Do you feel peace?
And do you feel all is well?
We live in a troubling world,
and it's hard to find peace where there's so much suffering.
Horatio Spafford was a Christian in the late 1800s,
and he knew a lot about suffering.
He was a lawyer and a property owner.
He had a wife and five children.
And tragedy struck when their four-year-old son died of scarlet fever.
A year later, a great fire devastated much of his property.
And then two years later,
deciding to take his family on a holiday to England,
he sends his wife and his four children ahead of him on a ship.
And their ship sunk, and only his wife survived.
His four children drowned at sea.
And so later on, as he journeys to be reunited with his wife,
his last remaining family,
he wrote the lyrics to the song that we sung this morning.
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll,
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
it is well, it is well with my soul.
Amidst his suffering and grief,
Horatio finds the peace to say,
it is well with my soul.
This is unlike peace that the world knows.
It's peace that nothing can shake.
How do we find peace like this?
Horatio found his peace in the promises of Jesus,
and we too can find that peace in his promises.
Morning all.
If you don't know me, my name's Dan,
and I'm a regular here at St. Paul's.
It's a real pleasure to bring you the word this morning.
What we read in John 14 so far
is a small part of a farewell speech.
This is the last night
that Jesus and the disciples would spend together
before Jesus' death.
They'd gathered in a room to eat the Passover meal,
and it's a disturbing start to the night.
What we read last week
is that right at the beginning,
Jesus stoops down to wash the disciples' feet.
It's a deeply uncomfortable, offensive experience.
Jesus then goes on to tell his disciples
that one of them is going to betray him.
And then the most disturbing part of the night
is this bit.
Have a look with me at chapter 13,
verse 3 in your Bibles.
Jesus says,
So Jesus tells his friends that he's about to leave.
He's about to go somewhere they can't follow.
He's about to go to the cross,
to his death.
And the disciples are distinctly troubled
by the way Jesus is acting.
Here is their Savior,
the secret to their salvation,
the fulfillment of all the Scripture's promises,
and he's about to leave?
This is not what they'd expected.
And so this week,
we pick up in John 14.
Halfway through the farewell meal,
and Jesus speaks words of comfort.
In verse 1,
he says,
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Believe,
you believe in God,
believe also in me.
The words Jesus speaks,
the words Jesus is about to speak,
they're words of comfort
to troubled disciples.
And they're trustworthy.
Jesus asks them to trust his words
just as they trust the words of God.
It's a claim to deity,
a claim that Jesus is God.
And so these words are of immense importance.
Jesus speaks truth to troubled disciples.
So before we move on and read and think about it,
please pray with me.
Father,
as we read some of the final words of Jesus,
would you help us to see
that they are comfort to us
as they were to the disciples?
And by your Holy Spirit,
would you help us to understand these words
and to be renewed by them?
Amen.
So as we crack into the passage,
into Jesus' words of comfort,
I want you to see two really important promises today.
That is,
that Jesus promises his disciples an eternal home,
and Jesus promises his disciples an ongoing presence.
So keep your Bibles open and ready,
and read with me from verse two.
My Father's house has many rooms.
If that were not so,
would I have told you that I'm going there
to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me,
that you also may be where I am.
Where is Jesus going?
Well, after Jesus dies on the cross,
he's going to his Father's house.
That is something to rejoice.
It's the Son returning to the Father.
But what is this house?
The Father's house,
it's a reference to the Old Testament temple.
It's the place where God dwells.
The house is an image of the presence of God.
And so Jesus is returning to the presence of his Father.
How many rooms are in this house?
Have we got one for the Father,
one for the Son,
one for the Holy Spirit?
Not at all.
It's got many rooms.
Jesus says,
my Father's house has many rooms.
There's no limit given,
no scope to the size of the Father's house.
This is a house for an ever-growing family.
And so yes, Jesus is going away.
He's going to be with his Father.
But he goes with a purpose.
Jesus goes to prepare a place for his disciples.
He's preparing rooms,
and he's going to come back and get his disciples
so they too can live in the presence of God.
Now this is an immense promise.
It's a promise that any first century Jew
would jump over joy hearing.
This picture of the house of God
uses the language of the Old Testament
to describe an eternal home.
Listen to this prayer from King David in Psalm 27.
He says,
One thing I ask from the Lord,
this only do I seek,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.
The writer earnestly asks
that one day he would dwell in the house of the Lord.
He longs for the day
that he would live there forevermore
so that he might gaze on the beauty of the Lord,
seek him in his temple.
So Jesus' use of the phrase,
the Father's house,
it sparks a lot of these thoughts and emotions
from the Old Testament.
This is heaven that Jesus is talking about.
He's inviting his disciples
to live in the Father's house forever
in the wonderful, glorious,
overwhelmingly loving presence of the Father.
But the disciples don't jump with joy,
not as you would expect.
Notice they respond with shock and confusion.
In verse 4, Jesus says to his disciples,
you know the way to the place where I'm going.
Thomas said to him,
Lord, we don't know where you're going,
so how can we know the way?
