John 14 - CSB Spurgeon Study Bible

14:1 “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” I am glad the apostles were not perfect men. Otherwise they would have understood all that Jesus said at once, and we would have lost our Lord’s instructive explanations. They would also have lived above all trouble of mind, and then the Master would not have said to them these golden words, “Don’t let your heart be troubled.” The Lord takes no delight in the doubt and disquietude of his people. He would not have us sad. Great personal sorrows may well be an excuse if the griefs of others are somewhat overlooked. Yet although Jesus was going to his last bitter agony, and to death itself, he overflowed with sympathy for his followers.

14:6 “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” [ED: Jesus had told his disciples, “You know the way to where I am going,” and Thomas had objected, “We don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” (14:4-5).] This verse is the answer to that question. It has been read with a great deal of profit without always being read correctly. If I were to divide a sermon into three parts and show that, first, Christ is the way; second, that he is the truth; and third, that he is the life, I would not give the meaning of the text. Jesus is not speaking about three things—he does not say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” He is speaking about only one thing, namely, that he is the way, and then the two words, truth and the life, are put in to explain what he means by “the way.”

14:12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” While the Master was here in his humiliation, he healed a few poor Jews and raised here and there a dead one, but he purposely veiled the splendor of his Godhead. Now that he has gone up on high, he does greater wonders by his servants than he, himself, personally did, for he said to a few poor fishermen, “Go and break up the Roman Empire,” and they did it! They preached the gospel, and the gods of the heathen that sat on their thrones for ages were cast to the moles and the bats! And there are greater victories yet before the church of God.

14:27 “Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.” Christian joy does not come from what we have, nor does sorrow come from what we lack. Our happiness does not come from the world, and neither does our depression—that is, if we live near to God. So it is not trouble that troubles saints; it is something far worse than that. I am afraid there are many Christians in great trouble who are so proud that they will not admit God has a right to deal with them as he is dealing. They think there ought to be some more lenient dispensations of kinder providence for them. They imagine themselves to be the kind of persons on whom the sun should always shine and whose path should be always smooth. And if it is not so, they think that God is dealing harshly with them—that he is not kind to them—and they doubt his love. We may tell them that the martyrs suffered far more than they do. We may point them to many of their fellow Christians who are in much worse circumstances than they are, but that will not reconcile them to their own trials. The fact is, there is a self-love about them that has exaggerated itself beyond all due proportions into a sinful self-esteem. And this proud, egotistical idea of what they ought to have and ought to be rebels against the sovereignty of God and refuses to submit to the will of the Most High. Our sorrows usually spring out of ourselves, and when self is conquered, sorrow is, to a great extent, banished from the human heart. We must get rid of this rebellion against the Most High, or else our hearts will continue to be troubled.