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Church, our sermon text for this
morning is John chapter 14, verses 15 through 31. So if you could turn there, either
in your bulletin or in your own copy of God's word. John chapter
14, starting at verse 15. This is God's word. 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 my Father, and you in me, and I 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 will 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? 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 words that you
hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have
spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will
teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that
I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I
give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I am
going away, and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would
have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father
is greater than I. And now I have told you before
it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with
you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on
me, but I do as the Father commanded me, so that the world may know
that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Church, let's pray together. Our Father, we come before you
today in the matchless name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,
and we come before you today praising you. Father, we look
out at creation and we see that your world testifies to something
of your wisdom, something of your eternal power, and your
divine nature is clearly displayed to us in the things that you
have made. But Father, how much more do
you reveal your glory to us in the face of Jesus Christ. Father,
you have revealed yourself most fully in Jesus Christ and in
his word. And so, Father, we come before
your word humbly. We come before your word expectantly. Father, we come expecting to
hear from you. Father, we know that your word
does not return void. It accomplishes that for which you purpose. It
succeeds in the thing for which you send it. And so we ask that
by your Holy Spirit that you would make the preaching of your
word and the hearing of your word effective? Father, would
you exhort us? Would you comfort us? Would you
teach us through your word and by your Holy Spirit? We ask this
in Christ's name, amen. What happens to the disciples
when Jesus leaves them? That's the question on the table
in John 14. What happens to the disciples
when Jesus leaves them? Jesus has already told the disciples
that he will leave. He's already clued them in to
this fact. The first step in his departure when he says, I
will go and prepare a place for you, is his death. In fact, less
than 24 hours from when this text is taking place, less than
a day from when Jesus is saying these words to the disciples,
he will be dead. Jesus will go to the cross and
he will die. And this is a very big change
for the disciples, right? Jesus has been with them physically
for years. For years, the disciples' daily
routine has been to wake up and to follow Jesus around and to
hear him teach them and to hear words from his lips. Jesus has
walked alongside them. He's been with them for years.
And now he says, I will go and prepare a place for you. He will
leave them, physically speaking. And so the question is, what
happens next? What happens to the disciples when Jesus leaves? Well, here's what Jesus says,
verse 16. He says, he will ask the father who will send them
another helper, meaning the spirit of truth. The father will send
the disciples the Holy Spirit. And this here is a word of comfort
to the disciples. Jesus is saying, I am going away,
but don't worry, another helper will come to you. Someone else
will come to you and be with you. That's what Jesus is saying.
Just as I have helped you, disciples, another helper, someone else
will come along and help you along. The word helper here is important. Sometimes in scripture, this
word refers to Jesus. Other times in scripture, this
word refers to the Holy Spirit. And there are a handful of different
ways you could interpret this word. For example, helper could
mean advocate, like a legal advocate who defends you in court. The
word essentially means somebody who comes to your aid when you're
defenseless, when you need help. Think, for example, if you were
to travel to a foreign country where you didn't speak the language,
and you committed a crime and were arrested and taken into
court, and they didn't give you an interpreter. You're sitting
there on trial. You don't speak the language.
You have no idea what's going on. You need help. You need an advocate. You need someone to come to you
and to speak for you, to advocate for your case, to plead your
case for you. That's the idea of the word helper
here. When Jesus leaves the disciples,
they will now have two helpers, or two advocates, just as you
have two advocates. The Son advocates for you at
the right hand of the Father, interceding for you, and the
Holy Spirit advocates for you in your heart. He takes the work
of Jesus Christ and applies it to your heart. That's the work
of the Holy Spirit of God. When Jesus leaves the disciples,
they will no doubt receive accusations. They will receive accusations
from the outside, from the world and the devil. They will receive
accusations from their own hearts, their own selves. The accusations
might sound something like this. They might sound something like,
where's Jesus? Hasn't he left you in your sins? Hasn't Jesus abandoned you? Look at your guilty conscience.
