John 14:8-21 - Homiletics

Philip's questioning.

This disciple, one of the earliest, seizes upon the last word of our Lord and asks for a bodily sight of the Father.

I. PHILIP 'S DEMAND TO SEE THE FATHER . "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us."

1. It is hard to decide how much of ignorance is compatible with saving grace .

2. Evidently Philip thought of such a revelation of God as was vouchsafed to Moses in answer to the request , " Lord , show me thy glory ."

3. He believed that such a revelation would solve all his difficulties and doubts .

4. How strange that Philip should not , in three years , have found what he aspired after! "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."

5. Yet his request implies that it was in Christ ' s power to satisfy his demand . ( Matthew 11:29 .)

II. OUR LORD 'S ANSWER TO PHILIP 'S DEMAND . "I have been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip."

1. Philip was longer with Jesus than most of the disciples . The words have a touch of sadness and disappointment, as if Philip had failed to benefit by all the teaching and experience of three years.

2. The answer implies the impossibility of seeing the invisible Father with the eyes of the body .

3. But the Father is seen in him who is his express linage . "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." He sees the Father's love, faithfulness, and power. The life of Christ is the true manifestation of the Father.

4. Jesus points to two proofs of his union with the Father .

III. CHRIST 'S DEPARTURE WILL BE THE SIGNAL FOR THE REVELATION OF NEW POWER IN THE APOSTLES . "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father."

1. Christ endowed his disciples with power to work miracles like his own .

2. He endowed them with power to do still " greater works " — in Pentecostal conversions—which were of a far more exalted nature and with more enduring results than miracles of power. The prophecy began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, and is still in process of fulfillment in the expanding growth of the kingdom of God.

3. This higher productiveness of the disciples is to depend upon Christ ' s higher position . "Because I go to the Father." The ascended Lord has received the "all power" of heaven and earth for the use of his Church.

4. Prayer will be the disciples ' part in these greater works . "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."

(a) it implies that it is by the blood of Christ we draw near to God;

(b) that we pray in the strength of Christ;

(c) that we believe we shall obtain from Christ in heaven whatever we ask of him.

IV. THE SOURCE WHENCE THIS PRAYER OF POWER DERIVES ITS VALIDITY . It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

1. Mark the moral condition of this new blessing . "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

2. Mark the glorious provision that is made for Christ ' s absence . "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever."

(a) This title implies his distinct Personality,

(b) his true Divinity.

(c) Mark his various relations to believers.

( α ) He is "with them" in fellowship.

( β ) He abideth by them in personal comfort.

( χ ) He is "in them" in indwelling power.

( δ ) His presence will be perpetual—"that he may abide with you for ever." Christ's historical presence was now to be measured by a few hours or days. The Holy Spirit will be with the Church till the end of the world.

( ε ) He cannot be received by an unreceptive , unsympathetic world. "Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him." The world cannot see or know spiritual things, which demand the faculty of spiritual discernment ( 1 Corinthians 2:14 ).

( ζ ) The receptiveness of the disciples, so different from the moral blindness of the world, had its origin in the Spirit's indwelling, and would be still further strengthened by the fuller measures of his grace.

V. THE CONSOLATION SUPPLIED BY CHRIST 'S SPIRITUAL PRESENCE IN THE FUTURE EXPERIENCE OF HIS DISCIPLES . "I will not leave you orphans."

1. Our Lord thinks of them as "little children ," who needed

2. His departure was just at hand . "Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also."

(a) It is the fullness of life to see God as he is ( 1 John 3:1 , 1 John 3:2 ).

(b) Christ's life is the foundation and guarantee of the life of believers.

3. The day of the gift of the Comforter will be the signal of fresh arid enlarged blessings . "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you."

(a) Mark the need of knowledge to obedience.

(b) The need of obedience to loving happiness.

(a) The Father loves all who love the Son, his own beloved Son.

(b) The Son loves' those who love the Father, and makes through that very love, a more perfect revelation of himself. Thus this higher manifestation more than supplies the place of his bodily presence.