Not long ago I was listening to a Christian radio broadcast as I was driving.  I won’t say the name of the pastor, but doctrinally he is considered sound and he seems to be relatively popular.  And at the end of the sermon, the announcer came on and gave a commercial for the opportunity to go on a luxury cruise with the pastor to some exotic destination which I think was in the Caribbean.  I found myself feeling a little jealous, I guess.  I had just spent a few hours talking with my wife about her twin sister that was dying of cancer, and making arrangements for us to fly down there on the spur of the moment to try to comfort her before she passed away.  In talking to someone who has that prognosis, it’s difficult to try to convince them that God still loved them.  That God would use this for good in some way.  And I felt that I had fallen short of offering comfort as I would have liked to.  I found myself wanting to question God’s goodness and justice, and wondering how God could love someone and let them die prematurely of some disease and not heal them.  And against that background, the incongruity of the commercial juxtaposed with the reality of  her sister’s ordeal seemed almost ludicrous.

There is nothing wrong with going on a luxury cruise with a renowned Bible teacher I guess.  But somehow I have a hard time reconciling drinks by the pool, and dancing on the Lido Deck after the evening Bible teaching seminar as being the epitome of living the Christian life.  That sort of thing sounds great and is certainly appealing on some level, but I find it at odds with the reality of my own and very many other’s experience as a Christian.  And I find it at odds with the teachings of Christ and the apostles as well.  We are told in Romans 8:17 that our glorification with Christ is directly tied with whether or not we partake in the sufferings of Christ. It says we are “heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  

So at the risk of sounding all “gloom and doom” or offending someone, I urge you to consider the context of the passage of scripture today, because Jesus is preparing His disciples for the rigors and trials and tribulations that are a real and present companion to the Christian experience which was true not only for the disciples, but for the modern church as well. So as we begin this chapter, let’s remember the context; it is evening, and the disciples are walking from the Upper Room where they had just observed the Passover, and where Judas had deserted them after Jesus had prophesied that someone  would betray Him.  Jesus has just told them that He is going to die, that He is going back to the Father, and that He is leaving them.  He’s told them that He is going to send the Holy Spirit from heaven to comfort them, but they aren’t sure exactly what that means.  Now darkness has fallen, and they leave the room and wind their way through the streets of Jerusalem and around the temple walls, down into the ravine where the Kidron brook is flowing dark red from the blood of thousands of lamb sacrifices offered in the temple, and they make their way up towards the Mount of Olives.  

The disciples are undoubtedly disillusioned,  saddened, and probably more than a little depressed as they climb the hillside expecting to spend yet another cold night out under the stars as was their custom.  And as they walk, Jesus is still talking to them.  He is still teaching them, right up to the last moment.  In spite of all the stress and concern that Jesus must have been feeling as He anticipated the torture that was in front of Him, yet His primary concern is for His followers.  He has just said to them, “Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.”  “Peace I leave unto you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world gives.  Let not your hearts be troubled or afraid.” Then He said, “Let’s go, Let’s get out of here.”  And they began their journey to the Mount of Olives, blissfully unaware of what trials were ahead of them, yet Jesus knew it full well.  

As they are walking in the dark up the hillside, perhaps they passed through a vineyard that someone had planted.  And as was His custom, Jesus picked up on the metaphor at hand to teach them an important final lesson.  He speaks of a vine, and it’s branches, and the fruit that one would expect from a vineyard.  It was a metaphor that they were very much familiar with.  Vineyards were everywhere in Israel.  And Jesus had spoken of vineyards many times in His preaching, using them often as settings for parables.  But they certainly also knew of them first hand.  They were quite common in Israel.  

In fact, they were a common metaphor for Israel in the Old Testament scriptures as well.  For instance, Psalm 80 says in vs.8, “You have  brought a vine out of Egypt and planted it in this land.” And Isaiah expounds upon that picture in the 5th chapter, vs.7, “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”  Isaiah painted a picture of a nation that had abandoned righteousness, and justice, and had spent it’s affection on drinking and carousing and taking advantage of others so that they might live luxuriously.  And he prophesied that God would take vengeance upon them, vs.24, “Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble and dry grass collapses into the flame, so their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

As the disciples walked past the temple, they may have noticed on the gates of the temple was carved a large gold covered vine, symbolic of Israel.  Israel had been the chosen vine of God, illustrated by the temple, the religious system which God had planted in Israel to give life to the Jews.  But everything that the sacrifices and temple and ceremonies had portrayed, was actually a picture of Jesus.  All the religious life that had been centered in Judaism, actually found it’s source in Him.  The true vine was Jesus.  The religious system centered in the temple was just a picture of Christ.

So Jesus says, “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser.” Jesus is the life, He was the source of life in creation, nothing was made without Him it says in chapter 1 of John.  He was the source of life for Israel, of which the temple and sacrifices merely pointed to. He was the Lamb that was sacrificed for the sins of the world.  He was the rock in the wilderness from which came the living water.  He was the manna from heaven. He was the light that was over the Tabernacle.   And in the same way He is the source of life for the church. He is the Word of God. He is the Way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him.  The disciples make up the first church who will represent Christ even as the temple and Israel was to have represented the Lord.

“My Father,” Jesus declares, “is the vinedresser.” This is the Father’s work – he is the “vinedresser,” the gardener who takes care of the vineyard. In Verse 5, Jesus clearly identifies that believers, the church, are the branches of the vine: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” Furthermore, he indicates there are two kinds of branches – fruitless branches and fruitful branches. Thus right at the beginning of this teaching there is a clear indication that there are two kinds of believers. The difference between them is whether they produce fruit or not.

The first work of the Father in this great vineyard is: “Every branch in Me that bears no fruit” (every fruitless believer) “he takes away.”  I believe that this statement is actually made about believers, not unbelievers.  In vs.6, Jesus speaks of branches that do not abide and are thrown away and burned.  They are the unbelievers.  But notice Jesus says in vs.2, “In Me.”  He is talking about branches that are His, they are in Him.  He is talking about a believer.  But He is not saying that if they do not bear fruit God will condemn them to be burned with the unbelieving branches in vs.6.  The Greek word translated “takes away” is airo, which actually means to raise up, or lift up from the ground.  It’s not producing fruit because it isn’t getting enough sunlight, it’s lying on the ground.  So there is a work of the vinedresser to lift up unfruitful believers by exposing them to the light.  Fruitfulness is the result of maturity and training and discipline.  So there is a need for that with unfruitful believers and God knows those who are His, those who are in Christ, and He will lift them up to make them productive.  He will raise them up to get them up out of the earth, out of the world so to speak, so that they might be exposed to the light of truth, which will train them in righteousness, producing productivity.   So lifting up is speaking of training, discipline which leads to greater fruitfulness.  As  Heb. 12:11says, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

The second work of God towards believers is to cleanse the fruit bearing branches.  Jesus said in vs.2, “every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.”  The word here, “prunes,” really should be “cleanses.”  Because vs.3 uses the same word translated as prunes and has it as cleans. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” Now they are both referring to the same thing, so it’s just a matter of semantics.  But for consistency they should be the same. 

But perhaps the reason why the word “prunes” is chosen is because it’s speaking not of being “cut off” but “cut back.” This is also what vinedressers do. They not only go through a vineyard and cut off shoots, but they cut back others so that they will bear more fruit.  They are cleaning up the branches by cutting them back.  

