Dear friends, on the Lord's Day evenings during the summer, we started a series on which I entitled The Last Night of Jesus. We are listening in as it were on the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to his disciples on the last evening before his crucifixion. Now we want to come back to this portion of God's word and seek to go through that final night and finish that series. So that final night, if you want to recap, you can go back and listen to the sermons that I preached on these online, but it starts from chapter 13 and it finishes at chapter 17. So we are coming now to the end of chapter 14. And we have seen many things. Our Lord Jesus Christ is in the upper room with his disciples. This is where he washes their feet. This is where he shows his love to them and he cares for them. And then he sets them an example. And though John does not record it, that is where the Lord's Supper takes place for the first time. And it's also where they have a series of exchanges. There are different disciples, they ask questions, and we've seen that. There are disciples who should ask certain questions, but they don't, but the Lord Jesus Christ answers those questions that they should have asked. And we have looked at that also. We have seen interruptions taking place in the middle of the Lord Jesus's conversations. And through all of this, the Lord Jesus Christ has one purpose. He's preparing them. He's preparing them. And so in one sense we can say that these portions are a preparation for us. It is helpful for us to be thinking through and studying what does the Lord Jesus Christ mean? In what way am I being prepared? For what am I being prepared? You're being prepared for anything that the world throws at you. You're being prepared for anything that Satan throws at you. And if we follow the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and actually trust Him, we will see them to come true powerfully in our lives. What did we sing about? As I was singing them, I thought to myself, am I going to fulfill these things? Am I singing lies here all the way my Savior leads me? Think about it. Maybe take this hymn and read it through line by line, prayerfully throughout the week and ask yourself and pray, make it into a prayer. It says this, For I know whatever befalls me." Whatever befalls me. Anything. That's what you were singing of. Did you actually mean what you were singing? Because the thing is, whatever befalls you, can you say, Jesus doth all things well? Can you say, this is actually good? This is well? It's a challenging, challenging hymn. Maybe we should have all been silent when this was announced and say, well, I can't sing this one. I have to really think about this and sing it truthfully. Well, my friends, go and pray over this, but let's go back to the word of God here now. But here we are, the Lord Jesus Christ is preparing them ready for the immediate future, that very night. And do you see, ultimately, none of these disciples are left alive, except John. And John is then cast onto an island, island of Patmos, and there he is, he remains there until his end. The rest of them are martyred. And the Lord Jesus Christ is preparing them. to glorify Him. That's the purpose of their life. As long as we live in this little brief moment, this vapor that comes and goes, vanishes away, the Lord is preparing us to glorify Him before He is arrested that very night. He'll be tried through the night and He's crucified the next day. He's buried in the afternoon and He rises again on the Lord's Day morning, the first day of the week, the Sunday morning. But he's also preparing them for the long term future. After his resurrection, he'll spend nearly six weeks with them before ascending into heaven. And from then on, they won't see him again until his second coming. My friends, that's our case today. We too need to listen closely. And maybe you're not a Christian here this evening. I want you to Think through these things as well. It is important for you to see what kind of a Savior, what kind of God we have in Jesus Christ who prepares and He cares for His disciples. And you might say, no one cares for me like the Lord Jesus Christ. And you might see these things and hear these things and you think to yourself, how much He must love these people, want the same Savior too. So think on this, dear friends. We need to listen to this closely. While we don't face the same immediate events as the disciples did that night and then into the next day and then through another day before the Lord Jesus Christ was risen again. The Lord Jesus Christ, friends, is still away physically and we need to be prepared for tomorrow, for the days ahead and for the end of our lives and the world. So we come here again to chapter 14. The Lord Jesus Christ is wrapping up what's known as the Upper Room Discourse. At the end of this chapter, he leaves the upper room. He continues his conversation as he walks through the streets of Jerusalem toward the garden of Gethsemane. And all along there are things being devised against him. All along there are things happening in the background because there are people who are wanting to kill him. Judas has gone away. and he is gathering together the enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here it is that all this is happening and the Lord Jesus Christ peacefully, knowing that all this is happening, all this plot is being made against his life, and yet he's just going preparing his disciples, that's it. No worries, no anxieties. And he shares with them a number of I was going to give you a number, but I fear that if I give you a number, I won't finish it. So the number of things that the Lord will give them, it might be six things the Lord might give them to consider. in this portion of God's Word and let's look at these then. First of all, we have the promise of the Holy Spirit. We've already seen that before, the promise of the Holy Spirit. So the Lord Jesus Christ starts by talking about his, if I could say, his other self. The Holy Spirit. And that's what you see in verses 25 and 26. That's