The course of the conversation here is not hard to follow. First, there is the assertion of Jesus, following upon his revelation of the heavenly dwelling-places, that his disciples knew well the road he was about to travel. He had often of late spoken of his approaching departure from this world, and even of the manner of it. Secondly, there is the difficulty, started by Thomas, that they knew not the goal, and therefore could not know the path by which it should be reached. This difficulty may have been partly an unspiritual stumbling; the twelve were thinking of an earthly road and an earthly destination, and were confusing the approach to the Father with the approach, to a city or a mansion, in which latter case, indeed, a traveler needs to know first his goal and then his route. Partly, too, the perplexity may have been owing to a deep depression, by reason of which the twelve did not do justice to their own knowledge and standing, and took a lower tone than they should have done. Then, thirdly, there is our Lord's explanatory reply. In this he gives what we may call a turn to the conversation, passing in thought from himself to them. The Father's house is for both - for the elder son and for the younger members of the spiritual family. To know the road thither - this is the matter of chief concern to all. Thus Jesus is led to communicate to them the great revelation of the sixth verse - to point to himself as "the Way," and to represent himself as the sole and sufficient means of approach to God.

I. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. It is not so much by explanatory language that Jesus reveals to his people the character of the Father; he does not merely point out the way. But in his own Person, his life and ministry, he displays to us the attributes of Deity which it most concerns us to know; and thus he is the way. As incarnate God, as the one Mediator, he presents the Father before the view of his spiritual family.

II. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FAVOR OF GOD. To understand how holy and how righteous is the Divine Ruler and Judge, is to understand that sinners forfeit his favor. Our Savior is the divinely appointed Way to reconciliation and harmony with him whose laws all men have broken. He removes obstacles otherwise insurmountable, bridges chasms otherwise impassable, makes of himself a path of safety and of progress, so that the passage to the Divine friendship becomes possible and safe. On this account, probably, Christianity is, in the Book of the Acts, repeatedly spoken of as "the way," i.e. the path by which sinful men return to the affectionate interest and regard of a righteous God.

III. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FATHER'S FELLOWSHIP. It is, indeed, with a view to this that the former is desirable. It is moral union which is chiefly important. And the Spirit of Christ exercises over the nature of believing men that power and grace which transform into the Divine likeness. In coming thus unto the Father a man becomes a son indeed; he experiences the grace of true adoption; lie is made in the likeness of his Lord.

IV. CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FATHER'S PRESENCE AND HOME. This perhaps is both the ultimate sense of the language, and the first meaning attached to it by those to whom it was addressed. Jesus was himself about to go to the Father, and he wished his beloved friends to understand that he would not go alone, that in due time they should enter the sacred presence and know the mystic joy. And since it was difficult for them to believe and realize this, he drew their regard to himself, and led them to cherish the hope that in his society and through his mediation they should be introduced to all the honors and to all the immortal employments of the Father's house. - T.

Observe —

I. THAT A MAN MAY, IN SPIRITUAL THINGS, KNOW MORE THAN HE IS CONSCIOUS OF KNOWING. "Ye know," "We know not." It may be said that our Lord is only attributing a certain knowledge with a view to stirring up His disciples to think so that they may come to know distinctly, just as we say to a child, "You know if you would only think." But here the fact stands that Thomas did not know, and yet Christ said he did. So a man may know, and yet not know that he knows. What was it that the apostles actually knew? They knew Christ — very imperfectly, but they did know Him. Thomas's "Lord," the same word that He used subsequently, in an association that leaves no room to doubt its signification, shows us this. Now Christ was the Way; and therefore in knowing Christ, he knew the Way, although he did not know Him as the Way. And more than this. Thomas and the rest were practically walking in the right way in believing in Christ. But not understanding that Christ was the Way, they did not understand that they were in the right way. Whence it follows that a man may be actually in the right way before he is quite conscious of it. This must be so; for being conscious of a thing means coming to a distinct consciousness of it as an existing fact. Then it must exist as a fact prior to consciousness. The time that may elapse between a man being in a certain condition and becoming conscious of it may vary according to circumstances.

