The presense of Jesus by The Holy Spirit

Heavenly Father, you know that we are hard pressed in all kinds of ways. Thank you that you speak to us in your living word, to encourage us. Give us your Holy Spirit, we pray, so that we might understand, believe and obey. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

This morning we’re beginning a new series on the Holy Spirit and on what Jesus taught about the Spirit before he went to his death. If you have questions about the Holy Spirit (who he is and what he does) then our prayer is that this series will help. Today our focus is on John 14.15-20, but I want to jump ahead a bit and begin with what happened to the apostles after the death and resurrection of Jesus. So:

1. The apostles experienced Jesus with them by the Holy Spirit

They had seen Jesus die. They had been astonished and overjoyed to see Jesus raised from the dead. But his presence with them even after the resurrection had been intermittent at best. They knew he was alive, but most of the time they did not know where he was. And then they’d seen him ascend to heaven, hidden from their sight by a cloud. Once more they were alone. But though Jesus was gone, he had made promises. Jesus told them that they would receive power to tell the world all about him. He told them that the Holy Spirit would come on them. And what is more, he told them that he, Jesus, would be with them for ever.

No doubt they did not understand how Jesus could at the same time be with them, and also leave them. They waited. They prayed. And the Spirit came. When the Holy Spirit descended on those first frightened disciples on the Day of Pentecost, they knew that they were not alone any longer. Their fear was overwhelmed by the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Then they knew that they had work to do. There was a whole world that needed to know that Jesus was the crucified and risen Lord and Saviour.

They knew that though they could not see him, Jesus was with them. The pieces of this puzzling jigsaw fitted into place. All the things that Jesus had been saying, which they had found so mystifying, began to make sense. Of course they longed for the return of Jesus. But never again is there any sense that they’re battling along without him. Instead, as you read the book of Acts, there’s an amazing sense of the fellowship with Jesus that the disciples enjoyed, through their experience of the Holy Spirit. So the apostle John says at the start of his first letter (John 1.3):

…that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

He’s not just remembering those three years of walking and talking with Jesus. Nor is he only looking forward to the day when he will see Jesus face to face once more. He is experiencing fellowship with Jesus even as he writes. That is what the Holy Spirit does, because he is God: Not just a force or a power. Not a thing. Not it, but he: The third person of the Trinity. As we’ve just been saying in the Nicene Creed:

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord [he is God, that is to say], the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified [there’s the Trinity].

And the Spirit brings people into fellowship with Jesus. And you don’t have to be an apostle. John writes, he says, so that we might also share in this fellowship with Jesus. He wants every Christian to experience Jesus in the very same way that he did. The work of the Holy Spirit is to give us that experience of knowing Jesus. And unless we understand that central role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we’re likely to lay ourselves open to any number of misunderstandings about the work of the Spirit which could cause us and others confusion and heartache. That’s why it’s so important for us to listen hard to what Jesus himself says about the work of the Spirit. This was one of the major themes of his final briefing to the disciples on the night before he was betrayed. So we’re into the last few hours of his earthly life with them. What does he say? We’re going to be looking at different aspects of that over the coming weeks. We’ll build up a comprehensive picture. So keep coming! But for a start, look at John 14.15-20. That’s on page 901. And that brings me to my second heading. So:

2. Jesus is with us through the Holy Spirit

Here are those verses again. John 14.15-20. Jesus says to the disciples:

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 for ever 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.

And again, a bit later on, in John 16.7, Jesus says:

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

What’s going on in the disciples minds at this time? They know that they need Jesus with them, they know that Jesus is going, and their whole horizon is filled with what they see as a personal disaster for them. They can’t see past their emotions. And their emotions are fear and grief. Fear and grief swamp any possibility that they’ll begin to see the greater, long term purpose behind Jesus’ departure. John 14.1:

Let not your hearts be troubled.

Why does Jesus say that? Because their hearts are troubled! John 16.6:

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

That’s understandable. But nonetheless it’s a profoundly mistaken reaction. Their troubled hearts and their grief demonstrate a severe lack of understanding of what Jesus is doing. That’s not a criticism from a position of superiority. We too can find ourselves swamped by fear and grief at times when we don’t understand what God is up to in our lives. Sometimes when we’re in the thick of troubles, we resolutely refuse to look past them to the promises and purposes of Christ. Instead we cry out “Where have you gone? Things should not be like this!” So the disciples’ reaction is understandable to us. After all, what does Jesus warn them of? John 15.18:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

John 15.20:

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

John 16.2:

Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

Sounds like a great prospect. But for all that, fear and grief is still absolutely the wrong reaction. Why? Because they’re not losing Jesus! A mother who is giving birth to a baby certainly feels pain, but she should not feel grief. She’s not losing the baby as it leaves her body. Far from it. So Jesus says in John 16.21-22:

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you...

