Introduction: We’re wrapping up this trilogy of JOHN 12, 13 and 14. Then we shall proceed with JOHN 15, 16 and 17. What we have here in this chapter is the LORD’s expression of spiritual family and the love shared, obedience as an indication of that love, and how the Holy Spirit will take up where the LORD Jesus left off.
Further revelation is spoken of, and the means of peace – with GOD and of GOD. The LORD spoke in very explicit terms when He spoke about how the enemy would be defeated and of course it’s by the Cross of Christ that his advantage was taken away, and our liberation began!
JOHN 14:21
"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."
Have you ever had a time in your Christian experience when the LORD felt so very close to you? So close that you thought that if you reached out with your hand, you might actually touch Him? But then for some reason, He became distant, even aloof?
It’s been said before, “If you feel like GOD is at a distance, then somebody moved – and it wasn’t GOD”. That is usually the case, but not always. Sometimes GOD wants to see if we will follow Him without experiencing “the warm fuzzies” but walk by faith and not by sight (or feelings, or signs, or wonders).
He wants us to grow up spiritually and cleave to the truth regardless of what circumstances may tell us, but believe by faith GOD’s immutable, steadfast, dependable Word!
However, in the main, what our LORD said here is the way things are: if we obey Him, that’s evidence that we love Him, and if we love Him, the Father will love us as well as His Son, and He will manifest Himself to us!
The Greek word for “manifest” is emfanizo (where we get the word emphasis from): and it means “to exhibit, to disclose, to appear, declare, inform, signify”. I know in my own personal experience, when I’m walking in the Spirit – day by day – the LORD makes Himself real to me in very intimate, small but significant ways! To such a degree that I know it’s Him and not my overactive imagination!
JOHN 14:22-24
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.
No doubt this disciple of Christ, Judas (not Iscariot) was expecting He would manifest Himself to the world and bring about the Messianic Kingdom as prophesied (1 SAM 7; PSA 89). The LORD’s answer:
In this time, He will reveal Himself but only to those who love Him, who keep His words. It’s a very well established spiritual law: Be faithful to the revelation and understanding you already have, and more will be revealed to you, by the very Person of Christ Jesus (LUKE 16:10)!
During this age of the church, Christ is indeed manifest, as is the Kingdom of GOD which is “within [us]” (LUKE 17:21). Some translations say, “in your midst” but the Greek word used here is entos, which specifically means “inside, within”. It's the same word used in MATTHEW 23:26a “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup…”
The Kingdom of GOD is not seen by outward observation, our LORD tells us, because it’s a spiritual kingdom that resides in the hearts of GOD’s children – those who are born again in Christ, who are given the ability to “see… enter into the kingdom of GOD” (JOHN 3:3,5). It’s these that the Father and the LORD Jesus (and the Holy Spirit too!) make their “Home” with!
This is entirely distinct from “the kingdom of Israel” (ACTS 1:6) where the LORD will in fact manifest Himself to a world that still rejects Him but will be swept away (PSA 2:1-12). In the world as we have it today, we are under the New Covenant whereby GOD’s Spirit indwells His saints (“the church”) and will in the near future fulfill all of His covenant promises to Israel given to Abraham and David in establishing His people, His land, and His Kingdom there in the Middle East! At that time, the Jewish nation will also embrace the New Covenant that the church now enjoys!
(For more on this, check out the TTUF series on Covenants – articles are linked together; one click at the end of one article will direct you to the next in the series!)
JOHN 14:25-26
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.
The Father sent the Holy Spirit “in My Name” said the LORD. In other words, according to the will, the nature, the heart, the purpose and plans, the objectives that the LORD Jesus has, the Spirit has too (naturally as they are members of the same Triune GOD). In verse 18 the LORD told His disciples that He would not leave them orphans. And by sending them the Holy Spirit, this is yet another “Family Tie” that blessed them, and all of us with!
There are so many that say, “The Spirit told me this…” and “the Spirit told me that…” but those sayings don’t always line up with Scripture, and unfortunately when you point that out, you get an unjustified rebuke like, “quench not the Spirit!”
