Olsen Park Church of Christ


Jesus' Departure Sermon (John 14-17)
Part One

Introduction. (John 13:1) A few weeks ago we announced the death of a brother at South Georgia who died one week after he passed out after preaching a sermon. At his service it was very touching—they played the sermon at the end of the funeral. What would you preach, or teach if you knew it was the last time you could teach someone? We can’t know that. Man doesn’t know “what will happen tomorrow” (James 4:14). God is different. God knows...

         “What shall come to pass” (Dan. 2:29, KJV). Jesus—God in the flesh knew when...

         “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified” (John 12:23, NKJV).

Jesus would have known that the words He spoke to His disciples, recorded in John 14-17 would be the last words He would teach them before His death. This morning and tonight let’s study these words as we consider the message of Jesus’ Departure Sermon.

I. Relationship to other Farewell Discourses.

A.    Old Testament Farewell Discourses. There were many times Israelite leaders offered words before their death.

1.      Jacob. Prophetic blessing.

                                                             a.      Told them “what shall befall you in the last days” (Gen. 49:1).

                                                            b.      Future obedience to the Messiah (Gen. 49:10).

                                                             c.      Faithfulness to the “Mighty God of Jacob”—their “Shepherd” and the “Stone of Israel” (Gen. 49:24).

2.      Moses.

                                                             a.      Could not cross the Jordan with the Israelites (Deut. 31:2).

                                                            b.      Commanded “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31:6).

                                                             c.      He commanded them to teach their children “to fear the LORD your God, and carefully observe all the words of this law” (Deut. 31:12).

3.      Joshua—Moses’ successor.

                                                             a.      “Fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth” (Josh. 24:14).

                                                            b.      “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” asserting “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:15).

4.      Samuel.

                                                             a.      Rebuke of Israel’s sin, when God caused rain and thunder at wheat harvest (1 Sam. 12:17-18).

                                                            b.      Role of mediator praying to God for the people (1 Sam. 12:19-23).

                                                             c.      A call to whole-hearted obedience (1 Sam. 12:24-25).

5.      David. When the days “drew near that he should die” (1 Kings 2:1)...

                                                             a.      Told Solomon, “I go the way of all the earth” (1 Kings 2:2).

                                                            b.      “Keep the charge of the LORD your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn” (1 Kings 2:3).

B.     Common Elements.

1.      Foretelling the Future. Like Jacob: “I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe” (John 14:29).

2.      A Call to Have Courage. Like Moses: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

3.      Assurance of Divine Presence. Like Moses: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).

4.      Dedication to the Lord. Like Joshua: Jesus teaches disciples must “abide” in Him as the “true vine” (John 15:1-7).

5.      Intercessory Prayer. Superior to Samuel: “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14; 15:7, 16; 16:23-24).

6.      Declaration of Departure. Like David, He is about to “go away”  (John 16:5, 7), but not the way of “all the earth” (1 Kings 2:2).

                                                             a.      He is “coming back” (John 14:28).

7.      Charge to Obedience. Like all great Israelite leaders: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

II. A Departure, not a Farewell. These types of discourses are often called “farewell discourses” but that doesn’t really apply to this sermon. While Jesus tells them He is going to depart, He also spells out concepts of an ongoing relationship He will have with His disciples.

A.    Prayer in Jesus’ Name.

1.      Jesus had taught about prayer.

                                                             a.      Persistence in prayer (Luke 18:1).

                                                            b.      Rebuked long prayers to be seen by men (Matt. 23:14).

                                                             c.      Model prayer (Matt. 6:9-15)—“Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9).

2.      “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (14:14, NASB).

3.       “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (15:16).

4.      “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (16:23-24, NKJV).

                                                             a.      Does not mean that He would “pray the Father for you” (16:26).

                                                            b.      In believing that Jesus came forth from the Father, the Father Himself loves them (16:27).

5.      Prayer in Jesus’ name allows Christians to approach God the Father through the intercession of Christ. 

                                                             a.      Billy Moore is correct that while there is no, “ceremony connected with prayer...in all of our prayers we should, in some way, make known the fact that we are praying through Jesus Christ the Son of God and our Savior” (“Praying ‘In the Name of Christ,”13).

                                                            b.      In prayer disciples “come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

B.     Promise of the Holy Spirit.

1.      The Holy Spirit would be a “Helper” to them whom Jesus would “pray the Father” that He should give them (14:16).

                                                             a.      In a sense, the Holy Spirit is offered as a successor to continue the relationship they enjoy with Jesus.

2.      First in the fact that to those upon whom this was given in miraculous measure, would be allowed to overcome the frailty of human memory.

