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SERIES:
43 John - 2016
MESSAGE:
John 14:1-26
SPEAKER:
Skip Heitzig
SCRIPTURE: John 14:1-26
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Expound, our verse by verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your knowledge of the
truth of God by explaining the word of God in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational.
I am indebted to a guy by the name of Stephen Langton who was the Archbishop of Canterbury back in the
1200s. Because in 1227, the year before he died, he decided it would be helpful if we had in our bibles
chapters and verses. Up to that point, there were no chapter and verse markings, but he decided it would be
helpful to do that.
So he went about, it was his aim, to have a way to be able to look up and find a verse of scripture instead of
saying it's on some scroll or on some page, that you could go right to it easily. So he was the one that
introduced chapters and verses so I am indebted to him for that.
The very first edition of Bibles with chapters and verses was the Wycliffe Bible translated into English in the
1300s, 1382 if memory serves. And so from then on, we were able to look up and turn to a certain book with
a certain chapter and a certain verse.
As grateful as I am for all of that, sometimes we, because of the breaks, we just sort of think it's the end and
then enters a whole new thing happening. And what we fail to realize is that, especially in a scene like this, it is
the same scene without any break whatsoever in the upper room when Jesus is sharing a last meal with His
disciples.
And so there is a break but sometimes, I have to say, the breaks are in the wrong places. They don't really
follow the subject matter. They just sort of break off when they think, yeah, that's a good place to stop that's
enough verses, put a chapter in there. And sometimes they're natural, but sometimes they're not.
But I just want you to know that all of this is taking place in one continuous evening as Jesus shares the
Passover with His closest friends. This section is called the Upper Room Discourse.
I mentioned to you when we were together last, and it's been a while, so I'll refresh your memory that there
are four major discourses that Jesus gave that are recorded in the Bible. There may have been more, but the
four major speeches, discourses, teachings that Jesus gave in the Bible are as follows.
Number one, the Sermon on the Mount, perhaps His most famous. That's Matthew 5, 6, and 7. That happened
in one setting. The second is the Kingdom Parable Discourse. That's Matthew, Chapter 13, the kingdom of
heaven is like the kingdom of heaven is like, the sower and the seed parables, the weed and the tear parable.
Those are the Kingdom Parables of Matthew 13. So those are two discourses.
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The third discourse is the All of That Discourse. And that is because Jesus was on Mount All of That or the
Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and gave a discourse on the end of all things, the last days. So Matthew
24, also recorded in Luke, Chapter 21, and Matthew 13, that's the third discourse. This, the Upper Room
Discourse, is His fourth.
And I'm drawing attention to it, because it is the longest of all of them and the most intimate of all of them. It's
especially good for us because we are disciples of Jesus Christ, most all of us. And so some of these things are
so precious to our faith. And this discourse, the Upper Room Discourse, because it was given in the upper
room at the Passover with Jesus, by Jesus, to His disciples. That's John 13, 14, 15 and 16. And if you want to
even throw in the prayer of John 17 to His Father, it is the most intimate, and it is the longest of all of them.
What you need to know, or at least remember, because you probably already know from times before, is that
this is not a public meeting. This section here is a private meeting. It's a private meal. The public is shut out of
this discourse. Jesus' public ministry is over at this point. He has nothing more to say to the nation. That's
because the nation has brought their gavel down on Jesus and has, as a nation, rejected Him.
He came unto His own, but His own received him not. And so the doors are shut, and behind the doors it's a
small group of 13 men, Jesus and His 12. And what He has to share with them is so precious and so uplifting.
A little bit of context will help, because as we get into Chapter 14, the disciples by now are agitated. They're
restless. They're quite upset. They're troubled.
Because though it's Passover, it's a time of celebration, it's a time of recollection, Jesus has shared some things
with His men that makes them anything but happy and satisfied. They're nervous. So far Jesus has predicted
He's going to die, not what they expected.
