The Troubled Disciples part 2

Well, I'm sure you've already turned in your scriptures to John chapter 14. That's where we'll be this morning. Like I said earlier, we'll be in verses 7 through 14. Verses 7 through 14 of John chapter 14. Now last week we covered verses 1 through 6. And if your memory is good, you know that the title of the message was "The Troubled Disciples." I share with you that I was really inspired for the message title right out of verse 1 because we see Jesus says, "Stop letting your heart be troubled." That was the theme. That's the theme that runs all the way through these verses all the way to verse 14.

And like I said earlier, this will be a part 2 in this series, in this message, in these verses. Now the disciples were troubled. We've seen that in verse 1. We saw that last week all the way through to verse 6. They were confused. They were bewildered. They were heartbroken. There's lots of different words and phrases that we can use to describe what's going on in their lives. Now quite a few times I have said the disciples were not getting what Jesus was teaching and they were greatly troubled by how things were working out with Jesus. Now of all of the reasons, they were confused.

Arguably the most confusing was the fact that Jesus was not turning out to be the Messiah or the kind of Messiah they hoped for. The victorious Messiah, which seemed to be becoming a reality, was fading fast. It seems like it was just yesterday for them when Jesus came into Jerusalem victorious as the crowd waved those palm branches in victory and they shouted at the top of their lungs, "Hosanna! Hosanna!" And they quoted the Psalms when they said, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel." And now Jesus is talking about betrayal.

He's talking about going away to where they cannot come and he's even talking about his own death. It seems no matter how much Jesus teaches and encourages and corrects the disciples, they seem to stay confused and this has led to a great troubling in their heart. Now in introduction last week I gave you many reasons why the disciples were troubling, seeing this previous mentioned misunderstanding of what type of Messiah Jesus would be. But in the introduction this morning I want to focus on another aspect to what is going on here, another portion of the story if I can use that language. The disciples were slow.

I mean the disciples were slow in getting what Jesus is teaching and was teaching. Now how many times does he repeat himself? Over and over. They were slow to get what was being said. We saw that in Peter. Peter in his impetuous spontaneous behavior back in chapter 13 verse 36, Peter blurts out "Where are you going?" He just doesn't get it. We saw this last week in Thomas in his questioning in verse 5 and we will see more of this behavior as we continue in the story of Jesus comforting and teaching and helping his troubled disciples. And we will see that he begins to comfort them in a new way, in a new way.

But before we get into the message I want to say this. We will come back to the disciples their slow behavior at the conclusion of the message. Now I've already said that this is going to be a part two. This is the troubled disciples part two. It will be in verses 7 through 14. You see how we are going to divide the verses. Trust in him which is what we used last week in our first main truth. We covered verse 1 but we will see trust in him in verses 7 through 11. Trust in his works. You could say power. Trust in his works in verse 12. And then trust in his promise verses 13 and 14. Let's go ahead and look at our verses.

Let's read them together. Verse 7. "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you know Him and have seen Him." Verse 8. "Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us.' And Jesus said to Him, 'Have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, 'Show us the Father?'" Verse 10. "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father abiding in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me.

Otherwise, believe on account of the works themselves." That would have been the great signs, the miracles. Verse 12. "Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes in me, the works that I shall do, He do also. And greater works than these shall He do, because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." And we'll pause right there and pick up in verse 15 next week. So you see how we're going to divide these truths. So let's look at our first main truth, and that is trust in Him.

Like I said earlier, this comes out of verses 7 through 11. Now here in these verses, we see what Jesus has been trying to do all along, and that has strengthened the faith, the feeble faith of His disciples. Back in verse 1, we've read it earlier, Jesus tells them to stop being troubled. He was clearly saying in verse 1, "Trust in me." Now here in these verses, verses 7 through 11, Jesus is urging the very same thing. And that's why I use this phrase again, "trust in Him." Here in these verses, Jesus uses the word "me" 7 times, all through here. He is directing their attention to Himself.

