Tonight is the final in the series on Jesus and the Spirit in John's Gospel. John 14-17 (the "farewell discourse") has a very important contribution to make to the theology of John. We focus on John 14:15-31, where Jesus speaks of 'another counsellor'. That is a clue to the role of the Spirit - his ministry is shaped by Jesus'. With the prospect of Jesus leaving he assures the disciples that they will not be alone, rather in the Spirit he and the Father will be present in the disciples. I like the parallel of 14:2 "in the Father's house there are many 'dwellings' (Gk. mone) and 14:23 "we will make a home" (same word) "with them": A great reminder that our life is lived in intimate fellowship with God through the Spirit. I didn't say much about the doctrine of the Trinity in the sermon - but this section shows how important the doctrine is.
My focus was on the quality of life we live now. We already share in "eternal life" - which is life with God.This is a similar point to last weeks one of living in the temple, but I think we don't grasp the idea very well
One idea from this section which is fascinating is that Jesus says it is good that he is going to the Father (14:28f, c.f. 16:7). I think we often view the ministry of the Spirit as an "interim" arrangement till Jesus' return, but in fact the Spirit's coming brings us into the New Age which will be consummated on Jesus return.
This was a good topic to think about on a night when we had the Lord's Supper, because the Lord's Supper is not remembering an absent Lord but fellowshipping with the Lord who is present by his Spirit. Follow the link to read Calvin's take on the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper: www.the-highway.com/supper1_Calvin.html.
Sunday, 4 November 2007
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