I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts.
The earth is filled with your love, O Lord.
Teach me your decrees.
Do good to your servant according to your word, O Lord.
Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I obey your word.
You are good, and what you do is good.
Teach me your decrees.
Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart.
Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your law.
It was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees.
The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
And the second reading is John chapter 14, verses 1 to 17.
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God.
Trust also in me.
In my Father's house are many rooms.
If it were not so, I would have told you.
I'm going there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me,
that you also may be where I am.
You know the way to the place where I am going.
Thomas said to him,
Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?
Jesus answered,
I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.
From now on, you do know him and have seen him.
Philip said,
Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.
Jesus answered,
Don't you know me, Philip, even after I've been among you such a long time?
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, show us the Father?
Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words I say to you are not just my own.
Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work.
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
Or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
I tell you the truth.
Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.
He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father.
And I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.
If you love me, you will obey what I command.
And I will ask the Father and he will give you another counsellor to be with you forever.
The spirit of truth, the world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him.
But you know him for he lives with you and he will be in you.
Good evening everyone.
Great to be here.
Let me pray that God would help us understand his word tonight.
Father God, we do pray for your spirit to be with us now.
Your word says here in John that your spirit will come and lead us into all truth.
And so we ask that you might do that for us now.
Lord, you know the wrestle that has happened over this passage.
And so Lord, I pray that in spite of my inadequacies that you would pour out your spirit to help us to understand it.
Bring us clarity as you promised you will by your spirit so that we might see the glory of Jesus and love him and love his word and seek to obey him.
And we ask it for your sake.
Amen.
The departures level at an international airport is very different than the arrivals level.
In departures, if you've been there, you'll notice that there are tears, apprehension, uncertainty, even fear on some people's faces.
But on the arrival level, there is joy and hugs and kisses and balloons and gifts and all sorts of other stuff like that.
What I've noticed is on the departure level, just before you go through into customs where only those who hold tickets are allowed to go,
people tend to linger in that area, making it very frustrating for people like myself who just want to go through.
People linger and there's just hugs and there's tears and the last sort of hugs.
And we come back and we have another hug and it's like, oh, come on, you know, just get on with it.
But it's particularly, in fact, last time I went there, there was customs guys shooing people out who decided they're going to follow their family in.
It's particularly disappointing or heart-wrenching, I suppose, when you see children saying goodbye to mum or dad or someone like that
and just tears running down their face and they just can't go through that door and follow them through into the building.
However, there's not the same kind of lingering at arrivals.
You don't want to get to the doorway to walk out of customs.
Go, let's get a last glimpse of customs before I cruise on out into the arrival hall.
It's like, no lingering, get my bag, you know, get out of the way, dogs.
I just want to go straight through.
No lingering, get straight to the people who are awaiting me at the other end.
Well, I don't know, I'm assuming you've picked this up in the last couple of weeks,
but when we look into John 13 to 17 as we are at the moment, we are in the departure terminal.
That's where we are.
Jesus is spending the last few hours with his disciples before his departure,
before he's arrested, his trial and his execution.
And so the atmosphere in the large upper room is tense.
It's unhappy.
It's uncertain.
The news that Jesus was leaving was the worst possible news for the disciples.
The thought of life without Jesus was almost too much for them to bear.
Of course, the irony is on this night that it is Jesus who is about to go to the agony of the cross.
And as it says in chapter 13, verse 21, it is Jesus who is troubled in spirit in this moment.
But on the night where it would have been appropriate for the disciples to comfort Jesus
and to give Jesus some kind of support, they can only see their loss.
On the night that he's going to taste death on their behalf,
he speaks to their confused bewilderment, their fickle faith, their dim vision and their self-absorption.
He begins in verse 1,
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God.
Trust also in me.
To demand untroubled hearts would be cruel and it would be empty advice
if Jesus hadn't also spoken on the basis of which such untroubled hearts could be accomplished.
And he says it there.
It's trust.
He says, trust in God the Father.
Trust in himself.
Trust in God.
Trust in me.
Is what he says.
And it is a massive claim.
Jesus is saying something very significant about himself with that statement.
But I suspect it has slipped right by the disciples.
And so what Jesus does is, in these first few verses of John 14,
is he reviews some of his earlier teaching on who is Jesus for the slow learners,
which is basically all of them.
