Bible Commentaries
John 14

Bell's Commentary on the BibleBell's Commentary

Verses 1-6

  1. INTRO:
    1. Well it’s good to be back with you. 1st Sun I was in Belize; next 2 on vacation w/family.
    2. I want to thank: Pastor Larry’s for his message on Being on mission w/God. Pastor Dan his message on The 5 C’s when Lost [Confess; Climb; Conserve; Comm; Comply]Pastor Jeff’s for his message on what to do when your hurting.
      1. Continuing on that theme, Jesus is going to take the time to quiet & exhort his disciples hearts.
    3. This next section in John (ch.’s 14-17) contain some of the deepest & most spiritual of our Lord’s teaching. It has been described thus:
      1. Ch.14 - Consolation, an exhortation to Faith;
      2. Ch.15 - Instruction, an appeal to Love;
      3. Ch.16 - Prediction, an incentive to Hope;
      4. Ch.17 - Intercession, an anticipation of Glory. (Griffith Thomas; The Apostle John; John 14:1-6.)
    4. As Jesus nears the end, all He could speak of was His Father. His Father’s house, where a perfectly prepared mansion awaits each of His sons/daughters.
      1. The 1st 20 verses of ch.14 link together a chain of counsel so strong & secure that it will help us weather even the most unpleasant of circumstances
    5. (J. Howard Payne, poem) “Mid pleasures & palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like Home.”
      1. Our homes are designed to be a hint of heaven.
      2. There’s no place like Home reminds us of Dorothy in her adventures in Oz, repeating that phrase over & over.
        1. Troubled by her dream, Dorothy takes comfort in being home - safe in her own bed, cuddled in her own blanket, surrounded by her own family & friends. Kansas & auntie Em never looked so good! (Charles Swindoll; John; pg.93.)
        2. For Christians, our pilgrimage here on earth is like Dorothy’s journey down the Yellow Brick Road. It’s filled with illusory dreams, frightening experiences, & disappointing realities, in spite of our hopes. And the farther we travel down that road, the more our intuitive self insists that this is not our home; heaven is!
  2. Heaven...a Prepared Place for a Prepared People! (1-6)
    1. TROUBLED HEARTS! (1)
    2. Really, no break between ch.3 & ch.14. So why would their hearts be troubled?
      1. Well, what was He just talking about? 3 Things that might trouble them:
      2. Jesus was going to leave them [2] Judas was going to betray Him
      3. Peter would deny Him. [fears of death; betrayal; denial]
    3. These fears are often like hurricanes sweeping over a serene harbor. Anchored in the shallows, our little boats of faith are easily dashed against the rocks by fear’s fury.
      1. But then came these words of comfort from Jesus! (Let not your heart be...)
    4. Our hearts - Not here the physical organ of life, but the seat of spiritual life, the centre of feeling and faith, “the focus of the religious life”.
    5. This really sounds like our part to not let our hearts be troubled, or agitated, anxious, worried, bothered, disturbed, uneasy, apprehensive, fearful, perturbed, bothered, distressed, disquieted, fretful, nervous, edgy, antsy, on edge, tense, overwrought, worked up, keyed up, jumpy, or worried sick.”
      1. ​​​​​​​We are not to allow our hearts to be troubled. But, how is this possible?
      2. A common response to fear is to pull out our hair or bite our nails. Yet, then we are only left with a handful of hair where there could have been character; & 10 throbbing fingers where there could have been faith.
      3. This is stress management 101!
    6. “Believe/trust” - They must continue in their belief in Him!
      1. Personal faith in a Personal God brings Personal strength.
        1. The verbs are present imperatives, with the sense of: “Keep on believing in God...keep on believing in Me.”
        2. The disciples had trusted Jesus to put them in the boat of salvation; now they must trust Him to bring them through the storm & safely to harbor.
          1. ​​​​​​​Every test that blows are way can either fill our sails with faith, or break our mast from the strain of unbelief.
      2. If God is real there is no heartbreak, but if we forget Him all will go wrong. Only believe, & there will be peace(vs.27).
