João 14

João 14

Murray - The abiding presence of God is the heritage of every child of God. The Father never hides His face from His child. Sin hides it, and unbelief hides it; but the Father lets His love shine all the day on the face of His children. The sun is shining day and night. Your sun shall never go down. Come and live in the presence Of God. Obedience is the necessary consequence of love. -- James Smith Rod Mattoon - Jesus stresses again in verse 23, “If we love Him, we will keep His word.” This word “keep” means “to observe, pay attention, or to fulfill.” We are to pay attention to God’s Word and put it into practice. For the shooting of Ben Hur, Charleton Heston was training to drive a chariot. Heston was having trouble with the apparatus, so he confided in his director, William Wyler. He said, “I can barely stay on this thing. I can’t win the race.” Wylar told Heston, “Your job is to stay on it. It’s my job to make sure you win.” The Holy Spirit orchestrates the victories for God’s kingdom. Our job is to simply stay in the chariot of obedience. Some may ask, “What are the ways we can obey the Lord and demonstrate our love for Him?” Let’s answer that question. ILLUSTRATION OF LOVE OF OUR LORD - After the American Civil War, General Lee, who was deeply loved of his soldiers, was one day riding in a country district when he was greeted by an old weather-beaten mountaineer. “Ain’t that General Lee?” he inquired as he seized the horse’s bridle. “Yes, sir,” said the General. Asking his old commander to dismount—which he did—the man stood before him and said: “I am one of your old soldiers, General. I want you just to let me give three rousing cheers from Marse Robert.” At the first shout Lee dropped his head with embarrassment. The next yell was choked with sobs as the old soldier dropped on his knees in the dust, hugging Lee’s leg. The third shout died away in tears of gratitude and love. If such devoted love were only given by every soldier of Jesus Christ to the Lord, how soon victory would be seen in our own lives and in the lives that we reach for Christ! He is our Living Leader, and will be to the end. May we love Him will all our being. Fanny Crosby, the blind song-writer, was at the McAuley Mission. She asked if there was a boy there who had no mother, and if he would come up and let her lay her hand on his head. A motherless little fellow came up, and she put her arms about him and kissed him. They parted and she went from the meeting and wrote that inspiring song Rescue the Perishing. When Mr. Sankey was about to sing the song in St. Louis, he related the incident. A man sprang to his feet in the audience and said, “I am the boy she kissed that night. I never was able to get away from the impression made by that touching act, until I became a Christian. I am now living in this city with my family, am a Christian, and am doing a good business.” Love for others can dramatically change their lives and yours. Do you really love the Lord Jesus Christ? How deep is your love for Him? Do you find yourself making excuses for not serving Him? Let a man examine himself. Never Alone If anyone loves Me, . . . We will come to him and make Our home with him. — John 14:23 Today's Scripture : Psalm 139:1-12 Have you ever been alone—really alone? Many people can answer yes because they feel that way every day. I’m not referring to people who live in a remote cabin on a mountaintop far from civilization. I’m talking about those who feel alone in a crowded mall, or in a church full of people. I’m referring to people who simply cannot find anyone to connect with. Perhaps they are new to a community. Maybe they have lost a spouse. It could be that they simply feel alone because they think of themselves as different, unusual, and left out of normal communication with others. Have you ever been alone, really alone? If so, there’s good news. If you have invited Christ into your life as Savior and Lord, you’re never alone. You have His constant presence. Here is His promise: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). And from God the Father: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Recognize with the psalmist that there’s no place you can go where God is not with you (Psalm 139:7). A W Tozer - CHRIST IS NOT DIVIDED Jesus answered…If a man love me, he will keep my words. John 14:23 Much of our full gospel literature and much of our preaching tend to perpetuate a misunderstanding of what the Bible says about obedience and Christian discipleship. I think the following is a fair statement of what I was taught in my early Christian experience and before I began to pray and study and anguish over the whole matter: “We are saved by accepting Christ as our Savior.” “We are sanctified by accepting Christ as our Lord.” “We may do the first without doing the second.” What a tragedy that in our day we often hear the gospel appeal made in this way: “Come to Jesus! You do not have to obey anyone. You do not have to give up anything. Just come to Him and believe in Him as Savior!” The fact that we hear this everywhere does not make it right! To urge men and women to believe in a divided Christ is bad teaching—for no one can receive a half or a third or a quarter of the divine Person of Christ! (See Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings - Page 7) Kenneth Osbeck - SAVIOR, TEACH ME, DAY BY DAY Jane E. Leeson, 1807–1882 If anyone loves Me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:23) It is wonderful to have experienced God’s gift of love in days past, but the real challenge of victorious Christian living is knowing God in a new and fresh way each