John 14

John 14:1

M. Jesus: the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:1-14) 14:1 Some link verse 1 to the last verse of chapter 13 and think it was spoken to Peter. Although he would deny the Lord, yet there was a word of comfort for him. But the plural forms in Greek (ye in old English) show it was spoken to all the disciples, hence we should pause after chapter 13. The thought seems to be: I am going away, and you will not be able to see Me. But let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, and yet you do not see Him. Now believe in Me in the same way. Here is another important claim to equality with God. 14:2 The Father’s house refers to heaven, where there are many dwelling places. There is room there for all the redeemed. If it were not so, the Lord would have told them; He would not have them build on false hopes. I go to prepare a place for you may have two meanings. The Lord Jesus went to Calvary to prepare a place for His own. It is through His atoning death that believers are assured a place there.

But also the Lord went back to heaven to prepare a place. We do not know very much about this place, but we know that provision is being made for every child of Goda prepared place for a prepared people!14:3 Verse 3 refers to the time when the Lord will come back again into the air, when those who have died in faith will be raised, when the living will be changed, and when all the blood-bought throng will be taken home to heaven (1Th_4:13-18; 1Co_15:51-58). This is a personal, literal coming of Christ. As surely as He went away, He will come again. His desire is to have His own with Him for all eternity. 14:4, 5 He was going to heaven, and they knew the way to heaven, for He had told them many times. Apparently Thomas did not understand the meaning of the Lord’s words. Like Peter, he may have been thinking of a journey to some place on the earth. 14:6 This lovely verse makes it clear that the Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the way to heaven. He does not merely show the way; He is the way. Salvation is in a Person. Accept that Person as your own, and you have salvation. Christianity is Christ. The Lord Jesus is not just one of many ways.

He is the only Way. No one comes to the Father except through Him. The way to God is not by the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, ordinances, church membershipit is through Christ and Christ alone. Today many say that it does not matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. They say that all religions have some good in them and that they all lead to heaven at last. But Jesus said, No one comes to the Father except through Me.Then the Lord is the truth.

He is not just One who teaches the truth; He is the truth. He is the embodiment of Truth. Those who have Christ have the Truth. It is not found anywhere else. Christ Jesus is the life. He is the source of life, both spiritual and eternal. Those who receive Him have eternal life because He is the Life. 14:7 Once more the Lord taught the mysterious union that exists between the Father and Himself. If the disciples had recognized who Jesus really was, they would have known the Father also, because the Lord revealed the Father to men. From now on, and especially after Christ’s resurrection, the disciples would understand that Jesus was God the Son. Then they would realize that to know Christ was to know the Father, and to see the Lord Jesus was to see God. This verse does not teach that God and the Lord Jesus are the same Person. There are three distinct Persons in the Godhead, but there is only one God. 14:8 Philip wanted the Lord to give some special revelation of the Father, and that would be all he would ask. He did not understand that everything the Lord was, and did, and said, was a revelation of the Father. 14:9 Jesus patiently corrected him. Philip had been with the Lord for a long time. He was one of the first disciples to be called (Joh_1:43). Yet the full truth of Christ’s deity and of His unity with the Father had not yet dawned on him. He did not know that when he looked at Jesus, he was looking at One who perfectly displayed the Father.14:10, 11 The words I am in the Father, and the Father in Me describe the closeness of the union between the Father and the Son. They are separate Persons, yet They are one as to attributes and will.