where we are going to pick up. That's where we left off before. And so verse 25 it says, these things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. So I'm here with you, I'm present with you, but I'm speaking to you about these things, but, he says in verse 26, but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. So everything that Jesus Christ was to the disciples physically, the Holy Spirit would be to them spiritually. And everything that Jesus Christ would be to us if we were physically present today, or if he were physically present today, the Holy Spirit is to us now. The true Christianity is the work of the Holy Spirit. And that's so important for us to understand. Without the Holy Spirit, all of your working of your brain, all of your reading of the books, all of your sermon listening, and the logical working through the Bible, it will be simply human effort. You need the Holy Spirit to work in you. And if you are not a Christian here tonight, you need the Holy Spirit to work in your heart. It's not just about you working out what the Christianity is about, but you need to pray to God to open your eyes to these things. That's what you need. So here is our Lord speaking about the comforter that will come. That's the promise. The disciples had to understand this. They weren't losing anything by the Lord Jesus Christ going away. Imagine, imagine a girl, let's call this girl Sarah. She's a girl learning to play the violin. And at first, she finds it hard, she's making lots of mistakes, she does some foolish things, and other things that she does, mistakes that she does, it's because of inexperience, or she's stubborn, doesn't want to learn. And so she's making these mistakes, and over three and a half years, she then improves. She's improved, and she wants to keep going. And the teacher has been patient with her and he's been teaching her these things patiently. And yet there is a time that comes suddenly, Sarah hears the teachers announcing that he was leaving. He has to move away. And so Sarah is worried now. How could she keep progressing without her teacher? And would she even remember everything that he's taught her? Think about that. That's the disciples dilemma. They've been brought into the spiritual life but had made many mistakes. Some foolish things. Christians can do some foolish things. You know it because you've done it. And I've done it too. Some deliberate things. We can be so hard headed and it's only the grace of God. It's only the grace of God you're here. Because if it was down to us we would be so stubborn. We are so ignorant. We do some foolish things out of ignorance and we don't realize the Bible answers some serious questions that we have and we think, oh no, my situation, I don't know what to do about this. And yet the Bible is speaking to it, but we are so ignorant of it. Over three and a half years, the Lord Jesus Christ had guided them and they wanted to grow. Now he is leaving them. How could they keep progressing? How are they going to face the dangers? And how could they remember all that He taught them? It's said to go and teach all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And here it is that the Lord Jesus is reassuring them. How wonderful it is to take the reassurances of the Lord Jesus Christ, these promises of the Lord Jesus Christ, and actually believe them. Do you believe it? It says in verse 26, it says, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Everything that they needed to know about spiritual life, the Holy Spirit would teach them. The Lord Jesus Christ's physical presence was ending, but the Holy Spirit would be with them, constantly teaching, constantly guiding, constantly helping them now to grow. And as for forgetting what the Lord Jesus Christ had taught over the past three and a half years, the Lord Jesus Christ is saying to them, He shall bring all things to your remembrance. whatsoever I have said unto you. So you might be forgetful, my friends. You may say, well, I forget the Bible. I forget various parts and all of these things. My friends, the Holy Spirit will bring these things to your remembrance when you need them. And that's why we have this passage today. Years later, John was able to write it all down. Because why? Because the Holy Spirit brought these things to his remembrance. He just didn't have a good memory. It's not just a natural way of remembering things, all the details. And John says, there's so much the Holy Spirit had taught him at the end. He says, if I was to tell you all the things that the Lord Jesus Christ did, there's not enough books to fill. So do you see? The Holy Spirit will bring things to your remembrance. So as long as we need to grow spiritually, The Lord Jesus Christ's other self, the Holy Spirit, is here teaching us, guiding us, helping us remember what we've learned. What a comfort that is. What a comfort that is. And there are times, my friends, we, our brains degenerate. You begin to become forgetful, maybe as an older person or as a younger person, and you might, certain things will happen to us. And we become forgetful and they say to us, oh, you've got this condition or that condition. Well, who can tell what God is doing in that person's mind when they cannot speak to you and yet who can tell what God is doing by His Spirit in their hearts? That's a great comfort that the Lord will be still near to His forgetful people. So Sarah's violin teacher may have left, but the lessons didn't end and a new teacher came. Yet in a way, the new teacher was the same as the old. Sarah could now remember everything her first teacher had taught her. The new teacher continued her learning journey using the musical books, putting it in front of her, going over it again, helping her practice and grow. It wasn't just the teacher's presence, but her own dedication to apply those lessons that made the difference. But the teacher was there. The teacher was there. The teacher was not doing everything for her. But the teacher was the comforter, the helper. So this gives us a picture of how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. He