John 14:27-31
The Peace of Jesus (27)
First, is the Peace of Jesus. Notice verse 27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Jesus was leaving a legacy of peace behind. He first gave us peace in our relationship with God. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” After He completed the mission to redeem man from sin and death, Jesus went back to the Father. But the peace that Jesus is talking about here is not only peace with God, but, it is the peace of God. Peace with God deals with our relationship with Him, but, the peace of God, has to do with our relationship to life’s circumstances. Only those who have peace with God can have the peace of God within them.
Peace is the word, “shalom”. It was the way you said good-bye to people. But, shalom meant far more than just peace in the sense that there would be the absence of trouble or distress in one’s life. It wasn’t just a wish for someone that they would have no problems come their way. It was a desire that they would have all they need to be whole and complete and healthy and secure. It was a desire for them to prosper in their well-being and that they would be experiencing the highest good in their lives.
There are 3 things about this peace Jesus is speaking of. First, it is available. He says 3 times in this one verse that He is giving them His peace. I think He is stressing that it’s available. The reason we don’t experience peace in life’s circumstances isn’t because it hasn’t been made available. Jesus has left His peace for us. Philippians 4:6-7 says that if we want that peace, it comes by praying. Let us avail ourselves to the peace of God made available to us.
Second, notice the attribute of this peace. It is the personal peace of Jesus. Jesus says, “My peace I give to you”. In the Greek this phrase is very emphatic and carries a lot of force, it literally reads, “the peace, the Mine”. It’s the peace that is His own inward possession. It cannot be upset by the world or by His enemies. It is the inner composure of God that cannot be disturbed by anything or anyone. It is this peace that Jesus alone possesses that He alone gives.
This isn’t the peace of the world. The world’s kind of peace is based on the absence of trouble in your life. The way the world system works is that peace only comes in those times when we don’t have problems in life. If you’re not experiencing peace because the circumstances of your life are not letting you, then it’s because you are looking for peace from world. You’re not looking to Christ. Perhaps God allows us to go through certain trials because He is exposing to us what we really are trying to find peace in. Perhaps He is teaching us that we’ve been looking to the things of this world for peace when we really need to start looking to Christ for His peace. Jesus says in 16:33, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.” In other words, while you are in this world this world is going to bring trouble into your life, but, the promise of Jesus is that you don’t have to have trouble in your heart when you have trouble in your life.
The world also says that peace is based on what we acquire. If I can only had a raise, a promotion, a better job, a better spouse, better looks, better health and so on, I would finally have peace. I like what Warren Wiersbe says here, “the world basses its peace on its resources while God’s peace depends on relationships.” In other words, having real peace is not about getting more from what the world is offering, but, it is about a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
But, Jesus had peace in all His circumstances. He knew what it was to be poor, to be slandered, to be rejected, to be mistreated, to be hated, to be mocked and ridiculed, to be betrayed, to be alone, to be misunderstood. Yet His peace never left Him. The ups and downs of His life never subtracted from the peace that was His. He faced it all with the same peace He was offering them.
Thirdly, notice the affect of this peace. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” As a matter of fact, He commands us not to be troubled. He says, “Do not be afraid.” That’s an imperative, a command in the Greek. The word “afraid” in the Greek here is a word that means a timid and cowardly fear. What Jesus is saying is that He doesn’t want them to be a bunch of scared cowards in this world. Trouble and trials of the worst kind are going to come your way when I am gone and you need to face these the same way I have. Jesus didn’t shrink back in fear from the trouble that came to Him.
And we don’t have to shrink back in fear and worry, and anxiety from the trouble that comes in our lives either. The world would say that peace is the absence of trouble, but, the peace that Christians can enjoy is in spite of the trials of life. Let us avail ourselves to this peace that He has given us.
A Reason to Rejoice (28)
Secondly, Jesus leaving gives them A Reason to Rejoice. Verse 28 says, “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”
Jesus was leaving them and going back to the Father. Why should that cause them to rejoice and be glad? There are 3 reasons I see. First, because by going back to the Father, Jesus was going to be restored to His glory. When He returned to heaven He would return to His glory at the right hand of the Father. This is the glory that He had with the Father before the world began (17:3). This is the glory that is God’s alone. This is the rightful glory of Jesus, the Word of God. This is the glory that Jesus set aside in order to willingly humiliate Himself in becoming a man (Phil 2:6-8). The heart of every believer should be to see Jesus in His heavenly eternal glory. Jesus prayed for this in 17:26. Paul described it in Philippians 2:7-9.
