John 14:8–17

Philip wanted to know more about the place. He seemed to grasp that the Person makes the place — that the Father is all the joy and blessedness of the Father's house. So he prays, "Show us the Father, and it is enough for us." What a blessing it is, by grace, to know that we need nothing else to fill and satisfy the whole being.

Philip, like Thomas, cannot rise above physical things. Thomas thought of a physical place. Philip thinks of physical sight, and so says, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." The Lord's reply shows that He is speaking of the seeing that belongs to faith.

Philip says, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." To many readers this might seem an excellent wish. It comes from a man who had seen Jesus himself and had helped others who wanted to see Him. But it was sad unbelief. The Lord had just spoken patient, gracious words to lead them on.

The Lord's rebuke of Philip was aimed less at his unbelief about the Person of the Son, and more at his unbelief about the revelation of the Father which the Son had made. The first is bound up in the second.

The Lord patiently explains to Philip that He Himself, as a Man here, gave a full and blessed display of everything the Father is. His words were the Father's words; His works were the Father's works... When they looked at Jesus the Son as Man here, they were looking at what the Father is. There is no difference between the Father and the Son.

It is pointless, then, to look anywhere else, or to look for something beyond what He has already made known. The Son alone gives us the knowledge of the Father, and He reveals the Father fully.

His very presence here was to declare the Father. That His own disciples still did not know the Father, after all this, wounds Him in the deepest way... If we have truly come to Christ, we have no further journey to make to reach the Father. We already have the very depth of the Father's heart laid open. And oh, what a wonderful joy it is to take this in by simple faith! Philip was at least right in saying, "It is enough for us"; and nothing less than this can satisfy us.

Philip wanted to know more about the place. He seemed to grasp that the Person makes the place. The Father is all the joy and blessedness of the Father's house. So he prayed, "Show us the Father, and it is enough for us." How wonderful, by grace, to have the sense that nothing else is needed to fill and satisfy the whole being.

The Lord's reply to Philip is an expression of pain at his lack of understanding… His very presence here was to declare the Father. That His disciples should still not know the Father, after all this, wounds Him in the deepest way… It is a tender but sad rebuke. Had Philip really not known that He was on the Father's mission? that He was Himself the love-gift of God? But we are even less excusable if we do not know it now… If we have truly come to Christ, we do not have a further journey to make to reach the Father. We have had the very depth of the Father's heart told out to us.

The unbelieving world did not see the Son; all they saw was the supposed son of Joseph — the carpenter. Only faith could see, in that lowly Man, the only begotten Son who came to declare the Father… Abraham could tell us that God is Almighty. Moses could tell us that God is the I AM, eternal and unchanging. But neither Abraham nor Moses was great enough to declare the heart of the Father to us. None but a divine Person is great enough to reveal a divine Person.

Philip says to Him, "Show us the Father," and the Lord answers, in effect: Whom have you been looking at all the time I have been with you? Whose words have you been listening to? Whose works have you seen? Whose moral nature has been displayed before your eyes? "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father."

The nature, character and disposition of God came to light in the Son of God in this world, and not after He ascended back to where He was before. "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father" was what came out down here, and we do need to contemplate Jesus as He walked if we want to see this in all its fullness.

Here the Lord expressly teaches His essential Godhead as one with the Father. No doubt distinct as to personality, as He elsewhere shows, when He says, "the Father is greater than I." But the point insisted on is that He is one in essence…

If we want to know God the Father, where are we to learn Him? "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." Have our hearts ever looked at Christ as an object and said, while looking, "I have nothing more to seek"? Just think what it is to look at the Lord in the power of the Spirit of God. In that poor despised Man you see One who was God walking on the earth. So when someone sat down beside Him and told Him his sin, he was telling it to God!

Jesus replied, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father." So it is useless to look anywhere else, or to hope for some advance on what has been made known in Him. We are limited to the Son for the knowledge of the Father, and in Him the Father is fully revealed.

Everything turned on the glory of His Person. The oneness of the Godhead was the central truth Israel had to testify to, and it was a difficulty for the reasoning mind of man, which cannot rise above its own experience. The law and the prophets had prepared the way, and so had John the Baptist's witness. But more than that, the words Jesus said were not like the words of any other man. They were no mere human things, nor independent of His Father. He had been made flesh, but never ceased to be the Word, the Son; and the works He did bore the unmistakable imprint of the same gracious One — the Father. It was He that did the works. So the disciples were called to believe that He was in the Father, and the Father in Him. Only the Divine nature can be like that. The works themselves bore witness to it, and left unbelievers without excuse.

