Search
We have mentioned repeatedly that the Gospel of John shows that God in His Son coming to be man’s life was for Him to build a temple, which is His house. The Lord’s becoming flesh was His tabernacling among men. His body of flesh was the tabernacle and also a temple. Later, Satan instigated the Jews to crucify Him on the cross, destroying this temple. Still, through resurrection, the Lord raised up the temple again in three days, thus enlarging it. When the Lord became flesh, He provided God with a tabernacle to dwell among men, yet this tabernacle was limited to only one individual. After the Lord resurrected and rebuilt the temple, it became boundless, no longer limited to one individual but including all those who have been regenerated in His resurrection and have received His life throughout the ages. Therefore, this building began with the Lord’s incarnation and was eventually completed in the Lord’s death and resurrection. The Lord completed this building, this temple, in resurrection.
When the temple was completed, heaven was opened to the temple. This was what the Lord referred to in John 1: “You shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (v. 51). We should realize that the Son of Man refers not only to the Lord Himself but also includes all those who are joined to Him in His resurrection. This Son of Man is a mysterious man in the universe. The angels of God ascending and descending on this man indicates that this man is joined to heaven and has reached the earth; heaven and earth are joined in Him; and God and man are mingled together in Him.
Brothers and sisters, if you will keep these points in mind and read John 14, 15, and 16 — the chapters containing the Lord’s parting message — and John 17 containing the Lord’s concluding prayer, you will be able to understand the proper meaning. Simply speaking, the Lord was showing that He would go through death and resurrection to accomplish the building of God.
John 14:2 says, “In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you.” We have already pointed out that the writings of John do not have the element of space or time. Therefore, when reading them, we need to go beyond the concept of space and time. When John mentions time, it refers, in principle, to eternity; the space he speaks of is simply God Himself. The matters he deals with are all in eternity and also in God. Therefore, do not assume that the Father’s house here refers to heaven or some other place. The Father’s house mentioned here and in chapter 2 both refer to the mutual dwelling place of God and man. In this dwelling place there are many abodes. Later, we will see what these abodes refer to.
John 14:2 says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” In John 14 and 16 the Lord repeatedly spoke about His going. The Lord’s going does not refer to His leaving the earth to ascend to the heavens, but it refers to His going to die. I repeat: In the Gospel of John we see that the Lord’s becoming flesh is not just His coming from heaven to earth but His coming from God to man. His coming and going are not a matter of place but a matter of person. In the Gospel of John, in principle, there is no mention of place, only of person. Therefore, His incarnation was to bring God into man, and His death and resurrection were to bring man into God. In other words, His incarnation was His coming, and His death and resurrection were His going.
Since the Lord’s going refers not to His leaving the earth to ascend to the heavens but to His death, His going to prepare a place for us must also not be His going to heaven but His going into God to prepare a place, that is, His going to God to open a way for us, solving the problems and removing the barriers between us and God so that we who were outside of God and separated from God can enter into God and be joined to God. This is what the Lord meant by His going to prepare a place.
Thus, you can see that the Lord’s word here has no thought of heaven at all. The Lord never meant to go to heaven to build a house for us, to prepare an abode for each of us, and having prepared it, to come again to receive us. This is altogether man’s concept, not the Lord’s intention. The Lord’s intention was that He would go to suffer death, redeem us from our sins, terminate the flesh, deal with Satan, deal with the world, deal with all the barriers, problems, and difficulties between us and God, and pave a way that we may be joined to God, enter into God, and dwell in God as our abode. This is what the Lord meant by His going to prepare a place for us. This shows that God’s salvation is not to save us into heaven but to save us into Himself in His Son. God is saving us not from earth to heaven but from ourselves into Himself.
Many times we do not preach the gospel accurately. In preaching the gospel to others, we often say, “Friends, do you know where you are going when you die? Where is your eternal home? If you do not believe in the Lord Jesus, you will go to hell. You can go to heaven only if you believe in Jesus.” It is absolutely right to say that a person who does not believe in Jesus will go to the lake of fire. However, it is questionable to say that a person who believes in Jesus will go to heaven.
