Preface
Chapter and verse divisions are very beneficial as a person studies the Word of God, allowing one to find his way around the Bible. On occasion these divisions break the train of thought or context of meaning, as is the case between the end of chapter 13 and the beginning of chapter 14. At the end of the last chapter Jesus had informed Peter that before the rooster crows he would deny or disown Jesus three times.
This must have really disturbed Peter. It is difficult to imagine otherwise, knowing something of Peter’s nature. The Bible doesn’t say so, but this probably offended Peter to his core, and it was probably quite apparent in his visage. Although it was most likely disturbing to Peter, Jesus remained composed. It was not startling to Jesus, since He knew of Peter’s denial before creation. Jesus went on to issue comforting remarks to Peter and the others, because He knew they would be facing very troubling times of personal doubt at and subsequent to His death and burial.
It is not surprising to God that His children will face spiritual difficulties throughout their earthly life--from Satan and from his own “sin nature.” As long as man retains the “sin nature” and as long as Satan is permitted to roam this earth, God’s children will always be subject to temptation. Arguably more often than not, God’s child will acquiesce to the temptation. Many go astray and some sink deep into the morass of doubt and rebellion in what is often called “prodigal” journeys. None of this surprises God. Yet the grace of God continues to deal with His children in loving care and with correcting measures. As an earthly father refuses to disown his own rebellious son but continues to love and deal with him, how much more our Heavenly Father stands by His child and brings him home to heaven and the eternal life His child obtained through faith alone in Christ alone.
This chapter brings great comfort to the child of God. It proclaims the return of Christ, it certifies the union between God and His children, it declares the promise of the Holy Spirit and it assures believers that peace is available to them. Additionally, during this last of our Lord’s discourses, Jesus reveals a significant condition for successful prayer, the first mention of which is in this chapter.
John 14:1-3
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 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. 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.”
The “heart,” in both Hebrew and Greek, came to be understood as “that which is central.” It was the seat of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual life. The Greek word for “heart,” kardia, was used in the New Testament to denote:
(a) the seat of physical life, Acts 14:17; Jas. 5:5; (b) the seat of moral nature and spiritual life, the seat of grief, John 14:1; Rom. 9:2; 2 Cor. 2:4; joy, John 16:22; Eph. 5:19; the desires, Matt. 5:28; 2 Pet. 2:14; the affections, Luke 24:32; Acts 21:13; the perceptions, John 12:40; Eph. 4:18; the thoughts, Matt. 9:4; Heb. 4:12; the understanding, Matt. 13:15; Rom. 1:21; the reasoning powers, Mark 2:6; Luke 24:38; the imagination, Luke 1:51; conscience, Acts 2:37; 1 John 3:20; the intentions, Heb. 4:12, cf. 1 Pet. 4:1; purpose, Acts 11:23; 2 Cor. 9:7; the will, Rom. 6:17; Col. 3:15; faith, Mark 11:23; Rom 10:10; Heb 3:12. (Vine’s Concise Dictionary of Bible Words)
The “heart” referred to the inner self, the “real you.” It was a person’s core, that which is his mental, emotional and spiritual nature. And Jesus said to each of His disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled.” The Greek word for “troubled” (Gk. tarasso) could be rendered as “uncertain” (unsure, in doubt) or as “agitated” (stirred up, troubled). It is fairly certain that Jesus meant to convey both meanings. It was His intention that His disciples be certain as to their faith, from which would emanate inner peace and stability. He then goes on to verse basic tenets of the faith about which the disciples (and all believers) should be certain.
Jesus alone can provide the comfort and peace longed for by all mankind. He states the basis for this comfort and peace by saying, “You believe in God, believe also in Me.” In the Greek this is an imperative or a command. Furthermore, the word “believe,” which is combined with the Greek preposition “eis” (into), denotes more than a mental recognition or “inactive (passive) belief” in Jesus Christ. It designates an “active faith” or a genuine trust in Him. It involves a “commitment” of your core--your inner self to Him. Just as you may believe passively that your car will transport you home, it takes an active belief through commitment to it for it to work. You actually get into it and trust that it will get you home. In like manner a person may accept, from an intellectual standpoint, the fact that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of mankind; but it is only when that person personally trusts in (commits to) Jesus Christ for his own personal salvation can that person be washed clean of his sins and obtain eternal life.
Jesus is essentially (and again) stating His Deity. He says, “Be putting your trust in God; also be putting your trust in Me.” In this statement He is equating Himself to God the Father. He is also saying that the foundation of all comfort and peace for the believer emanates from his faith (genuine trust) in God, and as such, in Jesus Christ.