Jesus has predicted He will be betrayed by one of them. And then he broke off a piece of the bread and gave it
to Judas Iscariot. And third, Jesus has just announced to Peter, even though Peter said, though all may walk out
on you, I will be the faithful one. He said, well, Peter, actually, three times tonight you're going to deny Me. So
Peter especially, but all of the disciples, they were troubled, they were agitated. They were nervous. They
were upset. And so Jesus begins.
"Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me." now you'll notice in Verse 1 Jesus
gives a commandment. That's what it is, it's a commandment. It's in the imperative mode that's a command.
Let not your heart be troubled. It's a commandment. It is a present tense. It is, as I mentioned, an imperative
in the mode, the mood. But it's a passive voice.
So what it means is Jesus is saying I want you to stop an action that you're already doing. You are already
troubled. You are already agitated. Now stop stressing out. That would be, probably, a pretty accurate
translation. Stop stressing out. I know you're stressing out. Stop it. Put an end to it. So he gives that command
to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled.
Now let me throw something out at you. Because He gives them a command to let not your heart be
troubled, it shows us that we are in control of our emotions. Some people say I can't help. I'm stressed out,
man, I can't help it. Stop it. Jesus would never give you a command that was impossible for you to keep.
So with the commandment comes the capability to keep the commandment, because Jesus gives it, and He
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knows "all men" the Bible says. So He says to you and I, stop being agitated. Stop being troubled. Stop
stressing out. How could He do that? Are there any reasons that He gives, why or how, what the basis is for
that? Yes, there are three reasons, and you can apply these to your life.
Number one, because of who you know. Number two, because of where you'll go. And number three,
because of what He'll show. I put them in that order so you could easily memorize them. First of all, because
of who you know. Notice what He says, let not your hearts be troubled, you believe or you trust in God,
believe or trust also in Me.
Do you think the disciples had any reason not to trust Jesus? Has He been trustworthy so far up to this point?
Whenever there was any need, couldn't they just lean on Jesus, and He was there in amazing ways? When
there was no food for the multitude, Jesus fed the multitude. When the storm was going to overwhelm the
boat, Jesus calmed the storm. When Lazarus died, Jesus raised him to life.
That's amazing. Let not your heart be troubled. You trust God, trust also in Me. Because of who you know,
you know God by faith, you know Me. You've lived with Me for 3 and 1/2 years. Trust also in Me. That's the
first reason.
Second reason is because of where you'll go. Verse 2, "In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Did you know that the Bible speaks a lot about
heaven? I know you knew that, but do you know how much the Bible mentions it? 532 times. It speaks about
heaven, speaks about it a lot.
But please notice here how Jesus refers to heaven, where you'll go, where I'll go, because of your faith in Jesus.
You trust God, you trust Jesus. You're going to heaven. He speaks of it relationally not locationally, but
relationally. He calls it My Father's house. And He says in my Father's house, there are many-- listen to this-literally rooms. I know it says mansions, because of an unfortunate translation from the Latin Vulgate from
Greek into the Latin Vulgate into English, so it says mansions.
So I know, you've always thought that there's going to be like this Hollywood Drive, long driveway, and maybe
statues on the side of you, perhaps, I don't know. And then this huge mansion. Does it disappoint you when it
says, in my Father's house there are rooms? In fact, a most accurate translation-- apartments. I know, you go,
oh, no, I hate that thought. Man, I was banking on that mansion. Hey, don't worry. It's going to be pretty
awesome. I would take God's apartment over the devil's mansion any day, just saying, right? OK.
So in My Father's house there are many apartments, many rooms. Now a little background, again, I could go
on and I could take hours but I do want to get to the communion so-- in the Middle East in ancient times-think of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the patriarchs, they didn't live in houses. They lived in what? Tents.
So when their kids grew up and they married and had kids, you know what they did? They just added on to
the tent, a room. And then another room if they had more kids and another room. They would take these
tents, and you'll see in the Middle East these sprawling tents that are just divided by sheets of tent material. So
in that one family tent there are many rooms. It keeps going.
So with that motif in mind from the Middle Eastern way of thinking, in My Father's house, there's room for
you. There are many rooms. And he can make more, and more, and more. But now I want you to think of this
verse in terms of what you know about the future. That's where you'll go.
