A Message For The Night Season Pt 1 | Pt 1

Al Pittman: Today on the Dwelling Place. And then when we talk about the atoning work of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ in atonement, that is in saving us, that we realize that it's by grace that we're saved, not of works. It's by faith in Jesus Christ, not of works, lest any man should boast and say somehow I saved myself. The sufficiency is totally of Jesus Christ. We cannot add anything to the work of salvation or take anything from it.
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Al Pittman: John chapter 14. In fact, for the next two or three weeks or so, I'm going to be teaching a series of messages from chapter 14 to chapter 17. I've entitled this series of messages A Message for the Night Season. A Message for the Night Season. Jesus begins to teach. Remember last time in chapter 13, Judas has gone out to betray Jesus. This is the night before his crucifixion. And on this night, he takes time out of his love for his disciples, his love for you and me, to teach, to prepare their hearts for the trial that is to come upon them because of Judas's betrayal. And so the Lord begins to teach in chapters 14 to 17. And here in chapter 14, we're going to look at chapter 14 today. And he really gives them five essential truths in chapter 14, which are able to sustain us through what I call the night seasons. The night seasons of our lives are time when our fears and our doubts threaten to overwhelm us. Anybody going through that today? Well, you're in good company. David went through that, King David. If you get a chance today, maybe sometime, read Psalm 13. It's a short Psalm, it's only six verses. And David opens the chapter up with a lament really and saying, "God, how long? How long will you basically ignore me? Where are you, oh Lord?" Anybody ever feel that way? I know there's times in my life that I've gone through a night season where I've felt that way, but Jesus reassures his disciples here and gives them five essential truths that will help them through their night season, the trial that they're going to face. He talks about, number one, his path. Number two, his sufficiency. Number three, his will. Number four, his help. And number five, his peace. And we're going to look at all five of those today as we go through chapter 14. A lot of ground to cover. Hopefully, you're prepared to take notes or whatever, but let's dive right in. And Jesus speaks about his path on this night, the night of his betrayal. Looking with the cross before him, he says to his disciples in verse one of John chapter 14, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also." The Apostle Paul says in another place, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." And then Thomas said, old doubting Thomas, said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?" And Jesus said, "I am the way. Amen. The truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." The Lord encourages them on this night when they are troubled and he knew what was going on in their hearts, just like the Lord knows what's going on in your heart right now. He knew they were troubled and he confronts the trouble, that which threatens to divert them from his path, as the Lord will confront the very thing that seeks to divert us from his path in our lives. And he reminds them, he says, "Don't let your heart be troubled." Now I'm sure they're thinking, like many of us, if you know the disciples, we forget they're just people like us and they're sitting there, "Wait a minute, what do you mean, don't be troubled? Are you kidding me? You basically have shared with us that you're going to die. Judas took off, who knows where." "And then Peter, we thought he was in with you like, you know, he was really close to you. You rebuke him and tell us that, you know, he's going to deny you. I mean, what started out, Jesus, as a good party, Passover party, you're really bringing us down." Amen. Kind of like our lives in the Lord. What started out good, you know, we all start out praise the Lord, got saved and everything's great. Then some things you start learning that kind of can bring you down. The night season is approaching. Lord said, "Let not your heart be troubled." Anyone troubled today? That word "troubled" in the Greek is the word *tarassō* and it means uncertain affinity to stir, to agitate like rolling water. How many of you know what I'm talking about when I say some days you're just going along minding your own business and there is a wave that comes over you, maybe a thought from the past or situation that seems to just overwhelm you and pull you into the currency, if you will, of worry. Amen? I was reading the other day about rip tides and about people who swim in the ocean, run into these what's called these rip tides and the article was saying you don't want to swim against a rip tide. You don't want to fight it. You want to swim diagonally to the rip tide, parallel to the shore. Just kind of angling toward the shore eventually you'll get out of the rip tide. I thought about that in the spiritual sense. Rip tides will come. Problems will come. Jesus said, "In this world, you will have tribulation." I've never found anybody to refute that. I think everybody, in the world you will have rip tides, but behold I have overcome the world. What does that mean? Well, just as you swim diagonally to a rip tide, so we ought to spiritually speaking apply God's parallel promises to our problems. Apply his parallel promises to our problems. Placing his promise alongside of our troubles enables us to endure with our eyes set on the shoreline which is Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. What does that look like in real time? Well, taking the word of God and applying his promise to your troubles, to your problems. Because you know, a lot of people want to wish the rip tide away, the problems away. Amen. Some