Jesus Comforts The Troubled Heart - Part 2
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1 ”Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for 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 you know the way where I am going.”
5 Thomas *said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
8 Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.
11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.
13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
Jesus is giving His farewell to His disciples. He is soon to depart this world to return to Heaven. The disciples are grieved that He is going to die, rather than conquer the Romans, liberate Israel, and rule. Jesus tells them to not be troubled in their hearts. Jesus was not forsaking them. He can be trusted, He only tells the truth. Jesus assures them, “for I go to prepare a place for you.” “If I go and prepare a place for you, I WILL COME AGAIN!
These are extremely encouraging words for the wearied followers of Christ Jesus who sometimes feel as though they have been forgotten or left alone in this world to care for themselves.
Jesus knows first hand, about the “many dwelling places” in the Father’s House. He even says to them, “if it were not so, I would have told you.
Having gone to prepared a place, He will come again and receive His own to Himself, that where He is, there His own may be also.
These words of our Lord are a comfort and delight to those who watch with anticipation of our Lords appearing.
Don’t ever stop watching for His appearing. It will be in a time when people do not expect it.
“You know the way where I am going.” Jesus says to His disciples. But by now, the disciples were so troubled, that they were not sure of anything. Thomas, speaking for the rest of the disciples said to Him, “Lord, we do NOT know where You are going,....how do we know the way?”
They knew that Jesus was going to die, but what lay beyond death was still a mystery to them.
Jesus had even told them earlier in chapter 13, that where He was going, they can not come until later.
They knew that Jesus was going away, but that they were not permitted to follow at that given time.
After Thomas claimed, “Lord we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus said to them all, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Every false religion claims to know the pathway to God, when the WORD clearly teaches that Jesus alone, is the only way to God. Jesus claims to be equal with the Father. Access to the Father is made possible by Christ Jesus. Here He clearly states to them, “no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Throughout the Book of John we are reminded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that He alone is the way and their is salvation in no other!
For The Troubled of Heart, Trust In The Person of Jesus
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
Jesus says...
“If you had known Me”...
To “Know” someone, means more than being aware of their existence, doesn’t it? It means more than having heard their name somewhere doesn’t it?
The disciples had been with Jesus for three years. By now, you would expect that they would known Him to be God in the flesh.
But here, Jesus scolds them saying, “If you had known Me”...
“you would have known My Father also;”...
For the disciples to know the Father, they must fully and finally believe and trust and know the Son.
Many false religions claim to know God, yet their rejection of His only begotten Son only goes to prove, they do not know God.
After all the countless miraculous signs that Jesus performed in the presence of His disciples, they still had not come to grips with the reality that Jesus is God manifesting Himself in the form and flesh of a man.
In the very near future, the disciples would come to realize who Jesus is and His relationship to the Father.
So Jesus says to them in verse 7...
“from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
After His death, resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the disciples would finally understand that they had walked and talked with God.
8 Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
It’s as if Philip is saying to Jesus, “we have seen some really great miracles, but could you please give us the ultimate dazzling sight to behold?
Could you just....
“Show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”?
That is...”Couldn’t you just peel back the veil and let us see the face of God?”
Philip thought that by seeing the Father, it would calm their troubled hearts.
Philip thought that by seeing the Father, it would end the strife among them, stop the imminent betrayal and desertion, it would stop the imminent denial by Peter, and it would solved their problems of misunderstanding.
9 Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Seeing Philip’s discontent, we find here where Christ is upset with His disciples.
What they were not understanding is that Jesus was the full embodiment of God.
The Lord reiterates to them, His oneness with the Father.
To see Him is to see the Father. The Father dwells in the Son and the Son dwells in the Father.
His name is Immanuel...which means...God among us.
The disciples should have drawn from the things that they heard Jesus say.
The miracles they saw Him perform were given to corroborate Jesus’ teachings.
They should have realized by now, that His is Immanuel, God among men!
10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.
...“how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Here the Word, made flesh, was tabernacling among men, and His glory was “the glory of the only-begotten of the Father.”
He was the visible Image of the invisible God.
Jesus’ words and His works were a perfect revelation of Deity.
Notice: Jesus refers to His “words” as the Father’s “works.” His words were works, for they were words of power.
When He spoke, it was done;
When He commanded, it stood fast
When He commanded Lazarus come forth, death lost its grip.
11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.
When Jesus made the claim back in Chapter 10, that He and the Father are one, the Jews took up stones to throw at Him.
The Lords says to them in...
37 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;
38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
Notice here in..verse 11, the Lord descend to the level that He took when speaking with His enemies.
11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves.
In other words, He says to them all, “If you will not believe that I am One with the Father, based upon My word, at least acknowledge the proof of it in My works.
Aren’t you thankful that the Holy Spirit has been given to us, to make clear to us, what once was so dark to the disciples?
Aren’t you thankful that “we know that the Son of God is come, and has given to us and understanding, that we might know Him who is true?
Believer, aren’t you thankful that we are in Him who is true?
For The Troubled of Heart, Trust In The Power of Jesus
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.
The words, “Truly, Truly” is a call to listen closely. What Jesus has to say to His disciples is of tremendous importance.
I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also;
This is a promise to the one who believes in Christ, and the works that Christ does, the disciple will do also.
Jesus even goes on to say that, and greater works than these shall the disciple do.
This came to pass in...
12 And at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico.
13 But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.
14 And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number;
15 to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets, and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on any one of them.
16 And also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits; and they were all being healed.
And again in...
3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,
4 God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.
When Jesus said that the disciples would perform greater works than these...; He is referring to the extent of the spiritual miracle of salvation. Jesus had only a small outreach to the Gentiles, while the disciples like Peter and Paul would go on to spread the gospel throughout the Gentile world.
The power to perform those greater works would only be available because Jesus was going to the Father, then He would send the Holy Spirit to indwell believers and empower them for ministry.
Even though the Lord would soon leave them to return to the Father, He would not leave them comfortless, but Holy Spirit would give them the power necessary to continue the work that Jesus had begun in them.
For The Troubled of Heart, Trust In The Promises of Jesus
13 “And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Not only does the Lord promise them that He will send the Holy Spirit to empower them for ministry, but here the Lord makes another promise.
Though the Lord is about to depart from them, He promised to continue to supply their needs from heaven, as He always had while living among them.
He would hear their prayers from heaven and supply all their needs from His limitless resources.
By providing for our needs, the Son brings glory to His loving Father.
What does it mean To ask in Jesus’ name?
It means to pray in a way that is consistent with the will of God and the purposes of His kingdom.
To pray in Jesus name means to admit our unworthiness to receive anything from God.
We approach God based upon the merits of Christ our Lord and we acknowledge our complete dependency on Him to supply our every need according to His riches in glory.
When we pray in Jesus name, it means our desire is that God be glorified regardless of His answer.
It is to align our request with the Fathers supreme goal of glorifying His Son. By praying in Jesus name, we pray His complete will above our own.
14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
Here, the Lord repeats what He said in the previous verse, to emphasize the certainty that He will do what He has promised.
Even as He Himself was to face the suffering of the cross leading to death, our Lord stressed His continual care for them. Out of His profound love for them and for all who would follow them in faith, Jesus provided them with tangible and reliable reasons to hope.
Christ was the hope 2000 years ago for His disciples and He is still the source of our comfort and hope today.
The world is full of false hope, the hope that is of this world is unreliable. The hope of this world is like a “broken cistern that can hold no water.”
The hope of this world will disappoint every time, but the hope that Jesus gives will never ever fail. Amen?