John 14 - CSB Tony Evans Study Bible

14:2 In Jewish wedding custom, the father would add rooms onto his house for his newly married son. Jesus wasn’t abandoning them but heading out to get their eternal home ready. When your time comes, have no fear. Heaven has been prepared for you too.

14:3 This return of which Jesus prophesied is what we call the rapture, the time when he will return to receive his saints and take them to heaven (see 1 Thess 4:16-17). Though we can’t know the precise timing of this event, it will happen prior to his return to earth to establish his millennial kingdom.

14:4-7 Thomas had misunderstood (14:5). The way mentioned in verse 4 isn’t a path; it’s a person: Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (14:6). Christ is the universal point of access to God. If you want to know the Father, you must come to him through his Son. Jesus assured Thomas that if he knew the Son, he knew the Father (14:7).

14:8-9 Philip wanted to be like Moses, who got to catch a glimpse of God (14:8; see Exod 33:12–34:9). But he didn’t understand that fully revealing God the Father was exactly what Jesus had come to do. Whereas Moses only saw a hint of the glory of the invisible God, Jesus said, The one who has seen me has seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus Christ is God incarnate, the God-Man.

14:12 Jesus was talking about scope of impact. His travels were limited, as were the number of people who heard his voice. But in the years since, the church has carried his message to billions all over the world.

14:15 According to Jesus, obedience is the proof of love. Our relationship with him, not a fear of disappointing him, drives our desire to please him.

14:16 In Greek there are two words that could be used to mean another. One means “another of a different kind”; the other means “another of the same kind.” The latter is used here. The Holy Spirit is another Counselor, but one who shares in the divine nature. Therefore, God would still be with them in the person of God the Holy Spirit. The same sovereign love and power they enjoyed in Jesus, then, would be present in their lives. Importantly, when you trust in Christ to take away your sins and give you eternal life, the Holy Spirit also comes to dwell within you, ministering the presence of God to you.

14:17 The only way to know and receive the Spirit of God is through knowing and receiving the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

14:18 Not only would he send the Holy Spirit to be with them, but one day the Son will also return to take his followers to the place prepared for them (see 14:2-4).

14:19 Because I live, you will live too. Jesus shares his resurrection life with his followers through the Holy Spirit.

14:21 When you are connected to the love of the Father and Son in obedience, Jesus promises to reveal more of himself to you. If you listen to a radio station in your car, you know that the further you get from the broadcast station, the worse your reception of the signal gets. Many people have difficulty connecting with God because they’ve wandered too far away to pick up his signal. But if you come back home in obedience, relating to God through Christ in love, he will disclose more of himself to you.

14:26 This applies to the first disciples because the Holy Spirit helped them to recall Jesus’s words, sharing them with others and recording them in the pages of Scripture (see 2 Pet 1:21). But the Spirit also helps believers today, enabling us to recall Scripture at the appropriate time and helping us to understand its meaning and its application to our lives, as he activates “the mind of Christ” in us (1 Cor 2:10-16).

14:27 In saying, My peace I give to you, Jesus is not promising the absence of storms. He’s talking about peace in the midst of tribulation—at a time when you shouldn’t have any peace. This is the peace of God, “which surpasses all understanding, [and guards] your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7).

14:28 Jesus’s imminent departure to be with the Father meant that his mission—the reason for which he’d come into the world—was almost complete.

14:30 When Adam and Eve sinned, they gave up their role of ruling creation on God’s behalf, and turned it over to Satan. Therefore, the devil is appropriately called the ruler of the world, “the god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4), and “the ruler of the power of the air” (Eph 2:2). He holds “the power of death” and keeps people in slavery by “the fear of death” (see Heb 2:14-15). But Satan has no power over Jesus because Jesus is without sin. The Son of God became a man so that he might defeat the devil as a man and restore God’s kingdom rule.