A different Kind of Peace
The Prince of Peace • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsThe kind of Peace that Christ promised us is not a peace that you can physically see in society, it is one that lives inside of all true followers of Christ.
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15 “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. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
Mapping out John 14 the relationship between Jesus and His Disciples.
The Disciples Troubled Hearts
verses 1-4
If the remedy for the disciples troubled hearts is faith in Jesus, then what is at the root cause of their troubled hearts?
Jesus gives his disciples confidence: Here is why you need to Trust Me?
Throughout scripture we are commanded to trust God, and we are given many reasons we can trust him. The Christian faith is not a mindless jump into a dark chasm of confusion. Jesus tells his disciples that they can have confidence because he is going away to prepare a place for them, a new, better, permanent home. Heaven is a real place.
More Promises Given
verses 4-14
Jesus now assures his disciples that following him will lead to heaven, and he promises them help from heaven while they follow him on earth.
The Promise of a Path to Heaven
Jesus does not give his disciples a future context of “you will know the way to heaven,” He tells them “you know the way to heaven.” Jesus is telling his disciples that they do not so much need to focus on a place or location but need to fix their eyes on the one who is the way, the truth, and the life, Himself. Salvation is more than a prayer, it’s putting your faith and trust in a person.
The Promise of Power from Heaven
Here is the deal, Jesus is not withdrawing from His disciples to navigate the difficulties and challenges of this life alone. He is not kicking back in heaven in his heavenly La-Z-Boy. He is going ahead of them, and will continue to actively work for them. Jesus promises that they will do greater works than He did. He is not downplaying the miracles that He performed. Jesus was not indicating that their works would be more spectacular but that they were greater in extent geographically to the ends of the earth.
Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so, little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so.
How do we know that Jesus Loves us? How does Jesus define our Love for Him?
Jesus continues to remind His followers that their relationship with him is not finished. Their relationship will continue to grow and develop until they see Jesus again face to face. Plus, it will marked by a single, defining characteristic: love. They will grow in their love for Jesus and it will be demonstrated in their actions.
Peace I will leave and give to you, but, not as the world gives Peace.
Why does Jesus take this moment in the middle of reassuring and defining his disciples what His love for us looks like, and our love for Him, to define Peace.
The Prince of Peace leaves His Peace with His closest followers during their greatest moment of anxiety and doubt.
The Peace that Jesus came to bring to the earth He now leaves with His disciples. The Peace is an eternal hope in the promised coming Kingdom of God, the New Heaven and the New earth. Jesus has gone away to prepare for us a place that where He is we may be also.
The peace that Jesus brings is the only reason that we could ever possibly be filled with the kind of Love that John speaks of in the preceeding passages.
What is the different Kind of Peace that Jesus Brings.
1. The Kind of Peace that motivates us to Live a Life of Obedience.
1. The Kind of Peace that motivates us to Live a Life of Obedience.
Paul continues to drive the point home that a love for Jesus must also be our motivation to obey his commandments.
Obedience must flow from a heart of love. Obedience without love is nothing more than a pursuit of self-righteousness.
The disciples love Jesus. Their anguish over his departure is more than concern for their future.
The reason this news hits them so hard is that they care deeply for their teacher. Their hearts are tightly knit together through all of the experiences they have had with walking dusty roads of Galilee with their teacher.
Jesus now tells His disciples how they can show him they love him.
*True Disciples Show their Love for Christ through Obedience
*True Disciples Show their Love for Christ through Obedience
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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.”
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.
Note: Notice that He is not singling out one particular command. He is describing a lifestyle committed to following Him not matter where He leads you. He is describing a person who has cast aside all other concerns except obedience.
Obedience is not a Bargain Sale
Many of us treat obedience like a bargain sale. You know, we sift through all of the stuff, picking an choosing the things we like and discarding the things that you do not like.
Many of us do this when it comes to obeying His words. We come through the many commands to obey in scripture and become selective obedience seekers, we pick whatever commands we like, disregarding an we find unappealing to our palate of taste.
Love for Jesus means obeying even the most difficult of commands to follow.
