Bible online. New Testament “No one comes to the Father except through Me”

23.06.2020

When the Lord is named "by", we rise to a higher concept, and do not dwell on what appears at first glance. Because under the word "path" We mean progress in perfection, consistently and in order, achieved by deeds of truth and enlightenment of the mind, when we constantly desire what is before us and reach out to what we still lack, until we reach the blessed end, that is, the knowledge of God, which the Lord grants to those who believe in Him. By myself. For our Lord is truly the good, steady and infallible path, leading to real good - to the Father. For he says: “No one will come to the Father except Me”. And such is our ascent to God through the Son.

About the Holy Spirit.

St. Gregory the Theologian

Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me.

It seems to me that He is called:

"Truth", as one, and not multiple, by nature (for the true is unique, and lies are many-sided), as a pure seal and the most undeceitful image of the Father.

"Life", because He is the light, support and fulfillment of every rational nature. ABOUT “in it we live and move and are”(Acts 17:28), according to the twofold power of inspiration - both according to the breath of life that He breathed into everyone, and according to the Holy Spirit, which He gives to those who receive it and as we open the mouth of understanding.

"Path", as if leading us through Himself.

Words. Word 30.

St. John Chrysostom

Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me.

What about Christ? I am the way and the truth and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me (v. 6). Why didn’t He immediately ask Peter: Where are you going?- answered: I am going to the Father, and now you cannot go, but introduced so many words into His speech, offering questions and answers? To the Jews, of course, He, in fairness, did not say so; but why to the students? He told both the disciples and the Jews that he came from God and was going to God; but now he speaks about it more clearly than before. He did not say so clearly to the Jews, because if he had said: You cannot come to the Father except by Me, then they would immediately think that this was said out of pride; and now that He was silent about it, He plunged them into anxiety. But why, you ask, did He also speak to both the disciples and Peter? He knew Peter's great jealousy - that, otherwise, he would have bothered Him even more. So, to distract him from this, He speaks in secret; and when he achieved what he wanted, through darkness and secrecy of speech, he again speaks openly.

Having said: where Az is, no one can come there, He added: in My Father's house there are many abodes, and further: no one will come to the Father except Me. He did not want to tell them this at the very beginning, so as not to plunge them into great sadness; When he has consoled them, then he speaks. After the reproach made to Peter, He, indeed, took away a lot of sorrow from them: and meanwhile they themselves, fearing that they might not hear the same thing, became more humble. I am the way. This is a confirmation of the words: no one will come except me; and the words: both truth and life- confirmation that this will certainly happen. If I am the truth, then there can be no lies from Me. If I am life, then even death itself cannot prevent you from coming to Me. In other words: if I am the way, then you will not need a leader; if I am the truth, then My words are not a lie; If I am life, then although you die, you will nevertheless receive what I said. As for the path, they understood and confessed this, but did not understand the rest and, however, did not dare to ask about what they did not understand. However, from what was said about the path, they received great consolation. If it is in My power, he says, to lead you to the Father, then you will certainly come there. And it is impossible to get there any other way. In the words that He said before: no one can come to Me unless the Father draws him(6, 44), and also: Even if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everything to Me(12, 32), as well as in the words now spoken: no one will come to the Father except by Me, – He shows His equality with the Father.

Conversations on the Gospel of John.

St. Filaret (Drozdov)

Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me.

Let all of us, Christians, both philosophical and humble in simplicity, never forget that Christ is not only true, but also life. In His word and in His example, He became a way for us to lead us to the truth, and through the truth to true life. Whoever thinks to secure himself by achieving some knowledge of the truth of Christ, and discontentedly tries to turn it into real life according to the teaching and example of Christ, deceives himself with the truth itself; and exposes himself to the danger of dying along the way, and never achieving the true, eternal, blessed life with Christ in God. – Take this and you will understand. By the path of truth, strive for true life.

Word on the day of the accomplished centenary of the Imperial Moscow University. 1855

St. Luka Krymsky

I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. These words of the Lord Jesus Christ are extremely important: they denounce all those who think that they believe in God, but do not believe in Christ.

There are many people who reject the Gospel, consider it a collection of unreliable stories, do not believe in miracles, do not believe in the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, but say that they believe in God.

The Lord Jesus Christ denounces them, who do not believe in Christ, who do not believe in His Divinity, with these words: No one comes to the Father except through Me. To come to the Father, to enter into communion with the Father, to pray so that the Lord hears, is possible only through His Son, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord says further: If you knew Me, you would also know My Father. He who does not know Him does not know the Father. The faith of all those who say that they believe in God, but reject the Gospel, and do not consider Christ the Son of God, is vain. ... Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; but if not so, then believe Me by the very works(John 14:11) . We must believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the Father, and the Father in Him. What does it mean that the Father is in Him?

This means that God the Father Himself always dwelt in Him, He was One with the Father, He was the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. We must believe in this unconditionally. And if not so, then believe Me by the very works. Christ did many, many things that testify to His Divinity, He performed many great miracles: He raised the dead, He healed a man born blind, He raised Lazarus four days old, He walked on the waters, He miraculously fed thousands of people - His many great works. And since the Lord Jesus Christ ascended, many things have been added that were the consequence of His works, His teaching, His stay on earth with us. There were great things done by the holy apostles.

Their messages went out into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world.(Ps. 18:5; Rom. 10:18) . The preaching of Christ spread throughout the entire universe, all nations heard the voice of the apostles, and faith in Christ conquered the world, overthrew ancient paganism, and became the new basis of human life, Christian life.

The works that Christ did, that the apostles did, that the holy martyrs, the great venerables, the great saints did, don’t they testify with extraordinary clarity to the Divinity of the Lord? Could these works have been accomplished if their beginning had not been laid by the Son of God Himself, Who is One with the Father?

So, if you do not believe the words of Christ, if you do not believe what is written in the Gospel, believe His works. To reject these matters is impudent and insane. All who are against Christ are full of this denial and full of insolence.

We, humble Christians, the little flock of Christ, will unconditionally believe every word of the Gospel, we will believe that it is impossible to come to God the Father except through the Son of God, One with the Father, but through faith in Him. Let us believe in Him at least because of His works, and then the grace of the Holy Spirit will overshadow our hearts.

Hurry to follow Christ. To the words: “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

St. Hesychius of Jerusalem

Every monk will doubt and hesitate to take up spiritual work before sobering up his mind, either because he has not yet recognized its beauty, or because, having recognized it, he is powerless to decide on it due to a lack of zeal. But this hesitation will undoubtedly dissipate as soon as he enters into the work of preserving the mind, which is and is called mental wisdom, or active wisdom of the mind. Because then he will find the way that said: “I am the way, and the resurrection, and the life” (John 14:6).

Rev. Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, to Theodulus, a soul-helping and saving word about sobriety and prayer.

Blzh. Theophylact of Bulgaria

Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me

Evfimy Zigaben

Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me.

Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life

the way, because you walk in Me, is the truth, because I speak the truth, and everything that I say will certainly come true—life, because I am the Lord of death. So, if I am the way, then I will guide you; if it is truth, then I am not deceiving; if it is life, then death will not separate you from Me.

No one will come to the Father except Me

Jesus Christ said before: no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him(John 6:44), because God the Father attracts, and He leads, and both of them work together to save people.

Lopukhin A.P.

Art. 6-7 Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. If you knew Me, you would also know My Father. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him

Christ does not answer Thomas's question directly. He only uses this question as an occasion to remind the apostles of the teaching about His purpose (on the question that Thomas proposed to Him, He spoke a lot above), Christ is Himself the path to truth and life, or, in other words, to the Father. God. Some interpreters, for example, Silchenkov, consider expressions true And life epithets that Christ applies to Himself: “Christ is truth itself - outside of Him everything is false. He is life itself—there is no life outside of Him.” But such an interpretation contradicts the further words of Christ: “no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Why would Christ begin to talk to the apostles about going to the Father as something necessary for them, if in Christ they had everything without the Father? No, Christ speaks of the Father as the true goal of all human aspirations. People strive for eternal glory, in which the Father abides, and Christ is the path leading to this high goal.

If you knew Me. If the apostles had recognized Christ in His true relationship to the Father, with whom He is in the closest unity in essence, then they would have recognized the Father. It is clear that the Lord recognizes such knowledge as possible for the apostles and thereby considers the argument expressed by Thomas ( “We don’t know... how can we know...”), completely unfounded: no, they could know!

And from now on you know. But, having expressed some reproach towards the apostles, the Lord immediately consoles them. Even if they do not have complete knowledge of Christ, even if they love Him more as the Teacher-Messiah, nevertheless, such knowledge is something positive, it will lead them to full knowledge, the foundation for which has already been laid (this is indicated by the expression from now on). Some (for example, Goltsman) see in the last words of Christ only an “optimistic assumption that does not correspond to reality”: the apostles did not actually have such knowledge and did not see the Son of God in Christ, and therefore did not know the Father either... But with this It is impossible to agree with this opinion due to the fact that further the Lord directly says that He “ opened"to the apostles the name of the Father (John 17:6), and this discovery began a long time ago.

Explanatory Bible.

“No one comes to the Father except through Me”

I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me(John 14:6). These words of the Lord Jesus Christ are extremely important: they denounce all those who think that they believe in God, but do not believe in Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ denounces them, who do not believe in Christ, who do not believe in His Divinity, with these words: No one comes to the Father except through Me. To come to the Father, to enter into communion with the Father, to pray so that the Lord hears, is possible only through His Son, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord says further: If you knew Me, you would also know My Father(John 8:19). He who does not know Him does not know the Father. The faith of all those who say that they believe in God but reject the Gospel and do not consider Christ the Son of God is vain... Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; but if not so, then believe Me by the very works(John 14:11). We must believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the Father, and the Father in Him. What does it mean that the Father is in Him?

Christ did many, many things that testify to His Divinity, He performed many great miracles: He raised the dead, He healed a man born blind, He raised four-day-old Lazarus, He walked on the waters, He miraculously fed thousands of people - His many great works. And since the Lord Jesus Christ ascended, many things have been added that were the consequence of His works, His teaching, His stay on earth with us. Great things were done by the holy apostles . Their messages went out into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world.(Ps. 18:5; Rom. 10:18). The preaching of Christ spread throughout the entire universe, all nations heard the voice of the apostles, and faith in Christ conquered the world, overthrew ancient paganism, and became the new basis of human life, Christian life.

Aren’t the deeds of the holy martyrs who did not spare their lives for the sake of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ amazing? Isn’t it amazing the immeasurable abundance of the grace of the Holy Spirit on those who have loved the Lord Jesus with all their hearts? Doesn’t this grace shine in the world to this day? The works that Christ did, that the apostles did, that the holy martyrs, the great venerables, the great saints did, don’t they testify with extraordinary clarity to the Divinity of the Lord?

Could these works have been accomplished if their beginning had not been laid by the Son of God Himself, Who is One with the Father? So, if you do not believe the words of Christ, if you do not believe what is written in the Gospel, believe His works. To reject these matters is impudent and insane. All who are against Christ are full of this denial and full of insolence.

Amen.

The Word “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him”

What does it mean: abides in the Lord Jesus Christ? This means that the Lord dwells in those who worthily partake of His Body and Blood. To abide in Christ means to be in the closest communion with Him.

If we talk about human relationships, we know that people are most closely connected with each other when they are united by a union of love: spouses who passionately love each other, children who love their parents are in each other, their hearts beat together, their thoughts are directed in one direction , they live by one spirit.

Likewise, to abide in Christ means to live His teaching, to be completely imbued with His Holy love, His commandments, to be imbued with the love that prompted Him to come down from heaven and save us.

Communication with the True God can, of course, only be spiritual communication, communication of love. If the Lord Jesus Christ says that He also abides in those whom He worthily partakes of His Body and Blood, then this means that the love of Christ will illuminate the heart of such a person, that this heart will be filled with the Holy Spirit - this will be a deep and inextricable communion of love.

The Spirit gives life, the flesh does not benefit at all. The words that I speak to you are spirit and life(John 6:63). Only the Spirit gives life, for the Spirit reigns over the flesh. All functions of the organs of our body are controlled by the Spirit. If the Spirit is powerful, holy, full of love, this control of the flesh will be gracious.

We know amazing examples from the lives of saints, from the lives of great fasters who ate only once a week. It would seem, from the point of view of scientific information, people who, like John the Baptist, ate only locusts and wild honey, people who, like St. Anthony of Siysk, like St. Seraphim, ate for years only grass, should have been extremely exhausted, their life should have been shrink.

But this is not so: “Physiology says one thing. The spirit is different." Such great fasters and ascetics who lived underground, who did not breathe fresh air at all, who, like the ascetics of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, lived in caves and never saw the sunlight so necessary for the body, these people, contrary to the laws of physiology, lived 100 or more years.

They were quickened by the Spirit, they were quickened by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Lord says: Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God(Matt. 4:4). This is the deepest, greatest basis of life - quickening by the Spirit.

He who is quickened by the Spirit, who enters into deep, close communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, who lives in Christ, is above the laws of nature. He recognizes in his heart that he has close fellowship with Christ. How will he find out?

He recognizes this by the fact that his heart is filled with joy, a joy that people who do not live by the Spirit do not know; he recognizes this by the fact that holy love grows and grows in him, that he fulfills the commandments of Christ.

Let us live in such a way that the Spirit gives us life, let us live in such a way that Christ lives in us and we live in Christ!

Amen.

“When fasting comes, the mother of chastity”

“When fasting comes, the mother of chastity.” Chastity is usually understood only as victory over carnal lust, but this, of course, is not the only passion. There are a lot of passions, and you need to know each one in order to keep a watchful eye on them. In addition to the hypogastric passion - the most evil, the strongest, the most dangerous, there is a very strong passion - gluttony and drunkenness.

A person who is always filled without measure, directs all his aspirations to having tasty and plentiful food, who drinks without measure, and is often drunk - this person must overcome the passion of gluttony and drunkenness by fasting.

There is an extremely dangerous passion - the passion of pride, a disease characteristic mainly of high-ranking, highly gifted people with influence. They exalt themselves above everyone, are proud of their talent, intelligence, talent, high position, noble origin; they humiliate others, they look down on all other people. But do not think that only the highly gifted are characterized by the passion of pride - every person, although not to the same extent as these outstanding people, it is characteristic of absolutely every person: everyone puts himself above others, no one wants to consider himself last, as humility requires.

Pride manifests itself at the slightest reason, often petty and stupid. Pride is often based on imaginary virtues that we do not actually possess: we often mistakenly judge ourselves, it seems to us that we have virtues, but people can see from the outside that we do not possess them at all.

Such petty pride is the same as the pride of the great and noble of the world - it is only pettier.

There is also the passion of ambition and vanity. We love to be praised, we strive to occupy a social position that is associated with honor; we love that they bow to us, that they honor us, that they consider us worthy.

In this passion, the Lord sharply denounced the Pharisees and scribes, who loved to pray at the crossroads of the streets, wear long robes, sit at the table at feasts, loved to be told to them: “Teacher, teacher,” and bowed low, loved to flaunt their piety. Such vanity is characteristic of everyone, literally every person. There are other passions about which much remains to be said.

