Naylor CommunityChristian Church
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to John 14:16-26
John 14:16-26 (NIV)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another Counselor to be with you forever--
17 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 will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but
you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father,
and you are in me, and I am in you.
21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one
who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love
him and show myself to him."
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord,
why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey
my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him.
24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 "All this I have spoken while still with you.
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you.
-- a few years
ago, I was sitting in the living room doing some work on the computer when I
heard this little tapping on a window near me -- it just kept on and on, and at
first I thought maybe it was the wind blowing a limb against the house -- but
then Brooke's cat heard it and climbed up on the back of the couch to listen
and I could tell there was something there by the way she was acting
-- so I quietly
made my way over to the window and peaked over the edge of the couch -- and
sitting there on the window sill was a Carolina wren -- Brooke's cat had torn
the screen on the window one day when we left it open, and this wren had found
the opening and was in the process of building a nest between the screen and
the glass of the window
-- a few
days later I snuck around outside to peek in the nest and the mother bird flew
away, letting me see the four eggs she had laid in the nest -- we left the nest
undisturbed until the young fledged and flew away
-- I really
like birds -- I like to watch them and to hear them singing in the trees -- I
know Brooke's cat felt differently about it, but it made me feel special that
this wren decided to move into our home and share her life with us -- to be a
small part of our life in this way, if just for a little while
-- this
idea of someone coming and making their home with us and sharing their life
with us is really an apt description of the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives,
for it is God sharing His life with us through the presence of His Holy Spirit
within
-- as we
have discussed in this series, when Jesus ascended to Heaven, He sent the Holy
Spirit to live with us -- to move into our bodily homes -- so that He might
share His life, His power, and His presence with us
-- as I'm
sure you all remember from the story of Pentecost from Acts Chapter 2, after
Jesus left the disciples and ascended to heaven, the disciples were all
gathered together in one place praying and studying God's word
-- suddenly,
the room where they were at was filled with the sound of a rushing wind and
what seemed like tongues of fire came in and fell on each of them --
immediately, they were indwelt with the Holy Spirit and they began to express
the power of God through prophecy and the speaking of tongues as the Holy
Spirit came to share His life with them
-- the
disciples rushed out into the street and Peter preached his first public sermon
under the inspiration of the Spirit -- resulting in over three thousand people
being convicted of their sins and turning to Jesus for salvation as their
Messiah and their Savior
-- keep in
mind that these are the same men who fled the Garden of Gethsemane in fear when
the Jewish soldiers came to arrest Jesus -- the same men who we see hiding in
their homes after the crucifixion for fear that they would be arrested and crucified
next -- the same men who denied Jesus when others sought to accuse them of
being His disciples
-- but now
we see them boldly proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Savior -- as the true Messiah
of Israel -- in the streets of Jerusalem in defiance of the priests and the Sanhedrin
and the Romans
-- what
made the difference in the lives of these disciples? -- what changed them from
being scared and spineless followers of Jesus to becoming people that the
Romans said were turning the world upside down with their message and their
lives?
-- what led them to abandon all
for the sake of Christ? -- to endure persecution and hardships -- to experience
joys and fruitfulness in their ministries -- to walk hard paths and experience
everything from the valley of discouragement to the mountaintop of success?
-- there
can only be one answer -- on that day in Jerusalem -- the first day of
Pentecost following the ascension of Jesus -- something happened -- Someone
happened
-- Someone
came to make His home with them -- to share His life -- His power -- and His
presence -- and that made all the difference
-- from
that moment on, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and forever shaped by His
presence into something abnormal -- into people who didn't look or act or
believe like those around them but who marched to a different beat and followed
a different drummer
-- we
shouldn't be surprised at this -- because this is just what Jesus promised His
disciples here in this passage from John 14
-- before
the cross -- before the arrest in Gethsemane -- before the
beatings and the persecution and Jesus' death and resurrection, Jesus promised
His disciples that He would send Someone to be with them forever -- Someone who
would dwell with them and in them and who would shape them
through His power and presence into the people that God wanted them to be
-- and that
is exactly what happens when the Holy Spirit comes to live with us -- to make
His home in our bodies -- and to share His life and His power and presence with
us -- with you and with me and everyone in this church
II. Scripture
Lesson (John 14:16-26)
-- so, for
the last several weeks, we have been discussing the Holy Spirit -- we began by
talking about who the Holy Spirit is -- how He is the third person of the
Trinity -- God Himself -- and then we discussed what it means for the Holy Spirit
to truly manifest Himself within us -- about how we can allow the Holy Spirit
to baptize us and fill us with His presence and His power in such a way that we
resemble the disciples at Pentecost -- and then we concluded last week’s
message by discussing how we are called to walk with the Spirit and by led by His
presence to follow God and God’s commandments
-- this morning, as we close
this series, we are going to take a few moments to go a little deeper and
discuss the actual ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives -- the role that He
takes to lead us into complete submission and surrender to Christ and how He empowers
us and works in our lives to make us into the men and women God desires us to
be
-- let’s
begin by looking at this passage in John 14 again -- turn back to John 14:16-17
John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another Counselor to be with you forever--
17 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 will be in you.
