Judas has a question. (Not the bad Judas…this is the other Judas.) He’s been listening to Jesus talk about leaving them, about sending the Holy Spirit to be with them. Jesus has just said that he will show himself to his disciples, but not to the world. Judas is confused. He asks Jesus in John 14, verse 22, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Good question, especially when we think about the mission of God to bless the whole world. But maybe Judas has misunderstood Jesus. So Jesus clears things up. Look at verses 23-26,
“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.’”
These verses are a near repetition of verses 15-21, which we studied in the first post in this week’s series. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “Thank you for your question, Judas. Let me summarize.” Then he repeats himself: “Show God your love by following my words and ways of Jesus.”
Jesus came, in part, to show us how to be the kinds of humans God wants us to be. When we live that way, Jesus says, God the Father loves us, and together with Jesus, God wants to make his home with us. This homemaking will happen through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete (a word we learned about here in the previous post), who is our advocate, counselor, helper, comforter, and encourager. The Spirit till teach the disciples all things and remind them of all Jesus taught.
Though Jesus is leaving them, they will not be alone. In fact, they will be closer to God than ever, as the Spirit with be with them. But there’s more. Look at verses 27-29:
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.”
The disciples need not be afraid because he is giving them his peace. His Spirit will be with them. Though he, Jesus, is leaving them, he will leave the Spirit with them. Though Jesus is not with us, we can experience his peace because his Spirit is with us. Sometimes when a loved one dies, we say that we still feel their spirit with us. That’s not what Jesus is getting at here. Jesus is saying that one person of our Trinitarian God actually lives with us and in us, actively, relationally.
That’s why Jesus says that the disciples should be glad that he is going to the Father. When he leaves, the Spirit comes to live with them and in them! What a powerful teaching for us too.
Then in verses 30-31, we see him reflect on this coming change.
“I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now; let us leave.”
Jesus knows that the end is near. The prince of the world is Satan, who is on the move. Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion are momentous events that send shockwaves through both the physical and spiritual realm. But Jesus assures the disciples that Satan has nothing on him. Instead, Jesus wants the disciples to know that what Jesus is doing is a willful choice, an act of loving obedience to the Father.
In other words, Jesus lovingly obeys his Father, and he calls his disciples to lovingly obey him. Jesus doesn’t ask us to do what he himself is not willing to do. He is our example of loving obedience, which should hopefully help us better understand and accept when he says “If you love me, obey my commands.” How amazing that Jesus is our example of this. He showed us what it means to love God and obey his commands.
At the end of verse 31, Jesus invites them to get up and start walking toward the Garden of Gethsemane outside the city walls on the Mount of Olives. But Jesus is still talking as they walk.
Most of what he says as they walk we’ll learn in future weeks, but for the final two posts this week, we’re going to peek ahead to a few verses in chapter 15 and a few more in chapter 16, because they tell us more about the Holy Spirit, which he introduced in chapter 14. More on that in the next post.
We evangelical Christians are known for teaching children to “ask Jesus into their heart.” From an adult perspective, it’s an odd phrase. Yet there is something to it, as we will see in today’s post.
After teaching his disciples that if they love him, they will obey him, which might feel like a tall task, Jesus says that he will help them. More specifically, he is sending someone to help one. Who is he sending? Jesus tells them in John 14, verses 16-21,
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
So we’re not alone. We have an advocate to help us. Our advocate is the Holy Spirit. But who is the Holy Spirit, and how is the Spirit our advocate? What does Jesus mean?
First of all, we are not Unitarians. Unitarians believe there is just God. We are Trinitarians, meaning that we believe God exists as three persons, Father, Son and Spirit. All equal. One is not higher than the others. We do not believe that God the Father is more powerful or above Jesus and the Spirit. They are totally equal. A passage like this is very Trinitarian in nature. Father, Son and Spirit all mentioned as equals.
What do we read about God from the Bible? We read quite a lot about God as Father, leading us to sometimes jokingly call him “the big man upstairs.” In our hearts and minds we can go beyond what the Bible teaches about God, conceiving God as a man with a beard who is the Father of Jesus. Yet, Father God, to us, seems to be God, and thus we have a respect for him. We can envision him, and we pray to him.
Then there is Jesus. We read a lot about Jesus in the Bible, and we watch movies and TV shows dramatizing the life of Jesus. Because Jesus is God who took on human flesh, he is very easy to connect with. Even if we’re just reading the stories about his life or studying his teachings in the Bible, we can feel close to him.
But the Spirit? What we read in the Bible is a Spirit who moves in mysterious ways. A Spirit who is invisible. Sometimes we can feel the Spirit is not very communicative, if at all. We read that the Spirit lives with us, that our bodies are the temple of the Spirit, but what does that even mean? Are we supposed to feel something? Often we can think, “I don’t feel anything.”
