JULY 22, 2018
CHRIST’S CHEERFULNESS IN HIS DEPARTURE
INTRODUCTION:
1. Our Lord has given many words of consolation in order to comfort His disciples whose hearts were troubled over the fact that He was soon to go away.
2. He assured them, first of all, that where He was going (heaven; the Father’s house), they would be coming in due time (Verses 1-3); that, secondly, He Himself, Who was going before to prepare them a place, was their surety and way to heaven (Verses 4-11); that, thirdly, His work would not cease with His leaving, but would continue, and even increase through them (Verses 12-14); that, fourthly, the Holy Spirit would be sent in His absence (Verses 15-17); that fifthly, His leaving was not forever, but He would come again for them (Verses 18-24); that, lastly, the legacy of His peace would be left to cheer them. (Verse 27)
3. Jesus began His words of encouragement with “Let not your heart be troubled,” (Verse 1) and He concluded them with “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Verse 27)
4. Jesus gives yet another reason why their hearts should not be troubled at His going away, and that is, because His heartwas not.
I. HE REPEATS WHAT HE SAID BEFORE, THAT THOUGH HE WAS GOING AWAY, HE WOULD BE COMING BACK AGAIN. (VERSE 28)
A. THIS SENTENCE MUST REFER TO WHAT HE SAID AT THE END OF CHAPTER 13 AND THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 14. (VERSE 28; CH. 13:33-36; CH. 14:1, 3, 12)
1. What He had told them before, He had need to tell them again.2. When we are experiencing grief, or fear, or care, we have need to be comforted with reminders of the truth of Christ’s coming.
B. HIS GOING TO THE FATHER AND HIS RETURNING AGAIN WERE BOTH MATTERS OF REJOICING TO OUR LORD.
1. His return to the Father would be to return to the glory that He had with Him before the world was. (John 17:5)
2. His coming back again will not be in humility, but “in power and great glory;” it will be “without sin unto salvation.”
3. His second coming will be to receive all of His own unto Himself, fully restored in His own likeness. (I John 3:2)
C. HIS GOING TO THE FATHER AND HIS RETURNING AGAIN WERE BOTH MATTERS IN WHICH HE WOULD HAVE HIS DISCIPLES TO REJOICE. (VERSE 12b)
1. The meaning of these words is: “If you truly loved me with an intelligent love, and thorough understanding of My person, nature, and work, you would rejoice to hear of My leaving the world to go to the Father, because you would see in it the finishing and completion of the work which He sent Me to do.”
2. Of course, He did not mean that His disciples did not love Him at all. He was saying, “If you loved Me, as by your sorrow you show that you do, you should rejoice instead of mourning, because in leaving, I am going not only to My Father, but yours, which will be My advancement, and your advantage, for My Father is greater than I.”
3. What does His statement mean, “My Father is greater than I?”
a) Christ is no doubt “equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching Hismanhood” (so states the Athanasian Creed).
b) When the Word was “made flesh,” He took on Him the “form of a servant.” (John 1:14; Phil 2:7) Thus, He took an inferior place of submission to the Father, to do His will.
c) Having taken that form and role, He was now going to the cross in order to accomplish redemption, after which accomplishment God will highly exalt Him. (Phil 2:7-11) In this His disciples ought to rejoice.
(1) In His accomplishment.
(2) In His exaltation.
II. HE EXPLAINS THAT HIS GOING AWAY WILL BE A MEANS OF CONFIRMING THEIR FAITH, IN THAT, IT WILL BE IN KEEPING WITH PROPHESIES WHICH WENT BEFORE IT. (VERSE 29)
A. THEIR CONFIRMATION WOULD COME FIRST FROM CHRIST’S DIVINE PRESENCE, KNOWING BEFOREHAND WHAT WOULD COME TO PASS. “I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE IT COME TO PASS.”
1. He told them before that He must go to Jerusalem, be betrayed, be put to death, rise from the dead, and return to the Father, and send the Comforter.
2. Christ told His disciples of His death, though He knew it would both puzzle them and grieve the, because it would afterward redound to the confirmation of their faith.
B. THEIR FAITH WOULD BE CONFIRMED, SECONDLY, IN THAT, THE THINGS FORETOLD WERE ACCORDING TO THE DIVINE PURPOSE. “I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE IT COME TO PASS.”
1. All had been determined in the eternal council. (Heb. 10:5-10)
2. When the Apostle Paul came to Jerusalem he knew not the things that did abide him there, but Christ did know. (Matt. 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22, 51; etc.)
3. When Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance the things which He had taught them(Verse 26), no doubt these teachings were among them.
III. OUR LORD SAW, RESPECTING HIS DEPARTURE, HIS FINAL STRUGGLE AGAINST SATAN, AND HIS VICTORY OVER THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD. (VERSES 30, 31)
A. JESUS’ TIME FOR TEACHING WAS NOW DRAWING TO AN END. “HEREAFTER, I WILL NOT TALK MUCH WITH YOU.”
1. It was now time to go. Perhaps as Jesus rose up from the table He said this, knowing that He would have little opportunity to teach them more, seeing what lay ahead from here to the crucifixion.
2. He had a great deal yet to say to them in Chapters 15 and 16, but in comparison, to what He had said, it was not much.
3. He may have said this in order to cause them to give the more earnest heed since the time was short.
a) How precious were the moments they had left with Him before His departure.
b) Let us always count our time under the Word of God precious.
c) Let us use our time wisely, to benefit our souls, and to be a benefit to others.
B. ONE REASON WHY HIS TIME FOR TEACHING THEM WAS SHORT WAS BECAUSE HIS FINAL BATTLE WITH THE DEVIL WAS DRAWING NEAR. “…FOR THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD COMETH.”
1. Jesus calls Satan “the prince of this world” because he rules in the hearts of the vast majority of mankind. “The whole world lieth in the wicked one.”
2. Our Lord, in seeing the battle that was facing Him, refers to it as the devil’s doing. Those employed against Him included Judas, the Romans, the Jewish leaders, etc., yet Satan was at the bottom of it all, and they were all his tools.
3. This was Satan’s big day! This would be the day in which he would deliver the “death blow” against his mighty foe. He had no idea that his own death sentence that was issued back there in the garden (Gen. 3:15), would be carried out by what he thought to be His victory – the death of Christ. He had no idea that “through death” Christ would destroy him who had the power of death, that is the Devil.” (Heb. 2:14)
C. JESUS HAD FULL ASSURANCE OF HIS COMING SUCCESS OVER SATAN IN THIS CONFLICT. “HE HATH NOTHING IN ME.”
1. There was no guilt in Christ to give authority the prince of this world.
2. There was no corruption in Christ to give any advantage to Satan.
3. How wonderful that the Second Adam was able to say, “He hath nothing in Me.”
D. SATAN COULD NOT FORCE HIS LIFE FROM HIM, AND YET, HE WOULD DIE IN COMPLIANCE WITH, AND IN OBEDIENCE TO THE FATHER. (VERSE 31)
1. This confirmed what He had often said, that in all of His work, in all of His obedience, He was demonstrating His love for the Father who sent Him.
2. As His voluntary death on the Cross, was evidence of His love for mankind, for His sheep, for His church, it is moreover a message to the world, “that the world may know that I love the Father.”
3. Jesus therefore said, “Arise, let us go hence.”
a) His love for the Father was sufficient reason to go and suffer and die.
b) They had confessed their willingness to suffer with Him, so says He, “Let us go.”
Speak Your Mind