        1. Is.26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace(shalom, shalom), Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
    7. A MANSION CALLED HOME! (2)
    8. Mansions = (lit.) “dwellings” “abiding places”, speaking of the permanency of our heavenly home. Originally a staying or abiding.
      1. He pictured heaven as a loving home where the Father dwells.
      2. Only used 1 other time, & its in this chapter, in vs.23 (home).
        1. “Who could mind the journey when the road leads home?” James M. Gray
      3. Godet(Swiss Protest. Theologian)remarks: “The image is derived from those vast oriental palaces, in which there is an abode not only for the sovereign & the heir to the throne, but also for all the sons of the king, however numerous they may be.”
    9. What’s His house going to look like? I don’t know but let’s look at His backyard!
      1. Seatbelt yourself to a light beam, traveling at the speed of light(186,000mps). In 8 minutes you scream past the sun. 5 hours we’d zip past Pluto. Only 300,000 years to get from 1 end of our galaxy to the other. Then just think, there are some “100 billion” galaxy’s out there, & millions of light years separating each of these billions of galaxy’s…& that’s just His backyard! - Imagine His House? your room? His throne? His table?
    10. The point is not the lavishness of each apartment, but the fact that such ample provision has been made that there is more than enough space for every one of Jesus’ disciples to join Him in His Father’s home. D.A. Carson
    11. Mid pleasures & palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like Home! “I’ve stayed a very modest Nepa Hut in Bacold w/ants, & also in the 3rd best hotel in all of Asia in Manilla. – I’ve slept in a dirty, smoke filled train car from Beijing to Xianjou & had just came from a 5 star hotel in Shanghai, that Pres. Reagan stayed in. Mid pleasures & palaces though we may roam, Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like Home!
      1. Or as Robert Frost described, “when you go there, they have to take you in!”
    12. A Place - heaven is a real place, not merely “a state of mind”.
    13. Jesus now answers Peter’s question from 13:36 “Lord, where are You going?”
      1. Christ the Carpenter is building a heavenly home for all who have trusted Him.
      2. Heaven then, is a prepared place for a prepared people! (Warren Wiersbe; Outlines of the NT; Jn.14:1-6)
    14. ​​​​​​​A REAL PLACE! (3)
    15. I go to prepare a place for you - Prodomos used to describe Jesus, is usually translated “forerunner” and would have had a picturesque meaning for the people of Jesus’ day.
      1. Heb.6:19,20 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever…
      2. The Harbor of Alexandria was very difficult to approach. When the great corn ships came into it, a little pilot boat was sent out to guide them in. It went before them, and they followed it as it led them along the channel to safe waters. That pilot boat was called the prodomos.
      3. In the Roman army the prodomoi were the reconnaissance troops. They went ahead of the main body of the army to blaze the trail and ensure that it was safe for the rest of the troops to follow. (William Barclay on John’s Gospel)
      4. These 2 things illustrate what Jesus is saying about himself in this passage:
        1. He goes first, to make it safe for those who follow.
        2. He blazed the way to heaven and to God, that we might follow in his steps.
    16. I will come again - Alexander Maclaren said, “The primitive church thought more about the 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ than about death or about heaven. The early Christians were looking not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory. They were watching not for the undertaker but for the uppertaker.”
    17. And receive you to Myself - “You may kiss the bride!” – sealing the vows!
    18. THE LIVING WAY! (4-6)
    19. Jesus doesn’t point the way in the distance; or doesn't send a map; or give directions “turn right here”; but grabs our hands & says follow Me & leads us there.
    20. E. Stanley Jones told of a missionary who lost his way in an African jungle. He could find no landmarks and the trail vanished. Eventually, stumbling on a small hut, he asked the native living there if he could lead him out. The native nodded.Rising to his feet, he walked directly into the bush. The missionary followed on his heels. For more than an hour they hacked their way through a dense wall of vines and grasses. The missionary became worried: “Are you sure this is the way? I don’t see any path.” The African chuckled and said over his shoulder, “Bwana, in this place there is no path.I am the path.” (Today in the Word, May, 1996, p. 24)
    21. How is Jesus the way, truth, & life, especially in relation to the Father?
      1. He is the way to God & the only way; the personification of truth; the centre of life.
    22. Way - He is not “a way” but “the way” to the Father!
      1. Some say there are 100’s of religions, really there are only 2: #1 Covers all who expect salvation by doing; #2 All who have been saved by something done.