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You're going to heaven, but when you die, what will that be like? Well, you'll be in the presence of God, and
we could come up with certain details about what heaven's going to be like. But if you think about way into
the future, after you die and go to heaven or you get raptured and into heaven, eventually, after 1,000 years
on this earth in a millennial kingdom-- you know this earth is going to be destroyed, right? Completely
destroyed and God's going to make a new heaven and a new earth.
So the new heaven and the new earth have a very particular oddity to them. There's a city, a capital city of the
new earth called New Jerusalem. See, I knew you knew all this stuff. But what's odd about the New Jerusalem
is its own planet. Because in the Book of Revelation, John sees a vision of the new heaven and the new earth
and he says I saw, Revelation 21, New Jerusalem coming out of heaven, made by God, prepared by God,
coming toward the new earth.
And then, he wanted to know how big it was because obviously it was pretty large. And the angel measured it
and told him the dimensions. It's 12,000 furlongs in all directions. It's a perfect cube. So it's width, and its
breath, and its height are 12,000 furlongs or about 1,500 miles cubed. Or 2,250,000 square miles, or a city
15,000 times the size of London, England. Or about the size of our present moon. So think of a moon, but not
a sphere, a cube, coming toward the Earth. Pretty wild, huh?
A scientist named Henry Morris put pen to paper, and he said a city that size with those dimensions could
safely take on 20 billion inhabitants. Listen to this, and that's only designating 25% of the city for dwelling
places. If you took the square mileage that I just gave to you, that would safely and easily allow 20 billion
people to live occupying only 25% of it allowing 75% for public works, streets, parks, whatever. And that
would give each of the 20 billion inhabitants of that city a cubicle block 75 acres on each side. That's how big it
would be.
Now I am also believing that in our eternal state, in the resurrected body we have, judging from how Jesus
was able to travel in His resurrected body from one place to another instantaneously, that we'll be able to
move not only horizontally but vertically. So just wanted to throw that. It's fun to think about it in terms of in
My Father's house there are many rooms. Can't wait to explore. And that's only the capital city. Nothing is
said of the new earth and the new heaven. So we're going to have a lot of fun finding out what that's all about.
Verse 3. I know, I'm taking up time. "And 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." Now that's the third reason. The reason you shouldn't be
troubled is because of who you know, because of where you'll go, and because of what He'll show you. I'm
going to go and prepare a place for you. Heaven is a personalized place. Your room, your apartment, your
mansion is going to be personalized making something for you. He's preparing a place for you.
I always love to think of it. I did two funerals yesterday, and I always love the thought that when I go out of
town or when my wife goes out of town and I'm home, if I know she's coming back, I want to prepare the
place for her. I want to clean it up and make it nice, so it's a nice surprise when she comes home. It's like,
wow, you were clean. How did that happen? So I try to prepare it.
Now my preparation might be a couple hours, maybe even a day if I have a day off to do that. Jesus made the
promise 2,000 years ago. I'm leaving to prepare a place for you. Can you imagine what this place must look
like if He's been working on that mansion of yours for 2,000 years? Now I will theologically concur that
perhaps Jesus when He said, I'm going to prepare a place for you, is simply speaking of the cross.
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I'm going to make a way for you. I'm going to prepare a way for you or a place for you by allowing you to go
there by Me going to the cross and being the sacrifice. to allow you to get to heaven. He could simply mean
that. Or He could mean I'm personally going to make something for you, or it could all be what He means by
that. But that is what He'll show, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go, I will come again and receive you to Myself that where I am there you may be also. You probably
should write in your notes or in the margin of your Bible I Thessalonians, Chapter 4, or 1 Corinthians 15.
Both passages that speak of what Jesus spoke of first or hinted at first, and that is the Rapture of the Church.
He is talking here not about coming to the earth to judge the earth and set up His kingdom, Revelation 19, but
He's saying I'm going to come back for you. I'm going to get you. And Paul tells us that will happen at a
different time than when he comes the second time, the second coming, all the way to the earth to set up His
kingdom. It's called the Rapture of the Church. This is the first hint.
