Easter 7 A Wednesday [John 17:1-11] (4-Jun-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mount Barker (11am).

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 12 disciples who was present with Jesus at the Last Supper, when Jesus prayed the words from our gospel reading today, which we read earlier. And we read:

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

 (John 17:1-11)

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

In our Sunday’s Gospel reading, we read a part from what if often called Jesus’ High-priestly prayer. Just before Jesus is about to go and die for the sin of the world, just before he is about to offer himself as the great sacrifice for the sin of the world, he prays this wonderful prayer in the hearing of his disciples. And this is the only place in the whole bible, where we hear Jesus praying intimately with his Father at great length. Sometimes, we read about where Jesus prayed a sentence or two, but here we have a whole chapter purely devoted to a single prayer of Jesus.

And it is a great privilege to come and listen to Jesus as he prays this prayer. If you read the gospel of Luke, Jesus’ prayers are mentioned quite often. Even when Jesus is baptised, Luke is the only evangelist to mention the fact that Jesus was praying at this time.

One of the things that I notice about this high-priestly prayer from John 17 is that Jesus speaks in a way that we don’t normally speak. It’s very difficult to understand and take in if the whole thing is read in one sitting. And I think that it to be expected. I would expect that Jesus’ prayers are most of the time so holy and pure, that it’s almost too much for us to take in.

At the same time, the words that Jesus speaks are not hard to understand. Jesus prays in such simplicity, much simpler than we pray. We often think we have to make up big long complicated prayers, so that we end up patting ourselves on the back when we’ve prayed, or else we think that none of our prayers would be any good anyway, so we just don’t pray in the first place.

Jesus today teaches us something completely new. He says to us: I know that you’re hopeless at prayer. I know that you’ve really got no idea. I know that those who think they know everything about prayer know absolutely nothing. But now, I am going to teach you about prayer. I am going to send you my Holy Spirit to give you the words, to help you. And I am going to give you my name, like a password, so that whenever you come before the Father to pray, you can use my name and join in with me in my prayers and I will join in with you.

So here we come to God with all our second-rate prayers, all our fumblings and half-sentences, and embarrassment and stumbling, and Jesus knows all of it. And he says: I am going to cover your prayers with my blood, so that when God the Father hears all your dodgy prayers, he will hear them as completely perfect prayers because of me. Just as Jesus covers all our sin, so that when God the Father looks on us he sees only the purity of Jesus, so also Jesus covers up all our prayers, so that when God the Father listens to us he hears only the prayers of Jesus.

In our reading today, we read where Jesus says: Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

I’d like to stop and reflect on these last words today[1]: Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. This is one of the most wonderful passages in the whole New Testament which speaks of the eternal divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It also it speaks about the glory and majesty of his human nature. Just think—if Jesus had a glory with God before the world existed, then he must be almighty God. This is what Thomas confesses, when he sees the wounds of Jesus for himself and says to him: My Lord and my God. Jesus had this wonderful glory with God before the world existed. And so, in the letter to the Hebrews, the writer calls him the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. He calls Jesus the radiance of the glory of God—this is just like the radiance that goes out from the sun, that bright light, and yet that light is still united to the sun. So also, Jesus is called the radiance of the glory of God. The radiance goes out from God and yet Jesus is still united to God and is true God together with the Father. Also, Hebrews calls him the exact imprint of his nature. He is God’s image, the very image of his nature, and also at the same time he is God. So if Jesus already has all of these things, why does Jesus pray this prayer, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world existed? Well, Jesus is about the suffer and die. He has taken on a human body, and now this human body which belongs to Jesus is going to be glorified with that same glory which he had before the world existed. Jesus’ flesh, his human body, his humanity is going to be glorified with divine brightness and radiance and glory when he ascends into heaven. It’s not some kind of ghost that gives life to the world, but Jesus’ flesh gives life the world. Think about it: The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If Jesus weren’t a true man, he wouldn’t have any blood. If he weren’t exalted and glorified with the glory which he had before the world existed, then he wouldn’t be able to cleanse us. And so Jesus has real human blood, and yet as true God is able to come and transcend space and time and scrub us clean with this same blood.

