Speaker 1: If y'all would turn in your bibles, our message tonight is from John 16:4 through 11 and Luke 24 44 through 53. We're gonna read John 16 first. I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you. But now I'm going to Him who sent me and none of you asked me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Nonetheless, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.
Speaker 2: Then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the 3rd day, rise from the dead. And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You're witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with the power from on high.
Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God. The word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks: Thanks be to God. Pray with me. Our Lord Jesus, we pray that you would become real to us. That you would be so much more than a belief, but You would be the reality to us in which all of our life revolves around. Jesus, speak to us tonight.
The words that we have just heard, may they go forth with the power of your spirit, and press deep into our hearts. May there be an urgency to us as listeners. May may we not let these words just go by, May our minds not just daydream. Spirit of God sees our hearts, sees our minds for this moment in which you will speak to us. We believe that.
I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, and no one here would remember what I say, but they would remember what you say, that your words would remain, and that they would change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. It had to be a amazing 40 days. 41 days ago, when we get to this point in Luke, 41 days ago, the disciples, they were they were all scattered.
They were all frightened. Their master had just been crucified. They they had at one point actually believed him to be the messiah, but messiahs don't get killed. I mean just 41 days earlier, the disciples thought they were completely defeated. They thought that they were wrong about this man.
They thought that the world was right. That was 41 days ago, but 40 days ago, Jesus rose from the dead. And now for the last 40 days, Jesus has been walking with them, talking with them, eating with them. He's he's been breathing. He's alive.
They're in their midst. And so, for the last month, he's been teaching them all about the kingdom of God. He's training them for their mission. And and they could tell that this mission, it's the time for it is rapidly coming, and they're getting excited about this mission. And so they think they're ready, and that, you know, when Jesus resurrected by their side, they were invincible.
And then, right before Jesus ascends, and you find this in the retelling of the story in Acts 1, right before Jesus ascends, the disciples asked, Lord, are you at this time gonna establish your kingdom? At this time. That's what they wanted. That's what they were ready to do, whatever it took to bring that about. But then, to their astonishment, Jesus leaves.
I I believe the disciples did not expect this. They didn't expect the resurrection. I don't think they expected the ascension because you don't ask somebody the question. Hey. Are you right now gonna establish your kingdom here right now?
And he says, no. Actually, I'm leaving. They they didn't expect that. He left. He he left right in front of their eyes.
He he ascended into heaven, and Jesus left them there all alone. When you first we've gotten so used to this, but when you first read this story, you think this isn't how it's supposed to happen. I mean, if I was writing this story, that's not how I would write it. Now that Jesus, you know, he's resurrected, he's got this great new body, he can, he can walk through walls, he could just appear and disappear whenever he want, now is the time you go to Pilate. You tell him about all the mistakes he just made.
You you go to the religious leaders, and you say you were wrong. You go to the temple, and you say, here I am. Now it's when you you go to all of your enemies, you rub it in their faces, and you bring victory. Jesus decided not to follow my plan. He just left.
It's interesting, because one of the last words to his disciples in John 15, and this is the night before Jesus dies. In John 15, He says, hey, guys, without Me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing. You will fail. You are hopeless without me.
Bye. I'm leaving. I'm gone. I I can remember still remember my first real deep conversation with Caroline, who's now 7. She was 2 at the time, and so it surprised me the level of depth that was there.
We're in the car, and it's just the 2 of us, and we're driving to the McWane Center. And she just asked me, hey, daddy, where's your daddy? That's that's a good question. Caroline, well, my daddy got really sick when I was in college, and, Jesus decided that he wanted to bring my daddy to his house to heal him. So so he he took him to heaven to heal his body.
And by the way, when you have a 2 year old, you you also in your theology, you know, when you have to make it simple, you start, you know, realizing what you believe. You know, I I couldn't throw any technical words out there. It's like, I got to explain this so a 2 year old can understand this. And and Caroline listens to that for a while, and she goes, well, is he coming back? It's like, well, that's that's that's another really big question.
You know, at at at someday, yes, he's gonna get a body, new body, and he's gonna come back, and and but right now, heaven is far away, and so no, he's not gonna be coming back. And, then Caroline just got really quiet, and she goes, that's sad. That's so sad. And she kept saying that over and over and over. That's just so sad.
That's just so sad. And then she said, when when's his birthday? I go, I don't know. She goes, well, we gotta stop right now and pray that Jesus tells us when his birthday is. And so we did.
And then she just kept going back on. It's so sad because even a child knows what we know that having somebody present with us is much much better than having them away from us. I had told Caroline, hey, when we go home, we're going to go through the scrapbooks. I'm going to tell you all about my dad, and stuff like that. And she was excited, but then she just said, it's so sad.