How could you be saved? Where's Jesus? There is no one
to help you. That's the sort of accusations
that the disciples might receive. It's the sort of accusation that
you might receive as well. But the Holy Spirit, the helper,
the advocate, not only applies the work of Christ to your heart,
but he lifts your eyes up to heaven to see Jesus Christ. He makes you say that despite
your sins, despite your guilt, it's been paid for. The Holy
Spirit causes you to look to Christ and say, I agree. I agree
in one sense with these accusations. I agree that I am indeed sinful,
but I know, I know my Redeemer lives. I know that in Him I have
forgiveness. I have acceptance with God. God
has promised in His word. that everyone who calls upon
the name of the Lord will be saved. And so the Holy Spirit
lifts your heart up to heavens to see Christ and to see your
Redeemer and to know that in Him you are forgiven. That's
one of the ways that the Holy Spirit is your advocate. He does
so in your own heart. And this word helper could also
mean teacher. In verse 26, Jesus says this about the Holy Spirit.
He will teach you all things. And this teaching is not new
teaching. It's not new revelation. It has
everything to do, Jesus says, with what Jesus has already taught
them. Verse 26, the Holy Spirit will
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you, Jesus
says. In verse 26, Jesus has said, I am the truth. And in
verse 17, we read that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth,
verse 17. And those are connected, right? The Holy Spirit testifies to
the truth of God, meaning he testifies chiefly to the truth
of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ and in his word. The Holy
Spirit has never made anyone teach that there are multiple
ways to heaven. The Holy Spirit has never made
anyone teach that Jesus was simply a good moral teacher. The Holy
Spirit has never made anyone teach anything that contradicts
the written word of God. Why is that? It's because he's
the spirit of truth. He's the spirit of truth. He testifies
to the truth of God. He is indeed God. He can do nothing
but tell the truth and testify to the truth in your heart. The
Holy Spirit works with the written word in the hearts of believers
to convince you of the truth, to persuade you of the truth
of God. Something we see in verse 17
is that the Holy Spirit distinguishes Christians from the world. He distinguishes in this way.
Jesus says, the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because
it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he
dwells in you and will be in you. In other words, Christians
receive the spirit of the truth, the spirit of truth, but the
world does not. And this is an important point
because we live in a day and age where, in the world today,
the questions that people ask, more often than not, is not,
what is the truth? We live in a day and age where
people, generally speaking, are not as much interested in the
truth That's really a question that people will ask. Instead,
people tend to ask the question, what's convenient? What will
help me? What is convenient? Even if it's
a lie, even if it's not true, the question that people ask
is, what's convenient? But the church, the church should
be a place where people care about the truth. The church is
a place where people love the truth, where people defend the
truth. The church is a place where we
defend the truth, where we believe the truth, where we see the truth
of the word of God and we conform our lives to it, even if it's
not convenient. The church should be a place
where outsiders could come in and speak with us and they would
hear us speak the truth to them in love. They should see the
church as a pillar and a buttress of truth, a stronghold of truth,
where people care about and believe the truth of God and will speak
into their lives and will preach the truth, regardless of what
the world says. That's a work of the Holy Spirit
of God. He's the spirit of truth, whom
the world doesn't receive, whom the world does not receive, but
Christians do. because he tells you the marvelous
truth of God. So when Jesus leaves, he will
send the Holy Spirit. But now we ask, what does it
mean that Jesus is leaving? Will Jesus leave them entirely? Is this first teaching that Jesus
will leave the disciples and then simply hand them off to
the Holy Spirit? Is that what he's saying there?