        1. The whole question is very simple: Can you save yourself, or must you be saved by another?
    23. Truth - As being the perfect revelation of God the Father:
      1. He embodies what men ought to know & believe of God;
      2. What they should do as children of God & what they should be.
    24. Life - He is “the principle and source of life in its temporal development & future consummation, so that whoever has not received Him into himself by faith, has become a prey to spiritual and eternal death” (Meyer)
    25. Thomas à Kempis (a late Medieval Catholic Monk; 1380-1471) said it so beautifully, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Without the way there is no going; w/o the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou shouldst pursue; the truth which thou shouldst believe; the life which thou shouldst hope for.” (Thomas à Kempis, “Imitation of Christ,” iii., 56)
    26. ​​​​​​​End: “Bwana, in this place there is no path. I am the path.”
    27. How can sinners ever hope to get to heaven? Through Christ!
      1. Remember the story of the Prodigal Son? The boy was lost, ignorant & dead.
        1. Lost (Lk.15:24 for this my son...was lost and is found);
        2. Ignorant (15:17 when he came to himself/his senses);
        3. Dead (15:24 for this my son was dead and is alive again).
        4. He was lost, ignorant, & spiritually dead, but he came to the Father!
          1. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​He was lost, but Christ is the Way!
          2. He was Ignorant, but Christ is the Truth!
          3. He was Dead(sp.), but Christ is the Life!
        5. And he arrived at the fathers house when he repented & returned!!! :)
    28. A life given in belief & faith in Him, will pave the way to eternal fellowship with Him.
    29. Parable – There is a story about a sailor, shipwrecked on one of the South Sea islands. He was seized by the natives, hoisted to their shoulders, carried to the village, and set on a rude throne. Little by little, he learned that it was their custom once each year to make some man a king, king for a year. He liked it until he began to wonder what happened to all the former kings. Soon he discovered that every year when his kingship was ended, the king was banished to an island, where he starved to death. The sailor did not like that, but he was smart and he was king, king for a year. So he put his carpenters to work making boats, his farmers to work transplanting fruit trees to the island, farmers growing crops, masons building houses. So when his kingship was over, he was banished, not to a barren island, but to an island of abundance.
      1. It is a good parable of life: We're all kings here, kings for a little while, able to choose what we shall do with the stuff of life. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal" (Matt. 6:19-20).
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Verses 7-18

  1. INTRO:
    1. Desi shares Denver update.
    2. Remember the disciples were troubled & Jesus encouraged them with: their future home (heaven) & the perfect way (Jesus).
      1. And now this week, He will continue encouraging with: Seeing the Father (you’ve already seen Him); & the power of prayer(you’ll still be connected to Jesus); & the coming helper(we’re never alone w/the H.S.)
    3. Outline: Seeing the Father; Asking in Jesus Name; & Enjoying the Holy Spirit, forever.
  2. SHOW US THE FATHER!
    1. SEEING THE FATHER! (7-11)
    2. Jesus revealed the Father by what He said & did! (i.e.) words & works.
    3. Philip cried the prayer of so many...I just want to see God! God show yourself!!!
    4. Philip was waiting, like many even today, for the Father to be shown in thunder & lightening in the splendor of Sinai.
      1. He missed the daily unfolding of the life of Jesus.
      2. Philip got to familiar with Jesus, & missed the Father.
    5. Apart from Knowing Jesus we could never Know/See the Father.
    6. ASKING IN JESUS NAME! (12-14)
    7. Jesus glorifies the Father through His people as we do His works & keep His commandments!
    8. (12a) The works that Jesus did believers will do also - What works did He do? - He proclaimed, He taught, He loved, He fed, He served.
      1. What He did Christians should be doing.
    9. (12b) And Greater works - How would they be greater?
      1. Not that Jesus was Junior Varsity & we are Varsity! [No, its 1 person vs. many]
    10. Jesus in 1 place; at 1 time; teaching 1 group of people; teaching, feeding, healing 1 group of people. Now we’re scattered in millions all across the globe.