We should not be discouraged if we cannot understand this. No mortal mind will ever understand the Godhead. We must give God credit for knowing things that we can never know. If we fully understood Him, we would be as great as He! Jesus had power to speak the words and to do the miracles, but He came into the world as the Servant of Jehovah and He spoke and acted in perfect obedience to the Father. The disciples should believe that He was one with the Father because of His own testimony to that fact. But if not, then they should certainly believe because of the works He performed. 14:12 The Lord predicted that those who believed on Him would perform miracles like He did, and even greater works. In the book of Acts, we read of the apostles performing miracles of bodily healing, similar to those of the Savior. But we also read of greater miraclessuch as the conversion of three thousand on the day of Pentecost. Doubtless it was to the world-wide proclamation of the gospel, the salvation of so many souls, and the building of the church that the Lord referred to by the expression greater works. It is greater to save souls than to heal bodies. When the Lord returned to heaven, He was glorified, and the Holy Spirit was sent to earth. It was through the Spirit’s power that the apostles performed these greater miracles. 14:13 What a comfort it must have been to the disciples to know that, even though the Lord was leaving them, they could pray to the Father in His Name and receive their requests. This verse does not mean that a believer can get anything he wants from God. The key to understanding the promise is in the words in My namewhatever you ask in My name. To ask in Jesus Name is not simply to insert His Name at the end of the prayer. It is to ask in accordance with His mind and will. It is to ask for those things which will glorify God, bless mankind, and be for our own spiritual good. In order to ask in Christ’s Name, we must live in close fellowship with Him. Otherwise we would not know His attitude. The closer we are to Him, the more our desires will be the same as His are. The Father is glorified in the Son because the Son only desires those things that are pleasing in God’s sight. As prayers of this nature are presented and granted, it causes great glory to be brought to God. 14:14 The promise is repeated for emphasis and as a strong encouragement to God’s people. Live in the center of His will, walk in fellowship with the Lord, ask for anything that the Lord would desire, and your prayers will be answered.

John 14:15

N. The Promise of Another Helper (14:15-26) 14:15 The Lord Jesus was about to leave His disciples, and they would be filled with sorrow. How would they be able to express their love to Him? The answer was by keeping His commandments. Not by tears, but by obedience. The commandments of the Lord are the instructions which He has given us in the Gospels, as well as the rest of the NT. 14:16 The word translated pray that is used here of our Lord is not the same word used to describe an inferior praying to a superior, but of one making request of his equal. The Lord would pray the Father to send another Helper. The word Helper (Paraclete) means one called to the side of another to help. It is also translated Advocate (1Jo_2:1). The Lord Jesus is our Advocate or Helper, and the Holy Spirit is another Helpernot another of a different kind, but another of similar nature. The Holy Spirit would abide with believers forever. In the OT, the Holy Spirit came upon men at various times, but often left them. Now He would come to remain forever. 14:17 The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth because His teaching is true and He glorifies Christ who is the truth. The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because it cannot see Him. Unbelievers want to see before they will believealthough they believe in wind and electricity, and yet they cannot see them. The unsaved do not know or understand the Holy Spirit. He may convict them of sin, and yet they do not know that it is He. The disciples knew the Holy Spirit. They had known Him to work in their own lives and had seen Him working through the Lord Jesus. He dwells with you, and will be in you. Before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon men and dwelt with them. But since Pentecost, when a man believes on the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes up His abode in that man’s life forever. The prayer of David, Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me, would not be suitable today. The Holy Spirit is never taken from a believer, although He may be grieved, or quenched, or hindered. 14:18 The Lord would not leave His disciples as orphans, or desolate. He would come to them again. In one sense, He came to them after His resurrection, but it is doubtful if that is what is meant. In another sense, He came to them in the Person of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This spiritual coming is the true meaning here. There was something about Pentecost which made it a coming of Jesus. In a third sense, He will literally come to them again at the end of this age, when He will take His chosen ones home to heaven. 14:19 No unbeliever saw the Lord Jesus after His burial. After He was raised, He was seen only by those who loved Him. But even after His Ascension, His disciples continued to see Him by faith. This is doubtless meant by the words but you will see Me. After the world could no longer see Him, His disciples would continue to see Him. Because I live, you will live also. Here He was looking forward to His resurrection life. It would be the pledge of life for all who trusted Him. Even if they should die, they would be raised again to die no more. 14:20 At that day probably refers again to the descent of the Holy Spirit. He would instruct believers in the truth that just as there was a vital link between the Son and the Father, so there would be a marvelous union of life and interests between Christ and His saints. It is difficult to explain how Christ is in the believer, and the believer is in Christ at the same time. The usual illustration is of a poker in the fire. Not only is the poker in the fire, but the fire is in the poker. But this does not tell the full story. Christ is in the believer in the sense that His life is communicated to him. He actually dwells in the believer through the Holy Spirit. The believer is in Christ in the sense that he stands before God in all the merit of the Person and work of Christ. 14:21 The real proof of one’s love to the Lord is obedience to His commandments. It is useless to talk about loving Him if we do not want to obey Him. In one sense, the Father loves all the world. But He has a special love for those who love His Son. Those are also loved by Christ, and He makes Himself known to them in a special way. The more we love the Savior, the better we shall know Him. 14:22 The Judas mentioned here had the misfortune to have the same name as the traitor. But the Spirit of God kindly distinguished him from Iscariot. He could not understand how the Lord could appear to the disciples without also being seen by the world. Doubtless He thought of the Savior’s coming as that of a conquering King or popular Hero. He did not understand that the Lord would manifest Himself to His own in a spiritual manner. They would see Him by faith through the Word of God. By the Spirit of God, we can actually know Christ better today than the disciples knew Him when He was on earth. When He was here, those in the front of the crowd were closer to Him than those in the rear. But today, by faith, each of us can enjoy the closest of fellowship with Him. Christ’s answer to Judas’ question shows that the promised manifestations to His individual followers is connected with the Word of God. Obedience to the Word will result in the coming and abiding of the Father and the Son. 14:23 If a person truly loves the Lord, he will want to keep all of His teachings, not just isolated commandments. The Father loves those who are willing to obey His Son without questions or reservations. Both Father and Son are especially near to such loving and obedient hearts. 14:24 On the other hand, those who do not love Him do not keep His sayings. And they are not only refusing the words of Christ, but those of the Father as well. 14:25 While He was with them, our Lord taught His disciples up to a certain point. He could not reveal more truth to them because they could not have taken it in. 14:26 But the Holy Spirit would reveal more. He was sent by the Father in the name of Christ on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit came in Christ’s name in the sense that He came to represent Christ’s interests on earth. He did not come to glorify Himself but to draw men and women to the Savior. He will teach you all things, said the Lord. He did this first of all through the spoken ministry of the apostles; then through the written Word of God which we have today. The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance all the things which the Savior had taught. Actually, the Lord Jesus seems to have presented in germ form all the teaching which is developed by the Holy Spirit in the rest of the NT.

