Presented to Warehouse Mission 614 Toronto on 10 June 2018 and Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army on 03 May 2015 by Captain Michael Ramsay
This is the 2018 version, to view the original sermon click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2015/05/john-1321-1431-where-are-you-going.html
Recently in
The Salvation Army we had move announcement day. All the Officers who, like
ourselves, are moving were told we are going to farewell and our farewell
service will be in a couple of weeks, on June 24th. Appropriately
enough the scripture we are looking at today has been referred to as 'the
farewell discourse’.
In our text
today, Judas leaves the room and when he does the eternal moves are announced.
Jesus lets his disciples know that very soon – as they knew would happen
someday - Jesus is being transferred from his current appointment. He then
gives them some instructions about what to do when he leaves and a number of
his disciples ask him some questions. They enquire about where he is going and Jesus
tells them also about who is coming when he goes. We don’t have time today to
get into the details of the one who is coming: the Advocate, the Paraclete, the
Helper, and the post-resurrection role of the Holy Spirit but we will address
some of the other questions the apostles have about Jesus’ pending move.
Picture
this with me. Jesus and his disciples are having their farewell dinner upstairs
in a rented room – probably no bigger than this room here where we will be
having dinner soon. Jesus has conversations with John and Judas and then Jesus
knows, allows; even enables, prompts or provokes Judas to do what he is going
to do. This will be Jesus’ last evening with his closest companions in ministry.
After Judas leaves, Jesus turns to his friends and he breaks the news to them,
among other important things that, v. 33-35: “My
children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and
just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot
come. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you
must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if
you love one another.”
Jesus is moving and he tells his disciples
what he wants from them when he is gone is that they love each other. And I
think this is important. I know that as we are moving this is the same thing we
want for all of you: that you love each other. I know that when I see pictures
on Facebook, receive emails, or a visit from Toronto
Simon Peter cues not as much on the
instruction to love his comrades and colleagues as the fact that Jesus is
leaving. He asks Jesus, in essence, ‘Where are you going? What do you mean that
we can’t come with you? Why not? I’d die for you!’ Jesus response to this is
really quite interesting; he tells Peter in essence, ‘Really? You’ll die for
me? I tell you the truth even before tonight is over you will deny me not once,
not twice, but three times. You say you’ll die for me’? This is not the sort of
response one expects to give to a grieving person who is coming to terms with
the impeding move. It is certainly not the response that we are instructed to
give in the ESC courses I have taught. Now, of course, we know that Peter is
later repentant of these actions and Jesus, after he rises from the dead, forgives,
reaffirms, and/or reinstates Peter and we know that according to tradition
Peter is good to his word and God does award him his martyr’s crown. And this exchange
isn’t as lacking in pastoral care as it appears. As you read on, verses,
14:1-4, Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God;
believe also in me. My Father’s house has many mansions; if that were not so,
would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if
I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me
that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am
going.”
As Peter and the others try to figure out
Jesus’ somewhat confusing answer to this simple question, ‘where are you
going?’ Thomas tries to help get a clear answer. He re-asks, re-phrases,
re-articulates, adds to Peter’s question his own words, Verse 5, “Lord, we don’t
know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answers, Verse 6, “I am the
way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do
know Him and have seen Him.”
Thomas was trying to help, by rephrasing
Peter’s simple question ‘where are you going’? And now Thomas, like Peter, is
left to ponder Jesus’ somewhat less straightforward responses. Jesus answer to,
‘how do we get to where you are going?’ is ‘I am the way to where
I am going’. This probably isn’t all that helpful for Thomas and Peter.
Jesus does give them some very important
information though. He says point plank that the ONLY way to get to God the
Father is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way. There is no other truth.
Jesus is the only way to life and the only way to the Father. This is important
and while Thomas and Peter may not understand this in the moment they do later and
we should now, right? Basically in layman’s terms: if your mother, brother, son
or daughter do not enter into a relationship through Jesus Christ, they are not
going to inherit eternal life with the Father. This is significant. Jesus is
telling Thomas, Peter, and the others that there is no other way to be a part
of the Kingdom of
God
Peter’s
simple question ‘where are you going?’ still seems unsatisfied though even as
Thomas has re-stated it as ‘which way do we go?’ So now Philip takes a crack at
getting an answer as he asks for further clarification, Verse 8, “Lord show
us the Father and that will be enough.” Jesus’ answers here are hardly any more
straightforward and concise but Jesus does give them more important
information: Jesus offers them a free introductory course - Trinity 101 [5] - so to speak. Jesus says that he is in the
Father and the Father is in him. Jesus speaks about the coming of the
Advocate, the Paraclete, the Helper, as well as the post-resurrection role
of the Holy Spirit and the importance of obeying Christ.[6] He
says that they will know that Jesus is in the Father and that we will be in Him
so long as we simply obey His commandments and then He will reveal
himself to us as he is in us.
So
we are starting to make some ground in the conversation here. Remember that
this is after dinner and Judas Iscariot has already left. And this has led to a
long conversation as the disciples are repeatedly asking Jesus, ‘where are you
going?” So now we have Judas (not Judas Iscariot, the other Judas), as they are
starting to understand the answer to ‘where are you going’? He ultimately asks,
14:22, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the
world?” Jesus then more fully explains to his disciples that He is going away
but He will come back (15:28) and when He comes back those who love Him and
keep His commands will be eligible to receive that mansion that He has prepared
for us (14:2).
So
the answer to the question, ‘where is Jesus going?’ After dinner, Jesus and his
disciples will leave and then this very night in our text, Jesus will be
arrested. He will be tried. Jesus will be executed. Three days later He will
rise from the dead and come to his disciples, then later he will ascend to the
Father.
That
is where Jesus is going now in our text and then sometime very soon now in our
world he is coming back and before that happens we will all need to answer a
most important question and that question is, where are WE going? Jesus is
going to the Father and the ONLY way to the Father is through the Son. Everyone
who loves Jesus (as shown by obeying His commands) will go to be with Jesus in
our eternal mansion. So the question for us today is not where is Jesus going –
we know that - but rather the question for us today is where are WE
going?
Let us pray.
daily blogs at
---
[1] The Salvation Army, Boundless: the International
Bible Reading Challenge (2015). Available on-line: http://www.salvationarmy.org/biblechallenge
[2] Gail
R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9,
ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995),740
also N.T. Wright, John for Everyone Part 2 (Louisville , Kentucky ,
USA Downers Grove , IL
[3] Cf.
Lincoln, 390.
[4] Cf.
Gerard Sloyan, John, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching
and Preaching, ed. James L. Mays, et. al. (Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox
Press, 1988),179.
[5] Cf.
Gerard Sloyan, John, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching
and Preaching, ed. James L. Mays, et. al. (Atlanta, Georgia: John Knox
Press, 1988), 185ff.
[6] Merrill
C. Tenney, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis
CD-ROM:John/Exposition of John/III. The Private Ministry of the Word
(13:1-17:26)/B. The Last Discourse (13:31-16:33)/1. Questions and answers
(13:31-14:31)/e. The promise of the Spirit (14:16-21), Book Version: 4.0.2
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