John 14:23-27 * May 9, 2010 * Easter 6 * Pastor Pagels
In the name of Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior, dear friends:
I remember my dad (who is also a pastor) once telling me that the three most important festivals in the church year are Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day. He wasn’t really suggesting that Mother’s Day should be on the same level with Jesus’ birth or resurrection, but the overstatement was my dad’s way of reminding me that this day is important to people. It’s important to a lot of people. And it should be, especially to us.
Christians recognize that God-fearing mothers are a God-given blessing. They love us. They pray for us. They care for us. And on this national holiday we call Mother’s Day one of the ways we recognize them for the gifts they are is by giving them gifts. And therein lies the connection between this special day and this sermon text.
Both
On the church calendar today is the sixth Sunday of Easter. And whether you are a mother or not, Jesus comes bearing gifts for you today…
THREE GIFTS FOR ALL OF GOD’S PEOPLE
I. The Father’s love
II. The Spirit’s counsel
III. The Savior’s peace
At first glance, the first gift doesn’t appear to be much of
a gift at all. Jesus told his disciples:
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my
teaching. My Father will love him, and
we will come to him and make our home with him.
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching” (23,24a).
Instead of giving us God’s love as a gift, it sounds like Jesus is making his Father’s love conditional. It sounds like Jesus is saying, “If you do this, then I will do this. If you obey my teaching, my Father will love you.” If that’s the thought, then it isn’t a very comforting one. If God’s love has to be earned, no one will ever be able to earn enough to purchase it.
Even if we are good citizens, even if on the outside we look like good Christians, even if we have everyone else fooled into thinking that we are good people, we know better. We know what our hands have done. We know what our ears have heard. We shudder to think what other people might think if they could read our thoughts. And we should shudder because God does know our thoughts. In fact, God has on file every sin we have ever committed, and every single one of those sins deserves death.
The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans
6:23). What Jesus said in the Upper Room
doesn’t contradict that. What Jesus told
his disciples that night doesn’t negate that.
God’s love is unconditional.
God’s love isn’t tied to human performance. God’s love doesn’t depend on specific acts of
obedience. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
You are part of the world, and so you are on the receiving end of God’s love. You are the beneficiary of the work of God’s one and only Son. Jesus came into this world for you, to live a perfect life for you, to sacrifice his life on the cross for you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). That is what Jesus said and that is what Jesus did for you.
Jesus’ self-sacrificing love saves us, and it also empowers us,
just like John wrote in his first letter: “We
love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19).
That kind of loving response is what Jesus was talking about when he
told his disciples: “A new command I
give you: Love one another. As I have
loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one
another” (John 13:34, 35).
And that puts the words of Jesus in our text in their proper context. Jesus isn’t telling us what we need to do to make God love us. He already does. He always will. But our loving response, our loving obedience takes that loving relationship to another level.
Think of it this way on Mother’s Day. Moms love their kids. They love them because they are their kids. They love them even when they are unlovable. But when the kids do what they are told without complaining, when they do what they are supposed to do without having to be told at all, when they say nice things to mom or do nice things for mom to express their love for mom, that makes mom love them even more.
I don’t know if it’s possible for our heavenly Father to love us any more than he already does, but I hope you get the point. God loves us. We love him because he loves us. And one of the ways we show our love for God is by obeying his Word.
Maybe we don’t talk about that relationship between love and obedience enough. Maybe we should talk more about the connection between faith and works. Maybe this is a touchy subject for Lutherans because we believe that we are saved by God’s grace and God’s grace alone, and we don’t want to give even the slightest impression that our salvation depends on what we do.
Jesus understood that people are saved by grace alone, by that didn’t stop him from talking about the importance of sanctified living. Martin Luther embraced and then championed the truth that salvation is by grace alone, but he wasn’t afraid to talk about it either. Good works can’t replace God’s grace, but they aren’t opposed it. They are the evidence of it.
The Word of God is living and active. Through the Word God gives sinful people the faith to believe, but he doesn’t stop there. God also gives believers the will and the wherewithal to put our faith into practice, to show our love for God, to thank and praise and serve and obey him. This is most certainly true!
This capacity to love and serve God, the ability do what’s right, the will to fight the good fight of faith, that’s not something that comes from within us. Like the Father’s love, it’s a gift. It’s a gift of God the Holy Spirit who lives in us and counsels us.
As Jesus looked around the table on Maundy Thursday, he
didn’t see a group of finished products.
His disciples had come a long way, but they still had a ways to go. And so he said to them: “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will
teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”
(25,26).
The Lord was about to leave his disciples, he wasn’t about to leave them alone. He promised them that the Father would send them the Holy Spirit. Bible translations differ on his title. The NIV calls him “the Counselor.” Other versions use words like Comforter or Helper or Advocate.
More important than the Spirit’s title is the Spirit’s work. Jesus promised the disciples: “The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.” That was an important promise for the disciples because at the time their understanding was not yet complete.
Even after Jesus’ resurrection, just before Jesus ascended
into heaven, the disciples asked him if now was the time when he was going to
restore the kingdom to
The Holy Spirit was sent to teach the disciples AND to remind them of the things Jesus had taught them. Why was that so important? Let me answer that question with some more questions. I preached two weeks ago. What was my sermon about? What was my theme? What was the text?
If you don’t know the answers to those questions, if you can’t remember something from as recent as a couple Sundays ago, try to imagine how the disciples felt. They were with Jesus for three years. Even if they paid perfect attention (which is highly unlikely), even if they took copious notes (which I am guessing they didn’t), there was no way these less than perfect pupils could have remembered everything the Teacher said.
They needed to be reminded. They needed the Holy Spirit to remind them, which he did, which was important for them…and for us. If it weren’t for the Holy Spirit, the disciples would not have been able to remember Jesus’ words. And if the disciples would not have been reminded of Jesus’ teachings, they would not have been able to pass them on to the next generation. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no New Testament, no Apostles Creed, no Christian church, no communion of saints and no hope for heaven.
Now can you appreciate this gift? Without it we would lose everything. Without it we would be lost forever. But because we do possess it, because we have been given the Holy Spirit’s counsel we also possess the Savior’s peace.
Jesus put it this way: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (27). John didn’t take the concept of peace lightly. He used the word only six times in his gospel. Every time it came from Jesus’ lips, and every time he was alone with his disciples.
Maybe John was so careful with that word because the world uses it so casually. Peace symbols are everywhere, even on clothing and jewelry. Peace has become a political slogan. The world promotes its own brand of peace, but it will never last. For example…
Everything was relatively peaceful on Wall Street this past
week…until a minor glitch made the stock market dive and million of investors
panic. Everything was peaceful in
Jesus said: “I do not give to you as the world gives.” Jesus said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” Jesus promises us a different kind of peace, lasting peace. Jesus gives us the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. The peace of knowing that our debt of sin has been paid in full. The peace of knowing that our places in heaven have been permanently reserved. The peace of knowing that even when we are alone we are never alone. The peace of knowing that God will make everything in our lives work out for our good. The peace of knowing that God will never give us more than we can bear.
The peace of Jesus doesn’t depend on what does or doesn’t happen today. The peace of Jesus is permanently tied to what he did on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. He defeated sin. He conquered death. He beat the devil. And because he did, Jesus’ words of comfort for his disciples become personal and meaningful for you and me. No matter what is happening around us, no matter what happens to us, we have nothing to fear because Jesus gives us peace.
I wish all the moms who are here today a happy Mother’s Day, but I hope you don’t mind sharing at least a few of your gifts. Even if you aren’t a mom, it doesn’t matter if you are male or female or young or old, this morning Jesus has gifts to share with all of God’s people. By the grace of God each one of us has been given the Father’s love, the Spirit’s counsel and the Savior’s peace. Amen.