Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 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. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 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.
24 "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.
25 "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 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."
Dig Deeper
What’s the true measure of success when it comes to creating a religious community or any sort of organization or community for that matter? It’s not really how big of a movement you can create, although there is something to be said for that. A lot of people can do that, though. There are a lot of charismatic or talented folks that can create a big following. That’s usually the easy part, believe it or not. The true measure of success, however, is the ability to pass it on to the next generation. Can what you have created be passed on after it’s founder is no longer around? If it can’t, it’s exposed as a flash-in-the-pan that was based on little more than the charisma or ability of the founder. If it can, though, then you’ve got something that was probably well built and formed. I’ve seen this a lot in ministry or community organizations over the years. One person will start a movement, church, or organization that is very small and build it up to an impressive force and following, but as soon as they retire or pass away the organization begins to fall apart and slowly disintegrates. This is a testament to something that was built on the abilities of one person rather than a lasting and transcending movement. Failure to keep something going well after you are gone is a sure sign that what you built wasn’t really that well built after all.
On a personal level, parents know this concept well. We want nothing more than to pass on our beliefs to our children, especially when it comes to our faith in Christ. If we cannot pass that on to them and build up a subsequent generation of believers (both our children and new converts), then the church of which we are a part will slowly gray, fade, and eventually blow away in the winds of time. Jesus knew this concept well. He prays for his disciples that are about to be set out into the world to share his mission without him physically with them any longer, but he knows that what he is building must go beyond that. He wants the Father to protect those disciples but now his thoughts and prayers turn beyond that. What about those who come after these disciples? These people will be the fruit of these disciple’s mission, people that will never physically meet Jesus. Can the faith be passed on to them? Will they understand Christ’s glory? Will they live it out and then pass it on themselves to the next generation?
Because Jesus knows all too well the need to create a multi-generational legacy of those in Christ, his prayer is not for his current disciples alone. He prays for those who will believe in him through their message. Jesus didn’t just come to gather a bunch of followers around himself for his own glory, creating a comfortable life for himself in which he is adored and revered throughout his lifetime. He is creating the new people of God, a people that will last forever. A community that is built on the disciples message. This is why it is so important that the Holy Spirit lead them into all truth and testify about the Son (Jn. 14:26; 15:26). The community built around the truth of Jesus will be built on the message that is guided and preserved by the Holy Spirit. And here’s the really amazing part. What, do you suppose, is the Greek word that is translated "message" in verse 20? You guessed it. It’s the logos. It is the word of God, the ordering principle of the universe that is not just some abstract force, but has become flesh. The Logos has given his logos, the logos of the Father, to his disciples and it will be up to them to pass this logos on to future generations. They will, in other words, build communities that are built on the word of God.
But simply knowing this word will not be good enough. We can’t just "know" the word of God, it has to be lived out. That’s the whole point with the true logos. It became flesh. It can only be fully revealed when it is lived. This logos that is passed on to us must be lived out. The way to truly live it out is walk the path of glory that Jesus has revealed and to be unified in the same sort of unity that he has demonstrated in his relationship with the Father.
"If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen. And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another" (1 Jn. 4:20-21). John’s words from his first letter show exactly why Jesus prayed that his future disciples will be one as he and the Father are one. We have to live out the word. We cannot just say we love God without the accompanying unity that it produces. Our unity is based on the unity within the Trinity. God does not show his wisdom throughout the heavenly realms in the reality of the church (Eph. 3:10-11) by taking a bunch of people that have things in common and would normally blend together anyway and crafting them into a community. The world is full of communities of people who share commonalities. What displays God’s wisdom and power is to take a bunch of disparate people with different interests, different backgrounds, from different cultures, races, and nations and to make them one despite their serious differences. The unity of the church is best displayed in its diversity. A monolithic church that is made up mostly of one type of person does not display God’s full glory.
But how is that kind of unity going to be achieved? By displaying the glory that Christ has given to his communities. John says in chapter 13 that Jesus displayed the full extent of his love by laying his life down in service for others and the Father confirmed that he would be glorified and glorify the Son by sending him to the Cross (Jn. 12:28). The full expression of God’s character, God’s glory is seen through the sacrificial act of Jesus laying down his life for his friends and that is exactly what he has called us to do (Jn. 15:12-13). The kind of unity through diversity, the community that Jesus was masterfully building, we must never forget, takes effort and hard work, and being led by the Spirit. These relationships must be built on the foundation of being one in Christ, rather than worldly ideas of what constitutes friendships and communities, things like sharing common interests and backgrounds. It takes the constant act of us choosing to lay down our lives for the benefit of others. It takes nothing short of self-sacrificial love. These will be, after all, communities built on the love we have for one another (Jn. 13:34-35).
It is through this genuine self-giving love that the world will know that the Father has truly sent the Son and that those communities are authentic disciples of the Son. We must realize, however, that this doesn’t mean that the world will admire and even hold us in esteem. It just means that they will know we are his disciples. Those who are truly seeking God will find themselves drawn to the love of God manifested in the genuine Christian community. But those who love the darkness may very well hate disciples and reject them all the more based on that very love. This is a love that does not pattern itself after the world’s parody of love which says that I love when I accept you just as you are, but after a true love that calls each one of us to lay down our lives, enter into the life of Christ and then continue to lay down our lives for others and love them the way that Christ loved all of us.
We must never be swayed by the world’s version of love or their opinion of how God’s people should behave because the world does not know the Father. In Christ alone do we stand on the rock, able to know the Father because he and he alone knows the Father, was sent by the Father and has made the Father known. And how will we know the Father and make him known to the world? By mirroring the self-giving love and complete unity that the Son and the Father share. We will not demonstrate the love of the Father and the Son by backbiting and breaking down into selfish consumption. Every time we run behind another Christian’s back and say something negative about them that is not said in love rather than lovingly talking to them and forging a genuine unity, we preach a powerful sermon to the world about who the Father is. We must constantly ask ourselves then if we are preaching an accurate sermon with our lives? Is "the manifold wisdom of God [being] made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord"? When it comes down to it, I can seek worldly friendships and communities that appeal to my flesh but all they will ever get me is satisfaction of the flesh, they will never demonstrate the wisdom and power of God through my life.
Devotional Thought
What have you been building your friendships on lately? Has it been the desires of the flesh or a genuine desire to be unified in Christ and bring glory to God? Spend some time thinking about that today and pray about your heart in this matter.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
John 17:9-19
9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 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. 12 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.
13 "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. 14 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. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Dig Deeper
In just a very little while now, my wife and I will be leaving the United States for a nearly three week trip to South Africa. South Africa is truly one of the most beautiful places I have been to in my life, if not the hands down most beautiful. We went there last August and absolutely fell in love with the place. Not just the sites and the country itself, but even more importantly the people. We spent enough time there that we felt like we genuinely got to know the people there. We care about them, miss them, and look forward to seeing them again soon. Yet with all of that, going to see them and be with them is a bit of a struggle and we’re torn a bit (although we’re definitely still going) because we are leaving our sons behind. They will not be making this trip and the thought of leaving them for nearly three weeks is challenging. While we are gone, we plan to leave them with some great friends of ours who have graciously agreed to stay in our house and take care of the boys. They will watch them them for half of the trip and then my parents will come and get the boys and keep them for the other half. When we leave, though, you can believe that we will leave lots of lists and instructions and ask them to take the very best care of our sons as they possibly can. This doesn’t signal a lack of trust in our friends or my parents, just the opposite. We wouldn’t be leaving if we didn’t trust them. Rather, what it does demonstrate is how much we love our boys. It shows that even though we love going to Africa and greatly look forward to seeing our friends there, and we know that we have been called by God to go, nothing can overwhelm the love that we have for our boys. When we are gone, we want to make sure to the very best of our ability that they are cared for and watched over as best as is humanly possible.
As we have seen over the last several chapters of John, Jesus is about to leave his disciples. Up to this point, he has watched over them, cared for them, and nurtured them. But now is the time to go. Jesus knows that this departure will be the cause of great anguish for him and the disciples for a time, but that grief will soon turn to joy as they will see him again. After that, though, he is leaving them physically for good. He is going to return to the Father, yet he loves them very much. Despite all that, he knows he has to leave and in his absence, because he loves them so much, he wants them to be taken care of as much as is possible. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t trust the Father, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s just that he loves his disciples so very much. He’s going to leave them and he wants them watched over. That’s, in its essence, what this prayer is all about.
Jesus’ prayer turns to the real subject of his prayer, the disciples that he is leaving behind. He will eventually pray for those disciples that will come later on, but right now he puts his attention on those that have walked with him and that he is about to leave. He prays for them not the world. That is not to say that Jesus never prays for the world, but they are not the subject of this prayer of preservation and protection. Jesus loves the world (Jn. 3:16), taught his disciples to pray for them (Matt. 5:44), and prayed for the world himself (Luke 23:34), but his prayer here is that the world will converted through the protected mission of his followers. True prayer for the world can only be that they come to the life of Christ and cease to be the world. Any prayer for the world other than that is largely unfruitful. The world does not need preservation or protection from itself, rather they need conversion, but Jesus’ disciples will need protection after he is gone.
Jesus declares in his prayer a rather bold statement concerning the Father as he appeals to the Father to preserve those that He has given him. All I have, says Jesus, is yours, and all you have is mine. Saying that everything he had was the Father’s is not that remarkable of statement only insomuch as it is completely true in the case of Jesus rather than an ideal. What is remarkable is that Jesus says that all that is the Father’s is his. No one else could presume to make such a statement except Jesus. What belongs to the Father, belongs to him, including his disciples. Jesus’ disciples didn’t have to hope that the Father would continue to watch over them once Jesus had left. They actually belonged to the Father. They would be protected in the very name, the very life that God had given to his eternal son. They would be able to enter into that life and so be preserved in the world even though they would remain in the world. Jesus had protected them through the power and authority of his life while he was with them and the only exception to that was Judas. That, as Jesus is careful to point out, was not because Jesus was careless or incapable of doing so. The Father knew that the one would betray Jesus. He was doomed to destruction, which doesn’t mean that this was a fate that Judas had from which he could not escape, rather it means that his character was as such and he chose such a path that doomed him to reject God’s will. Scripture had foretold that, so they need not question God’s provision or power. He is, after all, the Holy Father, stressing both His immutable nature, His holiness, as well as his tender provision as the Father.
Jesus’ time had come and he would soon be returning to the glory of the Father’s presence. As he continues his prayer, Jesus reveals that part of the purpose of his prayer and all of his words to his disciples during his farewell discourse have been for the benefit of the disciples. He wanted to assure them both in the present and in the future when he is gone. Everything that Jesus did for his disciples and everything he does for us, we can rest assured, is for our benefit that we may have the full measure of his joy within us. In Jewish thought, complete joy would only come in the age to come, so Jesus says no small thing here. His words, prayers, and subsequent actions will allow them and us to enjoy in the life of God’s age to come now through the life of Christ.
If we remember that John, in using the term "logos", or "word," was likely appealing to both the Old Testament concept of the Word of God that proceeded from God and carried out His will, and the Greek logos, the ordering principle of the Universe. Jesus has surely given his disciples that word, that logos, and because of it the world has hated, and will continue to hate them, just as it has hated him, and by implication, hated the Father. The fact that any disciple of Jesus must come to terms with is that we will be in the world and the world’s values will always reject the values of Christ. Jesus didn’t pray that they be taken out of the world, that would be contrary to the whole point of creating communities of faith in the life of Christ. His prayer is that they be protected from falling prey to the evil one. The values of the life of Christ simply do not and never will match with the world, so Jesus’ disciples will never be part of the world’s system any more than he is.
This is such an instructive point for the Christian church today. Everywhere we turn in American Christianity, we see so-called Gospel appeals that are designed to appeal to the world through the values of the world. We’ll pull them in, so goes this line of thinking, with a series or an approach that is built on worldly ideals and values but that has a veneer, perhaps of Christian Gospel on it. The world’s values will never match with the values of Christ and Christians need to stop trying. Instead, we must realize that our call is to call the world out of the world. We are to be in the world but not of the world so that we can help the world to stop being the world. We must not give into the temptation to become like the world and think that this will somehow attract them to the Gospel.
The people of God are sanctified by the the truth, as Jesus prayed that we would be. To sanctify something is to cleanse it and set it apart for holiness. Jesus is about to set himself apart by going to the Cross, the very means that will enable those who enter his life to be set apart as God’s people. We are sanctified and set apart by the logos, which is truth. God’s people don’t need to take on the values of the world to win the world. We are to be set apart. We may need to act in such a way as to remove any barriers to people hearing the Gospel (which is what Paul was talking about in 1 Cor. 9:20) but that is a far cry from the attempts many Christian groups have made recently to become like the world or be perceived in a positive light by the world.
Jesus knows that his disciples have been set apart so that their work might closely parallel his. Just as he was sanctified and set apart and sent into the world (Jn. 10:36) by the Father, so Jesus now sanctifies them and sends them into the world The whole purpose of this mission is that they might change the world rather than having the world determine who they are going to be. Jesus will die so that his followers might be sanctified and sent not sullied and absorbed.
Devotional Thought
Jesus says that he sanctified himself for his disciples so that they may be sent into the world for the sake of the world. Have you ever thought of it in those terms? Jesus died for us, sanctifying himself, so that we might be set apart for God’s purposes and sent into the world. Do you go about doing that mission or do you spend more time shrinking back from it and seeking your own will.
13 "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. 14 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. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Dig Deeper
In just a very little while now, my wife and I will be leaving the United States for a nearly three week trip to South Africa. South Africa is truly one of the most beautiful places I have been to in my life, if not the hands down most beautiful. We went there last August and absolutely fell in love with the place. Not just the sites and the country itself, but even more importantly the people. We spent enough time there that we felt like we genuinely got to know the people there. We care about them, miss them, and look forward to seeing them again soon. Yet with all of that, going to see them and be with them is a bit of a struggle and we’re torn a bit (although we’re definitely still going) because we are leaving our sons behind. They will not be making this trip and the thought of leaving them for nearly three weeks is challenging. While we are gone, we plan to leave them with some great friends of ours who have graciously agreed to stay in our house and take care of the boys. They will watch them them for half of the trip and then my parents will come and get the boys and keep them for the other half. When we leave, though, you can believe that we will leave lots of lists and instructions and ask them to take the very best care of our sons as they possibly can. This doesn’t signal a lack of trust in our friends or my parents, just the opposite. We wouldn’t be leaving if we didn’t trust them. Rather, what it does demonstrate is how much we love our boys. It shows that even though we love going to Africa and greatly look forward to seeing our friends there, and we know that we have been called by God to go, nothing can overwhelm the love that we have for our boys. When we are gone, we want to make sure to the very best of our ability that they are cared for and watched over as best as is humanly possible.
As we have seen over the last several chapters of John, Jesus is about to leave his disciples. Up to this point, he has watched over them, cared for them, and nurtured them. But now is the time to go. Jesus knows that this departure will be the cause of great anguish for him and the disciples for a time, but that grief will soon turn to joy as they will see him again. After that, though, he is leaving them physically for good. He is going to return to the Father, yet he loves them very much. Despite all that, he knows he has to leave and in his absence, because he loves them so much, he wants them to be taken care of as much as is possible. It’s not that Jesus doesn’t trust the Father, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s just that he loves his disciples so very much. He’s going to leave them and he wants them watched over. That’s, in its essence, what this prayer is all about.
Jesus’ prayer turns to the real subject of his prayer, the disciples that he is leaving behind. He will eventually pray for those disciples that will come later on, but right now he puts his attention on those that have walked with him and that he is about to leave. He prays for them not the world. That is not to say that Jesus never prays for the world, but they are not the subject of this prayer of preservation and protection. Jesus loves the world (Jn. 3:16), taught his disciples to pray for them (Matt. 5:44), and prayed for the world himself (Luke 23:34), but his prayer here is that the world will converted through the protected mission of his followers. True prayer for the world can only be that they come to the life of Christ and cease to be the world. Any prayer for the world other than that is largely unfruitful. The world does not need preservation or protection from itself, rather they need conversion, but Jesus’ disciples will need protection after he is gone.
Jesus declares in his prayer a rather bold statement concerning the Father as he appeals to the Father to preserve those that He has given him. All I have, says Jesus, is yours, and all you have is mine. Saying that everything he had was the Father’s is not that remarkable of statement only insomuch as it is completely true in the case of Jesus rather than an ideal. What is remarkable is that Jesus says that all that is the Father’s is his. No one else could presume to make such a statement except Jesus. What belongs to the Father, belongs to him, including his disciples. Jesus’ disciples didn’t have to hope that the Father would continue to watch over them once Jesus had left. They actually belonged to the Father. They would be protected in the very name, the very life that God had given to his eternal son. They would be able to enter into that life and so be preserved in the world even though they would remain in the world. Jesus had protected them through the power and authority of his life while he was with them and the only exception to that was Judas. That, as Jesus is careful to point out, was not because Jesus was careless or incapable of doing so. The Father knew that the one would betray Jesus. He was doomed to destruction, which doesn’t mean that this was a fate that Judas had from which he could not escape, rather it means that his character was as such and he chose such a path that doomed him to reject God’s will. Scripture had foretold that, so they need not question God’s provision or power. He is, after all, the Holy Father, stressing both His immutable nature, His holiness, as well as his tender provision as the Father.
