Blessed be the Holy Trinity

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for the Festival of the Holy Trinity

Romans 11:33-36  +  John 3:1-15

If you grew up (or are growing up) as a Christian, you may not think twice when you hear the word “Trinity.” You know what we mean by that word. It’s so fundamental to the Christian faith. Everything we believe as Christians begins with this simple truth revealed in the Holy Scriptures. There is one God. He is the Creator of all things. He exists eternally. He has no beginning. He was not created. Everything that is not God was created. It has a beginning. It was brought into existence. This God who created all things exists eternally as three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same Person as the Son. The Son is not the same Person as the Holy Spirit. Each of the three Persons is God. Yet they are not three Gods, but one God. One in essence. One in will. One in purpose. And that purpose, above all, is the salvation of the human race.

One of the key aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity is that we know God the Father only through God the Son. As Jesus said, “No one knows the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” And we only truly know the Son through God the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “He (the Holy Spirit) will testify about Me.” And “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit reveals the Son to us through preaching. So hear now how the Spirit reveals Christ to us in today’s Gospel, and how Christ, in turn, reveals the Father to us.

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night looking for answers. He got some. But he didn’t fully understand them at the time. Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. The signs, the miracles that Jesus was doing did what they were supposed to do. They made it clear to everyone who cared to notice that the things Jesus was teaching were authorized by God and approved by God. The miracles were God’s way of confirming His approval. That’s what Nicodemus meant when he said, “unless God is with him.”

He was right. God was with Jesus. The Apostle Peter would later preach about Jesus: God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

God was with Jesus. Notice how the Scriptures sometimes use the word “God” to refer specifically to the Father. God, as in, God the Father, was with Jesus. The Apostle John does the same thing. In chapter 1 of His Gospel, he writes, In the beginning was the Word (that is, the Son of God), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So the Son of God is also called God. He was with God the Father in the beginning. And God, as in, God the Father, was with Jesus during His earthly life. And it’s also true that God, as in, God the Holy Spirit, was with Jesus, who once applied these words of the prophet Isaiah to Himself: The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, for He has anointed Me. So you see the Trinitarian nature of one of the names given to Jesus in Holy Scripture: Immanuel—God with us.

Nicodemus, of course, didn’t understand all that. He thought Jesus was just a man—a great teacher approved by God, but still just a man. Then Jesus goes on to reveal much more to him.

Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Remember, Nicodemus was a Jewish Pharisee. Even more than the rest of the Jews, they put their faith in their birth according to the flesh, their birth according to their human ancestry going back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To them, the Jews were members of the kingdom of God by birth. But even being born as a Jew wasn’t enough for them. It also took obedience to the Law of Moses—human obedience, obedience to the Law, obedience according to the flesh.

Jesus destroys all that with one sentence. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Your first birth, your birth according to the flesh and your obedience according to the flesh, counts for nothing in God’s kingdom. Contrary to popular belief, people are not born into God’s kingdom. Not all people are children of God. Not all people are going to heaven when they die. You have to be born again.

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Nicodemus is still thinking in terms of the flesh. He knows it isn’t physically possible to have a second physical birth. That’s foolish! But this is what the Apostle John said back in chapter 1, He—the Son of God—came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

A new birth—a spiritual birth—is necessary to see the kingdom of God, a birth connected with believing in Jesus, the Son of God.

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Again, it’s not your natural birth, your “blood birth,” that makes you a child of God and an heir of His kingdom. A spiritual birth is required, a birth that takes place by “water and the Spirit,” which we call Holy Baptism, which the Apostle Paul refers to as a “washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

But someone will say, “No, Baptism doesn’t give new birth. Baptism doesn’t save. Only faith saves.” But it’s not an “either/or,” according to Scripture, either Baptism or faith. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. Faith—believing in Christ Jesus, true God and true Man—saves and gives new birth. Baptism saves and gives new birth. The Holy Spirit saves and gives new birth. The Word of God saves and gives new birth, as St. Peter also wrote: “You have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” Spirit, water, word, and faith—these all belong together.

Notice what doesn’t go together with these: human works, human obedience, human ancestry. In other words, “the flesh.”

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Human ancestry, obedience, and works are all meaningless before God. What we inherit by birth from our parents, and they from theirs, is not membership in God’s kingdom, but sin and shame, and a nature that is thoroughly corrupt and inclined toward evil. What we earn by our works is condemnation, because they are imperfect and impure. Spiritual rebirth is essential for every human being—a rebirth that takes place as God, through His Word, calls us to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus, true God and true Man, for the forgiveness of sins, and as His Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts. See the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—always working for our salvation!

Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.”

Regeneration (rebirth) into God’s kingdom is spiritual, not physical. You can see a physical birth. You can tell when a person is going to be born and you can trace a person’s ancestry by DNA. But you can’t measure the work of the Spirit that way, just as you can’t see the wind. You can’t see a person being brought to faith. You can’t see the inner rebirth or a person’s conversion from unbeliever to believer. What you can see is the effect of the wind, as it blows the trees—or the dust, in our case. What you can see is a person being baptized for the remission of sins, confessing faith in the Holy Trinity, gathering faithfully with his fellow confessors around Word and Sacrament, and bearing the fruits of the Spirit in his life—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

There’s far more in today’s Gospel than we can cover in one sermon. That’s what next year is for, right? In conclusion today, let me just point you to the last two verses. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

The Son of God, the Word, who was with God in the beginning and who was God, became flesh for one purpose: to be lifted up on the cross—true Man in order to suffer and die in the place of man, true God so that His sacrifice would be worth enough to purchase the forgiveness of sins and eternal life for all men. God the Father gave His Son for this purpose. God the Son willingly came for this purpose and carried it out. God the Holy Spirit fills the world with the preaching of God the Son, brings sinners to faith in Him and seals eternal life to them in Holy Baptism, so that we may be rescued from this world that is perishing and spend eternity with the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is how we know the Holy Trinity, and this is why we gladly confess Him before the world. Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the undivided Unity! Amen.

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The work of the Helper in and through His Church

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki


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Sermon for the Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13  +  John 14:23-31

Today we celebrate the fulfillment of yet one more promise of Jesus, His promise to send His Holy Spirit from heaven after He ascended into heaven. That promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, which we will now consider.

Pentecost means 50. It’s 50 days after Easter, which was also the Jewish Passover. In the Old Testament, God commanded the Israelites to go to Jerusalem and celebrate this “Feast of Weeks” every year, seven weeks after Passover, as a festival of firstfruits, a festival of thanksgiving to God for bringing Israel safely into the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, where He would provide for them abundantly, as long as the Old Testament endured.

Pentecost was also celebrated among the Jews as the commemoration of the giving of the Law through Moses on Mt. Sinai, because it was roughly (or maybe exactly) 50 days after the first Passover that God spoke the Ten Commandments to Israel, after they had arrived at Mt. Sinai.

But the Old Testament had been fulfilled by Jesus, as the heir of that Testament. And before He died, He instituted the New Testament in His blood. The Law of Moses had been perfectly fulfilled by Jesus, the old Passover done away with, because Jesus, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. Now Christians don’t celebrate the old Passover; we celebrate the new one: Easter, the resurrection of our Passover Lamb. Likewise, Christians no longer celebrate the Old Testament Pentecost. Now we celebrate the new one, which the prophet Isaiah foretold: 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 all nations shall flow to it. Many people 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 shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

A new law has gone out from Jerusalem since the day of Pentecost, a new word. Not a law of slavery, but of freedom, God’s promise of salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ, and the continual renewal of God’s people as we are transformed into people who truly keep God’s commandments, not by force or compulsion, but gladly and willingly.

All of that—the preaching of the word that went out from Jerusalem and continues to go out today, faith, and the ongoing renewal of Christians—is the work of the Holy Spirit.

You heard of the signs that marked the Holy Spirit’s outpouring on Jesus’ disciples who were gathered together in Jerusalem: the loud sound of a rushing wind, the appearance of little flames of fire in the shape of human tongues, and the proclamation of the wonders of God in many different languages that the disciples themselves didn’t know or speak. Those particular signs only happened once; they were never again repeated, because this was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church of Christ. The only sign that happened again occasionally was the speaking in different languages, as a confirmation that the Holy Spirit was still being given as a gift through the preaching of the Gospel after the Day of Pentecost.

What did those miraculous signs mean? First, they showed all the crowds of Jerusalem that these disciples of Jesus were from God and were approved by God. Which means that Jesus Himself was also from God and approved by God, that Jesus was indeed the Christ sent from God to Israel, whom they had crucified, but whom God had raised from the dead.

