John 18:1-11 – The night of Jesus’ arrest

In John 18-19, we have come to the crux of Jesus’ mission. These two chapters cover the trial, crucifixion and burial of Jesus. John’s Gospel records for us carefully selected incidences that the synoptic Gospels had excluded. John 18 starts with the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. What John left out here was Jesus’ struggles with the impending death recorded in the other Gospels. The part about Peter, James and John falling asleep while He went deeper into the garden to pray was totally left out. In John’s account, we see a resolute Jesus going forward to meet His betrayal, and the band or cohorts of soldiers that came to arrest Him. John wants us to see that Jesus was in command of His own destiny with dignity. Here we also see two lives contrasted – Judas’ and Peter’s.

The Lord went forward to identify Himself to the group of soldiers led by Judas Iscariot to arrest Him. There is no record of the number of people that came to the garden to arrest Him, but we get the feeling it was a great band of people including soldiers, temple guards and Pharisees. They all came with lanterns, torches and weapons to a Jesus who was anticipating them. Jesus did not resist the arrest. In fact, the initiation Jesus took to identify Himself voluntarily made the kiss of Judas redundant. Although he did kiss Jesus but it has little significant in this account as Jesus had already made known clearly who his betrayer would be. 

Here we see Jesus asking the band that came, whom they sought and they replied “Jesus of Nazareth.” Notice that they all fell backward immediately when Jesus identified Himself as the messiah, saying “I am He.”  There must have been great confusion as they laid there on the ground over each other. The amazing thing is that when they got up and Jesus asked them a second time, they again said they were seeking for Jesus of Nazareth. Here Jesus identified Himself again and asked that His disciples be released. What we see here was intended to portray the ridiculous number of people who came to arrest one person, and his eleven disciples with only two little swords between them. The reason Jesus asked for His disciples to be freed was to fulfill the Scripture that said, “Of those whom You have given Me I lost not one.” 

John here pictures for us the contrast between the band of men that came to arrest Jesus and the dignity and honor with which the Lord conducted Himself. Notice that the soldiers obediently obeyed the command of Jesus. While all the disciples left, we see Peter alone sought to protect Jesus as he had so bravely announced earlier that he would defend Him. Peter did a foolish thing when he took out a sword and cut off the ear of a servant of the high priest. Peter probably aimed to cut off his head but the servant ducked and ended up having his right ear lopped off. John 18:10 tells us that the name of the servant was Melchus. Jesus rebuked Peter, told him to put his sword away and then restored the ear to Melchus.

Figuratively speaking, haven’t we lopped off people’s ears in the course of our ministry seeking to do something good for Jesus? What an encouragement to know that Jesus can heal and restore the ears of people that we have cut off by our mistaken zeal. One other thing to consider. Imagine Melchus sitting at the breakfast table the next day. What would he be thinking and talking about? Would he be complaining about Peter or would he be praising Jesus? The Lord’s words to Peter show us the heart of Jesus. He said, “…the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?” It certainly was not a pleasant cup. It was one full of pain, agony, torment, loneliness and grief. Yet it was the route the Father had chosen for Him. It leaves us with the lesson that God does sometimes choose for us to take a hard road to fulfil the mission. Let’s be ready to do His bidding, no matter what. 

John 17:24-26 – The church’s ultimate destiny and present intimacy

In praying for the church, Jesus began by praying for us to experience oneness and unity. He then progressed to ask God for the ultimate destiny of the church. Jesus prayed for the church to be with Him ultimately. Here He envisaged the rapture of the church, when all believers are caught up to be with the Lord. Each one of us will behold and share His glory forever. Simply put, we will be exactly like Him. To see His glory is to experience Him in all His fullness. John the beloved tells us what this means in his letter to the church. In 1 John 3:2, he said, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” Yes, our ultimate glory and destiny is to see Christ and be transformed to be exactly like Him. Bear in mind that meanwhile, He is changing us and making us incrementally more and more like Him. Heaven is our destination, Christ-likeness is God’s ultimate goal for us

Jesus then concluded this prayer for the church, for her to experience present intimacy with Him. To share intimacy with the Lord is a key component to spiritual vitality, fulfillment and fruitfulness. This can be a present experience for us who love Him. The process begins with realizing that God had sent Jesus to us. And as we progress in our relationship with Him, we will also know and experience the Father’s love for us. And, as the awareness of that love grows, we will also become more conscious of Jesus’ presence and love in us.

Here we learn that love will always be the distinguishing mark of true Christianity. One sure way to make clear that we belong to Jesus and that we have fellowship with Him is the demonstration of love in our life. So as we truly love each other within the believers’ community, we validate the love of God in us. As a member of Christ’s body, we can complete His work by showing and demonstrating love.    

John 17:20-23 – Jesus’ desire for the church to have unity

In these last seven verses of John 17, Jesus’ prayer has the longest reach. His prayer not only covered the ministry of the first disciples but all who would come to know Him through their ministries. This list of people they had reached include us today. We are people who are brought to faith in Jesus Christ through the faithful ministry of a long line of believers after the apostles. These followers of Christ persisted in sharing His message passed down from the apostles. Our faith finds its ground in the teachings of the apostles of Christ. Because of them, we have had the opportunity to know Christ. They had faithfully discharged their God-given responsibility. What about us? Are we also discharging our responsibility in propagating the Gospel? So when Jesus prayed, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word,” He had us in mind. He also had in mind that we would be doing the tasks assigned to the apostles. We see that in this last segment of Jesus’ upper room prayer. He asked for the church’s unity, her ultimate destiny and her continual intimacy. Our reflection will be on verses 20-23 where Jesus prayed for unity for the church.

