Deeper Waters

Hello everyone. We’re going through the New Testament trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at who Jesus is in his final words wrapping up the Upper Room Discourse in John 16. We’ll be going through a long passage tonight of verses 25-33:

²⁵“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. ²⁶In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

²⁹Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. ³⁰Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

³¹“You believe at last!” Jesus answered. ³²“But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

³³“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Jesus tells them that he has been speaking to them in parables. There will come a time when he will not do so. There will be a point when he will speak clearly. When that point is reached, they will understand the truth about himself and the Father.  They will ask the Father in the name of Jesus. They will be loved because they have loved the Son.

Jesus then tells them that he has left the world and is going back to the Father. He has almost finished his ministry and the time has come for him to go and return to the one who sent him. It is at this point that the disciples get in their reply.

The disciples seem confident, but it could be that they still did not really know. After all, had they really trusted in the death and resurrection of Jesus, they would have not acted the way that they did at the resurrection. John is a writer who uses a lot of irony and it is quite likely that he is doing such again.

Jesus says that they do believe, but they will not act accordingly. They will instead each run to his own home. We Christians should take comfort that Christ knows our failures in advance. It is here that he gives one of the passages that has been a great hope to Christians throughout the ages. Christ has overcome the world.

Today, we should embrace that. Facing the worst situation of all, the apostles were told to have hope. Christ has overcome the world. That victory is still here today. We as Christians need to remember that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

Hello everyone. We’re continuing our walk through the New Testament trying to understand the doctrine of the New Testament. Thanks to Kelp for his compliment and it is certainly agreed. The answer would be that when speaking of this, no exclusion of the glory of God was meant. Too often we view other people as ways to get what we need and for our own good. We do not often enough seek their good. Imagine how many marriages would be improved if this simple principle would be learned.

Our passage tonight is again in the gospel of John and the 16th chapter. We will be looking at verses 17-24:

¹⁷Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”¹⁹Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? ²⁰I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ²¹A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.²²So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ²³In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ²⁴Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

Yesterday we concluded asking about what Jesus meant by “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

If this passage of Scripture seems difficult to understand, let us take heart. The disciples steeped in the OT imagery who lived with Jesus had a hard time understanding him. We should take comfort in these words and if we find them too easy to understand, we are probably not looking at them enough.

Jesus knows that they want to ask this so he points to a time where they will mourn and the world will rejoice. We often think about the disciples mourning at the death of Christ, but we don’t think about the world rejoicing. The people were pleased. They thought justice had been served and that they had saved their country from the Roman Empire and the judgment of God.

Their mourning will turn to joy and they will no longer ask him anything. The joy will never go away. Why will they no longer ask him anything? They will not because they will understand who he is in relation to the Father. Of course, we can pray to the Son, but the traditional idea of prayer is to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

What does this mean for us? It means we are to live a life of joy trusting in the Father that he will take care of us. Of course, it isn’t a blank check. We must trust him and be living our lives loyal to him and the more we do that, the more we truly will get what we ask for, for we will ask with right motives and ask for right things.

We shall continue this tomorrow.

Hello everyone. Tonight, we’re continuing our look at the New Testament and how it relates to the doctrine of the Trinity. Right now, we’re in the book of John and we’re in the sixteenth chapter in the upper room discourse. Tonight, we’re going to be looking at verses 12-16.

¹²“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. ¹⁵All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

¹⁶“In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

What does Jesus mean when he says he has more to say to them? There is not much more said after the gospel. It would seem then that this refers to what the Spirit would say. At this point, some people might be wondering seeing as I’ve blogged before on the voice of God speaking to us. What do I do with this verse?

It’s quite simple. I accept it.

How? That’s also simple. I remember that Jesus was speaking to the apostles and they would be the leaders of the church and I believe the Spirit would lead them somehow into all truth and that could be through verbal communication as we see that that happened at times in the book of Acts.

The difference of course is that that was the apostles. We are not the apostles. Of course, as I’ve said, the Spirit could speak to us and give us truth, but that is not what we are to expect. We are to expect that the words of Christ rang true through the apostles and the writings that they have passed down on to us are true.

In serving this capacity, the Spirit will give glory to Christ. He will take the truth Christ wishes the apostles to have and give it to them. We see here some of the internal workings of the Trinity and we must remember that Christ is because the Father is. There is a beautiful unity taking place.

In fact, the Son affirms that in the next verse. This is an aspect of the Trinity that gets us into the topic of morality. We can see that each person of the Trinity does seek the good of the other for the sake of the other.  We can see then the way that we ought to live. If we are to follow the model of the Trinity, we ought to seek the good of our fellow man for his sake.

Jesus ends this section by saying that shortly they will see him no more and after that, they will see him. What could he mean?

