Well it’s a privilege to be here with you again this evening and to address you. We’ve been going through, on these evening services, been going through the upper room discourse – the discourse of Jesus from John chapter 13 to 17; the longest discourse, the longest teaching section of the Scripture. But it’s important for us to also realize the context of this. This is the final night before Jesus went to the cross; the final night of teaching of Jesus to explain His mission of redeeming mankind to His disciples. And this context is important for us because Jesus is speaking to His disciples who are going to form the new Israel, the spiritual Israel – those who will follow suit in the church to be all that God had intended for Israel to be. And so on this night, Jesus gives several important teachings to His disciples. And this evening, I don’t want to repeat some of the messages that were given, however I want to look back at more of the overarching theme of these five chapters because it’s important for us to understand this context and put the passage in this context. Well let us pray.
Father, we ask Your blessing on the Word. We ask that You would lead us into a deeper understanding of the truth of the Gospel message and that You would equip us to be Your people at this day and age, for Your glory. Teach us, we pray, in Christ’s name. Amen.
Let me read for you a few verses from this upper room discourse. John chapter 14. Let me read for us verses 12 through 14:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”
John chapter 15, verse 5:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15, verse 16:
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
This is the Word of the Lord.
On this night, Jesus gathered His disciples together. And it’s interesting to me that Jesus spent the last night of His earthly ministry with His disciples. That was the most valuable investment that He could make on this evening because He wanted to instruct them in something. He wanted to help them understand the mission of Jesus, the plan of the Father to save humanity through the Gospel message, through the cross of Christ. And so on this evening, Jesus lays out for His disciples the heart of God and the resources that God will give to His Church to complete the mission that was started by Jesus. One verse that I’ve been meditating a lot on this week is the calling of Israel, because Israel, all along, has been given this same commission by God. The commission of Israel has been the Great Commission all along. It was to take the Gospel message to a broken and fallen world so that sinners would be redeemed, that the church, or that Israel would bring the Gospel message to all those who are in their sin and without hope. And we read this in Habakkuk, the second chapter, verse 14, where it says, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” This has been God’s vision all along – that the earth would be covered with the knowledge of the Lord, that people would worship the Lord and the Lord would be glorified as the waters cover. How do the waters cover? Completely. Totally. And that’s been God’s plan all along.
And God chose one nation from all the nations of the world, and this one nation He called, and He gave them the Great Commission that they would be God’s chosen people to carry the knowledge of the glory of the Lord to the world. That was the calling given to Abraham. It was the calling given to Israel at Mt. Sinai. It was the mission of the nation of Israel. But what happened? When we look at the history of Israel, we see that Israel was given the calling, was given the opportunities, God resourced this people, yet they fell away from God. Instead of bringing the knowledge of the glory of the Lord to the people around them, instead, they fell flat on their face. Yet God still had a plan. His plan was to work through Israel, to whittle them down, to make them smaller and smaller and fewer and weaker.
And this is the verse I’ve been meditating on for the past week. The story of Hezekiah. We read it in Isaiah chapter 37 verse 31 where it said, “And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.” You see, that’s the Old Testament version of the Great Commission. The more you take root downward, the more you bear fruit upward. The more you know God, the more you are in God, the more you stare at His glory, the more fruit you’re going to produce to cover the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the seas cover the earth. Yet when Jesus came in Luke chapter 20, before all the leaders of the nation of Israel – the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees – Jesus told them the parable of the vineyard. And those who were over the vineyard abused the servants who came from the owner, killed the son who came, and then Jesus turns to the religious leaders of Israel and said, “When the owner returns, what are they going to do to the person who they find here who’s been abusing the trust of the owner?” Jesus said, “Certainly they’re going to take the vineyard from those wicked servants and give them to someone else.” That was a statement of condemnation from Jesus. Now the lampstand was going to be taken from Israel and moved to the Church and the Church, filled with Jews and Gentiles, were going to deepen their roots into Christ and bear fruit upwards. And Jesus gave this to the Church, as we call it, the Great Commission. Go to those who aren’t disciples and make them into disciples of all peoples from all corners of the world.
