Knowing the Spirit by His works

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

The high feast of Pentecost is the culmination of the Easter season and, really, of the entire Church Year. So it will be good for us to hear what the Scriptures say about all the amazing events of that day. You heard already the Epistle from Acts 2:1-13. Listen now to the rest of the story, through verse 42. (Acts 2:14-42 is read.)

How would you know who the believers in Jesus were on the Day of Pentecost and in the days following? You couldn’t see their faith or their love for God which flows from faith. But what you could see were their actions. Some 3,000 were baptized, and then—they didn’t just get baptized—but then they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. You could tell who the believers were by what they did. As Jesus said in the Gospel, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

So it is with the Holy Spirit. You can’t see the Spirit of God. But you know Him by what He does. Now, the Scriptures are full of the deeds—and the words! —of the Holy Spirit. But today, on the Day of Pentecost, God gives us the opportunity to know Him and His Holy Spirit through the mighty works of the Spirit revealed on Pentecost.

First, there were the three signs from heaven. The sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind in the place where Jesus’ disciples were gathered. They were doing exactly what Jesus had told them to do. He had commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father—the sending of the Holy Spirit. How were they to know He had arrived? By the sound of rushing wind. Early in His ministry, Jesus told Nicodemus, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. So this sound of wind was a sign that the Spirit had come, and that He would continue to blow like the wind throughout the world, converting sinners to God when and where it pleases Him.

Then there were the divided tongues, as of fire, that sat on each of the disciples. What were they to know about the Spirit from these tongues of fire? Well, tongues are for speaking, and fire is for burning and spreading, like the wildfires that sometimes ravage our land. The Holy Spirit would allow the disciples to “speak with fire.” That’s like what God said through the prophet Jeremiah, Is not My word like a fire? says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. In other words, the Holy Spirit would be working through the preaching of the Apostles to set hearts on fire—to break through stubborn hearts and bring sinners to see their own wickedness, to fear God’s wrath, to sorrow over their sins, and then He would kindle faith in their hearts—faith that looks to Christ and His sacrifice for sin, so that there they might find a gracious Father, who forgives sin for the sake of Christ alone.

Finally, there was the speaking in tongues—in different languages that they had never learned, languages that were understood by all the Jews who were visiting Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost from the other countries where they lived. What did that reveal about the Holy Spirit? That He would accompany the Apostles throughout the world as they discharged their office of speaking the Gospel to people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Now, you may wonder why we don’t see these signs still today. Well, remember, two of these three signs never happened again—the supernatural sound of wind and the tongues as of fire. The speaking in tongues was given as a sign of the Spirit here and there during the days of the Apostles, as well as other miraculous signs like prophecies of the future and the healing of the sick. The signs were there to confirm the testimony of the apostles, to show the world that the Holy Spirit really was working through their preaching. But as in all things, once something has been confirmed, it doesn’t need to keep being confirmed over and over again forever.

So much for the spectacular signs of the Spirit’s work. But the gifts of the Spirit are not restricted to external, miraculous signs. Even more important are His other gifts, many of which we see revealed at Pentecost.

Look at the powerful preaching of the Apostle Peter on that day, when the crowds were attracted by the commotion caused by the signs. See the boldness that was lacking before, when he and the others were hiding in fear from the Jewish authorities. And especially note in Peter’s preaching, the emphasis on the person and work of Christ Jesus, and how he correctly ties together the Old Testament prophecies and shows how they pointed to Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. That’s a mark of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus Himself had said: The Spirit will testify about Me. Or again, He will glorify Me. Or again in today’s Gospel: He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Fearless, Christ-centered, consistently Scriptural preaching is a work of the Holy Spirit.

And not the preaching only, but also the Sacraments are tied to the Spirit’s work: Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What did Jesus say that Baptism is? It is to be born again of water and the Spirit. What did Paul call Baptism? The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Christ-centered preaching. Baptismal regeneration or rebirth. Those are the Spirit’s works, even though they’re performed by men. But there’s yet another work of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in the response of the hearers.

