Text: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever - the Spirit…..” John 14.16,17
The sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein
was once visited in his studio by George Bernard Shaw, the playwright. George
Bernard Shaw noticed a huge block of stone standing in one corner and asked
what it was for.
"I don't know yet. I'm
still making plans." said Jacob Epstein.
George Bernard Shaw seemed
astonished
"You mean you plan your
work. Why, I change what I’m working
on
several times a day!"
"That's
all very well with a four-ounce manuscript," replied the sculptor,
"but not with a four-ton block."
Jacob Epstein – and the
patient, mindful, careful planning, of what artistic shape would be revealed
through that monumental block of stone…….. the great
things of life, require careful planning…………….
and
though we are speaking of an entirely different realm,
on an
entirely different scale, a scale that spans the whole earth and its history…
yet we
can speak, with deep reverence of God’s plan and purpose for the human race….. through His Son Jesus
It was, you might remember from
last week, immediately after washing the feet of the disciples in those deeply
intense moments in the Upper Room, that Jesus tells
the disciples that He is leaving. There is, at that point, no sign of danger,
and nothing seems to have failed.
Yet, Jesus, we are told, says
to the disciples ‘I will be with you
only a little longer, and where I am going you cannot come….. and as silence falls
in the room, a few moments later…. Jesus
says: Where I am going, says Jesus, you cannot follow now, but you will follow
later…..
What He says to the disciples
is said in simple words,
yet in
an entirely different realm,
on an
entirely different scale, a scale that spans the whole earth and its history…
these
words have to do with God’s plan and purpose for the human race….. through His Son Jesus
But for the moment, what Jesus
says to the disciples, there in the Upper Room, is mysterious, and much is
hidden: He speaks of a departure, His departure. He is leaving.
Like the disciples, who ask
some very simple questions here,
let us
ask some
very
simple questions ourselves…………. to help us understand…..
If Jesus is leaving – where has
He come from ? and why ?
and
where is He going ? and how ?
But just as with the disciples’
simple questions,
these
questions have to do with
the
very purposes of God,
and
the whole plan of the gospel
Where has Jesus come from ?
Well, again and again, in gospel
of John Jesus declares this:
that
He has come from the Father. This is made quite clear in the opening chapters
of John’s gospel. Jesus has come from the Father’s presence,
and
entered human life………..
Why has He come
? Well, All along there is a
reason, a purpose, why the Father has sent
Jesus into the World. Why did the Father send Jesus, His Son into
the world ? it was to open up
a way for us into the Father’s presence
The declaration of the whole
New Testament…. you see, is that we cannot simply enter into the presence of
the Holy God, come
into the Father’s Holy presence, because
we are sinful men and women………. and the
relationship between ourselves and the living God has been broken, but Jesus came to open up a way for us into
the Father’s presence !
How did He do that ?
Well, first, He has come into
the world, as a
human being like you and me, lived our human life. The living God did not stay
far off, unapproachable, silent. He has sent Jesus
into this world of ours, as a human being.
Jesus has come into the world,
and taken up this same human life, this human body, and mind and soul with all
its sin. And He has restored human life.
to
what God intended it to be..
Life lived in the light of the
Father’s love………. life lived in loving trust in the Father
by
living it Himself
Then, He has taken away the sin
that kept us out of God’s presence, our sin.
The Lord, declares Isaiah 53,
laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
It is true, we cannot undo what
is done, we cannot go back and rub out the past,
But in God’s sight, we are
forgiven because of what Jesus Christ has done for us perfectly, completely and
finally at the cross.
At the cross He has taken our sin
upon Himself and taken it away……..
there
is, says Paul, no condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ………
That’s the basics………
what
now ? Do we simply listen to the basics every week ?
Do we simply look on from afar…
at all that Jesus has done ?
like
astronomers might look at the far off stars ?
The Northumberland Astronomical
Society was on the news during the week.
Not a large society, and have
just installed a research grade 14 inch. Meade LX200 telescope,
and they meet at Hauxley Nature Reserve. Why there ?
Well, because of the night sky, there is no interference from the street lights
of towns, or even villages there,
so in
the true darkness there, they can see the vast panoply of the night sky,
and
wonder at the beauty, of the stars and the planets and the galaxies beyond them
in the night sky.
is what
Jesus has done for us far off ? beyond us ? like the stars ?
Well, no, the plan, the loving
purpose of God includes bringing all that Jesus has done right home to us, no
more than this, right within our own lives….. through
the Holy Spirit
and
this is exactly why Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Holy
Spirit in John 14………..
Jesus says I will ask the
Father, and He will give you the Spirit.
The Spirit !
Jesus says: the world cannot accept Him
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him !
And the Spirit, says Jesus,
will be in you……..
so
that all that Jesus has done comes right home to us, plays out right within our
own lives….. because, the Spirit will be in us, is in
us…………..
What does this mean……….?
Is this too much for us to
grasp, or to understand ?
Simeon, one of the great
thinkers of the Church once said……….
Think of a man standing at
night inside his house, with all the doors closed; and then suppose that he
opens a window just at the moment when there is a sudden flash of lightning.
Unable to bear its brightness, at once he protects himself by closing his eyes
and drawing back from the window.
So it is with the soul ……overwhelmed by the
brightness, of the promise of the Holy Spirit that is within….
is
this all too much to grasp ?
well,
it cannot be, for the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is promised by Jesus,
who
never fails, who is true to His promise,
so
though these are great, and holy and high things,
we can
still say some simple truths about the Spirit………
to put
it simply,
when
the Spirit works in us…….. our faith deepens and
broadens
or to
put it another way as our faith deepens and broadens,
we
know the Spirit is at work in us……..
for
the Spirit’s work within us, as the New Testament declares
is to
lead us to know the Son and the Father……. to open up to us, incomparable
treasures of faith……………..of understanding
and let
us be clear about the power of the Holy Spirit…..
We read in John’s gospel, that the
hour is nearing, when the Son of Man will be crucified. But how awesome to read, to grasp, to understand that
He goes to meet this, His death on the Cross, in the power of the Spirit, triumphantly…….
And we read in chapter 21, that
as He returns to the Father His gift to us
is that same Spirit – who works within us, moves within us, bringing us into the the fellowship of the
Father and the Son, equipping us, upholding us.
What resources does the Church
have in its life, in its struggles, in its sorrows in its journey through the world ?
Why, the greatest of all
resources
the
Church has the Spirit, from the Father, through Jesus,
the
gift of the Spirit !
At the cross, the world, the world,
unbelieving, proves that it lives in darkness and death, reveals its godlessness
by crucifying Jesus - and the Spirit is unknown to the unbelieving world,
but is
the gift of Jesus Christ to the Church and to the believer.
Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit,
His own Spirit, to be with us forever…
and in
the life which Jesus gives us in the Spirit, there is victory over all that is
against us, all our difficulties, sorrows, challenges,
victory,
as Jesus says, over the world.
AMEN.