a place for them in heaven, he will come back and take them to himself, right, so that he can be with them forever.
08:23
Then he says that they know the way, and that's when Thomas, we've already dealt with Peter, and now Thomas, Lord, we do not know where you are going.
08:33
How can we know the way? And that's when he says, I am the way, the truth, the life. He is the only way.
08:41
He is the only means, and he says it right there in verse 6, at the end of it, no one comes to the
08:47
Father except through me. There is no way to get to heaven other than through him. So every other religion that doesn't preach
08:54
Christ and him crucified is a false religion right off the top. Religions exist, we said last week, to explain how we got here and where we're going, and Jesus makes it plain in verse 6 that there is only one way to the
09:10
Father, and he himself is that way. Now this morning we're going to look at three,
09:17
I think, pretty shocking truths designed to strengthen the weak in faith, designed to strengthen the weak in faith, those who are struggling.
09:28
The disciples are struggling. We're going to see that they are weak in faith.
09:36
So how does Jesus kind of bolster them? How does he give them that kind of calm leadership in the midst of difficulty, in the midst of spiritual battle, we could say?
09:47
How does he do that? By giving them these shocking truths, which are, oddly enough, very theological.
09:59
You're struggling. You're having difficulty in life. What do you do? You focus on your difficulties.
10:05
How many times do we say this? Stop looking at your problems and look at Christ. Three shocking truths designed to strengthen the weak in faith.
10:17
The first shocking truth, the triune God, that is to say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, has shown himself to us.
10:25
He has shown himself to us. Why is that a shocking truth? Well, it's shocking because in the ancient world, what did they believe?
10:32
That you either have idols or you have the God of the Hebrews, who is a spirit, can't be seen.
10:43
So this is a shocking truth to the disciples, the triune God has shown himself to us. Look at verse 7.
10:49
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him, and listen, and have seen him.
11:03
They would have been chin -scratching after that one. The disciples knew the way, right?
11:10
Because they knew the way, Jesus. He said that. He was their master, their
11:15
Lord, and he says, I am the way. Now look at verse 7. If you had known me, and that had known me is perfect tense.
11:27
And for those of you who aren't Greek scholars, which is probably most of us, we talk about the perfect tense from time to time.
11:33
The present tense is the most common. It just means ongoing, right? Like belief. If you believe present tense, that means you have an ongoing belief.
11:42
Well, here this is perfect tense. If you had known me, perfect tense, meaning one -time action, ongoing results.
11:53
If you had known me, you would have known my
11:58
Father also. Jesus is telling them, not that they don't know him, in the sense that they have no idea who he is, but they didn't know him with the depth that they ought to have known him.
12:09
They didn't believe enough of what he had said about himself, that they'd not contemplated his words, that they hadn't fully absorbed his teaching.
12:21
I mean, if we think about it, the disciples spent some time arguing with each other. What about? Is it true that Jesus is the second person of the
12:28
Trinity? Can you believe that he would condescend and come live with us? Even though that's what he said.
12:35
Those are not the kind of discussions they had. What did they say? Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
12:41
I'm better than you are. I'm going to sit at Jesus' right hand. No, I'm going to, you know. They were kids.
12:48
No spiritual maturity. And if they had plumbed the depths of his teaching, they would have come to know the
12:55
Father too. And that makes sense, right? No one comes to the
13:00
Father except through Jesus. And the way to know the Father is to know the one he sent to reveal himself.
13:14
God came to earth. Why? For two reasons. One is to save his people, but the other is that we might know him.
13:23
Now that Jesus has explained this to them, that this is what they should do, or how they should understand that they have seen
13:35
God, one commentator says this. He says this idea of knowing God, seeing
13:40
God, is a revolution both in religious experience and in theological understanding.
13:46
This is new. No one has ever seen God. That would be the
13:51
Hebrew mindset, right? I mean, sure, there had been Theophanies, Christophanies in the
13:58
Old Testament, but nobody had ever seen the Father because nobody can see him. There had been the burning bush. There had been the struggle with Israel at the tree.