Jesus next describes a very bright future for His disciples (and all believers), which is another basis for their comfort and peace. He speaks of His Father’s “house.” What and where is God’s “house?” It is where God lives. And where does God live? Since God is omnipresent (everywhere) and all-dimensional, His “house” is everywhere--at a minimum it is the vast universe where we live today. The more man has studied and visually explored the universe, the more he has come to realize that there is no known end to it. First there were the planets, then the solar system, then other solar systems, then the galactic system, then other galactic systems, then quasars, then “blops” and who knows what’s next to come. The universe is so vast that it totally bewilders the mind of man. Added to this, science now has determined that there are more than the four dimensions (height, width, length and time) originally thought to exist. Science believes there are at least ten or eleven different dimensions. There may be more, maybe many, many more. The vastness of “God’s House” and the magnitude of God are superbly expressed by Ron Carlson & Ed Decker in their book entitled Fast Facts on False Teachings.
Have you ever truly thought about how great God is? Have you ever imagined what the magnitude of the cosmos really is? The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. In one second, light can travel around the earth at the equator 71/2 times.
If you go outside on a clear night, you can see a band going across the sky which appears as dense clouds across the center of the sky. Actually that is the rim of what we earthlings call the Milky Way. What you are seeing are not clouds but stars, so many billions of stars that it appears to us to be clouds. If you were traveling at the speed of light, it would take you 41/2 years just to reach the nearest star you can see at night!
A light-year is how far light travels in one year. In one year light will travel 6 trillion miles. The nearest star is Alpha Centauri, 41/2 light-years away, which means that the nearest star that you can see at night is something like 27 trillion miles away! And that is just the nearest star in our galaxy. There are over 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy!
As huge as this sounds, ours is one of the smallest galaxies in the universe! In fact, astronomers with the 200-inch telescope at Mount Palomar in California estimate that as they look out through the cup of the Big Dipper constellation they can see over one million galaxies the size of our Milky Way or bigger!
At the speed of light it would take us a hundred thousand light-years to cross the Milky Way galaxy. This means that our small galaxy is six hundred thousand trillion miles across. And astronomers can see over one million galaxies the size or bigger just in the cup of the big dipper. Think of the magnitude of what we are saying!
Leaving the Milky Way galaxy, the farthest thing that astronomers can see or hear with their most sophisticated equipment is a quasar, which is 15 billion light-years away, which means it is 90 billion trillion miles away.
We have no idea what is beyond that, but astronomers estimate that this quasar 90 billion trillion miles away emits enough energy in one second to supply all the electrical needs of the earth for one million years. That’s just one quasar, and there are millions of quasars in the universe. Do you begin to get the picture? The Bible says that the God who created all this holds it together by the power of His hand. And some people wonder if God is really big enough to solve their problems?
Time and space are aspects of the created world. God by definition is outside time and space; He is not limited by our naturalistic, three-dimensional world, nor is He limited by the fourth dimension of time. . . God is far bigger than our finite three dimensions. He may be more than eight dimensions. He may be more than 100 dimensions. In fact, we don’t have any idea how complex He really is. But He has broken into the narrow confines of our small box called Earth to communicate to us who He is. He is the self-existent One who alone has life in Himself.
But no matter how vast the universe or how many dimensions there may be, God is there--all at the same time. An infinite universe argues for an infinite God. It is His “house.” And Jesus makes a promise to those who believe in Him. He promises that there are many “abiding places” in His Father’s house. He told His disciples that if this wasn’t the case, He would have informed them of the limitation. But since He didn’t, no limitation exists. But more than this, Jesus then states that He is going to prepare a place for them in His Father’s house. This statement may have two meanings. He may (1) be saying that He is going to Calvary to prepare a place by means of His sacrifice for those who choose to accept Him, and/or (2) be saying that upon His resurrection He will transcend to heaven and physically prepare an abiding place for every believer--a prepared place for a prepared people.
Jesus then promises that He will come back and receive His children to abide with Him. J. Vernon McGee in Thru the Bible makes these cogent remarks regarding this promise.
This is the first time in the Bible where you find a mention of God taking anyone off this earth to go out yonder to a place that He has prepared. This was not the hope of the Old Testament saint. God never promised Abraham to take him off yonder to a star. God told him He would make his offspring as numerous as the stars, but the promise to Abraham was to give him an eternal home on this earth. The hope of the Old Testament was for a kingdom down here on this earth in which would dwell peace and righteousness. This is the fulfillment of God’s purpose for this earth. Personally, I think the expression “the kingdom of heaven” means the reign of God over this earth. God has said, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Ps. 2:6). That is God’s earthly purpose, and He is moving undeviatingly, unhesitatingly, and uncompromisingly toward the day when He puts His own Son upon the throne here on earth. That will be the kingdom of heaven. That is God’s earthly purpose; it is the hope of the Old Testament.
