17th July 2026

How do you get to know someone you’ve never met? We might speak to people who know them well or, these days, follow them on social media. While these things can help us know about a person, they cannot replace knowing the person personally. Real relationships grow through spending time together: listening, talking, sharing life, and gradually coming to see the world through one another’s eyes.

So how are we to know Jesus when we have never met him in the flesh, and it has been almost two thousand years since he walked the earth? In John’s Gospel, Jesus gives a remarkable answer: “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). Although he would soon return to the Father, he promised that he would not abandon his disciples. The risen and ascended Lord would continue to make himself present to them.

How could this be possible? Just a few verses earlier in John 14, Jesus explains that he will ask the Father to send ‘another Helper’ (vv.16–17) – the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in Jesus’ name (v.26). The Holy Spirit is not a replacement for Jesus but the one who makes the living presence of the risen Christ real to his people. As Jesus says, “…You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (v.17). The Spirit teaches us, reminds us of all that Jesus has said (v.26), and continually leads us into the truth of who Jesus is.

Through the Holy Spirit, we come to know Jesus personally. The Spirit unites us to the Son, and in him we are brought into the loving relationship he has always shared with the Father: “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (v.20). Later Jesus adds that the Father and the Son will make their home with those who love him (v.23). What an extraordinary promise: through the Spirit, we are welcomed into the communion of the triune God.

For believers, Jesus is not a distant figure separated from us by time and space. He is alive, and through the Holy Spirit he is present with us every day. We certainly come to know about him by reading the Gospels, and reflecting on his words and works, but it is the Holy Spirit who opens our hearts to know him personally, to trust him more deeply, and to share in his life. As we walk with the Spirit, we discover that the risen Christ is faithfully walking with us.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion Peterborough
Farcet Village Hall
Main Street
Farcet
Peterborough
PE7 3AN

Meeting time:
Sunday 11.00 am

Local congregational contact:
Richard Dempsey
Email:  richard.dempsey@btinternet.com
Local church website: GRACE COMMUNION CHURCH PETERBOROUGH – Landing Page

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church