We sometimes hear people talking about how the Spirit said this to them and the Spirit said that. We can hear stories or watch videos of people speaking on tongues or being slain in the Spirit, and we can feel extremely uncomfortable about that. We wonder, “Is it real? Can’t be, can it? It seems fake. And why would God want us to do any of that stuff?”
Then we read about the work of the Spirit in the Bible, especially in the book of Acts, which tells the story of the first Christians and how they lived the mission of Jesus, inviting people across the Roman Empire to follow Jesus. In Acts chapter 2, the Spirit first comes upon them as a rushing wind, as tongues of flame alight on their heads, empowering the disciples to speak in other languages. It can seem bizarre. Wind? Fire? Other languages? We Word-centered Christians tend to be very suspicious of those expressions of faith. Many of us would rather read, study, memorize, teach and preach the Bible. The Spirit is wild, scary, confusing.
But here Jesus says that he will give us the Spirit to be our…well…actually, what is Jesus talking about? The word he uses is translated many ways. The NIV 1984 uses “Counselor.” The NAS and ESV use “Helper.” The NRSV and NLT use “Advocate”. The King James uses “Comforter.” While these words are similar, they all have a slightly different nuance.
The Greek word is paraclete which is defined as “one who helps, by consoling, encouraging, or mediating on behalf of—Helper, Encourager, Mediator.” (Louw & Nida, 141)
Think about those words: Helper, Encourager, Consoler, Mediator. Each describes the Spirit as actively involved in our lives. The Spirit is relational, communicative, supporting us.
The Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, Jesus says, who dwells with us and in us. When Jesus says in verse 20 that we are in him, and he is in us, he is referring to the work of the Spirit in our lives. Because Jesus and the Spirit are equally God, Jesus lives in us by the Spirit.
Also notice how Jesus bookends this teaching with love and obedience. In verse 15, and again in verse 21. In both of the those verses, Jesus says we demonstrate our love for him by keeping his commands. Now he says that both the Father loves us and he, Jesus, loves us. Because he loves us, he will manifest himself to us, which means that he is present with us. His presence will be with us because his Spirit will be with us and in us.
If you are one of the disciples sitting there, you could be thinking, “Jesus, you just told us that you are going to leave us, and now you are saying that you will be present with us? You are contradicting yourself!” But Jesus is not contradicting himself. Yes, he is leaving, but in his place he is sending the Spirit to be with us, to live in us. He will be present with us by his Spirit. But also, when we obey his commands, we actually make Jesus visible to the world around us. His teaching comes alive in us and to others.
Do you see how deeply connected our Trinitarian God wants to be with us? And do you see how this desire for connection is based in God’s love for us? God in us, loving us. Filled with God the Spirit, we respond back in loving obedience.
This discussion has one of Jesus’ disciples thinking. Judas. Not the bad Judas. He asks in verse 22, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Good question, especially when we think about the mission of God to bless the whole world. Or maybe Judas misunderstands Jesus. So Jesus clears things up, and we’ll learn how in the next post.
When I was in Bible College, I was in the college library one day reading Christianity Today magazine. It was the September 1994 issue, and in that issue an article really caught my attention. The title of the article is “Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit?” by Daniel Wallace, at the time a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.
In the 1990s, as it had been for decades prior, Dallas Seminary was the seminary of choice for Lancaster Bible College grads who wanted to continue their education. So this article caught my eye for two reason. One it was written by a Dallas prof, and two it was about the Holy Spirit.
What Wallace writes at the beginning of the article had me hooked, with these very provocative words,
“I am a cessationist. That is to say, I believe that certain gifts of the Holy Spirit -namely, the “sign gifts” of healing, tongues, and miracles—were employed in the early church to authenticate that God was doing something new, but that they ceased with the death of the last apostle. This is what distinguishes me from a charismatic Christian, who believes the Holy Spirit still uses sign gifts today.
“While I still consider myself a cessationist, the last few years have shown me that my spiritual life has gotten off track—that somehow I, along with many others in my theological tradition, have learned to do without the third person of the Trinity.
“This has not hindered my academic work. Mine has become a cognitive faith—a Christianity from the neck up. As long as I could control the text, I was happy. I lived in the half-reality that theological articulation is valid only if it is based on sound exegesis and nothing else. Like the proverbial frog in the slowly simmering pot of water, I did not sense that I was on the way to self-destruction.”
Self-destruction? A cognitive faith, controlling the text of the Bible, was killing him? That caused me to ask: Is a cognitive faith killing us? Do we really need the Holy Spirit? The answer is “Of course we need the Spirit.” But why? Perhaps more importantly, do the actions and choices of our lives show that we need the Holy Spirit?
Let’s hear what Jesus has to say about that. Turn to John 14, verse 15.
