My peace I give to you… Do not let your hearts be troubled or be fearful

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Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2020-03-22
  • Our connection with Christ, the vine, grows as we hear his words, believe them, and do them.
  • In these troubled times, chose to believe these words of peace, and walk in them, rather than words of fear.
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Sermon Outline - My peace I give to you… Do not let your hearts be troubled or be fearful

Video cover image by Pxhere —CC BY 2.0

Goal:

To truly experience Jesus’ promise:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…
Do not let your hearts be troubled or be fearful

Plan for today

  1. The Old Covenant Promises
  2. The New Peace from Jesus
  3. How to be Connected with the Vine?

Structure of John

1–12
”Book of Signs” 		13–21
”Book of Glory”

John 13–21 “Book of Glory”

13 A meal with the disciples

14–17 New Teaching
      from Jesus
      to the disciples
18–20 Arrest
      Crucifixion
      Resurrection

21 A meal with the disciples

Last 4 weeks:

  • Jesus —The God who will Wash your Feet and
    Love you to the End
  • The care. empathy and unselfishness of Jesus, and that
    the Father is just like Jesus
  • An invitation to step into
    the same love as is between Jesus & the Father
  • You can only live this new life
    by being connected with the vine

1. The Old Covenant Promises

  • I have some simple questions today:
    • Several people have asked me: Is Covid-19 a punishment on the world?
    • Does Psalm 91 give us a free pass from sickness?

Psalm 91

  1. He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
  2. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
  3. For he will deliver you from the snare of the hunter and from the deadly plague.
  4. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and protective wall.
  5. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
  6. nor the plague that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that comes at noonday.
  7. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
  8. You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
  9. Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge—
  10. no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no disaster come near your tent.
  11. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
  12. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
  13. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.
  14. “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
  15. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
  16. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Translation by Andrew Fountain

  • Let’s refresh ourselves on last week’s passage:

John 15:7–17 - Love one Another

  1. If you dwell in me and my words dwell in you,
    ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you.
  2. My Father is honored by this, that you bear much fruit
    and show that you are my disciples.

    How I dwell in the Father is the pattern for you Click to expand

  1. Just as the Father has loved me,
I have also loved you; dwell in my love.
  1. If you obey my commandments, you will dwell in my love,
just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and dwell in his love.
  1. These things I have told you so that my joy may be in you,
      and your joy may be complete.

        This is how… Click to expand

  1. This is my commandment
to love one another just as I have loved you.
  1. Greater love has no one than this
than to lay down his life for his beloved friends
  1. You are my beloved friends
if you do what I command you.

    Now you are with me and the Father Click to expand

  1. I no longer call you servants,
  because the servant does not understand what the master is doing.
But I have called you beloved friends,
  because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father.
  1. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you
    to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains [dwells],
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
  1. This I command you—to love one another.

Translation by Andrew Fountain

  • Overview of three middle sections
  • But there is a negative side to this:

John 15:18–25 Opposition from the World

The world hates you because of me

  1. If the world hates you,
be aware that me first, before you, it hated.
  1. If you belonged to the world,
the world would love you as its own.
But because you do not belong to the world,
but I chose you out of the world,
Because of this the world hates you.
  1. Remember what I told you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too.
  1. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name,

The world hates my Father
because of me

because they do not know the one who sent me.
  1. If I had not come and spoken to them,
they would not be guilty of sin.
But they no longer have any excuse for their sin.
  1. The one who hates me hates my Father too.
  2. If I had not performed among them the works that no one else did,
they would not be guilty of sin.
But now they have seen the works
and have hated both me and my Father.
  1. Now this happened to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without reason.’

Translation by Andrew Fountain

2. The New Peace from Jesus

John 14:15–31 – If you love me, you will obey my commandments

  1. “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.
  2. Then I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Companion to dwell with you forever
  1. the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive,
because it does not see him or know him.
But you know him,
because he dwells with you and will be in you.
  1. “I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you.
  2. In a little while the world will see me no longer,
    but you will see me; because I live, you will live too.
  3. At that time you will know that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.
  1. The one who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me.
The one who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love them and will reveal myself to them.”
  1. Judas (not Iscariot) said to him,
    “Lord, how is it that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”
  2. Jesus replied,
“If anyone loves me, they will obey my teaching,
and my Father will love them,
and we will come to them and make our dwelling place with them.
  1. The one who does not love me does not obey my teachings.
And the teaching you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.
  1. “These things I have spoken while dwelling with you.
  2. But the Companion, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
    will teach you everything,
and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.
  1. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you;
    not as the world gives do I give it to you.
    Do not let your hearts be troubled or be fearful.
  2. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’
If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father,
because the Father is greater than I am.
  1. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.
  1. I will not speak with you much longer, for the ruler of this world is coming.
    He has no power over me,
  2. But that the world may know that
    I love the Father, exactly as the Father commanded me, so I do.
Get up, let us go from here.

Translation by Andrew Fountain

  • Jesus says the same thing 4 times in the passage
  • 14:25–27 —These are my main verses for today
  • This re-interprets Ps.91
  • Jesus has made a shift from external kingdom to spiritual kingdom

3. How to be Connected with the Vine?

What does it mean to “dwell” or “abide”?

  1. Dwelling/Abiding = Mystical Experience of “emptying oneself”
  2. Dwelling/Abiding = Obedience
  3. Dwelling/Abiding = Read the Bible, pray and work on your relationship with God
  4. Dwelling/Abiding = Union with Christ, Experienced by means of Life in the Spirit

How are we attached to Jesus?

  • Water the plant, feed the new life
  • Listen to the promptings that come from new life
  • Faith is the act of following this voice
    14:23, 24 —obey my teachings
    26, the companion will teach you everything. and cause you to remember (which resulted in the N.T.)
  • Our connection with Christ, the vine, grows as we hear his words, believe them, and do them.
  • In these troubled times, chose to believe these words of peace, and walk in them, rather than words of fear.
  • There is a voice in you which is always upset and worried
  • Chose to listen to the voice of the Spirit, who speaks Jesus’ words:
  • Read v.23–27

Updated on 2020-03-22 by Andrew Fountain