                                                             a.      This enabled them to maintain an ongoing relationship with Him, as Jesus promised He would cause them to remember “all things that I said to you” (14:25-26).

3.      Second, Jesus says the Holy Spirit would “testify of Me”  (John 15:26).

                                                             a.      Apostles wrote “the commandments of the Lord” (1 Cor. 14:37).

                                                            b.      The “Helper” would not come until Jesus departed (16:7).

                                                             c.      Spirit would teach what He had not yet taught while on the earth (16:12-13).

                                                            d.      “Take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (16:14).

C.     Promise of His Return. He describes this in at least three ways.

1.      First, He goes “to prepare a place for you” (14:2), but says “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (14:3).

                                                             a.      He came forth from the Father, but as van Speyr puts it, “He went forth from Him alone, but he is returning as one who is bringing guests along” (The Farewell Discourses, 80).

                                                            b.      After Judgment disciples “shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).

                                                             c.      No other Israelite leader could promise this.

2.      Second, sending the Holy Spirit as “the Helper” was a manner in which He would return to them.

                                                             a.      “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (14:18).

                                                            b.      Even though “the world will see Me no more,” they are assured “you will see Me” (14:19), because He would be “in you” (14:20).

                                                             c.      Nature of indwelling: both the Son and the Spirit would dwell in believers through the word.

                                                            d.      Although they would not literally see Jesus after His ascension, they would see Him though the eyes of faith.

                                                             e.      Sheridan explains, “in a way, Jesus ‘returns’ in and through the Paraclete,” a transliteration of the Greek word translated “Helper” (“The Paraclete as Successor in the Johannine Farewell Discourse: A Comparative Literary Analysis,” 130).

3.      Third, He told them “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me” (16:16).

                                                             a.      This comes at a point when the disciples considered Him to be “speaking plainly” (16:29).

                                                            b.      This is connected with the sorrow they felt over His coming death. He explains that they “now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you” (16:22).

                                                             c.      After Christ’s resurrection the news filled disciples of Jesus with “fear and great joy” (Matt. 28:8).

                                                            d.      They rejoiced, saying, “we have seen the Lord” (John 20:25).

III. Content of the Sermon.

A.    Troubled Hearts (14:1-31). Later in the garden, His disciples were “sleeping from sorrow” (Luke 22:45). This was a troubled night. The first section of Jesus’ sermon begins with an effort to calm their spirits.

1.      This consolation is not purely emotional. Parsenios, observes, “To console is not merely to express sympathy, but to lead a person to a more philosophical demeanor” (“‘Paramythetikos Christos’: St. John Chrysostom Interprets John 13-17,” 219).

2.      Begins—“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me” (14:1). He returns to this concern near the end of the chapter (14:27).

3.      He is about to go away, but He goes “to prepare a place” for them (14:3).

4.      He is the way to the Father (14:6), and it is His unity with the Father that allows Him to do the works He has done and was about to do (14:10).

                                                             a.      The time would come soon when they would do “greater works” (14:12), that would bring glory to the Father (14:13).

5.      In His absence, He would send them “another Helper” (14:16), who is “the Spirit of truth” (14:17), by which they would understand more fully Christ’s unity with the Father (14:20).

a.       The general indwelling of Deity would demonstrate Christ’s continued “home” within their hearts (14:21, 23).

6.      Because of these things, He urged them not to “be troubled” or “afraid” (14:27), ending the chapter with the command, “arise, let us go from here” (14:31).

a.       At this point, it appears that they left the upper room.

B.     Clinging to the Vine (15:1-27). The remainder of the sermon is spoken on the way to Gethsemane.

1.      One can almost imagine Jesus passing a grapevine on the way, and motioning to it as He offered the powerful declaration “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (15:1).

a.       Josephus claimed that a beautiful golden vine was spread out over the doorway leading into the temple (Antiquities of the Jews 15.11.3).

b.      If Jesus walked through the temple courts on the way to the garden this could well have been visible to them.

c.       The disciples would have been familiar with grapes, and how they were grown.

2.      Jesus likens the disciples to “branches” (15:5), which can only bear fruit if they continue to cling to the vine (15:4).

a.       Throughout the rest of this chapter Jesus explains that His disciples must abide in Him by allowing His words to abide within them (15:7) and by keeping His commandments (15:10).

3.      Jesus identifies the disciples as His friends, and explained that their friendship to Him would be demonstrated by doing what He commanded (15:14).

4.      He returned to the figure of the vine, in declaring to them that He had chosen them in order that they should “bear fruit” (15:16).

5.      The greatest test of their adherence to the vine would come in facing the same persecution and hatred that would soon be poured out upon Him (15:18-25).

a.       He applied the psalmist’s words—“they hated Me without cause” (15:25; Psa. 69:4) to Himself, Jesus explains that to abide in Him would involve experiencing the same hatred.