What is evident is that He not only had the eleven apostles in mind, He also had us believers of today in His mind. We all have come to believe Him because of the Apostles faithful effort in sharing the Gospel. What they shared were faithfully passed down till it reached us. Now, Jesus’ desire is for all believers to share the same faith the apostles had in Him. Our faith rest on the witness of the apostles. We find oneness in faith as we embrace the teaching passed down from the apostles. Jesus’ desire is clearly expressed in verse 21. He wants us to share the same life that He had with the Father. The same oneness He shared with the Father. He wants us to experience that life so that the world will clearly see that God had indeed sent Him to us. The oneness Christ came to create had made us brothers and sisters regardless of our age and nationality. Whether we care to admit it or not, we share the same life in Christ.

Notice that the element that would bring about this is: love. The Son’s glory is in the Father’s love for Him. He found His strength in that love. Jesus said that He had given us the same love so that we may be one. As we obediently love each other, we will generate the oneness He desires. Hence our prayer should also constantly echo the desire of the Lord. Let us live to demonstrate our oneness in Christ by loving each other. So we say:

Father make us one,

Father make us one,

That the world may know

That you’ve sent your son,
Yes, Father make us one.  

John 17:13-19 – Protection from the world and the evil one

Jesus, we have discovered, was praying for the remaining eleven to be kept and preserved from the enemy. Two elements that would keep them were the words that Jesus had shared with them and the inner joy they would receive. Jesus had told them the truth and as they believed what He had spoken to them, they began to experience an inner joy. As that happened, they were kept and preserved. But what would they be kept from? In verse 14 and 16, Jesus prayed that they would be kept from the hatred of the world and the enmity of the devil.

Here, the Lord saw the horrifying dangers that His apostles would be exposed to. He knew that the world would hate, challenge and undermine them in each and every possible way. They would experience this for no other reason other than the mere fact that they had the Father's word that the Lord had given to them. The primary object of the enemy’s hatred is the Scripture, the very Word of God. The enemy would seek to destroy it if possible. If he could not destroy it he would seek to distort it and nullify its impact. These apostles of Christ would be hated because they would be proclaiming the truth. One other reason the Lord said they would be hated would be that they do not belong to the world.

Notice that the Lord did not ask that His apostles be removed from the world. He asked that they be kept while serving His cause in the world. Taking a cue from here, we conclude that we, believers, are not to isolate ourselves from the world. We are to be in the world to demonstrate the life of Christ and how true life ought to be lived. Be conscious that the world is a dangerous place with all its lurking dangers, but take heart because the Lord had promised to walk us through. Yes, even if it is through the valley of the shadow of death. We must know that behind the world’s hatred for believers is the devil himself. So Jesus prayed that His apostles be kept from the evil one, and his constant plot to destroy the people of God.

In verses 17-19, Jesus then prayed for the apostles to be sanctified. The word sanctified simply means to be set apart or to be separated. The reason the Lord prayed for them to be sanctified was so that they could be set aside for His intended purpose. It is an expression of His desire for His apostles, as well as us, to stay committed to the task that had been set apart for them and us to fulfill. Jesus yearns for us to personally and willingly be committed to the assignments of God. And the model Jesus had given was Himself. Even as God had sent Him into the world, He now sent His apostles and us into the world. As He had set Himself apart for the assignments God had sent Him to do, He prayed that we, as well as His apostles, would emulate Him and also personally set ourselves apart to serve God. As we are called and sent to the same task, let us be aware that He did not send us to the task without any resource. In fact He had given us the same resource He gave to the apostles and us the Holy Spirit. So let us faithfully and diligently go about the work He has granted us the privilege to do so. 

John 17:9-12 – Jesus praying for His own

Jesus’ prayer for the apostles from verses 9-19 can be divided into three segments. He prayed for them because they belonged to Him. He then prayed for them to be kept and preserved from the enemy, the world and the devil. Finally, He prayed for them to be sanctified.

In verses 9-10, we see that firstly, Jesus recognized that these disciples came as a gift from the Father. And as much as they belonged to Him, they were also the Father’s. And Jesus had consciously poured His life into them, and that through them His personality and nature could be seen. Having spent three over years with them, He knew them intimately and He treasured them. Here in His prayer Jesus made a distinction between these eleven whom He loved, and those of the world. Right at this point, He was considering the fact that His eleven chosen men would soon be facing a hostile world. So He did not pray for the world. This of course did not mean that Jesus had no concern for the world. Remember that it was for the world that He came to die for. He was aware that soon He would be leaving the apostles behind and so naturally He was concerned for them. They were His primary concern at this point. Hence His prayer was for them.

From verses 11-12, Jesus prayed for them to be kept in the Father’s name.  In praying this way, Jesus was expressing His desire for them to be preserved by God’s own power, resources and ability. Just as God had personally taken the responsibility for Jesus’ life, His request was for the Father to also take personal responsibility for the apostles as well. He asked that in His absence, God would personally see to their safety and keep them from their enemy. Jesus knew that in this way, they would be adequately looked after. His desire was also to see the same unity He had with the Father to prevail in the lives of the apostles as well.

Conscious of the Father’s work through Him, Jesus gave His all to preserve the apostles. He kept them all intact except for Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition. Judas’ betrayal must not be seen as a failure on Jesus’ part. For Scriptures had clearly revealed that he was never ordained to be part of the apostolic band. That accounted for why his heart was never yielded to Christ. This was why he did not respond to the overtures of Christ’s grace, love and mercy shown towards him.

In the passage, we see that Jesus was fully conscious that it was the Father who was at work in Him. He had granted Jesus the power to see to the safety of His disciples, and Jesus had worked in tandem with the Father. Aware of it or not, each of us has some people God had placed under our care. Learning from the Lord, we must also see those under our care as God’s gift, and so make time to pray for them. And like Jesus, we must collaborate with God to protect them and help them to attain their God-given potential.

John 17:6-8 – The importance of hearing the words of Jesus

Jesus had prayed for Himself in John 17:1-5. He now turned to pray for the apostles. God had given Him twelve of them but one had gone astray. So in the upper room there were the remaining eleven. Bear in mind that while Jesus was with them He had made known the Father to them. They on the other hand had depended on His physical presence. At this point, Judas Iscariot had left the upper room to get ready to betray Him. And Jesus was about to leave for the Father and the Holy Spirit had not yet come. The Lord knew that they were not yet fully equipped to handle the full impact of what would soon happen at Calvary. So He prayed for God to protect them. He began by reminding God that these eleven were His in the first place. And God had so kindly given them to Jesus who had not failed to make known the Father to them.

