FBC Greenland Sermons
The Promise Of The Holy Spirit - John 14:18-31
All right. Well, if you got your Bibles, go ahead and turn to John 14. We're going to be finishing the end of John 14 today. And next week, we start into John chapter 15, which is one of my, I'll call my top five favorite chapters in all of scripture. And so, very much looking forward to that, but also John 14 has been really good too. And I've titled this message the promise of the Holy Spirit. And, you know, there's something about a promise that is comforting. And one, that when you trust a promise, it just makes things a lot better. And last week, we looked at the promise of heaven, or not last week, but a couple of weeks ago, we looked at the promise of heaven and how that brings comfort to a troubling heart. You know, Jesus says, when your heart is troubled, believe in God, believe also in me, but then he also gives the promise of heaven. And what we are looking forward to, and it helps us to endure the struggles that we face today, because, ultimately, at the end of the day, the promise of heaven makes the sorrows of earth seem so much less, right? Because we're not here very long. And when it comes to being in times of trouble, there's something about promises that bring us comfort. I think about, for example, a children's show called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. How many of you are familiar with Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood? Okay. So Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood is the current, like, kid version of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. It follows Daniel Tiger, where he lives in his neighborhood of make-believe with his friends and family. And one of the things that this show does, they try to teach kids songs to help them interact with people better. So, for example, there's a song about how you shouldn't hit somebody. And right now in our household, Charlotte's getting potty trained. So we're singing the potty song all the time. And I'm not going to sing it to y'all today, because no one's potty training in this room right now. But there's a song that they sang one time called "Grown Ups Come Back." And this is the way the song goes. I'm not singing it. I'm going to read it to you. Even when we go away, grown ups come back. Will you pick me up when I go to school? Yep. At the end of the day, because that's the rule, because grown ups come back. Growing ups come back to you. Grown ups come back. They do. Grown ups come back. Now, we know that accidents may happen. I know that's a really morbid thought. But when Victoria and I first heard that song, I was like, "Well, unfortunately, not all grown ups come back." But generally speaking, grown ups come back. When a child is anxious or they're scared or they don't know when mom and dad are going to come back, that provides a comfort to them. And so, for example, when we have to go somewhere or we are leaving one room to another and our kids are playing somewhere, we always tell them, "Hey, we'll be right back." And it brings comfort to them, because they know that no matter what's going on, that grown up, that parent will come back. And so, in a very unique way, Jesus does something very similar here to the grown up song in Aino's Tiger neighborhood. In that TV show, the parents and the grown ups are trying to provide comfort to the children, reminding them of the promise, "Hey, I'm not going to leave you. I'll be right back. I may not be with you physically. I may not be right in your presence, but I will return." And so, in this passage, what Jesus is doing is Jesus is giving the promise of the Holy Spirit to His children, reminding them that He will be with them always. So, if you got your Bible, let's go to John 14 verses 18 through 31. Starting in verse 18, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while in 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 and me and I and 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 manifest myself to him." Judas, not a scary it, 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 he will come to him and make our home with him. 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. These things I've spoken to you while I am still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the father will send to my name, he will teach you all things and bring you or bring to your remembrance all that I've 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 your hearts not be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I am going away, I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the Father and 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 has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father, rise, let us go from here. Will you pray with me? Lord we thank you for today and God we thank you for the promises that you give us in your Word. God we thank you for the promise of heaven that helps us to endure the sufferings that we have while we're on earth because God we know that for those that know you and love you, those are very temporary sufferings. God I pray that you would remind us of that, remind us of your goodness and your grace. And God I pray this morning as we look at the promise of the Holy Spirit. God that you would help us to see how is the Holy Spirit function, what even is the Holy Spirit and God that we would learn to trust and be in community with the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. So God we thank you for today, we thank you for who you are, to your sons holy and precious name I pray, amen. So if you go to verse 18, we start this off with looking at how the Holy Spirit has promised and that we are never alone. In 18 to 21 Jesus gives the disciples this beautiful promise that he would not leave them as orphans. Now we have to remember the disciples gave their lives to Jesus everything they had, we give our lives to Jesus now and for some of us it doesn't change much of what we do or what we say or how we act or where we work or where we live but for the disciples then following Jesus changed everything, it changed their careers, it changed the decisions they make, it