SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: What a powerful uh set of worship that was this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I was moved.
SPEAKER_00: But this morning we get a chance to continue in our walk through uh John.
SPEAKER_00: Today we get to go through John 14.
SPEAKER_00: Uh many uh people you would talk to, pastors, theologians, people who would ask, if you ask them their favorite chapters or their favorite verses in the New Testament, John 14 would be one of them.
SPEAKER_00: First Corinthians 13 would be the other.
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones that are spoken about, they're the ones that we know about, they're the ones that have been talked about a lot.
SPEAKER_00: And so today we get the chance to just kind of dive in, to go into this moment where we're in the upper room.
SPEAKER_00: And for the last few weeks, we've been in the upper room.
SPEAKER_00: And John does a really, really good job of taking this upper room and making this in-depth view of what was going on at this time.
SPEAKER_00: Where the other gospels are rolling through it, and just you get this fast history all the way up to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: John kind of hits the brakes.
SPEAKER_00: John takes this moment where he's just going to slow things down, and we're gonna have this focus on the upper room.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have this focus of Christ's teaching.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have this focus of the intimate relationship between the disciples and Christ himself.
SPEAKER_00: It's an amazing, it when I when that revelation came, it was just an amazing idea just to think about how we slowed everything down to go through this.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost as if we took a picture on a phone and we start zooming in on every little detail.
SPEAKER_00: John is taking us to the upper room for multiple chapters, slowing down the narrative to allow the readers to feel the passion, love, and encouragement that was bestowed by Christ.
SPEAKER_00: During this time, we've seen a multitude of different things, washing of feet, the disciples uh telling the disciples, there will be one among you who will betray me.
SPEAKER_00: Then in John chapter 13, 34 through 35, we get a new commandment I will give you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_00: You are also to love one another.
SPEAKER_00: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, is if you have love for one another.
SPEAKER_00: And then obviously, last week we saw last, we saw that he was the telling of Peter the inevitable denial.
SPEAKER_00: Peter telling Christ he would lay his life down for him, wanting to know where he was going.
SPEAKER_00: Christ looks at him and says, But you will deny me.
SPEAKER_00: In all of this, we see Christ is pushing, teaching, laying down overwhelming honesty.
SPEAKER_00: We see a new way to love, betrayal, ignorance, and future denial.
SPEAKER_00: And we get the lucky part of being the fly on the wall.
SPEAKER_00: But how would you respond if you were sitting in that room?
SPEAKER_00: As we walk through this, think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the things that are Christ is talking to them, being intimate, being very vocal, and looking at them in the eye.
SPEAKER_00: How would you respond?
SPEAKER_00: They've been told they cannot go with him.
SPEAKER_00: One will deny him.
SPEAKER_00: And in his humbleness, the disciples, and he explains his humbleness, and yet the disciples are still in a state of confusion and questioning.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to what Jason had already kind of referenced this morning.
SPEAKER_00: 14, chapter 14, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Let your hearts, let not your hearts be troubled, and believe in God, believe also in me.
SPEAKER_00: Christ knew where his disciples' heads were.
SPEAKER_00: And he knew that he needed to serve in love.
SPEAKER_00: He was providing spiritual and emotional support.
SPEAKER_00: And as we walk through chapter 14, you're going to see this layout.
SPEAKER_00: And in everything that I have said and will continue to tell you, he says, know that I am here for you and to believe in God as well as me.
SPEAKER_00: He was giving them just a clear picture.
SPEAKER_00: Yet our disciples, the disciples are going to continue to question and ask, which, lucky for us, allows us to be able to see the insights of what Christ is really wanting going forward.
SPEAKER_00: This is setting up what we will see today.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the greatest leader and teacher, and will continue to pour in his disciples and all of us.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible, go ahead and open it to John chapter 14, verses 1 through 14.
SPEAKER_00: We will read this and then we will go ahead and get started.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Believe also in me.
SPEAKER_00: In my father and in my father's house are many rooms.
SPEAKER_00: If it were not, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare you a place to go to prepare a place for you?
SPEAKER_00: And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you, uh, take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.
SPEAKER_00: You know the way to where I am going.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.
