Jesus Words to His Disciples in the Upper Room (John 14-16)

1). Jesus, as One with the Father, is the Way to the Father (John 14.1-12)

Jesus was very much aware of the way that lay ahead. He was also aware that His disciples, who had faithfully followed Him and trusted Him, now fully relied on Him. Yet because of what had just happened He knew that they were puzzled and bewildered, and He knew that they would soon be even more puzzled and bewildered. They had been told that someone would betray Him and that Peter would deny Him, and He was aware that they were suddenly to be left on their own in the most trying circumstances.

Yet it was they who would soon be responsible for presenting God’s truth to the world. So He knew that it was important that their confidence was fixed in the right place. He was facing His own torment of soul (13.21) but He did not think of Himself, His thoughts were for them, and he now laid the foundation for their future.

14.1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have confidence (believe) in God, have confidence also in me.”

Let them not be afraid. They must not waver in their confidence. They not only have to hold to their belief in God, they have to hold to their belief in Him. This is to be their rock and their confidence, that, whatever happens, they continue to recognise in Him the One Who has come from the Father, the One Who reveals the Father, the One Who brings men to the Father, the Expected One. That is where their confidence must now lie.

Whether the verb is indicative (‘you believe’) or imperative (‘Have confidence!’) matters little. Either translation is correct, but the meaning is the same. It is an encouragement to maintain their confidence in God and to have the same confidence in Jesus.

The word heart is in the singular, ‘the heart of you all.’ It may mean ‘each of your hearts’ or ‘all your hearts’ seen as one in a collective noun.

14.2-3 “In my Father’s house are plenty of dwelling places. If it were not so I would have told you. I am going in order to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and will receive you face to face with myself, that where I am, you may be as well.”

Their confidence in Him can also result in their confidence in their future, for He is going to His Father’s house, and there there is ample room for them too. The Greek ‘mone’ can mean a room, a dwelling place, and the latter would seem to be the emphasis here. His ‘Father’s house’ probably contains the thought more of a family estate with a number of buildings, the place where the wider ‘household’ dwells, or of a large dwelling with an abundance of living quarters, built round a courtyard like the house of the High Priest. The emphasis is on family and on plenty of room. They are coming to the new Jerusalem.

What is more they can be sure of this more than anything else on earth, that He, when He goes, will prepare a place for them. There, in His Father’s family home, there will always be a welcome for them. So whatever happens now they can be confident for the future. Nor will He leave them to look to someone else. “I am returning (for you)”. The emphasis here is not so much on the second coming as on the fact that He will come back for them. He will return and take them to His Father’s home, where they will share the joy of His presence, being ‘face to face’ with Him (pros with the accusative). This both refers to His welcoming arms at death, and to His second coming when He comes for His own. For the Christian hope is a dual hope - certainty if death comes, a longing rather for His coming, and a looking forward either way to His return in glory to finalise God’s purposes and to receive them into His presence.

He wants them not only to be sure that they have a home to go to, but also to enjoy a confidence in the successful culmination of God’s purposes, and a certainty that He will continually have their interests at heart. So His going will not mean that He is deserting them. Nor does it mean that He has been helplessly forced to leave them. It rather means that He is personally looking after their interests and the future.

14.4 “And where I am going, you know the way there.”

He has been teaching them, and revealing to them, the way into the Father’s favour and presence through ‘eating and drinking’ Him by response to His words (John 4.13-14; 6.35; 7.38). So when He has gone they need not fear, for the way will still be the same. He has shown them the way there, the way to eternal life, through believing fully in Him (John 3.15-16; 7.38).

(The above rendering is probably the correct one, but many very good authorities have ‘you know where I am going and you know the way there’, which ties in more specifically with the words of Thomas. But this very fact makes it the easier reading, which makes it more suspect as such an alteration is more likely. In view of the manuscript evidence the change must have occurred very early on. Papyrus 66, a very early testimony to the text, has our reading in the text and the alteration in the margin).

