The end of the message John 16:23-33
One guy said, “I’m really concerned about my wife. She walks around the house talking to herself all day long.” His friend asked, “Does she know you can hear her?” He said, “That’s the funny part. She thinks I’m actually listening.” Well, I’m certainly glad that none of us are like that.
I had an interesting conversation with Herb this morning. He said, "Lois and I had a really big fight last night." And I said, “So, how did it end up?" And he said, "She came crawling to me on her hands and knees like she always does." And I asked, "And what did she say?" And Herb said, she said, "Come out from under that bed, you coward!" Everybody has their own way of dealing with conflict.
And I’m a bit conflicted because here we are at the end of Jesus conversation with His disciples and although I’ve taken my time going through this I feel as though I’ve only scratched the surface.
When we began this particular section which is known as the upper room discourse in chapter thirteen, Jesus and His disciples were in an upper room which would have been a large upstairs room that was usually rented out on special holidays to visiting families or groups that came to the city to honor the special holy days that were on the religious calendar. So, Jesus and His disciples would have come here, to have a special meal where each and every little bit of the food they ate had something to do with what God did for His people during the night of their deliverance from the Egyptians.
And God wanted the meal itself to be a teaching tool where the head of the home would share what the scriptures had to say about the very first Passover. And in this passage it’s assumed that they had done all that but after it was done then Jesus took the time to give His disciples a special message.
And the message He gave begins in chapter 13 and it ends in chapter 17 and as I said it’s the longest message that He ever gave. And it’s commonly referred to as the upper room discourse and as I told you it’s called that because that was where He gave it. And just think, this message was given to twelve men in a rented room and it’s gone all around the world throughout the generations.
I was thinking about other great messages that have been given throughout history. There’s the Gettysburg address which Abraham Lincoln gave on November 19, 1863. It was one of the most famous and oft quoted speeches of all time and it was given at a dedication of the Civil War cemetery. It was fewer than three hundred words and they said he delivered it in less than two minutes. It began with “four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” And they say he wrote it on the train on the way up.
And then there was Martin Luther King, Jr. who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 and he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech and it’s considered to be one of the most-recognized speeches in American history. Then there was the message by Winston Churchill who challenged the people to join him in the war effort when he offered them nothing but “blood sweat and tears.” Or Ronald Reagan when he spoke in Berlin and said those famous words, “Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” And then there was the speech delivered at Roosevelt’s inauguration in Washington on March 4 1933 where he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” You see, all of these were important speeches in their day and they’re all relevant to the modern mind but Jesus’ message to His disciples wasn’t just talking about the things of time but His message reverberates right into eternity.
And so, what Jesus was trying to do in this passage was to prepare His disciples for what was about to happen which was His arrest, the false accusations, the needless torture, His death and then His resurrection. And then secondly, He was laying the groundwork for the church. And when I say church I’m referring to the local assemblies of believers like this one, the invisible church that exists all over this world today and the universal church that has continued nonstop throughout the ages and this refers to every believer from those who were present at Pentecost to those who will be raptured.
Now, let me just to do a little recap as to where we’ve been. In chapter 13 Jesus was showing us how we need to be humble and He did this by washing everybody’s feet. And let’s face it, if you are the foot washer in the house it meant that you had nothing to brag about because this was the lowest job that was available to anyone.
And then in chapter 14 He spoke about the hope we all have of a home in heaven and He emphasized that it was going to be a palatial mansion and by saying this He was illustrating how the faithful would all be rewarded and then live in comfort and security for all of eternity. And in this same chapter He spoke about His relationship with the other two members of the trinity and He emphasized that He would come back to the disciples through the person of the Holy Spirit.
And you’ll remember how I said that the roles of the members of the trinity are hard to define and distinguish from one another simply because their very nature is above our ability to comprehend. And don’t forget that they are three individuals and yet they’re often spoken of as one. As the pastor continues in our study of the book of Romans we’ll see where Paul is talking about Jesus and the Holy Spirit in chapter 7 and 8 and it’s actually difficult to understand which one he’s referring to.
And then Jesus concludes chapter 14 by telling us that our obedience to His word is a demonstration of the fact that we have a relationship with Him. In other words, if we know Him, we’ll keep His word.
And then in chapter 15 He begins by demonstrating His relationship to us by using the illustration of the vine and branches and encourages each of us to abide in Him. And you’ll remember that I said that abiding is more than just being saved but this refers to our spending time in His presence. And then He went on to emphasize the nature of the relationship we have with Him including the promise that we can ask anything we want to as long as we were asking in His name. And then He concluded this chapter by telling us that we shouldn’t be surprised when the world treats us the way it treated Him.
