Because I Live, You Will Live Too

Grace and Peace to you! Good morning! Welcome to another unique online gathering. It’s not the same as being face to face, but at least you can see my face and for those of you I know, I’m picturing your faces right now. I can’t wait until we are able to safely be together again. Today being separated reminds us of how precious it is to be together. But we also remember we are all in the same situation. All dealing with the same uncertainties. All looking to the same savior. All gathered around our phones, our tablets, our computers, our TV’s.

Separated for now, we are coming before God in worship, so let’s really focus on him in these moments together. So turn off other sounds, gather everyone around. You can kneel, or fold your hands or stand. Do something the let your body know this is worship. And kids, maybe Azalia and Aziya and Charles III are out there today. Any other kids, we welcome you too! You are also an important part of our church family as always. We have lessons and videos for you to experience offline as well.

AT THIS TIME LETS SAY THE LORD’s PRAYER TOGETHER. THIS IS THE PRAYER JESUS TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES PROCLAIM SLIDE

Let’s pray: Heavenly Father we thank you today for life and health and peace. We love you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Today we have secured the rights to stream some specific songs, so let’s sing them together at this time:

PROCLAIM: WORSHIP SET AND NOW LET’S REVISIT THE CORE BELIEFS THAT CHRISTIANS HOLD IN COMMON ABOUT JESUS, THE APOSTLE’S CREED. LETS’ SAY IT TOGETHER. PROCLAIM: APOSTLE’s CREEDKERRY AND DAVE SHARE GREETINGS AT THIS TIMEPROCLAIM: VIDEO PROCLAIM SLIDE: TITHES and OFFERINGS-your giving makes a big difference now more than ever as we not only stay strong but also change lives. On facebook and zoom and by phone we are discipling people. We need you to do your part by reaching out where you are to help and support neighbors and friends with needs. We want to empower you to serve your neighborhood. Take what you receive and multiply it where you live. Calls, texts, social media messages, videos of encouragement to kids and families and isolated friends and loved ones. Trips to the store so someone else doesn’t have to go. We also want to know about the needs you see that we could help fill in the days ahead. Some of you can serve as hosts on these platforms to encourage and chat with others during the livestream events. There are many ways you can serve. Right now your financial gift can help to empower all of these ministries as well. So please do what you can today. To give you can click the GIVE moment button there on church online or visit our website and click Give today.At this time we want to pray for our ministries and our world and Joy is going to come lead us at this time...PROCLAIM: VIDEO PRAYER

John 14:15–21 NIV

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Another Advocate

If you love me… these are words that will ring in the ears of Peter from this moment until he is on the sea shore after the resurrection when Jesus gently restores him into active ministry… If you love me...

So Jesus steps right on their toes here at the beginning. He’s assuming all would raise their hand if asked, how many of you love me? But he also knows that words are easy sometimes. So he’s up front about it. Loving me, being in a relationship with me, means actually taking steps to demonstrate that love.

I don’t think Jesus is making his relationship conditional. But using a word like love is conditional. In other words: if you don’t value my words then your love is compromised. I think he is preparing them to hear what he is about to say. Because if they are valuing and holding onto his words and guidelines then they can cope with the transition that is coming upon them...

John 14:19 NIV

Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

Jesus is going away to prepare a place. There will be a separation that is hard to accept. But longing for things staying the same is not the answer. Something new is coming. Leaning forward, knowing fresh help is coming is the way through. So this is not just about behavior or obeying the rules. This is about valuing Jesus’ words. Keep my commands. Hold them close. The ones about waiting and staying close are as important as the moral do’s and don’ts. It’s about trusting his overall plan instead of keeping your options open. He also makes it clear that it won’t be easy. They will need help. But he actually implies that it won’t be second best. He can’t help them as much in person as he can with the plan that is unfolding...

And so he mentions that help is coming through another holy presence: another way God relates to human beings. The Holy Spirit will be present to them in a new way. We know God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It seems complicated, but it works out that God can relate with us in very full ways. And when the Holy Spirit gets involved more things are possible for us. Some of us know that now. But it had to be hard then to take it all in.

Yeah their minds were probably blown, which is why he probably said: hey if you love me keep my commands (guard my words) before he told them...

The World will not see me

So when Jesus said the world will not see me anymore, he wasn’t kidding. This is still true today. People who live everyday surrounded by a veil of self-interest and self-importance can’t deeply understand what Jesus is saying. It’s always been true. It will always slide right over their heads and many will dismiss it completely.

John 14:17 NIV

the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

People are interested in Jesus because his message of love is compelling. But by keeping him as a tragic historical figure it’s easier to keep him at arms length. But that’s another place where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Spirit of Truth comes to visit you whether you are interested or not. The Spirit of Truth offers to guide you toward God. The Spirit of truth leads with desire and compassion but will also nudge you. You can show some vague interest in God and spirituality without really committing to anything. But to really be changed something more has to happen. If you are committed to the ways of the world, then you cannot accept him. There comes a time where you have to make choices. A lot of people don’t like to make choices. For some, life is a continual slipstream of delayed decisions and keeping your options open.

So the world turns down the volume on the holy spirit. What do you do? Even the Saul of Tarsus tried it. But eventually he was confronted on the road to damascus. You can read about it in the Book of Acts.