Ever since Jesus spoke these words, the Church has had what Paul called the blessed hope, the blessed hope
of Jesus' return for us. He could come at any moment. He could come before the end of this Bible study. Jesus
is coming soon. I'm excited about that. As I look around at the world, I don't have hope in any politician or
political party. I'm not holding my breath. Thinking there's going to be change in four years, I never thought a
politician could bring change enough to satisfy my heart.
I'm looking for Jesus to take every politician and say, move over. You're doing it wrong. Let me show you the
ropes. Verse 4, "An where I go you know, and the way you know." Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not
know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus said to Him, "I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
I love Thomas. You know, he's probably the only honest guy in the bunch. Maybe a few of them picked up on
it, because after all Jesus did say where I'm going you know and the way you know. But at least one of them
didn't.
And that was Thomas, and he wasn't the kid in class to go, I have no idea what the teacher's saying but I'm just
going to nod my head and look like I'm writing notes down, like, ah, this is good. He's the kid who sticks his
hand up and goes I have no clue what you just said. Where are you going? And if we don't know where you're
going, how can we know how to get there?
And I'm glad he said that because he opened the door for Jesus to give the answer which is the gospel in a
nutshell. I am the way, the truth, and the life. So I know Thomas had flaws. Thomas had a question mark for a
brain. He was always questioning things. Huh? Why? How? So he had a question mark for a brain, but Jesus
was in the process of turning the question mark into an exclamation point.
And at the end before the ascension into heaven, Thomas will be at the exclamation point. And after Jesus
goes to heaven, Thomas will carry the gospel to India and share his faith to transform a nation. But he's
questioning this. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
Me."
Now hold it right there. That sounds very narrow doesn't it? Doesn't that sound awfully dogmatic? Have you
ever been accused of being narrow-minded? Raise your hand if you have? I get accused of that all the time in
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my line of work. People say you are narrow-minded. And I'm thinking all the time, you have no idea how
narrow-minded I am. You're close-minded, uh-huh.
Because when I received Christ He closed my mind. I was open before that. And then He made sense and
shut the book, and it is dogmatic. It's dogmatic because Jesus was dogmatic. He said this in the Sermon on the
Mount, he said, enter into the narrow gate for broad is the way that leads to destruction and many enter
therein, but narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Now He says, no one comes to the Father but through Me. That eliminates every other belief system but
believing in Him. Every other belief system. Oh, but they're so sincere. Granted. I was so sincere at one time.
I'm sincere still, but I mean it was pure sincerity at one time. I was sincere, but I was sincerely wrong.
And Jesus said, I am the way, and He is the way, because he takes you there. Let me give you an example. If
you went to a city that you had never been to before and you didn't know how to get around, and you asked
someone for directions.
And they said to you, OK, I know where you want to go, so go down the street to the first stoplight, turn
right, go down three blocks, take a left. When you see the Taco Bell, right behind it, you'll find a little street.
Go two blocks and you'll find where you're looking for. So if you don't remember those instructions you'll get
lost, right? Think pre-cell phone.
But imagine a person saying, you know what, it's too complicated. I'll take you there. Now he's not just giving
you directions to the way. Now he's not just telling you the way. He's showing you the way or, in fact, he is
the way. The way is just stay attached to Him, just follow Him, and He'll take you there.
So Jesus says, I'm the way. I'll take you where you want to go. I'll take you to My Father's house. I'll take you
to heaven you can't get there by following instructions anyway, but I can get you there. I am the way because I
embody God's truth. I am his truth, in fact, his only truth. "If you had known," Verse 7, "If you had known me,
you would have known My Father also. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him.
Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us. I like Philip. I like Philip sort of for the
same reason I like Thomas, only a little different. Philip was a pragmatic person he was a pragmatist. He was
the guy who had a calculator for a brain. He tried to figure it all out first. It's not like he automatically
questioned everything like Thomas. He was just trying to sincerely figure out what was going on.
