The Tree of Life

Resting in His Peace: Assurance from Jesus

Bible Passage: John 14:23–29

Summary: In this passage, Jesus reassures His disciples of His presence, love, and the promise of the Holy Spirit as their comforter, emphasizing the peace He offers in times of trouble.

Application: This passage can help Christians understand that despite the chaos and difficulties in life, they can find peace in their relationship with Christ and trust in the Holy Spirit's guidance.

Teaching: The sermon teaches that Jesus desires an intimate relationship with His followers, and through the Holy Spirit, believers are empowered to experience true peace and confidence in their faith.

How this passage could point to Christ: Jesus, as the source of peace, fulfills the Old Testament promises of a Messiah who would bring comfort and reconciliation. He exemplifies God’s ultimate plan for His people through His death and resurrection, demonstrating that His presence brings peace.

Big Idea: Embrace the peace that comes from a relationship with Christ, which transcends all circumstances and reassures us of His continual presence through the Holy Spirit.

Recommended Study: As you prepare this sermon, delve into the implications of the phrase 'peace that surpasses all understanding' in Philippians 4:7. Explore how the concept of peace is woven throughout Scripture, particularly in the Gospels. Use Logos to analyze commentaries on John 14, focusing on the significance of the Holy Spirit's role and the context of Jesus' farewell discourse to gain deeper insights into the text.

1. Pursue Peace Through Obedience

John 14:23-24

Perhaps you could emphasize that Jesus is calling His followers to demonstrate their love for Him through obedience, which leads to a deeper relationship where God's presence is more profoundly experienced. This love-driven obedience is the foundation for the peace Jesus promises. By aligning our actions with His teachings, we reflect our commitment to Him and open ourselves to the peace He gives.

During a terrible storm, a ship struggled against the waves. The captain, despite the chaos around him, firmly obeyed the navigation rules he'd learned through his training. His faithfulness to his methods and instincts brought the ship safely to the harbor. Similarly, when we face the storms of life, obeying God's words and commandments can guide us safely through challenges. In obeying Him, we anchor our soul in the midst of turbulence, finding peace amid the chaos.

There was a time when a group of friends committed to helping a local homeless shelter. They made a plan to serve meals every weekend, creating a routine. Through their obedience to this plan, they discovered not just the joy of helping others, but also the deep peace that came from serving. God calls us to obey His commands, and in that obedience, we find purpose and peace that transcends our own struggles.

2. Possess Peace with His Presence

John 14:25-26

You could focus on the promise of the Holy Spirit as a reminder that in our journey of faith, we are never alone. The Holy Spirit teaches and reminds us of Jesus' words, thus equipping us with divine wisdom and comfort. Highlight how this divine companionship furnishes believers with peace, knowing they have ongoing guidance directly from God.

Once a man was lost in the woods, wandering for days. He stumbled upon a cabin belonging to a wise old woman. She instructed him to respect the signs and pathways she had laid out. Following her guidance led him home. In our lives, God creates pathways through obedience. When we follow His directions, like the man who followed the wise woman, we find our way back to peace and comfort in His presence.

3. Promise of Perpetual Peace

John 14:27-29

Maybe you should explore how Jesus distinguishes His peace from that of the world, underscoring its eternal and unfailing nature. Jesus tells His disciples not to be troubled or afraid, offering them assurance in His plans. This promise is rooted in the certainty of His return and ultimate victory, encouraging believers to maintain hope and courage.

John 13:1–38 CEB

Before the Festival of Passover, Jesus knew that his time had come to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully. Jesus and his disciples were sharing the evening meal. The devil had already provoked Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew the Father had given everything into his hands and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing. When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You don’t understand what I’m doing now, but you will understand later.” “No!” Peter said. “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “Unless I wash you, you won’t have a place with me.” Simon Peter said, “Lord, not only my feet but also my hands and my head!” Jesus responded, “Those who have bathed need only to have their feet washed, because they are completely clean. You disciples are clean, but not every one of you.” He knew who would betray him. That’s why he said, “Not every one of you is clean.” After he washed the disciples’ feet, he put on his robes and returned to his place at the table. He said to them, “Do you know what I’ve done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you speak correctly, because I am. If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example: Just as I have done, you also must do. I assure you, servants aren’t greater than their master, nor are those who are sent greater than the one who sent them. Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them. I’m not speaking about all of you. I know those whom I’ve chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture, The one who eats my bread has turned against me. “I’m telling you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I Am. I assure you that whoever receives someone I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” After he said these things, Jesus was deeply disturbed and testified, “I assure you, one of you will betray me.” His disciples looked at each other, confused about which of them he was talking about. One of the disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was at Jesus’ side. Simon Peter nodded at him to get him to ask Jesus who he was talking about. Leaning back toward Jesus, this disciple asked, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It’s the one to whom I will give this piece of bread once I have dipped into the bowl.” Then he dipped the piece of bread and gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son. After Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” No one sitting at the table understood why Jesus said this to him. Some thought that, since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus told him, “Go, buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. So when Judas took the bread, he left immediately. And it was night. When Judas was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Human One has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify the Human One in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I’m with you for a little while longer. You will look for me—but, just as I told the Jewish leaders, I also tell you now—‘Where I’m going, you can’t come.’ “I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going, you can’t follow me now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I’ll give up my life for you.” Jesus replied, “Will you give up your life for me? I assure you that you will deny me three times before the rooster crows.

The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts John 14:1–31

This is the way the disciples understood the meaning of the gift of the Spirit, because the question was asked, Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? (v. 22). They seemed better able to comprehend an identity between Jesus and the Spirit sent from the Father than the identity between Jesus and the Father. Jesus was making progress with His students, and so He showed them the next significant step of understanding and faith. If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him (v. 23). The part that the disciple must play is obedience through love; start by loving Jesus—this is not difficult to do—and then obey what is known must be done. “If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching” (7:17). He can then be assured of love in return—the love of the Father. And then—and this is the master stroke—we will come unto him. Father, Son, and Spirit, the great Three in One who make up the Godhead as He had revealed Himself to man, will be a part of the experience of those who believe and follow on to know Christ more perfectly. The going and the coming, the coming and the sending, the preparing and the abiding, are paradoxical phases of the one great transaction. God and man are brought together through the whole dramatic episode of the Incarnation. The believer finds a dwelling place for his soul in one of the many mansions in the kingdom of God, while the Triune God designs to make His dwelling place with man.

The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4: Matthew–Acts John 14:1–31

Moreover, if they continued to believe, they would be able to accomplish greater things than He had been able to do on earth. We should not think of greater works as being only miracles or signs of a more spectacular nature than those done by Jesus. What they would accomplish would still be done through Him, and because of this fact He would be able to do greater things through them by the power of the Spirit than He had been able to do in the flesh. His earthly ministry had been introductory and of short duration; the work which they would do would be progressive and would last as long as men believe in Christ and are endued with the Holy Spirit.

The greater works refer to the product of the Christian’s fellowship with God. The promise, if ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do (v. 14), must be seen within the scope of this relationship in which the Triune God makes His abode with the Christian (v. 23) and in which the Christian occupies his spiritual dwelling place in the kingdom of God on his way to his final heavenly home

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible John 14:23

we will come and make our abode with him—Astonishing statement! In the Father’s “coming” He “refers to the revelation of Him as a Father to the soul, which does not take place till the Spirit comes into the heart, teaching it to cry, Abba, Father” [OLSHAUSEN]. The “abode” means a permanent, eternal stay! (Compare Le 26:11, 12; Ez 37:26, 27; 2 Co 6:16; and contrast Je 14:8).

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible John 14:25–26

As the Son came in the Father’s name, so the Father shall send the Spirit in My name, says Jesus, that is, with like divine power and authority to reproduce in their souls what Christ taught them, “bringing to living consciousness what lay like slumbering germs in their minds”

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible John 14:25–26

He who can regard all the personal expressions, applied to the Spirit in these three chapters (‘teaching,’ ‘reminding,’ ‘testifying,’ ‘coming,’ ‘convincing,’ ‘guiding,’ ‘speaking,’ ‘hearing,’ ‘prophesying,’ ‘taking’)

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible John 14:27

adieus! It is a parting word, but of richest import, the customary “peace” of a parting friend sublimed and transfigured. As “the Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6) He brought it into flesh, carried it about in His Own Person (“My peace”) died to make it ours, left it as the heritage of His disciples upon earth, implants and maintains it by His Spirit in their hearts. Many a legacy is “left” that is never “given” to the legatee, many a gift destined that never reaches its proper object. But Christ is the Executor of His own Testament; the peace He “leaves” He “gives”; Thus all is secure.

not as the world giveth—in contrast with the world, He gives sincerely, substantially, eternally

Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

The peace of God. Not merely a psychological state of mind, but an inner tranquillity based on peace with God- the peaceful state of those whose sins are forgiven. The opposite of anxiety, it is the tranquility that comes when believers commit all their cares to God in prayer and worry about them no more. Transcends all understanding. The full dimensions of God’s love and cae are beyond human comprehension. Guard...hearts...minds. A military concept, depicting a sentry standing guard. God’s “protective custody” of those who are in Christ Jesus extends to the core of their beings and to their deepest intentions.