Jesus’ time had come and he would soon be returning to the glory of the Father’s presence. As he continues his prayer, Jesus reveals that part of the purpose of his prayer and all of his words to his disciples during his farewell discourse have been for the benefit of the disciples. He wanted to assure them both in the present and in the future when he is gone. Everything that Jesus did for his disciples and everything he does for us, we can rest assured, is for our benefit that we may have the full measure of his joy within us. In Jewish thought, complete joy would only come in the age to come, so Jesus says no small thing here. His words, prayers, and subsequent actions will allow them and us to enjoy in the life of God’s age to come now through the life of Christ.
If we remember that John, in using the term "logos", or "word," was likely appealing to both the Old Testament concept of the Word of God that proceeded from God and carried out His will, and the Greek logos, the ordering principle of the Universe. Jesus has surely given his disciples that word, that logos, and because of it the world has hated, and will continue to hate them, just as it has hated him, and by implication, hated the Father. The fact that any disciple of Jesus must come to terms with is that we will be in the world and the world’s values will always reject the values of Christ. Jesus didn’t pray that they be taken out of the world, that would be contrary to the whole point of creating communities of faith in the life of Christ. His prayer is that they be protected from falling prey to the evil one. The values of the life of Christ simply do not and never will match with the world, so Jesus’ disciples will never be part of the world’s system any more than he is.
This is such an instructive point for the Christian church today. Everywhere we turn in American Christianity, we see so-called Gospel appeals that are designed to appeal to the world through the values of the world. We’ll pull them in, so goes this line of thinking, with a series or an approach that is built on worldly ideals and values but that has a veneer, perhaps of Christian Gospel on it. The world’s values will never match with the values of Christ and Christians need to stop trying. Instead, we must realize that our call is to call the world out of the world. We are to be in the world but not of the world so that we can help the world to stop being the world. We must not give into the temptation to become like the world and think that this will somehow attract them to the Gospel.
The people of God are sanctified by the the truth, as Jesus prayed that we would be. To sanctify something is to cleanse it and set it apart for holiness. Jesus is about to set himself apart by going to the Cross, the very means that will enable those who enter his life to be set apart as God’s people. We are sanctified and set apart by the logos, which is truth. God’s people don’t need to take on the values of the world to win the world. We are to be set apart. We may need to act in such a way as to remove any barriers to people hearing the Gospel (which is what Paul was talking about in 1 Cor. 9:20) but that is a far cry from the attempts many Christian groups have made recently to become like the world or be perceived in a positive light by the world.
Jesus knows that his disciples have been set apart so that their work might closely parallel his. Just as he was sanctified and set apart and sent into the world (Jn. 10:36) by the Father, so Jesus now sanctifies them and sends them into the world The whole purpose of this mission is that they might change the world rather than having the world determine who they are going to be. Jesus will die so that his followers might be sanctified and sent not sullied and absorbed.
Devotional Thought
Jesus says that he sanctified himself for his disciples so that they may be sent into the world for the sake of the world. Have you ever thought of it in those terms? Jesus died for us, sanctifying himself, so that we might be set apart for God’s purposes and sent into the world. Do you go about doing that mission or do you spend more time shrinking back from it and seeking your own will.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
John 17:1-8
Jesus Prays to Be Glorified
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 "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. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 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.
Dig Deeper
I was pretty funny as a young Christian in a lot of ways (that’s funny, "faux pas," not funny, "ha, ha") . One of peculiar things about me at that time was that I did not want to pray with other people. It wasn’t that I was theologically opposed to it or anything quite so noble. When it comes down to it, it was a matter of pride. I felt like I wasn’t very good at praying and didn’t much know what to say and certainly knew that I couldn’t pray with the length and depth in the way that I had had heard some of the older Christians around me do. I actually got pretty creative about avoiding praying in public or with other people because I just didn’t want to do it, even to the point of intentionally asking the person I was having a morning quiet time with a deep biblical question so that they would have to answer and time would run out before we could pray and had to leave for work. In the years since then I’ve discovered that I really missed out in those early days. In a very real sense, you don’t know someone fully, at least concerning the depth of their relationship with God, until you’ve prayed with them. When you pray with someone who is really opening up their heart and soul to God, you discover who they are in a whole new way. You learn who they really are and what is really important to them.
We don’t get to spend time with Jesus the way the first disciples did. We don’t get to walk along the road with him, hear him teach, see what he looks like, or watch him laugh. In a very real sense, we will never know him like that in this present age. Yet, John has done something priceless for us here. He has preserved one of the most incredibly intimate and powerful passages of Scripture in the entire Bible. We are told quite often throughout the Gospels that Jesus regularly spent time alone with the Father in prayer. Yet, there are scant few instances where we are told how he prayed or what he prayed, and when we are it is usually just a few sentences at most. This passage is different, though. John gives us the most complete prayer from Jesus in the entire New Testament and although we’ll never walk with him as John did, we do get to know Jesus through this prayer in a special way. It’s as though John has quietly cracked open the door and quietly motioned us in to observe a quiet and sacred moment with the King himself. We can quietly watch, listen, and learn and feel like, if for only a moment, we were there with him too. We know something special and private about him.
Sometimes you reach a point where there’s nothing left to really say. Everything that you could possibly share with someone else has been said and it’s time to turn to God in prayer. It’s not that prayer is some sort of filler activity once you’ve exhausted all of the other possibilities. It’s that you just get to the point where the Spirit has led you to say what you need to say and there seems to be a solemn moment where the need for prayer becomes evident. Prayer caps things. It is a recognition that everything you’ve been saying or talking about will only happen if it is humbly turned over to God. Jesus knows that that time has come. He has told his disciples everything they need to know for now. He knows that he has reached the point where the only thing he can do is turn his eyes to God and pray.
In the opening prologue to the Gospel, John told us that Jesus was the Word, the logos that had become flesh (Jn. 1:14). He also told us that in the Word was life that would be made available to all men (Jn. 1:4). In the opening verses of Jesus’ prayer, we see both of those themes coming together. Everything that Jesus has done has not come from himself, nor has it been about himself. He seeks no glory for himself, but has done everything for the glory of the Father. His life and ministry have glorified the Father and now as he makes his way towards the Cross, he will glorify God to the fullest extent. The Father has given him a mission and full authority. But that authority was to bring judgment or condemnation, it was to bring eternal life.
The phrase "eternal life" meant something different in Jesus’ day than it tends to in ours. We tend to think of "eternal life" as the duration of time after our deaths when we go off to heaven to live forever. But that is precisely what Jesus and his followers did not mean by that phrase. "Eternal life" is a translation of the Greek phrase "zoe aionios" and it literally means "life of the ages" or "life of the age to come." The age to come was the time when God would restore the creation and return to dwell with His people in a restored world. Jesus does not deny that belief, rather he confirmed in during his life (Matt. 19:28), but what was surprising was that he taught that those who would die to themselves and enter into his life could have that life, could actually enter into the age to come while still in the present age. Those who did so would receive the Holy Spirit as a down payment guaranteeing that they would be part of the resurrection and enter into the full age to come one day.
Jesus came with life, this life of the age to come, within him. Those that were given to Jesus through the calling and grace of the Father would receive eternal life. What is eternal life, though, what is the life of that age in the present age? It is to know the only true God, to know Jesus and his life. Having the life of Christ and living it out, complete with the access that it brings to the Father, is the life of the age to come in the present, a life that anticipates the fully consummated age to come of which those in Christ will be a part one day. It is curious that Jesus would talk of himself in the third person here, praying that his disciples might know "Jesus Christ." Perhaps, we can speculate, that this is one point where John has changed the wording of the original prayer just slightly from "me" to "Jesus Christ" so that we can truly enter into this prayer and take it on as our own.
That eternal life has come in two ways. It has come first through the words that the Father gave him. The Word brought about the reality of the new creation through his words. The Logos has brought the logos that will restore justice and order to the universe. Those who obeyed this logos have come to the life of the Logos and found the life of the age to come. Those who accepted that word and obeyed can actually enter into the life of it. In the ancient way of thinking, the word of God was an oracle. Oracles were actually viewed with great sanctity because they were believed to have come directly from God and carry the power of that God. If we recall that in Greek thought, the logos was the ordering principle of the universe, we begin to see what Jesus is saying here and what John wants us to see. Everything that Jesus has said has come from God and those words were actually bringing about the restoration of the creation. Those who embraced and obeyed those words could become a part of the reconciliation itself (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16-21).
Above all else, what really stands out as we go through this prayer that John has preserved for us is the invitation to catch a glimpse of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. That’s the beauty of praying with someone else, or in this case being able to "hear" Jesus’ prayer. Normally, I don’t truly know what goes on between you and God. But our prayers are a window into the true relationship between someone and God. What we see here is that Jesus’ inner relationship with God is exactly the same dynamic that he has described throughout his ministry. He looks to the Father for guidance. He waits on the Father’s timing, only acting when the hour has come as directed by the Father. Everything he does is about bringing glory to the Father and only asking that he be glorified or allowed to express himself fully so that his own glorification will actually serve the purpose of bringing full glory to the Father. That isn’t just something he claimed to others, it’s something he embraced and celebrated in his relationship with the Father. He has ushered in the new creation, but has done so because it is the work the Father gave him to do. He desperately wishes to return to the presence and relationship that he had with the Father eternally.
It is striking that above all else, Jesus wants nothing more than to be in perfect and intimate relationship with God. John doesn’t try to delve into the theology of how all that works but simply wants to show us the majesty of the eternal and unbreakable relationship between Jesus and the Father. The relationship is so close that Jesus recognizes that everything he has comes from the Father and everything he does is in accordance with the Father’s will. At the most intense and difficult moment of his life, Jesus doesn’t shrink back or stop for one moment because he knows the intimacy that he and the Father share. He knows that he has spoken the words that the Father gave him and that those who accept those words will enter into and enjoy the same relationship with the Father that he has. The very heart of this prayer, though, is more about others than about Jesus himself. As we will see in the next section, this prayer is not just a celebration of the relationship between the Father and the Son but an invitation for us to join into that relationship and share in everything that the Son has with the Father.
Devotional Thought
One thing that we see clearly here is that Jesus’ public life and ministry reflected the same and very genuine relationship that he had with the Father. There was no pretension and no putting on a show for others. Can you say the same about yourself? Are you the same in public, in private, and in prayer? Do you take action on the things that you pray about so that if someone were to listen to your prayers they would see those same things manifested in your life?
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 "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. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 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.
Dig Deeper
I was pretty funny as a young Christian in a lot of ways (that’s funny, "faux pas," not funny, "ha, ha") . One of peculiar things about me at that time was that I did not want to pray with other people. It wasn’t that I was theologically opposed to it or anything quite so noble. When it comes down to it, it was a matter of pride. I felt like I wasn’t very good at praying and didn’t much know what to say and certainly knew that I couldn’t pray with the length and depth in the way that I had had heard some of the older Christians around me do. I actually got pretty creative about avoiding praying in public or with other people because I just didn’t want to do it, even to the point of intentionally asking the person I was having a morning quiet time with a deep biblical question so that they would have to answer and time would run out before we could pray and had to leave for work. In the years since then I’ve discovered that I really missed out in those early days. In a very real sense, you don’t know someone fully, at least concerning the depth of their relationship with God, until you’ve prayed with them. When you pray with someone who is really opening up their heart and soul to God, you discover who they are in a whole new way. You learn who they really are and what is really important to them.
We don’t get to spend time with Jesus the way the first disciples did. We don’t get to walk along the road with him, hear him teach, see what he looks like, or watch him laugh. In a very real sense, we will never know him like that in this present age. Yet, John has done something priceless for us here. He has preserved one of the most incredibly intimate and powerful passages of Scripture in the entire Bible. We are told quite often throughout the Gospels that Jesus regularly spent time alone with the Father in prayer. Yet, there are scant few instances where we are told how he prayed or what he prayed, and when we are it is usually just a few sentences at most. This passage is different, though. John gives us the most complete prayer from Jesus in the entire New Testament and although we’ll never walk with him as John did, we do get to know Jesus through this prayer in a special way. It’s as though John has quietly cracked open the door and quietly motioned us in to observe a quiet and sacred moment with the King himself. We can quietly watch, listen, and learn and feel like, if for only a moment, we were there with him too. We know something special and private about him.
Sometimes you reach a point where there’s nothing left to really say. Everything that you could possibly share with someone else has been said and it’s time to turn to God in prayer. It’s not that prayer is some sort of filler activity once you’ve exhausted all of the other possibilities. It’s that you just get to the point where the Spirit has led you to say what you need to say and there seems to be a solemn moment where the need for prayer becomes evident. Prayer caps things. It is a recognition that everything you’ve been saying or talking about will only happen if it is humbly turned over to God. Jesus knows that that time has come. He has told his disciples everything they need to know for now. He knows that he has reached the point where the only thing he can do is turn his eyes to God and pray.
In the opening prologue to the Gospel, John told us that Jesus was the Word, the logos that had become flesh (Jn. 1:14). He also told us that in the Word was life that would be made available to all men (Jn. 1:4). In the opening verses of Jesus’ prayer, we see both of those themes coming together. Everything that Jesus has done has not come from himself, nor has it been about himself. He seeks no glory for himself, but has done everything for the glory of the Father. His life and ministry have glorified the Father and now as he makes his way towards the Cross, he will glorify God to the fullest extent. The Father has given him a mission and full authority. But that authority was to bring judgment or condemnation, it was to bring eternal life.
The phrase "eternal life" meant something different in Jesus’ day than it tends to in ours. We tend to think of "eternal life" as the duration of time after our deaths when we go off to heaven to live forever. But that is precisely what Jesus and his followers did not mean by that phrase. "Eternal life" is a translation of the Greek phrase "zoe aionios" and it literally means "life of the ages" or "life of the age to come." The age to come was the time when God would restore the creation and return to dwell with His people in a restored world. Jesus does not deny that belief, rather he confirmed in during his life (Matt. 19:28), but what was surprising was that he taught that those who would die to themselves and enter into his life could have that life, could actually enter into the age to come while still in the present age. Those who did so would receive the Holy Spirit as a down payment guaranteeing that they would be part of the resurrection and enter into the full age to come one day.
Jesus came with life, this life of the age to come, within him. Those that were given to Jesus through the calling and grace of the Father would receive eternal life. What is eternal life, though, what is the life of that age in the present age? It is to know the only true God, to know Jesus and his life. Having the life of Christ and living it out, complete with the access that it brings to the Father, is the life of the age to come in the present, a life that anticipates the fully consummated age to come of which those in Christ will be a part one day. It is curious that Jesus would talk of himself in the third person here, praying that his disciples might know "Jesus Christ." Perhaps, we can speculate, that this is one point where John has changed the wording of the original prayer just slightly from "me" to "Jesus Christ" so that we can truly enter into this prayer and take it on as our own.
That eternal life has come in two ways. It has come first through the words that the Father gave him. The Word brought about the reality of the new creation through his words. The Logos has brought the logos that will restore justice and order to the universe. Those who obeyed this logos have come to the life of the Logos and found the life of the age to come. Those who accepted that word and obeyed can actually enter into the life of it. In the ancient way of thinking, the word of God was an oracle. Oracles were actually viewed with great sanctity because they were believed to have come directly from God and carry the power of that God. If we recall that in Greek thought, the logos was the ordering principle of the universe, we begin to see what Jesus is saying here and what John wants us to see. Everything that Jesus has said has come from God and those words were actually bringing about the restoration of the creation. Those who embraced and obeyed those words could become a part of the reconciliation itself (cf. 2 Cor. 5:16-21).
Above all else, what really stands out as we go through this prayer that John has preserved for us is the invitation to catch a glimpse of the relationship between Jesus and the Father. That’s the beauty of praying with someone else, or in this case being able to "hear" Jesus’ prayer. Normally, I don’t truly know what goes on between you and God. But our prayers are a window into the true relationship between someone and God. What we see here is that Jesus’ inner relationship with God is exactly the same dynamic that he has described throughout his ministry. He looks to the Father for guidance. He waits on the Father’s timing, only acting when the hour has come as directed by the Father. Everything he does is about bringing glory to the Father and only asking that he be glorified or allowed to express himself fully so that his own glorification will actually serve the purpose of bringing full glory to the Father. That isn’t just something he claimed to others, it’s something he embraced and celebrated in his relationship with the Father. He has ushered in the new creation, but has done so because it is the work the Father gave him to do. He desperately wishes to return to the presence and relationship that he had with the Father eternally.
