CHAPTER 14

(A.D. 33)

COMFORT AND PROMISE

¹Let not your heart be troubled (is said by Christ immediately after predicting Peters shameful denial): you believe in God, believe also in Me (means simply to have Faith in Him, as they had Faith in God; this is His Highest and most complete Revelation of Himself as God).

²In My Fathers House are many mansions (proclaims Heaven as a large place; a place so large actually, that its possibilities transcend ones imagination and exceed our comprehension): if it were not so, I would have told you (has reference to the fact that He is speaking from firsthand knowledge). I go to prepare a place for you (refers to Him Personally superintending this extra building project in Heaven).

³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself (proclaims the first mention of the Rapture of the Church [I Thess. 4:13-18]); that where I am, there you may be also (refers to Heaven, where the Saints of God will go at the Resurrection).

⁴And where I go you know (He had just told them), and the Way you know (actually spoke of Himself, for He is the Way).

⁵Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we know not where You go (presents this Disciple striving after Truth and reality through intellectualism, and not Faith); and how can we know the way? (Christ will answer immediately!)

JESUS

⁶Jesus said unto Him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (proclaims in no uncertain terms exactly Who and What Jesus is): no man comes unto the Father, but by Me (He declares positively that this idea of God as Father, this approach to God for every man is through Him through what He is and what He has done).

⁷If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also (means, If you had learned to know me spiritually and experientially, you should have known that I and the Father are One, i.e., One in essence and unity, and not in number): and from Henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him (when one truly sees Jesus, one truly sees the Father; as stated, they are One in essence).

⁸Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us (like Philip, all, at least for the most part, want to see God, but the far greater majority reject the only manner and way to see Him, which is through Jesus).

⁹Jesus said unto Him, Have I been so long with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? (Reynolds says, There is no right understanding of Jesus Christ until the Father is actually seen in Him.) He who has seen Me has seen the Father (presents the very embodiment of Who and What the Messiah would be; if we want to know what God is like, we need only look at the Son); and how do you say then, Show us the Father?

¹⁰Do you believe not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? (The key is believing.)the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself (the words which came out of the mouth of the Master are, in fact, those of the Heavenly Father): but the Father who dwells in Me, He does the works (the Father does such through the Holy Spirit).

¹¹Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (once again places Faith as the vehicle and Jesus as the Object): or else believe Me for the very works sake (presents a level which should be obvious to all, and includes present observation as well).

POWER

¹²Verily, verily, I say unto you, He who believes on Me, the Works that I do shall he do also (believing on Christ gives one access to the Father, Who does the Works); and greater Works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father (it respects quantity rather than quality; the Works of Christ were confined to greater Israel, while the works of Believers cover the entirety of the world).

¹³And whatsoever you shall ask in My Name, that will I do (the Christian is given the Power of Attorney to use the Name of Christ; but if one is to notice, all the usage of His Name is confined to the spirit world; Believers are never given authority over other Believers), that the Father may be glorified in the Son (is accomplished through the great Work of Christ being extended through all Believers).

¹⁴If you shall ask any thing in My Name, I will do it (refers to that which is in harmony with His Character and Will).

THE HELPER

¹⁵If you love Me, keep My Commandments (His Commandments can be kept only in one way; the Believer must ever make Christ and the Cross the Object of his Faith, which will then give the Holy Spirit latitude to work within our lives and help us do these things which we must do).

¹⁶And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter (Parakletos, which means One called to the side of another to help), that He may abide with you forever (before the Cross, the Holy Spirit could only help a few individuals, and then only for a period of time; since the Cross, He lives in the hearts and lives of Believers, and does so forever);

¹⁷Even the Spirit of Truth (the Greek says, The Spirit of the Truth, which refers to the Word of God; actually, He does far more than merely superintend the attribute of Truth, as Christ is Truth [I Jn. 5:6]); Whom the world cannot receive (the Holy Spirit cannot come into the heart of the unbeliever until that person makes Christ his or her Saviour; then He comes in), because it sees Him not, neither knows Him (refers to the fact that only Born-Again Believers can understand the Holy Spirit and know Him): but you know Him (would have been better translated, But you shall get to know Him); for He dwells with you (before the Cross), and shall be in you (which would take place on the Day of Pentecost and forward, because the sin debt has been forever paid by Christ on the Cross, changing the disposition of everything).

