You Are Not Alone
Notes
Transcript
Church, as we come back into John 14, we need to remember where Jesus and His disciples are because these aren't random teachings Jesus is giving on some peaceful afternoon when everything is going well.
The cross is coming. Judas has already left to betray Him. Jesus has told these men that He's going away, and everything they thought their future was going to look like is beginning to change.
These men have spent three years walking beside Jesus.
When they didn't understand something, Jesus explained it.
When they were afraid, Jesus was there.
When the storm came, Jesus was in the boat.
When thousands needed to be fed, Jesus provided.
When Lazarus died, Jesus walked with them to the tomb.
For three years, the physical presence of Jesus had been the constant in their lives, and now Jesus is telling them that He's leaving.
Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. What happens when Jesus isn't physically standing beside them anymore? Who is going to teach them? Who is going to lead them? Who is going to remind them of what's true when everything around them feels like it's falling apart? Jesus knows exactly what they're thinking, and He answers those questions beginning in verse 25:
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.
Jesus is telling them, I'm leaving, but you aren't going to be alone. The Father is sending the Helper.
1. THE FORGOTTEN PERSON OF THE TRINITY
1. THE FORGOTTEN PERSON OF THE TRINITY
Church, I think this is one of those areas where sometimes we've failed in the way we've taught and talked about God. Sometimes we give God the Father and Jesus Christ all the flowers, and rightfully so.
We talk about God as Creator. Genesis tells us, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." We look around at the mountains, the stars, our families, our lives, and everything God has made, and we worship the God who spoke creation into existence. We talk about His sovereignty, His holiness, His power, His provision, and His faithfulness, and we absolutely should.
Then we talk about Jesus, and how could we ever talk enough about Jesus? The eternal Son of God took on flesh and stepped into His own creation. He lived the life we couldn't live.
He went to the cross carrying sins He never committed.
He shed His blood for sinners like you and me.
He rose from the grave, conquered death, and through faith in Him we've been forgiven, redeemed, justified, adopted, and given eternal life.
So absolutely, we make much of Jesus. We preach Christ crucified. We sing about Jesus. We pray in the name of Jesus. We point people toward Jesus because there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
But sometimes I think we stop there. Father, Son...and then the Holy Spirit almost becomes an afterthought. We know He's part of the Trinity. We know Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
We sing songs that mention Him, and we certainly believe in Him.
But how much do we actually think about the incredible reality that God the Holy Spirit lives in us?
Francis Chan famously described the Holy Spirit as the Forgotten God, and I think there's something painfully accurate about that description. We would never say we don't believe in the Holy Spirit, but sometimes the way we live makes it look like we don't really understand what it means to have the Spirit of the living God dwelling within us.
Look again at what Jesus is telling these frightened disciples. He isn't saying, Don't worry guys, I'm going to leave you a really good instruction manual.
He's not looking at Peter and saying, Peter, you're strong enough to figure this out.
He's not looking at John and saying, John, you're smart enough to carry everybody through this.
Jesus says the Father is sending the Helper. And that word matters because the Holy Spirit isn't some mystical force floating around the universe.
He's not simply an emotion we feel during worship.
He's not goosebumps when the right song comes on.
He's not the strange part of Christianity that we avoid talking about because we're afraid somebody might get a little too charismatic on us.
He is God. He is the third Person of the Trinity, and for everyone who belongs to Christ, He doesn't merely exist around us; He dwells within us.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Think about the weight of that statement for a minute. Under the Old Covenant, God's presence filled the tabernacle. Later God's presence filled the temple. People traveled to Jerusalem to worship at the place associated with God's dwelling presence.
But under the New Covenant, something incredible has happened. God's people have become His temple. God has chosen to dwell within His people through His Spirit. We can become so familiar with Christian language that we hear something like that and just move right past it, but church, that ought to stop us in our tracks. The Spirit of the living God dwells in you.
Romans 8:11 says,
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Think about that. The Spirit who was present at creation, the Spirit who empowered God's servants throughout redemptive history, the Spirit who descended upon Christ, the Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the Spirit God has placed within His people.
Yet sometimes we're walking around saying, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I'm strong enough. I don't know if I have what it takes. And the truth is, in your own strength, you're right. You can't. But Christianity was never supposed to be you trying really hard to imitate Jesus.
Christianity is Christ saving you and the Spirit of God transforming you. That's a completely different way to live.
2. THE HOLY SPIRIT LEADS US INTO TRUTH
2. THE HOLY SPIRIT LEADS US INTO TRUTH
Jesus continues in verse 26 by saying...
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.
There's something important that we need to understand here. Jesus is specifically speaking to His apostles. These are the men who are going to carry the teaching of Christ into the world after His resurrection and ascension. The Holy Spirit is going to bring Christ's words to their remembrance and guide them into truth, and one of the incredible results of that promise is sitting in our hands today. We have the Word of God!
