The age of the Spirit continues

Posted on May 20, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Pentecost

Joel 2:28-32  +  Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

Today is Pentecost, ten days after the Ascension, 50 days after Easter, the Feast of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit like? How are we to know Him? He is clearly a Person, a Person who is just as divine as the Father and the Son. After all, Jesus commanded His disciples to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a divine Person, but He’s not described in the Bible with any human figure or with any comparison to human relationships, like Father or Son. That makes it hard to picture the Holy Spirit. We simply use the dove when we want to depict Him, since that’s how He chose to appear at Jesus’ Baptism. But the word “Spirit” means breath or wind, which are both unseen things. You don’t see a person’s breath; what you see is a person breathing in and out, and, of course, the result of the breath—that a person stays alive. You don’t see the wind; what you see is how the wind carries the dust or the smoke or the clouds or the rain, or how it bends the trees or how it rustles the leaves. The wind is invisible. But you can see its signs and its effects.

So it is with the Holy Spirit. So He made His presence known on the Day of Pentecost. He Himself remained invisible. But He revealed Himself with signs and effects that proclaimed to the world that the prophecy you heard today from the prophet Joel was being fulfilled, that a new and final age of the world was now at hand, the age of the Holy Spirit, whose signs indicate both His presence and the manner of His work.

The first sign of the Holy Spirit’s coming was a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where the disciples were sitting. The sound of a blowing wind, a sign of Jesus fulfilling His promise to send the Helper from on high, breathing the gift of His Spirit onto His disciples, even as He breathed on His disciples on the eve of His resurrection and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”

The second sign: there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. The tongues “as of fire” rested, not on everyone in Jerusalem, but on each of Jesus’ disciples, a sign that this ever-present Spirit sent by Jesus was to be found specifically in His Church, among believers. Tongues of fire, because the Holy Spirit would spread throughout the world as fire spreads, but He would spread through the tongues—through the Word, through the speech, through the preaching—of Christians.

Fire represented many things in the Old Testament. The presence of God in the burning bush that Moses saw. The pillar of fire that accompanied the Israelites throughout their desert wanderings. The fire of burning lamps to give them light. And the fire of the altar of sacrifice in the Temple, where animals were offered up to God to atone for the sins of the people, making them acceptable to God.

So fire is a fitting sign of the Holy Spirit. The presence of God, who accompanies His Church throughout these desert wanderings below until we reach the Promised land. The light that enlightens our minds to see—to believe in Christ. The fire of sacrifice—now no longer making atonement for sins, because Jesus was the once-for-all sacrifice that reconciles sinners with God, but it’s the Holy Spirit who gives us new birth in Holy Baptism, who brings us to faith, who connects us to Jesus’ sacrifice by faith, and who now spurs us on to lead holy lives, to do works of love that are pleasing and acceptable to God, as Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, I beseech you, brethren… that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

This twofold work—the work of bringing us to faith and the work of spurring us on to lead holy lives and to do works of love—is called Sanctification. And if you remember Luther’s explanation of the Third Article of the Creed, that’s the very work that’s ascribed especially to the Holy Spirit. He is the Sanctifier. And both faith and love are symbolized by His holy fire.

The third sign of the Spirit’s coming: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. If you recall, it was God who divided the tongues of men in the first place, way back at the Tower of Babel, about 150 years after the world-wide Flood. At that time, God divided mankind up into nations and scattered the nations throughout the world. At that time, God let the nations to go, each in its own godless way, each to create its own idols and false gods to worship. At that time, God chose Abraham and His descendants, the people of Israel, to be the one nation on earth where He revealed Himself, making a covenant with Israel to be their God and to forgive their sins through the ministry of the priesthood and of the Temple. All who wanted to know the true God and to become part of His holy, chosen people, had to find Him and worship Him in the nation of Israel.

But now, on the Day of Pentecost, the Word of God was suddenly being proclaimed in all the languages of all the people who were present there that day, visiting Jerusalem from all the surrounding nations. No longer would salvation be tied to a single nation or a single race. No longer would God’s focus be on the city of Jerusalem. But His Word was to go out into all the world, to every nation, tribe, language and people. The call is universal: Repent and believe the good news about Jesus, the Savior of the world! And the promise is universal: He who believes and is baptized shall be saved!