Fasting is the mother of chastity. Fasting frees us from carnal passions and helps us free ourselves from all other passions. First of all, it is precisely because a person humbles his belly that he forces himself to please less of its excessive demands. If a person has the opportunity to be fed up, he is always fed up. Only those who have little food eat little. Almost everyone strives for satiety. By fasting we deprive our stomach of its immense demands and lighten it. Fasting is a reason for all abstinence. If we constantly subdue the passion of gluttony, we will learn to subdue other passions. We are going through abstinence school. Just as during Lent we humble the passions of gluttony and drunkenness, so we learn to humble other passions. It is not only by fasting that our passions are humbled; they are humbled no less than by fasting and by intensified prayer.

All the venerables, all the hermits, all the saints, always, throughout their lives, spent most of their time in prayer. And prayer, attracting their thoughts and hearts to the highest, lifted their hearts to grief, distracting them from everything earthly, humbling all their passions.

Prayer taught them to always be focused, not as distracted as worldly people, whose thoughts wander and desires wander, like birds that fly here and there all the time, like flies that circle everywhere in the summer.

Among the saints, their deeds, their thoughts, their feelings were distracted from this dispersion, focused on thoughts about God, about His commandments, about the deep truths of faith, about their sinfulness. And prayer led everyone to deep and constant repentance.

During Lent, services are longer and all services are different from regular services. They are imbued with deep humility; the entire divine service is arranged differently than in ordinary times. There are few chants, more and more reading, reading and reading. Much fewer lamps are lit than on other days free from fasting. Lots of prostrations. The great prayer of Ephraim the Syrian is repeated many times, so disposing everyone to humility, to the consciousness of sinfulness.

If hermits, saints, and monks spent their lives in prayer and fasting, you need, at least during fasting, to live a life at least a little similar to the life of those who dedicated themselves to God. Prayer combined with fasting predisposes one to repentance and prepares one for confession and Holy Communion.

Let us prepare ourselves for the great Sacraments by constantly going to church. You cannot come, as many come now, casually to the Holy Sacraments: you didn’t go to church, you were busy with your daily affairs.

The Church does not impose responsibility on anyone; everyone must voluntarily, according to the desire of his heart, come to the great Sacraments, having prepared diligently with church prayer. Quite often it happens that a person comes and says that he needs to confess and take communion right away, he has no time, he has to travel far. If you don’t have time, it’s better not to go at all, just don’t pretend to be repentant - I forbid such confession, for you need to prepare reverently, diligently prepare for the great Sacrament.

You must devote at least one week to the great Sacrament, abandoning all your daily affairs. You need to concentrate your heart, your thought on God’s, on the highest, and prepare yourself for the great Sacrament of Repentance and Communion.

Imbued with this thought, remember, and treat shit as you should. Remember what you have heard and do not come to Holy Communion unprepared.

Remember Pavlova's words: He who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself, without considering the Body of the Lord(1 Cor. 11:29).

Let this not happen to any of us! Let us all approach the Holy Chalice, having adequately prepared ourselves through fasting and repentance!

Amen.

About the post

Tomorrow is Lent, and I will talk about fasting. You will say: why do you need to talk about fasting, and we have been fasting for so many, many times, we have had Lent for a long time. So, shouldn't we say anything? I really need it, I really need it!

The fast that you have fasted until now is God's punishment, and the fast that will begin tomorrow - the holy fast established by the Holy Church - is not God's punishment, but the grace of God, the mercy of God.

The fast that you have been fasting for a long time will not give you any reward, because a reward from God comes only for good will, and if you fast out of necessity, you cannot eat better - this is not from your will.

God accepts good deeds that come from his own will, from your good will, accepts those good deeds that are done from diligence through effort and labor; and in the fast that you fast, there is neither your effort nor your zeal, there is no labor - there is no reward for a forced fast, for a fast sent by God as punishment: there is no merit in it. Delve into this, remember this.

What true fast will I talk about? About the one that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself established, for we know that when the scribes and Pharisees came and began to reproach Him for not fasting, He answered them: Can the sons of the bridal chamber mourn while the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast(Matt. 9:15).

Long, long ago, this Holy Bridegroom, the Bridegroom of the Church of Christ, the Head of the Church, was taken away from us, long ago ascended from us into heaven. His words are eternal, and if he said that they would fast, then they should fast. But didn’t He Himself set an example of fasting, didn’t He fast for 40 days and 40 nights before He began His Divine work of saving humanity? Didn't Moses and Elijah fast before entering into direct communication with God? Like the Lord Himself, they fasted for 40 days and nights. Here's an example for us. The book of the holy prophet Jonah testifies to the power of fasting and its great significance. There was a city of Nineveh, full of untold riches, but the Ninevites, by their sins and their wickedness, moved God to pronounce a terrible rebuke and condemn Nineveh to destruction. He sent His prophet Jonah to the city of Nineveh to tell people that terrible destruction awaited them, the extermination of the people.

How did the people of Nineveh receive this warning from the prophet? The people shuddered, first of all, the king of Nineveh was horrified, and everyone understood that they needed to repent before God of their grave sins. By order of the king, a three-day fast was imposed not only on all people, but also on all livestock. No one dared to eat or drink. The king took off his precious clothes, put on sackcloth, sat down in ashes and tearfully repented before God, asking God for forgiveness with streams of tears. And this repentance saved Nineveh: for this fast and repentance, the Lord had mercy on Nineveh and canceled the verdict on its destruction. See how great the power of fasting is!

Can we treat everything that the Lord has established with inattention, much less with contempt and oblivion? We cannot, for every word of Christ is the word of God - full of Divine power, full of perfect truth. Fasting is a great thing, a saving thing, pleasing to God.

We heard the gospel story that when the Lord Jesus Christ came down after the transfiguration, He saw a crowd of people making noise and arguing. They said that His apostles could not heal the demon-possessed youth. The Lord healed him. When the apostles asked Him why they could not heal the demoniac, He told them: This race can only be driven out by prayer and fasting. Demons flee from fasting. Fasting is disgusting to demons, fasting is unbearable for them, unbearable.

Tell me, aren’t there a lot of people for whom fasting is also hateful, who greet the beginning of fasting with grumbling? How will they deny themselves food? There are many who grumble among us, who say that fasting is not necessary, that they do not please God with food and drink, but with good deeds. This is gross hypocrisy. Those who do not fast and generally do not want to please God, everyone rejects fasting - nonbelievers reject it, Lutherans reject it, sectarians reject it.

And for us, fasting should be a great and holy institution of Christ. Will anyone really become like the demons who run away from fasting, for whom fasting is unbearable, unbearable? In rejecting fasting one becomes like demons, the demons themselves - think about it! Bow your heads low and repent of not keeping the fast.

Do you know what is happening in our state: the entire people have almost completely forgotten about fasting; only a tiny number of people remember and observe fasting. How scary it is! This means showing disrespect for the cross of Christ.

Has it always been like this in our country? In ancient times, it was completely different: the entire people fasted, starting with the ancient pious kings, who did not miss a single church service. Then children were raised in all the rules established by the Church, from the cradle they were taught about fasting, about its holiness, its necessity, and small children fasted along with adults.

Is there anything like this now? A young generation has grown up - godless, which does not want to know about fasting, does not want to hear about God.

And your children, Christian children, will they really grow up like that too? Isn’t it necessary for a new generation to grow up, raised in the fear of God, in faith in Christ, in obedience to all the institutions of the Church? Shouldn't your children shine in the darkness like bright stars? If you don’t raise your children this way, you will give a heavy answer before God.

Why is fasting necessary, what is its power? When fasting, we abstain from the demands that our belly makes, we abstain from what the belly always strives for: abundant, satisfying food.

When we begin to fast, we refuse the stomach to fulfill its demands, we begin to eat sparingly, and we learn the first degree of abstinence.

And when we learn to abstain from the demands of the belly, we will learn to abstain from other demands of our flesh. And all our sins come from the flesh. The flesh pulls us to the earth, prevents our spirit from ascending to God, like chains, chains us to the earth, to the material. If during holy fasting we acquire the habit of abstaining from the demands of an insatiable belly, we learn all other abstinence: we learn to restrain our tongue, which is ready for any defilement - insult, gossip, condemnation. We gain power over our tongue, power over the cruel and shameful aspirations of our hypogastric organs. We learn to abstain not only from obvious fornication, but also from fornication and adultery in our thoughts. Starting with curbing one passion with constant exercise, we gradually achieve the great goal - curbing all passions, all lusts. Is this not a great and holy task?

We were created to become like God, created to be partakers of Divine bliss in eternal life. How will we be worthy of this bliss if we do not cleanse our hearts and curb our insatiable flesh?

Fasting is a great school of all abstinence, one of the most difficult and great human deeds. We learn every difficult and great task gradually, through tireless exercise. So we need to begin to bridle our flesh by bridling our belly. Let us begin gradually, so that at the end of the fast, having cleansed our flesh with holy repentance, we will meet the great day of the Resurrection of Christ pure and blameless before God, so that we may be washed in the holy bath of repentance.

Fasting serves as the threshold of repentance, its necessary companion. When we fast, fasting will remind us of the need for holy repentance. If we understand the need to observe fasting and we all fulfill the fast, we will receive great benefits, we will understand how necessary fasting is, which encourages great repentance.

You need to know that all pure people who deeply loved the Lord never denied fasting - all the saints labored in fasting.

Starting to fast, they did not grieve, did not grieve, as at the beginning of the undesirable, but rejoiced. And when such joy appeared in their hearts, then they clung to fasting, fasted and fasted all their lives, for they felt what power of grace fasting gives.

Demons flee fasting, tremble at fasting, and saints run to fasting, hurry to fasting, rejoice in it, for fasting gives deep, uninterrupted joy - joy in the Lord Jesus Christ, joy in the Holy Spirit.

May our Lord and God Jesus Christ vouchsafe this joy to all of us!

Amen.

Sermon at Vespers of Forgiveness Sunday

Repentance begins, holy and great repentance. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches how to begin it, for He said: If you forgive people their sins, then your Heavenly Father will also forgive you; and if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins(Matt. 6:14–15). You see what an unconditional requirement, what a necessary condition: He will not forgive us if we do not forgive.

How will He fulfill our request in the Lord's Prayer? This is exactly how he will forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors. If we forgive with all our hearts, He will forgive; if we do not forgive, He will not forgive, for His words are immutable. The law of forgiveness to others is a great, holy law.

Can a person truly devoted to God, who loves Christ and follows Him, can such a person harbor evil in his heart? Of course not! If he harbors evil, there is no love in his heart, it means that he does not fulfill the law of Christ, the law of love, at all. For the commandments: Don't steal; Do not listen to your friend's false testimony; Do not wish your wife your sincere and all other commandments are contained in one: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Love is the fulfillment of the law. Do we not do evil to our neighbor if we do not forgive his sins? Is this love, doesn’t it mean that we do not fulfill the commandments of Christ? How dare we repent and come to the Holy Chalice?

The Church has now established a rite of forgiveness - Forgiveness Sunday. You came in large numbers to perform this rite; you came not only because today is a solemn service, that you are interested in this service, but because you want to perform the rite of forgiveness.

Every ritual should be an expression of what is in a person’s heart. If the Church calls to perform this rite, then it reminds us that malice and hatred against our brothers and our neighbors must disappear from our hearts; we must truly forgive our neighbors from the bottom of our hearts.

You not only need to bow to the ground and kiss, you need to have sincere forgiveness and a request for it flow from your heart. This is a great deed, for failure to do which the Lord will reject us and will not forgive our sins.

Yesterday we celebrated the memory of Saint Nikephoros, who lived in one of the cities of Asia Minor. He was friends with Sapricius, a priest. They were true friends, but, as often happens, their friendship turned into hatred: the presbyter hated Nikephoros. Nikifor humbly asked for forgiveness, relentlessly followed Saprikiy and asked him to forgive. Sapriky did not forgive. The persecution of Christians has arrived. The priest was subjected to torture and torment - he endured it. When he was led to execution, unfortunate Nikephoros ran after him and threw himself on his knees, begging: “Martyr of Christ, forgive me!” Sapriky did not forgive me here either. They arrived at the place of execution, and Nicephorus was also walking. When they were about to cut off Sapricy's head, he suddenly shouted that he was ready to renounce Christ - and he did: the grace of God abandoned him because he did not forgive. Nicephorus confessed his Christian faith and asked to be killed instead of Sapricius. He is canonized. So immeasurable is the power of forgiveness, so terrible is the horror of not forgiving the sins of our neighbors!

How much does it take to forgive? Say four words: “My brother, forgive me!” It’s simple, but people don’t dare pronounce them. Who holds his tongue? The devil himself, for he knows how great the power of forgiveness is, the power of fulfilling the law of Christ. The devil holds his tongue, and few, few who can break these bonds can utter these simple four words.

If a person even once tries to pronounce these words, his heart will immediately begin to transform and immediately feel quiet joy. A pure, gentle smile will appear on his lips, the peace of God will descend into his heart. If he does this two or three times and gets used to asking for forgiveness from his neighbors, then the fetters of his tongue will be untied, and each time it will be easier and easier for him to pronounce these words.

You need to not only forgive, but also ask for forgiveness. For monks, asking for forgiveness is the first and sacred duty. The elder teaches each new monk to pronounce these words.

All monks must respond to any reproach, insult, even blows with a bow and the words: “Forgive me!” There were monks who were imbued through and through with this commandment of forgiveness, and there were those on whom grave accusations of debauchery and seducing women were leveled. When such a monk was called to account, he did not make excuses, bowed his head low and said: “Forgive me, brothers!” It happened that someone unaccustomed to justifying himself lived until the end of his life under the stigma of a libertine and fornicator. Only before death or after death was his innocence revealed.

Let us proceed to sincere mutual forgiveness; Let us remember that we cannot begin to repent, we cannot begin fasting, without fulfilling this requirement of Christ. The time has come to awaken from sleep, a sinful sleep in which we forgot about repentance and forgiveness. The time has come to embark on the bright path of repentance and fasting.

The night has passed and the day has come(Rom. 13:12). The night has passed, the day has come: the night of ignorance has passed, the night during which we lived in darkness, in deep darkness, until Christ dispelled it, until the Sun of Truth rose. The eternal day of bliss has approached - the bliss of the righteous in communion with God.

Let us prepare for this day, let us cast aside sleep, let us reach with all the strength of our souls towards the Sun of Truth - Christ our God, having forgiven our neighbors the sins - and the Lord will bless you and forgive us our sins!

2 In My Father's house are many mansions. But if it were not so, I would have told you: I am going to prepare a place for you.

3 And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be.

4 But where I am going you know, and you know the way.

5 Thomas said to Him: Lord! we don’t know where you’re going; and how can we know the way?

6 Jesus said to him: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.

7 If you knew Me, you would also know My Father. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him.

8 Philip said to Him: Lord! show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

9 Jesus said to him, “I have been with you so long, and you do not know Me, Philip?” He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, show us the Father?

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself; The Father abiding in Me, He does the works.

11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; but if not so, then believe Me by the very works.

12 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me, the works that I do will he do also, and greater works than these will he do, because I go to My Father.

13 And whatever you ask of the Father in My name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, 17 The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; and you know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

18 I will not leave you orphans; I'll come to you.

19 A little while longer, and the world will see Me no more; and you will see Me, for I live, and you will live.

20 On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and appear to him Myself.

22 Judas - not Iscariot - said to Him: Lord! What is it that You want to reveal Yourself to us and not to the world?

23 Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him.

