1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. 12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. 19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. 29 “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. 31 But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
Commentary
Vs. 1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”
Having told the disciples that He was going away, and then rebuked Peter for his assumption of his own courage, Jesus now tells the disciples not to be troubled by this but to believe in Him as they believe in God. For Jesus knew that His departure (i.e. death) would be devastating to the disciples, and so they needed to believe in Him as they did in God the Father, because just as all things are possible with God the Father all things are likewise possible with the Lord Jesus Christ!
Vs. 2 “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
Jesus now tells the disciples that His going away from them is to prepare a place for them, i.e. mansions, (lit. dwelling places). For as Jesus says there are many such places in heaven, but He is going there to prepare places just for them, that will be perfectly suited to them, and of course by default for us all who likewise believe in Him!
Vs. 3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
And so, the Lord Jesus Christ now reassures the disciples that His departure from them is not permanent, for He promises them (and us all) that He will come again and receive them (and us all) to Himself! So that where He is there we may be also.
Vs. 4 “And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Jesus now reaffirms their faith, that He was going to heaven, and that they knew the way to heaven which He had told them is with and through Himself.
Vs. 5-6 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Thomas though did not immediately understand (vs. 5). Therefore, Jesus now uses Thomas’ question to make one of greatest and profoundest declarations in all of Scripture, saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6 Nothing else then needs to be said, for in the Lord Jesus Christ’s declaration is all that is needed to guide anyone to salvation!
Vs. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Here Jesus is referring to knowing Him as God Himself! Come in the flesh to save and redeem believing humanity! Therefore, Jesus having just revealed Himself to Thomas as God, now says to him, “…and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Vs. 8-9 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
And so now it is Philipp who does not fully understand, for he says to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Vs. 8 Jesus though ever patient now says to Him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? vs. 9 Thus making it abundantly clear to Philip and to us all to that to know the Lord Jesus Christ is to know God the Father in heaven, for they are One!
Vs. 10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”
And so now Jesus by way of a question Jesus reveals that just as He is in the Father so is the Father in Him, thus you cannot separate them in your faith and belief about them, otherwise you will have neither of them! For God the Son cannot be accepted, acknowledged, received, or worshipped without God the Father, similarly God the Father will not be accepted, acknowledged, received, or worshipped without God the Son! The Lord Jesus now tells us all that the Words that He speaks He does not speak on His own Authority, thus as an independent Deity from God His Father, rather the Works that Jesus has done and continues to do are the very Works of God the Father who dwells in Him!
Vs. 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.”
The Lord Jesus Christ now exhorts all His disciples to believe that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, or else to believe Him for the sake of the works themselves! Because no man has ever done what the Lord Jesus Christ has done!
Vs. 12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
Because the God the Father was doing through the Lord Jesus Christ all the works that He has done while He was in the flesh, that is a Man on earth. The Lord Jesus Christ now Promises that works the He Himself has done so will all who believe in Him likewise do, and not only that Jesus says that greater works than these will we do, and so because He goes to the Father His Witness and His Works must continue on but now through His disciples. Thus, in one sense we see this clearly through the Apostles ministries to whom Jesus was then speaking. For after the Holy Spirit’s outpouring they began do many mighty works and miracles, even raising people from the dead! Now in another sense Jesus’ Promise comes to all of us who believe in Him, for throughout our new lives many works born out of our faith in Him and enabled and empowered through His Holy Spirit are likewise done through us all, for it is Christ in us all who likewise does the works (Isaiah 26:12). Jesus’ then going back to the Father was not His or our defeat, rather it was the means by which greater and mighty things were going to be accomplished, and in this it was and is being accomplished through us all!
Vs. 13-14 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
Having foretold us all of the great things that we are going to do, the Lord Jesus now promises that whatever we ask in His Name that He will do, that the Father maybe glorified in the Son. Thus, Jesus’ Promise here is not His Promising to fulfill all of our wants and desires (James 4:3), rather when we are doing His Will in His Service, we are to pray ask Him for whatever we need that the Father maybe glorified in the Son. Thus, we are never to do anything independently, as if anything that would glorify God would come through us without His Son having first paved the way for us.
Vs. 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
The Lord Jesus Christ throughout the Gospels (and later in the rest of the N.T) has given us commandments to keep, meaning both to observe and to hold onto as Christians. For in this world of ever-changing morals and values keeping the Lord Jesus Christ’s commandments is what truly defines His disciples, so much so that Jesus Himself linked keeping them with having love for Him.
