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Jesus the Way to the Father

John 14.1-14

Good News Translation (GNT)

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  1  "Do not be worried and upset," Jesus told
   them. "Believe [a] in God and believe also in
   me.
  2  There are many rooms in my Father's house,
   and I am going to prepare a place for you.
   I would not tell you this if it were not so. [b]
  3  And after I go and prepare a place for you,
   I will come back and take you to myself, so
   that you will be where I am.
  4  You know the way that leads to the place
   where I am going."

  5  Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know
   where you are going; so how can we know
   the way to get there?"

  6  Jesus answered him, "I am the way, the truth,
   and the life; no one goes to the Father except
   by me.
  7  Now that you have known me," he said to
   them, "you will know [c] my Father also, and
   from now on you do know him and you have
   seen him."

  8  Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father;
   that is all we need."

  9  Jesus answered, "For a long time I have been
   with you all; yet you do not know me, Philip?
   Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
   Why, then, do you say, 'Show us the Father'
10  Do you not believe, Philip, that I am in
   the Father and the Father is in me?
   The words that I have spoken to you," Jesus
   said to his disciples, "do not come from me.
   The Father, who remains in me, does his own
   work.
11  Believe me when I say that I am in the
   Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe
   because of the things I do.
12  I am telling you the truth: those who believe in
   me will do what I do - yes, they will do even
   greater things, because I am going to the
   Father.
13  And I will do whatever you ask for in my name,
   so that the Father's glory will be shown
   through the Son.
14  If you ask me [d] for anything in my name,
   I will do it.

   Footnotes
   John 14:1 Believe; or You believe.
   John 14:2 There are ... were not so;
   or There are many rooms in my Father's
   house; if it were not so, would I tell you that
   I am going to prepare a place for you?

   John 14:7 Now that you have known me ...
   you will know; some manuscripts have
   If you had known me ... you would know.

   John 14:14 Some manuscripts
   do not have me.

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Jesus the Way to the Father

     John 14.1-14

The disciples' hearts were certainly troubled, and they were soon to become even more troubled. Jesus had just said that He was going away. He had said one of them would betray Him. He had said that Peter, His chief disciple, would deny Him three times.

That meant that terrible trouble was surely coming! They had left all for Jesus. Now they were about to be left alone. Perhaps they too would be arrested, tortured, killed.

Certainly, the disciples were troubled!
But in spite of all this, Jesus still said to them:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled."

His meaning was: "Stop being troubled; stop being anxious."
What is the way to remove trouble and anxiety from our hearts?
By believing, trusting.

And so Jesus said: "You trust in God; trust also in me."
All Jews trusted in God; the disciples, being Jews, trusted in God. But here Jesus adds: " trust also in me."

Trusting in God and trusting in Jesus go together. If a person truly trusts in one, he will also trust in the other.

It was no small thing Jesus was asking His disciples to do. He was about to be hung on a cross like a criminal. It was one thing to trust in the mighty God of Israel.

But, in the disciples' mind, it was another thing to trust in this man who had just washed their feet like a slave, and who was about to be killed like a criminal.

Nevertheless, Jesus said to them, "... trust also in me. It is the same as trusting in God."

The Father's house is heaven.
The many rooms are the resting places of believers. There is space in heaven for every believer.

That is why the disciples do not need to be troubled. If they only believe, they will have a sure place in heaven. Jesus told them that He was going now to His Father's house to prepare their rooms.

Christian, are you troubled? Or afraid?
Are you being afflicted with persecution or calamity?
If so, then remember this: Jesus has gone to prepare your place in heaven. Trust in Him.

Then Jesus promised His disciples,
"I will come back and take you to be with me."
He was referring to His second coming at the end of the world.

Jesus didn't say exactly what His Father's house was like. He only said that we will be with Him.
If we are with our Lord, we don't need to think about anything else.

A small child doesn't care about what his house is like; all he cares about is that his parents are there.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, you know the way to the place where I am going." He had shown them the way.
The way was His teaching and example. If they followed His teaching and example, they would get to heaven.

But the disciples were confused. What did Jesus mean when He said that He was going to His Father's house?

He had just told them that where I am going, you cannot come.
Therefore, how can they know the way?
"We don't know where you are going," Thomas said.

Notice that Thomas was an honest man.
When he had doubt in his mind, he spoke about it openly. At the end, his doubt was replaced with faith.

When the disciples said that they didn't know the way, Jesus told them, "I am the way."
Jesus not only shows men the way to heaven; He is Himself the way.

He is the way, because He is the means by which we enter heaven. It is through His sacrifice, His death, that our sins are forgiven and we are counted righteous in God's sight.

Jesus' righteousness, which we receive through faith, is our passport to heaven.

I am ... the truth. Jesus not only teaches the truth; He is Himself the truth. He is totally trustworthy. His Gospel is true.

When we believe in the truth of Jesus, when we accept His teaching, we receive salvation. We are set free from ignorance and sin.

I am ... the life. Jesus not only gives life; He is Himself life. In him was life. To know Jesus is to have eternal life.

Showing the way, teaching the truth, and giving life are all different parts of Jesus' great work of saving men. Only Jesus can save men.
Only Jesus is the Saviour of the world.

Only by faith in Jesus can we come to the Father and dwell in His house.

Think on these words.
Jesus was about to be hung helpless on the cross, yet He said: "I am the way."

He was about to be condemned by the lies of men, yet He said: "I am ... the truth." His own corpse was soon to be placed in a tomb, yet He said: "I am ... the life."

Men of this world believe in many different kinds of gods and incarnations.
But there is only one, Jesus, who can say: "I am the way and the truth and the life." Only He can give men salvation, eternal life. There is no other way to heaven besides Jesus.

Other religions and other religious leaders may point men to heaven, but only Jesus can lead them there.

