Heart of the Father

Mansion shaped box

Not long after we had brought Bryce home from the hospital I was standing at his crib. Melo saw me standing there, wonder amazement and disbelief all on my face. She slipped her arm around me and asked me what I was thinking. I told her I was absolutely overcome. There’s no way someone could make a crib like this for only $45.

Do you think we ever miss the obvious? I do. I think even the most spiritual among us will gloss right over what we dont want to hear. Today we will deal with a church favorite. I’m going to ask that you resist the temptation to ‘have your toes stepped on’. The Holy Spirit isnt aiming for your toes, He’s aiming for your heart.

John 14:1–14 NASB95

1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 “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 initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Last week the folding together of the Father and Son started to be seen and it continues in this text! Jesus is helping the disciples see that He isnt just Jesus, miracle worker, but that He is God in the flesh!

The NASB well captures the negative command given: Do not let your heart be troubled

Versions

2 Corinthians 6:11–13 KJV 1900

O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.

Where I am, you may be also

13 Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

We so often focus on the mansions/dwelling places He refers that sometimes we are missing what He says afterwards. And its important, maybe the main point of the statement: Where I am, you may be also. The comfort Jesus offered on crucifixion eve was that they would be reunited. Words they would need to remember because of the events forthcoming. And the place was His presence!

The preparation was the cross through resurrection. Jesus wasnt going to heaven to start God and Son Construction Co. Home construction with an eternal warranty! He was paving the way for mankind to be eternally in the presence of the one who created us for FELLOWSHIP with Him.

And in at least one of the original texts, the ‘mansion’ was a word that meant ‘traveler’s resting place’. So let’s agree to focus less on the mansion or room or apartment or flat and more on the presence of God. That is what He went through to prepare: the way for sinful man to be in the presence of the Holy God.

If it were not so I would have told you. Not so much the question many translations use to help us understand the thought, but an oath. Like when Jesus says Truly Truly I say to you...

I AM the way, and the truth, and the life

Jesus sees the need to back up and help Thomas cement this ideal in understanding. The idea of a future in the presence of God could not take hold until Jesus was seen in the correct light. All that we’re talking about, can only happen through ME, He says. Every part of it, from peace in your heart to presence of God.

“The clear implications of Jesus saying he’s the way, the truth, and the life are that, first, truth is absolute, and second, truth is knowable. Either Lee Strobel or Ravi Zacharias

Jesus points to Himself and His teaching and His examples as the Way of life. How to live. As the Truth of life. How to filter this life. And the Life of life. After all, without Him, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Only then does He remind them He is the only way to the Father.

Because I go to the Father...

He who/Whoever BELIEVES in me will do the works I do. Everyone who has an active, obedient faith (believes) in Jesus, because He goes to the Father, allowing the Holy Spirit to come, will do what Jesus did. And even greater. Greater than raising Lazarus? Greater than walking on the water? Not bigger miracles, greater in the idea of people coming to believe in Jesus. Reaching farther.

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost began the wholesale activity of God in the lives of believers. Before the time of cross to pentecost, the spirit of God was generally active in one person for a specific time and purpose. The holiness of the Holy Spirit wouldnt lite on sinful mankind. But the redemptive work of Jesus ‘prepared a place for us’ that allows us to house the spirit of God. All who BELIEVE.

Asking in the name of Jesus

So the Father may be glorified in the Son. The idea of asking anything in Jesus’ name is repeated in

1 John 5:14–15 ESV

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

But asking in Jesus name is clarified in that verse. ‘According to His will’. Or like in our text today ‘so the Father may be glorified in the Son’. Me asking for a shiny new corvette to park in the parsonage garage ‘in Jesus name, Amen’ is not the heart of those verses. Its more closely related to prayers for

Laborers to be sent in to the field

For the gumption to ‘turn the other cheek’ and re-offer the relationship

To ask that the Holy Spirit prepare the heart of my neighbor so that when I talk to him about Jesus, he is receptive.

Knowing God’s heart well enough to ask for what will glorify Him is up to us. If we are going to be a praying people, and I dont say that like there is a choice, we gladly spend time, quiet and still, reading and agreeing before God so we know what He is wanting to do around us.

Prepare a place for you

Jesus was truly preparing a place for us. A place where we will be with Him. A place though, that begins with the Spirit coming to be with us. To dwell in us. And that begins on this earth. Just a couple hours after He encouraged His disciples with these words, He would pray the words of

John 17:3 ESV

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 17:3

Eternity begins in this life. And the preparation for that to happen was accomplished by Jesus sacrifice and resurrection.