Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (John 14:23-31)
The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Prayer: Lord God, heavenly Father, on this Pentecost day, when you poured out your Holy Spirit on your disciples, we also ask that you pour out your Holy Spirit on us: your Spirit of truth, of prayer, of love, joy and peace. Clean out from us everything that is bad, wrong and evil, and renew and strengthen us in everything that true, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy. Renew and strengthen us in your Holy Spirit, so that your church may be built up and shine as a brightly shining lamp on a lamp stand, as a city upon a hill. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Where shall I flee from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
This is what King David says in Psalm 139. And what a great psalm it is! Where shall I go from your Spirit? He says.
On this Pentecost Day, we have come to celebrate the church festival of the Holy Spirit. So drink deeply from the Holy Spirit’s fountains, breathe deeply from the breath of God.
Jesus says in our reading today: But the Helper [the Comforter], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
In Acts 19, Paul meets some disciples in the city of Ephesus, who say to him, “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
And today, we have the same problem. There are many people who have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
This is not so much a problem in the church. Some people I have spoken to have said that not much was said about the Holy Spirit when they were young. And that’s true. The reverse is almost true that some people have heard so much about the Holy Spirit, that they haven’t even heard that there is a Father and a Son.
St John says in his first letter: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
When we talk about the Holy Spirit, we have to make sure that we test the spirits, to see whether they are from God. Because there is one Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, the living and eternal God, and we want to make sure that that one Holy Spirit is the only spirit that is poured out on us, because even the devil manifests himself as an angel of light.
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Our Gospel reading begins today with these words of Jesus: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”
Before Jesus talks to his disciples about the Holy Spirit, he makes sure that they understand that the Father and he himself will also dwell them. The Holy Spirit’s not going to be alone. The Holy Spirit is not going to come to you without the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is not going to work without the Father and the Son.
Jesus also says: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him.”
He will keep my word, Jesus says. The Holy Spirit is not going to work without the word of God. The Father and the Son will come and dwell in those people who keep the words of Jesus, which also belong to the Father.
Let’s make sure we understand what this means. In other places, Jesus says: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” But here, he says, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.” Jesus is not speaking here about the law of God. He doesn’t say, “If anyone loves me, he will keep the words of Moses”, but he says, “my word.” And Jesus’ word is that word which he specifically came into the world to bring: the good news of salvation, the word of life that forgives your sins, the word of truth that pours the forgiveness upon you because of Jesus’ own death and resurrection. Keeping Jesus’ word, means believing that he died for you, rose again, and prays for you. It means that you believe that he forgives your sins, and that you will have eternal life with him. Keep it! Keep his word. In other words, believe it, receive it, hold it close to you, keep it in your heart, in your mind, on your tongue.
So don’t believe any old person who comes to your front door and says that if you don’t speak in tongues, then you don’t have the Holy Spirit. Don’t believe anyone who puts a law on you, and calls your faith into doubt because of some miraculous sign. Don’t let anyone say “nuts” to your trust in the word of God. If they say “nuts” to the word of God, they say “nuts” to God, and they say “nuts” to the Holy Spirit. Don’t let some Christian salesperson come to you and say that they are a better Christian that you, because you can’t prove it with the latest product from the catalogue of spirituality. Prove it with your baptism. St Peter said to all the people on the day of Pentecost: “Repent, and be baptised everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Luther said: “I don’t care if they’ve swallowed the Holy Spirit, feathers and all, I have the Word, and I stand by the Word.”
Jesus says: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
Jesus says: Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Search your heart with this passage: If you want the peace that the world gives you, then you don’t want the Holy Spirit. If you have a sense of peace about something which is wrong, evil and bad, then your peace is false, and it is not the Holy Spirit’s peace, but it is a fake peace.
Jeremiah says about the false prophets: They say, Peace, peace, where there is no peace.
Some people might go on top of a mountain, and breathe in the fresh air, and say that it is the Holy Spirit. Some people feel a sense of peace and calm over their bodies. Some people feel great most of the time. Some people have special gifts.
And all these things are sent to us by God and are good things. But the peace of the Holy Spirit is the peace that comes from the word of God, and nothing else. The peace that Jesus leaves with us is the peace that the Holy Spirit brings to our minds through the word of God. The peace of the Holy Spirit is the word that reminds us that the Father and the Son have come to make their dwelling in us.
We are so confused, because the word “spirit” gets so misused today. It means so much and it means so little. It means everything and nothing. In the church, we talk about the Spirit of the Living God, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Then people talk about the “human spirit”, we say, “that’s the spirit!” QANTAS even calls itself the “spirit of Australia.” Whenever you hear the word “spirit” when it not connected with the Father and Son, and the living and powerful words of the Father and the Son, then you can be sure that it is not the Holy Spirit.
If we have worldly peace, peace from nature, peace in life, peace in our bodies, in our health, in our finances, peace even in our spirituality, and all of this is a hindrance to us in reading the word of God, and helplessly relying on the love and graciousness of our heavenly Father, then we should stand up and say: “Heavenly Father, take away every last scrap of my peace, if it means taking away the word of God from me, and the peace of Jesus.”
Because all flesh is grass, and its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord will stand forever.
Remember this. If your heart is set on grass, then put your idol to death. If your heart is set on the peace that the world gives, then pray to God to remove your heart of stone and to give you a beating heart of flesh.
St Paul says: “Put to death your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
In other words, put to death your love for any old spirit, put to death your sense of being spiritual, put to death anything which says your baptism is nothing, put to death your feeling that you are a good person because you are better than others, put to death anything that stops you relying on God for everything, put to death anything that deceives you from staying away from the word of God.
And put on the new self: put on a love and a desire for the words of Jesus, put on a love for his word, keep his words of forgiveness close to you and bury them deep within you. Put on a new desire to hear his life giving words which were spoken to all the people at Pentecost. Put on a new desire to come and receive the Spirit-filled body and blood of your Lord Jesus Christ.
And maybe sometimes you worry that maybe you never received the Holy Spirit after all. Have you heard the words of Jesus? Is he the Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world? Good, then he died for you too. But if you worry about your salvation, good! The Holy Spirit is leading you more deeply into relying on the words of Jesus. You can’t trust all that mess that goes around in your own mind anyway. So don’t trust it. Let the Holy Spirit bring to your mind the words of Jesus, and let the Holy Spirit teach you to trust nothing but the words of Jesus.
St Peter says in his 1st letter: “The same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood through the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven in great joy, to be worshipped by all the angels. And now we share in that great joy through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through Jesus’ holy words and his life-giving Sacraments.
Come Holy Spirit, fountain of love, our hearts now inspire
with the holy flame of your pure fire;
that in Christ united, One in endeavour,
friendship plighted, We walk together.
Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
Come to your people from above,
fill them with graces, and restore
Your creatures as they were before.
Amen.
Lord God, heavenly Father, renew us, restore us, strengthen us, with the living flame of your Holy Spirit. Come and dwell with us with your Son and your Holy Spirit. Increase in us a love for your words of your Son Jesus Christ, the good news of the forgiveness of sins, won for us on the cross and applied to us in baptism. Send us the Holy Spirit, and lead us in your paths, fill us with every gift from your throne, and keep us strong in word and in faith until we die, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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