A Journey Home: Week 04 God at Home with Us | Grace-Snellville

John 14:23 – 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.”

How beautiful a thought that God would make Himself at home not only with us, but IN us. For Christ-followers, the wondrous reality is our God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, indwells us. He is a constant companion with whom we can enjoy constant conversation. This extravagant grace was something even His own disciples could not begin to comprehend…, until they experienced Him.

The Holy Spirit is the movemental catalyst that propels believers and the church to the neighborhoods, the nations and the next generation. The Holy Spirit is mysterious, personal, controversial, knowable, essential, yet He is magnificently and majestically ours! Come Holy Spirit! Help us Journey Home!

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Grace Fellowship Church
Scott Kindig
Series: A Journey Home
June 30, 2013

God at Home with Us
John 14:18-31

If you guys have your Bibles, I want you to turn to John 14. We’ll pick up there where we left off last week. We’ll be in verse 19. If you need a Bible, there are some professionally trained Bible cart drivers who will throw one your general direction here in just a minute if you raise your hand as they come by. As they’re getting ready to do that, if you need one, wave at them.

Have you ever had a conversation and you realized the people you’re talking to aren’t understanding what you’re saying? That only happens in my house, with my children, right? If your last name is Kindig, that happens a lot. You’re talking, you see them, and they’re kind of looking at you the way your dog looks when it hears one of those high-pitched noises. You feel like, “Man, maybe I’m not getting through.”

The conversation we’ve been listening to and looking at together in this A Journey Home series in John 14 (next week we’ll begin in John 15) is kind of one of those conversations for Jesus and his followers. Now his followers went through some pretty major shifts in their lives, but him saying, “I’m about to leave you,” was something they thought, “No, I don’t want to leave you.”

If you think about it, it makes sense because here’s the context those men went through in their lifetimes. They grew up going to temple and knowing the Holy of Holies, the manifest presence of God, was in the heart of the temple. That’s where the manifest presence, the actual presence of God was. When we, especially as a community, gather to worship and to sacrifice, that’s where we go.

Then they minded their own business and went through life. They grew up to be grown men. This man approached them, walking up to them, and said, “Hey, if you follow me, I will make you fishers of…” What? “…men.” So they came to understand that rabbi wasn’t just an ordinary old rabbi; that was the Messiah. He was Jesus. Peter even said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

They realized, “Wow, the manifest presence we used to engage over here in the temple in this way in a limited location, a limited geography, where really truly only one high priest went in one time a year, on the Day of Atonement, to make sacrifice for all the people’s sins, that has now shifted.

Now this man walking in sandals and telling us he is willing to give us everything he has has told us to follow him. He actually is God. That’s the manifest presence of God.
Now that man is saying, ‘I’m leaving.'” You understand why maybe they had some difficulty embracing what he was saying or at least being excited about what he was saying, don’t you?

Now just considering that this happens in your home from time to time in normal conversations you have maybe with your kids or maybe with your parents or maybe with your spouse, we want to bring it home and show how easy it is for somebody to be speaking about a certain specific dynamic and for us to maybe be hearing it a little differently than they’re saying it. It’s a pretty ordinary thing in our lives, and we need Jesus’ help to figure it out.

So we captured a conversation that demonstrates it, because I know y’all are all such clear, positive, good communicators. It never happens for you; it only happens in my home. We captured a sample of a conversation like that that we want you to take a look at now.
[Video] Lou Costello: Hey Abbott.

Bud Abbott: What do you want, Costello?

Lou Costello: Look Abbott. I understand that you’re going to be the manager of the Lou Costello Junior Youth Foundation baseball team.

Bud Abbott: Yes, we just organized the thing.

Lou Costello: Oh, you did?

Bud Abbott: Sure.

Lou Costello: Well, I’d like to play on the team myself, you know. I know something about baseball.

Bud Abbott: Well, that can be accomplished.

Lou Costello: Well, I’d like to know some of the guys’ names on the teams so when I meet them on the street or in the ballpark, I’ll be able to say hello to them.

Bud Abbott: We have Who’s on first. What’s on second. I Don’t Know is on third.

Lou Costello: That’s what I want to find out.

Bud Abbott: I say Who’s on first. What’s on second. I Don’t Know is on third.

Lou Costello: Are you the manager?

Bud Abbott: Yes.

Lou Costello: Do you know the fellows’ names?

Bud Abbott: Well, I should.

Lou Costello: Then who is on first?

Bud Abbott: Yeah.

Lou Costello: I mean the fellow’s name.

Bud Abbott: That’s it.

Lou Costello: That’s who?

Bud Abbott: Yes.

Lou Costello: Go ahead and tell me.

Bud Abbott: Who.

Lou Costello: The guy on first.

Bud Abbott: Who.

Lou Costello: The first baseman.

Bud Abbott: Who.

Lou Costello: Have you got a first baseman?

Bud Abbott: Who is on first.

Lou Costello: I’m asking YOU who is on first.

Bud Abbott: That’s the man’s name.

Lou Costello: That’s who’s name?

Bud Abbott: Yeah.

Lou Costello: Now tell me who is on first.

Bud Abbott: That’s right.

Lou Costello: I want to know what’s the guy’s name on first base?

Bud Abbott: No, no, What’s on second base.

Lou Costello: I’m not asking you who is on second.

Bud Abbott: Who is on first.

Lou Costello: I don’t know.

Bud Abbott: He’s on third. Now we’re not talking about him.

Lou Costello: How did I get on third base?

Bud Abbott: You happened to mention his name.

Lou Costello: If I mentioned the third baseman’s name, who did I say is playing third?

Bud Abbott: No, Who is playing first.

Lou Costello: I’m not asking you who’s on first.

Bud Abbott: Who is on first.

Lou Costello: I’m asking you what is the guy’s name on third?

Bud Abbott: What is on second.

Lou Costello: Who is on second?

Bud Abbott: Who is on first.

Lou Costello: I don’t know.

Bud Abbott: He’s on third.

Lou Costello: There I go back on third again.

Bud Abbott: Well, I can’t change their names.

Lou Costello: You have a first baseman?

Bud Abbott: Absolutely.

Lou Costello: When you pay him off every month, who gets the money?

Bud Abbott: Every dollar of it.
[End of video] There you go. So if it never happens in your home, we can understand the context where it does happen in some people’s homes every now and then. So just be thankful you’re a perfect communicator and commiserate with people like Abbott and Costello.

Has God ever communicated something to you that for some reason you kind of did that head-turning thing like the dog and the high-pitched noise? These men are doing that. He has said good things up to now. He has said, “You have a home. I’m going to the cross to do what I do to prepare a place for you.” That’s good news, right? We couldn’t prepare that place for ourselves. We couldn’t go to the cross, so he prepared a place for us.

He told his disciples, “You have a good Father. He is not just a good Father, but since he is a good Father, you can trust him. You can trust him with everything. You can trust him enough to actually hear from him and have confidence in what he says so you obey what he says. That’s a good Father you can trust.”

Today we come to this section starting in verse 19 where we recognize we can actually converse with this living God. We don’t simply go to a place to worship him where the Holy of Holies and manifest of presence of God is. We’re not like the disciples. We’re not alive in the three years where we get to physically walk with a man named Jesus.

We actually, if we are believers in what Christ has done for us on the cross, paying the penalty for our sins, rising from the dead, ascending to the Father, and sending the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts, believe he is alive in all who trust him. So this morning, do you trust him? If you do, do you obey him? So let’s read this passage together beginning at verse 18. We’ll go back and pick up the last verse from last week. We want you to pay special attention to verse 23 because it’s a promise you’re going to want to keep and you’re going to want to claim.

