The words of God, the words ofJesus, are intended to give us both information and comfort.
Underline in your copy of God’s word this phrase every time it appears in this extended discussion by Jesus with His apostles: “These things I have spoken to you:” John 14:25; 15:11; 16:1, 3-4, 6, 12, 25, 33; 17:13. “I have told you before…” John 14:29. “The word which I have spoken” John 15:3.
Among the promises that Jesus gives His apostles on this occasion is that they would be guided by the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus identifies as the “Helper” or “Advocate” or “Comforter” (John 14:16). Jesus also identifies Him as the “Spirit of Truth” (John 14:17). The Spirit would “abide” in the apostles and be in them. In fact, in John 14:24, Jesus states that the word which they heard from Him were not His words, they were words from the Father who sent Him. Jesus was intensely concerned about doing nothing without the Father’s guidance nor teaching anything without the Father’s guidance. Jesus did not do anything based on His own initiative. Half a dozen times Jesus says that He did nothing nor taught anything on His own initiative. In fact, the only thing Jesus did do on His own initiative was offer His life as a sacrifice (John 10:18). In our broader context, notice 14:31: “I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.”
When Paul talked about the second coming of Jesus in 1 Thessalonians 4, and what would happen at that point, he concludes that brief paragraph with the words: “comfort one another with these words” (4:18).
If we are serious about honoring Jesus Christ, despite the tribulations we experience in this world, then we will meditate often, if not daily, on His words. Jesus told these apostles: “If they” – the broader world of Christ’s followers – “kept My word, they will keep yours also” (John 15:20). You can’t set the words of Jesus above the words of the apostles. The teachings of the book of Acts through Revelation, being guided by the Holy Spirit, are not any less powerful or godly or divine than the words of Jesus in the Gospel accounts. Go back to John 13:20 and note these words of our Lord: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send [the apostles] receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
If you want to walk with Jesus through the tribulations you experience in this life, you must meditate often, if not daily, on the words of God from Scripture. Don’t limit yourself to any one text of Scripture either. Remember that Jesus found strength against the temptations of Satan from the book of Deuteronomy. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He quoted both Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:18.
Read broadly, read shallowly, study deeply. The psalmist had said in Psalm 1 that the godly man’s “delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (1:2). Later, the psalmist will write in Psalm 119:11: “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”
Paul Holland