changed their very lives, it changed the the risks that they took following Jesus. And he gives them this promise that he will not leave them as orphans, orphans being left with nothing. When Jesus refers to an orphan it's not like orphans are today, orphans today are relatively much more taken care of than they were at this time because at this time when a child was orphaned there wasn't these different orphan agencies or there wasn't foster care, there wasn't all these resources and abundance to care for these children that were either unwanted or whose parents had tragically passed away. And so when Jesus, when James says for example that true religion is to care for the widow and orphan he talks about those who are most vulnerable and those that in that society at the time have no standing. And so Jesus is promising them I will not leave you with nothing. Although I'm leaving here although I'm going away you will not be left as orphans as those who have nothing and no heritage. Now some will see this passage and they may believe this is Jesus Jesus referencing his second coming right because we know that Jesus has promised that one day that he will return to bring his children home. However I don't believe that's fully what Jesus is telling them. Instead I believe Jesus is telling them that they will never be without him. That even though Jesus is leaving for a time that Jesus will still be with them and how does this work? Well the Holy Spirit is how this is accomplished and as a little short I guess explanation of that the Holy Spirit is not this little Casper ghost that follows you around when you become a Christian and tells you what to do. The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, part of the Godhead. Our God is three and one. Father, Spirit, Son. And sometimes we think that the Holy Spirit was something that was just around during the New Testament. It came after Jesus but the reality is the Spirit has been there since the beginning. We talked last week of the function of the Holy Spirit and the Old Testament and how the Spirit went from embodying select individuals at a time to now being in every single believer who professes faith in Christ. It's an amazing and wonderful thing and so the Holy Spirit being part of the Godhead means that Jesus says that he will be with him and it's true. Although it's not as Jesus the Son living in a human form instead it is God his Spirit living in each and every one of us who professed faith in Christ. He tells them a couple of things about the Holy Spirit so they understand this a little bit better and I think the service is a good lesson for us too. The first is that the Holy Spirit is not seen externally but lives in us. The Holy Spirit is not something that could be seen right. I don't know maybe at some point in your life maybe you I don't know I'm trying to be careful the way I asked this because I don't want to step on anyone's toes but ghosts for example when you were a kid I would think a lot of us at one point we're scared of ghosts then at some point in our lives we understood either those things weren't real maybe you still believe ghosts are real now maybe we can have a conversation after service but we all believe that ghosts were these little people that had not passed on from this earth that had little cloths over their heads you know with the eye holes in there that sort of thing right think about Charlie Brown for example is where my head goes and I think about that or ET whenever they're trying to hide ET while going through the neighborhood on Halloween but when I think of when we think of ghosts we think of these physical embodiments that like show off what they are by moving an object or making the room colder or you know name your favorite ghost movie there but that's not what Jesus means by the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost it's not like what media says ghosts supposedly are and it's not what maybe some of you have believed when you were children what ghosts were right the Holy Spirit cannot be seen we cannot see the Holy Spirit with our naked eye when I look at an individual I can't look at them not knowing anything about them and be able to go yep that person has the Holy Spirit because there's a little halo light around their whole body and whenever you turn off the lights that's not how that works so what does Jesus mean by that and he has to be very clear for example because it sounds like I'm being trivial or this is really silly but the reality is this is important because you have to remember Jesus says that he's not going to leave them as orphans that he's going to be with them and so they've got to understand how does this work if if you're not going to be standing here with us if you're not going to be teaching us then how is it that you're going to be with us without us seeing you they didn't understand it they didn't get it and honestly I think for some of us we don't fully get it either sometimes but what does he mean the Holy Spirit is not something that is seen but rather it's something that lives in us the Holy Spirit lives in each one of us and the Holy Spirit shows his existence in us through us through our actions and one of the ways he shows that is through the fruit of the Spirit love joy peace patience kindness goodness gentleness and self-control I always miss one when I do that so if I miss one I apologize but that's how the Spirit shows himself is through our actions as Christians and the second is that the Holy Spirit only lives in those who truly love God the Holy Spirit only lives in those that truly love God and so there's something about becoming a Christ follower that is truly transformative and it's not just something that we do externally it's not a behavior change that happens within us it's not a status we gain at a church it's not fill in the blank when you become a Christian for the first time truly and genuinely a Christian the Holy Spirit then empowers you and dwells within you and it happens at the point of conversion it's not something that happens later on it's not something that you have to wait for a specific amount of time to gain it happens right when you