John 14:19-24 (Jesus’ Heart Devotional)

19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

John 14:19-24

The Appearance of the Lord

Jesus loves us therefore He wants to see us and we see Him.  There are two different appearances in this section. 

The Appearance After Jesus’ Resurrection

The first appearance refers to His appearance to the disciples after His resurrection (V. 19).  The cross shows us the love of God but seeing Jesus on the cross is not enough, we have to see the resurrected Lord.  The disciples had been seeing the Lord for a while, the 3 years He was preaching to the Israelites, the suffering Christ (6 hours), and the resurrected Christ (40 days).  There were some changes in the disciples during each of these periods, but only when they saw the resurrected Christ that the changes completed.  To see the resurrected Christ, faith is needed.  Today, Jesus is still the resurrected Christ but to see Him, we need faith not sight.  We use our faith to meditate, trust, and hold on to the resurrected Christ.

The Appearance Now

Some may feel that after the 40 days of appearance, Jesus has already departed to heaven and we’ll not see Him until He returns.  Yet, today we can still experience His presence by loving one another.  Jesus said He will appear to those who keep His commandments (V.20), and earlier when we read John 13, we know that His commandment is for us to love one another.  Later John further explained, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”  (1 John 4:12). 

I pray that by faith and love, we’ll see Him today. 

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