Latest / The TakeAway / John 13:36–14:4 What Are We Offering Jesus?

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John 13:36–14:4 What Are We Offering Jesus? · The TakeAway

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: What are you actually offering Jesus?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us, like Peter, are confident in our strength, certain we can follow whoever Christ leads.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Others stand back because of fear, convinced we can never do what he might ask of us.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But both can make the same mistake, looking at what we are able to give instead of what Christ is able to provide.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 13, Peter promises to lay down his life for Jesus, but within hours, he will discover just how little his own strength can accomplish.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yet Jesus already knows Peter's failure, and he also knows what Peter will eventually become.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Join Pastor Harry as he unpacks by following Jesus does not rest on our strength or our excuses, but on the grace of the one who enables us to follow.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Pastor Harry Barrens with today's message.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, welcome again to the takeaway, where we search through the scriptures to receive the reward of knowing who God is.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now, today we're going to be looking at John chapter 13, verse 36 through 14, verse 4, where we're going to see Peter's response to Jesus' statement that we covered in our last episode when he told his disciples that he would be going away and that they could not follow him.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this sparked attention in the room about why they couldn't.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And today we're going to see the first of those replies, starting with Peter.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: But first, I want to ask you, how sure are you of the faith that you have in following Jesus?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, many of us would probably rate our faith much higher than it actually is.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: We think of the things that we do and say for Christ, how we praise him and worship him.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that feels like strong faith, doesn't it?
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: But then we get into the harder things.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: What if Jesus asked you to be a missionary?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: What if he asked you to be a missionary in China or Africa?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: What if Jesus required you to lay down your life for him?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Now, those are much harder commands.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I think many of us live thinking that Jesus will never ask any of that of us.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, more often than not, many of us have already determined what our lives look like living for Christ based on our comforts.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I hear it all the time.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: I can never go to certain places or do certain things.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the part that gets me every single time.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: They say it's because they aren't gifted for that, or God hasn't called them there.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now, those are statements designed to protect your comfort and prevent you from moving in faith.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't say this to judge anyone.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: I say this to bring to the surface the reality of our faith that if God doesn't work in us to produce our faith, then our faith will stay at the level we have determined to protect our comforts.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus has a way of bringing these tensions to the surface so that our faith grows in a way that bears fruit for God's glory.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Which brings us back to the room the disciples are standing in.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter has asked Jesus where he is going.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as we saw last time, Jesus said that he is going away and that they could not follow.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter, in his thinking, says, Wait, I will follow you wherever you go, Lord.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I will lay down my life for you.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then in John chapter 13, verse 38, Jesus confronts that very idea when he says, Will you lay down your life for me?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then goes on to tell Peter that he will deny him three times.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if we're honest with ourselves, those words show us who we are, but they also show us who Christ is.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter 5, verse 8 says that God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: He loved us while we fell short, while we had nothing to offer.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And he saved us because, as we talked about last time, it was all for his glory.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: It is the enabling work of Christ in us and through us that glorifies God.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: It is not about what we do.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that enabling work is going to show up in Peter later because Jesus tells him in John chapter 13, verse 36, you will follow afterward.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: That means later Peter will lay down his life, as John tells us in chapter 21, verse 18 and 19, at the appointed time that Jesus himself decides.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: It will be because Jesus enabled him, working in him and through him.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter is not going to know that until after he falls so hard that he finds out that what he is offering Jesus right now, he cannot actually give.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus makes that real to him first, so that when he does enable Peter to suffer and die, Peter will know that it is Christ enabling him and not Peter offering something to Christ.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: That is the realization we have to hold on to ourselves today.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now there is a real fear in the question.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: What if God does ask me to go somewhere I don't want to go?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: What if he asks me to lay down my life?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: The fear is real, but the concern is wrong.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because if and when that time comes, Jesus will, by grace, enable us to do what he requires.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: What we need to learn to do, as we will see with Peter today, is trust him for that.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And until then, we simply recognize that we do not have it within us to offer what is required to glorify God apart from him.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of protecting our comfort by saying we aren't gifted or called, we should recognize that we lack the capability to offer God what he requires and allow him to work in his timing to produce in us what brings glory to him.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: So with that, let's begin in John chapter 13, verse 36, where it says, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus answered him, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now Peter is picking up where Jesus left off in verse 33, where Jesus told them all, Where I am going, you cannot come.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone else heard that, but Peter is the one who asks, and look at what Jesus gives him.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: He does not say, You cannot follow me.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: He says, You cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that Jesus has already settled the outcome before Peter has done anything.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: The answer to Peter's question is not no, the answer is not yet, and then yes.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: We saw the same pattern back in 13, verse 7, when Jesus told Peter, What I am doing, you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's whole story in this room runs on those two words, now and afterward.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the first thing I want you to hear.