John 14:25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

Jesus knows that the disciples who are With Christ in the Upper Room are beyond baffled.  Jesus understands their limitations and in His grace, He gives them encouragement in His own words before He dies.  They hear it from His own lips.  After that, the Holy Spirit will take over making things understandable.  And with the Trinity, there’s a lot left to comprehend.

I love the Holy Spirit.  I’ve often called Him the best kept secret of Evangelical Christianity.

He’s the closest I’ll ever get to being in the presence of Christ…in this lifetime at least….since Jesus ascended to heaven almost 2000 years ago.

So many of us treat the Holy Spirit like the crazy uncle of the Trinity and are embarrassed to talk about Him out of fear that we’ll be seen as people who have lost our minds or are living in some bizarre fantasy world.  Other people turn Him into the litmus test of charismatic Christianity and worship the Holy Spirit more than the Father or Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

But I love the Holy Spirit.  Without Him, the Church wouldn’t be the Church.  Without Him, we could not adequately understand our Bibles.  Without Him, we wouldn’t have a decent prayer life.  Without Him, we’d be missing our guarantee of belonging to Christ.

While there was human breath in His body, Jesus tells the disciples all this confusing stuff, yet He knows they don’t and won’t understand…until later.  So He gives this beautiful promise: this Counselor is coming and He’ll help them from that point on.

The Father will send the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ Name in order to teach what they were not capable of learning while Jesus was still in the flesh.  This Counselor will remind them of everything Jesus said…because the Holy Spirit is God and so is Jesus.

Do you love the Holy Spirit?

***

Give it Up for Lent: Treating the Holy Spirit as a second rate deity or a litmus test

Put it On for Lent: Love of who the Holy Spirit is

For further thought:

Read these words by Pastor AW Tozer and pray about the reflection points:

• “When Jesus is glorified, the Holy Spirit comes.  He does not have to be begged—the Holy Spirit comes when the Savior is glorified.”  Is Jesus glorified in your life?
• “Now a plain word here about the Christian Church trying to carry on in its own power.  That kind of Christianity makes God sick, for it is trying to run a heavenly institution after an earthly manner…The church that wants God’s power will have something to offer besides social clubs, knitting societies, the Boy Scout troops and all of the other side issues.”  Is your church carrying on in human power?
• “The cross of Jesus Christ always changes men’s plans.  The cross of Christ is revolutionary, and if we are not ready to let it be revolutionary in us nor let it cost us anything or control us in any way, we are not going to like a church that takes the things of God seriously.”  Are you willing to let the Cross of Christ change your plans?
• “The Holy Spirit is an Illuminator.  He is Light to the inner heart and He will show us more of God in a moment than we can learn in a lifetime without Him…He won’t throw out what we have learned if it is truth—He will set it on fire.”  When’s the last time the Holy Spirit set a truth on fire in your heart?

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” 22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

By now, the disciples are probably like deer in the headlights.  Their heads are spinning.  Jesus seems to be talking in circles.  He’s going away.  He’s coming back.  He’s sending a Counselor who is going to be with them forever, but where is Jesus?   He’s going away, but He’s not telling them where He’s going!  They don’t know this Counselor from Adam, and they do want Jesus whom they have been devoted to following.

Now He says that He won’t leave them as orphans and He will come to them.  But He’s going to be quasi-invisible.  The world can’t see Him but they can.

He’s alive but He’s going away and because He lives they will live.  (Huh?  Wait a minute.  Is there a death in here we don’t know about? We’re totally confused!!)

Then He dumps the whole Trinity on’em and suggests there is a relationship they are part of that they cannot presently comprehend, even in the slightest.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

What does this mean??  Stop the merry go round and let me off!  I don’t understand any of this!  That would have been my reaction.  It’d be like that shell game where something is hiding under one of the shells.  Where is Jesus in all of this?

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”  Wait a minute.  I thought it was the Counselor coming.  Aaaieee!

John 14:24  “He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.”

Ok, familiar territory.  We love You and will obey You. If only we could understand what You’re saying.

“These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” OK….(?!)  We’ve kind of heard this before… John 8:42 Jesus said to [the Pharisees], “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.”

Well, one thing is certain, they’ll have plenty to think about after He dies.