I have these knock out rose bushes by my house that I transferred years ago from a development that I used to work at.  And in the development, every so often the landscapers would prune those rose bushes back so much that I thought it was ridiculous.  I thought it looked terrible when all these thriving rose bushes were cut so far back.  I didn’t understand why it was necessary.  So I left our bushes alone.  I let them grow bigger and bigger. Today I have the biggest knockout rose bushes that I’ve ever seen.  But the thing is, they don’t produce many roses nowadays.  They have bare areas where nothing grows and sometimes hardly any roses bloom at all.  

So it is with vines and fruit.  God sometimes cuts back a fruitful vine to the point that you might think that they are cut too far back.  They look like He might practically them.  But God knows that the trials and tribulations that we experience which we think are killing us are only designed to make us more productive.  As the hymn “How Firm A Foundation”  we just sang says, “The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” 

Pruning, or cleansing is a drastic process. Jesus is clearly teaching here that this is what the Father will do in our lives to make us bear more fruit. He will drastically cut back our lives in a cleansing process. In a vineyard, pruning also removes dirt, cobwebs, dried leaves, and fungus that chokes out growth. And according to the Lord in vs.3, in the life of the believer, this is done by the “word which I have spoken unto you.”

God will use circumstances and trials in a Christian’s life to bring us to the point where the word of God can cleanse us.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  

So the word of God is the knife that does the pruning.  Affliction exposes those areas that need pruning.  Charles Spurgeon spoke of affliction as the dresser, someone that dresses out game.  He said, “Affliction is the dresser that removes our soft garments and lays bare the diseased flesh, so that the knife may get at it.”  Affliction makes us ready for the knife, to prepare us for the Word of God.  So Spurgeon continues,  “It is the Word that prunes the Christian.  It is the truth that purges him.  The Scripture made living and powerful by the Holy Spirit eventually and effectively cleanses the Christian.”

Has the word of God ever corrected you in some painful way? I know in my life I went through a time of severe trial, of severe affliction, and I turned to the scriptures to try to understand what was happening.  To know what God was doing, or if in fact it was Him that was doing it.  And why was He doing it.  And ultimately, the word worked in me to prune away deadness, to cleanse me from corruption, chipping away to change me and make me look more like Christ.  To conform me to the image of Jesus by taking away things that were hindering me in my Christian life. It was painful, but it was necessary if I was going to be fruitful. And it isn’t done once, but often in the life of a Christian. Just as the branches of the vine must be pruned year after year, again and again.

Many of you have had some experience of this. Sorrow, disappointment, loss, or some experience of life left you shocked and hurt, feeling cast off and rejected. Yet here we are encouraged to remind ourselves that this is the work of a loving Father who does it so that we may “bear more fruit.”  

But that raises a very important question. “What exactly is this fruit that God is expecting from us?” The reason our Lord does not identify it directly is because it was already clearly identified in the Old Testament. There, in the passages on the “vine,” especially in Isaiah 5, the prophet says that God came to the nation Israel, the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts, “looking for fruit,” which he identifies as “justice and righteousness.” But what he found was oppression and misery – mistreatment of others without, and hurt and misery within. He calls these “sour grapes” – not fruit of justice and righteousness that he had every right to expect,  but twisted, self centered, sour fruit.

Paul speaks of the fruit of self centeredness and fleshly living and contrasts that with the fruit that God desires in Galatians 5:19. “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now 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.”

it is clear that the fruit which Jesus is referring to here is Christlikeness – his character reproduced in us.  He is refining us, changing us, transforming us through trials and through the Word into representatives of Christ.  2 Cor.3:18 says, ”We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.”  It”s a process. Sometimes it’s a painful process.  It does not happen by magic, all at once. We are being changed from one degree of glory to another, “for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” The image of Christ is the “fruit” that God is looking for.

I used to think that fruit was people that I had led to Christ.  That was the emphasis that my church gave to fruit when I was growing up. Another misconception is that fruit is how much a church grows or how many people attend.  But that’s not accurate either.   Bearing fruit is bearing the image of Christ in all that I do and say.  Fruit is not more people, but people more like Christ. And doing that is made possible as you abide in Christ.  Look at vs.4 and 5.  “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  

That makes sense doesn’t it?  If we are going to look like Christ, then we must have Christ in us, and we have to be in Christ.  Now how does that work?  Well, first of all, we must have the Spirit of Christ abiding in us.  This is a supernatural transaction that comes as a result of our salvation.  We repent of our sins, we are made holy by faith in Christ, and we are given new life by being born again in the Spirit.  The Spirit of God takes up residence in us.  

But we can have the Spirit of God in us and yet not be filled with the Spirit, nor do the works of the Spirit.  It takes more than just a spark to make a car’s engine run. It also takes gas.  So though we have the Spirit in us, we must also be attuned to the Spirit through the word.  It’s not enough to say we have the Spirit in us, we can just lay back and cruise through the Christian life and if God wants something done He will do it all by Himself.  We need to depend upon God, but we also need discipline.  That’s the spark and the gasoline.  

Some Christians emphasize dependence on God. But they don’t like the idea of discipline. They never read the Bible. They don’t go to church unless it’s a holiday or some special occasion.  They aren’t concerned about training in holiness.  They expect God to speak directly to them, and put them into automatic pilot. They float around expecting God to do all the directing, open all the doors, and they seldom bother with denying themselves. That kind of dependence without discipline results in empty spirituality, a fake piety that sounds good, but is in fact worthless.  It’s what James referred to as “faith without works.”  It’s dead.  It’s like dead branches that produce no fruit.   Abiding in Christ is a very practical thing.  It’s abiding in the word.  It’s abiding in His body, that is the church.  It’s abiding in His commands, which produces holiness and Christlikeness. That’s the peaceable fruit of righteousness according to Hebrews 12:11.

But not everyone who says that they are in Christ actually are.  Jesus said twice in Matthew 7, “By their fruits you shall know them.”  So He says in Vs.6, ”If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” If you are not Christ’s, then God will remove the fruitless branch and cast it into the fire.  He is speaking obviously of the judgment against the ungodly.  

That again is the  work of the Father – removing the fruitless branches. Those like Judas who gather with the people of God for awhile and appear to be believers – they show a certain degree of life. Leaves may be present, they hang around with all the fruit bearers,  but there is no fruit in themselves. Ultimately these people eventually leave the vine. They do not stay with the body. As the Lord makes clear, it is a process: There is first the “withering” of the life they apparently had for awhile. Then the branches are “gathered,” then “thrown into the fire,” and ultimately “burned.” This is a reference to Matthew 25:41, when Jesus speaks of the end of the age, when the angels will come and gather out of the Kingdom of God all that are not His, and throw them into eternal fire, and they are burned. These are those that are not truly saved.

Like Judas, they may have looked the part.  They were part of the church.  They may have even performed miracles like healing and casting out devils.  But they are not saved.  Jesus speaks of these folks in Matthew 7:21, saying, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”

Listen, this is a fact about church growth that doesn’t get any traction today in the relevant, seeker friendly church.  God is not interested in numbers.  He isn’t interested in large crowds of people that give lip service, but who are not truly being transformed into the image of Christ.  He cuts away those that are not abiding in Him.  He doesn’t want pew fillers.  He wants disciples who are being made in the image of Christ.  Don’t be discouraged when people leave the church.  God adds, and God takes away.  The church is the Lord’s and He will build the church. And God in HIs wisdom knows which branches to cut away so that the church will bear fruit.

Finally, let’s look really quickly at four evidences of fruit in the last five verses.  Vs.7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.”

The first evidence of a fruitful life is the impact of answered prayer. You become effective at praying. I’ve said it before, when James says the effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much, the emphasis should be on righteous. God hears the prayer of the righteous.  So when you are abiding in Him, and His words are abiding in you, then you will receive what you ask for.  

