Knock Knock

  Sorry I missed you last night folks. I promise that it won't happen again until the next time. You can take that to the bank, baby.

  Verse 15- I'm tempted to just write that verse, ask you to say it one million times and be done for the evening. Jesus is loving you by telling you, in 10 short words, what it means to love Him. If you love me, you will obey what I command. If you love me, you will obey what I command. Again, the reverse is true. If you don't love me, you won't obey what I command. This verse clears the table for you. It clarifies things for you. He's loving us with this verse. He's not saying He won't love you, if you don't obey Him but it will be a very different kind of relationship.

  He wants me to love Him but if my understanding of Jesus is that He is a God that I don't have to obey, then I don't have faith in Jesus. Not this Jesus. If I love Jesus on my terms then I don't know Jesus the way He demands that He must be known. I am worshiping someone else. If I say I am worshiping Jesus but only on my terms, then I am actually worshiping me. I should form my own religion and call it Joeyanity. Now if you would like to join my religion, I suggest that you start tithing immediately. If I am too busy or too lazy to do whatever it is I know Jesus wants me to do, I don't love Him. Period.

  Verse 15 and 16 should be one sentence. It's not "I will ask the Father, and He will give you the Counselor(Holy Spirit)." It's "obey what I command AND I will give you the Holy Spirit." We sometimes put the cart before the horse. We greatly desire the Holy Spirit but aren't as concerned about obeying. I assure you, if you love and obey Christ, the Holy Spirit will be given you when you ask.

  Verse 17- Remember, Jesus described Himself as the light. That means that the Holy Spirit is also the light. Jesus said he was "the way, the truth and the life." He is the truth. The Holy Spirit is His Spirit. So he calls the Holy Spirit, "the Spirit of Truth." When Jesus leaves and the Spirit comes, the world won't accept the Spirit either because it is still in darkness. Verse 17 says that right now, the Spirit is only WITH you but Jesus is pointing to the time when the Spirit will be IN them. That explains why right now, these disciples are a bunch of confused cowards but when the Spirit gets IN them, they are beyond courageous and are able to literally change the world forever.

   Verse 21-Again, if you are one who likes Tattoos, might I suggest  John 14:21:

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

  DO I LOVE HIM!!??

 
 Verse 23 and 24- Here is a helpful hint; If Jesus says virtually the same thing, over and over, it's probably fairly important. Need to roll around in these verses and ask ourselves some questions. Don't be afraid of the answer. That's God knocking, let Him in.

  Verse 26- This is a verse that let's me know that everything I am reading in the Gospels is right and true. It is a cornerstone verse for anyone who desires to truly study the Bible.

  Verse 30- The "prince of this world", that's the devil.  It seems that He believes that He is actually gonna win by having Jesus killed. He is supposed to be so smart. Maybe He knows that He will lose but His blood lust is so great and His hatred for God so total, that He can't give up an opportunity to brutalize God's son. Hard to understand.

  Verse 31- The world must know what obedience, motivated by love, is. I've heard people say, "I love you to death."  Jesus really means it.

 

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” ²² Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” ²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.   ²⁵ “All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 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.   ²⁸ “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. ²⁹ I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. ³⁰ I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, ³¹ but 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.