doesn't teach us in a vacuum. He teaches us through the scriptures. So you need the Word of God. You need to be a student of the Word of God. You need to be reading it prayerfully. Not just so that you might know knowledge, but you might know God. You might know Jesus Christ. That's the point, dear friends. Not so that you might win arguments and to be able to answer all kinds of people. No, no, that you might know Jesus Christ. And it's not, as I said, it's not just about knowing scripture. It's about doing them too. There are people who say, well, you know, if you simply follow commands, you'll become a Pharisee. But our Lord Jesus Christ spoke about and said that those who love me do my commands. It's out of love, out of our real care and love for the Lord Jesus Christ that we should seek to be as exact as our Lord Jesus Christ says. And as we obey what we have learned, we are ready for the next lesson. And as we practice each truth, we prepare to grow even further. And you say to yourself, you know, as a young Christian, if you're a young Christian, And you're wanting to know all sorts of stuff. You want to know how the world will end, how the Lord Jesus Christ will come. You hear of this certain isms, certain doctrines, and you think, wow, this is amazing, this is mind-blowing. Or you begin to think through things, and no, I don't agree with that, or that doesn't make sense, or whatever else you might think. And you're chasing after these things, dear friends, But your main point should be, your main desire should be that you might know Jesus Christ. You might know Him. Everything else will fit in its place, in its right time. And if God has shown you a little thing, has given you light on a little subject, especially about His gospel, then follow it. If you ignore the basic, most important things that the Lord Jesus Christ has shown you, why should He show you more? Have you asked yourself that? Why should He, if you disregard and say, no, this is really, this is all baby stuff, this is all child's stuff. If you ignore those things, why should God lead you further? So I'm encouraging you to hold fast to those things that the Lord has shown you. And the Holy Spirit will lead you even further. The Lord Jesus Christ then promised the Spirit that He would be with us forever. As we have also seen earlier on in this chapter. And that means as long as we have the Scriptures, as long as we have the Spirit, We can make progress by the grace of God. We can experience deeper spiritual life, closer fellowship with God, and fuller joy in Him. We need to have both, the Spirit and the Scriptures. It's all because of that Spirit's ministry. It's not just about your efforts, it's the Spirit's work. So now we must move on. So the Lord promises the Holy Spirit. He says the Comforter will be sent by the Father. As He goes, another will come. But the second thing is the promise of the gift of peace. The gift of peace is promised. Look at verse 27. 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. That's another promise that the Lord Jesus Christ then goes on to say. What is peace? He promises them peace. Peace, I leave with you. He says, what's peace? Well, we often define it as the absence of trouble. Imagine a storm. Imagine thunder crashes. You don't even have to imagine. You've experienced it this past few days probably. You hear the lightning splits the sky. You hear the earth maybe shake and things rattling and rumbling. Then the storm passes. The clouds clear. Then the sunlight breaks through. That's peace. Or you think about being in a hospital. You're wrecked with pain, riddled with pain. And suddenly the pain eases and you relax for the first time in days. That's peace. Or you consider war, gunfire and explosions all around. And then one day there is ceasefire, the fighting stops and there's silence that feels surreal. That's peace. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't describe peace like that. He says, the peace I give you, it's not like the world's peace. My peace I give unto you. My peace, he says, I give unto you. And here's a man who is, there is a plot going against him, against his life that very moment that he's speaking these things and he says, I'm at peace. I have peace and this peace I give to you. His peace isn't about the absence of trouble. It's about the absence of trouble in the heart. That's what it is. It is about His presence by His Spirit in the heart and the absence of the trouble in the heart. Not the absence of trouble from our lives. Think of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. The waves were so fierce that those experienced fishermen were fearful for their lives, the scripture says. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ was asleep on a pillow, on a cushion. He was sleeping. His peace wasn't because the storm wasn't real. It was real. His peace came from complete trust in his Father. He was trusting. That's our problem, my friends. We are not trusting the Lord. We are not trusting the Lord. Or think of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Those physical agony and spiritual suffering, which is all unimaginable. We cannot really enter into it. Yet he could still say, Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit. It's amazing. We cannot understand how the Lord Jesus Christ said those words, but he had peace. His peace wasn't the absence of pain, he had pain. He was suffering. He was experiencing his father's wrath being poured. Can you imagine that? The sins of the world. The sins of his people. And he was experiencing the punishment of it. The eternal punishment of it. He was suffering under the hand of his own father. But there was peace because there was the presence of assurance in his father's will. Not my will, but thine be done. It was the will of God that was taking place and he was satisfied. This is the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to his followers when we know the will of God is happening and he will bring me through. And even if he slay me, yet I will praise him, as