Jesus Christ In The Writings Of John
OUR HEAVENLY HOME
Lesson Text:
John 14:1-14 (KJV)
Subject:
Five great needs supplied (Jesus comforting His disciples).
Golden Texst:
“In my Father’s house are many mansions.” (John 14:2)
“Let not your hearts be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14:1)
Lesson Plan:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. COMFORT THROUGH FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD (V. 1)
3. THE NEED OF PEACE (V. 1)
4. COMFORT THROUGH FAITH IN A HEAVENLY HOME (VS. 2, 3)
5. THE NEED OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEREAFTER (VS. 2-4)
6. COMFORT IN CHRIST AS THE WAY (VS. 4-11)
7. COMFORT FROM THE DIVINE POWER WORKING THROUGH HIM (V. 12)
8. COMFORT THROUGH THE PROMISE TO ANSWER PRAYER (VS. 13, 14)
9. PRACTICAL THOUGHTS
Light from Other Scriptures:
The Divine Christ – Hebrews 1:1-10; John 3:16, 18; Colossians 1:16, 17; Isaiah 9:6; Philemon 2:5-11; Revelation 1:8, 12-16.
Setting of the Lesson:
Time: Thursday evening, April 6, A.D. 30; just after the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
Place: An upper room in Jerusalem.
Place in the Life of Christ: His farewell discourse with His disciples, spoken the evening before His crucifixion.
Place in the Other Gospels: In Matthew, 26th chapter, between vs. 29 and 30; In Mark, 14th chapter, between vs. 25 and 26; In Luke, 23rd chapter, between vs. 38 and 39.
The Connection:
The account of the instituting of the Lord’s Supper1 is not given in the fourth Gospel, because it was given in the other three. This most precious legacy of our Lord was given the world in the course of that final meal in the upper room with His disciples (see last lesson, “Jesus the Servant of All”). Though we are not given direct commandments regarding how often to celebrate it, we are informed by example that it was celebrated on Sunday, the implication of Scripture being every first day of the week, using unleavened bread and fruit of the vine, i.e., wine or grape juice. The spirit of the Lord’s Supper is certainly emphasized in Scripture. It is communion with Christ, communion with Christ’s followers, and a confirming and reiteration of our faith in the New Covenant, the atonement for our sins which Christ’s death accomplished.
The establishing of this sacrament was followed by our Lord’s last discourse with His disciples, recorded in John 13:13-16:33, and His intercessory prayer, John 17. The preservation of these priceless words is the chief glory of the fourth Gospel.
Inductive Study of the Lesson:
a. Read the accounts of the instituting of the Lord’s Supper, Matthew 26:26-30; Mark 14:22-26; Luke 22:19, 20; also 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17; 11:23-29.
b. Read the entire discourse, John 14-17, marking the verses that illustrate our immediate lesson.
c. Make a Bible study of peace: Exodus 33:14; Nehemiah 8:10; Job 22:21; 34:29; Psalm 5:11; 34:8; Isaiah 12:2; Nahum 1:15; John 14:27; 16:33; Acts 10:36; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14; Philippians 4:7.
d. Make a Bible study of heaven: 1 Chronicles 16:27; Psalm 16:11; 17:15; Daniel 12:3; Matthew 5:12; 6:20; 8:11; Romans 8:18; 1 Corinthians 2:9; 13:12; 2 Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 11:16; 12:22-24; 1 John 3:2; Revelation 7:9-17; 21; 22.
e. Study the character of Thomas: John 11:16; 20:24, 25.
f. Study the character of Philip: John 1:43-46; 6:5-7; 12:21, 22.
g. Study the miracles wrought by the apostles after Christ’s ascension: Acts 5:5-10, 15; 13:11; 19:12, etc.
The world, and everything in it, is a bundle of needs. Everything is hungry. The ground greedily drinks in the rain and sun. The tree stretches its hungry roots into the soil and its hungry leaves into the air. Your house is a focus for incoming supplies: electricity, food, and various luxuries. Every person is hungry for bread, air, knowledge, and love.
Whitney wrote: “Beggars, beggars, all of us! Expectants from our youth; With hands outstretched, and asking alms Of Hope and Love and Truth.”
This sense of need in man is a good thing. Without it, there could be no life, no growth. When a child is not hungry, parents justly begin to fear for its health. When the soul does not see its needs, it is in a sad condition.
Illustration
A father saw his little girl playing blindman’s buff on the side of an upper balcony where half the iron railing had fallen. In agony he cried, “Take off that handkerchief!” When the little girl at last obeyed, she was less than an inch from the edge. Then she saw the need. Many of us go blindfolded through life, and no one does greater service to us than the one who awakens in us a sense of need and an eager desire for better things.
This lesson has through the ages brought comfort to those who are conscious of needs and long to have them supplied. It shows us that God is as eager to grant our desires as we are to present them.
At the same table where He had been eating the Passover with His disciples, Jesus instituted, “The Lord’s Supper.”1 Then He spoke the words contained in the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th chapters of John, which Olshausen calls the Holy of Holies of the history of Christ. They are the revelation of His inmost heart.