We don't have to guess what Jesus taught. We don't have to wonder what Christianity is supposed to look like. God, through His Spirit, has given and preserved the truth that His church needs.
Second Timothy 3:16 tells us...
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
and 2 Peter 1:21 tells us...
21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
That means when we talk about being Spirit-led, we need to be careful about what we mean. Being led by the Holy Spirit will never mean being led away from the Word of God because the Spirit of God isn't going to contradict the Word He inspired. That's why we don't build our theology on feelings.
Someone says, I just feel like God would be okay with this. Okay, but what does Scripture say?
Someone says, I feel like the Spirit is leading me here. Okay, does that leading agree with God's revealed Word?
Because feelings change. Circumstances change. Culture changes. My emotions can change three times before lunch, but truth doesn't change.
Jesus has already called Him "the Spirit of truth," and church, that's incredibly comforting because we live in a world where everybody seems to have their own version of truth. We hear people talk about my truth and your truth and what truth means to me, but Jesus doesn't offer us one possible version of truth. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."
The Holy Spirit doesn't draw attention away from Jesus; He continually points God's people back toward Christ and His truth. He opens our understanding of the Word, convicts us through the Word, reminds us of the Word, and then empowers us to walk according to that truth.
That's why when you're reading Scripture and something convicts you deeply, don't immediately run away from that conviction. When the Word exposes pride in you, when Scripture confronts bitterness you've been holding onto, when you know you need to forgive somebody, when you recognize sin that needs to be confessed, or when you're prompted to encourage somebody, pray with somebody, share Christ with somebody, or simply show somebody the love of Jesus, don't treat those things lightly.
The Christian life isn't supposed to be lived with our fingers in our ears toward the Spirit of God. Galatians 5:25 says,
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
I love that picture because it's the picture of walking with Him. We're not running ahead trying to do everything in our own wisdom, and we're not dragging twenty feet behind because we refuse to obey. We're learning, day after day and decision after decision, to keep in step with the Spirit of God.
3. THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT PRODUCES THE PEACE OF CHRIST
3. THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT PRODUCES THE PEACE OF CHRIST
Then Jesus moves from His promise of the Holy Spirit directly into the subject of peace. Verse 27 says,
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.
Notice what Jesus doesn't promise these men. He doesn't promise that everything is about to get easier. Actually, everything is about to get harder. Jesus is about to be arrested. Peter is going to deny Him. The disciples are going to scatter. Their Messiah is going to be crucified. Eventually these men are going to face persecution for preaching His name, and yet standing on the edge of all of that Jesus says, "Peace I leave with you."
That tells us something incredibly important about biblical peace. The peace of Christ isn't the absence of trouble; it's the presence of God in the middle of trouble.
The world says, I'll have peace when everything works out. Jesus says you can have peace before you know how everything is going to work out.
The world says I'll have peace when the diagnosis comes back good, when the bills are paid, when my kids are okay, when my marriage gets easier, when the job works out, when the country settles down, or when I finally know what tomorrow looks like.
But Jesus says, "My peace I give to you." Not the world's peace. His peace.
Christian peace isn't ultimately rooted in knowing what's coming next. It's rooted in knowing Who's with us when it comes. That's why Jesus immediately says, "Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
Church, Jesus knows our hearts. He knows how quickly we can take something that happened Monday morning and by Monday afternoon we've mentally traveled twenty miles down a road that hasn't even happened yet.
We worry about tomorrow. We worry about our children. We worry about our finances. We worry about our health. We worry about our church. We worry about our country. We worry about things happening on the other side of the world that we couldn't control even if we wanted to.
Jesus isn't saying those things don't matter. He's saying don't let them own your heart, because you're not facing any of them alone. The Holy Spirit of God lives within you.
4. WE DON'T HAVE TO FEAR WHAT'S COMING
4. WE DON'T HAVE TO FEAR WHAT'S COMING
Jesus continues in verses 28 and 29,
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.
I love that Jesus tells them what's coming before it happens, and He even tells us why: "so that when it does take place you may believe." He's preparing them. He knows that they're about to see things that are going to shake them to their core, so He's giving them truth beforehand that they can hold onto when everything around them looks completely different.
Jesus knows the cross is coming. He knows Judas is coming. He knows the soldiers are coming. He knows the nails are coming. He knows the tomb is coming. None of it catches Him off guard. That's something we need to remember because Jesus is never sitting in heaven reacting to history as though something happened that He didn't see coming.
The disciples are about to watch something happen that looks like the complete destruction of God's plan. They're going to see their Messiah hanging dead on a cross, and from their perspective it's going to look like everything has been lost. Yet the moment that looked like the greatest defeat in human history was actually accomplishing the greatest victory in human history. God was redeeming sinners through the death of His Son.