What was the response of many who heard Peter’s preaching on that day? They were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do? Cut to the heart. In other words, the Spirit-filled words that Peter spoke had an effect on the people. His revelation of their sin, especially their sin in enabling the crucifixion of the Christ, worked godly contrition or sorrow in their hearts. And then, when he proclaimed the promise of the forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name, in Holy Baptism, what was the response? Some 3,000 were baptized on that day.

Now, faith, trust in Christ Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, isn’t something a person can come up with on his own. It’s a gift of God, St. Paul says. It comes by hearing. Or as he writes to the Corinthians, no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. All those who believed the Apostle’s message on that day, and every day after that day, are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work.

And not just the initial faith, but also the continued devotion to God’s Word and Sacraments, to the whole truth proclaimed to them by the Apostles; the deeds of love that followed as Christians loved one another, supported one another, forgave one another, and lived together in harmony with one another and at peace with the world, wherever possible; also, the ongoing repentance of the believers, the growth in righteousness and sanctification, the daily struggle between the New Man and the Old Man, the inner peace of the believers, who know what it is to have peace in the midst of all the turmoil of this world, the peace that Jesus promised to His disciples in today’s Gospel: Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. All these things are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work.

Preaching and the Sacraments. Faith-filled hearing. And all the godly works that follow. In short, the Holy Christian Church on earth is the work of the Holy Spirit. It the thing that the Spirit has built. It is the thing that the Spirit sustains and preserves. It is the thing that stands throughout the world as a testimony to the Holy Spirit’s power and working, even as the doctrinal divisions in the Christian Church stand as testimonies to the demon spirit’s working. But still, the Church stands. And still the Church will continue to stand and to thrive—spiritually, if not externally—until the Holy Spirit finishes His work by raising up our dead bodies on the Last Day and giving eternal life “to me and all believers in Christ.”

This is the power of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit working every day in the Church, and in the world, through the Church, through Word and Sacrament, as we preach and as we hear. You don’t see the Holy Spirit working directly, but without His presence in the Church, there would be no Church, and you would have no faith, no love for God or your neighbor, no hope, and no peace. But thanks be to God! The Lord Jesus kept His promise and sent the Spirit into the world, to bring us into His kingdom and to keep us here, and to sanctify to Himself people who love Him and who keep His word, that He may dwell within us and among us, both here in time, and there in eternity. May your Spirit-worked faith be known in the world by your love for Jesus and by your keeping of His word! Amen.

 

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Witnesses to Christ and the church that hates them

Posted on June 2, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Exaudi

1 Peter 4:7-11  +  John 15:26-16:4

The Paschal candle (standing here in the middle of the chancel) was extinguished during our Ascension Day service on Thursday. It was lit during the Easter season to symbolize Christ’s visible presence with His disciples for those forty days after His resurrection, and now it’s lit no longer, because His disciples saw Him no longer after He ascended into heaven and took charge of the universe invisibly as the crucified and risen One.

Of course, Jesus has never been visibly present among us here. And yet, here we are, believing in Him, confessing Him, worshiping Him, ready to suffer all things, even death, rather than to deny Him or to fall away from Him. That’s miraculous! That’s the work of the Helper who testified about Jesus, even as His apostles also bore witness.

Jesus prepared His apostles for His departure by promising them the help of this Helper, otherwise known as the Comforter or the Counselor or the Spirit of truth. He promised that the Helper would bear witness about Him, and that they, too, would bear witness. And He also told them in no uncertain terms how it would go for them in the world as they testified. They would be His witnesses, and not only the world, but also the false church would hate them for it. Let’s consider the words of Christ today and see what these words have to do with us.

When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. The Spirit of truth is a perfectly reliable witness to testify of Jesus. He was in the beginning with the Father and the Son. The Spirit proceeds from the Father, but is sent from the Father by Jesus, which is why we confess in the Nicene Creed that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.

The apostles, too, would make reliable witnesses to Jesus, because, as Jesus says, they were with Him from the beginning, that is, from the beginning of His ministry, from the time just after He was baptized by John the Baptist. That means they saw firsthand His deeds, they heard firsthand His teaching, and, though it hadn’t happened just yet at the time of our Gospel, they would witness firsthand His suffering, death, resurrection and ascension.

