An Issue of Openness that Leads to Fruitfulness...

This week, we have been looking at asection of Jesus final conversation with His closest followers before His death, which is recorded for us in John 14. Tuesday, we saw Jesus, in His final words to His closest followers, reveal a timeless promise for His followers in that Jesus last words promise His followers an eternal connection.  Just as it was for the disciples, Jesus promise to His followers is that our confident trust in Him will provide an eternal connection in the relationship with God we were created for. Jesus promises that He will reveal Himself and connect Himself in an intimate relationship with whoever places their confident trust in Him.

Today, we will see Jesus provide a word picture of this reality to the disciples in John 15:1. Let’s look at it together:

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. "You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

Now to understand the word picture that Jesus is painting here, we first need to understand something about vines and how they grow. You see, vinedressers who grow grapes understand that pruning is necessary for any vine if it is going to bear fruit. And vinedressers understand that dead wood is dangerous for the vine, as dead wood can harbor disease and decay. And because of that reality, in verse 2 Jesus explains that the gardener removes everything that is not a true branch that would bear fruit.  

You see, just because a person professes that they are a follower of Jesus, that does not mean that they are a follower of Jesus. Just as a branch that produces no fruit is obviously dead, it is the results that are produced in our lives, not our profession, that serves as proof of our salvation

In addition, a vinedresser understands that an untrimmed vine will develop long rambling branches that produce little fruit because most of the strength of the vine is given to growing wood instead of fruit. And because the vinedresser is concerned that the vine be healthy and productive, they will prune the vine so that it can bear more fruit.

Jesus uses this word picture to explain that God removes the dead wood from his church and is at work in the life of followers of Jesus so that they will reveal and reflect Christ in their day to day lives. And the message and teachings of Jesus are the means by which He works in our lives to prune and clean away areas of our lives so that we can be more fruitful.  

The issue that Jesus is primarily concerned with in this word picture is the issue is fruitfulness, not salvation. We see Jesus reveal this reality as He continues to unpack this word picture in verse 4:

 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

Jesus commands the disciples to abide in Him. Jesus is commanding the disciples, and followers of Jesus throughout history to remain connected to Jesus. Jesus then reveals the reason behind His command: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me”.

You see, the issue for Jesus is fruitfulness. The issue for Jesus is that His followers reveal and reflect Him. And to reveal and reflect Jesus we must remain connected to Him, because as Jesus makes unmistakably clear in verse 5, apart from Me you can do nothing. In other words, we are unable to reveal and reflect Christ in a way that advances His kingdom and makes much of Him apart from remaining connected with Him.

Now for a long time, I viewed the idea of abiding or remaining connected with Jesus as though I had to chase Jesus around and suck the life out of Him.  There was once a pastor who worked with college students who said that to abide in Jesus, we as Christians needed to be sap suckers. He further stated that for us to grow and bear fruit for Jesus, we as Christians needed to latch on to Jesus and suck out the sap that He has for us.

Well, after the pastor finished his talk, a student who majored in botany, which is the study of plants, came up to him. The pastor said hello, to which the college students said “You’re wrong”. The pastor, taken aback, said “How am I wrong”? The student then replied, “that’s not how plants feed. You see, through the process of homeostasis, the branches don’t suck the sap out of the vine, the vine forces its nutrients into the branches”.

Now think about that for a second. How does that impact how you view remaining in Christ? As Christians, we don’t need to suck the life out of Jesus, like that is even possible. The image that Jesus is conveying to His disciples and us today is one of openness. Just as a vine forces life and nutrients into the branches to cause growth, Jesus wants to pour Himself into us so that we can grow and bear fruit for Him. What Jesus is asking us to do by remaining in Him is to simply be open to receive from Jesus what He wants to pour into us.

