Students of the Game

²³ Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴ Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

²⁸ “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

This morning’s scripture comes from a very important teaching moment for Christ to the disciples.  Chapter 14 of John is full of very important teachings that Jesus is trying to get the disciples to understand and for the most part, there are having a lot of difficulty understanding what Jesus is telling them.  Jesus has repeated to them several times that he will be leaving them and it is this feeling of loss and isolation that the disciples are struggling with the most.  They are having difficulty coping and understanding that Jesus is leaving them.  Even after promising to them that the Father will love them, be with them and make a home with them the disciples are still struggling to understand.  Jesus says that he is going away and coming back, and I have to admit, if I were in the disciples shoes, I too would have been pretty confused by this statement.  Upon hearing this, I would assume that Jesus would be leaving for a couple days, maybe a week but then would return, much like we return when we go on vacation.  Understanding Jesus’ return after his resurrection would have been very difficult to comprehend.  To this day, many questions still remain about the physical possibility of Jesus’ resurrection yet here we are this morning, worshipping a living, risen Savior.  And the world is baffled at how we can do so with such confidence.  They do not understand that yes our savior may have left us, but he returned and when he returned he made a home with each of us.  He made a home with everyone, but most people choose to never open the door and take a peek inside.  

As an avid sports fan, I hear the phrase “student of the game” more than enough.  It is referring to those athletes who study every aspect of the game, they have gone through any and all scenarios that could possibly happen in the course of a given game before the game even starts.  They study their own team as much as they study their opponent.  As Christians, we too need to be students of the game, we need to be students of our faith.  From the very young to the elderly, we are called to be actively learning and studying our faith.  By doing so, we are showing our obedience to God.  Have you ever wondered why the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples, the ones who believed in him instead of those who doubted him?  If it were me, I would have appeared to my doubters to show them that I was real, yet Jesus appeared to those who were most obedient to him.  He rewarded their obedience to his teachings.  This is no different for us today.  Jesus reveals himself to those who are obedient to him.  If it seems that Jesus is absent, it is only because we are not following Christ the way we are called to do so.  The way we see Christ can be different for each of us... Some of us may see him in the laughter of a child, some may see him in nature, some may see him through worship, while others may seem him when they are deep in prayer.  Christ reveals himself to us differently based on our approach of studying our faith.  For the longest time, I thought once I had faith in Christ I thought I no longer had to be proactive, that Jesus would just reveal himself to me with little or no effort on my part.  I chose not to be proactive and dared God to prove Himself to me.  How selfish?! How immature?!  It took me awhile but I eventually figured out that God does not work this way.  We have to study Him, we have to seek Him if we want to see Him.  God rewards our words and deeds of obedience, He does not reward our complacency or selfish demands.  If that were the case, the resurrected Christ would have appeared to the Scribes, Pharisees, and hostile Jews and not the disciples.  Even though the disciples did not fully understand, they still obeyed Christ to the best of their abilities and they were rewarded because of it.  

So what is our reward?  Eternal life is the obvious answer but it is only part of the answer.  A relationship with Christ does mean eternal life but it also means that our life here on earth does not have to be a lonely one.  In verse 26 Jesus reminded the disciples, and us, that God will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit to be with us.  Verse 27 Jesus tells us that he gives his peace to us.  A kind of peace that is unattainable through anything else.  And finally, Christ’s enduring message of love is what binds us to God, God to us, and us to each other.  It is this love that unites us as people whom God sent His son to die for.  Eternal life, Peace, Love and the Holy Spirit are the rewards given to each of us.  Sometimes this does not seem to do much for us but Jesus adds his own disclaimer, “I do not give as the world gives.”  Gifts of unimaginable wealth and happiness would be what we expect but Jesus does not give as the world gives.  Jesus gives eternal life, love, peace, and the Holy Spirit; all of which are not of this world.  When we go looking for these things in this world that we will come up empty.  So much of our lives is based on what car we drive, what house we live in, or how much money we have in the bank but Christ does not care about any of these things.  My goal for you today is that you leave here knowing that we cannot demand God to bless us, we must study God in the hopes that we begin to see Him in different aspects of our lives.  Before I started to get back to my faith, I did not see God in scooping manure out of a barn but now I do.  I did not see God in the beauty of sunset but now I cannot help but to pray when I see it.  I failed to see God in many aspects of my life but I wasn’t looking.  Once I started to seek Him, to study Him again it was more than apparent that He had always been there.  We get so caught up in the busyness of life that we fail to take moments to see God.  When we start missing God in those moments that is when we become lonely, we start to feel that God has left us.  The truth is that He is, and always has been, there but we stop seeing Him.  We must be students of our faith in order see God for what He is.

This leads me to my last point, do not be afraid to be selfish when it comes to your faith.  Maybe God is evident in one aspect of your life but not in others.  Well ask God to reveal Himself to you everywhere, in everything you do.  Be selfish in the sense that you want God to be apart of all that you.  The word selfish carries a negative connotation as it should but when it comes to your faith, do not be afraid to be selfish.  God is selfish in the sense He wants to be involved in every part of who you are.  Why can’t you be selfish in the same manner?  If you are selfish in your faith in the manner I have described, then I promise you won’t be lonely.  Your ability to see God will increase tenfold.  I am standing here in front of you today in the hopes that you believe what I am telling you but if you don’t my hope is that you remember what I am saying so that when you do see the face of God, you will believe.  Our faith is not a snapshot of our greatest obedience for God in a given moment, it is a journey that may take awhile.  We may go through difficult times but the one thing God promises is that we do not have to go through them alone.  God has made a home, He is living in your heart, whether you acknowledge Him or not, He is there.  If you choose to accept His love for you, you may do so today by coming forward or right there from your seat.  Ask God to make His presence known to you.  Tell Him that you want Him to be in your life, in all the facets of your life.  Your reward is not wealth or unshakable happiness; instead, your reward will be eternal life, it will be peace, it will be love, and it will the Holy Spirit.  A significant part of human nature is our search to find an understanding but they more we obey God, the more we will understand Him and each other.  The person who walks in God’s way inevitably walks with God and that is what we are all searching for.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” is what verse 27 says and when walking with God, it is much easier to not fear, it is much easier to not be troubled.  Be a student of your faith, be selfish in your faith, and seek God so you can walk with a savior who loves, who saves, and who gives peace.  Amen.