Reflecting on Jesus' Farewell Discourse

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Jesus knew His time had finally come so He gave His farewell discourse. He had to become the sin sacrifice of mankind. He was now giving instructions to His disciples and explaining vital truths after the Lord's supper. The Lord's supper was instituted as a symbolic sacrament or ordinance to do it in remembrance of what He did on the cross. There's no continuing sacrifices for sins because it's finished! The very next thing after the Lord's supper was His farewell discourse. How important is the farewell discourse? Well it can be found in John 14-16 which would be followed by His great High Priestly prayer in John 17. So what lessons can be learn from the three chapter discourse? Well let's dig into the important topics.

Lesson #1 - No one to the Father but by the Lord Jesus alone (John 14:1-14)

 Jesus was beginning His sermon with the encouragement of not letting the disciples' hearts be troubled. At this point, Judas Iscariot had already left. All we have are the 11 disciples Matthew, John, James, James the Lesser, Andrew, Peter (once known as Simon), Philip, Thomas, Simon the Zealot, Jude or Judas not Iscariot (Thaddeus) and Bartholomew (Nathaniel) had remained. He was told that they could trust Him.

This has Jesus confirm the very truth - no man comes unto the Father but by Him. Any Jesus claiming to be one of the ways is not the real Jesus of the Bible. Religions today have a different picture of Jesus but they get Him all wrong - Islam (and other Deist religions) views him but as another prophet, some Buddhists view him to be but another enlightened human being, Hinduism merely views him as an avatar of Vishnu but these are all but another Jesus. They are not the Jesus and Jesus warned to beware of people who will claim to be Christ (Matthew 24:5, Mark 13:6).

Thomas asked to show the way and Jesus confirms He alone is the way. Philip asks Jesus to show the latter the Father. Jesus said that God the Father is in Him and that they have seen Him through Him. Jesus already verified the truth that whoever rejects Him rejects the Father (Luke 10:16). You can't worship the Father except through the Son. God exists as three Persons - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They are one in essence (God) but three in Persons which doesn't make it a tritheism similar to pagan religions but monotheism still believing in one God.

Lesson #2 - The promise of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-28)

 Jesus now warns His disciples about true and fake conversion. Jesus said if you love Him you will keep His commandments. You can't say, "I can serve God the way I want. God will just understand." Guess what - Cain served God the way he wanted and not the way God wanted and Abel served God the way God wanted. God had respect for Abel's offering but not for Cain. He has strong warnings against people who claim to be His followers but don't do as He says. How can anybody claim to be saved but still live like the Devil? If anybody says that then try telling that to Jesus!

Then he proceeds to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is always present since the beginning of time. When God spoke "Let Us create man in our image..." - He certainly wasn't talking to angels as deists would want us to believe. The Holy Spirit's work was already in the Old Testament - He is referred to as the Spirit of the LORD. Now the Holy Spirit appears to teach all things. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity and has been involved in all activities. It has always been in perfect agreement.

Lesson #3 - The vine and the branches (John 15:1-17)

Jesus talks about the vine and the branches. He reflects Himself as the vine and the Christian as the branches. He gives the warning that apart from Him - the Christian can do nothing. God the Father works as the trimmer. He trims everything that hinders any fruit growing on the part of the Christian. Hebrews 12:5-7 says that the Father chastises those He loves. He will do everything to make Christians more fruitful - even if it means letting them suffer numerous trials so His name will be glorified and His power be magnified!

We also have the lesson of the branches that are thrown away. Did these people lose their salvation? I once had a struggle with the truth of eternal security. What about people who would get out of that saving relationship? The truth is once you're in that saving relationship - you can't get out of it. 1 John 2:19 has John warning about it that people like Judas Iscariot weren't really saved. We have people who are false converts. But when God does the trimming - they are revealed to the true branches. They are thrown out because they aren't truly branches. They need to be spiritually born again to become a true branch.

After Jesus had given the lecture on the vine and the branches in the first eight verses - He gives another acid test. He talks about how true salvation is tested. He also gives the new commandment to love one another as He had loved them. This is not the worldly definition of love. Christians are commanded to love people enough to tell them the offensive truth - even if it would cost them their lives. He also shows the mark of true friendship. How can anybody claim to be a friend of Jesus yet their lives say otherwise? A Christian may not be perfect, they may fall into sin but they can't enjoy the mire and the pigs. They would go back to their senses and confess their sins to God!