Mark the circumstances
Christ is about to depart from His disciples; the cloud of the coming trouble casts its shadow on their hearts; He sees clearly, they feel vaguely, the impending tragedy. They are to behold their Master spit upon, abused, execrated; they are to see Him suffering the tortures of a lingering death on the cross; they are to be utterly unable to interfere for His succor or even for His relief; they are to see all the hopes which they had built on Him extinguished in His death. It is that He may prepare them for this experience, that He may prepare His disciples throughout all time (John 17:20) for similar experiences of world-sorrow (John 16:33), and that He may point out to them and to the Church the source of their hope, their peace, their joy, and their life – moral and spiritual – that He speaks to the twelve, and through them to His discipleship in all ages, in these chapters.
“His discourse sets forth the source of all comfort, strength, guidance, and spiritual well-being in the truth of the direct personal presence of a seemingly absent but really present, a seemingly slain but really living, a seemingly defeated but really victorious, Lord and Master.” (Abbott)
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 14:1 [SEE ALSO V. 27 & CH. 16]
2. COMFORT THROUGH FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD
14:1 … “Let not your heart be troubled.” Jesus saw that His disciples were troubled by the treachery of one of their number; by the foretold fall of another; by the number and intense hatred of their enemies; by the knowledge that soon their Master would be taken away; by their disappointment that the kingdom of God was not set up in the open and glorious way they expected; by their dread of the unknown future. This shows how they can keep their hearts from being troubled.
14:1 … “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” As the disciples already believed, the exhortation must have reference not to the formation, but to the deepening and constant exercise of that faith, the object of which is only One – God in Jesus Christ.
Comfort comes through believing in God
Believing that God is stronger than all enemies can be; that God controls all the forces of the universe; so that He can make all things work together for good; that He loves us even as He loves His only begotten Son (John 17:23); and there will let nothing but good come to His children. Those who thus truly believe can find comfort in the darkest hour. In the dark hour that was coming they were to look up in stronger confidence to this good and mighty God.
Therefore, they should believe in Jesus as the representative of God on earth, and therefore they should trust His promises and sayings as they would those of God; they should believe that the promises of God would be fulfilled in His case, and though they might not see Him longer, yet they should believe that God would raise Him up, and place Him on the right hand of His own power and glory; they should believe in Him as the Savior sent from God, the promised Messiah. Therefore, faith in the Divine Redeemer2 would bring comfort in this hour of darkness, for such a Savior would be able to triumph over every enemy, to bring light out of darkness and good out of evil.
3. THE NEED OF PEACE
Why were the disciples’ hearts troubled?
“There had been much to cause anxiety and alarm; the denouncing of the traitor, the declaration of Christ’s approaching departure, the prediction of Peter’s denial” (Cambridge Bible). The washing of their feet by Christ3 had shown them their pride and selfishness. The solemn sacrament of the Lord’s Supper had caused heart-searchings. How different from the hosannas of an hour before. No wonder there hearts were troubled, or, as the Greek means, “tossed and agitated like water driven by winds.” (Expos. Greek Test.)
What was Christ’s comfort for this unrest?
The command to trust in God and in Himself – believe may be an imperative or an indicative in both clauses, for the Greek form is the same; but to translate both as imperative fits the occasion best.
Why did Christ couple together the two beliefs, in God and in Himself?
a. Because He was God, made plain to men’s eyes.
b. Because they could not really know God except through knowing Christ. “Any man in Christendom who does not believe in Jesus cannot believe thoroughly in God.” (Deems)
c. Because Christ showed them a God so loving, wise, and mighty that they could not help believing in Him and trusting Him.
How does belief in Christ bring peace to any troubled soul?
a. It does not bring peace, as the world understands peace (v. 27; John 16:33). Trust in Christ and obedience to Him often lead to self-denial, hardships, persecution, loneliness, and poverty. “The peace of Jesus is a peace contemporaneous with pain.” (Matheson)
b. But Christ overcomes all these things for us. He even transmutes them into strength and joy, as a tree becomes strong and flourishing because of the storms that beat against it.
c. This is because belief in Christ opens the door of our hearts to the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.4 “Only a Spirit, to abide forever with them; a Paraclete to whom they could have recourse when fightings were most terrible without; one who could unite them to each other, because He united them to the Father – only such a Spirit could be the gift of peace which Christ bestowed.” (Maurice)
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 14:2-4 [ALSO VS. 18, 19, 21-23; AND 17:24]
4. COMFORT THROUGH FAITH IN A HEAVENLY HOME
Perhaps the chief cause of the disciples’ trouble was Christ’s predicted departure into the Great Unknown.5 All that have seen their dear ones slipping from sight understand that one of the principal human needs and desires is to know where they have gone, and if there is to be a reunion.
14:2 … “In my Father’s house.” Heaven, His home, where He dwells, where He shows His peculiar goodness and love; where all the qualities of a home exist, the place from which the only begotten Son came to this earth. Heaven is not only a state, but a place.