24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; The word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father who sent Me.

25 These things I spoke to you while I was with you.

26 But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything that I have said to you.

27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. || Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

28 You have heard that I said to you: I am going away from you and will come to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I said: I am going to the Father; for My Father is greater than Me.

"I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me." These words of the Lord Jesus Christ are extremely important: they denounce all those who think that they believe in God, but do not believe in Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ denounces them, who do not believe in Christ, who do not believe in His Divinity, with these words: “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” To come to the Father, to enter into communion with the Father, to pray so that the Lord hears, is possible only through His Son, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord says further: “If you knew Me, you would also know My Father” (John 8:19). He who does not know Him does not know the Father. The faith of all those who say that they believe in God, but reject the Gospel, and do not consider Christ the Son of God, is vain. … “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me; but if not so, then believe Me according to the very works” (John 14:11). We must believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the Father, and the Father in Him. What does it mean that the Father is in Him?

This means that God the Father Himself always dwelt in Him, He was One with the Father, He was the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. We must believe in this unconditionally. “But if not so, then believe Me by the very works.”

Christ did many, many things that testify to His Divinity, He performed many great miracles: He raised the dead, He healed a man born blind, He raised Lazarus four days old, He walked on the waters, He miraculously fed thousands of people - His many great works. And since the Lord Jesus Christ ascended, many things have been added that were the consequence of His works, His teaching, His stay on earth with us. There were great things done by the holy apostles.

“Their words went out into all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world” (Ps. 18:5; Rom. 10:18). The preaching of Christ spread throughout the entire universe, all nations heard the voice of the apostles, and faith in Christ conquered the world, overthrew ancient paganism, and became the new basis of human life, Christian life.

Comments on Chapter 14

INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE GOSPEL FROM AN EAGLE'S EYE

Many Christians consider the Gospel of John to be the most precious book of the New Testament. With this book they feed their minds and hearts most of all, and it calms their souls. The authors of the Gospels are very often depicted symbolically in stained glass windows and other works as the four beasts that the author of Revelation saw around the throne (Rev. 4:7). In different places a different symbol is attributed to each evangelist, but in most cases it is generally accepted that Human - this is the symbol of the evangelist Brand, whose Gospel can be called the most uncomplicated, the simplest and the most humane; a lion - evangelist symbol Matthew, because he, like no one else, saw in Jesus the Messiah and the lion of the tribe of Judah; Taurus(ox) - symbol of the evangelist Luke, because this animal was used both for service and for sacrifice, and he saw in Jesus the great servant of people and the universal sacrifice for all mankind; eagle - evangelist symbol Joanna, because of all living creatures only the eagle can look, without being blinded, directly into the sun and penetrate into the eternal secrets, eternal truths and into the very thoughts of God. John has the most penetrating insight of any New Testament writer. Many people believe that they are closest to God and to Jesus Christ when they read the Gospel of John rather than any other book.

A GOSPEL THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS

One only has to quickly read the fourth Gospel to see that it is different from the other three: it does not contain many events that are included in the other three. The fourth Gospel says nothing about the birth of Jesus, about His baptism, about His temptations, it says nothing about the Last Supper, about the Garden of Gethsemane and about the Ascension. It does not talk about the healing of people possessed by demons and evil spirits, and, most surprisingly, it does not contain a single parable of Jesus, which is an invaluable part of the other three Gospels. Throughout the three Gospels, Jesus constantly speaks in these wonderful parables and in easy-to-remember, short, expressive sentences. And in the fourth Gospel, Jesus' speeches sometimes occupy an entire chapter and often present complex, evidence-rich statements, completely different from those concise, unforgettable sayings in the other three Gospels. What is even more surprising is that the facts about the life and ministry of Jesus given in the fourth Gospel are different from those given in the other Gospels. 1. The Gospel of John tells it differently Start ministry of Jesus. The other three Gospels make it quite clear that Jesus began preaching only after John the Baptist was imprisoned. "After John was betrayed, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. (Mark 1:14; Luke 3:18.20; Matt. 4:12). According to the Gospel of John, it turns out that there was a rather long period when the preaching of Jesus coincided with the activities of John the Baptist (John 3:22-30; 4:1.2). 2. The Gospel of John presents it differently region, where Jesus preached. In the other three Gospels, the main area of preaching was Galilee and Jesus did not visit Jerusalem until the last week of his life. According to the Gospel of John, Jesus preached mostly in Jerusalem and Judea and only occasionally went into Galilee (John 2:1-13; 4:35-51; 6:1-7:14). According to John, Jesus was in Jerusalem for Passover, which coincided with the cleansing of the Temple (John 2:13); during an unnamed holiday (John 5:1); during the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2.10). He was there in winter, during the Festival of Renewal (John 10:22). According to the fourth Gospel, after this holiday Jesus never left Jerusalem at all; after chapter 10 He was in Jerusalem all the time. This means that Jesus remained there for many months, from the winter festival of Renewal until the spring, until Easter, during which he was crucified. It must be said that this fact was correctly reflected in the Gospel of John. The other Gospels show Jesus lamenting the fate of Jerusalem as the last week arrived. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! How often have I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to!” (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34). It is obvious that Jesus could not have said such a thing unless He had visited Jerusalem several times and addressed its inhabitants on several occasions. From His first visit He could not have said this. It was this difference that allowed the “father of Church history” Eusebius (263-340), bishop of Caesarea Palestine and author of the ancient history of the Church from the birth of Christ to 324, to offer one of the first explanations for the difference between the fourth Gospel and the other three. Eusebius stated that in his time (around 300), many theologians held this view: Matthew was the first to preach to the Jews, but the time came when he had to go preach to other nations; before setting out, he wrote down everything he knew about the life of Christ in Hebrew and "thus eased the loss of those whom he had to leave behind." After Mark and Luke wrote their Gospels, John was still preaching the story of Jesus' life orally. "Finally he began to describe it and this is why. When the three Gospels mentioned above became available to everyone and reached him too, they say that he approved them and confirmed their truth, but added that they lacked an account of the acts performed by Jesus at the very beginning of His ministry... And therefore, they say, John described in his Gospel a period omitted by the early evangelists, i.e. acts committed by the Savior in the period before the imprisonment of John the Baptist..., and the other three evangelists describe the events that took place after this time. The Gospel of John is the story of first the deeds of Christ, while others tell of later His life" (Eusebius, "History of the Church" 5:24). Therefore, according to Eusebius, there is no contradiction at all between the fourth and the other three Gospels; the whole difference is explained by the fact that in the fourth Gospel, at least in the first chapters, tells of a ministry in Jerusalem that preceded the preaching in Galilee and took place while John the Baptist was still at large. It is quite possible that this explanation of Eusebius is, at least in part, correct. 3. According to John and duration Jesus' ministry was different. From the other three Gospels it follows that it lasted only one year. There is only one Easter during the entire service. In the Gospel of John three Passover: one coincides with the cleansing of the Temple (John 2:13); the other somewhere coincides with the time of saturation of five thousand (John 6.4); and finally the last Easter, when Jesus was crucified. According to John, the ministry of Christ should last about three years so that all these events can be arranged in time. And again, John is undoubtedly right: it turns out that this is also evident from a careful reading of the other three Gospels. When the disciples plucked the ears of corn (Mark 2:23) it must have been spring. When the five thousand were fed, they sat down on green grass (Mark 6:39), consequently, it was spring again, and a year must have passed between these two events. This is followed by a journey through Tire and Sidon and the Transfiguration. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter wanted to build three tabernacles and stay there. it is quite natural to assume that this was during the Feast of the Presentation of Tabernacles, which is why Peter suggested doing this (Mark 9:5) that is, at the beginning of October. This is followed by the period until the last Easter in April. Thus, from what is stated in the three Gospels, it can be concluded that the ministry of Jesus lasted for the same three years, as it is presented in John. 4. But John also has significant differences from the other three Gospels. Here are two notable examples. First, John refers to the cleansing of the Temple as the beginning ministry of Jesus (John 2:13-22), while other evangelists place him in the end (Mark 11:15-17; Matt. 21:12.13; Luke 19:45.46). Secondly, John places the Crucifixion of Christ on the day preceding Easter, while other evangelists place it on the day of Easter itself. We should not at all close our eyes to the differences that exist between the Gospel of John, on the one hand, and the rest of the Gospels, on the other.

SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE OF JOHN

It is clear that if the Gospel of John differs from the other gospels, it is not due to ignorance or lack of information. While he doesn't mention much of what others give, he does give a lot that they don't. Only John talks about the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (2,1-11); about Jesus' visit to Nicodemus (3,1-17); about the Samaritan woman (4); about the resurrection of Lazarus (11); about how Jesus washed the feet of His disciples (13,1-17); about His wonderful teaching about the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, scattered in the chapters (14-17). Only in John's narrative do many of Jesus' disciples really come to life before our eyes and we hear the speech of Thomas (11,16; 14,5; 20,24-29), and Andrey becomes a real person (1,40.41; 6,8.9; 12,22). Only from John do we learn something about the character of Philip (6,5-7; 14,8.9); We hear the angry protest of Judas at the anointing of Jesus in Bethany (12,4.5). And it should be noted that, oddly enough, these small touches reveal amazing things to us. The portraits of Thomas, Andrew, and Philip in the Gospel of John are like little cameos or vignettes in which the character of each of them is memorably sketched. Further, in the Evangelist John we again and again encounter small additional details that read like eyewitness accounts: the boy brought Jesus not just bread, but barley breads (6,9); When Jesus came to the disciples who were crossing a lake in a storm, they had sailed about twenty-five or thirty furlongs (6,19); There were six stone water pots at Cana of Galilee (2,6). Only John speaks of four soldiers casting lots for Jesus's woven robe. (19,23); only he knows how much mixture of myrrh and scarlet was used to anoint the body of Jesus (19,39); only he remembers how, during the anointing of Jesus in Bethany, the house was filled with a fragrance (12,3). Much of this seems at first glance to be insignificant details and they would remain incomprehensible if they were not the memories of an eyewitness. No matter how different the Gospel of John is from the other Gospels, this difference must be explained not by ignorance, but precisely by the fact that John had more knowledge, or he had better sources, or a better memory than others. Another proof that the author of the fourth Gospel had special information is that he knew Palestine and Jerusalem very well. He knows how long it took to build the Jerusalem Temple (2,20); that Jews and Samaritans were constantly in conflict (4,9); that the Jews had a low opinion of women (4,9); How did the Jews view the Sabbath? (5,10; 7,21-23; 9,14). He knows Palestine well: he knows two Bethany, one of which was beyond the Jordan (1,28; 12,1); he knows that some of the disciples were from Bethsaida (1,44; 12,21); that Cana is in Galilee (2,1; 4,46; 21,2); that the city of Sychar is located near Shechem (4,5). He, as they say, knew every street in Jerusalem. He knows the sheep gate and the pool near it (5,2); he knows the pool of Siloam (9,7); Solomon's porch (9,23); Stream Kidron (18,1); Lifostroton, which in Hebrew is Gavvafa (9,13); Golgotha, similar to a skull (place of Execution, 19,17). We must remember that in 70 Jerusalem was destroyed, and John began to write his Gospel no earlier than 100 and, nevertheless, he remembered everything in Jerusalem.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH JOHN WRITE