Think about the idea of God as the gardener that prunes the branches so that they bear more fruit. What happens when you prune or cut back a branch? Is the opening where I cut bigger or smaller? It’s bigger. When God prunes and cleans us through His word, He makes us more open to receive what Jesus desires to pour into us. Jesus desires that we remain connected to Him so that He can pour Himself into us so that we reveal and reflect Him in our character and conduct in a way that enables us to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal Himself to the world. Jesus unpacks this for us in verse 7:

 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. "My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. "These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

As we remain connected to Jesus and open ourselves to allow Jesus to pour Himself into us, Jesus explains that we will reveal and reflect Christ by producing the fruit that reveals our relationship with Jesus. We will pray in a way that is focused on bearing fruit for God and making much of God. And God will respond to the prayer that is focused on accomplishing the mission of God in a way that advances God’s kingdom and makes much of God.

God enters into such a life in a way that we experience the love of God and the joy that comes from being connected with God. And we will experience that love and that joy because Jesus last words promise His followers an eternal connection.

So here are some questions to consider: Are you connected to God? Have you come to the place where you have placed your confident trust in Jesus as God in a bod, who is the way, the truth and the source of forgiveness and the life in the relationship with God that you were created for?

Are you a follower of Jesus and yet feel disconnected from God? If that is you, here is the question: who moved? Could it be that the reason that you feel disconnected from God is because you have not allowed God to prune you so that you would be more open for what God wants to do in and through you through Jesus?

Jesus last words promise His followers an eternal connection...

This week, we are looking at a section of the final conversation that Jesus had with His closest followers before His death, which is recorded for us in John 14. Yesterday, we saw Jesus explain to His disturbed and confused disciples that He was the way that one could experience the relationship with God that they were created for, but had been separated from as a result of selfishness and rebellion. You see, up to this point, the twelve disciples had not fully grasped the full significance of who Jesus was. The disciples had not fully wrapped their minds around who Jesus was and how He was connected and related to God. However, Jesus explains to the disciples that would change.

Today, as this conversation continued, Jesus would continue to blow up their categories when it came to who He was and how He was connected to God. Jesus begins to demolish their categories as another of the disciples asks a question in verse 8:

 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father,

 and it is enough for us."

In other words, Phillip asks “Jesus all you have to do is take us to God and we will be good. So, Jesus, just take us to God already, then things will be clear”. We see Jesus response in verse 9:

 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father '?  "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.

In other words, Jesus says “Phillip, where have you been these past three years? How is it that you have not come to the knowledge that I am God. Phillip, I am God in a bod. You see Phillip, I do not need to take you to God, because I am God who has come to you to reveal and explain myself to you.” When Jesus uses the phrase “I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me” Jesus is revealing the reality that He is God in a bod.

Jesus Christ is the second member of the Triune God. Jesus has the same nature and essence as God the Father. Jesus then backs His statement by explaining that His message and teachings are not of His own initiative. In other words, Jesus is not coming up with what He is saying. Instead, it is God the Father abiding in Me that initiates both His message and His miracles. Now when Jesus uses the word abide here, this word means to not leave a certain sphere of existence, to remain connected.

Jesus here is revealing the reality that He and God the Father are distinct but inseparably related and connected with one another. That is why earlier in the gospel of John, in John 1:18, John stated that the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. Jesus came to earth to reveal and explain God to humanity and to rescue humanity from their selfishness and rebellion. And the disciples had not fully grasped and wrapped their minds around that reality. And there was something else that the disciples needed to wrap their minds around, which Jesus reveals for them in verse 12:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

Here we see Jesus reveal two amazing truths to His closest followers. First, Jesus explains that those who place their confident trust in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel will accomplish more to advance God’s kingdom here on earth than Jesus did while here on earth. Now a natural question that arises here is “how can that be?” Jesus point here is that His followers would have a greater impact in terms of the extent and effect to advance His kingdom here on earth.

Think of it this way. At the time of Jesus death, how many followers of Jesus were there on earth? In the book of Acts we read that there were 120 followers of Jesus huddled in hiding in Jerusalem after His death. How many churches were there at the time of Jesus death? None.

