John 14 Encouragement for the Journey
1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
"This heart-melting address of Christ was given to the eleven on the last night before He died, affording a manifestation of Him which has been strikingly likened to the 'glorious radiance of the setting sun, surrounded with dark clouds, and about to plunge into darker, which, fraught with lightning, thunder, and tempest, wait on the horizon to receive Him.'" (A. W. Pink)
This discourse, remembered, would encourage them after their fall. "The verses we have now read are rich in precious truth. For eighteen centuries they have been peculiarly dear to Christ's believing servants in every part of the world. Many are the sick rooms which they have lightened! Many are the dying hearts which they have cheered! Let us see what they contain." (J. C. Ryle)
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me." (1) "which words may be read and interpreted... 'ye believe in God, and ye believe in Me'; and so are both propositions alike, and express God and Christ to be equally the object of their faith; and since therefore they had so good a foundation for their faith and confidence, they had no reason to be uneasy." (John Gill) Place your confidence in the Father, "and in Me as the Mediator between God and man, John 14:12-14; and expect the utmost support from God; but expect it all through Me." (Adam Clarke)
They would all forsake Him, as we often do. And thus in their doubts, as well as their feelings of guilt: "Heart-trouble is the commonest thing in the world. No rank, or class, or condition is exempt from it. No bars, or bolts, or locks can keep it out." (J. C. Ryle) Yea: "It is impossible for us, indeed, to avoid feeling various emotions, but though we are shaken, we must not fall down. Thus it is said of believers, that they are not [to be] troubled, because, relying on the Word of God, though very great difficulties press hard upon them, still they remain steadfast and upright." (John Calvin)
Here is the Word of Promise:
"In My Father’s house"- that is, in heaven- "are many mansions;" or dwelling places- (2a) "enough to receive both the holy angels, and your predecessors in the faith, and all that now believe, and a great multitude, which no man can number." (Wesley)- "if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." (2b) "The ark of the covenant of the Lord went before Israel to search out a resting place for them (Numbers 11:33) and so He has gone before as our forerunner. What it all means 'to prepare a place for you' we cannot fully know, but we know that His great work has removed every barrier for all who believe on Him, and in God’s own time the full redemption of the purchased possession by the power of God will be accomplished. (Ephesians 1:14)." (Arno Gaebelein)
"And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." (3) "Christ did not go away from us with the intent of forsaking us, but rather that He might eventually take us up with Him into heaven... These words are to be understood as being said to the whole Church, and therefore the angels said to the disciples when they were astonished, 'Why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This Jesus will so come as you saw him go up', (Acts 1:11). And in all places of the Scripture the full comfort of the Church is considered to be that day when God will be all in all, and is therefore called the day of redemption." (Geneva Study Bible)- the Consummation.
