Reasons Not To Worry

In John 14, we’re in what’s called the Upper Room Discourse (chapters 13-17). Jesus is with His disciples in the upper room the night He would be betrayed and eventually crucified. I want you to note two verses. In John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled,” then notice verse 27, at the end of the verse, “Let not your heart be troubled,” and He adds, “neither let it be afraid.” A lot of what goes on in this chapter hinges on that statement, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Jesus had told them in John 13:33 that He was going away, and they didn’t understand where He was going. He made it clear, and we’re going to see it tonight, that He was going back to the Father’s house where He was going to prepare a place for them. He would come and receive them to Himself that where He is, they would be also. He’s going to take them to heaven. They were freaking out and troubled because He said, “I’m going to leave you,” and “where I go, you cannot come.” Also, Judas would betray Him, and Peter would deny Him. These were several reasons that their hearts were troubled, and many times our hearts are troubled.

Jesus then gave them these reasons not to be troubled, worried, or afraid. You might add a sixth reason not to be afraid, that we’ve already covered in verses 1-6, that is, you have a home in heaven. If you want to write that down, it’s actually part of the whole chapter, you have a home in heaven. You have a promise that Jesus will come again and take you to heaven, so don’t let your heart be troubled.

Tonight we begin at verse 7. The first thing He does to comfort their troubled hearts, and ours as well, is says in verses 7-11, “You know the Father.” First, you have a home in heaven; and, secondly, you know God as your Father. Let’s read it beginning in verse 7. Jesus said, “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him,” key word, “and have seen him,” again, a key concept. “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” or it satisfies us. “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” and then He mentions, “the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works,” so, believe My words and believe My works. Verse 11, “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

There are basically these four questions in this chapter that involve Jesus answering them. The first question was back in John 13:36 where they asked Jesus, “…whither goest thou?” where are You going? The next question was actually in John 14:5, “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” Tonight we come to Philip’s question (verse 8), “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father,” would You show us the Father, the idea of we want to see Him. Philip was hung up on seeing, “and it sufficeth us,” then we will be satisfied. We come to the fourth question in verse 22, “Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” You need to see these questions and how each one of them is answered as you go through by Jesus as He comforts their troubled hearts.

In verse 7, Jesus had just finished saying (verse 6), “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” We spent a whole evening on verses 5-6, “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,” you might say, no one gets to heaven, no one can be saved, “but by,” in, or through, “me.” There’s only one way of salvation, one way to heaven, and that’s through Jesus Christ. Then Jesus says, “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.” All through this passage, beginning in verse 1, Jesus has mentioned the Father. In verse 2, He mentioned the Father’s house, and in verse 7, He says, “…ye should have known my Father.” Then, “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father.” They are all kind of wondering, “Where are You going?” “I’m going to the Father’s house.” “We don’t know where it is or how to get there.” “I’m the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father’s house except through Me.” In verse 7, He says, “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. 8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” brings us satisfaction.

The cry of Philip, and I was so tempted to preach the whole sermon on that question of Philip (pray for me), “Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” and we’ll be satisfied. Philip could have been thinking about what is called theophanies that took place in the Old Testament. Do you know that Moses actually saw God? Now, when it says that they saw God in the Old Testament, Isaiah 6, Isaiah saw the Lord, “high and lifted up.” They didn’t really see God in His essence because God is Spirit. What they saw was, and this is not just some theological word thing, it’s very important to grasp, they saw a manifestation of God. They saw God manifested. They saw God, but they saw Him manifested. Well, Jesus is going to explain that He is also God, and He manifests the Father.

Philip is saying, “Lord, I want to see the Father. If I could just see the Father, I would be satisfied.” You know, the world says, “Seeing is believing.” The Bible says, believing is seeing. It’s the opposite of the world’s views, “Show me the Father, and I’ll believe.” Jesus is actually saying, “You believe, and you’ll see the Father.” The “seeing” here, by the way, is seeing with spiritual eyes. It’s understanding or comprehending. Philip is saying, “Lord, if You’ll just show us the Father, we want to see God, we want to see Him in His essence.” The Bible says, “No man can see God and live,” that’s why when we get to heaven, and we are going to see God in His essence, we’re going to have new bodies which give us the ability and the capacity to actually see God.