We have already seen that there is a great difference between the fourth Gospel and the other three Gospels, and we have seen that the reason for this could not possibly be the ignorance of John, and therefore we must ask ourselves: “What was his purpose when he wrote his Gospel?” If we understand this, we will find out why he selected these particular facts and why he showed them this way. The Fourth Gospel was written in Ephesus around the year 100. By this time, two features had emerged in the Christian Church. Firstly, Christianity came to the pagan world. By that time, the Christian Church had ceased to have a mainly Jewish character: most of the members who came to it came not from the Jewish, but from the Hellenistic culture, and therefore The Church had to declare itself in a new way. This does not mean that Christian truths had to be changed; they just needed to be expressed in a new way. Let's take at least this example. Suppose a Greek began to read the Gospel of Matthew, but as soon as he opened it, he came across a long genealogy. Genealogies were understandable to the Jews, but were completely incomprehensible to the Greeks. Reading, the Greek sees that Jesus was the son of David - a king whom the Greeks had never heard of, who, moreover, was a symbol of the racial and nationalistic aspirations of the Jews, which did not worry this Greek at all. This Greek is faced with a concept called "Messiah", and again he has never heard this word before. Is it necessary for a Greek who decides to become a Christian to completely rebuild his way of thinking and get used to Jewish categories? Must he, before he can become a Christian, learn a good portion of Jewish history and Jewish apocalyptic literature, which tells of the coming of the Messiah. As the English theologian Goodspeed put it: “Couldn’t he have become directly acquainted with the treasures of Christian salvation without being mired forever in Judaism? Did he need to part with his intellectual heritage and begin to think exclusively in Jewish categories and Jewish concepts?” John approaches this issue honestly and directly: he has found one of the greatest solutions that has ever occurred to anyone. We will look at John's decision much more fully later in the commentary, but for now we will just dwell on it briefly. The Greeks had two great philosophical concepts. a) Firstly, they had a concept Logos. In Greek it has two meanings: word(speech) and meaning(concept, reason). The Jews knew well about the all-powerful word of God. “And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.” (Gen. 1:3). And the Greeks were well aware of the idea of cause. The Greeks looked at the world and saw in it an amazing and reliable order: night and day invariably change in a strict order; seasons invariably follow each other, stars and planets move in unchanging orbits - nature has its own unchanging laws. Where does this order come from, who created it? The Greeks responded confidently to this: Logos, Divine intelligence created this magnificent world order. “What gives a person the ability to think, reason and know?” - the Greeks asked themselves further. And again they confidently answered: Logos, The divine mind abiding in a person makes him a thinker. The Gospel of John seems to say: “All your life your imagination has been struck by this great, directing and restraining Divine mind. The Divine mind came to earth in Christ, in human form. Look at Him and you will see what it is - the Divine mind and the Divine will ". The Gospel of John provided a new concept in which the Greeks could think about Jesus, in which Jesus was presented as God appearing in human form. b) The Greeks had a theory of two worlds. One world is the one in which we live. It was, in their opinion, a beautiful world in a sense, but it was a world of shadows and copies, an unreal world. The other was the real world, in which eternally great realities reside, of which the earthly world is only a pale and poor copy. The invisible world was the real world for the Greeks, and the visible world was only a shadow and unreality. The Greek philosopher Plato systematized this idea in his doctrine of forms or ideas. He believed that in the invisible world there are perfect incorporeal prototypes of all things, and all things and objects of this world are only shadows and copies of these eternal prototypes. Simply put, Plato believed that somewhere there was a prototype, the idea of a table, and all the tables on earth were only imperfect copies of this prototype of the table. And the greatest reality, the highest idea, the prototype of all prototypes and the form of all forms is God. It remained, however, to resolve the question of how to get into this real world, how to get away from our shadows to eternal truths. And John declares that this is precisely the opportunity that Jesus Christ gives us. He Himself is the reality that came to us on earth. In Greek to convey the concept real in this sense the word is used alefeinos, which is very closely related to the word alephes, What means true, genuine And alethea, What means true. Greek in the Bible aletheinos translated as true, but it would be correct to also translate it as real. Jesus - real light (1,9). Jesus - real bread (6,32); Jesus - real vine (15,1); judgment of Christ - is real (8,16). Jesus alone is real in our world of shadows and imperfections. Some conclusions follow from this. Every act of Jesus was not only an action in time, but also represents a window through which we can see reality. This is exactly what the Evangelist John means when he speaks of the miracles performed by Jesus as signs (semeya). The miraculous works of Jesus are not only miraculous, they are windows into the reality that is God. This explains the fact that the Gospel of John conveys completely differently than the other three evangelists the stories of the miracles performed by Jesus. a) In the Fourth Gospel there is not that shade of compassion that is present in the stories of miracles in all the other Gospels. In other Gospels, Jesus had mercy on the leper (Mark 1:41); sympathizes with Jairus (Mark 5:22) and the father of a boy suffering from epilepsy (Mark 9:19). Luke, when Jesus raised the son of a widow from the city of Nain, adds with infinite tenderness, “and Jesus gave him to his mother.” (Luke 7:15). And in the Gospel of John, Jesus' miracles are not so much acts of compassion as they are demonstrations of the glory of Christ. This is how John comments after the miracle performed in Cana of Galilee: “Thus Jesus began the miracles in Cana of Galilee and showed His glory" (2:11). The resurrection of Lazarus occurred "to the glory of God" (11,4). The blindness of the man born blind existed "so that the works of God might be revealed in him" (9,3). John does not want to say that there was no love and compassion in the miracles of Jesus, but he first of all saw in every miracle of Christ the glory of Divine reality breaking into time and into human affairs. b) In the Fourth Gospel, Jesus' miracles are often accompanied by lengthy discussions. Following the description of the feeding of the five thousand is a long discussion about the bread of life. (chapter 6); The healing of the man born blind is preceded by Jesus' statement that He is the light of the world (chapter 9); The resurrection of Lazarus is preceded by Jesus' phrase that He is the resurrection and the life (chapter 11). In John's eyes, Jesus' miracles are not just isolated acts in time, they are an opportunity to see what God always does, and an opportunity to see how Jesus always acts: they are windows into Divine reality. Jesus did not just feed five thousand one day - it was an illustration of the fact that He is the eternal real bread of life; Jesus didn't just open the eyes of a blind man one day: He is the light of the world forever. Jesus didn't just raise Lazarus from the dead one day - He is the resurrection and life of all forever. A miracle never appeared to John as an isolated act - it was always for him a window into the reality of who Jesus always was and is, what He has always done and is doing. Based on this, the great scientist Clement of Alexandria (about 230) made one of the most famous conclusions about the origin of the fourth Gospel and the purpose of its writing. He believed that first the Gospels were written in which genealogies were given, that is, the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, after which Mark wrote his Gospel at the request of many who heard Peter’s sermons, and included in it the materials that Peter used in his sermons . And only after this, “the very last, John, seeing that everything connected with the material aspects of the preaching and teaching of Jesus had received its due reflection, and, prompted by his friends and inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote spiritual gospel(Eusebius, "History of the Church", 6.14). Clement of Alexandria thereby wants to say that John was interested not so much in facts as in their meaning and significance, that he was looking not for facts, but for the truth. John saw in the actions of Jesus more than just events occurring in time; he saw them as windows into eternity, and emphasized the spiritual significance of the words and deeds of Jesus, which no other evangelist even attempted to do. This conclusion about the fourth Gospel remains one of the most correct to this day. John wrote not a historical, but a spiritual Gospel. Thus, in the Gospel of John, Jesus is presented as the incarnate Divine Mind who came to earth and as the only one who has reality and is able to lead people from the world of shadows to the real world that Plato and the great Greeks dreamed of. Christianity, once dressed in Jewish categories, acquired the greatness of the Greek worldview.

THE ARISE OF HERESIES

At the time when the fourth Gospel was written, the Church was faced with one important problem - emergence of heresy. Seventy years have passed since Jesus Christ was crucified. During this time, the Church turned into a coherent organization; Theological theories and creeds of faith were developed and established, human thoughts inevitably wandered and strayed from the true path, and heresies arose. And heresy is rarely a complete lie. It usually arises as a result of special emphasis on one aspect of the truth. We see at least two heresies which the author of the fourth Gospel sought to refute. a) There were Christians, at least among the Jews, who placed John the Baptist too highly. There was something about him that greatly attracted the Jews. He was the last of the prophets and he spoke with the voice of a prophet; we know that in later times there was an officially recognized sect of followers of John the Baptist in Orthodox Judaism. IN Acts 19.1-7 we meet a small group of twelve people, whose members belonged to the Christian Church, but were baptized only by the baptism of John. The author of the fourth Gospel again and again calmly but firmly puts John the Baptist in his proper place. John the Baptist himself repeatedly asserted that he did not claim the highest place and had no right to it, but unconditionally conceded this place to Jesus. We have already seen that in the other Gospels the ministry and preaching of Jesus began only after John the Baptist was imprisoned, but the fourth Gospel speaks of the time when the ministry of Jesus coincided with the preaching of John the Baptist. It is quite possible that the author of the fourth Gospel quite deliberately used this argument to show that Jesus and John did meet and that John used these meetings to recognize and encourage others to recognize the superiority of Jesus. The author of the fourth Gospel emphasizes that John the Baptist "was not light" (18) and he himself most definitely denied that he had any claim to be the Messiah (1.20 et seq.; Z.28; 4.1; 10.41) and what not to do even admit that he bore more important evidence (5,36). There is no criticism of John the Baptist in the fourth Gospel; it is a rebuke to those who give him the place that belongs to Jesus and Him alone.

b) In addition, during the era of the writing of the fourth Gospel, the heresy known under the general name Gnosticism. If we do not understand it in detail, we will miss a good deal of the greatness of the Evangelist John and miss a certain aspect of the task before him. At the heart of Gnosticism was the doctrine that matter is essentially vicious and destructive, and spirit is essentially good. The Gnostics therefore concluded that God Himself could not touch matter and, therefore, He did not create the world. He, in their opinion, emitted a series of emanations (radiations), each of which was further and further from Him, until finally one of these radiations was so far from Him that it could come into contact with matter. It was this emanation (radiation) that was the creator of the world.

This idea, in itself quite vicious, was further corrupted by one addition: each of these emanations, according to the Gnostics, knew less and less about God, until one day a moment came when these emanations not only completely lost the knowledge of God, but they also became completely hostile to Him. And so the Gnostics finally concluded that the creator god was not only completely different from the real God, but also completely alien to him and hostile to him. One of the Gnostic leaders, Cerinthius, said that “the world was created not by God, but by some power very far from Him and from the Power that rules the entire universe, and alien to God, Who stands above everything.”

The Gnostics therefore believed that God had nothing to do with the creation of the world at all. That is why John begins his Gospel with a resounding statement: “All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that was made.” (1,3). This is why John insists that “God so loved peace" (3.16). In the face of Gnosticism, which so alienated God and turned Him into a being who could have nothing to do with the world at all, John presented the Christian concept of a God who created the world and whose presence fills the world that He created.

The Gnostic theory also influenced their idea of Jesus.

a) Some Gnostics believed that Jesus was one of these emanations that God emanated. They believed that He had nothing to do with Divinity, that He was a kind of demigod removed from the true real God, that He was just one of the beings standing between God and the world.

b) Other Gnostics believed that Jesus did not have a real body: the body is flesh, and God cannot, in their opinion, touch matter, and therefore Jesus was a kind of ghost, without a real body and real blood. They believed, for example, that when Jesus walked the earth, He left no footprints because His body had neither weight nor substance. They could never say, "And the Word became flesh" (1:14). The outstanding father of the Western Church, Aurelius Augustine (354-430), bishop of Gipon (northern Africa), says that he read a lot of contemporary philosophers and found that much of them was very similar to what is written in the New Testament, but , he says: “I did not find in them such a phrase: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” That is why John, in his first letter, insisted that Jesus came itself, and declared that anyone who denies this is motivated by the spirit of Antichrist (1 John 4:3). This heresy is known as Docetism. This word comes from the Greek dokain, What means seem, and the heresy is so called because its followers believed that it only seemed to people that Jesus was a man.

c) Some Gnostics adhered to a variation of this heresy: they believed that Jesus was a man upon whom the Holy Spirit descended at his baptism. This Spirit abided in Him throughout His life until the end, but since the Spirit of God cannot suffer or die, He left Jesus before He was crucified. They conveyed the loud cry of Jesus on the cross like this: “My strength, my strength! why have you forsaken me?” And in their books these heretics talked about people talking on the Mount of Olives with an image very similar to Him, although the man Jesus was dying on the cross.

Thus, the heresies of the Gnostics resulted in two types of beliefs: some did not believe in the Divinity of Jesus and considered Him to be one of the emanations that God emanated, while others did not believe in the human essence of Jesus and considered Him to be a human-like ghost. The Gnostic beliefs destroyed both the true divinity and the true humanity of Jesus.

THE HUMAN NATURE OF JESUS

John responds to these theories of the Gnostics and this explains the strange paradox of the double emphases that he places in his Gospel. No other Gospel emphasizes the true humanity of Jesus as clearly as the Gospel of John. Jesus was extremely outraged by what people were buying and selling in the Temple (2,15); Jesus, physically tired from the long journey, sat down at the well in Sychar in Samaria (4,6); the disciples offered Him food just as they would offer it to any hungry person (4,3); Jesus sympathized with those who were hungry and those who felt afraid (6,5.20); He felt sad and even cried, as anyone who has suffered a loss would do. (11,33.35 -38); When Jesus was dying on the cross, His parched lips whispered, “I thirst.” (19,28). In the fourth Gospel we see Jesus as a man, and not a shadow or a ghost, in Him we see a man who knew the weariness of a weary body and the wounds of a suffering soul and a suffering mind. In the Fourth Gospel we have a truly human Jesus.

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS

On the other hand, no other Gospel shows the divinity of Jesus so clearly.

a) John emphasizes pre-eternity Jesus. “Before Abraham was,” said Jesus, “I am.” (8,58). In John, Jesus speaks of the glory that He had with the Father before the world was (17,5). He talks over and over again about how he came down from heaven (6,33-38). John saw in Jesus the One who always existed, even before the world was.

b) The Fourth Gospel emphasizes, like no other, omniscience Jesus. John believes that Jesus most definitely had supernatural knowledge of the Samaritan woman's past (4,16.17); it is quite obvious that He knew how long the man who lay in the pool of Bethesda had been sick, although no one tells Him about it (5,6); Even before asking Philip a question, He already knew what answer he would receive (6,6); He knew that Judas would betray Him (6,61-64); He knew about the death of Lazarus even before he was told about it (11,14). John saw Jesus as One who had special supernatural knowledge, independent of what anyone could tell Him; He did not need to ask questions because He knew all the answers.

c) The Fourth Gospel also emphasizes the fact that Jesus always acted completely independently, without any influence on Him from anyone. He performed the miracle in Cana of Galilee on his own initiative, and not at the request of His Mother (2,4); the motives of His brothers had nothing to do with His visit to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles (7,10); none of the people took His life, none of the people could do this. He gave His life completely voluntarily (10,18; 19,11). In John's eyes, Jesus possessed divine independence from all human influence. He was completely independent in his actions.

By refuting the Gnostics and their strange beliefs, John irrefutably demonstrates both the humanity of Jesus and His divinity.

AUTHOR OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL

We see that the author of the fourth Gospel set out to show the Christian faith in such a way that it would become interesting for the Greeks, to whom Christianity had now come, and, at the same time, to speak out against heresies and errors that arose within the Church. We keep asking ourselves: who was its author? Traditions unanimously say that the author was the Apostle John. We will see that beyond any doubt the authority of John really stands behind this Gospel, although it is quite possible that he did not write it down and give it its form. Let's collect everything we know about John.

He was the youngest of the sons of Zebedee, who had a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee and was rich enough to hire hired laborers. (Mark 1:19.20). John's mother was named Salome and it is quite possible that she was the sister of Mary, the Mother of Jesus (Matt. 27:56; Mark 16:1). John and his brother James followed Jesus at the call of Jesus. (Mark 1:20).

It seems that James and John were fishing with Peter (Luke 5:7-10). AND John belonged to the closest disciples of Jesus, because the list of disciples always begins with the names of Peter, James and John, and at some great events only these three were present (Mark 3:17; 5:37; 9:2; 14:33).

By character, John was quite obviously a restless and ambitious man. Jesus gave John and his brother the name Voanerges, What means sons of Thunder. John and his brother James were impatient and opposed any self-will on the part of others (Mark 9:38; Luke 9:49). Their temper was so unbridled that they were ready to wipe out a Samaritan village because they were not treated with hospitality while they were on their way to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:54). Either they themselves, or their mother Salome, cherished ambitious plans. They asked Jesus that when He received His Kingdom, He would seat them on the right and on the left in His glory (Mark 10:35; Matt 20:20). In the Synoptic Gospels, John is presented as the leader of all the disciples, a member of Jesus' intimate circle, and yet extremely ambitious and impatient.

In the book of Acts of the Holy Apostles, John always speaks with Peter, but does not speak himself. His name is among the first three on the list of apostles (Acts 1:13). John was with Peter when they healed the lame man near the Red Gate of the Temple (Acts 3:1 et seq.). Together with Peter, he was brought and placed before the Sanhedrin and the leaders of the Jews; both behaved amazingly bravely at the trial (Acts 4:1-13). John went with Peter to Samaria to check what Philip had done there (Acts 8:14).

In Paul's letters the name John is mentioned only once. IN Gal. 2.9 he is called a pillar of the Church along with Peter and James, who approved of Paul's actions. John was a complex man: on the one hand, he was one of the leaders among the apostles, a member of the intimate circle of Jesus - His closest friends; on the other hand, he was a willful, ambitious, impatient and at the same time courageous man.

We can look at what was told about John in the era of the young Church. Eusebius says that he was exiled to the island of Patmos during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian (Eusebius, Church History, 3.23). There Eusebius tells a characteristic story about John, borrowed from Clement of Alexandria. He became a kind of bishop of Asia Minor and once visited one of the church communities near Ephesus. Among the parishioners he noticed a slender and very handsome young man. John turned to the elder of the community and said: “I transfer this young man under your responsibility and care, and I call the parishioners to witness this.”

The presbyter took the young man into his home, cared for him and instructed him, and the day came when the young man was baptized and accepted into the community. But soon after that, he made friends with bad friends and committed so many crimes that he eventually became the leader of a gang of murderers and thieves. When, after some time, John visited this community again, he turned to the elder: “Restore the trust that I and the Lord have placed in you and the church that you lead.” At first the presbyter did not understand at all what John was talking about. “I mean that you give an account of the soul of the young man whom I have entrusted to you,” said John. “Alas,” answered the presbyter, “he died.” "Dead?" - asked John. “He is lost to God,” answered the presbyter, “he fell from grace and was forced to flee the city for his crimes, and now he is a robber in the mountains.” And John went straight to the mountains, deliberately allowing himself to be captured by bandits, who led him to the young man, who was now the leader of the gang. Tormented by shame, the young man tried to run away from him, but John ran after him. “My son!” he shouted, “You are running away from your father. I am weak and old, have pity on me, my son; do not be afraid, there is still hope for your salvation. I will defend you before the Lord Jesus Christ. If necessary, I will "I will gladly die for you, as He died for me. Stop, wait, believe! It was Christ who sent me to you." Such a call broke the young man’s heart; he stopped, threw away his weapon and began to sob. Together with John, he descended from the mountain and returned to the Church and the Christian path. Here we see John's love and courage.