What does this have to do with their love for Jesus? Well, if they loved Him for who He truly was they would have wanted Him to be in His glory. Their love for Him was selfish at this point. The best of love according to 1 Corinthians 13:5 “does not seek its own.” Jesus calls them to see the cross and His leaving them from His perspective. It meant He was going back to where He came from. He was going back to the full glory He had before He came. His Humiliation in becoming a man and dying on the cross was almost over. He became a man and was as much human as any of them, but, that was lowering Himself. He is the eternal Word, the Creator, the Sovereign God over all.
When you love Jesus for who He is you know He is greater than you. You know He is greater than everything else. You don’t treat Him like He’s on the same level as you. You don’t treat anyone or anything like they’re on the same level as Him. That’s the truth for all disciple’s – if we truly love Him then we will want Him glorified. We want to see Him have supremacy in all things. Colossians 1:17-18 says, “He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Furthermore, if we love Him we will want Him to be glorified in our lives. We will want Him to be first in our life; we will want others to see Christ in our life and acknowledge Him; we will want for us what He wants for us…..
But, in returning to the Father it meant that Jesus was received by the Father. That means that the Father was satisfied with what Jesus did on earth. He was satisfied with the work that Jesus did – the work that the Father sent Him to do Jesus accomplished. Do you know what that work is? It is the work of rescuing sinners. The Father sent His Son into the world to rescue sinners. When Jesus died on the cross He took every sin upon Himself and bore the wrath of God for all those sins. He did this so that man could be rescued from his own sins. He did this so that man would have a way to the Father.
Here is the key: Because Jesus was received by the Father, we can be received by the Father. All that Jesus is is acceptable and satisfying to the Father. There is no one else who was going to go to the Father other than Jesus. Anyone who would come to the Father and be received by Him must come through Jesus Christ His Son. He is the only One who is acceptable to Him and He is the only One who can make us acceptable to Him.
Jesus was received by the Father because of the perfect work that He did on earth. The work that Jesus did is the only work that the Father will accept, because it was perfect. The question is, Are you going to be received by the Father when you leave this earth? If you are relying on anything else other than Jesus Christ to be received by the Father you are not going to be received by Him. The Bible says that before you can be received by the Father, you have to receive His Son. You have to believe in Him and the perfect work that He did. You have to trust that what He did by dying on the cross has taken away your sins and that He is the only way that you can stand in the presence of the God who is holy.
But Jesus going back to the Father also meant that He would Represent us before the Father. He would be our High Priest who prays for us always. Hebrews 9 says that we have a High Priest who lives always to intercede for us. First John 2:1 says that when we sin He is our Advocate who pleads with the Father in our defense. Going back to the Father
And then, Jesus makes a statement that has often been misunderstood. He says, “for the Father is greater than I.” Jesus was not saying that He was somehow less of God than the Father. He was not saying that He was some half-god or some lower god than the Father was.
This is a reference to His human position and His willing submission to the Father during His earthly ministry. When the Son of God came in the flesh that is what we call His Humiliation, or Condescension. It’s when God became a man. The Creator lowered Himself to the pitiful level of His own creation and it was a humiliating, degrading act – but it was chosen. It was an act that He did of His own free will. God came down and became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was fully human and He is fully God.
In His humanity, Jesus was in full submission to the Father’s commands. We’ve seen Jesus make all kinds of statements of His submission to the Father. He doesn’t do anything except what the Father tells Him to do. He doesn’t say anything except what the Father tells Him to say. He does not speak or act independently of the Father but in perfect obedience to the Father’s will. In that way the Father was greater than the Son. But, that is in position, not in essence. Jesus Christ was and is as much God as the Father is God, they are of the same essence, the same nature.
In other words, Jesus is saying, “if you loved me you would want me to go back to my glory, back to where I rightfully belong.” That Jesus returned to the Father should cause us to rejoice.
Satan’s Snare(v30)
Thirdly, notice Satan’s snare in verse 30, “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me.” Satan was working to kill Jesus. He thought his plans would be a success if Jesus were killed. But, the success that Satan worked for would turn out to be the snare that would trap him.