SPEAKER_00: How can we know the way?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
SPEAKER_00: From now on, do you not from now on, do you do not know him and have seen him?
SPEAKER_00: Philip said to the said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_00: How can you say, Show us the Father?
SPEAKER_00: Do you not believe that I am the Father and the Father is in me?
SPEAKER_00: The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his work.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe on the account of the works my themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will be done will he do, because I'm going to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do.
SPEAKER_00: That the Father may be glorified in the Son.
SPEAKER_00: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this time.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Father, just be with us today.
SPEAKER_00: As we embark into your words and what you were trying to teach the disciples, that let us be students with open minds and open hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And let us, those who have ears, let us hear you, Father, and those who do not, press on them.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we love you and praise you.
SPEAKER_00: It's in your son's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So as we are going through this, we see that there's this long little narrative, not narrative, but a little conversation that Christ is giving the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And in this, he starts with, Let your hearts not be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Let not your hearts be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: He's already given them a bunch of different issues.
SPEAKER_00: We know the one's gonna betray, we know the one's gonna deny.
SPEAKER_00: There's so many different things are going on.
SPEAKER_00: He's already telled them, hey, I'm not going to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: And they're freaking out.
SPEAKER_00: You can only imagine that in that moment, it's not maybe not a freak out, but they're kind of like, oh, wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm gonna go with you.
SPEAKER_00: I want, I want to be right there with you, as Peter says.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go with you, I will lay my life down for you.
SPEAKER_00: But he's like, no, no, no, no, wait.
SPEAKER_00: There's more to this.
SPEAKER_00: And he's gonna kind of go through this process with them, unpacking all these little statements he's kind of already said.
SPEAKER_00: And he's gonna continue this.
SPEAKER_00: This is not the only time.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna continue even next week and the week after that, where Christ is going to really hone in on them, teaching them what it means to not be with him and what their ultimate goal is going to be.
SPEAKER_00: Because I have taught you and I've been with you.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing we're gonna see in verses one through three, Jesus prepares our future.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look at ver uh the first three verses, we again see that Christ is leading with do not be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: As stated, Christ is pushing into support emotionally and spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: But he does not stop there with do not be troubled, and to believe in God the Son.
SPEAKER_00: He goes even further.
SPEAKER_00: He says, In my father's house are many rooms.
SPEAKER_00: If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
SPEAKER_00: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
SPEAKER_00: He's building.
SPEAKER_00: But what he's telling him right here is he's giving them an ironclad guarantee that do not be troubled as I leave, if you believe there are things that I'm creating for you.
SPEAKER_00: There are things that I'm going to do for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm creating a room.
SPEAKER_00: Christ was going to prepare a place and that this departure was good for them.
SPEAKER_00: He must go, but in the going, he was creating rooms for all the saints in the interim.
SPEAKER_00: This was a statement of assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the second part of verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: If I, if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
SPEAKER_00: Christ telling the disciples the truth of the matter.
SPEAKER_00: They will have a room in the Father's house.
SPEAKER_00: And if it was not true, or if it was a myth, Christ would not have let them believe this.
SPEAKER_00: The words that he speaks are truth.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the truth that they are to know.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 3, he presses harder.
SPEAKER_00: And if I go prepare a place, I will come again and will take you myself.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just going to prepare the place, but he's also planning his return.
SPEAKER_00: It's a twofold process.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe in this moment the disciples are like, well, wait a second, okay, time.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna go.
SPEAKER_00: They're probably trying to trying to grasp all of this had to be difficult in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus was planning his return, and he will come again, not even just for them, but for the saints, the believers for us, so that we can be where he is.
SPEAKER_00: And this should give you comfort.
SPEAKER_00: The preparations that he was doing in heaven with the Father, in the Father's house, he's making a place for the believers.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling the disciples, I have a home for you.
SPEAKER_00: And it should be comfort in our eventual death.
SPEAKER_00: Also, comfort in knowing that he's coming again.
SPEAKER_00: This is not something that we like to talk about.
SPEAKER_00: We don't like to talk about the fact that we're going to die.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be honest.
