If John’s gospel were a symphony, John 16 would be in the middle of the great crescendo, the building of events in volume and intensity from His triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on the back of a donkey colt to carrying on His back a Roman cross. As the God-man fully knowing and controlling every event and eventuality leading to His bearing God’s curse for His disciples on the cross, Jesus prepares His men and His movement for history’s climactic moment—a moment virtually everyone at the time saw as an epic failure, a disastrous defeat, a pathetic end to what seemed a promising future. The completed Bible gives us the advantage of hindsight. But as the disciples hear Jesus tell of His departing to be with the Father the future isn’t looking bright; how can it when the Man your life revolves around is going away, when the Messiah whose kingdom you think is about to be inaugurated tells you He’s leaving earth?
Amid the disciples’ uncertainty Jesus states His desire in v. 33: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace.” He also wants the disci-ples to have joy, as we saw last week in 15:11: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full,” and 16:24: “Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Peace and joy are certainly fruits of the Spirit in the lives of the faithful—as is faith itself. But I would submit to you that, in Paul’s list in Gal. 5:22, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” and in his conclusion to 1 Cor. 13, “Now faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love,” that love isn’t listed first and called the ‘greatest’ by accident!
From our text today the big idea is this: A loving God’s love is most powerfully revealed in a believing heart’s belief. I’m not saying that God’s love isn’t powerfully revealed in sending Jesus to the cross or in raising Him from the dead—it certainly is! What I’m saying is that a person’s belief in the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus is the most present and powerful demonstration of the Father’s love any person can ever hope to experience.
Jesus says in vv. 25-26, “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.” Making their way from the upper room through Jerusalem’s narrow streets toward the city gate, from which (we learn in 18:1) they exit before crossing the brook Kidron en route the garden of Gethsema-ne, Jesus continues telling the disciples many important things, but in language they find somewhat cryptic. In v. 16 Jesus says: “A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.” When the disciples hear this, v. 17 tells us, “Some of [them] (apparently huddling together so Jesus can’t hear them) say to one another, ‘What is this he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I am going to the Father (referring to what He’d said in v. 10)’?”
The disciples are used to Jesus teaching with stories and figurative lang-uage, but His talk about leaving and returning to the Father is really starting to bug them, especially as Jewish hostility towards Him continues to escalate. They’ve trusted in Him by virtue of His miracles. They’ve believed Him when He’s called Himself God’s Son. But in v. 19, Jesus gives them vivid, undeniable proof of His deity. John says, “Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, ‘Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’’?” Jesus is maybe yards ahead of their huddle, well out of earshot and yet suddenly He turns and addresses their every question about His words with perfect insight, proving He’s not only Lord over sicknesses and storms but even over the secret thoughts of every person. Isaiah the prophet says of the coming Messiah in Isaiah 11:1-3,
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear.
In other words, the Messiah, Jesus, didn’t need to eavesdrop on the disciples to know what was bothering them; He’s God; He already knew and was ready to explain Himself:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Jesus promises the very joy He wants for His disciples who are probably standing there, mouths open, thinking to themselves: That makes sense, Jesus. I know all these worldly, self-righteous folks just want you to go away, but the thought of you leaving breaks my heart. And yet, the joy part also makes sense; if all your promises to come again and take us to be with you are true, that makes my heart glad!
Jesus continues in v. 23, “In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive…” Jesus insists that the disciples go directly to the Father and ask for things. But thus far they haven’t. There’s still a hesitance on the part of the disciples toward the Father. They believe in Him, but they seem unsure about His heart toward them. They still see Jesus as the go-between, the buffer. When the disciple Philip says in 14:8, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us,” Jesus scolds him in the next verse: “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” And even though Jesus says in 15:9, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you,” they haven’t quite drawn a direct connection between the Father’s love and themselves; to them it all still passes through Jesus, thus their requests to the Father still pass indirectly through Jesus.
But Jesus says in v. 26, “In that day (the day when you see me again—the day when all My promises prove true—the day when the Spirit of truth comes guiding you into all truth) 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…” You see, that would mean limited access to the Father; and if there’s one privilege that every child ought to have in relation to their father it’s access, full, direct, unfettered access.
It bothers me when my kids walk past me to ask their mother for things that I can just as easily give them. And I’m not talking about going to Deborah for permission when they don’t think I’ll say yes to something; I’m talking about asking her for a juice refill while she’s slaving away at the stove and I’m standing right there talking to her doing nothing. My kids see their mom more during the day, so they’re just used to going through her even when I’m there and they can get what they need through me. Even though the disciples are used to going through Jesus, unlike my only being available to my kids part of the day, Jesus wants them to know that the heavenly Father is available to them all day, every day. And Jesus says why in v. 27: “for the Father Himself loves you.” There’s the direct link. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:16 that God so loved the world He gave His only begot-ten Son. That’s some big love and that’s a really big gift! But Jesus wants the disci-ples to know that the Father can give them other, smaller things too. He can give them joy, He can give them peace, He can give them understanding and wisdom through the Spirit. He can give them daily bread and an escape from temptation. He can give them forgiving hearts in times of conflict, and He can give them courage in times of persecution and patience in times of suffering. He can give them healed bodies and healed marriages, healed minds and healed friendships.
