So last week we started a conversation called last night. And it's about Jesus's last night with his disciples. And one of the things that we just talked through inside of that is just some of the emotion that we have when we are spending those last moments with someone. This is kind of somebody told me that Chad, he's a little bit more somber of conversations than we typically have.
And so yeah, they kind of are somber because of what the environment is, but we're almost done with the somberness. But think about that. You know, when we get to that moment where we realize that we're with someone in those moments, one of the emotions that runs through us so many ways is simply just trying to figure out what am I going to do without this person? What am I going to do without this person?
I think that no better, there's no better narrative of human mortality in the 20th century than the country singer Johnny Cash. And at the end of his life, after June had died, the love of his life, he started working on a collection of songs. He started before him. He wanted to finish it.
It was the last thing that was released before he died. It was an album that's called My Mother's Him book. It was literally that. It was his mother's paperback hymnal and him just flipping through and playing songs from it.
He started recording these at the end of his career about 10 years before that because he even told a rip group and he said, I've got nothing left. And nobody wants to hear from an old watched country singer anymore. All I have left is gospel songs. And then after June died, he kind of put this project back up because he wanted that to be the last thing that he released before he died.
And you can hear him reflecting on his own life and that scenario, him reflecting on what's life going to be like without her. And the songs that he chose to sing and put on that record, they really tell a story about a person who'd been reflecting on mortality their entire life. If anything, you could say a reflection on death was the thing that catapulted his career and was the piece of his career that he ended things with. What's it going to be like when you're gone?
That's an honest question. The older I get, the more I think about this. And that's an honest question. Sometimes we're thinking about this emotionally.
What am I going to do like with this person gone? Where's my heart going to be? There's something I care about. There's those sorts of questions.
There's also, and sometimes there's some physical questions, very practical questions. Like, who's going to go do this? Or who knows how to do this? Or what's this going?
And there's a lot of stuff that runs through our heads and those scenarios. We have to find a different way to look at things. When I think about Jesus and we think about Jesus literally having this conversation with his disciples. Now, 2000 years in the future, we kind of just get theological with this.
We just kind of think church talk. But I don't think that Jesus would just do fancy church talk for us and ignore the needs of his disciples, his closest friends, the people he loved and cared about the most in those moments. It has to be personal. It had to be personal for them just as personal to us.
And so I want us today just to kind of be willing to get personal with this scenario with him. Because he's going to be honest and he wants to honor the humanity of his friends. And I think Jesus would want to be honest and honor the humanity that he has and offers with us. So they were talking about leaving.
We're going to talk about what happens when the world can't stay the same. And we're going to use John 14. It was so funny as I was going through all this and kind of taking these out a few weeks ago and I realized that I literally picked out the exact same passages from the old Methodist funeral order. But these will sound familiar for many reasons.
But that's one of them. So we're going to be in here a bunch of things. I want to ask you something before we get going. I want you to take your phone out.
I'm getting text messages right now. I want you to take your phone out. Whatever you use to take notes. Now you might just be a paper notebook in your pocket.
You can use that too. But whatever you use, just kind of keep track of stuff. I want you to pull this out because we're going to keep track of three words. Because I want you to think about these.
I want you to reflect on these after you leave today. So just however manner you take notes. Just be prepared to take just three short, quick little notes. But John 14, 1 through 2 is where we'll get started.
Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust also in me. There's more than enough room in my father's home. It is not so.
I told you that I am going to prepare a place for you. So Jesus is automatically realizing where his disciples are. He says, don't be troubled. Don't have anxiety over this.
This idea of trouble is literally this physical realm of suffering that we exemplify. It's the same word that sometimes describes our body like it's quaking. You might have heard me kind of say something before. Someone starts not crying.
It's like a really, really physical. That's when you were troubled. That's when you were troubled. Like do not go to the dark place because I'm going somewhere for you.
Just trust in me. It's the first word I write down, right? I'm trust. Trust in me.
I'm going to trust is to consider something worthy. Is to consider something that you believe you can count on. It's the idea of interesting that we're willing to bank on something. We're willing to invest on something.
We're willing to put hopes in something else. We're willing to attach ourselves to something for the sake of stability. When we trust, we're not trying to decide something. We're knowing something.
We're lately, Meredith and I have been watching a bunch of Netflix movies about rock climbing the chimney. I will not do that. I do not trust my frame on a rope and a rock. What do you know?
You can hold yourself firm too. They're asking Jesus these questions and there's anxieties there. And Jesus just kind of tells them that he says, I've got something I've got to go take care of for you. I'm leaving because I'm going to take care of something.
Verse six is what he says. Jesus told him I'm the way I'm the truth in the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. I've got something to take care of.
I'm going to the Father and you can't come to the Father without me. I'm the way I'm the truth in the life. I'm the truth. That's the second one.
I want you to write down. Truth. Truth means you're dependable. It's also a state of reality.
It's something that we see and accept and know to be truthful. There's a phenomenon recently right now that is kind of mind boggling to me and yet again you can go and Netflix and watch the documentary about it. Has anybody heard about flat earth conspiracy? Yeah.
