The Helper Good morning everyone. This morning I want to jump right in to where we left off in John chapter 14. Jesus started the chapter off by comforting his disciples. He was about to return to the Father in heaven but he was not going to leave them forever. He was going home to heaven to prepare a place for them and he promised to return for them. He also assured them that he was the exclusive living Way home to heaven. This morning we are turning our attention to verses 15-31. John 14:15-31 is most often seen and taught in regards to Jesus promising the Holy Spirit. In fact most Bibles will have this section entitle something like “Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit”. This is a pretty good heading for this section. But we want to remember that that is not all that is being taught in this chapter. One of the things I love about studying the Bible is how God brings to my attention things that I have missed before. Sometimes you go into a passage with blinders on perhaps because of what you heard taught on a passage before and perhaps because of those paragraph headings in our Bible that get you focused on one thing. Now, as we approach this passage we will indeed see that it contains the major promise of Jesus giving the Holy Spirit. This is another wonderful promise of Jesus that gives comfort to his disciples and comfort to us, along with an increased understanding of how the Spirit dwells in all of his disciples. But along with this teaching on the Holy Spirit there is something I didn’t really notice like I should have. Perhaps it is one of those things that you don’t really want to notice because once you see it, well it’s hard to do. What it is I failed to notice and appreciate in this passage is how Jesus interweaves throughout this passage the concepts of love and obedience and how they are intertwined. So that is enough of an introduction for now let’s get to work and read this passage and see what Jesus had to say to his disciples then and what it is he is saying to his disciples today. I will be using the ESV translation today. John 14:15-31 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 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 bein you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 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. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Fathers who sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 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. 27 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. 28 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. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. One of the key differences between how God related to his people in the Old Testament and the New Testament is how he is present with them. In the Old Testament you could say that the Spirit of God was present with His people. And at special times indwelt them for a specific task. In the New Testament the Spirit of God is not only present with His people He is present in His people. (I will clarify shortly who His people are). This then is the basic promise Jesus makes in this section as seen in verse 16 and 17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 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 bein you. But before this crucial promise did you notice what Jesus says in verse 15? How does he start this section out? So often we overlook this verse and jump right to the promise…perhaps because promises are more appealing than what verse 15 has to say. But the fact of the matter is you can’t have verse 16-17 without verse 15. What does verse 15 say? What does he tell his disciples? 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Something we must never forget is that in scripture love and obedience go hand in hand. Much in the same way faith and works go hand in hand. Just as real faith results in good works having a real love for Jesus will result in obedience to Jesus. 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jesus repeats this again and again. Look down to verse 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me… And down to verse 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word... In verse 24 we see the opposite of this, 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words… We will see this repeated again in chapter 15. I think it is safe to borrow some of the Apostle James phraseology and say, Love without obedience is dead. Jesus makes it clear that if you love him you will by default obey him. Love of Jesus always, always, always results in obedience to Jesus. Now for some strange reason as I read over this passage I was totally praising the Lord for the truth that the Counsellor/Helper has been given just like he promised. But it makes me fidget in my seat a bit when I hear Jesus say, 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Maybe it’s just me…but doesn’t that make you the least bit uncomfortable. “Hey Brad if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments”. Fill in your name here people because Jesus is telling you the exact same thing, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments”. Doesn’t that make you fidget just a little bit? It makes me fidget a great deal. Why? Because I know a lot of what Jesus commanded and it is not always real easy obeying what he commanded. But if I really love him I will, I must. 