Dear brothers and sisters, the Father Himself loves you! Are you humbly yet boldly asking the Father for what you need in Jesus’ name, or are you still hiding behind Jesus expecting Him to go to the Father on your behalf for things the Father will gladly give you directly? It comes back down to belief. A loving God’s love is most powerfully demonstrated in a believing heart’s belief. Jesus says in v. 27, “For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” What that DOESN’T mean is that God looks down from heaven, sees our love for Jesus and belief in Jesus and decides, “Okay, I guess I’ll love them.” What Jesus means is that our love for Him and our belief that He came from God powerfully demonstrates that the Father already loves (and will continue to love) us. If Jesus means that first thing, it means the Father’s love is reactive rather than proactive—God waits to see whether we’ll love and trust Jesus before loving us. And I’m sorry, but I just can’t square that interpretation with “For God so loved the world that He gave…” And I just can’t square it with Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” God the Father’s love is proactive. If His love was reactive, we’d all be damned.
After Jesus affirms in v. 28, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father,” the disciples exclaim in vv. 29-30, “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.” When Jesus turned around to address their questions and confusion without even hearing a word of their conversation it was like an adrenaline shot for their faith. “Now we know that you know all things…we didn’t even have to ask you our questions, you read our hearts like an open book…this is why we believe that you came from God.”
But there’s a problem with this. Jesus shoots back in v. 31, “Do you now believe?” He had to be thinking, Didn’t you hear what I just said? Jesus wanted to boost their faith, but you can’t boost someone’s faith if they don’t already have it. The disciples say, “Now that we know you know all things…this [knowledge] is why we believe you came from God.” But, according to Jesus in v. 27, they already believed it before they had that knowledge: “for the Father himself loves you, because you loved me and have believed that I came from God.”
Here’s the thing: because we’re flesh and blood—like the disciples of old—we’ll always crave indisputable proof, we’re always going to want some miraculous sign, some unimpeachable evidence, some definite knowledge that what we believe is true. If God would just speak to me audibly, then instead of just believing He’s real I would know He’s really real… If God would just heal my loved one, my faith would be validated and I would know He cares… If God would just rip this addiction out of my life and put healthy habits in its place my faith would be so much stronger, so much better…
Because we’re flesh and blood, we, like the first disciples, will always be tempted to think that faith alone isn’t enough proof of God’s presence, God’s power, and God’s love for us. We’ll always be tempted to think that just one piece of ironclad evidence will be enough to make our faith bullet-proof, but it won’t. Jesus says, “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 contend that Jesus demonstrated divine insight into the disciples’ souls not so much to amaze them but in order to show them the danger of putting proof before belief. The faith the disciples now think they have because Jesus read their minds and hearts is about to be shaken to its core. They didn’t need extra proof; the belief they had beforehand was proof enough. They had enough faith all the way back in John 6 when, after telling the crowds they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, John says many disciples deserted Jesus, who then turned to the Twelve and said, “Do you want to go away as well?” At which point Peter, in one of his better moments, replies, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know (see the order there?), that you are the Holy One of God.”
For the Christian, believing precedes knowing. The writer of Hebrews famously says, in Heb. 11:1-3, “Now faith is the assurance (substance) of things hoped for, the conviction (evidence or proof) of things not seen. For by it (by faith) the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” The universe was created by the ‘word of God.’ To whom shall we go? You have the ‘words of eternal life.’
For the Christian faith precedes knowledge; believing precedes seeing. Belief is proof. Proof of what? Proof that the Father loves us! “For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” It’s not a reactive love that waits for us to take the initiative; it’s a proactive love that produces in us Christ-focused love and faith as proof of His love for us.
If you’re already a believer and you crave some ironclad proof of God’s love in addition to your faith, if you get it, be ready, Jesus will likely whisper to your heart, “Do you now believe?” And it will probably be only a matter of time before your faith is shaken back to it’s fundamental core and confession, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” I want your faith to be boosted, but don’t let the presence or absence of miracles cast doubt on your simple belief in the message and miracle of the gospel! That belief is proof enough.
And if you’re looking and waiting for unassailable proof that God loves you, that God cares about you and your hurts, or that He has a good and glorious plan for your life now and in eternity, try believing in His Son. There’s no other proof. You’ll search a lifetime and find no other proof of God’s love than the proof that manifests itself in a loving belief in Jesus. A loving God’s love is indeed most powerfully demonstrated in a believing heart’s belief in Christ. If you refuse to believe in Jesus as the only Son of God and Savior of your soul, know this: though the Father Himself still loves you, He loves you not as a child but as a reprobate who will receive for eternity the reward for unbelief in a fiery hell beyond comprehension. Don’t miss out on the better benefits of the Father’s love. Don’t let pride and fear cause you to miss out on peace with God and fullness of joy in God both now and in eternity. The Father Himself loves you! Trust His Son and begin to experience it outright!