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We have been walking with Yeshua through the book of John. We’re at the end of the life of the Most Important Man who ever lived. That man is also the Messiah and the Son of God and the one and only Savior of humanity, able to rescue us from the real and deadly forces of Satan and the demons, sin and the sin nature, death and Hell.
It’s Yeshua’s last day on Earth. It’s a special day – the first day of Passover. It’s the day Messiah will die a very special death, as God’s Passover Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. That makes this one of the most important days in history.
Yeshua will eat a final meal, a Passover seder, with His most important followers, the men He will entrust with His on-going mission of world salvation. During the meal, Yeshua will give His disciples His final teachings. I think these final teachings are like the wine made from water – Yeshua saved the best for last. During the meal He will pray. Then, they will leave, and Yeshua will be arrested, tried, tortured and crucified.
The disciples were troubled. Yeshua had told them some very disturbing things: that one of them was a traitor; that He was about to leave them; that they couldn’t follow Him; that Peter would deny Him three times before that morning was over. Now He helps them deal with their troubles.
He told them they could have peace in their hearts while experiencing troubles, that they could endure their troubles with patience and grace.
He told them to believe in Him the same way they believed in God the Father. By knowing who Yeshua is, and how powerful He is, and how much He loves us, and how committed He is to us, and by becoming loyal to Him, we can have peace in the midst of our troubles.
He gave them hope that He will prepare a place for them in Heaven. Having hope that there is a place for us in God’s great heavenly house gives us peace when things are difficult.
He promised them that He will not abandoned them, that He will return for them, so they can be reunited with Him in the New Jerusalem. Believing that promise brings peace.
He told them they knew their destination and the way to their destination, and knowing our great destination, and the way to that destination – knowing the One who is the way, the truth and the life – brings peace.
He taught them that He is the perfect reflection of God, and to see and know and understand Him is to see and know and understand the Father; and knowing that Yeshua loves us, and is committed to us, and is full of grace and mercy and peace, means that the Father loves us and is committed to us and is full of grace and mercy and peace – which brings us peace.
He told them that His ministry of world redemption will continue, expand and succeed through them, and knowing they were part of something greater than themselves, they were part of something of the greatest significance, they were part of a mission that would be amazingly successful, brings peace.
He told them that He would rise from the dead, and ascend to the Father’s right hand, and as the Lord of Heaven and Earth, He would use His authority to answer their prayers that are prayed in His name, so that they would receive great help. Knowing we have the all-powerful Lord of Heaven and Earth, who loves us and is committed to us and is helping us fulfill the mission He has entrusted to us, brings shalom rav – great peace.
Let’s pick up with verse 15. When someone loves us, and we reciprocate that love, mutual help and support is exchanged in that loving relationship. Yeshua loves us and will help us by answering our prayers – but not so much if we are unloving toward Him. It’s important to love Him the way He should be loved. How can we be sure we love Him the way He should be loved? That our love for Him is genuine? He told us. If you love Me, keep My commands.
It’s easy to claim to love someone, for a man who wants a woman to say, “I love you.” But real love is based on truth. Real love is based on doing what is right for the one we love. And real love, when it comes to our relationship to Yeshua, is based on recognizing that He is the Lord and we are His subjects who are to be obedient to Him. If you love Me, keep My commands. And the oppositive is true. If we ignore Yeshua’s commands; if we disobey His instructions; aren’t serious about learning His teachings and putting them into practice – we do not really love Him.
Therefore, if we were wise, we would learn everything Yeshua has taught us to do. We would become familiar with His teachings. We would know what He wants from us; what His commands for us are; how He wants us to live; and, we would do what He commanded us to do. If we are faithful in our obedience, we can be sure that we love Him, and He loves us and will help us; and knowing that will bring us peace.
We can have peace in our times of trouble because, even though Messiah has left Earth, He will make sure we have someone else who is just like Him, helping us just like He was there to help His disciples. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate (advocate means someone who is called alongside to help). I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the 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.
The Holy Spirit is the invisible presence of the Father and the Son. He is present everywhere throughout the universe. The Spirit had already been living with them in His omni-presence, and He was living with them because He was in Yeshua, filling Yeshua with His presence. As great as that was, Yeshua promised His disciples that the Spirit will be given to them in a new and greater way after His death, resurrection and ascension. “In you” is much better than “with you.” He lives with you and will be in you. And, the Holy Spirit living in us, gives us the same kind of help that Yeshua gave His disciples when He was physically present with them. The Spirit in us guides us, teaches us, corrects us, impels us to holy living and empowers us to serve God.
He is called the Spirit of truth because He is the true Spirit of the true God, the God who is the truth and only speaks the truth and acts according to the truth. The Spirit knows the truth and is totally committed to the truth. He teaches the truth, and helps us live according to the truth. He helps us understand truth, especially the Word of God, which is pure truth, unmixed with any error.
The Holy Spirit, once He lives in us in this new and greater way, will never leave us. Knowing that we have the Spirit of truth living in us now and forever, helping us like Yeshua helped us, and empowering us to live according to the truth, creates peace in our times of trouble.
