Study Focus: John 14:6–11, John 1:13, John 3:5–8, John 6:63, John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:7–11, John 17
This week’s lesson is about the triune God and how Jesus, the Second Person of the Godhead, is interconnected with its other two Members.
There are at least two places in the New Testament where the three Members of the Godhead are mentioned in one context. At Jesus’ baptism, as recorded in Matthew 3:16, 17, the Holy Spirit descended and settled upon Jesus, and the voice of the Father was heard. In John 1:1–3, 32, we learn that Jesus and the Father are one and that John the Baptist witnessed the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, settle on the Son.
Chapters 13–17 are considered John’s farewell chapters on Jesus, just before His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. In these chapters, Jesus focuses on the important subject of His relationship to His Father and to the Holy Spirit, and how we may, in Him, become close to God. Jesus desired to leave us with this most important thought so that we may always remember that He came from the Father, that He is like the Father, and that the Holy Spirit, His representative, is sent to teach, convict, and comfort us until Jesus comes.
Part II: Commentary
Genesis 1 and John 1 have something in common. The triune God was involved in creation through Jesus, and the triune God was involved in redemption through Jesus. The creative Word fashioned a perfect world that was marred with sin and disrupted the harmonious accord that existed between God and His created beings. Happily, Jesus, the redemptive Word, took upon Himself the work of restoring lost harmony, and He conquered. Moreover, He fought death and won. (See Rom. 6:8–14 and 2 Cor. 5:21.)
It is easy to assume that Jesus suffered all by Himself on the cross, but the Father and the Holy Spirit suffered with Him, too. In 2 Corinthians 5:19, Paul says that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (NKJV). It is worthy of note that God wants us to be actively engaged in the ministry of reconciliation, to have the awesome privilege of sharing in the work of Jesus as ambassadors of His kingdom.
Jesus testified that He and His Father are one, and indeed, they had been one from eternity. He Himself said, “ ‘I and the Father are one’ ” (John 10:30, NASB), and “ ‘The Father is in Me, and I in Him’ ” (John 10:38, NKJV). The Father has greatly invested in this world, and He loves it as much as He loves His only Son. Jesus does the perfect will of His Father (John 5:30); the Father speaks and acts through Him (John 14:10); and the Father brings salvation to those who believe in His Son (John 3:16).
Jesus and the Father
Creation and salvation were both God’s initiative. He created Adam and Eve out of love, to share fellowship with them. This fellowship was disrupted by sin, but God did not leave us to our own fate. He took the initiative to restore our broken relationship with Him. Sometimes we tend to emphasize our commitment to God, but what would our human commitment be without His great commitment to us? It is His commitment that inspires our commitment. Paul affirms this point by asking, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4, NKJV).
Jesus volunteered to come to our sinful world on a divine mission to rescue it from the clutches of the evil one. God in His love shared this initiative and agreed to come to this world in the Person of His Son and to die for each one. John 3:16 plainly tells us that God loved the world to the extreme extent of sending His one and only Son to die for it, for only His death could redeem us from our death. Abraham and his promised son, Isaac, typified this promise by their agreement to fulfill God’s request.
But the difference was that Isaac’s sacrifice was not vicarious as Christ’s was to be. This difference existed because the Son of God was the Source of life, and Isaac was not. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. . . . In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1, 2, 4, NKJV). Ellen G. White states that “in Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 530.
Knowing the Son Is Knowing the Father (John 14:6–11).
More than anywhere in the Bible, an abundance of references to the Father appear in John’s Gospel, especially in the latter chapters. Exactly 136 times Jesus refers to the Father: what He is like and the unity that exists between the two of Them. Some literary critics may question such redundancy as useless, but Jesus wanted to make sure we knew and valued His Father. Along with that, Jesus emphasized how He lived out His Father’s perfect will in all that He said and did.
Perhaps the one reference that sums up this focus is Christ’s reply to Philip in John 14:9, in which the Savior affirms, “ ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father’ ” (NKJV). This clear declaration should lead all of us to relate to God the Father as we relate to God the Son, for whatever characteristics of Jesus we see in the Gospels, we should also see as pertaining to the Father. This encouraging realization should help us to enter into a mutually loving relationship with the Father as with the Son.
