I Will Not Leave You as Orphans
Tom Shrader works through John 14:16-27, identifying six things Jesus teaches about the Holy Spirit: He is given only to believers, He is fully God, He abides forever, He is the Spirit of truth, the world cannot receive Him, and He dwells in and strengthens believers. Shrader emphasizes that Jesus' departure was to the disciples' advantage because it made way for the Helper, whose permanent indwelling guarantees salvation and provides peace not as an absence of trouble but as the presence of God Himself. The motivation for Christian obedience, he argues, flows not from fear or legalism but from love — because God first loved and adopted believers as His own children.
“God's peace is not the absence of turmoil — it's the presence of God Himself in the midst of it.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: John: The Essence of Life (2007)
Recorded: 2007 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 55 min
Themes: holy spirit, obedience, peace, love, adoption, comfort, truth, belonging, new believer, feeling abandoned, struggling with fear, orphan or fatherless, doubting salvation, young adult, seeking peace, grieving loss
Scripture: John 14:1, John 14:6, John 14:8, John 14:12, John 14:15, John 14:16-17, John 14:18, John 14:19, John 14:21, John 14:22, John 14:26, John 14:27, John 14:28, John 14:29-31, John 16:7, John 7:37-39, John 20:8, Acts 4:13, Acts 4:20, Romans 8:14-16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, Ephesians 1:5, Philippians 4:6, Hebrews 13:5, 1 John 4:19
Theological Themes: pneumatology, indwelling spirit, divine adoption, sonship, sanctification, paraclete, perseverance of the saints, trinitarian theology
Full Transcript
Introduction
Open your Bibles, if you would, to John chapter 14.
I Will Not Leave You as Orphans (Part 2 of 9)
Introduction: Confusion About the Holy Spirit
Let me read quotes from two separate authors saying essentially the same thing. The first says this: "Christian people are not in doubt as to the work that Christ did. They know that he redeemed men by his atoning death, even if they differ among themselves on exactly what was involved. But the average Christian is in a complete fog as to what work the Holy Spirit does. Some talk of the spirit of Christ in the same way they would talk of the spirit of Christmas. Some think of the spirit as an inspiring moral conviction of unbelievers. But most, perhaps, do not think of the Holy Spirit at all, and have no positive idea of any sort about what he does."
Here is the second author, saying something very similar: "Perhaps no area today needs more clarification than truth about the Spirit of God. Much confusion abounds in Christian circles on the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Many are being misled by inappropriate texts and twisted and distorted interpretations of passages. We need to hear what our Lord Himself taught about the coming of the Spirit."
We will do that today, and then through the balance of this Upper Room Discourse we will come back to the Holy Spirit three or four more times and revisit the same idea.
Setting the Scene: The Upper Room Discourse
We are at a passage of Scripture where Jesus is speaking — the Upper Room Discourse, John chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17. He is preparing these men for the fact that He is leaving. Chapter 14, verse 1 begins, "Don't let your heart be troubled." Their hearts are troubled because the Jewish leaders are starting to turn up the heat on them, and Jesus is talking more and more about going to Jerusalem and suffering. Peter has just been told that he will deny Christ three times that very night, after Peter had said, "I would die for you." So all of these things are happening, and against that backdrop, Jesus is about to be betrayed, arrested, tried, and executed.
When He says, "Don't let your heart be troubled," He understands they have some difficult circumstances coming. He has told them He is going to prepare a place for them, and that if He does that, He will come back and get them and take them with Him. They say they do not know the way, and Jesus says, "I am the way." We see that in John chapter 14, verse 6, where Jesus tells us exactly how narrow the way to God actually is — so narrow that there is but one way, and it is through Christ and Christ alone.
Review: Philip's Request and Truly Seeing the Father
Philip says in verse 8, "Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us." He is asking to see God, and that is all he is asking. Jesus rebukes him and says, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father."
We turned last week to John chapter 20, where John is describing that Easter morning — coming to the tomb. He uses a word translated in English as "saw," so it appears to be the same word three times, but it is actually three different Greek words. The first means simply to look and see an image on the retina. The second means to scrutinize, to study, to look at something and begin to break it apart. The third is how John uses it in John chapter 20, verse 8, speaking of himself: "Then he entered, he saw and believed." That is the moment when you say, "I got it."
