Last week of Jesus' Ministry
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Farewell Discourse to Disciples
Jesus said:
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God and believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again, and will receive you to myself so that where I am you will also be.
And where I go, you know the way.
Thomas said to the Lord:
We do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?
Jesus said to him:
I am the way, and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father, except through me.
If you knew me, you would know that my Father has sent me. And from now on you do know him, and have seen him.
Phillip answered and said:
Show us the Father and that will be enough for us.
Jesus said to them:
Have I been with you all this time and you do not recognize me or know who I am? How can you say, Show us the Father?
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
The words which I speak to you are not my own, they are the words of the Father who is in me. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe for the sake of the works that I have done.
This is the truth you really need to understand. He who believes in me will also do the works that I do.
Greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, the Father will do it for you, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Ask anything in my name and I will do it.
And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it cannot see him or know him. He will abide in you, and will live in you.
I will not leave you as orphans: I will come to you. In a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.
In that day (Pentecost or the period that began on that day), you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
He who has my commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.
Judas, (Not Judas Iscariot, who had left) said to the Lord:
What is going to happen, that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?
Jesus answered and said to him:
If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home in him.
The person who does not love me or keep my words, is also not keeping the words of the Father who sent me.
I am telling you these things while I am still with you. But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things.
The Holy Spirit will bring to your memory all the things that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you, not as the world gives peace. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be fearful.
You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I am going back to my Father, for the Father is greater than I.
I have told you all of these things so that when they happen you will remember that I have told you, and you will believe.
I am not going to be speaking much with you from now on, for the prince of this world is coming and he has no right or reason to exercise power over me.
But in order that the world may know that I love the Father, and am doing as the Father has commanded, I will willingly give my life up.
Then Jesus said:
Arise, let us go.
(Some believe that what Jesus taught next happened as they left the upper room and walked to Gethsemane. But it is more likely that these words were spoken while they were preparing to leave.)
I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit is cut off and taken away. Every branch that produces fruit, he prunes so that it will bear more fruit.
You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
Abide in me and I will abide in you. A branch cannot produce fruit by itself. It must be attached to the vine. You cannot produce fruit unless you abide in me.
I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, produces much fruit. Apart from me you can’t do anything.
If a man does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch, becomes withered and they will gather the withered branches up and cast them into the fire where they will be burned.
If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you know him and have seen him.
My Father is glorified if you produce much fruit, revealing yourself to be my disciples.
Just like the Father loves me, I will love you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love, just like I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love.
I have told you these things so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be made full.
This is my commandment, Love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do the things that I command you. I will no longer call you my servants, because a servant does not know what his Lord does. But I have called you friends, for all the things that I heard from the Father, I have revealed to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and produce fruit, and that your fruit would last. Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
All these things I command you to do, so that you will have love for one another. If the world hates you, know that it has also hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love you, because the world loves its own. But you are not of this world, for I have chosen you out of the world; therefore the world hates you.
Remember the words that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have had no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me, hates the Father. This is happening so that the scriptures will be fulfilled that say:
They hated me without cause.
When the Comforter has come, who I will send from the Father, that is, the Spirit of Truth, he will bear witness of me. You also will bear witness of me because you have been with me from the beginning.
I have spoken these things to you so that you do not stumble. They will persecute you, and the time is coming when they will kill you and think they are doing God a service.
They will do these things because they do not know the Father, or me. But I have told you these things so that you will remember them when I am gone.
I am going to go to be with the one who sent me. And none of you are asking me:
Where are you going?
Because I have told you that I am leaving, you have become sorrowful.
But I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I do go, I will send him to you.
When the Comforter comes, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, because they do not believe in me.
Of righteousness because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more.
I have many more things to tell you, but you cannot understand them now.
But when the Holy Spirit comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you in all truth.
He will not speak about himself, he will speak the things that he hears, and will tell you things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Whatever the Father has is mine. That is why I said:
He will take what is mine and declare it to you.
I am only going to be with you a little while longer, and then you will see me no more.
Some of the disciples said to one another:
What is this that he keeps saying to us:
A little while and we will see him no more, and then a little while and you will see me, because I go to the Father.
What is this, little while. We do not understand what he is saying.
Jesus perceived what they wanted to ask him and said:
Why are you asking yourself about the “little while and you will not see men and then a little while and you will see me?”
I am going to tell you a truth that you need to grasp and understand. You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice: You will be very sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy.
When a woman is about to give birth, she is in pain and sorrow, but once the child is born, she is full of joy and no longer remembers her anguish.
You have sorrow now, but you will see me again and your heart will be filled with a joy that can never be taken away.
When the Spirit comes, he will make all things clear to you.
And remember the important truth that I keep telling you. If you ask anything of my Father, he will give it to you in my name. Until now you have asked nothing in my name, but ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
I have spoken these things to you in the dark, saying, the hour is coming when I will not speak to you in dark sayings, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
In that day, you will ask in my name, and I will pray to the Father for you. The Father loves you because you love me, and have believed that I came from the Father.
I came from the Father to the world and now I am going to leave the world and return to the Father.
His disciples said:
Now he is speaking plainly and not in dark sayings. Now we know that you know all things, and do not need any man to help you, and we believe that you came from God.
Jesus answered:
Do you believe now? Look, the hour is coming, in fact it is here, when you will all be scattered, everyman for himself, and you will leave me alone: And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
I have told you these things in order for you to have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.