Which is quite comforting for people like me, that there are others out there as well.
And so in verses 2 to 7,
Jesus lays out three great truths that must be believed
if the disciples have any comfort at all with the departure of Jesus.
Three big truths about Jesus and what he will achieve.
So firstly, that Jesus isn't just simply going away,
but that his going away is to his Father's spacious house
and in getting there to prepare a place for his disciples.
So it says there,
In my Father's house are many rooms.
If it were not so, I would have told you I'm going there to prepare a place for you.
So that's a verse which, most often than not,
it's used in funerals to bring some sort of comfort.
But the bottom line here of Jesus' assurance to the disciples
is that although he is returning to the Father,
he will one day be united with his disciples again
because he goes to prepare a place for them,
a permanent dwelling in the presence of God.
Well, why does he need to do that?
Why does he need to clear off?
Why does he need to depart in order to go and do that?
I mean, at the beginning of John's Gospel,
it says that Jesus is God's agent in creation.
He speaks and worlds come into existence.
So why is it taking so long to fix up a few rooms?
Or maybe quite a few rooms.
2,000 years at the moment.
The key is this.
The departure of Jesus in John's Gospel is referred to a number of different ways,
but it all refers to one event.
His return to his Father by way of the cross and resurrection.
So Jesus is not saying,
I'm going back to the Father's house so that after I get there,
I'll be able to get some rooms ready for you,
make up some beds and put out some flowers or whatever it might be.
Instead, he's saying,
I'm returning to the Father's house in order that the very return may be the way I prepare the place.
It is the way he departs which prepares the place for us in the Father's house.
The rooms with God are prepared via the cross.
That is the truth of his departure.
And if it is believed,
then their trust in God and in Jesus will triumph over doubts and troubled minds.
That's the first thing they must believe.
The faith of these first disciples will be stable and strong in proportion
as it rests in Jesus,
as it does in God,
believing that Jesus' departure via the cross
was a return to the Father's presence,
a return to the Father's presence,
which has opened up the presence of God to them.
There's 12 guys sitting in a room with him.
11 now, actually.
The faith of 21st century disciples of Jesus
will be stable and strong in proportion
as it rests in Jesus,
as it does in God,
believing that Jesus' departure via the cross
was a return to the Father's presence,
a return that has opened up the presence of God for us.
The second truth that must be believed
that the disciples have any comfort is in verse 3.
And if I go to prepare a place for you,
I will come back and take you to be with me,
that you also may be where I am.
So what the promise here is,
Jesus will return and he will fetch his own
and take them to be with him.
It's an intensely personal promise.
I am going to prepare a place for you.
I will come back and take you to be with me,
that you also will be where I am.
What troubles the disciples here
is the sense of abandonment.
But Jesus makes it clear that his departure
is the necessary preparation for them joining him.
He assures them that they are not losing him,
they are in fact gaining him.
He will come back and he will take them to be where he is.
It is the supreme hope of the church.
That Christ will come back
and he will take us to be with him.
But in waiting for him now,
we must never lose sight of the most blessed thing
about the second coming of Christ.
It is to be with Christ.
That's the best bit.
It is true that when Jesus comes back,
this world as we know it will wind up.
History will end.
Moral chaos and human rebellion will cease.
It is true that the second coming of Christ
means that this world is not out of control.
It has a future.
It's heading somewhere.
It has purpose.
It has meaning.
But the greatest thing about the second coming of Christ
is it means that we will be with Christ.
We get Christ.
We get Jesus, the presence of Jesus.
It's not even that we get heaven per se.
It is not the arrival of final and decisive judgment.
It is not the end of disease and sickness and pain.
It is Jesus to see him face to face.
The third truth that must be believed
if the disciples did have any comfort with Jesus' departure
is in verse 4.
You know the way to the place where I'm going.
Thomas said to him,
Lord, we don't know where you're going,
so how can we know the way?
Jesus answered,
The third comfort is that Jesus' disciples know the way to the place where he's going.
But apparently they don't.
You see, you're confused Thomas pipes in,
although the others are probably thinking it,
in verse 5.
Lord, we don't know where you're going,
so how can we know the way?
There's something very attractive about this Thomas.
He doesn't bluff.
He doesn't sort of sit back there and, you know,
rub his chin and nod wisely
as if he knows exactly what Jesus is saying
when he's got no idea what he's saying.
