Pentecost [John 14:23-31] (27-May-2012)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am, lay reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram (2pm), and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

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.

Kä bi Cuum, min la Yiëë in Gɔaa in Rɛl Rɔ, min bi Gua̱a̱r ɛ ja̱k kɛ ciötdä yɛ ŋi̱eec kɛ ti diaal, kä bɛ yɛ ti̱em ti diaal tëë cä la̱t yɛ.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit was poured out on his disciples. This was the day of Pentecost.

And this event didn’t happen so that Jesus’ disciples could be a bunch of show-offs and know-it-alls who then went on to become some sort of travelling circus with magic tricks. The Holy Spirit wasn’t given so that people could have a big show. The Holy Spirit wasn’t even given so that Christians would feel good.

The Holy Spirit was given so that, just as Jesus ascended into heaven, an opportunity would be given for all people everywhere throughout the world to rise to everlasting life. And that one fact brings great joy!

The Holy Spirit is not just for this life. St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” [Kä mi ŋa̱thdan rɛy Kritho ɛ kui̱ teekä mɛmɛ kärɔa, kä ba par ni kɔn ɛlɔ̱ŋ kä ji̱ ɣɔaa ɛmɛ diaal.] The Holy Spirit is given by God in advance as a down payment of eternal life. Ephesians 1 says: “In Christ you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Do you hear that word: “guarantee”? That means a “down payment”, a “deposit”, so that God can come and collect us later.

That’s why in the creed, it says: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

The Holy Spirit calls you by the gospel, and gathers you into the holy Christian church. He gives you his holy things—his holy gifts of baptism and the Lord’s Supper—and makes you part of his fellowship, his communion of saints. But also in the church, you are given the forgiveness of sins: I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We preach the forgiveness of sins. We receive the blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, shed for us “for the forgiveness of sins.”

And what’s all this for? So that through the Holy Spirit, through the church, through that communion of saints, and the forgiveness of sins, we would have the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

As we say: “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy precious blood keep you in body and soul until life eternal.”

All this is made possible, because of the day of Pentecost.

Every Sunday we read from one of the four Gospels. But the day of Pentecost is not recorded in any of the four gospels, but at the beginning of the Book of Acts. And so our Gospel reading is not about the day of Pentecost, but rather tells us about what Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit, once again on Maundy Thursday, the night before he died.

So we might think this is very unusual—why don’t we replace the gospel reading today with the reading about the actual event of Pentecost?

I’ll tell you why!—What did the apostles do once they received the Holy Spirit? They preached about Jesus to people. On the Day of Pentecost, those many years ago, Peter got up and said, “This Jesus…you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. … This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

When the Holy Spirit came, the apostles preached the gospel. They preached Jesus Christ, his life, his works, his actions. And so, even today, we read the gospels—the life and words of Jesus—because we want to receive the Holy Spirit.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus says to his disciples: “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.”

He will teach you all things. When you are taught about Jesus, and when you are taught the words of Jesus, you can be sure that this is the Holy Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit will teach you all things. This is exactly what St Peter did on the day of Pentecost: he taught people about Jesus, and brought them to repentance and baptism. So not only was he sent the Holy Spirit together with the disciples, but he also shared the Holy Spirit through speaking about Jesus.

He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. When the words of Jesus are brought to your remembrance, then you know that this is the Holy Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just remind you of things, but he actually comes and physically puts these reminders into your mind and heart. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just give you a tap to remind you about Jesus, he shows you that Jesus is with you always. He points you to Jesus who is walking with you, and praying for you. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

And because of this Jesus says: 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.

+++

Right at the beginning of our reading today, we read three small words: “Jesus answered him”. Well—if he answered him, what was the question? And to whom did he give this answer?

Verse 22 of John 14, the verse before our Gospel reading starts today, says: Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not the world?”

Think about this question very carefully: Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not the world?

The disciples can’t work it out—if Jesus is going to manifest himself, surely he will do it in such a way that everyone can see it. Plenty of our atheist friends today say, “If God spoke to me out of a burning bush today, or parted the dishwater in my sink for me, then I would believe in him.”