become a believer and we see that all throughout the book of Acts in the early church when the Holy Spirit at Pentecost embodied everyone who became and professed to be Christians then and there and that's how Jesus lives in us as he does so through the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit only lives in those who truly love God and this promise that he gives is that through the Holy Spirit God will live in us works through us and we are never left alone now when I say that some of you may be thinking to yourself right now well that can't be true because I know the Lord but I'm lonely there is a loneliness epidemic in our society today and some of you may be looking at me going well yeah maybe with your age but not with my age but I can promise you it's with every single age in the anxious generation this book talks about how social media and smartphones have actually made a lot of our teenagers less engage socially with one another even though they supposedly have all these avenues for social interaction and it's because we are meant to physically socialize with one another even video calls is helpful but when your only source of social interaction is likes or comments or follows or shares that it never becomes a true connection and we are all craving true genuine connection because it's not just teenagers it's not just millennials like me it's a lot of you who have suffered and endured through this too people live farther away church communities become wider spread not all of you live in Greenland for example because I don't live in Greenland I live in Pray Grove I was at a church my last church that I was at before this just as a member had people that lived all the way out in Missouri in Oklahoma in uh in Fort Smith and it was really funny from the pope the pastor was like why you guys coming to church here he actually said we have a church plant in Benville you should go to Ozar Baptist church or you know there's great churches in Fort Smith we'd love to plug you in because he understood the importance of being a community where you are because when you're isolated from everyone and everything that brings you community you are going to be lonely but that's not always it either because people get busy health dwindles and people become just more isolated and so when I say that you're never alone that doesn't mean that you're going to have your loneliness cured when you become a Christian because there will be seasons of loneliness right the apostle Paul was on house arrest for however long he was and he struggled to have the community where he was you can't get a whole lot of community when you're in house arrest from the Roman government but what is it that being a Christian does help with in terms of loneliness it's that there's a promise that even in our earthly loneliness spiritually we are never alone that we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us that we can have community with the Spirit what does that look like well community with the Spirit is reading God's word and allowing the Spirit to to interact with you through God's word it's prayer with God for him to comfort your heart and to walk with you community with the Spirit is walking in step with the Spirit it means that you're doing the things that God calls you to do and you're doing the things that he asks in the way that you love him and love others when you live in step with the Holy Spirit the sting of loneliness gets duller and what I find wonderful about community with the Holy Spirit is that when you have community with the Holy Spirit and you have community with the local church that community physically begins to grow as you draw near to one another because look we in this room right now have a lot of things that are very uncommon about us careers interest where we live what kind of house we live in what our career our career plans in the future what our retirement retirement plans are in the future generation gaps who has children who doesn't have children who's married who's unmarried all these sorts of things but what unites us as a church is it that we all love the razorbacks now is it that we are all Arkansans no because my wife will not claim to be in Arkansan she's a Texas through and through she actually told me she said she lives here for a couple four years she'll finally start to tell people that she's in Arkansan but I'll believe that for a second is it that we all like the same kind of music or that we like the same kind of movies or that we grew up in the same kind of atmosphere no what unites us is our relationship to God that's it the gospels what unites us the gospels what draws us together that's why it's so difficult to create these niche ministries that only cater to one kind of people that like a certain thing because the body of Christ is made of very diverse people different backgrounds different hobbies different ways of growing up you name it but despite all those differences what unites us is the gospel it's that we are all indwelled with the same Holy Spirit and so what else is Jesus teaching us in this passage look at 22 through 24 so Judas not Judas Iscariot the one who went to betray Jesus it's a different Judas I feel really bad for this guy having the same name as the guy who would betray Jesus like man that just stinks for him but he asked Lord how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world and that Jesus answered very plainly that the Holy Spirit will only live in those who believe in him it's the one who loves him that will be indwelled with the Holy Spirit and there's this there's this interesting thing that he says he says that the one who loves him will also keep his word and now looking at that statement we might think to ourselves that oh and this means we gain the Holy Spirit through our obedience and there's actually some denominations that believe that that believe that you don't get the Holy Spirit until you talk in tongues for example or do this or that and so that's when the Holy Spirit that comes on you because there's an evidence of that but the reality is that's not what Jesus is referring to right we may look at that we may go okay so we have