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John 14:25-31 MORE WORDS OF COMFORT FROM JESUS

Introduction:
	
	All through this 14th chapter of John Jesus has given
words of comfort to His disciples.  In our text He closes
out the chapter still seeking to comfort them.

I.  The words of comfort Jesus had already spoken in this
	chapter

	Jesus had already told His discilples that He would be
crucified.  He had told them that one of them, one of the
apostles, would betray Him into the hands of the Jewish
leaders who were trying to put Him to death.  He told them
also that before the night is over that all of them, all of
His disciples, would forsake Him.  He told them that soon He
would be crucified and that even though He would be
resurrected, yet He would soon depart from them and return
back to heaven from which He had come.
	To those disciples it was as if the sky had fallen down
upon them.  They were deeply depressed.  Jesus immediately
began to speak words of comfort to them.  Throughout the
entire 14th chapter Jesus has spoken many things in an
effort to comfort them and strengthen them.

II.  The words of comfort He had already spoken in this
	chapter.

	V. 25.  He had told them that they should trust God the
Father and trust alos in Him in spite of the troubles they
would experience.
	He had told them that even though He was going away, yet
He was not deserting them.  He was going to prepare a place
in heaven.  There they would be with Him forever.  They
would never be separated from Him any more.
	He promised that God the Father would send the Holy
Spirit upon the church to take His place as its leader.
Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, He Himself would be
with them.  He would never leave them nor forsake them.  He
would not only be with the church through the Holy Spirit,
but He would indwell each believer.
	So even though He would not be with them physically, yet
spiritually, He would continue to be with them.
	Furthermore, He promised that He would appear to them
physically before He would leave them and return to heaven.
They would be able to see Him, hear Him and touch Him.  They
would know for certain that He has risen from the grave.