14.5 ‘Thomas says to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ’

Thomas speaks for all. While He was there, there had been no problem. But that other world often appears far away and strange, and at no time more than this moment. What is the way there? They do not yet have confidence and assurance in that other world. Their minds are still set on an earthly Kingdom. And all the disciples shared his concern. How were they to find their way there?

We too may feel sometimes that we do not know where He has gone. Heaven may seem a strange place. But as He has said, what is important is that we know He is there and awaits us.

14.6 ‘Jesus says to him, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.’

These words have filled a multitude of books. They make Jesus totally central as the way to the Father. He is the way, He is saying, from two main points of view, as the One Who has fully revealed truth both through His being, and through His life and His teaching, and as the One Who imparts eternal life through His Spirit. He is the way because full response to Him, His words, His self-revelation, His offering of eternal life through Himself as the source of that life, is the way to the Father. They who thus receive Him become the children of God and are born of God (John 1.12-13). Indeed we may take it further. He is the way because once they are in Him they will be carried by Him to their new home.

We notice here Jesus claim to absolute uniqueness. It has been well said that He does not say, ‘I am one of many ways, I am a phase of truth, I am an aspect of life’. He tells us that He is uniquely the way, He is uniquely the truth, He is the source of life. He alone can make essentially real in us that truth and life. Others can be pointers and signposts. He is the goal. Others can show the way, can impart truth, can point to life. But He is the way to which they point, the truth imparted is summed up in Himself, He is the life received.

This is why no one can come to the Father except through Him, for it is through what He is, and what He will do, that men are able to be forgiven, are enabled to be enlightened, and can receive eternal life. He is the final solution. All other great teachers point away from themselves, aware of their own inadequacy. He points to Himself as the One Who is fully adequate. In this statement was a claim to a uniqueness that revealed true Godhood. To any but God such claims would be both blasphemous and ridiculous.

It should be noted that ‘no one can come to the Father except by me’ applies to all ages from the beginning to the end. The Old Testament believers came to God through the way He revealed, through sacrifices. But these sacrifices looked forward to what was to come. It was because Jesus would come and offer Himself as a sacrifice that God could ‘pass over things done aforetime’ (Romans 3.25). If those who were not aware of the old revelation, yet responded to the revelation within their own consciences (Romans 2.14-16) and came to salvation, it was through Him that their salvation came, even though they were unaware of it. If there are some relatively few who since Christ’s life on earth have responded to God in a saving way, without having heard the Good News fully, and there are probable examples of this, they too come through Him. For He is the source of all saving truth, whether revealed through nature or revealed through Scripture, and of all saving life, and He is the One Who ministers it. Through Him alone comes salvation to the saved among mankind.

14.7 “If you had fully known me you would have known my Father as well. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus now confirms His uniqueness. He has fully revealed the Father in such a way that to have known Him is to have known the Father. ‘We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only Son of the Father’ (John 1.14), John could say in amazed wonder when enlightenment had fully come, and this is what Jesus is saying here. He is the only Son of the Father, the only true likeness to Him. In the words of Hebrews ‘He is the outshining of His glory and the exact representation of His substance’ (Hebrews 1.3). So they not only know the Father through Him, but have seen the Father in Him.

14.8 ‘Philip says to him, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be sufficient for us”.’

But as yet they were not fully enlightened. Philip had not yet had time to contemplate the wonder of Christ. So he wanted some wonderful revelation of God, some theophany, some manifestation of deity, like Abraham (Genesis 15.17), Moses (Exodus 3.2; 33.23), the elders (Exodus 24.9-10), the people of Israel (Exodus 24.17) and Isaiah of old (Isaiah 6.1-2). That would confirm his faith, he was sure. He has not yet realised that he has seen greater things than they, for he has walked with God and watched Him reveal Himself daily.