14:11
There had been different appearances of God, but they hadn't been
14:17
God in the same sense that Jesus Christ represented God. One of the great things about the
14:26
Gospel of John, one of the reasons I really like it, is its theological precision. In John, more than I think certainly any other
14:34
Gospel, maybe more than any other book outside of maybe Romans and parts of Ephesians, the curtains kind of pulled back on the
14:44
Trinity, and we get to see some, not all, but some of the inner workings of the
14:50
Trinity, how the Father, Son, and Spirit work together. And we're going to see that a few times this morning.
15:00
As you know, Jesus came to earth and took on a second nature, that of being truly man.
15:07
And he came to rescue sinners. He also came to, I said this, but let me say it maybe in another way, came to reveal
15:16
God to mankind in a way that transcends anything in the Old Testament. What appeared in the
15:22
Old Testament were basically shadows of what the reality of Jesus Christ is.
15:28
If you turn for a moment back to John 1, John 1, verses 14 to 18.
15:42
Verse 14 is very familiar. The other verses maybe not quite as much.
15:50
Verse 14, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, this is Jesus, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only
15:59
Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom
16:08
I said, excuse me, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me.
16:15
Talking about John the Baptist. Verse 16, For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.
16:24
For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And listen to verse 18, No one has ever seen
16:30
God, the only God, who is at the Father's side. He has made him known.
16:40
In fact, I like the NAS here much better. And at the end of verse 18, because it says he has explained him.
16:50
That verb explained or has made him known means to give a description or a detailed reports.
16:57
When we think that's what Jesus does in coming to earth, right? We get to know the father, how by watching the son in action, by listening to him.
17:05
That's how we get to know the father. Back to our text. Philip doesn't really fully get it.
17:14
This is common, right? Jesus teaches. The disciples get some of it, but they don't get all of it.
17:24
We've talked about Peter's problem and Thomas's problem. And now we come to Philip and his question.
17:31
Philip said to him in verse eight, Lord, show us the father. Well, it's not really a question. Lord, show us the father and it is enough for us.
17:42
What is it that he wants? What does Philip want here? How about Jesus?
17:49
You know, since you know, the father, obviously, and since you are the way to the father, and since there's this close bond between you and the father, show us the father.
18:01
You, you've done all kinds of miracles. Maybe you can whip up some kind of theophany. That is to say a physical manifestation of God so that we can see him.
18:11
Maybe, you know, start a little burning bush over here. A little, we'll ask for a little Moses action, you know, just the, just something so that we can know in the midst of this difficulty, that God is with us.
18:30
He could have said, you know, how about you do that whole angel of the Lord thing that you did in the old
18:35
Testament? Cause that was Jesus, but he doesn't, he doesn't know that Philip certainly doesn't understand what
18:44
Jesus meant. He took it in a crassly literal sense. You know, we've seen the father.
18:49
Okay. Well, if we seen him, then let's see him make it happen. Jesus offers this mild rebuke here in verse nine.
19:02
Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me,
19:09
Philip. Now that first, you, he said, he's addressing the whole group. He says, if I've been with you guys so long, more than three years,
19:18
Philip was one of the first disciples to be, to come to Jesus. He says, have
19:25
I been with you all so long and you still don't know me? And the second you is singular pointing the finger right at Philip.
19:36
How could Philip not know who Jesus is? How many times has he declared, has Jesus declared that he is the sent from the father.
19:46
They only does and says exactly what the father wants him to do. That when he does these things, when he says these things, it is to reveal the father to mankind.
20:02
So he says it again. Verse nine, whoever has seen me has seen the father.
20:08
How could you say, show us the father. I'm it. And again, the perfect tense appears there.
20:16
Whoever has seen me has seen the father.
20:22
One time event. If you've seen him once, if you've known him once, you seen the father, you know the father.
20:31
Hendrickson comments. Once the spiritual knowledge has been obtained, it has abiding results.
