SPEAKER_00: Of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In this way, Jesus answers an important question that surely was in the minds of the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: How will his disciples continue to know him and follow him even after he's gone?
SPEAKER_00: His answer is not merely a promise, it is a person.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not leave his disciples empty-handed.
SPEAKER_00: He gives them this great gift, this great, greatest departing gift, the person of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And in our text this morning, we see Jesus not only promised to give his disciples this Holy Spirit, but he also highlights seven realities the Holy Spirit brings into the believer's life.
SPEAKER_00: So let us see what those realities are as we look at our text.
SPEAKER_00: Our text this morning is John chapter 14, verse 15 through 31.
SPEAKER_00: We will look at specific parts of it as we go through the text and look for these seven realities instead of reading it right now.
SPEAKER_00: But please turn there in God's word if you have your copy with you.
SPEAKER_00: Before speaking of the Spirit, Jesus reminds his disciples in verse 15, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Remember this as we go through this text, for this theme frames the entire passage.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in several verses in the text.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 15, verse 21, verses 23 through 24, and again in verse 31, in a way.
SPEAKER_00: In this, we see the Spirit of Christ, that is the Holy Spirit, is God's gift to his obedient people, that is, those who trust him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus, after this, gives his first great promise.
SPEAKER_00: He points out the first reality to us, or the first abiding assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that phrase, abiding assurance, because I've entitled this message, The Abiding Assurance of Life, Love, and Peace.
SPEAKER_00: Because God says, I mean, Christ says to his disciples that they will have these assurances, these blessings, these realities in their life because of the Holy Spirit, and that these things will be abiding.
SPEAKER_00: They will be theirs permanently.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' first great promise is found in verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever.
SPEAKER_00: This is reality number one, the abiding assurance of the indwelling permanent presence of God in our hearts, or rather, souls.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the word for another helper in the original language is perikletos.
SPEAKER_00: It means another of the same kind.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was telling the disciples that as he was being taken away from them, another would come who was just like him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit did come.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes to us as Christ's divine representative.
SPEAKER_00: He's our helper, our advocate, our teacher, our comforter, and our guide.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I love movies more than I should.
SPEAKER_00: And I went and saw Odyssey the other night with my son.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was great.
SPEAKER_00: And in it, there's a blind servant who was faithful to Odysseus, the king who has gone off to war.
SPEAKER_00: And he, along with a guy named Mentor, teaching the king's son things.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God has sent us.
SPEAKER_00: He has sent us a combination of that blind servant who was very faithful to his master and the swordsman who could teach his son how to fight.
SPEAKER_00: Their dedication to their king made them want to instill in the king's son all the king's son needed to succeed.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Holy Spirit does for us.
SPEAKER_00: He is invested in seeing us have all we need from our Father, the King.
SPEAKER_00: He is Christ's divine representative in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He is another helper like unto Christ Himself, who helps us in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: For we are human and we have many.
SPEAKER_00: Weaknesses, that is.
SPEAKER_00: Do not miss the part that the Spirit is not a magical potion you drink.
SPEAKER_00: Do not miss the part that the Spirit is not merely some power source.
SPEAKER_00: The text tells us that the Spirit is a person sent by God and his ministry is personal.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not come and walk this earth as a power source.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not come as a drink bottled up to drink down.
SPEAKER_00: He came as a person in the flesh to point us to God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit is a person and his ministry is personal.
SPEAKER_00: Unlike Christ's earthly ministry, the Spirit's ministry, however, is permanent.
SPEAKER_00: Once the disciples received the Holy Spirit, there would never be a time that they would need to get him back.
SPEAKER_00: Once we trust in Christ and we receive the Holy Spirit upon conversion, there's never a time in which he's not in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He does not merely visit believers, he dwells within them forever.
SPEAKER_00: The unbelieving world neither knows nor receives him, Jesus says that in verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: But every true believer receives the Spirit at conversion through him.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's presence is no longer merely beside us or in front of us, but it is with us.
SPEAKER_00: It is within us.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit assures believers that Christ's presence is now internal, permanent, and personal.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now the reality of Christ's abiding presence immediately raises another question.