And we will see clearly that Jesus is trying to strengthen their faith and strengthen their belief in Him. Now there are several observations I want to make here, three main observations. And the last observation, we're going to divide it a little deeper, so follow me as you take notes. But first I want us to notice their knowledge of the Father. Their knowledge of the Father. Verse 7, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on, you know Him and have seen Him." Now the use of the word "if" here, now look at your translation, your Scripture, "if you had known Me." It tells us that they had not known the Father.

Now I'll ask you a question here. Had Jesus not repeatedly said that they do know Him? Yes, that's the case. Jesus is saying that they had known Him, but not in His full significance. They had a partial understanding of Him. They had known Him as the Messiah, but they did not understand fully who the Messiah was to be. The verbs here in this verse are in the plural meaning that He was not speaking to Thomas as He had done earlier. He was speaking to the entire group, the 11. But notice what else Jesus is saying. Jesus is claiming full deity. John repeatedly gives us this type of information in His Gospel.

All throughout the Gospel, Jesus claims full deity. We learned that and saw that in Chapter 1, Chapter 5, and in Chapter 8. But what is Jesus saying? They have a partial understanding of who He is, but He is revealing to them a full knowledge of Himself and the Father. Then second, I want us to notice Philip's strange request. Look at Verse 8, "Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.'" Here Philip reveals his lack of spiritual understanding, his lack of spiritual vision. Not just his lacking, but all of the others as well. Because when he speaks here, he uses the word "us," seemingly representing the group.

But what is Philip asking? What are the others wondering and asking in their hearts? Most Bible scholars and commentators say that he is asking for what is called a theophany. That is a revelation of God Himself. I'll give you one example and it'll help you understand. If we go to the prophecies of Isaiah and we look at the life of Isaiah, starting in Chapter 6, Verse 1, we saw that Isaiah had a vision of God, a vision of heaven, and that is what's called a theophany. So Philip is saying, "Show us the Father." And he seems to be speaking for the group as well. So this is a strange request from Philip.

And then third, notice Jesus' response to Philip. Now his response starts in Verse 9 and goes all the way to Verse 11. What does Verse 9 say? "Jesus said to him." Now here we will see that Jesus asks him two questions. There are three here, but I'm going to focus on two. Then he makes a statement in these verses. So right here with Jesus' response to Philip, I want us to deal with two questions and a statement. The first question, Verse 9, "Do you not know me?" What does Jesus say here? Have I been so long with you and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? Jesus had been with him night and day for so long.

Jesus had performed so many great miracles, numerous signs that were to point people to His deity. He had preached the truths of the Kingdom unlike anyone before Him, even greater than any of the prophets. And this question reveals the disciples' misunderstandings concerning the Messiah. They had a front row seat and Jesus is asking Him, "Do you not know me?" Jesus was not the Messiah that they were expecting. Jesus was not the Messiah that they were hoping for. The second question, He says, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, that we are one?" Look at Verse 10.

"Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?" Again, Jesus had been with them so long and He had taught these truths to them many, many times. This question reveals the disciples' failure to understand and receive what Jesus has taught. The question is revealing a great lack of understanding of who Jesus truly is. But notice in Jesus' response, again, He claims deity and He claims a perfect abiding between Himself and the Father. He is stating that His words are the Father's words. So notice in these two questions, "Do you not know me?

And do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?" But then third here, this is all under Jesus' response to Philip, the statement. And the statement is, "Believe in me." We see this in Verse 10. Excuse me, Verse 11. "Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. Otherwise believe on the account of the works themselves." Here Jesus is commending them to believe not in saving faith but in a sustaining, sanctifying faith. He is calling them to believe in the totality of who He is. And He seems to say that if they struggle, at least believe because of the great signs, the great miracles that He did before them.

So what is He saying? Believe in me. If you struggle to maintain that belief, believe in the signs that point to my deity. So what do we see here? Jesus is calling on the eleven to trust in Him. Not in salvation, but to trust in the fullness of His deity. He is the image of the invisible God, Colossians 1.15 says, which they have lived with day and night for some three years. He is working through them. He is dissecting them and He is exposing their lack of faith and their misguided faith. Now what can we learn here? How might we apply these verses to us? I would make application by asking you, asking us a question. And the question is this.