¹⁸I will not leave you comfortless (helpless): I will come to you (through the Person of the Holy Spirit).

¹⁹Yet a little while, and the world sees Me no more (in a few days He would be taken back to Glory); but you see Me (after the Day of Pentecost, we will see Christ in the Person of the Holy Spirit): because I live, you shall live also (refers to His coming Resurrection, which guarantees the Work of the Cross).

²⁰At that day (after the Resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost) you shall know that I am in My Father (speaks of Deity; Jesus is God!), and you in Me (has to do with our Salvation by Faith), and I in you (enables us to live a victorious life [Gal. 2:20]).

²¹He who has My Commandments, and keeps them, he it is who loves Me (as stated, we can keep His Commandments only by allowing the Holy Spirit to work within our lives, which He does based on our Faith expressed in Christ and the Cross): and he who loves Me shall be loved of My Father (provides the criteria of approval by the Father), and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him (means to fully disclose His Person, Nature, and Goodness to the Believer).

²²Judas said unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself unto us, and not unto the world? (Also known as Lebbaeus or Thaddaeus. He was the brother of James the Less. His questions have implications of Israel being restored to her place of glory and grandeur.)

²³Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My Words (presents this of which Jesus speaks as based on Love, which is the exact opposite of what the Apostles were speaking, which was force; they wanted Jesus to use His Power to force Rome and other people of the world to recognize Israel as the Premier Nation): and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him (all through the Holy Spirit), and make Our abode with him (Jesus explained that His manifestation of Himself was to the heart; it was inward and spiritual, so that the heart would consciously enjoy His abiding in it).

²⁴He who loves Me not keeps not My sayings (millions claim to love Jesus, but such is an empty claim if His sayings are ignored): and the Word which you Hear is not Mine, but the Fathers which sent Me (Reynolds said, Love involves obedience, and obedience involves Love. Consequently, obedience is the great proof of Love, and if Love is absent, this means that obedience of the Word is absent as well.).

²⁵These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you (tells us that His time is short in this capacity).

²⁶But the Comforter (Helper), which is the Holy Spirit (proclaims the Third Person of the Godhead), Whom the Father will send in My Name (because Jesus paid the price on the Cross, enabling the Holy Spirit to come in a completely new dimension), He shall teach you all things, and bring all things (proclaims the Holy Spirit as the Great Teacher of the Word of God, which is the only way one can learn the Word) to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you (refers to the Holy Spirit helping the Apostles remember what Jesus had said and, as well, to understand what He had said).

PEACE

²⁷Peace I leave with you (Sanctifying Peace), My Peace I give unto you (there is a vast difference in Peace with God, which all Believers have, and The Peace of God of which Jesus speaks here): not as the world gives, give I unto you (the peace of the world is but surface; that given by Christ is in the heart). Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (The Peace of God heals the troubled heart, and takes away fear).

²⁸You have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you (He is speaking of sending the Holy Spirit, which He did!). If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father (Christ going to the Father proclaimed the fact that His Great Sacrifice on the Cross had been accepted, and Righteousness could now be imputed to men, all carried out by the Holy Spirit): for My Father is greater than I (speaks of Christ as it regards His Incarnation).

²⁹And now I have told you before it come to pass (refers to all the things He would do, which pertained to the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension; as well, it spoke of Him sending back the Holy Spirit, Who in effect would take His place), that, when it is come to pass, you might believe (has reference to the fact that the fulfillment would be very soon, actually beginning the next day).

³⁰Hereafter I will not talk much with you (could be translated, Hereafter I will not have much more time to talk with you): for the Prince of this world comes (speaks of Satan), and has nothing in Me (Satan had no hold over Jesus, no claim on Jesus, no sin in Jesus, nothing of evil about Jesus; He was totally Holy, completely, absolutely, and irrevocably above sin and Satan).

³¹But that the world may know that I love the Father (presents Himself in the same mode which He demanded of His Disciples); and as the Father gave Me Commandment, even so I do (proclaims His Perfect Example; we are to follow accordingly!). Arise, let us go Hence (it expressed haste to accomplish the Fathers Will).