Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
The sermon
text for today was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the apostle St John. And
he was one of the disciples who was there on the day of Pentecost, when the
Holy Spirit came upon them with wind and fire. And we read from his gospel
where he records Jesus prophesying about Pentecost:
If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” And St John explains
these words: Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in
him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus
was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)
Prayer: Lord
Jesus Christ, breathe out upon us your Holy Spirit to work powerfully and
mightily amongst us this morning, and to me that I may preach well, and to all
of us that we may hear well. Amen.
Recently, an older pastor gave me
this advice about pastoral care. He said: When you listen to people, listen
to what they say about Jesus. Because people can call all kinds of things a
“god”, and people can call all kinds of things a “spirit”, but there’s only one
Jesus.
Now this might seem like a
strange thing to say, especially on the day of Pentecost, when you might be
thinking, “I thought we were supposed to be talking about the Holy Spirit.”
Yes, today we’re talking about
the Holy Spirit. You’re right! But do you know where the Holy Spirit comes
from? This is a critical question that every Christian today needs to think
about.
If we look at the creed, either
the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed, we can see that it’s split up into
three parts: each part has to do with a person of the Trinity. The first part
is about the Father: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven
and earth. The second part is about the Son: And in Jesus Christ, his
only Son, our Lord. And the third part is about the Holy Spirit: I
believe in the Holy Spirit.
But these three parts don’t just
show us what we believe, but it also shows us the history of the church.
In the first two centuries or so, Christians were sent out into the pagan
world, where people believed in many gods. At this time, when the Christian
church was preaching about Jesus to its first disciples, they were thrown to
the lions, because they preached that there was only one God. They preached
that Caesar was not god, that Jupiter was not god, and all the other Roman
gods, that none of them were God. There was only one God, who is the Father
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. One early Christian martyr, named
Polycarp, was thrown to the lions, and to give him one last chance, he was
asked to “deny the atheists”. The Romans called Christians “atheists”, because Christians
didn’t believe in all the different gods. So Polycarp gestured towards to Roman
crowd gathered there and said that they were all atheists because they didn’t
believe in any god that actually existed! So the first Christians had to fight
for the first part of the creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker
of heaven and earth.
Throughout the next few centuries
in Christian history, the big dispute was whether Jesus Christ was true God.
During the third, fourth and fifth centuries there were many great Christians,
who confessed what the bible says in its truth and purity about Jesus Christ.
This dispute became so fierce that the emperor of Rome called the Christians
together to sort this out at a council, called the Council of Nicaea. And they
wrote what we now call “The Nicene Creed”, which we are going to say together
today. Go and read carefully what it says about Jesus being God of God,
Light of Light, true God of true God.
Now, what era of history do we
find ourselves in? We Christians today need to search the Scriptures and learn
from the mouth of God what he says about the Holy Spirit.
I would say one thing about all
this, which I think that each one of us should think about very carefully: All
the problems we have in the church today amount to one thing – people don’t
believe in the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is true God, he is
nothing less than true God, and is completely equal to the Father and the Son.
And nevertheless, God the Father
sends us the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ and his holy, pure, life-giving
words. And the Holy Spirit will not be given at all, not one little bit,
through anyone else’s words. If you have Jesus and his words, his way, his
truth, his life, you have the Holy Spirit. If you have someone else’s words,
someone else’s way (which is a dead-end way), someone else’s truth (which of
course is a lie), or someone else’s life (which is death in disguise), you
don’t have the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit says: thus says
the Lord. The devil says: Did God really say?
The first way is the way of life,
the second way is the way of death. It’s as simple as that.
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, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from
God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now
is in the world already.
Listen carefully to these words: Every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. I
would encourage each of you to go and read the history of the day of Pentecost
in Acts 2, and take note very carefully about what Peter preaches on that day.
He doesn’t actually say very much about the Holy Spirit: most of the sermon is
dedicated to preaching about Jesus coming in the flesh, and being raised from
the dead.
And so, have a think back to the
advice I received from that pastor: Listen to what people say about Jesus.
Because people can call all kinds of things a “god”, and people can call all
kinds of things a “spirit”, but there’s only one Jesus. As St John says: Every
spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of
antichrist.
And so with that in mind, let’s
have a look at our Gospel reading today.
We read: On the last day of
the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let
him come to me and drink.
Here is Jesus at this great
festival, and we read that he stood up and cried out! This was no ordinary
message that he wanted the people to hear. He wanted to speak it from the
rooftops, to make sure it was heard loud and clear. He says: If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Oh boy! Surely you know what a
thirsty world we are living in today. Surely you know what a thirsty nation
Australia really is today. Surely you know how thirsty and parched Mt Barker
is.
Do you know this? I’m not talking
about the fact that South Australia is such a dry state and we all need to have
rainwater tanks. I’m talking about that great spiritual thirst. And I’m not
talking first of all of all the people who are out there in the world who have
never heard the gospel. I’m talking about all you thirsty people inside the
church.
Maybe you think you are not
thirsty. Well, Jesus says: Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
If you are not thirsty, there’s no Jesus for you, and there’s no Holy
Spirit for you. Jesus will only let a thirsty one come to him and drink from
him.
You see, there are all kinds of
lies around today which say that the whole future of the church depends on you,
personally. People say: you must work, you must act, you must busy yourself
until you drop dead, otherwise the whole church must fail. Wrong! The church is
not built through your work, and your actions. The church belongs to God, it is
built through the pure words and works and actions of Jesus Christ.