One time I was in a certain place giving a message concerning the building of God’s house. I then asked the audience, “You are very familiar with the Bible and have received much light. Now I would challenge you and also challenge all of Christianity. Please tell me where the Bible says that those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven.” I went on to say, “I know you will say in your heart that in John 14 when the Lord Jesus said, ‘I go to prepare a place for you,’ the place He was going to prepare must be heaven.” Then I said, “We will temporarily put John 14 aside, saving it for a later time. But I would say that in the whole Bible you cannot find one place where it talks about people going to heaven.”
A few days later, one of those who listened to the message that day invited us for a meal and fellowship. After the meal an elderly sister who was very familiar with the Bible asked me, “Brother Lee, since we are not in a hurry, can you speak to us from John 14?” I said, “Yes, but I would rather not merely speak on it. It is best if we read it together.” So together we read over it briefly. When we came to in My Father’s house, I asked, “In the entire Bible what does God’s house or the Father’s house refer to?” The sister said, “In the Old Testament it certainly refers to the temple of God, and in the New Testament it definitely refers to the church of God.” Then I asked, “So what does the Father’s house refer to in John 14?” She said, “Everyone believes that it refers to heaven.” I immediately went on to say, “You just said that in the Old Testament God’s house refers to God’s temple and in the New Testament it refers to the church. Why is it that the Father’s house in John 14 alone refers to heaven?” She said, “That is what everyone says, so I think it is probably so.” I said, “Why is your thought not according to the Old Testament and the New Testament? Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament says that God’s house is heaven.”
When we read further, I asked her, “The Lord Jesus said, ‘I go to prepare a place for you.’ What did the Lord mean by the word go?” She said, “That certainly means that the Lord would leave the earth to ascend to the heavens.” I asked, “What is meant by the phrase prepare a place?” She said, “Everyone says that it means that the Lord was going to heaven to build rooms for us.” Therefore, I had to read on further with her little by little. It took me a great deal of effort to help her see that the Lord’s going refers to His death, and His going to prepare a place was His going to solve the problems between us and God, to pave a way that we may be connected with God, joined to God, and dwell in God. Therefore, to be sure, the Lord’s going to prepare a place for us is not for us to go to heaven but for us to enter into God.
John 14:3 says, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself” (v. 3). The meaning of the Greek words translated as “I am coming again” is difficult to render accurately. If I go...I am coming means “My going is My coming.” Indeed, the Lord’s going was His coming. In other words, the Lord’s going to die was His going to be resurrected. From the perspective of death, it was His going; from the perspective of resurrection, it was His coming. Brothers and sisters, I do not know if you understand what I am saying. His going was His coming. Please keep this word in mind.
What the Lord was saying was, “My going is My coming.” For what was His coming? He was coming to “receive you to Myself.” He did not say to “receive you to where I am,” that is, to a place. Rather, He said, “receive you to Myself,” that is, into a person. Therefore, it is not a matter of going to a place but a matter of entering into a person. The Lord did not at all intend to receive us to a place, but rather to receive us into Himself.
Then the Lord said that “where I am you also may be.” Where is the Lord? Is He in heaven? You will be clear after reading verse 20. There the Lord said, “I am in My Father.” Therefore, what the Lord intends is to bring us into the Father. He is in the Father so that we also may be in the Father. Since the Lord’s going into death was to remove the barriers between us and God, to pave a way that we may be connected to God, joined to God, and also dwell in God, after the Lord went and finished the preparation, He came to receive us into Himself. In that day He was in the Father, and we also are in the Father, thus fulfilling His word, “Where I am you also may be.”
Verse 4 says, “Where I am going you know the way.” Where was the Lord going? Many would say, “He was going to heaven.” However, it is a marvelous fact that the Gospel of John does not say that the Lord ascended to heaven. Brothers, do you see where the Lord was going? By now we should realize that He was going to the Father. In His incarnation He came out of the Father; now He was going into death and resurrection to go back into the Father. That is why I have repeatedly said that in John there is not the matter of place but only the matter of person.
