John 14:22-31

Hey, everybody. Welcome back.

Thanks for joining us. Hope you had a great weekend.

We're grateful to have you back with us as we continue through the Gospel of John.

We're in the 14th chapter and we are jumping in here at the 22nd verse.

Jesus has been talking to the disciples, getting ready

to move into an extended period of dialog.

Really, in some ways, I think very important passage today.

So let's, we'll read it for you, and then we'll come back and talk through it.

Judas. Not as scary.

It said to him, Lord, how is it

that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus answered him, those who love me will keep my word,

and my father will love them,

and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.

And the word that you hear

is not mine, but it is from the father who sent me.

I have said these things to you while I am still with you,

but the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name,

will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.

Let's stop there, Michael.

So in the in the ongoing kind of aftermath of this conversation,

we now hear from another disciple, Judas,

sometimes called by other names in other gospels, but,

Judas here, not the betrayer, says, well, how is this all going to work?

How are you going to reveal yourself?

We've had these questions.

Notice that John has done this.

Now, several times

Jesus says a thing and a disciple asks him for follow up information.

And then Jesus says more.

And here he he says that the father is involved.

You keep my word.

And then there is this promise.

And I don't want to jump ahead too far.

But the promise is essentially this that

the Spirit of God will be present to help.

It's a way of Jesus, I think, saying,

I can't answer all your questions.

You don't need all the details.

I am going to send the Holy Spirit to you, and he will teach you

what you need to know, and he will remind you of all that I've said to you.

And this is a beautiful promise in the gospel.

And John gives it to us especially.

Well, by the way this is written, the idea that the ongoing work of Jesus

is going to be sustained by this gift, this spirit.

The Greek here is Paraclete, which means

the one who is called along with you or called beside you.

The Holy Spirit is going to be at work

not only to guide the disciples and teach them,

but to remind them of what Jesus has said and done

and help them make connections for their life in his name.

And I think, Michael, in the gospel, this is,

I think this is a

significant moment, obviously, from a doctrinal standpoint,

we start talking about things like the Trinity.

This becomes a major import of a major importance.

But but just in the story itself, this promise

that in the in the coming

chaos of the cross and the crucifixion

and the aftermath, even that the disciples are going to be

supported and guided by the ongoing work of God's Spirit.

I think this is a this is a profound promise that we run into here.

It's a promise.

And I think it's a promise that's really meeting a real need and problem.

And I think that that may pass by us.

We don't point it out.

So remember that this book is so dedicated to the idea

of the Word of God, lowercase being what Jesus has to say.

Uppercase word being who Jesus is.

Jesus is when the words of God become fleshy,

when they take on the human reality, when when Jesus becomes,

a child

is born, then he becomes the capital W Word of God.

And note here that there's

this real problem that presents with this idea of revelation.

Because.

Because if Jesus comes, if he reveals,

then ultimately what happens when Jesus isn't there anymore?

And Jesus has already begun this conversation

about the fact that he's going to leave, and Judas is asking

how is it that you reveal yourself to us and not to the world?

And and then Jesus responds with this amazing

turn to practical rubber meets the road kind of faith.

Those who love me, they're going to keep my word right.

It's not just that love is a feeling which we kind of have in our popular culture.

Love is a direct connection.

It has a tie rod directly to the things that we do,

the keeping of Jesus's word, and then it just keeps moving on.

I've said these things while I'm still with you.

The small words have come while I've been with you.

But the great news is

that the Holy Spirit is going to come and continue to teach you.

You're still going to have the word with you.

Clint, that's so essential.

John, we've said before, as of the older gospels, the oldest one written.

And so because of that, there's this real concern, right, that the second

generation church can see a world in which that first generation has gone away.

And that question will, how are we going to know who Jesus is?

Well, the promise is embedded in Jesus's teaching, right?

John records this night when Jesus says that there's

going to be an advocate, there's going to be God with you in a new way.

Yes, that will lead us down

many, many theological conversations throughout the history of the church.

But I think at this practical face value, Clint, the really good news is you're

not whether you're a Christian in 130 AD or you're a Christian.

Yeah, you're 2000 years later, we all live with this promise

that the Word of God is still being spoken,

that God is still with us, that even though the word capital W

is not incarnate in the room with you, wherever you are right now,

that the promise is that the Holy Spirit continues

to live and reign and be present in you, and so therefore you still have access

to the Word of God, lowercase w that that word is at work

within you, and that you have an advocate

who is bridging the gap between you and the ascended.

