The Gospel of John
John 13:36 - 14:4
36 Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?”
Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
37 Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
38 Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!”
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
1. Setting For the Book. The Gospel of John is set in Jerusalem and is unique in its description of the city. John places Jesus there on at least five different occasions during the feast days, picturing Jesus as an obedient Jew who goes to Jerusalem as commanded (Deut. 16:16). In John, the ministry of Jesus is almost exclusively in Jerusalem, as opposed to Galilee in the synoptic gospels. In Galilee, the multitudes generally received him, but in Jerusalem, Jesus is confronted with “the Jews” who dispute his claim of deity and crucify him.11
Merrill C. Tenney stated the action in the Gospel of John took place between A.D. 30 and 36, when Pontius Pilate was removed from office by the order of Tiberius Caesar. The references in John to many of the ancient landmarks indicate the author must have been in Jerusalem before A.D. 70, because much of the city was destroyed in A.D. 66 - 70 by the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt. Mentioned in John are: the five colonnades at the pool of Bethesda (5:2) (revealed by recent excavation), where Jesus taught at the colonnade of Solomon at the outer edge of the temple enclosure (10:23), the palace (praetorium) (18:28) and “the stone pavement” (19:13) where the hearing before Pilate was held, the place of execution called “Golgotha” (Hebrew for “skull”) (19:17) and the garden of Joseph where Jesus’ body was buried (19:41).
The allusions to places and customs of the Jewish religion corroborate the setting of the action presented in the Gospel. The writer of this Gospel knew the layout of Palestine in this correct reference to the divisions of the land into Judea, Samaria and Galilee, and he accurately cited details about towns and cities like Nazareth (1:45-46), Cana (2:1), Capernaun (2:12) and Sychar (4:5). 12
James L. Boyer sets the time of John 14:1-3 at April, 30 A.D. 13 The disciples have gathered in the Upper Room to observe the Passover. They were deeply concerned and anticipated Christ would soon fulfill the glorious promises of the kingdom on earth but they did not understand the differences between his First and Second Coming. In fact, they were unable to spiritually assimilate all that Jesus was teaching. They were worried about themselves because there was a plot to arrest and kill Christ. Jesus has just told them that one of them would betray him (John 13:18-19, 21). He said he was going to leave and they could not follow (v. 33). Peter affirmed he would be willing to die for Christ.
In the midst of this mounting anxiety and alarm, Jesus comforts the apostles and gives them information about their future, telling them not to be troubled and to keep on trusting in God. Jesus gave the reason: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2-3).
2. Context Before and After the Passage. In all of this anxiety, Jesus teaches his disciples humble service by washing their feet. He has the Last Supper with the disciples and predicts Peter’s denial. He reveals something new to them concerning heaven before His arrest and death. He tells them to trust Him and the Father, that He will prepare a place for them and that He will return for them. This prompts Thomas to ask the question “How do we know the way?” (John 14:5). Jesus gives the answer emblazoned in the hearts of all believers. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father , but through me.” (John 14:6). Jesus promises the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-31), teaches about the vine and the branches (John 15:1-17), warns about the world’s hatred (John 15:18-16:4) and teaches about the Holy Spirit (John 16:5-15) and using His name in prayer (John 16:16-33). Finally, He prays for Himself (John 17:1-5), His disciples (John 17:6-19), and for future believers (John 17:20-26).
The Rapture was a strange prophecy to the disciples, and Jesus did not explain it. They did not understand the difference between the First and Second Coming of Christ, so they could not distinguish between the Rapture of the church and the Second Coming. Jesus, a few days before (Matt. 24), had indicated he would be victorious over his enemies and predicted his glorious return to earth. He warned there would be a long time of much opposition and martyrdom, leading up to it, and the disciples were still grappling with this. They were just not ready to understand this new revelation.
