A Sermon Based Upon John 14: 8-21, NRSV
By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin.
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Pentecost Sunday, May 15th, 2016
If you could ask God for anything, what would it be?
I had a German lady in a church once, who said that the one verse in the Bible that could destroy her faith is this verse where Jesus tells his disciples “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it” (14:14). It would probably hurt our faith too, if we were to take this promise in the most simplistic, literal terms.
Most of us will read this and say to ourselves that Jesus doesn’t actually mean ‘anything’, but he qualifies this by saying, “I will do whatever you ask in my name” (14:13). That’s the catch, isn’t it? What we ask for must be ‘in his name’. But what kind of qualifier is this? What did Jesus mean? How does asking for ‘anything’ in his name mean something, if anything, for us now?
Greater Works Than These
These challenging words of Jesus come in the context of his final words to his disciples, just before his death. Jesus is trying to calm concerns about his leaving. The disciples have questions about what will happen after he is gone. Our text begins with one of those questions. Philip asked, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied” (v.8).
When Philip got to ask Jesus for “anything,”, he wanted to ‘see’ everything about the Father. Like Moses in the Hebrew Bible, Philip wants to see God and understand everything about life and death, and he wants to know everything right now. If you recall what happened when Moses asked to see God, God agreed to pass by, but Moses only got to see his back. God explained: “No one can see God and live” (Gen. 33:20). As a ‘good Jew’ Philip should have known this story, why would Philip dare ask such a thing?
What Philip wanted is certainly not what most people want these days. This kind of vision or answer would not ‘satisfy’, or cut it. People are much more into physical thrills, gaining material stuff, and living longer. The only people who want to ‘see the Father’ are those who are old, on the way out, hoping that there is something on the other side. The old who are rich are probably not even hungry for that. Baseball great Ted Williams didn’t plan on seeing God, he had his brain frozen and stored indefinitely, in hopes of someday having it thawed in another body. That’s the kind of thing you wish for when you’ve got money and you only trust in yourself. If you’ve got money, youth, power or good health, you want what’s in front of you now. Isn’t this what most seek to make themselves ‘satisfied’.
But surprisingly, Jesus isn’t happy with Philip’s request either. Jesus responds sharply, “Haven’t you even noticed me all along, Philip?” “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Why would you ask to see the Father when you’ve had the Son? I don’t understand the question.
Strange conversation, isn’t it? Can you see a sort of “qualification” of what Jesus meant when he said: ‘ask anything in my name and I will do it”? Didn’t he mean that whatever you once asked the Father, you can now ask the Son? Asking God, or asking Jesus; it’s no different. The Son and the Father are one. God is at work in Jesus, and Jesus is God at work in the world. The point is not that Jesus will now be your genie and give ‘three wishes’, but that Jesus has come to ‘show us the Father’ in the flesh. Jesus declares himself as the ‘I am’ who is ‘the way, the truth, and the life.’ If these Jewish disciples have trusted God as their Heavenly Father, they should now recognize the Father in his Son, Jesus. This conversation serves as a substitute for the Transfiguration and the Great Confession, which do not occur in John. “If you prayed to the Father, you can pray to me.”
This is not a theological exercise for its own sake, but it is to remind Jesus’ disciples that because they know Jesus, they will do ‘greater works’ in the world. This ‘anything’ they can ask is not a ‘blank check’ to fill in, but this ‘anything’ is to ‘cash in’ on the ‘greater works’ they can do because of what God the Father has done through Jesus the Son.
He Will Give You Another Advocate
How the disciples can do greater works is God’s work continues through the Holy Spirit: “I am going away, and I am coming to you” (14: 28). Jesus is not just speaking of resurrection, but when Jesus returns to God, he will “ask the Father” to “give... another advocate” to be ‘with’ them ‘forever’ (14:16). This advocate, counselor, or comforter is the Holy Spirit (16:26). It would not have been possible to “give” (14:16) or “send” (14: 26) the Holy Spirit before Jesus had finished his work. His ‘spiritual’ accomplishments on the cross and through the resurrection enable and promise that the Spirit can continue God’s through theses disciples who do ‘greater works’ in the name of this Jesus they’ve known.
It is noteworthy that the Holy Spirit does not appear in the Bible before Jesus. This is why the Holy Spirit is called Another Advocate (14:25). The Spirit can only come because Jesus came. Now, who the Son has been to the Father, the Spirit will be to the Son. The Holy Spirit is sent to make sure these “greater works” will be God’s will “done on earth, as in heaven.” The Holy Spirit insures God’s work in them, because He will be with them forever (14:16) as the Spirit of Truth (14:17) who abides with them and will be in them (v.17b). The “truth” is not about the Spirit (16:13-15), but the Spirit reminds (14:26) them of ‘the truth’ of Jesus, so they will be able to continue to live in the Spirit of his truth.