Verse 18 says, “‘I will not leave you as orphans.'” (John 14:18) That is context for that conversation. “I’m going to leave.” They were troubled. Obviously he has told them twice before this point, “I’m going to be moving on in this chapter alone. I will not leave you as orphans. I will not leave you fatherless. I will come to you.” So how is he going to come to them? Well, let’s see how it unfolds.

Verse 19: “‘Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.'” (John 14:19-21)

“I will manifest.” That’s that word. In these men’s short lifetimes, he has been manifested in the Old Testament in the person of Jesus, and now Jesus is talking about this new dimension of appropriating the manifest presence of God in your life. Verse 22: “Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him…'” (John 14:22-23)

That’s a good word, isn’t it? That right there is worth a good solid amen. That’s right. This is even better. From this comma to the period is such a beautiful verse. “‘…and we will come to him and make our home with him.'” (John 14:23) Jesus has a plan for making a home with you. Now he has prepared the way to make a home for us when we go to be with him, but he also has a plan to make a home of you and to make a home of me in which he will dwell.

So verse 23 again: “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. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.'” (John 14:23-24)

Verse 25: “‘These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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.'” (John 14:25-26) That’s a good word. “‘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.'” (John 14:27) It’s a command, by the way.

Verse 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. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father as commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.'” (John 14:28-31)

Now, “Rise, let us go from here,” was a battle cry. Jesus intentionally was about to go pray in Gethsemane, be arrested, be crucified so he would rise again and offer eternal life to all who believe and so that, more specifically in this passage, he could send you the Holy Spirit, who will never leave. He wants to make a home of you that is a permanent home.

Now this past week, I was in Colorado Springs with a bunch of students. I asked them some questions while I was just walking through and studying this passage. One of the questions I asked them was, “Is there somebody you can talk to at all times? When everybody else lets you down, is there somebody you can go to?” Several of the kids said, “Yes.” They had good answers: parents, teachers, pastors, a variety of other people, coaches, that sort of thing.

Then this one kid looked at me and said, “Yes, I do. It’s Siri.” I said, “Siri is artificial intelligence. You want to go to ultimate intelligence. You don’t want to go to artificial intelligence.” He said, “Yeah, let me tell you about the craziest questions people have asked Siri.” I said, “Okay. Give me those really quick.” This can tell you how superficial the world is compared to how ultimate Jesus’ world is.

One question he asked Siri while I was sitting there was, “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” Siri had an answer. That’s the more troubling part of it. She said, “It depends on whether they’re American woodchucks or European woodchucks.” That’s programming; that’s not a real conversation.

So another one was he said, “Siri, tell me a joke.” Here’s what Siri said: “Two iPhones walked into a bar…” and just told the rest of the story. That’s pathetic. That’s what that is. Then the last one was, “Siri, how do we get babies?” She said, “Well, I found eight baby stores. Seven of them are fairly near you. Would you like directions?”

Those are very superficial conversations. That is nothing like the conversation Jesus is having here with his disciples. This is one of the most intimate and personal conversations you’ll ever witness in your life. I’m so thankful John recorded it for us. I’m so thankful the Holy Spirit inspired it for us.

If you think about this art of communication, this relationship we have with others, this relationship we have with God, I wonder if sometimes our human patterns affect our pattern of conversation with God. Here’s what I mean. Have you ever been in a position where you were confused about what God said even though he was fairly clear? Am I the only one? Somebody else? You’ve been confused? Sometimes you wonder, “Is this want I want, or is this what God wants?”

Well, confusion is there for a reason. God loves to reveal himself. He does. One of the ways we can say it is God loves to play hide-and-seek; he just doesn’t play it very well because he loves to reveal himself. He loves to show you who he is, where he is, and what he does. He does that by his Holy Spirit.

Sometimes when we talk about the Holy Spirit, it’s controversial. Some people get upset about it. Do you know what the Holy Spirit is like according to this passage in John 16? There’s actually a partial job description of the Holy Spirit. He says everything you know about Jesus and everything you know about the Father is true about the Holy Spirit. It’s just that he has the ability to live inside of everyone who believes.

