John 14-15-16

Read these three chapters, then see if you can answer these questions. Remember, these were Jesus' last words to His followers before He died. Very important!

1. John 14:1, "...believe in God, believe also in Me..."

Why would Jesus ask people to believe in Him if He is not God?

Those who do believe in Him will be saved. Those who do not will be damned. We who are spreading the Gospel message in our age do not ask people to believe in us. But Jesus asked the people of His day to believe, not just in God, but in Himself.

2. John 14:6, "No one comes to the Father except through Me." Why do I have to go through Jesus if He is not God? Why can't I go directly to the Father? Is Jesus somehow connected to the Father?

3. John 14:7-11, "If you would have known Me, you would have known My Father...He who has seen Me has seen My Father...Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me."

Were the Father and the Son directly related and inseparable?

Fascinating question, don't you think? Those disciples who looked on the face of Jesus were seeing God. That's what Jesus said. Not only that, Jesus claimed to be somehow "in" God, and God "in" Him. This was spoken before the Holy Spirit was given out to believers.

We speak of Jesus living in us today. But in the day when Jesus spoke this to His disciples it was not a common concept. How could a person be in God, and God in Him? Unless He was God, perhaps...

4. John 14:13, "Whatever you ask the Father in My name, that I will do."

Should not that read, "that will My Father do"? We pray to the Father, but Jesus does the answering? Are they one?

5. John 14:17, "The Spirit of truth lives with you (present tense) and will be in you (future tense)."

Who was with the disciples when He said this? Who is with all His true disciples to this day?" Are they the same Person?

Do you understand the question? Jesus was with the disciples for 3 years. The Holy Spirit was and is in His disciples today. Jesus said that the Spirit of Truth lives with you (present tense) and will be in you (future tense). Is Jesus saying here that He is one with the Spirit of God?

6. John 14:23, "If anyone loves Me...My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."

If Jesus is not God, how can He come to every believer with the Father?

"We"? He's talking about His Father and Himself. We. Together, Jesus says, My Father and I will come to you and live there! What an incredible statement!

We know that Christians today are filled with the Holy Spirit. But Jesus says that He and His Father will be joining that Spirit in living with believers.

In other words, you cannot separate the Father from the Son or the Son from the Spirit or the Father from the Spirit. They are One. Christians are often accused of having three gods. Not at all. One God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three in One.

7. John 15:10, " If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love."

Aren't we supposed to keep God's commandments? If Jesus is not God, why is He giving separate commandments and His special love to those who obey them?

This Jesus spoke with such authority. He doesn't mention here the ten commandments, but seems to imply that if we do what He says to do, He will love us.

He doesn't mention the love of the Father, but one gets the impression that to be loved of Jesus is to be loved of the Father. And that's the truth!

8. John 15:23, "He who hates Me hates My Father also."

To hate one is to hate the other. Does that not mean they are the same?

If Jesus and the Father are one, then to hate One would be to hate the Other. If they are two separate beings, this statement does not make sense. To hate one person does not imply that you hate another person.

Many would say in our day that they love God but don't care for Jesus. Jesus Himself says that is not true, because Jesus and the Father are connected in a way we cannot understand.

9. John 15:26, "The Helper... I will send to you from the Father...the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father..." Which is it? Jesus sends the Spirit or the Spirit comes from the Father? Or both, at the same time, because the Father, and the Son, as well as the Spirit, are the One God?

Here the water gets very cloudy! Jesus says He will send the Holy Spirit from the Father. He goes on to add that that Spirit comes out from the Father, seemingly, on His own. That is, the Father is sending out the Spirit and so the Spirit goes wherever the Father wants Him to go.

But Jesus says, I'll send you that Spirit. How can both Jesus and the Father send the same Spirit? Unless they work in perfect unity...

10. John 16:14, "He [the Spirit] will glorify Me."

But shouldn't the Spirit glorify God? So Jesus is God?

To God be the glory, right? Only God should receive all glory and praise for all that has been done and all that He is. We agree. But Jesus says that the Spirit of God is going to glorify Jesus. Such blasphemy! Unless, Jesus is God.

11. John 16:15, "All things that the Father has are mine."

What an outstanding, nearly outrageous, thing for someone to say... unless He is God.

Everything owned by the Father is mine, says Jesus. We, the Father and I, are co-owners of the universe. Who would dare make such a claim but a member of the Family called God?