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 7th 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.
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