I take the words that follow to be connected with these: "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." "I do not speak on my own authority." And, "the Father who dwells in me," and so on. He could not say instead, "But the Father speaks"; for the Son was the word of the Father. He did not speak of Himself, yet He could not distinguish the Persons here. He spoke the word of God; being in the Father, He spoke as the Word of God. This showed His unity with the Father — that He did not speak from Himself.

Religious men who were not born again said the Lord Jesus was "making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18), and they therefore sought to kill Him. He was here doing His Father's will, depending on Him, and He explained that He did nothing on His own. He did work that proved who He was: "For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about Me," He said. But again, "the Father who dwells in Me does His works." He did His works for the Father's honour and in His Name.

Being what He was, His words were as perfect as His works... Our words often say either less or more than the truth. We are often humbled to find that we have failed to say even what we wanted to say. Sometimes our imperfect words have left a wrong, even untrue, impression behind. With Him, on the other hand, every word was perfect, and so a ray of His own glory as well as a display of the Father. We find in John 14 that He identifies His words with His works... The words were as perfect as the works, and both alike the revelation of the Father.

"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake." Now, the latter surely proved that the Father was in Him... The "believe me" depended on His Person, and brought them into communion, in reliance on His word, with the Father. If they could not see that He was in the Father, and so know the value of His word as speaking the words of God, being so one with the Father, let them take the evidence of His truth from the works He did.

Everything turned on the glory of His Person. The very unity of the Godhead was the central truth Israel had to testify to. Yet it became a difficulty to the reasoning mind of man, which cannot rise above its own experience. He had been made flesh, but He never ceased to be the Word, the Son. And the works He did carried the unmistakable stamp of that same gracious One — the Father. It was He who did the works. So the Lord called the disciples to believe that He was in the Father, and the Father in Him. That is a state of being only possible in the Divine nature. The works themselves gave witness to it, and left the unbelieving without excuse.

"Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works' sake." Now the second surely proved that the Father was in Him. But it could serve here, and did, only to prove the truth of His word — "believe me for." The "believe me" rested on His Person. It drew them into communion, trusting His word along with the Father. Suppose they could not see that He was in the Father, and so could not know the worth of His word as speaking the words of God, being so one with the Father. Then let them take the evidence of His truthfulness from the works He did.

I find the grace of the Lord in this chapter 14. He has to come down to a lower testimony (verse 10). He drops the other question for the present, and comes down to words and works. "Who worked these words and works in me? What do you think of them?" If they would not receive them, they were denying His place as servant. He would not say His own words and works: "The Father who dwells in me, He does the works."

The works of His Father done by Him confirmed all He claimed, in the fullest way. They implied the Father abiding in Him, in the power displayed. They implied His abiding in the Father, in intimacy of communion. So there was enough witness to the truth of His claims; and if they would not believe His words, they might at least believe His works.

"If not … for the very works' sake." Here it must be kept in mind that our Lord is addressing His disciples. It is His works, not as Messiah, but as Son of God.

Miracles confirmed the word, and the word was the proper and express revelation of God's mind. But miracles were also a testimony in and of themselves. They spoke not only of power but of goodness — of God working in goodness in the middle of sorrow and misery, and doing it in the most definite and distinct way.

"Do you not believe," said the Lord to Philip, "that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?" Words and works both attested it. "Believe Me," He said to all, "that I am in the Father and the Father in Me." His being man in no way hindered or lowered His dignity, nor His essential oneness with the Father. It was, and is, of the greatest importance for believers to hold this firmly and with worship. The Son is God, even as the Father.

Here the Lord stops speaking of His words and works, which the disciples had enjoyed while He was still with them. He passes on to the new and deeper experience of His power after His departure to the Father. The words "Truly, truly" mark the change — words generally used to introduce some fresh truth. So the Lord reveals to His amazed disciples a new truth. After His departure the believer in Jesus would do the works that Jesus had done in person, and, more surprising still, would do greater works.

The Lord Himself gives the answer. It sits in the short sentence "because I am going to the Father." Of course, He far surpasses all who came after Him, both in personal glory and in moral beauty. The reason for the greater works that were to follow had little to do with the servants who were used to perform them. Rather, the greater works flowed from the glory of Christ. They reflected that He was no longer on earth, in lowliness, but glorified by and with the Father.

