The Story of Easter – Day #3
(Devotional by Pastor Ben)

Lingering at the table after the meal, Jesus begins sharing with His disciples all that is on His heart. He knows He has already made them uneasy with talk of His broken body and poured out blood, so He starts by giving them an idea of what’s in store for them.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”    (John 14:1-7)

Jesus’ declaration that He is the one and only way to God was shocking then, and it remains shocking to people today. Read Acts 4:4-12, to see how Peter draws the same bold conclusion just a few months later when he’s speaking to the most prestigious religious leaders of his time.

Jesus knows He is about to die, so what He says in these last moments with His disciples amounts to nothing less than His life’s legacy. His heartfelt thoughts are some of the most important things He would ever say to them, and to us today.

“Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered, ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”            (John 14:8-17)

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet, I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”     (John 16:12-13, 32-33)

Read more of Jesus’ final message of hope and encouragement to His disciples in John 15.