SPEAKER_00: What does his presence actually accomplish within us?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus answers that in the next promise.
SPEAKER_00: And no, we won't be able to fully unpack it, because Jesus has more in store for those who trust in him than we can possibly imagine.
SPEAKER_00: But what does he say in verse 18?
SPEAKER_00: He says this as he points out or highlights the next reality or promise.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.
SPEAKER_00: Because I live, you also will live.
SPEAKER_00: What wonderful words we find here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus refuses to abandon his people.
SPEAKER_00: Although he is about to leave them physically, although he's been with them for three years, and now all of a sudden they're going to be separated.
SPEAKER_00: And he's told them they can't go where he's going.
SPEAKER_00: No, not yet.
SPEAKER_00: He refuses to let them think they're abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: Although he is about to leave physically, he will remain with them through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And he's trying to help them wrap their minds around this mystery.
SPEAKER_00: This is reality number two, the abiding assurance of the revelation of the nature of our spiritual life in union with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's a mouthful, so how about we just say the assurance of his life in us?
SPEAKER_00: His spirit connects his disciples with his resurrection life.
SPEAKER_00: And in turn, his resurrection guarantees their spiritual and eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus reveals one of the deepest mysteries in all of Scripture here.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is in the Father, believers are in Christ, and Christ is in believers.
SPEAKER_00: What a mystery to be embraced.
SPEAKER_00: Where do we see this in the text?
SPEAKER_00: We see this in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: On what day?
SPEAKER_00: On the day that he comes back to them.
SPEAKER_00: On the day that they see him again.
SPEAKER_00: And they would see him again just after his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And they would receive his Holy Spirit shortly thereafter.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit unites us to the risen Christ and continually communicates his resurrection life to us who believe.
SPEAKER_00: That is, the Spirit Himself mediates the risen life of Christ to believers.
SPEAKER_00: This same Spirit is the one who hovered over the waters at creation, the same Spirit who empowered Christ's earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And now this same Spirit is meant to dwell within every believer and does dwell within every believer.
SPEAKER_00: Through the Spirit's ministry, Christ continues his work in us.
SPEAKER_00: Christ reveals himself to us.
SPEAKER_00: Christ transforms us into his likeness, as Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 18 of Romans 8, 29.
SPEAKER_00: It was the gifting of this Spirit, accompanied by signs and wonders, that in God's perfect plan united the early church, Jew, Gentile, and Samaritan alike.
SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, because Christ lives, believers possess something else, and that is eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Not just in the hereafter, but now.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's living presence literally guarantees our life.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us so.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 19, at the latter part, because I live you will live also.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, this is yet another mysterious blessing and truth that he introduces to the disciples on this night before he goes to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: This idea that his life would be in them and the Christ's life in them would give them life indeed, life eternal, a life which cannot be taken away.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus declared earlier in the Gospel of John, which we've been walking through this year, in John 5, 24, he says these words He who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has what?
SPEAKER_00: Eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And has passed out of death into life.
SPEAKER_00: Past tense.
SPEAKER_00: When we trust in Christ, we leave death behind and we welcome life.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, we will cease to live in this life and we will go to be with God.
SPEAKER_00: But the second death, the more painful death, we will not face.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit does not only assure believers of his presence, but he assures them of his very life within them.
SPEAKER_00: He assures believers that the risen Christ lives in them, unites them to himself, and guarantees their eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That is the second reality, the assurance of his life in us.
SPEAKER_00: But now, if Christ truly lives within his people, his life will inevitably produce visible fruit in them.
SPEAKER_00: As one youth pastor once told me, you don't get run over by an 18-wheeler and look the same.
SPEAKER_00: That fruit is noted in this next reality that Christ reveals.
SPEAKER_00: If Christ's risen life truly dwells within us, then his life will inevitably bear fruit in us.
SPEAKER_00: The first and greatest evidence of that life is a growing love for Christ, a growing trust in Christ that is expressed through willing obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Those of us who were once rebels, those of us who had no concern for God or the things that he thought in our lives, he takes, and by his miraculous work in us through the Spirit, he makes us interested in him all of a sudden.
