AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH

February 13th, and DV 20th, 2005

KEYS TO DOORS IN THE KINGDOM … John 14

Sermon Notes

A house may be expected to have a door; but the dwelling of us who believe and receive the Saviour according to His word, this is entirely for our living, and it is supplied by grace, as is the life with which to live in it: ETERNAL LIFE! This morning, in one single Chapter of John’s Gospel we have so many presentations of truth as to make housekeeping a joy as we await our eternal home (II Corinthians 5), living as citizens of another domain and kingdom entirely (Hebrews 11:`13, I Peter 2:11). In this world, Christians are “pilgrims and strangers” and those who are not so, are not Christians, for our eyes are set on Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27).

In John 14, then, you have a spiritual cornucopia. There is intimation of the personal future, the personal face of God in Jesus the Christ (II Corinthians 4:4-6), the personal power of God in answering calls on the promises He has made, the prize of obedience to God Himself in His own word, the personal love it shows, the love He exercises in revealing Himself in our own hearts, the provision for scripture, His personal return, His prediction for their assurance, and the coming prince of this present, evil world. That is, the TEN Ps!

I The Personal Future John 14:1-3

How lovely is the word – I go to prepare a place for you … in my Father’s house are many dwellings – if it were NOT SO, I would have TOLD YOU! God does not expect His children to be clairvoyants: He tells them what they need to know, prepares for them what they need to have, and what a thing is a place, a dwelling in heaven! Forget your heavens on earth; your haven is in heaven, and if you do not relish it, how are you His! But if you do, then look well for it, for His grace is glorious.

II The Prerogative of our Prince John 14:5-6

Christ is not a pointer to the Southern Cross; He IS the way, life and truth. Guide, God and Governor, He reveals the truth because He is it, and conducts to heaven because it is His, for all that the Father has is His (John 16:15).

III The Personal Face of God John 14: 7-11

You do not need to aspire to find God swinging on the stars, or dwelling in the deep: He made it ALL, and it is in the PERSON of Christ that He is found! that revealing Redeemer and very Saviour for man. Just as God is personally found NOWHERE ELSE and in NO OTHER WAY, so He is found there, in Christ, ALTOGETHER (John 14:7-11, I Cor. 13:12). Grace minimised Christ’s glory on the Cross; but Truth maximises His reality, which nothing can diminish, now or ever (Rev. 5, 22).

IV The Promise Answering Power of God John 14:12-14

In leaving this world till the time of return and judgment, Christ was not leaving without power supply, for the works past all recognition are His, and He both can and will work by His Spirit, moving to meet faith with results, with His own savour attached.

Love is no mere emotion, but seen in loyalty, and care about His word, to do it, and HIS love is no empty word; for His very Spirit is to be sent, never to leave the Christian heart, so that NONE OF HIS are ORPHANS, though the world can never get its grubby heart to understand it.

It is this very obedience, care of His word in life, not mere mouth, which shows love, and draws the very vision of God in the heart, a holy headquarters for His work in our ways, wisdom and performance (cf. I Cor.1:30-31). This divinely active power and loving presence makes the impossible possible, the remarkable normal and the beautiful available.

It is this same Spirit of God who is to come and bring correct recall to His apostles, concerning the words spoken by Jesus Christ, thus available for the entire Age: the truth in propositions, in words of abiding power.

Returning to His Father, Christ declared, He yet would return, as in John 14:1-2 also. He comes by His Spirit, by His presence, as finally by His advent at the time of the restoration of all things (Acts 3:19-21) when He calls and collects His people, before sifting out the ways of this world to its final judgment.

What then is to come ? First, going back to His eternal place with the Almighty (cf. John 17:1-3), from there will He come again; and this prediction, it is for their comfort and reassurance, so that when it happens, they will have a very flux of courage. They saw it first in the resurrection which Thomas made QUITE sure about, being of a highly experimental cast of thought; and it satisfied him to the point that he cried to Christ, “My Lord and my God!” THE God of me! were his words.

While the crucified Prince thus goes, sending His Spirit to the hearts of believers, and will return, in the interim there is the prince of this world, anaesthetised to Christ, incapable of spiritual understanding, as self-sacrificial as a wolf; indeed his evil power, at the time when these words were spoken, was about to impact on the covey of followers of Christ, who foretold it also.

There in John 14, then, then you see a massive coverage of things present, future and past, of things essential and of Christ, the life for man without whom he is merely incomplete as well as replete with sin. There too you see Christ’s presence and its preciousness, His promises and the love of the God who sent Christ, giving the way home. You see the place at home to be gained, and the words to get home, together with the very Spirit of grace, and the reassurance as Christ having said what would happen, makes it happen.

Here to be seen as from God indeed, are the very words of His lips, the very love of the heart of God and the beauty of holiness. Not in some philosophy or self-will is the truth to be found, to grab for yourself what you want, to impose your own will on your life as if to say, It is mine and I will use it! Not at all, it is rather in the beauty of His holiness, in the vision and the love, indeed the power of God shown in Christ Jesus our Lord, and in His always fulfilled written word, that you both find and follow the way, which itself, this too, is Christ Himself, a ransom for many, and whether in redemption or judgment, reality for all.