But not only will Christ come back for His children, they will continue with (and reign with) Him. The Apostle Paul later puts it this way, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)
John 14:4-6
“And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus had been teaching His disciples about heaven and the way mankind must travel to get there for a very long time. One would assume that His next statement stipulating that His disciples knew already where He was going and how to get there would have been understood without question. He had just previously informed them that it was His Father’s house, so there couldn’t have been any doubt on this. Yet, Thomas, like Peter, still couldn’t grasp that Jesus was speaking of a heavenly journey. And all Christianity can be thankful that he didn’t, because the reply by Christ to his question regarding the issue frames one of the most significant and dogmatic statements by Jesus Christ in the New Testament. It is the Gospel in very few words.
In answering Thomas’ bewilderment as to the destination of which Christ was speaking and the way to it, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” In this statement there is no ambiguity, no hedging, no uncertainty, no equivocation, and no vagueness. The statement is clear and to the point. It in fact is quite dogmatic.
But truth is dogmatic, even though all dogma is not truth. Many base their eternal expectations on false doctrine, assumptions and misdirection. Many believe that all “religions” are equal and that they all emanate from God--that they will all lead man to the “same God” and eternal bliss. This dogmatic statement by Jesus Christ decimates this world (“New Age”) view. Just as all “truth is dogmatic,” e.g., 2+2=4, water is a chemical compound of H2O, etc., there is only one way into heaven. It is not through religion; it is not through good works; it is not by obeying a set of rules; it is not through a church or a minister or a priest. The only way a person may obtain eternal life and go to heaven is through Jesus Christ.
Jesus uses the definite article in the Greek as an adjective. In so doing, He describes Himself with three very dogmatic statements and then sums it all up in an equally dogmatic declaration.
He is the Way. It is not that He is a way or a person that shows the way, but He, personally, is the Way. Salvation is in a Person--the Lord Jesus Christ. Only He can bring a person to God and eternal life. He is not one of “many ways.” No! He is the only Way. No one can come to God except through Jesus Christ.
He is the Truth. He’s not just a person who tells the truth or leads others to truth. He is the embodiment of Truth, the very touchstone of Truth. Truth begins and ends in Jesus Christ. Apart from Him there can be no truth. He established the laws of nature, rationality and wisdom at the beginning of time. If man is to know truth, man must achieve it through Jesus Christ.
He is the Life. He is not just alive or a person leading others to the life. The source and origin of physical and eternal life is Jesus Christ. He created the heavens and the earth, and all that has ever or will ever exist within and upon them. Man’s very physical life depends on His creative and preservative powers--they operate today just as when the earth and heavens were originally formed. But in addition, He is the only source of spiritual and eternal life. Man, as a result of the “fall of Adam,” is spiritually dead in his sin. There is no way out of this state, except by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Spiritual and eternal life resides in and emanates from Jesus Christ. No person can achieve spiritual and eternal life except through Jesus Christ.
And these three very dogmatic and descriptive qualities of Jesus Christ are summarized in His next equally dogmatic statement, to wit, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” The Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Taoism, Shintoism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Mormonism, Unitarianism, Zen, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Yoga, the Masonic Lodge, Universalism, Transcendental Meditation, Unitarianism and on and on and on--all are to no avail. A person can only come to God and thereby receive eternal life through Jesus Christ.
It doesn’t become anymore dogmatic than that. There are many other truths within the Christian Faith about which the believer must be dogmatic; but, as previously stated, not all dogma is truth. It is best never to “swallow hook, line and sinker” all that is presented from the pulpit, from a web site, from a televised event, or from a book until it is checked thoroughly in and by the Word of God (Acts 17:11). This is why it is critical that all believers continue to study Bible doctrine.
John 14:7-11
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 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?’ 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. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”
Jesus has just said that the only way to come to the Father is “through” Jesus Christ. He continues now to amplify. He uses the Greek word, ginosko, in clarifying the issue. In most versions this word is translated “known,” but He is not referring merely to an intellectual activity. The word indicates much more. It designates a relationship or union between the one who knows and the One known (Matthew 1:25; 1 Corinthians 8:3; Luke 1:34; Galatians 4:9); therefore, it is to “know experientially.” Essentially it equates to having “true faith.” So Jesus is saying that when one accepts with genuine faith the Lord Jesus Christ, He also accepts God the Father in like manner. Once this is done--a decision of one’s will--he henceforth is united in a permanent relationship with God and can “see” (spiritual perception) Him.
