Jesus sends the Counselor so we are not lost.

 

Sermon for Easter 7, Exaudi, May 29, 2022

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

John 15:26-16:4  ²⁶“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.  ²⁷And you also are going to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”  ^16:1 “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.  ²They will put you out of the synagogues.  In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God.  ³They will do these things because they have not known the Father or me.  ⁴But I have told you these things so that when their time comes, you may remember that I told them to you.  I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. (EHV)

Jesus sends the Counselor so we are not lost.

Dear fellow witnesses for Christ,

            Not many of us would choose to be unpopular.  We don’t like being ridiculed, rejected, persecuted, or hated, so how many of us could stand up to wholesale rejection from our neighbors, especially when it gets to the point where they throw you in prison, torture you, or want to kill you?  At the same time, do we always remember that Jesus experienced all those things?

When we think of Jesus, it is common to remember the vast crowds that followed Him to hear Him teach, the thousands who came to Him for a miracle, and that great parade that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem expecting to see Him reign as their King.  Yet, by the time Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, many had stopped following Him because they thought His teachings too hard to swallow. (John 6:66)  Jesus also had enemies who wanted Him dead, as the Jewish rulers plotted how they might kill Him.  Just a few days later, one of Jesus’ dearest friends betrayed Him and the rest ran away at the first sign of trouble. 

Jesus knew that following Him wouldn’t always make us popular in the world.  He warned His disciples, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me first.  If you were of the world, the world would love its own.  However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, for that very reason the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)  The natural state of the world is to be God’s enemy.  You and I were in that camp at birth, as is the whole world, which is why Jesus continued His warning to those called to spread the message of God’s love, “They will put you out of the synagogues.  In fact, a time is coming when anyone who murders you will think he is offering a service to God.”  To give us courage for such times, Jesus sends the Counselor so we are not lost.

Jesus knew His disciples would have a tough road when He sent them out into the world with the message of forgiveness and salvation through faith in this Jewish Teacher who the Romans had crucified.  First of all, the Jews rejected Jesus.  Furthermore, the Roman empire primarily worshipped pagan gods, and in fact, a wide variety of them.  On top of that, Jesus’ followers had to point out the host of sins that separated Jews and Roman citizens from God.  As you might expect, many of those people weren’t especially happy to be accused of sin.  They liked, even less, hearing that the idols they worshipped were powerless and entirely offensive to the Creator of the world.

On the other hand, when you think about the road the apostles had to travel, it really doesn’t sound so different from our world, does it?  Even our own friends and neighbors don’t like being held accountable for sin.  Vast populations in the world worship other gods.  Much of our culture would rather embrace seriously immoral behavior, and they demand that we accept and approve pretty much anything and everything the wicked soul can conceive.  We too are susceptible to the twisted thinking of the world.  At the same time, many of us are quick to accuse others of sin while ignoring our own. 

At present time, we have the advantage that Christianity is not illegal in our world as it was in the early Christian era.  At the same time, the public attitude seems to have turned against the Christian ethics and morality.  The Ten Commandments are at best treated as old fashioned suggestions, and at worst repugnant to modern man.

Of course, it is always easy to accuse unbelievers of sin.  The fact remains, though, that we are sinners too—sinners who came into this world not knowing our God and Savior—sinners who often fail to live according to what we know God expects.  Admitting these truths brings us face to face with the reality that we need help.  Therefore, it is to our great joy and comfort that Jesus sends the Counselor so we are not lost.

Next Sunday, we will celebrate the first great outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and some people wonder why we don’t see such a magnificent display of His presence anymore.  Yet, the truth of the matter is we get the same outpouring of the Spirit through the hearing of the Word Jesus sent those twelve apostles to preach.  We don’t need the rushing wind and tongues of fire on our heads to receive the gift of the Spirit.  What we need is faithful teaching of the message of the Scriptures.  We need faithful servants who will baptize people of any age in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We need parents who faithfully and regularly bring their children to Jesus.  We need loving members who remember that the work we do together as a congregation to proclaim the message of Christ crucified is working together with the Holy Spirit to do the things Jesus said the Spirit would do.

Jesus said, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.”  Who among us hasn’t enjoyed that blessing?  If you are here, it is because the Holy Spirit has worked faith in you, or at the very least He is right now working on your heart to bring you to believe that Jesus is your Savior from sin and death.  We may all be on a slightly different stage of the path, but the Bible is clear, Jesus is “The Way and the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father, except through” Him. (John 14:6)

Jesus told His disciples, “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.”  Those disciples believed in Jesus.  They believed He is the promised Messiah and Savior God had long promised.  Yet, they would face many things that would test their faith in Jesus, not the least of which was His trial, suffering, and death.  Those were public challenges to the human reason, with their eyes telling them Jesus wasn’t true God.  Yet, those events only led to the triumph of Easter morning. 

The devil’s seeming victory over Jesus was short lived.  The penalty for sin is death, and Jesus died because “God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  At the same time, because Jesus is the completely perfect and innocent Son of God, death couldn’t hold Him.  While the devil and the grave tried to swallow Jesus whole, Jesus destroyed that serpent’s head and the grave’s power with His resurrection to life again.  In the process of giving Himself into death for our sakes, Jesus destroyed the power of sin, death, and Satan.  No longer can we be accused of sin in God’s courtroom.  No longer can the grave keep us forever.

The Easter message is such great comfort to us, because that one moment in history confirms the truth of all God’s Word.  The prophecies have been fulfilled perfectly in Jesus.  The promise of a Savior who would reconcile us with God is now accomplished, and you and I are perfect examples that Jesus’ words, here, are being accomplished in due course.  Because we believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior and Redeemer, we ourselves are living proof that the Spirit is being sent by Jesus from the Father, because “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

Today, Jesus says to us, “I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.”  By the power of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, you and I have been brought to faith in Jesus.  Yet, we know that there is still much in this world that will challenge our faith.  The devil and people around us will mock our God as being powerless to stop evil in the world.  Yet, God is not powerless to stop evil; He is rather patient in order to give time to bring sinners to repentance. 

It is easy for us to so concentrate on worldly events that we forget Jesus’ first mission is to win us out of this world.  Therefore, in the kingdom of heaven, even the physical deaths that so trouble us, now, are in reality our entrance into eternal glory and peace.  Not that we seek our deaths, but rather, that we are comforted by God’s promise that we will live with Him forever in heaven, for as Paul wrote, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4)

If you look at the lengthy prayer list in our bulletin this morning, you find many things that might challenge our faith in God.  This world remains a place of trouble, sorrow, and great wickedness.  At the same time, the opportunity to pray to the Almighty, at His invitation with His promise to hear our prayers and answer them, is in itself an encouragement to our faith.  He promises to work all things for our eternal good, and our dear Friend, Jesus, is at His side with the power to change the world.

Dear friends, just as Jesus’ apostles faced much opposition and many challenges as they walked the roads of earth those many years ago, so we too will be continually under attack by the devil, the world, and our own weak and sinful flesh.  Be encouraged today to stand strong, knowing that you are not alone as you walk the path of Christian faith that leads to eternal life.

The Counselor remains at work through the Gospel message you hear in church, through the words of the Bible you read at home, through the power of the Baptism that connected you with Christ in your youth, and through the living body and blood of Jesus which you receive every time you take and eat and drink the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper.  The Holy Spirit Jesus sends is at work to help and strengthen your soul because in all these ways, Jesus sends the Counselor so we are not lost.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.