day. This is what gives our lives zest and enables us to face any new challenge. But this daily learning about our Savior is more than merely pursuing theological knowledge. Biblical knowledge must always be joined with a loving relationship with Christ, since knowledge in itself can easily develop into a false spiritual pride. For many of us, our greatest need is simply to be reminded of what we already know and to translate our knowledge into loving action. Our love for God is not really genuine until we have learned to share it with others. There are numerous laws on the statute books of our land that attempt to teach us to be better people. The Christian, however, is also governed by two other basic commands: “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind … thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37, 39). And even beyond this, we are to treat one another with the same tender spirit that we have experienced from our Lord (Philippians 2:5). “Savior, Teach Me, Day by Day,” which was originally written for children, spurs us on to the kind of service our Lord was talking about. Its basic theme—learning to love Christ who first loved us—involves a response of action: obedience (stanza 1); “prompt to serve” (stanza 2); “strong to follow” (stanza 3); and living joyously (stanza 4). The hymn was first published in 1842. The author, Jane Eliza Leeson, was a rather unknown English writer of religious verse. She was a member of a strange and spurious sect known as the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church. In later life Miss Leeson became a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet her one enduring hymn still speaks to each of us of every age: Savior, teach me, day by day, love’s sweet lesson to obey; sweeter lesson cannot be, loving Him who first loved me. With a child’s glad heart of love, at Thy bidding may I move, prompt to serve and follow Thee, loving Him who first loved me. Teach me thus Thy steps to trace, strong to follow in Thy grace, learning how to love from Thee, loving Him who first loved me. Love in loving finds employ, in obedience all her joy; ever new that joy will be, loving Him who first loved me. For Today: Psalm 18:1; 2 Corinthians 10:17; Philippians 1:9; 1 John 3:18 Ask the question, “What have I learned about God during the past few days?” Also, “What new insights do I wish to learn this day?” (BORROW Amazing Grace PAGE 64) J C Philpot - "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loves me, he will keep my words--and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23 There are two grand vital points that every Christian should seek to be established in. The first is--Is he a believer in Christ? Has the blessed Spirit made Christ known to his soul? Has he embraced Jesus in the arms of living faith? The second point which he should seek to have established in his soul is--Does he abide in Christ? This he may know by having some testimony that Christ abides in him, and produces the fruits that flow out of this inward abiding. If Christ abides in him, his heart will not be like the nether mill-stone. He cannot rush greedily into sin; he will not love the world, and the things of time and sense; he cannot happily love idols, or do those things which ungodly professors do without one check or pang. Jesus in the soul is a guest that will make himself known; yes, abiding there, he is King therein. He is Ruler in Zion, and when he comes into the heart, he comes as King. Being, therefore, its rightful Sovereign, he sways the faculties of the soul, and makes it obedient to his scepter; for "your people shall be willing in the day of your power" (Psalm 110:3). "O Lord our God, other lords beside you have had dominion over us; but we worship you alone" (Isaiah 26:13) God At Work If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. —John 14:23 Today's Scripture : John 14:15-23 As I stood on the Golan Heights, with the Sea of Galilee sparkling in the distance, I listened to our Jewish guide tell about his participation in the 1967 Six-Day War. His vivid accounts of Israel’s victories over bigger, more powerful enemies reminded me of Bible stories I learned as a child. Even though I believe that God has been moving individuals and nations down through history to accomplish His purposes, sometimes I get the idea that God stopped working in people’s lives when He finished writing the Bible. Now that He’s less visible, I conclude that He’s also less involved. But that’s not true. Even though God has finished His book, He hasn’t finished telling the story; He’s simply using a different form of media to tell it. In Bible times, God often communicated in tangible, visible, and audible ways—tablets of stone, a pillar of fire, a still small voice, to name a few. But when Jesus came, that changed. He told His followers that God’s Spirit would live not only among them but also within them (John 14:17). By this shall every person know That we serve God above: His Spirit dwells within our hearts And fills us with His love. —D. De Haan God's Spirit lives in us in order to work through us. My Heart, God's Home We will come to him and make Our home with him. — John 14:23 Today's Scripture : John 14:19-31 I knew a woman who straightened up her house every night before going to bed. She did this because she didn’t want the Lord to catch her being a messy housekeeper if He should return before morning. I often tried to emulate her high standard of neatness, but as a young homemaker, wife, and mother, I usually ended the day knowing that my house wouldn’t pass the test. Maintaining a well-kept house for the Lord’s