On Good Friday Geoff Findlay passed into glory.
A wave of sadness swept over my soul. My heart was troubled.
We had been speaking to one another only a week before. We had prayed together. We were both looking forward to catching up next time I was in Sydney, and I travelled on to Canberra.
That was the last time I heard his voice.
Geoff was a colleague, and dear friend for many years. Though we lived miles apart, whenever we saw each other we caught up just where we had left off.
Geoff had a real pastor’s heart. Even in his year long illness, as and when he was able, he continued to care for Christ’s sheep and give thoughtful counsel.
He cared for my soul. In fact, the last time we prayed together (before the more recent occasion) was a year ago at the funeral of Noel Weeks – another dear friend whose passing left me deeply troubled. Noel was a particular help and support to me in difficulties I had been going through.
And now, there at Noel’s funeral, was Geoff.
Geoff died on Good Friday. He will have to wait longer than three days for his bodily resurrection, but in the meantime we are well pleased for him, that he (and all who trust in Christ) is “well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor 5:8)
But as well pleased as I was for him, my heart was troubled, not least for his dear wife, Lesli, and the family. They have our deep sympathy.
The following is taken from Geoff’s notes from one of the last sermons he preached (23/3/20) just before his illness, a year ago. It is one in his series from John’s Gospel on: “Jesus is the Christ”, and based on John 14:1-14, Jesus’ encouragement to His disciples on the eve of the first Good Friday.
The audio can be found here.
The Way, the One, the Works
“Let not your hearts be troubled.”
These are particularly appropriate words for us in our troubled times of a global pandemic.
They are words easy to say.
But does saying them actually alleviate our worry?
Where were Jesus’s disciples at? No wonder Jesus’s disciples were troubled:
– Jesus has just told them that Peter will deny Him three times.
– They’d all been just as confident as Peter about standing firm, but now they were full of self-doubt.
– They were already feeling confused about everything that has been happening, and now Jesus is telling them He is leaving. Trouble!
Their confidence was shattered.
Double trouble!
Jesus says: “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
How? “Believe in God; believe also in Me.” (Or, more accurately: “Continue to believe in God; continue to believe also in Me.”)
Jesus knows their faith is about to be even more sorely tried.
Perhaps, like our situation, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
– Jesus is about to be humiliated: shamed and crucified before their very eyes.
– He is about to be mocked, but will give no answer to His mockers.
– He is about to be defeated – or, at least, that is how it will appear to their eyes.
Treble trouble!
“Let not your hearts be troubled.
“Continue to believe in God; continue to believe also in Me.”
These words were not the sort of pious platitudes which abound on secular sympathy cards, or at non-Christian funerals.
This is not wishful thinking without any basis in objective, incontrovertible truth.
Jesus follows it up with sound, solid substance.
He gives three reasons why they need not worry, but instead can be truly confident, content, courageous:
– the Way
– the One
– the Works
1. The Way
“In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 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.” (vv 2-3)
Many have misguided notions as to what Jesus was talking about here.
Some have thought that Jesus was talking about preparing rooms for His disciples – like hotel rooms, or studio apartments for His disciples. But Jesus is not building you an apartment.
Or the KJV has, “In my Father’s house are many mansions” – which could sound as though each one has a separate mansion in heaven.
But I think each of these misses the point. The word translated “room”, or “mansion” is (lit.) a “dwelling place”. This is a place where we will dwell, where we will belong; a place to call home.
The emphasis is similar to the difference between a “house” and a “home”. Jesus’s emphasis, in tending to our troubled hearts, is not on the building, but the belonging.
Also, His emphasis, in tending to our troubled hearts, is on many rooms; i.e. lots of rooms, with lots of room – room for all, and lots more. In fact, room for a great multitude which no man can number.
If it were not so, He would not have been so indiscriminate in calling “everyone who is weary and heavy-laden” to come to Him.
There is room for any, for everyone, for all who will come.
There is room for you.
“I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to…” Where?
We’d expect Him to say, “I will take you to that place.”
But no, He says, “I will take you to Myself that where I am you may be also.”
The place is Jesus. The destination is not a bedroom, studio apartment, or mansion. The dwelling place is in Jesus.
He came as Emmanuel, to dwell with us and in us, so now we will come to dwell with Him and in Him.
“And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Here are two more misconceptions we need to put to bed:
1) Jesus is not showing the way.
