Let us read that well-known and most blessed chapter, John 14:1, which so clearly shows our Saviour's tender consideration for the comfort of his people, lest the great grief excited in them by his impending death should altogether break their hearts.
John 14:1. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
I think our Saviour meant to say, and really did say. «If ye believe in God, ye are believing in me; and if ye believe in me, ye are believing in God; for there is such a perfect unity between us that you need not, when I die make any distinction between me and God, but still believe in me as ye believe in the Father.»
John 14:2. In my Father's house are many mansion: if it were not so, I would have told you.
«Wicked men will shut you out of my Father's house below: the temple at Jerusalem, though being still used for Jewish worship after all its ritual and ceremonialism have been abolished, will cease to be my Father's house to you; but there is a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and there is room for all of you there. When this country gets to be a desert to you, remember that there is the home country, the blessed glory land, on the other side of the river, and the Father's house there with its many mansions.»
John 14:2-3. I ye to prepare a place for you. 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.
Jesus often keeps this promise in many senses. By his gracious spirit, he has come again, by his divine presence in the means of grace, he often comes again. By-and-by, if we die, he will come again to meet us; and if we do not die, then will the promise be fulfilled to the greatest possible extent, for Jesus will come again, and receive in his own proper person those who are alive and remain unto his coming. Anyhow, «I will come again, and receive you unto myself,» remains one of the sweetest promises that was ever given to believers by the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not say, «I will receive you to heaven;» he promised something far better than that: «I will receive you unto myself.» Oh, what bliss it will be to get to Christ, to be with him for ever and ever!
John 14:4. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
«At least, I have taught it to you; I have explained it to you; I have told you that I am the goal of your way, and the way to your goal; that I am the end, and also the way to that end.»
John 14:5. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Oh, how much ignorance there may be where there ought to be much knowledge. It is not always the man who lives in the sunlight who sees the most. Thomas had been one of the twelve apostles for years, he had during all that time had Christ for his Teacher, yet he had learned very little. With such poor teachers as we are, it is no wonder if our hearers and scholars learn but little from us, yet they ought to learn much from Christ, although I think that we learn nothing even from Jesus Christ himself except under the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
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.
«I am going to the Father, that is where I am going, Thomas, and you can only come to the Father by me; do you not know that?»
John 14:7. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also:
For Christ is the express image of his Father's person, so that you always see the Father when you see the Son.
John 14:7. And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Thomas had made an advance in heavenly knowledge; he had taken a higher degree in divinity now that the Master had taught him so much upon this most important point: «from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.»
John 14:8. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
It was not merely one of Christ's scholars, you see, who was so dull of comprehension, here is another of the dunces, Philip.
John 14:9. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet had thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
He who really knows Christ, and understands Christ's character, understands, so far as it can be understood by man, the character of God. We know more of God from the life of Christ than we can learn from any other source.
John 14:10-12. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very work's 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.
The Lord Jesus Christ, after he had gone back to heaven gave to his servants the power to do these «greater works» the Holy spirit resting upon them, in the gathering in of the nations unto their Lord. Whereas Christ kept to one little country, he sent his first disciples, and he sends us still to preach the gospel to every creature in the whole world, and he clothes his servants with all needful authority and power to do the work he has committed to their charge.
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.
There is the only limit to true believing prayer. There are some things which we could not ask in Christ's name; that is, using his authority in asking for them. There are some wishes and whims that we may cherish, not that we think we may pray about; but we have not Christ's name or authority to warrant us in expecting that we shall realize them, and therefore we cannot ask for them in his name. To say, «For Christ's sake,» is one thing; but to say, «I ask this in Christ's name,» is quite another matter. He never authorized you to make use of his name about everything. There are only certain things about which you can pray in his name, such as are the express subject of a divine promise, and when you pray for one of those things, you shall prove Christ's words to be true, «If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.»
John 14:15-16. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
The Paraclete, the Succored, the Helper. The word «Comforter» has lost its old meaning; you get it in certain old writings, when you read of such-and-such a man that he gave to someone else succor and comfort. There is more here than merely giving us consolation. It means Helper: «He shall give you another Helper.» Advocatus is the Latin, and that too is the correct word: «He shall give you another advocate,»
John 14:16-17. That he may abide with you for ever;Eeven 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.
Worldly men are not cognizant of the existence of the Holy Spirit. They do not believe in him; they say that there may or may not be such a Divine Being in the world as the Holy Spirit, but they have never come across his path. This then is one of the tests of true believers, the twice-born, they have received a new nature which enables them to recognize the existence of the Spirit of God and to feel the influence of his work: «Ye know him: for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.»
John 14:18-19. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me:
«Your spiritual sight, which discerns the presence with you of the Holy Spirit, will show my continued existence when I am gone away from you.»
John 14:19-20. 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 something more for us to know. To know that Christ is in the Father, is of a thing; but it is still more for us to understand the next mystic unity, «ye in me, and I in you.» Oh, wondrous combination of the Father and the Son, and of Immanuel, God with us, and ourselves!
John 14:21-22. He that hath my commandment, 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?
Large-hearted Judas, very different from Judas Iscariot! He wants Christ to manifest himself to all the world; he seems to have been a man of very broad views. He does not comprehend discriminating love and electing grace; he wants all the privileges of the children of God to be the privileges of the King's enemies, but that cannot be.
John 14:23. 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.
Christ is sure to manifest himself to those who love him, but how can he manifest himself to those who love him not? They cannot see him; they would not appreciate him if they could see him, they have no spiritual taste with which to enjoy him.
John 14:24-26. He that loveth me not keepeth not my saying: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, 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.
Do we sufficiently look to the Holy Spirit for divine teaching? We read our Bibles, I trust, with diligence, and also any explanatory books by which we may better understand our Bibles, but do we look up to the Holy Spirit, and ask him distinctly and immediately to teach us what is the meaning of Christ's words, and to bring them to our remembrance? I wish we did this more than we do.
John 14:27. Peace I leave with you,
«That is my legacy to you.»
John 14:27. My peace I give unto you:
My own deep calm of spirit, which is not ruffled or broken though the contradiction of sinners continually annoys me: «My peace I give unto you.» Christ puts his hand into his heart, and takes out of that priceless casket the choicest jewel it contains, his own peace, and he says, «Wear that on your finger, the seal and token of my love.» «My peace I give unto you:»
John 14:27. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
«With an expectation of getting a reward for it; neither do I give it to take it back again; nor do I give it in mere presence; I give it in reality, sincerely, disinterestedly, as your freehold possession for ever.»
John 14:27-28. 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.
Christ as man had condescended to become less than the Father; he had taken upon himself the form of a servant, but now he was going back to take his own natural dignity again. We ought to rejoice in his gain. Though you may think it a loss not to have his corporeal presence, yet would you like to call him away from yonder harps that ring out his praises, and the perfect love of the Father with whom he reigns supreme? Oh, no, blessed Master, stay where thou art!
John 14:29-31. And now I how told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. 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 are commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.