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
"The idea of separation is thus again brought prominently forward, and Thomas is overborne by the thought of it (comp. chap. John 11:16).'" (Schaff's NT Commentary) "Jesus said unto him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life."- "as if he should say, 'Thou hast no whither to go but to Me, nor which way to go but by Me, that thou mayest attain eternal life.'... (John Trapp) -- No one comes to the Father except through Me, "by any other doctrine, by any other merit, or by any other intercession than Mine." (Adam Clarke)
"By coming by Him is meant coming in His name and depending on His merits. We are ignorant, and He alone can guide us. We are sinful, and it is only by His merits that we can be pardoned. We are blind, and He only can enlighten us. God has appointed Him as the Mediator, and has ordained that all blessings shall descend to this world through Him. Hence He has put the world under His control; has given the affairs of men into His hand, and has appointed Him to dispense whatever may be necessary for our peace, pardon, and salvation, Acts 4:12; Acts 5:31." (Albert Barnes)
Afternoon repost- John 14: Jesus
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also;" (7a) "The true knowledge of the Father cannot be obtained but by the true knowledge of the Son; and if the Son be really known, the Father is known also. The Father is known just so far as the Son is known; no farther." (A. W. Pink)— "and from now "— after His eminent death, burial, and resurrection— "you know Him, and have seen him." (7b) "The glorifying of the Son of Man is regarded as in the future which is immediately present. He can, therefore, say that from this time onwards, after the full declaration of Himself..., they know and have seen the Father." (Albert Barnes)
8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”
"Lord, show us the Father;" (8a) What the Lord had just said, "Philip was unable to thoroughly grasp... Possibly Philip's mind reverted to the experience of Moses on the Mount, when, in answer to earnest prayer, he was placed in a cleft of the rock and permitted to see the retiring glory of Jehovah as He passed by; or, he may have remembered what Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel were permitted to witness when 'they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone, and, as it were the body of heaven in his clearness' (Exodus 24:10). He may have recalled that prophecy, 'The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.'" (Isaiah 40:5)." (Alexander MacLaren)
Now whereas Yahweh said before, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20).. but in fact many of the fathers had seen Him and lived, it is now to be understood in this way: "without Christ, or were it not through Christ, no man could ever see God, nor ever saw God, at any time..." (Geneva Study Bible)
Jesus is set forth in the Scriptures as the Creator, as well as the Lawgiver and Redeemer, which is the only reconciliation of the manifestations made to Moses and the elders of Israel. Moses and the elders saw Jesus, but Philip did not know this and thus he "longed for some similar sign to confirm his faith." (Alexander MacLaren)
"and it is sufficient for us.' (8b); we shall be no more uneasy at thy departure from us; we shall have no doubt about thy Father's house, and the many mansions in it; or of thyself, as the way unto it, and of our everlasting abode with thee in it; we shall sit down easy and contented, and trouble time no more with questions about this matter." (John Gill)
"Though under ordinary circumstances men cannot with mortal eyes look on God, yet one of the high purports of the Christian revelation is to make it possible that men may look and live." (Pulpit Commentary) "Come and see" said Jesus to His disciples. (John 1:39)
9 Jesus said to him, “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’?
"'Though I appear as a servant, I am not so in essence. The Father’s own glory is my glory...' Such is the meaning of St. Paul in Philippians 2:5. Christ being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took on him the form of a servant."(Joseph Sutcliffe) "Could any creature say these words? Do they not evidently imply that Christ declared Himself to His disciples to be the everlasting God?" (Adam Clarke)
10 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.
"The repetition of the words, 'I am in the Father, and the Father in me', is not superfluous; for we know too well, by experience, how our nature prompts us to foolish curiosity. As soon as we have gone out of Christ, we shall have nothing else than the idols which we have formed, but in Christ, there is nothing but what is divine, and what keeps us in God." (John Calvin)
11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
"Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me," (11a) "Believe me on my own word, because I am God." (John Wesley) "or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves." (11b) "Our Saviour allegeth for Himself the Divinity both of His word and works. He was mighty, saith Peter, both in word and deed." (John Trapp) "Sayings like these are full of deep mystery. We have no eyes to see their meaning fully- no line to fathom it- no language to express it- no mind to take it in. We must be content to believe when we cannot explain, and to admire and revere when we cannot interpret." (J. C. Ryle)
"Oh, dear friends!" Jesus "as here declared to us by Himself is the only Christ to whom it is right to give our trust. If He be not God manifest in the flesh, I ought not to trust Him. I may admire Him as a historical personage; I may reverence Him for His wisdom and beauty; I may even in some vague way have a kind of love to Him. But what in the name of common sense shall I trust Him for? And why should He call upon me to exercise faith in Him unless He stand before me as the adequate Object of a man’s trust-namely, the manifest God?" (Alexander MacLaren)
John 14 Church Age Works
12 “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. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."
