A New Way

 

 

Now we come to John Chapter 17. “But wait!” you say, “we haven’t moved all the way through John 16 yet.”

 

Yes, that is true, and we will indeed enter John 17 through John 16, but as we move into John 16:25 – 33 we will be in the vestibule of John 17, the prelude to the Holy of Holies with its new time, its new language, its new seeing, and its new thinking. This is the thinking and language and seeing and time of the Sons of the Kingdom, it flows from the Trinity, from eternity past to eternity present to eternity future.

 

For sure, new ways take time to learn, they take practice, they require exercise and use in order to grow and experience proficiency.

 

As you read John 16:25 – 33 what questions do you have? What things do not make sense? Our Father uses our questions to reveal Himself, to draw us deeper into His Presence – questions are good; God is God and we are not, as we bow before Him we can learn.

 

When Jesus says that “an hour is coming” in which He will no longer speak to the disciples in figurative language, we might think it will be a while before this happens. Yet, in verse 29 the disciples say, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.” It seems as if that coming “hour” happened quickly.

 

In verse 27 Jesus says that the disciples “have believed that I came forth from the Father.” Yet, in verse 30 the disciples say, “Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” In other words, Jesus says that the disciples believe He came from the Father before the disciples confess this belief.

 

But then we have verses 31 – 32 in which Jesus challenges their confession by telling the disciples that they will all desert Him, leaving Him alone. Yet again, in verse 33 Jesus affirms their ultimate victory and peace in Him, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace.”

 

Jesus affirms their belief in Him, the disciples confess that belief, then Jesus challenges their belief, then Jesus affirms their belief and confirms their victory in Him. Throughout the Upper Room we have seen the enigmatic dance of the Holy Spirit, we have seen Jesus drawing His friends deeper and deeper into the Temple of God, into the Holy City.

 

O dear friends, it is only as the Wisdom of God reveals Himself and His Father that we will hear the language of God, see the ways of God, think the thoughts of God, and know intimacy with God (Pro. 8; 1 Cor. 2).

 

“I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well – pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Mt. 11:25 – 27; see also 1 Cor. 1:17 – 31).

 

“For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind” (Jn. 9:39).

 

God’s time is not our time, His language is not our language, His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts.

 

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9).

 

Let us allow the Holy Spirit to draw us upward into the time and words and ways of God, rather than foolishly attempt to pull His revelation downward into the gravity of earth, and let us not forget Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Jesus also says to His disciples, ““It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63).

 

Throughout the Upper Room Jesus says things about the disciples which, in light of their impending desertion of Him, do not seem to be true. Jesus speaks of both their abandonment of Him and their fidelity to Him. He speaks of their faithlessness and also of their faithfulness. He talks of their momentary fear, and of their unfolding peace, joy, and overcoming. Jesus calls them to His very own life, love, joy, peace, obedience, fruit, and calling. This language, this way of seeing things, this thinking, and this sense of time plunges ever deeper in the Holy of Holies of John 17, and is gloriously affirmed on Easter when Jesus says, “Go to My brethren and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17).

 

We do not see as Jesus sees, but in Him we can learn to see as He sees. This is an element of the invitation of the Upper Room into the koinonia of the Trinity.

 

Paul writes that, “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).

 

Then Paul moves us from the way we look at things to the way we see people. “From now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer” (2 Cor. 5:16). This is a lesson the disciples will begin to learn on Easter Sunday; Mary Magdelene will learn it, the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus will learn it, the disciples fishing will learn it.

 

He follows this statement with, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Can we hear the Father declaring this? “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).

 

This, my friends, is why we are called to look at Jesus and not ourselves. This is why we are called to hear and believe Jesus and not listen to ourselves nor believe what we think about ourselves. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, has wrapped us up in His arms and carries us deep into Himself and we shall always be His and He shall always be ours.

 

Jesus says, “Don’t trust in what you think about yourself, trust in what I think about you. Don’t seek your identity in yourself, acknowledge your identity within Me. Abide in Me and allow Me to abide in you – rest in My arms, in My love, in My peace, in My joy – you and I have eternity ahead of us!”

 

Perhaps more than anything, the Upper Room is a glorious revelation of the love of God for us. In the Upper Room we hear a voice calling, “Come up here” (Rev. 4:1).

 

Let’s go!

 

 

Joseph’s Tears

Do we know that Jesus weeps for us? Do we know that our Lord Jesus desires to reveal Himself to us, just as Joseph desired to reveal himself to his brothers, the very brothers who sold him into slavery? Can we see our story in the story of Joseph…both as Joseph and as his brothers?

 

What a shame it would have been for Joseph’s brothers to have found food in Egypt without finding Joseph! Suppose Joseph had simply watched his brothers but never revealed himself to them? My dear friends, is it really enough that we give our congregations, and this world, food from our granaries to keep them satiated, but never unveil Jesus Christ to them? 

What is the point of having hungry people coming back and back on Sundays, and yet they have never seen the Glorious One who bids us eat His flesh and drink His blood, the One who calls us to live by His very Life? How many trips will the woman make to the well before she finds someone who calls her to leave her bucket and allow a fountain of Living Water to spout up within her…and then flow out from her to a thirsty church and world?

 

Can we see the progression of Jacob’s sons in our own lives? Are we moving from knowing Reuben, which means “See, a son,” to Benjamin, meaning “Son of the right hand”? Which son are we living as today?

 

When Joseph’s brothers come to Egypt a second time, this time with Benjamin, and Joseph has a meal with them, we read, “Joseph hurried out for he was deeply stirred over his brother, and he sought a place to weep, and he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out; and he controlled himself and said, ‘Serve the meal.’” (Genesis 43:30 – 31).

 

Jesus intercedes for us, Jesus, weeps for us, that He might reveal Himself and the Father to us. “Therefore He is able also to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

 

Just as Pharaoh gave Joseph all authority, can we hear Jesus saying, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Luke 10:22)?

 

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him” (John 14:21).

 

“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You; yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:25 – 26).

 

O dear friends, it is not enough for us to be given food to simply help us along in this life, we need the Living Bread from heaven, from the Father: “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst…I am the bread that came down out of heaven…I am the bread of life…This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh’” (see John Chapter 6).

 

 Joseph shed tears for his brother Benjamin, indeed for all his brothers; he yearned to reveal himself to them – but had they changed? Had they repented of their betrayal? Had a greater hunger than temporal food grown in their souls? A hunger for forgiveness? A hunger for redemption? A hunger to be the men God had created them to be?

 

 What about us with our religious playthings? Is our heart’s desire to know Jesus Christ, to see Him unveiled? To make Him known to others? Or are we still seeking the transient, the temporal, the quick fix? Do we only come on Sunday mornings, do we only participate in small groups – to buy the grain of this earth, so that our problems will be smaller, so that our possessions will be larger, so that others will think better of us, so that our agendas will be fulfilled?

Are we propagating a Christless Christianity? A Christ without the Cross and a Cross that looks more like cotton candy than an instrument of death – not only the death of Jesus Christ but our own death to sin and self?

 

There were thousands of people buying grain in Egypt, but it was not given to the multitudes to actually “see” Joseph. Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt looking for one thing, but they found another. Even with us, we may engage with popular and cultural Christianity, looking for pragmatic fixes for our lives, but by God’s grace perhaps we will find Another, weeping for us, loving us, revealing Himself to us.

 

Can we hear Joseph say, “Serve the meal?”

 

Can we hear Jesus say, “Take, eat; this is My body…Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant…”

 

 Joseph wept for his brothers, Jesus weeps for us.

 

Are we weeping for others?