* * *

Give it Up for Lent: The need to have understanding before faith

Put it On for Lent: Faith seeking understanding.

For further thought:

• Read about Jesus’ baptism Luke 3:21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
• Read about the Transfiguration:  Luke 9:35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.
• If they had understood the baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration, how would that have helped them to understand the Trinity?
• At what point, must we be content to know enough to affirm our faith?  How would you address those who seem to always want more information before they’ll believe?
• When Jesus says “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you,” what do you think it means?

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

It would probably have been hard to be a disciple of Jesus.  He obviously had an intellect that allowed Him to comprehend and articulate things with perfect accuracy and detail…things that we cannot comprehend at all. Of course, He is God so that’s an advantage.

If I were a disciple, I think I’d become overwhelmed easily…like a baby who wants to walk whose physical capability just wasn’t there yet.

It’d be very frustrating to have all the desire to follow, a command to do so, and not be able to understand enough to do it without help.

With Christ in the Upper Room, today’s is the first mention of the Counselor (also known as the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, the Parakletos) in John’s Gospel.  The Holy Spirit connects the disciples’ time with Jesus to the time following His Ascension when the Holy Spirit would come at Pentecost to be God’s presence with us.  They just don’t know it yet.

Lots of tough concepts for a bunch of guys who are at the Last Supper.  They don’t even fully get it that Jesus is going to be arrested, crucified, and buried, the few short hours ticking away.

So why does Jesus tell them about this Counselor now?

• Comfort.  That they are going to have God with them in a whole new way.
• Comfort.  That this gift won’t ever be taken away.
• Comfort.  That where God commands obedience, He aims to provide every resource we’ll need to accomplish it.
• Comfort knowing that the word And beginning our passage today connects the “If you love Me” from yesterday with the power to obey: the Holy Spirit.

* * *

Give it Up for Lent: Seeing the Holy Spirit as less of God than Jesus

Put it On for Lent: Comfort of the Counselor

For further thought, pray through all the things we do know about this Counselor in the Word of God, alluded to by Jesus today:

1. Jesus asks the Father to give the Counselor….but Jesus is not asking in prayer from earth.  On our side of the Resurrection we know He’s asking the Father face-to-face after He’s raised from the dead and His sacrifice was accepted by God as sufficient.  (Hebrews 7:23-8:2, Hebrews 10:12-14, Romans 8:34)
2. The Father will give the Holy Spirit to be with Jesus’ disciples, but He can’t until after the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.  (Acts 1:4)
3. This gift is a forever gift unlike the physical Jesus who was here and left and promises to return.  (John 14:3, 2 Corinthians 5:5 )
4. He is the Spirit of Truth, just as Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
5. He is given to disciples, not the world in general…because faith and cleansing need to happen to receive this gift. (John 15:3, Ephesians 1:13-14)
6. The Holy Spirit won’t be accepted (seen and known) just as Jesus was not recognized and accepted by all the world. (Luke 10:16 , John 15:18)
7. The disciples already know Him (as God).  He (God the Holy Spirit) is living with them now (as God the Son) and will be “in” believers in the same way that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in the Son (John 14:18-20).

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14:15 )

Today’s final instruction With Christ in the Upper Room is something that Jesus can say, that if we said it, it probably wouldn’t go well for us.

• Imagine if a child said it to a parent, or a parent to a child.  “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
• Imagine if a wife said it to a husband, or a husband to a wife. “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”
• Imagine if your neighbor said it to you or you to a neighbor. “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Jesus can get away with it because He’s God and God makes the rules.

Jesus can say it because His commands are not things like take out the garbage, clean your room, get me a beer, or tear down this fence because good fences do not make good neighbors!

Rather, Jesus’s commands are ones that merit obedience:

• John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
• Matthew 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
• Mark 12: 29 “The most important [commandment],” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Obedience is good.

* * *

Give it Up for Lent: Disobedience and rebellion

Put it On for Lent: Obedience to the Lord’s commands

For further thought, consider the consequences of disobedience.

• 1 Samuel 12:15 “But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.
• 2 Thessalonians 1:6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
• How does Jesus’ saying “If you love me, you will obey what I command” differ from an ultimatum?

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

In the business world and in education, even at home, there’s something to be said for setting performance goals.