Notice first the immanency with which Jesus spoke. “The prince of this world is coming”. Satan was returning back to Jesus very soon. Remember Satan was with them only a little while earlier in that upper room. He had entered Judas, and Judas, indwelt by Satan Himself, was gathering the group of soldiers to lead them to Jesus so they could arrest Him. Satan left the presence of Jesus in that upper room, but, he was coming back to Jesus. He would meet Him again in the garden of Gethsemene because that’s when Judas would return with the soldiers to betray Jesus. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “the prince of this world is coming”.
But very importantly I want us to see the Satan was finally going to get what he has wanted for the last 33 years – the death of Jesus. He has tried since Jesus was born to kill Him. When Jesus was an infant Satan prompted Herod to have all the male children under 2 years of age killed in the vicinity of Bethlehem in an effort to kill Jesus. Satan tried to have Jesus killed throughout His ministry by inciting mobs to try and stone Him or thrown Him off a cliff or having the leaders try to arrest Him or trap Him. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus was alone in the wilderness fasting for 40 days the whole time being tempted by Satan. He continued to tempt Jesus for His entire ministry. Each attack failed. But tonight was the night that Satan was going to get what he has wanted: the death of the Son of Man.
But, what Satan didn't realize is that Jesus’ death brought about his own destruction. Satan held the power of death, and, he held men in slavery to fear of death. But Jesus destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) by dying on the cross. And by dying on the cross Jesus made Satan - one who had the power of death - powerless (Heb 2:14). The cross marked the ultimate defeat of Satan, and, his sentence will be carried out until the end of the Millennium when he is finally thrown into the lake of fire.
Then notice the impotency of Satan’s attack on Jesus. Jesus says Satan “has no hold on me”. This is a Hebrew idiom that means the Devil could make no legal claim on Jesus. There was no charge that could be brought against Him. Satan had no foothold in Jesus. Jesus never sinned. There was no sin in Him. He was not of this world and so the prince of this world had no power over Him. There was nothing in Jesus life that he could accuse Jesus of in the Father’s presence because Jesus was entirely innocent of any charges. He was pure. He was innocent. He was sinless. He was perfect in every way.
Satan could not accuse Jesus, but, he accuses us before God. In Revelation 12:10 he is called “the accuser of our brothers.” He goes before God and brings up our sins and our every offense against God. He loves to point to us and expose our every transgression before God. We always have two people standing before God speaking to God about us. One is our Accuser, Satan, and the other is our Advocate, the Son of God. Satan, the Accuser, speaks to the Father to destroy us. But, Jesus, our Advocate speaks to the Father to defend us (1 John 2:1). We ought to get down on our knees and give thanks for such a One as Christ, the One who lives always to intercede for us.
Furthermore, this statement that Satan has nothing in Him means that it is God, not Satan, that is in control. Jesus wanted the disciples to know that God was in control of everything that was happening. Satan was not the ultimate power at work in the death of Jesus. It was the will and sovereign power of God that was orchestrating the death of Jesus Christ. Satan was a pawn. Sure Satan wanted Jesus dead and sure he was using Judas and the soldiers and the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman leaders to do it. But what Satan wanted and was allowed to accomplish was what God permitted as part of His greater plan to bring about His own purposes. What Satan was intending for evil, God was intending for ultimate good. Jesus wanted His disciples to know that what was happening was really the controlled plan of God being carried out exactly the way He had planned it. Satan was just one piece of the puzzle. He was setting the trap for Jesus, but, what Satan didn’t know was that the trap was really set for him.
Conclusion – Leaving for the Cross (v31)
After saying all this Jesus concludes with verse 31. I want to conclude with verse 31. Jesus says, “the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now; let us leave.” This is the point where they get up from the table in that upper room and Jesus is now going to leave that room. Their long evening meal was coming to a close; their reclining on the couches was over. He is going to leave with His disciples and go to the garden of Gethsemene. But, ultimately, what we see here is that He was leaving for the Cross.
Let me ask you a question: Have you gone to the cross? Jesus went to the cross to die, but, have you gone to the cross for life? Jesus went there to spill His blood but have you gone there to be washed in His blood? Jesus went there to suffer but have you gone there to find salvation? Jesus went to the cross to take on Himself your sins but have you gone there to take upon yourself His righteousness? The Father led Jesus Christ to the cross 2000 years ago, and ever since then He has been leading men to the cross of Jesus Christ. Is He leading you today? Have you gone to the cross?
