I want to focus our attention this morning on the last few hours before Christ’s death.  And in that timeframe, Jesus was detailing His plan and purpose not only for His life, but also the life ahead for His disciples.  We have been looking for weeks now at this last evening of Jesus’s life, in the passage known as the Upper Room  Discourse.  We are now down to the last few sentences.  And Jesus makes five statements in these last 9 verses of chapter 16 that I want to look at today.  Each one of them is so pregnant with truth that we might easily spend a sermon on them individually. But in the interest of time, we are only going to look briefly at these statements.  

At first glance, they seem disconnected. There is little to tie all of them together other than the impending departure of Christ.  So from that perspective, we might suppose that Christ gives them these final principles in order to strengthen them and prepare them for what is to come. 

The first statement Christ makes is found in vs.25, which we could summarize by saying, “the veil is lifted.”  The actual words of Jesus are as follows: “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.”

Now I summarize this statement by saying “the veil is lifted,”  because it refers back to the Old Testament period which the disciples were a part of, but are now transitioning out of.  In Hebrews 9, the author tells us that in the old covenant, there was a tabernacle, and within the tabernacle was the Holy of Holies where the presence of God dwelled. Though God’s presence was there, He was veiled to the people.  And only once a year the high priest offered sacrifices for himself and the people and went in before the presence of God to intercede on their behalf.  

Hebrews tells us that  the sacrifices and the altar and the high priest and the Holy of Holies  separated by the veil were earthly pictures of heavenly realities.   Hebrews 9:11 says, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”  And then in vs.24, “For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

That means according to chapter 10 that we too have full access to God through Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 10:19, “Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” By faith in Christ, the author is saying, we have entrance through the veil to God, having been made righteous by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So to go back to vs.25 then, Jesus is saying, the time has come when I will perform the ultimate sacrifice and make it possible for you to enter into the Holy of Holies.  And as you will remember, on the next day as Christ was crucified on the cross, the veil of the temple was literally torn from top to bottom, signifying that access to God had now been made possible through Christ’s death. That which was up to this point figurative and ceremonial, will now be done away with because the One who completes the picture has come.  So that no more will there be need for pictures and symbols and parables and figurative language, but Jesus will now tell you plainly of the Father, because He has offered the supreme sacrifice so that we are not separated from God by this veil, through which the disciples could now see through only dimly, but the veil will be torn in two so that they may draw near to God and be taught of God fully.

Jesus is stating that it was a new age in man’s relationship with God. Where there was once enmity, there is now peace. Where there was once separation, there is now full access. Where there was once pictures and symbols and parables, there is now the truth of the gospel made manifest in Christ, revealed through His word, and written in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Thus Christ can say as He did earlier, that it was to our advantage that He went away.  So that’s the first principle; that through Christ as our high priest offering Himself as the sacrifice we now have full access to God.

Secondly, because of this veil being lifted, Jesus says you will know the familial love of the Father.  That’s the second point; to know the familial love of the Father.  Jesus says this in vs.26 and 27, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”

I think the key to understanding this statement is to understand the word love that  Jesus says the Father has towards us.  Contrary to most references in the New Testament, this love is not agape love as we are used to seeing.  But this word for love that Jesus uses here is  the Greek word “phileo” which means the love of family.  This love speaks of a new relationship we can have with God that is made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  

This love is the result of a familial relationship with God which had not been possible before the veil was lifted in Christ.  Having been cleansed by the blood of Christ, we are not only able to go directly before the throne of God, but He has also come to us.  He has given us His Spirit to dwell in us.  So that our bodies have now become the Holy of Holies where the Spirit of God dwells. As 1 Cor.3:16 says, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.”

God no longer dwells in temples made with human hands, but in the hearts of His people.  Our faith in the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf makes us part of His family.  And God has a special love towards His family.   Romans 8:14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

There’s a classic Christmas hymn written in 1739 by John Wesley and Charles Whitfield, both famous for their preaching during the Great Awakening which proclaims, “Pleased, as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.”  Emmanuel means “God with us.”  Not just as a baby born to men, but “Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.”  And as we are born of God, then we enjoy the love of the Father as His children.  We have access to God as His sons and daughters.

That’s a privilege that is beyond our comprehension.  I can’t help but think of a famous photograph taken in the 60’s of President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office of the White House.  And in the photograph of the President sitting at his desk, you can clearly see his son, little John F. Kennedy, Jr. playing under the desk.  That’s a good illustration of the privilege that we have with our heavenly Father, if we are born again into the family of God.

Thirdly, the basis of that relationship that both the disciples and we enjoy with the Father is founded in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This gospel Jesus condenses into four statements, which constitute a creed, or confession of faith.  We simply believe this creed, and the blood of Jesus Christ is applied to us, and we receive all these benefits of being sons and daughters of God. 

Romans 10:9-10 says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” 

 So Jesus extrapolates this confession in one sentence containing four major points in vs.28; “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” This statement is tremendous in its simplicity and conciseness. One sentence with four points, and yet it contains the major doctrines of the gospel upon which we base our faith.  Notice, “I have come forth from the Father (that is speaking of His deity). I am come into the world (that is speaking of His incarnation.) I am leaving the world (that speaks of His death by crucifixion). I go to the Father (that speaks of is His resurrection and ascension).”

This illustrates that simply recognizing Jesus as a baby in a manger, or as a good teacher, or simply that He existed in history does not really constitute saving faith in Him.  We must believe in His deity; that He existed in the beginning with God and He was God. Secondly, we must believe in His incarnation; that He is God who became flesh and dwelt among us yet without sin.  Thirdly, we must believe that His death on the cross was the supreme sacrifice for the sins of mankind, and it was the substitutionary atonement by the grace of God on our behalf.  And fourthly, we must believe that God, having found no fault in Christ, and having paid our debt in full,  raised Him from the dead and He ascended to the right hand of the Father after all authority and power had been given to Him.  That is what it means to believe in Him.  And upon confession and faith in this gospel, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is made effective for us, cleansing us from sin, and His righteousness is imputed to our account, making us righteous as we are born again into the family of God, so that  as sons and daughters of God we share in the inheritance of Christ.

Fourthly, we see in this passage the faltering faith of the faithful.  Vs.29, His disciples said, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”

I think this statement by the disciples is sincere but it is incomplete in the sense that they have an immature faith at this point. What this principle teaches is the progression of our faith.  God gives us trials in order to refine our faith, but also to strengthen our faith and mature it.  Our faith grows in the fires of adversity.  Up to this point, the faith of the disciples was mostly academic.  I mean, they had certainly left all to follow Him, and thus suffered some as a result of that decision.  But the real tests of their faith was yet to come.  Consequently, their faith was still immature.  

Consider Peter’s boast that though all fall away, he would never fall away.  He was sincere, but he had no idea of what it would require of him to stay by the Lord’s side.  They believed up to a point, but it was  untested, and as a result, it was immature faith. And yet all the disciples were in the same boat as Peter.  They all would fall away that night.  They all would desert the Lord. And there is little difference between those first disciples and us.  We come to Christ through faith, but initially our faith is not fully developed. As we encounter trials and tribulations, as as we are fed by the word of God, God works in us to strengthen our faith, and to conform us in the image of Christ as we participate in the fellowship of His sufferings.

So to prepare the disciples for this testing what Jesus wants to emphasize was His relationship to the Father.  He says “I am not alone because the Father is with Me.”  This is what their faltering faith needs to rest upon in this time of testing; that Jesus and the Father were One. The plan of God did not fail due to the death of Christ.  Actually, the plan of God was in full effect. Their conviction of the deity of Christ was essential to their faith, so that though they may stumble, they would not fall headlong.  Because their relationship with God depends upon Christ’s relationship with God.  And Christ and the Father are One.  They need to know that Jesus is Lord, even when circumstances may seem to be declaring it untrue.

The great 19th century English preacher Charles Spurgeon gave a sermon on this passage.  He said, “There he stands. They have left him alone; but there he is, still standing to his purpose. He has come to save, and he will save. He has come to redeem, and he will redeem. He has come to overcome the world, and he will overcome it.”  

He also said, “I remember that passage about Abraham going with Isaac to mount Moriah, where Isaac was to be offered up. It is written, ‘So they went both of them together.’ So did the Eternal Father and his Well- beloved Son when God was about to give up his own Son to death. There was no divided purpose; they went both of them together.”

Fifthly, Jesus wants to remind the disciples of the peace of God and the good will of God in the face of tribulations.  Vs.33, “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.”  

When Jesus says in verse 33, “These things I have spoken unto you that in Me you might have peace,” He’s not saying that you’re not going to have tribulation, or difficulties, or trials and troubles. He’s simply saying that in the midst of the difficulties, and trials, and troubles, amidst the hostility of the world, the persecution, perhaps even the loss of life, He will give us peace – a peace not as the world gives.  A sense of calmness that comes from the assurance of the expiation of our sins and of a heavenly Father whose presence  through the Spirit is with us in all the experiences of life.  That no matter what comes my way, no matter how dire the circumstances may seem, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yet God is with me.

The peace of God is two fold.  On the one hand, we who were at enmity with God now have peace with God. When we were in our sins, we were in rebellion against God as Lord.  But due to our faith in what Christ accomplished on our behalf, our sins have been expunged.  We have been adopted into the family of God by the Father and given new life and indwelled by the Spirit of God, so that we have permanent communion with God.  That relationship we have is the foundation of our peace as we go through the trials and tribulations of this world.  How much more can we ask for than to know that the Creator of all things is with us, and that He loves us and will never leave us?  That He hears us whenever we call upon Him.  That we can come to Him whenever we need Him and He welcomes us and promises to help us.  That is a peace not as the world gives, but as only God can give to those that love Him and whom He loves. 

And notice that He doesn’t say as you might would expect, “you have overcome the world.” But that He has overcome the world. Christ is our champion.  He is our substitute.  He is our strength.  All our resources and blessings come through Him to us.  So our victory is settled because He was victorious over sin and death, and over all principalities and powers.  He is the object of our faith, and He is the source of our victory.  And so in Him, we can know the good will of God towards men, and the peace of God that passes all understanding.  

