In this sermon, the speaker focuses on John chapter 14, where Jesus speaks to his disciples shortly before his crucifixion. The speaker emphasizes that despite knowing the suffering that awaits him, Jesus is more concerned with the needs of his disciples. He wants to assure them that his departure is not a loss but a gain. Jesus promises that he will come to them in a way that counteracts his physical departure, through the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Father. The speaker highlights the significance of Jesus' lordship and encourages the disciples to expect to do greater works in his absence.

Shall we turn together in the word of scripture to John chapter 14 and we have before us tonight the passage that was read by Mr. Lowe beginning with verse 15 and continuing to verse 31. I'm not going to read the passage again but you'll find it useful if you keep your New Testaments open so that we may refer to various verses as we go along. Now it is necessary I think to remember in order to get the ethos and the spirit of this passage, it is necessary to remember that within 24 hours our Lord will be nailed on the cross of Calvary. That is within 24 hours of his uttering these words. Such was his self-effacing, self-forgetting love that he can at that stage, knowing what was ahead of him, concentrate not upon his own miseries that were to come but rather upon the needs of his own disciples as he foresaw them. Never was there a picture of more totally self-forgetful grace. A grace that thinks entirely and exclusively of other people. Such is the grace of the Master. Such is the love of his heart at this particular point and of course as we as we see the the main focus of his teaching here is concerning the provision that he has made for them as he leaves them. As he goes to be with the Father via the cross and as he goes to take his place in the Father's house, he wants them to be assured that he has made ample provision for their every conceivable need and at the heart of that provision of course is the coming of the other paraclete. Now we've got to concentrate upon the main issues here tonight. We have no time to dwell with the more incidental matters that are involved in the text. Nothing is unimportant but there are some things which are of relative importance to the main thread of this passage. We are going to concentrate upon the main thread. First of all we come to the passage looking at the presuppositions underlying the teaching. There are certain presuppositions here. If we don't have them clearly in mind we shall fail to understand and appreciate the burden of our Lord's message. So we've got to come to this passage recognizing what has gone before and what is introduced in verse 15. Two things are presupposed at this stage and without these two presuppositions the recipients of the promises made by our Lord in this passage would still belong to the world. It could neither receive the Spirit nor be blessed by the Lord Jesus anymore because they have disbelieved in him. They've rejected him. Now the first presupposition is that of an ongoing faith in God the Father and in his Son. Jesus is presupposing that at this stage when he comes to talk about the Holy Spirit. He is presupposing that the people that he's addressing are a people who have an ongoing faith in himself as in God the Father. An ongoing faith that believes the promises that he has made. I'm only referring back I cannot dwell upon them now we have been meditating upon them previously. Look back to verses two and three to those delightful words of promise there. Promises that Jesus made to them. In my father's house are many mansions or many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am. Now Jesus is presupposing faith in those promises of his and again an ongoing faith that expects the fulfillment of certain possibilities on the basis of his promises. Look at verses 12 and 14. Mr. MacLeod was dealing with these last week but they're in the background now and we need to see them. I tell you the truth anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. And notice two aspects of the expectation that our Lord's promises were meant to kindle. Very briefly the expectation of doing works greater in magnitude than our Lord himself had done. Now this is breathtaking. He says calmly to those eleven disciples in front of him I'm going and you shall do greater works than I have done because I'm actually going to my father and because of the things that will transpire in virtue of my going to my father. Now I don't propose to deal with that now but the simple truth that I want us to get is this. Jesus had created an expectation. He was arousing their faith. He was provoking their confidence and he wanted them to expect not to be incapacitated because he was leaving them but rather he wanted them to anticipate doing things that they'd never seen the like of them before. And all because he was going away and he was going to the Father and the things that would ensue from that. Then something else notice the further expectation of being able to ask Jesus for certain things in prayer and of receiving them. You have it at the end there of the passage from which I read. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Ask me and I will do it he says. He has just assured them of this blessed possibility that was opening up to them. Going to the Father he's not going to be beyond the range of communication with them. Blessed truth. They've built everything around him and upon him. He's going away. He says yes I'm going away physically but I want you to know that I'm within your shot of your voice and I want you to know that wherever I'm going I'll be able to hear what you ask. More than that you ask anything in my name and I will do it. Now Jesus presupposes such an ongoing face when he comes to talk about the ministry of the paraclete. If you forget that you leave on one side the key to an understanding of the passage that we have before us. The second presupposition is that of an outgoing love for Jesus himself. Now we get right into the passage verse 15. If you love me you will keep my commandments. That's the NIV and it's probably the correct translation. Not if you love me keep my commandments. That's quite accurate theologically, biblically. But probably what Jesus said was in the indicative if you love me then you will keep my commandments. The guarantee that you will keep my commandments is that you love me. As sure as you love me you will keep my commandments. You see Jesus envisaged that faith would always produce love. Faith activated towards Jesus you see must ultimately bring forth love towards him for this reason. Whenever you repose faith in Jesus Christ he will never disappoint you. And because he will never disappoint you you will fall in love with him more and more. Now you can fall in love with a human being man or woman and sometimes you get some disappointments. Perhaps in most cases perhaps in all cases there is a measure of disappointment. So that love may grow a little colder and wane a little occasionally but never never never as far as Jesus Christ is concerned. You repose faith in Jesus Christ and he will so respond to your faith that he will provoke your love to blazing point. Faith always brings forth love in relation to Jesus. I want you to notice what somebody refers to as a very subtle link between verse 15 and what has gone before. It's worth seeing. It may be may appear an insignificant point but I think it's a very important one. Jesus has only just been saying that if his disciples ask him anything in his name he will do it. Now he says to them if you love me you will do anything that I command you. Have you got it? Jesus the master, Jesus the Savior, Jesus the Son of God says to them now look fellows he says anything you'll ask me in my name I'll do it for you. Now he turns around and he says to them if you love me you will do what I ask you to. And because of that love relationship he depends upon their faith maturing to an affection for him that will not find his commandments grievous. It's important to realize however that the love of which Jesus speaks is is more emotional than emotional. Now I'm not sure whether that's a correct word but at any rate you see what I mean. It's more practical than emotional. Of course we may experience something of the burning heart as John Wesley did and as others have done. But if our hearts burn such heat will generate obedience. See there's not much virtue in our simply being able to come together and experience a burning heart in the pew and then we go out and nothing happens. If the experience of the burning heart is genuine then it will propel us into action. It will make us obey the commands of our blessed Lord. And he says this is the way your love is to be exhibited and manifested. If you love me keep my command. An outgoing love for our Lord then will be expressed in obedience and obedience on two levels. Will you notice these two they are to be distinguished though they are related. First of all obedience that will keep his commandments to which we've referred hardly an hour has passed by since Jesus issued his new commandment in 1334 where he told his disciples love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another. That was his new commandment. Now in a sense it was not new at all. It was as old as the book of Leviticus from which it is culled. But in another sense it was entirely new because Jesus added something to it that made it absolutely new. He said you must love one another as I have loved you. Not according to the concept of love that was abroad in the Old Testament times however great however high that may have been. It had never arisen to the glory of the love that is exhibited in my experience and in my life and in my death for you. And you are to love one another as I have loved you. Now says Jesus if you love me you will keep my commandment. Then there are other commandments followed here in the first verse of chapter 14. He had said he bade them as we've seen already to keep on believing in God and believing in himself. And by implication at any rate he had he had commanded them he had urged them to ask him for certain things when he goes to the Father and prove the reality of his glorious reign and rule of the Father's right hand. Now he says if you love me keep my commands. But not only obedience that keeps our Lord's commands but also obedience that will obey his teaching. He said what's the difference? Well in the Greek there is a difference. Look at the first part of verse 23. The NIV reads if anyone loves me he will obey my teaching. You have it again at the in the beginning of verse 24. He who does not love me this is the negative. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. The truth is thus declared in both a negative and a positive manner. And the reference there is not to our Lord's commandments but to his far more general teaching. His logos his word. And the word is more than his commandments. Let's put it like this. I have heard people say when they want to wriggle out of responsibility for certain things. Well there's no no commandment in Scripture which says I ought to do this kind of thing. Have you ever reasoned like that? There's no command which says I shouldn't do this or I should do that. Now Jesus you see Jesus brings something in that that penetrates into the heart and beyond be beneath that mask that we wear sometimes. That hypocritical mask. We say there's no commandment therefore we don't need to do it. No no that's all right says Jesus but if you love me you'll not only keep my commandments that are clear but you'll do my you'll obey my teaching. You'll obey the