As a result of Jesus going to God the Father in Heaven, the church was born and followers of Jesus were equipped and empowered to advance His kingdom to a greater extent that Jesus did during His time on earth. Just as Jesus was the vehicle that God used to reveal Himself to the world, followers of Jesus would be the vehicle that He would use to reveal Himself around the world. Second, Jesus explains that whatever you ask in My name, that I will do.

Unfortunately some in the prosperity gospel movement take this verse to advocate a “name it and claim it mentality” when it comes to prayer. In other words, if I just have enough faith, I can ask God for anything and He will give it to me.

The problem with that view however, is that Jesus is not saying that here. Notice what Jesus says here: "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Now the word glorified means to cause to have splendid greatness. In other words, to glorify is to make much of someone in a way that makes one great.

Jesus point is that God will respond to the prayer that is focused on accomplishing the mission of God in a way that advances God’s kingdom and makes much of God. God enters into the prayer that asks for the ability to accomplish God’s kingdom mission in a way the reveals and reflects the attitude and actions of Jesus.

Jesus is encouraging the disciples to understand that just because He is leaving, that does not mean that the message and mission is changing. Just as Jesus was the vehicle that God used to reveal Himself to the world, followers of Jesus would be the vehicle that He would use to reveal Himself around the world. And a few verses later, in John 14:18, we see Jesus continue to engage His confused and disturbed followers with an amazing promise:

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. "After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."

Now imagine yourself as a disciple. Earlier Jesus stated that where He was going that they could not come. Then Jesus says that they know the way where He is going. Now Jesus says, I will come to you. So which is it? “Jesus, I’m confused. So, are you going or are you coming? When are you going and coming? What do you mean that the world will no longer see you but we will see you? And because I live, you will live also? What are you talking about?”

While the disciples were confused, Jesus was not confused. While the disciples were not fully aware that just a few hours later, Jesus would be arrested, tried, and crucified, which would result in His death and burial, Jesus was fully aware of what was in store. And Jesus wanted the disciples to know that after His death, the world at large would no longer see Him.

However, after Jesus was raised from the dead, He would come to them. Jesus wanted the disciples to know that because God would bring Jesus back to life to never die again, that His followers would also be able to experience eternal life in the relationship with God that they were created for. Jesus wanted to let the disciples know that the resurrection would serve to prove that Jesus was who He said He was as God in a bod.

Then Jesus makes an amazing statement. Jesus explains that the person who takes ownership of the message and teachings of Jesus in the core of their being and who strives to follow the message and teachings of Jesus, reveals the reality of their love for Jesus. Because, as we discovered last week, love is a verb. Love is proved through our actions.

And for the person who loves Jesus, Jesus makes an amazing promise: “he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." In other words, Jesus promises that He will love and reveal Himself to the one who loves Him. Now this leads to another question from another disciple. We see that question in verse 22:

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?"

Judas basically asks, “what about everybody else?” What happened to the mission? What has changed that you are only going to reveal yourself to us?” Jesus answers that question in verse 23:

Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

Jesus answer, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would sound something like this: “The mission has not changed. If anyone, red, yellow, black, or white; young or old; if anyone loves Me; anyone who strives to follow the message and teachings of Jesus, reveals the reality of their love for Me. And anyone who loves Me, my Father will love, because whoever loves Me loves My Father. And we will come to anyone who loves Me and stay with them forever. The person who loves Me will live and remain connected in relationship with Me permanently.

And it is here that we see Jesus, in His final words to His closest followers, reveal a timeless promise for His followers. And that timeless promise is this: Jesus last words promise His followers an eternal connection.  Just as it was for the disciples, Jesus promise to His followers is that our confident trust in Him will provide an eternal connection in the relationship with God we were created for. Jesus promises that He will reveal Himself and connect Himself in an intimate relationship with whoever places their confident trust in Him.

Thursday, we will see Jesus provide a word picture of this reality to the disciples…

Confused and Disturbed...

In the weeks leading up to Easter, we are looking at the final conversation that Jesus had with His closest followers before His death, which is recorded for us in an account of Jesus life in our Bibles called the gospel of John. This week I would like for us to jump back into the final conversation that Jesus had with His followers. To help us jump back into this conversation, I would like for us to try to place ourselves in the disciple’s shoes. 

