Let's open our Bibles to John 16. We are going to be starting in verse 25 for our passage today. We'll go to the end of the chapter. This section in John 16, it's really the last words that Jesus has for His disciples in the upper room. Going through the Upper Room Discourse, as I've said before, it starts in John 13 and goes all the way to John 17. But chapter 17 is the High Priestly Prayer. And that's not really Jesus speaking to His disciples, it's Jesus speaking to the Father. So what we're gonna be looking at today is really the last message, the last few things that Jesus wants to talk to his disciples about. Luke 22, we read that Luke's recording of the upper room. Jesus says, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you. So Jesus has been looking forward to this dinner with these guys, this Passover with these guys because Because it's such an important conversation in the lives of Christians. It's really an important conversation in Jesus' life. Just studying it is important. And the truths that Jesus has for us. He's setting up the New Covenant for us. He's giving us the promises of the New Covenant. In the last half of chapter 16, is really Jesus winding down the conversation. He's kind of bringing it to a close. If you look at verse 12, he says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. And that kind of sounds like the end of a conversation, doesn't it? Like, oh, I have a lot to talk to you about, but later. I'll talk to you later about these things. I can't reveal these things to you now because you won't understand them, he tells us. And so really the last half of chapter 16 is Jesus summarizing or bringing the upper room to a conclusion. Verses 13-15, after He says that, He's talking about the Spirit. He's administering the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Again, He's already done that in the upper room. Then in verses 16-22, He talks about joy and how our sorrow is going to turn into joy. Then verses 23 through 24, he talks about prayer, and he says that you're going to go and ask the Father in my name for anything that you need, and He'll give it to you. And then we come to verses 25 to 33, and these are the last things, the last words that Jesus has. He has encouragement in there. He has rebuke in here. He has sad things. He has happy things. I actually this week wrote my whole message, and I had a whole message prepared, and I scrapped it all on Friday because it was so convoluted and so confusing. And so I ended up having to rewrite it and try to cut it down because there's so much in these verses. There's so many truths in these verses, and I really tried to summarize it into three points. So I'll just tell you these three points that Jesus talks about. The first is love. The second is faith. And the third is hope. These are the main themes of the Upper Room. These are the main topics that Jesus has in the Upper Room. These really inform the whole discussion and the whole conversation that they have love and faith and hope. And those further break down into love and obedience. Those are always connected. We've talked about that. Love always equals obedience. Faith always equals peace. Faith and peace are interconnected. And we talked last week about how hope and joy are connected. So when you have hope, you can have joy. And so that's really the points of this conclusion or this summary. I kind of want to have that in the back of our minds that this is a summary conclusion of the upper room. So the first thing Jesus talks about in these verses is love. So let's read and we can pray. Verse 25, I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from the Father. I came from the Father and have come into this world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father. His disciples said, ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God. Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I've said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for these verses. I thank you really for the whole Upper Room Discourse that John recorded and that we're able to read through it and study through it and we're able to be encouraged and we're able to be discouraged or rebuked, and I just pray that we would grow closer to you, that we would love you more through this discussion. In Jesus' name, Amen. So love. I said my three main points was love and faith and hope, and maybe that reminds you of 1 Corinthians 13. 1313, and it says, and now these three remain or abide, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Faith, hope, and love abide. These stay in our lives. These are consistent in the Christian life, that faith, hope, and love. But the greatest is love. The greatest is love. And this is a theme of the Upper Room. It dominates the whole conversation. And perhaps this is Perhaps this is John's interpretation, right? Perhaps this is John's memory of the upper room conversation because we read that he is the apostle of love, right? He's the apostle of love so pretty much all of his writings he has love just woven throughout all of his teachings and his writings and perhaps it's that but nonetheless it's still a really wonderful theme to read about, to see in this conversation, is love. If you've ever had to analyze or summarize a speech or a book or a movie or something like that, the easiest way to find the message or the theme in that book or speech is to look at the intro and to look at the conclusion, right? And usually they're connected. When we write sermons, sometimes we'll write the middle of the sermon and then after you'll write the conclusion and the intro because you want it to all be connected and you don't want it to be convoluted. So let's look at the intro, the intro to the Upper Room. Let's turn to chapter 13, verse one, actually, the very first verse in chapter 13. John writes, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. All right, now turn to chapter 16, back to 16, verse 27. This is really the outro or the conclusion of the Upper Room. It says, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me. So we see love, right? It's really easy to see love in the intro and the conclusion of the Upper Room. And perhaps some of us remember when I first started the Upper Room, I believe it was my first sermon, I had said that the theme of the Upper Room was God's love for us. It's not necessarily our love for each other or our love for God, but it's God's love for us. And that's really what Jesus is pouring out in the upper room. Verse after verse, it's just Jesus loving these disciples through promises, through encouragements, over and over and over again, all the way down to 16. It's so apparent in the first thing that happens in 13 too. Remember this? The first event in chapter 13, the first event in the upper room. Look at this, verses 3-5. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, laid aside his outer garments, took a towel and tied it around his waist, Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Then he explains what this sign is that he's performing in verse 12. He says, When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I, then, your Lord and your teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. So this sign, this sign that Jesus performs, the first thing that happens in the upper room is is Jesus is showing them that he's gonna wash them in his blood. That's the first thing that happens, and it's a great show of love. Jesus really starts with the big one, right? The big one, that he's gonna pour out his love in his blood. He says that you're gonna be washed in my blood. What does that mean? What does that mean that we're gonna be washed in the blood of Christ? Romans 5 verse 7 and 8 says, For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even die. But God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners. That's God's love. That's God's love. It's in his blood that he shed for us. Why does Jesus start with this? Why does he start with the big one, right? The big main event, the main event, right? That he's pouring out his blood. Because some of us, and I've thought about this in the upper room, like you. If you had this prepared, you'd probably start with the little things, the small promises, right? You know, you're going to have peace and you're going to have joy and you're going to be able to pray and we're going to send you the Spirit. And those are great promises. But the main thing is that Jesus died for us. That's the main show of his love. And so you'd want to end on that, right? You'd want to end on the big one and have a big conclusion of Jesus saying, I'm going to die for you. But he starts with this. He starts with this because He can't help but get straight to the point. He can't help but get straight to it that I love you. I love you. That's what He's telling His disciples. I love you so much that I'm not only going to humble myself on my hands and knees and wash your feet, but I'm going to die and I'm going to wash you in my blood. He loves us, and that's the theme. And we see it carried from the intro all the way to the end of chapter 16. It's not just the beginning and the end, it's the middle too. Chapter 14. Really, all kinds of promises in chapter 14. Verse 2 and 3, Jesus is promising eternal life. He says, there's many rooms in my Father's house, and you're going to have one of those rooms. I prepared it for you. Verse 7, he's promising a relationship with the Father. Verse 12, he's promising, he says, these works and greater works will you do. He's promising us great works. Verse 14, in chapter 14, he promises prayer. He says, if you ask anything in my name, you will have it. Verse 16 in chapter 14, he promises us the Holy Spirit, a helper, the Spirit of truth. Verse 23 in chapter 14, he says that you are going to have love from me and my Father, and we will come and make our home with you. Verse 27 is really a big one in my mind. I mention it in almost every message. 1427, he says, my peace I give to you. My peace I leave with you. Chapter 15, verse 11, he promises joy. He says, I've told you these things so that my joy can be in you and that your joy may be full. Then verse 17, he promises that we're going to love each other. He says, I've commanded these things to you so that you love one another. And that's a lovely promise to come to church and know that the people love you. Then chapter 16, he promises the Spirit again. He's going over it again. He promises joy again. And then we come to verse 26. Verse 26 says, oh, I lost my place. In that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. In that day, you will ask in my name. He's talking about prayer again. He's talking about prayer again. This is the third or fourth time that he's mentioned that we can ask the Father in His name. Why is he talking about prayer again? Why is this such a big deal, a big message? Let's read this really close. Look at this. Verse 26, in that day you will ask in my name. That's an amazing statement. I talked about this last week a little bit about what that means that we're going to be able to ask in Jesus' name. I tried to explain that a little bit, but what Jesus is basically saying is that we're going to be able to go and stand before the Father in heaven. And we're going to be representations, we're going to be messengers of Jesus. The Father is going to look at us the same way that He looks at Jesus. That's an amazing statement, that you are gonna be able to go to the Father in my name. You're gonna be able to ask the Father in my name. Remember the sermon on the mount? We just read it a few days ago in Matthew. Jesus, he says, this is how you're gonna pray. When you pray, pray like this. When you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. Pray to the Father, talk to the Father. That's amazing. That we get to stand before God, we get to go before his throne. I said this last week, sometimes when we start a prayer we'll say, I come before your throne. That's crazy. That we get to stand in the throne room of God and ask him for things. Ask him for things. Imagine that an ant walks up to you, or a spider, right? We all hate spiders. A spider walks up to you and he says, hey, buy me a new car. Right? He's asking you to buy him a new car. That's