In the Gospels, St. John alone uses the title “Holy” in reference to the Spirit. It is put in the mouth of St. John the Baptist who speaks of the One who is to come who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. As we heard today, tt is used in the Upper Room when Jesus promises the Paraclete, the Comforter, who will come in His name. He is the Holy Spirit who will bring to mind all that He has said and deliver His peace which the world cannot give. And then, four days later on Easter evening, Jesus says “Receive the Holy Spirit” to the apostles gathered behind closed doors. With this ordination, He confers upon them and their successors the authority to forgive sins.
The Bible version we heard today translates Paraclete as Helper. St. John alone uses this word of the Spirit. The word itself is from two words – one that means along side of and the other call. The Spirit is the one whom the Father sends in Jesus’ name to stand beside you and to call on your behalf. Yes, He is your advocate but more than this He is the one who knows you, the weight of your hearts, the concerns of your minds, and the burdens of your souls. He addresses you with the encouragement and strength to remain steadfast in the faith and endure to the end.
Helper is a pretty lame word in comparison to what the Spirit does. Comforter is good but He does not just a pat on the back to say it will be okay. The Spirit is the one who works to bring to completion that which was begun in us in our baptism. He fights in us the good fight against the old flesh that clings to the ways of sin, hate, evil, selfishness, pride, and brings to maturity the new person created in Christ Jesus for good works now and for eternal life. We cannot fight this fight alone. The Spirit works in us and for us to finish Christ’s new creation.
See how He worked to bring this rag tag band of fearful disciples into the mighty voices who brought the voice of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. See how He worked to keep St. Peter the denier from despair and planted him in hope through the power of forgiveness. See how He worked to answer the doubts and longing of St. Thomas from stealing his heart and killing his faith. See how He worked to turn Saul the destroyer into St. Paul the zealous, sending him to the known corners of the empire to call the world to faith.
See how He worked in you. You who were dead in trespasses and sin, condemned to an eternity of death, but rescued by God’s mighty power in baptism. You to whom He has given the voice of faith to give consent to this faith and courage to proclaim it with your lips and give evidence of it in your lives. You who were given the ears to hear and minds to recognize the voice of Your Good Shepherd and follow Him. You who were hungry whom He brought today here where the Bread of Life feeds you till you want know more. You who were lost in temptation and shame whom He restored by bringing you where forgiveness is the language spoken and restoration replaces punishment.
Until that day when Christ comes in His glory, He has given you the Holy Spirit to comfort you with this forgiveness and to strengthen you in faith through His Word and Sacraments. He is daily at work bringing to fullness what began in water empowered by the Word, connecting you to Christ’s death and resurrection. This same Holy Spirit who was the inspiration of all the prophets, the courage of the patriarchs, the sender of the apostles, and the prompter of the holy writers to testify to Christ, now addresses you with this Word.
We trust those words even though we do not now see Him but we know Him. They are not simply words but the fountain of doctrine and life. Once in the baptismal waters the Spirit drowned us so that we might be raised with a new name and with a righteousness to cover all our sin. Once we were no people but the Holy Spirit has made us God’s own family, with the gift of salvation and the inheritance of eternal life.
He does not wait for us to call upon Him but has been sent to us. He calls us to be the children of God, gathers us into His Church, enlightens us with the light of salvation, and sanctifies us to be His own. We who could not by our own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ, now love Him as well and love all that He loves. We serve God by serving our neighbor in His name, by forgiving one another as He has forgiven us, and by loving with the sacrificial love that has redeemed us.
Forgiveness is the key to opening the door to belonging and in belonging we hear Christ pray for us and learn from Him to pray. He is our Advocate before the Father and the Son, praying the blood of Christ on our behalf. He brings our prayers to the Father in Jesus’ name and teaches us to pray – not as those who offer a laundry list of wants before the Father but on behalf of the world, our neighbors, and all those in need. He delivers to us the clothing of Christ’s righteous that we might be righteous and promises that the prayers of the righteous avail much. When words escape us, He helps us pray when words do not come and who He grunts and groans into the pleading of the faithful to the God who is always faithful.
So day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, we live and the Spirit is at work in us through it all. Though our holiness is half finished and our journey to eternity is not complete, the Spirit helps us wait for that time when our flesh and sin will be buried forever with all their uncleanness and we no longer need to be forgiven. Waiting for that day when Christ will come and we shall rise, in perfect holiness, there to receive eternal life. We are not there yet but that is where the Spirit is leading us and for this the Spirit preserving us in faith.
All this begun in us until He brings it to completion on the day the Lord comes in His glory. That is the Spirit’s work. God grant it for Jesus sake. Amen
2 comments:
I wish this particular sermon was repeated in every church in America. Preaching on the work of the Holy Spirit, in my view, is one of the most neglected subjects in our day. Many pastors claim to teach the whole Gospel, but never get around to this topic of great importance. The Holy Spirit, residing in the mind and heart of the baptized believer, warns, admonishes, convicts, encourages, intercedes, and literally pulls us out of harmful paths that we knowingly and unknowingly may follow in our fallen natures. How often do we all grieve the Holy Spirit? I know I have done it too often, and thanks to the grace of God, that quiet voice inside will rise up and say, “Stop,”. The Holy Spirit is like the sturdy highway guard rails that cannot keep the distracted motorist from swerving on a mountain road, but can keep it from plunging over the cliff onto the rocks below.
We should all be grateful for the Holy Spirit. He was given to us by Christ, and it is another manifold example of God’s grace and care for His elect. Soli Deo Gloria
It is just a few words, but it is one of the major distinctions between the Old and New Testaments. Our Lord said, on the evening before He was betrayed, John 14:17, “You know Him, because He abides with you, and He will be in you.”
This is the fulfillment of what God prophesied through the Prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31:33, “I will put my Torah within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Peace and Joy!
George A. Marquart
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