What this may be, you know, at the end of of my section

here, that sounds esoteric, but I think it's practical.

I think it's comforting.

I think it brings a certain measure of hope and steadiness

to the Christian life that though we don't have Jesus

across from us, teaching us, we have the Holy Spirit living within us.

And that's the that's the promise that binds us to God's eternal work.

Just want to make a clarification when when you say oldest, Michael,

you mean latest?

Oh, yeah. Sorry.

The last gospel written. We believe.

And so it reflects.

It reflects a time in which

there is from the church the

most distance of the Gospels from these original events.

And so, yeah, I think you're exactly right.

The emphasis that there is guidance.

And I love this word advocate.

I think only John uses this. And

this idea that we have one who rallies on our behalf.

We have one who acts and works on our behalf.

We have the very Spirit of God and yes, Holy Spirit.

We can talk about that in some general way,

but specifically we have the Holy Spirit

as our advocate, as the one who helps us

and guides us and teaches us

and helps us remember the things of Christ.

And that's a deep promise.

I think that only deepens as we move into this next section.

Michael, let me read this quickly and it will tie these things together.

Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give to you.

I do not give us. The world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

You heard me say to you, I'm going away, and I'm coming to you.

If you loved me, you would rejoice that

I'm going to the father, because the father is greater than I.

And now I have told you this

before it occurs, so that when it does, you may believe.

Now we'll no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming.

He has no power over me, but I do as the father has commanded me,

so that the world may know that I love the father.

Rise, and let us be on our way.

The best known of this passage is this first verse 27 here

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

I do not give as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

Ironically, or maybe interestingly,

we use these words relatively

often in funeral services

and they do connect us with this idea of someone going away

of a time of fear, of a time of uncertainty, of a time of grief.

Jesus is predicting that he is.

He is

speaking to that which hasn't happened yet.

And the what?

The promise that he leaves for the disciples

and all the disciples who will follow after is that he's not gone.

I leave peace, and I don't give us the world gifts.

I'm not one who gives and takes and takes away, and I,

I when I give something, it is yours.

So do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.

I think Christians, you know, our 22

year, 2200 year history, 2100 year history now,

we have

I mean, Christians in every moment have leaned into this.

When life is difficult, when there's chaos, when there's war

and when there's struggle nationally, internationally

and even personally, we lean into this beautiful promise.

Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Do not let them be afraid, because I am with you.

The Holy Spirit is with you.

And the gift that I want to leave with you is the gift of peace.

That's it. That's a beautiful promise.

It's a beautiful promise.

It's a contemporary promise.

And I think also it is the natural promise that follows

for those who are going to experience not only seeing the glorified one,

the glorified Christ, but then that glorified Christ's leave.

And I think for Christians who are now

thousands of years from the Christ event, we

live with this awareness from the very start

that this story ends with Jesus going to be with the father.

I think that we might miss from our historical vantage,

the the great grief and the great sadness.

Can you imagine being in that first generation and seeing

Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, die?

And then the jubilation of seeing him raised again,

and then the grief and pain of seeing him raised up and taken away.

There's this Clint.

There's a there's a somber ness to the ending of that story,

especially in like a book of acts, you know, chapter one and, and

and then that leads immediately

to the birth of the church and the life of the church in the world.

But I think it's worth noting here that this promise that Jesus gives

right the peace I leave you, my peace I give to you.

This is pastoral in that Jesus

anticipates that their hearts will be troubled.

They will be in a place in which they will feel afraid.

Right?

And Jesus says, I want you to know, even though I am

going from you, I'm telling you this before it happens.

So when it happens, you have confidence in this thing that I'm giving you.

And I think that that is an amazing comfort promise.

And we've seen this before in John.

We've seen Jesus tear up.

He weeps in in the moment where he experiences grief for his friend,

in the grief of all of those who've been left behind, that

Jesus has a personal relational connection with these disciples.

He cares deeply about them, and he cares that they are going to be anxious.

He cares that when he leaves them,

that they are not going to just see roses and strength and happiness.

Now there's going to be real anxiety they're going to need to remember.

The advocate is with them.

And I think the way that John lays this out

is in one way it's academic.

It's it's thought provoking if, you know, not very thoughtful.

But on the other hand, it's very practical.

