John 14-16: Walk the Talk, A Journey Back to the Garden…Who Influences You the Most?

Influence is the mark of true leadership not necessarily crowds. Godly Leadership under the pressure of a crisis requires the character of Jesus. This devotion will point you to the influencing presence and truth of Jesus in His darkest and most difficult hours. You will be filled with His love, joy, peace and courage to face a transition, rejection, hostility, misunderstanding, loneliness, and suffering.

What would you say to friends and family, knowing you would be arrested and put to death within 12 hours? Consider Jesus, the Last Adam…He warns about approaching trouble, scandal, offense, hatred and death. He points to those who influenced Him most…the person and work of the Father and the Holy Spirit. He points to the future,  promising immeasurable love, overflowing joy and deep peace in the midst of all hell breaking loose in the world. He assures his friends of absolute victory over sin, Satan and a hostile world…RESURRECTION is the predictable and unstoppable consequence of  voluntary obedient sacrificial love!

Under the night sky, The teachings of Jesus in the Gospel of John 14-17 were most likely delivered to the disciples during the Passover meal and/or enroute to the Garden of Gethsemane (John 14:31;18:1). He would have meandered through the streets of Jerusalem in the shadow of the Temple Mount area between around 9pm-midnight. He may have paused in a private corner of the temple court to deliver some of these eternal inexhaustible truths. He may have then exited Jerusalem at the southern Water Gate and followed the steep path outside the walls over the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives.

 

 

 

Six times Jesus repeats the phrase, “These things I have spoken to you”. Jesus, like Elijah, is weaving together a master tapestry, or a teaching-mantle to leave at the feet of the apostles to pick up, like Elisha, and call upon the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ in the difficult days that are upon them.  The Double-portion of the Spirit was promised and greater works would ensue following the necessity of the cross. 

 Contextually, Judas is absent, the Eleven are filled with sorrow, confusion is setting in like hypothermia, Jesus Himself is distressed. The Olive Press of Almighty God is beginning to crush the Son in accordance with His will and the impending cup of suffering.  Yet, Jesus is downloading the final words for His final moments before the hour of His crucifixion. The torches and the lanterns are about to be ignited and swords taken up by Jewish leaders, a brutal Roman cohort…all led by a satanic ambitious greedy friend who thought he needed to force the hand of Jesus to take control and assert His power and authority to throw off the Roman yoke of oppression. Judas,the friend, was thinking, a surprise military coup…the Ancient Foe was thinking death by crucifixion.

 

Suggested Devotional Exercise:

• Read each Chapter of John 14-16 Over the Next Week

• Go to each phrase “these things I have spoken to you” and meditate on the immediate verses surround each of the six repeated phrases

• Read aloud and meditate upon each Scripture and bullet point reflection

• Pray to Father in Jesus name whatever is on your heart

• Find someone to share these truths with and walk them through each of the six reflections

• Take Holy Communion together to “Remember Jesus”.

 

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• John 14:25
  25 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26 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.

• Be assured Trouble is coming but you will not be abandoned.

• Help is on the way…the Father is for you!

• Truth will emerge as you merge with Jesus!

• You are smarter than you think…the Holy Spirit will not let you forget what matters most!

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• John 15:11
  These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

• Joy from Jesus is both internal and external.  Joy springs forth from the indwelling Holy Spirit and floods our spirit, soul and body with Resurrection life in all the vicissitudes of life!  Joy flows deeply regardless of the weather!

• Joy is the awareness, recognition and reception of God’s grace in our lives…thus, we can “Rejoice always!”

• Loving obedience is the watershed that determines the nature of our Christian experience…No love, No Spirit, No obedience, No Joy…ouch, help us Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner…to grow in grace is to manifest the fruit of joy (2 Pet.3:15) in the experience of Jesus’ Personal Presence!

• John 16:1
  “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.2 They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. 3 These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. 

• (16:1 )I have told you all these things, so that you should not be offended (taken unawares and falter, or be caused to stumble and fall away). [I told you to keep you from being scandalized and repelled.] Amplified Version

• The teaching of Jesus prepares us to handle rejection by the world for the sake of His name and the cause of the Gospel. 

• The sober realization of the inevitability of persecution , while following in the steps of Jesus, frees us from being perpetually trapped in the misguided effort to accommodate the world so they will recognize and accept Jesus as Lord and Savior on their term of self-preservation.

• John 16:4
  But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. 5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

• The faithful words of Jesus couches the sorrow that fills our heart when we do not understand what is going on! (v6) Jesus anticipates our depression and proactively tells us the truth so  we can repent and move forward in freedom.

• When we internalize the teaching and promises of Jesus, we gain the advantage with the Holy Spirit who fights our battles for us to convince the world of their need for salvation in Jesus.

The angry mob tries to push Jesus over a cliff. (Luke 4:29)

• John 16:25
  “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. 28 I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.”

• 29 His disciples *said, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. 30 Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. 

• The language of Jesus, filling the heart and mind, is constantly pointing to the Father’s character with revelatory wisdom and revelation.

• The prophetic grace of Jesus’ words prepares us to deal with both failure and loneliness. Why?  So we don’t abandon all restraint in our isolation. Grace buys us time until He can rebuild our trust and be empowered by the Spirit to be His witnesses in this broken world of cold hate and unbelief.

• John 16:33
  These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

• Finally, the law of Jesus will turn pressure into peaceful access to the Father producing  character, hope and abundant love.

• Obedient students of Jesus run into the fray with courage and perpetual optimism born of the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. 

• The shout of the church to the world rings true with “God has reconciled you to Himself through Jesus Christ. Call upon Jesus and you will be saved!”

Father, we boldly come and humbly ask in the name of Jesus that you fill us with these words of Jesus. Burn them in our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit to guide us through these dark and troubled days with love, peace and joy. We ask for the courage and the faith to follow in the footsteps of Your Beloved Son. May the World see our love and unity, opening their eyes to the Revelation of Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Amen