Vs. 16-17 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Having exhorted the disciples to keep His commandments, Jesus now promises that He will pray to the Father, and that the Father will give us another Helper, that He may abide with us forever. This Helper then is the Holy Spirit Himself; whom Jesus also calls the Spirit of truth in verse seventeen, for it is He who not only transforms believing individuals into Christians, but it is He who enables us to keep the Lord Jesus Christ’s commandments, not flawlessly, but ongoingly, giving us both the desire and means to do, and want to do so. Notice too that Jesus says the Holy Spirit abides with us forever! For once He comes to us, to dwell in us, He seals us for the Day of Redemption (Eph. 1:13-14). No one then loses their salvation, nor do they need to be “rebaptized” by the Holy Spirit, for once He comes to us, He abides with us forever! Now in verse seventeen Jesus says of the Spirit of truth that the world cannot receive Him, thus when the Holy Spirit was poured out into the world at Pentecost only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ receive Him. For the world cannot receive Him, because as Jesus says it neither sees Him, nor knows Him, that is because they do not see Him Physically, they will not believe in Him, for they always walk by the sight of their eyes and not by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As well because they do not believe and obey the truth, the Spirit of truth will not come to them, those then who do not believe the testimony and the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ will never have the Spirit of truth come to them! However Jesus then goes on to say and Promise to us who do believe in Him that the Spirit of truth will come to us, because we know Him, therefore He dwells in us and He will be with us.
Vs. 18 “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
Therefore, in Jesus’ Promise of sending to us the Spirit of truth, (i.e. His Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity) He says that in His going away from us back to the Father in heaven He will not leave us orphans, rather He will come to us, that is come to us through His Holy Spirit indwelling each and every one of us who believe in Him. Every believer then has an intimate and everlasting connection with God the Father through Christ the Son and thus the Holy Spirit indwelling them.
Vs. 19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.”
Now in foretelling of His going back to the Father, Jesus now says that in a little while the world would no longer see Him, for after His imminent Crucifixion the world will not see Him again until He returns on the Day of the Lord for its finial Judgment! That said, Jesus Promises us who believe in Him that we will see Him, which has two-parts. First the disciples would see Jesus again when He rose from the dead, second is that we will all see Him when we go to be with Him forever! Although one may also infer now that our seeing Jesus now is with our eyes of faith, and so we believe in Him! That said Jesus also Promises us that because He lives, we who believe in Him shall also live, which begins the moment we are born-again by faith in His Person, and thus we our brought from spirit death and brought to Spirit life. Therefore, Jesus looking past His Crucifixion, and onto His Glorious Resurrection’ and then Ascension now Promises us that because He lives, we also will live! Live here and now yes, but His emphasis is on our glorious eternity with Himself where neither death. nor suffering. nor pain will ever again afflict us, or have dominion over us when we go to be with Him forever (Rev. 21:4). Life then, Eternal Life then is assured us because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself now lives and He has made the way and paid the price for us!
Vs. 20 “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
Only when we go home to heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ will we fully see and understand the intimate connection between God the Father and God the Son and thus Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior dwelling inside us all who are redeemed and saved.
Vs. 21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
The only real way that any of us love the Lord Jesus Christ is by obeying Him, that is keeping His commandments. Therefore, when we do so we will be loved by God the Father and God the Son and God the Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ then will manifest Himself to us. No one then who does not want to keep the Lord Jesus Christ’s commandments will ever be saved by Him (vs. 23-24).
Vs. 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”
The Judas mentioned here is the other Judas (and not the Judas Iscariot who left to betray Jesus), he wondered how Jesus was going to manifest Himself to all who believe in Him and not to the world.
Vs. 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Jesus now explains how He will manifest Himself to believers and not to the world, and it is in the most intimate way, and it is by His and His Father coming and making their home inside of us! Each and every one of us then who believe now have the Living God, and the Living Son of God dwelling inside each and every one of us! Thus, we are the Temple of the Lord, His dwelling place here on earth! (1 Cor. 3:16-17, 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:19-22). And so that is how the Lord Jesus manifests Himself to us who believe in Him and not to the world, for we know He lives inside of us, but the world cannot see Him, though they may perceive Him in us, yet because they do not now see Him in the flesh, therefore Jesus is not manifested to them as He is to us! Now this is once again all predicated on our loving Him, which means keeping His Word (i.e. commandments) given us all in the N.T. Scripture which is applicable for us all in every generation and culture!
