John 14:1-31
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
“Come now; let us leave.
Hebrews 1:1-4
God First Spoke through the Prophets, and Now through Jesus
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
2 Peter 1:16
The Disciples Were Eyewitnesses to Jesus
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus the Same Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Romans 1:20
Since Creation, God's Divine Nature Has Been Clearly Seen
20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
Matthew 5:48
Be Perfect as God is Perfect
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
John 16:7-15
Jesus and the Holy Spirit
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocatewill not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
John 20:24-29
Jesus Appears to Thomas and Thomas Calls Him My LORD and My GOD
24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
God is eternal and infinite...He completely understands everything...He can reveal to us things about Himself in many ways and through many things, only if He wants to...One should not be surprised if One is eternal and infinite that they can be seen in many different things and in many different ways...He is revealed by His creation in the universe...He can be seen in this universe He created...He may want to reveal Himself to you through a person, acquaintance or friend, even a stranger...But the greatest evidence and revealing of Himself, I think, is through His Son...
And this evidence of God is all about revealing Himself to us...And the ways He has done this for us...And this is why He has done this and revealed Himself -it is for us!...
God is Spirit...A Spirit is difficult for us to get to know and learn about...(At least for me, that is the case)...And if you believe in God, then you believe that He is the most knowledgeable of all beings and things, and He is eternal and infinite...He is infinitely more knowledgeable than man is...And if He wanted to hide Himself from us, He certainly could...Just as we could hide ourselves from a baby so they would never know where or who we are...As a baby gets older, he/she can discover more things and more or less figure out who you are if you are around and available for them...The baby gains additional knowledge as they grow...The baby's knowledge grows closer as they age and can even surpass some who are older...We have the ability to grow in knowledge...But the knowledge of God is always there, always present...His knowledge is eternal...His knowledge is infinite...His knowledge takes and makes no growth spurt...He is the same, yesterday, today, and tomorrow...So God is different in that respect...He is Spirit and infinitely more knowledgeable (than us) and stays more knowledgeable than us...God could remain hidden from us forever if that was what He wanted to do...(Now atheists and non-believers believe He is forever hidden)...But believers believe, He has chose not to remain hidden...If He did remain forever hidden, we would know and discover less about Him and know very little about Him, if anything...
But God did not want to remain hidden...He wants us to know Him...So He has given us different things that reveal things about Him...He first gave us creation and nature, in the beginning...He is revealed through nature...He has given us the Bible, and it reveals the most about Him...Bible stories that each could believer could talk about and read about Him...And He often spoke through the Prophets...The Old Testament stories are about how He interacts with believers and His people, and the Old Testament shows how His people interacted with Him...But since God is Spirit it is still hard to know a Spirit...So He became flesh...He came and dwelt on the earth...Now we can get to know Him better, if He is flesh and has walked among us...He can get to meet people, but much better yet, we can get to know Him as He lives among us, and tell others what He is like...Those people close to Him and seeing Him can tell others and write about Him...
And that is what has happened...He has and did come and live and dwell among us as a Man...He lived a life on earth that people, mainly His Disciples (or those who new Him and were the closest to Him), could tell us about Him and write about Him...The Disciples were eyewitnesses to His Majesty and all the things He did...The four gospels are all about Him and His Twelve Disciples...I think of it this way...God is Spirit, and that is hard for me to understand, but He became a Man (if it is fair to call Him a Man), and being a Man, we can better understand Him...And that is what He did for us, because He is LOVE, and He LOVES us...By being a Man, we can read about His actions, His teachings, what He has done, and find out what kind of a Man He really is...But more importantly to find out what kind of God He really is...
Some of the unusual things He said, was like on the night right before He was arrested and to be crucified, He was comforting His Disciples, instead of them comforting Him...He told them He was the way to God...And not only the way to God, but the only way to God...He told them that if they had seen Him, then they had seen God...God lives in Him and He (Jesus) does God's work...If they (the Disciples) believe in Him, they can do greater miracles than He did while on earth...And Jesus did many miracles on earth...And since Jesus is God's Greatest Evidence of Himself, wouldn't you expect Him to be able to do miracles?...Jesus told His Disciples whatever they did in His name would glorify God...And then He promises to send them the Holy Spirit of God...He would send them an indwelt Spirit that would be with them...A Spirit that would guide, the mind, the soul, body, and feet, and give our conscious the ideas of right and wrong and love...A Spirit that would guide us to the Truths...He says He will prepare a place for them in heaven...And then He says He will come back for them at a later time...Jesus' impression on His Disciples would forever change them...He is that way...He forever touches the heart of those who know Him...
And as we read the four gospels and read what He says and really believe that He is this historical figure, we can study and see how He did say some most unusual things about Himself...And He wants us to repent and change, and be like His Father...C. S. Lewis for me concludes Jesus teachings and what He said in this respect on us repenting and Him changing us...Lewis said this, “Imagine yourself as a living house...God comes in to rebuild that house...At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing...He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised...But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense...What on earth is He up to?...The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards...You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace...He intends to come and live in it Himself.”...
He wants the house to be perfect just as He is Perfect...
This Man was either a Liar, a Lunatic, or is our LORD and our God...Lewis further said, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher....He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be the devil of hell...You must take your choice...Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse...You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God...But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a Great Human Teacher....He has not left that open to us."...
I think miracles either happen or they don't...The choice is yours to believe in miracles or not to believe in them...And it is hard to believe in miracles...Thomas found it hard to believe in a miracle...We have a choice to believe or not to believe that Jesus is LORD...Thomas actually wanted to touch the nail marks in His hands and put his finger where the nails were, and then he wanted to put his hand into Master's side, otherwise He would not believe...Thomas had this choice to believe, and He actually got to see the miracle of Jesus alive, after His death...Jesus was not this untouchable Spirit who had no body and could not be seen or touched or felt...Even the resurrection did not take away the wounds that He had suffered...Jesus appeared to Thomas...Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands...Reach out your hand and put it into My side...Stop doubting and believe.”...Jesus' wound though healed had not gone away...Thomas realized who He was now and said to Him, “My LORD and my God!”...Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”...
Jesus is God's greatest evidence for Himself...He became a Man to show us Himself...He was born of virgin and Holy Spirit...He did not sin...He is the Greatest Example of our human potential...He did many signs and miracles...He died on the cross...He rose after three days and was resurrected...He is still alive, and full of grace and truth...He came a Man, to show us His LOVE for the world...