You might like to think of the time when Jesus was transfigured. You can see there when his body shone brighter than the sun. Now, because Jesus has ascended into heaven, His eternal divinity shines perfectly in his holy body, as his eternal temple, and God’s glory fills this temple from top to bottom. This is the same body that we are going to come and eat in a few minutes, and Jesus’ cleansing blood is the same blood we are going to come and drink.

This brightness and glory and radiance is hidden from us though. We can only believe it through the word. Jesus conceals this glory in his human body, and hides it from us, because it would be too much for us. But he tells us about it so that we would believe in it. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.

This is such a wonderful comfort for us, as we think about the fact that our bodies too are going to be glorified just like the glorified body of our Lord Jesus Christ. For Jesus, he is glorified with the glory which he had with his Father before the world existed. We will probably not be glorified in exactly the same holy, special way that Jesus is glorified with, but it will still be a glorification.

St Paul says: Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven… For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable will put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

And this is what we have come to share even today when we hear the simple word of God and receive the sacrament today, the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. We come to share in that glory, the glory which Jesus had before the world existed.

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we ask that you would come and pray with us, and we thank you for your continual prayers for us, which we catch a glimpse of in the high priestly prayer in John 17. Teach us to pray, Lord, and send your Holy Spirit to us, to guide us and lead us in your school of prayer. Amen.

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Easter 7 A: Audio Sermon (1-Jun-2014)

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Easter 7 A [John 17:1-11] (1-Jun-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mount Barker (8.30am, 10.30am).

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 12 disciples who was present with Jesus at the Last Supper, when Jesus spoke the words from our gospel reading today, which we read earlier. And we read:

Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. (John 17:1-11)

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

This Sunday is a particularly special Sunday. It is a kind of “waiting” Sunday, because it is between two major church festivals: the Ascension, where we celebrate Jesus going up into heaven 40 days after Easter (which we celebrated on Thursday), and Pentecost, where we celebrate Jesus pouring out the Holy Spirit on the church 50 days after Easter (which we hope to celebrate next Sunday). So today lies in the middle. And Jesus said to his disciples before his ascension: Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

All those many years ago, the disciples were waiting for the Holy Spirit. Now in the creed we say: He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. So, now that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, what do you think he is doing? He is praying: he is constantly praying!

Jesus has not left the church to leave us to fend for ourselves. He is the centre of the church, and at the very heart of the church is Jesus constantly praying for the church. Jesus is constantly sustaining your life through his own prayers.

Today our Gospel reading is part of a great prayer which Jesus prays on the night when he was betrayed, Maundy Thursday night, the night before Good Friday, when he dies on the cross.

And it is such a great mystery when we think of Jesus praying! Every prayer that we pray is simply joining in with these wonderful prayers of Jesus. Jesus prayers are a great ocean, and our prayers are just a small drop. We can’t pray one word without Jesus coming along side of us and letting us share in his prayers. Every word we speak is covered in his blood and covered with his prayers. And he takes our prayers and weaves them into his.  

We so often have such a wrong idea of prayer. We think that prayer is all about us trying to twist God’s arm to give us something. No – it’s not about that at all! Every time our lips are opened to pray, we do it because Jesus had pushed us to pray, and he wants to lead us to come and pray with him, and because he wants to give us a particular gift. Jesus has already decided what gift it is that he wants to give to us, so he pushes us a little so that our lips will ask our heavenly Father. And then when we have asked, and when Jesus has given us whatever gift he wants, our joy is increased!

What gift does Jesus want to give you today? What does he want to give you this week? What thing would Jesus have you ask him at this point in your life?

Let’s come to our Gospel reading today. I have always found this particular chapter of the bible rather hard to get into, and not immediately easy to understand what’s going on. But at the same time, wouldn’t you expect that? Sometimes when a person comes to church the first time, they have no idea what’s going on! So also, wouldn’t we think that if we were allowed to listen to Jesus pray, we would find what he says just too holy and too glorious for our simple, sinful human minds to understand?

Those who are interested in this chapter of the bible will just get bored. But may God the Holy Spirit come to all of us to taste a little crumb from God’s table this morning, so that we can learn something of the deep and profound mystery of prayer, and learn from Jesus’ own words how to pray.