Goodness!—what do you think the church is? A little travelling freak-show for your entertainment with big screens and flashy lights and all the latest music? There are plenty of people who build churches like that, and want to chain the Holy Spirit up, throw him on a stage and force him to do tricks. And of course, plenty of people will show up on Sundays for that sort of thing.

We need to be careful! There are many false prophets in the world today who want to take our eyes off Jesus.

And so Judas (not Iscariot) said to Jesus, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”

Jesus answered him, “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.”

This is exactly what happens on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples, the words of Jesus are preached, his death and his resurrection are put before all the eyes of the people gathered there, and they believe these things. And from this faith, the first Christians come to love Jesus, because they know that their sins are forgiven through Holy Baptism, and they know that their heavenly Father loves them. And now, when the Holy Spirit is poured out on them, Jesus and his Father come to them and make their home with them.

What a wonderful day it is! What a wonderful gift the Holy Spirit is!

Of course, there are some people present on the day of Pentecost who think that the disciples are all drunk. Jesus is being manifested to his disciples, and not the world. There are people there who harden their hearts to the event, and reject the Holy Spirit.

And so Jesus says in our reading: “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” And the same thing happens whenever we are in church—there are often some people who have not learnt to love Jesus yet, and think that church services are the driest, most boring thing the planet has ever seen. They don’t know what’s going on, and they never seek to find out what’s going on. Their minds grow numb to the language of the church, and they mock the church.

Pray for people like this. Pray for the Holy Spirit to call all people to faith, to gather them into the church, and to enlighten them with all of God’s gifts.

But think once more about Jesus words here: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him.”

Listen to the words: “he will keep my word”. What do you hear when you hear those words? So many people think “keeping Jesus’ words” means obeying his rules, and doing everything that he says. And so then people realise that they haven’t obeyed everything that Jesus says, they haven’t done everything that he has commanded, and so they think, “Well, if I don’t do those things, then there’s no hope for me”—and then they despair.

Listen—the Day of Pentecost is actually the day when Moses received the law of God on Mount Sinai all those many years ago. That was the day when the law was given. That was the day when God gave all of his rules to the human race. That’s why the Jews had a festival on this day.

But years later on the particular day of Pentecost that we celebrate today was the first time that salvation in Jesus’ name was preached. “Keeping Jesus’ words” means believing in the words about him as your Saviour, the words that he died for you, that he rose again for you, that he promises to give you the Holy Spirit. “Keeping Jesus’ words” means saying “Amen” when you hear that through the blood of Jesus, God the Father forgives you all your sins.

And when your sins are forgiven, when you trust in this, when you trust in the power of Jesus in your baptism, when you trust in the power of Jesus working through preaching, through the absolution, when you trust that in the Lord’s Supper Jesus is giving you the forgiveness of sins, then you can’t help but love him. And the Holy Spirit is poured out upon you, and constantly wants to show Jesus to you, and just how wonderful, loving and friendly he is.

And when we love Jesus, we keep his word: we believe in his forgiveness. And the Jesus promises that the Father will love you too. The Holy Spirit points you to Jesus so that you will trust in him, and love him—and then the Father also loves you. And Jesus says: “And we will come and make our home in him.”

May God the Father bless you abundantly on this day of Pentecost with the Holy Spirit, who is your guarantee and down payment of everlasting life! May our heavenly Father fill you with the Holy Spirit, and may the Holy Spirit point you to Jesus your living Saviour, risen from the dead and ascended to God the Father, so that you may learn to love Jesus. And then through the preaching and the sacraments outside of you, and through the reminding and presence of the Holy Spirit inside of you, the Father and the Son will come and make their home in you.

Amen.

Come, Holy Spirit, Giver of life, our Helper, our Comforter, teach us about Jesus and bring to our remembrance all that he has said to us. Fill us with the peace that Jesus leaves with us and gives to us. Amen.