14.9 ‘Jesus says to him, “Have I been with you all (plural) so long and yet you (singular) do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How then can you say ‘show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from myself. But the Father, dwelling in me, carries out his works”.’

It was taking the disciples a long time to recognise the truth before their eyes, and we should not be surprised. They have thought of Him as ‘Master and Lord’, the great prophet and teacher, the supreme man of God, even the Messiah, although in a puzzling way. But the full truth has not yet dawned, and now they are faced with it with all the covers taken off. No wonder it was taking them time to grasp it.

And yet they, as we, should have known. Philip is rightly rebuked, even though gently, as the use of the singular reveals. Jesus is disappointed. He has been speaking God’s own words, He has been revealing God through His life, and has been revealing the uniqueness of His relationship with the Father. Have they not seen His life? Have they not listened to what He has said? Who else could have done the works that He has done? These works were clearly uniquely the work of God. (This does not just refer to the miracles, wonderful though they were, but to the whole of what He has done and been). God has plainly walked on earth, revealed in a human body, ‘God openly revealed in the flesh’ (1 Timothy 3.16). And Philip should have seen, and known.

14.11 “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”

Jesus longs that they may look at Him and consider His life and recognise His uniqueness as the abode of the Father, recognise that He fully represents the Father distinctively and completely. But if they are not quite there yet, let them contemplate His works and let His works speak for Him. That is not finally sufficient, but it is a beginning. What is important is that they should step over the line from saying, ‘Master’, to saying ‘My Lord and My God’ (John 20.28).

It is quite evident that by ‘the Father in me and I in the Father’ He was intending to indicate His unique Oneness with God, for the whole context demands it. Later He can say that the Father is in His disciples (14.23), but it is obvious that this is in a different sense. He never suggests that when people see them they see the Father. They become the dwelling place of the Father through the activity of Jesus and His Spirit, but in the case of Jesus it is a permanent reality.

2). The Demands that He Makes and the Provision He Will Make For Their Fulfilment (John 14.12 - 26)

Having made known to them Who He is in a way that He has not done before (although had they had eyes to see it they could have known it from His declarations to the Judaisers (John 8.28-59; 10.30-39)) Jesus now tells them of the provision He is making as they carry out His work.

And here we must be careful, for in essence these words are not just general spiritual guidance for all of us, but specific promises to those whom He has trained and chosen out for the work ahead. These are men who have put everything aside for Him. They want nothing other than to do what He wants them to do, and their goal is the establishment of His Rule on earth at whatever cost.

They are learning not to consider their own advantage and gain, but to be single-minded in pursuit of His will. And they have a task never to be repeated, the task of laying the foundation for the belief of the early church, and in the end for the formation of the New Testament writings. It is to His disciples, as such, that He makes these promises. The early church itself recognised this when it insisted that only writings which could be seen as having an Apostolic source could be included in the Scriptures.

It has often been asked why these chapters of Jesus’ words in the Upper Room did not form a part of the teaching of the early church and thus find their way into the first three Gospels. The answer would seem to lie in the nature of the words. They are Apostle specific. It is true that we can gain from them general spiritual guidance, but what we cannot do is apply them all specifically to ourselves. In their strictest sense much is for the Apostles only.

Thus it was only when the Apostles were dying out that they were written down by one who was probably the last of the Apostles to die, so that the early church would know how secure were the foundations of their faith. So in what follows we will seek to establish what Jesus promised His Apostles, which does not refer to any others, and then consider the general lessons which can apply to all Christians.

14.12-14 “Emphatically I tell you, he of you who goes on believing on me, the works that I do he will do as well, and he will do greater things than these because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, that I will do.”

How careful we must be when we interpret these words. They are not a general promise that all Christians can demand to see fulfilled in their own lives whatever they wish for, in a multitude of ways, for that is clearly not the case. Heaven is not one huge superstore.