Verse 9, “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” Now, don’t misinterpret this statement of Jesus. Jesus is not saying, “I am the Father.” The Bible teaches that there are three Persons in the one Godhead. We use the word “Godhead” or the triune nature of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible does not teach that there are three separate Gods. The doctrine of the Trinity teaches that there’s One God in essence, but there are three Persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. You, most likely, are saying, “I don’t get it,” and that’s understandable. You shouldn’t get it because God is transcendent—He’s beyond us, He’s above us, He’s past our finding out. We can only know about God what God reveals of Himself. God is infinite and we’re finite, so all we can do is believe what God says in His Word to be true—One in essence, three separate Persons. Jesus isn’t saying, “I’m the Father,” what Jesus is saying is that, “I have revealed the Father,” His love, His grace, His mercy, His compassion, His kindness. If you want to know what God the Father is like, take a good, long look at God the Son.

In the book of Colossians it says that He is the image of the invisible God. We get our word “photo” from the Greek word translated “image” there. He’s like a picture of God. If you want to know the nature of God, you want to see God spiritually, you look at Jesus Christ. He came to reveal the Father. We know Him, and the concept of knowing Him there in verses 7-11 is the idea of knowing Him intimately and experientially. It’s not just an intuitive knowledge, it’s an experiential knowledge; so you actually know Him, which is a synonym for seeing God. When you get born again of the Spirit, you have new eyes and you see and understand the Father as He’s revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ, and you know Him and have a personal relationship with Him. He has also spoken words and performed works, verses 10-11, so there’s objective evidence for believing that Jesus is a revelation of God the Father.

In the book of Hebrews, it opens up with, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners,” in different times and different ways, “spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,” but then the writer of Hebrews says, “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,” and goes on to say, “by whom also he made the worlds.” God is revealed to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. You can see God in His creation, you can come to know God speaking in your conscience, but the greatest revelation was when God left heaven in the Person of His Son and entered the world through the womb of the virgin Mary and took on flesh and humanity. In John’s gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Then it says, “And the Word was made flesh,” that’s the incarnation, “and dwelt amount us, (and we beheld his glory),” we looked intently at Him and saw His glory, “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Again, it comes back to the idea of you can’t know the Father except as He’s revealed in God the Son. We need to understand that Jesus came and revealed to us that we have, as Christians, God as our Father in heaven.

When Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s pattern for prayer, how does it start? Our Father which art in heaven. The word “Father” there is the word “Abba.” It’s used of an infant saying, “Papa,” or “Daddy.” It’s a word of intimacy, our Abba, our Father. In Romans 8, Paul says the Spirit of God comes to live in our hearts whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” We have come to know God the Father as He is revealed through God the Son. Where do we find God the Son? Back to the Bible, right? the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E, so spend time in the gospels, read the epistles, find Him in the Old Testament. When you’re doing Bible studies, always look for Jesus. It’s like, “Every road leads to Christ, and we will see Him in the Scriptures.” Jesus says that you know the Father.

The second thing Jesus gives them to comfort their hearts, and ours as well, is in verse 12 (one verse); that is, they will do “greater works” than He did. This is a challenging verse to interpret, but I’ll try to make it as clear as I can. He says, “Verily, verily,” truly, truly, “I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do,” and He gives us the reason, you can’t miss this, “because I go unto my Father.” He’s going to explain that when He goes back to heaven, again to His Father, that He’s going to send the Holy Spirit, and it’s going to be through prayer, obedience, and relying on the Holy Spirit that we’re going to be able to do the “greater works” than what Christ did.

Now, we can again spend some time on this verse, but let me tell you what it does not mean. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to do greater works in quality. How do you get better than raising someone from the dead? You say, “Raise three people at the same time,” or something like that. How do you do better than walking on water? How do you do better than feeding five thousand with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish? How do you do a greater miracle by telling the wind and the waves to cease and causing there to be a great calm? How do you do better than touching blinded eyes and giving sight to the blind or cleansing the leper? Jesus is not telling us here that we’re going to do greater miracles. I want to point something out to you. He doesn’t use the word “miracles” in this text, so isn’t it funny that we sometimes read that into the text? “Oh, He’s talking about miracles. The church is going to do greater works than Jesus, we’re going to do greater miracles!” It doesn’t say “miracles,” and He doesn’t use the word that John uses in his gospel, “signs.” Remember, John’s gospel has the seven signs or miracles pointing to the deity of Christ.

