The Posture Works (John 14:22-31)
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[00:00:00] Well, hey friends. I am so excited to announce that my latest book, the Edge of the Inside, is officially out. It has released this week, and you can pick up your own copy. I've been so encouraged by hearing people react to the ideas in the book, and to see themselves in the same kind of a story and to find that there is so much room for all of us on the edge.
And so if you need a dose of that encouragement if you need to see God in some new ways, I wanna encourage you to get a copy edge of the inside.com. You can get it in paperback, in Kindle, even a signed copy, there's an audio book in the works I would love for you to check it out yourself.
jeremy_1_04-02-2026_095556: Welcome to another episode of Rebuilding Faith.
These are 10 minute Bible messages for people with questions and doubts, and happy Easter. For any of you who are going through this with me in real time, we are going to look at something today that [00:01:00] Jesus says repeatedly in this passage. That is something Christians often overlook.
It's a little bit weird as we unpack this, but we're actually gonna see how this ties into Easter, how this whole idea of how Jesus uniquely envisions his role in relationship to the Father, how this makes sense of Easter as well. And so we're gonna dive in where we've been in John chapter 14, verse 22.
It says, Judas. Not Judas, the scar, but the other disciple with that name just hilarious. We don't talk about that Judas anymore, said to him, Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large? Jesus replied, all who love me will do what I say. My father will love them and we will come and make our home with each of them.
Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are [00:02:00] not my own. What I am telling you is from the father who sent me. Couple interesting things here. Number one, you have Judas question is the question we often ask, Hey Jesus, are you just like for us? Are you our Jesus?
Like they want to know, is this primarily, a thing just for us? And then notice how Jesus redirects that, he says, this is about all who love me. And you can imagine, this is something that disciples have wanted to be true. We want Jesus to be for us. We want Jesus to be in our corner.
And we see that question as constantly a question that. As closest disciples asked him, and yet, Jesus redirects to all people who love him and want to have, an experience with him. And then Jesus says something really interesting, which is the first of three really interesting things he's gonna say in today's passage.
But he says that his words are actually from the Father. So the words that we have heard [00:03:00] Jesus used throughout this gospel are not from Jesus. Jesus is giving us the words. From the father, and this is an important distinction. It's a little bit weird to make sense of, but we're gonna see how he's going to keep going with this.
Verse 25. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you, but when the father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. I am leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart. The piece I give is a gift the world cannot give.
So don't be troubled or afraid. Now, this piece that Jesus is talking about is different. It's not just the absence of anxiety. This is holistic wellbeing. This is relationships and their proper place. It's a different kind of piece than the way that the world offers. The [00:04:00] way the world does, peace is usually the suppression of conflict, often by force.
And so sometimes we refer to peacemakers as the ones carrying the weapons because they will create the peace. They will make the peace, but this is not the kind of peace that Jesus is talking about. He's talking about something. Structurally different, a piece that we begin with that we acknowledge exists and then we work from there.
So rather than trying to create a piece, which is what the world often does, we're going to make peace happen. We start with this idea of peace that Jesus has extended this to us, and then we live outward from that piece. Then we get to verse 28. Jesus says, remember what I told you?
I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I'm going to the Father who is greater than I [00:05:00] am. Now, again, this is weird, like why are we needing to rank you guys? Like we're good with you, we're good with the father, but here Jesus saying no to the Father is greater.
I am, this is a verse that tends to challenge anyone who wants to have a literal reading, and try to create, an idea of the Trinity because this doesn't seem to fit well with the idea of the Trinity. Then you add in the fact that Jesus has said that his words are not his own. They are the father's words.
What's going on here? See, John's view of Jesus highly emphasizes the role of the Father. And we see Jesus constantly redirecting back to the Father, and there's different ways to make sense of this. The Bible scholar, Bart Erman has said it like this. Another way to look at it is that the only reason Jesus has divine authority is because he has been given it by the Father.
From that point of view, the Father is clearly greater than the son [00:06:00] and is the one who empowers and authorizes the son to say and do what he does. We've gotta make sense of this because something's happening that's unique that many Christians, we don't think about Jesus in this way. And yet, as John depicts it, this is how Jesus tried to explain his role to us.
And then finally we get to verse 29. I have told you these things before they happen, so that when they do happen, you will believe I don't have much more time to talk to you because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do whatever the father requires of me so that the world will know that I love the father.
Come, let's be going. So he ends this moment, again, just constantly redirecting back to the Father that Jesus is doing whatever the father requires. Now, here's how I would summarize what Jesus is saying [00:07:00] in this passage in John, Jesus is saying, look, I receive this from the Father, and I pass it on to you.
That is the way that Jesus envisions his role, and that is the way he's explaining himself in this passage. Now, he's not just a conduit. For information like, Hey, I'm just going to tell you facts about God, but he's a conduit for character. That we are seeing the posture of God, not just details about God or facts about God.
We are seeing what God looks like in the way that Jesus receives this and then passes it on to us. And here's what's fascinating for us today, we can replicate what Jesus is doing here. We can run with this. We can follow the way of Jesus as he's explaining what he is doing with the Father. We can receive from God and from Jesus, and we can pass it on to [00:08:00] others.
We can be this kind of conduit as well. We can model the same posture. Now in John's framework, it looks like taking up a towel and serving people. It might mean the peace that we carry into a room with us. 'cause we understand that we already have a peace and we live from that peace. It might look like being the person who doesn't need to win because you're not operating from scarcity or from fear, and so you don't have these rivalries with the people around you.
You just have a different way of receiving what you have and passing it on to others. And here's what I have found is that this posture is contagious. Even when talking about Jesus may not be. In fact, we often talk about Jesus and wish people responded differently. But if you model the posture that Jesus is saying here, you will likely see a much different response from people than [00:09:00] merely telling others about Jesus.
And finally, I wanna wrap this up by connecting it back to Easter because Easter. Is the confirmation that this posture actually works. It is the father's vindication of everything that Jesus received and passed on, and the father says, yes, he was in line with all of that. Yes, he represented who I am to you.
You got to see me through Jesus. If Jesus was wrong about his relationship to the Father, Easter doesn't happen. It would not have played out the way it did. Jesus is vindicated after death, and we see that this posture reveals to us the heart of God, and the invitation for you and I today is to live out this same posture in our lives as well.
Happy Easter and I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
