Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vols. 13–63

I suppose that many of you know this chapter by heart. I notice that in all old Christians' Bibles, this leaf is well worn—sometimes worn out. We have here our Lord's homely talk to His disciples. It is full of sublimity, yet it is blessedly simple. There is a sort of unveiling of Himself in this chapter. It is not so much like a public discourse as a private conversation and this tends to make the Savior's speech appear the more condescending, and yet, also, the more sublime.

Verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in Me. There is no cure for heart-trouble but heart-trust. "You believe in God"—you trust in Divine Providence, now trust in the Savior's great Atonement. You have come close to God already, come closer to the Incarnate God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear Him say to you, "You believe in God, believe also in Me." Your faith already deals with some things. Now let it deal with more things. Your past troubles have been endured by faith. Now endure the presentin the same way.

2. In My Father's house are many mansions. You are at home in Christ even now if you are a Believer in Him. Wherever you are, you are your Heavenly Father's own child, and you have realized the Truth of what David wrote in the 23rd Psalm, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Usually, when we are singing that sweetly solemn hymn, beginning—

Forever with the Lord,"

we are thinking about Heaven. That is quite right. But "forever" means nowas well as the future! It covers time hereas well as eternity in Heaven. We are with the Lord even now—whether we are down here or up there!

2. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. So that, when you go from this earth, you need not fear that you will be launched into space, or that you will have to plunge into the great unknown.

3. And if 1 go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. "I will come to you by My Spirit. I will come to you, by-and-by, if my Father shall purpose it, in the hour of death. Or if not, I will come in Person at my Second Advent. But, in any case, I will be sure to come. My dear children, I am going away, but it is only for a little while. I am coming again, so be not troubled as though you had said, 'good-bye' to Me forever. 'I will come again,' and when I do, I shall never go from you again."

4. And where I go you know, and the way you know. Yes, we do know where Christ has gone and we also know the way.

5. Thomas said to Him, Lord, we know not where You go and how can we know the way? I like to hear Thomas talk, even though his is a very unwise speech. I wonder when you and I ever made wise ones! We never do unless we borrow them, for all that comes of us naturally is childish and foolish, "for we know in part, and we prophesy in part." When the child becomes a man, he will put away childish things, but meanwhile our speech betrays us. We seldom speak even of any of the great mysteries of the Gospel without uttering some words of our own which show that we have never really understood them. I think the Lord likes us to display our ignorance, first, that we may know it, and then that He may remove it.

6. Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes unto the Father, but by Me. Christ has gone to the Father's upper house to make it ready for all the redeemed family. We could never have entered there if He had not gone in first. And even now there is no coming to the Father in faith or in prayer except by Christ. We must not even dream of communion with God except through our Lord Jesus Christ. Luther used to say—and to say very wisely, too—"I will have nothing to do with an absolute God! I must come to God by Christ Jesus." "No man comes unto the Father, but by Me."

7. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father, also, and from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him. All of the Father that we can know is visible in Christ, "for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." And if we truly know Christ, we also know the Father. Christ always seems to be knowable, for He brings Himself down to such a nearness to us that it seems easy to know Him. Well, then, knowing Christ, we also know the Father and have seen Him!

8. Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Thomas spoke just now like a babe in Grace. Now here is Philip talking like another baby! Yet how bold his speech is! "Lord, show us the Father." Why, no man can see the Father's face and live! Yet here is a child of God apparently forgetful of that fact.

9. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father; and why say you, then, Show us the Father?'s not this a homely talk between the Master and His disciples? Said I not rightly that Christ, here, seems to unveil Himself? He lets these children of His talk away much at their ease—and I think we ought to be at ease when we are talking with Christ. Some like a very stately service in their worship, something very grand, that makes ordinary worshippers stand afar off. Let them enjoy it if they can, but as for us, we prefer something which permits us to come very near to our Lord.

10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? Yes, Lord, we do believe that. Your eternal and inseparable union with the Father is a doctrine about which we have no question whatever!

10. The words that Ispeak unto you Ispeaknot ofMyself but the Father that dwells in Me, He does the works. Notice, dear Friends, that even the Lord Jesus Christ did not profess to teach doctrines out of His own mind! He says, "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself." Now, if it is so with the Master, how much more ought it to be so with the servants! But have you not noticed how it is with the great men of the pulpit in these days? It is, "What I have thought out, I make known to you." It is, "What has come to me by the spirit of the age, the culture of the period, I tell you." God save us from this kind of talk! It is no business of mine, I know, to ever come to you merely with a message of my own, for if the Lord Jesus Christ did not do so, what a fool His servant must be if he pretends to do it! No, if it is not revealed in this Book, neither shall it be taught by us, nor ought it to be received by you! So Jesus says to His disciples, "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself." He glories in His union with the Father, and in the fact that He does not come as an independent teacher of thoughts of His own inventing, but He tells out to us what is in His Father's heart.