And more than this, the day was coming, as stated in verse 12, when the disciples would do similar and even greater works. That was because He was going to the Father, which, as we have learned in John 7, meant the coming of the Spirit… Before His death and resurrection the Lord was restricted (Luke 12:50). But once that was done and the Spirit given, He could work freely by the Spirit through His disciples. No day in the Lord's ministry saw 3,000 souls converted, as on the Day of Pentecost. Nor did His labours cover the mighty circuit "from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum," as Paul's did.

…the power that would clothe the believer, and enable him to do not only what they had seen Jesus do, but greater things still in honour of His name. And this came true to the letter. We never hear of the Lord's shadow healing the sick. No cloths were taken from His body to cure disease or drive out demons. And that is not to mention the crowds brought in far and wide by the preaching of the apostles. What greater proof of divine power than to work as He Himself did, and yet more by His servants!

Verse 12 has been a difficulty to many… Christian Scientists and extreme faith-healers claim that He meant His actual works of healing. They say Christians should do the same works now, and even greater works. But how could a believer do a greater work than the raising of Lazarus from the dead? The promise that the believer "will also do the works that I do" came true right after the day of Pentecost. Peter's shadow healed the sick, the lame man was healed, demons were driven out, and the dead were raised. Were these miracles to continue to the end of the age? Scripture nowhere states that this should be the case. The "greater works" are spiritual works. The thousands saved at the start of this age, and the preaching of the gospel far away among the Gentiles with its gracious results — these are the greater works.

So the Lord had guaranteed a solemn and cheering promise. His going to the Father would in no way stop and dry up the mighty stream of gracious power in which He had worked here below. … He now follows this up and explains it by the place He gives to faith at work in prayer. From now on prayer would have its fullest character in His name — the name of the One who had glorified the Father to the uttermost.

Here, for the first time, we read of prayer in His name. When He gave the disciples the prayer of Matthew 6, He did not tell them to ask in His name. In John 16:24 we hear from His own lips that this was something quite new: "Until now you have asked nothing in my name." The prayer of Matthew 6 was prayer to the Father. It was the pouring out of the heart to God by someone who knew he was God's child. But prayer in His name was unknown until Christ made atonement by His blood.

So it matters greatly to find out what the words "in my name" mean. They cannot mean simply saying the words, or ending our prayers with "through our Lord Jesus Christ." That would tie the answer of prayer to a mere formula. Even between people, no one may use another's name without his consent and authority. In the same way we cannot use the name of Christ in our prayers without His warrant — a warrant we must find in His own Word. And we have that warrant for every prayer the Holy Spirit stirs in us. With it we come before God with all the authority of Christ Himself, and such prayers rise with the same power as if Christ presented them Himself.

"Whatever" tells us that no subject and no area of life falls outside this promise in advance. In principle, a Christian can "ask in His name" about any issue and any situation in life. He or she just has to make sure the request does not go against God's will.

"Whatever" is the promise, but the words "in my name" define and limit it. As another has said: "Whatever! If it stood alone, it would be boundless, and the Lord would have opened the door to every desire of unbroken self-will among His people. But He adds, in my name. This is His limit — the barrier He sets up."

The disciples were to count on power that could not fail, if they sought it in His name. Jesus was no mere man, whose departure must end what He used to do when present. Though absent, He would prove Himself Divine. He was no less interested in their requests now that He had risen from the dead. Whatever they might ask, He would do, so that the Father might be glorified in the Son.

In Matthew 18, the Father would answer prayer for the honour of the Son. Here the Son will answer their prayers, so that the Father might be glorified. In every activity on earth the Son had sought the Father's glory. In His exalted place in heaven, the Father's glory would still be before Him. And how wonderful that the Father has tied His own glory to the blessing of those He has given to the Son, so that the two can never be parted. Such is the Father's grace!

It is a real thing to use the name of Christ in prayer. When we do, the request goes up to the Father tied to all that the Son is to Him. The Lord has promised to answer such prayers, so that the Father should be glorified in the Son. What a healthy check this could be on rash and thoughtless asking! How many a prayer would never be spoken, if the one praying stopped to ask: Can I present this in that name?

The disciples were to count on power that could not fail, if sought in His name. Jesus was no mere man, whose departure must end what He used to do while present. Absent, He would prove Himself divine, and no less interested in their requests because He was risen from the dead. He is not content with the broad assurance of verse 13, which holds no matter what the difficulty. He repeats it in verse 14 about any particular request of theirs, and His pledge of personal action there is even more emphatic.