We must never forget that prayer and promise are linked together. Prayer is not a way of getting God to do what you want him to do, rather it is asking him to do what he has already promised to do. We pray according to God’s promises. So if you want to make your prayers effective begin to read and study the promises of God. When you do, you will pray according to the mind and will of God. And, as Jesus says, whatever you ask will be done. That’s the first fruit.  Abiding in Christ produces effective prayer.

The second fruit is in vs.8, ”By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.” Your righteous life will be a testimony to the transformative power of God.  There is no greater witness for God than that of a transformed, sold out life.  And that is how you glorify God.  Again, not by lip service, but by proving to be a disciple.  Abiding in Christ produces righteous living, which proves you are His disciple to a watching world.

Thirdly, vs.9-10, ”As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” The third fruit of abiding in Christ is that you will keep HIs commandments, and thus show your love for Him.  The fruit of love is that you keep His commandments, even as Christ kept the Father’s commandments.  We are like Christ, because we are to Christ as Christ was to the Father. So abiding produces love, and love produces obedience.

Then the last evidence of fruit is in vs. 11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”  Notice, that My joy may be in you…What was his joy? In the 12th chapter of the book of Hebrews vs.2 it says of Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.”  What was it that filled his heart with joy as he faced the cross, and enabled him to go through that terrible ordeal? It was the expectation that he would be the instrument of redemption for the entire world – that a host, a great harvest of people, would be changed and redeemed and restored, real life given  to them – by his work on the cross. In other words, his joy was the joy of being used of God.

That is the greatest joy anyone can know. There is the inheritance of the believer; the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, and peace.  Those are the three themes of chapter 14 an 15.  Not as the world gives, but as God gives, as Christ illustrates, and we imitate.  And as we abide in Christ and He abides in us, we can experience true love, joy and peace because He is the source, the Vine,  and we are the branches which abide in Him.

The goal of the gospel is not just to provide us with an insurance policy from heaven.  But to provide us with a new way of living, a new life.  Jesus said, I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.  Before we can have the life that Christ wants for us, we must be first justified, our sins atoned for, made righteous before God, and that is only possible through faith in the cross of Christ.  But the ultimate purpose of that atonement is that we become sons of God. As Jesus said in vs.17 of our text; “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”  The purpose of our salvation is that we might have new life in Christ, as sons of God, doing the works of God.  That we might be a testimony to the world of the power of salvation. 

So in the gospel, the cross speaks to our atonement, our justification.  And the resurrection speaks of our sanctification, our new life whereby we are given power over sin and over death, which we now live by faith to the glory of God.

As we look this week at the resurrection, I don’t want to just try to recreate the drama of the events and try to merge the various gospel accounts into one dramatic story.  But what I want to do is emphasize the new life that the resurrection promises.  I would point out that on Saturday evening, all the disciples went to bed, undoubtedly remembering the horrors of Christ’s crucifixion the day before, undoubtedly despondent and without hope due to their Savior having succumbed to death, yet even in this darkest hour God was at work.  God had a plan and in the deliberate sovereignty of God this plan was inevitably coming to it’s conclusion.  As Jesus said in John 5:17 in regards to the law of the Sabbath, “My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.”  So even though Christ’s body was in the grave, even though it was the Sabbath, the plan of God was at work and succeeding.

Though in the minds of His disciples, and in the minds of His enemies, Christ was dead and buried on Saturday, little did they know that He was at that very moment in His Spirit taking captivity captive, that He had descended into the lower parts of the earth, triumphed over the very gates of Hell, and had taken the very keys of Hell and Death, “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

The power of death and hell had to be broken, so that man might be able to truly live as God designed them to live. And for that freedom that was won at so great a cost, we celebrate the resurrection on the first day of the week.  We celebrate the first day of being a new creation in Christ Jesus.

So it is with that sense of divine purpose we may view the resurrection.  John says it was early on the first day of the week, that is Sunday morning, but while it was still dark.  Jesus had said two days earlier on the night of His betrayal that the hour belonged to the power of darkness.  And that darkness still covered the earth early on Sunday morning.  Men were without hope, unaware that the Spirit of God was moving across that darkness, unaware of the great victory that had been won in the bowels of the earth as Christ took the keys of death and Hades.  And since death could not hold Him, because sin had nothing on Him, in the first hours of a still dark Sunday morning, the Light dawned, Christ rose from Hades, and His Spirit returned once again to His lifeless body within the tomb.  The wrappings of the grave clothes could not hold Him down.  The heavy stone across the tomb could not hold Him in. According to Matthew 28 the earth trembled violently in a severe earthquake and an angel of God rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

Mary, perhaps having been shaken awake by the violent quake,  came early that Sunday  morning while it was still dark thinking she would anoint His dead body with spices.  She comes out of sorrow, without any hope, only despair.  The early darkness reflects the despondency that gripped her soul. Christ had delivered her from seven demons.  She had known the power of His life.  But yet in the early morning darkness, doubt darkened her soul. She had believed on Christ for so much more than this. Her love for Christ had devolved into a sense of despair while she thought of Him lying in the grave.

But finding the stone rolled away and the body of Christ not there caused her alarm and confusion. Her thoughts were that Jesus’s body must had been taken.  Mary’s thoughts focused on that which could be seen, verified.  So she supposed that someone must have taken His body, and she ran and told Peter and John.

Mary’s faith, or lack of it, is so much like our faith.  When the darkness pervades our lives, and our hopes are not quickly realized, we tend to look at what is visible. We tend to focus on the external circumstances and often misinterpret what is going on. We don’t see Christ working, we can’t see His power, or understand His plan.  And in the darkness of our lack of faith we run to conclusions that are contrary to the promises of God.  Christ had prophesied that He would die on the cross and after three days He would rise again, but Mary believed what she saw with her eyes.  She thought she made a rational conclusion from the circumstances which she witnessed, but she was in error.  

Often events happen in our lives in a similar fashion.  When darkness pervades our lives, God’s presence seems missing, God’s promises are forgotten, and we become confused, alarmed.  We run away from the very place where God has brought us to show us His glory.  We believe what our senses tell us, rather than have faith in that which is not seen. But Heb. 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Mary’s faith was founded on what she could see, what she could touch.  Her faith was founded on her 5 senses, on her feelings.

Peter and John’s faith was in turmoil as well.  Though John had been with Jesus at the cross, he must have been hit particularly hard by the graphic torture of the cross, having witnessed first hand the death of Christ.  He would have seen the life leave Jesus’s body as He gave up His Spirit, and the evidence of death revealed in  blood and water flowing out of His side.  Though he would have been moved as others were at the way Christ died, yet he would have known with undeniable certainty that Christ was indeed dead.  He too had forgotten that this same Jesus who gave up His Spirit, had said He had the power not only  to lay down His life, but to take it back up again.  Such promise had been forgotten in his grief which overwhelmed him.  John, who loved Jesus much,  would have been  most forlorn and disconsolate at His death.

Peter on the other hand was also undoubtedly crushed, not only because of the death of His Lord, but because of his own failure in Jesus’s final hours.  His grief over the death of Christ was made even more bitter knowing that he had deserted Him and even disowned the Lord in the hour of His greatest suffering.  So the news from Mary at such an early hour must have startled them both.  Here was something that they could do, some action that they could take.  To what purpose, I think neither gave much thought, but at the report of Mary they began to run towards the tomb.

One cannot help but wonder why John makes a point of who won the  footrace that occurred between him and Peter.  Many commentators have speculated about his purpose in recording it.  But John outruns Peter to the tomb, then peeking in, he stays outside, while Peter comes huffing and puffing behind but then barges straight inside.  

