Have you here whether you're here in the worship center over in the chapel downstairs in the venue How many people got sunburned from spring break this morning? little word of advice if you're new to Michigan if you're going back to school or work tomorrow and You're talking to your friends who didn't go away on spring break. They don't want to hear about your sunburn. Just just a heads-up John 14 we're gonna read verses 25 to 27, then we'll pray, then we're going to get to work. Here we go.

John 14:25-27

25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 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. 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.

This is God's word, amen?

Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for your words, your truth. Thank you God for the story of Jesus' teaching. Thank you for your Holy Spirit. God, I pray that you would fill me with your spirit this morning to preach your word to your people, a broken instrument to bring your perfect word to your people. God, I pray that you would work in our hearts this morning. that we'd be able to hear what you have to say to us, that we would have open minds, open ears, and God, that we would be changed by your truth. God, we thank you for all the amazing work that you did over the last week on that high school spring break trip as students studied your word each day and they were changed by it. God, I pray that they would come home and that that would go with them, that it would change the rest of their lives. And God, I pray that also for us this morning. Pray that in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Well, once upon a time when my daughters were much younger, very little, and when I was a young pastor, just getting used to my role, I remember one time coming home from work from work and sitting at dinner with my family before I had to go back to church for a meeting. And I remember during dinner, my girls asked me a question, Daddy, will you read us our bedtime story tonight? I remember looking at my watch and I remember looking at them and thinking, it's still early. I know the topic of this meeting. It shouldn't take too long. And I said, yeah, I'll come home and read your bedtime story to you tonight. And then they said those words that every dad of daughters is afraid to hear. Do you promise?

Daddy, do you promise? And I said, yeah, sweetie, I promise. Well, many hours later, after this long meeting, I came home and girls were asleep, and the next morning I had to explain how it's not daddy's fault that other people really like to talk a long time in meetings. I swear it's not my fault. But I learned a valuable lesson that day about the words I promise and I also was humbled and realized that I am not a perfect father.

But we all do have a perfectly perfect heavenly father. Amen. Amen. God is a good father who always keeps his promises. And that's exactly what we've been talking about in this sermon series called Always Yes, the promise and proclamation of Easter, that we have a good father and all of his promises are yes. All of his promises are yes and amen through Jesus, who died and rose again to secure the answer to each of those promises. Today, we're going to talk about the promise of peace. Yes and amen to the promise of peace here in John 14. And our main idea is this, that the

The Holy Spirit is God's yes to the promise of peace.

And we're going to walk through three points from the text this morning. That Jesus' peace is the spirit of truth. That Jesus' peace comes from heart change. And that Jesus' peace casts out fear.

So would you look with me at point number one, and let's start by reading again those first couple of verses, verse 25 and 26. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, so this is Jesus speaking, 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. So if you can picture with me kind of the context of what's going on right now, Jesus and the disciples have just finished the last scepter. It's Thursday night, Maundy Thursday, last week, Holy Week, just before Jesus's death on the cross. Between supper and the middle of the night when Judas comes and when Jesus gets betrayed and arrested, somewhere in that few hour window, Jesus has some time to give his last teaching to the disciples before he leaves the earth. And that's what we have recorded for us in these chapters of John about the Holy Spirit. He's trying to comfort them. He's trying to talk about the time when after he's gonna die and rise and ascend back to heaven and he's preparing them for that moment when that's gonna come.

He's talking about the last gift that he's gonna leave with them to help them after he's gone. It's sort of the classic passing of the baton, right? Jesus is gonna complete his mission after dying and rising and now the Apostles mission is gonna start where they're gonna now tell the story, the gospel story of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. It's one of those classic passages where the mentor passes the baton onto the mentee, right? You think of Obi-Wan Kenobi before he passes away. He's passing on the lightsaber down to Luke Skywalker. You can imagine him from one of the other movies sort of saying, this weapon is your life and he passes it on and he moves on and now Luke takes up the mission, right? Jesus is getting the Apostles ready for what is going to be

the next 2,000 years of mission and he gives them no cheap magical trinket. He gives them the very God of the universe, the Holy Spirit. The God of the universe, the God of the Bible, exists in a Trinity. Now that's something we can't fully comprehend but he's three persons in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Jesus says, I'm leaving, but the Holy Spirit, and he actually says the Holy Spirit is going to be even better to have with you than I was.

