Christ comforts and encourages His disciples
14
📚“Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. 14:1 There were several matters that could cause them to be troubled. Their master was going away. Peter was soon to deny that he knew Him. None of them knew what was going on, only that something strange and difficult was about to happen (this they could judge from the words of the Lord recorded in Matt 26:26-35). But He tells them not to be troubled, and gives in this chapter a number of reasons why they should not be (vs 1,2,3,13-14,16,27). The first is that He is trustworthy. This is the way whereby His people can always overcome the temptation to be troubled, worried and agitated about events – trust in God and trust in Christ. They could not be in control of circumstances, but He was, and in that they could find rest of heart. Compare Matt 6:25-27; Phil 4:6-7; 1 Pet 5:7.⚜
2 📚“In my Father’s house are many dwellings. If this were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
14:2 Here is another reason why they should not be troubled. They had a glorious, eternal future in heaven. With such a prospect they should not allow the things of time and the world to weigh too heavily in their thoughts. Peter had asked where He was going. Here Jesus gives a direct, clear answer. There was work in heaven which He would do for them.⚜
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.
14:3 See John 17:24; 1 Thess 4:17. Here is another reason why they should not allow themselves to be troubled. Though He was going away He was also coming back. See Matt 24:26-27; 25:31; 26:64; Acts 1:11; 1 Thess 4:16—5:4; Rev 1:7; 19:11-16; 22:12.⚜
4 📚And you know where I am going, and you know the way”.
14:4 They did not think they knew the way (v 5), but actually they did know it because they knew Jesus Himself Who is the Way. And they had already taken the way that leads to heaven – faith in Him (John 1:12-13; 3:16, 36; 5:24; 6:47).⚜
Christ the one way to God
5 📚Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?”
14:5 This disciple is often called “doubting Thomas” because of John 20:24-25. But he was also honest, open, without hypocrisy. He would not pretend to know something or to believe something he did not know or believe.⚜
6 📚Jesus said to him, “I am the way, 📖 the truth, 📖 and the life 📖; no one comes to the Father except through me.
14:6 Here is one of the best known and most important sayings of the Lord 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”.
8 📚Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be sufficient for us”.
14:8 Perhaps Philip’s desire was something like that of Moses in Ex 33:18 – a vision of God Himself.⚜
9 📚Jesus said to him, “Have I been such a long time with you, and you have not yet known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. 📖 Then how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ 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, but the Father who lives in me is doing these things.
11 📚Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; or else believe me because of the deeds themselves.
14:11 If Philip was not willing to take Christ’s word for it, he should look at the evidence Christ gave and then believe. Christ once spoke to the Jewish leaders in the same way – John 10:37-38.⚜
12 📚“Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in me, he also will do the deeds that I am doing; and he will do greater deeds than these, because I am going to my Father.
14:12 What things could possibly be greater than the things Christ had done? He could not be speaking of miracles because the miracles they later did were in no way greater than His. Only one work of theirs was in any way “greater” than those He had done. This was the work of preaching that resulted in the conversion of multitudes of both Jews and Gentiles, of going into all the world and proclaiming the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15) and making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19). When He was on earth He confined His ministry to a very small area, and saw comparatively few people come to a true faith in Himself. Having gone to the Father He sent the Holy Spirit to enable His disciples to do “greater” works and spread His gospel to the ends of the earth.⚜
13 📚And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
14:13-14 Here is another reason why His disciples should not be troubled (v 1). This is a very wide promise with very clear restrictions. Effective prayer must be in Christ’s name. No other name, no other mediator, is needed. Since He Himself will answer any prayer we make in His name, then it is plain we need no help from anyone else in heaven or on earth to get answers to our prayers. See also the note at John 16:27. “Name” here signifies all He is and stands for, His nature, His character, His will, His authority. His will (and all else we know of Him) is revealed in His teachings, so prayer should be made according to them. Many requests made to Him are not granted because they fall short in this. The Lord Jesus answers prayer with a grand purpose in mind – the glory of God the Father. We should want answers to our prayers on the same high basis. Compare Matt 6:9-10. If our motives are right we may ask for big things in His will and get big answers. See also John 15:7; 1 John 5:14-15. Compare Jer 33:3; Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8; Eph 6:18; Heb 4:16; Jam 5:16.⚜
Christ promises God’s Holy Spirit to disciples
15 📚If you love me, keep my commandments.
