Sermon for 4/20/08
(To Peter, Jesus said,)1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. 12 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (NKJV)
NOTES:
· To know Jesus is to know the Father. Jesus is the fullness of what it means to be a human in covenant relationship with the Father. One expression of that relationship will be our own redemptive transforming ministries which will be imbued with guidance and power through prayer.
· To “ask in my name
” carries the meaning of a servant transacting business on behalf of the master to only do that which the master would do, in the way that the master would do it. Not acting on one’s own, but as a representative, a surrogate.
· Hebrews tells us that Jesus is continually interceding for us before the Father (Hebrews 7:25)
Questions for reflection:
· Notice that Jesus speaks each of these paragraphs to an individual in the presence of the group. What might that mean for our faith lived out in community?
· What happens in you as you overhear Jesus say to Peter, “Let not your heart be troubled”?
· When you hear Him say to Thomas, “From now on you know Him and have seen Him”?
· To Phillip, “Greater works than these, you will do”?
|
PRAYER: Loving Father, revealed to us in Jesus, help us to see you as we listen and look to him. May we find from You peace for our troubled hearts. May we know in our lives with Him the path to You. May we receive with joy and expectation the promise and blessing that we will to great things in Jesus name for Your glory. Amen.
|
|
|
Upcoming Texts:
|
|
|
Week of 4/21 4/27: John 14:15 21
|
Week of 4/28 5/4: John 17:1-11
|
Leadership and Life Development Coaching. Ken G Crawford. Synchronous Life. 