Prepared for Peace (John 14:18-31)

John chapter 14, starting in verse 18.

John 14 · chapter mention

I will not leave you as orphans, I am coming to you.

In a little while all the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.

Because I live, you will live too.

On that day you will know that I am in my father, you are in me, and I am in you.

The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my father.

I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.

Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you're going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?

And Jesus answered, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.

My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

The one who doesn't love me will not keep my words.

The word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled or fearful.

You have heard me tell you, I am going away and am coming to you.

If you love me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.

I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe.

I will not talk with you much longer because the ruler of the world is coming.

He has no power over me.

On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.

Get up, let's leave this place.

Lord, I thank you so much for today.

I thank you for your word.

I thank you for the blessing of having your words in our hands by which we can grow and fall more in love with you.

I ask that you would fill me with your spirit to teach your word, that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly discern and divide what is of you, and that ultimately that we would grow closer to you as a result, that we would uh be at peace and be quickened to follow right by your side in all things.

In your name, amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

This is an interesting passage because you could do six sermons on this chunk.

And uh we're so we have to either two options.

Either we could be here until Tuesday, or we're gonna have to go a little more 5,000-foot view, and I will give you guys some uh encouraging homework assignments along the way.

So that will be the uh for those of you who are note takers, and you're probably just like, this is the best day of my life.

But for the for those of you who are more like auditory processes, you're like, okay, well, I'll check out for that part.

But ultimately, that's what we got going on today.

We are going verse by verse, chapter by chapter, through the Gospel of John.

And uh we are in this chunk where Jesus is there at the Last Supper teaching his disciples right before his arrest, his torture, his crucifixion, and his subsequent resurrection.

And so it's fun in the Gospel of John that almost 25% of the book is one long speech.

So we have to break it up in order to be able to navigate through all that, but there is a continuous flow through this.

And so if you didn't get a chance to listen to the message last week, I really encourage you to do so on our website, as there is a lot of crossover and overlap and foundational stuff that helps with that.

Because this is all one long flow of this last night.

And that is something that we need to keep in mind in this passage, because Jesus is about to be arrested and is about to be horrifically mistreated before a rigged trial that will lead to his crucifixion.

Like, largely seen as one of the worst ways to die in human history.

Yet, what is he telling his disciples right now?

He is not saying, guys, I need to be alone.

I'm having a really bad day, or guys, it's I just I just need some space.

He's actually taking all of this time directly beforehand to prepare them, to prepare them for what they are going to experience, which is crazy.

I don't have that kind of love, really.

It would be one of those things of like, okay, things are about to get really, really bad, go away.

But instead, he is actively preparing them for what they are going to be experiencing, which is really cool and really crazy.

We get to see Jesus shepherding on display in that way.

And which is really awesome because remember that they left everything to follow him.

So they, when he said follow me, they dropped everything and they went to follow him.

There's no backup plan really for them.

And so, in a couple hours from here, when he is arrested, and then a day from here, when he is crucified, what do they do?

What's gonna happen to them at that point in time?

And it is awesome that Jesus actually addresses these things in this point, right before one of the most intense evenings that somebody can possibly have.

So, with that in mind, we are flowing from the previous chapter.

So I want to start in verse 15 really quick.

If you love me, you will keep my commands, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever.

He is the Spirit of truth.

The world is unable to receive him because it doesn't see him or know him.

But you know him because he remains with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans.

Kind of a nice flow there at that point in time where you have him saying, I am sending the Holy Spirit, your counselor, who will be with you, he will remain you, will be in you, therefore I will not leave you as orphans.

And he continues saying, I am coming to you.

So we're gonna break this passage up into three main chunks.

There are the promises of what is coming, there is their responsibility, and there is what he gives them.

So in this passage, three big chunks, what's gonna happen, their responsibility in the meantime, and also what he gives them to navigate through all that.

The fun thing in this is at no point does he give them a roadmap of what's going to happen.

At no point does he give them a play-by-play, or this is everything that you're going to do, because they are still going to need to follow him as his sheep.

So it's cool though, at the beginning here, we're going to see these promises in verses 18 through 20.