glory is a worthy aspiration. But eventually I understood that the house on the street where I live isn’t His primary concern. He cares much more about the state of the house where He lives—my heart. In John 14:21, we find two ways to maintain that home: Love God, and obey His commands. Disobedience to God makes our heart-home dirty. But obedience that is expressed out of love for Him will make our hearts a suitable home for God now, and we will be ready when Christ returns. My heart should be a royal throne, For Christ has come to live in me; I'll keep it clean and free from sin— That's what His dwelling place must be. —Hess Your heart is meant to be God's home. John 14:24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. He who does not love Me: Joh 14:15,21-23 Mt 19:21 25:41-46 2Co 8:8,9 1Jn 3:16-20 and the word which you hear is not Mine: Joh 14:10 Jn 3:34 Jn 5:19,38 Jn 7:16,28 Jn 8:26,28,38,42 Jn 12:44-50 JESUS SAYS NO LOVE EQUATES WITH NO OBEDIENCE He who does not love (agapao) Me does not keep (tereo) My words (logos) - Jesus "inverts" the previous verse, to emphasize that love (agapao) is not a feeling but an action, specifically an action that originates from the choice of one's will (love is in active voice signifying a conscious or volitional choice). Note that does not keep is modified by the absolute negative (ou) which signifies that this person absolutely does not keep or observe Jesus' words and commands. And in the present tense this speaks of this person's continual practice or lifestyle. In short, their continued disobedience indicates they are not believers in Jesus. Addressing the Jewish audience who had ostensibly believed in Him, Jesus saw their hearts and declared "to them, “If God were your Father, you would love (present tense) Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me." (Jn 8:42+) Jesus' conclusion was that those Jews who claimed to believe in Him did not love Him and clearly were not genuine believers! And the word (logos) which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s Who sent Me - Once again Jesus identifies Himself with the Father. The words He speaks which are not obeyed indicate that the one disobeying is also disobeying God the Father. It was the Father's will that Jesus come to earth. Adrian Rogers on John 14:24 We have been seeing that you cannot have faith unless God speaks. Well, how does God speak? There are two words for "word" in the Greek language. One is logos, which we could say is the Bible, the written Word that tells us the living Word. Then there's rhema, which means an utterance, a spoken word. We might call it a word from the Word. As you read the Bible—or the logos—the Spirit begins to speak to you out of the Word of God. You get a rhema from the logos. You receive an utterance from God. He speaks to you, and you hear Him in your heart. Robert Hawker - The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.—John 14:24. My soul! hast thou ever fully and thoroughly considered that sweet and precious teaching of thy Lord, which, as mediator, when upon earth, in all his discourses and conversations with his disciples, he was perpetually showing them? I mean that all he was, and all he had, and all he dispensed, were the blessings and gifts of his Father, in him, to his people. If thou hast been meditating upon this most blessed point of the gospel ever so fully and closely, it will still afford new glories for every renewed attention to it; and, therefore, sit down this delightful summer’s evening, and take another view of it. Jesus comes to his people in his Father’s name; and he saith, in this charming scripture, that his very words are not his, but the Father’s: so much of the heart of the Father is in Christ, and in all of Christ, in all he saith, and all he hath done. So that what is Jesus doing, in all his ministry upon earth, yea, in all his sovereignty now in heaven, but showing to his redeemed the Father; and the Father’s love, and grace, and mercy towards his people in him? Did he not then come forth from the bosom of the Father, full of grace and truth, as if to unfold to us what passed in the heart of the Father, of love and mercy towards his people, in the wonders of redemption? And is not Jesus now, in every renewed manifestation, teaching his redeemed the same? If all that the Father hath are our Jesus’s, and all the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in him, surely we ought never to receive any of his good and blessed gifts, without seeing the Father’s love in them. And would not this make every blessing doubly sweet and increasingly precious? If Jesus himself be the gift of the Father, shall I not enjoy the Father in all that Jesus bestows? And as I can have no immediate communion with the Father but by him, will not the mercies gather a blessedness, and a value, in coming to my poor soul, through Jesus’s hands, as the bountiful dispenser of them? Yea, shall I not find a savour, which otherwise could never have been known, in receiving them in and from Jesus; convinced, as I am, that none cometh to the Father but by him; and, but for his opening a new and living way by his blood, never should I have known the Father’s love, or the Redeemer’s grace? Dear Lord Jesus! do thou give me, by thy blessed Spirit, ever to keep in remembrance these most precious things. So shall I truly enjoy both thy person and thy gifts. And then I shall not, like the apostle, pray for sight of the Father distinct from thee; for I shall then be perfectly satisfied and convinced, that in seeing thee I see the Father also; and, from henceforth, that I know him and have seen