And then in chapter 16 He told us how the religious but unsaved people would be the worst persecutors of the church. And He also said again that He was going away but that the Holy Spirit would be coming to minister to and through His church. And then in the past two weeks we’ve been looking at the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
And we ended last day by looking at Jesus’ words where He said, “Your sorrow will be turned to joy.” And I explained why those who are truly saved seem to get more than their fair share of sorrow because they’re always on the outside looking in as far as the world and all of it’s pleasures are concerned. And yet, we have to understand that Jesus tells us, there’s coming a day when the roles will be reversed and those who exclude us here will be the ones who are excluded there. And this also tells us that our faith may cost us something now but in the end our sorrow will give way to joy.
And there are two things to consider when we talk about joy. And the first one is this. The joy that accompanies our salvation will never be taken away. It’s not something that can ever be affected by the changing world we live in. And the good news is the devil can never take it away from us. I like how the songwriter said, “The devil didn’t give it to me and the devil can’t take it away.” And since our joy is based on the eternal relationship we have with Jesus Christ it’s not something that comes and goes with the economy or even with good health.
And then second, our joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit and that tells us that it’s eternal. What a comparison to the happiness the world offers because we know that no matter what makes them happy, it’s always short-term. Someone can win a lottery one day and the next their health is shot. Someone can get a big promotion and then realize he’s working with idiots. And that’s the world we live in.
And no matter how they have or how much they’re loved and adored the successful people of this world will tell you they’re missing something and yet, even they don’t know what it is.
I was reading about Christine Onasis who had billions of dollars. She spent her life either on a private island or a huge luxury yacht and she said, “If having everything is supposed to make you happy, I want you to know that it just isn’t so.” She was miserable for most of her life. Paul McCartney one of the Beatles said, “Riches really do not buy happiness.” And he said that before all the troubles with his latest wife started. And then there was a woman by the name of Hetty Green who was known as the Witch of Wall Street. And they said she turned a small fortune she had inherited from her parents into a huge one. She had so much money that she actually lent some to the city of New York. It was said that she often lent but never borrowed. And she was known for two things, one was her ability to make money and the second was her inability to spend it. So, her stinginess was legendary. They said she had a single black dress that she would wear until it wore out and that she hated heat and hot water because they both cost money. They also said she re-used envelopes and ate oatmeal for lunch, every day. When she died, her fortune was estimated at $100 million but she never enjoyed a penny of it. Listen, these are people who had more than you or I could ever dream of but money didn’t buy them happiness and it certainly couldn’t buy joy.
And then last week I was talking about the parables and proverbs that Jesus used when He spoke to the crowds and even at times to His own disciples. And basically the words parable and proverb refer to the same thing and they’re all the little sayings and stories that Jesus had used to communicate to those He spoke to. One commentator said, “Parables are truths given and yet concealed from those who cannot or will not receive them; but they make sense to the ready heart that can take them in. A parable is not a story to illustrate a truth; it is the truth itself. It is like a nut, needing to be cracked open and once it is, there’s something refreshing inside.”
Basically, Jesus said that the casual listener would miss any point He was making while His disciples would grasp some if not all of the meaning. You see, what He was saying was this, so far I’ve been giving you the truth in such a way that the unbelievers won’t understand it because they refuse to obey it but now, I’m going to share it with you in a way that you won’t be able to miss it.
And in this section He really puts the cookies on the lower shelf when He tells them that He came from God and He’s going back to God. So, although they didn’t fully get what He was saying He was telling them that the way back to heaven for Him was the way of the cross and when we think about it that’s the way back for us as well. We get there by way of His cross as we carry our own.
And so we pick it up in verse 26 where He says, “At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.”
Now, what He was telling His disciples was that a turn of events was about to happen and they would all be able to go directly to the Father in prayer and they could ask for anything they wanted or needed and the only condition was that they were to pray in Jesus’ name. And so we can assume it’s because we have a relationship with His Son that we can make any request of the Father because if we really love Jesus then anything we’re going to ask for, is going to honor and glorify Him.
And we also see where Jesus says that we have a relationship with the Father that we didn’t have before. And one of the first benefits of this relationship is that we can pray to Him because as verse 27 says, He loves us and the reason He loves us is because we love Jesus and Jesus is living His life both in and through us.