When the angel announced Christ’s birth to the shepherds in Luke 2:10 he said, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  The fact that Jesus came from God to be our Savior is the source of great joy to all those who believe in Him.  God has become our Savior.  And because we confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we can say with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”  Christ has secured our peace, He is the source of our joy, He is the strength of our life,  and His death and resurrection has made it possible for us to become the sons and daughters of God and receive an eternal inheritance. 

Today’s message is entitled “Authentic Christianity.”  This is a subject that I feel very strongly about, and I believe the Lord feels very strongly about it as well.  The meaning of  the word “authentic” is of undisputed origin, genuine, true, the real deal.  And as we study John’s gospel I believe this theme is emphasized over and over again. I believe authentic Christianity is very important to God.  And so it should be very important to us.  

God doesn’t want superficial Christianity.  He is not moved by lip service.  He is not interested in rituals and ceremonies and observing holy days which are supposed to honor the Lord, but in reality act as a facade for carnal hearts. In fact, Jesus said to the church of Laodecia in Revelation 3:15, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”  

Now that’s some pretty harsh talk for a bridegroom to say to His bride, is it not?  And yet this is how the Lord feels about superficial, sanctimonious churches that are not acting according to the truth.  David said in Psalm 51:6, “Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.”  God cares about the integrity of His people. Truth is important to God. The word truth is used in the Bible 235 times.  And in the book of John it is used 27 times.  

John 3:33 says that God is true.  Jesus said in John 14:6 that “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  He calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth in John 14:17, John 15:26, and John 16:13. And Jesus says that the word is truth in John 17:17.  I would suggest that God defines Himself as truth.  He cares about truth.  God has declared absolute truth.  And so He cares that we walk in the truth. (2John 1:4)  So without question truth is important to God.

And truth is important to me.  It’s the reason that I preach the gospel.  It is because of a desire to know the truth, and that the truth would be known.  Many of you are familiar with my story.  But for those that aren’t – I am a preacher’s kid.  Preacher’s kids have it tough for a whole host of reasons that I won’t elaborate on today.  But be that as it may, as a genre we are notorious for rebelling and going astray.  And I was no exception. My dad had been an Army sergeant in the paratroopers before he got saved, and he brought us up by very strict standards.   So by 21 or so I had decided to leave home and try to find out if the world was as fun as it looked.  Long story short, I ended up getting as far away from God and my dad’s ministry as I could get.  I ended up in Redondo Beach, California. After a few years, I realized one day that I couldn’t remember the last time I had gone to bed sober.  I had explored all of the deviant pleasures that the world had to offer and still ended up empty and miserable.  And along the way, my love for God had become so cold I wasn’t even sure what I believed anymore.

To add to my problems, I had come to know someone that was a Seventh Day Adventist.  And in the process of discussing religion with them, I found that many of the things that I thought to be true about Christianity I really did not have any basis for believing, other than that was how I had been raised. Which caused me to have serious doubts about what was really the truth.  And so one day all of this culminated in a bout of some serious soul searching.  I became under conviction of the Holy Spirit.  I knew I needed to get right with God, but I spent all day walking the beach, trying to shake it off. Eventually though, God got me alone in my garage that evening, and I began to pour out my heart to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and express my need to have Him take over my failed life.

Especially though because of the questions I had developed due to my exposure to Seventh Day Adventism, I wanted to  know the truth.  And so I prayed to God that if He would show me the truth, I would do it.  Even if it meant that everything I had been raised to believe was wrong, I wanted to know the truth.  And I asked God to show me.  

I had always heard that when someone comes to the Lord he should read the book of John.  And so after I threw away my drugs and alcohol and cigarettes, I found a little New Testament, and began reading the book of John.  And a couple of hours later or so, I came upon this verse we are looking at in our text today.  Verse 13; “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.”   I believe the Holy Spirit specifically illuminated that phrase, “He will guide you into all the truth…”  And I have been pursuing that truth for about 40 years now.

So I believe God wants authentic Christians. Jesus said in John 4:24, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  To that end, God has given us the Spirit of Truth, so that we might worship Him as He wants to be worshipped.  

I saw a sign at a local church the other day which had a quote from Bishop Desmund Tutu. The sign said “Different faiths help us to realize the immensity of God.” But such a definition of God means that this big God doesn’t care how He is represented.  He must not care how we worship Him.  It must mean that He has not declared who He is. But that belief offends the very concept of an Almighty God.  God has manifested Himself to the world in the person and words of Jesus Christ, who said they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. 

The concept of truth has various dimensions, depending on how it is used.  But as it relates to worshipping God, to being a disciple of Christ, Jesus indicates that the knowledge of the truth is progressive.  Jesus said in vs.12, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” 

What Jesus is indicating there is that the disciples had a limited capacity to understand the truth.  They were still struggling with the basic truths of the gospel as He had been teaching them.  The commentator Ellicott said,  “The revelation of Christ is not an imperfect revelation which the Holy Spirit is to supplement. It is a full revelation imperfectly received, and His office is to illumine the heart, and bring home to it the things of Christ.” 

So for the disciples to understand fully the truth of God, God had to give them a Helper to illumine their hearts and lead them to the truth.  And He did that through the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of authenticity.  His ministry in the life of a believer is like the seal that is placed on an item that guarantees it as being authentic, the real deal.   Ephesians 1:13

speaks of that seal, saying, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

So as the disciples come to believe truth of Christ, and trust that truth and act upon it, then they will be capable of receiving more truth which will be administered through the Spirit of truth.

That principle of progressive truth is taught throughout the scriptures.  Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path.”  What that teaches is the nature of truth. A lamp in those days was an oil burning lantern.  It did not shine a beam of light like a flashlight.  But it cast a glow a few feet in front of you.  And that is the nature of truth.  It is revealed as we walk in it.  As we are obedient to the truth revealed at that step, God will reveal the next step.  As so we walk in the truth, step by step.

But Jesus is also indicating that they will receive another teacher of the truth.  As He has been their teacher for 3 years, now the time has come when He is going to be handing off their discipleship to another teacher who will take them to the next level of truth.  At this point, Jesus has taken them as far as they can go.  They are not able to bear the next level of truth at that point. And the reason is that they haven’t yet proved, or tested that truth.  

For instance, for all that Jesus has taught them concerning Himself, His divinity, His death and resurrection, the disciples have not fully understood what He was saying.  But as the next few days unfold, they will witness His death, they will witness His resurrection, and they will receive the Holy Spirit.  Those events will exponentially increase their level of comprehension.  It’s one thing to believe Christ is God in theory.  But when they see His resurrected body those theories will be proven to be actionable truth that God will build upon through the guidance of the Spirit.

That is the idea that Jesus was expressing in the quote from Revelation to the church at Laodecia I mentioned earlier.  Jesus said, “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich.”  There is  truth that is refined by the fire of experience, or refined by the fire of persecution or trial that proves the truth of the scriptures in a way that enables us to take the Christian walk to the next level.  It is possible to learn a biblical principle, but then God causes events to transpire in such a way that it tests your faith in that principle, so that you will really come to comprehend it.  And that testing then increases your faith.

But the main point Jesus is making is that He is ending His time with them as a teacher, and He is handing over that responsibility to the Holy Spirit who will continue to lead them and guide them as He had done for the last 3 years.  

Notice how Jesus describes the Spirit.  He calls Him the Spirit of truth.  In fact, three times Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth.  (John 14:7, John 15:26, and of course now in 16:13) Now that’s important because it stresses the principle that the Holy Spirit will always act in accordance to the truth.  Nothing that claims to be of the Spirit should ever be relied upon if it is not in accordance with the truth of God’s word. That is how we can recognize whether or not something is of the Spirit. We may have some kind of experience which we think is spiritual, but if it doesn’t agree with the revealed truth of God in scripture, then it must be dismissed as a false spirit.  John said in 1John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”  So you can test the spirits by the word of God.  The Bible is the revealed truth of God.

He also is called the Spirit of truth because He is the means of God conveying the truth of scripture.  Peter said 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.” And Paul also in  2Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”  Inspiration means “God breathed.”  And it’s interesting that the word in Greek for spirit is pneuma, which means breath of air.  So the scripture is breathed by God through the Holy Spirit to the agency of human writers.  That is why He is called the Spirit of Truth.  

And in this description of the Spirit’s ministry, once again Jesus refers to this principle we mentioned earlier of progressive revelation.  He says “He will guide you in to all the truth.”  To guide is to lead.  Sort of like leading someone by the hand. It is not a once and done operation.  But continually being filled with the Spirit’s leading, by being yielded to the Spirit’s teaching.

So then it is proper that there is a period of infancy in the Christian life.  After all, we are first born again by the Spirit.  But then we are to walk in the Spirit, and grow in the Spirit. It is proper to have a time when you feed on the milk of the word, but there should come a time when you begin to eat meat.  And then as you grow into maturity, you begin to feed others. 

The disciples were at this point only able to receive milk.  They couldn’t handle the meat because they were not mature.  The same situation was seen in Corinth, and Paul reprimands the church there because they should have graduated by this time to solid food, but they had not.   1Cor. 3:2, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.”  Why?  Because they were still carnal.  They had not grown into maturity in Christ.

Listen, we are called to grow up in maturity and stature in the Lord.  We are to grow into the image of Christ.  That involves being trained in righteousness, taught in sound doctrine, and practiced in godly works.  That is what the Spirit wishes to lead us into, and it is incumbent upon us to yield to His leading.  We need to be obedient to the truth revealed thus far, and as we do that He will guide us into all the truth.  Far too many Christians have accepted the basic truth of Christianity so that they are born again, but that is as far as they have gone.  And as a result the church today is carnal, worldly, and ineffective.  Being filled with the Spirit is crucifying the flesh and being yielded to what the Spirit says through the word.

Now the other way we can authenticate the Spirit of truth,  is because Jesus says “He shall not speak of His own initiative.” In other words, He doesn’t speak of Himself.  He speaks the words of Christ and glorifies Christ in all He does.  Jesus uses the same method to determine the Spirit’s truth just as He validated the truth of His own words.  Jesus said in  John 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”  And in the 8th chapter, Jesus says that His words are the words of God, and that He does not glorify Himself but He glorifies God.  