The flames of fire on the disciples’ heads were a sign that God, the Holy Spirit, was descending upon His disciples, just as it says in Exodus 19 that Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire.

The “tongues” of fire and the loud sound of rushing wind were a sign of how the Holy Spirit would blow through the world like wind, how He would work in the world: through the tongues of men, through the sound of preaching.

And the many different languages were a sign that the Gospel of Christ—the law of the New Testament—is not only for Israel, but for all nations. The blood of Christ was shed for all the nations of the earth. All nations should repent of their sins. All nations should believe in Christ and be baptized for the remission of sins. All nations would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now listen as I read to you the rest of the words that the Holy Spirit inspired in the Apostle Peter, and that He inspired St. Luke to record for us concerning the Day of Pentecost and what happened immediately afterward:

14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. 21 And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’ 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. 25 For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. 27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ 29 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. 34 “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” ’ 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Then Peter said to them, “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. 39 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.” 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Luke’s account tells the whole story very plainly. Just a brief word yet about the effects of the Holy Spirit’s coming from the words you just heard.

You see the understanding that St. Peter finally displays here about who Jesus is and the significance of His life, death, and resurrection. Things finally clicked for him and the other disciples. That was the Holy Spirit’s doing as He “taught them all things, and brought to their remembrance all things that Jesus said to them,” as He promised in today’s Gospel.

You see the boldness and confidence of Peter and the other apostles. Before, they were timid and afraid, in hiding from the Jews. Now they’re preaching boldly to all Jerusalem and ready to be recognized as Christians, no matter what the consequences might be.

You see the effects of the Holy Spirit as He worked on the crowds through Peter’s preaching. Three thousand people that day repented, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and were baptized for the remission of their sins that day.

And then you see how the Holy Spirit continued to renew them in love and conform them to the image of Christ: they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. They kept gathering together around Word and Sacrament. They shared what they had with one another. They rejoiced in God’s salvation. And they acted in love toward their neighbor.

All of this was the Holy Spirit’s work. All of this is what the Holy Spirit has continued to do through His Church for two millennia. And all of this is what the Holy Spirit will continue to do in you and through you: He will teach you and give you understanding of Christ and His Word. He will fill you with boldness to confess Christ before the world, and with joy to persevere under the cross. He will bring more unbelievers to repent of their sins and to believe in Christ Jesus by the power of the Gospel, when and where He pleases. And He will continually sanctify and renew believers in love.

This is what we celebrate today and, really, every Sunday. Christ has sent the Helper, the Comforter, to us. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Amen.

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Faith, its confession, and the cross

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Sunday after Christ’s Ascension

1 Peter 4:7-11  +  John 15:26-16:4

There is no sugar-coating Christianity, not if it’s true Christianity. Jesus certainly doesn’t sugar-coat being His disciple in today’s Gospel. He knew how hard it would be for His apostles—and later, for you and me—after His ascension. He knew every obstacle they and we would face, both physical and spiritual. He knew that, just as the world had hated Him, so also it would hate all who follow Him. He knew that, just as He was about to bear a cross for the sins of the world, so also His disciples would bear their own cross for their confession of Him. But He also knew exactly what He would do to help us, so that we can we remain steadfast in faith, and steadfast in the confession of faith, even as we are made to suffer under the blessed cross.

But 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.

True faith in the heart requires the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the Helper who proceeds from the Father and is sent by the Son, both to create it and to sustain it. As Luther says, “Faith is in vain where it does not continue steadfast to the end.” But the apostles were too weak to keep believing in Jesus once He was taken up from them into heaven. You and I are even worse off. We’ve never seen Jesus. We’ve never heard Him. We were born hostile to God, as all men are by nature, with no true fear of God or faith in God or love for God. And that sinful nature, that sinful flesh clings to us all the time, turning our minds and hearts away from God and turned onto ourselves and this earthly life, making up gods of our own, making up our own standards of right and wrong, making up our own visions of who God is and what God demands. We cannot, by our own reason or strength believe in the Lord Jesus or come to Him—or remain in Him, either. We need help!

Jesus knew that. He promised to send the Helper, the Spirit of truth who keeps holding the truth up before our eyes. And that truth is summarized in the person of Jesus. “He will testify of Me,” Jesus said. You are not God. Jesus is God. You are not righteous. Jesus is righteous. Your sins have earned you a place in hell. But Jesus’ sinless sacrifice on the cross has earned you a place in heaven. You deserve death. But Jesus suffered death for you and rose from the dead and gives you eternal life as a gift. The Holy Spirit’s work is essential if anyone is to be converted to faith in Christ and remain steadfast in the faith until the end.

