I suppose that many of you know this chapter by heart. I notice that, in all old Christians' Bibles, this leaf is well worn, sometimes worn out. We have here our Lord's homely talk to his disciples; it is full of sublimity, yet it is blessedly simple. There is a sort of unveiling of himself in this chapter. It is not so much like a public discourse as a private conversation and this tends to make the Saviour's speech appear the more condescending, and yet also the more sublime.
John 14:1. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
There is no cure for heart-trouble but heart-trust. «Ye believe in God,» you do trust in Divine Providence, now trust in the Saviour's great atonement. You have come close to God already, come closer still to the Incarnate God, the Lord Jesus Christ; hear him say to you, «Ye believe in God, believe also in me.» Your faith already deals with some things; now let it deal with more things. Your past troubles have been endured by faith; now endure the present in the same way.
John 14:2. In my Father's house are many mansions:
You are at home in Christ even now if you are a believer in him. Wherever you are, you are your Heavenly Father's own child; and you have realized the truth of what David wrote in the twenty-third Psalm, «I will dwelt in the house of the Lord for ever.» Usually, when we are singing that sweetly-solemn hymn, beginning «For ever with the Lord,» we are thinking about heaven. That is quite right; but «for ever» means now as well as the future, it covers time here as well as eternity in glory. We are with the Lord even now; whether we are down here or up there.
John 14:2. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
So that, when you go from this earth, you need not fear that you will be launched into space, or that you will have to plunge into the great unknown,
John 14:3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
«I will come to you by my Spirit. I will come to you by-and-by, if my Father shall purpose it, in the hour of death; or if not, I will come in person at my second advent; but, in any case, I will be sure to come. My dear children, I am going away, but it is only for a little while. I am coming again, so be not troubled as though you had said ‘Good-bye' to me forever. ‘I will come again,' and when I do come, I shall never go from you again.»
John 14:4. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Yes, we do know where Christ has gone, and we also know the way.
John 14:5. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
I like to hear Thomas talk, even though his is a very unwise speech; I wonder when you and I ever made wise ones. We never do unless we borrow them, for all that comes of us naturally is childish and foolish, «for we know in part, and we prophesy in part.» When the child becomes a man, he will put away childish things; but meanwhile our speech betrayeth us. We seldom speak even of any of the great mysteries of the gospel without uttering some words of our own which show that we have understood them yet. I think the Lord likes us to display our ignorance, first that we may know it, and then that he may remove it.
John 14:6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Christ has gone to the Father's upper house to make it ready for all the redeemed family. We could never have entered there if he had not gone in first; and even now, there is no coming to the Father in faith or in prayer except by Christ, we must not even dream of communion with God except through our Lord Jesus Christ. Luther used to say and to say very wisely, too, « I will have nothing to do with an absolute God; I must come to God by Christ Jesus.» «No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.»
John 14:7. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
All of the Father that we can know is visible in Christ, «for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.» And if we truly know Christ, we also know the Father. Christ always seems to be knowable, for he brings himself down to such a nearness to us that it seems easy to know him. Well, then, knowing Christ, we also know the Father, and have seen him.
John 14:8. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Thomas spoke just now like a babe in grace, now here is Philip talking like another baby; yet how bold his speech is! «Lord, shew us the Father.» Why, no man can see the Father's face, and live! Yet here is a child of God apparently forgetful of that fact.
John 14:9. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Is not this a homely talk between the Master and his disciples? Said I not rightly that Christ here seems to unveil and unbosom himself? He lets these children of his talk away much at their ease; and I think we ought to be at ease when we are talking with Christ. Some like a very stately service in their worship, something very grand, that makes ordinary worshippers stand afar off. Let them enjoy it if they can; but as for us, we prefer something which permits us to come very near to our Lord.
John 14:10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?
Yes, Lord, we do believe that; thine eternal and inseparable union with the Father is a doctrine about which we have no question whatsoever.