Well, if any spirit tells us something that’s not in accord with the Holy Revelation of GOD’s Word, that’s a spirit I intend to quench – but good! The LORD said that the Spirit will teach us “all things” as well as “bring to [our] remembrance all things” that the LORD taught us. So He is in the ministry of reminding us of what the LORD taught, as well as complete the revelation that GOD intends for us. And this was completed by the time apostle John was inspired and wrote the book of REVELATION.
JOHN 16:12-13
12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
The LORD Jesus was with us in Person, physically for only thirty-three years, and of that, three and a half years in ministry – there was far more revelation that had to be given yet. Instead of prophets, as GOD used in the Old Testament (though there were New Testament prophets as well), He used apostles – or those who were in close association with and endorsed by the apostles (such as the good doctor Luke) to bring about the completion of the “holy oracles” of GOD. These apostles of GOD wrote the Gospel accounts: Matthew, Peter (named the Gospel of Mark) and John; included in the Gospel accounts was Luke’s version.
Then there was the apostle Paul who by the Spirit of GOD, gave us about a quarter of the New Testament writings. Let’s not forget the half-brothers of Jesus who became elders in the church, James and Jude!
Some seem to place the teachings of Christ on a higher tier than the writings of Peter, James and John – and particularly Paul, but according to what the LORD stated in the above passage, He sent the Spirit of GOD with the explicit purpose of “guiding [us] into all truth” (2 COR 12:7) that He couldn’t share at that time because we couldn’t “bear them”.
And what the Spirit revealed in no way differentiates from the teachings of Christ! Indeed, the Word Incarnate has inspired “all Scripture” and granted us the full revelation of “the Word Inspired” by the apostles and writers of the New Testament.
The canon being complete with the book of Revelation, there is no longer “many things” that the LORD has to say to us in regard to the authorized revelation of doctrinal truth! So any other writings claiming divine authorship are, to be blunt, bogus (REV 22:18-19)!
There are those who ascribe to the idea that the Spirit of GOD never communicates with us, GOD’s children, outside of the canon of Scripture. I understand this position due to what I stated above about how many claim to have “heard from the Spirit” and any such revelation is contrary to Scripture.
I do believe however that GOD communicates to our hearts (mostly non-verbal, but nonetheless on a cognizant level; JOHN 10:16,27) in matters of immediate direction regarding choices and decisions, but these “utterances” are by no means revelatory in the way of “new doctrinal truth”. We must however be open to correction in these matters and let the Word of GOD be the measure of any such communication.
JOHN 14:27
"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.
The LORD has given and will give us His peace and leaves us with an enduring peace. We Christians we experience two kinds of peace – the first at our conversion:
ROMANS 5:1-2Prior to our receiving salvation we were under the judgment of GOD because of our lawless deeds (ROM 3:10-20). Yet we are accounted as righteous in the sight of GOD because of our faith in Christ (ROM 3:21-26), and so any condemnation that we would be rightfully charged with is summarily dismissed (ROM 8:1-2). We have peace “with GOD”.
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Then there is “the peace OF GOD”: This comes upon us as we nurture a living, breathing relationship with the LORD, particularly in matters of prayerful fellowship with our Creator and Redeemer:
PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7This peace “which surpasses all understanding” will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus so that anxious, worrisome thoughts won’t be able to “worm their way” in! And I can personally testify, as I am quite certain many of you can as well, to how GOD has kept me in such a profound sense of peace that I simply can’t wrap my mind around, especially when I’m in dire circumstances!
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
The world can offer a kind of peace – the LORD said so in vs.27, but that it’s a distinct and different peace that is short-lived and superficial (and one can’t appreciate how much so by comparison, until they’ve experienced the peace of GOD).
Any sort of peace, satisfaction, contentment from this world can’t last. GOD’s peace lasts!!
JOHN 4:13-14If you run into a “thirsty Christian” it’s most likely because they aren’t abiding in Christ the way they should, with any degree of intimacy. They aren’t “planted by the rivers of water” (PSA 1:3) but are uprooting themselves and going elsewhere – probably to “broken cisterns” that can’t supply anyone’s needs with any kind of dependability (JER 2:13).
13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."
JOHN 14:28-29
"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.
What did the LORD Jesus do when He returned to Glory, and breathed once again that holy atmosphere of heaven? Scripture tells us!