-- this
passage takes place in the context of the upper room on the night that Jesus
was betrayed -- a lot has happened by the time Jesus shares these words with
His disciples
-- Jesus had modified the
age-old traditions of the Passover Meal and introduced to His disciples the
sacrament of the Last Supper -- using the elements of the bread and the wine to
symbolically portray what was going to occur on the cross of Calvary as Jesus
gave His very own body and blood to atone for our sins and to win the victory
over sin and death for us
-- He had already taken the role
of a slave -- a doulas -- and wrapped Himself in a towel and washed each
man’s feet individually -- symbolically cleansing them of their sin and washing
them through His power and His presence
-- by this time, Judas Iscariot
has already left the group -- Satan had entered him and Judas had gone to the
temple to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver -- preparing to lead the Jewish
guards to the Garden of Gethsemane so that they could arrest Jesus and take Him
before the Sanhedrin
-- all of this has happened as
Jesus foretold -- and Jesus is feeling the weight of the moment -- He knows what
is about to happen -- He knows He is facing arrest and persecution and
crucifixion -- He knows the torment of the cross lies before Him and that His
time with the disciples is short
-- so, in these final moments,
Jesus pours out His heart to this handful of men -- to those who had been with
Him over the past three years -- who had followed Him through the good times
and the bad -- the men that Jesus had chosen to be His apostles who would carry
His message of forgiveness of sins and salvation to the world after His death,
resurrection, and ascension
-- here in this moment, He
shares with them a few final thoughts about the Holy Spirit and how their lives
were going to change forever from the moment they left the Upper Room
-- the thought of Jesus leaving
them is more than they can bear, so as this passage opens, Jesus speaks words
of comfort and encouragement to them to let them know He is not abandoning them
-- He may be physically absent from them, but His Spirit will come to live with
them and in them forever
-- the word
that Jesus uses here to describe the Holy Spirit is the Greek word,
"parakletos" or “paraclete” -- I mentioned this word paraclete
in our first message in this series -- in our English translations of the original
language, we render this word in a few different ways to try to capture the
meaning from the original Greek -- counselor, comforter, advocate, helper
-- Jesus'
use of this word here gives us an insight into why the Holy Spirit was coming
to live with us -- the purpose and role that He would fulfill in our lives in
order to bring honor to Christ Jesus
-- as our paraclete, the
Holy Spirit would fulfill several different roles for us as God’s very presence
and power in our lives
-- first, depending
on context, the word paraclete could refer to a legal advocate for
someone -- they were the counsel for defense -- in other words, a paraclete was
the person who stood by another person's side and defended them in a court of
law
-- spiritually,
when Satan accuses us and tries to condemn us before God, it is the Holy Spirit
who stands up and defends us
-- when the
devil whispers words of guilt and discouragement and doubt into our minds, it
is the Holy Spirit who speaks to our hearts and tells us the truth -- it is the
Spirit who reminds us that we are forgiven -- that the price has been paid and
that we are redeemed through the blood of Christ -- it is the Spirit who tells
us we are loved with an everlasting love -- it is the Spirit who tells us the
truth when the world whispers lies
-- the Holy
Spirit advocates on our behalf -- He defends us from the attacks of this world
and the evil one
-- second, the
word paraclete could be referring to an intercessor -- someone who intercedes
or who speaks on behalf of someone else
-- we
normally think of prayer when we hear the word intercessor, but the true
definition refers to anyone who speaks on behalf of another person -- of
course, in this case, it refers to the Spirit speaking to the Father on our
behalf
-- in
Romans 8:26-27, Paul wrote that the Spirit intercedes for us in accordance with
God's will -- he says that the Spirit helps us in our weakness -- that when we
don't even have the words -- when we don't even know what to pray -- the Spirit
prays for us with groans that words cannot even express
-- finally,
the word paraclete was also a general term for a helper -- for someone who
stood in and assisted another person -- usually not in the role of a servant --
but in the role of a peer who was willing to give of their time and energy to
help another person in their life -- like a mentor or a coach
-- we are
told in the Bible that God has gifted all of us with at least one spiritual
gift -- there are several passages in the New Testament that discuss spiritual
gifts -- Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, or 1 Peter 4 -- and if you
read through these passages, you see one spiritual truth that comes from them
-- as we have discussed before, spiritual gifts are not talents that God gives
us -- He doesn’t turn us into Marvel superheroes with these spiritual gifts --
it’s not something that we can do on our own -- rather, these are the actual
manifestations of the Spirit within us
-- in other
words, we're not the ones doing anything -- it is the Spirit within us who
helps us to manifest the power of God in our lives -- it is God Himself working