Do we know who we have believed in? I mean, have we really settled in our heart who the master of our salvation is and the master and the captain of our life is? This is not just a suffering Savior. This is deity, God in the flesh. Let me say that question again. Do we not know who we have believed in? Jesus is not half God. He is God. He is and was God. And our salvation is in the same God that He is urging His disciples to fully believe in. But let me ask you another question. By our actions, are we more like the 11 than we know? I mean, the disciples were just having a hard time trusting in what was taking place before them.

Their circumstances had changed. These were not the plans that they had hoped for, but they had to trust in Christ. Are we not more like the 11? Do we begin to question Christ and question our circumstances and question why we have to go through what we have to go through when actually we should look past the wind and the waves in our life and say, I believe in you. You are God. You have saved me and I trust you no matter how I feel and no matter what might come my way. So do we know who we have believed in? He is God in the flesh whom we have trusted for our salvation. Truth number two, I want us to see trust in His works.

You can write power, trust in His works, trust in His power. We see this in verse 12. "Truly, truly, I'll say to you, He who believes in me, the works that I do, He do also, and greater works than thee shall He do, because I go to the Father." There's a natural transition here with this truly, truly, but here Jesus makes those feeble disciples, these confused disciples, an earth-shattering promise. One could speculate that this promise could have been hard, if not impossible, to believe. They were so very weak. They were so blind to what Jesus was teaching and now He seems to make an outlandish promise that they would do great works.

This emphasizes the validity of this statement. I've said this so many times. Everything that Jesus said was true. Everything that He said was trustworthy, but He raises the bar when He says, "Truly, truly," He is placing a heavy emphasis on what He is about to say. Now out of this verse, I want to make three observations. First, He who believes in me. Now the language emphasizes a personal commitment to Christ. This is not simply not an intellectual assent or a formal belief. This represents one being truly born again, born of God.

And listen, "repeatedly He has said they were true believers who had truly believed in Him." We know all through His earthly ministry that He had a way of peeling off from the crowd those who were not truly believers. But what does He say? "He who believes in me." Those who are truly converted. Second, He says, "He will do greater works than me." Go back to the verse, "Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes in me, the works that I do, He do also, and greater works than these He do." Now this is an outlandish statement by Jesus. Jesus performed great miracles. He performed great signs. They attested to His deity.

And yet He is saying that they shall do greater works. What is the meaning of this statement? How could Christ look at these feeble disciples and say, "You will do greater things than I have done." Jesus is not saying greater works in power, but greater works in their operation. Jesus knows that after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, they will do as He has done. And the extent will be greater because it is more of them doing as He has done.

Simply, Jesus, when He was on earth, was confined to one flesh, but these eleven will do greater things because the works He did, they will individually do, and corporately, they will do greater things. So what is He saying here? You who are weak, you who are so blind, but because you believe in Me and I will work in you, you will do greater things than Me. And then third, they will do greater when the work is completed. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, shall he do also.

The greater works and greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father." This last phrase points to the completed work of Christ. He is simply saying that after My crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension back to the right hand of the Father, then will the Spirit come and enable you to do the things that I am speaking of. So what do we see here? Jesus is urging them to trust in His work and the works that will come. Of course, they could not see these works, but He knew these works were to come.

When Christ is ascended and the Spirit is given, they will be empowered to do what they cannot do, and they will be empowered to do greater things than even Christ did. Now how might this apply to us? Just this one verse. This outlandish promise for the disciples. We must see that we who are truly converted, we need to see the extent, the possibilities of the works of Christ that He can do through us. Just like in their day, they can do collectively more, we must see that we can do collectively more.

It's not that we are greater than Christ or greater than the disciples, but we who are truly believers, when we are walking in obedience and we allow God to work in us in an unbelievable way, we can do collectively more than we can do individually. It's not just about what you can do, it is what we can do. It is what God can do through us. See, it's not about God sanctifying them as individuals, that's what we've been learning all along. It's about God sanctifying them collectively, because the works in verse 12 are centered around kingdom work, the work of the church. All along it's been about them as individuals.

