Where Is Jesus?

This is an easy question to answer, but it’s one that you can and must ultimately answer for yourself. Of course we know that Jesus is in heaven at the right hand of the Father. I don’t think we will have any dispute on that. But what we need to know beyond that is where is he here and now, and what is he in? Jesus left here around 1,980 years ago, and has not returned since. Though he’s never yet returned physically, he did say that he would return in another way first: “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me" (Jn. 14:18,19). So what was he talking about, that he would come to his disciples, and that they would see him, but the world would not? The following words directly preceded his words quoted above: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; which the world cannot receive, because it seeth [it] not, neither knoweth [it]: but ye know [it]; for [it] dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (Jn. 14:16,17). So it is evident by the scripture that Jesus was telling his disciples that he would come back in spirit, by means of his and the Father's Spirit being released to those who followed him and truly believed on him (Jn. 7:37-39). And just shortly after that in the same conversation he told them something very integral that was cohesive with what we have just seen established: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (Jn. 14:26). To act in someone’s name means to act in their stead, or on their behalf. So instead of Jesus being here in person, the Spirit was sent back in his stead. What this means is that whatever the Spirit is doing, moving in, teaching, or whatever else; this is what Jesus is doing, and this is where Jesus is. And he is nowhere else! His actual presence simply does not exist anywhere in this world other than where the Spirit is at, because nothing else was sent back to this world in his name.

Just before leaving this world, Jesus told his followers to wait for the baptism of the holy Ghost, and he had told them previously that the Spirit would not, and could not come to them until he did leave this world (Acts 1:4,5; Jn. 16:7). So the day of Pentecost, when they were all baptized with his Spirit and spoke in tongues, was the day he had spoken to them about. This is when he came to them in spirit by means of the Comforter, or the holy Ghost being sent down from heaven. And how was it that he could come in that manner? Because the Spirit is the life that dwells in him and in the Father, which makes the presence of the Spirit the presence of both the Father and the Son (Jn. 5:26; Jn. 10:10; Rom. 8:2). The Spirit is the life of God and of his Son, and this is what Jesus referred to several times, saying that he was “in the Father,” and that the Father was “in him" (Jn. 10:38; Jn. 14:10,11,20; Jn. 17:22,23). This is also what Jesus meant when he said, "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (Jn. 14:23). It is by means of us being baptized with the holy Ghost, that we can and must be one with, and in the Father and the Son: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one" (Jn. 17:22,23). That ‘glory’ that he spoke of was and is the holy Ghost (Rom. 6:3,4; I Pet. 3:18). In light of these things, the apostle Paul informs us that "the Lord is that Spirit” (II Cor. 3:17). If we chose to use only that scripture, it shows us that Jesus is only where the Spirit of God is at, and he is only in what the Spirit is doing. The problem we have today is that God’s people, who are those who have truly received his Spirit, are stuck in environments where the Spirit is merely one part of the program, at best. The truth is that Jesus is the program, which means that the holy Ghost has to be in charge of all of our worship and service of God; making it not only the centerpiece, but the very essence of our lives and worship of God. Amen.