But he's actually probably more ignorant than he thinks.
Notice what he says here.
Have a look at it.
Verse 5.
We don't know where you are going,
so how can we know the way?
Not only does he not know the way to the Father's presence,
but he's making the assumption
that the way that Jesus gets to the Father's presence
is the way that the disciples get to the Father's presence.
If Jesus had gone that way,
then we would naturally just follow Jesus.
And so Jesus,
sensitive to Thomas' misunderstanding,
stops talking about his own departure
and way to the Father
and starts talking about the way Thomas
and the disciples must travel.
Verse 6.
I am the way
and the truth
and the life.
No one comes to the Father
except through me.
The way of Jesus to the Father's presence
is via the cross
and the way of the disciples
to the Father's presence
is Jesus.
It's Jesus.
He is the way.
He who was betrayed by an apostle,
disowned by another apostle,
abandoned by the rest of the apostles,
condemned by lying witnesses.
This Jesus is the truth.
It's not just that he speaks truth,
but that he is truth.
He is truth in bodily form
just as he was loving bodily form
and holiness in bodily form.
He unveils the truth of God.
He reveals God to us.
And he who died condemned
through his death
allows others to have life.
The triple claim here is staggering.
He is not saying that he is another way
to the Father's presence.
He is saying he is the way
and the truth
and the life.
There is no other option.
This is the answer to Thomas' question.
He is the way.
Jesus is the way to the Father
for the disciples.
And with that statement,
we have now gone back to verse 1.
Trust in God.
Trust also in me.
Stable, serene, triumphant faith
between the first and second comings of Jesus
has Jesus as its object.
But is that enough comfort for the disciples?
Great to know Jesus.
You're going to depart.
You're going to open up a way.
We're going to get to the Father's presence.
You're preparing some rooms for us.
Fantastic.
But it all just seems so distant.
It seems so future.
What about now, Jesus?
The reality is we're still sitting in the departure lounge
and you're going to leave.
You're still going.
What about now?
Verse 16.
And I will ask the Father
and he will give you another counselor
to be with you forever.
The spirit of truth.
Jesus says to his grieving disciples,
I am going to the Father
and he will send you another counselor.
Another, meaning literally,
of the same kind.
Doing just the work that Jesus was doing.
Just like Jesus.
And according to verse 16,
this other counselor
is going to come and be with them forever.
This other counselor will not depart
like Jesus has departed.
Is that not what you need
when you're feeling abandoned?
Is it not what you need?
Is this not a comfort to the disciples,
do you think?
A permanent counselor?
Any ideas?
The odd nod of a head would be great.
Is this not what the disciples needed?
I don't think so.
I'll tell you why.
I'm standing at the door in the customs.
I've got my ticket.
Nat's got her ticket.
And we say to Isabel and Phoebe,
we're going away.
We're going away for a while.
We just got some business we need to attend to.
We'll sort it out.
And when we come back at some point,
we'll take you with us
and you'll come with us.
But we don't know when that will be,
but it'll be sometime in the future.
What do you mean?
They're going to be staggered at that point.
But don't worry.
We're going to...
We've already asked a relative
who you've never met before
to come in and look after you
until we're gone.
Oh, fantastic.
Do you think that's great news for them?
They want...
Jesus is what they want.
And so it's not a comfort
until you get verse 16
and you match it with verse 23
and the staggering implications.
If anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching.
My Father will love him
and we,
Jesus and the Father,
will come to him
and make our home with him.
Notice the word home here.
Let's just hone in on this.
If you haven't got a Bible open,
you really need a Bible open.
Seriously.
And because I'm going to get to a point
later in the sermon,
you're going to feel guilty
if you haven't got a Bible open right now.
Notice the word home in verse 23.
It is a rare word in the New Testament.
In fact,
it is only used in one other place
in the New Testament.
And it's used in verse 2 of John 14
where it is translated rooms.
In verse 2,
Jesus says that by going to the cross,
he is preparing a room,
a dwelling place with the Father.
But in verse 23,
Jesus is saying
that he's going to prepare in us
a home,
a dwelling place,
a room for him and his Father.
The departure of Jesus
to the Father via the cross
is going to prepare two things.
