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.