May 26, 2019
"Finding peace" 6th Sunday of Easter
John 14: 23 - 29							       
Pastor Jonathan

How do you find peace in the midst of a conflict or a relational challenge?

We are spending three Sundays in the Upper Room with Jesus, helping us understand some basic relational principles.  Last
Sunday, we looked at love, and this Sunday we are looking at peace.  And on June 9, Pentecost Sunday, we are looking how the
Holy Spirit affects our lives, and we are never the same.

Jesus speaks with his friends in the Upper Room as he was about to go away.  He had tried to explain to them that He could 
not stay with them. He knew they would experience loss.  He knew they would experience lots of doubts, and wonder why this
could have happened, when it didn’t seem to be going this way. Jesus understands our feelings, listens to us, and cares about
us, even in the midst of our sins and brokenness, and a low level of faith, at times.  Jesus guides us through these 
difficult times as our friend and mentor.  He serves us and asks us to serve each other.

In the first part of the chapter, (14:1-13) He makes it clear that death is not the end.  He was pioneering a new way.  He
notes that we must receive Him as Master, as Lord of our lives, to find that way. Once we do, we can be reassured that we
will experience a great reunion coming, greater than any high school or university graduating class reunion.

What would you say to your friends, if you had one last week, or less, a meal or two before you died?  Write it down.  Be
clear.  You might help someone else experience Jesus and give their life to Him.  Jesus had a lot to say to his friends.  
He promised the Holy Spirit, that piece is for two weeks from now. He then goes on to talk about what loving Jesus involves.

Loving Jesus involves 1) Listening to Him and 2) Obeying, agreeing with what you hear. (14: 23-24)  There are many reasons
we cannot hear this simple and profound command.

First, there is too much noise in our lives to hear the Lord.  The TV, the internet, the radio, the refrigerator motor, the
furnace, the pet, the others in the household/neighborhood, a restless heart, a restless mind, reaching back for so many
memories, living there, in the past; trying to figure out the present.  There are so many distractions.  Instead, pull away
from them, which sounds easier than it is.  Picture the Lord Jesus Christ with you in your favorite place.  I have a sandy
beach with logs on it on a glacier fed lake in BC.  You can have your favorite chair or couch, inside or outside place, 
wherever you like.  He will be there for you. I go there and He holds me.

Sometimes, I am small, like a little boy and sometimes I am physically larger than him, but I know He could be any size He 
wanted.  He just holds me and tells me it will be okay.  Because it will.  Because He is there.  And sometimes that’s all I 
need. Other times, He will speak to me about other parts of my life, and He wants to do the same with you.  But please find
that space where you can listen. Without listening, you won’t hear the next part.

Second, make sure you deal with competing voices.  I have many tapes playing. Most of them are negative. They can be
authorities that would tell me I would not amount to anything.  They can be peers who don’t want to play or say I am not
worth their time. They can be accusations of people who have hurt you, even if they were not trying to do so.  They are not
from God.  It is a kind of spiritual warfare going on inside me and perhaps you as well. Make sure, you reject the enemy
voices, and soak in the Lord’s love.

Third, deal with your own sins and conscious rebellion toward God. Just be open with the Lord.  You know where you sin.
Relational, sexual, negative emotions, harsh language, cursing, whatever it is, it won’t surprise Jesus.  He knows.  He has 
been with you through it all. He even will hear what you have to say about not talking to Him or ignoring Him or trying to 
shut Him out.  Not reading His Word, the Scriptures.  Whatever it is, just give it back to Him.

Then you are on your way to obey.  You have to get the quiet, the competition, the personal broken parts out of the way, and
He will speak to you.  Now you can go through your life, and love Him with it.  Give him the car keys.  It belongs to Jesus.
Where I go. What I am. How I speak to others in that vehicle.  Give Him the house keys.  Even if you own it, it belongs to
Him.  I give you space, Lord, as you would use it, whatever comes on the TV, whoever enters here, whatever is hidden in the 
closets and basement.  Walk through the house with the Lord, and give Him every room, every storage area.  Do the same with
the grounds, if you have an outdoor yard.

Then give Him the key to the office or the key card/identification card.  I give you my work.  I give you the code to my
secure place.  I give you my co-workers.  I give you what is rightfully yours, Jesus.  I give you my career. I give you the
time and places that fill my life.  I give you my recreation, my running, my exercises, my physio, my aches and pains, my
fears, my anxieties.  I give them all to you, Jesus.  Where else can I go with them, but to you, my Lord and Master.

If you love Him, you can obey Him.  Jesus says it clearly.  But it is based in that loving place, not in harsh obedience,
or some strict military chain of command. And Jesus says that not only will he come and make his home in you (14:23), the
Father is coming into your home as well.  So it is not only a home that accommodates Jesus, but the Father and the Holy
Spirit (more on the Holy Spirit in two weeks). It is a trinitarian home, three in one, one in three.  And isn’t that the
best home renovation you have ever heard of? None of those renovation channels on TV touch it.

