Sermon Tone Analysis

“WHERE I AM: A Place Prepared”

John 14:1-6

1.

Sometimes we have an experience where it’s not just one great blessing, but one on top of that, and another still, and yet another.

A friend, for instance had a wedding of a daughter, the baptism of a grandchild, and the birth of another grandchild all in one weekend.

Wow! Or how about the woman who gets promoted, married, and moves into a new house all in one week!

2. This text presents a gospel that just keeps coming.

This is crucial for those of us who sometimes take the good news surrounding and flowing from Jesus for granted.

We are people who often miss the sheer richness of the Risen Christ.

This text will not let us miss it!

3.

So here it comes.

One good news item after another.

A. Jesus is the Way

B. There is more: Jesus is the Truth

C.

There is still more: Jesus is the Life

D. There is even more: Jesus, after all he has done through his life, death, and resurrection, now promises that he will continue his servant role and get a permanent place ready for us in heaven.

It’s Gospel Plus today, more gospel than any poor sinner has a right to receive, but it’s all yours, if only you believe.

Note: Preaching this text asks the preacher to honor the mood and placement of the text — words of comfort for troubled disciples.

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\\ /Context:/ The Gospel of John applies 10 of its 21 chapters to the last days of Jesus’ “dwelling among us” (1:14), and 5 of these 10 relate Jesus’ conversation with his disciples on the evening before his death.

Our text as narrative has three natural parts:

(1) Jesus urges the disciples not to be unsettled, because they would follow him to the Father’s house (vv 1–4).

(2) He responds to Thomas’ question about the way to the Father (vv 5–7).

(3) He responds to Philip’s request, “Show us the Father” (vv 8–12).

Words to be specially noticed because they occur repeatedly in the text include: /Father, I, way, know/ (see below), /see, show,/ and /believe./

/V 1:/ The words “Do not let your hearts be troubled” come after matters that were solemn and stressful for the disciples: the washing of their feet by Jesus (13:1–17), the announcement of his betrayal by one of them (13:18–30), the news of his imminent departure from them (13:31–35), and the prediction of Peter’s denial (13:36–38).

/V 2:/ μοναὶ are dwelling-places, abodes.

Cf. the related verb μένω, “remain, live, dwell,” which John uses frequently (e.g., v 10).

“I am going to prepare a place for you”: cf.

Heb 6:19–20; 9:23–24.

/V 6:/ “Way”: cf.

vv 4, 5.

“Truth”: cf.

Thomas’s question, “How can we know?” “Life”: cf.

The dwelling places in the Father’s house, v 2.

The text touches a number of major topics of Christian doctrine, any of which could prompt a full homiletical exposition:

•     Jesus’ divine Sonship (vv 2, 9, 10) and Messiahship (v 11; cf.

7:31; 10:24–28)

•     The personal union of God and man in him (vv 6 [“I am”], 9)

•     The indivisible work of the Father and Son in the opera ad extra (v 10)

•     The suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension (v 12: “I am going to the Father”)

•     The sufficiency, particularity, and exclusive claim of Christ and the Gospel (v 6; cf.

Acts 4:12; Gal 1:6–9)

•     The participation of believers in the works of Christ (v 12)

•     Jesus’ Second Advent (v 3)

•     The eternal blessedness of believers (vv 2–3).

There is no separate word in the Greek text corresponding to the NIV’s “really.”

It may be justified if the NIV is attempting to convey the contrary-to-fact version of the statement.

However, if it implies a wish to soften or explain the text by distinguishing “knowledge” from “real knowledge,” it adds something to the text that is not there.

Let the preacher be careful not to confound the Law and the Gospel by “giving a description of faith, both as regards its strength and the consciousness and productiveness of it, that does not fit all believers at all times” (Thesis XVII in C. F. W. Walther, /The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel/ [St.

Louis: Concordia, 1928] 308 ff.).

A sermon on the theme “If you know me” might address the malady that takes Jesus to be less, or other, than he in truth is: religious and quasi-Christian or pseudo-Christian knowledge that is man-made, for man’s self-interest, tailored to carnal standards, and for that reason more agreeable to the world, and more palatable to the Christian’s old nature.

That kind of knowledge is in fact not knowledge (or light) at all, but is rightly called darkness (Jn 1:5).

For example, see Jn 6:42: “They said, ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”; Jn 4:22: “You Samaritans worship what you do not know”; and Mt 7:22–23: “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you.

Away from me, you evildoers.’

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Alvin Toffler, in his /book Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century/ (New York: Bantam, 1990), portrays how throughout human history knowledge has always been employed as a source of power.

He then shows how in this decade, the ever-changing and more powerful means for obtaining and controlling knowledge are bringing with them sweeping and disturbing changes everywhere.

By print, radio, television, telephone, etc., pseudo-religious and pseudo-Christian “knowledge” invades our homes, work-places, schools, and churches, as Christ foretold (Mt 24:14).

Scripture replies, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1).

It also points out that rejection of the knowledge of God leads to moral depravity (Rom 1:28).

Paul warned against “what is falsely called knowledge” (1 Tim 6:20).

That false knowledge stressed man-made teachings and rules, false humility, self-imposed regimens of worship and asceticism which had “an appearance of wisdom” (Col 2:20–23).

“They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him” (Titus 1:16).

In contrast to all these is the knowledge of God and his gift of grace to those he calls.

This gift is given by Christ to the disciples in our text: “From now on, you do know him and have seen him” (v 7b).

Such knowledge of God comes through Christ and is received as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

It produces fruit (John 15:5).

The Spirit that God gives to Christ and to his people is “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding … of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (Is 11:2).

Solomon began his reign by asking the Lord for wisdom and knowledge (2 Chr 1:8–10).

Paul’s goal, above all others, was “to know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Phil 3:7–11).

“This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3).

A sermon along this line, directed to Christians who are /simul// justus et peccator,/ would have as its the goal that the word of Christ confirm the hearers in true knowledge of God and in the fruits that follow.

*Textual Notes*

By Dean Nadasdy

John 14:1–12

The text is best read in sequence with 13:31–38, Jesus’ news that he would be with his disciples only a little while longer, and his prediction of Peter’s denial.

Following that, Jesus offers comfort to his disciples.

Vs. 1 encourages the disciples to trust him.

Trust, then, is placed in opposition to troubled hearts.

In vs. 2, Jesus refers to heaven as his Father’s house and promises that he will prepare rooms, or, better, living quarters for his disciples there.

In vs. 3, Jesus offers one of his recurring promises that he will return.

Thomas’ question in vs. 5 shows that he and perhaps the other disciples had not yet understood Jesus’ teaching.

Thomas’ question prompts one of Jesus’ great I AM statements in John.

Jesus’ claim to be the way to heaven no doubt seeded the early church’s self-description of their faith and life as “the Way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23).

“Truth” and “life” are favorite concepts in John, no doubt prompted by this memorable statement.

Just as memorable is Jesus’ claim as the exclusive way to heaven.

In post-modern times, that claim continues to bring Christians critique from universalists and those who claim several paths to heaven.

Vs. 7: Jesus makes clear, as he often does in John, that he and his Father are one, in complete harmony as to identity, purpose, and revelation.

Vss.

8–11: Now another question, this time from Philip, prompts a further discourse concerning Jesus’ oneness with the Father.

Jesus makes clear that to see him is to see the Father.

The promise of vs. 12 highlights the power of faith and of the Spirit.

This explains the statement in vs. 12, “because I am going to the Father.”

In going to the Father, Jesus opens the era of the Spirit, who would empower the miracles of the apostles and others, always in his name (vs.

13).