And you who have heard the Word and believe it do have the same Spirit of God and His testimony dwelling within you. Paul writes to the Romans, For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

But don’t imagine that the Holy Spirit does this work of testifying directly on anyone’s heart, with some inner testimony that is divorced from the spoken Word. He works through preaching and the administration of the Sacraments. You don’t come to church or Bible class just to be reminded of things you already knew about Jesus. You come to have the Holy Spirit testify to you about Jesus through the Word that is preached. And He works powerfully through that preaching to create and sustain faith in your heart.

And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning. You see, it’s not as if the Spirit does His testifying about Jesus over here, and then the apostles do their testifying over here, as if they were separate testimonies. No one can say, “Bah, I don’t need the Spirit’s testimony, because I have the apostles’ testimony.” Or, “Bah, I don’t need the apostles’ testimony, because I have the Spirit’s testimony.” That’s the error that so many churches around us fall into, as if you can get in touch directly with God’s Spirit so that He testifies directly to you, without all that doctrine stuff, without all that preaching stuff. The apostles who were with Jesus from the beginning received the testimony of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, which we’ll celebrate next Sunday, and you who have heard the testimony of the apostles through the Word of God that has been preached to you have also received the testimony of the Spirit, not apart from that preaching, but through it.

But Jesus’ words here about bearing witness also apply to all Christians. Paul writes to the Romans, The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

It’s not enough to believe in your heart. You must also confess with your mouth. Or to put it another way, true faith in the heart cannot exist together with silence about Christ. True faith in the heart cannot help but confess Him before men. That doesn’t mean everyone preaches. It certainly doesn’t mean anyone gets up in church to give a moving testimonial. It means that in your vocations, you Christians bear witness about Christ with your mouth. Godly mothers bear witness about Christ to their children—as do godly fathers, of course. Children with their friends and classmates. Workers with their coworkers, neighbors with their neighbors, as God gives opportunity. The confession of faith is everything we believe about God as revealed in His Holy Word, from the six-day creation of the universe to God’s institution of holy matrimony, to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity to the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Holy Sacrament. But it can also be as simple as confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus died for our sins and rose again, that we’re saved by faith alone in Christ alone.

You’d think that confession would be harmless enough and even pleasant for all men to hear. But the reality is, that confession stirs up the hatred of the devil and men and will turn those who confess it into targets.

These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. 3 And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.

The confession of the Christian faith is intolerant, that is, it does not tolerate any other “truth” to stand except for the Truth as taught in Holy Scripture. It does not tolerate any other confession but that of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. That means that, in a world that values tolerance about all things, the Christian faith has to be the most hateful thing of all. It doesn’t allow men the luxury of worshiping their own gods. It condemns as sinful everything that doesn’t flow from faith in the one true God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

That doesn’t mean we force our confession on anyone or use force of any kind to make people believe or to make people obey the will of God. The confession of the Christian faith is entirely a matter of words and preaching. But Jesus teaches us to expect to be hated, persecuted, and even killed for our words, and history has not proven Him wrong.

That includes being hated and persecuted by atheists, but, as Jesus says, it also includes being hated and persecuted by those who think they are serving God in the process, whether by the synagogues of the first century or by the “Christian” churches of the 16th century or the 21st century. We live in the times of the great apostasy, the great falling away of the majority of Christians, so that those who claim to be believers in Christ may be the very ones who condemn and persecute the steadfast confessors of the faith with the most vitriol. The heaviest cross may be imposed by those who are supposed to be on our side.

But see, this shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus told us ahead of time. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. Jesus has not tricked us into believing in Him or confessing His name before men. He has been completely honest with us about how hard it will be. But that means He also has a plan to help us and rescue us from this wicked world.

That brings us right back to the Helper, the Holy Spirit. He will help us to keep believing, to keep confessing, and to bear up under the cross. And if God is for us, who can be against us? In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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The ascended Lord Jesus continues both to do and teach

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for the Ascension of Our Lord

Acts 1:1-11  +  Mark 16:14-20

This Ascension Day couldn’t have come at a better time. As you know all too well and as I often point out, the world has gone mad. The news is one horror story after another. As of this week, there isn’t a single person of integrity and character left in the presidential race—at least, not in the two major parties—so we’re probably looking at four to eight more years of the executive branch here in America promoting even more lawlessness, even more social and moral decline, not to mention a teetering global economy and a national security in jeopardy. The prospects for our future, for our children, are dismal. The schools are a mess. The universities are a mess. Families are a mess. The churches are a mess. And truth and virtue—and facts themselves! —matter to fewer and fewer people. Not to mention your own sinful flesh, which continues to war against your spirit and drag you away from Christ.