Now, along with Peter and Thomas, Philip finds reason to interrupt the Lord’s discourse. He too is having difficulty in seeing the spiritual application of what Jesus is saying. He thinks Jesus is speaking about “physically seeing” God, and he knows that he hasn’t done this. So he asked Jesus to show the Father to the disciples, and this would then be all that is necessary to validate that Jesus was from God.
Although not unexpected, this request from Philip must have, from a human viewpoint, gravely disappointed Jesus. So He responds to Philip by saying, “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?’ 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. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”
Kenneth S. Wuest, Teacher Emeritus of New Testament Greek of the Moody Bible Institute, in his The New Testament--An Expanded Translation reveals shades of meaning in this reply of Jesus to Philip, as follows.
Such a long time I am with you, yet you have not come to have an experiential knowledge of me, Philip? He who has discerningly seen me has seen the Father with discernment. How is it that you, you are saying, Show us the Father at once? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words which I am speaking to you, not from myself as a source am I speaking. But the Father who in me is abiding, He is doing His works. Be believing me, that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me. But if not, because of the works themselves be believing.
Philip had requested of Jesus a special revelation of the Father, which would be sufficient to completely convince him and the other disciples of the Deity of Christ. This writer believes Philip already had accepted Christ as Lord and believed to some extent in His Deity; but like so many Christians then and now, he wanted “one more sign.” He had just not as yet fully comprehended what the “Deity of Christ” meant. He didn’t fully understand that Jesus and the Father are truly the same person in fundamental nature and character. He was not aware that everything the Lord was, and did, and said, was a revelation of the Father.
Philip did not fully discern, that is, he had not at that point come to have an “experiential knowledge” of the unity between God the Son and God the Father. It wasn’t that he had not been exposed to the concept (John 10:38). He had just not fully assimilated it by faith, which is how believers discern (obtain “experiential knowledge”) all of God’s truths. The full truth of Christ’s Deity and of His unity with the Father had not yet dawned on him. He should have, but didn’t, know that when he looked at Jesus, he was looking at One who perfectly displayed the Father.
Jesus endeavored to show Philip that when he saw and experienced Jesus in all that He said and did, he was indeed experiencing the Father. Jesus always stated that He did nothing on His own, but that the Father spoke and worked through Him. Yet the union between these two Persons of the Trinity goes beyond the concept of “one using another.” One critical tenet of the Christian Faith is that there is only one God, who reveals Himself in three Persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all One Person in character and nature, yet they each have unique application with regards to the creation (the heavens and the earth and all living matter--physical and spiritual). This is a concept that most of the world rejects, because “they” find it difficult to understand--a specious argument given that “they” don’t even understand electricity or the make-up of matter and yet accept both--and more.
It wasn’t that God the Father was simply giving Jesus the words to say and supplying Him with the power to perform the miracles He performed; it was that the Father was in Christ and Christ was in the Father. In some mystical way, which man cannot understand, They are both One. Mortal man cannot understand the Godhead. Even when the believer ascends to heaven he may never understand it. If we could fully understand God, we would be as great as He. This will never be!
Yet in His human form, Jesus was always careful to attribute all that He said and did to the Father. He came into the world as the Servant of Jehovah and he spoke and acted in perfect obedience to the Father. But He did this consistent with His relationship (union) with the Father. Herein is a cardinal spiritual truth for the believer. Once a person accepts Jesus alone by faith alone, he is filled by the Holy Spirit and is baptized (immersed) once and for all into the Body of Christ (the unity of all believers). From that point on the believer may be obedient to God and His requirements consistent with his relationship (union) with Christ--in the same manner that Christ was obedient to the Father. The sad fact is that “in the image of God” the believer continues to have choice in the matter and may decide against God. Since the sin nature (the “old man”) will not be extracted from the believer until he either “falls asleep” (dies) or is raptured, he may still make willful decisions not pleasing to God (sin), which will quench the Holy Spirit’s control of (fullness within) him. Unfortunately most believers live a spiritual roller coaster ride throughout this earthly life, so thankfully, there is always remedy for sin in the believer’s life (1 John 1:9).
It is therefore critical that the believer daily cleanse himself from sin (1 John 1:9) and then by faith (Colossians 2:6) experientially understand true spiritual life in unity with the Trinity--God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This was the only way Jesus lived, and He tried on several occasions to show this to His disciples. He finally told Philip that he should “truly accept this by faith” (“Be believing” it), but if not by genuine faith, then let the works which Christ had miraculously performed be the proof that it was true.