Imagine yourself as a disciple. Jesus has basically told you that He is leaving and that where He is going, you cannot follow Him. Sure Jesus just commanded you to love one another, but that does not change the fact that He is still leaving. You left everything, family, friends, career, in order to follow Jesus.

And if that was not bad enough, when Peter, who is the leader of your group, asks Jesus why He cannot follow Him and tells Jesus that he would die for Him, Jesus replied by saying that Peter was going to deny that he even knew Jesus. And that Peter would not deny that he knew Jesus one time. Jesus told Peter that he would deny knowing Him three times.

Now what would you be thinking and feeling? “What! What do you mean that we cannot follow you? We left everything to follow you. We leveraged everything to follow you.” As a disciple, your world has been turned upside down. Place yourself in the shoes of one of the disciples. Let’s walk together in those shoes as we see what Jesus has to say next, beginning in John 14:1:

            "Do not let your heart be troubled;

To which the disciples were probably thinking to themselves “that’s easy for you to say. It’s easy for you to tell us that we should not be disturbed at what we have just heard because you are the one who is bailing on us, while we are the ones who are left behind”.

believe in God, believe also in Me. "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. "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. "And you know the way where I am going."

Jesus explains to the disciples that instead of being disturbed, they should believe in Jesus words. Now when Jesus uses the word believe here, this word is the same word that is also translated trust in our English Bibles. This word literally means to entrust oneself with complete confidence in someone or something. Jesus is saying “You need to trust Me. Just as you are to place your confident trust in God, you need to place your confident trust in Me”.

Jesus then provides the reason why they were to place their confident trust in Him: ^“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. "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.”

Now the disciples had heard this kind of language before. You see, in Jesus day, this language was used to describe what would happen in a wedding. After becoming engaged, the bridegroom would then go and prepare a place for he and his wife to live, with his family. The bridegroom would basically build an addition on his parent’s house for them to live in. After the addition was completed, bridegroom would then come back in a loud parade-like celebration that would stop at the bride’s house, where they would have the wedding ceremony and reception. The bridegroom would pick the bride up, and take her to be with his family.

When Jesus uses the phrase “receive you to myself”, this phrase literally means to take someone into a close association with oneself. Jesus is saying “I am going to take you to myself”. Now imagine yourself as a disciple. Jesus is using language of getting married, but Jesus does not have a girlfriend. And besides, He is not talking about marrying a girl. Instead, He is talking about you. Jesus has just told you that His Father’s house has many dwelling places and that He is going to prepare a place for you to be able to live in a close intimate association with Him. And if that was not enough, Jesus says that you know the way to His Father’s house. What would you be thinking? We see what Thomas was thinking in verse 5:

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?"

In this question, we see Thomas reveal the confusion that the disciples were feeling. Imagine yourself as Thomas. Earlier Jesus stated that where He was going that they could not come; now Jesus is saying that they know the way where He is going? So which is it? “Jesus, I’m confused. So, can I or can’t I come with you? Jesus, how am I supposed to know the way, when you have never told us the way you are going? And where are you going?”

You see, Thomas, as the rest of the disciples are thinking of a literal road to a literal house where they never have been, so how are they supposed to know the way there. Jesus, however, is talking about something all together different, as we see in His response in verse 6:

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him."

You see, Jesus was not talking about an earthly way to an earthly house. Instead Jesus was talking about the way that one could experience the relationship with God that they were created for, but had been separated from as a result of selfishness and rebellion. Jesus is saying “I am the way of life; I am the source and embodiment of truth; I am the source by which you can experience forgiveness and the relationship with God that you were created for forever.

And there is only way to experience that forgiveness and relationship. No one comes to experience that forgiveness and relationship with God apart from placing their trust in Me. You need to trust Me. Just as you are to place your confident trust in God, you need to place your confident trust in Me. If you really understood who I was as both life and the source of life, you would really understand who God was”.