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” You know in a lot of the songs we sing, especially the choruses, we sing over and over and sometimes over and over again, “I love you Lord,” “I love you Jesus” or “We love you Lord we love you Jesus” which is all good and fine to sing and can be very meaningful…but I wonder if when we sing these songs of declaration of our love to Jesus if maybe we should take a deep breath and ask ourselves, “Do I really love you Jesus? Am I obeying you like I should? Does my life really look any different than those who don’t love Jesus?” I heard an illustration from David Platt not long ago that goes a little bit like this. Suppose that this morning I was late arriving to preach. The worship songs had all been sung and the offering had been taken and it was time for me to speak. But I was nowhere to be found. There was an awkward silence for about five minutes were everyone just kind of sat there looking at each other wondering, “So where’s Brad”. About the time Corny was just about to get up and lead us in some more sharing I come walking in through the back door. I quickly get up behind the pulpit and apologize for being so late. I explain that the reason I was late was that I had decided to walk to church today to get some fresh air and do some thinking. But I got slowed down while I was crossing the street there at the corner of Scott Foods and A&W. What happened was I got to thinking too much about my sermon and wasn’t paying attention and I walked right out in front of a Mack Truck carrying a D8 Caterpillar behind. Anyways it ran me clean over and I have to say it kind of hurt and slowed me down a bit because I had to explain to the driver I was just fine. So that’s why I was late. Now if I tried to give you that story you would know one of two things. Firstly, I was a liar, and a poor one at that. Or secondly, I was seriously deluded. Why? Because the fact of the matter is that if you get run over by a Mack Truck you will look different than before. If you get run over by a Mack Truck you will act different than before. Your life will be forever changed. You know the same can be said about loving Jesus. If you love Jesus you will look different than before (metaphorically speaking). If you love Jesus you will act different than before. If you love Jesus your life will be changed. You cannot say you love Jesus and have it make no difference in your life. Now I know I went off on a bit of tangent here but it is a biblical tangent. The first thing Jesus said before he promises the Holy Spirit in chapter 14 is this, 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The importance of this is that the Holy Spirit is only promised to those who love Jesus and show it by their obedience. So let’s read once again the beginning paragraph. Chapter 14:15-16 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, Jesus here is giving comfort to his disciples by promising them the Holy Spirit. He calls the Holy Spirit another “Helper”. We will see in verse 26 that the “Helper” is the “Holy Spirit”. The word that is used here for “Helper” is the word parakletos. Sometimes translated “counselor” or “advocate”. The word parakletos is unique and is only found in the New Testament writings of John. This word is found in John 14:6, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7 and 1 John 2:1 to describe Jesus’ ministry as an advocate for we saints who sometimes sin. The word literally means “one who is called to someone’s aid” The word was used to describe someone who would help you in legal matters such as a counselor or advocate. So Jesus promises the Holy Spirit who will come along side of his disciples and help them. The picture being of someone giving them wise counsel and someone who would advocate for them and come to help them in their need. Let’s read on in verse 17 to learn more about the Spirit. 17 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 bein you. So we see that the Holy Spirit is not only called Helper he is called “the Spirit of truth”, which reminds me that Jesus had just told them that he “was the truth”. Truth flows from the Spirit. It is also important to note that before the promise of the Holy Spirit came to pass the Holy Spirit dwelled with them but in the future the Holy Spirit would also be in them. Jesus continues to comfort his disciples and says in verses 18-19 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 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 these two verses I believe that Jesus is pointing to his death, resurrection and appearance to his disciples after the resurrection. Because of the resurrection Jesus’ disciples will also live. Because of the resurrection all who love him will have eternal life. Verse 20 to me indicates what the disciples will come to realize on Resurrection Sunday. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Now listen to what Jesus says as he restates verse 15 and shows the connection between love, obedience, and the coming of the Spirit. Verses 21-24. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Now listen closely to what Jesus is about to say as it not only has to do with the disciples there with him at that time but us as well. 23 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. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Fathers who sent me. Do you love Jesus? Do you keep his words? We need to realize that those two questions are really one in the same. I need to wake up to the fact, the church needs to wake up to the fact that Jesus is not interested in lip service. We sing on Sunday, “I love you Lord, I love you Lord” and then on Monday do as we jolly well please. Do you really think that kind of love is acceptable to Jesus? Do you really think Jesus is such a pushover that I can say “I love you Jesus, I love you Jesus” on Sunday and then not obey him? Jesus said, 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Now I don’t want to give you the impression that I am saying that I believe in sinless perfection. That is not it. But what I am saying is that I need to give my head a shake sometimes. There is a real disconnect happening when I’m proclaiming my love for Jesus one minute and then turn around and spew venom toward someone the next. There is a real disconnect when I say I love you Jesus while at the very moment I am saying it have my greedy little hand wrapped tightly around my money. My love for Jesus has to be characterized by a life of obedience to him. I will show him my love by what I look at with my eyes, what I think of with my mind, what I say with my lips, where I go with my feet and what I do with my hands. If my life is not characterized by a life of obedience, then, according to Jesus himself, I do not love him and do not have the Spirit. I guess I get all worked up because I get discouraged with myself and my own disobedience. I still sin, stupid sins. But at the same time I am reminded of that beautiful Greek word we learned today parakletos. Look at 1 John 2:1 this is John writing a letter to a church. He says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation [cleansing