Category: Jesus in the Upper Room

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 33

“These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” (John 14:25-26).

Here Jesus gives a reassuring word to His disciples.  “While abiding with you – while living with you, traveling with you, serving with you – I have had a lot to say.  Don’t worry about remembering it all.  Part of the Holy Spirit’s role when He comes will be to teach you all things, and to bring to your mind all that I have said to you.”

This word of reassurance so fits the need of the disciples as they have been processing Jesus’ message that He is going away.  Throughout these chapters in John, Jesus always pairs His going away with the coming of the Helper.  Here the Helper is more specifically identified as the third Person of the Trinity; The Holy Spirit.

Let’s look more closely at the two roles of the Spirit given in this verse.  First, He will teach them all things.  On the day of Pentecost, Peter – full of the Spirit – preached a powerful message of history, challenge, and invitation that came straight from the Spirit’s revelation to Him.  And it is safe to assume that Peter’s subsequent sermons and writings were filled with what the Holy Spirit taught him.  The other apostles also wrote as the Spirit revealed the message to them.

Second, the Spirit will bring to mind the words of Jesus to the disciples.  So much of the New Testament letters are an exposition of what Jesus taught.  Here are just a couple of examples from John’s first letter.  “And this is the promise that He Himself [Jesus] made to us: eternal life” (1 John 2:25).  “And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (1 John 3:23).

The two-part promise of Jesus came true; the Holy Spirit revealed truth to the disciples and reminded them of all that Jesus had said.  By extension to our day, I believe God is now accomplishing this in His followers.  As our minds are being renewed by the Spirit’s presence and power, we will find ourselves more and more hearing the voice of the Spirit and the word of Jesus.

There is a strain of teaching that calls us to be suspicious of our minds.  That treats our minds as suspect and still fraught with sin.  But empowered by the Spirit, your mind is being renewed, transformed, and growing into the likeness of Christ.  Part of the Holy Spirit’s role in your life is to teach you, and to fill your mind with the word that Jesus has for you.  Listen for that message.  It is nearer than you think.

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 32

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you” (John 14:16-17)

One of the promises of Jesus revealed in His upper room message is the promise of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit – here identified as the Helper – is coming to live in us.

We have a hint of the Spirit in us in Jesus’ great proclamation at the feast in John chapter 7, ” ‘He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” ‘  But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39).

Here in the John 14 passage, Jesus begins a fuller revelation of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus promises to petition the Father and also promises that the Father will answer by giving us His Holy Spirit.  What aspects of the Holy Spirit’s presence does Jesus reveal here?

First, the Holy Spirit will be sent to us by the Father in answer to Jesus’ prayer.  Second, the Spirit will be “another” [Greek allos, another of the same sort; not heteros, another that is different] meaning that He will be a “Helper” in the same way that Jesus has been to the disciples.  Third, He will be with us forever.  Fourth, He will be known as the Spirit of truth.  Jesus referred to Himself as “the truth” (John 14:6).  The Spirit, as Jesus’ equal, will also be known as true.  Fifth, the world will not be able to receive God’s Spirit, because the world does not know or recognize Him.  Sixth, the Spirit abides with the disciples at that time through the physical presence of Jesus.

Last, and I think the most radical idea of them all, the “Spirit will be IN you.”  Will be IN you.  Will be IN us.  Will be IN you and me.  At the time of Jesus’ words, God’s Spirit dwelt with the disciples through the physical presence of Jesus, the God-man.  But a future time is coming, after Jesus has physically departed, when the Spirit will literally live IN the disciples.  And by our faith in Christ and His work on the cross to bring us into His family, the Spirit will live IN us as well.

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 31

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).

This verse connects our faith to a stunning promise of Jesus.  Jesus says that if we believe in Him, we will do works such as His and in fact do even greater works.  How is this even possible?

The first prerequisite to “greater works” is our faith; “he who believes in Me.”  The second prerequisite is Jesus going to the Father.  Because Jesus is going to the Father, His followers will do greater works than He.  The fulfillment of the promise is clear to us now, but its first utterance had to be confusing to the disciples.  Looking back, we see that it did not take long to be fulfilled.

Following Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, His band of followers numbered around 120 people.  On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit – only available now because Jesus went to the Father (John 16:7) – fell as a rushing wind and indwelt Jesus’ disciples.  A Spirit filled Peter preached a message of repentance and forgiveness in the person and work of Jesus and 3000 souls were saved.  The church was born.

