Deciphering the Divine: John 14 and the Power of Prayer

Show Notes

Episode 378:
We dive deep into a powerful discussion on the true meaning of prayer and the teachings of Jesus. From John chapter 14, we explore the profound statements Jesus makes about being the way to the Father and what it truly means to ask for anything in His name. We tackle some tough questions and common misconceptions about prayer, such as the idea of using Jesus' name as a "magic formula" for our desires, and we offer insights into aligning our prayers with God's will.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Okay, here we are, we are here, all right, Chris, I'm so I am too, And we have a brand new segment today. It's called Guess the Gibberish. It says, I'm going to bring a strand I'm going to read a string of random words easy for me to say, and you will see if Jeff can figure them out of what the phrase is supposed to be, can give me an illustration? Yes, So the illustration that she gave us is the word bay bay, and then beach beach, and then arc Bay beach, arc baby chark, Babe baby baby shark, baby Shay's that's okay, so baby beach. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to actually put the words in. We're gonna see We're gonna put the words on the bottom of the screen. So if you're watching right, if you're watching, we're gonna put these words on the bottom of the screen and then we're going to see if you can get it. And if you're listening, then just listen with us. Okay, And here it is Jeff. You can look and I can look with you. Yeah. So here it's ready talk ode oos hey talk ode tacoos hay Taco Tuesday, Taco Tuesday. The okay, I got all right, Here we go ode. Here's the next one. Yeah, yeah, ear puck picture, your ear puck picture, your ear puck picture. Oh I know it. What is it? Your book picture? Your book picture? Yes, your book picture. Okay, all right, very good, all right, all right, here's the third one. Can can you keep Passigret? Canoe keep passing? Gret? Can you keep a secret? No? Way? Good job? Yeah, there you go. That's really good one. All right, here's the fourth one. Doodle a golds do a coup gold serge? Who goals? Hurts? Who golds do it? Who? I don't know? Okay, do a Google search, wow a, who goals? Okay, okay, here's the last one. He's owner whole, He's owner whole. He's owner hole. I don't know he's owner whole. I don't know he's owner a roll. Oh boy, that's a hard one. I don't know. But he's okay. Well, we got a couple. We've got a couple of those. One. Yeah, yeah, you know what. That game is fun if it makes sense, like Taco Tuesday makes sense. You're a picture I got right, he's owner hole. Yeah yeah, yeah, he's on a roll. He's owner roll, he's on the rule whatever. Yeah, okay, well hey, interesting, yes, interesting. I don't know what it has to do with I mean literally anything. Well, it's just gibberish. Maybe she's sending a message. No, maybe that's her passive aggressive way to say. What you guys do is gibbers See you can connect anything, Jeff here, let me let me preach this, Okay, okay, good, okay. Sometimes when Jesus says things the disciples didn't understand and it seemed like gibberish to them, they're, oh, wow, yeah, there's such a good Bible teacher. Yes, yes, and that's why it's a privilege for me to join you on your show. You may kiss the rain. Okay, Well we are in my mom's favorite chapter in the Bible. Wow. John chapter fourteen, and Jesus is the way to the Father is what this is all about. So John chapter fourteen, verse one through fourteen through fourteen, Jesus says, don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. There's more than enough room in my father's house. If this were not so, I would have told you that let me see that again. If this were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you. When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I'm going? No, we don't know, Lord, Thomas said, we have no idea where you're going. So how can we know the way? Jesus told him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, would you would know who my father is? From now on? You do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied. And Jesus replied, have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don't know who I am. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words I speak are not my own, but my Father, who lives in me. Does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe because of the work you've seen me. Do I tell you the truth, Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I'm going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, will do it so that the son of man, so that the son can glorify the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. There you go, yeah, and uh, and again that it is uh. That's those less comments that Jesus makes really can put a bunch of confusion in somebody's literal receptors. Right, ask me anything in my name, and I will do it. I want a salami sandwich right now. You see what I'm saying. It's like the genius in Jesus name. In Jesus name, it's it's what you think you mean, it's the genie wish thing. Well, I do think that I have heard, over my thirty years of being a pastor of people saying, hey, we could do anything. Yeah, right, I mean anything we come up with, you know, as long as God isn't against it, which I don't think he is. So why would God not want this right? Because you know, God wants people to be healed. God wants this to happen, or this