Now we're seeing it's more about the group, and what we can see is Christ is more concerned about their collective sanctification than their individual sanctification. My question for you, and then application, is what can God do through you? You must see that there are things that God can do through you that He cannot and will not do through me. What can God do through you? You might say me, poor pitiful me, poor struggling me, poor ill-equipped and uneducated me. You could give a thousand and one excuses as to why God could not use you, but God can use you.

If you feel like God can use you, chances are you're prideful and you never will be used. But that's not enough. It's not about God using you, it's about God using us. It's about God using us, the church. Like I said earlier, Christ was more concerned about sanctifying them collectively than individually. Christ is more concerned about sanctifying us collectively than individually, because God saved you and God has called you to be a part of a work greater than you are. With that in mind, go back to the verse. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the truly converted, the works that I do, he shall do also.

And greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father." And I do not think we realize the great power that is at our fingertips. I don't think that we realize the things that Christ can do through us. And we must trust in the works and the power of Christ. Let's move on. I want us to notice our third main truth. Trust in His promise. Trust in His promise. Verse 13, "And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." Now if the promise made in verse 12 was not enough, now Jesus makes another pledge, another promise.

Verses 13 through 14 seem to be connected to verse 12. And as Jesus said, "Truly, truly," in verse 12, "that could be carried over into these verses." The New American, the King James, uses the word "and," which seems to connect these verses together. It seems that Jesus is adding promise on promise to these fledgling disciples. But now we see that this next promise is associated with prayer. Two observations I want to make here, and this is going to teach us a proud prayer. First we see that Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given." Ask and it will be given.

Verse 13, "And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do." Verse 14, "And if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it." Now here it seems that Jesus is giving them a signed blank check if they just ask in His name. But that's not the case. We can't deny that Jesus says, "Ask and it will be given," two times. So we cannot deny what Jesus is saying. But Jesus is saying that if they ask anything according to His will for their lives and for their ministries, He will grant that request. So this is not a blank personal check. This is a blank personal check according to His will for their lives and His will for their ministries.

So what do we see? Ask and it will be given, and what do we see there in the verses? All according to His will. And then second notice, ask for the glory of God. Go back to verse 13, "And whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Here we see that the motive is sandwiched in between these two statements. Very simple, this is for the glory of the Son and for the glory of God. That is the motive behind this prayer. That is the motive behind this blank check for kingdom work and kingdom purposes and His will for their life.

Now in some study this week, I ran across a small list that John MacArthur gives which helps us see the meaning of these verses. This will help us. This kind of puts it in one package for us. MacArthur says, "And I quote, 'To pray in Jesus' name has far more profound and serious meaning.'" Three things, and I'm quoting. First, it means to make requests consistent with God's will and the purposes of His kingdom. Second, it is to acknowledge one's spiritual poverty, lack of self-sufficiency, and utter unworthiness to receive anything from God based on one's merits.

Third, it is to express a sincere desire that God would be glorified in His answer. So what do we see here? A magic formula for prayer? No. We see Jesus promising the disciples that when He is back with the Father, He will answer every prayer prayed according to His will for His kingdom work for His glory. This is not just an encouraging promise, but great instruction in prayer. Now an application of what might we learn from these verses. Well, I personally believe that these verses apply to us as well. I believe that this promise is for us at Nola Baptist Church.

We are genuinely born again, and we have a genuine desire for Christ to build His church. I did not say for those who have a great desire, but for those who have a genuine God honoring desire. Now let me help you with this. Let me flesh this out a little bit. One of the things that we say, some of the rhetoric that we use is that we want to be a biblical church. Brother Keith and I as elders in the church, the things that we do, we want to do it according to the Scriptures chapter and verse. There are many things that churches do that are contrary to the Scriptures.

Their leadership that people have in the life of the church, contrary to the Scriptures. We want to be chapter and verse, chapter and verse. So as we as the elders pray for the vision that God has for the church, as long as we are doing it chapter and verse, we can pray and by the power of the Holy Spirit working in us as we desire God's glory in the life of the church, He will answer that prayer. He says so. It's not a hope so. He promises that as the leaders of the church, if we're doing it according to His will, He will answer those prayers because He desires a biblical church more than you and I do. I'll give you another example.