The disciples think they’re losing Jesus. Nothing could be further from the truth. But they’re only hearing half of what Jesus is saying. John 14.16-18 again:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth…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.

Jesus is returning to the one who sent him. He’s on a mission. It’s not yet complete. It’s a matter of life and death for the disciples that he does complete it. His departure is an integral part of his mission. Unless he goes, the mission fails. But he has no intention of failing, and when he does go, he will send the Holy Spirit, who will come to them. If he was to stay, they would not have the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Counsellor, with them. They want to cling on to Jesus, but what they really need to do is to let him go. John 14.18:

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

The gift of the Spirit cannot and must not be separated from all that is involved in the departure of Jesus: his death, resurrection, and ascension. Moses struck the rock in the wilderness and water gushed out. In the same way, the outpouring of the Spirit flows from the cross. The two belong together. There is no real Christian life without the cross and resurrection. There is no real Christian life without the gift of the Holy Spirit. If we try to have Jesus without the Spirit, we end up with dead orthodoxy and faith without love, which is not real faith at all. Even the devil believes in Jesus. If we try to have the Holy Spirit without the cross and resurrection, then we end up with Christ-less Christianity, gospel-free faith, groundless ‘spirituality’, and the exaltation of experiences which have no connecton to Christ and his saving work. But when Jesus gives the Spirit, then we have a living relationship with Christ. We have power to persevere in bearing witness to the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

The departure of Jesus brings the arrival of the Holy Spirit. What God has joined together, let man not separate. And when the Holy Spirit comes, Jesus is with us. So the wonderful truth is that the Holy Spirit enables us to know Jesus, just as the apostles knew the risen Jesus. We are not at a disadvantage. Jesus has not left us alone. He is with us by his Spirit, drawing us into fellowship with himself. When we feel the attraction of the person of Jesus, and he begins to fill our horizon, then that is the Spirit at work. When we experience fellowship with Jesus, and we know that he is with us, though we can’t see him, that is the Spirit at work. He gives us that deep down security that comes from knowing that we are sons and daughters of God because we’ve been adopted into the family through the death of Jesus for us. He gives us the strong lifetime purpose that comes from serving Jesus. He gives us the supreme experience of friendship with Jesus.

Maybe that will lead to moments of overwhelming joy. Certainly it brings the joy of deep-rooted, eternally satisfying friendship with the One who promised to be with us to the end of time, and who fulfilled that promise through the gift of the Spirit. What happens when the Holy Spirit comes? Jesus is with us. We experience his living presence. We have fellowship with him and with the Father. So:

3. Be filled with the spirit

The apostle Paul urges us in Ephesians 5.18:

…be filled with the Spirit!

How can we be filled with the Spirit? The most straightforward answer to that is this: Ask God to fill you. Ask God to give you his Spirit. If you want to know Jesus, if you want to experience fellowship with him, then ask for the Holy Spirit. You can guarantee that every genuine request like that is granted. Why can I say that? Because we have Jesus’ word for it. Luke 11.9-10:

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Six times over the promise is given, just in case we miss the point. And how can we be sure that applies to the gift of the Spirit? Jesus immediately says so (Luke 11.11-13):

What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

In other words, of course God will give you the Holy Spirit if you ask to receive him! That is just the request that God is longing to hear. The Holy Spirit brings with him power for witness; gifts for building up the body of Christ - the church; fruit that leaves less and less room for sin in our lives. But above all, the Holy Spirit brings us into fellowship with Jesus. Is that what we want? Do we want Jesus to be with us always? Do we want the fear to be driven out of our lives? If we want those things, then we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So do we want to be filled with the Spirit? Then we should ask. And ask again. And keep on asking. And when we do, he comes to us, and makes his home with us. That is the promise of Jesus. He dwells with you and will be in you…I will come to you…For everyone who asks receives. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we praise you that through Jesus and by your Holy Spirit you are with us, among us and in us. Strengthen our joy in this wonderful truth. Help us to remember it when we’re struggling. Fill us, and keep on filling us, we pray, with your Holy Spirit. That our lives might bear witness to Jesus, and bring glory to your name. Amen.