John 14
First, review Chap. 12 and 13.
In Chapter 12, Jesus and the disciples have gone to Bethany six days before the Passover. They had supper there at the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Mary anoints the feet of Jesus and Judas criticizes her for it, saying the expensive perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor.
However, we are told that Judas was a thief and he often stole the money in the money bag. His heart was not one of a true disciple. Jesus said that Mary was preparing Him for His burial.
The next day, Jesus rode into Jerusalem and the palms were waved and the people praised Him as the King. Many people went to meet Jesus and also Lazarus whom He had raised from the dead. It seems as though things couldn't get better, when the disciples are given the news by Jesus Himself:
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.....Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'?
BUT FOR THIS PURPOSE I CAME TO THIS HOUR."
Chapter 13 - Now before the FEAST OF THE PASSOVER, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to BETRAY Jesus. To show His love and to give an example of how they were to show their love for one another, JESUS PUT ON A TOWEL and washed the feet of the disciples. Jesus knew the one that would betray Him and when He dipped the morsel of bread and gave it to Judas Iscariot, Satan ENTERED Judas...and Jesus said "What you do, do quickly.." Judas left and it was nightime. He told the other 11 disciples:
"Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now also I say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'
He gave them the commandment TO LOVE even as HE HAD LOVED THEM. The way others would know they were His disciples would be the LOVE THEY HAD FOR ONE ANOTHER. Peter wanted to go and lay his life down for Him that moment, but Jesus knew that before the rooster crowed in the morning....Peter will have DENIED knowing Him three times.
WELL, their hearts must be troubled!
He is telling them they can't go where He is going and that they will deny knowing Him! So, Chapter 14's Words are a continuation of His speech with them.......
What does Jesus tell them in John 14:1?
What are they to believe?
In John 14:2, what does He tell them He is going to do for them?
In verse 3, He says "I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."That had to bring comfort after being told they couldn't come where He was now going, but that one day they would be where He was going!
How comforting to know that if you believe in God and in Jesus, and they did as well, one day you will be where they are! Of course, the greatest prize of all is we will be with OUR JESUS AND OUR FATHER GOD!Jesus points out to them, however, that there is ONLY ONE WAY TO GET THERE.
What is it according to John 14:6? Write this verse below
How could the disciples know that they had seen the Father and now know the Father? (vs.7-9)
When Jesus spoke Words, Who was speaking through Him?
When Jesus performed works (or signs), Who worked through Him?
Why would those who believed in Jesus be able to do even greater works than He did? (vs.12)
What is going to happen when He goes to the Father?
He is going to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to indwell and empower the believers. They will spread out into all the world with the Gospel, the Good News of the death, burial, resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their works will be on a much larger scale than His ministry in the regions of Galilee and Judea. Because of the Holy Spirit, believers on every continent now have the Lord God living inside of them speaking His Words and doing His Works!
A name is the character of the person. If you ask in the character of who Jesus is, and with pure motives as Jesus would have, seeking His will above your own, you are asking in His Name.
To know if you are asking "in His Name"....ask yourself, Will what I am asking for bring GLORY TO GOD THE FATHER?
Tied into this prayer lesson is a very important statement....Write out what Jesus says immediately following from John 14:15
Love is not an emotion, although it can manifest in that....Love is an action!
JESUS IS GOING TO ASK THE FATHER TO SEND THEM ANOTHER HELPER!
Not only will they be comforted to know that Jesus is preparing a place for them....and that they can ask the Father in His Name and He will do it for them....but now they are told, another HELPER is being sent from God.
This Helper is a person....called "He".....
How long is He going to be with the believer? (vs.16
Who is this Helper? (vs.17)
Why can't those in the world receive Him?
Jesus tells these disciples that they already know Him! He has told Philip and the others....If you know Me, you know the Father...now He tells them...."but you know Him (the Holy Spirit) because He abides WITH you and will be IN you..........."
It is Jesus, but also the Holy Spirit.
Remember the Holy Spirit descended upon Him and remained upon Him and that is how John the Baptist knew that He was the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One. So when He leaves them physically at His death, He will come no longer to abide WITH them, but to be IN THEM.This is the PROMISE OF THE NEW COVENANT spoken of in the Old Testament (Covenant) books. The promised Messiah would bring God's Spirit to indwell the believer!