I tried it in High School. But the Spirit of Truth just kept showing up on my doorstep. I was describing it to my Philosophy professor my freshman year at the University of Iowa. He and I had friendly discussions all semester long. He was skeptical of my faith but wanted to talk more about my final paper. I told him that I tried to ignore God’s promptings but eventually I had an experience that was a personal confrontation with the holiness and otherness of God. I could not kick this can down the road anymore. I knew that two ways were set before me, I could sense that one path was full of light and the other would be full of darkness and I would be on my own. I stepped into the light and one thing after another became clear as I continued on that path. His eyes got big and he was quiet. He promised me he would think more about it later. And he raised my grade on my paper!

But whether you respond to God’s promptings or not, eventually life comes calling and you’re either ready or not.

Wouldn’t it be good to know that you’re in a full and peaceful experience with God? Wouldn’t it be great to know you can rely on the Spirit to guide you? To be part of the family of God and knowing you are never alone?

Jesus ascended into heaven but then the Spirit came down and made so much more possible.

He will be in you

Jesus uses a word for the Holy Spirit and it’s a loaded term. Beyond this he says the Spirit will help them.

John for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 11–21 Another Helper (John 14:12–21)

the spirit, as we’ll be seeing, comes to give God’s people the strength and energy to do what they have to do, to live for God and witness to his love in the world.

So the Holy Spirit being in your life means that the grace and love of God have a more direct path into your experience. This is part of what is special about the New Testament. Somehow Jesus dying on the cross and rising again from the grave paved the way for the Spirit to work more deeply in the lives of believers. It’s not magic. It didn’t make the disciples better than anyone else. But it did give them the opportunity to live better than they had before. That’s more than a little bit of help. Energy to get your mind right and your emotions right and that helps you get your body where it needs to be as well. So the Spirit helps.

Romans 8:26 NIV

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Paul here gets specific in describing ways the Spirit helps us. When we are tired and worn out and struggling to make sense of it all, one thing the Spirit does is to help us pray anyway. Even when we can’t put it into words. That’s kind of cool if you think about it. A lot more helpful than Siri on your phone. The Spirit is a lot better at understanding what you are trying to say...

The actual word Jesus uses gets translated many different ways, but they are all good, really. Comforter is a good term for the Holy Spirit. Comfort is something God offers human beings all the time...

2 Corinthians 1:3–6 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.

Although Paul is focusing on the Father and Jesus here, the Holy Spirit is very much involved in bringing this comfort into our immediate experience. We can actually feel a peace come over us when we stop to pray and pour out our hearts to God. If you’ve experienced this you know what I mean.

Another way this is translated is that the Spirit is an Advocate to plead our case before the Father.

Romans 8:27 NIV

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

So we don’t need to beg God. Being prayerful is good. Asking for forgiveness is important in any relationship. But the Spirit works in official ways to help our standing before God, like a lawyer in the court. We don’t have to have anxiety about getting all the words just right. As long as we start where Jesus started: we have commited to loving God and holding his commands and words as valuable.

The Spirit can transform every fully-surrendered life. That’s Good News in crazy times. The disciples were to begin preparing themselves to let the Spirit work more deeply in their lives. It’s scary to make a deep commitment to someone. There is risk in any important venture in life. But Jesus knew a transition had to happen for the full plan to unfold. So they ventured into an uncertain time of waiting but it turned out to be so worth it. God worked this time of separation and anxiety together for good in the life of the disciples. Hmmm… I wonder if we can trust Him now...

Because I Live, You also will live

If you’re old like me you remember a song that goes Because He Lives. I can face tomorrow. Because he lives all fear is gone. Life is worth the living just because he lives.

I don’t think that’s the only thing we have to live for, but it sure makes all of life come together much better. Jesus was dead as dead can get. Until he wasn’t. Can I get an Amen? Folks we may feel surrounded by death right now but we are dealing with the author of life. Jesus says: been there, done that, got the t-shirt, took the instagram selfie! Then maybe he puts on his risen glory sunglasses cocks his head and says: I’m back. Do not be afraid. OK I don’t know if Jesus needs sunglasses, but we probably need them to behold his glory. You get my point.

Jesus is alive! Jesus is confident. So all ya’ll can live your lives today! Amen?

The rain still falls. The creek still rises. Disease and pandemics are a real threat. But Jesus is a bigger threat in the best possible ways.

We don’t have to worry about the economy. If Jesus can bring people back from the dead he can help us get things going again. It’s probably still a very good idea to still stay home as much as you can. But hopefully the numbers will trend more in the right direction soon. But whether you stay inside or have to go out every day for work let Jesus lead you by letting the Holy Spirit be your helper, your comforter, your advocate.

It comes in one package: confessing your sins to God, trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice to make things right with God. Then committing to follow Jesus into the uncertainties of life by faith and by action. Next, open your life to the Holy Spirit. When you are fully-surrendered to God, the Spirit has full access to help you, to comfort you, to be your advocate. Then you too can live every day in sanctified resurrection power. Will you be perfect? No, you’re human. But can life get better from here? Absolutely yes.

John 14:15–16 NRSV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.

Father, help everyone who needs more of you today to take the steps they need right now. Jesus, thank you for making all of this amazing stuff possible by coming to earth and dealing with our garbage and starting to make all things new. Spirit, do your best for us, we ask. We need you. We reach out for your comfort, help, and guidance. In all these ways God, work in us. Remind us that we aren’t lone rangers on this journey. It becomes a lot more real and a lot more doable when we live in community with others on this journey. Thank you for a church family that helps bring it all together as we live, love, forgive, share, encourage and strengthen each other. But thank you that the Holy Spirit brings that something extra the makes it all work. We love you, Lord. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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