      1. Not in the magnitude are we greater than Jesus; but in the multitude.
    11. This is the 1 problem with the Omni-present becoming singularly-present!
    12. (13) Whatever you ask in My name - As one pastor put it, God isn’t our cosmic piñata! And In Jesus name isn’t the magic stick that whacks the piñata & all the goodies fall out of heaven! (Mark Driscoll; Podcast Jn.14.)
      1. I want a car in Jesus name; I want a wife in Jesus name; I want to be tall & play in the NBA in Jesus name.
      2. The people that are paid the big money to tell you that, ought to get whacked with the magic stick.
      3. Christ has been looked on too long as the magic genie in Aladdin’s Lamp. And prayer the fervent rub to bring “it” to pass.
        1. But the verse is not the carte blanche to gratify our every desire.
        2. Isn’t it the least bit weird that Jesus says, The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; And then turns around & say that you can speak them on your own authority???
      4. God will answer specific prayers. Which prayers? Prayers that glorify the Father (13b).
        1. Most prayers are about self-glorification, “Lord make me: smart, healthy, wealthy, wise, attractive, tall...w/a hairy chest...or whatever!”
        2. Make your prayers about: His business, His reputation, His honor, His dignity.
        3. Most of us don’t need more goodies & stuff.
      5. Pray prayers that glorify the Father. How? In Jesus’ name. Which means? According to Jesus’ will & mission.
        1. So, Pray for the Fathers glory, through the will of the Son. Pray for those things that continue the works & the ministry that Jesus has begun. And, God will answer those kind of prayers.
        2. Pray for salvations, courage, health of the people of God (He said He’d build His church), Physical healing’s, opportunity to serve. Pray to…
        3. Share the love of God; Expand the kingdom of God; Build the church of God; Glorify the name of God; Participate in the cause of God.
          1. Your prayer life should be centered on these things.
      6. Prayer is not getting God to “cry uncle” by bending His arm behind His back, in order to get Him to do things.
      7. I agree with the 215 frwy theology Prayer Changes Things...But it’s supposed to be US that changes, not Him!
        1. What’s the primary purpose of prayer? To change the hearts of God’s people.
        2. When you pray for someone’s soul, what happens to you? Your heart becomes tender toward them. Previous they drove you crazy; now your attitude changes & you’re patient, loving, compassionate, & kind.
    13. Apart from Knowing Jesus we could never Know/See the Father. Apart from Prayer in Jesus name we could never Glorify the Father.
    14. ENJOYING THE HOLY SPIRIT, FOREVER! (15-18)
    15. (15) If you love Me keep My commandments (actually) you will keep My commandments
      1. If you love me, you will keep my commandments, not the other way around.
      2. Love makes obedience easy. It’s the delight of love to do what the loved one desires.
        1. When the heart grows dull, obedience becomes difficult.
        2. The proper response of the Christian is not to grit his teeth and tough it out, but to remember who it is that asks this of him and the for his sake, to do it. (Ray Stedman, Authentic Christianity, p. 157)
    16. (16,17) Wow, the 1st time Jesus speaks to them of the Holy Spirit. (after 3 yrs.)
    17. The Holy Spirit is the Fathers Gift to you!
      1. Give (16) - The Holy Spirit is a gift to us (we don’t earn).
      2. Another(16) (i.e. He’s compared to Christ) The Spirit is a person & is God.
        1. Allos(ἄλλος) another of the same kind & Heteros(ἕτερος) another of a different kind.
        2. Gal.1:6,7 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a another(heteros) gospel, which is not another (allos);
        3. Forever (16b) - This gift will never be taken back from us.
          1. The wonderful gift of never being alone! Never think no one understands your situation, or that no one cares. We have an ever present friend/helper/counselor/ advocate that provides infinite care!