to earn our Holy Spirit so we we then become a Christian we get baptized but we don't really become a full Christian until x y or z happens but that's that's not what Jesus is teaching let's look at what he says Jesus says that if anyone loves him they will fill in the blank if you'll find that verse 23 Jesus answered him if anyone loves me he will keep my word if that word is what changes it all because he doesn't say anyone who keeps my word or at some point when they keep my word he says if an individual keeps my word and loves me then the father will live in him what does that mean for us to do what God tells us to do means that we will believe in him and love him and trust him that's where those things occur you cannot keep God's word if you do not love him it's impossible you cannot treasure God's word if you do not love him the spirit does not live in you if you do not love God basically it's the actions that we take as Christians keeping his word loving him being obedient that's what shows that we have the Holy Spirit living in us it's not an earned thing just like our salvation is not an earned thing and the spirit is the one who softens our heart to love him in the first place we cannot truly love God without the help of God himself we need him to assist and where do we see this most we see this with the parable the sower now I won't read the whole parable to you but if you're familiar with it Jesus talks about the person he's planting a seed and he's just throwing it out and one falls on hard soil and doesn't take root one falls on soil takes root but the roots really shallow so one storm comes and then the and then the plank it's taken away he talks about a seed being thrown on thorns and then nothing happens with that and then weeds what you know and then getting eaten by birds there's a lot of happens in this parable but what's the commonality the commonality is it's not until the soil is enriched that the seed finally takes place the soil is tilled the soil is ready for the seed to take place and to take root full deep roots right for those of you who garden and plant you just don't go out and throw out a bag of seeds and go all right let's see what happens no you go out and actually work the land you you till I remember my dad had this giant tiller thing that he would till this whole big section of our yard in order to make his vegetable garden at the time I didn't really understand how that worked but now as an adult as we've tried to plant things I totally understand and get that now because you can't just throw out seed and hope hey this will stick now if you have a backyard like mine sometimes it does I accidentally mowed over a packet of onion seeds and it scattered through our backyard and then it rained a lot and our soil is really it's it's like a swamp back there sometimes especially in that area of prey grove and so actually the seeds did take place and I didn't realize that until I mowed like a couple weeks after that and my eyes started hurting really bad as I mowed I'm like what is going on it's because I was mowing over a bunch of onion and so sometimes that happens but when it comes to the Holy Spirit our hearts are naturally hardened to God that's why we can hear the gospel a million times and it never takes root until one day our heart our heart is softened to finally hear and see who God is and I remember one of my first Wednesday nights here we went around and shared testimonies of how God saved you and I loved hearing the stories of how there came a moment where you finally heard the gospel for the first time and some of you it takes God allowing something really hard to happen in your life for you to finally be softened up to him I know for me it required me falling out of a deer stand in order for me to finally have my heart soften to him and when someone loves God for the first time that's when the Holy Spirit indwells them not earlier and not after and the beautiful thing is the Holy Spirit never leaves you so how does Jesus end this looking verses 25 through 27 he then talks about the function of the Holy Spirit so we see the Holy Spirit is promised that we're never alone we see that the Holy Spirit is is for the believer exclusively and then now we see what does the Holy Spirit even do then and so let's read this verse 25 through 26 these things I've spoken to you while I'm 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 you to remember it's all that I've said to you peace I lead with you and my peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you let your hearts not be troubled neither let them be afraid so what is it that the Holy Spirit does then what is it that Jesus is telling them that the Holy Spirit does functionally well there's a couple things the first is that the Holy Spirit is a helper the Holy Spirit is a helper and when you read that word helper you may think helper in terms of our world today like when I when I there's a book that my daughter loves to read so much it's a mini mouse book where she owns a boutique it's like a bow shop and she calls on her friends the happy helpers because what they do is they like to serve people they do so joyfully right but we think about a helper in that way we think about gaining help for something so if you need help lifting furniture you have a friend that comes alongside you and then they lift it up for you but a helper in this context is not exactly like that right a helper when the Bible talks about a helper the Bible talks about somebody who gives strength and who helps actually do the work for you and with you for example in the Old Testament when you look at some of the Psalms the word helper is used not as this person who's going to come by and and be a shoulder to cry on and listen to your thoughts and go oh it's okay you've got this good job no this is somebody who goes in and says I'm going to fight your battle with you I've got you I'm going to give you strength I'm going to lift you up I'm going to carry you through this so a helper when he's talking about a helper it goes way further than somebody just helping us lift up furniture or giving us a pat on the back or encouraging us the Holy Spirit