It it's words to those who need the words

of a doctor, you know, when things are not good,

remember that I'm with you when you are going to be anxious.

Remember that I've left my peace with you.

That that is an amazing promise that Christians do

still strive to hold on to, because at the end of the day,

the scandal of Jesus no longer being with us

is caught up in this intersection of the advocate now

being with us and that's a great hope and promise.

If Christians, even to this day, will claim it or rely upon it.

I think it could be easily missed

that Jesus is speaking words of preparation to the disciples.

You know, he says, I'm telling you this before it happens,

so that when it occurs, you may believe, right?

There's no reason to think that the disciples still don't expect Jesus

to run a national campaign

to reinstate Judaism to overthrow Rome.

There's still not an understanding at this point in the gospel

of what it means that Jesus might be the Messiah,

and not only will they deal with

the idea of losing Jesus, but they will deal

with the idea of losing what they expect to happen through Jesus.

And so Jesus is saying, I'm I'm trying to tell you,

I'm telling you so that when you see it,

you may believe, because the difficult thing,

in a moment of loss, in a moment of sadness,

in a moment of defeat is going to be belief.

And that's when they will lean again on these promises

that they are not alone, that this is as Jesus intended,

and that their work, his work through them will continue.

And again, there is a timelessness in that for certain.

And these are words that speak to every generation of Christian.

But these are powerful words spoken to these men who are on the cusp

of their world crumbling around them, at least as they understand it.

And I think, you know,

John does us a wonderful service in allowing us to read it

as they hear it, but also take something out of it for ourselves.

There's a small irony that's going to only make sense as we keep going,

with future studies.

And I certainly hope you'll subscribe to be part of that.

But I just think it's fascinating, that ultimately we have at the end here,

verse 30,

I'll no longer talk much with you.

When you turn the pages of your Bible.

Clint.

Jesus has got more to say in the Gospel of John,

but I think you have to go back to what John is going to say.

You know, that that there could have been a library of books written,

that more more books than the world could contain about what Jesus did.

But this has been written so that we might believe this is what we need, right?

This is the account that provides

the breadth of what is necessary to understand what Jesus is about.

And I think there's something in this that that, you know, makes me smile.

Right?

Jesus says, well, I

the the ruler is coming, even though that ruler has no power over

me, the rulers coming and I'm going to have fewer words for you.

Well, I think that does connect, but it connects with that hope

and promise of the advocate.

Jesus may have less to say to the disciples, and certainly most of us

Christians living today would say that we've not heard

Jesus speak to us in an audible way.

The the hope and promise of this whole section that Jesus is leaving

is it's not whether or not you sit at the feet and you hear

Jesus teach, it's whether or not you're connected to the advocate who's come.

It's whether or not you find yourself directly

brought up into this gift that Jesus has given you.

That's a living gift. It's a present gift.

It's not just a backwards looking gift that that's where the peace comes from.

It's the awareness that God's not gone because the advocate has come.

And so I do think, you know,

that's a lot to get out of the the irony of Jesus

saying, I don't have much to say to you and then many, many words to come.

But it is to say that in the cosmic scope of Jesus's ministry,

that Jesus is about to be done with his ministry, and when that moment

comes, then we have the hope and promise that he's never left us or forsaken us.

That's what gives us peace.

I think we can unpack this more as we move through these

last several chapters of John, but the words of

Jesus ultimately in the church are remembered words.

They're not understood

until later.

It is the spirit that gives them power.

Not none of the disciples understand what Jesus is saying.

No matter how much Jesus says it, it is in the act of

seeing the resurrected one, the crucified One.

It is in the work of the Holy Spirit that those words gain hearing

and meaning in the context of the church and of the disciples.

And so,

yeah, that certainly there's something

organizationally that's a little bit funny about.

I'm not going to say much to you, but here's two more chapters of words.

What I think there's a sense in which

it doesn't matter how much Jesus says

until the disciples have a way to understand and

we disciples are not very good

at understanding on our own, we clearly need the help.

And I'm really grateful for those disciples

who were humble enough to write that into their story.

You know that we may take that for granted,

but shouldn't that the people who receive, who gave us these scriptures

were humble enough to tell us, you know, we didn't get what he was saying

until long after we saw the truth of what you were saying.

And that is a model for faith.

There's not a single disciple story that goes, oh, I had it figured out.

Locked down. Yeah.

Understood. Doesn't exist. Let's execute.

Yeah. Exactly.

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