But perhaps John is not so concerned with the physical outcome of the race as we might think.  Maybe John is revealing the character or nature of the individuals.  Even perhaps the character of their faith. Peter’s faith is passionate, impulsive, bold. John’s faith is eager to believe, but not quite as courageous, following the lead of Peter.

However, perhaps more can be discerned regarding the true nature of each person’s faith by examining John’s use of the word which is interpreted “saw.”  John uses three Greek words in this passage for “saw.”  When Mary looked at the tomb and saw the stone rolled away, he said she looked, using the Greek word “blepo,” which means to clearly see a material or physical object.  Mary was focused on the physical.  And what she saw in the physical determined her faith.

John as well, when he first comes to the tomb is said to see the linen wrappings, and John uses the same word, “blepo.”  At that point, the physical is evident to him as well, but he doesn’t yet go in.  He doesn’t act on what he sees.

Peter however, barges straight inside the tomb and he sees the linen grave clothes and also the head scarf rolled up by itself.  And John uses a different word for Peter seeing.  He uses “theoreo” which means to contemplate, to observe, scrutinize.  Peter senses that there is more than meets the eye, but he is puzzled and he isn’t able to come to a conclusion at this point. Maybe the eyes of his faith are clouded by his conscience.

But after Peter has gone inside, perhaps having said something to John, John goes in to the tomb.  He sees the same things that Peter has seen.  But now John uses another word to describe how he sees.  It’s not “theoreo,” as Peter was contemplating, but it is “horaō”, to know, to perceive, to discern. He sees the same things that Peter saw, and the same things that Mary had seen, but while they went away unbelieving, the text says that John believed.  He believed in that moment that Jesus had risen from the dead.  He believed in faith.

What difference does their conclusions mean though?  Should we make so much out of their responses?  I would suggest that it makes a difference to Christ.  That Sunday evening Jesus comes to the disciples and Thomas isn’t there with the others.  And because Thomas didn’t personally see Jesus with his own eyes, he will not believe the testimony of the other disciples.  So 8 days later, Jesus shows up again and specifically appears to Thomas and invites him to put his fingers in the holes in His hands, and the wound in HIs side.  And of course, at that point Thomas believes and says “My Lord and My God.”  A great confession, no doubt, but one that in Christ’s opinion was lacking in faith.  And so Jesus says in vs.29, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” And in that statement Christ reveals the nature of faith needed for future generations who will believe not on the basis of physical evidence, but on the basis of faithful testimony.

Mary, John and Peter all had a similar initial experience at the empty tomb.  They all saw the same things, but only John believes with the faith that God desires.  John reveals the basis for that kind of faith in vs.9, which says, “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”  The point being that our faith is founded upon the Scriptures.  This is the faith that God desires.  And this is the faith which we are tasked with today.  We don’t have the physical presence of God to bolster our faith.  I would suggest that it is a failure of faith to seek after material manifestations of God.  A desire to “experience God” in some kind of tangible way, while understandable from a human point of view, is not in accordance with the plan of God. 

As we are told in  2Tim. 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”  The Scriptures are the complete revelation of God, and it is able to thoroughly, completely equip you for every good work.  The Word of God is more than adequate for our faith.  Our new life is lived by faith in the Scripture, not by sight. 2Cor. 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.”

Now though Mary has not risen to that degree of faith, Jesus will reveal Himself to her to increase her faith.  But we should not be too emboldened by His special appearance, nor deprecating towards Mary who needs it.  Because Mary did not have the completed Scriptures as we have.  None of the New Testament had been written at that point.  And so Christ, the living Word, provides for her what the written Word provides for us.

So in vs.11, we see Mary, back once again at the tomb, probably after John and Peter have already left, and she is weeping.  She is still mourning Christ’s death, weeping over the loss of His body.  And when she looked again in the tomb this time she sees two angels in white sitting.  This “seeing” is the same as Peter’s “theoreo”, scrutinizing, observing the two angels in white.  It’s doubtful that she recognizes them as angels, perhaps just seeing two men in white apparel and doesn’t know what they are doing there.  She is trying to understand, but not clearly discerning what is going on.  

And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” At that point, she becomes aware of Jesus behind her, but she thinks He is the gardener.  That’s a pretty good indication she didn’t recognize the men as angels. She hasn’t discerned anything abnormal.

There is a verse in Hebrews 13:2 about angels which says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  And the point I make in explaining it, is the phrase, “unawares.”  The verse teaches that most of the time when we might encounter angels, we’re unaware that they are angels.  So many people running around today claiming visitations from angels.  But if you count up the number of times recorded in the Scriptures you will find only a few accounts of them in over 6000 years.  So I would be very skeptical of those claiming angelic visitations every other day. 

So Mary didn’t recognize the angels, nor did she even recognize Jesus.  “Supposing Him to be the gardener, she *said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.’”  It’s interesting that after the resurrection, Jesus is seen on numerous occasions (one commentator counted 17 times) and yet  in every case He is not recognized initially.  That should be a warning for those who suppose that they have seen some sort of apparition of Jesus.  Unless He reveals Himself, we would not recognize Him in the flesh. Even those who had known Jesus in the flesh did not recognize Him after His resurrection unless He showed them His wounds, or in some other way manifested His identity to them.

How then does Mary come to recognize Him? When He calls her by her name. This is a direct correlation to what Jesus said in  John 10:2, “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  

In Christ’s letter to  the church of Pergamum in Revelation 2, Jesus says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.”  The hidden manna refers to the word of God, and those who believe it receive a new name from God.

Some commentators say that Jesus uses the Aramaic version of Mary, which is, Miriam, to address her, and she responds in Aramaic, “Rabboni,” which means Teacher.  She recognizes Him when He calls her by her name.   Rom 8:30 says, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  No one comes to Me, Jesus said, unless the Father draws him.  The election of God is specific. He calls us by name.

But though the calling of God is specific and effectual, there is still the problem of Mary’s ineffective faith.  It is the faith of feeling, of physical presence.  There is almost an obsession with Mary over the physical presence of Christ’s body.  Even when He was dead, she is focused on the body of Christ.  She wants to anoint the body.  She is alarmed when there is no body in the tomb.  She is confused, concerned.  

So now when she recognizes she is in the presence of Christ, she immediately grabs hold of Him, as if to say I will never let go of His physical presence.  And in our humanness, that is understandable.  Who among us does not crave the physical closeness, physical presence of the Lord?  How many have not thought, “Oh, if God would just reveal Himself to me, every thing would be ok. I could take what I am going through. I could deal with things, if I could just see the Lord in some manifestation of His presence.”  

But Christ rebukes Mary for that, calling it clinging.  He says, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”  Jesus indicates the faith that is required in this new life will be a faith in Him who will not be visible, but invisible. Not a faith founded on a clinging, experiential, physical presence of God, but a faith founded on the inviolable promises of the Word of God.

Now much debate is given to this statement by Christ.  First of all, the obvious meaning is that at that point He had just risen from three days in  the grave, even from the depths of Hades, and He had not ascended to the Father. But it also means that the purpose of God was not that He would remain here in bodily form, but would ascend into heaven to stand as Mediator between God and man, our Great High Priest.  He could not do that from earth, but His place was in heaven, far above all rule and authority on Earth.

