John 14:7-15
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Jesus- All We Need.
Jesus- All We Need.
10. The Printing Press (1440)
9. The Light bulb (1800)
8. Penicillin (1928)
7. Camera (1840)
6. Automobile Airplane (1901)
5. Calculator, Telephone, Smartphone (1977)
4. Radio, Television, and Internet.
3. Robots, Artificial Intelligence
2. Banking, Credit Cards.
Electricity.
While all these invention make life so much easier, if you look at these things, they may seem like needs to us today, but they are actually wants.
The fact is we need very few things. But these things are marketed as essential.
In fact, the market knows that if we make it to where people perceive it as a need, they will buy it.
One example i can think of is essential oils.
Again, there are only a few things we actually need.
Food Water Shelter Clothing Medicine.
But what about Spiritually, What is our greatest need in this life spiritually? and what happens when that need is met?
This morning we are going to try and answer that question.
look with me in verse 7
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
First part of this verse is a rebuke.
The second part is a promise.
It follows the previous statement of Jesus being the only way to the Father and Thomas’s lack of understanding of “the way.”
Thomas claims to have no clue as to where Jesus is going and how even to know the way to which he is referring.
He rebukes them because they already know the way.
If they know Jesus, they know the Father, but they fail to see and appropriate all they have in Jesus Christ.
But it is clear that they do indeed possess Christ and all that comes with Christ.
And there is a promise that flows out of that.
“From now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Jesus has and will open the door for a relationship with the father for these disciples.
This is a promise based upon what Jesus has done in His perfect life and what He will do in His sacrificial death on the cross.
They know the Father and they have seen the Father, because they have known and seen the Son.
Jesus reveals the Father to the disciples perfectly.
But do they get it?
Do they realize what they have in Jesus?
Do you realize what we have in Jesus?
Do I realize what I have in Jesus?
We have a relationship with God. We have friendship with His son. We have forgiveness for our immorality, rest from our trials, hope for the future, and strength for today. We are guaranteed the indwelling and comforting power of God’s Spirit and we are comforted that no sickness or death will have the last laugh, because Jesus is coming back to make all this right.
These are just some of the spiritual blessing we have in Christ.
He tells us that he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Jesus.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
So what do they have in Christ?
Most of all, they get God Himself.
Jesus is the Word made flesh, and He has PERFECTLY revealed God the Father.
exact imprint verse
This is why, it doesn’t make any sense for Philip to ask for what he asks for in verse 8.
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
First, I love how Philip is trying to play judge and jury with the Lord of all the Earth, as if He deserves Jesus to be with him at all, and now he is making demands.
And he isn’t just making any type of demands.
He wants to see the Father.
He wants to see the glory of God.
This statement and request is disrespectful at best and at worst, it is a denial of what Jesus had showed them already.
Never since Eden, has the presence of God been unveiled and enjoyed by those created in HIs image.
Jesus had made the Father known to them.
The problem here is that Jesus has shown him the Father.
The disciples have made it a habit of ignoring the words of Jesus.
Jesus has just told them, if you had know me, you would have known the Father also.
But Philip doesn’t get it. They do not recognize it yet.
They do not recognize that in Jesus, our God is made known.
This is why Philip ignorantly and almost disrespectfully asks Jesus for this.
Jesus has shown them the Father.
Hebrews tells us this.
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Look in verse 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’?
These questions here have to break the heart of Jesus and Philip.
I would argue that this speaks less about Jesus ability to properly display who the Father was and to show Him to the disciples and more to the effect of sin upon even Jesus’s closest disciples.
Sin and our pride and our blindness, keeps us from properly understanding who Jesus is.
We genuinely fail like Philip to understand and appreciate all that we have in Christ.
Have I been so long with you Philip, and yet , you have not come to know me?
I wonder at times, if Jesus is asking this question of me.
He has known me from my mother’s womb. He graciously saved me at age 18, and he has been faithful to me time and time again, and it seems at times, I forget who he is and all that he provides.
He has shown Philip the Father.
He has shown me the Father.
if you are saved today, he has shown you the Father.
As Paul says so clearly:
For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Knowledge of the glory of God is found in the face of Jesus Christ.
how can Philip ask this?
He is standing face to face with him.
Christ asked this very thing.
How could you say, “Show me the Father.”
hear me out: We have all we need in Christ.
Philip has all he needs in Christ.
In fact, I know for a fact that if Philip were here today, he would tell us that.
People look for signs and wonders, when all they need is Christ.
People look to medicine, money, wealth, fame, pleasure, but all they need is Christ.
People look to Pastors for hope, when all they need is Christ.
In fact, one day whether you know him now or not, one day, you will find out that all you needed was Christ.
in fact, if Christ was all you had, you would have all you need.
He gives to us everything.
Jesus’s question here to Philip is heart wrenching:
Jesus’s question here to Philip is heart wrenching:
But it shows us what Jesus is after here:
He is after belief.
“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.
Listen to what Jesus identifies as the problem here with Philip.
The problem is rooted in a lack of belief.
It isn’t lack of evidence. It is unbelief.