It is not just to study about Jesus or be aware that He existed. It is not just to know that He was born, but to say, "I understand who He is. I understand what He is all about. I understand why He came and why He lived and why He died." That is what Jesus is talking about here. He said, if you have seen Me — if you get Me — you get the Father. If you understand who I am, you will understand who He is. The balance of what we look at through the rest of this discourse is about this connectedness, and then different expressions of it.
Six Words We Left Behind: "Because I Go to the Father"
Last week we worked through verses 7 through 15, and I noted there were six words — one phrase — that we read but set aside. That phrase is in verse 12. Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also. In fact, greater works than these he will do." We discussed that last week, and the six words we excluded were these: "because I go to the Father." What we are going to talk about now is Jesus going to the Father.
It Is to Your Advantage That I Go Away
Look at chapter 16, verse 7. This is a verse that has always been remarkable to me, because I cannot imagine something better than Jesus being here in person. But here is what Jesus says: "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 away, I will send Him to you."
Jesus said it is better for you that I leave.
Greater Works Through the Spirit's Coming
"I'm gone." That is a powerful statement. That gets my attention, because I cannot imagine anything better than Jesus standing here. And yet Jesus said, "No, you are better off that I am gone." He says in verse 12, in chapter 14, you are going to do greater things than these. Why? Because He is going. But He tells us all sorts of great news along the way. He says in verse 18 of chapter 14, "I am not going to leave you as an orphan."
What we want to understand is this: why is it to our advantage that He leaves? How will we not be orphans? Who is going to take His place? The answers are there in verses 16 and 17: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you. 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."
As you look at the word Helper, you will notice that the H is capitalized, referring to God Himself, the Helper. What Jesus is talking about is the Holy Spirit. In these two verses, Jesus tells us six things — six facts about the Holy Spirit. Let us start with these today.
Fact One: Those Who Receive the Holy Spirit Will Be Believers
The first fact is that those who receive the Holy Spirit will be believers. Jesus said in chapter 14, verse 12, "I tell you, he who believes in Me will do these great works." Look back at chapter 7, verse 37. Jesus has prepared them for this moment. It is the last day of the great feast, and in John 7:37, "Jesus stood and cried out saying, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, from the innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"
What is He talking about? John offers a commentary in verse 39: "But this Jesus spoke of the Spirit" — so Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. "This Jesus spoke of the Spirit whom those who believe in Him were to receive. The Spirit had not been given yet because Jesus had not been glorified." Jesus is not gone yet. See how this all begins to tie together. It is better for you that He goes away — why? Because the Spirit is going to come. And who will receive the Spirit? The first and only people who will receive the Spirit are those who believe in Him. Those who have seen Him. Those who get it. Those who understand. Those are His children.
Two Poles of Confusion About the Holy Spirit
When we say there is confusion about the Holy Spirit, we seem to have two poles. On one end are churches — and we could fall into this trap pretty easily — that basically do not talk much about the Holy Spirit because of all the distortion they see coming from the other pole. On that other end, there are churches where all they talk about is the Holy Spirit, and they take passages and all sorts of Scriptures and twist and distort them, giving us a skewed view of the Spirit of God.
Those in that second camp would be prone to say something like this to you: "Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit?" Here is what you say when someone asks whether you have been baptized with the Holy Spirit: "Yes, I am a Christian." Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:13, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized." That is what it means to be a Christian — to be identified with Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All who believe will receive the Holy Spirit.
We will talk, as we work our way through this, about many things the Spirit does. But the first thing to know is this: if you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit.
Fact Two: Another of the Same Substance
Here is the second thing Jesus mentioned. He says, "I will give you another." The word "another" does not mean here is one, and here is another one that is kind of like it. It means literally of the same substance. "I will give you another person identical to Me, in that He too is God." It is a reference to the Holy Spirit in His deity. Jesus is saying: I am leaving you, but I am going to give you another — the same, a different person, but God. That is the point He is making.
Fact Three: The Spirit Will Never Leave You
Here is the third thing: "He may be with you forever." The Spirit of God is going to come upon you, and He will never leave you. Hebrews 13:5 says, "Be content with what you have, for God has said, 'I will never leave you or forsake you.'" In the structure of that phrase in the Greek, the strongest possible negative statement is used, meaning God is saying literally, "I will never under any circumstance ever leave you or forsake you."