Number one, I will not leave you as orphans, I am coming to you.

That is really important because again, they left everything to follow Jesus.

And he is saying what they clearly don't understand.

It's amazing how many times in the Gospels he can say, I am going to be betrayed, I am going to be crucified, I am going to rise again.

And they go, Huh?

I don't understand what you're saying.

Could you please be more clear and specific?

And so they haven't absorbed what he is preparing them for, but he is still planting this seed in them that he is not going to leave them as orphans because a day from this time they sure are going to feel like it.

And he says, I am coming to you.

We see that here.

We also see that in the beginning of this chapter in John 14, 3.

If I go away and I prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

So he is not going to leave them, even though it's really going to look like it in the moment.

A lot of what he's telling them is going to require belief.

And the key to a lot of this passage right now is verse 29.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe.

So that's a whole lot of what we're hearing and reading right now is him telling them now what's going to happen before it happens.

So when it does happen, then they will be able to believe and trust and hope.

So, he's coming to them.

Verse 19, in a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.

So, first he's saying, I'm not going to leave you as orphans, I'm coming to you.

Then he's saying, In a little bit, the world isn't going to see me anymore, but you will see me.

Which again would be baffling to them.

But here's your first homework assignment.

Look through and recall through the Gospel of John the light of the world passages.

When he says, I am the light of the world, how many different times it talks about seeing and walking in light versus walking in darkness, him being the light, remaining in the light versus not seeing in darkness.

So different passages such as John 8 12, 9 5, and 12 35.

So they're probably looking and going, What are you talking about?

The world's not going to see you, but you will see me.

And there is great correlation with that.

But he's ultimately encouraging them.

There is an after to what you're about to experience.

Because I live, you will live too.

And we see that also with Jesus being one of his I am statements, the resurrection and the life in John 11.

And the God so loved the world in John 3.

Whoever would give his only son, whoever would believe in him, not perish but have everlasting life, they will have life through him because he lives.

Interesting thing to cling to when in a couple uh hours from now he will die.

And he's saying, Because I live, you will live too, and be like, not feeling so good right now because you are not, in fact, alive.

What does that mean for me?

But again, he's preparing them for what's going to happen.

And on that day, you will know that I am in my father, you are in me, and I am in you.

So on that day when he lives and they live too, there will be a communion of self to where Jesus is in the Father, they are in them, and he is in them.

So there is a comfort to them when he's telling them, I won't leave you as orphans.

Again, to things that they're probably like, Jesus, I really don't know what you're talking about at all.

And that's why it's nice that on the other side of the cross, he explains all things to them to be able to talk to, to tell them what exactly these things meant and what was going on.

So that first chunk there, all of these different promises to encourage them.

He's planting seeds they don't understand for things they will understand later.

Which is cool.

Continuing forward, we go into their responsibility.

What does that look like?

Verse 21.

The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.

The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.

So the first thing that we see as a responsibility is the one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.

Who is the one who loves Jesus?

The one who has his commands and keeps them, who actually has them and obeys them.

We'll talk about that in a little bit, but that's really one of the things that he gives them of what to do in the meantime, with this with this time of difficulty that's about to happen, and continuing forward after his ascension into heaven, is not only to have the commands, but to keep them, to observe them, to do them.

And the promise that goes along with them is the one who loves me will be loved by my father.

And I will love him and will reveal myself to him.

So who's the one who loves Jesus?

The one who keeps his commands.

What happens to the one who loves Jesus?

The Father will love him, Jesus will love him and will reveal himself to him.

So there is an aspect of Jesus being the good shepherd in this passage, where his sheep know his voice and they follow.

They hear his commands and they obey.

And what happens to the one here who loves them, who loves Jesus?

The Father will love him, Jesus will love him, and Jesus will reveal himself to them.

We'll get back to that in a second.

But in verse 22, Judas, I love how John here is like, not Iscariot! So, because that's kind of a that's a bad, bad label there at that point in time, because John is writing this after the fact, obviously.

He's not writing this in real time, and so his audience knows who Judas Iscariot is, the one who betrayed Jesus.

