John 14:1-14 - “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. 4 You know the way to where I am going.”5 “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves. 12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Context: This is technically the “Last Supper” that Jesus is sharing with his disciples before his betrayal by Judas, which will lead to being arrested, beaten, and crucified
V. 1 - Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
1. Peter has just been told that he is going to deny Jesus three times in just a little while
2. Jesus has just told them that He’s going to be leaving them (13:33)
“Believe in God” – Indicative before the imperative -> If you believe in Yahweh, then you should therefore believe in me. To believe in God is to believe in me (High Christology)
V. 2-3 - In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.
“Come Again”
· Return after His Resurrection -> Justification
· Coming of His Spirit -> Sanctification ————————> All 3
· 2nd Coming in the End of the Age -> Glorification
V. 4-6 - You know the way to where I am going.” “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
“He’s not just the way to heaven one day, he’s the way to heaven on earth today.”
D.A. Carson - “Jesus is the way to God, precisely because he is the truth of God and life of God. Jesus is the truth, because he embodies the supreme revelation of God – he himself narrates God, says and does exclusively what the Father gives him to say and do, indeed he is properly called God.”
Pluralism - A state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain and develop their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization. A theory that there are more than one or more than two kinds of ultimate reality and truth
Secularism - Indifference to, or rejection or exclusion of religion and religious considerations
· Public – People of faith are free to live and express their ideas of faith and religion as long as they respect one another and their differences and live in peace
· Private – Society begins to struggle with the idea that not all faiths can be right and how do you decide which one has right to lay claims on any one. Society begins to struggle with the idea of a God essentially being God and having right to shape and form our ideologies. Because of this, Society begins to enforce the privatization of faith and belief. It’s fine if you believe that, just keep it to yourself in private
· Penalized – It’s no longer good enough to keep or have your religious views, even if it is in private. You’re now going to be penalized for thinking that way in order to try and convert society to secularism’s ideologies.
The penalty for religious belief manifests in shame, smearing of character, false accusations, mockery, violence, loss of liberties, full blown persecution
V. 7 - If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
“If you had known me” – In the negative sense -> If you really knew me
“Known” – Not just information or understanding -> Speaks of an experiential relationship -> Connected to knowing as in sexual intimacy (deepest level of knowing and being known)
“To know Jesus is to know the Father”
V. 8-9 - “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
V. 10-11 - Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.
V. 12 - “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
Key – “Because I am going to the Father” -> The Holy Spirit Comes
V. 13-14 - Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.