Folks, lovely to see you today. Turn back to that chapter in John 14. It kind of feels like I should
be doing a Christmas sermon today, but we're not. We're going to do one more week in this part of
John's gospel, just as we finish off this little section. And what a wonderful passage it is.
Timely for us, I hope, as we enter this season, knowing where a lot of us are at, what stuff is
going on in our lives. And I hope this is just a massive comfort to you today as we gaze upon
Jesus and all his glory. So let me pray and we'll get into it together. Father, I thank you for your
word. And I pray, Father, in keeping with what we're going to be thinking about today, that your spirit
would come and he would illuminate these wonderful truths to us today, that we would capture something
more of your beauty and your plans and your good purposes for us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. So with the text open in front of you, here's a question for you. If you met the 10 years ago you,
what one bit of advice would you give yourself? So we had a guy called Joe Barnard with us at our
men's breakfast recently. That was the question I asked him. I said, what would the now early 50s
year old version of you say to the early 40s year old version of you were you to meet him? And the
answer that he gave, and if you were there, you'll know where I'm going with this. It was stay with me
for two reasons. Firstly, because he said he honestly didn't know because he was still actually
in his mid 40s rather than his mid 50s, as I'd wrongly assumed, which wasn't my finest moment,
as a lot of you keep pointing out. But still up for playing ball in all seriousness, he took me on
and he said this. He said, if I were to meet the 10 years ago version of me, I would say, and get this,
don't get distracted by all the trimmings in life. He said, I just got so distracted when I was young
growing up thinking about all the things that were ahead of me, getting on the property ladder,
landing the dream job, saving for the kids college fund, going on that all-inclusive holiday. If I
were to meet the 10 years ago me, I would say that they pale in comparison with taking up the invitation
to come and behold and know the living God. And that's what the kids today call a mic drop moment.
Yeah. Come and know the living God for there is no more thrilling a thing than we can possibly do
with our lives than to know him. And he was mirroring something that C.S. Lewis, a bit of a fan boy,
he said so many years ago. He said, it would seem that Jesus finds our desires not too strong,
but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drinking, sex and ambition when infinite
joy is offered to us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he
cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. And then get this, we are far too
easily pleased. And so into our all-too-easily-pleased world comes this loving invitation from Jesus
to come and embrace the most wonderful possibility that could ever be held out to us in life.
And remember that John 14, if you were here last week, this is all about assurance. Right? Jesus has
told his disciples that he's going. And the big question in their minds is how will we experience
knowing him when he's not physically around? Or is what he's telling us effectively that it's time to
buy a photo frame, stick his photo in it, put it on the mantelpiece, and now life just becomes talking
about the wonderful memories that we have of him. Sitting around drinking teas, I'm sure they did in the
first century saying, do you remember the time when? Do you remember the time when Jesus did that?
Is that what life is now? But see Jesus comfort them at verse 18. And I think this is the key for this
little section here. He says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.
And you ask yourself, how? Well, it's because of the one who Jesus says that presumably as he dies
on the cross, he ascends to heaven and he's at the right hand of the Father, the one that he will ask
the Father, verse 16, to send. The Holy Spirit. So the third person of the Godhead. Remember our God,
the God of the Bible, one God in three equal yet distinct persons. The God of the Bible is wonderfully
triune. And it's important to know that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a force.
Okay. He's not some kind of divine red bull that gives you wings.
Am I splitting theological hairs? Let me tell you why that matters. It matters two reasons. First of
all, because that's what the Bible says, talks about a he, but it also matters because this is all about
a relationship with God, relationship with a person. Now the Greek word there is paraclete. Now some of
your versions, your translations might use different words there. If you've got it in front of you, you
might see the word helper or counselor or advocate. Let me just say they're all valid. I think the reason
is that there is no one English word that adequately captures everything that's contained in that Greek
word. But the word, the term is used to describe somebody who is sent and who comes alongside in
order to help. And notice there's another helper. This is going to be another Jesus as it were.
Now remember what we saw last week. We saw our mistakes won't jeopardize the future.
We saw that our limits won't hinder the mission. This is what Jesus was saying to his disciples.
And this week, hear Jesus say that our frailty won't prevent his presence.
Now it was Charles Spurgeon, who was a famous preacher down in London in the early mid-18th century.
He once did a kid's talk at his church and he said, children all gather around. So they gathered
and what he did is he got a basin of water and he put his hands in the basin and he was silent for
a minute. And then he turned to the kids and he said, kids, why am I drowning?