We read: When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

Jesus is our high priest. And every high priest has three duties: to teach, to pray, and to offer sacrifices. In John chapter 14, 15, and 16, we read about where Jesus teaches his disciples and encourages them in a wonderful sermon. Now in chapter 17 (our reading today), he prays. And then in chapter 18 and 19, we read about the sacrifice he made by suffering and dying for sin of the whole world.

So we read: When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven. Notice, how Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven. Isn’t this such a great mystery? Do you lift your eyes to heaven? Do you have a longing to go there, and to be set free from the burden of this life? Here we see Jesus taking all the sorrow of the world upon himself, and he simply looks up, together with everyone in the past, present, and future, who has ever uttered a sigh and a cry for help to God.

And he starts his prayer so simply. He says: Father. This is so simple and yet so profound. When Jesus prays, Father, then God says to him: My dear Son. Whenever your heart calls to God as Father, then God simply says to you: My dear child, what do you want?

Jesus says: Father, the hour has come. The time for my suffering and death has come, and as Jesus says about this time in the other gospels: My soul is greatly troubled, even to death. This is an hour of dread, and of pain. What a terrible hour this is for Jesus that has come! Yet, at the same time, it’s only an hour—it’s only going to be a small time. What’s one Good Friday compared with an eternity of joy and happiness and gladness?

And so what does Jesus ask would happen at this hour? He says to the Father: Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. Jesus asks that everything that is going to happen will be to the glory of God the Father. And Jesus asks the Father to rest his hand of blessing on him in everything he is about to do that it may be a glorious thing. The cross, the suffering, the death of Christ is not his failure at all, but it is his glory! And his resurrection is his glory! Just think of all the saints in heaven gathered around Jesus singing: Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing! Here is the Lamb of God who was slain on Good Friday, and raised on Easter Sunday—and it is all to his glory. And Jesus glorifies his Father!

Jesus prays: Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. Jesus has taken on human flesh, and he has been given authority over all flesh. And Jesus can see that the whole human race would be completely lost without him, and unless he did something about it. All the authority to fix this is in his hands. And so Jesus knows that that Father has given him authority over all flesh. Not one person who has ever lived on this earth is excluded: each person is given to Jesus, and Jesus has authority over all flesh. And so Jesus is going to go and die, and to rise. And Jesus does all of this so that all those who believe in him will be given eternal life. If they reject him, then there’s no eternal life, but there’s only eternal death.

So we might say to Jesus: OK, Jesus, I know that you have been given authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all those that God has given to you. Well, Jesus, how do we receive this eternal life? How do we inherit it? So Jesus says: And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Now here’s something strange! It says here that eternal life consists in knowing God and knowing Jesus. But you know, there are all kinds of people who know about God and know about Jesus, but they’re not saved. They might know doctrine the doctrine of the Trinity, but they don’t actually believe in it. How can knowing God and Jesus be eternal life?

Well, have a think about fresh bread. Do you know what fresh bread is? Do you what it tastes like? Do you know what it smells like? If the answer is “no”, then you don’t know fresh bread. You can’t look at a picture of it in a cook-book and say that you what fresh bread is. Meanwhile, there are all these people who are thinking: Hmmm! Fresh bread… straight out of the oven. The kitchen or the whole house is filled with the smell. And when you take it out of the oven, and melt some butter on it, it’s just so tasty!

This is what Jesus is getting at when he says: This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent. Knowing God means to experience his living power. This is what it means to know God: to enjoy the sweet delights of his word, where he just pulls one promise and one comfort after the other out of the oven, and serve it up to us all warm and fresh. And to know Jesus Christ? What does it mean to know the fact that one drop of his blood is the ocean which drowns each and every single one of our sins? What does it mean to know that one single word of his prayers gives us everything we need for any given day in our whole life? And the deeper we know our sin, the deeper we know the power of the blood of Christ. To think he could have paid for the sin of the world with one pin-prick of blood from his little finger, and yet he chose to pour out his blood, and to pour his soul as an offering for sin. This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Maybe, you feel weak in faith, and long for a deeper knowledge of God and of Jesus. Remember, you are not saved by your strength, and you are not saved by your strength of faith, but you are saved by faith. And Jesus is much more powerful than your weak faith – his power is made perfect in weakness. When you feel weak, then look to Christ in his weakness, see how weak he was here in prayer, lifting his eyes up to heaven. Think about when he went to the garden of Gethsemane, sweating blood, pacing around back and forth—God didn’t abandon him in his time of weakness, and he won’t abandon you either. God sent his angel to strengthen Jesus in this time of great darkness, and comforted him. If he can comfort Jesus who was made weaker than you, can’t he also comfort you?

