John 14
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. John 13:38
After this bombshell revelation, just dropped on Peter, Jesus will now comfort him…comfort them all, in this, his final and what has become known as his farewell discourse…
John 14
1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
But surely there is only One God - right?
If Jesus were not God, such a statement as this, would be blasphemy: Once again, Jesus is assuring his disciples, by - once again - claiming equality with God. This is enforced by his next statement:
2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Here is a beautiful analogy of our adoption as sons and daughters, into his house - his home - the Place of His habitation; and not for us alone…and not for these disciples alone: For we read in Luke Ch.14:23…
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2014%3A16-24&version=ESV
And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.’ Read Luke 14:15-24
This is not a physical house - but a spiritual, eternal home! For who so ever wants to “come in” and sup with him! Whenever I think on how many God may save, could save, would save, I remember this scripture.
The question I ask myself is this: How big is our Father’s house? ... and how immense is our Father’s heart? and how incomprehensible, that He desires that it be completely filled - with us!
See Revelation 7:9-17
When, in Matthew ch.6, Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our Father, in Heaven”, this is exactly why: No son or daughter is be left outside in the cold; but all have a place in the Father’s Presence; and through the cross, Jesus Christ the Son, (the first born from the dead) will provide it. (Genesis 22:7-8; Colossians 1:15&18)
This true and solid reassurance is vital for what is about to occur; All of the disciples - and especially Peter, are going to need this. They will all abandon him…they will all fail: But Jesus is telling them before hand: I am going to prepare (to labor…to work on) a place for YOU!
And through their testimony, His House…the House of the Lord…will also become our house; to sup with him…dwell with him…be with him; which had been God’s plan all along.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Another reassurance from Jesus: He is coming back for us; we must be ready…
4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
So there are not “many roads to Heaven” - but one Way…and only one: Because there is only One who lived a perfect life; and who could therefore, offer it up, as the perfect sacrifice, in exchange for our imperfect, sinful lives. (See Exodus 12:5) We read in Hebrews 9:22 that “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. -
and there is only One who will shed his perfect blood - providing a perfect, complete forgiveness of all sins…for who so ever, would desire that forgiveness. This is why, looking back again to Romans 9:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
For those who are working to keep the Law - and failing, because we are incapable of keeping God’s perfect Law perfectly - the realization that this Way will be open to all - Jew or Gentile, regardless of how well they have or have not kept the Law, will become an offense.
“And you know the way to where I am going.”
Jesus reassures all of them: “You know me; therefore you do know the way to Heaven…to Life…to the Father. Here is the One who will make a Way…who, by his shed blood, will open the Way - permanently. But Jesus will not stop here: Because, not only do they know the Way to the Father…
But also
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
…through knowing Jesus, they all now know the Father.
Here is the Revelation - the unveiling of Jesus Christ. Different to the book of Revelation, in that the Messiah is unveiled to his disciples through the eyes of the mercy, that will come through his death on the cross: the mercy of the blood of Jesus:
In the lead up to his second “unveiling” or “apokalupsis” which John describes in detail, in the Book of Revelation, the Lord will deal with the Earth, no longer through the Blood of Jesus, sprinkled on the Mercy seat; but now we be the unveiling…the Revelation…of the Judgment Seat of Jesus Christ.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. See Matthew 5:8
Could it be that in all their time with Jesus their hearts have been purified? (See ch.13:10) This is how they can now see, not only Jesus Christ, but the Father also. Just as, when we, also as his disciples, abide with Christ and learn from him, our hearts too become purified. (See also Colossians 1:15, 19-20 & 2:9)
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
{See again ch.5 vs. 19 & 30}
So, not only are they beholding the face of the Father through Jesus Christ - they are also hearing His words and seeing His works: Jesus lives to do the will of His Father…and gives ALL glory back to him; for this is the perfect expression of the triune God; and is further enforced through Jesus’s profound act of servitude, in washing his disciples’ feet:
He came, as the only begotten Son of the Almighty God - not to be served - but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28): - speaking his Father’s words; doing his Father’s will; displaying his Father’s heart…Perfect Love!
Remember John’s words in ch.1:18 “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.”
Is this not exactly what Jesus has been doing, these last three years? He will continue to do this to the very end.