So when we say that God who began a good work in you will continue it to the day of Christ Jesus, what ensures that He will continue it in your life? Not you — but Him. He gives you the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God will indwell you. It is the Holy Spirit who will open your eyes and do all these things. You are sealed for the day of redemption — that is the guarantee, that is the surety.
You and I who are Christians are as certain of heaven as the saints who are already there. Why? Because of our resolve and determination? No — because of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells you, and He will never under any circumstance ever leave you or forsake you. There is nothing you can do to make things so bad that God will say, "That is it, I am done, I am out of here." You are His child — and we are going to see this in a moment — you are adopted into His family, and He will never leave you.
That is not a license to sin. That is a picture of His deep love for you. What can separate us? Paul writes in Romans 8, what can separate us from the love of Christ? Not our love for Him, but His love for us. And then he lists all —
The Spirit of Truth
The Holy Spirit comes as the One who provides clear, precise, reliable truth. There is nothing more powerful in your life than when the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the heart and mind of the man or woman of God. Nothing is bigger than that for you. Nothing is more powerful than when the Spirit of God takes this Word and lights it up for you. He is the Spirit of truth. He brings you the truth. He allows you to see the truth.
Once I see the truth here on this page, my whole life changes, because I begin to see things as they really are. I see reality around me. My life begins to restructure. I begin to get new priorities. Everything is recast for me.
The World Cannot Receive Him
The fifth thing about this Spirit is that the world cannot receive Him. He is given to you and me, but the world cannot receive Him. The reason is plain: they do not see Him. The Greek word means they do not get it, they do not understand it. They look at Him, and because the Spirit is not in them to open their eyes, they never get it.
That is why you can sit down with friends, family members, neighbors, or whoever it is, and they simply cannot see what you see. I remember the first time I ever heard the gospel. Susan and I were invited to somebody's house for dinner, and I had no idea that was the reason we were there. I was working at Motorola, and they invited us over. The woman served this incredible meal, with brownies and ice cream for dessert, and the moment the meal was done, they started in with this Jesus stuff — Jesus is the only way, Jesus is this, Jesus is that. Susan said we were out of there. I said, "Oh man, Susan, the brownies and the ice cream are next. At least fake it. Fake it till I eat." I wanted no part of it.
Some time later I was in trouble, and a friend of mine came to me. I asked him what I should do, and he said what I needed was Jesus. I said, "Have you got anything else? Is there a pill? Is there a class?" But then, at God's appointed time, He opened my eyes to see the truth. It was not that the people around me had failed to present it clearly. It was not that they lacked sharp illustrations. The problem was me.
That is why you can sit with your friends and pour your heart out to them, and they keep saying they do not get it, and you cannot understand how they can possibly miss it, and now you are angry with them. Do not be angry with them. They cannot get it, because the Spirit is not in them. You can talk and talk and talk, and it will not make any difference on its own. We should talk, and we should live, and we should witness, and we should share, because we never know whose heart God is going to touch and open. But do not grow angry with them. Do not demand to know how they cannot see it. They cannot see it. That is the answer.
He Dwells in You and Strengthens You
The sixth thing is that He dwells in you and strengthens you. He abides in you, you abide in Him, and your life is transformed. Consider Peter as a vivid example of this. We have just read that Peter will deny Christ three times, and within a day or so he does exactly that — denied Him, denied Him, denied Him. But roughly a month and a half later, Peter stands up to preach, and three thousand people believe. What is the difference? The Holy Spirit.
In John chapter 14, the disciples do not yet have the Holy Spirit living in them. But when that day comes — the day God had promised to the nation of Israel for years, decades, centuries, thousands of years — everything changes. Peter, who folded like a cheap suit when a servant girl intimidated him on the night before the crucifixion, now stands before the combined opposition of the Jewish leaders and the Romans and says he has to tell the truth. As it says in Acts chapter 4, verse 20: "We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and what we have heard."