So by the same standard He says the Spirit is true. Because the Spirit does not speak on HIs own initiative.  In other words, there is one source for truth and that is God.  And all the trinity is unified because as Jesus speaks the words of the Father, so the Spirit speaks the words of Christ.  They are in harmony with one another..  And I would add that they are in harmony with scripture.  

It’s important to note that Jesus teaches us that truth is not by man’s discovery, but by divine revelation.  Jesus says in vs.14, “He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  We don’t need to go seeking truth on a mountain, or through some guru, or by some vision.  Truth is revealed to us through the revelation of God in the Bible, and the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds for us so that we might understand it as we believe it and are obedient to it.

I would like to make one more comment about vs.13 before we move too far from it.  And that is the truth, or all the truth, as Christ speaks of.  What is this truth?  It is not “all truth,” as some translations have it.  For the Holy Spirit does not reveal to us the truth of chemistry, or the truth of Algebra, or things of that nature.  We do not become experts on all truth by the power of the Holy Spirit.  But we are guided into all the truth.  All the truth of the gospel, and what pertains to spiritual life from God. 

That is the truth of God.  Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.  So to be guided in all the truth is to be guided to a new way of life from God.  God is the source of life.  He holds all life in His grasp.  Nothing exists without Him or can exist outside of Him.  And Jesus came to show us the way to God, the way to the source of life.  That way is through coming to believe in the truth of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.  

That’s what I mean by saying authentic Christianity. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”  God’s way is through Jesus Christ.  That’s what Christianity was called before they were called Christians.  It was called “The Way.”  And Christ’s way is by following the truth that leads to life.  Abundant life.  Eternal life.  Authentic life.  It doesn’t concern itself with just putting on a religious front. 

Authentic Christianity is not a self righteous life.  Authentic Christianity is not religious superficiality.  Authentic Christianity is rooted in the truth of God’s word.  The truth that mankind is fallen and cannot have fellowship with God.  The truth that Christ came to die for sinners, so that our sins might be forgiven and reconciled to God.  Authentic Christianity believes the truth and is made free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin.  And so we commit ourselves to the truth. We aren’t concerned about superficial, emotionally based, feel good Christianity without regard for the truth.  Authentic Christianity realizes that we are all fallen people and that we need to know the truth to be free from the snare and captivity of Satan.  

We know we have to walk in the truth to the best of our ability.  The devil wants to convince you that you can live life in neutral spiritually.  That is a lie of Satan.  Jesus said I wish you were either hot or cold.  Authentic Christianity requires staying hot.  Staying the course, regardless of the trials.  Persevering.  Even through suffering.  But all the while believing that this Way is the truth and it requires our daily commitment to it if we are going to succeed as God would have us to. 

I would like to end with a story from Genesis chapter 24 as a way of illustrating this ministry of the Holy Spirit and summing up His purpose for us. You may remember in Genesis 24 there is the story of Abraham obtaining a bride for Isaac his son, and there is an unnamed servant, who is sent far away to Abraham’s distant relatives in order to find a bride for Isaac.  In this story, Abraham allegorically represents the Father, and Isaac of course represents Jesus, and the servant represents the Holy Spirit.  So it says Abraham sends out this unnamed servant who is to find a wife for his son. It’s interesting the servant doesn’t have a name. He has a title, but not a name. So the unnamed Spirit or the unnamed servant goes on this journey and comes to a well where a girl comes and waters his camels.  And there he is led by the Lord to Rebecca, who is the one whom the Lord has chosen to be the wife of Abraham’s son. 

Later that day  they gather around the table as they are getting ready to eat and the servant of Abraham says, “I will not eat anything until I have told you my business.” And with that he begins to tell of the glories of Abraham and the son. He says, “My master is a great man. He’s been made great, and furthermore he has given everything that he has into the hands of his son. And I’m here to obtain a bride for the son.”

Well that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does in his work of glorifying Jesus Christ. He glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, and through his ministry He teaches us the truth of Christ, so that we might be joined to Christ as His bride, the church.  As Jesus says in vs.14-15, the Spirit takes the things of Christ and discloses them to us so that we might be a fit bride of Christ.  So that we might be taught the complete knowledge of Christ.  So that we might be conformed to Christ.  So that we might be matured in Christ, so that we might do the works of Christ,  that one day we might be glorified with Christ.  And He does that through leading us and guiding us in all the truth that is necessary for life and godliness.  

Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”  This is the ministry of the Spirit of truth, to present us to Christ, even as Abraham’s servant presented Rebecca to Isaac.  

At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus said in vs.1, “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.”  He has given us a guide to keep us from stumbling.  To present us faultless, without spot or wrinkle, that we might be the glorious church of Christ.  That is the ministry of the Spirit of truth.  To lead us and guide us into all the truth, so that we might not stumble.  So that we might be found a fit bride at Christ’s return.  

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.”  So Jesus is the way to God, He is he truth of God, and He provides life from God to those who believe in Him.  This is the gospel in a nutshell.  You either believe the truth as presented in Christ, or you don’t believe the truth, and what you are believing is a lie.  That’s the choice that we have; believe the truth, or believe the lie of the devil.  

Now to those who have believed that Jesus is the truth, and have accepted that all that He said and taught is the truth, they have received life as a gift from God.  God recognizes their faith in His Son, and bestows upon them His grace, whereby their sins are forgiven, and they receive the life of God; spiritual life, abundant life, eternal life.  

The disciples represent the first of those who believed in Christ.  They believed in Him, that His words were the truth of God, the very words of life.  Peter said in John 6:68, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”   The disciples were saved as a result of their belief.  They received spiritual life. And so as we have studied  the Upper Room Discourse over the last few weeks we have learned that Jesus has been talking to them in the last hours before His death about that new life and what it will look like, and what will be the experience of it.  

Jesus in these 4 chapters has talked about the fruit of the spiritual life, which we learned is to be like Him.  He has talked about the works of spiritual life which He said is to love one another.  He has talked about the persecution they could expect in this spiritual life.  He has talked about the reward of the spiritual life. And interwoven throughout this entire discourse, Jesus has talked about the source of spiritual life, which is the Holy Spirit.

And what I would like to do as we study the ministry of the Holy Spirit today is to read all the things that Jesus has to say about the Spirit of God.  Because as John records it in this book, it is interspersed over 3 chapters and sometimes we can lose track of all that Jesus was saying because we don’t read this discourse in sequence.  Some of these statements we have studied, some we haven’t.  But I think as we look at these statements sequentially we can begin to tie all of this together this week and next week into one comprehensive doctrine concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit. There is a sequence in Jesus’s statements that build upon one another, which is evident as you look at them together. So Jesus starts in chapter 14:16, saying: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 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.”  

Then in John 14:26 Jesus says, “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.

Then in John 15:26 He says, “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 you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” 

And now in John 16:7 we read, “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. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;

concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

And the last statement Jesus makes is in John 16:13 “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. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  

I believe the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one of the most important doctrines in the gospel, and yet it is often one of the most misunderstood doctrines in the church today.  I wish I had time to go line by line through each of those references, but we don’t have that luxury this morning.  However, you can go to our website and look back over my sermons on each of those texts and put them all together if you like.  But one thing that I must emphasize is that Jesus says in vs.14 the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus Christ.  That in and of itself disqualifies a lot of stuff that is attributed as the work of the Holy Spirit.  If it does not glorify Christ, then it isn’t of  the Spirit, and it is not of God.  There are deceitful spirits working in the church as well, so we are told in the book of James to test the spirits.  We know the Spirit of Truth because the Holy Spirit does not glorify Himself, but He glorifies Christ.

Charles Spurgeon said it this way; “To begin, then, the HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR LORD’S GLORIFIER. I want you to keep this truth in your mind, and never to forget it; that which does not glorify Christ is not of the Holy Spirit, and that which is of the Holy Spirit invariably glorifies our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Now notice that Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit with two different titles which help us to understand the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  He calls Him the Helper, which in the Greek is “parakletos”.  “Parakletos” means to come alongside.  That is what is meant by Helper.  He comes alongside us to help us, to guide us and teach us.  And the second title Jesus uses is the Spirit of Truth.  I really like that title in particular.  Because it speaks of the nature of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of Truth helps us not by some experience, but by revelation or explanation of the truth.  

The Spirit of Truth does that in two ways; first He authored the scriptures.  2Tim. 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”  And in 2Peter 1:20, it says, “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.”  So the Spirit of Truth is the author of the scriptures.  And in the New Testament, that was given through the apostles, whom Jesus tells in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  That revelation of Christ through the Spirit was written down for us in the New Testament.  And I believe that revelation in that sense has been completed. I don’t think the Bible teaches that revelation is ongoing.  However, the Spirit does reveal the truth of revelation. Which is the second work of the Spirit of Truth.

So secondly, the Spirit of Truth works by revealing to us the truth as contained in scriptures.  He opens our minds and hearts so we can understand the truth of God.  He leads us and guides us through the scriptures.  John 16:13 says, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth… and John 16:15 says, “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” Notice that the Spirit takes the words of Christ and discloses it to us.  That is the premier work of the Spirit.  To help us understand the scriptures.  The Spirit empowers the scriptures to us. Heb 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.”

Now as we continue in this week’s text Jesus gives us a further elaboration on the nature of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has just finished telling the disciples of the hostility of the world towards them.  And yet their response to that hostility, even in the face of persecution is that they will show the love of God towards the enmity of the world, and thus reflect Christ to the world.  He tells them that the way they will be able to do this in the face of hostility will be through the power of the Holy Spirit.  In 15:26, Jesus says the Spirit will testify of Me, and you will testify also.  That is how we manifest love to the world.

Now in vs.7, He says it is to their advantage that He goes away, because then He will send the Holy Spirit to them to come alongside of them, to help them. That is such an understatement it’s easy to just pass right by it.  But Jesus did not come to earth for His advantage, but He came for our advantage.  He suffered and died for our advantage.  Such a great principle.  So in like manner as He is dying, He will leave earth for our advantage, so that He might send the Spirit of Truth to lead us and guide us, wherever we are, however many of us there are, no matter what age we live in.  It’s to our advantage to receive the Spirit, because then He will be in us, and be with us forever.  And please understand that we receive the Spirit at salvation.  The disciples didn’t receive Him until Pentecost, but since Pentecost, all believers receive Him at salvation.  As Romans 8:9 says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

Now as we come to vs.8, it is a common misinterpretation to look at those verses without the context of vs.7.  The common mistake is to take those verses to mean the Holy Spirit’s ministry to the world. But that is not what the context tells us.  Looking at vs.7 more carefully, we see that Jesus doesn’t say He is sending the Holy Spirit to the world, but that He is sending the Spirit of Truth to the disciples.  And the disciples are sent to the world.  Vs.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.”