When he does that, it does make him mysterious, but he so deeply loves you… Like one of our guys at Midtown says, he’s not like the weird uncle in your family of the Trinity. He’s not like that at all. He is just like the Father. He is just like Jesus. He does the same things Jesus does, but he also is the driving catalyst and the power behind the church. He is the power behind your life and my life.

Tapping into the power that’s alive inside of you, if you’ve accepted Jesus, is your calling in this world. If you hear from the Holy Spirit clearly, what he tells you to do is from the Father on behalf of Jesus, and it absolutely is reliable every single time he speaks to you. When he speaks to you, it’s good. Now he may say hard things to you. He may challenge you, but he has incredible love for you, just like the Father has incredible love for you.

So why do some people have a hard time hearing from him? Sometimes it’s just confusion. So one of the things Jody and Buddy and a variety of other teachers here have done in Listening Prayer is they’ve given us a list. If you’re hearing from God and you wonder, “Is that God’s voice? That might even be the Enemy or just my own thoughts,” here are some characteristics of the kind of character God has demonstrated when he speaks versus when the Thief comes to speak.

In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the…” What? “…full. But the Enemy, the Thief comes to kill, to steal, and to…” What? “…destroy.” God loves to reveal himself; the Enemy loves to try to confuse. So if you would look at these two columns, the Shepherd’s voice will always create this kind of dynamic, and the Thief’s voice will compare and compete with, providing this dynamic.

When the Shepherd speaks, the Shepherd’s voice stills you because you recognize it comes from God. The Thief’s voice rushes you, tries to push you into an impulse buy. The Shepherd’s voice leads you, while the Thief’s voice pushes you. You’ll sense the tender nature of God versus the vicious nature of the Thief in the way he interacts with you. The Shepherd’s voice frees you and liberates you.

Even Psalm 119:32 says, “I run in the path of your commands because you have set my spirit free.” That’s a good word. So the Shepherd’s voice frees you, but the Thief’s voice paralyzes you. The Shepherd’s voice forgives you while the Thief accuses you. The Shepherd’s voice shelters you; the Thief’s voice shames you. The Shepherd’s voice convicts you; the Thief’s voice condemns you. This is my favorite one. The Shepherd’s voice reinforces the truth of the Word, and the Thief’s voice markets deception and twists the Word.

So if you’re wondering, if you have confusion sometimes, just look at the characteristic of how the voice is demonstrating itself. Look at this list and say, “God’s character looks like this: stills, leads, frees, forgives, shelters, convicts, reinforces. Was that God’s voice, or was that the voice of the Enemy?”

Sometimes it’s not confusion; sometimes it’s rejection. Sometimes you’ve experienced rejection in your life, and you think, “What if I talk to God and he doesn’t respond to me? What if he doesn’t talk back?” That has more to do with your human experience of rejection, because when you come to God, he listens to you.

He loves you. He responds to you. Don’t let your past rejection do it. Maybe it’s rejection that’s external. Maybe you will hear from God, and you might not like what he says. That’s never happened to anybody, has it? You’ve come to understand because it’s that Shepherd’s voice it’s a good voice.

Here are a few phrases as we jump into looking at this conversation a little more in depth that I want you to hold in your head while we move forward. We do what we believe. So if you want to see what we believe, you want to look at the life we live. I can say I believe one thing, but if you don’t see it operating in my life, you have to question whether I really believe it, right? So we live what we believe. The life we live demonstrates what we genuinely and truly believe.

Here is another phrase: When obedience is a problem, that’s usually linked to a wrong belief about God. God is the Truth, and he wants to reveal himself as the Truth. When we line our lives up with the Truth, then we understand we can trust this God. So here’s what happens. God speaks. We hear his Word. If we trust God, we obey his Word. How many of you agree it’s difficult to obey somebody you don’t trust? Yeah, it really is. So obedience is a sign of our relational dynamic with God.