You might think that your
spirituality, your prayer life, your salvation all depends on you, and your
brilliant ideas. You might even be so filled up and drunk with yourself that
you come into the presence of God foaming at the mouth. God will not tolerate
such a thing in his presence. Everything depends on Jesus and his word and his
brilliant ideas. And there is only one real Jesus.
If you want to replace Jesus and
his word and his sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper with something
else, the only thing that you can replace him with is human works.
Jesus says: If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Jesus compares himself to a
living fountain, a running river, a clear stream. Psalm 46 says: There is a
river whose streams make glad the city of God. Jesus Christ is that river.
Every word that he speaks is a pure living drop of everlasting water than comes
pouring out of heaven into your mouth. Why do you think Jesus pours out his
Holy Spirit on us through the use of water in holy baptism? Because he wants to
show us that he is living water. And how do we drink from this living water? We
listen to the words that come streaming forth out the mouth of this man, Jesus
Christ, who is true God. I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Yours sins are forgiven; go in peace. Take and eat,
this is my body given for you. Take and drink, this is my blood shed for you
for the forgiveness of sins.
Just think what Jesus can achieve
with one syllable of his word. Just think what Jesus can achieve with the
tiniest drop of water in baptism. Just think of what Jesus can achieve with one
crumb of the Lord’s Supper. And we are given not just to drink from him in
small measure, but he says: I have come that they may have life and have it
abundantly. Think of the soldier who pierced Jesus’ side on the cross, and
then the blood and water that flowed out: think about how this fountain flowed
for you, and how Jesus comes to wash you in the middle of his church today from
that same fountain.
Listen thirsty one! Listen, all
of you, who come here to church with parched tongues, with your dried up
palates, with your tongues sticking to your gums, with your dried up jaws. If
anyone is thirsty, let him come to Jesus and drink.
The Holy Spirit does not proceed
from you, and the Holy Spirit does not proceed from me. The Holy Spirit
proceeds from the Father and the Son. That’s why in the church we seek to
preach nothing but the word of God, and to preach to you Christ crucified. St
Peter calls the teaching of false prophets waterless springs. It is
dried up. Jesus is a fountain of the water of life. He says: If anyone is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Jesus says: Whoever believes
in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living
water.’”
Here we see what happens when the
Holy Spirit draws us near to Jesus and when we come and listen to his words: We
believe in him. And Jesus says: Whoever believes in me, as the
Scriptures has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
Here Jesus cancels all works and
makes them nothing. Maybe you have tried to work hard for Jesus and you have
thought that your reward may be the Holy Spirit. Maybe you exerted all your
effort so that you too could receive a taste of whatever spiritual gift you saw
in a friend of yours. Maybe you have sweated blood so that you could receive
some gift of the Holy Spirit. Maybe even you have thought that all your getting
out of bed on Sunday mornings and making the effort to simply come to church
earns you the Holy Spirit, as if there’s nothing here worth hearing and nothing
worth receiving from God.
It’s all cancelled! Jesus doesn’t
say, whoever really tries hard, whoever passes a kidney stone for my sake. No:
he says: Whoever believe in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart
will flow rivers of living water.”
Listen to how it says: Out of
his heart will flow rivers of living water. This living water will flow out
of you and overflow to other people. The temptation again here is to go and try
and fill up on the Holy Spirit somewhere in your heart. No—don’t go to your
heart for your own living water. It’s the wrong place. Go to Jesus—fill up from
him. Go and drink from him. Fill up on his word, on his sweet gospel, that
forgives each and every single one of your sins. This is where the Holy Spirit
is to be found. Notice how in the book of Acts, it doesn’t say that the Holy
Spirit increased in people. It says that the word of God increased, and the
Holy Spirit is sent where the word of God increases. Fill up from the words of
Jesus, and not in such a way that you’re looking to follow a set of rules, as
if Jesus is giving you some magic formula. No—it says: Whoever believes in
me. Yes, Jesus: I know you are not a liar. I know that what you have said
in your word is truth, that you love me, and that you have all the power in
your hands to carry out your work of salvation in me. As St Peter says: Pay
attention to the word of God, as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, until the
Holy Spirit convinces you of the truth of this powerful and living word.
So what was this living water?
We read: Now this [Jesus] said
about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet
the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
We see here a wonderful prophesy
of the day of Pentecost! And now: Jesus has been glorified, and the Spirit has
been given. Do you see how the Holy Spirit once again depends not on our
glorification, but on the glorification of Jesus? The Holy Spirit will not be
given to us in our self-glory, our self-promotion—no, the Holy Spirit is poured
out on the church when Jesus is glorified. And we believe this happened when
Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God.
And so, who will pour out this
Holy Spirit upon the church? Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus. The Holy Spirit will not
be manipulated by you, the Holy Spirit cannot be bought, the Holy Spirit cannot
be pressured, blackmailed, coerced, or forced in any way. The Holy Spirit is
true God. The Holy Spirit will be breathed out by Jesus, through his word, and
he will be breathed out by no other person, through no other mouth, and through
no other words.
Jesus says: Whoever is
thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture
has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, send us the
Holy Spirit. Let us come to you and drink from you, we who are so thirsty, and
have spent too long drinking from our own fountains and dried up springs. By
the living power of the Holy Spirit, strengthen in us your word and faith until
we die. Amen.
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