John 14:12-14
“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. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
Here the Lord Jesus Christ makes a startling promise to His disciples, and then He informs them how the promise may be fulfilled. He starts by saying, “Most assuredly,” which is translated “Verily, verily” in the King James Version of the Bible. It’s an “Attention” phrase of “emphasis.” He is saying to His disciples, “Stop what you are doing and pay strict attention, because what I am about to say is very important.”
First He issues a promise to His disciples, but note that it is to a very select group. It applies only to those that “believe in Christ.” This has two levels of meaning. It applies first to “saving faith,” that genuine trust in the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary that brings a person into unity with Jesus Christ and grants him eternal life. And secondly, it refers to that degree of genuine faith a believer exercises daily that allows the Holy Spirit to work “through” the believer in carrying out God’s will on earth. So the promise Christ makes in this passage is issued to “born again” persons who “live by faith.” Now what is the promise?
The promise is that these individuals will do even greater works (or activities) than the works or activities Christ performed during His tenure on earth. It is a fact that after Jesus ascended to the Father, His disciples performed miraculous deeds of physical healing. This ability was particularly available to The Disciples during the early stages of the formation of The Church (and its many local components), even though they possessed them to a lesser degree as The Church was formed and the Scriptures were canonized. Healings are still provided by God today, but they are not necessarily invested in any one person (and definitely not in so many of the so-called “healers” one sees on television), rather they are to be accomplished by members of the local church in accordance with clear instructions within God’s written Word (James 5:14, 15); and, no doubt, many are provided by God directing the activities of the various health-care specialist of today.
So how are the “works” of the believers who came after Christ ascended into heaven greater than those Christ performed? The answer is the same as the one applicable to the question, “Which is greater, the healing of a body or the saving of a soul?” On the Day of Pentecost Peter, who had denied His Lord three times, preached a sermon and 3,000 lost souls believed into Jesus Christ and received the gift of eternal life. Jesus never accomplished such a “work” while He was on earth. As the Apostles went throughout the known world, many more came to Christ. As individuals became believers, they in turn obeyed Christ’s commission to them, to share the Gospel with those around them. And these are the “greater works” that Jesus is speaking of in this passage. Every believer today has the opportunity to bring other souls to Jesus Christ. This is the greatest work any believer may and can perform.
In connection to performing such “greater works,” Jesus then explains how this is to be accomplished. He ties it in with prayer, but for the first time He mandates a particular type of prayer--and He mentions this conditional prayer six times within this, His last discourse. So how does He stipulate that His disciples (of all time) should pray in order to have success in their work for Christ?
He tells them that when they pray, they are to do it “in His name.” What does it mean to pray “in the name of Jesus Christ?” It is not simply tacking on the phrase by rote on the end of each prayer. It’s sad that so many believers today think that this is all that it is about. They adhere to a strict format, which includes “in the name of Jesus,” or some version thereof, thinking that their prayers will be answered. This represents a very shallow and façade-based means of praying. Just saying the phrase doesn’t mean that the prayer is “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Again the question is asked, “What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus Christ?”
The meaning is revealed in the statement by Jesus wherein He says, “the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Jesus did nothing in His own name. He did everything in the name of the Father, that is, everything was done in accordance with the Father’s will and for the Father’s glory. When a person prays “in the name of Jesus” (and the words do not have to be repeated in the prayer--then again, they may), he is asking God the Father for only those things which are in His will and which will give Him alone glory. Dr. Curtis Mitchell, Th.D. of the Chafer Theological Seminary in his treatment entitled, Praying “In My Name,” put it this way, “Thus, we see the glory of God to be the ultimate goal of prayer. Indeed, God’s glory is the goal of all creation (Psalm 19:1), of all the redeemed (1 Corinthians 10:31), and the Son Himself (John 17:4).”
How do we know God’s will, so that we may be certain that what we pray for will glorify Him? We know God’s will by acquainting ourselves with the “mind of Christ” and we acquaint ourselves with the “mind of Christ” by studying the Word of God--by learning Bible doctrine. Without understanding Bible doctrine, we are left only with theory and misdirected emotions; neither of which honors God. Emotions are fine and often Christians are caught up in an emotional state, e.g., praise and gratitude; but the only way a believer can know for certain the will of God for prayer and living is by an in-depth study of Bible doctrine.