Now, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I’m not saying that God doesn’t still do miracles. I believe all things are possible with God. If God wants to raise the dead, He can raise the dead. If God wants to heal cancer, He can heal cancer. Amen? If God wants to multiply food to feed a multitude, He can do that. I don’t believe that’s what Jesus is saying here in this passage, and I don’t think that it kind of pans out as you study the book of Acts or the history of the church. What am I saying? I believe that the “greater works than these” are a reference to quantity not quality. He’s saying you’re going to do greater in number.

When Jesus was here, Jesus was just One individual—God in the flesh but One individual. Because of His incarnation, if He were in Galilee, He could not be in Judea. If He were ministering to a blind man at the pool of Bethesda, He couldn’t be ministering to someone in Phoenicia or another location. He was limited by His incarnation. When Jesus ministered here on earth, at the end of His ministry, the crowds left, forsook Him, and He was crucified. Now, He did a lot of miracles, healed a lot of people, people came to faith in Him, but what He’s basically saying is, “As a result of My death, My resurrection, My ascension, My exaltation, and My sending the Holy Spirit, you are going to go out like salt and light to the ends of the world, and you’re going to lead many people to Christ. You’re going to perform signs and wonders—yes—but you’re going to lead people to Christ by preaching the gospel, and the world is going to be impacted and changed by your witness.”

It could very possibly be that Jesus had in mind the preaching of the gospel, which Paul said in Romans 1, “…is the power of God unto salvation…to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Why is it that in the church’s history we’ve always forsaken the preaching of the gospel? We try to do other things to bring people into the camp when the power is in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There’s no substitute. Jesus died for our sins, Jesus was buried, Jesus rose from the dead, and faith in Jesus Christ brings salvation. If we would just go out and share the gospel, we would be doing these “greater works that these.”

There are conditions for the “greater works,” and I want to mention them real quickly. We’ll cover them as we go through, but the first is believing on Jesus in verse 12, which I believe is a synonym for salvation. He’s actually saying here that you must be born again, you must be saved, by trusting and believing in Me. Then, we’re going to see that we do “greater works” by prayer, verses 13-14; we do “greater works” by loving Christ and keeping His commandments, verse 15; and we do “greater works” by being empowered and relying upon the Holy Spirit, verses 16-17. All of that is a way that we do “greater works than these.”

In verses 13-14, He moves to the second encouragement, they will pray in His name and He will answer them. They’re upset He’s leaving, “But don’t be upset. I’m going to prepare a place and come back and get you.” They’re upset that He’s leaving, “Don’t be upset, you know the Father; and don’t be upset because you’re going to do greater works than even what I did.” The church is going to be born and hundreds of little Jesus’ are going to go running all over the earth preaching the gospel, praying for people, doing marvelous works, and transforming the world around us. And, “Don’t be upset because you’re going to be able to pray, and I’m going to hear and answer your prayers,” verses 13-14. He says, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Again, we get some challenging verses. We get the verse that you’re going to do “greater works.” A lot of people misunderstand that verse and that concept.

Now, we come to another verse that people have used to try to pray for whatever it is they want. Some call it the “Name it and claim it,” or the positive confession doctrine that if you have enough faith, and you speak it out in prayer, that you can get whatever you want, that you can create your own reality. If you go in the garage and you’re driving an old beat up ’72 Nissan station wagon; if you had enough faith, you could just pray over your car and it will turn into a Rolls-Royce. I’ve actually heard one of the television preachers saying, “You can have Rolls-Royce faith.” I thought, I’ve never been there, not even close. “You can have whatever you want,” and they put a real emphasis on, “speaking it.” The most popular term for it is positive confession. You don’t say anything negative because what you say is power in your words.

