February 12, 2017
Morning Worship
Text: John 14
Subject; The Holy Spirit
Title: The Work of the Spirit Part 1
I want to begin a new series this morning – we kind of got started into last week – but this series will be on the work of the Holy Spirit. We will begin in John 14 and go through John 16 and when we are done I’m believing that your life will be changed and the life of this church. Not by the words that I speak, but by the Spirit of the living God living in you.
Are you ready?
Have you ever been dry? Do you ever get tired? Do you think that the life you are living isn’t making a difference and that you just want to run and hide sometimes? I think we can all say we have experienced that spiritual dryness or that sense of ineffectiveness.
There are times when I just get tired and I feel the need to just get away for a while and get my batteries recharged. So we take off to go somewhere, looking for something – we don’t know what – that will fill up the space in us that we don’t even know how it got emptied.
This is personal – it is very difficult for us as pastors to go away and just empty ourselves of who we are and just relax. Because we are always wondering if everyone is OK and are there any problems – well, if you have never been a pastor you probably don’t get this. And we go to places where we think we can find the peace and rest we are looking for but at the end of the week away the only thought on our minds is, “Can’t wait to get home…”
And then I think, “Isn’t that the whole problem in the first place? Isn’t that the source of our weariness and our doubt and our anxiety? We are just working, ministering, living in a place that is temporary, and whether we know it or not, in our spirits, we are longing to be in the place where there won’t be any weariness any longer.” We just long to be with Jesus.
In just a few months school will be out and vacation mode will kick in and many of us will be doing just that same thing. Looking for spiritual rest by doing physical things.
And he more I think about it, the more I realize that we as the church of Jesus Christ sometimes miss out on what He wants to do in us – the pure and simple relationship He wants to have in us – by not taking advantage of all the things that we have available to us.
John 14:1-4 (NKJV)
1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
4 And where I go you know, and the way you know."
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
And I will appropriate it to my life today…
There is so much in John 14-16 for us that I want to take a few weeks just to look at it all in some depth and try to connect the dots for you so you can receive everything the Lord wants you to have. Are you with me?
Jesus has just told His disciples that He is going to die and they were becoming frantic. What are we going to do? How can we go on if you aren’t here?
Can you just imagine the comfort that they must have had knowing that Jesus was right there with them? Everywhere they went people coming to hear the good news and to be touched and healed and have demons cast out… and as long as Jesus was right there the disciples could just bring people to Him and everything was good!
And now He says that He is going to leave us?
Let’s go back to verses 2 and 3, I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
In the Jewish culture of that time when a man and women were betrothed the husband to be would leave her for a period of time and would go to build a house. In reality most times it was an addition to His fathers house. In the ancient culture, a father's house was where the extended family lived. Rooms were often added on as the family grew through birth and marriage. What Jesus was doing was using the present day illustration of a loving, tight, family community. So, Christ is saying that He is preparing a place for us in heaven where we will dwell with God in close communion with Him, and that there is room in heaven for all whom God calls to salvation.
John 14:5-6 (NKJV)
5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?"
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Every one of us has experienced the type of loss that the disciples are facing. Loosing a loved one – a parent or a brother or sister – or even a close friend. And it is so difficult to even think about going on without them.
When my mom was alive there were two things that I could count on.
1. If the weather was good on Monday we were going fishing.
2. And if it were Thursday I would call her and talk to her, and if I forgot she would call me.
And I remember the weeks after mom passed away sitting at my desk in my office waiting for the phone to ring. And it didn’t… And I get how the disciples must have felt!
And if we feel that way about a loved one we have lost – we long to see them again – shouldn’t we also be like the disciples who didn’t want to let go of Jesus?
Now Jesus goes on and is getting ready to give them a great revelation.
John 14:7-11 (NKJV)
7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."
8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."
9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Verse 8 shows us something very significant about the human nature. Although our nature is fallen there is always a longing to know God. Most people don’t even know what it is they are longing for and will spend their entire lives seeking some sort of physical satisfaction to satisfy a spiritual need.