There is a wonderful companion verse worth sitting with for a while. Acts chapter 4, verse 13 says: "They observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, and they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." That verse teaches itself, because it raises the obvious question: have you been with Jesus? And if so, does everyone around you know it? When you walk into school, does everyone in class sense that this person was with Jesus? When you walk into the office, do your coworkers look at you and think the same thing? When your neighbors see your family out in the evening, do they look and say, that whole family has been with Jesus? That is the difference the indwelling Spirit makes.
Six Truths About the Holy Spirit
So He has told us six things about the Holy Spirit in these verses. The Holy Spirit will be to those of us who are believers another of the same kind — God Himself. The Holy Spirit will be with us forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him. He dwells in us. And He strengthens and transforms us, so that what Paul says in Romans 8 holds true: no persecution, no family conflict, no created thing, no circumstance, nothing can separate us from the love of God — because the Holy Spirit lives in us.
I Will Not Leave You as Orphans
The whole backdrop of this passage is the fact that Jesus is leaving. He doesn't say He is not going to leave — He says He is not going to leave them alone. Back in verse 1, He said, "Don't let your heart be troubled." There is a lot of scary stuff about to happen, and He is getting ready to leave. He has already told them that, and He is preparing them for this moment. They haven't fully understood it. It is easy for us, sitting here and looking back across 2,000 years, to ask how these guys didn't get it — but that is because we have had 2,000 years to see it unfold.
He doesn't say He is not going to leave. He is leaving — and in fact, He tells them that they should be happy He is leaving. Look at verse 28: "I go away, and I will come to you." That is virtually identical to what He said in verse 18. "If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I go to the Father." Why would you rejoice? First, for Christ Himself, because He is now restored to the glory He emptied Himself of originally. You should be happy and grateful and full of love for Him because of what has happened. And if you want to be selfish — and there is nothing wrong with being selfish in this case — you should be happy that He is sending you another Helper, which is better than Him being here. That is what He says. Part of the reason He is going away is that, at this point, He has suffered and died and purchased your salvation.
So He is leaving, but He is not going to leave them all by themselves. Don't be worried. Don't be troubled. Look at verse 27: "Peace I leave you, My peace I give you." We will come back and unpack that. "Not peace as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled. Do not let it be fearful." The whole backdrop here involves people who are fearful, people who are troubled, people who are about to experience very difficult circumstances. He says, don't let it worry you — because He is not going to leave them as orphans. He is not going to leave them alone.
The Pain of Being Left Behind
I was watching this morning as parents were dropping off their kids in the children's area. It is not really the babies that are the problem, and it is not the first-graders either. It is the ones in the middle — the ones who have figured out what is going on and now realize that mom and dad are leaving. Both Sarah and Haley did exactly the same thing. When they were little, we would put them in the nursery and they would laugh. Then, at about the same age, for about four or five weeks, when we put them in there they would just start crying. I felt so guilty. I made Susan take them in because I didn't want to look the childcare worker in the eye, knowing the kids were crying — mom, dad, don't leave. And that is the picture here. Jesus has been walking with them, and they don't want Him to go. He says, don't worry. I am not going to leave you as an orphan.
"After a little while," verse 19, "the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me." I think what He means are those who saw Him specifically — these disciples — after the resurrection. "In that day you will know that I am in the Father, you are in Me, and I am in you." A new relationship has begun. He and the Father are one, and He is in them, and they are in Him. We are adopted into the family of God.
Adopted into the Family of God
Second Corinthians chapter 6, verses 17 and 18: "I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty." Ephesians chapter 1, verse 5 tells us that God has predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. God did this.
Turn over to Romans chapter 8. The whole idea we need to get into our minds is that we are in a new family now. We have been adopted into the family of God. Romans chapter 8, verse 14: "For all who are led by the Spirit of God" — and who is that? Those who are truly converted, those who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh — "these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear, 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."
Paul uses a term that would have been very familiar in Roman culture — this idea of adoption. We may have one version of it today, but Roman culture understood it differently. A father held absolute authority over his children. It was not uncommon for a father to be dissatisfied with a son, in which case he might keep him around or disown him, but he would also go and look to adopt another son — one more in keeping with what he thought and felt. There were three steps that took place in this adoption. First, the relationship between the adopted boy and his natural family was severed, legally and socially. Second, the new family was permanent — a father could disown a naturally born son, but never an adopted son. Third, all of the adopted son's previous debts and obligations were taken care of. The transaction was legally binding and irreversible.