II. THAT TO KNOW CHRIST IS TO BE IN THE RIGHT WAY. "I am the Way." Christ had just told them of the Father's house, and they were naturally anxious to know the way. But notice how He modifies the aspect of future blessedness. He now speaks of the Father Himself. For it is the Father's presence that makes home — not a house built by the Father, however much the Father's love may have been lavished on it for His children's sake. To this Father Christ is the Way, and how His subsequent conversation shows. "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 10:19, 20). There is no direct access for man to God. Christ is the way to God, and the way to God is the way to Heaven. And he who knows Christ, however imperfectly, is in the right way.

III. THOSE WHO REALLY KNOW CHRIST AS THE WAY WILL SOON LEARN THAT HE IS MUCH MORE TO THAN THE WAY ONLY. Christ adds the ample appendix, "and the Truth and the Life." These three lead on, the one to the other. Religion begins in practical conformity to a Divine "way," and so comes down to the level of the simplest and the feeblest. But when a man has walked some time in the Divine way, he begins to desire a fuller understanding of the reasons of the way. Then Christ comes as the Truth, disclosing the grounds on which religious duty rests, satisfying thus the speculative, as He formerly did the practical, faculty. Finally Christ reveals Himself as the Life. Then it is seen that religion is more than practice and knowledge, it is the communication of vital powers, of the powers of the life of God, of power to become the child of God; and that this new vitality in turn prompts to pious practice, and capacitates for spiritual perception.

(W. Roberts.)

It serves —

I. TO EXERCISE FAITH IN CHRIST.

1. In His omniscience. For He knows —

(1)Whither He goes (ver. 5).

(2)When He goes (ver. 5).

(3)For what purpose (vers. 7-15): to send the Comforter, etc.

2. In His truthfulness (ver. 7). For —

(1)Jesus went to His Father.

(2)He sent the Comforter.

(3)The Comforter has fulfilled His mission.

II. FOR CONSOLATION WHEN WE FEEL THE PANG OF SEPARATION. For. —

1. Christ is omniscient. He alone knows —

(1)Whither we go.

(2)When we are to go.

(3)Why we go.

2. Christ is truthful. Therefore we are certain that we go —

(1)To the Father.

(2)At the hour appointed by Him.

(3)Because it is expedient and necessary for our own faith in God's omnipotent love and our sense of dependence on Him.

(Pastor Fricke.)

When you say to a man, "You know the way," you mean "Come." And in these words there lie a veiled invitation, and the assurance that they, though separated, might still find the road to the Father's house, and so be with Him still. Observe —

I. THE DISCIPLES' UNCONSCIOUS KNOWLEDGE.

1. Christ says: "Ye know the way and the goal." Thomas ventures flatly to contradict Him. Was Jesus right? or Thomas? or both? The fact is, they had heard plenty in the past as to where Christ was going. It had made some kind of lodgement in their heads, and, in that sense, they did know. It is this unused and unconscious knowledge of theirs to which Christ appeals.

2. The dialogue is an instance of what is true about us all, that we have in our possession truths given to us by Jesus Christ, the whole sweep and bearing of which we do not dream of yet. Time and circumstances and some sore agony of spirit are needed in order to make us realize the riches that we possess; and the practice of far more patient, honest, profound meditation is needed, in order that we may understand the things that are given to us of God. The life belts lie unnoticed on the cabin shelf as long as the weather keeps fine, but when the ship strikes people take to them.

3. All our knowledge is ignorance. And ignorance that confesses itself to Him is in the way of becoming knowledge. And we are meant to carry all our inadequate and superficial realizations of His truths into His presence, that, from Him, we may gain deeper knowledge, and a more joyous certitude in His inexhaustible truths.