Every other religion in the world involves someone special showing you the way:
– Buddha showing you the path to enlightenment.
– Mohammed showing you the Five Pillars of Islam.
Jesus Christ is unique in declaring: “I am the way.”
This is the difference between a mediator and a facilitator.
If your marriage breaks down, or you have a serious falling out with someone, you may need either a facilitator, or a mediator, to help get you reconciled again.
– A facilitator helps you work it out yourself.
– A Mediator comes between you and is the bridge that brings you together.
We might often pray for Jesus to help us. But Jesus is not just a facilitator.
Jesus is the Mediator between God and Man.
He is fully God and fully man. He is one with God, and one with us.
As such He is The Way, the only way, of reconciling God to man and man to God.
2) People often think, Jesus leads the way.
But Jesus is not leading the way.
You might think, “What do you mean Jesus is not leading the way? Of course He leads the way!”
No! The way is through the cross. The way is by crucifixion.
That is His way. It is not our way.
But didn’t Paul say, “I am crucified with Christ”? Yes, but he didn’t mean: “I am crucified in same way as Christ was crucified.”
Jesus laid down His life as an atoning sacrifice of our sins; He died as substitute in our place. We cannot do that.
Jesus is not leading us in the way. He is the way. His substitutionary, atoning sacrifice for our sin is The Way.
The first big truth Jesus gives His disciples to ground their troubled hearts in Him is this: Jesus is the way. The one and only way
2. The One
“No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
This is a highly offensive statement in our current climate. The prevailing pluralist view is that there are many ways.
If you say there is only one way to God, i.e. through Jesus, you are regarded as arrogant in the extreme, you will be labelled a bigot. Then, when someone calls you a bigot, you’ll be tempted to deny it; you’ll be tempted to deny Jesus as the one, exclusive way.
Likewise if you say: “There is only one truth.”
People used to say to us: “You can have your truth, just let me have my truth. I’m glad for you that you find comfort in that; I find comfort in this.”
But they tend not to say that anymore. Now they say to us: “What you call truth is intolerance, pride, arrogance. What you call truth is dangerous. What you call truth must be shut down. It is quite legitimate for us to shout it down because it does not belong in a civilised society.”
We are made to feel not wanted, not welcome, even wicked.
But Jesus is not ashamed to be rejected, or to be counted as the offscouring of a self-righteous society. He says, “I am The Way, I am The Truth, I am The Life.”
But He has more to say:
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?”
Jesus is saying: “I and the Father are one.”
Not just one in purpose, one in mission, one in conviction. But one in identity: you see One, you see the Other. “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father.”
There is a mutual indwelling: the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father.
They are one in essence, dwelling together as the only one God.
But something else: Look at the way in which Jesus goes about comforting their hearts:
– On one hand He says, “You believe; continue believing.”
– But on other hand: He remonstrates with them, reproving them for not believing what they could, or should, have understood.
“Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip?”
This is a reproof, but it is the tender reproof of a shepherd, from a pastor’s heart for His people. He is inviting, drawing Philip into something more, something better, something deeper than before.
This is the way to establish hearts in troubled times: lead them, draw them, into deeper truth.
3. The Works
“The Father who dwells in me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (vv 10-12)
Here is the exciting conclusion Jesus is taking His disciples to: the prospect of doing great works, greater works even than Jesus.
Perhaps that is a bit confronting for us, verging on blasphemous. What did He mean?
We need to carefully work our way through Jesus’ argument.
Note the thread of works: the Father’s works, then the Son’s works, then our works. They are all connected.
1) The Father’s works: “The Father who dwells in Me does His works.”
2 ) The Son’s works: “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
Jesus is saying: “You see Me doing the works that only the Father can do: works like telling a paralysed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; then proving it by telling him to take up his bed and walk. These works prove that I and the Father are one. Believe on account of the works.”
These are works which engender faith. They are the reason Jesus did miraculous signs and wonders. It was not primarily out of compassion, though of course He did have compassion. But even more importantly, it was to engender faith: belief in what Jesus can do, and more than that, belief in who He is.
The primary purpose of signs, wonders and miraculous works was to testify to who Jesus is, to authenticate Jesus as One He claimed to be: one with the Father, truly God; the Way, the Truth, the Life.
– He turned water into wine to show He had the power of God in creation.