Now this whole business that Jesus is doing, of teaching, praying, sacrificing himself is the heart of Jesus’ ministry. He has come for the express purpose of giving eternal life. So Jesus says: I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do. It’s not that Jesus simply talks, and prays, but he accomplishes work, he wants to you to see him at work. He says: Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Look at each of my works, and you will see my Father, you will see the heart of God. Just think about all the work that Jesus accomplished! What more could he have done for us?

Jesus accomplishes so much, in such a humble and humiliating way. And he knows that the time is coming for him to enter into such great suffering. And so he prays for the resurrection, for his sacrifice to be acceptable to the Father. And so he says: And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. We can see here that Jesus says in this prayer that he existed before the world. We see here such a clear word from Jesus’ lips that he is actually true God together with the Father. Jesus had this wonderful glory in the presence of his Father. And he asks: And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Our Gospel reading today is almost too rich for us. This text takes long, slow meditation on it for us to really digest it and learn deeply from it. Just to be a fly on the wall why Jesus in engaged in this most holy task of prayer is an overwhelming privilege and joy!

Let me read to you the rest our reading, which we haven’t reflected upon:

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

I would encourage each of you to take this chapter of John this week and read it a few times, and take note of what you notice differently each time you read it. It is a passage that is difficult, but not because the words are difficult, but because our minds and our hearts are no numb to spiritual things, and spiritual. I wonder if this kind of prayer is the sort of thing that St Peter says: the angels long to look.

To enjoy this passage and to really soak it in will take time, but time which will be well spent.

So let’s remind ourselves today of this great and profound mystery of the fact that Jesus is constantly at the right hand of his Father praying with us. And if it weren’t for his prayers, we would never have anything. We could think of all the darkness and sadness and sorrow that we might have experienced either in ourselves or in others throughout our whole lives so far, and we might think of all those things that have brought us to despair. Think of what Jesus knows—how he sees so profoundly deeply into the heart of each person throughout history. We see so much darkness just from watching the news. Jesus knows so much more than that, and if there is anyone who ever lived who has a reason to despair, surely it is Jesus, don’t you think? And yet, there is one thing that Jesus doesn’t do, and that is despair. Jesus never despairs.

He knows prayer. And he knows it better than any of us. And all our best prayers and all the experts in prayer in our midst are a drop in the ocean compared with the magnificent waterfall that Jesus pours out continually before his Father in heaven. Micah says: You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your prayers!

Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus.

Ascension [Luke 24:44-53] (29-May-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mount Barker (7.30pm).

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 Luke, who was a doctor. And he compiled our gospel reading tonight as part of an orderly account, so that we may have certainty concerning the things which we have been taught. So we read:

While [Jesus] blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And the worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. (Luke 24:44-53)

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Can you imagine what heaven must be like? The bible tells us about all kinds of amazing creatures and angels there. In Ezekiel chapter 1, we read about the four living creatures, each with four faces: a human face, a lion’s face, the face of an ox and the face of an eagle. And each of these creatures have wings, and a likeness like burning coals of fire, with eyes everywhere, and wheels taking them in all kinds of directions. These creatures are called the cherubim. (One of the cherubim with the face of a lion is often used as the emblem of St Mark, and so we have pictures of this angel in our church.) In Isaiah 6, we read about the seraphim: each having six wings and singing, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

We can’t begin to imagine what it must be like in the company of these creatures! And yet, today we celebrate the ascension of Jesus. And St Mark teaches right at the end of his gospel that Jesus did two things: He was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. He didn’t simply enter heaven to stand among all these angels, and be made equal to all these amazing creatures, but he went into heaven to be worshipped by them, sitting at the right hand of God, being made equal to God in his human flesh.

It is such an amazing mystery that we celebrate in our church tonight that it’s impossible to describe it fully! It’s too amazing for our minds to even comprehend.