The Lord said, “Where I am going you know the way.” What is the way? Among the disciples there was Thomas, a doubtful person, who asked the Lord, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?” Do you think that Thomas asked a foolish question? The strange thing is that today many people seem to be smarter than Thomas and are sure that the Lord was going to heaven. Today everyone seems to know what Thomas did not know back then. Regrettably, though, this presumptuous knowing prevents them from knowing what the Lord really meant.
What exactly is the way? The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way” (v. 6). So you see that this is altogether a matter of a person. It is not that there is a physical way; the way is this One who is both God and man. There is not an actual place; the “place” is God Himself.
Verse 6 says, “I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” The Lord did not say, “No one comes to where the Father is”; rather, He said, “No one comes to the Father.” What the Lord meant was, “No one can enter into the Father except through Me, the incarnated One.” The Lord was not talking about going to where the Father is but going into the Father Himself. This going is not to a place but into a person.
Therefore, you can see that in the Gospel of John both the way and the place are a person. The way is the Son of God, and the place is God Himself. No man comes to God except through the Son of God. This was what the Lord meant. You may ask how we know that this was what the Lord meant. This is clear when we come to verse 20. Verse 20 says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Is this clear? What He accomplished in that day was not that He brought us to heaven but that He brought us into God. He Himself is the way that He might give us a passage into God. He saves us, who are outside of God, into God so that we might have a union with God and dwell in Him. This is the meaning of John 14.
Verses 7 and 8 say, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and henceforth you know Him and have seen Him. Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us.” A person is quite foolish before his inner eyes are opened by God. Philip did not know that the Lord with whom he was talking was the Father. Therefore, the Lord said to him, “Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how is it that you say, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?” (vv. 9-10). Brothers and sisters, where is the Lord? He clearly said that He is in the Father. But when the Lord spoke these words, He had not yet removed the barriers between us and God, solved the problems between us and God, or opened the way to God. Therefore, at that time the disciples were not yet able to enter into the Father. For this reason the Lord went to die that we might be together with Him in the Father. Then the word of the Lord would be fulfilled: “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
Verses 10 through 17 say, “The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe because of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes into Me, the works which I do he shall do also; and greater than these he shall do because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you.” This section says that the Holy Spirit will be with us.
Verse 18 says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” Amazingly, at this point the Lord’s speaking took a turn. Verses 16 and 17 say that the Holy Spirit would come, and verse 18 says that the Lord Himself would come. Please keep in mind that the Holy Spirit is the Lord Himself. The “I” in verse 18 is the “He” in verse 17. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the Lord’s transfiguration, the Lord’s changing into another form. This may be compared to vapor turning into water at a certain temperature, changing into another form, so that we may say that water is the transfiguration of vapor. If the temperature lowers to the freezing point, the water freezes into ice, which is the transfiguration of water, since it is in another form. Therefore, whether it is vapor, water, or ice, it is the same thing. This is a fitting illustration for explaining the God who is three yet one. The Son is the embodiment of the Father, and the Spirit is the transfiguration of the Son. On the one hand, there are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; on the other hand, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one.
Please keep in mind that even though the Lord Jesus was God becoming flesh, He could be only among men; He could not get into man. He needed to be transfigured into the Holy Spirit in order to get into man. Once He was transfigured into the Holy Spirit, not only could He be among men to be with them, but He could also enter into them to dwell in them. This is why in chapter 15 the Lord said several times that He would be in them and they in Him. When He was still in the flesh, He could only say, “I am in the midst of you,” not “I am in you.” Only after He was raised from the dead and transfigured into the Holy Spirit could He enter into man. This transfiguration of His is the “another Comforter” sent by God. This is like water melted from ice yet still being ice. We can say that ice and water are two things, but once the ice is melted, it is water. Likewise, although we can say that the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit are two, actually They are one.
To be transfigured, transformed, is to be changed from one form to another. Previously, the Lord was in the flesh, but through death and resurrection He was transfigured into the Spirit. Therefore, in actuality the “another Comforter” is not another person but the same person transfigured into another form. Therefore, the “He” in verses 16 and 17 is the “I” in verse 18: “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.”
