diff --git a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkSQLCLIDriver.scala b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkSQLCLIDriver.scala
index b9614d49eadbd..71e751fd2882e 100644
--- a/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkSQLCLIDriver.scala
+++ b/sql/hive-thriftserver/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/SparkSQLCLIDriver.scala
@@ -111,6 +111,8 @@ private[hive] object SparkSQLCLIDriver extends Logging {
 
     // Set all properties specified via command line.
     val conf: HiveConf = sessionState.getConf
+    // Use startup ClassLoader replace hiveConf's UDFClassLoader
+    conf.setClassLoader(Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader)
     sessionState.cmdProperties.entrySet().asScala.foreach { item =>
       val key = item.getKey.toString
       val value = item.getValue.toString
@@ -133,20 +135,7 @@ private[hive] object SparkSQLCLIDriver extends Logging {
     // Clean up after we exit
     ShutdownHookManager.addShutdownHook { () => SparkSQLEnv.stop() }
 
-    val remoteMode = isRemoteMode(sessionState)
-    // "-h" option has been passed, so connect to Hive thrift server.
-    if (!remoteMode) {
-      // Hadoop-20 and above - we need to augment classpath using hiveconf
-      // components.
-      // See also: code in ExecDriver.java
-      var loader = conf.getClassLoader
-      val auxJars = HiveConf.getVar(conf, HiveConf.ConfVars.HIVEAUXJARS)
-      if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(auxJars)) {
-        loader = ThriftserverShimUtils.addToClassPath(loader, StringUtils.split(auxJars, ","))
-      }
-      conf.setClassLoader(loader)
-      Thread.currentThread().setContextClassLoader(loader)
-    } else {
+    if (isRemoteMode(sessionState)) {
       // Hive 1.2 + not supported in CLI
       throw new RuntimeException("Remote operations not supported")
     }
@@ -164,6 +153,15 @@ private[hive] object SparkSQLCLIDriver extends Logging {
     val cli = new SparkSQLCLIDriver
     cli.setHiveVariables(oproc.getHiveVariables)
 
+    // In SparkSQL CLI, we may want to use jars augmented by hiveconf
+    // hive.aux.jars.path, here we add jars augmented by hiveconf to
+    // Spark's SessionResourceLoader to obtain these jars.
+    val auxJars = HiveConf.getVar(conf, HiveConf.ConfVars.HIVEAUXJARS)
+    if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(auxJars)) {
+      val resourceLoader = SparkSQLEnv.sqlContext.sessionState.resourceLoader
+      StringUtils.split(auxJars, ",").foreach(resourceLoader.addJar(_))
+    }
+
     // TODO work around for set the log output to console, because the HiveContext
     // will set the output into an invalid buffer.
     sessionState.in = System.in
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 6e042ac41d9da..815ad33982515 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
@@ -305,4 +305,15 @@ class CliSuite extends SparkFunSuite with BeforeAndAfterAll with Logging {
       "SELECT example_max(1);" -> "1"
     )
   }
+
+  test("SPARK-28954 test --jars command") {
+    val jarFile = new File("../../sql/hive/src/test/resources/SPARK-21101-1.0.jar").getCanonicalPath
+    runCliWithin(
+      1.minute,
+      Seq("--jars", s"$jarFile"))(
+      s"CREATE TEMPORARY FUNCTION testjar AS" +
+        s" 'org.apache.spark.sql.hive.execution.UDTFStack';" -> "",
+      "SELECT testjar(1,'A', 10);" -> "A\t10"
+    )
+  }
 }
diff --git a/sql/hive-thriftserver/v1.2.1/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala b/sql/hive-thriftserver/v1.2.1/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala
index 87c0f8f6a571a..4eb5f5da8fdcc 100644
--- a/sql/hive-thriftserver/v1.2.1/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala
+++ b/sql/hive-thriftserver/v1.2.1/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@
 package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.thriftserver
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory
-import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.exec.Utilities
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.session.SessionState
 import org.apache.hive.service.cli.{RowSet, RowSetFactory, TableSchema, Type}
 import org.apache.hive.service.cli.thrift.TProtocolVersion._
@@ -51,12 +50,6 @@ private[thriftserver] object ThriftserverShimUtils {
 
   private[thriftserver] def toJavaSQLType(s: String): Int = Type.getType(s).toJavaSQLType
 
-  private[thriftserver] def addToClassPath(
-      loader: ClassLoader,
-      auxJars: Array[String]): ClassLoader = {
-    Utilities.addToClassPath(loader, auxJars)
-  }
-
   private[thriftserver] val testedProtocolVersions = Seq(
     HIVE_CLI_SERVICE_PROTOCOL_V1,
     HIVE_CLI_SERVICE_PROTOCOL_V2,
diff --git a/sql/hive-thriftserver/v2.3.5/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala b/sql/hive-thriftserver/v2.3.5/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala
index 124c9937c0fca..2c1a0bd685e3f 100644
--- a/sql/hive-thriftserver/v2.3.5/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala
+++ b/sql/hive-thriftserver/v2.3.5/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/thriftserver/ThriftserverShimUtils.scala
@@ -17,10 +17,6 @@
 
 package org.apache.spark.sql.hive.thriftserver
 
-import java.security.AccessController
-
-import scala.collection.JavaConverters._
-
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.exec.AddToClassPathAction
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.session.SessionState
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.thrift.Type
@@ -56,13 +52,6 @@ private[thriftserver] object ThriftserverShimUtils {
 
   private[thriftserver] def toJavaSQLType(s: String): Int = Type.getType(s).toJavaSQLType
 
-  private[thriftserver] def addToClassPath(
-      loader: ClassLoader,
-      auxJars: Array[String]): ClassLoader = {
-    val addAction = new AddToClassPathAction(loader, auxJars.toList.asJava)
-    AccessController.doPrivileged(addAction)
-  }
-
   private[thriftserver] val testedProtocolVersions = Seq(
     HIVE_CLI_SERVICE_PROTOCOL_V1,
     HIVE_CLI_SERVICE_PROTOCOL_V2,