The scene is the Upper Room where Jesus celebrated the Jewish Passover Feast with his disciples. He washed their feet, and then over the meal, he revealed that Judas Iscariot would betray him. Judas hightailed it out of there, and then Jesus had more bad news, saying that Peter would deny him. As you can imagine, the air in the room was tense. To ease the tension, Jesus assures the disciples that they will be able to find true home with God. We know he wasn’t talking about the afterlife in heaven, though, because he says they will do greater things than him, and when they ask in his name, he will give it to them. Jesus is talking about life now. How he wants us to live life now continues in the next section, verses 15-31.
He starts with a very clear teaching in verse 15, “If you love me, keep my commands.”
I have a book in my office called I Wish Jesus Hadn’t Said That. It’s about numerous commands that he taught. There are some really difficult ones. But Jesus says here in John 14:15 that if we love him, we will keep his commands. Not just the easy ones, but also the difficult ones.
Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
Die to yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.
Forgive 70 times 7.
And should we talk about all Jesus had to say about money?
No matter how difficult, Jesus says if we love him, we will keep his commands. And if we don’t keep his commands, what does it say about our love for him?
I have to admit that I feel a bit strange when I think about Jesus mixing love and obedience to him. Can you imagine saying that to anyone you love? “If you love me, keep my commands.” That would not go over well in many human relationships. But there is perhaps a better way to understand Jesus’ heart here.
If we love him, we will want to obey his commands. If we love him, we trust him. We believe he is good and therefore we act on that belief. He is for us and would only ask us to do what is good for us and others.
So this is a good point of evaluation for all of us. How do you feel about obeying Jesus’ commands? How passionate are you about following Jesus’ words and ways? Or do you not really think about it that much in your day to day life? Is there some apathy in you? There are certainly some commands and teachings I struggle with. So remember that God is gracious, forgiving, and there is no sin we can commit or good thing that we can omit that would cause him to love us less. His death and resurrection has truly covered it all.
There is another way to think about love as obedience. Following Jesus’ commands are not only how we express our love to God, but it is also in our best interest. When we follow God’s commands, which is to say, his way and his heart, we will discover flourishing. When we do what he did, when we follow the ways and words of Jesus, even if they seem difficult, we will find the abundant life. Not the easy life, but the abundant life.
If you ever think, “But sometimes following God’s commands is not just difficult, it is really, really difficult. Sometimes it seems impossible!” I get it. Our natural inclinations get challenged. Loving enemies doesn’t come easy. Giving sacrificially of ourselves. Forgiving those who have hurt us. These are some incredibly difficult actions that Jesus calls us to follow. It’s true.
But know this, we are not alone. We do not have to love God out of mere willpower. He didn’t set us up for failure. We’ll learn how in the next post.
Who’s afraid of the Holy Spirit? My guess is that most of us would say we are not afraid of the Holy Spirit. But I wonder if any of us might say that the Holy Spirit seems mysterious at best, distant or mute at worst. Some of us might say that we are uncomfortable with expressions of Christianity that emphasize the manifestation of the Holy Spirit via practices such as speaking in tongues, slaying in the Spirit, and prophetic words.
I recently asked my barber if he had a religious upbringing. He responded that his only experience with religion was when an extended family member took him to a church worship service that included slaying in the Spirit. He was a pre-teen at the time, and he found the experience confusing and off-putting. I experienced the same feelings one time. When Faith Church took a mission trip in 2009 to Costa Rica to work with our sister churches there, some in our group were slain in the Spirit, and some felt it was a positive experience. It made me very concerned.
Should Christians expect speaking in tongues, slaying in the Spirit and prophetic words in our worship services? Are those things fake? Why do those activities happen at some churches and not at others? If those activities are not happening in a church, is that church lacking in the Spirit?
What is the role of the Holy Spirit? What should we expect? I would not be surprised if many readers find the Holy Spirit to be confusing. This coming week on the blog we’ll be studying selections from John chapters 14, 15 and 16. In all of these passages, Jesus teaches about the role and work of the Holy Spirit.
What we will find is that Jesus takes the Holy Spirit quite seriously, and thus the Spirit is just as important as God the Father and God the Son. I’m looking forward to talking about the Spirit with you.
In my 20+ years of professional ministry, I’ve had the occasion to pray publicly quite a bit. I tack this phrase onto the end of nearly all my prayers, “In Jesus’ name. Amen.” Maybe you pray that way too. Maybe you’ve heard other’s do so. Why do we pray that way? Do we need to? Will it help our prayer be more effective?
Jesus says in John 14, verses 13-14, that if we ask in his name, he do whatever we ask. Yes! Now this is the teaching we want to hear. “In Jesus’ name I ask for a million dollars.” Wait…let me get a bit more spiritual. “In Jesus’ name I ask for cancer to disappear across the planet.” What do you want to ask for? We’re about to solve all the world’s problems, get rich, and have perfect bodies.
