Seeking the Peace and Love of Jesus Christ
John 14:25-31
Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz
John 14:25 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26 “But the aHelper, the Holy Spirit, bwhom the Father will send in My name, cHe will teach you all things, and dbring to your remembrance all that I said to you. 27 “aPeace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. bDo not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. 28 “aYou heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and bI will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because cI go to the Father, for dthe Father is greater than I. 29 “Now aI have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. 30 “I will not speak much more with you, for athe ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me; 31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, 1I do exactly as athe Father commanded Me. Get up, blet us go from here.
Our Messiah Jesus knew he was approaching the end of his life. He had only three years to teach his disciples the lessons that would have taken more years to learn. There was a lot of cramming information into the disciples at this point. This part of John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus was quite concerned about what his students would do when he left them.
Jesus knew the history of a prophet coming to Jerusalem to spread the word of the LORD. He was going to die there, period. Therefore, he prepared his disciples, his students, for what was going to happen. Jesus’ message of love and peace was needed badly in the world then. Jesus’ message of love and peace is always needed. Today’s world needs it more than ever. The thought that the peoples of the world cannot live in peace and love is an extremely bad thought.
I remember watching the Miss America pageants in the 1960s and 1970s. I could be wrong because I was a kid, but I think just about every contestant said that world peace was the most important thing to them. It is a great message which echoes Jesus. Unfortunately, after over 2,000 years, the world peace and love that Jesus of Nazareth tried to establish has not happened.
What breaks my heart is when it occurs in the churches of Jesus Christ. Denominational authorities in the United Methodist Church are mistreating churches leaving over biblical differences, which saddens a 25-year United Methodist pastor. It is not just the sexual orientation issue that is driving the division. There is a lot more going on. When the bishops in my Conference announced, we do not have to follow the Bible, then the churches are not churches of Jesus Christ. The bishops in the UMC are more interested in bending to a small fraction of US society than to stand up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yes, I know someone hearing this or reading this will strongly disagree. It is the debate that should occur and not the antagonism from both sides of the issue. I heard that one bishop at their Annual Conference meeting told the delegates from disassociating churches to leave. After they did, the bishop held a prayer of thanksgiving that they left. What kind of peace and love is this? Let me tell you what it is not. It is not God’s peace and love, and certainly not Jesus Christ’s peace and love.
People may see things differently. If this was not so, then the LORD would not have given us freewill and minds to interpret His Word in different manners. However, the LORD expects us to be respectful to each other no matter how far apart people may be in their opinions. Jesus Christ’s love and peace are eternal. It is accepting of everyone and every idea.
Let me ask you this. How do you expect to get into Heaven if there is even one person you hate now? Let’s say for the moment that this person dies. Their soul returns to the LORD in Heaven. When you die and I hope you go to Heaven, you can run into that soul. Heaven comprises love and peace. Hatred is not allowed. How will your soul deal with this situation? Therefore, Jesus warned us to have a clean heart.
Yes, for those who are thinking, it is hard to be at peace and love everyone. I dislike it when people cut lines. How about when you are driving on the interstate, and you see a sign that says, “left lane closed ahead?” I move over to the right lane and crawl with the traffic, only to see cars flying by to get in front of us who are waiting. That’s wrong. Sorry if you do it. But it is wrong. I cannot say that I hate those people. Today, I excuse their ignorance and their self-centered egos that they think they are more important than me. I must admit that having this attitude took several years to finally achieve. I cannot be angry at ignorance because there is so much in the world. I will say that I dislike going to events where there are many people because the ignorance of respect is prevalent.
I became displeased with it in church. I retired early because every church I was assigned to had people who had no clue what Jesus Christ taught about peace and love. I had a 72-year-old church woman ask me where in the Bible does it say that she cannot hate me. It is in 1 John, by the way, where the hate word is used. I asked her how she can claim to be a follower of Jesus and have hate in her heart. By the way, she hated my sermons because they were biblically based. She liked the previous pastor, who told disconnected stories that made her feel good about herself.
Preaching the truth of the Bible is not an easy task. The word difficult does not even come close. Jesus called me to learn the original message of the Bible, that people in his day believed when they heard him preach. 25 plus years I have been doing that. I bring that out in my sermons. There were always people who loved it because they were learning the Bible and how to apply it to their lives. There were also the people, like the 72-year-old, who hated the sermons that told her she needed to conform to Jesus’ message.
Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to educate and encourage his disciples. He knew they needed more. So many people in the church need to learn what the truth is of the Gospel message. Let me say it: love God and love neighbor. That’s it!
Like Luke Skywalker said to his father in the Star Wars movies, “let go of your hate.” I know it is a hard thing to do. I struggle with it every day. I pray to the LORD to allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse me of any hatred and guide me on the path to righteousness. That’s a key to Jesus’ teaching. He knows I may never completely cleanse my soul of hate; however, he also knows that I am trying. I pray for help in this task.
Since none of us is perfect, we must rely on Christ’s peace and love through the Holy Spirit to cleanse our souls. When we reach that point of death, may each of us be sanctified with the peace and love of Jesus Christ.
