Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 78 (09-30-19)
Let us join Bob now as he gets started with today’s lesson. God has revealed everything of Himself to us in Christ Jesus.
We have direct access to the Father. No intermediary is necessary for anyone to approach God.
Transcript
Who were the disciples depending upon for information while Jesus was with them? Jesus. They asked him questions continually, did they not? Did he answer questions continually? Did he teach them continually? Everything we know about Jesus, about his kindness, about his goodness, about his forgiveness, about his dedication to you and me, and his faithfulness to you and me, every single thing we know about God and his character has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus.
In times past, God revealed Himself in many ways, through dreams and visions, through nature, but in these last days He has revealed Himself to us in His Son Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 1:1-3
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Everything we know about the character of God has been revealed to us through the teachings of Christ Jesus. If you do not know the teachings of Christ Jesus, then you do not know the character of God. For that is what he came to do, to reveal the Father, the totality of the character of God to you and me.
So he is saying, “You have depended on me while I was with you. When you asked questions, I answered every one of them. The answers did not come from me. The answers came from God who told me what to say and how to say it.”
Everything you wanted to know, I Jesus, have revealed to you.
Jesus says to them, “I am going away”
John 16:23-24
23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete
So what he is saying now is this, “you no longer need me to go to the Father on your behalf. You can go directly to the Father”. That is what he is saying to you.
I am telling you that a day is coming when you can ask for anything in my name and I will do it.
Now that is not asking God for Lincoln Continentals or a Cadillac. It is asking God for truth. Jesus just got through saying, “I am going to tell you truth. Ask me and I will tell you the meaning of something. From now on, you ask the Father and He will give you the answer. When you ask, you are asking in the authority of His name. Until now you have not asked me for anything.”
They were not born into that. We were, when were born again. This is new to them.
You never asked for anything in the authority of my name. From now on ask, and you will receive. If you need wisdom, ask for it and you will receive. If you need mercy, ask and you will receive. Ask, and you will receive abundantly. Ask, and you will be filled with joy.
John 16:25-26
25 ’Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
So he is telling them about his Father. In that day you will ask in my name, in my authority. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. He is not saying that if you want to know something about God, that you first have to ask me, and then I ask the Father for you to reveal it to you. He is saying that I am not going to be asking the Father on your behalf. You are going to be asking the Father on your behalf. When you do, you are going to be asking on the authority of Christ Jesus, whom you have brought into your life as commander in chief, as commanded by the Father for you and I to do. Do we understand this? We do not need an intermediary between you and God.
Now some people have set a bunch of intermediaries between them and God. You have got Jesus. You got Mary and anybody else coming down the pike when Jesus is saying, “ You do not need to go through me when you can go direct to the Father.”
Now, either that is biblical or it isn’t. If it is biblical then we should not be teaching other intermediaries, should we?
John 16:27
27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
Why does He love you and me? Because you loved Jesus and have believed Jesus came from God. You came to God the Father on his grounds. The way you are going to get to know me is through my Son. Everything that I want you to know about Myself has been revealed in Jesus, no more and no less. That is what Jesus said.
John 14:9
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
John 10:30
30 I and the Father are one.
He is saying that everything I am is the Father. There is one God in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. When you have seen me, you have seen the Father.
So the Father Himself loves you and He loves me. He loves us because we have learned to love Jesus.
1 John 4:10
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
He initiated live to you and you responded to Him in love.
John 16:28-29
28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
29 I came from the Father and entered the world, and now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.
I am going back to where I came from.
John 16:29-32
29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” 31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home.
You will be scattered all over the place.
John 16:32-33
You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. 33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
I told you these things so that in me, in your relationship with Jesus, you may have peace.
We are told about the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. You will never experience the peace of God until you experience the peace with God. You will never experience the peace with God until you recognize the truth that you have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
So I have told you these things so that in your relationship with me, Jesus, you may have peace.
John 16:33
In this world you will have trouble.
If you never had any other verse of scripture to believe the Bible is true just take a hold of that one. In this world you are going to have trouble and tribulation.
John 16:33
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Do not worry. I have overcome the world.
In this world, especially if you are in Jesus, and even if you are not in Jesus, you will face tribulation. When Adam fell and sin entered this world, from that point on tribulation entered this world, did it not? Trials, tribulation, death and disease, all of the things that we fight every day of our lives, was brought into this world through, and introduced to this world, through the fall of man, to the point that in scripture we read that even all of nature groans for it’s redemption. Nature itself fell. So in this world you are going to have tribulation.
We look at the world as a friendly place. If you just look at the nature God have us, the beautiful hills and valleys, the deserts and the trees. Have you ever stopped to think that even the tiniest insect that God created, God gave it something to eat that only an insect can eat. Everything furnished. For everything created in this world, he furnished food and air and everything we have and need for life and godliness.
But the world is not our friend because mankind is not our friend. In this world, people were born. When people were born into this world they were born with a choice, a choice to walk as God made us to walk, as indwelt by God, or to choose to rebel against God and choose to walk in the energy of your own flesh, leaning on your own understanding, never acknowledging Him, and never giving God a chance to direct your paths. So he said that in this world you are going to have tribulation.
John 17:1
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
This is a phenomenal prayer. This is not a prayer to simply memorize but to understand the heart of God, that he is praying to his Father.
John 17:1
Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
Make your Son known that your Son may glorify you.
John 17:2
2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
Jesus came with the authority from God to grant eternal life to those who come to Him by faith, to grant to you and me life eternal.
1 John 5:11-13
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Jesus came to give eternal life to those who would come to Him by faith, to believe in him for what he came to do. What did he do? He took away the sins of the world through his shed blood on the cross in order to give life to you and me, who were born dead.