Job said. It's the kind of peace that allows us to face storms, faces pain, faces even death. with an unshaken heart. That's why you see these martyrs going. That's why I said to you this morning that those two missionaries, all those years ago, this day in 1934, were beheaded in the middle of China. How could they have peace? How could they be dragged without crying for their life? God was the one who was giving them peace. They had assurance that the will of the Lord was being fulfilled. You think about as a child of God, nothing ultimately, nothing in life is ultimately against us. Everything is working out for God's glory. All things work together for good to them that love God. Now we can say that and it can sound uncaring at times to people. But if we actually enter into what those words mean, it transforms our life. It transforms our sufferings. even in our struggles, even in our tears, is part of His plan for our good. And only eternity will tell what God was doing in our lives. Only when you enter into heaven, that's your perfect peace that we were singing of. In this world, you don't have perfect peace. You have peace, but perfect peace is yet to come. But it is only in eternity as William Gernal Puritan put it, God's will in our lives will be read backwards. It is like Hebrew text is read backwards. For me it is forward, but it is for you it is backwards. And you have to read it, you have to read your life. This has happened because of this. And it takes you eternity to work it all out and see God was with me all along and I at times did not see it. At times I was so worried. At times I was listening to this person, that person. I was getting all distracted. But God was all along with me. And He suffered with me. As in, He was patient with me. So, dear friends, think on these things. The disciples needed this peace. Over the coming days, they would face grief, they would face confusion. And in the years ahead, they would endure persecution. And as I said, most of them, nearly all of them would suffer martyrdom. Yet the Lord Jesus' peace would sustain them. It didn't remove the pain. It didn't remove the blade. It didn't remove the prison. It didn't stop the tears. But it gave them the confidence and the contentment that all things were working for their good. And do you know the Apostle Paul had to learn that? He wasn't always as strong. He said, I have learned. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. He's had to learn it. And so we do. And it's hard, hard learning. And that's the peace that we can have too, and it's promised for us too. Whatsoever storms that you and I face, the Lord Jesus' peace is ours too. Holding us steady. Pointing us to the unchanging goodness of God. God is always good. Never doubt that. Satan would want you to doubt it, but never doubt it. God is good. The Lord Jesus Christ said, then peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. That's the kind of peace the Lord is talking about. It's not the kind that's only there when everything is calm. What kind of a Christianity do you want to have? Something that just makes everything fixed for you. Do you have a God who is your fixer? who saves you from just this world's troubles? That's not the God of the Bible, my friends. We need to have a God who saves us for eternity, not for this world. This world is passing away. This world is cursed. This world will not last, dear friends. So that's not what we are building for. That's not what we are moving forward. It's the wilderness. And you're in it for, the children of Israel were in it for 40 years. The wilderness of this world before they entered into their Canaan. And we will be however many years that the Lord sees fit. And then we enter into our Canaan, which is above. And it is this peace that the Lord Jesus Christ says, it stays with you during your journeys. It will be there in the middle of your storm. So then he goes on to say, let not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You can be afraid, you can be filled with trouble. So the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ gives isn't like what the world offers. The world's peace is shaky, it's only politicians' promises. It can be taken away at any moment. You might get a big sum of money or a fancy gift, but you can't be sure you'll keep it forever. People can be kind, they can give you their friendship, but even the closest relationships can end. Nothing in the world gives that lasting peace forever. But when the Lord Jesus Christ gives you peace, it's different. He doesn't take it back. It isn't given so that it might fade or be used up. It's His peace and it's permanent. That's why we can hold on to what the Lord Jesus Christ says. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid, He says. Whatever comes your way, don't let it shake you, He's saying. And it's not too much. You'll have the grace that you need. You'll have the sufficient grace that you need to get through. Then our Lord Jesus Christ talks about His other self and the amazing gift that He is giving, the Spirit. But He also shares about His future role. He says, He says, you have heard in verse 28, you've heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the father for my father is greater than I. So do you see? You've heard that it's been said. I'm going to go away. I will come again unto you. Now, he's not referring to his second coming, but to the coming of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to us in a new way. The Lord Jesus is with us, living in our hearts. We become the temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul goes on to say, through faith. And so the Lord Jesus then says, if you love me, you would rejoice because I said, I go unto the father for my father is greater than I. Now that's a tricky passage. Jesus is fully God and fully man. His divine nature has existed forever. But his human nature started when he was conceived in Mary's womb. He's one person in two natures. Two centers of will and consciousness, but he's still one person, two natures, God and man. It's a mystery