"Raising Our Hopes"

Series: Jesus, The Provocative Teacher

Sunday, August 24, 2008; John 14:15-31

Introduction: Have the congregation stand up. Then have them turn to each person around them and say: “God is with you.” Then have the congregation sit down.

Now, I had you do that to make a point; the point is, that my being up on the stage here, and being the pastor of this church, gives me some authority. Just now, I exercised that authority to have you say a blessing to others. As you were doing it, you were probably wondering why I was having you do it. And that is all right, because part of our make-up is to question what we are told to do. (Although when we were children, we were not really allowed to question).

This is how we are with God as well. This morning, I want to look at how Jesus provokes His disciples, and us as followers, to understand how and why it is important to follow the words and guidelines that come to us from God.

I. Keep My Commands- (John 14:15, 18-24)

a. Showing love- When you hear the word love, you can think of

many things, because we love in many ways. We love our pets, we love sports teams, we love music or movies, we love our family, we love our spouse, and children, and grandchildren. And each thing we love, we love in different ways. Hopefully you don’t love your sports team in the same way you love your family. Hopefully you don’t love your pet in the same way as you love your child or grandchild.

And above all of this, we love God. The love we have for God should be first and foremost, because it is by loving God, and receiving God’s love, that we know how to love others. And in this passage we just read, we see Jesus telling us how we are to show love to God. Since God is not physical, we can’t show love by hugs and kisses, by affection, and it isn’t enough to love by just words. NO, our love for God is ultimately shown in our actions.

That is why Jesus says in verse 15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We show Jesus we love Him by keeping His commandments. And of course, to keep the commandments, we have to know the commandments. So what are the commandments that Jesus gave us? Since we don’t have time here to look at them all, let’s just look at some of them…

1.    John 15:9- “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved 

you; abide in my love.” 2. John 15:12- "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." 3. Matthew 6:14- “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” 4. Matthew 6:16- “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites…” 5. Matthew 6:25- “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life…” 6. Matthew 7:1-2, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged…” 7. Matthew 28:19- “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” 

So we see that Jesus is giving us commands: to abide in Him, to love others, to forgive others and not be judgmental, to fast, to not worry, and to make disciples and believers who will follow Him. These are just some of the many commands that Jesus gives us… So for us to love God, we need to follow His commands, and to follow His commands we need to know His commands.

b. Knowing what to follow- In John 14:24 Jesus says: “Whoever does

not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine…” Here Jesus turns it around and says that if you don’t love me, you won’t keep my words; and in not keeping my words, you follow the words of another. The other one we follow is Satan, which we will talk about more in point 3, but here I want to note that we have a choice to listen to God’s words, or Satan’s words.

While as a parent I have authority over my children, and can direct my children with this authority, I still try and let my children know why I tell them to do what I want them to do. I try not to just order them around. For example, if I want them to go get ready for bed, I remind them that their bedtime is at 9:00 p.m., and that it takes them time to get ready, so they need to start at 8:30 p.m. I’m not just telling them this to be authoritative. If I don’t want them to have a snack 15 minutes before dinner, I remind them how having this snack will keep them from being able to eat the nice dinner Tami is making.

I believe we see this same desire from Jesus as well. Jesus has the authority to just tell us to do things, but if we search the Bible, we will see the reasons why He tells us to do what He wants us to do. When we are told that we will be forgiven as we forgive, it is because when we don’t know how to forgive others we won’t know how to receive forgiveness. Also, when we don’t forgive others, we hold grudges, which causes us to have an impure heart and mind. With each command that Jesus gives to us, there is a viable reason for us to follow it.

How do we know the difference in the voices? We know the difference when we come to know the voice of Jesus. Hopefully, my kids will have heard my telling them what to do and what not to do enough, that when they are in a situation where someone might be telling them to do something different, they will hear my voice in their head of what is right to do. As we come to know the commands of Jesus, these words will come to us when we get in a situation that might call to us to do the opposite.

II. The Holy Spirit- (John 14:16-17, 25-29; 1 Cor. 2:10-12; 1 Jn. 4:18)

a. The Advocate- We have to understand that in this discourse, Jesus

has told them at the beginning of the chapter that He is going to be leaving them. Of course this causes them great concern. If you have ever had someone in your life that you felt close to, someone who was a guide to you and gave you strength in life; the thought of losing them would cause you great concern. This is true of the disciples here.

The thought of Jesus not being with them was disheartening. Not just because they would miss His presence, but also because they were concerned about the future of the Christian movement. How will this movement go forward with the leader, Jesus, departing? Jesus, knowing that the disciples have this concern, addresses it here in verses 16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. 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.”

First, Jesus tells them that He will not be leaving them all alone, but will be giving them the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of God. Jesus’ time here on earth was limited, but the Holy Spirit will be with them FOREVER. Jesus was only with them in physical presence, but the Holy Spirit will live IN them. Second, the Holy Spirit will be to them an Advocate; a Counselor; the giver of truth.

