Jesus and his disciples are still together in the upper room after supper. Judas is gone on his way to the high priest. Jesus continues with his intimate, heart-to-heart conversations with his closest friends.
John 14:1-4
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”
One of Jesus’ titles is the bridegroom; we are the bride! God established a tradition about the wedding that Jesus will use as an analogy here.
Jesus is saying you need to have the trust in me that the bride has in her bridegroom. When a Jewish marriage is arranged, a legally binding contract is made between the fiancées, a marriage price is paid for the bride, and then the groom must go home and build an addition to his parent’s home for the new couple. The marriage wasn’t permitted to take place until the home was completed. The home was only considered completed when the Father declared the home completed for the young couple. Then the groom would gather with his friends, and with shouts and trumpets, the groom would travel to the home of his bride and he would snatch her away.
The bride had to keep herself perpetually ready. The groom could come for her at any time. Jesus was giving the disciples a glimpse into the rapture of the church. He is telling them, just as the bride trusts that everything is going to be great because she can completely trust the bridegroom. We can trust our bridegroom that he will come and get us but we too must, “occupy, take care of God’s business, until he returns”
John 14:5,6
“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
Thomas is saying, we don’t know how to get to where you are going, thinking very practically if he is going to be made King, how do we get to our positions?
Jesus is dealing with, as always, the spiritual Kingdom, which is actually the real Kingdom!
Jesus very clearly answers Thomas’ question, “How can we know the way?” I AM the way! Another declaration by Jesus that He and God are one!
Warning THEOLOGY AHEAD
Jesus is the way to God because he is the truth of God. At the beginning of this book, we learned that Jesus is the “Word” of God, God’s self-expression made flesh. He is the life because through Him all things were created, and without Him nothing came into being.
Jesus is the truth because he embodies the supreme revelation of God, he narrates God in that he only says and does what the Father is doing. He is God as the word became flesh and dwelt among us
Jesus is life as he proclaimed I am the resurrection and the life to those at Lazarus’ tomb. He is the true God and the eternal life as John writes in 1 John 5:20
Only because he is the truth and the life can Jesus be the way for others to come to God, the way for his disciples to attain the places in the Father’s house
This is another one of those “dogmatic” (to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true) statements…..Jesus is the only way, the only truth is found through Him, and there is no real life on this earth nor gracious eternal life without him….no other religion has the way, truth, or life, and neither is anti-religion (atheism, agnosticism, Wicca)
John 14:7-11
If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.”
9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. 11 Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.
As we already read and we got it, but Philip did not….Jesus is the way being God in the Flesh the self-expression of the Father, so anyone who has seen him has seen the Father, He is the truth in that he only says and does what God who is truth, says and does so his word express the Father and Son as one. He shows them the Father as resurrection and life through all the things Jesus did and does that prove he is in the Father and the Father in him.
John 14: 12-14
I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!
Because Jesus went to the Father, three things happened
- Our sins were obliterated, so we now have access to the Father through deeper relationship than those prior to Christ death and resurrection. Clear hearing and understanding of the Father’s heart is ours. We can know what the Father is doing and do that
- Jesus is ever interceding for us, praying for us that we understand the Father’s heart and walk in righteousness and wholeness
- The Holy Spirit has been given to us and he has a powerful role in causing us to do greater things which Jesus is going to introduce some over the next two chapters
It is as we understand this, that we can easily ask in His name because we are doing the Father’s heart just as Jesus did as he walked the earth.
John 14: 15-17
If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
Jesus starts out by saying If we love him, it will show by our obeying His commandments….what are those commandments to summarize… Love God, Love people, and make disciples. This is not really a command in the sense that you must do this as it is an assumption that if you really are a Christ-follower you will already be doing these things
If you are doing these things, you will need the Holy Spirit to fulfill your purpose. Your purpose and destiny are tied into learning to love God, love people, and making disciples.
Jesus is our first advocate to the Father, and he promises another (meaning someone who is identical to Him) advocate.
The word advocate (Greek parakletos) here means:
Legal advocate – one who speaks on behalf of another, as Jesus is doing with the Father for us
Encourager – one who comes alongside to strengthen and uphold us
Counselor – one who gives wisdom, insight, and understanding and helps us through all things
The Father doesn’t want us to miss anything of who we are and who He is. The Holy Spirit will make sure we understand that if we will just take the time to listen
So what are our first discoveries of what this advocate does for us?
He leads us into the truth…we will know what is God and what isn’t God, keeping us away from deception. We will understand what the Father is upto because he is truth! So we know how to pray and what to do.
This is why we need to spend time building a relationship with him. We do so many things on our own that hurt and frustrate us and others. We don’t know Him as we should so we end up doing our own will, rather than the Father’s!
John 14:18-21
No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
Jesus is talking about his crucifixion and resurrection as they will feel abandoned temporarily. Because he will rise to life over death and the grave we who love him and our love is shown not by our works but instead our love is a more natural expression of things we do not to gain love but because we are loved and do love….Paul explained this mystery of Christ living in us in Galatians 2:20
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Christ lives in and through us as we choose to die daily and follow him!
Jesus is saying trust me….I’ve got your future in my hands I already know you are coming so I’m preparing a place for you and it will be perfect because I know you!
I’m taking care of your present, sending an encourager to help you understand who you really are and who I am so you don’t worry or miss anything!
You are called to greatness! You are called to be hope and life, to a broken world! You don’t ever need to worry about your future! Jesus was telling us we have a job to do and we don’t ever need to feel we are doing it alone