John 14:1-20

This is a chapter which I suppose most of us know by heart, full of comfort, a very river of delight.

Remember that our Lord spoke this to his own beloved ones to the inner circle. It was not addressed to the general public. It is not a sermon to the world. It is a discourse to those who had lived with him, and were now sorrowing because he was about to leave them by a cruel death. Thus he begins:

John 14:1. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

«You have believed in God, whom you have never seen. Believe in me when you cannot see me. Believe that I still am that I still am working for your good. You have believed in God, though he has not manifested himself to you in his person as I have done. Now when I am no longer seen of you, believe in me as you believe in the invisible God.» It is well for us to have the same faith in Christ that we have in the everlasting God. This is the cure for the heart trouble. You are sure to be troubled in heart unless you have much faith in God. «Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.»

John 14:2. 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.

Our Lord was going away, but he was going away with a purpose, and a grand purpose too a purpose which had to do with the everlasting future of his beloved ones. «I go to prepare a place for you.»

John 14:3. 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.

And he will come again, beloved. That is our grandest hope. We are looking for his coming. It is very sweet to know that we shall be for ever with the Lord if we die before his coming; but still the hope of God's people is the coming of the Lord, the resurrection of the dead his taking to himself all his redeemed to be for ever with him.

John 14:4. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

We know where Christ has gone. Every step we can follow. The way we know. It always reconciles us to a friend's going away if we know where he has gone know all about him. A mother tells me that she has missed her boy now for twelve months, and never heard from him. That is sorrow; but when we know that our son has gone to the other side of the world, and we know why he has gone, and where he has gone, and what is coming of it, we are greatly comforted. So Jesus says, «Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know.»

John 14:5. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

There is always somebody who has not learned the lesson. I am afraid that it is not one Thomas, but a great many Thomases that still have to say, «We know not.» Although Christ himself be the teacher, we are always poor learners.

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.

There is nothing good except by Christ. They that hate Christ very soon hate God. They get rid of the Christ of the gospel, and they soon get rid of God out of creation too, and there is no coming to the Father in any way or fashion except by Christ. He has gone to the Father, but he is also the way to the Father.

John 14:7. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

There is a Philip as well as a Thomas. It does not seem that, even with Christ for a teacher, we should learn much without the Holy Ghost. The greatest blessing, after all, is not the bodily presence of the Saviour, though we learn something from that, but it is the indwelling and the teaching of the Holy Ghost which we most of all need.

John 14:9. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? 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 works' sake.

The eternal union between Christ and the Father should never be forgotten by us. He seems to sink himself, but the well-beloved Son will have it that his words are not his own, but come from the Father. I cannot help remarking how different this is from some who profess to be the ministers of Christ. They must be original; they must be great thinkers. Every man nowadays makes his own gospel, but the Saviour was no original the grandest of all intellects, and yet he says, «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.»

John 14:12. 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.

While the Master was here in his humiliation he healed a few poor Jews, and raised here and there a dead one, but he purposely veiled the splendor of his godhead. But now that he has gone up on high, he does greater wonders by his servants than he himself personally did, for he said to a few poor fishermen, «Go and break up the Roman Empire,» and they did it. They preached the gospel, and the gods of the heathen that sat upon their thrones for ages were cast to the moles and the bats. And there are greater victories yet before the Church of God. You ought not to measure our passage by the past, but believe that «greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father.»

John 14:13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

We do not believe enough in the power of prayer. I sometimes feel staggered when I meet with good people, undoubtedly good people, who still look upon it as a new thing that we should believe that God hears our prayers. But this is the fundamental of Christian experience. Hew can we live without the mercy-seat? And if that mercy-seat be nothing but a vain show, and prayer be only a pious but useless exercise, what is there in the Christian religion at all? We have heard some very wise people say that prayer is no doubt beneficial to those who offer it; but to suppose that it has any effect upon the mind of God is absurd. Do you not see, brethren, that they think us all idiots. They must do so, for do you suppose that any but an idiot would go on praying at all if he did not believe that it had some effect upon the mind of God, and that it did prevail with God? I would as soon stand and whistle out of my bedroom window for half an hour, as I would kneel down and pray for half an hour, if there were to be no result coming from it, and so would every sensible man. But we know of a surety that God heareth prayer. We cannot imagine our Lord deceiving us, and he must have done so if it is not so, for he says, «Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.»

John 14:14. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

But there is a deal of praying that never reaches to the name of Christ. Even to pray for Christ's sake does not reach to the point of praying in Christ's name. If I go and transact business in the name of such a person, that is a different thing from merely asking to be allowed to do my own business for the sake of that person. But when you are authorized to use the name of Christ as it were, to write his signature to your cheques oh! what power there is in prayer at that time! «If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.» But you cannot ask everything in that name. You are obliged to draw back from some prayers, and say, «No; Christ would never authorize me to put his name to that.» You see there is a blessed cheques upon the universality of prayer a most necessary and useful cheques for we would not dare to ask some things in that wondrous name.

John 14:15. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even 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.

He dwelt with the apostles, but was not in them until after Christ rose from the dead. But now you and I knew his indwelling. He has made our bodies to be the temples of the Holy Ghost.

John 14:18. I will not leave you comfortless:

Orphans.

John 14:18. I will come to you.

He does this by his Spirit, but still he means more than that. It is not a spiritual coming merely; it is a personal coming. «I will come to you.»

John 14:19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: 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.

Wondrous unity Christ in the Father, we in him, and Christ in us. Who understands this? He only who is taught of the Holy Spirit.