Last Supper: Father Son And Spirit
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we are spending the season of lent exploring the last supper discourse
jesus’s last teaching to his disciples
last week we saw as Jesus taught them to love each other sacrificially, becoming the lowest servant, and serving them despite the coming betrayal and failures.
This week we are moving into Chapter 14. And Jesus gets right into his main premise
But before we do I want to look back at the last couple verse from chapter 13, as it leads right into what Jesus is saying.
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
Jesus goes straight from telling Peter that even peter is going to deny Jesus three times to saying - do not be troubled, trust God and trust me.
He is going from perhaps one of the most solemn points of that evening, Saying that one of the Dsciples will betray him, and that Even peter will deny him, to saying don’t worry trust in God’s plan.
Right there church i want to encourage you right off the bat, that even though we sometimes screw up, and it feels like we have let Jesus down, that Jesus says - Don’t worry, believe and trust in me.
Now Jesus gets to the point where he starts talking about where he is going.
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
Now this references an ancient Jewish practice that, when a couple were betrothed, the husband would go back to his fathers house and build an addition onto his father’s house, preparing a place for he and his bride to dwell.
Jesus is in heaven preparing a place for his bride, the Church - that is us.
And only once the Father says that it i good enough, will Jesus come back to gather us to him.
But then thomas asks “Well how do we get there”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
How can we know the way if we don’t know where you are going?
How does one get to house of God the Father?
And Jesus reponds - Through me.
the Way
the Truth
the Life
Without Jesus there is no way to come to God the Father, Without Jesus there is no truth to be learned, Without Jesus there is no everlasting life.
And he says If you know me then you know the Father.
And Philip then asks, “well can we meet the father?
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Show us the Father, we want to see God face to face!
No one since Adam and Eve has seen the face of God, Even Moses only saw God’s back.
And Jesus says, I and the Father are one - when you see me you see the father.
Now i’ll admit that its hard to wrap our minds around the idea of a trinty - three people one God, they are distinct yet the same, united but operating seperately.
Jesus’s words here show though that he is claiming to be God, and that his authority comes from God, and That has been evident in all the signs and miracles that he performed.
and speaking of miracles/works
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Whoever Believe in me will do the works I do - and even greater.
Think of that, what works did jesus do?
We just had an entire seiries about Jesus’s miracles
so pick a miracle, Jesus fed 5000, his followers are to feed nations.
Jesus healed the sick and cleansed lepers, His followers are to help heal the hurting in the world
Jesus raised the dead, his followers are to help bring eternal life to people.
Jesus cast out demons, calmed storms, walked on water, healed the blind, and the sick and the hurting. turned water into wine,
His followers are to do all that and more.
Jesus washed his disciples feet.
Served his disciples
What greater work can we do than that?
Whatever we ask the father to do in Jesus’s name, it will be done. If we love him and keep his commandments?
Love God, Love Neighbors, Love each other.
church we call ourselves Christians
We are called by his name.
Whaever we ask for?
But How will Jesus do this work in us?
He sends us the Holy Spirit
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
The Holy Spirit is the Helper, the one who enables us to do all the good things and good works that Jesus wants us to do.
This is why church, it is great if you have given your life to Jesus, that is the most important thing,
But what comes next is learning to allow the Holy Spirit to guide your life.
But Look here, because the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, look what Jesus says next.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
By Allowing the Holy Spirit to live in us, the Holy Spirit is the third part of the Trinity, we Join jesus and the Father, as part of the God, The father is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Father, and the Holy Spirit is in us, which means we are in the Father through Jesus and the Spirit. and the Father is in Us, and Jesus is in us.
With God’s Spirit in us, we are reuinited with God.
Judas - Thaddeus as he is called in other gosepls, wants to know why Jesus will only manisfest his power in his disciples, Why not to the whole world
Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
So it comes down to this, Only those who love God and Love Jesus will keep his words - and only those who keep his words truely love them
Thaddeus wants to know why Jesus isn’t freeing the entire world, like the Messiah is supposed to
but the irony is that Jesus is, but he will only manifest in those that truely love him
The choice is open to everyone, only those who Choose Jesus will be aved.
If we do his word
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
- The holy Spirit help us keep his word.
With the disciples they helped them remeber Jesus’s teachings until some of them could be written down, and He still works to help guide us when we study the scriptures, and to help Jesus’s words come to mind when we need them.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
Jesus summarizes what he is trying to say here by saying, Yes he is going away to the father, but that is a good thing, because he is leaving the disciples with peace,
The word peace in Jewish culture is so much more than just the absence of violence, it is life as it should be,
Jesus is leaving the disciples with his perfect peace,
but now he says that time is running shortly, soon the Devil will take him,
Church the discussion that Jesus had with his disciples began with him saying that he would be leaving them for a while, it was trying to get them ready for his death,
which they still haven’t gotten it into their heads that Jesus is supposed to die.
But Church Jesus left and is still away,
hes been in heaven for nearly 2000 years now, preparing a place for us, the Church his bride.
and while he is gone we have the Holy Spirit, who is guiding and empowering us, the church to continue Jesus’s work on earth.
See in the Old testament God the Father was front and Center, he was the one creating the world, bringing judgement and working wonders.
Then Jesus, the Son who is in the father and the father is in him came and he worked miracles and signs and wonders
Now we have the Holy Spirit, who is in us, but comes from the Father and Jesus, and therefore brings us in to Jesus and therefore into the Father, and allows them to work through us,
Church in a sense, when we follow Jesus, and we have the holy Spirit guiding our lives, we interact with God himself alongside the trinity.
This is why When Paul describes the Church in his letters he often calls the church the Body of Christ,
Because through the holy Spirit, we are in Christ and Christ is in us.
Its a beautiful union, where we the Church, those who follow Christ are called to union with God.
Enacting God’s will on earth.