And so it's nice that he actually clarified this for poor Judas, who's also Thaddeus in other Gospels, uh, Judas, son of James, so it's like, don't worry, guys, the one who asked this question, not the bad one.

And he actually might have changed his name to Judas not Iscariot after the events of what's about to happen.

And Judas speaks and says, huh?

How's it gonna reveal yourself to us and not to the world?

He is asking Jesus, how is that possible?

What are you talking about?

What does that mean?

We get to see Jesus' response here.

He doesn't necessarily answer the question, although he answers the question.

And so, in this way, Jesus is a really good shepherd in that he's not giving them a map of all of the different things that they need to do in the following uh subsequent hours and events after his death and resurrection.

He is actually just going to repeat himself, which is to a certain extent the answer to the question, but not in the way that they want.

So it is very, very common for the disciples to want a step-by-step of what to do next.

That would not go well for them because if Jesus gave them a step-by-step, he would say, Well, first what you're going to do is abandon me.

Before that, three of you won't even stay awake while I'm having a bad day.

I'm going to ask you that multiple times to stay awake, not even going to happen.

Then you're all going to leave and flee.

One of you, Peter, is going to deny me multiple times.

And then, when after my resurrection, when people come and say, Jesus is rose, like the body's not there, Jesus risen from the dead, you guys will not believe that person at all, despite the fact that I told you it was going to happen over and over and over and over and over again.

So Jesus is good in that he doesn't give them a step-by-step of what's about to happen, because they need to learn to follow his voice.

So when Judas says, How's that gonna reveal yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus says almost the exact same thing he just said.

You can read it this way, if you start at verse 21, the one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.

The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.

And Judas is like, How are you gonna reveal to yourself to us and to the whole and not to the world?

And Jesus says, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.

My father will love him, we will come to him and make our home with him.

As I was saying, and that is the third time in this section, going back to uh last week as well, that Jesus highlights that loving him results in obedience.

Three times.

There is a leadership axiom that it takes five times a repetition for somebody to hear it the first time.

So Jesus three times is telling them the indication of the one who loves me is the one who keeps my word, who obeys, who follows.

So with that in mind, we got to grapple with the nature of love and obedience.

How does that look?

Well, this is one way that we see why this is important is if I have a slide for John 6.

John 6, 46 through 49.

Jesus speaking, again, pretend those letters are in red.

Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do the things I say?

And I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them.

He's like a man building a house who dug deep, laid the foundation on the rock.

And when the floods came, the river crashed against that house and couldn't shake it, because it was well built.

But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.

The river crashed against it and immediately collapsed.

And the destruction of that house was great.

There is a constant theme of that of having the words and then doing them.

Doing what he says.

What does that look like?

Well a little interlude here.

There are two big categories for sheep.

So if you were a follow of Jesus, you're one of his sheep.

Congratulations.

Cute, fluffy, not very intimidating.

Sheep.

Okay.

Here's how I would categorize the two main tendencies of sheep.

Category one, overfed and underled.

Category two, lean and mean.

Two different kinds of sheep we see throughout scripture, two different kinds of sheep that I've seen constantly throughout ministry experience with that.

So the overfed and underled category of sheep is motivated largely by comfort.

Is motivated largely by comfort and encouragement.

That's the currency.

What I need is enough encouragement so that I can be big and happy and fluffy and healthy, and then everything will be fine.

But the danger to that is they're susceptible to compromise.

For those of you who are not terrified of the book of Revelation, the uh the two letters that we would go with that would be to the letter of Thyatira or the letter of Pergamon, where there is compromise within that.

Because comfort is more important than truth.

Sometimes that's the downfall to that.

And the danger there is to remove the obedience from the love.

As long as I have the love, I'm fine, even if I don't obey.

Lean and mean.

You have sheep that are decidedly not comfortable.

They're motivated by purity, motivated by safety, and having everything perfectly right and safe and correct, which means they're susceptible to legalism.

Because you remove the love from obedience.

And that is the challenge here.

Especially the problem with that is because Jesus' command, just a chapter ago, literally says, This is my command that you love one another.