(See also 1John ch.2:23 & ch.4:9-12)
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
See chapter 2:23-24
These signs, as prophesied in Scriptures such as Isaiah 35:5-6, are supposed to point the people to Jesus: These works he has done, are supposed to speak for themselves: Think back to the testimony of the man born blind, in Ch.9:32-33
“Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
See Ch5:20-21
There will be nothing greater than the saving work that Jesus will do from the cross; but it will be through this - the greatest of all works - that our “greater works” will be performed:
Greater because Jesus - he who has triumphed over sin - now sits at the right hand of the Father, where he lives to make intercession for us. (Romans 8;34)
Greater in magnitude; for the Lord no longer dwells among us in a human body, subject to hunger, thirst and fatigue; but very shortly we will be introduced to the third part of this mysterious godhead: The Holy Spirit - who does not tire, faint or grow weary; and who will indwell and empower each and every believer, to be the hands, feet and heart of the Lord - the very ends of the earth.
And greater because the perfect Love of God, unveiled through Jesus Christ, will now be made manifest throughout his entire Church, through the Holy Spirit - to the very ends of the earth.
1John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
For further reading See
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Remember Jesus is talking to his faithful remnant; they who have remained with him from the beginning; who have been washed and made clean by his truth spoken to them; and who are about to undergo the greatest test of them all…through which they…every one…will be refined like gold in a furness. They who are about to be baptized into the school of self-sacrificing Love (See 1John 3:21-24) will receive whatever they ask in His Name: Because they are seeking - not their own will - but His!
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
{What are his commandments? We will know more as we keep reading…}
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Think back to Jesus’s words in vs. 9: this “Spirit of Truth has been with them all along…because Jesus has been with them all along: The Spirit of Truth is the Spirit of Jesus. They are one. This is how Jesus can go in to say…
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
It is through the Holy Spirit, that Jesus will be with them. And not only Jesus, but the Father also:
Remember Jesus’s words of before: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
And:
“…to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. See Ch. 1:12-13 (Also Romans 8:14-16 & Ephesians 1:5)
Now we can gaze with clarity at this mystery of the triune God: Jesus, the Son of God, will open up the Way for us, to the Father; then he will ask the Father, to send us the Spirit. GOD IS WITH US; fully…completely…forever…
Vs.18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Whether Jesus is speaking here - or the Father - or both - does not matter - because they are ONE! Through Jesus Christ, we know and have access to ALL the fullness of the Godhead. No matter who we are or what we have done, God our Creator has now become our Father: We belong…!
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
For a third time, Jesus makes this mysterious statement; and this time, it comes with a promise: “You will see me again…and you will (not die, but) live.”
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
On that glorious “Resurrection Sunday” the veil will be fully and completely removed…for the disciples; and then, through their testimony, for the entire world! On that day…they will all KNOW! (Jeremiah 31:34)
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Notice the key word here: This is all about Love; just as his “new commandment” (as we shall read in the next few chapters) is Love.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered 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.
Again Jesus’s answer to Judas is centered upon Love: “If anyone loves me..” In other words: “Who so ever” would love Him: The manifestation of “the Christ; the Son of the Living God”, will not only be confined to this inner circle of disciples - but to anyone! …A Samaritan woman (Ch4)…a Canaanite woman (Matthew 10)…a leper from Samaria (Luke 17)…a Roman official (Ch.4)…a demoniac (Matthew 8)…an Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8)…a Roman centurion (Acts 10)…a Pharisee! (Ch3…& Acts 9)
Yes, Judas’s assertion is correct: He will not manifest himself to the world - but rather: He will call people out of the world, to come to him…to abide with him…and the Father…through the Holy Spirit: Such a promise!
And - Judas and the others do not yet understand this - but it will be through THEIR testimony; both their spoken and (for some of them) their written words. (See 1John 1:1-4)
24 (a)Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.
(His words? This Gospel - which the Apostles will shortly proclaim: To reject these words, is to reject Jesus Christ and his Salvation)
24 (b) And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
(…and to reject these words…the Word of Jesus Christ, is to reject the Word of the Father, himself.)
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still 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 that I have said to you.
The Apostles saw Jesus Christ in person - they KNEW him; and will testify about him from this position - first to the Jew - and then to the gentile: The Holy Spirit will be sent, as the continuing, abiding Presence of God, to enable them to remember - not only for their own sakes, but for the sake of as many as will come to Christ through their testimony.