So when Jesus had the multitude at Galilee and Jesus posed the question to His disciples, he goes, where are
we going to buy food to feed these people? Philip comes up with an amount, which means you must have
surveyed the crowd and kind of figured out how many people were there, and what the very lowest amount
of food necessary and the price to purchase it locally to feed the crowd. Because he goes, 200 denari worth of
bread won't even be enough to give them just the basic necessities, just to have a little bit.
Now that's eight months worth of a working man's wage. He figured that out in the conversation. So he's very
pragmatic. The problem with him figuring it out is he did the math without adding Jesus. When you do the
math, it's OK to do the math, but you have to add Jesus because it changes what the calculations are going to
be. He calculated apart from God. And when you bring God into the equation-- without God, nothing is
impossible-- changes everything.
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So Philip says, oh, you bring up the Father. You keep talking about the Father. Would you just show us your
Father? And that's all we need. Yeah. It would be enough for anybody. But I got to say I understand that. I
understand it. Because what he is saying is you want us to believe in God by faith and we do. And we believe
what You just said by faith, but it would be awfully good to actually see God the Father.
Now I say why that is good is because the basis of worship is that we always want more. No matter how wellinformed you are theologically, no matter how mature you are spiritually, you still want more than what
you've experienced now. Moses, though he had seen the Red Sea open, manna come from heaven, water
come from Iraq, pretty sizable, notable miracles, he said, Lord, just show me your glory.
Well, let's see. You've seen some pretty cool things already. You've seen more than any of us have ever seen.
Yeah, but I want more. I just want to see God. So this is the basis for worship. And we are made for eternity.
That's why you're never going to be totally satisfied till you get to heaven and see him face to face, which you
will one day, but this is the basis for it. So I understand his longing.
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me
has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father?" Now I'm not going to go much in-depth on this
because Jesus has been saying things like this through the whole gospel of John. Anybody who says you know
the Bible never says that Jesus is God. Or Jesus never claimed to be God. I immediately ask, what Bible are
you reading?
Read the Gospel of John, you'll stumble over it in every chapter. Chapter 10, they took up stones to kill Him
because he said God was His Father making himself equal with God. Jesus said, I've done many works. Which
work do you stone Me for? And he said not for any good work you've done but for blasphemy, because you
being a man continually make yourself out to be God. Even Jesus' own enemies knew that he claimed to be
God.
And with his own disciples in that upper room, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, because Jesus is the
perfect representative in visible form of the Father in heaven. "Do you not believe Verse 10 that I am in the
Father and the Father is in Me. The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority but the
Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me or else
believe me for the sake of the works themselves.
Now the author of this book is who? John, and the author of 1 John is who? John, very good. OK, so you
know how John opens this book. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was
God. When we get to 1 John, it's as though John is now writing the same thing, but after looking back on the
personal experience of this night and all those years he was with Jesus, those three years, and it like dawns on
him. It's just like it just settles on him who he's been hanging out with.
And he begins 1 John, Chapter 1, Verse 1 saying that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have actually handled, the
Word of life. We hung out with the Word of life. God in human flesh. We were there. We saw, we heard, we
touched. God in flesh. Wow.
"They heard His word, they saw His works, most assuredly--" Verse 12, "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." Has
that promise ever thrown you for a loop, ever put a question in your mind? What does that mean? Jesus did
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some pretty amazing works. Now he says you're going to do greater works. For those who believe in Him will
do greater works. How is that possible?
Do you know there are 40 miracles recorded in the Bible that Jesus performed? Raising the dead, giving sight
to the blind, unstopping deaf ears, walking on the water, multiplying food, 40 miracles recorded that Jesus did.
And those are only recorded. He did many more. John says at the end of his book in Chapter 20 and many
other signs did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believing you might have life in his
name. 40 miracles and amazing miracles. Now I've never done any of those things. Somebody asked me,
Pastor, have you ever raised the dead? No. Probably never will. I'm not planning on it. If you died, I wouldn't
want to raise you from the dead. You'd be in heaven. You don't want to come back here. I would not do you
a service. And if you happen to have that gift and ability, please don't do it to me. I'll haunt you forever. I'll
make your life miserable.
