The Indwelling of God Brings Peace

John 14:15-31

Jesus Promises Another Helper

15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Indwelling of the Father and the Son

19 "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"

23 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. 24 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.

The Gift of His Peace

25 "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 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. 27 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. 28 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.

29 "And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. 31 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.

Jesus began speaking of the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit in the people He chose to be His children by the coming of a Helper for us to take the place of His physical presence with the disciples after He no longer walked among them on earth.  This was prefaced by the command to willing keep His word out of love for Him who had loved them so much.  Jesus prayed that the Father would send His Spirit to fill and help them as He had done while walking as God-Among-Us, Immanuel.  After the Lord ascended back into heaven from the lower parts of the earth, God would send Himself as Spirit to indwell them and we who now have believed and received God’s Son come from the Father to redeem and reconcile us to Himself.  The promise is for Him (the Spirit) to forever remain in we the people of God in Christ as the permanent tenant in our souls who will never leave or forsake us for any reason whatsoever.  He comes to stay in everyone who has received Christ as the Son of God and been reborn as His chosen children forever.  If anyone does not have His Spirit, that one is simply not of God (Romans 8:9) but for those who have believed and received the Son by faith through repentance are changed forever and indwelt with certainty as we know by the peace passing all understanding in knowing we are reconciled at last with God for our inherited and continued sin.  He is the Spirit of Truth because He reveals the meaning and purpose of God’s written word to us as the living Word had lived out among the disciples before leaving and having the Spirit take His place in us, yet we are still in the Father and Son of God as well, a great mystery which is difficult to completely grasp on our own.  The Son is in the Father and we are in the Son so we are all together in Him whom we call God as the three persons in one God over all.  Our love for the Son is therefore proven by our desire to willingly obey His word, living and written, by the enabling power of His presence as Spirit within us.  If we have kept His word by faith and received the Son, we know Hae has come to make His eternal home in and with us.  This is the proof and joy of our salvation, the promises of His word to we who have truly believed.  The world who refuses to believe and receive Jesus as the Christ remains lost (John 3:18-19) in their love of sin and rejection of Him who speaks these words for all to hear.  For those whose eyes and ears are opened to Him, we have this magnificent gift of inner peace in the ongoing storms of life as He says, ‘Peace, be still’ (Mark 4:39) with the utmost absolute authority and rock solid assurance as witnessed by the seal of His presence set within each of us (Ephesians 1:13-14).  His Spirit is the one who now is with us just as the Son was present with the disciples then.  Our peace is the same as theirs because it is based on the promise of His return to take us home to Himself and His Father when the world is judged in righteousness (Acts 17:31) and we are admitted into His presence according to the promise of peace with God in our reconciliation with Him by believing the Son’s work instead of our own (John 6:29) to save us from sin’s penalty.  Jesus loved the Father and we love Him and the result is His Helper come to love within.  The indwelling of God alone brings true peace to our weary and sin-worn souls which goes beyond our understanding!