Blessed Assurance

Intro:

Review end of John chapter 13

John 13:31–38 NIV

When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

Assurance in what appears to be crisis is what Jesus deals with next.

There have been times in my life when I’ve said, “God I know you’re here but right now I could use some assurance”.

So Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, I’m leaving, love each other.

Peter says I’m going! But Jesus says you won’t be even to handle the next few days.

READ JOHN 14:1-14.

-Jesus says trust me on this.

-pisteuo (believe/turst) the word carries strong implications of trust and is commonly associated with hope or the expectation that Christ will prove reliable

Aaron C. Fenlason, “Belief,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

1. There exists for all the children of God an eternal home.

-Can we comprehend such a place?

-Many rooms

-Jesus prepares a place for you? Is he using his carpenter skills?

-Let us focus specifically on the going. This may be the more important point here. This is the the act of preparation; going to the cross and then the resurrection. This is how Jesus leads us to God.

There is assurance in knowing that Jesus has done the work but...

-We are assured that Jesus will also return.

The image is straightforward: Jesus is leaving for heaven and there will prepare a place for his followers; then he will return to take them there.

But when will this “coming” occur? At Easter? At the coming of the Spirit? At our death? At his second coming? Scholars have pointed to each of these. For some, it is each one together, so that the verses represent a sweeping all-inclusive promise of encouragement.

-Then Jesus says something that causes sorts of stress, “You know the place to where I am going.”

-Thomas chimes in but he’s thinking geography “we don’t know the place so how can we know the way”

2. The way to that eternal home is found in the person of Jesus Christ.

-The place that is waiting for us is certainly beyond our comprehension.

-The Way is Jesus

In fact an early name for the church found in Acts was “the Way”

Acts 9:1–2 NIV

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

-Jesus being the way is supported by the fact that he is also the Truth and the Life.

-What is truth? The ultimate standard of rightness.

Jesus is the truth, because he embodies the supreme revelation of God—he himself ‘narrates’ God (1:18), says and does exclusively what the Father gives him to say and do (5:19ff; 8:29), indeed he is properly called ‘God’ (1:1, 18; 20:28)

D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 491.

Look at this interaction between Jesus and Pilate John 18:37-38

John 18:37–38 NIV

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

-What is the Life?

-We can go all the way back to Genesis with this one if we want to. Jesus is the creative agent.

John has already reminded us John 1:3-4

John 1:3–4 NIV

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

The culmination of these 3 very powerful ideas, way truth and life, produce a statement concerning the significance of Jesus providing salvation.

Yes, Jesus is making a very definitive and and very specific statement about who he is and what his mission is. Some would look at this and say Jesus was very “narrow minded”. "No one comes to the father except through me.”

-Some will say, “I believe in God” Thinking maybe that’s all they need. The bible says the demons believe in God. What did Jesus say? John 14:1

John 14:1 NIV

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.

You cannot have access to the Father except by the Son.

We heard from Thomas and now Philip chimes in. John 14:8

John 14:8 NIV

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus’ response (maybe a little frustrated) you’ve seen me you’ve seen the father.

John has driven this point home time and time again. You might have thought a long time ago, “OK, I get it!” Well the disciples are still struggling.

Then Jesus take a new approach with these guys.

John 14:11–12 NIV

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Look at the evidence. Do you see what I’m doing? Does it point to the fact that the Father and I are in cahoots?

But it gets better...

3. The faith that you have in Jesus will be made evident in that you will do the things Jesus did.

-The Double Amen

-But keep in mind Jesus has just told them he’s leaving. They are probably freaking out a bit.

-Jesus know that the God’s mission after his death and resurrection will be carried out by his followers.

-So what kinds of this ought the church be doing?

-We can read about the beginnings of the the Church in Acts and the Epistles

-Has the church been perfect? No. But when the church has failed it is not because God the Father, God the Son or God the Spirit has failed.

-When the church is walking in faith and doing the things Jesus did, then and only then is it successful.

-But how can we do greater things than Christ?

-Jesus is looking ahead to what it would look like for his followers after the resurrection.

-Think about it, how much more powerful is our message after the resurrection. All of the teaching and miracles of Jesus carry a deeper and more significant meaning.

-Jesus is not telling us we can walk on water but I think he is talking about the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.

He even says John 14:13-14

John 14:13–14 NIV

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

-Can we really have anything?

John 12–21 (3) The Power of Believing (14:12–14)

“anything” (14:14) in this context is not, in fact, to be understood as “anything” in the absolute sense because the guiding principle of the believer’s prayer must be the same principle that Jesus followed throughout his life. That principle was the glorification of the Father in and through everything done by the Son (14:13).

Concusion: