“IT IS FINISHED!”

Posted on May 6, 2023 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 18 | John 19.1-41 | Lesson Notes & Talking Points

Read John 19.1-41

I / INTRODUCTION: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1 / This lesson is a continuation of Lesson 17 from John 18. In fact, the opening paragraph of chapter 19 is a continuation of Jesus’ appearance before the Roman governor Pilate / ch 18.28-40. I am going to continue reiterating the main point that John is making all throughout his Gospel: that Jesus Christ is the Christ, the Son of God / see ch 20.31-31.

2 / So again, to reiterate, the reason why John includes what he does in his accounts, and why he doesn’t include what he doesn’t is because John is accentuating the events he does describe to give specific emphases to Jesus’ testimony to His Deity. Refer back to Lesson 17 for those emphases.

3 / Although Jesus made specific references and performed specific works to demonstrate His Deity to the arresting party and in His appearances before the religious leaders and their councils [see Matthew 26.62-66 & Mark 14.60-64], perhaps He gave no clearer testimony to His Deity than when He made His appearances before Pilate [see, for example, ch 18.33-37].

4 / Those testimonies will continue here in chapter 19–and on throughout the ordeals of His crucifixion.  

II / vv 1-16 / “Behold the Man!” … “Behold your King!”

1 / Jesus actually made two appearances before Pilate. If you read Luke 23.5-12, you’ll see how that the whole religious council [Sanhedrin], had convened in the wee morning hours to formally accuse and charge Jesus with blasphemy, charging Him with claiming to be the Son of God – and therefore, God [see Luke 22.66-71]. Jesus also gave some clear and unmistakable testimony to His Deity in that hearing by citing His identity with Daniel 7.13-14.

2 / Then when the high-court religious council came before Pilate to seek a capital indictment and sentence against Jesus, and Pilate kept insisting “I find no guilt in this Man,” they let it drop: “But they were urgent, saying, ‘He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, from Galilee even to this place.’ When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the Man was a Galilean. And when he learned that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.” / Luke 23.4-7. Jesus was further mocked, beaten, and abused by Herod and his soldiers before being sent back to Pilate for His final sentencing / Luke 23.8-12.

3 / But John ‘compresses’ both of Jesus’ appearances before Pilate into one account. Some of John’s narrative would have taken place during the first accusation and hearing, and some would have occurred during the second appearance. But, we will consider them as John relates them…

4 / Pilate agrees to ‘flog’ Jesus and release Him back to the Jews. This ‘flogging’ was not just a whipping, but rather a total laceration of His body with a scourge, or ‘cat o’ nine tails.’ This was a handle that had numerous strands of leather attached to it. Woven or braided into the strands of leather were pieces of metal, glass, and bone. They were lashed across the back and abdomen of the victim, imbedded into the flesh, and then forcefully jerked back, deeply lacerating and separating the flesh – even until the internal organs would have been exposed. This is what the Psalmist prophesied in Psalm 129.3: The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.

5 / “Behold the Man!” Pilate hoped to elicit some human sympathy from the religious leaders and the people who had begun to gather to watch the spectacle [remember: this was the well-attended Passover Feast and national holiday]. Or that the mob would be satisfied with this brutal scourging. But they would not be appeased with anything short of killing Jesus: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

6 / “…He has made Himself the Son of God!” This terrified Pilate even more. Could Jesus actually be the Son of God? Was he killing the Son of God? [Remember also that, at this juncture, Pilate’s wife came to him to warn him with the dream she had just dreamed / Matthew 27.19.]

7 / Pilate begged Jesus to clearly identify Himself to him, reminding Jesus that he had authority to either release Him to His freedom or crucify Him. Jesus reminded Pilate again of His own ultimate authority as Deity: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above / 19.11.

8 / “Behold your King!” When Pilate presented Jesus again with this appeal, he was hoping to release himself from any part and involvement in Jesus’ crucifixion … by offering to release their own King back to them. Look at Him! He is your King! Let me give Him back to you! But then, the Jewish leaders made this ridiculous, pandering, hypocritical pledge of allegiance to Pilate, Caesar, and the Roman government: “If you release this Man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar … We have no king but Caesar!” It was also a threat to Pilate, who was already on shaky ground with Caesar’s approval and favor.

9 / So Pilate ‘washed his hands’ [or so he thought and hoped] to release and absolve himself of any involvement in Jesus’ death / Matthew 27.24. “So he delivered Him over to them to be crucified.”

III / vv 16-27 / “There they crucified Him…”

1 / Jesus was led out to a place called ‘The Place of a Skull,’ or ‘Golgotha’ [which means, ‘The Skull’ in Aramaic, their spoken language]. Jesus was crucified between two criminals who were already on death row and sentenced to be executed. Barabbas had been one of them sentenced for crucifixion, but he had been released at the mob’s insistence / see ch 18.39-40 & Luke 23.18-19. Jesus took his place.

2 / The inscription over Jesus’ head. This inscription was usually in the form of some kind of crude placard. The purpose was to identify the criminal who was being executed and the crimes he had committed to add to his shame and humiliation. Pilate had written in three languages so anyone from anywhere who was attending the Passover could read it. The placard itself was an expression of mockery of the Jews, an insult to them, a sort of gloating over them. ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ OK, you forced my hand to do this, so I’m going to dunk on you. I’m gloating over my mockery of you by crucifying your King! The Jews protested this also: He’s not our King! We don’t claim Him! We are crucifying Him for this very reason that He claimed to be our King! So, change it, Pilate! Make it say, This Man said, I am King of the Jews.Pilate responded with this cryptic, snarling retort: ‘What I have written, I have written.’ He repeated the same two past perfect tense verbs. As if to say, ‘No! I have made my last concession to your demands. I’m changing nothing! It stands as I have written it!’

3 / But do you know what charges against Jesus was really on that placard…in the Father’s judgment? It was our sins! Jesus had no sins of His own, and He had certainly committed no crimes or transgressions worthy of punishment – and certainly not death by crucifixion! Colossians 2.13-14: And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to His Cross.  See also 1 Peter 2.22-25.

4 / The soldiers took what few articles of clothing Jesus wore and divided them up among themselves – as their tokens and souvenirs to have been assigned to crucify the King of some of those whom they had subjugated. But when they looked at His outer tunic, they could see that someone had lovingly, painstakingly, and carefully woven it in one piece from top to bottom instead of sewing pieces together at the seams]. So they gambled on it to see which one of them should get it. This, too, was to fulfill the Scripture of Psalm 22.18: They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Another testimony to Jesus’ Deity.

5 / “Woman, behold your son … Behold your mother.” With this committal, Jesus gave Mary, His mother, over to John’s care. And John received the honorable responsibility. From that moment on, John took Mary to his own home to care and provide for Mary until she died.  

IV / vv 28-30 / “IT IS FINISHED!”

1 / After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture)… John is careful and precise to continue giving us testimonies to Jesus’ Deity. Jesus is not only dying His death of crucifixion of His own willingness and voluntary volition, but He is dying with full and comprehensive knowledge of the ages-old Scriptures He had come to fulfill. Numerous times throughout this Gospel, John [and all the other Gospelers] has reminded us how Jesus was fulfilling all the ancient prophetic writings that had foretold His coming – and the death He would die. See again Luke 24.25-27. NOTE that John uses the same word here for all of Jesus’ fulfillment of Scriptures that Jesus will utter when He has completed the work the Father had sent Him to do: After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst!” See Psalm 22.15: …my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws… and Psalm 69.3: I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched.

2 / A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to His mouth. This, too, fulfilled Psalm 69.21: They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. Yet another testimony to Jesus’ being the promised Christ and Deity. Some historians have written that this ‘sour wine’ potion may have been provided by some of the more sympathetic women of Jerusalem to help sedate and therefore alleviate the end-of-life sufferings of those being crucified. Luke 23.36-37 tells us that they had offered this same ‘vinegar’ or ‘sour wine’ earlier to mock and taunt Him – maybe to offer it and then deny giving it to Him – but Jesus had refused it at that time. This time, He took it because He knew the final moments of His life’s mission had come, and He was fulfilling it to the last breath, word, and deed.

3 / “IT IS FINISHED!” This declaration was the climax, the crescendo, the victory cry of His mission [see ch 17.1-4]. ‘Finished” means: It has all been done! It has been completed! It has been fulfilled! With that word, Jesus pronounced and announced that He had just successfully ‘FINISHED!’ the Father’s promised salvation of His people, the Father’s commission and commandment to come and die for our redemption, the New Covenant that in His Blood, all that was required and sufficiently supplied to save us from our sins and reconcile us back to God … to be with Him forever! “It has been done!”

4 / “Tetelestai!” This is the English pronunciation of the past perfect tense of the verb Jesus exclaimed [teleo]. “Definition: to end, i.e. complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt)” It means ‘to reach the end, the completion, the full and final conclusion of the work that was being done.’ Notice that last part of the definition: ‘discharge (a debt).’ THIS is the word that was used on a debt contract or document to signify that the debt had been ‘PAID IN FULL’! And so it was with our debt of sin and unrighteousness before God. “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3.23]. But when Jesus Christ died and offered up His life of perfect, sinless obedience to the Father, He paid a double-debt that everyone of us owed: [1] He offered His life as a substitutionary sin-payment for the sins we have committed against God, and [2] He offered His life as a substitute for the life of obedience that we did not and could not have offered. THIS is the Gospel! And it is the ONLY Gospel there is! And God Himself provided it for us when He sent Christ into our world to die for us! And Jesus Christ was willing to give Himself as the ONLY payment for sin that God the Father will accept!

5 / AND He didn’t cry “IT IS FINISHED!” with a weak voice, either. Matthew 27.50, Mark 15.37, and Luke 23.46 all declare: And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice… Jesus didn’t ‘succumb’ to His own death. He didn’t die as a ‘victim’ to any hands who delivered Him over to Pilate or those who physically impaled Him to His Cross. He died strong! “…and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” Jesus gave up His own life! Remember how He foretold in John 10.17-18: For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.

6 / And it was with this last, final, victory cry that He gave Himself and His life to the Father as the once-for-all sufficient offering for our sins: Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!” And having said this He breathed His last / Luke 23.46.

7 / Hebrews 7.27: He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since He did this once for all when He offered up Himself.  

V / vv 31-37 / “They did not break His legs”

1 / It was a scandal among the Jews for a dead body to be hanging exposed for public view on a holy day. The next day was a Sabbath and also the Passover, and they didn’t dare ‘desecrate’ their ‘holy’ day and their planned ‘holy’ ceremonies. Why, they were going to be offering Passover sacrifices to God for the ‘passing over’ of their sins! They couldn’t have these dead bodies hanging on their crosses, and thus render their ‘holy’ activities ‘unclean’ and ‘unacceptable to God!

2 / So they came to Pilate again to ask him to break their legs, and thus hasten their deaths. Death by crucifixion was a death from physical trauma, shock, dehydration, loss of blood, even infections – but most of all a death by asphyxiation. When the body is impaled on the cross and the weight of the body is hanging from the suspended arms, the effect is to compress the diaphragm and abdomen, constricting the lungs. And often, death by crucifixion could linger on for 2-3 days before death occurred. By breaking the legs, the crucified one couldn’t ‘push up’ with his legs, making more room for his lungs to inhale.

3 / The soldiers broke the legs of the other two evil-doers. But when they came to Jesus, they discovered He was already dead [voluntarily, of His own will and volition]. Another fulfillment of Scripture, John is careful to note: Not one of His bones will be broken [Exodus 12.46], speaking of the Passover lamb from Yahweh’s first prescription in the first Passover! So it must be with this, The Passover Lamb of God!

4 / So, in their resentment and spite against Jesus because they couldn’t further abuse Him by breaking His legs, ‘but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.’ This was from the fluid that had gathered around His heart and lungs from the trauma He had suffered during the crucifixion agonies. Yet another fulfillment of the ancient Scriptures! Zechariah 12.10: …when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced…

5 / John himself is amazed at all this fulfillment of the ancient Scripture prophecies [especially after having had the past seventy years to reflect upon it]. Lest anyone think he is making any of it up, John affirms the truth of it all as an eye-witness: ‘He who saw it has borne witness – his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth – that you also may believe.’ DO YOU BELIEVE? For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled…    

VI / vv 38-42 / “…they laid Jesus there”

1 / Enter two friends, both believers and followers of Jesus – though both of them were just now publicly confessing their faith in Him: [1] Joseph of Arimathea. He was apparently a well-known, wealthy citizen of Jerusalem. He asked Pilate for permission to take possession of Jesus’ body to give Him a respectable burial, rather than having His body dumped in the ‘landfill’ of the Valley of Hinnom. Joseph had prepared a burial sepulcher for himself. No one had ever lain in it. And Jesus wouldn’t for long! Joseph would have it back after three days! Isaiah 53.9: And they made His grave with the wicked and with a rich man in His death… [2] Nicodemus. Yes! That same Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night [ch 3]. We have seen Nicodemus speak up in Jesus’ defense another time before / ch 7.50-51.

2 / Both of them are now fully-committed, whole-hearted confessors of their faith in the Deity, Lordship, and Gospel of their Lord Jesus Christ. They, at the risk of their own lives and public reputations, and at their own expense, come to prepare Jesus’ body for burial – because they believe in their hearts and confess with their mouths that ‘Jesus is LORD’!

DO YOU BELIEVE?

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“AS YOUR DAY IS…SO SHALL YOUR STRENGTH BE!”

Posted on May 5, 2023 by PastorDave

“Your sandals shall be iron and bronze; as your days, so shall your strength be.” ~Deuteronomy 33.25 NKJV

“…for you have not passed this way before.” ~Joshua 3.4 ESV

“…for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” ~Proverbs 27.1 / James 4.14 LSB

“No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” ~1 Corinthians 10.13 LSB

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weary and tired, and to him who lacks vigor He increases might. Though youths grow weary and tired, and choice young men stumble badly – Yet those who hope in Yahweh will gain new power; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not get tired; they will walk and not become weary.” ~Isaiah 40.28-31

I’ve never walked in this way before,

and I cannot tell what the day holds in store…

but God has a promise that is sufficient for me:

He says, “As your day is…so shall your strength be!”

“As your day is, so shall your strength be!”

Give me the wisdom to walk, LORD, with Thee…

Give me the power to live faithfully,

and, as my day is, so let my strength be.

Troubles all around me, and fears rage within,

so prone to wander, so tempted by sin –

but when I’m at my weakest, Your promise I see!

“As your day is…so shall your strength be!”

“As your day is, so shall your strength be!”

Give me the wisdom to walk, LORD, with Thee…

Give me the power to live faithfully,

and, as my day is, so let my strength be.

Run, and not be weary…walk, and not faint –

live with thanksgiving, and without complaint –

soar like the eagle…from earth’s chains be free,

and “As your day is…so shall your strength be!”

“As your day is, so shall your strength be!”

Give me the wisdom to walk, LORD, with Thee…

Give me the power to live faithfully,

and, as my day is, so let my strength be.

~Dave Parks | October 1987

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“I AM…HE!”

Posted on April 29, 2023 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 17 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read John 18.1-40

I / INTRODUCTION: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1 / We are now coming to the end of John’s Gospel account. The next three chapters [18, 19, 20] will be John’s account of Jesus’ arrest, trials, crucifixion, and resurrection.

2 / There is a thing called “A Harmony of the Gospels,’ in which all four Gospel accounts are written out side by side in four columns on the page. Where the Gospel accounts include the same narrative, they will be written out side-by-side. Where one Gospel account includes details the others don’t, those column spaces will be blank for those Gospels that don’t have them.

3 / I’ve added this note because John doesn’t include a lot of details the other Gospels do: like Jesus’ agony prayers in Gethsemane, much of the accusations made against Him before the chief priest and Herod, etc…

4 / However, John also includes many details of events and conversations that the other three Gospelers don’t: like, for example, in His two appearances before Pilate.

5 / Which leads me to say that John especially focuses on his primary purpose he has been following all throughout his Gospel: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name / John 20.30-31.

6 / So when John includes what he does write, and doesn’t include what he doesn’t, he is keeping to his main purpose and focus for writing this whole Gospel: so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.

7 / Which brings us to the main point of this lesson…

II / “I AM…HE!”

1 / When Jesus identified Himself to the band of enemies who had come to arrest Him, He simply said, “I AM…HE!” [see vv 5-8] This is not just His saying, ‘That’s who I am.’ Jesus is using the same self-identification He has used at least seven other times that John records in this Gospel [see Lesson 10]. We call these expressions: “The ‘I AM(s)’ of Jesus.” [He also used another form of this same self-identification in Jn 4.26.]

2 / “I AM” is the Name of Yahweh that He revealed to Moses at the burning bush / see Exodus 3.14. In other words, this is the Name that God gives Himself. So when Jesus said all of His “I AM”(s), He was saying “I AM God!” … And this goes back to the main purpose for John’s writing his whole Gospel as we discussed above.

3 / So what we will do here in this lesson is simply show how John weaves this evidence of the Deity of Jesus Christ throughout every description of every event he records here in chapter 18 … and on to the end of his Gospel.

III / vv 1-11 / “I AM…HE!” BEFORE HIS TRAITOR & THOSE WHO CAME TO ARREST HIM

1 / After Jesus had finished the words of His Farewell Discourse and His prayer He prayed to the Father, they crossed the Brook Kidron on the east of Jerusalem and began their ascent up the Mount of Olives. There was a garden there, Gethsemane [olive press], and Jesus entered the garden with His disciples. Though John doesn’t record it, this is where and when Jesus prayed His agony prayers to commit Himself to the death He had come to die [see Matthew 26.36-46; Mark 14.32-42; Luke 22.39-46].

2 / John gives us an all-inclusive description of Jesus’ Deity in that phrase in v 4: ‘Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?”’ This is another demonstration of Jesus’ Deity – His knowing of everything that was going to happen. How did He know? Because it had been pre-planned from eternity and prophesied for 4000 years in the Old Testament Scriptures.

3 / Speaking of OT prophecies, we must add here also that just like this moment of time and history is what Jesus has been calling ‘My hour’ [ch 2.4; 13.1; 17.1], so also Satan is acting and working in his ‘hour.’ This goes back to the very first Gospel promise in the Bible, Genesis 3.15. This is the ‘hour’ when the Promised Savior will crush the serpent’s head. But it is also the ‘hour’ of ‘the power of darkness’ when Satan will bruise Messiah’s heel. See John 13.27; Mark 14.41; Luke22.53.

4 / Jesus, of course, knew Judas would betray Him because He is the “I AM” see ch 13.21-30. Judas had earlier left the Passover meal to go out into the night to conspire with the religious leaders to betray Jesus over to them. They now have made their way to the garden where Judas has told them they will find Him. There is a mixed band in this arresting party: leaders from among the chief priests and Pharisees [these are the main antagonists and accusers who have dogged Jesus all of His ministry; members of the Temple ‘police’ who enforced compliance with their civil, religious, social laws; and Roman Soldiers. There may have been as many as 200-600 soldiers [that’s what the word ‘band’ indicates], and they are all carrying lanterns, torches – and are armed with weapons.

5 / John doesn’t record it, but Judas had given the soldiers a signal: he would kiss the One they were after. He did.

6 / Whether it was before or after Judas’s betrayal kiss, we don’t know; but Jesus takes the initiative to ask them who they are seeking. When they answer, “Jesus of Nazareth,” Jesus then declares: “I AM…HE!” Once again, He declares His Deity. He claims to be, not only Jesus of Nazareth, but God Himself.

7 / The effect is that all the arresting party fell backward and to the ground. Was this just surprise, shock, or astonishment that Jesus would so voluntarily identify Himself? No! It was His Glory that confronted them. It was His Deity that knocked them backward. As John has told us earlier: “And we have seen His Glory, Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” [ch 1.14]; and “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His Glory. And His disciples believed in Him” [ch 2.11]. There was a supernatural manifestation and emanation of Glory that burst and proceeded forth from Jesus when He announced Himself as ‘I AM…HE!’ It produced this physical effect on His enemies. Kind of like a shock-wave of Deity and Glory.

8 / When Jesus repeated this same ‘I AM…HE!’ the second time – after they stumbled back onto their feet – what He is demonstrating is that even though He was surrendering Himself to His enemies, He knew that He was the One who was in charge of the situation.

9 / When Simon Peter drew his dagger-sword from under his cloak and slashed at the high priest’s servant, he didn’t intend to take off just his ear. Most likely, he made a horizontal slashing stroke, intending to slash his throat or take off his head. Malchus probably ducked his head sideways, and Peter cut off his ear. Jesus again demonstrated His “I AM” power by instantaneously healing the wound / Luke 22.51.   

IV / vv 12-27 / “I AM…HE!” BEFORE THE COUNCILS OF THE CHIEF PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS

1 / The arresting party and soldiers take Jesus first to the house of Annas. John is the only Gospeler who includes this detail. Annas was not in the high priest office that year; but Annas was the ‘godfather’ of this high-priestly family and father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest. So Annas has to sanction everything that the high priest’s office does. So, when John calls Annas ‘the high priest’ [v 19], it means ‘high priest emeritus’ or even ‘high priest de-facto’ even though his son-in-law, Caiaphas, was actually holding the office that year.

2 / John 18.24 states that Annas then sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.  

3 / Again, John doesn’t include the details of the accusations, mockery, and charges they came up with against Jesus. But you can find those accounts in Matthew 26.57-68; Mark 14.53-65; Luke 22.54-65.

4 / What they charge Jesus with here in their Jewish religious courts is different than the charges they will bring against Him when they present Him to Pilate. You will find the most pointed account in Matthew 26.63-66. They specifically asked Jesus whether He claimed to be ‘the Christ, the Son of God’?

5 / When Jesus replied that the day would come when would see Him, the Son of Man [Daniel 7.13-14], sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven, they understood very clearly that Jesus was claiming what He had been claiming all along during His ministry: that He, Himself, is the Messianic ‘Son of Man’ prophesied in Daniel, and that He, Himself, is the Christ, the Son of God. In other words, Jesus was proclaiming: ‘I AM…HE!’ That He is God.

6 / So there! The crime was committed in the eyes and judgment of the Jewish leadership: BLASPHEMY! This is their echoing charge that they explicitly expressed in ch 5.16-18.

7 / After hearing this ‘I AM…HE!’ declaration, the high priest put on a fake show of righteous indignation … being offended on God’s behalf at Jesus’ usurpation of God’s Deity. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. 66 What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.”  

8 / It was during this series of mock hearings before the Jewish religious council that Simon Peter denied three times that he even knew Jesus … much less had any association with Him. This, too, was an I AM…HE! moment because Jesus had foretold and warned Peter just a few hours before this that he would deny Him [ch 13.36-38]. After Peter denies Christ for the third time and the rooster crowed as Jesus had warned him, Peter is stricken, crushed, devastated at what he has just done. And Jesus had warned him just a while ago that he would. That’s when Luke records in Luke 22.60-62: But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.

V / vv 28-40 / “I AM…HE!” BEFORE THE ROMAN GOVERNOR PILATE  

1 / It is here in this section, when Jesus appears for the first time before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, that Jesus makes some very remarkable statements regarding His Deity. He will proclaim “I AM…HE!” especially about His being the King of the Jews…

2 / Keep in mind that Jesus had two appearances before Pilate. John here compresses both hearings into one account because he has one point to make: that Jesus Christ, as God in the flesh, is the true Son of God and King of the Jews.

3 / This first appearance before Pilate is described here in ch 18.28-38. [Then Jesus will be shuffled off to make an appearance before Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee (Luke 23.6-12)]. Herod will send Jesus back to Pilate for the second appearance and Pilate’s final concession to the Jews to crucify Jesus [John 18.39 – 19.16].

4 / It is most interesting to note in ch 18.28 that the Jews, here on the eve of Passover, didn’t dare step onto the Gentile Pilate’s property because doing so would make them ‘ceremonially defiled and impure’ and they wouldn’t be permitted to partake of the Passover festivities and services. BUT they have no conscience against calling into Pilate, requiring him to get up from his bed and sleep, and come out to pass judgment against the Lamb of God who would be offered later that morning as God’s Divinely-appointed Passover! What two-faced hypocrisy! And yet, here again, we see the activity of Satan and his ‘hour’ and ‘power of darkness’ blinding their hearts and minds to prevent them from seeing the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ! see 2 Corinthians 4.3-6. We still face the same power of Satan working in the hearts and consciences of unbelievers as we proclaim the Gospel to them.

5 / Pilate asks them what charges they are bringing against Jesus – so serious enough as to warrant this middle of the night impromptu trial? The Jews answer: “If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you.”

6 / Pilate then scolds them for bringing to him a case of internal Jewish law. “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.” ‘Why are you bothering me with your internal religious squabbles?”

7 / In their internal councils, they had charged Jesus with the capital offense of blasphemy. But blasphemy means nothing to Pilate. That is not in his jurisdiction.

8 / Their response to Pilate gets to the root of the evil and murderous intentions in their hearts – conspiracies and plots to kill Jesus that had been festering and stewing for at least the last two years. Listen to them! The Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death!” There it is! They must have Jesus killed … and the Roman law did not permit them to execute capital punishment. Yes, they would occasionally stone someone for breaking their ‘laws,’ and the Romans would look the other way just to appease the Jews and keep the peace.

9 / BUT, again, Jesus could not be killed by stoning! Why? Because the plan of God all along was that Jesus would be crucified! All the prophecies of the Old Testament are prophecies that are descriptive of crucifixion. And the Jews didn’t crucify their capital offenders – they stoned them to death.

10 / And besides, Jesus had prophesied Himself that He would be crucified! Matthew 20.17-19: And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way He said to them, 18 “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death 19 and deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and He will be raised on the third day.” So Jesus must not only die for our salvation, but He must be crucified … and at the hands of the Gentiles [Romans]. And here He is! This is yet another illustration of Jesus’ Deity – His fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures and His own predictions that it would be this way!

11 / The Jews had made charges against Jesus in Pilate’s hearing that Jesus claimed to be ‘The King of the Jews.’ Imbedded in these accusations presented to Pilate are charges of treason against the occupying Romans. Now that involves Pilate big-time. Pilate’s responsibility as governor of Judea was to keep them subject to Caesar and the Roman rule. [More on this in the next lesson, ch 19.12-16.

12 / In fact, Barabbas and his comrades were in prison for execution at some later time precisely for this crime of treason and insurrection [see Luke 23.18-19].  

13 / This accusation prompted Pilate to question Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” It was at this juncture that Jesus began to expound to Pilate that true nature of His Kingdom and Kingship. This was Jesus’ way of saying to Pilate: “I AM…HE!” Yes! I am a King. But my Kingdom is not like your-all’s. For now, my Kingdom is not earthly, political, military, and composed of a civil society. My Kingdom is spiritual. I rule people’s hearts and lives. If my Kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my Kingdom is not from this world. [This also gives us some clearer understanding why Jesus rebuked Peter in Gethsemane for retaliating with physical force when he cut off Malchus’s ear – and then healed Malchus.]

14 / Jesus delivered His “I AM…HE!” to Pilate with these words: Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”   

15 / So, to everyone who encountered Jesus, not only during these last events, but all throughout His lifetime and ministry – Jesus’ unvarying and unwavering proclamation was: “I AM…HE! I AM God, the Son of God, the promised Christ and Messiah – the Savior of the world! The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is here in Me! Repent and believe in the Gospel!”

DO YOU BELIEVE?

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Our LORD’s Prayer

Posted on April 22, 2023 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 16 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read John 17.1-26

I / INTRODUCTION: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1 / There is perhaps no deeper, richer, and more awe-inspiring chapter in all of Scripture than John 17. We can but fall on our faces ourselves as we approach it and ask the Lord Jesus Christ who prayed it to please send the power of the Holy Spirit to us as He promised [chs 14.25-26; 15.26; 16.12-15] to help us receive it and understand it as best as He is pleased to reveal it to us.

2 / We are calling this prayer ‘Our LORD’s Prayer’ because this is the longest recorded prayer that Our LORD prayed that is written in the New Testament. Other shorter and briefer and more pointed prayers are recorded, but none as long as this one. We have many lengthy sermons, parables, and conversations – but only this one lengthy prayer.

3 / So what I want to do here in this introduction is lay out some of the general subjects and movements of the prayer, and highlight some of the major requests Jesus makes of His Father on His and our behalf.

4 / OCCASION: This prayer follows immediately after the lengthy Farewell Discourse Jesus has been delivering to His disciples that began in ch 13.

  • Ch 14.31 sees Him lead them from the upper room where they had observed the Last Passover and First Lord’s Supper and out into the streets as they make their way to the Garden of Gethsemane.
  • Chs 15-16 are the continuation of the Farewell Discourse after they left the upper room.
  • Ch 17, this prayer, will be His Farewell Prayer which He prays to the Father in their hearing.

5 / PLACE: If you fast forward to ch 18.1, you will read ‘When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered.’ So this prayer is prayed somewhere outside the Jerusalem city walls before they entered Gethsemane.

6 / SCOPE: This prayer is eternity to eternity in its scope.

  • In v 5, Jesus speaks to the Father about the Glory they shared with one another even before the world was created.
  • In v 18, He speaks of the Father sending Him into the world and His mission and ministry here among us.
  • In v 24, He speaks prospectively about the eternity to come when we will be with Him and the Father in their Glory.

Of course, with God there is no ‘eternity past’ or ‘eternity future.’ That is just the only way we can begin to grasp, comprehend, and speak of it. God has and knows no ‘time.’ All eternity is to God ‘the eternal NOW.’ But this prayer spans it all.

7 / GENERAL DIVISIONS: This is overly-simplistic, but there are some distinct shifts in subject matter in Jesus’ words:

  • vv 1-8: Jesus prays about Himself, His mission, and the successful accomplishment of what the Father had sent Him to do;
  • vv 9-19: Jesus prays for His disciples, who are in His immediate Presence and hearing Him as He prays;
  • vv 20-26: Jesus prays for all those who will believe on Him in the ages to come through the witness of all those who will continue to bear witness to Him through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of the Gospel.

8 / WHAT WE SHOULD LOOK FOR AND LEARN FROM OUR LORD’S PRAYER:

  • This is, first of all, a specimen and clear expression of the intimate communion, unity, and oneness that Jesus maintained with His Father during all His earthly sojourn and ministry here among us during the days of His flesh;
  • This is also an illustrious and encouraging testimony and pattern to show us the kind of personal and effectual intercession Jesus continues to bear before the Father on our behalf. Hebrews 7.25: Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
  • Not least, this prayer is also a wonderful example of what we, as believers, should pray for if we should pray ‘in Jesus’ Name.’ If this is what He prayed for, then we should pray for the same things. If this is what He prays for us, then we should make it our life’s purpose, passion, aim, and goal to strive for and live out these desires of Jesus daily.  

9 / You understand all I can do in these notes is give you some broad and brief ‘talking points’ as I always do … we will add more connections and comments during our class time and lesson. Even then, at the best, all we will be able to do is give you some summary doctrinal and practical points which I pray will pique your interest and ignite your passion to delve deeper into the heart and words of Our LORD’s Prayer for yourself…

II / vv 1-8 / “I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave Me to do.”

1 / When Jesus had spoken these words… refers to the previous words of the Farewell Discourse which He began in ch 13. Now, He wants to seal what they have heard to their hearts and lives. …He lifted up His eyes to Heaven and prays to His Father to receive His life’s ministry as an offering of obedience and service to Him … to do His will.

2 / Father, the hour has come… This ‘hour’ was the final and complete accomplishment of our eternal redemption by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Remember how Jesus had reminded His mother, Mary, in ch 2.4, ‘My hour has not yet come.’ You can continue to ‘count down’ Jesus’ journey to this ‘hour’ and climaxing moment and final fulfillment of His mission in chs 7.30; 8.20; 12.23, 27; 13.1; 16.32.

3 / THE STORY OF GLORY. ‘Glory’ and ‘glorify’ is one of the main theme-threads that tie and hold this prayer together. It is also one of the primary and most prominent theme-threads of the whole Gospel of John. It goes all the way back to ch 1.14. We have spoken of Glory often as we have made our way through this Gospel. Just remember that Glory is God Himself. God Himself is the GLORY. And when Jesus reveals Himself as God, He is revealing the Glory He is, and the Glory He shared with the Father, and the Glory from whence He came, and the Glory the Father is. Jesus came to reveal the Father, and He did that. That’s how He glorified the Father. He also glorified the Father by obeying Him and fulfilling the mission the Father had sent Him to accomplish. He is committing Himself to finish the work in this prayer. Jesus also prays that the Father will glorify Your Son which the Father will do by receiving His sacrificial death for our redemption, raising Him again from death, and bringing Him back to Glory in His ascension. See Philippians 2.5-11; 1 Peter 1.20-21; et. al.  

4 / God the Father had entrusted to Jesus, God the Son, all authority and dominion over all humanity. See, for example, ch 5.19-29.

5 / And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. What is this ‘eternal life’ but the Father new-birthing in us the Glory of Himself and Jesus Christ? Our new birth and eternal life is the very light of the Glory of Christ, who is the image of God / 2 Corinthians 4.4.

6 / …to all whom You have given Him. This phrase is repeated no fewer than seven times. Jesus also made this same expression in ch 6.37. The Father chooses whom He will save through the substitutionary offering of Jesus Christ, and then gives them [us] to the Son to redeem [see also ch 15.16]. You will also find God’s choosing us in Christ for salvation in Ephesians 1.3-6; 1 Peter 1.1-2.

7 / For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. Jesus came to earth with one primary aim: to reveal the Father / see ch 1.18. That’s what He means when He says in v 6, ‘I have manifested Your Name to the people whom You gave me out of the world… God’s Name is Himself: who He is, His heart, His desires, His character, His attributes, His love, His redemptive purposes for His people. Jesus revealed the Father’s Name by giving to us the Father’s words which the Father had given Him to give to us. These words are the words which Jesus spoke, and which are recorded in the Holy Scriptures, and which reveal to us the very mind of God.

III / vv 9-19 / “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.”

1 / There is a sense in which God loves the whole world which He has created. See ch 3.16. But there is also a more personal, distinctive, redemptive, and exclusive sense in which His salvation love is given to His people whom He chose and gave to Jesus Christ to save. This is what Jesus means by this opening statement in this second movement of this prayer. He came to save His people from their sins … those whom the Father had given to Him to save. Again, Ephesians 1.4-6 will bring this into focus: …even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. This is the purpose for which Christ came and the mission He accomplished.

2 / Now, as Jesus directs His prayer toward us and as He begins asking the Father on our behalf, we want to begin highlighting at least four specific requests Jesus prays the Father will give us: [1] keep us; [2] sanctify us; [3] unify us; [4] bring us to be with Him and the Father forever.

3 / Holy Father, keep them in Your Name, which You have given Me… This request to ‘keep’ us will come up repeatedly as we continue in His prayer / vv 11, 12,15. To ‘keep’ means ‘to secure, preserve, protect, guard.’ This alone is the grounds of the security of our salvation. We do not keep ourselves saved … God keeps us saved. See ch 10.27-30; 1 Peter 1.3-5; et. al.

4 / v 12 / When Judas Iscariot is named here as the only one who was not ‘kept,’ it doesn’t mean that Jesus ‘lost’ him or couldn’t ‘keep’ him – it means only that Judas was an unbeliever, an imposter, a hypocrite, even ‘a devil’ from the beginning / see ch 6.70-71. Jesus knew that when He chose Judas as one of the Twelve. But the Scriptures had prophesied that a wicked ‘friend’ would betray the Messiah / Pss 41.9; 109.8; also Jn 13.18.

5 / Jesus Christ gives us His words so we may His joy in ourselves! The only way we will ever have joy in our lives, in this world, is by believing, receiving, keeping, and living by His words! We must be in His Word every day! We must learn to think by His words, speak by His words, study His words, hear and learn from His words, and depend upon and trust His words to be true – regardless of the circumstances and experiences we will encounter in our daily lives!

6 / I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. The world will hate us. We must anticipate that hatred, opposition, and antagonism. The reason the world system / society / culture will hate us is because we are different and distinct from them. We are ‘in the world’ as where we must live and bear witness to Jesus Christ. But, we have been born again. We are children of God. We belong to a different family, a different culture. We have different values. We define right and wrong the ways God does. We define sin and righteousness by Christ’s standards, and not by the shifting trends by which the world in which we live defines them. But regardless of the world’s hating us, canceling us, shunning us, rejecting us, persecuting us, and maybe even killing us, Jesus prays to the Father that He will keep us in His love and care. And He will!

7 / Jesus does not pray that the Father will take us out of the world, but that He will keep us from the evil that is in the world around us…in which we must live. It would be much easier for us just to be immediately snatched and transported to Heaven out of the world the moment we are saved. But we would miss two graces and privileges: [1] We are left here in the world to bear witness to the transforming power of the Gospel and to the Grace of God in salvation through faith in Jesus Christ; and [2] We are left here in the world so the Grace of God and the transforming power of the Gospel can continue to work in our lives through sanctification…

8 / And that brings us to the second prominent request Jesus asks the Father to give us and do in us. ‘Sanctify them in the Truth; Your Word is Truth.’ Here again, Jesus brings us back to The Word, the words, the Father had given Him to speak and give to us. We have this Word in the Gospel and in the entirety of the Holy Scriptures – The Bible.

9 / To sanctify means: ‘to set apart from the other things around them for a Godly purpose and use.’ We are sanctified, or set apart to be God’s and to belong to Him when we are saved [1 Corinthians 6.11]. But also, that sanctification begins to work in us, step by step, work by work, being carried on by the Holy Spirit, to conform us more and more into the very image and likeness of Jesus Christ. We are not justified [made right with God through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ] to be ‘put on hold’ or ‘put on ice,’ as it were, until we die and go to be with Christ. We are saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – to become more and more like Him in every grace. This, too, is part of our witness to His transforming Gospel. Sanctification glorifies Christ!

IV / vv 20-26 / “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word…”

1 / We now come to the third general division and movement of Our LORD’s Prayer. He has prayed about Himself and the successful accomplishment of the mission the Father had given Him; He has prayed for the Twelve who were there with Him and hearing Him pray; and now He prays for US! I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word…

2 / The Eleven [excluding Judas Iscariot] would continue to bear witness to Christ and proclaim His Gospel. Many others whom the Father had given to the Son would believe – and they, in turn, will continue to bear witness to Christ and many others would believe … and on and on until Jesus returns.

3 / Now, here is the third specific request Jesus prays the Father will give us: ‘that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.’ All believers in Jesus Christ are bound together in the unity of the Holy Spirit, the new birth, and faith in Christ. We must seek in every way to preserve that unity. But that unity of Christ can be maintained only by our mutual conformity to the Word He has given us. See Ephesians 4.1-16. Light cannot be in unity with darkness. Good cannot be in unity with evil. Truth cannot be in unity with lies, falsehoods, errors, and heresies. Holiness cannot be in unity with sin.

4 / And now, Jesus concludes His prayer to His Father with this fourth specific request: that we may be with Him where He and the Father are – in their GLORY – forever! Verse 24: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. We just have to say: “And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior’s blood? Died He for me who caused His pain? For me who Him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be – that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” [Charles Wesley].

5 / But this is the Glory that God, the Father, has chosen us for! This is the Glory that Jesus Christ has died to redeem us to! And this is the Glory that He will come again to receive us into!

DO YOU BELIEVE?

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The Farewell Discourse, continued…

Posted on April 15, 2023 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 15 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read John, chapters 15-16

I / INTRODUCTION: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1 / I am calling this lesson ‘The Farewell Discourse, continued’ because chapters 15-16 are a continuation of Jesus’ final, parting encouragements to His disciples which He began in the upper room.

2 / The Farewell Discourse actually began in chapter 13 as they were eating the Last Passover together, and when He rose from supper to wash their feet … and then commanded them to love one another.

3 / It was at that time that Jesus began preparing them for His crucifixion and death the next day, and then for His eventual ascension and going back to the Father who had sent Him / ch 13.33. It was when He said, “Where I am going you cannot come” that the disciples began to panic and melt down with fear and anxiety / ch 13.36; ch 14.1-5; 14.27-28; et al.

4 / We began in Lesson 14 [on chapter 14] to show how Jesus tamps down their anxiety, assuages their fears, and reassures their faith with numerous promises He gives them. Yes, He is going away back to the Father, but He also promises them that their lives and ministries will continue to go on until He comes back. And, His going away will not leave them as orphans – He will send the Presence and power of the Holy Spirit who will take His place in them and with them. The Holy Spirit will continue to minister to them in all the ways Jesus had ministered to them – and even more so / see ch 16.7.

5 / So that brings us to chapters 15-16. There is a lot to cover here, but I don’t want to leave any of it out without at least connecting these instructions and promises with each other.

6/ PLEASE NOTE: what Jesus will relate to His disciples on their way to Gethsemane is not just random musings. Every part of this Farewell Discourse flows from what He had said before and is all connected.

7 / So what I hope to do here is just outline these various pericopes in Jesus’ Farewell Discourse, summarize the main promise and encouragement He wants to give His disciples [and us], and add perhaps some explanatory notes with each section to help us make the connections with comes before and after it … hopefully, to tie the whole Farewell Discourse together into a cohesive message.

8 / And, as always, we’ll fill in some of the gaps and give more details than I’ve included here when we’re together in our class time…

II / ch 15.1-17 / You will continue to bear fruit in character, service, and witness … as you abide in Me, the True Vine – the Source and Giver of your life.

1 / ‘Bearing fruit’ continues through this section through verse 16…

2 / The ‘fruit’ we will bear is not just one thing: we will bear the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ in our character; the ‘fruit of our labors’ in our service; and the ‘fruit of believers’ through our witness.

3 / “I AM the True Vine and My Father is the Vinedresser. You will continue to bear fruit as you fulfill the Great Commission and Mission Mandate I will give you before I go back to the Father.”

4 / “You must abide/remain in Me as the Source of your life – everyone who does not abide in Me only evidences they are not connected to Me as the Source of their life. They are imposters, pretenders, hypocrites. They will be destroyed.”

5 / “You must also abide in all the words I have given you from My Father. The Word will be the channel through which My life will flow through you and work in you.”

6 / “You must also do everything you by asking the Father in My Name in prayer” / see ch 14.12-14.

7 / “You must also abide in My love – loving Me and loving one another with My love through you. There is no greater love than the love I am demonstrating to you by dying and laying down My life for you. You all keep on loving one another as I am loving you.”

8 / NOTE all the truths we must ‘abide’ in to bear fruit to Christ: [1] in Him, [2] in His words, [3] in His love

III / ch 15.18 – 16.4 / The world of unbelievers will hate you, persecute, and even kill some of you. They will hate you because they hate Me. But I am telling you ahead of time so you will know to expect it. And the Holy Spirit – the Helper, Advocate – will be bearing your witness through you.

1 / “Don’t expect the unbelieving world to love, accept, or receive you and your witness to Me. People love ‘their own kind.’ But, they hated both Me and My Father … and will continue to hate you because you are Mine.”

2 / “The primary reason they will hate you is because you will expose their sin and unbelief … that’s why they hated Me.”

3 / “But the Scripture was fulfilled in their hating Me ‘without cause’ [see Pss 35.19 & 69.4]. The same will be true when they hate you.”

4 / “BUT, you will continue to bear witness of Me through the power of the Holy Spirit. He will be the One who witnesses to Me through you” / see Acts 1.8.

5 / v 26 / NOTE: it was the witness to Jesus, and especially His resurrection, that the enemies of Christ will seek to kill and destroy. This persecution – and even martyrdom – began in earnest shortly after Jesus’ own resurrection as the apostles boldly bore witness to Him. Jesus’ promise here is adamant and fail-proof: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” The witness of the apostles and the churches to the Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is invincible! The power of the Holy Spirit speaking and working through the faithful witness of the churches will not fail!  

6 / “So don’t allow their opposition to throw you off of your mission – don’t think their persecution of you, or even killing you, means that My plan is not working out or that they are thwarting your mission. I am telling you all this so you will not be surprised when it happens to you.”

IV / ch 16.5-15 / Your witness will not be at all deterred or defeated by the opposition of the unbelieving world. The Holy Spirit will bear witness to Me through you. Be encouraged and emboldened!

1 / “I know that because I have said, ‘I am going away,’ sorrow is filling your heart. That is all you have heard. You should be asking Me, ‘Lord, what are You going to be doing when You go away to Your Father?’”

2 / “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Actually, you are going to be more fully empowered and equipped to be My witnesses through the Presence and power of the Holy Spirit. He will be your Helper and My Advocate with you and in you.”

3 /  v 7 / “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.” When Jesus was with His disciples in physical, human body, His Presence was localized where He was. But now that He has gone back to the Father, and by sending the power of the Holy Spirit upon us, the message of the Gospel of Christ has gone out into the whole world!

4 / vv 8-9 / “And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

  • concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me / The Holy Spirit will prove to be wrong the immediate enemies of Christ when their unbelief is refuted by His resurrection – everything He said about Himself will come to pass. They will stand condemned before God when they stand before Him in the judgment and also by the historical record of the Gospel Scriptures; the Holy Spirit will also do the work of convicting all who will eventually believe in Christ concerning their sin of unbelief. He will bring them to faith to believe in Christ.
  • concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer  / The Holy Spirit will bear witness to the righteousness of Jesus Christ by raising Him from the dead, and then later to ascend to the right hand of the Majesty on High. Only a righteous Savior could demonstrate His own righteousness by such a Divine act.
  • concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged / The Holy Spirit will bear witness to the defeat of Satan by raising Christ again from the dead. Jesus pronounced judgment on Satan in chapter 12.31. The head of the serpent was crushed. When Christ was raised from the dead, He triumphed over Satan and all the powers of darkness / Colossians 2.13-15; Hebrews 2.14-15; Revelation 12.7-11. The Holy Spirit continues to pass judgment and condemnation against the ruler of this present darkness every time a new believer is brought to faith in Christ / 2 Corinthians 4.1-6.

5 / “As you bear witness to Me in the power of the Holy Spirit, He will do all the work of convicting the world of the truth of your witness. He will convict some of the truth of what you witness, and they will believe and be saved. As for the others who do not believe, the Holy Spirit will ‘prove them to be wrong’ by verifying and demonstrating the truth of everything you witness.”

6 / “I can’t tell you everything you need to know right now. There is too much … and you can’t even understand and comprehend it all in your present state of mind and experience. But the Holy Spirit will continue to inspire you to understand My Gospel … and He will also be inspiring you to write more words to explain and instruct you in the fuller understanding and proclamation of My Gospel.”

V / ch 16.16-24 / I know all of this sudden realization that I am going away back to My Father is traumatizing you – you are going to be saddened and traumatized more here shortly. But, trust Me, your momentary sorrow will be turned into ever-lasting joy when you see Me again.

1 / “When I have been crucified and buried, you will not be seeing Me. But then, after three days, I will rise again, and you will see Me again! And after forty days with you, I will be going to My Father. Ten days after that, I will send the Holy Spirit upon you to empower you to continue My mission!”

2 / “During that short period of time when I am in My grave, our enemies will rejoice and celebrate what they think is their victory over Me. You will be filled with sorrow … you will weep and lament – wondering if it’s all over for Me and for you.”

3 / “Like when a mother is in labor pains and suffering from the painful contractions, you, too, will suffer the pain of my momentary absence. But the pains of travail are giving birth to a new life! So it will be with Me. Then there is celebratory JOY in the birth of a new life. The pain of the travail is over and forgotten! I know you can’t see and feel that now … but you will!”

VI / ch 16.25-33 / I have been using short and startling statements to prepare you for the events that are coming – after a few days when the upcoming events have transpired, I will explain them to you more fully and clearly. You will be more able to understand then. Just know this: you will have troubles without end in the world … but I have conquered, overcome, and defeated all your enemies and opposition. I will give you My peace. Be encouraged and emboldened to believe and trust Me!

1 / “When I have been saying things like: “I am going away…,” “I am going to the Father…,” “Yet a little while and you will not see Me; and then a little while and you will see Me again…” – I know these words have been like riddles and parables and cryptic messages to you. That’s because the events I’ve been telling you about haven’t happened yet. But after a few days, when it has all transpired, I’ll have more opportunity to explain it all to you so you can better understand.”

2 / “In that day – after I have gone back to My Father – you will pray to the Father in My Name and by My authority. I will not need to persuade the Father to receive your requests or show favor to you. Because the Father loves you already. The Father loves you because you have received Me when I came from Him.”

3 / [NOTE: when Jesus says in verse 28, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father,” He is summing up and reiterating the entire theme and message of the Gospel of John. See how this one statement reiterates what John writes in chapter 1.9-18.]

4 / v 29: “His disciples said, ‘Ah, now You are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question You; this is why we believe that You came from God.’” The disciples meant well. They thought they were beginning to put it all together and see the big picture. But they really had no idea how incompletely they understood the implications of what Jesus was telling them.

5 / BUT, Jesus knew they didn’t understand … nor were they prepared for the tests of their faith that were coming upon them, even in the very next few minutes and hours. He would go to the Garden of Gethsemane. He would be accosted by the Roman soldiers being led by the Jewish religious leaders [chief priests and elders]; Judas would be at the head of the party to point out Jesus and identify Him; they would arrest Him and take Him into custody; He would be taken to Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod for mock hearings and trials; He would be condemned to die by crucifixion; and by the next morning, He would be hanging on His Cross to die.

6 / vv 31-32: “Jesus answered them, ‘Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave Me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.’” Jesus had already warned Simon Peter that he would deny that he even knew Him / ch 13.36-38. The other disciples would turn tail and run to protect themselves from being arrested with Jesus.

7 / This, too, was in fulfillment of Scripture prophesied in Zechariah 13.7: “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the Man who stands next to Me,” declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered…”

8 / You, too, must believe this promise Christ Himself trusted in: when all other earthly friends, support systems, and resources turn against you, forsake you, and fail you … God will never leave you nor forsake you. And Jesus Himself will promise later in the Great Commission, “And, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” We must know that, believe that, trust that!

9 / v 33 / And then … this concluding reassuring promise to calm their troubled hearts – not only in advance of what was impending upon Him and them, but also for all the ages to come…until He comes again: “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world.”

DO YOU BELIEVE?

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Our Mom’s obituary

Posted on April 8, 2023 by PastorDave

Here is the obituary and service arrangements for our beloved Mom.

Here also is the full picture that was cropped for the obituary. This is our Mom in the element, environment, and context of her life’s calling [while also being our Mom]

Louise Hemric Parks

Louise Hemric Parks, widow of Ernest W. Parks, departed this life and entered into the Presence of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Wednesday evening,  April 5, 2023, at the age of 93 years. She passed from here to Glory at peace with God through her faith in Jesus Christ. And she was at peace in herself through her confidence in His promises.

She was born on June 26, 1929 to Glenn William Hemric and Clyde Victoria Hayes Hemric as the first of four children and the only daughter. She was raised in Jonesville/Yadkin County, NC before coming to Winston-Salem to work at the age of 17. She was married to Ernest W. Parks in 1947, and they were married for 65 years.

She attended school in Yadkin County through the 11th grade, and then later, as an adult, she earned her GED from Forsyth Technical Institute in Winston Salem at the age of 50. During this same time, her children taught her to drive, and she got her driver’s license.  She continued her education at Forsyth Tech to acquire her LPN degree, graduating with honors. She worked for 18 years in the nursing field.

She devoted her life to being a homemaker until their six children were out of school. She nurtured and cultivated character and faith in Christ in their lives. “Her children rise and call her ‘Blessed’” (Proverbs 31.28).

She also served the Lord in the role of a pastor’s wife as a charter member of Goldfloss Baptist Chapel where her husband, Ernest, was the founding pastor in 1954. When he accepted the pastorate of Little Sewell Baptist Church, Crag WV, she served with him there from 1957-66. She then returned to Winston Salem with him and has been a member of Hillcrest Baptist church since 1966.

She was predeceased by her husband, Ernest (2013); her parents; her son-in-law, John Fleshman; two grandsons, Will Gough and Jacob Russell; her brothers, Fred, RJ, and Alan Hemric and Alan’s wife, Betty.

Surviving to continue her legacy of love, faith, and service are her six children: Daniel Parks (Sandy), David Parks (Debbie), Philip Parks (Randy), Sharon Russell (Calvin), Joy Fleshman-Smith (Bobby) and Paula Antonelli (Ralph); 12 grandchildren; 14 great grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews; and more friends and those who have been influenced by her life than we know.

The family will receive friends on Tuesday, April 11, 2023 from 6-8 pm at Hayworth-Miller Silas Creek Chapel. Her Memorial Service will be held on Wednesday, April 12, 2023 at 12 noon at Hayworth-Miller Silas Creek Chapel.  A burial service will follow at Parklawn Memorial Park.

Her service will be led by her three sons, Daniel, David, and Philip, and her Pastor, Bobby Smith.

For those who wish to make memorial contributions, donations may be made in her memory to her beloved Hillcrest Baptist Church, 4580 S Main St, Winston Salem NC 27127.        

https://www.hayworth-miller.com/obituaries/louise-parks

  

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“…and show her honor…” ~1 Peter 3.7

Posted on March 27, 2023 by PastorDave

“…and show her honor…” / 1 Peter 3.7

We love, appreciate, and honor all our pastors’ wives for the contributions each one makes to the ministry of our church. But you will understand if I give this distinct and personal expression of honor to my wife.

For 47 years now, she has served as this pastor’s wife. I was a pastor when she married me, and she is the daughter of a pastor…so she knew what she was signing up for.

She has joined and given her life to me. She has loved me, supported me, encouraged me, and honored me. She has rejoiced with me and wept with me. She has often suffered and endured with me. She has felt everything I have felt, and most of the time, more deeply and personally than I have. She has shared, sacrificed, and supplemented me as my honorable complement in every activity of our ministry together. She has followed me, served alongside me, and contributed her own spheres of ministry in ways I could not have fulfilled. I know that I could not have done whatever I have without her companionship and partnership in it all. She is not only the ‘apple of my eye’ of love, but I have also often called her – and publicly so – ‘the wind beneath my wings.’

And when I asked her to marry me … and she consented to honor me by allowing me the privilege and pleasure to honor her … I promised her that I would always live with her in obedience to 1 Peter 3.7 LSB:

“You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.”

I knew enough about the root of that word ‘honor’ to know that it means ‘a valuing by which the price is fixed; to estimate the worth, to fix the value.’ It is, at its root, a ‘paygrade’ word and scale, if you please [as in 1 Timothy 5.17].

So, when I honor her, I only treat her according to her worth – both in herself and to me. Truly, ‘An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above pearls [or any and all jewels]’ / Proverbs 31.10 LSB.

More than that, I understood that I must value her [and live with her accordingly] as God values her, for she is ‘a fellow heir of the grace of life’ … and that value is set on her by God Himself. She is God’s beloved daughter before she is my wife. And I sure don’t want to get crossways with God’s own jealousy for her or treat her with any less value than God has set on her.

So, Debbie, here’s a small coin of my inestimable honor I owe you. I sure do love you!

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Let not your hearts be troubled | Jesus’ Panacea Promises for Troubled Hearts

Posted on March 25, 2023 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 14 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points

Read John 14.1-31

I / INTRODUCTION: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1 / Upper Room Discourse. We usually call chapters 14-16 ‘The Upper Room Discourse’ because Jesus is the One speaking, and these words were spoken by Him as they were in an upper room in Jerusalem celebrating the Last Passover meal together / see Mark 14.12-16.

2 / But chapter 14 is the only part of the discourse that was spoken in the upper room [along with the events of chapter 13]. In ch 14.31, Jesus announces to the disciples ‘Rise, let us go from here’ and they leave the upper room.

3 / The discourses of chapters 15-16 are spoken by Jesus probably on the streets of Jerusalem as they make their way to the Garden of Gethsemane.

4 / And maybe even the intercessory prayer in ch 17 was prayed by Jesus in the presence and hearing of His disciples before He entered Gethsemane where He agonized longer in prayer…and where He was arrested by the Romans and the Jewish religious leaders under Judas Iscariot’s direction.

5 / So chapter 14 is the truest Upper Room Discourse. However, the other succeeding chapters will be the continuation of what He delivered in the upper room.

6 / ‘Let not your hearts be troubled.’ Jesus themes everything He will say here in chapter 14 around His primary admonition of comfort and reassurance. Their hearts were indeed troubled. Jesus had repeated in ch 13.33 what He had often said before: Where I am going you cannot come…now. [See also the follow up with Simon Peter in v 36.]

7 / Except that, they are just now ‘getting it.’ When it finally registered in their hearing that Jesus was going away, it rocked their world. This was not just a ripple of restlessness or agitation. It was not just a scratching-the-head moment of confusion. Not just “Hmmm…wonder what He means by that?” It was a full-blown panic attack…a meltdown with anxiety. The upper room became panic city.

  • ‘What? You are leaving us?
  • You are going away?
  • Where are you going…and why?
  • What will become of us?
  • What will we do without You?
  • What are we supposed to do now? …and how will we know how to do it?
  • Who will lead us?
  • Who will take care of us?
  • Who will lead, teach, and instruct us how to conduct our lives as Your followers?
  • Etc…’

8 / We know that Jesus is targeting all these words to reassure their troubled hearts because He will ‘circle back’ to this same issue and repeat it again in v 27: ‘Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid!’

9 / Key theme words to follow and highlight:

  • Go…going: Jesus repeatedly relates everything He says here to His disciples’ primary troubling concern – that He is going away from them.
  • Believe: “Believe in God; believe also in Me.” Then He proceeds to tell them what they must believe to both cure their presently-troubled hearts [‘Stop allowing your hearts to be troubled’] and prevent the troubling of their hearts going forward [Don’t ever let your hearts be troubled.’] To believe is to receive and accept as the truth; trust, rely, depend upon; have confidence in.
  • Words…works: Jesus teaches His disciples [and us] to believe the words He has spoken and the works He has done. Both His words and works are given to demonstrate and evidence His union and unity with the Father – to whom He is now going. Jesus has often repeated these same claims all throughout His ministry – both to His disciples and also to His enemies / for example, ch 5.17-18.
  • See…sees…seen: The visible Glory of God that they had physically seen in Jesus [see ch 1.14 & 1 John 1.1-4] was the same as the invisible Glory of the Father to Whom He was going. When they had seen Him…they had seen the Father.
  • Know…known: They did, in fact, already know the same truths they were afraid they didn’t know. They knew because they knew Jesus…and Jesus and the Father are One in nature, essence, character, purpose, and works.  

10 / And so, what follows in ch 14 is a series of promises Jesus makes to them and to us, to give them assurances and comfort for their lives and ministries in the days ahead.

11 / AND these promises were not only for them, but also for us. So, think right now about what is troubling your heart…what issues, events, fears, anxieties are troubling you most. We, too, must do what Jesus teaches here: Believe in God, believe also in Me!

12 / We will divide up Jesus’ reassuring promises into two stanzas:

  • vv 2-14 / Yes, I am going away…but let not your hearts be troubled…because I am going to the Father, from whom I came, who sent me, and whom you know by knowing Me!
  • vv 15-31 / Yes, I am going away…but let not your hearts be troubled…because I will give you the Holy Spirit, who will be another Helper just like me, and He will be with you and in you forever. I, myself, will continue to be with you and in you in the Person, Presence, and power of the Holy Spirit!

13 / All I will do here is read through these two stanzas of ‘Panacea Promises For Troubled Hearts’ together. We will reiterate and paraphrase Jesus’ words … attempting to add some fuller thoughts to His words while maintaining His connecting trains of thought. We will seek to hear and learn the lessons Jesus teaches us and apply His precious promises here to our own hearts, lives, and experiences.

Prepare to believe!

II / vv 2-14 / Yes, I am going away…but let not your hearts be troubled…because I am going to the Father, from whom I came, who sent me, and whom you know by knowing Me!

1 / v 2 / Believe that I am going to my Father’s House – where He is. And in my Father’s House are many rooms [monai] for all of you who believe in Me. I am going there to prepare a ‘place’ for you to be there together with us…a place to live, remain, abide, belong / see Hebrews 9.24

2 / v3 / Believe that if I go away to my Father’s House, and if I prepare a place for you also, I will come again for you – to receive you to myself…so we can be there together forever.

3 / vv 4-6 / And, yes! you DO know the way to where I am going…because I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE! And I am the only Way, because no one is coming to the Father – where He is – except through Me!

4 / vv 7-9 / You DO know who the Father is…because you know Me…and you have seen Me.

5 / vv 10-11 / Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. You must believe that the Father has given me all the words that I have spoken to you. And the Father has done through Me all the works that I have done. That is why I have done the works I have done – to show you the Father’s love and power. I have spoken words to you to explain the works and how they reveal the Father. So believe my words and believe the works. They all show the Father.

6 / vv 12-14 / When you believe Me, you will continue doing the works of witness to the life and power of the Gospel. You will continue to bear evidence to the Father and to Me. BECAUSE, in fact, it will be ME who is doing the works through you! I will be doing them from Heaven. AND you will do those works by asking Me in prayer to do them! Remember: Ask Me, and ‘this I will do’…’I will do it’!  

  • We must note here that our praying itself is as much of the ‘greater works than these he will do’ as are the works Christ Himself will work through us as we pray to Him, asking Him to do what needs to be done. It also is evident that nothing we even attempt to do in our strength, energy, and ability will be accomplished … only what we ask Him to do through us. Nothing is accomplished apart from our asking Jesus to do it…and His doing it! Jesus repeats the promise two times to be sure we understand and get it: “Whatever you ask in my Name, this I will do…If you ask Me anything in my Name, I will do it.” He will reiterate and reinforce our absolute dependence upon Him and impotence apart from Him in ch 15.4-5: “…for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

III / vv 15-31 / Yes, I am going away…but let not your hearts be troubled…because I will give you the Holy Spirit, who will be another Helper just like me, and He will be with you and in you forever. I, myself, will continue to be with you and in you in the Person, Presence, and power of the Holy Spirit!

1 / v 15 / In the days and ages ahead – until I come again – you must live your lives and conduct all your ministry by loving Me and keeping my commandments…especially the primary commandment to ‘love one another just as I have loved you’ / see ch 13.34-35.

2 / vv 16-17 / Yes, I am going away to the Father, but I will ask Him to give you another Helper [parcletos / one who is called to come along beside you]. He is the Holy Spirit. He will be ‘another’ of the same kind as I have been to you. He will serve you as your Helper, Companion, Counselor, Comforter for your troubled hearts…even as a kind of ‘proxy’ in my place. The world – unbelievers – have no association with Him. AND, He will be with you forever [since I am physically going away for now…] He will dwell – continue to live – both with you and in you … forever!

3 / vv 18-20 / Yes, I am going away in my physical body…but I am not abandoning you as orphans – without a Christ-Presence. I will even come back to you for a few days after my resurrection and you will see that I am alive! And I will share with you that same resurrection life! When you see me again – resurrected and alive – you will see proof for your faith that everything I am telling you and promising you is the Truth! You will see the Presence and Life of the Father living in Me, and my Presence and Life living in you, and you living in Me by the Eternal Life of my resurrection in the Person and Presence of the Holy Spirit!

4 / vv 21-23 / You will continue to express and evidence your love for Me by believing and obeying my commandments. And when you do that, My Father and I will give you undeniable expressions of our love for you – I will continue to manifest [reveal, appear, make visible to your experience] my love for you. How will I do that? When you love the Father and Me, we will come to you in the Presence and Person of the Holy Spirit and ‘make our home’ with you!

  • NOTE: this is the second of the only two times this word is found in the New Testament – the same word Jesus uses for ‘rooms’ in v 2.

5 / v 24 / Those who do not love Me will not believe, keep, obey my words. They will have no part in all these promises I am giving you. But all of the words I have given you are my Father’s words that He gave Me to give you. He sent Me to you to give you these words…so you may believe them and be saved – and be one with us!

6 / v 25 / I have spoken all these words from the Father to you…while I have been with you in my physical Person and Presence. ‘But,’ you ask, ‘are these same words and promises going away with you when you to the Father?’

7 / vv 26 / NO! All of these words I have spoken to you will remain with you through the continuing ministry and Presence of the Holy Spirit! He will continue to teach you all the words I have verbally spoken to you. He will keep on reminding you of everything I have said. And He will also give you a much fuller and more complete understanding of so many things you can’t fully comprehend now! [see ch 15.26 & 16.12-15].

8 / v 27 / Yes, I know your hearts are very troubled. But you need not be! Give me your troubled hearts by believing in Me, trusting Me, having confidence in the Truth and faithfulness of everything I’m telling you. Yes, I am going away in my physical Person – but I am leaving my peace with you! This is the very same peace that I have in myself! It is the peace of being One with the Father. It is not a peace that depends on the comfort, convenience, and preferences of passing circumstances – that is the kind of human, earthly, worldly peace that comes and goes in the course of natural, human life. My peace that I am giving you that comes from being saved, right with God, reconciled to the Father through your faith in Me. So, STOP LETTING YOUR HEARTS BE TROUBLED, NEITHER LET THEM BE AFRAID!

9 / v 28 / Your hearts are being troubled because you heard Me say, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ Instead of being troubled, you should rejoice! Because when I go away, I am going to the Father. And He is ‘greater than I’ … not in the sense of ‘being more God’ than I am … but rather in the sense that I have come to you at His command, serving His pleasure on your behalf, and fulfilling all His purposes of love for your salvation. And now, I am going back to Him to bring all those redemptive purposes to pass – to fulfill all His loving, saving will for you! He sent Me to you to save you and bring you all Home with us to be with us forever! This is how it will happen!

10 / v 29 / I am telling you all this in advance – before it happens – so you will know I am telling you the Truth when it all comes to pass as I have said. I know I’m asking you to believe many things by faith in Me and my words. But, you can trust me! I will show you!

11 / v 30 / Our time for conversation tonight is very short and rapidly drawing to a close. This very night, I am going to be arrested, turned over to my enemies, and be condemned to die. All of this is under the direction and influence of ‘the ruler of this world’ – Satan, the Devil. He has already taken over Judas Iscariot’s heart. He is the one who has been working in the hearts of the Jewish religious rulers over these last many months when they have been making their plans to kill Me. They are about to fulfill all their murderous plots here within the next few hours.

12 / v 31a / But everything that is transpiring now has been prophesied by the Scriptures. And it has been the Father’s covenant plan for Me from eternity. I love the Father and always obey and please Him. My Father’s commandment is for Me to come here to earth and die for you all – the people whom He has given Me to save by my sacrificial death as your Passover Lamb. And as I fulfill my love for Him by obeying Him even to the point of death – even death on the Cross – I will be giving public testimony to my love for Him.

13 / v 31b / It’s time to go. Everybody get up. We’re leaving this upper room. I’ll have more to say as we make our way to where we’re going next…    

HOW IS YOUR HEART TROUBLED?

DO YOU BELIEVE?

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Love one another…as I have loved you

Posted on March 18, 2023 by PastorDave

JOHN | Lesson 13 | Lesson Notes / Talking points

Read John 13.1 – 14.7

I / INTRODUCTION: MAKING THE CONNECTIONS

1 / Yes, I know, there’s a lot of ground to cover here. But since it’s all connected and flows from one scene and conversation to the next, I want to try to at least try to show here in this lesson how it all fits together. We will have to add more details, remarks, and explanatory commentary as we work our way through the lesson…

2 / Just let me lay out here a summary of the lesson Jesus wants His disciples to learn…and DO! And that will include all of us, too! see ch 13.12-17 & 34-35.

3 / The encompassing focus and theme of all these transactions is: Jesus prepares His disciples for His going away back to the Father … by teaching and commanding them to love and serve one another … and showing them how to do it.

II / ch 13.1-17 / ‘JESUS…BEGAN TO WASH THE DISCIPLES’ FEET…’

1 / Jesus teaches them to love and serve one another by washing their feet Himself … and then commands them [and us] to continue to follow His example and model toward each other.

2 / Jesus knows He is going back to the Father [death, resurrection, ascension], but His disciples need to know how to conduct their relationships with one another during the interim between when He goes away and comes back again to receive us to Himself. This theme ties together chs 13 & 14.

3 / Here are just some of the prominent graces and characteristics of disciples that Jesus demonstrates and exemplifies when He washed their feet:

  • [1] His love for them / v 1. One of John’s most prominent theme-threads and focuses of His Gospel is Jesus’ love for us. ‘…when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father…’ just reminds us again why the Father had sent Him into the world to begin with…and why Jesus had come = LOVE.  God has sent His Son into the world because He so loved the world. ‘…having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.’ Meaning: He loved them [and us] to the completion and the fulfillment of expressing and demonstrating that love. He had come to save us from our sins by dying on His Cross, resurrecting, and ascending back to the Glory He shared with the Father in the beginning. He will show us that love again by washing His disciples’ feet.   
  • [2] His humility among them / vv 2-11. When Jesus washes His disciples’ feet, He is expressing His extreme humility [see also vv 12-16]. And He will command us to follow His example as we continue to relate to one another [more on that in vv 31-35]. When we read about [He] rose from supper. He laid aside His outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around His waist…, it reminds us of Philippians 2.1-11, how He laid aside the Glory He shared with His Father in the beginning, ‘but emptied Himself, by taking for the form of a servant…He humbled Himself,’ etc. Washing the feet of another was the humble work of a servant. If a householder/host had a servant, the servant performed this menial service. If there was no servant in the household, the householder/host performed it. It was unthinkable in their culture and customs that you would have a friend or guest in your home without serving them this way /  see Jesus’ rebuke of the proud Pharisee, Simon, for refusing and neglecting to even offer Him water to wash His own feet, Luke 7.44.
  • [3] His obedience to the Father [and our obedience to Him] / vv 3-5. Jesus’ obedience to the Father is seen by His humbling and giving Himself to this sacrificial service of saving us from our sins. This washing of their feet was a symbol and emblem of His dying for us to cleanse us from our sins / see v 10. See also Philippians 2.8 again: ‘…He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross…’ Our obedience to Christ will be shown as we follow His example toward one another: If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just I have done to you … If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them … [see also vv 34-35].  We will love and serve one another in this same way … if and when we obey Christ.
  • [4] His service for them / vv 12-17. I know we have mentioned ‘service’ already numerous times in the previous comments, but here are just some of the services Christ provided for His disciples by washing their feet … and we will provide for one another when we obey Him and follow His example:
  1. Refreshment. Washing the feet of others was refreshing…in the sense that it washed off the dust and dirt they had gathered on their feet by walking in sandals or open shoes. And, it just felt good.
  2. Encouragement. We show the worth of another to us when we are willing to serve them. And it shows our mutual love, friendship, and relationship with one another.
  3. Correction. Jesus will compare washing His disciples’ feet to the daily forgiveness and cleansing of our sins in v 10. In fact, Jesus uses two words in that verse: The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you [all] are clean [excepting Judas]. The first word refers to our justification, or being completely ‘washed’ and forgiven of all our sins / see 1 Corinthians 6.11 & Titus 3.5. The second word means to [what we call] ‘wash up,’ like your hands, face, feet, or other parts of the body that just need to be washed separately – apart from a bathing of the whole body. We need this when we have committed specific, daily sins that need to be confessed and resolved. We should perform this ‘washing’ ourselves by confessing our sins, praying for forgiveness and cleansing, and forsaking them. AND we should help to correct one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and as His disciples.
  4. Edifying, building up. We ‘wash one another’s feet’ when we fellowship and serve one another and together – as we help one another grow in grace and in obedience to Christ.
  5. Meeting one another’s needs. In short, and to sum it all up, we ‘wash one another’s feet’ when we do and give what we can to meet one another’s needs. When any one of us lacks or needs anything, we need to be there to give and do whatever is needed to meet those needs and make each other ‘whole.’  

III / ch 13.18-30 / ‘…ONE OF YOU WILL BETRAY ME…’

1 / Enter…and exit…Judas Iscariot.

2 / Jesus had chosen Judas to be one His disciples knowing full well that Judas was an unbeliever and a traitor – even that he was a devil / see ch 6.70-71. Judas was always, from the beginning, an unbeliever and under the control, dominion, and direction of the Evil One. But this, too, had been prophesied in Psalm 41.9, and must be fulfilled. There is another commentary on Judas’s spiritual lostness and evil in Acts 1.15-25.

3 / Judas had already conspired with the Jewish religious leaders to betray Jesus to them: Matthew 26.14-16; Mark 14.10-11; Luke 22.3-6.

4 / After Jesus exposed and identified Judas as the traitor, Satan entered into him / v 27. We have to note here that even though Jesus knew Judas’s deceitful treachery all along, none of the disciples entertained any suspicion toward him. Judas had participated in all their ministry activities along with them. He had put up such a good front that from all appearances, he was no different than the others.

5 / Just one more reminder here how John has been weaving his numerous theme-threads all throughout this Gospel. When John writes ‘And it was night,’ he isn’t just giving us a time stamp. He is following up on the contrasting themes of light/darkness that he began in ch 1.4-9; 3.19-21; 8.12; 9.5; 11.9-10; 12.35-36. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. As such, He is our eternal Life, bringing us the knowledge of God, who is Light, and into a spiritual relationship with Him. Judas had no part in Jesus. Judas was of the night and darkness / see Luke 22.47-53.