Vs. 24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear that loving Him means keeping His Words. And that is not His own Word but the Fathers who sent Him! Beware then of anyone who wants to alter the clear and easily understood teachings and commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ, for they do not love Him, as God the Father has said!
Vs. 25-26 25 “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Jesus told the disciples all these things while He was present with them, and yet their understanding of these things was not yet complete. Therefore, after Jesus departed back to the Father, He would send His Spirit to them who would bring to remembrance all things that He said, giving them the ability to understand all the things that He said after they were regenerated/recreated (i.e. born-again) by His Spirit. Something that every believer is likewise endowed with because the Lord Jesus Christ’s Holy Spirit also dwells in us, He also teaches us and brings His Word to our remembrance (1 John 2:20-21, 27).
Vs. 27 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Jesus then having foretold us that He would still be with us (even after He had Physically departed now gives us one of the great promises in the Bible, saying, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Every believer than should keep this promise and verse in their heart, for it will carry you far! Now in it, Jesus promises us an internal condition of peace, not an external condition devoid of conflict and troubles, because in this world there is no peace, but an internal peace given us by Him to see us through all the inevitable troubles of this life that we will have to face. Now in giving us His peace Jesus does not give it as the world gives, that is gives it, then takes it away on a whim. No Jesus’ peace given us is everlasting, because He has secured our souls redemption by His own Crucifixion! Therefore, Jesus tells us not to let our hearts be troubled, nor to be afraid, for He has secured our peace with God Himself forever! Everything else then, every trouble and trial, every setback and let down is then only a temporary condition that we must pass through.
Vs. 28 You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
Jesus knew the things He was then telling the disciples were not yet fully sinking in. For they were not yet born-again by His Spirit so they were then just trying to learn and obey and understand Him by their own natural means. Thus, they did not understand in Jesus’ going away from them, before coming back to them was the greatest thing that He could do for them to secure their eternal dwelling places with Him. Now if they had understood all that it entailed for Him to do this, they truly would’ve loved Him, and greatly rejoiced when they heard Him say these things. For in Jesus’ going to His Father He would also be glorified in heaven just as He should’ve been on earth, which again if they understood this would’ve caused them to rejoice! And so, Jesus now says to them that He is going to His Father, for His Father is greater than Himself, meaning that in heaven God the Fathers position is Superior to the one that Jesus Himself held here on earth, where He was mistreated and blasphemed and spoken against by vile and wicked and proud and evil people, something that no one does in heaven! Therefore, when Jesus returned to the Father, He would not only still be equal in Person with Him, as He always was and is, but now with Jesus returning victorious over sin, Satan, and death, He will sit on His throne until His Father makes all of His enemies His footstool! Jesus then will be rightly exalted by His Father in heaven just as He should’ve been on earth!
Vs. 29 “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.
Jesus then in foretelling the disciples about these things, i.e. His Death, Resurrection, Ascension and ultimately His Return did so, so that when these things came to pass that the disciples would not marvel or be afraid but rather, we would all believe!
Vs. 30 “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.”
Jesus then knowing that His time is at hand, and having already given the disciples His Word to keep, now tells the disciples that He will no longer talk much with them, that is much more about these things (vs. 30), for the ruler of this world was coming and as Jesus says He has nothing in Him, nor in any of us who believe in Jesus Christ (vs. 30). The next time then that Jesus would speak of things to come would only be when He had Ascended back to the Father when He by His Spirit would entrust to John, the then only living Apostle, the finial Revelation while John was imprisoned on the island of Patmos for His faith in and obedience towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
Vs. 31 “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.”
Jesus’ obedience then to the Father was His demonstrating to the world, that is the unbelieving and hostile world, His love for the Father. Having then already foretold the disciples that the ruler of this world (i.e. Satan, the devil) was coming to betray Him and arrest Him through his own people, Jesus now says to His disciples, “Arise, let us go from here.” Not as a means of escaping them, but rather to go to place and be there at the time when this must take place.
Scripture Quotations
New King James (1982):Thomas Nelson.
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