In our Gospel reading, we read from St Luke where he tells us Jesus’ words to his disciples preparing for his ascension, and then he tells us very simply about the events of Jesus ascension.

+++

So first, let’s hear about what Jesus said to his disciples. We read: Then [Jesus] said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Jesus says: These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you. Isn’t Jesus still with them when he says this? Isn’t he still going to be with them? And yet, Jesus is talking about the time before his crucifixion as the time when he was still with them. Don’t you think it’s strange that if you read the gospels, Jesus doesn’t do very much after his resurrection with his disciples? He appeared them over a period of 40 days, but he didn’t give another Sermon on the Mount, or anything. He taught them very simply, as if the only thing he wanted to do was to demonstrate that he was risen, and to prepare the apostles to be the first preachers of the resurrection.

Everything Jesus teaches us he already taught before he went to the cross. After his resurrection, there is no new teaching. In fact, the resurrection simply proves that everything he taught beforehand is true and is sealed and is solid. We can build our house on this rock, because the man who spoke them is now risen from the dead. Even today, we’re not seeking any new teaching from Jesus—we’re not expecting Jesus to come and teach us something new. Everything that needs to be taught in the church Jesus gave to us right up front before his suffering and death.

Jesus says: everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Here Jesus is talking about the entire Old Testament. When he says the Law of Moses, he means the first five books of the bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. When he says the prophets, He is referring to the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and then the 12 Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. And when Jesus says the Psalms, he’s not just talking about the book of Psalms but about all the poetic books of the Old Testament: Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, and also with these are included Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. (Sometimes, Daniel is also included with the poetic books instead of with the prophets, but personally, I think that Daniel properly belongs with the prophets.)

So when Jesus says that everything written about him in the Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled, he is saying that every book of the Old Testament speaks about him. Jesus is teaching us also how to read the Old Testament: that it teaches us about him. We could go through all the events of the Old Testament and meet Jesus there. (That’s also the reason why it’s so important for us and our children to learn the Old Testament.)

Even on the day of Pentecost, we see Peter, preaching the first Christian sermon, and taking passages from the Old Testament and showing how they talk about Jesus.

So Jesus’ teaching is not a kind of new law, new prophecy, or new poetry, but all of these things are brought to new life through the resurrection of Jesus, because all of these books teach us about Jesus. And Jesus left nothing of what was written about him unfulfilled. Just think if Jesus had just got down off the cross and went home! What a tragedy that would have been for all of us!

No, Jesus wanted to fulfil the Old Testament for us. He wanted to bring all the sacrifices to an end by making the one perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. He wanted to bring the Old Testament priesthood to an end, because he wanted to be our eternal high priest, who is able to sympathise with us in our weakness, who was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin.

So we read: Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Listen to that: Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. We might think, “how do I understand all of the Scriptures? Some of it is pretty hard for me to understand! You know, I’ve tried to read the bible cover to cover, but I always get derailed when I get to Leviticus!” We need Jesus himself to come and open our minds. The bible is breathed out by Jesus, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, and we need the help of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus to understand it. If we want to know what the bible’s about, we have to go and ask the author. So, understanding the Scriptures is not something that can be done with human reason and scientific methods. Sometimes when people explain the bible, it sounds like an autopsy report, because they think it’s a dead word! No: Jesus Himself must open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

He says: Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

What’s Christian preaching all about? That the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. And what’s it for? That repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

So this is what the apostles, and then all pastors, are called to do: preach the law of God in all is rawness and ugliness, the teaching of sin, judgment, punishment, and hell. This is the preaching of repentance: the preaching that finds sinners, crushes them and kills them. But also, we are called to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its sweetness, the teaching of what Christ has done for us, his forgiveness, his grace, his love, his mercy, his atonement, his blood, his death, his resurrection. This is the preaching that creates out of nothing new living saints out of dead sinners.

All these things are to be preached in his name and to all nations. Repentance is preached in the name of Jesus, and the forgiveness of sins is preached in the name of Jesus. Law and Gospel is Jesus’s own words, with his name attached to it. And beginning with Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, the Gospel is to be preached to all nations.