20:39
In other words, once you have learned who Jesus is, once you have come to trust him, once you have come to know the father, you have entered the way you have entered into Christ.
20:52
As we said last week, there is no other way to know God because the son is God's final word to us.
20:58
We know that from Hebrews. There is no other way to know the father but through the son.
21:07
Now the inverse is also true. If you do not know the son, you cannot know the father.
21:16
And any religion that claims to have some insight, listen to this, insight into God.
21:23
Anybody who's on TV who says they have insight into God, apart from biblical revelation about Jesus Christ is lying.
21:36
The disciples, all 11 of them that remained, remember, Jesus is scary, it's gone, they believed.
21:43
He's not calling them out for failing to believe. However, their belief is not commensurate with what they've been taught, with the training they've been received.
21:52
Sometimes I like to say that of, I'll just be nice here, that of me too, right?
21:57
My faith is not equal to what I've been taught. If I believe what
22:03
I, you know, here's what I've been taught. Here's what I believe. I mean, I want to believe
22:09
Lord, help my unbelief. I want to get up to there. And if I do, I'll probably, you know, cease to exist or something, you know, so don't count on it.
22:22
So shocking truth. Number one, the triune God has shown himself to us.
22:29
This is to comfort them. They believe, but they had too much unbelief.
22:37
They trusted Jesus, but not as they should have. And in part, it was because they'd failed to take the time and effort to comprehend what they had been taught.
22:46
And I think there's some, might be a lesson in there for us. That we should take the time and effort to comprehend what we've been taught.
22:58
Shocking truth. Number two, the triune God has made himself known to us. He's shown himself to us.
23:04
He's made himself known to us. His character. I couldn't help myself.
23:10
I entitled this sub point. Oh, the depth of the riches of God. Look at verse 10. Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me?
23:19
He's still talking to Philip. What does that mean? I mean, the fancy schmancy theological word is interpenetration.
23:28
But I'm like, okay, what does that even mean? It means I'm in the father and the father's in me. Notice what
23:37
Jesus does not say. He does not say, do you not know that I am in the father and the father's in me?
23:45
And why do I want to say that? He doesn't say no. He says, believe because you can intellectually understand this.
23:53
You can intellectually read it, but if you don't believe it, if you don't internalize it, if it's not something you cling to, it's not going to benefit you.
24:06
Not only is it not going to benefit you eternally, it's not going to benefit you temporarily right now.
24:15
You need to be trusting, believing Jesus right now in order to grasp the truths that he's speaking of.
24:23
One has to have faith. One can study the Bible and understand it to some extent.
24:28
However, Paul tells us what in first Corinthians two 14, that the natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him.
24:38
And he is not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. In other words, apart from the working of the
24:46
Holy spirit, you can know some things, but you won't believe them. And belief is where the comfort comes from.
24:56
Holding onto these truths, believing them even in the midst of difficulty. So how can it be that the
25:05
Jesus is in the father and the father's in Jesus? You know, if I said my person is in my wife's person, my wife's person's in my person and we'd go, what does that even mean?
25:21
You know, have you guys been, you know, was there some kind of star Trek experiment that went awry? You know, you were in the transporter and you know, you got, sorry about that.
25:33
Start. I said, I use a star Trek illustration. I apologize. What does it mean?
25:41
It means that they are one in essence. Jesus himself said in John 10, 30, when the
25:48
Jews were ready to kill him, what I am, the father are one. And he's saying that basically that same thing here.
25:56
He's pulling the curtain back on the Trinity, the Trinity triune
26:01
God, father, son, Holy spirit, three distinct persons, but there is one
26:06
God. You say, well, how can it be? Well, because from Deuteronomy six, four, and even, you know, back to Genesis, there's always been one
26:16
God manifesting himself in three persons, showing us three persons, the father, son, and spirit.
26:28
This is factually true. They are one in essence. Even if we can't fully grasp it, we have to embrace these truths by faith.
26:38
Again, I want to be clear, let other religions, lower God, let them blaspheme him by saying that he was once like us, or suggesting that he is learning, or that he doesn't know everything, or that he is one person in three different modes.
