My Peace I Give You

[0:00] If you have your Bible with you, you can open it up to the Gospel of John, chapter 14.

[0:14] The words will also be on the screen, so you can follow along there. There's also Bibles in the seats in front of you. That's the black book. Some of you have been here through the whole journey that we've been making through the Gospel of John.

[0:38] Others of you have caught pieces of it, and some of you, this is totally new. So I'm going to just take a minute to remind you of what's happening in the story here in John, chapter 14.

[0:50] Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples. It's the evening of his betrayal and arrest. They've just partaken of the Last Supper together, and Judas, the betrayer, has left the building to put his plan into motion.

[1:08] And so now Jesus has been telling his disciples what's soon to happen, and he's been giving them words of comfort and offering them hope.

[1:21] They are troubled. We'll pick up the conversation in John, chapter 14, verse 25. Jesus says, All this I have spoken while still with you.

[1:37] But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

[1:50] We talked about this a couple weeks ago. It's as though Jesus is saying, yes, I am going to be leaving you, but there's no need to worry or be anxious.

[2:02] Everything's taken care of. You're not going to be left all by yourselves just to figure this out on your own. God, my Father, will send his Holy Spirit, and he will be to you like I have been to you.

[2:16] A counselor. A teacher. And you won't have to worry about forgetting any of the things that I've said to you, because when he comes to you, he will remind you of everything that I said.

[2:28] Jesus goes on in verse 27 and says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you.

[2:42] I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled. And do not be afraid. Jesus speaks of giving them peace.

[2:57] Now, peace can mean many different things depending on the context. So what kind of peace is Jesus talking about here? Well, it seems clear enough from the context that he's not talking about the kind of peace between nations, like a peace treaty, or the ceasing of hostility or conflict, like happens in relationships, the next thing that Jesus says is, Do not let your hearts be troubled.

[3:29] And do not be afraid. And so this context suggests that Jesus is talking about inward peace. Peace for the heart.

[3:40] And for the mind. It's obvious that the disciples are deeply troubled. And worried. They're afraid. As we've talked about before, Jesus is about to leave them.

[3:54] And so this is on their minds. They're also thinking about how they're going to face the hostility of the religious leaders with Jesus gone. They're troubled about this.

[4:05] How is this all going to go? They have uncertainties. And it's pretty obvious that they're quite worried about this, because this is now the second time in the same evening that Jesus has said these very words.

[4:19] Do not let your hearts be troubled. He said that right at the beginning in verse 1. What is it that the disciples need here and now?

[4:31] This very night as they watch and witness Jesus being torn away from them and abused and slandered.

[4:42] What they need is peace of heart. They need a settled confidence that God is in control.

[4:56] They need a deep assurance deep in here that everything is going to go as it should and that it will turn out for good.

[5:09] Peace of heart. Peace of mind. Now where does that come from? How do we get that in moments like these?

[5:23] Jesus tells the disciples that the world offers peace. He doesn't go into details about what kind of peace the world offers, but I think we kind of know, we have a sense of that from our own experience, from our own lives.

[5:40] The world has its comforts and promises which are aimed at settling our fears and quieting the troubles of our hearts.

[5:52] But the problem with the peace that the world offers is that it doesn't work. It doesn't really settle our hearts and quiet our fears.

[6:07] When the world's peace comes in the form of entertainment or experience, it may distract us from the trouble or the fear or the worry temporarily.

[6:21] Or when it comes in the form of a pill or a drink, it may alter the hormonal balance in our bodies and affect how we feel temporarily.

[6:36] But eventually these forms of peace wear off. And the deep troubles and fears of the soul are still there. It's like putting a band-aid on an infectious sore.

[6:51] Or like sticking our head in the sands, trying to forget the real troubles that are going on all around us and pretend for a moment that they're not there. At other times our world offers peace in the form of a promise.

[7:08] Maybe you've heard somebody say something like this to you. Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right. The problem with this promise is that it has no basis.

[7:20] It has no foundation. How do you know if it's going to be all right? What does it even mean for things to be all right? Does it mean that nothing bad is going to happen to me?

[7:34] Does it mean that you won't go through suffering or pain or hardship? And if so, how do you know that? These promises of peace that the world gives ring hollow and empty.

[7:54] And we kind of know that when people say things like this to us, you know, don't worry. Everything's going to be all right. We know that many say it just to make us feel better.

