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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - John 14:1 - 14:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_14:1. Let not your heart be troubled:
This is one of those verses that you may read as slowly as you like, and spell out every letter, and find honey in it all.
Joh_14:1. Ye believe in God, believe also in me.
As Jews, they had already known and seen the power of God. They were now to rise to the faith of Christians, and to believe in Jesus their Saviour.
Even though they should see him die, they were not to doubt him: “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
Joh_14:2. In my Father’s house are many mansions:
So there is room for many, there are homes for many, there is wealth for many; “In my Father’s house are many mansions:”
Joh_14:2. If it were not so, I would have told you.
The Saviour seems to say to his disciples, “I keep nothing back from you; had there been some sorrowful fact to be revealed to you, I would at length have told you of it.”
Joh_14:2. I go to prepare a place for you.
“There must be a heaven, for I am going there myself, and I am going on purpose to make it ready for you.”
Joh_14:3. And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
That is the first and simplest idea of heaven, to be with Christ; and I think it is the last and sublimest idea of heaven, too,—to be with Christ: “that where I am, there ye may be also.”
Joh_14:4-5. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
The apostles blundered, and lost themselves in the words of their Master, instead of entering into the spirit of what he said; so we must not wonder if we often do the same. Unless we wait upon God to be instructed by his Spirit, even the plainest passages of Scripture may be obscure to us.
Joh_14:6-7. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Jesus had been talking about the many mansions, and now he talks about the Father. Is the Father, then, the same as heaven? Ay, indeed; to come to the Father is to come to perfect blessedness, to know the fullness of his eternal love, and to enjoy it in face-to-face communion;—this is heaven.
What higher bliss can we desire?
Joh_14:8-9. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?
Do we, then, see the Father when we see Christ? And is the Father’s presence heaven? Then, Christ is heaven; and to be with him is heaven. It is even so. He is the way to heaven, the truth of heaven, the life of heaven. He is heaven’s everything.
“
The narrow way, till him I view;”
Joh_14:10-12. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
In consequence of Christ’s going to the Father, and the Spirit of God descending upon Christ’s disciples, they are enabled to outdo their Master in some forms of holy service. For instance, some of them brought more to the faith than Christ himself had done during his lifetime, and so realized the fulfillment of this promise, “The works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
This exposition consisted of readings from Joh_14:1-12 : and Col_1:1-19.