SPEAKER_00: But in the fact that Christ existed, died, rose again, and ascended to heaven, that should give you comfort.
SPEAKER_00: That he was up there preparing a place.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling the disciples, I'm preparing a place.
SPEAKER_00: The comfort shouldn't be the fact that we're going, it should be the fact that he's lived, lived, and he's providing something for us.
SPEAKER_00: And in our human brains, immediately we go, death is death.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, death is death.
SPEAKER_00: You will die.
SPEAKER_00: But he's given you a place.
SPEAKER_00: So the fear should not be the death.
SPEAKER_00: If you truly believe, the fear should not be the death.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is an entrance to that room that Jesus prepared for us in heaven, a room that he made specifically for us.
SPEAKER_00: In this, we are giving great assurance.
SPEAKER_00: But those in the room still need a little more.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are still like, okay, you're saying a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Don't know what you're trying to say.
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, we're going to get this.
SPEAKER_00: The second point tonight today is going to be Jesus is the only way to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 5 and 6, we're going to see this kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: So we've got this idea.
SPEAKER_00: He's preparing a room.
SPEAKER_00: He's going away.
SPEAKER_00: They should understand this.
SPEAKER_00: He's talked about leaving them multiple times up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: But they're still kind of human, right?
SPEAKER_00: Still asking questions.
SPEAKER_00: So this is what we get, Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we do not know where you are going.
SPEAKER_00: How can we know the way?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that Christ says it this way.
SPEAKER_00: As I've stated by now, we should know that they should understand that Christ is leaving.
SPEAKER_00: And this has been repeated multiple times in John.
SPEAKER_00: But in ignorance, Thomas asking, and I promise you, he was asking for the whole room.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just him.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking for the whole room, Lord, we do not know where you're going.
SPEAKER_00: That's been answered.
SPEAKER_00: How can we know the way?
SPEAKER_00: Christ gives them the sixth I am statement.
SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about some of the I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: I am the bread of, I am, you know, he's led with all these different I am all the way through this point.
SPEAKER_00: He's been leading with this I am idea for quite some time.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not something that they haven't heard, but I think in this intimacy, it's the one of the first times that they can really sit down, and maybe, maybe it's the enormity of the event that's coming up.
SPEAKER_00: They're actually asking questions, and that we're getting firsthand look at these questions now.
SPEAKER_00: They've done this before.
SPEAKER_00: This is nothing new with the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: But at this moment, there's a little bit of an urgency.
SPEAKER_00: So this I am statement, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: The statement is not one of separate entities.
SPEAKER_00: Let's it's not separate in itself.
SPEAKER_00: It's all as one.
SPEAKER_00: So look at it this way.
SPEAKER_00: I am the way because I am the truth, because I am the life.
SPEAKER_00: We don't look at him as three different entities.
SPEAKER_00: It's all one, because he is all one.
SPEAKER_00: So another way to put this, and what is kind of what this means, is R.C.
SPEAKER_00: Sproul kind of says it this way.
SPEAKER_00: I am the way to the Father because he is the true manifestation or revelation of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: I am the way to the Father because I alone have the power of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: We can't separate it.
SPEAKER_00: Christ and God are one.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get to that here in a second.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples are still struggling with some of these ideas, but when Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, he is laying out the idea of who he is.
SPEAKER_00: He is laying out to them, I am the way to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: I am the truth of all that is being said, that the Father says, and I am the life that is being provided.
SPEAKER_00: You die without me, there is no more life.
SPEAKER_00: We see in Scripture many different ways to kind of look at this.
SPEAKER_00: John 10 9, I am the door.
SPEAKER_00: Another I am statement.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone enters me, enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: Again, pressing on the idea of the only way to God is through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 4 12.
SPEAKER_00: And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only way, the only truth, the only life.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 7, 13 through 14, enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.
SPEAKER_00: And those who enter by it are many.
SPEAKER_00: For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: And those who find it are few.
SPEAKER_00: Being specific as the life that you will be leading as I leave, and you focus your life on me and you live in me.
SPEAKER_00: It is not going to be one of these glorious, it's not just going to be this boom.