A room for us
with the Father and the Son
in heaven
in eternal bliss
and a room for the Father
and the Son
with us here
on earth
now.
That
is good news.
That is what they wanted to hear.
Not just a place with God
at some point in the future,
good thing,
great thing to look forward to,
but a place for God
with us here
right now.
The coming of the Spirit
who will never leave
will unite
the Father and the Son
with the disciple.
Jesus is
not distant.
His disciples
have not been abandoned.
I actually think
that Jesus
is saying here
to his bewildered disciples
when the Spirit comes
it will in fact
be better.
He actually says
before you're good
that I depart.
And I think he's saying
the reason is
because when the Spirit comes
it will be better.
It's not going to be as good
as when we get to heaven.
That's going to be fantastic.
But it's going to be better
than what it was
for the last three years.
His presence
will be permanent
with us
is what he's saying.
And so how do we,
how does the Spirit do that?
How does the Spirit
connect us
so that we have
the presence of Christ
and the Father now?
Well,
now that we know
the way
to the Father's presence
is Jesus
and for the Father's presence
with us
is Jesus.
we also need to remember
the Holy Spirit
has come
so that we will not forget
that Jesus is also the truth.
Verse 26,
the Counselor,
the Holy Spirit
and the Father
will send in my name
will teach you all things
and will remind you
of everything
I've said to you.
The Spirit will teach
the disciples
referring specifically
to these 12 dudes,
11 dudes
sitting with Jesus
in his upper room
teach the disciples
all things
and remind them
of everything
that Jesus said.
See,
and this is fantastic
because up until this point
these blokes
have been
basically quite confused.
They have been
characterized
by misunderstanding
as to the person
of Jesus.
We even see it
at the beginning there
of John 14.
And all of this
is going to change
when the Spirit arrives.
That's one of the reasons
it's going to be better
when the Spirit comes
because there will be clarity
on the person of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit
will come
and will teach
from exactly
the same syllabus
that Jesus
has been teaching from.
He will,
as it says in verse 26,
remind them of
and take them back
to the teaching of Jesus.
The Spirit would ensure
that these original disciples
would not forget Jesus,
would ensure
that they have
absolute clarity
on Jesus,
on his life
and his commandments
and his teaching.
salvation.
Well, that's great for them
but what about us?
I mean, I wasn't there
when Jesus taught.
I didn't walk with Jesus
and eat with him
and listen to him
and
how do we know
the presence of Jesus now?
How can I get his comfort
while I wait for him
to return now?
Well,
I think it's
verse 21 of 14,
Jesus says
that he will
show himself
and in chapter 17
verse 20,
Jesus prays this prayer.
My prayer is not
for them alone,
talking about
his original disciples,
the ones that are
sitting there
in the room with him.
I pray also
for those
who will believe
in me
through
their
message.
Jesus
reveals himself
to us
through
their
message.
The same Holy Spirit
that helped them
to remember
Jesus
is the same Holy Spirit
that helps us
to see Jesus
in what they have
written.
We experience
the presence
and the promise
and the comfort
and the truth
of Jesus
in what they
have written.
The Word of God.
The Spirit
takes
the Word of God
and makes it
come alive.
That is one reason.
In fact,
I would suggest
it's the main reason
why we have
Christ-centered
Bible saturation
as one of our
core values.
Jesus.
Why do I have
that?
Because I want
Jesus.
I want the
presence of
Jesus.
Preaching,
journaling,
quiet times,
Bible study,
whatever you want
to call it,
they are all
the backbone
of stable faith.
Bible study.
The Bible is our
standard of faith
and conduct
and leads us
to know Jesus
and see Jesus
and believe Jesus
and trust Jesus
and treasure Jesus
and experience
the presence
of Jesus.
you see,
we don't just gather
here week after
week just to have
the Bible
explained.
It's not just about
gathering knowledge.
I mean,
I used to do that
for many years
of my ministry.
I'd get up
and I'd pray,
Lord,
help me to explain
the Bible.
Well,
that's good,
but that's one step
back.
I mean,
you explain the Bible
so that you might
see Jesus.
That's the point.
that's why you've
got to work hard
to explain it well
so that you might
see Jesus.
Explaining,
it's not just the end.
That's not the end of it.
The work of the Spirit
is not simply
the revelation
of truth to be known,
but that this clarity
might lead us
to something
so that we might
love Jesus
and treasure Jesus.