11, 12. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works 'sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father We cannot do Christ's redeeming work—it would be blasphemy to suppose that we could, for He said of it, "It is finished." But we can do the kind of work that Christ did in instructing men and in being the means of blessing men. Many of the Apostles brought to a knowledge of the Truth of God more souls than their Lord did by His personal ministry. He was pleased, after the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, to bring great multitudes to the faith by some of His servants, while He, Himself preached, comparatively speaking, to but few, only journeying up and down that little land of Palestine and scarcely traversing all of it. And if we will but trust Him and seek to imitate His wondrous life, we, also, shall do the works that He did, and do them on an even larger scale, and do them with even greater results.

13, 14. And whatever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it Observe the breadth of prayer—"If you shall ask anything." Yet observe, also, the limit of prayer—"If you shall ask anything in My name." There are some things which we should not ask in Christ's name, as we have no promise about them, or because we have indications that they would be contrary to God's usual method of procedure. We must not ask, in the name of Christ, for what would be absurd or outrageous for us to expect God to grant. Neither dare we use that sacred name in pleading for things which would only be for the satisfaction of our own will. We must let the will of God rise above all! But, subject to that will, we may ask anything in Christ's name and He will do it.

15. If you love Me, keep My Commandments. Obedience is the truest proof of love. Some, out of supposed love to Christ, have attempted or committed acts of fanaticism. They have been enthusiastic and, in many cases, doubtless, very sincere. But they have also been very unwise. Here is the best thing that you can do out of love for Christ—"If you love Me, keep My Commandments."

16. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever— "One who will not need to die and so to be separated from you, but who, once coming to you, shall tarry with you throughout the ages."

17. Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you. Do you not notice how this verse contradicts the current thought of the period about, "the spirit of the age" being so much in advance of the Spirit of all past ages? Listen again to these words of our Lord—"The Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive." The world is always receiving one form of falsehood or another. Tossed to and fro and never abiding long in one plac3, it cries, "This is the truth," or, "That is the truth," or, "Now we have it; this is the truth." But Christ says, "The Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you."

18. I will not leave you comfortless. Or, "orphans," for that is the meaning of the original. "I will not leave you orphans."

18-20. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world sees Me no more; but you see Me. Because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. This is all very simple. The words are nearly all words of one syllable, yet there are depths here in which a leviathan might plunge and lose himself!

21-23. He that has My Commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him. Judas said unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loves Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. Only holy men can see the holy Christ, and it is only as we walk in obedience to Him that we can have the Son of God walking with us, and the Father and the Son dwelling with us.

24. He that loves Me not keeps not My sayings: and the Word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent Me. Notice, again, that important Truth of God, and observe what weight and what stress Christ lays upon it.

25, 26. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you. Brothers and Sisters, ought we not to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, since the Father, Himself, does everything in that name? Even concerning the sending of the Comforter, Christ says, "whom the Father will send in My name." Then He would certainly have the Father and the children acting upon the same principles—the Father glorifying Christ by sending the Spirit in His name—and ourselves glorifying Christ by presenting our prayers and praises in that one adorable name!

27. Peace I leave with you. "I told you not to let your heart be troubled. Now I go further and I leave you this precious legacy of peace—'Peace I leave with you.'"

27. My peace I give unto you.—"My own deep peace, which even My sufferings and death cannot disturb."

27-29. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that, when it is come to pass, you might believe. Oh, what numbers of things which Christ foretold have come to pass already! Have you, dear Friends, believed all the more because of them? How many answers to prayer, how many deliverances out of trouble, how many helps in the time of need have you had! Surely, when all this has come to pass, you ought to believe.

30, 31. Hereafter I willnot talkmuch with you: for theprince of this world comes, andhas nothingin Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave Me Commandment, even so I do, Arise, let us go hence. So the Savior went forth to His passion and His death that all might know the supremacy of His love to the Father and His love to His people. And so let us, in our measure, be always ready to say, "Arise, let us go hence," to service or to suffering, since our Savior leads the way.