14:2 … “Are many mansions.” “Dwelling-places, room enough for all” (Alford). “Various provisions for various natures, something adapted to each person’s needs.” (Abbott)
“The term ‘mansions’ is derived from the Greek verb meaning to abide, and hence implies the idea of abode, rest, stability, home. But the full force and beauty of the words are only understood when we look at them in a light different from that in which they are generally regarded. For ‘my Father’s house’ does not mean heaven as distinguished from earth, nor are the ‘abiding-places’ confined to the world to come. Earth as well as heaven is to the eye of faith a part of that ‘house’; ‘abiding-places’ are here as well as there. In short, the universe is presented to us by our Lord as one ‘house’ over which the Father rules, having ‘many’ apartments, some on this side, others on the other side, the grave. In one of these the true believer dwells now, and the Father and Son come to him, making their abode with him (v. 23); in another of them he will dwell hereafter. Therefore, when Jesus ‘goes away,’ it is not to a strange land; it is only to another chamber of the one house of the Father. The main thought is that wherever Jesus is, wherever we are, we are all in the Father’s house; surely such separation is no real separation.” (Schaff)
“Speculations regarding the ‘many mansions’ are fruitless. It is enough for us to know that they are indeed a reality, despite their existence beyond the perimeter of mortal vision. The souls which are of the faith of Jesus Christ shall truly inherit the upper and better habitations, and the Lord is even now preparing for the reception of the redeemed in the eternal world. Here in these beautiful words of Jesus lies the secret of the Christian's triumph over every mortal disaster.” (Coffman)
14:2 … “If it were not so, I would have told you.” If our separation was to be an eternal one, I would have fore-warned you; I would not have waited for this last moment to declare it unto you (Godet). His teaching would have been entirely different from what it had been (Schaff). He would not have invited them to a place where there was not room and a home for all.
14:2 … “I go to prepare a place for you.” There is prepared a place not merely for all, but for you, a personal preparation in glory for each child as by grace in each child; a room, a house, for each nature adapted to its needs (Abbott).
How did He prepare a place for us?
a. By His atonement He opened heaven to us;
b. “Redemption did not end with Christ’s death; He is still carrying on His work of redeeming love for us as well as in us.” He is some way is preparing places adapted to us, as one by one we are taken home.
c. He also prepares us for the place. When things on earth have issued in their superlative worst; when even life itself ebbs and the soul contemplates that ultimate terminus in the grave, then let the worshiper lift his eyes to see the City Foursquare coming down out of heaven from God. Such a refuge only Zion’s children know.
14:3 … “And if” (since). “If” does not imply doubt; this is not a statement of uncertainty but an argument that as certainly as the Lord shall go, that certainly He will return and receive His own.
14:3 … “I will come again, and [the effect will be to] receive you unto myself.” This coming is His return to the earthly living by His resurrection; the beginning of His kingdom on the Day of Pentecost, when He came through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; “the words refer to His constant spiritual presence in their midst; whereas the reception of them to Himself is to be understood of the complete union which will accompany that spiritual presence” (Ellicott); to the day of our death, when Christ comes to take our souls to His own home; to the final coming of Christ, when all His people will be received unto Himself in the glorious manifestations of His kingdom.
The promise must be limited to that one “coming.” Christ is in fact from the moment of His resurrection ever coming to the world and to the Church, and to men as the risen Lord (Westcott). The coming again of the Lord is not one single act – as His resurrection, or the descent of the Spirit, or His second coming, or the final day of judgment – but the combination of all these, the result of which shall be Him taking His people to Himself to be where He is. This coming is begun (v. 18) in His resurrection; carried on (v. 23) in the spiritual life6, making them ready for the place prepared; further advanced when each by death is fetched away to be with Him (Phil. 1:23); fully completed at His coming in glory, when they shall be forever with Him (1 Thess. 4:17) in the perfected resurrection state (Alford).
The second coming of Jesus is dogmatically affirmed here and throughout the New Testament. Dorris wrote: “Some refer this to the resurrection of Christ, others to the death of a believer as in the case of Stephen, and still others to the coming of the Holy Spirit.
We think these positions inadmissible. The reference is not to Christ’s return from the grave, but to his return from heaven, the second coming of the Lord, which is a part of the Christian faith.”
Regarding the Second Advent Coffman points out the following: “Not only here but in Acts 1:11; 3:21; 2 Thessalonians 4:13-17, etc., the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is emphatically taught; it is one of the foundational teachings of Christianity.”
What Christ will not do when He returns:
a. He will not offer Himself a second time for the sins of the world (Heb. 9:26, 28).
b. He will not restore any phase of fleshly or national Israel. Holy Scripture makes it absolutely clear that in Christ “There is neither Jew nor Greek” (Gal. 3:27-29).
c. He will not set up a kingdom, having already done that, the church being His kingdom. It has existed continuously since the first Pentecost after the resurrection, and wherever the Lord’s Supper is, there is the kingdom (Luke 22:30).
d. He will not extend a second chance for unbelievers to repent (Heb. 9:27).
What Christ will do when He returns:
a. All the dead shall be raised to life (John 5:24-29).
b. The judgment will occur (John 5:24-29; Matt. 25:31-36).
c. The wicked shall be destroyed and the righteous rewarded (2 Thess. 1:7-10).
d. The crown of life shall be given to the faithful (2 Tim. 4:7, 8).
e. Christ will stop reigning, delivering up the kingdom to God (1 Cor. 15:28).
