Text: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
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.
The Second Stanza of the wonderful hymn O Holy Spirit, Enter In speaks to the truth about the Spirit’s work.
#913 O Holy Spirit, Enter In
Give to Your Word impressive power
That in our hearts from this good hour
As fire it may be glowing,
That in true Christian unity
We faithful witnesses may be
Your glory ever showing.
Hear us, cheer us, By Your teaching; Let our preaching
And our labor; Praise You, Lord, and serve our neighbor.
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, from ears that were closed to ears that are opened!
“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 diversity as wide as people we don’t know or as close to those who live in our house. The Spirit can certainly do marvelous things to reach all people! And he will! 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 point you to Jesus.
The Spirit of truth will bear witness about Christ
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. Accordingly, Jesus was in the field, 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.
John 16:7b-11
There is an Ugly truth and a beautiful truth.
The ugly truth is that we are born sinful and unclean and are God's enemies and rightly deserve to be cast into Hell and separated from God for ever.
But the beautiful truth is that God came to stand in your place and to suffer death for you so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you might know this and by faith trust all that Jesus did for you and receive the promise of an eternity in heaven with him.
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, and workers and too.
The Spirit of truth bears witness to you!
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! John16:13-15
Christ and his work are who the Helper, the Holy Spirit, points to and it defines what is His work is and what He works to accomplish.
We have peace to with God also 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 to receive the gift of faith in Christ and His work - for you - is the work of the Holy Spirit who was sent to draw people not to himself but to Christ.
This is truly Good News!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
Amen
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