You've heard me mention this in many different ways. We had some messages on world missions. We have prayed and I have prayed that the Lord would use us to take the gospel around the world. And if we as a church come before the Lord and we see the Great Commission as a commandment before God and an expectation given to the church, and if we come before God and say, "God, we are Your church. We understand this commandment. Use us to be a part of world evangelization, of world missions." God will honor that prayer and He will answer that prayer if we do it according to His will and for His glory. Why?

He desires world missions and world evangelization more than we do. One of the things that we've prayed for is we have prayed that God would bring us children and many of them are what we call spiritual orphans. Jesus said to the disciples as they were trying to keep the children away from Him, He said no and I'm prayer phrasing, "Bring the children to Me." We believe that God wants to reach their unreached children.

He wants to reach families through their children and I believe we can pray and ask God to give us more children and more children's workers and He will answer that prayer if we do it for the glory of God because He desires to save children and rescue children more than we do. See what I'm saying? We can trust in His promise. We can have a firm confidence that He will answer these prayers according to His will for our church. If we desire His glory and for Him to work out the life of the church according to His will for us, listen, He will answer our prayer every time.

Just as we desire the church to be victorious, He desires it more than we do. Now in conclusion, moving away from the passage, during the introduction of the message I mentioned that the disciples were very slow. I mean, there were many things that rocked their world but they were slow in getting Jesus teaching the meaning of the events going on here. Now there are two observations about the 11 that I think we can learn from. First of all, the human responsibility here. Let me explain what I mean. These disciples were responsible for what Jesus was teaching. They were responsible for their reactions. Now think about that.

Jesus said much of what we've learned repeatedly. A lot is used to repeat from other chapters. How many times had He told them that He was going to suffer and die? And they were responsible for their actions. They would have been responsible for their spiritual slothfulness. They just couldn't get it. And if Christ were to hold them accountable for their slothfulness, He holds us accountable for our slothfulness. He holds us accountable for every word that He gives us every time the Word of God is open in the life of this church. He expects us to receive every message, every phrase, every word.

He expects us to receive it, digest it, and let it be fully worked out in our life in full obedience. Otherwise, it's slothfulness. What I'm going to do is I'm going to give you an observation about the disciples. Is the spiritual perseverance of Christ in them for their sanctification? I guess I can say it like this. They were responsible, but they could not do it on their own. If they could, they wouldn't need Him. They needed the patience, the kindness, and the mercy of Christ. Isn't he wonderfully patient here? Isn't he kind and long suffering here? Listen, if Christ had our patience, He would have cut them off immediately.

He is so kind and He is so patient, He repeats Himself over and over. This is the perseverance of Christ in them for their personal and corporate sanctification. And if they needed Christ to persevere in them, we need Christ to persevere in us because it's far more slothful, far more disobedient, far more like the eleven, then we know. It doesn't take us long before we think we've arrived and we've got it together. God had to work for them, and they just couldn't see it. God had to work in them, and they couldn't grasp it. They were slothful, and they couldn't see it. They needed a great inner work, not just as individuals, but as a group.

And I believe, and Brother Keith believes, that God has a great work for His church. This is not our church. This is not a family church. This is not a particular group's church. This is His church, and we as the church can't be slothful. In our own personal troubles, we must see that they are used for you and for the church. I love how Brother Keith has said it all summer, "Your trial is first for the church, and then for you." And we can't be blind. We can't be slow to get it. We can't be slothful in getting what Christ wants to do through us. What's the title of the message? The troubled disciples.

Yes, He comforted them individually, but it was not ultimately for self. It was for His corporate work in them. Now, you see the shift? Started off as individuals, and now we see it's part of a greater work, kingdom work, in them. May God persevere in us through our slothfulness, our inability to get what He wants to do, that we would be victorious in a corporate manner just as these men were victorious in kingdom work. Let's pray together.