But Jesus said, you have seen God! You’ve seen me haven’t you?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
Listen, I’m not here this morning to stir up some theological dispute between groups, but Jesus says the Father is in me and I am in the Father. He doesn’t say that I am the Father and the Father is me. He is making the spiritual connection here that the Father knows exactly what Jesus did because Jesus always did the will of the Father and the work of the Father. So if you have seen Jesus at work you have seen the Father.
And then Jesus goes even a little further in order to explain what is about to happen.
John 14:12-14 (NKJV)
12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
As I said before, the disciples were confident as long as they had Jesus with them. Even when they were sent out two-by-two to preach and heal and cast out demons they did so in confidence because they were commissioned and empowered by Jesus. And now they are told that even though Jesus is leaving they are going to do the same things He did?
This next passage is what Jesus was preparing them for all along.
John 14:15-18 (NKJV)
15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--
17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In the same way that I am in the Father and the Father is in me – we are one in thought and in deed – I don’t do anything without the Father’s approval or knowledge – the Father will send you another Helper (advocate NIV; KJV Comforter)
parakletos (par-ak'-lay-tos) n.
1. (properly) one called near (to give help)
2. an intercessor (one who entreats of behalf of another)
3. a comforter
Now look at the words used to describe the One who will be sent… helper, one called near, an intercessor, a comforter… all of these describe the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer… but for the disciples to whom Jesus is talking the key word in what he has said is not about the qualities of the one the father would send, but in the nature of the one He will send. The word another… in the Greek there are two words that are translated “another”. One means another – something totally different. But the word used here allos means one in nature – exactly the same. While Jesus walked with the disciples He was their comforter, their guide, their teacher… now He is going to send them one just like Him.
This is the same Holy Spirit that Jesus would tell to wait for – the Promise of the Father.
Luke 24:49 (NKJV)
49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."
Acts 1:8 (NKJV)
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Can you see this? As long as Jesus was with them they were going to rely on somebody else to do the miraculous, to preach the good news, to cast out the demons… they were OK being Jesus’ helpers but now Jesus says that there is a new dynamic about to unfold. You are going to do the work and the Holy Spirit will be the helper. He is the same as I am but the roles have now reversed.
12 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
This Holy Spirit that comes to walk alongside, to comfort, to intercede will not do the work of Jesus. But He empowers you to do the work.
But Jesus, how can we do it? What if we forget the things you taught us? What if we can’t… I mean after all we are just human! We have always depended on you to do these things…
John 14:25-26 (NKJV)
25 "These things I have spoken to you while being present 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 things that I said to you.
John 20:22 (NKJV) (salvation)
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:1-4 (NKJV) (power)
1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Jesus began this dialogue with the disciples by focusing on peace – don’t let your hearts be troubled….
He finishes with peace… John 14:27 (NKJV)
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 heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
I started today talking about how we are looking for that peace and rest in a worldly sense. And you know, someday soon I hope, Charlotte and I are going to get away for a time to just enjoy being with each other.
But I have made up my mind that when I need that touch of home that I long for I am going to receive it through the power and presence of God through the Holy Spirit. I going to be refilled and then refilled again and when I empty myself before the Lord through ministry I will get filled yet again.
That is what the baptism in the Holy Spirit is about. The power to enter into our rest... The power to do the work of the Jesus… the power to not be confused or anxious or afraid.
Many of those we have lost have gone to their heavenly home.
But we have the direct connection to home living in us and empowering us. The longing you have to be with Jesus is fulfilled through the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 3:20 (NKJV)
20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…
Are you ready for some spiritual R and R? It’s just a prayer of faith away. Let’s take some time and just go be with Jesus today.
He loves us so much that He opened up his arms to die for us. But he has not left us orphans. He sent the Comforter.
Matthew 11:28 (NKJV)
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Are you tired?
Are you homesick?
Are you hurting?
Are you sick?
Come home and allow the power of the Holy Spirit to manifest in your life to be the fulfillment of all you need today.