Just a brief moment with the Holy Spirit right now.  He is the Counsellor. He helps us sort through the tapes we hear. He 
will help you get the help you need.  And many of us need help beyond our spouses or families or friends, with professionals,
and that’s okay.  In fact, it is a strength to seek out counseling, not a weakness. But the real Counsellor is the Holy
Spirit who makes things make sense, when it seems they never will.  He teaches us. He uses the Scriptures to teach us. He
uses the words of Jesus to teach us. We need to read them.  He will then bring them to mind, at the right time, just when
you need it the most.  

Father, Son and Holy Spirit taking up residence in you, a holy temple of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:19) That’s why we don’t
choose sexual sin.  That’s why we don’t simply give in to everything the culture is telling us about our sexuality.  But
more than that, it’s because we want the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be at home in us; speaking and working through us. 
That’s not just for pastors or ministers, that’s for us all.

Now you know why Jesus closes this passage with the words: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Jesus has the 
authority and the right to give us this gift.  So many long for it around the world, and right here in Ottawa.

You know that when you are honest with Jesus, and he can supply you with peace. That doesn’t mean easy times or comfortable
times, or times with no disagreements or difficulties.  That means a measure of Peace through it all.

When we turn to the world to give us something, often distraction or denial from our problems and issues, we are
disappointed. I know I find myself lonely in those times I turn away from Jesus, to the world, to entertainment, to 
distraction, to any story but The Story, to narratives that will take my mind away from the painful places.  That’s why 
Jesus’s gift is different from the world’s. He has the ability to deal with the problem head on.  If we want to let Him
have it, He will.

He has the authority to tell us that our hearts need not be troubled.  When I was at the Bible Society in Toronto, I saw 
a clinic doctor, because there just like here, it is nearly impossible to get a GP, a general practitioner of medicine.  
And when I went to the clinic, they said I had a strange heart beat, an arrhythmia. Plus the heart rate was extra slow, 
which is normal for people running marathons and extraordinary athletes, which I am not. So I went for the whole battery of
tests and stress tests and nuclear medicine.  In the end, I’m okay.  I do have an irregular heart, but most of us do.  And
something in that work made it worse for a season.  I’ve had it checked again here and done some of the same tests again,
and I’m okay.  But Jesus knows the condition of our heart.  He is the ultimate cardiologist. He calms our emotional and 
cardiological storms, just as easily as He did calm the Sea of Galilee.  He knows the end and the beginning and everything
in between. Trust him anew right now with your heart, and the storms therein.

Finally, Jesus says to us, “Do not be afraid.” Because I get scared. And maybe you do too.  It is the regular greeting of
an angel or divine manifestation, because we get scared easily. I do. Certainly in the presence of what I do not know or do
not understand. But this is the Jesus who has been known by his followers in the Upper Room for likely three years.  This 
is in the last week of his life, the day before his being tortured to death. He is speaking as their Friend and Master. 

I get scared of many things:  That I will not have a place to call my own. That I will not be able to navigate the challenges
I face well.  That I will not make the right choices.  That I will alienate those who are trying to help me. That my family
will not understand me, respect me or support me. Perhaps you know some of these fears. I have a small child within who 
easily gets afraid, who has been abused, who doesn’t know how to use words well, and vacillates between anger and sadness.
I try to treat that little boy with kindness and patience, as I would in real life with other literal little boys. But 
sometimes I don’t.  I bring that child to the Master, who holds him tight.

What do you fear in these days? As a child, I used to fear a monster outside my window that was burnt out on the inside but
normal looking on the outside.  The burnt out man was scary just because he was stalking or creeping just outside my window
(which was actually a bottlebrush bush that was scraping against the window of our S. California home).  He likely had
malicious intent.  He was possibly a self-projection of being someone who is only normal on the outside, but scary on the
inside.

Dreams give us some windows and life perspective that may surprise us, if we take them seriously, and let God use them, as
we find happening in Scripture.  I did my PhD in part on that subject.

Our fears are meant to drive us back to the Lord.  They are a reaction to something wrong, to something menacing, to
something misunderstood.  Our fears are meant to help us avoid something or someone that threaten us.

Our childhood fears may not have all been reality based, and what we may have thought would help us survive as children no
longer works as adults.

12 step groups often explore this important theme.

What fears do you face currently?  Don’t shy away from exploring them. The Lord might do an incredible work in your life as
you face that which is most difficult to face.  Jesus has the authority to tell us to not be afraid, because He is willing
to work our fears through, to find peace.

Let us pray.