Jesus starts the ones for His disciples with “I tell you the truth” which in the Greek is the solemn double Amen.  In other words, it’s really important that we get this one.

With Christ in the Upper Room, Jesus sets performance goals for believers of all time, culminating in verse 13-14’s Promise-Prayer-Promise ( I will do…you may ask…I will do).

Throughout this section we see some key points:

1. We will do what He has been doing (i.e. teaching, making disciples, making God known).
2. We will do greater things than Jesus did because He is going to be with the Father in heaven and we can pray to the Father through Jesus.
3. We will bring glory to Jesus and Jesus to the Father because Jesus will make sure to answer our prayers when we pray “in His Name” (i.e. in alignment with His will)

Having watched Jesus perform miracles, drive out demons, and teach with authority, the goal of doing what He has been doing might have seemed a bit daunting.  Then Jesus ups the ante: you’re going to do greater things than He did.

Isn’t that expecting a bit much?” the disciples might have thought.

Maybe our problem is that we expect too little. 

Too little of God.  Too little of ourselves. 

And we offer too little back to Him as a return on God’s investment in us.

(Aw go ahead.  Articulate that ouch.  I did when writing it.)

Greater things than these.  Greater things than these.  Greater things than these.  Greater…in number?  Greater…in kind?  Yes.  I think the answer is probably “Yes.”

Let’s reword things a bit:

“Because I am going to the Father,” [a disciple] “will do even greater things than these.”  More than just miracles that testify to divine power and make it visible to the world, Jesus’ disciples—by teaching, making disciples, and making God known through His Word—we will unleash the divine power of God upon the world, as He gives and fulfills His promise of eternal life to others.

The show of divine power in miracles for us to see isn’t something that God views as particularly impressive for Himself.  But here’s what brings Him great joy and glory:  Because Jesus is going ahead of us…in Resurrection…as the Risen Son of God…to be back at home with the Father, the resurrection power of God increases with every disciple we make.

And His glory increases with every one saved. 

Greater things in number because of each one saved.  Greater in kind because God’s glory keeps increasing as He pours out His divine power and reclaims His image bearers.

* * *

Give it Up for Lent: Low expectations of God and self.

Put it On for Lent: Performance goals of doing what Jesus did by making disciples and teaching them

For further thought:

• Today’s passage is vastly misunderstood and misapplied.  John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing” has been used to suggest we will all be performing miracles, walking on water, etc.  How is this a misrepresentation of the main activities of Jesus and the purpose of miracles in attesting to Jesus’ Messianic fulfillment?
• John 14:12b He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”  When someone says “I’m going to do even greater things than Jesus did!” what does that sound like to you?
• John 14:13 “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”  Will a magic “In Jesus Name I pray” –like “Roger, Over and out”–serve to ensure Jesus does what you want Him to?  Rather than that, what does it mean to ask in His Name?  Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 for more insight.

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

John 14: 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.

The disciples are trying so hard to get their minds around something that we struggle to understand, even though we have it written out for us.  Some ideas are just too big to fit well within the human mind.   With Christ in the Upper Room, the disciples are still wondering where Jesus is going.

• Peter, the leader of the disciples, tries to get Jesus to tell him the destination and Jesus says you can’t come now.  Worse, you’ll deny Me.
• Thomas, Mr. Evidence, tries (in his own way) to get at the destination via logic.
• Now Philip tries the back door approach.  If You show us where the Father is, we can figure it out ourselves

Then, BOOM! 

Jesus blows their minds wide open.

Philip says “Lord, show us the Father

Jesus responds,

Don’t you know ME, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?” 

Jesus and the Father are One.

I’m not sure we’ll adequately understand the Trinity until we’re in heaven.  We’re too limited and Jesus knows that.  We either (1) imagine 3 separate guys (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), or (2) a mixture that morphs around sometimes looking like Jesus, sometimes looking like an old guy like Father Time, and sometimes looking like a dove.

Both of those are the stuff of heresies.

The Trinity is neither separate nor a mixture.  It is the Godhead, three-in-one.  Jesus is not a separate god nor is He just simply part of God, like 1/3 God.  I have offered an analogy before with the caveat that all analogies fall apart if pressed that you can read about here http://seminarygal.com/advent-12-2013-love-came-from-the-father/ .  While it’s not a perfect analogy, it’s important that we see that

Jesus is “God-accessible”, God Incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us. 