But it also means that He would not be a physical presence here on Earth that we can see and hold onto, but rather our faith in what is not seen would be required in a life of faith.  The just shall live by faith.  And that which is seen is not faith, but that which is unseen.  This will be the acceptable pattern of faith in this new resurrection life, that we might believe the testimony of faithful men, even the apostles, who would record their testimony in the gospels and epistles and that having believed the scriptures, we might receive the knowledge of God which leads to the full measure of salvation; not only justification, but a life of sanctification, culminating in our future glorification when we will be made completely like Christ at His second coming.

So the testimony of faith is illustrated by Mary Magdalene, who comes afterwards to the disciples and says, “I have seen the Lord.”  This is the basis for our faith.  The testimony of faithful witnesses, who were willing to die for that testimony.  And their testimony was accompanied by the signs of the apostles, with all miracles and signs and wonders, so that we might believe their word.  So that by the testimony of the Scriptures, the nations of the world might come to know the knowledge of God that leads to salvation, that we might go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to believe and observe all that Christ taught, as evidenced by the Word of God.

The resurrection teaches us that when we die to this world, we can be born again to a new life in Christ.  That new life begins at our justification, where we are declared righteous by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it continues in a life of sanctification, where we live righteously by the power of the Spirit of Christ,  whereby we become conformed to the image of Christ, and become His ambassadors of the Kingdom of God to the world.  But that new life is not automatic, it’s not like being put into autopilot mode.  It is, however, a life that is possible,  when we walk in the Spirit.  When the just shall live by faith.  And our faith is founded on the Scriptures, by which we may know God, and know the will of God. 

 Don’t look for the physical to confirm your faith, look for the scriptures to inform your faith. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  That living, powerful source of faith is described in  Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Let us hold fast the Word of God, that our faith may be founded on the true and faithful promises of God.  

2Cor. 5:14-15 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;  and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

The two biggest themes of the 60’s generation, aka, the hippie movement, were peace and love.  When you look at images from that era, whether they be concerts or sit ins, or protests, or whatever, you often see them holding signs professing their desire for both. In fact, it was trendy in those days to espouse both of those as ideals.  I remember very well as a teenager holding up two fingers in a peace sign and saying “Peace, man,” in place of the usual hello and goodbyes. It was the thing to do. Young people drew peace signs everywhere.  It was a popular concept, but unfortunately, they had a much different type of peace in mind  than that which was traditionally thought of up until that point in society.

I have spoken many times in my messages concerning love, and the biblical view of love as opposed to the world’s view, particularly as expressed by that generation, but I have not said as much about peace.  However, today we find ourselves at a passage of scripture when Jesus Himself speaks of peace.  The peace which He offers though, He said is not as the world gives.  So once again, we see a biblical principle co-opted by the world, and a need to define our terms according to sound doctrine in contrast to that of popular conceptions.

In the 60’s, peace came to mean a lot of things.  Peace came to mean a state of mind, like “a peaceful, easy feeling,” according to the Eagles, perhaps induced by drugs or dropping out of society and forming a commune.  But I would suggest that it’s origin as a mantra of the hippie movement stemmed from their desire to see the war in Vietnam come to an end.  And that ideal seems to still be most associated with the concept of peace in the world today.  For many in the world, peace is an ideal that is worth any cost, even the loss of many freedoms.  Many people just feel that peace, or the absence of war or hostilities or violence is an end that justifies any means necessary.

My goal here today is not to debate that kind of idealism, or the politics of appeasement in the name of peace.  But my goal is to explain what kind of peace Jesus was referring to.  Because it is important to note that Jesus is making a promise of peace. He is leaving them a promise of their inheritance.  He has said repeatedly that He was leaving the disciples.  He was speaking here in this passage on the night before His crucifixion.  This whole passage of several chapters is called the Upper Room Discourse.  And as the disciples begin to understand that He has been betrayed by one of their own, and that He is leaving them to go back to heaven, they are troubled.  They are understandably upset.  So He begins this chapter by saying, “Let not your heart be troubled.”  He offers them assurance and comfort that He will be with them in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.  And that one day He will physically return for the church and they would be with them for ever.

Last week we looked specifically at the promise and purpose of the Holy Spirit, and that Jesus refers to Him as the Helper, or the Comforter. So today’s passage must be considered in that same context.  Jesus’s promise of peace is given in the context of “don’t let your hearts be troubled.”  It’s the context of “I will send you a Helper, I will not leave you as orphans.  I will come to you.” 

So in that same train of thought, Jesus says, ““Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” It’s an echo of verse one, to some extent.  I would say that it is an exposition of verse one.  You should not be troubled in heart because Jesus leaves you peace, He gives you His peace. 

So within that context we can be pretty certain that Jesus is not talking about pacifism or the cessation of war.  He is speaking of a peace of soul, of the heart, of the mind.  It is the peace spoken of in Philippians 4:7, which says, “And the peace  of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Now that is the inner peace that we all need, isn’t it?  That is the peace which Christ promises.  And yet I would suggest that is not the daily experience of most of us. 

I believe that most doctors would agree that stress and anxiety are at the root of many of  our health problems today as a society.  And I can assure you that Christians are not exempt from it either.  I read an article the other day that claimed antidepressants showed up in significant, measurable amounts in most cities tap water in the United States. That gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “drinking the  koolaid,” doesn’t it? I don’t know what that means for the safety of our drinking water, but I will say that it indicates that our society is still trying to find some sort of peace through drugs.  So I believe that this promise of Christ is one that is especially pertinent today.  And it’s especially pertinent for Christians whose hearts are troubled by the trials and tribulations that we endure in this world.  That we might know the peace that Christ spoke of later in this Upper Room Discourse, in chapter  16:33, saying, “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

So as we consider this vital text, I would like to break it down into four points, which hopefully will help us to see it in the light it was intended.  First let’s look at the principle of peace, then the promise of peace, then the possession of peace, and finally the practice of peace. 

First the principle of peace.  And I deliberately use that phrase because it is sort of a play on words.  See, the principle of peace belongs to the Prince of Peace.  Jesus says, it is “My peace.”  It belongs to Him.   It is His to leave to us, and it is His to give.  It is His peace.  We just inherit it, if we are His disciples.

This title of Prince of Peace is found in the prophecy made familiar by Handle’s Messiah.  It finds it’s origin in Isaiah 9:6, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness, From then on and forevermore.The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”  Now that is obviously referring to the Kingdom of God, of which Christ rules. In this present age we experience the Kingdom of God spiritually, but upon Christ’s return we shall see it in glory.  But for now, Christ rules over His people, through whom He rules the world. 

But there is a rebellion against the Kingdom of God.  That rebellion began in ages past when Lucifer desired to be like God and took with him in his rebellion one third of the hosts of heaven.  And then Satan seduced God’s creation,  the crown of His creation – man who was made in the image of God, made to be like God, who was to rule the world with God – Satan seduced mankind to join him in that rebellion, and so mankind fell and has become a slave of the kingdom of darkness, even willfully participating in that rebellion against God.  So that as James 4:4 says, the world is an enemy of God.

Christ then is the Prince of Peace because He came to earth to reconcile mankind to God.  To make peace with God through His atonement for their sin.  Hebrews 2:14 says, “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  Christ defeated the power of death, and Satan, so that whosoever believes in Him, would be saved from their sin and be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of LIght, being born again as sons and daughter’s of God. 

That transaction, where God places the punishment for our rebellion against Christ, and transfers Christ’s righteousness unto those who by faith believe in Him, is what Ephesians 6:15 calls the “gospel of peace.” 

