Jesus Prepared
for His Death
Book of John
13:31-14:6
Maybe the most important theme of this lesson is that the Lord Jesus Christ will show us His relationship to God the Father.
We will see that
after Judas had left to betray the Lord Jesus and He then gets deeper
in His message with those 11 who remained, who still had not realized
that Judas would betray the Lord Jesus.
We see the Lord
as He begins to enter into His "passion" which means the
sufferings of the Lord as He begins His last few days on this earth
before His resurrection and next His return.
In reality as the
Son of Man, Jesus is preparing Himself to be the only sacrifice that
can save all humanity!
It is through His
death that He is glorified, and God the Father is glorified in Him!
By His own death
the Lord has replaced our own death with His life.
Col 3:3 For ye
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
*****Joh 13:31
Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man
glorified, and God is glorified in him.
Joh 13:32 If God
be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall
straightway glorify him.
The other
disciples may not have known who the Lord had been talking about, but
Judas knew, and He left but we must understand that the Lord had sent
Judas away, all he needed was to repent and these sitting with Jesus
would have been the 12 Apostles and we would have never met the
Apostle Paul.
As Judas set in
motion the things he did, Christ set in motion His Passion, the
sufferings and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This day would be
Thursday late in the evening.
Doctor Luke wrote
of this: Luk 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how
am I straitened till it be accomplished!
Again we will see
that there is a true unity of God the Father, God the Son and God the
Holy Spirit!
Jesus would now
begin His final steps as the Son of Man!
Even in His
dying, Jesus was perfect in His obedience to His Father.
In His death
Jesus would transfer His own righteousness to every believer because
we had no righteousness at all to use to gain peace with God the
Father.
Isa_64:6 But we
are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like
the wind, have taken us away.
With the
righteousness of the Lord we are at peace with God:
Rom_5:1
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ:
Some would say
that Jesus was having second thoughts, but He would not be God if He
was happy to see the death of anyone.
The thing that
was most important was that by His death, He would triumph over Satan
and break Satan's power over death he held over the souls of mankind!
1Jn 3:8 He that
committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he
might destroy the works of the devil.
This is why the
Lord had come down from Heaven and had to die on the cross!
*****Joh 13:33
Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me:
and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I
say to you.
Joh 13:34 A new
commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have
loved you, that ye also love one another.
Joh 13:35 By
this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one
to another.
After this meal
with His disciples and Judas already gone to do His evil deed, Jesus
said He only had a short time to finish the work God had given Him to
do.
It would require
His death. At this time these men could not grasp the resurrection of
the Lord after His death.
They would not
understand these things until they were filled with the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost which now was only about 53 days away.
The thing that
they had to understand was that Jesus demanded a new commandment and
that was for them to love one another but not as they had been doing
but they were to show the love Jesus had for them to each other.
All of us can say
we love one another but do we have that unconditional love that our
Savior had.
These disciples
had just been arguing over who should receive the highest positions
of authority when Jesus returned to set up His Kingdom.
To love like
Jesus, is to not to be a judge but to be a witness of the love of
Jesus.
Once we know the
Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit moves in to live
within us but as human beings we also need each other which is the
purpose of the Church for like-minded humans to gather together in
the name of Christ and comfort and edify each other.
Mat_18:20 For
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in
the midst of them.
These two or
three would be the beginnings of a church!
Jesus had already
given us one new commandment that extended from the Old Testament.
Mat 22:37 Jesus
said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This
is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And
the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On
these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
The new
commandment that Jesus was talking about this day extends these two
commandments.
We are not only
to love one another, we are to love like Jesus loved and like God
loves.
Joh 3:16 For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
Joh 3:17 For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the
world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18 He that
believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God.
If we cannot do
this one thing, then we are not disciples of God.
This means we
have stopped the learning process if we cannot love as Jesus loved
and still loves each of us today.
A true disciple
follows his Master!
We do not just go
where He goes, we do as He does! "God; and everyone that loveth
is born of God, and knows God".
1Jn 4:8 He that
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1Jn 4:9 In this
was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his
only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
1Jn 4:10 Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his
Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1Jn 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Simon Peter
always ask the questions the others were afraid to ask and most every
time he would stick his foot in his own mouth.
*****Joh 13:36
Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered
him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt
follow me afterwards.
Joh 13:37 Peter
said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my
life for thy sake.
Joh 13:38 Jesus
answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast
denied me thrice.
We all want to be
where Jesus is, but not many want to carry their own cross!
The Cross is a
sign of death!
It is sure that
Simon Peter was not ready for Jesus to leave them, because he had not
yet accepted everything that Jesus had said.
This is where we
all get in trouble. We all get over confident in our Christian
strength.
It would have
been great for the disciples if they went with Jesus back to Heaven
just as it would be for us if Jesus took us back to Heaven when He
first saves us.
If this had
happened, then there would be no church today.
The Lord assures
us we are going to Heaven and that we are a Temple of God, but we
have work to do after we are saved.
Note after we are
saved and not before we are saved!
The Lord Jesus
would cause Peter to humble himself before he was ready for
Pentecost!
Peter had not yet
taken a good look at himself in the mirror of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is
to be our mirror to see if we are getting more like Him!
Peter would not
show the proper strength of a Christian, until that cock crew and he
realized he was denying the Lord whom He dearly loved!
The one sin that
we as believers must not commit is to deny Jesus Christ!
Gal 6:3 For if a
man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth
himself.
Gal 6:4 But let
every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in
himself alone, and not in another.
Gal 6:5 For
every man shall bear his own burden.
We should know
that there are some questions we might have, we have no business
asking.
For instance are
there just a few who will be saved? This question does not help our
ability to share the Gospel with those in need of knowing the Lord as
their Savior.