It is striking that above all else, Jesus wants nothing more than to be in perfect and intimate relationship with God. John doesn’t try to delve into the theology of how all that works but simply wants to show us the majesty of the eternal and unbreakable relationship between Jesus and the Father. The relationship is so close that Jesus recognizes that everything he has comes from the Father and everything he does is in accordance with the Father’s will. At the most intense and difficult moment of his life, Jesus doesn’t shrink back or stop for one moment because he knows the intimacy that he and the Father share. He knows that he has spoken the words that the Father gave him and that those who accept those words will enter into and enjoy the same relationship with the Father that he has. The very heart of this prayer, though, is more about others than about Jesus himself. As we will see in the next section, this prayer is not just a celebration of the relationship between the Father and the Son but an invitation for us to join into that relationship and share in everything that the Son has with the Father.
Devotional Thought
One thing that we see clearly here is that Jesus’ public life and ministry reflected the same and very genuine relationship that he had with the Father. There was no pretension and no putting on a show for others. Can you say the same about yourself? Are you the same in public, in private, and in prayer? Do you take action on the things that you pray about so that if someone were to listen to your prayers they would see those same things manifested in your life?
Monday, February 23, 2009
John 16:23-33
23 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. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
25 "Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."
29 Then Jesus' disciples said, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God."
31 "Do you now believe?" Jesus replied. 32 "A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Dig Deeper
The first year that my wife and I were married was a rough one. We were not Christians in any real sense and we had virtually no solid biblical foundation on which to base our marriage even though we both had some biblical knowledge. Without that as any sort of foundation, we both went about doing our thing and seeking our own agenda. We never really argued or fought but we very quickly drifted apart from one another in just the first year of our marriage. Once we repented and became Christians, entering into the life of Christ, we quickly learned that we had much to change. That was particularly true for me. I realized that there were some very specific things in my marriage that I needed to change quickly and drastically. I went about making those individual changes in the ways that I paid attention to my wife, the way I spoke to my wife, and the things on which I spent my time. After a short period, we realized something important. Those little changes weren’t somehow symbolic of the fact that we were making biblical changes in our marriage. Those specific acts were in themselves the change. They had opened the door to a completely new marriage. When you added up all of the little ways that we changed and the tiny (and sometimes big) things that we began to do differently, it became apparent that those weren’t just empty symbolic acts. They were the repentance; they were the change; they were the new reality of our marriage centered on Christ.
Above all else, I believe, as Jesus brings his farewell discourse with his disciples to a close, he wants them to know that things will never be the same. Things between one another will not be the same. They won’t need to break out into arguments over who is the greatest any longer, because the Spirit will help them to comprehend what it means to be a servant to one another and to love one another the way that Jesus loved them, becoming a true community built on the foundation of the life of Christ. Things between Jesus and them will not be the same. They won’t have him right there with them anymore, and although they still don’t completely understand it all, it will be far better because the Spirit will guide them and help them grow in ways that having Jesus with them in the flesh never could. What’s more, it is his death and resurrection that will make that all possible. Things between them and the Father will not be the same. Rather than being distant and separated from God with nothing more to hold on to than the sacrifices of the law which temporarily covered over their sin, they will have a whole new relationship with God. Their sin will be done away with forever and they will be able to draw close to God in ways that they could never even imagine, becoming part of His family. And finally, things between them and the enemy will never again be the same. The enemy can no longer stand between God and His restored creation. It is available now. They would be able to enter into it now and receive the Spirit as a guaranteed down payment of the fullness of the new creation in the age to come.
What they would only realize later, though, was that all of the things that Jesus had been doing and teaching them, weren’t just symbols or information about the new creation. They were the acts of the new creation itself. They were how the new creation would be brought about. Jesus told them from the very beginning (Jn. 1:51) that they would see him as the new Jacob’s ladder, the portal through which heaven and earth would be open to one another. When Jesus turned the water into wine, healed the official’s son, made the lame walk, miraculously fed the multitudes, walked on water, gave sight to the blind, and raised Lazarus, he wasn’t just showing off little representations or symbols of the new creation like they were little more than baseball cards. All of those acts, and of course, his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to the Father were, in fact, how the new creation was being ushered into the world. They weren’t just symbols, they were the vehicle of the change itself Satan wasn’t just in trouble, Jesus says. He has, in those very acts, been defeated. The disciples need not worry about the trouble that’s coming because the world has already been overcome (if the principle of what is true for the Messiah is true for his people is true, then so is the opposite: What is true for the prince of this world is true for his followers). The new creation had come and in the resurrection, the only permanent weapon that Satan had was stripped from him.
The defeat of the world, though, wasn’t the only sign that the new creation had entered into the world through the works of Jesus, culminating in his coming death and resurrection. A day was coming, far sooner than they could imagine, when everything would change. In that day, they won’t need to ask Jesus for strength or ask him to go to the Father on their behalf, they will be able to go to the Father themselves. They will be able to go to the Father in Jesus’ name, which as we have seen , meant in his life and in a manner consistent with that life, and ask for anything. They hadn’t done that before because they hadn’t yet entered into Jesus’ life the way they will very soon. But when they do, they will be able to go to the Father and will receive the full life of Christ, if they only ask for it. Then their joy will be complete.
In the ancient world, one could simply not approach a king or ruler and gain access to him. Only a select few could do that. That’s still true in our day. If you don’t believe me, pick up your phone and attempt to call the President of your country. See if you get him immediately on the line. Good luck. Jesus is telling them that there will be no middle man. Yet, he is still the mediator, because the access we have to the Father is through his life, but he will not ask the Father on our behalf. We can, through Christ, go directly to the Father. We need no go-between, no saints, no priests, nothing other than the life of Christ which will bring us directly into the presence of the Father.
The disciples think that they finally have Jesus figured out. Up to this point, he’s been speaking rather enigmatically in their mind, but this makes sense. This is clear, or so they think. There is a certain amount of irony in John’s account here. They’ve got it all figured out now. They don’t need to ask anymore questions and Jesus doesn’t need any more questions to bring out the information clearly. Now they believe he has come from God. He has promised them a new clarity and a new understanding and they make the mistake of thinking that Jesus was talking about now. Although he has been ushering in the new creation through his signs, the day of which he speaks has not yet arrived. They say they believe and understand, but is that really true? Jesus uses a bit of the same ironic tone he did in 13:38 when he asked Peter if Peter would really be the one to lay his life down for Jesus.
If nothing else, the scattering and betrayal by the disciples during Jesus’ crucifixion shows that they do not yet have the kind of belief that Jesus is talking of. They are trying to believe, so we can give them credit for that, but they don’t yet have the Spirit. They’re simply not capable of realizing yet what Jesus is speaking of, even if they think so. That day is coming but it hasn’t yet arrived fully. First, though, another day is coming. A day when they will be scattered, running off to their own points of safety and will leave them alone. Does that sound like a group of people who fully believe, fully understand, and have full access to the Father? Soon, but not yet. Yet, Jesus doesn’t tell them this to put them in their place or ward them off from thinking more highly of themselves than they ought. He has told them everything, including this so that they might not be shaken in their faith and so that they can have peace. Once again, this is another example of Jesus putting their interests first. He has told them of their scattering so that when it comes they won’t be destroyed but rather will have the peace of knowing that Jesus knew that it would happen and that their scattering was all part of the very process that would bring in the new creation. Jesus, as the good shepherd, will go against the wolf alone. He alone will lay down his life for the sheep. As they look back on that day, however, they will be able to rest assured and understand his words that he was never alone. He was doing the Father’s will the whole time and the Father was right there with him.
We need look no further than the book of Acts to see that Jesus’ words were true. Rather than the confused, brash, and timid bunch of followers that we see in the Gospels, the disciples have changed in the book of Acts. They have a clarity, a certainty, and a Spirit-led sense of leadership that is simply absent in the Gospels. They have been transformed by the presence of the Spirit that came to be with them just as Jesus said. Whatever they asked in his name was given to them and they changed the world. The thing that we must never forget is that, although Jesus was addressing his eleven disciples that day, his words are just as accurate when applied to us as they were to them. We have the same unfettered access, through the life of Christ, to the Father that they had. We live in a world where the world (the population of those that live in such a way as to be opposed to the will of God), in Christ, has been overcome. We will have trouble in the world, but in Christ, we may have peace if we approach the Father with the confidence that what Jesus said was true.
Devotional Thought
Jesus says that we have unfettered access to the Father because the Father loves us. Do you sometimes think of God as remote and distant? How does what Jesus say here change that view? What does it mean to you that we can ask anything in Jesus’ name and the Father will give it to us?
25 "Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father."
29 Then Jesus' disciples said, "Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God."
31 "Do you now believe?" Jesus replied. 32 "A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Dig Deeper
The first year that my wife and I were married was a rough one. We were not Christians in any real sense and we had virtually no solid biblical foundation on which to base our marriage even though we both had some biblical knowledge. Without that as any sort of foundation, we both went about doing our thing and seeking our own agenda. We never really argued or fought but we very quickly drifted apart from one another in just the first year of our marriage. Once we repented and became Christians, entering into the life of Christ, we quickly learned that we had much to change. That was particularly true for me. I realized that there were some very specific things in my marriage that I needed to change quickly and drastically. I went about making those individual changes in the ways that I paid attention to my wife, the way I spoke to my wife, and the things on which I spent my time. After a short period, we realized something important. Those little changes weren’t somehow symbolic of the fact that we were making biblical changes in our marriage. Those specific acts were in themselves the change. They had opened the door to a completely new marriage. When you added up all of the little ways that we changed and the tiny (and sometimes big) things that we began to do differently, it became apparent that those weren’t just empty symbolic acts. They were the repentance; they were the change; they were the new reality of our marriage centered on Christ.
Above all else, I believe, as Jesus brings his farewell discourse with his disciples to a close, he wants them to know that things will never be the same. Things between one another will not be the same. They won’t need to break out into arguments over who is the greatest any longer, because the Spirit will help them to comprehend what it means to be a servant to one another and to love one another the way that Jesus loved them, becoming a true community built on the foundation of the life of Christ. Things between Jesus and them will not be the same. They won’t have him right there with them anymore, and although they still don’t completely understand it all, it will be far better because the Spirit will guide them and help them grow in ways that having Jesus with them in the flesh never could. What’s more, it is his death and resurrection that will make that all possible. Things between them and the Father will not be the same. Rather than being distant and separated from God with nothing more to hold on to than the sacrifices of the law which temporarily covered over their sin, they will have a whole new relationship with God. Their sin will be done away with forever and they will be able to draw close to God in ways that they could never even imagine, becoming part of His family. And finally, things between them and the enemy will never again be the same. The enemy can no longer stand between God and His restored creation. It is available now. They would be able to enter into it now and receive the Spirit as a guaranteed down payment of the fullness of the new creation in the age to come.
What they would only realize later, though, was that all of the things that Jesus had been doing and teaching them, weren’t just symbols or information about the new creation. They were the acts of the new creation itself. They were how the new creation would be brought about. Jesus told them from the very beginning (Jn. 1:51) that they would see him as the new Jacob’s ladder, the portal through which heaven and earth would be open to one another. When Jesus turned the water into wine, healed the official’s son, made the lame walk, miraculously fed the multitudes, walked on water, gave sight to the blind, and raised Lazarus, he wasn’t just showing off little representations or symbols of the new creation like they were little more than baseball cards. All of those acts, and of course, his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to the Father were, in fact, how the new creation was being ushered into the world. They weren’t just symbols, they were the vehicle of the change itself Satan wasn’t just in trouble, Jesus says. He has, in those very acts, been defeated. The disciples need not worry about the trouble that’s coming because the world has already been overcome (if the principle of what is true for the Messiah is true for his people is true, then so is the opposite: What is true for the prince of this world is true for his followers). The new creation had come and in the resurrection, the only permanent weapon that Satan had was stripped from him.
The defeat of the world, though, wasn’t the only sign that the new creation had entered into the world through the works of Jesus, culminating in his coming death and resurrection. A day was coming, far sooner than they could imagine, when everything would change. In that day, they won’t need to ask Jesus for strength or ask him to go to the Father on their behalf, they will be able to go to the Father themselves. They will be able to go to the Father in Jesus’ name, which as we have seen , meant in his life and in a manner consistent with that life, and ask for anything. They hadn’t done that before because they hadn’t yet entered into Jesus’ life the way they will very soon. But when they do, they will be able to go to the Father and will receive the full life of Christ, if they only ask for it. Then their joy will be complete.
In the ancient world, one could simply not approach a king or ruler and gain access to him. Only a select few could do that. That’s still true in our day. If you don’t believe me, pick up your phone and attempt to call the President of your country. See if you get him immediately on the line. Good luck. Jesus is telling them that there will be no middle man. Yet, he is still the mediator, because the access we have to the Father is through his life, but he will not ask the Father on our behalf. We can, through Christ, go directly to the Father. We need no go-between, no saints, no priests, nothing other than the life of Christ which will bring us directly into the presence of the Father.
The disciples think that they finally have Jesus figured out. Up to this point, he’s been speaking rather enigmatically in their mind, but this makes sense. This is clear, or so they think. There is a certain amount of irony in John’s account here. They’ve got it all figured out now. They don’t need to ask anymore questions and Jesus doesn’t need any more questions to bring out the information clearly. Now they believe he has come from God. He has promised them a new clarity and a new understanding and they make the mistake of thinking that Jesus was talking about now. Although he has been ushering in the new creation through his signs, the day of which he speaks has not yet arrived. They say they believe and understand, but is that really true? Jesus uses a bit of the same ironic tone he did in 13:38 when he asked Peter if Peter would really be the one to lay his life down for Jesus.
If nothing else, the scattering and betrayal by the disciples during Jesus’ crucifixion shows that they do not yet have the kind of belief that Jesus is talking of. They are trying to believe, so we can give them credit for that, but they don’t yet have the Spirit. They’re simply not capable of realizing yet what Jesus is speaking of, even if they think so. That day is coming but it hasn’t yet arrived fully. First, though, another day is coming. A day when they will be scattered, running off to their own points of safety and will leave them alone. Does that sound like a group of people who fully believe, fully understand, and have full access to the Father? Soon, but not yet. Yet, Jesus doesn’t tell them this to put them in their place or ward them off from thinking more highly of themselves than they ought. He has told them everything, including this so that they might not be shaken in their faith and so that they can have peace. Once again, this is another example of Jesus putting their interests first. He has told them of their scattering so that when it comes they won’t be destroyed but rather will have the peace of knowing that Jesus knew that it would happen and that their scattering was all part of the very process that would bring in the new creation. Jesus, as the good shepherd, will go against the wolf alone. He alone will lay down his life for the sheep. As they look back on that day, however, they will be able to rest assured and understand his words that he was never alone. He was doing the Father’s will the whole time and the Father was right there with him.
We need look no further than the book of Acts to see that Jesus’ words were true. Rather than the confused, brash, and timid bunch of followers that we see in the Gospels, the disciples have changed in the book of Acts. They have a clarity, a certainty, and a Spirit-led sense of leadership that is simply absent in the Gospels. They have been transformed by the presence of the Spirit that came to be with them just as Jesus said. Whatever they asked in his name was given to them and they changed the world. The thing that we must never forget is that, although Jesus was addressing his eleven disciples that day, his words are just as accurate when applied to us as they were to them. We have the same unfettered access, through the life of Christ, to the Father that they had. We live in a world where the world (the population of those that live in such a way as to be opposed to the will of God), in Christ, has been overcome. We will have trouble in the world, but in Christ, we may have peace if we approach the Father with the confidence that what Jesus said was true.
Devotional Thought
Jesus says that we have unfettered access to the Father because the Father loves us. Do you sometimes think of God as remote and distant? How does what Jesus say here change that view? What does it mean to you that we can ask anything in Jesus’ name and the Father will give it to us?
Friday, February 20, 2009
John 16:12-22
12 "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 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. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 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."
The Disciples' Grief Will Turn to Joy
16 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."
17 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'?" 18 They kept asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying."
19 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'? 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 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. 22 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.
Dig Deeper
Almost seven years ago now, my wife and I decided that we would have another child. We already had a seven year-old and thought that it would be a good time to have another baby. My wife was particularly excited about the prospect of having another baby. A couple of months in to her pregnancy we went to the doctor’s office for a routine appointment, only to be told after the ultrasound that there was a problem with my wife and she would have to immediately go on restrictive bed rest until the baby was born. This meant that she could not get up out of the bed for any reason for what turned out to be four months. That was a difficult time for her. She had to learn to eat and do everything while laying with her feet elevated slightly above her head. We had to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas from the hospital room, and the doctor decided that she was going to have to give birth to the baby during what was supposed to have been her baby shower, which had also been scheduled in the hospital. The whole experience was trying, full of challenges and grief, but what kept her going was the hope of a wonderful baby boy at the end. Yes, the same baby boy that was causing all of this pain and anguish in the first place. Suddenly that day, the very thing that had caused all of the trouble came. The baby turned from a source of grief into a source of great joy. She had her baby and all of that time and trouble quickly seemed like a distant memory. In fact, as I type this, that wonderful little package, who is now going to be six in a few days, is sitting next to me asking me what "expedition" means. Looking back now through time, the struggles that we went through still seem very real but they seem quite worth it in perspective of what came out of it all.
