Tag Archives: John 14-16

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2023 Bible Study — Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

Today’s passage teaches some important lessons.  It starts with Jesus telling His disciples, and us, that they, and we, know the way to where He is going.  When His disciples asked Him how they could know the way, He replied that He was the way, the truth, and the life.  Jesus goes on to tell us that those who believe in Him will do the works He had been doing, and even greater works.   Overall, I want to note that today’s passage is a very difficult passage, starting with that right there.  I don’t know that I have done the works which Jesus did when He walked with His disciples, and if I have not, does that mean that I am not truly in Him?

Fortunately, Jesus goes on from saying we will do works like His that He will ask the Father, and the Father will give us another advocate.  That advocate will be the Spirit of Truth.  And who will He ask the Father to send that advocate to and for? Those who live Him.  He tells us that if we love Him, we will follow His commands.  Repeatedly, Jesus had told His disciples that His command was that we love each other and that we love our neighbor as ourselves.  The Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, will remind us what those commands are and teach us how to follow them.  And Jesus answered the question I asked at the end of the first paragraph today by telling us not to let our hearts be troubled, telling us not to be afraid.  Jesus is in the Father, and we are in Him.  In order to bear the fruit which Jesus desires us to bear, we must remain in Him.  Here is the key, as we remain in Him, and His words remain in us, everything we ask of God will be done.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2022 Bible Study — As Christ’s Followers We Must Be Willing To Sacrifice Our Lives For Others, Just As He Did For Us

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

In today’s passage Jesus tells His disciples, and us, that those who love Him will keep His commands.  He sums up all of His commands in telling us to love each other as He loved us, reminding us that He died for us (I use the past tense here because John wrote this after Jesus’ death, and is clearly referencing that death here even though at the time John was unaware to what Jesus was referring).   If we live according to Jesus’ commands, we will live in Him, and He will live in us.  That last part is what allows us to keep His commands, Jesus living in us will enable us to obey His commands.  That reciprocal relationship between obeying Christ’s commands and Christ living within us can be the hardest part of following Christ to understand and explain.  In order to obey Christ we must be in Him, but we must obey Christ in order to be in Him.  Only by being in Him can we bear the fruits of the Spirit, if we fail to bear the fruits of the Spirit, we will be cut off from Christ.  On the other hand, as we bear fruit, we will suffer being trimmed and pruned in order that we might bear more fruit.  Thus we should embrace what suffering we do experience as it will enable us to bear more fruit to the glory of God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2021 Bible Study — Let Us Do The Works Which Jesus Did

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

As is often the case, I am not quite sure where I am going with this today.  I will just start with my thoughts on the various pieces of this and hope they all fit together.  Jesus makes a statement that you will not be a Christian if you do not take in early in this passage: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  He says this in response to Thomas asking “how can we know the way” to where you are going?  Jesus follows that up by telling Philip that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father.  He later gives us an interesting expansion on that.  Just as He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, so those who believe in Him and obey His commands are in Him and He is in them.  Therefore if we have seen someone who truly believes in Jesus, we have seen Jesus, and since we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father.

So, how do we know who believes in Jesus?  Jesus answers that here for us as well: those who believe in Jesus will do the works He had been doing, and even greater works.  And what works had Jesus been doing?  We find the answer to that in Matthew 11:5: “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. ”  I would add to this, the hungry being fed, the thirsty receiving something to drink, and the naked being clothed.  So, when we see these sorts of things happening, we are in the presence of Jesus.  Further on in this passage Jesus tells us that we must be connected to Him the way that branches are connected to the grape vine and that any branches which fail to produce fruit will be removed (and those which do produce fruit will be pruned so that they can be more productive.  So, what fruit are we producing?  Look at that list above.  Figure out which of them you know you can do, and seek to do more of it.  You may not be able to give sight to the blind, but you can probably feed the hungry.  And if you can’t do that, you can certainly proclaim the good news to the poor.  Do what you can, and allow the Spirit to flow through you to do even more.  I want to emphasize that what I wrote was to myself.  If it also applies to you, then God be praised.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2020 Bible Study Do We Have Faith To Ask God For What We Truly Need?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16

John records here a promise which Jesus made that has given those who read it difficulty throughout history.  John writes that Jesus said that we can ask anything in His name and He will do it.  That is a very powerful promise. We can ask anything in His name and He will do it.  However, it doesn’t always seem to work that way.  There are two reasons why and those reasons are related to each other.  First, throughout the Gospels Jesus repeatedly tells us that if we have sufficient faith, we will be able to accomplish great things.  Now, He also tells us that sufficient faith is not very much; all we need is as much faith as a mustard seed.  The second reason is one we find in the context here.  Jesus made that promise to a very specific group of people: those who believe in Him and obey His commandments.  So, in order to take advantage of Jesus’ promise you must have sufficient faith, although that is not very much, and that faith must be in Him.