SPEAKER_00: My life is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, persecution, sorrow, pain will come.
SPEAKER_00: But in me, you can get through this, and there is a glorious end.
SPEAKER_00: And in me, you can glorify those moments.
SPEAKER_00: You can glorify God in those moments.
SPEAKER_00: And in the end, there is me.
SPEAKER_00: And in 1 Timothy 2, 5.
SPEAKER_00: For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He is the mediator.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one that had to go before.
SPEAKER_00: He is the only one that lived the perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only one that lived the truth and providing us the way.
SPEAKER_00: He had to live the sinful life.
SPEAKER_00: Sinless life, excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: He had to live that for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: All these verses exemplify the nature of Christ and the sovereign role that was given to him by God.
SPEAKER_00: It is completely laid out for us.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is only through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: To believe and repent.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is only through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other way.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the Bible, we see a lot of different statements.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of time God will impress upon the writer, says, use a but statement.
SPEAKER_00: There is no but here.
SPEAKER_00: It's fact.
SPEAKER_00: I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.
SPEAKER_00: Only Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: He is the mediator to the Father, covering our sins so that we may have the ability to converse with our Creator, the mediator that God sovereignly provided.
SPEAKER_00: And the propitiation.
SPEAKER_00: And look, I'm not against this idea of taking medicine to help one.
SPEAKER_00: But I was against the idea of what this message was.
SPEAKER_00: It was a pill for, you know, mental illness to help with depression or whatnot.
SPEAKER_00: Totally understand that.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: The music that was being used in it was this little light of mine.
SPEAKER_00: And they changed the words of this little light of mine to fit the narrative of what this pill provided.
SPEAKER_00: That the only way to feel happy is through the pill.
SPEAKER_00: I find it interesting that they use something that is that has been, as a little kid, we've all heard this little light of mine.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if we start singing it, every single one of you is sitting in here will be able to sing it.
SPEAKER_00: So they use familiarity, they use music to grab your emotions into this ideal.
SPEAKER_00: Again, I say this to make to make the point.
SPEAKER_00: The world will pull at you and tear you away from the one thing that has provided you the one way, and that is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: God provided us a way.
SPEAKER_00: God gave us a way, though that way may not be easy, and that gate is narrow.
SPEAKER_00: Put your pack on and roll.
SPEAKER_00: Go through it knowing.
SPEAKER_00: What's coming your way.
SPEAKER_00: Understanding that with God, I can handle the things that are coming my way.
SPEAKER_00: And God's not going to spare me from the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But God will be glorified in that process.
SPEAKER_00: That being said, the third point today.
SPEAKER_00: The Father and the Son are one.
SPEAKER_00: So we see in verse 7 through 11, If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.
SPEAKER_00: From now on, you do know him.
SPEAKER_00: From now on, you do know him, and you have seen him.
SPEAKER_00: Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting statement.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?
SPEAKER_00: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_00: How can you say, Show us the Father?
SPEAKER_00: Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?
SPEAKER_00: The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his work.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on the accounts of the works themselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting little section here.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas kind of got it started.
SPEAKER_00: Philip kind of falls in, and again, I think the questions are being asked, not just for the one, but for the whole.
SPEAKER_00: Philip asks this question Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting question.
SPEAKER_00: That was a question of asking for tangible.
SPEAKER_00: Look, they had the tangible sitting in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have that.
SPEAKER_00: So I can see where that question can kind of merry, kind of, kind of play with our emotions a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: There are times those who are who are struggling with the idea of the Trinity or the idea of God Himself and Christ and Christ coming and being God man on earth and whatnot.
SPEAKER_00: I can see where we would ask that question.
SPEAKER_00: Philip sitting next to God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to just look at Philip.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, just look up.
SPEAKER_00: He's right there.
SPEAKER_00: You can see both.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 7, we again see that Jesus affirms that He and the Father of one.
SPEAKER_00: And he does this multiple times.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples who have been with Jesus experienced that the God man.
SPEAKER_00: They've experienced Christ as God.
SPEAKER_00: They saw Christ in the flesh, and at the same time, they were walking with and seeing God daily.