Eusebius (3,28) tells another story about John, which he found in Irenaeus (140-202), a student of Polycarp of Smyrna. As we have already noted, Cerinthius was one of the leading Gnostics. “The Apostle John once came to the bathhouse, but when he learned that Cerinthius was there, he jumped up from his seat and rushed out, because he could not stay under the same roof with him, and advised his companions to do the same. “Let’s leave so that the bathhouse does not collapse “, he said, “because Cerinthius, the enemy of truth, is inside there.” Here is another touch on John’s temperament: Boanerges has not yet died within him.

John Cassion (360-430), who made a significant contribution to the development of the doctrine of grace and to the development of Western European monasticism, gives another story about John. One day he was found playing with a tamed partridge. The more severe brother reproached him for wasting his time, to which John replied: “If the bow is always kept drawn, it will soon cease to shoot straight.”

Jerome of Dalmatia (330-419) has a story about the last words of John. When he was dying, his disciples asked him what his last words would be to them. “My children,” he said, “love one another,” and then he repeated it again. "And it's all?" asked him. “This is sufficient,” said John, “for this is the covenant of the Lord.”

FAVORITE STUDENT

If we have carefully followed what has been said here about the Apostle John, we should have noticed one thing: we took all our information from the first three Gospels. It is surprising that the name of the Apostle John is never mentioned in the fourth Gospel. But two other people are mentioned.

Firstly, it talks about the disciple whom Jesus loved. He is mentioned four times. He reclined at Jesus' chest during the Last Supper (John 13:23-25); Jesus left His Mother in his care when he died on the cross (19,25-27); he and Peter were greeted by Mary Magdalene upon their return from the empty tomb on the first morning of Easter (20,2), and he was present at the last appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias (21,20).

Secondly, in the fourth Gospel there is a character whom we would call witness, eyewitness. When the fourth Gospel speaks of how a soldier struck Jesus in the side with a spear, after which blood and water immediately flowed out, it is followed by the comment: “And he who saw it bore witness, and his testimony is true; he knoweth that he speaketh the truth, that ye may believe.” (19,35). At the end of the Gospel it is again said that this beloved disciple bears witness to all this, “and we know that his testimony is true” (21,24).

Here we have a rather strange thing. In the fourth Gospel, John is never mentioned, but the beloved disciple is mentioned, and, in addition, there is a special witness, an eyewitness to the whole story. According to tradition, there was never any doubt that the beloved disciple was John. Only a few tried to see Lazarus in him, for it is said that Jesus loved Lazarus (John 11:3.5), or the rich young man of whom it is said that Jesus looked at him and loved him (Mark 10:21). But although the Gospel never speaks of this in such detail, according to tradition the beloved disciple has always been identified with John and there is no need to question this.

But one very real problem arises - assuming that John actually wrote the Gospels himself, would he really talk about himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved? Would he want to distinguish himself in this way and, as it were, declare: “I was His favorite, He loved me most of all?” It may seem unlikely that John would have given himself such a title. If it is given by others, it is a very pleasant title, but if a person assigns it to himself, it borders on almost incredible vanity.

Maybe then this Gospel was the testimony of John, but was written down by someone else?

WORK OF THE CHURCH

In our search for truth, we began by noting the outstanding and exceptional points of the fourth Gospel. The most notable aspect is the long speeches of Jesus, sometimes taking up entire chapters, and are completely different from how Jesus is presented with his speeches in the other three Gospels. The Fourth Gospel was written around the year 100, that is, approximately seventy years after the crucifixion of Christ. Can what was written seventy years later be considered a literal rendering of what Jesus said? Or is it a retelling of them with the addition of what has become clearer over time? Let's remember this and take into account the following.

Among the works of the young Church, a whole series of reports has come down to us, and some of them relate to the writing of the fourth Gospel. The most ancient of them belongs to Irenaeus, who was a student of Polycarp of Smyrna, who, in turn, was a student of John. Thus, there was a direct connection between Irenaeus and John. Irenaeus writes: “John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned on His chest, himself published The Gospel in Ephesus while he lived in Asia."

The word in this phrase of Irenaeus suggests that John is not just wrote Gospel; he says that John published (Exedoke) him in Ephesus. The word that Irenaeus used suggests that this was not just a private publication, but the promulgation of some kind of official document.

Another account comes from Clement of Alexandria, who in 230 was the head of the great Alexandrian school. He wrote: “The very last John, having seen that everything connected with the material and bodily, was properly reflected in the Gospels, encouraged by his friends, wrote a spiritual gospel."

The expression here is of great importance being encouraged by their friends. It becomes clear that the fourth Gospel is more than the personal work of one person, and that behind it stands a group, a community, a church. In the same spirit we read of the fourth Gospel in a tenth-century copy called the Codex Toletanus, in which each of the books of the New Testament is prefaced by a short summary. Concerning the fourth Gospel it says the following:

"The Apostle John, whom the Lord Jesus loved most, was the last to write his Gospel at the request of the bishops of Assia against Cerinthius and other heretics."

Here again is the idea that behind the fourth Gospel is the authority of the group and the Church.

Now let us turn to a very important document known as the Muratorian Canon - it is named after the scientist Muratori who discovered it. This is the first list of books of the New Testament ever published by the Church, compiled in Rome in the year 170. It not only lists the books of the New Testament, but gives short accounts of the origin, nature and content of each of them. Of great interest is the account of how the fourth Gospel was written:

“At the request of his fellow disciples and his bishops, John, one of the disciples, said: “Fast with me for three days from this, and whatever is revealed to each of us, whether in favor of my Gospel or not, let us tell it to each other ". That same night it was revealed to Andrei that John had to tell everything, and he must be helped by everyone else, who then check everything written.”

We cannot agree that the Apostle Andrew was in Ephesus in the year 100 (apparently it was another disciple), but it is quite clear here that although the fourth Gospel stands behind the authority, intelligence and memory of the Apostle John, it is the work of not one person, but a group.

Now we can try to imagine what happened. Around the year 100, there was a group of people in Ephesus around the Apostle John. These people revered John as a saint and loved him like a father: he must have been about a hundred years old at that time. They wisely reasoned that it would be very good if the aged apostle wrote down his memories of those years when he was with Jesus.

But in the end they did a lot more. We can imagine them sitting and reliving the past. They must have said to each other, “Remember when Jesus said...?” And John must have responded, “Yes, and now we understand what Jesus meant by that...” In other words, these men were not only writing down what said Jesus - this would only be a victory for memory, they also wrote down that Jesus meant by this. They were guided in this by the Holy Spirit Himself. John thought through every word Jesus once said, and he did it under the guiding guidance of the Holy Spirit, so real in him.

There is one sermon entitled “What Jesus Becomes to the Man Who Knows Him Long.” This title is an excellent definition of Jesus as we know Him from the Fourth Gospel. All this was excellently outlined by the English theologian A. G. N. Green-Armitage in the book “John Who Saw It.” The Gospel of Mark, he says, with its clear presentation of the facts of the life of Jesus, is very convenient for missionary; The Gospel of Matthew, with its systematic presentation of the teachings of Jesus, is very convenient for mentor; The Gospel of Luke, with its deep sympathy for the image of Jesus as the friend of all people, is very convenient for parish priest or preacher, and the Gospel of John is the Gospel for contemplative mind.

Greene-Armitage goes on to talk about the obvious difference between the Gospels of Mark and John: “Both of these Gospels are in some sense the same. But where Mark sees things flatly, directly, literally, John sees them subtly, penetratingly, spiritually. One might say, that John illuminates the lines of the Gospel of Mark with a lamp."

This is an excellent characteristic of the fourth gospel. This is why the Gospel of John is the greatest of all Gospels. His goal was not to convey the words of Jesus, as in a newspaper report, but to convey the meaning contained in them. The Risen Christ speaks in it. Gospel of John - it is rather the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. It was not written by John of Ephesus, it was written by the Holy Spirit through John.

WHO WRITTEN THE GOSPEL

We need to answer one more question. We are confident that behind the fourth Gospel are the mind and memory of the Apostle John, but we saw that behind it there is also a witness who wrote it, that is, literally put it on paper. Can we find out who it was? From what early Christian writers have left us, we know that there were two Johns in Ephesus at that time: John the Apostle and John, known as John the Elder, John the Elder.

Papias (70-145), Bishop of Hierapolis, who loved to collect everything related to the history of the New Testament and the life of Jesus, left us very interesting information. He was a contemporary of John. Papias writes about himself that he tried to find out “what Andrew said, or what Peter said, or what was said by Philip, Thomas or James, or John, or Matthew or any of the disciples of the Lord, or what Aristion and Presbyter John - disciples of the Lord." In Ephesus there were apostle John and presbyter John; and presbyter(elder) John was so beloved by all that he was, in fact, known as elder presbyter, It is clear that he occupied a special place in the Church. Eusebius (263-340) and Dionysius the Great report that even in their time there were two famous graves in Ephesus: one of John the Apostle, the other of John the Presbyter.

Now let's turn to two short messages - the Second and Third Epistles of the Apostle John. These messages were written by the same hand as the Gospel, but how do they begin? The second message begins with the words: “The Elder to the chosen lady and her children.” (2 John 1). The third message begins with the words: “The Elder to the beloved Gaius” (3 John 1). This is our decision. In fact, the messages were written by John the Presbyter; they reflected the thoughts and memory of the elderly Apostle John, whom John the Presbyter always characterizes with the words “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

DEAR GOSPEL TO US

The more we learn about the fourth gospel, the more dear it becomes to us. For seventy years John thought about Jesus. Day after day the Holy Spirit revealed to him the meaning of what Jesus said. And so, when John already had a whole century behind him and his days were approaching the end, he and his friends sat down and began to remember. Presbyter John held a pen in his hand to record the words of his mentor and leader, the Apostle John. And the last of the apostles wrote down not only what he heard from Jesus, but also what he now understood Jesus to mean. He remembered Jesus saying, “I have much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:12.13).

John did not understand much then, seventy years ago; The Spirit of truth revealed many things to him during these seventy years. And John wrote all this down, although for him the dawn of eternal glory was already dawning. When reading this Gospel, we must remember that it told us through the mind and memory of the Apostle John and through John the Presbyter the true thoughts of Jesus. Behind this Gospel stands the entire church of Ephesus, all the saints, the last of the apostles, the Holy Spirit and the Risen Christ Himself.

THE PROMISE OF GLORY (John 14:1-3)

Just a little more and the students’ lives were about to change dramatically, their world was ready to collapse around them. At such a time, all that remained was to stubbornly hold on to faith in God. The psalmist experienced many such moments and therefore wrote: “But I believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” (Ps. 26:13). And again: “Lord, Lord, my eyes are in you, I trust in you, do not cast away my soul.” (Ps. 140.8). We sometimes have to believe what we cannot prove and accept what we cannot understand. If, in our darkest hour, we are able to believe that there is meaning in life and that meaning is love, then even the unbearable will become bearable, and even in complete darkness light will appear.

To faith in God, Jesus adds something else and says: “Believe also in Me.” If the psalmist could trust in the goodness of God, then how much more should we trust in this goodness, because for us Jesus is proof that God is ready to give us all that He has. Just as Paul wrote to the Romans: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). When we believe that God has been presented to us in Jesus, then, in the face of such excellent love, it becomes, if not easy, at least possible, to accept what we do not understand, and in the midst of the storms of life to maintain the serenity of faith. Jesus further said to them, “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” By His Father's house He means heaven, but what does He mean when He says that there are many mansions in heaven? What kind of monasteries are these? The word used here is monai and this is explained in different ways. There are three assumptions.

1. The Jews believed that there were various degrees of happiness in heaven, which would be distributed among people according to their kindness and faithfulness on earth. The book "The Secrets of Enoch" says: "In the future world there will be many abodes for people: good for the good, and bad for the bad." This idea portrays the sky as a huge palace with many rooms in which people are housed according to their merits.

2. The Greek writer Pausnis has a word monai means stages along the way. Applied to our Scripture, this would mean constant development and progress both on the way to heaven and in heaven itself. This was also believed by some Christian thinkers, including Origen, who said that when a person dies, his soul goes to a certain place called heaven, located here on earth. There she undergoes training, and when found suitable, she will go into the air, after which she will go through various stages monai, which the Greeks called spheres, and Christians called heaven, until he finally reaches the Heavenly Kingdom. As the soul passes through the path, it supposedly follows Jesus, who “passed through the heavens.” (Heb. 4:14). Irenaeus gives interpretations about the sower of seed, which, falling into the ground, brings forth fruit a hundredfold, and some sixtyfold, and some only thirty. (Matthew 13.8). Since fruitfulness is different, the rewards are also different. Some will be worthy of spending all of eternity in the presence of God, others will rise to the level of heaven, and still others will be citizens of the “city.” Clement of Alexandria believed that there were degrees of glory, rewards and stages in proportion to the achievements of holiness achieved by a person during his lifetime.

There is something attractive in this to the soul, which in a certain sense shies away from the motionless sky. There is something attractive about the idea of progress that continues in heaven. Speaking purely humanly, and therefore imperfectly, it sometimes seems to us that we would be too blinded by the heavenly glory if we were directly brought into it and into the very presence of God. It seems to us that even in heaven we will need to be refined and improved until we are fit for greater glory.

3. But it is quite possible that the meaning of these words of Jesus is much simpler and more beautiful. “In My Father’s house are many mansions” could simply mean that there is room for everyone. Earthly houses can become too cramped, earthly hotels sometimes do not accept tired travelers, because there is simply no more room in them, but with the Father’s house this does not happen, because the sky is as wide as the Father’s heart, in which there is always room for everyone . Jesus tells His friends, "Don't be afraid. People may slam doors on you, but you will always be accepted in heaven."

THE PROMISE OF GLORY (John 14:1-3 continued)

There are other great truths in this passage.

1. The honesty of Jesus is clearly seen here. “And if it were not so, I would have told you: I am going to prepare a place for you.” Jesus told people directly that a Christian does not claim the comfort of life (Luke 9:57.58). He warned them of the persecution, hatred and punishments they would have to bear (Matthew 10:16-22), although he also told them about the glory at the end of the Christian journey. Frankly and honestly, He told the people what glory and what sorrow they could expect if they followed Him. He was not one of those leaders who bribes followers with promises of an easy path. He called people to true greatness.

2. It also talks about the role of Jesus. "I'm going to prepare a place for you." One of the greatest ideas of the New Testament is that Jesus goes before us so that we can follow Him. He opens the way and we follow in His footsteps. There is one powerful word that describes the role of Jesus. This word prodromos (Heb. 6:20) and the forerunner sounds in Russian. This word has two uses that shed light on its inner meaning. In the Roman army prodromai there were reconnaissance detachments. They walked ahead of the bulk of the army to check the path and ensure safety for the marching troops. The Alexandrian harbor was very difficult to penetrate. When huge ships with grain approached it, a small boat was released to meet it, which was supposed to guide the caravan safely through the strait into calm waters. This guide boat was called prodromos, that is, the forerunner. She floated ahead so that others could follow safely. This is what Jesus did. He lit the way to heaven and to God so that we could follow Him and follow His footsteps.

3. Jesus' final victory is seen here. He said, "I'll come again." The Second Coming of Christ is one of the revelations that is often released from Christian thinking and preaching. It is curious that believers are either completely indifferent to him, or only think about him. It is true that we cannot know when it will happen or how, but one thing is clear: the story is moving somewhere, and without a climax it will be incomplete. History must have an end, and that end will be the triumph of Jesus Christ, during which He promises to receive His friends.

4. Jesus said: “So that where I am you also may be.” This is the greatest truth, expressed in the simplest words: for the believer, heaven is where Jesus is. We don't need to guess what heaven will be like. It is enough for us to know that we will be with Him forever. When we love someone with all our hearts, we truly live only in the presence of that person. So it will be with Christ. In this world, our connection with Him is foggy, we see as if through a glass darkly, darkly, because we are weak and cannot always live on top. It would be most correct to say that heaven is the state in which we constantly remain with Jesus Christ.

THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE (John 14:4-6)

Jesus repeatedly told the disciples where He was going. But for some reason they never understood this. “I will not be with you long yet, and I will go to Him who sent Me.” (John 7:33). He told them that he would go to the Father who sent him, with whom he was one, but they still did not understand what was happening. And even less understood the path He walked, because that path was the Crucifixion. At this time, the disciples were completely confused, and especially one among them: Thomas. He was too honest and too serious to be content with vague, incomprehensible phrases. Thomas had to have complete confidence and therefore he expressed his doubts and his inability to understand and, what is remarkable, it was the questions of doubting people that evoked the most profound sayings of Jesus. No one need be ashamed of his doubts, for it is wonderfully and blessedly true that he who seeks ultimately finds.

Jesus answered Thomas: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” This saying seems great to us, but for the Jew who heard it for the first time, it should have sounded even more sublime. In it, Jesus collected the three main religious concepts of the Jews and made the greatest revelation that in Him all these concepts found their full fulfillment.

The Jews talked a lot about ways, which a man must go, and about ways God's God said to Moses: “See that you do as the Lord your God commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk along that path according to which the Lord your God commanded you" (Deut. 5:32.33). Moses said to the people of Israel: "For I know that after my death you will become corrupt and go astray. out of the way, which I bequeathed to you" (Deut. 31:29). The prophet Isaiah told the people: “And your ears will hear a word behind you saying: “Behold.” path, follow it" (Isa. 30:21). Speaking of the new and excellent world of the righteous, Isaiah states that “there will be a highway there, path it will be named after it the holy way; the unclean will not walk on it, but it will be for them alone; going by this by, even inexperienced people will not get lost" (Isa. 35:8). The psalmist's prayer was "teach me, O Lord ways Yours" (Ps. 26:11). The Jews knew a lot about the way of the Lord, which man should follow, and Jesus showed them: “I am the Way.”

What did this mean? Suppose we find ourselves in a foreign city and ask for directions, and the one to whom we turned says: “Turn right at the first corner, then left at the second, cross the square, walk past the church, turn right at the third corner and the street you need is will be fourth from the left." Most likely, we will get lost before reaching half of this path. But suppose that the person we asked says: “Come on, I’ll take you there.” In this case, this person myself becomes a path for us and we can never get lost. This is what Jesus does to us. He not only gives advice and shows direction, but takes us by the hand and Himself leads, strengthens, and guides us day after day. He does not tell us about the path, but He Himself is the path.

Jesus said, "I am the Truth." The psalmist says: “Train me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in truth yours (Ps. 86:11)."For Thy mercy is before my eyes, and I have walked in truth Yours" (Ps. 25:3)."I have chosen the path truths I have set Your judgments before me" (Ps. 119.30). Many men have told us the truth, but not one of them has embodied it in himself. Moral truth has one extremely important feature. A man's character does not affect his teaching of geometry, astronomy, or Latin, but when he intends to teach moral truth, his character is of the utmost importance. An adulterer cannot teach moral purity; a miser cannot teach generosity; the arrogant cannot teach humility; the irritable cannot teach the benefits and beauty of calm; an embittered person cannot teach love. They are all doomed to fail. Moral truth cannot be conveyed in words; it is conveyed by living example. But it is precisely in this that not even the best teacher among people can resist, because not a single teacher embodied the truth that he taught, with the exception of Jesus Christ. Many may say, “I taught the truth,” but only Jesus said, “I am the Truth.” In Jesus not only presentation moral truth has found its highest point, but also fact moral perfection was realized in Him.

Jesus said, "I am the Life." The author of Proverbs writes: “For a commandment is a lamp, and instruction is a light, and instruction is a way to life (Proverbs 6:2З)."He who keeps instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof wanders" (Proverbs 10:17)."You will show me the way life",- says the psalmist (Ps. 15:11). Ultimately, what man seeks is life. He is not looking for abstract knowledge, but such that it improves life, so that a person’s life is worth living. Love brings life. This is exactly what Jesus does. Life with Jesus is truly life.

And all this can be expressed this way: “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Only He is the way to God. Only in Him do we see what the Father is like, and only He can bring people into the presence of God without a sense of fear and shame.

SEEING GOD (John 14:7-11)

It is quite possible that for the ancient world of that time, these words of Jesus were the most stunning of all that He said. The Greeks considered God absolutely invisible, and the Jews considered it one of the points of confession of their faith that no one had ever seen God. And to such people Jesus said: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” And then Philip asked what he apparently considered impossible. Maybe he remembered those glory days when God showed His glory to Moses (Ex. 33:12-32), but even then God said to Moses: “You cannot see My face, for man cannot see Me and live.” In the time of Jesus, people were dejected and depressed by the so-called unknowability of God, and the infinite distance between man and God. They would never dare to think that they could see God. And here Jesus says with utmost simplicity: “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.” To see Jesus is to see what God is like. Looking at Jesus we can say: “This is God, living as we do.” In this state of affairs, we can say a lot of precious things about God.

1. God entered an ordinary house and an ordinary family, being born like any ordinary person. No inhabitant of the ancient world could imagine the coming of God to earth except in a royal manner, in a palace, where He would be given all due honors.

2. God was not ashamed of human labor. He entered this world as a working man. Jesus was a carpenter from Nazareth. We will never fully understand the fact that God understands our workday. He knows how difficult it can be to make ends meet, how difficult it can be to deal with clients and customers who refuse to pay their bills. He was well aware of the difficulties of life in a simple house and a large family, and the difficulties that can befall us during the working day. According to the Old Testament, work is a curse, and the ancient narrative says that one of the punishments for sin in the Garden of Eden was: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Gen. 3:19). But in accordance with the New Testament, the work was touched by glory, because the hand of God was in Him.

3. God knows what it means to be tempted. The life of Jesus shows us not the serenity, but the struggle of God. Anyone would understand a God who lives in serene peace somewhere beyond the tensions of our world, but Jesus shows us a God who passes all the tests inherent in man. God is not some military leader who leads the battle from the rear, but one who knows life at the front.

4. In Jesus we see a loving God. The moment love comes into life, sorrow comes with it. If we could be completely detached, if we could arrange our lives so that no one and nothing touched us, then there would be no such things as sorrow, pain and worry. That in Jesus we see a God who cares intensely, yearns for man, feels his pains keenly, loves and bears the wounds of love in His heart.

5. In Jesus we see God on the Cross. There is nothing more incredible than this. It is easy to imagine a God who condemns man, and even easier to imagine one who wipes out His opponents from the face of the earth, but no one would ever think of a God who chooses the Cross to gain man’s salvation. "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." Jesus is the revelation of God and this revelation makes the human mind amazed and surprised, and silent before such greatness.

SEEING GOD (John 14:7-11 (continued))

Jesus expands His thought even further in this passage. The one thing that no Jew could renounce was monotheism. The Jews were unshakable monotheists. The danger of the Christian faith is that we can present Jesus as some kind of minor God, which many do. But Jesus Himself said that the words He spoke and the works He did were not His own, spoken and done by His initiative and His power as a result of His own knowledge, but that they were all of God. His speech was the voice of God addressed to the people through Him; His works were a manifestation of the power of God through Him to the people. He was the vehicle through which God appeared before the people in a manner acceptable to them.

We will give two simple and imperfect analogies from the relationship between teacher and student. Dr. Lewis Muirhead said of the great theologian and expositor of God's word, Professor A. B. Brousse, that "men came to him to see the glory of God in man." Every teacher is bound to impart to his pupils something of the glory and beauty of the subject which he teaches, and he who teaches the doctrine of Christ may (if he be holy enough) impart to his pupils the image and presence of Christ. Professor A. B. Brus succeeded in this, and this is what Jesus Christ succeeded in an immeasurably greater degree - He conveyed to His listeners the glory and love of the Father.

In the second analogy, a certain A. L. Gossip writes about another student of A. B. Brus, McGregor: “A rumor spread that preacher McGregor was going to change his church chair to a professorship, that is, instead of a preacher, become a seminary professor. Colleagues asked him in bewilderment why "He decided to do this. He answered, not without modesty, that he had learned things from A. B. Brus that he was obliged to pass on to others."

One man wrote to his former teacher: “I don’t know how long I have to live, but I know that I will bear your imprint on me until the end of my days.” Often a student who studied with a favorite teacher retains something of his voice and his behavior. Jesus had the same influence, but only to an immeasurably greater degree. He conveyed God's pronunciation. His speech, mind and heart. We must remember from time to time that everything is from God. Jesus did not come into the world on a voluntary expedition. He did not do this to soften the stubborn heart of God, but He came because God loved the world so much that He “gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16). Behind Christ and in Christ stands God.

Jesus then proposed to test Him on two things: words and deeds.

1. First, He invited them to test His words and asked them the question: “Will you not know, when you listen to Me, that I speak the truth of God?” The words of any brilliant person are always self-evident. When reading great poetry, we cannot immediately determine what exactly is its greatness and why it grabs our soul. We can check and analyze vowel sounds, etc., but in the end we will run into something that cannot be analyzed, but nevertheless is easily and instantly recognized by us as great. Such is the case with the words of Jesus. As we hear them, we cannot help but say: “If only the world would live by His principles, how different things would be! If only I could live by His principles, how different I would be!”

2. Then He offers to try His works. He said to Philip: “If you cannot believe My words, then believe Me by the works themselves.” Jesus sent the same answer to John the Baptist when he sent his disciples to Him to ask whether He was the sent Messiah, or whether they should expect something else. Jesus said to them, "Go tell John what you see and hear: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have the good news preached to them; and blessed is he who is not offended because of Me." (Matthew 11:1-6). The proof of Jesus' words was that no one before Him could make a good person out of a bad person.

In fact, Jesus said to Philip, "Face Me! Listen to Me! Believe in Me!" And to this day, one can believe in Christ not by arguing about Him, but by hearing His words and seeing His deeds, that is, through personal acquaintance With Nim. When we do this, this one personal contact will compel us to believe in Him.

WONDERFUL PROMISES (John 14:12-14)

But there are hardly any greater promises than those contained in this passage. These promises are of such a kind that we must comprehend their deep meaning, for if we do not understand the meaning of these promises, life will undoubtedly end in disappointment.

1. Jesus said that in the future His disciples would not only be able to do what He did, but also much more. What did Jesus mean when he said this?

a) Certainly in the ancient world the early Church had the power to heal diseases. Paul mentions healing when listing the gifts of the Spirit (I Cor. 12:9.28.30). James insists that Church elders pray over sick Christians for their healing (James 5:14). But clearly, this is not all Jesus had in mind. While it can be said that the early Church acted like Jesus, it cannot be said that it did greater things than Jesus.

b) Nowadays there are many wonderful ways to heal diseases. Doctors and surgeons of the present day have achieved successes that would have been considered witchcraft or miracles in the ancient world. The surgeon with his new technology, the doctor with his new treatments, and his miraculous medicines are able to carry out extremely amazing healings. Although we still have a long road to perfection ahead of us, gradually the stronghold of physical pain and suffering is surrendering to the onslaught of modern technology. It is worth noting that the rapid development of technology was possible only under the influence of Jesus Christ. The question arises: why did scientists strive so hard to find a way to heal all sorts of diseases and relieve pain? In response, we can say that whether they knew it or not, Jesus, by the help of His Spirit, told them: “Help these people and heal them. It is your duty, task, responsibility and privilege.” This means that the Spirit of Jesus conquered diseases, as a result of which a real person today has the power to do things that in the ancient world, in the time of Jesus, were not even dreamed of.

c) But we have not yet touched on the most important thing in this passage. Remember what Jesus accomplished in spreading the good news during his time in the flesh. He never preached outside Palestine and Europe did not hear the Gospel during His life on earth. He personally did not see the moral decay of Rome and other major cities of the world. Even His opponents in Palestine were religious people. The scribes and Pharisees devoted their whole lives to the religion which they received from their fathers, and there is no reason to doubt that they respected and practiced purity of life. It was not during the life of Christ on earth that Christianity spread throughout the world, in which marriage was valued at nothing, adultery was not considered a serious sin, and evil bloomed wildly like a tropical forest.

But it was into such a world that the first Christians went with the Gospel, and such a world they acquired for Christ. The good news of the Cross brought even greater victories than those Jesus experienced while living on earth. Jesus spoke of moral regeneration and spiritual victory, and said that this would happen after He went to the Father. What did He mean by this? What He meant was this: While He lived on earth, He was limited to Palestine, but when He died and rose again, He was freed from these limitations of the flesh, and His Spirit was able to work everywhere.

2. Jesus also said that prayer in His name will be answered. This is important for us to understand correctly. Notice that the Lord did not say that all our prayers would be answered, but that prayers in His name would be answered. So the most important thing in our prayer is whether we speak to God in the name of Christ? This is how our prayer is tested. No one can pray for the sake of personal revenge, personal ambitions, or some non-Christian ideas and goals. When we pray, we should always ask ourselves: Can I ask this honestly in the name of Jesus? A prayer that can stand such a test, that can say at the end, “Thy will be done,” is always answered.

THE PROMISED HELP (John 14:15-17)

For John there was only one test of love and that test was obedience. By His obedience Jesus showed His love for God the Father, and by obedience we must show our love for Christ. Someone said that with John love never descends into a mere sentimental feeling, but with him it is always moral and manifests itself in obedience. We are well acquainted with those who, speaking about love, cause grief and mental anguish to those who are close to them and whom they love in words. There are children who say that they love their parents, but at the same time cause them grief and anxiety. There are husbands who say that they love their wives, and wives who say that they love their husbands, and who, in their rashness and irritability, and in their inconsiderate unkindness, hurt each other and poison each other's lives. With Jesus, true love is not something frivolous. With Him it manifests itself exclusively in true obedience.