Do you not believe? Philip’s lack of faith and lack of belief in Christ is the issue here.
it isn’t for lack of evidence.
In fact, Jesus expects them to believe that He is in the Father and the Father in Him.
He has told them this throughout His ministry.
That He does all things through and for and with the Father.
Everything he does, He does because the Father sent him to do these things.
And his desire is that they believe that.
Listen to what he says here is verse 11
“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.
This isn’t simply him saying trust me. This is an appeal for them to trust that everything Jesus has done has proved to them that He is everything He has said he was.
He is commanding them to believe that The Father has sent Him.
Jesus has told them this information before.
But they have done more than just heard these words.
:
They have witnessed the miracles of Christ as well.
And every one of those works testify to the fact that Jesus has been sent from God.
“But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.
They have witnessed him turning water into wine.
Who could do that? Can you do that? Can you transform the essence of something into something else of a completely different essence?
They have witnessed Him multiply food where he took a small boys lunch and fed 5000 and their families.
Who could do that? I can’t.
They have recently witnessed Him raise Lazarus from the dead who had already been dead for 4 days.
Who could do that?
God can do that.
God did do that.
Jesus dis all these things and those things he did and accomplished were to elicit belief from His disciples.
He wants their belief, and now he will speak of the fruitfulness that will come if they do believe.
Verse 7-11 have served to point to the fact that all they need is Christ.
The following verse will tell us what will happen when they rely on that power.
Look in verse 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.
The result of belief in Christ would be that the disciples would be empowered to extend the name and ministry of Christ even further than Jesus went and they will be empowered by the finished and on going ministry of Christ Himself.
One thing that is important to understand here is what this verse does not mean.
This does not mean that the disciples will do more miraculous works.
It would be hard to imagine any of the disciples or anyone for that matter doing something more amazing and more miraculous that raising Lazarus from the dead or feeding the 5,000.
This doesn’t mean that they will do more works.
For one, It doesn’t say more works. It says greater.
So the question remains.
What does he mean by his disciples doing “greater works” than him?
I think the best way to understand this is to look at the reasoning behind their doing these greater works.
Look at the end of the verse.
Because I go to the Father.
Jesus’s disciples will do greater works because Jesus will go to the Father.
But what happens before Jesus goes to the and how Jesus will go to the Father is the basis for the greater works.
That is,
Jesus will die for the sins of all who will believe in Him.
He will go to the cross and there, he will pay the sin debt owed to sinners for eternity and he will say TETELESTAI- IT IS FINISHED.
Then Jesus will be placed in a tomb.
three days later, Jesus will rise from dead, securing our victory over sin and death.
Then he will be exalted to the right hand of the Father to forever be our high priest and advocate with him.
The disciples work will be greater in that the works they will do and the works that we will do are based upon the finished work of Christ!!
The disciples work will be greater in that they will take this message of hope to the world.
This is the work he has in mind. How do I know that is what Jesus is speaking of?
Just look at the end of Jesus’s ministry and the commands he gives.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 28:28-29
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus’s work is not done with his exaltation to the Father. tHE MINISTRY OF cHRIST EXPLODES EVEN GREATER AFTER hE LEAVES.
He will continue to do even greater works through His disciples and through us.
TURN WITH ME TO Acts 1
The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
We get to accomplish greater works, because he accomplished the greatest work. Our work is empowered by his finished work of atonement and His forever victory over death and hell.
We get to accomplish greater works, because he accomplished the greatest work. Our work is empowered by his finished work of atonement and His forever victory over death and hell.
He goes to the Father, but he is forever working in us to bring about His greater purposes for this world.
And this happens through obedience and through the prayers of His people.
Look in verses 13-14
“Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
The works will be empowered by prayer.
Prayer in Christ name. For Christ name, and for his glory.
He isn’t teaching name it and claim it theology.
He is teaching kingdom centered theology that focuses on the kingdom and the glorification of the King.
NOT OUR POCKETBOOKS, NOT OUR HOUSES, NOT EVEN OUR HEALTH.
Spurgeon said this about prayer.
it is to be able to feel that, as Christ stood in your place, so you dare stand in Christ’s place; and what you have asked, you have asked in his name, feeling that what you have asked is such that Christ would have asked it. Now, when you can feel that, and can feel that Christ puts his seal on what you have asked, then, you ask in his name. A person cannot always speak in the name of another; cannot do it at all unless he has received an authorization so to do. Then he stands as that person’s deputy; stands in his place; speaks in his name. I am sure that nine out of ten of the prayers of Christians are not offered in the name of Christ, and could not be. It would be a sin against Christ for such prayers to be supposed to be the prayers of Christ. But when we talk of the Spirit of God, and we dare ask in the name and use the seal of Christ to set his signature at the bottom of our petition, then, brethren, depend upon it Christ will do it.
We can count that when we pray as Christ would pray, our prayers will be answered.
Wednesday night prayer meeting. Are you coming? Do you desire to see the work of Christ accomplished through you.
Christ is enough.
He has made the Father known to us. He has reconciled us to Him, and he has set us up to do the ministry of reconciliation.