[8:07] If they really believe that nothing bad is going to happen, we kind of know that they can't really be sure of that. They're not in control of all the factors of our lives.

[8:21] Jesus says, I do not give you peace like the world gives. I'm not offering you empty and hollow promises or just mere wishful thinking, temporary distractions, medication to alter your feelings.

[8:44] Jesus says, my peace, I give you. It's a different kind. What do you mean, Jesus? How does Jesus give peace to the men here in this room this night?

[9:02] Inward peace. When we hear this, we might be tempted to kind of fill in the details of the story, the rest of it with our imaginations. We imagine maybe Jesus saying, my peace, I give you.

[9:16] And then Jesus went around the room to each person and laid his hand on their heart. And there was a glowing flash of light that emanated from his hand as he did so.

[9:26] And one by one, Jesus gave his peace to each person there in the room. Is that what John records? No.

[9:39] That's not what happened. The peace of Jesus is not something that just comes through some magical touch or through the laying on of hands. How does Jesus give his peace to them?

[9:53] How does he give his peace to us? Where does that settledness of heart that we long for in the midst of trials come from? What is it that really silences the whispers that we hear from our fears?

[10:12] Jesus' peace comes to them in this way. He gives it to them by reminding them of the truth, by giving them promises that aren't empty but certain.

[10:28] And he gives it to them by reminding them of who really is in control, of their lives, of all the factors in the story. Let's see this as we read what Jesus says next.

[10:44] Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

[10:59] You heard me say, I am going away and I am coming back to you. Jesus tells them the truth.

[11:10] We talked about this a couple weeks back. He said, I am going away but I am coming back. Jesus doesn't say, don't worry, I am not going anywhere.

[11:21] I am not leaving. He tells them the truth. I am leaving. But with the truth, he gives them the certain, the sure promise. I am going away but I am coming back.

[11:36] Don't forget that I said that. That is the certain truth. That is the promise that you can hold on to. That will silence those lying whispers rising up inside of you as you sit there and think, he is going to abandon us.

[11:54] Or as you look up and see, he is dead. They killed him. Maybe he wasn't the Messiah after all. Jesus' peace is given.

[12:06] It comes through believing his promise that yes, he will come back to them. It is trusting that.

[12:18] It is embracing that. That silences the fears and settles the hearts. What else does Jesus say here? He says, if you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father.

[12:36] For the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe. I will not say much more to you.

[12:49] For the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me. But he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

[13:07] Now there's lots in there and I know that some of these words raise some other questions for us. But before we get to those, I just want you to notice the overall sense that Jesus gives here of what's going to happen.

[13:20] I'm going to the Father, he says. And it's a good thing. It's a right thing. It's an appropriate thing. It's something that you can be glad about.

[13:32] And I'm telling you this now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe. When you see me going to the Father, you're going to look back on this conversation.

[13:45] You're going to see that it happened just as I told you it would. So my telling you now, ahead of time, I'm doing it on purpose.

[13:55] I'm trying to give you confidence. I'm showing you that you can trust my word, that I keep my promises. It's going to help you believe.

[14:05] And then Jesus goes on to tell them about how the prince of this world is coming. But he reassures them that the prince of this world, he has no hold over me.

[14:20] In fact, the prince of this world is coming so that for a divine purpose, says Jesus, so that the world may learn something about me.

[14:36] Now just the way that Jesus says all this, it speaks loud and clear that God is in control of the whole situation.

[14:47] None of what's about to happen tonight, later on in the garden, or tomorrow, or in the days ahead is a surprise to me or to my father.

[15:00] says Jesus. It's all part of the plan. And it's what's fitting. It's what's right. Even the scary part about this coming prince, it's not as though Jesus or the father will be caught off guard here.

[15:18] The sense we get is that this prince will be permitted by God to come and to do what he will with Jesus so that the very plan and purpose of God will be fulfilled.

[15:33] So this is another way that Jesus gives his kind of peace to his disciples. It's kind of implied in everything that he says here. Look, God is in control.

[15:47] This is all happening according to his plan and his purpose. He is in control.

[15:59] He is in control. He is in control. He is working out his plan. He is going to bring about something good through all this.

[16:09] peace. This is one of the big differences between the peace that Jesus gives and the kind of peace that the world offers. Jesus doesn't say, don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen.

