John 14

We finished chapter13 on a note of despair but with an observation that the only way of being able to fulfill Peter's words of “laying down a life" was to recognise that life is first and foremost Spiritual and it is that Spirituality that works out salvation.

Peter has just been told by Jesus that he will deny him three times before even the rooster crows, but here in chapter14 Jesus continues with words that give us hope.

“Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me." This verse is crucial if we are to live a life that is spiritual, (which is in fact the only way to life a life), because Jesus is saying that I and God are one. Jesus has said this many times before and he itterates it yet again. It is reassuring to notice that Jesus is preparing his disciples for life on earth without him but leaving then with full assurance that he is going to prepare a place for us in his father's house.

It would appear that both Thomas and Phillip either don't get it or they have both mis-understood who Jesus is. Thomas says “we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?” while Philip says “Lord show us the Father and it is sufficient for us”

Thomas seemed to be saying that in his experience life was first and foremost physical and his whole outlook was one of a physical experience unable to extend to the spiritual.. He had been with Jesus for three years and it appears he had not grasped that this Jesus was God in man and therefore was the only access to the Father.

Phillip also reveals that his experience of Jesus’s life is physical with a bolt on optional spirituality and receives a fuller answer to his question than Thomas did. In John 14:6-11 Jesus explicitly reveals the Father and the only access to Him, v6, contains one of the great “I am’s" of Jesus. These I am’s are significant all through scripture and started with God revealing himself to Moses in Exodus 3:14 where God says I AM who I AM. This one little statement declares and confirms the supremacy, the steadfastness, the reliability, the sustaining, the all encompassing nature of God. Whenever we read I am in God's word it should always fIll us with hope, a hope that does not fade or expire.

Whenever Jesus uses the words I am he is revealing and aligning himself to God. In essence he is saying “we are one."

As we move through this chapter to John 14:12-21 we read that Jesus implies that the way to know the Father requires action, our action. The action that is required is to ask and receive, here in John 14:12-18 we have Jesus preparing his disciples,and ultimately, all future generations to ask and receive, in order that we are not left as orphans or left without hope.

Jesus is saying that the Father is glorified in the Son and the Son will impart himself as"another Helper.” This word “another” literally means “another exactly the same as",who will be with you, alongside you and in you. This helper or comforter is the “Spirit of truth"and notice who Jesus says will receive him, it is those who know Christ v17, those who have asked and have received and acknowledged that Christ is God, those who acknowledge that life is spiritual and understand that we live a spiritual life and that it is a life lived from the inside out not outside in. Repentance is all about turning around and walking away from, walking in the opposite direction. It is this very act of physical, intellectual and spiritual repentance, this turning around and walking away from that we work out a life that is spiritual and a live that is lived from within that enables us to be assured of the promise in John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you”. Jesus goes onto say in John 14:19-31 it is possible to see and know Christ because of the unity of the Father and Son, the unity of Son and Spirit and the unity of Spirit and flesh. The Christian life is only possible if the unifying elements of love and obedience to spiritual laws are adheard to and upheld. It is the moral application of the laws of existence that will be the ultimate redemption of the world.

In John 14:23 Jesus says in response to a question from Judas (not Iscariot) about Jesus being manifest to people that it is all about love,”you love me and you will keep my commandments", notice it does not say “you might” or “you could" it says"you will" implying it is a law of spirituality that is at work. Also notice in his answer Jesus uses the word “My Father will love him". this is the personal touch, the personal assurance that Jesus knows the Father. He then goes on and uses the corporate, “we will come to him and make our home with him" (just a note here the “him" is not gender specific, God created man, (the Hebrew word here is adnah, meaning mankind), in His image, male and female He created them Genesis 1:27:).

It is this personnel assurance of the corporate unity of the completeness of God who is interested in the insignificance of me that gives hope to our nation and our world. We will see in the next chapter how this unity of the Godhead works out in life.