We will begin by reading a number of passages from the Bible which are all very important. I hope everyone would pay attention in reading them. John 1:1-4 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality,” and verse 18 continues, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” Then 2:19-21 says, “Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, This temple was built in forty-six years, and You will raise it up in three days? But He spoke of the temple of His body.”
Chapter one of John says that the Lord Jesus’ becoming flesh was His erecting a tabernacle among men. In chapter two the Lord shows us that His body was a temple. In the Old Testament among the Israelites, first there was a tabernacle and later there was a temple. The tabernacle and the temple were really the same thing in two different time periods. These two passages show us that the Lord Jesus became a man as the tabernacle and the temple.
John 2:22 says, “When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.” Here we see that the body of the Lord Jesus is a temple not only due to His incarnation but also to His resurrection. On the one hand, His flesh was a tabernacle; on the other hand, it was a temple. When the Jews sought to kill Him, the Lord indicated that they were seeking to destroy the temple. However, the Lord also said that in three days He would raise up the temple which the Jews would destroy. This meant that the Jews would kill Him and He would be raised in three days (vv. 18-22).
Verse 3 of chapter fourteen says, “Where I am you also may be,” and verse 10 says, “I am in the Father.” Therefore, we need to note that the word where repeatedly mentioned in John 14 is a matter not of a place but of a person. Here it is concerned not with where the Lord Jesus is but in whom He is. Where is the Lord Jesus? He is in the Father.
Verse 11 says, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” Then verse 19 says, “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live.” These verses show us that after the Lord Jesus resurrected, He regenerated us, enabling us to live just as He lives. “Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me.” The “little while” here is only three days. Three days after His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus resurrected and entered into the disciples as the Spirit. Because of this, the world beheld the Lord no longer, but the disciples beheld Him.
Verse 20 says, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” The phrase that day refers to the day mentioned in verse 19, in which the world would no longer behold the Lord, but the disciples would behold Him, and in which the disciples would live because He would live.
Verse 4 of chapter fifteen says, “Abide in Me and I in you.” In the Greek language, there are at least two words with the general sense of “to reside.” One of them means to make home, as in Ephesians 3:17, which says, “That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith.” The word here is a very emphatic word and is best translated as make home. The other word, like the one in John 15, means to stay and not depart. Verse 5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him....”
Then 17:20 says, “And I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word.” In verse 20, these refers to the disciples who were with the Lord Jesus on the night of His betrayal. However, those refers to those who believe into the Lord through their word. It is much more inclusive, including all who would believe in the Lord over the next two thousand years through the gospel preached by the apostles. Therefore, here the Lord is praying for all those who belong to Him.
Verse 21 says, “That they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” How were the disciples one? They were one as the Triune God is one. This oneness causes the world to believe that God has sent the Lord. The most powerful way to preach the gospel so that people may believe that Jesus is the Christ of God is the testimony lived out from this oneness. When we who are saved are one in the Triune God, it is easy for the world to believe that the Lord Jesus is the Christ sent by God.
Verses 22 and 23 say, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.” Glory is too great a subject. We cannot explain it in a few sentences. The Lord says that He is able to make us one because He has given to us the glory which the Father has given Him. Here the Lord also mentions love. This love is not the love we commonly speak of. Many suppose that the Lord’s giving us peace, food to eat, and clothes to wear, and His caring for all of our needs is His love for us. Here, however, the emphasis is not on these matters and not even on the love shown by the Lord’s dying and shedding His blood for us. Here the focus is on God the Father giving glory to all those who belong to His Son that they may be absolutely one in the Triune God.
Verse 24 says, “Father, concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” I would like to ask you, brothers and sisters, what does where refer to? Bible expositors mostly agree that where refers to heaven. They say that the Lord meant, “I am in heaven, and concerning that which You have given Me, I desire that they also may be with Me in heaven.” This is incorrect. We have already discussed that the word where in this chapter is not a matter of a place but of a person. The Lord Himself clearly said that He is in the Father and we are also in the Father. Therefore, the phrase where I am means “in the Father.” The Lord desired that those given to Him by the Father would be with Him in the Father, and once the disciples were in the Father, they could see the glory the Father has given to the Lord. They did not have to wait to go up to heaven one day to see the glory. From the day of the Lord’s resurrection, Peter saw the glory that God had given to the Lord because Peter was in the Father with the Lord. He could say, “The Lord in whom I believe is in God the Father; in the same way I am together with Him in God, that is, in the Father. I have known the glory which the Father has given Him.”