happen, or this to happen, or good or justice or whatever, and so this is going to happen. So sometimes people think that praying in Jesus name means that if we say it in Jesus name, Jesus name is the lucky word, right, And that's not what he means. In that day oftentimes, you know, they didn't have email, they didn't have cell phones and telephones. So a leader, a king would send his ambassadors out and they would go and speak in his name. They would take the message, he'd write out a speech and they'd go into the villages and they would declare the speech of the king speaking in his name. K he's here. You hear ye, so says the king. Right, And so that ambassador wasn't saying his words. That ambassador was not saying what he remembered. The king was thinking. He goes and he gives the words the king said. So when you do it in the King's name, and that's what So he if you can pray that prayer representing Jesus. Then he says, of course I'll do it. So if you would pray the prayer I would pray. That's what he's saying. If you would pray for the thing I would pray for, of course I'm going to give it to you. So it's not whatever you want, it's whatever I need to do. There's a big gift between those two things, right, but people would use it. There's a really great note here, John fourteen fourteen says, for when Jesus says we can ask for anything, we must remember that our asking must be in his name, that is, according to God's character and will. God will not grant requests contrary to his nature or his will, and we cannot use his name as a magic formula to fulfill our selfish desires like salami sandwiches. Right, if we are sincerely following God and seeking to do his will, then our requests will be will be in line with whatever he wants. And that's really it. Right. So it's not just that he's saying, I'll give you everything you asked for. I'll you know, remember Napoleon Dynamite, vote for Pedro. He'll make all your wildest dreams come true. Yes, right, that's kind of dreams comes through. Right. It's so funny. That's what a lot of people think Jesus is is he's the genie in Aladdin. Yes, right, And that's not how it works. Instead, when you're praying in Jesus name, you're praying the way Jesus would pray, and then of course you can expect him, expect him to answer it. But anyways, all of a sudden, I got all these Napoleon dynamite quote, all these always quote you come here dinner. Yeah, sorry, it's very funny. Yeah, so so it is if you wanted to, I see you drinking one percent? Is that because you think you're fat? Because you could totally be drinking whole milk if you wanted to. Which is which is such a thinkers that they say, is it you's trying to give her a compliment? Anyway, that's so dumb. So so it is. It is a funny thing, you know, when we try to pray God's will, because in other parts of the scripture, you know, we you know, like in James it says, hey, man, you pray and you don't get it because you ask with the wrong desires. Jesus also talks about you know, not your will, but my will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and so we should always surrender to God's will. But the problem is sometimes we don't know God's will, and sometimes God's will is I mean, like it seems so right to us, you know, heal my mother in law, right, and sometimes Jesus does. Peter was on the benefiting end of that, you know, and then sometimes he doesn't, and people pass away, people die, and so you're just like, jeez, what is God's will and what isn't God's will? And sometimes we just pray for God's will, go will I don't know. Yeah, But all I'm saying is that the literal receptors in everybody's brain hears ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it right, ask me for anything, which means it seems to indicate that like, uh, you know, okay, you do the asking and whatever you can come up with in my name, which is the extreme version of yeah. Yeah. So it's it's a it's a human centric view of that passage, and Jesus never invites us to a human centric view of anything that's right. So, so the keywords, the keywords are not you ask me. The keywords are in my name, as I would ask to ask for what I would ask for, and I'll give it to you. That that's so. So he never invites us to human centric worldview. So surely it means something other than what I what I wanted to mean. What I wanted to mean is, man, I want a Mercedes, and I want to win the lotto, and I want right. I don't want to want something like God. Uh you know Hill, that lame guy on the side of the road, right right, which you know, which I believe God can do, can has done, he can and and you see Peter James and John H. Paul literally laying hands up people, healing people. Right. So I do believe that that is still a thing. I still believe that we can do that. I don't know that I think that that's what this verse means, right. I don't think that this verse just means that anything you want to do like that that's through the power of the Holy Spirit is what's happening there. But in this way, I genuinely believe that he's saying, what are the things Jesus would pray for. Well, we've heard Jesus pray several times. Jesus has prayed that God would be glorified. Jesus prays that Jerusalem would come to faith. He's praying for the whole world would come to faith. Jesus is praying for He prays for them in just a little while. He prays that they would love each other and that they would be on mission. Right. So if we pray the way that Jesus prayed, we