SPEAKER_00: He makes us rejoice in a love we could never have thought of, that we don't deserve and we can't earn.
SPEAKER_00: God does this.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do it.
SPEAKER_00: The first and greatest evidence of that life is this growing love.
SPEAKER_00: We see this when Jesus says, He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me.
SPEAKER_00: He said something like that in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying it again here in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: You see, loving Christ produces obedient lives.
SPEAKER_00: That is, our trust in Christ and our submission to him prove our love for him.
SPEAKER_00: And let me give you this encouragement, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking of evidence that God is alive and well in you.
SPEAKER_00: How much evidence is enough evidence?
SPEAKER_00: Any evidence.
SPEAKER_01: Even recognizing that you don't trust him like you want to.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that you want to, that's enough evidence of his work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is reality number three.
SPEAKER_00: The abiding assurance of a power for loving obedience.
SPEAKER_00: It's an assurance of our love for him.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know we love him?
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to know him.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know we love him?
SPEAKER_00: Because we want to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: How do we know we love him?
SPEAKER_00: Because we learn to trust him, take him at his word.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how this entire passage is framed by this truth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus repeats it in verses 15, verse 21, verses 23 through 24, and demonstrates in action in his own life in verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Loving God is not merely an emotion or a profession, it is an action and a choice demonstrated through trusting obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Loving Christ produces obedient lives.
SPEAKER_00: Yet we must be careful to understand what Jesus is saying here.
SPEAKER_00: He is not teaching that obedience earns salvation or merits it.
SPEAKER_00: If obedience could save us, Christ would not have needed to die upon the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He could have just given us another book that told us how to measure up, stuck it in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: He could have come down and given lectures on how to be good enough for God, but he didn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He came and said, unless your righteousness is greater than the Pharisees, you ain't got no hope.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: It will never be.
SPEAKER_00: Only his righteousness was greater than the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: And he came not merely to give us better instruction and to tell us to suck it up, but he came to accomplish the redemption we could never accomplish on our own.
SPEAKER_00: He came to say, if you've seen me, seen the Father, and if you've looked at me once, don't ever stop looking.
SPEAKER_00: So then obedience is what then?
SPEAKER_00: It's the evidence of genuine faith, not the basis of our acceptance before God.
SPEAKER_00: Grace saves, faith receives, and obedience reveals.
SPEAKER_00: Every act of obedience says, Lord, I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, your servant is listening.
SPEAKER_00: Your wisdom is greater than mine, your will is better than my own.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't know a lot, but I know you of you.
SPEAKER_00: I know you arose.
SPEAKER_00: I know you love me so, and I know that you will see me through if I distrust in you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I entrust myself to you, I am yours.
SPEAKER_00: That's what obedience says.
SPEAKER_00: This is why repentance and obedience are never the root of our justification.
SPEAKER_00: They are but its fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Our spiritual life, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is its source and its stability.
SPEAKER_00: It is he who sustains us in following after Christ.
SPEAKER_00: John's gospel tells us it's the Holy Spirit that helps us be born again.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us that it's the Holy Spirit that brings conviction into our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And then he tells us again and again and again of blessings such as those that we're looking at this morning, of things, realities, blessed assurances that the Holy Spirit works in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look at a few more of those as we continue.
SPEAKER_00: The point is this that the Christian life, our salvation, is not sustained by human determination.
SPEAKER_00: It is sustained by the continual ministry of the Holy Spirit, who fixes our hearts upon Christ, strengthens our faith, and enables us to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how that must have encouraged Peter, who stood up among the eleven and said, I'm not going to desert you, Lord, not me.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked him in the face and said, Before the rooster crows three times, you're going to deny me tonight.
SPEAKER_00: When that rooster crowed, when he looked on Christ and felt that pain, that misery, the spirit inside him strengthened what little faith he had and enabled him to persevere.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope rests, brothers and sisters, not in our performance, but in Christ's continuing work within us.