in us and through us to accomplish His will and His purposes
-- remember my analogy of the
glove? -- a glove is powerless on its own -- it can't do anything -- until you
put a hand in it -- we are the glove and the Holy Spirit is the hand -- and it
is only through Him working through us that we ever accomplish anything for God
-- now, if
you were to take all these definitions of paraclete and blend them
together, you would begin to see the overall picture of ministry that the Holy
Spirit accomplishes in our lives -- He lives within us to serve as our Counselor
-- our Comforter -- our Advocate -- our Helper -- and our Intercessor
-- it is the Holy Spirit and He
alone that has brought about the church of Christ on earth -- it is the Holy
Spirit who shapes the church and gives life and power to it -- apart from the
Holy Spirit, we are not the church -- we are only a gathering of people who may
look spiritual, but who do not have any power or the presence of God within
-- the
world doesn’t understand any of this -- when they see Christians -- when they
see the true church of Christ doing great things for God -- doing things that
just don’t seem possible -- that don’t make sense to the world -- they don’t
understand it -- they can’t -- because they don’t see the Holy Spirit and they
don’t know the Holy Spirit
-- if you remember, several
years ago, a man went into a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania and took the children hostage -- eventually killing five girls
between the ages of 6 and 13 before he committed suicide
-- for weeks,
the nation was fascinated with this story -- not so much the horrific story of
the events in the schoolhouse, but the story of how the Amish parents and the
Amish community responded with forgiveness and love to the Roberts family in
the aftermath of the event
-- while
the rest of the nation expressed anger and outrage for what happened, the Amish
community that experienced such great loss reached out with forgiveness and
reconciliation to the family of the gunman -- just hours after the shooting,
members of the Amish community visited the gunman’s widow, parents, and in-laws
and prayed with them and extended forgiveness to them
-- and the world lost its mind
-- they could not understand that -- they could not grasp how these people --
who had lost their children in such a horrific way -- would reach out to the
killer’s family and pray with them and for them and offer forgiveness and
comfort to them
-- that’s because the world does
not know the Holy Spirit -- as Jesus says here, they can’t see Him and they don’t
know Him -- so they don’t understand what is going on when the Holy Spirit is
made manifest in the church today -- when His presence empowers us to do things
that are not humanly possible, such as forgiving our children’s killer and his
family
-- keep in mind that there is a
difference between knowing someone and knowing someone -- between head
knowledge and heart knowledge -- it is one thing to know with your head that
the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity -- part of the Godhead -- God Himself
dwelling within us
-- but it is another thing to
know the Spirit personally and intimately -- to know Him and to be known by Him
-- the word Jesus uses here in this passage carries the same meaning that is
used in Genesis when it says that Adam knew Eve -- it is knowing someone intimately
-- making them part of yourself -- one with you -- so that the difference
between you and them disappear -- that it was Jesus is talking about here -- that
is why He sent the Spirit to us -- and that is what the world is missing today
-- before we move on, ask
yourself this question -- do you know the Holy Spirit in this way or do you
just know about Him?
-- verse 18-20
John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come
to you.
19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but
you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father,
and you are in me, and I am in you.
-- can you
imagine the heartbreak and confusion of the disciples as they heard Jesus'
words in this passage? -- for three years they had been as close with Jesus as
anyone in that day could -- for three years they had lived with Him, day and
night, sharing His meals, listening to His teachings, watching His ministry
unfold -- most of them believed Him to be their Messiah, even if they
misunderstood what the Messiah's true role was to be -- He had become their all
in all -- their world -- their life
-- and now
Jesus is telling them He is going away -- He is going to physically leave them
and the world would not be able to see Him any longer -- but He tells them they
would see Him through His Spirit within them -- that even though He has left,
He is going to come to them again -- He is going to show Himself to them and
when He returns as the Spirit, they will recognize Him -- they will know Him --
and they will be one with Him as He is one with the Father
-- this
reminds me of the story of the great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen --
Amundsen was the first to discover the South Pole and the magnetic meridian of
the North Pole -- on one of his trips Amundsen took a homing pigeon with him --
when he finally reached the top of the world, he released the pigeon and sent
it back home to Norway
-- imagine
the delight of Amundsen's wife back in Norway when she looked up from the
doorway of her home and saw the pigeon circling overhead -- no doubt the first
thought in her mind was, "He's alive!"