Now that’s an important distinction.  Because some have erroneously interpreted vs.8-11 as something that is only true about unbelievers.  As if to say that conviction of sin is not something that pertains to Christians.  But that is not actually what is being talked about here.  What Jesus is talking about, is that the Spirit of Truth will come to the disciples, and through the disciples He will convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. 

I want to spend the rest of our time explaining this testimony of the church to the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment as enabled by the Holy Spirit.  But first, let’s consider the word which is translated as convict, or concerning, depending on your translation.  The Greek word is “elegchō”.  And there are several different ways this word has been translated.  In some other places in the Bible it is translated as rebuke, or reprimand, or expose, or reprove, and of course, convict.  But some commentators seem to think that it would be better interpreted as convince.  The distinction being to convict is to bring a charge of guilt, whereas to convince is to persuade someone of the truth of a certain matter.  I believe convince is more in keeping with what Jesus is teaching here.  He isn’t charging the disciples to convict the world, though that may happen as a result of their preaching the gospel.  But He is telling the disciples that through the Spirit of Truth they will convince the world of the truth, so as to enable them to fulfill their ministry, which is to go into the world and make disciples.  

Jesus is talking about the disciples testimony to convince the world in regards to the truth of the gospel.  The Holy Spirit will give conviction through the disciples words as to the truth of what they are preaching. So the Spirit of Truth works through the disciples to produce three things in the world.  First, He convinces the world of sin.  Note that Jesus does not say, “of sins.”  The point He is making is not enumerating individual, particular sins.  He is talking about sin in general.   And John records Jesus’s explanation of that sin in vs.9, “concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.”  

The Lord is saying that the sin is that they do not believe in Him.  In other words the essence of sin is not what we do. The essence of sin is what we believe. And when we do not believe in the Lord Jesus that is the root of all sin.  For example; when Eve sinned it was not just that she ate of the forbidden fruit.  It was that she chose to believe the serpent rather than God.  That was the root sin, the eating of the fruit was just an expression of that unbelief  The sin took place in her heart as she turned from belief in God to believing in the word of the serpent.

For instance, immorality is sin, but the sin of unbelief is the root of immorality. The reason men do the various acts of evil, whether it be adultery, murder, thievery, burglary, et cetera is ultimately because they do not believe.  They sin in the heart by rejecting the truth and believing the lie.  And as Jesus is the truth personified, they consequently reject God.  They do not believe what He has said concerning life, and have chosen to believe the lie of the world.

That’s why in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that if you lusted in your heart you were guilty of adultery.  If you hated, you were guilty of murder.  Sin finds it’s root in the heart.  In belief or unbelief.  In truth or the lie.  All of the outward expressions of sin such as addiction or adultery or murder are simply symptoms of the heart’s condition. The person who is the sinner before God is the person who has not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And that is why our actions cannot be separated from our belief.  It is not simply enough to say you believe but your life evidences that actually you are believing the lie of the world.  Our actions will reflect what we believe.  Our faith is expressed by our actions.  Thus James could say, “faith without works is dead.” 

When the disciples, or by extension, when the church preaches the truth of Christ, then the world’s unbelief is exposed.  Their sin of unbelief is exposed.  But also that is the means of convincing them of the truth of Christ.  1Cor, 1:21, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”  So we preach the truth of God, either from a pulpit, or from a backyard fence, or from the water cooler at work.  We preach the truth of God either by words or deeds and ultimately by both.  And that is how we show the world the love of God as well by convincing the world of their sin.  Love requires that we expose sin, not condone it. Because until the world is convinced of their sin, they have no recognition of their need for a Savior.

The second aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is that He convinces the world concerning righteousness.  And once again, we can run in all different directions on this unless we consider the explanation of Jesus in vs.10, “and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me.”  So the Spirit is not convincing the world of their righteousness or the lack of it, but rather, He convinces the world of the righteousness of Christ.  

Now what is it about our Lord’s going to the Father that convinces the world of righteousness? Why does it convince the world of righteousness  if the Lord Jesus goes to the Father?

I suggest it is because we preach the risen Christ. The resurrection of Christ establishes Christ’s righteousness.  The resurrection is unique among all world philosophies and religions.  It is a major tenet of our faith.  Because the fact that Christ is risen proves the righteousness of Christ.  Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost quotes David and says, “You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.”  God declared the holiness of Christ before the hordes of hell and the hosts of heaven by raising Jesus from the dead, and He declares through us the holiness of Christ as we tell the world that Christ is risen from the grave and now sits at the right hand of the Father.  We declare the gospel to be true because Jesus was declared righteous by God in that He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father in heaven.  And as we show the righteousness of Christ, then we show the standard of righteousness of God.  And that standard of righteousness convinces the world of sin, because it shows what counts as righteousness in God’s eyes.

And as we preach the gospel, implicit in it is the fact that our salvation is not dependent upon our righteousness, but upon the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  We are saved by faith, by which we believe God, and God grants us the righteousness of Jesus Christ to our account.

The third ministry of the Spirit of Truth is He will convince the world of judgment.  Now the common application there is that He will convince the world of the judgment to come upon sinners.  Though Jesus had much to say about hell and the judgment to come, He isn’t talking about the judgment of sinners in hell in this passage per se.  But He says in vs.11, “concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

Jesus is speaking of the judgment of sin as He looks forward to the cross.  The hold that Satan has upon the world will be broken, because Jesus will take the sin of the world upon Himself as our substitute, and He will break the power of sin, and thus judge Satan.  In 2Timothy 2:24 Paul speaks of preaching to the world and says, “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”  Notice the snare of the devil holds captive those who are lost. And that snare is ignorance of the truth, or a lie substituted for the truth.

John said in 1 John 3:8 that  “the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” He destroys the lie by showing us the truth. So how Christ defeats Satan is by setting free those who Satan has kept captive, and transferring them to the kingdom of God.  Colossians 1:13, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”  And in Colossians 2:15, Paul declares that the judgment of the ruler of this world (Satan) has been made public at Christ’s resurrection. “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

So the Holy Spirit convinces the world of sin, righteousness and judgment through the witness of Christ’s transformed people. The world cannot receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We receive the ministry of Holy Spirit, and we are the instruments by which the world is to be brought to the knowledge of sin, righteousness and judgment. And that is to be done through the walk of the Christian, through the witness of the Christian, through the prayers of the Christian, and through the worship of the Christian.  We are the reflection of Jesus Christ to the world through our testimony, our preaching, and through our life.

This is an important principle that Jesus is teaching not only to the disciples but to us today as well.  And that is this, that God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the wise.  He has chosen the branches of the vine to be fruitful.  He has chosen to use us to make His gospel known.  He has chosen us to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, so that the works of Christ will be done through us.  

I’ve said it many times before.  When God does a work on the earth, He usually choses to do it through a man. Can God work without man’s participation?  Of course.  But we have been chosen to be co-laborors with Christ.  He has given His Spirit to live in us that we might participate in the Kingdom expansion.  

There are many examples of this in scripture.  For instance, Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship.  He had acquired a scroll of the book of Isaiah.  He was providentially reading at chapter 53.  But God plucked Philip up and dropped him in the middle of the desert at just the right time to bring the man to the knowledge of the truth, and the eunuch was saved.  

Could he not have been brought to faith by the word of God alone? Of course. God didn’t need Phillip, but God has in this age generally speaking, determined that individuals come to faith in Christ through the true church of Christ, through the witness, through the walk, through the worship, through the words of believers, so Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit whom I will send to you will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.”

Another example is Cornelius.  He was a good man in the eyes of the Jews.  He was seeking to know the truth, to know God.  And God appeared to Peter in a dream and told him to go to speak with Cornelius so that he might be saved. Even on the road to Damascus, God used Ananias to teach and disciple Paul. So right at this very moment he is using me as I hope he uses you throughout this week to be an instrument in the communication of the gospel of God.

God wants to use you to be His representative here on earth.  But He doesn’t give us a job to do without equipping us to do it.  And so He has given us the Helper, the Spirit of Truth to be in us, and to be with us forever.  We are the conduit, but He is the power of God working in us and through us, as we are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  I pray that starting today you will testify to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit, convincing them of sin, and righteousness, and judgment.  Convincing them of the truth of God that leads to life.  

Rom 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”

Christians have been the object of persecution by many nations and many regimes for centuries. In the years following Christ’s death, Nero the Roman Emperor declared Christians to be the enemy of Rome and began an empire wide persecution that if not for the grace of God would have eradicated Christianity.  In the nineteenth century  the Ottomans massacred about two-and-a-half million Christians. In the twentieth century, it’s estimated that the Soviets killed half a million Christians; and the Germans under Hitler, another quarter of a million. In the last 70 years in China, it is possible that those numbers have been exceeded.  One source said that in 2014 alone, 17,800 Christians were persecuted by the communist regime.  Christians have been persecuted by the hundreds of thousands all over the planet, from Africa to Spain, from Mexico to Iran, from Japan to India, from Germany to Russia, from France to the Middle East. This is what I would call organized persecution, that is state supported persecution. That kind of persecution was certainly included in this warning from Christ.

There is another, more common means of persecution though that also would have been in Jesus’ thoughts.  This kind does not usually make headlines except in well publicized cases like that of the owners of a bakery in Colorado.  But it is persecution on a personal  level brought about by families, work places, and local people that react to you on some level of antagonism due to your religious beliefs. Jesus warns His disciples and by extension is warning us, that as we are reflections of Him, we can expect that kind of hatred and persecution because they persecuted and hated Him.  The more we are like Christ, the more we will find ourselves hated.  That’s really ironic, isn’t it?  Because you would think that the more you are like Christ, the more the world would like you.  But that is not what Jesus said. He is saying that the more you act like Him, the more you teach as He taught, the more the world will hate you. 

