BS5C - CHRIST'S BIG PROMISES
Throughout His ministry Jesus made promises that were utterly unique and without parallel in any other world leader. His promises were so big that you’d think He was crazy if they weren’t true. Let’s look at five of His promises.
Peace
The world Christ came into was on the whole a time of peace because of the Roman empire and their heavy hand at keeping order. But underneath the peaceful surface were people seething with anger, frustration, and rebellion. Imagine living in a place where soldiers are every where ready to use their weapons against anyone who got out of line?
Jesus is speaking to his disciples who will continue his work in a hostile world. He already knows they will be attacked and scattered. He knows they will have many trials and sorrows. Yet, in the midst of this, what does He promise them?
John 16:33
Where will they find this peace?
Reread John 16:33
And why will this peace even be possible?
Reread John 16:33
Therefore, because Jesus leaves His peace as a legacy for all his disciples (including us today), what does He ask us to do?
John 14:27
Can you imagine being in the middle of some great sorrow or intractable problem and yet having peace in your heart? Jesus has already overcome whatever we are facing and He’s asking us directly, “Let not your heart be troubled!”
Whatever you are facing run to Jesus – for the peace He gives to us will always be found “in Him”. It’s a promise!
The Use of Jesus’ Name
This next promise was “mind-blowing” to his disciples. Every time I read it today it’s still hard to comprehend that it could be true. The fact that Jesus repeats the promise five times should tell us that He meant what He said. Here is the first time He gives the promise.
John 14:13
Notice that word “whatever”. That is all encompassing. There is however a qualification for this promise which Jesus gives in the verse before.
John 14:12
Jesus was soon to be rejoining His Father in Heaven and entering into His new role as an intercessor for us. He was to do this so that if any of us have faith in Him and His abilities, then we’ll be able to do what He has done on earth. Why will Jesus do whatever we ask in His name?
Reread John 14:13b
Then, just in case his disciples weren’t hearing Him correctly, He repeats Himself in the next verse rephrasing it a little. He gives us permission and then what does He promise?
John 14:14
“….and I will do it.” This means that Jesus will be the one doing the “whatever” and doing it because the Holy Spirit indwelling us has put it on our hearts to ask Him.
The third time Jesus repeats the promise He tells us who can quality.
John 15:7-8
When we abide in Christ and His words abide in us, we become in total union with Him. This means our mind and will is aligned with His. We want the same things, and that’s why we can receive “whatever”.
The fourth time Jesus repeats the promise, He tells us why it will be important for us. What was true about Christ’s first disciples and those of us today?
John 15:16
We are appointed to go and bear fruit that will remain. But we can’t do this on our own.
John 15:5
Jesus must be with us all the time.
Jesus also clarifies who is doing the giving of “whatever we ask in His name.”
Reread John 15:16B
We have the privilege of involving the entire Godhead into the affairs we are facing on earth. It won’t happen automatically. The indwelling Spirit will prompt us to ask Jesus. Jesus will talk with the Father on our behalf and then the Father goes into action for us.
In this discourse with the disciples Jesus is preparing them for the time that He will no longer be physically present with them. For three years they had always gone to Him with their concerns and questions. Now, there would be a shift. What was that to be?
John 16:23-24
We can all go directly to God the Father with “whatever” while joining with Jesus our intercessor in the asking. We ask in the authority of His name (not our own). Don’t miss in John 16:23 – “my Father will give you “whatever” you ask in my name.”
John 16:24 – “ask and you will receive.”
What happens to us when we receive what we ask for?
Reread John 16:24B
This builds up our confidence in the fact that God hears our prayers. Since we know that God hears our requests, what can we be certain about?
1 John 5:14-15
“If we ask anything according to his will” – This phrase in 1 John 5:14 often troubles us. How do we know His will? How can we be sure of His will? The answer goes back to what Jesus tells us in:
John 15:7
Jesus abides in us through His Spirit. Then, as we read the Word of God in our Bibles, the Holy Spirit takes that Word and works it into the very fabric of our lives. We become united with Christ and include Him in everything we do. In time, His will becomes our will and we get the confidence we need to step out and ask. We can also be confident that when we aren’t sure of something the Holy Spirit will help us.
Romans 8: 26-27
Christ’s Words Will Last Forever
The Jewish people believed that God’s Word would last forever as it was written in their scriptures.