of you come in here, we come in church weary because we've been swimming against the current all week trying to solve the problem on our own. We've been speaking to the current in the name of Jesus. Amen. And you come into the church you're exhausted, worn out, trying to make things happen in your own strength. You can't change the problem. That knucklehead husband is going to continue to be a knucklehead husband. Amen. No lady saying amen on that one. That boss at work is going to continue to be a rip tide for you. Amen. That situation hasn't changed for 10 years and we get angry with God. But what we need to do is apply his promise to the problem, to swim not against the current but along with the problem, diagonally with the promises of God with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the shoreline, the author and finisher of our faith. Now you say, "Well, that's great theory, but where is that in scripture?" It's right here in our text. Jesus said, "Let your heart not be troubled." Trouble's going to come, disciples. Rip tide's coming. "Let your heart be not troubled, for in my Father's house there are many mansions, many dwelling places literally. If it wasn't so, I would not have told you, but I go to prepare a place for you so that I will come again so that where I am, you may be also." Jesus was applying a promise to the problem right there. Problem didn't go away, right? Sanhedrin didn't fall in love with the disciples, did they? Everything wasn't peaceful with the Romans and all of that, but they held on to that promise and applied it to the rip tide of their troubles and their problems. Whereby Paul the Apostle, he did it himself, he applied God's promises to his problems and therefore he said in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, the rip tide I'm facing right now, they are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us." Amen. Keeping his eyes on Jesus, the shoreline, as we travail through this life. Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Amen. So whatever trouble you're going through, whatever problem you're going through, have you applied the promises of God or did you come in here this morning weary because you've been struggling with it, swimming against it all week? Hey, they tell you don't swim against the rip tide because the rip tide is stronger than you. The devil is stronger than Pastor Al. The world and its enticements and lust is stronger than Pastor Al. I can't fight it myself. I can only do it with God's help, with God's strength as I keep my eyes on the path, on the shoreline. And Jesus described himself as being that very path in where he says in verse four, he says, "And where I go, you know the way, the way you know rather." And Thomas said, "Lord, we don't know the way." And Jesus said, "I am the way." In other words, keep your eye on the path, the truth. Don't get entangled with the lies of the world. I am the life. Don't believe the lies of the enemy that life somehow is in what you possess. No, it's in who possesses you. And so he reminds them on that night, one of the essential truths on that night is to remember the path. The second truth that he reminds them of is his sufficiency. Verses seven to 11, if you'll read along with me. Seven, 11, amen. "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also and from now on you know him and have seen him." And then Philip said to him, verse eight, "Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us." Oh, the Father's sufficient for us. We wouldn't have to worry about anything, just show us the Father. It's almost like when I read the question of Thomas and then the question here of Philip, it's like, "Guys, you guys been walking with him for three years. Have you been listening?" Jesus just said that, you know, to know him, they know him because they've seen him, speaking of himself as being God. And then Jesus said to them to make it clear, said to them, he said, "Have I not been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works." "Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me. Or else, believe me for the sake of the works themselves." Jesus is reminding his disciples and Philip in particular of his sufficiency. He said, "Show us the Father. It would be sufficient. Oh, our sufficiency. Oh, we wouldn't have to worry about anything, just show us the Father." Not realizing that their sufficiency is in the Christ. And sometimes when we're in trouble and we're in that rip tide of life, if you will, we're facing problems, we forget about the Lord's sufficiency. And Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter three, he says, "We have such trust through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God." It's not in my ability to figure it out. My sufficiency is of God. That word "sufficiency", the Greek word *hikanotēs*, it means ability. My ability is of God, not of myself. Jesus says, just to know me, to trust me is to know and to trust God literally. And then he says in verse 11, he reasons with him and says, "You know, if you don't believe, you're struggling with the concept here, at least believe the works, the prophetic works I've fulfilled, that I am indeed God. Only God can open the eyes of the blind. Only God can raise the dead. At least believe the works that I've performed." I think the Lord is saying here in other words, don't rip yourself off by thinking you have somehow to settle for a second-class faith. "Oh, show us the Father. It would be sufficient. Oh, our sufficiency. Oh, we wouldn't have to worry about anything, just show us the Father." You've already seen him. In other words, it don't get no better than this. It doesn't get any better than Jesus. And yet we find ourselves looking in the world and looking around for something else to be sufficient for us. Jesus is our sufficiency regardless of who we are, our limitations in regards to our own