John 13:36-14:6
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Postmodernism.
Recent Study by Ligonier ministries.
We have seen a shift where people once believed and claimed to believe in absolutely truth and specifically they believed that God’s word was absolutely true, but now people who call themselves evangelical are adopting this wayward understanding.
I’m not sure why this is the case.
Maybe its because we are afraid of being targeted by the culture.
Maybe we don’t like being called “Bigot” narrow minded Bible Thumper.
Maybe we
But my initial thought is that the reason for this is a result of the vast majority of people claiming to be evangelicals aren’t actually genuine followers of Christ.
If they were they would submit to His word.
It is true that most people believe this, but the question is: is what most people believe true?
Let’s look at how Jesus responds to this particular question this morning.
But first look here in verse 36.
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”
Jesus has just given them a new commandment.
He had expressed His desire for them to love each other and show by their love that they were genuinely His.
But the disciples seem to gloss right over that, or at least, peter did.
Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”
In what seems like a complete disregard for the New commandment just given, it seems like the disciples are only concerned with the fact that Jesus has just spoke of His glorification.
Remember last week, we discussed that this was a farewell discourse and even though his language is vague, the tone and the message is conveyed very clearly.
Jesus is going to the cross and he will experience glorification through his humiliation, and his disciples will soon have to be living in the world without the benefit of His physical presence.
So they want to know. Peter again is the one who speaks up. He must know and so he asks:
Where
Lord, where are you going?
Peter loves His Lord.
He may have a big mouth, but He loves Jesus.
Other times in the Gospel, we have seen Peter be rebuked for His questions and comments, but, in this instance, Jesus doesn’t.
Jesus instead graciously answered,
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 13
“Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.”
This is a typical response from Jesus.
Peter wants to know where physically he is going, but Jesus responds with the spiritual reality.
Peter sees this as vague, but what Jesus is saying is a loaded statement.
Jesus is the only one who can complete the task that has been set up for him, but what Jesus is saying is a loaded statement.
Jesus has just told Peter a few things.
Jesus is going to do this work by himself.
In fact he is the only one who can complete this task.
He will go alone, because He alone can accomplish the task before him.
But He does reassures Peter as well with this statement.
Jesus has assured Peter that he will go later, and thats important because in just a few verses he will tell Peter that he will deny him three time before the rooster crows.
But this isn’t enough for Peter.
Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”
He loves Jesus. He has left everything for Jesus. He has followed him everywhere for the past three years.
In fact, this seems to stand in contrast with what Jesus has previously told Peter and the disciples.
Follow Me. This is what Jesus told them before, but now Jesus must go alone, although the reason he goes alone now is so that they can follow him later.
Peter even appeals to his own dedication and his heart.
But Peter will show that he is not as dedicated as he thought
I will lay down my life for you.
This is ironic in a few ways.
Jesus immediately calls him out and points out the irony.
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.
It is ironic that the one claiming such dedication, will deny Jesus three times before the next morning.
It is also ironic that Peter says that he will lay down his life for Jesus.
Nope, I hear you Peter, but Jesus will be the one doing that. Peter’s denial shows that Christ is the only one who will lay down his life.
It also shows us that even Peter, a self proclaimed hero. will need a Savior.
T
The final piece of irony here is that Peter will indeed lay down his life.
But instead of it being for Jesus, it will be because Jesus laid down his life for him.
Peter will be crucified upside down because he does not consider himself worthy to die in the same fashion as his Savior.
This has obviously upset the disciples.
Their leader.
The one who called them to drop everything and follow him has just told them that they cant follow him any longer, but Jesus loves these disciples.
The end of chapter 13 moves seamlessly in to chapter 14. This really is an unfortunate chapter break.
Same conversation.
Same time.
Just hours before Jesus will be arrested. and these are his parting words.
He will not leave them in the dark. in fact for any believer and genuine follower of Christ, we have the same God who makes known to us his plans and purposes so that we can have hope for the future.
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
Jesus is about to go to the cross, face the agony of death and crucifixion, and have the wrath of God poured out on him, and he is still the one comforting His disciples.
We see his compassion.
We see his confidence.
And desires that they be confident in Him as well.
God does what He says. He urges them to let their heart not be troubled.