26:54
If you love God and you love his word, you'll have nothing to do with the myths and fables of pseudo -Christianities.
27:01
I can't call Mormonism Christianity. I can't say that it's Christian. I can't say Jehovah Witnesses are
27:07
Christian, even if they want to claim it, even if they say we believe in Jesus, because they don't believe in this
27:14
Jesus. I can't say that somebody who's a Oneness Pentecostal is a
27:19
Christian, because if they hold to this doctrine, that there's one God with three sort of face masks, that's not
27:29
Christianity. Jesus here is very plain.
27:37
He says, I am in the father, and the father is in me. There is no difference. We are one in essence.
27:44
We are both fully divine. And what we're talking about here, again, theological 25 cent word, is the ontological trinity.
27:53
That is that they are equal in essence. They are all equally divine. And then he shifts gears.
28:01
And now he's going to remind us about the economy. Even though they are equal, even though there is no difference in what the father, son, or spirit can do, there is a difference in what they do and how they function.
28:15
And that's what the economy of the trinity is. There's a structure to the trinity. Look at verse 10.
28:21
Again, the second half of it. The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his works.
28:33
Now he's just declared his equality with the father, and now he's telling the disciples that he willingly submits.
28:42
Now it's interesting here. I hear people say, wives or men who have difficult bosses, say that they submit, but I never hear the unqualified submission that we see here.
28:59
The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. It doesn't even faze him at all. He doesn't say,
29:05
I can't really do my own thing. This is our example.
29:14
And I think we all need to repent of this. In fact,
29:24
Peter wrote, I think I cited probably as much as any other passage other than Ephesians chapter 4, 1
29:32
Peter 2, where he's just talking about this concept of submission. Well, where did he learn it? Where did he learn to say, slaves submit to your masters, wives submit to your husbands.
29:42
Where did he learn this? Well, right here, at the feet of Jesus. And again,
29:50
Jesus speaks of the father indwelling him. We also know that the Holy Spirit indwelt Jesus. Jesus often did his miraculous works by the power of the
30:01
Holy Spirit. So again, what do we make of this? How should we sort it all out?
30:07
Does the father dictate words for the son to repeat? Is that what he means when he says, I do not speak on my authority?
30:14
Is he like waiting to hear from the father and then he says whatever the father says?
30:23
They are of the same mind because they are the same essence. There is no division between the
30:29
Trinity. There is no argument between them. There's no divisiveness.
30:36
The son knows the mind of the father perfectly. Just as if we, again, going back to 1
30:43
Corinthians 2, who knows the mind of the father perfectly? The Holy Spirit does.
30:50
The Trinity working in harmony. Also notice back in our verse here, verse 10, that the words of Jesus are the works of the father.
31:03
The father who dwells in me does his works. His words are his works.
31:11
And that word there for works is typically used of some miraculous sign, but here it is used of the words of Jesus.
31:17
In a very real sense, the words of Jesus are a miracle. This is
31:23
God intervening in the space -time continuum and doing only what he can do, which is to say he's speaking to mankind.
31:34
And again, the disciples are troubled. We might say that they are the 98 -pound spiritual weaklings.
31:43
They need some bulking up. They need to hit the spiritual gym, as it were. So look at verse 11.
31:51
Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me. Again, stressing that. Or else believe on account of the works themselves.
32:03
Jesus is urging them, if you call back to verse 1, that he wanted them to stop being troubled.
32:13
Well, here he is saying to them, continue trusting, continue believing. This is a present tense.
32:21
Despite the difficult circumstances, keep on believing. And if you can't somehow grasp that I'm in the father and the father is in me, then he says, believe on account of the works, the miraculous things that you've seen me do.
32:43
They believe, but they've got a real case of wobbles. And he wants them to believe.
32:54
So we've seen shocking truth number one, the triune God has made himself known to us. Shocking truth number two, the triune
33:01
God has made himself known to us. And shocking truth number three, the triune
33:06
God continues, I'm sorry, works through us.
