Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 77 (09-25-19)
Synopsis
In the gospel of John, near the end of Jesus life on earth, Jesus is providing comfort and instruction to his disciples. He tells them he is going away. Because he tells them that they are filled with grief. But he is explaining that he will send them the Holy Spirit, who will live in them and be in them forever. They are not able to understand these things, and Jesus told them that. The reason that they could not understand is because it is not until Pentecost when they receive the Holy Spirit.
That is true of all us until we are born again. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. You know what a piece of the puzzle looks like real well, maybe 4 or 5 pieces together. But until you put the whole puzzle together, you are missing something. The Holy spirit will lead you and guide you into all truth. God wants us to be born again, and start with the milk of the word. All of us have to start out that way. But then grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus told his disciples of that coming day for them. He told them, “No longer will you have to ask me to explain things to you while I am here on earth. In that day, you can go directly to the Father and ask anything in my name and He will give it to you”. This is not asking for a Cadillac. What Jesus is saying is that when you are asking for truth, he will give it to you. “If any of you lacks wisdom, ask, and my Father will give you what you have asked, for there is no favoritism with Him”. If you need mercy, He will give you that abundantly.
Jesus came to show us His righteousness and in so doing to show us our righteousness, which is really no righteousness at all. He came to show us our need of new life, having been born dead, without the Spirit of God in us. This life is in the Son, who is in the Father. He is saying, “I and the Father are one. If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” He is explaining the nature and character of God. Everything we need to know about God has been revealed to us by the Spirit of God. Everything we know today about the character of God, His unconditional love, His mercy, His kindness, His goodness, His forgiveness, His dedication to you and me and His faithfulness to you and me has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God is alive in Jesus. He does not do anything unless the Father tells him to do it. He does not say anything unless the Father tells him to say it and how to say it. That same Spirit has been given to live inside men who believe the message in regards to Christ Jesus, in what he came to do and what he accomplished through his death, burial and resurrection.
This message of eternal life is what Jesus came to say and explain to men. This message is not often explained clearly. A person asks, “Are you saying that you can go out and do all kinds of good deeds, be kind and generous to people and go to hell and yet a person just simply believes in Jesus and he is saved?” That is nonsense. You are not believing in Jesus just like you are believing in Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. You are believing in Christ Jesus and what he accomplished for you. It never gets explained as to why Jesus is the only way to go. Before you are ever coming to Jesus for life, you have to come to the conclusion that God meant what he said when he said you are dead spiritually.
Why is there only one person who can give life to the dead? Jesus is the only person ever resurrected from the dead and the only person who came from heaven to explain truth. There is something more than just sin in this world. Religion has kept us concentrating on sin, sin, sin when Jesus says, “I have taken away your sin. It is gone from the eyes of God”. The only sin ever attributable to a man is the sin of rejection of Jesus who came to provide that for you. You are refusing the provision of God. God says, “The only provision I have given you is my Son, Christ Jesus”. When you refuse, you choose to remain dead, to remain in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature. That is a choice you make, and that is not accidental. It is a choice you make not to choose Jesus.
To the Jew, who only recognizes Jesus as a good man or a prophet, and who celebrates Passover every year, how blind they are to not see. Have you ever given any consideration as to what Passover is? This Passover is what you Jews celebrate. When the death angel passed over, and that is what you celebrate, did He look into those houses to see who was good, or nice and kind, or did he look at the blood on the lentil of the doorposts? Which did he look at? The blood or the people? So the very thing you celebrate you do not believe in. You do not believe in the very thing you celebrate for thousands of years where God spared those who did what He said to do, to put blood on the lentil of the door posts and you will be passed over.
Have you applied the blood of Jesus to your own heart? Have you acknowledged that Jesus took away your sins as well as all the sins of the entire world? Have you personalized what Jesus did for you? Have you recognized your state of spiritual death, like Saul of Tarsus who said, “Oh, what a wretched man I am! Who will save me from this body of death?” Have you then come to Jesus to receive new life, His resurrected life, that life that raised Jesus from the dead to raise you from this body of death into new life in Him? In Him is life, is forgiveness and righteousness. In Him is everything you need for life and godliness. You exchange your righteousness, which are like filthy rags, for His righteousness, the righteousness of God. This eternal life is given to you freely, when you ask Him to come in. The very righteousness of God is imputed to you by the the work of Christ Jesus alone when you come to Him by faith alone.
Transcript
Turn to the gospel of John. Let us start in verse 5 of chapter 16. This is a time when the physical Jesus is getting ready to leave this earth as we know it today. Jesus came to reveal us the Father as the Godhead. That is why we are told in Matthew (Matthew 28:19-20) to go and make disciples, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which is the Triune God. We cannot comprehend God in our finite minds, the Holy Spirit, but we can apprehend what he has told us, that God is one but consisting of three persons in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to reveal to us the nature of God Himself, God the Father.
