The Gospel of John

Jesus is Lord

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 54- 70

Genre:

Track: 054

Dictation Name: RR197AD56

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee always but especially in this blessed season. We thank Thee that our Lord has come, that He is king of kings and lord of lords, that He is our shield and defender. That in this evil world we need fear nothing for Thou art near and Thou wilt never leave us nor forsake us. Still our hearts, quiet our fearfulness, make us ever joyful in Thee that in all things we may be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ. We remember in this season Thy suffering saints the world over and we pray for their deliverance and their triumph. We pray for our loved ones that they may know Thee as Lord. Grant us this we beseech Thee in Christ’s name, Amen.

Our text is John 16:16-24. Our subject: Jesus is Lord. John 16:16-24, Jesus is Lord.

“A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.

17 Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father?

18 They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith.

19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?

20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.

24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

Our Lord here makes a statement which was puzzling to the disciples but clear in terms of subsequent history. In verse sixteen He declares:

“A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”

Soon after His crucifixion, resurrection and ascension they would see Him no longer. He will ascend to the Father and they will see and understand Him as never before. The two words translated as see are different. The second ‘see’ means to understand the meaning of something. They would then see more than Jesus, they would see who He was and is. They would not only see Jesus Christ but also Christology, the doctrine of Christ. The baptismal creeds of the early church saw the doctrine of Christ as essential. In Philippians 2:9-11 we have the basic baptismal confession of the early church. Jesus Christ is Lord. This every new convert was required to declare before he was baptized. It was putting his head in effect on the chopping block because he was saying not Caesar but Christ is Lord and the word Lord can mean and in the context means God. So they were confessing a God over Caesar. Here the Jesus of history, the Jesus who lived affirms that he is the Jesus of doctrine. Now one of the popular things over and over again in history and especially in our time is for the scholars to say there is a difference between the Jesus of history and the Jesus of doctrine, the Jesus who lived was a human being who was born, lived and died and who was nothing supernatural or miraculous about him, because for them by definition nothing can be historical unless it is totally natural.

Therefore anything supernatural about Jesus must be eliminated. So they say that’s the Jesus of doctrine. What the disciples and churchmen over the centuries have posited about Him. But here in John the Jesus of history affirms the Jesus of doctrine and the modernists confounded by this unity can only deny that John’s gospel is historical or that Paul’s letters are accurate or that Mark, Matthew, Luke were also historical. But this finally means the denial of all history because the alternative to the triune God is chance and meaninglessness. If you deny the biblical God logically ultimately you are going to come to a belief in chance, everything is chance, and then you abandon all meaning in every sphere. It’s not surprising that some scientific thinkers in recent years have said what’s the point of it all, it’s all meaningless. Hagel’s neo-pantheism could only see Christ as a façade for an alien faith and his alien faith could only self-destruct as it is all around us. The disciples with Jesus’ ascension would understand what now they only see physically. Thus Jesus’ departure would bring them to understand who He was, God made flesh. Then in verse seventeen:

“17 Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father?”

They understood what He said but they rejected it. Their statement shows a firm grasp of His meaning. Understanding is a religious fact, it means a grasp of the presupposition and the meaning of what is said.

The disciples were rejecting the meaning of our Lord’s words, they said therefore, verse eighteen:

“They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith.”

There is a petulance in this statement, the disciples are in effect saying say it isn’t so. Their frame of reference was a Jewish messianic kingdom. Given this presupposition nothing Jesus made sense. When we read the gospels, all of them, all four, we find that they were trying to tell Him look, this is what you are supposed to do, knock it off, do what we think you should do. But our Lord had prepared them as much as He could for His cross and they had rejected His words. Their failure to understand was due to their intense desire that He should be what they wanted Him to be. Now this is a common failing. It’s all around us. Over the years I’ve seen many a man and woman marry with an idea of what their wife or husband should be and yet get very angry that they aren’t what they wanted them to be and it leads to of course serious trouble and the disciples were no different. Jesus had to be what they wanted Him to be and He’s telling them no, I am what God ordains I should be. In verse nineteen we are told:

“19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?”

Of course He was speaking of the fact that He would be gone, crucified, dead, buried, but they would see Him again between His resurrection and ascension. In a rough way they understood that but they were at the least unhappy at the thought that at the present they did not truly know Him. He was not what they wanted Him to be.

