Keswick at Portstewart - Tuesday 7 July 2026 - Clive Bowsher

 

Keswick at Portstewart – Tuesday 7 July 2026 - Clive Bowsher

 

The theme this evening is the same – rooted, rooted in life, rooted in Christ. The accent is a little bit different but the theme is unchanged. And over these four evening celebrations, Tuesday to Friday, we're going to be thinking still about that gospel invitation from the Lord, from Jesus to each one of us, that gospel invitation of intimacy which Jonathan has already spoken to us about. And this evening I'm going to speak under this title, being united to Jesus. Being united to Jesus and togetherness. Togetherness.

Well, imagine this. It's early on a Monday morning and I'm working on a project in the city and there is a really tall building. You know, I I'm not great in the mornings. I don't know about you. Does anyone else suffer from that that particular affliction? I don't get going really quickly in the mornings and   you know really tall sort of skyscraper building and I think stairs or lift? Well definitely lift at that time in the morning and I go in and the door's about to close and this colleague walks in and she's looking very very bouncy on Monday morning and she says to me “ah Clive what were you doing over the weekend” and I'm hardly awake. I can hardly even remember what day of the week it is and I say, "oh you know, I went to church and yeah, it was pretty good." And she said, "Do you know, you always seem so sort of passionate about this God stuff? What is that all about? What is so great about Christianity?” And I'm thinking, "Oh boy, you know, it's so early. I wasn't expecting to have to do an elevator pitch or to deal with this. And then the lift starts going and the floors start flashing by and I'm thinking like how tall is this building? How long do I have for this? Anyway, I take a deep breath and I want to rely on the Spirit in this moment. And I actually pray, you know, “Lord, help me to, just to answer this, to really connect at this point.” And I say, ”do you know, I think the thing that just really excites me is that I've got to know a God, not a God who I need to work up to and climb up to, but I've got to know a God who has come down to me to meet me where I am as I am. You know what? What is so great about it is that God is that good, right? Jesus is that good. I've got to know a God who actually wants to be with me, who desires to dwell with me.” And I think she probably got a slightly fuller answer than she was expecting at that time on a Monday morning. But, you know, she looked quite intrigued by that.

You know, that is the great sweep of the Bible, isn't it? That we know a God who positively desires to be with people like you and me. That we know a God who positively desires to dwell with his people. And it starts that way, does it not? In Genesis with God walking in the garden. Do you remember with Adam and you know all the way through to Revelation, what are we told? “Behold, the dwelling place of God is now with men and women and they will be his.” And then get this, “he will be theirs” (Revelation 21 verse 3). That's where it's all going. That's where it's all heading. We worship a God who positively desires to be with you. Not him up there and us sort of down here, but a God who has come to us. A God who positively delights and desires to be with you. How good is that? That the one who made everything has that kind of heart towards you and me? It's the story of the whole of scripture. And is it not the deep deep longing of your heart to know God ever closer to you? To know the presence of God in ever richer reality. Is not that the deep cry of every human heart and actually God wants to meet that cry and I think Philip here in John’s gospel is feeling something of that first thirst, something of that spiritual longing. Jesus has just said to them, “I am the way the truth, and the life.” And Philip pipes up in   in verse eight there. You know, I imagine that Philip and Jesus are standing next to each other pretty much eye to eye and Philip full of longing says “you know Lord Jesus show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” And that has always kind of made me smile. I don't know what Philip expected Jesus to do at that point. But you see, Philip hasn't quite realized yet who it is that he's looking straight in the eye because Jesus says to him, "Phillip, I've been with you so long and you still don't know me, Philip. Whoever has seen me, Jesus, has seen the Father. Whoever knows me, Jesus, knows the Father. How can you say, Phillip, show us the Father?” This is God in the flesh standing right next to him.