And one little girl piped up in the front door and she said, you're not drowning because your head's
not in the water. And he said, precisely. Because if your head's okay, if your head's alive, the rest of
your body is alive. And that's what Jesus means, verse 19, when he says to his disciples, because
I live, you also will live. He shares his life with his people. And that means that as weak as you
might be here feeling today, both physically, and I know the cold is doing the rounds at the minute,
okay, but also maybe how you're feeling inside. As broken as you might be, as weak as you might be,
as worried as you might be today, Jesus, our living head, has not left his people on their own.
Friends, he is not a savior who shortchanges his people.
And make no mistake, what is described in John 14 is nothing less than the greatest gift that the
crucified, risen, living and reigning Jesus has given to his people.
Now, four things that Jesus wants us to know about the Holy Spirit, and we're going to rattle through
these real quick. But they are so profound. Here's the first one. He inhabits us. So he's the one,
verse 17, through whom, and get this, our three-in-one God comes to live in the very hearts of his people.
As we're going to think about in the weeks to come, about who he is, Emmanuel, he is God with us.
With the sending of the Spirit, this promise to be God with us, it kicks on to new levels.
Now, a little English lesson here.
Notice the preposition.
Okay, remember the cat sat on the mat. That's the preposition, the on, right?
Notice the preposition here. In the Old Testament, generally speaking, the Holy Spirit,
he comes on people to accomplish a certain job.
Think of Samson. It's a good example from the Old Testament.
But now, from the very moment that we believe, the very moment that we put our faith in Christ,
he comes to live in his people.
So the Spirit, having opened our eyes to the truth of who Jesus is,
now resides in us, not as a casual dweller,
not as somebody who is there, and controversial this week, I know,
who's there on a short-term lease arrangement.
The Spirit comes as a permanent dweller into the lives of God's people.
He doesn't just have the keys.
He doesn't just have access.
No, his name is on the title deeds of our lives.
Which means that if you are a Christian here today,
you've got to hear Jesus say to us
that the most important thing about you today,
the most defining feature of your life right now,
is not who you think you are,
how you think you're feeling,
or what you think you have on earth below.
The most important thing about us is what Jesus says is true of us
in the heavenly places above.
He has not left us as orphans.
We were meeting so many people in the States
when we were there a couple of, a year and a half ago,
who adopted.
The lady who took us in, the five of us,
for the five weeks that we were with them,
adopted a girl from Romania,
a boy from Romania, rather.
Remember she telling us about the process,
going all the way over to get him,
doing all the legal stuff,
bringing him all the way back,
and in that moment, just,
his future completely changed.
Adopted into their family,
new home,
new way of living,
new customs.
Through his work on the cross,
we have been adopted into the very family of God
as sons and daughters.
The father didn't send the son to save us,
dear friends,
and then put us on probation period in the relationship,
saying, let's give it six months,
and we'll see how it goes.
Because where would any of us be
if that's what he had done?
Hear the definitive and decisive way
which Jesus crafts the words of verse 23,
and we will come to them,
and we will make our home with them.
And that's you today.
If your faith is in this Christ,
he lives in you by his spirit.
I love this by a man called J.I. Packer,
who went to be with the Lord a couple of years ago.
In his book, Knowing God,
he writes this,
to be right with God the judge is a great thing,
but to be loved and cared for by God the Father
is greater.
He inhabits us.
And secondly, he enables us.
Jesus talks, verse 23,
do you see that there,
about obedience to him.
And so here is the equation.
A spirit-filled believer equals a word-obeying believer.
And a word-obeying believer is a spirit-filled believer.
These two are like Sinatra's love and marriage.
They go together like a horse in carriage.
We don't obey to get his love.
No, salvation is not a I'll scratch your back
if you scratch mine kind of deal.
We are saved by grace.
Jesus is a savior who comes at us
with no strings attached.
We had no desire to want to obey Jesus
before the spirit invaded our lives.
But the spirit awakened in us
and created a desire to live for Jesus,
stemming from that deep love for Jesus
that he put in our hearts.
And the spirit there,
dear friends,
he is in the business.
And I love this.
I think it was Dallas Willard
who came up with this phrase.
Love it.
He's in the business of renovating our hearts.
Just think of it,
and this is how I like to think of it.
I'm a simple person.
Think of it like
one of those home makeover shows.
I mean, when we first got married,
we loved nothing better
than to watch Homes Under the Hammer together.
You know what it is?
People of my generation do this all the time.
They buy the doer upper.
This is what goes on in this show.
Somebody buys at auction the doer upper
and the camera pans to the presenter
interviewing them in their new home.
And they honestly say,
what on earth did you see in this?
What did you see?
What were you thinking?
What's the plan?
And the person who bought the property,
the new owner tells them,
we're going to strip off the wallpaper.
We're taking the sink out.
New towels in the bathroom.
We're knocking down the stud wall,
patio in the garden.
And we've got plans for this.
I know you can't see them.
I know you think we're crazy,
but we've got plans for this.