[16:25] That's often the kind of peace that the world offers. You know, be optimistic. Think positively and it will come true for you. No, Jesus speaks the truth.

[16:38] There is something bad. There is something dark coming. The prince of this world is coming. That's the devil. But Jesus' peace comes when we believe the truth that God is in control and working even through the bad stuff that comes.

[17:02] it's going to look for a moment like the devil has triumphed and won. Jesus, the son of God, will be hanging there dead on the cross.

[17:16] His body will be lying there lifeless in the tomb. But Jesus says, rest assured, the coming prince has no hold over me.

[17:28] I love the way Jesus says this. Quite literally, it reads, on me, he has nothing. He comes to fulfill God's purpose.

[17:43] It's almost like he's saying, he's just a pawn the prince of this world. In fact, his coming is going to glorify Jesus. It's going to show the whole world just how much Jesus loves the father and how far the son is willing to go to obey his father.

[18:04] It's like the devil's plan to take Jesus out is just going to backfire and instead he's going to find that all along he's played the role of a spotlight that illuminates the worthiness of the true king of the world.

[18:20] So true peace, it doesn't come from empty promises that everything's going to be okay or that nothing bad's going to happen. True peace, the peace of Jesus comes when we believe, when we trust Jesus, when we trust God.

[18:38] when we put our faith in him that when the bad things happen, God is at work for good through them. When we trust that in the end he will triumph, he will bring something wonderful out of the heartache, the pain, the loss, the struggle, the struggle, people.

[19:09] So how do we receive this peace of Jesus, this peace that he offers? It's not a crazy magical formula, it's not a hard thing, it's not always easy to do, but it is simple.

[19:23] We receive it simply by believing the truth that Jesus speaks, the word of God. by trusting the truth that he has spoken, the promises that he's given us, that specific truth that God is in control, it's when we believe that, it's when we trust that, that that unsettledness melts away.

[19:52] It can't stand. Now one of the questions that sometimes comes up here in this passage and I don't want to skip over it completely, we've been trying to work through and capture as much as we can here in the gospel of John, comes from verse 28, Jesus says this, I'm going to the father for the father is greater than I.

[20:20] Why does Jesus say that the father is greater than him? Some of you may have wondered that when you get to this place. if Jesus is God, isn't he equal to the father?

[20:34] There's been all kinds of discussion and debate over this back in the first centuries of church history. People pointed to this verse and said, see, Jesus wasn't God.

[20:45] He even acknowledged that God was greater than he was. He was just a man. Well, I'm going to, I could probably preach a whole sermon on this, but I'm going to try to condense it down into a couple minutes here, give you the short answer.

[20:59] Jesus was most certainly God. He is the divine son. He claimed to be one with the father. We saw that in John. He claimed to have the father in him and to himself be in the father.

[21:12] We heard that in John. He took the name of God upon his own lips. He said, before Abraham was, I am. And there are many other passages which point clearly to the truth that Jesus is God.

[21:28] So why does he, being God, claim that the father is greater? In what sense is the father greater than the son?

[21:39] I can think of two senses. Number one, the father is greater than the son with regard to the son's humanity.

[21:51] Jesus was truly God, man. But also, at the same time, he was truly man, truly human. The divine word, as we read back at the beginning, took upon himself a human nature and became a man.

[22:12] And God is greater than man. God is the creator. Man is the creature. God is the ruler of all and man's role in all of that is to be subservient to him under his good authority.

[22:29] And so, with regard to Jesus' humanity, God is greater than Jesus. Maybe you've read that in 1 Peter where it talks about Jesus, refers to God as the God and father of our Lord Jesus.

[22:43] He is the God of Jesus too. Jesus' true humanness stands in contrast to God's divine nature.

[22:56] So that's the first way. The second way that the father is greater than Jesus has to do with the humble and lowly role or state that Jesus is in.

[23:07] It's not just that Jesus is human. The Bible tells us that Christ was in very nature God and yet he chose to lower himself, to humble himself, to lay down or put aside some of his glory.

[23:24] We'll see in John 17. Some of his divine rights and privileges. And so, even though Jesus is equally worthy of glory, along with God the Father, he has taken up for a time this lowly position.

[23:42] He has come to serve the very ones that he created. And this position does not allow him to exalt and glorify himself. That's why we read that it's the Father who must glorify and exalt the Son.