And that is how Christ can refer to it as His peace.  It is His gospel, it is His good news, it is His victory which produces that peace, it is His to give to those who by faith believe in Him, because He won it, He purchased it with His blood.  So because He purchased our peace with God, we can have peace of mind.  I have made a statement for the last couple of weeks, and I will say it again this morning: The greatest comfort in life is to know God, and to be known by God.  Perhaps you have seen the bumper sticker which says, “Know God, know Peace.  No God, no peace.”  Because we are His, and He is mine, I can have a peace that passes all understanding.  Because I know Him who knows the future.  I know Him who triumphed over Satan.  I know Him who stilled the storm, who raised the dead, who healed the sick.  I know Him who was from the beginning, and who always will be, even through eternity.

Now there is so much more that I could say, but let’s move on to the next point.  But that first point, the principle of peace is foundational.  All the rest build upon that rock.  So we had to establish our foundation for peace, which is the principle of peace, made possible by the Prince of Peace. 

Secondly, there is the promise of peace.  Really, it is our inheritance.  This Upper Room Discourse is in effect the last will and testament of Jesus Christ.  He who had no earthly goods, left us the most priceless treasure that no amount of money can buy.  He leaves us peace.  You know, a will is only a promise while the person is living, but when they die, the executor acts in accordance with the will and makes it so.  However, I’m sure you have all heard of cases where the people who were supposed to receive an inheritance ended up getting cheated out of the will of the deceased.  And in such cases, it is possible to hear someone say, “Oh if so and so were alive, he would have wanted this person to get the inheritance, and he would make sure that they did.”  But of course, the person is dead, and that sometimes doesn’t happen.  But we have an inheritance made sure, because Jesus Christ rose from the dead and lives and rules from heaven.  We can be sure of our inheritance because He lives to make intercession for us.

We are entitled to this promise because we are the children of God by faith in Christ. We are not of this world, as Jesus says His peace is not as the world gives.  But a peace from God. Rom 8:16, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” 

Our promise then is not founded upon wishful thinking.  The world cries for “peace, peace, but there is no peace.”  But peace is promised in God’s word.  And His word cannot fail.  His word is forever settled in heaven.  HIs word is doubly guaranteed by the Father and by Jesus Christ, and He has given us the Spirit of God as a deposit of that promise, the same Spirit who is called the Comforter.  The very presence of God is our peace.  The Comforter is who Jesus was promising would come, who would testify of Him, who would indwell His disciples and be with them forever.  That is why He could say in vs.28, “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.  Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.” 

We know that the promise is sure because we know that Jesus died and rose again and is now seated at the Father’s right hand.  Because God raised Him from the dead, we know that we have the things that He has promised us.  Because Christ was counted righteous, and His sacrifice was sufficient, and the penalty was paid in full, therefore God did not allow Him to stay dead, but raised Him to show that He had triumphed over the devil and sin and the grave.  That is why Jesus says in vs.30, “the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.”  His resurrection proved His words were true, and thus we can have the assurance that His promise to us of peace will be true. Thus, I am His and He is Mine, and nothing can touch us without His approval. 

Thirdly, not just the promise but we have the possession of peace.  How do we go from the promise to the possession?  I would submit to you it is by the same principle found in all of our salvation.  The just shall live by faith.  It is by faith that we possess the promise of peace.  That is how we receive peace with God.  And that is how we will achieve peace of heart and mind.

The best example of having that kind of peace is found in the life of Jesus. What kind of peace did Jesus have? Did he have the peace of a placid, stress free existence? Did he have the peace of an emotionless, stoic kind of life? Well, no, He had  peace born out of the confidence that He was God’s Son. But if you look at our Lord’s experiences, His experiences were anything but emotionless or stressless. He was a man of griefs, of sorrows, of emotions like anger and heartache and feelings of rejection and unbelief. Often we have seen that Christ was troubled in spirit.  Yet even in HIs troubles He had peace. 

It’s interesting to note that at the very time that our Lord talks about peace and presents this peace as His own peace that He’s granting to His followers, He is at the most dramatic, disturbing, distressing moment in His life.  He is leaving the world in just a few hours through the means of torture on a cross, and He knows that, and He knows the details of it full well.  And yet He is at peace. 

Why?  Because He knows that He is in the will of God.  He knows that He is working in conjunction with the Spirit of God.  He believes in the sovereignty of God.  He believes in the Word of God which prophesied all that had happened and would happen to Him.  He had peace because He knew that He was the Son of God and all that happened was working according to the plan of God. 

But, you might protest, “that was Christ.  Christ was sinless.  I am not.  How can I have that same peace?”  Well, we can have that same peace when we abide in Christ.  That is what Jesus goes on to teach in the next chapter.  As we abide in Christ, specifically, as we walk in the Spirit of Christ, as we follow His leading, as we live by His teaching, we have peace knowing that we are in accordance with God’s will, and He hears us in whatsoever we ask of Him. Jesus was confident, at peace, in spite of the circumstances, because He knew that the devil had nothing on Him.  He had not given the devil a foothold in His life.  He had not lowered the armor of God to allow the devil an opportunity in any way.  He knew that He had been faithful to the word of God, that He was living in the will of God.  And that same confidence is available to us as we abide in Christ.

Listen, you may not be able to say that today.  I think all of us will find ourselves from time to time compromised in our spiritual situation.  That is why we need our feet washed on a regular basis.  We need the daily cleansing and confession and restoration every day to maintain that peace with God.  Our possession of peace is tied to our perseverance in our faith.  That is why we are commanded to live sanctified lives, to be holy even as God is holy.  That is why James says we are to cleanse our hands and purify our hearts, so that we might have a clean conscience before God. That the devil will have no hold on us, no part in us. That is how we possess the promise of peace. 

If God is the source of peace, then we need to draw near to God and He will draw near to us.  When you know that you are right with God, then you will know the peace of God.  You will know that peace which transcends our circumstances, without the fear that we are experiencing sin’s consequences.  There is a great difference between the two.  Those who are out of step with God and running after the lusts and passions of the world suffer the consequences of doing wrong.  There is no peace for the wicked, says the Lord.  But those who walk in the Spirit, know the peace of God which transcends whatever circumstances that may come.

And that brings us to the final point, the practice of peace.  About 28 years ago, I found myself at a point where I had no peace.  I almost literally lost my mind.  I went through about 4 years of daily anxiety attacks which were absolutely crippling.  As a result, I lost my home which I had built with my own hands, I lost my career, and I lost all my money, furniture, and cars eventually.  During that time, God used those circumstances to prune away all those things which were keeping me from communion with Him. 

I wanted nothing more in those days than peace.  I wanted mental peace.  And so I turned to the source of peace, the word of God.  But it wasn’t just as easy as name it and claim it. It was a long process of proving scripture to be true and trustworthy.  There was one passage of scripture in particular though that came to mean a lot to me, and through it I found the formula for peace.  We like formula’s, don’t we? “Three ways to prosperity.”  “Five ways to peace.” “Ten steps to marital reconciliation.”  Pastors obviously love them too.  But this passage really does seem to be a formula from God specifically to help us find this peace that Jesus promises. 

It’s found in Philippians chapter 4, and I will read from vs.6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  Well, that sounds an awful lot like the first  verse of John 14, doesn’t it?  “Let not your heart be troubled.” And also vs. 13 and 14, when Jesus says, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Maybe there is a pattern here. Peace starts with prayer.

Then Paul says in vs.7 of Phil.4, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  Well, that’s what Jesus promised in vs27, isn’t it?  That’s what we want, our hearts and minds at peace.  Notice that Paul says that peace is found in Christ Jesus.  But then Paul goes from the theological, to the practical, as he so often does in his epistles.  First he gives us the doctrine, and then he gives us the application.  And so he does in vs8: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”  So the formula so far is pray, praise, and ponder.  Ponder means to think on these things.  Meditate on them.