One of the wonderful verses in the Bible comes from 1 Corinthians 2:10-12, “for God has revealed them to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit within? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

Because the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God, and because we have the Holy Spirit living within us, the Holy Spirit can let us know what God wants us to know and guide us into what God wants us to do. The Holy Spirit passes on the truth of God to us so that we can know what we need to know, and this enables us to know how to live, and the make to decisions God would want us to make!

b. The Peacegiver- The other side of Jesus affirmation to the disciples

is that they will have peace. One of the aspects of concern and worry, is the lack of peace. Jesus wanted the disciples to know that they could not only have peace, but have a peace that was unlike any they could get from the world.

What is peace? Well, most people probably feel at peace when they feel like their life is in order. Or, when they have a limited amount of problems, and those problems are ones they feel like they can take care of fairly easily on their own. Or, when they feel calm about what they are doing, and there isn’t turmoil surrounding them.

But how often is life like this? How often do we really feel at peace? There is always something stirring around us in life. There is always something that is causing us to worry. There is always something that we don’t have control over. And because of this, most of our lives we are not at peace. But Jesus tells us that with the Holy Spirit’s presence, we can have peace. Not just when things seem under control, but even when our world seems to be spinning out of control.

This is why Jesus could say at the end of verse 27: “…Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”/ With the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we do not need to be afraid. Fear comes from not being in control. But as John tells us in 1 John 4:18- “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” We know that God loves us, because Jesus died for our sins, and we have been given the Spirit of God to live with us so that we could live this life God has given us.

III. Overcoming the Power of this World- (John 14:30-31; 1 Cor. 10:13)

a. Ruler of this world- Story: “The Native American and the

Rattlesnake.” (“More Hot Illustrations,” p. 125). There is a story of a Native American boy who was at the age where he was ready to become a man. He was brought to the chief, who gave the boy his task: “To become a man, you must first survive in the high mountains for one week. If you survive, then you will be considered a man.” So the boy set out for the mountains on his quest to become a man. All was going well, as the boy became accustomed to providing for himself. However, on the last day, as the boy was searching for food, he came across a rattlesnake. Initially afraid, he jumped back. But he was startled as the snake spoke to him: “Please help me,” the snake said. “I’m cold and lost and far from home. Please pick me up and carry me back to the valley where it is warm. If I stay here, I will surely die.” The boy began to draw near, but then responded to the snake: “I know your kind. You will only bite me when I pick you up.” To which the snake said: “Oh, but I won’t bite you. I will be your friend if you will carry me down the mountain. You can trust me.” The boy thought it over and decided that any snake that could talk must be a special kind of snake. So the boy picked up the snake and carried him down to the warm valley. Once in the valley he gently put the snake down. Immediately the snake coiled up and struck the boy. The boy cried out with a scream: “Hey! You bit me. You promised me you wouldn’t bite me.” The snake replied: “I can’t help that. It is in my nature. You shouldn’t be surprised, you knew what I was when you picked me up.”

This story reminds us that there is a ruler of this world, which is Satan. Satan’s nature is to lie and deceive. Satan’s desire is to lure us away from God. Satan doesn’t come out and say this, instead he does so deceptively. There is much in the world that calls to us to follow. When we listen to this voice, instead of God’s voice, we will find ourselves disconnected from God. And as we are disconnected from God, we will experience more trouble and confusion, stress and worry. But even more, we will not be listening to the voice of the Spirit, the voice of truth.

b. Jesus’ power- Jesus let’s us know an important truth at the end of

John 14:30- “…He has no power over me.” Satan has no power over Jesus! We can see this throughout the scriptures:

1. Luke 4:1-13. In this passage, it starts in verse 1 by telling

us: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit…was led by the Spirit in the desert.” Jesus is in the

wilderness and fasts and prays for 40 days. He is tired and hungry. At this end of this time, Satan comes to tempt Jesus. But by the power of who He is, and by the power of God’s word, Satan’s attempt is thwarted. In Luke 4:13 we then read: “When the devil had finished all the tempting he left Him until an opportune time.” Satan had no power over Jesus.

2. 1 John 4:4- “You, dear children, are from God and have

overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” The power of God, through the Spirit’s presence in our lives is in us because of what Jesus has done by His death and resurrection. And by Jesus’ power we can overcome the world.

3. In Genesis 3, Satan gets Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit

and bring sin into the world. In verse 15 we see Satan’s punishment: God says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This is the foretelling of how Jesus’ death on the cross will crush Satan, because Satan will not only not have power over Jesus, but will not have any power over all who believe in and follow Jesus.

The way that we overcome the power of Satan, and the power of the world is by trusting in the name of Jesus; the name that is above all names; the name that has power over all things. With this power we can overcome the temptations that get thrown at us, as we are told in 1 Corinthians 10:13- “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” By the power of Jesus, we will be able to avoid giving in to the temptation that is there before us, by God providing us a way to avoid it, and giving us the power within to not desire to do it.

Conclusion: It is easy to lose hope in this world. Something as big as Jesus leaving the disciples would definitely cause them to lose hope. But Jesus lets the disciples, and us know that we don’t have to lose hope, because we have the Spirit of God living in us when we believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord. With the presence of Christ in our lives by the presence of God’s Spirit, we have the power of God at work helping us to meet the challenges we face, and helping our fears to be calmed. So, rejoice and have hope, for you have this power available to you through Christ. Amen.