Small Group Lesson Plan for May 6th: The Book of John 14:15-31
Please read John 14:15-31
Jesus begins with in verse 15- “if you love me you will keep my Commandments.” Like we talked about last week-We have the four gospels to refer to the Commandments that Jesus has given us, but we are still in the upper room and I think Jesus is referring to the most recent Commandments (that were some heavy hitters) that he recently gave to his disciples. The first one was to wash each other‘s feet- serve each other and others around you. The other Commandment is to “Love each other AS I have Loved you.” And the third one is to put your faith in the Father and in Jesus as well. This is saying that if we love Jesus Christ, there is a vital ingredient of obedience that we must have to follow him. I have noticed that when I have a failure to obey Jesus, it was a failure of following one of his commandments -to not be selfish, but to love Jesus. Because if I love Jesus, the response will be to keep his Commandments. So it’s pretty simple- to obey Jesus more- We need to love Him more. Remember what’s written in 1st John, “We love because he first loved us”. If you want to love Jesus more, put your heart and your meditation on the love that Jesus has for you. By considering how much he loves you and what he has done for you, your response will be more love for him- which will make you want be more obedient to his commands.
Next Jesus gives them an assurance in verse 16 that “He will ask the father to give us another helper to be with us forever.” Jesus knows that to obey his commands- to live a life for him- We cannot do it alone. We need the love, help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will help guide us to live the life that God wants us to live. Something interesting as well is when it says “another helper”, David Guzik says, “The ancient Greek translation is a very specific word- “another of the same kind”, the Greeks had a word for another helper of a different kind, but they specifically used another helper of the same kind for this reference to the Holy Spirit. This is assuring us that the Son and the Father and the Spirit are one God.”-Guzik. It’s important to recognize that in verse 16. Jesus says HE will be with you. The Holy Spirit is a person- He does not have bodily form, but He is real. This is where we are so lucky- it is literally like we have Jesus in us, guiding us in our life. The Holy Spirit is real, and He is an aspect of God that fills us with God‘s love and guidance. This is even better than having Jesus beside us- because He would only be present wherever He is at that time- But the Holy Spirit fills every believer everywhere all over the Earth to tap into anytime.
Moving onto verse 17 when it says “The Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him or knows him”. They (the world) do not know him- they love the world not the ways of the Spirit. Guzik says, “They don’t love the Holy Spirit. They love the unclean spirit.”-Guzik. This brings up a good point -that even us as believers, if we start to love the ways of the world more- then we will not be able to receive guidance from the Holy Spirit. Moving onto the end of the verse, Jesus gives us this assurance, “That we know him. He dwells with us and he will be in us.” What an amazing promise and what an amazing comfort- to know that we have this discernment in us.
As Jesus goes on to tell us in verse 18- “He will not leave us as orphans. He will come to us”. Jesus is not leaving us, yes, He is ascending to heaven, but he is not leaving us. He is giving us the presence of the Holy Spirit. He will be with us as he says specifically in verse 20, he says, “You will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you.” Jesus is saying “Know that I am in the father and you in me and I in you through the Holy Spirit.” This means We will know a life of relationship with God- a union with God, the son and the Holy Spirit. In verse 21 he goes on to say, “Whoever 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.” This is similar to what he is asking us to do in verse 15-To break this down there are a lot of things in the Bible that we would love to pick and choose what we want to obey and not obey. But Jesus is simply calling us out, saying if you love me- you will want to obey me. Friends-after knowing what Jesus has done for us- how He is reaching out to us- coming to us-knowing how much he loves us- This should be such motivation for us to want to follow him and his commands. Just like with my family here on earth- I love them so much that I want to serve them- I want to obey them.
In verse 22-24 Judas(not Iscariot) says, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world” Jesus responds by tripling down to what he has said before, 23-“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-whoever does not love me, does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.” -Again if you really love Jesus, then you will want to honor him by keeping his word and living out his word. And there are going to be temptations that want to pull us away from this, but we need to remember how much He loves us and how we can honor and love him by following his commands.
In verse 26 Jesus says, “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 have said to you.” Last week we talked about how Jesus ended with we can pray “In His name.” So once again- that means the Father sends the Holy Spirit in Jesus‘s merits, not our merits. Thank God for that! He is also given in the nature and character of Jesus meaning he works along the same lines as Jesus- he wants to continue the works of Jesus through us.
Now they are closing their time in the upper room and a common way to say goodbye would be “shalom”. It was a common way to say hello and goodbye- like Aloha in Hawaii today. It means “peace be with you”, David guzik says “the old English translation of goodbye means “God be with you”, but we never think of it that way, but Jesus leaves us with his Peace that he gives to us.”- Guzik. How comforting is it to know that we have the peace of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Guzik goes on to ask and respond to the question “ how much peace does Jesus have- well let’s remember this is the night before his crucifixion and all of his focus and care is to the ones around him and not himself. He is more concerned about taking care of his disciples then he is himself. He still had peace with the cross right in front of him”-Guzik. We can ask God to fill us with that same peace!
The verses to close out this chapter is what we think is going to be the conclusion of the upper room after Jesus has said peace be with you. He is basically asking them to arise, and let’s go meet my betrayer, but it doesn’t end there. They actually go into full firefighter mode and have a bro session after the training. This ends up giving us 3 more chapters of Jesus’ teaching in the upper room. How often does that happen with us? We have said goodbye but the fellowship is so good that we hang around and talk more. But Jesus is warning them “that the ruler of this world is coming.”-verse 30. But Jesus is assuring us that when we remain in him, Satan has no power over us when Jesus fills our life. Satan doesn’t have a foothold or any other way to deceive us. In verse 31 Jesus says, “But I do as the Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise Let us go from here.” He is not being driven to the cross by Satan, even though he is coming for him- Jesus is following the command of his father for His glory and for us to be saved. In closing, let us remember that to live a life for Jesus- we need to have the Holy Spirit fill our life. There is no option here and the good news is this. He is fully accessible and wants to be in our lives. We just need to let him. So ask God in prayer to show you your need for the Holy Spirit in your life. And to fill you with the Holy Spirit.
Discussion:
What are some of Jesus’ commands that you can obey out of Love for Him more in your Life?
What are ways you can discern the Holy Spirit’s guidance and instruction in your life?
What are areas in your life that you need to ask God to fill you with the peace of the Holy Spirit?