And each year in our church we stop to think about, “What does it mean to be a part of the Great Commission? What does it mean to be people, men and women, commissioned by Christ to go into all corners of this planet to be disciple makers? To bring the Gospel, the glory of the Lord, to people who don’t know Christ?” Now this Great Commission Jesus gave to the disciples after He rose from the dead. And we’re all familiar with this. Matthew 28 – Jesus, before He ascended into heaven, He gave them the Great Commission to, “Go and make disciples.” However, as I’ve read John chapter 13 through 17, as I’ve studied this, this is the conclusion I’ve come to and this is the framework that I believe you have to understand about these five chapters. Let me put it this way. The Great Commission – Go and make disciples – that is the slogan, that’s the pithy saying to write on a church wall. However, John chapter 13 through 17, I refer to as the expanded version of the Great Commission. Jesus lays out the detail – what to do, what resources God has given them to do it in, and then commissions them to go and to bear fruit. And the verses I picked from tonight are verses that help us understand that this is the expanded version of the Great Commission because you can’t fill a wall with five chapters of Scripture. It just isn’t catchy for your mission bulletin. So I think we need to look at the Great Commission as the summary statement of what Christ is commissioning the Church to do, but John chapter 13 to 17 is the expanded version, the study notes, so that you and I will know how to go and do it.
So what did Jesus tell us to do? Now I need to apologize first. This is what missionaries do – they apologize before they make somebody unhappy. I need to apologize first. I read the sermons on your website that were recently preached from John 14:12 and John 15:5. They were, let me just say this, they were very proper – because we’re good Christians. But I think they missed the point of Jesus. I don’t think we’re reading this as the expanded version of the Great Commission. It’s easy for us to be comfortable and preach the text the way we think it applies to our people, or worse yet, what we think our people can stomach. But I want us tonight to go back and look at these verses and I want us to try to understand them how Jesus is understanding those verses.
John chapter 14 verse 12, He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me” – now this is a phrase that’s appeared several times in the book of John. For instance, Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me shall never thirst,” or “Whoever believes in me, though he die, he shall live.” You see, whenever Jesus says, “Whoever believes in me,” He’s talking about every single Christian, not just His disciples. So this is Jesus talking to His disciples but He’s telling something that everybody who believes in Jesus needs to understand. And what is it He’s telling us? He says this. “Everyone who believes in me, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do.” And we need to ask the question, “What’s the works that Jesus does?” I mean I’ve seen Jesus do a lot of works. Even in the book of John, Jesus changed water into wine, He’s walked on water, He’s multiplied bread to feed 5,000 people. He’s healed a man born blind. Over and over again, Jesus, just in the book of John, has done tremendous works. And I look at myself and I say, “Boy, Jesus has promised that whoever believes in Jesus will do the same works that Jesus did.” I”ll tell you, I wake up in the morning and I go, “I don’t know.” I woke up this morning and I wasn’t feeling, “I’m going to do a miracle today! Boy, do I feel the Holy Spirit power working through me!” Let me be perfectly honest with you – I’ve never multiplied bread for 5,000 people. I’ve never raised the dead. Although when I woke up my teenage daughter once she seemed like she was dead because I had to shake her really hard before she’d wake up! I’ve never even done the easiest work that Jesus said we could do, and that’s turn water into wine. I can’t even make water into iced tea!
So what did Jesus mean when He said, “Whoever believes”? Every single Christian – this is normal Christianity – What does He mean when He says, “Every single believer will do the works that Jesus does?” Now this is the thing – the gospels, particularly John, helps us to interpret it because Jesus used this same phrase earlier in chapter 10 when Jesus said, “The works that I do in My Father’s name bear witness to Me.” You see, what Jesus says in John chapter 10 verse 25 is that the works that He does are for the purpose of giving witness, of bearing testimony. So what Jesus says is, “Whoever believes in Me, they will do the works that I do, will bear testimony, will give witness, will proclaim the news of Jesus to the world.” That’s what Jesus did and that’s normal Christianity.
Then Jesus does something incredible. He doesn’t stop there. He says, “And greater works than these he will do.” It’s stupendous. Think about this for a moment. Jesus says to you and I that not only are we commissioned as witnesses to go out and preach the Gospel, but we’re going to do it greater than Jesus Himself. Whoever, all of you, have been equipped by Jesus to do greater works. Now it’s really incredible. If Jesus was the pastor of this church, you’d probably fire Him because He went from 5,000 people following Him, and He chases them all away so that at the end of His life He’s got 12 people with Him and one of them is a betrayer. I’ll tell you, if He was my pastor and I was the elders, the session would be kicking Him out the door! Jesus, as an evangelist, really wasn’t successful numerically. Peter, in a single sermon on Pentecost in the temple courtyard, we see 3,000 people believe in Christ. Greater works. Doing bigger and more works than Jesus Himself did.