The Peace of Jesus (27)
First, is the Peace of Jesus. Notice verse 27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
Jesus was leaving a legacy of peace behind. He first gave us peace in our relationship with God. Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” After He completed the mission to redeem man from sin and death, Jesus went back to the Father. But the peace that Jesus is talking about here is not only peace with God, but, it is the peace of God. Peace with God deals with our relationship with Him, but, the peace of God, has to do with our relationship to life’s circumstances. Only those who have peace with God can have the peace of God within them.
Peace is the word, “shalom”. It was the way you said good-bye to people. But, shalom meant far more than just peace in the sense that there would be the absence of trouble or distress in one’s life. It wasn’t just a wish for someone that they would have no problems come their way. It was a desire that they would have all they need to be whole and complete and healthy and secure. It was a desire for them to prosper in their well-being and that they would be experiencing the highest good in their lives.
There are 3 things about this peace Jesus is speaking of. First, it is available. He says 3 times in this one verse that He is giving them His peace. I think He is stressing that it’s available. The reason we don’t experience peace in life’s circumstances isn’t because it hasn’t been made available. Jesus has left His peace for us. Philippians 4:6-7 says that if we want that peace, it comes by praying. Let us avail ourselves to the peace of God made available to us.
Second, notice the attribute of this peace. It is the personal peace of Jesus. Jesus says, “My peace I give to you”. In the Greek this phrase is very emphatic and carries a lot of force, it literally reads, “the peace, the Mine”. It’s the peace that is His own inward possession. It cannot be upset by the world or by His enemies. It is the inner composure of God that cannot be disturbed by anything or anyone. It is this peace that Jesus alone possesses that He alone gives.
This isn’t the peace of the world. The world’s kind of peace is based on the absence of trouble in your life. The way the world system works is that peace only comes in those times when we don’t have problems in life. If you’re not experiencing peace because the circumstances of your life are not letting you, then it’s because you are looking for peace from world. You’re not looking to Christ. Perhaps God allows us to go through certain trials because He is exposing to us what we really are trying to find peace in. Perhaps He is teaching us that we’ve been looking to the things of this world for peace when we really need to start looking to Christ for His peace. Jesus says in 16:33, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.” In other words, while you are in this world this world is going to bring trouble into your life, but, the promise of Jesus is that you don’t have to have trouble in your heart when you have trouble in your life.
The world also says that peace is based on what we acquire. If I can only had a raise, a promotion, a better job, a better spouse, better looks, better health and so on, I would finally have peace. I like what Warren Wiersbe says here, “the world basses its peace on its resources while God’s peace depends on relationships.” In other words, having real peace is not about getting more from what the world is offering, but, it is about a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
But, Jesus had peace in all His circumstances. He knew what it was to be poor, to be slandered, to be rejected, to be mistreated, to be hated, to be mocked and ridiculed, to be betrayed, to be alone, to be misunderstood. Yet His peace never left Him. The ups and downs of His life never subtracted from the peace that was His. He faced it all with the same peace He was offering them.
Thirdly, notice the affect of this peace. Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” As a matter of fact, He commands us not to be troubled. He says, “Do not be afraid.” That’s an imperative, a command in the Greek. The word “afraid” in the Greek here is a word that means a timid and cowardly fear. What Jesus is saying is that He doesn’t want them to be a bunch of scared cowards in this world. Trouble and trials of the worst kind are going to come your way when I am gone and you need to face these the same way I have. Jesus didn’t shrink back in fear from the trouble that came to Him.
And we don’t have to shrink back in fear and worry, and anxiety from the trouble that comes in our lives either. The world would say that peace is the absence of trouble, but, the peace that Christians can enjoy is in spite of the trials of life. Let us avail ourselves to this peace that He has given us.
A Reason to Rejoice (28)
Secondly, Jesus leaving gives them A Reason to Rejoice. Verse 28 says, “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”
Jesus was leaving them and going back to the Father. Why should that cause them to rejoice and be glad? There are 3 reasons I see. First, because by going back to the Father, Jesus was going to be restored to His glory. When He returned to heaven He would return to His glory at the right hand of the Father. This is the glory that He had with the Father before the world began (17:3). This is the glory that is God’s alone. This is the rightful glory of Jesus, the Word of God. This is the glory that Jesus set aside in order to willingly humiliate Himself in becoming a man (Phil 2:6-8). The heart of every believer should be to see Jesus in His heavenly eternal glory. Jesus prayed for this in 17:26. Paul described it in Philippians 2:7-9.