Note that the Father and the Son work together in the giving of the Spirit. Yeshua said: I will ask the Father, and He will give you the Spirit. Yeshua asks the Father, and the Father answers the prayer of His Son and gives their Spirit to Yeshua’s followers.
Yeshua again promised His disciples He will not abandon them; that He will return for them. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. These men were deeply attached to Yeshua. They had given up everything to follow Him. It’s painful when someone we love leaves us, whether it’s a rabbi or friend or mentor, a parent or child, a husband or wife. It’s like part of us is missing. Knowing that Yeshua has not abandoned us, that He has committed Himself to return for us, can bring us peace in our times of trouble.
Yeshua promised His disciples that after His death, they will be able to see Him – even before He returns for them. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. It’s hard to love someone and not be able to see him or her. Long distance relationships are very hard for many people. There’s something about being with the one you love, seeing him, seeing her, that changes everything. Being able to see Yeshua with the eyes of faith, being constantly aware that He is alive and at the right hand of God, brings us peace, even in times of trouble.
Yeshua promised His disciples that they will live because He will live. Because I live, you also will live. Messiah is alive! He has risen! And, because of our faith, we are in Messiah. We are joined to Messiah, united to Messiah. Our lives are connected to the life of the Son of God. Because we are like a child in his mother’s womb, and because Messiah lives now and forever, we will live now and forever.
Knowing we are united to this great living Lord, who is so full of life, should change our perspective and bring us peace – even in our times of trouble. Because I live, you will live.
Just as the life of Yeshua is close and inseparable from the life of God the Father, so our lives are close and inseparable from His. On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. We are united to Yeshua who is united to us. In one sense, we are closer to Yeshua than His disciples were when He was physically with them. He is in us and we are in Him. He is as close to us as our soul, thoughts, our breath.
And Yeshua is close and inseparable to God the Father. He is in His Father and His Father is in Him. And since Yeshua is united to God the Father, and we are united to Yeshua, we are united to God the Father. Knowing that we are so close to Yeshua who is so close to the Father, to God who is so full of grace and goodness and life, should bring us peace in the midst of our troubles.
Yeshua repeats His teaching, which means that it is a very important teaching, that there is a relationship between love and obedience, and we must love Him with an obedient kind of love. Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me.
In a real loving relationship, love is reciprocated between both people. Yeshua again taught them that if they loved Him – with an obedient kind of love, He would reciprocate that love; and so would His Father. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them. Who would not want to be enveloped by the great love of the Father and the Son? So, be obedient.
And there is a relationship between love and obedience, and the ability to see Yeshua. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them and show Myself to them. Obedience makes it easier for Yeshua to show Himself to us. Obedience facilitates Yeshua revealing Himself to us. Disobedience makes it harder for Yeshua to reveal Himself to us. We become spiritually near-sighted. It becomes harder and harder to see Yeshua with clarity.
If you feel far from Yeshua; if you are having a hard time seeing Him the way you have before, it could be that you are not obeying Him the way you should. You are not being obedient. There is sin in your life. Why not make sure you really love Him by obeying Him so that you are loved by the Father and the Son, and the Son is able to reveal Himself to you fully, clearly, powerfully? Knowing that the Father and the Son really love us, and being able to see Yeshua with clarity, brings peace.
Yeshua had been teaching them that after His death, they would be able to enjoy an ongoing, spiritual revelation of Him. They will be able to see Him with the eyes of faith. One of the disciples didn’t understand. Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do You intend to show Yourself to us and not to the world?” How can the Messiah, who is to rule over Israel and the nations from the throne of David in Jerusalem, appear to some and not to everyone? That was a reasonable question. Judas didn’t understand that Yeshua was teaching them that only those who had faith would be able to see Him with spiritual eyes.
Yeshua repeated that He was talking about a spiritual revelation to those who had, not just any kind of faith, but an obedient kind of faith and love that creates the conditions for spiritual intimacy with the Father and the Son. Yeshua replied, “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. Anyone who does not love Me will not obey My teaching.
Healthy people want to live in a clean home, not a home that hasn’t been cleaned for months, is cluttered with junk, dirty clothes on the floor, dirty dishes in the sink, the garbage is overflowing and hasn’t been taken out, the cat litter hasn’t been changed and the home smells bad. I’ve been in a home like that, and I couldn’t wait to leave. The Father and the Son feel the same way about us. They want to live in us. We can be a temple for them to dwell in, a beautiful home they can live in. Faithful obedience to Yeshua’s teachings creates a loving, inviting environment where spiritual intimacy between us and the Father and the Son exists, and where the Father and Son are able to live in us to the maximum degree possible. Experiencing this kind of spiritual intimacy with the Father and with the Son, brings us peace.
On the other hand, if our lives are characterized by disobedience, the Father and Son won’t love us to the same degree and won’t want to be with us to the same extent. Spiritual intimacy between us and God will be greatly diminished.
We will come to them and make our home with them. The Father does not literally live in us. The Son does not literally live in us. The Father and Son live in us by means of the Spirit They share. The Spirit of the Father and the Son lives in us.