That gives you something to look forward to tomorrow I suppose.

Hello everyone. Tonight we’re going to continue our look at the doctrine of the Trinity in the pages of Scripture. If you’ve been with us for awhile, you know that we are in the New Testament and we are in the gospel of John. We’re continuing the Upper Room discourse and tonight, we’re going to be looking at verses 5-11.

⁵“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. ⁷But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt^[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; ¹⁰in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Jesus says he is returning to the one who sent him. Obviously throughout the context of the account, they knew he was going to the Father.  This was a cause for grief for them as they had spent years with Christ and has based their lives around him and while they might have hoped he would be a rabbi who would stay with them till death, he is instead leaving them.

Surprisingly, it’s a good thing for them that he was going. They had been in his physical presence and now the teacher was sending them out there on their own. He had been training them for these years and now their training would be put to the test. Of course, while we say they were to be on their own, they were not to be totally alone. He will send to them the Counselor.

The Counselor however will not just comfort the disciples. He will be doing three other tasks and all of these relate to the person of who Christ is. Notice how far his reach must be as well considering he can do this to the whole world. The Counselor while a comforting presence for the disciples is also a legal idea. He acts as prosecution as well towards an unbelieving world.

The first thing that he convicts them of us is sin. The world is guilty of sin because it refused to believe in the only one who could save them from their sin. If they wish to remain in that state, then the Spirit will convict them in that state.

The second way is in righteousness. Because Jesus is going to the Father, that reveals that he is the one whom God sent and all that he said is true.  The righteousness that is to be revealed is the righteousness of Christ which could be what Paul has in mind in Romans 1.

The last is in condemnation in that because of the work of Christ on the cross, the prince of the world is to be condemned. If Jesus was not who he said he was, then satan would still have power over the people. As it is, he is a defeated foe and we simply await the full actualization of that defeat.

The Spirit then relates entirely to Christ and who he is. Whether it be in convicting of sin, pointing to righteousness, or revealing condemnation, the Spirit does this work. It is for the best that Jesus goes away so the Spirit can come and do the work, and also so he can dwell in us and enable us to continue the work of Christ in evangelism.

We shall continue tomorrow.

Hello readers! We’re continuing going through the New Testament in the hopes of coming to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. We’ve been in the gospel of John and tonight, we’re going to start the 16th chapter, which means we’re about 3/4th of the way through this book. That’s not too much of a surprise as this is one of the books that has numerous references to deity in it. Tonight, we’re going to look at verses 1-4:

¹“All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. ²They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. ³They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. ⁴I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you.

Jesus now tells his apostles why he’s been telling them all of this. He wants them to know two things. First off, he wants them to know the truth. He is who he claims to be. He begins this upper room discourse talking about his own identity. The second is that he wants them to know that they are not alone. The Holy Spirit will come and give them comfort.

Why would the apostles get handed over to the synagogue rulers? This is one point I think ancient Jews were far more consistent on. It seems today many Jews seem to be of the opinion that Jesus was a good teacher and if the Christian path is the path that they are on, then that is fine for them.

I think the early Jews would have been scandalized and rightly so.

Of course, I don’t think the early Jews were right in their view of Jesus, but I believe they were more consistent. They saw him as contrary to the law of YHWH and if that was the case and he was leading the people of Israel away from devotion to YHWH, then the way they handled him was correct.

Jesus says it will go beyond being excommunicated from the syangogue however. It also means that they would be killed for their belief in him. According to the testimony of the early church, the only apostle who wasn’t martyred was John who died in exile on the isle of Patmos.

Let’s clear something up on John 16:3. Several years ago there was an email circulating the net where Al Gore said his favorite Bible verse was John 16:3. It would have been an obvious reference to John 3:16, but the idea was that Gore was quoting a verse really that said that the people who did such things would do so because they did not know Jesus or the Father.

I am no fan of Al Gore, but there is no evidence to back this claim. In the same way, this email has been circulating I have found out about John Kerry, about George W. Bush, and about Barack Obama. Christians. Please go to websites like truthorfiction.com before you forward emails unless there’s some valid source like a link to a news story. We are to be people of truth and if we give into gullible emailings it only confirms in some people the idea that Christians are gullible idiots who will believe anything.

Jesus does not want us to be surprised at all of this. When it came to the apostles, they would remember that they were told this would happen. Later on, we will see how this applies more to us, but generally in the NT, we do see the promise that Christ will be with his people and ease them in their sufferings.

We shall continue on this tomorrow.

Hello everyone. We’re still going through the New Testament and trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity and the self-understanding of Jesus. Tonight, we’re also going to discuss some more about the Holy Spirit. We’ve been in the gospel of John and tonight, we will finish up John 15 with verses 26-27.

