I Will Come To You

May 9, 2022

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you (John 14:18).

The word ‘orphan’ is orphanous, and means ‘destitute’. It is often spoken of children who have been left without parents, but can also speak of anyone (child or adult) that is left without resources - human or material. Today we see such people everywhere - the orphan as well as the homeless, and whole families (parents and children) who are homeless and destitute.

These disciples left everyone and everything to follow Jesus. Peter said to Jesus (Matthew 19:27), See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have? This was not hyperbole or an exaggeration on his part. But now that Jesus was leaving them, to whom should they turn? To what should they turn? It’s not like they were simply going to go back to their old ways, their old life when Jesus left. That was impossible. They were changed men. Christianity is not just a change of mind, it is a veritable change of the entire life.

In 14:1 Jesus said, Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. While the immediate text referred to their future in heaven with Him, the immediate application of the text referred to their future as Apostles of Jesus Christ until their future in heaven became a reality. Jesus would leave them only for a few days after His ascension. The Father would send the Holy Spirit to live in them and be for them what Jesus had been to them in the flesh. Jesus said, I will come to you in the Person of the Holy Spirit, allon - another One exactly like Jesus, who is nothing less than Jesus Christ in us.

The disciples, as all followers of Jesus, will not be sheep left without a Shepherd, children of God without a Father and an elder Brother, or unoccupied Temples of the Holy Spirit. Before we go to be with Him in His Father’s House, He will come to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. That was proven immediately after His resurrection, for after He was raised from the dead, He appeared to over 500 people before He was ascended into heaven. He is with us now in the Person of the Holy Spirit. He will appear in the clouds to take His church to glory in the rapture that is yet to come, and again at His 2nd coming when He establishes His Millennial Kingdom on earth after the coming Tribulation, and finally when He destroys the old, sin ridden universe and created a new universe where His holiness and righteousness will permeate all things (except hell) for all eternity. 

His promise to the disciples, and to us is simply put, (Matthew 28:19-20) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. 

Pastor

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