The Promise

The night before the cross, Jesus told His disciples He was leaving, and promised He would not leave them as orphans. Continuing the Names of God series and opening a few weeks on the Holy Spirit, Pastor Jay asks what it actually takes to live the way Jesus asks: forgiving people who hurt us, loving people who are hard to love, staying faithful when it costs something, telling the truth when a lie would be easier. None of us can do it in our own strength, and God knew that. Jesus never intended to hand us the assignment without giving us the Help, and the Help has a name: the Holy Spirit, the Promise of the Father.

Pastor Jay sets the scene in John 14. Supper is over, Judas has gone into the night, and Peter has just heard he will deny Jesus. Men who gave up careers, family time, and future plans now hear that Jesus is going where they cannot follow. Yet the Spirit was promised long before that room. In Ezekiel 36 God promises not a better rule book but Himself, putting His Spirit within us and causing us to walk, and in Joel 2:28 He promises to pour out His Spirit on all flesh. Paul calls Him the Holy Spirit of promise, the guarantee or down payment of our inheritance. The Hebrew word ruach means wind, breath, and spirit; like the wind moving the trees outside his office window, you can’t see Him, but you can see what He does. He is not a force or good energy. He speaks, He can be grieved, He prays for us, and He is fully God.

Why would it be better for Jesus to leave? In the flesh, Jesus could be in one place at a time; by the Spirit He is with every believer, not just beside us but in us. But the outpouring hinged on His going. The cross had to come first: cleansing before the Spirit moves in, the Lamb before the Baptizer, blood before oil. The resurrection had to happen, because the cross paid the debt and the resurrection is the receipt. And the ascension had to happen; Jesus sat down because the work is finished. Then the Father gave the Spirit and the Son poured Him out. The Spirit in us is proof Jesus reached His destination, and the guarantee that we will too.

Returning to John 14:15–18, Pastor Jay shows that Jesus doesn’t hand over His commandments and walk away. He prays the Father, who gives another Helper of the same kind, One called alongside who abides forever. You don’t give Jesus a try; you give Him your life. Pastor Jay closes by inviting everyone simply to ask the Father for a fresh filling of His Spirit, and prays for those who have felt alone.