Text: John 14:23-29
Last Sunday the Holy Spirit invited us into the upper room on the night before Jesus’ died for us all. We heard our Lord speak of something we are to wear in our lives that will tell the world that we are Jesus’ people. Not a cross or a tattoo. Not a Bible that we carry around. But love. The love we are to show one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
And Jesus holds the bar very high. He says, love one another, as I have loved you. As I have loved you. We know that love, don’t we? A love that moved our Lord to lay down his life for you. A love that Jesus poured out on you in your baptism when his death for sin became yours. His eternal life your own. A love where Jesus said to you today though your pastor, your sins are forgiven. Now Jesus tells us what it means to be one of his people. We are to love one another.
But following Jesus is not just about love. It’s not just about community. It’s about something bigger that Jesus points to this same evening. And here I have purposely used a different version than I usually do. The NIV translates Jesus’ words as obey my teaching. That’s part of what Jesus says here. But Jesus is talking about something bigger, than just obeying his Word.
Keep My Word
…That’s love for Jesus
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.
Jesus draws kind of a line here, doesn’t he? Churches, people and we ourselves might claim to follow Jesus, to love him. But those words are shallow, meaningless if something doesn’t follow. To love Jesus means to keep his Word. What does that mean? It means a lot of things. It’s a good question to ask before you join a church. Does it keep Jesus’ Word when Jesus says, this is my body…this cup is my blood, Does it keep Jesus’ word and hold on to what he says about marriage? To love Jesus is to keep his word as truth. It is to hold on to it, pay attention to it as all important, unchanging truth.
And that goes for you and me. We say we love Jesus. That’s why we are here. But here Jesus tells us what that love looks like. Keep my word. You know his word that says, do not worry about your life. But then we do. His Word which says it is finished. Our sins are paid for. But then we beat ourselves up with guilt. His word which says, honor your father and mother…
Keep my word. But too often we don’t. Often we need to repent of our lovelessness. Well it’s a good thing his love for us is not like ours for him. His love that saved us and made us God’s children. And what an amazing promise for us here and now: God comes and makes his home with us. So Keep my word. That’s love for Jesus.
It’s The Father’s Word
Look at the end of verse 24. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. Jesus says this time and again in Gospel of John. He wanted to impress on these men. He wants us to know. What they heard from Jesus’ lips were not just his Words. They were not just things their rabbi thought of along the way. What did John say in chapter 1 ? No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only who is at the Father’s side has made him known. To know Jesus is to know the Father. To listen to Jesus is to listen to our Father in heaven. That’s why it’s so important to keep Jesus’ Word. It’s the Father’s Word.
But how do we keep it? We can’t sit at Jesus’ feet like these men did. And who’s to say they did anything more than listen. Ever listen to someone and later on wish. Ohh, I should have taken notes or put it on video. Jesus taught them for three years. It would take a miracle to remember all that and get it right. And they still did not understand. How could they preach a gospel they did not remember or understand? But that’s what Jesus promised them and that’s what we now have in this Bible. Keep my word, Jesus says. The Word and understanding given by the Holy Spirit. Look at 26 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. We call that inspiration. They did not have to rely on their memories. The Holy Spirit gave them the words, Jesus’ words. The Holy Spirit led them to understand.
Recall again. This was the night that Jesus’ was betrayed. He would be lifted up on that cross to die the very next day. And Jesus’ disciples were beginning to sense the darkness that would soon take their Lord away. It weighed on their hearts.
What darkness has come into your life? These last few weeks I have sat with some of you in your homes and listened to you describe it. A sick body, a broken heart. Someone dying. depression, a feeling of emptiness.
Jesus speaks to us in that darkness as he spoke to those men. In his Word, he supplies what we so sorely need. Peace. Not just a feeling but something that’s ours in Christ. We have peace with the most important person in the universe, through faith in Jesus. Look at 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. . Keep my word…the Word of peace….The Word of our Ascended Lord 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. We know that Jesus would rise from death on Easter Sunday and come to his disciples. He would appear to them again and again over 40 days. He would show them he was truly alive and risen just as he said. Then one day, he led them out to the Mount of Olives. There they saw him ascend back to the Father in heaven.
There’s something here that seem kind of confusing. Jesus says, the Father is greater than I. The Jehovah’s Witnesses love that verse all by itself. They want you to think that Jesus was just a great man, not true God with the Father as the rest of the Bible shows. So what’s this all about then. Remember that the Son of God humbled himself. He took the form of a servant. He put himself under the Father for us, to live for us and die for us.
But now he’s gone back to the Father, mission accomplished. Now, in our ascended Lord we can look death in the eye and say. eaven is my home Heaven is my home. For one thing he tells us is this. He has gone to prepare a place for you and me. So keep my word, Jesus says. The Word of your ascended Lord…A word that gives confidence.
Look at verse 25. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you…. Then verse 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.
Sometimes people set us up for something. Usually it’s not good. But Jesus set his disciples up to see. He told them what would happen beforehand. Of course they forgot. Remember what the angel said to the women. He is risen, just as he said, just as he told you. That is what we hear again and again. We hear in this Word. Things turned out just the way our Lord said they would. Jesus set us up to believe.
So keep Jesus’ Word. Read it. Pay attention to it. Hold on to it. It gives us confidence. For Jesus words don’t just point back to what he said and did.. They point us ahead to what is to come. He promises I will be with you always. And one day you will see. It will oh so clear. We will look around and say: This is the Lord, we trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord, let us rejoice and be glad in our salvation. Amen.