You see, up to this point, the twelve disciples had not fully grasped the full significance of who Jesus was. The disciples had not fully wrapped their minds around who Jesus was and how He was connected and related to God. However, Jesus explains to the disciples that would change. As this conversation continued, Jesus would continue to blow up their categories when it came to who He was and how He was connected to God.

Tomorrow, we will see Jesus begin to demolish their categories…

Jesus last words command us to prove our love for God by loving one another...

In the 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. Wednesday, we looked on as, at the very time when the Jewish people were celebrating God’s past deliverance from an evil nation; at the very moment that you think He is going to kick out the Romans, Jesus turns to you and basically says “I love you guys, you are my spiritual children, but I am only here for a little while and then I am out of here. And while you are going to look for Me, just like I said to the self righteous religious people who oppose Me, I say to you guys as well, you can’t follow Me where I am going. I am leaving and you cannot follow”.

Now today, here is a question: how would you have responded? What would you be thinking and feeling? What words would describe what would be happening in you as a disciple? Confused. Frustrated. Betrayed. Hurt. Rejected. “What! What do you mean that we cannot follow you? We left everything to follow you. We leveraged everything to follow you.” And it is in this context that we see Jesus make an amazing statement that reveals for us a timeless truth about how we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus. So let’s look at that statement together in John 13:34:

 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another,

Now when Jesus states “a new commandment I give to you” it is not that God had not commanded the Jewish people to love one another. In the Old Testament, the Jewish people were commanded to love one another. And you had heard Jesus say that the most important thing that matters to God is that we love God with our total being and love our neighbor as ourselves. So why does Jesus say that this is a new commandment? How does this commandment make the disciples feel any better about the fact that Jesus is about to leave them? And how are we supposed to love one another?

I mean, can you imagine the disciples? “O.K. Jesus, you just told us that you are bailing on us and then you give us this new command to love one another. Jesus I got a question? What do you mean we are supposed to love one another? How are we supposed to love one another? What did we miss? Jesus provides that answer with the very next phrase:

even as I have loved you, that you also love

one another.

Even as I have loved you, you also love one another? So we are to love others in the way that you have loved us? Yup. You see, Jesus knew something that the disciples did not know. As the disciple’s heads and hearts were awash with questions and raw emotion as a result of Jesus statement that He was leaving, Jesus knew the plan. Jesus knew that the plan was for Him, just a few hours later, to be arrested by a mob that was led by Judas, who had betrayed Him. Jesus knew that He was about to allow Himself to be treated as though He lived our selfish and sinful lives so that God the Father could treat us as though we lived Jesus perfect life.

You see, this is Thursday night and tomorrow would be Good Friday, where Jesus would be crucified. And Jesus knew that three days later the plan would be that He would be raised from the dead. Jesus knew that, 50 days after His resurrection, these disciples would gather together in a room where God would move in a supernatural way to create the new community called the church. And this new community called the church would be the vehicle that God would use the reveal His love to the world. This is why Jesus says the following in John 13:35:

 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples,

   if you have love for one another."

Notice what Jesus did not say. Jesus did not say "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love the right doctrine and theology." Jesus did not say "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for the ideas about God." Jesus did not say "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love doing things for God in order to earn favor with God." That is not what Jesus said. Instead, Jesus said that all men, in other words all humanity, whether religious or irreligious, whether near or far from God, would arrive at the conclusion that you are a disciple; that you are a follower of Jesus who knows and does what Jesus knows and does, by your love for one another.

And it is here that we see Jesus, in His final words to His closest followers, reveal a timeless truth for His followers. And that timeless truth is this: Jesus last words command us to prove our love for God by loving one another. Just as it was for the disciples, we prove our love for God by loving one another. You see love is a verb. And we prove our love for God by loving one another.

The church has been divinely designed by God to be the vehicle that He uses to reveal His love to the world. And God’s love is most clearly revealed when followers of Jesus love one another. When followers of Jesus love one another like Jesus loves; selflessly, sacrificially, with our total being, we experience genuine and authentic community that is a word picture of the love of God to the world.