Yeshua assured His disciples that what He was teaching them came directly from God the Father through Him to them. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me. There was a perfect channel of communication from the Father to the Son to these disciples. Therefore Yeshua’s words, which are God’s words, must be believed and put into practice. Knowing we have the unadulterated, pure Word of God, should bring us peace.
Yeshua is the Supreme Rabbi, the greatest Teacher who ever lived. His words were wise and true and powerful and life-changing. It would be tragic to have Him leave and have His great teaching ministry end. Messiah promised His followers that would not happen. All this I have spoken while still with you. 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. Again, the Father and the Son work together in the sending of the Spirit. The Son asks the Father to send the Spirit. The Father sends the Spirit in the name of Yeshua, because of Yeshua, to those who are loyal to Yeshua.
The Holy Spirit continues the great teaching ministry of the Messiah. He continues to teach the disciples, helping them understand everything they needed to understand. And He would help them remember Yeshua’s teaching.
That’s exciting – that the Holy Spirit is living in us, continuing the teaching ministry of the Messiah to us. Haven’t you experienced that? Insight into a situation? The ability to discern the truth? A growing amount of wisdom? Reading the Bible and some new insight comes to you? Reading the Bible, talking about it with others or hearing it taught by a God-ordained teacher becomes an exciting adventure.
Over several years, the disciples had been with Yeshua and heard Him say many tremendous things. Yeshua promised them that the Holy Spirit would help them remember what He said. That promise was kept, which is why we have the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Those books were written by these disciples or those who knew these disciples, and they were inspired by the Holy Spirit, who helped them remember everything Yeshua said. Knowing we have these divinely inspired books brings me peace. How about you?
Remember, Yeshua had just told these men that one of them was a traitor; that He was about to leave them; that they couldn’t follow Him; that Peter would deny Him three times before the morning was over. The disciples were upset. They were afraid. Messiah again promised them they could have peace in the midst of the storm. 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. The world’s peace comes from an absence of war or the absence of conflict, or from circumstances going well. If there is war or conflict or circumstances become difficult, there is no peace. Yeshua offers us a different kind of peace, and a better kind of peace – a peace not dependent on the absence of conflict or dependent on our circumstances.
He offers us the same kind of peace He experienced. My peace I give you. Because Messiah knew God the way He did, and knew He was doing what God wanted Him to do, and knew He would be vindicated, Messiah was able to have peace – not because of the absence of conflict or because His circumstances were good – they weren’t. He had been experiencing a tremendous amount of conflict and knew His circumstances were awful. He was about to suffer greatly, and die. Yeshua had peace while experiencing conflict and very difficult circumstances. The disciples could have that same kind of peace – by staying close to this great Prince of Peace, who is able to share His peace with us. My peace I give you. Knowing that Messiah is able to give us His peace, a superior kind of peace, should bring us peace.
Yeshua told these men He was about to die. Instead of being sad for Him, He wanted them to be glad for Him. You heard Me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. The one who is greater is able to benefit the one who lesser. It’s beneficial to be in the presence of someone who is greater than you. Wouldn’t you want to be with your favorite musician, artist, author, athlete? Someone you admire because he has achieved a lot of success in one of your areas of interest, and be inspired by him? Sure you would.
Instead of being sad for Him, the disciples should be happy that Yeshua was returning to His Father, who is greater than He is – in authority, not in nature. Knowing that Yeshua, whom they loved so much, was in a better place and in a greater presence, should bring them peace.
Yeshua wanted them to know that He knew what was about to happen to Him. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. Instead of lessening their faith in Yeshua, Yeshua’s arrest, humiliation and death should strengthen their faith in Him, because He knew it would happen, knew it was what God wanted, and submitted Himself to God’s will. Yeshua was not a fool who was being taken by surprise and overpowered by superior forces.
Yeshua knew His time was very short. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. When Adam and Eve, who were the prince and princess of this world, joined the rebellion of the fallen angels, they forfeited their right to rule the Earth. That right was transferred to the leader of the fallen angels. He is the prince, the ruler of this world.
Yeshua knew that Satan was coming very shortly to kill Him -by manipulating people to kill Yeshua. He also knew that because He was a perfectly righteous man, death had no right to claim Him. Death only has power over those who have sinned, and Yeshua never sinned. 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. Yeshua knew He didn’t have to die, but made a decision to give up His right not to die. He would allow Himself to be killed, and His death, which He could have prevented, would demonstrate to the world the extent of His love for God and how obedient He was to His Father. Being connected to Someone who didn’t have to die, but willingly died to obey God – should bring us peace in our times of trouble.
Come now; let us leave.
Yeshua gave us lots of reasons why we can have peace in the midst of difficult circumstances. Since we don’t know when things can become difficult, it’s wise to know these things and put them into practice – now.
And, I think all of us will be going through some very difficult circumstances in the near future. It’s my prayer that we know the reasons why we can have peace in the midst of difficult circumstances, and put them into practice now, so that we can have peace then.
Amen?