HEBREWS 9:11-12I truly believe that the saints who are now abiding in heaven can see the blood stains on the altar in that “greater and more perfect tabernacle” that the Lamb of GOD presented to the Father upon His entering glory! A testament for all eternity of the eternal redemption that’s been obtained for us!
11 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. 12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (HEB 9:8:2; 10:1-4).
In vs. 28 the LORD says that the “Father is greater” than He. Many cults take advantage of this verse to validate the idea that Jesus is by nature inferior to the Father, thus lesser than. Yet it DOES say the Father is greater! So, what can this mean?
We believe that there is One GOD, represented in Three Persons, perfectly united and identical in every way, regarding powers, abilities, virtues and nature. There is just one distinction that tells these Three apart, and that is in their relationship to each other (and us). One takes on the role of the Father, another the role of the Son, and the Third the role of the Comforter.
None are superior to the other, but as the Son submits to the Father (as any good son should) HEB 5:7-9; PHIL 2:8; and as the Spirit submits to the Son (as He obviously does); JOHN 16:13-14) we see how these roles of the Trinity work.
Jehovah’s Witnesses like to stress that “Jesus is the SON of God” – as if that proves He isn’t Deity. I like to ask such folk (if they are male), “Are you a father?” And if they say “Yes” I ask them, did your wife give birth to a zebra? An ostrich? A sea bass? No, of course not! She gave birth to a creature that has exactly the same nature that you have – human! Complete with human biology.”
“By that same token, the First Person of GOD has a relationship with the Second Person of GOD as a Father to a Son. So the Son has the exact same nature as the Father, and that includes all of His powers, abilities, virtues and nature. GOD the Father is Almighty – so is His Son. GOD the Father is all-knowing – so is His Son. GOD the Father is Truth – and so is His Son – as well as the Spirit. GOD the Father is also eternal – just like the Son and the Spirit.
Another way to think of it is representing “GOD” as a sort of team with Three Members perfectly identical, never at variance with One Another, indistinguishable in nature and ability. One Team “GOD”, three Members.
An awesome teaching on the Trinity by the late, great Dr. Chuck Missler right here!
JOHN 14:30-31
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.
I love that!
It reminds me of those gangster movies where the mob boss is called down to the precinct for questioning. The cops want to pin something on him in order to incarcerate and charge him of crimes. But he returns with a smug self-assurance and brags, “They ain’t got nuthin’ on me!”
There is no charge Satan could level against Christ! There are those who make the claim that Satan still possessed Judas Iscariot when he said, “I have sinned by betraying the innocent blood.” (MATT 27:4). He certainly didn’t cause the LORD to stumble when He was tried in the wilderness – Satan had three strikes, failing to get Jesus to fall, and he was OUT!
Pilate said He was innocent (LUKE 23:4; JOHN 19:6), and so did his wife (MATT 27:19) and Herod didn’t lay any accusations against Him, even though the chief priests and scribes did (LUKE 23:8-11)!
The testimony of Scripture ably declares Jesus Christ is “without blemish and without spot”. That is a significant statement! The Levitical priests had to examine any animal brought to them for the purpose of sacrifice – and the animal had to be pure of any kind of defects, whether they were a result of biology (some sort of genetic deformity) or “a spot” or a result of injury (a missing eye, a broken or missing limb).
This shows that Christ has no inherent sin nature (a “spot”) nor guilty of damaging His righteous soul by committing a sin sometime during His lifetime (a “blemish”).
1 PETER 1:18-19Thus, being completely sinless in nature or deed, He becomes the perfect propitiation for our sins. He took upon Himself all of our sins and we’ve been granted His flawless righteousness positionally, and gradually in practice!
18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:21In this TRIUMPHANT Trilogy, we’ve been examining JOHN 12 and JOHN 13 and have now completed JOHN 14 which complete this trilogy! We will move onto the next trilogy in JOHN 15 through 17!
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (ISA 53:6,9,12; ROM 5:19; 10:3; GAL 3:13; 1 PET 2:22,24; 1 JOHN 3:5).
Until then, may the LORD Jesus bless you all – WAY TOO MUCH!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment