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Scripture Reading: John 14
This morning's gospel is taken from the book of John, beginning in verse 14, beginning of verse 8.
Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.
Jesus answered, Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father?
Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work.
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing and they will do even greater things than these. Because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 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.
Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.
My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own.
They belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you, but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, in whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not be afraid.
You heard me say, I am going away, and I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father.
For my Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe.
I will not say much more to you, for the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
Come now, let us leave.
This is the word of God.
The Quiet House and the Epidemic of Loneliness
It's so good to see you. I didn't introduce myself at the start of the service. My name is Megan, if I haven't met you before.
I'm the Senior Minister here at Deep Creek. And I'm married to Phil, and I've got a daughter called Phoebe.
And a couple of times a year, they go to visit Phil's parents, my parents-in-law, up in New South Wales for the weekend or long weekend. And I'm usually working, so I'm at home and I think to myself, oh, this is going to be great.
It's going to be so quiet. Phil and I have this kind of competition about who's actually the chatty one. And he's like, what do you mean I'm the chatty one?
He likes to learn a lot of things and then share those things that he has learnt, which is amazing. And so we all learn things at our house. But sometimes it's quite chatty.
And so I think this is so, this is just, it's going to be peaceful. It's going to be productive. I'm going to go on walks and I'm going to, you know, catch up on my reading and I'll do chores.
And then, of course, the weekend arrives and you've like got an hour of kind of feeling good. And then you're just like, walking around, picking stuff up, putting it down, looking at your phone, putting it down, picking it up.
Making tea, not drinking the tea and making the tea. And you just feel oddly flat. And it's not that I can't function on my own.
It's just that their presence is really special. And when they're gone, that just kind of messes things up.
Now, this is trivial, really, because they come back and I'm very blessed. But I know many of us have experiences where the home is far too quiet all the time. There's not a seat filled at the table and you wanted it to be filled.
You maybe have lost someone unexpectedly or you've lost a relationship. And that loneliness, that kind of not having someone to talk to is really striking.
Of course, we're learning now that loneliness doesn't just affect people emotionally. It's this kind of physical, it's a neurological thing now.
Long term social isolation has got higher risk of heart disease and depression and dementia. Like the same as smoking, other really hard things that we deal with.
Neuroscientists tell us that when people feel persistently rejected or abandoned, the same regions of the brain are activated as when you experience physical pain.
And so if you're feeling under that threat all the time, your stress is elevated, your sleep is disrupted, your immune system is weakened. And so it's no surprise that researchers are speaking of loneliness as a public health epidemic now.
Even when people are more digitally connected than ever. But maybe even this generation is the most relationally isolated.
Jesus Steadies Troubled Hearts
Of course, when you put all that together and you come to Jesus' words in John 14 to 17, you can see that what he says is just so important.
Because he's speaking to friends who've come to enjoy the presence of the most extraordinary individual they will ever have met. And they spent all day with him. And they were on mission with him.
And life just seemed to have brightened and changed. And everything made sense and there was purpose. And in a few hours, everything will be taken away.
They will watch him be arrested, they'll scatter from him, they'll scatter from each other. And they'll think, did we misunderstand? What did we put our hope in? And they'll be afraid.
And into that fear of being left alone, Jesus speaks these words and he speaks today, I will not leave you as orphans.
Bring Your Questions to Jesus
When you listen to the disciples throughout chapters 13 to 17, they're actually asking questions which drives the teaching forward. And so as an aside, Jesus does really well with your questions.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about why Jesus is good for those who are deconstructing. And if you've got questions, bring them. Because this is what he does. He reveals himself with your questions.
It's his best work. So it starts in chapter 13 and Peter says, where are you going? Can I follow you?
Thomas says, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? And then Philip, maybe our patron saint of St. Philip's Deep Creek, says, show us the Father.
That will be enough. And Judas, not the betrayer, another disciple, says, are you going to reveal yourself to us and not the world?
And later in chapter 16, all the disciples actually are kind of questioning amongst themselves. And they say, what does he mean by a little while? What does he mean he's going away?
And these questions just show that the disciples are exactly like us if we'd been there. They're longing for reassurance. They're afraid of separation. They want to know in this confusing moment where they are placed and what their future holds.
And they're not questions of people who are drifting away from Jesus. They're questions of people who love him, who've staked their lives on him, and suddenly they're afraid of losing him.