This universal Gospel was prophesied in the Old Testament, not only by Joel, but also by Isaiah and Micah: Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go forth, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

What the Jews missed about this prophecy—what many Christians seem confused about today, too—is that, when God poured out His Spirit in the latter days, there was to be a transition from the earthly Jerusalem to a spiritual Jerusalem. The word of the Lord did go out from earthly Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost in every language, calling sinners from every nation into the Church of Christ, which is the spiritual Jerusalem. The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit—His work of bringing to faith, preserving in the faith, and spurring us on to works of love—is being done wherever the Word of Christ is preached throughout the world, so that we who call on the name of the Lord in New Mexico are also citizens of Jerusalem, that is, the one holy Christian (or catholic) and apostolic Church.

The last days are here. They’ve been here for almost 2,000 years. The Spirit is now poured out from heaven on His Church and will move like wildfire through the whole earth. The Spirit will be the power behind the preaching of the Word of Christ, spreading the fire of faith and love. The Spirit’s call and promise are universal: 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.

From the Day of Pentecost until Christ returns at the Last Day, this is the age of the Holy Spirit. This is the age of the building of the Church. We don’t see the Spirit, but we see the signs of His presence. The Word of Christ is still being preached in the world and in our midst. There are still people hearing it and confessing it. There are works of love being done on a daily basis by Christians here and throughout the world. There is barely a place on earth where the name of Jesus is not known.

But this age is drawing to a close. The world has heard the tongues of Christian preachers. The elect have believed, but most have not. It’s almost time for Christ to return and for the age of the Holy Spirit to be brought to completion. So let’s make the most of this age while it lasts. Preaching. Hearing. Believing. Confessing. Praying. Speaking. Leading holy lives every day. And loving. In all these things, even though you can’t see Him, you see the signs and effects of the Spirit’s work, and you know He’s there, calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying the whole Christian Church on earth, and preserving it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Amen.

 

 

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Don’t worry! It’s just the cross!

Posted on May 13, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Exaudi – Sunday after the Ascension

1 Peter 4:7-11  +  John 15:26-16:4

Before He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, Jesus told His disciples up front what things would be like for them after He had returned to the Father. You heard it in the Gospel today, how He forewarned them about the persecution they would endure, the cross of suffering for the sake of their testimony, their confession of Christ. The same holds true for those who have believed the apostles’ testimony, because it’s the nature of a Christian to confess Christ before the world, and it’s the nature of the world to hate Christ and those who confess Him.

But the message of Jesus in the Gospel isn’t one of despair. It’s one of hope—not the hope of avoiding persecution (the only way to avoid it is to join the world and deny Christ), not the hope of avoiding suffering, but the hope of a King, reigning on His throne, telling His people beforehand that they will suffer for His sake, but assuring them that even this is part of His good plan to build His Church. And to help us to face the world that will hate us, He again promises to send a Helper, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says, when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father… We talked a few weeks ago about this word “Helper.” It’s the One who is called to your side to speak up in your defense. Jesus promises to send His disciples such a Helper or Advocate. He is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. In other words, He is the Creator-God, together with the Father and the Son.

What does He come to do? How does He help? Jesus says, He will testify of Me. Jesus’ disciples had no strength, no courage, very little understanding of Jesus before the Spirit came on Pentecost. Before the Spirit came we find them running away from confrontation. We find them hiding behind locked doors. We find them asking Jesus if now is when He is going to restore the kingdom to Israel, which shows how little they grasped His purpose. But the Spirit would testify to them about Jesus and build up their faith and kindle courage in their hearts as He enlightened their eyes to know Jesus better, and to trust in Jesus more firmly.

This is the gift Jesus promised to send His disciples and did send on the Day of Pentecost, and through their preaching and baptizing, the same Spirit was given to all the baptized, and is still given to all the baptized, as St. Peter proclaimed: “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.” And how does He the Lord our God call? Always and only through the preaching of the Word of Christ—through the Holy Scriptures which were given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Now St. Paul says that The Spirit Himself bears witness (i.e., testifies) with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. He testifies about Jesus—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He testifies about Jesus, that He is the true God and the Savior from sin—your Savior from sin—and that there is no other God or Savior besides Him. He testifies about Jesus, who died and rose again and washes you in His holy, precious blood in Holy Baptism, making you a child of God and a coheir together with Christ. That’s the testimony of the Spirit. It’s a testimony that enters through your ears but penetrates all the way to your heart, so that you believe it, so that you’re comforted by it.

And so that you confess it. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. Those eleven apostles had a special task, a special, direct calling from Jesus. They were with Jesus from the beginning of His earthly ministry. They were eye-witnesses of all that Jesus had said and done. So their testimony would be unique and would serve as the very foundation of the Christian Church. As we confess, “I believe one holy Christian and apostolic Church.”

You and I have believed the Spirit-inspired word and testimony of the apostles, that Jesus is the only Savior from sin and the only true God. And if you believe, then you must also confess. As St. Paul writes: For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. You not only believe in Jesus, but if you believe in Him, then you confess Him with your mouth. You confess Him with your mouth, and, to an extent, with your actions, in every area of your life as you confess Him to be the only God and the only Savior. You confess Him at work. You confess Him at home. You confess Him in the grocery store. You confess Him before your friends.

You, as Christians, as royal priests of God, confess Christ in your daily life, proclaiming the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. —which means that it will go for you like it went for Jesus apostles. He told them ahead of time. The cross is coming.

These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

This is the kind of reception the true Gospel has in the world. Some will believe, but most people won’t. Most will persecute. Most will cling to their manmade doctrines and reject you for telling them they shouldn’t. Most reject the testimony about Christ, including those, Jesus says, who claim God as their Father. In fact, He says, after they have excommunicated you and shunned you and killed you, they will sing praises to God and rejoice that they finally got rid of the “troublemakers.”

Welcome to the Christian life! It’s a life of rejection, both by non-Christians and by false Christians. It’s a life of bearing the cross.

And the cross takes many shapes. For confessing Christ before men, you may be killed or beaten or imprisoned, all of which is happening to Christians right at this moment in some part of the world. For confessing Christ before men, you may struggle to get or to keep certain jobs. For confessing Christ before men, you may be disliked by your peers, looked down upon by the scholars, even rejected by other so-called Christians who believe and teach false doctrines. You may be made to feel abandoned by practically everyone. But more burdensome still is when Satan presses down on these crosses, and on all the hardships of life, and attacks your faith, and tempts you to question everything and to despair of God’s help.

But Jesus knew it would go this way and told you about it ahead of time, which is why He promised to send the Helper, from the Father’s side to yours, divine help in the face of the cross. For as heavy as the cross may be, if the Creator-God is standing by your side as your Advocate, what creature can be more powerful than He? And as the divine Encourager, He speaks to your heart and says, “Don’t worry! It’s just the cross! Remember, Jesus was hated and abandoned, too! Remember, Jesus conquered the cross after He bore it, and so will you! Remember, Jesus told you all this would happen. He lives and reigns at God’s right hand on your behalf. Don’t worry! It’s just the cross! It may be heavy, but it can’t hurt you—not permanently. It can’t crush you, because even the cross has been placed under Jesus’ feet, to serve His purposes for building His Church, of which you have been made a part.”

So instead of getting depressed or angry, instead of complaining when you or your fellow Christians are suffering under the cross, remember that Jesus said that these things would happen. They’re part of His testing of your faith so that you persevere in it until the end. They’re also part of His judgment on the world, so that it may be clearly seen that you belonged to Jesus, the Suffering One, the Cross-Bearer.

Remember Jesus’ promise. The Helper will come, and we will celebrate His coming and His help next Sunday on Pentecost. Stay close to where He does His work, to the Word and Sacraments. And hear your God telling you, in Baptism, in preaching, in the body and blood of Christ, don’t worry! God is on your side. And even more, God the Holy Spirit is right here by your side. Amen.

 

 

 

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The ascended Lord builds His Church

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Ascension Day

Acts 1:1-11  +  Mark 16:14-20

By the 40th day after His resurrection, the earthly work of Jesus was 100% complete. He had lived the life every man was supposed to live, a life of perfect obedience to God’s Law. He had died the once-for-all death that atones for the sins of the world. He had defeated death and the devil and risen to life again. He had appeared alive to His disciples on several occasions, leaving behind over five hundred witnesses of His resurrection. He had taught them everything He needed to teach them in person.