II. OUR LORD'S GREAT SELF-REVELATION WHICH MEETS THIS UNCONSCIOUS KNOWLEDGE. Of these three great words, the Way, the Truth, the Life, we are to regard the second and the third as explanatory of the first.

1. Note, then, as belonging to all three of these clauses that remarkable "I am." We show the Way, Christ is it. We speak truth, Christ is it. Parents impart life, which they have received, Christ is life. He separates Himself from all men by that representation which He made when Calvary was within arm's length. What did He think about Himself, and what should we think of Him?

2. And note that He here sets forth His unique relation to the truth as being one ground on which He is the Way to God.(1) He is the Truth in reference to the Divine nature. It is not only His speech that teaches us, but Himself that shows us God. There is all the difference between talking about God and showing Him. Men reveal God by their words; Christ reveals Him by Himself and the facts of His life.

2. He is the Truth, inasmuch as, in His life, men find the foundation truths of a moral and spiritual sort. "Whatsoever things are true," etc., He is these.

3. He is the Way because He is the Life. Dead men cannot walk a road. It is no use making a path if it starts from a cemetery. And Christ taught that men apart from Him are dead, and that the only life that they can have by which they can be knit to God is the Divine life which was in Himself. He is the Life — and, paradox of mystery and yet fact which is the very heart and centre of His gospel, His only way of giving His life to us is by giving up His physical life for us.

4. And what about people that never heard of Him. Ah! Christ has other ways of working than through His historical manifestation, He is "that Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." But for us to whom this Book has come, the law of my text rigidly applies. "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." It is either — take Christ for the Way, or wander in the wilderness and forget your Father; take Christ for the Truth, or be given over to the insufficiencies of mere natural, political, and intellectual truths, and the shows and illusions of time and sense; take Christ for your life, or remain in your deadness separate from God.

III. THE DISCIPLES' IGNORANCE AND THE NEW VISION WHICH DISPELS IT. "If ye had known Me ye should have known My Father also," etc. Our Lord accepts for the moment Thomas' standpoint. He supplements His former allegation of their knowledge with the admission of the ignorance which went with it as its shadow, and tells them that they did not know what they thought they knew so well, after so many years of companionship — even Himself. The proof that they did not is that they did not know the Father as revealed in Him, nor Him as revealing the Father. If they missed that, they missed everything.

1. The lesson for us is that the true test of the completeness and worth of our knowledge of Christ lies in its being knowledge of God the Father, brought near to us by Him. This saying puts a finger on the radical deficiency of all merely humanitarian views of Christ's person. If you know anything about Jesus Christ rightly, this is what you know about Him, that in Him you see God. The knowledge of Christ which stops with the martyr, and the teacher and the brother, is knowledge so partial that even He cannot venture to call it other than ignorance.

2. And then our Lord passes on to another thought, the new vision which at the moment being granted to this unconscious ignorance that was passing into conscious knowledge. "From henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him." We must give that "from henceforth," a somewhat literal interpretation, and apply it to the whole series of utterances and deeds of which the words of our text are but a portion. It is the dying Christ that reveals the living God. Conclusion: So He is your way to God. See that you seek the Father by Him alone. He is your truth; enrich yourselves by all the communicated treasures that you have already received in Him. He is your Life; cleave to Him, that the quick spirit that was in Him may pass into you and make you victors over all deaths, temporal and eternal.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

A man may have grace and yet not know it; yea, he may think He hath it not, as we seek for the keys that are in our pocket: or think that we have lost a jewel that we have locked up in a chest; yea, as the butcher looketh for the candle that sticketh in his hat.

(J. Tramp.)

Jesus, Judas, Philip, ThomasJerusalemWhither1. Jesus comforts his disciples with the hope of heaven;
5. professes himself the way, the truth, and the life, and one with the Father;
13. assures their prayers to be effectual;
15. requires obedience;
16. promises the Comforter;
27. and leaves his peace with them.

