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.