The Path To A Peaceful Life

Sermons – Grace Evangelical Free Church // Wyoming, MN

John 14:15-27 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 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.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 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.

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

INTRODUCTION

Imagine for a moment that someone you love and depend on is about to leave for good. That’s a pretty ominous scenario, isn’t it? I know that some of you have experienced it. The question I have for you is this: Given how much their departure would sting and change your life, is there anything you can imagine that would bring true comfort? Is there anything they could say or do, or anything that could be said or done at all, that would set your mind and heart at ease; that would really bring you to a place of peace?

That’s largely what this passage is about.

Jesus was about to leave His disciples and return to His Father. That is, He was about to die on the cross, rise from the dead, reveal Himself to His followers in His glorified body, and then ascend back to heaven where He would reign (and still is) at the Father’s right hand. As He made this increasingly clear to the disciples on the night before His crucifixion, understandably, they were increasingly confused and concerned. They’d banked everything on Him and He was about to go away. Again, in a number of ways, our passage for this morning is about Jesus comforting the disciples and preparing them for His departure. It is a passage about the path to a peaceful life even when living faithfully to Jesus’ commission causes circumstances that would otherwise be overwhelming.

With that in mind, there are three main themes in this passage; three key features of the path of peace. First, love for Jesus always equals obedience to Jesus. Second, when Jesus returned to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to help His followers. And third, Jesus’ followers will experience Jesus’ resurrection life. Combined, they give us the big idea of the passage: Jesus’ love for His people led Him to the cross and to provide for them once He was gone. And from that, our main takeaways are to love and obey Jesus, to walk in the Spirit’s power, and to live in light of the fact that it is not death to die. Doing these things, in light of Jesus’ work, promises, and ever-present help, is the path to peace as we give ourselves to Jesus’ commission and await His return.

IF YOU LOVE ME, YOU WILL OBEY ME (15, 21-24)

For all who would believe in Him, Jesus offered blessings beyond measure. And yet, Jesus’ ministry was primarily marked by hostility and unbelieving belief. That is, most of the people who encountered Jesus were either angered by Him (and definitely didn’t believe in Him) or only believed they believed in Him (they appreciated certain aspects of His work, teaching, or promises, but only to a certain extent and on their own terms).

For those reasons, as Jesus’ time on earth wound down, it became increasingly important for Jesus to clarify the nature of genuine belief. That is, if genuine belief is the only path to genuine peace, it’s critical that we know exactly what constitutes genuine belief. What does it mean to believe in Jesus in such a way that gives access to the saving, sanctifying, and everlasting grace of Jesus? What does it mean to believe in Jesus in such a way that brings with it true peace in the midst of every hardship?

A Counter-Cultural Understanding of Love (15, 21, 23)

Throughout John’s Gospel, we’ve encountered several answers to that question. Just last week we saw that those who truly believe in Jesus will do the works Jesus did and greater still (14:12). This week, our passage opens with another (very similar) answer to this question.

To believe in Jesus is to love Jesus and to love Jesus is to obey Jesus.

¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

That is, of course, a significantly counter-cultural statement to make. If you polled 100 engaged couples, asking them what it meant that they loved their fiancé, I doubt that you’d find one person who would give this answer.

Q. Do you love your fiancé?
A. Yes.
Q. What do you mean by that?
A. I love them in the sense that I obey their every command.

That’s just not how it normally works, is it? It’s not how it should work.

To make sure there was no mistaking that this is what Jesus meant, He repeated Himself in v.21.

²¹ Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

And again in v.23

²³ …If anyone loves me, he will keep my word…

There are two (familiar) keys to understanding this idea and a giant pile of blessings for those who do.

Love Is Always Tied to What’s Best

The first key is something we’ve seen in John’s Gospel already: Love for someone is always tied to that which is best for them. You simply cannot truly love someone apart from caring deeply about their greatest good.

