What will be the most significant conversation that you will have with those whom you love?

As we approach Easter, what I find so interesting is that virtually no one denies that Jesus existed. Both secular and religious historians agree that Jesus was a historical person. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote a non-biblical historical account in the first century A.D. that substantiated that Jesus did live and was said to be the Christos, or Messiah. In addition, the Roman historian Tacitus refers to the death of Jesus by crucifixion at the hands of Pontius Pilate and the existence or early Christians in his historical work, the Annals, which was written within 80 years of Jesus death. 

 

You see, the vast majority of scholars believe that Jesus was a real person in real time. And the vast majority of people, across continents and cultures, across various religious systems, believe that Jesus was a good moral teacher that had many great things to say about life.

 

Where people differ when it comes to Jesus is not about His life; where people differ when it comes to Jesus is not about His death; where people differ when it comes to Jesus is whether or not He was raised from the dead. Throughout history, humanity has disagreed as to whether Jesus was really brought back to life and lives for all eternity as God in a bod. Human beings throughout history have been intrigued by what Jesus had to say and how Jesus lived His life.

 

And this reality provokes a question. And that question is this: of all that Jesus had to say, what was most significant? Of all of His conversations that are recorded for us in the Bible, which of those conversations would strike to the core of what Jesus desires for His followers?

 

And these questions provoke another question: What will be the most significant conversation that you will have with those whom you love? What will be the conversation where you would share what you believe those closest to you need to hear the most? And when do you think that conversation would occur?

 

Here is what I believe. I believe that the most significant conversations that occur are when a person believes that the conversation will be the last words that they will share with someone. I believe that the conversations that strike to the core of what we want those closest to us to hear and to know occur when a person believes that the conversation will be the last words that they will share with someone. There is an urgency about such a final conversation, isn’t there? There is a clarity about such a final conversation, isn’t there?

 

When we face death and are looking in the rearview mirror of our lives and at those who are closest to us, there are certain things that we feel compelled to share. We feel compelled to share our feelings. We feel compelled to share what we believe is most important when it comes to counsel or advice. And we do so because this is our last shot. We do so because this is our last opportunity to engage, to influence, to impact those closest to us.

 

And those conversations matter not only to those speaking; those conversations matter to those listening. That is why we are compelled to do whatever it takes to be a part of that conversation. That is why we can be so devastated if that last conversation does not happen. That is why we can be so impacted by that last conversation. Because those last words matter, don’t they?

 

So for these weeks leading up to Easter, we are going to look at the final conversation that Jesus had with His closest followers before His death, which are recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in our Bibles called the gospel of John. We will see Jesus share what He believed those closest to Him need to hear the most. We will see Jesus share what He believed those closest to Him need to know the most. And my hope and prayer is that God would move in our heads, our hearts, and our hands so that we would respond to Jesus final words in a way that results in us revealing and reflecting those words in our day to day lives.

 

Now to fully understand and feel the full weight of Jesus final words to His closest followers before His death, we first need to understand the context in which these final words take place. The gospel of John was written by perhaps the person who had the closest relationship with Jesus while He was on earth, a man named John. John is referred to as the disciple Jesus loved. John was Jesus best friend. The gospel of John records the life and ministry of Jesus and was written to a universal audience. Jesus began publicly proclaiming His message and teachings when He was around 30 years old.

 

The first thing that Jesus did as He began sharing His message and teachings was to choose twelve men to be His disciples. Now the word disciple does not simply refer to a student; that is too narrow a term. A better and more accurate definition of a disciple is that a disciple is a follower. A disciple is a follower that not only knows what the teacher knows; a disciple is a follower who does what the teacher does.

 

You see, that is why when Jesus chose and invited twelve to be His disciples, His invitation was simple and to the point: follow Me. The twelve disciples did not simply attend a class to learn theology and doctrine. The twelve disciples did life with Jesus. The disciples listened to Jesus as He proclaimed His message and teachings and the disciples learned what it meant to live life like Jesus.

That is why when Jesus fed 15,000 people; it was the disciples who brought the tortillas and sardines to the crowds.

 

That is why Jesus would send the twelve on short term mission trips without Him. This was not simply about academic head knowledge; this was about engaging their hearts and their hands as well as their heads. And this required that the disciples actually follow Him. This required that the disciples quit their careers as fishermen and tax collectors and leave their families behind to follow Jesus as He traveled proclaiming God’s good news of rescue through His message and teachings.

 

And that is exactly what the twelve did. The twelve left family and friends; the twelve left their careers and followed Jesus in order to know what Jesus knew and to do what Jesus was doing. For three years the disciples followed Jesus and watched His popularity soar as He taught as no one had ever taught.  For three years the disciples followed Jesus and watched His popularity soar as He did the miraculous. Healing the blind, the lame, the lepers. For three years the disciples followed Jesus and watched His popularity soar as He engaged the outsiders and challenged the insiders. And as Jesus popularity grew, there were those who began to oppose Jesus.

 

As Jesus achieved rock star status, there were those who became jealous and threatened by His popularity. And it was not just the popularity that fueled their opposition. Jesus had the audacity to call God His Father. Jesus had the audacity to claim that He was equal to God. Jesus challenged the Jewish religious system and its misguided and corrupt leaders and proclaimed that He was able to rebuild and restore that broken system in three days.

 

Jesus quickly divided the Jewish people into two groups. One group, which John referred to as the Jews, was composed of self righteous Jewish religious people who opposed the message and teachings of Jesus. Another group, however, viewed Jesus as the Messiah. And as the twelve disciples followed Jesus, they believed that they were following the Messiah. And after following Jesus for three years, Jesus and His disciples entered into Jerusalem at the height of His popularity and in the midst of increased opposition, during the week leading up to the Passover.

 

Now the Passover is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jewish people’s deliverance from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt. If you are not familiar with the story, God, through Moses, asked the Jewish people to kill an unblemished lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood. Later that evening the Lord went through the lands of Egypt and struck down all of the firstborn that lived in the land as a sign of judgment for their refusal to free the Jewish people. But when the Lord came to the houses of the Jewish people who had marked their doors with the blood of the lamb, He passed over their houses, thus the name of the holiday.

 

And the Jewish people, at the time of Jesus and the story that we are going to look at, found themselves in similar circumstances. The Jewish people were under the control of the Roman Empire and greatly desired to be freed from their control. The Jewish people also knew that God had promised them a deliverer, a redeemer, a Messiah. So the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world.

 

And now, here is Jesus, a descendant of King David, entering into Jerusalem, on the Passover, which marked their deliverance from a previous situation of oppression. As Jesus entered into Jerusalem the crowds had shouted “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. And while there seemed to be increasing opposition to Jesus, it would seem, from the disciple’s perspective, that this could be the time. This could be the time that their leader, who they believed was the Messiah, would bring God’s kingdom to earth. Things seemed to be lining up. Jesus had been fulfilling things that the prophets had predicted. There were miracles; healings; Jesus had even raised a man named Lazarus from the dead.

 

But then things got weird. Tomorrow we will look at how weird things got for the disciples…