general principles and implications of my teaching and you'll know exactly what I like and what I dislike and you'll know what to do if you love me if you love me. You see love is very is very keen on discovering what the beloved likes. When you love somebody you study that person and you soon get to know all the likes and the dislikes of that person and even when there is no positive command I like this or I dislike that I want you to do this or I don't want you to do that you'll know if you love if you love if you love. I'm sorry to take so long with that but you see the point if we come to this passage without recognizing the presuppositions we're not going to get the passage at all. We're not going to get its main burden and its message. Two then two presuppositions an ongoing faith in the Father and in the Son and an outgoing love towards the Son of God love. We love him as the Father loved him. Our love meets God the Father in Christ and that love of ours is to be expressed not simply in an emotional way. Let's not forget our emotions. Let's make our emotions part and parcel of the self that we surrender in worship and in service but our love is to be expressed in the obedience that he requires to his Commandments and in the obedience that he requires to his Logos, to his teaching generally. Now then that brings us to the heart of this passage. The promise is made for the undergirding of the obedient and the loving. First of all there are two promises here two things I will want to concentrate upon. One the promise of another counselor. Two the promise of a richer communion. First of all then we look at the promise of another counselor. Verses 15, 16 and the beginning of verse 17. If you love me you will keep what I command and I will ask the Father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever. The spirit of truth. That's the NIV. Now our Lord has just encouraged his disciples to ask him for whatever they might need. Now he assures them that he will then match their petitions to himself with his own request to the Father on their behalf. Moreover he assures them without any doubt whatsoever that the Father will grant his request as mediator and then when the Father grants his request as mediator he will send forth the Holy Spirit the other paraclete just as he's promising them now. Nothing can go wrong he says nothing can go wrong. Oh the faith of the Son of God in his Father. Would to God that we had something of that confidence in God that he had. Jesus seems to be saying that the answer to every need of the eleven men before him would be met in the coming into their lives and into their hearts of the other paraclete. The other counselor that he's going to send. Now most of us are familiar with the King James designation comforter and it's a very beautiful one but it really doesn't represent the main thought in the underlying Greek word. Not that the absence of comfort is missing in the Greek word it isn't it's there but it's rather it's rather incidental it's a byproduct. The term paracletos transliterated paraclete basically means someone who comes alongside other people and stands with them in their needs and and helps them and provides what is lacking whatever it is. It was a word that was very especially used in a court of law where the the counsel for the defense would come to the aid of the defendant and and not only plead the case generally but whatever accusation might arise in the case of the proceedings he would deal with everything you see. And the defendant could put everything into his hand and the advocate the advocate the counselor would would bear the brunt of the whole case. He would plead the case of the defendant. You have that the word translated in 1 John 2 one of our Lord Jesus Christ we have an advocate with a father. It's the same word exactly we have a paracletos with a father Jesus Christ the righteous. Believer when you sin it's true we should be sad. Sad enough to acknowledge our sin and to confess it to Almighty God but not so sad as to break our hearts and wallow in self-pity and never get up again and go on again. We need to remember that at that very point when we're a disappointment to ourselves as we are a disappointment to God we have an advocate with the father one who represents us a counselor in glory and he pleads our case with God but now notice we Christians have two counselors two paracletes one in the presence of God pleading for us there one right here come down to earth into the hearts of the redeemed people of God the blessed Holy Spirit to plead the case of God and provide the mercy of God and the grace of God for us right down here. Now I want you to notice two or three things as we pass two things that are said here about the paraclete about the Holy Spirit first of all I think we ought to notice the qualifying terms used in this in this passage the paraclete or counselor needs to be recognized also as the spirit of truth in verse 17 and as the Holy Spirit in verse 25. Now you say what really do these two designations add to the title paracletus paraclete or counselor well it relates the spirit very especially to truth and to holiness and we need to see that the Holy Spirit is at one and the same time the spirit of truth and the spirit of holiness he is concerned with truth Jesus said I am the truth the spirit is also the spirit of truth he brings the truth and makes it known and reveals it in Christ and through Christ he is the life that lies in the truth the truth of God the truth of the gospel is a living truth. Let me put it to you like this without dwelling any more upon it you remember Jesus speaking about the parable of the seed and the sower you remember the seed sowing the seed of the gospel and it brings forth fruit wherever there is terrain that receives it and is prepared for it that little seed brings forth fruit why