John 14

John 14:1-11

• The idea of “remaining” (mone) is very prevalent in this passage (Brown, 1970, p. 618-619).
  a. 14:2—monai—“dwelling place,” Greek; root comes from the word meno (“to dwell”).
  b. The work of Jesus is to display the love of God so that people will come to God and remain in Him.
• 14:6—On a scale of 1 to 10, evaluate your level of belief in this statement.
  a. Quote from Bono about Jesus' exclusive claims (Assayas, p. 204-205).
  b. What are the views regarding Jesus’ claim (Grudem, p. 55)?
  i. Inclusivist—All religious people will receive salvation.
  ii. Universalist—Everyone will receive salvation.
  iii. Exclusivist—Only adherents to a particular religion will receive salvation.

John 14:12-21

• 14:12—The “greater works” will be extending the mission of Jesus beyond Palestine (Morris, p. 573-574).
• 14:13-14—This probably refers to those issues that will arise in the life of the Church.
  a. 1 John 5:14-15—John is reminding the Church of this teaching and illustrates it with intercessory prayer.
  b. This is the energy for the Church’s prayer life.
• 14:15—What is the relationship between love and obedience (cf., 1 John 5:3)?
  a. It is difficult to be a “contagious Christian” when we make Christianity look difficult.
  b. “Knight’s Oath” from Kingdom of Heaven (2005).
  c. Matthew 22:36-40—The essence of our faith is wrapped up in love for God and for each other.

John 14:22-31

• What the Incarnation brings about is the presence of the Father and the Son within the Church through the Paraclete.
• 14:26—The Western Church inserted the Latin word filioque (“and the Son”) into the Greek-worded confession to say that the Paraclete comes from both the Father and the Son, while the Eastern Church wants to maintain the doctrine that the Father sent both the Son and the Paraclete (Cairns, p. 129).
  a. 16:7—Jesus will personally send the Paraclete when He returns to Heaven.
  b. The practical application is the testing of the Spirit and the actions brought about by the Spirit: Do they reflect the work of Jesus, and do they build up the Church?
• The function of the Paraclete is to guide the Church and help the Church remember the teachings of Jesus.
• 14:27-31—This is a word of eschatological peace and a word of encouragement that the Church will not be abandoned (Talbert, p. 216).

References

Michka Assayas, Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas (New York: Riverhead Books/ Penguin, 2005).

Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible 29a (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970).

Earle E. Cairns, Christianity through the Centuries: A History of the Christian Church, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996).

Wayne A. Grudem, Biblical Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, ed. Jeff Purswell (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999).

Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, rev. ed., New International Commentary on the New Testament 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).

Charles H. Talbert, Reading John: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, rev. ed., Reading the New Testament (Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys, 2005).