We might say, “look I love Jesus, See how I obey him,” and then point to the commands easiest for us to obey. You may say, I don’t kill, and I do not have graven images. See, I really do love Him. Our genuine love for him is truly revealed when we obey the challenging commands during difficult times in our lives.
The world knew that Jesus loved the father because he obeyed even the most difficult of commands. Remember Jesus became obedient even to the point of death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8).
We used to do this chant between youth groups at youth camp when I was a student pastor. We would yell to another youth group across the auditorium, “I love Jesus yes I do, I love Jesus how about you?” This was a fun motivating thing to do with our students, however, at the end of the chant was the questions, “How about you?” This is the question Jesus is asking, “How about you?” How do we know we love God and His son?
The world will see our love for Jesus as genuine when we gladly choose the tough things and obey him in those. Love when life is soft, safe, and easy proves little.
Who do we know loves his wife? The elderly man who parades around with his healthy, beautiful, twenty-something trophy wife on his arm? Or the elderly husband bathing and feeding his disoriented wife as she slowly loses her memory? They may both love their wives, but we’re certain one does. Jesus shows us what it means to love through difficult obedience.
*Love for Jesus must be our Motivation to Obey His Commands.
*Love for Jesus must be our Motivation to Obey His Commands.
We do not obey out of a sense of moral obligation.
We do not obey if all we want is to shore up our standing before God.
If we look at Jesus words and say to ourselves, “I can make Him happy with me if I just do this one thing, or He won’t be angry or disappointed in me as long as I do not mess up at this one thing in my life, then we are not obeying out of love for him. We are simply trying to earn His favor.
IF you want to conquer sin and obey just you do not just attempt to try harder.
You need to stoke the flames of your love for Him. The path away from disobedience is not simply obedience but Love.
The dilemma at Hand
You cannot obey Jesus if you do not love him. On the other hands, we cannot love Jesus if we do not obey him. Would you believe that someone truly loved their wife if they were always cheating on her? No, you would not. What if he repeatedly said he loved his spouse while being unfaithful? Would you believe him then? No, you still would not. Why? Because his actions cancel out his profession. His works trump his words.
*Love for Jesus will be revealed in our willingness to sacrifice immediate comfort.
*Love for Jesus will be revealed in our willingness to sacrifice immediate comfort.
The disciples struggled with Jesus immediate departure. At that very moment they struggled to rejoice, because their desires had become more important than His greater plan for them.
When do your desires become more important or significant than God’s greater plan for your life.
When we truly love Jesus His concerns and desires become our concerns and desires. We believe that he is in control and whatever he chooses to do is for the best. Our agendas, emotions, and ease of life fade away and we become more focused on what Jesus cares about.
Jesus told his disciples in verse 28, “If you loved me you would rejoice that I am going to the Father. Genuine love is not self-centered. If our love for Jesus is true, it cannot be self-centered. If we love him, we will obey him and desire his wishes above our own.
Note: The Peace that we experience today is not one of comfort and leisure as the world seeks. Our peace is grounded in our Loving obedience to our Savior and Lord from a heart of gratitude and thankfulness for the hope of glory that is to come.
2. The Kind of Peace that does not Leave us as Orphans.
2. The Kind of Peace that does not Leave us as Orphans.
What is an Orphan: a child deprived by death of one or usually both parents; a feeding calf who has lost their mother; one deprived of some protection or advantage. The picture is of being left alone in this world without hope.
Protected classes represent specific vulnerable groups made up of orphans, widows, aliens/strangers and the poor, which are found within both OT and NT society. The Bible offers protection and provision for these groups so that they are not taken advantage of by those who are more powerful.
We remember plays and movies such as Little Orphan Annie, and Oliver Twist. Those who are left on the street and are destitute and alone in the world. Longing for a home and someone to care for them.
Without the prince of peace we would all be orphans in this world. A people without a home, without a family, without any protection in the darkness of this world. We are reminded of the apostle Peter’s words in 1 Peter 2:10 “you once were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
ORPHANAGE IN HAITI
The Journey Church has partnered with “Hope for Haiti,” a Christian ministry that works in two different orphanages in Haiti. The boys orphanage is in Geber, and the girls is in Farria. The moment we arrive the kids run to great us with hugs and kisses. You can always tell the kids who are new to the orphanage. They tend to hang back in the corners and shy away from human contact. The reason for such behavior is they still do not trust that they will have food in their stomachs and a roof over their heads. The do not trust that the provision will last.