I am coming is hard to translate accurately. When the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Bible, His utterance was very particular in such places. The meaning in the original language is, “I will not leave you as orphans; My going is My coming.” Therefore, this verse may be properly translated as, “I am coming to you” because the Lord’s going was not His leaving them; His going was His coming. Furthermore, He was not coming to the place where they were, but coming into them. This also is not a matter of place but altogether a matter of person.
Verse 19 says, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me.” I would like to ask you, brothers and sisters, exactly how long is “a little while” mentioned here? Is it two thousand years? Is it until the time of the Lord’s second coming? If it will be at that time, then the Lord could not say “the world beholds Me no longer” because at His second coming the whole world will behold Him. Therefore, here the Lord was obviously referring to His appearing to the disciples and His coming into their midst after His resurrection. How long would that little while be? It would be only three days. Therefore, the Lord said, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me.” Moreover, their beholding the Lord was first an outward beholding, and later, it became an inward beholding, because after His resurrection the Lord not only appeared to them, coming into their midst, but He also entered into them, dwelling in them. The Lord’s intention in appearing to them after His resurrection was to teach them to turn from knowing Him outwardly to knowing Him inwardly. It was only in this way that they could be mingled with the Lord.
The Lord went on to say, “Because I live, you also shall live.” He was saying, “At the time of My resurrection you will be regenerated because of Me; hence, because I live, you also shall live.”
Verse 20 says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” We need to stress in that day. In that day means in the day of the Lord’s resurrection. What would happen in that day? Did the Lord say, “In that day you will know that I have gone up to heaven”? Did He say, “In that day because I am in heaven, so I will save you also into heaven”? I believe by now, brothers and sisters, you are clear that it is not so. The Lord said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me.” Since the Lord is in the Father and we are in the Lord, we are also in the Father. This fulfills the Lord’s word: “Where I am you also may be” (v. 3). Verse 20 has three ins, proving that all the mentions of where in chapter 14 that seem to be referring to a place are altogether a matter of a person.
Therefore, we can say boldly that in chapter 14 there is not the matter of space or the matter of place but only the matter of a person. The place in chapter 14 is a person. The Lord seemed to be saying, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you, so you and I are in the Father together.” This is the fulfillment of, “Where I am you also may be.” At this point God and man have a complete union.
I have repeatedly said that this union is the mingling of God and man — God is in man, and man is in God. This is also the building that God is building. This building is the mutual abode of God and man — God dwelling in man and man dwelling in God.
The Lord said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19). This means that in His resurrection the Lord would build up the temple, which is the union of God and man. Therefore, the Lord seemed to say, “In that day, that is, in the day of My resurrection, because I live, you also shall live. Moreover, you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” With these three ins, with the mingling and mutual indwelling of God and man, the Lord accomplished the building of the temple. This is what the Lord meant when He said that He was going to prepare a place for us, and when it was prepared, He would come and receive us to Himself. Previously, the disciples were outside of the Lord, but in that day they would be in the Lord; just as the Lord was in the Father, the Lord also would be in them.
Let us read on in chapter 14, from verses 21 through 23: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to Him, Lord, and what has happened that You are to manifest Yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Abode here and abodes in verse 2 — “in My Father’s house are many abodes” — are the same word in Greek. In verse 2 it is plural, but here it is singular. At this point you can realize that the abodes mentioned in verse 2 are a group of people who love the Lord, fellowship with the Lord, and live in the Lord, and to whom the Lord manifests Himself, as seen in verses 21 through 23. Abodes in verse 2 cannot refer to another entity — heaven — because they are mentioned in the same chapter of the Bible and in the same message given by the Lord Jesus. Therefore, we can say with certainty that the abodes do not refer to a place but to a person. The abodes are the group of people who believe in the Lord, love the Lord, have fellowship with the Lord, live in the Lord, and allow the Lord to manifest Himself to them and dwell together with them. This group of people is the many abodes in the Father’s house.
Let us read further: “Jesus answered and said to him,...He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you; but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you, I am going away and I am coming to you. [This is the third time the Lord said that His going was His coming.] If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe” (vv. 23-29).