what we're doing. We're a bunch of little spiders and a bunch of little ants in front of God coming into his throne room and walking up to him and asking him for things. That's what Jesus says. You will ask in my name. Then look at the second half of this verse. In that day you will ask in my name. And I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf." What does that mean? I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. He's saying we don't need a mediator. We don't need something to communicate to the Father. We don't need something in between us and the Father. We don't need a mediator or a higher up or a temple or a shrine or we don't need to face a certain direction to speak with the Father because we're coming in Jesus' name. We come in Jesus' name. Of course it's true, we're told that Jesus is our high priest and he mediates for us in things that we have no control over, we don't really pray over, but But we get to go directly to the Father. And I can only imagine that the Catholics end up having to just take this verse completely out of their Bible because they'll teach that you need a mediator. Many people teach that you need a mediator, you need some kind of shaman or someone to be able to communicate with God. The Catholics actually call Mary their mediatrix. They say that you need Mary to go communicate with God. Jesus, we don't even need Jesus to communicate with God. We get to go directly to God. We get to ask for things of the Father in Jesus' name. That's amazing. So how is this possible? How is that possible that we get to go Before the Father, we get to go before the God of the universe. We who are meaningless humans that were created, we're a bunch of little ants. How is it that we who are sinners get to go before the God of the universe and ask Him for things? Because that sounds backwards, doesn't it? Like, He should be asking us for stuff. He created us. Look at verse 27, it answers it. In that day, you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you. The Father himself loves you. That's why we get to go before God. That's why we get to pray to him. We get to ask him for stuff because he loves us. That's so, that's beautiful. that God's love is so great that it covers over our sins. We just talked about, Sam just talked about how we can't even go before the presence of God because He's so perfect that our sins aren't even allowed in His presence. We have to be forgiven. But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And I love this, look at this, verse 27. For the Father himself loves you. I love how he says himself, the Father himself loves you. He doesn't just say the Father loves you, right? He could have just said the Father loves you. No, he says the Father himself loves you. He's reiterating it so that there's no doubt, there's no leeway, there's no confusion about who loves us or how he loves us. The Father himself, God himself loves you. The Father himself loves you because you have loved me. That's the flip side of this love. That's the flip side. That's the other side. That's what we're supposed to do. We have to love God. We must love God. Does anybody remember what the greatest commandment is? It's in Matthew 22. The greatest commandment. Jesus tells us, the greatest commandment is that you shall love the Lord your God. with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. We're told that we have to love God. We're commanded to love God. God's love for us is the main theme. It's a major theme in the Upper Room. But all throughout it, alongside it, is our love for Him. And the result, I said this earlier, that love is always connected to obedience. It's always connected to obedience. John 14, 15, Jesus tells us, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. So we're commanded to love the Lord, and this love leads us to obey him. Jesus tells us what his command is, right? We're supposed to obey him. What are we supposed to do? What does this obedience look like? Well, he tells us, John chapter 13, in the upper room, chapter 13, verse 34. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. That's what he wants us to do. So we love God and that leads us to love one another. And he says, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. Love one another as I have loved you. That makes it really easy to love others, doesn't it? So we get all these promises, we get this eternal life, we get the Holy Spirit, we get joy, we get peace, and all I have to do is love others the way that I've been loved? I've already received this love. That's an easy deal to make. Right? That's easy. So we're commanded to love God, but not only are we commanded to love God, we get to love God. We're given the ability to love God. And we even want to love God. It's not hard for us to love God because there's so much that He pours out for us. 1 John 4, 7 tells us, Beloved, let us love one another. For love is from God. Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God. Because God is love. God is love. And if you don't love others, if you don't obey His command to love your brothers, you don't know God. Because He is love. Verse 27 is a really nice segue into faith. Look at this, verse 27. For the Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God. and believed that I came from God. See, love is something that every person wants. It's something that every person needs. They need someone to love them, and people need someone that they can love. Humans are built this way. We need love. 1 Corinthians 13 says, Faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest is love. Love is a mighty thing, But faith is the foundation of the Christian life. Faith is what our whole life is built on. Faith is what our whole relationship with God is built on. Faith is the beginning. It's the first step in the Christian life. Right? It's the first step we take, rather. Because faith is a response to the Father softening our hearts and giving us a heart of flesh, This is the first step that we take. This is the first step into the admittance into the kingdom. And this faith has been taught throughout the whole Upper