And praying in His name is a new privilege that no one had ever had before. And it means that we are to pray not just for the things He would want us to pray for but also that the concerns of our hearts would tie into the concerns of His. And as I said, this isn’t like a free gold card that you can use to shower yourself with gifts but it’s the ability to communicate with the Father in a way that even the disciples were never able to do before. And in all of our praying it’s like we’re saying, "Father, I come because Jesus sent me, and I’m asking You to grant this prayer for His sake." And we are to ask for whatever is consistent with Jesus will and when we do that, God says He will give what we ask for.
There are several times in scripture where we are instructed to pray for the needs of others whether these needs are physical or spiritual but I also believe that God means for us to bring our own needs and even some of our wants before Him too. After all, God cares about everything we need no matter how big or small it happens to be.
Besides being told to bring our prayer requests to God, this also gives us both the right and the opportunity to enter God’s presence whenever we want to. I was reading the book of Esther a while back and she said, “That if anyone entered the presence of the king who was not invited the sentence was death.” And yet, we can talk to the king of kings anytime of the day or night.
So, if anyone loves Jesus, they’ll keep His commandments because if they don’t then He says they’re not loved of the Father. You see, your love for Jesus becomes evident in your obedience to Him and His word. And I believe that obedience is the key to the entire Christian life. And so Jesus says that if you keep My commandments it proves you love Me, and if you love Me then My Father loves you.
Now, this is almost sounds too simple too mention but I want you to notice that Jesus is telling these first century believers that God the Father loves them. And the reason He does this is because many of the Jewish religious leaders were anything but loving and they were supposed to be the representatives and messengers of God. And if we were there in the first century and looked at this crowd we could easily get the impression that God didn’t really like the human race because it was obvious that these guys didn’t. I mean, it seems like all they were doing was trying to figure out how they could use the people to get more money. And sad to say there’s still a lot of that going on in Christian circles today.
So, Jesus was telling them that God was a God of love. He was saying, you can go to God because He loves you and He loves you so much that He sent Me to die for you. And what we have to understand is that God didn’t just start loving them then but He always loved them. You see, the religious crowd got the message all messed up because they didn’t know the God they were supposedly preaching about.
I think there are many Christians who beat themselves down with persecution complexes and feelings of inadequacy because they think that no one even likes them but God has a deep, warm and tender fatherly affection for each and every one of us. If you love Jesus and believe that He came from the Father and if you believe that redemption is available through Jesus then God the Father does love you. And even though God knows we can be unfaithful and sinful, we can have a sour disposition and we can be difficult to get along with, He still loves us. He loves the unlovely. And although we might have a hard time believing it, you and I are the highest prize God ever claimed in the universe. Just think, when the angels fell, they all ended up being condemned to hell but when man fell, God set everything in motion in the universe to redeem him, and He did all this because He loves us.
And so, the question that should come to our minds when we think about this is, what affect does His love have on us? Do we love one another with the same kind of love? And the reason I ask this is that there are many times when we can put ourselves above God and choose who we’ll love and who we won’t because there are some people that we might consider to be unlovable.
When I was first saved I told you before I looked like the shaggy dog with long hair and a beard. One night I was asked to share my testimony at the Salvation Army headquarters in downtown Toronto. And there was a crowd there of about two or three hundred people and they were a very mixed crowd. There were many who had the Army uniforms on and several others who were dressed appropriately for church. And there were also several drunks in the congregation who had been invited in from off the street.
They sang a few hymns, I shared my testimony and then the Major preached a short message and gave an invitation for people to come forward for salvation. And several people responded and one of them was one of these drunks. And what amazed me was that one of the older army officers in a very neatly pressed uniform went right up to the drunk, put his arm around him, knelt on the floor, prayed with him and led him to Christ.
I was so impressed with this old man’s concern for the lost that I went up to him after the service to tell him how much I appreciated his ministry but as soon as I approached him he just looked at me and said, “Why don’t you go get a haircut so you’ll look like a Christian.” You see, this man had no problem loving drunks into the kingdom, he just couldn’t stand the long haired crowd that were already there. He didn’t recognize me. I was one of the unlovable people that Jesus had sent to test him. (And as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.)
Jesus was a great example of one who loved the unlovable. We saw Him washing Judas’s feet even though He knew he was going to run right out of there and betray Him. And if He’s our example of how we should love one another then we need to make our salvation visible by loving everyone who claims to be part of the body of Christ.
It’s interesting to see that twice in this sermon, in 13:16 and 15:20 Jesus said, “The servant is not greater than His Lord.” I think the reason He said this twice is because it’s our nature to act like we are better than we are or pretend we know more than we really do. In the passage in chapter 13, Jesus used the principle of a servant not being greater than his Lord when He was talking about service. Almost everyone in the ancient world had servants or slaves but all these service oriented people hated those they worked for because they were living under their authority and they were rebels by nature but every Christian is privileged to be a "slave" of the Lord Jesus.