The relevant question to ask ourselves here is, How would our daily lives be impacted if we followed Christ’s example of not doing our will but of doing the wise will of our heavenly Father instead?
The Holy Spirit (John 1:13, John 3:5–8, John 6:63, John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:7–11)
The Holy Spirit is the active agent in the dynamic process of spiritual conversion, a process described by Jesus as being born again. Even at the beginning of his Gospel, John addresses this vital issue of the new birth, which is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13, NKJV). This miraculous event takes place by the agency of the Holy Spirit’s stirring influence in the human heart.
It is the Holy Spirit that awakens the conscience to the urgent need for salvation and convicts the heart of the truthfulness of all that the Father and Son say and do. Besides being our Comforter, or the One who sits next to us to bring comfort, the Holy Spirit specializes in conviction. We should be thankful when we experience a beneficial dose of guilt because it is a clear sign that the Spirit is active in our lives, wooing us to make things right.
Other functions of the Holy Spirit, alluded to in John’s Gospel, are found in John 16:8–15. To begin with, the Spirit convicts our consciences with guilt regarding the sin that plagues us and that must be removed from our lives. Second, He convicts us of righteousness and of the joy of doing what is right instead of what is selfish. This righteousness, both imputed and imparted, comes only from the “Sun of righteousness” through the ministry of the Spirit. Third, the Spirit convicts us of judgment, which is sure to come. This conviction should lead us to repent and be ready for Christ’s soon coming. The conviction of the coming judgment should hasten our coming to the Father in true repentance and reformation. Fourth, the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth as it is in Jesus. In our witnessing to others, Jesus brings to our memory the things we need to say at the right time (Luke 21:14, 15). Fifth, the Spirit glorifies Jesus in honoring His words and will.
The Prayer of Jesus (John 17)
The prayer in John 17 is described as the intercessory prayer of Jesus, which is the longest and most profound of His prayers. In it, Jesus prays for Himself, for His disciples, and for all believers, present, and future— future, because He prays “ ‘also for those who will believe in Me through their [the disciples’] word’ ” (John 17:20, NKJV). Christ’s prayers are not only powerful but all-encompassing. It is a fact that He prays for us personally, passionately, powerfully, and perpetually.
Jesus prayed for Peter personally in Luke 22:31, 32. He prayed passionately for His stubborn and wayward people. (See Matt. 23:37.) Paul tells us in Hebrews 5:7 that He supplicated with “vehement cries and tears” (NKJV). He prays powerfully, even for His enemies crucifying Him: “ ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’ ” (Luke 23:34, NKJV). Jesus’ prayers were answered in his enemies’ conversion in response to the Spirit-anointed preaching of Peter. Finally, Jesus prays perpetually, not intermittently as we do when we pray for others. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus “is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (NKJV).
Part III: Life Application
Think about and answer the following questions:
Recall a time when you felt frustrated at not fully comprehending what was in God’s Word. In this context, how does it help you to consider the infiniteness of God in comparison with your own finiteness? The perfect knowledge of our infinite God spans the full spectrum of knowledge and wisdom, but our limited knowledge covers only a tiny slice on that spectrum. Should not this reality cause us to submit to His will and to “be still and know that [He is] God”? Discuss.
Have you come to the realization that the Father is like the Son, and the Son is like the Father? If yes, how so? How does your realization help you to be more intimate with God the Father?
How does it make you feel that, even here on earth and more so in heaven, you will share in the intimacy and closeness that Jesus has with the Father?
The Holy Spirit’s job is to bring conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment to the human heart. If, for some reason, you are resisting the pricking of your conscience, what can you do about it?
Have you thought that, in order to build up your faith and strengthen your prayer life, you should unite your frail faith and prayers with Jesus’ formidable faith prayers? What difference do you think this union will make in your spiritual journey to the kingdom?