“I will do anything that you ask.” What a huge promise. We could not be trusted with such a promise unconditionally, but these men had been especially prepared for a task and were wholly committed to it. They would not ask for anything for their personal benefit or gain, they would have considered it a trivialising of the words. They realised that the promise applied to the work that they had to do (see 1 John 5.14-15).

“The works that I do, he will do.” We must undoubtedly see this as including His miracles. So the Apostles are empowered to heal all who come to them, and Peter takes advantage of this power (Acts 3.6) as do the others (Acts 5.12).

(No one who lays claim to healing powers today could make such a claim. Rather they have to regret how few are healed, although the less spiritual try to blame the failure on other’s lack of faith. But Jesus and the Apostles never had to make this excuse. If men had even a little faith, the faith to come, they were healed. The fact is that apart from the Apostles, gifts of healing were severely restricted, both in the early church and now).

Yet it is noteworthy how little is made by the Apostles’ of their works of healing. They had learned from their Master not to trust in signs as a method of converting people. Their healings were works of compassion and mercy.

But these “works” described here go wider than just healing. They include the totality of their ministry, both in practical ministry and in powerful words (Matthew 5.16; 16.27; John 5.20,36; 6.28; 8.39; 9.4; 10.25, 32, 37,38). They have been called to be an example to the world by the lives that they lead, and to proclaim the Good News that Jesus has taught them. The Good News is that the Kingly Rule of God has come for those who will respond, that men can now come to Him in obedience and trust and enjoy His rule, that the power of Satan is broken, and that God has walked among men, and through His death and resurrection has opened the way to forgiveness and eternal life.

“And greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father.” How could they do greater works than Jesus? Certainly not in the field of the miraculous. Rather it was in the fact that they would reach out to many nations with the Good News, while Jesus had been restricted to Palestine and the surrounding areas. Success would accompany them on every hand. This would now be possible because He was going to His Father by way of the cross. The barriers will be broken down (Ephesians 2.11-22), and the work of the Spirit, which began in Palestine in the ministry of Jesus, will reach out to the ends of the earth through the work of His Apostles and their helpers.

“And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” This is not a blanket promise that God will give us anything we ask ‘if we go about it in the right way’. It is not a ‘key’ for obtaining whatever we want. It was a promise to dedicated, chosen men that, as they carried out their ‘impossible’ task, all the resources of Heaven would be at their disposal. They would come to the Father and ‘ask in His name’, and He would do it, because they were doing His work. Because what they were doing they were doing for Him, in fulfilment of His command.

Someone who works for a modern company may well be given the authority to obtain ‘whatever he needs’ as he goes about the company’s business, but he knows, and all know, that this means ‘whatever he needs to carry out his duties for the company’.

Thus they know that they can only ask for the kind of thing that He would ask for, for the aim of it is the Father’s glory, and that alone. This then is the promise, that they will have available to them all that they need in the fulfilling of their task. What strength this must have given them in the face of impossible odds.

Yet the promise is to ‘the one who goes on believing’. Firstly and primarily it reminded the Apostles that they could only benefit as they continued to be those who fully believed, to be those who were totally committed to Him and His work, but in a secondary way it can be applied to all who believe and go on believing on the same conditions of discipleship. As we seek to serve the Father in true faith we too may seek His strength and help, and will receive what we need, but only within the limits of our responsibility.

Certainly this gives us no right to claim prosperity, or an easy path, or things for our own pleasure, and we note that the Apostles sought none of those. It does not refer to personal benefits but to what is needed to do the Father’s will. The Apostles expected to be in need, to suffer, to go without the good things in life, and to have nothing (1 Corinthians 4.11-13). What they sought was heavenly things, and to this the promise applied.

“If you ask me anything in my name, that I will do”. We notice here that it is Jesus Who will respond to the prayer, which is seen as made to Him. As they pray in His name they are praying to Him. But again it is in His name, as appointed by Him. Thus they are praying, ‘because I belong to Jesus and because I am doing the work He has called me to do, give me what I will need to accomplish that work.” His promise is that He will. (The “Me” is absent in some manuscripts but has very strong support and ‘that will I do’ supports it).