-- that's
what Jesus is telling the disciples here -- I am leaving you --you won't be able
to see me in the normal way, but you will see me through My Holy Spirit and you
will know I am with you
-- just as
the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove when He was baptized, the Spirit
would descend on His disciples through a physical manifestation at Pentecost --
with a mighty rushing wind and in tongues of fire --so they might exclaim to
the world, "He's alive!"
-- one more
thing I want to point out here -- notice in verse 18 that Jesus says "I
will come to you" -- not someone else -- Jesus would come to us
-- this shows that the Holy
Spirit is Jesus -- just not in human form -- as He implies in verse 20, all
three persons of the Trinity -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- are all
interconnected -- they are three in one -- and they dwell within us to empower
us and shape us and form us in this life
-- verse 21-26
John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is
the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too
will love him and show myself to him."
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord,
why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"
23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey
my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him.
24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 "All this I have spoken while still with you.
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you.
-- how do
you know if you have the Holy Spirit within you? -- the answer is clear --
Jesus tells us right here --if you have the Spirit within you, then you will obey
God -- you will follow His commands -- you will be in relationship with Him
-- Henry
Blackaby points out that "obedience is the outward expression of your love
for God" and that if you have an obedience problem, you really have a
relationship problem -- if you don't obey God and do His will, it is an
indication you don't have a mature relationship with the Father
-- the Holy
Spirit is evidence of our faith -- He is proof that we belong to the Father
-- in 2
Corinthians 1:21-22, Paul tells us that God put His Spirit in our hearts as a
deposit -- as a seal of our inheritance
-- if you
have been saved -- if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior -- the
moment you receive Him you are indwelt with His presence as the Holy Spirit
-- and it
is the Holy Spirit within you who enables you to obey God's commands and to
truly love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength
-- that
doesn't mean that Christians don't sin -- that we won’t stumble or get our feet
dirty when we walk and live in this fallen world -- just having the Holy Spirit
within us doesn’t make us holy and perfect immediately
-- all of us will continue to
sin from time-to-time -- we will continue to stumble and do things our own way
rather than God’s way -- but now, because we have the Spirit within us, we have
the capacity and the ability to choose a different way -- to repent when we sin
-- to get up and dust ourselves off and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and
through us and lead us into conformance with God’s word
-- Jesus
said that if we love Him, we will obey Him -- the only way we can do that is
through the power of the Spirit within us -- the Spirit gives us the power to
choose obedience rather than disobedience -- to choose to turn away from
temptation and sin rather than to blindly give in to the evil desires of our
hearts
-- it is
the Spirit who teaches us to follow Christ -- it is the Spirit who reminds us
of the Word of God and what we should do when we are tempted -- and it is the
Spirit within us who walks alongside us -- who forms us and shapes us through
His power and presence and transforms us into new creations as we follow seek
to follow Jesus
III. CLOSING
-- let’s
wrap this up -- I heard a story about two guys from south Georgia who were
traveling together on vacation -- they had decided to see each of the great
natural wonders in the United States and were headed to Niagara Falls
-- as they
got out of the car following the beautiful drive from Lake Erie to the falls,
they were filled with awe at the size and power of the Niagara River -- it was
so much larger and so much more impressive than anything we have down here
-- they
were really impressed with the rapids just above the falls and the massive mist
cloud that always hangs over the drop-off -- and the roaring thunder of the
falls as they hit the rocks below
-- one of
the men said, "Just look at that -- That has to be the greatest unused
power in the world"
-- the
other guy replied, "No, I think you're wrong -- the greatest unused power
in the world is the Holy Spirit of the living God"
-- in the
Christian life, we are not called to be passive responders to the presence of
God -- but rather, we are called to be active participants -- the Bible tells
us that we are to be holy as God is holy -- but this implies a responsibility
on our part
-- Albert
Einstein once wrote that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing
every time but expecting different results
-- if we
want to see the same power that God expressed through Peter and the disciples
on that first Day of Pentecost -- if we want to see this world turned upside
down for God -- if we want to see our lives and the lives of those around us
changed for the better -- then we can't keep doing what we've been doing -- we
have to do something different -- we have to allow the Holy Spirit to work in
us and through us -- we have to see Him and know Him and be in relationship
with Him
-- the Holy
Spirit is the great power in our lives -- but we have to connect to Him -- we
have to open ourselves up to His presence -- we have to listen when He speaks
-- we have to do what He says -- or nothing will ever change in our lives or in
this world
-- so, this
morning, as we close in prayer -- I want to ask you to respond to God's word --
to open yourself up to the Holy Spirit who is within you
-- ask Him to fill you with His
presence -- ask Him to give you His wisdom and understanding -- ask Him to speak
truth in your life -- and ask Him to empower you so that you might be all you
can for Christ
-- let us
pray
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