Friends, God's blueprint for our lives,
and this is his will for our lives,
is that we would become more like Jesus.
More like him.
It's a question that we started asking ourselves
as a staff team on a Monday
when we debriefed last week.
Now, previously, a couple of years ago,
the question we used to say was,
what did we do last week?
And it's been so helpful for us
just to flip it around and say,
where did we see God's grace at work last week?
Where did we see the evidence of the Spirit working?
And the things that we come out with are
that I was chatting to that person,
and I heard them speak,
and do you know what?
They were not speaking like that six months ago.
That person, I heard about that decision
they made this week,
and they were not thinking like that
six months to a year ago.
Dear friends, I see the Spirit at work in you,
and the things that you think
don't make that much of a difference in your life,
the decisions that you're making,
the way that you want to live.
I'm trying not to name to embarrass people,
but we see it in you.
See it in you.
The ways that some of you come up
and ask for prayer after the service,
even in our growth group this week,
the prayer points that people were coming out with,
the Spirit is at work in us.
You see, that is the matrix
by which we need to assess growth in this church.
And the problem is, I think,
that so often we're impatient to see the results.
It's the world that we live in, isn't it?
You know, according to research,
the average person waits five seconds
for a website to load on the computer
before they call it quits.
We want to be able to microwave Christ-likeness.
Let me just say God is in no rush.
It doesn't work to our timetable.
His purposes and plans are so much bigger
and better than that.
And he does it through what we so often wrongly categorize
as the mundane things of our everyday lives.
Changing nappies, being a friend,
the mistakes that we make and how we respond to them,
your witness at work,
all of these are in fact the crucible
for character building.
You know, God is,
and I'm sure John Piper said this years ago,
God is up to a thousand different things
in our lives right now,
according to this purpose.
And we're probably aware of one of them.
He has got us right where he wants us.
He is teaching us the exact things
that we need to learn in this stage of life
that we're at.
And see, when you see it like that,
repentance, being convicted
that how we acted in that moment
or how we're living in this moment isn't right,
friends, that is not so much God outing us
as it is God wanting to redeem us.
What wonderful grace when his spirit in us
convicts us of a wrong way of living,
a wrong pattern of behavior,
and just draws us back to the person and work of Jesus.
That is incredible grace.
Let me just ask you a couple of questions
I asked myself this week.
Is there a way that you're not being obedient
to Jesus right now in your life?
What one area of your character
would you love to change?
You know, is there unforgiveness
that's lurking in your heart,
and you know what Jesus has called you to do,
but just the possibility of that
just seems so distant
and so far above what you can do in your own.
Let me just say, dear friends,
don't underestimate the spirit.
Maybe today would be the start of that road
where you go,
no, Lord, I want to change.
Think about it like this, okay?
Again, I'm simple.
This is how I think about it.
If you imagine the old us,
the flesh over here,
and Jesus and his ways over here.
Everything in my heart,
the old me,
wants to go that way.
But what the spirit does
is he puts the desires in our heart
to go that way.
And if you're in the fight of faith right now,
if you're struggling in the battle,
know that that is not a sign of failure.
That is a sign of the spirit at work in you.
That is a sign of faith.
And so can I urge you to go
with the grain of the spirit,
walk in step with the spirit.
If he's put something on your heart
that needs to change,
because do you see how much obedience
means to Jesus?
And it is us regaining our humanity
when we go towards him
and not towards ourselves.
Obedience is the visible expression
of that spirit-inspired, invisible faith.
Some of you might remember that old hymn
by William Cowper,
Oh, for a closer walk with God.
I love it.
It's just got that chorus in it.
The dearest idol I have known,
whatever that idol be,
help me to tear it from thy throne
and worship only thee.
The spirit, he enables us.
And thirdly, he teaches us, verse 26.
And this was a promise first made to the disciples.
We have to understand
that the spirit will help them
not just to recall the facts,
but to understand
the spiritual significance of the facts
as they remember who Jesus is.
It's why it's right for us
to refer to our Bibles
as being spirit-inspired.
As God spoke by his spirit
through human beings.
Just think about it like
wind in the sails of a boat.
But it's also got a huge application
for us today.
Do you know a great prayer to pray
as you pick up your Bible in the morning
is to pray,
Dear Holy Spirit,
residing in me,
take this word that you inspired
and illuminate its meaning to me.
Show me Christ.
Now, just think of his work
like the sun
when it hits a stained glass window.
You know, when there's no light,
you can't really make anything out
of the design and the color
and the way that it's been put together.
But see, when the sun is shining
right through it,
boy, is it beautiful.
The spirit, he teaches us.
He illuminates God's word to us.
And fourthly,
he assures us.
Look at what Jesus says
at verse 27
and hear these words
in our world today.
You know, the world can wish peace.