And Jesus says to his apostles: You are witnesses of these things. It is these apostles who are the eyewitnesses of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, and now Jesus explicitly sends them as his preachers. And today, everything we know about Jesus comes from their writings. And people throughout history will be converted to the Christian faith and come to know Jesus not because of people’s spiritual experiences, but because of the apostles’ eyewitness. St John says at the beginning of his first letter: That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you. Even today, we still preach to the world what the apostles saw and heard.

Now if Jesus is going to send out his apostles to do this work, he needs to equip them and give them everything that they need for the job. He says:

And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Jesus says: I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. Here Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the promise of His Father. Jesus shows us that he is the one who sends the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and upon all Christians.

And he says: But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. They are going to begin their work in Jerusalem, so they have to stay in Jerusalem until they are equipped for their work. They are going to be clothed with power. How weak they must have felt! How unprepared! And yet Jesus promises to clothe them with the power of the Holy Spirit. He gives them whole armour of faith to put on: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for their feet the readiness given by the gospel of peace, the shield of faith with which they can extinguish all the flaming darts of the devil one, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. What a great thing it is for them to be clothed with power from on high!

Do you know for us that Jesus also clothes us with power from on high? He gives you all the strength and energy that you need at any particular time. That of course is different from what you think you need! Maybe you find yourself tired and exhausted all the time, maybe you can’t get a good sleep at night or you get woken up by little children, or something. Stay in the city. Stay where you are, listen to the word of God, and put your trust in your dear Jesus, who knows what is best for you, who knows your heart so deeply and your needs so much better than you know yourself. Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. Jesus will give you his power in his own time, he will fill your jar of clay with his treasure, to show that the surpassing power belongs to him and not to us. As St Peter writes: 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. Come, Lord Jesus! Send us the Holy Spirit!

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And so, after Jesus teaches his disciples his final words, we read: Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. The place of Jesus’ ascension was the Mount of Olives, which is near the town of Bethany. The Mount of Olives is the place where the Garden of Gethsemane was, where Jesus had wrestled in prayer and sweated blood. And now, this same place is turned into a place of great joy! The place of suffering has turned into a place of blessing! How often it happens also for us that the aspects of our life which bring us the most suffering and anguish are the things where God wants to heal us and show his glory the most! How often is it that the deepest pains that we have are the things to which Jesus speaks his deepest comfort!

We read: While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. He parted from them, while blessing them. He parted from them, and was hidden from their sight. He was carried up into heaven by God, to show that he would carry us up to heaven to be with him. He appears before the face of God in his holy flesh, his true human body, and shows us that his human flesh is now enthroned together with the Father. And it’s this same Jesus who descends upon the earth in all his glory to baptise each Christian, to preach each faithful sermon, to speak his absolution to us with his own mouth, and to give that same glorified flesh and blood to us to eat and drink in the Lord’s Supper. How can we get our head around this wonderful mystery!

And finally, we read: And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. They worshipped him—yes, what else could they have done? What else can we do tonight than adore and worship Jesus, our Lord and our God, who has promised to be with us to the end of the age?

And so, just as Jesus had gone from Bethany to Jerusalem many times before—once to ride into the city on a donkey, once to face his trial—they also go back to Jerusalem. And they do so with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Just as Jesus is lifted up, may our hearts also be lifted up and encouraged! Just as death has been defeated in Jesus, so also may everything of death, fear, and despair be defeated in us.

May God also give us a share in that same joy that the disciples had on that day! May God allow us to drink deeply and richly of the Holy Spirit which Jesus pours out on us! May our ascended Lord Jesus also clothe us with every gift that we need in our lives, and all the power that we need from on high!

Amen.

Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have ascended into heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father. Send us all your gifts, and especially the gift of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Easter 6 A: Audio Sermon (25-May-2014)

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Easter 6 A [John 14:15-21] (25-May-2014)

This sermon was preached at St Mark's Lutheran Church, Mount Barker (8.30am, 10.30am).

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, who was one of the 12 who was present with Jesus at the Last Supper, when Jesus spoke the words from our gospel reading today, which we read earlier, John 14:15-21. And we read:

I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading last week, Jesus said: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He also says: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

What amazing encouragement Jesus gives to us! Here is Jesus on the final night before his death encouraging and strengthening his disciples with such precious encouragement!

