Mark's Story Read Free Page B

know.”
    They did? Mark certainly didn’t. He was relieved when Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
    Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
    He was claiming to be the Son of God!
    Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
    Jesus cocked his head and smiled. “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”
    Had Mark seen all the works Peter told of, he would have found it easier to believe this. Now he didn’t know what to think. This Teacher was fascinating, captivating even, but could this be true?
    “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
    Was that a promise just for the disciples, or might it be something Mark could try too? He might just have to put Jesus to the test.
    “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
    Who dwells with them and will be in them? Jesus Himself? Or another? Mark was getting more confused by the moment.
    “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
    Mark’s mind was reeling. The world will see Him no more? But the disciples will? And they will live?
    “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
    The other Judas said, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
    Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”
    He was speaking the words of God? Mark wanted to know Jesus enough to love Him and keep His word.
    “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
    So that is who will be in the disciples. A spirit?
    “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
    “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
    “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and