That brings us to an understanding about why we fail to see this promise fulfilled.  Despite the fact that it takes very little faith, it does take faith.  But more importantly, as James says in verse 4:3 of his letter, many of those who seek to take advantage of this promise seek to do so with the wrong motives.  So, asking God to have our preferred candidate win the election is unlikely to be answered, but asking God to transform people so that they serve Him, that will be answered.  In the recent election, I believe that the selfish interests of most of the people would have been served by one candidate winning the election, but the real question is, victory for which candidate will turn more people’s hearts to God?  Let us pray for that candidate to win, even if it means suffering for ourselves.

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2019 Bible Study — The Way, The Truth, and The Life…Which Is Why the World Hates Us

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16

In my opinion, everything in today’s passage, and for that matter most of the Gospel of John, revolves around Jesus’ statement that He is the way, the truth, and the life, followed by Him saying that no one can come to the Father but through Him.  Every time I read this I think about those who argue that there are many ways to God.  They are correct, but all of those ways lead to Jesus.  Some argue that God will not deny those who have been so hurt by people claiming to speak on behalf of Jesus that they cannot approach Jesus.  There is some truth to that as well.  However, what that argument fails to recognize is that what God offers people is healing.  Part of that healing is to once more be able to approach Jesus.  God accepts and loves us as we are, but we must allow Him to transform us from what we were when we came to Him into what He intends for us to be.

Which brings me to Jesus’ promise that He will do anything we ask in His name.  This promise applies to those who believe in Him and have become His disciples.  This promise applies to us if we love Jesus.  Those who love Him will do as He says and will strive to avoid being the cause for others are unwilling to approach Jesus.  When we become one of those to whom Jesus’ promise applies, the world will hate us.   Those to whom this promise applies will wish to use it for those things which Jesus desires, not those things which the world desires.  Which brings us to Jesus’ description of Himself as a grape vine.  We are branches on that grape vine, if we do not bear fruit appropriate to the Vine we will be cut off.  Even if we bear fruit we can expect God to prune us so that we produce more, and better, fruit.  Jesus’ promise to do anything we ask in His name is conditioned on us being connected to Him.

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2018 Bible Study — If We Seek God, the Holy Spirit Will Show Us That Jesus Is the Way

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

    Many people believe that there are many paths to God, even some people who consider themselves Christians. There are indeed many paths to God. However, they all lead to Jesus. When Jesus told His disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He was expressing a basic truth about the Universe. Those who truly seek God will find Jesus, some sooner, others later. The same thing applies for those who seek truth or meaning in this life. The saddest thing I ever witnessed was someone who had been genuinely seeking God who turned away when that search led them to Christ. They had been so conditioned to believe that Christianity was a scam that they refused to accept Jesus when their search led them to Him. Jesus and the Father are one, so it is clearly impossible to know God without knowing Jesus. However, I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit will use the Satanic Bible to reveal Jesus to the individual who is genuinely seeking God if that is where they are looking.

    I was going to go on to Jesus telling us that we can ask anything in His name and He will do it (and I may still write something about that) but as I read the verses around that I was struck by what Jesus had to say about the Advocate whom God will send us (has sent us). Jesus tells us that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because it is not looking for Him and does not recognize Him. The Holy Spirit will teach ever greater truth to those who receive Him, but only those who are looking for Him will receive Him. However, we must not only look for the Holy Spirit, we must also recognize Him when He comes to us. In order for us to be capable of receiving the Holy Spirit we must love Jesus and love God. If we love Jesus and love God we will do as they have commanded. If we do not do as He has commanded we do not love Him. But we must be looking for the Holy Spirit as well. There are things which we need to know which are not wholly contained within the Bible.

    I could go on and on writing about what John has written in today’s passage, but I am running out of time. I will wrap up by mentioning that the Holy Spirit will live in us, if we let Him. By doing so He makes us one with Christ and one with God. Which is really the same thing, since they are One. Part of the gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of peace, a peace which the world can never give us. If you find yourself troubled or afraid, call out to the Holy Spirit and embrace Him. As you learn to recognize that all that happens in this world comes from God, and that God causes all things to work together for those who love Him, you will find the presence of the Holy Spirit giving you the peace of which Jesus speaks. Iam going to use an old story about not worrying to sum up this lesson:

If you love God there is no need to worry because in life there are only two things to worry about: either you are well or you are sick. If you are well, there is nothing to worry about. If you are sick there are only two things to worry about: either you will get better or you will die. If you get better there is nothing to worry about. If you love God and you die you will go to Heaven, so there is nothing to worry about.

This is much easier said than done, but the doing is related to where Jesus earlier told us that those who lay down their lives will save them. The more we focus on doing God’s will at the expense of ourselves, the more we will have the peace which Jesus promised us.