sacrifice] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Holiness matters. Why does holiness matter? The Apostle Paul had to explain why holiness matters to the church at Corinth. There was some raunchy things going on in this church so Paul rebukes this church and asks them in 1 Corinthians 3:16 16 Do you not know that you[a] are Gods temple and that Gods Spirit dwells in you? Now right back to John 14. Why is Jesus concerned about we, who love him, obeying him? John 14:23 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. We who love Jesus are not only in the presence of the Triune God, the Triune God lives within us by the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit dwells in us. For those of us who love Jesus, the Father and the Son have made their home with us. The Helper, the Holy Spirit lives in us. People, we should be in absolute awe at this. Tonight if it is clear go outside and look to the heavens. This spring when it warms up look to the flowers of the field, look to the forest and the mountains. The great and awesome God who made all this has chosen to indwell me with his Spirit. That is an awesome thought. But yet what do I do? I live like it’s no big deal. The God of the universe who made it all, Jesus who died for me, the Holy Spirit dwells in me. And all I can do is yawn and go about the business of the day. The result of loving Jesus is obedience. The result of this kind of love for Jesus is that the Holy Spirit of God is in us. The result of the Holy Spirit of God living in us is what? It’s not yawns, or ho hums…it is fruit. Remember Galatians 5 the results of the Holy Spirit living in us is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. This is what the result are supposed to be of the great and awesome Spirit of God living in us. I want to just point out a couple of more things from John 14. It is in John 14: 26 that we learn of the identity of the Helper/Advocate Jesus promises. 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. The Holy Spirit is our promised Helper. He is our Advocate who acts on our behalf to help us. We cannot possibly follow Jesus through this life on our own strength. We need the Helper living within us to give us the strength we need. Verse 27 another great promise of Jesus 27 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. Take this verse home with you meditate on where real peace comes from. And lastly Jesus closes this section by saying in verse 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Jesus is our example of how love and obedience work perfectly together. He obeyed what the Father commanded showing the world that he loved the Father. Certainly this statement by Jesus serves also as an example for us to follow. So to sum up this section. If we love Jesus we will obey him. If we do not obey him and he makes no difference in our lives…we show that we don’t love him. Anyone Jesus said, who loves him will have the Spirit of God in them. They will not be alone. Jesus has not left us alone we have the Helper living inside of us. The Helper APRIL 21, 2013 Good morning everyone. This morning I want to jump right in to where we left off in John chapter 14. Jesus started the chapter off by comforting his disciples. He was about to return to the Father in heaven but he was not going to leave them forever. He was going home to heaven to prepare a place for them and he promised to return for them. He also assured them that he was the exclusive living Way home to heaven. This morning we are turning our attention to verses 15-31. John 14:15-31 is most often seen and taught in regards to Jesus promising the Holy Spirit. In fact most Bibles will have this section entitle something like “Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit”. This is a pretty good heading for this section. But we want to remember that that is not all that is being taught in this chapter. One of the things I love about studying the Bible is how God brings to my attention things that I have missed before. Sometimes you go into a passage with blinders on perhaps because of what you heard taught on a passage before and perhaps because of those paragraph headings in our Bible that get you focused on one thing. Now, as we approach this passage we will indeed see that it contains the major promise of Jesus giving the Holy Spirit. This is another wonderful promise of Jesus that gives comfort to his disciples and comfort to us, along with an increased understanding of how the Spirit dwells in all of his disciples. But along with this teaching on the Holy Spirit there is something I didn’t really notice like I should have. Perhaps it is one of those things that you don’t really want to notice because once you see it, well it’s hard to do. What it is I failed to notice and appreciate in this passage is how Jesus interweaves throughout this passage the concepts of love and obedience and how they are intertwined. So that is enough of an introduction for now let’s get to work and read this passage and see what Jesus had to say to his disciples then and what it is he is saying to his disciples today. I will be using the ESV translation today. John 14:15-31 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 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 bein you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 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. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Fathers who sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 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. 27 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. 28 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. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. One of the key differences between how God related to his people in the Old Testament and the New Testament is how he is present with them. In the Old Testament you could say that the Spirit of God was present with His people. And at special times indwelt them for a specific task. In the New Testament the Spirit of God is not only present with His people He is present in His people. (I will clarify shortly who His people are). This then is the basic promise Jesus makes in this section as seen in verse 16 and 17 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 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 bein you. But before this crucial promise did you notice what Jesus says in verse 15? How does he start this section out? So often we overlook this verse and jump right to the promise…perhaps because promises are more appealing than what verse 15 has to say. But the fact of the matter is you can’t have verse 16-17 without verse 15. What does verse 15 say? What does he tell his disciples? 