18 May 2014
Text: John 16:5-15
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Our
Lord Jesus Christ is full of surprises!
When
everyone thought He was going to overthrow the Romans and establish a worldly
kingdom, He surprised them by going to the cross. When they thought He was dead and gone, He
surprised them by rising from the dead.
And when they thought He would remain with them after the resurrection
the same way forever, He surprised them by going away to the Father who sent
Him. And when they felt that He had left
them, He surprised them by sending them the Holy Spirit, to transform them, to
mold the church into an eternal kingdom that was to actually overthrow the
Romans and conquer the world, to inspire and oversee the preaching of the
Gospel, and to “call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian
Church on earth.”
That
is why our Lord had previously told them, “I tell you the truth: it is to your
advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to
you. But if I go, I will send Him to
you.”
It’s
a little like children in the process of growing up. Mom and Dad simply have to be less and less
in control of the children, and let the children experience life for
themselves. Of course, our Lord is
always with us, even to the end of the age.
And by no means does He leave us as orphans to fend for ourselves. But He does allow us to grow, dear
friends. And this growth is the
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
In
going to the Father, the Son allows the Holy Spirit to produce growth of the
church – not necessarily growth in numbers, but growth in maturity. The Lord has forgiven us all our sins by
shedding His blood on the cross, and now, under the cross and by the cross,
through the Holy Spirit, we grow in our faith and in the Gospel. It is not that we ever outgrow the
forgiveness of sins and life everlasting, but rather we grow up into that
reality that the Lord has established us to be active in the kingdom.
Instead
of growing up into the world, the Holy Spirit enables us to grow away from the
world. For look at what the Holy Spirit
means to the unbelieving world, according to our Lord Jesus Christ: “When He”
(the Holy Spirit) “comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and
righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no
longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
In
our growth, in our sanctification by the Spirit, we become holier. And that doesn’t mean we somehow become
better by trying harder. For we are only
forgiven sinners, nothing more, nothing less.
But, dear friends, to grow in holiness is to become less and less
enamored of the world, less influenced by Satan, and less tossed about by our
own sinful flesh.
And
without the Holy Spirit’s work in our midst, we can’t grow, and we can’t grow
up. For there is more to salvation than
simply not going to hell. The Lord has
saved us, called us to Himself to eternity, for a purpose. He has rescued us according to His will and
plan for the universe. He loves us and
has work for us to do in the kingdom, and that kingdom is the special work of
the Holy Spirit.
But
how are we to know? How are we to figure
out what God the Holy Spirit wants us to do?
Our Lord promises: “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.”
Dear
friends, we can trust the Holy Spirit because He is God; He is the Spirit of
Truth; He has been sent into the world to convict the world of sin and to
convict the Church of the truth of the Gospel!
“He will glorify Me,” says our Lord Jesus Christ, “for He will take what
is mine and declare it to you.”
The
Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Helper, has gifts for us, dear brothers and
sisters in Christ, He has come blazing into our world like tongues of fire to
overcome every impediment to the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit gives us life, eternal life,
forgiven life, life in Christ and life made full by the blood of Christ. For the life is in the blood.
The
Holy Spirit doesn’t come to make us “spiritual” in the sense of eastern mystics
and western philosophers. He comes to
fill us with the spirit of truth, to make us whole by leading us to the body
and blood of Christ, and to give us that physical union with Him in His
resurrected flesh according to His Word.
The
greatest surprise of all, dear friends, is the good news that by the cross and
through the resurrection, our sins are completely forgiven and blotted out
forever, and that because of this, we have communion with the Father, through
the sacrifice of the Son, by means of the calling of the Holy Spirit.
We
have this “advantage” as the Lord calls it, of everlasting life, not because we
are good, but because He is good; not because we are worthy, but because He is worthy;
and not because we are spiritual, but because His Spirit is true and it has
been given to us as a free gift.
And
it is truly a gift, dear friends, as our Lord says: “He” (the Holy Spirit)
“will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
He does not sell it to us. He
does not loan it to us. He does not
dangle it in front of us like a carrot before a donkey. No, indeed, dear friends. He “declares” it to us. Just as He declared, “Let there be light” and
there was light, He declares all that belongs to Him by virtue of His Sonship
of the Father, and He shares it all with us as an inheritance. For listen to the promise of Jesus: “All that
the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is Mine and
declare it to you.”
This
is the gracious will of the Father. This
is the glorious work of the Son. And
this is the life-giving declaration of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom is ours, dear brothers and
sisters, dear forgiven sinners, dear citizens of a new and better country that
has no end, an eternal kingdom that continues to surprise us, even while we
still live here in time.
Now to My Father I depart,
From earth to heav’n
ascending,
And, heavn’ly wisdom to
impart,
The Holy Spirit sending;
In trouble He will comfort
you
And teach you always to be
true
And into truth shall guide
you. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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