Is Jesus leaving them for good? The answer is no. Verse 18, Jesus
says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. And now here's where things get
a little bit tricky from an interpretation perspective. What does Jesus
mean when he says, I will come to you? And in verse 19, he says,
you will see me. Does Jesus mean that they will
see him face to face? That could be. Jesus could be referring to his
post-resurrection appearances. In this text, Jesus could be
saying that after his resurrection, he will come back to the disciples
and he will see them. He will show them the scars in
his hands. He will show them the wound in
his side. He will eat food with them. He will commission them
to go preach the gospel. And if that's what Jesus means
here, That could make sense. He says in verse 19, because
I live, you also will live. That's clearly referring to his
resurrected state. And he says that the world will
not see him anymore, but the disciples will. And that's exactly
what happened. When Jesus rose again, he didn't
appear to the whole world. He only appeared to his disciples.
He only met with them. So it's very likely that what
Jesus is saying is that after his resurrection, He will appear
to the disciples physically, and that's when they will understand,
verse 20, that He's from the Father. That will be proof to
them that Jesus is from the Father. Who else but the Son of God could
rise from the dead? Who else but the Son of God?
He must be from the Father. Jesus says, in that day you will
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. That's when the disciples will
know that when they see the risen Jesus face to face, they will
know that the Son and the Father are one, and they will know that
they are united by faith to Jesus Christ. That's when things will
begin to click for the disciples. The last few pieces of the puzzle
will be put into place when the disciples see the risen Jesus
face to face. But there's more to this text. In verse 18, Jesus says, I will
not leave you as orphans. And that makes it sound permanent.
Right? Jesus will come back and he will
stay with the disciples. And in his post-resurrection
appearances, if that's all that Jesus means here, those weren't
permanent. Those only lasted for 40 days
after he rose again and then ascended into heaven. So what's
the full meaning of this text? How will Jesus come to them permanently? Well, I'm convinced that what
Jesus is saying here is not only referring to his post-resurrection
appearances, but also related to the sending of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost. For that reason, what Jesus is
saying to the disciples is also a promise that applies to you
and me, is that the risen Christ comes to his people by the Holy
Spirit. That's what Jesus is promising
in this text. The risen Christ comes to his
people by the Holy Spirit. He will not leave the disciples
all alone. He will come to them and stay
with them forever, verse 16. Once Jesus leaves physically,
he will come back to them spiritually through the work of another person
of the Trinity, God, the Holy Spirit. And this here is an application
for us, because you and I, every single person in this room, we've
never seen Jesus physically. We've never seen Jesus with our
eyes. We've never had a face-to-face
conversation with him. You have no idea what he looks
like. But you can say, I know him. I believe him. I love him. This man who lived
2,000 years ago, who you've never seen face-to-face, you can say,
I know him. And think, for example, think
for a moment about how significant that is. There's no one else
that you could say that about. You can't scroll through your
contact list on your phone and find a person who you could say,
I've never seen this person face-to-face, but I know them very well. Or
better yet, if you're sitting in history class, you're studying
people who lived in the first century, there's no one who you
could say, I know that person. That person who lives 2,000 years
ago, I personally know him. But Christians can say that about
the Son of God. Christians can say, I know him.