And that’s what Jesus is telling us – that you and I will go and do greater works. As I shared at the beginning of the Mission Conference two weeks ago, part of that greater works is geographically. Jesus almost never traveled. He didn’t even go outside of Israel; just crossed the border a little bit. If we were thinking Jesus lived in Jackson, Mississippi, He never even went as far as Birmingham, never went as far as New Orleans. Jesus just basically stayed in one small area His entire time proclaiming the Gospel. Yet because Christians have done the greater work, the Gospel exists in China and Russia, in Mali, in Senegal, in Brazil, in California, in Canada – all across the world. Greater works. It’s also more people, more places. You and I are doing greater works than Jesus did. We can’t read this passage without realizing that this is Jesus’ giving us the Great Commission, calling each and every Christian to be a witness, to testify to the glory of Christ around the world.
Then Jesus continues that in John chapter 15. In verse 5 He says that anyone, “Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he” – what? “He bears much fruit.” It’s really interesting because Jesus is telling us that if you have union with Christ, you will be fruit bearers. It’s important for us to realize that the Great Commission is done as you and I abide in Jesus. Because just as a vine has no strength in itself, vines are weak. Branches of a vine are weak – if they’re not attached to a vine, they can’t even support the weight of the fruit they’re bearing. Vine wood is useless unless it’s bearing fruit. You never make a stool out of it. You don’t make a door out of it. You can’t use it for anything except to throw it away. Jesus is telling us something – that “Whoever believes in Me, I am the vine, you are the branches. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in Me, whoever believes in Me, if you are living in union with Christ, God has created you to do something.”
Here’s my pet peeve with most churches. Most churches will go and say, “Bear fruit.” And so we go and we look at the writings of Paul written thirty years later where he talks about the fruit of the Spirit and we say, “See, if you abide in Christ, you will bear fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, and so on.” Now while that’s true, it’s true that while you take root downward you will become more like Christ, but that’s not the kind of bearing fruit upward that Jesus is talking about. Now fortunately in the gospel of John, Jesus tells us what it means to bear fruit. Jesus has spoken of fruit twice in the gospel of John. Let me read it for you, but not in order.
First of all, He spoke of this in John chapter 12 verse 24. “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” What’s the fruit Jesus is talking about here? He’s talking about His death. “Unless a grain of fruit dies” – unless Christ dies, there won’t be fruit that is borne. He’s not talking about the fruit of the Spirit. He’s not talking about being more Christ-like. He’s talking about giving salvation to people. And this is even clearer in John chapter 4. In John chapter 4, remember, Jesus is at the well with the woman from Samaria, He evangelizes her, He shares the Gospel with her, she believes in Jesus as the Messiah, and then she goes into the town and brings out the entire town to meet Jesus. And while this entire town is coming out to meet Jesus, His disciples return and are talking to Jesus. And the disciples are saying, “Here, Jesus, eat!” And Jesus says, “Oh, no, I don’t need to eat. I’ve already eaten.” “How did You eat?” “I did the will of My Father.” “Oh yeah? How’s that?” And Jesus says, “Look, open your eyes. See the harvest.” And Jesus says to them in John chapter 4 verse 36, “Already, the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.” Fruit.
John chapter 12 – the seed dying in the ground, bearing fruit. Salvation. John chapter 4 – people coming out of the town, headed towards Jesus, and Jesus says, “The reapers and the sowers are rejoicing together in the fruit that is being produced.” What is the fruit that Jesus talks about in John? It’s not the fruit of the Spirit; it’s people coming to faith in Jesus. It’s the result of the Gospel being proclaimed so that people will believe. You will do the works that Jesus does, and even greater works than these. You will abide in Christ and bear much fruit. Bear much fruit! How fruitful are you as a Christian? How much are we bearing fruit? Jesus says, “For apart from Me, you can do nothing.”
Now let me tell you something. I’ve met a lot of very talented people here, gifted people, wonderful, being used by the Lord. But if I ask how many people we baptized in this church last year, we’d find the number was very small. What it tells me is that you can do a lot of things, but you’re not bearing fruit – fruit that lasts, indicative by adult baptisms. But you say, “Well no, no. Look at all the ministry that is happening here!” And a lot of things are happening, but what Jesus says is, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” – He’s not saying you can’t do any single thing; what He’s saying is you can’t fulfill the purpose of what you were called to do. It’s a really important part. Just as a lamp, when it’s plugged into electricity can shine a light, but when it’s not plugged into the electricity, no light will shine. Why? Because it can’t work.
