diff --git a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/CliSuite.scala b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/CliSuite.scala
index b070fa8eaa469..cc07db827d359 100644
--- a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/CliSuite.scala
+++ b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/CliSuite.scala
@@ -25,11 +25,15 @@ import scala.concurrent.{Await, Promise}
 import scala.sys.process.{Process, ProcessLogger}
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.conf.HiveConf.ConfVars
-import org.scalatest.{BeforeAndAfter, BeforeAndAfterAll, FunSuite}
+import org.scalatest.{BeforeAndAfter, FunSuite}
 
 import org.apache.spark.Logging
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
 
+/**
+ * A test suite for the `spark-sql` CLI tool.  Note that all test cases share the same temporary
+ * Hive metastore and warehouse.
+ */
 class CliSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter with Logging {
   val warehousePath = Utils.createTempDir()
   val metastorePath = Utils.createTempDir()
@@ -58,13 +62,13 @@ class CliSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter with Logging {
          |  --master local
          |  --hiveconf ${ConfVars.METASTORECONNECTURLKEY}=$jdbcUrl
          |  --hiveconf ${ConfVars.METASTOREWAREHOUSE}=$warehousePath
-         |  --driver-class-path ${sys.props("java.class.path")}
        """.stripMargin.split("\\s+").toSeq ++ extraArgs
     }
 
     var next = 0
     val foundAllExpectedAnswers = Promise.apply[Unit]()
-    val queryStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(queries.mkString("\n").getBytes)
+    // Explicitly adds ENTER for each statement to make sure they are actually entered into the CLI.
+    val queryStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(queries.map(_ + "\n").mkString.getBytes)
     val buffer = new ArrayBuffer[String]()
     val lock = new Object
 
@@ -124,7 +128,7 @@ class CliSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter with Logging {
       "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM hive_test;"
         -> "5",
       "DROP TABLE hive_test;"
-        -> "Time taken: "
+        -> "OK"
     )
   }
 
@@ -151,4 +155,33 @@ class CliSuite extends FunSuite with BeforeAndAfter with Logging {
         -> "hive_test"
     )
   }
+
+  test("Commands using SerDe provided in --jars") {
+    val jarFile =
+      "../hive/src/test/resources/hive-hcatalog-core-0.13.1.jar"
+        .split("/")
+        .mkString(File.separator)
+
+    val dataFilePath =
+      Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader.getResource("data/files/small_kv.txt")
+
+    runCliWithin(1.minute, Seq("--jars", s"$jarFile"))(
+      """CREATE TABLE t1(key string, val string)
+        |ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hive.hcatalog.data.JsonSerDe';
+      """.stripMargin
+        -> "OK",
+      "CREATE TABLE sourceTable (key INT, val STRING);"
+        -> "OK",
+      s"LOAD DATA LOCAL INPATH '$dataFilePath' OVERWRITE INTO TABLE sourceTable;"
+        -> "OK",
+      "INSERT INTO TABLE t1 SELECT key, val FROM sourceTable;"
+        -> "Time taken:",
+      "SELECT count(key) FROM t1;"
+        -> "5",
+      "DROP TABLE t1;"
+        -> "OK",
+      "DROP TABLE sourceTable;"
+        -> "OK"
+    )
+  }
 }
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
index b64768ababef9..9ab98fdcce725 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveContext.scala
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.spark.sql.hive
 
 import java.io.{BufferedReader, File, InputStreamReader, PrintStream}
+import java.net.{URL, URLClassLoader}
 import java.sql.Timestamp
 import java.util.{ArrayList => JArrayList}
 
@@ -25,7 +26,7 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.parse.VariableSubstitution
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.ParserDialect
 
 import scala.collection.JavaConversions._
-import scala.collection.mutable.HashMap
+import scala.collection.mutable.{ArrayBuffer, HashMap}
 import scala.language.implicitConversions
 
 import org.apache.hadoop.fs.{FileSystem, Path}
@@ -188,8 +189,19 @@ class HiveContext(sc: SparkContext) extends SQLContext(sc) {
           "Specify a vaild path to the correct hive jars using $HIVE_METASTORE_JARS " +
           s"or change $HIVE_METASTORE_VERSION to $hiveExecutionVersion.")
       }
-      val jars = getClass.getClassLoader match {
-        case urlClassLoader: java.net.URLClassLoader => urlClassLoader.getURLs
+      // We recursively add all jars in the class loader chain,
+      // starting from the given urlClassLoader.
+      def addJars(urlClassLoader: URLClassLoader): Array[URL] = {
+        val jarsInParent = urlClassLoader.getParent match {
+          case parent: URLClassLoader => addJars(parent)
+          case other => Array.empty[URL]
+        }
+
+        urlClassLoader.getURLs ++ jarsInParent
+      }
+
+      val jars = Utils.getContextOrSparkClassLoader match {
+        case urlClassLoader: URLClassLoader => addJars(urlClassLoader)
         case other =>
           throw new IllegalArgumentException(
             "Unable to locate hive jars to connect to metastore " +
diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/TableReader.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/TableReader.scala
index 0b6f7a334a715..294fc3bd7d5e9 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/TableReader.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/TableReader.scala
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ class HadoopTableReader(
     makeRDDForTable(
       hiveTable,
       Class.forName(
-        relation.tableDesc.getSerdeClassName, true, Utils.getSparkClassLoader)
+        relation.tableDesc.getSerdeClassName, true, Utils.getContextOrSparkClassLoader)
         .asInstanceOf[Class[Deserializer]],
       filterOpt = None)