So peace comes as we think on those things, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good repute, worthy of praise, let your mind think on these things.  Listen, there is so much there that I could preach on that list for a week.  But let me just highlight one, briefly.  Our trouble is in our minds.  The mind is the battlefield, more often than not.  And where we get off track usually is in the first one on the list; truth.  Whatever is true.  We need to start practicing peace by telling ourselves the truth.  The devil is the father of lies.  And he has engineered the world system to be a system of lies.  So that the average person doesn’t or can’t tell the truth from a lie.  They want to believe the lie because it sounds so appealing to the flesh.  A person becomes an alcoholic because they have bought into the lie that drinking is fun, that a couple of drinks won’t hurt you.  A person becomes an adulturer because they believe the lie that a little flirtation is harmless, or a little pornography isn’t such a big deal.  You get the picture. 

I believed the lies of “what if’s” that constantly bombarded my mind during my anxiety attacks.  If I believed the lies, I was crippled and couldn’t work or travel.  But when I believed the promises of God, then I found deliverance.  So let your mind dwell on the truth.  And I can assure you that the truth is found in God’s word.  All of Paul’s list can be found in God’s word.

Then Paul says in vs.9, “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”   Practice what things?  The things which are taught in God’s word, the truth, the right things, the honorable things, the principles of sanctified Christianity.  Those things.  Practice the application of sound doctrine.  Practice those things.  Oh my!  Sounds like legalism doesn’t it?  You mean peace doesn’t come by just giving lip service to God but living like the devil?  No, I’m afraid not.  If you are truly a child of God, then He says He chastises those He loves when they disobey.  So instead practice righteousness.  Practice holiness. You say, well I’m not very good at it.  I sin a lot.  I can’t help it.  Well, Paul says practice some more.  It’s like learning to play the piano.  It takes practice.  And the more you practice, the better  you will get.  Practice makes perfect.  And Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.”  So practice what we learn by pondering God’s word and we will have perfect peace.

Heb.5:14 tells us, “that because of practice we have our senses trained to discern good and evil.”  Peter tells us in  2Peter 1:10, “Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.”  So we practice the things which Paul and Peter and John give us as applications of righteousness in their epistles. and when we do them, Paul says, the peace of God will be with you.”  “The peace that passes all comprehension.”

Listen, in this world you will have trouble.  If we get caught up in the lies of this world, we will not have peace.  But I can assure you that Jesus has left us His peace, it is a gift of God.  By faith in Christ we have peace with God.  And then practically we let our minds ponder on the truth of God, and we practice the principles of God, so that we might have our hearts and minds fixed by the peace which only God can give, in spite of whatever circumstances we might find ourselves in.  We know we are His, and He knows us.  That is the comfort which we can all appropriate through faith in Christ. 

In today’s passage we are continuing our study of what is called the Upper Room Discourse.  It spans several chapters, and yet it all occurs in just one evening; Christ’s last evening with His disciples before He is crucified.  In this talk that Jesus gives, He tells His disciples that He will be leaving them very soon, and that where He is going they cannot now come. Of course, they are very troubled by this revelation.  And Jesus knows that they are upset over this. So He says to them not to be troubled, but that He will return for them one day, that they may be with Him forever.

But in the meantime, He says that He will send the Comforter, or the Helper, depending on your translation, who will take His place and come alongside of them.  That is found in vs.16. He says He will send “allos Parakletos” another Helper to come alongside them who is just like Him.  That is the translation of the Greek. 

Then in vs.17, Jesus reveals the name of the Helper; the Spirit of Truth. And then in vs 26 He says He is sending the Holy Spirit to help them. So Jesus gives three different titles or names for the Holy Spirit.  And those three names help us to understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Now this idea of a Helper is very important for the disciples, because they are not going to make it if they don’t have some divine help.  That much has been proven in the last 3 years of Jesus’s ministry.  And even before this night is over, they are all going to fall away when Jesus is taken from them by force.  They are going to be scattered.  So they need to realize that they are not being forsaken.

But it is also important for the church today as well.  Because we live in a time that we cannot touch and see and experience Jesus as they did.  We live by faith in what He taught, but we cannot experience what the disciples experienced. And so it is even more important for us, because in some respects, the Christian life is harder for us than it was for them.  

You may remember after His resurrection, Thomas did not believe the other disciples who said that they had seen the risen Lord.  He said I’m not going to believe unless I put my finger in His nail prints and His wounded side.  And Jesus shows up a few days later and says “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

So it is important for us as it was for the disciples, to understand what Jesus is telling them here.  Because Jesus is describing for them the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  They needed to know what that was going to look like.  And in the same way we need to know what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is supposed to look like, and what He is supposed to accomplish.  Because we are living in the “in betweens,” the time between Jesus’s first appearing and His second appearing.  And for those of us who are saved, we have this same promise of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, and without His help we cannot really know the truth and we are powerless to live the Christian life.  

Furthermore, I think this is important for the modern church because practically no other doctrine is so misunderstood today than that of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  The devil is a deceiver, and he spreads confusion in order to try to derail naive Christians, and to keep the Church from the victory which is possible and promised in Christ.  So let’s try to unpack these verses and see if we can’t demystify some of the misunderstandings and mischaracterizations that surround this important doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

First note in vs.16  that Jesus identifies the primary work of the Holy Spirit in the very title that He uses for Him. As I mentioned earlier Jesus says He is the “Allos Paracletos.”  Paraclete means one who is called alongside to help.  And then “allos” means another of the same kind.  So that Jesus is saying, I am going to send you another Helper to come alongside of you of the same kind as I am.  

Now that is important.  Because many people think that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is something completely different than Jesus.  But as He recorded in vs.10, Jesus said He didn’t do anything on His own initiative, but He spoke the words of God and He did the works of God.  And He said that is how you could know that He was of God.  He told Philip in vs.9, “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father.”  So if you wanted to know what God was like, you simply had to watch and listen to Jesus.  The same principle is true of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not glorify Himself, but glorifies Jesus. Jesus said in chapter 15:26, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.”  And in chapter 16:13 He says, “But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  

In Romans 8:9, Paul identifies the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God and then again as the Spirit of Christ. So there you see the unity of the trinity.  The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus, and Jesus glorifies the Father.  The Holy Spirit doesn’t speak on His initiative, but He speaks the words of Christ.  And Christ doesn’t speak on His initiative, but He speaks the words of the Father. So they are in agreement.  They are three in One. The ministry of the Holy Spirit then is to glorify Jesus, and Jesus glorifies the Father.

So Jesus is saying that the Holy Spirit is going to come when He leaves, and He is going to continue the ministry that Jesus was doing.  He is going to be with the disciples every minute of every day, just like Jesus had been. Vs.17,  “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

Let’s break that down a little bit.  There are two elements in this verse that I want to focus on.  First, Jesus  calls Him the Spirit of Truth.  The second element is that He abides with you and will be in you.  Two vital components of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  

First, the Spirit of Truth.  Jesus has just announced in vs.6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  So Jesus is the Truth.  In John 1, it says Jesus is the Word. So the Word and the Truth are one and the same.  When Jesus concludes this Upper Room Discourse, He prays for His disciples, and in that prayer in chapter 17, Jesus says in vs.17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

So the Word and the Truth are two sides to the same coin.  God’s word is truth.  Jesus’s whole ministry had been about teaching God’s word, teaching the truth about God.  Teaching the truth about the Kingdom of God and what it is like and how we must enter into it.  Jesus showed the correlation of the truth and the word in chapter 8vs31 saying, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to teach the disciples the truth of God’s word.  To help them to discern the truth of Christ’s gospel. He is the minister of the Word.  This is how we can know the truth.  And this is how we can know the Spirit of Truth.  He will speak the word of God, He will minister the word of God.  He will not speak new revelation, but He will disclose the revelation of Christ. We can verify the ministry of the Spirit by whether or not He ministers through the word. He doesn’t come to give us some sort of experience of God, but He comes to give us the word of God.