SPEAKER_00: The same spirit who gives us life also sustains our life.
SPEAKER_00: He preserves us through the trials.
SPEAKER_00: He seals us for the day of redemption, as the apostle Paul also notes in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 through 14, Ephesians 4, verse 30, and 2 Corinthians 1, 22 and 5, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He guarantees our future resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, the evidence of genuine conversion is not perfect obedience, but it is a life growing in trusting obedience.
SPEAKER_00: A growing love for Christ expressed through increasingly trusting obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, a growing desire to obey Christ is the mark of a heart transformed by God.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit enables a relationship where obedience flows from affection.
SPEAKER_00: And it is the Holy Spirit that unites us with the Lord we love.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit assures believers that genuine love for Christ expresses itself through willing, spirit-empowered obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel the need here to pause for a minute, brothers and sisters, because every believer should honestly ask this question.
SPEAKER_00: Is my love for Christ becoming increasingly evident in the way I trust him?
SPEAKER_00: Obey him and follow him?
SPEAKER_00: The fact of the matter is, you and I must examine our lives and ask ourselves, is my love for Christ evidenced in my life?
SPEAKER_00: Is my love for Christ evidenced in the way I live?
SPEAKER_00: Do I trust him?
SPEAKER_00: If so, there will be some evidence of it.
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, to know him is to love him.
SPEAKER_01: And to love him is to trust him.
SPEAKER_01: And entrust your life to him.
SPEAKER_00: At this point, we've seen three of the seven realities, but let us go on, for Jesus doesn't stop.
SPEAKER_00: See now, loving obedience naturally leads to a deeper question.
SPEAKER_00: What is the reward of a life that loves Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we're not saved by merit, and it's not about rewards.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the main point, but the scriptures reveal that there are rewards.
SPEAKER_00: There are blessings in trusting God and doing his will.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answers this question, what is the reward of a life that loves Christ, with one of the most astonishing promises in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And he says it this way in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: We will come to him and make our abode with him or our home with him.
SPEAKER_00: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality that through the Spirit of Christ we are provided the assurance of his lasting love and fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: The Father and the Son make their dwelling with the believer.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier in this chapter, Jesus revealed the mystery of his union with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He said in John 14, verses 9 through 11, I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.
SPEAKER_00: He even said, He who has seen me has seen the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here in verse 23, he extends that wonderful truth to his people in a way, because believers are united to Christ through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: They are brought into living fellowship with both the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Our text this morning tells us that the Spirit will abide with us and he will be in us.
SPEAKER_00: It tells us that in that day, verse 20, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
SPEAKER_00: This is not merely a promise of future heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It is a present reality.
SPEAKER_00: When Judas, not Iscariot, one of the twelve, asks why Jesus will reveal himself to his disciples and not to the world in verse 22, Jesus explains.
SPEAKER_00: That his continued self-disclosure comes through covenant fellowship with those who love him.
SPEAKER_00: The Father loves them.
SPEAKER_00: The Son reveals himself to them.
SPEAKER_00: And through the Holy Spirit, they make their dwelling within them.
SPEAKER_00: We sing hymns about how God lives within our heart.
SPEAKER_00: He is seated high on the throne in heaven, and he's at work and present all around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, he lives within our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the mysterious truth of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality of the abiding assurance of covenant fellowship with the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation, therefore, is far more than forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: It is daily communion with the living God.
SPEAKER_00: It is the Spirit of life, the Holy Spirit of God, who is one with the Father and the Son that indwells us and makes us one with them.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, God is still God, and we are not God.
SPEAKER_00: We'll never be God.
SPEAKER_00: But we have been united with God through the Spirit in a way we can't understand, but in a way that we can certainly rejoice in.
SPEAKER_00: Through the Spirit, Christ's presence becomes a personal, he becomes personally real to us.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit reveals Christ intimately to believers.
SPEAKER_00: Through the Holy Spirit, Christ becomes more than our hero, more than our master, but our very treasure.