What Christ is doing now:
a. He is reigning until all of His enemies have been put under foot (1 Cor. 15:25f).
b. He is interceding for the redeemed (Heb. 7:25).
c. He is administering all authority in heaven and upon earth (Matt. 28:18-20).
d. He is providentially overseeing the fortunes of His church on earth (Matt. 28:19, 20).
e. He is preparing a home for the faithful (John 14:3).
14:3 … “That where I am, ye may be also.” Being with Jesus, they would enjoy His beautiful home, His heavenly Father, His perfect love, communion and friendship with Him.
5. THE NEED OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE HEREAFTER
Perhaps the chief cause of the disciple’s trouble was Christ’s predicted departure into the Great Unknown.7 All that have seen their dear ones slipping from sight understand that one of the principal human needs and desires is to know whether they have gone, and if there is to be a reunion.
How did Christ answer that question, for them and for us?
a. By revealing heaven as a place, His “Father’s house.” No Christian may think of heaven as “Somewhere – in desolate wind-swept space – In twilight-land – in no-man’s land” (Aldrich). It is a homelike place, familiar and dear, perhaps with lights shining for us in the windows, and the Father waiting for us at the open door.
b. By revealing heaven as a place of private, personal abodes, not a vast caravansary. In it are “many mansions;” in other words, “abiding places,” “mansion” coming from manere, to remain. These are permanent homes, not transient abodes like ours on earth.
Illustration
There is an inscription on the tomb of Dean Alford at Canterbury in England that reads: “The Inn of a traveler on his way home.”
Illustration
“The image is derived from those vast oriental places, in which there is an abode not only for the sovereign and the heir to the throne, but also for all the sons of the kind, however numerous they may be” (Godet). Thus Homer describes Priam’s palace, Ilian, VI, 242-250.
c. By revealing heaven as a large place, with many mansions – room for all. “Heaven will contain immense throngs without being crowded. Its children will be as the grains of sand that bar the ocean’s waves, or the stars that begin the vault of night. Yet there is room! The many mansions are not all tenanted.” (Meyer)
But, there are conditions of entrance.
Illustration
D. L. Moody, at one time, was settled nicely in a crowded hotel when he met a fellow-passenger who exclaimed, “Oh, how did you ever manage to get a room? They tell me the rooms are all taken.” “Easily enough,” Moody replied; “I just telegraphed ahead.” We must “telegraph ahead,” and get our names entered in the Book of Life, if we want room in heaven.
d. By revealing heaven as a practical place; prepared by the One best able to make it delightful, since He is the Creator of all delightful things on earth, and thoroughly knows our tastes and desires.
Illustration
“When we expect a guest we love, we take pleasure in preparing for his reception – we hang in his room the picture he likes; we wheel in the easiest chair; we gather the flowers he admires and set them on his table; we go back and back to see if nothing else will suggest itself to us. Christ is similarly occupied.” (Expositor’s Bible)
e. By revealing heaven as the place of communion with Christ. This was the purpose of His going, which saddened His disciples – to make ready a place to which He could bring them for a fellowship without any more parting.
f. By insisting that what was left unrevealed concerning the hereafter is to be thought of as joyful and not grievous. “If it were not so,” if heaven were not this warm, loving, homelike, beautiful place, “I would have told you,” would have warned you and prepared you.
When does Christ come again, to take us to this heavenly abode? He comes at the death of believers; He will come at the end of the world; He is coming all the time in His Holy Spirit, preparing souls for heaven.
Illustration
When the North Bridge of Edinburgh, Scotland, was widened, they found in the arched vaults under the roadway the most wonderful caves of snow-white stalactites. The rain, percolating through the roof, carried with it the lime with which the stones were cemented, and transformed the gloomy vaults into a glorious scene. Thus we are fashioning our eternal mansions unconsciously out of the hard materials of our common ways on earth.
Why did Christ say that the disciples knew the way He was going?
“This is half a rebuke, implying that they ought to know more than they did know; they had heard, but not heeded (John 10:7, 9; 11:25)” (Cambridge Bible). Much infidelity regarding heaven is likewise due to careless or willful ignorance of what Christ has told us.
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 14:4-11
6. COMFORT IN CHRIST AS THE WAY
14:4 … “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” “They knew both the way and the goal, if they would but recall what they had heard their Master say both in public and in private; they knew the way, but they did not know that they knew it.” (St. Augustine)
14:5 … “Thomas saith unto him.” The one naturally who would be the last to see clearly what Jesus was teaching. He was the exponent of doubt and discouragement.
14:5 … “Lord, we know not,” etc. The truth was not clear and definite to him. He did not know to which of the many mansions Jesus was going, nor what it was to be with the Father. He did not see how the kingdom of God was coming through the death of his Lord. Everything was dim and misty, covered with clouds and darkness.