SPEAKER_00: Yet there was a level of perplexity among the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: How do you not see that God is walking with you when he raises a man from dead after four days?
SPEAKER_00: According to your culture, he was completely dead.
SPEAKER_00: How do you not see a God who gave sight to a man who had been blind since birth?
SPEAKER_00: How do you not see a God just who feeds 25,000 people from very limited amount of uh products?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, those are miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they were.
SPEAKER_00: So I I can feel that in some ways that Jesus is kind of like, okay, let me do this again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he was frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: I think there was a little bit of exasper, he was exasperated at this moment.
SPEAKER_00: It is not as if Christ had not been pouring into him and explaining to them the process uh prior to this conversation.
SPEAKER_00: If you go back to John 8.58, Jesus said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
SPEAKER_00: And if they knew anything from the old test, or what would be the old guard for their scriptures, their their ancient scriptures, their scriptures of what they learned from.
SPEAKER_00: If they knew anything from that, God calls himself I am.
SPEAKER_00: Put the two together.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 10, we see that Jesus explains, uh explains to them, He and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_00: It's a multitude of times that he has done this.
SPEAKER_00: They have experienced this.
SPEAKER_00: And while walking with Christ, they have seen many things.
SPEAKER_00: Christ walks them through it again and reiterates to see him is to see the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He is in the Father, and the Father is in him.
SPEAKER_00: The word he taught was not by his own authority, it was by the Father's authority.
SPEAKER_00: Believe that I am the Son of God because I said it.
SPEAKER_00: But if not, then because his miracles proved it.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I say this.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us fall into that mindset?
SPEAKER_00: How many of us fail to grasp who Jesus really is?
SPEAKER_00: Allowing the worldly, a worldly acceptance of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have a tendency in this world, or not, I won't say we, I will eliminate we, but the world has a tendency to fit Christ into the puzzle pieces that they want to fit him into.
SPEAKER_00: To justify the things that are going on in their lives, to justify the things that make them feel better about things.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is the way, the truth, the life.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other.
SPEAKER_00: And Christ is not one that fits into your mold of what you think Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: We are to seek him and try to live in his life and have him live through us.
SPEAKER_00: We can't be the ones that change him.
SPEAKER_00: And he and the father are together.
SPEAKER_00: They're this.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to John 1.
SPEAKER_00: The very beginning of John establishes that identity that Christ and God are together from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: From the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: So, in all of this, next point, we see this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus empowers believers for his mission, answering kingdom-focused prayer.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 12, we see, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do.
SPEAKER_00: And greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting, he follows verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Believe me that I am the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on the accounts of the works themselves, with this.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do.
SPEAKER_00: And greater works than these will he do.
SPEAKER_00: They had to be blown away at this point.
SPEAKER_00: What works would we do better?
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that they don't come back and ask a question here.
SPEAKER_00: Father, you have done miracles.
SPEAKER_00: You have walked on water, you have fed the thousands, you have raised the dead, you have healed.
SPEAKER_00: What works can we do that is greater than you?
SPEAKER_00: Or greater than these?
SPEAKER_00: And take some time thinking about these works.
SPEAKER_00: Take some time thinking about what these works might be.
SPEAKER_00: If at the first things you sit there and you go, okay, wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: When you first look at this, what what might there be anything greater?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus had been leaning in on them, telling them that when I leave, there will be things that you will need to do.
SPEAKER_00: He is preparing them for the eventual departure of this in this world.
SPEAKER_00: He is preparing them for this moment.
SPEAKER_00: This is that moment in the upper room where he is looking at them and saying, I am not going to be here.
SPEAKER_00: You need to wrap your head around this.
SPEAKER_00: I am leaving soon.
SPEAKER_00: But there's more for you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Let me teach you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me continue to pour into you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what it is that you're going to do.
SPEAKER_00: They have just been told to believe that he and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't see that, look at my works.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they're confused.
SPEAKER_00: Christ was preparing the disciples that they may not have understood this of yet, but he was consistently teaching them.
SPEAKER_00: He was consistently pouring into them.
SPEAKER_00: And there were some momentous events that were going to come their way that will happen in the near future for them.
