Bible Study series: John 14:1-14. This is a rich section of Scripture:. Samples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.” “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” You get the idea.

Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.

I also translate to learn. The translations are mine, unless otherwise noted. If you would like to see many others, please click here:

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For the Greek text, click here:

John 14

At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.

In this post, links are provided for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: John 14:1-14

¹ “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go, I will prepare a place for you, and I am coming again and I will take you along to myself, so that where I am you also may be. ⁴ You know the place where I go.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you have known me, you will know the Father also. And from now on, you know him and you have known him.” ⁸ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it will be enough for us.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “I have been with you for such a long time, and you have not known me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words which I have spoken to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father dwelling in me does his works. ¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the works themselves. ¹² I tell you the firm truth: The one who believes in me will do the works which I do, and he will do greater things than these because I go to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you may ask in my name, I will do this, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:1-14)

Comments:

There are no chapter divisions in the originals. So please see this passage as a continuation of Jesus’s prediction that Peter would not stand the test and betray Jesus in John 13:37-38.

John 13

1:

This is a great command because it is built on or flows out of the two verbs “believe.” I take them also as commands or imperatives (as does Novakovic, p. 114, as do many translations, but she also give the various options). It could be translated as “trust.” Our absence of anxiety flows out of our believing in God and his Son.

2-3:

“I am coming again”: Many take these two verses as supporting a separate rapture from the Second Coming; that is, the rapture and the Second Coming do not happen at the same time, but the rapture precedes the Second Coming by several years. However, v. 23 will teach us that the noun monē, a dwelling place, (or plural in v. 2 monai) is done when the Father and the Son will come and will prepare a monē for those who love the Lord Jesus and keeps his word. The verb of monē is menō, “to dwell”; it is used in vv. 10 and 17. Jesus is in the Father, and the Father is in him; the Father dwells in the Son. Verse 17 says the Spirit “dwells” (menō) with us and will be with us. Likewise, v. 23 promises the same connectedness and dwelling, through the Spirit, of the Father and Son in the obedience and loving disciple.

Therefore, vv. 2-3 and 23 are not talking about a separate rapture or the Second Coming, whether at the same time or years apart; instead the three verses teach us that through the Spirit, the Father and Son invite the disciples into the same intimate dwelling place that the Father and Son enjoy. Through the Spirit, the Father and Son dwell in the disciple and the disciple dwells in the Father and Son. It is a “coming again” with intimacy, creating the same spiritual dwelling place or spiritual dwelling places that the Father and Son have. Verse 18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” This coming is through the Paraclete; if not, then Jesus’s ascension without his coming in some form would in fact leave them as orphans. But he is coming to them not only during his post-Resurrection appearances, but also by the Spirit after his ascension. So vv. 2-3, again do not refer to the Parousia or Second Coming or rapture.

John 14 Does Not Teach Second Coming or Separate Rapture

4-6:

The disciples know the place where Jesus is going, or do they really know? Thomas, evidently speaking for the others, does not know where Jesus is going. The answer is that first Jesus is going to the cross, but soon he will be resurrected and ascend to the Father. Jesus is the way to the Father. And so v. 6 is about the intimacy of the Father and the Son, and the disciples having the same intimacy (v. 17). This intimacy comes only through Jesus. By the way, this verse has nothing to do with final judgment.

What Happens at Judgment to People Who Never Heard Gospel?

Let’s look at the three main terms.

The Greek noun way (hodos, pronounced ho-doss) can just as easily be translated as “path” or “street” or “road.” In Greece today, the street signs say “OD.” (short for hodos), meaning “street” or “st.” Jesus is the pathway to the Father. No one can come to him except by his death, resurrection and ascension—all three events, taken as a unit, mean “glory” in John’s Gospel.