Room. He keeps telling them, believe that I have come from the Father. Believe me that I have come from the Father. I and the Father are one. Believe Him and love Him the way that you have believed Me and trusted in Me. He's been trying to convince these disciples for the whole Upper Room to trust the Father and believe in the Father the way that they trust Him. Even all the way back in John 6. John 6, way back there, he tells us that he and the Father are one. He says it, I think, ten different times in John 6 that I have come from the Father. I have come from the Father. And verse 9, chapter 16, verse 9. tells us what the world is convicted of. Remember talking about that? The world is convicted of sins. It says the world is convicted concerning sin because they do not believe in me. That's what the world is convicted of. That's what condemns them. That's what sends them to hell, is rejecting the Son of God. This is the sin, the cardinal sin, is not believing and not having faith in who Jesus is, And I think that's why Jesus really ends the upper room talking about faith. Because it's so important. This is the foundation of everything. It's the first step in the gospel. Let's back up to verse 25. Jesus says, "...I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father." What is he talking about? Figures of speech. What is Jesus saying? I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech. Is he talking about parables? He's no longer going to use parables? Is he talking about sayings? He's going to stop using sayings? Some translations will say, I will no longer speak to you in veiled ways or hidden ways. What Jesus is saying is that the truth about the Father is veiled to them. They don't understand. The end of verse 25 says, I will tell you plainly about the Father. He's talking about the Father again. You guys don't understand this because you don't have the Spirit. Right? They don't understand the Father properly yet. They don't have the full faith in the Father or Jesus really. But the day is coming when I will no longer speak to you in veiled ways. And that's when the Spirit comes. The Spirit of truth. He teaches us the truth. He's going to teach you all things. Look at verse 29. His disciples say this, Now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech now We know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question. This is why we believe that you came from God This is why we believe ah now we understand the first time I read this verse trying to study this passage It's it was confusing Because why now Why now, at the end of the upper room, are the disciples saying, ah, now we understand, now we get it, because you're not speaking to us in figures of speech. It doesn't make any sense, because Jesus has said these things plainly. He's been pretty clear about his relationship with the Father, about his coming from the Father. Like I mentioned, chapter 6, he says it 10 different times in 10 different ways or more, that I have come from the Father. I and the Father are one. Believe me. Even back in verse 17, they were still confused. Verse 17, some of his disciples said to one another, what is this that he says, because I am going to the Father? They're still confused about Jesus going back to the Father, how he came from the Father. Ah, now we understand, right? The problem is that they don't. That's the problem. I was searching this passage trying to figure out how did they understand because maybe Jesus had some secret words, right? Some secret words that he said, something to make them understand, to have faith, to understand something that he's been trying to teach them for three years now. The problem is they don't truly have full faith in him, right? They don't have true saving faith. Because true saving faith only comes through the Spirit, through the Spirit revealing the truth of Jesus to us. Like I said, we believe that faith is a response. It's a response to the Spirit coming into us and changing us. Then we believe. And these disciples don't truly believe, they don't truly have full faith because they don't have the Spirit yet. And we know this, that they don't have full faith, because of how Jesus responds, right? Verse 31 and 32 is how Jesus responds to them saying, ah, now we have full, now we understand, now we believe that you have come from God. Full disclosure, I disagree with John MacArthur on this. He actually teaches that they do have faith and that Jesus' response is, somehow confirming their faith in the Father. I disagree with that. But verse 31 and 32, Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Almost sarcastically or facetiously, oh, now you believe, right? Now you guys get it. Behold, the hour is coming. Indeed, it has come when you will be scattered. You will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Right? Now you believe. Oh, okay. Right? Sarcastically. We read elsewhere in Luke's recording of the upper room that Jesus says, he tells them, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. He's gonna sift you guys. Right? He's gonna shake you guys up and he's gonna put you under all kinds of stress and And then he says, but I have prayed that your faith would not fail you. See, the disciples had faith. They did. We've talked about that before. They understand who Jesus is. That's why when Jesus asked them, are you guys going to leave now? Right? Are you guys going to leave? No. You're the only one with the words of eternal life. But their faith is weak. That's so clear by what Jesus says. The hour is coming when you will be scattered. It's sad to see that their faith fails them to a degree. We've watched this in the modern day with our Christian brothers and friends. Sometimes we see somebody's faith fail them and it's sad. It's sad to watch someone lose faith. It's sad because the end of verse 32, you will be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone. That's what we watch every time somebody loses faith. That's what we watch as these disciples lose faith. They reject Jesus and they leave Jesus all alone. The one person in history that should never be left alone. He should always have people flocking around him, trying to love him. But his own brothers, his own friends leave him. I love the picture that he paints, too. You will be scattered, right? It's like when you pick up a log in the middle of the woods, right? And all these ants or bugs or whatever crawl out from under the log. They just scatter, right? It's sad to watch the disciples scatter. But look at the end of verse 32, the very end of verse 32. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. And this is where we have hope, right? We talked about love. We talked about faith a little bit. And this is where we see hope. Hope in the future, right? Hope has this kind of sense of the future. You're hoping in something. Jesus has faith in his father that he's not going to leave him. He says, my father will not leave me. You guys are going to leave me, but my father will stick by my side. And this is the hope that we have now. My dad had a wonderful message on hope at the funeral that we were at this weekend. Hope in all situations. We have hope in all situations. Christians can't hope in the world because everything in the world fails us. People fail us. Money fails us. Last week I talked a little bit about how we can have joy in all situations, and that's the story of the Christian life, that our sorrow always turns into joy. And we can have joy in all situations because we have hope in all situations. We have a hope that can't fail us. We have a hope that can't fail us because our hope is in death. Right? I always think it's kind of funny that there's a There's a saying that I think it was Benjamin Franklin is what I read that coined this. He says, there's only two things that are certain in life, death and taxes, right? Our hope isn't in taxes, but our hope is in death. Because death is certain. Death is certain for everyone. And that's our hope, is to die one day. I'm hoping in that. I want that. We desire that. Our hope is certain. And the one in whom we have faith, the one in whom we hope, is faithful. We have hope because of this. Look at verse 33. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. In me you will have peace, in the world you will have tribulation. We see this The two sides, right? In Jesus we have peace, but the world is full of tribulation. But take heart. Take heart. I have overcome the world. This is our hope, this is our joy, this is our peace. That Jesus has overcome the world. He has overcome the world. It reminds me of verse 11. the convictions of the world, right? Jesus says concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged. The world is convicted concerning judgment because the ruler is already judged. He's already done. It's already been finished. This gives us a sense of the past. Hope is for the future, but But we have this sense of the past and what has happened, and that's that Jesus has overcome the world. He has defeated death. The world has been convicted. And so we have hope in the future because our hope is not fully realized yet. He's overcome the world, but that's not fully realized until we die or until the end of days. We've already won. We have already won, and Jesus has already won, and that's our hope. Amen. I want the end of my message to be the same end as Jesus' conversation, the same end that he sets up. For Christians, we have this encouragement of verse 33, where Jesus says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart. I love that. Take heart. Right? There's a few statements that Jesus makes in the upper room where he says, stop being troubled, stop being sorrowful, and now he says take heart. And it's almost a weak, it's kind of weak. Take heart, right? When somebody's upset or struggling in their life and you go up to them and say, stop. Stop being upset. Just be happy. Just have peace. Right? Stop being upset. Just take heart. It's almost weak. But this is Jesus saying this. This is the Son of God telling us to take heart. John MacArthur points this out. I'll steal this from him too. He says the only person in the New Testament that says take heart is Jesus. There's nowhere else in the New Testament that you'll read Paul or Peter or John or anybody else saying, take heart, don't be troubled. The way that Jesus says it. He's the only one. Because he's truly the only one that can tell us, take heart. Be at peace. That's how he ends this conversation. Be at peace. I have overcome the world. But for non-believers, for those who don't have faith, Jesus Jesus ends on the topic of faith. And he ends on the topic of faith for a reason. Because every gospel message, every gospel presentation should start and end with faith. Because that's the foundation of it all. To believe in Jesus for who he is and what he has done. So if you're listening to this, or you're reading this passage, and none of it makes any sense. Perhaps it angers you to hear about Jesus and turning from sin to love the Lord. If you're hearing and reading all of this and it sounds like figures of speech, it sounds like Jesus is still speaking in figures of speech, or it's veiled. then I'd like to invite you to come to the throne of God with me. And in your own head or in your own mind with me, pray with me. Lord, we come before your throne to ask that you reveal the truth to us Lord, we come to ask that You would send us Your Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to reveal these things to us that we can have faith in You. Lord, and the result of this faith is love. I pray that we would love You the way that You have loved us, Lord. I ask that You that you cause us to have faith in you, that you cause us to love you, that we can obey you, Lord, I ask that you reveal any wicked way in us. Lord, we are knocking, and I ask that you would open. Lord, I ask that anyone here who's not one of your sheep who's not one that has the Spirit and the truth revealed to them, that they would come to You, and that they would truly, with a contrite heart and a sorrowful heart, ask that You reveal these things. And I know that You will pour out Your love on them as You have poured out Your love in these passages. In Jesus' name, Amen.