IV / ch 13.31-35 / ‘LOVE ONE ANOTHER…JUST AS I HAVE LOVED YOU…’

1 / Here now is the explanation and interpretation Jesus gives His disciples [and us] to teach us how we must follow the example He set for us by washing His disciples’ feet. Remember His application of what He had done to them and for them in vv 12-17: “Do you understand what I have done to you? … For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you … If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

2 / When he [Judas] 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 glorify Him at once.” So what does this mean? Jesus is again feeling the impending dread of being made sin for us when He is charged with our sins on the Cross / see where He said these same words back in ch 12.27-28. God the Father will ‘glorify’ Jesus through His death, resurrection, ascension, and being restored to the Glory He had with the Father in the beginning. Jesus reiterates this theme over and over. God is glorified by Jesus’ obedience to Him, and Jesus is glorified by being received back to the Father and their shared Glory / see Acts 2.36; Philippians 2.9-11; 1 Peter 1.11, 21; and many others.

3 / Now that Judas has exited, Jesus returns His discourse to His disciples, as if to say, ‘Now, then, let us proceed with my hour and with what I have come to do. And let me teach you the meaning and significance of the lesson I have shown you when I washed your feet.’

4 / Jesus reminds them again He is going away…back to the Father: “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews [see ch 7.32-34], so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’” When Jesus says, ‘Yet a little while I am with you…,’ He means just a few more hours. Keep in mind, this is the night of His betrayal and arrest that will result in His crucifixion the very next day. The disciples still are ‘not getting it.’ They are not comprehending and processing the meaning, weight, and impact of Jesus’s words. They are not realizing the impending death He will die…tomorrow! BUT they are beginning to sense the seriousness of His words and the troubling of His own soul / see v 21. Looking ahead, this is why their own hearts are beginning to be ‘troubled’ with fear, anxiety, and uncertainty / see ch 14.1 & 27.

5 / Jesus repeats and reinforces His commandment to ‘love one another … just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.’ Jesus calls this a new commandment … not because they have not been commanded before to love one another. Loving one another has been God’s law and commandment from the beginning. Loving one another has always been the ‘second greatest commandment’ / see Matthew 22.39. But it is ‘new’ in that Jesus has just given them a Divine model and example to show them how to fulfill the commandment to love one another. He did that when He Himself washed their feet. As if to say, Do you understand what I have done to you? [v 12] … I have shown you how I love you and what I’m willing to do to show you my love. So study and remember what I have done to you, and keep on loving and serving one another after I have physically and bodily departed from you to go back to the Father. This is my supreme commandment to govern your relationships with one another: LOVE ONE ANOTHER IN THE SAME WAYS I HAVE LOVED YOU!

6 / Jesus sets the standard and rule for evidencing and demonstrating that we are truly His disciples. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” What is a ‘disciple’ anyway? A disciple is not just someone who learns information from the teacher, but someone who lives his own life the same ways the teacher lives his life. How will others know that we are true believers and followers of Jesus? By living our lives by the same model and example that Jesus lived His life! Jesus Christ is known for His LOVE. And if we want to bear witness to a watching world that we are true believers and followers of Christ, it will be by our LOVING ONE ANOTHER!

7 / Why is it so difficult for us to personally, sincerely, and truthfully say the simple words to one another: “I love you!” I know we must use discernment and discretion – and we must not say it in inappropriate circumstances or ways – but this one thing that Jesus commands us to do, and the one rule that Jesus has given us by which we can evidence and demonstrate that we are His disciples, that we belong to Him, and that we identify with Him and one another … is by loving one another. John learned it well: Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth / 1 John 3.18.   

V / ch 13.36 – 14.7 / ‘I AM GOING AWAY…BUT I WILL COME AGAIN…’

1 / Now we come to the transition and crux of the preceding events that will lead us into Jesus’ private discourses recorded in chs 14-16. The one sentence and realization that begins to ‘trouble’ the disciples is when Jesus drops like a bombshell [to them] the announcement: “…so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come…’” [ch 13.33]. This announcement not only prompts Peter to begin asking Jesus, “Lord, where are you going?” [ch 13.36-38], but it also begins to stir up the deepest anxiety and agitation in their spirits.

2 / “Stop letting your hearts be troubled!” / ch 14.1. This is, by the way, the same word that describes the deep, inner turmoil that tore at Jesus’ own soul in ch 11.33; 12.27; 13.21.

3 / Jesus calms their troubled souls with these promises and assurances:

  • [1] Believe [trust, have confidence] in God; believe also in me.
  • [2] In my Father’s house [place to live, dwell, abide, remain] are many rooms [shared living places]. This word we are used to hearing and quoting as ‘mansions’ simply means ‘a place to belong.’ It is used only twice in the New Testament, both in this chapter: vv 2 & 23. It means ‘a place to remain at home.’
  • [3] I am going [there…He says it again, as He will many other times during this discourse] to prepare a place for you. He will prepare this ‘place’ for us by redeeming us to God…so we can be with Him forever. He prepares this ‘place’ by His blood that saves and justifies us from our sins so we can be saved and reconciled to God.
  • [4] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. He is promising His second coming to gather us all Home with Him forever.
  • [5] And you know the way to where I am going. This prompted Thomas to question Him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Thomas was just voicing the question and confusion in all their minds. They still were not grasping how Jesus was going away and where exactly He was going. They were thinking more in terms of a geographical location – or if it was Heavenly, then where was it exactly and how were they going to know how to get there?
  • [6] I AM the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. This has to be one of the deepest and most profound and all-encompassing truths to quiet our troubled souls in all the times of our confusion, anxiety, uncertainty, perplexity, and even panic here amid all our troubles. We have so many unanswered questions – but if we know Jesus Christ, believe in Him, trust Him, and have confidence in Him, then we know all we will ever need to know.

4 / Jesus Christ is ALL the Way, Truth, and Life we will ever need – both to navigate all the ‘troubles’ of this life … and He will accompany us every step of our ways here and finally come to receive us to Himself where we will be ‘at Home’ with Him forever!

DO YOU BELIEVE?

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An update re: my Mom…

Posted on March 14, 2023 by PastorDave

Tuesday, 14 March 2023

Dear Friends,

I’m writing this primarily for the sake of the many of you with whom I correspond, live in community, and fellowship on a daily and weekly basis … and who know about and pray for my Mom.

Many of you also know about my trip to Lexington NC last week to visit with Mom and my family there, but you haven’t had opportunity for me to tell you about it. You are asking and wanting to know, and I thank you for that.

So let me give you a recap here of the events of the past 7-8 weeks and how she is doing now … even as of today, this morning.

Mom was taken to the hospital this last time on 22 January with shortness of breath and other related disorders. She has a history of all these issues. She was admitted and treated for several days for cardiac irregularities, and also diagnosed with acute UTI. The UTI has been a regular recurrence over the past several months since she had become more immobile and sedentary. After eight days of hospitalization, she was transferred to a nursing home/rehab facility where we hoped and prayed she could recoup enough strength to return home and be cared for there as before. Then she was taken back to the hospital after suffering a relapse in the rehab facility, treated for three days, and returned to the rehab facility. After only a few days back at the rehab facility, it became clear that Mom had no more reserves of strength with which to rehab, so we brought her back to her home to care for her there. She has now lost all of her strength to stand upright or on her own. We moved her out of her bedroom, acquired a hospital bed, and set her up in the large, open, ‘great’ room in her home so she could be out in the traffic area of the home as everybody comes and goes. We had arranged weeks ago for Mom to have round-the-clock, 24/7, companions and caregivers. My sisters, our niece, and other caregivers are providing her with personal, professional, and loving constant care.

About my trip last week: last Monday, 3/6, I drove down there to visit with Mom and the family for a few days. Came back home Thursday morning, 3/9. While I was there, my sisters and I consulted with other care resources that are available there locally to assist them in administering Mom’s care. Also, my older brother, Daniel, was there during those days. He had stopped in while returning from a preaching engagement.

Last Wednesday night, Mom’s church family and friends came into the home for what we older folks used to call a ‘cottage prayer meeting.’ This was their midweek service night, so they all gathered at Mom’s to meet and worship. Pastor Bobby Smith led us as we sang and prayed, and then he had asked me to deliver a message from the Word of God. I chose to do a brief exposition of Psalm 92, especially focusing on the concluding blessing in verses 12-15:

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
15 To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.  

Without giving more details of my remarks, I told those in attendance that I wanted to direct these Scriptures and my words of encouragement to Mom, but that they were welcome to eavesdrop and overhear ;). What I wanted Mom to know is that even now – even in her extreme weakness and affliction – she is still flourishing and bearing fruit in her old age. All the years of her life [she is now 93 years old] – faithful service to Christ, pastor’s wife and mother, witness and testimony to the Gospel both in word and deed – all of that lifetime of service has not been ‘spent,’ as in ‘gone’ … rather, all the years of her life have been ’planted’ in the house of the LORD and is still bearing fruit, even here and now in her old age.

I further reminded her that we six kids of hers are ‘the fruit of your womb,’ and we are still bearing fruit in our own lives and service to Christ. All of us, Mom’s ‘kids,’ are now old ourselves, and so I had counted up all our ages together: 417 collective years. We, too, are the fruit of her life. And that is besides all the hundreds of others in whose lives Mom has ‘planted’ hers. I just wanted her to know that even now in her present physical weakness, she is still strong and flourishing, still bearing fruit in her old age.

Which brings us to today … even while I was there last week, my sisters and Mom’s caregivers were noticing some discoloration and tinging of blood in her urine. That’s never a good sign. They have begun a course of antibiotics, and a nurse is with her just this morning trying to assess and evaluate what may be going on with her kidneys/bladder. I’m still waiting to hear from that assessment. They will be consulting also with Hospice tomorrow to see what further resources may be available from them. But, Mom knows, and we know, the days of her pilgrimage here are numbered and decreasing.

So, I am in continuous daily correspondence with them, and there will be other trips and visits that I’ll be making there in the soon days to come. But I do want all you dear friends to at least be aware of where things stand today.

We ask that you continue to pray that God will give Mom a strong sense of His Presence with her and His pleasure in her [Psalm 23]. That He will embrace her in His love, envelop her in His peace, and rejoice over her with singing [Zephaniah 3.17].

For years now, every time Mom corresponded with me, she would always sign her name with the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6.23-26. We’re all praying the LORD will return that same blessing to her in full measure, shaken down, and running over.

Thank you for all the love you have shown me and our Mom and for joining your prayers with ours for her.  

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