Jesus Christ assures in John 14:21, “He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved
of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
“How is He going to manifest Himself?” says Jordan. “You remember Thomas said, ‘If I can’t put my finger in
his hands in his side I’m not going to believe,’ so Jesus stood in front on him
and said, ‘Okay, Tom, touch me. Here, put your hand in.’
“But there’s going to come a
time when Jesus is going to go away and He’s not going to appear to them in
visions. His Spirit is going to be there, though, and the Spirit is going to
reveal Christ to them; He’s going to be the Spirit of truth.
“It’s going to be through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that
He’s going to communicate some words to them that will reveal some things He
has for them that He hasn’t yet been able to say to them.
*****
“You can see from verse 22 that
Judas isn’t getting what He’s saying. Don’t be surprised, though, because we’ve
already seen some other guys in this chapter who weren’t quite getting it! And
Christ is giving them some information now that, later on, they will get.
“At this point, Christ is just putting it on the record for them
so that later on, if you look down at verse 26, ‘But the Comforter, which is
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto
you.’
“They’re later on going to be
able to remember back to these things and that He did say it to them and then
they’ll have that in their understanding.
“So Judas (not Iscariot) asks Him the obvious question: ‘Lord, how
is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?’
What Judas missed is in verse 21: ‘He it is that loveth me: and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself
to him.’
“Christ is making a distinction. There’s a division going on.
There’s a separation. It’s for those ‘born of God.’ How do you get ‘born of
God?’ Chapter 3 says you’re ‘born of the Spirit.’ So the Spirit’s going to
come. There’s some people in Israel ‘born of the Spirit’ and they’re going to
be different from other people who aren’t ‘born of the Spirit’ and there’s a
distinction there.
*****
“As I’ve said over and over, the spiritual issue
the Book of John focuses in on particularly is having the spiritual capacity
and power to become the sons of God.
The focus is on God communicating
to the ‘believing remnant’ in Israel the spiritual qualifications to be His
people. It takes more than just the physical to be related to God. Israel had
that. They were His chosen nation in the earth as no other nation could be.
“Jesus said in verse 23, ‘If a
man love me he will keep my words.’ Commandments are instructions given by
words. By communicating in talk. ‘If any man love me he will keep my words and
my Father will love him. And we will come unto him and make our abode with
him.’
“They’re saying, ‘We’re going to come and have fellowship with him
and we’re going to abide with him.’ Someone who makes their abode with
you—that’s someone you welcome into your home!
*****
“There’s an illustration of
this in Revelation 3. I use this because this verse is so often misused. The
Lord Jesus Christ sends messages to these seven churches listed. The last
church is the church of Laodicea. Each one of these churches represents a
special problem that the ‘believing remnant’ in Israel will face in ‘the last
days.’ Not just the problem is given, but there is the solution to it.
“Revelation 3:20 says, ‘Behold,
I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.’
“James said the Judge is at the door. He’s coming. He’s standing
at the door and knocking. He wants to come in.
“There’s a famous painting of
this verse with Jesus Christ standing at the door of a cottage. Now the
painting is by one of the Renaissance Italian painters where you have a
blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus standing in front of you. The painting is the
artist’s rendition and it’s not at all accurate, but there’s a significant
thing about the painting.
“If you look at the door,
you’ll see there’s no door handle on the outside. The door has to be opened
from the inside. And there’s a great truth in that. Because the way Jesus comes
in is when the inhabitants open the door. And that’s what’s going on here.
“ ‘Behold I stand at the door
and knock. If any man hear my voice AND open the door.’ He doesn’t barge in,
snatch the door off the hinges and stomp in. He has to be invited in. It has to
be opened.
“ ‘I will come into him and
will sup with him and he with me.’ Now when He comes in, and then He sups with
him, you see how He says, ‘I will come into him’? He just told them that in
John 14: ‘I go away and yet I will come again. And when I come, I’m going to
come and receive you unto myself. And when I come I will sup with you.’
“That word ‘sup’ is shorthand
for the word ‘supper.’ Luke talks about how after they supped, He took the cup.
The idea is, ‘I’ll come in and when I come in, I’m not just going to sit there;
we’re going to have a meal! I’m going to fellowship with you. I’m going to
enter into a fellowship, and he with me. We’re going to enter into a mutual
fellowship!’
*****
“Revelation 3:21 says, [21] To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my
throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
“Jesus goes away, sits at the Father’s right hand until His
enemies are made His foot stool, then He comes back, sets up His kingdom and sits
on His throne with all the holy angels with Him (Matthew 25:31) ‘and shall sit
upon the throne of his glory.’
“Then what’s going to happen
with the 12 apostles? In the regeneration, they’re going to sit upon 12 thrones
judging the 12 tribes of Israel. They’re going to go into that kingdom with Him
and rule and reign and have a fellowship—a communion sitting around the table.
“When you sit around the
Father’s table, the idea is we communicate, but there’s a family relationship.
When you have family meals at the end of the day every day and talk about what
went on, there’s a deep bond in that.
"That’s the idea of
sitting at the table, fellowshipping, delighting in what one another’s doing.
Delighting in being able to tell the events of the day. There’s fellowship
together with one another!"
(new article tomorrow)
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