You Are Not On Your Own! || John 14:15-21

Kia ora, and welcome to the St. Francis Church

Sermon Podcast. We're so glad that you've joined

us. Our prayer is that as you listen, you would

encounter God's presence, be refreshed in your

faith, and equipped for everyday life with Jesus.

As a church, we are learning to faithfully follow

Jesus by practicing His way at His pace. For

more info about who we are and what God is doing

among us, head to stfrancis .co .nz. Grace and

peace. Good morning, everyone. Last week and

this week are linked. They're linked because

we're in the same room. The same night. And Jesus

said this, I am the way. Remember that from last

week? That the destination isn't a place, that

it's a person. And he says, if you've seen me,

you've seen the Father. But he wasn't finished

there. And this is because knowing the way is

one thing, isn't it? Actually walking it through

the hard days. The heavy seas, there's a moment

when everything feels like it's falling apart.

That's where this next question lands. And Jesus

knew that, so he made a promise to those that

were gathered with him that night at that last

meal. I will not leave you as orphans. Same room,

same night, a few verses on, and then everything

changes. So let's journey into some more of that

night together from last week and where we'll

find ourselves today. In my own wider family,

we've experienced that feeling that when something

is ending and you don't know what comes next,

about how life will be now because this person

you love died or was killed or the life of a

child was taken away too early. We've sat as

a family through those things. But I've also

sat through my life as a minister here. And in

other churches and many rooms at hospitals and

homes where other people have called on me to

journey with them when everything felt like it

was falling apart. Navigating the loss during

COVID with a young couple in hospital where you

had to pass so many security checks to get in

when their child of 10 hours young died. And

then from that age, all ages up to the elderly.

I've sat around many family tables, taken...

over 60 funerals, and some of these were unexpected,

others, they were waiting. The same feeling of

how everything felt like was falling apart was

there in each of those places. And all of these

stories, there's often something most of us know

from the inside. And it's that feeling when something

is ending and you don't know what's going to

come next. When the personal thing that's...

you know, held your life together is going away.

And when you're in a sitting room with people

you love and everyone can feel it, that something

is shifting. Something's coming and there's nothing

that you can actually do to stop it. That's exactly

the room that we step into today when we read

John chapter 14. We find that it's a Thursday

John 14 · chapter mention

night. Jesus and his closest friends have just

finished a meal together. And in a matter of

hours, he'll be arrested. By the next afternoon,

he'll be dead. And right now around this table,

he's trying to prepare them for what's coming.

They don't understand the full picture yet. They

won't for a little bit longer, but they can feel

it. The mood is heavy with them. And the person

they've given everything to is saying goodbye

to them. And what Jesus does in that moment is

remarkable. He doesn't say, okay, guys, it's

been a good run. We've given it the best shot

that we can. You'll be fine. Remember what I

taught you. He doesn't leave them with a to -do

list, as guys often like. He makes them a promise,

and that promise is also to you here in this

room. He says, I'm going to ask God, my Father,

to send you someone, and it's going to be a helper,

a presence, someone, who will be with you, not

just for a season, but with you forever. Not

just alongside you on the good days, but actually

permanently inside you. Now whether in here you've

been following Jesus for decades, whether you're

somewhere in the middle right now, trying to

work out what you believe, or whether you walked

in today generally not sure about any of this,

that promise is worth leaning into. Because here's

a question it raises. And it's a question that

I want us to sit with today. And it says, what

if you were never actually meant to carry all

of this on your own? What if you were never actually

meant to carry all of this on your own? This

life stuff that we're doing. So what exactly

is Jesus promising here? Because the language

can sound, bit removed from everyday life, can't

it? And I want to make sure we don't just nod

along and miss what he's actually saying to us.

He says the Father will send an advocate. Now

there's many different Bible versions out there

and some say helper or counsellor or comforter.

The original word, if you're interested, is a

Greek word called parakletos, which literally

means the one called alongside. And in the ancient

world, it was often used for legal advocate,

someone who stood in your corner when you were

in front of a judge. Who's been in front of a

judge before? In a good way. In a good way, good,

thank you. Clarification is always good. This

person, this advocate, this whole purpose in

the room was to be on your side. It's like Gwen.

being a lawyer, standing beside you in front

of Judge Peter Spiller. Okay, we have a judge

and a lawyer amongst us. So yeah, so you can

kind of, yeah. And then Jesus says something

that's easy to slide past. He says he'll send

another advocate, another one. Meaning Jesus

himself has been that for them. For the men that

he's been journeying with, and the women, the

helper, the guide, the one who showed up when

they didn't know what to do. And now he's saying

that that doesn't end. You're getting the same

thing in a new form. Not next to you anymore,

but it's going to be inside of you. This is what

we mean when we talk about the Holy Spirit. Hear

this, because Often in conversations, I find

that this gets really misunderstood. The Holy

Spirit is not about a feeling. This is not about

a feeling. It's not about a spiritual buzz that

you get or a religious emotion or the warm atmosphere

you might get in a good church service. It's

not that. Theologian named Gordon Fee spent his

career studying exactly this. He put it plainly.