This was the first time it was revealed that the believers in Christ would be removed before the Second Coming. The purpose of the Rapture was to remove the believers from the earth and take them to the Father’s house. This is the key to understanding that the purpose of the Rapture is entirely different from that of the Second Coming. 14
3. Is the Passage to be Taken Literally? Yes. “My Father’s House” (John 14:2) could not be the location of the earthly kingdom in which Jesus will reign. The house represents heaven and the coming is in order to take the disciples home with their resurrected bodies or change those bodies by Rapture. Christ takes them back to heaven with him. He is not ushering them into an earthly kingdom setting. 15
4. Grammatical - Historical Method. As stated by Mal Couch, “Jesus is going now, in the historical context of His death, to His Father’s house. He will come for His own and take them back to a location He has prepared . . . Jesus is not saying that his disciples will simply die and go to the Father’s house . . . His coming for them then must refer either to the Rapture or the bodily resurrection.” 16
5. Customary, Social, Historical and Normal Use of Words. In the fourth Gospel, the expression “Father’s House” signifies heaven as the dwelling place of God (John 14:2). The Greek word oikia (oikia) is used instead of the parallel term oikos (oikoos). 17
William Tyndale’s 1534 English translation of the Bible from the original Greek, renders John 14:2 as “In my Father’s house are many mansions”, as does the King James version which came directly from Tyndale. It is interesting to note that the dignitaries who prepared the 1611 authorized version for King James, never acknowledged Tyndale as the translator. 18 The New American Standard translation of the Bible renders John 14:2 as “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places” by a consensus of a team of educators and pastors under evaluation of outside Greek scholars. Be it “mansions” or “dwelling places”, Paul Enns cites Dwight Pentecost in stating, “Believers will enjoy an eternal fellowship in Christ’s company (John 14:2). The eternal dwelling places in the Father’s house are taken from the imagery of Jewish family life. When a son married, he added an apartment to his father’s house, and the son and his bride took up residence in the father’s household. Believers will enjoy that same family fellowship in the Father’s household in heaven. 19
6. History, Geography, Theology, Place, Time and People in the Gospel of John.
a. History. The author of this Gospel seems more concerned with eternity than with time, as there is little information about general historical events. There is mention of John the Baptist’s ministry (1:19-37; 3:22-36; 4:1), the rebuilding of the temple by Herod (2:20), Annas’ and Caiaphas’ high priesthood (18:13-14) and Pontias Pilate as the prefect of Judea (18;28-19:16, 38). Implied but not featured is the domination of Palestine by the Romans. 20
b. Geography. The geographical location of the intended audience is not clearly identified in John’s Gospel. If “believe” in John 20:31 is in the aorist tense, it could have been addressed to a pagan group to bring them to belief in Jesus as Christ and the Son of God, or if “believe” is in the present tense, it could have been written to Christians who need encouragement and deepening of their faith. It could have been directed to the Christians of the province of Asia if it was written at Ephesus. There is no statement whether it is written to a local church or to Jews or Gentiles. He could have been writing for a Gentile church outside of Palestine from the explanation of Jewish usages, translation of Jewish names and the locating of Palestinian sites. 21
The Gospel’s literary geographical structure emphasizes Jesus’ activity in Jerusalem, and except for a brief visit in Samaria (4:1-42) and in Ephraim (11:54), the narrative of Jesus’ action was centered in Jerusalem. 22
c. Theology. John presents Jesus as the Lord of the maturing and questioning believer. Belief in the Son who came from the Father is the total thesis of the Gospel. Many of its episodes have singleness of purpose in convincing the reader that Jesus was supernatural in his origin, powers and goal; that He was the Logos who had come into the world from another sphere (1:14); He performed miracles or “signs” that illustrated His many-faceted powers; He died an unusual death and rose from the dead to send his disciples out on a universal mission. The promise of His return is implied in the last sentence of the Gospel. Latent in the Gospel is an entirely new revelation of the plan and power of God. 23
John emphasizes most strongly the person of Jesus from a theological viewpoint; that Jesus was no ordinary person (1:1, 14) and that He was the incarnation of the eternal God (1:18). The doctrine of atonement is latent in John’s Gospel (1:29, 3:14-15, 6:51, 10:11). Key to the Rapture is the prominent theme of eternal life (1:4, 3:15-16, 10:10, 20:31), which is bestowed on those who commit themselves to Him (3:36, 4:13, 5:21 & 24, 8:12). The teachings on the Person and functions of the Holy Spirit appears in Jesus’ farewell discourse to the disciples (14:25-26, 15:26, 16:7-15). The nature of belief is fully discussed and demonstrated, and is equated with receiving (1:12), following (1:40), drinking (fig., 4:13), responding (4:51), eating (fig., 6:57), accepting (6:60, lit. “hear”), worship (9:38), obeying (11:39-41) and commitment (12:10-11).24
According to Merrill C. Tenney, the discourses of Jesus in John are mainly apologetic and theological, rather than ethical and practical, as the Sermon on the Mount in the synoptics. As established by John 14:17, the larger part of the teaching was intended for the ears of the disciples only. 25
