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Book: John
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John 14:18
I. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
A. The word translated comfortless comes from a different root
word than comforter, which is paracleatus, comfortless comes
from the Greek word orphanos from which we get our word orphan.
1. I will not leave you as orphans, or destitute. I will
come to you.
2. We know that for a period of 40 days after His
resurrection Jesus was appearing to His disciples
in many different ways.
a. He would appear when the doors were shut and
locked.
b. He would often appear when they least expected
it.
c. You remember how doubting Thomas said that he
would not believe unless he could put his
finger in the wound in His hand. The next time
Jesus appeared to all of the disciples He told
Thomas to put his finger in His hand, feel His
side to prove that it was He.
d. Where was Jesus when Thomas was expressing His
doubts?
e. Where do you think Jesus is when you may be
expressing your doubts?
3. Jesus was seeking to acquaint them with the realization
that He was there even when they did not see Him.
4. Where is Jesus now?
a. Where two or three are gathered together in
His name He is there in the midst of them to
bless.
b. What we need to live in the consciousness of
His presence.
c. If Jesus were visibly present with us this
evening and you said as did the leprous man,
"Lord if You willed You could make me clean."
Do you believe that He could heal you of
whatever malady that you might have?
5. The great problem is that we as Thomas want to see and
to touch physically.
a. Remember the words to Thomas when he finally
got to see the Lord, "Blessed are those who see
and believe, but more blessed are those who
believe without seeing."
II. "Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you see
Me."
A. They were to see Him physically.
1. He said to them when they thought they were perhaps
seeing a ghost. "Touch me for a ghost does not have
flesh and bones as you see Me have."
2. Again He ate the broiled fish and the honey to prove
that He was not a ghost.
B. They were to see Him spiritually.
1. When being stoned Stephen said, "I see the heavens
opened, and the Son of Man is standing at the right
hand of God.
2. In Hebrews it says, "But we see Jesus crowned with
glory and honor.
3. Paul said that he had seen the risen Christ as one
born out of due season.
C. However the world was not to see Him again.
1. This is what prompted the next question that came
from Judas, not Iscariot. "Lord how is it that You
will manifest yourself unto us and not unto the world?"
a. Again this was very foreign to their concept
of the Messiah that was to reign over the whole
world.
b. They thought that He would manifest Himself and
set up His kingdom it their time.
2. There will come the time when the world will see Him.
a. "Then shall they see the sign of the Son of Man
coming with clouds and great glory."
b. Behold He cometh, and every eye shall see Him.
3. There is a sense in which the world still doesn't see
Him. You wonder how people can be so blind to the
truth. We can see Him so clearly as He is revealed to
us through the scriptures. It makes such sense.
4. When the disciples returned to Jesus rejoicing that
even the devils were subject to the name of Jesus,
Jesus prayed and said, "Father I thank you that you
have hid these things from the wise and prudent and
have revealed them unto babes, for so it seem good to
you." Turning to His disciples He said, "Blessed are
the eyes that see the things that you see."
5. To you tonight to whom the Father has revealed His Son,
"Blessed are the eyes that see the things that you
see."
III. "Because I live, you too shall live."
A. He has been talking to them of His death, and His going to the
Father, yet now He speaks of His living.
1. Because I live. He had said that no man takes His life
from Him but that He was laying down His life, He
declared that He had the power to lay it down and to
take it up again.
2. His resurrection from the dead is the proof and
assurance that we too shall have eternal life.
a. He had said to Martha, "I am the resurrection
and the life, He that liveth and believeth in
My shall never die."
b. In John 5:34 He said, "He who hears My words
and believes on Him that sent Me has
everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but has passed from death into
life."
c. Peter said, "Thanks be to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has begotten us unto
a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, of an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the
the power of God."
3. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the heart of
the gospel.
a. Peter on the day of pentecost in the first
preaching of the gospel to the world said 7
things about Jesus Christ of which the central
point was that God raised Him from the dead.
b. Paul declared that the gospel that He preached
was that Jesus died for our sins according to
the scriptures, and that He rose from the dead
on the third day, according to the scriptures.
C. Without the resurrection, you have no gospel.
1. Because of the resurrection we have the hope of eternal
life. "Because He lives, we too shall live."
2. Do you have that living hope tonight?
D. Have you seen the risen Lord through the eyes of faith?
1. Are you aware of His presence with us here tonight?
2. Why not reach out and touch Him now and be healed from
what ever malady that you may have. Be set free from
what ever that may be holding you.
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