DESTINY’S BIBLE STUDY NOTES AND QUOTES

(The Life and Ministry of Jesus #45)

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled (See John 13:14-17, 31-38)

The Savior’s words to the disciples were full of hope. He knew that they were to be assailed by the enemy, and that Satan’s craft is most successful against those who are depressed by difficulties. Therefore He pointed them away from “the things which are seen,” to “the things which are not seen.” (2 Corinthians 4:18) From earthly exile He turned their thoughts to the heavenly home.

Christ’s departure from earth was the opposite of what the disciples feared. It did not mean a final separation. He was going to prepare a place for them, that He might come again, and receive them unto Himself. While He was building mansions for them, they were to build characters after the divine similitude.

There are not many ways to heaven. Each one may not chose their own way. Christ says, “I am the way… no one comes to the Father, but by me.”

When Phillip said, “show us the Father,” Jesus, amazed at his dullness of comprehension, asked with pained surprise, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet you have not known me, Phillip?”

Christ had not ceased to be God when He became man. Though He had humbled Himself to humanity, the Godhead was still His own. Christ alone could represent the Father to humanity, and it was His representation the disciples had been privileged to behold for over three years.

If the disciples believed this vital connection between the Father and the Son, their faith would not forsake them when they saw Christ’s suffering and death to save a perishing world. Christ was seeking to lead them from their low condition of faith to the experience they might receive if they truly realized what He was—God in human flesh!

The Savior was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what purpose His divinity was united to humanity.

As yet the disciples were unacquainted with the Savior’s unlimited resources and power. He said to them, “Hitherto have you asked nothing in My name.” (John 16:24) He explained that the secret of their success would be in asking for strength and grace in His name. He would be present before the Father to make request for them. The prayer of the humble suppliant He presents as His own desire in that soul’s behalf.

Every sincere prayer is heard in heaven. It may not be fluently expressed, but if the heart is in it, it will ascend to the sanctuary where Jesus ministers, and He will present it to the Father without one awkward, stammering word, beautiful and fragrant with the incense of His own perfection.

The path of sincerity and integrity is not a path free from obstruction, but in every difficulty we are to see a call to prayer. There is no one living who has any power that he has not received from God, and the source whence it comes is open to the weakest human being.

“In My name,” Christ instructed His disciples to pray. In Christ’s name His followers are to stand before God. For Christ’s sake the Father pardons those that fear Him. He does not see in them the vileness of the sinner. He recognizes in them the likeness of His Son in whom they believe.

The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, or else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them! He is pleased when they make the highest demands on Him, that they may glorify His name. They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises.

But to pray in Christ’s name means much. It means that we are to accept His character, and manifest His spirit. The Savior’s promises are given on condition. “If you love Me,” He says, “Keep my commandments.” He saves men, not in sin, but from sin; and those who love Him will show their love by obedience.

All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall but be carrying out our own impulses.

The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, sin will become hateful to us.

Earthly ideas, temporal things, still had a large place in the disciples thoughts. They did not understand the spiritual nature of Christ’s kingdom, though He had so often explained it to them.

It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.

The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power.

It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon His church.

The preaching of the word will be of no avail without the continual presence and aid of the Holy Spirit.

One might be able to present the letter of the word of God, he might be familiar with all its commands and promises. But unless the Holy Spirit sets home the TRUTH, no souls will truly fall on the Rock and be broken.

We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us.

Through the Spirit, God works in His people “to will and do of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13) But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves.

When Peter said he would follow his Lord to prison and to death, he meant it, every word of it. But he did not know himself. Hidden in his heart were elements of evil that circumstances would fan into life.

The Savior saw in him a self-love and assurance that would overbear even his love for Jesus. Christ’s solemn warning was a call to heart searching. Peter needed to distrust himself, and to have a deeper faith in Christ.

“I am the true vine,” Jesus says. Instead of choosing the graceful palm, the lofty cedar, or the strong oak, Jesus takes the vine with its clinging tendrils to represent Himself. The palm tree, the cedar, and the oak stand alone. They require no support. But the vine entwines about the trellis, and thus climbs heavenward. So Christ in His humanity was dependent on divine power. “I can of my own self do nothing.” (John 5:30)

The soul, though dead in trespasses and sins, receives life through connection with Christ. By faith in Him as a personal Savior, the union is formed. The sinner unites his weakness to Christ’s strength, their emptiness to Christ’s fullness, their frailty to Christ’s enduring might. Then they have the mind of Christ.

The humanity of Christ has touched our humanity, therefore our humanity has touched divinity. Thus through the agency of the Holy Spirit humanity becomes a partaker of the divine nature. This union with Christ, once formed, must be maintained. Christ said, “Abide in me and I in you.” Abiding in Christ means a constant receiving of His Spirit, a life of unreserved surrender to His service.

Separated from the vine, the branch cannot live. No more, said Jesus, can you live apart from Me. The life you have received from Jesus can be preserved only by continual communion. So long as the soul is united to Christ, there is no danger that it will wither or decay.

The command to love one another had a new meaning in the light of Jesus’s self-sacrifice. The whole work of grace is one continual service of love of self-denying, self-sacrificing effort. During every hour of Christ’s sojourn upon earth, the love of God was flowing from Him in irrepressible streams. All who are imbued with His Spirit will love as He loved.

As the world’s Redeemer, Christ was constantly confronted with apparent failure. He longed to do even more uplifting and saving than He already had, but satanic influences were constantly working to oppose His way. But Jesus would not be discouraged!

When the last steps of Christ’s humiliation were to be taken, when the deepest sorrow was closing about His soul, He said to His disciples, “The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me.” “The prince of this world is judged.” Now shall he be cast out. (John 14:30, 16:11, 12:31)

Christ’s followers are to manifest of the same enduring nature as His. We are to despair of nothing, and hope for everything.