“The Gift of Easter”

Scripture: John 14:23-31

John’s gospel repeatedly offers a vision of Messiah that is totally different from the normal expectations of that day. Lord Messiah was supposed to be kingly in appearance, mighty in strength, a warrior without equal, of immediate royal descendency, and one who will destroy all of the evil that the world is shackled by.
But with Jesus, there isn’t even one of these attributes that is evident. John’s 14th chapter even goes so far as to give an insight into Jesus’ nature that doesn’t make a bit of sense to Israel. “Trust me – I’m going to prepare a place for you in my Father’s House”. And they wondered, where is that, and why not here? (v. 2-3) ”Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” And they wondered, God looks like you? (v. 9) “Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing … and even greater things” And they wondered, healing? Restore life? Preach unfathomable truths? (v. 12) And then there is a number of verses calling us to love him. (v.15-31) Love Messiah? Shouldn’t we stand in awe of him? To fear him? To fall down before him?

As the early church began to read this letter, they very quickly came to the realization that Jesus Messiah was unlike anything that they had ever believed he would be.

Read John 14:23-24

It would seem from these words that loving the Lord is an absolute necessity if we are to be his disciple! Loving Jesus leads us to respect and obey his word, and our failure to love him leads us to deny his word. But here’s the rub – how many of us truly and completely obey the commandments of Jesus? Now before you begin to think that all is lost because you still sin from time to time, remember that Jesus knows our hearts as well as our lives. God knows that we can’t be perfect in our actions – he knows that we will never reach the ultimate level of righteousness in this lifetime. The question, I believe, is whether we deeply love him and his word, and strive to follow in all that he taught! In addition, there is forgiveness in those times when we fail, but then truly repent of those failures - and in doing so, we show him that we do love him.

Following the Lord will never be easy, but he has kept the promise he made - “I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5; Deuteronomy 31:6) But he did leave when he ascended to heaven, didn’t he! Does this mean that he has disowned us?
Not at all. In verse 16, we read that Jesus will ask the Father to send us another Counselor, who is the Spirit of Truth. And this Spirit will be accepted by all, simply by the love that they have for the Lord. There’s that call to Love him again! And we read that these words are jointly offered by both Jesus and the Father – that there is no disagreement between them. If Jesus said it, God will do it, just as he told us that whatever we ask in his name will be given (v. 13-14). As solid and unshakable as the Divine relationship is, that is how firm our relationship will be with Jesus when we show love to him with our whole heart.

The Love of God in Christ Jesus is the gift, in its many forms, of Easter.

Read John 14:25-27

Some think that Jesus’ teaching was only for that day – that much of what he introduced to the world doesn’t really fit with societal norms of today. That is certainly true, but it didn’t fit all that well with the society of his day, either! God’s ways never seem to be ours (Isaiah 55:8-11), and yet, we are called to live in his!
Jesus spoke words that few would accept while he was with us in the flesh, but those words will never change simply because we don’t like them, or because he had to return to the Father. As surely as God is with us today, the word of God that Jesus carried into this world will never change one iota, either. They are God’s ideals, and Jesus’ words, and the Spirit’s mission to us. The truth and way of God is ever before us, and it must be ours.

We are told that even though Jesus has left, and another aspect of God will come, the word of God will never disappear from the world. The Spirit can never, and will never, teach anything contrary to what Jesus taught. There is nothing new in the Spirit – he has come to constantly remind us of the Godly truths that have always been.

The work of the Holy Spirit is to keep the work and word of God alive in our lives. He raises that word up; he inspires us with God’s call on our lives; he summons us to a life that is faithful and loving toward Christ. The Spirit’s purpose, it seems, is to keep Jesus’ ministry alive in us. This sounds strangely like “You will do what I have been doing ... you will do even greater things than these !!!”

And then the Lord imparts his Peace to those who love him. His peace isn’t just a word of farewell – it is his promise, once more, that his leaving does not imply that we are being abandoned to our own wiles, but that all who will follow his ways will never have to find their own way in faithfulness, but that there will continue to be a Counselor and Guide for our lives.

Proof of the promise of God is also the gift of Easter.

Read John 14:28-31

More strange words! If you loved me, you would rejoice that I’m leaving you, even though I’ll be back one day! Have you ever been happy when a friend was moving out of town? When I was growing up, my best friend Skip Freeland was moving a long way away – all the way to Plattsburgh! I wasn’t the least bit happy that he was leaving – I even had a very difficult time saying good bye to him. I would never see him again, but I did run into his father once, but that was the limit of our contact. And that is the world’s view of seeing our best friend leave – there is no joy in it.

The Godly way, though, is to not only look to our own happiness, but to the blessings that will be coming to the other person. Jesus was going to become one with his Father once again – no more human limitation, no more tiredness, no more pain, no more hatred, no more eating or breathing or speaking – just Oneness within the Divine Nature. Isn’t that sufficient reason to rejoice, to simply know that he was going Home?

Skip’s dad was getting a good promotion in his job; Skip liked the outdoors, and the Adirondack Mountains would give him many hours of pleasure. Neither of us was happy about the separation, but I should have been pleased at the new opportunities that would be coming to him and his family.

The other reason that the Lord’s disciples should rejoice at Jesus’ leaving was that the Spirit would be coming to give them an entirely new attitude toward ministry. They would soon discover that the power of the Holy Spirit would be the enabling factor that allowed them to actually do those things that Jesus had been doing, and even greater things. The power of the Spirit would enable the Church to grow; the Spirit would lead each and every person who came to love the Lord toward God’s ways, and away from the ways of earth – and not just for the first disciples, but for everyone throughout the ages who would love Jesus.

The poet William Blake wrote:
Unless the eye catch fire,
God will not be seen.

Unless the ear catch fire
God will not be heard.

Unless the tongue catch fire
God will not be named.

Unless the heart catch fire,
God will not be loved.

Unless the mind catch fire,
God will not be known.

--Attributed to poet William Blake.

The working of the Holy Spirit can only be described as “fire”. It creates light and heat and newness. It spreads like nothing else can. It moves and dances and leaps, and even though it may seem to die out, the slightest breeze can fan it into conflagration within minutes.

And it could only come after Jesus had left, it could only come as a result of Easter. The Spirit of God will set the eye and ear and tongue and heart and mind of those who love Jesus on fire! And our lives will never be the same again!

What a gift! And all because of Easter. Sounds to me like a pretty good reason for rejoicing!