And the reason is because Christianity claims to be the truth.  That’s why it’s hated.  That is what Christianity is, by the way.  It is believing in the truth as explained and proclaimed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is believing in absolute truth, and thus it brings hatred from every facet of society that feels threatened by the truth.  That is why Satan is so opposed to Christianity.  Because he is the father of lies, and there is no truth in him.  He has organized the world system so that it keeps mankind held captive to his lies, and consequently destined for death.  He hates the truth because as Jesus said the truth will make you free.  Truth frees mankind from the snare and trap of the devil’s lies. So the devil hates the truth, and therefore he hates Christians who are a living testimony to the truth.

And likewise the world hates Christianity, because it exposes their belief system as a lie.  The world hates to be told that it’s way is a lie.  That everything they are working for, everything they believe in and hold dear is a lie.  No one wants to hear that.  

When I was a full time antique dealer, before I became a pastor, I often did appraisals for people’s antiques.  People would often contact me for an appraisal of something they had acquired or inherited.  When my appraisal agreed with or exceeded their expectations, then things were good.  The people were happy, gratified to learn how much their item was worth. But sometimes I had to tell someone that their item was fake, and consequently it was worthless, and then they could get very angry at me.  They would become defensive, and that could sometimes escalate to anger.  The reason they had that reaction was usually because they had invested so much in the item.  They had bought it at an auction or flea market believing they were getting a great deal and it was really worth a lot of money.  So when I threw cold water on their dream, which by this point they are so invested in, their response was to be angry, which sometimes even escalated in acting hateful towards me.  

That same situation occurs in the world concerning religion.  Some people inherit their religion.  It’s passed on from parent to child, from generation to generation.  So they are quite invested in their religion, and to have it challenged, and have their ancestor’s faith challenged is quite upsetting to them.  Others come to their religious beliefs by buying into a plausible sales job by a church that perhaps is a cult. They may have worked at it very hard, and sacrificed a lot for what they perceive to be true. Others have come to their religion or anti-religion because of research and study or  science.  Regardless of how they come by their religious views, when confronted with orthodox Christianity that purports to be the only truth by which you can be saved, the world not only hates the message, but also it hates the messenger.

So in these last hours before His death, Christ speaks to this fact of Christianity to prepare His disciples for what will occur after He has left them.  He wants to prepare them for the reality of continuing His ministry and the animosity that will be towards them. He doesn’t want them to be discouraged by the persecution that is coming, resulting in falling away from the faith. In chapter 16 vs.1 Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.”  That means to fall away, or be tripped up in your Christian walk.

Now just to remind you of the context, Jesus and the disciples have left the Upper Room and are walking in the darkness to the Mount of Olives.  Jesus has told them He is leaving them soon.  Judas has deserted them to betray Him to the authorities.  And in these final moments Jesus is reminding them of certain essential things as His last instructions to them.  He first reminded them of the importance of their relationship with God, which they should secure by abiding in Him, which really is another way of saying they were to love Him, to draw close to Him.  Secondly He reminds them of the importance of their relationship to each other, which is underscored by His command to love one another.  That is the way in which they show their love for God and how the church will flourish after He is gone.  And now thirdly, He reminds them of their hostile relationship with the world. That relationship will be one in which they are hated by the world.  But not so clearly stated is the underlying principle that though the world hates them, they are to love the world.  Not to love the system of the world, or the sins of the world, or the things of the world, but to love the people of the world who are antagonistic towards them.  They are to love their enemies.  And the way that they will do that is to be witnesses to the world.   

Now first Jesus explains why the world will hate us.  Look at vs.18,”If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:18-20 RSV)

Here Jesus helps us understand the hostility of the world. First, He says there is nothing personal about their reaction. He says, “It happened to me, too.” Jesus experienced hatred and rejection, and yet He was perfect.  So one way to diffuse that type of hostility is not to take it personally.  Yet I will concede that it can be hard to detach yourself from hatred or rejection or even persecution.  I confess that I sometimes find myself faced with rejection or even hatred based on things that I have preached as the pastor of this church.  I could avoid certain subjects that I know are controversial, but I can’t do that in good conscience and be true to the scriptures and what I believe is my responsibility.  Believe it or not, I do try my best not to offend people.  But some people are eventually offended.  And some of those people leave the church.  And some of those, not all of them, thank God, end up becoming hostile and even hateful towards me.  I can easily in those circumstances get a persecution complex.  I can end up feeling like their rejection is of me personally.  So I have to remind myself that they are not rejecting me, but they are rejecting Christ’s gospel.  They are really rejecting Christ as presented in the gospel and  trying to redefine His doctrine to suit their agenda.  So first, don’t take it personally.  Realize that they hated Christ as well. 

Secondly, Jesus says persecution comes because you are now a different person than you were. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” If you are truly born again, you are different, and the world does not like anything different. The unrelenting pressure of society around us is to conform to the world’s system. And because we do not conform to the world but rather we conform to Christ, we stand in opposition to the world.  And that attracts hostility. 

I guess that the social structure of the world has a herd mentality that is indicative of the human race. Everyone wants to fit in.  Those that don’t  are pushed out by the herd.  In the animal kingdom, we even see the herd sometimes attack and kill a member that doesn’t fit in.  So because of our new birth, because we are a new creation, we are no longer of the world. 2Cor. 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  And also implicit in that statement is the understanding that we no longer act like the world, we no longer think like the world, we no longer have the same desires as the world.  John expands upon this principle `in 1John 2:15 which says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

Peter also speaks of this principle. In 1Peter 4 he makes that distinction between the life of a Christian and the life of the world saying; “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.”  We don’t fit in with the world, and so the world hates us. If we’re genuine believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we differ with the world. Jesus said He chose us out of the world. We are plucked out of the world system and given new life, new motivations, new desires. We are put on a different course. We are interested in knowing God, we are interested in spiritual things.  We are interested in spiritual life. 

As a result, Jesus declares, persecution is to be expected as a part of the Christian life.  He said, ”Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”  As we follow Christ, we can expect to follow in the sufferings of Christ.  In fact, that is the hallmark of our relationship to Christ.   Philippians 3:10, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Paul goes on to say elsewhere that our suffering with Him is a prerequisite for our glorification with Him. Romans 8:17, “and if (we are) children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  

As an example to us the saints of old counted it a privilege to suffer with Christ. You will remember the apostles being beaten and jailed for preaching the gospel of Christ and it says in Acts 5:41, “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.”  

And suffer they did. Are you familiar with the end of the apostle’s lives? Do you know that all but the Apostle John died the death of martyrs? And John had to spend the last of his life in exile on the Isle of Patmos. Steven was stoned to death. James, the brother of John, was beheaded by Herod Agrippa. Phillip suffered martyrdom in Phrygia being scourged, imprisoned and crucified. Matthew was slain with a halberd in Nadabah. James the Less (Jesus’s half brother) was beaten and stoned at the age of ninety-four and finally had his brains dashed out with a fuller’s club. Matthias was stoned and beheaded at Jerusalem. Andrew was crucified at Edessa on a cross with the two ends fixed transversely in the ground. Mark was dragged to death in Alexandria. Peter, according to Jerome, was crucified in Rome under Nero with his head down thinking himself unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as His master. Jude was crucified at Edessa. Bartholomew was crucified in India. Thomas was thrust through with a spear in India. And Simon the Zealot was crucified in Britain. Paul was reported by Ignatius and others to have been martyred by decapitation near the end of Nero’s reign. This is what tradition tell us. But in any case, most of the apostles and those that followed them gave their lives for the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I don’t know the extent to which we may be called upon to suffer for Christ.  But I know that God has a special place for those that suffer for His name sake. I believe He has a special grace that He gives according to the measure of the suffering.  One need only to look at the martyrdom of Steven to know that.  God gives a special grace in that time.

A further point Jesus makes concerning persecution is, it is marked by criticism. “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also.” My interpretation of this verse is at odds with a superficial rendering, but in keeping with the context of the passage, I believe the idea of the Greek word “tēreō” indicates to observe critically.  So in a negative context Jesus relates “keeping” in the next verse (21) as something that is included in the phrase “all these things”  because they do not know the Father. So then we must interpret the word translated as “keep,” which literally means “to observe,” as better interpreted  “to observe critically”, because it results in something Jesus says is characteristic of those that do not know God.  So with that context, we can deduce that the persecution of the world will include a critical watching of every word that we utter, in order to find fault, to find something by which they can condemn us.  And we know that they did the same thing to Jesus in His ministry.  They were continually watching Him to see if they could find something for which to find fault.  And finally, at His trial, having failed to find something, they twisted His words, or made up things which they attributed to Him so that they might find reason to kill Him.  

So then Jesus explains, their criticism stems from a deeper antagonism towards God. It’s because they hate God.  ”But all this they will do to you on my account, because they do not know him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and my Father. It is to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.'” (John 15:21-25)

Jesus identifies the basic cause of this deep-rooted hatred as godlessness. It is because “they do not know Him who sent me.” Any attempt to subvert the truth of God for a lie results in a religion that at it’s root hates God.  No matter how noble or plausible it may seem on the surface, if it does not agree with the revealed truth of God, then it is antagonistic towards God.  In fact, Paul says in Romans that they hate God.  Romans 1:21, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” Paul follows by giving a list of characteristics of the ungodly, in which he lists in vs 30 that they are “haters of God.”  That is the root of their antagonism towards Christians.

Now Jesus is speaking specifically of the Jews of His generation, and He says that they are inexcusable because they had heard his words and saw his works. What that means is that when someone is exposed to the truth and still rejects it his condemnation is double. They rejected his words and thus manifested their hatred of His Father. They ignored his works, the works predicted of the Messiah, and so compounded their condemnation. But, Jesus says it was all a fulfillment of prophecy. God knew it would happen. They fulfilled the prophetical word of David in Psalms 69  that said, “They hated me without a cause.” 