Because there's no substitute for somebody's presence. No matter how much information I could give her, no matter how much I could paint the picture of who my dad was, she felt that absence. We feel this absence. The disciples felt this absence. Why did Jesus leave?
John 16, which we read earlier, verse 7, he says this, but I tell you the truth, it is for your good that I go away. It is for your good that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. Now I think if many of us in here were honest, we would say that we have a hard time believing this verse.
I I don't know about you, but often, I have thought, man, it would be great if Jesus was physically present with me right now. I would take that if you could be physically present. I can remember, I took a lot of religion classes at the University of Georgia, and I had professors who loved to try to tear the Bible to shreds, professors who, you know, reduced Jesus to nothing more than a somewhat oddball teacher. And I would try to defend my faith. Try to defend Jesus as best I could, but I get torn to shreds.
It would be great if Jesus could raise his hand. If he was in the class, and he'd say, no. Actually, I did do that miracle. No. No.
Actually, I did teach that. If he was physically present, how is it good that he leaves? When you're talking with one of your lost friends, you know, and you say the phrase, how would you like to know Jesus as your Lord and savior? Wouldn't it be great to say, like, hey, Tom, meet Jesus. You know, Jesus, here's Tom.
Y'all y'all get acquainted. He's physically present, instead of, you would like to meet him? Well, I'm just gonna have to kinda tell you all about him, and then this his invisible spirit is gonna come down on you and but wouldn't it be great if you could just introduce people? Jesus is a prayer partner, not an accountability partner, because that would be horrible. Every single week, you know, nope.
Perfect again. You know? The the times in my life that I I have hurt, and maybe you felt this too, wouldn't wouldn't you love to have Jesus actually physically embrace you? An image that, I'll always have is almost 10 years ago now in 9/11, our president, George Bush, at the time, he went there to comfort the people. And I don't know if you remember the images of that, but his physical presence there was a huge comfort.
Now, if he had just called it in, if he had just sent in a letter and had it read by somebody, no comfort. But but him actually being there, standing on the rubble, offering comforting words was a comfort to the people. So I just think of all the impact that Jesus could have. And so when I come to John chapter 16, and I hear Jesus' words for it's your good that I leave you, sometimes I have a hard time believing it. But he says it, it's true, and and this should press in on you the absolute importance
Connor Coskery: of what he is about to say.
Joel Brooks: Because you can think of all the good if he's right next to you, but if he says it's actually good that I leave, then the the reason why he's leaving if it's for our good, has got to blow us out of the water. It's got to be amazing. And he tells us in verse 8 or in verse 7 that he goes away to send the advocate, the counselor, the helper. Some of your translations might just say, paraclete. Paraclete.
It it's a hard word to interpret, Paraclete, and that's why some of your bibles might just say paraclete, because they're it's it's it's hard to really get the nuance meaning. It's a it's a combination of 2 words there. Para, which means to come alongside, and kaleo, which means to to exhort or to call someone to truth. And so the paraclete or this helper, this counselor, this advocate, this paraclete is going to come alongside you and is going to exhort you or to call you to truth. It's really a combination of of what I would call a soft word and a hard word.
The soft word is to come alongside, and that's, that's a very comforting word. You know, if you're hurting, you want somebody to just come along side you and just say, there, there, there. Everything's gonna be okay. Just be with you. But then you get kind of this harder word or harsher word, which is to speak truth or to call the person a truth.
Now now we normally don't like it when somebody points out very difficult truths in our lives. And the combination of these two things is why a lot of your translations have the words counselor, because that's what a counselor does. You go to counseling, and yes, they, you know, they're your friend. Oh, talk to me. You know, I want to be there for you.
And then they're going to speak hard truth into your life. And they're gonna try to work that truth in there, in order to change you. If they were all just everything's gonna be okay, they're a horrible counselor. And so the paraclete comes alongside, and he speaks truth, calls you to truth. That is who the Holy Spirit is.
This is what the disciples need. This is what we need. Because despite everything the disciples have heard over the last 3 years with Jesus, face to face, 3 years of teaching with Jesus, they still consistently did not understand. All the time, maybe you've made the same mistake I have, but a lot of modern Christians have that, man, if only I was there. If only I was there to see Jesus do that.
If only I was there to hear Jesus do that, then man, my life would really be different. And that is a completely false statement. Because the disciples saw Jesus raise people from the dead. The disciples saw Jesus stand up in the midst of a hurricane and said, shut up, and the hurricane did, they they saw Jesus walk on water. They saw Jesus, you know, take a little kid's lunch and feed over 15,000 people.
They got teaching from Jesus face to face. They had that for over 3 years, and yet they still did not understand who he was. And we would be no different. The truth of Jesus never really penetrated them, and it wouldn't have penetrated us. And that's why Jesus says, it is for our good that he leaves so he can send this counselor to come along side us and to call us into truth.