When Jesus said that He had manifested God’s name to them, He meant that He had made God known to them. Name represents the whole person. To have manifested the name of God to them was to make known the whole personality and essential nature of God. The wonderful thing to note is that they had kept the Father’s word, which Jesus had shared with them. So He prayed for the Father to preserve and keep them in His name.  Granted that it took a while for them to realize that Jesus came to do the mission of the Father, but they did. They could see that Jesus was intricately connected with the Father and everything Jesus had shared was given by the Father. What Jesus had passed on to the apostles was a God-given message. Hence the message they received was a divine revelation. In contrast to the religious leaders, these eleven accepted what Jesus had shared with them as God’s message. And were assured of His divine origin, i.e. that Jesus came from God. 

The apostles came to a sure conviction of the origin of Jesus through listening and accepting the words He shared with them. Today in the Bible, we have the full counsel of God. It behooves us, as His followers now, to also pay close attention to what He is saying to us through the Bible. We must therefore make time to read, study, meditate, memorize, digest, and assimilate the word of God and make them a part of our life. When we are grounded in His Word, we will come to experience Christ and be kept in Him. 

John 17:1-5 – Jesus praying for personal glory

John 17 has rightly been described as the high priestly prayer of Christ. This prayer discloses some of His inner thoughts, and also shows us the deep and passionate relationship He had with the Father. This prayer also covers a wide scope in terms of the time. Jesus not only prayed for Himself, but also for His apostles, and the church that comprises of disciples of all periods of time, even to our present day and age. Essentially, our Lord prayed for three things. He first prayed for himself to be glorified, then he prayed for the remaining eleven apostles to be protected and sanctified, and lastly, He prayed for the church to be unified.

In these opening five verses, we see Christ praying for Himself, specifically for His personal glorification. To help us understand, we need to know what the statement - “to be glorified” means. It simply means to made manifest hidden riches, to make known some hidden values. In asking to be glorified, Jesus was requesting that what was previously hidden from the world to be revealed and made known. Here He asked the glory of God to be seen in two ways.

Firstly, He asked the glory of God to be revealed through the cross. When He said, “…the hour has come…,” He was referring to His impending death on the cross. Here He was asking that through His pain, blood, agony, grief and loneliness, He would be glorified. And through the result of the cross the Father would also be glorified. How would this death on the cross bring about the glory? Firstly, through the cross, He would have authority of all flesh. His Lordship would be made known. The cross would reveal that He has the sovereign right to reign over the nations of the earth. Secondly, through the cross, He would gain the right to offer eternal life to all that the Father would bring to Him. Eternal life here is seen in knowing God. To know God is the crux of human existence. Knowing the Father brings great fulfilment to life. Knowing God brings meaning to our living. It is through the cross that Christ’s work on earth would be complete. This is what He came to do: to redeem and reconcile us to the Father. And this is completed through the cross.  

In verse 5, we see the second way Jesus asked to be glorified. He asked to return to the glory He shared with the Father in heaven, before the beginning of time. Christ was the Creator before time began. He came to earth in order to be our Redeemer. With His redemptive work soon to be completed at the cross, He now asked to return to the glory He had shared with God as the Creator.

To Jesus, the humiliation He would soon go through was glorification. No wonder Hebrews 12:2 tells us that “(Jesus) who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” That’s the reason why we must fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and completer of our faith. It’s also the reason we run the race before us with endurance, and not be derailed by the circumstances of life. 

John 16:31-33 – Peace comes by abiding in Christ

The three key elements of faith in Christ are: love, joy and peace. In verses 23-24, Jesus had shown the joy that could be experienced through prayer. Then in verses 25-30, He shared how personal feeling of the love of the Father could come about as we connect with Him. Again this could be cultivated through prayer. In these last four verses, Jesus talked about an undeniable peace that believers could experience in a world of turmoil.

The disciples had begun to show a tint of confidence from all that Jesus had shared. However, their faith at this point had limitation. Jesus foresaw the impending opposition that they would soon face. Knowing that it would be a time of extreme testing, He now promised a peace that could take them through the worst turmoil. This undeniable peace rests on the truth that He had overcome the world.

In verse 31, Jesus began with a question, “Do you now believe?” Although it seems like a question, it is actually an exclamation.  A question would suggest that Jesus was doubting the reality of their faith. But He was not. He was pointing out to them the inadequacy of their faith. While they had professed faith in Christ, it had not been fully tested by hard times as yet. They had not yet possessed that unshakable faith that would make them stand firm even in the severest of testing. Shortly, they would all abandon their Lord. In the most crucial hour of Jesus’ life they all deserted Him and went into hiding. Through all these, we need to know that what’s important is: to know that our faith rests on what Christ had done in our life. It had never been the result of our own courage and endurance.

Here, Jesus foretold that they would be severely tested. He told them that an imminent trial was coming and they would be scattered. It suggests that they would not be able to stand the trial. They would be separated from Him. And the cohesion as a group would be disrupted, though temporarily. Even in those moments, Jesus assured them that the Father would not leave Him alone. He would be with Him through all that would come against Him. Just as God the Father was with Jesus throughout His trials, we need to know that He will also be with us in ours. He will never leave us nor forsake us. That’s His promise!

While telling them of their impending plight, Jesus ended here with a note of victory. He promised them a peace that can take them through the toughest of times. As believers who profess faith in Christ, we can experience that peace too. Notice that Jesus used the word “may” and not “will.” This suggests that there could be believers who do not fully rest in Him. Hence they may not experience the peace He had promised. What He is saying is that the world we live in is a place full of unrest. But it need not trouble believers who learn to live in Him. The trouble in the world is a given because that’s the world’s characteristic. But we can take heart because Jesus had overcome the world. Seen in the light of His impending passion, what Jesus said is bold and audacious. The cross was engineered to bring Christ’s defeat, but it became His ultimate conquest over what the world could do to Him. Christ went to the cross as a mighty conqueror. And He guarantees us today that PEACE can be our experience when we learn to abide in His victory. Hallelujah! 