So what does it mean? What on earth could it possibly mean? Well, there's three options. Number one, he's
saying to His disciples, you disciples in this upper room are going to perform miracles like I have done and
more. Now you could look in the Book of Acts, and you could see that miracles are recorded in the Book of
Acts.
Those apostles did some of them, but there were others not in the upper room, like Paul and others, who
also did miracles in the Book of Acts. And besides that, notice what it says in the verse. It didn't say, just you
guys. It says he who believes. Now the door is open to anybody, right? Not just them but anybody who
believes. So it probably doesn't just mean the disciples doing miracles in the Book of Acts.
Second possible interpretation, he is referring to everyone, but the emphasis now is on your faith, your ability
to believe enough to pull off a miracle. Now this is how those who are involved in the word of faith
movement interpret the verse. So they will say, you can have a miracle today, hallelujah. And if you don't have
a miracle, it's because you didn't have enough faith.
And so the onus is on you to manufacture the right level of faith. And if you can't do it, well, you're a bad little
Christian, you didn't have enough faith. Jesus didn't say he who believes might, but he who believes will. So I'm
going to dismiss those first two interpretations and think there's got to be a third and correct meaning.
And I believe it can be seen by a phrase that you cannot take out of the verse, but I think it unfolds the verse
for you. You notice what he says in Verse 12, "Because I go to My Father." In other words, I'm leaving this
earth. I'm going to My Father, and when I go to the Father, that's going to be the signal that something else is
going to happen for you, through you, with you. And what would that be?
Holy Spirit, Verse 16, even though we haven't read between them, but look at it. "And I will pray the Father
and He will give you another helper that He may abide with you forever the spirit of truth." Then if you turn
over to Chapter 16 for just a moment, it's the same evening, same message, same time frame, Verse 7,
"Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper will
not come to you. But if I depart, I will send Him to you.
Why is this important? Because the disciples were troubled. They were agitated. Jesus is leaving. Oh, no, it's
over. That's what they're thinking. This whole cool miracle thing, this whole cool Messiah thing, it's over. And
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what Jesus is saying, it's not over, it's just beginning. And what you're going to see in the next phase when I
leave and I send the Holy Spirit is greater works than these.
Not greater in magnitude, not greater in power, not greater in those things, but greater in extent and greater
in number. Not greater qualitatively but greater quantitatively. So go back and notice what he says. "He who
believes in me"-- that would be you or I or anybody the last 2,000 years who believed in Him-- "the works
that I do He will do also and greater works than these He will do, because I go to the Father.
I believe he is speaking of the spreading of the gospel and the miraculous transformation to salvation that the
gospel message brings. He came to install that, first of all, by His death on the cross, to call people into the
kingdom, to call people to follow Him, but just think of what happened when He left. As soon as He left, the
day of Pentecost happened and 3,000 people came to faith in Christ.
And in the first few months, thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands came to believe in Jesus Christ.
Their lives were transformed. More came to follow Christ in the few months when Jesus left and the Holy
Spirit came then all of Jesus' years in ministry put together.
In the first 30 years of Christianity, millions of people in the world, millions came to believe. Jesus never left
Israel. Paul the Apostle is going to go through Asia Minor, parts of Europe, all the way to the heart of the
Roman Empire, Rome itself. The spread of the gospel.
Every single day. I can't get my mind around this number, but I checked it. Every single day in sub-Sahara Africa
it is estimated every day-- how often? Every day. 20,000 people come to faith in Christ right now. That's
greater works.
He said, what about the healings? Healings are cool. But not as great as heaven. The greatest miracle is getting
a sinner from earth to heaven. Not just curing your cold or clubfoot, or whatever it might be. Can God do
that? Yes. But this is greater. OK, I think I squeezed that verse to death.
"And you know whatever you ask in My name,"-- that means according to His nature and His character, His
will, "that I will do that My Father may be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. If you
love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper that He may
abide with you forever the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor
knows Him. But you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will
come to you."
