In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the power of hearing something for the first time and how it can impact us deeply. He shares his experience of preaching the gospel in Korea and witnessing the profound impact it had on people who heard it for the first time. The sermon focuses on Jesus' teachings to his disciples in John 13 through 17, known as the final discourse. The speaker highlights Jesus' promise to send the Holy Spirit as a helper and emphasizes the importance of keeping Jesus' commandments and having a personal relationship with Him.

Well, we had a great time Thursday night and Friday morning, and I was sure that we were meeting with a remnant, but now that the rest of you have come in and sing as well as you do, now I know that you are the remnant, and I don't know who those guys were. Who was that off-scouring of men here Thursday night? I don't know, a bunch of rapscallions. Well, we had a good time, and I shared some things from the Gospel of John, which I want to continue into. I know that for those of you who came last night, obviously you didn't hear what I had to share on the other occasions, but probably through the tapes or something, you'll get a chance to. I began to just find myself led to this section within the Gospel of John, beginning in chapter 12, where Jesus says, My hour has come, and going right through to the end of the Gospel, where Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep. And we looked at this whole sort of section, looking at the beginning, where Jesus says, And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself. We talked about the drawing power of God. How when he was lifted up at Calvary, it immediately initiated throughout the world a tremendous subterranean drawing power that draws men toward Jesus. Ever since the day he was lifted up on the cross. And then we looked at a second time of how Jesus has tremendous calling power. And we looked at Jesus in the way that he came and approached Peter in an area which perhaps Peter felt very inadequate in, that is, the area of being a shepherd to God's people. Peter was just a fisherman, not a shepherd. He wasn't a religious man. How could he possibly shepherd the sheep given to him? But Jesus called him into that ministry by his tremendous power. I'd just like to say for all of us, that Jesus only asks us to do that which is impossible. If it were possible, he wouldn't ask you. But he asks you to do the thing that you feel totally inadequate to do. And then he gives you the divine grace to do it. That's how you know that it's a ministry of Jesus. You know, if you recall in the Gospels, Jesus asked the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand. That's the one impossible thing. If he asked the guy to do a jib, you could have done it. If he said to the man, stretch out your good hand, you could have done that. But he said to the guy, stretch out your withered hand. I mean, that's the one thing he couldn't do. Jesus is always coming to us in the matter of our calling and the matter of our own life. And he asks us to do things that our first response is, no way, Jose. And Jesus says, you watch. I'll give you the grace to do that which is impossible. So we found Peter arrested by the great calling power of Jesus. Now, this portion of Scripture that I have in mind for now, chapters 13 of John through chapter 17, comprise a section within the Gospels that's called the final discourse, or it's given various different names. But this is the teaching, you might say, that Jesus gave to his disciples on the last night before his death. We find him in John chapter 13 at the last supper. And then in John chapter 17, it concludes with his prayer for the saints. And then, of course, he goes to the garden and there is arrested and tried and crucified, etc. And so this is the body which I found myself drawn to. And I am frustrated, brothers. I just appreciate all of your prayers because to share the things that are in this great section of Scripture is impossible. But by God's grace, I'd like to share some things anyway. And I know that you all being students of the Bible have looked these things over and studied them and rehearsed them. And yet what I have felt to do, I don't know, but I felt just to share in a very simple way some of the truths in this precious section of Scripture in hopes that it arrests us again. I need your help. I need for us all to imagine that you're hearing these things for the first time. We are Christian ducks. These things are like water and it rolls off our back. We've heard it so many times before. When Jesus shared these messages, these truths, these things with his disciples here in John 13 through 17, they were hearing startling things for the first time. There's a tremendous power that grips you when you hear something for the first time. I remember I had the privilege of going to Korea back several years ago and preaching the gospel there on the streets in Pusan, a city in southern Korea. And my privilege was made double so by the fact that I had the opportunity at various times, believe it or not, in a civilized nation like South Korea, I had the opportunity at times of preaching the gospel to some people who heard it in its essence for the first time. And I have never seen such noted impact on people. I shared the story of how Jesus lived and performed great works and he helped people and he loved them and told