So it's into that fragile, fearful space that Jesus speaks and meets them with this incredible revelation to steady their troubled hearts.
Five Promises of His Indwelling Presence
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus loved his disciples not by removing all uncertainty, but by promising his faithful, indwelling presence.
- Where they feared losing God, Jesus revealed God in himself.
- Where they feared being left behind, he promised they were still on mission.
- Where they feared facing life alone, he promised them his spirit.
- Where they feared being powerless, he promised to dwell with them.
- And where their hearts were shaken, he gave them his peace.
So let's begin.
1. He Revealed God in Himself
When they feared losing God, he revealed God in himself. When Philip says, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough, he's expressing actually not just a longing, but a fear that sits beneath many of our kind of religious questions.
What if God is further away than I thought? What if this thing that I've been doing isn't actually the way? What if I've misunderstood everything? And more than that, what if this only works when things are good?
What happens when there's nothing solid underneath me anymore, when things fall apart? Will I know that I've been connected to the creator of the universe, the Father, the God that I long for?
So Philip, St. Philip, is asking for the core of what humans need. Show us the heart of everything. If you're going back to the Father, show us what that is. Show us who he is.
We want to know the core of what is at all of this and why we've been living and believing this when we've been journeying with you. Jesus says, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.
It's fascinating to think that he's going away, but his first priority is to say, the thing that I came to do to bring humankind to God, I have done that. You will, as I go to the cross, you will see God's sacrifice for you, his heart revealed for you.
You have seen me feed the hungry. You have seen me call sinners to repentance. You have seen me call out hypocrisy.
You have seen holiness and love in me. You have seen the Father. Philip, you already have what you are asking for.
I didn't hold it back. In my coming, you have it all. To know me is to know God. To watch me is to see the Father's heart. To listen to me is to hear God's voice.
I think that's actually really, really profound. The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. If you want to know what the Creator God says to you, listen to Jesus.
It is the Father living in me who is doing his work. The craving that human beings have to be connected to their Creator, Father, if there is such a one, is established, is made fully possible in Jesus Christ.
He is not a spiritual guide pointing beyond himself. It is not like metaphorical language that you think, when he says, the Father is in me and I am in him, it is like an ambassador.
We actually use that sort of imagery when we talk about us as Christians, bearing the presence of God, but we are not God when we go to the world as his ambassadors. And maybe you could read it like that if it wasn't for the rest of John's Gospel.
So, the start of John, he's already told us, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only.
No one has ever seen God, but God, the only Son, has made him known. He's not a human ambassador carrying the authority of another, of God. This is about identity.
The Father is a distinct person in the triune God, three in one God, but God is one. And if you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father.
And if you receive the Spirit, you receive Jesus and the Father too. But he'll get to that.
Let me make a comment here about Philip. When we feel uncertain, we often start to ask the questions or doubt the things that we might have already established in our lives.
We sort of look for something new or maybe we think, I need to find another place or another person or another book or another. For me, it was study Bibles. I've got this whole shelf full of different books.
I've got this whole shelf full of different sorts of study Bibles. That one will do the trick. But Jesus says, God has come near to you in me. You have what you need.
The questions that you have, maybe you have already answered them and you're just feeling like the instability has opened it up again. Lean into what you know. Lean into me.
Jesus doesn't offer something new to Philip in the middle of his fear. He offers what he already has, Jesus himself. But secondly, where they feared being left behind, Jesus promised they were still on mission.
2. We Are Still on Mission
I think this is also a fascinating priority of Jesus that we might think, I'll take reassurance that you're going to be with me. But actually he's saying, do you know this thing that we've been on together?
It is part of who I am. It is just as important as you kind of being with me. My purpose of being here, to reveal the Father, you being on mission with me, that's not going to stop now.
So he says, this strange thing, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. This is not absent parent buying child's love. Actually, it's okay, it's okay, you'll still get stuff from me.
No, this is about mission. And so it's really important that we understand these two verses in Jesus' assurance to the disciples that we are still on mission with him even if he goes away to the cross.
Because as he goes to the cross, as he dies, as he's resurrected, he ascends and the Holy Spirit is poured out. Then actually, you and I take his mission to far greater places than one embodied person in first century Palestine could do.
Now how you do greater things than the one who raised Lazarus from the dead and said, little girl, get up. Well, you can't. And so you have to know that this is about expansion.
