Have you ever been ghosted? How else would you describe what it’s like for someone to seemingly disappear from your life? They don’t show up anymore. They don’t call. They don’t answer your calls. They don’t return texts. They’re just gone. How about this one? Have you ever texted someone, and then you see these?
Then it disappears, and you never get a text. What is your reply?! What were you going to say?! Being ghosted is always a bad sign for a relationship of any kind. But if you’ve experienced it, you know that it’s worse than that. It’s not just cowardly, socially defunct behavior by the other person. It doesn’t feel like it’s about the other person when it happens. It feels like it’s about us because it’s rejection. And that’s personal.
I don’t know about you. But for me, rejection always finds the weak spot in my armor. When I’m cut with the blade of rejection, I bleed insecurity.
Of course, we get it. There are necessary endings to some relationships. But some relationships are supposed to be permanent and unbreakable. I hope you’ve got people in your life who you can’t imagine walking away from, and you can’t imagine that they would walk away from you. I’m convinced those are the kinds of bonds we were made for.
That’s precisely the kind of bond that the first disciples of Jesus assumed they had. Today, some of what we will read was written by one of Jesus’ first disciples. I’m not sure that the word, disciple, fully captures his relationship Jesus. I don’t know if Jesus had a best friend. If he did, it was a John. They were tight.
I’m asking you to do your best to imagine John's reaction to hearing Jesus say, “I’m going to go, and I’m not bringing you all with me. This is the end of us hanging out together.”
JOHN 16:7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
With a firm resolve and soft heart, Jesus looked these guys in the eye and said, “It really is better for you that I go.” That has implications for us too. It’s better for us that Jesus is not physically here right now. Do you believe that, really? A goal that’s driving this series is getting to a place where we truly understand that and even rest in that.
This was his rationale. It’s not a downgrade. It’s an upgrade because we get the Holy Spirit. So, this is going to be a recurring theme in our series.
SERIES THESIS: The Holy Spirit in you is BETTER than Jesus with you.
Jesus had already begun to build his case for why this was better. John was there when Jesus started this conversation. He wrote about it. As we read, do your best to keep track of everything that is relational in nature.
JOHN 14:15-27 “If you love me, keep my commands.
Love for Jesus necessarily means that we happily place ourselves underneath his authority. This is what we are proclaiming every time we say, or every time we sing that Jesus is Lord.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever that means this is an unbreakable bond—the Spirit of truth.
Does anyone have a different word instead of advocate?
- Helper
- Comforter
- Counselor
All of these words are helpful and accurate. None of them are wrong. When we find that different translations use different words, that tips us off to the fact that no English word is able to capture everything about the original Greek word. And that shouldn’t surprise us. That’s a normal thing in translation.
Whenever we talk about God, it feels like trying to drain an ocean with an eyedropper. The words we use are helpful and accurate, but they’re just not able to contain all there is to say. So, let’s pause and summarize what Jesus is telling us about the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a PERSON who PERSONALLY cares about you.
Sometimes, church people call the Holy Spirit it. How would you feel if people talked about you as an it? That’s impersonal. That’s disrespectful. That assaults personal dignity. Let’s not do that. He is the third person of the Trinity. He is not it. And he is radically, supernaturally, intimately invested in every man, woman, boy, and girl who trusts in Jesus.
What does he do? What is it like to have the Holy Spirit of God with us, in us, personally involved and working in our lives? I tried to put together a list of modern terms that might help. This is my feeble attempt to grasp at clarity.
- Lawyer
- Personal Trainer
- Caddie
- Counselor
- Bodyguard
- Coach
- Teacher
- Confidant
- Friend
- Encourager
- Truth teller
- Tour Guide
- Cheerleader who is always chanting, “You are not alone, and you are not condemned.”
Let’s keep reading.
The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The Holy Spirit gives and grows peace in those who follow Jesus. He teaches and reminds us of what Jesus taught. One pastor described the Holy Spirit as a floodlight. That might sound weird until you realize the Holy Spirit loves making a big deal out of Jesus, putting all the attention on Jesus. He wants us to...
- Know Jesus.
- Be captivated by Jesus.
- Be with Jesus.
- Be like Jesus.
- Understand everything Jesus said.
- Do as Jesus did and believe it or not, do greater than Jesus did.
If Jesus were all we had, our relationship with God would be INCOMPLETE and IMPERSONAL.