Easter 7: Audio Sermon (20-May-2012)

Click title for link

Easter 7 [John 15:26-16:4] (20-May-2012)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (John 15:26—16:4)

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. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Today we celebrate the 7^th Sunday of Easter, which is a very unusual Sunday of the church year. It is after Ascension—but before Pentecost. Ascension is when Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after Easter, and Pentecost is when the disciples of Jesus receive the Holy Spirit 50 days after Easter.

And so we celebrate this Sunday as a kind of “waiting” Sunday. So in our Gospel reading today, we read another passage from Jesus’ conversations with his disciples on Maundy Thursday night, the night before he dies. And it seems to me that this passage was chosen for this Sunday because the verse which says: “I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”

The things that Jesus teaches the disciples in our gospel today, he tells in order to prepare them to receive the Holy Spirit later on in the future.

So as we prepare for Pentecost next week, and call to mind the event where the disciples of Jesus received the Holy Spirit, let’s also call to mind the fact that we have all received the Holy Spirit through Holy Baptism. We all continue to hear the Holy Spirit each week through the reading and preaching of the word of God. We all receive the Holy Spirit every time we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ.

Often in a time past, the office of the ministry—the ministry of pastors—was called the Office of the Holy Spirit, because everything a pastor does is giving people God’s very own gifts through which he sends his Holy Spirit—baptism, absolution, preaching, the Lord’s Supper.

Also, just as pastors speak the word of God in the pulpit, so also every Christian works together with their pastor in praying for the needs of the world. And every Christian receives the Holy Spirit every time they ask for him—as Jesus says in Luke’s gospel: “The heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

And so we come to our text, where Jesus says:

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.

Notice here, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Helper” or the “Comforter”. The word in Greek is Παράκλητος. Sometimes in old hymns and such, we come across situations where the Holy Spirit is called the “Paraclete”. This comes from the Greek word here, Παράκλητος. This word means someone who comes and helps another person, someone who comes along side of them, to support and encourage them, and comfort them.

In Ecclesiastes it says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!”

This is what the Holy Spirit is: a Helper, a Comforter. Someone to help you up when you fall. And most importantly, the Holy Spirit is a Helper in prayer, as St Paul says: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

Also, in Romans 16 it also says: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Listen to the words there: “the encouragement of the Scriptures”. That’s the same word that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit in our reading: the Holy Spirit is our Helper, our Comforter, our Encourager, who encourages us with the encouragement of the Scriptures, so that we might have hope.

What a wonderful gift the Holy Spirit is! And unlike the disciples those many years ago who were waiting for the Holy Spirit, we already have him! We continually receive the Holy Spirit, day after day, week after week, year after year. And the more we receive the Holy Spirit, the more we desire to receive him!

And Jesus says to us: “I will send [the Holy Spirit] to you from the Father.” Do you hear that? The Holy Spirit is sent to us from the Father by Jesus himself.

Now also, Jesus gives the Holy Spirit another name: first he called him the Comforter, now he calls him the Spirit of truth.

The Holy Spirit is not just a comforter in name only, but he actually gives true, heavenly comfort. So Jesus calls him the Spirit of truth.

What we have to remember is that the Holy Spirit is not a spirit of lies. St John says: 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. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

Notice before that Jesus said that he will send the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t belong to everyone already—it has to be sent by Jesus. So if a particular spirit says that Jesus has come in the flesh, then you know that it is the Holy Spirit. But if it doesn’t confess this, then you know that whatever spirit it is is a spirit of lies, and is an evil spirit.

We live in such a tolerant, inclusive, friendly society, that sometime we forget that there are actually liars in our midst. And Jesus calls the devil the father of lies. There are many things which our churches face, which our government faces, which our homes and families face which are lies—and we are called to stick to the truth. Some people don’t even believe there is such thing as truth—of course, Satan wants you to believe this. Only he wants to stop you believing in “truth”, so that you can’t ask God for the “Spirit of truth.” But the greatest problem with our culture today is not actually that people don’t believe in truth, it’s not that people don’t believe in God: it’s that people don’t believe in the devil—and this is the devil’s greatest trick, to convince people that he doesn’t exist. And so then, with this lie in the back of our minds, we say “I am my own truth” and we make God a liar.