The earthly work of Jesus was done, but that doesn’t mean that His work was done. Far from it! A good while before His crucifixion, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Today, on Ascension Day, we celebrate the ongoing fulfillment of that promise. Today marks the day when Jesus began His reign at the right hand of God, where the ascended Lord works for no other purpose than to build His Church, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, God seated Christ at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

How does Jesus work? By sending out His apostles, prophets, pastors and teachers, by giving them to His Church as His ambassadors—“ambassadors for Christ” Paul called himself and his fellow ministers. That “sending” began with the eleven apostles, to whom He said: You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Like a man going away on a journey, He left His stewards in charge of His house, His Church, both to care for those who were already members of it and to do the work that would bring others into it. Their principal assignment: to preach the Gospel. Preach it everywhere. Preach it to everyone. Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

What is the Gospel? It’s really the whole message of the Old and New Testaments, which centered around Christ; the “good word” or “good news” that points sinners to Christ Jesus as the Savior of the world. It has been summarized in various ways. At the end of Luke, Jesus summarizes it with these words: Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in Christ’s name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Repentance and remission of sins, for all have sinned and earned eternal condemnation for themselves. But instead of proclaiming that there’s no hope for sinners, the Gospel, the “good news,” is that God has sacrificed His Son for us, and that He is holding out to all people a way out of the devil’s kingdom, a way out of condemnation, a way into His grace and favor. That way is Jesus Christ. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

That’s a beautiful summary of the Gospel. But remember, it’s a summary, not the whole of Christ’s teaching. Don’t be fooled by all the people out there who want to reduce the Gospel to “as long as you believe in Jesus, it doesn’t matter what else you do, what else you believe, what else you confess.” In the last chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus was very clear about what His ministers are to preach and teach and what His Christians throughout the world are to do with that teaching: Make disciples of (that is, teach!) all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Notice, Jesus says He is with His Church always. And yet, only days after He said this, He was taken up into heaven. So what does His ascension mean?

It simply means that Christ is no longer present with us visibly. It means He has a different way of being with us. It means He’s here, working, building His Church through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments that He Himself instituted—Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. It means He’s still present with the preachers He sends, and with the saints who hear them, support them, pray for them, and lead holy lives in the world, spreading the Gospel by their example and by their own words.

It means that, although He sits at the right hand of God and reigns over all things, Jesus is right here in our midst, too, hearing our prayers, receiving our worship, sending His Holy Spirit into our midst, and building His Church right here, right now, according to His own plan, according to His own purpose.

We all need to remember this in our little church, in our little diocese. It’s so tempting to look around and ask, what are we doing wrong? Where are all the people? Why aren’t we growing? What will the future hold for us here? But the future isn’t in our hands. It’s in the hands of the One who reigns at God’s right hand, our Savior, our Brother. And He hasn’t revealed His plans or purposes to us, except for this: Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

As for growing and expanding, all of us here would love to see more people in these chairs and throughout our diocese, hearing God’s Word, confessing Christ together with us. But we have to be careful that we don’t let our wishes begin to compete with Christ’s purposes. If He, seated at the right hand of God, chooses to show mercy and grace to our community and to our country by bringing more people to hear His truth purely taught, then He will turn the events of their lives to bring them into contact with us, and the Spirit of truth, through the preaching of the truth, will convince them of the truth. If He, seated at the right hand of God, chooses to harden the hearts of the impenitent, to punish those who cling to their idols, to test our faith, or to glorify His grace and to highlight His strength through our weakness, then we may remain small. But if we believe that Christ ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, then let us also believe that He is Lord of the Church, and that all He does among us is perfect and right and just exactly what He wants to do.

It’s not for us to worry about what happens to Christ’s Church. That job belongs to the One who ascended into heaven and sits at God’s right hand. All that remains for us is to do the very thing He commanded His disciples before He ascended: Preach the Gospel to every creature. Teach. Baptize. Do “this” (celebrate the Sacrament of the Altar) in remembrance of Him. Pray. Support the ministry with your offerings, and support one another with works of love and service. We have our work to do. Let’s do it zealously, trusting in the Lord Jesus to do His own work, and to do it perfectly, until He comes back from heaven in the same way they once watched Him go up into heaven! Until then, the ascended Lord will build His Church. May we, by grace, ever be found within her walls! Amen.