them the truth. And as I mentioned in my sharing of the gospel through translation, that Jesus was hung on the cross by us and that he died. These men who heard this thing for the first time standing there just dropped their head like this. You could see tears coming to their eyes. They'd never heard that a good man had been killed like that before. Then I shared he was buried and three days later he rose again and they popped up their heads and looked in amazement. They'd never heard that story before. When people hear something for the first time, it's got an impact. And that's why we need the Holy Spirit to breathe on us when we read the Bible over and over and over again. Because it's meant to be a living word to us, to have an impact on us. But we tend to get ducky. We get the oil on our back. Ah yeah, yeah, John 14, I remember it well. You know, my father's house. You know, we get to the place where we're so familiar with the stuff, it no longer has living impact. Now I just want to pray specifically for that and then we're going to share some simple things this morning. Father, for impact, for living logos, for living rhema, for a word to attack us, to arrest us, to grip us with the greatness of your economy. We thank you that we can gather together in such a way as this and sing songs from our heart. Now with our hearts wide open, we ask that the Holy Spirit would rehearse for us the things that we've come to know and cherish as precious to us regarding Jesus. Open our hearts and help us understand, receive as if for the first time with the amazement that the disciples must have felt as they heard these mysterious things and then had the Holy Spirit interpret them in their hearts with time. And so speak to us in the same way. We don't look to man to teach. Lord, these brothers know I'm full of hot air. But there is one spirit who writes things on our heart that is indelibly written and can never be taken away. And we pray that Holy Spirit would get about the writing and do the teaching here this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's read a few verses here just to begin our thoughts. I'd like for you to turn to chapter 13 and verse 33. I'm just going to sort of drop down in the middle of this thing by helicopter, drop off a few troops here and share a few verses and get started because we're dealing with a whole zone here. John 13, 33. Little children, I'm with you a little while longer. You shall seek me. And as I said to the Jews, where I'm going you cannot come. Now I say to you, my disciples, as well. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. Simon Peter, totally upset, said to him, Lord, Lord, where are you going? Jesus said, where I go you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. Peter said, but Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I'll lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow until you deny me three times. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Now, just two introductory things to be said about this passage. First of all, the whole context of the Gospel of John. At the end of chapter 20 of the Gospel of John, the writer says, these things have been written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name. And John did something different in his Gospel than was done through Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew, Mark, and Luke sort of had the strategy, we will chronicle the events in Jesus' life and let the events speak for themselves. John, writing his Gospel a number of years removed from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, says, I want to pick out seven signs, seven events in Jesus' life and give them deeper interpretation so that you can understand what was going on under the surface when Jesus did various miracles and performed different things. And so I want to take these signs and interpret them a little more deeply now so you can understand a little bit more who Jesus is. You understand that Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that dynamo who walked through Galilee performing great works and speaking the truth, and who was crucified and rose again. Now I want to go back over just a little ground and pick out select a few events that were signposts to something deeper and then interpret them for you regarding who Jesus is. And so this is the basis upon which this book is written. And then the second thing that I'd like for us to note of an introductory nature regarding this particular passage here of John 13 through 17 is that it must take on a greater significance and sense of import when we realize that this was the last things that Jesus had to say before going to Calvary. If you were a man dying and you knew you were about to die, I think in the end you would probably say the things that really matter. I'm not sure if you would be quite so concerned what was on moonlighting last Tuesday night. I'm not quite so sure that you would even be concerned who won the NCAA Basketball Championship. I have a feeling if you were lying there in the hospital and you saw your kids one more time, you'd probably share things that really are on your heart. We recently in our fellowship are gathering up in Huntington. I have a young man there. He must be about 27 years old. He came from a Jewish background and he found the Lord. And his father is a Jewish man, one of these very giving philanthropic Jewish men, cared for