Text: \u00a0John 14:23-29<\/p>\n
Last Sunday the Holy Spirit invited us into the upper room on the night before Jesus\u2019 died for us all.\u00a0 We heard our Lord speak of something we are to wear in our lives that will tell the world that we are Jesus\u2019 people.\u00a0 Not a cross or a tattoo.\u00a0 Not a Bible that we carry around.\u00a0 But love.\u00a0 The love we are to show one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.<\/p>\n
And Jesus holds the bar very high.\u00a0 He says, love one another, as I have loved you.<\/i> \u00a0As I have loved you.\u00a0 We know that love, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 A love that moved our Lord to lay down his life for you.\u00a0 A love that Jesus poured out on you in your baptism when his death for sin became yours.\u00a0 His eternal life your own.\u00a0 A love where Jesus said to you today though your pastor, your sins are forgiven<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0 Now Jesus tells us what it means to be one of his people.\u00a0 We are to love one another.<\/p>\n
But following Jesus is not just about love.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just about community.\u00a0 It\u2019s about something bigger that Jesus points to this same evening.\u00a0 And here I have purposely used a different version than I usually do.\u00a0\u00a0 The NIV translates Jesus\u2019 words as obey my teaching<\/i>.\u00a0 That\u2019s part of what Jesus says here.\u00a0 But Jesus is talking about something bigger, than just obeying his Word.<\/p>\n
Keep My Word
\n<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u2026That\u2019s love for Jesus<\/b><\/p>\n
23 <\/span><\/b>Jesus answered him, \u201cIf 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 <\/b>Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. <\/span><\/p>\n Jesus draws kind of a line here, doesn\u2019t he?\u00a0 Churches, people and we ourselves might claim to follow Jesus, to love him.\u00a0 But those words are shallow, meaningless if something doesn\u2019t follow.\u00a0 To love Jesus means to keep his Word.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 It means a lot of things.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good question to ask before you join a church.\u00a0 Does it keep Jesus\u2019 Word when Jesus says, this is my body\u2026this cup is my blood<\/i>, Does it keep Jesus\u2019 word and hold on to what he says about marriage?\u00a0 To love Jesus is to keep his word as truth.\u00a0 It is to hold on to it, pay attention to it as all important, unchanging truth.<\/p>\n And that goes for you and me.\u00a0 We say we love Jesus.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we are here.\u00a0 But here Jesus tells us what that love looks like.\u00a0 Keep my word<\/b>.\u00a0 You know his word that says, do not worry about your life<\/i>.\u00a0 But then we do.\u00a0 His Word which says it is finished.\u00a0 Our sins are paid for.\u00a0 But then we beat ourselves up with guilt. His word which says, honor your father and mother\u2026<\/p>\n Keep my word.<\/b>\u00a0 But too often we don\u2019t. \u00a0Often we need to repent of our lovelessness. Well it\u2019s a good thing his love for us is not like ours for him.\u00a0 His love that saved us and made us God\u2019s children.\u00a0 And what an amazing promise for us here and now:\u00a0 God comes and makes his home with us.\u00a0 So Keep my word.\u00a0 That\u2019s love for Jesus. <\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s The Father\u2019s Word <\/b><\/p>\n Look at the end of verse 24.\u00a0 And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father\u2019s who sent me<\/span>. Jesus says this time and again in Gospel of John.\u00a0 He wanted to impress on these men.\u00a0 He wants us to know.\u00a0 What they heard from Jesus\u2019 lips were not just his Words. They were not just things their rabbi thought of along the way.\u00a0 What did John say in chapter 1 ?\u00a0 No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only who is at the Father\u2019s side has made him known.<\/span>\u00a0 To know Jesus is to know the Father.\u00a0 To listen to Jesus is to listen to our Father in heaven.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to keep Jesus\u2019 Word.\u00a0 It\u2019s the Father\u2019s Word.<\/b><\/p>\n But how do we keep it?\u00a0 We can\u2019t sit at Jesus\u2019 feet like these men did. And who\u2019s to say they did anything more than listen.\u00a0 Ever listen to someone and later on wish. Ohh, I should have taken notes or put it on video.<\/i> Jesus taught them for three years.\u00a0 It would take a miracle to remember all that and get it right.