literally is our helper carries us through things he empowers and strengthens us the other thing the Holy Spirit does is the Holy Spirit teaches us and guides us the Holy Spirit doesn't stop his work whenever we are in and dwelled with him no he continues on when we read our Bibles the Holy Spirit reveals new things to us that's why we can read this book over and over and over again and learn something new every time because the Spirit reveals things to us in time that's why if you've ever read this book from front to cover congratulations start back over read it again because in whatever season you're in God always has something new to teach you and he does though through his spirit but also the Holy Spirit guides us helps us with wisdom in direction in every one of my counseling sessions that I do with my counselors and anchor hope I always pray the same thing that God would give us not just me but my counseling wisdom and direction over our sessions because ultimately at the end of the day I need the help and the work of the spirit to help care for somebody that I'm counseling and for those of you who live your life as a Christian you need God's wisdom and direction to know how best to live your life when you make decisions whether they be decisions within your family or financially or within your career the Holy Spirit can give wisdom and direction and he gives so when you ask it and he often reveals those things through his words so the Holy Spirit teaches and guides us but what's the last thing he says the Holy Spirit gives us peace look at verse 27 again with me peace I lead with you my peace I give to you the Holy Spirit gives us peace and you may have heard this phrase before but that Christians have a peace that surpasses all understanding we can look at our world in its current state and look how icky our political climate is we can look how awful our economy is we can look at how depressing the statistics are on the way people are growing up and living now and all this other stuff and it can just make us really sad but no matter what we face as Christians because of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us there's a peace that sits in us that is far greater than anything we could do on our own it's why someone who's a Christian maybe can get a cancer diagnosis and it now grieve them and make them lose hope as maybe would somebody else because they know that if they have a relationship with the Lord that they're suffering as temporary and that at the end of it all they get to be with Jesus I remember getting to see a member who used to be here Peggy Stoltz at the hospital when she was at the near end of her life and I got all these reports that she was like sick and I'm doing very well and just super weak and now talking a whole lot I walk in she's sitting up in her bed she's chitty chatty she's like hey Dustin what's up like just talking to everybody like it was great she was eating pudding like she was like on cloud nine I was like why are you here like like you don't you don't seem sick at all it's just because she just was so a piece of I get to be with Jesus I get to go home I get to see my husband again like there's just a piece that overwhelms us when we know the Lord now that doesn't mean you're not going to have seasons of grief or anxiety or things that are hard but man there's just something about having a piece that surpasses all understanding there's something about interacting with the world differently when we know that our hope is in Jesus in a life beyond this and not the life that we have now the Holy Spirit is what helps us to live as Christ has called us to live but then we have this closing Jesus closes his discourse he tells the disciples that he is going away and a lot of things are about to happen but all these things are done so that they would believe so what comes after this church is that we are going to be really barreling through the gospel of John pretty fast because we have John 15 which is this beautiful picture of how Jesus is the true line and what that means for us as Christians and the second will go through the high priestly prayer and then Jesus has given over to the aroma authorities he's put on the cross and then the gospel of John ends at the resurrection so we are getting very close to the end but my hope for you is that you won't miss why John wrote these things and that you would believe in him even as we barrel towards the end and close out of the gospel of John here in the next couple months that you would see and understand the things that Jesus is telling them now that all these things are done so that you would believe and that you would love me so what's our application for this morning what do we walk away with this morning well there's two things the first is remember that you're not alone when you know the Lord and you believe in him the Holy Spirit lives in you and you are never alone he walks with you and oftentimes he's the one who carries you and the second is that you should embrace the love and promise of the Holy Spirit you should embrace the love and promise of the Holy Spirit get in your Bible ask the Spirit to speak to you and to teach you through God's Word and I promise when you ask those things God is good to fulfill them we pray with me this morning as we close out and worship Lord we thank you so much for today God we are grateful for who you are God I pray that if anyone here doesn't know you save your father who can confidently save the Spirit does not live in them God I pray that that would change for them this morning God I pray that they would put their trust in faith in you God that your Holy Spirit made well in them and God that your Spirit would teach them guide them care for them and transform them into the image of your son and God I pray this morning for the Christian for those that do know you and do love you God I pray that they would gain a better understanding of the the Spirit's function in their life and God that ultimately it would draw them closer to you and draw them to your Word so Father we thank you for today thank you for not leaving us as orphans your sense holy, I press this name I pray, amen.