Or will we? You’d think that would have happened long ago.
As much as you and I might have a desire for at least some of those answers to prayer, you probably already knew that’s not what Jesus meant when he gave us this astounding promise. What does asking in Jesus’ name mean?
Asking in Jesus’ name means asking in such a way that is aligned with who he is. It is asking for Jesus to empower us to do his will, advance his kingdom, and serve his mission, which is precisely what we should be asking for. Too often we ask for lesser things, believing money or some new gadget or friendship will fill the emptiness in our hearts. Jesus says we should be asking in his name. It is desiring more of him and his ways, more of his Father and the Spirit in our lives. Then doing our part to advance the mission of their Kingdom.
Jesus is not saying, “When you pray, please add the phrase ‘In Jesus’ name’ at the end of all your prayers, and then I will grant you what you prayed for.”
That sounds a lot more like I Dream of Jeannie or Harry Potter. Instead Jesus wants us to be so familiar with him, his heart and his mission that we pray for the things that he loves. “Jesus help me serve the poor,” without tacking on some phrase, we already know that prayer is in his name. “Jesus, help we get rid of my anger and be kind.” Don’t need to tack on a phrase to that one either. “Jesus, help me to go without luxury so I can be more generous.” “Jesus, help me to grow a loving relationship to my neighbor whose ethnicity and culture and language is very different from my own.” All of these are prayers that are in Jesus’ name.
Followers of Jesus, then, are people who are at home with God, people whom God has made his home with, people who practice a faith now, in line with Jesus.
As we follow Jesus, as we get to know him more, we will see why people flocked to him and followed him. Then we will want to partner with him to bring more of his Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.
We will look more and more like him. Then we will do greater things as we live his abundant life now. This is not always easy. But it is the good stuff of life, as we give of ourselves sacrificially, making changes, giving of our time and energy and resources to his Kingdom. Let’s follow him into that kind of flourishing life. What we will find is that he makes his home with us.
As Jesus describes how we he and his Father want to be at home with us, it seems the disciples are not fully getting it. In John 14, verse 8, we read,
“Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’”
At that comment, I wonder if any of the disciples thought, “Are you serious Philip? Jesus just said that seeing and knowing Jesus is seeing and knowing the Father.” Did that important fact just blow right over Philip’s head? Or is Philip thinking, “Where is the Father? I don’t see the Father anywhere. Show me the Father.”
I think many of us can understand what Philip is getting at. We want to see an undeniable proof of God’s existence. If we could just see God, that would be enough for us too, or so we think. Would a quick glance into the supernatural world sustain us for a lifetime? If we could see heaven for five minutes, or even 30 minutes, would we have strong faith for the rest of our lives? Maybe. Maybe not. But Jesus has just told the disciples that they have already seen the Father. We read that in the previous post. So Jesus has a response for Philip, and I wish I could see the look on Jesus’ face and hear his tone of voice in this response. It’s a doozy. Look at verses 9-11.
“Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.’”
Yikes. I wouldn’t want to be Philip at that moment. But the reality is that you and I just might be in the same position that Philip was in, and we might be in that position many times. Jesus has just said essentially, “Philip, we’ve been together for nearly three years. I’ve talked about this before. Many times. In fact, I just said, ‘You know me, you know the Father, and you have seen the Father.’ And by the way, remember all the miracles!”
Some of us are forgetful. It seems to me that it is much easier to remember the bad times, the pain, the difficulty. We can forget the good times, such as the miracles God has done in our lives. Jesus calls Philip to pause and remember. Remember his teachings. Remember his miracles. Remember all that has happened over the past three years. There was a lot to remember and think about.
Jesus’ point is that when you put it all together, Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him. This is a significant point that Jesus is making in this passage. Where Jesus is, there the Father is, and they want that place to be at home with each of us. It’s astounding to think about really. Then Jesus takes it up a notch with a teaching that is possibly even more astounding.
“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
Jesus is going to the Father, and that will open the door for two things:
Anyone who has faith in him, will do what Jesus has been doing, and actually even greater things.
When we ask for anything in his name, and he will do it, thus bringing glory to God.
As I think about these two things, clearly Jesus is not saying that he just really wants his followers to die so that they can experience some kind of special afterlife. Not even close. Jesus wants his people to be fully alive now, so that they and everyone can experience the abundant life now. Let’s look a bit more at each of the two things he suggests to help us experience that abundant life now.
First, in verse 9, when people have faith in Jesus they do what he did, and they do greater things than what he did. We might think that doing what he did is hard enough, maybe even impossible. The thought of doing greater things that Jesus did is unimaginable. But it’s not some random person saying this, not even a great Bible teacher. It’s Jesus, who is God, saying that our faith in him will impel us to do what he did and even greater things.