And it's always good to have things put plainly.

The Spirit is not simply God's power at work

in the world. The Spirit is a personal presence

of God himself living within the people of God.

You, me, and others that follow Jesus as Lord

and Saviour. Now, if you're sitting here thinking,

I'm honestly not sure I believe that. How can

this be inside me? I want you to know that it's

a completely fair place also to be. You don't

have to have that sorted today, but I'd ask you

to hold on to this question. What would it change

practically if it were true? What would it change

in your life practically if it were true? No

theory stuff. If there really was a presence,

not a concept, not a doctrine, but an actual

someone. That was permanently for you, permanently

in you, that never left. Wherever you sat, walked,

drove, wherever you are. Because that's the claim

that Jesus is making. And the rest of this passage

unpacks what it means to live like it's real.

He says the world can't receive this. The world

doesn't see it or know it. But he says, you know

him. For he lives with you and will be in you.

If you're a disciple of Christ, regardless of

how long, regardless of how wobbly your faith

feels right now, you are carrying something the

world around you is not operating with. But we

often forget it. The Spirit of God is in you.

I've heard people say, yeah, but not me, it's

in the other person. Look at them. If you believe

and follow Jesus, the Spirit of God is in you.

It's not a feeling. That is a fact. And it changes

how you face your days. In verse 18, Jesus says

something so short and so direct it almost catches

you off guard. He says, I will not leave you

as orphans. I will come to you. We know that

an orphan is someone without a parent. without

a safe place to land, without anyone who is specifically,

personally in their corner looking after them.

Someone who is to face the world in all its weight

completely alone because there's nobody whose

job it is to look out for them. And even if that's

not your literal story, most of us know something

of that feeling as well. It's like the aloneness

of a decision you have to make and nobody can

really help you make it. Or the 3am lying awake

with a worry that you can't switch off. Or the

loneliness that sneaks up on you even when you're

in a full room. The sense that when things get

really hard that you're ultimately on your own

with it. Now Jesus looks at that experience,

all of it, and he says to each one of us, that

is not how. This has to be. I'm going to speak

to a few different people in the room for a moment

because I think this lands differently depending

on where you are. If you're young and you're

just starting to figure out what life is and

you're journeying into careers and relationships,

what you actually believe or who you actually

are, and it feels like a lot to navigate without

a map, You are not meant to work all of that

out alone. And if you're somewhere in the middle

of life and the wait is just real, the responsibilities,

the pressures, cost of living is squeezing too

tight, the relationships that need more than

you have, the sense that you're keeping a lot

of plates spinning on these sticks and you're

not sure how long you can keep it up, you were

not built to carry all of that by yourself. And

if you've been following Jesus for years, and

if you're honest, there have been seasons, maybe

one that you're in right now, where God felt

distance, where prayer felt like it was hitting

the ceiling, where you kept showing up and quietly

wondered if any of this was actually real. Jesus

is speaking to you too. The Spirit doesn't leave

you when your faith goes quiet. As we open up

Scripture, we find that Paul writes about this

in his letter to the Romans, and it's one of

the most honest descriptions of how this actually

works in life. In the same way, the Spirit helps

us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought

to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes

for us through wordless groans. The Spirit intercedes

for God's people in accordance with the will

of God. I know through personal experience, when

I haven't had the words or whatever to say, that

I know that I have an advocate interceding for

me, to the Father, for the things that I need

or feel and can't put into words or expressions.

So even when you don't have the words, even when

all you have is silence or confusion or pain

that doesn't have a name, The Spirit is in that

moment with you. Not standing back waiting for

you to pull yourself together. Not grading your

spiritual performance. But in it with you. Carrying

what you can't carry. Taking it to God on your

behalf. A friend, an advocate. A .W. Tozer. He

was a pastor who spent his life writing about

the difference between knowing about God and

actually experiencing God. He said this, the

Holy Spirit is not enthusiasm, nor good feelings,

nor religious sentiment. The Holy Spirit is a

person and is the spirit of Jesus Christ, present

with his people and all the full weight of his

divine reality. Not a mood. Not a spiritual feeling

that comes and goes depending on the week that

you've had. The full weight of a real presence

permanently with you. And here's the honest thing

though, and I'm saying this to the people who

believe this for years as much to anyone else

today, that knowing this and living from it are

two different things. And from my life experience,

I know that many of us live from that first part.

We know this, but we actually don't live from

it. It's like the Holy Spirit is only brought

in when we're very desperate instead of at the

very beginning. That the one that was there at

the beginning of creation, the one... that raised

Jesus from death is the one that's in you right

now. A lot of us could pass the exam on this.

We know the theory. But in the actual moments

of our actual week, we live like we're on our

own. We white knuckle through the hard days.