14:6 … “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way.” The pronoun is emphatic; I need no other: Ego sum Via, Veritas, Vita” (Cambridge Bible). The way where? To the Father, as explained in the last clause. But where the Father is, there is all good – heaven, happiness, character, salvation, love, forgiveness.
Christ the Way:
a. Because He is the express image of the Father, and therefore when we know Christ, we know the Father.
b. Because He reveals the Father by His works. Only He has seen the Father, and He is declaring the Father, so that we know what He is.
c. He has made atonement for our sins, and opened the way for us to be reconciled to God, and to come to Him. d. He imparts the new Divine life, by which alone we are able to see the Father, because we thus become like Him.
Note that this is one of the chief peculiarities of the religion of Jesus Christ, distinguishing it from and giving it power over all others. They are pictures of what we ought to be. Christ is the way to it. They give advice to be good. Christ is the way to be good.
14:6 … “And the truth.” Christ is more than the great expounder of truth, more than a truth-speaking man; He is the complete revelation of God, and hence the sum and substance of all truth, “in whom are hid all the treasurers of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).
14:6 … “And the life.” The source of life spiritual, as He was the Creator of natural life. Because He imparts life, He is the way. To make one comprehend a spiritual God, there must be given spiritual life.
14:6 … “No man cometh unto the Father.” He now says, “to the Father,” not to the Father’s house. “It is not in heaven that we are to find God, but in God that we are to find heaven.” (Abbott)
14:6 … “But by me.” Because there is no other way of seeing the Father but by His express image, nor of fully knowing the Father save by Jesus’ revelation of Him; no way of coming into loving communion except through the atonement; no way of knowing the Father except through the new life Jesus imparts.
The Need of Guidance (more on vs. 5, 6)
But Thomas raised a question of fact: They did not clearly and definitely know where Jesus was going; how could they know the way?
How was this question characteristic of Thomas?
He was the doubter among the apostles. “Very slowly would this man make up his mind, and very severely would he try all the evidence, but where he took his stand, he would stand, and there also he would die” (Maclaren). Greenhough pointed out that what satisfied him should be enough for all. In other words, Thomas doubted, so that the church throughout the ages might have no reason to doubt.
In actual fact, the forthright confession that Jesus was deity, other than from Jesus Himself, came only after His resurrection, when “doubting” Thomas saw the scarred body of Jesus and said, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). The climax had arrived. The resurrection victory was decisive. The full identity of Jesus was now affirmed. Jesus is God (deity)! This was, as some might say, only one man’s confession. This is true, but in God’s revelation of Himself to humanity it was the historic, pivotal turning point in man’s ability to perceive and confess the significance of that revelation.
How did Christ answer Thomas’s question?
By pointing to Himself, in the great sentence:
I – in the Greek the pronoun is very emphatic.
AM THE WAY – from earth to heaven, from man to God, from doubt to certainty;
AND THE TRUTH – the truth about God, the way from God to man, the unseen Father revealing Himself; the truth about heaven also, and all essential truth about the life on earth.
AND THE LIFE – the vital principle and the energy that enables one to walk along this road stretching between God and man; the life that would be victorious even over the dreaded death that the disciples saw approaching.
NO ONE COMETH UNTO THE FATHER, BUT BY ME – for Christ is not merely a way to God, but the only way; not merely a revelation of God, but the only revelation; not merely a life of spiritual power, but the only life one can live in common with God is through communion with Christ.
Illustration
“One of the wonders of the old Roman people was the roads they made from end to end of Europe. The Roman cities are in ruins now, but men are still walking on the Roman ways. So Jesus, our Redeemer, is still the Way.” (Morrison)
Illustration
“Quid est veritas? (“What is truth?”) was Pilate’s question. “The answer is in the same letters, rearranged: Est vir qui adest, ‘Truth is the Man who stands before you.’ Christ is the one thing in the Christian life. No picture of the sun can illumine a landscape; no richly colored wax or folded paper can make a flower bed.” (Burr)
So no substitute can take the place of Christ. Christ is better than guidance, He is the Guide. He alone can lead to heaven, because He alone has come from heaven to earth (John 3:13). “Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6, NKJV)
Thou are the Way – to Thee alone
From sin and death we flee;
And he who would the Father seek
Must seek Him, Lord! By Thee.
Thou are the Truth – Thy word alone
True wisdom can impart;
Thou only can instruct the mind
And purify the heart.
Thou are the Life – the rending tomb
Proclaims Thy conquering arm;
And those who put their trust in Thee
Nor death nor hell shall harm.
Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life;
Grant us that Way to know,
That Truth to keep, that Life to win,
Whose joys eternal flow.
(Dr. William Harrison)
14:7 … “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.” “The English word “known” represents two Greek words in the better text that are not identical in meaning. The former means to know by observation, the latter to know by reflection. It is the difference between connaître and savoir; between kennen (ken, k[e]now), and wissen (wit, wisdom).” (Ellicott)
14:7 … “And have seen him.” Because Jesus is God, and expressed to them what God is. The practical lesson for us clearly is that the way to come to a true spiritual knowledge of the Father is by a study of the life and character of Christ and above all by a sympathetic and personal spiritual acquaintance with Him (Abbott).