because it's a lie God's Word is alive it is quick says the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews according to King James it is quick it's alive you never know what the Word of God is going to do when it falls into the soil of a human heart there is nothing that it cannot do and it does so because of the relationship between the truth and the spirit the spirit of truth is involved in the Word and he is the spirit of course that gives us an understanding of the truth gives us the illumination that we need in order to enter into the knowledge of the truth and the experience of the truth the spirit is integrally and intimately related to truth but now tempting as it is to dwell upon that I want you to notice the other side of the coin he's not only the spirit of truth concerned with accurate thinking but he is also and equally thus the Holy Spirit concerned with our quality of living not only thinking but living the Holy Spirit is concerned to bring forth holiness in our lives to separate our thoughts and our hearts and our living basically for God to set us aside for God and our hearts and our affection truth and holiness then are his special areas of concern of course the rest of Scripture casts much more light on the ministry of the Holy Spirit Jesus is here only giving a kind of briefest outline for his disciples in the little time at his disposal in reading this last week I came upon a very beautiful passage which seems to summarize what the New Testament has to say about the rest of the ministry of the Spirit can I read it to you I had such blessing in reading it myself I think I ought to share it with you need I dwell says the writer on the great thoughts that spring from the metaphor the paraclete how how we have to look for a person not merely a vague influence a divine person who will be by our side on condition of our faith love and obedience to be our strength in all weakness our peace in all trouble our wisdom in all darkness our guide in every perplexity our comforter our cherisher our righteousness when sin is strong our victor over our temptations and the companion and the sweetener of our solitude blessed word isn't it and the sweetener of our solitude the metaphors with which Scripture represent this great personal influence capital I for influence this personal influence are full of instruction and beauty says this writer he comes as the fire which melts which warms which cleanses which quickens he comes as the rushing mighty wind which bears health upon its wings and sometimes breathes softly as an infant's breath and another time sweeps with irresistible power he comes as the oil gently flowing lubricating making every joint supple nourishing he comes as the water of life refreshing vitalizing quickening all growth he comes fluttering as the dove of God the bird of peace that will brood upon our hearts the predicates which Scripture attaches to that great name are equally various and are full of teaching as to the manner in which he is the comforter the counselor the advocate of his people he is the spirit of holiness the spirit of truth the spirit of wisdom the spirit of power the spirit of love the spirit of a sound mind the spirit of sonship the spirit of supplication and of many great things beside and this sweet strong all-sufficient person is offered to each of us and waits to enter into our hearts to abide said Jesus to those eleven men looking into his face wistfully wondering what was going to happen to them I've made provision he says for the other counselor the spirit of truth the Holy Spirit the spirit of all grace to come and to take my place with you the qualifying titles just a word about his equality with Jesus as well as his continuity of the work that Jesus began I think both are involved in these two words another counselor you see up until that point Jesus himself had been his disciples paracletus his disciples counselor he had been their helper in their every need intellectual moral spiritual physical material he'd been everything to them and he'd been there at their side they were able to touch him and handle him and hear him speak with these physical years of theirs following upon the disciples plea to Jesus and Jesus requests to the father the father was going to send forth the Holy Spirit to become their paraclete on earth in the place of Jesus that is this other paraclete will be in a very real sense Jesus successor he will assume the same basic role as Jesus performed he will walk alongside the same disciples and he will be with them and do exactly what Jesus had done he's assuming the role of Jesus and he's continuing that role after Jesus now we need to see that Jesus God leaves no gaps in the lives of his people when he takes Jesus away he sends the Holy Spirit from his peculiar vantage point within the disciples not only alongside of them the Holy Spirit will be able to perform such ministrations for weak men and women that as we have seen Jesus could say to them greater works than I have done you shall do whatever precisely was meant by that but notice also the element of continuity which is matched by the assurance of of equality when Jesus says that he's going to send forth another counselor this other counselor of the Holy Spirit is not simply going to continue his work he's going to do that but he is going to be equal to Jesus equal with Jesus the very word for another a loss implies that it means that the Holy Spirit the spirit of truth will be another paracletus of the very same kind the very same nature as Jesus himself not inferior and that had he been inferior then it would have been quite impracticable impossible for Jesus to say to the disciples as he does in chapter 16 because I go to the father it is expedient for you it's a blessing for you it's for your prophet because the Holy Spirit whom the Lord Jesus is going to send