So, Jesus was saying, "I’m concerned that you men will wash each other’s feet as I have done to you, and serve one another with an attitude of humility." And then in chapter 15, He’s using the same principle when He’s talking about those who are persecuted for their faith when He says, "You don’t think that if your Master is persecuted that you’re going to get away without persecution, do you?" And in both cases, whether we’re serving Him or paying a price for our faith we’re told people will treat us the way they treated Jesus.
In verse 28 He said, “Again I leave the world and go to the Father.” Here’s the clearest and most concise statement that Jesus ever said in regard to His own origin and destiny because He’s referring to both where He came from and where He’s going. He came from God to do the work of salvation and when He was done He was going right back to God. It’s a very simple statement and as one man said, “If you can get that into your head, you’ve got it in a nutshell.”
So, in these two verses He tells His disciples about the privilege they are about to have in the area of prayer and that He has made it so they’ll have the right to go directly into the presence of the Father. And what made the difference? It was because our sin was about to be taken away and for everyone who receives His forgiveness it’s just like we never sinned to start with.
And the physical evidence of our acceptance into the Father’s presence was that the temple veil was about to be torn in two. We hear that and wonder, what was that all about? What did that signify and why did it even happen? The temple veil was meant to keep men out of the presence of God. When the high priest went in there once a year he would bathe himself and wash all of his clothes before he went in and they would actually tie a rope unto his leg just in case he died when he was in there. And that way all the people had to do was to pull on the rope rather than risk going in there to drag his dead body out.
Now, when you hear that you can’t imagine what it was like being the high priest? I mean, think of the fear that was involved when one day a year he had to go into the presence of God. And just before that day he would be searching his heart to make sure that he wasn’t guilty of anything that might make God kill him. That’s how terrifying it was to go in there and yet you and I have the privilege of going into His presence anytime of the day or night.
So, when Jesus reassured them of His love and then explained the new relationship they were all going to have with the Father it’s like the lights came on and they said, “We get it!” And I do think that they did get some of it but there was still a lot that they missed completely.
We see their reaction in verses 29 and 30 where it says, “His disciples said unto Him, lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.”
You ought to underline verse 30 in your Bible because this is one of the high points of the disciples experience in their relationship to Jesus. You see, after the resurrection everything gets clearer for them but before the cross this is where they reached a high point as far as believing is concerned.
What’s interesting here is that they said they understood everything He said when we know that they really understood very little of what He had been talking about. And when they referred to His use of proverbs I think there may have been times when they were just as bewildered as everyone else while there were other times when they simply had to go away and take some time to think about what He said.
In essence, they said we understand what you’re talking about and Jesus responds and says, “Do you now believe?” Which is the same as saying, no, you don’t. You see, even though they heard what He said, they didn’t really understand all that much of what He was saying.
I was listening to Adrian Rodgers last week and he said, “It’s not what you eat but what you digest that makes you strong. It’s not what you read but what you remember that makes you intelligent. It’s not what you earn but what you save that makes you rich. It’s not what you preach but what you practice that makes you a true believer. And it’s not what you hear but what you apply that makes a difference.” So, they thought they understood what He was talking about and yet the very next day we see them all running away as Jesus faced the cross.
And yet, their actions don’t take Jesus by surprise. Look again at verses 31 and 32. It says, “Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.”
It almost seems like Lord was challenging their faith in verse 31 because they said did believe but He knew their faith was about to be severely tested, and that during the testing it would be shaken to its very foundations. And Jesus by His sense of omniscience or all-knowing knew what was coming. He knew they would all be offended and that their faith was genuine but it wasn’t strong as they thought it was. This explains why Jesus asked them, “Do ye now believe?" And it’s like He’s saying, you believe now that things are going well but what are you going to do when I’m taken from you, when I’m delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, when I die, and then I’m buried.
I think Jesus was warning them against their self-confidence. Bishop Ryle said, “The true secret of spiritual strength is self-distrust and deep humility because when I am weak, then am I strong. Happy is he who never forgets the words, ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’
And when Jesus said, "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone" He said this for the disciples’ sakes, so His prediction of the hour of pressure might prepare them for it. It was said to humble them, to destroy their self-confidence. And it’s like He’s telling them that the faith they seemed to be so pumped up about is not going to last very long. And He’s trying to give them a proper perspective because He knows they are all about to be scattered not only from Him but also from one another and then He’ll be left alone.