SPEAKER_00: His life continually dwells within us through the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
SPEAKER_00: And our fellowship with Him, His love, the love of Almighty God, is poured into our hearts through the Spirit, Romans chapter 5, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: His fellowship becomes the believer's daily joy.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is not merely forgiveness, again, or cleansing.
SPEAKER_00: It is not merely reconciliation, but it is restoration to daily fellowship and eternal communion with God, such as Adam and Eve enjoyed before the fall, where they daily walked in the garden with the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The God who once dwelt among his people, now dwells within his people.
SPEAKER_00: The fact is, brothers and sisters, that the Holy Spirit makes the presence of Christ real to his people in a way that his presence with us now would not be possible without him.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the greatest privileges of the New Covenant.
SPEAKER_00: This is Christ's gift to us.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit assures believers that the Father and Son make their home with those who love Christ, granting continual, uninterrupted fellowship and communion with God.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit assures believers that God Himself reveals himself to those who love Christ, and he makes his home with those who love Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22, Jesus says, You are going.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 21, Jesus says, My Father and I will love him and will disclose myself to him.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not all.
SPEAKER_00: The God who dwells with his people does not leave them to discover his will, all by their lonesome.
SPEAKER_00: Having made his home within us, he also fellowships with us.
SPEAKER_00: He also becomes something very special to us, something we desperately need.
SPEAKER_00: He becomes our divine teacher.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the fifth abiding assurance.
SPEAKER_00: The assurance of his instruction.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reality of the abiding assurance of the Spirit's divine teaching and remembrance ministry.
SPEAKER_00: That last two words that sound a little weird to me, but that's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds us of the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: He was the spirit of the prophets that reminded the Israelites of the truth of God.
SPEAKER_00: And here Christ points out he will be the spirit of prophecy in the apostles, and that he will specifically remind them of God's truth, but beloved, he also reminds us of God's truth.
SPEAKER_00: If God has made his home with his people, and he will not leave us without guidance, the God who dwells within us not only gives us his preserved word in Scripture, he gives us a continual teacher.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in verse 26, 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 said to you.
SPEAKER_00: What an encouraging promise.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was about to depart physically.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he's about to leave and go to the cross, but his disciples would not lose his teaching ministry.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit would continue it.
SPEAKER_00: First, this promise, as already briefly noted, uniquely established the ministry of the apostles in a unique way.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit would bring Christ's word to their remembrance and guide them into all truth, providing the divine foundation for the apostolic witness and the reliability of the Holy Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And we see elsewhere in Scripture, although we're not covering it this morning, see Galatians 1, verses 17 through 18 and some other scriptures, he did something similar, a similar miracle in the Apostle Paul's life, who also God used to give us scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But this ministry was not just a ministry to them to remind them of the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: It was a ministry that continues in the lives of believers today.
SPEAKER_00: The same Holy Spirit who inspired the scriptures now illumines or opens up the scriptures for us who believe so that we might understand them.
SPEAKER_00: Just as Jesus opened the minds of his disciples to understand the scriptures in his earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And then again, at the very end of his ministry in Luke chapter 24, verse 45, he showed them how all of the law and the prophets, all of Scripture, pointed to Him.
SPEAKER_00: So the Spirit opens our minds to behold the glory of Christ within them.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I submit to you, brothers and brothers and sisters, this this morning, that there will never be a moment in this life, or in the life to come for that matter, where any one of us will ever stop learning from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say that one more time.
SPEAKER_00: There will never be a moment in this life where any one of us ever stop learning from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, to be sure, he does not reveal new truth apart from God's word.
SPEAKER_00: He might be doing a new thing, but it's in line with what he's always done.
SPEAKER_00: He faithfully directs us back to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He glorifies and magnifies Christ through his word, as he has already done time and time again in the past.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Holy Spirit does.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Spirit of truth, our divine teacher, who continually reminds us of Christ's promises, strengthens our understanding, and anchors our hearts in the unchanging truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Moreover, through the Spirit Christ discloses, or rather intimately reveals himself to us personally.
SPEAKER_00: That is, through their truth, we come to know Christ as he truly is.
SPEAKER_00: That there I'm speaking of are the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Without the Spirit's ministry in this manner, the Bible would remain merely words on a page.