        4. Dwells with/in (17b) - He dwells with/in God’s people. Characteristic of our dispensation
        5. Teach & remembrance (vs.26) - He is our teacher & reminder.
    18. Helper - Paraclete - “interpreter” “comforter” “advocate” no one word suffices.
      1. It means “one whom you call to your side in the battle or law-court.”
        1. Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play major league baseball. Breaking baseball’s color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium. While playing one day in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. The fans began to ridicule him. He stood at second base, humiliated, while the fans jeered. Then, shortstop Pee Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robinson and faced the crowd. The fans grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career!
      2. Para - to come alongside. [Para-medic; para-military; para-chute (Chute = fall)]
      3. Parakletos means “called to one’s aid”. (Barclay)
        1. But it is why the person is called in, which gives the word its distinction.
        2. It might be one called in to give witness in a law court in someone's favor.
        3. It might be an advocate called in to plead the cause of someone under a charge of serious injury.
        4. It might be an expert called in to give advice in some difficult situation.
        5. It might be a person called in when a company of soldiers were depressed & dispirited to put new courage into their minds & hearts.
      4. “Always a parakletos is someone called in to help in time of trouble or need”. (William Barclay; The Gospel of John; Vol.2, pp.166,167.)
    19. (18) An orphan is “a person deprived of protection & position.”
      1. If you are no longer an orphan you are what? Adopted!
      2. If Jesus comes to you, you will then have protection & position.
    20. I will come to you - In what sense does Jesus come to us? Jesus was our 1st advocate:
      1. Jesus was called in to give witness in our favor; Jesus was called in to plead our cause; Jesus was called in to give advice in our difficult/impossible situation; Jesus was called in as His soldiers who were depressed & dispirited to put new courage into our minds & hearts.
    21. Apart from Knowing Jesus we could never Know/See the Father. Apart from Prayer in Jesus name we could never Glorify the Father. Apart from Help of the H.S. we could never Know truth.
    22. Seeing the Father; Asking in Jesus Name; & Enjoying the Holy Spirit, forever.
    23. Communion! [1 Cor.11:23-26]
      1. Remember the Last Supper lasts from 14:1-18:1.
    24. Bread: Broke Bread! Brokenness. God uses broken things:
      1. Broken soil to produce a crop; Broken clouds to give rain; Broken grain to give bread; Broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume; Broken Peter, who wept bitterly, who then returned to greater power than ever; Broken you?
      2. Hold elements & we’ll partake together.
    25. Cup: Thanks! Thanksgiving an expression of joy [This comes from a spirit released from sin]
    26. End: Toast! An ancient Jewish closing of the Passover meal (Since it is the hope of every devout Jew to celebrate the Passover at least once in David’s city) the Jewish custom is to end the meal with a toast. Passover participants raise the cup and say, “Next year, in Jerusalem!” For all Christians, there will be a last sharing of the bread and the cup on this side of eternity: when we meet once again, we will be in Christ’s presence. Let’s raise our cups in anticipation and say, “Next time, with Christ!”
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Verses 19-31

  1. INTRO:
    1. Pray: Back to school! Teachers & School Counselors (Public [Univ/College/HS/JrH/Elem]; Private School; Home School)
    2. Wed. Night Series: Brushing up on Basics Series! - Starts this Wed.
      1. #1 Why should I trust the Bible is Accurate? (What are the Scriptures? How did we get the 66 books? Manuscript Evidence; How we got our English Bible? Why so many different Bible translations?)
    3. Left off in vs.18 w/Jesus promising the disciples, I will not leave you orphans. Used of children w/o a father, but also of disciples w/o a master. (LKGNT; Barret)
    4. Is anything troubling your heart today? What is it? Let not your hearts be troubled. Ok, but how?
    5. Story: In the Philippines a driver of a caribou wagon was on his way to market when he overtook an old man carrying a heavy load. Taking compassion on him, the driver invited the old man to ride in the wagon. Gratefully the old man accepted. After a few minutes, the driver turned to see how the man was doing. To his surprise, he found him still straining under the heavy weight, for he had not taken the burden off his shoulders.
      1. When Jesus said, I will give you rest have you been like this old man who took Him up on salvation but not true rest, true peace?
  2. OUT OF SIGHT, BUT NOT OUT OF MIND! (19-31)
    1. OUT OF SIGHT...! (19-24)
    2. (19) The world lives by sight, & when Jesus is out of sight, He’s out of mind. (Chuck Swindoll; John 14; pg.98.)