forth having requested the father that the father would agree because the Holy Spirit is coming Jesus can say it is expedient for you it's for your benefit that I leave you how could he say that because the one he was going to send was equal to himself inferior in nothing indeed there are certain senses in which he is able to do what Jesus could not do now I can almost see some of your eyebrows moving how could he do something that Jesus could not do well for this reason our Lord Jesus was in one place at one time whilst he was in the body and whilst he was with the 11 disciples or the 12 as the case may be or three on the mountaintop he was not down at the bottom of the valley and the nine disciples down in the valley could flounder and be unable to do what they were asked to do to heal a poor boy who was demented because Jesus was not with them you see Jesus was in the body was in the flesh he was on the top of the mountain and he wasn't down at the bottom when he was up on the top but the Holy Spirit is not confined he can be with every one of his people he can be everywhere at one at the same time and this is the glory of it he has all the power of the Godhead at his disposal and he can be with each one of the redeemed at one at the same time and the fact that he's with you in his fullness does not mean that he's any the less with me in his fullness so there was an advantage to Jesus departure and moreover he says the Holy Spirit will not leave you anymore I have to leave you this was in the plan this was in the purpose of God I'm leaving you but but but he the spirit of truth is going to remain with you forever there will never be another farewell like this he says the spirit will be with you forever he will be equally with you in all circumstances now you add to this the concept of our Lord Jesus Christ being our paraclete in heaven whilst the Holy Spirit is our paraclete on earth and you see what a prophet it was you see what an advantage it was for the Lord Jesus to go away then the spirits ministry of teaching and of reminding we need to say just a word about that look at verses 25 and 26 all this as Jesus I have spoken while still with you but the counselor the Holy Spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you Jesus focuses attention upon a twofold ministry which was so very crucial to those first disciples because it did not only promise to capacitated them to live effectively but also to write infallibly now this we owe entirely to the ministry of the Holy Spirit apart from the Holy Spirit the feeble mind could not understand what Jesus had said and the feeble memory could not remember what Jesus had said anyway but Jesus says to the disciples the Holy Spirit will bring back my teaching to your remembrance and later on he says he will lead you into all truth he'll give you an understanding of the truth and he will bring back everything to your remembrance so that they could be teachers they could be preachers they could be evangelists in the fullest possible sense they could represent their Lord and when the time comes to write the story down by the Holy Spirit's reminding them and leading them into the truth they could do precisely that so that not only would the spirit minister to them the 11 of them but in and through the minister at the same time to successive generations of men and women right down to the 20th century for we have the written Word of God made possible because of the ministry of a paracletus the other counselor the promise of another paraclete just a word about this other matter a promise the promise of a richer communion now this is important you and I often yearn and long for a deeper communion with God I'm sure of that I wonder whether some of us are here tonight and this is our this is our basic yearning I should not be at all surprised now let's look at this albeit briefly let's look at it very clearly and let's pray that the Spirit of God would help us see the promise of a richer communion it would seem that the purpose of much that is contained in the passage before us is really our Lord's desire to persuade the disciples that his pending departure was not a loss but a gain now we've referred to that but let me stress it again at least three segments underscore this very important truth one Jesus says I'm going away but now listen he says I want to add something to that Jesus will come to them in a way that will counteract his physical departure look at verses 18 to 20 have you ever been puzzled by these words let me read them to you says Jesus I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you 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 and on that day you will realize that I am in my father and you were in me and I am in you now there's too much there to try to elucidate everything earlier in the chapter our Lord assured his hearts or disciples that he would eventually return to bring them into the Father's house to be with himself verses two and three now that was a reference as we saw when we were meditating on that passage an unquestionable reference to to his second coming to wind up the affairs of the universe to consummate the purposes of God and to bring his redeemed people home to be with himself but now look in verse 18 he says that he will come to his disciples long before that and the clear implication is that he himself he himself will be present with them by the Holy Spirit I will not leave you as orphans he says I will come to you now we rightly distinguish between the three persons of the Godhead father son and Holy Spirit and there is basis for that Jesus has been doing it in this context though we never fully understand the mystery of the Godhead at the Trinity Jesus distinguished between the father the son and the parent and we do the same because we believe that he knew what we don't and understood what we