Now you can use a lamp for a lot of stuff. I can use it when it has no electricity and no light. I can use it to keep papers from blowing away. I can use the lamp to play golf in my front yard. I can use it as a pool cue, a billiards cue. I can tie a string on it and use it as a fishing pole. You can actually use a lamp for lots of things but it can’t function to do the purpose it was created to do without electricity. And so too, you and I, as we are plugged into Jesus, we abide in Him to perform the calling that we have as a church to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. To go and make disciples. To make Christ known to all people. To bear fruit that lasts. This is the expanded version of the Great Commission. This is Jesus explaining to all of us, in detail, how we will be a church that impacts the world and brings the glory of Christ to the far corners. How can you be productive, fruit-bearing Christians?
Now as I share this, perhaps in your mind comes this question – “Whoever believes in Me will do the greater works” – will witness for Christ. “Whoever abides in Christ will bear fruit” – will see souls believe, people saved and coming into the kingdom. And you look at your life and you go, “Boy, I must not be a Christian! I don’t know where I’ve been seeing people come to the Lord. I don’t see fruit.” Let me tell you something. I think in the history of Christianity, I think in the history of all Christianity, I am ranked number one as the worst Gospel presentation to conversion rate. I’m standing here telling you that all Christians would bear fruit, would see people come to faith in Christ, but whenever I’ve shared the Gospel with people – and I’ve shared the Gospel with thousands and thousands of people that I know of that have come to faith with me – is one, maybe two people. I’ll tell you, I have like the worst rate in all of the history of Christianity.
So what does this mean? What this means is not necessarily that you yourself are bearing the fruit. Remember, those who sow and those who reap are both part of the fruit bearing process. The question for us is two-fold. Number one, do you read this passage through your paradigm that this is about me? “I’ll abide in Christ and I’ll become a better person.” If that’s what you’re reading it as, you have an incomplete reading of the Scripture because that’s not what Jesus means here. But if you read this that Jesus says, “If you believe in Me you will be My witness,” it doesn’t mean that you are the reaper. It could very well be that you are the sower. But what it does mean is that you think, “God has put me here so that I might be a witness, that I might enter into Gospel conversations with people, that I might bring people to church to hear the Gospel. I might invite my neighbor to come to attend small group. I might be used however possible.”
My mother hadn’t had a college education; simple woman. Had one of the lowest self-esteems of anybody in the world, yet whenever she’d meet somebody, in her very simple way, she’d embrace them and love them and then soon after a while she would talk to them. She couldn’t explain the Gospel. She was very limited in what she could do, but she would give them a devotional. She gave one Buddhist lady from Japan a Bible. She did all that she could do because Christ was flowing through her and fruit was being born through the sowing of seeds. It’s very possible that you may never see fruit through you directly, but we’re part of a team, a family, working together to bring the glory of Christ to the lost. This passage, this upper room discourse, is the expanded version of Jesus’ Great Commission so that the world might know – and it takes each and every one of us – to be Gospel proclaiming believers, to be part of this family that’s doing it. Whether it’s to myself, my children, my grandkids – that’s one field, generationally. Perhaps it means to my office workers. Perhaps I’m only going to share with five people throughout my entire life. That’s okay, because if God has given you one talent, you do one. If God’s given you two, you do two. If God’s given you five, you do five. We are to be stewards of the gifting that He’s given us.
But here’s the challenge – don’t excuse it. Don’t reread these texts and pretend it’s not talking about proclamation of the Gospel. Because if we do proper exegesis using John’s phrases to interpret what John writes through Jesus’ speaking, we have to understand that these passages are the Great Commission. Do greater works than Jesus – greater places, more numbers, bear fruit that lasts, be a church of sowing and reaping. Here’s the amazing thing to me. In the two passages I read, Jesus said “You will do greater works. Whatever you ask for in My name, whatever you ask for in My name, I will do it so My Father is glorified through the Son.” Verse 16 of chapter 15 He says, “I have appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that abides, so whatever you ask in My name, He may give it to you.” Ask. Without limits. God is not saying go and ask for a new house, a new car, and He’ll give it to you. This is not the “name it and claim it.” This is in the context of the Great Commission. This is in the context of going and proclaiming the Gospel message. And as you go, whatever you ask for, so the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will fill this place; you ask for in the name of Jesus and God will make it happen there. This is a prayer of missions. This is a prayer for us in the church to think, “Apart from Him I can do nothing,” but when I abide in Him and I ask, whatever I ask for, anything, He will do.