Together, the Holy Spirit and the apostles would bear witness. This is exactly what we see happening throughout the book of Acts. Next Sunday we’ll celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. What happened on that day? The Spirit testified through the miraculous signs of sound, fire and tongues. And the apostles testified by the Spirit’s power, by telling the crowds what they had seen and learned directly from Jesus.

From that day on, the Spirit’s miraculous signs would accompany the apostles’ preaching. As soon as Peter testified before Cornelius, the Holy Spirit came upon the hearers and they spoke in tongues. Wherever Paul went, he testified, and so did the Holy Spirit through the signs and wonders that Paul performed—signs that Jesus Himself foretold in the Gospel for Ascension that we read this past Thursday. Finally, the writer to the Hebrews also describes the dual witness of apostles and Spirit: The salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.

Throughout their earthly lives, from the Day of Pentecost onward, the apostles bore witness about Jesus, the Son of God, delivered up for our sins and raised for our justification. And the Spirit bore witness, too, by the signs and gifts He displayed wherever the apostles preached.

The result? Some believed. Some here, some there, throughout the entire world and to this very day. The Church that Jesus promised would be built has been built and is still being built after all this time. That itself is a witness to His truthfulness. And faith itself is a witness, in a sense, one of those signs of the Holy Spirit, because, as Paul writes, no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. We are among those blessed ones who have not seen and yet have believed.

But you and I are not, properly speaking, witnesses. At least, not firsthand witnesses. We believe through the testimony of the firsthand witnesses: the apostles and the Holy Spirit. We aren’t in a position to tell people what we’ve seen of Jesus or what we’ve heard directly from Jesus. What we can do, what we must do, what we have been called upon by God to do, is confess what we believe. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

And so we confess. We confess with our creeds. We confess with our hymns. We confess with our liturgy, which itself is a witness to the Church’s faith from days of old. We confess with our church membership. We confess with our church attendance. We confess in our homes with our behavior and with our words. We confess at the workplace with our attitude and with our diligence. We confess in the public square by speaking the truth about God’s creation, and about God’s salvation in Christ Jesus, and about the coming judgment on the impenitent. We confess the faith without hesitation and without apology.

Or maybe not. Maybe your confession of the faith has been more hesitant and less than enthusiastic. Perhaps the message you’ve given to those around you isn’t one of solid, unshakable truth, but that of just another worldling, going along to get along in this sinking ship of a planet. In which case, repent. Remember Jesus, who made the good confession before Pontius Pilate the day after He spoke the words of today’s Gospel. Remember Him and trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins and for the renewed zeal to confess Him boldly, by the power of His Holy Spirit.

But both witnesses and confessors of Christ should be fully aware of such witnessing and confessing will mean.

Jesus continues with a warning for His apostles, or rather, a very blunt, straightforward prophecy telling His witnesses (and His confessors) what to expect in the world after He ascends into heaven. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. In other places, Jesus warns His people about the hostility they’ll face from the unbelieving world. And immediately, we think of atheists, or maybe we think of the false religions of the world, like Islam. But notice here that Jesus warns of the hatred and the threats that would come from what, at that time, was still the Church of God, namely, the Jewish religion. They will put you out of the synagogues. They will kill you, thinking they’re offering God service. What was once the only Church, the true Church, would turn into a persecutor of Christians, and in an earthly sense, the persecutors would be successful.

That was certainly the case with the apostles. Imagine, growing up in the synagogue, hearing the Word of God, now understanding that it was all fulfilled in Christ Jesus, being called to witness to Him, and then being thrown out of the very church in which you were raised. Imagine being the first martyr, Stephen, who witnessed to the Lord Jesus by willingly facing death rather than deny Christ. It was the leaders of the church he grew up in who cast the stones that killed him.

Remember that I told you, Jesus tells His apostles. Remember that I warned you, so that you do not stumble, so that you do not imagine that I have abandoned you at that time. When the world turns against you, when the church itself turns against you, remember, that is not a sign of God’s displeasure with you, nor is it a sign that you should recant or remain silent. I have not been unfaithful to you nor have I misled you, Jesus says. I told you this would happen.

