John 14:8-17: If Not Jesus, How Much More Not The Spirit

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

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 I do not speak on my own authority. 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 works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they 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 Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

“If you love me, keep my commands. 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. - John 14:8-17

"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." 

Wouldn't it be nice if when people saw us that we were indistinguishable from Jesus? 

Philip asks "Show us the Father and that will be enough for us." And Jesus reponds by saying, in essence, "Wouldn't it be nice if when people saw me, I was indistinguishable from the Father? If you have seen me, you have the seen the Father." When Jesus spoke and did things, he didn't do them on his own, but he was perfectly in line with what the Father would do. Jesus felt that this conclusion (that he and the Father were one) was a natural one what the disciples had seen over the previous 3 years.

And he says it can go even deeper, into the uncharted territory, when Jesus' disciples were left on their own with only the his teaching and the Spirit as guides. Not only would they be doing the same things Jesus would do, but in fact, they would exceed him. That's pretty hard to imagine, doing better than Jesus. But let's look at one way this was clearly true in the next generation after Jesus died: Jesus spent his entire ministry in Israel but soon after his disciples would represent Jesus to the entire Roman empire, exceeding what Jesus did.

But there is still another level of faith. Jesus comments that the Spirit is coming. No one would be able to see or hear the Spirit (see John 3) except those who were Jesus' disciples. So if Philip had trouble "seeing" the Father, how much more trouble would he have with seeing the Spirit. That's not what happened, though. We can see the book of Acts (Acts 8) that Philip was listening to God's message ("Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip")” and when his job was done, the Spirit moved him on ("the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away").

 How does this work? Jesus spelled it out: "f you love me, keep my commands. 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." We keep God's commands and he directs the Spirit to stay with us.  We have to trust that the Spirit is there and pay attention to his guidance. Otherwise we will be like Philip, still asking Jesus to "show us the Father" when he has already given us the Spirit right inside us.  

Acts 1:6-14: Not Me, But You

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. - Acts 1:6-14

What next? This was the twist ending within the twist ending of the movie. First, the hero died in full view of a lot of witnesses, but (plot twist) he comes back to life and apparently it was foreshadowed all along. Second, the hero comes back but he doesn't try to "win" the way that we were expecting him to win. After Jesus came back from the dead, the disciples saw it as a major triumph, putting the kingdom plan back on track again. Yes, the hero died, but God's Messiah came back to life in triumph over the devil and all other enemies. They thought they would stop God's kingdom, but they couldn't and Jesus has returned to prove that they still can't.

But that's not what happened. In fact, Jesus rides off into the clouds and disappears. So the disciples need to regroup and have a deep think. They go to the upper room and ask themselves, "Did Jesus also foreshadow any of this plot twist as well?" Could this be what he meant when Jesus said, earlier this week, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)

The disciples need to rethink two big questions: What does the kingdom look like? and How do we get to the kingdom from today? For the first question, Jesus has put a big stopper on the idea that the kingdom is going to pop down and replace all of the bad guys with good guys and everyone lives happily ever after. So we need to have our eyes opened to a kingdom where the primary activity is not in the acquisition and deployment of power to achieve God's goals. He decided 2000 years ago against that plan of action. In fact, he demonstrated it by giving up power.

For the second question, Jesus firmly says that he's not going to be the one to do it, but rather the Spirit-enabled followers of Jesus are going to do it. That is: not me, says Jesus, but you. Now the disciples all knew what a bad idea that was, since they knew what fools they'd been as far as understanding how to act over the last three years. But God seemed to be using this bad idea and foolish disciples to bring his kingdom into effect. 

Am I willing to be the weak and foolish one that he teaches and leads in the kingdom path?

John 15:1-17: If Connected, Would It Be My Native Language?

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He 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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also 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.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I 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. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. - John 15:1-17

The key word for this section is remain: We remain in Jesus. He remains in us. There is a unity, facilitated by the Holy Spirit (see John 14:16,20) but it seems to be something that vary. His remaining in us does not change, but our remaining in Jesus seems to be able to wax and wain.  What are the symptoms of this variability? Our obedience (15:10) and our fruitfulness (vs. 8).  If we take the fruit to be similar to that listed in Galatians 5:22-23, then this makes sense because John ties his commands back to: Love each other as I have loved you.

At this point, we are in Sunday School-land: God loves us so we should each other. I think that is because we don't think fruit has a cost. How much of the God-infused life is required to be fruitful in other people's lives? We miss verse 13, where Jesus tells his disciples that "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." If it was easy to being loving, joyful, patient, peaceful, forgiving, etc. then Jesus' words would have just provoked a "Duh" moment. To provide our fruit to those who are unlovable, depressing, impulsive, quarrelsome, and unforgiving, is even more difficult, but it is exactly that which shows that we are changed and that we are connected to Jesus.

Sometimes, I try to imagine what it would be like for the connectedness to Jesus and the fruit of the Spirit to simply flow from me naturally, like I was speaking my native language. It isn't my native language. My normal expression is some weird pidgin conglomeration of who I was and who I am becoming. But this thought exercise produces in me a longing for the better, giving self that Jesus is trying to produce in me. Sometimes when I am struggling, I will pray for that natural part of remaining in Christ, and strive towards it, however imperfectly.

We remain in his love. In the previous chapter, Jesus has told his disciples that he is going away and they freak out. Then he tells them that he will leave them the Holy Spirit and by the Spirit's means we will realize that "I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you." Almost a duplicate of what he tells them in this passage in John 15.

Remember you did not choose me, no I have chosen you

Remember you did not choose me, no I have chosen you

The world will show you hatred, the Spirit show you truth
That where I am, there you may also be - That Where I Am, There You, Rick Mullins