 

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The special gift of Christian prayer

Posted on May 6, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Rogate – Easter 5

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

The national day of prayer came and went this past week. Some years it gets more publicity than others. What should we think about such a day? More importantly, what does God want you to know about prayer, and what does He want you to do with what you know, so that, as James said in the Epistle, you may be, not just hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word?

The Jews were very familiar with prayer from the Old Testament, with beautiful examples filling especially the Psalter. And Jesus taught His disciples about prayer on many occasions—with the Lord’s Prayer, with parables urging Christians to pray often and persistently, and with His own example. How often He sought a private place so that He could pray! But as He, the Son of God, was about to fulfill His mission on earth (again, our Gospel is from Jesus’ discourse on Maundy Thursday evening), there would be an important change in the nature of prayer.

Some things wouldn’t change, like what prayer is. Praying, most broadly, is simply talking to God. But a good prayer, a godly prayer, isn’t just babbling or rambling. Prayer is talking to God with thanksgiving and praise. Prayer is talking to God with a confession of your sins or weaknesses or needs. But primarily, to pray is to ask God for something. God wants you to ask Him for things. Someone will say, “Oh, but that’s selfish. We spend too much time asking God for things already!” On the contrary, we don’t spend nearly enough. God is angered at any time when we imagine that we don’t need anything from Him, or whenever we think that He is unwilling to hear or to help us in our need. So ask for what you need, Jesus says. That’s always been the main purpose of prayer.

What was about to change, though, for Jesus’ disciples—and, really, for all people—was the way in which prayers were to be offered from then on. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Now, genuine prayer always had to be to the true God; prayers offered to idols or false gods were never valid. In the Old Testament, the Jews prayed to the true God who revealed Himself to Moses, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But now God has revealed Himself more fully as the one God who is three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is the Father who sent His Son to be the sacrifice and the Mediator for mankind. God is the Son who fulfilled His Father’s will and reigns at God’s right hand. God is the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son and brings His Word to us. From now on, men are to approach God the Father in prayer specifically through Jesus the Christ, asking God the Father to hear us in Jesus’ name. That means, not necessary adding the words “in Jesus’ name” to every prayer. It means asking the Father to hear us for the sake of Jesus, because of Jesus’ saving work on our behalf and on the basis of Jesus’ intercession on our behalf. Now that Jesus has been revealed, crucified, risen and ascended, all prayers to God must be offered through faith in Jesus, who is “the one Mediator between God and man.”

That’s the first thing to understand about prayer, and it’s what makes a “national day of prayer” impossible, and even sacrilegious, because no nation on earth confesses that the name of Jesus alone saves, and any prayer offered to God that’s not in the name of Jesus—trusting in Jesus as the one and only Mediator—is open idolatry.

Now, for those of us who do know how to approach God the Father in Jesus’ name, we’ve been given a solemn command by God: You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. That’s the Second Commandment. It tells us not to misuse God’s name, but that also means we are supposed to use God’s name the right way. God commands us to use His name to pray to Him. And Jesus Himself says, Ask! So prayer has God’s command attached to it. It isn’t optional. We are to pray each day because God commands us to. Pray in obedience to Him, as Luther points out in the Large Catechism. Of course, don’t fool yourself, as many people do, into thinking that, as long as you’re praying regularly in your home, that’s basically all God commands, as if He didn’t also command you to go to church, to hear His word, to use His Sacraments, to support the ministry of the church with your offerings. All these things are commanded by God, and Christians must do them, not in order to earn God’s favor or the forgiveness of sins, but in the new obedience that God requires of those whom He has saved by faith in Christ and whom He is daily renewing by His Spirit.

Pray also because of the promise of Jesus. Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Can you comprehend just how great a promise that is? The one who created all things, preserves all things, rules over all things, has promised to give you “whatever you ask in Jesus’ name.” So why wouldn’t you pray? Why? Because this wretched sinful flesh is sluggish and cold, and the devil drives you away from prayer, and the world gives you so many “better” things to do with your time. But over all those things that stand in the way of prayer stands the command and the promise of Jesus, Ask! And, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.