John 16:25-30 – Personal prayer generates faith in a loving God

Jesus assured the disciples that the time was coming, when they would be marked with new understanding of spiritual things concerning God. His message would not seem to them as encrypted. This, of course, must be understood in the context of the coming of the Holy Spirit. He will be sent alongside His followers to reveal and clarify the truth to them.

Here Jesus assured the disciples that as their understanding becomes clearer, they could then relate with God personally and confidently. They could come to Him freely in His name. As we have discussed, praying in Jesus’ name is to petition to God based on the merit of what He had done. It is asking for things that correspond with His nature, character and objectives. It is also praying in submission to His Lordship. And as we personally connect with God through prayer in Jesus’ name, we would come to know and experience that the Father not only loves us all, but that He also loves us individually. Besides showing the effect of connecting with the Father in prayer, this passage shows us the perfect unity between Jesus and the Father. Jesus had no need to persuade the Father to be more gracious. Because the work He had come to do rested wholly on the loving care of the Father who had sent Him.

In verse 28, Jesus then told the disciples plainly that, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” This verse tells us two essential qualities of our salvation. It declares that our salvation originated from heaven, where Christ came from. It also tells us that the ultimate destination of us who are saved is also heaven, where Christ had returned to. All these affirm the Father’s approval of what Jesus had done. On hearing that, the disciples then expressed that Jesus had indeed spoken plainly to them. And it brought about a declaration of faith. They now believe that Jesus had indeed come from God, and they confessed their confidence in Him.

Connecting with the Father is one thing Jesus had constantly taught us to do. We see it in the way He related with the Father. He now teaches us to also connect with the Father in prayer. He assured us that we will individually experience the Father’s love for us through prayer. When that happens, our confidence in Him will find greater depth. So let us keep connecting to the Father in prayer. But remember to come trusting that whatever God will grant to us is on the basis of Christ’s completed work at Calvary. There is no other way.

John 16:23-24 – Experiencing Joy through prayer

The coming of the Holy Spirit would make many questions unnecessary. He, whom Jesus would send from the Father, would be here to make the truth of God plain to His followers. These were the assertions of Jesus. In referring to “that day,” Jesus was talking about the time when He would be physically absent from earth because He would have ascended to the Father. During that time, Jesus urged us believers to make prayer a way of life. He was talking about a critical spiritual exercise for effective living.

However, the followers of Christ must remember that Prayer still need to be directed to the Heavenly Father. Only this time the Lord is saying that we need to ask the Father on the merit of Christ Jesus and His completed work at the cross. Asking in His name also meant that our prayer must correspond with the character and objectives of Christ. It is asking what Christ would want and not just what we desire. Asking in His name also meant that our prayer must be offered in submission to the Lordship of Christ.  

Many, in our day, have misunderstood what Jesus had said here. It had resulted in the name-it-and-claim-it teachings of the prosperity gospel. They see prayer as a means to get anything one wants. Prayer becomes the excuse to pursue material wealth. This can only happen when a person fails to see that the purpose of prayer is to help us get into alignment with the desire God has for our life. When we are truly in alignment with God, we would ask according to His will for our life. That kind of prayer will bring us right smack into the core of His desire for us. It will bring us increasing joy. Without a doubt, answered prayers always generate joy. This is a transforming experience in Christian living. So we must learn to pray on the basis of Christ’s merit, and be aware of our own unworthiness. We are also to pray according to His nature and in submission to His will. 

We must not forget that God is concerned for our well-being. He wants us to be joyful Christians. We have Christ’s assurance that whenever we pray according to His will we will receive. When that happens, we will experience joy. While trials will be part and parcel of our spiritual journey, joy can be an ever increasing experience. It happens when we place our trust in Him through prayer. In return He will put an un-erasable joy into our hearts. As we connect with Him in prayer, let us pray so that our joy can be made complete. What a promise!

John 16:16-22 – Cultivating a victorious and joyful mindset

What Jesus said to them in John 16:16-18 was truly puzzling. What exactly did He mean? Unlike the disciples, we don’t find this puzzling, only because we are looking at these verses after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. The disciples were puzzled because what we know today had not happened as yet. Here Jesus was not referring to the coming of the Holy Spirit as some had supposed. He was referring to His impending death, resurrection and ascension. We all know that He died on the cross and was taken down and buried. But on the third day He rose again. During His absence in the tomb, there was deep confusion, anguish and sorrow among His disciples. Then they were told that He arose from the dead and appeared to different groups of His people at different times. He would be with them to encourage them and then would disappear and appear to another group. Jesus here was foretelling that moment in an encrypted way. Hence, His disciples were puzzled and inquired of one another the meaning of Jesus’ statements.

The Lord knew their confusion, so He volunteered to help them unravel their confusion, using the illustration of a woman in labor and anticipating the coming of her child. Excruciating pain, blood, sweats and tears are usually experienced by a woman in labor.  But the moment the baby is delivered the experience of anguish and stressful emotion would be transformed into one of joy and elation. Similarly, the disciples would be going through a great time of anguish immediately following His death, but that would change very soon because He would appear to them after His resurrection.

Few of us can fully appreciate the misery the disciples had experienced then. They saw their Master maligned and suffered horrendous tortures and agony that defied any description. They saw everything to the very hour that He breathed His last on the cross. He must have appeared totally helpless and powerless. They must have known that His body was taken down by Joseph and buried in his newly acquired tomb. Deep anguish must have overtaken and overwhelmed them. It was truly a scene of deep sadness, despair, hollering and weeping and listlessness. Hence we cannot imagine the disciples’ indescribable joy, when they learned three days after His death, that He was alive again. From the depth of despair they were launched to the height of great joy. In Matthew 28:8, we are told that Mary and Martha on learning of Jesus’ resurrection, though afraid, went hurriedly with great joy to tell the disciples. We cannot imagine the rapturous joy that must have taken place when the two ladies charged into the room with the great news. Their misery was transformed into ecstasy. The joy they experienced that moment could not be fully described. 