Jesus' departure was at hand. And He knew human nature for He had witnessed it, as when Moses left the camp and ascended the mount of God. When he delayed in coming down from the mountain, the children of Israel thought that he was dead. And "the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, 'Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'" (Exodus 33:1)
Likewise, Jesus would tarry for fifty days, as prophesied in the Feast of Pentecost; and therefore, He promised greater works by His Spirit. "This is the reason why Christ not only mentions His present power, which the Apostles, at that time, beheld with their eyes, but promises an uninterrupted conviction of it for the future..." (John Calvin)
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also," (12a) Some want to limit this promise of Jesus to the apostles only- as evidenced by the lack of power in mainstream churches today, but this limit cannot be supported by the text. The promise belongs to all of us in the church age with our particular callings.
"and greater works than these he will do." (12b) The miracles of Jesus were "but the preparatory apparatus of Christianity. They were provisional and temporary. From them was to proceed the greater work, through the power of the Spirit and the agency of men, of establishing and fully completing the wide-spread conversion of souls, and the conquering of the world to Christ. His miracles and His Words, divinely limited to a narrow territory, converted but few. They were but the bud to the flower and the fruit." (Whedon's Commentary)
"So one... wrought miracles merely by his shadow, Acts 5:15 ; another by handkerchiefs carried from his body, Acts 19:12; and all spake with various tongues. But the converting one sinner is a greater work than all these." (John Wesley) And the apostles and we- their fruits- have spread the doctrine of Christ far and wide; "while Christ confined His ministry chiefly to the precincts of Judea." (Adam Clarke)
This conversion of the world is done by the likes of you and me "endued with power from on high, while proclaiming remission of sins through faith in His blood... The reason which our Lord gives for this [success] is worthy of deep attention: 'because I go unto my Father', where I shall be an Intercessor for you, that: - 'whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.'" (Adam Clarke)
"I shall not perish, but shall remain in My proper dignity, in heaven." (Chrysostom) "Let us learn that His visible presence is not absolutely necessary to the progress of His kingdom. He can help forward His cause on earth quite as much by sitting at the right hand of the Father, and sending forth the Holy Spirit, as by walking to and fro in the world... Our Lord is working with us and for us, though we cannot see Him. It was not so much the sword of Joshua that defeated Amalek, as the intercession of Moses on the hill. (Exodus 17:11.)" (J. C. Ryle)
"'If you ask anything in My name'- in accordance with His will, and which would be needful for the work to which He called them- 'I will do it.'" (Justin Edwards) (14) Weak and imperfect as our supplications may be, "so long as they are put in Christ's hands, and offered in Christ's name, they shall not be in vain... Of course it is taken for granted that the things we ask are for our souls' good, and not mere temporal benefits. 'Anything' and 'whatever' do not include wealth, and money, and worldly prosperity. These things are not always good for us, and our Lord loves us too well to let us have them..." (J. C. Ryle)
John 14 If You Love Me
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 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.
"An abiding communion between the glorified Redeemer and His disciples on earth has been spoken of as established,—a communion, as we have already seen, not to be broken by the ‘going away’ of Jesus to the Father. The object of the present verse (which is no interruption of the discourse by a direct precept) is to point out the condition by which alone this communion can be preserved..." (Schaff's New Testament Commentary)
"If ye love me, keep My commandments." (15) - "Literally, the Commandments which are Mine." (Vincent Word Studied) The Moral Code of the Ten Commandments contains all that is needed for love of God and man. "Guard them as a sacred deposit, obey them as the only reasonable response you can make to authoritative command." (Joseph Sutcliffe)
Before His discourse on the Ten Commandments, Jesus said, "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these Commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:19)
"How this verse rebukes the increasing Antinomianism of our day! In some circles one cannot use the word 'commandments' without being frowned upon as a 'legalist.' Multitudes are now being taught that Law is the enemy of Grace, and that the God of Sinai is a stern and forbidding Deity, laying upon His creatures a yoke grievous to be borne. Terrible travesty of the truth is this. The One who wrote upon the tables of stone is none other than the One who died on Calvary's Cross; and He who here says 'If ye love me, Keep My Commandments' also said at Sinai that He would show mercy unto thousands of them 'that love me and Keep My Commandments'! It is indeed striking to note that this tender Savior, who was here comforting His sorrowing disciples, also maintained His Divine majesty and insisted upon the recognition of His Divine authority. Mark how His Deity appears here: 'Keep my Commandments': we never read of Moses or any of the prophets speaking of their commandments!" (A. W. Pink)
