Where's God?

 

Text: John 14:23-29

Focus: The Holy Spirit

Function: to help people see the comfort we have by the continued presence of Christ through the Holy Spirit

²³Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. ²⁴Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

²⁵“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. ²⁶But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. ²⁸You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. ²⁹And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe.

Titling a sermon: “Where’s God?” seems either a little bit presumptuous, because God cannot be defined by humans or put in a box for our convenience. Or the title is a little silly since we believe that God is everywhere and there is no where we can go to escape from God’s sight according to Psalm 137.

I like to think of the answer to the question, “Where is God?” in more existential terms. It is not so much as the physical location of God since God is everywhere, but it is the presence of God in human suffering.

When my mom died last week, it was a beautiful death. We were together singing hymns and praying, just as she would have wanted. One of the things that I have found most rewarding is to be at the death side of someone and to see and sense the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit as God brings the loved one home. I have found that God always brings comfort in the time of grief.

But I also like to picture Jesus in the midst of human suffering all across the world. I picture Christ in the city of Marioupol with the refugees who are sheltering from war. I picture Jesus in a shack holed up somewhere on our Southern border waiting for the same chance to survive that we have.

So, let us go back to the text. The passage starts with “Jesus answered him…” The question that Jesus was answering was how He would reveal Himself to the apostles and believers but not to the rest of the world.

Jesus plan, as He told the apostles was to go away so that He could come back to them in the form of the Holy Spirit. And the purpose of that is so that the life and work and ministry of Jesus Christ could expand to the entire world through the millions and billions who would follow Jesus.

So, to answer the question, “How will the world see Jesus?” we look to this passage.

People are looking for God in many ways through their life. The question, “where is God?” is relevant and Jesus wants us to understand how the presence of God is going to work in the Kingdom of God.

He says this to answer the question “How will they see me?” He says, they will see me because my disciples will obey me. Literally He says, “They will keep my word.”

And John explains this passage a little bit better in his letters. In 1 John 5:2-3, we read: ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,

For Loving God is doing this: obeying His commandments.

And then he makes a promise to us. Obeying His commandments is not hard, or it isn’t a burden.

I do most of my bible reading in the Old Testament since it makes up the most the scriptures. It is the scripture that Jesus referred to and still has its authority since it points us to Jesus Himself.

One of the things I have learned studying the OT is that the commandments were very burdensome. The Jewish people were not able to keep the commandments to love others in their own power.

If we decide to obey Jesus, Jesus promises to send His Holy Spirit into us so that we are better equipped to love and forgive others as Jesus Christ commands us to do.

Brother Paul tells us at the end of 2 Corinthians to test ourselves to see if we are in the faith.

What test is there? Jesus said it clearly, you will know my disciples by the way that they love one another.

The test is how do we love others?

In this passage, Jesus Himself is telling us how to know what is going on inside of our own hearts. Do we love Jesus? Then we will keep His commandments. And again, they aren’t hard.

But they were too hard for the ancient Jewish people.

What changed?

The letter of the law that kills us through disobedience was done away with through the sacrifice of Christ.

But more than that, the presence of Christ now dwells inside of the believer and the presence of Christ fills our hearts with the love for others that Christ has called us to live out in this world.

So, back to the text.

After the promise of the power of the Holy Spirit to help the believer, we realize what that means in the world as we live out our faith.

It does answer the question “Where’s God?” from another perspective. God is right here, in our hearts.

And that really is the point of the passage. The apostle asks Jesus how Jesus will appear in the world and Jesus tells him that He will appear inside of the hearts of His followers.

The idea that wherever we go we bring God with us is not out of context with scripture. In talking about purity, Paul says that we are now filled with the Spirit of Christ and we shouldn’t bring the Spirit of Christ into a prostitute. I believe that is because the sex industry exploits women and Jesus would never exploit another. That is my belief on the subject.

But in the passage, Paul is reminding us about the very real sense and presence of the Holy Spirit of God inside of us when we walk in this world.

When I interact with the homeless on the streets, I am reminded that Jesus is with me ministering to them, and that very possibly, I am ministering to Christ as I minister to the homeless.

And finally, in our text, Jesus leaves us with His peace.

My peace I give you. And I love the promise that says, Not as the world gives. I believe it means that He is giving it without condition, without us having to earn it, and without the possibility of losing it.

My sense of peace is an indication of my faithfulness to the command to love others.

When my spirit is not at rest as ask myself if I am obeying Jesus by loving others. Almost always, there is an issue of pride and unforgiveness which gets in the way of the peace of the Holy Spirit in my life. The Spirit of Christ will lead us to love others and forgive them.

This is walking by faith in what Christ has done for us. And when we practice loving others without condition, like Jesus loves us, we will be walking blessings of God’s Spirit pouring out of us.