don't but what I'm getting at is this we rightly distinguish between the persons of the Godhead but there is one thing which we sometimes do that we shouldn't when we think of the one person of the Trinity we think almost of one third of the Trinity when we think of the Sun we think of the Sun as in isolation from the father and the spirit and we think that when we've got the Lord Jesus Christ well then the father and the spirit of someone else you see that's not the case there is this essential unity between the members of the Godhead that really whether one is the others are two and what Jesus is saying here is this the Holy Spirit is not such a separate entity from me that whilst he is with you I'm away from you not at all he says when the Spirit comes I'm coming to you I'll be with you and you will see me and you will realize that I am in the father and the father in me and I in you and you in me you will realize my union with the father and the father's with me and my union with you and yours with myself you will know certain things you never knew before because I'm with you and the Spirit is with you and later on we'll see the father is with you too oh men and women there are depths to these truths that you and I need to dig up for our profit you and I never have a third of the blessed Trinity to depend upon but the whole of the Godhead if the Spirit is in your heart Jesus is alive in your heart and the father is with you Jesus addresses his disciples therefore that his physical departure is not to be interpreted as his total withdrawal from this earthly scene far from it is I'm coming to you now such as the first ingredient in the richer communion the Holy Spirit the other paracletus equal to Jesus is coming but Jesus himself is coming to the second ingredient is the fact that they can now expect a richer revelation of Jesus then they've had hitherto now that takes us by surprise look at verse 21 whoever has my commands and obeys them he is the one who loves me he who loves me will be loved by my father and I too will love him and show myself to him now brothers and sisters don't miss that don't miss that I hope you're not too tired to take this in you need this I need this don't miss it that last bit I too will love him and show myself to him I lick pardon me I'll expose myself to him this is not a physical thing it's a spiritual thing I'll open up to him I'll open up my heart to him I'll open up my mind to him he will see me he will understand me he will recognize me he will appreciate me as he never appreciated me before he who loves me Jesus here repeats and underscores the two prerequisites which we considered earlier on you see his promise here is essentially the promise made by the divine lover to those who love him now please don't miss that if you love me and keep my commandments then this is the kind of thing will happen he who will love me will be loved by the father and I will love him and show myself to him love and keep his commandments and I will show myself to him now the disciples might very well have turned to Jesus and say well what are you going to tell us we've been living with you for three years surely we know everything about you oh they didn't know the half they didn't know the quarter they didn't know or know a fragment of what was to be known about him and he says I will make myself known to you I'll show myself to you how as a lover shows himself reveals himself opens his heart opens his mind opens his whole being and pours it all out not upon a student of theology but upon a lover see there's nothing there's nothing strange about this principle it's the most simple it's the most universal principle if you want to know something about a person then you must love that person for him or her to open his mind or his heart you come and ask me questions about my life and I may shut shop you know what that means don't you shut my mouth I'd be so inquisitive what are you interested in my life for but where there is our love relationship love opens up love talks love doesn't hide love is free hides nothing that's what our blessed Lord is saying there is a place in this life here upon earth when the paracletus come and I come to you look he says you will love me and obey my commandments then I will respond to you in love and I will open up and I'll show you things about myself you never knew before can I move on to this other the second ingredient in the promise before us is that of a fuller self-disclosure of himself by Jesus to those that love him he says I will show myself I'm sorry the other one I wanted to come to I was going back the third ingredient in the promised richer communion is given in terms of the eventual indwelling of the believer by both the father and the son verse 23 Jesus replied if anyone loves me he will obey my teaching my father will love him you see he's repeating this over and over again if anyone loves me will obey my teaching and obey my commandments this is so important my father will love him and notice now we will come to him the father and I and we'll make our home with him the prerequisites of obedience and love were again postulated but the reward is even greater than envisaged in verse 21 where Jesus says I'll reveal myself to you there is a deeper communion still he says then for me the Son of God the Eternal Son to open my heart and open my mind there's something bigger yet for you what is it what can be greater or this he says if you keep my commandments and love me my father will love you and I will love you and we will come to you we will come to you the father will come and the son will come along with apparently you see what will we do well we will come and we'll make our home in you the very word that is in the first verse of in my father's house are many mansions the word for mansions really the word for rooms or abiding places is