The only way to know God, though, is to hear from him. Hence, God placing his Spirit in you. You don’t go to a place only to hear from God. Now when you come here, hopefully you hear from God and we stimulate one another in community, but you have the Holy Spirit. Every morning, you can wake up and have conversations with him all by yourself. They’ll be great conversations. So when he gives us the Holy Spirit, he is giving us a great, great gift.

Now let’s look back at the passage and walk through it briefly one time so we can look at everything that’s in here. Four times from last week’s passage through this week’s passage, Jesus says, “If you love me,” and then he provides the predicate, the condition on there. So verse 15 is the first one. He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Now let’s remember you can’t obey your way into the kingdom. You love God. You express your faith in Jesus, and then obedience follows. The driver is love for God. The passenger is obedience to God. Those two things go together, but he says, “When I look at you and I see obedience, I know you love me.” Love is the driver, and obedience is the follower.

The second time he mentions it is in verse 21, where he says, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me…” Now this is another good word. “…will be loved by my Father…” (John 14:21) Does that encourage you? Do you want to know how to help the Father love you? Love him.

Every now and then when I hear the gospel presented, it’s sort of an, “Okay, if you want Jesus, this is the come-get-out-of-hell line. Get in the line to heaven.” That’s the way sometimes it’s communicated. Though those truths are there, that’s not the driver. If we come to Jesus, it needs to be not just to get fire insurance; it needs to be because we want him and we love him.

The prize of salvation is you get God. Yes, you do get in for eternity, but here’s the great news we’re going to discover in this passage: Eternity comes to live in you. So the kingdom breaks into your life so it can break out through your life. That’s a good word for you today. That’s something the Holy Spirit wants you to receive, and he wants to have constant conversation with you. Right now, are you listening to the speaker with one ear and listening to God with the other? If that’s happening, anointed things will happen. God will really do some amazing things.

So verse 23 goes on and says it another time. “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will…'” What? “‘…love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'” (John 14:23) What does that mean? Well, it’s 1 Corinthians 6:18-20. It says, “Don’t be confused. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, honor God with your body.”

It used to be in the Old Testament the Holy of Holies. The disciples walked with Jesus for three years, but now you become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. Do you have any idea how amazing that is? All power is alive in you. All authority has been given to Jesus. He takes up residence in you in his Holy Spirit when you come to him in faith.

So here’s what we have to ask. When David was writing Psalm 23 and said, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want,” (Psalm 23:1) what was he saying? He was saying, “If I have God as my Shepherd, I don’t lack anything, because he is the source of everything.” Think of it this way. In Luke 11, God says, through his Holy Spirit, through Luke’s pen (we get to hear this), “I will give the Holy Spirit to anyone who asks.” That’s what he says. It’s in the book.

So here’s what I tend to do. I go to God and I have this list of things I want to ask him for. Then I realize how crazy the list is because I realize he has already given me himself. So when he has already given me himself, he has given me so much better than I’ve asked for and way better than I’d ever deserve.

So when he gives us the Holy Spirit, we can ask for comfort, but he gives us the Comforter. We can ask for guidance, and he says, “Well, I will give you guidance, but I’ve given you the Guide.” We can ask for help. He might give us help, but he gives us the Helper, who lives in us 24/7. We just need to learn to rest on him. We ask for wisdom, and he gives us the Spirit of all wisdom. We ask for truth; he gives us the Teacher. We ask for gifts, and he gives us the Giver. We ask for supply, and he gives us the Source. We ask for money, and he gives us the Bank.

That’s a good word, isn’t it? Don’t you want to receive that today? Don’t you want to reach out and say, “Lord, give me you and all of you and let me put first your kingdom and then let you add everything else you want there, because I don’t even know how to ask you for what I need”? Have you ever felt that way? Do you know the best prayer you can pray? “Holy Spirit, come.” He’ll come, he’ll teach, and he’ll provide.