Hitherto the disciples had not understood the full and true nature of Jesus. But from the time of His death, and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, they had a new comprehension of His nature and work.
14:8 … “Philip saith unto him.” Even yet they did not understand. He wants to see Him with his bodily eyes, or in a vision of His glory, as Moses saw Him on Horeb. Who has not longed for a sight of God, and a view of heaven?
14:9 … “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me.” My true character, and nature, and relations to God. There is a possibility that men should be in the closest apparent nearness to Christ, and yet have never learned the meaning of the words they constantly hear and utter; and have never truly known the purpose of Christ’s life (Ellicott).
14:9 … “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Not seen the outward form, but the true character and nature. He that had seen Christ’s motives had seen the Father’s motives. He that had seen Christ’s love had seen the Father’s love. He that had seen Christ’s feelings has seen the Father’s feelings. He that had seen Christ’s desire for the salvation of men, His character, His hatred of sin, His love of goodness, had seen the Father in these same respects.
14:10 … “Believest thou not that I am in the Father and Father in me?” The relation existing between the Father and the Son was of so close and vital a nature that the Father could not be revealed apart from the Son. The relation was one of mutual indwelling so intimate and continuous that the words and works of the Son must be considered as proceeding also from the Father (Clark).
14:10 … “Words … works.” These are taken as correlative and coextensive here, all the working of the Lord Jesus being a speaking, a revelation, of the Father (Alford). The words and the works of Christ are pointed out as the two proofs of His union with the Father, the former appealing to the spiritual consciousness, the latter to the intellect. The former were a revelation of character, the later primarily of power (Westcott).
14:11 … “Believe me.” Spoken to all, for the word is plural in the original.
a. They should believe in His union with the Father, because He had told them, and His whole character and teaching proved it. He was His own best witness.
b. “Or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” His works, not His miracles alone, but all He had done for men, proved that He was in intimate union with the Father.
The Need of a Knowledge of God (more on vs. 7-11; also vs. 20, 24, 28, 30, 31; John 15:24; 16:28).
It is not enough to know the truth about God, or be in the way to God, or even to have the divine life in us; the human soul longs after God Himself.8
How did our Lord meet this need?
By disclosing the final, supreme truth, that He was God: “If ye had known me” – recognized My true nature – “Ye should have known my Father also.” Christ was the complete image of the Father.9 But, as we have seen, this answer did not satisfy Philip, who wanted some marvelous vision of God such as Moses saw on Horeb.
How was this characteristic of Philip?
“Perhaps of all the disciples Philip was the least receptive and the slowest to comprehend the thoughts and spiritual beauty of the Master. He was the materialist of the company.” (Greenhough)
“Philip was the very type of plain downright common sense . . . It was he who calculated how [much] bread it would take to feed the multitude, and who met Nathanael’s difficulties about Jesus with an abrupt “Come and See”. (Maclaren)
How did Christ emphasize the great truth, His oneness with the Father?
a. By reminding Philip of the “long time” he had been with Christ – for he had been among the first disciples – and of all the evidence he had seen of Christ’s divinity.
b. By specifying these evidences, beginning with “the words” He had spoken, the wonderful parables, the beatitudes, the model prayer, the sermons, the private conversations – words so gracious, wise, and powerful that they must come from God.
c. By naming also “the works” He had done, the long series of convincing miracles, showing such a mastery of nature, disease, and death as only God could possibly possess.
d. By a personal appeal: “Believe me” when “I” tell you “that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” Christ here turns to all the disciples, for “believe” is in the plural, and urges them to consider His credibility. Was He the kind of man to lie? – To indulge in empty boasts? – To be guilty of what, if false, would be a horrible blasphemy? The character of Christ, even more strongly than His miracles, proves the truth of His claim to divinity.
e. By a warning (v. 28) that they were not to expect to see in the Man Christ the awful and splendid majesty of Jehovah. In Christ’s human body, to be sure, dwelt “all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9); but its outward manifestation was clogged by fleshly limitations, by our human infirmities which Christ took upon Him, so that Christ must say, while in the flesh, “My Father is greater than I.” This was the answer to Philip’s difficulty.
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 14:12
7. COMFORT FROM THE DIVINE POWER WORKING THROUGH HIM
14:12 … “He that believeth on me.” This is the condition and limit to the promise that follows. It is given to those who are united to Him by faith, so that the Divine power can flow through them from Him. To do those works through others would be not only contrary to nature, but would work against God, and against His salvation for men.
14:12 … “The works that I do.” Works of healing, of teaching, of turning men from sin, of bringing in the kingdom of God; His whole beneficent activity, including His miracles.
14:12 … “Shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall he do.” This has been fulfilled, not in greater miracles of healing but in the spiritual works, marvels of conversion, which are greater than any physical miracles. In the wondrous progress of the Gospel among men. More were converted in one day at Pentecost than during all Christ’s ministry of three years; and nation after nation has since been converted to God. Christianity has done more for the healing of the sick, and giving sight to the blind, and for the physical comfort and relief of men, than all the miracles Jesus did when on earth. Under His divine power new skill has come. A new benevolence has arisen, building hospitals and inventing means and methods to help mankind. Thus, every year Jesus is doing greater works through His disciples than He did when on earth.
