*"The Holy Spirit Teaches Us All Things"*
The Day of Pentecost
St. John 14:23-31
June 8, 2014
[Jesus said,] *25 *"These things I have spoken to you while being present
with you. *26 *But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send
in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all
things that I said to you."
*IN NOMINE JESU*
Where would we be today without God the Father? We wouldn't be
here, because He would not have made us. And so we thank our Father in
heaven that He did make us, His children, adopting us by grace for the sake
of His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Where would we be today without God the Son? We wouldn't be
here, because, as the blessed apostle St. Paul writes, "Now if Christ is
preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say
that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our
preaching is empty and your faith is also empty" (1 Cor. 15:12-14). A few
weeks ago we sang in one of our Easter hymns: "Had Christ, who once was
slain, Not burst His three-day prison, Our faith had been in vain: But now
has Christ arisen, arisen, arisen; But now has Christ arisen" (*LSB*
482:refrain).
Where would we be today without the Holy Spirit? We wouldn't
be here, because He alone can bring us to God's house, to hear His Word and
receive His gifts. As Martin Luther teaches us in his *Large Catechism*,
the Holy Spirit "first leads us into His holy congregation, and places us
in the bosom of the Church, whereby He preaches to us and brings us to
Christ" (LC III:37). We have learned from his *Small Catechism*, and we
confess, "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in
Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by
the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the
true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole
Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true
faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to
me and all believers" (SC II:6). St. Paul reminds us, "Therefore I make
known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is
accursed"; and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit"
(1 Cor. 12:3). The Holy Spirit alone can bring us to Christ, to confess
Christ, and to believe in Christ. St. Paul again writes, "as it is
written,
'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.'
'For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches
all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of
a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of
God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know
the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in
words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining
spiritual thoughts with spiritual words'" (1 Cor. 2:9-13).
Today, on this celebration of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes
to you by way of His spoken Word, read and preached today in your hearing.
On that day of Pentecost almost 2,000 years ago, the same Holy Spirit came
upon the apostles as tongues of fire, teaching them all things and bringing
to their remembrance all that Jesus said to them. The Holy Spirit
empowered them to preach, beginning with Peter's sermon that day, Christ
crucified to the world and for the world, for the life of the world. Since
then the Holy Spirit has called pastors to preach this same Gospel. God
speaks and acts through His Word and Sacraments today. He deals with His
people mediately, that is, through means. We believe, teach, and confess,
on the basis of Scripture
So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and
administering the Sacraments was instituted. Through the Word and
Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given [John 20:22].
He works faith, where and when it pleases God [John 3:8], in those who
hear the good news that God justifies those who believe that they are
received into grace for Christ's sake. This happens not through our own
merits, but for Christ's sake.
Our churches condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that
through their own preparations and works the Holy Spirit comes to them
without the external Word. [AC V]
If you've ever watched a televangelist's program, especially
one hosted by those of the so-called charismatic or Pentecostal tradition,
you've witnessed blatant false teachings in many areas of the Christian
faith, especially regarding what Scripture teaches about the Holy Spirit,
the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. They do not teach what the Holy
Spirit teaches about Himself. They believe that the Holy Spirit comes and
speaks to them directly, outside His Word, and so they justify their heresy
by saying that the Holy Spirit led them to say that. This will come as a
shock to them, and it may come as a shock to you, but that's not how the
Holy Spirit works today. He has not come to His people directly since the
first century A. D., the very earliest days of the Christian Church, known
then as "The Way," when He inspired the Apostles and Evangelists to write
what we now know as the New Testament. He speaks to us through His Word,
given to us in its public reading and teaching through men He has sent to
be pastors, following in the footsteps of the Apostles here and now. The
writer of Hebrews says, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the
prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken
to us in His Son" (Heb. 1:1-2a)--Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate, the
Word-become-flesh, to whom the Holy Spirit leads us.
We don't fully understand this because we don't fully
understand the Holy Spirit, the least understood and most misunderstood
Person of the Trinity. We don't understand what He seeks to teach us
because we don't understand, let alone appreciate, His role in our lives of
faith. The Holy Spirit is the Person who works behind the scenes, and His
work is to bring us to saving faith in Jesus Christ, to believe in Jesus as
our Savior and Lord. As St. Peter said in his Pentecost sermon, quoting
the prophet Joel, "And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of
the Lord will be saved" (Acts 2:21, quoting Joel 2:32). This is the
Spirit's doing alone because we sinners cannot by our own reason or
strength believe in Jesus or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit calls us by
the Gospel. All we can do apart from the Spirit is hate Jesus. This is
our rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit, the one sin which can condemn
us. St. Paul says, "However, they did not all heed the good news; for
Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our report?' So faith comes from
hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Rom. 10:16-17). That's what
the Holy Spirit does, not us. We can't believe in Him on our own; we can
only go to hell on our own. For this reason the Spirit is constantly and
actively at work in our hearts and the hearts of all people, for God
"desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1
Tim. 2:4).
That's why the Holy Spirit continues working in the hearts of
sinners like us, to draw us closer to Jesus Christ, that through the faith
the Spirit gives us to believe in Jesus, we would be saved. How does He do
this? He works in us through His Word. Hear again Luther:
For neither you nor I could ever know anything of Christ, or believe on
Him, and obtain Him for our Lord, unless it were offered to us and granted
to our hearts by the Holy Ghost through the preaching of the Gospel. The
work is done and accomplished; for Christ has acquired and gained the
treasure for us by His suffering, death, resurrection, etc. But if the work
remained concealed so that no one knew of it, then it would be in vain and
lost. That this treasure, therefore, might not lie buried, but be
appropriated and enjoyed, God has caused the Word to go forth and be
proclaimed, in which He gives the Holy Ghost to bring this treasure home
and appropriate it to us. [LC III:38]
Through the Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit gives you the
treasure, the gifts, Christ won for you when He died on the cross:
forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation. He speaks to you in
readings and sermon words of forgiveness, words the Father has given the
Spirit to speak. He speaks to you in Holy Baptism, where God the Father
calls you His own, as His Son Jesus "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds
which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out
upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by
His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life"
(Titus 3:5-7). St. Peter's hearers at Pentecost were cut to the heart and
"said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brethren, what shall we do?'
Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and
for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to
Himself....' So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and
that day there were added about three thousand souls" (Acts 2:37-39, 41).
The Holy Spirit strengthens your faith also through the body and blood of
Jesus, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins, the very body
Jesus gave and the true blood He shed when He died on the cross for you,
for me, and for the life of the world. He invites you to come to the
Lord's altar to receive this gift on your lips, to taste and see that the
Lord is good, just as those first Christians did beginning that Pentecost
day, already engaged in a form of liturgy that serves us well today, even
in this expanded form almost 2,000 years later: "They were continually
devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and to prayer" (Acts 2:42). And what happened? "Day by
day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house
to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity
of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord
was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts
2:46-47). Yes, the Holy Spirit added members to the Church through His
Means of Grace, even as He does so today by His feeding and teaching us,
thanks be to God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
*SOLI DEO GLORIA*
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