A couple quick things to notice. Notice the pronouns when Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit. Does not refer to
the spirit as an it, but as He, Him Whom, all of those are pronouns that speak of a person or personhood. So
the Holy Spirit is not a force. The Holy Spirit is not a feeling. Holy Spirit is not a mode.
I bring that up, because you school of ministry students know about modalism, right? So Bailey-ism, the belief
that there is a single person of God who shows three different phases or comes in three different modes. But
the New Testament teaching of the Trinity is not modalism. The New Testament teaching of the Trinity is
there are three separate persons that are co-existent and co-equal in one God or godhead. You go, I don't
understand. Welcome to the crowd. But that is what the Bible teaches and that's what we believe.
The Spirit of Truth, third person of the Trinity so notice that. Then notice He's called the helper, the Holy
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Spirit is your helper. Do you like that? Are you like me? Do you ever think, man, I need all the help I can get,
like every day. Because have you discovered the Christian life is pretty hard? It's not easy.
And you cannot do it alone, and you were never intended to do it alone, and Jesus said you don't have to do it
alone. I'm going to give the Holy Spirit who will be your helper, Paracletas, the Greek word, Paraclete, helper,
one who's called alongside of you to help you out, to get you through, to carry you long. Rely on Him, trust in
Him.
Not only that. Not only is He a person, not only is He a helper, but notice he's called another helper. Now I
want you to see how significant this is. There are two different words in Greek for another. There's only one
in English, another and another, same word. In Greek there's two different words. One is the word, Heteros,
the other is the word Allos. So example, you'll get it.
If I buy a CD of like a little album, somebody goes you got to buy this CD. It's really good. So I buy it, and I
listen, and I go, I hate this. I don't want to even finish it. I don't even like this music. And so somebody said,
how'd you like the CD? I hated it. I'm going to get another CD. The word I would use is Heteros. It means I'm
going to get another of a different kind. I'm not going to buy the same CD, because it stunk. I'd have to listen
to it a bunch of times. So I'm going to get another CD of a different kind, a different group, different music.
But if I really liked it, and I told you about it, you'd go, oh, I'd love to listen to it. I say here you can have mine,
I'll buy another. I'm going to use the word, Allos, which means another of the same kind. Get it? So when Jesus
says I'm going to give you another helper, I'm going to give you an Allos. I'm going to give you another helper
who has been just like Me. You've been able to turn to Me and rely on Me for everything. I'm going to give
you a helper like Me.
You'll be able to turn to the Holy Spirit and trust in Him through anything. He's coming your way, and He is in
our midst, and He lives within us. "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more. But you will see
Me, because I live, you will live also. At that day, you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in
you."
I know that sort of sounds like a Beatles song but it is the beautiful truth of the mystery that as believers, you
are in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 1, because Jesus lives in you long with the Father and the Holy Spirit resides in
you. You are His dwelling place. And at the same time, you, we, as the Church are placed in Christ. We're
identified with that, so it's that beautiful union of the Father, Son, Spirit and the body of Christ That are
inseparable.
Verse 21, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me and he who loves Me will
be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas, notice what it says, not Iscariot,
so you go, well, who's that?
Judas, not Iscariot, is the guy identified in Luke 6 as one of the Apostles of Jesus called Judas, the son of James.
So Judas, not Iscariot, is Judas the son of James also known as Thaddeus in other places. It's that guy. So that
Judas, one of the disciples, said to Him, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us and not to the
world?
Jesus answered and said to 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. He who does not love Me does not keep my words. The
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word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while
being present 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 things that I said to you."
Notice a couple of times, and we're going to close in just a moment, have these elements. Trust me. He uses
the word, manifest. I'm going to manifest Myself to him. We're going to manifest ourselves, Father and Son, to
that person. And then Judas, not Iscariot, goes I just have a kind of a question. Why is it that you're going to
manifest Yourself to us, but not to the world? If You're the Savior of the world, if You are the Messiah, the
King of the Universe, You're going to take over the world, when are you, like, going to show yourself to
them?
