The promise of Jesus John 14:18-31
A few weeks ago we began with this upper room discourse that goes all the way from chapter 13 to 17 and you’ll remember that I said it was called this simply because this was where it was held. As I was thinking about how this all began the other day it occurred to me. There were twelve disciples in the room when they began and they were all upset because Jesus did what none of them would do and started washing their feet. After He said, “If I don’t wash your feet, you will have no part of Me” they all pulled up their robes, had their feet washed and then they all sat and listened to what He had to say. Now, the interesting thing, that I didn’t notice before was that everyone had their feet washed but Jesus. He washed their feet and sat down but no one washed His. If He was teaching them a lesson on humility I think we can assume that no one heard or understood a word He was saying.
And then in chapter fourteen we looked at Jesus promising a home in heaven and then He followed this with His claim to be the way, the truth and the life. So, these promises tell us that not only is there a heaven to go to but there’s a Savior to make sure we get there.
And then He tells us that while we’re still here we have the promise that He will answer all the prayers that are prayed in His name and you will remember that I said they had to be prayed the way He would pray and with the same intent. And that means that there’s no room for the gimmes, you know, the gimme this and gimme that.
And then He explained the relationship that all believer’s have with the Father as well as the Holy Spirit. And I explained that this introduced not just us but the whole church to the concept of the trinity. And this is the fact that the Godhead consists of three persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are one in nature and yet have three distinct persons.
Now, last week we looked at the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and I want to go back and point out six facts about who He is and what He does. And in a sense I’m repeating what I said but at the same time I’m taking it all up a notch.
I In verse 15 Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” and if we do this then He meaning the Holy Spirit will be given as a gift from the Father but He will only be given to true believers and the Lord identifies those who are true as those who are obedient to His will and to His word. These are not people who go to church because they’re lonely, to make friends, to make business connections, or because they have nothing else to do. They don’t go because they always gone or mum and dad have or because they’re just covering all the bases in case there is a God in heaven. They go because they love the Lord and are obedient to His will. As the hymn writer describes them, they are the people who will, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
When I was first saved I lived in a commune and we used to try to reach anybody and everybody. One of the men who had come to the Lord and then came to live in the commune was an alcoholic named Steve and he and I became pretty good friends. One day I asked Steve if he had any kind of religious background and he said his mother was a very religious person. He told me all they had to do to get her crying was mention the fact that Jesus had died on the cross. And later on, when I thought about that I wondered if she had ever come to know the Lord or if she just had some kind of emotional religion because there are many people like that.
When I was on dialysis at George Dumont we had an older woman who was a very strong Roman Catholic. She would read her Catholic devotional book as she sat in the chair having dialysis and when she’d finish she’d sing part of her devotions right out loud in spite of the fact that there was another twenty or thirty people there. I always wondered about her until one day someone knocked something off her chair or something like that and she really blew up. My first thought was, so much for all the help she got from the Virgin Mary.
Well, we’d look at people like that and we’d say, they really don’t know the Lord, so how much can we really expect from them. On the other hand, we’d look at someone who professes to be a ‘born again’ Christian who is a member of a Baptist church and we’d feel pretty safe about them. We’d assume that they were there because they loved God, they had a desire to learn the word and they wanted to serve Him. I mean, that’s what we would assume.
Listen to this, there is from a questionnaire that was taken among those who professed to be born again believers in a group of conservative Baptist churches in the states, and here are some of their answers. 52% of the people questioned and remember all these people claimed to be born again, 52% said they do not believe in the existence of Satan. 55% did not believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit and the reason they didn’t was they said He is merely a symbol of the power of God. 35% believed that Jesus was crucified, dead and buried but that He didn’t physically resurrect. 28% believe that Jesus actually sinned while He was on earth. 33% believe that if you live a good life you’ll earn your way to heaven. And 83% said Christianity influences their behavior.
Now, get this, these weren’t people off the street or members of a liberal church but they were all members of evangelical Baptist churches. They had all said they had repented of their sin, were baptized by immersion and they contributed to the ministry. They said and did all the right things and yet, we have to wonder if they were ever even saved.
And let’s face it; obedience to the word of God is the key. It wasn’t just that they believed the word or they had an emotional experience but that they actually did the will of God and they did it from their hearts.
In order to be obedient we need to know that the one who is telling us what to do is worth listening to and then we also need to be willing to listen.