Notice vs. 24, Jesus said, “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.”  Now I want to explain that verse, because it can be misunderstood.  It is not saying  that some people don’t have sin because they have not seen the works of Christ.  The word translated sin there literally means “guilt.”  There is a special guilt for those that physically witnessed Christ’s works on Earth and still rejected Him.  Guilt is specific to a specific sin.  I am not guilty of murder because I haven’t murdered someone.  I am guilty of sin in a  generic sense.  But I am not guilty of that specific sin.  And that is what Jesus is referring to.  He is speaking of the specific sin of rejecting Him as the Messiah by the leaders of the Jews.  They have a greater condemnation.  And I believe the Bible teaches that there are degrees of hell.  For to whom much is given, much shall be required. (Luke 12:48)

Thus I believe that those of this generation that reject the truth of God’s word are subject to a greater judgment, because they have the full revealed truth of God in scripture.  Our modern society has unequaled access to the scriptures which so many people in the past could never have imagined.  We have had more exposure to the truth through preaching and teaching than ever possible in past history.  And so Jesus is stressing the principle that there will be a special judgment which correlates to one’s exposure to the truth and yet still rejecting it.

In the last section, Jesus tells the disciples and by extension tells us, what our response is to be to the hatred of the world.  It is not an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus had this to say about how to respond to your enemies.  

Matt. 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

So in light of that teaching, what Christ is saying to the disciples is that they are to return love for hate.  The kindness of God leads to repentance. We are to return a blessing for cursing.  And we do that by being a witness to the truth.  Jesus said “But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about Me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you of them.” (John 15:26 – 16:4)

There are four important things to consider here: First, by what means should we respond? “The Spirit is coming,” Jesus promises. For us, of course, the Spirit has already come. For these men when He comes, Jesus says, “He will testify  about Me.”  As you consider the words and the works of Christ, the Spirit of God will bear witness to you of it’s truth and that truth will give you boldness and power. And as you speak the truth of God, the Spirit of Truth will work through it to bring about conviction and repentance in their hearts.

And in his next point He says, “You also are witnesses because you have been with Me from the beginning.” Clearly he is referring to the apostles here, but it also applies to us. How do you witness? You tell someone about what has happened to you, that is all. You testify to what God has done for you, what He means to you, how He has given you a new life.  The testimony of a transformed life is the most effective witness.  And our testimony to a hostile world is evidence of our love for our enemies.  That we care enough about them to warn them of their rejection of God, and the impending judgment to come.  

We cannot say we love our families, or love our neighbors, or that we love our enemies, if we are silent on the most important issue of their lives.  If I had discovered a cure for cancer, and kept it to myself, I would be the opposite of a loving person.  My refusal to share the antidote with people who are dying from cancer would show me to be a heartless, hateful person.  So it is with our salvation.  We must share it with those who are dying without it.  Love for our fellow man compels us to share the good news of the gospel.  

But the consequence of that love means your witness will result in increased persecution. “They will cast you out of the synagogues. They will kill you and think they are offering service to God.” This was especially true of the first century Christians.  Being cast out of the synagogue was specific to the Jews.  But the world’s persecution can effect modern Christians in much the same way.  Because the synagogue was the center of Jewish culture.  It was the center of community.  And today it is possible that persecution can sometimes mean being excommunicated from your family or exiled from community, or even fired from your job.   Being a Christian can make you a social outcast.  It can separate you from family.  It can cause divisions in a man’s own household. 

And the final point Jesus makes is: “But these things I have spoken to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.”  You are forewarned. Do not be surprised when the world hates you.  Again, Peter continues that idea in 1 Peter 4:12: “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is coming upon you.”  Persecution is part of the process, it is what Jesus said would happen. Let us forget once and for all of this idea of living comfortably in this world,  being liked by everybody and having no problems and no hardships.  But rather understand as Paul told Timothy that “They that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution,” (2 Timothy 3:12). There is a war going on, but victory is certain.  The way we win this war is to change our enemies into friends.  And we do that by telling the truth in love.  We love the world enough to tell them the truth, and when they know the truth, the truth will make them free.  That’s how we win.  Not by retaliation.  But through our witness, we testify to the truth of God. And through our witness, we prove our love for our enemies.  Even as Christ suffered and died on the cross as evidence of His love for the world, even while they were hating Him, so as His disciples we must suffer the hatred of the world for the sake of winning them to Christ.  That is love.  And that is what we are commanded to do.  

The most desired ambition of the popular culture is that of love.  Love is the theme of more songs, more books, more poetry, more art and more movies than any other theme.  And I believe this is so because it is the most essential need of the human condition.  It is as fundamental to life as food and water, if not more so. God declared at creation that it was not good for man to be alone.  It is an essential component of the human psyche.  Everyone wants to know love.

However, human nature is not satisfied with unrequited love.  Neither does this innate need for love find fulfillment in undesired love.  In other words, one doesn’t find satisfaction in being loved by someone whom you don’t love in return.  What satisfies this great human need is reciprocal love.  Love of relationship, where each one loves the other, and they receive love in return.  

This is the human condition because God created us for love.  He created us for Himself.  He loves us, and desires that we should love Him in return.  The relationship that God wants to have with us is illustrated in the scriptures by the love of a husband and wife.  In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul talks of marriage between a husband and wife, but says he is speaking of the relationship of Christ and the church.  The church was designed to be the bride of Christ. 

In the mystery of God, it pleased God to procure a people for Himself from all the nations of the earth to be the bride of Christ.  In that purpose He appeared unto Abraham, and called him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and told him to go to the land that He would show him.  After many generations, God raised up from Abraham’s offspring a nation, a chosen people, for whom He would be their God, and they would be His people.  God established a theocratic government over His people, based on His law, given through the prophets.  

But this was only Act One of God’s great plan.  In Act One, the nation of Israel was not much different than the kingdom’s of antiquity that ruled through a feudal system of serfdom.  Serfdom was a system of servitude in which the people were given a plot of land to tend and produce crops and herds, of which a percentage went to the King, and in return the King provided services and protections for the people.  Jesus  often uses the analogy of stewardship which is a form of serfdom as an illustration of that relationship with God.

However, the birth of Christ ushered in Act Two.  And in this Act man’s relationship with God was changed from that of servanthood, or serfdom, to that of an intimate relationship.  Believers in Christ were no longer servants, but bond slaves, having been set free by redemption, but cleaving to their master out of love.  And as a result of that commitment, God actually makes us part of His family, adopting us as sons and daughters of God.  And because we are His family, we are elevated to a position of heirs, heirs of God and co heirs of Christ.   So that Peter might proclaim to the New Testament church, which was made up from people of all nations on the earth, in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” 

Paul presents the same principle in Titus 2:14, saying, “Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

Now this relationship is the subject of Christ’s teaching in this passage which is a continuation of the Upper Room Discourse, as they are walking to the Mount of Olives.  He illustrated this relationship in vs.1 by the analogy of He being the vine, and we being the branches.  His lesson that He taught in that picture was that we should abide in Him, and He in us.  That relationship is the key to the full Christian life.  The principle of “abide in Me and I in you” is the fundamental relationship out of which everything else flows, even as the life of the branch and it’s fruitfulness flows from it’s abiding in the vine.

In this chapter John describes  three things that will happen when this principle of Christ abiding in us and we in Him begins to work in our lives. The first result is described in the opening verses which we looked at last week, which is the fruitfulness that abiding produces. We begin to grow more Christlike. We display the “fruits of the Spirit” which are the characteristics of Christ.  

We look now at a brief paragraph in which our Lord describes the change that will happen in our relationships with each other within the community of faith as a result of abiding in Him. Then, in the last section of Chapter 15, Jesus states the relationship that we will have with a hostile world.

There are three points which Jesus makes in speaking of our relationship with others.  The first is the mandate to love, then the motive of love, and finally the manifestation of love.  Let’s consider first the mandate to love.  Jesus says in vs 12, ““This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

It’s noteworthy that we are commanded to love.  I believe that is because though the need for love is intrinsic, it’s not something that we do as we should. I’m sure we all think we are loving people, but I would suggest that the majority of the time we base our love for others on how much we like them.  Our idea of love is based on a feeling of attraction towards someone, and that perspective limits love to only those we like.  And we like certain people more than others, perhaps because we are like them, or we are attracted to them, or we think we can benefit from our relationship with them in some way. 

But the command of Christ is quite different than the typical concept of love.  The Lord puts it as a command because real love, according to God’s standard of love, is a decision to act for the benefit of someone else no matter how you feel about him or her. Love is based on a commitment, not a feeling or an attraction.  Love is a decision, thus it can be commanded.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus extrapolated that principle of deciding to love out to it’s furthest possibility. He  declared that we should even love our enemies.   Matthew 5:43, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”  If we are to be like God, then we must love like God loves.

That’s the example that Jesus gave to us, that even while we were enemies of God, He died for us on the cross.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  So then in like manner should we love those that are unlovable, that are unattractive, that are not like us, even those that are opposed to us.  
Notice that Jesus has given only one commandment, that you love one another.  In  Matthew 22:36 Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” All 612 commandments found their root in those two commandments.  And now in this statement, Jesus is saying those two have now become one for those that have believed in Christ.  

John explains how that consolidation is possible in  1John 4:20, in which he said, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”  So we understand that our love for God is evidenced by our love for one another.

So that is the mandate, the commandment, that we love one another. Next let’s look at the motive for love.  Jesus doesn’t just give us a command which we must do grudgingly, but He gives us a motive, that we might be compelled to love, and do it cheerfully.  That we might be enabled to obey this command. And that motive is found in the words, “as I have loved you.” 

That raises the question, how did Jesus love His disciples? The answer is found in vs.9. “As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you.” So we love one another as Christ loved us, and as the Father loved Christ.  In other words, love flows out of a heart that is conscious of being loved.  As John said in  1John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”  

Think about vs.9 for a moment.  As the Father loved Jesus, so Jesus loves us. That’s amazing.  Jesus was sinless.  Jesus was perfect.  Jesus was one with the Father and had been with the Father from eternity past.  And yet that kind of love is the same kind of love that Christ had for us.  That love Christ had for us compelled Him to suffer to a degree far beyond what we can imagine, as the holy, righteous God humbled himself to become our servant, to shed his blood on a cross, that we might be reconciled to God, that our dirty sins transferred to Jesus, so that His righteousness might be transferred to us.  That is how God can love us as He loves Jesus, because we are righteous and holy in His sight, even as Jesus is. 