John 14:10. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Notice, dear friends, that even the Lord Jesus Christ did not profess to teach doctrines out of his own mind. He says, «The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself.» Now, if it is so with the Master, how much more ought it to be so with the servants! But have you not noticed how it is with the great men of the pulpit in these days? It is, «What I have thought out, I make known to you.» It is, «What has come to me by the spirit of the age, the culture of the period, I tell you.» God save us from this kind of talk! It is no business of mine, I know, ever to come to you merely with a message of my own; for if the Lord Jesus Christ did not do so, what a feel his servant must be if he pretends to do it! No; if it is not revealed in this Book, neither shall it be taught by us, nor ought it to be received by you. So Jesus says to his disciples, «The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself.» He glories in his union with the Father, and in the fact that he does not come as an independent teacher of thoughts of his own inventing, but he tells out to us what is in his Father;s heart.
John 14:11-12. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
We cannot do Christ's redeeming work; it would be blasphemy to suppose that we could, for he said of it, «It is finished.» But we can do the kind of work that Christ did in instructing men, and in being the means of blessing men. Many of the apostles brought to a knowledge of the truth more souls than their Lord did by his personal ministry. He was pleased, after the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, to bring great multitudes to the faith by some of his servants, while he himself preached, comparatively speaking, to but few, only journeying up and down that little land of Palestine, and scarcely traversing all of it. And if we will but trust him, and seek to imitate his wondrous life, we also shall do the works that he did, and do them on an even larger scale, and do them with even greater results.
John 14:13-14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
Observe the breadth of prayer: «If ye shall ask any thing.» Yet observe also the limit of prayer: «If ye shall ask any thing in my name.» There are some things which we should not ask in Christ's name, as we have no promise about them, or because we have indications that they would be contrary to God's usual method of procedure. We must not ask, in the name of Christ, for what would be absurd or outrageous for us to expect God to grant, neither dare we use that sacred name in pleading for things which would only be for the satisfaction of our own will. We must let the will of God rise above all; but, subject to that will, we may ask anything in Christ's name, and he will do it.
John 14:15. If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Obedience is the truest proof of love. Some, out of supposed love to Christ, have attempted or committed acts of fanaticism; they have been enthusiastic, and, in many cases, doubtless, very sincere; but they have also been very unwise. Here is the best thing that you can do out of love for Christ: «If ye love me, keep my commandments.»
John 14:16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;
«One who will not need to die, and so to be separated from you; but who, once coming to you, shall tarry with you throughout the ages;»
John 14:17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
Do you not notice how this verse contradicts the current thought of the period about «the spirit of the age» being so much in advance of the Spirit of all past ages? Listen again to these words of our Lord: «The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive.» The world is always receiving one form of falsehood or another; tossed to and fro, and never abiding long in one stay, it cries, «This is the truth,» or «That is the truth,» or «Now we have it; this is the truth.» But Christ says, «The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.»
John 14:18. I will not leave you comfortless:
Or, «orphans,» for that is the meaning of the original: «I will not leave you orphans.»
John 14:18-20. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
This is all very simple; the words are nearly all words of one syllable, yet there are depths here in which a leviathan might plunge, and lose himself.
John 14:21-23. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Only holy men can see the holy Christ, and it is only as we walk in obedience to him that we can have the Son of God walking with us, and the Father and the Son dwelling with us.
John 14:24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
Notice that important truth again, and observe what weight and what stress Christ lays upon it.
John 14:25-26. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Brethren, ought we not to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, since the Father himself does everything in that name? Even concerning the sending of the Comforter, Christ says, «whom the Father will send in my name.» Then, he would certainly have the Father and the children acting upon the same principles; the Father glorifying Christ by sending the Spirit in his name, and ourselves glorifying Christ by presenting our prayers and praises in that one adorable name.
John 14:27. Peace I leave with you,
«I told you not to let your heart be troubled; now I go further, and I leave you this precious legacy of peace: ‘ Peace I leave with you,' «
John 14:27. My peace I give unto you:
«My own deep peace, which even my sufferings and death cannot disturb:»
John 14:27-29. Not as the world giveth, give 1 unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.
Oh, what numbers of things which Christ foretold have come to pass already! Have you, dear friends, believed all the more because of them? How many answers to prayer, how many deliverances out of trouble, how many helps in the time of need, have you had! Surely, when all this has come to pass, you ought to believe.
John 14:30-31. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do, Arise, let us go hence.
So the Saviour went forth to his passion and his death, that all might know the supremacy of his love to the Father and his love to his people. And so let us, in our measure, be ever ready to say, Arise, let us go hence, service or to suffering, since our Saviour leads the way.