Title: God’s Spirit leads you into all truth!
Text: John 15: 26-27; 16:4b-15
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
T.H. Huxley, a biologist and strong adherent to Darwin’s theory of evolution and who was also a well-known agnostic, was with a group of men at a weekend house party. On Sunday morning, while most of them were preparing to go to church, he approached a man known for his Christian character and said, "Suppose you stay at home and tell my why you are a Christian." The man, knowing he couldn't match wits with Huxley, hesitated. But the agnostic said gently, "I don't want to argue with you. I just want you to tell me simply what this Christ means to you." The man did, and when he finished, there were tears in Huxley's eyes as he said, "I would give my right hand if only I could believe that!"
Our Daily Bread, January 24, 1993.
God’s Spirit leads you into all truth!
Today we celebrate the sending of the Spirit which in the Book of Acts speaks of the Spirit coming as a mighty rushing wind and as tongues of fire, resting on the disciples and giving them utterance. This powerful speaking in other tongues gives the disciples the ability to be heard as Luke writes in the book of Acts:
“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” (Acts 2:7b-8)
And the diversity of those that hear is large.
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:9-11)
The Spirit can certainly do marvelous things to reach all people! And that is what Jesus tells the disciples in the Gospel reading for today.
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
The Spirit of truth will tell you about Jesus.
God’s Spirit leads you into all truth!
Ill.
Christ met unbelievers where they were. He realized what many Christians today still don't seem to understand. Cultivators have to get out in the field. According to one count, the gospels record 132 contacts that Jesus had with people. Six were in the Temple, four in the synagogues and 122 were out with the people in the mainstream of life.
J.K. Johnston, Why Christians Sin, Discovery House, 1992, p. 142.
God can use us all. God will use us all.
My friend Rob makes his living teaching guitar and banjo. He is very talented and those he teaches learn well. But his mission is to tell the world about Christ and through his gift of music he gets an opportunity to tell the world about Jesus and Christ himself says that it is to your advantage that he goes away:
But if I go, I will send him [the Spirit] to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
Satan has been judged at the cross. He has been defeated and it is now through the working of the Spirit that Christ’s work is made known to the world so that sin might be repented of and people come to faith in Christ.
We know that we ourselves need repentance and forgiveness, so also those who will come to faith by the Spirit’s work through the word. God’s means of word and sacrament are found here in God’s house but the word is active and goes with each one of us as we in our vocations take Christ with us in our daily lives as father’s mothers, brothers, sisters, workers and solders too. Celebrating Memorial Day we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and also those who served the freedoms we all enjoy.
As those who have gone to war zones around the world, the Spirit of truth has gone with each believer to remind them what Christ has done for them and through them - also the word of truth has been shared with those who needed to hear. The work of Chaplains has been an important means that God has used to reach those who need the comfort of the Spirit’s work.
Ill.
[A] New Testament [not much different than the one I hold here] was given to US Army nurse 2nd Lt. Edith Corns by Army Chaplain Perry O. Wilcox on 16 April 1942, while both were stationed on Corregidor. Shortly thereafter, the island was surrendered. Corns spent the remainder of the war in the Santo Tomas prison camp until it was liberated by an intrepid raid in February 1945 during the Battle of Manila. She was able to hold onto the New Testament for comfort throughout her imprisonment. [The Spirit of truth, brings comfort and peace through the word]
http://greatestgeneration.tumblr.com/post/45767652368/this-new-testament-was-given-to-us-army-nurse#.VVtL-_lVikp
My mother-n-law Jeanne Comins was also a 2nd Lt stationed in the Philippians during WWII and could have been one like Edith Corns to spend time in a prison camp. It is through God's words and the blessings of Chaplains that God's word brings comfort to those who serve and to many who dies in service to of country and freedoms we all enjoy.
God’s Spirit leads you into all truth!
Today we remember those who served, and who serve, for our freedoms, and the work of God’s service to us by his Spirit through word and sacrament.
As Jesus says:
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
God’s Spirit leads you into all truth!
Christ and his work is who the Helper, the Holy Spirit points to and it defines what is His work and what He works to accomplish.
Jesus sends the Helper and by His work you are His!
We have peace to with God too because of the Holy Spirit. He brings us to life from our spiritual death and give us the faith that points and holds to Christ.
And as was confessed today in the Nicene Creed:
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The Lord and giver of life,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified,
Who spoke through the prophets …
The Holy Spirit is God the sanctifier or the one who makes us Holy…
Jesus sends the Helper the Holy Spirit and by His work you are His!
To be comforted at times is good,
To be helped at times is also good,
but to be forgiven and given the gift of faith in Christ and His work is the work of the Holy Spirit who was sent to draw people not to himself but to Christ.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment