A Study on the book of John Chapter 14

JOHN 14:1 – 31  

Bible Study Notes                                                                                                        Rev. Betsy Perkins

Jesus’ Comforting Promises

• Have you ever been anxious about finding the right situation of lodging, food, etc, while on a trip in a place you are not familiar with? Have you ever experienced God’s care in those situations?

Jesus Promises Provision (14:1-14)

• How do you imagine the disciples are feeling after Jesus has told them of betrayal and then said that he will be leaving them and they cannot come along?
• What is the connection Jesus makes between feeling troubled and trusting God?
• Jesus speaks of his “Father’s house” in Luke 2:49 and John 2:16. What is Jesus speaking of on those occasions?  How does that compare with what Jesus is speaking of here?
• What is the promise Jesus makes to the disciples?
• What is the confusion and uncertainty that we hear in Thomas’ question?
• How does Jesus respond Thomas’ uncertainty?
• Enter Jesus’ sixth “I AM” statement on your chart.
• Some find Jesus’ statement in John 14:6 to be difficult and controversial. Why?

Don’t come with a set, fixed idea of who God is, and try to fit Jesus into that. Look at Jesus, the Jesus who wept at the tomb of his friend, the Jesus who washed his follower’ feet, and you’ll see who is the true God. That was Jesus’ answer to Philip. It is his answer to the natural questions that arise in people’s minds today. Only when his followers are themselves continuing to do what Jesus did may they be believed when they speak the earth-shattering truth that he spoke.  

N.T. Wright

• What is the stunning promise Jesus makes about believers in 14:12? How will that be possible?
• What is the stunning promise Jesus makes about prayer in 14:13-14? Did he really mean anything?

‘Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it.’ The all-important phrase ‘in my name’ doesn’t, of course, just mean adding ‘in the name of Jesus’ to anything we might think of, however stupid, selfish or hurtful. The ‘name’, after all, as in many cultures, is supposed to reveal the character. Yesterday I looked out of the window and saw some demonstrators protesting against something the government was doing. ‘Not in my name!’ their posters said.  What they meant was: ‘You are claiming to represent this country, but I am dissociating myself from what you’re doing! You’re not doing it in my name!’  Praying ‘in Jesus’ name’, then, means that, as we get to know who Jesus is, so we find ourselves drawn into his life and love and sense of purpose. We will then begin to see what needs doing, what we should be aiming at within our sphere of possibilities, and what resources we need to do it. When we then ask, it will be ‘in Jesus’ name’, and to his glory; and, through that, to the glory of the Father himself. But, when all this is understood, we shouldn’t go soft on that marvelous word anything. He said it, and he means it.                            N.T. Wright

Jesus Promises a Companion  (14:15-24):

• Read 14:16-17a in at least 6 different translations. The Greek word describing what the Father will give us is paraclete, but it can be difficult to translate into English.  What do we learn from the English words used in the various translations?
• Find as many things as you can about the Holy Spirit from what Jesus tells his disciples.
• What are the promises Jesus makes that are possible because of the Holy Spirit?
• Why does Judas (not Iscariot) want ‘the world’ to be able to see Jesus too?
• What is the distinction between followers of Jesus and ‘the world’?
• Why do we obey what Jesus directs us to do?

Jesus Promises Peace   (14:25-31):

• What more do we learn about the Holy Spirit in 14:26?
• What is the wonderful gift Jesus promises his disciples in 14:27?
• How does the world give peace? How is that different from Jesus?
• Who is ‘the prince of this world’? (see also 12:31)

‘The ruler of this world’ is on his way, even now, coming to arrest Jesus. Who is this ‘ruler’? At one level, it is Caesar, whose soldiers will take Jesus to his death not many hours hence. At another level, it is the dark power that stands behind even Caesar, the spiritual force of wickedness named so briefly in the previous chapter, now using Judas as a poor, willing accomplice. The phrase ‘the world’ gets its negative force in John’s gospel from the fact that the present world, though loved and claimed by the Father, remains under the rule of this dark lord. Jesus’ approaching death and resurrection will inflict a huge wound on this rule, from which it will never recover; but the disciples are to be sent out into the world where opposition is still powerful and deadly. Their courage and confidence is to be sustained by remember what Jesus had done. He did what he did so that ‘the world’ might know that he loved the Father. Called to follow him, we are to act in such a way that ‘the world’ will know that we love him.                                             N.T. Wright

In light of this passage and our discussion, what one truth about God and about yourself stand out as something to “take to heart” this week?

Are there steps you will take, by God’s grace, to more fully apply it to your life?

Resources: NIV Zondervan Study Bible, 2015

N.T. Wright, John for Everyone, 2002

Max Lucado, Life Lessons from John, 2018

Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – Gospel of John (RightNowMedia), 2014

John 14:16-17a

• And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. (New International Version)
• 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;  (King James Version)
• And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth,  (English Standard Version)
• I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth,  (Contemporary English Bible)
• And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.  (New Living Translation)
• I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. (The Message)