pray the lord's prayer. Right, God, you're hollowed, keep me from temptation, You provide my daily needs. Right, Those kinds of things we've heard Jesus pray a lot. So if we pray like Jesus prayed for the things Jesus prayed for, not unreasonable to ask him to expect him to answer our prayers. James, Jesus brother, when he writes about prayer, he says, you have not because you ask not. And then sometimes the things you ask for are just for your own lusts. Right. So you know, as these guys matured, the ones who walked with Jesus every day, as they matured, what they what they wind up giving us is again, pray in line with his will. And so I find myselves a lot of times people ask me to pray for a thing, and I don't know. I'm not sure what I think God's will is on that, And so I'll just say, Lord, I don't even know what you want to do in this situation. I don't know what your will is, but I'm just praying that you would be glorified in your decision. Here's what we want, and if that aligns with your will, then God be glorified. If not, give us peace knowing that your will is being done. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You know, at the beginning of this chapter, we haven't talked about this yet, ye, Tony says at the very beginning, and he says, don't let your hearts be troubled, trusting God and also trust in me. On tomorrow's podcast, I want to capitalize on that word don't let your hearts be troubled, because he mentions it at the very end of the chapter two. But he says, if it were not so, would I have not You know what I've not said that I'm going to prepare a place for you, And and in other versions it says, there's in my father's house. There's many rooms, there's many mansions. Right, And how could you hear that passage first of all and be a part of our generation and not think of that song by Big Tent Revival. Oh right, A big big house that was a room, was it? Audio? Big big table with lots and lots of food, big big yard, we can play football, A big big house. It's my father's house. So you know, back then. It's interesting to know in that culture that when a family expanded, they actually just added on rooms. So they would have have a house that was made of you know, some sort of a thatched roof which was very very temporary, and then the walls would have been made either by stone or mud, and they would have these structures. And if it depends on where they are, it could have been a tent structure as well, right, could have just been all cloth. Right, But it was a permanent house. Uh, you know, chances are it was. It was. It was a permanent structure like that with walls. Well, you know, if the family expanded it instead of instead of just saying, hey, we're gonna send you away like Americans do, right, Americans. You know, what do we do. We raise our kids they turn eighteen, and then what we do is we say, okay, time to leave the nest. And then the Western thinking is now you're off, and now you have your own home and go raise your own family. That is literally the opposite of what they used to do in Old Testament times, right, which, by the way, I always see I always drive by and see these different cultures in our area. In fact, Deans are famous for this, and I always admire it. But I always think, like, jeez, you must really have to love your family to live with them so long. Right. But what they do is instead of building like three houses for three hundred thousand dollars each, they'd be a one big million dollar house and it has like the west wing and the east wing right right, And they're like, okay, you live on the west wing, we live on the east wing. And then they get the benefit of living in this million dollar mansion, right, But the drawback is they got to live together. You got to get along. You got to get along, which is which is what Jesus just said. You know, here's the command. You guys got to get along, love each other. But that's that was the picture. The picture is is that in that mindset, nobody left it was just in fact, in a lot of ways, it was actually seen more of a blessing of God. The bigger your family was, and the bigger your flocks and herds and wealth were. You know, they would come across somebody with a large family with many sons and you know, with lots of cattle, and they would say, you know, God has blessed you beyond measure, and that was sort of the that was sort of the big thing, wasn't it. Yeah, And they would just add rooms on and then he says, and you know the way And Thomas goes, we have no idea where you're going. What are you talking about? And Jesus said, I am the way right, He's already talked about narrow is the way right that leads to God. And he says, I am the way. I'm the Truth and I'm the Life. And then he makes a bold statement, no one can come to the Father except through me. You know, a lot of people would just want to say, oh, you know what, I think all faiths lead to God. You know, it's just you got to have faith, that's what. And Jesus says, no, there's no way to the Father. So sometimes Christians will get accused of being narrow minded, and Jesus was very narrow on this. There is no other way. Jesus is the only way to the Father. And he says, and by the way, Philip says, show us the Father will be satisfied. Jesus says, have I been with you all this time, you still don't know who I am. If you see me, you've seen the Father. Right, that's a really big one. Jesus is declaring now his deity. This is maybe the clearest place in