John 14:12-26

2). The Demands that He Makes and the Provision That He Is Making For Their Fulfilment (John 14:12).

Jesus now stresses what He is expecting from His disciples and assures them that full provision has been made for their future. As His ambassadors they can call on His Name for anything that they will require (John 14:12), and as those who speak on His behalf they will be given the Spirit of Truth Who will be continually with them (John 14:16). Indeed let them recognise that in the coming of the Spirit He Himself is coming to them (John 14:18; John 14:21; John 14:23). For where the Spirit is, there are the Father and the Son (John 14:23).

Jesus Stresses That They Can Partake In The Miraculous Activity Which He Has Enjoyed. Full Provision Is Theirs (John 14:12).

Having made known to them Who He was in a way that He had not done before (although had they had eyes to see it they could have known it from His declarations to the Judaisers (John 5:17; John 8:28; John 10:30)) Jesus now tells them of the provision He is making as they carry out His work.

And here we must be careful in our interpretation, for in essence these words are not just general spiritual guidance for all of us, but were specific promises made to those whom He had trained and chosen out for the foundational work ahead. These are chosen men, men who have put everything aside for Him. They want nothing other than to do what He wants them to do, and their goal is the establishment of His Rule on earth at whatever cost. And that is what they have been chosen for.

They are learning not to consider their own advantage and gain, but to be single-minded in pursuit of His will. And they have a task never to be repeated, the task of laying the foundation for the belief of the early church, and in the end for the formation of the New Testament writings. It is thus to His Apostles, as such, that He makes these promises. The early church itself recognised this when it insisted that only writings which could be seen as having an Apostolic source could be included in the Scriptures.

It has often been asked why these Chapter s of Jesus' words in the Upper Room did not form a part of the teaching of the early church and thus find their way into the first three Gospels. The answer would seem to lie in the very nature of the words. They were private instructions to the Apostles and Apostle specific. It is true therefore that we can gain from them general spiritual guidance, but what we cannot do is apply them all specifically and strictly to ourselves. In their strictest sense much is for the Apostles only. A recognition of this fact will prevent us from taking up foolish positions on the basis of them.

Thus it was only when the Apostles were dying out that they were written down by one who was probably the last of the Apostles to die, so that the early church would know how secure were the foundations of their faith as a result of the assurances to the Apostles. That is why in what follows we will have to seek to establish what Jesus specifically promised His Apostles, which does not refer to any others, after which we can consider the general lessons from what is said in as far as they can apply to all Christians.