We must note that the disciples experienced everything that Jesus said to them here. He promised a joy that nothing can take away. For us, as we faithfully journey with Him in life, we can also experience the joy of His resurrected presence. We can also experience the joy that no other can give and a joy that no one can steal. But bear in mind that there are moments where joy must rise from ashes of sorrow. The reason all these are recorded is for our learning. We must know that in this world trials and tribulation will be experienced, hence it is imperative that we must cultivate a joyful mindset no matter what. Remember this: if the devil cannot steal your joy, he cannot take away your peace. And our faith in a good good Father!

John 16:12-15 – The Holy Spirit enlightens believers

In the previous verses, Jesus dealt with the works of the Holy Spirit among unbelievers to bring about awareness of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. In these four verses, He would talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing enlightenment to believers. He began first by telling the disciples that He had many things yet to say to them. But He knew that they could not perceive them as yet because of the limit of their experiences to that point. However, as they move on with Him deeper, they would experience more and more. And when the Holy Spirit comes, He would reveal the truth to them and help them live out the revelation.

Notice that the Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. He is called thus because He is here to guide the followers of Jesus into all truth. With progress of time, believers of Jesus will be guided into deeper into truth. Jesus also said that the Spirit’s teaching would not come from Himself but He would teach and speak what He hears. Jesus here indicates for us the perfect harmony between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The issue is about the perfect unity in the Trinity. The Holy Spirit would not be revealing something new but would make clear the truth Jesus had received from the Father and taught. The Spirit would be revealing to His followers of what would be coming. Here Jesus was not referring to end-times events but the whole council of God.  

The Holy Spirit’s work among believers is to enlighten and enlarge their capacity to see the things of God. Paul said in his letters to the Corinthians, spiritual truth are spiritually discerned. We need the Holy Spirit to be able to discern the truth. Here Jesus tells us that the work of the Holy Spirit is centered on Christ. It is not in the Spirit’s nature to draw attention to Himself. He came to glorify Christ and point us to Him. His key task is to take all the things of Christ and declare them. In verse 15 we also sense again the perfect unity of the Trinity. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit function in perfect unity. The Spirit would be as eager to reveal truth concerning the Father as He had about the Son. 

In these verses, we all need the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. He is here to guide us into truth. What eye has not seen, nor heard, God through His Spirit would reveal them to us. Let’s learn to rely on the Holy Spirit and allow Him to guide us into all truth, even uncomfortable but hard truth. He will illuminate our heart and mind and enable us to discern what is true and what is not. 

John 16:5-11 - The works of the Holy Spirit in unbelievers

Let’s recollect the sequence of events so far: Judas had gone out to experience his night; Jesus had predicted the denial of Peter; the enemies of Jesus were plotting His death. Sorrow had overwhelmed the disciples’ hearts and they were panic stricken. Then Jesus told His disciples of His departure. But they were more concerned about His departure than where He was going. None of them seriously inquired of His destination. They were sad and troubled because He told them that they would experience enmity. It’s true that as we authentically live our faith, we must expect to face opposition. But instead of being trial-centered, Jesus wants His followers’ attention to be set on the resources available to them in the person of the Holy Spirit. While the Spirit would help believers’ in their spiritual journey, He will also help them in their roles as His messengers. Like a prosecutor the Holy Spirit would help to bring about conviction of wrong to the world.

Hence we can understand why Jesus said it would be to their advantage that He went away. His going would make room for the Holy Spirit to come. And when He comes, He would illuminate hearts and bring about regeneration. We know that it’s the Holy Spirit who would bring about spiritual realities. Here Christ tells us that The Holy Spirit will bring about three awareness to the world: a correct assessment of sin, a correct assessment of righteousness, and a correct assessment of judgment.

The awareness of sin would be brought about because they failed to believe in Christ. The Spirit would bring about a guilt-ridden conscience that would drive one to seek relief through the mercy of God that could only be found through believing in Christ. The awareness of righteousness would be brought about because Jesus would be going to the Father and no longer be seen physically. He was pointing to His resurrection and ascension. These would clearly indicate that Christ’s righteous life was God’s accepted standard. And as one becomes aware of what God’s accepted righteousness is, one would be convicted of his or her lack of it. Concerning the awareness of coming judgment, at the cross the prince of the world would now stand condemned. At the cross Jesus would break the power of sin which Satan controls. He would emerge as victor and bring condemnation on all the works of Satan.

Notice that the Holy Spirit would work only through the believers. Of course God could do anything because He is Sovereign. But here He tells us that His method would be through believers doing the work of reaching the world, empowered by the Spirit. Our lives when we are living in alignment with God are the channels of the Holy Spirit. Through us God will bring enlightenment concerning sin, concerning Christ’s standard of righteousness, and concerning the ultimate judgment that people can avoid. Yes, we can become God’s life-giving force wherever we may be. What a marvelous thought!

John 16:1-4 – The certainty of trails in Christian living

Jesus had been talking about the world’s hatred against the Father, against Himself and against the disciples. Here He told them with specificity. He spoke to forewarn them because to be forewarned is to be forearmed. His main reason for doing so was to ensure His disciples then, and believers today, would not go astray as a result of the severe trials. Jesus was preparing in reality His people.   

He specifically told the disciples to be prepared for excommunication by their enemies. This term excommunication is about putting someone out of fellowship from the believers’ community. This seems to suggest that some persecution might come right from within the believers’ community. It’s sad to be maligned by the world and people outside of the fellowship. What’s difficult to stomach is when one is put into cold storage by fellow believers. Those persecutors who had set their mind to destroy genuine believers could even think that they were doing God a favor.  It’s sad to think that persecution could be mistaken as doing God’s will.  