That’s why Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of truth”, to distinguish him from any other false spirit.

And so Jesus says: “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.”

So we see that the Holy Spirit is a Helper, a Comforter, an Encourager. Jesus sends him to you from the Father. He is called the Spirit of truth. He proceeds from the Father. But how does the Holy Spirit comfort us? How does he show himself to us as the Spirit of truth? Jesus says: “He will bear witness about me.”

The comfort of the Holy Spirit doesn’t come from you—it doesn’t come from looking inside of you. That’s a false comfort. Any comfort that tells you: “Look inside of you and see what you can find”, is a fake, cheap comfort. The comfort of the Holy Spirit points you outside of yourself to your Lord Jesus dying for you on the cross. The comfort of the Holy Spirit points you to Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit point you to the Word of God, the Encourager encourages you with the encouragement of the Scriptures.

And Jesus also says to the disciples: And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

The apostles here, who are gathered together around the Last Supper on the night before Jesus died, will also bear witness, says Jesus. Their work will be connected to this work of witnessing. And when they witness, the Holy Spirit also witnesses.

This text is not talking first of all about individual Christians witnessing to their friends and neighbours, even though that’s very important. It’s talking about these apostles as the first pastors of the Christian church. Jesus is preparing them as preachers to be sent out.

And Jesus says, “You also will bear witness”, just like the Holy Spirit.

You see, there is no comfort of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, there is no gentle reminders in our minds and souls of the death of Jesus, without preaching. We don’t remember God’s word without hearing it first. If we feel like we’re sad, sick, or suffering and don’t have any comfort, we’re not supposed to sit and wait for the Holy Spirit to jump out of the sky to comfort us, but we should go and hear the word of God. Go to church and hear the bible, hear it preached. Go up to pastors, and badger them to speak the words of absolution to you! Say to them: “Hey! Jesus commanded his apostles, If you forgive anyone, they are forgiven. So get to it—and forgive me, for Jesus’ sake. Speak to me the comfort of Jesus, because when you bear witness of Jesus and his word, I know for sure that this is the witness of the Holy Spirit, and the voice of the Spirit of truth.” That’s what pastors are there for!

If there is one thing that is under the greatest attack today in the church, it is the office of the ministry. People think that they can scrunch their pastor up into a ball, and throw him away when they feel like it. I am so fortunate to be treated so well in this parish, but not every one of my brothers in the ministry is so blessed.

St Paul says in Romans 10: How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?...Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.” This is the comfort of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is talking about today.

But then Jesus says to the apostles: “I have said these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”

The church—pastors, together with all Christians—confess the truth together with the Spirit of truth. God places this holy call and privilege upon each of us. But also, there is a persecution that comes with the truth—wordly, physical comforts are taken away, so that the only place to turn to is the clear word of God where the Holy Spirit can comfort us in truth.

Think about the creed. All the different parts of the creed have been persecuted and Christians have shed their own blood. Those part of the creed which haven’t attracted bloodshed will probably do so soon. Every time we confess the creeds, we confess not just the faith of the apostles and the saints, but the martyrs. In the first two centuries, Christianity had to confess the clear words of Scripture in the face of paganism. They were thrown to the lions for one reason: they believed in God the Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth.

In the third, fourth and fifth centuries, they had to confess the clear words of Scripture about the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Christians were persecuted simply because they believed that Jesus Christ was true God and true man.

And so the history of the church goes on. We must still stick to the truth—to the truth of God’s word—because when we witness to the clear words of Scripture, we witness to Jesus; and when we witness to Jesus, we know that the Spirit of truth is with us.

But we might think: Isn’t the Holy Spirit the Comforter? The fact that we’re going to have a hard time in life isn’t very comforting. All this persecution, centuries of martyrdom, shrinking churches in our own time—what sort of comfort is that?

Well—the Holy Spirit witnesses to you about Jesus. And Jesus in his word gives you the forgiveness of sin. And a person with the forgiveness of sins is a person who will receive the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. St Paul says: “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” So a small, trifling piece of suffering or heartache or pain in this life will break forth into an eternity of peace, joy, love, and wonder.