And why would it happen? Because they have not known the Father nor Me. Yes, but, they were lifelong members of the Church! They were leaders in the Church and experts in the Scriptures! It’s true. And yet, Jesus says, they have not known the Father nor Me. Just as it’s possible to be in the world but not of the world, so, too, it’s possible to be in the Church but not of the Church.

You know this happens still today and has been happening for a long time, since before the days of Luther. Godly men confessed the Christian and apostolic faith and were excommunicated by a Christian Church that had fallen away from the truth and no longer knew the Father or Jesus. It happened to Luther and many who followed Him. It happens today in the Roman Church. It happens also among the Lutheran synods. Who would have thought eight years ago that the Lutheran synods—Wisconsin and Missouri and the Norwegians—would reject someone for teaching justification by faith alone in Christ Jesus? And that rejection continues to this day. It’s true, at least no one is being killed. But that time could come. Already the false church abandons Christians who confess the truth, leaving them for the world to devour.

But when you see these things happening, when you see faithful confessors of the truth berated and abandoned and when you see little churches struggling, remember that these are not signs of our failure. They’re signs of our faithfulness. Now when I say that, I don’t mean that all suffering is a sign of faithfulness. But when we adhere to God’s Word and suffer for it, then suffering and the cross must follow, and we must expect rejection from the false Church. After all, Jesus told us ahead of time it would be this way, it must be this way. And there is comfort and hope in that!

The greatest hope comes from the fact of Jesus’ ascension and His sitting at the right hand of God. The world and the false church plot against God’s people. But God has set His King on His holy hill of Zion, as it says in Psalm 2. That’s Jesus, who reigns over all things for the good of His Church. As the book of Revelation makes clear, the Church in the last age will appear just about to be devoured by the devil, but it won’t be devoured, because when things look the most bleak, that’s when the ascended Lord Christ will descend once more, to come to our aid.

For now we give our secondhand witness. We confess. And if we confess faithfully, there will be a false church that hates us. But we know that there is also a true Church that loves us, and more importantly, a God who loves us, a Savior who rules at God’s right hand for us, and a Holy Spirit who dwells with us to strengthen us through the Means of Grace. Keep confessing. And keep trusting. All things are in the powerful hands of our ascended Lord Jesus. Amen.

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Sermon for Ascension Day

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Acts 1:1-11  +  Mark 16:14-20

Forty days ago today we gathered on Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. These forty days always seem to pass so quickly, don’t they? Imagine how quickly those forty days must have passed for Jesus’ disciples. It was such a strange, in between period of time for them between the day of Jesus’ resurrection and the day of His Ascension. He wasn’t with them all the time, but He wasn’t exactly gone, either. His earthly ministry had essentially ended, but His heavenly ministry hadn’t yet begun. We aren’t told of any sermons Jesus preached during those forty days, not a single unbeliever converted, not a single soul baptized. Just some final instructions Jesus gave to His disciples over the course of forty days.

In our Ascension Day Gospel, St. Mark zooms in on three particular days out of those forty: Resurrection Day, Great Commission Day, and Ascension Day itself. Jesus had some urgent things to teach His disciples on each of those days, and now the ascended Lord is here to teach us, too.

RESURRECTION DAY

Our text begins on the evening of Resurrection Day. But, in spite of the fact that resurrection day was about the defeat of death and the victory of life, Jesus still had some killing to do. Jesus appeared to the eleven and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. “You should have believed me. You should have believed the eyewitnesses who saw me and reported it to you. You were wrong to dismiss the Scriptures so quickly, wrong to trust in what your eyes told you rather than in what I told you.” Jesus took aim at His disciples’ unbelief with that rebuke and killed it. Because unbelief is what really kills. And if His disciples could fall into unbelief after two days of not seeing Jesus, how would they ever survive the bitter days of the cross ahead—days of persecution, days of being put to death one by one, and Jesus nowhere in sight!

And so He killed them with His rebuke in order to save them, and then brought them back to life with His words of comfort, forgiveness and peace.