I've got three headings for you this evening. I'm not going to tell you them all up front. The first one is this. It might sound a little bit unfamiliar. First of all, but I think you're going to get to know this little saying over the next four evenings. First heading is this. Me and you and you in me. Me in you and you in me. How is it that Jesus is able to satisfy that deep longing of our hearts? How is it that Jesus is able to give us the spiritual reality that we are longing for, that many of us here this evening will be longing to experience in ever deepening ways? Maybe you were praying for that before you came to the tent this evening. How is it that Jesus is able to satisfy that? He says to Philip verse 10, "Don't you believe Philip that I Jesus am in the Father and the Father is in me Jesus which is Jesus' way in John's gospel of saying I and the Father are one." And so, Phillip, the words that I that I say to you, they're not just my words. They're the Father's words as well because the Father is dwelling in me and doing his works. Believe me.” Did Jesus repeat it? He's saying it's so important that we get this in one another thing, that we get this me in you and you in me thing. He says, "Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or else just look at the works that I'm doing and that will point to who I am." Earlier in John 8 verse 58, Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham was I am.” Jesus says, "I and the Father are one." You can't get much more together than that, can you? Than being one, than the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son, you know, thoroughly at home with each other. And so as you see Jesus going through the gospels, there's this astonishing ease, isn't there, that he has in the Father's presence. The Father says at Jesus' baptism, “this is my beloved son.” And again at the transfiguration, “this is my beloved son.” Everything that the son is committed to, the Father is committed to. Every time you see Jesus full of compassion, full of gentleness and loneliness in the gospels, you're seeing the heart of the Father. If you see me, Jesus says, you've seen God. If you know me, Jesus says, you know the Father. I and the Father are one.” I mean, just imagine that. Before galaxies, before mountains and oceans and Atlantic salmon. Is that what you have swimming around here? Before rainforests and rainbows, Jesus's son talks about the glory that he had with the Father before the world existed, before any of those things. Just imagine the goodness of that. Imagine the vibrancy of that where love is everything. Where love fills everything and everything is love. The Father and the son perfectly united along with the Spirit. That sounds good, doesn't it? That sounds glorious. Believe me, Jesus says that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or else believe on account of what you read and what you see in the gospels of works that that I have done. I and the Father are one. Astonishing togetherness in one anotherness. Just in case you think this is just a little bit sort of, I don't know theological or something. It's going to come it's going to get very real for us in what Jesus is about to say in verses 19 and 20. 

What kind of days would you say spiritually we're living in? It's tremendous thirst, isn't there around us? Tremendous thirst. Do you know we have all this technology. Social media promises to connect us so much better and yet there's so much loneliness isn't there? You know, people don't actually feel that they know each other that well. A lot of us are wearing masks a lot of the time.   it it's astonishing spiritual thirst. But Jesus says there's a more important reality about the days in which we live. He says this in verse 19. "Yet a little while and the world will see me no more because he's about to go to the cross for you and me, but you will see me." He says, "Because I live because of my resurrection. And because of that resurrection life that I'm going to pour out on you, you also will live." Then verse 20, “in that day.” I want to remind us this evening, this is our day. We live this side of the resurrection of Jesus. We live this side of him pouring out his Holy Spirit so that we can know that gap between God and us fully closed. “In that day.” It's interesting what he says here, having just spoken about his resurrection. He says, "In that day you will know that I am in my Father and the Father is in me.” In that day, the spirit is going to open eyes and you're going to realize who I am. And in that day, you will know not only that I'm in my Father and he's in me, but that you are in me and I mean you. And you go, whoa. Well, you didn't actually, but you might have. Hold on, Jesus. Are you saying that that kind of relationship that you've always enjoyed with the Father since before the foundation of the world in glory, where everything is love and love is everything, is the kind of relationship that you've brought us into by sending the spirit? Is that really what you're saying for real? In the here and now, already true of each and every believer who has trusted Jesus for everything and so with everything? Yeah, absolutely. That is absolutely what he's saying here. That's why he uses just the same sort of language. He's not saying that that we have exactly the same sort of relationship as he has with the Father. Obviously, we don't become God, but the same kind of togetherness, the same kind of intimacy, the same kind of connection, the same kind of closeness. And it's easy for those words just to kind of wash over you, isn't it? You know, okay, I kind of sort of see what you're saying, but if you pause and you think, whoa, he's saying, therefore, that right now with all my weaknesses, you know, all the things that he hasn't yet fixed, you know, me as a work in progress, saying that I am loved as the Father loves the son. John 17. Doesn't that have you breathing a tremendous sigh of relief? You are loved. Truly loved. Personally loved. I mean, that love between the Father and the son, that's got to be the most personal thing in the cosmos, right? The most foundational thing. And Jesus says it's true of each one of us this evening who put our trust in him. We are loved that way by God. Doesn't that have you breathing a sigh of relief, friends? I want to hear you. you just breathe out. That's a huge relief. That's freedom, isn't it? That's the ability to take off the mask. You know, in Song of Songs, God says to us, "I want I desire to see your face, beloved, and to hear your voice." How astonishing is that? That the one who made everything wants us to turn from our guilt and our shame because he's dealt with it all on the cross and he's united us to Christ by the spirit. He wants us to look him in the face and see his smile and know the freedom of the sonship of Jesus. That is the gospel. Astonishing freedom, astonishing privilege. In that day, Jesus says, "You will know that I am in my Father and my Father is in me and that you are in me and I in you by my spirit." And so, it is not Christ up there somehow distant, but Christ in us and united to us.