John 14:27

O. Jesus Leaves His Peace with His Disciples (14:27-31) 14:27 A person who is about to die usually writes a last will and testament in which he leaves his possessions to his loved ones. Here the Lord Jesus was doing that very thing. However, He did not bequeath material things but something that money could not buypeace, inward peace of conscience that arises from a sense of pardoned sin and of reconciliation with God. Christ can give it because He purchased it with His own blood at Calvary. It is not given as the world givessparingly, selfishly, and for a short time. His gift of peace is forever. Why then should a Christian be troubled or afraid? 14:28 Jesus had already told them how He was going to leave them, and then later how He would return to take them home to heaven with Him. If they loved Him, this would have caused them to rejoice. Of course, in a sense they did love Him. But they did not fully appreciate who He was, and thus their love was not as great as it should have been. You would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. At first it seems as if this verse contradicts all that Jesus had taught concerning His equality with God the Father. But there is no contradiction, and the passage explains the meaning. When Jesus was here on earth, He was hated and hunted, persecuted and pursued. Men blasphemed Him, reviled Him, and spat on Him. He endured terrible indignities from the hands of His creatures. God the Father never suffered such rude treatment from men. He dwelt in heaven, far away from the wickedness of sinners. When the Lord Jesus returned to heaven, He would be where indignities could never come. Therefore, the disciples should have rejoiced when Jesus said that He was going to the Father, because in this sense the Father was greater than He. The Father was not greater as God, but greater because He never came into the world as Man to be cruelly treated. As far as the attributes of deity are concerned, the Son and the Father are equal.

But when we think of the lowly place which Jesus took as a Man here on earth, we realize that in that sense, God the Father was greater than He. He was greater as to His position but not His Person.14:29 In unselfish concern for the fearful disciples, the Lord revealed these future events to them so that they would not be offended, disheartened, or afraid, but rather believe. 14:30 The Lord knew that the time for His betrayal was approaching and that He would not have much more time to talk with His own. Satan was even then drawing near, but the Savior knew that the enemy could find no taint of sin in Him. There was nothing in Christ to respond to the devil’s evil temptations. It would be ridiculous for anyone else but Jesus to say that Satan could find nothing in him. 14:31 We might paraphrase this verse as follows: The time of my betrayal is at hand. I shall go voluntarily to the cross. This is the Father’s will for me. It will tell the world how much I love My Father. That is why I am now going without offering any resistance. With this, the Lord bade the disciples to arise and go with Him. It is not clear whether they moved from the upper room at this point. Perhaps the rest of the discourse took place as they walked along.