FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT.
PARAPHRASE OF JOHN 14; 1-25 FOLLOWED BY COMMENTARY.
Jesus prepares the disciples. He is going away.

PARAPHRASE.
Their long-term destiny.
Don’t let your hearts be troubled. You trust God, trust me too. There are plenty of homes in my Father’s household - no shortage of space there - I would tell you if there were. I am going on ahead to make the place ready for you, afterwards I shall come back to collect you so that we may be there together. As for where it is, you know the way.

Knowing Jesus is knowing God the Father.
Thomas said, Lord we don’t know where it is; so how how can we know the way?

Jesus replied, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No-one comes to The Father except through me. Knowing me is knowing The Father; so you do know Him. You have seen Him.

Philip said, Lord let us see The Father, that’s all we ask.

Jesus replied, All this time together and you still don’t know me Philip? Seeing me is seeing The Father, you don’t need to ask me to show you The Father. Don’t you believe that I am in The Father and The Father in me. The words I speak to you come, not from me but from Him. The Father is at home in me and my works are His.

Believe me that I am in The Father and The Father in me - if you find that difficult, look at the works I do. Now let me tell you something else. Those who trust me will do these works themselves. What is more, because I go to The Father, they will do even greater works than I do.

When you are acting in my name, I will do whatever you ask, so that The Father will get the glory through His Son. What you ask in my name, I will do.

The promise of The Holy Spirit.
If you love me, do what I say. Then I will ask The Father and He will give you another helper to be to you what I have been to you, and to stay with you permanently. He is the Spirit of Truth. The world can’t receive Him because it can’t see Him or know Him.

Knowing Jesus is knowing The Holy Spirit.
You, however, do know Him, already He is with you and will be in you. I shall not leave you on your own, I shall come to you. Soon the world will not see me any more, but you see me. Your life is bound up in mine.

We can understand that God is “Three in One” when we relate to God in the same way ourselves.
You will understand, then, my relationship with The Father because you will be included in it; I in The Father and The Father in me - and you in me and I in you.

Those who obey me are the ones who love me. My Father and I will love them and I will make myself known to them.

Judas (not Judas Iscariot) asked Him, Lord, how come you will show yourself to us without the world seeing?

Jesus answered, Because it is those who love and obey me who have my Father’s love and we will come to them and make ourselves at home with them. It is not for those who don’t love and don’t obey. Remember the words you hear come from The Father, not from me.

I have told you all this while I am with you, but the coming Helper, The Holy Spirit whom The Father will send in my name, He will teach you everything and remind you of what I have said.

COMMENTARY.
Jesus and His disciples had eaten the Passover together and were sitting round talking. Judas had left. This was before they all went out to the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus was preparing them for the fact that He was leaving them.

For nearly three years they had trekked the length and breadth of the country together sharing accommodation, food and funds. There is no better way to get to know someone. They heard Him preach and saw His miracles, but when the crowd had gone home, these were the men who remained and saw Him off guard, saw Him handle minor frustrations, saw Him not just as a teacher and leader but as a man.

The Long-term promise first.
First he tells them of His Father’s House and the place He is going to prepare for them. Never lose sight of our destiny.

The Way.
“You know the way,” He tells them. Thomas asks “How can we know the way when we don’t know where to?” and Jesus answers “I am the way.”

At this point He speaks especially of His Father, of God The Father in relation to us, the father-child relationship we can have with Him. “No one comes to The Father but by me.” This is often misunderstood and misquoted. Jesus did not say no one comes to God but by me. People had been coming to God for thousands of years. But to know God intimately, in a relationship of which human parenthood is but a faint shadow, that is something which only Christ can give.

Knowing Christ is knowing The Father.
Let us take this first as a practical instruction rather than theological theory. If we want to know our heavenly Father, get to know His Son. Every follower of Christ needs to live with the four Gospels, getting to know Christ through them. It is as we read and learn about Him that The Holy Spirit does a miracle in our hearts and we discover that knowing about Him has become knowing Him.

There are other ways of becoming acquainted with Christ: - friendship with others who know Him; teamwork in His service; venture and adventure in mission; daily life with its ups and downs lived in fellowship with Him. And there is fellowship with Christians of different persuasions, denominations and traditions. Churches which discourage their members from close fellowship with differing churches and hindering their members from knowing Christ better. These are ways of growing to know The Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing Him is knowing The Father. It works.

Introducing The Holy Spirit.
Now Jesus promises that when He goes away He will send Another helper. The key word is “another” - someone who will be to the disciples what Jesus had been to them. He had led them, taught them, guided them, taken the day-to-day decisions as leader of their group. Now He was going. The Holy Spirit was to take His place.

“You know Him too.” Jesus had already told them that knowing Him is Knowing The Father. Similarly He tells them that they already know The Holy Spirit. He is with you. He will be in you.

Love and Obey.
The promise is to those who love and obey, who express their love for Christ by obedience to His commands. To such, He promised The Holy Spirit as a permanent resident. “He shall be in you.”

Having The Holy Spirit is the same as having The Father and The Son.
He rephrases the same promise in different ways to show all aspects. Love and obey me and Father and I will make ourselves at home in you.

So having The Holy Spirit in us is the same as having Christ. The same as having God The Father. They are one.

The Trinity.
The term Trinity never appears in the Bible but Jesus explained it in these practical terms. We can relate to God as our Heavenly Father, to Jesus as our Lord and
Saviour, to The Holy Spirit as God living in us.

An over-theoretical approach is dangerous. We are not expected to explain the Godhead which God has not explained Himself. We can readily understand what Christ actually taught and we can relate to God as a result. Beware of petty-mindedness. It really does not matter whether we pray to The Father, to Christ or to The Holy Spirit or just God. He is not fussy about such things. Yet some Christians are.

Our needs.
We need Christ as Saviour, Lord and central focus of attention. It is He who introduces us the His Father and to The Holy Spirit.

We need to know God as our Father, to relate to Him and take our identity from Him. In modern British society many children have no father and feel a great gap in their lives as a result. Only a deep knowledge of God the Father as Our Father can fill that gap.

We need The Holy Spirit in us to make us like Christ.