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2017 Bible Study — Grief and Joy, Hate and Love, Letting God Work Through Us

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

    This passage begins with Jesus teaching His disciples, and through them, us, that He is the only way to God. I will expand on that by saying that I do believe that there are many paths to God…but they all lead to Christ. Jesus said that those who seek will find. A necessary corollary to that is that one must be willing to follow that search wherever it leads. Those who genuinely search for God will eventually be led to Jesus. One does not need to take the path which goes through the Church (although I do believe that the path will eventually lead them back to the Church in some form, because the Church is the Body of Christ). Unfortunately, some will refuse to follow their search through Jesus and turn away looking for a path which does not exist.

    There is another piece to this story which we should find challenging. Jesus tells His disciples that they should believe in Him, and His connection to the Father, because of the works He has done. Then He tells them that anyone who believes in Him will do the same works He has done. Not only that, Jesus says that we will do even greater works. So, when did you last give sight to the blind? Or cause the lame to walk? Raise someone from the dead? Or, even feed 5,000 people? When I started writing this paragraph, my thought was that the works Jesus was talking about were miraculous ones, and in part they are. However, as I wrote those questions I remembered that Jesus said, just before telling us that anyone who believed in Him would do similar works, that God worked through Him. So, while I still think we should expect God to do miraculous things through us, we are doing the same works as Jesus when we work together to teach subsistence farmers how to better feed themselves, set up programs to give out micro-loans so that the impoverished can work their way out of poverty, send well diggers to dig wells to provide clean drinking water in areas of the world that have not had it in recent memory, rebuild homes devastated by natural disasters. When we help those who are sick or suffering we are doing the works which Jesus did. When Jesus fed the 5,000 He took the small amount of food and started passing it out, having faith that God would make it be sufficient, and not only was it, there was more left over than what they started with.

    There is so much I want to write about from this passage, but I do not think I am going to have time. When Jesus promised the disciples the Holy Spirit, He told them that He would reveal Himself to those who love Him. He told us that we can know if we love Him, because those who love Him will follow His commands. When He said this, Judas clearly did not understand. I think that Judas’ response here reveals why he betrayed Jesus. Judas wanted to know why Jesus was not going to reveal Himself to the world at large. Judas was looking for the power which would come from being one of the twelve men closest to what he expected to be the next Alexander the Great. Part of Judas’ misunderstanding stemmed from a false dichotomy he held: the choice was either limiting His revelation to just those present or to the world at large. It never occurred to Judas that others might become part of Jesus’ inner circle. He wanted to be in the position of translating Jesus’ teachings to those on the outside. We can easily fall into the same mistake when we fail to recognize that others have as much to teach us as we do them.

    There is so much more here which could use expounding upon. There is a whole blog post in going over the meaning of Jesus’ vine metaphor and allowing God to prune us so that we can be more fruitful. Then Jesus reminds us that because the world hated and persecuted Him, it will hate and persecute us. Here Jesus also tells us that if He had physically stayed with us the Holy Spirit could not have come to live within us. Finally Jesus tells them that they will soon experience great grief, but that grief will be turned into even greater joy. We see how that indeed happened with His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. As I read that today, I saw a link between what Jesus is saying here and the shooting in Texas this last Sunday morning. I do not have the time to make the connection, but perhaps you can see it for yourself by reading this article which talks about how Christians see that experience differently than the world.

Daily Bible Study

November 9, 2016 Bible Study — The Way, The Truth, and The Life

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

    Today’s passage contains what is perhaps one of Jesus’ most difficult teachings. I suspect that what I write about it will ramble a bit, but here goes. First Jesus tells us that no one can come to God except through Him. One of the most common things people who reject Jesus say is that there are many paths to God. This is true, but what they fail to realize is that all of those many paths to God lead to Jesus. If we are following the way which is Jesus we can ask for anything in His name and He will do it. The key to that statement is that in order to ask for something in Jesus name we need to be asking for it to serve His purposes.

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    Jesus expresses this idea in several different ways throughout this passage. This is a difficult passage for me because over the last several weeks I was praying desperately for healing for a friend of mine and that healing, as I imagined it, did not come. That friend died. Why did God not do what I was praying for? I still believe in the power of prayer and I believe that we, as followers of Christ can pray for healing for people and see them healed. As Jesus was teaching about this He made the statement that He would do what the Father required so that the world would know that He loved the Father. When He said this He was referring to going to the cross and being crucified. Reading this passage it is clear to me that my prayer was not answered because I have either failed to remain in Jesus, or failed to allow His words to remain in me. This does not mean that if I had done something differently my friend would be alive today. It means that if I had done things differently, my prayers would have been different.

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    As I said, this is a difficult passage. My friend’s death is not my fault, but I did not receive what I asked for, which means that in some way I asked improperly. I know that to some degree, if I had received that for which I was praying I would have taken credit for it, if only in my own mind. On the other hand, blaming myself for her death is the other side of the same sin. How can I humble myself so that when I ask for healing for others I am truly and totally seeking to glorify God and not myself?