Jesus was telling the Jews that persecution was a certainty. And He is also warning us believers today. The many accounts of believers having to suffer in different parts of the world bear testimony to the truth to what Jesus had spoken. He said, “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.” He made it clear that persecution was an inevitable consequence for following Him. Genuine believers would have to suffer for their belief. The reason for this, He said, was because the persecutors were perfectly ignorance of the Father or of the Son. Jesus the Son came to make the Father known, hence to ignore Jesus is as good as ignoring the Father. Notice that Jesus did not say “My Father,” He refer to God as “the Father.” Here Jesus wanted the Jews to know that in reality they were rejecting God, their Father.  

The hostility that would come against believers were essentially to get at Christ. He is the reason for all the attacks. He did not tell them earlier because He was with them. He was physically present to guide them so there was no necessity to make known the intensity of the impending trials. But now that He was about to depart to the Father, whatever He had to bear would be directed at His followers. So Jesus wanted believers not to be taken by surprise at the hostility they would be encountering. So that instead of feeling crushed by the trials, believers should be strengthened because everything Jesus said would be proven to be true. As far as Jesus was concerned, there was no necessity to make known the intensity of the trials while He was physically present with the disciples. But now that His departure was looming, He knew that they ought to be forewarned.

No one enjoys hard times. But Jesus made it clear that they are inevitable. We must enjoy all the good times but bear in mind that encountering trials is part and parcel of living for the Lord. So Jesus tells us all these to get us to stay true to our course, and to follow Him whatever the cost. Are we prepared to do it?

John 15:26-27 – Witnessing of Christ with the Holy Spirit

What is the connection between these two verses and all that Jesus had been saying? Remember He had warned them of tough time ahead. He told them that they would be hated because they were associated with Him, and now would be bearing His message to the world. Anticipating the opposition His disciples would face, as they proceed as His representative in the world, Jesus brought them back to the promise He had made earlier. He promised to send the Holy Spirit who would come from the Father. This Divine Comforter, another person of the Godhead, just like Him, would come to their relief.

The purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit would be to testify of Christ. It is His role to reveal and glorify Christ. Here we see the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is said to be sent by the Son but come from the Father. Being sent from above, the Holy Spirit is more than qualified to tell of the glory from above. He shall bear witness of Christ.

In verse 27, Jesus showed how the Holy Spirit would testify of Him. He would do so in and through us, His disciples. The Holy Spirit would help disciples to testify of those things they had seen in Christ and heard Him taught. The testimonies of the disciples and the Holy Spirit would be one and the same. There would be unity and harmony in the message they proclaimed.

Can we sense the indescribable grace and compassion of Christ? We are seeing a grace and compassion that would not be quenched in the face of great hostility and hatred. The world may seek to malign Christ and toss His message out, but His mercy continues to linger. Christ is forestalling the judgement. And Peter tells us that He has no desire that any should perish but all to come to repentance.

Let’s pray that we will be like Him. That we will not flinch in the face of opposition, as the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit continues to energize us. Let us declare the excellence of Him who had called us out of darkness, as His Spirit gives us the boldness to speak His grace in and out of season. 

John 15:18-25 – Don’t be surprised by the world’s hostility towards us

We will be sorely mistaken if we think that by being a Christian, we will only experience health and wealth. Influenced by the prosperity Gospel, many think Christianity will ensure a smooth sailing life. For sure God is not here to make our life miserable. He still wants us to experience His miracles and will bring healing when we need them. He will meet the needs of our life when we live by Biblical principles. Living righteously can certainly help us to avoid some pain and tough hurdles in life. But spiritual life is not always a bed of roses. Many live in a world of make believe. What are some realistic expectations we must have in living as believers in a fallen world? We must expect trials and pressure in this world. We must know that the world is a hostile place. Every day we are besieged by hostile people.   

The Lord did not mince His words. He said that we believers will be hated. He gave several reasons for their hatred. Firstly, it is because they hate Jesus. Why do they hate Jesus? Verses 22-25 show us why. Jesus through His words and works has revealed how sinful humanity is. Thus, it comes as no surprise that those who would not accept Him would hate and detest Him for that. He had called off the bluff of their false religiosity and outward show to please God. His Word, like a mirror placed before them, showed them their true condition, but they could not accept it. So they turned extremely hostile toward Him.

In verse 19, Jesus gave us the second reason, why the world will hate us, believers. It is because we don’t belong to them. Jesus explicitly said, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” The word “world” is referring to the sinful system of the world. Believers are hated because they are not part of the world system that opposes all who would not conform to it. Persecution do not always come in the form of violence. It shows itself through the attitude of disapproval or indifference. Other times believers are treated as a non-entity or be by-passed in promotions. Many times hatred would reveal itself through animosity.  

The third reason Jesus tells us is that if they did not spare Him, they will certainly not spare those who belong to Him. He reminded us that, “A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” The degree we bear our testimony for Christ will be the degree we will be treated. The absence of trail is not an indication that God is pleased with our life. Neither does it mean that a tough life is a godly life. That’s because some trials are self-invited stupidity. We need to know that a life pleasing to God is one that demonstrates the righteousness of Christ, by obeying His word and walking in His footsteps.

How should we respond in a world of hostility? 1 Peter 2:12 exhorts us to “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” In other words, we don’t lose our focus in living for Christ. We keep faith with Him through difficult times. God can use our tolerance to their unkindness to create a thirst in their hearts, and cause them to turn to Him. Let’s be God’s faithful witnesses by living right! 

