Of the Spirit (part 18) 

To his best friends Jesus expressed his greatest wish – which was to “bring glory to his Father,” John 14:13. It must have been quite a shock to his disciples, however, to hear that he was bringing that glory to his Father through them. And perhaps an even greater shock that the means by which he’d bring glory to his Father through them was by him doing whatever they asked in his name. 

So in whatever they asked Jesus for it would tie in with Jesus’ great wish to bring glory to his Father. In other words, whatever they asked for was in love for Jesus to enable him to fulfill his wish. They were very much in this together, then, as partners with Jesus to rightfully bring glory to the Father who had planned this whole process in the first place. And it also honoured Jesus for the part he was willing to play in making it happen too. 

This was all about love, then – the Father’s love for wanting a massive family, the Father’s love for Jesus by enabling him to fulfill his plan and the joy that came with it; and then Jesus’ love for his Father in wanting everything he said and did to tie in with his Father’s plan, and Jesus’ love again in wanting to bring further glory to his Father through what the disciples would now be doing. And then the disciples’ love for both the Father and Jesus in the part they would now play to bring honour and glory to both of them.

Jesus then gets practical. All this love stuff wasn’t just nice thoughts and nice feelings. Nor was it defined by any human sentiment. “If you truly love me,” Jesus said in verse 15, “you will obey what I command.” The reason for that was obvious, of course, because Jesus knew exactly what they needed to do to bring glory to the Father. He knew because he’d done it himself. He’d also done exactly what his Father had commanded him to do, and again for the same obvious reason, that his Father knew exactly what needed to be done through him too. 

So in whatever they would now be asking Jesus for, it would be to help them do exactly what Jesus knew they needed to say and do, just like Jesus said his words too weren’t his own, “Rather, it is the Father living in me, who is doing his work,” verse 10. Likewise, then, Jesus would also live in them to do his work – but how would he do that?…(more on this tomorrow)

Of the Spirit (part 17) 

Hours before he was taken away to be killed, Jesus said some startling things to his disciples, like (in my words): “You think I did amazing things, eh? Well, you guys are about to do even more amazing things” (John 14:12). 

Because Jesus knew what he’d be doing with his disciples after he died. He’d no longer be restricted to travelling as a human being in a small area of the world. He would now be back with his Father (verse 12), returning to his former glory (John 17:5), with the whole world opened up to him.   

So whatever power or help they needed to continue what he’d started with them, he was now perfectly positioned to lift their work together to a whole new level. He wasn’t leaving them, therefore, he was coming back to them, to begin a completely new chapter in God’s plan – and a new relationship with them too. He was shifting them from being his “children,” much loved but pretty helpless (John 13:33), to a position of real power so they could legitimately consult with him as family partners in the great worldwide project about to open up.

And Jesus meant “family partners” too, because he told his disciples they could ask for whatever they needed from him and he guaranteed an answer (John 14:13). Imagine being in a business like that, where anyone has an open door to the boss, and knows they will be heard. And not just heard, but given an answer too. 

So this was the kind of relationship Jesus would soon be opening up with his disciples. All they had to do, therefore – at any time, any place, any situation – was “ask in my name,” John 14:13, and they could imagine their request flying up by first class mail to their beloved Jesus. Which made sense of asking in his name too, because his name carried power. It was the name above all names, so it burst through every barrier. Nothing could withhold a request in Jesus’ name.  

And especially a request that honoured his name, by being totally in tune with his deepest wish – to “bring glory to the Father,” verse 13. It was a mighty wish Jesus had, and now he was involving his disciples in it too, so of course they’d need power and help – and of course, verse 14, he’d give it…(more on this tomorrow)  

Of the Spirit (part 16) 

In preparing his disciples for a future without him in person with them, he tells them they should love one another as he had loved them. For two reasons: first of all, that it would identify them as his disciples, and secondly, because love was the heart and soul of God’s kingdom, that he would now be setting up on this planet, starting with them. 

And to make that double challenge even greater, Jesus told them they couldn’t resort to any worldly means or practices. Only by his love, his peace and his attitude of service could the kingdom be demonstrated, displayed and developed through them. 