SPEAKER_00: But through his ministry, those words become the living voice of our shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Remember a couple chapters back, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Are you listening?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit assures believers that they will never be left without divine instruction, for he has promised to continually teach them through his spirit and the truth of his holy word.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, sound doctrine is never intended to remain merely in the mind, but to come and dwell within the heart, the soul.
SPEAKER_00: As the Spirit teaches God's truth, he also steadies God's people and calls them to worship the one true God through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And knowledge of Christ produces something else in us, confidence in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that confidence gives birth to something we all long for.
SPEAKER_00: And it is revealed in verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see the reality of the abiding assurance of Christ peace.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit gives us Christ's peace.
SPEAKER_00: He makes Christ's peace ours.
SPEAKER_00: He helps the peace of God that passes understanding to settle into our souls.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 27, Jesus says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.
SPEAKER_00: Not as the world gives do I give to you.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: If you grabbed a note sheet, there are verses after each of these assurances or promises that aren't in John.
SPEAKER_00: Why did I put them there?
SPEAKER_00: Because these are other places in Scripture we see this same blessing or assurance.
SPEAKER_00: Just for future reference.
SPEAKER_00: And in relationship to peace, two come readily to mind.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's words, where he says, Cast all your cares upon God because he cares for you.
SPEAKER_00: Every care, all care.
SPEAKER_00: And Philippians, where it says, Be anxious for nothing.
SPEAKER_00: But in prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests be known to God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you should tell God everything.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing God can't handle, nothing God can't help you with.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus left his peace with them.
SPEAKER_00: He gave it to them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just show it to them.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't just win it for them, but he said he'd leave it with them.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what Jesus leaves behind here.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't leave wealth.
SPEAKER_00: There's not some hidden treasure, right, of money that we're going to help the disciples continue his mission.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't leave them political influence.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they're going to get run out of town.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, very soon, one of them will, like Stephen, be the first of the twelve to be martyred.
SPEAKER_00: James, the brother of John, I'll get his head cut off.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not wealth, it's not political influence, it's influence, it's not some earthly power, not a special secret for only a special few.
SPEAKER_00: But rather his peace, his hard-fought and one peace, that he wins upon the cross and when he reconciles us to God.
SPEAKER_00: It's that peace and the message that accompanies it, the message of reconciliation and restoration to him to be freely shared with all.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves us this peace, his own peace, the peace he provides through his perfect life and works.
SPEAKER_00: This peace is unlike anything the world can offer.
SPEAKER_00: The world's peace depends upon favorable circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: It depends on health and finances and security and strength or comfort.
SPEAKER_00: But Christ's peace rests on greater things.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's peace rests upon something far greater, God's sovereign rule.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's finished atonement, our completed reconciliation with God, his everlasting covenant love.
SPEAKER_00: Because of these realities, which never change, neither does the peace Christ leaves his people and gives to them.
SPEAKER_00: You see, on this night, as he's getting ready to leave, Jesus wants them to understand he's not getting kidnapped and taken where he doesn't want to go.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus willingly goes to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The soldiers show up with Judas and they say, We're looking for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I'm him.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes with them.
SPEAKER_00: He tells Peter to put up a sword.
SPEAKER_00: One of the gospel writers tells us, when Peter tries to defend him, Jesus willingly went to the cross, not as a helpless victim, but as a the victorious redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: As he goes, he knows the Father's plan will be accomplished.
SPEAKER_00: He knows he will return to the Father in triumph.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what's coming.
SPEAKER_00: He sweats blood in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if there's any way that there's another way to do this, Father, let that happen.
SPEAKER_00: But not my will, but your will be done.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the cross, knowing that he will return to the Father in triumph, but through tragedy.
SPEAKER_00: He knows he will redeem his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: This is the joy set before him that Paul speaks of in one of his letters, the joy that he had in going to the cross, and he approaches it wholeheartedly, despite the terrest he must endure and overcome to get there.
SPEAKER_00: He knows because he is certain to accomplish his mission, that the Holy Spirit will soon come to permanently dwell within his people and grant them all these blessed assurances.
