Sermon preview, week of June 3, 2025
Our Advocate
"If only I had been there, and seen Jesus and saw what he did myself, then it would be easy to trust him." Maybe you've had a thought like this before. The Gospels may surprise us.
This Sunday’s order
- Sunday
- Reading
- John 14:8-17
- Preaching
- Jonathan Balmer
The readingJohn 14:8-17
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth." - from John 14:8-17; 25-27
Read John 14:8-17
8Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” 9Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own. Instead, it is the Father dwelling in Me, performing His works. 11Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe on account of the works themselves. 12Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it. 15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.
Berean Standard Bible, public domain
This is a sermon preview for the first week of our series on the Holy Spirit as Our Advocate, preached on and After Pentecost 2025.
Visit FBCM’s YouTube channel to view video live stream (live) or audio version of sermon (published week after).
"If only I had been there, and saw Jesus in the flesh myself, then it would be easy to trust him."
Maybe you've had a thought like this before. If so, the Gospels may surprise you on reading how those who knew Jesus received him. Those who saw him, lived with him, followed him in the flesh often seemed bewildered. They struggle with trust and faith as much as any of us living two-thousand years later.
At the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus gives his famous "farewell discourse." His disciples do not understand what is happening, where Jesus is going, or why. But make no mistake, Jesus is not abandoning him.
Just as they see the Father by seeing Jesus, so they are being given another Advocate: the Spirit of Truth. Or, as Paul refers to Spirit, "the Spirit of the Son" (Gal. 4:6). That means that Jesus is still with his disciples, and not just the disciples Jesus is speaking to in this passage of the Gospel. The Spirit of truth is given to followers today, as well as the disciples then.
One biblical scholar put it this way: "What Jesus is to the faith of the true Christian believer, He was in the flesh." - Edwyn Hoskyns
The Jesus we believe in, the Jesus we follow, the Jesus we, as Christians, trust and obey is the same Jesus who walked, ate, spent time with, taught, and died for the sins of his disciples who walked on earth with him.
The Spirit of Christ is active. Jesus is not only an example, but he is present to us. Pentecost celebrates the coming of the Spirit and the birth of the church. We will join in worship this Sunday, and every Sunday in June, with a special focus on our active Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends to be Christ's spiritual presence with us, and our truthful Advocate.
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:25-27