that's hard to grasp. But when the Lord Jesus Christ goes to the Father, He's not doing it because He is less than God. He's doing it because He is God. And as God, He has every right to be with the Father. And as the perfect man, there is nothing holding Him back. He's as holy as the Father. He is as holy as the Father is. He goes to the Father with whom He is equal. Because after all, the Lord Jesus Christ is the God-Man. He goes to the Father who is greater than He is in the sense that that He is limited while in this world, He was limited in His humanity. He's talking about His humanity, the limitations of His humanity. But then He sends the Holy Spirit from the Father. It is the Lord Jesus Christ other half who is coming to us. So we know God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, but we know Christ only through the work of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ in His manhood, again, is not omnipresent. He is limited. He is a man localized in glory. But the Lord Jesus Christ is omnipresent because He is everywhere at work through the ministry of His other half, the Holy Spirit. whom he is sent from the Father. And so, once more, in Christian experience, we are enjoying the high doctrine of the Christian faith. The high doctrine of the Christian faith completely is beyond our understanding. And yet, it's there that we find actually our comfort. And the Lord Jesus Christ is explaining here that A very simple language then, precisely how it's going to be for all the long years. So here we are over 2000 years later, we have the Holy Spirit. We have the teacher, we have the peace, we have Christ. And yet our Christ is nonetheless absent, seated as the man Christ Jesus in heaven itself, making intercession for us. He's at the throne of God, on the right hand of God. So next time the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses or whoever comes to your door at verse 28 and says, look, look, it says here, the Lord Jesus Christ has said that my father is greater than I. and they try to argue with you about this, that Christ is less than God, that he's a created being, then you can speak to that, I trust. Of course, you know, you will know now the answer. Yes, this is talking about his humanity. But he's both divine, as well as man. And so that's something to take to heart. There are various other things that I wanted to say, but I think it might be good for us to stop here at this point. There are a few more points I have, but it can wait. There has been much that we have thought about this evening. We've thought about things that we struggle with, peace. You struggle with peace? The Lord Jesus Christ is talking about that. Do you have peace? Should you not go to the Lord Jesus Christ more and more and thank Him for what He has done for you? Should you not go and ask Him for this peace? Should you, instead of thinking through things and being concerned about this and that and the other thing, to think what the Lord Jesus Christ has said, He will give me peace, I trust in Him. to trust him at his word and not doubt the Lord Jesus Christ, not listen to Satan who will say, no, no, he said this, he doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it. He means it for other Christians. He means it for Fanny Crosby who wrote this hymn. You know, she had sight when she was a young girl and then I think it was at the age of four or something of that nature when she lost her sight. She incurred a disease and then she became blind. And you think to yourself, well, this is a woman who lost her sight. How could she speak like that? The Lord is leading her. So you might, she might think, well, she had peace, but you don't know her life. You don't know all the things that she went through. Or you might look at some other Christians and say, well, they have peace. They've got it all made. God has been so good to them. It's easy. I've done it. I'm sure you have done it too at times. You look at other people and we forget what we don't know people. We judge them and we think that they haven't experienced the things that we do experience. But my friends, this world is a cursed world. Every home has people who shed tears. Every home has people who have sleepless nights. Every home has pain and suffering and ultimately death enters into every home. And dear friends, and yet, praise God, that our homes have the light of Jesus Christ in them. And we should remember that too. And the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit, anything good you see in God's people, you must say it is God who has worked in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And so we can trust Him. So it's the matter of peace the Lord Jesus Christ has said. It's the matter of His presence, His guidance that we have been thinking about. It's the matter of Him being truthful to His Word that we have thought about. Well, may the Lord bless then these things to every one of us. Let's all pray. O Lord our God, we thank Thee tonight for Thy Word. We thank Thee that in it we are reading again and again of these words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we confess to Thee we are so slow of hearing it. We need to be reminded of it again and again. We are so forgetful, Lord. Remind us, Lord. Help us, we pray. And we ask that Thou wouldst give us that peace which will face anything in this world. even death and all the sufferings that come in this world. Help us, Lord, to always praise thy name. Help us, Lord, to always glorify thee. Help us, Lord, to always have high views of thyself and remembering that everything we have is because of thy grace, which we never deserved. So, Lord, bless us. Help us to walk after the Lord Jesus Christ humbly and seek to follow him because we love him. And the reason we love him is because he has first loved us. So bless this congregation. We pray especially for the unconverted children here and adults and ask that they might also experience this peace of God which passes all understanding through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in his name we pray. Amen.