That rebuke is meant for you, too, and for me—unless you think your faith is so much stronger than the faith of the apostles that you couldn’t possibly doubt Jesus? You’re wrong to disbelieve the word of His resurrection, whether you actually begin to believe that maybe Jesus and His resurrection is just a fairy tale, or, maybe you know He lives, but still fail to believe that it matters. Maybe you still think sometimes that, even though Jesus lives, you still have to fix your life, fix your sins, figure things out for yourself in this messed up world (and even this messed up church on earth). Humble yourself now. Accept Jesus’ rebuke. And believe Him when He says He loves you and forgives you and wants to strengthen your faith in Him, so that even when you’re surrounded by death and the cross, you can stand with confidence, because Jesus, your Lord, Jesus your Savior, Jesus your Life is risen from the dead. And it matters!

GREAT COMMISSION DAY

So far Resurrection Day in our Gospel. St. Mark takes us immediately to some time after Resurrection Day, to a mountain in Galilee, as Matthew tells us, to the Great Commission Day. “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” These eleven apostles of Jesus, together with those today who are called by Christ through the Church to stand in their apostolic office of the holy ministry, were given authority to speak on behalf of Christ, authority to serve as His ambassadors in the world, to announce a message in Jesus’ name, to proclaim, to preach.

To preach what? “The Gospel.” In that one word, “gospel,” you have wrapped up the whole story of Christ, the whole message of Christ revealed throughout the Holy Scriptures, from the creation of the world and of man to the suffering, death and resurrection of the Christ. The whole message of Scripture is included in the little word, “gospel.”

But Jesus himself summarizes the gospel for us in a much simpler way. What is the Gospel? It is simply this: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” That’s the Gospel that we preach. Human attempts to earn God’s favor are condemned. Human works to gain God’s favor are condemned. And faith in Christ is heralded as the only thing that saves a poor sinner. Forget about running away from God and despairing because of the wretched sinner you are. Forget about trying to stand before God because of the good person you think you are. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Thus far the Great Commission Day.

ASCENSION DAY

Finally, for our purposes this evening, St. Mark takes us to the 40th day itself, to Ascension Day, and summarizes it very briefly: So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

Why did He ascend? To finish His work.

Now, we make much of the “it is finished!” that Jesus cried out from the cross just before he died. But it was only his earthly ministry that was finished; only his work of qualifying as the sinner’s Substitute. The payment for sin was finished. The one righteous life had been lived for all men by the One Man, the God-Man. That was finished. But applying His work to the world, saving sinners from sin, death and the devil, building and preserving His Church, and finally destroying death once and for all—that’s the work of our ascended King. By ascending to His throne at the right hand of God, Jesus wants us to believe that He has taken upon his shoulders the government, the ruling over everything that is beneath Him, and that means, everything.

How comforting Jesus’ Ascension is for every believer. The Ascension enables you to stand up and say, “No matter what the devil or the world throws at me, I know that my Lord Jesus sits at God’s right hand and rules as King for me. I will suffer gladly, bear the cross willingly, face the future confidently and even die cheerfully, because my Lord Christ rules over all these things. If He permits it, it must be for my good and for the good of His Kingdom throughout the world, because no one and nothing can shake Him from His throne. So be it. So be it all. Jesus has ascended on high! Amen.

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Christian prayer is always Christ-centered

Posted on May 26, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Rogate – Easter 5

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Rogate Sunday is focused on prayer. In the new catechism, we ask the question, Why do we pray? And there are three basic reasons given. We pray because God has commanded it; because our needs are very great; and because God has promised to hear and help.

What does it even mean “to pray”? It’s a special word we use for talking to God, and in Scripture we find three basic reasons for talking to Him: to confess our sins, to thank and praise Him, and to ask Him for something. It’s this asking God for something that we want to focus on today, because that’s what Jesus commands, or rather, invites us to do in today’s Gospel. Pray! Ask in Jesus’ name, and you will receive.

Jesus says to His disciples, In that day—that is, on the day when they see Him again after He goes to the cross and to the tomb. In other words, on Easter Sunday. In that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. So a change is taking place in the way God’s people are to pray—a change that begins on Easter Sunday. What is it that changes?

