Handling Adversity Part 3 Series

Handling Adversity Part 3

Scripture: John 14:16-18; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8; 2:1-8

Introduction

This is part three of my series “Handling Adversity.” In the first two parts, I focused on how Jesus handled His adversity upon His last entry into Jerusalem and how the disciples handled theirs once Jesus was crucified. When preaching a sermon for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday focusing on what happened before Jesus was crucified and what happened when He rose from the dead, we sometimes do not complete the story by asking “What happened next?” For the next two weeks, hopefully, I want to share with you what happened next because what happened after Jesus was resurrected coupled with His disciples accepting the fact He was alive forevermore plays vital role today in how we handled adversity. This message will examine Jesus promise for the Holy Spirit and what happened when He came and next week I will get into how the Holy Spirit helps us and operate through us. Let’s start with the counsel Jesus gave His disciples weeks before they entered Jerusalem as He was preparing them. Turn to St. John 14:16-18.

I. Jesus Promises To Send Us A Helper

As Jesus was teaching and comforting His disciples about what was ahead, He told them that even though He must leave them, He was also going to send them a helper. John 14:16-18 records the following: “I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

In these verses Jesus was letting His disciples know that although He was leaving them, He would ask God the Father to send them another helper, the Holy Spirit. Notice that He used the term “another” when referring to what the Holy Spirit would be. Jesus saw Himself, and he was, as a helper for mankind. He came to open the door for us to reach God the Father. He came to “help” us get there. When He was leaving, He was sending another “Helper” to replace Him. In talking about the Holy Spirit, notice He says that the world would not know Him for He is the Spirit of truth, but the disciples would. He told them that they would know the Holy Spirit because He would abide with them and would be in them. So there are two functions the Holy Spirit would do, He would abide with them so that they would never be alone, but He would also abide in them and act as a guide and teacher. Jesus said in John 16:13-15 that the Holy Spirit will “…..guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” It is important that we understand what happened after Jesus was resurrected from the grave. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told His disciples that He must go so that He could send the Holy Spirit back to assist His followers until then end of time. He said that the Holy Spirit will disclose to us those things that are of Christ and subsequently of God because everything that the Father has the Son has. This is a direct benefit of being a child of God. What God has He has made available to us through the Holy Spirit, but we must accept and understand Him. There are a lot of things happening within the Church that we are giving the Holy Spirit credit for when truthfully He is not involved in it. So understand that before Jesus left, He foretold to His disciples that after He left He would send another to help them. This was all said before He went to Jerusalem for the last time and was crucified and resurrected on the third day. So let move on to what He told His disciples after He was resurrected.

II. Wait For The Spirit

After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples. As He was preparing to leave them, Luke 24:46-49 records the following: “And He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”