      1. But Christians live by faith & see the eternal dimension of Christ behind their circumstances.
        1. We have confidence that whatever circumstance befall us, they can work together for the good of conforming us to Christ’s image.
      2. Our ability to see is influenced by what we have been trained to look for!
        1. ​​​​​​​A doctor will see more by looking down the throat of a sick child than any parent.
        2. An artist will appreciate a tour through a gallery much more than someone w/o those sensibilities.
        3. A seamstress will appreciate a finely tailored outfit much more than someone whose eyes have not been trained to notice such subtleties of style & precision.
        4. The 1st time I went dove hunting I couldn’t tell a dove’s flight pattern from the other birds. Now I can spot them when there 100 yards away.
      3. So, too if our eyes are trained to see God’s hand in our circumstances, then each pressure indenting the clay of our lives will be seen not to bend us out of shape but to mold us into vessels of honor - fit for a king.
    3. (21-24) 3 principles that will strengthen our weak hearts:
      1. Knowledge of the truth removes fear - Know (20).
        1. Information from God’s word takes away superstition & trauma of death (Belize conf)
      2. Application of the knowledge reduces anxiety - Keeps (21).
        1. If you have His commandments, keep them! Make His word a vital part of your life.
      3. Love for the Lord releases guilt - Love (22).
        1. Love, the highest of motivation. When we love the Lord we desire to please Him.
    4. (22) If I was this Judas, I would make “not Iscariot” my middle name! [His question from vs.19]
      1. But, also think it through from their understanding of what would happen when Messiah came (i.e. Displaying Himself to the world) [Will happen at 2nd coming]
    5. (23) We will come to him - It is 1 thing for us to go to heaven & quite something else for heaven to come to us! (Warren Wiersbe)
    6. Make our home with Him - God prepares a mansion for those who believe in Christ, & asks in return that we prepare our hearts as guest chambers for Him to dwell in.
      1. As He enters the loving, cleansed, & believing heart, we hear Him say, This is My resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. Ps.132:14.
      2. Yes I’m going to prepare a mansion for you in My Fathers house; but while you remain on earth in your temporary tents, We will come & make our home in your heart & actually dwell there.
        1. Just as the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle in the wilderness, so the Trinity will fill your heart with their majestic presence.
    7. G. ...BUT NOT OUT OF MIND! (25-31)
    8. (27a) My Peace is not the power of positive thinking; It is not feelings the disciples have to conjure up; nor circumstances they have to cover up!
    9. My Peace=a heart untroubled; fearless in spite of suffering or conflict that comes our way.
      1. ​​​​​​​It’s an inner calm in the midst of tempestuous outer storms! [Read 16:33!]
    10. Illustration: 2 painters were once asked to paint a picture illustrating his own idea of rest. The first chose for his scene a quiet, lonely lake, nestled among mountains far away. The second, using swift, broad strokes on his canvas, painted a thundering waterfall. Beneath the falls grew a fragile birch tree, bending over the foam. On its branches, nearly wet with the spray from the falls, sat a robin on its nest.
      1. The first painting was simply a picture of stagnation and inactivity.
      2. The second, however, depicted rest.
      3. Outwardly, Christ endured one of the most troubled lives ever lived. Storms and turmoil, turmoil and storms. Wave after wave broke over Him until His worn body was laid in the tomb. Yet His inner life was as smooth as a sea of glass, and a great calm was always there.
    11. Rest is not some holy feeling that comes upon us in church. It is a state of calm rising from a heart deeply and firmly established in God. Henry Drummond
    12. My peace I give in times of deepest grief, Imparting calm and trust and My relief. My peace I give when prayer seems lost, unheard; Know that My promises are ever in My Word.My peace I give when you are left alone - The nightingale at night has sweetest tone. My peace I give in times of utter loss, The way of glory leads right to the cross.My peace I give when enemies will blame, Your fellowship is sweet through cruel shame. My peace I give in agony and sweat, For My own brow with bloody drops was wet.My peace I give when nearest friend betrays - Peace that is merged in love & for them prays My peace I give when there's but death for thee - The gateway is the cross to get to Me. (L.S.P. (not sure who this poet is); taken from June 13th, Streams in the Desert.)