What are we asking for? What have you asked the Lord for this week? Have you gotten on your knees and prayed for your grandkids so they will be given faith in Christ? Have you gotten on your knees and prayed for your neighbors so that they might believe in Christ? Have you seen some injustice somewhere and prayed, “God, bring reconciliation, but most importantly bring Christ to that situation!” Have you prayed for those in Myanmar and the problem going on there today? Have you asked whatever in the name of Jesus for the glory of God that the fruit of the Gospel would be borne there? Is that what you’re doing with your prayers? Pray big prayers. The more your roots go downward, the more the fruit is upward, and the way that happens is by you being men and women of big prayers. And in John chapter 17, Jesus is going to pray a big prayer, a prayer for His glory. Is that the kind of prayers that are in our families? Is that the kind of prayers that we give throughout our life? Are we believing the Word of God that He is asking us to pray the big prayers, to step out in faith, boldly proclaim the Gospel, overcome the hindrances that are around us, but do that in the power of God as we pray big prayers for His name?
When we were serving the Lord when we first got to our country, we used to go to one place and we had no idea what we were doing. We were some of the dumbest people who had ever been sent on the mission field. We had no clue what we were doing. We just went and we were going to do it and we were going to keep going until God did something. And we would gather for a complete day once a week, for years. We’d go to one place up the mountainside – all around us were Muslim communities and there was this one house owned by a Christian with a big mango tree in the middle and we would have a day of prayer and fasting; a full day there, once a week for years. And our workers were going out in this area – church planters like those supported by this church here. They were going out sharing the Gospel from door to door. And finally, after years of suffering, years of proclaiming the Gospel, we found that the witchdoctor in the Muslim community accepted Christ and started to believe. His wife followed suit and believed. And soon the entire community – because these were the first believers, the first Christians in that area from this Muslim people group – and the whole community was astir. And they are preaching from the speakers in the mosques, preaching about the Christians invading their communities. “Beware of these Christians!” And what they mean are these new believers there.
And one day, the man’s wife was called to the village office because all the village is related to his wife and her uncle was the chief of the village. And she is brought into the village and she is a really petite woman, very short; no education, maybe a third grade education. And this woman, humbly, before the big desk of the village chief, and the village chief is standing there in his uniform with his name badge and his medals and his uniform there and he looks the part, speaks authoritatively, and he stares down at her – big, bulging eyes! And he says to her, “I heard you’re a Christian. How can you be a Christian? Nobody here in this community is a Christian!” And she looks at him and she is terrified, but God’s Spirit has strengthened her. She looks at him and says, “Yes, it’s true. I’m a Christian.” And he said, “It’s impossible! Prove it to me! Prove to me you’re a Christian! Sing for me.”
Now I find that hilarious. I’m sorry! I never knew singing was proof of being a Christian, but okay, let’s go with that! Because Muslims don’t sing, Christians are known as singers. You have the joy of the Lord overflowing in your heart and so our worship is filled with singing praise to the Lord. So he looks at her with big, bulging eyes, “Sing for me. Prove to me you’re a Christian.” So she starts singing the only Christian song we’ve taught her, which is in the language the Muslims speak that nobody else will speak if you weren’t a Muslim. She sings the song and the song says this in English – “Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. He rose again from the dead. I have salvation because I believe in Him!” And in the middle of the government office, with all the officials, all the important dignitaries of the village, here is this little petite lady with no education, singing the Gospel message! And as she sings, in their dialect, everyone’s mouth just opens wide. Stunned. And finally the village chief says, “I can’t believe it! You can sing! You’re a Christian!”
The news of this spread throughout the area, and as they sold their household wares from door to door, from village to village, finally they met one family and this family said, “You’re the people they’re preaching about at the mosque! I want to become a Christian as well.” And that family came to faith. And through that family, their adult children came to faith. And our first household fellowship, our first house church was birthed through people who prayed, “Whatever you ask in My name” – prayer, fasting, wrestling with God for these communities – led to fruit that abides, fruit that lasts. “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it.” Pray big prayers, believe that God will do a mighty work, because God is active in your life, in our lives, in this church, and God will do all that’s necessary to lift His name high and to glorify His name.
Let’s pray.
Father, we thank You for the Gospel that is so powerful, so effective in proclaiming and in changing lives. Father, we ask that You will drive us to become a church of great prayers, a church that believes fully in what You have promised to us that we will do these greater works for Your glory. Father, we ask that we would be a church that humbly comes before You with a new passion and zeal for the Gospel. May You glorify Your name in our midst. We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.