When we see Jesus, we see the Father.

* * *

Give it Up for Lent: Heresies about the Trinity, imagining 3 gods or a mixture.

Put it On for Lent: Humble acceptance of a concept being too big for finite minds.

For further thought:

• How ought the miracles referred to by Jesus be evidence enough, even for Thomas?
• Put yourself in the sandals of the disciples for a moment.  You’re following a Rabbi you think is a great human teacher.  He says He’s the Son of Man and alludes to His being the Messiah.  However, your expectations are earthly, not that you’ve been in the presence of God this whole time, even though the calming of the sea and the feeding of the 5000 might have caused you to think.
• How might Jesus’ words in today’s passage be very confusing, even unsettling for men who think they’ve been in the company of a political leader who does miracles…when all along they’ve been in the presence of God?
• Why is it so hard for us to trust the simplicity of Jesus and the Father being One?  Why do we insist on trying to understand how it all works?

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

John 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Desperately seeking a destination. 

I try to give the disciples a break though–they don’t have the benefit that we have of being on this side of the written New Testament.  With Christ in the Upper Room, Jesus tells them they know the way and Thomas who was scientifically minded and driven by evidence (not so much doubt as his caricature suggests) states the obvious:

Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

It’d be like leaving the destination blank on MapQuest and trying to get directions from where you are to where He is…wherever that may be.  The red asterisk says it’s a required field.  You can’t get directions to follow if you don’t have a destination.  Perfectly logical, Thomas.

Except for one thing: we don’t find directions to the place He goes.  We don’t get there on our own. 

Jesus responds with one of the greatest statements ever spoken, one of the “I AM” statements of the Bible:

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

We don’t work at finding Him.  We are found by Him.  So, Thomas, take a step back and think about it.  You’ve been found by Him therefore you know the way.  He’ll take you the rest of the way there Himself.

* * *

Give it Up for Lent:  Trying to find other ways or your own way to heaven

Put it On for Lent: Trust in Him

For further thought:

• To a world that likes inclusiveness and diversity, needing Jesus (and only Jesus) to take us the rest of the way there sounds remarkably narrow.  Is a narrow way still better than none at all, when it comes to salvation?  If yes, then why do you think so many people reject Him as the Way?
• Do you think Thomas could have comprehended the directions or the destination if Jesus had spelled it out?  Why or why not?
• What are some benefits that we have being on this side of the New Testament and being able to read the rest of God’s Word explaining matters?
• Read John 1:18 ”No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”  How does this help Jesus to know where to go and to be the Way?

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

NIV John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 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.

With Christ in the Upper Room, Jesus is in the midst of His farewell address we often call the Upper Room Discourse. Consider all the confusing things He’s been saying:

• He’s just finished telling the disciples that one of them is going to betray Him, but they don’t know who and He doesn’t tell them.
• He’s told them confusing stuff about glory and how they’re going to look for Him but they will not find Him.
• He gives them a new command that’s actually really old.
• Then Peter asks Jesus where He’s going and Jesus doesn’t give him a destination, only a process.  He just simply says “You can’t follow now” and predicts that even Peter will deny Him.

Could it get much worse?

They’re sad and confused.  Just when they should be comforting Jesus who is about to go to the Cross to die for the sin of all humanity, they’re like deer in the headlights.  Confused.  Worried. 

So Jesus tells them not to let their hearts be troubled. The solution to a troubled heart is to trust in God.

The process is this:  Jesus (who definitely trusts the Father) will go ahead of the disciples.  While He’s gone, He will prepare a place for them and other God-trusters to be. Then, He’ll come back to take them to be with Him in the mysterious place He is.

The destination is still not a location.  Instead it’s “with me” and “where I am.”  He gives them a final instruction on a place prepared, even if He still doesn’t name a geographical place.

Give it Up for Lent: Troubled hearts needing a map

Put it On for Lent: Trust in God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)

For further thought:

• If you’re with Jesus and you are where He is, does it matter where the location actually is?  Why or why not?
• If Jesus had spelled out a location, do you think the disciples would have understood?
• Jesus knows that in His Father’s house there are many rooms.  How does Jesus know that?
• Jesus is not working overtime at Hotel Heaven making beds and sweeping rooms.  How was He going to prepare a place?
• Read Matthew 7:21-23 and  Matthew 25:31-34.  When do we get to come to the place Jesus prepares for us?
• Read also Romans 10:9″ That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Is doing good stuff for others enough to earn our way to where Jesus is?
• Read Hebrews 10:12-14, 35-39.  Jesus rose from the dead, but then went away, ascending into heaven.  When is Jesus returning to take us to be with Him?  What do we do until then?