Brothers and sisters, let me ask you, according to the context, what was the thing that would happen when the Lord said, “When it happens you may believe”? Was it that the Lord would ascend to heaven? No, if you read from chapter 14 through chapter 20, you will see that the Lord was referring to His being resurrected from the dead to bring man into God and to bring Himself into man. When this would happen, the disciples would believe.
Now we go on to verses 30 and 31: “I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and in Me he has nothing; but this is so that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father commanded Me, so I do. Rise, let us go from here.”
By now I believe that you have understood the words in John 14. Let us go on to read chapter 15, which immediately follows chapter 14: “I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing” (15:1-5).
Because chapter 14 already says that one day something in particular would happen — that the Lord would be resurrected from the dead and bring us into God and that He Himself would also abide in us — in chapter 15 there is the fact of the union of the vine and branches. The fact that we can abide in the Lord and the Lord can abide in us so that He and we can have a mutual abode is altogether the result of the Lord’s going and coming — His death and resurrection in chapter 14. Without the events in chapter 14, there cannot be the fact in chapter 15. The fact in John 15 is that we abide in the Lord and the Lord abides in us. Our union and mingling with the Lord is the same as the union of the branches with the vine. This union makes it possible for God and man to have a mutual abode and thereby accomplish the building of God.
That is why I repeatedly say that in chapter 14 the Father’s house does not refer to heaven, and the many abodes do not refer to many rooms in heaven. The Father’s house refers to the building of God in the universe, and the many abodes are people who are mingled with God and who abide in God. Everyone who is mingled with God and abides in God is an abode in which God abides. At the same time, God is their abode because they abide in God. Only when we come to chapter 15 do we have the utterance concerning mutual abiding: “Abide in Me and I in you” (v. 4).
Let us leave for now the remainder of chapter 15 and read from chapter 16. Verses 5 through 7a say, “Now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, Where are You going? But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you.” The Lord’s meaning was, “If I do not go, I cannot be transfigured to enter into you. My going is expedient for you. If I do not go, I can be only among you but cannot enter into you.” Verses 7b through 13a continue: “But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: Concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me; and concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.” The Spirit of reality is the Lord’s transfiguration. He does not guide us into doctrines but into all the truth, all the reality. What is all the reality? It is, “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (14:20). This is for man to fully enjoy everything that is in God, which is also to enter into all the reality.
John 16:13b-15 says, “He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.” This is a very great word, but I cannot go into its details at this time. The Lord Jesus was saying, “All that the Father is and has is Mine. When the Spirit of reality comes, He will guide you into all the reality, into all the fullness of the Godhead, so that you may enjoy all that is in the fullness.”
Verse 16 says, “A little while and you no longer behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me.” Brothers and sisters, I believe you know that when the Lord said this He was about to die. Therefore, He said, “A little while and you no longer behold Me” because He would be killed and buried. He also said, “And again a little while and you will see Me” because He would be resurrected as the Spirit to come into the midst of the disciples and also to enter into them.
Verses 17 and 18 continue, “Some of His disciples then said to one another, What is this that He says to us, A little while and you do not behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me; and, Because I am going to the Father? Therefore they said, What is this that He says, A little while? We do not know what He is talking about.” The Lord said, “I am going to the Father”; this still refers to that mysterious event, and that was why the disciples did not understand it.
Verses 19 and 20 say, “Jesus knew that they wanted to ask Him and He said to them, Are you inquiring among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while and you do not behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me? Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” This refers to the period of time when the Lord was crucified and buried. During that time the Lord’s followers would weep and be sorrowful, but the world that crucified the Lord would rejoice. Yet after the Lord’s resurrection the disciples would see the Lord and be joyful.
Verse 21 says, “A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she brings forth the little child, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world.” The time the Lord Jesus went to die was the time the disciples would suffer birth pangs. Likewise, the time the Lord Jesus resurrected from death was the time the disciples would rejoice.
Verse 22 continues, “Therefore you also now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.” The Lord’s seeing the disciples again is not at the time of His second coming but in the day of His resurrection.