And it is that word picture that provides the opportunity for people to not simply hear about the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. It is that word picture that provides the opportunity to experience the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. And you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, here is the question: What does your love for one another prove about your love for God? Because Jesus last words command us to prove our love for God by loving one another. So how are you doing? How are we doing?

You see, while those who do not consider themselves a follower of Jesus are off the hook, if you are a follower of Jesus, this is not a suggestion. Instead this is a command, a mandate. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are to prove your love for God by loving one another, even as Jesus loved you.

So how are you doing?

Say What?

In the 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. Yesterday, we talked about the reality that the first thing that Jesus did as He began sharing His message and teachings was to choose twelve men to be His disciples. And 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 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 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.

And as Jesus, a descendant of King David, entered into Jerusalem, 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. As Jesus and the disciples sat down to celebrate the Passover meal, Jesus proclaimed, out of the blue, that one of them was going to betray Him. Then Judas, one of the disciples, had this weird conversation with Jesus and got up and left in the middle of the celebration. And if that was not confusing enough, as they began to celebrate the Passover meal, Jesus did not follow the script. Instead, Jesus took the unleavened bread and said “this is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me”.

Then Jesus took the wine and went off the script again. Jesus made an incredibly strange statement: "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." To which the disciples probably thought to themselves “what is Jesus doing?” What does all this mean?” And it is in this context that Jesus begins His final conversation with His closest followers. A conversation that begins in John 13:31. Let’s look at it together:

Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.

Now this morning, imagine yourself as one of the twelve disciples. Place yourself in the room. You watch Judas get up and leave in the middle of the Passover celebration. And then, after Judas leaves, Jesus changes the script of the Passover meal that you had celebrated since you can remember. Then Jesus says "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” What would you be thinking? What questions would be running through your mind?

If you have grown up in church or have attended church before, or even if you are here and you are not sure that you buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing, you are at least somewhat familiar with the story of Jesus. But the disciples here are in the middle of the story; they do not know how the story ends.

I don’t know about you, but a natural question that arises here is “why is Jesus talking in the third person here? Why is Jesus referring to Himself as the Son of Man? What is that all about? When Jesus refers to Himself as the Son of Man, Jesus is using the phrase to identify Himself with the promised Messiah that was predicted and proclaimed in Daniel 7:13. While the disciples were very familiar with Daniel what 7:13 said, many of us today are not familiar with what Daniel 7:13 says. So here is what Daniel, over 500 years before the birth of Jesus, said about the Messiah:

"I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. "And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

So when Jesus says that He is the Son of Man, He is identifying Himself as the Messiah that had come from God as God in a bod to usher in the kingdom of Heaven here on earth. Jesus was proclaiming that now, as Judas had left, that events were now being brought into motion that would cause Jesus to be seen in His splendid greatness and would cause God to be seen in His splendid greatness through what Jesus was about to do.

And what Jesus was about to do that would cause this glory, this splendid greatness that would make much of Jesus and would make much of God through Jesus, was happening immediately. What was going to go down through Jesus as the Messiah was going to go down now. So, as far as the disciples are concerned, Jesus is going to kick the Romans out and bring the Jewish people back to power and prominence in the world. That is until Jesus says the following John 13:33:

 "Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'

Now you are one of the disciples. You have heard your whole life that there was going to be a Messiah who would come to bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. Then Jesus shows up and asks you to follow Him as His disciple. And there is something about Jesus that causes you to leave everything to follow Him.

So you leave everything, family, friends, career, and you follow Jesus. You see Jesus do the miraculous. You hear Jesus teach amazing things about God. You hear Jesus call God His Father and claim that He was equal to God. You hear Jesus proclaim that He was the Messiah. And you believe it. You are willing to go all the way with Jesus as He delivers the Jewish people from the Roman Empire and brings God’s kingdom here on earth.