Jesus’ work on earth was limited to a specific time and place and reach that one man, even the Son of God, “could” (or more accurately “chose”) to accomplish.  This was part of God’s plan when He sent His Son in the form of a man.  But now, on the day of Pentecost and hereafter, God was no longer working on earth through one man, Jesus.  God was actually indwelling and working through 12 apostles, and 120 people, and 3000 new believers, and by today in the millions.

God can be a lot of places and be doing “greater works” when He lives and works through a billion believers.  Jesus said, “The works that I do shall you do also.”  These “greater works” are still the work of Jesus.  But they are no longer accomplished by His physical presence among us.  They are accomplished by His Spirit within us.

The indwelling Spirit is a major theme in this upper room message.  And we are going to explore the implications of the Spirit coming to live in us in the next several posts.

So take courage.  God is still at work in this world.  And you are a part of that work.  You are a recipient of the work of God and an agent of the work of God.  His work is all around and in you.  You are part of God’s “greater works”.

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 30

“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”  Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”  Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip?  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.  ¹¹Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.” (John 14:7-11).

Jesus makes clear in this passage that He and the Father are one.  He goes so far to say that if you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father.  Or course, with only a hint at the concept of the Trinity, the disciples are scratching their collective heads.  Philip speaks for the group with what sounds like a reasonable request, “Show us the Father.”

Jesus states more than once in these verses that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him; that if you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father.  So the answer to Philip’s inquiry “Show us the Father” is the Jesus standing right in front of them.

And that is still the picture for us today.  We see the Father in the face of Jesus.  “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6).

But there is a requirement to see the Father in face of Jesus; faith in Christ.  Jesus said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? … Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me.”  Faith is required to see the Father in the face of the Son.

Jesus goes on to give the disciples two avenues to exercise their faith.  They are to believe Jesus’ words about who He is; He is in the Father and the Father in Him.  But as they try to process what these words exactly mean, Jesus gives them an alternative path, “Believe on account of the works themselves.”

Jesus gives the disciples some space to come to grips with His statements.  “Look at the works” Jesus says.  “You will see that the Father abiding in Me is doing His work.  The works I do are the works of God.”  To extend Jesus’ thought, I think He is saying, “Only God can do the works you have witnessed.  And these works testify that I and the Father are working in unison and it is the work of God that you have seen in these three years of miracles.  These signs and wonders can only be the work of God the Father; working through Me because I and the Father are one.”

I love the compassion in Jesus’ words.  He is essentially saying to His friends, “If this concept of I am in the Father and the Father is in Me has your head spinning, focus on the works themselves.  They testify to who I am.  They testify that I am the divine Son of God.  I am doing works that only God can do.”

Understanding the Red Letters   Part 29

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me“ (John 14:6).

John 14:6 is one of the most succinct descriptions of who Jesus is in the entire gospels.  There is so much depth in each of these descriptions that Jesus applies to Himself; “the way, the truth, and the life.”

The Way:  The disciples quizzed Jesus regarding where He was going and the way to get there.  Of course, we understand this “Jesus is the way” much better than the disciples ever could have at this point because we are looking back to the cross.  We are looking back to exactly what Jesus meant by Him being the way.  His death, burial, and resurrection are the way to eternal life.  He is the way to the Father.  Jesus is the way to a right relationship with God.  Jesus is the way to heaven.  Jesus is the only way to dwelling forever with the Father and the Son.

The Truth:  Jesus made clear throughout His earthly teaching that some things are true and others are false.  Jesus’ words were always true.  Jesus’ message was always true.  In fact, Jesus was so much the epitome of truth that He could simply be called The Truth.

Jesus, in His own words, is the truth.  There is no falsehood in Him.  We can trust what Jesus says to be true.  So when Jesus speaks of Himself as the Way, the way to eternal life, I know He is telling us the truth.

The Life:  This is such a prolific message throughout the gospel of John.  Jesus came to bring us life.  Abundant life in the here and now (John 10:10), resurrection life (John 11:25) in the here and hereafter, and eternal life in His presence (John 6:40, 14:3).

Jesus’ ministry was consumed by bringing what Peter called “words of eternal life” to situations and places and people who were “dead”.  Life in place of death is a gift that Jesus brought to His time on the earth and continues to give to people all over the world.  Jesus is life.  Jesus is The Life.  And as we will learn in our upcoming posts, Jesus gave us His life.

The Way, The Truth, The Life; an all-encompassing description of Jesus.  God, the Son, come to earth to show us the way, the truth, and the life.