The disciples know that Jesus is about to leave them in some shape or form. They don’t exactly know everything that is about to happen, but all they can think about is how difficult it will be for them. How could they possibly go on without their teacher? It was hard for them to see how any good could come of all of this. Jesus wants them, however, to see beyond the trial that is coming towards them all like a runaway boulder. They shouldn’t see things as dark and dismal with no hope in sight. Rather, this situation is much like having a child. The way that the new creation will come into the world will be painful and cause them as well as Jesus serious anguish, but once it comes, everything will be put in perspective. The very thing that had caused them anguish will now give them the greatest joy and they will know that it was all worth the pain.
By this time, the disciples are surely feeling near to the point of being overwhelmed by all that Jesus has told them. It really was quite a lot when you think about it. Imagine their surprise, then, when he tells them there is much more that he’d like to say, but he won’t right now because they would not be able to bear it. He will leave that all to the Spirit of truth. Jesus doesn’t tell them exactly what it is and why they won’t be able to bear it, and John doesn’t specifically enlighten us either, but we can assume that Jesus is referring, at least in part, to the things that they will do under the guidance of the Spirit. They will be transformed into the image of Jesus’ life and will be led by the Spirit into all corners of the world to preach the Gospel and subsequently undergo the same type of rejection and death that Jesus is about to experience.
Why doesn’t Jesus tell them all of the details about this? There are at least three reasons that seem immediately obvious. First, Jesus has only told them things about the future that they need to strengthen them so that their faith is not shaken beyond repair when those things happen. He has told them enough of those things and evidently the other things he would like to tell them don’t fall under this category. Second, telling them would likely have overwhelmed them. We can all probably relate to that. If someone had come to me ten years ago and tell me about all of the changes I would need to make in my life and all the things that I would do for the Gospel and the ways that I would be used by God, I would have been completely overwhelmed and probably would have quit right there. Third, Jesus doesn’t need to tell them these things, because the Holy Spirit will do that all in due time. He will guide them into the truth. This truth, as Jesus has already told them (Jn. 14:26), will be what Jesus has already taught them. Through the guidance of the spirit, they will understand the things that Jesus taught throughout his life and the natural extension of those teachings. The Spirit will guide them in the teachings and life of Christ. As we noted above (in the commentary on 14:26), the Holy Spirit is an educator, not an innovator. Everything the Spirit does is to faithfully reveal the truth of Christ and to glorify him. The Spirit does not speak on his own but only guides in those things that the Father has given to the Son, and that the Son has, in turn, given to the Spirit.
This should stand as a word of caution for critics of the Bible who say that they seek to go back to Jesus’ words, but desire to discount the words of the apostles and writers of the New Testament. There is even a group that calls themselves "red letter Christians," meaning that they only value the words of Jesus but disregard anything else in the New Testament. This passage, however, shows that approach to be untenable. Jesus says that the Spirit is the same source behind the apostles recounting his teachings and guiding their own New Testament writings. We cannot have one without the other.
Jesus has clearly told them that he is leaving and that this departure will be to their benefit, but now what he tells them in verse 16 is just confusing. What could he possibly mean that "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me." The disciples were simply having trouble matching up their messianic expectations with the things that Jesus was telling them. If he is going to begin the messianic kingdom, then why go to the Father, and if he is going to the Father and not being his kingdom, then why return? They just could make little sense of what he was saying.
Jesus doesn’t really lessen the gravity of what is to come with his birth analogy. Giving birth is an immensely difficult thing. It is terrifying. We have some friends who recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, but in the months leading up to the birth, the expectant mother was absolutely haunted by the daunting specter of pain that was to come. Comedian Carol Burnett once famously remarked that giving birth feels like having your bottom lip pulled over your head. The time that is coming, Jesus tells them, will be painful and frightening.
Jesus is, no doubt, referring to his own coming death. It will be a terrible thing. It will seem that the darkness has overcome the light. Living in a Friday world (the traditional day of Jesus’ death) where evil has overcome good, is a terrifying prospect. Yet, the very thing that causes them grief, his death, will turn to joy. They will finally understand all that has happened. The crucifixion will be terrible but the Sunday of resurrection is surely coming. The new creation, the way that God will reconcile the world to Himself, will be born through that grief. They will suddenly realize that they can enter into that very death and find life. They can die to the old creation and enter into the new. They can become Sunday people in a Friday world. His death and resurrection have to happen. They are the necessary events that will lead to his return to the Father, the onset of the new creation and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
When a woman has a baby, it’s not that the pain and anguish she experienced suddenly did not happen. It’s not even that something entirely different comes in and replaces her anguish with joy. The very thing that caused the pain, once given birth to, replaces that pain with joy. The pain was real, but the joy of the reality of the new baby far outweighs the pain and makes it all seem worthwhile. The Old Testament background behind this comes from passages such as Hosea 13:13-15 and possibly Isaiah 66:7-14, but it seems to come more specifically from Isaiah 26:17-19, a passage in which giving birth and the hope of resurrection are directly linked. What caused pain will bring joy. That’s what the Cross will be for them. First a source of grief, but when the resurrection comes, and the new creation with it, it will become the very source of their joy and the foundation of their hope.
Devotional Thought
God specializes in using situations that seem painful and terrible to produce good fruit in our lives. James, in chapter 1 of his letter, says that we should consider trials with pure joy because they produce perseverance in us which makes us complete in the life of Christ. Do you believe that? Do you see struggles as a source of growth and opportunities to stand in God’s grace rather than just a terrifying prospect of pain and difficulty? Try trusting in God and see what joy and growth come through the very thing that is causing a hard time.
The Disciples' Grief Will Turn to Joy
16 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."
17 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'?" 18 They kept asking, "What does he mean by 'a little while'? We don't understand what he is saying."
19 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'? 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 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. 22 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.
Dig Deeper
Almost seven years ago now, my wife and I decided that we would have another child. We already had a seven year-old and thought that it would be a good time to have another baby. My wife was particularly excited about the prospect of having another baby. A couple of months in to her pregnancy we went to the doctor’s office for a routine appointment, only to be told after the ultrasound that there was a problem with my wife and she would have to immediately go on restrictive bed rest until the baby was born. This meant that she could not get up out of the bed for any reason for what turned out to be four months. That was a difficult time for her. She had to learn to eat and do everything while laying with her feet elevated slightly above her head. We had to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas from the hospital room, and the doctor decided that she was going to have to give birth to the baby during what was supposed to have been her baby shower, which had also been scheduled in the hospital. The whole experience was trying, full of challenges and grief, but what kept her going was the hope of a wonderful baby boy at the end. Yes, the same baby boy that was causing all of this pain and anguish in the first place. Suddenly that day, the very thing that had caused all of the trouble came. The baby turned from a source of grief into a source of great joy. She had her baby and all of that time and trouble quickly seemed like a distant memory. In fact, as I type this, that wonderful little package, who is now going to be six in a few days, is sitting next to me asking me what "expedition" means. Looking back now through time, the struggles that we went through still seem very real but they seem quite worth it in perspective of what came out of it all.
The disciples know that Jesus is about to leave them in some shape or form. They don’t exactly know everything that is about to happen, but all they can think about is how difficult it will be for them. How could they possibly go on without their teacher? It was hard for them to see how any good could come of all of this. Jesus wants them, however, to see beyond the trial that is coming towards them all like a runaway boulder. They shouldn’t see things as dark and dismal with no hope in sight. Rather, this situation is much like having a child. The way that the new creation will come into the world will be painful and cause them as well as Jesus serious anguish, but once it comes, everything will be put in perspective. The very thing that had caused them anguish will now give them the greatest joy and they will know that it was all worth the pain.
By this time, the disciples are surely feeling near to the point of being overwhelmed by all that Jesus has told them. It really was quite a lot when you think about it. Imagine their surprise, then, when he tells them there is much more that he’d like to say, but he won’t right now because they would not be able to bear it. He will leave that all to the Spirit of truth. Jesus doesn’t tell them exactly what it is and why they won’t be able to bear it, and John doesn’t specifically enlighten us either, but we can assume that Jesus is referring, at least in part, to the things that they will do under the guidance of the Spirit. They will be transformed into the image of Jesus’ life and will be led by the Spirit into all corners of the world to preach the Gospel and subsequently undergo the same type of rejection and death that Jesus is about to experience.
Why doesn’t Jesus tell them all of the details about this? There are at least three reasons that seem immediately obvious. First, Jesus has only told them things about the future that they need to strengthen them so that their faith is not shaken beyond repair when those things happen. He has told them enough of those things and evidently the other things he would like to tell them don’t fall under this category. Second, telling them would likely have overwhelmed them. We can all probably relate to that. If someone had come to me ten years ago and tell me about all of the changes I would need to make in my life and all the things that I would do for the Gospel and the ways that I would be used by God, I would have been completely overwhelmed and probably would have quit right there. Third, Jesus doesn’t need to tell them these things, because the Holy Spirit will do that all in due time. He will guide them into the truth. This truth, as Jesus has already told them (Jn. 14:26), will be what Jesus has already taught them. Through the guidance of the spirit, they will understand the things that Jesus taught throughout his life and the natural extension of those teachings. The Spirit will guide them in the teachings and life of Christ. As we noted above (in the commentary on 14:26), the Holy Spirit is an educator, not an innovator. Everything the Spirit does is to faithfully reveal the truth of Christ and to glorify him. The Spirit does not speak on his own but only guides in those things that the Father has given to the Son, and that the Son has, in turn, given to the Spirit.
This should stand as a word of caution for critics of the Bible who say that they seek to go back to Jesus’ words, but desire to discount the words of the apostles and writers of the New Testament. There is even a group that calls themselves "red letter Christians," meaning that they only value the words of Jesus but disregard anything else in the New Testament. This passage, however, shows that approach to be untenable. Jesus says that the Spirit is the same source behind the apostles recounting his teachings and guiding their own New Testament writings. We cannot have one without the other.
Jesus has clearly told them that he is leaving and that this departure will be to their benefit, but now what he tells them in verse 16 is just confusing. What could he possibly mean that "In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me." The disciples were simply having trouble matching up their messianic expectations with the things that Jesus was telling them. If he is going to begin the messianic kingdom, then why go to the Father, and if he is going to the Father and not being his kingdom, then why return? They just could make little sense of what he was saying.
Jesus doesn’t really lessen the gravity of what is to come with his birth analogy. Giving birth is an immensely difficult thing. It is terrifying. We have some friends who recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, but in the months leading up to the birth, the expectant mother was absolutely haunted by the daunting specter of pain that was to come. Comedian Carol Burnett once famously remarked that giving birth feels like having your bottom lip pulled over your head. The time that is coming, Jesus tells them, will be painful and frightening.
Jesus is, no doubt, referring to his own coming death. It will be a terrible thing. It will seem that the darkness has overcome the light. Living in a Friday world (the traditional day of Jesus’ death) where evil has overcome good, is a terrifying prospect. Yet, the very thing that causes them grief, his death, will turn to joy. They will finally understand all that has happened. The crucifixion will be terrible but the Sunday of resurrection is surely coming. The new creation, the way that God will reconcile the world to Himself, will be born through that grief. They will suddenly realize that they can enter into that very death and find life. They can die to the old creation and enter into the new. They can become Sunday people in a Friday world. His death and resurrection have to happen. They are the necessary events that will lead to his return to the Father, the onset of the new creation and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
When a woman has a baby, it’s not that the pain and anguish she experienced suddenly did not happen. It’s not even that something entirely different comes in and replaces her anguish with joy. The very thing that caused the pain, once given birth to, replaces that pain with joy. The pain was real, but the joy of the reality of the new baby far outweighs the pain and makes it all seem worthwhile. The Old Testament background behind this comes from passages such as Hosea 13:13-15 and possibly Isaiah 66:7-14, but it seems to come more specifically from Isaiah 26:17-19, a passage in which giving birth and the hope of resurrection are directly linked. What caused pain will bring joy. That’s what the Cross will be for them. First a source of grief, but when the resurrection comes, and the new creation with it, it will become the very source of their joy and the foundation of their hope.
Devotional Thought
God specializes in using situations that seem painful and terrible to produce good fruit in our lives. James, in chapter 1 of his letter, says that we should consider trials with pure joy because they produce perseverance in us which makes us complete in the life of Christ. Do you believe that? Do you see struggles as a source of growth and opportunities to stand in God’s grace rather than just a terrifying prospect of pain and difficulty? Try trusting in God and see what joy and growth come through the very thing that is causing a hard time.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
John 16:1-11
1 "All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the hour is coming when those who kill you will think they are offering a service to God. 3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. 4 I have told you this, so that when their hour comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, 5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 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. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
Dig Deeper
My wife and I recently went to South Africa for a couple of weeks with our oldest son. My wife is a contract nurse who whose contract at the hospital in which she was working had run out just before our trip. When we came back from the trip, she was informed by the agency for which she worked that they did not have any more available contracts. After a few of weeks of no new contracts coming up, she took a job at a hospital and decided that she no longer would do contract nursing. In those convening three weeks, though, she had filed for unemployment insurance. We figured the few extra dollars that that would bring in would be helpful. Usually, unemployment insurance is a simple process to file for and receive. This time was different, however. The agency for which she worked lied and said that my wife had not received a new contract because she quite and went on vacation to Africa. None of that was true, of course. She had told them long in advance we were going there on a ministry trip, and her being gone had nothing to do with there not being an available contract in the area when she returned, and she certainly didn’t quite. They told the unemployment agent several lies and twisted things quite nicely because they did not want to have to pay their share of unemployment. It seemed for awhile that no one cared. The unemployment agent was entirely uninterested in listening to her side of things or looking into the case at all to find the truth. After an appeal that met with little to no action, it looked hopeless. There’s nothing more frustrating than being unable to gain justice. Finally, after a second appeal, her case came before someone who cared, who listened, and who immediately ruled in her favor. There’s nothing quite like justice, especially after a long wait.
As we approach this passage, we find Jesus summarizing much of what he has said previously but in verses 8-11, the conversation turns somewhat puzzling at first glance. To fully understand what Jesus is saying, we have to understand the historic national Jewish passion and desire for justice. They felt very much like a person who was filing appeal after appeal but could not get anyone to listen to the injustice that was happening to them. When would God step in and administer justice? When would he finally do something? Jesus has the answer to that, and it was nothing short of shocking to those listening to Jesus.
Jesus has been giving them information for one simple reason, so that when the hard times come after he is gone, they will not fall away. What we need to keep in mind, though, is that Jesus didn’t just say these things, John chose to write certain things down. Jesus’ followers would be put out of the synagogue, but not in any systematic or formalized manner. That would come later, though. In fact, it would come around 85 or 90 AD, at the time when John was likely writing his Gospel. Of all possible things that Jesus said, why does John record that Jesus foretold his followers that they would be put out of the synagogues? Just as Jesus wanted to ensure that trials would not shake the faith of his eleven disciples, John wants to ensure that Jesus’ words similarly encourage and strengthen the faith of those who were undergoing similar persecution a generation later.
The fact is, Jesus’ followers were going to be persecuted, it wasn’t a mere possibility. It will be done and it will be done by people (primarily Jesus has the Jews in sight here rather than the additional persecution at the hands of the pagans) who think they are offering service to God, but the sad irony is that they are actually persecuting those who are serving God’s will. Imagine the shock of the apostle Paul when he realized that he was not offering service to God but actually was persecuting those who were. Jesus is telling them all of this before it happens, not to scare them, but so that the persecution will actually build their faith in a sense. When it comes, and it will, they will know that this is exactly what Jesus said would happen. They will know that God is completely in control of things even after Jesus has left. And his time to leave has come. He is going into the presence of the Father, yet they are not concerned with that as much as they are with what will happen to them and their own grief. They needn’t worry. Jesus’ leaving will put them in a far better position than they are with him here. The Advocate is coming and he will set things straight, he will decide who is serving God and who is persecuting His true people.