J. Vernon McGee in Thru the Bible states it this way.
What does it mean to ask in the name of Christ? To pray in His Person means to be standing in His place. It means to be fully identified with Him, joined to Christ. It means that you and I are pleading the merits of his blessed Son when we stand before God. We have no standing of our own before God at all. He does not hear my prayer because I am Vernon McGee, and He does not hear your prayer because you are who you are. He hears our prayers when they are in the name of Christ. This is not just a little phrase that we tag on to the end of our prayer closing with “in Jesus’ name.” Praying in His name is presenting it in His merit and for His glory.
It should be clear in this passage that the believer is to pray to the Father and not to the Son. In some translations the pronoun “Me” was included in verse 14, in accordance with some later manuscripts--wherein the translators attempted to “clarify” the text. This pronoun in these translations, which appears to indicate that believer’s should pray to Jesus Christ is the only time within God’s Word that such a possibility is recorded; yet the pronoun is not in the original text. The believer, the child of God, is to pray only to God his Father. He is to do it “in the name of Jesus Christ,” that is, he is to pray for only those things that are in accordance with God’s will and which will bring glory to God. When this is the case, the believer will in fact accomplish greater works than those done by Jesus Christ while He was on earth.
The last point that must be made in accordance with the instructions of Christ in this passage is this. Although it is the Father to whom the believer is to pray “in the name of Christ,” it is in fact Jesus Christ who affects the answer of the prayer from God. But this has always been the case. It was Jesus Christ who personally created the heavens and the earth and all therein. It is He who maintains all that has been created. He lives today at the right hand of God the Father making intercession to God for the saints and making certain that all appropriate prayers are answered. When you ask God for something that is “in the name of Christ,” God the Father places His stamp of approval on the request and God the Son then does whatever is necessary, using God the Holy Spirit, to grant you the approved request.
John 14:15-21
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--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. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 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.”
Jesus continues His discourse. He tells His disciples that if they love Him they will keep His commandments, and He will provide the means that will empower them to love and keep His commandments. In most translations this connection is not easily seen. An exegesis of the passage utilizing the original Greek text makes it clearer. Kenneth S. Wuest of the Moody Bible Institute in his The New Testament--An Expanded Translation does just that.
If you are loving me with a divine and self-sacrificial love, the commandments which are mine you will keep. And as for myself, I will ask the Father, and another Counsellor of the same kind as I am He will give to you in order that He might be with you forever, the Spirit of the truth, whom the world is not able to receive because it does not see Him with discernment and does not know Him experientially. But as for you, you know Him experientially, because by your side He dwells, and in you He shall be. I will not leave you behind, helpless. I come to you. Yet a little while, and the world no longer sees me, but as for you, you see me. Because I live, also you shall live. In that day you shall know experientially that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. He who has my commandments and habitually keeps them, that one is he who is loving me with a divine and self-sacrificial love. And he who is loving me thus, shall be loved with this same kind of love by my Father, and I shall love him with a divine and self-sacrificial love, and I shall disclose myself to him.
It is by being obedient to Jesus Christ that we show proper love for Him. It’s not being emotional or ecstatic during a church service that pleases Him. It’s not the show or façade in which so many Christians find themselves engulfed that brings Him pleasure. It is how a believer learns and adheres to the Word of God (Bible doctrine) that brings him great pleasure. This shows that the believer loves in an unselfish and divine manner, which is demonstrative of the fact that He is filled with (controlled by) the Spirit of God.
In fact in the same breath Jesus makes the connection between properly loving Him by being obedient and the power He will supply every believer to make this love and obedience possible in his life. He says that he will talk to His Father and He will supply you another Councilor--of the same nature as Christ--who will abide with the believer forever. This Councilor is the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and the third Person of the Trinity (Godhead). He continues to state that just as the world rejects God the Father and Jesus Christ, so it will not accept the coming Councilor--because the world can neither see or know Him. But He assures the disciples that they will know this Councilor [through the principle of faith] and that He will dwell with them and be in them.
Christ then makes the connection (establishes the union) between Himself and this coming Councilor. He states that He will not leave them as orphans, but that He will come to them. The inference is that when He comes to them it will be to terminate their orphan status. Whereas they will be alone for a brief time, He will soon come to them and remain with them. This “coming back” to His disciples can be seen in three ways. First, He came back and presented Himself to them after His resurrection. Second, He comes to them in the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, at Pentecost. And third, He will come back to them at the Rapture. The meaning here is about His coming to them at Pentecost in the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
He inserts that soon the world will see Him no more, but that the disciples will see Him. This speaks of His death. He will no longer dwell upon the earth in a human body. Yet his disciples will visually see Him after His resurrection and before His ascention. And when He ascends to the Father, they will continue to see Him by faith. And He states that His resurrection insures them that they will always have eternal spiritual life and eventually their bodies will be resurrected to meet Jesus in the air at the Rapture.
