The message of Christ as He prepared the disciples for His crusifixion.
Posted : 25 Mar, 2016 06:10 PM
Last week I posted the beginning of John 14. Christ's last message to the disciples before He was crucified. His message to them was that He was leaving, but He wanted them to be at peace. And He wanted them to understand what He was doing, and His relationship with the Father. I take it up again with the last verse from last week, John 14:11.
"Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves." At this point Jesus has already indicated that all of the 12 disciples, except for Judas Iscariot, were His sheep. They didn't understand everything, but they were His, and He pointed to His miracles once again, as a legitimate source for establishing faith in God. They were meant to be taken as evidence of His relationship with the Father, of His person, as the Christ, the anointed One of God, the unique Son and Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Christ tells them to evidence their faith in Him and God by obeying His commandments. �If you love Me, keep My commandments." Christ's commandments. Who but Almighty God has the authority to give commandments? Yet Jesus claims them as His own, because He is God, and there is only One God, One Lord, the Lord God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ goes on to let the disciples know the Holy Spirit will come to the after He is gone, and that the Spirit will comfort them, teach them, and guide them. Christ says He leaves them with His peace. He tells them to rejoice in His words. Christ is stressing the unity of the trinity, and the necessity of obedience to God through the acceptance of His word, and that those who love Him will be obedient to His commandments.
It is important to reflect up John 14-17 in the days, to keep perspective as the world has gone crazy and hates Christians, and all that is holy and righteous. The world hates the Jews, and hates our God.
�Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me." Rejoice that He has adopted you into His family, given you His Holy Spirit to live in you, and He has gifted you with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places.