I believe him. I see him by faith. this one
whom I've never spoken to personally, this one who I've never spoken
to face to face. I live because he lives. I believe
in him. I know him. And church, that
is a work of the Holy Spirit. He brings the risen Christ to
your heart. In verses 18 through 20, everything
Jesus promises the disciples, he also promises to you. He will
not leave you as an orphan. He will come to you by the Holy
Spirit. The world will not see Jesus,
but you will see him by faith. Because he lives, you also will
live a new life in him. Now we ask, where is the risen
Jesus right now? Well, he's with the Father. If
we jump briefly to verse 28, we see there that Jesus says
that he's going to the Father and that the Father is greater
than he. If we pause for a minute and
look at this verse, it's been wrongly interpreted by some people
who think that this verse is teaching that Jesus isn't God. Or some people think that this
verse teaches that Jesus was created. But that's not what
it's teaching. John 1.1, for example, plainly
says, the Word was God. In John 10.30, we hear Jesus
saying, I and the Father are one. John 8.58, Jesus has said,
before Abraham was, I am. The whole Gospel of John, the
whole of the Bible teaches that Jesus is God. And so that's not
what this verse means. Neither does it mean, some people
look at this verse, verse 28, and think, oh, there must be
levels within the Trinity. There must be a hierarchy in
the Godhead. But that's not what this is teaching
either. This verse 28 is not speaking
about God in himself, meaning it's not speaking of Jesus according
to his divine nature. It's speaking of Jesus according
to his human nature. It's not saying that the son
is less than the father. It's saying that Jesus, in his
humanity, in the role he's playing on earth, in that role specifically,
he is less than the father. As he is human, touching his
human nature, he is less than the father. And this makes perfect
sense with what Jesus is telling the disciples. He's saying, my
work here on earth is done. My humiliation is finished. And
now Jesus says he will return to the glory that he had before
the world existed. The glory that he has by his
own divine right, he will return to it. And so now we ask, what else
is Jesus teaching in this whole text? Well, as he's talking about
the Holy Spirit who will bring the risen Christ to the disciples,
he begins with these words in verse 15. He says, if you love
me, you will keep my commandments. He repeats the same thing again
in verse 21. Effectively, he says, whoever
has my commands and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And then
again in verse 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Not once, not twice, but three
times, Jesus reminds us that loving Jesus and keeping his
word are inseparable. Now we have to ask, what sort
of keeping does Jesus mean here? Is Jesus saying that all Christians
keep his word perfectly? Is Jesus teaching that Christians
are sinless? Not at all. There's no Christian
who obeys perfectly. There's no one who keeps his
commandments perfectly. But what is Jesus saying? What
exactly does he mean? Jesus is teaching the simple
truth that Christians strive to obey God, right? As Christians, we strive to love
God. We strive to obey him. We strive
to obey all that he has written in his word, all of his moral
law, because that's how we love God. That's how you can express
your love for Jesus Christ is by keeping his word. Jesus here
is not telling us how we can be saved from our sins. He's
not saying that in order to be saved, you must first love and
obey him. Jesus has told us many times
in the Gospel of John that faith is the instrument of salvation.
Simply believing in Jesus Christ is the way to be saved. Whoever
believes in him has eternal life. Whoever believes in him is not
condemned. Jesus is not teaching how to
be saved. He's teaching us what's the result
of that faith. What's the fruit and evidence
of saving faith? It's love. It's obedience. That's what Jesus is saying here.
If you love him, you'll strive to obey him. In the year 1539,
Martin Luther wrote a small book called Against the Antinomians. And that word antinomian is taken
from the Greek words anti, which means against. and namas, which
means law. So the antinomians were people
who were against the law. And the reason Martin Luther
wrote against these antinomians is because they were teaching
that the law of God had no place in the Christian life. The antinomians
were teaching that Christians were not under any duty or any
obligation to obey the law of God in the Christian life. For
example, you might have someone say to you something like this.