To get us to believe truth. Look at John 16 verse 14. This is what the Holy Spirit will do. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. If you've been a part of this church over the last couple years, you've heard me define glory a number of times.
I love it. The word glory simply means heavy. It's a great seventies term. It's just, you know, this is heavy. This is real.
This has substance. This is thick. You know, all those things, that's what glory is. So so let's read this verse again in that light. Once again, verse 14.
He will make me solid. He will bring weight to me. He will make my presence thick. He will give me substance. For he will take what is mine, and declare it to you.
So the purpose of the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, is when he comes, he will make Jesus real to you. He will glorify Jesus. He will he will have weight in your life. And all you have to do is to look at Pentecost to see this happen. What what really happened at Pentecost?
When when you look at it, you know, we'll just we'll look at the life of Peter. What really happened? What was the difference between Peter before the Holy Spirit came, verse after he rushed out of that room. What what what happened to make him so fearless? What happens for him, you know, before he's lying to a little servant girl, now he's going up to these people who are saying, you killed him.
I mean, there's a boldness there. What happened? Did he read a new book? You know, did did he gain some kind of new knowledge? You know, podcasted a new sermon and everything just kinda came together, it's like, ah, you know, now it all makes sense.
Peter didn't gain any new knowledge, but when the spirit of God came down and filled him, Jesus became real to him. In a way that he was not real to him before. Jesus had substance. And I think more than anything else in your life right now, you need the Holy Spirit to come and to make Jesus real to you. We've been going through the book of Luke now.
What part are we? Like part 56, part something. We've been going through the book of Luke for over a year now. This is the last one on the book of Luke. I would hope as a pastor, of course, you've, you know, you've listened to my sermons like 3 times every week, but you've probably, I hope through Luke, got a good picture of who Jesus is.
Yeah. But this is good picture of of who he is. But the question I have for you, is that Jesus real to you? Does he have substance to you? I'm not asking if you believe.
You know, Peter didn't believe anything, knew about Jesus when the Holy Spirit filled his life. Wasn't anything new, just that Jesus became real. I want you right now to think of all the things that you you do believe in your faith. I I would say that probably most of you believe Jesus is the Son of God. He died, He rose again for your forgiveness.
He's coming back again. He's gonna give you a resurrected body. You'll live all eternity with him. Probably most of you in this room believe that. Yet I would say that all of your problems and struggles in your Christian walk are due to the fact that what you believe is not real to you.
I'm not questioning your beliefs, but they're not solid. They don't have substance to them. For instance, if you believe in the future resurrection, yet you live a life like we looked at last week. You live a life that's full of regrets, of all the things that you you you wanted to do physically in your life. You know, you wanted to live in this place.
You wanted to have this job, and you live your life with regrets. What that means is you don't well, you might believe in the resurrection, but the reality hasn't hit you that you're really gonna have a real body for all eternity, and you're gonna live on and on. That that's not real to you. Or if you're scared of dying, even though you believe in the resurrection, it's because the resurrection isn't real to you. You believe, let's say that Jesus looks at you, and and He saw you as so valuable.
You're so valuable in His eyes that He died so that He might have you. He went through hell that He might have you. You believe that, yet you try to find your worth and your job, and how much money you have, how many friends you have, how good of a parent you are, how good your kids are, that's where you find your value. That's because the sacrifice of Jesus isn't real to you. You believe it, but it's not something you center your life around.
You you believe that joy flows from the presence of God. Jesus says, you know, joy, it flows from his presence. Yet is that real to you? Is the way that you have pursued joy this week any different than somebody who does not know Jesus? Any.
The amount of television you've watched, the amount of movies that you've saw, all the different ways you've tried to entertain yourself to death, bring pleasure into your life, is it any different than somebody who knows Jesus? I'm not questioning what you believe. But is it real to you that joy flows from his presence? All of your problems and struggles is because you don't really believe the things you say you believe. They don't have this solidity to them.
And I would suggest that you begin making more appointments with your counselor. You begin spending more time with him, so that He can start speaking truth into your life and making Jesus real to you. I realize I'm laboring this point. I realize I am laboring this point, and I believe I have to because most of us don't see this as our problem. When you struggle with something, maybe depression, maybe anxiety, typically the first thing we do is we go to Barnes and Noble's, or we go someplace, and we get a book.
We we we always tend to think that the solution to my problems is more knowledge. If I just somehow got more knowledge, then these problems would go away. And and I'm not belittling books. You you need to read. You need to be gaining knowledge.
But I bet if the knowledge you had just became real to you, these problems would go away. I've given out a book attributes of God. I've probably given out a 150 copies of that book over the years by AW Pink. I give them out. And, you know, some people, they can read it, and it's like, wow.