What does this have to do with their love for Jesus? Well, if they loved Him for who He truly was they would have wanted Him to be in His glory. Their love for Him was selfish at this point. The best of love according to 1 Corinthians 13:5 “does not seek its own.” Jesus calls them to see the cross and His leaving them from His perspective. It meant He was going back to where He came from. He was going back to the full glory He had before He came. His Humiliation in becoming a man and dying on the cross was almost over. He became a man and was as much human as any of them, but, that was lowering Himself. He is the eternal Word, the Creator, the Sovereign God over all.
When you love Jesus for who He is you know He is greater than you. You know He is greater than everything else. You don’t treat Him like He’s on the same level as you. You don’t treat anyone or anything like they’re on the same level as Him. That’s the truth for all disciple’s – if we truly love Him then we will want Him glorified. We want to see Him have supremacy in all things. Colossians 1:17-18 says, “He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Furthermore, if we love Him we will want Him to be glorified in our lives. We will want Him to be first in our life; we will want others to see Christ in our life and acknowledge Him; we will want for us what He wants for us…..
But, in returning to the Father it meant that Jesus was received by the Father. That means that the Father was satisfied with what Jesus did on earth. He was satisfied with the work that Jesus did – the work that the Father sent Him to do Jesus accomplished. Do you know what that work is? It is the work of rescuing sinners. The Father sent His Son into the world to rescue sinners. When Jesus died on the cross He took every sin upon Himself and bore the wrath of God for all those sins. He did this so that man could be rescued from his own sins. He did this so that man would have a way to the Father.
Here is the key: Because Jesus was received by the Father, we can be received by the Father. All that Jesus is is acceptable and satisfying to the Father. There is no one else who was going to go to the Father other than Jesus. Anyone who would come to the Father and be received by Him must come through Jesus Christ His Son. He is the only One who is acceptable to Him and He is the only One who can make us acceptable to Him.
Jesus was received by the Father because of the perfect work that He did on earth. The work that Jesus did is the only work that the Father will accept, because it was perfect. The question is, Are you going to be received by the Father when you leave this earth? If you are relying on anything else other than Jesus Christ to be received by the Father you are not going to be received by Him. The Bible says that before you can be received by the Father, you have to receive His Son. You have to believe in Him and the perfect work that He did. You have to trust that what He did by dying on the cross has taken away your sins and that He is the only way that you can stand in the presence of the God who is holy.
But Jesus going back to the Father also meant that He would Represent us before the Father. He would be our High Priest who prays for us always. Hebrews 9 says that we have a High Priest who lives always to intercede for us. First John 2:1 says that when we sin He is our Advocate who pleads with the Father in our defense. Going back to the Father
And then, Jesus makes a statement that has often been misunderstood. He says, “for the Father is greater than I.” Jesus was not saying that He was somehow less of God than the Father. He was not saying that He was some half-god or some lower god than the Father was.
This is a reference to His human position and His willing submission to the Father during His earthly ministry. When the Son of God came in the flesh that is what we call His Humiliation, or Condescension. It’s when God became a man. The Creator lowered Himself to the pitiful level of His own creation and it was a humiliating, degrading act – but it was chosen. It was an act that He did of His own free will. God came down and became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was fully human and He is fully God.
In His humanity, Jesus was in full submission to the Father’s commands. We’ve seen Jesus make all kinds of statements of His submission to the Father. He doesn’t do anything except what the Father tells Him to do. He doesn’t say anything except what the Father tells Him to say. He does not speak or act independently of the Father but in perfect obedience to the Father’s will. In that way the Father was greater than the Son. But, that is in position, not in essence. Jesus Christ was and is as much God as the Father is God, they are of the same essence, the same nature.
In other words, Jesus is saying, “if you loved me you would want me to go back to my glory, back to where I rightfully belong.” That Jesus returned to the Father should cause us to rejoice.
Satan’s Snare(v30)
Thirdly, notice Satan’s snare in verse 30, “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me.” Satan was working to kill Jesus. He thought his plans would be a success if Jesus were killed. But, the success that Satan worked for would turn out to be the snare that would trap him.