That love is our motivation.  It constrains us, controls us, compels us to do what is pleasing to Him.   2 Cor. 5:14 says, “For the love of Christ constrains 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.”  When we really come to understand the love of God for us, then we should have no problem loving one another as He has loved us.

It’s like a young man that falls in love with a girl.  He is madly in love her, and he knows that she loves him with all her heart as well.  In that kind of relationship, there is nothing that he wouldn’t do for her.  I knew a young man once who ran 30 miles one way to see his girlfriend.  He didn’t think it was a big deal.  Great distances sometimes separate young people who are in love.  Yet it doesn’t affect their love for one another.  As the saying goes, absence makes the heart grow fonder. Love flows naturally out of a heart that knows love.

Not only does Jesus give us a mandate  to love and a motive to love, but He also tells us how love will manifest itself. How does love, God’s kind of love, manifest itself when it is worked out in life?  The kind of love Jesus is talking about is manifested in deeds.

He states three ways in which true love will be manifested: First, love is sacrificial.  Vs.13,  “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”   Even though Jesus will die for His friends, He is not necessarily talking about dying for someone, like the kind of ultimate sacrifice one might make on a battlefield. You can only do that once and then you can’t do it again.  Rather, He is describing a lifestyle, a process. There are varying degrees of “laying down your life.” It simply means to give of yourself, to take part of your life and to give it on behalf of someone else. It is not putting yourself first, or your needs first, but being willing to lay down your prerogatives, your rights, even your self preservation  for the sake of someone else. That is the first way love appears. Love will be manifested by sacrificial, self-denying service.

The second manifestation of love is found in what Jesus says in vs14, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” 

This is the new relationship that I was speaking of in my introduction. Jesus is lifting these disciples up from the level of servants, who must obey because it is to their best interests to do so, to another, more intimate, level.  The level of friends who want to obey because they have been brought into an intimate relationship with God.  

James said in James 2:23, that “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.”  Abraham believed God.  And God called him his friend.  That’s an amazing testimony.  To be called the friend of God.  The intimate of God.  Moses was another man that had a relationship with God as His friend.  The Bible says that he talked with God, as a man would talk with his friend.  We have that same tremendous opportunity; to be the friends of God.  

Once again, I can’t help but think of a young couple in love.  They have no problem spending hours talking to one another.  It’s amazing to see a young couple in love and how much they speak to one another, and then on the other hand see a couple who have been married for 20 years, and how little they speak to one another.  That reminds me of another adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”  That’s not in the Bible however.  And that isn’t something we should aspire to.  That’s a love that has grown cold.

But we should be so in love with Christ that we talk to Him without having to be coerced.  We should desire to spend time alone with God.  Jesus said He has made known to us all that He heard from His Father.  And Jesus had perfect communion with His Father.  So from Christ’s perspective, He has communicated perfectly to us.  We need to reciprocate.  We need simply to start spending time alone with God, and when we do that, our lives will manifest a love for one another.  We will love what God loves, and hate what God hates. Because we are intimate friends of God.  And because we are intimate friends of God we will do what He commands us to do.  If I ask a stranger to take me somewhere, or go out of his way for me, or give me something that I need, I can’t expect much of a response.  But when I ask a friend, I can expect that my friend will do what I ask, because of our relationship.  So God expects us to do what He commands, because of our intimate relationship with Him.

Then the third manifestation of love follows in vs.16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” First note that the love of God towards us is deliberate.  He chose to love us, even though we were sinners.  He deliberately sought us when we were in rebellion to Him.  God’s love, and by extension our love, is not based on attraction, but on a decision.

Secondly, Jesus is saying to these men, “Wherever you are, remember that I put you there.” That is what He meant by appointed you.  It means strategically placed you.  And He is saying this to us, too. “I strategically placed you right in the midst of those difficult people you have to work with, so that amidst the difficulty, the pressure and the pain you might become an example of Christ;  gracious, loving, patient, merciful. So that you might bear fruit, that is that you might bear the image of Christ.

Furthermore, when you are bearing fruit, bearing the image of Christ, then whatever you ask in my name the Father will give it to you.  Personally, I think that this promise is related to the promise of loving your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  When you pray in Jesus’  name then you are praying according to His will, according to His purpose, His ministry.  Jesus prayed for those that nailed Him to the cross.  When we pray for people according to the will of God, God will provide it.  

There’s an old story in mythology about a knight who encountered a hideous dragon in the forest. And disregarding the ugliness of the monster, a bold young knight walked up to it and kissed it three times whereupon it became a beautiful maiden. And, of course, they lived happily ever after. MacLaren who told the story comments, “Christ kisses his enemies making them his friends. And if he had never died for his enemies, he would never have possessed his friends.” Or as John puts it, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”

In vs.17, Jesus restates the commandment again.  ““This I command you, that you love one another.”  The fact that He said it twice emphasizes the absolute necessity that we take it to heart. The longer I am in the ministry, the more I am convinced that this is the way to victory in the Christian life. This is the way to effective evangelism.  This is the way to overcome addictions of every sort.  We must show the world the love of God by loving one another. We must love sacrificially, deliberately, without concern for what we can get out of it, without consideration of how much we like someone.  We must love even those who hate us, or hateful to us, forgiving them as God has forgiven us.  Giving love sacrificially even though it means that we give up things that are important to us in order to love them. 

And we do this by starting with knowing the love of God for us. The more we know the love of God for us, the more we will want to love one another.  The more we know the love of God, the more we  will want to obey God. And to love one another is the way to obey Him.  And to obey Him is to love Him.  

God said in Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”  When a couple become one flesh, then they have one mind, one heart, one purpose.  They are united.  They abide in one another.  Love then comes naturally.  As the body of Christ we are all united in Christ as the church.  Love should come naturally.  And as we love our neighbor, Jesus said we should love them as we love ourselves.  So that our love for our neighbor comes naturally because we naturally love ourselves.  We are commanded to love one another.  But to do so, we must come to know the love of God for us. And God has chosen to exhibit that through His people loving people.  That knowledge of God’s love is almost too much to comprehend.  But when we consider how much He loves us we find joy and fulfillment and it over flows in love to those around us.  

So as we leave here today, I would remind each of you to love one another even as Christ loved the church.  And I would like to read from Romans 8:28, which is a great summary of the love of God towards us, that you might be motivated to go forward from here and love one another.
Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;  WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

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.

In several of my past sermons, I have established the principle that the Christian’s relationship with Christ is like that of a husband and wife in marriage. Paul says in  Ephesians 5:31, “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”  So marriage, as defined by God, is an illustration of the church’s relationship with Christ.

In any marriage relationship, the foundation is love. I’m sure that everyone here realizes that for a marriage to work, both members must love one another.  It doesn’t work to have just one person loving their mate, but the mate not to respond in love.  So it is with our relationship with Christ.  There must be love from both parties if it is to be a healthy marriage.

There are two problems in the church today though that threaten the sanctity of this marriage with Christ.  The first problem is that for the most part, the emphasis on the responsibility to love is one sided. The church is continually talking about and singing about Christ’s love for us, but hardly anything is said about our love for the Lord.  In the modern church’s relationship with Christ, love is disproportionate. In many cases, He does all the loving, and we do all the taking.  And that kind of one sided love produces a lopsided marriage relationship.  In that kind of relationship, the one being loved too often ends up abusing that love, and taking advantage of that person, becoming something of a narcissist, selfishly using the other for their own benefit. They end up with a distorted view of their own importance.  They end up seeking their own selfish priorities, often at the expense of the one doing the loving.  

That isn’t the Biblical view of love, however.  1 Cor.13:5, which is part of the famous text on love, says that love “does not seek it’s own.”  In other words, true love seeks to benefit the other partner, not itself. It doesn’t seek it’s own benefit at the expense of others.  But unfortunately, this is far too often the church’s perspective on love. It’s one sided.  It’s focused on God’s love for us, but hardly ever focused on our love for God.  

And yet Jesus said in  Mark 12:30 that the foremost commandment was “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.”  I would suggest to you that for the most part, most of us fail in that commandment.  We love ourselves first and then we probably love a whole list of earthly things, and maybe somewhere down on the bottom of the totem pole we love God.  That hierarchy is made evident by our day planners.  It’s evident by our checkbook register.  It’s evident by our to do lists.  Our lips may say we love God, perhaps even our Facebook page says we love God, but our daily priorities and activities say otherwise.

There is a second problem that hinders the church’s marriage with Christ.  And that is that we have misunderstood the definition of love.  We’ve misunderstood both Christ’s love for us, and our love for Christ.  We have misinterpreted what constitutes love.  The modern church in particular has adopted the world’s definition of love, and as a result we have essentially “dumbed down” the Bible’s definition of love.  

I have talked about this misinterpretation of love so often that I feel I’m being redundant speaking of it again.  But it is germane to this passage, and it is essential to our relationship with Christ.  Let me review briefly; love is not simply a feeling, love is not just an emotion, love is not an experience.  Love, in the best sense, is a commitment. It’s an act of the will.  There were four words in the Greek that were used for love.  Christ and the apostles consistently used the highest form of it; in the Greek it’s agape, which means a sacrificial type of love.  So in the Bible love is presented as a sacrificial commitment, even to the point of laying down your life for another.  Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  That’s agape love.  Being willing to lay down, or better yet, lay aside your life, for the sake of another.  

That is true love, by the way. It’s being willing to lay down your life for the sake of the one you love. Love is not what you say, but what you do. That love was modeled by Christ when He laid down His life on the cross for us.  That sacrificial love is illustrated by Christian marriage in Ephesians 5.  That is the love of a Christian, who puts the other’s needs above his own.  That is the mark of a sanctified believer, one who truly loves God, who has perfected love, because they were willing to lay down their prerogatives for the sake of honoring Christ.