Lesson #4 - The world will hate Christians (John 15:18-16:15)

 Don't ever believe for a second that that the more Christlike you become - the more the world will love you. Don't even believe it that just do right and everything will be alright for you. Remember the Old Testament prophets did everything right and guess what - everything wasn't alright for them. Elijah suffered all forms of persecution under Ahab. Micaiah the prophet of God was locked up for warning Ahab against the latter's impending doom. Jeremiah was a man of sorrows and his life was humanly speaking - a failure. You can really see how doing what's right all the time also means getting into trouble for the wrong reasons.

I remembered a couple of Roman Catholics who told me that they were the truth because the Pope is a popular guy. They also brag about how many followers they have - never mind Jesus warned in Matthew 7:13-14 that there will be more entering the road of destruction than to the road towards life. The way is narrow and the gate is strait - salvation is an intensely personal issue. You can't deny the truth that the world will hate the Christians. Jesus wasn't a superstar as the song "Jesus Christ Superstar" would suggest. He was really hated for preaching the truth and some wanted to stone Him. His message was offensive to the Jews and the Pharisees because it attacked their self-righteousness and arrogance. Who doesn't feel bad when their pride is attacked? Many do and only a few don't.

A Christian can't expect to avoid persecution in any form. They persecuted Jesus and they will persecute His followers. A servant is not greater than one's master and the same is true for the Christian life. The Christian life would be a life of difficulty. Sometimes, it's even God's will that they suffer and even fail. The Christian will receive mockery. Sometimes, they even make what seems to be a more foolish decision - staying in hardship and doing what's right than take the easy way out and do what's wrong. I remembered I did mumble a lot as a growing Christian why bad things happen until I realized that God is calling my attention towards His will and not mine.

Jesus then gives a short discourse about the Holy Spirit who will work to testify. The Holy Spirit empowers the Christian. If there's any reason why Christians will survive persecution or even be willing to die for their faith - it's the power of the Holy Spirit and not the flesh!

Then He continues His lesson about persecution. He also warns that there will be people who will persecute Christians in God's name. The Jewish religious leaders did it as they persecuted Jesus in God's name and they did the same thing to His followers. Later, you would have pseudo-Christian groups such as the Roman Catholic institution responsible for doing that. How many true Christians even before the Protestant Reformation were massacred? Early Baptists (though this doesn't defend the doctrine of Baptist perpetuity from John the Baptist either) and other Christian groups were massacred by the Roman Catholic institution in the name of God. Jesus gave the warnings so the persecution should come to no surprise. It's almost like I don't get surprised by how rotten humanity can be and how God's name is used in vain daily - it's because Jesus already warned beforehand!

Then He also mentions the Holy Spirit again. That is until He goes away - the Holy Spirit will not descend upon the believer. Acts 2 would talk about the descent of the Holy Spirit to Jesus earthly mother Mary, 11 apostles and the newest recruit Matthias in the upper room. What followed after that was Mary was no longer mentioned. Peter would begin his first Sunday service and do his job as Jerusalem's pastor and not as the first Pope as Roman Catholics claim.

Lesson #5 - The momentary grief will turn to joy (John 16:16-33)

 Jesus would close the discourse by talking about His ascension. He would no longer be seen physically yet He is everywhere. There will be much grief in the Christian life. The old world rejoices and the Christian weeps. He talks about not knowing joy if one doesn't know sorrow. It makes you think about how the Christian life is not all fun and games. The suffering of the Christian life is but temporary - the rewards are eternal. The world's fickleness and pleasures of sin are but for a season. Sooner or later - all these fickle and temporal joys will just die out.

Then He talks about praying in His name. One must consider that Jesus isn't a genie. It doesn't mean you ask for something in His name that He will grant it - even if it doesn't mean that something is contrary to God's will. Sometimes, God won't heal cancer or let bad things happen for a reason.  We also think that asking in Jesus' name is only for things that glorify the Father. Remember the part of the "Our Father" that says, "Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven." Later John would write in 1st John 3:32 that God requires us to do things pleasing in His sight and in 1 John 5:14-15 that we must pray according to His will.

There's much that the Christian can't understand right now. It also reminds me of how many relatives of mine are in Hell now. I even wondered how I can enjoy Heaven knowing I have loved ones in Hell. Then I thought about how the late R.C. Sproul Sr. said that when we are in perfect agreement with God - we rejoice over His final judgment of the wicked. The sorrow turns to joy when one is already in perfect agreement with God. I just can't imagine how the day will come when He will wipe away all tears allowing believers in Heaven to live in perfect joy even when they do have loved ones condemned at the Great White Throne judgment. This is the reality that sorrow is but temporary for the believer as there's much unspeakable joy in Christ!

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