The Farewell Discourse

180:3.1The eleven had scarcely ceased their dis­cus­sions of the dis­course on the vine and the branches when the Mas­ter, in­di­cat­ing that he was de­sirous of speak­ing to them fur­ther and know­ing that his time was short, said: “When I have left you, be not dis­cour­aged by the en­mity of the world. Be not down­cast even when faint­hearted be­liev­ers turn against you and join hands with the en­e­mies of the king­dom. If the world shall hate you, you should re­call that it hated me even be­fore it hated you. If you were of this world, then would the world love its own, but be­cause you are not, the world re­fuses to love you. You are in this world, but your lives are not to be world­like. I have cho­sen you out of the world to rep­re­sent the spirit of an­other world even to this world from which you have been cho­sen. But al­ways re­mem­ber the words I have spo­ken to you: The ser­vant is not greater than his mas­ter. If they dare to per­se­cute me, they will also per­se­cute you. If my words of­fend the un­be­liev­ers, so also will your words of­fend the un­godly. And all of this will they do to you be­cause they be­lieve not in me nor in Him who sent me; so will you suf­fer many things for the sake of my gospel. But when you en­dure these tribu­la­tions, you should re­call that I also suf­fered be­fore you for the sake of this gospel of the heav­enly king­dom.

180:3.2“Many of those who will as­sail you are ig­no­rant of the light of heaven, but this is not true of some who now per­se­cute us. If we had not taught them the truth, they might do many strange things with­out falling un­der con­dem­na­tion, but now, since they have known the light and pre­sumed to re­ject it, they have no ex­cuse for their at­ti­tude. He who hates me hates my Fa­ther. It can­not be oth­er­wise; the light which would save you if ac­cepted can only con­demn you if it is know­ingly re­jected. And what have I done to these men that they should hate me with such a ter­ri­ble ha­tred? Noth­ing, save to of­fer them fel­low­ship on earth and sal­va­tion in heaven. But have you not read in the Scrip­ture the say­ing: ‘And they hated me with­out a cause’?

180:3.3“But I will not leave you alone in the world. Very soon, af­ter I have gone, I will send you a spirit helper. You shall have with you one who will take my place among you, one who will con­tinue to teach you the way of truth, who will even com­fort you.

180:3.4“Let not your hearts be trou­bled. You be­lieve in God; con­tinue to be­lieve also in me. Even though I must leave you, I will not be far from you. I have al­ready told you that in my Fa­ther’s uni­verse there are many tar­ry­ing-places. If this were not true, I would not have re­peat­edly told you about them. I am go­ing to re­turn to these worlds of light, sta­tions in the Fa­ther’s heaven to which you shall some­time as­cend. From these places I came into this world, and the hour is now at hand when I must re­turn to my Fa­ther’s work in the spheres on high.

180:3.5“If I thus go be­fore you into the Fa­ther’s heav­enly king­dom, so will I surely send for you that you may be with me in the places that were pre­pared for the mor­tal sons of God be­fore this world was. Even though I must leave you, I will be pres­ent with you in spirit, and even­tu­ally you shall be with me in per­son when you have as­cended to me in my uni­verse even as I am about to as­cend to my Fa­ther in his greater uni­verse. And what I have told you is true and ev­er­last­ing, even though you may not fully com­pre­hend it. I go to the Fa­ther, and though you can­not now fol­low me, you shall cer­tainly fol­low me in the ages to come.”

180:3.6When Je­sus sat down, Thomas arose and said: “Mas­ter, we do not know where you are go­ing; so of course we do not know the way. But we will fol­low you this very night if you will show us the way.”

180:3.7When Je­sus heard Thomas, he an­swered: “Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man goes to the Fa­ther ex­cept through me. All who find the Fa­ther, first find me. If you know me, you know the way to the Fa­ther. And you do know me, for you have lived with me and you now see me.”

180:3.8But this teach­ing was too deep for many of the apos­tles, es­pe­cially for Philip, who, af­ter speak­ing a few words with Na­than­iel, arose and said: “Mas­ter, show us the Fa­ther, and ev­ery­thing you have said will be made plain.”

180:3.9And when Philip had spo­ken, Je­sus said: “Philip, have I been so long with you and yet you do not even now know me? Again do I de­clare: He who has seen me has seen the Fa­ther. How can you then say, Show us the Fa­ther? Do you not be­lieve that I am in the Fa­ther and the Fa­ther in me? Have I not taught you that the words which I speak are not my words but the words of the Fa­ther? I speak for the Fa­ther and not of my­self. I am in this world to do the Fa­ther’s will, and that I have done. My Fa­ther abides in me and works through me. Be­lieve me when I say that the Fa­ther is in me, and that I am in the Fa­ther, or else be­lieve me for the sake of the very life I have lived—for the work’s sake.”

180:3.10As the Mas­ter went aside to re­fresh him­self with wa­ter, the eleven en­gaged in a spir­ited dis­cus­sion of these teach­ings, and Pe­ter was be­gin­ning to de­liver him­self of an ex­tended speech when Je­sus re­turned and beck­oned them to be seated.