The Disciple Jesus Loved Tells All!

Spirit Sightings II

John 15:15-18 & 16:5-15

Before I begin, I want to give honor to God and to a Godly man. Much of what I will be saying today was greatly influenced by Charles Stanley, and his book The Wonderful Spirit-filled Life.

 Dennis chuckled to himself as he read the bumper sticker on the car in front of him: HE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TOYS WINS. He had seen and heard the expression plenty of times, and he always got a kick out of it. As he sat there staring at the bumper in front of him, the irony of his own situation began to sink in. At no point in his life had he ever consciously subscribed to the philosophy represented by that popular bumper sticker. On the contrary, as a Christian, his belief system was diametrically opposed to everything that statement stood for. But if he was honest with himself, an outsider who simply watched him for any length of time might conclude that his ultimate pursuit in life was the accumulation of the newest and most high tech toys. That was not to say that he didn't want to be a good father and husband. But somehow those values were not the driving force in his life anymore - not the way they had been at the beginning. In fact, lately he had noticed that several areas of his original belief system had taken a backseat to the priorities set before him by his world. "What is happening to me?" he thought.

 As he drove up the exit ramp, he thought back to the night as a college student when he had trusted Christ as his Savior. It was so real, so significant. His decision that night affected every part of his life. He remembered the intensity with which he communicated his faith to his frat brothers. Church was not a duty then, it was a joy. It was something he looked forward to each week. 

 Cheryl dropped a basket of clothes on the floor in front of the couch. She sat down and folded laundry, while watching Wheel of Fortune, waiting for Dennis and Jodie to come home for dinner. Dennis was working late again tonight - probably just as well. It seemed like every time they were together it was just another exercise in frustration. She'd say something that he thought meant something she didn't mean to say, and off they'd go...What's this? There in the pocket of one of her jeans was a refrigerator magnet - she remembered putting it there while running out the door with Jodie’s permission slip for a field trip yesterday morning. She ran her fingers over the letters on the little piece of plastic. WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS, MAKE LEMONADE it read. She half smiled as stared at it. "There sure have been a lot of lemons lately in this house," she thought. The smile disappeared. Between arguments with Dennis and tension with the Jodie, she felt like a contractor for Country Time.

 "How did this happen? It wasn't supposed to be like this. My whole life boils down to taking an endless supply of lemons and doing my best to make lemonade." She began to cry. On the table next to the basket of unfolded laundry lay her Bible. She remembered back when she and Dennis had first been married. She had been the leader of a neighborhood Bible study. Her whole life was centered on studying and sharing what she had learned. The Scriptures had been alive back then. "Back then..." she said in a whisper. "What has happened to me? Where is the joy? Where is the peace? Where is the love?"

She was jolted by the door slamming in the kitchen. "Hi, Mom." she heard. 

"Hi Jodie, Dad will be home any minute, I held dinner for you." 

"I'm not staying for dinner. Grace is coming to pick me up, and..." 

Cheryl didn't need to hear the rest. At seventeen, Jodie was in a world of her own, and it was a world that was off limits to Dennis and Cheryl.

Jodie slammed her door closed and checked her messages on the answering machine in her room. "Jo, this is Randy. Everything is set for Sunday. Richard's got his dads boat, and my parents said we could use the lake house. Have you asked your folks yet? If not find out tonight and let me know." Click.

 Jodie expelled a deep sigh. "Sunday. Mom will have a cow. But she'll recover. Besides, I've been to church for the last two Sundays in a row. That's two more than my friends." As she brushed her hair, she paused to look at a photo on the mirror from camp last summer. She was overcome for a moment with a wave of emotion as she remembered how she and these friends had made a commitment to rededicate their lives to Christ. They had made a promise to each other, and God, that they would go back home and make a difference for Jesus. "Some difference," she thought. "It's all just a distant memory now. Good intentions, but no follow-through. That's the way it always in at camp." Another sigh. "Well, I'm not really into the church thing any more. It didn't really work for me. I got tired of being good all the time. Other than camp, it was all pretty boring anyway. I'll give it another shot when I'm older..." She shook her head and went back to combing her hair. 