Well, how had Jesus’ disciples, and all the Jews, been praying up until that time? Do you remember what King Solomon prayed at the dedication of the Temple he had built in Jerusalem? He prayed: O Lord, my God, let Your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.

Where were the Jews to face when they prayed? Toward the Temple. Why? Because God had placed His name there. God is everywhere, as Solomon confessed earlier in his prayer. But where is God present to hear and accept prayers? In the Old Testament, it was in the Temple where He had placed His name. That’s why Daniel prayed as he did, before he was thrown into the lions’ den. If you recall, Daniel had been taken captive with the rest of the Jews to Babylonia. But we’re told in what direction he prayed: In his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

It’s not that God could only hear prayers uttered within the Temple walls. It’s not even that the Jews had to be facing toward the Temple in order for their prayers to be heard. It’s that the Temple is what made their prayers acceptable to God, because that’s where He had placed His name, so that sacrifices could be made there for sin, and He promised to receive them and to be merciful to His people because of them.

Well, you know what happened on Good Friday. Jesus became the once-for-all sacrifice to make propitiation or atonement for the sins of the world. The curtain in the Temple was torn in half. And a monumental change took place. No longer were the Jews to face the Temple when they prayed. No longer were the Jews to ask God on the basis of the sacrifices made in the Temple. From Easter Sunday on, God’s people were to pray to Him in the name of Jesus, the far superior replacement for the Temple, because He bore the world’s sins, and because, as true God and true Man, He perfectly bears the name of God, as Jeremiah had once prophesied: This is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

So to pray in Jesus’ name means, first and foremost, to pray “facing toward Him,” that is, to pray trusting in Him, to pray for His sake, to pray because of Him, on account of His saving work. Christian prayer is always Christ-centered. Father, I ask this, not in my own name, not because of who I am or what I’ve done, not in the name of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, not in the name of my parents, or of the Virgin Mary or any other of the great saints, but in Jesus’ holy name, because He died for me, because You have reconciled me to You through Him, because You love Him and He told me to approach You with my requests.

To pray in Jesus’ name means, secondly, to pray for the things Jesus prayed for. Again, Christian prayer is always Christ-centered. The seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are a perfect summary of those things. The Psalms, too, provide perfect guidance. I won’t go into many examples of those things in the sermon today. For now, I’ll urge you to go back and read your Small Catechism on the Lord’s Prayer, and the questions and answers in the blue catechism that explore it. From there, go and read Luther’s Large Catechism, as well as the Psalms themselves.

To pray in Jesus’ name means, thirdly, to pray as Jesus prayed, as a dear child to His dear Father, with all boldness, confidence, and submission—submission to your Father’s will. Where our Father has revealed in His Word that He wants to give something—like patience, like faith, hope, love, strength, comfort—we don’t have to pray, “if it is Your will,” because we know it is. Where He hasn’t revealed His will to us—whether He wants this or that sickness to be healed, whether He wants this or that church to grow or to shrink, whether He wants you to prosper in this or that career—we add, “if it is Your will,” just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Ask in My name, and you shall receive, Jesus promises. And He seals that promise with yet another reason why our Father will hear and help.

For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

The Father “loves you.” Now, you need to understand something here. There is a word in Greek for “love,” as in, God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. That’s “agape” love. It’s God’s devotion to our race, centered around the desire for sinners to be saved through faith in Christ. God loves everyone in that way, both Christians and non-Christians alike.

But that’s not the word used here. Here Jesus uses the “philos” word for love. This a friendly kind of love, the love of common interest, the love of liking someone, finding something lovable in another. And what is that thing that God finds in Christians, that thing that we have in common with God the Father? It’s love for Jesus and trust in Jesus. Now that’s not found in any of us by birth. That’s the love that the Holy Spirit Himself has formed in us through the preaching of the Gospel. But now that we love Jesus, we have something special in common with God the Father. We love Jesus. So does He. And so, even though His own Spirit created that love in us, it’s real, and so the Father has this special kind of love for His children, for Christians, for those who have loved Jesus and trusted in Him for salvation.