The Lord’s prayer concludes with verse 26: “And I have made Your name known to them and will yet make it known, that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
Four chapters in the Gospel of John—chapters fourteen through seventeen—are connected. The first three chapters are the last message spoken by the Lord on the earth, and chapter seventeen is a concluding prayer offered by the Lord after He had given the message. If you ask me what the central subject of the Lord’s message and concluding prayer is, I would tell you that the central subject is “in.” These four chapters talk about “in.” Here the Lord is telling the disciples, “I am in the Father, but you who believe Me are not yet in the Father, because you are not in Me and I have not yet come into you. Therefore I am going to do something; I am going to open a way for you, prepare a place for you, that I may bring you into the Father just as I am in the Father. In that day where I am you also may be. I am in the Father, and you also will be in the Father. In that day you will be regenerated, and My resurrection life will be in you that you may live. Therefore, in that day, as I live, you also shall live. Also in that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. This is like a vine and its branches abiding mutually—you abiding in Me and I in you.”
After the Lord finished this message, He offered a concluding prayer. The center of this prayer was His asking God concerning those who belong to Him that they may be one in the Triune God just as the Triune God is mutually one. This is the central meaning of these four chapters in the Gospel of John.
1 John 4:13 says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given to us of His Spirit.” Verses 11 and 12 of chapter five say, “And this is the testimony, that God gave to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” Verse 20 says, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” In the whole universe everything is false; there is only One who is true. Besides Him, everything else is empty and false. At this time John could say, “We are in Him.” In John 14 when the Lord Jesus spoke, none of the disciples could say that he was in Him who is true, because at that time they were outside of God; they had not entered into God. However, when John wrote this Epistle, the Lord had already resurrected and ascended, and the Holy Spirit had descended at Pentecost, so John could say, “We are in Him who is true,...the true God.” This fulfills the word of the Lord when He seemed to say, “Where I am, you also may be. I am in the Father, and I will also bring you into the Father so that you and I may be in Him together.” That is why John could say, “And we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”
There is a dispute in Bible translation concerning the word this in verse 20. Some are in favor of translating it as this, while others are in favor of translating it as He: “He is the true God and eternal life.” It would be very simple to translate it as He, referring simply to God’s Son Jesus Christ in the previous sentence. However, if we translate it as this, then the scope becomes much broader. It then refers not only to the Lord but also includes all the things mentioned in the preceding passage as well. What are these things? They are that we might know Him who is true and that we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This knowing, this being in the Lord, is the true God and eternal life.
Each of these two translations has its merit, for the truths in the Bible are not at all simple. Here the Bible is not merely telling us that the Lord Jesus is the true God and eternal life. Even more, it is telling us that all the things mentioned previously are included in the Lord Jesus, and this is the true God; this is eternal life. Of course, this is a mysterious word, which we will come to understand only gradually.
We have read John’s Gospel and also John’s Epistles. We all know that John did not write only these two categories of books; he also wrote a book of prophecy, which is Revelation. John wrote three categories of writings: a Gospel, three Epistles, and a prophecy. We have read from two categories; now let us read from the third category.
Revelation 21:2-3 says, “And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice out of the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.” Here the tabernacle is mentioned again. Tabernacle has the same root as the word tabernacled in John 1:14. Here it is a noun, while in John 1:14 it is a verb. The city of New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God with men. Revelation 21:3 also says that God will tabernacle with men. In other words, in Greek, the word tabernacle is mentioned twice in this verse. It is used as a noun the first time, referring to the tabernacle as an entity, and it is used as a verb the second time, referring to the setting up of the tabernacle.
Verse 22 says, “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” Why is there no temple in the city? It is because the city is the tabernacle. We all know that the tabernacle and the temple are one thing. The tabernacle is the precursor of the temple. Now since this city is the tabernacle, and in this sense it is also the temple, it cannot have another temple within it. There was a temple in the city of the old Jerusalem, but the New Jerusalem is itself a temple. If we say there is a temple, then the temple is God Himself. Verse 22 is a marvelous utterance.