In John 14:14 the "Englishman's Greek New Testament" gives a footnote reading, "If you ask Me anything." One of the latest Greek lexicons (Nestle) puts the word "Me" in the text itself.

This mighty power was available for faith expressing itself through prayer in His name. As one writer has truly said: "When you ask in the name of another, you take his claims, his merits, and his right to be heard as your own." The Lord, by His own words, gives this privilege to those who are in relationship with Himself by faith. It was something new to the disciples to ask in the name of Christ. Like everything else in these discourses, it grows out of the Lord's departure. Asking in His name assumes the absence of Christ. The phrase "ask in My name" occurs five times in these discourses.

It could not mean simply saying the words. It could not mean ending our prayers with "through our Lord Jesus Christ." That would tie the answer to a mere formula. Even in human dealings, you cannot use another person's name without his consent and authority... In the same way we cannot use the name of Christ in our prayers without His warrant, and we find that warrant in His own Word.

When I appear before God in the name of Christ, I present my requests in all the value of that name to God. That is why our Lord says, "If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it" — because it is the joy of the heart of God to grant every request presented that way. The promise is absolute, with no limit at all. The reason is simple: no one could ask in the name of Christ for anything that went against the will of God.

This does not mean an automatic system or a "self-service shop." It is not a mechanism for reaching our human or even selfish goals. If a small child reaches for a knife, of course his parents will not give it to him. But if he comes hungry, they will feed him.

The glory of the Father is bound up in the Son's response to the poor feeble cry of His people. Wonderful to say, the Son heightens that glory by the gracious way He takes up our "whatever." What tremendous encouragement to pray. "I will do it," He says, for no object lower than the glory of the Father.

It is a real thing to use the name of Christ in prayer. In that case the request goes up to the Father in connection with all that the Son is to Him... But what a healthy check that could prove on rash and thoughtless requests! How many a prayer would never have been spoken, if the one praying had only stopped to ask himself: Can I present this in that name?

The Comforter is also the Spirit of truth. Truth, together with grace, "came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17), and He is the truth, as we have just seen, set before us outside ourselves. The Spirit of truth is now to come, living in the saints, and so bringing truth inside them.

It is not that the world does not receive Him; it cannot receive Him. He is not put before the world as a testimony to accept or refuse. He brings the world the testimony of a heavenly Christ — the One they rejected, for all the Father's grace. The world has no capacity to receive Him. It only receives what it sees and knows, and it neither sees nor knows Him whom the Father has sent.

The Spirit of truth! Could I expect a world of falsehood to receive Him? No… The Holy Spirit never came in a human body. What the world sees it is prepared to believe. What it does not see it refuses to believe… He was not put before the world as an object for it to receive.

Men of the world are not born of God, so they are bound entirely to the material world. It does not say that we see Him, but it does say we "know Him." Something is already in our souls that is the Spirit's own work, and as He makes His home in our hearts as the Comforter, we are conscious that He is there — we "know Him."

Here it is a special possession of the Spirit. His personal presence is something only the Christian has… It is the privilege of the believer here below, and of no one else: "for he dwells with you and will be in you." The Spirit does not just give them a passing taste of blessing; He dwells with them. And more than that: He does not only dwell with them — "He will be in them." There is this double truth: the dwelling with, and also the being in.

This was fulfilled at Pentecost. In Acts 2:2 we first find that the Spirit "filled the entire house" — that is, He came to be with them. Then "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (v. 4). The first we find in 1 Cor. 3:16-17 and 2 Cor. 6:16: "you are God's temple" — one temple, not many. The second in 1 Cor. 6:19: "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you."

I have not the least doubt that the interpretation of John 14:17, though very common, is a mere blunder. "Dwells" is the same word as "abide" in verse 16. Christ the Comforter would not "abide" with them as He then was, nor was He "with" them. The other Comforter would abide "with" them, and "be in" them.

The Spirit could not come until Jesus was gone… Redemption had to be accomplished, and Christ had to be glorified as man at God's right hand, before God could give such a gift to the saints. The work is done, Jesus has gone, and the Comforter is here… How much real unbelief there is about the personal presence of the Divine Spirit! Many today pray for His outpouring, or for a fresh baptism, while others fear He will leave them because of their shortcomings and failures. But He is to be with us for ever, and the righteous basis for that is the sacrifice of Christ.