The Psalms are full of writers calling out to God, wondering when he would act on their behalf. They wanted to him act in judgment. We tend to think of judging as a bad thing, but they waited for it because when God acted, it would, they believed, show that they were in the right and their enemies in the wrong. Psalm 43 pleads, "Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" (see also Ps. 17, 26). In the Jewish mindset, they were God’s righteous people who couldn’t get a proper hearing concerning the injustice that was being done to them by the pagan nations. They often imagined themselves in need of a judge who would decide between them and their enemies. In the ancient world, a case was brought to a judge by two parties and he decided who was in the right, that was the party that would be vindicated. As time wore on, some of the prophets began to insinuate that Israel had rebelled against their God and deserved the condemnation that they were receiving. Those same prophets spoke of a time, however, when God would again take the judge’s chair, only this time He would vindicate Israel and demonstrate that His people were in the right.
This is the history of thought behind verses 8-11. When the Advocate comes, it will be to the disciple’s advantage, because he will be the legal counselor that will bring about their case before God. He will be their legal advocate demonstrating them to be God’s people and show them to be in the right. They will stand before God and be vindicated. God’s people are those in Christ, the true vine, the true Israel, and everyone else, especially those that are persecuting them will be shown to be in the wrong.
They will be persecuted. They will find themselves in the familiar position of God’s people, feeling that they are being unjustly treated, but the Spirit will come to their aid. They will not stand and need to wonder whether they are really God’s people or those who are mistreating them are. It is hard to continue to believe that you are in the right when you experience little success and the other side seems to have all of the power. But the Spirit will vindicate them in three specific areas. He will show them that they are in the right and the rest of the world is in the wrong.
First, he will prove the world wrong in regard to sin, because people did not believe in him. Jesus came into the world and showed the world what it looks like to perfectly do the will of God. The only reason people would reject that is because they chose their own win over God’s will. Soon, elements of the world will put Jesus on trial, but it is, in actuality, the world that is on trial, not Jesus.
Second, the Spirit will show that the world is wrong when it comes to righteousness or justice. Andreas Kostenberger says that "The world masquerades as righteous and suppresses any evidence to the contrary, and such behavior requires the Spirit to expose its guilt." Jesus here appeals to the truth of Daniel 7. When he ascends to the Father and is shone to be the Son of Man, seated on God’s throne, he will show the world’s claim to righteousness to be a sham. Jesus’ ascension and exaltation will show that God has ruled in favor of Jesus, and of course, what is true of the king is true of his people. If Jesus has been found in the right, so have his people.
Third, the Spirit will show that the world is wrong when it comes to judgment or condemnation. The world thinks that they can stand in judgment of Jesus and his followers and will try to carry out that judgment but the Spirit will show those things to be powerless. Nothing less than Jesus’ resurrection will demonstrate that the power of the prince of this world has been broken and he, in fact, is the one who stands judged and condemned.
Those who belong to Jesus don’t have to wonder about when justice will come. The Spirit, when He comes and does these things, will provide comfort to those who will suffer persecution for following the life of Christ. We don’t have to wonder whether God will act and do what is right, for He already has. He has already shown that His people are in the right and have been vindicated. Of that we can be sure.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever struggled with standing up to the world and feeling like you were in the minority being a Christian? Take a quick look through the Scriptures. It’s hard to find an example of the majority being in the right. What does that do your faith? God always shows His people to be in the right and He encourages us to stay convinced of that fact because we will almost always be in the minority, called to stand against those who think they are in the right, but have already been shown to be wrong.
Dig Deeper
My wife and I recently went to South Africa for a couple of weeks with our oldest son. My wife is a contract nurse who whose contract at the hospital in which she was working had run out just before our trip. When we came back from the trip, she was informed by the agency for which she worked that they did not have any more available contracts. After a few of weeks of no new contracts coming up, she took a job at a hospital and decided that she no longer would do contract nursing. In those convening three weeks, though, she had filed for unemployment insurance. We figured the few extra dollars that that would bring in would be helpful. Usually, unemployment insurance is a simple process to file for and receive. This time was different, however. The agency for which she worked lied and said that my wife had not received a new contract because she quite and went on vacation to Africa. None of that was true, of course. She had told them long in advance we were going there on a ministry trip, and her being gone had nothing to do with there not being an available contract in the area when she returned, and she certainly didn’t quite. They told the unemployment agent several lies and twisted things quite nicely because they did not want to have to pay their share of unemployment. It seemed for awhile that no one cared. The unemployment agent was entirely uninterested in listening to her side of things or looking into the case at all to find the truth. After an appeal that met with little to no action, it looked hopeless. There’s nothing more frustrating than being unable to gain justice. Finally, after a second appeal, her case came before someone who cared, who listened, and who immediately ruled in her favor. There’s nothing quite like justice, especially after a long wait.
As we approach this passage, we find Jesus summarizing much of what he has said previously but in verses 8-11, the conversation turns somewhat puzzling at first glance. To fully understand what Jesus is saying, we have to understand the historic national Jewish passion and desire for justice. They felt very much like a person who was filing appeal after appeal but could not get anyone to listen to the injustice that was happening to them. When would God step in and administer justice? When would he finally do something? Jesus has the answer to that, and it was nothing short of shocking to those listening to Jesus.
Jesus has been giving them information for one simple reason, so that when the hard times come after he is gone, they will not fall away. What we need to keep in mind, though, is that Jesus didn’t just say these things, John chose to write certain things down. Jesus’ followers would be put out of the synagogue, but not in any systematic or formalized manner. That would come later, though. In fact, it would come around 85 or 90 AD, at the time when John was likely writing his Gospel. Of all possible things that Jesus said, why does John record that Jesus foretold his followers that they would be put out of the synagogues? Just as Jesus wanted to ensure that trials would not shake the faith of his eleven disciples, John wants to ensure that Jesus’ words similarly encourage and strengthen the faith of those who were undergoing similar persecution a generation later.
The fact is, Jesus’ followers were going to be persecuted, it wasn’t a mere possibility. It will be done and it will be done by people (primarily Jesus has the Jews in sight here rather than the additional persecution at the hands of the pagans) who think they are offering service to God, but the sad irony is that they are actually persecuting those who are serving God’s will. Imagine the shock of the apostle Paul when he realized that he was not offering service to God but actually was persecuting those who were. Jesus is telling them all of this before it happens, not to scare them, but so that the persecution will actually build their faith in a sense. When it comes, and it will, they will know that this is exactly what Jesus said would happen. They will know that God is completely in control of things even after Jesus has left. And his time to leave has come. He is going into the presence of the Father, yet they are not concerned with that as much as they are with what will happen to them and their own grief. They needn’t worry. Jesus’ leaving will put them in a far better position than they are with him here. The Advocate is coming and he will set things straight, he will decide who is serving God and who is persecuting His true people.
The Psalms are full of writers calling out to God, wondering when he would act on their behalf. They wanted to him act in judgment. We tend to think of judging as a bad thing, but they waited for it because when God acted, it would, they believed, show that they were in the right and their enemies in the wrong. Psalm 43 pleads, "Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" (see also Ps. 17, 26). In the Jewish mindset, they were God’s righteous people who couldn’t get a proper hearing concerning the injustice that was being done to them by the pagan nations. They often imagined themselves in need of a judge who would decide between them and their enemies. In the ancient world, a case was brought to a judge by two parties and he decided who was in the right, that was the party that would be vindicated. As time wore on, some of the prophets began to insinuate that Israel had rebelled against their God and deserved the condemnation that they were receiving. Those same prophets spoke of a time, however, when God would again take the judge’s chair, only this time He would vindicate Israel and demonstrate that His people were in the right.
This is the history of thought behind verses 8-11. When the Advocate comes, it will be to the disciple’s advantage, because he will be the legal counselor that will bring about their case before God. He will be their legal advocate demonstrating them to be God’s people and show them to be in the right. They will stand before God and be vindicated. God’s people are those in Christ, the true vine, the true Israel, and everyone else, especially those that are persecuting them will be shown to be in the wrong.
They will be persecuted. They will find themselves in the familiar position of God’s people, feeling that they are being unjustly treated, but the Spirit will come to their aid. They will not stand and need to wonder whether they are really God’s people or those who are mistreating them are. It is hard to continue to believe that you are in the right when you experience little success and the other side seems to have all of the power. But the Spirit will vindicate them in three specific areas. He will show them that they are in the right and the rest of the world is in the wrong.
First, he will prove the world wrong in regard to sin, because people did not believe in him. Jesus came into the world and showed the world what it looks like to perfectly do the will of God. The only reason people would reject that is because they chose their own win over God’s will. Soon, elements of the world will put Jesus on trial, but it is, in actuality, the world that is on trial, not Jesus.
Second, the Spirit will show that the world is wrong when it comes to righteousness or justice. Andreas Kostenberger says that "The world masquerades as righteous and suppresses any evidence to the contrary, and such behavior requires the Spirit to expose its guilt." Jesus here appeals to the truth of Daniel 7. When he ascends to the Father and is shone to be the Son of Man, seated on God’s throne, he will show the world’s claim to righteousness to be a sham. Jesus’ ascension and exaltation will show that God has ruled in favor of Jesus, and of course, what is true of the king is true of his people. If Jesus has been found in the right, so have his people.
Third, the Spirit will show that the world is wrong when it comes to judgment or condemnation. The world thinks that they can stand in judgment of Jesus and his followers and will try to carry out that judgment but the Spirit will show those things to be powerless. Nothing less than Jesus’ resurrection will demonstrate that the power of the prince of this world has been broken and he, in fact, is the one who stands judged and condemned.
Those who belong to Jesus don’t have to wonder about when justice will come. The Spirit, when He comes and does these things, will provide comfort to those who will suffer persecution for following the life of Christ. We don’t have to wonder whether God will act and do what is right, for He already has. He has already shown that His people are in the right and have been vindicated. Of that we can be sure.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever struggled with standing up to the world and feeling like you were in the minority being a Christian? Take a quick look through the Scriptures. It’s hard to find an example of the majority being in the right. What does that do your faith? God always shows His people to be in the right and He encourages us to stay convinced of that fact because we will almost always be in the minority, called to stand against those who think they are in the right, but have already been shown to be wrong.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
John 15:18-27
The World Hates the Disciples
18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 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. 20 Remember what I told you: 'Servants are not greater than their master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 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. 23 Those who hate me hate my Father as well. 24 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. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'
The Work of the Holy Spirit
26 "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. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Dig Deeper
Playing college basketball games on the road is usually not the most pleasant of experiences. The trips are usually fairly long and uncomfortable. You wind up being jammed on a bus and eating a lot of fastfood. When you finally get to your destination, you find yourself in a new town and on a new college campus. Sometimes they can be pretty cool or even historic places, but you rarely get to see any of that. You pull up to a nondescript door in the back of some arena and walk into a dank tunnel that leads to a locker room. Other than the gym itself, that’s usually all you get to see of the campus or town. When you enter the gym, you don’t expect a welcome party but we went to one place that was crazy. There was a tradition of the fans at this university hating our school and team. We walked into the arena to warm up and were greeted by the loudest jeers and boos I’ve ever heard. When we were at our bench, we literally had things showered down on us like food, pennies, etc. I couldn’t figure out why we were getting treated so badly. None of us had ever even played in that gym and hadn’t done anything to anyone there. Yet we were part of the team and got treated all the same. I let the constant mistreatment get to me a little bit and at one point, as I was coming out of the game for a rest, I took the mouth guard out that I usually wore and threw it at some fans about ten rows back into the crowd. As we were leaving the campus, we actually had to have a police escort to get out of town. We were told that this was normal procedure when our team came into town. It wasn’t really anything we had done, it was just how our team was treated because we had always been treated that way.
As Jesus continues what has come to be known as his farewell discourse to his disciples, he has had some disturbing news for them, but has mostly tried to encourage them concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit and the help that he would provide for them. He has also told them many things that will surely happen so that when those things do come to pass, they can not only be prepared for them, but their faith won’t be shaken into thinking that God is not in control of events. Now Jesus has some even more challenging words for them. It was one thing to tell them that he would be rejected, mistreated, betrayed, ostracized, and even killed, but it was a whole new level of challenge to tell them squarely that these things would all happen to them as well once he was gone, and for the sole crime of being connected to him.
As we have seen throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has operated on the belief that what was true of the King was true of his people. If he was resurrected and entered into the life of the age to come, then so would they. Whatever he had and had access to, so would they. That was true of all of the good things that would come to the Messiah, but the reverse would also be true and they needed to prepare themselves for that. They shouldn’t start to shake and quake and turn in on their faith when the world hates them (a word that carried the idea of complete rejection in these times). The world should hate them because they hated Jesus first. If the world was embracing them and celebrating their work, then they had better take a long, hard look at themselves and see if they are doing the same work of the Father that Jesus was. They don’t belong to the world, they belong to the King. The world does it’s own will and basically embraces as it’s own anyone who accepts that philosophy. But the world clearly rejects those who clearly and radically live in a different reality and seek to do the will of God in all things. Jesus chose them as his disciples and that’s what they are. The world will hate them solely because of that. Disciples become like their teacher and if they reject the teacher they will reject the disciples.
This timeless principle should serve as a warning to all subsequent generations of the church. Following Jesus doesn’t always mean that we will be killed or brutally persecuted but it will never mean that we are embraced and celebrated by the world. A church or pastor that is too popular with those opposed to the will of God need to ask themselves some hard questions. Yet, sadly, we see more and more churches today that seem to be more concerned with being accepted by the world than in aligning themselves with God’s standard. They seemingly would rather change the word of God than be considered intolerant by the world. When we read passages like this we are reminded that we should know better.
Jesus has just reminded his disciples that the distinguishing mark of the communities they will create will be the self-giving love of God that Jesus has demonstrated throughout his life and will demonstrate fully at the Cross. What they need to know is that the more they display the genuine love of the new creation and live in ways radically different than the rest of the world around them, the more the world will hate them. As they lay their lives down for others, many will know they are Jesus’ disciples (Jn. 13:35) and be drawn to their community, but far more will reject them. Again, this is instructive for us because the world, in its rejection of Christians doesn’t do so because "they are so loving." They reject Christians for being intolerant of other religions, hateful, bigots, the ones causing all of the problems in society, or whatever else can be conjured up. Jesus first disciples needed to be steeled for that and so do we. It’s one thing to be rejected for loving and serving others, but it can be quite a different venture to attempt to love the world, be rejected, and have the rest of the world told that you are hateful and intolerant. The misinformation can often be far more persuasive in causing us to back away from the genuine gospel of new creation than the rejection itself.
The reasons for this hatred is twofold. The first is that the servant is not greater than the master. Jesus is not calling them mere servants, because he has just told them that they are his friends (v. 15), but the servant and master principle applies. Servants are not greater than their master. The way the world treated Jesus, in general terms of persecution and obedience, will hold true for them. The result of whether people reject or obey the Gospel is up to the Spirit not them. If people obey or reject their teaching, they can rest assured that they would have done the same with Jesus himself. The second reason is that what they do is what Jesus did and what Jesus did comes from the Father, the One who sent him. If the world rejects the disciples it is because they rejected Jesus, and if they reject Jesus it is because they do not know God and do not want to know the true God. If they do desire to humble themselves and know the true God then they will obey the true Gospel once they hear it. There is no middle room to reject Jesus and his disciples but still claim to love God. Take one you take them all, reject one you reject them all.
Jesus says that if he had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. His point is not that the Jews who have rejected him would be sinless. Rather, they would be innocent of the specific sin of rejecting the Father by rejecting him. They have had the full word of God revealed to them but have rejected it and will stand guilty of that sin before God and be judged by the very word, the very logos, that they have rejected. Again, none of this should come as any surprise. Jesus is forewarning them once again so that they can be firm in their faith when challenges come. None of this hate and rejection should come as any surprise. Far from being something outside of God’s control, God foreshadowed all of this in their Law (which is used here as a shorthand for "Scripture"), as Jesus identifies himself with the writings of David (Ps. 35:19; 69:4; 109:3). The entire Law, the Scriptures, bore witness to Christ, so when the Jews reject Jesus in their supposed zeal for the Law, they actually violate the Law and bring down condemnation upon themselves.
They will face much persecution, but that shouldn’t lead them to think that they will be on their own facing the world. Jesus reminds them of this, as he has already briefly mentioned and will tell them much more about in the rest of their talk. They will have the call and burden the responsibility of bearing witness of the Gospel to the world. But they will not do it alone. They will benefit from the true witness, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father. He is the One that will testify about Jesus. The Spirit will be with them and guide them, but He won’t ever force Christians to testify about the new creation. Think of it like a flotation vest. It doesn’t do much of anything in particular if you’re not in the water, nor will it make you jump in the water. You have to take the initiative to jump in the water based on faith that the vest will work and keep you above water. The Spirit will not testify through us about Jesus if we don’t. We have to step out on faith and be willing to be used, but regardless of how inadequate we feel, if we make the effort to allow him to guide us in to truth (v. Jn. 14:26) and have faith that he will testify about Jesus through us, He will. We don’t have to do the work or be anything special, we merely have to be willing to be used. The Spirit will do the rest.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever been persecuted for your faith? I’m talking about really being persecuted, not someone merely questioning your beliefs or practices? What was your response to that. Did you become angry, indignant, or even fearful, or did you humbly accept it as something that comes from serving the King? The Bible calls us to react humbly and in love to even persecution, and in the process, we might even attract some to the Gospel. Spend some time thinking about persecution and how you will respond the next time it comes.