Then referring back to the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit is sent to forever live in all that have and will accept Him alone by faith alone He states, “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” He confirms the mystical union that all believers will have with both God and Christ. By faith one believes into Christ, which then allows him union with God. The union is two ways. We are in Christ, and this is salvation. When God looks at the believer, He sees him “in Christ.” But Christ is also in the believer, and this is empowerment and (progressive) sanctification. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
The Holy Spirit accomplishes everything regarding the person who comes to Jesus Christ. The following are some of His actions and responsibilities.
- He affects positional sanctification regarding the person when he is lost, that is, He brings the unsaved person up to the decision of faith in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 15:16; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; John 16:8; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Galatians 3:1-14; Ephesians 2:8, 9).
- Upon a person’s faith-commitment to Jesus Christ for salvation the Holy Spirit then quickens (man’s spirit) or grants spiritual life to the person--this is the “new birth,” which can never be retracted by man or God.
- At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit conducts several unilateral ministries to the child of God. He anoints him, He indwells him, He seals him, He affects the believer’s adoption, He grants the believer personal access to God, He provides the believer one or more spiritual gifts, He provides the believer spiritual fruit and He will eventually resurrect the body of the believer. (2 Corinthians 1:21, 22; 1 John 2:20, 27; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Romans 6:3-6; Galatians 3:27; Acts 1:5; Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; John 7:38, 39; 14:7; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Galatians 4:6; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:13, 14; 4:30; Romans 8:15-18; Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians 2:18, 19; Romans 15:18, 19; 1 Corinthians 2:4; 12:4-11; Galatians 5:5, 22, 23; 2 Corinthians 4:13, 14; Romans 5:5; 15:13, 30; Ephesians 1:17-21; 5:9; Colossians 1:8; 1 Corinthians 15:35-56; 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18; 2 Corinthians 4:13, 14)
- The Holy Spirit also conducts cooperative ministries with the believer. He (may) fill (control) him; He (may) sanctify (progressive sanctification) him; He (may) affect fellowship and communion with him; He (may) instruct him in Bible doctrine; He (may) direct his activities, He (may) assist him in worshipping God; He (may) assist him in prayer; and He (may) strengthen his faith. All these “cooperative ministries” employ the believer’s sin-condition and submission at any given period of time. (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5:16, 18; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; John 17:17; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Philippians 2:1, 2; John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:9-13; 2 Timothy 2:15; Ephesians 1:17-21; Acts 8:29, 39; 10:19, 20; 11:12; 13:2; 21:4; John 4:23, 24; Philippians 3:3; Ephesians 6:17, 18; Jude 20; Romans 8:26, 27; 2 Corinthains 4:13; Ephesians 2:8; 3:16, 17; Galatians 5:5)
Finally and again Jesus confirms that the way a believer properly expresses his love for Christ is through obedience to Him. There is a distinct implication in this statement, and it can be better understood when one reviews the words of Christ in John 5:37-47. The implication is that before obedience there must be faith. Before one will adhere to God’s Word, he must believe God’s Word. Adam and Eve heard God’s Word in the Garden of Eden, but deep-down they really didn’t believe it or otherwise they wouldn’t have dared taste of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their unbelief led to their disobedience. In the John 5 reference above Jesus makes a strong case for a nexus (connection) between the “love of God” in one’s heart and his acceptance by faith (belief) in the Scriptures (God’s Word). A study throughout the Bible will lead one to the preeminence of the “Principle of Faith” (see the study on this topic at www.bibleone.net) as the one overriding feature applicable to both salvation and progressive sanctification.
Tearful proclamations made at church service, loud and articulate invocations at a prayer meeting and flamboyant testimonies before any congregation won’t get it. Jesus isn’t interested in the façade, the display. He looks to see that the believer has studied His Word, believes it and is obedient to it. Through faith and (resulting from it) obedience the believer demonstrates his love for Christ, which in turn opens the flood gates of God’s love and the Son’s love toward him. It is to this type of believer that Christ through the Holy Spirit will most often manifest Himself.
For the reader who is “hung-up” on the word, commandments, thinking that Jesus is referring to the Law of Moses, the following two verses of Scripture should clarify the issue of which Christ is speaking.
And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:23, 24)
First, one believes into Jesus Christ, which brings eternal salvation. Second, one by faith submit himself continuously to the control of the Holy Spirit, which then produces a holy life of divine love within him, which is pleasing to God.