If you do your part, I'll do Mine. Or perhaps, if you earnestly strive to keep My Commandments, I will send you a Helper in this your endeavor. "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper"- another than Myself, "that He may abide with you forever- the Spirit of truth," - "Who has, reveals, testifies, and defends the truth as it is in Jesus." (John Wesley)
"Whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;" (17a) The Spirit's operations "are in the strongest sense foolishness to the natural man. The inward feelings of conviction, repentance, faith, hope, fear, and love, which He always produces, are precisely that part of religion which the world cannot understand." (J. C. Ryle)
"but you know Him," "Ye have already received a measure of the truth," (Adam Clarke) "for He dwells with you"- now in My Person- "and will be in you" (17b) after Pentecost, as we have just learned, for those who "keep My Commandments."
"Because obedience to Christ is accompanied with an infinite type and amount of miseries, although He is absent in body, yet He comforts His own with the present power of the Holy Spirit" (Geneva Study Bible)
John 14 I Will Come To You
18 "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. 19 A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Jesus now presents Himself as the Father of the household of faith... and He enlarges His Promise. He promises, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you." (18) "Plato says that, when Socrates died, his disciples 'thought that they would have to spend the rest of their lives forlorn as children bereft of a father, and they did not know what to do about it.' But Jesus told His disciples that would not be the case with them. 'I am coming back,' he said..." (William Barclay), not just His Spirt, but every eye shall see Him.
"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more," (19a) "Those only that see Christ with an eye of faith, shall see Him forever: the world sees Him no more till His Second Coming;" (Mathew Henry) "but you will see Me." (19b) "but His disciples have communion with Him in His absence." (Matthew Henry) "Ye see Me now, and shall see Me after my resurrection, as they did; for then He appeared alive and conversed with them for forty days; and then He ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God..." (John Gill)
"'Because I live'—not shall live, only when raised from the dead; for it is His unextinguishable, divine life of which He speaks, in view of which His death and resurrection were but as shadows passing over the sun's glorious disk. (Compare Lu 24:5; Re 1:18, 'the Living One'). And this grand saying Jesus uttered with death immediately in view. What a brightness does this throw over the next clause, 'ye shall live also!' 'Knowest thou not,' said Luther to the King of Terrors, 'that thou didst devour the Lord Christ, but wert obliged to give Him back, and wert devoured of Him? So thou must leave me undevoured because I abide in Him, and live and suffer for His name's sake. Men may hunt me out of the world—that I care not for—but I shall not on that account abide in death. I 'shall live' with my Lord Christ, since I know and believe that He liveth!" (quoted in Stier)."(Jamieson-Fausset-Brown)
"At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." (20) "These mysteries will be fully known in heaven." (Mathew Henry)
John 14: Manifestation of Knowledge
21 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.”
Torah had been taught as being fully known when we see Him in bodily form at the resurrection of the just. (20) And here the import of Commandment keeping is stated again, perhaps because they are eternal and will be kept by the saints forever. (Revelation 5:14; 12:17; 14:12)
"He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me." (21a) "The faith by which we are saved does not destroy the necessity for an obedient walk... 'He that hath my commandments,' means, hath them at heart. 'And keepeth them,' that is the real test. We hear, but do we heed? We know, but are we doing His will? 'My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth' ( 1 John 3:18)! (A.W. Pink)
"and My Father will love him, and We"- Father and Son- "will come to him and make Our home with him." (21b) referring to the end-time. All My faithful disciples shall see Us after the resurrection of the just; and we will come to them and make Our eternal home with them.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
"Judas is distinguished from the traitor, that we may have kept distinctly before us that the latter had gone out (chap. John 13:30)."(Schaff's Popular Commentary) "This was... the brother of James, and the author of the Epistle of Jude. 'How is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?' Probably Judas thought that He spake 'only' of His resurrection, and he did not readily see how it could be that He could show Himself to them, and not be seen also by others." (Albert Barnes)
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “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. 24 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.