III.  The additional words of comfort which Jesus gives in
	this text

	He had told them about things which were yet future.  He
had told them about the betrayal by Judas.  He had told them
about them all forsaking Him.  ore promises that should
comfort and cheer them.
	V. 25, "These things have I spoken unto you, being yet
present with you."  Jesus had spoken all those words of
comfort to them while He was yet with them.  They would soon
see everything that He had spoken to them come to pass.
They would soon see Him arrested and brought to trial.  They
would soon see Him crucified.  They would soon see Him laid
in the grave.  They would soon see Him after His
resurrection and they would be able to know beyond a shadow
of a doubt that the resurrection of Jesus from the grave is
real.  They would soon see Him arise up in the air and they
would stand gazing up into the heavens where Jesus had gone.
They would soon experience the coming of the Holy Spirit
upon the church on Pentecost.  By seeing these things come
to pass just as Jesus has said, they would know that all
which He has said is true and they would be comforted.
	Jesus now goes into greater detail to tell them what the
coming of the Holy Spirit on the church would mean to them.
V. 26, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the
Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have
said unto you."
	Jesus makes sure that they understand that the
Comforter, of whom He speaks, is the Holy Spirit of God.  He
said that God the Father would send the Holy Spirit in His
name.  That is, God the Father would send the Holy Spirit in
His interest.  The Holy Spirit would be looking out for the
interests of Jesus.  He would be there in the stead of
Jesus.  He would be there representing Jesus.  He would do
for them the very things that Jesus would do for them if He
were bodily.  Through the Holy Spirit, in a very real way,
Jesus would be with them and be their leader.
	V. 27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto
you..."  The Hebrew word for peace is "Shalom."  The Jews
have a custom of greeting one another with this expression.
When they meet, they are not apt to say, "Hello."  Their
usual greeting is "Shalom" meaning "Peace!"  They are
expressing a with for peace for their fellow Jews.
	Likewise when the leave.  Their most common way of
departing is with this word "Shalom."  They say "Shalom"
meaning "May God be with you and give you peace."
	In some respect this is what Jesus is doing with His
disciples.  The hour was approaching when they would be
parted.  They would be parted first, by His crucifixion.
Jesus was saying to them, "Shalom! Peace!  I wish for you a
peace from God.  In spite of the sorrows that you will
experience when you see me crucified.  I pray that
underneath it all that God the Father will grant you peace.
	In spite of the great personal fears that you will have
for your own personal safety and for the safety of your
families, I pray that God the Father will give you peace.
In spite of the fact that even after my resurrection I will
soon leave you and return back to my Father in heaven, yet I
pray that the Father may grant you peace.  In spite of the
fact that after I am gone, men will hate you and persecute
you and some of you will be put to death, yet I pray God the
Father that underneath all that trouble you will have peace.
I pray that you will know that all is well.
	You see, Jesus did more than just wish His disciples
well.  He bestowed a peace upon them by praying for them.
They would experience trouble which would seem unbearable,
but underneath, down in their inwards spirits, they would
have peace.  It would be a peace that would come from God.
	(V. 27), "...not as the world giveth, give I unto
you..."  The world may express a wish for peace for you, but
that expression may or may not be genuine.  Often times, the
people of the world express a desire for your well being
when it is not genuine at all.  Even when it is genuine, it
is merely an expression of their desire for you.  The world
cannot give you peace.  The world is more apt to give you
fretfulness, worry, heartache, trouble.  But Jesus can do
more than wish you well.  Jesus can give you peace.
	Yet even though there is a peace from God which Jesus
can give to the people of God, yet there is a part which the
individual Christian plays in bringing peace to his own
heart.  (V. 27), "...Let not your heart be troubled, neither
let it be afraid."  Now how in the world could those
disciples do that?  With the crucifixion and death of Jesus
taking place before them, with the danger and threat of
death for themselves and their families, with Jesus no
longer being with them, how in the world could they keep
their hearts from being troubles?  How in the world could
they keep their hearts from being terrified?
	Well, it was not going to be easy.  Even with the help
of the Lord, they might not be totally successful.  But they
would, with the help of God be able to meet the challenge
with a great measure of success.  The disciples of Jesus
would face the things ahead with a surprising degree of
calm.  They must have been surprised themselves at just how
well they faced it.  Later when the Apostle Peter was in
prison, and the church was praying way into the night for
his deliverance, Peter, himself, was sound asleep when and
angel from God came to deliver him out of the prison.
	How could they do it?  How did they do it?  How can we
face the troubles of life with calmness and peace?  Way back
in verse 1 of this chapter, Jesus had said, "Let not your
hearts be troubled" and He told them how to do it.  He told
them how to keep their hearts from being overly troubled.
He said, "Ye believe in God, believe also in me."  To put it
another way, Jesus said that the way to keep your heart from
being overly trouble and fearful is to put your faith and
trust in God the Father and to put your faith and trust in
Jesus Christ the Son of God.
	But let me point something out to you.  They were to
merely to spare them from trouble.  They were to call on God
and ask God to prevent the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.
They were not to ask God to prevent Jesus from departing and
returning back to heaven.  They were to trust God the Father
and trust Jesus Christ His Son in spite of the fact that
Jesus would be crucified and in spite of the fact that Jesus
would depart and return to heaven.  They were to trust God
and they were to trust Jesus no matter what would happen.
	Then Jesus even shamed those disciple somewhat.  He
mildly rebuked them for being so disturbed that He was going
to leave and go back to heaven.  V. 28, "Ye have heard how I
said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye
loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the
Father: for my Father is greater than I."
	Jesus did not mean that His disciples had no love for
Him at all.  He had already acknowledged that they did love
Him and pointed out that this was the reason He would appear
to them and not to the world.  He would appear to them
because they love Him and seek to keep His commands.  In
fact the reason they were so disturbed that He was going
away was because they loved Him and wanted to keep Him with
them.
	But they did not love Him as much as they should love
Him.  They loved Jesus enough to want Him with them, but
they were being selfish in their love for Him.  They were
more interested in their own welfare instead of His welfare.
If they had been more interested in His welfare, they would
have rejoiced for Him that He was going to get to go back to
heaven and He would be with God the Father once more.
	V. 29, "And now I have told you before it come to pass,
that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe."  Jesus
said, in effect,  "I have kept you informed about what is
about to take place even before it happened.  The reason I
have told you about it beforehand is so that you can be
strengthened by it all when it happens.  You can watch it
step by step and see that I have told you the truth.

IV.  Time to go

	V. 30, "Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for
the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." It
was already well into the night when Jesus spoke these
words.  Within an hour or two or three at the most, Satan
would come with Judas Iscariot with men from the Jewish
temple and capture Jesus and carry Him back into Jerusalem
for His trial and crucifixion.
	Yet you will note that Jesus did not say a word about
the men who would come to arrest Him.  Rather Jesus was more
concerned that it was His great enemy Satan who was behind
His arrest and crucifixion.
	V. 31, "But that the world may know that I love the
Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.
Arise, let us go hence."  With this statement He arose and
led His disciples toward Mt. Olives and toward the Garden of
Gethsemene where He knew that Judas would lead the band of
Jews who would come to arrest Him.
	Jesus said that He wanted the world to see by Him going
willingly to His death just how much He loves God the Father
and seeks to be obedient to His will.  That is most
certainly true.  I would also call your attention to
something else.  I want you to see how much both Jesus and
God the Father love you and me.  God the Father loves us so
much that He sent Jesus to the cross to die for us.  Jesus
loves us so much that He willingly went to the cross and
suffered and died for us that we might be saved.

Conclusion:

	1.  You who are unsaved, place your faith in Jesus to
save your soul.
	2.  You who are saved and are facing great trials and
heavy burdens, place your faith in Jesus to take care of
your trials of life.
	3. You who are saved and are in need of a church home.
Place your faith in Jesus to lead you to the right church.