And then Jesus, at the very time when the Jewish people were celebrating God’s past deliverance from an evil nation; at the very moment that you think He is going to kick out the Romans, Jesus turns to you and basically says “I love you guys, you are my spiritual children, but I am only here for a little while and then I am out of here. And while you are going to look for Me, just like I said to the self righteous religious people who oppose Me, I say to you guys as well, you can’t follow Me where I am going. I am leaving and you cannot follow”.

How would you respond? What would you be thinking and feeling? What words would describe what would be happening in you as a disciple? Confused. Frustrated. Betrayed. Hurt. Rejected. “What! What do you mean that we cannot follow you? We left everything to follow you. We leveraged everything to follow you.” And it is in this context that we see Jesus make an amazing statement that reveals for us a timeless truth about how we are to live our lives as followers of Jesus.

Friday, we will look at this statement…

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…

Timeless Advice Regarding Love and Lasting Relationships...

This week we are talking about a timeless truth that is often minimized and ignored when it comes to love and lasting relationships. Yesterday, we looked at Proverbs 14:15 and discovered that love and lasting relationships require preparation. In order to experience love and lasting relationships, we must prepare ourselves to become the right person.

In order to experience love and lasting relationships, we must prepare ourselves so that the course, conduct, and consequences of our lives produce committed and lasting relationships. We discovered that our commitments are only as good as our preparation to keep those commitments. Wednesday, we answered some common questions to help you prepare for the future as you strive to become the right person that the person you are looking for is looking for.

Today, I would like to give some timeless advice to help you prepare for the future as you strive to become the right person that the person you are looking for is looking for. Here is piece of advice when it comes to love and lasting relationships: Deal with your single person problems before you get married. As we have previously discussed, no one on the planet has marriage problems. Married people have single people problems and now they are married.

You see, the reason why people have marriage problems is because marriage only enhances the strengths and weaknesses that you had when you were single. You will have a problem being honest or being faithful in your marriage because you had a problem with honesty or faithfulness when you were single. You will not have marriage problems; you will have single people problems and now you are married. So deal with your single people problems before you get married.

In addition, deal with your debt so that you are debt free. The number one cause of stress in marriage and divorce stems from financial problems. That is why at the church where I serve, we spend an entire session in premarital counseling on finances. That is why couples have a budget as part of their premarital counseling process. And this is another single people problem.

If you dating a person who has significant debt issues, do not marry them until they deal with their debt problem. If they say to you, well we need to get married because you will help me be a better person and get out of debt, two things are going to happen. A, your credit score will be destroyed, and B, you will be a babysitter instead of a spouse.

If you tell the person who wants to marry you that you will not marry them until they deal with their debt problem, one of two things will happen. Either they will do whatever it takes, even if it means moving back in with their parents in order to get out of debt because they love you and are committed to being with you. Or they will blow it off, which reveals a great deal about their commitment and lack of preparation to make a commitment.

Also, delay the physical aspect of your relationship as long as possible. Now I am not simply talking about sex. I am talking about any of the physical aspects of the relationship. Do not allow the physical to cloud the preparation. Delay the physical to the point that the person would even wonder if you are interested. Then you can so “Oh yeah, I am interested, but I am waiting for the right time and the right place.”

In addition, do not live together. Now for some of you, you are thinking “well of course he is going to say that, he is a pastor. So do not take my word for it. Instead you can go ahead and Google all of the research, both secular and religious and see for yourself what the results say, which is that living together does no result in lasting relationships. In fact, the research shows that living together does the opposite.

You see, men and women tend to view living together from two totally different perspectives. While women often view living together a step toward commitment, men often view living together as an opportunity to try it out so they can get out of the commitment, if necessary.

And finally, I would like to say something to non-Christians this morning. Non-Christians, do not date a Christian unless you want to become one. If you are not a Christian, here is the thing, your boyfriend or girlfriend has an agenda. And that agenda is that they want you to become a Christian. Here is how I know that is the case; they are always inviting you to church.

And if you are a non-Christian and your Christian boyfriend and girlfriend is sleeping with you, you should definitely not date them, because they are a hypocrite, and you do not like Christians because they are hypocrites, so you should not be dating him or her.

So what piece of advice is most helpful? Most convicting?