After Easter

Introduction (4min)

What do you need in your life this week after Easter?

What do you wish Jesus could give you this week after Easter?

What did Jesus give his disciples days before Easter for them to have after Easter?

How do you go forward after Easter?

How do you think the disciples felt after Easter?

Is it true that Jesus is still alive? YES

Is it true that the risen Christ gives us ultimate hope in this life and eternal life? YES

Is it true that life after Easter is easy and painless? NO

But Jesus knew this. And that is why he prepares his disciples for after Easter.

John 14:15–18 (ESV)

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:25–27 (ESV)

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.

Jesus was prepared for your “after Easter” even before Easter. (6)

Context is after time in the upper room but before the cross.

Jesus knows he is leaving and he doesn’t want to leave his disciples alone.

Jesus knew how his disciples would feel after Easter and he knew what they would need.

Same is true for you. Whatever your after Easter looks like, Jesus knew and has been preparing you.

If Jesus could prepare before couldn’t he just stop the things that happen?

I would rather follow a God who redeems than one who reacts.

Jesus promises a Helper for after Easter. (8)

‘Another’ Helper

— Jesus had been with them for three years. Maybe at first they were worried about food and how would they survive, but after a few miracles I imagine the disciples grew to count on Jesus being there.

Now he is going away. Jesus promised to send ‘another’ Helper. The first helper would be Jesus, so the Spirit is like having Jesus next to you.

Jesus promises the Holy Spirit whom he calls a ‘helper.’

Holy Spirit:

Not sure where you are on your faith journey, but if you are new to church or to the Christian experience, you may be wondering what the Holy Spirit is. Not the Spirit of Jesus Not the “Casper of the church” He’s not Jiminy Cricket who guides you as your conscience He’s a Person. Second Person of the Trinity.

How does the Holy Spirit help us (as the Helper?):

Convicts of sin

John 16:7–8 (ESV)

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

It’s like having Jesus go through your browser history.

Gives understanding

John 14:26 (ESV)

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.

It’s like having Jesus to ask any question to.

Dwells in and fills believers

1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)

16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

Teaches and guides

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.

Seal and guarantee

2 Corinthians 1:22 (ESV)

22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Produces good things in us

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

— not a limited time offer — forever! Not ‘I’ll send the Holy Spirit to help onboard you into this whole “Christian life thing” but after six months I’m cutting you loose to do life on your own.’

The presence of Jesus is with you after Easter. (5)

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

This must have been what the disciples were feeling — abandonment. Like they were without protection, care, provision, love, example.

Do you ever feel all alone in the world? Feel as though you are without protection, provision, care, or love?

Jesus has promised his presence. He’s here now!

Take the word of the Lord in your darkness. If He died to let us live in His company, is he likely to abandon us just because things look dark?

— Elizabeth Elliot

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

This wasn’t the first time the disciples felt abandoned - lord, don’t. . .

Mark 4:35-41

ILLUST - Storm on the sea - ‘Lord, don’t you care?’

Does Jesus care? – Yes. – He was in the boat.

Does Jesus care? – Yes. – He relieved their fear

Does Jesus care? – Yes – and He is able to save.

To experience the Spirit is to experience Jesus.

Sometimes we don’t feel the presence but it doesn’t negate the reality of the presence.

ILLUST - Coby ‘running away’

Romans 8:9 (ESV)

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

How do you have receive the Holy Spirit to walk alongside

Jesus gives you his peace for after Easter. (8)

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.

Where do you look for peace?

Where do you go to find peace?

Illustration – millions of people in America on anxiety meds. While they help, they can never fully give peace.

Jesus says the peace is not like the world gives. What kind of peace does the world give? external, temporary, not completely effective.

Where haver you looked for peace in the past? Has it worked? Has it lasted?

Not as the world gives do I give to you.

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive, 1989-2011 (A Different Peace)

These things, though, my friends, the things the world’s peace are based on, even the most durable of them, are like bubbles on the water

The only way the world can begin to offer peace is to somehow rid you of all the problems in life. Can’t happen.

Or forget there even are problems - don’t think too much. But if we are to have peace, then thinking about and understanding the Holy Spirit will and all that a relationship

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

True peace is not merely the absence of problems, worry, trials; it is the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Peace is not the absence of sorrow; it is the presence of Jesus in the sorrow.

(Not as the world gives)

Don’t forget in dark what you learned in the light

John 6:67-69

John 6:67–69 (ESV)

67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Don’t forget in the dark that the only light is JESUS and his resurrection.

There IS peace in that even if you don’t feel it right now. The world can offer nothing different.

What is the end result of this peace?

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

No fear. This is the same word used to describe Jesus just before he took the sins of the world on the cross AND BROUGHT SALVATION.

Spirit takes fear and gives peace to face whatever we face in life and whatever God calls us to.

Conclusion (4)

As we walk through days / weeks after Easter, remember the Holy Spirit. Remember, he is speaking for you even when you don’t have words.

“And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice.”

Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit

“This experience of the Spirit promised by Jesus also points to benefits that are truly astounding. Believers will sustain the miraculous works of Jesus (14:12), they will have intimacy with God in prayer (14:13–14), and they will recall God’s word with conviction (14:25; 1 John 2:22–27)—all with the aid of the Spirit”

“The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit; the Holy Spirit ushers to us the presence of Father and Son to indwell us and to share fellowship with us. Hence, as God was at work on the cross in Christ to save us, so now God is at work in the Spirit to transform us. I cannot underscore sufficiently how important this is. God is on our side. He is at work renewing us and loving us. This is the gospel.”

When Easter celebration is over and we are faced with the effects of a sin-drenched world, we’re confronted with the question of just how much the reality of Jesus’ presence is in our lives on a daily basis.

Christianity is not about celebrating Jesus once or twice a year, it’s about submitting our lives to the truth of Jesus when we first believe and then every day as we live out that reality by walking with the Spirit - not only that we might act like Jesus but also that we might lean on the Spirit when days after Easter are dark.

I am convinced there are times in our lives where we must commit and recommit to Christ and the Spirit’s leading.

First, when we accept Christ as Lord - we receive the Spirit , then not only one or two more times but daily.

Today, commit yourself to the Holy Spirit or re-commit yourself to him. Let the Holy Spirit be an advocate for you praying for you and you can pray expressing to God your pain hurt, empowering you to live a life that matters that shakes and changes the kingdoms of this world, to live a life that’s supernatural and unexplainable in any other way than the risen Christ is working in your life.

*PRAY*