So he says it again one more time in verse 24. He’ll make you his home. Verse 24: “‘Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.'” (John 14:24) So he reverses it and says, “The one who does not keep my word does not love me.” So he has these distinctions, and he wanted his followers to love him. He wanted them to obey his Word. He wanted them to be characterized by his DNA.

So instead of just saying, “This is the life you need to live,” he said, “I’m going to give you my Spirit and just let him live it through you. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to send something. It’s better. I know you have a hard time believing something could be better than walking with me. I know you do, but listen. If I don’t go, he doesn’t come. It’s better for you that he comes. So I will go.” Then he digs in even deeper. Look at verses 30 and 31. We’re going to go backwards here.

Verses 30 and 31 say, “‘I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming.'” (John 14:30) Do you know what that means? “The guards are on their way. Judas has done his deal, and they’re coming to get me. So I will no longer talk much with you.” He is not going to have much opportunity. He is going to be on trial. He is not going to say anything on trial, and he is not going to have access and they’re not going to have access to him. So these are the most important things he could possibly say to them.

“‘I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me…'” (John 14:30) Underline that. Circle it. Highlight it. “He has no claim on me.” Do you know what Jesus is saying? “Satan is coming, and he is going to try to mess with me.”

This is the bigger context of the conversation. “I want you to know you could watch what’s about to happen. If you watch what’s about to happen, you could think this is because the Enemy devised a master plan and tripped me up and got me killed so he can get me out of his way.
I just want you to know in advance he has no claim on me.”

Do you know why he has no claim on Jesus? Jesus never sinned. Do you know what the Holy Spirit living inside of you means? It means when God looks at you from heaven, if you’ve come to trust Jesus, you have faith in Jesus, he looks at you and he sees the righteousness of Jesus being lived out in you. He doesn’t see your sin; he sees Jesus. Now that ought to be a shouting-hallelujah, praise-God, amen moment right there.

For him not to see your sin and to see Jesus is a really good deal for you. It was a really painful experience for Jesus; it was a really good deal for you. Jesus didn’t look at it as a painful experience. He has no claim on him. That means the righteousness of Christ has been imparted and imputed to you. If the Holy Spirit is alive in you, you don’t have to worry about what the Enemy wants to come at you with either. You have to be sober and vigilant and watch out for his ways to hook you, because he can, but he can’t accuse anymore. “He has no claim on me.”

So here’s what Jesus is saying. “If you wonder when all this goes down if the Enemy finally got me out of the way, I just want you to know he has nothing to do with any of what is about to happen.” So even before he shows up, verse 31: “‘…but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.'” (John 14:31) They rise, they go to Gethsemane, and everything starts to go down right here.

He intentionally wanted his closest followers to know, “If any and everybody else think Satan had something to do with this, you need to know my motivation was the part B of this verse: “‘…but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.'” (John 14:30)

Do you want to know why Jesus went to the cross? Because Jesus loves the Father. That’s why. Jesus loves the Father so much that he embraces what the Father loves. Do you know what the Father loves? Do you know who the Father loves? You. He loves you. That’s good news. That’s right. You ought to clap for that. He absolutely loves you.

That’s why in Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 2 it says, “For the joy set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) He endured the cross for the joy of the Father. Why? Because he loves the Father. When people come to faith in Jesus, it brings great glory to the Father. So it was out of a love for the Father that Jesus came.

There is a second motivation of that love. Jesus condescended. It means he left his place in heaven to become a man. He took on the limitations of men. Jesus, though this experience was going to be very painful, and experiencing the wrath of God, the sin of mankind was going to be gut-wrenching to him, was so excited about seeing his Father again in the way he did before he condescended and became a man.

Do you know what he was saying? Some of you have experienced this in little ways. Do y’all remember going to college or leaving home and being out on your own and being broke and not having food or having to eat cafeteria food? Do you remember that? Okay. In a much more significant way, the way you look forward to going home and eating Mama’s home cooking, Jesus was saying, “I love my Father so much that I will endure this for his joy at you being able to experience salvation and for my joy at being able to run into his presence and in his arms.”