Right, fair question. The word manifest means to expose, reveal, show, demonstrate. Judas, not Iscariot, is
thinking that-- he's thinking in earthly terms. The Messiah is going to set up an earthly kingdom, which He will,
Second Coming, not first. He doesn't know that, so he's expecting the First Coming or the Second Coming
and the First Coming. So he's expecting Jesus to set up the kingdom.
So he goes, I don't get it. Why don't you manifest Yourself to them? So here's what I want you to see. The
answer is profound. Because those ones that I manifest, or reveal, or show Myself to are those ones who love
Me enough to do what I say. Here's the principle. Obedience opens the door to intimacy and satisfaction.
Obedience to Christ opens the door to intimacy with Christ and satisfaction of Christ.
When you find a person who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness, Jesus will show a little more, and a
little more, and a little more. And you're not only saved, you're satisfied. I know people who are saved but not
satisfied. This dry and dreary, I can't understand, man, things are dry.
If you're the person who loves Jesus enough to put into practice what He has said-- and the only reason, only
way, you'll know what He said is to find out by reading His word what He said. And when you read His word
to find out what He said, and you apply it to your life, and that's the habit of your life, He's going to show you
more. Why would He show you anything if He showed you stuff, and you don't care to dig or apply it to your
life? He's got nothing more to say.
But if you're the obedient one, then that obedience opens the door to intimacy and satisfaction. You'll grow,
and grow, and grow until the final step of growth. You can't grow any closer except to see His face and you
graduate to heaven.
And that's how you want to get to heaven. You don't want to get to heaven and go, where am I? What's that?
Uh, that's the throne that Revelation 4 and 5 talks about. Oh, yeah, I should read that. I didn't read that. Got
the cliff notes. So be the kind who loves Jesus enough to find out what He says, do what He says, and He'll
reveal Himself more and more to you and I.
Now would you please take the elements. I wanted to finish the chapter. If you peel the very top, the clear
little fold-back and get to the bread.
Father, we're holding the elements of communion that remind us of the very night Jesus ate Passover with His
disciples, the very setting we are reading in the gospel of John, when He broke bread with them, these words
spoken during that meal. And He made a unique significance of the meal itself.
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He said, this bread that has symbolized the bread of affliction in the past symbolizes my broken body. And I
want you to eat this from now on and remember me, not the lamb whose blood was put on the lentils and
doorposts in Exodus, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Remember Me.
So we remember You and what you've done for us, and we take this believing that what Jesus did for us was
enough to get a sinner from earth to heaven. And we believe in taking it, we're making the statement that we
believe in Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world. Let's take the bread.
Then if you peel the opaque foil back carefully-- Lord, we're holding now the juice, the fruit of the vine, this
which represents Your blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, the lamb slain from the foundations of the world as
Revelation 13 tells us. We know that Jesus and His disciples drank four glasses of wine during pascha,
Passover.
And they always thought it was a reference to deliverance from Egypt. But Jesus made new significance that
night saying, no, it's your deliverance from sin and captivity to your sin. Do this from now on and the message
to us as well in remembrance of Jesus for the shedding of his perfect blood, which cleanses a man or woman
from all sin.
Before you take this, before you swallow this, know that Paul the Apostle said that the elements of
communion that speak of Jesus' death, burial, and Resurrection should not be taken lightly. So if you are a
nonbeliever tonight, you don't want to just take these, because these elements preach to you a word of
condemnation not a word of salvation. Because they speak of the body and blood of Jesus, which you have
personally not trusted in for your salvation.
So before you drink, if you have not received Christ, why not, right now, right where you are, ask Jesus to be
your Savior. Just say, Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm sorry. I failed. But I believe that Jesus died for me, that He shed his
perfect blood for me, that He rose again from the dead for me. And I turn from my sin and I turn to my
Savior, Jesus. Help me to live for You. Forgive me, heal me, and use me in Jesus' name. Amen. Now let's take
the elements in faith together.
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