Theme: “LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED”

                        - Jesus left us His Spirit

                        - Jesus left us His word 

                        - Jesus left us His peace

Text: John 14:23-31 Jesus answered and said to 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. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me. These things I have spoken to you while being present 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 things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.”

Dear fellow redeemed who have been called, gathered, and enlightened by the Holy Ghost working through the Gospel -

            Little Suzi was afraid to go to sleep at night. The streetlight shining through her window cast strange shadows on the wall. Strange night sounds led her to imagine there might be monsters coming into her room when she was sleeping. Her mother tried to soothe her. "We will leave the light on in the hall with your door open a few inches." "Mom and Dad are right across the hall." Then the mother finally said in a most comforting tone of voice, "And also remember Jesus is always here in the room with you." As her mother was leaving her bedroom, the little girl responded, "Momma, I want a Jesus with skin on."

            With simple words, that little girl expressed what each one of us has probably felt at one time or another. We wish for a “Jesus with skin on.” We feel that if we could only see Jesus here with us, it would be so much easier to make it through the storms of this life. If only we could look Jesus straight in the eye, hear His voice, and touch His hand - then we would be much stronger Christians and our hearts would not be so troubled.

            In our text for this morning, we once again hear Jesus preparing His disciples for His leaving them and ascending into heaven. Though they had seen Jesus with skin on for three years, they would soon see Him no more. “I am going away” Jesus tells them, “I am going to the Father.” These are words of departure, words which would cause the disciples to be sad at the thought of not seeing their friend and beloved teacher any more. BUT as Jesus told them and He would tell us today - “Let not your heart be troubled.” Let us on this day of Pentecost, consider how we do not need to be troubled because Jesus has left us His Spirit, His word, and His peace. May the Holy Spirit who worked mightily on the day of Pentecost, work mightily among us through His word.

HE LEFT US HIS SPIRIT

            These past few Sundays we have considered what caused such a drastic change in the disciples. We considered how it was that they went from being timid and confused followers of Jesus to bold witnesses who joyfully endured persecution for Jesus’ name sake. And today we clearly heard about that Difference Maker in our reading from Acts. The crowd wasn’t exactly sure why these uneducated Galileans were able to speak perfectly in their native language. It was the Holy Spirit who was poured out on the Apostles. This is the Helper that Jesus speaks of in our text. “These things I have spoken to you while being present 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 things that I said to you.” Though Jesus had ascended into heaven and was physically with them no longer, on the day of Pentecost we see this promise of Jesus being fulfilled as the Father sends the Holy Spirit.

            Over the course of three years, the Apostles had seen Jesus do many amazing things and teach so many heavenly truths. Truths which they had no doubt forgotten. Imagine the difficulty you would have accurately recreating the sermons I’ve delivered over the past three years from memory. Though I myself prepared, wrote, and delivered them - I know I could not even do that. But the Apostles had a heavenly Helper. God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit would teach them “ALL THINGS” and cause them to remember “ALL THINGS” that Jesus said to them. God the Holy Spirit would be their Teacher.

            This blessing of the coming of the Holy Ghost remains for us today. The result of what the Holy Spirit did with and for these men is that in the New Testament we have ALL THINGS we need for this life and for the next. What we have in the Gospels and New Testament Epistles are the very words of God given to His Apostles. These are the words that the Holy Spirit gave these men. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Tim 3:16) and Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Peter writes.

            This same Holy Spirit is sent to us even today. Through the Gospel in Word and in Sacrament, the Holy Spirit teaches us. The Spirit teaches and testifies of Jesus. Through the divinely inspired words of Scripture we have ALL THINGS that we need to know about who the true God is, what the true God has done to save us, and the only way to heaven. Let not your heart be troubled for Jesus has left us His Spirit.

JESUS LEFT US HIS WORD

            “If everyone else jumped off the bridge, would you too?” “Don’t put that in your mouth, you don’t know where it’s been!” “Stop making that face or it will stay like that forever!” “Were you born in a barn?” And my personal favorite, “Yelling?! You’ve never heard yelling!” On this Mother’s Day I’m sure we all could recount the many words our mothers spoke to us. There were words of warning that we wished we would have listened to. There were words which we heard and knew right away that we were in trouble - words which usually involved our middle names. What mom said always seemed to have weight to it.