people. And his father was on his deathbed. And after all the witnessing had been witnessed and all the sharing had been shared, and his father in the later moments and days as he was slipping out of life began to listen more to the gospel and everything, it seems as if the last time my friend went in to see his dad, he just went in there and said, you know, Dad, I love you. You've been a good dad to me. And that was the best gospel shot he ever gave. And his dad said, maybe for the first time to him, will you pray for me? It's the things that really matter which are spoken of in the end. And Jesus here in the end had the kind of understanding and even self-control. He could have talked about the future of the church. Important, isn't it? He could have talked about true apostles, false apostles. He could have talked about body ministry, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He could have talked about the, he could have invented aspirin. I mean, there's so many things he could have taken up and yet, you know, when it got down to the last things and Jesus had just the final few moments with the disciples gathered together there, he started talking about the things that really matter. We should keep that in mind when we read these verses. Jesus is talking top level stuff. Now, as Jesus is talking about this stuff, I've kind of made it like this because my mind is just crazy. I see in John 13-17 what I call the kingdom club sandwich which Jesus wants his disciples to understand and chew for the rest of their days. A kingdom club sandwich. Now, my wife loves club sandwiches. Whenever we go into a restaurant, you know, like a diner or something like that, I always know what she's going to order. She always insists on getting the menu. Now, I don't know what this particular quirk is in the female psychology, but anyway, she gets the whole menu, rolls through the pages and says, I'll have a club sandwich, please. I said, I could have told you that, but no. And then after it, she'll always ask for the dessert menu and then order coffee. It's just something. Enough said. Enough said. I don't want to get Steve Powers over-concerned with my wife. Otherwise, she's quite normal. But she loves club sandwiches, you know, cut four ways, and of course it always has bacon, lettuce, tomato, and turkey. In the kingdom club sandwich, of course, you and I know we're the turkey, and we're in there. Some of us are sliced thin, some sliced fat, but we're all in there. And when, of course, you read John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, you see, he keeps mentioning the turkeys. But it's the other stuff that's so great. I was torn. I didn't know where to start. You start with the two pieces of bread, John 13 and John 17, or do you talk about the meats in the middle, John 14, 15, 16? What do you do? I decided to go for the meat. I love bread. The bread maybe is the best part. Some sandwiches I like just because they're great bread. You know, sometimes you get homemade bread. I'll eat almost anything. I'm real homemade bread, especially when it's still warm, except liverwurst. I won't eat that. And what do they call that kind of, you know, there's a kind of a ham where they take the worst parts of the ham and they glue it together with jelly. What is it? Sauce. Heaven forbid. The Kingdom Club sandwich ain't like that. We're talking about great vittles. We're talking about heavenly manna. We're talking about food that lasts forever. And so if you'll just have patience with me and tonight, Lord willing, I'd like to share the two wonderful pieces of bread, John 13, 17. Let's go inside the sandwich and see the fixings. Remembering the word turkeys, but that's going to be incidental. I'll not even mention that. It just comes up all the time. I don't mean that it comes up all the time. I mean, it's there. It's right here. It's my little joke thing right there. We have here in these passages, John 14, 15, 16, three tremendous ingredients. How does Jesus make us aware of these ingredients? Now, I must say, these ingredients are very strange. As a matter of fact, he's never really made reference to them very much, if at all, before in his ministry. That's why I say it caught the disciples, this whole sandwich, off guard. What were the disciples eating up to this point? They were eating the life of the manifest Jesus. They were eating of Jesus' body and drinking of Jesus' blood. They were fellowshipping with him there in the flesh. What were they going to eat when Jesus goes? They hadn't even thought about the spiritual provisions, because there had been an assumption that Jesus would always be there. In those few short years that they spent with Jesus, they had become so absolutely dependent upon Jesus as their source, that when it came down to a showdown, they said, where else can we go? You alone are what we eat. You've so changed our diet and way of things. Well, how can we go back to the synagogue and to the Jewish deadline of the letter? Jesus, you alone have the words that we need. We've got nowhere else to go. Now Jesus is going away, and he's got to introduce them to their eternal sandwich, to their diet, while Jesus is absent from them. This is not going to hit the disciples pleasantly. We, even today as Christians, we delight in the externals of Christianity. We delight in them. We love to see things before us. We like to tangibly experience Christianity. But those