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Study Focus: John 14:6–11, John 1:13, John 3:5–8, John 6:63, John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:7–11, John 17
This week’s lesson is about the triune God and how Jesus, the Second Person of the Godhead, is interconnected with its other two Members.
There are at least two places in the New Testament where the three Members of the Godhead are mentioned in one context. At Jesus’ baptism, as recorded in Matthew 3:16, 17, the Holy Spirit descended and settled upon Jesus, and the voice of the Father was heard. In John 1:1–3, 32, we learn that Jesus and the Father are one and that John the Baptist witnessed the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, settle on the Son.
Chapters 13–17 are considered John’s farewell chapters on Jesus, just before His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. In these chapters, Jesus focuses on the important subject of His relationship to His Father and to the Holy Spirit, and how we may, in Him, become close to God. Jesus desired to leave us with this most important thought so that we may always remember that He came from the Father, that He is like the Father, and that the Holy Spirit, His representative, is sent to teach, convict, and comfort us until Jesus comes.
Part II: Commentary
Genesis 1 and John 1 have something in common. The triune God was involved in creation through Jesus, and the triune God was involved in redemption through Jesus. The creative Word fashioned a perfect world that was marred with sin and disrupted the harmonious accord that existed between God and His created beings. Happily, Jesus, the redemptive Word, took upon Himself the work of restoring lost harmony, and He conquered. Moreover, He fought death and won. (See Rom. 6:8–14 and 2 Cor. 5:21.)
It is easy to assume that Jesus suffered all by Himself on the cross, but the Father and the Holy Spirit suffered with Him, too. In 2 Corinthians 5:19, Paul says that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (NKJV). It is worthy of note that God wants us to be actively engaged in the ministry of reconciliation, to have the awesome privilege of sharing in the work of Jesus as ambassadors of His kingdom.
Jesus testified that He and His Father are one, and indeed, they had been one from eternity. He Himself said, “ ‘I and the Father are one’ ” (John 10:30, NASB), and “ ‘The Father is in Me, and I in Him’ ” (John 10:38, NKJV). The Father has greatly invested in this world, and He loves it as much as He loves His only Son. Jesus does the perfect will of His Father (John 5:30); the Father speaks and acts through Him (John 14:10); and the Father brings salvation to those who believe in His Son (John 3:16).
Jesus and the Father
Creation and salvation were both God’s initiative. He created Adam and Eve out of love, to share fellowship with them. This fellowship was disrupted by sin, but God did not leave us to our own fate. He took the initiative to restore our broken relationship with Him. Sometimes we tend to emphasize our commitment to God, but what would our human commitment be without His great commitment to us? It is His commitment that inspires our commitment. Paul affirms this point by asking, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4, NKJV).
Jesus volunteered to come to our sinful world on a divine mission to rescue it from the clutches of the evil one. God in His love shared this initiative and agreed to come to this world in the Person of His Son and to die for each one. John 3:16 plainly tells us that God loved the world to the extreme extent of sending His one and only Son to die for it, for only His death could redeem us from our death. Abraham and his promised son, Isaac, typified this promise by their agreement to fulfill God’s request.
But the difference was that Isaac’s sacrifice was not vicarious as Christ’s was to be. This difference existed because the Son of God was the Source of life, and Isaac was not. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. . . . In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1, 2, 4, NKJV). Ellen G. White states that “in Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 530.
Knowing the Son Is Knowing the Father (John 14:6–11).
More than anywhere in the Bible, an abundance of references to the Father appear in John’s Gospel, especially in the latter chapters. Exactly 136 times Jesus refers to the Father: what He is like and the unity that exists between the two of Them. Some literary critics may question such redundancy as useless, but Jesus wanted to make sure we knew and valued His Father. Along with that, Jesus emphasized how He lived out His Father’s perfect will in all that He said and did.
Perhaps the one reference that sums up this focus is Christ’s reply to Philip in John 14:9, in which the Savior affirms, “ ‘He who has seen Me has seen the Father’ ” (NKJV). This clear declaration should lead all of us to relate to God the Father as we relate to God the Son, for whatever characteristics of Jesus we see in the Gospels, we should also see as pertaining to the Father. This encouraging realization should help us to enter into a mutually loving relationship with the Father as with the Son.
