PILGRIMS AND THE PILGRIMAGE
Text: John 14:23-30
This morning, you are making a big and important step in your lives as get confirmed and become members of the church. Jesus has already prepared for your future. He gives you the Holy Spirit to guide you, He gives you His peace and He prepares for your eternity with Him in heaven until the day He will take you to the place He is preparing (John 14:2-6).
This morning I want to share with you a story about a man who prepared for his future as a retired French lawyer. I read about something that this lawyer had considered with much thought. “Under French law, if you want dibs on someone's apartment, you can pay the owner a certain amount each month until the owner dies. It'll get you a nice apartment. But it's also a gamble, as Andre-Francois Raffray found out”. (http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/cj/cj-06-24-96.html). Who is Andre-Francois Raffray you ask? He is the French lawyer I want to tell you about.
“Andre-Francois Raffray, a retired lawyer in Arles, France, made what any reasonable businessman would say was a sound financial decision. According to the Chicago Tribune, for a five-hundred-dollar-a-month annuity, he bought the right to take over the apartment in Arles, France on the death of its current resident. The woman living in the apartment was Jeanne Calment, age ninety. Actuarial tables predicting the mathematical probabilities of Jeanne Calment’s life span were clearly on the lawyer’s side.
“Thirty years later and $180,000 poorer, Raffray still had not moved into the apartment. On Tuesday, February 21, 1995, Jeanne Calment celebrated her 120th birthday. She was variably the oldest person in the world. Each year on her birthday she sends Raffray a card that jokingly says, “Sorry I am still alive”.
“How little control we humans have on the future”. (Craig Brian Larson. Contemporary Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers & Writers. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996, p. 77). But, wait the story does not end there. It is said of Raffray that “He died more than a year ago [then, in 1996] at age 77 after paying $184,000, double the apartment's market value, for the property; his family was required to keep making the payments”. (According to -- Reuters, San Francisco Examiner, 1/1/96, and contributor to info about Mrs. Calment to CNN on August 4, 1997). A reporter (Reuters) had said that Raffray was 47 in 1965 when he first agreed to this arrangement. Jeanne Calment was born on February 21, 1875 and died on August 4, 1997.
By ourselves we cannot prepare for our future for eternity which is why Jesus is the answer to all of our problems because He has prepared for our eternity. Jesus has also conquered the things that otherwise would have conquered us---sin, death and the fear of death. While we as Christians are in the world but bot of the world, we are on a journey that lasts a lifetime---a pilgrimage. Jesus gives us what we need for this journey.
OBEDIENCE
Jesus tells His disciples that those who keep His word are those who love Him. What Jesus is talking about here is obedience. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once described obedience like this: “Only those who obey believe and only those who believe can obey”. (Roy B. Zuck. Ed. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 268). Jesus was also talking about loyalty. As Christians we will sometimes find ourselves at odds with having to make a decision between doing the right thing or the popular thing. Jesus wants us to be faithful, loyal each of which are a part of what it means to be obedient.
I read the story of about a German citizen, named Martin Niemoeller who was a pastor during World War II. He lived in continuous solitary confinement in the captivity of the Nazis, for over two years, allowed only 45 minutes of exercise a day. Many times, he was offered his freedom at a price. The price was to preach only as they told him to preach to which he refused. (Walter B. Knight. Ed. Knight’s Master Book Of New Illustrations. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., [reprinted], 1986, p. 203). Martin Niemoeller was obedient to God’s way because he was faithful and loyal. He chose to do what was right as a Christian, not what was popular.
Jesus wants His disciples to be obedient and have discipline. Jesus wants us to have the discipline of self-control. Proverbs 25:28 says, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control” (NIV). Martin Niemoeller ourselves this question: “What would Jesus do?”
PEACE
Jesus gives His disciples the kind of peace that only He cane give. Someone (William Barclay) has labeled the kind of peace that Jesus gives us as the “Peace of conquest”. (William Barclay. The Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel Of John. Volume 2. Revised Edition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975, p. 171). This is the kind of peace that sustains us in hard times. This is the kind of peace that enables us to face our problems and hard times without fear. We have no reason to fear when we have the peace that Christ gives to us. Martin Niemoeller had this kind of peace because he did what God would have him to do. He did the right thing, not the popular thing. That is why Martin Niemoeller had no reason to fear----he was obedient. He therefore had the kind of peace that only Christ can give. That is why it is only the wicked who have reason to fear because the Bible tells us that “There is no peace for the wicked” (Isaiah 57:21).
Jesus promises that the peace that He gives to us is not the same as the peace that the world offers. Someone (William Barclay) has labeled the kind of peace that the world gives us as the “Peace of escape”. (William Barclay. p. 171). The kind of peace that the world gives is the kind of peace “avoids trouble” (William Barclay. p. 171). Those who do not know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior face hard times without peace. Those who do not have the peace that Jesus offers are the wicked. We tend to think of the wicked as those people who are extremely evil. But, the word wicked means more than that: “Wicked men are those who pursue that which is vain [useless] and false with lawless desire, casting off the fear of God, and so come at length to trouble and sorrow”. (William Wilson. Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, n. d., p. 480). This explains why those who are wicked have no peace because they chase after what is useless and have no fear of God.
GUIDANCE
Jesus promises His disciples His continued help that comes through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth (John 16:13) and convicts us of sin (John 16:8-11). The Holy Spirit indwells [lives] in us (Romans 8:11) and helps us to stay on track with God which is why Jesus calls Him our Helper.
The Holy Spirit has given us the fruits of the Spirit so that we might use those gifts. (1) In Galatians 5:-25, the apostle Paul put it this way: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (RSV). (2) In Philippians 2:13 the apostle Paul also reminds us …. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (RSV). (3) God give us what we need to press on as 2 Peter 1:3-4 reminds us that “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature” (RSV). This is why Jesus tells His disciples that apart form Him, they can do nothing (John15:5).
It is the Holy Spirit who helps us to stay on track and reminds us when we get off track. Dwight L. Moody, who was the Billy Graham of his day once said, “You might as well try to hear without ears, or breathe without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart”. (Roy B. Zuck. Ed. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 194). That is exactly why Jesus tells us that He gives us the Holy Spirit to help us on our way---our pilgrimage.
In John 14, Jesus shares with His disciples what the future holds for them as well as for Himself. In John 14, Jesus gives them three promises. The first promise is a promise of assurance---of their journey’s end, as He tells them that He goes to prepare a place for them until the day that He will come to receive them to Himself (John 14:2-3). The second promise that Jesus tells them about is His gift of peace that He gives to them that is not like the peace that the world offers (John 14:27). The third promise Jesus gives to His disciples is the gift of the Holy Spirit who will lead and guide us (John 14:16-17). Jesus is telling them about how He has secured their place in eternity. Jesus is also telling them how He will give them His continued help through the Holy spirit who will help them with their pilgrimage through this lifetime on earth.
Without Jesus Christ, you cannot prepare for your future in eternity any better than Andre-Francois Raffray could prepare for his future on earth. It is the Holy Spirit who reminds us of all that Jesus teaches (John 14:25) and helps us to stay on track with God.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