So hard to do that with that.

But these can be on the spectrum, the tendencies we have.

And so you have overfed and underled.

They really don't want to be led, they want to be encouraged so that they can do whatever they feel like.

And then over here, you have lean and mean, which we would see the Church of Ephesus that left its first love, or the Church of Sardis that has a name that's alive but they're dead, because they end up ultimately leaving Jesus behind and going and building their own camp in the first place.

And those are the two dangers we can see with obedience and love.

One can leave behind obedience and wonder why they suffer shipwreck later.

One can leave behind love and wonder why they're alone, but also that why there is, they're so far off from the truth.

How do we reconcile that?

When three times in this chapter, Jesus is calling obedience and love together.

If you love me, you will obey.

The one who obeys is the one who loves me.

How does that work?

The solution is coming.

We see in verses 25 through 26, I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you.

But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

The key is the Holy Spirit.

This was uh unpacked really, really, really well last week.

I really encourage that you listen to that, to where the key of it is just staying close to the Spirit and listening to Him.

He is the teacher, the counselor, the guide.

And we went through the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians, to which we see three of those on display in this passage in action.

So I'd really, if you haven't heard that message, I encourage you to listen to that for that foundation.

But the key is the Holy Spirit.

Um, if Jesus is telling them, you better do what's right, or else you're not the one who loves me.

We have a bit of a problem because he is speaking to the very people who are about to abandon him, and he does not start over, he reaffirms his love for them, and then they end up, we see in Ephesians 2.20, being the foundation of the church, the apostles and the prophets.

How can that be?

Because that same passage, Ephesians 2, also indicates that Jesus is the cornerstone.

We are not.

Isn't that comforting?

It is comforting to know that the people he's telling them that obedience is a mark of love is also telling this to people that he knows will immediately disobey.

And will immediately ditch him completely, pretend they don't even know him.

And the first thing he does when he returns is come to them and encourage them, reaffirm their love for them.

Especially when you think about, I mean, we like to talk about Peter and his demon house, but talk about Thomas for a little bit too.

To where everyone is basically like, Jesus is alive.

We've seen him, and he was like, I will not believe this unless I can put my finger in the wounds of his agony.

That's not a greeting card that you send to people.

So there is a comfort in this that the collision of love and obedience, the solution to that, is not us.

It is the Holy Spirit.

Praise the Lord for that.

Because the Holy Spirit, who is the counselor, your passage, your translation may call him the comforter.

He comforts.

We're also going to see in a couple chapters that he convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Both of them.

Together, all in one, all his doing as he works in us.

Here's a cool thing about this passage that we don't want to miss.

In verse 24, it says to the one who doesn't love me will not keep my words.

The words you hear are not mine, but are from the Father who sent me.

So Jesus we see throughout the Gospel of John, his message is from the Father.

So the words come from the Father.

Continuing forward, in verse 26, the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.

So the words of Jesus being the hinge in all of this, were from, spoken by Jesus, were from the Father, and the Holy Spirit, whom he will send, will teach them and remind them of this.

Can't lose.

That's awesome.

That's encouraging.

The whole Trinity is at work in keeping us in that belief and exhortation and comfort altogether.

And so that is how, if we have the tendency to be uh want comfort more than accuracy, the Holy Spirit works in that way, in a way that we can hear and understand.

If we are of a kind to where we really want things to be true and don't, I mean, and we can take a punch, uh, then the Holy Spirit can work in that way as well.

But he's the one who does it.

And that's what is cool and comforting and encouraging.

So when Jesus is saying he is not leaving them as orphans, he is also not leaving them to fend for themselves as an orphan would, as they would have to do.

He's not telling them, you're on your own, good luck, I gave you everything you need.

By He's giving them not only His commands, which came from the Father, but the Holy Spirit to indwell them, to comfort them, to encourage them, to exhort them of those words which are crucial.

Isn't that cool?

So with that in mind, we get to see here the counselor is the Holy Spirit.

And the Father will send in my name.

We can see the Trinity all in action together.

He will teach those things, he will remind them of the things that Jesus has told them.

So, what do we do?

We listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us if we are followers of Jesus.

Again, this was covered really well last week, and I am gonna do a better job this week.

So I encourage you to please listen to that if you haven't as well.

That was covered really, really well.

A practical way of what that may look like.

So we've talked about promises of what's to come.

We've talked about parts of what their responsibility is.

Now, what about things that Jesus gives them?

First was the Holy Spirit, but that is not all.

We look in verse 27, he says, Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your heart be troubled or fearful.

This is one of those times where if I was one of the disciples, I'd be like, Well, I wasn't really troubled or fearful until you said that.

And now I'm kind of uh questioning myself here.

Peace is a strange thing to speak about right before what they're about to experience.

What Jesus is about to experience.

His peace is what he gives them.

Well, it's not as the world gives.

Because peace as Jesus gives is not an absence of difficulty.

He gives them instead a settled assurance based not on them, but on him, which is cool.

So that peace is something to where, it is something that doesn't even make sense because it's not as the world gives.

So I have a couple of verses for that.

First one we see in John 16, 33, which is coming as we go through John, I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.

You will have suffering in this world.

Okay?

Be courageous, I have conquered the world.

So Jesus' peace here is telling them in the same breath, I'm giving you peace, it's gonna be bad.

I win.

And that is comforting.

That is the cool thing.

We know the end.

And again, he is telling us the end, even though we don't know exactly what that looks like.

But he's telling his disciples, expect it to be bad.

If they how they treated me, is how they're going to treat you.

And so, but his peace is intermingled in that.

And then we see in Philippians 4, 6 through 7, well, don't worry about anything.

In everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace of God doesn't make sense.

And that's what guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Why does it surpass all understanding?

Why is it not as a world gift?

Because it doesn't always provide immediate solutions.

There are times where I will wake up in the middle of the night and my mind just starts racing all the different things, questions, variables, things working on.

What about this?

What if this?

We haven't done this, this is happening, all these different things.

And you know how many things I can solve in my bed?

Not.

And yet my brain is like, no, we got these guys.

We got we we got it all figured out.

And the funny thing too is I don't know if you guys experience that, but sometimes if you wake up in the morning when you finally get back to sleep and you wake up and you go, like, what the heck?

Like, my solutions made no sense.

Even then.

But with that in mind, the things that I have learned to pray in those moments that I still remember to pray, is for his peace, not for solutions to all of those different things, but for a reorientation of my mind to him and his goodness and his faithfulness.

Because the things that make me anxious and worried and want to keep me awake really don't like it when we focus on him.

And so that's a cool thing.

His peace doesn't make sense because it doesn't provide us with all the things we can do to fix our issues.

Rather, his peace brings us back to the Good Shepherd.

Again, for those of you who are taking notes, check out all the Good Shepherd passages do here, and what Jesus does is that to be able to take care of us because we are sheep.

So, and that makes sense.

He even uses the passage in the Gospels when he's speaking of the disciples, uh, quoting the Old Testament, strike the sheep, strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.

That's exactly what they do, is that as soon as the shepherd is arrested, they're like gone.

Because sheep, sheep are not good fighters, the sheep that are good fighters are dinner.

Ultimately.

So that is the full extent of my agricultural understanding that I would give to you.

So, with that, tasty, tasty sheep, and uh with that in mind, he is giving them his peace, which is dependent on them being dependent upon him.

And so when he says, don't let your heart be troubled or fearful in verse 27, that's a weird one because it is an imperative passive command.

I am telling you, don't allow this.

That's a tough one.

It is less of a go and do and more of a stand fast, if that makes sense.

And so it is a uh important thing to that he's reminding them just to stand fast in his peace, despite the dangers that are coming, despite the difficulty that are coming, independently.

Why?

Because he wins in the end.

So in verse 28, we have another responsibility.

You have heard me tell you, I am going away and I am coming to you.

If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.

So the first mark of the one who loves him is to keep his word, to keep his commands and obey.

The second mark here is to rejoice in his mission.

Not only are they to have peace, but they are to rejoice that he's going to the Father.

It will look like they're being abandoned.