 The doorbell signaled the arrival of Grace. Jodie galloped down the stairs, and out the door as Dennis pulled into the driveway. Jodie glanced over her shoulder at her father's car. For a brief moment they made eye contact. And both thought to themselves the same thing: "Good timing."

I don't know about you, but that story hits pretty close to home for me. For far too many believers in the church of Jesus Christ today, our lives are mirrored by Dennis, Cheryl and Jodie. Sure we have a faith in Jesus. We know the work that He had done for us, and at one time or another we have experienced the joy and power of the Christian life, but for the most part we live a life not all that unlike any body else in the world. George Barna, the Christian pollster tells us that the divorce rate for Christians is not really any different than that of non-believers. The number of teens and young adults from evangelical churches who are involved in extramarital sex is only slightly lower than the number of teens who claim no religious beliefs. Why is that? Why is it that we have such a difficult time living the type of life that we know God has called us to in His Word? Why is it that from the 15 year old in the seat to the pastor on the stage, the entire church seems to be struggling just to keep our heads above the slime that surrounds us, instead of being, as Jesus described us, "The light of the world, A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden..."

Sometimes I think that the church of Jesus Christ, which is described as His Bride, is more like the character of Cinderella. We have this Father, who has made all sorts of wonderful provisions for us, and yet now we feel abandoned by Him, surrounded by oppressive evil people, who confine us to our own little corner in our own little chair. We're meek, and timid, afraid to speak out and be politically incorrect, abandoned and orphaned by our Father.

That image kept coming back to me as I was studying the last night of Jesus life on earth. As we said last week, we are going to be spending the next several weeks, leading up to Easter, looking at the teachings Jesus gave His disciples during those last few hours He had with them before He faced the cross. These last words of instruction, encouragement and comfort were given because Jesus knew that they were going to be deeply shaken by the events that were about to unfold. Their leader was about to be arrested, tried, beaten and executed. As He spoke these words, He knew that in less than 12 hours He would be on the cross, and He wanted to give them words to help them get through it.

As I studied these words, of Christ, one phrase kept bouncing around in my head, and I couldn't shake it. Let me read to you the passages I was looking at, and see if it stands out to you, too. From the book of John, chapter 14, verses 15-18.

Read text.

Did you see it? Maybe with the build up I gave it, it was easy to see, but these words have never struck me before like they have recently. "I will not leave you orphans..." 

"I will not leave you orphans..." If you have the King James Bible, it reads "I will not leave you Comfortless," but the word that was originally penned by John, the guy who sat at the table next to Jesus, was the Greek word orphanos. It means, "of uncertain affinity, of uncertain attachment, of uncertain intimacy..." Doesn't that sound like the way Dennis, and Gayle and Jodie felt? At one time or another, each of them had been sure of their communion with God, of their relationship with Him, but lately, they had lost sight of the reality of that relationship. They have been overrun by the evil stepsisters of worldly values and self-indulgence. They feel dominated and controlled by a power that they can’t seem to gain victory over. Their life's mission has gone from "All for Jesus" to, "Nobody's perfect, and God understands."

"I will not leave you orphans..." 

Somehow, I don't think that this is what Jesus had in mind for His followers. He was talking to them at this time to prevent them from becoming exactly what we have become! And look at what he tells them: verse 16:

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Jesus knew that the disciples were going to feel abandoned, orphaned and overwhelmed by the world around them. And so He gives them and us words that provide an obvious truth and an implied truth.

First the obvious. Jesus promises us in a clear decisive manner that we are not alone. We have the presence of the Holy Spirit with us and in us as believers. Turn the page and look at chapter 16, verse 7. It reads:

Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

Jesus knew that as long as He was here on this earth, trapped in this bag of bones, that He was limited in the scope of His ministry. He was only able to be in one place at one time. He could pour Himself into only so many people within the constraints of this body. That is why he spent those years teaching and developing a few people into the ones who would later turn the world upside-down with their ministries. But because He had taken on this human form, His impact was limited. The only way the gospel could be spread throughout the world was for Him to be removed from this world physically, so that the presence of God could be in this world spiritually by the indwelling of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, in each and every believer. 