John 16:5-6
5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.
They were filled with grief upon hearing these things. As we said before, rightly so, for here is perfect love, love they have never experienced before, telling them he is going to leave this world, that he is going away.
John 16:7-9
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;
We talked about how he will convict the world wrong about sin, about righteousness and about judgment. Then he spells out sin from God’s vantage point, that “sin is unbelief in me”.
As we discussed so many times, the sins, plural, of the world have all been placed on Jesus Christ at the cross.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in His resurrected life we might become the righteousness of God. You will not have righteousness any other way unless imputed to you from God Himself. Everything we have is coming from Him. The only sin attributable to man is the sin of the rejection of the Son of God and the work of he did on the cross.
The more I watch these talk shows, especially Larry King Live, for example, the more I ponder on how important it is to explain truth. He keeps bringing these people on, and he has heard and heard, and you wonder how a man can hear so long and still be so hard of heart and still not want to believe. He is not a Gentile but a Jew, and he is rejecting his own people. I hear so many times people saying, “all you have to do is believe in Jesus”. A person asks, “Are you saying that you can go out and do all kinds of good deeds, be kind and generous to people and go to hell and yet a person just simply believes in Jesus and he is saved?” That is nonsense. You are not believing in Jesus just like you are believing in Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. You are believing in Christ Jesus and what he accomplished for you. It never gets explained as to why Jesus is the only way to go. Before you are ever coming to Jesus for life, you have to come to the conclusion that God meant what he said when he said you are dead spiritually.
I felt like saying, “Has it ever entered your mind, especially the Jews, who make this claim, “Are you saying that you do good deeds, and we are not going to go, but you who believe in Jesus are“, have you ever given any consideration as to what Passover is? This Passover is what you Jews celebrate. When the death angel passed over, and what you celebrate, did he look into those houses to see who was good, or nice and kind, or did he look at the blood on the lentil of the doorposts? Which did he look at? The blood or the people? So the very thing you celebrate you do not believe in. You do not believe in the very thing you celebrate for thousands of years where God spared those who did what He said to do, to put blood on the lentil of the door posts and you will be passed over.
So people talk out of both sides of their mouth continually. We say “I believe” over here but then turn right around and negate it over here. So unless we as Christians begin explaining to people why it is Jesus, why it is Jesus only, why there is only one person who can give life to the dead is the only person ever resurrected from the dead and to explain truth that there is something more than just sin in this world. Religion has kept us concentrating on sin, sin, sin when Jesus says, “I have taken away your sin. It is gone from the eyes of God”. The only sin ever attributable to a man is the sin of rejection of Jesus who came to provide that for you. You are refusing the provision of God. “The only provision I have given you is my Son, Christ Jesus”. When you refuse, you choose to remain dead, to remain in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature. That is a choose you make, not accidental. It is a choice you make not to choose Jesus.
John 16:10-11
10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
That is what the Holy Spirit came to do, to convince the world about sin, “because they do not believe in me” and about righteousness “because I go to the Father, where you will see me no more”. What is he saying there? “You have seen righteousness, not in you, but in me. Having seen it, I am going to the Father to impute that righteousness to you.” And he is going to convince the world about judgment because the prince of this world has already been judged.
John 16:12
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
That is the work of the Holy Spirit, who indwells you today as a born again believer, who is there to lead you and guide you into all truth.
John 16:13-16
He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”16 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
John 16:17-18
17 At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
Did they hear what he said? They heard what he said. They did not understand what he meant. What does he mean that he is going to the Father? Did they get the whole picture yet? No.
So true also in our lives. We have bits and pieces but we have not been able to put all the pieces together. Frankly, that is what I think our seminars provide for people, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. On our radio program, you will hear bits and pieces of truth. You know what a piece of the puzzle looks like real well, maybe 4 or 5 pieces together. But until you put the whole puzzle together, you are missing something.
So this is like where the disciples are at, not seeing the big picture. “What does this mean?”, they kept asking. “What does this mean ‘in a little while I will not see you’ and then ‘in a little while you will come back’?”
John 16:19
19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?
So they asked the right question and were honest about not understanding. It seemed they were hung up on that phrase, “a little while”. So Jesus shares more with them.
John 16:20
20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
Jesus is talking about the cross. “The world will be rejoicing over my death, but you will grieve. But in a little while your grief will turn into joy. You will have a period of grief but then it will turn to joy.”
John 16:21
21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.
A woman who is having a child, she has unbelievable pain. Women seem to handle pain better than men do. We see that anguish a pregnant woman in delivery goes through. Yet, it is all worth it when we see the baby arrive into the world. Then you forget about the pain as you are filled with joy.