SPEAKER_00: The works would be the mission to carry his name and teach of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What was the works they would do that were greater?
SPEAKER_00: Think about the first century church.
SPEAKER_00: When he dies, they are left alone until he returns and gets ascended back up to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: At that point, the works of the disciples are now to spread the word.
SPEAKER_00: The mission.
SPEAKER_00: The great mission.
SPEAKER_00: To the corners of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: To spread the word.
SPEAKER_00: The miracle.
SPEAKER_00: If thinking about it, if you look at church history, the miracle was the church got out of the first century.
SPEAKER_00: That was God sovereignly pushing that and making that happen.
SPEAKER_00: The Romans shutting it down, sending them out, dispersing them.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, now they're outside the realm because they've been dispersed.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what they can do?
SPEAKER_00: They can teach.
SPEAKER_00: And not only did they teach, but they died for what they taught.
SPEAKER_00: They died for what they believed.
SPEAKER_00: And though Peter may have denied, Peter pushed, shows that the imperfect people that we are, when living in Christ, we have great abilities.
SPEAKER_00: That we can push beyond our own abilities.
SPEAKER_00: Because our finite brain is only going to go so far.
SPEAKER_00: The infinite one is the one that can help us.
SPEAKER_00: So they would carry the mission.
SPEAKER_00: They would become witness to the world through the power and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I won't touch on that too much.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get into that next week.
SPEAKER_00: They would focus on spiritual miracles, not the physical.
SPEAKER_00: And they would achieve this.
SPEAKER_00: The only way this would be accomplished, Christ had to go to the Father for the Holy Spirit to come.
SPEAKER_00: Until Jesus returned.
SPEAKER_00: If you read Acts, you understand.
SPEAKER_00: The only way for that to be accomplished was Christ had to go to the Father for the Holy Spirit to return, to come down.
SPEAKER_00: So he set this mission.
SPEAKER_00: He told them they're going to do greater works.
SPEAKER_00: And what was the next thing he does?
SPEAKER_00: Teaches him to pray in his name.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 13 and 14 whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
SPEAKER_00: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Let me go ahead and stop there.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a name it, claim it.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a blank check.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a, hey, Father, I need this.
SPEAKER_00: Can you give me this?
SPEAKER_00: This is not what that's meant to be.
SPEAKER_00: What he is teaching them is teaching them to reach out to him.
SPEAKER_00: He was teaching them to understand that you're going to go through trials, you're going to go through tribulations, you're going to suffer when you get sent out.
SPEAKER_00: Seek me in that process.
SPEAKER_00: Pray it in my name so that I can help you.
SPEAKER_00: And that the Father is glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately, what he's trying to say here is three different things.
SPEAKER_00: And I took this from John MacArthur.
SPEAKER_00: He was trying to say these three things when it came to believers' prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The believer's prayer should be for the purpose of the kingdom and not selfish reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Check your heart.
SPEAKER_00: What are you praying for?
SPEAKER_00: The believer's prayer should be on the basis of his Christ's merits and not on personal merit or worthiness.
SPEAKER_00: I am not worthy.
SPEAKER_00: And in no way, shape, or form am I worthy.
SPEAKER_00: But Christ is.
SPEAKER_00: The mediator is.
SPEAKER_00: And the believer's prayer should be in pursuit of his glory alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say those three things one more time.
SPEAKER_00: The believer's prayer should be for the purpose of the kingdom and not selfish reasons.
SPEAKER_00: The believer's prayer should be for the on the basis of Christ's merits and not on personal merit or worthiness.
SPEAKER_00: And the believer's prayer should be in pursuit of his glory alone.
SPEAKER_00: It is the idea to ask on the basis of Christ's merit, Christ's righteousness, and for whatever would honor and glorify him and to build the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: When we pray and ask in his name, the prayer is meant to be glorification in anything that comes our way to glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: If it's not meant to glorify, we should probably re-ask ourselves, should we be asking this?
SPEAKER_00: If it's meant to glorify me, I probably shouldn't be praying this.
SPEAKER_00: And there are times that we have seen this.