Adopted into the Family of God
When Jesus says you have been adopted as a son of God, He is saying that you are severing that relationship with the old world. The old flesh is gone. You are a new creature, and this is a permanent, irreversible condition. All of the debts, all the obligations — the wage of sin is death — all of those obligations are paid in full.
He says, I am going to leave, but I am not going to leave you as an orphan. You will be adopted. You will become a son of God. You can cry out to Him, Abba, Father — the modern English equivalent being Daddy, Papa. The Jew would not even say the name of God, and now we are in here calling Him Daddy.
I got a couple of emails from my daughter Sarah this week, and there had to be three or four times in there where she said, Daddy, I love you. Thanks for being my fan, my cheerleader, Daddy. If you are a parent, there is nothing you want to hear more than that — and you can cry out to the creator God of the universe in exactly that way.
You can say, Daddy, who's your Daddy? My Father is. That is the whole point. I have a new identity. It is not my DNA that is limiting me. I have a whole new spiritual DNA. He is my Father, and He loves me.
What you and I need as much as anything else in this whole world is to know that we are loved. Any love we receive from any person is going to be imperfect — no matter how deep that love is, it will always fall short. But He has a deep, perfect love for you. Let this flow over you. He loves you. He adopted you. He brought you into the family. He chose you. He paid those debts in full.
Obedience Flows from Love
Now, let's go back to John 14. There is a lot of scary stuff out there, but He is not going to leave us as orphans. You know Him. He knows His Father. You are in Him, and He is in you. There is a relationship there.
Verse 21: "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him." That is what He says. We have to be really careful about the order here. He does not say that out of obligation and under the penalty of the law you must keep His commandments if you love Him. He says that if you love Him, obedience flows from that.
So the motivation in my life is not to obey Him first — it is to love Him. I am not driven by fear, though fear can play a role. Fear can sometimes keep me from doing something I should not do, but fear will never drive me to do the things I am supposed to do.
If I am moving purely out of obedience, here is what happens: this quickly becomes mechanical and ritualistic — cold, dry, dead, sterile religion, legalism, rules and regulations, no flex. And natural man wants that. We would rather have somebody say, do these ten things, than say, go love them. We want to check the boxes and say we did it. He says no — the motivation is not obedience itself; the motivation is love for Him.
When I begin to understand that I have been adopted into His family and that He loves me, I respond in kind. As 1 John 4:19 says, "We love, because He first loved us." He loved us, so now we love Him, and the evidence of that love is that we desire to obey Him.
The Yoke of Grace vs. the Yoke of Law
When Jesus says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, My yoke is easy and My burden is light," those were wonderful words to the ears of His listeners, because their religion was a yoke and a burden — the law pressing down on them. Now we are not under the law but under grace and love.
Rather than that leading me to say, now that I am under grace I can do whatever I want, I begin to understand that grace and I submit myself to Him. I yoke myself to Him. I am driven by a desire to give evidence of my love for Him. If you love Him, that is what you do.
I had a wonderful time with some of the ladies of the church this week in two studies together. The point I tried to make over and over — and I would make the same point to a group of men — is this: if you truly say you love this person, then what we are asking you to do is not a burden. In fact, you should want to do it. If I am a husband and I know what my wife really needs, or I am a wife and I know what my husband really needs, why would I not do that? If I say I love you, there ought to be evidence of it — not out of obligation, but because there is nothing better than being able to serve that person. That is the same principle He is describing.
The Three Reasons for Disobedience
So if we are disobedient, there are only three possible motives we can get to. The first is ignorance — you simply do not know what it says, because He says that if you know Him, you will keep His commandments. And we say this all the time: if you have a choice between ignorant and stupid, take ignorant — because if you are stupid, we cannot help you. You are stuck on stupid. But ignorance is just a matter of learning, and I have had that in my own life, especially in the early days.
The Evidence of Loving God
When someone would say, "God says don't do it," there are really only three possible responses. Either you're ignorant — you simply don't know what God has said. Or you're rebellious — you know what it says, but you're going to do it anyway, reasoning that He's going to forgive you and you'll live with the consequences. Or you're not His child at all. Those are the only three options.