Thomas doesn't get it.
He's really confused,
and that's quite understandable really.
He doesn't grasp that Jesus is talking about heaven.
He's wondering,
where is this house, Jesus?
I'd really like to follow,
but I don't know how.
Perhaps you could share an address or a map,
perhaps a compass,
because we don't know how to get there.
And so Jesus tells them the way
in verse 6.
Jesus answered,
And this is the way to the Father.
Jesus claims that he is the way to the Father's house.
The disciples don't yet understand this,
but they would soon see.
Theologian Don Carson puts it like this.
Jesus would go the way of death.
Why?
Because currently no human can enter the presence of God.
No one can reach the house of God,
and no one is worthy of heaven.
Our sin and our brokenness
will not allow us to live in the presence of God.
But God always planned to make a way.
The Father wants to offer us eternal life in his house.
And that's why Jesus has to go.
That's why Jesus goes the way of death.
Jesus takes our punishment on the cross
so that we might enter the house of God.
And so Jesus is the way.
No one comes to the Father or his eternal house
except through Jesus.
Jesus is the truth.
His words are reality,
and there's no other truth that can guide us.
And Jesus is the life.
He died so that we might live.
He died so that anyone who believes in his name
would enter the Father's house.
Jesus' words of comfort are to the 12 disciples.
But there are also promises recorded
so that every disciple since can find comfort in them.
If you are a follower of Jesus,
don't be troubled about your place before God.
You have an eternal home.
You can look forward with hope and joy
to life in God's house.
And that's promise one.
Jesus' disciples can look forward to an eternal home.
But Jesus does far better
than just promise us something in the future.
He actually promises us something right now.
Jesus is concerned with giving comfort
then and there for the disciples
and to us right now.
And so that's where we come to promise two.
Jesus promises an ongoing presence.
So what we're gonna do is
we're gonna move on from the first half
which we read this morning,
and we're gonna delve into the second half.
In there, we see the next big promise.
Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit.
So read with me at verse 15.
If you love me, keep my commands.
And I will ask the Father
and he will give you another advocate
to help you and be with you forever.
The Spirit of truth.
It's clear that Jesus cares about his disciples.
He tells them in advance.
He's not leaving them alone.
Jesus promises to send an advocate,
a helper, the Spirit of truth.
These are all different names
for the one person.
That is the Holy Spirit.
So to understand this properly,
I think it's important that we pause
and consider who is the Holy Spirit.
And we've gotta consider
the concept of the Trinity,
which is all over chapter 14.
It's all over there.
The Trinity is the understanding
that God is one,
but also that God is three.
God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit.
But they are the one true living God.
It's evident from earlier in the chapter
where we read that God the Father
and God the Son are one.
So when the disciple asked Jesus,
when the disciple Philip asks Jesus
to show them the Father,
Jesus answers like this in verse nine.
Anyone who has seen me
has seen the Father.
How can you say,
show us the Father?
Don't you believe that I am in the Father
and that the Father is in me?
The words I say to you,
I do not speak on my own authority.
Rather, it is the Father living in me
who is doing his work.
So the Father and the Son are one.
Though the disciples only see Jesus
in front of them,
Jesus tells them
they're actually looking at the Father.
To see the Son is to see the Father.
And the same can be said of the Holy Spirit.
Notice the strangeness of this.
Jesus has just been saying
that he's leaving
and that he's leaving them
with the Holy Spirit.
But then he says this in verse 20.
Read it with me.
On that day,
you will realize that I am in the Father
and you are in me
and I am in you.
Now that is a confusing statement.
Jesus shares that
just as he is in the Father,
he will be in us.
But he's just told us
that he's leaving.
You can't go and stay.
You can't leave us
and be with us simultaneously
unless you consider
the impossibility of God.
Jesus and the Holy Spirit
are one.
When the Holy Spirit
comes to his disciples,
it's Jesus too
who dwells with them.
And the New Testament writers
often speak like this,
using the name of Christ
and the Holy Spirit
interchangeably
to describe God dwelling
in humans.
Far from being just theoretical,
the conclusion I want you to make
is that the Holy Spirit is God.
Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit
are God.
They're one.
The Holy Spirit is no less God
than Jesus is.
Because a common misconception
is that the Holy Spirit
is some impersonal force.
Some people think of the Holy Spirit
like we think of the force
in Star Wars.
A force that we can manipulate
and push to our will.
It's a force in the universe.
But not at all.
The Holy Spirit is a person.
When referred to in this passage,
the Holy Spirit is not an it.
It's a he.
The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons
of the true God.
This is an immense comfort.
For it is God the Holy Spirit
who comes to live in his disciples.
His personal presence.
Always it is God with his people.
When God the Son leaves,
God the Spirit comes.
Let's read verse 17.
The world cannot accept him
because it neither sees him
nor knows him.
But you know him
for he lives with you
and will be in you.
I will not leave you as orphans.
I will come to you.
Before long the world
will not see me anymore
but you will see me.
The Spirit will not be recognizable
or visible to the world.
He is with us in a different way
than Jesus was.
