14
Jesus encouraged his disciples and told them that he is the only way to the Father.
John 14:1-14
1 Jesus continued by saying to us, “Stop being anxious/worried. Keep on trusting in God (OR, You are trusting in God); also keep trusting in me.
2 Where my Father is in heaven there is plenty of room! If that were not true, I would have told you. I am about to go there to prepare a place for you.
3 And because I will go there and prepare a place for you, I will return and take you there to be with me. I will do that so that you may also be where I am.
4 You know the road to the place where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. So how can we know the road?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the road [MET] to where my Father is. I am the one who reveals [MET] the truth about God and the one who gives eternal life to people. I am the only one who can enable people to come to my Father. There is no other way.
7 If you really knew who I was, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and it is as though you have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us your Father and that will be enough for us!”
9 Jesus said to him, “Philip, I have been with you for a long time. So ◄surely you should know who I really am!/why have you not come to know who I really am?► [RHQ] Those who have seen me, it is as though they have seen my Father. So ◄why do you say ‘Show us your Father’?/you should not say ‘Show us your Father’!► [RHQ]
10 Do you not [RHQ] believe that I have a close relationship with my Father, and that my Father has a close relationship with me? The messages that I tell you do not come from me. They come from my Father, who has a close relationship with me. He is enabling me to teach these things, and to perform the miracles that he wants me to perform.
11 Believe that I have a close relationship with my Father and that my Father has a close relationship with me. If you do not believe that just because of what I say, believe it because of the miracles themselves that I have done.
12 Listen to this carefully: You who trust in me will do the kinds of miracles that I have done. Because of what I will do for you (OR, Because I will send God’s Spirit to you) after I go to my Father, you will be able to do miracles that will be greater than the ones I have done.
13 And whatever you, using my authority, ask me to do, I will do it, in order that I can show you how great my Father is.
14 Anything that you ask my Father to do, anything that you ask with my authority [MTY], I will do.”
Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to them.
John 14:15-31
15 “If you love me, you will do what I have commanded you.
16 Then I myself will request my Father, and he will send you someone else who will ◄encourage/be like a legal counsel for► you.
17 I am talking about the Spirit, who will teach you God’s truth. He will be with you forever. Those who are opposed to God [MTY] cannot receive him, because they cannot understand what he does, and they cannot know who he is. But you know who he is, because he is with you and he will be inside you.
18 When I leave you, I will not let you be alone/helpless [MET]. When I send the Spirit, it will be like I am coming back to you (OR, When I rise from the dead, I will come back to you.)
19 Soon those who do not belong to God [MTY] will not see me any more. But when the Spirit comes to you, it will be as though you will be seeing me again (OR, But after I become alive again, you will see me again.) Because I will be alive again, you also will have eternal life.
20 At that time you will know that I have a close relationship with my Father, and you will have a close relationship with me, and I will have a close relationship with you.
21 Those who have accepted my commands and obey them are the people who love me. My Father will love those who love me. I also will love them, and I will fully reveal to them what I am like.”
22 Then Judas spoke to him. He was not Judas Iscariot (OR, Judas, the man from Kerioth Town), but instead a disciple whose other name was Thaddeus. He said, “Lord, what has happened so that you can fully reveal to us what you are like, and not reveal that to those who do not belong to God [MTY]?”
23 Jesus replied to him, “Those who love me will obey what I have told them. My Father will also love them. It is those people whom my Father and I will be able to come to and ◄live with/have a personal relationship with►.
24 But those who do not love me will not obey what I have told them. So I cannot reveal to them what I am really like.
These words that I am telling you have not come just from me. They came from my Father, the one who sent me.
25 I have told you all these things while I am still with you.
26 But my Father will send the Holy Spirit. He is the one who will ◄encourage/be like a legal counsel for► you. He will come with my authority [MTY]. He will teach you all of God’s truth that you need to know. He will also cause you to remember all the things that I have told you.
27 As I leave you, I am causing you to have inner peace. This inner peace comes from me. I am not causing you to have something that those who do not belong to God [MTY] can give you. So stop being anxious/worried, and do not be afraid.
28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, but later I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going back to my Father, because my Father is greater than I am, and there he will honor me and will send the Spirit to you.
29 I have told you these things now before they happen, so that when they happen you will believe that what I said is true.
30 I will not be able to talk to you much longer, because what happens to me will be as though Satan, the ruler of this world, is coming to attack me. But he has no control over what happens to me.
31 Instead, the people who do not belong to God [MTY] must learn from what happens to me that I love my Father, and I am doing the things that he has commanded me to do. Now, let’s get up and leave here.”