14:15 This is three times repeated – vs 21,23. This verse is surely closely connected with the promise given above. If we ignore or disobey His commandments how can we pray in His name? And how can we say we love Him? Deeds, not words, are the proofs of love. Obedience is the evidence, not tears, fine feelings, or knowledge of love. The way to find out if we really love Christ is to go through His commandments and see whether we are actually obeying them – commands such as John 13:13-17, 34; Matt 5:16, 23, 24, 34, 39-42, 44; 6:1-6, 19, 20, 25; 7:1; 9:38; 16:24; 18:15, 21, 22; 19:4-6; 20:25-27; 24:42, 44; 28:19. To “keep” them means to put them into practice. Let us examine our lives to see whether we really love Christ. Love must be at the heart of the believer’s relationship with Him.⚜
16 📚“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, 📖 that he may stay with you forever.
17 📚He is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, and does not know him. But you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.
14:17 God is the God of truth – Ps 31:5; Titus 1:2. The Lord Jesus is Himself the Truth (John 1:17; 14:6). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth (John 15:26; 16:13). Truth is at the core of His being. He loves truth, speaks only the truth and leads believers into all truth (John 16:13). By “world” Jesus means the world in its sin and darkness, the world that refuses to receive Him as Lord and Saviour. The world may use expressions like “the divine spirit”, “the spirit of life”, “the spirit over all”, etc, but the world does not know the Holy Spirit of the one true God and cannot receive Him.
The disciples of Jesus did know the Spirit. They were born of the Spirit (John 1:12-13), and knew the Spirit’s working in the ministry of Jesus and in their own service (Matt 10:1, 19, 20; 12:28). He had been with them. The time was near when He would be in them – would live in their physical bodies (1 Cor 6:19). This is not true of all men, but only of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. See Rom 8:16; Gal 3:2; Eph 4:18; Jude 19.
The spirit which every individual has from birth is not God’s Spirit. It is a spirit God created, and each individual has a different spirit separate from all others. God’s Spirit is eternal, uncreated, and comes to live only in those who receive the Lord Jesus as their Lord and Saviour – Gal 3:1-5, 14. The world has a spirit, but it is not the Spirit of God. See Eph 2:2.
Observe in this verse how Jesus uses the personal pronoun (“He” and “Him”) when speaking of God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a mere influence emanating from God. He is a divine person just like the Father and the Son, and is one with them in nature and attributes. Just as we should not refer to Jesus as “it”, so we should not refer to God’s Spirit as “it”.⚜
18 📚I will not leave you without comfort. I will come to you.
14:18 Jesus came to them after He rose from the dead (chapters 20; 21). In a sense He came at Pentecost when the Spirit of God came to them (in Rom 8:9 He is called the “Spirit of Christ”). But here He may be referring to His second coming (v 3).⚜
19 📚After a little while, the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 📖
14:19 His disciples saw Him after His resurrection (John 20:20, 29; 1 Cor 15:5-8). This is strong evidence indeed that Jesus is who He said He is and that all His teachings are true. Note at Matt 28:6.⚜
20 📚On that day 📖 you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
21 📚“He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him”.
14:21 Verse 15. The Lord Jesus is emphasizing the relationship between His believers and Himself and God the Father. It is a relationship of love expressed on their part by obedience, and on His part by some clear revelation of Himself. Only those who experience it will know what it is. God has a special love for His obedient loving children. He loves them infinitely, completely, totally, eternally. All His thoughts toward us are thoughts of love. All His actions toward us are done in perfect love. This is a family relationship of love, a delight in loving. God so loved the world that He sent His Son, and He has great compassion and pity on those lost in sin, but He cannot give full expression of His love to those who remain in rebellion against Him as He does toward His believing obedient people.⚜
22 📚Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?”
