Hello sons and daughters of our great God,
Today, let’s take a look at these words of encouragement that Jesus shares with His disciples before He is crucified:
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, nor let it be fearful.
— John 14:27
This statement follows immediately after Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to His disciples. He says He will not leave them as orphans, but the Holy Spirit will be with them to point them back to Him and bring to remembrance all that He had taught them:
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
— John 14:26
It is very interesting how Jesus, before leaving His disciples, says He leaves them with peace. In His high priestly position, He does what priests of old would often do: He offers them a benediction. In these particular words of encouragement, we can make several observations that can bring a lot of encouragement to us today. Let’s take a look:
Jesus is Leaving
The first observation comes in the first part of the statement when Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you.” This clearly indicates that He is not going to be with His disciples physically. He’s letting them know that He will not be with them in their future. This statement is supposed to prepare them for what is to come. This corresponds with the statement He makes later in John 16:
A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.
— John 16:16
Alongside informing them that He is leaving, He also leaves them with encouragement by saying that the Holy Spirit will be with them to remind them of Him:
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
— John 14:18
Here we find great encouragement that despite Jesus not being here in His bodily form, He has not left us as orphans. He has given us the Spirit of Truth who dwells in us, providing a dwelling place for God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Father within us:
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 dwelling with him.”
— John 14:23
This applies to us as believers today. Even though we do not see Jesus in bodily form, we know by faith that having professed Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and having believed in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. The Holy Spirit continuously points us back to our Savior and back to the Father.
Jesus Offers Peace
It is very interesting that the one thing Jesus offers His disciples as He leaves is peace. You would think that, being the King of the Jews, He would leave them wealth or other material things. Instead, Jesus, as He is leaving, promises the coming of the Holy Spirit and then leaves them with peace.
The other gospel writers, including Matthew and Luke, give a detailed account of when Jesus tells them about the end times. Jesus tells them that there will be tribulations and suffering towards the end. There will be times of great pain and fear. It is for this reason that Jesus leaves them with peace:
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.
— Matthew 24:6-10
The Origin of Peace
Jesus doesn’t qualify the kind of peace He is leaving His disciples. He says, “My peace I leave with you.” In essence, He clarifies that this is His peace.
The peace that Jesus offers His disciples is the peace of God since He is God. This is a kind of peace that cannot be conjured up by man. It surpasses all understanding. This is the kind of peace that Paul later refers to when speaking to the Philippians:
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
— Philippians 4:7
It is important for us to understand that as believers, our peace does not come from anywhere else other than our Lord. This is crucial to remember because often we find ourselves looking for peace in everything other than God—in our jobs, entertainment, recreation, and even other people. Jesus’ point to His disciples is that they will not find peace anywhere else other than in Him, and that is the peace He offers. This leads us to the next observation:
The World Offers Peace
Jesus says that the peace He gives is unlike the peace the world gives. The first thing to notice is that the world also claims to give some kind of peace. Jesus instructs His disciples not to be deceived into thinking that the world’s peace is true and everlasting.
The world’s peace is centered around the flesh. The enemy will always use deceptive tactics to make us think that the peace he offers is worth our attention. We see this when the tempter comes to tempt Jesus and offers various things that would ensure one’s peace. We see offerings for sustenance for the flesh in the form of bread in a time of hunger. Then we see an offering for assurance of protection by way of testing God by jumping off the cliff, and finally, we see the enemy offering position and power by way of all the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:1-11).
This is the way the world offers peace. What Jesus is effectively saying is that the peace the world offers has an appearance of everlasting peace, but like everything else in the world, it will fade away. Jesus says that the peace He offers His disciples is not like the peace the world offers. This peace is everlasting, sourced from God, and surpasses all understanding.
Do Not Fear
Finally, Jesus closes this statement by telling His disciples not to let their hearts be troubled or fearful. These emotions and feelings only come in the absence of peace. When there is no peace, there is fear and troubled hearts.
This coincides with the same statement He makes at the beginning of this chapter. When He makes the statement then, He pairs it with another promise that He is going to prepare a place for His disciples:
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
— John 14:1-2
What Jesus is now stating to the disciples is that the antidote to fear, anxiety, and a troubled heart is simply the peace from God. By way of clarification, the peace offered by the world does not resolve the issues of fear and anxiety, despite appearances. It is only this peace from God that puts our fears and anxieties to rest.
As believers, we are astoundingly privileged to be in Christ, where we constantly get to experience the peace of God. Paul suggests we access this peace by way of prayer (Philippians 4:6). Peter suggests it is by casting all our anxieties upon the Lord because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). And Jesus Himself suggests that it is by simply seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
I pray that in reading this word, we will be reminded that we have the peace of God through the Holy Spirit that dwells in us.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Paul
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