John Chapter 14
Read John 14:1-14
People all over the world are seeking comfort as they long for peace and joy in their hearts.
Jesus alone can bring that comfort, peace and joy.
When you leave this Bible study today, you will go to our parking lot, get in your car and go home.
Do you believe that your car will take you home?
Just believing that your car will take you home won’t get you home.
You believe in your car so much that you commit yourself to your car, you get into it, and you trust that it will get you home.
That’s the way you get saved; you believe in Christ, and you trust and commit yourself to Him.
Verse 2 “many rooms” or “mansions” (KJV).
What is the Father’s house in our vast universe?
Today, we live on planet Earth, a very minor, small planet that’s just a tiny blue speck in the vastness of space.
Our Galaxy is only one galactic system among the trillions and trillions of galactic systems in our universe which may or may not be the only universe.
Our nearest neighbor Galaxy is Andromeda, which is some 2 million light years away from Earth.
If you got in a space ship and traveled to Andromeda to borrow a cup of sugar, the round trip would take you 4 million years provided you could travel at least as fast as the speed of light.
Our Father’s house is the infinite universe which He created with one divine breath billions of years ago, before time for us here on earth began.
The “many rooms” are “abiding places” God has prepared for us to live.
God could have very easily brushed off this little earth when sin entered the human heart, and started over again, but He wouldn’t do that because of His love for us.
“…if it were not so, I would have told you” (verse 2): Jesus puts His entire reputation on the line here, and you either believe Him or you don’t believe Him.
In verse 3, Jesus said, “I will come back and take you to be with me…”
This is the first time in the Bible where you find God promising to take someone off this earth to the place that He has prepared for us to permanently abide.
John Chapter 14 is the greatest chapter of comfort in the Bible, for God is moving uncompromisingly toward the day when He puts His own Son upon the throne here on earth, and that will be the Kingdom of Heaven.
In verse 4, Jesus tells His Disciples two things: the destination, which is the “where,” and the way to go, which is the “how.”
That’s having the know how and the do how!
Doubting Thomas, who had a question mark for a brain, asked a really good question in verse 5.
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth, and the life.”
Jesus is not just the person who shows us the way, but He, personally, is the Way.
No church ceremony can bring you to God.
Only Christ can bring you to God.
He is the Way.
“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Here Jesus made a dead-end street of all the cults and “isms” of our world.
He says the only way to God is through Him, and millions of people have been coming to Christ on the basis of His statement, “I am the Way.”
Verse 8: Philip was usually a very quiet individual, the opposite from Peter or Thomas.
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
I’d like to ask you a personal question, "Have you seen the Father?"
You can see the Father through creation and through Jesus, the Son.
Our goals in life may be worthy goals, but the highest goal is this goal expressed by Philip, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough…”
Read John 14:15-31
This is the greatest promise ever made!
Have you ever tasted a nice, cold, refreshing CocaCola?
I’m sure you have, and so have hundreds of millions of other people around the world.
During World War II, Robert Woodruff said that in his lifetime he wanted everyone in the world to have a taste of CocaCola.
Talk about a personal vision!
Robert Woodruff and his colleagues reached their generation around the world for CocaCola.
How big is your vision?
Have you ever thought about what God could do through you to influence other people?
Jesus wasn’t kidding when he called his disciples to impact the world for His name.
Jesus challenged His disciples.
Today, that same challenge is for you and for me!
We’re to dream great dreams in our Christian life.
We’re to plan great plans in our Christian life.
We’re to pray great prayers in our Christian life.
And we’re to obey God’s commands in our Christian life.
Dream great dreams!
For about 3 years, the disciples of Jesus held out hope that Jesus would be the One who would redeem the nation of Israel and reign as a King/Messiah.
What they really wanted was for Jesus to overthrow the Roman government and establish a new government; so they could have positions of honor and power in that new government.
Now, Jesus was saying to them that one of them would betray Him and deliver Him up to the Jewish leaders to be crucified.
Imagine what the twelve disciples thought when Jesus went on to say: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing”
(John 14:12).
To each disciple, Jesus said, “You can continue the work I’ve been doing.”
His promise is the same to you and me today.
He calls us to dream great dreams of what we can do to impact the world.
How is this possible?
How can we possibly do what Jesus did?
First, because Jesus was going to heaven to be with His Father, He assured His disciples, and us who are here today that He would send the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit of God, to indwell in all believers.
Second, Jesus qualified His promise to us with a condition.
The condition is anyone who has faith in Christ will do what Christ had been doing (verse 12).
Jesus Christ challenges us to have faith.
It’s an ongoing faith!
We’re also supposed to renew our vision.
Have you stopped seeing great things happen in your life?
Have you stopped believing that God can still work miracles in your life?
Have you placed limits on God and what He can do?
Is God somehow incapable and powerless in your mindset today?
Why is it that so few Christians ever accomplish great things?
The reason is that we lose the ability over time to dream great dreams and have great visions of God working in our lives.
In order for God to use you, you have to renew His power in your life.
Then, you begin to dream big dreams.
Christ never limited His disciples’ vision of the future.
Take God at His word, and make plans now to accomplish something great for God by His power working through you.
Plan great plans!
I want you to see the greatest promise ever made right here in verse 12.
Look at the last part of verse 12:
“Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (verse 12).
That’s an incredible promise.
We can trust these words because these words came from the lips of Christ Himself.
Jesus promises us that we can do greater works than he did!
On the day of Pentecost, just 40 days after Jesus said these words, Peter preached a sermon and over 3,000 people were saved.
That never happened in Jesus’ ministry.
Just a few decades ago, Rev. Billy Graham preached to a crowd of over 1 million people in Seoul, Korea.
And look at the ministry of the apostle Paul.
Paul saturated the world with the Gospel.
God intends for us to plan and dream big for His kingdom growth.
Do you have dreams and plans of what God might do through you?
He says that you can do even greater things than He has done.
Start doing something by making specific plans of action.
Are you willing to plan great plans?
The plan of Jesus is to change the world.
All Jesus needs is a life willing to help.
Your life can be that life!
Rev. Jimmy Davis
Bayview Baptist Church
5300 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29204
Telephone: 803-754-8690
Email: BayviewBaptist@aol.com
