Well, good morning. It's good to see you all.
Our text today is in John chapter 14. We're going to continue in our series in the book of John.
We're starting, we're looking at John 14, starting in verse 15.
This is Jesus' farewell discourse. This is the last week of his life.
He's preparing his disciples for what is coming, which is both the reality of his crucifixion and his resurrection,
but also the mission then that he will leave them with to bear witness to him in the world.
And so we'll see as we look at this passage this morning, Jesus exposes a problem that the disciples may face,
a provision that he is promising, and then we'll look for a few minutes at what that provision will produce in our lives.
So there's my three Ps for you if you want, if you're doing an outline, a problem, a provision, and what is produced by that provision.
So let's look at the passage together, and then we'll pray, and then we will dive in.
John chapter 14, verse 15.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you as orphans.
I will come to you, yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.
Because I live, you also will live.
In that day, you will know that I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?
And Jesus answered him, 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.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father who sent me.
Let's pray together.
Lord, we come this morning to your word, and we ask for your help,
because we know that in our human, natural minds, Lord, we are unable to understand what you are saying to us.
But we praise you that we are not left alone.
Lord, even in this passage, you promised the gift of your Holy Spirit,
Lord, who illumines our hearts and our minds,
and gives us understanding of things that we could not understand otherwise.
And we thank you that your word is not so opaque and not so confusing,
that we cannot understand it with your help,
but in fact that you have revealed yourself so that we might know you,
and in knowing you that we might love you,
and worship you as you deserve.
God, I pray for us this morning as we look at this passage
that you will help us to receive your word.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
So there's a function in Microsoft Word that I've always wondered about.
You may have seen it.
It's called the widow-orphan function.
Do you know what it does?
It means that when you're writing on a piece of page,
and you have a word that might be the only word at the end of a paragraph,
or the only line at the bottom of the page starting a new paragraph,
word will automatically reformat it for you
so that those lines or those words will not be alone.
They will not be left singular, isolated from the rest of the text,
but that they will be seen as a part of the text,
welcomed and gathered.
Jesus tells his disciples in the verses today,
he says, I will not leave you as orphans.
Now, we know that this is a feeling that maybe many of us have had
during this pandemic,
because during the pandemic, we have been isolated, alone,
left as the dangling line at the bottom of the page in many ways.
And we feel that, don't we?
We know that in many ways.
Some of us have literally been left as orphans in this world
because COVID has taken their parents.
Many of us have felt the pain of separation and distance and isolation.
And some of it has also felt like abandonment,
that even when we've been able to see some people,
many who we love, we haven't seen and wonder,
where'd they go?
And it's been hard, hasn't it?
It's been a hard season.
And maybe you feel that orphaned would be a decent word
for how you've experienced some of the pandemic today.
We often will feel this way.
Sometimes personal disappointment,
deep wounds, broken relationships,
loss will create this emptiness
and this sense of,
I'm alone in this world.
Jesus says,
I will not leave you as orphans.
I think there might be another sense in this passage as well
that Jesus is saying that to his disciples.
If you remember back from,
Pastor Nick preached last week
about doing and what Jesus promised in verse 12,
that the disciples would do greater works
than the works that Jesus did.
This is a great promise
that it's an amplification,
it's an implied condition of Jesus saying,
if you keep my word,
if you love me,
you will go
and as you carry out this mission
that I'm sending you on,
you're gonna extend and build
and see God build his kingdom
in amazing ways.
Now we need to be clear on one thing.
When we read these words,
like verse 15,
if you love me,
you will keep my commandments.
Our most natural reading in English
is that that's a causal effect.
If this, then this.
If this happens,
that will produce something else.
And we need to rethink
how we read these sentences
because I don't believe
they're actually causal.
I think they're correlations.
It means if this is true,
then this is also true.
And these things go together.
So loving and obeying his commandments
go together.
We'll see how important this is later
as we look at it.
But recognize that Jesus is telling his disciples,
you're gonna do great things.
You're gonna love me
and you're gonna obey my commandments.
And the disciples are thinking,
how is that gonna happen?
Judas has just left.
Peter's going to fail.
What in the world?
And I wonder if maybe some of us
feel that way
in our Christian lives as well.
Maybe we've tried to be obedient.
Maybe we've tried to love God.
Tried to be a faithful follower.
We've tried to read the Bible every day.
We've tried to pray every day.
