The Giving of the Holy Spirit (John 14:8-17)

And our gospel reading comes from John chapter 14, verses 8 to 17.

John 14:8–17

This is the holy gospel of our Lord according to John.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Philip said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.

Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long that you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

In other words, I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.

Or else believe on account of the works themselves.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

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.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Amen.

And we welcome a sermon from our own Bishop Charlie.

Let's pray.

May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

Amen.

Well, I don't for a moment think that anyone would remember, for instance, what I preached from this same kitchen last Pentecost, which was May 31st.

But I wouldn't and myself wouldn't remember if it wasn't that Scott Hunt kindly provided me with the video of last year that I could review.

And just for your information, we used the same Acts 2 passage, which was read, and the same gospel passage from John 14.

And I preached, and I believe my colleagues, Bishop Trevor and Bishop Stephen, also preached on the Acts 2 passage.

And perhaps you'll remember, as was read, that the believers, some 120, were gathered together, all in one accord in prayer.

And it kind of reminds me of May 12th, just 11 days ago, our diocese had a cross-country prayer meeting by Zoom, and we were all on one accord, and we were all in agreement in repentance and praying for freedom from this global pandemic.

Well, it was a little bit like that as the believers were together in that upper room, and suddenly there was, in fulfillment of the promise of God, there was first a roaring wind.

Well, of course, in Hebrew, uh, spirit, breath, and wind are the same word.

And in Greek, spirit, breath, and wind are the same words as well.

And so for the Lord to make it clear that in fact the Holy Spirit was being given in fulfillment of the promise of the prophets, roaring wind was perfect.

And then there were tongues of fire that rested on each believer's head.

And that was a wonderful thing.

And then they all, when they went out into the street, the crowds of all the nations were gathered because of the feast.

And they all, each language group heard in their own language the great things of God being spoken.

A miracle of the Spirit of God was giving all of them utterance such that they were able to speak in tongues in this way.

In fact, all of this is a miracle.

And then Peter, the same guy who denied Jesus three times, is now empowered by the Holy Spirit, and he preaches Jesus and makes it clear that faith in that Jesus, which they killed, but God raised from the dead and is ascended to heaven, in his name, the giving of the Holy Spirit was available to all.

Repent, believe, and be baptized.

And they did some 3,000 that day.

Well, that's what happened, and that's what last year was about.

Well, I want to now speak for a few minutes on the gospel account, which is from John 14.

It's part of that five-chapter precious uh time that Jesus had with the disciples at the Last Supper, uh, and they're upset because he said he's going away.

Uh, and so a lot of the of the teaching which he's given in this intimate teaching is about the giving of the Holy Spirit.

And in fact, he makes it clear that the giving of the Holy Spirit was an absolute necessity.

That's why later he instructed them after the resurrection not to leave Jerusalem until they'd received the Holy Spirit.

But he said this, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, Jesus said.

For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, the helper, the paraclete, the comforter, the Holy Spirit, but if I go, I will send him to you.

And so we have in this uh account and in John 14, Jesus explaining the profound, miraculous, absolutely essential difference which the giving of the Holy Spirit would make real, but required him to ascend to heaven so that the Spirit could be given as it was.

Three points which I want us to consider here.

Point number one, and they're very brief with you, the Holy Spirit, secondly, changes you, and thirdly, uses you.

These all speak, as Jesus is teaching in John 14, about the nature of what the giving of the Holy Spirit does in the life of the believer and is about to do in these very people that he's speaking to.

With you.

Well, it's it's very clear that in fact the the disciples absolutely needed a profound change.

Even although they'd had these some three years with Jesus and they'd heard him and they'd watched him and they heard him pray and they saw all that he did, even still at this stage they don't get it.

So Thomas says, Lord, we have no idea where you're going.

And Philip says, Show us the Father.

Jesus said, How can you say?

He said, Lord, show us the Father, and it's enough for us.

Jesus said to them, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

How can you say, Show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Believe in me, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

They didn't get it.

So God had to do a profound thing by the giving of the Holy Spirit.