In John 7:37-39 it says, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this He spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.” This is another promise of the Holy Spirit being given to believers. And this also lets us know that there is no indication of another baptism of the Holy Spirit other than the one we received at salvation. Real Christians are filled by and obedient to the Holy Spirit.
II The second point Jesus makes is that the Holy Spirit is another person who is separate from Him but similar. And as I think I said last week He is another of the same kind. And you will remember that I said this also is also a clear reference to the mystery of the trinity.
It’s interesting to see the disciple’s reaction when Jesus was crucified and buried because it says they immediately dropped everything and went back to fishing just like they were doing three and a half years before. It was only when Jesus came back after the resurrection and then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and commissioned to spread the gospel that they actually got back on track spiritually.
III The third fact is that the Holy Spirit will be a continuing abiding presence. Jesus said He will be ‘with you forever’ in verse 16 and that means that once He comes into your life He’s never going to leave. The writer of Hebrews says in the last half of 13:5, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” And this literally means, “I will never, under any circumstances, ever leave you nor forsake you.” This is not like a marital commitment that breaks down because one doesn’t make the other happy but this is God giving His word.
IV The Holy Spirit is the revealer of truth. He is called the Spirit of Truth and that tells us that no matter what He says or what He does He can be trusted. After all, He was the one who gave us the word of God and when it’s interpreted and understood according to the Spirit, it’s absolutely dependable because the Holy Spirit not only reveals the word to us but He keeps the word for us.
V The fifth thing Jesus says is that the world cannot and receive Him. It says, “The world cannot receive Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.” I think we could safely say that they would not receive Him even if they could because He is so foreign to their nature.
VI The six fact that Jesus discloses is that the Holy Spirit can only be known from within the human heart. He says, “For He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” Now, this statement could be only made to the disciples because the Holy Spirit had dwelt with them in the sense that He was present but not a resident of the disciples and later He would be in them after the resurrection like He is with the rest of us.
I think, if we could ever really get a hold of the fact that the Holy Spirit is in us, it would revolutionalize our entire lives. Just think about it, if you were conscious of the fact that the Queen of England or the Prime Minister of Canada or the President of the United States was going to be in the same room as you what would you change about yourself? Would you dress better, would you be more careful about what you said, would you have a friendlier attitude about you. Let’s face it, there are a lot of things we’d do. Well, there are things we’d all do to impress other people while at the same time we tend to ignore the very presence of God Himself.
Today’s outline
I The promise of Jesus.
I will not leave you comfortless I will come to you. (What does He mean by comfortless.) We know that this is a promise but what does it mean?
I will manifest or reveal Myself to you. A promise in verse 19 of our being conscious of His presence and this is followed up in verse 20 by another promise where He says we will understand that He is in the Father and we in Him and He in us.
And then we have a message and a promise to those who are obedient to Him and His word.
First He clarifies who they are. (He says, they are those who love Me who keep My word.) And if he does then My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode in him or live in him.
It’s interesting that He doesn’t say; they are those who believe because people can easily believe one thing and then act completely different. These are what the Bible calls hypocrites. The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek word hypokrisis and it means playing a part or putting on a mask to misrepresent reality. In the ancient Greek theatre the actors were known as hypocrites without any negative connotation. They wore these masks to signify that they were happy, sad, angry or frightened. We are told that the reason they wore them was because one of Nero’s wives was easily frightened and if she thought an actor was something he wasn’t, well, Nero would just have to have that guy killed. In the world the term hypocrite is considered to be someone really nasty but in the church it’s worse than that because it’s someone who looks genuine but at the same time they are downright evil.
In verse 24 Jesus says that the man who doesn’t love Him doesn’t keep His saying. And then He warns everyone that the word we hear isn’t His but it’s the word of the Father who sent Him.
Verse 25, “These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.”
Verse 26 And then we have another promise of the Holy Spirit’s coming where Jesus lays out what He’s going to do for believers. And He says the Father is going to send Him, He will teach us all things, He will bring all things to our remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.
Here are three further revelations of the Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit is coming ‘in Jesus name’ in other words as His replacement at His request and His work will be to make Jesus known. And then second, He will teach and remind these men of everything Jesus ever said. Some have claimed it’s hard to trust the gospels because everything was written down so long after it happened but the Holy Spirit would bring everything back to their memories and then provide us with a written account of what happened.