14.15 “If you love me you will constantly keep in mind and obey what I have commanded you (literally ‘my commandments’), and I will pray the Father and he will give you another ideal companion (paraclete)”.

This connects directly with what has gone before. In verses 13-14 He has spoken with the assumption that there are ‘works’ to be done for which special enabling will be given. Now He specifically says that if they love Him they will do those works He has commanded them. (His commandments to them included preaching the Good News and healing the sick (Matthew 10.7-8; Luke 9.2). And in return His Father will give them, at His request, ‘another’ ideal companion to replace His earthly presence, to assist them in their work.

The word ‘paraclete’ means one called alongside to assist. It was used of a lawyer who would be called on to assist in a court of law, whether as defence or prosecutor, or of one assisting in speechmaking or teaching, or one who consoled. That is why we have translated ‘ideal companion’, for He is replacing Jesus Who has been their ideal companion, assisting, guiding, defending, teaching, empowering and consoling.

We not need to try to select which meaning is in mind. The word Paraclete had an all-inclusive meaning of someone who came alongside to help. Most specifically in context He is the One Who will guide into all truth, bringing to mind what they have heard from Jesus, and interpreting it to their hearts as they carry out their ministry.

This confirms what we have said above. The test of love for Jesus is found in obedience to His demands. They can pray ‘in His name’ only because they love Him and are obeying implicitly what He has told them to do. It is because they have been given a huge responsibility that the resources of Heaven are at their disposal. They are to be used for no other purpose.

Furthermore that demand includes the fact that they must love one another (13.34-35). That is part of their ‘works’. Service is never in isolation except when unavoidable. So not only can they be sure that Jesus will respond to their prayers, providing all that they really need, but they can also know that they will be given ‘another ideal companion’ to assist them in their work.

14.16-17 “He will give you another paraclete, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive for it neither sees him in such a way as to recognise him, nor does it know him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

So when Jesus goes He will be replaced with another Who will perform the functions for the disciples that He has performed, One Who is sent by the Father. The word ‘another’ means ‘another of the same kind’. And this One will be permanently with them. He will never leave them. For He will be with them for ever. And they will know Him and recognise Him, for He will be with them as a constant companion, and He will indeed be in them. He will be the closest friend and helper anyone could ever have. And He is the Spirit of truth. This will be amplified later.

Note that the world cannot receive this Helper. It neither recognises Him nor knows Him. The suggestion of a general activity of the Spirit in world movements is not what Jesus teaches, nor is it the general teaching of Scripture. The Spirit works through His own. Here the world is in contrast to the people of God. The one is outside His kingdom. The other are His kingdom. The Kingly Rule of God is with them and among them, and with and among them alone.

“You know him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” ‘Dwells with you’ refers to Jesus Himself in His Spirit-filled, Spirit revealing life. ‘Dwells in you’ stresses that instead of having an outward knowledge of Him, they will have a deeper inward knowledge through His indwelling Spirit. Thus do they know Him. So will they know Him.

14.18 - 20 “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world sees me no more, but you see me. Because I live, you will live as well. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you”.

Very soon He will be wrenched from them and they will be desolate. And to the world it will be the end of Him. As far as the world will be concerned He will have gone for good. But it will not be so for the Apostles and for His people. He will come to them in their desolation. They will not be left unprotected and with no one to watch over them, (literally ‘as orphans’).

This means more than just the resurrection appearances, although it includes them. Indeed through His resurrection they will receive resurrection life, life from Him. They will have even deeper life through the Spirit. Then they will fully know that He is in the Father as He has said. But even more they will know that He has come to them and is in them and that they are in Him. The closeness of His relationship with the Father will echo the relationship they will have with Him. Something of this comes out in the experience of Stephen. Even as the rocks struck him and he fell to the ground he was so conscious of the presence of Jesus that he who had been all his life taught to pray to God cried, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’ (Acts 7.59).