The Holy Spirit is coming, and he's going to be with you. Now the rest of the passage tells us about some of the roles of the Holy Spirit. If you look at verse 26, it gives us at least two. The helper of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and he will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." So Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit is a teacher, and he gives us some reminders. Now there's some unique parts of this that are just for the apostles, right? This is actually how we get the Bible, the New Testament. The Holy Spirit helps Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, as well as the rest of the New Testament, writers remember things that Jesus taught and said and did so they can write them down so that we can receive them. You and I, it's not quite the same. We're not called to write a book of the New Testament. That's done, that's over. We now study, read, preach, hear from this book.

But the Holy Spirit's role as a teacher and a reminder was not just for the apostles, it's also for us. Now, as you hear that the Holy Spirit gives us reminders, you might think that doesn't sound very special. A reminder is like when mom reminds you that you forgot your lunch. Right, it doesn't get us real excited. This is actually a common thing among preachers that we sort of joke about with each other because inevitably after a sermon, one of the things that people tend to say to preachers is, oh man, pastor, thanks for that reminder today. And we look and we say, that's right. Don't forget your lunch. Don't forget your keys. Don't forget to pray.

That's what I'm here for. That's what we do, right?

But it's okay.

I'm not offended by that phrase. Thanks for the reminder, Pastor, because I know that that's my job. That's what the Holy Spirit has entrusted and empowered me to do. It is not my job to come up here on a Sunday morning and proclaim, hey, I've got some new ideas that nobody's ever heard of before. Let me tell you all about them.

Right.

That's not what preachers are for. If you ever, if you ever listened to a preacher that says that you should probably run away, it's probably not good stuff, right? The preacher's job and what the Holy spirit does is takes this book, this book, the old, old story of Jesus's life, death, resurrection,

and all that God's word has saved and reminds us of those truths. Reminds us of those old, old truths, because old truths can change our lives. Reminders can change our lives. I think of the Apostle Peter. Remember Peter, before Jesus dies, Jesus tries to explain to the disciples that he's going to die. He says, so then I'm gonna die, and on the third day I'm gonna rise. And remember, Peter comes to him thinking that he's got it all figured out.

And he says, Jesus, no way.

You can't do it.

You're not gonna die. I won't let it happen. Remember, Jesus says, get behind me, Satan, because Peter doesn't have a clue what's going on. But just six weeks after Jesus' death on the cross, we've got Peter at Pentecost, this guy who tried to tell Jesus not to go to the cross He now preaches a sermon to thousands of people explaining using Old Testament passages

He doesn't have the New Testament He's taken Old Testament passages and explaining to thousands of people How it is that the Messiah Jesus had to come and he had to die and he had to rise and that you can now Have salvation from your sins through him and three thousand people get saved. The Holy Spirit has been working on that guy. Reminders change lives. The entire Old Testament, we could say, is a story of God tells his people something, they forget it, and then they usually get brutally reminded in some kind of way. That's essentially, that's the whole Old Testament. One big cycle. God tells them something, they forget it, He comes back with a reminder. And unfortunately, I think that's the story of my life, I think that's probably the story of your life. God tells us something, we forget it, we need a reminder. And that's what the Holy Spirit does.

He takes truth that we've already heard from God's Word, and He reminds us in our hearts and it changes us. One of the greatest miracles I think you can ever experience is when the truth comes into your heart and it changes your life. I can think of a story that my wife told me once about when she was working as a nurse at a nursing home and there was this this elderly woman who they referred to as Aunt Bertha and Aunt Bertha would always play these old great beautiful hymns on the piano and She remember one day she came into Aunt Bertha's room and Aunt Bertha was just sitting there in Tears just crying and and my wife asked her what's the matter and she said Jesus died And he had to die because of me

But he died And she just she just kept crying and just kept saying that Jesus died. And eventually my wife had to sit and just say, but he's not dead anymore. He rose. And the smile that came over this older woman's face as she was reminded of that truth, that not only did he conquered the grave in the resurrection. When a couple who's on the edge of divorce remembers their marriage vows, prays together, God, help us figure this out. When somebody laying sick in a hospital bed has a friend or a pastor come and read a passage from the Bible that they've heard a million times, but now it hits them in a totally new and a totally fresh way. And it gives them the hope, the peace

to continue and to go on. When somebody who grew up in the church, they heard lots of sermons, they heard the Bible read, but they drifted away from the church and they haven't been back in years, but they come back and they hear the word preached and all of a sudden it clicks with him and everything changes and they want to follow Jesus and they receive eternal life and their whole

family comes to follow Jesus. Reminders of old old truth changes lives. The Holy Spirit's the Spirit of Truth. He himself is Jesus's peace which he gives to us point number two Jesus's peace comes through heart change Take a look at the beginning of verse 27 Peace I leave with you my peace. I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you? Now what in the world does that mean? What is Jesus saying? Why does he say I give not as the world gives do I give to you? Well Thinking about that. I think there's a lot of things we could say about how the world gives