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Something we must never forget is that in scripture love and obedience go hand in hand. Much in the same way faith and works go hand in hand. Just as real faith results in good works having a real love for Jesus will result in obedience to Jesus. 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jesus repeats this again and again. Look down to verse 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me… And down to verse 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word... In verse 24 we see the opposite of this, 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words… We will see this repeated again in chapter 15. I think it is safe to borrow some of the Apostle James phraseology and say, Love without obedience is dead. Jesus makes it clear that if you love him you will by default obey him. Love of Jesus always, always, always results in obedience to Jesus. Now for some strange reason as I read over this passage I was totally praising the Lord for the truth that the Counsellor/Helper has been given just like he promised. But it makes me fidget in my seat a bit when I hear Jesus say, 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Maybe it’s just me…but doesn’t that make you the least bit uncomfortable. “Hey Brad if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments”. Fill in your name here people because Jesus is telling you the exact same thing, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments”. Doesn’t that make you fidget just a little bit? It makes me fidget a great deal. Why? Because I know a lot of what Jesus commanded and it is not always real easy obeying what he commanded. But if I really love him I will, I must. 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” You know in a lot of the songs we sing, especially the choruses, we sing over and over and sometimes over and over again, “I love you Lord,” “I love you Jesus” or “We love you Lord we love you Jesus” which is all good and fine to sing and can be very meaningful…but I wonder if when we sing these songs of declaration of our love to Jesus if maybe we should take a deep breath and ask ourselves, “Do I really love you Jesus? Am I obeying you like I should? Does my life really look any different than those who don’t love Jesus?” I heard an illustration from David Platt not long ago that goes a little bit like this. Suppose that this morning I was late arriving to preach. The worship songs had all been sung and the offering had been taken and it was time for me to speak. But I was nowhere to be found. There was an awkward silence for about five minutes were everyone just kind of sat there looking at each other wondering, “So where’s Brad”. About the time Corny was just about to get up and lead us in some more sharing I come walking in through the back door. I quickly get up behind the pulpit and apologize for being so late. I explain that the reason I was late was that I had decided to walk to church today to get some fresh air and do some thinking. But I got slowed down while I was crossing the street there at the corner of Scott Foods and A&W. What happened was I got to thinking too much about my sermon and wasn’t paying attention and I walked right out in front of a Mack Truck carrying a D8 Caterpillar behind. Anyways it ran me clean over and I have to say it kind of hurt and slowed me down a bit because I had to explain to the driver I was just fine. So that’s why I was late. Now if I tried to give you that story you would know one of two things. Firstly, I was a liar, and a poor one at that. Or secondly, I was seriously deluded. Why? Because the fact of the matter is that if you get run over by a Mack Truck you will look different than before. If you get run over by a Mack Truck you will act different than before. Your life will be forever changed. You know the same can be said about loving Jesus. If you love Jesus you will look different than before (metaphorically speaking). If you love Jesus you will act different than before. If you love Jesus your life will be changed. You cannot say you love Jesus and have it make no difference in your life. Now I know I went off on a bit of tangent here but it is a biblical tangent. The first thing Jesus said before he promises the Holy Spirit in chapter 14 is this, 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The importance of this is that the Holy Spirit is only promised to those who love Jesus and show it by their obedience. So let’s read once again the beginning paragraph. Chapter 14:15-16 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, Jesus here is giving comfort to his disciples by promising them the Holy Spirit. He calls the Holy Spirit another “Helper”. We will see in verse 26 that the “Helper” is the “Holy Spirit”. The word that is used here for “Helper” is the word parakletos. Sometimes translated “counselor” or “advocate”. The word parakletos is unique and is only found in the New Testament writings of John. This word is found in John 14:6, 14:26, 15:26, 16:7 and 1 John 2:1 to describe Jesus’ ministry as an advocate for we saints who sometimes sin. The word literally means “one who is called to someone’s aid” The word was used to describe someone who would help you in legal matters such as a counselor or advocate. So Jesus promises the Holy Spirit who will come along side of his disciples and help them. The picture being of someone giving them wise counsel and someone who would advocate for them and come to help them in their need. Let’s read on in verse 17 to learn more about the Spirit. 