My favorite comedian is Nate Bargatze. I saw him when he came to town. Notice I said I saw him. I didn’t meet him. He was personally in the Civic Center. I was personally in the Civic Center. And yet, whatever the best way is to describe a relationship between a performer and a fan, it doesn’t rise above impersonal. He doesn’t know me. If Jesus was here physically, many people could see and admire him, but almost no one could really know him. Having the Holy Spirit in us is better than having Jesus physically with us.
Because of the Holy Spirit, we can truly be with and know Jesus, not just admire him from a distance. This is when we need to talk about the Trinity.
God is one in being and three in person. God is all three persons. And the three persons are God. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. God is diversity and unity all at once and for all eternity.
God is 1 in being and 3 in personhood. Complex and challenging do not equal contradiction. Being is what you are. Person is who you are. You are a living being, and you have personhood. By personhood, we mean having a consciousness and a will. Because being and personhood are not synonyms, it doesn’t have to equal 1 and 1.
A tree is 1 living being but no personhood. My dog is 1 being and 1 in personhood. Each of us is 1 in being and 1 in personhood.
We are now at the limits of my intelligence. Didn’t take long, did it? I will never be the guy who can satisfy the rest of your good questions about how God is one in being and three in persons.
I can tell you this: the three persons of the godhead delight in each other, defer to each other, and cooperate with each other. Theologians have referred to this as the dance. One of the brightest minds in human history was an African man named Augustine. He said that this is the only way that God can be love.
You see the Trinity if you see love. –Augustine
Love isn’t just something that God does. It’s not a habit that he started after creating stuff. It’s at the very essence of who he is because the persons of God have been loving each other and enjoying each other for all eternity.
If you’re starting to check out mentally, or if this feels like the stuff for theology nerds, let my favorite thinker of all time grab you by the collar and pull you into the urgency of it.
What does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us...[Joy, power, peace, eternal life] are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. –C.S. Lewis
I hope we can see this.
Ultimate REALITY is ultimately about RELATIONSHIPS.
God is the ultimate reality. Everything he’s made and all he’s done is driving us to this [RELATIONSHIP]. God intends to draw us into his three-person life. He intends to draw us into unity with him and with each other.
We’re more than a group of people who just happen to prefer gathering at this place and this time. We’re more than a group of people who’ve found a sufficient number of things to agree upon. A local church is an eclectic collection of very diverse people who, by faith, are in Jesus. And according to Jesus, we are his body. The bonds of love that we express and enjoy are the public litmus test for the trustworthiness of the gospel.
This is why unity is so profoundly essential for followers of Jesus. We are his body. And in the same way that the persons of the Trinity love and defer to one another, we love and defer to one another. The truth is that we can’t live up to this high calling without the Spirit of God in us, making it happen.
Not only does God draw us into unity with him and with each other, but he also sends us out as ambassadors, wooing, inviting, and pleading with people to know and trust Jesus so that they can be included, too.
This relationally oriented life continually moves us in three directions at once. The first is upward, with love toward God. The second is inward, with love toward each other. The third is outward, with love toward all others—even toward those we perceive as being very different, even toward those who may mistreat us as enemies.
I feel like I’ve always known that. Maybe you do too. I think we say that kind of stuff a lot. I don’t know if it ever becomes white noise. I’m in a season of my own life and discipleship where I’m starting to understand just how easy it is to settle for a safer, domesticated version of the Christian life. I want the wild and free, full version that Jesus gives, and the Holy Spirit empowers.
After Jesus rose from the dead, but just before he ascended to heaven, he told his followers to spread the good news of salvation to everyone. No one can miss out. No one should be left out. This is our job. He promised to be with them, and through the Holy Spirit, he was.
We call it Pentecost. All the followers of Jesus were in one place. And the Holy Spirit came crashing in. That moment was described like rushing wind. They saw what looked like tongues, made of fire, floating over everyone’s heads. They all went out and started preaching. Men and women were preaching the gospel on the streets of Jerusalem. Because it was an international city, the Holy Spirit caused all the people to hear the message of the gospel in their own languages. I love how pastor J.D. Greear captures the significance of that moment.
The first time the Holy Spirit preached the gospel, he did so in all languages at once, because God intended the movement of the gospel to express itself in the richness of cultural diversity. –J.D. Greear
Thousands of people gave their allegiance to Jesus that day. Day after day, thousands more followed Jesus. You would think that they had all the inspiration they needed to obey Jesus and take this message beyond the city and out to everyone. Do you know what they did? They all stayed there. None of them took Jesus seriously enough to actually go anywhere.