Now it’s interesting to note that Jesus speaks quite often of love in this Upper Room discourse.  But notice that the emphasis is on our love for Him.  He certainly speaks of His love for the church, but He is emphasizing our responsibility to love the Lord.  Four times in this chapter alone Christ talks about our responsibility to love Him. In chapter 14, our Lord reminds us that it is those who love Him who obey His commandments; once in verse 15, a second time in verse 21, and again in verse 23, and then He reverses it in verse 24.  Really four times He makes reference to this idea of our love for God being that we obey His commands or word.

And I would also point out the placement of these statements about our love for God bracket certain promises of God.  For instance, look at how these three verses are laid out. Vs.14, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”  Vs. 15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Vs. 16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”  

Now at first glance, you might think that these are unrelated bullet points.  Almost as if John is just giving us highlights of the conversation here rather than a word for word rendition.  And that may be true to a certain degree.  But I would suggest that there is a purpose in the way that he has arranged it.  Because I believe that love for God is the condition upon which these various promises are made.

For instance, look again at vs.14, “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” We talked about last time what it meant to ask in Jesus’s name.  That to ask in His name means asking according to His will, and that being a condition for Christ doing what we ask of Him.  We ask according to His will.  His purpose.  His kingdom agenda.  But I believe after studying this passage that there is another condition, and that is that you love Him, and to love Him He said is to keep His commandments.  

If someone is not living according to Christ’s commands, then I don’t believe that God is under any compulsion whatsoever to grant our requests.  In fact disobedience is a hindrance to your prayers.  Psalm 66:18 says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”  You are either living in disobedience as a child of God and as such will receive the discipline of God the Father, or your disobedience is evidence that you are not a child of God at all. But either way, your disobedience nullifies the promise of God to answer your prayers.  Because that disobedience illustrates that you do not love God.  And if you do not love God, then that is evidence that you are not God’s marriage partner or you are in rebellion to Him.

 I have studied the latter part of James 5 for years, trying to find the secret to answered prayer as illustrated by James’s example of Elijah. The key verse I believe is vs.16, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  I looked at it from the perspective of perseverance, from the perspective of faith, and just about every which way possible.  And then finally one day it hit me.  The key to effective prayer, the key to answered prayer, is the word righteous. 

In fact, when you look at the complete verse, that becomes clearer.  “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”  The emphasis is on confession of sins so that your prayers are not hindered.

So back in our text, I believe that Jesus deliberately juxtaposes vs.15 about love and obedience between the promise of answered prayer, and that of the promise of the Holy Spirit.  Because I believe that love of God demonstrated by obedience is the key to the fulfillment of both of those promises.  

Jesus makes the connection between obedience and love over and over again. He obviously is not teaching that Christianity is gained by easy believism, or by lip service without obedience.  He is not teaching that God’s love for us is some sort of sentimentalism that winks at sin.  He is speaking of love as a commitment, even as a sacrifice of our priorities for the Lord’s.  There is a sense in which our God loves everyone in His benevolence and in the fact that He does them good. But His special familial love for His children is reserved,  our Lord says, for those who believe in Him, love Him, and manifest their love by keeping His commandments. Vs.23, “If anyone loves Me he will keep My words and My Father will love him and We will come unto him and make our abode with him.”  There is a special intimacy that God gives to those who love Him.

Our love for God is the key to the Christian life.  And obedience and love are inseparably intertwined in this chapter. You cannot have one without the other.  Let’s look at these statements. Vs.15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  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 then in vs.24 He says it negatively, “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.” Again and again, love and obedience are correlated by Christ, resulting in communion with God.

I often have people tell me that they are having problems in their Christian walk. And the problem they say is they feel like God is far away.  They pray and they don’t feel like God hears them.  They don’t feel like God cares about their problems.  Notice how many times the word “feel” was used there.  But God’s presence or God’s response to our prayers is not dependent upon feelings.  It’s dependent upon obedience.  So when someone tells me that he doesn’t feel like God is close to them, I tell them that feelings follow obedience.  They rarely precede it.  James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”  As we get into conformity with God, then He will be near to us, and reveal Himself to us.  Feelings follow obedience.

Obedience is kind of like trying to get in shape.  We hear all the time of the great benefits of exercise.  We hear that you will feel so much better if you get into shape.  So we join a gym.  And we start to work out on an exercise program.  But let me ask you, does feeling good precede getting in shape or follow after you have gotten into shape?  I would suggest that getting into shape is often painful.  It’s arduous.  That’s why they call it working out.  And that’s why Paul said in Philippians that we are to work out our salvation through obeying.   Phil. 2:12

“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”  

When you are obedient, then you will begin to experience the joy and peace of intimate fellowship with God.  John Calvin, the great Reformer said, “True knowledge of God is born out of obedience.”  As we obey Him, we come to know Him.   And out of that obedience comes a closer walk with God, out of obedience comes our sanctification, out of obedience comes our comfort, our fellowship, our assurance of His love for us.  As we love Him and keep His commandments, He comes to us and abides with us and makes His home with us as promised in vs.21 and 23.

So the key to Christ granting our requests is our love manifested by our obedience. And that obedience is tied to the next promise as well, that of the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper so that we might do those things which God has commanded us to do.  Vs.16, “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”

This highlights the major difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.  A lot of people think that the difference is that in the old covenant they were under the law, but in the new covenant we are under grace.  That’s not completely true.  It is true that we that are saved by faith are not under the penalty of the law, but under grace, that is the gift of righteousness procured by Jesus’s death on the cross.  But the commandments of God still stand.  Jesus said I did not come to annul the law but to fulfill it.  The difference is that in the old covenant we did not have the power to keep the law, but in the new covenant we have the power of the Spirit dwelling within us to help us keep His commandments.  That is why I think Jesus juxtaposes these three otherwise unrelated statements together.  He is showing the link which is obedience.

This new covenant promise is prophesied in Ezekiel 11:19, “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”  He repeats that promise again almost word for word in Ez. Chapter 36.  

The same promise is made again in Jeremiah 31:33, “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

That’s the purpose of sending the Holy Spirit folks.  The Holy Spirit is not given to be some sort of experience.  He is not a feeling.  He is not an emotion.  He is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth.  And He is given to us that we might know the truth, and that we might be able to walk in the truth.  He is given to lead us in the truth.  He is given to write the law of God upon our hearts, so that we desire to be obedient, because we love the Lord with all our heart and want to please Him. He gives us a new heart that is able to love Him, and is able to obey Him because our desires are changed.

Vs. 26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  So He is our teacher, our helper, that we might know the truth of Christ.  He will bring it to our remembrance so that we might keep His word.  That is why in vs.17 Jesus calls Him the Spirit of Truth.

In chapter 15, you are going to see in the next couple of weeks that Jesus goes to great lengths to reiterate His commandments.  It’s important to realize that in the New Testament, every one of the 10 commandments is reiterated except one.  And the one that isn’t is the law of the Sabbath, because it is a ceremonial law.  And when the ceremonial laws were fulfilled in Christ, they were no longer necessary.  They were a picture of something to come, but once He had come, the ceremonial laws were no longer in effect.  

But the point that Jesus makes is that the law of God is fulfilled in two positive commandments, as opposed to negative ones.  The negative commands say don’t do this, don’t do that.  But the positive commandments of Christ are to do something.  First,  love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.  And He said all the commandments are fulfilled in those two.  

It’s also interesting to draw a correlation to the passage on love I referenced earlier, that of 1 Corinthians 13. In that chapter and the one preceding it, we see that love is a gift of the Spirit. Of all the gifts of the Spirit, love is the one that remains when the others cease.  Love is the greatest gift.   1Cor. 13:8, “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.”  But the gift of love is going to endure, it will not cease, it will not fade away.  As it says in vs.13, “But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Well, Jesus is showing that the way to accomplish His command to love Him and obey Him is through the Holy Spirit. The Helper is given that we might do the works of God.  And He does that by leading us us in the truth.  John 16:13, “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.”  

So then the Holy Spirit helps us love God, because we come to know Him through the word of God, of which the Holy Spirit is the author.  And He brings the word to our minds, that He might lead us in the truth.  So that we might know what to do, what His will is, what His commands are.  And then when we don’t do what we should, He convicts us so that we might repent and be conformed to Christ’s will.   John 16:8, “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”

When we sin, we grieve the Holy Spirit.  And we limit the Holy Spirit.  That is why it is necessary to have a daily filling of the Spirit.  To confess your sins, and commit to love the Lord and be obedient to His will, so that the Holy Spirit may fill us with His power to do God’s will.

Next time we are going to continue in this chapter and really focus more on the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  But for now let me just say that the Helper (or Comforter in some versions) comes from the Greek word Paraclete.  That’s the transliteration in English.  Greek it’s Paraklētos.  Klētos is a verb form of a verb kaleō which means to call, pará  means alongside like parallel – so to call somebody alongside.  That’s what the word means, someone called alongside. 

And then there is another word, Állos which is used here.  It means another of the exact same kind; and Jesus uses that:  “I will give you állos Paraklētos.  “I will give you another exactly like I am, which is to say that I’m going to send you a Helper exactly like the Helper that I have been,” and that defines for you the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  We have the power of Christ in us, the words of Christ written down for us, and the mind of Christ ministering to us through the Spirit of Truth.  That we might be able to be obedient to the truth.  That we might know the truth, and the truth make us free.  Free from the penalty of sin, and free from the power of sin.  

Listen, we know that the devil is a deciever.  He loves to confuse.  He loves to twist doctrines.  And so there is an effort on his part to confuse two vital doctrines of scripture,  that of love and the Holy Spirit.  We see both of those doctrines perverted and confused in the church today to the church’s detriment. We need to know that love is evidenced by obedience to God’s will.  And we need to know that God has sent His Spirit that we might know His will and have the indwelling power of God to help us to do His will.  And in both of those doctrines, the flow is outward, not inward.  It’s not just about God’s love for me, but my love for God, manifested by my obedience.  And it’s not about how the Spirit of God makes me feel, or what manifestation of God I experience, but He helps me to manifest Christ to the world.  That is what discipleship is all about.  Loving God and loving one another.  We love because He first loved us.  And then we love one another because that is His command to us, and how we show that we love God.  And in both of them, the Spirit is the originator, and the supplier of our needs in all that we do.  As we walk with Him,  yield to Him on a daily basis, then we will love God by obedience to God’s commands.  And then we will experience the blessings of God upon our lives.