the whole Bible where Jesus just declares his deity to his disciples. I am God. I'm God in the flesh. So remember remember just a few minutes ago when I told you I'm the sacrificial lamb. Remember it's my sinless body that's going to be sacrificed for you. It's my sinless blood that's going to pay the price for your sin. What I'm trying to say is you can't get to Heaven except through me. And if you've seen the Father seen me, you've seen the Father. Right where one he's saying, I'm God in the flesh, and I'm the one paying the price for your sin. Yeah, And I've said this a few times before, I think, but I can't hear this verse without saying this because if everybody thinks that Christians are narrow minded, because Jesus made a quote unquote narrow minded claim, if you think about all the other world religions in the whole world, Christianity's the only one that actually God is the one that paid the price. Yeah, right, everybody. Every other world religion has to do with your good deeds. And so the three statements are Christianity's the only world religion where number one, everybody gets in heaven the same way. Number two, everybody can meet the requirements, and number three, everybody is invited. And so in all the other world religions, those three things are not true. So instead of being narrow minded, it's actually the broadest invitation that exists in the world. Right, everybody is invited, everybody can meet the requirements, and everybody gets in the exact same way. And if you think about that, that levels the playing field for everybody, which means it has nothing to do with how good you are or who you are or the eliteness or anything, or the chosenness or whatever it is. It is the same invitation. It is the same invitation of hope, and it is offered to everybody, and it's offered at any time during their lifetime that they can make a decision, regardless of past, regardless of where you're born in the world, regardless of anything. So it is not narrow minded. It is quite literally the opposite. Yep, yep. And then Jesus finishes up with that, and maybe one of my favorite I love John fourteen six. I love John fourteen twelve. I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works because I'm going to be with the Father and I love that. Right, He's going to send them on a mission just a few minutes. And it's the same the idea, because I look at it and go, Jesus raised people from the dead. How how are you going to do greater works than raising somebody from the dead. And I have a friend and he's a global worker, and he refers to this passage a lot, and he says, hey, you remember, Jesus seemed to live in both the physical and the spiritual all the time, right, Bible would say, the angels would come and minister to him when he was off alone right in the mountains, praying and things like that. After the after the temptation out in the desert, angels came administered to him. So Jesus kind of lived in both the physical and the spiritual. You and I. Because of sin in our life, we are not living. We don't see the spiritual. But Jesus did. He wasn't affected by sin. He lived in both. And so my friend talks about the fact that Paul later on tells us that we are dead in our sins, and then we're raised to walk in a brand new life. Right, We're raised to life when our spirit comes alive in Christ. And so literally, then this mission that he's going to send us on is to go raise the dead. That's what we're doing. We're bringing them out of death into life, not physical but spiritual. It's eternal life and death. And so a lot of times heales say, before we go out to go preach or share the gospel somewhere, he say, hey, let's go raise the dead today. Right, And so there's a note here it says when raising the dead is about as amazing as you can get. How could the disciples do greater things than that? That even greater works would come because the disciples, working in the power of the Holy Spirit, would carry the good news of God's Kingdom out of Palestine and into the whole world. Jesus entire ministry was in a space a little smaller than the entire state of New Jersey. Right, and then, which is which is often the thing that we forget. And for two thousand years now, christ followers have been raising the dead, spiritually dead all over the entire planet, go into everybody and every village, every town, everywhere. And so you and I get focused on the immediate. Oh wow, he healed a person, Oh wow he fed some people. Well, Jesus is saying, listen, go out and raise the spiritually dead, and you'll go everywhere. You'll go so much further than I could go. You will reach so many more people than I could reach. And that's what he's saying in that passage. It's really a cool, cool phrase. So that's really cool. Yeah, So that means at work today, go raise the dead, at school today, go raise the dead, right, bring him out of death into life spiritually. That's a great invitation. Yeah, so as long as you know what it means. Yeah, yes, otherwise you're thinking zombous, so so weird. Well, I mean, you know, if you don't know the meaning behind that slogan, I think I just did. I don't. So those people knew it, yes, yes, and now they know it. That's right. But if you champion it without explaining, might not want to tell your boss. I don't worry about I'm just raising the dead today, that's what That's what I'm thinking. So hey, that's a great place to end. Great challenge, and we'll see you next time on the Bible. Guys,