So when you're sitting in any sort of counseling situation, you're either doing discipleship — here's what it says, encouraging love, discipline that goes together — or you're doing evangelism. Because if you love Him, you'll keep His commandments. That's the point Jesus is making. If you know this word, you're going to want to do it. That becomes the motive.
Judas's Question and the Father's Word
Verse 22: Judas — not the betrayer Judas — said to Him, "Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not the world?" And Jesus answered, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. And My Father will love him, and he will come to him and make Our abode with him. 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."
This is what God has said. God is saying that if we are His children, we are going to have evidence of it. If we are not, there will be equal evidence — we won't keep His word.
The Holy Spirit and the Word of God
"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." (verse 26)
In this verse, there is a primary and a secondary meaning. The primary meaning is directed to the apostles, who years later — some of them — would sit down and write the books you have before you. The Holy Spirit would teach them and bring all things to their remembrance. A common charge against Scripture is this: wasn't the Bible just written by men? And don't men have foggy memories? And weren't they writing about things that happened decades before? How can you trust it? Because the Spirit of God came and gave them perfect remembrance. So while the book is written by men, it is inspired by God, and this is the word of God.
The secondary meaning is that the Holy Spirit will take this word and remind you of what you have read. God has never spoken to me through a verse I have never seen. He has never caused me to open randomly to something like, "All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold; none was of silver" — and had that mean something to me without any context. God has never spoken to me through a word I have not previously read.
But God will regularly take the word and open it in a new way. A good example is what you had to endure for eleven weeks when I went through Matthew 5:16. I've read that verse a thousand times, but when I read it last summer in the context of my life experience — wherever I was at the time, what I thought the church needed — the Holy Spirit took that verse and opened my eyes to see it differently and to restructure it in terms of communication.
I received an email recently from a woman who had attended one of our Wednesday conversations. She wrote: "Thanks for the message last night. I hope this is not offensive, but not a lot of new info — all the things we wives should be doing — but a painful reminder of how short we, me, fall from the mark. Good kick in the pants to get back on track." That's exactly what I'm talking about. I never quite thought of the Holy Spirit this way, but He is like a good kick in the pants to get back on track. He takes this word, brings it to your mind, keeps it in front of you, and teaches you.
The Peace Jesus Gives
Verse 27: "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you."
Jesus offers peace, and then He contrasts His peace with the world's peace — He seems to say these are two entirely different things. The world comes along and tells you that if you want peace, you simply need to fill in the blank. The world says you can smoke peace, snort peace, purchase peace, somehow own peace, rent peace, lease peace, wear peace, drive peace. The world has a whole set of ideas about how peace is acquired through things you get or conditions you achieve.
I'm reading a book on happiness right now — one of two books I'm reading that I don't fully understand. The book tries to unpack what happiness actually is and how we know when we have it. The author poses it this way: you say you're happy, but then he gives you something better, and suddenly you realize you weren't as happy as you thought. And then something even better comes along and the previous thing isn't enough. What I've concluded is that I'm not happy reading this book — that's what I've figured out from the whole thing.
Here's what the world is actually saying: you would be happy — you would have peace — if you had certain things or if you were free from certain other things. You'd have peace if you had a new house. You'd have peace if you didn't have cancer. That's how we define it. But God redefines it entirely.
My Peace Is the Presence of God
Jesus says, "My peace I give you," and here is what that peace is: it is not an absence of turmoil, it is the presence of God Himself. He does not say circumstances are necessarily going to go away. He does not minimize them, and He does not suggest He will remove them. What He says is simply, "I will be there with you." That is His peace. His peace is the presence of the Helper.
So in Philippians chapter 4, beginning in verse 6, Paul says at the end of verse 5, "The Lord is near, be anxious for nothing." Why should you be anxious for nothing? Because God is in control. If we understand who God is, then we must also understand that everything in our lives is either caused by or allowed by God. If that is not true, then God is not sovereign and in control, and the promise "I will never leave you" means nothing.
Be anxious for nothing — but what does He say then? Pray about everything with thanksgiving and prayer and supplication, and bring these to the Lord. The peace of God transcends all understanding — it is not going to make sense necessarily. You will be talking to somebody and they will say, "I don't understand how you can be peaceful in the midst of this," and you can say, "It's a God thing." It is not self-discipline or determination; it is God working in you.