Tom Long tells that when Jimmy Carter was running for President of the United States, one Sunday morning, candidate Carter had been worshipping at the Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. When the service was over, Carter exited the church into a swarm of press on the church's front lawn. They were all thinking of clever questions to ask a presidential candidate on the way out of a Southern Baptist Church -- "Did you like the sermon?" "Did you enjoy the choir this morning?" "Do you plan to remain a Baptist in Washington?" On and on the questions spewed out. Suddenly, a reporter, shouted out a question that genuinely mattered: "Mr. Carter, suppose when you are President, you get into a situation where the laws of the United States are in conflict with what you understand to be the will of God. Which will you follow, the laws of the state or the commandments of God?"
Carter stopped, looked up, turning the question over in his mind. Still "in the Spirit on the Lord's Day," reminding him of the ‘truth’ in his own life, Carter turned toward the reporter and replied, "I would obey the commandments of God." His aids, alarmed by his candor and unnerved by this almost unconstitutional remark, hurriedly whisked Carter away into a waiting car. Carter the politician should have avoided the question, or remained ‘politically correct’ upholding the ‘law of the land’, but Carter the Christian, was filled with Holy Spirit abiding with him and reminding him of Christ’s words, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments?” (14:15) (From Tom Long’s sermon, Whispering the Lyrics, CCS Press).
I Will Not Leave You Orphaned
We all need reminders from the Holy Spirit to keep us ‘on track’ to do ‘greater works’ as we ‘keep’ Christ’s words (v. 24) and his commandments of love (v.15) in the world. Jesus ‘sends’ the Spirit to make sure we can make the call and right choice. But it is also important to realize that this is not Jesus’ only concern.
Although I grew up as an adopted, only child, I never understood the term orphan until both of my parents died about a year apart from each other. It wasn't a feeling of being alone that hit me, as much as, it was a sense of the loss of part of my identity as a person. How much they were was the person I was, I did not fully realize until they were gone. After they passed, part of who I was, left along with them, and I felt orphaned, less than who I was, and missing part of my life, which had guided me, but would no longer.
But when Jesus left, their identity in him was not lost, but only enhanced. When the Spirit came, who they were was not only confirmed, but their hearts were emboldened. We see this not just in the bold preaching of Simon Peter, but also in the bold witness of Philip, who was being led by the Spirit to witness to this Jesus who was still at work, through the Spirit, through Scripture, and of course most of all, still at work in Philip himself.
Last year, because the political landscape was still very confused, comedian Will Ferrell came on late night TV to offer a comic impression of past President George W. Bush. The comedian’s routine began with his “President Bush” character asking humorously, “Have you missed me? I'm running for president again” I found the whole act very funny. Everything that was once perceived about him as unfavorable by many, was made to look good, in comparison with the confusion then felt because of so many candidates. “Don’t you miss, me?” He said. “I was an underachiever, but at least you knew who I was.”
As I watched and laughed, not at the President, but just at the comedian’s great gift of mimicking some of the President’s personality traits, and how it made you actually feel as if the President was right in front of you, actually saying these things, I was then reminded that this is exactly how we can experience the ‘presence’ of Jesus still with us. When we ‘mimic’ or ‘impersonate’ Jesus, by serving him, caring like him, and letting his Spirit have his way with us, we know that we are not left as ‘orphans’, but that Jesus are still here, not just with us, but in us.
The point I’m trying to make is that we are not alone, if we are living ‘in Jesus’, involved in his work, his mission, as he calls us in the same “Spirit” and inspires us to do even ‘greater works’ in Jesus’ name. As I heard a retired wealthy women being interviewed in Florida, who, instead of moving to Florida to get away from it all, moved to Florida and involved herself in a ministry to help and encourage many of the elderly who have gone there, but often end up alone and in need. She said to the reporter, interviewing her about her work: “I just can’t see myself retiring and doing nothing. Being here, helping is what keeps me alive and makes my life worth living. I gain my life by giving my life to these who I need to help, as much as they need me.”
As we close, recall Jesus words once more: “The Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees nor knows him. BUT YOU KNOW HIM, BECAUSE HE ABIDES WITH YOU, AND HE WILL BE IN YOU.” (14:17). Amen.
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