Go back and check
the covenants to Abraham and King David.
Jesus would pray
that all who loved Him would one day be with Him in Heaven and God
the Father always answers the prayers of His Son.
This would be a
much better thought when we share the Gospel with anyone.
Then the Lord
tells His disciples, all of us what we love to hear.
*****Joh 14:1
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in
me.
This is one of
the most overlooked Scriptures in the Gospel.
Jesus says why do
we worry over such trivial matters!
Even when we are
in the midst of a very bad day, Jesus says don't let it worry you.
Even when we are
traveling in the valley of death, don't worry about trivial things.
Even when
politicians have gone slap crazy, don't worry about trivial things.
Even when the
world is falling apart, don't worry about trivial things.
Why? This place
we call the planet earth is not our home!
One day soon we
are going to God's House!
*****Joh 14:2 In
my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Joh 14:3 And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you
unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Joh 14:4 And
whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
The Lord Jesus
Christ had to die upon this earth and then resurrect from that grave
before He went back home, and He would do all these things by Himself
so all we would have to do is believe on these things and our
Carpenter would go back to Heaven and start building mansions in His
Father's House for us to live in!
In reality this
body that we call flesh, will also die and be resurrected to fulfill
God's plans for us!
There is nothing
on this earth that can stop these things from taking place!
Now to those who
say God does not exist, I say, I will pray for you that maybe you
will change your mind and accept the truth, before it is too late.
The Lord said, if
these things were not true, He would tell us because it is impossible
for the Lord to Lie!
You see Jesus is
never far from us because when God leaves Heaven, God is still in
Heaven and Jesus is God!
No matter how
many are saved before the Lord returns, there will be enough mansions
that we all can have one for ourselves.
That word "many"
is a very large quantity!
**The Lord's
first step was to be lifted up upon the cross and it is all downhill
from that point.
1Ti 2:5 For
there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
**The Lords next
step was to arise from the death of the cross. This showed the world
that He had the power of God.
Rom 6:3 Know ye
not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if
we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall
be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6 Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Rom 6:7 For he
that is dead is freed from sin.
**The Lords next
step was to ascend into Heaven and be exalted by His Father.
Eph 2:6 And hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7 That in
the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in
his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
"Jesus said
if you believe in God then believe in Me"
Heb 11:6 But
without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to
God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him.
Jesus had to
return to Heaven to put these things in place and now He is waiting
until that last soul is saved and he will return to take us home.
2Pe_3:9 The Lord
is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but
is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but
that all should come to repentance.
In other words
Jesus will return when His patience runs out and this could be any
day now!
The one most important thing that the Lord did before He left, He
told us how to make it to Heaven.
At the end when
the Lord has brought all His children home there will not be a single
empty mansion. The Lord knows exactly how many mansions to prepare.
What did the Lord
tell these disciples?
1) You know where
I am going.
2) You know how
to get there.
These are the
same things we all should know!
The Lord Jesus
Christ went back to where His Father resides.
Joh 16:5 But now
I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whither
goest thou?
The way to get to
Heaven is well known there are just many who reject what the Lord has
said.
Joh 3:16 For God
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life.
Joh 3:17 For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the
world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18 He that
believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God.
Now we can
believe all these things said by the Lord and get to Heaven or we can
reject these things and go to Hell.
For those who
choose this when they get to Hell, they will find that everyone in
Hell are now believers, but it was too late for them to decide.
Another thing we
should never do is call the Lord a liar!
*****Joh 14:5
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how
can we know the way?
Joh 14:6 Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me.
All these
disciples had been thinking that Jesus was about to lead them to the
Kingdom of God on this earth.
They had been
discussing who would have the greatest honor in that place.
It was now
sinking in that Jesus was talking about His death.
Jesus was also
talking about His resurrection but neither of these things were
understood.
Jesus was also
talking about going some-place that they could not go.
These things were
hard for them to grasp at this time.
It is hard to
forget physical things and react to Spiritual things until "faith"
and the Holy Spirit can do their work.
And the Holy
Spirit could not do His work until Jesus went back to Heaven.
Eph 4:17 This I
say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not
as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
Eph 4:18 Having
the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of
their heart:
Those who think
in worldly terms and live for the things of this earth will never
understand where Jesus Christ has gone, and they will never be
interested in the fact that He will return.
The world of
religion refuses to accept that the only way to Heaven is by Jesus
Christ but that does not make them right.
I would always
want to believe the truth and my "faith" lies in the truth
of God!
**The Lord Jesus
Christ not only points out how to walk in this life and how to reach
our Heavenly Father, but He will take us by the hand and lead us
there.
Heb 10:19 Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a
new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And
having an high priest over the house of God;
**Our Heavenly
Father has shown us what He is like in the "Person" of
Jesus Christ
Joh 14:10
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the
words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
**Jesus Christ
reveals the truth of our beginning. Jesus Christ also reveals the
truth of our ending and because He loves us, He gives us the choice
to choose the truth or to choose a lie.
Joh 5:28 Marvel
not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29 And
shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of
life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation.
**True freedom
comes only by Jesus Christ.
Joh 8:31 Then
said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my
word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Jesus Christ is
the embodiment of life:
2Ti 1:9 Who hath
saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began,
2Ti 1:10 But is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel:
The only way to
this life is the Lord Jesus Christ!
Jesus did not
only go to His Father's house, He went to the Father again giving us
an example of what we are to do.
Yes, we have a
mansion in Heaven but the greatest thing in Heaven is our Heavenly
Father who we will finally see face to face!
Then our love
ones who are already there.
And then last of
all, our Mansion which will not seem more important than the family
of God!
Amen
Let's Pray!