But Jesus does not leave his disciples
as orphans.
He leaves us with the presence of God.
Look further with me at verse 23.
Anyone who loves me
will obey my teaching.
My Father will love them
and we will come to them
and make our home with them.
Life now is not just a matter of waiting
to be home with the Father in heaven.
God makes his home in us
here and now.
In heaven we'll experience
the full presence of God
like nothing we've ever seen before.
But right now
God is with his people
by the Holy Spirit.
And not only is the Holy Spirit
a comfort and a presence
but the Spirit helps the disciple.
The Spirit actually does work
in the disciple.
So look further
at verse 26.
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.
So the Spirit serves
to teach
and remind the believer
about all that God says.
This is a crucial role
of the Spirit.
Without the Spirit
Jesus' words
are worthless
to our ears.
The Spirit gives
these words meaning.
He grants understanding.
The Spirit allows us
to see the glory of God
in the Bible.
It is by the work
of the Spirit
that we can have faith
in Jesus' death
and resurrection.
It's by the work
of the Spirit
that we can have
eternal life.
But not only
does the Spirit teach
in the sense
that it grants us
this understanding
but according
to the passage
the Spirit
will remind
the disciple
of everything
Jesus has said.
That is
that anybody
with the Spirit
will never forget
the truths
about Jesus.
It's written
on their heart.
Anyone who has
the Spirit
will be reminded
of the truth
to the end
of their lives.
This is such
a comfort.
God keeps
His disciples
secure.
His presence
in our lives
right now
means that
by His promises
we'll remember
His words
until the end
of our days.
Thank you
Holy Spirit.
Let's draw
these two ideas
together.
Jesus gives
two promises
to His disciples.
A promise
one
is an eternal
home.
The disciples
wait for the day
where they'll live
in the full presence
of God the Father
in His house
forever.
And promise
two
is this
ongoing presence.
Jesus promises
that the Holy Spirit
would come
and dwell with
and inside
His disciples.
And both
of these promises
only come about
because
of Jesus'
death
and resurrection.
Verse 6
again,
Jesus answered,
I am the way
and the truth
and the life.
No one comes
to the Father
except through
Me.
These promises
are attainable
because they're
a free gift
of God.
Anyone
who believes
in and follows
Jesus Christ
will receive
these promises.
And so
if you're not
a Christian
in the room,
I would really
encourage you,
investigate the
person of Christ
for He freely
offers you
life in the Spirit
now
and an eternal
home in heaven
forever.
And if you are
a Christian,
these promises
are to mean
something to you.
They're to mean
something to me.
They are to be
comfort and
guidance.
Words for
troubled hearts
in a troubled
world.
Look with me
at verse 27.
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.
These promises
mean peace
for the troubled
heart.
Jesus
shares His
peace with us.
But be very
careful in your
understanding of
peace.
For the world
says to us,
peace is an
avoidance of
trouble.
I picture the
kind of peace
I feel on a
holiday.
day.
When there's
no work
to do.
Not much
to be anxious
about.
Books to
read.
Time to
talk and
walk.
Now that
is a good
kind of
peace.
But that's
not the
peace that
Horatio
Spafford
felt when
he wrote
it is well
with my
soul.
As he
wrote that
in the
aftermath of
losing five
children,
the peace
he felt,
the peace
that Jesus
gives is
different.
Jesus does
not give
peace like
the world.
He gives
peace that
transcends
understanding.
Peace that
coexists with
suffering.
Don Carson
puts it like
this.
This peace
is no
escape from
reality,
but a
courageous
serenity,
even in the
midst of
troubles.
Some people
don't want
this kind
of peace
because the
peace that
Jesus gives
doesn't remove
trouble.
It's for
those who
are troubled.
The peace
that Jesus
gives is the
peace that
comes from
knowing that
Jesus has
prepared a
place in
heaven for
you.
We don't
earn our
place in
heaven.
We don't
work for
it.
Jesus has
freely given
it.
Jesus
promises
us that
we can
have hope.
We can
have
assurance.
Faith in
Jesus means
life forever.
This is a
promise of
peace that
goes beyond
our
circumstances.
No matter
what happens
in an
uncertain life,
we can have
absolute
certainty in
the future.
Jesus has
prepared a
place for
us.
peace of
knowing that
we have the
Holy Spirit
in us.
He will
not let us
forget his
words.
He will
teach us
and grant
understanding
so that we
might have
salvation.
He will
remind us
these promises
again and
again through
his word of
our certain
hope in
him.
That is a
promise.
A disciple
of Jesus
will be held
firm all
their days.
A disciple
gets to
live in
faith and
trust for
the rest of
their lives.
So as we
go out into
the rest of
our lives,
into morning
tea, I'd
really like to
challenge you.
Let's explore
this question
together.
How will
the promise
of the Holy
Spirit's
presence and
of an
eternal home
change the
way you
live now?
Let's anchor
our lives on
these promises.
Let them
shape us,
change us,
transform the
way we live
our lives.
They're
promises of
peace for
a troubled
disciple.
Amen.