It is worth our time to look up a few of these verses. What a blessing this is!
Look up Ezekiel 36:22-32. Read these 10 verses.
This is a future promise God made to the nation of Israel, but it has been fulfilled for the church today and will be completed in fulfillment in the nation of Israel when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in (taught in the New Testament book of Romans).......
What kind of heart will God give them? (vs.26)
What kind of spirit will they be given?
What kind of heart will God remove from them?
What kind of heart will be placed in its place?
In vs. 27, what does He promise to place inside them?
When the Holy Spirit is within them (instead of with them outwardly)....WHAT WILL HE CAUSE THEM TO DO? (Vs. 27)
Very good news for a people who could not obey the commandments of God and continually suffered the consequences of their disobedience. God's grace would cause them to be able to live as more than conquerers! Amen! He goes on to speak of the LAND that they will be given in this COVENANT promise (and they will be given that land - because God said so!)
When God works this GRACE in their lives, what will they remember about themselves? (vs.31)
How was it for you when His covenant of blood shed for you was offered free of cost?
Did you see your sins as filthy rags? Did you realize that nothing dwelt in you that was good enough for the presence of God to come in and dwell beside? Did you have conviction of sin?
Will God perform this Holy Spirit Baptism for them because they deserve it? (vs.32)
No, they should be ashamed and confounded by their ways!
Look back up in Ezekiel 36:22-24.
The prophet Jeremiah penned the prophecy of the coming Holy Spirit also! Read Jeremiah 31:31-34.
What kind of covenant will He make with Israel?
What will it NOT be like?
Verse 33....WHERE will His laws be written?
No longer on tablets of stone...with a list of "must do".......But the heart will change, and the heart will be flesh, and the heart will desire to walk in His ways. He will change the "must do" to a "want to"..................
They will each "know" the Lord (what Jesus has been speaking about with the disciples in John 14).....and
Although there are many other Old Testament Scriptures we could look at, let's just see a few in the New Testament that shows the fulfillment of the New Covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus:
It is written about in Hebrews, Chapter 8.
In Chapter 10 of Hebrews, verse 1, it says:
"For the LAW, since it has only a shadow of the good things TO COME and NOT the very from of things, can NEVER by the same sacrifices year after year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. But in those sacrifices there is a REMINDER OF SINS year by year. For it is IMPOSSIBLE for the blood of bulls and goats to TAKE AWAY SINS.......but the blood of Jesus.....His one sacrifice....for sins of all time.....has perfected for all time those who are sanctified (set apart).
Hebrews 10:15 quotes the Old Testament in reference to us having received the promise of the New Covenant as believers in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: 'I WILL PUT MY LAWS UPON THEIR HEART, AND UPON THEIR MIND, I WILL WRITE THEM.' He then says.................'AND THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."
Hebrews 13:20,21 has this exhortation to us.........
"Now the God of PEACE, who brought up from the dead the GREAT SHEPHERD of the SHEEP through the BLOOD OF THE ETERNAL COVENANT, even Jesus our Lord, EQUIP you in EVERY GOOD THING to DO HIS WILL, WORKING IN US that which is PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT, through Jesus Christ, to Whom be the GLORY, FOREVER AND EVER. Amen."
So, as Jesus speaks of the coming Holy Spirit, He says "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Why? Because the Holy Spirit will be IN them, working IN them, causing them TO do the things that PLEASE the Father. Appetites change. We become NEW creatures in Christ Jesus by the New Covenant. The laws are not on tablets to obey. They are written by God on our hearts and on our minds.
His Spirit lives within us! This is the promise that the Old Testament saints longed to experience.
Take time to read 2 Corinthians, Chapter 3.
What do you learn about the Spirit of God?
What does the letter (or law) do according to vs.6?
What does the Spirit do?
What kind of ministry was the law - the Old covenant according to verse 7?
What kind of ministry was the law - the Old covenant according to verse 9? glory?