Which, of course, was a massively tall order, because it soon became apparent that they didn’t have it in them to fulfill either challenge. When it came to their feet needing washing, for instance, none of them thought of doing it for each other. And when it came to displaying God’s kingdom with Jesus’ attitudes, Peter sliced an ear off the high priest’s servant.  

They were dead in the water, therefore, before they even got started. So how on earth were they going to carry on after Jesus was gone, following in his footsteps of love, peace and service, in the state they were in only hours before his death? 

Jesus answered that with an amazing promise: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing,” John 14:12. Oh, so this was how these two impossible challenges could be fulfilled by the sorry likes of them. The key, clearly, was “faith in him.” But how did that work exactly? Faith in him for what, or have faith in him in what way? It would be so much easier if he just stayed with them, because they’d have little trouble with faith then. 

Ah but, Jesus says, “If you loved me you would be glad I’m going to the Father,” verse 28, because it would be from that vantage point now that Jesus would be with them, not as a physical presence, but with his Father now directing him to do in us what the Father had done in him. Same Father, same purpose. Their faith, then, was in Jesus still “doing exactly what my Father has commanded me,” verse 31, only in even greater power now, and in them too, verse 12…(more on this tomorrow) 

Of the Spirit (part 15) 

Jesus knew that after he was gone his disciples were in for a rough ride. Without his constant presence they would flounder, as did Peter denying he even knew Jesus. So right after telling Peter that he’d deny knowing him three times, Jesus asked his disciples in Luke 22:35, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” 

In their experience they could happily answer “Nothing” to Jesus’ question, because he’d always supplied what they needed for the job he’d given them to do. 

But that was about to change, because in verse 36, Jesus says, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” His immediate reason for the sword was Isaiah’s prophecy of him being “numbered among the transgressors” (verse 37), and by his disciples carrying swords it would make him look like he was a transgressor, calling upon his followers to fight and resist. 

But he was also preparing his disciples for the time when he would no longer be with them to provide for them personally. So his suggestion that they purchase swords could tie in with that too, because left to fend for themselves without his constant presence they would need the comfort of another powerful source. And having a sword strapped to their waist pictured that. It’s like carrying a gun. Feeling its weight is like a comfort. Well, that’s exactly what the disciples would need, a constant and powerful comforter. 

But it wouldn’t be any physical weapon or any other human means, which Jesus made clear by healing the high priest’s servant’s ear that Peter had slashed off with his sword (verses 49-51). “No more of that,” Jesus said in verse 51, sealing forever any need for his disciples to resort to weapons or fighting. Which again would be tough for them to do, because resistance by violence comes so naturally to us humans.

But as Jesus told his disciples in John 14:27, “I do not give to you as the world gives.” And in John 15:19, “You do not belong to the world. I have chosen you out of the world.” So he’d provide his disciples with a non-worldly, non-violent power instead…(more on this tomorrow)  

Of the Spirit (part 14) 

In the last few hours before he’s taken away to be killed, Jesus lays the foundation stones for the kingdom he’ll be developing through his disciples after he’s gone. And at the heart of it is “loving one another just like I’ve loved you,” John 13:34. And that’s how they’ll be recognized as his disciples too, by “the love you have for one another,” verse 35.

Peter, however, doesn’t respond so much to verse 35 as to what Jesus said before that in verse 33, when Jesus addresses them as “My children” – indicating the deep affection he had for them – and then he says to them, “I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me (but) where I’m going you cannot come.” 

Peter is shocked. He totally bypasses the bit about loving one another, because his first response in verse 36 is, “But Lord, where are you going?” To which Jesus replies, “Where I’m going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter immediately comes back in verse 37 with, “But why can’t I follow you? I’ll lay down my life for you.” Or as Luke phrased what Peter said: “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death” (Luke 22:33).

But Jesus knew what would really happen, because Peter, without the Holy Spirit, would not be able to love at that level. So he asks Peter in verse 38, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows you will disown me three times.” 

That must have cut Peter to the bone because there was no doubt in his mind that he loved Jesus enough to die for him. But it all fit in with what Jesus was preparing him for, because Peter would soon come to realize that he didn’t have the love he thought he had. He was full of conviction and willingness to give up his life for Jesus while Jesus was still with them in person, oh yes, but it would be a different story when Jesus was gone.