Now, we could spend the next year trying to understand the relationship of the Trinity. The Bible teaches that there is one God, and that He exists eternally in three distinct persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. While they are three persons, they are one. Notice that Jesus talks about sending the Helper, the Spirit, to His disciples, as if He is talking about another person, but than at the end, He concludes by saying "I will come to you." That is because the Holy Spirit and Jesus are One. And if you look up at verse 9 of chapter 15, you will see that Jesus says that He and the Father are One. "He who has seen me has seen the Father." They are all one God, yet these three each have a different role.

It is the Holy Spirit who has the role of Helper (among others). The word that is used that we have translated "Helper," or "Comforter," in your Bibles is the Greek word paraklatos, from which we get our word paraklete. A paraklete is not something Dion Sanders wears when he is going to play football. A paraklete is a legal term that is used to describe the relationship of an attorney to his client. It is made up of two words para and kaleo, which mean to "come along side." It means "one who is called along side to aid." And that is where the second truth, the implied truth is shown to us.

You see, when Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to His disciples, and to us, He did not promise to send a Teacher, though that is something the Holy Spirit does. He did not promise to send an Accuser, though the Holy Spirit does convict of sin. He did not even promise to send a source of power, though the Spirit does distribute gifts among believers to empower the church. No, when Jesus was teaching His disciples on the night before He died, when He knew that they were about to face a time when they were going to feel like abandoned orphans, He promised them a HELPER.

And there is the secret - no because of what it says, but because of what it implies. If Jesus sent us a helper, then what is the implication? WE NEED HELP! We can't do it alone! The Victorious Christian life that seems so far removed from our reality is not something that we gain because we try real hard; it is not something that comes because we put forth our best effort and hope that God blesses it. Jesus implies in these verses that, in fact, it is not something we can do at all - we need help! And that help comes in the form and person of the Holy Spirit. And the great news is that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, He is already within you! Paul asks this question of the church in Corinth, and he poses it to us today, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 

Just as Jesus promised, we are not orphans. We have not been abandoned. In fact, because He was crucified, buried and rose again, and went to the Father in Heaven, we are able to have the Holy Spirit live within us. Each of us who has believed on Jesus as our Savior and Lord has Him within our lives.

So then, why the Dennis and Cheryl's? Why the Jodie's who sincerely rededicate their lives to God, and seem to falter?  It's not a question of how much of the Holy Spirit we have; it's how much the Holy Spirit has us. R.A. Torrey wrote this:

...It is clear that every regenerate man has the Holy Spirit. But in many a believer the Holy Spirit dwells away back in some hidden sanctuary of his person, away back of conscious experience. So just as it is one thing to have a guest in your house living in some remote corner of the house where you scarcely know that he is there, and quiet another thing to have the guest taking entire possession of the house, just so it is one thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling way back... in some hidden sanctuary of our being, and another to have the Holy Spirit taking entire possession of the house.

It is kind of ironic, isn't it, that just when we feel that we've been orphaned like Cinderella, left in our own little corner, in our own little chair, that we realize that it's actually the Holy Spirit who has been placed in the corner, on the little chair, and not given the full possession of our lives? 

For most of us, I dare say each of us; we are not so much the orphan, as the prodigal. It is not God who has abandoned us, it is we who have run from Him. We have gone off our own way, done our own thing, and asked God to bless it, while we never allowed Him to be in charge. 

Are you a Dennis, wondering, "What's happening to me?" as your values seem to get all turned around? Are you a Cheryl, feeling like you're doing the best you can, to make lemonade, but it just doesn't seem to be enough? Are you a Jodie, the Christian scene just didn't work out for you? If you are, there is a secret to your frustration, a key to your messed up priorities - it is the promised Helper - the Holy Spirit of God, who lives within you, but who has never been given the opportunity to help like He wants. 

Let's bow our heads, and quiet our hearts before Him.

If you have heard yourself described in these words this morning, then there is something we need to do. We need to return, not as orphaned children, but as prodigal children, to the Father who wants to receive us back, and ask Him to forgive us. To forgive us for trying our best, to forgive us for thinking we could do it alone, to forgive us for our foolish pride that thought that somehow we could live for Him without His help. And then we need to go to that little corner, to that little chair, where we have kept the Holy Spirit hidden away, and apologize to Him, and allow Him to have full reign over our house.

If that is your desire today, I want you to come and kneel in these aisles. In an act of public surrender, to humble yourself before God and man, and give up complete control of your life to Him.