Our Lord had said that in a short time they would truly know Him but they feared that knowledge. They wanted the Messiah of their imagination. Today many people cling to a favorite verse or a group of favorite verses in the bible which is well and good except that too often God and Christ are reinterpreted in terms of that text and a very purely personal application. This means making themselves the principle of interpretation. A very great many people have a very small bible, they profess to believe the Bible from cover to cover but ask them about what they know of the Bible and what they read, its a few favorite passages and texts and no more. And then they insist that the whole bible has to be read in terms of say ‘God is love’ or some other favorite text. In verse twenty our Lord continues:

“20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”

The world, that is fallen men, shall rejoice at my crucifixion while ye are sorrowful. But with my resurrection there will be a reversal and the joy will be yours. Remember, at the time of the crucifixion when our Lord was in such agony, the religious leaders and others were gathered around the cross jeering and taunting Him, shouting he saved others but himself he cannot save.

If thou be the Christ, come down from Thy cross. They were joyful. This verse describes the reaction in our Lord’s day to His seeming defeat. It also describes the attitudes of our time, the world wants to rejoice at every apparent defeat that Christ and His people suffer and it works to insure that defeat. But our God is in the resurrection business, our God is in the resurrection business and every seeming defeat becomes a triumph.

“21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”

Delivery is painful for a woman but the birth of a child brings joy. What is here specified is a male child, feminists resent such texts but the plain meaning is that the birth of a male child throughout most of history has meant both safety and dominion. Safety because the male child meant that the future care of the family was closer to safety with a male and dominion because a male’s calling to exercise dominion would protect the family and advance the kingdom. Now this is an interesting fact because it has been true in most of history and it could well become true again. Male child was important as a first born because he was the future of the family as so far as carrying on the work and protection. We often read about the poor peasants of the middle ages and their lot as one of poverty, it wasn’t as poor as they say but he had a longer life expectancy than the Lord!

The lord married shortly after he reached his teens and he hoped that the firstborn would be a son so that in a few years there would be a man to carry on. The lords of the castles in the middle ages, the knights, had the shortest life expectancy because they were fighting men. They died young. The peasants were glad that the lord was there because he was the one who fought to protect them, well this is what a male child has meant in much of history, he has meant safety and dominion. Then in verse twenty two our Lord says:

“22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.”

The resurrection will end their sorrow and the knowledge that their risen Lord is king over all creation and their redeemer will give them a lasting joy. In verse twenty three our Lord says:

“23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”

To ask me nothing means they will ask no questions, they will have no doubts. Ignorance and doubt will be replaced with faith and trust. Doubting questions will be replaced by the prayers of faith. Then in verse twenty four:

“24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

This echoes Matthew 7:7. Because they did not know Him in the fullness of His office and in the fullness of His being they had not yet prayed to Jesus or in Jesus’ name. Now they are to pray to God through Him the intercessor, in His name, and they shall be answered that your joy may be full, meaning completed.

The meaning of these verses is that they will soon know clearly who Jesus is. They will understand His relationship to God the Father and to mankind and history. They will see Him as the Lord over all, then their joy will be full because they will Christ’s kingship and His kingdom as the goal of history and Jesus as Lord over all. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that Thou art king, that Thou art Lord over all and that Thou art our Savior. Closer to us then we are to ourselves and so we come our Father to cast our every care upon Thee knowing Thou carest for us, to commit unto Thee our needs, our hopes, our fears, our joys. Asking for Thy blessing and Thy closeness. We pray for one another for the needs and hopes of all Thy people. Grant these in Christ’s name, Amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] Yes, Jesus had told them He was going to Jerusalem and that He would be crucified. When they returned at the time of the death of Lazarus Thomas said, well, let us go and die with Him because they knew He would be arrested, tried and executed. So they knew but they did not understand the meaning of these events. They did not understand that His death would be for their atonement. They simply wanted to reject all that in favor of their belief that He should be the messianic king who would set up a free Israel which would rule over the nations. And that was so intensely their hope that they blinded themselves to what He was saying and in fact Peter grabbed ahold of Him and wanted to say don’t think like that, that’s not the way to go. Yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] Yes. People are still trying to do that and the favorite ways within the church are to look for a kingdom elsewhere and to be raptured into it and then the political hope, politics is the means to salvation. That is very emphatically the reigning hope of our time but it’s a dying hope. Any other questions or comments?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] No.

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] That’s right they could not comprehend it even though He had talked about it. And at His trial someone brought it up that He had said destroy this temple and in three days I will bring it up again. He was speaking of Himself as the true temple of God.

Well if there are no further questions let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we pray that Thou wouldst keep us from cluttering our minds with false hopes, with trying to compel you or plead with you to go our way instead of Thy ordained way. Of raising up false hopes to delude ourselves and others. Grant that our minds be fixed where our true joys are to be found, even in Jesus Christ. Grant that our hope be grounded upon Him and upon Thy word so that we may see all things clearly, work with knowledge and have a hope that maketh not ashamed. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.