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 not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Yet a little while the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live and you also live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has me him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But 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 have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I am going away and I will Now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as my Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go up from here. Thus ends the reading of God's holy, inerrant word. hearts that we may know you more and love you more. The lord may the words of my mouth, lamentations of all our heart, be ever pleasing and acceptable in your sight. The lord our rock and our redeemer. Amen. You ever wonder where is god in the world today? I mean, the Israelites had the tabernacle in the temple. They could go somewhere and they knew god would meet them It's easy to read your Bible and feel like all those miracles and all those great things God did happened so long ago, and it just seems like God doesn't work that way anymore. We often forget that the Bible is written over thousands of years with only little snippets and history, and God doesn't always work the same way all the time. But it's easy to look around and say, where is God? I mean, the Bible happened 2,000 years ago. Jesus came 2,000 years ago. Where is God right now, today? Over the last few weeks, we have traced the idea of God with us throughout the Bible. First, we saw that God was with us in the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 1-3, we talk about how God made us to be with Him, but sin, and people to dwell together once again. And some 4,000 years ago or so, after leading the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, he gave them the design for the tabernacle. And for some 400 years, God dwelt in the tabernacle. His presence, His glory, stood in the midst of the people of Israel. Some 400 years later, Then a few hundred years after the destruction of the temple, Jesus came on the scene. And lastly, we talked about how Jesus is in fact God who tabernacled amongst us. Just like God was in the Old Testament tabernacle, God dwelt with man in the person of Jesus. 2024, where is God right now? Scriptures teach us that the God-man, Jesus Christ, lived a perfect life, died on a cross, and rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of God the Father until all his enemies are made to split stool. And as we have talked rise again. Three times over the fall we saw Jesus teaching this to his disciples. And so Jesus knew that he was going to arise from the grave and then ascend into heaven. And he knew one day he would return to God and his disciples would feel lost, abandoned. Like they had God in their very every day for some three years, and Jesus is just gonna leave them? Jesus knows this is going to happen, and so in our passage today, Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for what is to come. That is actually what this whole chapter is about, chapter 14, and it goes back to chapter 13, verse 22, or 32, sorry, chapter 13, Little children, you have a little while, I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now also I say to you, where I am going cannot come. You see, Jesus teaches his disciples that he is going to leave and go somewhere that they cannot come to heaven. They don't know it, but he's teaching that he's going to ascend into heaven to a place that they cannot fellowship. so that they can expect when Jesus is no longer with them, what will happen. Which means for followers today in the 21st century, these same truths apply. Jesus is saying what will happen to his followers, for his followers, after he's gone. And if he's not here with us today, these same truths passage, Jesus and his disciples know that or Jesus wants his disciples to know that God is not just going to leave them hanging. He wants his disciples to be aware that God is not going to leave them as orphans. Rather, God will still be with them now and forever. God is going to be with them presently and Holy Spirit and God will be with them forever through Christ's physical return. This is what the passage is actually getting at. That God will be with us now by the Holy Spirit and God will be with us forever when Christ returns. This passage breaks down into two parallel sections that work together. we see the purpose of that promise. You can see it as the promise and the purpose. You see in verses 16-17, Jesus promises that the Father, God in heaven, will give them the Holy Spirit. And then in verses 18-20, Jesus tells His disciples that He will come again. He promises that He will come back to them. In verse 22, one of the disciples named Judas, not Iscariot, this is not Judas Iscariot, but this is a disciple who is also known as Thaddeus, asks, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? And then in verses 23-31, Jesus elaborates on what he means and how he is going to reveal himself to the disciples. In verses 20-29, we see what Jesus' ascension to heaven and His coming return means for the life of the world. These promises are not actually for everyone. From the very beginning, Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper. He says here, if you love me, I will ask the Father. He will not ask the Father to give a helper to those who do not love Him. Verse 17 says the world cannot receive this helper. Verse 18 talks not about leaving the disciples as orphans, but verse 19 says the world will not see them. You see, there are clearly to love Jesus. This is actually a repeated idea throughout the passage. Verse 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me. Fabulous ask the question, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? There's two groups. There are those who will see him, that Jesus will manifest himself to, and the world who will not. Again, we see these two categories. Then in verses 23 and 24, it's clear that Jesus is teaching that there's this dichotomy. Verse 23, if anyone loved me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and come to him and make our home with him. Those that love Jesus will receive the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. But verse 24, whoever does not love me mine, but the Father's." Jesus is saying that this is not something He came up with. This is God's plan. There are two different categories of people. Those who love Jesus, who love Jesus by keeping His commands. It's not that the keeping the commands doesn't. You can keep the commands not because you love Jesus, but because you want to look good to your neighbor. You want your church friends to like you more because you're more holy. But that doesn't mean you love Jesus. But if your love for Jesus leads you to obey the commands, then you are showing that you are a part of his people. Jesus did the will of his Father. That's what it says in verse 30. You see, this is actually the example Jesus made. Jesus was absolutely different than anyone else around him. Not just in that he was full of God, but in that he did the will of his Father. And he's just asking as a follower of you that you would do the same thing. Now, I don't want to focus here, but I would be neglecting the emphasis of the passage if I did not take a moment to say that the Holy Spirit and the hope of Christ's return is only beneficial If you are looking for ways to get out of loving Jesus or in your heart, you don't truly have this desire, then this isn't really for you. And if you're here today and you don't consider yourself a Christian, I have no idea. If you are here and you don't consider yourself a Christian, you don't say, oh, I love Jesus and I want to do his commands. If that's not you, I'm glad you're here. You're welcome here any Sunday. We