This is about reach. And it's about God transforming human beings to be his mission agents as they receive his presence. Greater works means that the gospel will move in all kinds of ways, in action, in word, in love, in power, in miracles, in transformation beyond the reach of one man in Palestine to the whole world.
And so when he says, whatever you do, whatever you ask in my name, it's not about, we've talked about before, vending machine faith. As long as you put in my name in the slot, you'll get whatever you want out of it.
This is about mission. This is about if you want to see something happen, for my sake, ask me and you will see it done. You can ask me anything. I mean, I know that when you're by yourself, one of the hard things is, maybe if you live by yourself, one of the hard things is you don't get to share, you don't get to share your day, you don't get to share your worries, and you don't have someone who can assist you in working through problems, who can assist you in your tasks.
It's one of the things, I just know how privileged I am that I can work with Phil in the things that God has called us to do. Now, of course, just because you're single doesn't mean you don't have people like that, of course.
My mom, my parents are divorced. My mom, though, if we're catching up, brings a list of things she wants to talk to me about. And it's not questions that she wants to ask me, or even particularly things she wants me to do.
It's stories that she wants me to know. Like, there's just something about being able to share what's happening in your day, being able to share where you think your life is going with another person.
And here Jesus is saying, you will still have that. Talk to me. Talk to me about what's happening in your day. Talk to me about where you're going with me.
Talk to me about what you need. Talk to me about how we're going to do this mission together. And you will not be left behind. You are still part.
In fact, you're a great, greater part of what God is doing in the world. And so now we come to really the core of what Jesus is promising them.
3. He Promised Them His Spirit
It's kind of this emotional center of the passage. Where they feared facing life alone, Jesus promised them his spirit. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.
I will not leave you as orphans. There's a real kind of shape to children's stories that stresses me out.
That so many of them start with the children being bereft of their parents for some reason. Now I'm sure it's kind of to be empowering. You know the famous five.
They're always going on their adventures because their parents are entirely absent for some reason. The professor's locked in his room and the mother is sick and needs to convalesce.
These are the children in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They're leaving London. Their parents are staying and they're going to some strange place they don't know. Finding Nemo.
The parents are dead at the start of the film. Sorry guys if you haven't seen it. So traumatic. But we think there's this kind of empowering thing for kids.
They're going to have these adventures because they don't have the strictures of parent. Or it's okay if they're not there. They're still adventures for you either way.
But actually being an orphan, being an orphan is a desperately awful situation. And the disciples are entirely unable to think we're going to have adventures when Jesus leaves us. Oh yeah, finally.
No way. No way. They feel entirely exposed, vulnerable. They've depended on his presence as they should. They've sought his wisdom, his authority, his care.
They went out and they're like, how come that one didn't work? He's like, well, it didn't work because of this. What will happen when he is gone?
When they feel like orphans? Well, Jesus promises them that I will not leave you as orphans. You will have another advocate to be with you. And there's a couple of words in Greek, you might have heard this before, that can be translated another.
One is an unlike, another unlike, and one is another just like. This is another just like. Another just like. It's not a downgrade. It's not a consolation prize. The Holy Spirit is not less than Jesus.
He is advocate like Jesus. Now sometimes we translate this paraclete, which means one called alongside, that's the word we've translated advocate here, as comforter. I will send another comforter to be with you. And we do think, well, if you were worried about being left as an orphan, you would really want comforting.
But a comforter is someone who's kind of alongside you, unable to really change your situation, but just there to help feel better. They're there. Our comfort is much better than that, but you know what I mean.
But an advocate is an active person who is called alongside to change your future. They're there. To change your future. So advocate is like a sort of like a legal person who's going to make sure that what is said about you, what is declared over you, is right, is righteous, is good, and that the future that you might have had, had he not been with you, is changed.
Now actually, it's a wonderful thing to think about Jesus as an advocate, if he says there's another advocate coming, the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus is doing for humanity. He's coming alongside, not just to comfort and say it's okay, God is with you.
No, he's coming alongside as an active defender to change your future. So in a court of law, the advocate comes alongside, he speaks to the judge.
He ensures that whatever sentence is happening, whatever future is coming your way, is in your favor, is good. You are released. You are set free. And Jesus, as the advocate, comes alongside humanity.
And not just comforts to say God is with you, but says the future that you need, the future that you need, I will make for you. And so this is, now, what we have not only with us, but in us.