And so we say: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

And Jesus says: 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.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, send us the Holy Spirit—the Comforter, the Spirit of truth—from the Father. Let him bear witness in our hearts about you, about your suffering, your death and your resurrection from the dead. Amen.

Ascension: Audio Sermon (17-May-2012)

Coming...

Ascension [Ezekiel 1 and Mark 16:14-20] (17-May-2012)

This sermon was preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (7pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Ezekiel 1 and Mark 16:19)

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In St Mark’s gospel we read that Jesus was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And many people think: So what? Churches throughout the world should be full of people to celebrate Ascension—so what’s so special about it? But so many people think that it means that Jesus went away in such a way that he’s simply not here any more, and that he is inaccessible. St Bernard in the 12^th century said: “The memory of Jesus is sweet, giving to the heart true joy, but above honey and everything is his sweet presence.” But even though Jesus was taken in a cloud, and the disciples were there looking up into the sky, Jesus also promised to be “with them always to the end of the age”, not just spiritually, but bodily, physically, so that he himself could breathe out the Holy Spirit on every Christian in the church throughout the centuries to come.

So, the church is here, Holy Baptism is possible, the Lord’s Supper is possible, because Jesus Christ, true God and true man, has ascended into heaven and has sat down at the right hand of God the Father. Everything that is possible of God is possible of Jesus. If God is everywhere, Jesus too can be everywhere.

It’s the Ancient Greeks who saw earth down here and heaven up there. But the Ancient Hebrews, from whom we learn the truth about God, saw heaven and earth as converging. God was always intervening in human history, and he set up the Divine Service to allow his holy people to have access to him. In the Old Testament, they had limited access to God through sacrifice of bulls and sheep and goats, but now in the New Testament, we have unlimited access to God through the blood of Jesus poured out for us on the cross, so that we can receive all the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But as we think about the ascension of Jesus, I’d like us to study Ezekiel chapter 1, which can give us some insights into what we actually mean when we say that Jesus has ascended into heaven.

The book of Ezekiel starts like this:

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

The first chapter of Ezekiel describes an event where the prophet saw into heaven and described it. The ESV bible here says that he saw “visions” of God—but this isn’t quite correct. Literally, it should say he saw the “appearance” or the “form” of God. What Ezekiel saw was not a vision—he didn’t “have a vision”, like we might say. He saw something that was external, objective, and outside of him. And Ezekiel also tells us where he was. He was “in exile”, in “the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal”. He says: “the hand of the Lord was upon him there.” Ezekiel was a priest. He ministered at the temple in Jerusalem, like Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father. But unlike Zechariah, Ezekiel wasn’t at home. He was far away from home in a foreign land.

In ancient times, every country had its own gods. The Egyptians had their gods, the Babylonians had their gods, the Romans had their gods, the Greeks had the gods, the Persians had their gods. It was just like Hinduism today—Hindu and India are almost the same word. You can’t really be a Hindu if you’re not Indian. Like many ancient religions, Hinduism is connected to India—it’s connected to the River Ganges, and all that sort of thing.

But in this passage, God shows that he is not a god who is confined to Jerusalem and Israel, but he goes to meet Ezekiel in Babylon. He is not simply a God who travels, but the God who made heaven and earth, and so can be everywhere.

Then we read:

As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above. Each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wing of another, while two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches moving to and fro among the living creatures. And the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro, like the appearance of a flash of lightning.

Notice that Ezekiel uses the word “likeness”, “likeness” all the time. Ezekiel is describing something that is almost indescribable, but he can tell us what it looked like. If Ezekiel were making this up, he might ramble on and on, but he describes all of this in an orderly way.

He tells us of a stormy wind, a great cloud, brightness, fire flashing all around. And in the middle of this there is a place of focus—gleaming metal, he says. “Khashmal” in Hebrew. And in the midst of this he saw these four living creatures.