We've tried to be patient with our kids
in every circumstance.
And if you're a parent,
you're starting to laugh
because we realize that none of us
can do these things perfectly.
And it feels overwhelming
and it becomes a burden.
It feels like Jesus has said,
you're gonna go and have to perform
perfectly in the world
and do all these great things for God.
And you're gonna do it on your own.
And maybe the disciples felt abandoned,
orphaned in that sense too.
Like your high school teacher,
it says,
I want you to go write a six-page paper
and tell me everything
that is important to know
about the country of China.
It's history, it's culture,
it's language, it's politics,
it's economics.
It's an overwhelming task.
How could I even begin
to understand all that,
let alone accomplish that
and produce what you're asking for?
And sometimes in our Christian lives,
particularly when we take it seriously,
we feel the same burden.
How could we ever do that?
It's overwhelming and defeating.
Our failures then define us,
our weakness defeats us,
and we often despair.
And we despair not only of trying,
but we despair of God himself.
This is a problem.
That many of us have.
But Jesus speaks to his disciples
and to us saying,
you are not alone in these things.
Not so will I leave you as orphans.
And this leads us then,
if this is the problem that we face,
this feeling of being orphaned,
both spiritually and just generally in life,
Jesus says,
here is the provision that I have for you.
Look with me in verses 16 and 17.
I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another helper
to be with you forever,
even the spirit of truth.
Jesus says,
I will not leave you alone,
but I will send another one,
another helper to come alongside.
Now, many of you probably know this,
but the Greek word there is paraclete.
And it's good to know
because it's not an easy word to translate.
Comforter, helper, teacher, guide, friend, advocate, counselor
are all different English translations
that try to get at what that word means.
And all of them capture some of it.
At its core, it probably means
one who comes alongside
to give aid,
to give encouragement,
to give strength.
One who is present
and actually able to give help.
And this is what Jesus is promising.
And the passage itself
gives us a lot of information
about this one,
this helper,
according to ESV,
who will come alongside with us.
Right?
First of all,
we see in verse 16
that he is not just a helper,
but he is another helper.
What does that mean?
He is another one like Jesus.
Jesus has been with his disciples.
How has he helped them?
He has spoken truth to them.
He has encouraged their hearts.
He has taught them.
He has given them examples.
He has seen them
and called them to take steps
in exerting his power.
They have experienced amazing things.
The disciples may be losing Jesus,
but he's saying,
you're not going to lose
what you've gotten
from me being with you
because I'm going to send another one
like me to come alongside.
And not only am I going to send one like me,
but I'm going to reaffirm
that he's going to come from the Father.
I'm going to ask that God
is going to come
and provide all that you need.
And not only that,
but he will be with you forever.
I'm not just giving you
a temporary or conditional gift.
And certainly it seems
at times in the Old Testament,
the Holy Spirit might come
and be on someone
for a season or for a task.
But in the New Testament,
the promise is that
he will come and be with us forever.
He will be a spiritual help
that the world cannot receive
nor see nor understand.
What in the world does that mean?
Well, remember in John's gospel,
the world is the system
that has rejected Jesus
and rejects God.
And so what Jesus is saying is
the Holy Spirit, God himself,
is going to come to the world
and of course they're not going to receive it.
They're not going to see it.
They're not going to understand it.
So they may dismiss
everything they see as luck,
circumstance, hard work,
human ingenuity, just chaos.
Whatever it is,
they're going to dismiss it
and not be able to see
the Holy Spirit for who he is
and what he does.
Remember what Jesus says in John 3,
the wind blows where it wishes.
You hear it sound,
but you do not know
where it comes from
or where it goes.
So it is with everyone
who is born of the Spirit.
But if you have eyes to see,
and Jesus is saying,
you as my disciples,
because you know me,
you will see this.
You will see the effects
and you will know
that it's the Holy Spirit.
And he is not just a Holy Spirit,
but he is a spirit of truth.
He will come and remind you.
We're going to learn more
about this next week
because it's the focus
of the passage right after this.
But like a spotlight,
Jesus is going to,
or Jesus says,
the Holy Spirit is going to shine
all of his light on Jesus
and Jesus' life and death
and resurrection
and his teaching
to illuminate the truth
for us as his followers.
And finally,
we need to recognize
that the Holy Spirit is personal.
In verse 17,
John explicitly uses
personal pronouns.
They are not impersonal.
They are not it.
It is he in those verses
to remind us
that the Holy Spirit
is not like the force,
mysterious mitochondrians
swimming around
in our bloodstream,
nor is it the effect
of gamma rays
that allow us
to turn green
and smash things.
It is not all,
there are lots of ways
in which we think
of these external powers
and it's none of those things.
The Holy Spirit
is a person,
the person of God
who will come
and in union with us,
come alongside of us
to work in us.
This is the doctrine
of the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit
that for all
who have placed
their faith in Christ
at the moment of salvation,
when God regenerates
our hearts,
when he declares us justified,
when we believe
and trust in Jesus
for the forgiveness
of our sins,
we get the gift
of the Holy Spirit
that he comes
and he is in us
and with us.
Jesus says,
I will not leave you alone,
but the Holy Spirit
will come
and he will come
alongside of you
and be in you.
And this is really exciting.
This is just the opening chapter.
We have five sermons
on the Holy Spirit
in the next eight weeks.
So hang on to your hat.
It's going to be really fun
as we explore
different aspects
of how the Holy Spirit
is sent to come
and what this is.
But what I want you to see
is that in the fear
of us living
as orphans
in this world,
Jesus says,
no,
I will send
the Holy Spirit
to come alongside you
and to be with you.
And what does this
produce in us?
What does this produce
in our lives?
If those are the things
that we see,
what does it produce?
Well, I think it produces
three things.
We see in verses 18 through 20,
Jesus is saying,
this is what's going to happen.
I'm going to go away
and then I'm going to be
raised from the dead
and you're going to see me again
for a little while
because I live,
you will live,
you will experience
the resurrection power
of being joined with me
but then I'm going to ascend
to heaven
and I'm going to ascend
to the Holy Spirit.
And this is what
the day of Pentecost is.
This is what the prophecy
that was read earlier
by Tosin
from Joel 2
was predicting
and speaking forward
saying,
this is the day
that's going to come
and when the Spirit comes
it's going to have
this tremendous power
that now is at work
throughout the world
until Jesus returns.
I think there are
three things
that the full effect
of the risen Savior
coming to us
by the Spirit
that we can see
in this passage.
So we're going to unpack
three implications,
three produce.
I'm gardening this.
I'm trying to garden.
Trying to grow things.
And the hope is that
they will produce things
that we'll be able to eat.
So what is it
that the Holy Spirit
wants to produce in us
by His coming?
Three things.
First,
we've mentioned it
but I want to spend
a little more time
thinking about it.
Verse 16,
He will be with you
forever.
The Holy Spirit
will come
to provide
for His disciples
and for us
security.
I think often
Christians live
with a fear.
Can I lose
the Holy Spirit?
what if I blow it?
No,
what if I really blow it?
No,
what if I really,
really,
really blow it?
The sin that's like
beyond the sin
that's acceptable.
What about like
people in the Old Testament
like King Saul
where the Spirit
left him
because of his
unfaithfulness?
If I'm a bad enough
Christian,
will God abandon me?
Friends,
what Jesus says is,
the Spirit
is not being given
because you are
a good enough Christian.
I am not sending it
to you because
you have performed
well enough
that I'm going to
give you this
second gift
or this second blessing.
The Holy Spirit
is going to be
given to you
because I ask
the Father
and He will send
it to you
because you are
connected with me.
This is good news.
Ephesians 1, 13,
the Apostle Paul
says it this way,
in Him,
that is in Jesus also,
when you heard
the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation
and believed in Him,
you were sealed
with the promised
Holy Spirit
who is the guarantee
of our inheritance
until we acquire
possession of it
to the praise
of His glory.
This image
is like a seal,
right?
A letter that
then wax was dripped
and then a signet
or a seal
was marked on it
saying,
this is from me
and this is mine.
And that's what God
does when He gives
to His children
His Holy Spirit.
He says,
these are mine.
You are mine
because of the Holy Spirit
and the gift of it.
And this is the security
that the New Testament
promises
to believers.
And this then leads
to the second thing,
the second produce
that we see
from the Holy Spirit
and that is a relationship.
Look with me
at 21 to 23.
We are now swimming
in the deep waters
of Trinitarian theology
and I am not going
to be able to parse
it all out for you today.
But we've talked
at the beginning
about how easy it is
to feel abandoned,
to feel alone
like an orphan
without anyone
in this world.