This is what I’ve called…and by the way, I have a series on this doctrine. It’s called “Beware of Counterfeits” on our website. It’s what’s called faith in faith. I believe that faith is a force, and you can grab a hold of that force (kind of like Star Wars, you know, wield the power), and you can get it to do what you want. You can create your own reality. What I do in this series is take all the verses they preach from and I back up and read beyond. I do an exposition of those verses and show you how they twist, turn, and misinterpret them to get their own selfish desires. Most of the people getting rich off the doctrine are the preachers, not the people in the pew. It’s tied in with the “health and wealth,” “positive confession,” “name it and claim it” kinds of doctrine; and it’s popular still. It permeated the church, and it’s not biblical. They basically teach, and this is just a big broad summary, faith in faith—if you have enough faith, you can move mountains. You can do these marvelous works. Biblically, it’s not the amount of your faith, it’s the object of your faith. Faith is only as good as the object it’s placed in. Your faith must be in God, not in your faith. You don’t want faith in faith, you want faith in God. But when you pray, and you ask for something, it must be in the will of God and for the glory of God.

Go back with me to verse 13. “And whatsoever ye shall ask,” notice the statement here, “in my name.” What does it mean to pray in Jesus’ name? Let me tell you a couple of things He means. First, it means that you pray in the merits of Christ. When you pray, you’re not praying because, “I’m John Miller. I’m the pastor of Revival Christian Church, so You’re going to hear me because I’m just an awesome person.” It doesn’t work like that. You must come in the merits of Christ. You must come because of what Christ has done for you on the cross. You’re praying in His name, and it also means that you’re praying for His glory, for His name’s sake, for His purposes. Whatever it is you’re praying for must be in line with the will of God, the purposes of God, and the plan of God. Many times they misinterpret passages to claim, “This is God’s will, that you have health and wealth, and that you just need to speak it and claim it,” but they’re misinterpreting those promises for their own sinful pleasure. You must pray according to His name, which means you pray for His glory—His merits and His glory. When you ask God to do something, will it honor Christ? Will it glorify Christ? Will it magnify Him or is it just for your own selfish desires?

Then notice, He says, “…that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Whatever it is you pray, it must be in His name, in His merits, for His name’s sake and for His glory, and notice He makes it clear, “…that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Will this honor, magnify, and glorify God the Father? I believe, biblically, that God is glorified in our weaknesses, not in our strengths. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities,” weaknesses, “that the power of Christ may rest upon me…for when I am weak,” uh oh, Paul, that’s a negative confession, you shouldn’t say that, “then am I strong,” because your weakness drives you to dependence and reliance upon God. That’s what faith is. Faith is trusting God even when you don’t see or understand, but it’s not trying to manipulate God to bend Him to your will. The purpose of prayer is not to get your will done on earth, it’s to get God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven.

In verse 14, “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.” Again, in 1 John, He makes it clear that it must be according to His will. Never be afraid of concluding your prayer with, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Pray according to Scripture. You can pray with boldness and confidence, but it must be God’s will, it must be for God’s glory, and God will answer in His timing and in His way. God always answers prayer. Did you know, too, when God says, “No,” that that’s an answer? “I prayed, and I prayed, and God never answered.” “Yes, He did. He said, ‘No.’” “Yeah, but I don’t like that.” “Too bad.” Sometimes God will answer, “Wait,” and sometimes God will answer differently than you asked for. You’re asking for $500, He wants to give you $5,000; so just let Him do what He wants. It’s fine with me. Pour it on, Lord. Don’t limit God. Be open to whatever God wants to do, but it’s all to be done for His name’s sake and for His glory. “Christ,” said Homer Kent, “lent His name to believers to use in their petitions to the Father.” We’re going to get there in just a second, verse 15, we must also be living and loving Christ and walking in obedience. You’re not going to get answers to prayer if you’re walking in disobedience. Sin will hinder answers to prayer.