You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. In the presence of Jesus in their midst, the Holy Spirit was there with them.
But now, as he goes, ooh, I'm back, he will be in you. Jesus' presence becomes internal. This promise of Ezekiel 36, I will put my spirit in you, is fulfilled.
And the spirit teaches, reminds, convicts, strengthens, comforts, guides, comes alongside in the midst of everything that being on mission with Jesus brings our way and changes our future. He makes Christ real and Christ's mission possible and Christ's likeness in us become reality.
So Jesus is saying, you won't be spiritually alone. My presence will be closer than you can imagine and more than you can imagine even now. I will not leave you as orphans.
4. He Promised to Dwell With Them
So fourthly, where they feared being powerless, he promised to make his home with them. This is one that I think we'll probably explore over the coming five weeks a bit more.
But Judas asks this really interesting question. Why are you going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world? Why is the Holy Spirit going to come just to us?
That's going to make us seem maybe like we're sort of saying something's happened that it hasn't really happened. Like we'd really like it if you could show yourself to the whole world.
That would make our mission a lot easier. In fact, that would wrap this thing up real quick. Skip to the end.
If it's all so quiet and hidden, will we have any real impact? Will our faith just be kind of sidelined in the world? We need you to be publicly visible.
And this is where Jesus' priority on discipleship, love to obedience, is brought to the fore. So we would love it if God would just show himself to the whole world and everybody bowed the knee and we're done.
But actually his call, just like from the beginning, is for human beings to receive his revelation and turn to him in love and obedience. And the way in which his mission will go forth on the earth is when you and I obey his teaching, show him our love, and then as he makes his home in us, we are walking through the earth as the home of God.
That God has never been one to force people to know him. And this is exactly the same here. That God says, you open yourself up to me in love.
You obey me. I live with you. This is how it happens. It is you aligning your will with my will in making you new.
And then we bring me with you everywhere you go. God's presence reshapes how you live. He's at home with you.
And so everywhere you go, you're a walking God home. And people will see that. With the front door open, the lights on, and some pretty amazing baking smells coming out of the kitchen.
I just made that up just now. You can write it down. Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.
Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own. They belong to the father who sent me.
If you want to see the father's power on the earth, obey him and see what he does.
5. He Gave Them His Peace
On the night before he died, Jesus steadied troubled hearts by giving his peace. So he closes this section by returning to the original fear.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. And he says, I give you my peace. Not as the world gives. Not as the absence of problems. Not as ease.
Not as control over circumstances. That's a bummer to me. But relationship that is never going away. And when Jesus says you should be pleased that I'm going to the father because the father is greater than I, he's not telling us something about how he's not really God and that somehow he's forever subordinated to the father.
Actually he's telling us that the way that your peace will come is through this, my body, being broken for you. I have humbled myself to walk among you. And it is good that I go back to God because I will be filled as I was before.
The emptiness that I have chosen, the suffering that I have chosen, the obedience that I have shown. Like in Philippians 2 where it says, you know, though he was in very nature God, he took the form of a servant.
Well it is good for me that I will go to the father because I will be filled, I will be ruling as the Messiah deserves. It is good. And this actually is the foundation of your peace.
If I was just here suffering on your behalf and nothing happened after that. I think we've talked about this before. It's like if someone says I'm going to pay your electricity bill and they take it and nothing, the lights just don't come back on.
Then they haven't paid your electricity bill. But Jesus, if he is raised from the dead, if he rises from the dead, if he ascends to the father, if he is glorified as the king of kings and lord of lords, the lights come back on.
It is good for me and it is good for you, he says, that I go. And this is the foundation of your peace. You are not just trusting a saviour who's walked through suffering, betrayal and death.
You are trusting a saviour who has broken through death and who reigns over the whole world.
I Will Not Leave You As Orphans
So on the night before he died, Jesus steadied troubled hearts by promising his presence forever.
- Where they feared losing God, he revealed God in himself.
- Where they feared being left behind, he promised they were still on mission.
- Where they feared facing life alone, he promised them his spirit.
- Where they feared being powerless, he promised to make his home with them.
- Where their hearts were shaken, he gave them his peace.
And under all was this promise, I will not leave you as orphans. He speaks the same word to you and me. You're not abandoned, you're not powerless, you're not alone.
God has revealed himself in the Son. The Son has given himself for you. The Spirit dwells within you. And the living God has made you his home.