A question arises here:
What happens to the person who has never heard of Jesus.
Will he never be able to "come to the Father" - that is, get to heaven?

The Bible indicates that he will not.
All men are sinners; they all are deserving of God's wrath.

On the other hand, God judges men according to their knowledge. Thus the Bible indicates that the person who has never heard of Jesus will be judged less severely than the one who has heard of Jesus but then rejected Him.

God is the final judge.
He will show mercy to whom He wants to show mercy. It is not for us to judge.

It is for us, however, to show all men the one sure way to heaven - namely, Jesus.

The disciples still did not know Jesus fully.
They would not know Him fully until after the resurrection. They would not have been so confused at that time if they had truly known who Jesus was.

They would have known where He was going.
They would have known the Father.
"If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well."

Those who know Jesus, know the Father.
To see the one is to see the other.

Philip still didn't understand.
According to the Old Testament, no one had ever seen God face to face.
Now Jesus had just said, "You have seen him".

Therefore, Philip answered,
"Let us see the Father, and we'll believe."

In Philip's mind, Jesus was only a man. He still didn't understand that Jesus was actually God Himself.

Jesus gently rebuked Philip.
"Do you still not know who I am?" He asked Philip. Philip had known from the first day he met Jesus that Jesus was the Messiah. But he had never really seen God in Jesus.

Then Jesus said,
"Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." Jesus was the revelation of the Father. Those who look at Jesus without faith see only a man. Those who look at Jesus with faith see God.

Even for us today, Jesus remains the revelation of God, even though He is no longer present with us in bodily form. Through the reading of the New Testament, together with the help of the Holy Spirit, we too can see Jesus; and when we see Jesus, we also see God.

Philip should have known that Jesus was in the Father, and that the Father was in Jesus. Even ordinary Jews who saw Jesus' works should have known that.

Philip should have known that the Father was living in Jesus, because the works and the words of Jesus clearly came from the Father. Jesus had said, "The Son can do nothing by himself".

When we see Jesus' works and hear His words, we are really seeing God's works and hearing God's words.
From this we can know that God is in Jesus and Jesus is in God - or, in other words, that Jesus and God are one.

Then Jesus told His disciples,
"Believe me. Believe not only in me, but also believe what I say."
The faith of a Christian has two parts.

First, we must believe in Jesus Himself personally.
Second, we must believe that what He has said is true.
Faith in Jesus without faith also in the truth of His words is nothing but blind faith.

But Jesus knew that the disciples' faith was weak.
So He said, "Even if you can't believe my words now, at least believe the miracles I have done. My miracles will show you who I am".

Faith based on miracles is weak faith, but it is better than no faith. Jesus never despised weak faith; after all, most Christians start out with weak faith in the beginning. But faith must be strengthened, or it will not endure when trials come.

We must remember that the devil and his servants can also do miracles. We must look not only at Jesus' miracles, but also at His character, at His inner qualities.

We must look at His motives.
False Christs and false prophets do miracles to bring glory to themselves. Jesus performed His miracles to bring glory to God. Jesus 'miracles are signs that point men to God.

Then Jesus gave His disciples a great promise: They would do greater works than He had done.

Indeed, the apostles did perform many great miracles, just as Jesus did. Many of them are described in the book of Acts. Peter even raised a woman from the dead.

But when Jesus said that His disciples would do greater things, He meant mainly that they would bring more people to God than He had brought.

These greater works would be converting works.
On the day of Pentecost, about three thousand people believed through the preaching of the apostles.

That was more people than had believed during Jesus' entire three years of public ministry.

Jesus told the disciples that they would do greater things because He was going to the Father. The disciples needed the Holy Spirit in order to do these greater works, but the Holy Spirit could not come to them until after Jesus had died and gone to the Father.

That is why Jesus said, "Because I am going to the Father, you will do these greater things."

Today also, Jesus' disciples, through the power of the Holy Spirit, are continuing to do greater things than Jesus did. Jesus' promise is for us too!

In order to do mighty works, the disciples would need to pray.
In order to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to pray for it.

We need to pray for it in the name of the risen Jesus, with whom is all authority and dominion in heaven and on earth.

Jesus said, "I will do whatever you ask in my name."
"Whatever" we ask in Jesus' name He will do!
There are no limits to the power of prayer.

We usually ask Jesus for such small things. But He can do anything.
He can do more than all we can ask or imagine. Let us not set limits on Jesus by our small prayers!

To pray in Jesus' name means to pray in His stead, to pray as His representatives on earth.

We are Jesus' ambassadors. When we pray in His name, we pray with His authority.
We pray for His sake. We pray according to His will.

When we pray in this way, Jesus will do whatever we ask.
Notice here that Jesus Himself answers our prayers. God answers them; Jesus answers them.

God and Jesus do everything together; there is no difference.
It does not matter whether we pray to Jesus or to God; they both hear and answer together.

Jesus answers prayer so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
Everything Jesus did on earth was to bring glory to the Father. Everything He does through us is also to bring glory to the Father.

Therefore, the purpose of our prayers and requests must be to glorify God. If what we ask for is not going to glorify God, Jesus will not do it.

Let us examine ourselves.
Can we say as Jesus did, "I don't seek my own glory"?.
For what do we pray?

For God's benefit, or for our own?
And in between our prayer times what do we live for? For God's glory, or for our own?

God doesn't only hear our prayers - He looks at our whole life.
If we do not live our lives for His glory, He will not believe us when pray for His glory. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

But we ask:
Who can live all day solely for God's glory? We can't do it, we say. True, in our own strength we cannot.

But we have no excuse, because the power of the Holy Spirit has been promised to us. But we must pray for it.

Through the Holy Spirit's power, we shall be able to lead lives to the glory of God.

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