So through His resurrection and the coming of His Spirit in new measure (for they already enjoy His Spirit in some measure), they will have their eyes fully opened to Who He is, and fully opened to the wonder of their oneness with Him, and of His indwelling within them. This wonderful promise is of new life now, as well as a promise of life in the age to come.

14.21 “He who holds closely my commandments and fully observes them, he is the one who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will make myself known to him”.

This paraphrase brings out the force of the words. They are spoken to those who are in earnest, who hold His words closely in their hearts and live by them and by them alone. This promise is for all who are His, but there is no room for the half-hearted here. This is the real test of whether we love Him. Do we fully do what He said?

We may sing, and dance, and shout ‘praise the Lord’, and that is good. But it means little by itself. The test of love is obedience and a desire to do what He wants. Along with that, and only along with that, the other has meaning. ‘He who says “I know Him” and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him’ (1 John 2.4).

And what will be the result? That the Father will love them. This is a very different love from that which God had for the world (John 3.16). That love was a general beneficence that provided a way of salvation towards those who would respond, and great it was for it cost Him His Son. But this is a personal, individual love, as a Father to His children. His people are His children in a way that the world is not. That is why Jesus taught them to pray ‘Our Father’.

But they will not only enjoy the special love of the Father, for He adds “and I will love him and will make myself known to him”. They also enjoy the personal love of the Son. Again we have to ask, who could say this but One Who was God? To link His own love for them as parallel with the Father’s love for them, and indeed to add it on as adding something extra, can only indicate a claim to be of equal stature with the Father. So the one who believes fully in Him and fully observes His commands will receive the Spirit of truth, will enjoy the special, personal love of the Father, and will be equally loved by Jesus, Who will make Himself known to him in the fullness of His glory. Here we see clearly three, Who are of equal stature, Who come to those who fully believe.

14.22 ‘Judas, (not Iscariot), said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will fully reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” ’

Judas is puzzled. It was anticipated that the expected Messiah would make himself known to the world in a great outward show, so that the world would follow him. Men always assume that once God works everyone will respond, and all it will need is a boost. But it has never been so. Always it has been the comparatively few who have responded, for the response must be a true one from the heart, not one produced by mass hysteria. The change to be brought about is not superficial.

This is the mystery of ‘the elect’, those who respond to God and are chosen by God. They come to God as God reveals Himself in their hearts. Jesus Himself had said that only the minority would enter the ‘narrow’ way (Matthew 7.14). So while man’s glory is in huge movements, the swaying of the masses, God works in individuals. But it is understandable that Judas is mystified. Who could foresee at that time what was to come? Again it began with the resurrection appearances, but it continued as He personally revealed Himself in their hearts in their day by day lives, the powerhouse within. As Paul could say, ‘yet no longer I but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2.20). That is why Jesus could promise the, ‘Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world (age)’ (Matthew 28.19-20).

(In Luke 6.16 this Judas is called ‘Judas of James’ i.e. probably ‘son of’. He is also called Thaddaeus (Matthew 10.3; Mark 3.18). Having two names, often a Greek and an Aramaic one, appears to have been commonplace).

14.23-24 ‘Jesus answered and said to him, “If a man loves me he will hold firmly to and obey (keep) my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who does not love me, does not hold firmly to and obey my words. And the word which you hear is not mine but His who went me”.

‘If a man loves me.’ Again this expands beyond the Apostles. The use of the singular ‘my word’ covers the whole of Jesus’ teaching, both theological and ethical. The man who loves Him will hold firmly to what he has learned from Jesus, absorbing it and letting it be fulfilled through his life. So Jesus is telling Judas, and the others, that His Messiahship is not with outward show but is a deeply personal and spiritual thing. It has been promoted through His life and teaching.