SPEAKER_00: I can give you a good example when I was searching for different jobs or different things, when I was selfishly just clamoring for something that was different because I was uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Praying for, hey, I really would like this job.
SPEAKER_00: What did God do to me?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, now's not the time.
SPEAKER_00: You're praying for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: I have something better for you.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we get kind of confused in that, right?
SPEAKER_00: We we think we're seeking the right things, but if we focus on these three things ideally, focus on the way that Christ taught us how to pray with the Lord's Prayer, follow that model, our prayer life will change.
SPEAKER_00: And he is telling them this is how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: He's already taught them once before, but again, say it in my name.
SPEAKER_00: I am your mediator.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples were about to lose Jesus physically, and he is preparing them to continue his mission in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see in the surrounding chapters from 13 through 17 the full themes of abiding a Christ, obedience, love, bearing fruit, and coming to him of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna see all this come to fruition.
SPEAKER_00: But in that, he's teaching them how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus says, whatever you ask, he's speaking to the disciples whose hearts are being shaped around his mission.
SPEAKER_00: Because inevitably, no matter what we do, his mission still exists and his should be first.
SPEAKER_00: His mission.
SPEAKER_00: As our hearts become more like Christ, our prayers begin to reflect Christ's desires.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's an important statement to make.
SPEAKER_00: As our hearts become more like Christ, our prayers begin to reflect Christ's desires.
SPEAKER_00: So I say all this to kind of wrap it up a little bit here.
SPEAKER_00: The main idea because Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, believers can rest confidently in his promises, trust completely in his person, and faithfully continue his mission.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples entered the upper room with troubled hearts, confused minds, and uncertain futures.
SPEAKER_00: Before the cross, Jesus didn't give them a detailed timeline.
SPEAKER_00: He was pouring into them.
SPEAKER_00: He gave him himself.
SPEAKER_00: He reminded them these three, these few things.
SPEAKER_00: I am preparing a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the only way to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: If you have seen me, you have seen the Father, and I will empower you for my mission, and I will hear and answer your prayers for my glory and for the Father's glory.
SPEAKER_00: There's hope.
SPEAKER_00: The same is true for us today.
SPEAKER_00: Our world is filled with uncertainty, fear, sickness, death, and disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus still says, Let your hearts not be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in God, and believe also in me.
SPEAKER_00: So as the band comes back up, how can Jesus make these promises with absolute certainty?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is the God man.
SPEAKER_00: He is one with Christ, one with God.
SPEAKER_00: Because within hours he would go to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The one who was preparing a place for us first had to prepare the way for us.
SPEAKER_00: He lived the perfect life that we could never live.
SPEAKER_00: He died the death for our sins, died the death our sins needed.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: And he bore the wrath of God in the place of sinners, the wrath that we deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He rose victorious over sin and death, so that everyone who repents and believes in him would have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not merely a way to God, he is the way.
SPEAKER_00: Because he made the way through his blood and his life.
SPEAKER_00: Final thought.
SPEAKER_00: As we go through this and we finish all this, a troubled heart finds lasting peace not by having all the answers, but by trusting the one who is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, you are amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You are glorious.
SPEAKER_00: You are holy.
SPEAKER_00: And we are humbled to be in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you today that you have provided us a way.
SPEAKER_00: Though that way may be difficult, though the way is narrow.
SPEAKER_00: And though that way is not for the fate of heart, Father, we know that you will be with us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for what you have provided.
SPEAKER_00: Father, you are great.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, as we sit here today, as we sit here and think through these things and think about what's going on in the world that's around us and all this noise that continues to kind of just pour on us and try to distract us from you, Father.
SPEAKER_00: I taste that you tear that away from us.
SPEAKER_00: That we focus on who you really are.
SPEAKER_00: That our worship goes beyond these four walls sitting inside this building today.
SPEAKER_00: And that our worship is so strong and so bold that it calls out for people to look at who is this.
SPEAKER_00: Father, ask for those who are not seeing you yet.
SPEAKER_00: That you open and pierce their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let their minds not be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Let their hearts not be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: And if they're asking to see who you are, Father, you are here.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we love you and praise you.
SPEAKER_00: It is in your glorious Son's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.