Friday, 15 December 2023

The Upper Room Discourse 56

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John 16:26-28 In that day, you will ask in My name - and I'm not telling you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again I am leaving the world and going to the Father.

There is nothing new in these verses. Yeshua is coming to the end His time of teaching the disciples. Like every good presentation, He is recapping the important points He already told them. The central point is LOVE. Father God loves us because we love His Son.

Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fullness of time came, God sent out His Son, born of a woman and born under law - to free those under law, so we might receive adoption as sons.

Loving God (our love for Him - going up, and His love for us - going down) is represented by the vertical beam of the Cross. That vertical beam supports (or upholds) our love for each other, represented by the horizontal beam. They intersect over the heart of Yeshua as He hung on it.

1 John 4:20-21 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him: that the one who loves God should also love his brother.

Love is the essence of Yeshua's teaching, and it is coupled here with another word/concept, believe. Love and believe are connected. John 16:27b ... you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. Belief is also connected to trust and trust is connected to obey. Believe, trust, and obey are all links in the chain of love.

John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

There are two great commandments, and they both involve love. Matthew 22:36-39 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Torah?" And He said to him, "'You shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

As Messianic Jews, we say the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) recognizing that Yeshua (God the Son) is not taking the place of God the Father, but is One with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. This is not a competition but a glorification. It is mutual blessing, and the good news is that we are included in God's chain of love.