Peace During Troubling Times

First Things First

Spring brings a bouquet of first time events to Japan.  From the first wonder filled sakura bloom, to first time graduates discovering their way. 

From first time employees first pay-checks to new promotion tests for seasoned businessmen. And who can forget their child’s first day of school?

Moved by excitement, discovery and wonder, these firsts create memories in our lives.  New and fresh firsts are the sights and smells of spring in Japan. 

But there are also some first time events that we’d rather not face because they catch us off guard. 

• The sudden sting felt at the death of a loved one. 
• Betrayal by the hand of a close friend. 
• Abandonment by those who were supposed to stick with us. 

3 Future Firsts

Jesus was preparing his disciples for 3 future firsts. 

In today’s text we’ll look at 3 beautiful promises that will help us see:

  • How Jesus protects us from falling away in unbelief 

  • How he prepares us for persecution and

  • How to endure every life transition.

We’re looking at 2 entire chapters from John 14 to John 16, so we’ll see 3 beautiful promises in a few places. 

Let’s start in John 14 verse 1. 

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

John 14:1-4 

Christians are promised a place when Jesus says “in My Father’s house”. That’s promise #1. 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.  John 14:15-17 

We see the 3rd Person of God here. He is described as the Helper, the Spirit of truth. He is promise #2. 

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.  

John 15:4-5

Jesus paints a beautiful picture of abiding belief (promise #3) in this last passage. 

A place, a Person and a picture. 

Here’s today’s main point:

Left to ourselves we would never know peace during troubling times, but Jesus promises us a place, a Person and a picture to encourage us.

3 Petals of Promise

Like a fragrant aroma, Jesus’ bouquet of promises lingered long after his departure. 

Like petals on a spring flower 

• An exclusive place
• The Person of the Holy Spirit
• A picture called Belief. 

refresh us during troubles and give us rest to remain in Jesus.

Quintessential Servanthood

Jesus had just exhibited perfect servanthood to his disciples by dying to his desires and serving them instead.  All before his betrayal, denial, death, resurrection and departure back to heaven.  That’s a lot of change all at once.  Jesus understood the stress and heaviness of heart that change can bring.

Triple Trouble

The disciples’ hearts were “triple troubled”.  First, they couldn’t understand what place he kept talking about. Second, Jesus was the only person they knew, not the Spirit of Truth.  Third, this future picture called belief…was blurry at best.  Everything was changing.

An Exclusive Place

This couldn’t have been easy for them because they didn’t understand the place he kept talking about. 

Jesus didn’t say he was going to prepare a place for everyone.  In fact, he pointed out how unbelief restricts people from coming to this place.

So he said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “Will he kill himself, since he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”  John 8:21

The Father’s house is an exclusive place accessed through belief in Jesus. And it’s more than a place. 

The word menō is used as both a place and the idea of abiding with God, which only happens through faith in Jesus Christ. Abiding is a picture of belief. 

It’s a unified picture where Christians are cared for by the Father, through belief in Jesus Christ the Son, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. We know that most major life transitions aren’t easy, but we weren’t promised a carefree life. Sometimes change comes faster than our ability to work through it.  Have you ever felt like you couldn’t move forward or even think about the future when knocked backward by life altering change?

Slip on their Sandals

Let’s put ourselves in the disciples’ sandals for a second.  Here stood Jesus. 

The man they followed and lived among. He was caring for them. Lavishing them with love. Providing peace beyond what they knew or understood.  The faithfulness of Jesus never wilts, it doesn’t change.

if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2:13 

Following Jesus the disciples left behind many aspects of their lives including:

• family time

• businesses

• homes

• careers

and the list goes on. 

They followed him because this man was like no other. Jesus the Son of God:

• doing miracles

• teaching with power 

• healing the sick 

• raising the dead

• loving them to the very end

and he was leaving. 

Jesus was preparing to leave for the Father’s house.  A place in heaven prepared for Christians.

It’s a place (a physical dwelling) with a lot of space where he promises we’ll see his face because he’ll personally take us there. 

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”  

John 14:2-3 

Monogatari

There was an old bamboo cutter who found a baby in a bamboo stalk and took her home to his wife. 

They raised her as their own and she grew into a beautiful young woman.   So beautiful, in fact, that 5 princes sought her hand in marriage through challenging tasks she laid out for them. 

And just when you think the winning prince would appear, the story plucks this petal of beauty upward to her heavenly home by means of a mysterious old man (maybe like a father figure)? 

She is granted the ability to live forever in heaven by drinking a potion of life.  But wondering what happened to her parents she longs to see them one more time. 

So, she returns to earth to visit them only to find that they’ve gone and all that’s left is a shrine.  She wanders around the earth and eventually turns into a star in heaven. 

Wondering and Wandering Replaced by Permanence

When people leave this earth the last feeling we want piled on top of grief is to anxiously wonder, “Where are you?”  Everyone in this story was left wondering and wandering.

God replaces wondering and wandering with permanence.  A permanent place in heaven with God reserved for those who believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit lives insideof Christians forever. We are sealed by Him.  Believers have been sealed and our salvation in Christ is secure.  The Spirit of God guarantees it.

So Jesus departure was actually a lot better for the original disciples and present day Christians because the Helper is with and in Christians.

A Person

A famous Japanese company chose the song Mikan no Hana as beautiful background music for what became a famous ad in the 1980s.  Was this song selected simply because of its beauty or was it also a strategic choice perhaps?  It may have been used to create positive feelings in hopes that the brand would be better positioned in the minds of people.

There’s evidence to suggest that positive memories are stored longer in our brains than neutral ones.  Nostalgia can move us to pursue positive memories of the past during certain seasons of life. 