The world can hope for peace.
But only Jesus, dear friends,
can give peace.
Where do you look to for peace?
And I take it Jesus is talking there
not about just the calm in the world.
He's talking about inner peace,
I take it.
The one that knows
that we're right with God
and that he's for us as our father.
He's got us.
He holds us.
He loves us.
He knows us.
Where do you look to for your peace?
You know, here's how so often
it works out in my life.
And I wonder if you're the same.
What was the devil's line
in the Garden of Eden
in Genesis 3?
Did God really see?
And it's almost as if nothing's changed.
That is his play.
How often does that line
slip into my mind
so often in life?
You've blown it this time.
See you,
if they only knew
what goes on in your mind at times,
if they only knew,
did God really say
that you can be forgiven?
Did God really say
that he loves you?
Did God really say
that you've got
any kind of hope for tomorrow?
Did God really say
that he was going to build his church
and the gates of hell
would not prevail against it?
And it's the spirit almost
who jumps in at that point.
And it's why some of our translations
run with that word advocate.
Because this is a legal term.
Have you ever watched
one of those courtroom dramas, right?
I used to love them
back in the day
when I was training
to be a lawyer.
It's what the defense lawyer
always says.
Objection, my Lord.
Objection.
What they are saying
is not true.
And do you know
the grounds for me objecting?
It's almost like the spirit,
he just at that point
just spotlights Jesus.
He is my grounds
for objecting.
Jesus at the right hand
of the Father
as our great saviour,
as our great priest,
as the one who intercedes for us.
And here's what I want
you to know today.
That there is never
a moment when he isn't
on our side
as an ever-present reminder
in the place
of all power
in heaven.
That everything possible,
everything needed
has been done
for you and I
to be brought
into the very family
of God.
The spirit,
he inhabits us,
he enables us,
he teaches us,
and he assures us.
And just as we close,
maybe,
let me tell you
how this has played out
for me this week.
So our youngest daughter,
Eve,
she did it again
this morning.
Most days she runs up
to us and she says
with a book in her hands,
she says,
Peppa story.
So she wants me
to read Peppa Pig
to her.
Peppa story,
dad,
Peppa story.
And so you're there,
you're reading it
and you have no idea
whether she understands
it or not.
But without fail,
you'll get to the end
and she'll say,
daddy again,
daddy again.
And you know
you've read it
too many times
when you start
overanalyzing things
in the plot
of a kid's story.
Yeah.
You're thinking
about how
daddy pig
needs to stop
being so harsh.
Anyway,
the next morning,
I'm sitting there
with my Bible
and I'm tired
and I'm weary
and I'm worried.
I'm sitting there
with my Bible open
and it strikes me
that the relationship
has completely flipped.
And I'm Eve
sitting there
with my Bible open.
I'm the child
and I'm sitting there
saying to my father,
father,
tell me again.
Tell me the gospel again.
Tell me it's true.
I don't understand it.
Things in John 14
that should blow our minds
will never get
to the bottom
of the magnificence of it.
But father,
tell me again.
Dad,
tell me again.
Tell me that I'm loved.
Can I really be forgiven?
Is your love for me
truly unconditional?
Is it really based on grace?
Are you really at work today
in the mundaneness
of my life?
Do you really have
good works prepared
in advance for me
to do in walking?
Am I really in the right place
where I should be
right now in my life?
Lord,
how do I know
what the future holds?
Are you really with me?
And it's almost as if
at that point
the Spirit brings
that wonderful knowledge
of Jesus
and says,
my son,
the answer to all your questions,
I know you don't understand it.
I know you've got
things going on.
The answer to your questions,
look at him
and see that they're yes.
He has not left us
as orphans.
He has come to us
in the Spirit.
And that would seem
just a really good place
to stop
and just to pray.
And so here's what
I want you to do.
I just want us to be silent
for a minute
and know that everything
that we have read
this morning is true
and bring your prayers
and your honest
thoughts
and ambitions
and worries
to your heavenly Father
and know that he cares for you.
And then we're going to pray
to close.
So Father,
I thank you, Lord,
for your commitment to us.
And Father,
we just pray
particularly this morning
for those, Lord,
who are perhaps
hearing the whisper
from the evil one.
Did God really say?
And Father,
I pray that you would
help us to know
the answer to that
is that yes,
our Father really did say.
And we thank you, Lord,
that you've not left us
this morning.
And I pray that your Spirit
would be at work
in our hearts right now
in ways, Lord,
that many of us
won't be aware of,
the hurts and the pains
and the worries
that are carried
in this room.
And Father,
I pray that you would
be at work
in the deepest places
of our hearts,
bringing that knowledge
of the glory
and the beauty
of Jesus.
And so it's to him
that we look today
and we pray these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.