Let me give you the fourth to comfort their hearts, and ours as well; that is, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will come to you. “I know you’re troubled. I know you’re upset. I know you’re distraught, but I’m going to send the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This is exciting. Follow me beginning in verse 15. He says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” which, by the way, should be joined together with verses 13-14. If you’re going to pray and get answers to your prayer and glorify the Father, then you better be loving Him and keeping His commandments. He says, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he,” that is, this other Comforter, He uses the personal pronoun, ekeinos, not “it,” but “he,” “may abide with you for ever.”

Just a little sneak preview, and we’re going to get there but I can’t wait. In verse 26, this “Comforter” we’re reading about is the Holy Spirit. We’ll get there in just a moment. Notice verse 17. He’s called “the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

Verse 22, “Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,” this is the disciple that was known as Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus in other gospels. He was called the brother of James. He says, “Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” This is the fourth question, as I pointed them out earlier. Jesus is going to answer it. “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. 25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,” Holy Spirit, My King James Bible has “Ghost,” it’s Spirit, “whom the Father will send in my name, he,” again, He’s a Person, “shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

I’m probably going to go back over some of these verses next Wednesday night because they’re so important, but when we get to John 16, you might make a note of that, you’re going to get a lot of information as well as this in John 14 on the Holy Spirit, what Jesus taught about His Spirit. Remember, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As I pointed out here, Jesus referring to the Holy Spirit, uses the personal pronoun “he.” The Holy Spirit is not an “it.” The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that the Holy Spirit is God’s “active force.” That’s what they teach, but the Bible teaches that He’s a Person, that He can be grieved, lied to, quenched, and resisted. He’s every bit divine as the Father and the Son, and all the divine attributes of the Father and the Son are also found in the Holy Spirit. We need to understand that.

Go back with me to verse 15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father,” I’ll ask the Father, “and he shall give you,” two important key words here, “another Comforter.” The word “another,” make a note of this, literally means another of the same kind. It’s indicating the deity of the Holy Spirit. Again, the Jehovah’s Witnesses deny this doctrine. The Holy Spirit is God. The word “another” means another of the same kind in essence, He’s God. The word “Comforter,” a very important word to understand, is the Greek word parakletos. What that word literally means, it has many different facets to it, is one who comes alongside to comfort, strengthen, and, I love this, to help us. He’s called the Helper. I don’t know about you, but I need all the help I can get, so the Holy Spirit has come to help me, to comfort me. Sometimes when you’re capping on somebody you say, “You need help, man. You need help big time.” I need help, so God has sent the Comforter, and He uses that word “Comforter” for that Greek word, parakletos.

It’s also used in John’s first epistle translated advocate, “…we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” That’s because the word carries the idea of someone who pleads for, defends, or helps you; so it’s used for an advocate, what we today call a lawyer. Now, if you ever get in a courtroom and you need a lawyer, you want a good one, right? You don’t need one that’s all messed up. You want one that’s thinking straight and helps you and has your interests in mind. What could be better than to have the Holy Spirit as our lawyer and have Jesus Christ as our defense attorney and the facts of life to defend and help us. The word “Comforter” is basically the word parakletos. He comes alongside to lift us up. He doesn’t take away the problems, but He gives us the strength to be able to bear them. That’s what Christians have to go through the hardships of life, the Holy Spirit. As you grow older in life, and the battles and the challenges grow with age, you have a Helper. You’re not alone. You have the parakletos, the Holy Spirit. He gives “another,” of the same kind, to comfort, help, and strengthen us. Notice He says, “…he may abide with you for ever,” ekeinos, He, He’s a Person. How long will the Holy Spirit abide with us? Forever. Jesus said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

In verse 17, He’s also called the “Spirit of truth.” Jesus, in verse 6, said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” so Jesus is the truth; the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. “…whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,” remember Philip said, “Show us the Father and we’ll be satisfied,” well the world doesn’t have spiritual eyes and cannot see Him and cannot receive the things of God because they’re spiritually discerned, so they’re foolishness unto the man of the world. It says, “…but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” I’ve heard this interpreted in a way that I don’t think is sound interpretation in the context; that is, that before you were saved, the Holy Spirit was with you. After you got saved, the Holy Spirit came inside of you. Now, that’s not necessarily unbiblical, but that’s not what Jesus is saying in this text. He’s actually saying that the Holy Spirit does both, He’s with us and He’s in us.

