Series: Committed 
Message: Affiliation
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira

Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 66:1-5.

Read: John 14:1-14 (ESV). Re-read in the English Standard Version for new insights/questions.

Reflect: It was the last moments before the crucifixion. They had just celebrated the passive meal, now transformed into our regular communion. Judas had left the room and went to meet with the priests and start the night of all nights. Jesus looked at the 11 left and challenged them to be disciples forever by loving God and loving each other. Knowing all that was ahead, Jesus shares this sermon covered by John in three chapters (14-16). 
Those opening verses are filled with promises of hope and a higher calling, but they could not see it clearly. They are troubled. They are worried. They are anxious. They want to follow but do not know the way. So Jesus moves into the metaphor of deep affiliation. The metaphor of complete connection. As Frederick Dale Brunner shared on page 812 of the Gospel of John Commentary. 

The East has perennially longed for “the Way” (the Tao), the West for “The Truth” (Veritas), and the whole world (east, west, north and south) for “the (real) Life.” Jesus is, in the person, all three. His person, life, teaching, deeds, Death, and Resurrection show us “the Way” to the Truth of the living God; his reality, historicity, and depth give us the solid assurance that his Way is the true Way, “the Truth”; and his energy, supplied by his Holy Spirit, give us “the Life” and power to believe this Truth to walk this Way.  The Way, The Truth, and the Life are not three abstractions in John’s Gospel; they are are single Person. This Person, Jesus, is the wonderfully focusing, simplifying, and centering revelation of God Almighty. In Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man, we have everything that we human beings need in order to make sense of, and to give motivation for, a life worth living. We are in great debt.

Recalibrate: ​ 

1. We all long for direction and for affiliation that brings hope, how are our lives able to demonstrate that?
2. What does holding to this promise from Jesus mean for your life?

Respond: Pray for sight. 

Research: Read Chapter 73 in the Desire of Ages by Ellen White.