18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 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. 20 Remember what I told you: 'Servants are not greater than their master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 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. 23 Those who hate me hate my Father as well. 24 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. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'
The Work of the Holy Spirit
26 "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. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Dig Deeper
Playing college basketball games on the road is usually not the most pleasant of experiences. The trips are usually fairly long and uncomfortable. You wind up being jammed on a bus and eating a lot of fastfood. When you finally get to your destination, you find yourself in a new town and on a new college campus. Sometimes they can be pretty cool or even historic places, but you rarely get to see any of that. You pull up to a nondescript door in the back of some arena and walk into a dank tunnel that leads to a locker room. Other than the gym itself, that’s usually all you get to see of the campus or town. When you enter the gym, you don’t expect a welcome party but we went to one place that was crazy. There was a tradition of the fans at this university hating our school and team. We walked into the arena to warm up and were greeted by the loudest jeers and boos I’ve ever heard. When we were at our bench, we literally had things showered down on us like food, pennies, etc. I couldn’t figure out why we were getting treated so badly. None of us had ever even played in that gym and hadn’t done anything to anyone there. Yet we were part of the team and got treated all the same. I let the constant mistreatment get to me a little bit and at one point, as I was coming out of the game for a rest, I took the mouth guard out that I usually wore and threw it at some fans about ten rows back into the crowd. As we were leaving the campus, we actually had to have a police escort to get out of town. We were told that this was normal procedure when our team came into town. It wasn’t really anything we had done, it was just how our team was treated because we had always been treated that way.
As Jesus continues what has come to be known as his farewell discourse to his disciples, he has had some disturbing news for them, but has mostly tried to encourage them concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit and the help that he would provide for them. He has also told them many things that will surely happen so that when those things do come to pass, they can not only be prepared for them, but their faith won’t be shaken into thinking that God is not in control of events. Now Jesus has some even more challenging words for them. It was one thing to tell them that he would be rejected, mistreated, betrayed, ostracized, and even killed, but it was a whole new level of challenge to tell them squarely that these things would all happen to them as well once he was gone, and for the sole crime of being connected to him.
As we have seen throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has operated on the belief that what was true of the King was true of his people. If he was resurrected and entered into the life of the age to come, then so would they. Whatever he had and had access to, so would they. That was true of all of the good things that would come to the Messiah, but the reverse would also be true and they needed to prepare themselves for that. They shouldn’t start to shake and quake and turn in on their faith when the world hates them (a word that carried the idea of complete rejection in these times). The world should hate them because they hated Jesus first. If the world was embracing them and celebrating their work, then they had better take a long, hard look at themselves and see if they are doing the same work of the Father that Jesus was. They don’t belong to the world, they belong to the King. The world does it’s own will and basically embraces as it’s own anyone who accepts that philosophy. But the world clearly rejects those who clearly and radically live in a different reality and seek to do the will of God in all things. Jesus chose them as his disciples and that’s what they are. The world will hate them solely because of that. Disciples become like their teacher and if they reject the teacher they will reject the disciples.
This timeless principle should serve as a warning to all subsequent generations of the church. Following Jesus doesn’t always mean that we will be killed or brutally persecuted but it will never mean that we are embraced and celebrated by the world. A church or pastor that is too popular with those opposed to the will of God need to ask themselves some hard questions. Yet, sadly, we see more and more churches today that seem to be more concerned with being accepted by the world than in aligning themselves with God’s standard. They seemingly would rather change the word of God than be considered intolerant by the world. When we read passages like this we are reminded that we should know better.
Jesus has just reminded his disciples that the distinguishing mark of the communities they will create will be the self-giving love of God that Jesus has demonstrated throughout his life and will demonstrate fully at the Cross. What they need to know is that the more they display the genuine love of the new creation and live in ways radically different than the rest of the world around them, the more the world will hate them. As they lay their lives down for others, many will know they are Jesus’ disciples (Jn. 13:35) and be drawn to their community, but far more will reject them. Again, this is instructive for us because the world, in its rejection of Christians doesn’t do so because "they are so loving." They reject Christians for being intolerant of other religions, hateful, bigots, the ones causing all of the problems in society, or whatever else can be conjured up. Jesus first disciples needed to be steeled for that and so do we. It’s one thing to be rejected for loving and serving others, but it can be quite a different venture to attempt to love the world, be rejected, and have the rest of the world told that you are hateful and intolerant. The misinformation can often be far more persuasive in causing us to back away from the genuine gospel of new creation than the rejection itself.
The reasons for this hatred is twofold. The first is that the servant is not greater than the master. Jesus is not calling them mere servants, because he has just told them that they are his friends (v. 15), but the servant and master principle applies. Servants are not greater than their master. The way the world treated Jesus, in general terms of persecution and obedience, will hold true for them. The result of whether people reject or obey the Gospel is up to the Spirit not them. If people obey or reject their teaching, they can rest assured that they would have done the same with Jesus himself. The second reason is that what they do is what Jesus did and what Jesus did comes from the Father, the One who sent him. If the world rejects the disciples it is because they rejected Jesus, and if they reject Jesus it is because they do not know God and do not want to know the true God. If they do desire to humble themselves and know the true God then they will obey the true Gospel once they hear it. There is no middle room to reject Jesus and his disciples but still claim to love God. Take one you take them all, reject one you reject them all.
Jesus says that if he had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. His point is not that the Jews who have rejected him would be sinless. Rather, they would be innocent of the specific sin of rejecting the Father by rejecting him. They have had the full word of God revealed to them but have rejected it and will stand guilty of that sin before God and be judged by the very word, the very logos, that they have rejected. Again, none of this should come as any surprise. Jesus is forewarning them once again so that they can be firm in their faith when challenges come. None of this hate and rejection should come as any surprise. Far from being something outside of God’s control, God foreshadowed all of this in their Law (which is used here as a shorthand for "Scripture"), as Jesus identifies himself with the writings of David (Ps. 35:19; 69:4; 109:3). The entire Law, the Scriptures, bore witness to Christ, so when the Jews reject Jesus in their supposed zeal for the Law, they actually violate the Law and bring down condemnation upon themselves.
They will face much persecution, but that shouldn’t lead them to think that they will be on their own facing the world. Jesus reminds them of this, as he has already briefly mentioned and will tell them much more about in the rest of their talk. They will have the call and burden the responsibility of bearing witness of the Gospel to the world. But they will not do it alone. They will benefit from the true witness, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father. He is the One that will testify about Jesus. The Spirit will be with them and guide them, but He won’t ever force Christians to testify about the new creation. Think of it like a flotation vest. It doesn’t do much of anything in particular if you’re not in the water, nor will it make you jump in the water. You have to take the initiative to jump in the water based on faith that the vest will work and keep you above water. The Spirit will not testify through us about Jesus if we don’t. We have to step out on faith and be willing to be used, but regardless of how inadequate we feel, if we make the effort to allow him to guide us in to truth (v. Jn. 14:26) and have faith that he will testify about Jesus through us, He will. We don’t have to do the work or be anything special, we merely have to be willing to be used. The Spirit will do the rest.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever been persecuted for your faith? I’m talking about really being persecuted, not someone merely questioning your beliefs or practices? What was your response to that. Did you become angry, indignant, or even fearful, or did you humbly accept it as something that comes from serving the King? The Bible calls us to react humbly and in love to even persecution, and in the process, we might even attract some to the Gospel. Spend some time thinking about persecution and how you will respond the next time it comes.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
John 15:9-17
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 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. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 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. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Dig Deeper
Growing up, I didn’t know too much about religions outside of Christianity. From time to time you might catch a glimpse of another religion on the news or something, but when I was a kid, other religions weren’t paid attention to the way they are now. The most you might ever hear about another religion was in geography class when we studied out some region of the world and briefly looked at their religious beliefs. That’s not the case now. Everywhere you look other religions are being offered, talked about and even praised. The American media seems to respect every religion except Christianity. This is especially true, perhaps, with Islam. It is the talk of the town in America these days. The other day I even heard a news commentator suggest that it is silly that Muslims and Christians cannot agree on things because, at their core, they’re basically the same religion. If we could just get rid of the silly little things on the surface, said this commentator, we would find that we serve the same God.
Although that sounds all trendy and wonderful and is increasingly becoming the mainstream view in America, even by many who claim to be Christians, it is absolutely incorrect. Nowhere in the Bible are the differences between a religion like Islam and a life and relationship like Christianity more apparent than in a passage like this one. In Islam and most other religions, humans do god’s bidding and serve him for his benefits. Christianity stands alone as a reality that does not call on people to sacrifice their sons for the sake or benefit of the God, but instead points out that God sent His son to die for our sake and benefit. That is the full extent of his love as John told us in 13:1. Jesus came to man to display and express the fullest extent of God’s love. That love will be on full display on the Cross, but Jesus doesn’t just stop there. He doesn’t just want us to see the full extent of God’s love, he wants us to experience it, to embrace it, and to share it with others.
Jesus has just finished telling his disciples that he is the Israel, the vine of God, and that the only way for them to please God and be numbered among His people is to enter into the vine, the life of Christ. Without faith in Christ’s life no one can please God (cf. Heb. 11:6). What Jesus explained to them, though, is that above all, being in Christ will enable them to do God’s will and keep the commands of Jesus. "Love" is the key word in all of this. That’s what it all boils down to. Christ has been motivated, sent, and sustained by the love that the Father has eternally given to him. In the same way that the Father has loved him, Jesus has loved his followers. The proper response to Jesus’ love is to remain in his love. That might seem a bit odd, as it might seem like the logical response to the love of Christ is to love him back or even to love others. Jesus will get to that in a moment, but first he makes clear that we must remain in his love. That is how we will be enabled to please God, to love Jesus, and to love anyone else at all with the kind of love that Jesus is referring to. If, Jesus says, we keep his commands, then we will remain in his love.
The big question becomes, then, what are the commands? How can we follow these commands and remain in his love? Following these commands and remaining in Christ’s love must be of great importance because Jesus says this will make their joy complete. That was a big statement in a Jewish culture who believed that only in the age to come would joy be complete. It simply couldn’t be complete in this age, they argued, because of the ever-present prospects of death and the worries of life. Yet, Jesus promises that adherence to his commands and the resolve to remain in his love will bring the complete joy of the age to come in someone’s life in the present age. In verse 12, Jesus finally answers how to keep his commands. It is the same thing that he urged his followers to in 13:34-35. They must love each other, with the qualifier that this love is the kind of love with which he loved them. The way to remain in the love of the Messiah and keep his commands is through the self-giving love that we experience and give in the Christian community. Thus a cycle is created in which keeping Jesus’ commands leads us to love one another which causes us to remain in his love, and it is his love that will allow us to keep his commands.
What is so stunning about Jesus’ words, though is that he is not asking us to do anything that he has not done. It is one thing to ask someone to do something for you that is challenging and difficult, but it is a much simpler request if you have already done it for them. Jesus is asking his disciples to lay down their lives for others but only because he is about to do that in the ultimate sense for all of us. This is what sets Jesus apart as the one true God, the King, from all other pretenders to the throne. No other god has so fully done what he asks of his followers.
Jesus has laid down his life for his friends and asks us to go and likewise. If we do what Jesus commands, that is to remain in his love by offering the love that he has shown us to others, then we are indeed his friends. It’s not as if Jesus is saying that doing what he commands is a condition of his friendship, although that is true in a sense. More accurately, though, he is saying that doing what he commands, laying down our life for him and for others, is a sure sign that we are his friends. It is our badge of identification. Faith in his life and the self-denying love that come with remaining in his life are the signs that will show the world who we are and to whom we belong. The servant or slave was simply a tool of the master, doing what he was told. That in a sense is what people under the Old Covenant necessarily were. Not so with those who have entered into the life of Christ. A friend knows what his friends wants and shares in the relationship as a willing participant. Jesus keeps nothing back from his disciples. He has shared everything and revealed all to those who believe in his life.
As Jesus continues, in verse 16, he reminds them that their relationship was not like the standard teacher-disciple relationship in the Jewish world. In that scenario, the potential disciple would go and request that the rabbi teach them and then hope to be accepted by the rabbi. That was not the case with them. They did not have to prove their worth or earn their position. They are Jesus disciples, and more than that, his friends because he chose them, he called them. He demonstrates that they are his friends in the fact that he hasn’t assigned them some menial tasks to do but has allowed each of his disciples to share in his work, the work of the Father.
He has, in fact, appointed us to bear fruit, but not temporary fruit, fruit that will last. Some have surmised that the fruit to which Jesus speaks is evangelistic fruit, but as in the previous passage, that simply does not fit the overall context. The fruit that they will bear is the same fruit from the previous passage. Being fruitful is upholding the Covenant. They will do God’s will and spread his love. Jesus is calling them to go into the world and bear the fruit of self-giving love in a Christian community. As Jesus promised in 13:34-35, this kind of love will stand out and be a marker to the world as to the identity of Jesus’ true disciples. So, in that sense, bearing the Spirit enabled fruit of doing God’s will through self-sacrificial love will attract others and will be evangelistic, but the fruit is not overtly referring to evangelism.
The difference may seem small but is actually vital. One can be quite driven to evangelism because we see it as the fruit which we are called to bear without being motivated by the genuine love of God or having much authentic love for others. In those cases, lost souls get reduced to numbers as we become obsessed with earning God’s approval and showing that we really are his friends by bearing more and more "fruit." This puts all of the onus and responsibility on us and can dangerously suck any authentic love out of what we are doing. Becoming bigger and bigger becomes our all-consuming idol. The proper understanding that the fruit that Jesus refers to is ultimately love. Love that is best seen and manifested in our self-sacrificing for the sake of others, is quite important. Then we realize that this love comes from God and is manifested by Him in our lives. Our goal becomes to share in His love and spread it to those within the body of Christ. This kind of genuine godly love will naturally draw those who earnestly seek God and true, genuine godly growth will happen. Properly understanding Jesus’ command to love each other as the fruit that we will bear keeps the focus on God rather than us and serves to keep the community of Christ focused properly on remaining in his love rather than bowing to the altar of numerical growth.
Devotional Thought
Jesus said that his primary command, the way to do the will of God, was to have the same kind of love for other believers that he showed to all of us. What about that is most challenging to you? What is most encouraging?
Dig Deeper
Growing up, I didn’t know too much about religions outside of Christianity. From time to time you might catch a glimpse of another religion on the news or something, but when I was a kid, other religions weren’t paid attention to the way they are now. The most you might ever hear about another religion was in geography class when we studied out some region of the world and briefly looked at their religious beliefs. That’s not the case now. Everywhere you look other religions are being offered, talked about and even praised. The American media seems to respect every religion except Christianity. This is especially true, perhaps, with Islam. It is the talk of the town in America these days. The other day I even heard a news commentator suggest that it is silly that Muslims and Christians cannot agree on things because, at their core, they’re basically the same religion. If we could just get rid of the silly little things on the surface, said this commentator, we would find that we serve the same God.
Although that sounds all trendy and wonderful and is increasingly becoming the mainstream view in America, even by many who claim to be Christians, it is absolutely incorrect. Nowhere in the Bible are the differences between a religion like Islam and a life and relationship like Christianity more apparent than in a passage like this one. In Islam and most other religions, humans do god’s bidding and serve him for his benefits. Christianity stands alone as a reality that does not call on people to sacrifice their sons for the sake or benefit of the God, but instead points out that God sent His son to die for our sake and benefit. That is the full extent of his love as John told us in 13:1. Jesus came to man to display and express the fullest extent of God’s love. That love will be on full display on the Cross, but Jesus doesn’t just stop there. He doesn’t just want us to see the full extent of God’s love, he wants us to experience it, to embrace it, and to share it with others.
Jesus has just finished telling his disciples that he is the Israel, the vine of God, and that the only way for them to please God and be numbered among His people is to enter into the vine, the life of Christ. Without faith in Christ’s life no one can please God (cf. Heb. 11:6). What Jesus explained to them, though, is that above all, being in Christ will enable them to do God’s will and keep the commands of Jesus. "Love" is the key word in all of this. That’s what it all boils down to. Christ has been motivated, sent, and sustained by the love that the Father has eternally given to him. In the same way that the Father has loved him, Jesus has loved his followers. The proper response to Jesus’ love is to remain in his love. That might seem a bit odd, as it might seem like the logical response to the love of Christ is to love him back or even to love others. Jesus will get to that in a moment, but first he makes clear that we must remain in his love. That is how we will be enabled to please God, to love Jesus, and to love anyone else at all with the kind of love that Jesus is referring to. If, Jesus says, we keep his commands, then we will remain in his love.