Psalm 119:89 / Isaiah 40:8
Jesus affirmed this was true.
Matthew 5:18
But now, Jesus makes a startling promise.
Matthew 24:35
In saying that HIS words would never pass away, He is equating His words with God’s words. It was another way of saying that He is God. Jesus is telling this to his disciples. Had He been speaking to the general crowds, sprinkled with teachers of the law, they would have tried to stone Him again for blasphemy.
But here we are, over 2,000 years later and the Bible containing Christ’s words is still the best-selling book of all time.
Our Hunger and Thirst will be Satisfied in Christ
Hunger and thirst speak of our emptiness and our dissatisfaction with ourselves and with life. It’s a gnawing pain that never goes away and because of that our mind is always thinking about how to fill that emptiness. Jesus knows this is our common problem and has made us a promise in two parts.
To a divorced Samaritan woman currently living with a man that wasn’t her husband, Jesus gave part one of that promise.
John 4:14
Jesus explains to us in John 7 what this living water is.
John 7:38-39
When sin entered the world, man lost the Holy Spirit, for He can’t dwell in unclean hearts. Jesus was the first man back on the earth filled with the Spirit the way we were all meant to live. It was Christ’s purpose to pour out the Holy Spirit to anyone who would receive Him.
It’s the Holy Spirit dwelling within our human spirit that will give life wherever we go.
Ezekiel 47:9
Who is this living water of the Holy Spirit offered to?
Revelation 22:17
Whoever is thirsty and whoever wants Him can have the Holy Spirit – living water – residing within them. It’s a promise!
Then there’s part two of this promise. We’re all busy trying to make a living and keep food on the table so that we can survive. But Jesus wants us to do more than survive.
John 10:10
The thief in this verse is Satan. He has one aim and that is to steal our joy, kill our hopes and dreams, and then destroy whatever meaning and purpose we have in life. Now Jesus has come to make sure that doesn’t happen! So what does He warn us NOT to do but then tell us TO DO?
John 6:27-29
Food that endures to eternal life is food that only Jesus can give. What does He declare about Himself?
John 6:35, 48-51
How did the Jews react to this?
John 6:52
Instead of stopping there, Jesus puts “fuel on the fire”. As you read the next startling verses make a list of what Jesus promises.
John 6:53-58
These words of eating His flesh and drinking His blood were the catalyst of many claiming that Christians were cannibals! Jesus knew that people were grumbling and so He continued……
John 6:60-65
What happened as a result?
John 6:66
Then, he turned to the twelve disciples and asked them a question.
John 6:67
Simon Peter answered for the group.
John 6:68-69
Peter by revelation knew that it would be IN JESUS that we would all find our true purpose and satisfaction. Why? Because He was the “Holy One of God”. Jesus was God Himself in their midst.
Jesus is telling us right down to today that if we are dissatisfied about anything there is ONE place we can go to fill our emptiness and satisfy our thirst. Reread His promise to us…….
John 6:35
Eternal Life
At the same time Jesus was offering to being “living water and bread” for us, He was telling us what the result of our taking Him into ourselves would be. What does Jesus repeat four times in these verses?
John 6:50, 51, 54, 58
“Feeding on Jesus” obviously isn’t a literal thing we do. Rather it is the idea of something we can’t live without. We must have it everyday and often to feel full and satisfied. In the East, rice is the staple in the diet and it’s eaten daily. In the West bread is the staple and eaten many times a day. Therefore, when we “eat His flesh” and “drink His blood” we are aligning our lives with Jesus and telling Him that we can’t live without Him. We must have His life in us or this life is meaningless. That’s essentially what the word “believe” means in this verse.
John 3:15
Today the word “believe” means we know something and agree with it. But when John wrote “believe” in the Greek, it had the sense of believing in Jesus so that we would have faith in Him and align our lives with Him. It was much more than mental assent.
Eternal life may not seem like a radical promise when we are young and all of life is ahead of us, but the closer we come to life’s end, the more frightening the unknown beyond this life becomes. For many, the fear of death can be sheer terror. But for the Christian who dies, there is no hopeless grief like others who know nothing beyond the grave.
1 Thessalonians 4:13
A believer crosses the River of Death knowing that there is another side that is even better than the side we are on.
Revelation 22:1-6