St. Stephen’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and School | Beaver Dam, WI | 920.885.3309

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ST. STEPHEN’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH

Striving to speak God’s saving truth in love. Ephesians 4:15

 

 

 

 

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Sermon on John 15:26-27, 16:4b-11 for Pentecost, May 17 & 20, 2018

  1. On the bulletin’s news-sheet this week there’s an announcement about a special coffee fellowship on June 3. One teacher is retiring, another is going to serve at a different school. We had a similar coffee fellowship and recognition a month ago for our retiring secretaries. And there will be boxes out for cards, and other gifts will be given for our departing faithful workers. That’s a common custom, isn’t it? A going-away gift.
  2. Jesus talks about going away in today’s Gospel—only he’s the one going away. It’s Maundy Thursday, and Jesus is telling them about going away for the last time before his death on Good Friday. In the months leading up to this, Jesus was telling them repeatedly, “We are going down to Jerusalem where I will suffer, die and rise again.” The disciples couldn’t process it. Peter was thinking, Jesus can heal the sick and raise the dead—so he can certainly avoid suffering, put a stop to it, or get away from it. He has more glorious things to do. So Peter said, “Lord, these things should never happen to you.” But Jesus knew his mission was to be the Lamb of God, bearing the sins of the world by his death. So he kept talking about it.
  3. And that’s the reason for the disciples’ sadness. Around that Passover table he had been talking about suffering, betrayal, denial, abandonment. “Because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart,” he said. The disciples loved Jesus—he had been their Teacher, Friend, Defender—and now he was talking about going away. Their sadness is overwhelming them. So Jesus tells them, “I will not leave you as orphans” (John 14:18). And then he talks about what he is going to give them—the going-away present that he will give them. And look what Jesus gave them—look at what he also gives us. His counseling Spirit, his Spirit’s Word, and his Spirit’s gifts.

I. His Counseling Spirit.

  1. A week ago Thursday we celebrated Jesus’ ascension, and talked about what that means—it means that he sits at the right hand of his Father, ruling over all things for the good of his church. It means that he intercedes for us—bringing our prayers to our heavenly Father. It also meant that Jesus was stepping aside so his disciples could do the work he was doing. When they were doing ministry with Jesus, sometimes Jesus would have to clean up after them, like the time they tried to cast out a demon but couldn’t (See Matthew 17:14ff). Now they would be on their own. The training wheels would be off. But they would not be alone. Jesus promised to send his Spirit. He calls this Spirit “the Counselor” and also calls him the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father.” “Sometimes lawyers are called counselors. If you are on trial, you want someone next to you to advise you, tell you what comes next or whisper the right answer in your ear. That’s the kind of Counselor the Holy Spirit would be. “[He] will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you” (John 14:26). Remember Peter? Remember what he did later that Thursday night? After the Upper Room and after Gethsemane he was in the High Priests courtyard—alone, without Jesus—and he faced a servant girl who was tending the door who asked, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?” And despite his boldness in the Upper Room, he was timid and fearful in the High Priest’s courtyard and denied even knowing who Jesus was. Now, on Pentecost, with the gift of the Spirit, Peter speaks boldly. We heard part of his sermon in the second reading—the boldest part was yet to come when he even accuses the people. “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). The boldness didn’t come from within Peter. It came from the Spirit. The power of persuasion didn’t come from Peter. It came from the Counseling Spirit, moving Peter in his choice of words, and moving the hearers.

II. His Spirit’s Word,

  1. The Holy Spirit doesn’t do his work by giving people good feelings or enthusiasm. The Holy Spirit does his work through very specific means. Jesus says that here. “He will testify about me.” The Spirit moved the preaching of the apostles, but he also did something that would endure forever. He had those apostles write down the words and works of Jesus so that you and I could read them. Peter wrote, “men spokefrom God as they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Matthew and John wrote what they saw and heard from Jesus, Mark wrote what he heard from Peter, Luke probably talked with Mary and the other disciples, but it was all as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul wrote, We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:13). That’s what makes the Bible different from any other book. It isn’t just an ancient book, an old book. Its authority doesn’t come from age or tradition. It’s the Word, given by the Spirit. That’s the reason why it’s also the most translated book in history—and why new translations and editions are not a bad thing. We don’t want to change the meaning—we want to hold on to it. We want to dig into it—and digging into the original text, studying it, understanding its original meaning and applying it to our language and ourselves is the task of every generation. “Gladly hear and learn it,” the Catechism says. “Read, learn and take it to heart” we pray in an old prayer. “What we should believe and do” is what we pray in another prayer. This Bible, these Holy Scriptures are the work of the Spirit and the tool of the Spirit—to convict us and show us our sin and God’s righteous judgment. To work faith and God’s righteousness in us.

III. His Spirit’s Gifts.

  1. In the Catechism’s explanation which we will use for our creed today, it says “the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.  In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.” What are these gifts? The first gift most of us receive is the gift of baptism. St. Paul called it “the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified[b]by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7). Batpism is like a physical Word—a proclamation of God that you can see and touch. And what does that visible, physical Word say? Well it is water, and water says that you are washed. Cleansed. The dirt is gone. You are renewed. What Adam and Eve lost, God gives back to you. You are baptized-you still are. This is your comfort and your power every day, that God has washed you and is pleased to call you his own because you are connected to Jesus’ holy life, innocent death, and the new life of his resurrection. That changes who you are—every day it does.
  2. Then there’s the Word itself. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. We can read it again and again, and it continues to strengthen our faith. It gives us guidance with the commandments of God. It gives us faith and gives us power to overcome our own broken human nature. It gives us the power to withstand anything we endure from the world around us.
  3. Then there’s the Holy Supper of the Lord—another visible, physical Word. And what does that visible, physical Word say? You eat and drink something. It becomes a part of you. It strengthens and nourishes you like food and drink should. The Word spoken with the bread and wine says “given and poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.” For some reason, Jesus decided that it wasn’t enough to simply tell us that we are forgiven because of his sacrifice—probably because we can be so forgetful. So he gives us his Word, the exact same message, connected with bread and wine. He says, “This is my body, given for you. My blood of the covenant, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins. Take and eat. Take and drink.” And the Holy Spirit works with this Word, the Word spoken, and the visible, physical Word of the Sacrament, and does with it what he always does with his Word. He writes the message on our hearts and minds. He points us to our Lord Jesus, what he has does done for us, and what it still means for us that we are washed, fed, and forgiven by him. All this is what calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us, and keeps us with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

Conclusion: Look at what we have! Look at what Jesus has given us! He has given us a constant connection to himself with the Holy Spirit and with Word and Sacrament. With the work of the Spirit, he has made us his own people, gathering us to Christ, and gathering us to one another. Right after we say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit” we say, “[I believe in] the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.” That is one of his gifts, too. You and I and everyone else here, we are the Spirit’s gifts to one another—especially when we support one another and speak this Word of God to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. We are not alone in this dark world. We have the light of Christ, and the light lit in each of us by the Spirit. Because we have the gifts of the Spirit, we have treasures that can’t be bought that are more precious than anything we have or could hope to have. So plug into the power of the Word. Join with your brothers and sisters in Christ here. It’s not just a social gathering. It is the Holy Spirit at work with the Word—and at work in us all.

Amen.

 

John 15:26-27, 16:4b-11

When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” 16:But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. “But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Yet because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth: It is good for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; 11 about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. (EHV)

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