Troubling times require a triune God.
The hardships we face in this fallen world can sometimes seem insurmountable. Yet Scripture assures us that the entire Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—works together to save, comfort, and strengthen us, His people. While various passages picture God’s trinitarian work (e.g., Gal. 4:4-7; Eph. 3:14-21), John 14 specifically describes how each divine Person helps us when we’re tempted to experience fear amid our trials.
John 14 appears within the larger section (John 13-17) in John’s Gospel known as “The Upper Room Discourse,” the final words Jesus spoke to His disciples on the eve of His crucifixion. It was certainly a time of great fear for them. What will happen to their Messiah, their master and friend? What will happen to them? Even if they escape arrest and emerge unscathed from the Jewish and Roman authorities, what will happen to the mission they devoted their lives to?
While you and I don’t face the same pressures the twelve faced, we do deal with daily challenges. What does Jesus say to His disciples to comfort them? While acknowledging the unrepeatable uniqueness of this event, what comfort can we derive from our Lord’s promises to them when we’re tempted to fear?
Let’s consider ten trinitarian assurances we can embrace from John 14 and then three responses Christ asks us to make when we face fearful situations. (To best profit from this article, read the Scripture references in parentheses.)
Ten Trinitarian Assurances
About God Your Father:
- Through Jesus Christ, you know God the Father and have a saving relationship with Him. God Himself loves you and now lives in you through His Spirit (vv. 7, 9, 11, 20, 21, 23).
- God the Father will one day receive you into His very presence, into one of the “many rooms” in His “house” (v. 2).[1] The many rooms/Father’s house metaphor points to the Father’s inclusion of you (and His multitude of other sons and daughters) in the security and joy of His never-ending presence.
About Jesus Christ, Your Savior:
Despite His own soul and spirit being “troubled” (12:27; 13:21) as He prepares to endure the wrath of God on our behalf, our gracious Savior focuses on His disciples’ turmoil, not His own.
- By His death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has brought you into a saving relationship with God. He is “the way and the truth and the life,” the only access to the Father (v. 6).
- Jesus loves you and lives in you through His Spirit. As in point 1 above about the Father, “I too will love them and show myself to them. . . . and we will come to them and make our home with them” (vv. 21, 23).
- Jesus will return for you to take you to be with Him and His Father forever. In preparing a place for His disciples in verse 2, Jesus continues in verse 3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (vv. 2-3).
- Jesus gives you His peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. . . . Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (v. 27). This peace summarizes all the gracious provisions wrapped up in our Lord’s promises, including, as D. A. Carson observes, “the peace which garrisons our hearts and minds against the invasion of anxiety (Phil. 4:7), and rules or arbitrates in the hearts of God’s people to maintain harmony amongst them (Col. 3:15).”[2]
- Jesus has sent you His Holy Spirit. As He prepared for His departure, He promised to ask the Father to “give you another advocate . . . the Spirit of truth.” (vv. 16-17). The “advocate”—better translated here as Helper (ESV)—refers to the Holy Spirit.
About the Holy Spirit:
- The Spirit lives with you and in you forever. That Helper will “help you and be with you forever. . . [H]e lives with you and will be in you” (vv. 16-17).
- The Spirit mediates Jesus’s presence to you. In the passage above, Jesus promises “another” Helper. The Greek word translated “another” means another of the same kind—a Helper just like Jesus, the Spirit of Christ. Moreover, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will come “in my name.” He will represent Jesus, bear His authority, and remind the disciples “of everything I have said to you” (v. 26).
- The Spirit helps you understand His truth. While His teaching and reminding ministry in verse 26 likely refers to His promise to help the apostles write Scripture (also John 16:13), the Spirit does illuminate our minds to understand God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:10-16). When facing hardships, you need the Holy Spirit to help you interpret, believe, and obey His breathed-out Bible (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Our Commanded Response
How does Jesus call you to respond to these rich, trinitarian assurances? First, you must believe. “Believe in God; believe also in me” (v. 1, CSB).[3] This would include, of course, believing in a saving way in God the Father (that He sent Jesus as Messiah) and in Jesus as that Lord and Messiah who forgives sin and brings eternal life. But it also involves believing the ten promises Jesus unfurled in this chapter. To trust in the Lord in times of trouble means calling out to Him for help, believing He will do everything He promised, and seeking to align our beliefs, motives, desires, words, and speech with His.
Second, you must love the Lord by obeying His commands. He repeats it three times: “If you love me, keep my commands” (v. 15). “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me” (v. 21). “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching” (v. 23). Among the many ways Christians love the Lord, Jesus exalts this as preeminent.
While times of trouble will tempt you to ignore or disobey His Word, the Lord nevertheless urges obedience. As a pastor and counselor, I have found that a failure to follow God’s Word often makes trials worse. Whatever the Lord commands in your specific situation, do it. (If you’re not sure, talk to your pastor or a biblical counselor.)
Third, serve the Lord. One danger we face in times of anxiety is to isolate ourselves from others and exempt ourselves from serving Jesus. We can easily become self-absorbed and fail to love and minister to others. Like the disciples after Jesus’s arrest, we might sadly retreat from our Christ-centered mission.
Yet in verse 12, Jesus makes a promise with an implied duty, “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” The “whoever believes” is not restricted to the twelve; all of God’s people should serve Him. The “greater” works refer to the massive ministry that millions of believers can now do after Jesus ascended and the Father sent His Spirit to convert and empower those millions and to form churches all over the world, including yours.
Sisters and brothers, as you face the pressures this fallen world brings and are tempted to collapse in fear, remember the ten assurances our triune God gives you and respond to Him in faith, obedience, and humble service to others. That’s the peace-filled life Jesus promises you.
Question for Reflection
Would you consider this simple six-step process to reflect further on John 14? (I did it before I wrote this article.) (1) Read John 14 prayerfully to gain an overview. (2) Read it again, marking and then listing everything it teaches about God the Father. (3) Read it again, doing the same about Jesus. (4) Read it again, doing the same about the Holy Spirit. (5) Read it one more time, doing the same about how you should respond to the Lord. (6) Based on your list, write a prayer to the Lord and pray it aloud and often.
[1] Unless otherwise noted, English translations are from the Holy Bible: New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011).
[2] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 506.
[3] The Holy Bible: Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.)