For what are we to ask? There are seven things Jesus teaches us to ask for, seven requests or petitions. You know them as they make up the Lord’s Prayer. First and foremost, God would have us pray for His name to be holy among us, for His kingdom to come, and for His will to be done among us. Then He would have us pray for daily bread—for all that we need for our life on earth. Then we are to pray that God would forgive us our trespasses, with the understanding that we, too, are to forgive those who trespass against us. We are to ask God to lead us away from temptation, and to deliver us from evil. Every need that you have in your life falls within the scope of those petitions. Study your Catechism—first the Small, then the Large, and see how much light God has shed on prayer in Martin Luther’s summaries!

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask for specific things, too. Jesus tells us to ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers into His harvest. Paul commands us to pray for kings and all who are in authority. He asks us to pray for ministers of the Word and for all the churches, for all the saints of God, and for one another. James tells to pray for wisdom.

And when you don’t know what else to pray for, don’t despair. It’s yet another reason why God has sent down His Holy Spirit to dwell with us here on earth in this Christian Church. As Paul writes, For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Why will God hear and answer these prayers? Not only because He has commanded it. Not only because He has promised it. Not only because we ask for things according to His will, for things He Himself wants to give. But, as Jesus says in the Gospel, because the Father loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. The Father loves you. This is a different word in Greek for love than “God so loved the world, etc.” That word is the big word that expresses God’s selfless devotion to the world, not because He sees anything attractive about the world, but because God chooses to love it anyway. But here in our Gospel, it’s the friendship kind of love. The love of mutual benefit, love where there is something likable in the other, something we have in common with each other. What is that thing that the Father finds likable in you, the thing that He has in common with you? It’s the very thing His Spirit has worked in you, a love for Jesus. “This one loves My beloved Son. This one believes in Jesus, whom I sent to be the world’s Savior. Of course I will hear! Of course I will help!” Isn’t that amazing? You couldn’t love or believe in Jesus by nature. But God’s own Spirit has worked faith and love in your heart, and now God sees that love as the very reason why He should hear your prayers and help you in your need.

This is the gift of prayer—Christian prayer. Use it! Use it each and every day, for all the reasons we’ve considered today. You know the true God and how to approach Him. He’s commanded you to pray. He’s promised to hear. He’s taught you what to pray for. And He’s tied it all to Christ Jesus, the beloved Son of God, whom you also love, and for whose sake the Father also loves you. So ask, as dear children ask their Father! And when you ask, remember to give thanks for this special gift of Christian prayer. Amen.

 

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Better to have the Spirit-Advocate by our side

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Cantate – Easter 4

James 1:16-21  + John 16:5-15

It’s the 29th day after Easter. In eleven days, we’ll celebrate the Ascension, and ten days after that we’ll celebrate the Day of Pentecost. Today our Gospel reading, still from Jesus’ discourse with His disciples on Maundy Thursday, begins to turn our attention to the visible departure of the risen Christ and to the gift that the risen Christ would give to His Church on the Day of Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Earlier that same evening, John chapter 14, Jesus had already begun to speak of the Holy Spirit. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

You notice, Jesus calls Him here “another Helper.” That’s because the disciples already had a Helper there with them—Jesus Himself. The Holy Spirit would be “another Helper.”

Let’s take a moment and understand this word “Helper.” It’s been translated in different ways: Helper, Comforter, Counselor, Advocate, or simply the transliterated “Paraclete.” I favor the translation “Advocate.” It’s someone who is called to the side of a person to speak up on their behalf, like an advocate or an attorney in the courtroom. In his first Epistle, St. John calls Jesus our Paraclete, our Advocate: My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Jesus has been called to our side by God the Father, to speak up in our defense. If we sin, whenever we sin, the Law accuses us before God and condemns us. But we have a Paraclete, an Advocate in the Lord Jesus. He speaks up in our defense, not defending our sins, not lying to the court as if we had no sin, but making the case before the divine court that He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, that He suffered for them and made atonement for them on the cross, and that God has made a solemn promise that all who flee to Christ for refuge will be safe from condemnation. There He sits, at the right hand of God, our Advocate.

So now Jesus speaks of another Helper, another Advocate, the Holy Spirit. He had begun telling His disciples that He would be going away soon, and they were sad about it. He told them, you shouldn’t be. 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.