* * *

You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.

John 13:36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” 37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

Peter wanted a destination.  Jesus offered none.

Peter wanted to follow, even accompany Jesus on this trip.  Jesus said the equivalent of “You have no idea what you’re saying.  You’re not even able to.”

(You see, Peter was a sinner and Jesus was not.)

Peter didn’t understand because he was looking for the wrong thing: a destination like Nazareth or Capernaum that he could map out.  Instead Jesus tells him an order of events: I go first because I am able to.  You come later because after I do what I do, then you’ll be able to. Peter doesn’t get it and asks “Why can’t I?”  And to prove his willingness, he even offers to lay down his life.

Sometimes in our foolishness, we’re nearer the mark than we realize. 

Laying down a life was about to happen…to Jesus.  It was the process.  No one really knows the destination exactly.  Yes, the Cross.  Yes, the grave.  Yes, risen from the grave, but what the actual destination was…well, it’s part of the mystery of this whole thing.  Where did Jesus go when He died?  We don’t know.  But we know He didn’t stay there because He didn’t stay dead. Peter offers to lay his own life down, but Peter’s offering to go ahead of Jesus wasn’t the same as Peter following Jesus.  He had the order all mixed up because he confused the destination with the process of being made clean.  With Christ in the Upper Room, Jesus tells us His last word on following which is a process, not a destination.

* * *

Give it Up for Lent:  Control

Put it On for Lent: Humble acceptance

For further thought:

• Have you ever wanted to do something you weren’t able to do?  Why weren’t you able to do it?  How did you react?
• Read about an exchange with Peter and the Beloved Disciple, John.  To Peter, Jesus says, John 21: 18 I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” 20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”
• What does Peter’s question, “What about him?” say about Peter’s understanding of what laying one’s life down truly entails?  What might be some of the reasons Peter would have asked that?
• Read 2 Peter 1:12 “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.”   Church tradition suggests that Peter was crucified but asked to be crucified upside down so that he would demonstrate his unworthiness to die in exactly the same manner as Jesus.
• Toward the end of Peter’s ministry (in 2 Peter 1 above), what did he understand about sin and ability to follow Jesus by laying down one’s life that he obviously didn’t understand in our John 13 passage from today?

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John 13: 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

With Christ in the Upper Room, the disciples were probably still scratching their heads over the concept of increasing glory and wondering where Jesus was going.  Now He says He has a new command for them, but it’s one they heard before—a long time ago, in fact.  Leviticus 19:18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”

They must have felt totally confused and wondered,

What’s so new about it?

A: The yardstick.

A while back Emeril Lagasse had a cooking show on the Food Network before he was banished to different time slots, networks, and roles.  One of his characteristic statements was “BAM!”  Another was to “Kick it up a notch.”

That’s what we’re seeing in the new command Jesus gives.  It’s a whole new level of love.  Suddenly BAM!  Jesus kicked it up a notch: “As I have loved you.”  That’s the new standard of love.

“As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

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Give it Up for Lent: Settling for lower standards of love

Put it On for Lent: The love of Christ

For further thought:

• The movie 50 Shades of Gray is in theaters right now and many people went to see it for Valentine’s Day.  Pray about all the ways this cannot even begin to approach a celebration of love.  Instead of raising the standard, how has Hollywood deformed love beyond recognition and substituted God-given physical intimacy in marriage with Hollywood’s lowest, most perverted cultural form?
• Living by a new yardstick, how can your life display the kind of love Jesus commands?
• Read 1 Corinthians 16:13 “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14 Do everything in love.”  What qualities do you see here that reflect the love Jesus is talking about in the new command?
• Identify ways you can measure your love by the new yardstick of Christ’s love for you.  What are some things you can do?

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You can receive these devotional studies in your email (Monday through Saturday during Lent) by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Let’s meet With Christ in the Upper Room.