Perhaps it was about the post-resurrection era. Jesus' answer supports it. Jesus has prepared a place for those who love Him and keep His Word. Both Father and Son will come forth to that soul and make their eternal home with them- verse 23; but others will have not lot in it- verse 24. "He who loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed." (1 Cor 16:22) They are pitted for destruction. Yes every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but He will fully manifest Himself- His knowledge- only to the saints.
John 14: Peace through Understanding
25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 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. 27 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. 28 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.
29 " And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here."
"These things I have spoken to you while being present with you." (25) The Words of Jesus are here presented "as a whole as uttered by Himself being yet present. His personal presence and His living voice were yet with them, and He now places this personal teaching in preparatory contrast with that of the spiritual Paraclete whom the Father will send." (Whedon's Commentary)
"The Holy Spirit will teach you all things," "needful for them to understand in the apostolic office, and particularly those things which they were not prepared then to hear or could not then understand." (Albert Barnes) And "bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you," for the formation of the apostle's doctrine. "Jesus had made these revelations to His disciples while abiding with them, but when the Holy Spirit came to abide in them, the Spirit would enable them to understand them." (Dr. Thomas Constable)
"Christ's message to men was perfect and complete; and the function of the Holy Spirit even in the apostles, was not that of continuing an incomplete revelation but of aiding their remembrance of the complete revelation already delivered... What Jesus taught is the one true foundation of Christianity." (Coffman's Commentaries)
Jesus is here presented as the Prince of Peace who is in conflict with the prince of the power of the air:
"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you;" The peace of Jesus corrects "the fundamental source for strife, namely, the fallen nature of humankind... Jesus made peace possible by His work on the cross. He will establish universal peace when He comes to reign on earth as Messiah. He establishes it in the hearts and lives of those who believe on Him and submit to Him now through His representative, the indwelling Spirit." (Dr. Thomas Constable) "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." (Eph 6:17)
"Not as the world gives do I give to you." (27a)- The world has no such offer. "The peace which the worldling has is shallow, unstable, unsatisfying, false. It talks much about peace, but knows little of the thing itself. We have peace-societies, peace-programmes, a peace-palace, and a League of Nations to promote peace; yet all the great powers are armed to the teeth! 'When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them' (1 Thess 5:3)." (A. W. Pink)
"Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid etc..." (27b) "The Master is going to His Father, and that Father is greater than He in His present form, in the person and in the guise of a servant. By going to the Father, He will be given the full use of the divine power and majesty And the benefit of this would come to them in a very short time. He could then give them a much better protection, care for His whole Church in a much better way than at present. And all of these things the Lord told His disciples in advance, for the fulfillment of the prophecy would tend to confirm their faith; and in the meantime, when all things seemed to speak against the fact of Christ's divinity, they would have the certainty of this promise as an anchor for their faith." (The Popular Commentary)
"'I will no longer talk much with you," in My remaining days in the flesh "for the ruler of this world is coming,'- Satan- 'and he has nothing in Me.' (30)- no basis for spiritual conversation. It was not Satan but rather the Father "who determined that the sins of the world should be expiated by His death." (John Calvin) "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do." (31a) It was time for action - willful obedience to the Father's eternal decree from before the world was formed- death on the cross. "Arise, let us go from here." (31b) All our actions should be formed on this plan. They should have the love of God and man for their principle and motive; His glory for their end; and His will for their rule. He who lives and acts thus shall live for ever. Amen." (Adam Clarke)