We try to manufacture the strength from somewhere

saying, I can get through this. Just to the next

moment and then it'll be better. We forget right

when we most need to remember that there is a

resource we are not drawing on. The rest of the

world doesn't have it. You and I do. This passage

is not just information, people. It's an invitation

to a genuinely different way of moving through

your life. To call on someone that will advocate

on your behalf. At any moment. So before we land

this, I want to go back to where the passage

actually starts. In verse 15, if you love me,

keep my commands. Now that can sound heavy, like

a condition, do what I say or else. But that's

not the tone here at all. Jesus isn't setting

up a test, you pass or you fail. He's making

an observation about how love actually works.

Think about this in ordinary life, what we just

go through every day. That when you genuinely

love someone, a partner, a child, a close friend,

that you naturally start to care about what they

care about. You don't manufacture it, it just

grows. And love always ends up changing the shape

of how you live. That's what Jesus is pointing

at. And he says this right before he promises

a spirit, and the order matters when you read

this. He's not saying live better by yourself.

He's saying live in my way, and I'll send you

the very presence that makes that possible from

the inside out. Not willpower, not try harder,

something that grows in you. Paul, a great writer

and disciple and follower of Jesus, as we know,

describes what this looks like in Galatians chapter

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

5. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,

peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness and self -control. Paul calls it fruit,

not achievement, not effort. Fruit is what appears

naturally on something that's alive and connected

to its source. You don't force an apple tree

to produce apples. You keep it rooted and it

does what it is made to do. We've got an abundance

of feijos this season. But we don't... Plenty

of desserts. But we don't go there to pick mandarins.

We go there... to get the feijos. You go to the

mandarin tree for the mandarins. The abundance

because it's been fed, they've been cared for,

and it's a source of what they get. Think about

the moments in your life when you were more patient

than you expected to be. When you found the courage

for a hard conversation that you've been putting

off for someone. Or when a season tried to break

you and somehow, somehow, Your faith held. That

wasn't just you at your best. It's not all on

you. Even though we may think that. That's what

the presence does of the Holy Spirit. And then

Jesus closes the passage with a promise that

I think is worth sitting with. He says this,

whoever walks in my way, whoever loves me and

lets that love show up in how they actually live,

I will love them and show myself to them. He'll

make himself known to you, more real to you,

more visible as you move toward him and he moves

towards you. And as that relationship deepens,

you see him more clearly. You see him in the

things that are happening around you and the

people that you interact with. Thomas Merton

was a monk who came to faith slowly, through

doubt, through searching, not in spite of it,

and he put it simply. And it's great to have

things put simply. He says, we have what we seek.

It is there all the time. And if we give it time,

it will make itself known to us. We have what

we seek. And yet we often, even as Christians,

wander off in so many different directions and

paths seeking something else. So whatever you're

looking for, something solid to stand on. Something

real in the middle of all the noise that's around

you. A God who isn't just a concept. It's closer

than you think. Give it room. Be honest. Move

toward it. So let's go back to the question that

we actually started with. What if you were never

actually meant to carry all of this life thing

on your own? Jesus' answer to that question is

this passage this morning from John 14. And here's

what I want you and I to take out of here today.

That the promise he made in that room that night

before he died, it hasn't expired. It's still

running. It's for you right now. It's for you

in 10 minutes next day. You don't have to have

everything figured out. You don't have to be

a certain kind of person. or reach a certain

level of faith before this kicks in. When you've

given your life to Christ, fully to Christ, you

have it. It's there. The presence is inside you.

The same spirit that was present at the very

beginning of everything, that came on Jesus at

his baptism, that raised him from death, that

spirit is available to you right now. In the

middle of wherever you are, even here at church.

So this week, when the hard moment comes, and

it most surely will, it may be an event or maybe

just a hard, difficult thought, before you reach

for your own strength, before you go into default

mode and just push through on your own, try this.

Just pause. Take a deep breath. Draw in for about

five or six count. And exhale. And then say or

just even think this. There is someone here with

me in this. It's the presence of the Holy Spirit.

There is someone here with me in this. Now that's

not a formula. It's just choosing. Choosing who

you want to be in this moment with you, that's

already there. To live from what Jesus says is

actually true. So let's take a moment together.

You can see the more you live like that's real,

the more real it becomes. Let's pause for 30

seconds. I invite you to take that deep breath

and exhale. Then maybe think or say, there is

someone here with me in this. God, we're not

all in the same place today. Some of us have

known you for years. Some of us are just starting

to ask whether you're there. But all of us know

what it feels like to carry things that are too

heavy. So whatever is true of you, we are asking

you to be close. Not as a concept, theory or

doctrine. But his real presence in us, with us

and for us. The way that Jesus promised. For

those who believe, both here and in the churches

through this land, help us to actually live from

this. And those who are not sure, just say, we're

here, we are open. Come and make yourself known.

We thank you for your presence which is within

us wherever we go. May we reach for you first

before anything else. May we use the power that

we have within us for the good around us. Amen.