John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you. Let not your heart be troubled… I. THE NEED OF SOME SUCH ASSURANCE. Jesus had already said perturbing things. We know the disciples were so perturbed, for we find the Master himself referring to their manifest disappointment and consternation. "Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart." And this was a sorrow that probably included vexation, chagrin, and humiliation. The Master was quietly demolishing certain castles in the air. This wonderful and profound discourse, which has brought light and comfort to so many generations of Christians, would bring little of either to those who first heard it and in the first hearing. But Jesus was thinking of the future rather than of the present; thinking of a day to come when the disciples would rejoice that he had shattered their delusions and vain hopes. II. JESUS POINTS BACKWARD TO THE PEACE OF HIS OWN LIFE. He directs his friends to his own experience and attainments. He intimates that his disciples were not altogether ignorant of the peculiar composure of their Master's life. They had seen him again and again in all sorts of scenes and circumstances, but never in a hurry or a flurry. Goethe's ideal of progress was to go on without haste, without rest; and Jesus turned that ideal into reality. The stream of his life was not a rushing torrent, like some Swiss stream fed from a glacier; neither was it made up of dull, sluggish, creeping, almost stagnant stretches of water. If the disciples had not sufficiently noticed this peace, it was just one of the very things the promised Paraclete would bring to their remembrance. They must have remembered how calm Jesus was when the tempest from the hills came down on the little boat. And then they would remember, too, how, when just delivered from the tempest, Jesus met the fierce maniac, possessed of many devils, so strong in his frenzy that he broke the bonds that bound him. Such was the habitual, profound peace of Jesus, and he never could have done his work without it. III. THE POSSIBILITY OF THIS PEACE BECOMING OURS. We need it not less than Jesus, and surely we can have it. His word was not a mere word of good wishes and kindly interest. He did make over something substantial to his friends. He predicted what assuredly would happen. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is peace, if only that Spirit is allowed to have free course. A mere possibility, a mere ideal, would have been a poor legacy. Through Jesus many have learned to go through this world of care and turmoil, yet keeping their hearts like that smooth, glassy sea which John saw before the throne. IV. THE MANNER OF MAKING THIS PEACE A REALITY. We must obtain it, as he obtained it. The Spirit of his heavenly Father, the Spirit that rules in heaven, was ever in him, full and strong. He was in the world, but not of the world. He belonged to a state of being where all is wondrous harmony. He was out of heaven, yet not for a moment did the communications between him and heaven get broken. He was like the diver who goes down into the water, a foreign and impossible element in itself, taking with him the tube that connects his mouth with the upper air, and so being able to remain under the water a long time and do very necessary work. Everything earthly was estimated by heavenly measurements. He belonged to heaven, and knew how things were going in heaven, and so, whatever the inconvenience of an earthly sojourn, his heart was at perfect peace. - Y. Parallel Verses KJV: Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. |
    |