Thus those who promote it will not do so with flashing swords, but with obedient love and sound teaching. As a man responds obediently to the Jesus whom he loves, so will he enjoy the love of the Father, and the continuing presence with him of the Father and the Son. ‘We will come to him and make our home with him.’ The word ‘home’ is the same as that for ‘resting place’ in 14.2. While we live on earth His resting place is with us. When we rise to Heaven our resting place will be with Him. In both cases it is a permanent resting place, not a temporary residence.

However there are those who will not hold firmly to His words and obey them, whatever their profession might be (‘why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say?’ (Luke 6.46)), and this is proof that they do not love Him. Then Jesus stresses again that His word is not only His but also the Father’s word, emphasising its eternal importance.

14.25 “I have spoken these things to you while abiding with you”.

This signals the end of His ministry to them. They will no more benefit from His presence and teaching. He has shared their lives and watched over them, corrected them and guided them, but now He will do so no more. But they need not fear for another will come Who will replace Him in this task..

14.26 “But the ideal companion (paraclete), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and enable you to remember all that I have said to you”.

They need not fear that they will forget or misinterpret His words in the future. They are too important for that. The coming Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, will teach them the full truth from beginning to end and will bring to their memory all His words. Thus does He ensure the preservation of His word, and put His seal on their interpretation of His death and resurrection.

These words are vitally important as stressing, on Jesus’ authority, that His truth will be reliably and accurately preserved by Divine assistance. The Apostles, and those who wrote under their guidance, will fully preserve the truth. Thus does Jesus lay His personal seal on the New Testament, and these words explain why the early church only accepted as divinely authoritative writings with Apostolic connections.

While we ourselves can accept that the Holy Spirit does guide us into truth and often bring Scripture to mind when we need it, these words above do not literally apply to us. We are not promised that we will be infallibly guided by the Spirit. This was only so at the beginning among those set apart for this purpose.

How often men say, ‘the Holy Spirit has shown me’, or ‘I have been guided by the Spirit’. How often such claims are made to look foolish. For if by this they are claiming that this therefore guarantees the authenticity of what they say or do they are sadly mistaken (as their disagreements with equally ‘inspired’ interpreters demonstrate quite clearly). For our fallible minds are not reliable channels of the Spirit’s activity. That is why Paul said of those who ‘spoke by the Spirit’ or prophesied - ‘let the others judge’ (1 Corinthians 14.29).

That was before there was a New Testament. Now of course we have an infallible guide to judge men’s teaching by in the Scriptures. But all interpreters can so easily be fallible so that we need carefully to interpret each Scripture in the light of the whole, and compare it with the teaching of other Spirit filled men who are not fully of our own narrow persuasion, and thus come to a consensus of opinion, recognising that where there are differences on secondary matters (even though they may seem primary to us) in some of those matters it may be us who are wrong.

3). Final Words of Comfort (John 14.27-31)

14.27 “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. It is not as the world gives that I give to you”.

Jesus now assures them of peace in mind and heart, which He will give to them, indeed is now giving to them. His Spirit will not only teach them but will give them peace within, ‘peace that passes all understanding’ (Philippians 4.7). And it is a peace which is permanent, not dependent on the vicissitudes of the world. It is a peace that nothing can touch (except deliberate sin). The one who enjoys this peace may be troubled, as Jesus was sometimes troubled, but he will have an inner certainty beneath that makes the troubles bearable and temporary. For it His peace, a peace that they enjoy because of His presence within them and through an awareness of the greatness of God’s love for them (Ephesians 3.17-19).

14.27b-28 “Do not allow your heart to be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father. For the Father is greater than I”.

While it is true that He is leaving them, they must not let it get them down. For if they only think about it they will realise that it is both for His and their good. They may want Him to stay, but if they love Him they will rejoice at His going for they will realise that He is going to the Father, and what could be more wonderful than that? Here on earth He is tried and tested, often weary, the object of enmity, scorn and ridicule, but there He will share the Father’s glory and rejoice in the Father’s love.