But it all fit in perfectly with what Jesus was about to get into next in John 14 about the Holy Spirit, to not only help Peter realize the love he needed would have to come from another source, but also to set up all Jesus’ disciples in the future with the same understanding…(more on this tomorrow)  

Of the Spirit (part 13) 

Jesus is preparing the scene beautifully for why we need the Holy Spirit. First, he exposes his disciples’ selfishness by washing their feet when none of them had thought of doing it. And he did it soon after they’d been posturing and strutting among themselves too, “as to which of them was considered to be the greatest,” Luke 22:24. 

In verse 25 he then exposed the typical attitude of those in leadership positions in society: “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over people, and those who exercise authority call themselves ‘Benefactors.’” What they really want is power and prestige, but they cloak it in promises of prosperity and safety that make themselves sound and look good. And for us gullible, desperate, self-centred minions, that’s all we need to hear to vote them in. It’s a horrible, pointless game we all play, and it never changes. 

So Jesus faced his disciples with the ultimate challenge in verse 26, that “you are not to be like that.” My disciples don’t seek power and prestige, or to lord it over people. And they’re not into seeking office for themselves by charm and psychologically soothing claptrap either. “Instead,” Jesus continues in verse 26, “the greatest among you should be like the youngest (looking up to others, not down on them), and the one who rules like the one who serves.” 

And then he asks a very pointed question as they all sat there at the table waiting to eat. “For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table?” Just like in a restaurant being served by waiters. “But I am among you as one who serves,” verse 27. Jesus is the waiter. So imagine going to a restaurant and telling the waiter, “No, you don’t need to serve me; you sit down and I’ll serve you.”    

And then in verse 29 Jesus says something really astounding: “I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me.” This is what you’re my disciples for, you’re in training to be royalty in a kingdom that God gives you, just as the Father sets me (Jesus) up with a kingdom too. 

And to whom does he give a kingdom? To those like Jesus who live “to serve, not to be served.” So what was Peter to make of that?…(more on this tomorrow)

Of the Spirit (part 12) 

In his love for his disciples Jesus prepared them for the time he’d no longer be with them in person. And he summarized it in one simple sentence: “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you,” John 13:15. 

And he summarized his example in one simple word: love. He then illustrated his love in the most personal and effective way too, by the physical act of washing his disciples’ feet before eating their communal meal. Feet needed to be washed because people back then ate reclining at low tables, and feet were very much in evidence. It was a job much appreciated when done for you, then. 

But what must have really stunned the disciples was Jesus as their “Lord and Teacher,” and highly regarded “rabbi,” taking on himself the job of washing his students’ feet when there was no servant on hand in the room they were in. And how embarrassing it must have been too, having to watch Jesus wash their feet when none of them had volunteered to do it, and it hadn’t even crossed their minds to wash each other’s feet. So much for following Jesus’ example of coming “not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). 

It was also embarrassing because they’d just been arguing among themselves as to which of them was the greatest (Luke 22:24). Peter obviously felt extremely uncomfortable because he blurted out to Jesus, “You shall never wash my feet,” verse 8. How could Jesus even be willing to wash their feet with the attitude they were in? It would be like someone offering you the biggest piece of cake when you’d been grabbing for it yourself. Your selfishness totally exposed by the love of another. 

But it got the point across beautifully, because if Peter wanted to be part of what Jesus was preparing them for, he wanted to be just like Jesus to be ready for it. So in his typical Peter fashion he wanted Jesus to wash him all over, to totally clean him of his selfishness.  

And that was good, because it prepared them all for Jesus to say in verse 34, “A new commandment I give you: As I have loved you, so you must love one another”…(more on this tomorrow)

Of the Spirit (part 11) 

In John 13:1 “Jesus realized that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He had loved those who were his own in this world and he loved them to the end (or to the uttermost).”

But now he knew his time with them was up. Only twelve hours later he’d be hanging on the cross. But his main concern wasn’t himself, it was his disciples. And the Father had planned it this way, so that the disciples would know how much they were loved by Jesus, because in Jesus’ love for them they’d know the Father’s love too. Everything Jesus said, did and showed in his earthly life was a perfect reflection of his Father (John 12:45). Which is why “the Father had put all things under his power,” verse 3, or “given all things into his hands.” 

It was over to Jesus, therefore, to reflect his Father’s love, so it’s no surprise that Jesus dedicated these last few hours of his life to loving his disciples, by telling and showing them the things they’d need most after he’d gone. 

It’s like a Dad wanting to get as much about the important things of life across to his children before he dies. It’s enlightening, then, what came first on Jesus’ mind, taking into account that it was eternal life he was preparing his disciples for.

It was a simple but crucial point, which Jesus illustrated by washing their feet. The point being that in the eternal world of the Father it’s all about serving others. So if they wanted a real taste of eternity and what the Father is like, then use whatever position of leadership or authority, or whatever influence and skills they’d been given, to love and serve others, because, as Jesus told then, “you’ll be blessed if you do,” verse 17. And Jesus was their living example of that. It’s what “the Father had put all things under his power” for, to show them what people in power do in his world.

And Peter got the point. He wanted every part of what Jesus was illustrating (John 13:8-9). And that opened up to him what Jesus said in John 5:24, that “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life…he has crossed over from death to life.” Peter was well on the way then, to knowing by experience what the Father and his world were like…(more on this tomorrow)  

Of the Spirit (part 10) 

By the time Jesus shouted to the crowd “Come to me” in John 7:37, he’d already said and done some extraordinary things. One chapter back in John 6:2, “a great crowd of people followed Jesus because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick.” And when he fed a crowd of five thousand on five loaves of bread and “two small fish,” and filling twelve baskets with the leftovers, it really opened people’s eyes to the possibility that Jesus truly was “the Prophet who is to come into the world,” verse 14. 

So the Father made sure in what he gave Jesus to say and do, that people would look to his Son and believe in him. Why? Because in Jesus people would see what he, the Father, was like, and in seeing what he was like in the words and actions of Jesus, people would then come to see and love the Father, which is exactly what the plan was. 

First, Jesus would do miracles, and spend his earthly life “going around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil,” Acts 10:38. What people would see in Jesus, then, was love. The purpose being John 14:7, Jesus speaking, that “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Because in Jesus’ love for people they were seeing the Father’s love too. 

So when Philip said to Jesus in verse 8, “show us the Father and that will be enough for us” – which was true, because eternal life is about knowing the Father (John 17:3) – Jesus replied: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father,” verse 9. All that power and love they were seeing in Jesus, therefore, was to show people what the Father was like. 

So that was why the Father had sent him, the goal being, Jesus speaking, that people would realize “that everything you (Father) have given me comes from you,” John 17:7. Which was exactly what Jesus wanted them to see, verse 26, “I have made you (Father) known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” 

Jesus, therefore, was sent by his Father to start the process of people coming to see the Father’s love. But after Jesus was dead and gone, how would people know about the Father’s love then?…(more on this tomorrow)

Of the Spirit (part 9) 

By the time Jesus cried out to the crowd, “Whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within them” in John 7:38, the evidence was overwhelming from Israel’s erratic history that they were incapable of believing in him, or responding in love to his love for them. 

And yet, as Jesus pointed out two chapters earlier, in John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures,” so they weren’t against God. And because of their diligent study they were celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day when Jesus stood up and yelled, “Come to me.” Which was ironic, because, as Jesus adds in verse 39, “These are the (same) Scriptures that testify about me, yet,” verse 40, “you refuse to come to me to have life.”  

So all through their Scriptures, Jesus was constantly calling out to Israel to come to him as their source of life. And by the word “life,” he took their meaning of it, as eternal life. They really thought that by strictly following all the rituals and commandments outlined in the Scriptures, that was all they needed to “possess eternal life” (verse 39). 

But what did they think eternal life was for? Having done (in their minds) what was necessary to get it, what was eternal life all about after that?

Well, Jesus made a rather startling statement in John 17:3 that the reason for living forever was “to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.” So that’s what eternal life is for, but stirred in this life now to the point of wanting life forever to know God. Which pinpoints the problem with those Jesus was calling out to in the Temple, because they weren’t focused on knowing God. Focused on themselves and securing their eternity, yes, but as Jesus pointed out to them in John 5:42, “you do not have the love of God in your hearts.”  

That was what they were desperately lacking, the actual essence of eternal life, a loving relationship between God and his beloved humans. Which is why Jesus cried out with such emotion, “Come to me,” because John 6:40, “my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life.” He knew that only he could be the source of the love they lacked…(more on this tomorrow)