Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus is God

Tonight we go deeper into the strategic, calculated instructions of Jesus Christ to His disciples in His final hours.

As we see in the initial conversation, they need so much.

Christ reveals three things to them: His deity, His power, and His promise.

I. Jesus reveals He is God.

John

John 14:7-

If you know Me, you will also know My Father.

The one who has seem Me has seen the Father.

I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.

What did that reveal?

One thing: It revealed that Jesus is God.

This is a tremendous statement.

Yet it cannot be dismissed.

You cannot ignore the claim of Jesus to be God.

Jesus is uniquely one with, but distinct from, the Father — He is God in human flesh.

This implied they should have known.

It was a straightforward claim of divine authority.

It’s a mild rebuke.

for their unbelief.

It’s now something He knows they need due to the circumstances they will be in.

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through me.”

I am going to the Father and I will take you.

They had some understanding.

They declared Him the Messiah, the anointed One of God.

Peter even made the statement that He was the Son of the living God.

They were close to fully grasping the truth and reality of His deity.

And so Jesus sought to put it in terms they could not possibly miss.

If you know Me, you will also know My Father.

From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”

“If you know Me, you will also know My Father.

From now on you do know Him and have seen Him...The one who has seen Me has seen the Father...I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.”

If they truly saw Him fully as God, they would not fear and would not doubt.

They would not question.

They would boldly and courageously stand.

His desire was to comfort them.

And the greatest comfort is to know Jesus Christ for who He is — and that is God.

Philips question was eerily close to the unbelieving Pharisee’s —

The question reveals a gross deficiency in Philip’s faith.

And Jesus’ answer is basically the same He gave to the unbelieving Jews.

And look at the heartbreak in Jesus voice as He responds to Philip:

John 14:

He had poured His life into these 12 men for 3 years.

We saw that in the beginning from Johns statement.

It’s the night before His death and the still didn’t really know who He was.

We don’t know if the answer Jesus gave to Philip was satisfying, but it was exactly what Philip needed.

Did you notice that Jesus didn’t perform any miracles or display some fantastic power — it is solely His word.

He commanded him to believe.

And that is Christianity — Believing what God has said.

Satan can counterfeit miracles and supernatural voices and phenomena.

You can get that stuff at a séance.

Faith is believing what God said.

And look at what Jesus told Philip in verse 10.

— “The words I speak to you I do not speak on My own.

The Father who lives in Me does His works.”

If Philip had really paid attention, he and the other disciples would have no doubt having seen and understood all that Jesus did.

John MacArthur said this — “There is always the danger of doubting in the darkness things we have seen clearly in the light.”

And this is absolutely true.

They had seen clearly all that He did.

And now in fear they cower in the shadows of the darkness of the circumstances and doubt everything.

How could any of them possibly ask to see God at this point?

He was God incarnate.

He proved His deity.

They experienced His words and His works.

And they experienced His love for them.

He goes on to comfort them.

Look at verse 12 as He begins: I assure you.

He then reveals as God His resource of power.

II.

Jesus reveals His resource of power.

John 14:12

This is an incredible statement taken at face value.

Think about this.

How could anyone do greater works than Jesus did?

He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, gave speech to the dumb, caused the deaf to hear, calmed the sea, cast out demons, walked on water — He raised the dead!

The key to understanding this incredible promise is the last phrase:

“Because I am going to the Father.”

When Jesus went to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit.

The power of the Holy Spirit in the disciples changed them from timid scared individuals to a cohesive force that reached the world with the Gospel.

Jesus’ ministry never exceed a 175 mile radius.

The Gospel never went to Europe, Asia, or Africa, much less the Americas.

The Holy Spirit spread the gospel far and wide in the preaching of the apostles and the message is still spreading today.

Their works were greater in scope, not in power.

Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, each disciple had access to power in dimensions not previously attainable, even with the physical presence of Christ.

He would later tell them:

Though the disciples thought that without the physical presence of Christ they would be reduced to nothing, but with Christ with the Father and the Holy Spirit indwelling them — they were never more powerful and able to do more.

They would be fearless.

His promise was meant to ease their fears.

And they preached boldly and saw God do amazing things.

In , Peter preached and 3,000 were saved.

In chapter 4, 5,000 heard the message and believed.

In Acts 5:

Acts 5:

Incredible?

Every time we introduce someone to faith in Jesus Christ and we witness a new birth, we are seeing the greatest miracle God performs — Salvation.

How exciting it is to be involved and used by God to do “greater things” than even what Jesus saw here on earth.

This is one of those beyond our understanding here and in the Divine counsels of heaven.

III.

Jesus reveals an amazing Promise.

John 14:13-