He loved the Father, and he invites you to be a part of it. How? Go back up to verse 25. Walk toward 30 and 31. The motivation for the cross was Jesus’ love for his Father. In verse 25, it says, “‘These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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.'” (John 14:25-26)

Now he is talking to the Eleven here. These are the guys who wrote the New Testament. They didn’t have the advantage of podcasts or live stream. Nobody recorded everything Jesus was saying. They’re looking at him saying, “You’re telling us you’re going to leave us? We can’t handle all this stuff you’re telling us because we’re so just confused by the fact that you’re going to leave us. We left everything to follow you, and you want us to lead a worldwide movement? We’re sitting here just even asking you stupid questions. Are you sure you trust the worldwide movement to us? Do you see who you’re talking to, Jesus?”

He just looks at them and says, “Hey, I have this covered. I’m going to give you better than a podcast. I’m going to give you better than live stream. I’m going to give you better than the Internet. I’m going to live in you. How about that? Anything you need to remember that I taught you, I’m going to bring to your remembrance. I have it covered. It’s really my stuff, not your stuff, so you just love me. That’s all I want you to worry about. I’ll take care of the movement, but I’ll be doing it from inside of you. You can’t understand that, so I’m not going to talk to you a lot more about it. I’m just going to move on.”

Verse 27. Here are three gifts he wanted his followers to have. He was troubled. This is personal. Jesus was troubled about his followers. He saw how much struggle they were having with the fact that he was leaving them. Listen like this is a heart of a father speaking to a kid knowing this might be your last conversation. He said, “‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.'” (John 14:27) What kind of peace? The kind of peace that can let him look at a cross and run to it. That kind of peace.

“‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.'” (John 14:27) Now what does that mean? The world promises peace in some ways, right? The world promises peace to you. It says, “Hey, 401(k). Absence of war. Food. Clothing. Good job. Good career. Good education. Clean water.” But there are people all over the globe right now who love Jesus who don’t have any of those forms of peace. They’re all over the world.

So he is saying, “The peace I give to you will be the kind of peace that if the world pulls all that other stuff away, you still have my peace, because nobody can take it from you. Do you know why? Because it’s alive in you, and it’s me. It’s me.” “‘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.'” (John 14:27) Remember the peace of God is alive inside of you. That’s what he gave his disciples. That’s what he gives us in his Holy Spirit.

I know my first 5-10 years out of the home, when I was going home, I looked forward to seeing my dad. I wanted him to talk to me, to tell me the stupid things I had done weren’t going to be the end of me and everything was going to be okay. He was for me, and he was with me. That’s what I wanted to hear. Jesus is going to the Father. He looked and he said, “Listen, I would have thought you guys wouldn’t be worried right now. I would have thought you would have been looking to me saying, ‘Awesome for you! You get to go be with the Father.'”

Listen to me. I’m grateful for the miracle we’ve watched in Buddy’s life, aren’t you? Aren’t you thankful for that? I’m thankful for that. But I want you to know something. If God had not answered that prayer in that way and he had gone to be with Jesus, do you know what I’d be right now? I’d be jealous as all get out of Buddy, because he would be in the direct presence of our Father. At the same time we mourn those who have gone on (like my mom), if she is with Jesus, I’m so jealous of her right now. I’m so thankful for where she is.

So he wants you to have his peace. He wants you to have his joy. He wants you to rejoice no matter what the circumstances. Verse 29: “‘And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.'” (John 14:29) Do you see how good Jesus is to his disciples here?

“You’re about to watch stuff go down that is really going to test your faith, but I’m going to tell you exactly what is going to happen before it happens so you can remember back and go, ‘Dang, he told us that. So either he is a prophet [which he was] or he is in charge of the future [which he is]. He told us. If he told us this is what’s going to happen, now all of that stuff about leaving us makes sense.