In chapter 10 of Ezekiel, Ezekiel calls them “cherubim”, and he recognises them as cherubim. (After this description, I hardly know why it’s a compliment to call a baby a cherub!!) In fact, of all the passages in the bible that teach us about cherubim, this is one of the central passages. Right at the beginning of Genesis, we are told about the cherubim and the flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Sometimes in the liturgy or in hymns, we hear about cherubim and seraphim. In Ezekiel 1 we read about the cherubim, in Isaiah 6 we read about the seraphim who cry out “Holy, holy, holy”.

But we see that they are quite magnificent creatures. To our imaginations, they are repulsive, scary, terrifying. We have each winged creature with four faces—a human face, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle. Ezekiel says: Their appearance was like burning coals of fire.

Then we read:

Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

We see here these amazing wheels which again highlight to us that the cherubim travel with God who is everywhere. They move everywhere on the earth. It says in Psalm 18: “God rode on the cherub and flew”. So Ezekiel describes for us these wheels.

Then we read the next part, which is very important.

Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads. And under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body. And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army. When they stood still, they let down their wings. And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads. When they stood still, they let down their wings.

And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.

Ezekiel describes the appearance of God. He says: “And seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.” We are created in the image of God, and so God here reveals himself with a human likeness—but also shrouded in mystery and light and fire.

But here is what is just so incredibly important when we think about the ascension of Jesus. Ezekiel describes the likeness of the throne and likeness of a human appearance on top of it. Before that, he describes the likeness of the cherubim. But between the cherubim and the throne, Ezekiel describes a very important detail: an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal.

And what’s the significance of this, you might ask?

If there is one thing that Ezekiel is really trying to make sure that we all understand here is that there is a separation between the cherubim and God who is seated on the throne. There is a platform, an expanse, a crystal structure—God is seated on a throne on top of it, and the cherubim cannot reach above it. They are below it.

And Ezekiel writes:

Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking. (And that concludes the first chapter of Ezekiel.)

Many ancient religions, like Hinduism, have gods who are half-animal, half-man, winged animals, and such like. And we shouldn’t laugh at them. The cherubim are very much like the Sphinx in Ancient Egypt, the Griffin in Ancient Greece, and maybe even a bit like some of the idols of modern day Hinduism.

But Ezekiel doesn’t dismiss it all as fantasy. There are all sorts of invisible living creatures that God has created, angels and archangels. But what these other religions didn’t know was that these living creatures were not gods. These religions worship these creatures (a bit like the cherubim) as gods. But Ezekiel says: They are not gods. They are servants to the one true God who rules over all.

Over all these cherubim, there is an expanse. And over the expanse, there is a throne. And God is seated upon the throne.

So when we say that Jesus went into heaven, that’s one thing. But where did he go? Below the expanse, or above the expanse? He went and sat down at the right hand of God. He is above the expanse—equal with God in power, majesty, and nature. Jesus is not one of the living creatures, he is the Lord of angels and archangels, and he is our living master and Lord.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses also want to make Jesus less than God, but if they do that, they put him below the expanse to be with the cherubim. That is not what Jesus is! That is not what the gospel of Mark says about him. That is not what Thomas meant, when he says: “My Lord and my God!” Anyone who wants to make Jesus less than equal to God wants to put Jesus at God the Father’s feet, and that is not where God the Father wants to put him. He exalted him to his right side as his equal.

And so, this is the amazing thing at the ascension of Jesus: that not just a human likeness is seated on the throne, but a true flesh and blood human being, the flesh of God, born of the Virgin Mary. And this Jesus, who we worship, rides upon the cherubim and visits his church, and blesses us, covers us with his blood, baptises us, speaks his words to us, and gives us his own body and blood to us to eat and drink.

And so here we are, like Ezekiel, as exiles in a foreign land, living among a people who are turning away from God, and Jesus Christ comes seated upon the cherubim into our midst as our Lord and God, and still pours out on us his gifts. Like Ezekiel, the hand of the Lord is upon us here. The hands of our living Lord Jesus are resting upon us with blessing and grace, with life, forgiveness and salvation.