It is death...... and it is condemnation.........
rather than death - there is LIFE and there is LIBERTY (freedom)!It is a process of becoming more like Jesus every day as we grow in His grace and in His knowledge.
It is from glory to glory (revelation to revelation)...that this transformation is taking place. When we accept the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, the covenant of His blood shed for us, what do we actually become IN HIM?
2 Corinthians 5:21 -
Are you righteous?
Are you a saint?
A sanctified one?
YES, but only because of the righteousness in Christ Jesus, nothing of yourself at all.Then why the law? - It was given to lead us to Christ!
Read Galatians Chapter 3 and
Galatians 5:1 - "It was for FREEDOM that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."
..........
Galatians 5:25 - "If we live by the Spirit, let us also WALK by the Spirit."
The freedom is in loving Him and desiring to obey Him, abiding in Him and in His Word, and having His Spirit indwell us and empower us to walk in ways that please Him, being a sweet aroma to Him with our lives as a continual offering of praise to Him for setting us free from the law of sin and death!
A LOT OF INFORMATION ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.....HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT......
Remember in John 7, we were told WHEN the believers at that time would RECEIVE the Holy Spirit.
Well, the Sprit cannot come until Jesus is glorified. In John 14, He is telling them "the hour has come that I be glorified". When he resurrects from the grave and ascends to the Father 40 days later......He tells them to wait until they are empowered from on high. On the day of Pentecost when the Jews are celebrating the feast of Pentecost.....THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL COME UPON THEM!
THE CHURCH ~ JEWS AND GENTILES IN ONE BODY~WILL BE BORN!
They will be able to do even greater works than Jesus because He will go to be with the Father and send His Spirit to speak His words and do His works.It won't be limited to a small area as Gailee and Judea.....as the three years of the public ministry of Jesus was - His commandment to them will be to
.................
GO INTO ALL THE NATIONS PREACHING ALL THAT HE HAS COMMANDED THEM BAPTIZING IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND HE WILL BE WITH THEM EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE. (Matthew 28)
Back to the completion of John, Chapter 14.
In verse 20, what will they know about where Jesus is?
Where will the believer be?
Where will Jesus be in respect to the believer?
According to verse 21, what is the proof of who really belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ?
How does this compare to what we learned from the Old Testament promises in regard to the coming HOLY SPIRIT of PROMISE?
Verse 23 states that if we love Him, we will keep His Word. The word "keep" here means to "treasure"; to "cherish". If you are doing these studies with us, it is evident that you love the Lord Jesus; you are treasuring and cherishing His Word.....desiring to know Him in order to please Him and show Him to others!
So, from this chapter we see that every believer has three persons of God that come to dwell inside of them....
What role will the Helper play after Jesus departs from them?
Although Jesus is leaving them, they won't be alone. They are not to let their hearts be troubled or fearful.
Jesus ends His conversation saying the time is very short; He won't be speaking much longer to them.
Verse 30 - "the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I LOVE THE FATHER I do exactly as the Father commanded me........"
Yes, the temporary "god of this world", Satan, has entered Judas and soon they will be coming to take Jesus away and crucify Him on a cross.
Yes Peter will deny Him as Jesus said......they will all run and be afraid....
but after He has resurrected and after He speaks with them again before His ascension to the Father, the Holy Spirit will be promised again....and soon the HOLY SPIRIT WILL COME UPON THEM AND BE IN THEM!
............
And the Helper, the Spirit of Truth, He will teach them, and they will remember the teachings of Jesus, and these men will be filled with the Spirit of the Living God and they will turn their world upside down with THE GOSPEL OF THE LIVING GOD!
HOW ABOUT YOU?
The Spirit indwells everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ today.
It is the blood of the New Covenant - His law will be written on your heart and your mind - Your appetite will change - Your heart and your spirit will be made new - You will be a new creature.
You can't obey the laws of God apart from the Spirit of God. Give it up.
The Spirit will produce His fruit in you. He will be in you and give you the "want to" in place of the "have to" FREEDOM FROM THE BONDAGE OF LAW AND DEATH!
There is so much more to learn, but it begins with your personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you love Him? Then obey His commandments by walking in His Spirit and allowing Him to live and work through you.
Your Summary and Prayer:
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