SPEAKER_00: Furthermore, he knows that Satan has no claim on him.
SPEAKER_00: And he has nothing in me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore the disciples need not fear.
SPEAKER_00: They need have no worry for what is going to take place because it is all part of God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: The same Spirit who sustained Christ in perfect peace as he approached the cross to be perfectly obedient, now ministers that same peace to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me, he says.
SPEAKER_00: Satan was indeed approaching through the events that led up to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Satan was making ready to make an end of Christ upon the cross.
SPEAKER_00: But in Christ there was no sin, no guilt, no accusation, no foothold for him for in and of himself.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he became sin on our behalf, but he was a spotless lamb.
SPEAKER_00: He was the perfect one who offered the perfect sacrifice in the perfect way, according to God's perfect plan.
SPEAKER_00: And because of his obedience unto death, Satan had no hope.
SPEAKER_00: He just didn't know it yet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus goes to the cross, not as a defeated victim, but as the obedient son who willingly lays down his life in perfect submission to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in verse 31, but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me.
SPEAKER_00: Get up, let us go from here.
SPEAKER_00: At Calvary, Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities and triumphed over them, as Paul reminds believers in Colossians 2, verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: He conquered sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: And he secured everlasting victory for all who belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because believers are united to Christ through the Holy Spirit, his victory becomes our victory.
SPEAKER_00: This is a certainty.
SPEAKER_00: This is the seventh blessed assurance.
SPEAKER_00: The assurance of his victory.
SPEAKER_00: We no longer fight for victory, we fight from victory.
SPEAKER_00: We no longer have to work for acceptance, we operate from a place of acceptance.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy we face is already defeated.
SPEAKER_00: His doom is sure.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we can courageously obey Christ, persevere through suffering, resist temptation, proclaim the gospel without fear, and confidently await his return.
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't always feel like that, does it?
SPEAKER_01: And it certainly didn't feel like that for the disciples that night.
SPEAKER_00: They're listening to Christ, they're hanging on as every word, they want to believe everything he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: And a couple of days later, when the women come and tell them he rose from the dead, they're still trembling.
SPEAKER_00: They're still afraid, they're still in hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't always feel like that.
SPEAKER_00: Will we have struggles and hardships?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Will we falter and fail in this life?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Will we like Peter denial?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: But like he told Peter when Satan asked to test him, he prayed for Peter and he prays for us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God, the scriptures reveal that God has create has decreed that our faith must be tried.
SPEAKER_00: It will be tried.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So as to refine us.
SPEAKER_01: To make it real to us.
SPEAKER_01: There's no place.
SPEAKER_00: And when you think of the the problem of evil in the world, there's no place for courage.
SPEAKER_00: There's no place for grace.
SPEAKER_00: There's no place for healing.
SPEAKER_00: There's no place for all these things without the trouble that stands in the way.
SPEAKER_00: That trouble we must face.
SPEAKER_00: God has decreed that our faith will be tried so as to refine it in preparation for a life of eternal love and peace with him.
SPEAKER_00: Even his son had to face that.
SPEAKER_00: Christ himself had to face trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Christ lived a life where everyone, not everyone, but the grand majority of people called him a bastard.
SPEAKER_00: They said he was an illegitimate kid.
SPEAKER_00: They said he was crazy.
SPEAKER_00: They said he had a demon.
SPEAKER_00: They said he was a friend of sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Said all sorts of horrible things to him, and yet he never faltered.
SPEAKER_00: He never faltered in trusting the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He never doubted he was loved by the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He never doubted that the Father had a plan for him.
SPEAKER_00: His grace, God's grace, given to us through the Holy Spirit, is more than sufficient for these things, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want to encourage you with.
SPEAKER_00: And his faithfulness has no end.
SPEAKER_00: So rejoice and trust him.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit assures believers that Christ's obedient victory over sin, Satan, and death secures both their present confidence and their final triumph in him.
SPEAKER_00: In conclusion, beloved, let us remember the setting of our text.