John 20:19 says, “When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and while the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be to you.” This took place on the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection. The doors were shut, yet Jesus came in; how He came, we do not know. Verse 20 continues, “And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced at seeing the Lord.” He did not come to the disciples merely as a soul or as a spirit; He came with a physical body that still bore the marks and wounds of crucifixion. Here you can see that the words in chapter 16 are fulfilled in chapter 20. In chapter 16 the Lord said that He was going to die and the disciples would be sorrowful, but that would be only temporary, for when He would be resurrected and would see them again, they would be joyful. Then in the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord did come into the midst of the disciples, and the disciples saw Him and rejoiced.
I point out these verses to prove that coming in John 14 through 16 does not refer to the Lord’s second coming in the future but refers to the Lord’s coming into the midst of the disciples after His resurrection. Likewise, going in these three chapters also refers not to the Lord’s leaving the earth to ascend to heaven but to His death. His going refers to His death; His coming refers to His resurrection.
Let us continue by reading 16:22-25: “No one takes your joy away from you. And in that day [that is, the day of the Lord’s resurrection] you will ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be made full. These things I have spoken to you in parables; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but I will report to you plainly concerning the Father.” Please take note that the Lord reported to us plainly not concerning heaven but concerning the Father.
Verses 26 through 28 continue, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father concerning you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth out from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.” Here He is saying that He came forth from God and now was going back to God. All who read the Greek New Testament know that world in verse 28 is the same as world, that is, the people of the world, in 3:16. Here, therefore, into the world can be translated as “to the people of the world.” He came forth out from the Father to the people of the world; this means that He came from God to man. Then He left the people of the world and went to the Father. This means that He went from man to God.
Verses 29 and 30 say, “His disciples said, Behold, now You are speaking plainly and not saying any parable. Now we know that You know all things and have no need that anyone ask You; by this we believe that You came forth from God.” What a pity! The disciples had not believed until now that the Lord came forth from God; they had believed too late. Now it was not a matter of His coming forth from God but of His going back into God. Even now they had understood only the first part but not the second part. We need to keep in mind that the first section of John is about God coming into man, and the second is about man entering into God. When the Lord said these words, the disciples did not understand. Only until the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection did they understand. Likewise, today if we do not see the fact, we cannot understand. Only when we see the fact can we understand. Now the disciples understood that the Lord came forth from the Father, yet they still did not understand how the Lord was going back to the Father.
Verses 31 through 33 conclude, “Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has come, that you will be scattered each to his own place and will leave Me alone; yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
We will end our reading here. Now let us speak a concluding word. John 14, 15, and 16 speak about the Lord’s coming by going, and this coming by going is His death and resurrection. Please remember that in this book, the Gospel of John, the first section speaks of the Lord’s incarnation, and the second section speaks of the Lord’s death and resurrection. In His incarnation He came forth from the Father into man; in His death and resurrection He went forth from man into the Father. In other words, through incarnation He brought God into man, and through death and resurrection He brought man into God. Through incarnation He brought God into a union with man, while through death and resurrection He brought man into the mingling with God. Therefore, from chapter 1 through chapter 13 He could only say, “I am in your midst” and could not say, “You are in Me and in the Father.” He could not say this word at that time because He had not brought man into God. Between God and man there were still barriers, distance, problems, and difficulties. These problems were sin, the world, the flesh, and Satan. Up until that time the door for man to enter into God had not been opened. The way had not been paved, and there was not a way for man to abide in God.
Therefore, He had to go and die. He had to solve the problems between God and man through death. He had to pave a way and open up a way for man to reach God and abide in God. This was His going to prepare a place for man. He did not go to prepare a heavenly mansion for man to live in. Rather, He went through death to solve the problems between God and man, to open a way so that man may have access to God and abide in God.
After His resurrection the Lord as the Spirit imparted His life to man. That was His entering into man. At the same time, in His resurrection He brought the man He had put on into God. This fulfilled the word of the Lord that where He is those who belong to Him also may be. He is in the Father, and those who belong to Him are also in the Father. In this way God and man are mingled and united to become a spiritual building as the mutual abode of God and man, which is the house of God, the temple of God. This is accomplished through His resurrection. This also fulfills His word: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19). Today He is still building this temple in resurrection. He has been doing this building work in us with His resurrection life so that we may enter more into God and deeper into God. This is the building work shown in the Gospel of John.