And so we praise our wonderful, glorious, gracious Jesus in the words of our hymn: Crown him with many crowns, the Lamb upon the throne!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that you ascended into heaven and are seated at the right hand of God the Father. We confess that you are our Lord and our God, true man and true God in one person. We know that even the memory of you, and the thought of you is sweet, but even sweeter than honey and everything is the joy of being in your presence! Amen.

Easter 6: Audio Sermon (13-May-2012)

Click title for link

Easter 6 [John 16:23-30] (13-May-2012)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am, lay reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yarram (2pm), and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (John 16:23-30)

Until now you have asked nothing in my name.

Ask, and you will receive, that you joy may be full.

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our reading today, Jesus teaches us about prayer. And prayer is such a difficult topic to preach on. Because there are those people who think that they have a great “prayer life”, and think that they know everything about prayer. They know all the techniques, they know how to make a prayer go on for hours. And on Sundays, when pastors preach about prayer they say, “Good for you, pastor! You tell those other people who are lazy in their prayer life what they should do.”

But then, much more commonly, there are those who feel quite burdened whenever they hear the word “prayer”, because they know that they should “pray without ceasing”, and simply put: they don’t. They don’t feel as though they pray enough or as much as they would like. They struggle in prayer, they struggle in life, they struggle with sin and with sickness, and say: if only I could pray more, and pray better!

So when I, as a pastor, sit down to write a sermon on prayer, what am I going to say? Am I going to make the self-righteous people more self-righteous, and those who despair despair more? You can see how difficult it is to preach about prayer.

That’s why it’s so important to preach and proclaim the words of Jesus, and not to preach my own words and opinions—because Jesus is a much better pastor than anyone who has ever lived, and he knows best how to give us encouragement. The very fact that he rose from the dead means that his words are particularly worth listening to.

Before we get to our gospel reading today, one of the other things which makes preaching on this topic difficult, is that we as pastors never get to see the results of our preaching. We plant the seed but very rarely see the harvest—because in Matthew 6, Jesus says: “When you pray, go to your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.”

If pastors tell people to do what Jesus says here, what does this mean for pastors? It means that we can’t tell people to pray, and then go around with a notepad, ticking people off to see that they are doing it. Why? Because Jesus tells you to pray in secret! – if not in the privacy of your own little room, then in the privacy of your own heart.

So when pastors preach on this topic, we never see the results. The only satisfaction that we can ever receive is the satisfaction of knowing that the word of God has been preached. If the words of Jesus have been put out there, then we know that we’ve done our job. Someone else can reap the harvest!

But then, this is the same as with prayer – there are so many problems that we all face every day -- the devil is roaring around like a roaring lion, the world is active in trying to crucify Jesus again and again, and our flesh is constantly needing to be tamed! And so, together, as Christians, we are fighting a battle every day. Pastors fight the battle through preaching – the lies of the devil, the world and the flesh needs to be silenced, and the death, resurrection and forgiveness of Jesus needs to be spoken. But every Christian fights the same battle through prayer – and prayer is what changes the world, it is what changes lives, and it makes the devil run a mile.

A world without prayer is like a body without a soul. If it weren’t for prayer, the world would be choking to find its life. People often say that prayer is the last resort of a desperate man. But it’s precisely in those desperate moments in life when we discover what it really means to be human – to talk and enter into conversation with the God who created us.

+++

Our Gospel reading today are words which Jesus spoke on Maundy Thursday night, just like our gospel readings from the past few weeks. In our reading today, Jesus says: In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

What’s Jesus talking about when he says: “In that day you will ask nothing of me?” We pray to Jesus, don’t we? So what’s he talking about?

Well, listen to the next part, where Jesus says: “Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”

Sometimes, people have come up to me because they know I am a Christian, and say: “Can you say a prayer for me?” or “Can you put a word in for me to the man upstairs?” This might have happened to you every now and then.