And so,
one of the clear marks
of the work
of the Spirit
in a Christian's life
is that they do,
in fact,
love Jesus
and savour Jesus
and treasure Jesus
and how do we know
if we love Jesus?
Jesus,
in fact,
makes it four times,
he says,
it makes it very clear
in John 14
what it means
to love him.
How do we know
that we love him?
Verse 15,
if you love me,
you will obey
what I command.
Verse 21,
whoever has my commands
and obeys them,
he is the one
who loves me.
Verse 23,
if anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching.
Verse 24,
he who does not love me
will not obey
my teaching.
The test
of authentic love
of Christ
and the clear evidence
that you are united
with Christ
by the Spirit
is whether you obey
his commands
and his teaching.
The possibility
here for these disciples
of the abandonment
of Jesus
was just shocking
for them.
He speaks
to their confused
bewilderment,
their fickle faith,
their dim vision,
their self-absorption
and how does he
deal
with
their great concern
that Jesus
is departing?
By focusing
the attention
on himself.
He doesn't say,
okay guys,
I'm going,
but I'm going to send
a counselor,
he'll take care of you,
he'll sort of like
sort things out
until I come back again.
He's going to be
my proxy.
that's not the comfort.
And it's not
some sort of
cheap comfort,
a simple slap
on the back
and a quick hug
and a nice little
card or a casserole
for them to take home.
Comfort for the
disciples here
is intensely
focused on the
person of Jesus.
And the Spirit
will come
to make sure
the spotlight
stays on the way,
the truth
and the life.
And so if you are
a struggling disciple
right now,
I want you to know
that there are
no quick fixes,
no shortcuts,
no techniques,
no extra spiritual
blessing
that will make you
stable,
that will make you
comforted
as a disciple
of Jesus
while you wait
for him to come.
you want to know
Jesus,
you want to love
him,
you want to
treasure him,
you want to
experience
the presence
of Christ,
you'll find it
in the scriptures.
The Spirit
of God
will make
those words
on pages
come alive
and you
will see
Christ.
That's the work
of the Spirit,
one of the works
of the Spirit.
There are no
quick fixes,
just the earnest
discipline searching
the scriptures
in the power of
the Spirit
to see Christ,
to know his
presence and his
comfort.
I work hard
not just to do
Bible study,
I work hard
to commune
with Christ
in the scriptures,
to commune
with Christ
in the scriptures.
It's a real shame
that he's very
hard to understand
but it would all
do us very well
to read John
Owen.
He's incredibly
difficult to
understand
but it would do
us very well
to read
John Owen's
communion with
God.
If we are not
consistently
searching the
scriptures for
communion with
God,
then our
faith will
be fickle,
we will be
disillusioned,
discouraged,
we will feel
abandoned by
God
regularly.
And so it's
a great concern
for me that
over 70% of
Christians don't
see the Bible
as crucial for
their faith.
They don't see
the Bible as
crucial for
their faith.
In the
struggles and
the battles of
living in this
world as
followers of
Christ, we
are not
alone.
Jesus is
with us
and the
Spirit is
helping us to
see Jesus in
the scriptures
and if you're
not reading the
scriptures, you're
not seeing
Jesus.
You won't
find him
somewhere else.
God, I
want to
see the
truth.
He is the
truth and he is
the life and the
Holy Spirit makes
sure that we know
it, that we know
Jesus and see Jesus and
that we experience his
presence and his
comfort.
He has not
abandoned us.
If you are fickle,
you're struggling in
your faith, pick up
your Bible and read it
and ask God, the
Spirit, to bring
illumination that you
might see the glory of
God in the face of
Christ.
Let's pray.
Father God, pour out
your Spirit upon your
people here, we pray, so
that when we come to
your word, it's not
just an intellectual
exercise of just
wanting to
understand a book.
God forbid that we
would stop there.
Father, we pray that we
would earnestly study
your word, not just to
simply gain knowledge,
but to commune with
you.
Father, give us, I
pray, mercifully give
us a glimpse of what,
give us a taste of what
that's like in such a
way that we would
desire not just a taste,
but to desire to feast
on you and your word,
that we might see the
glory of you in the
face of Christ.
And we ask it for your
sake.
Amen.