things that we're to eat of day by day, those things that nourish our spirit, are those things which cannot be seen, the intangibles. We love a good hug from a brother in Christ. We love it when tears fall from our eyes and we sense the very tangible presence of Jesus. We love good worship singing. We love to hear a good message on the word. But if that's what our diet consists, there comes a time where Jesus turns to us and says, now, how are you going to be supplied day by day? You don't go Sunday to Sunday. As a Christian, we go day to day. Isn't that right? All right. We need special supplies here. And so Jesus tells them about this sandwich, this mysterious sandwich, this unseen sandwich. He says, okay, man, I'm going, but I'm providing for you. Look in the knapsack. Here's the stuff. This lasts forever. This is meat that you know not of. I haven't told you about this food, but I'm going. And before I go, I have such a burden to share with you things regarding the kingdom of God. There are mysteries still to be exposed. I've told you parables and explained them to you. The kingdom of heaven is a wonderful place, but now here is kingdom food. I want to tell you about it before I go. And I even risk telling you things that I know you won't understand now, though later you will understand and believe. In this section alone, he must say that five times. Now you don't understand right now, but later on you'll understand and you will believe. I say this to you before it happens and when it happens, you may believe. He shares with them the essence. He shares with them the portions that he has been tasting of all of these years. They haven't understood fully. The disciples haven't understood fully. Jesus, source of supply. They just saw the life, but they hadn't been so keen to ask, why do you have such life? Jesus, why are you always flowing? How can you walk through a whole day of ministry and the little kiddies come up and start pulling on your leg and you pick them up and bless them? How do you have such composure? Such peace? And yet you can turn in a moment and speak with such truth that you know a Pharisee right between the eyes and he's got nothing more to say. How can Jesus do that? He's so filled with resources. How can he sit there exhausted by the well of Samaria and the disciples go off to Burger King and they come back with a whopper for Jesus and he sits there and he's like this. Ah, mmm. And they say, Jesus, have you already eaten? He says, I'm eating meat you don't know of. I just did the will of my heavenly father and I've had a great feast. You see, the disciples didn't understand how somebody could thrive off things untangible. How could Jesus look like he's licking his chops and wiping his lips with a napkin after a great feast and he hasn't eaten a bit of food? It's that every time we do the will of God, something is nourished inside. Something gets stronger inside. The disciples didn't understand so they gave him a whopper. What else could they do? Now, we should talk about these three great things. There's more, but I just found three to share with us because they're overall things and they contain so much and they overlap. I don't know if this is all going to work out. Brothers, you just have to have interpretive abilities to understand these great things. So, on to the realities revealed here in these passages. Now, the first thing that Jesus has to tell them about is this. A new house. The Father's house. The disciples have heard Jesus talking about the Father some, but now Jesus says, I'm going away. Now, Jesus provokes these disciples to begin to think about these things by just saying a little statement. He drops a bomb on them during the Last Supper and says, brethren, for a little while I'm with you and then, just like I said to the Jews back there a few months ago, where I'm going, you can't go. All I need was to say. Then he went on to say a new commandment. How many of you think any of the disciples heard the new commandment he said after that statement? You know? I mean, it's like, how would you like it if your dad, you know, the dad that you loved, if he's still alive, he came up to you and said, now, son, I've just learned that I've got one week to live. Now, let me tell you about where I keep all of my insurance articles and everything. Now, who's going to hear him talking about the safe and underneath the cabinet and the couch? You say, no, no, dad, what do you mean you've got one week to live? What are you talking about? So, Jesus says, listen, my children, I have to go away and you can't follow me. Now, let me give you a commandment. What commandment? Hold it, hold it. What are you talking about? You've got to go from us. Jesus often opens our eyes by making statements that explode things for us and cause us to respond with questions. As a matter of fact, John chapter 14, this whole area here could basically be outlined by the questions asked. If you'll notice there in verses 36, Simon Peter, Lord, where are you going? Where are you going? Then if you notice down in chapter 14, Thomas in verse 5, Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going. How do we know the way? And then in verse 8, this is a further outline, Philip says to him, Lord, show us the Father and it's enough for us. And then further down in verse 22, Judas, not as scary, said to him, Lord, what then has happened that you're going to disclose yourself to us and not to the world? Well, now there's an outline in the chapter. He said little statements to his disciples and they chewed it. Wait a minute. Every time he gives you a little morsel, it causes you to ask a question. What flavor is that? What do you mean, where are you going? Wait a minute. See, Jesus just says this. Lord, I'm going to the Father's house and I'll come back and receive you and by the way, you know the way that I'm going. That's all Thomas needed to hear. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We don't know where you're going. How are we supposed to know the way? The disciples start asking Jesus questions. Now, you know something, Jesus loves it when his children ask him questions. Don't you ever feel like the, I don't know why we get this posture as Christians, like when we come to Jesus, we should be like this. Oh Lord, I know all things and the word it doth say. I claim that word and I know all things and Jesus therefore do it. You see, I don't know why we get in this kind of frame and that's the way people pray as Christians. How many times do you hear Christians pray and they just humbly say, Lord, we're just dumb. Will you give us some wisdom on this? What should we do? No, it's always, Lord, I know you've laid it on our hearts to build this new building and of course it must be your will for you always want us to extend our tent, Isaiah, and so Lord we have, you know, that kind of posturing. Jesus makes furtive statements to try to provoke our questions. Just like when he spoke in parables, he loves to wrap stuff in parable cabbage to see if you'll ask what's the stuffing. He wants us to be like that. Quite to the contrary, we feel quite uncomfortable going to Jesus and asking him questions. You know why? Because it makes us out to be kids. Now, some of you guys have been Christians, I don't know how long Jack has been a Christian, I think he was one of the original twelve, wasn't he? I mean, as folks who have been Christians so long, it's so hard to be a kid unless you just admit it and ask him questions. And we're in trouble when we stop asking questions. I'm quite frank about that. So if we've been a Christian twenty years, good, keep asking questions. Jesus loves that. I mean, you're in a school with Christ and he always keeps giving mysterious statements, so just keep on asking the questions. He never did say to one of these disciples, you nerd, why did you ask a question? Well, and he'll not say that to us. So he just drops the little bomb, he says, well, I'm going somewhere you can't go. Peter's all upset and Jesus says to him, don't let your heart be troubled. Now you've trusted God, now you're going to have to trust me on this. In my Father's house are many dwelling places and I'm going to prepare a place for you and if I go there, I'm coming again to receive it to myself. Now if that weren't the case, now wouldn't I have told you so? Now let not your heart be troubled. And so Jesus tries to calm him down by mentioning this thing, the Father's house. The Father's house. He's going to the Father's house. Wow, where is this Father's house? Hmm, he's going there. Must be heaven. Jesus must be going to heaven and he's preparing a place for us. There's a mansion just over the hilltop and when he's prepared the place, he'll come back in his second coming and he'll take us all home. Well, now that's the way Christians often interpret that and there's been many hymns written that give us great hope in times of death about the mansion we have in the hilltop and the Father's house having many mansions. Now I don't want to do anything to denigrate that hope in us. We certainly do have heaven to look forward to, but that's not what Jesus is talking about here. The Father's house isn't up in heaven and so he's got to go up to heaven and start building it. You know, the Father says, thank God Jesus took up carpentry. He's got a lot of work up in heaven to do. Jesus, I'm going up there. I'm going to build you a couple of condos. I'm coming again. Don't worry, I'm coming. No, no, no. Let's read that little section again here. Verse 1 of 14. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I'm going. Well, of course that brought out a whole bunch of new questions. But there's a key here. There's a key and as we read John 14, 15, 16, you've got to be struck by the key. There's a key word, which unfortunately, because we're not reading it in the Greek, we don't always pick up. But there's a word, a Greek word that is used both in its noun and its verb form and it's consistent throughout this chapter and the next chapter and it's the word abide. In my Father's house are many abodes. If it were not so, I would have told you. And then notice in verse 23, Jesus answered and said to them, if anyone loves me, he'll keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him. Where is that? Up in heaven? Hmm. And then the whole of chapter 15 uses the same word, only in the verb form, abide in me and I abide in you and abide in my word and abide in my love and abide and abide and abide. See, it's the same word. They're picking up on something here. Wait a minute. The Father's house. Where is this Father's house? Hmm. And then Jesus makes it a bit more puzzling at first, it might seem, because he talks about going there but then coming right back. There in verse 3 we read, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And then we notice also