And because the Father loves us in this special way, He is even more motivated, to put it in a human way, even more motivated to hear our prayers and to grant our requests.

Now if that’s the case, then why would anyone ever pray to the Virgin Mary or another deceased saint? There is no one closer to God the Father’s heart than Jesus. And as Jesus reveals in today’s Gospel, He has given us direct access to the Father, who loves everyone—personally and individually—who loves Jesus.

So pray. Pray joyfully. Pray urgently. Pray often. You have every reason to ask, and no reason not to ask. In this area of prayer, as in all areas of the faith, heed the words of James: Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Do what Jesus says and ask the Father in His name. He will always hear and help, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

 

 

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The advantage of having the Holy Spirit’s help

Posted on May 19, 2019 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Cantate – Easter 4

James 1:16-21  +  John 16:5-15

It’s Maundy Thursday evening. Jesus and eleven of His twelve apostles are on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. He’s told them many things on this night, including the revelation that  they—together with many who come after them—will face terrible persecution in the world. And to make matters worse, He now tells them that He is going away! That has them understandably upset, sorrowful, afraid, and most of all, confused. Where is Jesus going? Why would He leave us, His dear Christians and apostles, to face a hostile world? Jesus tells them, It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. As we now know, Jesus was referring to His going away on the day of His ascension, after His suffering, death, and resurrection, when He would no longer dwell with them visibly. And the Helper Jesus was referring to was the Holy Spirit, whose coming we’ll celebrate in four weeks, on the Feast of Pentecost. In our Gospel today, we learn about the kind of help the Spirit will provide. He will be the One who convicts the world. And He will be the One who guides the apostles into all truth. Both of those works are still of the utmost importance to the Christian Church all these many years later.

When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Of sin, because they do not believe in Me. To say there are many sins in the world doesn’t begin to paint the picture. Every thought, word, and deed that does not conform to God’s holy commandments is a sin, not to mention the sinful nature that is passed down to us from Adam and Eve. But Jesus reveals that the great sin of which the world will be convicted is not believing in Christ Jesus. St. John writes in chapter 3 that God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. But this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Christ bore all sin, paid for all sin, made satisfaction for the sins of all mankind. Where there is faith in Christ, a person’s sins are not held against him. But where there is unbelief, where people do not repent and trust in Jesus, there sin remains. There the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, and they will have to answer for everything.

Of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. The world thinks that, if there is a God at all, then He will favor those who do righteous deeds, and of course, everyone likes to think that, while I may not be perfect, I’m certainly righteous compared to other people. But Jesus says that the world will be convicted—proved wrong—about righteousness. He, Jesus, is the only truly righteous One. He was vindicated, proved righteous, in His glorious resurrection from the dead, and now He has gone to the Father. Now the righteousness that avails before God is hidden from our sight in Jesus. No good works avail before God for a sinner’s salvation except for the works of Christ, whom we don’t see. And no good works can be done by sinners except those that are done in faith. As the Scripture declares, Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith ties us to Jesus, whose righteousness is counted to us for our justification by faith alone, covering us like a clean robe. And where there is faith in Christ, there He reigns invisibly in our hearts by His Spirit and produces righteous deeds in Christians—deeds of love, for God and for our neighbor. Meanwhile, the same Spirit convicts the world and declares, “You unbelievers have no righteousness to claim before God, no matter how righteous you may think you are.”

Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. The world will be convicted of its judgment, of the way it discerns between right and wrong. The world judges by external things. If you’re prosperous, you must be right; if it feels right or seems right, it must be right. On the other hand, if you’re suffering or unsuccessful, you must be wrong; if it feels wrong or seems wrong to me, then it must be wrong. Above all, the world believes that no one has the right to judge them, not even God. On the contrary, the world judges God. They set their reason above His Word. They judge Him to be irrelevant. They make God out to be unjust, while all their ways are right in their own eyes.

But along comes the Holy Spirit, through the preaching of the Law in the Church, and reveals that only God’s judgment matters. Only what He says is right is right, and what He says is wrong is wrong. Only His Word counts, while human reason counts for nothing. He has judged and condemned the ruler of this world, the devil. And everyone who remains in the devil’s kingdom will share in devil’s eternal judgment in everlasting fire. The great Day of Judgment is coming, and only those who flee to Christ in faith for refuge will be safe.