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: The timing belongs to Jesus.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Peter wants to follow now, and Jesus says, afterward.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that is not a rejection of Peter.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: That is the shepherd telling the sheep that he will go first.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 10, verse 4, Jesus said, When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, and they know his voice.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: The shepherd goes before and the sheep follow.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Peter is about to try to do that in the reverse order.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: And now, as I said earlier, many of us find excuses not to move in faith at all.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And here we see Peter doing the opposite, trying to move before Jesus is ready to move him.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: That difference should stop us in our tracks.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: Peter has the desire, but not the ability.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: And many of us have neither.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: We do not have the ability, and we are missing the desire, which is the greater problem.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: And underneath that, there is usually a fear.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Those are two different places to stand with two different outcomes.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's desire is going to be met by the enabling work of Jesus, while our excuses leave us standing right where we are.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to clarify something about gifts because it's one of the most common ways we stand still without realizing it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Gifts are given, but that is different than following.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, many people define their walk by the gifts they think they have, and the gift becomes a box.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Anything that falls outside the box is something they decide they do not have to do.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Even when we recognize certain gifts, we can use them as a way not to move in a certain direction, saying, This is where I'm gifted, and therefore this is where I stay.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: The issue isn't gifting.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: The issue is faith that rests on Christ's enabling work and a desire to follow him regardless of our gifts.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now I say this because I'm trying to lead you to a place where Peter was and to trust that Jesus will enable you when the time comes.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Not because you overcome your fears, but because you desire to follow where you know you can't.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: So the warning is this don't use your fears as a reason not to follow.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Recognize that your fears are based on your inability, but your desire should be placed in Christ regardless of your fears.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: Trust that he will enable you at the appropriate time.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then the fear will no longer have the last word.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in verse 37, we see Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: I will lay down my life for you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now I want to be fair to Peter here because this sounds honorable, and I believe Peter meant every word of this, as there's no pretending in it.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: He is the man who stepped out of the boat onto the water, and he is the man who will draw a sword in a garden in just a few hours.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: He is bold and he is sincere.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the desire we were just talking about.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Peter desires to follow.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: What he does not yet have is the ability, and Jesus is about to show him that the ability was never his to supply.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: But look at the order of the sentence.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I go, and Peter answers, I will.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the one laying down his life in this very chapter and the chapters ahead.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter steps in front of him and offers to do it first.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: We could say it this way that Peter is offering to generate something when everything in this room is about receiving it.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the one displaying, and Peter, like us, has to learn that we are receivers and not the ones generating.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is closer to the excuses we make than it sounds.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Peter looks at himself and says, I can, we look at ourselves and say, I can't, or I'm not called.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Those sound like opposites at first, but they are standing on the same ground because both are measuring by what we are able to offer.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus moves the measure to himself.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then he answers Peter in verse 38 when he says, Will you lay down your life for me?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: That is not mockery.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: It is the shepherd asking Peter to hear what he just said.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then he tells Peter plainly what is about to happen.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the kind of boldness Jesus has, that he tells Peter the truth to his face, and he does it in front of the other ten.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: And he does it without leaving Peter alone in it.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: He tells Peter now, so that when the failure comes, Peter will know that Jesus saw it coming and stayed.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now the other gospels and John himself later on tell us more about the same thing from different angles.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: In Luke chapter 22, verse 31 and 32, Jesus says to Peter, Simon, Simon, Behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now notice that Jesus does not say, I have prayed that you will not fall.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says, When you have turned again, not if.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is already speaking about the other side of the denial before it even happens.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: That is the afterword of John 13, 36.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that the enabling starts before the fall.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's faith does not hold because Peter is able, it holds because Jesus prayed, and Jesus does not wait for Peter to overcome his fear before he prays for him.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then in Matthew chapter 26, verse 35, Peter said to him, Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: And all the disciples said the same.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now, here we see that Peter is not alone in the picture.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: All of them say the same thing.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: They each have an image of themselves as faithful, strong, willing, and each one of them is going to find out that the strength was never theirs.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: None of them is lying.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the point.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: The desire was real.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: The problem was where they were looking.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Then a few hours later in the garden in John chapter 18, verse 11, Peter draws his sword, and Jesus says to him, Put your sword into its sheath.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's still trying to protect the glory with his own hands.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says that this cup is the Father's to give and his to drink.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then at the very end of John's gospel, after the resurrection, Jesus restores Peter by the fire.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And in John chapter 21, verses 18 and 19, he tells Peter how he's going to die.