Believe God. Believe Christ.
He’s got this.
We been studying in Exodus....
God does what he says.
What a confidence we can have.
And here is what our confidence is in.
Look in verse 2
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
hear me out: This is probably the best translation here for this verse.
In my Father’s House, there are many dwelling places.
I know that many of your bibles will translate that word MANSIONS here, but just look at the sentence and see what makes more sense. In the house there are big houses? In the house, there are many dwelling places?
The point here though in this verse is less about the structure of our dwelling place and more about the location and the relationship of our dwelling place.
The promise Jesus is giving here is that we will be restored back into pure and true fellowship with God.
This is the whole purpose of Creation.
God created man for a relationship with him.
He created the Garden for intimate fellowship with Him.
When that was broken, He vowed to bring them back through the destruction of the Serpent.
He then set up the tabernacle system so that everywhere the Israelites would travel, they would take God’s tent and place in in the center of the camp.
He then set a more permanent system up when they got into Jerusalem with the building of the temple.
All of which pointed forward to Jesus, who would come and literally dwell with us in the earth, and who according to this passage will secure our dwelling place with him forever.
The whole point of salvation is that we have been saved from our sin so that we can now be back in fellowship with a Holy God.
This is about us being with Him.
And one day we will experience the reality of this truth.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,
This was the goal and it is the goal, and it will be our forever reality.
Jesus going to prepare a place for us begins with his death. His preparation of our dwelling place continues with His resurrection, and it will be made complete when He comes in glory to get His children.
Keep in mind here, His preparing a place for us is not Jesus with a hammer and a nail up in Heaven. (Finishing up your mansion)This is the SAME Jesus who spoke the world into existence.
What Jesus is saying here is that he is going to secure our dwelling place with God that was once forfeited by our Father Adam. He is bringing us back to the tree of life. Our relationship restored.
Enemies are now reconciled friends.
Slaves in bondage to sin are free.
Those excluded from the tree of life will now eat freely, because Jesus went to prepare.
But Jesus is not just going and leaving them or us forever. He leaves them with a promise of His return.
He is coming as well.
Look in verse 3
“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
Here is our clear promise that Jesus will return for His people.
If he goes, and he went, he will come back, and when He comes, he will come to get his bride.
Thats the whole point as we said earlier.
Thats the reason he came.
That is the reason we are created, and it will happen.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.
1 thessalonians 4:14-18
That where I am, you may be also.
The beautiful part of this passage is that.
We see the broken hearts of the disciples because their Lord is leaving them, but He leaves them so that he can go a secure their dwelling place with Him forever, and Jesus assures them that they know this way.
“And you know the way where I am going.”
Jesus
The disciples knew the way.
When Every one else left, remember what Peter said
Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.
Jesus spent His whole ministry showing them the way.
Everything he had done, they had seen. They know him. They love him. They trust Him.
but Thomas needs to be told this.
Look in verse 5
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
Um Jesus, we don’t know what you are talking about.
We don’t know where you are going.
You say you are going to prepare a place for us and your coming back…
I don’t get it.
How do we know the way?
In other words: How do we get to where you are talking about?
Jesus graciously reminds Thomas, that he knows the way and he knows him intimately.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
The The The…
I am the way-
The only way of salvation.
Not a way. The way.
This is what we call a definite article.
Jesus is not a way among many. He is the way.
All other ways lead somewhere, but only the way leads to eternal life.
He is The truth.
The only truth.
not a truth. The truth.
Jesus is not a truth among many. he is the truth.
People may claim many things to be true, but the truth is Christ.
He is the way because he is the truth. Nothing else is the way, because nothing else give to us salvation truth.
He is the Life, and He is the way because he is the life.
and if he wasn’t clear enough for Thomas or for us, look what he says next.
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 14
no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Not a life. the Life.
no one comes to the Father but through me.
He is not a life among many. He is the life.
Not a Buddhist.
Many try to come othjer ways, but all roads exceot Christ lead to Hell.
Not a Muslim.
Not a
Many try to come on the road of religion.
Many try to come on the road of good works.
Every other way, is the opposite of Christ.
Those ways are lies. They aren’t the truth.
Those wars are death. They do not end in life.