In His present manhood He is as One Who has stepped down from that glory. Although He was Himself of the nature of Godhood, He had emptied Himself and become in the nature of servitude, not counting equality with God as something to be grasped and held on to, but as something to be let go so that He may become obedient to death on a cross (Philippians 2.6-8).

Thus while He is in this position of servitude and humility His Father is greater than He, for His Father has retained His status and glory. So they should rejoice that He will now return to that glory, and take His rightful place, being exalted and given the Name above every Name (the name of Yahweh, the name by which God was known in the Old Testament), and being declared ‘Kurios’ (LORD) which in the Greek Old Testament is the translation of Yahweh (Philippians 2.9-11).

14.29 “And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe”.

He is preparing them for the amazing change that will take place in His status. When they see Him resurrected, and ascending to the glory of the Father, they will remember what He has told them and recognise the truth for what it is.

14.30-31 “I will not speak with you much more. For the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded me, so I do. Arise, let us go from here”.

He has said what needs to be said, and now He will prepare for what He must face.

‘The ruler of this world’. Humanly speaking this is earthly authorities (in this case Jewish and Roman), who rule in this world, seen as a unity, but behind them lies a shadowy figure who orchestrates their actions, Satan himself. While elsewhere ‘the ruler of this world’ could be looked on as a general designation for any ‘ruling authority’ here it is far more likely that Satan himself is primarily in mind. As John says ‘the whole world lies in the arms of the Evil One’ (1 John 5.19). Judas was one who would come and we already know that Satan has entered him (13.27).

‘Has nothing in me.’ This may partly signify that the ‘Accuser’ has nothing to accuse Him of. And that his worldly counterparts too will challenge Him in vain. But it also speaks of all the efforts made by Satan to find a chink in His armour. For a while Satan and his minions probably thought that they were going to be hugely successful, but their efforts proved miserly and futile. Even in the few short hours of their ‘almost’ success they had nothing in Him and could do nothing to Him. He was probably confident that once he had Jesus at his mercy on the cross some chink would appear through which he could attack him. But when the moment came he found that he had failed, and that it was he himself who was defeated. There was no chink, and he himself was bound and made captive. Jesus was beyond their power, and over them in power. And furthermore He has nothing to give them that they will receive, for they will not accept it. They are thus an irrelevance. The only worthwhile thing they will do is demonstrate to all that He loves the Father, for what He will go through is at the Father’s command.

“Arise, let us go from here”.

The Greek word agomen (let us go) implies in normal Greek usage ‘going to meet the enemy’, thus we might translate ‘let us march to meet him’. Compare its use in Matthew 26.46; Mark 14.42; John 11.16, in each case used at a crisis point. Had the aim been just to leave the place another word would have been used.

‘Arise’ may well be translated ‘bestir yourselves’. So this is not necessarily the end of the conversations in the Upper Room, but a rallying cry to the disciples, and a declaration that He is not fearful of the ruler of this world. He is saying, “The ruler of this world comes --- bestir yourselves, let us go to meet him.” Jesus will not stay in hiding or flinch from what lies ahead. He is ready for all that they can do.

Perhaps at this stage they did begin to rise from their reclining positions and stand up to make preparations for leaving. But Jesus then continues His teaching through chapters 15 and 16 followed by His final prayer in chapter 17. They would have been quite used to listening standing up and it would give them opportunity to relieve aching muscles (they were a lot tougher than we are). It is possible that at the same time some cleared away the remnants of the meal, and put the room to order.

(It is in fact quite common for someone today to say, ‘come on, it is time we were going’, only for it to be followed by delay while certain things are done and further conversation takes place, often for some time. There is thus no unlikelihood in the above, whichever interpretation we accept).