But I thought of at least two ways that I think the world Gives and the first is this I think the world gives by saying things like I wish you well Best wishes I Hope you feel better. I don't intend to do anything about your sickness, but I really hope you feel better. I wish you better. I wish you the best in your next endeavors after you get turned down for that job. I think one of the ways that the world gives is through empty promises, empty wishes. I wish the best for you. I hope the best for you, but unfortunately those are just words. But this is not how Jesus gives peace. What Jesus gives is absolutely certain. Let me show you a couple of passages. Romans chapter 5 verse 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus wants to give us peace and he doesn't just want it for us, he went and died for it. Because Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he went there and he became our substitute. All of us are sinners. The wages of sin is death, the Bible tells us, and we needed somebody to die for us if we weren't going to have eternal death. Jesus died in our place so that if we put our faith in him,

we can have eternal life, eternal peace. We're no longer at war with God, we're at peace with God.

We have a relationship with God. Philippians chapter 4 says, do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Jesus' peace is certain. It was costly. It is concrete. Because he purchased it with his own blood. And we can count on it. The second way the world gives peace, I would say, is by force. I think of, in Jesus' time it was called the Pax Romana, the Roman peace.

In Jesus' day, a Roman citizen could walk from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth without much fear because they knew that the full weight of the Roman military would come to get them if another country tried to harm them. They knew that the greatest military in the world in history up to that point.

It was their country.

They were a citizen of that people. The full might of the Roman Empire put fear into the hearts of other nations that protected and gave one kind of peace to people. Within the empire, the same thing was true. Within the empire, they had a lot of order. They had a lot of what looked like peace.

Why?

Because people would walk every day through town squares where they would see what happens. To people who didn't follow the law, who tried to stir up trouble, they would be crucified, hung on crosses. Public executions were one way of the Roman Empire. One way to get quote-unquote peace, what looks like peace, is by force. Muscle, might, torture, blood, public execution. It's one way to create order. But it's not how Jesus gives peace. What He gives doesn't come at the cost of others' blood. It comes at the cost of His own blood.

Jesus accomplishes peace by His life, death, and resurrection. The Old Testament prophets were always prophesying about a future day when everything would be at peace, when everything would be at harmony, shalom. I want everything to be in right relationship to each other. Things should be the way that God made them to be, the way that they're supposed to be. But that doesn't come by force. It comes by changed hearts. Hearts that are changed only by the gospel.

If you want peace in your life and in the world, then what you need is a change of people's hearts. If you're looking for peace in your own life, you're not going to find it in a successful career, you're not going to find it in a spouse, you're not going to find it in money, you're not going to find it in your kids, you're not going to find it in living out an identity that's different from what God made you to be, you're not going to find it in Oprah, yoga, or a big bag of weed. Real peace only comes through faith in Jesus. When you put your faith in Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit, the God of the universe to come and dwell inside of your heart. That's where real peace comes from. If you want peace in the world around you, now I'll tell you what, I am all for Christians being very active in the world around them. We're not called to sit back and do nothing. We're called to be a part of this whole thing. I mean, if you want to run for office, if you want to be on local government councils, I am all for you. I work the polls. Please go and vote. Do all those things. Christians should be active in the world around them, trying to work towards a world that is more like God's design. I'm all for that. That real world peace Only comes when human hearts get changed and that only happens

When we preach the gospel When people meet Jesus, that's how real change happens. That's how real hearts Get changed so brothers and sisters if you want peace in your life and in the world and what you need is heart change That's what Jesus peace brings number three Jesus peace also casts out fear listen to verse 27 again 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 What is it that the Apostles would have a lot of things to fear.