John 15:15-17 – Being a friend of the Lord

Jesus wants to share with us the deepest thoughts of His heart. He sees us not as servants but as friends. This is another level of relationship. A friend and a servant share different levels of relationship. The master has no obligation to disclose what’s on his heart to his servant. They are at the master’s behest because they are paid to do a job. They are often not told of the plan the master has. Theirs is just to obey instruction. Whereas a friend is given the privilege to know the master’s plan. And in verse 15, Jesus tells His disciples as well as us saying, “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” 

What He is saying is this: “Do you know that I don’t consider you as servants but as friends? As such I am sharing personal information with you. Whatever the Father has shown me I am showing you. In our relationship there would be no barrier.” As our friend, Jesus wants to help us realize our thoughts. He wants us to freely confide and reveal our thoughts and feelings, without fear of being betrayed, just as He had freely made known His heart and thoughts with us. He wants to eliminate our loneliness. He wants us to take the time to meet with Him so that He can share with us His goals and aspiration for our life. He wants us to talk to Him and find comfort and encouragement in Him. In verse 16 we are shown the desire He has for us as His friends. He wants us to be fruit-bearing believers. He tells us that He had set us apart and appointed us so that we can go and bear fruit. Fruitfulness results as we share intimate friendship with Him.

Love is such a critical part of the friendship with Him and others that He reminded us time and again of the need to love. He reiterates it again in verse 17, “This I command you, that you love one another.” This kind of love starts with choice. It is making a decision to love not “because of” but “in spite of”. This is what the Apostle Paul identified as a fruit of the Spirit. It comes as a result of abiding in Christ. As we abide in Him we find strength to love Him as well as others, and even the unlovely. When our relationship with God is rightly aligned and we are walking with Him, resting in Him and relying on Him, there will be one visible result: we will be amazingly loving! 

John 15:12-14 – Genuine love is sacrificial

Relationship is one major theme that runs through the whole of John 15. Verses 1-11 emphasized the relationship between the vine and the branches, that is, Christ and the believers. Verses 12-14, the focus is on relationship between the branches, that is, a believer with other believers. In verses 15-17, Christ want us to know that we believers are not His servants, but His friends. Verses 18-27, Christ will deal with His relationship with the world.

The three verses we are reflecting on today suggest a subtle hint that between believers, there can also be mistrust. We know that mistrust of each other in the world is a common phenomenon, but for Christians this could not happen. And this is a major misconception. The reality is that we have come across Christians who had not spoken to each other for years. It is a fact that among believers, there are those who feel very lonely because other believers would avoid them like a plague. Like it or not, we need to find acceptance, approval and appreciation. There are those who would give anything for a good friend because friendship is important. John 15:12–14 show us how to have long lasting and deepened friendship.  

Verses 12-13 show us two principles to promote friendship. They are: sacrifice and love. Jesus said, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends.” Here the Lord reminds us again of the commandment to love one another that He had given in John 13:34. Christ’s emphasis is that we should love each other as He had loved us. His kind of love is sacrificial. He loves us so much that He laid His life down to save us. He exemplified this at the cross. In truth, He even tried to love Judas Iscariot back to the fold, although the latter had stoutly rejected His love. Here He is calling on us to display His kind of love, a sacrificial love that would make us willing to lay down one’s life for a friend.  One clear evidence that we are the friend of the Lord would be our obedience to His commandment to love. 

We need to cultivate unity, trust and obedience in the Lord and seek to see the best in our friends. We must also eliminate rivalry, suspicion and self-centeredness. As we do all these more and more, we will find it easy to accept, and appreciate others. Let us love as Christ has loved.

John 15:7-11 – Love and joy result from abiding in Christ

In John 15:7-11, Jesus mentioned one specific result when we abide in Him and allow His word to abide in us. It is an empowered prayer life. So He said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” We are assured that we can go deeper in prayer as we abide in Him. This is how it usually happens: as we pray we will be abiding in Him, and as we abide in Him we pray more and more. In all these the Father will be glorified in the process. This is because as our prayers are answered, they will reflect the reality of God in our life, and prove that we are truly followers of Christ. In other words, as we pray, God will answer them. This will be a display of a fruit bearing life and be the evidence of Christ-likeness. There are four aspect of relationship with Christ that are distinguishable: life in Christ brings salvation, life with Christ results in fellowship, life by Christ produces fruitfulness and life for Christ is all about service.

A Christ abiding life is a fruit bearing life. Jesus in this these verses referred to two of the three varieties of fruit. In verse 9, He talked about love, in verse 11, He talked about joy and we will see in verse 12 that He will talk about peace.  Christ loves us the way the Father has demonstrated His love for Him. So Christ exhorts us to continue in this manner of love.  He tells us that living a life of love is being obedient to His commandment. This is our obligation as followers of Christ, we need to demonstrate love. And in so doing we are being obedient to His words and commands  

In verse 11, Christ then talked about joy, an experience that result from abiding in Him. As we dwell in Him we find His joy flowing from deep within. It’s the joy of having communion with the Lord. If we are to experience joy, there must be continual fellowship with the Lord. That’s the reason Jesus told us to remain in Him. As we do so we will not only experience love, but also joy.

John 15:3-6 - Abiding in Christ is also needful to ensure fruitfulness

Be sure that God is constantly pruning us. Why? It’s because God wants to ensure that we are growing and glowing all the time. He wants us to be full of fruits so that we can be a constant reflection of His grace in our life. All of us who have experienced God’s pruning process know how painful it can be. To some, pruning may seem cruel and even wasteful but to us in Christ, it is one needful and a sure way to attain growth, and be constantly bearing fruit. So the main reason God prunes us is to ensure that we bear fruit. And we need to know that no matter how good we are as Christians, God will not stop pruning us, because without His pruning, we will never be in full bloom. God’s pruning will always leave us better than before. It is true that the more we are being pruned the more will Christ be seen in our life. The more the needless parts of our life are cut off, the more productive we will become. Verse 3 tells us that as far as the Lord is concerned, we who trust Him are already cleansed by His word and teaching. And although we are already cleansed by His word, we need constant purification. In other words, our daily flaws need to be dealt with. We must learn to keep short accounts with God.   