salvation. It is not of us, it's of the Lord because our sufficiency is not of us, it is of God. The ability to serve the Lord is not of us, it's of God. Our salvation is not of us, it is of God. And yet like Philip, many of us have walked with the Lord for many years and there are times in our lives, amen, I confess there're times in my life that I forget about the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. And like Philip, you know, I really don't know who he is. Do you really believe in the sufficiency of Jesus? Sufficiency according to ability, sufficiency according to atonement. What about ability? I love what Paul said who understood the sufficiency of Christ in his own life having prayed and asked the Lord to remove this thorn out of his flesh and Jesus said, "My grace is sufficient for you." And Paul, you know, my strength is perfected in you, Paul, through your weakness. And Paul would later write in the letter to the Philippians, I should say, he said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It's not my ability, it's God's ability. And then when we talk about the atoning work of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ in atonement, that is in saving us, that we realize that it's by grace that we're saved, not of works. It's by faith in Jesus Christ, not of works, lest any man should boast and say somehow I saved myself. The sufficiency is totally of Jesus Christ. We cannot add anything to the work of salvation or take anything from it. And C.S. Lewis put it this way, speaking of the sufficiency of his atonement, he said, and I quote, "The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because he loved us," close quote. He has given to you the righteousness of himself and called it good. It is of him and not of us. Jesus reminds them that he is the express image of God and he is our everlasting sufficiency. The other thing he reminds them of on this night, the other essential truth that he reminds them of, is his will. Verses 12 and 14. He says, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than these he will do because I go to my Father and whatever you ask in my name, that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it." Anybody believe that? Amen. Like six hands went up. Amen. We do believe that. Anything you ask in my name, I will do it. He's speaking here about his will. He says greater works you will do. Now when he says greater works you will do, he's talking about quantity and not quality. In other words, Jesus healed one person's leg, you're going to heal two legs or whatever. Like, "I'm going to do the work that Jesus did, healing. I'm going to do something greater than Jesus." He's not talking about the quality of the work, but the quantity he's talking about and that we are able to do greater works and many believe that he's speaking about the proclamation of the gospel, that now the gospel is going around the world as a greater work than when Jesus was here on the earth. And we have been able to do greater works. The ministries of Billy Graham and others who've gone before this, our time or whatever, you know, have reached millions of people. Jesus didn't reach millions. He started with the 12 and one was a devil and he changed the world. So we're able to do greater works, again talking about quantity rather than the quality of the work we're able to do in the Lord. Now, it's interesting, verse 13, a lot of believers we love to quote that verse. The first part of the verse, at least. That whatever you ask in my name, that I will do. If you ask anything, verse 14, in my name, I will do it. Hallelujah! Get out my shopping list. If I ask anything in his name. But when he mentions his name here, his name is not a magical formula whereby I can ask for anything I want, just slap the name of Jesus on there and presto change-o, I have it. Just rub the lamp a little harder in Jesus's name. You know, just say, got to emphasize on that Jesus and put a little *ja-sus* in it. You know, somehow that's anointed. And then if you can stand on your toes when you say in Jesus's name, *ja-sus*... anyway. Somehow that's anointed and man, when you say that, God's got to do it. Really? I thought he was God. We remember the first part. Ask anything in my name, I will do. Ask anything in my name, verse 14, I will do it. But what we forget is according to 1 John chapter 5, verses 14 and 15, I didn't put the both of the verses up there, but the gist of it is as John said there in 1 John, he says anything we ask according to his will, he will hear us. And then we forget the latter part of verse 13 here where he says "that the Father may be glorified." What we ask, he says, I will do. Here's the motivation: that the Father may be glorified. The motivation behind our prayer is essential. That the Father may be glorified. Think of prayer this way. Prayer is the means by which we accomplish God's will and not our way. In other words, really sincere and true prayer must be agenda-free. Prayer must be agenda-free. And our only agenda is to glorify the Father. When you pray about your marriage, is your prayer agenda-free? Is it that the Father may be glorified or is it about your will and your way? Jesus said, "I will do it that the Father may be glorified." Now listen, there's nothing wrong with having dreams and goals and good desires and ambition. I don't think there's anything wrong with ambition, you know, wanting to be the best at what you're doing or what have you. There's nothing wrong with that. The Bible says, "Commit your way unto the Lord." Make your plans, but commit your way unto the Lord. Nothing wrong with having those things, but here's the deal. My dreams, my goals, my ambitions have to be submitted to the will of God. And that's where the rub is. And that's where we say God owes me this and if I just speak it in his name, he's going to do it. Yeah, if the Father is glorified in it.