They are not being abandoned, but you should be happy about that because of what that means.

What does that mean?

It means salvation for the world.

It means the atonement for sin, reconciliation to God.

It means the undoing of sin and death and the ultimate victory and crushing of sin and death.

So if we love Him, we would rejoice, even when things are about to get really hard.

Again, contrary to what makes a whole lot of sense in our world.

Because usually we rejoice, we're happy, when things are going well.

To rejoice in our difficulties and our trials, in our circumstances and tribulations involves a bigger zooming out beyond ourselves to the ultimate goal that God wins in the end over sin and death.

Which is cool because we talked, he talks three times about if you loved me last year, last year, it was last year, I win.

Last week, it was went through the fruit of the spirit.

First one being love.

And there's love throughout here.

If you love me, this is what it looks like.

And then he gives them his peace, not as the world gives.

And then he's telling them to rejoice, joy.

First three, love, joy, peace.

Boom, right off the bat, which is cool.

What does that look like?

But a lot of that involves here staying close to him and remembering the purpose of this.

This is running contrary to their understanding that he will set up an earthly kingdom and kick out Rome, and they get to be in charge.

He is actually kicking out sin, death, and the devil.

And we get to see this here in verse 29 first.

It's I have told you these things before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe.

Again, he is a good shepherd.

He is telling them what's going to happen, even when they can't receive it.

He's planting those seeds so that as they experience it, afterwards, when he reiterates it, they're like, oh, cool.

How can they do that?

Holy Spirit.

So, and verse 30, I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming.

He has no power over me.

I will not talk with you much longer.

Goes on for two more chapters.

But the because the ruler of the world is coming.

This is an interesting thing.

He's talking to about uh Satan, the enemy, the devil.

And we see this wording also in chapter 12, verse 31, and in chapter 16, 11, and in Ephesians 2, 2, the ruler of the world, the prince of this world.

Okay, the word archum, it means chief, leader, foremost.

It is an interesting thing that somebody ultimately who has risen to the top of the ranks.

He's coming.

He has no power over me, Jesus says.

Jesus has a title too.

Lord.

That is fifty times in the book of John alone referring to Jesus.

That's a whole lot of Lord.

And Lord is the master, the owner, and the possessor.

Differences of words here.

One is basically the one who is the de facto leader of something, and the other one is the one who owns it.

Isn't that cool?

So you can have the ruler of the world being coming, and Jesus right off the bat says, He has no power over me.

We see in John 10, 17 through 18, nobody takes Jesus' life from him.

He lays it down.

Actually, I'm gonna flip there real quick because it's close and it's worth reading.

10, 17, this is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me.

I lay it down on my own.

I have the right to lay it down and I have the right to take it up again.

I have received this command from my Father.

So, what's about to happen to Jesus is not happening to Jesus.

It's him allowing it to happen.

Which is, again, encouragement encouraging.

Here's it.

I have no sympathy for this, but it must be so frustrating to be Satan.

Because he can't even do this apart from being allowed to do it.

Has to ask permission to kill God.

Can't even, and then can't even keep him dead.

It's just that we're like I see, and again, we're not going too deep into this, but I see somebody who is so driven by an internal urge to kill, destroy, devour, that he cannot actually circumvent what God is already doing here.

Why is this important?

Because Jesus is going to die on the cross for us.

He's going to pay the price for our sins, taking our blame upon himself, an innocent man dying for the guilty, so that the guilty can take the innocence upon themselves.

That is something that should cause peace and cause rejoicing that the ruler of this world has no power over Jesus.

There is not a great cosmic struggle.

These are not Greco-Roman demigods.

He has to ask Jesus permission to kill him.

Which is awesome.

And then rounding the corner here in verse 31.

On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.

Huh?

We've heard this before.

He is modeling love through obedience.

Just what he told them to do, he is modeling for them.

As the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.

He is going to the cross.

And one side we see in the garden saying, If possible, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but your will be done.

And then also we see for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.

That he is obedient to the good work and will of the Father, which involved his death and resurrection.