It is through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit- and the remembrance given by him, that the Gospels and Epistles will be recorded in writing; so that, in the centuries to come, we, the sheep of many diverse sheepfolds (see Ch.10:16), would also be able to learn and remember!
The spoken Truth of God, spanning time and space, extends its long arm of Salvation - even to you and I. (Isaiah 59:1)
And now, Jesus reassures his disciples one more time
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 hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
This peace that Jesus will give to them…will leave with them, is so much more than the traditional customary greeting (“Peace be with you”) used by the Jews at that time. This “shalom peace” meaning wholeness and completeness of both soul and body, will be Jesus’s final and parting gift to his disciples (a last will and testament of you like). This Peace…ministered by the Holy Spirit, is now more than just a phrase of greeting, upon entering and leaving one another’s homes: This gift of true Peace…perfect and complete Shalom…will become essential to all the disciples, in view of the baptism of Fire they are about to go through. They will not any of them, understand, until after Jesus’s resurrection, how the Lord’s gift of Peace has kept them - all of them - especially Peter…
28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
Jesus is again preparing them; for a death…and a resurrection: Through the death of Jairus’s daughter and of Lazarus, Jesus has been teaching his disciples, that death is not the end…that “Death has lost its sting”, so that they will not lose heart or despair at his own horrific death.
{“The Father is greater than I.” Jesus is not speaking in terms of his deity here; through which he shares equality with the Father and the Spirit (they are One); but rather, he speaks from his position of incarnation (as one who is fully man), subservient under the LORD God, his Father. See also Matthew 3:13-15 & 24:36}
“Rejoice…I go to my Father…who is greater than I…”
This is all about the “Father” - a position taken extremely seriously in Judaic culture. Personally, I hear this statement, through the mind of a Jewish child…growing up in the culture of that time, where their father would have been the head of the house…and the protecter, provider and instructor of the family:
“Do not worry about me! My Dad is greater…stronger…bigger than me…he will take care of me...he will take care of everything!” Could this have possibly been what the disciples (growing up in that time and culture) would have heard? If so, this would have been a comfort to them, in their growing uncertainty and apprehension.
29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
Again: Jesus knows…which means that He is in control here! (Remember Ch.10:17-18)
30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me,
In times of extreme pressure, usually the best and wisest thing to do is say little or nothing. See Amos 5:12-13; James 3:6.
“He has no claim on me.” - again remember Ch.10:18.
Jesus will say all that needs to be said here, in this, his final discourse; so that when his time reaches it fruition:
“like a lamb taken to the slaughter” and “like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
he will open not his mouth”
And although He will be “oppressed”, and “afflicted”,
yet he will “open not his mouth.”
See Isaiah 53:7
Vs.31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
Read 1John 2:15-17: Jesus will not follow the ways of the world - nor covet its treasures; but, through his crucifixion and resurrection, he will send a very clear message, to show he is not of this world: By setting his face like flint; keeping his eyes solely focused on his Father - and his heart set to do his will; he will embrace that which the world fears the most: Death…and, in doing so, he will conquer Death - for the entire world. (Ch.3:16)
This is his and his Father’s Last Will:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21…
Here is the hallmark for every disciple of Jesus Christ: Here, Jesus sets the precedent for all of us who would follow him. Not our will - but his.
But is this possible for us?
In our own strength, absolute not: Which is why first of all, we must be born again, through repentance and turning back to God, asking forgiveness for our sins. (Through his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus has opened the Way for us to put off the old life - and put on the new.):
Then, he will send us the Helper…the Holy Spirit: As the perfect representation of the fullness of the Godhead, He will impart to us - and within us - the Strength, the Grace and the Love of God; to do in us, what would have been impossible before. All he requires of us, is to trust him - and surrender.
Vs.31(b) Rise, let us go from here.
The remainder of this dialogue, from here onwards will take place on route to the Mount of Olives.
Footnote on vs 16:
“Another”:
Greek "allos" indicating another of the same kind,
“Helper”: Greek paraklétos: Advocate, Helper, Comforter, Counselor
Derived from the root parakaleó meaning "to call to one's side," "to summon," or "to comfort."
Source Bible Hub
Comments
Post a Comment