“truth”: let’s make a more formal study of the noun. Biblical truth is not only an abstract truth floating out there but makes no impact on us. It is the truth that we know. We can know this proposition theoretically: “God exists.” (Or, better, we can believe it.) But in Christ, we can know God personally. “I know God.” So knowledge of God, the highest and greatest being in the universe, is personal, according to the Bible.

“truth”: Let’s focus on the Greek noun. It is alētheia (pronounced ah-lay-thay-ah and is used 109 times). Truth is a major theme in the Johannine literature: 45 times.

BDAG is considered by many to be the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, and the lexicon defines the noun in these ways:

(1).. “The quality of being in accord with what is true, truthfulness, dependability, uprightness.”

(2).. “The content of what is true, truth.”

(3).. “An actual state or event, reality.”

So truth gained from the world around us is possible. Our beliefs must correspond to the outside world (outside of you and me). But it goes deeper than just the outside world. We must depend on God’s character and his Word. That is the meaning of the first definition. God is true or truthful or dependable, or upright. Everything else flows from him.

Ten Biblical Truths about Your New Body

Now let’s look at the noun life more closely. It is very versatile.

It is the noun zoē (pronounced zoh-ay, and girls are named after it, e.g. Zoey). BDAG says that it has two senses, depending on the context: a physical life (e.g. life and breath) and a transcendent life. By physical life the editors mean the period from birth to death, human activity, a way or manner of living, a period of usefulness, earning a living. By transcendent life the lexicographers mean these four elements: first, God himself is life and offers us everlasting life. Second, Christ is life, who received life from God, and now we can receive life from Christ. Third, it is new life of holiness and righteousness and grace. God’s life filling us through Christ changes our behavior. Fourth, zoē means life in the age to come, or eschatological life. So our new life now will continue into the next age, which God fully and finally ushers in when Christ returns. We will never experience mere existence or death, but we will be fully and eternally alive in God. Clearly John means the fourth definition.

Together the three terms are a revelation of who he is. This is the sixth of seven “I am” statements: I am way, the truth, and the life. In Exod. 3:14, in the Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-ah-gent, a third to first century BC translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek), the Greek reads: “the LORD says, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’” (egō eimi, pronounced eh-goh-ay-mee) is used in the phrasing (along with ho ōn). This is high Christology.

JESUS’ SEVEN “I AM” SAYINGS IN JOHN
1	I Am the Bread of Life (6:35, 48) and Living Bread (6:51)
2	I Am the Light of the World (8:12)
3	I Am the Gate (10:7, 9)
4	I Am the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14)
5	I am the Resurrection and the Life (11:25)
6	I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6)
7	I am the True Vine (15:1, 5)
BTSB, p. 2163, slightly edited

Or Jesus may refer to the “I am he” passages in Is. 40-55, as he did at John 8:24. Here is a list (all NIV and emphasis added):

Who has done this and carried it through,
calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord—with the first of them
and with the last—I am he.” (Is. 41:4)

¹⁰ “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after me.
¹¹ I, even I, am the Lord,
and apart from me there is no savior.
¹² I have revealed and saved and proclaimed—
I, and not some foreign god among you.
You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
¹³     Yes, and from ancient days I am he.
No one can deliver out of my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?” (Is. 43:10-13, see v. 25)

Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Is. 46:4)

“Listen to me, Jacob,
Israel, whom I have called:
I am he;
I am the first and I am the last.
¹³ My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
they all stand up together. (Is. 48:12-13)

¹² “I, even I, am he who comforts you.
Who are you that you fear mere mortals,
human beings who are but grass,
¹³ that you forget the Lord your Maker,
who stretches out the heavens
and who lays the foundations of the earth,
that you live in constant terror every day
because of the wrath of the oppressor,
who is bent on destruction? (Is. 51:12-13)

This is high Christology.

Now let’s apply this trilogy (three words), I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life:

Jesus Is (1) the Clearest and Most Direct and Only Path to the Father (Judaism Is Now Inadequate); (2) Jesus Is the Clearest Revelation of the Father Jesus is the Light of the World; (3) Jesus is the Source and Giver of Eternal Life for Those who Believe in Him.

So this trilogy says that Jesus is the direct path towards the Father, and all other religions are inadequate, and in his context, it was Judaism; he clarifies who the Father is. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father (v. 4). Jesus is the fullest truth or revelation of the Father. And he will give all who trust in him eternal life–resurrection life–now and forever.

“No one comes to the Father except through me”: This is clear. Jesus is exclusive.  In his day and when John wrote, Judaism is obsolete and Greek and Roman paganism is not the right way. Only Jesus is. He completes Judaism and steers people away from paganism. We now know God the Father only through him.

7-11:

This is one of the greatest statements about the connectedness of the Father and the Son. To answer Philip’s request directly: If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father, Jesus is the prefect representation of the Father. Jesus said the same statement before: “But if I do them, and even if you may not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and continue to know that the Father is in me and I in the Father” (John 10:38). Jesus invites us to believe that he is in the Father, and the Father is in him. If you don’t believe by his words, then believe because of the works themselves, which refers to all the works that Jesus had been doing. Mounce and Morris say that Philip was requesting a theophany (a manifestation or appearance of God’s presence). I had not thought of that before. They may be right. Then Mounce writes: “What Philip had not yet learned was that in the person of Jesus, God had answered the deepest longing of the human heart. It is in Jesus that the Father presents himself to us. To know the Son is to know the Father. To see the Son is to see the Father” (comment on v. 8).

For v. 10, a little technical grammar thing and the clause: “the Father living in me does his works.” The participle (“living”) does not have an article, so professional grammarians say it cannot be attributive (adjectival); rather, it is adverbial, so it could be translated: “The Father does his works because he dwells in me” (Novakovic, p. 122).

I like Beasley-Murray here on v. 10: “It is not simply that Jesus has been sent by God, and so according to Jewish definition ‘One sent is as he who sent him,’ though that is uniquely true of Jesus in relation to God; nor is it solely because the revelation of God, made known ‘in many times and in various ways’ is now made known in its completeness (cf. Heb. 1:1); the affirmation holds good because Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him.” This verse describes the complete unity between Jesus and the Father. Jesus is the revelation of God (comment on v. 10).

Morris on v. 11: “While it is true that the New Testament looks for a vital faith in a living person, it is also true that this is not blind incredulity. Faith has an intellectual content.”

12:

“greater things”: my exegesis has now moved to here:

What Does ‘Greater Things’ Mean in John 14:12?

13-14:

The requests and answers must be viewed as going to the Father in Jesus’s name, but it is also Jesus answering the request. We can also ask Jesus for “whatever,” so we don’t need to pray only to the Father, though the Bible certainly teaches this.

Does this request mean that disciples can ask for anything at all, to suit their greed / desires? No, of course not.

² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (Jas. 4:2-3, NIV)

The context of these seemingly carte blanche verses in 14:13-14 is that we ask in Jesus’s name, which means we surrender to him. We do not strut up to the Father’s throne by our own power and in our own name and ask anything that strikes our fancy. All our “anything” prayer requests have to bring glory to the Father, which means the miraculous works that we do together in unity. Our prayer request should help people in need, not help ourselves in greed. John 15:16 says that we are to bear abiding fruit so that what we ask the Father in Jesus’s name, he will give it to us. Our prayer requests come from high-quality fruit or character (see 16:23).

Praying in his name means to believe in him, his person, his character, and his being—who he is, the Lord, the Son of God and the Messiah. The noun name stands in for the person—a living, real person. Let’s develop this thought, so it can apply to you.

His authority and power are absolute, under the Father. In his name you are seated in the heavenly places with Christ (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1). Now down here on earth you walk and live as an ambassador in his name, in his stead, for he is no longer living on earth, so you have to represent him down here. We are his ambassadors who stand in for his name (2 Cor. 5:20). The good news is that he did not leave you without power and authority. He gave you his. Now you represent him in his name—his person, power and authority. Therefore under his authority we have his full authority to preach the gospel and set people free from bondages and satanic spirits and heal them of diseases.