17 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 bein you. So we see that the Holy Spirit is not only called Helper he is called “the Spirit of truth”, which reminds me that Jesus had just told them that he “was the truth”. Truth flows from the Spirit. It is also important to note that before the promise of the Holy Spirit came to pass the Holy Spirit dwelled with them but in the future the Holy Spirit would also be in them. Jesus continues to comfort his disciples and says in verses 18-19 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 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 these two verses I believe that Jesus is pointing to his death, resurrection and appearance to his disciples after the resurrection. Because of the resurrection Jesus’ disciples will also live. Because of the resurrection all who love him will have eternal life. Verse 20 to me indicates what the disciples will come to realize on Resurrection Sunday. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Now listen to what Jesus says as he restates verse 15 and shows the connection between love, obedience, and the coming of the Spirit. Verses 21-24. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Now listen closely to what Jesus is about to say as it not only has to do with the disciples there with him at that time but us as well. 23 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. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Fathers who sent me. Do you love Jesus? Do you keep his words? We need to realize that those two questions are really one in the same. I need to wake up to the fact, the church needs to wake up to the fact that Jesus is not interested in lip service. We sing on Sunday, “I love you Lord, I love you Lord” and then on Monday do as we jolly well please. Do you really think that kind of love is acceptable to Jesus? Do you really think Jesus is such a pushover that I can say “I love you Jesus, I love you Jesus” on Sunday and then not obey him? Jesus said, 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. Now I don’t want to give you the impression that I am saying that I believe in sinless perfection. That is not it. But what I am saying is that I need to give my head a shake sometimes. There is a real disconnect happening when I’m proclaiming my love for Jesus one minute and then turn around and spew venom toward someone the next. There is a real disconnect when I say I love you Jesus while at the very moment I am saying it have my greedy little hand wrapped tightly around my money. My love for Jesus has to be characterized by a life of obedience to him. I will show him my love by what I look at with my eyes, what I think of with my mind, what I say with my lips, where I go with my feet and what I do with my hands. If my life is not characterized by a life of obedience, then, according to Jesus himself, I do not love him and do not have the Spirit. I guess I get all worked up because I get discouraged with myself and my own disobedience. I still sin, stupid sins. But at the same time I am reminded of that beautiful Greek word we learned today parakletos. Look at 1 John 2:1 this is John writing a letter to a church. He says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation [cleansing sacrifice] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Holiness matters. Why does holiness matter? The Apostle Paul had to explain why holiness matters to the church at Corinth. There was some raunchy things going on in this church so Paul rebukes this church and asks them in 1 Corinthians 3:16 16 Do you not know that you[a] are Gods temple and that Gods Spirit dwells in you? Now right back to John 14. Why is Jesus concerned about we, who love him, obeying him? John 14:23 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. We who love Jesus are not only in the presence of the Triune God, the Triune God lives within us by the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit dwells in us. For those of us who love Jesus, the Father and the Son have made their home with us. The Helper, the Holy Spirit lives in us. People, we should be in absolute awe at this. Tonight if it is clear go outside and look to the heavens. This spring when it warms up look to the flowers of the field, look to the forest and the mountains. The great and awesome God who made all this has chosen to indwell me with his Spirit. That is an awesome thought. But yet what do I do? I live like it’s no big deal. The God of the universe who made it all, Jesus who died for me, the Holy Spirit dwells in me. And all I can do is yawn and go about the business of the day. The result of loving Jesus is obedience. The result of this kind of love for Jesus is that the Holy Spirit of God is in us. The result of the Holy Spirit of God living in us is what? It’s not yawns, or ho hums…it is fruit. Remember Galatians 5 the results of the Holy Spirit living in us is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. This is what the result are supposed to be of the great and awesome Spirit of God living in us. I want to just point out a couple of more things from John 14. It is in John 14: 26 that we learn of the identity of the Helper/Advocate Jesus promises. 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. The Holy Spirit is our promised Helper. He is our Advocate who acts on our behalf to help us. We cannot possibly follow Jesus through this life on our own strength. We need the Helper living within us to give us the strength we need. Verse 27 another great promise of Jesus 27 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. Take this verse home with you meditate on where real peace comes from. And lastly Jesus closes this section by saying in verse 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Jesus is our example of how love and obedience work perfectly together. He obeyed what the Father commanded showing the world that he loved the Father. Certainly this statement by Jesus serves also as an example for us to follow. So to sum up this section. If we love Jesus we will obey him. If we do not obey him and he makes no difference in our lives…we show that we don’t love him. Anyone Jesus said, who loves him will have the Spirit of God in them. They will not be alone. Jesus has not left us alone we have the Helper living inside of us. 👉 I really enjoyed this sermon; Alexia Stone.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 23:39:47 +0000
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