However, Jesus does not condemn us to be alone in the struggle against evil in the Christian life. He promises to send us a Helper. Greek word parakletos actually untranslatable. The Russian Bible translates it with the word Comforter, which, although sanctified by time and use, still does not convey the true meaning. In Moffat's English translation this word is translated by the word Helper, but only after studying the word parakletos carefully, we can grasp something of the richness of the teaching about the Holy Spirit. It actually means someone who is invited in, but it is the reason why that someone was invited that gives the word its peculiar associations. The Greeks used this word in a very diverse way. Parakletos maybe someone who was called as a witness at a trial in defense of someone. He may be a lawyer called upon to defend the case of someone accused of something for which severe punishment is due. He may be an expert called upon to give advice on a difficult matter, or he may be called upon to encourage and lift the spirits of discouraged soldiers. Always parakletos(paraclete) is someone who is called for help in a time of trouble and need. The word Comforter once fully corresponded to the purpose of the Holy Spirit, and such a translation satisfied the reader, because it once meant more than it does now. The English translation of the word Comforter was taken from the Latin fortis, which means courageous, and a comforter was someone who could infuse courage into a discouraged person. And these days, consolation almost always refers to grief, and the comforter is almost always someone who comforts another in grief, who sympathizes with us when we are sad. Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit does this too, but we would belittle Him if we limited Him to this duty alone. We often talk about the ability to cope with life, and this is where the Holy Spirit helps: He takes away our inability and replaces it with the ability to cope with life. The Holy Spirit replaces the life of defeat with the life of victory.

That is why Jesus says: “I am giving you a difficult task, I am sending you to a difficult task, but I am not sending you alone, I am giving you a paraclete who will tell you what to do and give you the strength to complete any task.” Jesus went on to say that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit. By the world we mean those who live as if God does not exist at all. The essence of Jesus' words is this: we see only what we are capable of seeing. An astronomer sees much more in the sky than an ordinary person. A botanist sees much more in a bush than someone else who knows nothing about botany. Someone who is very familiar with painting will see much more in a painting than someone else who doesn't understand anything about it. Someone who understands even a little about music will get much more out of a symphony than someone who understands nothing. What we see and experience always depends on how much we ourselves contribute to what we see and experience. The one who has rejected God does not listen to Him, is not able to receive the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to receive the Holy Spirit without prayerfully waiting for Him and inviting Him to enter into us.

The Holy Spirit does not break into anyone's heart. He waits to be invited and willing to receive Him. Therefore, if we think to receive all those wonderful qualities of the Holy Spirit that we have heard about, we will undoubtedly find time among the noise and bustle of this world to wait in silence for His coming.

THE PATH TO COMMUNICATION AND REVELATION (John 14:18-24)

By this time, a sense of foreboding must have gripped the disciples. They must now have seen that some tragedy was looming. Jesus said, "I will not leave you orphans." Orphan- this is a person without father, but the same word can also be used when students lose their beloved teacher. Plato says that when Socrates died, his disciples thought that “now for the rest of their lives they would be lonely fatherless orphans, and did not know what to do.” But Jesus told His disciples that this would not happen to them. “I will come again,” He said. He speaks here of His Resurrection and constant presence. They will see Him because He will come to life, and because They will be alive. He meant their spiritual resurrection, new life in Him. Now they are confused, numb with a sense of imminent tragedy, but the day will come when their eyes will be opened, their minds will be opened to understanding and their hearts will be on fire, and then they will truly see Him. And so it was exactly after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. His Resurrection turned despair into hope, and then they finally understood that He was truly the Son of God. There are three main ideas in this passage.

1. First of all, there is love here, because for John love is the basis of everything. God loves Jesus, Jesus loves people, people love God through Jesus, people love each other. Heaven and earth, man and God, man and man - all are connected by bonds of love.

2. John stresses the need for obedience - the surest proof of love. Jesus appeared not to the Pharisees and scribes and not to those who were hostile to Him after the Resurrection, but to those who loved Him.

3. Obedient trusting love leads to two things: first, to greater security. On the day of Christ's complete victory, those who have obeyed Him in love will be safe from the collapse of the universe. Secondly, it leads to more and more complete revelation. God's revelation comes at a cost. It always has a moral basis: God appears (reveals) to those who keep His commandments. A wicked person will never see the revelation of God. God will use him, but he will never have fellowship with Him. Only to the one who seeks Him does God reveal himself, and only to the One who, despite his weaknesses, reaches up to God, does He bend down to lift him up. Communication with God and His revelation depend on love, and love depends on obedience. The more we obey God, the more we understand Him, and a person who walks God's way inevitably walks with Him.

CHRIST'S INHERITANCE (John 14:25-31)

This passage is filled to the brim with truth. In it, Jesus talks about five things.

1. He talks about His Ally- Holy Spirit.

a) The Holy Spirit will teach us everything. Until the end of his days, a believer in Christ must study, because until the end of his days the Holy Spirit will lead him deeper and deeper into the truth of God. A Christian who thinks that he has nothing more to learn has not yet begun to comprehend the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

b) The Holy Spirit reminds us of everything Jesus said. This means two things: 1) In matters of faith, the Holy Spirit constantly brings to mind what Jesus said. We are obliged to reason, but all our conclusions must be constantly tested by comparison with the words of Jesus Christ. What we need to find is not so much the truth because He has revealed the truth to us, but rather the meaning of that truth. The Holy Spirit protects us from errors and arrogance of mind. 2) The Holy Spirit will keep us on the right path in matters of behavior. Almost all of us experience something. We fall into temptation to do something bad and are already standing on the very edge of the abyss when suddenly we remember the words of Christ, a verse or psalm, the words of someone we love and admire, an instruction we received in childhood or youth. At a critical moment, these thoughts suddenly flash into our heads and this is the action of the Holy Spirit.

2. He speaks of His gift and this gift of His is peace. In the Bible, the word peace - talom - never simply means freedom from difficulties. It means everything that is for our highest good. The peace that the earthly world offers is a world of forgetting, avoiding difficulties and refusing to face events head on. The peace that Jesus offers is the peace of victory. No transfusion can take it away from us, no grief, no danger, no suffering can remove it. It does not depend on external circumstances.

3. He talks about where He is going. He returns to the Father and says that if the disciples really love Him, they should be glad that He is going there. He was freed from the restrictions of this world. If we truly comprehended the truth of the Christian faith, we would always rejoice when our near and dear ones go to the Lord. This does not mean that we would not feel the pain of separation from them and loneliness, but we would rejoice that after the troubles and testing of the earth, our loved ones found something better. We would not be upset that they entered into peace, but we would always remember that they did not go into death, but into bliss.

4. The Lord Jesus speaks of struggle. The cross was Jesus' final struggle with the forces of evil, but He was not afraid of this fight because He knew that evil did not have the power to defeat Him. He went to his death confident not of defeat, but of victory.

5. He speaks here of His restoration. People then saw in the Cross a symbol of defeat and shame, but Jesus knew that the time would come when they would see His obedience

Commentary (introduction) to the entire book of John

Comments on Chapter 14

The depth of this book has no equal in the world. A. T. Robertson

Introduction

I. SPECIAL POSITION IN THE CANON

According to John himself, his book was written specifically for unbelievers - “so that you may believe” (20:31).

The Church once followed the call of the apostles: in the nineteenth century, millions of copies of the pocket Gospels of John were distributed.

The Gospel of John is also one of the most beloved books of the Bible - if not most beloved - for many mature and zealous Christians.

John does not simply list some facts from the life of our Lord; in his book we find many reasonings, reflections of the apostle, who stayed with Christ from the days of his youth in Galilee to his very advanced years in Asia. In his Gospel we find that famous verse that Martin Luther called “Good News in miniature” - John 3:16.

If the Gospel of John were the only book in the NT, it would contain enough material for anyone to study and ponder for the rest of their lives.

The question of the authorship of the fourth Gospel has been discussed very widely and actively over the past 150 years. The reason for this increased interest lies, undoubtedly, in the confidence with which the evangelist testifies to the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Attempts have been made to prove that this Gospel did not come from the pen of an eyewitness, but is the work of an unknown but brilliant theologian who lived fifty or a hundred years after the events he describes. Therefore, it reflects the later teaching of the Church about Christ, not who Jesus really was, what He really said, and what He really did.

Clement of Alexandria wrote about how John's close friends, having found him in Ephesus, suggested that he write his own Gospel in addition to the existing synoptic ones. And so, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the apostle created his spiritual Gospel. This does not mean that the rest of the Gospels unspiritual. It is simply that the special emphasis that John places on the words of Christ and on the deeper meaning of those miraculous signs that He revealed gives us the right to distinguish this Gospel as “spiritual.”

External evidence

The first written evidence that the author of the Gospel in question is John is found in the writings of Theophilus of Antioch (c. 170 AD). However, there are other, earlier, implicit mentions and references to the fourth Gospel in Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Tatian, in the Muratori canon and in the heretics Basilid and Valentinus.

Irenaeus closes the chain of disciples going from Jesus Christ Himself to John, from John to Polycarp and from Polycarp to Irenaeus. This covers the period from the birth of Christianity to the end of the second century. Irenaeus often quotes this Gospel, considering it the work of John and perceiving it as recognized by the Church. Beginning with Irenaeus, this Gospel received universal recognition, including Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian.

It has been suggested that the very end of the twenty-first chapter was added by the elders of the Ephesian church at the end of the first century to encourage believers to accept the Gospel of John. Verse 24 turns us back to the “disciple whom Jesus loved” mentioned in verse 20 and also in chapter 13. These references have always been taken to refer to the apostle John.

Liberals argued that the fourth Gospel was written in end second century. But in 1920, a fragment of the eighteenth chapter of the Gospel of John was discovered in Egypt (Papyrus 52, dated using objective methods first half of the second century, approximately 125 AD. e.). The fact that it was found in a provincial town (and not in Alexandria for example) confirms that the traditionally accepted date of writing - the end of the first century - is correct, since it took some time for the manuscripts from Ephesus to spread to the borders of southern Egypt. A similar fragment from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John, Papyrus Egerton 2, which also dates back to the beginning of the second century, further strengthens the assumption that this Gospel was written during the life of the Apostle John.

Internal evidence

At the end of the nineteenth century, the famous Anglican theologian, Bishop Westcott, made a very convincing case for the authorship of John. The sequence of his reasoning is as follows: 1) the author is undoubtedly Jewish- writing style, vocabulary, knowledge of Jewish customs and cultural characteristics, as well as the Old Testament subtext appearing in the Gospel - all this confirms this assumption; 2) this Jew living in Palestine(1.28; 2:1.11; 4.46; 11:18.54; 21.1-2). He knows Jerusalem and the temple well (5:2; 9:7; 18:1; 19:13,17,20,41; see also 2:14-16; 8:20; 10:22); 3) he is eyewitness of what it tells: in the text there are many small details about the place of action, persons, time and customs (4.46; 5.14; 6.59; 12.21; 13.1; 14:5.8; 18, 6; 19.31); 4) this one of the apostles: he shows knowledge of the inner life in the circle of disciples and the life of the Lord Himself (6:19,60-61; 12,16; 13:22,28; 16,19); 5) since the author names other students, but never mentions himself, this gives us the right to assume that the nameless student is from 13.23; 19.26; 20.2; 21:7,20 - apostle John. Three more important places confirming that the author of the Gospel is an eyewitness to the events described: 1.14; 19.35 and 21.24.

III. WRITING TIME

Irenaeus confidently asserts that John wrote his Gospel in Ephesus. If he is correct, then the earliest possible date would be around 69 or 70 AD. e. - time of John's arrival in Ephesus. Since John nowhere mentions the destruction of Jerusalem, we can assume that this has not yet happened. This fact allows us to conclude that the Gospel was written before this terrible event.

A number of very liberal-minded scholars and Bible specialists, tracing some connection with the scrolls found near the Dead Sea, put forward the version that the Gospel of John was written in 45-66.

This in itself is an extraordinary event, since it is usually liberals who insist on later dating, while conservatives defend versions of earlier dating.

In this case, the tradition of the early Church stands on the side of the later date of writing.

The case for the end of the first century is quite strong. Most scholars agree with the opinion of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria and Jerome that the Gospel of John was the last of the four to be written and is partly based on the synoptics.

The fact that this Gospel says nothing about the destruction of Jerusalem may be due to the fact that the book was written fifteen to twenty years ago. later when the first shock has already passed. Irenaeus writes that John lived before the reign of Emperor Trajan, who ascended the throne in 98, which means that it is likely that the Gospel was written shortly before that. The references to “Jews” in the Gospel also rather indicate a later date, when opposition to Christianity on the part of the Jews grew into persecution.

So, it is not possible to establish the exact date of writing, but the most likely period is from 85 to 95 AD. e.

IV. PURPOSE OF WRITING AND TOPIC

The entire Gospel of John is built around seven miracles, or signs, performed by Jesus in front of people.

Each of these signs served as proof that Jesus is God. (1) Turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (2:9). (2) Healing of the courtier's son (4:46-54). (3) Healing of the sick near the pool of Bethesda (5:2-9). (4) Feeding of the five thousand (6:1-14). (5) Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee to save the disciples from the storm (6:16-21). (6) Healing of a man born blind (9:1-7). (7) Raising of Lazarus (11:1-44). In addition to these seven miracles performed publicly, there is one more, eighth miracle that Christ performed in the presence of his disciples after His resurrection - catching fish (21:1-14).

Charles R. Erdman wrote that the Fourth Gospel "has moved more people to follow Christ, inspired more believers to righteous service, and presented more challenges to explorers than any other book."

It is according to the Gospel of John that the chronology Christ's ministry on earth. If we follow the other three Gospels, it would seem that it lasted only a year. The mention of annual national holidays in John identifies a period of approximately three years. Pay attention to the following places: the first feast of the Passover (2:12-13); “Jewish holiday” (5:1) - this could be either Easter or Purim; second (or third) Easter holiday (6.4); setting up tabernacles (7.2); the feast of Renewal (10.22) and the last feast of Easter (12.1).

John is also very precise in his references to time. If the other three evangelists are quite satisfied with approximate indications of time, then John notes such details as the seventh hour (4.52); third day (2.1); two days (11.6); six days (12.1).

Style and vocabulary This Gospel is unique and comparable only to the style of John's epistles.

Its sentences are short and simple. The author clearly thinks in Hebrew, although he writes in Greek. Often, sentences are shorter the more important the idea they contain. The vocabulary is more limited compared to the rest of the Gospels, but deeper in meaning. Notice the following important words and how often they appear in the text: Father (118), believe (100), peace (78), love (45), witness (47), life (37), light (24 ).

A distinctive feature of the Gospel of John is the author's frequent use of the number seven and multiples of seven. Throughout Scripture, this number is always associated with the idea of perfection and completeness (see Gen. 2:1-3). In this Gospel, the Spirit of God made the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ perfect and complete, therefore examples and various images associated with the number seven are found here quite often.

There are also seven “I am”s from the Gospel of John: (1) “bread of life” (6:35,41,48,51); "light of the world" (8.12; 9.5); "door" (10:7,9); "the good shepherd" (10:11,14); "resurrection and life" (11.25); “the way and the truth and the life” (14:6) and “The Vine” (15:1,5). Less well known are the other “I am” or “this is I”, which are not followed by a definition: 4.26; 6.20; 8:24,28,58; 13.19; 18:5,8; twice in the last verse.