14:12 … “Because I go unto my Father.” Schaff points out that they are the organs not only of a humbled, but of an ascended, Lord; and through what He is at the right hand of the Father, they shall do “greater works” than He did in the world. Because of His departure, His work was no longer limited to time and place, but was present with His disciples all over the world – all the time. By His departure through the cross, He was exalted so as to touch the hearts of men, and draw all nations to Him in love, and thus fit them to be His instruments for doing these works. His disciples were better fitted for their work, more confident and manly, better trained in every good work, by an invisible but ever-present Lord.
“Greater works would then relate to the wider opportunities which the disciples would have when Jesus returned to the Father. It would then be possible for Jesus to work through his people. The book of Acts is a commentary on this promise.” (Guthrie)
“During the life of Jesus on earth, his work was restricted to the limitations of his physical presence; but, after he ascended to the Father and the Holy Spirit came in his name, a greater and more extended work would be done by the fuller inspiration of the apostles, and the more extended mission they would fill.” (Lipscomb)
“According to this great saying of our Lord, the greater works are the spiritual works . . . Does Jesus, by this means of comparison, which places the spiritual so far above the physical, hint that miracles in the physical sphere would gradually disappear when they would no longer be necessary?” (Hendriksen)
It is difficult to know exactly what Jesus meant by this, for no miracle could be greater than raising Lazarus from the dead, and no work could be greater than that of the enabling act of redemption on the cross. The very nature of Jesus’ appearance on earth required miraculous manifestations of his power; but those miracles, wonderful as they were, had an inherent limitation. Jesus’ miracle of feeding the five thousand was as nothing compared to the feeding of all the populations of earth throughout history through the operation of God’s natural laws. Similarly, the miracle of creating Adam and Eve was as nothing compared to the perpetuation of humanity through the ages by means of the natural laws of procreation. Just so, the miracles attending the establishment of the church, or kingdom of heaven, on earth, and even including the miracles wrought by Jesus, are as nothing compared to the salvation of countless millions of men through the operation of God’s spiritual laws which were set in motion by Jesus. The superiority of the spiritual over the physical is evidenced by Jesus’ words here. Three thousand souls were converted from death to life on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ, a feat far surpassing anything that was possible before Jesus returned to the Father.
SCRIPTURE READING: JOHN 14:13, 14
8. COMFORT THROUGH THE PROMISE TO ANSWER PRAYER
14:13 … “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.”10 A comparison of the passages in footnote ten shows clearly that God does not give an unconditional promise of affirmative answer to every prayer. This would be to place omnipotence at the command of ignorance and selfishness; it would be a curse, not a blessing. The condition here is embodied in the words, “in my name”; the promise is only to those petitions asked in the name of Jesus Christ. To ask in the name of Christ is not to introduce His name into the petition, as in the familiar phrase, “In the name of Jesus Christ,” or “For Christ’s sake”; nor is it merely to approach the Father through the mediatorship of Jesus; this, but much more than this, is included. “In the name” of any one, as generally, if not always, used in the New Testament signifies representing Him, standing in His stead, fulfilling His purposes, manifesting His will – imbued with and showing forth His life and glory. With John it always has this signification. Here, then, the declaration is that whatsoever we ask, speaking for Christ, seeking His will, representing Him and His interests, and His kingdom, not merely our own special and personal interest (Phil. 2:21), will be granted. So, in Matthew 6:9, the Lord makes the petition, “Hallowed be thy name” the portico to every prayer, teaching us that in every prayer desire for the glory of God should be supreme, and carrying with it the petition, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
14:13 … “That the Father may be glorified in the Son.” He would answer these prayers in the name of Christ, and for the coming of His kingdom, because all the works, the conversions, the redeeming from evil, the triumphs of the Son, honored the Father who sent Him, and worked in Him.
14:14 … “If ye shall ask any thing in my name.” This is an emphatic repetition of the width of the promise and of its condition, so that there need be no mistake. We can ask everything, bring all things to Him in prayer; and if it be in His name, as above mentioned, it will be granted.
Many manuscripts insert “me” into this verse: “If ye shall ask (me) anything in my name, that will I do”, thus suggesting that prayers might be offered directly to Jesus, as well as addressed to the Father in Jesus’ name. Note the prayer of Stephen (Acts 7:59). Dummelow cited Acts 9:14, 21 and 1 Corinthians 1:2, where “calling upon the name of the Lord” was construed by him as examples of the same thing.
14:14 … “I will do it.” “This ‘I’ already indicates the glory” (Bengel), the glory of Him who is One with the Father.
The Need of Answers to Prayer (more on vs. 12-14; also John 15:7, 16; 16:23, 24) Thus far in this wonderful discourse, Christ had met the passive needs, the need of peace, of guidance, of knowledge. But when we have these, we become eager to apply them, to use our knowledge, to set out with out guide; our great need then is for power.
How did Christ meet this need?
First, by a prophecy; then by a promise.
What did He mean by that last clause?
