Text: John 14:23-27
Date: June 5, 2022
Event: The Day of Pentecost, Year C
John 14:23-37 (EHV)
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will hold on to my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24The one who does not love me does not hold on to my words. The word that you are hearing is not mine, but it is from the Father who sent me.
25“I have told you these things while staying with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.
27“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.”
Hold On To Jesus’ Word
Are heirlooms a part of your family? Do you have items that are precious to you and perhaps have been precious to your family for generations? Value can be found in something old—something from decades or even centuries ago—or in something new. Someone might be very mindful of the care of a great grandparents’ photo album and a brand new cell phone. For different reasons and purposes surely, but they will protect what is valuable to them.
This morning Jesus urges us to find value and use careful handling not with a physical object, but with his Word. But he also reminds us that we don’t hold on to this treasure by ourselves—the Holy Spirit himself brings it to us and keeps it with us through this life.
Our Gospel for this celebration of Pentecost is actually taken a little over 50 days before that first Christian Pentecost Day. We’ve had several Gospel readings from that Maundy Thursday evening because Jesus did a lot of teaching with his disciples that evening, and the Gospels record a lot of it for us. Jesus spent much of that evening getting his disciples ready for what was going to happen in a couple of hours—being betrayed by Judas, arrested by the Jewish leaders, and eventually condemned to death. But he also looked forward, looked beyond his crucifixion and resurrection and ahead to what would come after that.
In a few short hours things were going to go crazy for the disciples, and in the weeks that followed, they would probably feel rudderless and adrift. Even though they would be seeing the resurrected Jesus, they had to wonder at times what to make of all of this and even what would come after this stage where Jesus would meet with them and prove his resurrection to them.
Don’t you suppose the temptation to give up on all of this would have been strong for the disciples? I have to imagine that at least some of them at this time would have thought something along the lines of, “Well, these three years with Jesus were sure something, but I think it’s time to be done.” I mean, there was nothing but chaos surrounding Jesus. By association with him, they were increasingly considered persona non grata by both the religious leaders and the political leaders, and probably the populace at large.
So what does Jesus say to dissuade them from giving up during those difficult times? If anyone loves me, he will hold on to my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who does not love me does not hold on to my words. Giving up on Jesus’ words and the things he had done are tantamount to saying “I don’t love you Jesus. I don’t value what you’ve done.”
Holding on to family photos shows a value and love of the previous generations of your family. Handling a new phone with care might show a good stewardship, seeking to protect something that cost a considerable amount of money. Likewise, holding on to and prioritizing Jesus’ words show a love for Jesus and the forgiveness he won by his life and death in our place.
How are you at holding on to Jesus’ words? If you think through your thoughts and actions this past week, how did it go? If we had a screen up here with everything you said, did, and thought written down on it for the past seventy-two hours, would someone reading it say, “Wow, what a devoted follower of Jesus!” Or would the reaction to those things, written out and collected, communicate a much more negative impression? Would they be embarrassing to have shown to other people?
The reality is sin is always with us. And we think, say, and do things that are not at all in keeping with loving Jesus and holding on to his Word. But his Word is the very thing that brings the solution to that problem. Because Jesus’ Word not only tells us how we should live but tells us how he lived for us. That in his life and death, we have the forgiveness of all of our sins. That because of Jesus, we will be in heaven forever.
This is a message that people need to hear. This is the message Jesus would send his disciples to share. This is the message that really publicly had its debut on that first Christian Pentecost day. But as we’ve seen, we’re not good at holding on to Jesus’ Words. Left to our own devices we would take this Word, given by Jesus from the Father and chuck it right out the window. Our sinful nature finds no value in what Jesus said or did, and has no love for him at all.
Jesus knows that. He knew his disciples and he knows us. “I have told you these things while staying with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you.” The disciples had three whole years with Jesus but they still couldn’t get what Jesus was saying, or hold on to it in their minds. It often escaped their understanding. They were confused and often misapplied Jesus’ words. But the Holy Spirit would come to teach them and remind them of everything Jesus had said.
That’s probably the most remarkable part of that first Christian Pentecost day. Not the sound of the wind, or the tongues of fire, or the apostles speaking in languages they had never studied, but that they got it. They understood what Jesus had taught them. They understood the necessity of everything he did. They understood what all of his work meant for them and for all people eternally.
Now, the apostles were certainly works in progress. We can read through the book of Acts and see them growing and learning even after that amazing Pentecost day. But this is the gift of the Holy Spirit: faith that clings to the promises of God, faith that trusts what God has said.
And while we don’t speak in other languages or have the other gifts that the disciples received that day, we have the same, primary gift that the Holy Spirit gave to them that day. Because you, like Peter and the others, have received the Holy Spirit who created faith in your heart. You, like the 3,000 people that first Christian Pentecost day, have heard the good news and believed it because the Spirit worked that belief in you.
So when Jesus tells you to hold on to his Word, he doesn’t expect us to do that solo or in a vacuum. He gives us the Holy Spirit to create that faith and help us hold on to those promises. The Holy Spirit uses the means of the grace, the gospel message as it comes to us both in the Word and the sacraments, to strengthen our grip on what Jesus has promised and done. The more we are surrounded by God’s Word, the more valuable it becomes to us.
And what is the result of that work of the Spirit on us? “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid.” By keeping us holding on to Jesus’ Word, the Holy Spirit brings Jesus’ peace to our troubled hearts. Sure, we can look at the past week and see failure after failure to live as the child of God, to live as one who holds on to and loves Jesus’ Word. But the Spirit continues to bring us to the cross and the empty tomb, to show us what Jesus did, to show us Jesus’ forgiveness for those failures to hold on to his Word in our life, and then to wrap our fingers around that word and tighten our grip, to see his Word as the most precious gift we’ve ever been given.
The peace that Jesus brings through his Word, through the Holy Spirit, is the peace that comes from knowing our sins are forgiven. It is the peace that comes from knowing we will be safe in eternal life. It is the peace that comes from knowing that no matter how difficult life here becomes, we need not have a troubled or fearful heart, because we have the Spirit in us and are safe in Jesus’ love for eternity.
The peace that comes from Jesus is more precious than any family heirloom or exciting new purchase. The peace that Jesus brings is greater than anything you can get from the world. Jesus’ peace come from his Word. Hold on to that Word; value that Word. By the grace and work of the Holy Spirit, that’s exactly what we will do. Thanks be to God! Amen.
