Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
PEACE… peace of mind, peace of heart, peace in the family, peace among nations, peace in your city. Are those types of peace illusive and very difficult to produce, where you live and almost anywhere in the world?
Today is Thursday after Easter, and I wonder, is there any greater peace where you live, a few days after Easter, than there was a week or a month before Easter? Yesterday I left you, along with the closest friends of Jesus, pondering some of the last words Jesus spoke before He was crucified. He said “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
Jesus had spoken those words to His close friends in the upper room in Jerusalem on Thursday evening during their Passover meal together, a few hours before His crucifixion. During that Passover meal, a very short while before, Jesus had identified Judas as the one who would betray Jesus, and Judas had run out of the room! The disciples were stunned! A few moments later Jesus shocked them again when He predicted that Peter, one of the most trusted of all the disciples, would deny Jesus, not once but three times, before the rooster crow the next morning! The disciples were speechless!
Then Jesus had once again told His friends that He would soon be leaving them, but He would ask the Father to send them the Holy Spirit of God who would be their Counselor, guiding and teaching them as Jesus had done while He was with them. The disciples wondered…would there be no end to the shocking things Jesus would say this night?
This was no ordinary meal and unforgettable things were happening and being said by Jesus faster than His friends could process and understand. But Jesus didn’t slow down. In fact, it takes 5 full chapters for John to tell us what took place, what was said, in that upper room with Jesus that Thursday evening.
Jesus had just declared that He would give them peace, but for everyone in the room, their stomachs were churning. Peace had run out of that room with Judas. Peace had been dashed, in that upper room, when Jesus predicted Peter’s denials. Peace was crushed when Jesus said He was leaving them and they didn’t know where He was going. Yet Jesus promised His peace to them? How could it be? Where and how would these people learn to find the Peace of Jesus when Jesus was not there visibly with them? Do you have the same challenge my friends? Do you find unwelcome news or tragic events, or angry people or unexpected circumstances all steal your PEACE? Where do you go, what do you do to restore your peace in the midst of stress and crisis?
In the days following that Passover weekend for all the friends of Jesus, whether they had seen Him on resurrection Sunday or not, by Thursday their Peace was gone. Oh, how desperately they needed answers and hope. Where was Jesus when they so desperately needed Him?
I think John and Mary may have been feeling the emptiness, the loss of peace, the most. They had stood together at the cross and watched Jesus die. At Jesus’ instructions, John had taken Mary home and was taking responsibility for her, since the horrible death of Jesus. I’ve been imagining that Mary and John were discussing the last time Jesus was with His disciples, that Thursday evening, as John remembered what Jesus had said that night.
Jesus had spoken about vine and branches and the fruit that comes when their connection is healthy and strong: “I am the vine, My Father is the gardener. He lifts up every branch in Me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful…remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit, apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5) Olive trees and grapevines were plentiful in Israel. Olives, grew on branches connected to the tree trunk; grapes, grew on branches connected to the vine stalk, everyone knew that. Grapevines are leafy and those leaves, while pretty, are not helpful for they shield the grapes from much needed sun, and they weigh down the branch.
Pruning is essential for fruitful grapevines. But most important is the healthy connection between the branch and the vine or stalk. That’s where the nourishment flows which then produces grape clusters hanging on the vine branches. The illusive PEACE Jesus spoke of was only possible in a very strong, healthy, close connection between a person and Jesus, just like the vine and branch.
In their months together the disciples and Jesus had been developing that type of healthy, strong connection. But Jesus knew His mission on earth. He had come to die the atonement death required for God to forgive sin. Then Jesus would rise from the dead and return back to heaven, so that’s why He promised God the Father would send the Holy Spirit of God to be with and in these disciples, nurturing their relationship with Jesus who would be physically absent from them. Jesus had promised “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.” (John 14:26) Furthermore, Jesus said “Unless I go away, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, will not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you…When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth…He will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you…” (John 16:7,13-15)
Now that would be remarkable, wouldn’t it? If the Spirit of Almighty, Holy, God was living in you and me and He would act as our Counselor, guiding us with every choice and decision we need to make in life, that would be very much like living as the disciples did, walking with Jesus right there beside you every day! That would give us great peace, wouldn’t it?
But there’s more! Do you see Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would speak truth and guide us in understanding God’s truth! Oh my, if we could live never again deceived by the devil or drawn into deceptive or self-damaging behavior, if we could live filled with and led by God’s truth every day, now that would bring Peace into our hearts and minds, wouldn’t it?! And if we could be sure that however the Holy Spirit speaks to us or counsels us, He is passing to us what HE has received from Jesus, that would nurture peace in us, as if Jesus were right here with us!
So, John records that Jesus said “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father… I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have Peace. In this world you will have trouble but take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:28, 33) John and Mary sat and gazed at one another. What a remarkable privilege they both had been given… to know Jesus very well, to spend so much time with Jesus. It had been gut wrenching to watch Him die, but glorious to see Him alive a few days ago.
But now, four days after resurrection day, oh they longed for more time with resurrected Jesus. When would they see Him again? They longed to better understand His promise of the Holy Spirit. When would the Spirit come to them? How would the Spirit connect them to Jesus as a vine and branches? What would they do to nurture that connection?
Of course, for you and me, 2000 years later, we know the answers don’t we, my friends? The question for us is, are we living vibrantly in the promises of Jesus, with the Holy Spirit powerfully working in our lives and nurturing our relationship with Jesus? Do we have the peace Jesus promised, because we are living IN the reality of His promised Holy Spirit guiding us, counseling us, teaching us, drawing us closer and closer to Jesus? Do you know Jesus wants to help you experience the reality of His promises my friends?
Let’s spend some time talking with Jesus about this right now and here’s a worship song to help us consider how the Holy Spirit brings us God’s peace, as He works in us just as Jesus promised!
Today’s Scriptures are John 14, 15, 16.
Choose below to read or listen.
John 14
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John 15
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John 16
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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