Sometimes they try to differentiate these pronouns, with, in, and a third pronoun, upon, epi. They refer to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that the believer needs the Spirit upon them. I understand that, but I believe that all three of these are an experience of the Christian. He’s with me. We can all say, and Jesus can say it in the text later on that we will “make our abode with him,” I and the Father are going to be with you. As Christians, we can always say, “The Lord’s with me,” right? So there’s no problem there, and in the text I think that’s what He’s saying. The Holy Spirit is where? In me, right? And the Holy Spirit can be upon me and empower me for service. I believe that’s true, but to try to say, “Well, with us is before we’re saved, and in us is once we’re saved,” is not really what Jesus is talking about here in the text.

I want to note in verse 19, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me not more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.” It’s probably a reference to the resurrection from the dead and the 40-day post resurrection appearances, and they saw Him and knew that He was alive, and they had the hope of eternal life.

Notice verse 20, I wanted to get there, “At that day,” when He comes and reveals Himself to them. That probably also involves the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit will come, He says, “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” It’s important to understand when Jesus says these two statements, “ye in me, and I in you,” this is the Christian life. When Jesus says, “ye in me,” the moment you are born again, you are taken out of Adam the first, with all of his sin, death, and condemnation, and you are translated into Christ, Paul’s familiar phrase, “in Christ,” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” This is positional sanctification or positional salvation.

When Jesus makes the second statement, notice verse 20, “and I in you,” this is what’s called practical sanctification. I’m using the term sanctification for holiness. The moment you are born again, you believe in Jesus Christ, you are positionally in Christ, His righteousness is imputed to you, and you can’t get any more righteous. You’ll never get any more righteous. You can pray all you want, read your Bible all you want, go to church all you want, and that’s all good stuff, but it’s not going to make you more saved. You’re never going to get more saved, like “Right now I’m just kind of semi-saved, but if I really get spiritual and dig into God’s Word, go to church a lot, I’m going to be super saved. I’ll get into the Deeper Life Club!” That’s not what the Bible teaches. Positionally, we’re all the same standing before God but practically, when Christ comes to live in us and empowers us to live the Christian life, some Christians are living more holy than other Christians; so that’s why I say it’s the practical. You have positional righteousness and practical righteousness. One is also called salvation, the other is called sanctification. Salvation is me in Christ, and sanctification is me in Christ. He mentions that in verse 20, and Paul writes so much about it in his epistles. We have, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”

Jump down to verse 26, and we’ll wrap this up in just a minute. “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,” Spirit, “whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Back in verse 20, I believe it involves the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost that they were baptized by the Spirit into Christ, that Christ came into them and they were placed in Christ. In verse 26, He says, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,” Spirit, “he shall teach you all things.” He’s talking to His apostles, Judas has been dismissed from the upper room, and He says, “he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

There’s a couple of invocations of this statement. One of them is so important to understand is that these apostles, who would write the Scriptures, would have perfect recall by the work of the Holy Spirit in writing the gospels and the epistles. “…he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,” He will remind you. They had perfect Holy Spirit recall of what Jesus did and what Jesus said in the recording of the Scriptures. This is a verse that supports the inspiration and infallibility of the Scriptures. If Jesus said He’s going to teach you and you’re going to remember everything, you can bank on what they wrote is trustworthy because it was given to them by the Holy Spirit; but also when we study the Bible, the Holy Spirit is our teacher. Only the Holy Spirit can teach you and give you illumination. The Bible is given by inspiration. When you read the Bible, you get illumination, and when you read the Bible, it brings transformation of your life. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to transform the child of God into the image of Jesus the Son of God. That’s what Jesus is teaching in this passage.