Notice then, that Jesus’ description of faith is active. Faith does things. Faith does Jesus-shaped things. Faith is not just ideas in our minds. Beliefs in our minds are fully intertwined with action. Faith is living a life in the way that Jesus himself lived. How did he live? That’s what this sermon series has been about. Jesus was the embodiment of the Fruit of the Spirit, inviting people to follow him, healing the sick, proclaiming Good News, loving others well.
But how can we do greater things than him? Isn’t that really impossible? Well, when Jesus ascended to heaven, he had 120 followers. They were located in Jerusalem. Now there are Christians numbering in the billions all across the globe. Greater things. Christians started hospitals, educational institutions, orphanages. Greater things. Christians eradicated slavery in some countries, started prison ministry, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, developed vaccines. Greater things. Christians create amazing works of art through music, writing, drama, and visual art. All Greater things. Christians start businesses and social enterprises to promote flourishing. Greater things. Christians get married and raise kids and grandkids. Greater things.
This doesn’t mean that we are better than Jesus. This doesn’t mean there isn’t work yet to be done. It just means that Jesus was right. Christians have and continue to do greater things, in his name, empowered by his Spirit, together.
Next, Jesus says in verses 13-14, that if we ask in his name, he will do whatever we ask. What? Is he serious? We’ll find out in the next post.
The other day I pulled a bag of potato chips out of our pantry, looking forward to a snack. I dug around the chips, pulled out a handful and started munching. Ugh! They were stale. Soft, bland, tasteless chips. It’s the rare person that enjoys stale anything. What about your practice of faith, your discipleship to Jesus? Is it stale? In today’s devotional, God talks with some people who believed things in their world were just fine, and he says, “You’re not fine…you’re stale.”
As we learned last week, here at the end of the book of Jeremiah, the genre shifts to prophetic poems about the nations surrounding Israel. Last week in chapters 46 and 47, we studied poems about Egypt and Philistia. In chapter 48, Jeremiah’s prophetic poem is about Moab.
Situated east/southeast of the Dead Sea, Moab is the homeland of Ruth, the famous grandmother of Israel’s great King David who lived about five centuries before the time of Jeremiah. As we’ll find, the relationship between God and Moab has changed dramatically from the days of Ruth and David. That’s why Jeremiah’s prophecy begins in verses 1-6 with nothing but a word of “woe.” In Hebrew the word “woe” is onomatopoeia, a word spelled like it sounds. Likely it was a guttural forlorn cry of pain because destruction was being unleashed on Moab. Why will “Moab be broken” (verse 4)?
The Lord tells us why in verse 7: “you trust in your deeds and riches.” He goes on in verse 10 to declare a curse on them because they are “lax in doing the Lord’s work.” Next in verses 11-13, the Lord compares Moab to wine that has been at rest, stagnating. This is a picture of apathy, of laziness, believing that they could rest on their laurels and their wealth.
The Lord’s evaluation of Moab reminds me of something I’ve heard over the years in pastoral ministry, mostly from people who are in the older generations or who are nearing or are in retirement. They’ve worked a long time. Decades of toil. They’re tired and ready to be done with the daily grind. They’ve also served in the life of the church or other volunteer organizations, and perhaps are wondering if they are burnt out. They say that they are done, and it is time for the younger generation to step up.
I feel tension about this. On the one hand, I don’t want to see anyone succumb to burnout and spiritual fatigue. Rest is good, sabbatical is needed. I took one myself in January through March of 2018. Our denomination recommends that pastors take a sabbatical for at least three months every seven years, based on the Old Testament principles of sabbath and Jubilee. Therefore, volunteers in the church should do the same. It’s okay to say “No” and take a break.
On the other hand, God is giving us an important warning in this prophecy. We can become lazy. We can be focused on entertainment, escapism, and pleasure-seeking. None of those are inherently wrong. “All things in moderation,” is a helpful guide. But we do need to beware of our predilection to how addictive, how self-medicating entertainment, escapism and pleasure-seeking can be. We can allow those activities to become idols, keeping us from serving God. It seems Moab had ventured across that line, and now they were like stale wine.
Next in verses 14-25, God prophesies more destruction to befall Moab. In this section there are two verses that further hint at the reason for Moab’s downfall. First, in verse 14, God questions how Moab can believe they are powerful warriors. Moab, in other words, has a false self-impression. Moab thinks they are mightier than they really are. Second, in verse 18, God says, “Come down from your glory and sit on parched ground.” Again, Moab has elevated themselves beyond what is true about themselves. Moab thinks they are worthy of glory, while God says they really ought to sit down on the dusty dry ground, a much more fitting locale for who they really are.