John 14:2-4

     2505   Christ, ascension

John 14:4-6

     8168   way, the

Paul a Pattern of Prayer
TEXT: "If ye shall ask anything in my name I will do it."--John 14:14. Jesus testified in no uncertain way concerning prayer, for not alone in this chapter does he speak but in all his messages to his disciples he is seeking to lead them into the place where they may know how to pray. In this fourteenth chapter of John, where he is coming into the shadow of the cross and is speaking to his disciples concerning those things which ought to have the greatest weight with them, the heart of his message …
J. Wilbur Chapman—And Judas Iscariot

May 22 Evening
The Spirit helpeth our infirmities.--ROM. 8:26. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.--What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?--It is God which worketh in you. We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

August 7 Morning
The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.--JOHN 14:26. If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.--If ye . . . being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?--Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

May 22 Morning
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.--JOHN 14:27. The world passeth away, and the lust thereof.--Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches. and knoweth not who shall gather them.--What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. Martha, Martha, thou are careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: and Mary hath …
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January 14 Morning
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Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

August 13 Morning
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Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 26 Evening
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Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

June 23 Morning
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Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 21 Evening
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November 9. "Because I Live Ye Shall Live Also" (John xiv. 19).
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Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May 21. "We Will Come unto Him and Make Our Abode with Him" (John xiv. 23).
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Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 1. "We Will Come unto Him and Make Our Abode with Him" (John xiv. 23).
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Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May 3. "My Peace I Give unto You" (John xiv. 27).
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Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Faith in God and Christ
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Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Many Mansions'
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Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Christ's Peace
'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'--JOHN xiv. 27. 'Peace be unto you!' was, and is, the common Eastern salutation, both in meeting and in parting. It carries us back to a state of society in which every stranger might be an enemy. It is a confession of the deep unrest of the human heart. Christ was about closing His discourse, and the common word of leave-taking came naturally to His …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Love and Obedience
'If ye love Me, keep My commandments.'--JOHN xiv, 15. As we have seen in former sermons, the keyword of the preceding context is 'Believe!' and that word passes now into 'Love.' The order here is the order of experience. There is first the believing gaze upon the Christ as He is revealed--the image of the invisible God. That kindles love, and prompts to obedience. There is another very beautiful and subtle link of connection between these words and the preceding. Our Lord has just been saying, 'Whatsoever …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Christ's Works and Ours
'Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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 unto My Father. 13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14. If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it.'--JOHN xiv. 12-14. I have already pointed out in a previous sermon that the key-word of this context is 'Believe!' In three successive verses we find it, each time widening …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Comforter Given
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.'--JOHN xiv. 16,17. The 'and' at the beginning of these words shows us that they are continuous with and the consequence of what precedes. 'If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments, and I will pray ... and He will …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Absent Present Christ
'I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye see Me: because I live, ye shall live also.'--JOHN xiv. 18,19. The sweet and gracious comfortings with which Christ had been soothing the disciples' fears went very deep, but hitherto they had not gone deep enough. It was much that they should know the purpose of His going, whither He went, and that they had an interest in His departure. It was much that they should have before them the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Forerunner
'... I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.'--JOHN xiv. 2, 3. What divine simplicity and depth are in these words! They carry us up into the unseen world, and beyond time; and yet a little child can lay hold on them, and mourning hearts and dying men find peace and sweetness in them. A very familiar image underlies them. It was customary for travellers in those old days to send …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Gifts of the Present Christ
'At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.'--JOHN xiv. 20, 21. We have heard our Lord in the previous verse unveiling His deepest and strongest encouragements to His downcast followers. These were: His presence with them, their true sight of Him, and their participation in His life. The …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Who Bring Christ
'Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.'--JOHN xiv. 22-24. This Judas held but a low place amongst the Apostles. In all the lists he is one of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

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