Jesus' command to not let your heart be troubled comes right after the revelation that Peter would deny Him and someone would betray Him. Jesus says that He is going someplace that they can't go. This is pretty disturbing but Jesus tells them not to let their hearts be troubled. The way to do this is to believe God and to believe Jesus. Jesus looks forward through the Cross to the finish line.
Jesus promises a place for us. He promises that He will prepare a place for each of us and take us there. For whatever reason as I read that again I found it very comforting even in a new way. How can I worry when He says that he has it under control?
John 14:8-14
Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father. You can't ask for a different view as Philip did. It is a nonsensical question. It isn't possible to answer the request. This was impossible to the core. My mother's name was Lucille … like B.B. King's guitar … and I could have walked up to her and said, "Mom I want you to show me Lucille …" There is a sense in which we speak that way. We want to know our parents as they are to other folks. But Jesus was a perfect, complete, whole, and accurate representation of the Father. You can't ask for more because Jesus is complete and whole.
The disciples, just like us, have the perfect words spoken in perfect accord with all of Scripture. Jesus, in effect, says, "Either believe because of the perfect agreement between Me and the Father or else believe because of all the signs the Father gave to testify to my teaching."
The signs multiplied through the Church after Pentecost. We have the Cannon of Scripture so we are not in the position of the first century Church in which we require apostolic authority in teaching to be established by signs and wonders. However, we err on the other side when we are in need because we don't ask for what we need to glorify the Father.
Ask the Father in Jesus' name so that we can do what God says, in the way He says, and at the time He says with no thought but for His glory. Or … we may ask "amiss" or wrongly for things that don't build us up spiritually. Jesus doesn't give us a "wild card" to simply ask at random. God is not random we need to
John 14:15-17
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
A relationship with Christ is transformative.
First, relationship with Christ transforms our will within us. Our "want to" is changed. Jesus says if you love Him then you will keep His commandments. What Christ commands will modify you and cause you to desire more of Him. This is not to say that you'll never sin by either action or inaction. Sins of commission and omission will still be present. You will sin but it will not be your practice. It will cease to be your nature and you will no longer have a calloused conscience that cannot bleed.
Secondly, and as a foundation to the first point, Jesus will intercede for you and the Father will give you the Helper. The παράκλητος (paraklētos) the Helper, Counselor, Encourager, and Mediator. Not only does He intercede and pray for us with words that are beyond human speech but He also witnesses to truth within us and encourages us in trials.
This was prior to Pentecost and so Jesus says, "he dwells with you and will be in you" to foreshadow the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after His resurrection.
John 14:18-21
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."
I'm sure they did feel a little like they were being orphaned. However, the final position of the disciples is to be better than before. Better than being in the presence of Jesus in His humanity is to be in Him, and Him in you, and Him in the Father. That puts you in the Father too. The Trinity is united in our salvation. The three persons of one essence that make up the Trinity were in perfect agreement and it is never more obvious than in these verses.
Jesus says that He will manifest Himself to the disciples. So this raises the question of, "how"?
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 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. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
So the question is how you can manifest yourself to us without anyone else noticing it. The Holy Spirit will dwell, or make a home, within us. The transformation is produced from within and not by a discipline applied without. The idea of a manifested earthly kingdom was hard to let go of but it was not part of the work for Jerusalem in 33 AD.
Jesus continues to stress that you'll be able to tell who is in Christ and who is not in Christ objectively. This is not to say that works equal salvation but that salvation necessarily changes us. It is by definition the change between a heart that is stone and a heart that lives. So behavior is an indicator but is not the motivator. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A Christian may sin seriously and for an extended period of time but ultimately the Holy Spirit's discipline will bring the prodigal child back. If there is no coming back then they are proved in the end to have never been a prodigal child in the first place but simply prodigal in the Latin sense of prodigus (prodigere) to drive away and squander.
A Christian may act prodigal as if they are driven away and will squander it all but not be prodigal as the Holy Spirit drives them back and may even graciously restore losses. However, restoration is an act of God's grace. Restoration of what is squandered is not a right. Costs and losses and injury to those around the prodigal are real and have consequences. Only God knows the full extent of what has been wasted.
John 14:25-27
"These things I have spoken to you while I am still 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 that I have 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 hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
The disciples were losing their teacher. Jesus was the rabbi or teacher so his students, who knew they were not ready to graduate, were scared and feeling lost. The Holy Spirit has a teaching and "prodding" ministry.
The peace that Jesus gives is manifold. It is almost impossible to exhaust the ways in which it is found in our lives. I want to briefly mention 2 ways in which it is different than what the world gives. First of all the peace comes from within and not from without. It can appear irrational for those who don't know Christ. To have peace in the world you need resources. You need those things that make you feel safe. It is generally money but can also be a particular social standing or health or all of these. The peace that Jesus gives comes from within and can stand when you have no money, no social standing, or health. The peace that Jesus gives has extended to the last moments of many martyrs before they were welcomed into the presence of God.
Secondly, the peace that Jesus gives is most importantly with God. Your sin, apart from the work of Jesus on the Cross, will keep you from God because your sin is rebellion against a perfectly holy and righteous God. You all have committed treason against a perfect God. It is bad to commit treason in any case but treason against an infinitely holy and just God makes your treason infinitely sinful. You have not obeyed Him and you have done what you pleased. Jesus pays that price on the Cross that you owed and His righteous life is imputed or credited to you.
John 14:28-31
You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
I wondered it Philip said, "Hey! Wait a minute. How come my question was a dumb question? You just said the "Father is greater than I" and you told me that you and the Father were the same." Maybe he just grumbled a little bit and left it for later. Remember that Jesus was fully God and fully man without mixture, confusion, or separation. So both points are well taken. He is the perfect representation of God but He is/was also incarnate. We are all "in Christ" because of His glorification. He is at every communion service (even the simultaneous ones) because of His glorification. So we who love Jesus do rejoice in this knowledge and in His accomplishment on the cross.
John 15:1-4
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
After they left the room where they had the meal, they were walking and Jesus was teaching. They almost certainly were passing a vineyard when Jesus started this lesson.
This is another of the "I am" statements of Christ. He is the true vine. There is only one true vine and God the Father is the vinedresser. I've mentioned before how odd grapes are. The branches need a vinedresser to keep them from getting too far from the roots. We are utterly dependent on the vine for life and fruit. Our relationship is not external it is necessarily internal or no life would be imparted. The life imparted internally is manifested outwardly by fruit and we are disciplined to produce more fruit. Difficulties are not without purpose for Christians.
John 15:5-11
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
To be out of relationship with Christ is to make the light of the world and air (the word used for the Holy Spirit) your enemies. Plants wilt and curl their leaves to avoid light and air when they are not abiding in the vine. Men run from the Light of the World and the Holy Spirit when they are not in Christ.
Don't miss the point that Jesus said these things to bring His joy into us so that we'll be filled.
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