And so Jesus says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, 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.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

The nature of this Holy Spirit dwelling in the life of the individual of each believer is a profound miracle of God.

See, the problem was that Jesus, though the very Son of God, was one.

And so, though he was with them and he explained to them and so on, nevertheless, something had to happen, and it did with the ascension and then the giving of the Holy Spirit.

So that in fact he invited the Father to send this the Holy Spirit to dwell in each individual, thus the tongues on each head.

And what's the nature of the relationship?

Well, it is one which is of intimacy and it's permanent.

The prophet Jeremiah, for instance, said, uh, God says, I will be their God and they shall be my people.

No longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me from the least to the greatest, declares the Lord.

That's the promise that in fact they will actually have a living relationship of intimacy with God by the Holy Spirit.

So it is that, for instance, Paul could say in Romans 8, he said, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry abba Father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with your spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs and heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer in order that we may also be glorified with him.

That's Romans 8, 15 to 17.

And so the nature of the relationship by the giving of the Holy Spirit actually brings the believer into the center of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, whereby we have the right to call God Abba, Daddy, Father.

Beloved, see what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, John said.

And that we should be called children of God, and such we are.

And we get to know him in a wonderful way.

And in fact, 1 Corinthians 2 says, But as it is written, what I no eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love him.

These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

That's the nature of the relationship.

The Holy Spirit is given that he might be with us and we might be with him permanently.

Hallelujah.

Secondly, he's given to change us.

And this comes in two ways.

First of all, sprinkling us clean, and second of all, changing us in real time from one degree of glory to another.

Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me.

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love my Him and manifest myself him to him.

Jesus answered, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.

Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father who sent me.

The Holy Spirit comes to forgive us and then to change us in real times.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

For he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are come.

John 16, 13.

Jeremiah said, For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

Ezekiel said, Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them, and the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord.

I will take you from among the nations and gather you from among the countries, and bring you into your own land.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean.

And later he says, I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

He changes us in a profound way.

And I love that passage in Romans 8 where he says, For God has not done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for the sin, he condemned the sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed from one degree of glory to another, just as from the Lord the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit not only comes and dwells in us and does a miracle in that way, but secondly, he changes us from one degree of glory to another.

And thirdly, and this is maybe the most surprising of all, he uses us, sinful flesh, forgiven flesh, those who are in Christ.

Truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus said, Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I'm going to the Father.

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

That's John 14, 12 to 14.

This is incredible.

God doesn't need us, he could do it all so much better in many ways without us.

But in his mercy and grace, Paul said, we have this ministry by the mercies of God, therefore we do not lose heart.

In his mercy, he brings us into the company of those who are involved in what he's about in this world.

He uses us.

I love that passage in Ezekiel 47, which talks about starting with a trickle coming down out of the east side of the temple and going south into the desert, first ankle deep, then knee deep, then waist deep, and then finally over the head of the prophet as he measures this, and then it flows into the Dead Sea and brings life.

He says, I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other.

And he said to me, This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah and enters the sea, and the water flows into the sea, and the waters will become fresh.

And wherever the river goes, every living creature, the swarms will live, and there will be very many fish.

For this water goes there that the waters of the sea may become fresh, so that everything will live where the river goes.

You see, in John 7, Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit coming and dwelling in those of us who thirst.

And he comes and dwells in us, and out of our very innermost being flow rivers of living water, just as Ezekiel 37 said.

Let me just read you these verses from John 7.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

That's what we're talking about.

Dear friends, this is a great and glorious day.

It's an absolute necessity day that the Pentecost happened and it continues to happen wherever boys and girls, men and women, put their faith in the Jesus who lived and died and rose again and ascended to heaven.

And as they do, they receive the Holy Spirit, who makes his home and their life forever.

And they begin this intimate relationship with him, and they and he begins to change them from one degree of glory to another, and he even uses us.

And so, friends, let us pray that God, the Holy Spirit, would work in our lives, make his home in our life, change us, use us, glorify the name of Jesus even through us.

And let's pray for revival.

Oh God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit.

Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.