The big question becomes, then, what are the commands? How can we follow these commands and remain in his love? Following these commands and remaining in Christ’s love must be of great importance because Jesus says this will make their joy complete. That was a big statement in a Jewish culture who believed that only in the age to come would joy be complete. It simply couldn’t be complete in this age, they argued, because of the ever-present prospects of death and the worries of life. Yet, Jesus promises that adherence to his commands and the resolve to remain in his love will bring the complete joy of the age to come in someone’s life in the present age. In verse 12, Jesus finally answers how to keep his commands. It is the same thing that he urged his followers to in 13:34-35. They must love each other, with the qualifier that this love is the kind of love with which he loved them. The way to remain in the love of the Messiah and keep his commands is through the self-giving love that we experience and give in the Christian community. Thus a cycle is created in which keeping Jesus’ commands leads us to love one another which causes us to remain in his love, and it is his love that will allow us to keep his commands.
What is so stunning about Jesus’ words, though is that he is not asking us to do anything that he has not done. It is one thing to ask someone to do something for you that is challenging and difficult, but it is a much simpler request if you have already done it for them. Jesus is asking his disciples to lay down their lives for others but only because he is about to do that in the ultimate sense for all of us. This is what sets Jesus apart as the one true God, the King, from all other pretenders to the throne. No other god has so fully done what he asks of his followers.
Jesus has laid down his life for his friends and asks us to go and likewise. If we do what Jesus commands, that is to remain in his love by offering the love that he has shown us to others, then we are indeed his friends. It’s not as if Jesus is saying that doing what he commands is a condition of his friendship, although that is true in a sense. More accurately, though, he is saying that doing what he commands, laying down our life for him and for others, is a sure sign that we are his friends. It is our badge of identification. Faith in his life and the self-denying love that come with remaining in his life are the signs that will show the world who we are and to whom we belong. The servant or slave was simply a tool of the master, doing what he was told. That in a sense is what people under the Old Covenant necessarily were. Not so with those who have entered into the life of Christ. A friend knows what his friends wants and shares in the relationship as a willing participant. Jesus keeps nothing back from his disciples. He has shared everything and revealed all to those who believe in his life.
As Jesus continues, in verse 16, he reminds them that their relationship was not like the standard teacher-disciple relationship in the Jewish world. In that scenario, the potential disciple would go and request that the rabbi teach them and then hope to be accepted by the rabbi. That was not the case with them. They did not have to prove their worth or earn their position. They are Jesus disciples, and more than that, his friends because he chose them, he called them. He demonstrates that they are his friends in the fact that he hasn’t assigned them some menial tasks to do but has allowed each of his disciples to share in his work, the work of the Father.
He has, in fact, appointed us to bear fruit, but not temporary fruit, fruit that will last. Some have surmised that the fruit to which Jesus speaks is evangelistic fruit, but as in the previous passage, that simply does not fit the overall context. The fruit that they will bear is the same fruit from the previous passage. Being fruitful is upholding the Covenant. They will do God’s will and spread his love. Jesus is calling them to go into the world and bear the fruit of self-giving love in a Christian community. As Jesus promised in 13:34-35, this kind of love will stand out and be a marker to the world as to the identity of Jesus’ true disciples. So, in that sense, bearing the Spirit enabled fruit of doing God’s will through self-sacrificial love will attract others and will be evangelistic, but the fruit is not overtly referring to evangelism.
The difference may seem small but is actually vital. One can be quite driven to evangelism because we see it as the fruit which we are called to bear without being motivated by the genuine love of God or having much authentic love for others. In those cases, lost souls get reduced to numbers as we become obsessed with earning God’s approval and showing that we really are his friends by bearing more and more "fruit." This puts all of the onus and responsibility on us and can dangerously suck any authentic love out of what we are doing. Becoming bigger and bigger becomes our all-consuming idol. The proper understanding that the fruit that Jesus refers to is ultimately love. Love that is best seen and manifested in our self-sacrificing for the sake of others, is quite important. Then we realize that this love comes from God and is manifested by Him in our lives. Our goal becomes to share in His love and spread it to those within the body of Christ. This kind of genuine godly love will naturally draw those who earnestly seek God and true, genuine godly growth will happen. Properly understanding Jesus’ command to love each other as the fruit that we will bear keeps the focus on God rather than us and serves to keep the community of Christ focused properly on remaining in his love rather than bowing to the altar of numerical growth.
Devotional Thought
Jesus said that his primary command, the way to do the will of God, was to have the same kind of love for other believers that he showed to all of us. What about that is most challenging to you? What is most encouraging?
Monday, February 16, 2009
John 14:31b:15:8
"Come now; let us leave.
The Vine and the Branches
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 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.
5 "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. 6 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. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Dig Deeper
Good teachers can present information to people in an interesting way so that they can understand the material and try to grasp it and absorb it into their existing framework of understanding. Great teachers can go beyond that, though. They can take things that their students already know from their existing framework, things they already understand, and are intimately familiar with and use those things to teach them new things. They bring forth the common image of an event or item with which everyone is already familiar and then make changes to the familiar image. In that way, they use something known and show how the new concept fits into that framework but also how it is better or different. That’s the kind of teaching that people can grab hold of and immediately put into their existing model of understanding. They can almost instantly grasp the implications of that kind of teaching. That’s why the best teachers can use examples from the "real world" to teach the concepts they want to get across.
No teacher has ever been better at that concept than Jesus. Nearly every teaching, every story he told, used ideas, concepts, and events that all of his hearers easily understood. The Father was like a landowner, while the Jews were like workers in the field. The Kingdom of God was like a treasure found in a field. Faith was like a planted mustard seed, and on and on he went. Jesus used things they knew as vehicles to explain difficult new concepts. The community that he is forming around himself after he leaves was no different. Jesus used something that they all knew to make his point. Vines were everywhere in ancient Israel, but more than that, the Old Testament had frequently used the concept of a vine to explain Israel’s relationship with God. Jesus would use the familiar concept of how vines worked along with the common imagery of Israel being God’s vine to teach his disciples about the new creation.
In Jeremiah 2:21, the Lord tells Israel that "I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?" Throughout the Old Testament the imagery of Israel as God’s vineyard, planted by him is used (Isa. 27:2-6; Ps. 80:8-16; Jer. 2:21; 6:9; 12:10-13; Ezek. 15:1-8; 17:5-10; 19:10-14; Hos. 10:1-2; 14:7). Perhaps the most poignant of those references, and one which Jesus seems to be using as a clear and primary backdrop to his words here is Isaiah 5. Isaiah speaks for God saying that He will sing "a song about his vineyard," which is made clear in verse 7 that the vineyard is Israel. God prepared and planted his vineyard and watched it carefully, tending it so that it would produce fruit, which is the whole purpose of a vineyard. When he looked for a "crop of good grapes," though all he found was "bad fruit." The Lord asks "what more have been done" for His vineyard beyond what He has done and declares that Israel will be made a wasteland because of their lack of fruit. In the context of this passage, it is clear that the fruit God was looking for was obedience to His Covenant, His word. He desired Israel to be faithful and keep up her end of the Covenant, but they failed again and again, producing only the bad fruit of disobedience to God’s Covenant. They were found to be completely incapable of bearing good fruit, yet in passages like Isaiah 27:6, the text looks forward to a time when "In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit." This begs the question of how Isaiah can speak both of Israel being made a wasteland for disobeying the Covenant and there being a time when Israel would finally bear fruit and obey God’s Word, living up to the calling to keep His Covenant.
As Jesus spends his last night with his faithful disciples, he will explain that mystery in a way that no one could have expected. As he finishes up his previous teaching, Jesus calls his disciples to leave with him. It doesn’t take much imagination to speculate that as they left and walked toward the Garden, Jesus stopped at one of the many vines growing in Jerusalem and taught them an important point.
Israel had failed to keep God’s Covenant, and now their vocation had passed on to God’s true representative, His true son. He was the true vine, planted and cared for by the Father, the gardener. (This is the last of John’s seven "I am" sayings in his Gospel). Israel as a nation would be made a wasteland very soon (a prophecy that was fulfilled in 70 AD) and Jesus was boldly declaring that he was the authentic Israel, who had done the Father’s will and would act as the representative for God’s people. He alone would be the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 that would be crushed for the sin of the world.
This imagery is monumentally important to fully grasp. Jesus alone is the true Israel that will experience all that God had promised for his people including resurrection and entrance into the age to come. He is the vine and anyone who would be part of God’s people must enter into that vine as one of the branches. This is the central point that Jesus is teaching his disciples. To be the people of God, they must enter into his life. It is only through his life that people will be able to bear fruit and do the will of God. Only by entering into the life of Christ and living according to the teaching and guidance of the Spirit can we uphold God’s Covenant. It will all be the Father’s work through the life of Christ and the guidance of the Spirit not anything that we do on our own strength.
Some have asserted or imagined that "bearing fruit" here has to do with evangelism, but that is nowhere in sight in this passage, other than the fact that faithfully bearing witness to the Gospel is one component of many in the life of Christ. Jesus is hardly threatening his followers with the idea that they must make more disciples or be in danger of being cast out. Far from anything like that, Jesus is promising that those who enter into his life, will be transformed into his image (cf. Col 3:10) and be given the resources to remain in Christ and bear the fruit that God has always looked for. Bearing fruit, though, is God’s work through the life of Christ, not our own.
As comforting as that is, they shouldn’t imagine that that means that life will be wonderful from this point on out. As they all knew, vines needed to be pruned so that the growth they experience is productive and in the right direction. They should not be surprised that there will be much pruning throughout their lives, transforming them ever closer to the image of the King. Jesus wants to encourage them as well though, so he reminds them that they have already started that process. They are already clean, a word that means much the same thing as "prune." They have gone through much testing and produced good fruit already because they have accepted Jesus’ word, his logos.
Yet, there will always be some who seem to be part of the vineyard but who have not genuinely accepted the life of Christ as their own. Jesus is, perhaps, referring specifically to Judas Iscariot at this point, but there will always be those who do not bear fruit. If the life of Christ is not visible in one’s life (cf. Gal. 5:22-25) then there has to be question whether they are truly part of the true vine. Those that do not surrender their own life and live the one that will bear fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire, says Jesus, using imagery that comes from Ezekiel 15:3-5.
The great and wonderful mystery in all of this is the call to remain in Christ. If we do, he promises that we will bear much fruit (v. 5) and that his logos will remain in us (v. 7). Then we will be slowly transformed so that our desires and will are directed by his and whatever we ask will be done. It is not that Jesus will turn into a divine Santa Claus, but that we will be transformed so that the things we ask for will be things consistent with the life of Christ. The question is, though, how do we remain in him? Certainly we must remain people of prayer, the Word, and worship in ways that genuinely connect us with the will of God. And certainly we need to follow the Scriptures in the constant trek of dying to self or putting off the old, and to live the life of Christ by putting on the new (cf. Eph. 4:20-31). But an equally vital aspect of remaining in Christ is to remain in the community, the body of Christ, that he has formed in his life. The only way to genuinely fulfill all that God has called us to in the life of Christ is to live in a community of those committed to living the life of the new creation and will call us to do the same. We need the other branches to truly remain in the vine but that does not mean that we rely on their strength or ability because they are only there through the power of the Spirit themselves.
Devotional Thought
How comforting is it to know that bearing fruit in the life of Christ rests solely on us staying their and allowing the Spirit to produce that fruit rather than through any effort or ability of our own? Spend some time today praising God for allowing you to be a part of the vine and to bear fruit in Christ.
The Vine and the Branches
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 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. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 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.
5 "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. 6 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. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Dig Deeper
Good teachers can present information to people in an interesting way so that they can understand the material and try to grasp it and absorb it into their existing framework of understanding. Great teachers can go beyond that, though. They can take things that their students already know from their existing framework, things they already understand, and are intimately familiar with and use those things to teach them new things. They bring forth the common image of an event or item with which everyone is already familiar and then make changes to the familiar image. In that way, they use something known and show how the new concept fits into that framework but also how it is better or different. That’s the kind of teaching that people can grab hold of and immediately put into their existing model of understanding. They can almost instantly grasp the implications of that kind of teaching. That’s why the best teachers can use examples from the "real world" to teach the concepts they want to get across.
No teacher has ever been better at that concept than Jesus. Nearly every teaching, every story he told, used ideas, concepts, and events that all of his hearers easily understood. The Father was like a landowner, while the Jews were like workers in the field. The Kingdom of God was like a treasure found in a field. Faith was like a planted mustard seed, and on and on he went. Jesus used things they knew as vehicles to explain difficult new concepts. The community that he is forming around himself after he leaves was no different. Jesus used something that they all knew to make his point. Vines were everywhere in ancient Israel, but more than that, the Old Testament had frequently used the concept of a vine to explain Israel’s relationship with God. Jesus would use the familiar concept of how vines worked along with the common imagery of Israel being God’s vine to teach his disciples about the new creation.
In Jeremiah 2:21, the Lord tells Israel that "I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?" Throughout the Old Testament the imagery of Israel as God’s vineyard, planted by him is used (Isa. 27:2-6; Ps. 80:8-16; Jer. 2:21; 6:9; 12:10-13; Ezek. 15:1-8; 17:5-10; 19:10-14; Hos. 10:1-2; 14:7). Perhaps the most poignant of those references, and one which Jesus seems to be using as a clear and primary backdrop to his words here is Isaiah 5. Isaiah speaks for God saying that He will sing "a song about his vineyard," which is made clear in verse 7 that the vineyard is Israel. God prepared and planted his vineyard and watched it carefully, tending it so that it would produce fruit, which is the whole purpose of a vineyard. When he looked for a "crop of good grapes," though all he found was "bad fruit." The Lord asks "what more have been done" for His vineyard beyond what He has done and declares that Israel will be made a wasteland because of their lack of fruit. In the context of this passage, it is clear that the fruit God was looking for was obedience to His Covenant, His word. He desired Israel to be faithful and keep up her end of the Covenant, but they failed again and again, producing only the bad fruit of disobedience to God’s Covenant. They were found to be completely incapable of bearing good fruit, yet in passages like Isaiah 27:6, the text looks forward to a time when "In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit." This begs the question of how Isaiah can speak both of Israel being made a wasteland for disobeying the Covenant and there being a time when Israel would finally bear fruit and obey God’s Word, living up to the calling to keep His Covenant.
As Jesus spends his last night with his faithful disciples, he will explain that mystery in a way that no one could have expected. As he finishes up his previous teaching, Jesus calls his disciples to leave with him. It doesn’t take much imagination to speculate that as they left and walked toward the Garden, Jesus stopped at one of the many vines growing in Jerusalem and taught them an important point.
Israel had failed to keep God’s Covenant, and now their vocation had passed on to God’s true representative, His true son. He was the true vine, planted and cared for by the Father, the gardener. (This is the last of John’s seven "I am" sayings in his Gospel). Israel as a nation would be made a wasteland very soon (a prophecy that was fulfilled in 70 AD) and Jesus was boldly declaring that he was the authentic Israel, who had done the Father’s will and would act as the representative for God’s people. He alone would be the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 that would be crushed for the sin of the world.
This imagery is monumentally important to fully grasp. Jesus alone is the true Israel that will experience all that God had promised for his people including resurrection and entrance into the age to come. He is the vine and anyone who would be part of God’s people must enter into that vine as one of the branches. This is the central point that Jesus is teaching his disciples. To be the people of God, they must enter into his life. It is only through his life that people will be able to bear fruit and do the will of God. Only by entering into the life of Christ and living according to the teaching and guidance of the Spirit can we uphold God’s Covenant. It will all be the Father’s work through the life of Christ and the guidance of the Spirit not anything that we do on our own strength.
Some have asserted or imagined that "bearing fruit" here has to do with evangelism, but that is nowhere in sight in this passage, other than the fact that faithfully bearing witness to the Gospel is one component of many in the life of Christ. Jesus is hardly threatening his followers with the idea that they must make more disciples or be in danger of being cast out. Far from anything like that, Jesus is promising that those who enter into his life, will be transformed into his image (cf. Col 3:10) and be given the resources to remain in Christ and bear the fruit that God has always looked for. Bearing fruit, though, is God’s work through the life of Christ, not our own.
As comforting as that is, they shouldn’t imagine that that means that life will be wonderful from this point on out. As they all knew, vines needed to be pruned so that the growth they experience is productive and in the right direction. They should not be surprised that there will be much pruning throughout their lives, transforming them ever closer to the image of the King. Jesus wants to encourage them as well though, so he reminds them that they have already started that process. They are already clean, a word that means much the same thing as "prune." They have gone through much testing and produced good fruit already because they have accepted Jesus’ word, his logos.