God is saying that Moab was delusional. Not only were they trusting in their wealth, leading to laziness, now we learn they are trusting in their glorious military, leading to a false sense of security. Scan through verses 14-25 and review the many creative ways God says, “Your military will be crushed.” It is so easy to have an impression of ourselves as better than we really are. When my kids were younger, from time to time they would boast about their athletic abilities or talk about how amazing their sports team was. It is good to be positive and hopeful, but we would do well to have a healthy, honest evaluation of ourselves. I told my kids, “Do your talking with your performance on the field, in practice and in games. Let the scoreboard tell everyone how good your team is.” In Moab’s case, for all their talk about their supposed glorious military might, God says they are not going to like what they see on the scoreboard at the end of the day.
The theme continues in verse 26 when God makes a strange statement, “Make her drunk.” You wouldn’t think God would say that, would you? Throughout the Scriptures, while God never condemns drinking of alcohol, he warns about its overuse, and he absolutely condemns drunkenness. So why is God saying of Moab, “Make her drunk”? I didn’t quote all of verse 26. Here’s the rest of the verse, “Make her drunk, for she has defied the Lord. Let Moab wallow in her vomit; let her be an object of ridicule.” God is saying, “Let Moab face the consequences of her behavior.”
Moab was known for its amazing vineyards, and twice now God has used that image to condemn Moab. They are like stale wine (verse 11) that will be wasted (verse 12), and now God says, “Get drunk, vomit and roll around in it.” In movies, television and sometimes in real life, we can laugh at people who get drunk, because they lose control and say or do funny things, like roll around in their own vomit. But the reality is that drunkenness is not a laughing matter. It is not only a waste of money, but can lead to devastation like drunk driving, not to mention the damage one can do to their own body. That awful side of drunkenness is what God depicts here. Moab will face the consequences of defying him, and they will be ridiculed. The lesson is clear. Do not attempt to defy God. It won’t go well.
Scan down to verses 29-30, and we see the heart of the matter. Moab is prideful, conceited and arrogant. Though Moab boasts, it will come to nothing. Throughout this prophetic poem, God has clearly shown Moab how they have trusted in themselves, deluded about their abilities. They have defied God, revealing the pride and arrogance in their hearts. Pride says, “God, I don’t need you.” We might not be so bold as to say those words, and in fact we might say that we do need God, that we have faith in him, but the choices of our lives tell the truth about us. Moab showed what they really believed, and what they really believed was in themselves. God says that Moab’s self-trust will be revealed as futile.
In verses 31-39, God expresses sorrowful tears over Moab. He weeps and wails for her. Think of that image, God crying. It’s not one that we often picture in our minds or read about. We tend to think of God as stoic, not weeping. But our God is an emotional God. Moab’s choices hurt him deeply. Our choices affect God too. Moab was not only deluded by their pride, God says they worshiped false gods (verse 35). That makes him lament.
In this passage God once again returns to the image of wine, saying in verses 32 and 33 joy and gladness are gone from the orchards and fields, and the wine presses will stop flowing. Because of its pride, Moab will be a wasteland. In verses 40-46, God sees an eagle swooping down over the land of Moab destroying the nation. The eagle represents Babylon and its King Nebuchadnezzar, who will punish the land. In verse 46, God concludes where he began in verse 1, with a statement of “woe!” as Moab will be no more.
But there is a surprise ending to this prophetic poem of woe. There’s one more verse. Verse 47 reveals a hopeful twist when God says, “Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in days to come.” Though he has a serious prophecy of woeful destruction for prideful, delusional, God says that there is hope. The NIV 1984 translates what God will do as “restore.” In Hebrew this is the word shuv which is the word for repentance which means “turn back” or “turn around.” When we think of repentance, we think of the person who has committed sin having a change of heart, mind and actions to restore the relationships they have broken, whether with God or other people. In this passage, however, God says that he will turn Moab’s fortunes around. God is at work here. This is a helpful reminder of God’s activity in our lives. Just as God weeps when over our prideful delusion, he works to restore. We have a relational God, even when it is we who are faithless.
There is such hope in this promise for Moab. No doubt, it will be awful first, and maybe for a long time. But “in days to come” God will restore them. What days to come is he referring to? The prophecy doesn’t say. Perhaps God is referring to the Messianic age when all peoples of the world will have the opportunity of a restored relationship with God.
We well know that opportunity because Jesus was born, lived, died and resurrected. The Messiah has come! God desires that all will be saved. There is hope for restoration for all people.
When your faith feels stale, God invites us to admit our prideful delusion and give our lives to follow Jesus. Let us not rest in our retirement, in our wealth, in our military. Let us take ourselves down from the pedestal and serve the Lord.
Jesus has just told his disciples, in so many words, “If you don’t feel like you are at home with God, or that God is at home with you, and you don’t feel that closeness with God, you know the way to get there.”
Immediately Thomas responds in verse 5.
“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’”
I love the honesty of Thomas’ question. Jesus has said, “You know the way to my home,” and Thomas says, “No we don’t!”