And what He said in verse 32 happened exactly as He had predicted and because of their lack of faith they abandoned Him in the garden, none of them attended His trial and except for John none of them went to Calvary. We notice that He said, "Behold, the hour cometh" and the term behold was meant to get their attention. And then He says, "Ye shall be scattered!" And without the Shepherd, they’d all be dispersed abroad. "Every man to his own" or to his hiding-place. Each of them would go looking for a place of safety.
And yet, He took comfort in knowing that the Father was with Him. And He was with Him until He actually took our sin upon Him when He was on the cross. And then even the Father had to turn His back and look away and of all the things that Jesus went through that had to be the toughest. It was the only time He ever cried out and expressed any sense of pain. And so we can say that He was alone so that we would never have to be and He was forsaken that we might never be.
And here’s the most fascinating part of the account about Jesus. He knew that the disciples would all desert Him in His darkest hour and yet He still loved them. And He says something here that actually prepares them for what was coming when He says, “I have spoken these things to you that you may have peace.” It’s like He’s telling them I know what’s ahead so don’t think that your running away is going to come as a surprise to me. You see, He wasn’t thinking Himself and how their actions would hurt Him but of how they would react to their own act of cowardice.
And then we see where He gets His comfort at the end of verse 32 when He says, “Ye shall leave Me alone, and yet I am not alone because the Father is with Me.”
And then it’s like He ends it all on a high note when He says, cheer up, I’ve got everything in control. In verse 33 He says, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” I like how Warren Weirsbe described this verse by saying, “Why did He give this message? He gave it so His disciples might have peace in a world of tribulation.” And then He gives a final statement which has ramifications that go way beyond this conversation. He says, “All these things I have spoken to you that you might have peace.”
And what does He mean by peace? There was a man by the name of Lao Tzu who lived way back in the sixth century and he wrote, “If there is to be peace in the world, there must be peace in the nations. If there is to be peace in the nations, there must be peace in the cities. If there is to be peace in the cities, there must be peace between neighbors. If there is to be peace between neighbors, there must be peace in the home. If there is to be peace in the home, there must be peace in the heart.” And all that sounds good and we can’t disagree with what he’s saying but the problem is, he never defines peace. And so the question we have to ask is, what is this peace and how do we get it?
The word "peace" in the Bible is from the Greek word (eireinei) which comes from the Greek which means "peace." Irene was the Greek goddess of peace. And this peace refers to a mental attitude of tranquility which is based on a right relationship with God.
The Bible uses the word "peace" in two different ways. There’s the personal peace with God which comes when a person accepts the Lord and then there’s the peace we have with God on a regular basis as we walk with God. We see this second kind of peace in Philippians 4:6-9 where Paul writes, "Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” So, this also tells me that I can have peace with God without having the peace of God.
So, He told them to have peace but He also told them to cheer up. Jesus said, “In the world you’ll have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world.” Did you know that be of good cheer is one of Jesus’ repeated statements of encouragement. And literally it means, “Cheer up!” And He actually uses it four times in the New Testament. In Matthew 9:2 when they brought the man on a pallet who was sick of the palsy Jesus said, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” And then He healed him. And then later in the same chapter when He healed the woman with the issue of blood He said, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” In other words, cheer up, you’re healed. And then in Matthew 14 when He walked on the water to get to the disciples as they saw Him and were afraid He said, “Be of good cheer, it is I; be not afraid.” And here in this chapter He tells them to cheer up because He has overcome the world.
I heard a story about a man who had made a lot of money in life but he also knew he was going to die. He had been very rich but at the same time he had also been very generous to the work of God. And because he had been faithful he thought he could negotiate with God to allow him to bring one suitcase of all his worldly treasure with him to heaven when he died.
So, when the time came for him to go he stood at the pearly gates with a suitcase in his hand and Peter was there to welcome him in. As the man looked through the gates he could see all the glitter of the golden streets and the gems of perfection that were so immense that he was simply amazed. Peter looked at the suitcase and said, "This is strange, nobody ever comes here with a suitcase.” And the man explained that he had made a deal with God, and he had received permission to bring in any part of his riches that would fit into one suitcase.
Well Peter said, "I’ll have to check with God, but first let me see what you brought." The man opened the suitcase and Peter looked in and inside there were several bars of gold. And Peter looked with a sense of astonishment and said, "This is the wealth that you brought? You brought pavement!"
Listen, gold is useless in heaven and when you think about it ,if all we can say when we get to heaven is that we gave money to the Lord we’ll be the poorest people there. There’s got to be more that each of us can do besides give. I like the way Helen Keller said, “I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”