The Father loves the Son eternally. He has brought you eternally and unfailingly into this kind of friendship and fellowship with him. You can't lose it. You can't slip out of it. You can't slip out of it any more than the sun can somehow slip out of the trinity. It just can't happen. You are united to Christ for keeps. Jesus stays with you through thick and thin. He never leaves you. He's united to you. It's him in you and you in him. And I tell you, on a on a damp Monday morning, when you're just struggling to wake up like me, reminding yourself of that when you come to him, it's just, you know, prayer just starts to flow a little bit more easily. That's what he's done for you. That's where he's brought you to be. So that's our first heading. me in you, Jesus says, and you in me. You singular and you plural.

Second heading, togetherness. And I'm going to read to us from John 14. And we're going to look in particular at verses 15 to 24. 

I just like us to dig in a little bit more deeply to what Jesus is saying here. You know, verse 15, he says, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." And something that you see running all the way through here is that Jesus is saying this union with him is a union of two-way love. You know, he loved us first. And there's a you know that creates this by the spirit this union of two-way love. “If you love me, Jesus says, you will keep my commands and I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.” And that word that the ESV translates helper, sometimes translated paraclete, a good translation would be strengthener. Actually, one who is called alongside to strengthen, one sent by the Father. You see, he really is the God who comes down to us, isn't he? Jesus says, "You know him for he dwells with you. It's the God who delights to be with us and he will be in you." This indwelling of the spirit unites us to the son. Union with Christ is real. It's by the spirit and it is deeply relational. And Jesus here sort of expects and rejects, doesn't he? The scepticism of this talk of the spirit. He says, the world can't receive these things of the spirit. It neither sees the spirit nor knows him, but you know him. And the spirit of God dwells in you for real. and unites you to Christ in this way. And do you see it's all a gift from the Father. This sending of the spirit made possible by the work of Christ. made possible by the cross of Christ received through faith and resulting in this astonishing freedom for us of knowing ourselves united to Christ in just the way that we've been talking about. And Jesus says verse 18, as the spirit comes to you in this way, I myself come to you also. The spirit brings to you, in other words, the presence of Christ. And so, I will not leave you as orphans. Jesus says, in fact, be being bound to you now, and you still see this being bound to you and connected to you now like this, I can't possibly leave you. No matter what you're going through, no matter what life might be throwing at you, friends, at the moment, Christ is with you in that place. and actually more with you than any other person can be. With you in the secret place, with you in the hidden place by the spirit. I don't know what place in your life you might find yourself sometimes wondering, you know, can Jesus reach me there? Or perhaps does he want to reach me there? Will he cope with reaching me there? He's bound to you like this, you know, it's him in you and you in him sort of intimately entwined. There's no place in you that he cannot reach therefore by his spirit and there is no place in you that he would hold back from reaching therefore by his spirit. So whatever it was that came to your mind when I just asked you that rather bold question, he sees you there. And that the Father's love, which is the Father's love for the son, showers down on you even in that place as you turn to him, as you we were thinking about repenting last night, weren't we? As you turn to receive that, it's astonishing grace that God would already love us as he loves the son. It's an intricate entwining. It's a bond that cannot be broken. You see me because I'm risen, Jesus says. And so you also live. I hold you securely in resurrection life. Whoever has my commands, verse 21, and keeps them, he is who loves me. You see, it's astonishing. We get to love him back. God is actually desirous of your love, your real person to person love. It's astonishing. He it is who loves me, Jesus says, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and or her. And I promise you this evening, I'll continue to make myself known to you, to him or her. And then Judas, not Iscariot, has this question about, you know, “Lord, why are you going to do this for us and not to the world?” And Jesus doesn't want them to be distracted from this key thing that he's trying to teach them at this point. He answers and he says, "No, I want you to get this. If anyone loves me and that matters to me, Jesus, that that you know, that's a key thing. He or she will keep my word and my Father will love him and my Father and I will come to him or her." But you see, he really is the God who comes down to be with us, even to make his home with us. That just blows me away. God wants to make his home with you. He's already done that through faith and because of the work of Christ by the spirit. And that is where it is all heading. Revelation 21, “behold, the dwelling of God is with man, and they will be his people, and he will be theirs.” It's all about union. It's where it's all headed. God has made his home with you. And can I just show you something in verse 23  here, which is really beautiful. You might be thinking, well, is this just a sort of union with Christ for all of us corporately together as the body of Christ, as a church? And of course, it is that and that is hugely important. We are one in Christ. But it's also individual. Do you see that in verse 23? Jesus says, "If anyone (singular) loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him or her and make our home with him or her (singular)." It's true of you individually as well. That should send goosebumps all over you, that God indwells you personally in that way, lovingly in that way. It's also deeply reassuring because it means that the resources of God himself are there for you for real at work by the spirit in the nitty-gritty of what you're facing and in the disappointments and the difficulties and the things that you feel that you can't face by yourself. And the good news is that you don't have to because he's there with you. It should give you goosebumps at some of the possibilities of that for mission. We were thinking about mission earlier on. Not the things that you know you can do in your own strength but the things that that he might choose to do in you and through you. There's some astonishing verses John 14 verses 12 to 14 that I hadn't planned to talk about. But Jesus says, “truly truly whoever believes in me,” so that's us, “will also do the works that I Jesus do.” “The kind of stuff that you see me doing in in the gospel in John's gospel for example.” Why? “Because I'm going to the Father and I'm going to ask the Father for you and he's going to give you the spirit.” And if you've trusted Jesus, that's already happened. He's talking before the resurrection here, right? And so whatever you ask in my name, isn't that gloriously extravagant? You know, whatever you might ask in my name, be bold, be expectant. This I will do that the Father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. So, it's interesting, isn't it, in verse 12, it begins with us doing the works, the kind of works that Jesus does, and it ends with him doing them. Well, you go, "Well, who's doing the works? Is it us or is it Jesus?" And the answer is, "It's him in you and you in him, and you're sharing in what he's doing." And that is full of strength and it's full of possibility and it builds our expectancy, doesn't it?

