"Peace of Mind AND Heart"

INTRO

Our daughter Sadie recently had her two year check-up and had to get another shot.

“I knew she needed it, of course, and it gave me some peace of mind to know she has it now, but to see her face when the needle went in...my heart just about broke.”

However, it’s because of the proven track record of that shot, that I can find some peace of heart.

In other words, it’s the promise of a more healthier life that gives me comfort.

In a similar way, Jesus is offering comfort to His disciples by giving them some specific promises.

The Resurrection

John 14:19–21 NLT

19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”

• The first of these promises is a promise of the coming resurrection.

• Jesus says, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live” (v. 19).

• The promise is that they are to “come alive” in a new sense following Christ’s resurrection.

• This was a great promise, particularly to these who were so soon to be confronted with the cruel horror of Christ’s death.

• The promise is that they are to “come alive” in a new sense following Christ’s resurrection.

• This was a great promise, particularly to these who were so soon to be confronted with the cruel horror of Christ’s death.

What were they to think in that hour?

• They had placed their faith in Christ as the One who was indeed God’s Messiah, the salvation of his people.

• But they had never understood the nature of the cross.

With Jesus gone their hopes would be dashed.

• We would be right to think of them as disappointed, disillusioned, even cynical men.

• I catch a glimpse of that spirit in the reply of the Emmaus disciples:

• “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21)—and in the vigorous disbelief of Thomas—“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:25).

• Each of these statements arises out of cruel disillusionment, but it was to these men, soon to be struck by death’s horror, that Christ makes this promise.

• “Death is not the end,” he says, “not for me, not for you.

Sure Knowledge

• The second promise is the promise of certain knowledge of Christ based upon the Resurrection.

• It is because Jesus has been raised and because we have been given new life that we know him as being who he is.

• This is what he means when he says, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father” (v. 20).

• But if he had only died a martyr’s death, no matter how selflessly or courageously, without the resurrection he would rightly be regarded as no more than a selfless and sincere man.

• He would have been a good teacher, a friend.

• But faith and knowledge would have stopped at that point.

• It was only when Christ was raised from the dead that his life was seen to be fully extraordinary and his daring claims vindicated.

Further Revelation

• The third promise is a particularly important one, for it concerns Christ’s continuing revelation of himself to those who have believed on him.

• He says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him” (v. 21).

John 14:22 AMP

22 Judas, not Iscariot, asked Him, Lord, how is it that You will reveal Yourself [make Yourself real] to us and not to the world?

• This is a step beyond the promise of sure knowledge of who he is, as a careful reading will show.

• In this case, the knowledge will be not so much a knowledge about him, leading to faith, but rather a deep knowledge of him in which the disciple comes to experience the Lord in the fullest and most personal way.

How would this be possible if it were not that Christ himself provides it?

[R]evelation...

John 14:23–26 NLT

23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

[E]xplain what it means...

• This sounds like fantasy to those who are not born again.

• But to those who have been made alive by God’s Spirit the presence of Christ is more real than anything they can see physically, more real even than their own hands or feet.

• Notice that, in the same verse in which Jesus gives the promise of a further revelation of himself, the Lord also gives the conditions upon which that continuing revelation will be given.

The conditions are (1) the keeping of his commandments and (2) love.

Have we met those conditions?

• True, we are saved by faith, and we are to walk in the Christian life by love. But true love as well as true faith will inevitably express themselves in obedience. If they do not, they are not the love or faith about which we read in the Bible.

• What does it say in James? “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17).

• Here Arthur W. Pink writes wisely,

“This manifestation of Christ is made only to the one who really loves Him, and the proof of love to Him is not by emotional displays but by submission to His will.

There is a vast difference between sentiment and practical reality.

The Lord will give no direct and special revelation of Himself to those who are in the path of disobedience.

‘He that hath my commandments,’ means, hath them at heart. ‘And keepeth them,’ that is the real test. We hear, but do we heed? We know, but are we doing His will?”

• I recently heard of four scholars who were arguing over Bible translations.

• One said he preferred the King James Version because of its beautiful, eloquent old English.

• Another said he preferred the NRSV for its accuracy of the original text.

• A third man preferred the NLT because he said it was easier for him to follow.

• After giving the issue further thought, the fourth scholar admitted, "I have personally preferred my mother’s translation."

• When the other scholars chuckled, he responded, "Yes she translated it.

• She translated each page of the Bible into life.

• It is the most convincing translation I ever saw.”

John 14:27–29 NLT

27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. 28 Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. 29 I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.

Help for today …Peace of mind

And

Hope for tomorrow …Peace of heart

“Love in action is the closest we come to evidence of God”