Peace in the Midst of Real Suffering
"I will not leave you as an orphan — have peace, relax. Don't be afraid, don't let your heart be troubled." Why? Not because the circumstances are not scary — they are scary. Not because all these difficulties are going to go away — they are not. Within the body of Christ, among true, genuine, growing believers, we will have parents who are fighting and arguing, parents who are not good to their children, children who are not good to their parents, deals that do not close, relationships that are broken, hurt, pain, and suffering.
It is striking that certain people seem to be challenging Job for the role of trials. For whatever reason, God keeps bringing thing after thing to certain people. There is a person in our lives right now for whom things have been just really difficult, and last week was especially hard. We worked through a great deal together, and then the next day Susan said they had just received notice that the house they are renting is being sold and they have to be out in a month. That may sound small to some, but this is like the fourteen-thousandth difficult thing that has happened to this person.
And it is not because God does not love them. It is not because God has left them.
The Question to Keep Asking
If you are in the midst of that kind of season, here is a question you need to ask yourself over and over again: "God, what are you trying to teach me? What is my takeaway from this?" Here is the honest reason to ask it — you want to learn the lesson so you do not have to go through it again, or if you do go through it again, you go through it with a completely different mindset.
We tend to focus on that question only in the bad times, but it is just as important to ask in the good times. Not only "God, why would you allow this deal to fall apart?" but also "God, why would you make this deal work? Why would you allow this relationship to be great? What do you want me to do with what you are doing to me, and with me, and through me right now?" That is a wonderful truth to hold onto in every season.
Jesus Closes the Section
Then He unpacks it further in verse 28. He says, "I will go, and if I go, you should rejoice, because I will be back. I will be in My glory." Then in verses 29, 30, and 31 He closes out this section: "Now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens, you will believe." He is giving a heads-up so they will not be taken by surprise, and so they will see these things come together.
"I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has nothing in Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. I do exactly what the Father commanded Me." That is striking. Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" — and then He gives a perfect role model of it. As you read through these last few days of Christ's life, you get a sense not only of the brutality of what He endured, but also of the peace and serenity He carried in the midst of it — the very thing He told His disciples to do. He said, "I love the Father, and here is how you know: I am going to do exactly what He commanded Me to do."
The Summary to Carry With You
So here is the takeaway. Imagine someone comes up to you and asks what this message was about. Here is what you tell them: those of us who are Christians have the Holy Spirit living in us. That Holy Spirit will show us the truth. He will open our eyes to see the world as it really is. He wants us to not be afraid. We have peace, and the peace we have is the indwelling God — the Holy Spirit living in us — and He will never leave us or forsake us. That is a wonderful truth.
A Motivation Rooted in Love
Our motivation for our behavior is love, not fear. Because He loves us, we love Him. Because He loves us and we love Him, we will obey Him — not in some dry, mechanical way, but out of a desire simply to please Him, because He is our Father. That is a great truth.
A Prayer for Every Season
God, will You apply this to our lives? This morning, there are those of us at virtually every condition or stage of life. Some have never had things better than they are right now. Some have never had things worse. Most of us are somewhere in the middle.
God, help us understand that You allow us to experience in life the things that You do for our own good. Help us understand that we do not have to be anxious, or worried, or afraid. We do not have to be running from fear to fear to fear. You will give us a peace that passes all understanding. You will guard our hearts, protect us, and keep us from doubt, worry, and anxiety.
When those things come, allow us to take them captive very quickly. When life comes at us, help us understand that peace is not the absence of all of this turmoil — it is the presence of You in the midst of it. Do not let us fall into the theological trap of thinking that if we are really Yours, we will never have difficulties or challenges. We will. It is just that now we have You in there with us.
Gratitude and Transformation
Father, will You do this work in our lives? We are so grateful that You sent Your Son Jesus. Father, we rejoice that He is with You now, that He has gone to the cross and we have been redeemed, and that we now have in us a power stronger than anything we can imagine.
Father, here is what we ask: that Your Spirit would apply this word to our hearts and minds. Transform our lives and change us. Do not let us be the same. Help us learn day by day the things that You are trying to teach us through both success and prosperity and adversity. God, thank You. In Christ's name, amen.