These students need constant reassurance that they are not going to be abandoned or left alone. There whole lives have been marked by uncertainty and turmoil. However, there is a level of commitment in the orphanage that they will follow the rules and be obedient to the house parents
What Jesus is trying to reassure His disciples about is the fact that He will not leave them on the street as orphans. Jesus tells the disciples that whoever lives an obedient life and keeps His commandments, he is the one who truly loves Him and will be loved by God. Further more these are the people that Jesus chooses to reveal Himself to.
IS GOD’S LOVE UNCONDITIONAL?
Look at what it says in James 4:6-8
6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
James teaches that there is an experience of “more grace” and God “drawing near.” More grace and special nearness of God. But we must ask the question: is this experience of the Love of God unconditional? No. It is not. It is conditional on our humbling ourselves and drawing near to God.
We do read about incredible experiences of the love of God that require that we fight pride, and seek humility. Those are the conditions. Of course such conditions are the work of God in us. But they are no less conditions that we must fulfill.
Warning, if this is in fact the case, then I fear biblical carelessness today in proclaiming that all God’s love is unconditional may stop people from doing the very things the Bible says they need to do in order to enjoy all the peace that their hearts so desperately crave. In trying to give peace through “unconditionality” we may be cutting people off from the very remedy the Bible prescribes.
Now let’s be abundantly clear on this fact, that the divine love of God’s election in Salvation, and His divine love of Christ’s death on the cross, and divine love in our regeneration and new birth - are all absolutely unconditional.
We must continue to proclaim the good news of the fact that while we were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly as we talked about in Romans 5:8 last week.
But, let us also proclaim the biblical truth that the fullest most peace filled life we can experience and the nearness of God we all long for only comes through humble obedience and daily drawing near to the throne of Grace.
3. The Kind of Peace that Lives inside of You
3. The Kind of Peace that Lives inside of You
Jesus now tells the disciples that they will know this kind of peace because you will know that Jesus and the Father are one, just as we are grafted into the vine of Christ as described in John 15:1
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
We also read in John 15:4
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
So, the fruit of the kind of love that Jesus is talking about is only possible if we abide in Christ and He abides in us.......
*The gift of the Spirit will unite us with the Father.
*The gift of the Spirit will unite us with the Father.
The Holy Spirits Purpose: The Holy Spirit (or Spirit of God) transforms and empowers the people of God.
The Holy Spirit transforms His people to share in His moral character and empowers them to fulfill His purposes. Scripture speaks of the human spirit, demonic spirits, and the Spirit of God.
The Paradigm Shift of the Relationship has now changed
In a science and philosophy sense a paradigm is a distinct set of concepts and patterns, including theories.
Paradigm Shift: a situation which the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something changes completely.
In Greek the word paradigm means pattern.
So, now the paradigm or pattern of the relationship has shifted. Before Christ came the relationship was based on the legal aspects of following the Mosaic law. Now that Jesus has come to earth their is no longer a need to fulfill the law because Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of the law of Moses.
Now Jesus is sharing with His disciples that they will have an even more intimate relationship than every before because He is sending His spirit to live inside of His creation. He now makes His home or dwelling place inside of His creation. 2 Corinthians 6:16
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
And one day the paradigm will shift again as He returns to make His permanent dwelling place with men. Revelation 21:3-4
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
*The gift of the Holy Spirit will support our obedience to the teachings of Jesus.
*The gift of the Holy Spirit will support our obedience to the teachings of Jesus.
The Helper will teach us all things and bring to our minds or remembrance of all that He has said to us........
Parakletos in ancient Hellenistic texts consistently denotes and ‘advocate’, one who speaks on behalf of the accused (this would be like a character witness in a trial who speaks on your behalf). In John the functions of the parakletos is to testify in favor of Jesus over and against this hostile world.
You cannot Love God without Jesus Christ
There are people who might say they are Christians but, do they truly know Jesus Christ. If they claim to be Christians and do not know Jesus Christ then they cannot truly say that they love Jesus.