Remember that believing in his name is more than just intellectual assent or agreement with a doctrine. Belief has to go from the head to the heart (1:6-8), or so says the entirety of the Gospel of John. Pray also from a confident spirit.

“Son”: Let’s look into some more systematic theology (as I do throughout this commentary). Jesus was the Son of the Father eternally, before creation. The Son has no beginning. He and the Father always were, together. The relationship is portrayed in this Father-Son way so we can understand who God is more clearly. Now he relates to us as his sons and daughters, though, surprisingly, in John’s Gospel we are not called “sons,” but “children.” Only Jesus is the Son. In any case, on our repentance and salvation and union with Christ, we are brought into his eternal family.

6. Titles of Jesus: The Son of God

When Did Jesus “Become” the Son of God?

Now let’s look more generally at the term glory, as it is seen throughout the Gospel of John and other passages of Scripture.

“glory” means, in many contexts, the light of God, shining to all the world. This brightness is the glory of God.

1. The Glory of God in the Old Testament

2. What Is the Glory of God in the New Testament?

3. What Does the Glory of God Mean to Us?

Moses experienced the glory of God:

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

¹⁹ And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” ²¹ Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. ²² When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” (Exod. 33:18-22, NIV).

Commentator Bruce also saw this connection between the glory which Moses saw and the surpassing glory of Jesus. Further, he connects the glory of the old tabernacle with God pitching his tabernacle through his Son (comment on 1:14). “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exod. 25:8, NIV). When the tabernacle was completed, we read: “³⁴ Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exod. 40:34-35, NIV).

But Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, says that the glory which Moses experienced, soon faded away.

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! ¹⁰ For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. ¹¹ And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! (2 Cor. 3:7-11, NIV)

The glory of the New Covenant, initiated by Jesus, will last forever.

In more general terms, Carson says that Jesus’s glory was displayed in his signs (2:11; 11:4, 40); he was supremely glorified in his death and exaltation (7:39: 12:16, 23: 13:31-32), Yes, he also had glory before he began his public ministry, for in fact he enjoyed glory with his Father before his incarnation and returned to his Father to receive the fulness of glory (15:5, 24). While other men seek their own glory, Jesus’s relationship with his Father meant that he did not need to seek his own glory; he was secure in his relationship with his Father. He sought only God’s glory (5:41; 7:18; 8:50). (comment on 1:14).

Keener also brings focus to John’s definition of glory:

Jesus, in contrast to his opponents, accepts this only from the Father (5:41, 33; 7:18; 8:50, 54; 9:24; 12:41, 43; 16:14; 17:12). The Fourth Gospel applies Jesus’ “glory” to various acts of self-revelation (his signs–2:11; 11:4, 40), but the ultimate expression of glory is the complex including Jesus’ death (12:16, 23, 28; 13:31-32; cf. 21:9), resurrection and exaltation (cf. 7:39; 12:16; 17:1, 5). This glory thus becomes the ultimate revelation of “grace and truth”: where the world’s hatred for God comes to its ultimate expression, so also does God’s love for the world (3:16). If the Johannine [adjective for John] community’s opponents regarded the cross as proof that Jesus was not the Messiah, John regards Jesus’ humiliation as the very revelation of God; his whole enfleshment, and especially his mortality and death, continue the ultimate revelation of God’s grace and truth revealed to Moses (p. 411)

GrowApp for John 14:1-14

1. How does v. 1 tell us not to have a troubled heart?

2. How does Jesus in the Scripture reveal the Father to you personally?

3. What prayer request have you prayed in Jesus’s name and was answered? How did it bring glory to the Father?

RELATED

14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels

12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel

4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel

3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel

SOURCES

For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:

John 14