Love for and the love of Jesus are no different. The love of Jesus for His people is inseparably tied to achieving that which is best for them. And love for Jesus is inseparably tied to that which is best as well.

You know this, right, Grace? Imagine your neighbors. What does it look like to love them? Does it mean affirming all of their perspectives, choices, and behaviors (which is what most people want)? Does it mean keeping quiet and letting them borrow your tools and your flour? Does it simply mean not blowing up when their dog leaves a mess in your yard?

What it means to love your neighbor on the most foundational level is knowing what is best for them and giving yourself to getting it for them, no matter the cost. Unless your neighbor loves Jesus (and sometimes even if they do), loving them well is often like taking a kid to the dentist. It means giving what’s best to them even though they don’t agree with it, understand it, want it, or like it.

That leads to the all-important question of what is best for them. And that leads us to the second key.

Jesus’ Commands Are Always What’s Best (24)

Jesus’ commands are always what’s best. Jesus only gives commands that perfectly conform to the will of God. Whatever Jesus tells us to do is for our greatest good. Jesus’ commands are the definition of the greatest good. To love someone, then, is to give them everything and only that which Jesus tells us to give them.

It should be clear why engaged couples don’t think of love like this. The reason no fiancé thinks like this about their future spouse is because only Jesus gives perfect commands. To love your spouse is to long for all that Jesus has for them and to give them all that Jesus requires of you toward them.

How do you love your neighbor? You do for them all that Jesus has commanded you in relation to them. You love them as yourself. You look to meet their physical and spiritual needs. You help them understand what it looks like to live as they were designed to do. You help them understand that they haven’t. You explain to them the consequences of their sin against a holy God and show them the way of forgiveness and reconciliation. You live in such a way as to show them that you belong to a kingdom that is not of this world. You love your neighbor by obeying Jesus in front of them and toward them.

I hope it’s clear how obeying Jesus’ commands with regard to your neighbor is the essence of loving your neighbor, but how does that relate to your love for Jesus? How is obeying Jesus’ commands with regard to others at the heart of your love for Jesus?

In simplest terms, believing in Jesus, loving Jesus, and obeying Jesus are connected in an entirely unique and inseparable way. To believe in Jesus means understanding who He really is—Lord and sustainer of all, the one through whom all things were made, the Savior of the world, the Son of God, the bread of life, the light of the world, the door of the sheep, the resurrection and the life, the good shepherd, and the way, the truth, and the life.

What’s more, to understand that Jesus is all of those things (and more!) is to trust that He alone has the power and right to command, perfect wisdom and goodness in all His commands, and the authority to see and judge all obedience. And for these reasons, believing in Jesus means obeying His commands.

But more than merely understanding these things about Jesus and conforming to them, believing in Jesus means trusting and treasuring in them—in Him—and longing for others to do so as well. That is, true belief in Jesus means seeing and sharing the glory of Jesus and orienting our entire lives around Jesus, which is what’s best for Jesus (to be given the obedience, praise, and glory He is due), which is love for Jesus.

This is why we say emphatically that to believe in Jesus is to love Jesus and to love Jesus is to obey Jesus. You can’t remove any of those elements (belief, love, obedience) and find the kind of help and hope and peace that Jesus offers. And that’s why Jesus restated all of this in the negative as well.

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.

The Result of Obeying Jesus in Love (21-23)

As I said, in this passage, there are two keys to understanding the relationship between love for Jesus and obedience to Jesus and a giant pile of blessings for those who do. We’ve considered the keys, let’s not consider the blessings.

To believe in Jesus is to love Jesus and to love Jesus is to obey His commands. At the same time, to believe in Jesus, love Jesus, and obey Jesus is to live entirely and eternally in the grace of Jesus won by the cross and resurrection. It is to be blessed by Jesus beyond measure. While there are many, many more, Jesus names two specific blessings in our passage.