Our reading today follows on from where we left off last week. And today Jesus teaches us about two things: the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the presence of Himself.

I.

Firstly, he teaches us about the Holy Spirit.

Jesus begins by saying: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Jesus has just said to his disciples: If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. He wants to give his disciples boldness and confidence to come to him and put their needs before him. Don’t hold back, Jesus says! Be bold! But Jesus doesn’t just require boldness; he also requires love. He says now: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Jesus knows that when he has ascended into heaven, there are going to be plenty of people who come along in his name who are bold. They will teach people to ask Jesus anything that they want: money, power, success, a nice home, a nice car—you name it! And there have been many people throughout history who have taught people to be bold in prayer, but that doesn’t mean that they love Jesus. Jesus says: If… If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

There will be many prophets who will set up their own commandments, and they will do it all in the name of Jesus. They will invent their own new nifty ideas, they will profess to love Jesus and they will ask Jesus for anything they want in his name. But Jesus doesn’t want them to guard and keep their own homemade, homespun, home-knitted commandments. He wants them to show their love for him by keeping, not their own commandments, but his. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

When Jesus ascends into heaven, he says to his disciples: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them…and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you… everything I have commanded you. This is Jesus’ commandments. Now, since Jesus is truly God, we believe that Jesus was there giving the 10 commandments to Moses on the top of Mt Sinai all those many years ago. The 10 commandments are actually the commandments that Jesus gave. But Jesus has also commanded some things that are new, that have never been commanded before—he wants the disciples to go out and preach the gospel, to preach his death and his resurrection, he wants them to baptise people, and to share the Lord’s Supper together. When the disciples hear Jesus’ word and receive his Sacraments, they are being worked on by him. Preaching, baptising and celebrating theLord’s Supper aren’t human works, these are Jesus’ works. And he commands his church to guard and keep these things, to make sure they continue and are done.

So when Jesus says: you will keep my commandments, he is wanting them to preach about him and listen to this preaching, to guard the word and the sacrament, to show affection to each other and promote harmony among one another, and to patiently bear whatever cross that Jesus sends. This is the way Jesus works in own lives, through these things. When we replace his commandments with our commandments, we are simply replacing his works with our own works.

Now, when Jesus sends his apostles into the world, he knows that the devil, the world and sinful human flesh are going to do everything possible to fight against that pure love that comes from Jesus, the love which we have for Jesus, and the love which we have for each other. Remember how Jesus said: By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Can’t you see how the devil will fight his best to make sure that no one will know that we are his disciples, and to stir up a little fight over there, a little storm in a teacup over there, a little battle of wills over there?

Jesus knows we’re sinners and that it’s going to be hard for us to keep his commandments. And even though he requires our love, he also doesn’t want us to trust in our love. He wants to show us that the love that will save the world doesn’t come from us, but it comes from him. So Jesus says: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And so for the next 2000 years, all the disciples of Jesus will doubt themselves and say: do I really love Jesus? Do I love him as I should? Do I love him in that perfect way that he requires of me? Jesus wants us to doubt our own love, because he is the only Saviour. Jesus knows that Peter denied him three times. And so he goes to him and he says to him: Peter, do you love me? We read: Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” How many times has Jesus asked us if we love him? How many times have we denied him? And yet, here we come at the end of the week, showing Jesus our dirty feet, with all the dust and dirt of the world clinging to them, and he gets down on his hands and knees and lovingly washes them clean again.

And so he says to them, “Nothing depends on you, your love, and your prayers. Everything depends on me, my love, and my prayers.” So Jesus says: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.

Yes, Jesus wants to show that everything depends on his prayers. He says: I will ask the Father. Even before when he was teaching the disciples to pray, he said: If you ask anything in my name. He doesn’t want the disciples to pray in their name, but in his name. We have many things we want to ask Jesus, but we should ask that everything we desire would be to the glory of his name. We might want this or that, if it would glorify his name. And if he chooses not to grant what we want, then let us ask for the patience and endurance under the cross, to the glory of his name. Jesus teaches us to pray: Our Father. It’s not “my Father”, but we always pray to our Father together with Jesus, because everything depends on him.