6.      The disciples had been with Him “from the beginning” (15:27), but He now calls them to continue with Him.

a.       Ironically, only a short time after He gave this admonition they would all forsake Him and be scattered (Mark 14:50).

b.      J.W. McGarvey notes, “All their confidence in His divinity would vanish when they saw Him arrested...and they would seek their own safety, leaving Him to His fate” (The Fourfold Gospel, 678).

C.     Overcoming the World (16:1-33). Chapter sixteen resolves a number of points Jesus had introduced earlier in the lesson.

1.      It builds to a concluding declaration that He had “overcome the world” (16:33).

a.       Having just told them they would face persecution, He explained that it would come from those who did not know God (16:3).

2.      Jesus raised the fact that they had not asked Him “where are you going” (16:5).

a.       This seems to move them to ask among themselves, as they near the garden, “What is this that He says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’” (16:17).

b.      While He does not explicitly answer their question in detail, He compares the sorrow they feel over His announced departure to the temporary anguish of childbirth (16:21).

3.      He returns for a final time to the promise He has given of the coming of the Holy Spirit (16:7-13), promising a time in which He Himself would speak to them in less figurative language than He had previously used (16:25).

a.       The disciples perceive His concluding words to be clearer than other things He had taught them. They told Him, “now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!” (16:29).

b.      Sadly, only at this late point in His ministry would they declare, “Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God” (16:30).

4.      In what seems to be an expression of disappointment, Jesus asked, “Do you now believe?” (16:31).

a.       What a sad moment this must have been for Him! After so much effort, only now did they seem to understand.

b.      In His foreknowledge, however, He told them “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone” (16:32a).

c.       How would it feel to preach a sermon knowing that your audience would not listen and follow what is taught?

d.      What a time of solitude our Lord must have endured.

5.      This hardly seems like a moment of victory. Yet, what His disciples could not grasp at that time was that even as they would abandon Him, Jesus would not be “alone”; He declared, “the Father is with Me” (16:32).

a.       God in the flesh who “laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16), would “overcome the world” (16:33).

b.      Jesus speaks, even before being forsaken by His disciples of the conquest over sin and death He would accomplish as if it had already happened.

c.       Through what appeared to be defeat and abandonment He would ultimately be victorious.

D.    The “High Priestly” Prayer (17:1-26).

1.      Jesus did not respond to this awareness of their coming abandonment with bitterness.

a.       His compassion for them continued in spite of His foreknowledge of their impending unfaithfulness.

2.      Some call this His “high priestly prayer,” as Jesus (in a sense) assumed the role that would be His upon His resurrection; He would become the High Priest of the New Covenant (Heb. 2:17).

3.      Jesus “lifted up His eyes to heaven” and began with an appeal that God the Father would “Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” (17:1).

a.       This prayer is the longest of Jesus’ prayers preserved in Scripture.

b.      We get from it a taste of the nature of the many prayers Jesus offered in solitude, waking early (Mark 1:35) or staying up all night in prayer (Luke 6:12).

4.      The first section is an appeal for Himself that His purpose would be accomplished (17:1-5).

5.      The remainder of the prayer involves prayer for His disciples. First, He prays for His apostles (17:6-19), and then “for those who will believe in Me through their word” (17:20-26).

a.       The focus of His prayer for His apostles concerns their ultimate return to faithfulness.

b.      Although He would soon be “no longer in the world” His disciples would continue “in the world” (17:11).

c.       His prayer is not that the Father “should take them out of the world” but instead that the Father “should keep them from the evil one” (17:15).

d.      He prays that they might be kept by the message of the gospel. Jesus appeals, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (17:17).

6.      Jesus prays for unity among the apostles (17:11) and the unity of all believers (17:20-23).

7.      He prays that one day His disciples might “be with Me where I am” and “behold My glory” (17:24).

a.       It is touching that only hours before the cross His thoughts are directed to the ultimate goal of His coming death—the salvation of His people.

b.      Having said these words Jesus “went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden” (18:1).

c.       This may refer to going out of the city, or possibly even out of the temple courts.

d.      Brother Grover Stevens writes: “Since the Temple was located on their way to Gethsemane it is altogether probable that this majestic, high-priestly prayer of Jesus was spoken in the great court of the temple, now flooded with moonlight and deserted at this time of night except for these twelve. It manifests an air of triumph and glory” (611).

Conclusion. Tonight we will continue this study by looking at three major themes, considering what it shows us about Jesus’ method of preaching, and how Jesus’ preaching was distinctive.

Kyle Pope 2014

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