him. “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” (See The Poor Man's Evening Portion) John 14:25 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. These things I have spoken: Joh 14:29 Jn 13:19 Jn 15:11 Jn 16:1-4,12 Jn 17:6-8 Related Passages: John 14:29 “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. John 13:19 “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. John 15:11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. These things - What are these things in context? He had just stated that the word He spoke was not His but the Father's. It follows that these things refer to the word from the Father. I have spoken to you while abiding with you - The thought is that He was telling these things while He was still physically present with them. However as discussed above and from the type of questions they were asking Him, many of the things He said the disciples did not understand. The following passage will explain how they will come to understand the things He had spoken to them. John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. The Helper (KJV = Comforter): Joh 14:16 Holy Spirit Joh 7:39 Jn 20:22 Ps 51:11 Isa 63:10 Mt 1:18,20 3:11 28:19 Mk 12:36 Mk 13:11 Lu 1:15,35,41,67 2:25 3:22 11:13 Ac 1:2,8 2:4 5:3 Ac 7:51,55 13:2,4 15:8,28 16:6 20:28 28:25 Ro 5:5 14:17 Ro 15:13,16 1Co 2:13 6:19 12:3 2Co 6:6 13:14 Eph 1:13 4:30 1Th 1:5,6 4:8 2Ti 1:14 Titus 3:5 Heb 2:4 3:7 9:8 10:15 1Pe 1:12 2Pe 1:21 1Jn 5:7 Jude 1:20 Whom the Father will send in My name: Joh 14:16 Jn 15:26 Jn 16:7 Lu 24:49 Ac 1:4 He will teach you all things: Joh 6:45 16:13,14 Ps 25:8,9,12-14 Isa 54:13 Jer 31:33,34 1Co 2:10-13 Eph 1:17 1Jn 2:20,27 Rev 2:11 bring to your remembrance all that I said to you: Joh 2:22 Jn 12:16 Ac 11:16 Acts 20:35 Related Passages: John 2:22+ So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken. John 12:16+ These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. John 16:4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you. Luke 24:8-9+ (THE WOMEN WHO CAME TO JESUS' TOMB) And they remembered His words, (CONTEXT - Lk 24:1-5, 6,7+) and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Acts 11:16 “(PETER SPEAKING) And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ THE FATHER SENDS THE SPIRIT THE HELPER, TEACHER & REMINDER But - Term of contrast. What is Jesus contrasting. He has just stated He spoke to them while He was with them, but now the Spirit would "speak" (sometimes audibly Acts 11:12) to them in His absence. Much of what Jesus had spoken was not fully grasped by the 11 disciples, but the Holy Spirit would change that. Earlier Jesus had promised the disciples "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever." (Jn 14:16+). The Helper (parakletos KJV = Comforter), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name - In My Name signifies all that Jesus is and would include in His authority and in a sense in His place. In other words, the Spirit was the officially designated representative of Jesus. As quoted earlier G. Campbell Morgan referred to the Spirit as "the other Jesus." The disciples would soon experience Jesus' absence and a period of fear and uncertainty. This promise of "another Helper" just like Jesus had been (Jn 14:16+) would (should) have been very encouraging. Note that here it is the Father Who will send the Spirit but in Jn 15:26 Jesus says "I will send (THE SPIRIT) to you from the Father." We clearly see the intimate interaction of the Trinity in these passages. Merrill Tenney writes "The phrase “in my name” used previously in vv. 13, 14, representative to act in his behalf. Just as Jesus himself demonstrated the personality and character of God to men, so after his departure the Holy Spirit would make the living Christ real to his followers. The function of the Spirit is teaching. He instructs from within and recalls to the memory what Jesus taught. The Spirit will, therefore, impress the commandments of Jesus on the minds of his disciples and thus prompt them to obedience." (See The Expositor's Bible Commentary - Abridged Edition) David Guzik on in My Name - Will send in My name: The Holy Spirit is sent to the disciples on the merits of Jesus and in the nature, the character of Jesus. “The Spirit would be Jesus’ officially designated representative to act in his behalf.” (Tenney).... There is something general in this promise for every believer. The Holy Spirit teaches us and brings God’s word to our remembrance (if we are careful to receive it). Yet the fullness of this promise was reserved for those first-generation disciples and apostles, upon whom Jesus established the church (Ephesians 2:20). He will teach you all things - Remember that the essence of teach is "to shape the will of the one taught." The Spirit would teach the disciples, all things they needed to know, not all things ever known. He would teach them the full meaning of many of the things they had heretofore not understood. and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you - This promise was primarily given the 11 disciples/apostles, so that they would be equipped to write the portions of the Bible they wrote. John himself is an example of the fulfillment of this promise, for he was writing this Gospel many years after the events had occurred and yet the Spirit was bringing these truths to his remembrance, quickening his memory, and inspiring the words he recorded. Peter described the process of inspiration of the Bible writing "But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (2Pe 1:20-21+) The Spirit is given to those who ask, for regeneration; to those who obey, for character; to those who wait, for power. Leon