that he says, he's coming again soon in verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans, I'll come to you. After a little while, the world will behold me no more, but you'll behold me. And if you read the Gospel of John, there's just so many things in here, but you know the little while means his death, burial, and resurrection. He says, now I'm going away for a little while and I'm coming back to you in a little while, and the little while is death, burial, and resurrection. Not the, you know, 19 centuries and then I'm going to return. He says, I'm coming back. Verse 28, he also makes reference, and in other places, I just point out a few. You heard that I said to you, I go away and I'll come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. He says he's going, he's coming. Notice in chapter 16, well, we might as well look at it here, we're already dipping ahead here, but Jesus says in verse 16 of John 16, a little while, and you will no longer behold me. And again, a little while, and you will see me. And that kicked the disciples off on a new discussion as you see in the following verses. What little while? What do you mean by a little while? What's he talking about in the little while? What's the little while? Is it 10 years, 2 years, 1 week? What's his little while? Jesus says, I wonder if you're thinking about a little while. And he explains, I love it, I love it. He just piques our interest with a little statement that catches us. But do you see what Jesus is saying? He says, wait a minute. He says, you see, I'm going to the Father's house, I've got to go there, and I'm coming right back and I'm going to join you again. I'm bringing the Father's house to you. It's a place of abode. It's not geographical. It's not celestial, heavenly. It's a spiritual reality. Now, man, you've been living on this earthly frame, disciples. You've been living here, and we've been sharing lodging together in Capernaum and various different places. Now, you know, we haven't had a home, per se. I've got to tell you this spiritual goody just before I go. I've always had a home. I've always lived in a home that you didn't know so much about. No matter where we traveled to, I always had a home, because the home was the Father's house. What is the Father's house? Philip, I mean, Thomas asked this question. Lord, we don't know where you're going. I don't know the way. Jesus said in verse 6, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. You know who the Father's house is? The Father. Jesus has been living in the Father. In the Father. What's this unity business? We don't understand this. The Father is up in heaven. We all know that. Jesus is down here. And then Jesus said down in verse 28 again. He says, you heard that I said I go away and I'll come to you. If you love me, you'd rejoice, because I go to the Father. Don't you understand? I'm going to the Father. That's the house. That's where I'm going. I'm going to the Father. And I'm preparing a way. I'm the way, you know. Now, he should have known the way, because he told them all about it while they were moving to Jerusalem. He says, I'm going to Jerusalem, and there I'm going to be tried, and there I'm going to be killed and buried, and three days later I'm going to rise again. That's the way. He said, you don't know the way. He said, well, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. To the Father. To the Father. Which causes Philip to raise the question, oh, okay. Well, look, show us the Father, and it suffices. He says, have you seen me and you haven't seen the Father? I've been living there. He's been living here. I am the Father in one. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me. Don't you realize that you've been seeing the Father all this time? You see, I've been living at Father's house. Don't you catch on? They say, wait, this is so mysterious. Jesus says, well, then if you can't believe the Father's in me just because I said so, believe it because of the words that I spoke, because I never spoke a word to you except what my Father spoke to you. How about that? They said, whoa. And he said, look, if you don't believe my words, believe the works that I did. They're the Father's works, not mine. Come on, you didn't think it was me doing these miracles. It was the Father. I've been living at the house. Now I'm going to prepare a place for you, and if I come, I'm going to take you to the Father's house. What a place that is. You know what that place is? It isn't geographical. It's right here. You know what the place is? It's the place of unity. The Father and the Son, the Son and the Father, and the turkey's in there too. What? He's going to prepare a place so the turkeys can get in the house? He says, yeah. Listen, this union gets deeper than that. Now you see, for you and I, I share it like this. Now, for you and I, we've heard about union in Christ. We've heard about the Spirit coming in, dwelling, and all those kinds of things. It's all hacked to us. You know, these disciples had never heard this before. Brand new stuff. What's this about unity? The Father in you, and you in the Father. We've got to take that in. John, you're the smart guy. What do you think he means by this? John says, whoa. We better listen some more. This guy is talking about deep stuff. And listen to what he says in verse 6 and 7. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. If you'd known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and you've seen him. Notice verses 9 through 11. Jesus said, have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? Meaning the Father. He who has seen me has seen the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I don't speak myself. The Father abiding in me, he speaks the words. Didn't you know that? I'm telling you the secret of my source. I'm telling you where I get my commentaries from. You want to know how I preach good messages, Jesus says, I'll tell you, disciples, where? I get it from the Father's shelf. They say, wow, wow. That's where he went in the mornings, early in the morning. To the Father's house to check out the commentaries. This is a whole new thing, isn't it? That explains a lot, doesn't it? Yeah, but it also raises a lot of questions. Wow, this thing, this thing could be deep. And then he goes on. Of course, you know, that's just, that's just rom-roms. But then Jesus goes on and says, let's just take verse 16. Well, we should take verse 15. No, we should take 14 to 13 to 12. Verse 15 of chapter 14, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments, and I'll ask the Father, and he'll give you another helper. He may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not behold him or know him. But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I'll come again to you. Wait a minute, what's he saying? We can't quite, he's sending another helper. He's sending another one like himself. And in the Greek, this is the word, you know, in the Greek they do make a distinction here. There's another that is of another kind, and there is another that is of the same kind. And this says, I will send you another helper of the exact same kind. Jesus says he's going, but he's coming back. But he's not coming back, but he's sending a helper. And then he says, and I will not leave you as orphans. I'll come to you. What's Jesus saying? And he's linking up with this helper, this Spirit that's supposed to come. And we've known the Spirit because when we went into the villages two by two and we preached the gospel, we sensed the Spirit coming down upon us. We sensed the Spirit with us and giving us power to pray and to heal. We have sensed the coming of the Spirit and the Spirit being with us. But what's this? The Spirit being in us? He has been with you. He will be in you. Oh, wow. Whew. Wait a minute, what's his Father's house? And I mean, the disciples can hardly grasp that when Jesus says such things as this. Verse 19, after a little while the world will behold me no more, but you will behold me. What? What's this little while? And we'll behold him, but the world won't? How come? Of course, that's what Judas asked. How come the world won't behold you? Because I live, you live also. And then verse 20, in that day you shall know that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you and what is all is in stuff. All is in stuff. Is that what he means by in a little while the world won't see him anymore, but you'll see him? I mean, can we see Jesus when we can't see him? Or can we see Jesus when the world can't see him? What is all of this Father's house business? There must be a place inside this world in our present economy where we can live in this kind of abiding relationship. There's an abode here and each of us has an abiding place. Each of us has a place here. And you know what it says? Just look at those circles. Here's the Father. And Jesus says in that day, verse 20, you will know that I am in the Father. Uh oh, we better draw a circle with the Father and with Jesus inside there. But then it says, and you will also know that you are in me. Oh, third circle. Here's the Father, here's Jesus, and you are in me. And then, and I am in you. Whoops, gotta have a fourth circle. The Father is here, and then Jesus is inside the Father, and then me inside Jesus, and then Jesus is inside us. A full mare cake. What a house. This is a fantastic place. Oh, and Jesus goes on to say, and you know what this is? And when you get into this house, even though the world won't be able to see me anymore because, of course, he was going to be with the Father, you know, he was going to the right hand of the Father. Even though the world won't see me anymore, you know what I'm going to start doing from within, from inside by the Spirit? I will start disclosing myself to you. Ah, you saw me as the external one. Wait till you see what you find out later on. That's why Jesus could say with such bravado, I tell you the truth, my friends, it's to your advantage that I go away. Because if I don't go away, that Spirit can't come inside and really give me the goodies. Listen, you've just been eating little chunks off my earthly life. Wait till you eat chunks off the mystery of who I am. Ha ha, that's real eating. Ah, I can't wait to go away because then the Spirit can come and start to really give you food. Amazing thing. A whole adventure of discovery. Listen to this. Now, we'll go down here in these verses and he says he's going to disclose himself to him. Verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. Yoo-hoo, I'm over here. Psst, Jesus, I can't see you, Jesus, where are you? Right here, right here. I'm leading you. Right here, I'm disclosing myself. You trying to keep my commandments? Yes, sir, I'm trying to keep your commandments. Then I'm right here. Psst, follow me. Over here. I can't see you. Just follow that way.