And in the same way we obey him, with a peace that surpasses understanding, rejoicing in that ultimate goal, that he defeats sin, death, and the devil on the cross.

Which is so cool.

So two things.

Number one, oh, just I'll just say this.

What I love is it says, get up, let's leave this place.

And then it takes multiple chapters for them to actually get up and go.

Have you any of you ever tried to get a large group of people to do anything?

This is the best example of that I think I have ever seen.

Where it's like, okay, let's go.

It's like it's gonna be another 15 minutes minimum before they find their shoes.

And uh with that in mind, though, two big things.

We talked about three categories.

What is coming, the promise of what's coming.

Three categories.

Promise of what's coming, responsibility as a result, and then the promises and the gifts given in the meantime.

The promise category in this passage is pretty long.

I won't leave you as orphans.

As I live, you will live.

The Father will come to me, will come to you, I and him, he and me, I and you.

We will love you, we will make our home with you.

All these different promises are huge.

The responsibility is obedience and rejoicing.

The gifts given to facilitate that.

Peace.

And more importantly, the Holy Spirit, the one who holds it together.

So it is cool to remember how much of the responsibility is not on us.

It is God's work at work in us and our responsibility to reciprocate.

Now we don't want to abandon that, and we don't want to avoid that.

So we want to know what our blind spots are.

Good to take stock.

Am I tending to be on the the uh overfed and underled?

Do I tend to be on the lean and mean?

Which one do I tend to be in that?

But then ultimately, rejoice because the Holy Spirit knows how to work with you in those tendencies too.

That's what's cool.

God wins.

Jesus wins.

Non-negotiable.

And that should cause rejoicing, but it should also cause peace no matter what comes, no matter what happens, no matter the circumstances.

Even if these circumstances in our life are dire, they are temporary.

And that's a huge blessing.

And not only are they temporary, but God is with us and he lives in us.

In the meantime, we're not left alone to wait things out till the end.

He's with us in the form of the Spirit.

So just in closing, there's this the passage in 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1.

I have a slide for that.

Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of his great mercy, he's given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

You are being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

I love this passage because it starts out all these things God has given us and done for us.

New birth, living hope through the resurrection of Jesus.

An inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.

So for followers of Jesus, that inheritance cannot be touched and is not decaying.

There's no expiration date, no best-buy date on the inheritance in heaven.

And even more cool than that, you are guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last time.

And so there's one more responsibility we see in this passage, which is that you believe.

I'm telling you things beforehand so that you would believe.

And for those who believe, which is the same word here for faith in this passage, you're being guarded by God's power.

Shouldn't that be incredibly comforting and encouraging in the meantime?

We know what's coming, we know how it goes, He lives in us.

He is His power is guarding us through faith.

And what we do is cling to Him with everything we have as a result.

We put our faith in Him, and He is the source, the author, the perfecter of faith.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for today, and I thank you for just the amazing promises of your word.

I thank you, Lord, that the things that you've given us allow the promises that you've accomplished or that you have promised to be accomplished through us, through the work of your spirit.

I thank you so much that it is by your spirit that you teach us and guide us and remind us of your word, that you convict, that you encourage, that you steer, that you guide.

I thank you that it is by Jesus, by your blood we are saved through faith in you and nothing else.

I thank you that you have defeated the grave.

Sin, death, and the devil.

I thank you that God's purpose in restoring the world to Himself and eliminating sin and death is non-negotiable.

What a beautiful thing that is.

And I ask, Lord, that we would be your sheep who stay right by your side, by your spirit, that we would be at peace.

That we would not allow our hearts to be troubled, but rather that we would be encouraged by you, we would rejoice in your salvation, that no matter what comes, whether good things or bad things, easy things, hard things, that we would dig deep into you and that you would be glorified.

For anybody who has not put their faith in you, I ask, Lord, that by your spirit they would have an insatiable desire for to come to you.

That you would work in hearts, that they would want to confess and belief.

Believe that you have paid the price for their sins, and that as a result of confession and belief in you, that they can be made right with you, that they can as well have an inheritance and eternity with you.

And I ask, Lord, just that by your spirit you would be working and be glorified in your name.

Amen.