That changed after a guy named Stephen was publicly executed by religious power brokers for preaching the gospel. Lots of Christians started to scatter then. To their credit, they kept preaching the gospel everywhere they went. It wasn’t pastors doing the preaching. It was everybody.
If you still have your Bible out, flip over to the next book, Acts chapter 8.
ACTS 8:4-8 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.
I think this is more evidence that Jesus meant what he said. Go everywhere. I won’t leave you alone. The Holy Spirit is in you and will work through you. If you know anything about Jews and Samaritans—they did not get along. If I were there that day, if I were Philip, I’d probably think that this was the pinnacle of God bringing diverse groups of people together. But he was about to discover just how deep and intense God’s love is for everyone.
ACTS 8:26-39 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.
Philip was taken from the center of the action because the heart of God was centered on a man who was on the outside, looking in. This guy had urgent questions without anyone to help with the answers. God was not going to tolerate that.
Do you know what it’s like be noticed when you didn’t expect to be noticed? It’s powerful, isn’t it? I remember a time when I was in 5th grade, and it was our second time visiting a church. When I walked in, there was another kid who called me by my name and was happy to see me. I’m 46 years old, and I still remember how that felt.
Do you know that God sees you? Not just people, not just a crowd, he sees you. I had a professor in college who used to say, “God’s love often has human fingerprints on it.” If you are a follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God wants to move you toward someone he wants to love. He wants to use you as proof that that person is seen and loved.
Do you think there is any significance in the fact that this man is not named but repeatedly stated to be a eunuch? What’s going on there? The odds are that he was selected to be a eunuch as a child so that he could be groomed for a life of service for the crown. As strange as it may seem to us, it was very common that a requirement was to become a eunuch. He’s some things we know about that.
- They didn’t go bald, but they didn’t grow body hair either.
- They didn’t develop muscle as other men would.
- They often had thinner bones and likely developed osteoporosis.
- It was common for them to develop breast tissue.
He was a man with a body that very likely resembled something much more feminine. That must have been very confusing growing up. For all that he had gained in working for royalty, the wealth and proximity to power, much had been taken from him. My guess is that this guy knew what it felt like to be an outsider and not to be truly seen.
We’re told he went to Jerusalem to worship. Because of his status as an eunuch, he was not allowed in the temple. So here he is alone, with his questions. God was not going to tolerate that for one second longer.
GETTING THE GOSPEL TO HIM MEANT:
- People of different ethnicities were brought together.
- People with different socio-economic statuses were brought together.
- People from different power dynamics were brought together.
- People with different religious experiences were brought together.
- People with different gender experiences were brought together.
If you’re wondering if I have a read-between-the-lines message, I don’t. I only have one thing I’m trying to communicate, and I want to do so as explicitly as possible. God’s love is so radical that it closes the distance and crashes down the barriers that keep us from him. And when the Holy Spirit is in you, he will take you on a ride that closes the distance and crashes down the barriers between us and the individuals he wants to love and wants us to love too.
Have you ever heard of the overview effect?
It’s the term used to describe a phenomenon with astronauts who see the planet from space.
Researchers have characterized the effect as "a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus". The most prominent common aspects of personally experiencing the Earth from space are appreciation and perception of beauty, unexpected and even overwhelming emotion, and an increased sense of connection to other people and the Earth as a whole. The effect can cause changes in the observer's self concept and value system, and can be transformative.
I think that’s a helpful analogy for what the Holy Spirit does in followers of Jesus. He gives us a new perspective and a new heart. Instead of seeing all the things that normally lead people to judge, segregate, despise, distance, and divide—the Holy Spirit of God causes us to see others the same way he does. He is moving us toward each other, and he is moving us toward all others, with the good news of the gospel and with the same kind of love by which Jesus loved us.
Let’s end here.
The Holy Spirit is either moving you TOWARD someone or moving someone TOWARD you.
The person you might identify most with today is the guy who had questions and no answers. Is it possible that the Holy Spirit of God has been bringing people into your life, maybe even people who are with you right now, to prove to you that he sees you and loves you. If you’re starting to understand exactly who Jesus is and what he has done for you, will you repent and believe in him?
If you are a follower of Jesus, are you ready to join the Holy Spirit moving toward others? I’m praying that we will be a church of people who will close the distance and crash the barriers that stand in the way of people hearing the gospel and being loved by us.
People in our community need it. There are people where you work that need it. People in this room need it. Kids who come to our Kids Ministry need it. Are we ready to go?