33:12
There's a shocking truth, that he works through us. Now, how is that going to happen?
33:22
Well, first of all, Jesus leaving is going to strengthen his disciples. Jesus leaving is going to strengthen his disciples.
33:31
In fact, he's going to strengthen them so much by leaving that they're going to exceed even him.
33:36
Look at verse 12. Truly, truly, I say to you, verily, verily, common phrase,
33:42
I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do.
33:48
And listen, and greater works than these will he do. So what does that mean?
33:53
Does that mean like the televangelists say? Well, that means we're going to do even greater things than Jesus did.
33:59
You know, if he raised one person from the dead, let's bring out a whole row of dead people and I'm going to raise them all up at the same time.
34:12
Are they going to do greater things than raising the dead? No, they are going to raise dead people. Are they going to do greater things than walking on water?
34:18
No. But what they are going to do, and the picture that he's painting for them is, they're going to do things on a larger scale.
34:26
They're going to do more things, more widespread. If we think about the entirety of the
34:33
New Testament, what are they doing? They're building up the church. They're going to places that Jesus never went to, to spread the gospel.
34:41
And if we even think about it this way, when Jesus was crucified and came back and the believers gathered together and he appeared to them, there were what?
34:50
How many? 500 believers, more or less. What happens on Pentecost?
34:58
Peter preaching 3 ,000 believe that day, and then it says in the book of Acts that daily people were being added to their numbers.
35:09
This didn't happen in the ministry of Jesus. So how is this?
35:20
How did it happen? Well, look at verse 12, second half of it. How are they going to do greater things than he did?
35:27
Because I am going to the Father. You guys are worried because I'm leaving, and I'm telling you, you're going to do greater things than I've done.
35:38
And why? Because I'm going. He's about to soon teach them about the
35:47
Holy Spirit, but he's foreshadowing that teaching right now. Because he's leaving, the
35:52
Holy Spirit will come upon the disciples, indwelling them, and causing them to do things they could not even imagine on that dreary night in Jerusalem.
36:05
Things they could not even imagine. I mean, think about it.
36:12
After Pentecost, you know, I once, this is an aside, there was an evangelist who's now with the
36:21
Lord and knows better, who once boasted that through his ministry, not him personally, but the ministry he started and his work, one billion people came to Christ.
36:35
And I remember reading that and just going, Peter, after Pentecost, after he saw the people coming forward and believing, 3 ,000 people.
36:51
He might have thought for a minute and just said, you know, what was it, 40 days or so, just five, six weeks ago, we had a meeting and there were only 500 people there.
37:00
And now look today, I preach 3 ,000 people added to the church. I'm pretty good. He knew he couldn't boast.
37:10
He knew he couldn't boast. He knew it was the work of the Holy Spirit. It's the same for us.
37:17
When you preach the gospel to someone and he or she believes you're merely the vessel.
37:26
I listened to somebody's testimony the other day on the internet. And as they recounted who it was, who the idiot was who gave them the gospel, it was me, by the way.
37:44
And I just remember thinking, I'm listening to him and I'm like, I listened to him and I got tears, not tears out of thinking what a great job
37:55
I did, but just thinking about how obstinate, how opposed and how anti -Christian he was and how
38:04
God has transformed him. And I thought, I don't get any of the glory for that.
38:10
And Peter would say the same thing. He doesn't get the glory for that. It's the Holy Spirit who's at work. And when somebody comes to Christ, he works through you.
38:21
Notice also that Jesus lives to intercede for his disciples. He's going to die, but he's going to live that he might intercede for his disciples.
38:30
Look at verse 13. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. He knows he's going to die.
38:37
He's told them that multiple times. And he knows he's going to die in just a few hours. So why is he able to say this?
38:44
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. He doesn't mean in the next four or five hours because he's going to the
38:53
Father. He's going to be raised from the dead. He's going to be seated at the right hand of the Father.
38:59
And he ever lives to make intercession for whom? For us. For believers.