Third heading. Worship. Because of all of this, worship ignited. Now, you might be going at this point, okay, Clive, talk to me about obedience in these verses. Talk to me about those places where Jesus is talking about keeping his word, keeping his commandments. And the short answer is that this love of Christ, this kind of love of Christ loves you into life. It changes you. It gets your heart beating with his love. It draws you into his ways and it and it flows out. But I want to ask you a question, too. If you're thinking about obedience right now, what is the most Christlike thing you can do? What was Jesus doing before galaxies, before what did I say? Mountains, oceans, Atlantic salmon. What was Jesus doing? What's the most Christlike thing you could go back to your flat, your caravan, your house this evening and do? What is that? You know, you might be thinking about relationships with other people. And the most Christlike thing you can do is to love the Father with all your heart. Isn't it? You know, when Jesus is asked, "What is the most important commandment of the Old Testament?" Mark 12, what does he say? He says, Love, right? “Love the Lord with all of your heart and all of yourself and all of your mind and all of your strength." And we we've been saying, haven't we, that, you know, that the heart of the gospel is this this union with Christ, this fellowship with Christ, that he's made possible by what he's done for us on the cross and in sending his spirit. Unites us to himself. It's real. It's deeply relational. It's a two-way love. We've just seen, haven't we? So what is worship? It's our side of that, isn't it? Whoever loves me, Jesus says, will will keep my word. What is the most Christlike thing that you can do? It is to to love him, to love the Father. It's to worship.  We've been talking a lot about the invitation to intimacy, haven't we? That gospel invitation. Intimacy also requires immediacy, doesn't it? You know, just think about a human relationship. If we want to, you know, grow in friendship with someone sooner or later, we have to kind of step out of our comfort zone a little bit and really relate in the here and now. God desires our worship in that sense. He delights in that kind of fellowship with us even whilst we're works in progress.