Maybe they should have known. Jesus certainly had tried many times before that evening to help them understand. Maybe the others knew what Jesus’ meant, and Thomas was just a bit thick in the skull. I doubt it though. It seems more likely to me that what Jesus talked about going to his father’s home, they thought, “Is he saying he wants to go back to Nazareth, to his father’s house?”
I suspect that everything Jesus said in verses 1-4, while it might have sounded very inviting, was mostly confusing to the disciples. Thomas’ honesty is refreshing. He is just speaking what he’s thinking, which is something like, “Hold on, Jesus, you’ve only just now told us that you were leaving us, and that alone is a shocker. We don’t know where you’re going. So it’s obvious we don’t know the way.”
So Jesus tells them more in verses 6-7,
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.’”
Jesus himself is the way. There isn’t a road map. There isn’t an incantation like a sinner’s prayer to get you home with the Father. There isn’t an altar call that you can answer to get home. Jesus is the way. Jesus himself is the truth and the life.
Here we have another powerful principle. Jesus embodies the way, the truth and the life. Jesus himself. Not beliefs about Jesus. Not books or songs written about Jesus. But Jesus himself is the way.
Perhaps that sounds confusing. I’d rather have a road map to follow. “Ok Siri give me directions to get to the restaurant.” And just like that my Maps app opens up and plots my path to restaurant.
But Jesus says he is the way. There is no map. We’ve sure tried to create maps over the years, we evangelicals. The ABC map. A for Admit your sin, Believe in Jesus and Commit your life to him. Or the Sinner’s Prayer map. Just raise your hand and repeat this prayer after me. Or the altar call map. Just walk forward and pray to Jesus if you want to be saved.
Does Jesus teach us to use any of those methods? No. He talks about believing in him. For sure. And those methods are connected to believing in Jesus. But Jesus talks about a life of belief. Belief will show itself to be true belief when will choose the sacrificial abundant life, love others as we flow with God’s love for us.
Jesus says that he, himself, the living, breathing, walking, talking human who is also God, is the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father through any other way. Only through Jesus.
I’ve heard people say over the years that the best way to help people find their home with God is to scare them with the alternative. Tell them about flaming hot hellfire for eternity. As if it’s simple: just preach about hell more frequently, and that will entice people to embrace Jesus. Interestingly, that’s not what Jesus does here in John 14, is it? So let’s focus on Jesus’ description of eternal life.
Jesus speaks of the idea of God making his home with us. Jesus lifts them up with hope not hell. Jesus encourages them with flourishing not fear. Jesus says he himself is one with the Father, and he himself is the true way to life.
As we have learned many times in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ offer of life is not just eternal life after we die. We can experience home with God now. Jesus called it abundant life in John 10:10. He does not say you have to first die, then you will experience life at home with God. He says that you can experience abundant life now, and in that sense we begin our experience of eternal life before we die. Not fully, of course. Not like it will be after death. But the abundant, flourishing life of the Holy Spirit at work in us, producing the Fruit of the Spirit in us, transforming us, renewing our minds, so that his love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control flow ever more from our lives.
The Fruit of the Spirit is life. We will see Jesus make that point very clearly in upcoming posts on John chapters 14, 15, and 16. For now, he just introduces the idea. And it seems the disciples are not fully getting it. In the next post we’ll take a look at their confusion.
For some of you the thought of home is like that, warm and comforting. Perhaps you had a loving, stable family where your needs were met. Perhaps you felt safe, secure, and you could flourish. I’m not talking about perfection, as that doesn’t exist. But I’m talking about a high degree of love where parents raise their children, giving them every opportunity for growth in life. He is caring for their future.
Others of you do not share that thought of home. For you, the idea of home and parents carries a degree of pain, brokenness, irresponsibility and inconsistency. For some of you, when Jesus talks about his father and his father’s house, it’s hard for you to envision how that could be good because your experience was nothing of the sort. We long for a good home.
As I’ve been visiting people in the hospital recently, what I often hear them say is, “I just want to go home.” That can mean one of two things. First, it can mean that they want to get out of the hospital and get back to their own house. Understandably so. Being away from home can be exciting, but we miss the comforts of home, especially when we we’re a place we don’t want to be like the hospital.
When I was in India, I really wanted to be in India, and I loved it. But by the middle of week 3, though, I was thinking, “Okay, I’m ready to go home.” I wasn’t really missing the building that is my house. Maybe I missed it a bit. What I really missed was my bed, the amenities, the food, the language, and most of all the relationships, my family at the top of the list.
The second thing that people mean when they say they want to go home is that they want to go to heaven.
Jesus knows this too. Jesus offers his disciples, and us, a redefinition of home. No matter if you were raised in a very good home, or in a very difficult home, Jesus offers true home, and he describes it with this fascinating image of his father’s house with many rooms.