Secondly, the Spirit is given to help them do God’s work. Vs. 12, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.”  Jesus adds in chapter 16:7 “But I tell you the truth, 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.”  So the power of the Holy Spirit is given to help us do the works of God.  

In Acts 1:8 Jesus told His disciples, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”  That was the “greater works than these” which Jesus promised them in chapter 14.  They would take the gospel to the whole world through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And that is the same power that is available to us as we are witnesses to the world.  And that power of the Holy Spirit finds it’s root in the word of God, the gospel.  Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

So they have the same power through the Holy Spirit as they had with Christ, that they might do the works of God as Christ did.  Then as indicated in chapter 14 vs 12, what are the works of God? First, it’s the will of God. Vs.14“If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Jesus is going to help us to do what He wants us to do.  He is not going to ask us to do anything contrary to God’s will, and He will provide all our needs to do His will.  In 1John 5:14 it says, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”  The disciples could continue Christ’s ministry because the power of the Holy Spirit would provide what was necessary to do the works of God.

Secondly, the works of God are found in the word of God.  It’s the commandments of God. vs.15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  Notice how many times Jesus speaks of this principle, equating love and obedience, keeping His word with His communion with us. Vs.21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  Vs.23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” And vs.24, “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

So how does the Holy Spirit help us to do God’s word, to keep His commandments? Jesus says that He does that by reminding us of His words. vs. 25,  “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 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 said to you.”  Now that was fulfilled in two ways.  One was when the disciples preached the gospel or had to give a defense of the gospel, the Holy Spirit brought to their mind the word of God.  These were unlearned men.  They weren’t Rabbis trained in the scriptures.  And yet when you hear Peter preach on the day of Pentecost, he preaches from the word of God, quoting from Old Testament prophesies like that of Joel.  And he does so with discernment, with the discernment which is given to him by the Spirit of Truth.

And in the life of a modern day believer, we have the same promise.  We are told to hide the word of God in our hearts that we might not sin against Him. The Spirit of God brings to our mind the words of God in order to teach us how we are to act.  He uses the preaching of God’s word to admonish us and correct us when we get out of line.  Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  So Paul tells young pastor Timothy in  2Timothy 4:2 to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” The Holy Spirit uses the word of God to train us so that we might keep His word. He works through the word of God.

But the other purpose of the Spirit bringing the words of Christ to their remembrance was to author through them the scriptures.  They would go on to write the gospels and the epistles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  2Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  And Peter adds in  2Peter 1:20, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”  

The scriptures are the great legacy left to us by the apostles under the direction of the Holy Spirit.  That today we might know God and know the way to God because we have the word of God made more sure.  It is written down for us by eyewitnesses, who had every word brought to their mind by the Spirit of Truth who brought it to their remembrance.  

This is how we might know God and to be known by God. We cannot come to know God and be known by God apart from the word of God. I said a couple of weeks ago that there is no greater comfort than to know God, and to be known by God.  There is no greater treasure.  There is no greater blessing.  Jesus said in  vs 21 of our text, “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  As we keep His word, He discloses more of Himself to us, that we might know Him more and more.

The second element of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as stated in vs.17 is that He abides with you and will be in you.  And again, this is a principle that Jesus makes over and over again.  He wants to drive this home because He knows that in a few hours He will be crucified and His body laid in a tomb.  And so He wants to offer to His disciples the comfort of the Paracletos, the One like Him who will come alongside of them to help them and teach them and lead them in His absence. 

So because the Spirit reveals truth through the word, because He is able to help us to know the word and obey the word, we come to know the love of God, which produces intimacy through the indwelling of His Spirit.  That we might be one with Him, and live with Him, and be with Him forever.

Note in vs.18 Jesus anticipates that sense of abandonment and bewilderment that they will surely feel in just a few hours.  He says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”  I think that is key to having the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  That this is not something we work for, or have to apply for, or even ask for.  It is the initiative of Jesus Christ that sends the Holy Spirit to us, because He will not leave us comfortless.  He will not expect us to go on without Him.  He doesn’t expect us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get our life straightened out first.  No, but He sends His Spirit to us in our hour of need to help us.  When we were helpless, He came to us and offered Himself as our substitute.  And when He went away, He came again in the Spirit of Christ and took up residence in each of us so that He might be with us always.  Matt.28:20, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The word in the Greek in vs 18 is “orphanos,” it means fatherless. Or one bereft of a teacher, guide or guardian.  Christ will never leave us fatherless, helpless.  He will come to us in the Spirit of God, to be with us forever.  Look how often He reiterates this promise. Vs.16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.” Vs.17, “you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”  vs. 20, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”  And vs.23, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”

So four times the Lord tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit will be in them and abide in them forever.  And that promise stands for us today as well.  Romans 8:9 says, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.”  In other words, if you are saved, you have the Spirit of Christ in you.  You cannot be saved and not have the Spirit in you. There is no transition where you are saved but not yet received the Spirit. After Pentecost, salvation meant that a believer is born again by the Spirit, and the Spirit of Christ came into him and dwelled with him.

But how do we know this to be true?  How do we know that we have the Spirit of Truth dwelling in us?  Is it through some experience?  Is it by feeling something on our part?  Is it by some supernatural occurrence that we have this confidence and comfort?  I don’t believe so.  There may be feelings or emotions one way or another, or no emotions at all.  There may be no supernatural occurrence whatsoever.  Jesus doesn’t say anything about how you would feel.  He says you will know it. Look at vs.17 again: “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” 

Notice He says that the world cannot know Him.  Why?  Because the world is not saved.  The world has not received salvation through faith in Christ.  They try to judge spiritual things by what they can touch or feel or sense with their senses. That’s why some apostate churches rely on candles and incense and sensory objects, all of which supposedly make you feel something spiritual. But that’s oxymoronic.  You don’t use the physical to experience the spiritual.  The Bible says that the just shall live by faith.  And that which is seen is not faith.  Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval.”  So Jesus says you cannot try to know what is unseen by the senses.

Instead He uses the Greek word “ginosko” which means to know intimately.  It was often used to imply the intimacy between a man and his wife.  It is the knowledge which comes of an intimate relationship.  He says that you will know that the Holy Spirit is in you, because you will have the intimacy of relationship with Me.  That is the evidence that the Holy Spirit is in you and will abide in you forever.  Because you know Him with an intimate relationship based on love.  

And how do we have that intimacy? We have intimacy with Christ when we keep His word.  Vs.23, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”   Love is the basis for intimacy.  And intimacy is the basis for the knowledge and assurance that He will never leave us or forsake us.  He proves Himself to us as we study His word and obey His word.  That is how we show our love for Him.  And when we love Him, He will love us in return in a special way that supersedes our senses.  So that whether we live or die, we know we are the Lord’s.  Whether we are in comfort or in danger, we know we are the Lord’s.  Whether we are in poverty or in plenty, we know we are the Lord’s.  

Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  He has sent His Spirit to dwell in our hearts by faith. He has given us His word which will abide forever. That we might be comforted with the word.  So that we might know God, and know that God knows us, that we are His, and He is mine, and He will be with us, forever.  Amen.