“His returning to the Father was to be the crisis and commencement of a new life to the world” (Maurice). “The believers would then be Christ’s representatives on earth, as he would be their representative in heaven” (Ellicott). His going meant (John 16:7) the coming of the Holy Spirit,11 who could accomplish more through them than Christ could.
What were the greater works that the disciples would do?
a. They are held by some writers to be greater even in the physical realm. MacArthur pointed out that “our Lord wrought miracles for three years and a little over, in a limited territory; but the disciples wrought miracles for a generation, in widely separated countries.”
b. But still more remarkable were the triumphs of the apostles in the spiritual realm. At length, Christ had at His death 620 disciples, as far as we are told; Peter won 3,000 to Christ by a single sermon. Soon the Roman Empire, which crucified Christ, was submissive to the power of the cross. “The existence of the church is really the most wonderful of miracles . . . The conversion of a soul is a still greater miracle than the healing of a body . . . Evermore the harvest time must be greater than the seed time.” (MacArthur)
c. These greater works are no disparagement of Christ, but His glory, since they are all done by Him. The gospels are the record of what Christ “began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1); later history is a continuation.
d. “Never were the opportunities so great as now for doing great things for God and man. The whole earth is a whispering gallery making known the name of Jesus Christ . . . Doors are opening into every nation . . . Oh, that God would arouse His church to do these greater works!” (MacArthur)
THE PROMISE with which Christ met this need of power was the great promise of answers to prayer: “If ye shall ask anything . . . I will do it.”
What are the conditions of this promise?
a. Belief on Christ (v. 12).
b. The prayer must be offered in Christ’s name (vs. 13, 14).
c. The end must be the glory of God in Christ (v. 13). This is a complete guide to the prayer country.
What is meant by believing on Christ? (v. 12)
It is more than the “believe me” of v. 11. To believe in, or on, is more than the mere acceptance of a statement. It is accepting a statement or a person in such a way as to rest on them, to trust them. To believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of His historic life or His saving energy as fact, but to rest the soul on Him for eternal salvation, adopting His precepts and example as binding on life.
When is prayer offered in Christ’s name?
a. When the disciple lovingly links Christ’s name with the petition, not going in the name of the Virgin Mary or some other saint. But there is no talismanic virtue in the mere words, “For Jesus’ sake.”
b. “Name,” throughout the Bible, stands for one’s character. Prayer in the name of Christ is therefore prayer in His character, His spirit; prayer in accord with His will.
c. The Expositor’s Greek Testament states: “The name of a person can only be used when we seek to further his interests. A successful prayer must be for the furtherance of Christ’s kingdom.”
Are prayers offered in His name and to God’s glory always answered?
Infallibly. However, God will not give us curses, but blessings. Often the literal granting of our prayers would be the greatest misfortune. When we pray about earthly matters, such as more attendance or contribution; or health, prolonged life and money, we must always be willing for our prayers to be denied, if, in God’s omniscience, He determines that it is best for us. But, when we pray for undoubted good, such as a pure heart or spiritual peace, we may be sure that God will grant our petitions literally. Our real prayer is always for happiness and good; and that is always granted, if we pray for the right reason.
9. PRACTICAL THOUGHTS
Sources of Comfort:
a. Faith in God as good, wise, loving, true.
b. Faith in Christ as the Son of God, the atoning Savior, our Teacher, our ever-present Friend.
c. The assurance of a home in heaven.
d. A heaven large enough for all.
e. A heaven specially prepared for each one, to meet varied tastes and needs.
f. A Savior in this heaven whom we have loved and known on earth.
g. A way opened to that heaven.
h. A Savior who will come for us when it is time for us to go home.
i. A vision of God, His goodness, His love, His works, in the life of Jesus Christ.
j. An ever-present Savior working in and through us, to do the great and blessed works needed by men, and for the up-building of God’s kingdom.
k. The assurance of the answer to our prayers.
Conditions:
a. If we would have comfort, we must believe – trust in Jesus Christ.
b. If we would dwell in Christ’s heaven, we must belong to Him here.
c. If we would go to God and His home, we must go in Jesus Christ.
d. If we would know the Father, we must know Jesus.
e. If we would do great works for Jesus, we must be joined to Him by true faith.
f. If we would receive answers to our prayers, we must pray in the name of Jesus.
Footnotes:
1 For more information on salvation, see God’s Salvation in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
2 For more information on the Lord’s Supper, see Remembering Jesus in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
3 This washing is considered in our last lesson, Jesus the Servant of All in Jesus Christ in the Writings of John section of StudyJesus.com.
4 For more information on the Holy Spirit, see God the Spirit in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
5 See John 13:36.
6 See also John 16:22, etc.
7 See John 13:36.
8 For more information on God, see God the Father in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
9 For more information on Christ as the image of the Father, see God the Son in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
10 For analogous promises of answers to prayer, see Exodus 22:27; Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalm 34:15; 37:4, 5; Jeremiah 29:12, 13; Joel 2:32; Matthew 7:7,8; Mark 11:24; John 15:16; 16:23; James 1:5; 1 John 3:22; 5:14, 15.
11 For more on the Holy Spirit, see God the Spirit in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