used here of the human heart and Jesus says that I and the father will come and we will make our home with you in the person of the parent now notice here there are two loves to be distinguished in this context or in the context of John's Gospel maybe three but two particularly as far as I'm concerned tonight in John 316 we read that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life now God did not love anybody there because that person or those people loved God that love was unqualified it was sovereign it was free he didn't love me because I loved him because I did not love him when he first loved me God loved you and loved me in our sin in our miserable condition of lostness and rebellion we were loved God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us but now notice here we have a different kind of love if you love me and if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love and you'll abide in the father's love and it's repeated much later on again this is a different kind of love here but the Lord Jesus is saying God loved you without any condition unconditionally in the first place and brought you into his family now there is another kind of love I suppose we might well speak of it as a love that delights in the beloved see God couldn't delight in you or in me as a sinner in our sin he couldn't have any pleasure in us he looked mercifully upon us he looked upon us in order to save us and he did everything necessary in order to save us but he couldn't delight in us that would compromise his holiness and his righteousness but now you see we've got a different kind of thing altogether it's God's response to our love and to our faith when he sees us beginning to grow to respond to his love already received and his grace already manifested and his regenerating power as he sees us beginning to respond he loves us the more and he delights to see the fruit of the spirit in our lives and what does he do he loves us the more and so Jesus says we will come the father and I will come into your hearts and we will make our home there so that the whole of the Godhead comes into the temple heart of the believing child to live and to abide hallelujah you know the way I see it here my friends is something like this it seems as if the Godhead is determined to save those in whose hearts the work of grace begins God says I will not leave the blessed Holy Spirit alone to do the work Jesus says I will be your advocate before the father but I will also be with you and so will the father be with you in our omnipresence and omniscience and power and grace and adequacy for you we will come can I close with this I'm sorry there's so much here isn't her you know we've been talking about the Lordship Jesus Christ in our morning services can you see it reflected here don't miss it what man could ever say this to anybody else we will come and make our home in your heart only if he was insane would any man ever say that unless he is the second person of the blessed Godhead but here is Jesus of Nazareth going to his death tomorrow and knowing that he was going to die and he says look that's not the end of it fellows he says you'll see me again and you'll realize more than you've ever realized about me and you'll know me and I'll come and manifest myself to you and we we will come the father and I will come together you'll not be orphaned is your faith my friend in God in his son in his word in his gospel in his grace I wonder could there be someone here tonight who despite all that God has done and all that the spirit has caused to be written and all the promises that are held out for us in the gospel is a stranger to all these things I ask you tonight start trusting start trusting in order that you may start loving but you can never find him a disappointment and the moment you repose your face in him the floodgates will open and you'll prove that he's faithful and because he's faithful you'll want to love him and you will love him and as faith and love grow so do these two blessed areas open up for us especially this latter the paraclete has come but we shall know the spirit in all his greatness and his grace in our hearts doing for us everything we need done and enabling us to do everything that is required of us in the will of God and as we do so we shall experience so much of heaven upon earth we shall wonder what there is left in heaven but we never knew here for if God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost is dwelling in your heart upon earth heaven has really begun I'm sorry I'm gonna say one other thing a dear old saint in England many years ago John Venn was dying he came to stay with his son-in-law was a vicar in London he was dying of heart trouble but the man was so happy in his God and so aware of the joys of salvation and of the peace of salvation I've not referred to that it comes in this text he was so full of it and he used to rejoice so much in the Lord the doctor said that his joy in anticipating the life of the world to come kept him alive for an extra two weeks in this world in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit let us pray your Lord our God and Father we bow humbly before you we gratefully thank you for the ministrations of the paraclete and if our hearts remain cold and our minds dull and our years heavy it is not because he has been a failure forgive us our sins and our rebellion and our unbrokenness our waywardness spirit of God rule within our every heart and lead us into an ever-increasing knowledge of yourself and of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Father one God that here we may explore heavenly realities and know what heaven is like before we get there so bless us and should there be among us tonight an unbelieving heart to whom all these things are strange strange tales that are told meaning nothing please draw that one