Notice first the immanency with which Jesus spoke. “The prince of this world is coming”. Satan was returning back to Jesus very soon. Remember Satan was with them only a little while earlier in that upper room. He had entered Judas, and Judas, indwelt by Satan Himself, was gathering the group of soldiers to lead them to Jesus so they could arrest Him. Satan left the presence of Jesus in that upper room, but, he was coming back to Jesus. He would meet Him again in the garden of Gethsemene because that’s when Judas would return with the soldiers to betray Jesus. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “the prince of this world is coming”.
But very importantly I want us to see the Satan was finally going to get what he has wanted for the last 33 years – the death of Jesus. He has tried since Jesus was born to kill Him. When Jesus was an infant Satan prompted Herod to have all the male children under 2 years of age killed in the vicinity of Bethlehem in an effort to kill Jesus. Satan tried to have Jesus killed throughout His ministry by inciting mobs to try and stone Him or thrown Him off a cliff or having the leaders try to arrest Him or trap Him. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus was alone in the wilderness fasting for 40 days the whole time being tempted by Satan. He continued to tempt Jesus for His entire ministry. Each attack failed. But tonight was the night that Satan was going to get what he has wanted: the death of the Son of Man.
But, what Satan didn't realize is that Jesus’ death brought about his own destruction. Satan held the power of death, and, he held men in slavery to fear of death. But Jesus destroyed the works of the devil (1 John 3:8) by dying on the cross. And by dying on the cross Jesus made Satan - one who had the power of death - powerless (Heb 2:14). The cross marked the ultimate defeat of Satan, and, his sentence will be carried out until the end of the Millennium when he is finally thrown into the lake of fire.
Then notice the impotency of Satan’s attack on Jesus. Jesus says Satan “has no hold on me”. This is a Hebrew idiom that means the Devil could make no legal claim on Jesus. There was no charge that could be brought against Him. Satan had no foothold in Jesus. Jesus never sinned. There was no sin in Him. He was not of this world and so the prince of this world had no power over Him. There was nothing in Jesus life that he could accuse Jesus of in the Father’s presence because Jesus was entirely innocent of any charges. He was pure. He was innocent. He was sinless. He was perfect in every way.
Satan could not accuse Jesus, but, he accuses us before God. In Revelation 12:10 he is called “the accuser of our brothers.” He goes before God and brings up our sins and our every offense against God. He loves to point to us and expose our every transgression before God. We always have two people standing before God speaking to God about us. One is our Accuser, Satan, and the other is our Advocate, the Son of God. Satan, the Accuser, speaks to the Father to destroy us. But, Jesus, our Advocate speaks to the Father to defend us (1 John 2:1). We ought to get down on our knees and give thanks for such a One as Christ, the One who lives always to intercede for us.
Furthermore, this statement that Satan has nothing in Him means that it is God, not Satan, that is in control. Jesus wanted the disciples to know that God was in control of everything that was happening. Satan was not the ultimate power at work in the death of Jesus. It was the will and sovereign power of God that was orchestrating the death of Jesus Christ. Satan was a pawn. Sure Satan wanted Jesus dead and sure he was using Judas and the soldiers and the Jewish religious leaders and the Roman leaders to do it. But what Satan wanted and was allowed to accomplish was what God permitted as part of His greater plan to bring about His own purposes. What Satan was intending for evil, God was intending for ultimate good. Jesus wanted His disciples to know that what was happening was really the controlled plan of God being carried out exactly the way He had planned it. Satan was just one piece of the puzzle. He was setting the trap for Jesus, but, what Satan didn’t know was that the trap was really set for him.
Conclusion – Leaving for the Cross (v31)
After saying all this Jesus concludes with verse 31. I want to conclude with verse 31. Jesus says, “the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. Come now; let us leave.” This is the point where they get up from the table in that upper room and Jesus is now going to leave that room. Their long evening meal was coming to a close; their reclining on the couches was over. He is going to leave with His disciples and go to the garden of Gethsemene. But, ultimately, what we see here is that He was leaving for the Cross.
Let me ask you a question: Have you gone to the cross? Jesus went to the cross to die, but, have you gone to the cross for life? Jesus went there to spill His blood but have you gone there to be washed in His blood? Jesus went there to suffer but have you gone there to find salvation? Jesus went to the cross to take on Himself your sins but have you gone there to take upon yourself His righteousness? The Father led Jesus Christ to the cross 2000 years ago, and ever since then He has been leading men to the cross of Jesus Christ. Is He leading you today? Have you gone to the cross?
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