1. Those who love Jesus are also loved by Jesus and the Father.

²¹ And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him …

²³ …If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him…

This is more intuitive for most of us than it was for the disciples (and certainly for the Jews in Jesus’ day) who were still sorting out who Jesus was. We know Him as the second person of the godhead, but for the most part, they did not yet get it. Therefore, the promise that if we love Jesus, we already have the love of all three persons of the Trinity was as shocking for them as it is sweet for us.

Grace, please slow down for a moment and ponder this blessing. I know you’ve heard it, but ask for the Spirit’s help right now to really hear it. If you believe in Jesus, you love Him and if you love Him, the Father, Son, and Spirit love you.

I hope two main aspects of this will really sink in in new ways this morning, for when they do, peace will follow.

First, for those who believe in, love, and obey Jesus, the very God whom you have committed treason against, who, apart from His willingness to offer a substitute sacrifice on your behalf, must punish you with everlasting conscious torment (hell), that same God has set His affection on you. Not only, by His grace alone, do you not get what you deserve for your sin, but you get His delight, His love, instead. There is great peace in recognizing the great contrast between what we deserve and what we get because Jesus “left”.

And second, that God loves you means that all His omnipotence is directed at your good. The same power by which He made and perpetually governs the universe, drew in and cast out the Flood, split the Red Sea to save the Israelites, opens and closes wombs, raises the dead, and performs all kinds of marvelous signs and wonders, is fully being used in loving you. There is peace in recognizing the omnipotence of God being spent on continually having love for you. What a blessing.

2. Those who love Jesus will see Jesus and dwell with God.

²¹ …I will … 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.

The second explicit blessing of Jesus that leads to the peace of Jesus through every trial, is Jesus’ promise that although He is leaving, He will reveal Himself again to His followers.

It’s uncertain whether Jesus (by “manifest myself”) was referring to His post-resurrection appearances to the disciples, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, or Jesus’ second coming at the end of the age. Regardless, we can find rest in the fact that all three are certainly true and glorious.

What’s more, we can find rest in the fact that this was more than a simple promise that they would catch another glimpse of Him. It was a promise that, as we saw at the beginning of the chapter, they would dwell with Him, in His house forever as His beloved sons and daughters.

To believe in, love, and obey Jesus leads, above all and once again, to perfect, unlimited, and eternal fellowship with God no matter what comes at us in this life. What a blessing.

Remember, at the beginning I said that this is mainly a passage of comfort and peace. Jesus shared the things He shared to help the disciples respond to His departure with hope and faith; that they might live lives of peace in the midst of difficulty and persecution as they carried out Jesus’ commission. Jesus’ words concerning the nature of love for Him are just that. His commands are the path they must follow, because they are the path to fullness of life and love. They are the path of God’s blessing and pleasure. They are the path all mankind was made for. They are the way, the truth, and the life. And when we really believe that, we will know peace in the midst of the most challenging trials this world, our flesh, or the devil can throw at us.

THE HELPER IS BETTER (16-17, 25-26)

As remarkable as that is, Jesus offered even more help and an even greater reason for comfort and peace to His disciples in light of His imminent departure. To love Jesus is to obey Him and to obey Him is to walk the path of blessing, but who among us is sufficient to do that—to love and obey as we ought? Of course, none of us are on our own. But such is the grace of God that He provides for us what He requires of us. And in this case, He provides for us sufficient help to love and obey Jesus through sending the Holy Spirit.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper…

You’ll notice that Jesus promised “another” helper. He was their helper while He was with them, but He was going away. It is good, comforting, peace-giving news indeed that the Father would send another Helper in His absence.

More importantly still, this new Helper was far from the JV team. He was even better in a certain sense. That would be hard to say if Jesus Himself hadn’t said it. When we get to chapter 16 we’ll look more closely at Jesus’ words to this effect, “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

Jesus’ ministry was perfect. And yet, by taking on flesh it was limited in a way the Spirit’s is not. As remarkable as it sounds, Jesus told His followers that it was better for them when the Spirit came. Indeed, in this passage, He names several ways in which the Spirit’s ministry is better.