Yeah. People are really trying really hard to convince others that the earth is flat. It's laughable. But what do you know to be true?
And now it's true is one of the most important things that we have right now. Our world, our new cycle, our culture, we are fascinating with the idea of what is true and what is not true. But we live in a world where an app that was developed by college students to get dates has the ability to sway national elections. Truth is something that we are very, very, very focused on right now in our day and time.
We all want to know what is true. What can we depend on? There's truth that Jesus is speaking about here in all of these words. We see these pop up in other ways in the gospels and especially in John, but he begins using them in a very, very different way in this chapter because he's attaching a level of reality to these words that was not previously there.
And Jesus talks about truth through, he says, I'm the way I'm the truth and I'm the life. He's not talking about philosophic truth. He's talking about experience truth. He's saying, think of all the things you have seen me do already and hold fast to that.
John 14, 12 through 17, he says this, I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done and even greater works because I'm going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name and I will do it so the Son can bring glory to the Father. He just asks me for anything in my name and I will do it.
And if you love me, obey my commandments and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him. But you will know him because he lives with you now and later it will be in you.
So 99 times, I checked this three times and I figured that number was just sounded a little bit too normal for this to be the truth. But Jesus talks about belief 99 times in the gospel of John. In fact, if anything, you can say that John's gospel is the gospel of belief. A couple of summers ago, we did a whole series on the seven signs that Jesus performed in the gospel of John.
Everyone done to cause belief. So Jesus has been working on belief so much with the disciples and understand this. But at this moment, we come back to that emotional thing of what happens when we might be losing someone in that question. Well, who's going to do the things that you do when you're gone?
And Jesus answers that. He says, you're going to do that. Not only will you do the things I've been doing, you will do even greater things than I have been doing. And we use a section of this reading for our focus, for our capital campaign.
So you will do even greater things than this. You're not going to be worried. You're not going to be by yourself. I'm sending the Holy Spirit.
And we're coming to that in a couple of weeks. We're just that. We're going to jump into that on some pool one day. If you're saying you're going to even greater things than I do, this sounds kind of odd to us, but let's think back to our family relationships, the people that we know that cared about us, that taught us things that pride that people have when they teach someone they care about how to do something.
I think about all the things that my grandfather taught me, are all things that other friends of mine who are not with me anymore have taught me how to do. And I remember when my grandfather had me making barbecue sauce for him one time. And he realized that I could make it better than he could. Probably because he burned his mouth on hunt sauce for 75 years.
But we do that ourselves, right? We have a family skill set. We have things that we know how to do that. We're passed down to us.
If you teach somebody who you care about a lot, how to do something that matters a lot to you, don't you want them to be better than you are? That pride level, this is still that same thing. He says, you will do even greater things than me because you believe. You've seen what this means.
The last reading and the last word for us to reflect on today is from John 14, 23 through 29. This is what it says. Jesus replied, all who love me will do what I say. My father will love them and we will come and make our home with each of them.
Anyone who does not love me will not obey me. And remember my words are not my own. What I'm telling you is from the father who sent me. I'm telling you these things now why I'm still with you.
And the father sends the advocate is my representative. That is the Holy Spirit. He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. And I'm leaving you with a gift, a peace of mind and a heart and a peace I give as a gift the world cannot give.
So don't be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you. I'm going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really love me, you'll be happy that I'm going to the Father who is greater than I am.
I've told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe. John decides belief. John has this obsession with God making his home with us. John 14, the word became flesh and made his home among us here in this passage in verse 27.
We see that Jesus will come and we will make our home with each of them. God dwelling permanently with us. The last word for just to write down is Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. Does anybody here like the word obey?
Like, are you thinking of obedience? This thing my dog should have been sent to 14 years ago. But this word, it's much bigger than that because we think about why we get in the situations where we should obey things. And this is much bigger than do's and don'ts.
This is not Jesus saying, listen, if you follow my do's and don'ts list, I'm going to still like you. Sadly, that's the way we treat Jesus sometimes when we think about this. But to obey, it means to defend, means to protect something, to keep watch over something, to guard something. My grandfather taught me how to make his barbecue sauce recipe.
Here's a crazy story about how he got this recipe. And here's the thing, if you want some barbecue sauce and I'll make some, I'll give some to you. But I'm not going to teach you how to do it. You ain't getting that recipe.
It took me 20 years old man to get that recipe. I'm guarding it because it's good. I'll share it, but I ain't going to teach it. Jesus saying, I've shown you all of these things.
It's weird for Jesus to be like, I've shown you the family secrets. All these things I'm doing, I have revealed the Father to you completely so that you can go reveal the Father to others, but you need to guard what you have because this is a very, very sacred thing. It's not something to just play around with. My commandments are the way to the Father and you're guarding them so people don't add to them, they don't take away from them, they don't bend them, they don't shape and shift and twist them.
Like you have the family secrets and the family secrets lead straight back to the Father. He also says, do not be troubled in verse one. He says, do not be troubled in verse 27. He's sealing off this whole section of conversation with this idea of don't be worried.