Beginning in verse 27, down to verse 31, we have Jesus’ last word of encouragement. Jesus would leave them the gift of His peace, “You don’t have to be troubled. You don’t have to worry, I’m going to give you My peace.” Verse 27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,” and He adds, “neither let it be afraid.” In the Greek, it’s an imperative, “Stop being afraid. Stop being troubled.” “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.” I’m going to come back to that. Verse 29, “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” That’s a reference to satan, the devil. “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”

I realize that we covered a lot of Scripture tonight. We covered a lot of ground tonight. We haven’t gone into every little phrase or facet, but when Jesus says to them, “…my peace I give unto you,” this peace is not peace with God, which happens when you’re saved, this is the peace of God that happens when you live by faith and trust in the Lord. You know, we’ve studied that before where the Bible talks about peace with God through Jesus Christ. That’s salvation. In Philippians, Paul said, “And the peace of God…shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” It’s possible to have peace with God but not be walking and experiencing the peace of God in your heart, so Jesus gives to us His peace. He actually shares His peace with us. This is why we can live in a very troubled world, as we live today in a very troubled world, and we can have His peace. The world’s peace, He says, “…not as the world giveth, give I unto you,” it’s shallow, unsatisfying, and temporary; but the Lord’s peace is deep, it strengthens our hearts, it’s satisfying, and it will last and abide forever. He says, “Don’t be troubled. I’m giving you My peace.”

In verse 28 He says, “…for my Father is greater than I.” A lot of people misunderstand that statement there. I’ll come back to it again next Wednesday. Jesus makes this statement when He is in His body on earth in the incarnation, but that means that He voluntarily, temporarily laid aside His divine attributes and the use of them to be submitted to the Father’s purpose, plan, and will. What He’s talking about is function, not greater in essence, they’re both God, but in function and order, the Father is greater than I. The same thing carries over in the marriage relationship—husband head of the wife; wives submit to your husbands. Does that mean the husband is greater or more important? No. It has to do with function and only with function.

When Jesus says, “…for my Father is greater than I,” He’s uttering those words during His incarnation and His humiliation. In the book of Hebrews it says, “…Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels,” but it was only for a temporary time. Later, God the Father is going to exalt Him and give Him the name which is above every name, “And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” In essence, He’s equal with God the Father, but in function, He submits to the purpose and the plan and the will of His Father and voluntarily lays aside the use of His divine attributes to be obedient to the Father’s purpose, plan, and will for His life.

But the world cannot know the Father, the world cannot see the Father, the world cannot receive the Father. When He says, and again I don’t want to belabor at the end of verse 31, “Arise, let us go hence,” Bible commentaries will spend pages and pages and pages trying to figure out what that’s all about. I don’t think it’s all that necessary. I think it means, “Let’s get up and go.” Isn’t that profound? The reason they freak out is because you still have John 15-17 before you finish the Upper Room Discourse. Is He no longer in the upper room? I don’t know. Most likely, He’s walking and talking down to the Garden of Gethsemane. The teaching from here out is en route, and Jesus can walk and talk. He can do more than two things at the same time. Some say, “Oh, well, you know, it’s a bad rendering in the manuscript, and it should be at the end of John 17.” There is no manuscript evidence for that. I’ve read all the different reasons, and I won’t belabor you with them. It basically means, “Let’s get up and go.”

Have you ever been over somebody’s house for dinner and you’re enjoying the fellowship, the food, and the company. You’re looking at your watch like you don’t want to stay too long, “We’ve gotta go. We’ve gotta get going,” you stand up and then you talk for another hour. Then you go into the living room, “Well, we really gotta go,” and then you talk for another hour. Then they walk you out onto the front porch and you talk for another hour. Then they walk you out to the driveway and you’re talking again. From the first time you said, “We gotta go,” it’s three hours before you drive off in your car. Why are you laughing? So, I’m not the only one that’s happened to. What’s the big deal? Jesus said, “Arise, let us go hence.” He gets up with them, they leave the upper room, start on their way out, but the content of this teaching is what is important.

I won’t spend any time, but let me mention the six reasons not to worry in John 14. You have a home in heaven, you know the Father, you’re going to be able to do greater works—go out and preach the gospel, win people to Christ. What I didn’t mention, too, on the day of Pentecost, the Christians were 120 in the upper room. When the Holy Spirit came, Peter preached. How many got saved? Three thousand. That’s what I call “greater works.” Three thousand people were added to the church. Fourthly, answer to prayer, verse 13; fifthly, the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Comforter will come to help you; and sixthly, Christ’s peace will be with you. Amen?