God doesn't care too much about what you do. God doesn't care
too much about how much you obey him. All he cares is that you
love him in your heart. That's antinomianism. It's a disregard for the law
of God. It's saying God's law is not that important. It's not
important for Christians to follow. But here you have Jesus plainly
telling us, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Who is
it that loves me, Jesus says, verse 21, whoever has my commandments
and keeps them. The truth is, is that you, Christian,
through the death of Jesus Christ, you are free from the condemnation
of the law. You are free from the curse of
the law. You are free from the wrath of
God. You are free from any condemnation
you could ever possibly experience from your breaking the law. You
are free from the curse of the law. The law can no longer condemn
you. Through the death of Jesus Christ,
he has paid for your sins once for all. Praise God. You are
free from the condemnation of the law. you are now free to
obey the law. That's true freedom. True freedom
is not freedom from the law of God. It's freedom to obey the
law of God. Satan might tell you the same
thing that he said to Adam and Eve in the garden. Is God really
good? Did God really say, is God in
his law? Is he really out for your best
interest? Is he really for you in his law? But that's not the truth. Satan
always questions the law of God. He questions the character of
God. But we can look, as Christians, we can look at the law of God
and say, this is a good law. This comes from God. This reflects
his nature. This is how we were meant to
live. And it's a good law. It's a wonderful law. Right,
the psalmist in Psalm 119 says, oh Lord, how I love your law. Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path. Your word is sweeter than honey
in my mouth. Oh, how I love the law of God. That's the Christian attitude. The antinomian attitude we see
in verse 24. Whoever does not love Jesus does
not keep his words. But the Christian can say, this
law is from God. This law is a good law. I'm free
from the condemnation of it, and I'm free now to obey it. Jesus says in verse 21 that those
are the people who love him. And he says it's to that person
that he will manifest himself. Judas then, he hears Jesus say
this, and he's confused. And this is the good Judas, so
not Iscariot, not the betrayer. The good Judas asks Jesus a follow-up
question. He says, Lord, how is it that
you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? The
word manifest means to make known. And here, Judas's expectation
was that Jesus would make himself known visibly to the whole world,
really a grand display, some sort of visible manifestation
to the whole world, and that Jesus would come back right away
and establish a sort of earthly kingdom here on earth. And so
Judas is wondering, how will Jesus make himself known to only
some people? How will Jesus manifest himself
in this grand visible display without everybody seeing what's
going on? But Jesus has something different
in mind. Verse 23, how does Jesus manifest
himself to the disciples? Not in a grand visual display,
but in love, in mutual love. God loves his people. Church,
if you are a Christian, God loves you. Look at what he says, my father
will love him. All three persons, not just the
son, love you. And that is how God manifests
himself. That's how Jesus manifests himself
to his people. He makes himself known in love. And what does that look like?
In verse 23, Jesus says, my father will love him and we will come
to him and we'll make our home with him. In verse 23, this word
for home is the same word that's used in verse two of this chapter. There it was translated rooms. And this word is only used twice
in the whole Bible. And both of those two times are
here in this chapter. And as we heard last week, this
word doesn't mean something physical. It doesn't mean like a physical
house or a physical room. It means something more like
dwelling place or abode. Think, for example, about the
Old Testament temple, where that was supposed to be God's dwelling
place with his people, Israel. Or think even better about Revelation
21, that grand chapter where we read these amazing words. Behold, the dwelling place of
God is with man. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people. and God himself will be with
them as their God. That's the imagery that we should
have as we read this verse. God making his dwelling place
with man. Verse 23, the son and the father
will make their dwelling place, their home, with God's people. And that, friends, is a work
of the Holy Spirit. That's what verse 23 is teaching,
that Christians being indwelt by the Holy Spirit Now know God. You know all three persons of
the Trinity. The Holy Spirit who indwells
you is the spirit of adoption, and it's through him that you
can cry out to the Father, Abba, Father. He's not just your God,
he's your Father. who cares for you. And the Holy
Spirit who dwells in you is the Spirit of truth, as we've seen.
He gives you faith to believe in Jesus Christ, who is the truth. He gives you faith to believe.