²⁶“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. ²⁷And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

The Counselor, referred to earlier is the Holy Spirit and this is an apropos name for him. The Counselor is often described in terms of enabling and healing. We see him as the one who comes alongside us and the one who groans with us when we do not know what to pray and one who intercedes for us.

He is also sent from the Son by the Father, which I believe shows a hierarchy of some sorts in the Trinity. Of course, this isn’t based on inferior natures. There seems to be a willing submission where the Son is sent by the Father and the Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son both.

This Counselor is also called the Spirit of Truth and we have seen that truth plays an important part in the gospel of John. The one who is Truth is now sending the Spirit of Truth. Christ has a continual emphasis that those who claim to be his followers ought to walk in the truth and be people of the truth.

This also means that we should seek knowledge. We ought to know that our faith is true. I am not saying there will never be times of doubt. Doubt happens and it should be worked through. However, it becomes a problem if through most of your walk you cannot say “Yes. I know this is true.”

We are also told that the Spirit will testify. We do not know for sure how he will testify, but it could be based on what Jesus said earlier about the Spirit calling to remembrance what Jesus has said. While the Spirit could certainly give new revelation, more often when it means testify, I would take it to mean that he will testify about what the Son has done in the past and what he’s doing for us today in the act of reconciliation.

If that is the case, then this would also fit with the testimony that the apostles are to give since they are to state what they have seen from the beginning. They will remember all that Christ has done throughout his earthly ministry and testify to that. This no doubt had a greater emphasis after the resurrection when according to Luke, their minds were opened and they came to understand the Scriptures more. We are continuing their testimony today in that while we were not eyewitnesses, we trust that their accounts were reliable. Of course, why we think that is another blog series altogether.

What of you? Are you continuing to testify?

I wish to thank Kabane for his comment and to say that at this point, I’m not, although I do understand someone is compiling my posts where I reviewed the book of John Loftus and who knows? Maybe sometime I’ll get around to compiling these together or maybe someone else would. My problem is I’m a terrible procrastinator. I think I’ll get to work on that next month.

We’re going to continue now our look at the Trinity. We’re almost through John 15. Tonight, we’ll be looking at verses 22-25.

²²If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. ²³He who hates me hates my Father as well. ²⁴If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. ²⁵But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

It seems odd to many to say that Jesus brings division, but he certainly does. When Jesus comes, the lines are drawn. One is either for him or against him. He had come as the Messiah of the Jews and now the Jews had to make a response. Unfortunately, they made the wrong one.

Jesus does not mean that the Jews would have been sinless, but that they had greater responsibility, and I think this is a principle that holds up in Scripture. God understands some ignorance I believe as we see in the speech in Lystra in Acts 14 and to the Areopagus in Acts 17. It is worse to do wrong when you know the good you ought to do than when you don’t know it.

I’m reminded about this from talking to someone last night who was telling me that she didn’t believe that Jews would go to Hell for ignorance of Jesus. Well I don’t believe that either. I believe people go to Hell for their sins, but if ignorance plays a factor, God takes that into account and is a fair judge.

How will that work with those who’ve never heard? I can’t make a dogmatic statement either way, but I will make this statement and this is one I can easily rest in Scripture. The judge of all the Earth will do right. No one will be able to say “It wasn’t fair.”

The theme of the hatred of Jesus is quite strong. Jesus was this kind of personality. One either loves him or hates him. Once you come face to face with his claims, there’s no grounds for being neutral. He doesn’t leave that option. We must get past this image we have of Jesus that he was a kind and peaceful man. In some ways, he was, but he was also an iconoclast. He destroyed false images wherever he went and he did not care how old they were or who started them or who held to them.

This is also a strong claim in that Jesus is saying they hate the Father. The one they claim to serve by crucifying Jesus is the one that he says they hate. Once again, hatred of Jesus is hatred of God and if one treats him as anything less than who he is, then they are not showing love to him.

And yet, all of this is still seen as a fulfillment of Scripture. Rest assured, God is in control regardless of your response to Jesus. You can do what you want to him. You will not change him. You will only change yourself. You will become one who loves him and thus all other things, or one who hates him and eventually all other things.

The choice is yours.

We’re going through the New Testament and coming to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. (Well I hope you are! I can only truly speak for myself.) Right now, we’re in the gospel of John and we’re in the fifteenth chapter. This chapter is the Upper Room discourse although it could be that Jesus is on the move on the way to the garden now. We’re going to be looking at John 15:18-21 tonight.

¹⁸“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.

Jesus does not paint a pretty picture for us with the message of “If the world hates you.” We seem to have this strange idea in the church today that the world is supposed to love us. Let’s not try to do anything to offend the world. Now I’m for not needlessly offending the world, but if we’re preaching the gospel, it’s going to offend people.