Quoting Tenney on the historical and theological interpretation of the Gospel of John, “The conclusions of any commentator on this aspect of John will be influenced as much by his personal suppositions as by the text . . . if . . . he begins with the conviction of the author that “the Word became flesh and lived for a while among us” (John 1:14), he will conclude that the theological nature of the career of Jesus was inescapable and that there could be no other way of interpreting him or the Gospel . . . The events themselves are actual; the principles they exemplify may be abstract.” 26
Paul Enns cites D. Edmund Hiebert:
. . . John provides a digest of his theology in the prologue of his Gospel (John 1:1-18), wherein he describes the revelation of life and light through the Son but also describes a sin-darkened world projecting that light. 27
Following the Pentecost, Jesus emphasized the Holy Spirit would be “in them” (John 14:17) and that indwelling would be “forever” (John 14:16). 28
d. Place, Time and People. Most likely this Gospel was written when the church consisted of second- and third-generation Christians who needed more detailed instruction about Jesus and new defenses for apologetic problems raised by apostasy in the church and growing outside opposition. Some of the basic Christian truths had been challenged so a new presentation was needed to meet the questions of the changing times. 29 Tenney suggested the Gospel was written for Gentile Christians who had a basic knowledge of Jesus’ life and works, but who needed further confirmation of their faith. These were primarily second-generation Christians familiar with John and to whom he was a patriarch. 30
Jesus’ last week begins in John 12. He arrived at Bethany “six days before the Passover” (12:1) and Mary and Martha gave a dinner for Him. The chief priests were alarmed at the large crowd that came to see Him and they began to plot the destruction of Jesus and Lazarus. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey to the acclaim of the crowd frustrated his enemies (12:12-19). After the inquiry of the Greeks, Jesus hid himself (v. 36). In verse 13:1, John resumes the narrative with the evening meal in the Upper Room just before the Passover Feast. This took place on the same evening as the betrayal and arrest with the hearings before Pilate and the Crucifixion following the next morning, according to the narrative. The Last Supper with the disciples must have been eaten on Thursday evening and by Jewish reckoning was the beginning of Friday. The Crucifixion and interment would have concluded just prior to Friday evening, the beginning of the Sabbath. 31
Personal interviews with Jesus were a prominent feature of John’s Gospel: Nicodemus in Jerusalem (3:1-15), the woman of Samaria (4:1-26), the nobleman of Cana (4:43-53), the paralytic in Jerusalem (5:1-15), the blind man (9:1-38) and Mary and Martha in Bethany (11:17-40). These interviews depict Jesus’ personal concern for people. Interviews with groups included the “many” who listened to him in Jerusalem (2:23), the Samaritans after his conversations with the woman (4:39), a crowd in Capernaum after the feeding of the five thousand (6:24-40), the pilgrims from Galilee (12:12), the followers at the Passover (v.17) and the crowd in Jerusalem (vv. 29-36). Jesus’ personal ministry to the disciples included Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael, Thomas, Judas Iscariot, the other Judas and Mary of Magdala. Interviews with hostile persons included “the Jews”, the Pharisees and Pilate. 32
7. New Testament References. Are They Literal or Figurative? According to Charles C. Ryrie when Jesus says “I will come again” In John 14:3, he literally means he will return and this is not the coming of the Spirit nor the believer’s death, but Christ’s personal return. 33
8. Does the Passage Contain Figures of Speech, Symbols, Types, Parables, Etc.? The figure of Christ as the bridegroom and the church pictured as the bride awaiting the coming of her husband is unique to the New Testament (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25-27: Rev. 19:6-8). From a dispensational standpoint, John Walvoord views the present age as a time of preparation for the bride. Jesus said He was going to heaven to prepare a place for His own (John 14:2), but most of the work in the present age has to do with the bride herself undergoing progressive sanctification for her presentation as a bride to Christ. The church in the present age has the prospect of the coming of Christ and will, at the Rapture, be instantly perfected, meet the Lord in the air and go to heaven.
In Walvoord’s dispensational view, the church does not fulfill God’s purpose for Israel, but has a special purpose of God, hidden from the Old Testament prophets, but now revealed in the New Testament. At the Rapture of the church, the program of God will return to the dual lines of treatment for Israel and the Gentiles as separate entities. 34
The disciples were in no frame of mind to understand the difference between the Second Coming of Christ to bring in his kingdom and the Rapture to take the church to heaven. Later when Paul was given the added revelation on this subject, the whole truth concerning the Rapture was revealed. This revelation came on the night before Christ was crucified but was recorded by John long after Paul’s revelation on this subject, in the order of canonical revelation. The significance of Jesus’ statement was the indication of the major difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ, the difference being their timing, circumstances and purpose. 35
