For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of
John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already
written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave
off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily
word count limit. We will also return to placing a blog posting daily for the
time being.
In order to follow this you ought to have read from the first
posting in the series – John 14 (One).
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to
you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me.
Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in
my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you (John 14:18-20).
What did Jesus mean when He mentioned orphans? The
Greek word used for ‘orphans’ means comfortless, in other words
bereft of a father or parents or of a guide. He simply meant He would not leave
the disciples, and therefore us Christians, to ourselves – He will be there for
us. An orphan is a child growing up without the comfort and direction of
parents, especially of a father. These words of His indicate that we disciples
are not able to cope on our own. We may be able to cope as adults in a human
world, but in the spirit world we are but children – we need a Dad for
protection, comfort and guidance.
The next word in this passage that needs some
explanation is the word “see”. Jesus stated that soon the world (those who are
not part of Him) will not see Him anymore, but the disciples will see Him. He
probably meant it physically, since after His ascension it was obvious that nobody
would see Him, but we can also assume He was talking about the post-ascension
time, which is why He mentioned that the disciples would still be able to see
Him. How could his past and present disciples see Jesus? The Greek word used in
this passage means "to see, to behold, to view attentively, to view
mentally, to enjoy the presence of one, and to discern." This word is not
used of an indifferent spectator, but of one who looks at a thing with interest
and for a purpose. From these definitions we gather that ‘see’ here actually
means to see Jesus in the spirit, perceiving Him with the mind’s eye, to enjoy
His presence and feel His closeness.
That is why the world will not be able to see Him,
because to be able to ‘see’ one must behold Him - look for Him attentively and
with interest. Even Christians would not experience His presence if they were
indifferent. To see Him demands undivided attention and focus. ‘So I see Him,
but what do I see? Do I see him physically?’ you may ask. We see Him for
who He is. He says in John 14:21, which we will discuss later, the
following: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves
Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and
will reveal Myself to him" (MKJV).
The greatest adventure for a Christian is not doing all
kinds of exciting things, but is to get to know the Lord. It is to self-develop
through doing the Word and then see how He responds by making Himself known.
This is how the original disciples saw the Lord and how we would see Him. We
experience His presence and get to know how He thinks. Although the latter
focuses on Jesus' personality, Jesus also offered His disciples other things
such as physical peace, comfort, strength and love while He was on earth. These
we can also have through the Spirit if we would seek to find them. To those who
eagerly seek Him (Matthew 7:7), to them He will be there as if He was there
physically, just like the apostles and Paul experienced His presence. On the
Lord’s part nothing has changed. It is us who found ‘more important’ things to
do with our time so that we do not experience His reality in our presence.
There is, however, a condition to seeing Him - you must be born again. The
spirit with which we are born is dead toward God due to Adam’s sin and can
therefore not connect with the Holy Spirit. It therefore needs to be renewed
through rebirth after which we must be baptised with the Holy Spirit, because Jesus
only lives within us through His Holy Spirit.
Thank you Lord that
your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not
return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the
purpose for which you sent it.
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