Tell the World: John 14:15-31

Focus Passage: John 14:15-31 (GW)

15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever. 17 That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept him, because it doesn’t see or know him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be in you.

18 “I will not leave you all alone. I will come back to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. You will live because I live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father and that you are in me and that I am in you. 21 Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father’s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.”

22 Judas (not Iscariot) asked Jesus, “Lord, what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them. 24 A person who doesn’t love me doesn’t do what I say. I don’t make up what you hear me say. What I say comes from the Father who sent me.

25 “I have told you this while I’m still with you. 26 However, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything that I have ever told you.

27 “I’m leaving you peace. I’m giving you my peace. I don’t give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So don’t be troubled or cowardly. 28 You heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away, but I’m coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I’m going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.

29 “I’m telling you this now before it happens. When it does happen, you will believe. 30 The ruler of this world has no power over me. But he’s coming, so I won’t talk with you much longer. 31 However, I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has commanded me to do. Get up! We have to leave.”

Read John 14:15-31 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!

During the conversation Jesus has with His disciples on the night He was betrayed, we find a statement that does not make sense to those who don’t understand Jesus’ mission to earth. While there probably are many statements like this in the broader context of this conversation, one statement stands out as unique.

Possibly right as the disciples were about to leave the upper room on their way to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells them, “However, I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has commanded me to do. Get up! We have to leave.” (v. 31)

This statement is powerful in my mind because Jesus tells His disciples that He wants the world to know two things:

  1. Jesus loves the Father (i.e. God the Father); and

  2. Jesus did exactly what the Father wanted Him to do.

These things are easy for Christians and followers of Jesus to understand, but the world doesn’t see spiritual truth accurately.

While many living today believe that Jesus was a good person and that His life was cut short because He was betrayed, they cannot grasp someone choosing death and saying it was part of God’s plan. Many living today also cannot comprehend a person choosing to die in the place of someone who is ungrateful, and for people who hated Him and God.

This can extend forward to include us today. As believers and followers of Jesus, what would our lives look like if we chose to see everyone else (regardless of their beliefs, their religion, their skin color, their piercings, their tattoos, their country of origin, their background, their position, their view of God, and/or anything else that would separate us from them) as someone who Jesus died for?

Jesus died to save humanity, and the only thing stopping the world from accepting Jesus is that they don’t understand or don’t believe that they are included in those Jesus died for. Some people are hostile towards Jesus and God while others are simply skeptical and unbelieving. However, regardless of whether we were worthy of His death or not (hint: we weren’t), Jesus came and died for us.

Regardless of what anyone else says, no one living at any point in history (other than Jesus) was worthy to receive Jesus’ death for themselves. The big truth that unites all Christianity together is: We are unworthy while Jesus is worthy, God sent Jesus to take our place, and Jesus’ death on the cross makes a way for us to have a new life with God!

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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