It’s amazing: Jesus is true God and has absolutely no need to pray to his Father. He says: If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. But then as true man, he shows us his total, perfect humility, and completely depends on his Father. He says: I will ask the Father. The one who doesn’t need to pray, prays more than any of us put together!

And so, as Jesus constantly takes us with him and prays for us, He is our Comforter, our Counsellor, our Helper, our Advocate. St John says: We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

This word “advocate” means someone who comes along side: a comforter, a counsellor, a helper, an advocate. And now Jesus says: I will ask the Father and he will send you another Helper, to be with you forever.  

Why do we need another helper? Because when Jesus has ascended into heaven, the devil will do everything to convince us that Jesus is dead, that he’s not alive, not here, not with us. We will get indifferent, fidgety, bored. We will start to think that everything we need to know about Jesus, we’ve already heard before.

And so Jesus asks the Father to send us another Helper, to be with you forever. There will not be one moment in the history of the church where the Holy Spirit will not be with us, pointing us to Jesus.

And Jesus tells us who this Helper is—he calls him the Spirit of truth. The devil is the father of lies, but the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. St John writes: 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. So here the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is called the Spirit of truth.

And Jesus says about the Holy Spirit: The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. The world doesn’t recognise the Holy Spirit. Remember on the day of Pentecost, where some people thought that the disciples were drunk. And Peter begins his sermon by saying: These men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only 9 o’clock in the morning. So you see, the world neither sees the Holy Spirit nor knows the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus says: You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Jesus is saying that we Christians are called out of the world, and are dead to the world. He says: You know him, but the world cannot receive him. We disciples of Jesus know the Holy Spirit, for he dwells in us and will be in us. The Holy Spirit is constantly among us as we preach and learn the words of Jesus, and Jesus promises that he will be in us.

What wonderful teaching Jesus gives to us about the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who will be with us forever, helping us, comforting us, dwelling with us, and even living in us!

II.

So the first part of our reading is where Jesus teaches the presence of the Holy Spirit. But in the second part of the reading, Jesus teaches us about his own presence.

He says: I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. When Jesus dies, he does not orphan his disciples, but will live with them as a living parent. Many people think Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, when he talks about leaving them as orphans. He’s saying: Orphans have to live without their parents, but you Christians will have me and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not your foster parent in the absence of me, but he will help you, with me and the Father. Jesus says: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of them. And also: Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So Jesus says: I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

He says: Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.

In a little while, Jesus is going to the cross, and those who don’t believe in him will not recognise him as risen from the dead. The world will not see him anymore, but his disciples will see him. Also, Jesus is ascending into heaven, and those who don’t believe in him will not recognise him any more as ruling and guiding the world through his word in the church. The world thinks: those Christians are worshipping a dead man! And look at their church, it’s dead too!

And Jesus knows that the world will say this about us. So he says: Because I live, you also will live.

The world will think that we are dead, because they think Christ is dead, but here’s our comfort in the face of this opposition: Jesus is alive! He’s risen from the dead. And as long as Jesus lives, Christians live! As long as Jesus lives, there will be people who believe in him! As long as Jesus lives, the church will be alive! And even though we will die, we know that just as Christ died and that death was not able to hold him, we also will not be able to be held by death, and we will also live with him.

Jesus says: In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. What a wonderful promise Jesus gives to us here! What a wonderful mystery he speaks to us: I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.

And he says: Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. Since we believe in Jesus, and trust in him to save us, and trust in him to pray for us and look after us, and to keep our eyes fixed on him, let’s also ask him to let that faith also blossom into love. We’re not saved by our own love, but by his love—but if we know Jesus, how can we not possibly love him, who has done so much for us, and still asks the Father to send to each of us his Spirit?

And Jesus says: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

What a wonderful Saviour we have here in Jesus! What a wonderful living teacher he is! What a wonderful thing it is to be loved by Jesus! What a precious thing it is to be a person for whom Jesus personally died and for whom Jesus was personally raised!

Amen.

 

Lord Jesus, we trust in you, and we ask that you would continually ask the Father to send us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to be with us forever. Teach us to know the Holy Spirit! But also, let your Spirit teach us to love you, since you come to us, and you are alive. Come, Lord Jesus, and love us with your perfect love and manifest yourself to us. Amen.

Easter 5 A: Audio Sermon (18-May-2014)

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