Right, Jesus, their leader is gonna die and rise and nobody's gonna, nobody's gonna like that. The Romans are not gonna be happy about that idea. The Jews are not gonna be happy about that idea. They're gonna receive a lot of persecution. They're gonna receive pain. There's gonna be humiliation. There's gonna be rejection. There's gonna be torture. There's gonna be death. Do you know that every apostle died as a martyr except for the apostle John, who writes the book of Revelation? Only one of these guys will not be painfully killed because they spent their life preaching that Jesus rose from the dead. There's a lot of things the apostles had to fear. fear and Jesus knows I think Jesus knows that fear would be possibly their greatest temptation fear can be an incredibly powerful driving force in a person's life how many of you have ever been afraid how many of you were too afraid to raise your hand and admit that you had ever been afraid okay thanks for your honesty right you can imagine the Apostle Peter on Good Friday, right? The Apostle Peter has been told by Jesus, you will deny me three times. Peter says, no I won't Jesus. Like five minutes later, he

denies Jesus three times. Why does he do that? Because he's standing in front of people that he's afraid of. Whether he was afraid of them rejecting him, or them hurting him, or him somehow getting wrapped up in this and then getting crucified himself, whatever it was, fear drove Peter to deny the Lord three times, even though he was warned.

I think you and I are driven by fear, especially, I think in the different stages of our lives are often defined by the fears that we have, right? If you can imagine when you're a kid, one of the things that defines the kid's stage is that you think there's a monster under your bed and you're afraid of it right when you're a teenager you're afraid of whether other people will accept you your peers will like you when you become a college student you're afraid am I going to make it through this when you become a parent your whole life suddenly becomes I'm afraid of is my are my kids gonna be healthy are my kids gonna be successful? Will my kids follow Jesus? I think every stage of life is largely defined by the fears we have. But the opposite of fear is peace. And peace is what the Holy Spirit gives to us. I wanna just read you some scripture.

Just let these truths from God wash over you about how the Holy Spirit brings us peace.

Let me just give you these.

When we don't know what to pray for, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Romans 8.26 says, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Have you ever been in that spot where you know you're in trouble, you know you need help, but you don't even know what to ask for. I don't even know how somebody could help me. I don't even know what to say. Have you ever had that dream where you're trying to scream but the scream won't come out? You need help, you're trying to call to somebody for it, but you can't even get the words out? The Holy Spirit comes and He understands what you need even more than you do and he brings that to the father Think of Ephesians chapter 1 it says when we doubt and need hope for our inheritance He is our guarantee that our inheritance is coming Bible says in him you also when you heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation and believed in him We're sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. When you doubt and wonder, is there a life after this one? Will it ever get any better?

Things are so broken, will they ever be made right? The Holy Spirit is your guarantee, your guarantee that that day is coming. When we doubt, we need to be reminded that we are God's dearly beloved children. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of adoption Romans 8 15 says For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the spirit of adoption as sons By whom we cry Abba Father The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the very children of God

If we're ever put on trial for our faith, Mark 13 says, when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but it's the Holy Spirit. He gives us peace, even if we are put on trial for our faith. Acts 1.8 tells us that when we need help to share the gospel, the Holy Spirit is our power.

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses When we need help to fight sin in our lives and walk with Jesus The Holy Spirit is our weapon Romans 8 13 if you live according to the flesh you will die But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live When you know you need supernatural help to conquer the sin in your life, the addiction in your life, whatever it is, the Holy Spirit is the one who promises to be there with you and to help you. I think of Ezekiel 36 that says that we get a new heart when we put our faith in Jesus. The prophets prophesy and promise, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and my spirit will be within you.

Last one.

When you're praying for a friend to come to faith, you've invited them to church a hundred times, you've told them about Jesus, you've prayed for them. The Holy Spirit says that he is the one who can bring real change in their heart. I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. Jesus says it's actually better for the Holy Spirit to be with you than even me in the flesh. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Jesus says the Holy Spirit is the one who can change the hearts of your friends and your family who you pray for day after day that they would come to faith. The greatest gift that God can give us is God Himself. And that's exactly what Jesus does when He leaves and leaves with us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God's yes and amen to the promise of peace. Would you please stand with me as we pray and continue to worship God?

Let me pray for us. Father God, we give you all the praise and thanks this morning for the Holy Spirit who has come to live inside of us to give us peace to create real change in our lives and in the world. God I pray that this week that as we walk through this world we would know that the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us and that we would experience your peace. We pray this all in Jesus precious and powerful name. Amen.