– He calmed the tempest-tossed sea to show He had the power of God to calm a troubled soul.
– He healed the sick to show He has the power of God to heal sin-sickness of soul.
– He raised the dead to demonstrate He had the power of God to forgive sins.
All these miraculous signs and wonders were signposts to a far deeper spiritual reality.
3) This is the key to understanding how the works His followers are enabled to do can be even greater than Jesus’s works.
About month ago I went to public meeting of a world-renowned signs & wonders preacher. I did not go to criticise, I went to learn.
When I arrived a good crowd was there already, all seats were taken and I was standing at the back. That was fine, I had a better view.
But then the ushers said we were not allowed to stand, and ushered us into an overflow room. I must admit I was disappointed: I felt like these were the B class seats and I would not get the atmosphere so much. But it seems I was exactly where God wanted me to be.
The speaker said some really good stuff – I quote here from his own book:
“ ‘And greater works than these will you do, because I am going to the Father.’
“God has invested His power, His name, His blood and His Spirit to enable and empower you to do the works of Jesus. I’m telling you, we’re living in the day and age where we will see some of the greater works. When the Church realises this, they will shake nations for Jesus!”
Great stuff, spot on! But then he goes on in his book, and on stage before me, to give stories of amazing healings and people falling over drunk in the Spirit, as evidence of these “greater works”.
Then all of sudden, a lady just in front of me fell and started wailing. The leaders rushed in to lay hands on her and pray for her healing. Then they realised she was not responding like they wanted her to, they realised this was out of their league, this was real medical emergency.
We were quietly ushered back in, to stand at the back of the main auditorium. An ambulance was quietly called, the woman was taken to hospital. A message was relayed to the lead pastor, but no mention was made of the very real medical emergency happening in our midst. She was conveniently out the back where no one could see. There was no public prayer for her; all the while the speaker continued telling his stores about doing even greater works than Jesus.
And I’m thinking, “Something doesn’t add up here.”
What does Jesus mean: His people will do greater works than He did?
I think the key is in the reason Jesus tells them. They will do greater works than these “because I am going to the Father.”
This will usher in a fundamentally new realm:
A realm that moves from pre-cross to post-cross, post-Pentecost.
A move from disciples being confused to disciples being more than conquerors.
A move from foreshadowing redemption to accomplished redemption.
A move from signs and shadows to the glory of gospel triumph.
What does that mean?
Does it mean that as Jesus raised a few from dead maybe His people will raise great multitudes from dead?
Is this what we see? Do we see signs and wonders preachers raising hundreds, thousands of those dying of Coronavirus?
The preacher I mentioned is on record as going to save Florida from Coronavirus but (so far as I know) he hasn’t yet raised even one from dead.
What do we see?
One example we see is where 128 churches in Bangladesh were planted last year, more than two a week. Twenty six of these want the WPC to teach them. They are not after money; they are after Biblical teaching.
Could these be the greater things we see?
– not signpost sort of miracles that point forward to spiritual miracles.
– but spiritual miracles in themselves: millions of men, women and children being born again as a new creation in Jesus Christ; the church of Christ expanding, pushing back gates of hell.
Could these be the greater works than what happened in Jesus’ day – not that Jesus could not do it; but the time was not right, it was pre-cross?
But now is the time; now is the time for a global expansion of the miracle of regeneration to expand to a far greater number than the small band of disciples in Jesus’s time.
You have the privilege of being part of this movement. God is building, expanding His church through you, and everyone like you in world.
See how Jesus encourages His downcast, discouraged disciples on the eve of their despair:
– He is the Way
– He is the One.
– His works lead directly into phenomenal work in every age, our age.
Conclusion
Jesus closes this section with the privilege and promise of prayer:
“Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” (vv 13-14)
Jesus is leaving His disciples. He wants them to pray.
He wants them to be bold in prayer; He wants them asking for big, bold things in His name.
Is He thinking of them asking for power to do signs and wonders, to heal the sick and to raise the dead?
I doubt it.
Rather He is thinking of them asking for strength to stand firm in faith, their little band to be added to and multiplied so that the world-wide kingdom of God becomes more and more manifest until He comes.
This is what He has in mind: whatever we ask for, that is shaped by the promises of His Word, He will do it.
Let’s be praying more and more of these big kingdom prayers.
Let’s be praying together.