\u00a0 And they still did not understand.\u00a0 How could they preach a gospel they did not remember or understand?\u00a0 But that\u2019s what Jesus promised them and that\u2019s what we now have in this Bible.\u00a0 Keep my word, Jesus says.\u00a0 The Word and understanding given by the Holy Spirit. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Look at 26 <\/span><\/b>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<\/span>. We call that inspiration<\/i>.\u00a0 They did not have to rely on their memories.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit gave them the words, Jesus\u2019 words.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit led them to understand.<\/p>\n Recall again.\u00a0 This was the night that Jesus\u2019 was betrayed.\u00a0 He would be lifted up on that cross to die the very next day.\u00a0 And Jesus\u2019 disciples were beginning to sense the darkness that would soon take their Lord away.\u00a0 It weighed on their hearts.<\/p>\n What darkness has come into your life?\u00a0 These last few weeks I have sat with some of you in your homes and listened to you describe it.\u00a0 \u00a0A sick body, a broken heart.\u00a0 Someone dying. depression, a feeling of emptiness.<\/p>\n Jesus speaks to us in that darkness as he spoke to those men.\u00a0 In his Word, he supplies what we so sorely need. Peace.\u00a0 Not just a feeling but something that\u2019s ours in Christ. We have peace with the most important person in the universe, through faith in Jesus.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Look at 27 <\/span><\/b>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.<\/span> .\u00a0 Keep my word\u2026the Word of peace<\/b>\u2026.The Word of our Ascended Lord \u00a028 <\/span><\/b>You heard me say to you, \u2018I am going away, and I will come to you.\u2019 If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.<\/span> We know that Jesus would rise from death on Easter Sunday and come to his disciples.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Then one day, he led them out to the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 There they saw him ascend back to the Father in heaven.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something here that seem kind of confusing.\u00a0 Jesus says, the Father is greater than I.<\/span>\u00a0 The Jehovah\u2019s 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\u2019s this all about then.\u00a0 Remember that the Son of God humbled himself.\u00a0 He took the form of a servant.\u00a0 He put himself under the Father for us, to live for us and die for us.<\/p>\n But now he\u2019s gone back to the Father, mission accomplished.\u00a0 Now, in our ascended Lord we can look death in the eye and say. eaven is my home Heaven is my home.\u00a0 For one thing he tells us is this. He has gone to prepare a place for you and me. \u00a0So keep my word,<\/b> Jesus says.\u00a0 The Word of your ascended Lord\u2026A word that gives confidence.<\/b><\/p>\n Look at verse 25.\u00a0 \u00a025 <\/b>\u201cThese things I have spoken to you while I am still with you<\/span>\u2026. Then verse 29 <\/b>And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe<\/span>.<\/b><\/p>\n Sometimes people set us up for something.\u00a0 Usually it\u2019s not good.\u00a0 But Jesus set his disciples up to see.\u00a0 He told them what would happen beforehand.\u00a0 Of course they forgot.\u00a0 Remember what the angel said to the women.\u00a0 He is risen, just as he said, just as he told you<\/i>. That is what we hear again and again.\u00a0 We hear in this Word.\u00a0 Things turned out just the way our Lord said they would.\u00a0 Jesus set us up to believe.<\/p>\n So keep Jesus\u2019 Word.\u00a0 Read it.\u00a0 Pay attention to it.\u00a0 Hold on to it.\u00a0 It gives us confidence.\u00a0 For Jesus words don\u2019t just point back to what he said and did..\u00a0 They point us ahead to what is to come.\u00a0 He promises I will be with you always.\u00a0 And one day you will see.\u00a0 It will oh so clear.\u00a0 We will look around and say:\u00a0 This is the Lord, we trusted in him and he saved us.\u00a0 This is the Lord, let us rejoice and be glad in our salvation.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text: \u00a0John 14:23-29 Last Sunday the Holy Spirit invited us into the upper room on the night before Jesus\u2019 died for us all.\u00a0 We heard our Lord speak of something we are to wear in our lives that will tell the world that we are Jesus\u2019 people.\u00a0 Not a cross or a tattoo.\u00a0 Not a Bible that we carry around.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}