I Am the Way
Satan has entered Judas and he has gone to the Chief Priest and will be back with them soon. Jesus tells the disbelieving apostles that “I Am the way.”
This is a Bible Study. Have your own Bible handy to look up the references mentioned.
If you do not have a Bible, I invite you to go to BibleGateway.com or another online Bible.
1. “Instead of the disciples lending support to Jesus in the hours before His Cross, He had to support them spiritually, as well as emotionally. This reveals His heart of serving love (cf. Matthew 20:26-28). (MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. [Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005], 1403)
“To believe in God means you are not an atheist, but to be a Christian, you must have personal faith and trust in Christ.” (McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume IV: [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983], 458)
2. “The Greek word mone is translated ‘mansions’ in John 14:2 and ‘abode’ in John 14:23. It simples means ‘rooms, abiding places,’ so we must not think in terms of manor houses.” (Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament Volume 1 Matthew-Galatians. [Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2004], 350)
3. This “is a clear promise of our Lord’s return for His people. Some will go to heaven through the valley of the shadow of death, but those who are alive when Jesus returns will never see death (John 11:25-26). They will be changed to be like Christ and will go to heaven (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).” (Wiersbe, 350)
“This describes His coming to gather His own who are alive and to raise the bodies of those who have died to take them all to heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:51-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).” (MacArthur, 1403)
I Am the Way
4. My translation: Hey, guys you know where I am going, and you know the way.
“Our Lord is attempting to lift them from the here-and-now to the hereafter, from the material to the spiritual, from the earthly to the heavenly.” (McGee, 459)
5. Thomas has a question. We call him Doubting Thomas.
“If he hadn’t asked the question, we would never have had our Lord’s wonderful answer, which is the gospel in a nutshell.” (McGee, 459)
6. “No church or ceremony can bring you to God. Only Christ can bring you to God. He is the way. Either you have Christ or you don’t have Him; either you trust Him or you don’t.” (McGee, 460)
“In this verse, the exclusiveness of Jesus as the only approach to the Father is emphatic. Only one way, not many ways, lead to God, i.e., Jesus Christ (10:7-9; cf. Matthew 7:13-14; Luke 13:24; Acts 4:12). (MacArthur, 1403)
The Father
7. “What does it mean to ‘know the Father’?…There are four different ‘levels’ of knowing according to John.
The lowest level is simply knowing a fact.
The next level is to understand the truth behind that fact.
The third level introduces relationship; ‘to know’ means ‘to believe in a person and become related to him or her.’
The fourth use of ‘know’ means ‘to have a deeper relationship with a person, a deeper communication.”
It was this level Paul was referring to when he wrote, ‘that I may know him’ (Philippians 3:10).” (Wiersbe, 350)
“When Jesus said that knowing Him and seeing Him was the same as knowing and seeing the Father, He was claiming to be God. From now on, they would understand more and more about the Father, even though Jesus was leaving them.” (Wiersbe, 351)
8. Philip told Jesus to just show us the Father and we will be satisfied.
“The burning desire of every believer ought to be to know God better. We read and study the Word of God so that we might better know the God of the Word.” (Wiersbe, 351)
9. “Everything that Philip wished to see, he had seen in Jesus Christ. He had seen God.” (McGee, 460)
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father
If we have seen Jesus (trusted in Him) we have seen the Father.
I Am in the Father
10. I am in the Father, and the Father in me
“Jesus here points to the testimony of His words and of His works. They are the same. One equals the other. He was perfectly consistent.” (McGee, 461)
11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me
“Jesus says that if you can’t believe Him because of His words, then believe Him because of His works. They should convince you.” (McGee, 461)
“The works/miracles that Jesus did are in reality the works of the Father, and her Jesus told the disciples that if they had difficulty believing his ‘words,’ they should believe because of his ‘works’”. (Borchert, Gerald L., The New American Commentary Volume 25B, John 12-21. [Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002], 114)
Prayer
12. “It is not the believer himself who does these ‘greater things’’ it is God working in and through the believer: ‘The Lord working with them’ (Mark 16:20).” (Wiersbe, 351)
“The believer(s) will do ‘greater things’ (meizona) than Jesus has been doing because of Jesus’ departure to the Father.” (Borchert, 115)
13-14.
“To ask in Jesus’ ‘name’ does not mean to frivolously attach such an expression on the end of a prayer as a mere formula. It means:
(1) the believer’s prayer should be for His purposes and kingdom, not selfish reasons;
(2) the believer’s prayer should be on the basis of His merits and not any personal merits or worthiness; and
(3) the believer’s prayer should be in pursuit of His glory alone.” (MacArthur, John, 1404)
15. “When you love someone, you honor his or her name, and you would never use that name in a demeaning manner.” (Wiersbe, 352)
Loving Jesus means to keep His commandments.
References
In this article Scripture quotations taken from KJV.
Borchert, Gerald L., The New American Commentary Volume 25B, John 12-21. Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002
McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume IV: Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983
MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005
Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary New Testament Volume 1 Matthew-Galatians. Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2004