We know that police and psychologists have used hypnosis to bring back things that were long forgotten and if a human can do this with another human how much more is the Holy Spirit able to do with the disciples.
But, not only does the Holy spirit give us the words and events that took place during the life of Jesus but then He gives us the epistles which teach us the practical application of these teachings.
In verses 27-29 we have Jesus’ farewell remarks which are also a message of comfort to those who will witness the events that are about to happen. And He says, “My peace I give you.” And this is a remarkable statement when you think about the peace He had. I mean, here He was teaching them and making sure they’d be alright over the next couple of days during which time He was about to be killed. Even when He stood before Pilate and all the chief priests we get the idea that He is the one who was judging them rather than the one on trial.
The peace Jesus gives is described by one commentator as the ability to cope. And we could expand this to say He gives us the ability to cope with anything that comes our way. I’ve heard Christians testify that at the greatest crisis of their lives Jesus gives them an ability to cope that’s they couldn’t explain.
The world has so many answers for the lack of peace. Some just take tranquilizers of one sort or another, that’s what I call chemical peace, but soon the chemicals don’t work and they’re looking for a new one. Then there is the escapist answer. Go on a trip or get yourself so involved in a hobby or activity that you forget all about your problems. The problem with this is that the problems are always there. Listen, Jesus promises what Paul calls the peace that passes all understanding. And this peace comes from knowing that God is in charge and that He has a purpose for everything that happens.
One of the benefits that is promised to the obedient is peace.
A And this is not the kind of peace that the world gives. What kind of peace does the world give? Or even promise for that matter? The peace marches of the sixties always ended with everyone smoking pot and trying to figure out how they could get around the establishment. They didn’t just want their marijuana legalized but they wanted it provided by the government.
B What kind of peace does Jesus offer?
Peace with God which is based on total and eternal forgiveness.
Peace with self – guilt. How often have we been forgiven by others but we can’t seem to forgive ourselves. The problem is, we expect much more from ourselves than others do.
C The sign of those who have peace is their obedience.
I like how He says in verse 28, “If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to My Father for the Father is greater than I.” And basically He’s saying that by going to the Father I’m leaving all the agony, hurt and pain of this existence. It’s always strange to see the difference between the saved and the unsaved when someone they love dies. Those who are saved are sorry they’re gone because they know they’re going to miss them. It’s not for them they feel sorry but for themselves because they miss them but on the other hand, the unsaved wants to bring them back because they don’t know where they’ve gone. You see, that’s why Jesus said to the disciples, if you loved Me, you would be glad I’m going back to heaven.
And then He adds, you would have rejoiced that I am going to the Father for the Father is greater than I. And what He’s saying here is that all the limitations I’ve experienced on this earth are coming to an end. And when He says the Father is greater than I He is referring to His earthly experience of submission to His Father but now He was returning to His former glory and the equality He enjoyed with Him from all eternity.
And then in verse 30 we have an unusual statement where Jesus says, “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.”
He said the prince of this world is coming and Jesus talking about Satan who is coming to do everything he can to torture and kill Jesus and yet he doesn’t realize that the very minute Jesus dies he virtually signs away his freedom.
Why did Jesus call him the prince of this world? Was it a title of respect or just a name by which to identify him?
When was Jesus tempted by the devil? It took place we are told in ------- just after His baptism and I think there the scripture also indicates that there are many times after that as well. It says in Luke 4:13, “And when the devil had completed every temptation, he departed from Him for a season.” Some translators also say for a season can mean ‘until an opportune time.’ We have no specific situations mentioned but we assume it did happen because Jesus called Peter Satan when Peter had told the Lord to ignore the cross. So, it’s possible that Satan tempted Him but he was much more subtle than in his first attempts.
We would wonder if some of the Sanhedrin ever approached Him not because of His class or status but because He was someone who could draw a crowd. And then again Satan may have come to Him when He was tempted in the garden of Gethsemane or even when He was on the cross.
Satan comes to us as well. In 2 Corinthians 12:7 Paul talks about a thorn in the flesh which he describes as a messenger of Satan. In I Peter 4:7 Peter saw the persecutions of the early Christians as a fiery trial which had come upon them to prove them. And then later in his final letter he warned them by saying, “Be sober, be watchful, your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom withstand steadfast in your faith, knowing that the same sufferings are accomplished in your brethren who are in the world.”