The relevant question to ask ourselves here is, How would our daily lives be impacted if we followed Christ’s example of not doing our will but of doing the wise will of our heavenly Father instead?
The Holy Spirit (John 1:13, John 3:5–8, John 6:63, John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:7–11)
The Holy Spirit is the active agent in the dynamic process of spiritual conversion, a process described by Jesus as being born again. Even at the beginning of his Gospel, John addresses this vital issue of the new birth, which is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13, NKJV). This miraculous event takes place by the agency of the Holy Spirit’s stirring influence in the human heart.
It is the Holy Spirit that awakens the conscience to the urgent need for salvation and convicts the heart of the truthfulness of all that the Father and Son say and do. Besides being our Comforter, or the One who sits next to us to bring comfort, the Holy Spirit specializes in conviction. We should be thankful when we experience a beneficial dose of guilt because it is a clear sign that the Spirit is active in our lives, wooing us to make things right.
Other functions of the Holy Spirit, alluded to in John’s Gospel, are found in John 16:8–15. To begin with, the Spirit convicts our consciences with guilt regarding the sin that plagues us and that must be removed from our lives. Second, He convicts us of righteousness and of the joy of doing what is right instead of what is selfish. This righteousness, both imputed and imparted, comes only from the “Sun of righteousness” through the ministry of the Spirit. Third, the Spirit convicts us of judgment, which is sure to come. This conviction should lead us to repent and be ready for Christ’s soon coming. The conviction of the coming judgment should hasten our coming to the Father in true repentance and reformation. Fourth, the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth as it is in Jesus. In our witnessing to others, Jesus brings to our memory the things we need to say at the right time (Luke 21:14, 15). Fifth, the Spirit glorifies Jesus in honoring His words and will.
The Prayer of Jesus (John 17)
The prayer in John 17 is described as the intercessory prayer of Jesus, which is the longest and most profound of His prayers. In it, Jesus prays for Himself, for His disciples, and for all believers, present, and future— future, because He prays “ ‘also for those who will believe in Me through their [the disciples’] word’ ” (John 17:20, NKJV). Christ’s prayers are not only powerful but all-encompassing. It is a fact that He prays for us personally, passionately, powerfully, and perpetually.
Jesus prayed for Peter personally in Luke 22:31, 32. He prayed passionately for His stubborn and wayward people. (See Matt. 23:37.) Paul tells us in Hebrews 5:7 that He supplicated with “vehement cries and tears” (NKJV). He prays powerfully, even for His enemies crucifying Him: “ ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’ ” (Luke 23:34, NKJV). Jesus’ prayers were answered in his enemies’ conversion in response to the Spirit-anointed preaching of Peter. Finally, Jesus prays perpetually, not intermittently as we do when we pray for others. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus “is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (NKJV).
Part III: Life Application
Think about and answer the following questions:
Recall a time when you felt frustrated at not fully comprehending what was in God’s Word. In this context, how does it help you to consider the infiniteness of God in comparison with your own finiteness? The perfect knowledge of our infinite God spans the full spectrum of knowledge and wisdom, but our limited knowledge covers only a tiny slice on that spectrum. Should not this reality cause us to submit to His will and to “be still and know that [He is] God”? Discuss.
Have you come to the realization that the Father is like the Son, and the Son is like the Father? If yes, how so? How does your realization help you to be more intimate with God the Father?
How does it make you feel that, even here on earth and more so in heaven, you will share in the intimacy and closeness that Jesus has with the Father?
The Holy Spirit’s job is to bring conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment to the human heart. If, for some reason, you are resisting the pricking of your conscience, what can you do about it?
Have you thought that, in order to build up your faith and strengthen your prayer life, you should unite your frail faith and prayers with Jesus’ formidable faith prayers? What difference do you think this union will make in your spiritual journey to the kingdom?