In the midst of this mess, in the midst of this world’s death-spiral, St. Luke’s words in the Book of Acts still ring out today in churches around the world, The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up.

How is that helpful?

First, there is an account of the doing and the teaching of the Man named Jesus. That account is known as the Gospel according to St. Luke (not to exclude Matthew, Mark, and John, of course). What comfort for us is there in that account as we live in a crumbling world? You know what Luke’s Gospel proclaims. How the God who made this world sent His Son into it, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary. Why? For what purpose? To make it a nicer place to live? To set up an earthly kingdom where justice and honor prevail? Not at all. This world was doomed from the first sin of Adam and is destined for fire and destruction. The history of mankind is not one of evolution or progression upward toward a better and brighter world. On the contrary, the whole history of mankind is a history of violence and immorality, of regression and decay. Sin and death are the defining qualities of mankind, not justice and righteousness and peace.

No, Christ came into this world to reveal God to us in person. The real God. Not a God who fixes man’s sin or ignores man’s sin. But a God who suffers for it Himself, who pays for it with His own blood, who makes atonement for it by His own death and offers sinners a refuge against the judgment and condemnation that their sins have earned for them. That refuge is Christ Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, crucified, dead, buried, descended into hell, and risen again on the third day, now ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of God. Faith in Christ and the blood He shed for us reconciles sinners to God, brings us back together with Him, places us in His good graces and guarantees us a future life that is far better than this present one. That’s what St. Luke’s Gospel account was all about.

But did you hear what else St. Luke said? “Of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.” The whole earthly life of Jesus, which St. Luke chronicles for us in his Gospel, from His birth all the way up to His ascension, was just the beginning, what He began both to do and teach. The ascended Lord Jesus continues both to do and to teach. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles is the record of the continued doing and teaching of Jesus after His ascension into heaven. It was Christ who sent out the apostles and has been sending out their successors ever since. It was Christ who first sent His Spirit on Pentecost and who worked through the preaching of His apostles to spread His word and to build up His Holy Church. As you heard Mark record at the end of his Gospel, they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them.

The ascended Lord Jesus continues both to do and teach. Only now He does and teaches from His throne at the right hand of God from where He reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Everything that happens in the world, everything that happens in the Church is under the supervision and control of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Paul wrote this to the Ephesians, I pray that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him 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. The kingdom of God isn’t stagnant, isn’t dead, isn’t failing. It’s conquering the devil and the world, even now, with Christ as the King on His throne.

But you don’t see that, not really. The reign of Christ at God’s right hand is a matter of faith, not sight. You don’t see how Christ is governing the affairs of this world, or know the reasons behind what He does. You can’t see the Holy Spirit’s plans or predict when Christ will come back in glory on a cloud.

His disciples wanted to see, they wanted to know. “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” What did they mean by that question? If they were thinking about Jesus setting up an earthly kingdom, then it was a foolish question. If they were thinking about Jesus making the physical nation of Israel into a prominent nation, then it was a foolish question—a foolish belief that is still held by many Evangelicals today as they imagine that the physical nation of Israel has some special meaning, as they imagine that Christ will come and set up an earthly kingdom for a thousand years or rapture believers up into heaven while the earth goes on in its mess. All of that is foolish talk.

Or were Jesus’ disciples only thinking of the restoration of the kingdom to the spiritual Israel, that is, the Holy Christian Church, made up of people from every nation, tribe, language and people—all who believe and are baptized, when Christ will come and rescue His Church from this world and reign visibly over it forever in the new heavens and the new earth? If that was what they meant, then their understanding was exactly right. But their timing—their timing and their desire to know the timing was way off.