In chapter six, which talks about the bread of life, the Greek word translated “bread” and “loaves” appears twenty-one times, a multiple of seven. In the same chapter, the phrase “bread from heaven” occurs exactly seven times, the same number as the expression “came down from heaven.”

Thus, we can conclude that John wrote this Gospel so that everyone who reads it “will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing they may have life in His name” (20:31).

Plan

I. PROLOGUE: THE FIRST COMING OF THE SON OF GOD (1:1-18)

II. THE FIRST YEAR OF THE MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD (1.19 - 4.51)

III. THE SECOND YEAR OF THE MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD (Ch. 5)

IV. THE THIRD YEAR OF THE SON OF GOD'S MINISTRY: GALILEE (Ch. 6)

V. THIRD YEAR OF THE MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD: JERUSALEM (7.1 - 10.39)

VI. THIRD YEAR OF THE MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD: PEREA (10.40 - 11.57)

VII. THE MINISTRY OF THE SON OF GOD TO HIS CHOSEN (Ch. 12 - 17)

VIII. THE SUFFERING AND DEATH OF THE SON OF GOD (Ch. 18 - 19)

IX. THE TRIUMPH OF THE SON OF GOD (Ch. 20)

X. EPILOGUE: THE RISEN SON OF GOD WITH HIS CHOSEN (Ch. 21)

N. Jesus: the way, the truth and the life (14:1-14)

14,1 Some connect this verse with the last verse of chapter 13, thinking that what is said here is addressed to Peter. Although he denies the Lord, there is still a word of comfort for him. But the plural form in Greek indicates that the Lord spoke to everyone students, therefore, there should be a pause after Chapter 13. The thought here might be: “I am going far away and you will not be able to see Me.” Yes your heart is not troubled; believe in God even though you don’t see Him. And continue to believe in Me." This is another important claim to equality with God.

14,2 Under Father's house heaven is meant, where there are many mansions. There is room there for all the redeemed. What if It was not this way, Lord would say them about it; He didn't want them to have false hopes. "I'm going to prepare a place for you" can have two meanings. The Lord Jesus will ascend to Calvary to prepare a place for His own. It is because of His atoning death that believers have a place there. But the Lord also returned to heaven to prepare the place. We do not know exactly what kind of place this is, but we know that all conditions have been created there for all the children of God - a prepared place for prepared people!

14,3 Verse 3 refers to the time when the Lord will come again from heaven and those who died in faith will be resurrected, and the living will be changed, and all the blood-bought nations will come home to heaven (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15:51-58). This is the personal, literal coming of Christ. Just like He left, He will come again. He wants all who belong to Him to remain with Him forever.

14,4-5 He was going to heaven and they knew path to heaven, for He told them about it many times. Obviously, Thomas did not understand the meaning of the Lord's words. Like Peter, he may have been thinking about traveling to a distant place on earth.

14,6 This beautiful verse explains that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is path to heaven. He doesn't just show the way; He There is path. Salvation lies in His Person. Accept this Personality as yours and you will achieve salvation. Christianity is Christ. The Lord Jesus is not one of many ways. He - the only one Path. No one comes to the Father except through Him. The path to God is not through the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, regulations, church membership, but through Christ and only through Christ. Today many people say that it does not matter what to believe as long as the belief is sincere. They say that all religions have something good in them and all ultimately lead to heaven. But Jesus said: "No one comes to the Father except through Me."

The Lord is true. He is not only the One who teaches the truth; He - true. He is the embodiment of Truth.

He who has Christ has the Truth. Can't find it anywhere else.

Christ Jesus is life. He is the source of life, both spiritual and eternal. He who receives Him has eternal life, because He is Life.

14,7 Once again the Lord reminds us of the mysterious union that exists between Him and the Father. If the disciples knew who Jesus really was, then they would know the Father Him, because the Lord revealed the Father to people.

From now on, and especially after the resurrection of Christ, the disciples will understand that Jesus is God the Son. Then they realize that to know Christ means know Father and to see the Lord Jesus is to see God. This verse does not teach that God and the Lord Jesus are the same person. In the Triune God there are three different personalities, but there is only one God.

14,8 Philip wanted to Lord somehow showed Father, and that will be enough for him. He did not understand that everything the Lord did and said, who He was, all revealed the Father to them.

14,9 Jesus patiently corrected him. Philip was with the Lord for a long time. He is one of the first disciples called (John 1:43). Yet the full truth about the Divinity of Christ and His unity with the Father had not yet been revealed to him. He did not know that when he saw Jesus, he was looking at the One who perfectly showed Father.

14,10-1 Words "I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me" describe the closeness of unity between Father and Son. They are separate Persons, and yet They are one as far as qualities and will are concerned. We shouldn't be upset if we can't figure it out. No mortal mind can ever understand the Trinity of God. We must trust God to know what we can never know. If we understood Him completely, we would be as great as He! Jesus had the power to speak words and perform miracles, but He came into the world as a Servant of Jehovah and spoke and acted in perfect obedience to the Father.

Students must believe, that He is one with Father according to His personal testimony. And if they don’t believe, then they should believe according to those affairs, which He did.

14,12 The Lord predicted that those who believe in Him will perform miracles similar to those that He performed, and even big. In the book of Acts we read about the apostles who, like the Savior, had the power to heal. But we also read about even greater miracles: the conversion of three thousand on the day of Pentecost. The salvation of so many souls and the establishment of the Church was undoubtedly the miracle of the worldwide proclamation of the Gospel, which the Lord spoke of using the expression "He will do greater things than these." Saving souls is more, than to heal the body. When the Lord returned to heaven, He was glorified and the Holy Spirit was sent to earth.

Through the power of the Spirit, the apostles were able to perform these great miracles.

14,13 How comforting it was for the disciples to know that even if the Lord left them, they could pray to the Father in His name and receive whatever they asked. This verse does not imply that a believer can get whatever he wants from God. The key to understanding a promise is in the words "in my name": what do you ask in my name? Asking in Jesus' name is more than just mentioning His name at the end of your prayer. This means asking according to His purpose and will. It means asking for things that will glorify God, bless humanity, and benefit our soul.

To ask in the name of Jesus, we must live in close fellowship with Him. Otherwise we will not know His attitude towards what we ask. The closer we are to Him, the more our desires will correspond to His will. The Father will be glorified in the Son, because the Son desires only what pleases God. Such prayers are said and offered, and therefore bring great honor and glory to God.

14,14 The promise is repeated here to emphasize the great encouragement and support that will be given to the children of God. Live in such a way that His will is at the center, remain in communion with the Lord, ask for something whatever the Lord desires, and whatever you ask, you will receive.

O. Promise to send another Comforter (14:15-26)

14,15 The Lord Jesus was about to leave His disciples and knew that they would be filled with sorrow. How can they express their Love to him? Only by keeping His commandments. Not with tears, but with obedience. Commandments The Lord's - the instructions He gave us in the Gospels, as well as in the rest of the NT.

14,16 The word translated as "I beg you" which our Lord uses here is not equivalent in meaning to that which describes the prayer of the lower to the higher; it just speaks of appealing to an equal. Lord pray to the Father send another Comforter. Word "Comforter"(Paraclete) means one who is called upon to help. This word is also translated as Advocate (1 John 2:1). The Lord Jesus is our Advocate and Comforter, and the Holy Spirit is another Comforter, not another in the sense of “different from the first,” but another with the same properties. Holy Spirit will remain with believers forever. In the OT, the Holy Spirit came upon people at times and often left them. Now He will come to stay forever.

14,17 The Holy Spirit is called Spirit of truth because His teaching is true and He glorifies Christ, Who is the Truth. The world can't accept the Holy Spirit, because he does not see Him.

Non-believers want to see first and then believe, although they believe in the existence of wind and electricity and yet do not see them. The unsaved do not know or understand the essence of the Holy Spirit. He may convict them of sin, but they still do not understand that it is He. The disciples knew the Holy Spirit. They knew He was working in their own lives and they saw Him working through the Lord Jesus.

"For He abides with you and will be in you." Before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on people and remained With them. But after Pentecost the Holy Spirit always remains V the life of that person who believes in the Lord Jesus. David's prayer, "Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me," does not apply today. The Holy Spirit will never be taken away from a believer, although He may be grieved, or depressed, or restrained.

14,18 Lord won't leave Your students orphans and will not leave. He will come to him again. In a sense, He came to them after His resurrection, but it is doubtful that this is all that is meant here. He also came to them in the Person of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. This spiritual coming is the true meaning of this verse. There is something about Pentecost that signals the coming of Jesus. There is another meaning here: He will come to them again at the end of this age when He takes His elect home to heaven.

14,19 None of the unbelievers saw the Lord Jesus after his burial. After His resurrection He met only those who loved Him. But even after His ascension into heaven, the disciples continued to see Him by faith. This is implied in the words: "...and you will see Me." After the world could no longer see Jesus, the disciples continue to see Him. "For I live, and you will live." Here He was referring to His life after the resurrection. She will be the guarantee of life for all who believe in Him. Even if they die, they will rise again for immortality.

14,20 "In that day", probably again refers to the coming of the Holy Spirit. He will instruct believers in the truth that there is a vital connection between the Son and the Father; so will be the marvelous union of life and interests between Christ and His saints. It's hard to explain how Christ abides V believer and believer V Christ at the same time. Here is a common example with a poker on fire. Not only does the poker come into contact with the fire, but the fire also comes into contact with the poker. (Other examples are known: a bird in the air and air in a bird; a fish in water and water in a fish.) But this example does not explain everything. Christ abides in the believer in the sense that His life is communicated to him. He actually indwells the believer through the Holy Spirit. The believer abides in Christ in the sense that in the sight of God he possesses all the merits of the person and works of Christ.

14,21 The real proof of love for the Lord is keeping Him commandments. It is useless to talk about loving Him if we are not willing to obey Him. We can say that the Father loves the whole world. But He has a special love for those who love His Son. Christ also loves them and reveals Himself to them in a special way. The more we love the Savior, the better we will know Him.

14,22 Judas, mentioned here, had, unfortunately, the same name as the traitor. But the Spirit of God kindly distinguished between him and Iscariot. He did not understand how the Lord could appear to the disciples, but not to the world. Undoubtedly, he thought about the coming of the Savior as a victorious king or a famous hero. He did not understand that the Lord will reveal Yourself in a spiritual way. They will see Him by faith through the Word of God.

Today, through the work of the Spirit of God, we can truly know Christ better than His disciples knew when He lived on earth. When He was here, those who stood in front of the multitude of people were closer to Him than those who stood behind. But today, through faith, each of us can enjoy the most intimate fellowship with Him. Christ's answer to Judas' question shows that His promised appearance to individual believers is connected with the Word of God. The keeping of the Word will be marked by the coming and abiding of the Father and the Son.

14,23 If a person truly loves Gentlemen, he will want observe His entire teaching, not individual commandments. Father loves those who want to obey His Son without question or reservation. Both the Father and the Son are especially close to such loving and obedient hearts.

14,24 On the other side, not loving His do not comply His word. By refusing the words of Christ, they also refuse the Father.

14,25 Staying With disciples, the Lord could not teach them everything. He could not reveal more truths to them because they were not ready to accept them.

14,26 But Holy Spirit will reveal more to them. He will be sent Father in the name Christ on the day of Pentecost. The spirit has descended in the name of Christ in the sense that He is authorized to represent the interests of Christ on earth. He came down not to glorify Himself, but to lead men and women to the Savior. "Teach you everything"- said the Lord. He did this primarily through the oral ministry of the apostles, and then through the written Word of God that we have today. Holy Spirit will remind you of everything what the Savior taught. In fact, it seems to us that the Lord Jesus presented in its initial form all the teaching that would be developed by the Holy Spirit in the rest of the NT.

P. Jesus leaves His peace to the disciples (14:27-31)

14,27 Usually, before death, a person writes a last will, in which he leaves his property to those who love him. Here the Lord Jesus did the same thing. However, He bequeathed not material values, but what money cannot buy: world, interior world conscience, which descends in the heart as a result of the feeling of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. Christ can give peace because He purchased it with His own Blood on Calvary. He gives us differently than the world gives- meagerly, for selfish reasons and for a short time. His gift peace- forever. Why then should a Christian be embarrassed or be afraid?

14,28 Jesus had already told them how He was going to leave them and how He would later return to take them home with Him to heaven. If would they loved Him then rejoiced would. Of course, in their own way they loved Him. But they had not yet fully appreciated who He was, and therefore their love was not as great as it should have been.

"...They would rejoice because I said, 'I go to the Father,' for My Father is greater than I." On the surface, this verse contradicts everything Jesus taught regarding His equality with God the Father. But there is no contradiction here, and the following statement explains these words. When Jesus was on earth, He was hated, persecuted, persecuted, persecuted, and tried to be captured. People reviled Him, insulted Him, and spat on Him. He suffered terrible humiliations from His own creatures.

God the Father has never experienced such insulting treatment from people. He was in heaven, far from the evil of sinners. Returning to heaven, the Lord Jesus will never again suffer such humiliation, for there is no such thing there. Therefore, the disciples should have rejoiced in response to Jesus’ words that He goes to the Father because In this sense Father more His. Father was not greater like God; He is greater because he never came into the world in the form of a Man who was treated so mercilessly. As far as Divine attributes are concerned, the Son and the Father are equal. But when we think of the humble, lowly role that Jesus took upon Himself as a Man here on earth, we realize that In this sense God Father is more than He. He is greater in His own way position, but not by personal qualities.

14,29 Unselfishly caring for the frightened disciples, the Lord showed what should happen so that they would not be tempted, lose heart, or be afraid, but believed.

14,30 The Lord knew that the time was approaching when He would be betrayed, and there was not much time left speak with students. Even then, the devil was prowling nearby, but the Savior knew that the enemy could not find a drop of sin in Him. There was nothing in Christ that would respond to the evil temptations of the devil. It would be funny if anyone other than Jesus said that Satan would not find in him Nothing.

14,31 We could paraphrase this verse as follows: “The time is approaching when I will be betrayed. But I go to the cross voluntarily. For Me, this is the will of the Father, through the fulfillment of which the world will know how I love my Father. That is why I am going to death without offering any resistance." Having said this, the Lord suggested to the disciples stand up And go with him. It is not clear from this text where they went from the upper room. Perhaps further conversation took place on the way.

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Sermon at Vespers of Forgiveness Sunday

INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE GOSPEL FROM AN EAGLE'S EYE

A GOSPEL THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHERS

SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE OF JOHN

THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH JOHN WRITE

THE ARISE OF HERESIES

THE HUMAN NATURE OF JESUS

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS

AUTHOR OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL

FAVORITE STUDENT

WORK OF THE CHURCH

WHO WRITTEN THE GOSPEL

DEAR GOSPEL TO US

THE PROMISE OF GLORY (John 14:1-3)

THE PROMISE OF GLORY (John 14:1-3 continued)

THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE (John 14:4-6)

SEEING GOD (John 14:7-11)

SEEING GOD (John 14:7-11 (continued))

WONDERFUL PROMISES (John 14:12-14)

THE PROMISED HELP (John 14:15-17)

THE PATH TO COMMUNICATION AND REVELATION (John 14:18-24)

CHRIST'S INHERITANCE (John 14:25-31)

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