John 14:22-24
Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 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. 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.”
Now, in addition to Peter, Thomas and Philip; Judas (not Iscariot) interrupts Christ. He had been listening to Jesus and somehow had come to the conclusion that Jesus was stating that His manifestation and blessing would be exclusive for the present listeners, the apostles at the supper. The foundation for his perplexity stemmed from the Scriptures, wherein prophecy after prophecy had declared the coming of the Messiah to deliver Israel and in declarations previously made by Jesus that salvation was for all who would believe in Him.
This is not completely unlike the perspective proffered by those of the strictly Calvinistic view. It is widely accepted by both those who interpret the Scriptures from both the Calvinistic and the Armenian positions that not everyone will be saved, i.e., receive eternal life.
Yet both positions can voyage into the extreme; Armenians with the belief that one may lose his salvation, and Calvinist with the belief that Christ died only for a select few. Both extremes are completely inaccurate. Once saved, a person can never lose his salvation--period. And Christ died for all mankind--period. This study is not the format to advance Scriptural evidence for these doctrines, but one may find support for them at www.bibleone.net.
Jesus did reply to Judas that “anyone” [who chooses] to love Him will keep His word [to exercise genuine faith in Him] and thereby would be loved by the Father and would in fact be indwelt by the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. If anyone will come to Jesus Christ alone by faith alone, that person will be granted eternal life by becoming permanently united with God. Salvation is for anyone! Christ died for everyone! Yet many regrettably will turn away from His saving grace.
John 14:25-31
“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 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. 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. 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. And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. 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.”
Jesus tells His disciples that He has told them of many things while He was present with them. It’s possible that some or all of them were thinking that if Jesus were actually going to leave them they may never be able to remember all of His teachings. So Jesus once again reminds His disciples that the Father will send to them the Comforter (KJV) or Helper, and here He specifically identifies this Helper as the Holy Spirit. He tells them that the Holy Spirit will be sent “in My name,” that is, to the ultimate glory and benefit of the Son of God. Jesus assures His disciples that the Holy Spirit will teach them all things and will assist them in remembering all that Jesus said to them while He was on earth.
And once again Jesus assures them that He will provide them peace, but it will not be the peace that the world can give. The world can provide financial reward, physical comfort and material prosperity; but it can never offer deep-down spiritual peace for the spirit and soul. This only comes through believing into Jesus Christ and continuously exercising faith in Him for progressive sanctification (spiritual growth). Because of this promise of peace, they are exhorted not to be troubled (worried or perplexed) or afraid (fearful).
The last few verses in this passage again make the connection between (divinely) loving Jesus and genuine faith. He has told them that he was going away, but that He is coming back. If they had truly (divinely) loved Him, that is, really believed Him, they would rejoice since He was going to the Father. They would understand that He would then be, as the Father, in a better position or state of existence--an unrestricted position as a result of casting off mortal flesh and assuming His resurrected (transformed) body. They should have known that this would be a welcomed relief for the Lord and a flood of definite benefits to them. William MacDonald in the Believer’s Bible Commentary puts it this way.
At first is seems as if this verse contradicts all that Jesus had taught concerning His equality with God the Father. But there is no contradiction, and the passage explains the meaning. When Jesus was here on earth, He was hated and hunted, persecuted and pursued. Men blasphemed Him, reviled Him, and spat on Him. He endured terrible indignities from the hands of His creatures.
God the Father never suffered such rude treatment from men. He dwelt in heaven, far away from the wickedness of sinners. When the Lord Jesus returned to heaven, He would be were indignities could never come. Therefore, the disciples should have rejoiced when Jesus said that He was going to the Father, because in this sense the Father was greater than He. The Father was not greater as God, but greater because He never came into the world as Man to be cruelly treated. As far as the attributes of deity are concerned, the Son and the Father are equal. But when we think of the lowly place which Jesus took as a Man here on earth, we realize that in that sense, God the Father was greater than He. He was greater as to His position but not His Person.
But as all prophecy serves the primary purpose of “proving” that God is truly God, which in turn engenders faith in Him and His Word, Jesus tells them that He is informing them of all this “in advance” so that they will eventually and genuinely believe and thereby evidence true love for God.
Jesus tells them that He won’t be saying much more to them, because the “ruler of this world” (Satan) is coming for Him. And even though Satan has “nothing in me,” i.e., any power or hold over Christ; the world must learn that Christ loves the Father and is completely obedient to His will and plan--to die on the cross of Calvary for all mankind.
Jesus then bids them to leave the supper and walk outside with Him as He continues the last of His discourses recorded in the Word of God.
|