SPEAKER_00: We often read John chapters 14, 15, 16, and we think of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: We think of Jesus walking by the fields of grain.
SPEAKER_00: We think of him teaching with the sunshine.
SPEAKER_00: This is the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: He's about to be taken away and persecuted and crushed for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's the setting.
SPEAKER_00: From now until we see Judas kiss him in the garden, that's the setting.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, his heart is on pleasing the Father first and glorifying him, and secondly, on blessing his sheep, preparing his present disciples, those that are there with him for his departure.
SPEAKER_00: Those disciples feared they were about to lose everything.
SPEAKER_00: But in reality, they were about to receive more than they could have ever imagined.
SPEAKER_00: Christ with them would soon become Christ in them through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that when Paul is saved in spite of himself on the road to Damascus, he later pins in Colossians chapter 1, verse 27, that Christ is in us, and that Christ in us is the hope of glory.
SPEAKER_00: Temporary companionship would become permanent indwelling.
SPEAKER_00: External instruction would become an inward transformation in an ever-present God.
SPEAKER_00: And God's command for them to be holy became his promise to make them holy through the Spirit's work of sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: For that is what growing in loving obedience is growth in holiness and the likeness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is the great comfort of John 14.
SPEAKER_00: That is the source of reassurance and peace which Jesus promised to leave.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not leave his church empty handed.
SPEAKER_00: Through the abiding ministry of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He left, but he stayed through the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, we are never abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: We share Christ's resurrection life.
SPEAKER_00: We grow in loving obedience.
SPEAKER_00: We enjoy continual fellowship with the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: We are instructed in divine truth by its very author.
SPEAKER_00: We can rest in Christ's perfect peace.
SPEAKER_00: And because of this gift, the person of the Holy Spirit, we can live courageously in Christ's victory.
SPEAKER_00: That is why Jesus could tell his disciples with troubled hearts, let not your heart be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing essential would be lost.
SPEAKER_00: Everything necessary has been supplied.
SPEAKER_00: The main idea of our text then this morning is this: that Jesus gives his Holy Spirit to his disciples so that believers may continually live in his presence, walk with him in loving obedience, share in his resurrection life, enjoy abiding fellowship with God, receive his divine instruction, rest in his perfect peace, and courageously and confidently participate in his victory until he returns.
SPEAKER_00: As the worship team comes back up, and we close out, consider this the same Holy Spirit who comforted, empowered it, and instructed the apostles now dwells in every believer.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, rejoice, brothers and sisters, beloved of God, and rest in these abiding assurances that are ours through his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Savior who gave himself for you now lives within you.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice also, all those here this morning, who have hear of such a Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, and desire to trust him.
SPEAKER_00: He has provided for us all.
SPEAKER_00: The invitation is there.
SPEAKER_00: Come and take him up upon it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus tells these same apostles in Matthew 28 that all authority in heaven and on earth is his, and that he will be with them always.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, go and spread the good news.
SPEAKER_00: Those of us who believe, let us love Christ, trust Christ, and trust ourselves to Christ, walk with Christ and follow him, and by his grace keep in step with his spirit's leading by his enablement every day.
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what that day brings you, turn to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thank him.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And for those of us here who have never trusted in him yet desire to turn to him, my prayer, our prayer, is that you come to know the joy which only he can give, the lasting peace which only he can supply.
SPEAKER_00: He died so that all those who would believe in him would be saved.
SPEAKER_00: If that describes you this morning, one who would dare to believe in Christ, one who's interested in Christ as he's revealed himself to be, then I'll be standing over here in the corner, and I invite you to come and talk with me.
SPEAKER_00: Or if you're here with one of our members that you know has trusted in Christ, ask them to pray with you and go to God right where you are and entrust yourself to him.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your utter perfection.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for sending a perfect Savior.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the perfect peace of mind you gave him as he had to go into such an act of obedience that brings so many blessings into our life.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever we are this morning, help us to trust you.
SPEAKER_00: And help us to rejoice in the body assurance you give of the life of peace that you made possible for us.
SPEAKER_00: And what you give to us through your Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.