In the last half of the verse Jesus said of Satan, “He has nothing on Me.” Have you ever had to lift something and there was no way to grab onto it? That’s what Jesus is saying about the devil, He’s saying, he has no way to hold on to Me. There’s no way for him to get a hold on Me because I have no sin. No only did He have no sin but He also had no affection for the things of this world, His physical family were considered of secondary importance to the will of God and heaven was more important than earth.
Listen Satan could find no way to hold on to Jesus but he may have found a way to hold on to you and me. And do you know what the sad part is? We provide him with the handles. Our loyalties are constantly divided and we just aren’t sure what’s most important to us. We love this world and yet we want to go to heaven. When we’re at the church we’re faithful believers but when we’re with our family or even our friends our faith is absent, after all, we certainly don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. We’re interested in seeing the kingdom of God expand but we certainly have no intention of paying for it. And with every little resistance we have to God we provide the devil with another handle where he can grab us, and grab us he does.
Something I’ve wrestled with for a while is the fact that before Jesus died and returned to heaven the Holy Spirit then had total access to the lives of believers. And at the same time Satan and his crowd also have access that they didn’t seem to have before.
Demons are mentioned as fighting with the angelic forces in the heavens in the book of Daniel and their presence on earth might have been sporadic like in the case of King Saul but when Jesus came we find they were everywhere. And since those days we’ve certainly seen the influence of demonic activity both throughout history and also in our world today.
There was a story on the news a couple of years ago about a young American man who became an Al Qaeda terrorist and eventually he was charged with terrorism and then his charge was reduced and he was sentenced to twenty years in prison. The story just came up again this week because he had presented a petition to have his sentence reduced.
His name was John Walker Lindh and he came from a wealthy family in Marion County, California. And we’d wonder; how does someone from a wealthy family ever get involved with someone like the Al Qaeda who wants to destroy everything he grew up with and enjoyed?
Well, the interesting thing about him is that his parents never drew the line at any time for their son. When he was 14 he had a hobby of collecting hip-hop CD’s and they all had some really nasty immoral lyrics but they never said anything to him because they thought that none of this trash would ever doing him any harm.
And then when he was 16 he decided to drop out of school and the interesting part is that the school his parents had sent him to was one of these free educational systems where the students determined their own course of study and they only saw their teacher once a week. You see, John’s parents seemed to think they needed to give him all the freedom he needed because they figured that he’d find himself in the end and settle down.
Then John decided to become a Muslim after reading a book called, “The autobiography of Malcolm X” and he started wearing long white robes and an oversized skull cap. His father said he was proud of his son for pursuing an alternative lifestyle and his mother said it was a good thing that John had finally found a passion.
When his mother was interviewed she said she had become a Buddhist after they moved to California and later she tried out Native American spirituality. His father who was raised a Catholic said he had tremendous respect for both his wife and son but that he had other areas of life that interested him more.
And then John asked his parents to pay his way to Yemem in the Middle East so he could learn to speak pure Arabic because only those who really learned the language were allowed to study the Qur’an. And they both sent him happily.
Later on, when his mother learned that he was involved in Al Qaeda and supported the attacks on September 11 she said, “If he got involved with Al Qaeda then he must have been brainwashed. After all, when you’re young and impressionable it’s easy to be influenced by charismatic people.” You see, it wasn’t his fault and what she was saying was it wasn’t theirs either.
When Osama Bin Laden’s terrorists blew up the bomb next to the USS Cole and killed several American sailors John wrote to his dad and said the attack was totally justified because the Americans had docked their ship in Yemen and his dad didn’t comment but sent him $1200.
Only once did they ever deny their son anything and that was when he changed his name from John to Suleyman. They refused to use this name and insisted on calling him John because after all they said he was named after one of the giants of history: John Lennon.
Why didn’t they do anything to train him or even to rebuke him? They couldn’t train him because they never stood for anything themselves and they never rebuked him because they never saw anything he did as being wrong.
Newsweek Magazine said it was perplexing that someone who had grown up in one of the most liberal and tolerant families should be drawn to the most intolerant sect of Islam. And yet, there was nothing perplexing about it; the standards and discipline that he lacked at home were provided by the Taliban.
Listen, John was guilty, there’s no question about that but the sad part of the story is that his parents were just as guilty as he was and yet in the end they walked away and left John in prison where he’s still trying to think of a reason why the authorities should let him out. As you read his story you get the feeling that Satan had possessed him and made him do things that were against the law only to move on to someone else when he was in prison.