This book is incredible. You know, opens up their eyes to the sovereignty of God, and to to his sovereign grace, and to all these things. Another person can read it and be like, you know, absolutely nothing. Yawn. They got the same knowledge, But for one reader, the Holy Spirit made Jesus real to them in a way.
The other person, he didn't. I think the book of Acts is proof of this, and, if I could throw this out there, we're we're gonna begin our study of Acts sometime next year. I'm gonna I'm gonna go through most of Genesis after this, and then we're gonna hit Acts. But Acts has proved this. You see what happens when the Spirit of God fills his disciples.
Jesus becomes glorious to them, and they turn the world upside down. That's why Jesus says, it is for your good that I go away. The Spirit of God working in our lives can change the world. A verse we're all familiar with, Ephesians 3 20, says that God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or think according to the power at work in us, according to His Holy Spirit at work in us. I can imagine I can think of a lot.
I can think of my family members all being saved. I can think of Birmingham, 1,000 and 1,000 coming to know the Lord. I can think and imagine a lot. And and here, God says that he could do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine or think according to his power at work in us. That through the Holy Spirit coming and making Jesus real in my life, more than I can ask or imagine can happen.
Now I've been a pastor in Birmingham for about 12 years now. And I've had the privilege of seeing many people come to know the Lord. Their lives changed, and and, and the spirit filling their lives, and, just the joy that comes with that. I I've had the privilege of seeing that, but more often than not, I see people settle. I guess that's a good word.
Settle, and they they live in this kind of form of Christian mediocrity, in which Christianity is nothing really more than a hobby to them. They're content with just being saved and nothing else. And Jesus never really becomes glorious to them. They believe in Jesus, but there's not that weightiness. And if I can quote Charles Spurgeon, Jesus did not put a fountain inside of you in order to take just a sip, and that you should not be content with just the sip of salvation when it comes to his spirit at work in your life.
If he wanted you just to take a sip, he would have said, and he put in us a cup. Or to have said that he drips his spirit out, but he pours His spirit out to us. Jesus longs to fill us with His spirit, with his presence because he wants to be glorious to us. You know, we're looking at this as a staff this week, and and one of the people that really stood out, when we're going through a lot of scripture was Stephen in in Acts chapter 6 and 7. The the apostles, when they were trying to find somebody who can be a deacon, One of the things they said they they wanted to look for, they said, we need to find somebody who is full of the spirit and wisdom, full of the spirit.
Now that means that in the church, they could look out, and there would be Christians, but there was a some distinguishing mark, something different between somebody who was full of the spirit and somebody who wasn't. They could look and tell somebody's full of Stephen, full of the spirit. He's full of wisdom. You see all of these fruits in his life. It's obvious when you look at Stephen.
Jesus is real to him. He doesn't just believe in Jesus, Jesus is real to him. What what do people see when they look at you? Is Jesus real to them? And you can see it so clearly in Stephen's life and in his death.
I love it when he when he is being stoned and says he looks up, and he sees the ascended Christ at the end of Luke. Jesus ascends. He goes, and he sits at the right hand of god the father. And Stephen, he looks up as he is being stoned, and what to him at that moment is real? What has weight?
What has substance? You would think a rock. You would think rocks hitting you have weight. Rocks hitting you have glory. Stephen doesn't even notice them.
The man is being stoned to death, and he looks up and he says, that's real. Jesus is real. My whole life and my whole death revolve around Him. And remember when Jesus ascended, the reason he says, I'm gonna go be with the father. Father, I long for the disciples to see me in my glory.
My realness. And here you have Stephen looking up and seeing the ascended Jesus in his realness. Transforming. What's real in your life? What are the influences that drive you?
Some of you need to make some appointments with your counselor. I encourage you to do that. Not not don't don't say, like, everybody says, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I'll do these things. Today, today, today.
In prayer, humbly bow down before God and say, you know what? I believe these things, but when I look at my life, there's not a reality to them. Spirit, fill me, impress in me the reality and glory of Jesus.
Connor Coskery: Pray with me.
Joel Brooks: Our father, I'm aware that glory is just a word that's thrown around in Christian circles. It's it's become a word that we could just kind of casually sing. We could kind of just jump over when we read our bibles. It's it's a word itself that has lost its weight. But Jesus, right now, we affirm that you are glorious.
And the only way that we will feel that is is is through your word, your Holy Spirit, making that alive and penetrating it deep into our hearts. And that if the counselor comes alongside us, and calls us into living truth. So Spirit of God, now fall on us. I plead with you to fall on us, and to make Jesus glorious. For our sake and for the world's sake.
May you do that. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus, and for His glory. Amen.