            As much as we cherish some of the words which our mothers spoke to us, this morning we see in our text that there is a word that ought to be much more important and beneficial to us. This is the Word of Jesus, which Jesus says, “is not Mine but the Father’s who sent me.” Jesus’ word is God’s word. Jesus and the word are intimately tied together. Speaking to a group of doubting Jews, Jesus said, You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. (Jn 5:39) The Scriptures testify of Jesus. They lay out God’s plan to save sinful man and how God carried out that plan through His own, dear Son, Jesus. The Old Testament prophecies point ahead to Jesus. The Gospels testify of the person and work of Jesus. The New Testament Epistles build on the redemptive work of Jesus.

            Through this powerful word, God comes to you. As we hear the opening words of our text, consider how the word “keep” that Jesus uses is the same word that would have been used of a Roman soldier “keeping” his prisoner. To keep means also to guard and treasure. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” Jesus is speaking of the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. The believer loves Jesus and guard or treasures His word. The unbeliever on the other hand neither loves Jesus nor keeps His word.

            With these words we see why the Christian heart need not be troubled. Jesus says that the Father loves the Christian. Furthermore the Father and the Son come to the believer and make their home in the heart of the believer. Consider what this means! God has taken up residence in your heart. In 2 Corinthians the Apostle Paul writes, For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people." (2Cor 6:16) As a believer in Christ you are a walking, talking temple of the living God! Though we don’t have a Jesus “with skin on” we do not need to be troubled, for God Himself is with us! Indeed, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it!

JESUS LEFT US HIS PEACE

            Maybe you have seen the cleaver bumper sticker that says, “Know Jesus Know Peace - No Jesus No Peace.” I imagine that was taken in part from the words of our text, where Jesus proclaims, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” In this world of sin there is so much tribulation and strife. Nations war against nation. Neighbor against neighbor. Households are divided. Peace is hard to keep at times even with your closest friends. Because of sin and selfish desire the real peace that all men long for is not attainable in this world. Paradise has been lost because of sin and man can do nothing to reclaim it.

            Imagine what life was like before sin. When Adam and Eve didn’t even know what it meant to fight. When husband and wife never had their first fight. When man walked and talked with God. When man saw God face to face. That is the peace of Paradise. But once sin entered the world, everything changed. Peace no longer existed between God. Now, as Paul writes to the Romans, the carnal mind is enmity (or hostile) against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. (Rom 8:7).

            To restore the peace, God sent His own Son into the world. The Son had perfect peace with His Father and came to bring that peace to this world of tribulation. To make peace the Son had to remove that which caused the strife between us and God. Therefore God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2Cor 5:21) Our sin had broken the peace with God, so Jesus took our sin on Himself to win peace for us. On the cross Jesus reconciled our relationship with God. Jesus died to give us peace. When Jesus rose from the dead, God was pronouncing peace.

            Now through faith in Jesus we are justified, declared not guilty in God’s sight. Again Paul writes to the Romans, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:1) Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we are justified. God has declared us “not guilty.” Being declared “not guilty” we have peace with God. God is no longer an angry Judge, but having peace with God through Christ, God is now “our Father who art in heaven.” Paradise has been restored through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our hearts do not need to be troubled for Jesus has left us His peace.

            All three of these things are tied so closely together - the Spirit, the Word, and peace. If you take one away, you have none of them. Remove the Spirit and you have no word and no peace. Remove the Word and the Spirit has no means whereby to work and bring us the peace that Jesus won on the cross. Remove the peace and the word becomes empty, with no message of hope. But thanks be to Jesus that He has given us His Spirit, His Word, and His peace. No matter what may be going on in the world around us, our hearts need not be troubled on this blessed day of Pentecost, nor any day. God the Holy Spirit has declared to us through the word that in Christ all is well between us and God. We are at peace with Him in Christ Jesus. “Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way.” (2Th 3:16) Amen.