Just as a branch needs to remain attached to the vine, so also must we remain attached to Christ. And just as a branch that is severed from the vine cannot bear fruit, so also will a Christian be fruitless once he or she is detached from Christ. This tells us that we must abide or remain connected to Christ if we desire to be fruitful, for apart from Him we can do nothing. There must be an increasing awareness that without being connected to Christ constantly, we become barren. Earlier Christ reminds us that the vinedresser will cut off fruitless branches. In verse 6, we see Christ reiterating again that branches that are fruitless will progressively be removed and gathered for the fire. Hence as far as God is concerned, true believers are never fruitless and barren.    

This is a challenge to remain in Christ and His word so that we can be fruit-bearing believers. We must be connected to Christ through His word. We must be reading, studying and meditating on His Word consistently. And we must be engaged with Him constantly through prayer. We must make the time and be disciplined to do all that. Bear in mind that unlike Christmas trees, we are genuine trees in the Lord. Our fruit comes through abiding in Him. Unlike the decorations on a Christmas tree, our fruits are permanent. Let us remain genuine trees of the Lord!

John 15:1-2 –Pruning is required if we are to be more fruitful

Vine had figuratively been likened to Israel. Psalm 80:8 clearly illustrates this. God was said to have removed a vine from Egypt, drove out the nations and planted it. From the book of Exodus, we learned that God did precisely that. Then in Isaiah 5, the prophet revealed that instead of bearing expected fruit, Israel, as God’s vineyard, bore wild grapes. That had certainly brought much disappointment to God. Now here in John 15, Jesus declared Himself to be the true vine, and in saying that, He indicates that He in Himself is the true Israel. It is on Him the ultimate purpose of God now rests. Those who believe in Him are the true members of the people of God. And as we, believers in Christ described here as branches, truly continue to remain in Him, we will bear fruit.

John 15:1-2 speak of the relationship between Jesus, God and the believers. Christ is the true vine, believers are the branches, and the Father is the vinedresser. Taken together, this is truly the picture of a vineyard. When believers are healthily relating to Christ, God the Father would come lovingly caring for them, so that they will bring forth fruit. The emphasis in the vine, the branches and the gardener illustration, is about bearing fruit. Being fruitful is a hallmark of Christian living. The authenticity of faith in Christ is best determined by the fruit we bear. We need to be fruit-bearing Christians to show the reality of Christ in our life. Many have mistakenly liken evangelism alone as bearing fruit. As important as evangelism is, it cannot replace the need to build Christ-likeness in Christian living. A fruitful life is a Christ-like life. We all need the Holy Spirit of God to work in our life to bring forth Christ-likeness. When we, the branches of God, rightly relate with Christ the vine, we will bear the fruit of Christ-likeness. It’s a life full of the fruit of the Spirit. It’s a life of love, joy, peace, patience kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Verse 2 tells us two things the Father does to the vineyard. Firstly, He removes branches that do not bear fruit. This tells us that among the people of God, there won’t be believers that are fruitless. God would have progressively removed them. Secondly, the Father ensures that every fruit-bearing branch will bring forth more fruit. It suggests that every believer has the capacity to bear fruit. And as we bear fruit, we find the Father pruning us to make us more productive. Notice the pruning is not on branches that do not bear fruit, it is done to branches that bear fruit. The purpose of pruning is to enable more nutrient to flow to the right place, in a branch that’s already bearing fruit. This would then enable it to be more fruitful. Christ is talking about removing our other goals and ambitions in life that will hinder us from bearing more fruit. God wants us to stay focused. Though some activities in our life may not be wrong, they do demand and compete for the time we should give to the primary task cultivating a Spirit-filled life. The Father will help us to adjust our priority and then to prune those unimportant ones so that we can have time to concentrate on the needful part of Christian living. This will cause us not to be distracted from the primary purpose of life. Here is a call to allow God to help us remove the needless activities of life so that we can stay focused and be fruitful. Would we allow Him to prune us?  

John 14:28-31 – The love for the Father

In the previous verse, Jesus promised the disciples that they would experience peace. He was referring to the state of rest resulting from being reconciled with the Father. In verse 28, Jesus then show them how they could be assured of it. If they trust in what He had said, their cares and fears would disappear and joy would replace their sorrow. These verses give us the feeling that the disciples were overly occupied with their own grief and sadness, and were not able to see the joy that Jesus was about to enter. Had they truly loved Him, they would have greatly rejoiced with Him, and forget about themselves and their griefs.

The last part of verse 28 where the Lord said, “…the father is greater than I” had been misconstrued to mean that Jesus is inferior to the Father. Here Jesus was looking at the soon approaching state of exaltation being with the Father. In the light of that approaching glorious moment, His present state was something lesser. Jesus was acknowledging His lowly role as a servant so as to magnify the Father who had sent Him. Paul, in His letter to the Philippians, debunk that thought that Jesus was inferior. It’s clear that Christ was equal to God. But when He became man, He divest of His divine nature and chose to lean on God, and His strength was provided by the Holy Spirit. He chose humility and became man, and was found to be obedient even to the point of choosing to die in the most humbling way.

The reason He told them all these in advance was so that when they come to pass, they would know that He was indeed the long awaited Messiah. And in recalling, they would believe that He was their God-sent Savior. Then they would come to believe all that He had taught and promised were absolutely true. In a short while, Jesus would be going through the extreme cruelty ever imagined. He would soon undertake the work He had come to do and would not be able to speak as freely. He wanted them to ponder over all that He had said, and come to realize and believe in Him and His mission.   

When He was on earth, Jesus maintained His holiness. Hence the prince of this world had no part in Him. On the one hand the prince of this world refers to Caesar and His power.  But in a deeper sense, it refers to the dark power behind the power of Rome that was engineering Jesus’ demise. The point Jesus is making is this: Satan could not find a weak point in Him to cause Him to stumble. He was indeed the unblemished sacrificial Lamb of God. He came to do all these to demonstrate His love for the Father, by His perfect obedience to Him. This chapter closed with Jesus and His disciples making a move to make their journey to Gethsemane.

Like them, Jesus wants our courage and confidence in Him to be sustained by remembering what He had done. What He did demonstrated to all His love for the Father. He is calling us to follow Him in His steps to act in ways that will enable people to know that we love Him too.