Getting Our Priorities Straight
Today, Tomorrow, Forever
Keith McFarren
May 10, 2026
John 14:15-21
    One of the thing I
want to do when I’m up
here every week is to not only share God’s word with you but I also want to
teach you something at the same time.  I
want you to learn something that you can take home with you and apply to the
way you live your life throughout the week.

    We started the
Christian year out in the fall of last year by going through the AdventSeason
which is all about the coming of Christ.
Then we went through Epiphany in which Jesus manifest himself or made
himself available to the entire world and then we went into the Lenten season
in which Jesus went into Jerusalem and then was eventually crucified and then
resurrected.  
    What I have been
trying to get you to see or to understand during these last few months is that
none of these events happened just by chance. Everything that happened has been
planned out since the very beginning of time.
That’s why we go back and forth between the Old Testament and the New
Testament so that you can see that everything that was prophesied in the Old
Testament, no matter how far back we go, has come true and has taken place in
the New Testament.  
    From the very
beginning, everything that God and his prophets said would happen really did
happen.  That is what I hope you get out
of what we’ve been talking about.  God’s
promises are true.  
    He is who he says
he is and everything happens just as he says it will happen…and because he is
who he says he is and since everything that he promises really does happen, we
should have confidence in him and know that we can place 100% of our trust in
him.  No matter what is going on in the
world around us or no matter what is going on in your life…you can trust in God.
    The coming of the
Holy Spirit is once again based upon the word of the Lord and because he loves
all of us equally there are no conditions attached.  He didn’t say that he would send the Spirit
to some people and not to others.  He
didn’t say that only certain socioeconomic groups can have the Holy Spirit –
not only the rich or not only the poor – not only white people or not only
black or Hispanic people.  He simply
said, “I will ask the Father and he will give you (all of you) another
counselor” (John 14:16).  
    I don’t know if
you’ve noticed or not but if you look in your bible you will find that
everything we are talking about takes place during the Last Supper.  It’s part of what historians call Jesus’
Final Discourse. It’s the time that Jesus not only shares his farewell meal
with his disciples but also gives them his final words on what’s coming and
what to expect in the future when he is no longer with us.  
   Jesus’ farewell
discourse is meant to be a time of instruction for each of us.  It’s like Jesus is the professor and he’s
attempting to prepare his students for their up and coming final exam and he
wants to make sure they have everything they need to pass the final test.  It’s these same words that we have lived by
for the last 2,000 plus years.
    Through these
teachings we’ve learned how to be disciples and how to continue to grow during
our faith journey.  We’ve learned how to
be the church, not only as individuals but how to be a community of faith.  And we’ve learned how to see all the worlds
people and we’ve learned how God wants us to treat them and we’ve learned that
it is our responsibility to invite all of them into a deeper relationship with
God.
    But there is
something else going on as Jesus shares his heart and his future with those who
have been following him.  He is offering
them a legacy; he is offering them a continuation of himself that will continue
on into the future, a continuation that is to be passed on in and through his
disciples.  
    He is, in a sense,
putting all of his theological eggs in one basket during this world changing,
kingdom building effort, by allowing all of his missional hopes to reside in
these somewhat inept men that have been following him.
    Today is the day
that Jesus plants the seed.  On that day
Jesus will be with them…but yet again, he won’t.  On that day, they will see him, but the world
won’t.  “On that day, you will know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”  
    On that day, they
are to be the story.  They are to live
the story.  They are the ones who will
know that the story is more than just a dream. They are the ones who will know
the story because “on that day” the story and the hope will abide in them.  
    That is the gift
that Jesus offers them in this instructional moment.  He offers them the gift of the promise of
presence…his presence, the Spirits presence…a presence for today, a presence
for tomorrow, a presence forever.
    There is a lot we
don’t know and will never fully understand about the Spirit of God.  But if we listen to what Jesus tells us here,
there is a lot we do know and a lot that we can believe in.
    We know that Jesus
won’t leave us to struggle with the Christian life that we, as his disciples,
want to follow.  We know that he will
leave us a Helper, a Comforter, an Advocate…a Spirit that will always be with
us to help us during times of trouble or in times of need…a Spirit that will
always be there to guide us to do the right thing, to guide us to do what God
wants us to do and at the same time the Spirit will be there to enable us to do
it.
    We know that
access to this Spirit that he’s talking about is a function of faith…meaning
that it involves a one on one relationship with Jesus.  “The world,” Jesus tells us, “cannot receive
the Spirit.”  And that’s because the
world doesn’t know the Spirit or doesn’t recognize the Spirit.  Not because they aren’t worthy of the Spirit,
but because they don’t have the one on one relationship with Jesus that is a
requirement to experiencing the presence of the Spirit.
    To know and to be
known by the Spirit requires more than just saying that we know God.  To know and be known by the Spirit takes
something much deeper and much more personal.
It requires an act of self will…it requires an act of self-giving…it
requires an act of offering our lives to Jesus.
And by offering our lives to Jesus,
we will find that the link to God that used to come to us through our
relationship with Jesus, now comes to us through our relationship with the Holy
Spirit.
    In verse 26, Jesus
tells us that the function of the Spirit is to remind us of the past and teach
us about the future.  This Spirit, this
Advocate, or Comforter, or Councilor or Helper is the continual presence in our
lives that keeps us connected to who we are and who we strive to be.  It continually reminds us of what God has
already taught us.  
    It’s the Spirit
that comes and whispers in our ear that we are much better than we sometimes
act or sometimes think.  It is the Spirit
that comes to us in the darkest of times and reminds us that we are not
alone.  It is the Spirit that comes to us
and reminds us that we are unconditionally loved…especially during those times
of our lives when we feel very unloved.
    But it’s not just what we already know that
is recalled in our souls by the prompting of the Spirit.  The Spirit also has a desire to push us
further on our faith walk than we’ve ever gone before.  It’s that same Spirit that will push us to
climb higher in our understanding of God’s kingdom than we’ve ever climbed
before.  It’s the Spirit that will teach
us, time and time again calling us to experience new levels of accomplishment
and understanding things that we’ve never understood before.  
    Can we still love
Jesus when he has gone?  Sure we
can!  We can still love Jesus, even after
he is gone, not just by clinging to a bunch of cherished memories of the past.  But we can also continue to love Jesus by
doing his works here on earth and by keeping his commandments and by keeping
our hearts and minds open to the presence of his Spirit.
    We can continue to
love Jesus be letting the Spirit chart the continuation of his life through our
own lives.  Jesus lived out God’s love by
keeping God’s commandments, by making God known to the world, by offering God’s
promise of salvation to the world, by loving unconditionally, even to the
extent of laying down his life.
    Jesus’
relationship with God was not some type of private, mystical relationship, a
relationship in which their love for each other benefitted only themselves and
did nothing for God’s creation.
    On the contrary,
the love of God and Jesus was a public type of love, a love first revealed at
Jesus’ birth and repeatedly revealed through Jesus’ words and ministry…all done
for the sake of you and me, so that we too might come to believe and share that
same love with the rest of the world.
    Our relationship
with God and Jesus, a relationship that is present today, tomorrow and forever
was made possible following Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension into
heaven.  It’s a relationship not made
available to just certain individuals but made available to the entire faith
community…it’s an ongoing relationship that is continually strengthened by the
never ending presence of the Spirit of God to those who choose to believe.
    Open your hearts
and open your minds.  Wait and watch…all
in expectation of his arrival into your life.