I cannot emphasize this enough. You must see what the Bible says is true. You were born into this world dead spiritually.
You bounce prayers off the ceiling. You talk about God you do not know. You look for spiritual experiences to get goose bumps, thinking that that might get you closer to God. You do all kinds of things to try to reach God when God has reached you. You go through all kinds of manipulations. But the reason is you are dead spiritually.
When you come alive is when you realize God reached down to you with love and acceptance, and with mercy and kindness and goodness, and gave you eternal life. You do not reach up to Him. He has reached down to you.
So Jesus said, “You have granted that authority to me so I can give eternal life to all you have given me.”
John 17:3
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
This is eternal life, to know the only true God. There is only one true God. It is is not a Jew god, a Gentile God, and a Muslim god. There is only one God. They are not all the same.
There are not many ways to God. These people who are talking about many ways wto God are talking about a different god. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is one. God is one. This is eternal life to know that one true God. There is only one way to get to know that God and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is not narrow minded. It is absolute necessity. If you are dead, you need life. The only source of life available to us is through Jesus Christ. Mohammed cannot give you life. He is dead. The pope cannot give you life. He is dead. Billy Graham cannot give you life. Confucius cannot give you life. Those are men, in their grave, dead. Death prohibited from staying in office. There is only one who never died. There is only one who was raised from the dead. That is Jesus.
That is a historical event. That tomb was empty. No one was in it. All kinds of speculation by people as to empty tomb. But the issue is the tomb was empty.
It is also true that after the tomb was empty Jesus made an appearance to over five hundred people and he made appearances to his disciples. From that time on, for over 2000 years, people like you and me have testified of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
What I want to say is this. If Jesus is not God, then he must have been a liar or a lunatic. He is either a total imposter or liar or he is God. There is no other option as to what to believe. He either thought he was God, which would make him a lunatic if he was not. Or he knew he was when he was not, which would make him a mad man. He is either the cruelest, meanest man on earth or he is God.
The same thing is true about your and my testimony. Either my testimony about a personal relationship with God makes me a lunatic, an imposter and liar, or I really had an encounter with God, where I have a relationship with the living God. The same is true for you and the same is true of people for over 2000 years, who have been born again spiritually. Millions of people have testified they have a personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus. We are either nuts or imposters or we have an encounter with the living God.
So he is saying what eternal life and that is to get to know God, the only one true God, through Jesus Christ whom you sent.
John 17:4
4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.
What did he cry out on the cross? It is finished. That means the work is finished. He took away the sins of the world.
There will never be one person who will ever go to hell because of his sins. Your sins, and the lost person sins, were born into this world forgiven by God.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
You were, that is past tense, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Now that Jesus shed his blood, how much more shall we be saved through his life.
No man will ever go to hell because of his sins. So many people keep pointing their boney fingers at someone saying, “if you keep on that sinning, you will go to hell”. That is a lie out of the pit of hell.
The only sin attributable to man is the rejection of the finished work of Christ Jesus, who came to take away the sins of the world and then to give life to the dead. Getting your sins forgiven does not save you. He did that for the entire world.
But that forgiveness that was provided then is only received in the resurrected life of Christ Jesus. That is why you do not come to get your sins forgiven. You come to Christ to get life. In that life, you have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
John 16:9
9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me
John 17:4-9
4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
He is talking about his disciples. But later he makes it clear, he is talking to everyone who is born again.
John 17:10-11
10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
Jesus is not talking to a man. He is talking to His Father.
John 17:12
12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
John 17:13-14
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
Remember he said to us to be in the world but not of the world. In this world we live in now, we can talk about anyone but Jesus. You can promote Buddha. You can promote Allah, the Muslim god, but you cannot promote Jesus. The world hates Jesus.
For years and years, the law was used to show man their sinfulness and point people to Christ. But there is a sense when Jesus came to show man their sinfulness. I do not think it is the law that shows man his sinfulness but Jesus.
It is interesting, that in my lost days, you can sit in a bar and talk to the guys about God all day long. I would talk about God all the time. I did not know what I was talking about but I was talking about God. But you mention Jesus, and you gag on them. Have you ever noticed that? You can talk about the man upstairs or the good Father but when you talk about Jesus, you see people fleeing.
I went to a cocktail party and this woman was there. I talked about a lot of things and about God but as soon as I mentioned the name Jesus, she responded as if the Titanic was sinking. Our she went and you are left standing alone. When you talk about Jesus, he divides.
On that Larry King show, when you talk about Jesus, everything divides. One person there believed in Jesus. Another one pretended. The rest did not.
He is a divider. Why? Because he is Truth. Man does not like truth. Man likes lies. Mankind lives in a fairy land. We have pretenses. We have this imaginary land we want to believe in. Then Jesus comes and gets underneath the skin, exposing the attitudes of the heart. Jesus says, “Here is what Truth is”. Man responds by saying, “What a good person I am”. Jesus says “There is not anybody good except God. If you call me good then you better call me God”.
So I can forget thinking about I am good. That should be a relief to you and to me. It does not matter if I am good or not. Jesus said that there is not anybody who is good. So I can accept that. Why? He has given me something better than good. He has given Himself. The only thing that is good in you and me is Him.
It is not the burning bush that is spectacular. It is who is in the bush. Any bush will do if God is in it.
John 17:15-17
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
Sanctify then by what? The way you dress? No, by Truth. Where would you go to find truth? There is only one source of truth and that is God Himself.
God gave us a book. If you want to find truth about God, then read about God’s Son. God said His word is truth. Man will spend a lot of time doing other things rather than getting into His book. That shows us how much we really want to know truth. For if you want to know truth then you will seek to know God through reading the book He has given, letting the Holy Spirit reveal the meaning to you.
John 17:18-19
18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
