What Is Better than JESUS?

4/20/2022

Written By: Stephen Cox

What an awesome Easter celebration this past weekend! We are roughly 2,000 years removed from that first Resurrection Sunday. Those first followers experienced the physical, resurrected Jesus. They saw Him, flesh and blood. He was ALIVE, after experiencing the most brutal form of torture invented by mankind. They hugged Him, ate with Him, felt the nail scarred hands and feet, saw His spear-lanced side.

Can you imagine?

Following that first Resurrection Sunday, those who saw Jesus were emboldened by His presence. They were confident and empowered in what he told them. He told them He would die, and He did. He told them He would be buried, and He was. He told them He would be alive again! And He is! And now…He stands in front of them! My mind reels as I yearn to grasp what that was like.

So let’s do just that. Will you try something for just a moment? Put yourself in that room. With the disciples. The Resurrected Jesus. How do you feel? What do you want to ask? Who else do you want to tell? Is your heart beating faster? Are you more confident? Are you more courageous? Do you feel like there’s anything you can’t do?

When you meet the resurrected Jesus…EVERYTHING changes! But we haven’t MET the Resurrected Jesus. So what now?

Josh and the rest of the teaching team have said it numerous times from the stage - the disciples weren't changed by something they heard, but by something they saw. You’ve heard it in small group and Bible studies. You’ve probably read it in Scripture for yourself. But all of the information in the world can’t change you. And unless you have had a miraculous vision, you haven’t SEEN the resurrected Jesus. So what are we to do?

Fortunately Jesus, through the lens of the pages of Scripture, tells us EXACTLY what to do. On the night Jesus would be betrayed and arrested, He said this to His closest followers:

15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you…26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. 28 Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am…7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.”

-John 14:15-18; 26-28; 16:7.

Jesus tells the disciples, and us, that it is not only BETTER…it is BEST that He is not physically here with us because He is sending His Holy Spirit. While Jesus could only be in one place at one time, the Holy Spirit dwells in every baptized believer in all places. And that Holy Spirit guides us, and teaches us, will never leave us, and leads us into all truth.

This will sound like a preposterous statement: We have it better than the disciples did! They had Jesus, yes. In person. Resurrected. Walking. Talking. Healing. But we have something Jesus said is BEST for us.

He says in the second half of John 14:28 “If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am.”

He was telling the disciples, and us, that when He went away…it was going to be OK. And better than OK…

Years after Jesus returned to the Father, the Apostle John writes to Jesus followers and reminds them of this: “Greater is He (the Holy Spirit) who is in you then he (anything or anyone contrary to God’s will) who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4.

So today…allow the Holy Spirit, given by God because of the finishing work of Jesus, to embolden you. Empower you. To give you confidence and courage. For greater is the Holy Spirit IN you than anything that can come against you today.