It’s to our advantage that our Advocate who is the very propitiation for our sins should sit at the right hand of God the Father and speak up for us before God. As St. Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 8, Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. It’s to the Church’s advantage that Jesus is there at God’s right hand.

And it’s also to our advantage to have that other Helper or Advocate, the Spirit of truth, here by our side, wherever the Church is gathered throughout the whole world, advocating on our behalf before the world.

Here’s what Jesus says the Spirit will do: And 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.

He! He will convict the world, rebuke the world, show the world its fault. Because He’s our Helper, our Advocate, called to our side to speak up for us. But the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak with His own voice. He does it with ours, with the voice of His Christians, of His Church, of His ministers. See what power Jesus attaches to the speaking of His Word, the power of God the Holy Spirit to show the world its fault.

He will convict the world of sin…because they do not believe in Me. Just a couple of weeks ago, an Italian man died. He was an atheist. His young son was given the chance to ask the pope about his father, whether he was saved or not. The pope pointed to some good deeds the boy’s father had done and told the boy that God was very pleased with his father for those things, and that God surely received him into heaven, even though he didn’t believe in Christ. Is that the voice of the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus’ words in our Gospel? On the contrary, that’s the voice of the Demon. The great sin, according to Jesus, the sin that the world refuses to acknowledge, is not to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God and our Advocate before the Father—and we’re talking about the real Jesus here, the One who reveals Himself in the Scriptures, not the idea of Jesus that many people have, the false Jesus who is whatever people want Him to be. Where there is true faith in Christ, all sins are covered, all sins are forgiven. Where there is no faith in Christ, none of the good works of men will save them from condemnation. Men will have to answer for every misdeed, every careless word, every sin, including the great and terrible sin of not fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things.

He will convict the world of righteousness…because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. What does righteousness look like? Where does it come from? If you give enough to charity, if you speak up for the oppressed, if you go to church once in a while, if you pray, if you refrain from injuring anyone, if you serve your neighbor, if you serve your country, if you raise children—does that make you righteous? It may, in the eyes of the world. But the world is wrong. We’re all sinful by nature, down to the very core of our being. The only way to become righteous before God is through faith in the Righteous One, Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness. But He ascended to His Father. Righteousness lived here on this earth for 33 years. The world saw Him—and crucified Him. And now He’s unseen. No one can be righteous before God, unless He who is righteousness sends it down to us from heaven, sends Himself down to us from heaven. And He does! But He doesn’t do it visibly. He does it through the Means of Grace. He sends His righteousness down to us in the preaching of the Gospel, in the waters of Baptism, in the Holy Supper, and it’s received through faith. Righteousness is found here, in the Church, because this is where the invisible Christ gives us His righteousness through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in the appointed means. It’s rightly said that outside of the Christian Church, there is no salvation. But the corollary is also true: inside the Christian Church, there is salvation! And all are invited by the Holy Spirit to enter it.

He will convict the world of judgment…because the ruler of this world is judged. The world rejects the true God. The world rejects His holy Word and His holy Ten Commandments. The world rejects the Jesus who died for our sins and rose from the dead for our justification. If you’re not with Jesus, you’re against Him. If the Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is not your God, then the devil is your ruler. You live enslaved in his kingdom. But the ruler of this world, the devil, already stands judged. And judgment is coming on the world. Not the judgment of humans destroying the planet. But the judgment of Jesus coming back to judge mankind by the standard of His holy law. All who are found in the devil’s kingdom when Christ comes for judgment will receive the judgment of their ruler, the devil. So this is the Holy Spirit’s message: flee from the devil’s kingdom now! Come into the kingdom of the light, the kingdom of Christ, where there is forgiveness for every misdeed and every careless word! The entrance is free! Do it today, because tomorrow may be too late! To stay in the devil’s kingdom is the worst kind of foolishness.

There’s more to say about our Gospel—about how the Spirit will guide His Church into all truth and glorify Christ as He does it—but let this be enough for today. We don’t have Jesus living visibly by our side. But we do have One who is just as divine, just as powerful, and even more helpful than the visible Christ would be. Better to have the Spirit-Advocate by our side in this world. He is the good and perfect gift who has come down to us from the Father of lights. Amen.

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