    13. My peace - Who is qualified & authorized to speak of & offer this peace?
      1. ​​​​​​​No one except...He that is called the Prince of Peace! Who’s Ministers are the messengers of peace! His Word is the Gospel of Peace! His Way is the path of peace!
    14. Why does He give it now? Because anything left us by a dying friend is valued & esteemed all the more highly.
      1. My peace I give to you - Picture Jesus reading His own Last Will & Testament: Lands & houses, the worlds goods, silver & gold, he had none to leave. But what He has He gives unto us.
        1. ​​​​​​​My Peace I give to you; My Love I give to you(15:9); My Joy I give to you(15:11)
      2. An angel announce peace at His birth; He Himself bequeathed peace at His death, Peace I leave with you! [Proving once again, He loved them to the end!]
      3. Were these words confined to them? No, they stood as the representatives of all His people...Read Jn.17:20-22.
        1. Yet not all people! Is.57:19-21(NLT) May they have abundant peace, both near and far(Jew & Gentile), says the Lord, who heals them. But those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still but continually churns up mud and dirt. There is no peace for the wicked, says my God.
    15. (27b) Why should our hearts be troubled, if Jesus is the way to the Father; if He reveals the truth about the Father; & if He shares the life of the Father with us?
    16. Also, Jesus’ words, let your heart not be troubled, infer that his disciples have the ability to keep their emotions afloat during the tempests they experienced.
      1. Ok, once again, how do we do that? - [1] Remember we have the Paraketos/ the Holy Spirit to empower us [2] Jesus’ Promises, because fear usually grips us when we either ignore or forget what God said [3]We have His Peace
    17. (28b) If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I was going to the Father.’
      1. (Bruce Milne) Jesus invites them to rise above what His departure is going to mean for them, to consider what it will mean for Him. Their love for Jesus should allow them to be happy for Him that He is going away, since the journey, albeit through the horrors of the cross, will take him again to the intimacy of the Father’s bosom, & to the “glory I had with you before the world began.”
    18. (28c) For My Father is greater than I - In what sense?
      1. JW’s argue from this statement that Jesus is a lesser god.
      2. So in what sense is He talking greater? The Father is greater in office & glory than the Son was in His humiliation on earth. By going back to the Father He would be exalted again in glory.
    19. (30) I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming –
      1. His teaching time was now limited because Satan was moving his forces against Jesus through Judas.
      2. Satan thought Jesus’ death was a victory for him, but actually it was Jesus’ victory over Satan.
    20. (30) He has nothing in me-no hold on me(NIV); no claim on me(ESV); no power over me(NLT)
      1. He sure has a lot on us! Imagine Satan dropping a match on all our sinful dry leaves. - But there is nothing flammable in Jesus!
    21. (31) 2 more reasons why Jesus faced the cross - to show His love/obedience to His Father
    22. (31b) Arise, let us go from here - Showing His willingness to suffer.
      1. I will not wait for the enemy; I will go & meet Him.
      2. I will go to the place where Judas will look for me.
      3. I will go to the garden of Gethsemane where I am to agonize, & from there to Calvary where I am to die!
        1. I have a baptism to be baptized with & how distressed I am till it is accomplished! (Lk.12:50)
    23. Obedience, motivated by love, gives Jesus a warm blanket of peace in the midst of the chilling storm front beginning to roll into His life.
      1. His obedience sets the perfect pattern for us when we find ourselves left alone in a torrential downpour of fateful circumstances!
    24. END: Even though the wind & waves obey Him, Christ may not calm all your storms. But, He can take your fearful heart & transform it into a calm, inner eye of faith in the midst of your storms. First learn to trust Him!
      1. Is.26:3,4 You will keep him in perfect peace(shalom/shalom), Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.
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Copyright Statement
These files are the property of Brian Bell.
Text Courtesy of Calvary Chapel of Murrieta. Used by Permission.
Bibliographical Information
Bell, Brian. "Commentary on John 14". "Bell's Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/cbb/john-14.html. 2017.

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