It has been awhile since I have written but my recent journey through the book of John has inspired me to write again. I did not expect to get as much out of this book as I did. It’s amazing what you can capture from the Bible when the Holy Spirit illuminates what you are reading. All of chapters 14 and 15 stood out in ways that I had not discovered before. I will probably break this down into two or three writings so I do not rush through and miss what I think is important. It is not like me to write about the feel good part of the Bible because I think the feel good health and wealth name it and claim it gospel has saturated the church enough. So rest easy there is some meat here but these two chapters are extremely comforting for the nomadic believer struggling through this world. I’m not sure how far I will get but I’m going to start with verses 1-3.
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And 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.”
What a beautiful and soothing statement for the believer. This is a verse that has been used frequently in the church today and rightfully so. However, if you search the gospels you will see that the Lord speaks through parables and does not speak in a straight forward manner to anyone except those that truly follow him. I mention that because this is a rare occurrence when Jesus is this candid when describing the glory that awaits His disciples when they get to heaven. So this is significant that He is issuing these comforting statements to His inner circle of disciples and there is reason for this. I’m not going to get into this next point in depth I just want to give it to you as a side note. All of 14 and most of 15 are very straight forward and comforting words from Jesus to his disciples (not as common as you would think in the gospels.) In chapter 16:1 (read it on your own time) Jesus tells them what they will face as far as persecution when He returns to heaven. Essentially He is giving them a picture of what the prize is before He issues the bad news of what is to come before that prize. Remember that Jesus himself endures all of the persecution while on this earth, but He is preparing His disciples for greater responsibility after He ascends to the Father in heaven.
I just thought it was important to make that point briefly so that you could get a picture of why Jesus was saying this and what He is preparing His disciples for. Now let’s get back to the comfort and excitement of what is to come that this chapter shows us. I want to jump ahead to verse 12 that says,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works then these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
It sounds blasphemous that His disciples will do greater things then He did. Jesus also said that the servant is not greater then the master, so what are we to make of this. After all isn’t the greatest of all to die for the sins of the world, how can we compare to that. Well, clearly because we are sinners we cannot so this must mean something else. If you fast forward to Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 where 3,000 were saved and before Peter and John were imprisoned 5,000 were saved. Wow! Has anyone seen that kind of fruit in that short of a period of time!? The day of Pentecost also fulfilled a prophecy in Joel which states:
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh : Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on MY maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath; Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness. And the moon into blood. Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
In light of all of this we can conclude that the Lord through the Holy Spirit is telling us that through Him we can do all things. So at first it seems like blasphemy to say that we will do greater things then Jesus and ultimately we didn’t because His death on the cross is what opened up all of this to be, so even our works are through Him. So what I think this is saying is that in this world the Holy Spirit (third equal part of the triune God) now working with the Father and Son with all power can bear much more fruit. Therefore the passage in John is stating that through this power we can bear much more fruit as far as salvation of souls now then before Jesus’ resurrection. We are blessed with access to the full power Christ with more revelation of Him then any other people in all of human history, what a privilege! All of the Old Testament was pointing to Jesus coming as the Messiah to set His people free and He accomplished that task (although not how we thought He would). Therefore all power that can be available this side of heaven is available to all believers more then ever before. Why? Because the scripture has said so! A lot of this has been espoused from pulpits all around the world and with all of the churches around and all of this power and anointing available to the believer why is the world in such shambles?
The answer to that question and many others lies in John 14 verses 15,21,23 and 24. Here in these verses you will find word that sends the modern day church into a tailspin of accusations towards someone who dares to bring it up. That word is obedience and it is not talked about enough in our Christian circles. The bible has plenty to say about it in the Old and New Testaments of scripture. So let’s break this down.
Verse 15, “If you love me keep my commandments.”
Verse 21a, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me….”
Verse 23a, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word;…”
Verse24a, “He who does not love Me does not keep my words,….”
All of these verses are right after all the promises that we have talked about above. People seem to miss this when we talk about miracles, healings, and God’s love. It is clear that the Lord will not dispense all that He is to an unbelieving man. These things great blessings are only reserved for the true followers of Christ, not Christians in name only and certainly not the unbelieving world.
Here is where people start saying that I am discussing a works based merit system. As if God is waiting on you to obey enough so that He can dispense blessings. Not at all! Ephesians 2:8-9 is clear that salvation is grace and grace alone. That grace is in fact the beginning point of salvation and if it were not so no one would be saved ever! However when we talk about grace it is not cheap grace where you walk to the front of the church make an emotional acceptance of Jesus as your savior and then remain unchanged. Not so, grace is sufficient to sustain you and powerful enough to change you. Therefore obedience is a response to grace based upon an attitude of gratitude towards the Lord. This means that in the beginning you are compelled because you have to and when the Lord changes areas of your life you have the blessing of wanting to obey Him!
I thought it was necessary to briefly submit that disclaimer (again! For those that have read some of my writings before.) My point is that if you want the blessings you will never get them, but if you have been changed and now you want to know the risen Lord you already have the heavenly blessings and the earthly works will soon follow. More on this in the next writing, I’m outta here!
