John 14:1-11: “Jesus Tells His
Disciples He Is Going Away But Not To Worry For He Will Be Preparing
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we looked at verses 21-38 of chapter 13.
1.1.1. In that study,
we saw that at the supper Jesus revealed that one of them would betray Him and
that the disciples were puzzled and looked around at one another each wondering
if he himself would be the one to betray Jesus.
Then, Jesus pointed out to John that it was Judas Iscariot who will
betray Him.
1.1.2. In a gesture
of friendship by dipping a morsel and giving it to Judas Iscariot, Jesus gave
Judas one last chance to repent but when Judas hardened his heart Jesus told
him to do what he was planning to do quickly, and Judas left to betray Jesus to
the high priests. We gleaned many things
from this betrayal of Jesus by Judas.
1.1.3. In that
study, we also saw how that Jesus prepared Simon Peter for failure that He knew
he was going to suffer by telling Peter that before a cock crowed that Peter
will deny Him three times. We discussed
the folly of placing our confidence in the flesh.
1.2.
In our study today, we are going to look at verses
1-11 of chapter 14.
1.2.1. We are still
in the Upper Room Discourse teaching by Jesus given that last day of His
life. Things are quickly coming to a
head for Him, however before He is arrested and taken away to be crucified,
Jesus has some very important things to say to and teach His disciples.
1.2.2. Prior to
this time, Jesus has on several occasions spoken in an almost morose way
concerning His dying and leaving this world.
When He had first come into
1.2.3. Jesus knows
however that He must prepare His disciples for the awful horror that they are
soon to experience when they learn that their Master and teacher has been
crucified and buried. They will lose all
hope at that time and be dispersed in every direction, however Jesus now will
plant seeds of hope that He will water and bring to life in them after He has
been raised from the dead.
1.2.4. It is
amazing to note in this story we are looking at today that in spite of the fact
that Jesus knows that He is going to soon be crucified and suffer the most
horrible of agony in being beaten, spit upon, verbally taunted in the cruelest
of ways, and finally crucified, that at this moment in time He is not thinking
at all about Himself. In fact, Jesus is
perfectly at peace as His thoughts are those of a dying parent preparing His
dear little children for His passing away.
Jesus is concerned only for His disciple’s well being. Only the Godman could react this way at this
point in time.
2.
VS 14:1 - “‘Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in
2.1.
Having told His disciples that He was going away and
that they would not be able to find Him, that one of them would betray Him, and
that Peter the leader of them all would deny Him three times, the disciples
were in shock and very worried. Jesus
had just previously been very “troubled” therefore we are not surprised
at all that the disciples were very “troubled” in heart. Jesus, in His omniscience, which was
continually being revealed, realized this about them and now seeks to comfort them.
2.2.
In our previous study, we saw that Jesus was preparing
Peter for failure by telling Him beforehand that he would deny Him three times
before the morning cock crowed. That
incident reminded me in some ways of the movie “Terms Of Endearment”
when Debra Winger was dying of cancer and preparing her children for her death
including a son who had become very angry at her and blamed her for everything
that was wrong; she told her son that
she knew that he loved her. By telling
Peter that He knew that he would deny Him three times, Jesus was also telling
Peter that He would not be surprised at his failure and also that He would be
there to forgive and restore him to Himself afterwards.
2.3.
Jesus tells His disciples not to let their heart be
troubled. Their hearts were shaken and
trembled at all of these revelations. They
feared what the uncertain future would hold for them. Jesus tells His disciples in essence not to
fear but to believe in God and in the same sense believe also in Him and in His
word.
2.3.1.
We Christians need to learn the lesson that if we will
simply believe in God, we can face any crisis in our lives. Our faith in the Lord and His many and all
encompassing promises for us can see us through when our future is
uncertain. But, we must learn in those
times to hold onto God’s promises by faith.
3.
VS 14:2-3 - “‘In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told
you; for 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’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that in His Father’s house there are many mansions and that He
was going away in order that He might prepare a place for them
3.1.
Sadly,
today many churches do not preach and teach about heaven. However, Jesus knew the importance of a
Christian keeping a firm hold on the truth that after this life he or she is
going to go to be with God in heaven.
3.2.
Heaven is where God’s house is located, and in His
house are many dwelling places. Jesus
promised on this day that this was true, and, that if it were not true, He
would have told His disciples differently.
Jesus never taught His disciples to merely think positively or to have
wishful thinking. He always pointed them
to the things that the Lord has promised us and taught that our faith is to be
based upon the things that the Lord has promised to do.
3.3.
In Christian families, home should be a place where
each member of the family has a place of refuge and rest that he or she can
retreat to when the troubles of this life bear down upon them. Unfortunately, for many today family life has
been torn apart through divorce or even tragedy, and family members have no
such concept that they can relate to.
For the disciples, their home life has become their small group with
Jesus as their Lord and Master. However,
now the disciples must come to learn that their real home is now to be heaven
when they leave this life. They must
learn to view themselves as strangers and aliens to this world for their
citizenship is in heaven.
3.4.
