Sermon, Sunday June 9, 2019, John 14:1-27, Pentecost Sunday

This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday and the date which we often call the 'Birthday' of the Church.  I chose to preach over the traditional verses found in Acts on Thursday night and so I utilized the verses found in John's Gospel on Sunday morning.

Often times we can wonder why the Spirit isn't more active in our lives; in the sermon, I use a garden hose as an illustration for the activity of the Spirit in our lives.  Very nearly all of us have had the experience of turning on a hose to do some watering or to wash our vehicle.  You have a spray handle on the hose so you turn it on at the spigot and drag the hose to where you're working.  As it often seems we're working on the opposite side of the house, shed, or barn we traipse around the corner get to where we're going... and squeeze the spray handle... nothing... there's no water (or perhaps a trickle) flowing.  So we follow the hose back and find a kink, we straighten it out and go back to our spray handle... still nothing.  We go back and forth undoing kinks until finally, the water flows.  

The activity of the Spirit in our lives can often seem like that garden hose.  You see the Spirit is there within you, (just like the water being there in the hose) it's just that those sins you're holding onto are blocking the flow of the Spirit in your life.  We simply must go back and forth straightening out those kinks in order to maximize the 'flow' of the Spirit.  Of course, the reality is that we'll never get all of the kinks... it seems as soon as we find one... another develops... kind of like when you move that hose around and suddenly you find more kinks.  Though often it's just the same kink manifesting itself again... like those sins that come back to haunt us over and over again.

Let us try today and every day to undo these blockages, to free ourselves from that which prevents us from doing the work of the Spirit.  One of the major blocks may well be our fear, ego, and laziness that we allow to prevent us from hearing and listening to the urgings of the Spirit.  There is none so blind as those that will not see, nor any so deaf as those that won't hear.

Be a blessing to someone today!  (listen to the Spirit)

In Christ,
Roy

John 14:1-27 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Jesus the Way to the Father
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe[a] in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going.”[c] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know[d] my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me[e] for anything, I will do it.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep[f] my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[g] to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in[h] you.

18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus 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. 24 Whoever 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. 26 But the Advocate,[i] 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. 27 Peace 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.

Footnotes:
a) John 14:1 Or You believe
b) John 14:2 Or If it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you
c) John 14:4 Other ancient authorities read Where I am going you know, and the way you know
d) John 14:7 Other ancient authorities read If you had known me, you would have known
e) John 14:14 Other ancient authorities lack me
f) John 14:15 Other ancient authorities read me, keep
g) John 14:16 Or Helper
h) John 14:17 Or among
i) John 14:26 Or Helper


John 15:1-16:11 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Jesus the True Vine
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. 2 He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes[a] to make it bear more fruit. 3 You have already been cleansed[b]by the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become[c] my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants[d] any longer, because the servant[e] does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world,[f] the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants[g] are not greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 It was to fulfill the word that is written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26 “When the Advocate[h] comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. 27 You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.
16 “I have said these things to you to keep you from stumbling. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God. 3 And they will do this because they have not known the Father or me. 4 But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you about them.

The Work of the Spirit
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. 7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate[i] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about[j] sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.