[23:59] It's the Father who gives authority to the Son. So, the Father is greater than the Son with regard to role or status for the time being.

[24:14] This is why Jesus speaks in verse 31 of the Father commanding him to do things and of himself as obeying those commands.

[24:27] Jesus himself said it this way back in John 13 verse 16. He said, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

[24:39] In other words, the master is greater than the servant, and the one who sends the messenger is greater than the messenger. Well, we know from the story of the Gospels that Jesus has come both to be the servant of his master, the Father, and the messenger of the one who has sent him, his Father.

[25:02] So, these are two ways that the Father is greater than Jesus. And, you know, we might be tempted to think, well, who really needs to know this? Except theologians and Bible scholars and pastors.

[25:14] This all sounds kind of heady and quite mysterious. But notice what Jesus says right here in John chapter 14, verse 31. He says, the prince of this world is coming so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

[25:34] God wants not just the Bible scholars and theologians, he wants the whole world to understand this subservient role and relationship that Jesus has had with his Father as a man.

[25:49] This is part of the plan of God to bring glory to his son Jesus. It may not be fully apparent now how that will all work, but one day it will be.

[26:02] He wants the whole world to see this about Jesus, that Jesus in both his deity and in his humanity is worthy of glory and honor and praise, is worthy to be exalted, is worthy to wear the crown and be the king of the whole world over all the nations.

[26:24] So yes, the Father is greater than Jesus, and no, it doesn't diminish his divinity. humanity, it's just the reality of his true humanity and his humble role and service that he has come to offer.

[26:41] So what can we take from all this part of the story here in John for ourselves today? Well, I want to come back to the talk of peace. Maybe you are going through something right now.

[27:00] in your life where you can honestly say, I feel troubled in heart, or I'm afraid, or I'm worried about something, struggling.

[27:20] Maybe you've been wrestling in your heart, not just a little bit, but for a while. Maybe you've been looking for that inward peace that Jesus offers here to his disciples.

[27:36] A true peace that will just settle it. Maybe you've been trying some of the world's offers of peace, and you've been finding that they are empty, and they don't last, they don't deliver on what they promise.

[27:53] whatever it is that you're going through today, Jesus offers you his peace.

[28:12] How do we receive that? believe. Believe. Trust him.

[28:26] Look again on his words. Look again at his promises. promises. It's there that we find our hearts truly settle, and fears dissipate.

[28:46] When we see again that God is in control, that he has a plan, that he's going to bring good, that the end of this story is triumph, for Jesus and his people.

[29:06] Let me remind you of that. Same thing that Jesus said to his disciples. Jesus is coming back. And again, there will be a showdown between the prince of this world and the Lord Jesus.

[29:28] And again, it will be seen that the prince of this world has no hold over Jesus. With these things in view, let me encourage you with whatever you're going through, do not let your hearts be troubled.

[29:50] Do not be afraid. lastly, I want to point you to one thing that we notice about Jesus here that really blessed me this week.

[30:05] You know, it's easy for us to think of Jesus as the commanding king. Just like we read back up in verse 15, if you love me, keep my commands. And Jesus is a commanding king.

[30:19] But do you see in these verses just how tender and gentle and sensitive Jesus is towards his disciples?

[30:36] He doesn't beat them down. He doesn't say, just stop worrying already. Enough. Get over it. He's gentle.

[30:48] He's tender. He sees their state of mind, their state of heart, and he calls them out of it to trust, to believe.

[31:02] He wants them to have peace in their hearts. I mean, think about that. Jesus cares about how you feel.

[31:13] that matters to him. He's not just a commanding king. He is also a sympathetic brother.

[31:26] He knows our weakness, our frailty. He sees those worries and fears that we carry. And he has the antidote.

[31:39] He has what we long for. true, lasting, inward peace. So come to him and find that in him.

[31:54] Let's pray. Father in heaven, we bow before you and we offer up our hearts to you.

[32:12] We offer up the struggles. We offer up the worries. peace. We ask that you would come deep into our hearts and give us peace.

[32:31] Remind us of the specific truths, each one of us, that we need to know from you today. Thank you that you are a wonderful and compassionate Savior.

[32:43] thank you for dying on the cross for us, for taking care of all of our sin and our guilt, and that one day we get to look forward to your glorious kingdom and life with you and with each other forever.

[33:06] To your name be the glory. Amen.