With Us Forever (16)

First, while Jesus would leave the disciples, the Spirit never would.

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…

Once the Spirit came upon Jesus’ followers at Pentecost, He would never leave them. Grace Church, once you place your faith in Jesus, the Spirit will never leave you. What peace there is in the midst of every trial in the fact that the Spirit is with us through every second of every one of them. Never will you need to endure any suffering in your own strength. Never do you have to wonder if God has abandoned you. Never, will you be apart from God’s immediately present grace. Never are you really alone.

In your darkest hour, find perfect peace, as you learn to trust this promise of Jesus and experience the perfect presence and fruit of the Sprit who never leaves.

Dwells Within Instead of Without (17)

Second, while Jesus lived with His disciples, the Spirit lives in us.

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.

The Spirit’s ministry (which only began after Jesus “left”) is to our advantage He lives in us at all times. That reality brings peace in the midst of the hardest trials.

Those who reject Jesus (those who do not believe in Him) will also reject the Sprit. Those who do not love Jesus cannot see and are not helped by the Helper. Those who disobey Jesus do so because they do not know Him and therefore do not know the Spirit whom He sends.

But again, for those who believe in Jesus, receive Jesus, see Jesus, know Jesus, love Jesus, and obey Jesus, even though Jesus is not physically present with us, we live in the perfect, indwelling, unending ministry of the Spirit to us. And in that is peace that surpasses understanding.

Teach and Remind of “All” Jesus’ Words (25-26)

The third advantage of the Spirit’s ministry and means of the peace of the Spirit is in the fact that He helps by teaching “all things” and reminding His followers of “all” that Jesus has said.

²⁵ “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

More than likely this was primarily a specific promise to the Apostles, and the means by which they were able to write the New Testament. There is a unique way in which the Spirit taught all things and reminded of all things. It was the reason the disciples only understood and remembered certain teaching of Jesus later (12:16; 13:7).

And yet, while there are differences, there are also important similarities. The Spirit continues to give spiritual insight and remembrance. It is by the Spirit alone that we can “see” and “hear” the things of God. The Spirit convicts us of sin by reminding us of Jesus’ teaching when we go astray.

In a way that Jesus could only do when He was physically present with people, the Spirit does perpetually in all who trust in Jesus. And in that is great peace.

RESURRECTION LIFE (18-20)

The final step in the path of peace promised by Jesus to all who would believe in, love, and obey Him, is the good news that all who hope in Him will share in His resurrection life.

Jesus would leave by death, but He would do so in such a way as to conquer death for Himself and all who are in Him. It is peace to know that death is not the end for believers in Jesus.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 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.

The greatest words we could possibly hear are these: “Because I live, you also will live.” Because I’m about to die on your behalf, you need not fear death. Death is not the end for Me, and it will not be the end for anyone who believes in me, loves me, and obeys me. I will rise from the dead and so will you. As we move closer to Easter, remember Grace, it is not death to die. What peace there is in believing that, come what may.

CONCLUSION

As we move to communion, consider Jesus’ final words.

²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

As you can see, Jesus’ peace is not the kind that the world gives. The best the world can offer is an attempt to temporarily change your circumstances. But Jesus gives and leaves us with a peace that is above and beyond all circumstances.

Are you feeling heavy, Grace? Are there circumstances in your life that are weighing you down? As you walk the road of faith, do you know suffering and pain? Do you know loneliness?

Forsake every attempt to map your own way out of those things. Instead, in child-like faith, believe in Jesus. Set your love upon Jesus, in the knowledge that He has set His love upon you. Give yourself to obeying Jesus, for His commands are always best. Call on the Holy Spirit who lives in you to convict you of sin and strengthen you for obedience. And remember that you will certainly share in Jesus’ resurrection life. In these things are peace that surpasses understanding.

In belief, love, and obedience, let’s now take the Lord’s Supper in the knowledge that insodoing we are receiving the peace He left for us and now gives us.