love having you, but you need to know the rest of this passage is not written for you. For those of us who love Jesus and love his commandments, I hope this passage and this sermon gives us some encouragement, some hope in the things that God is doing in our world today. But if you're not a Christian, you should keep this as a warning, if nothing else, of the things that you are missing out on. those who do love Jesus and keep His commandments, let's look at the hope Jesus is giving His disciples in this passage. First, we see that Jesus promises His disciples the Holy Spirit, which comes, if you know the rest of the Bible, in Acts 2. On Pentecost, after the resurrection, the Holy Spirit came upon the church once for all, which means in light of Acts 2, we already So we can rightly teach that today, right now, that God is with us now by the Holy Spirit. Here we see in verse 16 that the Spirit is called a Helper. Notice the word Helper here is capitalized. It is a title bestowed upon the Spirit. It is a character of Him that God is naming. And in verse 17, by defining the Spirit by His attribute, by defining Him as true, it is in part defining Him as God, which is to say that the Holy Spirit is God. So when we say the Holy Spirit is with us, we are saying that God actually resides within our being as believers, that we become a temple of God, just like the very presence of God something you have to wait for. This isn't something that comes tomorrow or when you're a better Christian or when the new creation happens. This is happening right now. If you love Jesus and you want to keep his commandments, then you can be assured that you have the Holy Spirit in you. You are the dwelling place of God in this world. So, it says in verse twenty-six that he gave us the And the passage tells us two things about the Helper, the Holy Spirit. Two things that the Holy Spirit will do. 26, sorry. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, who the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said. Which means that part of what the Spirit does in our lives is it teaches us and reminds us. The Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us. It teaches us from the Word and reminds us of the things Jesus has taught. Have you ever had one of those moments where you're just going through life and maybe something difficult is going on and you just have a Bible passage pop in your head? And you're like, I have no idea why that came to my head right now, but that's perfect. That's the Holy Spirit That is part of what the Holy Spirit does. And note here that this means radically that the Holy Spirit cannot be coming up with new things. The Holy Spirit is never going to teach you something that is brand new. He is going to teach you and bring to mind what Jesus already taught in Holy Scriptures. There is not a new revelation. gives the Spirit to teach us and remind us. He also gives the Spirit, verse 27, to give us peace. Peace, I believe. He's leaving us the Holy Spirit to be a comforter. That's what John chapter 16 says. He is to give us some bit of peace in this world. Ephesians says the Holy Spirit seals no matter how bad you are or how bad people treat you, you have a treasure stored up for you in heaven. And you can have peace in this life, because nothing can take that away. The Spirit gives peace. And again, we see this dichotomy, because He gives His peace to you, but not as the world gives you. This is not the same kind of peace you have when you have all your bills paid. This is not the same kind of peace you have when that problematic person at work retires or moves away. This is a kind of peace that's different than anything the world can imagine. A kind of peace that even in all the problems of life, you can have confidence that God is still with you because you have the Holy Spirit. So Jesus promises his disciples, Christ has taught them and to bring peace in their lives. We said that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on Pentecost, which means the Holy Spirit is already here, so this can happen in your life right now. If you have the Holy Spirit, it is happening in your life right now. Rather, you know it or not. This is a very flawed analogy, but it's what came to mind. This is a little bit like Annie, you know, Little Orphan Annie. She believed that her parents would come back to her. That's how come she didn't want daddy to worry about her. And because she believed that her parents would come back for her, she was able to have You see, because she believed her parents were coming back, she had hope. Now, sadly, her parents do not come back. In fact, the musical says that they died in a fire. But, we learned last week that God keeps his promises. God did not die in a fire. Jesus did not die in a fire. He rose from the grave and he will keep his promise to come back. He will not leave us as orphans And there's a reason for Christ's return we see in verse 19. Because I live, you also will live. Brothers and sisters, Jesus is connecting his return to the giving of life. Remember, Jesus knows that he is going to die on the cross and rise again before ascending to heaven. And to bring this into context, the life he's talking about here is resurrection life. 1 Corinthians 15 says that He is the first fruit of new creation. That He is the first resurrection, guaranteeing a resurrection of all His seed. And we see that's what Jesus is promising in Revelation. You see, Jesus returns When Jesus returns, He will do it to bring life, at which point He will judge the living and the dead. And those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, those who Jesus takes as His own, will dwell with Him forever. For it says in the end of Revelation, chapter 21, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, Jesus will dwell with them, and they will be His people. forever. You see, Christ will come to be with his people forever. And then in verses 28 and 29, that Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of God Almighty. Because it means that He is ruling and reigning right now. The scripture says, so all His enemies, so all the nations, are made His footstool. believe. Jesus tells us this so that we will rejoice when he is not here, but also so that when this happens, we will believe, so that we will know ahead of time that Jesus will not be with us, so we should not be surprised that he's not here today in the 21st century, that he is in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. That should not surprise us one bit. Rather, it should cause us to believe all the more that everything he said is true. And furthermore, when he returns, we will see him and believe all the more, for on that day, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And he was able to have hope, even in the most difficult circumstances, because of the promise of her parents' return. How much more should we have hope that He is gone now, that He is no longer working. Rather, we can say that God can be found here. We cannot say that God has abandoned us. He has given us the Holy Spirit, and Jesus has promised His disciples that if they loved Him, He would give them the Holy Spirit, and one day He will return to them. made us to be with him. Sin separates us from god and god makes a way to come back to him forever through Jesus. That's what this whole Emmanuel sermon series has been about. God made a way for us to come back to him through Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Dear god, we thank you revealed Yourself to Adam and Eve in the garden, revealed Yourself to Israelites in the tabernacle, later in the temple, who revealed Yourself to all peoples in Jesus, who reveals Yourself to us today through the Holy Spirit and through Your Word. We pray, help us to see Christ all the more, to love Him all the more, so that our hearts and minds on him, and to weep here full of the hope