It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. God has reserved for Himself the knowledge of when He will finally come and crush the kingdoms of this earth under His feet and remove His Church from this dying world. That time was not yet at the time of the apostles—they had much to do, and much to suffer first. And it has not yet come for us, either. God knows the work He still has to do with this world. That’s the very reason Christ ascended, to do that work for as long as it takes, according to the times and seasons known to the Father, until His whole Church is completely built and the world has had the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

For now, the ascended Lord Jesus continues both to do and to teach. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Here we are, at the end of the earth, from where Jesus spoke those words, gathered together 2,000 years later in the name of Him whom we have not seen, and yet have believed, gathered together—preacher and hearers, baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, hearing and honoring His Word, ready to receive His Sacrament of the New Testament, receiving the forgiveness of our sins, committed to living lives of love according to God’s commandments, committed to confessing the name of Christ Jesus in Las Cruces, in all Dona Ana county and New Mexico, and to the end of the earth, as the ascended Lord Jesus gives us strength and opportunity. Where did we Christians come from? Where did our faith and our confession of it come from? It came from Christ Jesus, sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, as He has continued to send forth His Spirit in Word and Sacrament, as He has continued to give pastors and teachers to His Holy Church, as He has seen to it that the Gospel has been preached and continues to be preached among us.

No matter what the world does around us, no matter how it rages against Christ and His Church and wallows in its filth, no matter how much lawlessness abounds and the love of many grows cold, Christ Jesus has ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, which is not far away from us, but very close to us, hidden, but real, where all things have been placed under His feet, where He continues both to do and teach through His Holy Spirit, in His Holy Church, preaching sin and grace, repentance and the forgiveness of sins until He comes again to judge the living and the dead.

Rejoice in the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord Jesus, all you Christians! Turn to Him, all you ends of the earth, and be saved! He who believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned. Amen.

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The Holy Spirit still convicts the world with words of truth

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Cantate – Easter 4

James 1:16-21  +  John 16:5-15

Look around you at these who call themselves Christians. Look at this building that was built for one purpose, to worship the Christ by proclaiming and hearing His Gospel, and by administering and receiving His Sacraments. Consider the other parishes of our diocese and all the churches around the world where the Christian Gospel is now preached and has been preached for so many centuries. All of this is the handiwork of the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.

I tell you the truth. 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. The apostles must have been completely baffled by this saying of Jesus. How could it possibly be better for them that Jesus should go away? But you and I can see the truth of Jesus’ words as we look around at the Christian Church that has been built solely by the divine help of the Holy Spirit.

And how has the Spirit done it? He’s done it all through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. The apostles preached, and some believed, and a church grew in that place where the Gospel was believed. Of those who believed, some were chosen to preach somewhere else, and in those places, some believed, etc., etc. And so it has been since the Day of Pentecost, after Jesus went away and sent His Spirit to earth to fill the preaching of the Gospel with power.

Of course, in our time, in these last dying days of this sin-infested world, the power of the Gospel seems smaller, somehow. The world has gone mad in so many ways, to the point that it can’t even recognize any more the basic truth of who is a man and who is a woman. As for the Church, false doctrine taints almost every pulpit in the world and the pure teaching of the Church catholic is taught and believed by an ever-dwindling number of the faithful.

Where has the Helper gone?

Of course, He hasn’t gone anywhere. His help remains with the Church, as Jesus promised it would, until the very day of Jesus’ return. And His work remains unchanged. Because the work of the Spirit has never been to conquer all evil in this world, to create a just society on earth, or to build a Christian Church that would dominate the nations of this earth. His work is and has always been to convict the world with words of truth and to guide the Church of Christ with words of truth. The work of the Spirit has never been about numbers—how many believe or how many disbelieve or how much or how little evil there is in the world. It’s always been about telling the truth, no matter how many believe or disbelieve it. That work continues unchanged to this very day.

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. Through the preaching of the Word of God—the Word that centers on Jesus Christ and Him crucified—the Holy Spirit convicts the world about sin. The world—that is, the unbelievers in the world, the “heathen,” as the King James Version used to call them—remains in its sin. Unbelievers remain in their sin. They can deny their sin all they want. They can plunge into every form of evil and sexual perversion and try to justify it. They can practice every form of hypocrisy imaginable and pretend to be the ones who really care about people, even as they lobby for the slaughter of little babies in the womb. Or they can be very religious and devout followers of their religions. And a very many of them pretend to be Christians or think of themselves as Christians. But they don’t listen to the word of Christ. They don’t believe in the Jesus who is preached in Holy Scripture, and so they are branded as sinners by God the Holy Spirit.