So why would I believe that God suddenly lost control when something goes wrong in my life? Church, we don't know what's coming tomorrow, and if we're honest, sometimes that's exactly what scares us. We want the details. We want God to show us the plan. We want Him to tell us how everything is going to work out before we trust Him.
But you don't need to know everything that's coming when you know the One who's already there. That's where the ministry of the Holy Spirit changes the way we walk through uncertainty because the Spirit continually reminds us of what is true.
God is still God. Christ is still King. The tomb is still empty. My sins are still forgiven. I am still adopted. God's promises are still true. Nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, and the Spirit of the living God still dwells within me. Whatever tomorrow brings, I'm not walking into it alone.
5. THE CROSS PROVES JESUS IS IN CONTROL
5. THE CROSS PROVES JESUS IS IN CONTROL
Then Jesus finishes this section in verses 30 and 31:
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.
There's a lot packed into those words. When Jesus says, "the ruler of this world is coming," Satan is moving, Judas is moving, the religious leaders are moving, and the soldiers are moving. From a human perspective it looks like the enemies of Jesus are closing in around Him, but Jesus says something incredibly important: "He has no claim on me."
In other words, Satan isn't taking Jesus' life from Him. Jesus is laying it down. We've already heard Jesus say this in John 10:18:
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Calvary wasn't Satan defeating Jesus. Calvary was Jesus defeating sin. The cross wasn't Plan B. Jesus wasn't dragged unwillingly toward Golgotha because the enemy somehow gained the upper hand. Jesus willingly walked toward the cross in obedience to His Father, knowing exactly what awaited Him.
That's why I love the final sentence of this chapter so much. Jesus simply says, "Rise, let us go from here." Think about what He's saying. Jesus knows exactly what's waiting outside that room, and He gets up anyway.
He's going toward Gethsemane. He's going toward Judas. He's going toward the soldiers. He's going toward the trial, the whipping post, the crown of thorns, the nails, and ultimately the cross. And He tells us why: "so that the world may know that I love the Father."
What we're seeing is perfect obedience, perfect love, and perfect trust. Jesus isn't walking toward something outside the Father's control. He's walking directly into the Father's redemptive plan.
CLOSING — DON'T LIVE LIKE YOU'VE BEEN LEFT ALONE
CLOSING — DON'T LIVE LIKE YOU'VE BEEN LEFT ALONE
Church, maybe one of the reasons we struggle so badly with fear, worry, temptation, uncertainty, and obedience is that we've forgotten Who lives within us. We've talked about God above us. We've talked about Jesus who died for us. But sometimes we've forgotten about the Holy Spirit who lives in us. I don't want us to become a church that talks about the Holy Spirit only when we're explaining the Trinity. I want us to live like we actually believe He's here.
When you're tempted, He's there.
When you're afraid, He's there.
When you open your Bible and ask God to help you understand His truth, He's there.
When you're trying to figure out how to love somebody who's difficult to love, He's there.
When you feel that conviction to pray for somebody and every part of you wants to keep walking, He's there.
When you're standing in front of somebody who desperately needs to hear the Gospel and you're scared to open your mouth, He's there.
When life takes a turn you never saw coming and suddenly you don't know what tomorrow is going to look like, He's still there.
We aren't spiritual orphans trying to figure out how to survive until Jesus comes back. God has given us His Spirit.
Maybe the question we need to ask ourselves isn't simply, "Do I believe in the Holy Spirit?" Most Christians would immediately answer yes. Maybe the better question is, "Do I live like the Holy Spirit actually lives in me?" Because if the Spirit of the living God resides in us, then tomorrow doesn't have to terrify us.
We have truth when the world is confused. We have a Helper when we're weak. We have the peace of Christ when our circumstances aren't peaceful. We have direction when we don't know what's ahead, and above all of it, we have the presence of God.
The Father planned our redemption, the Son accomplished our redemption, and the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within the redeemed. That's not some secondary doctrine tucked away in the back of our theology. That's the Christian life. God didn't save us and then tell us, Good luck, I'll see you when you get here. He saved us, sealed us with His Spirit, and gave us His presence to lead us, teach us, convict us, strengthen us, and continually point us back to the truth of Jesus Christ.
So whatever is waiting outside these doors today, whatever is waiting Monday morning, whatever is waiting next month, and whatever is waiting five years from now, we don't have to live afraid of the things to come. Not because God has told us everything that's coming. Not because every road ahead of us is going to be easy. Not because Christians are somehow exempt from suffering. We don't have to be afraid because we know the One who goes with us. Jesus promised His disciples a Helper, and He has given that same Spirit to everyone who belongs to Him.
Church, He hasn't left us alone.
Amen? Amen!