14:22 Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13. He and the other disciples hoped that Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel, would gloriously manifest Himself to the nation and to the world, take the reins of power in His hands and reign. See Luke 24:25-26.⚜
23 📚Jesus answered and said to him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.
14:23 Again He puts the emphasis on obedience – vs 15,21. The importance the Lord placed on this truth is indicated by the fact that He uttered it three times in so brief a time. The promise He gives here is one of the greatest in the whole Bible. It reveals the desire of God to live with His people, to fully express His love toward them in action. See note and references at Ex 25:8. And He promises He will do this now with those who love the Lord Jesus. Observe how the Lord says both He and His Father will come to live with each one who loves Him. Being in many places at the same time is possible only to God, and if Jesus were not God He could not do this. Jesus is one with the Father in nature, but He again clearly distinguishes Himself from the Father as a person. See other references at Phil 2:6; Luke 2:11.⚜
24 📚He who does not love me will not keep my teachings. And the word that you are hearing is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
14:24 By this we know the true condition of those who only read the Bible or listen to Bible messages and profess to be Christian, yet who do not do what the Bible says.⚜
25 📚These things I have spoken to you, being still present with you. 26 📚But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will cause you to remember everything I have said to you.
14:26 This was a special promise to His original disciples. See also John 16:13. The Holy Spirit would enable them to teach what Jesus taught (and to write it down – though this is not specifically stated). To get the truth to the world Jesus did not depend on the ability of His disciples to remember what He had said. His Spirit would teach them all they needed to know and bring to their remembrance “everything” Jesus said. It is true also that the Spirit of God teaches all believers (1 Cor 2:10-13; 1 John 2:27). On God as teacher see note at Ps 25:4-5. Notice carefully the name given to God’s Spirit here. He is the “Holy” Spirit, absolutely pure, separate from sin, one with the God of holiness. Note on “holy” at John 17:17-19; Lev 20:7. Notice too that the Spirit is not the same person as the Father or the Son. The Father “sends” Him (v 16), in Christ’s name. Note on the Trinity at Matt 3:16.⚜
27 📚“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled, do not let it be afraid.
14:27 Here is another reason why His disciples should not be troubled (v 1). Jesus is the Prince of peace (Isa 9:6). He came to make peace between God and men (2 Cor 5:19-20; Col 1:20, 22). But here He speaks of the peace of mind and heart He gives believers (John 16:33; Phil 4:6-7; Col 3:15; 2 Thess 3:16). What so many people long for and cannot find Jesus freely gives to His disciples and removes all reason for fear.⚜
28 📚You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and will come again to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, ‘I go to the Father.’ For my Father is greater than I.
14:28 They loved Him, but if their love had been what it should have been they would not have been thinking of themselves. Their thoughts would have been of Him and the finishing of the work He came to do, and the blessed state that awaited Him in the Father’s presence. See how Jesus here distinguishes Himself from God the Father. The Father is not greater than the Son in nature or attributes, for Father and Son share these (v 9; John 8:24, 58; 1:1; 10:30). But the Father is greater in position and authority. See John 5:19-27; 12:49. The Father does the showing, giving, sending and the commanding. The Son does the seeing, the receiving, the coming in subjection to the Father and the obeying.⚜
29 📚And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it takes place, you might 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, I do just as the Father commanded me. Arise, let us leave here.
14:31 It would soon seem as if Satan had some hold on Christ. The hour of darkness (Luke 22:53) had arrived. Jesus would be accused of blasphemy and be executed as if He were a criminal. But the explanation for all that is not in any seeming hold of Satan on Him, but in Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will (John 10:17-18). Jesus had told His disciples that obedience was the proof of love (vs 15,21,23). Here He gives that proof in His own life. He was not as many teachers who teach one thing and practice another.⚜