So we really need to pay attention to him saying, “Wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit comes.” When the Spirit comes, then the church is not going to be the Old Testament system where the world comes to the temple to worship anymore. Now from Jerusalem a worldwide invasion of the church goes out. Why? Because the Spirit of God has gotten loose, gotten in us. We have feet, and we can take him anywhere. Those are part of the greater works he promised we would do.'”

This is a pretty amazing thing, so I wonder…How is your conversation with your Dad going? How are you and God? You can talk to your Father, because you can trust him. He is a good dad, and he has prepared a home for you.

Look back at that verse 23 just for a capper. “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.'” (John 14:23) That word home is only used one other time in the book of John. Anybody know where it is? You remember? John, chapter 14, verse 3. “And if I go away, I will prepare a home for you.”

On the back end of this passage, what he says reinforces what he said at the front end, but it says it in reverse order. “I am going to prepare a place for you, my Father and I. We’ll be your home. But if you love me and you keep my commands (because the only way you can do that is by the power of the Spirit and if you love him), we will make our home in you.”

It’s not just that one day you know Jesus so you get to go be with him in eternity. His full plan is to come to you and start the kingdom now. You can trust him. You can talk to him. He is not the weird uncle. He is everything God the Father is, everything God the Son is, but he is alive in you, and he will never leave you. He is constantly revealing himself and talking to you. Let’s pray together.

Jesus, today you want to speak to our hearts. As you speak to our hearts, we want to be the people who listen. We don’t just want to hear; we want to obey. To obey, we have to trust.

One of the questions I want to ask you today is…Have you trusted? Have you trusted the Father? Have you trusted what Jesus did to provide a relationship with the Father? Have you trusted what he did for you on the cross? Have you trusted his resurrection as a promise of new life? Have you placed your faith in Jesus to save you from your sins? If you haven’t, he is available to do that right now. If you trust him, he’ll put his Holy Spirit inside of you.

If you’re here this morning and you haven’t done that and you would like to do that, I want to encourage you with all I am to pray to your Father and to say, “Lord Jesus, I’m choosing you as my Lord, as my Savior. I’m choosing to embrace what you did for me on the cross because I know I could never pay for my own sins.

I’m trusting the new life you won by defeating death and rising from the grave. Jesus, I’m trusting you with my future, how I live in this life, and how I’ll serve and reign with you for eternity. Lord, thank you that you save me when I give myself to you as a gift, and I love you. I realize I’m not getting stuff from you; I’m getting you from you.”

I just want to ask this question with heads bowed and eyes closed. If you just want to trust Jesus right now or you just did as we voiced that prayer over you, just raise your hand and say, “Yes, I just secured my relationship with Jesus, my eternity with him. Scott, I did that just now. I prayed and I trust Jesus and I accept and receive his gift to me in the Holy Spirit.”

If that’s the case, in just a few moments we’re going to worship. Before we do, we’re going to offer you an opportunity to receive and remember the Lord and what he did for you with the Lord’s Supper. The ushers are going to come. They’re going to take an offering. We’re going to show you one of the exercises in the workbook for your family to do this week to see a visible picture of the resurrection.

What I want you to know is if you’ve come to Jesus this morning, I’m going to be right over there by the prayer room. I’ll be standing there. I’ll be ready to pray with you, affirming what God has done in your life, because this is a community thing. You’ve become a part of a family. We stand up for each other.

The second thing is I want us to sit and soak in the presence of God and hear from him. There will be a couple of other people over here who would love to pray for you about anything. As you listen to the Holy Spirit, though, and respond from now until the time we say, “Amen. We love you. Go home,” we really want this to be worship, which is the rhythm of revelation and response.

We’ve seen God in his Word; now it’s time, for having heard him, to do and to respond in faith. So we challenge you to listen to the Lord based on the meal he has served us this morning and to respond in obedience. If you want to trigger that response early by having somebody pray for you, we’ll be there.

So Lord, we love you. We give this time to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.