I wonder if Jesus’ departure triggered nostalgic memories of what He did on earth?   Did the disciples’ minds track back to better times?  We don’t know, but we do know that the Person of the Holy Spirit brings teachings in the bible to our remembrance.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.  John 14:26

Jesus 3 Part Plan for Peace & Comfort

Jesus told his disciples many things because he was secure in his destination and directive.  He carried his plan to his disciples before returning to the Father in heaven.  Jesus lived it out perfectly and he was about to pay the price for it. 

He glorified the Father by serving and loving his disciples to the end.  He loved them to the very end of his life and beyond. 

As a man, Jesus was completely trusting in his Father’s will during this transition, while at the same time dying to his own will. Jesus wanted to please and glorify God the Father. 

As the Son of God, Jesus wanted his disciples to believe and trust in him.  He unfolds his plan during times of: 

• betrayal
• denial
• ongoing persecution
• his ultimate departure. 

It was Jesus’ 3 part plan for them and us.  A plan for peace through belief in Jesus.  Peace throughout eternity in a place without any trouble.  Constant comfort for daily troubles in this life by a Person called the Helper. 

Prepared for Persecution Because of Jesus

Peace in the middle of relational challenges.  Peace when you’re seeking to love your enemies.  Peace when we’re hated by the world.  The peace that passes understanding because Jesus overcame the world!

The Spirit of Truth would teach the disciples, reminding them of Jesus’ teachings.  He would guide them into ALL truth.  And He does the same for Christians now as we read the bible, written by men but inspired by the Spirit of God.

The Helper was not just walking beside them.  He would soon be in them.  To continually comfort them during persecution and death.  To empower them to witness to Christ’s beauty through the gospel. And to keep them from falling away in unbelief. 

Before leaving for the place called heaven, Jesus showed them and told them how to serve. 

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 

John 14:15-17

The Person & The Picture

If we isolate this conditional statement “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
from Jesus, we can easily forget that keeping Christ’s commandments is only possible through the Person of the Holy Spirit. 

If we forget that, we can fall into the error of feeling guilty when we look at what our lives actually produce compared with Jesus’ commandments.  When Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Does anyone look at their outward actions or lack thereof and feel guilty at times?
I do. 

Worse still, when shame is experienced we don’t just feel guilty about something we can observe, like our outward behavior, but our entire person (the most intimate aspects of ourselves) are laid bare before others.  That can cause us to shrink back in shame, feeling filthy. 

But, Jesus commands are beautiful because they are not burdensome.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  

Matthew 11:28-30

3 Unshakeable Promises

God has GUARANTEED Christians 3 Unshakeable Promises:
1. A place in heaven (the where),
2. The Helper (3rd person of the Godhead) who helps us see 
3. A picture of belief in Jesus.

The Gospel

Jesus painted a picture of belief beyond heavy burdens, brushed in love.  Jesus died to himself to serve his disciples in their time of need.  He was betrayed and denied by them in His time of need. Burdened by the weight of our sins on his shoulders, he was more than “triple troubled”.  He was squeezed out. 

Finger Painting

Like little children in a finger painting frenzy unaware of what they’ve touched, we didn’t realize the stains and smears of our sins trace all the way back to Eve reaching out for the forbidden fruit and sharing it with Adam.  Sin requires payment.  Could they pay?  Can we? 

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.  

Hebrews 9:22

Someone has to pay.  If we think we can mix the perfect palate of good works in an attempt to beautify ourselves, we’re missing the bigger picture. 

Our sins are stained blood red on God’s original pristine white canvas.  Copied down from one sinful generation to the next, our very best efforts stink before God like a bloody mess.  We can’t pay. 

Our sins stain.  They pay out death.  Only Jesus’ precious blood is an acceptable payment for the forgiveness of sins. 

Jesus’ bloody brushstrokes were splattered on Calvary’s wooden cross. Dried out in death…snapped in his prime.  Jesus was raised up in the Father’s hand on that wood and through those strokes painted his ultimate love for all who would believe in him. 

Forgiveness for every time we’ve betrayed God.  We were caught red handed. And He poured out his precious lifeblood.  We were playing, He was paying.  He rose again three days later, encouraged his disciples and departed to heaven after defeating sin and death. 

Belief inspires a response.  Jesus doesn’t want believers touring belief like a shiny new art exhibit.  Saying things like, that was really nice, did you like that? What else can we see? 

Instead, through belief, we’ve been called to see the depth of his beautiful love through keeping his commands.  He creates a new way to pray in his name to keep his commandments. But he knew we’d need much more than our prayers.  Jesus said,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

John 14:15

We Can’t Do It––Jesus was Left Alone so that We Would Never Be

The problem is that we can’t do that. Jesus understood this. In the garden of Gethsemane he was left alone. His followers couldn’t stay and pray with him for one hour. They betrayed him in his time of need. We do the same thing. 

Jesus was left to Himself in Gethsemane so that we would never be left to ourselves.  The Father painted his ultimate love for all who would believe in Jesus, with his Son’s precious blood.  Do we see the beauty He grants us?

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  

Matthew 26:39

We see Jesus’ perfect submission in that passage. 

But, unlike Him, we can’t humble ourselves in perfect submission.  We can’t say “not my will, but yours be done” like Jesus did and walk it out in perfect submission.  

Our “nevertheless” never has a chance to produce lasting fruit; so he sent the Spirit to do what we can’t.

We can’t keep God’s commands, apart from the Person of the Spirit of Truth.  There is no Spirit lead submission without Him.  He leads us into all truth, teaching us, helping us, reminding us of Jesus.

Reminding us that this place is not our home.  We have a place prepared for us in heaven.   The Person of the Holy Spirit reminds us of the picture of belief that Christians will abide with God forever.