It's this piece I give you. It's the piece of the world does not have this idea of this existence with a complete and absolute change from everything that causes hurt, that causes pain, that causes anxiety, that causes trouble and it's deeply personal. It's in your soul. It's you just saying, don't be worried.
I'm giving you a piece that can change everything. So don't spend all of your energy focusing on me not being here anymore because we've got much, much more important things to do. So I'm giving you this piece completely. So what would be like when you're going, what would be like?
We have those thoughts and we lose someone, we love deeply. But none of us would say is this. None of us would ever say that our life will simply be as though they never existed, right? Now you think about the people that you love and you know and that you care about the most.
When they die when they're gone, your life is not like they weren't here, right? Your life is now informed by who they are and who they were to you and the things they taught you. This last like three or four years and I've been in ministry for 15 years now and death is something that for a long time I was really comfortable with. I almost was like a blessing.
I just did not get worked up over it. I was like, okay, I can be calm and the official, I have to get some inside baseball. The word that preachers use is a non-anxious presence. I had that down for years.
But then I started losing people close to me. They were not just like my great great aunt that I'd seen one time in my life. I started losing friends. I started losing people that mean a lot to me that were not family and I had to learn as an adult and as a pastor, I had a process through death.
And all the simple little things, I go to my dad's church and the guy that was the head of maintenance of my dad's church for a long time was my boy scout, Scout master. Like if I know if I go into the utility rooms, I'll see Mr. Jim's like calculations on the inside of sheet rock. Because that's where he thought was appropriate place to do math.
If I see a pack of Winston cigarettes, I think of Mr. Jim because he changed him. He teared the filter off. And so I see Winston thinking about Mr.
Jim. My friend David died a few years ago and I've got a huge iron stake from his jumper business that he accidentally left at my house from a foundry of it one time. And it's what I used to stir the fire in my fire pit. My fire sticks are really sacred.
And I've realized that we see these, our lives are not the same after we lose these people right. And for the disciples, Jesus is saying the same thing. He's like, your life is not going to be the same. So why act like I don't exist anymore?
Why act like I never actually came and did all these things? Or why act as though all these things that I did now don't matter here? And that sounds kind of wild. But if we really think about the way that some of the many times we treat Jesus and our ability and his ability to be active in our own word is that we can theoretically conceptualize the fact that he was here on earth and he did these things and we believe in the Bible and all of this.
But we get hung up. We get stuck in this spot between verses 1 and 27 when Jesus says do not be troubled. I'm going to give you peace because you've got some stuff to do now. But y'all we get stuck between that one and 27.
And this is why I think we get stuck. That's why I ask you to write down words. I'm hoping this marker did not break in my pockets. I'm sitting down on it.
So where do we engage Jesus at this level? Like where do we move past this and learn to live the life where he said you will do even greater things than me that he talked about in verse 14? How do we learn to do that? Where do we want to do that?
This is what we have going on. Now you can't make fun of handwriting. See, we look at this and we realize that truth, trust, and that says obey. Just trust me.
Here's the thing. Jesus says I'm sending you the Holy Spirit, the advocate. We intersect Jesus at this point right here. Where we can personally begin to experience and to own trust and obedience and truthfulness.
That spot right there is where we live out this life that he gives us. That's the spot. I've been reading Hebrews devotionally for the last few weeks. I'm just going to read you one verse.
But this whole section is about why Jesus had to die. But verse 26, Hebrews 9, 26 says this. If it had been necessary Christ would have to die again and again ever since the world began. But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.
At the end of the age when he has exposed his followers to truth, to trust, and obedience fully. And through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can find this intersection point in our own life. We find the power that we need. We find the hope that we need.
We find the peace that we need. We find the life that we need. John took some of Jesus' favorite conversation topics and made sure that he understood that in his last words he's saying these same things to his disciples. And here's the thing, if you struggle with this, I get it.
I struggle with this too. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But if you struggle with this, I get it. But I want to challenge you to personalize these things and personalize them for the first time.
I had you write those three words down so this week you can reflect and you can honestly do your own business with Jesus and ask about trust. Ask about truthfulness. Ask about what are you guarding? Do I understand what you've told me enough to protect at all costs?
What are the things that you've shown me to be? This life is not supposed to be lived out just in our head. This life is lived out in our heart. But we are looking and expecting to see Jesus in a very real and personal way in every place.
Let's pray. Father, I mean thank you for not making this just boring or unpersonal. God, sometimes we might wish it was. We might wish it was easier to not have to be willing to get into our own stuff.
God, when we have to think about that, what do we do in your goal and realize that you have given us something great to do? Great to think about, great to live into. God, we're willing to ask ourselves that question. What if the reasons that we might have been frustrated at the lack that we've seen you in this world is because we have failed to understand that you have invited us to bring you into this place?
God, that a few brief fleeting moments of our day is not enough to satisfy the way that our heart is desiring and is just quaking for you in our life. And where we realize that we have to actualize this in our own heart before we can actualize this in our world. So Jesus, we're praying, rasping, coming to you.