But here’s why this home is a redefinition of home. It’s not the possibility of a building that Jesus is talking about. He is talking about something much richer, much deeper, something at the core of existence. He is talking about relationship. Specifically, Jesus is saying that this redefinition of home is rooted in the fact that he and his father will be there. Home, Jesus says, is where he is.
Peek ahead at verse 23, which we will talk further about next week, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” It’s another way of saying what Jesus says back in verses 1-4. Jesus wants to make his home with us. He wants to be with us. Next week we’ll talk more about how that relates to the Holy Spirit.
For now, I want us to think about this idea of being at home with God. This is God’s heart’s desire, to be at home with every person. God wants to make his home with you in it. God wants to make his home with you.
Notice also the very active work of God in making his home with us. Jesus prepares the place for us. Jesus comes back to take us there. And as we saw in verse 23, God makes his home with us. God is energetically at work to make his home with us.
Hearing that you might think, “But Joel, that doesn’t seem true in my life. God seems distant. Far away. When I think of God making his home in my life, shouldn’t it be a close relationship? If God is actively making his home in our lives, why doesn’t it feel that way to me?”
I think about that too, and I think Jesus knew that his disciples would be wondering as well. So he says in verse 4, “You know the way to the place where I am going.” In other words, “If you don’t feel like you are at home with God, or that God is at home with you, and you don’t feel that closeness with God, you know the way to get there.”
Immediately Thomas responds in verse 5.
“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’”
Good question. How will Jesus answer? We’ll find out in the next post.
What comes to mind when you think of the word “home”?
I think of the house where my parents have lived for 40 years, the home I most remember. I loved growing up there, and I still love visiting. After Michelle and I were married, we lived in 5 different homes in our first four years before we moved to a rented home in Kingston, Jamaica, during our year living there as missionaries. When we returned home, a bit shell-shocked because we thought we were going to live in Kingston for a long time, we lived at two more houses in the next 18 months. After all that moving, I remember finally having a feeling of stability when we bought our first home in the city of Lancaster, a feeling that solidified during the 8 years living there. It felt like home. Since 2011 we’ve lived in our current house, and I don’t know if we’ll ever move again. There is a longing deep within all of us for that kind of stability, a place we call home.
We’re continuing our study the life of Jesus as told in the Gospel of John. In John chapter 14, Jesus and his disciples are still in the Upper Room where they have been celebrating the Jewish Passover festival. If your Bible has Jesus’ words in red font, you’ll notice that John chapter 14, like 15, 16 and 17, have a lot of red. In that Upper Room, Jesus is doing a lot of talking.
We’re going to work our way through this important teaching during the months of June and July. It will be one important teaching right after the other. Why? Because Jesus knows he is literally hours away from being arrested, and this is his last chance to prepare his disciples before his arrest. In chapter 13, Jesus has just told his disciples that one of them, Judas Iscariot, will betray him and that another, Simon Peter, will disown him. So the mood is dreary. What will he say after dropping those bombs?
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
Easier said than done, Jesus. Even if we say and believe we trust Jesus in the middle of our distress and anxiety, in the middle of our troubled hearts, our bodies don’t always agree. Maybe you know what I mean. It can be difficult to settle down physically and emotionally when you’re angry. When you’re scared. When you’re confused. When a relationship is in danger or broken. “Don’t let your hearts be troubled” can sound like an impossible dream.
Of course I want to feel peace and calm, but my body doesn’t seem to be in agreement. For me it usually happens after an intense situation. Adrenaline carries me through the situation, and then when it’s over and I should be feeling peace, guess what happens? My anxiety kicks in…after the difficulty! I can be doing dishes at home, shaking. Does it mean I don’t trust in Jesus? No. Does it mean my faith is gone? No. It means I have anxiety. It’s my body responding to whatever intense situation I just faced.
So when Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” I’m thinking, “I don’t have a choice, Jesus. My body just reacts. It’s like breathing. I’m not telling my body to take a breath, then another, then another. It just does it. Same with anxiety.”
But I wonder if the disciples experienced something different because he was right there in the room? Was his presence so overwhelming, so powerful that whenever he was around, they were at peace? I doubt it. In the gospel accounts we read they were often frightened, and a few hours after the Upper Room discussion, they will flee from Jesus’ presence, scared out of their minds.
Jesus knows all of this, of course, so he goes on to say more than just “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Look at verses 1b-3.
“Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Jesus not only tells them to not let their hearts be troubled. He not only says, “Trust in God, trust also in me,” he gives them a reason why. He evokes the image of a house, his Father’s house which has many rooms.
Jesus fills the disciples’ minds with a stable home, his father’s home, with many rooms. Jesus says he will go prepare a place there for his disciples. Jesus’ image of home is one of refuge, of safety.
Perhaps, that kind of safe, loving home sounds familiar to you. Perhaps not. In the next post we’ll talk about what it means to be at home with God.
Engaging Scripture 