Q & A Time Series

John 14: 1 - 11

Q & A Time

1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I AM, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

Have you ever in a conversation not been able to move on from a previous statement? You know when someone said something and it got you thinking. Even though the person continued to talk you were still stuck on sticking remark. Let me explain it more by what we have just studied. In the final verses of chapter 13 our Lord Jesus had made a remark to the Jews that He was going away and that they could not be able to find Him.

“33 Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. 34 A new Commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Our Lord stated that where He was going they could not come. Then as we have read He went on to give them a new Commandment. However, Peter wasn’t listening. He was still stuck on what the Lord had said about going away.

“36 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward.

The disciples loved the Lord. How would you feel if someone you loved dearly just up and says that he is going to have to go away and that you cannot come with him? Sometime in an unknown future though he will contact you and you will be able to be together again.

The Lord Jesus was very much aware of the way that lay ahead both for Himself and for His disciples. The way of trial by His fellow-countrymen followed by the cross lay heavily on His mind, as Gethsemane will reveal, but what His disciples would have to face in the future was also prominent in His thinking. He was aware that His disciples, who had faithfully followed Him and trusted Him, now fully relied on Him. He was their world. Yet, partly because of what had just occurred in respect of the possibility of betrayal, He knew that they were puzzled and bewildered, and He knew that they would soon be even more puzzled and bewildered in the face of what was to come. They had just learned that one from among themselves would betray Him and that even Peter would deny Him. And He was aware that shortly they were suddenly to be left on their own in the most trying of circumstances.

We must never underestimate the confusion and stress that the disciples would have to face. For three or more years they had followed our Lord Jesus and had learned from Him, and they had trusted Him fully and had been confident of His success as the One Who had come from God. They had been sure that through Him God was working out His purpose. Their whole certainty lay in His presence and in an earthly future that they saw lying before them. Thus when He was arrested and led off to what they knew was almost certain death it was inevitable that all their hopes and expectations would collapse. What had to them seemed a total impossibility would have taken place. It would seem to them that even God had been thwarted. No wonder their faith would collapse. And yet it was these very men who were soon to find themselves responsible for going out and presenting God’s truth to the world.