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then John adds this explanation that Jesus said this to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says to him, Follow me.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: There is the afterward.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Peter will lay down his life.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And when he does, it will be a response to what Christ has already done.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it will display the glory of God.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: The death Jesus foretells in John chapter 21 is nothing like Peter's offer in John chapter 13.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: In chapter 13, Peter is trying to generate something.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 21, he is receiving it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the same man who said, I can, is told to follow in the one place he does not want to go.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: And he follows because of who is asking and who is enabling.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And Peter himself learned this.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Years later, he wrote in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 11, that whoever serves should serve by the strength that God supplies.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he gives the reason in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: The strength is supplied, and the glory is his.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what frees us to follow.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: If the strength is supplied, then the question was never whether we are able.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: The question is whether we desire to follow the one who supplies it.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And now we come to John chapter 14, and I want you to see that the chapter break here is not a break in the conversation.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus has just told Peter that he will deny him three times.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And in the very next breath he says to all of them in chapter 14, verse 1, let not your hearts be troubled.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: Believe in God, believe also in me.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now John has used the word troubled before about Jesus himself.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: In chapter 11, verse 33, Jesus was troubled at the tomb of Lazarus.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: In chapter 12, verse 27, he said, Now is my soul troubled.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: In chapter 13, verse 21, he was troubled in his spirit as he spoke of the betrayal.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is not saying, Don't feel what I have felt.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: He is a man who knows exactly what a troubled heart is.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he tells them, and he tells us, to bring it to him.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then he gives them what to do with it.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Believe in God, believe also in me.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now I want to be careful with the word believe here.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: It would be easy to hear Jesus saying, believe that I am a real person standing in front of you.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: But they can see that.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: They have been with him for three years.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: What he means is much more than that.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: He means believe everything he has said and everything he has revealed.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: And what is it that he has revealed?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: That he came to reveal the Father.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: We heard it in chapter 12, verse 44 and 45, when Jesus cried out, Whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that to believe in Jesus is to receive what he has shown of the Father, which is his glory.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And that is where the troubled heart finds its rest.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: A troubled heart is a heart that has built a picture and just watched the picture come apart.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Peter's picture of himself just came apart.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: The disciples' picture of the Messiah staying with him just came apart.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus does not tell them to build a better picture.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: He tells them to look at himself.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if your own picture of yourself has been coming apart as we walk through this with Peter, I want you to hear that Jesus meets Peter with tenderness and he meets you the exact same way.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: When our picture of ourselves comes apart, we are free to rest in Christ's work and not our own.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it is from that place that we see him.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And from that place we can trust that he will generate in us what glorifies God.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: But our part is to receive it with praise.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now in verse 2 of chapter 14, it says, In my father's house are many rooms.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now think about who Jesus is speaking to here.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: These are men who have just heard they cannot come where he is going.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he answers that by telling them where he is going, to his father's house, and that there are many rooms there.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: There is room.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody in that upper room is going to be left outside.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that includes the man who is about to deny him.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says, if it were not so, would I have told you?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus is appealing to everything they already know about him.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: He is saying, You can trust me with this because you have never found me to be anything but true.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then notice the purpose.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I go to prepare a place for you.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: He does not say that he goes to prepare a place for himself, he is going for them, which means his leaving is not an abandonment.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: It is the work he is doing on their behalf.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Everything that is coming, the cross, the tomb, the ascension, is him preparing the place.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: And every action in this verse belongs to Jesus.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Peter said, I will, and Jesus answers with, What he will do.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing in this verse asks the disciples to be able to do anything.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: It leaves them free to rest in the one who is doing the work.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 3, Jesus says, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus doesn't say, and you will find your way to me.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: He says, I will come again and will take you to myself.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: The coming is and the taking is his, and the destination is that where I am you may be also.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen to the phrase where I am.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Earlier in John, Jesus said to the religious leaders in chapter 7, verse 34, Where I am, you cannot come.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: He said something like it again in chapter 8, verse 21.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: He said it to the disciples in chapter 13, verse 33.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: And now the sentence turns around in chapter 14, verse 3, it becomes that where I am, you may be also.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: What we see is that what was closed has now been opened.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: The same words that kept people out now bring them in.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 17, verse 24, Jesus will pray the same thing to the Father for us too.