2. Promises, Promises John 14:18-24

4. Henry Christ promises that he would continue his care of his disciples. I will not leave you orphans, or fatherless, for though I leave you, yet I leave you this comfort, I will come to you. I will come speedily to you at my resurrection. I will come daily to you in my Spirit; in the tokens of his love, and visits of his grace. I will come certainly at the end of time. Those only that see Christ…

5. Henry …with an eye of faith, shall see him forever: the world sees him no more till his second coming; but his disciples have communion with him in his absence.

6. Luke 24:21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

7. John 20:25 “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

8. Bonar I bless the Christ of God, I rest on love divine, And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine. ‘Tis He who saveth me, And freely pardon gives; I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

9. Boice Without this [the resurrection] there would have been no faith and no knowledge that he was indeed who he claimed to be.

10. Romans 1:3-4 …his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

11. John 17:23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

12. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

13. Ephesians 3:17 …so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

14. Colossians 1:27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

15. 1 John 3:24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

16. Pink This manifestation of Christ is made only to the one who really loves Him, and the proof of love to Him is not by emotional displays but by submission to His will. There is a vast difference between sentiment and practical reality. The Lord will give no direct and special revelation of Himself to those who are in the path of disobedience. ‘He that hath my commandments,’ means, hath them at heart.

17. Pink ‘And keepeth them,’ that is the real test. We hear, but do we heed? We know, but are we doing His will?”

18. Simeon We must not imagine that the adoption of certain sentiments, or the joining of ourselves to a particular set of people, or the manifesting of a regard for public or social ordinances, or the having had great exercises of mind in reference to religion, with many hopes or fears, or joys or sorrows, or the feeling a strong confidence about the safety of our own state, are any certain proofs of love to Christ:

19. Simeon …these things not only may, but often do, exist, where there is no real love to Christ in the soul. There is one mark, and one only, whereby we can form any decided judgment about the states of men; and that is, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

20. John 14:17 …even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

21. Carson So, while Jesus leaves his disciples in order to prepare in his Father’s house ‘dwelling- places’ (cf. v. 2) for his followers, he, at the same time, joins with the Father in making a ‘dwelling-place’ in the believer.