He applies the work of Christ to your heart. And so when the
Holy Spirit indwells your heart and gives you faith to believe
in Jesus Christ, it means you know all three persons of the
Godhead. That's what you see all throughout
this chapter. You see the Father sending the Holy Spirit. You
see the Father and the Son coming to believers and making their
dwelling place with you. It's a glorious thing. It's a
marvelous thing, is that all three persons of the Trinity
care for you. They love you. In verse 27, then, Jesus talks
about peace. And again, Jesus is about to
leave the disciples physically, and so he's comforting the disciples. He says, do not let your hearts
be troubled, neither let them be afraid. I will give you peace. And Jesus, he makes a comparison. He talks about his peace versus
the world's peace. And when he does that, it tells
us that the world has a type of peace. The world offers a
certain type of peace that isn't Jesus's peace. And what kind
of peace can the world offer you? Well, it can give you a
type of temporary peace. We're all born, in a sense, looking
for peace. We're all born in the chaos of
our own sin and other people's sin and the misery that comes
with our rebellion against God. We're all born Restless if you
will we're all born without peace and the world offers you Temporary
solutions the world offers you quick fixes The world says you
can find peace in the things of this world The world will
offer you things like a career, or marriage, or family, which
in themselves are good things, but the world says, this will
give you peace, this will give you eternal peace. Or the world
offers you therapy, or hobbies, or being liked by everybody else. The world will latch onto anything
in your heart that you might desire, and it will tell you
this will give you peace. If you only have this one thing,
it will finally give you peace. But none of it is effective.
Some of these are good things, but the world holds them out
and says, this will fix all of it. We're born with sin, which
is a fatal disease, but the world gives you pain medicine. a temporary
relief to try to give you peace, but it never works. All the while,
you know in the back of your conscience, it's not well with
my soul. I have no peace. But Jesus comes,
and he says, my peace I give to you. Peace I leave with you, true
peace. Everlasting peace. Because the
peace that you need is not just peace with other people, or peace
with yourselves, or peace with the world, it's peace with God.
And only Jesus Christ can give you that peace. True peace, true
joy, is found only in God. It's not found in the things
of this world. True peace is to commune with
God. True peace is to know God. True peace is, verse 23, to have
the Father and the Son come to you and make their dwelling place
with you. True peace is to have the Holy
Spirit of God indwell your heart so that you know the living God
through Jesus Christ. That is the peace that Jesus
gives. I'll close with this, is that
in Revelation 21, where we see that scene of God dwelling with
his people, in Revelation 21, everything in this text will
be fully realized. Everything in this text will
be completed, if you will. Jesus will return not just by
his spirit, but in his body. We will see him not just by faith,
but by sight. We will love him and obey him,
not just imperfectly, but perfectly. And in that, at that last day,
and from an eternity forward, you will dwell in the immediate
presence of God. the holy, immortal, invisible
God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, he will make his dwelling
place permanently, in a complete sense, with his people. The angels, they cry out, holy,
holy, holy, when they gaze at him. The angels fall down in
worship. It is that God who makes his
dwelling place with you and from that day forward you will be
in perfect peace. You will be in everlasting peace
because you will be lost in the wonder and the praise and the
worship of God. You will gaze at his majesty
forever. You will be lost in the worship
of God. As one author put it, After ages
and ages have passed, you will never get to a place where you've
exhausted God. You will never get to a place
when there's nothing left to be discovered about God. After
ages and ages have passed, he will still be the incomprehensible
God who you will enjoy and glorify for an eternity without end in
eternal peace. And church, you have a foretaste
of that peace right now. That's what this text is teaching.
By the Holy Spirit, you have communion with God right now.
You know the living God. That is the peace that surpasses
all understanding. It's to know God, it's to commune
with God, it's to worship the God who himself surpasses all
understanding. Praise God. Let's pray. Our Father, we do praise you
this day. Father, would we be more and
more lost in the wonder and the praise of you? Would we know
you more and more through Jesus Christ and by your Holy Spirit? Father, we long for that day
when you will present your church blameless. You will present us
blameless before the presence of your glory with great joy.
And from that day forward, we will worship you in your immediate
presence in perfect peace. forever. Father, by your Holy
Spirit, please show us Christ. Show us the peace that we have
with you that we might enjoy more and more of a taste, more
and more of that future peace, that future glory that we shall
have with you when we glorify and enjoy you forever. Father,
we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.
What Does the Holy Spirit Do?
Series The Gospel Of John
| Sermon ID | 71524153152479 |
| Duration | 40:20 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 14:15-31 |
| Language | English |
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