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And we don't have to guess what that coming looks like, because Paul teaches it in First Thessalonians chapter four, verse sixteen and seventeen, where he writes, For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of a command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: Then we who are alive.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: five who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And in first Corinthians fifteen, fifty-one and fifty-two, he writes, Behold, I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: What we see is that Paul and Jesus are saying the exact same thing.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I will come again and will take you to myself.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says we will be caught up to meet the Lord, and so we will always be with the Lord.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: And listen to how Paul says the other part we shall be changed.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: It is something done to us and not something we do.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now the point I'm trying to make is not about a timeline here.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: The point is the assurance that the Lord himself comes and the Lord himself receives us.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole thing rests on him.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: And that is all John chapter 14 verse 3 is asking of us to rest in the person who is coming.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So here's where all of this lands for you and me.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to men whose hearts are troubled, I will come again and will take you to myself.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: That is a definitive statement.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: It does not say I will come if you hold on tightly enough.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: It rests on his display his timing his sovereignty his purpose in revealing the Father and he does not leave them with only a promise about later.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: He will be with them on earth.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: He will not abandon them.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And in the same conversation he's going to say he will send a helper as we're going to see later in John chapter 14 verse 16 and the verses after it but I'm going to leave it for those verses to talk about that.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: But Paul tells us what the helper is to us in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 and 14 he says in him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that the Holy Spirit is the guarantee the promise about later is already being held for us now by God himself and it is all to the praise of his glory.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now let me say something about the assurance here because I think it is where a lot of believers get tangled up you cannot lose your salvation.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Salvation is God's work from beginning to end and he alone holds it.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: In Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 Paul says he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: However we can lose the assurance of our salvation and the difference is where we are looking saying I believe is not what gives assurance assurance grows as we live in faith as we lean in and know him as we see him for who he is 1 John chapter 5 verse 13 says I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: John writes so that we may know and we know more as we see him more.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: What we see is that the more we see Jesus now the greater our assurance becomes for the promise he gave us for later.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: And if our hearts are full of pictures of what God should be or what would make us happy or what we can offer him we will not see him.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then the assurance gets thin or diluted that is the lean we lean in toward him because we desire to know him above all else and not because we are strong enough to hold on.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then we see in verse four he says and you know the way to where I am going Jesus says it as if it is already settled.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know the way think about how hard that lands on the room there.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Peter has just been told he will deny him they have all just been told they cannot come yet.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says you know the way now he's not testing them here.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: He is telling them something he is about to unfold and one of the men in that room does not feel like he knows the way at all.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's about to say it out loud and that's where we're going to leave it for today with Jesus' words still hanging in the air you know the way to where I am going.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: So let me bring this back to us.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Peter offered his life and it came from his own strength.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: But most of us never make an offer like that.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: What we offer instead are excuses.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: I am not gifted for that.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: I am not called to that.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: And underneath those excuses there is often a fear of being asked to do something we know that we cannot do or something we do not want to do.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Peter and the person making the excuse are standing on the exact same ground as we saw both are measuring by what we have to offer.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus does not tell us to be strong.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: When he says let not your hearts be troubled he gives us himself as the reason believe in God believe also in me.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: The excuse can become a desire to see him and to know him and from there a trust in him for our faith itself because it is his work in us.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: That is the Christian life we are being made into something we are not transformed into the likeness of Christ by his enabling work and that is grace defined.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 Paul says and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that we behold and he does the transforming we can rest in this that whether we feel strong like Peter or afraid of what he may ask of us the promise does not change he will come again and take us to himself and so we will always be with the Lord so I want to ask you what are you offering Jesus your strength or your excuses?
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Whichever it is go not because you can but because you desire to know God above all else.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Trust that he will enable you when it is required.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: And until then rest in who he is and what he is doing and not in what you can or cannot offer.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray Father thank you for sending your son to go before us prepare a place for us.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us for the strength we have offered you and for the excuses we have hidden behind and turn both into a desire to know you above all else make us into what we are not by the enabling work of your son and quiet our troubled hearts with the promise that we will always be with you.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name amen.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want to thank you again for joining us today and I hope today's message has helped you rest in the one who goes before us.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now if anything today resonated with you or if you have any questions or comments you can click on the text us link in the episode description or you can visit us at the takeaway.faith as we would truly love to hear from you.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Today Peter showed his strength by offering his life and next week Thomas's question assumes he would follow if he only knew the way now we tend to flip that into our own lives and say if I don't know the way I don't have to go.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: And as we listen to Thomas we begin to discover what is underneath that thought and what Jesus says to meet it.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: God bless and we'll see you next time on the takeaway