John 16:22
22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
When you and I come to grips with the resurrection of Christ Jesus, which is the centrality of the faith, you will know joy. When you come to the reality that Jesus is alive today, that He is living in you and me, you will know joy. He is not dead hanging on a cross. That joy cannot be taken away from you in the world. You can be put in prison and be threatened to be put to death, but the joy of the resurrection is something that will never leave you once you come to the reality of the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
John 16:23-24
23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything.
Who were the disciples depending on for information? Jesus. They asked him continually. Did he answer their questions continually? Yes. Did he teach them continually? Yes. Every thing we know today about the character of God, His unconditional love, His mercy, His kindness, His goodness, His forgiveness, His dedication to you and me and His faithfulness to you and me has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Every thing we know about God and His character has been revealed to us in Christ Jesus. Now God revealed to us in many ways in times past, in dreams and in visions and in nature, but in these last days He has revealed Himself to us through Christ Jesus. Every thing we know about God and His character, we know from the teachings of Christ Jesus. If you do not know the teachings of Christ Jesus, you do not know the character of God. That is what he came to do, to reveal the Father to you and me, to reveal the totality of God to you and me.
Jesus is saying, “You have depended upon me while I was here with you. You have depended upon me for revelation. You asked me all kinds of questions, and when you did, I have answered every one of them. My answers did not come from me. They came from God for I say nothing unless the Father tells me what to say and how to say it. And I do nothing unless the Father tells me to do it. So every thing you want me to know, I, Jesus, have revealed to you. Now I am going away”. What he is saying is this. “You no longer need anyone between me and the Father.”
John 16:23
Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
That does not mean asking for Cadillac’s or Lincoln Continentals. It is asking God for truth. “Ask me and I will tell you the meaning.”
John 16:24
24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Now, when you have a question, you ask the Father, and He will give you the answer. Before now, you have never asked God for anything in the authority of Christ Jesus. If you need wisdom, ask and He will give it to you abundantly. If you need mercy, ask and He will give it to you abundantly. In other words, you have never asked in my name, in my authority. You have never asked for anything in the name and authority of Christ Jesus.
John 16:24
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.
He is telling them now about the Father.
John 16:24
26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
“I am not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf”. He is not saying that if you want to know something from the Father that you have to ask me and then I will tell the Father to reveal it to you. He is saying, “I am not going to be asking the Father on your behalf. You will be asking the Father on your behalf. When you do you will be asking on the authority of Christ Jesus who you have brought into your life as commanded by the Father for you and me to do.” We do not need an intermediary between you and God, now that you are in Christ Jesus.
Now some people have all kinds of intermediaries. They have Jesus, Mary and others. Jesus is saying, “You do not have to go through me, but you can go direct to the Father.” So if this is biblical, then we should not be teaching about other mediaries.
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 believed Jesus came from God. You came to God the Father on His grounds. The way to get to know God the Father is through Jesus. “Every thing that I want to reveal about myself has been revealed in Jesus, no more and no less. That is why Jesus says, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Every thing that I am is the Father”. The Father Himself loves you and me. He loves us because we have learned to love Jesus. It is not that we loved God but that He loved us first. He initiated love to you and you responded to Him in love.
John 14:9
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’?”
1 John 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
John 16:28
28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
Jesus is saying, “I am going back to where I came from.”
John 16:29-30
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 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.
We are told about the peace of God that surpasses understanding. You will never experience the peace of God until you have peace with God. You cannot experience the peace with God until you recognize truth that you have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
Philipians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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!
John 16:30
30 “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
If you never had any other verse to believe the bible is true, believe that one. You will have trouble in this world. “But take heart”, he says, “for I have overcome the world”. “Do not worry”, he says. When Adam fell, and sin entered the world, from that point on, trials and tribulations, along with death and disease, entered this world. All that we fight every day in our lives was introduced into this world at the fall of man. Even all of nature groans for its redemption. Even nature fell.
Romans 8:22-24
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?
We look at the world as a friendly place. If you look at nature, you see beautiful hills, valleys, deserts and trees. Even the tiniest insect God created, God gave it something to eat. Everything furnished for everything we need for life and godliness.
Psalm 19:1
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
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 given a choice, a choice to walk as God intended for us to walk, as indwelt by God, or choose to rebel against God, and walk in the energy of the flesh, leaning on their own understanding, never acknowledging Him and never allowing Him to direct their paths. In this world, you are going to have tribulation.
John 17:1
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
Here is a phenomenal prayer Jesus prayed. He is not giving us a prayer to memorize. He is giving us a prayer to understand the heart of God, to see what Jesus is talking to His Father about.
John 17:2
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 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 of God to grant eternal life to all who come to Him by faith, to grant to you and me life eternal!
1 John 5:11-13
1112 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, believing him for what he came to do, to take away the sins of the entire world at the cross, to be raised from the dead, and so that that life that raised him from the dead will raise you from the dead. He came to be raised to new life to give life to us who are born dead. I cannot emphasize this enough. You and I were born into this world dead spiritually.
John 17:3-5
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 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.