Furthermore, Jesus promises here that He is going to
go and prepare dwelling places for His disciples in God’s house. He promises also that He will one day come
for them again and bring them to where He is so that they may ever after be
where He is. These words comfort the
disciples in their sorrow and fear yet their real importance will be learned
later by them.
3.5.
When you think about the fact that the Lord created
this first world in six days, and what an incredible creation He made, then
consider the fact that for the last 2,000 years Jesus has been creating the New
Jerusalem and a dwelling place for each of us His people, then we ought to
recognize what an incredible dwelling the Lord must have planned for each of us
to reside.
3.6.
We Christians can and should always look at everything
that happens to us in our lives from the perspective that God has a dwelling
place for us when we leave this earth, and that when we do leave, Jesus will
bring us to Himself and the dwelling place which He has made for us. Paul wrote a similar word of encouragement
for us in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1:13 how that we as
Christians are to fix our hope “completely” on the grace to be brought
to us when Jesus returns for us, “13 Therefore, prepare your
minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the
grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The key word in
this verse is “completely.”
4.
VS
14:4-5 - “‘And you know the way where I am
going’. Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord we do
not know where You are going, how do we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the
Father, but through Me’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that they know the way that He is going, Thomas responds that
they do not know where He is going so how could they know the way there, and to
this Jesus responds that He is the way, truth, and life
4.1.
Jesus told the disciples that they knew the way in
which He was going, and we must assume that Jesus states that they know where
He is going based upon what He had been telling them off and on during His
ministry about His dying and going away to the Father.
4.2.
Thomas who is known from the gospel accounts as being
a skeptic responds to Jesus in honesty, and does so asserting that He is
speaking for the whole group. Thomas
perhaps has gotten a bad rap because note that none of the other disciples
corrected or rebuked Thomas for stating this about them. Maybe Thomas was in reality just more hones
than the other disciples.
4.3.
Thomas states that since the disciples didn’t know
where He was going, how could they know the way there? This is a very logical question, but it is
also based upon a darkened understanding that the disciples currently
possessed. It was not until after Jesus
raised from the dead and the Holy Spirit came to dwell in and baptize the
disciples that they truly began to understand what Jesus meant in His teachings
and also appreciate the significance of those things.
4.4.
Thomas and the rest of the disciples simply had not
yet grasped the fact that Jesus was speaking of dying and going to heaven. As I mentioned at the outset of this study,
because of the incredible power and success of Jesus’ ministry it is reasonable
to believe that the disciples thought up to this point that Jesus had been
speaking to them in parables when He spoke of His dying and leaving them.
4.5.
Thomas had a hard time with any sort of blind
faith. He as a person had to see more
evidence of Jesus’ credibility before he would believe in all that Jesus taught
the disciples. The problem is that you
can only understand truth by first believing.
In Hebrews 4:2, the author of the book speaks of a group of people and
states that they had heard the good news preached to them but that the word did
not profit them because it was not accompanied or united by faith in them, “2 For
indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word
they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who
heard.” You have to first believe in order to
understand the truth.
4.6.
Jesus answers Thomas’ question in the way which will
bring the disciples to have the most insight into His real mission and
identity. He says in essence that He is
going to the Father, and that He Himself is the way to the Father, and that
truth in Him is necessary to go to the Father, and that He alone brings to the
disciple the very life of God.
4.7.
Jesus does not tell His disciples here that He is “a
way” to God, nor does He state that He is merely “a good way” to get
to God. Instead, Jesus states that He is
‘the way’ (IOW the “only way”) to get to the Father, and thus all
other methods and attempts to God and eternal life are in vain.
4.8.
Jesus is the full, final, and complete revelation of
God to mankind, as the author of the book of Hebrews explains in the first
chapter of that book, and thus Jesus must be apprehended if one is to find God
and know God personally.
4.9.
The popular belief today that there are many paths
over the mountain for getting to know God is not true according to Jesus, for
He tells us that He alone is the only mediator between God and man, just as
Paul wrote about in 1 Tim. 2:5, “5 For there is one God, and one mediator also
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
4.10.
Not only is Jesus the way to God, He claims here that
He is also ‘the truth.’ Jesus does not say that He brought or taught
truth, or a truth. He states that He
Himself “is” truth. When Jesus
will be arrested in the morning and appear before Pilate, Pilate will ask Him,
“What is truth?” I would ask you
to consider what Jesus means when He states here that He is ‘the truth.’ How could Jesus make such an assertion?
4.11.
We saw in the first chapter of this book that John
wrote that Jesus was the incarnate word of God that was in the beginning with
God, and in fact, was God. Then, John
goes on to state that Jesus had been made flesh and dwelt among us, and that the
disciples beheld His glory, glory of the only begotten Son of God, full of
grace and truth. Now, John writes that
the man who is the very word of God is ‘truth.’ Jesus is the standard and basis of all truth,
a measuring stick for comparison, and it is not that you start with Jesus in
understanding truth and then move on. He
‘is’ truth.
4.12.