Notice that for those who know Jesus Christ He will teach them all things and constantly bring to remembrance in their minds who He is and what He has done. Jesus becomes somewhat frustrated with His followers in John 14:9 where He says, “Have I not been with you long enough for you to know who I truly am? Jesus is basically saying that they cannot love God unless you know Him. John 14:6 “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.”
Why the World does not experience the Peace of God?
HIS TRUTH IS NOT PERCEIVED OR UNDERSTOOD BY THE WORLD
The peace that the world longs for will continue to allude them apart from the illumination and revelation of God. The imparting and illumination of these first chosen witnesses of a special insight and recollection concerning the words and works of Jesus Christ.
Can you imagine being around a campfire late at night and listening to His disciples recounting what they had seen Jesus do and teach them.
Hey Peter, remember when Jesus got so frustrated with you that He called you Satan.... or remember when we were on the Sea of Galilee late and night and our master was sleeping when this crazy storm came out of no where I was certain we were done for and then Jesus stood in the middle of the boat and spoke a word and the storm ceased, that was crazy...... or remember that time when the religious leaders brought the woman caught in adultery to Jesus to get Him to order her to be stoned as the law required, man did he put it back in their faces telling them that the one who is without sin should cast the first stone....or, remember that one sermon on the mount, and all those blessed words that He spoke with such authority and compassion.
The stories would go on and on, deep into the night.
He will teach you all things, and remind you of everything I have said to you. This function was to become especially critical in the preservation of the Church in every generation.
CONCLUSION
Questioning the Meaning of it All
A recent Aperture video gives a concise overview of absurdism: the philosophical theory that existence in general is absurd. It begins with the Greek mythological story of Sisyphus. The gods were displeased with his arrogance and punished him with the futile task of pushing a rock up a hill, then having the rock roll back down every time he reached the top.
Classical interpretations of the myth view it as an allegory for the futility of trying to escape death. No matter how powerful or clever a person is, we're all doomed to meet the same fate. More modern audiences have found something more relatable about Sisyphus' struggle: seeing it not as a simple parable about the inevitability of death but more like a metaphor for the drudgery and monotony of their own lives.
Every day we wake up, make coffee, take commute to work, stare at a computer for hours, get yelled at by our boss, stare at the computer some more, then travel back home, binge Netflix or YouTube while eating dinner, go to bed and then wake up and do it all over again. Just like Sisyphus we seem condemned to repeat the same meaningless tasks over and over and over.
Most of us do this every day for the rest of our lives as though we're sleepwalking, never waking up or stopping to ask why. For some of us, one day we're standing on a street corner preparing to go to work, when in an instant we're struck by the strangeness of it all. Suddenly nothing appears to have purpose. Life is haphazard and meaningless. You look around and you whisper to yourself: Why are all of these people even in such a hurry? For that matter, why am I? What's the point of all this? Why am I even alive?
The Peace that Jesus leave with the World will never become a reality in your’s an my life apart from the special revelation of God opening our eyes for the first time and asking the questions:
Why are all of these people here running round in such a hurry?
Why am I here?
What’s the point of this all?
Why am I even alive?
Jesus offered a peace born out of a living personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and deepend through a growing surrendered life to his gracious rule and plan.
Peace with God was offered and secured the moment that Jesus offered up his life for yours to be brutally slaughtered on a cross.
D. A. Carson reflects on this great irony:
The pax Romana (peace of Rome) was won and maintained by a brutal sword; not a few Jews thought the Messianic peace would have to be secured by a still mightier sword.
Instead, it was secured by an innocent man who suffered and died at the hands of the Romans, of the Jews, and of all of us. And by his death he effected for his own followers peace with God, and therefore “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding.”
That is the beauty of the gospel. We have peace because Jesus fought a war. He fought our fight, so we could have his peace.
Jesus Loves Me This I know
Exalting Jesus in John (The Assurance of His Peace)
At the height of persecution in Communist China, a Christian sent a message to a friend. The message escaped the attention of the censors, because it said simply: “The this I know people are well”—but that phrase, the “this I know people” clearly identified the Christian community in China.
“This I know people.” Our confidence is in the love of Jesus. We know he loves us because we’ve experienced his love. His love defines us individually and as a community.