The Lord had just finished telling His disciples that they
\nare to love one another and that He?s leaving. Peter had asked where exactly
\nJesus was going to which He answered that where He is going, Peter would not be
\nable to follow but he will come later. This opened some discussion on Peter?s
\ndenial in contrast to his adamant statement that he would follow the Lord unto
\ndeath…but it also leaves the disciples with a ground shaking question. How
\nare they to love and work as the Lord loved and worked if He?s not there to
\nshow them how when even Peter (who walked on water!) would deny the Lord (John 13:31-38)?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Lord right away begins to comfort them (Jn 14:1). They
\ntrust God, they can trust Him. The place He?s going to is where His Father is
\nand in this abode He will prepare a place for each one of them personally. And
\nif He is planning to do as such, He will come again to receive them to Himself
\nso that they might be with Him (14:3). His first help is concerning an end goal
\nwhich is a place with the Father. <\/p>\n
This spurs Thomas? question of how to get to this foreign
\nland and Jesus points out that this place is not arrived by methods. The road
\nto get there is not on mapquest, but is found in a person. ?I am the way, the
\ntruth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me? (Jn 14:6). Jesus
\nexplains that if they had known Him, they would have followed that road and
\nknown the Father. His second help is that they are not to get lost in a method,
\nin the Master, Himself.<\/p>\n
Hearing this, Philip requests the presentation of the
\nFather?a special privilege indeed. How great would it be if in this room they could
\nsee the Invisible Father? But Jesus? response illustrates how off the mark
\nPhillip was at this moment (Jn 14:9). ?I don?t speak of my own initiative, Phil,
\nbut the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father
\nand He in Me?otherwise believe the works themselves.? (Jn 14:10,11) His words
\necho what He was saying to the Pharisees in John 10 where He was trying to get
\nthose men, not His sheep, to become His sheep by explaining the nature of the
\nworks which He did?evidence of the Father working. <\/p>\n
Now, He uses the same words to a believer to establish Him
\nin this truth?that the Son has demonstrated the Father to them! For He is the
\nincarnate expression of the Father and if they see His actions and His love
\nthey see how the Father acts and loves. No one has seen the Father at any time
\nbut the Son has εξηγησατο, or explained, declared, unfolded and interpreted Him
\n(Jn 1:18).<\/p>\n
In fact, they will also do works and some of their works
\nwill even be greater because Jesus goes to the Father (Jn 14:12). How can the disciples? works be as great as, if
\nnot greater than Christ?s works? How can this be? <\/p>\n
The Son is going to the Father and whatever they ask in
\nChrist?s authority, Christ will do it. They can now be partakers in that work
\nof holiness in their own members by asking the Lord to work in them. So when He
\nmakes a request such as ?Keep My commandments?(Jn 14:15) they will be able to do it because of His work. As
\nif that is not enough, He will send them a Helper, the Spirit of Truth from the
\nFather who will abide in them to help them (Jn 14:15-17). So they can now work
\na great work because the Holy Spirit is in them, because He is working next to
\nthe Father and the Father is revealed in the Son.<\/p>\n
He continues to establish them by telling them that He will
\nnot leave them as orphans. He won?t be seen for a little while, then He will be
\nseen but the world won?t see Him. In this atmosphere, those who keep His
\ncommands are those who love Him (Jn 14:18-21).
\nAs he had showed that His disciples would keep His commandments before all men
\n(Jn 13:35), now He shows that His
\ndisciples that love Him will keep His commandments before each other. His third
\nprovision consists of evidence of works?by Christ, by the Father, by the Spirit
\nand by themselves.<\/p>\n
Judas (not Iscariot) wonders about this bit of not
\ndisclosing Himself to them and not to the world?how is it possible? The Lord
\nexplains that this is being done by the Helper who the world can not receive.
\nThis Helper would bring Jesus? words back to their memory (Jn 14:23-26). They will be taught. This last
\nprovision is that the Helper will assist them in their learning.<\/p>\n
Jesus hints at the greatness of what?s going on here.
\nBecause He?s going away they can rejoice?but He tells them this now so that
\nthey would be comforted and prepared (Jn 14:27-29).
\nHe does exactly what the Father tells Him to do to show the world that He loves
\nthe Father.<\/p>\n
With this fourfold provision, what work are we to do to show
\nthat we love the Son? He outright told us that we are to keep His commandments
\nand also explained that we?re not doing it by ourselves but the Lord will personally
\nhelp us with a whole bunch of provisions. He gives us an end goal to direct our
\nrun. This end goal is not to be reached by a method, but He gives us Himself to
\ndirect our focus. He gives us the work to fight the good fight. He gives us the
\nHelper to enable and to teach us. <\/p>\n
We can now look at the great provisions of the Lord, this
\ngreat cloud of witnesses surrounding us, found here and evidenced in past men
\nof faith who have ran well and echo the words of the writer of Hebrews: Let us lay
\naside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and let us run the race
\nthat is before us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith
\nwho instead of the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising
\nthe shame and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him
\nwho has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not
\ngrow weary and lose heart (Heb 12:1-3).<\/p>\n
<\/span>The Chart<\/a> The Lord had just finished telling His disciples that they are to love one another and that He?s leaving. Peter had asked where exactly Jesus was going to which He answered that where He is going, Peter would not be able to follow but he will come later. This opened some discussion on Peter?s denial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/o:p><\/p>\n
<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"