Yet, there will always be some who seem to be part of the vineyard but who have not genuinely accepted the life of Christ as their own. Jesus is, perhaps, referring specifically to Judas Iscariot at this point, but there will always be those who do not bear fruit. If the life of Christ is not visible in one’s life (cf. Gal. 5:22-25) then there has to be question whether they are truly part of the true vine. Those that do not surrender their own life and live the one that will bear fruit will be cut off and thrown into the fire, says Jesus, using imagery that comes from Ezekiel 15:3-5.
The great and wonderful mystery in all of this is the call to remain in Christ. If we do, he promises that we will bear much fruit (v. 5) and that his logos will remain in us (v. 7). Then we will be slowly transformed so that our desires and will are directed by his and whatever we ask will be done. It is not that Jesus will turn into a divine Santa Claus, but that we will be transformed so that the things we ask for will be things consistent with the life of Christ. The question is, though, how do we remain in him? Certainly we must remain people of prayer, the Word, and worship in ways that genuinely connect us with the will of God. And certainly we need to follow the Scriptures in the constant trek of dying to self or putting off the old, and to live the life of Christ by putting on the new (cf. Eph. 4:20-31). But an equally vital aspect of remaining in Christ is to remain in the community, the body of Christ, that he has formed in his life. The only way to genuinely fulfill all that God has called us to in the life of Christ is to live in a community of those committed to living the life of the new creation and will call us to do the same. We need the other branches to truly remain in the vine but that does not mean that we rely on their strength or ability because they are only there through the power of the Spirit themselves.
Devotional Thought
How comforting is it to know that bearing fruit in the life of Christ rests solely on us staying their and allowing the Spirit to produce that fruit rather than through any effort or ability of our own? Spend some time today praising God for allowing you to be a part of the vine and to bear fruit in Christ.
Friday, February 13, 2009
John 14:25-31a
25 "All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 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. 27 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.
28 "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. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Dig Deeper
I just wanted a day of peace. Was that too much to ask? It sounded so nice to have a day free from work, free from stress, free from noise, just a respite. So I picked the perfect day. I had the day off of work (I was still teaching high school history back then) and my wife was going out of town for a few hours with our boys. This was it this was the day when nothing would bother me and I could just relax for a few hours and do nothing. Just a few minutes into my day of peace, however, the phone rang and a friend needed some help. So, I went over to help that him, but I still had several hours before my wife would return and bring an end to my day of peace. As I got home, I realized that there was a water leak in the basement, so I had to fix that which took awhile. As soon as that was done, I came upstairs, sat down, and just got relaxed as the phone rang. It was another friend who was really having a hard time and needed to talk through some things. By the time I got done with that, my wife had returned and the so-called day of peace was over. I felt very frustrated by the end of that day because I didn’t feel like I got any actual time of peace. I was operating by the world’s standard of peace, though. I wanted a day free from trouble, anxiety, and where everything went my way. That’s not at all what I got, and by the standard of peace that I desired that day, I had nothing but trouble.
Caesar Augustus began a period in Rome of relative peace that would last for over two hundred years. Today that period and that philosophy used to achieve it is called "Pax Romana." Rome’s peace was based on the same kind of thinking that I had that day. It’s the world’s view of peace. It meant freedom from trouble, hardship, danger, or any problems. The problem with Pax Romana and so many other versions of the world’s definition of peace was that it was built on a foundation of fear, war, intimidation, and oppression. Plus, it was a fleeting peace, as that kind of peace always is. Jesus is leaving and he wants to prepare his followers. He has told them that he is going to leave them the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide them into truth. This Spirit is not fleeting, though. He will last the test of time and he will bring them peace. Real peace. Not the world’s peace.
Verse 25 is another example of Jesus telling his followers things before they happen to build up their faith and prepare them for what is to come. Often times as in the case of the Jewish rejection of Jesus or the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, it is so that when things happen in the future, they are not rocked from their faith. In this case, Jesus has spoken of the Spirit while he is still with them so that they are not overly troubled in the moment, knowing that Jesus is about to leave them. The Spirit, as Jesus will go on to say, will testify regarding Jesus (Jn. 15:26), he will convict the world of sin and unrighteousness (Jn. 16:8-11), and will guide Jesus’ disciples into all truth (Jn. 16:13), but here Jesus unveils the truth that the Spirit’s primary role will be that of teacher. He will sustain and prepare Jesus’ disciples after Jesus’ ascension into the Father’s presence by teaching them all things and will remind them of everything that Jesus said to them.
The fact that the role of the Spirit is as a teacher and reminder of what Jesus has already said is important. Throughout the centuries since Christ, many movements have created rather large followings for themselves by claiming that the Spirit has guided them into some sort of new revelation or new truth. It is not uncommon today to hear preachers in certain sects say something like, "you won’t find this in the Bible, but the Spirit has just revealed something new to me." Their followers wait with baited breath for the new revelation of the Spirit and trail along like mindless lemmings. But this sort of thing is in direct opposition to the role of the Spirit. The Spirit has been sent by the Father in the name of Jesus, meaning everything that the Spirit will do will be consistent with the teaching and life of Jesus that has already been revealed in the pages of the Scriptures. The Spirit’s role is not to reveal new teachings or new ideas but to guide believers in their understanding and execution of the Scriptures we have. The Spirit is an educator not a revelator.
The Spirit that Jesus will leave with his new community is the Spirit that brings peace. There is likely two currents of thought that Jesus is playing off of in using that term. "Shalom" or "peace" was a standard greeting by the Jews of Jesus’ day, one that continues into modern times. It referred to wholeness or having everything that one needed to be sustained, especially the aspect of having a right relationship with God. For the Roman world that surrounded them, peace was something that the Roman Empire provided through their power. It referred to the absence of negativity of any kind. This peace was maintained by military power. In fact, biblical scholar Andreas Kostenberger says that "The famous Ara Pacis (‘altar of peace’), erected by Augustus to celebrate his inauguration of the age of peace, still stands in Rome as a testimony to the world’s empty messianic pretensions." The peace of the Spirit to which Jesus refers is not at all the absence of negative things, but the strength to survive and thrive under danger, turmoil , and opposition. They needn’t let their hearts be troubled or give into fear because the Spirit will guide them into a true reality of peace, a peace that does not rely on might or positive circumstances but relies solely on the power of the Spirit of God to give disciples everything they need to overcome whatever circumstances they face. In that sense, the peace that Jesus was leaving with them was much like the Jewish blessing that was wished on one another, but rather than a vague greeting or hope, it would be a community of reality. They would be the people of peace because they had the Spirit of peace.
The disciples have been tempted to look at this whole situation only insomuch as it effects them, but they’ve not stopped to consider things from Jesus’ perspective. If they did love him as they would undoubtedly claim that they believed they did, then they would be full of joy, not only for themselves because they will benefit by the coming of the Spirit, but also because Jesus will be returning to his glory. For now, the Father is greater than Jesus while he is incarnated because he has willing humbled himself to take on human flesh. Returning to the Father will restore Jesus to his rightful place next to the Father. This does not mean that Jesus is not God or less than the Father but that in their eternal relationship, Jesus is subordinate to the authority of the Father. This is part of his eternal sonship. Jesus reiterates that he’s not telling them this to embarrass or shame them but to build up their faith. This is one more thing that he is telling them so that when he is killed and returns to the Father they don’t have to struggle, they will know that the Father was in charge of events all along. If Jesus died, it might be devastating, but if he predicts that he will die and attaches ultimate significance to that death and the subsequent events, then it will build their faith. As we follow the events immediately following Jesus’ death and resurrection, the recognition by the disciples of these things didn’t come immediately. Eventually, however, they would, with the help of the Spirit, be able to understand all that Jesus had told them and see that he was exactly who he said he was.
Jesus could go on and on explaining things to them and building up their faith but the time is short, so the little bit that he is sharing will suffice. He must bring his teaching to a close because the prince of this world is coming. In a very real sense, Jesus could be referring to the power of Caesar and the Jewish leadership that is quickly surrounding him. Surely, the powers that be have encircled Jesus and are about to do their worst. In the fullest sense, though, Jesus refers to the power that stands behind even Caesar. Satan will do his worst but he has no hold over Jesus. The phrase Jesus used here came from the legal world and meant that he had no legal claim on Jesus. The accuser would try to do his worst but the ultimate weapon of Satan is death, and death has no rightful claim to one who is sinless (cf. Jn. 8:46).
Satan might think that he is gaining a victory over the Son of God, but the reality is that God has allowed him to do his worst so that God may be glorified. Just as Joseph remarked that his brothers intended to harm him but God used the situation for good (Gen. 50:20), Jesus applies a similar principle. Satan thinks he has come to do his own will, but the result of that evil will be that the world may learn that Jesus loves the Father and does exactly what his Father has commanded him to do. The contrast is striking. Satan, does his own evil will, but still cannot escape the sovereign power of the Father. On the other hand, Jesus does the Father’s will which calls him to walk directly towards death and the Cross. That will show the world the love and obedience that the Son has for the Father. He will do the Father’s will and will benefit all mankind and bring glory to the Father.
Devotional Thought
Jesus promised that the world would hate his disciples and tend to persecute them in the same way that they treated Jesus. He told this ahead of time so that, just like his first disciples, when it does happen, rather than being discouraged, we can be strengthened in our faith and know that Jesus knew all along that these types of things would happen. It doesn’t mean that God isn’t in control. Quite the opposite, in fact. When the world rejects our faith, it should strengthen our faith, not shake it. Think about it.
28 "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. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Dig Deeper
I just wanted a day of peace. Was that too much to ask? It sounded so nice to have a day free from work, free from stress, free from noise, just a respite. So I picked the perfect day. I had the day off of work (I was still teaching high school history back then) and my wife was going out of town for a few hours with our boys. This was it this was the day when nothing would bother me and I could just relax for a few hours and do nothing. Just a few minutes into my day of peace, however, the phone rang and a friend needed some help. So, I went over to help that him, but I still had several hours before my wife would return and bring an end to my day of peace. As I got home, I realized that there was a water leak in the basement, so I had to fix that which took awhile. As soon as that was done, I came upstairs, sat down, and just got relaxed as the phone rang. It was another friend who was really having a hard time and needed to talk through some things. By the time I got done with that, my wife had returned and the so-called day of peace was over. I felt very frustrated by the end of that day because I didn’t feel like I got any actual time of peace. I was operating by the world’s standard of peace, though. I wanted a day free from trouble, anxiety, and where everything went my way. That’s not at all what I got, and by the standard of peace that I desired that day, I had nothing but trouble.
Caesar Augustus began a period in Rome of relative peace that would last for over two hundred years. Today that period and that philosophy used to achieve it is called "Pax Romana." Rome’s peace was based on the same kind of thinking that I had that day. It’s the world’s view of peace. It meant freedom from trouble, hardship, danger, or any problems. The problem with Pax Romana and so many other versions of the world’s definition of peace was that it was built on a foundation of fear, war, intimidation, and oppression. Plus, it was a fleeting peace, as that kind of peace always is. Jesus is leaving and he wants to prepare his followers. He has told them that he is going to leave them the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide them into truth. This Spirit is not fleeting, though. He will last the test of time and he will bring them peace. Real peace. Not the world’s peace.
Verse 25 is another example of Jesus telling his followers things before they happen to build up their faith and prepare them for what is to come. Often times as in the case of the Jewish rejection of Jesus or the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, it is so that when things happen in the future, they are not rocked from their faith. In this case, Jesus has spoken of the Spirit while he is still with them so that they are not overly troubled in the moment, knowing that Jesus is about to leave them. The Spirit, as Jesus will go on to say, will testify regarding Jesus (Jn. 15:26), he will convict the world of sin and unrighteousness (Jn. 16:8-11), and will guide Jesus’ disciples into all truth (Jn. 16:13), but here Jesus unveils the truth that the Spirit’s primary role will be that of teacher. He will sustain and prepare Jesus’ disciples after Jesus’ ascension into the Father’s presence by teaching them all things and will remind them of everything that Jesus said to them.
The fact that the role of the Spirit is as a teacher and reminder of what Jesus has already said is important. Throughout the centuries since Christ, many movements have created rather large followings for themselves by claiming that the Spirit has guided them into some sort of new revelation or new truth. It is not uncommon today to hear preachers in certain sects say something like, "you won’t find this in the Bible, but the Spirit has just revealed something new to me." Their followers wait with baited breath for the new revelation of the Spirit and trail along like mindless lemmings. But this sort of thing is in direct opposition to the role of the Spirit. The Spirit has been sent by the Father in the name of Jesus, meaning everything that the Spirit will do will be consistent with the teaching and life of Jesus that has already been revealed in the pages of the Scriptures. The Spirit’s role is not to reveal new teachings or new ideas but to guide believers in their understanding and execution of the Scriptures we have. The Spirit is an educator not a revelator.
The Spirit that Jesus will leave with his new community is the Spirit that brings peace. There is likely two currents of thought that Jesus is playing off of in using that term. "Shalom" or "peace" was a standard greeting by the Jews of Jesus’ day, one that continues into modern times. It referred to wholeness or having everything that one needed to be sustained, especially the aspect of having a right relationship with God. For the Roman world that surrounded them, peace was something that the Roman Empire provided through their power. It referred to the absence of negativity of any kind. This peace was maintained by military power. In fact, biblical scholar Andreas Kostenberger says that "The famous Ara Pacis (‘altar of peace’), erected by Augustus to celebrate his inauguration of the age of peace, still stands in Rome as a testimony to the world’s empty messianic pretensions." The peace of the Spirit to which Jesus refers is not at all the absence of negative things, but the strength to survive and thrive under danger, turmoil , and opposition. They needn’t let their hearts be troubled or give into fear because the Spirit will guide them into a true reality of peace, a peace that does not rely on might or positive circumstances but relies solely on the power of the Spirit of God to give disciples everything they need to overcome whatever circumstances they face. In that sense, the peace that Jesus was leaving with them was much like the Jewish blessing that was wished on one another, but rather than a vague greeting or hope, it would be a community of reality. They would be the people of peace because they had the Spirit of peace.
The disciples have been tempted to look at this whole situation only insomuch as it effects them, but they’ve not stopped to consider things from Jesus’ perspective. If they did love him as they would undoubtedly claim that they believed they did, then they would be full of joy, not only for themselves because they will benefit by the coming of the Spirit, but also because Jesus will be returning to his glory. For now, the Father is greater than Jesus while he is incarnated because he has willing humbled himself to take on human flesh. Returning to the Father will restore Jesus to his rightful place next to the Father. This does not mean that Jesus is not God or less than the Father but that in their eternal relationship, Jesus is subordinate to the authority of the Father. This is part of his eternal sonship. Jesus reiterates that he’s not telling them this to embarrass or shame them but to build up their faith. This is one more thing that he is telling them so that when he is killed and returns to the Father they don’t have to struggle, they will know that the Father was in charge of events all along. If Jesus died, it might be devastating, but if he predicts that he will die and attaches ultimate significance to that death and the subsequent events, then it will build their faith. As we follow the events immediately following Jesus’ death and resurrection, the recognition by the disciples of these things didn’t come immediately. Eventually, however, they would, with the help of the Spirit, be able to understand all that Jesus had told them and see that he was exactly who he said he was.
Jesus could go on and on explaining things to them and building up their faith but the time is short, so the little bit that he is sharing will suffice. He must bring his teaching to a close because the prince of this world is coming. In a very real sense, Jesus could be referring to the power of Caesar and the Jewish leadership that is quickly surrounding him. Surely, the powers that be have encircled Jesus and are about to do their worst. In the fullest sense, though, Jesus refers to the power that stands behind even Caesar. Satan will do his worst but he has no hold over Jesus. The phrase Jesus used here came from the legal world and meant that he had no legal claim on Jesus. The accuser would try to do his worst but the ultimate weapon of Satan is death, and death has no rightful claim to one who is sinless (cf. Jn. 8:46).
Satan might think that he is gaining a victory over the Son of God, but the reality is that God has allowed him to do his worst so that God may be glorified. Just as Joseph remarked that his brothers intended to harm him but God used the situation for good (Gen. 50:20), Jesus applies a similar principle. Satan thinks he has come to do his own will, but the result of that evil will be that the world may learn that Jesus loves the Father and does exactly what his Father has commanded him to do. The contrast is striking. Satan, does his own evil will, but still cannot escape the sovereign power of the Father. On the other hand, Jesus does the Father’s will which calls him to walk directly towards death and the Cross. That will show the world the love and obedience that the Son has for the Father. He will do the Father’s will and will benefit all mankind and bring glory to the Father.
Devotional Thought
Jesus promised that the world would hate his disciples and tend to persecute them in the same way that they treated Jesus. He told this ahead of time so that, just like his first disciples, when it does happen, rather than being discouraged, we can be strengthened in our faith and know that Jesus knew all along that these types of things would happen. It doesn’t mean that God isn’t in control. Quite the opposite, in fact. When the world rejects our faith, it should strengthen our faith, not shake it. Think about it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)