And these verses
remind us
in 21 through 23
that God is promising
through Jesus
something completely opposite.
They thought,
the disciples thought,
we know Jesus
in the flesh
in the person
but what's going to happen
when He's gone?
Look with me
at 21 through 23 again.
He says,
if you have
my commandments
and keep them,
He it is
who loves me
and he who loves me
will be loved
by my Father
and I will love him
and manifest myself
to him.
And then in response
to Judas' questions
He says,
everyone loves me,
keeps my word,
my Father will love him
and we will come to him
and we will make
our home with him.
We will stay
with him
forever.
Jesus is saying
the Holy Spirit,
this helper
will come alongside
and He will mediate
for us
this incredible truth
that when God calls us
to faith in Christ
He calls us
into a personal relationship
with the triune God
who created the universe.
It is a relationship
of love.
Jesus will love us.
The Father will love us.
The Holy Spirit
will mediate this love
to us
by dwelling in us.
And friends,
I know it's trite
and cliche
to talk about
having a personal
relationship with God
because it's been
kicked around
for 50 years
and because certainly
some people
have made professions
of having a personal
relationship with God
and yet their life
shows absolutely
no evidence
of it actually being true.
So we want to
acknowledge that.
And yet,
do you see
how intensely personal
this promise is
in this passage?
The spiritual presence
of God
is real.
We will make
our home
with you.
And this is not
just something
that we should think
about in our heads
to parse out.
It is something
to be felt.
Have you known
the presence of God
in your life?
Have you known
the Holy Spirit
whispering truths
in difficult times?
Have you ever,
as you experienced
God's creation,
felt that you weren't alone
but that God
was with you
rejoicing
in the creation
that He has made?
Have you known
those times
when you felt abandoned
by all others
in this world?
When God
has reminded you,
I am with you
always to the ends
of the age.
Now look,
friends,
I want to admit,
I don't always
feel it,
but I felt it enough
to know that it's true.
And on the days
that I don't feel it,
I can cling
to the promises
and the knowledge
that it's true
because I know
and have experienced
the reality
that God
is not just an idea
but a person
and He invites us
into a personal relationship.
1 Peter 1,
7 and 8
says this
about the believers
in Rome.
Though you have not
seen Him,
you love Him.
Though you do not
see Him now,
you believe in Him
and rejoice
with joy
that is inexpressible
and filled with glory,
obtaining the outcome
of your faith,
the salvation
of your souls.
This is the crazy thing
about this,
isn't it?
Because when we want
a relationship,
if I want a relationship
with Spondin,
I will sit down
and there's a person there
and I can talk to him
and he can respond to me
and we can have
that kind of relationship.
God is a spirit.
Jesus and His disciples
experience the kind of thing
that I'm able
to have with Spondin
and now Jesus is saying,
I'm going to go away
and I'm going to send you
a spiritual
person of the Trinity
to dwell with you
that you're going
to relate to.
Not exactly in the same way
but in a similar way,
in the same sense
of a personal relationship.
And I know that we struggle
with it.
I know that it's hard
to imagine
and yet the witness
of the church
throughout history
and the witness
of my own walk
with the Lord
is that it is real.
That God is a person
and that we can
commune
and fellowship
with Him
through His Holy Spirit.
Have a great joy.
And so the question
then we must ask ourselves
is do we have
a relationship
with God?
Or have we just
agreed to a certain
set of principles,
affirmed a certain creed,
or assumed
that going through
a certain set
of ritual actions
or acts of service
have created
a standing with God
but not a relationship?
Friends,
if that's true,
don't let those counterfeits
rob you
of the real thing.
Seek the Lord
while He may be found.
He is not far from you
and He will respond
if you ask Him.
So the first fruit
is security
and the second fruit
is relationship.
The third one,
finally,
is power.
Power to enable us
to obey
and to love.
You may have seen this.
It's sprinkled
throughout this passage,
right?
If you love me,
you will keep
my commandments.
Verse 15.
And then verse 21,
He says again,
whoever has my commandments
and keeps them,
he it is who loves me.
In verse 23 again,
if anyone loves me,
he will keep my word.
And again,
it's easy for us
to hear all these things
as conditionals.
Right?
You only have these things.
You only have the Holy Spirit.
You only have a relationship
with me
if you are good enough.
But it's not
a conditional statement.
It's a cord.
Jesus is painting
a portrait
of what it means
to know him.
If you know me,
my spirit will come to you.
