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John 14:15-27

Peace that Jesus Gives

  • Rich Jones
  • Weekend Messages
  • September 29, 2013

In John 14, Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” In other words, these are not commandments you keep simply because it’s the law; these are things you do because you love Jesus and you love His Father and that love causes you to want to do what He says. The problem is that many people are also used to calling their own plays, but when you love God and trust that He is the way, the truth, and the life, you want to do what He says. The way we receive abundant life is by doing His commandments.

  • Sermon Notes
  • Scripture

Peace that Jesus Gives 

John 14:15-27

Jesus is speaking to His disciples, they are sitting together at the Last Supper, the Passover; these are some of the last words that Jesus will say to
them before He is arrested, so these are extremely significant words to them and to us.

In this chapter we read some of the most famous and powerful words that Jesus taught His disciples. “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe
also in Me…” And then in verse 6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”

Then, in verse 15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Jesus repeats that three times in these verses.

Somebody reading that verse might say, “Did Jesus really give commandments? I mean like commandments like commandments? I knew there were commandments
in the Old Testament, but are there actually commandments in the New Testament? I don’t like the word commandment, it sounds so command like, so concrete,
so definitive, so inconvenient.

I think He should make suggestions, or perhaps recommendations; He could even exhort us, but require? Insist? Expect? Why would Jesus give us commandments?”

Maybe a way to think of it would be comparable to the relationship of a teen to his parents. That’s a good analogy because those are turbulent years when
young people are trying to figure out who they are and whether they will agree that they need the wisdom, direction and input of parents or if they
will resist at every turn and insist that they are their own boss.

When we were raising our five kids, we tried to communicate that our role was to help transform them; to help transform their character, and it was to
their blessing and good that we gave certain commandments.

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” We had a very similar rule, they had to respect one another and they had to respect
us, but it was to bless them and transform them.

In John 14 Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” In other words, these are not commandments you keep simply because it’s the law;
these are things you do because you love Jesus and you love His Father and that love causes you to want to do what He says.

On Wednesday we were studying in Jeremiah 6 where God is explaining to Israel why their lives were falling apart, saying, “Behold, their ears are closed
and they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them; they have no delight in it.” They had no love for God and His Word
had no value to them.

Many of you are perhaps too young to remember when the Dallas Cowboys were a good football team. Many years ago, they drafted Roger Staubach an accomplished
quarterback. The problem was that he was used to calling all the plays himself, but he was drafted onto a team that was coached by Tom Landry, who
was considered a genius in football strategy; and who called every play…The problem is that many people are also used to calling their own plays,
but when you love God and trust that He is the way, the truth, and the life, you want to do what He says.

In John 10:10 Jesus said that He came that we might have life and have it abundantly; life to the full. Many, however, don’t connect the dots; the way
to abundant life that we receive from Him is by doing His commandments.

I. Love God First

A. Love others and other things less

  • Jesus said that the greatest commandment God has ever given is that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
  • God wants us to love Him first before all other people and all other things in our lives.

Luke 14:26-35 Loving God before all things

  • When Jesus speaks of hating one’s own father or mother or wife or children, what He means is that we should love these less than our love for Him.

Illus – I love golf. And I would really love to be good at it. They actually sell memberships and if I got one of those, I could play golf all I wanted. But here’s the thing, I love my family more and I love God more. In other words, I’ll never really be good at golf.

  • If you were to love golf, or a sports car, or video games, as your first and highest love, you couldn’t have love for God first and highest and
    your family would suffer.
  • But when you love God first and highest, you are blessed because of who you will become and your family is blessed because God will tell you how.

B. Keep God as your friend

  • Jesus is a friend of sinners, the scripture says. He brings forgiveness, healing, hope and help to those that are broken and lost.
  • The key then is to keep living in that relationship where God is your friend.

James 4:4, Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Luke 16:14-15, Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “… God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”

Illus – If you went in to a gym because you were thinking of joining it, but the guy at the counter was 10 sizes overweight and was eating a doughnut while smoking a cigarette, you wouldn’t consider joining.

John 9:25, He then answered, “… One thing I do know, once I was blind, but now I see.”

  • If God has opened your eyes, then let Him keep changing your life and then help others be reconciled to God as well.

2 Corinthians 5:19, God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

C. We need sacrificial living

  • Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
  • What were some of these commandments?

John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Luke 6:27-38 Give and it will be given to you

  • Give unto others; that’s sacrificial living. It’s part of a strategy of God to bless you through transforming your heart and character.

Illus – If you withhold forgiveness, you’ll be bitter. If you hold back love, you’ll be lonely and empty. If you hold back generosity, you’ll be greedy.

  • When you leave this earth, you’ll leave your treasures behind, God is giving you spiritual treasures that are eternal.

1 Timothy 4:7-8, Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Illus – Spiritual exercise is a great illustration. My wife and I drove by Nike the other day and saw this buff guy running without his shirt. It takes a lot of exercise to look like that. What would happen if we did the same thing spiritually? “I’m lifting a commandment, I’m going to forgive someone… I need a spotter.”

  • Here’s the thing; Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is the Helper whom the Father will send. He’s your spotter. Imagine the spiritual results in
    our lives.

II. Love God and Peace will Surely Follow

  • Many people are very troubled in their soul, they’re looking, always searching, but never finding. We need to understand how to have the peace
    of Jesus.

A. The real war is within

  • The word “peace” conjures up a passive picture, one showing an absence of hostilities or conflict or strife.
  • But Jesus spoke of giving His peace. Jesus certainly had conflict around Him, but he certainly also had peace within.
  • Isn’t the real issue the real battle within?

James 4:1, What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

Isaiah 59:1-2, The Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.

  • Jesus reconciles people to God, though we are the ones who created the separation.

Isaiah 1:18-19, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord, “though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.”

Illus – “Come now, let’s reason together,” in other words, let’s resolve this. When we found our teens resisting, we found it much more effective to say, “Come now, let’s reason together… What’s bothering you about our instruction? We are doing our part, what’s your part?”

Illus – Paul was kicking against the goads.

  • Jesus brings peace with God and then sends the Spirit of truth so we can live truly, without resisting Him.

B. His peace passes understanding

Philippians 4:6-7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 42:11, Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.

Romans 8:31, What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

John 14:15-27       NASB

15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 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.
 
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live,
you will live also. 20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 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.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot)
said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him,
“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. 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.
 
25 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 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. 27 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.

 

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