39:09
Now he says, whatever you ask in my name, well, does that mean whatever? Whatever we want? Is that undefined?
39:15
Anything just kind of, is Jesus our kind of cosmic vending machine? No.
39:23
Again, let's think of the context here. He's trying to comfort those disciples. And he's like, you know, whatever you guys need in terms of comforting,
39:32
I'm going to grant it to you. Now, when we get discouraged, when we're concerned, what are the things that we're concerned the most about?
39:43
Well, I'll tell you what I think about most are the people that I know and love and care about who aren't saved.
39:51
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do. What a comfort to know that he'll do that.
39:59
As we were talking about in Sunday school, God is not only sovereign and salvation, but he ordains the means and prayer is one of those means we pray.
40:07
So that God will act. Jesus tells us at verse 13, why he will answer prayer.
40:14
Look, it's right here that the father may be glorified in the son. What glorifies
40:20
God more than redeeming sinners?
40:25
And the answer is nothing. He also says that we can pray directly to him.
40:33
Look at verse 14. And this is something, you know, I even was listening to a sermon about this.
40:38
And this is just kind of mind blowing. The preacher gave this illustration. He says, you know, he goes, I've got to straighten my daughter out on something because he has a young child and his young child started praying to Jesus.
40:50
And this man said to the guy who was telling him the story, he says, well, actually, she knows more than most theologians do.
41:00
It's good and right to pray to Jesus. What does he say right there? If you ask me anything in my name,
41:05
I will do it. Okay. Did he mean right up until the moment he got crucified? No.
41:13
Now, the typical model that we have in scripture and it's good and right and given to us by the
41:18
Lord is what to the father in the name of the son. And then we know it's by the power of the
41:27
Holy spirit. But again, Jesus knows that he's about to die and he tells his disciples that they can ask him directly, that they can pray to him directly.
41:38
He is no less God than the father and no more God than the Holy spirit, fully
41:44
God, fully man. He continues to work through us and he answers our prayers as well.
41:55
He works through our prayers. I want to ask you just this, is this the
42:02
Jesus you are believing in? Is this the Jesus you are trusting in? Is this the
42:08
Jesus you are staking your soul upon? I want to turn to just one passage here before we close
42:13
Matthew chapter 11. And I thought this very fitting here this morning.
42:23
So much about comfort has been on my mind this entire week.
42:35
Matthew 11 verse 25 at that time, Jesus declared,
42:41
I thank you father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding.
42:48
There's a, say the unsaved and reveal them to you to little children.
42:53
Yes, father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my father and no one knows the son except the father and no one knows the father except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him.
43:12
Then listen to this. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden.
43:21
And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
43:38
You carrying guilt with you, guilt from sin.
43:48
Maybe you've never come to faith in Christ at all. And you're wondering about your eternal destiny.
43:56
Jesus says, come to me, all who labor, who are trying with all their might to make themselves right, trying to straighten themselves out.
44:06
So there'll be acceptable to God. You will never be acceptable to God. Come to Jesus.
44:13
He is the way, the only way to the father. He alone died for sin after living a perfect life and then was raised on the third day.
44:27
He alone is the way to salvation.
44:33
Let's pray. Our father, there is tumult and just amazing episodes from day to day.
44:49
If there's not some big scandal or some attack somewhere, then there's threats of war, even nuclear war.
45:09
And there are those who seek comfort in silver, gold, food, things that your word says will rust, be destroyed, be burned up ultimately in the fire.
45:30
But you bid us to come to you, to have all our sins forgiven.
45:40
And all you say is trust. Believe in me, believe in all the scripture says that I am follow me for my yoke is easy.
46:00
And my burden is light father. Would you draw those today who do not know you?
46:10
Would you convict them or their sinfulness, their need for Christ? For those of us who are here, who know you, who love you, would you clarify our thoughts, purify them, push off our thoughts of self -reliance or our thoughts of fear, concern, worry, anxiety.
46:38
Let us yield ourselves fully to you that we might be used by you. We pray in Jesus name.