You will have security.
You will have relationship.
And you will have power
to love me
and to obey me.
We talked about
at the beginning
how easy it is
for Christians
to think,
I'm trying to be good enough
on my own strength
that God will accept me
and I can experience
some of those good things.
How easy it is
to feel orphaned
and feel the terrible burden
of obedience
that we carry around.
The Spirit instead
produces in us
love and obedience.
When we have
a life-giving relationship
with God,
the Spirit comes
and changes us.
He turns our affection
so that increasingly
we love God
and the things
that God loves
and we hate
the things that He hates.
We pursue the things
that God values
and we find
as less and less
valuable to us,
less precious to us,
the things that
aren't interesting,
that are not of interest
in God's kingdom.
We grow
so that God becomes
the greatest treasure.
God becomes the thing.
What do you want?
If you could have one thing
on a deserted island,
what do I want?
I want God with me.
He becomes
my greatest treasure.
He becomes
my highest priority
in all of my relationships.
And it's not just
to love Him,
but in this then
comes the power
to obey Him.
Because as we love
the things that God loves
and hate the thing
that God hates,
we increasingly
are transformed
to have strength
to do the things
that God calls us to
because living
in His kingdom
comes,
puts us in a position
of being parallel
with what His commands are.
As we love His kingdom,
we will say,
we want the things
that God wants
and we will pursue them
and we will not do
the things
that lead to destruction
and death.
When we
have the Holy Spirit,
He is able
to teach us
and change our hearts
and empower us
to have the fruit
of the Spirit.
That's a whole other sermon.
Go read Galatians 5.
But that's something
that God will produce
in us.
And yes,
there is us
striving for those things,
but we are striving
with all the power
that God gives
by His Holy Spirit.
It is us working
out our salvation,
but it is because
God is at work
in us
that we can do
these things.
And this is what
the Holy Spirit
gives to us.
not by performance,
but by daily
dependence on Him.
What does that look like?
How do we pursue
obedience and love
for God?
Well,
just like we entered
into a relationship
with God,
we do it by faith.
We wake up
in the morning
and we affirm
that God is there
and that the Holy Spirit
lives in us.
We admit our need.
We confess
that we are unable
to live
the life
that God would want us
to live that day
apart from Him.
We pray
for God's help
and we ask Him.
And then we walk
out into the world
with confidence
that God is with us
and that God
will empower us
to live the life
He wants to that day.
And we don't just do it
once in the morning
and then leave it behind,
but it becomes
this thing that we do
throughout the day
as we have these moments
of temptation,
as we have these moments
of fear and worry,
as we have these moments
of being overwhelmed
and not being able
to do what we think
we ought to do
to please God.
We stop again.
We confess our need.
We ask God to help us
and then we move ahead
in faith
that God will be able
to do us.
And when we live
a life like that,
then pursuing obedience
is no longer a duty,
but it's a delight.
Then we no longer
are working
to build a resume
so that God
would accept us,
but we do it
simply to please
the one that we have loved.
We do it not
to make ourselves great,
but to make God great
and not to look good
in the eyes of others,
but to let others
see God in us.
Friends,
this is a great hope.
Just as He spoke
to His disciples
on that day,
He speaks to us
and He says,
I will not leave you
as orphans,
but I will ask the Father
and He will send you
a helper,
and that one will come
and provide for you
all that you need
for security,
for relationship,
for love,
a life of love
and obedience
that will bring glory
to God.
For those of you
who are here this morning
who are seeking
to know Christ,
ask the Holy Spirit
to be at work in you.
Let Him draw you
to the truth of Christ
and into the love of Christ.
Let Him lead you
to faith,
believe in Christ
for your salvation.
And if you're here
this morning
and you have known Christ
but have been one
who's carried great burdens,
God has not abandoned you.
He has given you
His Holy Spirit
to empower you.
Cultivate this dependent life,
ask Him for your help,
and believe
that He has promised
and that He is able.
Let's pray.
Lord, we invite you now
just as you promised
your disciples
to make yourself
manifest to us
through your Holy Spirit.
Lord, that we would know you.
Lord, there's so many ways
in which you are at work
that we do not acknowledge.
Lord, we pray this morning
that you would help us.
Help us to see your Spirit
and help us to know,
Lord, that rather than abandon,
Lord, you have come.
Come in your Holy Spirit
to work in us
for our good
and for your glory.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.