Someone will say, “Yes, but, we’re all sinners!” That’s true. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, believers and unbelievers alike. But we’re not all branded by God as sinners. The good news that is the Gospel is that sinners who repent of their sins and believe in Christ Jesus, who was crucified, suffered and died for the sins of the world, are forgiven their sins by God. And to be forgiven means that God no longer brands a person as a sinner, no longer counts a person among the sinners of the world who will perish eternally for their sins. Where there is faith in Christ, all sins are covered. Through the waters of Holy Baptism, the Holy Spirit washes away sin and gives new birth and new life.

The Spirit will convict the world of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. Through the preaching of the Word of Christ, the Holy Spirit convicts the world about righteousness. Now, the world thinks of righteousness differently, according to its own wisdom. What the world considers to be just and right changes from generation to generation, or even from one election cycle to the next. But throughout the ages, since the Garden of Eden, since the time of Cain, the unbelieving world has had this idea about righteousness: if you do what you think is right and live a decent life on this earth, if you treat your neighbor relatively well and devote yourself to serving God, then God will view you as being righteous and will accept you.

But through the preaching of the Word of Christ, the Holy Spirit tells the world that it’s wrong about righteousness. All of the world’s works are filthy and unrighteous in God’s sight, even as Cain’s offerings to God were unacceptable to Him, because they are done without faith in Christ. The only works God considers to be good and righteous are the works done by Christ Jesus, the Righteous One, which include the works done by those who have been united to Christ Jesus by faith. Now He has gone to His Father, and with Him, all hope of being judged as righteous before God and of doing works that are truly righteous. People can give to charity. They can practice their religions and go to church and give money to their church and fight for the rights of the poor and outcast. And still, they will never be judged as righteous before God, unless they receive the righteousness of Christ by Word and Sacrament, by faith in the Righteous One who now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Only believers are counted righteous—are justified—before God, and only believers can now do the works that are righteous and pleasing to God our Father. Because it is God’s Holy Spirit who sanctifies us and produces fruits of righteousness in us.

The Spirit will convict the world of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. People pretend that they will escape the judgment that awaits them at their death, as if death were the end of their existence. And they pretend that Jesus will not be coming again for a terrible Judgment Day. And they pretend that hell doesn’t exist, or at least, will only be occupied by those who were “really bad people.” But the Spirit announces to the world through the Gospel that they are wrong about that, too. He tells them the truth: the devil is real and stands eternally condemned before God, and so will all those who remain in the devil’s kingdom, who continue as members of the unbelieving world. They may prosper and flourish now. They may have wealth and riches and fame. They may have power, and they may succeed at persecuting the members of Christ’s holy Church and making their life miserable here on earth.

But it will only a little while longer. God’s judgment has already been pronounced: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Of course, it’s that very judgment that has the power of God’s Holy Spirit to bring members of the unbelieving world to repentance and faith in Christ before the final Day of Judgment. It’s that Gospel by which the Holy Spirit has called you to faith in Christ Jesus and has thus drawn you out of the world and made you a member of Christ’s Holy Church. Whether a person believes the Gospel or disbelieves it, it remains the truth.

And it remains the task of Christians to speak it—I from the pulpit, you in your various vocations. It’s not about persuading people or convincing people or selling the truth to people or winning arguments with people. It’s simply our task to tell the truth, and to live our lives as those who believe it to be the truth, no matter what negative consequences that may have for you in your life. That means you don’t jump into sin with the unbelievers around you. You don’t treat the preaching of the Gospel and the reception of the Sacraments as an optional thing that you can do once in a while, when it’s convenient, or skip regularly, if you have better things to do. It means you do order your life around the Word and Sacraments of Christ, knowing the Word of Truth and speaking the truth in love.

The Spirit has done His work faithfully for almost 2,000 years, continually convicting the world with words of truth. But the age of the Spirit appears to be coming to an end as the world’s rejection of God’s truth spreads further and further. Just as it was necessary for Jesus to go away for a while until the Helper had done His work, so also it is necessary for Jesus to come back. And that, too, will be to our advantage, because when the Church has been fully gathered by the work of the Holy Spirit, it will finally be time for Christ to rescue us out of this wicked world. Until that day, let us sing our Maker’s praises and in Him most joyful be, as we sang in the first hymn today. His Spirit is still with us. His Help will never leave us. He has taught us the words of truth. And His truth will stand against all the lies of the devil and the world. Amen.

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