The world wants to hear none of these things. That’s why the world lashed out against Jesus and still lashes out against Christians with such hatred. But the Spirit must convict the world, nonetheless, because it’s only by showing people how ignorant and how deceived they are that the same Spirit can then bring some of those people to repentance and faith in the Gospel, before it’s too late. Come out of your ignorance!, He calls. Come out of the world!, not by leaving this life, but by abandoning your unbelief. See how lost and condemned you are in sin, and then see God’s love in the Person of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, sent to be the Savior of mankind, crucified, risen, and reigning at God’s right hand. Repent and believe the gospel! Repent and receive God’s free forgiveness through faith in God’s only-begotten Son!

Speaking of ignorance, Jesus’ own apostles still suffered from some of that themselves, which is why Jesus also speaks of another vital work of the Holy Spirit: to guide them into all truth.

When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.

This was a powerful and important promise Jesus made to His apostles. Jesus said many things they didn’t understand at the time. But He assured them that, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, they would be guided into all truth. ALL truth. Nothing would be lacking. They would understand everything necessary to go out and to teach the true doctrine of Christ to the world, so that they, together with the Old Testament prophets, might become the foundation of the Holy Christian or Catholic Church, as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit didn’t only guide the apostles to understand and to preach. He also guided them to write. And thank God He did, because pastors can make mistakes. Church councils and ministers and certainly popes can make mistakes and fall into error. But in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which were verbally inspired by the same Holy Spirit who guided the apostles into all truth, we have the truth of Christ perfectly and reliably preserved for us.

What’s more, the Apostle Peter made a promise to the crowds gathered on the Day of Pentecost. Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Not only is the remission of sins promised to all who believe and are baptized, but also the gift of the Holy Spirit. It’s the Spirit who creates faith through the Word, as James said in today’s Epistle: Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. It’s the Spirit who strengthens and preserves faith through Word and Sacrament. It’s the Spirit who guides and strengthens in good works, and who comforts and helps us under the cross. The same Spirit who guided the apostles into all truth, the same Spirit who enabled them to preserve that truth in dependable writings, is also granted to all believers, not to invent new doctrine, not to come up with novel, private interpretations of the apostles’ doctrine, but rightly to understand and truly to believe the apostolic doctrine, and to persevere in the confession of the Christian faith, being ready to suffer all things, even death, rather than fall away from it.

We Lutherans have been convinced by a careful study of Holy Scripture that the doctrine confessed in our Lutheran Confessions, specifically as summarized by Luther’s Small Catechism, is nothing other than the common Christian faith, the faith of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. That’s why we train our children in it, that, by the help of the Spirit of truth, they may be able to know and believe the truth, and then to make the good confession.

Samuel, today it’s your chance to do that. You’ve become convinced that the doctrine confessed by your parents is not just a family tradition, not just one truth among many, but the very doctrine of Christ and His apostles, taught by the Holy Spirit Himself. I pray that you’ll pursue the study of Scripture faithfully, that you’ll make hearing the Word and receiving the Lord’s body and blood your top priority always, that you’ll live a life of faith and love, and that the things you confess here today you’ll confess for the rest of your life.

To all of us James calls out, Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Receive the word with meekness, yes! But don’t confess it with meekness. Confess it with all boldness and confidence! Now more than ever, Christians need to be able to stand on the doctrine of the apostles. Now more than ever, Christians need to stand against the devil and his lies, to stand against the world and its unbelief, to stand for the truth of the Gospel, even if it means leaving earthly comfort and security behind.

It’s a daunting task. How can we possibly do it? Ah, yes. The Lord Christ has given us a divine Helper, the Spirit of truth, and that is all the advantage we need. Where the word of Christ is preached and His Sacraments are administered, there is the Spirit, there is Jesus, there is the Father. And there, too, will be faithful Christians who are willing to make the good confession, willing to suffer all, even death, rather than abandon it. May you be numbered among them! Amen.

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