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WEEK SIX

Day One

DAILY SCRIPTURE

John 14:10-12

LEADER GUIDE QUESTIONS

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Know: Read John 14

Note: Mark keywords, including pronouns and phrases. (love, believe, Jesus Christ, Spirit)

Ask questions: (Use tools such as interlinear bibles to search the original meaning of words- free tool here) For example:

• Who is Jesus speaking to?

• What?

• When is this happening?

• Where is Judas?

• Why?

• How?

Observation:

What: What does today’s study reveal to you about the nature of God? What truth do I need to apply to my life today?

”I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” John 14:6

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever.” John 14:15

Have you ever been in a relationship that caused you to fear the consequences of disobeying? It was a relationship based on fear. “Obey, or else….”

Conversely, have you ever experienced a relationship that produced a desire to obey because of safety? You wanted to partner in that relationship because of the love you experienced? You love them because you have been loved first.

The law had put a veil over the eyes of the Israelites, which caused them to fear God. They obeyed out of fear of punishment. That was never God’s heart or intent. Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father. He revealed perfect love that cast out fear. He had just demonstrated such when He washed the disciple’s feet and when He gave them a new command,

“Love one another.”

And then another, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me… Believe me, when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.” John 14:1,11

(John later tells the church in his letters that these were the same commands we are to obey, “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.” 1 John 3:23)

If Jesus demonstrated His love for us by laying down His life and healing all who came to him, casting out devils, and performing miracles, how will we love like that on Earth? How is it remotely possible to obey this new and better command?

This is how- “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever.” (Jn 14:16). The Helper is the Holy Spirit (parakletos: another of the same kind, advocate, counselor, comforter). “When the Holy Spirit is given, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (Jn 14:20)

When Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” He was not making a threat. He was making a promise. In other words, “If you believe in me and love me, you will do the works (and more excellent ones) I have done because I’m the one who will do them through you.”

If Jesus came to reveal the Triune God, He also revealed the nature and heart of God toward us. Here, Jesus lets the disciples in on the greatest secret God had planned. He came to Tabernacle within humanity, and this would happen when the Holy Spirit makes His home within believers. Where there was once only one Jesus, now there are millions of little Jesus’.

Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all his innermost (bedrooms) parts of his being (belly).” In other words, The Spirit searches the rooms of our Spirit, hearts, and minds. He doesn’t search to find fault; He searches to fill up. Ephesians 4:23 says, “And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” (Minds- plural… there are many dimensions to our minds- subconscious, unconscious, etc.)

Jesus said He was going to the Father’s house to prepare many rooms (some translations say mansions, but the word is translated as “dwelling place, or bedrooms” *see note below*). I believe Jesus was saying, “You are the image bearer of God. Just as the Father’s house has many rooms and dimensions, you have many rooms. I will make you my dwelling place, and my Spirit will fill up every space. As you step into trusting and believing, the rooms of your mind will be open to more filling until you don’t know where you end and I begin. The Spirit searches until you align with who I am and who you are in me. We are one. We are fused together. “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” (1 Cor 6:17).”

This was God’s plan from the foundation of the world! To make His dwelling place within His people so we would be His ambassadors on Earth. It is not our works that will allow us to love like Jesus and to do “greater works” than He; it is His Spirit, His work, in and through us!

This joining with God’s Spirit doesn’t just stop at identity; it propels partnership. That’s the purpose of Jesus’ coming and His death.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Jesus is the way to the Father. The Father is what God feels about you.

Jesus is the truth of who God is. Jesus is what God has to say. Jesus takes us from death to life when we believe in Him. His life is Zoe-life, the life of God.

The Spirit is what God does. God functions through believers.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” John 14:27

Jesus also said He was leaving peace with them. Jesus lived in perpetual peace and rest. That was because the work was finished before He came to Earth! His Spirit- the Spirit of peace, was Shalom peace. That Hebrew word means “Destroying the authority that establishes chaos.” Shalom is completeness, soundness, welfare, safety, health, and prosperity.”

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let It be afraid,” at the cusp of the greatest persecution the disciples would endure. Jesus knew the suffering they would face, so He left them with a Helper, which brought with Him the peace that the world cannot provide. It is an unbroken and constant fullness of that abiding presence of God no matter the situation they might face.

This Shalom peace transcends generations and time. When believers receive His Shalom- His Spirit of Peace, they have the power to:

Do greater works than Jesus. John 14:12

Ask anything in His name. John 14:14

Bear much fruit. John 15:8

Remain in joy and be made full in it. John 15:11

Love one another. John 15:17

Be convinced of righteousness. John 16:10

Hear His voice. John 16:13

Behold His glory. John 17:24

Know His love. John 17:26

“The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me” (Gal 2:20).

*Note: I am aware this verse is used to teach that there are many mansions in heaven. I am staying with the theme of John in approaching this verse in the context of the purpose of Christ’s coming and making us co-heirs with Him. He came to put heaven within us, and we are called to advance the Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven. John’s Gospel is all about Christ with us and Christ in us the hope of glory.