Christ’s message is that we can expect to be hated and indeed, the early Christians were. Christ himself was hated. When people hate us for being Christians, we shouldn’t act like this is anything new. We should accept this. Now that doesn’t mean we seek to be hated and it doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re doing wrong if we have non-Christian friends, but it does mean that our message should be seen as offensive and if that happens, we shouldn’t be surprised.

Why does the world not? Because we are not of the world. We are different. We have chosen to cut ourselves off in a sense from what the world values. This doesn’t mean we live in isolation from the world. We are to be in the world but not of it. (An excellent guide to how to do this is Hugh Hewitt’s aptly named book, “In But Not Of.”)

The way the world receives the apostles will be a reflection of the way that they received Christ. Those who received Christ will receive the apostles. Those who rejected him will reject the apostles. It’s an all-or-nothing deal. After all, the apostles taught the same message that Jesus did.

If they reject the apostles, it is not because of them but because they have rejected God first. Now it could be sometimes that when we present the gospel, we do such a terrible job of it that it is us. However, when that happens, chances are either we’ll know it or someone else will point it out to us.

In our evangelism, we need to keep this in mind. Also remember that rejection of Jesus is rejection of God. You can’t have one without having the other.

We shall continue this chapter tomorrow.

We’re going through the New Testament now trying to come to a deeper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Right now, we’re in the gospel of John. Tonight, we’re going to be going through John 15:9-17. Let’s go to the text:

⁹“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. ¹⁰If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. ¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command. ¹⁵I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. ¹⁷This is my command: Love each other.

Again, I’m not interested in getting into issues like eternal security. I’m only interested in seeing how this relates to the doctrine of God and the doctrine of Christ. I start at the beginning by saying that as the Father loves the Son, so the Son loves his disciples and find it astounding. I could not dare say to anyone that I love them the way God loves me. Now I wish I could, but I know I cannot. I do not think I could say I love myself that way or even sadly love God that way. Yet Christ says he has that kind of love. We can first ask ourselves “Who has a God kind of love but God”, and second, “How should we respond if we know God loves us that way as followers of Christ?”

To say that we remain in his love if we obey his commands is not to teach a works salvation. The idea is that those who bear fruit are those who are truly connected to the vine as we saw yesterday. If you are not connected to the vine, then you will not bear fruit. The works do not give us salvation but rather they reveal our salvation. This is also the reason for the distinction between Paul and James on faith and works. Paul talks about justification in the eyes of God and James talks about the knowledge of justification before men.

The reason for this is our joy. The Father delights in our joy and all that he asks is that we love. True love is not wishy-washy however. It does not mean accept everything. True love can tell some hard truths and Jesus often did that. True love also does not mean to have certain feelings towards a person. You cannot will that. It means to act properly towards a person.

The apostles are in a unique position to Jesus and are called friends and I believe we can have the same such position. I don’t mean in the buddy-buddy sense that we usually have today, but that we maintain a position of unique favor in relation to the Son.

What’s the requirement? Love. Christ says no greater love than that a man lay down his life for his friends. What about love for enemies? Jesus is talking to friends however and showing the best way a friend shows love to a friend. Romans 5 tells us that in fact, Jesus did lay down his life for his enemies.

How shall we respond to such love? There is only one answer. By passing it on to our fellow man.

We’re going through the New Testament trying to understand the doctrine of the Trinity. Last night, we finished looking at John 14 and so tonight, we’re going to be starting our look at John 15. Our section tonight will be a little longer than others as we’re going to try to get in one section as a whole.

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.³You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.⁴Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.⁵“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. ⁷If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ⁸This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

The old joke about this passage is that if we are de branches then Jesus must be “de-vine.” The joke is cute and the point is certainly true, but it only works in English. However, this does tell us something about Christ with him being the vine.

If you were a branch in a vine, you would depend entirely on the vine for your sustenance. If you were to be separated from the vine, then you could not be capable of producing. In fact, not only could you not produce, you would be incapable of any kind of life.

That’s the point of Christ. He is the vine and the Father is the gardener who is tending the vine. We are to be in him if we are to have any sort of life. Also, if we are not producing any fruit, then we are not true branches. I leave that to my readers to work out in the eternal security debate as I take no side in it and regardless of my side in it now, I have had both sides in the past.

Christ again gives the picture. He does not say that we are rooted in God, though he is overseeing all. He is saying that we are rooted in him. We can do nothing apart from him and we are incapable of producing any true fruit apart from him.

This again tells us how Christ saw himself. He saw himself as the one bringing salvation to the people and salvation was impossible apart from one’s relationship with him. No other prophet would have spoken of himself in that way. Jesus did.

So if we come this and we realize who Jesus is, this brings us to the question of how will we respond.

And that is for you to answer.