Now, this would have happened to Jesus all the time. People wanted to ask Jesus to pray to God for them and put in a good word to the Father for them. They recognised that Jesus was a good man, a holy man, and they thought that God was more likely to listen to him than to them. But here Jesus is saying: When I have risen from the dead, you will ask nothing of me. You won’t need to ask me to put in a good word to God for you. Why? He says: Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. You will be able to go to God the Father and ask him yourself. You will have full access to God’s throne-room. God the Father will give you his full attention—not because of yourself, or because you have deserved it and earned it, but because Jesus has died for you and risen from the dead for you. You are baptised and washed in his blood. So when God the Father looks at you, all he sees is Jesus, and all of his purity and holiness. So Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name—not in your own name, but in Jesus’ name—whatever you ask in my name, he will give it to you.

And so Jesus says: Until now you have asked nothing in my name. This is a new way to pray, says Jesus. There is going to be one way to pray to God that makes every prayer perfect—and that is to pray in the name of Jesus, so that Jesus blood covers up every stammering word, and every strange request and desire, and presents it to God, just as if Jesus himself were asking it. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Can you see what Jesus does for us here, and what a wonderful Saviour he is? Can you see what a privilege it is to pray, what a joy it is? You know that you can make absolutely no mistakes in prayer when you pray to the Father in Jesus’ name! There’s nothing wrong with your prayers – at all – if they are prayed in Jesus’ name! There’s nothing at all wrong with your prayers, not because you are perfect, or because your words are perfect, but because Jesus is perfect and his words are perfect.

By the way—sometimes people don’t know what to say when they pray. If you don’t know what to say, then say nothing, and let Jesus pray for you. He knows how to talk even if you don’t. But also, Romans 8 says: The [Holy] Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Isn’t this a wonderful passage? Even when we groan and sigh, and don’t know what to say, we know that this is the Holy Spirit’s work, and that he is bringing a prayer to God for us. You see—prayer isn’t our work, it is God’s work in us, it is God’s work through us. When we pray, we are simply joining in with what Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are already doing—in us and for us. I remember reading a book once where a story was told about some sick people at a nursing home who were put out in the sun every day, and it actually did them a lot of good, not because the patients did anything, but simply because of the sunshine. Prayer’s the same: when we pray, we are simply putting ourselves out in God’s sunshine and letting him do his work on us, and bring about some good in us. Jesus simply enjoys our company—and he brings us with him to his Father’s house.

But also, Jesus teaches us the words to pray. I won’t go into detail about this now, but if you want to pray, pray the Lord’s Prayer. Learn the Lord’s Prayer, and study what each piece of it means. The Small Catechism is brilliant for this—it’s so incredibly useful and gives so much help. Then there’s heaps and heaps of psalms—all of which are brilliant prayers for every situation in life. God knows what your needs are: he knows you’re pretty hopeless when it comes to prayer. He doesn’t mind. So he gives you the Holy Spirit to groan for you, he gives you the psalms and the Lord’s Prayer as a school to teach you. Even the words “Our Father” teach us that we never come to the Father by ourselves. It doesn’t say “My Father”, but “Our Father”, because we only come in prayer to God together with Jesus.

But later in our reading Jesus says: In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.

So you see here that Jesus says much more explicitly what we have already said. Jesus says: “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf.” Jesus prays with us to the Father—he comes and stands with us. We have full access to God the Father. And God loves us and he listens to our prayers, because we love Jesus and believe in Jesus.

Jesus says: The Father loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

What a wonderful thing it is that right at the end of this marvellous sermon of Jesus from Maundy Thursday night, he wants to teach his disciples how to pray. And what better way to encourage them to pray than to tell us that the Father loves us? Because who would want to pray to God, if we didn’t know that he loved us? And if you want to know that God loves you, look to Jesus—he died for you, didn’t he? He loved you to the bitter end, didn’t he?

Jesus says: Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, in your Son Jesus Christ, we have peace. In this world, in this flesh, we have tribulation, we have all kinds of suffering and problems. But we take heart, because your Son Jesus Christ has overcome the world, and we offer our prayers to you in his name. Abba, Father, teach us to pray, in the name of Jesus. Amen.