Truth is not found in concepts and precepts, rather it
is in the man Christ Jesus. Paul wrote
to the Colossians about Christ in Col. 2:3 telling them how that Jesus Christ
embodied all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, “3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.”
4.13. Jesus states
also that He is “the life.” Jesus
did not say that He brings some life, nor that He makes life better. No, He states that He “is” all that
the concept of life that we know about as Christians consists of. In Colossians 2:13, Paul wrote about how that
before coming to salvation each of us dwelt in “death” for we were dead
in trespasses and sins, but that we were “made alive” by Jesus at that
juncture, “13 When you were dead in
your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive
together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” In John 10:10, we can observe that the
heart of Jesus consists of the desire to help us and bless us and give us life,
“10 “The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.””
4.14.
We Christians ought to look to Jesus as the way to all
in life that is worth having and knowing.
We ought to look to Jesus as possessing all the truth which we need to
know concerning what is important in live. We ought to realized that Jesus will
give us the very life of God if we will but seek Him and His righteousness
first in our lives!
5.
VS
14:7 - “‘If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him’.”
- Jesus tells His disciples that if they
had know Him that they would have known the Father also, but that now they know
Him and have seen Him
5.1.
Knowing that the disciples still did not really
understand the spiritual truths which He was seeking to teach them concerning
His soon going to the Father, Jesus tells them the same things that He had been
telling the unbelieving Jews, namely, that if they had known Him, they would
also have known the Father. However,
Jesus tells them that now at this point in time, ‘from now on you know Him,
and have seen Him.’
5.2.
Jesus tells His disciples that they have seen the
Father. Now that Jesus is going to go to
6.
VS
14:8-9 - “Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the
Father, and it is enough for us’. Jesus
said to him, ‘Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘‘Show us the Father’’?’”
- Philip asks Jesus to show them the
Father and it will be enough for them, but Jesus responds that the one who has
seen Him has seen the Father
6.1.
Thomas had such a difficult time with his faith as
many of the gospel stories reveal. In
this instance though, it is Philip who is struggling with his faith and asks
what many of the Old Testament saints had asked, namely that he (and the rest
of the disciples) might see the Lord as He really is.
6.2.
Just as Thomas had spoken for the group, Philip now
speaks for the rest of the group when he says that if Jesus were to show them
the Father, it would suffice in bolstering their faith in Jesus.
6.3.
In reality, the disciples had already seen a
tremendous revelation of the Father in the life of Jesus, however at this
juncture they did not yet realize it.
Moses had requested to see the glory of God and had seen His passing
shadow as he was hidden in the cleft of the rock. Isaiah had seen the vision of the exalted
Lord sitting upon His throne. However,
Jesus was God in the flesh and a much greater and more accurate revelation of
God than any had ever seen. As was
previously quoted from Hebrews, Jesus was “the express image of God” in
human form.
6.4.
After Jesus is raised from the dead, then the
disciples’ eyes will finally be opened and they will realize the greatness of
that revelation of God that they had received through Jesus.
6.5.
Sometimes we Christians do not see the many ways that
the Lord has revealed Himself to us.
This occurs primarily because we don’t take the time to read His word
daily to be refreshed in that revelation, and this is also why our faith
sometimes wavers.
6.6.
Jesus questions Philip about how that even though
Jesus had been so long with him that He still hadn’t truly come to know
Jesus? Philip had seen the One who is
the perfect representation of the Father’s character. Paul wrote about this in Hebrews 1:3, “He is
the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and
upholds all things by the word of His power.”
6.7.
God has given us a very accurate picture of who He is
through the revelation of His Son in His word.
If we want to know and see what the Father is really like, all we have
to do is take a long look in God’s word at His Son. Does your apprehension of God match the Jesus
Christ of the Bible?
7.
VS
14:10-11 - “‘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 initiative, but the Father abiding
in Me does His works. Believe Me that I
am in the Father, and the Father in Me;
otherwise believe on account of the works themselves’.”
- Jesus tells His disciples to believe
that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, and this because of His
words and His works
7.1.
It was not the works of power in the miraculous that
Jesus performed that prove His credibility in His claims to be the Son of
God. Rather, His words themselves are
adequate proof to His claims. However,
Jesus infers here that the attesting signs that He did provide an extra
incentive to believe His claims.
7.2.
Jesus tells Philip that the source of the words which He
spoke came not from Him but from the Father who lives in Him and does His
works. However, Jesus appeals to Philip
that if He cannot accept His claims based upon His word, then accept them based
upon the attesting signs that He performed.
This is also essentially what Jesus told the Jews about Himself earlier.
8.
CONCLUSIONS:
8.1.
We
Christians need to take comfort and rest in the fact that the Lord is presently
also preparing a place for each of us to dwell on that day when we leave this
life.
8.2.
We need to
recognize that Jesus is not “a way” but “the way” to God, not “a
truth” but “the truth” and not “a life” from God but “the
life.”
8.3.
We would
be wise to learn to gaze often at the life of Jesus recorded for us in the New
Testament, for doing so we will be gazing at the Lord Himself, because Jesus is
the full and complete expression of God to us.